Told with skill, knowledge, enthusiasm and insight this is the enthralling history of Central Asia and the struggle between Tsarist Russia and Victorian Britain for the treasures of India, played out amidst the high passes and great deserts of Central Asia, and the political and military decisions taken in the 19th century which led to the rise and fall of the Soviet Union. For nearly a century these two most powerful nations fought a secret war and engaged in a shadowy struggle called 'The Great Game', a phrase immortalised in Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim. When play first began, the two rival empires lay nearly 2,000 miles apart, but in the end, some Russian outposts were within 20 miles of India. It is the story of that great imperial struggle for strategic and economic supremacy, fought across a cruel and desolate terrain stretching from the Caucasus to China - espionage and treachery on a grand scale and in exotic settings. This classic book tells the story through the exploits of the young officers both British and Russian who risked their lives playing it including Pottinger, Connolly and Burnes whose courage and resilience is quite astonishing. Disguised as holy men or native horse-traders, they mapped secret passes, gathered intelligence and sought the allegiance of powerful khans. Some never returned. This welcome chunky paperback reprint of the 1990 original includes 15 black and white illus. and six maps including Afghanistan and the NW Frontier, and the Pamir Region. 562pp, paperback.

A Haynes Owners' Workshop Manual covering HAS Mk.2, Mk.3 and HMA Mk.8 models, here is an insight into the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the Royal Navy's multi-role ship-borne helicopter. The design originated in the early 1960s initially for an Army battlefield helicopter. The Westland Lynx first entered service with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm in 1976 ahead of its Army counterpart. Seeing action in major operations such as the Falklands War of 1982 and the Gulf War of 1991, the Lynx proved itself a versatile and capable all-rounder. The final Rolls Royce gem-powered version in the maritime role, the HMA Mk.8 is the focus of this book. It has achieved significant success in counter-narcotics, counter-piracy and humanitarian assistance roles in recent years. Having assumed the lead in developing the helicopter anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare concepts during WW2, the Royal Navy blazed a trail that other navies have followed. Many countries' frigates and destroyers are now equipped with variants of the ubiquitous Westland Lynx. Fascinating on the technical detail, the anatomy, the systems and weaponry, operation, maintenance and design features, the book is packed with more than 300 colour photographs and technical drawings. 164 very large pages.

First published by Oxford University Press in 1926, this paperback 2017 edition is a welcome reprint. The aim of the book is to give some idea of the French Revolution to the general reader who is not an historical student. The narrative is based on many years' study of contemporary documents such as the 40 volumes of Buchez and Roux's Histoire Parlementaire, containing much that is inaccessible elsewhere, and great books on the history of Paris during the Revolution, plus letters and memoirs and de Tocqueville's L'Ancien Regime et la Révolution. The 12 chapters begin with The Calling of the States-General 1787-1789, The Struggle with the King, The Rule of the Constituent Assembly, The King and the Constitution, The War 30th September 1791 to 3rd July 1792, The Struggle Between the Gironde and the Mountain, The Reign of Terror I, II and III, Famine and Vengeance and The End of the Convention. When picturing the infamous French Revolution most of us think of the guillotine, mass execution and terror. E. D. Bradby shows us the other side - the grand ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity. His portrayal of figures like Robespierre, who had come to be viewed as a butcher but who started out as a patriot, are fair and full of nuance. Likewise King Louis and Marie Antoinette are written not as innocent victims nor as cruel tyrants but as flawed people making difficult choices. A revelation for any reader, the history focuses on the potential for friend to turn against friend and Bradby shows us the legacy of the French Revolution and its lasting impact on modern society. 512pp, paperback.

Using an original nostalgic image from the Ladybird Books series of the 1960s, a glamorous young mother wearing a red bathing costume is sunbathing, her little boy asleep beside her on a towel. Have fun completing this book sized mini 100 piece colourful jigsaw puzzle in this tongue-in-cheek nostalgic series.

6.5 x 9cm nostalgic mini pack of playing cards based on the Ladybird books popular series. The colour image is of four soldiers in brown uniform relaxing playing cards on a bedspread in their dormitory in a 50s style design. The jokey modern text on the box says "Three of these husbands are playing poker on one of them is reading a book about ghosts. They are not talking." Pack of 52 colour playing cards, first time discounted.

With instruction booklet, here is the classic nostalgic family game where players have to act out a title without speaking for their teammates to guess. With explanations of how to indicate categories like Book Title - unfold your hands as if they were a book, Movie Title - pretend to crank an old fashioned movie camera, Play Title - pretend to pull the rope that opens a theatre curtain, Song Title - pretend to sing holding a microphone, TV Show - draw a rectangle to outline a TV screen, Video Games - pretend you are playing with a controller or a joystick, Website - pretend to write on a keyboard, Landmarks - make a circle with one hand, then point to it, as if pointing to a dot on a map. Indicate other things like the number of words in the title by holding up the number of fingers and which word you are working on by holding up the number of fingers again, number of syllables in the word by laying the number of fingers on your arm, the entire concept by sweeping your arms through the air and on the nose when someone is correct. There are a few more hints which you will see. The pack contains 100 suggestion cards such as Hell's Kitchen and Call of Duty. A nostalgic box set inspired by the Ladybird books of yesteryear but with a modern twist. For two players or more, aged eight to adult. 100 cards, instructions.

Beautifully illustrated with images from the Ladybird Books bestselling and nostalgic titles it's time for some nostalgic good old-fashioned fun. The 50 games include charades, just a minute, sheep in the pen, up Jenkins, caught you!, letters of law, broken telephone, dumb crambo, trash, tomato replay, thus said the grand seignior, poetry please, wink murder, down the line, pig, slap, clap, click speak, adverb, pass it on, and more. 50 in total suitable for adults and children, the cards tell you exactly how to play, and scoring. Beautiful packaged in sturdy card box with lid. A companion to Charades code 91034. 10.5 x 14.5 x 3cm.

Following the gripping BBC One natural history series, Life Story explains the amazing lengths to which animals will go to secure their future. Packed with dramatic pictures and stills from the programme and with a foreword by David Attenborough, it is written by the Executive Producer and the Series Producer, and best of all are the high quality close-up colour photographs, many full page, in this outsize hardback showcasing the miracles and wonders of life on earth. The chapters are organised by the following: First Steps, Growing Up, Home, Power, Courtship and Parenthood. A baby wildebeest spends eight months in its mother's womb. It then slithers out of her vent on to the open savannah and staggers to its feet. Within an hour it has to be able to walk well enough to follow her as she waders away, searching for grazing. By contrast a kangaroo is born at a mere 30 days or so, a tiny, naked, worm-like creature with stump-like forelegs and no sign whatever of rear ones. It takes refuge in its mother's skinny pouch for another ten months. The book surveys some of the most fascinating ways of dealing with the trials of life - seduction and a male satin bower bird spending years learning the skills to create a bower impressive enough for his female to consider mating with him; a male Japanese puffer fish whose way of seducing a female is to create an architectural sand construction so extraordinary that until recently no one realised it had been made by a fish. On page 15 we meet an inquisitive young langur investigating its reflection in the camera, its playful curiosity held in check by its mother. Here are transformations like the snake-mimic hawkmoth caterpillar and the false eyes of the spice bush swallow tail caterpillar. An extraordinary aerial photograph at first glance of pink and black dots show groups of flamingos with their chicks nesting in the middle of a lake red from the cyanobacteria that thrive in alkaline conditions. Marabou storks discover the breeding flamingos and are a persistent menace, striding through the colony snapping up as many chicks as possible. Here are baby humpbacks who have to drink their mothers dry, prides of lions, meerkats learning to take the sting from the scorpion, the hard life of the Arctic fox and birds and fish and sharks and eagles and grouse and chimps and the fabulous colours of the male greater bird of paradise in the final stages of his courtship display. Finally the programme makers include pictures of themselves at work achieving these astonishing images. 288pp, colour photos, 25 x 26.7cm.
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Winner of the Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2019 this is a 'propulsive, beautifully written investigation into atrocity, guilt and new beginnings.' - Justine Jordan. One rainswept winter's night in 1809, an unconscious man is carried into a house in Somerset. He is Captain John Lacroix, home from Britain's disastrous campaign against Napoleon's forces in Spain. Gradually he recovers his health, but not his peace of mind. He will not and cannot talk about the war or face the memory of what took place on the retreat to Corunna. After the command comes to return to his regiment, Lacroix sets out instead for the Hebrides, unaware that he has far worse to fear than being dragged back to the army - a vicious English corporal and a Spanish officer with secret orders are on his trail, and for him, freedom will come at a high price. In luminous prose, the author portrays a man shattered by what he has witnessed, on a journey that leads to unexpected friendships, even to love. A deeply involving novel, part pastoral comedy and passionate romance story, alternating with a blackly menacing thriller about male violence, the impact of war and the price of freedom. 422pp, paperback.

Take a deep dive with the Great Whites and chart the survival of a species with Michael Muller's call to arms in a book of breakthrough underwater photography. Dr Allison Kock writes about the sharks in this book as we take a look at a decade at sea and the expeditions, shark statistics, conservation resources, but best of all huge quality underwater photography in both striking black and white and colour marine blue. See the red mouths and jagged teeth exposed, the tiny fearsome eyes and the even tinier bodies of the skilful photographer-divers. A mother feeds her young in the cool blue shallow waters, striped fish circle a Great White, a Hammerhead grazes along the sand at the bottom of an ocean, sharks fight, feed and are cleaned, eye a big colourful catch or skim below the surface. With picture index from Guadalupe Island, to bull sharks in Beqa May 2011, a lemon shark in Grand Bahama Island November 2014, a black tip, blue sharks, mako, nurse sharks and tiger sharks, silky sharks and many great whites and with short descriptions of each. The furthest distance travelled by a tagged shark is 34,500 miles, and the years since sharks' bodies have evolved significantly is 140 million years and 440 million years since sharks first appeared. Apologies if the gatefold page is damaged at the fold in an otherwise mint condition, now very rare Taschen publication. A big and glamorous tribute, pages unnumbered, all in colour. 24cm x 33cm.
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