Colibris

rish art of the early Christian era is justly celebrated. So, too, are the individual contributions of artists such as Jack B. Yeats. What is perhaps less widely accepted is the existence of a continuing and developing tradition of Irish art from the earliest times to the present day.

Bruce Arnold traces the complex evolution of Irish art through three millennia, showing how it has drawn on Celtic, AngloSaxon, Norman, Mediterranean and other diverse sources.

As the story unfolds, Arnold repatriates Irish artists who are frequently regarded as ‘English’ – including William Mulready, Daniel Maclise and James Barry – and shows how Irish painting and sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, metalwork and architecture together form a rich and distinctive cultural heritage.

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This is the first biography of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh - both royal, both great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria, but, in temperament and upbringing, two very different people. The Queen’s childhood was loving and secure, the Duke’s was turbulent: his grandfather assassinated, his father arrested, his family exiled, his parents separated when he was only ten. Elizabeth and Philip met as cousins in the 1930s. They married in 1947, aged twenty-one and twenty-six. A little more than four years later, they were Queen and consort. For almost sixty years theirs have been among the most famous faces in the world - yet the personalities behind the image remain elusive and the nature of their marriage is an enigma. Philip & Elizabeth tells the extraordinary story of these two contrasting lives, assesses their achievement, together and apart, and explores the nature of their relationships, with one another and with their children. Here is a unique royal biography: the author has met all the principal players in the story; he quotes no anonymous sources; he has had privileged access to the Queen; he has known the Duke of Edinburgh over twenty-five years and has interviewed him. This is a powerful and revealing portrait of a remarkable partnership, told with authority and unique insight, and illustrated with Prince Philip’s family photographs and pictures from the Queen’s royal collection.

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In the last millennium there have been only six female sovereigns: Mary I and Elizabeth I, Mary II and Anne, Victoria and Elizabeth II, who celebrated her eightieth birthday in 2006. With the exception of Mary I, they are among our most successful monarchs. Without Mary II and Anne, the Glorious Revolution of 1688 might not have taken place. Elizabeth I and Victoria gave their name to an age, presiding over long periods when the country made significant progress in the growth of empire, prestige and power. All of them have far-reaching legacies. Each faced personal sacrifices and emotional dilemmas in her pursuit of political power. How to overcome the problem of being a female ruler when the sex was considered inferior? Does a queen take a husband and, if so, how does she reconcile the reversal of the natural order, according to which the man should be the master? A queen’s first duty is to provide an heir to the throne, but at what cost? In this richly compelling narrative, Maureen Waller delves into the intimate lives of England’s queens regnant in delicious detail, assessing their achievements from a female perspective.

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Cars kill two people every minute. More than 150 countries use torture. America spends the same on pornography as it does on foreign aid. Think you know what’s going on in the world? The author will make you think again. Read about hunger, poverty, material and emotional deprivation, human rights abuses, unimaginable wealth, the decline of religion, the unstuppable rise of consumerism, mental illness, the drugs trade, corruption, gun culture, the abuse of our environment and much more in this shocking bestseller.

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Powerful symbols of remote antiquity, the pyramids have intrigued and fascinated generations. In “The Complete Pyramids”, newly available in paperback, Mark Lehner surveys the history, building and use of these fascinating and mysterious monuments in unprecedented scope and detail, looking at both the practical aspects - the quarries, ramps and tools used in building them - as well as the conceptual - the cosmology and iconography of the pyramids and the intriguing Pyramid Texts.

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It is 1921 and post-revolutionary Russia is being torn apart by civil war. Out of the wreckage rises a crazy, eagle-eyed Baron, who plans to conquer the largest empire the world has ever known. When he fails to get his hands on Russia, the Bloody Baron sets his sights on Mongolia. There, ably assisted by his two demented bodyguards, ‘Teapot’ and Colonel ‘Dead Fish’ Sepailoff, he establishes a bizarre and brutal regime, which promises success - only to backfire spectacularly in his face.

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Astonishing in its scale and ambition, this is the most balanced and accomplished book about the Iraq war so far. “The Assassins’ Gate” recounts how the United States set about changing the history of the Middle East and became ensnared in a guerrilla war in Iraq. It tells the story of the people and ideas that created the Bush administration’s war policy and led America to the Assassin’s Gate - the main point of entry into the American zone in Baghdad.

The consequences of that policy are shown in the author’s vivid reporting on the ground in Iraq, where he made several tours on assignment for “The New Yorker”. We see up close the struggles of individual American soldiers and civilians and Iraqis from all backgrounds, including returning exiles, thrown together by a war that followed none of the preconceived scripts. “The Assassins’ Gate” also describes the effect of the Iraq war on American life, including the ordeal of a fallen soldier’s family and the shortcomings of a political culture too impoverished in its knowledge of the world and too bitterly polarized to debate complex moral and strategic questions.
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In 1931, Ninette de Valois started a ballet company with just six dancers. Within twenty years, the Royal Ballet - as it became - was established as one of the world’s great companies. It has produced celebrated dancers, from Margot Fonteyn to Darcey Bussell, and one of the richest repertoires in ballet.

This book is a perceptive and critical account of its first 75 years, tracing the company’s growth, and its great cultural importance.

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The Sword and the Cross is a captivating tale of two French adventurers, one military and one spiritual, who helped to tame the desolate wilderness of the Sahara. Born in the mid 19th century into aristocratic families Charles de Foucauld and Henri Laperrine became soldiers and explorers. Foucauld was dramatically converted to Catholicism and left the French army to follow a way of self-denial so great that even the Trappist order seemed easy. He lived in the Sahara among the barbaric Touareg tribes as a hermit. However he never lost contact with Laperrine and the French imperialist dream, supporting his countryman with intelligence and contacts throughout his life. Laperrine admired and supported Foucauld. Fergus Fleming tells the story of their friendship and collaboration with verve, precision and a restrained passion.

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