World War Two was over, but Ben's life was just beginning. Born just after the war, Ben was a boy with a lively imagination and a motley group of friends. Get to know and love post-was London through the eyes of Ben and his friends and through his funny and insightful notebooks as we journey with him through the 50's and into the 70's. His is a humorous and moving story, a tale of travel and adventure, a poetic, dramatic, and comical romantic story of love lost and found.

There is a small town where the river meets the Straits of Melaka. It is one of those laidback small towns where everything moves at a snails pace, perched on the very edge of modernity and antiquity. This is a place where one would think that nothing ever happens. But, people talk and they tell stories of things that happened to other people. Stories of a man who cared too much that he is blind to his own bad influence, of people desperate for love, of one who dare not risk another heart-break, of one who desires for that they cannot have and of a person who just want to be loved. These are people whose desire blurred the thin line between love, lust and loneliness.

Three years, three months, three days. This was the exact time that Danilo Perrotti Machado took to travel around the planet on a bicycle. Seeking to get to know the world and himself, Danilo left his hometown, Belo Horizonte, and went on a journey through 59 countries, covering 50,000 kilometers across Planet Earth. This exciting adventure is called “Free Man”. His goal was to get to know the peoples and cultures of the world, moved by his own physical effort, discovering at the same time the simple essence of being alive. The trip starts in Brazil followed by Europe, crossing the Middle East and a stretch of North Africa, traversing Asia and its appealing cultural diversity, then he goes to Oceania, descending the Americas and, finally, with a lot of pedaling, he arrives in the Amazon, with a surprising jump in the river that takes him back to Brazil. Free Man talks about what can happen when you realize that it is your own mind that dictates the circumstances you live in, with many accurate remarks about your existence, the way of life of rich and poor countries, the awakening of a man with the sun, moon and stars, most often alone, facing imminent death, danger and difficulty in communicating with foreign languages. A story that makes the reader find the pleasure of traveling very far on a bike, in an adventure that ends and starts after each page, taking him to travel within himself, with an intertwining that only great narratives possesses. It will certainly thrill anyone willing to embark on an immersive journey through Planet Earth and, at the same time, the human soul.

Tin Tin’s Snowy, Odysseus’s Argos, Darwin’s Polly, Mary Queen of Scots’s 22 lap-dogs, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Flush... Behind every great man or woman is a dog. A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs is a rich compendium of the world’s most significant and beloved dogs. Embracing the intriguing and the provocative, the essential and the trivial, Peter J. Conradi forays into history, literature and personal anecdotes to unearth a treasure trove of canine characters. Discover the stories behind Karl Marx's and his daughter's Dogberry Club; the lapdogs who were secreted in first-class cabins on the Titanic and how they survived; Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Bobby who stayed by his master’s grave for 14 years; and the one undisputed fact about Shakespeare – his singular dislike for dogs. A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs is a wonderful and witty homage to man’s most faithful friend.

A collection of stories and excerpts from world-renowned authors celebrating the airplane and aviation.

From the bijou corners of Corpus Christi to the wide open lawns of Trinity, Oxford's gardens are full of surprises and hidden corners - not least the fellows' or masters' gardens, which are usually kept resolutely private. Take a tour of the stunning gardens of this prestigious British institution without leaving your armchair with this elegant, authoritative analysis full of glorious photographs which reveal their full interest and charm. The gardens of Oxford's thirty or so colleges are surprisingly varied in style, age and size, ranging from the ancient mound in the middle of New College to the fine modernist design which is St Catherine's. The eighteenth-century landscape school is represented in the magnificent acreage of Worcester, while the twentieth-century vogue for rock gardening is reflected at St John's. Founded in 1621, the university's Botanic Garden is the oldest botanic garden in Britain, holds one of the most diverse plant collections in the world, and has been a source of inspiration for writers from Lewis Carroll to Philip Pullman.

Bicycling magazine features bikes, bike gear, equipment reviews, training plans, bike maintenance how tos, and more, for cyclists of all levels.

"Summerhill remains unique and different ... its underlying principles and its founding beliefs have informed and influenced generations of teachers in both sectors. It will continue to do so." - Professor Tim Brighouse, Commissioner for London Schools Summerhill is a world-renowned school in England where pupils decide when and what they will learn. The school was established in 1921 by A. S. Neill, who was named by the Times Educational Supplement in 1999 as one of the twelve most influential educators of the 20th Century. Known as 'the oldest children's democracy in the world', Summerhill allows pupils to air their views, propose new school rules and construct future plans for life at the school at the regular school meeting. This unique book contains key extracts from Neill's classic text Summerhill, a worldwide bestseller since its publication in 1962, and features contributions from A. S. Neill's daughter, Zoe Neill Readhead, who is the current Principal. She updates the story of the school - larger and more vibrant than ever before - from Neill's death in 1973 to the present day. In his contribution, Tim Brighouse discusses some of the ways in which the influence of Summerhill and A.S. Neill still extends throughout the world today. Ian Stronach, who acted as expert witness during the infamous court case, tells the story of the British Government's attempt to force untenable changes or close down the school in 2001, and the school's subsequent landmark victory in the Royal Courts of Justice. The book offers a truly inspiring account of a remarkable school, which promotes progressive change in the way pupils are taught and shows how real experiences of democracy can be created for young people. It is essential reading for teachers and trainee teachers, headteachers and school leaders, local education authorities and parents.

A collection of travel writing by some of the genre’s finest authors, from Paul Theroux to Sara Wheeler, voyaging from Mississippi to Malawi and Thailand. The New Granta Book of Travel Writing represents a sea change in writers’ approaches to the craft. The 1980s were the culmination of a golden age, when writers including Bruce Chatwin, James Hamilton-Paterson and James Fenton set out to document life in largely unfamiliar territory, bringing back tales of the beautiful, the extraordinary and the unexpected. By the mid 1990s, travel writing seemed to change, as a younger generation of writers appeared in the magazine, making journeys for more complex and often personal reasons. Decca Aitkenhead reported on sex tourism in Thailand, and Wendell Steavenson moved to Iraq as a foreign correspondent. What all these pieces have in common is a sense of engagement with the places they describe, and a belief that whether we are in Birmingham or Belarus, there is always something new to be discovered.

As the world watched the crumbling away of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, the pro-democracy movement in China was dealt a severe blow in June of 1989. Also referred to as the June 4th Incident, the Tiananmen Square protest included students, intellectuals, and workers demanding democratic reforms and social change. To break up the escalating protest armed soldiers stormed the square killing close to two hundred demonstrators and injuring thousands more. Culture and Politics in China explores the events, trends, and tendencies that led to the student demonstrations. This volume objectively presents a wide range of information permitting readers a comprehensive understanding of the circumstances that culminated on the events of June 4, 1989. Documents include eyewitness accounts by student leaders Chai Ling and Wu'er Kaixi, the speeches of Deng Xiaoping and Yang Shangkun justifying the use of force, analysis of the events by the Marxist theorist Su Shaozhi, the writings of young intellectuals Yan Jiaqi, Liu Xiaobo, and others. Selections include essays on the May Fourth Movement of 1919 and the television documentary, the "Yellow River Elegy" which question the Chinese cultural tradition. Leading political scientists contribute to this volume. Lee presents an analysis of the role of Deng Xiaoping in the events at Tiananmen Square, and his views on the Chinese Communist party-state and the pro-democracy movement King Tsao, who was at the square, views the demonstrations as a form of civil disobedience and dissent against the party-state. He gives an eyewitness account and a contextual analysis of some of the events and underlying themes. Steven Mark, a journalist, presents an analysis of the various roles of both the Chinese and Western press, beginning with their role in shaping public opinion before the demonstrations and continuing as the media scrambled to cover China's biggest news story since the communist takeover in 1949. Those who are interested in present and future developments in the world's most populous nation will find this volume indispensable.