If there is one mountain climb that embodies the spirit & magic of the Tour de France, it is the Alpe d` Huez. Its twenty-one hairpin turns & average gradient of 8.1 percent over 13.1 kilometers have become legendary, changing the careers of Americans Greg Le Mond & Lance Armstrong, & nearly destroying Jan Ullrich & Marco Pantani. Here at last is the definitive history & unforgettable story of cycling`s greatest challenge.” In The Tour is Won on the Alpe: The Classic Battles of the Tour de France”, cycling historian Jean-Paul Vespini tells the story of this celebrated climb & the mountain that so often acts as the ultimate arbiter for cycling`s biggest prize. Each chapter covers one ascent, starting with Fausto Coppi`s astonishing victory in 1952. Cycling`s most famous names are all present & accounted for: Coppi, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Pedro Delgado, Miguel Indurain, Marco Pantani, & of course the American victors Greg Le Mond & Lance Armstrong. Jean-Paul Vespini`s riveting descriptions of each battle to the top include candid interviews with riders, new insight into epic rivalries, & little-known but fascinating facts about the climb that has become a rite of passage for every rider in the peloton. ...

From the original horse-drawn caravan to the sophisticated & well-appointed luxury leisure vehicle we know today, this book ...

The Tower & St. Katharine`s Dock in 1873-94 in a series of exceptionally detailed reproductions of old Ordnance Survey street plans for areas of larger cities which have undergone substantial redevelopment in the late 19th or the early 20th century, published in the Alan Godfrey Editions. The plans, printed in back & white, have been taken from the original Ordnance Survey mapping at 1:1, 056 & reproduced at 1:1, 760 – the equivalent of 36 inches (or one yard) to a mile. The maps provide an unrivalled, house-by-house picture of streets & individual buildings with inner courtyards, outbuildings, pavements, covered passages, etc. Many important institutions are named; within the National Galley on Trafalgar Square even the individual rooms (the map is from 1871, so no French Impressionists as yet!). On the reverse are historical notes about the area covered by the map, plus extracts from contemporary street directories. These maps provide a fascinating addition to Alan Godfrey’s huge series of some 2, 000 titles presenting reproductions of street plans at taken from the Ordnance Survey mapping at 1:2, 500 (25” to 1 mile) & reprinted at about 15 inches to one mile (1:4, 340). ...

Remember your visit to the Tower of London for ever with this fascinating expanding pocket guide. Bring to life one of the most famous landmarks in Britain with this fascinating three-dimensional expanding pocket guide. Unfolding to a length of 1.5 metres, the guide features twelve three-dimensional panels on key sites including the White Tower, the Crown Jewels, Tower Green, the Chapel Royal, the ravens, Traitors` Gate, the Yeoman Warders, torture, the Line of Kings, the Bloody Tower & the Royal Menagerie. Published in association with Historic Royal Palaces, this is the perfect souvenir or gift for anyone wishing to remember a trip to the Tower of London or learn more about it. In 2012 the Tower of London was visited by 2, 444, 296 people. It continues the series of these guides published in association with Historic Royal Palaces. Royal Palaces of London was published in 2012. It was also illustrated by Nina Cosford. ...

The Tower of London is an icon of England`s history. William the Conqueror built the White Tower after his invasion & conquest in 1066 to dominate London, & it has become infamous as a place of torture, execution & murder. The deaths of royals attracted most attention: the murder of the Princes in the Tower, the beheading of Henry VIII`s wives Anne Boleyn & Katherine Howard, & Lady Jane Grey, Henry`s great-niece, & queen for just nine days. Few prisoners recorded their experiences, but John Gerard, a Catholic priest imprisoned during Elizabeth I`s reign, wrote of being questioned in the torture room, which contained `every device & instrument of torture`. After being hung from manacles, his wrists were swollen & he could barely walk. Members of the aristocracy could not be tortured, & those incarcerated for a long time used their time to write. Sir Walter Raleigh wrote his vast History of the World in the Tower. Control of the Tower was vital at times of crisis, during rebellions & civil wars. It has also been the country`s principal arsenal. It housed the Royal Mint, the national archives, the Crown jewels & wealthy Londoners` riches, & in the royal menagerie it contained one of the earliest zoos. Stephen Porter`s landmark history traces the evolution of the Tower & its changing role, the many personalities who lived or were imprisoned there, & the `voices` of contemporaries during the Tower`s long history, spanning more than 900 years. ...

In derelict Dresden a cultivated, middle-class family does all it can to cope amid the Communist downfall. This striking tapestry of the East German experience is told through the tangled lives of a soldier, surgeon, nurse & publisher. With evocative detail, Uwe Tellkamp masterfully reveals the myriad perspectives of the time as people battled for individuality, retreated to nostalgia, chose to conform, or toed the perilous line between East & West. Poetic, heartfelt & dramatic, The Tower vividly resurrects the sights, scents & sensations of life in the GDR as it hurtled towards 9 November 1989. Uwe Tellkamp was born in 1968 in Dresden. After completing his military service, he lost his place to study medicine on the grounds of `political sabotage`. He was arrested in 1989, but went on to study medicine in Liepzig, Dresden & New York, later becoming a surgeon. He has won numerous regional prizes for poetry, as well as the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize for The Sleep in the Clocks. In 2008, he won the German Book Prize for The Tower. ...

In derelict Dresden a cultivated, middle-class family does all it can to cope amid the Communist downfall. This striking tapestry of the East German experience is told through the tangled lives of a soldier, surgeon, nurse & publisher. With evocative detail, Uwe Tellkamp masterfully reveals the myriad perspectives of the time as people battled for individuality, retreated to nostalgia, chose to conform, or toed the perilous line between East & West. Poetic, heartfelt & dramatic, The Tower vividly resurrects the sights, scents & sensations of life in the GDR as it hurtled towards 9 November 1989. Uwe Tellkamp was born in 1968 in Dresden. After completing his military service, he lost his place to study medicine on the grounds of `political sabotage`. He was arrested in 1989, but went on to study medicine in Liepzig, Dresden & New York, later becoming a surgeon. He has won numerous regional prizes for poetry, as well as the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize for The Sleep in the Clocks. In 2008, he won the German Book Prize for The Tower. ...

Description: Do you remember when you believed in magic? It is 1917, & while war wages across Europe, in the heart of London, there is a place of hope & enchantment. The Emporium sells toys that capture the imagination of children & adults alike: patchwork dogs that seem alive, toy boxes that are bigger on the inside, soldiers that can fight battles of their own. Into this family business comes young Cathy Wray, running away from a shameful past. The Emporium takes her in, makes her one of its own. But Cathy is about to discover that the Emporium has secrets of its own... A dark enchanting, spectacularly imaginative novel perfect for fans of Jessie Burton`s The Miniaturist & Erin Morgenstern`s The Night Circus. ...

A group of 20-something adventurers tackle inhospitable geography, harsh climates & the limits of their own endurance all in aid of Cambodian street children as they venture on an overland journey from Germany to Cambodia in the worlds worst car the Soviet-era Trabant. Their escapades include being tailed by the Turkmen KGB, running out of petrol in the Uzbek desert & drinking moonshine with Laotian river folk. ...

Inspector Montalbano rises one morning to find the carcass of a horse on the beach in front of his seaside home. But no sooner do his men arrive, than the body has mysteriously vanished, leaving behind only a trail in the s&. Before long Rachele, a beguiling equestrian champion, turns up at police headquarters to report her horse missing. She had been keeping it at the stables of a certain Saverio Lo Duca, one of the richest men in Sicily. Montalbano investigates, & soon things take a more disturbing turn. But who has Montalbano upset within this strange, unfamiliar world of horse-racing? & what has the Mafia to do with it all? Maneuvering his way through the colorful demimonde of eccentric aristocrats & high-rolling bourgeois, Montalbano must decipher the cryptic messages being sent by those spying on him & once again call upon his special blend of intuition, analysis, play-acting & Proustian memory for good food, if he is to uncover this latest mystery. ...