Alexander the Great (Alexander III of Macedon) was one of history's great generals, a man studied by Caesar & Napoleon, among hundreds of others. He was born to the king of Macedon & educated by Aristotle, whose inquiring mind Alexander appreciated. After his father, Philip II, was assassinated, the 19-year-old Alexander succeeded to the throne & swiftly consolidated power. Over the next 13 years until his death at age 32, Alexander created one of the great empires of history, covering an area as far south as Egypt & as far east as Afghanistan & India. Most of the world that he conquered had been the province of the Persian Empire. Upon his death his empire was broken up & ruled by his generals, the best known were the Ptolemies, who ruled Egypt until Cleopatra was defeated by Caesar. Alexandria, Egypt & many other Alexandrias throughout that part of the world were named in his honour. Alexander's greatest influence was not his leadership (his empire was eventually conquered by Rome), but spreading Greek culture throughout the lands east of the Mediterranean. He is the reason that gold coins from Afghanistan depicted Greek gods & heroes until as recently as several centuries ago. It is because of Alexander that St. Paul, a Jew who lived in modern-day Syria before travelling to modern-day Israel, spoke Greek, & it is because of Alexander that the earliest Christian documents, including the scriptures, were written in Greek. ...

Tough, resolute, fearless, Alexander was a born warrior & ruler of passionate ambition who understood the intense adventure of conquest & of the unknown. When he died in 323 BC aged thirty-two, his vast empire comprised more than two million square miles, spanning from Greece to India. His achievements were unparalleled
- he had excelled as leader to his men, founded eighteen new cities & stamped the face of Greek culture on the ancient East. The myth he created is as potent today as it was in the ancient world. Robin Lane Fox's superb account searches through the mass of conflicting evidence & legend to focus on Alexander as a man of his own time. Combining historical scholarship & acute psychological insight, it brings this colossal figure vividly to life.
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Alexander the Great never ceases to fascinate. He was aged only 20 when he became king of Macedon, but had already begun to show the military genius that would win him victories against the mighty Persian Empire. In a campaign lasting 11 years he travelled thousands of miles through deserts, plains & forests, fought huge battles, & besieged many cities to become the master of a massive empire. He died prematurely at the age of just 33, & no man could hold together the empire he had created. A god in his lifetime, his name is still world-famous millennia after his death. This book examines Alexander's campaigns in detail & his victories with the help of maps, illustrations & reconstructions. ...

Continuing the epic saga of Alexander the Great, Alexander: The Sands of Ammon brilliantly describes Alexander's quest to conquer Asia, the limitless domain ruled by the Great King of the Persians. In a seemingly impossible venture, Alexander & his men storm Persian fortresses & harbours, crippling King Darius' domain of land & sea. Even the legendary Halicarnassus is defeated by the Macedonian armies. Ruthlessly, Alexander's war machine moves ever onward taking him up into the snow-covered Anatolian highlands. But there is danger ahead. Despite the defeat of Darius, the Island City of Tyre & the Towers of Gaza prove to be formidable obstacles. Undeterred, Alexander surges forth over land & sea to the mysterious land of Egypt. & there, in the sands, lies the Oracle of Ammon, waiting to reveal an amazing truth to Alexander. One that will change his already amazing life. ...

From Zemlinsky's early success as a composer & widely recognized achievements as a conductor to his eventual descent into obscurity, this new biography places Zemlinsky (1871-1942) against the backdrops of Vienna, Prague & Berlin & illuminates his relationships with figures like Johannes Brahms, Alma Schindler, Gustav Mahler & Arnold Schoenberg. Moskovitz's exploration of Zemlinsky's songs, operas, choral works, chamber music & symphonic compositions follows the composer's search for a distinctly personal sound, revealing an artist caught up in the music of his time yet unwilling to abandon his 19th century roots. ' Alexander Zemlinsky: A Lyric Symphony'

Includes:: an Afterword by conductor James Conlon & a complete discography of Zemlinsky recordings. MARC D. MOSKOVITZ is principal cellist of the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, Ohio & has written for various music journals & the ' New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians'.

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Flame Tree: The Art of Fine Gifts. Flame Tree Publishing has produced calendars & diaries for over twenty years. Now the UK's premier art calendar producer, we work in the global market online & in retail. Each year we spend many hours creating new designs with artists, photographers, licensors, museums & galleries to bring beautiful art into the homes & offices of our customers around the world. This charming calendar contains a selection of Alexandra Milton's atmospheric collages of birds. As a descendant of two generations of artists, Alexandra Milton was sure to pick up a brush herself. Working primarily in collage, Milton uses handmade papers from around the globe to render images of animals. Informative text accompanies each work & the datepad features previous & next month's views. ...

The whole of Fairyland is very excited
- there's going to be a new royal baby! But when Foster the stork fails to deliver the new
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The lives & deaths of the Romanov family are redolent with colour & drama, but the personal life of the beautiful Tsarina Alexandra has remained enigmatic. Under Erickson's masterful scrutiny the full

Dimensions of the Empress's singular psychology are revealed: her childhood bereavement, her long struggle to attain her romantic goal of marriage to her handsome cousin Nicholas, anguishing shyness, the struggles with her in-laws, a false pregnancy, her increasing eccentricities as she became more preoccupied with matters of faith, & her growing dependence on a series of occult mentors, the most notorious of whom was Rasputin. With meticulous care, long-practised skill, & generous imagination, Erickson has brought Alexandra & her family back to life. Taking advantage of material unavailable until the fall of the Soviet Union, Erickson portrays Alexandra's story as a closely observed, enthrallingly documented, progressive psychological retreat from reality.

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The last of Alexandre Dumass many mistresses, the American actress Adah Menken, called him "the king of romance." She was not thinking only of his immensely popular novels The Three Musketeers & The Count of Monte Cristo
- everything about Dumas was touched with the spirit of romance, & it is that spirit which this exhilarating biography captures.

There was romance in Dumass ori A-gins. He grew up in the country, the son of a general who fought under Napoleon in Egypt & Italy & whose own parents were a French marquis & a slave from Haiti. As a boy, Dumass closest friends were local poachers & a gardener whom he once watched cut open a grass snake to lib A-erate a frog. The world was full of magical possibilities, &, in his twen A-ties, after moving to Paris & working as a clerk under the Duc d Orleans, Dumas established himself, with Victor Hugo, as one of the leading Romantic playwrights.

In its scope & richness, Dumass life bears comparison to those of his fictional heroes. Drawing on Dumass memoirs & surviving correspon A-dence, Professor Hemmings constructs a fascinating story, first published in 1979, of a writer whose novels continue to excite our imagi A-nation.




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Since 2003, Alexandre Gauthier has been the chef at La Grenouillere, a sixteenth-century farmhouse by the river Canche. There, he creates a highly personal cuisine, a snapshot of every season. Powerful, warm, sensuous, earthy yet delicate, it rests on the building blocks of a classic French cuisine that he has stripped of its formality & unnecessary intricacies. Gauthier has received the distinction of being named a Chevalier de L' Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government & is one of the leading figures of new European cooking. Through this book, he offers a hundred of his culinary creations to read, to cook, to consider. superb photographs by Marie Pierre Morel showcase Gauthier's food & the beauty of the region, where La Grenouillere has become an important destination for foodlovers from all over the world. ...