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Around the World in Eighty Treasures
Dan Cruickshank's quest is to tell the story of civilisation through the greatest of man's achievements. It will also be the story of his travels, and who and what he meets along the way. Whether standing before the solemn heads of Easter Island, investigating the mysterious Nazca lines in Peru or the magnificent temple of Borobodur in Java, Dan is never less than fascinating about the origins, construction, mysteries and vicissitudes of each of these monuments to the great civilisations of the world. Do they live up to expectation? Have they been left in ruin, or over-restored? Dan's diary, written at the end of each day, records his most intimate thoughts and feelings, the people he has met, the ups and downs of the journey, perils, joys, and the ongoing relationships formed on the road.
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The Wisdom of Bones: In Search of Human Origins
A groundbreaking book which leading on from the discovery of Homo Erectus, that this being was an animal trapped in a human body and had mastered the trick of growing a large brain. But to Walker's surprise the being was speechless, challenging the existing theory that the language acquisition marks the origins of man.
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An Equal Music
A chance sighting on a bus; a letter which should never have been read; a pianist with a secret that touches the heart of her music ...An Equal Music is a book about love, about the love of a woman lost and found and lost again; it is a book about music and how the love of music can run like a passionate fugue through a life. It is the story of Michael, of Julia and of the love that binds them. 'A novel that can stand being reread and reread, but the first time round is an emotional cliffhanger ...secure a copy for yourself, settle down, and prepare for the unforgettable' Sunday Times
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Confidence..
Kerenza Penhaligan is a struggling actress: once feted as a future star she is now reduced to taking embarrassing bit parts in TV dramas and standing in for other, more successful actors at read-throughs. Wondering where her career has gone, unable to pay her rent, and with her self-confidence flagging, she struggles to keep sight of the boundary between right and wrong. When she steps in to break up a violent confrontation in a bar, Kerenza finds herself caught up in a twilight world of conmen and cheats, of dubious moral choices, and temptingly high rewards. She meets the enigmatic Evan, who offers her a different avenue for her skills - in which her acting talent ends up proving far more useful off the stage than on it. Kerenza soon learns, however, that there's no such thing as a victimless con?
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History Of The Jews
In this critically acclaimed book, Paul Johnson delves deep into the 4,000-year history of the Jews: a race of awe-inspiring endurance, steadfast homogeneity and loyalty and, above all, the belief that history has a purpose and humanity a destiny. With exacting precision and enthusiasm, Paul Johnson has mapped the lives of these people from their early ancestors in the House of David, through great periods of creativity and enterprise, alienation in the ghettos, Adolf Hitler's obsession to obliterate the race, up until the present day. This book is a powerful argument about the nature of Jewish genius, its strengths and contradictions, which brilliantly presents the entire Jewish phenomenon. It makes incisive though-provoking sense of the whole.
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The Company A Short History Of A Revolutionary Ide
A unique history of Britain's most influential invention - from the East India Company to Enron
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A Monk And Two Peas
It took seven years, 300,000 peas and several humiliating failures before the breakthrough for which Gregor Mendel is remembered - his groundbreaking investigations into the reproduction of the humble pea plant, which gave birth to the modern science of genetics. And even then his findings were promptly ignored, only to be rediscovered a generation after his death.This obscure monk struggled all his professional life to be accorded the credit he felt he was due. Science and mathematics were Mendel's forte his difficulties with his peers very nearly his downfall. Robin and Marantz Henig's investigation into his life and work make make his obsessions real, his failings all too human. A story fuelled by jealousy, intrigue and long-help grudges, A Monk and Two Peas is the evocative story of the discovery of the one of the keys to the secret of life.