Jake Crabtree is an unwilling volunteer for his granddad’s inventions. They’re supposed to cure the twelve-year-old of his stammer, but more often than not he’s lucky to escape with all of his limbs intact.He has an accident at a local science fair when his secret formula spills onto his neighbour’s harmless picnic basket. This creates a creature that starts to abduct the villages of Little Codswallop, replacing them with not so perfect copies.Jake and his family have to co...

This book argues that although relations between China and Europe are strained in many areas, including trade, human rights and views about political systems, nevertheless established linkages, especially when considered in the context of long-term historical linkages, development trajectories and intellectual cultures, offer good prospects for future progressive collaborative exchanges. Approaching the subject in a balanced way, giving equal weight to the perspectives of both sides, the b...

‘The Duke is a soldier – a bad education for a statesmen in a free country’. Sir Walter Scott’s fear of the political soldier has long been part of Western political life. Yet although many countries would have preferred to keep the military out of politics few have been successful.Originally published in 1976, this book examines the careers of five distinguished twentieth century soldiers and assesses their contribution as statesmen. Hindenburg, Byng, Franco, Eisenhower and De Gau...

When General Allenby arrived in Egypt in June 1917, and assumed command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, British prestige in the East was at a very low ebb. The evacuation of Gallipoli in December 1915, followed by the fall of Kut el Amara four months later, and by our two unsuccessful attacks on Gaza in the spring of the following year, had invested the Turkish arms with a legend of invincibility which was spreading rapidly in all Moslem countries. For the first time in seven centurie...

China's growth as a major international superpower means that it is now more important than ever to understand how its politics work. Rejecting familiar discussions of China cast in terms of traditional culture, contemporary economic power or shifting official ideologies, this forward thinking work instead analyses the historically contingent mix of agents, ideas and institutions that make up the country's political life.This approach allows Sabrina Ching Yuen Luk and Peter W. Pres...

Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy continues to be as widely read and admired as upon its first appearance. Deemed more accessible than Sterne’s Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and often assigned as a college text, A Sentimental Journey has received its share of critical attention, but—unlike *Tristram Shandy—*to date it has not been the subject of a dedicated anthology of critical essays. This volume fills that gap ...

`The expression of human experience it embodies ... includes all personal history'.Saul Bellow's view of the city is far from that of classic geographical descriptions which look at growth or decline, demographic patterns, traffic flows and economic potential: these empirically conceived models of urban geography fail to accommodate the crucial human aspect of city life.Located at the interface of geography and literature, Writing the City visualizes the cit...

In September 1944 the Western Allies mounted an audacious attempt to seize a crossing over the Rhine into Germany in a bid to end the Second World War quickly. Yet despite the deployment of thousands of American, British and Polish airborne troops, in conjunction with the efforts of ground forces to link up with them, ultimately at Arnhem in the Netherlands, the plan failed spectacularly and the war continued well into 1945. Famously depicted in the blockbuster film A Bridge Too Far (1977)...

This title is a celebration of the life of Nina Coltart, who had a career in medicine and psychoanalysis and was author of bestselling titles in psychotherapy The Baby and the Bathwater and How to Survive as a Psychotherapist. The book contains a large number of contributions by specialists in the field including Michael Brearley, Susan Budd and Anthony Molino. The book offers a long-overdue tribute to Nina Coltart (1927-1997), who was a leading figure in the Independent Group of the Briti...

In 1997 the British state relinquished control of Hong Kong. From that point an established prosperous community was faced with reordering its sense of itself and its links with the wider world around the authority of Beijing. This book traces the political relationship between Hong Kong and China, and sketches a number of possible future scenarios ranging from successful mutual understanding, through to breakdown and the imposition of rule from Beijing.Having lived and worked in E...

From the foremost historian of 20th century Spain, A People Betrayed is the story of the devastating betrayal of Spain by its political class, its military and its Church.This comprehensive history of modern Spain chronicles the fomenting of violent social division throughout the country by institutionalised corruption and startling political incompetence. Most spectacularly during the Primo de Rivera and Franco dictatorships, grotesque and shameless corru...

Contrary to the expectations of many people, China's recent economic growth has not led to the collapse of the Chinese Communist Party. In fact, the Party has recently carried out a peaceful and orderly transition to the so-called fourth generation of leadership, has revitalised itself, and created a new, younger and better trained cadre corps. Despite this successful transformation, there continue to be many problems that the Party will need to overcome if it is to remain in power, includ...