- Table View
- List View
The Hive: The Story of the Honeybee and Us
by Bee WilsonEver since men first hunted for honeycomb in rocks and daubed pictures of it on cave walls, the honeybee has been seen as one of the wonders of nature: social, industrious, beautiful, terrifying. No other creature has inspired in humans an identification so passionate, persistent, or fantastical.The Hive recounts the astonishing tale of all the weird and wonderful things that humans believed about bees and their "society" over the ages. It ranges from the honey delta of ancient Egypt to the Tupelo forests of modern Florida, taking in a cast of characters including Alexander the Great and Napoleon, Sherlock Holmes and Muhammed Ali.The history of humans and honeybees is also a history of ideas, taking us through the evolution of science, religion, and politics, and a social history that explores the bee's impact on food and human ritual. In this beautifully illustrated book, Bee Wilson shows how humans will always view the hive as a miniature universe with order and purpose, and look to it to make sense of their own.
Just Write: The Virgin Guide to Telling Your Story
by Gabrielle ManderEveryone has a book in them, or so they say. If you lack the skills or the confidence to tell your story then Just Write is for you. This innovative guide from the inspirational Virgin brand will allow anyone to break their writer's block and realise his or her novel or short story. With 50 beginnings and 50 endings of short stories or novels in every genre to start you off, plus hot tips for creative writing, such as plotting and characterisation, use of simile and metaphor, dos and don'ts, and how to keep track of your characters, the writing process is made understandable and accessible to all. Finally the book will explain how to get an agent and how to get published. So go on, just write!
Aircraft Recognition: A Penguin Special
by R.A. Saville-SneathWhen this book was first published in 1941, aircraft recognition was far more than just a pleasant pastime; it was often a matter of life and death… This classic text provides a definitive catalogue of the aeroplanes, enemy and friendly, seen over British skies during the Second World War. R.A. Saville-Sneath set out to produce a handy classification guide, with many diagrams, a full glossary and some useful mnemonics, showing how each type of aircraft could be identified quickly and easily. The basic structures, tail units, positions of the wings and engines, and even the sounds made by the different planes, form part of the essential 'vocabulary' for distinguishing Albacores and Ansons, Beauforts and Blenheims, Heinkels, Hurricanes and Junkers, Messerschmitts and Moths, Spitfires and Wellingtons. For anyone interested in aviation the book provides a mine of information about a golden age. For those who lived through one of the most glorious episodes in the history of combat it will prove vividly evocative of those extraordinary days.
The Doctor's Dilemma
by Dan Laurence George Bernard ShawShaw's humorous satire of the medical profession.
The New Book of Days
by Eleanor FarjeonFor every day of the year Eleanor Farjeon provides a scrap of fun or fancy, poetry or nonsense, fact or fable. Here young readers can set out with Will Kemp on his nine-day dance from London to Norwich and read the lovely tale of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, as well as celebrate Lincoln's birthday with a poem, and Christmas with a carol.A wonderful, timeless and utterly unique read for the whole family.
An Outline of Psychoanalysis (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Sigmund FreudOne of fifteen volumes in the new Freud series commissioned for Penguin by series editor Adam Phillips. Part of a plan to generate a new, non-specialist Freud for a wide readership, which goes way beyond the institutional/clinical market and presents material to the reader in a new way. This volume will contain NEW INTRODUCTORY LECTURES IN PSYCHOANALYSIS and AN OUTLINE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS.
Forty Dead Men: An Alafair Tucker Mystery (16pt Large Print Edition) (Alafair Tucker Mysteries #10)
by Donis CaseyThe summer of 1273 is peaceful for most of England, but not for Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal Priory. Her friend, Crowner Ralf, is newly widowed with a baby. And her new anchoress is welcoming visitors to her window at night: one of them a man the prioress secretly loves. Now his loyalty to her as head of Tyndal Priory is suspect. Then Martin the Cooper is poisoned at the local inn. Martin had a wealth of enemies. The killer could be any of them. No one likes the direction the evidence points, but God's justice must be rendered even for the most forsaken soul."Against an authentic backdrop of medieval life and lore, Royal once again brings alive characters who are true to their period yet exhibit emotions and feelings that 21st-century readers will recognize as their own." —Publishers Weekly starred reviewPriscilla Royal lives in Northern California. Forsaken Soul is her fifth Medieval Mystery. www.priscillaroyal.com
The Last Enemy: The Centenary Collection (The Centenary Collection)
by Richard HillaryIn 1918, the RAF was established as the world's first independent air force. To mark the 100th anniversary of its creation, Penguin are publishing the Centenary Collection, a series of six classic books highlighting the skill, heroism and esprit de corps that have characterised the Royal Air Force throughout its first century.The Last Enemy is Richard Hillary's extraordinary account of his experience as a Spitfire pilot in the Second World War. Hillary was shot down during the Battle of Britain, leading to months in hospital as part of Archibald McIndoe's 'Guinea Pig Club', undergoing pioneering plastic surgery to rebuild his face and hands. The Last Enemy was first published in 1942, just seven months before Hilary's untimely death in a second crash and has gone on to be hailed as one of the classic texts of World War II.
Chess: A Novel (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Stefan Zweig'... a human being, an intellectual human being who constantly bends the entire force of his mind on the ridiculous task of forcing a wooden king into the corner of a wooden board, and does it without going mad!'A group of passengers on a cruise ship challenge the world chess champion to a match. At first, they crumble, until they are helped by whispered advice from a stranger in the crowd - a man who will risk everything to win. Stefan Zweig's acclaimed novella Chess is a disturbing, intensely dramatic depiction of obsession and the price of genius.
Chess: A Novel (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Stefan Zweig'... a human being, an intellectual human being who constantly bends the entire force of his mind on the ridiculous task of forcing a wooden king into the corner of a wooden board, and does it without going mad!'A group of passengers on a cruise ship challenge the world chess champion to a match. At first, they crumble, until they are helped by whispered advice from a stranger in the crowd - a man who will risk everything to win. Stefan Zweig's acclaimed novella Chess is a disturbing, intensely dramatic depiction of obsession and the price of genius.
The Complete Dangerous Davies
by Leslie ThomasAs plain-clothes men go, Dangerous Davies looks like a non-starter. The small fry of petty larceny and minor disturbances in the backwaters of north-west London are his daily round. His philosophising Welsh drinking companion Mod, his outsized and unruly dog Kitty, his quarrels with his landlady Mrs Fulljames - none of these bodes well for the efficient solving of crimes and outwitting of villainy. But Davies is encouraged by his beautiful friend Jemma, and every so often he stumbles upon something really big.Gathered together for the first time in one volume, here are Leslie Thomas's three books about the most endearing comic hero he has ever created.
The Schreber Case (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Sigmund FreudThe Schreber Case is distinctive from the other case histories in that it's based on the memoirs of a conjectural patient. Schreber was a judge and doctor of law who lived according to a strict set of principles. His nervous illness first manifested itself as hypochondria and insomnia - which he put down to his excessive workload - but gradually deteriorated into pathological delusion. Believing himself to be dead and rotting, Schreber attempted suicide, and then went on to experience bizarre delusional epsiodes whereby he belived he was being turned into a woman. The course of this extraordinary illness is analysed by Freud in his search for a root cause - could it have been caused by homesexual impulses that Schreber tried to repress?
Your Voice and How to Use it
by Cicely BerryAnxiety about how we speak prevents many of us from expressing ourselves well. In her classic handbook, Cicely Berry, Voice Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and world-famous voice teacher, tackles the reasons for this anxiety and explains her practical exercises for relaxation and breathing, clarity of diction and vocal flexibility - everything that you need to achieve good speech.
Androcles and the Lion
by Dan Laurence George Bernard ShawAndrocles and the Lion is a 1912 play written by George Bernard Shaw.Androcles and the Lion is Shaw's retelling of the tale of Androcles, a slave who is saved by the requited mercy of a lion. In the play, Shaw makes Androcles out to be one of many Christians being led to the Colosseum for torture. Characters in the play exemplify several themes and takes on both modern and supposed early Christianity, including cultural clash between Jesus' teachings and traditional Roman values.
Caesar and Christ: The Story of Civilization, Volume III (The Story of Civilization #3)
by Will DurantThe Story of Civilization, Volume III: A history of Roman civilization and of Christianity from their beginnings to A.D. 325. This is the third volume of the classic, Pulitzer Prize-winning series.
One Man's Meat
by E. B. WhiteThe Pulitzer Prize–winning writer and author of Charlotte&’s Web documents his move from Manhattan to a saltwater farm in New England: &“Superb reading.&” —The New Yorker Called &“a mid-20th–century Thoreau&” by Notre Dame Magazine, E. B. White&’s desire to live a simple life caused him to sell half his worldly goods, give up his job writing the New Yorker&’s &“Notes and Comment&” editorial page, and move with his family to a saltwater farm in North Brooklin, Maine. There, White got into the nuts-and-bolts of rural life—not without a lot of self-reflection—and surrounded himself with barnyard characters, some of whom would later appear in Charlotte&’s Web.One Man&’s Meat is White&’s collection of pithy and unpretentious essays on such topics as living with hay fever (&“I understand so well the incomparable itch of eye and nose for which the only relief is to write to the President of the United States&”), World War II (&“I stayed on the barn, steadily laying shingles, all during the days when Mr. Chamberlain, M. Daladier, the Duce, and the Führer were arranging their horse trade&”), and even dog training (&“Being the owner of dachshunds, to me a book on dog discipline becomes a volume of inspired humor&”). Though first published in 1942, this book delivers timeless lessons on the value of living close to nature in our quest for self-discovery. With each subject broached and reflected upon, it &“becomes an ardent and sobering guidebook for those of us trying to live our day-to-day lives now&” (Pif magazine). &“The most succinct, graceful and witty of essayists.&” —San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle &“A lively record of an active inquiring mind.&” —Kirkus Reviews
Pinocchio (Puffin Classics)
by Carlo CollodiThe old wood-carver Geppetto decides to make a wonderful puppet which can dance and turn somersaults, but by chance he chooses an unusual piece of wood - and the finished puppet can talk and misbehave like the liveliest child. But Pinocchio is brave and inquisitive as well as naughty, and after some hair-raising adventures, he earns his heart's desire.Heart-warming introduction by John Boyne, author of Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
The House by the Lake: One House, Five Families, and a Hundred Years of German History
by Thomas HardingA Finalist for the Costa Biography AwardLonglisted for the Orwell PrizeNamed a Best Book of the Year byThe Times (London) • New Statesman (London) • Daily Express (London) • Commonweal magazine In the summer of 1993, Thomas Harding traveled to Germany with his grandmother to visit a small house by a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. It had been her “soul place,” she said—a holiday home for her and her family, but also a refuge—until the 1930s, when the Nazis’ rise to power forced them to leave.The trip was his grandmother’s chance to remember her childhood sanctuary as it was. But the house had changed, and when Harding returned once again nearly twenty years later, it was about to be demolished. It now belonged to the government, and as Harding began to inquire about whether the house could be saved, he unearthed secrets that had lain hidden for decades. Slowly he began to piece together the lives of the five families who had lived there: a wealthy landowner, a prosperous Jewish family, a renowned composer, a widow and her children, a Stasi informant. All had made the house their home, and all but one had been forced out.The house had weathered storms, fires and abandonment, witnessed violence, betrayals and murders, and had withstood the trauma of a world war and the dividing of a nation. Breathtaking in scope and intimate in its detail, The House by the Lake is a groundbreaking and revelatory new history of Germany, told over a tumultuous century through the story of a small wooden house.
The Story of World War II: Revised, Expanded, And Updated From The Original T
by Donald L. Miller Henry Steele CommagerDrawing on previously unpublished eyewitness accounts, prizewinning historian Donald L. Miller has written what critics are calling one of the most powerful accounts of warfare ever published.Here are the horror and heroism of World War II in the words of the men who fought it, the journalists who covered it, and the civilians who were caught in its fury. Miller gives us an up-close, deeply personal view of a war that was more savagely fought—and whose outcome was in greater doubt—than readers might imagine. This is the war that Americans at the home front would have read about had they had access to the previously censored testimony of the soldiers on which Miller builds his gripping narrative.Miller covers the entire war—on land, at sea, and in the air—and provides new coverage of the brutal island fighting in the Pacific, the bomber war over Europe, the liberation of the death camps, and the contributions of African Americans and other minorities. He concludes with a suspenseful, never-before-told story of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, based on interviews with the men who flew the mission that ended the war.
The Blue And Distant Hills
by Judith SaxtonA young girl's search for her identity and for a love that can overcome her past.Questa Adamson is stranded in Italy for the duration of the Second World War. When she finally returns to England she is haunted by terrible memories. She finds that the safe childhood world she remembers has disappeared and that she is as alone in her home country as she has been in Italy.She also finds that she has inherited a tumbledown manor house in Shropshire and is determined to restore the estate to its former glory, despite rationing and post-war austerity. And when she meets her mysterious neighbor, Marcus, it seems as if she might, at last, begin to drop her guard and learn to love.But loving Marcus brings its own special difficulties and Questa soon finds herself faced with an extraordinary and painful choice.
The Epic of Gilgamesh
by N. K. SandarsGilgamesh, King of Uruk, and his companion Enkidu are the only heroes to have survived from the ancient literature of Babylon, immortalized in this epic poem that dates back to the 3rd millennium BC. Together they journey to the Spring of Youth, defeat the Bull of Heaven and slay the monster Humbaba. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh's grief and fear of death are such that they lead him to undertake a quest for eternal life. A timeless tale of morality, tragedy and pure adventure, The Epic of Gilgamesh is a landmark literary exploration of man's search for immortality.
How to be a Brit: The hilariously accurate, witty and indispensable manual for everyone longing to attain True Britishness
by George MikesThe hilariously accurate, witty and indispensable manual for everyone who longs to attain True Britishness'Got me in tears of laughter' 5***** Reader Review'Laugh-out-loud hilarious, witty and insightful' 5***** Reader Review_______Born in Hungary, George Mikes eventually spent more than forty years in the Britain observing behaviours and misbehaviours of local and foreign Brits.With essential chapters such as "How to Avoid Travelling", "On Shopping", "In Praise of Television", "On Not Complaining" and "How to Panic Quietly", you'll get to know Britain like never before. Loved by readers and authors alike, How to Be a Brit contains Mikes's three major works -- How to be an Alien, How to be Inimitable and How to be Decadent.If you're British, you'll love it; if you're a foreigner, you'll appreciate it. Queuing: "An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one." How to plan a town: "Street names should be painted clearly and distinctly on large boards. Then hide these boards carefully." Sex: "Continental people have sex lives: the English have hot water bottles."George Mikes's perceptive bestseller provides a complete guide to the British Way of Life._______'Hilarious and informative essays about the British way of life' 5***** Reader Review'So many people have tried to describe the English mentality . . . This book is as near as you can get!' 5***** Reader Review
Liquid History: An Illustrated Guide to London’s Greatest Pubs : A Radio 4 Best Food and Drink Book of the Year
by John WarlandTHE PERFECT GIFT FOR THOSE WHO LOVE LONDON.A RADIO 4 BEST FOOD AND DRINK BOOK OF THE YEAR.An illustrated guide to London's best pubs and their extraordinary history, presented by the founder of the world-famous Liquid History Tours.Pull up a stool for a thirst-quenching trundle through London's liquid history in search of the city's greatest pubs. We raise a toast in Shakespeare's local, pop in for a pint at Jack the Ripper's bar and push open the bloodstained doors of the Bucket of Blood.Liquid History is a beautifully illustrated love letter to London's finest hostelries, written by the city's leading pub tour guide and host of the celebrated Liquid History Tours. Profiling over 50 timeless boozers, this book tells the story of London's history and the taverns that have hosted, harboured and refreshed its leading characters.Exploring the watering holes of London's writers and artists, its most notorious criminals and celebrated figures, we move from architectural marvels to secretive backstreet boozers to join the dots for London's ultimate knees-up.
The Odyssey
by Homer'The Odyssey is a poem of extraordinary pleasures: it is a salt-caked, storm-tossed, wine-dark treasury of tales, of many twists and turns, like life itself' GuardianThe epic tale of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War forms one of the earliest and greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural and supernatural threats - ship-wrecks, battles, monsters and the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon - Odysseus must use his bravery and cunning to reach his homeland and overcome the obstacles that, even there, await him. E. V. Rieu's translation of The Odyssey was the very first Penguin Classic to be published, and has itself achieved classic status. Translated by E. V. RIEU Revised translation by D. C. H. RIEU With an Introduction by PETER JONES
The Reluctant Widow (Regency Romances #7)
by Georgette Heyer"Lively, amusing...done to a turn!"—Kirkus ReviewsA fateful mistake...When Elinor Rochdale boards the wrong coach, she ends up not at her prospective employer's home but at the estate of Eustace Cheviot, a dissipated and ruined young man on the verge of death.A momentous decision...His cousin, Mr Ned Carlyon, persuades Elinor to marry Eustace as a simple business arrangement. By morning, Elinor is a rich widow, but finds herself embroiled with an international spy ring, housebreakers, uninvited guests, and murder. And Mr Carlyon won't let her leave ...What readers are saying about The Reluctant Widow"Delightful and purely entertaining. The plot involves comedy, intrigue, espionage, cloaks and daggers, and things going bump in the night - served with a sauce of witty repartee that is the Heyer hallmark. Unforgettable.""One of my favorites!""A delightfully funny and mysterious romp.""Reading Georgette Heyer is the next best thing to reading Jane Austen." — Publisher's Weekly