"Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter" - Nigerian proverb. For this fund-raising book famous writers from around the world have selected their favorite quotes about history. Each has selected a quote and provided an original commentary explaining why it strikes a chord with them.

"The Woodend series has always been one of the best British police procedurals around. Now Spencer has taken up a new series with Paniatowski in the lead, and she proves again that she is in the league with Peter Turnbull and Lynda La Plante" - Library Journal The first book in the page-turning DCI Monika Paniatowski British police procedural series, set in the 1970s. It will be no easy task to fill the shoes of a local legend like DCI Charlie Woodend, the newly-promoted Monika Paniatowski tells herself, but given a little time, she thinks she can grow into them. Yet time is the one thing she does not have. On her first day in the new job, a severed female hand is discovered on the riverbank. The obvious suspect is Stan Szymborska, the victim’s war-hero husband, though Paniatowski refuses to arrest him. But is it the lack of evidence which is holding her back . . . or is it the fact that he is not only the most attractive man she has met in a long time, but also a fellow Pole? Woodend is preparing to leave for a new life in Spain, and Paniatowski is determined not to ask for his help. But when her colleagues prove untrustworthy, the urge to call him becomes almost irresistible . . .

People call it everything from “walking your dog” to “scratching your bean.” Women usually do it at home. Men, it sometimes seems, do it everywhere. Some people think it’s healthy; others think it is a sin that will send you straight to hell. But while many people declare that everyone’s doing it, no one actually talks about it—outside the pages of Cosmo, masturbation is among the most taboo of topics, not suitable for polite society or public conversation. Mels van Driel boldly breaks this silence in order to help the world overcome its diffidence toward solo sex in With the Hand. Consulting everyone from doctors and sexologists to feminists and chauvinists, van Driel explains what masturbation actually is and describes the latest discoveries and developments on the subject. He also looks to theologians, historians, and philosophers to understand perceptions of masturbation across cultures and religions throughout history. Covering a great number of topics, including age, location, and frequency, as well as the effects of circumcision and the ability to have multiple orgasms, With the Hand also explores masturbation in art, literature, poetry, and music. Addressing the physical, mythical, and mythological, this often humorous and always informative book clears up the confusion surrounding this universal, and universally unmentionable, topic.

Roman legions rang Celtic Europe's death-knell and orchestrated Celtic Britain's swansong, provoking Queen Boudicea's massive anti-Roman revolt which resulted in "the worst disaster to befall the Roman Empire" — all of which had a huge bearing on the rise of Celtic Ireland. This book presents Turoe's Celtic Royal complex, unprecedented for its size and layout, but akin to Belgic oppida (as named by Caesar) in SE England and NW Europe. It hosts the Turoe Stone, Europe's most celebrated La Tene-decorated stone. No one knew why this classic masterpiece of Celtic stone art was set on Turoe's summit in the West of Ireland. Here its hitherto unrecognized Royal Sanctuary trappings at the centre of a vast Belgic oppidum defensive system of linear embankments uniquely connected to the Celtic invasion of Ireland and its archaic history are unfolded. It is recorded in early dindshenchas (history of the famous places) and associated with the names of archaic kings and queens. The first record of it is by the renowned 1st/2nd century Greek geographer, Ptolemy of Alexandria, who listed 2 capitals in Ireland, the only 2 in his day. One is Emain Macha near Armagh. The other was never definitively identified. He located it roughly in central Co. Galway where Turoe is. He named it REGIA E TERA (Te[mh]ra), the genuine early Celtic name for 'Capital at Turoe' (Cnoc Temhro). It had an acropolis and several necropoli, including those around Athenry cited in archaic texts in the Book of Leinster as ‘Releg na Rí lamh le Cruachain' where members of Turoe's Royal Household (Rígrád Temhróit) were interred, such as Queen Medb and her father, Eochaid Ferach Mhor whose palace, Rath Ferach Mhor, stood beside the Turoe Stone. Part of its sprawling urban-like complex flanking Turoe and Knocknadala (Assembly/­Parliament Hill) is placed under preservation order by The National Monuments Department. Ptolemy renders Knocknadala (early Cnoc na nDál) as NAG-NA-TA[L], "the most illustrious 'city' (polis) in all Britannia, and most considerable in size, located in the west of Ireland." The sole reference to a dense population in early Irish literature points to this area. Ancient roadways, Slí Mhór and Slí Dála, converged on Turoe/Knocknadala. Rót na Ri, Royal Road of the Kings, ran from Turoe to the great seaport of Ath Cliath Magh Rí in Galway Bay. Dindshenchas texts state that "Ath Cliath Magh Rí was the chief seaport of Ireland through which Ireland has most often been invaded." A large segment of the Celtic invasion force landed there and advanced on Turoe, the core of its primary settlement area, as recorded in the Dindshenchas of Cnoc na Dála. Continental and British Belgic tribes are remembered in townland names within this vast Turoe oppidum complex. It was suppressed by pseudo-historians who set the Irish race on the cutting edge of woeful ignorance about its Celtic roots as Armagh's monastic conmen concocted scheming stews of sheer political propaganda to win the patronage of powerful warlords. The enforced Irish exile of King Dagobert II shows the depth of involvement of Armagh-linked Abbots in Frankish politics through whom Pepin's new national Over Kingship of the Franks profoundly impacted the genesis of Ireland's High King-ship/Tara/Patrick myth. As E. Breathnach noted "The culmination of the creation of the medieval myth surrounding Tara ensured Tara would be regarded from the late 10th/11th century as the monument of the Kingship of Ireland. Tara's potency as a political symbol was evoked to the extent that by the 17th century it was depicted as one of the institutions on which the Kingship of Ireland had rested from time immemorial" (Edel Breathnach, 'Cultural Identity of Tara' in Discovery Programme Reports').

This reference provides a full history of hand knitting by tracing the development and refinement of the craft. With special attention to the social aspects of knitting, it examines the changes in tools and techniques within different regions. Examined in detail are the history of European knitting before 1500, knitting in Britain from Henry VIII to the Commonwealth, from the Restoration to 1835, during the 19th century, and during World War I and after. Further explorations consider local traditions in the British Isles, knitting as practiced east of the Adriatic, and developments in the Americas. Absorbing reading for knitters and nonknitters alike, this book also defines knitting in relation to other yarn crafts such as crochet and nalbinding and offers a historical glossary and a transcription of the earliest known English knitting pattern.

For this collection, the prize-winning poet, Carol Ann Duffy, selected 40 of the best world poets writing today - 20 men and 20 women - and invited each of them to select a love poem written by the opposite sex, to appear opposite their own love poem. Poems from other centuries are included.

Ever since its first publication in 1992, the New York Times bestselling The End of History and the Last Man has provoked controversy and debate. "Profoundly realistic and important...supremely timely and cogent...the first book to fully fathom the depth and range of the changes now sweeping through the world." —The Washington Post Book World Francis Fukuyama's prescient analysis of religious fundamentalism, politics, scientific progress, ethical codes, and war is as essential for a world fighting fundamentalist terrorists as it was for the end of the Cold War. Now updated with a new afterword, The End of History and the Last Man is a modern classic.

While social scientists and historians have been exchanging ideas for a long time, they have never developed a proper dialogue about social theory. William H. Sewell Jr. observes that on questions of theory the communication has been mostly one way: from social science to history. Logics of History argues that both history and the social sciences have something crucial to offer each other. While historians do not think of themselves as theorists, they know something social scientists do not: how to think about the temporalities of social life. On the other hand, while social scientists’ treatments of temporality are usually clumsy, their theoretical sophistication and penchant for structural accounts of social life could offer much to historians. Renowned for his work at the crossroads of history, sociology, political science, and anthropology, Sewell argues that only by combining a more sophisticated understanding of historical time with a concern for larger theoretical questions can a satisfying social theory emerge. In Logics of History, he reveals the shape such an engagement could take, some of the topics it could illuminate, and how it might affect both sides of the disciplinary divide.