-- and embellishes it with his own ironic humor, brilliant insights, and piercing observations. We meet a vast array of historical figures in a staggering novel of love, war, philosophy, and adventure . . . "There isn't a page of CREATION that doesn't inform and very few pages that do not delight."-- John Leonard, The New York Times

    

    In a body of work spanning over a half-century, he was variously a draughtsman, a printmaker, a sculptor and a painter. This short book is both a biography and a guide to his art. It focuses on the extraordinary works that Henri Matisse made during the last period of his life - the large-scale cut-outs on coloured paper, including his famous Blue Nudes, The Snail and Large Composition with Masks.

    During World War I, she worked her way up from spy to army major to become one of the most powerful woman in the British Empire. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, she was instrumental in drawing the borders that define the region today, including creating an independent Iraq. This is the epic story of Bell's life, told through her letters, military dispatches, diary entries, and other writings. It offers a unique and intimate look behind the public mask of a woman who shaped nations.Georgina Howell is the author of the acclaimed biography Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations.

    These nomadic peoples from central Asia briefly held sway over an empire that stretched across Asia to the frontiers of Germany and the shores of the Adriatic. Surprisingly little has been written on this vast and immensely influential empire, known chiefly through the charismatic leaders, Chingis Khan and Kublai Khan.J. J. Saunders's landmark book, first published in 1972, is a carefully documented introductory history of the rise and fall of the great Mongol empire. Saunders sets the historical stage with a discussion of nomad groups and cultures at the dawn of the second millennium, and then traces the rise of the Mongol conquests through the earlier Turkish expansion into Asia between the eighth and twelfth centuries. Beginning in the early 1200s, the Mongols led by Chingis Khan began their insatiable assault on all the kingdoms and peoples around them, erasing whole cities, killing entire populations, forcing mass migrations, and permanently changing the distribution of the world's major religions. The Mongols were finally checked along the edges of Europe and forced out of the Middle East by rejuvenated Muslim factions.As Saunders concludes, one of the major legacies of the Mongol conquests was the transfer of intellectual and scientific primacy of the Old World from Islamic societies to Western Europe, paving the way for the Renaissance.

    In it, Bechet reacalls his life in music, highlighting his narrative with tales of Sunday afternoon bucking contests between black and Creole musicianers, his deportation from London, and the gunfight that put him in jail in Paris."

    It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.Edgy, searingly observant, and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with raw humor and hard-earned wisdom--Persepolis is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded, singularly talented graphic artists at work today.

    Fascinated by this charismatic young figure, Mick Brown traveled to meet him, and found himself drawn into the labyrinthine web of intrigue surrounding the 17th Karmapa's recognition and early life.

    Meet the man who single-handedly changed the face of modern music. In this book you will find the story of Hendrix’s life in full detail—from his childhood to his stint in the U.S. military to his time as an international superstar. We will discuss the man, the myth, and the legend, Jimi Hendrix. Inside you will read about... ✓ Extraterrestrial Encounter ✓ Running from Welfare Workers ✓ Jimi Joins the Army ✓ The Jimi Hendrix Experience ✓ Hendrix at Woodstock And much more!

    The quick brushstrokes of the Impressionists suited his temperament, as did his heavy use of impasto. This helpful volume shows many of van Gogh's best loved works, including the famous self-portrait with a Bandaged Ear, painted after he had cut off part of his ear in a fit of madness, Sunflowers, which were to him a symbol of power and beneficence, and The Starry Night, a painting which clearly expresses intensity and mental turbulence.

    Dawood in Penguin Classics.The tales told by Scheherazade over a thousand and one nights to delay her execution by the vengeful King Shahryar have become among the most popular in both Eastern and Western literature. From the epic adventures of 'Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp' to the farcical 'Young Woman and her Five Lovers' and the social criticism of 'The Tale of the Hunchback', the stories depict a fabulous world of all-powerful sorcerers, jinns imprisoned in bottles and enchanting princesses. But despite their imaginative extravagance, the Tales are also anchored to everyday life by their bawdiness and realism, providing a full and intimate record of medieval Eastern world.In this selection, N.J. Dawood presents the reader with an unexpurgated translation of the finest and best-known tales, preserving their spirited narrative style in lively modern English. In his introduction, he discusses their origins in the East and their differences from Classical Arabic literature, and examines English translations of the tales since the eighteenth century.If you enjoyed Tales from the Thousand and One Nights, you might like Snorri Sturlson's The Prose Edda, also available in Penguin Classics.

    A feat of craftsmanship by hereditary artisans, the samurai sword is often judged superior to the famed blades of Western Damascus and Toledo. This complete handbook reveals the lore of the samurai sword, fascinating both for owners and for the intrigued. Detailing the origins and development of the samurai sword, its historical background, styles, famous schools, and differences in construction, outlining methods of identifying and researching the sword, as well as caring for it properly.

    So archaeologist Matthew Champion started a nationwide survey to gather the best examples. In this book he shines a spotlight on a secret world of ships, prayers for good fortune, satirical cartoons, charms, curses, windmills, word puzzles, architectural plans and heraldic designs. Drawing on examples from surviving medieval churches in England and Wales, the author gives a voice to the secret graffiti artists: from the lord of the manor and the parish priest to the people who built the church itself.Here are strange medieval beasts, knights battling unseen dragons, ships sailing across lime-washed oceans and demons who stalk the walls. Latin prayers for the dead jostle with medieval curses, builders’ accounts and slanderous comments concerning a long-dead archdeacon. Strange and complex geometric designs, created to ward off the ‘evil eye’ and thwart the works of the devil, share church pillars with the heraldic shields of England’s medieval nobility.

    The men of the 4th bn Brigade of the Guards (1 Rajput). They were simple, ordinary men, like you and me. But when push came to shove, they rose to the occasion and left an indelible mark on the pages of history.THE GARUD STRIKES is the compelling story of 4 Guards (1 Rajput) and the critical role they played in the 1971 Indo-Pak War; in freeing seventy-five million people from the torturous and bloody clutches of the Pakistani Army.In merely sixteen days, under the inspiring leadership of Lt. Col. Himmeth Singh, 4 Guards (1 Rajput), played a pivotal role in leading for India one of the fastest successful military campaigns of modern times; one which not only led to the creation of Bangladesh, but also resulted in the capture of 95,000 Pakistani soldiers.Narrated by Mukul Deva, India’s literary storm trooper, in his inimitable, compelling style, THE GARUD STRIKES is the breath taking story of the lightning campaign, seen through the eyes of the officers, JCOs and men of 4 Guards (1 Rajput).As you trudge through the mud and slush of Bangladesh, you will smell the gun smoke, the impact of bullets on flesh, the blood, the fears and tears, as 4 Guards (1 Rajput) smashed its way through the pride of the Pakistani Army, in their dash for Dacca.

    ISIS), a group so brutal and hardline that even al-Qaida deemed them too extreme. Baghdadi, an introverted religious scholar, with a passion for soccer, now controls large swaths of land in Iraq and Syria. McCants shows how Baghdadi became radicalized in the Saddam Hussein era and found his path to power after connecting with other radicals in an American prison during the Iraq War, culminating in his declaration of a reborn Islamic empire bent on world conquest.