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1891. In a remote and crumbling New England mansion, 12-year-old orphan Florence is neglected by her guardian uncle and banned from reading. Left to her own devices she devours books in secret and talks to herself - and narrates this, her story - in a unique language of her own invention.
Subject: Autobiography. Escape from Paradise is a contemporary and true woman?s story set in Singapore, Brunei, Australia, England, and the United States. It involves Singapore?s famous Tiger Balm family, and a wealthy and mysterious family from Brunei?and the link between them, a young Singaporean woman, May Chu Lee. From its first paragraph, the book draws the reader into the ambiance of a cosmopolitan Asia never touched upon by any other book ?
On a remote South Pacific island paradise, an elderly tribesman is translating Hamlet into local Pidgin English. Much to his annoyance, his struggles with the Bard are interrupted by the arrival of an unexpected visitor. William Hardt is a young American lawyer, he has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and he has come to help. And from that moment on, nothing will ever be the same. For what (and who) he finds there will challenge both his and our values and our ideas about love, life and even death. Bursting with good things, from the islanders themselves - with their curious logic, strange notions about sex and addictive rendering of English - to moments of aching sadness as much as life-affirming farce, this exuberantly original novel confirms John Harding as one of contemporary fiction's most entertaining and observant chroniclers of the human condition.
In Distant Snows , mountaineer John Harding recollects his worldwide adventures spanning sixty years across Europe, Iran, East Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Arctic. He climbed many classic peaks including Mont Blanc, Mount Kenya, and Mount Cook, explored obscure ranges, and pioneered ski mountaineering expeditions in Turkey, Spain and Greece. Written with candour, a sharp eye for the tragicomic and with a sympathetic insight into the history and culture of indigenous mountain peoples, Harding's compelling narrative proclaims the power of nature, the glory of landscape and the spirit of the mountains. Distant Snows is a window into the mind and passions of a mountaineer while faithfully preserving the memory of the many characters who accompanied him on his mountain odyssey. With a foreword by the celebrated explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison, Distant Snows offers tales of serious undertakings as well as more leisurely exploits, complemented by Harding's personal photographs and hand-drawn maps. This is a must-read for mountaineers, lovers of the natural world and those with aspirations of adventure.
The authors examine the evidence of warfare in prehistoric times and in the early historical period in order to throw fresh light on the motives and methods of the combatants. Their study marks a significant new step in this fascinating and neglected subject, and creates the agenda for many years to come. By integrating archaeological and documentary research, the contributors seek to explain why some sides gained and others lost in battle. They also examine the impact of warfare on the social and political developments of early chiefdoms and states. Taking a crucial look at the nature and quality of the material evidence for warfare in prehistoric times, they look at weaponry and defensive structures. Their conclusions suggest a new interpretation of the evolution of warfare from the stone age and the bronze age, through the military practice of the Ancient Greeks and the Romans, to the conflicts of the Anglo-Saxons and of medieval Europe.
A unique chance to read these two chilling Gothic tales from the brilliant storyteller John Harding together. Modern Gothic classic Florence & Giles and it’s sequel The Girl Who Couldn’t Read are a must for fans of Edgar Allen Poe.
In this debut novel the author is tackling an almost taboo subject with compassion perfectly-timed humour and total lack of sentimentality. He brings to the fore the horrors and the hilarity of caring for elderly relatives.
At fifty the guarantee runs out... About to hit the big five-oh, obsessed with sex, cocaine-fuelled and gripped by a crippling fear of death, Professor Michael Cole is finding life a bit of a struggle. It's finding the time to squeeze everything in, really. He's supposedly writing the definitive biography of his literary hero, John Donne, but barely manages three hundred words a week. His insatiable enthusiasm for his prettier female students might be partly to blame, but they are only young once. And the fact that one of his female colleagues has yet to succumb to his charms is, admittedly, a distraction he could well do without. But throw in a fight for promotion, a wife to lie to and two ...