In this magical realist blend of the all-too-real, the imaginary & the just plain absurd, the world teeters on the brink of destruction as JFK & Fidel Castro prepare once again for battle. As protests mount on the streets & the wily Castro plans his ruthless final move, the possibility of salvation emerges: the Second Coming of Christ to broker the conflict, assisted by the housewife Fatima. The result is a comical & highly nuanced exploration of the relationships between Capitalism & Communism, oppressed & oppressor, fantasy, memory & reality, in which grey areas proliferate & the rug is repeatedly pulled from beneath the reader`s feet. ...

In 1949 Mao Zedong hoisted the red flag over Beijing`s Forbidden City. Instead of liberating the country, the communists destroyed the old order & replaced it with a repressive system that would dominate every aspect of Chinese life. In an epic of revolution & violence which draws on newly opened party archives, interviews & memoirs, Frank Dikotter interweaves the stories of millions of ordinary people with the brutal politics of Mao`s court. A gripping account of how people from all walks of life were caught up in a tragedy that sent at least five million civilians to their deaths. ...

In 1949 Mao Zedong hoisted the red flag over Beijing`s Forbidden City. Instead of liberating the country, the communists destroyed the old order & replaced it with a repressive system that would dominate every aspect of Chinese life. In an epic of revolution & violence which draws on newly opened party archives, interviews & memoirs, Frank Dikotter interweaves the stories of millions of ordinary people with the brutal politics of Mao`s court. A gripping account of how people from all walks of life were caught up in a tragedy that sent at least five million civilians to their deaths. ...

A young boy stumbles across a Punch & Judy show at the pier & enters a world of extraordinary magic. With disturbing mysteries & half-truths uncontrollably unravelling, this boy is forced to deal with his family`s secrets of violence, betrayal & guilt in this dark fable of childhood & growing up. By the bestselling author & illustrator pairing behind the Sandman series & children`s classics, The Graveyard Book & Coraline, The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr Punch is woven together with Neil Gaiman & Dave Mc Kean`s trademark eerie elegance & supernatural thrills. In addition to its new cover, each page of this unmissable 20th anniversary edition has been remastered & a gallery of uncanny, sensational original artwork by Dave Mc Kean has been included for the first time. ...

Sven Hedin was one of the world`s greatest explorers. This is the first paperback edition of this classic book. It presents a story of adventure & discovery in Central Asia
- a saleable & appealing combination. In this, the first of the classic travel trilogy
- ” The War”, ” The Road” & ” The Lake”
- Sven Hedin tells the story of a remarkable expedition he made to the remote Chinese province of Xinjiang. Commissioned by the Chinese to map a road through one of the most inhospitable regions in the world, Hedin set out on a journey that saw him become entangled in a bloody war for independence that was raging in the province. Struggling through the battle-scarred l&, Hedin encountered rebel fighters & bandits, was imprisoned & nearly executed. The heart of the story is dominated by the legendary figure of Ma Chung-Yin
- ` Big Horse`
- leader of the uprising. An enthralling account of drama & high adventure, ” The Trail of War” is also an extraordinary portrait of Central Asia & its people.




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You want to be a steam engine driver? It`s not that simple
- it`s not just a matter of blowing the whistle, releasing the brakes
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This is not a book about trains but about the variety of Spain. The bestselling author Christopher Howse makes ten great railway journeys that explore the interior of the peninsula, its astonishing landscapes & ancient buildings. The focus is the way the Spanish live now: their habits, streets, characters, stories
- & quite a bit about their eating & drinking. Christopher Howse has been travelling around Spain for 25 years, & has now made a 3, 000 mile circumnavigation by train from the top of the Pyrenees
- through the vulture-haunted wilds of Extremadura & the Spaghetti Western deserts of the south, to the ancient hilltop city of Cuenca & beyond. On the way he meets troglodytes, visits a city ruined by an earthquake, runs into a dancing lion, stumbles across a body-snatching plot & tries out a recipe for acorn pie. An entertaining exploration of a much-loved country, The Train in Spain gives a fascinating & entirely original portrait of a strange land at a time of great change.

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” Great fun
- fast moving & inventive”
- Philip Reeve, author of Mortal Engines” An exciting, imaginative, wild ride of a

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SOMETIMES you come across a lofty railway viaduct, marooned in the middle of a remote country landscape. Or a crumbling platform from some once-bustling junction buried under the buddleia. If you are lucky you might be able to follow some rusting tracks, or explore an old tunnel leading to...well, who knows where? Listen hard. Is that the wind in the undergrowth? Or the spectre of a train from a golden era of the past panting up the embankment? These are the ghosts of The Trains Now Departed. They are the railway lines, & services that ran on them that have disappeared & gone forever. Our lost legacy

Includes:: lines prematurely axed, often with a gripping & colourful tale of their own, as well as marvels of locomotive engineering sent to the scrapyard, & grand termini felled by the wrecker`s ball. Then there are the lost delights of train travel, such as haute cuisine in the dining car, the grand expresses with their evocative names, & continental boat trains to romantic far-off places. The Trains Now Departed tells the stories of some of the most fascinating lost trains of Britain, vividly evoking the glories of a bygone age. In his personal odyssey around Britain Michael Williams tells the tales of the pioneers who built the tracks, the yarns of the men & women who operated them & the colourful trains that ran on them. It is a journey into the soul of our railways, summoning up a magic which, although mired in time, is fortunately not lost for ever. THIS EDITION REVISED & UPDATED TO INCLUDE MAPS.

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Sometimes you come across a lofty railway viaduct, marooned in the middle of a remote country landscape. Or a crumbling platform from some once-bustling junction buried under the buddleia. If you are lucky you might be able to follow some rusting tracks, or explore an old tunnel leading to...well, who knows where? Listen hard. Is that the wind in the undergrowth? Or the spectre of a train from a golden era of the past panting up the embankment? These are the ghosts of The Trains Now Departed. They are the railway lines, & services that ran on them that have disappeared & gone forever. Our lost legacy

Includes:: lines prematurely axed, often with a gripping & colourful tale of their own, as well as marvels of locomotive engineering sent to the scrapyard, & grand termini felled by the wrecker`s ball. Then there are the lost delights of train travel, such as haute cuisine in the dining car, the grand expresses with their evocative names, & continental boat trains to romantic far-off places. The Trains Now Departed tells the stories of some of the most fascinating lost trains of Britain, vividly evoking the glories of a bygone age. In his personal odyssey around Britain Michael Williams tells the tales of the pioneers who built the tracks, the yarns of the men & women who operated them & the colourful trains that ran on them. It is a journey into the soul of our railways, summoning up a magic which, although mired in time, is fortunately not lost for ever.

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