- Table View
- List View
The Observations of Gilles le Bouvier: A Medieval Herald’s View of Europe and its Neighbouring Lands
Translated from the medieval French, this book is a landmark English-language version of the work of Gilles le Bouvier. As the senior herald to King Charles VII, the monarch on the French throne as they advanced to victory in the Hundred Years' War between England, France and their allies, Gilles le Bouvier was close to the king during a decisive, formative period in France's history, as well as being a well-known figure from the period. The Berry Herald's Impressions of Europe thus delivers a rare glimpse of a singular medieval worldview, offered through the constrained voice of a skilled diplomat carefully and occasionally sharing his opinions to audiences composed of his social superiors. During his lifelong career as a messenger and a diplomat in Charles's service, Gilles le Bouvier, known as The Berry Herald, travelled far and wide on his master's behalf. This translated work is a compilation of his observations as he moved around Western Europe, the Mediterranean states and the Black Sea region. Throughout the text, Gilles le Bouvier: * assessed or commented on the lands encompassed by his extensive travels* discussed the peoples he claimed to have encountered, from the honourable Turks to the 'bad Catholics' of southern Italy* surveyed the military capabilities of France's neighbours, allies, enemies and neutral states Expertly introduced and contextualised by Gideon Brough and Sophie Patrick, this book provides a compelling and unique historical source for understanding life in late-medieval Europe through the eyes of someone who lived it.
Obsessed: America's Food Addiction--and My Own
by Mika BrzezinskiNew York Times BestsellerMika Brzezinski is at war against obesity. On Morning Joe, she is often so adamant about improving America's eating habits that some people have dubbed her "the food Nazi." What they don't know is that Mika wages a personal fight against unhealthy eating habits every day, and in this book she describes her history of food obsession and distorted body image, and her lifelong struggle to be thin. She believes it's time we all learned to stop blaming ourselves, and each other, and look at the real culprits-the food we eat and our addiction to it. Mika feels the only way to do this is to break through the walls of silence and shame we've built around obesity and food obsessions. She believes we need to talk openly about how our country became overweight, and what we can do to turn the corner and step firmly onto the path of health. So Mika made a deal with her very close friend Diane: they would work together on this book and on their personal goals, to help Diane drop 75 pounds and to break Mika's obsession with staying superthin. As she did in her bestseller Knowing YourValue, Mika has packed each chapter with insights from notable people in medicine, health, business, the arts, and politics. Singer Jennifer Hudson, the late writer and director Nora Ephron, TV host Gayle King, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, and many others open up to Mika about their own challenges and what works for them when it comes to food and diet. It's time we stopped whispering the F-word ("fat") the way we used to shun the C-word ("cancer"). This book-with its trademark Brzezinski smarts, honesty, and courage-launches us into a no-holds-barred conversation with family and friends, in schools and kitchens, in Congress and the food industry, to help us all find ways to tackle one of the biggest problems standing between us and a healthier America.
Obsessive, Intrusive, Magical Thinking
by Marianne Eloise'I FELT RECOGNISED ON EVERY PAGE, LEARNT SO MANY NEW THINGS, AND LAUGHED SO HARD I CHOKED ON MY WATER. READ THIS!!!' NAOISE DOLAN, AUTHOR OF EXCITING TIMESObsessive was, still is, my natural state, and I never wondered why. I didn't mind, didn't know that other people could feel at peace. I always felt like a raw nerve, but then, I thought that everyone did. Writer and journalist Marianne Eloise was born obsessive. What that means changes day to day, depending on what her brain latches onto: fixations with certain topics, intrusive violent thoughts, looping phrases. Some obsessions have lasted a lifetime, while others will be intense but only last a week or two.Obsessive, Intrusive, Magical Thinking is a culmination of a life spend obsessing, offering a glimpse into Marianne's brain, but also an insight into the lives of others like her. From death to Medusa, to Disneyland to fire, to LA to her dog, the essays explore the intersection of neurodivergence, fixation and disorder, telling the story of one life underpinned and ultimately made whole by obsession.
Occupational Hazards: My Time Governing In Iraq
by Rory StewartA fascinating insight into the complexity, history and unpredictability of Iraq from Rory Stewart, bestselling author of Politics on the Edge and host of hit podcast The Rest Is Politics.‘Devastating’ - The Sunday Times‘Absolutely absorbing’ - Ken LoachBy September 2003, six months after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the anarchy had begun. Rory Stewart, then a young British diplomat, was appointed as the Coalition Provisional Authority's deputy governor of a province of 850,000 people in the southern marshland region. There, he and his colleagues confronted gangsters, Iranian-linked politicians, tribal vendettas and a full Islamist insurgency.Occupational Hazards is Rory Stewart's inside account of the attempt to rebuild a nation, the errors made, the misunderstandings and insurmountable difficulties encountered. It reveals an Iraq hidden from most foreign journalists and soldiers, a rare and compelling insight that remains just as important today.‘An extraordinarily vivid tale’ - The Guardian‘Wonderfully observed, wise, evocative’ - The Observer
An Ocean Apart
by Sarah LeeInspired by real life stories of the Windrush Generation and her mother’s own experiences as a nurse coming to Britain from the Caribbean, Sarah Lee’s debut novel An Ocean Apart is a must for fans of Call the Midwife.It’s 1954 and, in Barbados, Ruby Haynes spots an advertisement for young women to train as nurses for the new National Health Service in Great Britain. Her sister, Connie, takes some persuading, but soon the sisters are on their way to a new country – and a whole new world of experiences.As they start their training in Hertfordshire, they discover England isn’t quite the promised land; for every door that’s opened to them, the sisters find many slammed in their faces. And though the girls find friendships with their fellow nurses, Connie struggles with being so far from home, and keeping secret the daughter she has left behind in search of a better life for the both of them . . .'A glorious triumph of a book full of characters that feel like real friends, so atmospheric, compelling and nostalgic, I adored it.' - Alex Brown, author of A Postcard from Italy
Ocean Devil: The Life And Legend Of George Hogg
by James MacManusThe dramatic true-life story of George Hogg, a young Oxford graduate who is caught up in the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and the Chinese Civil war, and who leads a group of Chinese children hundreds of miles across 15,000-foot mountains to safety – only to die tragically in early 1945.
Ocean Fever: The Damian Foxall Story
by Damian FoxallHigh risk, adrenaline rushes, extreme weather, knife-edge decisions, rivalries and challenges in the toughest environment are all in a day's work for exceptional Irish sailor, Damian Foxall. Ocean Fever traces his early years as a restless teenager and description of his successes and failures on many teams lifts the lid on this toughest of sports.
Octavia, Daughter of God: The Story Of A Female Messiah And Her Followers
by Jane ShawIn 1919, in the wake of the upheaval of World War I, a remarkable group of English women came up with their own solution to the world's grief:a new religion. At the heart of the Panacea Society was a charismatic and autocratic leader, a vicar's widow named Mabel Barltrop. Her followers called her Octavia, and believed that she was the daughter of God, sent to build the New Jerusalem in Bedford. Proclaiming the female aspects of God, Octavia attracted former suffragettes, middle-class Christian women and passionate spiritual seekers to Bedford, where they followed her in rigorous religious practices. She appointed twelve women as her apostles, and put the rest to work to spread her Word: that human beings, through Panacea, could achieve immortal life on earth.Acclaimed historian Jane Shaw found the last living members of the Panacea Society, who revealed to her their immense, painstakingly-preserved archives. She discovered a utopian community that once had seventy residents, thousands of followers, and an international healing ministry that reached 130,000 people around the globe.Octavia, Daughter of God is a fascinating group biography and a revelatory work of cultural and narrative history. Vividly told, by turns funny and tragic, it reveals in intimate detail the complex, out-sized personality of Octavia; the faith of her devoted followers, who believed they would never die; and the intricacies and intrigues of her close-knit community.But Octavia, Daughter of God is also about a moment at the advent of modernity, when a generation of newly empowered women tried to re-make Christianity in their own image. Startlingly modern in their resolve and curiously reactionary in their social views and politics, their story is a portrait of an age. It offers a window into the anxieties and hopes of the interwar years through the lives of ordinary people who believed extraordinary things about God, this world and the next.
An Octopus in My Ouzo: Loving Life on a Greek Island
by Jennifer BarclayWhen Jennifer moves alone into the Honey Factory on a tiny Greek island, bringing a laptop, her hiking boots and plans for a peaceful life, she has no idea what surprises are in store. Dive into this exquisite, honest and deeply moving tale and taste the sweetness of living life to the full on a small island.
Odd Boy Out: The ‘hilarious, eye-popping, unforgettable’ Sunday Times bestseller 2021
by Gyles BrandrethJoin the beloved star of Just a Minute, QI, Have I Got News For You and Celebrity Gogglebox, Gyles Brandreth, in his long-waited, moving and hilarious autobiography'Staggeringly brilliant, funny and touching, I loved it' Joanna Lumley'Hilarious, ribald, eye-popping, unforgettable, will make you laugh out loud' Daily Mail_________'I am what my childhood made me'But what is that exactly, Gyles?Who are you? And why?Odd Boy Out is an extraordinarily revealing account of growing up in an apparently well-to-do but always strapped-for-cash middle-class English family. But it is also far more than that.It is about adventures - meeting princes and presidents, visiting Death Row in America, exploring the sex clubs of Copenhagen. It is a story of a boy blessed with wit, what he got up to, and the people he met growing up in the most wonderful city in all the world in those extraordinary years after the Second World War.For Odd Boy Out is about more than Gyles and his exploits: it is also a kaleidoscopic portrait of Britain from the 1950s onwards, featuring a cast drawn from politics, the media, swinging London, stage and screen, from Laurence Olivier to Twiggy.By turns hilarious and moving, and chock full of unforgettable stories, Odd Boy Out is the unexpected and candid autobiography of one of the country's most unlikely personalities.Yet at root it is a powerful and passionate exploration of childhood - how our heritage, our parents and our upbringing make us who we are.
The Odd Couple: The Curious Friendship between Kingsley Amis and Philip Larkin
by Richard BradfordKingsley Amis was a mimic, jester, father, husband, atheist, pseudo-socialist and clubland Tory boozer with a limitless taste for adultery; Philip Larkin a glum misanthrope who lived in self-imposed solitude. And yet, after meeting at St John's, Oxford in 1941, this unlikely pair struck up a friendship to endure for more than forty years, despite a period of acrimony in the 1960s. From their early days of undergraduate ambitions and enthusiasms through to the bitterness of middle age, Richard Bradford charts the progress of a remarkable friendship, and shows how crucial it was to the making of these two literary giants. Without Larkin's inspiration and input, Amis would never have written his award-winning debut, Lucky Jim; if not for Amis's overnight success, Larkin would never have abandoned his hopes of becoming a novelist and turned instead to verse. Larkin's ensuing resentment would simmer beneath the surface of their relationship for years to come. Drawing on an enormous archive of letters, manuscripts and interviews, The Odd Couple not only offers a rare glimpse into the private correspondence of two controversial and eccentric men, it also illuminates some of the finest novels and poems of the twentieth century.
Odd Girl Out: An Autistic Woman in a Neurotypical World
by Laura JamesWhat do you do when you wake up in your mid-forties and realize you've been living a lie your whole life? Do you tell? Or do you keep it to yourself?Laura James found out that she was autistic as an adult, after she had forged a career for herself, married twice and raised four children. This book tracks the year of Laura's life after she receives a definitive diagnosis from her doctor, as she learns that 'different' doesn't need to mean 'less' and how there is a place for all of us, and it's never too late to find it.Laura draws on her professional and personal experiences and reflects on her life in the light of her diagnosis, which for her explains some of her differences; why, as a child, she felt happier spinning in circles than standing still and why she has always found it difficult to work in places with a lot of ambient noise. Although this is a personal story, the book has a wider focus too, exploring reasons for the lower rate of diagnosed autism in women and a wide range of topics including eating disorders and autism, marriage and motherhood.Odd Girl Out gives a timely account from a woman negotiating the autistic spectrum, from a poignant and personal perspective.
The Odds: One Season, Three Gamblers And The Death Of Their Las Vegas
by Chad MillmanOne gambler is a manic former cokehead with an Ivy League degree. The second is a college dropout trying to make a living at the only thing he enjoyed at school-gambling. The third, one of Vegas's most respected bookmakers, is perilously close to burning out. The Odds follows the lives of these three professional gamblers through a college basketball season in a one-of-a-kind city struggling to reconcile its lawless past with its family-friendly makeover. With a wiseguy attitude and a faultless eye and ear for the sights and sounds of Vegas and its denizens, Chad Millman has created a portrait that the Wall Street Journal called "fascinating. . . often screamingly funny." The Las Vegas Review-Journal had just one word for the book: "Superb."
The Odds: One Season, Three Gamblers And The Death Of Their Las Vegas
by Chad MillmanOne gambler is a manic former cokehead with an Ivy League degree. The second is a college dropout trying to make a living at the only thing he enjoyed at school -- gambling. The third, one of Vegas's most respected bookmakers, is perilously close to burning out. The Odds follows the lives of these three professional gamblers through a college basketball season in a one-of-a-kind city struggling to reconcile its lawless past with its family-friendly makeover. With a wiseguy attitude and a faultless eye and ear for the sights and sounds of Vegas and its denizens, Chad Millman has created a portrait that the Wall Street Journal called "fascinating. . . often screamingly funny." The Las Vegas Review-Journal had just one word for the book: "Superb."
An Ode to Darkness
by Sigri SandbergWhen did you last see the stars?'Look at a satellite image of the Earth. Where it was once as dark as night, it is now lit up like a Christmas tree. If you zoom in on a city, you'll see floodlights, neon lights, car lights, and streetlamps. If you zoom in even further, to your own bedroom, you might see lamps and TV, tablet, and phone screens.If you live in a city and look out of the window, there will be a grayish yellow haze between you and the Milky Way. Even if it is night. Even if it is winter.Humans have always struggled with the dark, but isn't it light enough now? What is all this artificial light doing to us and everything else that lives? What is it doing to our sleep patterns and rhythms and bodies?I live in Norway, the land of the polar night. I have a cabin in the mountains in Finse. Darkness and stars can still be experienced there, particularly now during the darkest months of the year. I pack my bag and head up there. To seek out natural darkness, knowledge, and the night sky - and to see how long I dare stay.Because, paradoxically, I am afraid of the dark, and that fear is all-consuming, at least when I'm completely alone...'AN ODE TO DARKNESS explores our intimate relationship with the dark: why we are scared of it, why we need it and why the ever-encroaching light is damaging our well-being. Under the dark polar night of northern Norway, journalist Sigri Sandberg meditates on the cultural, historical, psychological and scientific meaning of darkness, all the while testing the limits of her own fear.
Odette: World War Two's Darling
by Penny StarnsOdette Brailly entered the nation's consciousness in the 1950s when her remarkable - and romantic - exploits as an SOE agent first came to light. She had been the first woman to be awarded the GC, as well as the Legion d'Honneur, and in 1950 the release of a film about her life made her the darling of the British popular press. But others openly questioned Odette's personal and professional integrity, even claiming that she had a clandestine affair with her supervisor Capt. Peter Churchill, with whom she had worked undercover in France. Soon she became as controversial as she was celebrated. In the first full biography of this incredible woman for nearly sixty years, historian Penny Starn delves into recently opened SOE personnel files to reveal the true story of this wartime heroine and the officer who posed as her husband. From her life as a French housewife living in Britain and her work undercover with the French Resistance, to her arrest, torture and unlikely survival in Ravensbruck concentration camp, Starns reveals for the first time the truth of Odette's mission and the heart-breaking identity of her real betrayer.
Odysseus: Book One (Odysseus Ser. #1)
by Valerio Massimo ManfrediOdysseus: The Oath is the first book in Valerio Massimo Manfredi's Odysseus epic.A man becomes a hero . . . As a young boy in Ithaca, Odysseus listens in wonder to his grandfather Autolykos, a man feared by many across the land as a ruthless fighter. He learns of his heritage and a lifelong passion is sparked: to become an adventurer and warrior. In Mycenae, he meets King Eurystheus and learns the terrible story of Hercules – the man with god-like strength who slaughtered his family and punished by the King to undertake impossible tasks to earn absolution. But is Eurystheus the man he says he is? When a child comes to Odysseus in the middle of the night, with another, very disturbing, version of what happened that fateful night, Odysseus embarks on the first of his extraordinary quests . . . So begins the epic story of Odysseus, the first of two volumes: an adventure of love, war, courage and heroism, weaving from a small rocky island in Greece, to the mighty fall of Troy.
Odysseus: Book Two (Odysseus Ser. #2)
by Valerio Massimo ManfrediThe extraordinary story of a legendary hero continues . . .After ten years of uninterrupted war, blood and agony, the Trojans have finally been defeated. Odysseus and his men begin the epic journey of returning to Ithaca. Along the way, terrifying enemies await them: the cyclops Polyphemus, the lotus eaters who feast on narcotic flowers that give only oblivion, the sorceress who turns men into swine, and the deadly, enthralling sirens. Odysseus is determined to make his way home to Ithaca, where his beloved family have awaited him for many long years. But his journey will present him with new, terrible perils - ones that he could not have dreamed of even in his wildest nightmares. In Odysseus: The Return, the second in his Odysseus epic, Valerio Massimo Manfredi gives a new voice to one of the most adventurous and fascinating heroes of all time.
An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, And An Epic
by Daniel MendelsohnSHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2017 SHORTLISTED FOR THE LONDON HELLENIC PRIZE 2017 WINNER OF THE PRIX MÉDITERRANÉE 2018 From the award-winning, best-selling writer: a deeply moving tale of a father and son’s transformative journey in reading – and reliving – Homer’s epic masterpiece.
The Odyssey of Ibn Battuta: Uncommon Tales of a Medieval Adventurer
by Professor David Waines David WainesIbn Battuta was, without doubt, one of the world's truly great travellers. Born in 14th century Morocco, and a contemporary of Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta has left us an account in his own words of his remarkable journeys throughout the Islamic world and beyond: journeys punctuated by adventure and peril, and stretching from his home in Tangiers to Zaytun in faraway China. Whether sojourning in Delhi and the Maldives, wandering through the mazy streets of Cairo and Damascus, or contesting with pirates and shipwreck, the indefatigable Ibn Battuta brings to vivid life a medieval world brimming with marvel and mystery. Carefully observing the great diversity of civilizations which he encountered, Ibn Battuta exhibits an omnivorous interest in such matters as food and drink, religious differences (between Christians, Hindus and Shi'a Muslims), ideas about purity and impurity, disease, women and sex. Recounting the many miracles which its author claims to have experienced personally, his al-rihla or 'Travelogue' is a fascinating mosaic of mysticism and reportage offering a prototype magic realism.David Waines discusses the subtleties of the al-rihla, revealing all the wonders of Ibn Battuta's world to the modern reader. This is a gripping treatment of the life and times of one of history's most daring, and at the same time most human, discoverers.
Œuvres complètes de Voltaire: Histoire du parlement de Paris (Œuvres complètes de Voltaire (Complete Works of Voltaire) #68)
by VoltairePart of the complete works of the French philosopher, historian and social reformer, Voltaire, in which he explores the history of the parlement of Paris during the reign of Louis XV. For students and scholars of the 18th-century Enlightenment.
Œuvres complètes de Voltaire: Oeuvres de 1771 (Œuvres complètes de Voltaire (Complete Works of Voltaire) #73)
by VoltairePart of the complete works of the French philosopher, historian and social reformer, Voltaire. Despite illness, Voltaire maintained a literary output of astonishing energy and variety, and his passion for justice led him to participate in crucial public debates. For students and scholars of the 18th-century Enlightenment.
Œuvres complètes de Voltaire: Corpus des notes marginales de Voltaire 8: Rollin-Sommier (Œuvres complètes de Voltaire (Complete Works of Voltaire) #143)
by VoltairePart of the complete works of the French philosopher, historian and social reformer, Voltaire. One in a 13-volume set which reprints Voltaire's marginal notes in the alphabetical sequence of the books in his library. An indispensable scholarly tool for students and scholars of the 18th-century Enlightenment with research interests in Voltaire.
Œuvres complètes de Voltaire: Oeuvres de 1770-1771 (Œuvres complètes de Voltaire (Complete Works of Voltaire) #72)
by VoltairePart of the complete works of the French philosopher, historian and social reformer, Voltaire. In this volume the author writes about French theatre, defends his concept of God against radical materialism, and castigates the shortcomings of his time and the obscurantism of the Church. For students and scholars of the 18th-century Enlightenment.
Œuvres complètes de Voltaire: Notes et écrits marginaux conservés hors de la Bibliothèque nationale de Russie. Complément au Corpus des notes marginales (Œuvres complètes de Voltaire (Complete Works of Voltaire) #145)
by VoltairePart of the complete works of the French philosopher, historian and social reformer, Voltaire. This volume contains his marginal jottings in the books and manuscripts kept outside the National Library of Russia in St Petersburg. For students and scholars of the 18th-century Enlightenment.