Government minister Patrick Macready has been found dead in his flat. The coroner rules it an accident, a sex game gone wrong.Jon Swift is from the old stock of journos - cynical, cantankerous and overweight - and something about his friend's death doesn't seem right. Then days after Macready's flat is apparently burgled, Swift discovers that his friend had been researching a string of Russian government figures who had met similarly 'accidental' fates.When the police refus...

Jon Swift is in trouble.His journalism career is in freefall.He's too old to be part of the new world order and he's never learned to suck up to those in charge. But experience has taught him to trust his instincts.When, for the first time in years, Jon runs into Lin Lifeng in a café in Oxford he wonders if the meeting is a coincidence. When Lin asks him to pass on a coded message, he knows it's not.Travelling to Beijing, Jon starts to follow a tangled web i...

Can you drink a glass of balderdash? What do you call the part of a dog's back it can't scratch? And if, serendipitously, you find yourself in Serendip, then where exactly are you?The answers to all of these questions -- and a great many more -- can be found in the pages of the Oxford English Dictionary, the definitive record of the English language. And there is no better guide to the dictionary's many wonderments than the former chief editor of the OED, John Sim...

Language is always changing. No one knows where it is going but the best way to future-cast is to look at the past. John Simpson animates for us a tradition of researching and editing, showing us both the technical lexicography needed to understand a word, and the careful poetry needed to construct its definition. He challenges both the idea that dictionaries are definitive, and the notion that language is falling apart. With a sense of humour, an ability to laugh at bureaucracy and an inc...

This unique and authoritative dictionary contains over 1,100 of the most widely used proverbs in English and uses research from the Oxford English Corpus, the world's largest language databank. This edition has been revised and fully updated and includes numerous entirely new entries. It also features expanded coverage of foreign language proverbs currently in use in English. With an emphasis on examples of usage, including the earliest written evidence of its use, this A-Z guide provides ...

From distinguished foreign correspondent John Simpson, a fascinating history of what it is to risk life and limb to bring home news of the troubled world'Great stories, sometimes harrowing, sometimes hilarious' TelegraphIn corners of the globe where fault-lines seethe into bloodshed and civil war, foreign correspondents have, for hundreds of years, been engaged in uncovering the latest news and – despite obstacles bureaucratic, pol...

This thoroughly updated practical book describes a systematic approach to ultrasound examination of the fetal heart based on accepted screening recommendations. The content is enhanced by images and videos of both normal and abnormal sonographic findings that brings the topic to life and provides the reader with critical clinical information on best practice.Fetal Cardiology: A Practical Approach to Diagnosis and Management goes further than simply describing core screenin...

Referring to specific information inside an XML document is a little like finding a needle in a haystack: how do you differentiate the information you need from everything else? XPath and XPointer are two closely related languages that play a key role in XML processing by allowing developers to find these needles and manipulate embedded information. XPath describes a route for finding specific items by defining a path through the hierarchy of an XML document, abstracting only the informati...

This is the first book to focus on the law and practice relating to the production and delivery of liquified natural gas (LNG) using offshore floating facilities. This segment of the offshore oil and gas industry has been growing over recent years and has now assumed special importance in the wake of interruption to international gas supplies, with a number of countries turning to importing LNG through floating offshore regasification units in order to protect their energy security. The re...

While paediatric cardiology may be a small specialty, it is important to note that congenital heart disease ranks as the most prevalent congenital condition globally. As a result, cardiac problems form a significant part of the workload of many general paediatricians, neonatologists, and other paediatric specialists. Beyond congenital heart conditions, acquired heart diseases are frequently encountered in general practice. The management of heart-related conditions can often be complex, le...

A major work of serious reportage and essential reading for all.This riveting, important and timely new book is the summation of more than twenty years covering Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The War Against Saddam offers, in five acts, the full story of his rise to power and the West's relationship with Saddam throughout his dictatorship. The fifth act covers the war with Iraq and reports on its outcome and its consequences.

For over thirty years, John Simpson has travelled the world to report on the most significant events of our time.From being punched in the stomach by Harold Wilson on one of his first days as a reporter, to escaping summary execution in Beirut, flying into Teheran with the returning Ayatollah Khomeini, and narrowly avoiding entrapment by a beautiful Czech secret agent, Simpson has had an astonishingly eventful career. In 1989 he witnessed the Tiananmen Square massacre, the fall of ...