At the heart of the Ottoman Empire, in the main square of Constantinople, a niche is carved into ancient stone. Here, the sultan displays the severed heads of his adversaries. People flock to see the latest head & gossip about the state of the empire: the province of Albania is demanding independence again, & the niche awaits a new trophy... Tundj Hata, the imperial courier, is charged with transporting heads to the capital
- a task he relishes & performs with fervour. But as he travels through obscure & impoverished territories, he makes money from illicit side-shows, offering villagers the spectacle of death. The head of the rebellious Albanian governor would fetch a very high price. The Traitor`s Niche is a surreal tale of rebellion & tyranny, in a land where armies carry scarecrows, state officials ban entire languages, & the act of forgetting is more complicated than remembering.
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In The Trans-Siberian Railway – A traveller’s Anthology Deborah Manley blends her personal account of this fascinating rail trip with excerpts of works from a variety of writers of the like of Newby & Theroux but also Sir Henry Norman, Peter Fleming, Lindon Bates Jr, Lesley Blanch; each offering a different perspective on the experience, Russia, its people & culture. This fascinating book is the result of the author’s research & thirst to know anything about the Trans-Siberian from its early planning & building to the people, the landscape & the culture encountered on the journey as well as the experiences lived by earlier travellers. It imaginatively captures the magic of this trip. As you read Manley’s contemporary experience & perceptions you will be able to live the same journey through the eyes & minds of those who have been there before. The pages will whizz you to distant times & places as far back as 1891 as you read Over the Urals by George Kennan to 2007 with Chris Moss’s Trans-Siberian Excess. The Trans-Siberian Railway – A Traveller’s Anthology is an extremely enjoyable read for anyone interested in this region, planning this trip by train or from a comfortable armchair. ...

At the end of 2007, St Pancras became the new London terminus for the high-speed channel tunnel rail link to continental Europe, taking over from Waterloo International. Central to this change, the entire structure & area around St Pancras have been renovated & transformed as one of the largest civil engineering projects in Europe. This book looks at the history & process of the project & shows how the old St Pancras one of Londons finest Victorian stations has been both restored to its original glory & extended for the demands of 21stcentury rail travel. Packed full of specially commissioned photography & written by those intimately involved in the project, The Transformation of St Pancras Station tells the remarkable story of how the original building was renovated & expanded with major new additions & how the surrounding area has been regenerated to become a desirable destination in its own right. This is the paperback version of the original hardback, with a new cover design. ...

At the end of 2007, St Pancras became the new London terminus for the high speed channel tunnel rail link to continental Europe, taking over from Waterloo International. Central to this change, the entire structure & area around St Pancras have been renovated & transformed as one of the largest civil engineering projects in Europe. This book looks at the history & process of the project & shows how the old St Pancras one of London`s finest Victorian stations has been both restored to its original glory & extended for the demands of 21st-century rail travel. Packed full of specially commissioned photography & written by those intimately involved in the project, ” The Transformation of St Pancras Station” tells the remarkable story of how the original building was renovated & expanded with major new additions & how the surrounding area has been regenerated to become a desirable destination in its own right. ...

A monumental history of the nineteenth century, The Transformation of the World offers a panoramic & multifaceted portrait of a world in transition. Jurgen Osterhammel, an eminent scholar who has been called the Braudel of the nineteenth century, moves beyond conventional Eurocentric & chronological accounts of the era, presenting instead a truly global history of breathtaking scope & towering erudition. He examines the powerful & complex forces that drove global change during the ”long nineteenth century, ” taking readers from New York to New Delhi, from the Latin American revolutions to the Taiping Rebellion, from the perils & promise of Europe`s transatlantic labor markets to the hardships endured by nomadic, tribal peoples across the planet. Osterhammel describes a world increasingly networked by the telegraph, the steamship, & the railways. He explores the changing relationship between human beings & nature, looks at the importance of cities, explains the role slavery & its abolition played in the emergence of new nations, challenges the widely held belief that the nineteenth century witnessed the triumph of the nation-state, & much more. This is the highly anticipated English edition of the spectacularly successful & critically acclaimed German book, which is also being translated into Chinese, Polish, Russian, & French. Indispensable for any historian, The Transformation of the World sheds important new light on this momentous epoch, showing how the nineteenth century paved the way for the global catastrophes of the twentieth century, yet how it also gave rise to pacifism, liberalism, the trade union, & a host of other crucial developments. ...

Black Mirror meets David Nicholls in this dark & funny novel about love in dystopian times LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE FOR FICTION Karl has let his debts get wildly out of control &, in desperation, has sort of semi-accidentally committed credit-card fraud. Now he could have to go to prison, so when he & his wife Genevieve are instead offered a place on a mysterious self-improvement scheme called The Transition, they agree. It`s only six months, after all, & at first all it requires is that they give up their credit cards & move into the spare room of their `mentors`, Janna & Stu, who seem perfectly lovely... `A total page-turner` Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall ` The sort of book that has you walking blindly through seven lanes of traffic with your face pressed obliviously to the page` The Times ` Very funny, compassionate & scathing. Just the ticket for fans of Jonathan Coe` Laline Paull, author of The Bees ` Richly enjoyable, tenderly devastating` Guardian ...

During the American occupation, the citizens of Japan were encouraged to apply directly to General Mac Arthur
- ”if you have a
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In a church in Battersea, Mary-Margaret O` Reilly sees blood on her hands & believes she has witnessed a miracle. The consequences are both profound & devastating
- not just for her but for others, too: Father Diamond, the parish priest, struggling with his own faith. Stella, adrift in her marriage & aching for her ten-year old son, away at boarding school. Alice, counting the days until her soldier son comes home. & Mary-Margaret`s mother, imprisoned in a tower block with nothing but her thoughts for company...
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Sammar is a young Sudanese widow, working as an Arabic translator at a British university. Following the sudden death of her husb&, & estranged from her young son, she drifts, grieving & isolated. Life takes a positive turn when she finds herself falling in love with Rae, a Scottish academic. To Sammar, he seems to come from another world & another culture, yet they are drawn to each other. ” The Translator” is a story about love, both human & divine. Leila Aboulela`s first novel, first published in 1999, was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction & the IMPAC Dublin Award, & was shortlisted for the Saltire Prize. It has subsequently appeared in editions worldwide. ...

A harrowing tale of selfless courage in terrifying conditions, “ The Translator” tells the story of Daoud Hari, a Zaghawa tribesman in the Darfur region of Sudan who found a new calling in the wake of conflict. Hari grew up racing camels across the desert, attending gloriously colourful weddings &, when his work was done, playing games under the moonlight. But in 2003, helicopter gunships swooped down on Darfur`s villages & shattered that way of life forever. Soon, Sudanese government-backed militias, attacking on horseback, came to murder, rape & burn. To drive the tribesmen from their lands. When Hari`s village was attacked & destroyed, his family was decimated & dispersed. He escaped, & together with a group of friends roamed the battlefield deserts, helping the weak & vulnerable find food, water & a path to safety. & when international aid groups & reporters arrived, Hari gave his services as a translator & guide. To do so was to risk his life, for the Sudanese government had outlawed journalists, punishing aid to `foreign spies` with death. Yet Hari did so time & again. Until, eventually, his luck ran out & he was captured... ...