Jamie was an orphan at an early age who grew up with his aunt and uncles. After a difficult childhood and teenage years, he went to university and married the girl next door. He had an interesting career, and the people who figure in the novel are his family and friends. We follow him through his adult life and successful career until his death.

We meet three retired amateur musicians who meet regularly to play together and entertain one another with impromptu story telling. Sometimes, but by no means always, the tales are prompted by musical associations: they are always whimsical, ironic, sad, thought-provoking, or heartwarming. The three musicians are Velly, the cellist; Traffy, the pianist; and Pickle, the violinist, and they are all determined to enjoy life in retirement. We must not leave out Jessie, Vellys wife, who provide...

This is the story of George (known far and wide as Keyhole) Purvis, and his life as a salmon fisherman on the River Tweed from the 1950s to the 1980s.At school they called him stupid, thanks to severe dyslexia that went undiagnosed for decades. But George wasn't one to let anything slow him down. He spent his life chasing new ventures and new adventures, with unstoppable energy and endless good humour. Along the way he collected a huge pile of medals from several different sports, ...

A Nation Gone Under is a diligent commentary and conservative polemic that addresses the rise of secularism and progressivism in the United States, and it offers a Christian response for battling socialist or communist ideals and reestablishing Constitutional values.

With fresh and provocative insights into the everyday reality of politics in post-Soviet Central Asia, this volume moves beyond commonplaces about strong and weak states to ask critical questions about how democracy, authority, and justice are understood in this important region. In conversation with current theories of state power, the contributions draw on extensive ethnographic research in settings that range from the local to the transnational, the mundane to the spectacular, to provid...

Winner of an Abraham Lincoln Institute Book AwardThough not blind to Abraham Lincoln's imperfections, Black Americans long ago laid a heartfelt claim to his legacy. At the same time, they have consciously reshaped the sixteenth president's image for their own social and political ends. Frederick Hord and Matthew D. Norman's anthology explores the complex nature of views on Lincoln through the writings and thought of Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary Mc...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Jon Meacham chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln, charting how—and why—he confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery to expand the possibilities of America.“Meacham has given us the Lincoln for our time.”—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.Winner of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize • Longlisted for the Biographers International Plutarch Award • O...

DISCOVER ALL EIGHT OF NANCY MITFORD'S SPARKLINGLY ASTUTE, HILARIOUS AND COMPLETELY UNPUTDOWNABLE NOVELS IN ONE COLLECTION - WITH AN INTRODUCTION FROM INDIA KNIGHTPublished over a period of 30 years, they provide a wonderful glimpse of the bright young things of the thirties, forties, fifties and sixties in the city and in the shires; firmly ensconced at home or making a go of it abroad; and what the upper classes really got up to in peace and in war.The col...

A rich, immersive, funny and heartbreaking memoir of the charming bookseller who runs three tiny bookshops in the remote village of Manapouri in Fiordland, in the deep south of New Zealand.'An extraordinary story.' Shaun Bythell, The Diary of a BooksellerRuth Shaw weaves together stories of the characters who visit her bookshops, musings about favourite books, and bittersweet stories from her full and varied life.She's sailed through the Pa...

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of We Are Lincoln Men comes a stunning portrait of Abraham Lincoln’s life and presidency.“A book of investigative tenacity, interpretive boldness and almost acrobatic balance” (The Chicago Tribune), Lincoln brilliantly depicts Abraham Lincoln’s gradual ascent from humble beginnings in rural Kentucky to the ever-expanding political circles in Illinois, and finally to the presidency of a country divide...

Yarns and memories that capture the experience of policing in the bush, gathered by the inimitable Bill 'Swampy' Marsh, bestselling author of GREAT AUSTRALIAN FLYING DOCTOR STORIES and GREAT AUSTRALIAN CWA STORIES.'I tell you, you meet some strange characters in this game ...'Boasting the biggest beats in the world -- some as large as France -- Australia's outback police have seen it all: natural disasters, incredible acts of selflessness, unspeakable crimes and daring resc...

A "brilliant" look at America's sixteenth president by the New York Times–bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Lincoln ( American Historical Review).First published in 1956 and revised and updated for the twenty-first century, Lincoln Reconsidered is a masterpiece of Civil War scholarship. In a dozen eloquent, witty, and incisive essays, the author of the definitive biography of Abraham Lincoln offers a fresh perspective ...