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The Commonwealth Of Cricket
When Ramachandra Guha began following the game in the early 1960s, India was utterly marginal to the world of cricket: the country still hadn't won a Test match overseas; by the time he joined the Board of Control for Cricket in India, fifty years later, India had become world cricket's sole superpower. The Commonwealth of Cricket is a first-person account of this astonishing transformation. The book traces the entire arc of cricket in India, across all levels at which the game the game is played: school, college, club, state, country. It presents vivid portraits of local heroes, provincial icons, and international starts. Cast as a work of literature, The Commonwealth of Cricket is keenly informed by the author's scholarly training, the stories and sketches narrated against a wider canvas of social and historical change. The book blends memoir, anecdote, reportage and political critique, providing a rich, insightful and rivetingly readable account of this greatest of games as played in the country that has most energetically made this sport its own.
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No Beast So Fierce
The deadliest animal of all time meets the world's most legendary hunter in a classic battle between man and wild. But this pulse-pounding narrative is also a nuanced story of how colonialism and environmental destruction upset the natural order, placing man, tiger and nature on a collision course.In Champawat, India, circa 1900, a Bengal tigress was wounded by a poacher in the forests of the Himalayan foothills. Unable to hunt her usual prey, the tiger began stalking and eating an easier food source: human beings. Between 1900 and 1907, the Champawat Man-Eater, as she became known, emerged as the most prolific serial killer of human beings the world has ever known, claiming an astonishing 436 lives.Desperate for help, authorities appealed to renowned local hunter Jim Corbett, an Indian-born Brit of Irish descent, who was intimately familiar with the Champawat forest. Corbett, who would later earn fame and devote the latter part of his life to saving the Bengal tiger and its habitat, sprang into action. Like a detective on the tail of a serial killer, he tracked the tiger’s movements, as the tiger began to hunt him in return.This was the beginning of Corbett’s life-long love of tigers, though his first encounter with the Champawat Tiger would be her last.
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The Spy Who Changed History
‘A superbly researched and groundbreaking account of Soviet espionage in the Thirties … remarkable’ 5* review, Telegraph
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How To Build A Universe
From the hosts of the legendary BBC Radio 4 programme comes this irreverent celebration of scientific marvels – a hectic leap through the grand and bizarre ideas conjured up by human imagination, from dark matter to consciousness via neutrinos and earthworms. Prof Brian Cox and Robin Ince take the musings of the great and the good of British science, producing an insight into the multifaceted subjects involved in building a Universe, with pearls of wisdom from leading scientists and comedians peppered throughout. Covering thousands of concepts and conundrums, they tackle everything from the Big Bang to parallel Universes, fierce creatures to extraterrestrial life, brain science to artificial intelligence. Bringing together the best, most unusual and hilarious of the inquisitive minds that help shape and understand our world, from Neil deGrasse Tyson and Dara Ó Briain to Sir Patrick Stewart, Tim Minchin, Stephen Fry and more, How to Build a Universe is an illuminating and inspirational celebration of science – sometimes silly, sometimes astounding and very occasionally facetious.
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Elephants: Birth, Death and Family in the Lives of
Elephants are as unique as people. They can be clever and curious or headstrong and impulsive, shy or sociable. Learn to know them as individuals as well as a species in this evocative account of years spent studying elephant behaviour in the wild. Watching a family out for a swim on a hot day, Dr Hannah Mumby notes grandmothers, mothers, sisters and children exchanging noisy greetings, a consistent stream of close-range vocalisations, intermittent touching, co-operative herding of babies and frequent stopping for snacks. A close and interconnected family. But in this family, the adults weigh several tons each and the babies wave trunks playfully at one another. This is a herd of elephants. That elephants are intelligent, sentient beings is common knowledge, but so much about their day-to-day lives and abilities remains unknown. How do they communicate with one another over seemingly impossible distances? How do males spend their lives once they have left their mothers’ herds? And how much do they really remember? In this lyrically written and deeply personal account of several years of field research, Mumby reverently describes her own elephant encounters, alongside an exploration of the most up-to-date discoveries about the lives of these gentle giants. Learn how elephants live, travel, have sex, raise children and relate to one another, and reflect on how they think and feel. Understanding elephants as individuals closes the gap between human and animal and has powerful applications in the critical field of elephant conservation.
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The Man Who Created the Middle East
At the age of only 36, Sir Mark Sykes was signatory to the Sykes-Picot agreement, one of the most reviled treaties of modern times. A century later, Christopher Sykes’ lively biography of his grandfather reassesses his life and work, and the political instability and violence in the Middle East attributed to it.The Sykes–Picot agreement was drawn by the eponymousBritish and French diplomats in 1916 to determine the divideof the collapsing empire in the event of an allied victory inWorld War I. Excluding Arab involvement, it negated theirearlier guarantee of independence made by the British –and controversy has raged around it ever since.But who was Mark Sykes?A century on, Christopher Simon Sykes reveals new facetsof a misremembered diplomatic giant. Using previouslyundisclosed family letters and cartoons by his grandfather,he delivers a comprehensive and humbling account of the man behind one of the most impactful policies in the Middle East.
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Love in the Blitz
‘Her voice is absolutely, beguilingly conversational … Intelligent, allusive, iconoclastic, captivatingly intense … This is the news from the domestic frontline: personal, unique, unexpurgated, without propaganda, as it unfolded and was experienced … Splendid’ William Boyd, Guardian With the intimacy and wit of a Second World War Bridget Jones, Eileen Alexander offers a portal into life during the Blitz. Eileen Alexander fell in love amidst the falling of bombs, finding a quotation from poetry at every turn. Graduating from Cambridge in 1939, she had just been injured in a car crash (the man she had a soft spot for was driving) and had firm ambitions of studying further, making herself useful and absolutely not getting married. Her letters offer a love story and a unique snapshot of the home front, as well as resurrecting the voice of a profoundly funny writer. ‘I wonder what anyone would think if they suddenly came across my letters to you & started reading them in chronological order?’ Eileen wrote in 1941. ‘I think they’d say “This girl never lived till she loved” – and it would be true, darling.’
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Nujeen
She is our hero. Everyone must read her story. She will inspire you' Malala YousafzaiAn inspiring tale of modern migration, overcoming adversity and escaping the hell of war, from a girl struggling to walk for the very first time in her life. Nujeen Mustafa has cerebral palsy. This did not stop her travelling, with her sister, 4000 miles from Syria to Hungary in a wheelchair. Having taught herself to speak English by watching US soap-operas on Syrian TV, she made her way to the Hungarian border in the hope of asylum in Germany, where she has told her story, with Christina Lamb - bestselling co-author of 'I Am Malala'. A 16-year-old Syrian girl, she has the courage of a lion.A strong, extraordinary voice, Nujeen tells the story of what it's really like to be a refugee, to have grown up through war and left a beloved homeland to become dependent on others. It tells how the Syrian war has destroyed a proud nation and torn families apart in the face of international indifference by leaders scarred by previous interventions, and the incredible bravery of a person determined to keep smiling. It is the story of our times told through one remarkable girl.
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Haunted Empire : Apple after Steve Jobs
Former Wall Street Journal technology reporter Yukari Iwatani Kane delves deep inside Apple in the two years since Steve Job's death, revealing the tensions and challenges CEO Tim Cook and his team face as they try to sustain Job's vision and keep the company moving forward. Steve Job's death raised one of the most pressing questions in the tech and business worlds, Could Apple stay great without its iconic leader? Many inside the company were eager to prove that Apple could be just as innovative as it had been under Jobs. Others were painfully aware of the immense challenge ahead. As its business has become more complex and global, Apple has come under intense scrutiny, much of it critical. Maintaining market leadership has become crucial as it tries to conquer new frontiers and satisfy the publics insatiable appetite for insanely great products. Based on over two hundred interviews with current and former executives, business partners, Apple watchers and others, Haunted Empire is an illuminating portrait of Apple today that offers clues to its future. With nuanced insights and colorful details that only a seasoned journalist could glean, Kane goes beyond the myths and headlines. She explores Tim Cooks leadership and its impact on Jobs loyal lieutenants, new product development and Apples relationships with Wall Street, the government, tech rivals, suppliers, the media and consumers. Hard-hitting yet fair, Haunted Empire reveals the perils and opportunities an iconic company faces when it loses its visionary leader.