Category Archives: Accessories
Shapeshifters: A Doctor`s Notes on Medicine & Human Change
`Stylish and exhilarating… from a wide-ranging mind and a profound humanity… inspiring` Hilary Mantel`A wonderful series of meditations – clinical, anthropological, literary and deeply humane – on his patients and their illnesses.` Henry MarshTimely, thought-provoking and eloquent, brimming both with warmth and insight, he puts himself among the ranks of … Oliver Sacks and Atul
Sound: A Story of Hearing Lost and Found
`By the summer of 1998, it had become clear that there was something wrong with my hearing. It didn`t happen suddenly but softly, so softly I almost wasn`t aware of it happening; sound seemed to have stolen away …`For twelve years, Bella Bathurst was deaf. She missed the punchlines and the jokes, avoided busy restaurants
Ninety-Nine Stories of God
At a hot-dog-eating contest or at a demolition derby, in line at the pharmacy counter waiting for a shingles vaccination, living in a cave with a colony of bats: the Almighty appears in ever-more mysterious ways in Ninety-Nine Stories of God, Joy Williams` surreal, sublime new collection of very short short stories. Each less than
Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall
It is 3 a.m. in The City, and in a dark corner of The Bar, two lovers collide in the beginnings of a passionate and violent affair. Boy: nineteen, beautiful, ready for anyone to take him home, and `O`: the Older Man, cynical, unpredictable, and at the mercy of his personal demons. Their romance is
Great State: China and the World
China is one of the oldest states in the world. It achieved its approximate current borders with the Ascendancy of the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century, and despite the passing of one Imperial dynasty to the next, it has maintained them for the eight centuries since. Even the European colonial powers at the height
Escape from Earth: A Secret History of the Space Rocket
ESCAPE FROM EARTH is the untold story of the engineers, dreamers and rebels who started the American space programme. In particular, it is the story of Frank Malina, founder of what became Nasa`s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the scientist who cracked the, as he called it, problem of escape from the Earth by rocket.It`s a
The Melancholy of Resistance
Winner of the 2015 Man Booker International Prize The Melancholy of Resistance, Laszlo Krasznahorkai`s magisterial, surreal novel, depicts a chain of mysterious events in a small Hungarian town. A circus, promising to display the stuffed body of the largest whale in the world, arrives in the dead of winter, prompting bizarre rumours. Word spreads that
Megatech: Technology in 2050
Technology moves fast – so where will it have taken us by 2050? How will it affect the way we live? And how far are we willing to let it go? In Megatech, distinguished scientists, industry leaders, star academics and acclaimed science-fiction writers join journalists from The Economist to explore answers to these questions and
The Globe Guide to Shakespeare: The Plays, the Productions, the Life
The Globe Guide to Shakespeare is the ultimate guide to the life and work of the world`s greatest playwright: William Shakespeare. With full coverage of the 39 Shakespearian plays, including a synopsis, full character list, stage history and a critical essay for each, this comprehensive guide is both a quick reference and in-depth background guide
How Democracy Ends
All political systems come to an end, even democracies – David Runciman shows us how to recognise the signs and how to think about what might come next.`Scintillating … thought-provoking … one of the very best of the great crop of recent books on the subject.` Andrew Rawnsley, Observer Democracy has died hundreds of times,
From Global To Local: The making of things and the end of globalisation
For the past thirty years or more, the global economy has been run based on three big assumptions: globalisation will continue to increase; trade is the route to growth and development; and economic power is moving from West to East. But what if all these are wrong? From Global to Local shows how the world
Frank Holl: Emerging from the Shadows
Francis `Frank` Montague Holl (1845-1888) was one of the great painters of the Victorian era, notable for his tragic social realism as well as his penetrating portraits. Although highly respected in his lifetime, his early death meant that he never fully received the acclaim that his work merited. His great subject pictures, often on bleak
Long and the Short of it: A Guide to Finance and Investment for Normally Intelligent People Who Aren`t in the Industry
This book provides a guide to the complexities of modern finance. It describes the basics of investment and the sophisticated innovations of the modern financial system. It explains how the follies of finance have threatened the stability of the world economy, and describes an environment that is complex and sophisticated, but greedy, cynical and self-interested.
All Against All: The long Winter of 1933 and the Origins of the Second World War
During a single winter, between November 1932 and April 1933, so much went wrong: Hitler came to power; Japan invaded Jehol and left the league of Nations; Mussolini looked towards Africa; Roosevelt was elected; France changed governments three times; and the victors of 1918 fell out acrimoniously over war debts, arms, currency, tariffs and Germany.
Ego is the Enemy: The Fight to Master Our Greatest Opponent
It`s wrecked the careers of promising young geniuses. It`s evaporated great fortunes and run companies into the ground. It`s made adversity unbearable and turned struggle into shame. Every great philosopher has warned against it, in our most lasting stories and countless works of art, in all culture and all ages. Its name? Ego, and it
Truth: Ideas in Profile
Truth has always been a thorny topic. How does it work? Who decides what it is? And why is it seen as so important? In this lucid introduction to the topic, leading scholar Simon Blackburn describes the main approaches to the notion of truth and considers how these relate to different perspectives on belief, interpretation,
Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church: The Findings of the Investigation That Inspired the Major Motion Picture Spotlight
This is the true story of how a small group of courageous journalists uncovered child abuse on a vast scale – and held the Catholic Church to account. Betrayal is a ground-breaking work of investigative journalism, now brought brilliantly to life on the screen in the major new movie Spotlight. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Adventures in Human Being
Sunday Times bestseller We have a lifetime`s association with our bodies, but for many of us they remain uncharted territory. In Adventures in Human Being, Gavin Francis leads the reader on a journey through health and illness, offering insights on everything from the ribbed surface of the brain to the secret workings of the heart
Making a Point: The Pernickety Story of English Punctuation
This `engaging history of punctuation` (Wall Street Journal) is not only the first history of its kind, but a complete guide on how to use English punctuation. Behind every punctuation mark lies a thousand stories. The punctuation of English, marked with occasional rationality, is founded on arbitrariness and littered with oddities. For a system of
Christmas Carols: From Village Green to Church Choir
Everyone loves a Christmas carol – in the end, even Scrooge. They have the power to summon up a special kind of midwinter mood, like the aroma of mince pies and mulled wine and the twinkle of lights on a tree. It`s a kind of magic. But how did they get that magic? In Christmas
