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Nathaniel's
Nutmeg How One Man's Courage Changed
the Course of History
Giles Milton
Hodder Headline, 1999
Paperback. 400pp.
illustrations
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£7.99
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This is the
incredible story of nutmeg, the spice trade, the island of Run
and a heroic English adventurer.
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The
Calendar
David Ewing Duncan
Fourth Estate, 1999
Paperback. 382pp.
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£6.99
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When Mao Zedong
declared on 1 October 1949 that China would follow the Gregorian
calendar, the entire world agreed what the date was for the very
first time. Charting developments in science, religion, superstition
and politics across the ages from Ancient Egypt to the flowering
of Indian and Islamic civilsations and beyond, this is the first
complete history of the attempts to reconcile the heavens with
the clock, and of the universal establishment of the calendar.
The crucible
for the development of astronomy and mathematics, the calendar
has always been the measure of how the world is understood and
evaluated, and an object of fascination for the greatest scholars.
It has existed as long as time itself, but the story of its reckoning
is a tale of human will, vanity, experimentation and endeavour:
mankind's history of time.
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The
Death of Kings
Clifford Brewer
Abson
Books, 2000
Paperback.
272pp.
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£7.95
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Many Kings
and Queens of England suffered extraordinary deaths. Handsome
and virile in youth, a rare medical condition turned Henry VIII
into a bloated and grotesque old man. The dashing and glamourous
Herny V probably died of cancer of the rectum, a fate that also
befell Edward I. Charles I was beheaded. Henry VI was the victim
of a grisly murder. Edward II, attacked with a red hot poker,
died in agony from traumatic perforation of the rectum. George
II died in ignominy, enthroned on the lavatory.
Distinguished
surgeon Clifford Brewer has made the death of kings the study
of a life time, examining every act of violence and each unpleasant
disase with a razor sharp eye for detail.
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In
The Beginning The Story of the King
James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language and a Culture
Alister McGrath
Hodder
& Stoughton, 2002
Paperback.
352pp. illustrations
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£7.99
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The King James
Bible was a landmark in the history of the English language. Yet
more than a literary influence, it was seen as a social, economic
and political text. Both these seeking to overthrow the English
monarchy and those wanting to retain it sought support from the
same Bible.
So how did
this remarkable translation come to be written? To answer this
question is to throw open the doors of a lost world - a world
which was being transformed by the new technology of printing.
In reading about the greatest English text ever produced we must
close our eyes to our own world in which books are plentiful and
readily available and enter another, very different universe...
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Cod
Mark Kurlansky
Vintage,
1999
Paperback.
304pp. illustrations
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£7.99
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A biography
of the fish that changed the world.
Winner of
the Glenfiddich 1999 Food and Drink Awards, Best Food Book.
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The Dinosaur
Hunters A True Story of Scientific Rivalry & the Discovery
of the Prehistoric World
Deborah Cadbury
Fourth
Estate, 2000
Paperback.
384pp. illustrations
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£7.99
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This book
recreates the remarkable story of the bitter rivalry between two
men. Gideon
Mantell ubcovered giant bones in a Sussex quarry, became obsessed
with the lost world of the reptiles and was driven to despair.
Richard
Owens, a brilliant anatomist, gave the extinct creatures their
name and secured for himself unrivalled international acclaim.
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The
Keys of Egypt The Race to Read the Hieroglyphs
Lesley &
Roy Adkins
HarperCollins,
2001
Paperback.
347pp. illustrations
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£7.99
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When the French
invaded Egypt in 1798, they were astonished to find countless
ruins covered with hieoglyphs - remnants of a language lost in
time. The quest to decipher hieroglyphs began in earnest: fame
and fortune awaited the successful scholar. Amid political turmoil
in France, caused by Napoleon's meteoric rise and catastrophic
fall, Jean-Francois Champollion was hounded, exiled and even charged
with treason, but still overcame poverty and ill-health to beat
his closest rival, the English scientist Thomas Young. Having
cracked the code, Champollion led an expedition through Egypt,
deciphering texts unread for centuries. This is a true story of
adventure and triumph over extreme adversity.
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The
Great Arc The Dramatic Tale of How India
Was Mapped and Everest was Named
John Keay
HarperCollins,
2001
Paperback.
208pp. illustrations
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£6.99
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The Great
Indian Arc of the Meridian, begun in 1800, was the longest measurement
of the earth's surface ever to have been attempted. Its 1600 miles
of inch-perfect survey took nearly fifty years, cost more lives
than most contemporary wars, and involved equations more complex
than any in the pre-computer age. Hailed as 'one of the most stupendous
works in the history of science', it was also one of the most
perilous.
Through hill
and jungle, flood and fever, an intrepid band of surveyors carried
the Arc from the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent up into
the frozen wastes of the himalays. William Lambton, an endearing
genius, conceived the idea; George Everest, an impossible martinet,
complete it. Both found the technical difficulties horrendous.
With instruments weighing half a ton, their observations had often
to be conducted from flimsy platforms ninety feet above the ground
or from mountain peaks enveloped in blizzard. Malaria wiped out
whole survey parties; tigers and scorpions took their toll.
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