On a hot August day in 1871, all appears normal in a small busy market town in Suffolk, when disaster strikes, and many lives are lost, other changed forever, and vital questions remain unanswered.

When three friends organise a scheme to make money selling mail order brides from the Czech Republic, greed and jealousy turn a simple con into a life-changing game with unexpected costs.

This is an erotic historical romance based on a journal written at the start of the 16th century by a young man called Antonio, who grew up in the village of Cortona in northern Italy. His mother died in childbirth, his brother moved away to find work in Perugia, and he was left living with his father Giorgio, from whom he learned the trade of carpentry. The novel takes the form of a picaresque adventure in search of work. This leads to his meeting several of the famous artists of the time, painting frescoes in different churches. As he progresses past adolescence, he discovers women to his delight. Antonio is clearly an honest, generous, affectionate and good looking young man. As he moves from one village to another, he meets a variety of young women whose wishes and desires he is unable to resist.Increasingly he becomes aware of the wider world and the fractious politics of the time. The Borgias are in power in the Vatican, and Cesare Borgia is rampaging through Tuscany, working his way towards Cortona. He sends his agent, Leonardo da Vinci, to survey the local fortifications, and Antonio almost meets him.There is also a studious side to his nature, and he finds a mentor at the local monastery who teaches him how to write, and keeps him informed about the events of the day, including the scandals surrounding the Borgias. Other events include meeting a ghost at an ancient monastery, and consulting a soothsayer who reveals his future.Running through this story is a golden thread, with one end being his abiding love for a particular woman, the great love of his young life, who seems beyond his reach. As he moves from one romantic attachment to another, it is his true love who really occupies his thoughts. As his future unfolds, we see him holding onto that thread, and somehow hoping that he would never have to let it go. How the story is played out against the short term vicissitudes of his life is finally revealed in the last chapter. This story is truly a Rite of Passage from youth to manhood.

The classic case for why government must support science—with a new essay by physicist and former congressman Rush Holt on what democracy needs from science today Science, the Endless Frontier is recognized as the landmark argument for the essential role of science in society and government’s responsibility to support scientific endeavors. First issued when Vannevar Bush was the director of the US Office of Scientific Research and Development during the Second World War, this classic remains vital in making the case that scientific progress is necessary to a nation’s health, security, and prosperity. Bush’s vision set the course for US science policy for more than half a century, building the world’s most productive scientific enterprise. Today, amid a changing funding landscape and challenges to science’s very credibility, Science, the Endless Frontier resonates as a powerful reminder that scientific progress and public well-being alike depend on the successful symbiosis between science and government. This timely new edition presents this iconic text alongside a new companion essay from scientist and former congressman Rush Holt, who offers a brief introduction and consideration of what society needs most from science now. Reflecting on the report’s legacy and relevance along with its limitations, Holt contends that the public’s ability to cope with today’s issues—such as public health, the changing climate and environment, and challenging technologies in modern society—requires a more capacious understanding of what science can contribute. Holt considers how scientists should think of their obligation to society and what the public should demand from science, and he calls for a renewed understanding of science’s value for democracy and society at large. A touchstone for concerned citizens, scientists, and policymakers, Science, the Endless Frontier endures as a passionate articulation of the power and potential of science.

Adolescenceâ€"beginning with the onset of puberty and ending in the mid-20sâ€"is a critical period of development during which key areas of the brain mature and develop. These changes in brain structure, function, and connectivity mark adolescence as a period of opportunity to discover new vistas, to form relationships with peers and adults, and to explore one's developing identity. It is also a period of resilience that can ameliorate childhood setbacks and set the stage for a thriving trajectory over the life course. Because adolescents comprise nearly one-fourth of the entire U.S. population, the nation needs policies and practices that will better leverage these developmental opportunities to harness the promise of adolescenceâ€"rather than focusing myopically on containing its risks. This report examines the neurobiological and socio-behavioral science of adolescent development and outlines how this knowledge can be applied, both to promote adolescent well-being, resilience, and development, and to rectify structural barriers and inequalities in opportunity, enabling all adolescents to flourish.