To refer to the private life of Charles II is to abuse the adjective. His personal life was anything but private. His amorous liaisons were largely conducted in royal palaces surrounded by friends, courtiers and literally hundreds of servants and soldiers. Gossip radiated throughout the kingdom. Charles spent most of his wealth and his intellect on gaining and keeping the company of women, from the lowest sections of society such as the actress Nell Gwyn to the aristocratic Louise de Kérouaille. Some of Charles' women played their part in the affairs of state, colouring the way the nation was run. Don Jordan and Michael Walsh take us inside Charles' palace, where we will meet court favourites, amusing confidants, advisors jockeying for political power, mistresses past and present as well as key figures in his inner circle such as his 'pimpmasters' and his personal pox doctor. The astonishing private life of Charles II reveals much about the man he was and why he lived and ruled as he did. The King's Bed tells the compelling story of a king ruled by his passion.

A groundbreaking collection of experimental short fiction by award-winning Syrian author and Booker International Prize for Arabic Fiction nominee Shahla Ujayli, A Bed for the King’s Daughter uses surrealism and irony to examine such themes as women’s agency, the decline of collective life and imagination under modernity, and the effects of social and political corruption on daily life. In “The Memoir of Cinderella’s Shoes,” Cinderella uses her famous glass slipper as a weapon in order to take justice into her own hands. In “Tell Me About Surrealism,” an art history professor’s writing assignment reveals the slipperiness of storytelling, and in “Merry Christmas,” the realities of apartheid interfere with one family’s celebration. Through twenty-two short stories, Ujayli animates—with brevity and inventiveness—themes relevant to both the particularities of life in the Arab world and life outside it.

The perfect book to understand standing six feet apart! Follow the story about the King who wants to give the Queen something special for her birthday. The Queen has everything, everything except a bed. The trouble is that no one in the Kingdom knows the answer to a very important question: How Big is a Bed? because beds at the time had not yet been invented. The Queen's birthday is only a few days away. How can they figure out what size the bed should be? How can the people figure out how to measure? Readers will learn it's not that difficult and that everyone can learn to do it.

A memoir of life after divorce describes how the author left her gambling-addict husband and struggled to build a new life for her two young daughters while dealing with the family legacy of divorce and coming to terms with single life and parenthood.

Hotel Design, Planning and Development presents the most significant hotels developed internationally in the last ten years so that you can be well-informed of recent trends. The book outlines essential planning and design considerations based on the latest data, supported by technical information and illustrations, including original plans, so you can really study what works. The authors provide analysis and theory to support each of the major trends they present, highlighting how the designer’s work fits into the industry's development as a whole. Extensive case studies demonstrate how a successful new concept is developed. Hotel Design, Planning and Development gives you a thorough overview of this important and fast-growing sector of the hospitality industry.

When Charles I was executed, his son Charles II made it his role to search out retribution, producing the biggest manhunt Britain had ever seen, one that would span Europe and America and would last for thirty years. Men who had once been among the most powerful figures in England ended up on the scaffold, on the run, or in fear of the assassin's bullet. History has painted the regicides and their supporters as fanatical Puritans, but among them were remarkable men, including John Milton and Oliver Cromwell. Don Jordan and Michael Walsh bring these remarkable figures and this astonishing story vividly to life an engrossing, bloody tale of plots, spies, betrayal, fear and ambition.

White Cargo is the forgotten story of the thousands of Britons who lived and died in bondage in Britain's American colonies. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, more than 300,000 white people were shipped to America as slaves. Urchins were swept up from London's streets to labor in the tobacco fields, where life expectancy was no more than two years. Brothels were raided to provide "breeders" for Virginia. Hopeful migrants were duped into signing as indentured servants, unaware they would become personal property who could be bought, sold, and even gambled away. Transported convicts were paraded for sale like livestock. Drawing on letters crying for help, diaries, and court and government archives, Don Jordan and Michael Walsh demonstrate that the brutalities usually associated with black slavery alone were perpetrated on whites throughout British rule. The trade ended with American independence, but the British still tried to sell convicts in their former colonies, which prompted one of the most audacious plots in Anglo-American history. This is a saga of exploration and cruelty spanning 170 years that has been submerged under the overwhelming memory of black slavery. White Cargo brings the brutal, uncomfortable story to the surface.

The subject of this study is the prophetic history of the succession of Solomon to the throne of the dual monarchy established by David over the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the centralization of Israelite religion in the Temple of Jerusalem, the collapse of the dual monarchy after the death of Solomon, the subsequent stories of the numerous kings of Israel and Judah, and especially the severe interactions of the kings of Israel from Jeroboam to Ahab (c. 932c.855 BCE) with the prophets Ahijah, Elijah, and Micaiah, as presented in the Masoretic text of the biblical First Book of Kings. The term prophetic history is employed to describe the subject because prophecy in biblical thought is not fatalistic and does not predict future events. What it does do is assert that the moral course that a society chooses to follow in the present can determine its probable but not inevitable future. The purpose of the biblical book is to inform the reader of the historical consequences of the failure to observe the terms of the divine covenant entered into between God and the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, following the exodus from Egypt. Although the narrative is based on events that were believed to have taken place, the primary focus of prophetic history is on the moral implications of the decisions taken by men rather than the factual accuracy of the details of the events described, which have been studied exhaustively by archaeologists and historians of the ancient world.

His royal bride of convenience: unwrapped and undone! Orion is determined to rule his once-dissolute kingdom with integrity and respect. That means honoring his betrothal to Lady Calista Skyros, a woman whose father deals in scandal — and who threatens his unwavering self-control… Calista knows her royal marriage was brokered by blackmail, but she has her own reasons for accepting Orion’s hand. Yet her husband shocks her with his demand for complete honesty. And as her first Christmas as queen approaches, her unstoppable desire for the king becomes her most dangerous truth of all! Mills & Boon Modern — Escape to exotic locations where passion knows no bounds.

The sequel to the acclaimed trilogy that joins the myths and legends of ancient Britain and ancient Greece