Adam Dalgliesh takes on a baffling murder in the rarefied world of London book publishing in this masterful mystery from one of our finest novelists. Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a puzzle of impenetrable complexity. A murder has taken place in the offices of the Peverell Press, a venerable London publishing house located in a dramatic mock-Venetian palace on the Thames. The victim is Gerard Etienne, the brilliant but ruthless new managing director, who had vowed to restore the firm's fortunes. Etienne was clearly a man with enemies—a discarded mistress, a rejected and humiliated author, and rebellious colleagues, one of who apparently killed herself a short time earlier. Yet Etienne's death, which occurred under bizarre circumstances, is for Dalgliesh only the beginning of the mystery, as he desperately pursues the search for a killer prepared to strike and strike again.

Currently in its 40th printing with its original publisher in the UK, this is the book that one British newspaper has called "travel writing at its best. Bill Bryson must weep when he reads it." Whether describing ruined gothic arches at Glastonbury or hilarious encounters with the inhabitants of Norfolk, Morton recalls a way of life far from gone even at the beginning of a new century.

No city has a more dramatic history than London: fire, plague, and riots have shaken its spirit, but never brought it down. The extraordinary story unfolds here through a combination of artifacts, maps, documents, paintings, photographs, and unparalleled writing. From its origins as a Roman outpost to its role as a source of inspiration for Dickens, the city’s history is filled with tales of mayhem and power.  New edition with facsimile documents now printed in the book.

This fantastic collection of Douglas Vernimmen's photographs illustrates the magnificent city of Oxford at its bestVernimmen has received over 150 international awards and has been featured in 60 international exhibitionsForeword written by crime writer Colin Dexter, famous for his Inspector Morse novelsVenice is for gondolas, New York for taxis, Oxford for bicycles - and pedestrians. Oxford is a place to be taken slowly. This is a city which has survived untouched for the best part of a thousand years. And there has been a university here for nearly as long. And yet it never grows old: it renews itself each autumn with a fresh infusion of youth. Look at it closely, and ponder its secret.A familiar sense of history may well be your first instinct as you consider these fascinating pages; your second, a realization of the originality of the images, the pictures, the representations of the photographs: perspective, balance, light and shade, above all insight into the very heart of Oxford. The soul of things: street names, bicycles, the Thames, college libraries and dining halls.Oxford is one of the great universities of the world. It has been in existence for the better part of 800 years. Its history is to be found in the colleges, in the faculties and in the departments, in the magnificent collections held in its libraries and museums, in its time-honored traditions and ceremonies, and in the magnificent architecture of its buildings set in and around the center of the city. A diverse selection of images offer an understanding of how the university works: the people, the staff, the students and academics, a view of the university from the inside. The photographs selected here catch something of its double identity; something too of the daily life of the place so many lectures, so much laughter lived out routinely, oblivious very often of all the history. The city aside from the university is here too. So many images, so many perspectives, captured here, in lucid photographic language: winter's mornings, before the snow has started to melt; the river hosting one of the university's most popular sports, as well as leisurely punting. The floods of summer 2007 when the river extended its reach. Dawn on May Morning, when crowds have gathered together on Magdalen Bridge to listen to the choristers singing from the top of Magdalen College tower before jumping into the River Cherwell from the bridge! The city celebrates with funfairs and spectacles.Douglas Vernimmen's magnificent portfolio of photographs is his unique, early twenty-first century, pictorial interpretation of an extraordinary city.

This book is a celebration of the wildlife and landscapes of Britain's most vital wildlife habitats--those that make up our coastline. Sheer limestone crags resound with the voices of thousands of bickering seabirds; endless acres of estuarine mud are packed with squirming invertebrates that sustain thousands of wading birds. In between are the dazzling chalk outcrops of the south coast with glorious floral communities on the clifftop meadows, shingle beaches where terns and plovers hide their eggs among the stones, and dune systems bound together with marram grass and supporting a unique and fragile ecosystem. Rocky shores harbor microcosms of marine life when the retreating tide leaves rockpools exposed for our exploration, and even the rowdiest seaside towns have their own special wildlife alongside the wild nightlife. Grand-scale color photos bring the wild coast and its inhabitants to life, while the text tells you what you'll see and where, from Land's End to John O'Groats via the scenic route. Beautifully illustrated with color photographs and authoritative text, this book is a celebration of the wilder aspects of the UK's coasts.

From the founding of St Frideswide's nunnery in the sixth century and the emergence of its university in the late twelfth century – the first in the English-speaking world – through its growth and development as one of the country’s leading centres of education, science, publishing and motor manufacturing, to its current status as one of the fastest growing and ethnically diverse cities in the UK, Oxford has a proud and distinctive identity. This extraordinary history is embodied in the many fine buildings that have shaped this ‘city of dreaming spires’. Oxford in 50 Buildings explores the history of this rich and vibrant community through a selection of its greatest architectural treasures. From neoclassical marvels such as the iconic Ashmolean Museum to the twenty-first-century Saïd Business School, a welcome addition to the city’s famous skyline, this unique study celebrates the city’s architectural heritage in a new and accessible way. Local author Andrew Sargent guides the reader on a tour of the city’s historic buildings and modern architectural marvels.

For four centuries Britain was an integral part of the Roman Empire, a political system stretching from Turkey to Portugal and from the Red Sea to the Tyne and beyond. Its involvement with Rome started long before the Conquest launched by the Emperor Claudius in 43 AD, and it continued to be a part of the Roman world for some time after the final break with Roman rule. Bringing together archaeological investigation and historical scholarship, Peter Salway explores some of the key issues arising from this period in Britain's history, discussing the question of identity at this time and analysing the importance of widespread literacy in Roman Britain. Covering the period from Julius Caesar's first forays into Britain and Claudius's subsequent conquest, as well as Britain under the later Roman Empire, Salway outlines the key events of this time period, providing a focus on society in Roman Britain, and offering a thoughtful consideration of the aftermath of Roman rule.In the new edition of this Very Short Introduction, Peter Salway makes a number of essential updates in light of recent research in the area. He looks at issues of ethnicity, "Britishness", and post-colonialism, provides alternative theories to the end of the Roman period in Britain, and draws parallels between the history of Roman Britain and a wide range of other periods, territories, and themes, including the modern experience of empires and national stereotypes. ABOUT THE SERIES:The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

After eleven years as an American living in London, the renowned travel writer Paul Theroux set out to travel clockwise around the coast of Great Britain to find out what the British were really like. The result is this perceptive, hilarious record of the journey. Whether in Cornwall or Wales, Ulster or Scotland, the people he encountered along the way revealed far more of themselves than they perhaps intended to display to a stranger. Theroux captured their rich and varied conversational commentary with caustic wit and penetrating insight.

“Gaudy Night stands out even among Miss Sayers’s novels. And Miss Sayers has long stood in a class by herself.”—Times Literary SupplementThe great Dorothy L. Sayers is considered by many to be the premier detective novelist of the Golden Age, and her dashing sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, one of mystery fiction’s most enduring and endearing protagonists. Acclaimed author Ruth Rendell has expressed her admiration for Sayers’s work, praising her “great fertility of invention, ingenuity, and wonderful eye for detail.” The third Dorothy L. Sayers classic to feature mystery writer Harriet Vane, Gaudy Night is now back in print with an introduction by Elizabeth George, herself a crime fiction master. Gaudy Night takes Harriet and her paramour, Lord Peter, to Oxford University, Harriet’s alma mater, for a reunion, only to find themselves the targets of a nightmare of harassment and mysterious, murderous threats.

Jack Blackjack is ordered to eliminate a spy in Princess Elizabeth’s household in this engaging Tudor mystery. June, 1554. Former cutpurse and now professional assassin Jack Blackjack has deep misgivings about his latest assignment. He has been despatched to the Palace of Woodstock, where Queen Mary’s half-sister Princess Elizabeth is being kept under close guard. Jack’s employer has reason to believe that a spy has been installed within the princess’s household, and Jack has been ordered to kill her. Jack has no choice but to agree. But he arrives at Woodstock to discover that a murder has already been committed. As he sets out to prove his innocence by uncovering the real killer, Jack finds the palace to be a place steeped in misery and deceit; a hotbed of illicit love affairs, seething resentments, clashing egos and bitter jealousies. But who among Woodstock’s residents is hiding a deadly secret – and will Jack survive long enough to find out?

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