Vintage books Wonderful Life Gould Stephen Jay

There aren't many scientists famous enough in their lifetime to be canonized by the US Congress as one of America's 'living legends'. Yet few would have grudged this accolade to Stephen Jay Gould, whose writings on history - both of the natural world and of the study of the natural world - had made him a household name by the time of his death in 2002 • A committed Darwinian and robust critic of creationist myths, he nevertheless made major revisions to orthodox Darwinian theory, from his concept of punctuated equilibrium to his insistence on the importance of chance in the history of life on earth. And in addition, his trenchant attacks on scientific racism and the pretensions of sociobiology still resonate, nearly three decades after they were first written

How does Italy really work? • When Valeria travels from hot, dusty Basilicata to begin her studies in a northern university town, she has little idea of the kind of education she will find there. Italian Life is her story, and that of the students and professors around her: a story of power and corruption, influence and exclusion, and the workings of a society where your connections are everything • Written with flair and insight, Italian Life joins Tim Parks' bestselling books about his beloved and paradoxical adopted country. It is a gripping, entertaining, behind-the-scenes account of how Italy actually happens, and the ways it can surprise those who know it inside out

Alice Munro captures the essence of life in her brilliant collection of short stories • Moments of change, chance encounters, the twist of fate that leads a person to a new way of thinking or being: the stories in Dear Life build to form a radiant, indelible portrait of just how dangerous and strange ordinary life can be

Thomas More is one of the great figures in English history. Pre-eminent as a courtier and as a humanist, a friend to Henry VIII and the author of Utopia, More's life and career epitomise the great transformation of England in the space of 35 years • In this illuminating book, Peter Ackroyd investigates the paradox of this 'man for all seasons': the man of the world who travelled across Europe to negotiate on behalf of his king, and the unworldly man who's careful silence on the matter of Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn would lead to his disgrace and execution • A magnificent achievement, The Life of Thomas More gives us a rich portrait of the man and the social and cultural world in which he lived

At the age of sixteen, Marc Hamer left home with only a rucksack and started walking. By day, he observed the animals and birds. By night, he slept under hedges, in woodlands and on riverbanks. It was the beginning of a life in nature • Years later, now working as a gardener and mole-catcher in the Welsh countryside, Marc tells of the experiences that have shaped him and of the wonders that he encounters each day. He considers, too, the fascinating ways of the mole and the myths that surround this curious creature • This beautiful, meditative book explores what nature can teach us about ourselves and our search for contentment. It is a celebration of living peacefully and finding joy in the world around us

Mahatma Gandhi became a legend in his own time • A tireless fighter for human rights and for Indian independence, his strategy of satyagraha, or passive resistance, earned him the admiration of millions • Louis Fischer's biography is the definitive account of Ghandi's life; it tells the astonishing story of one man who changed the world forever • This is the perfect read to celebrate and understand Ghandi in the year of the 150th anniversary of his birth

Sterne's utterly original novel - the meandering, maddening 'autobiography' of one of literature's oldest comic characters • Doomed to become the ‘sport of fortune’ by an interruption at the crucial moment of conception, Tristram Shandy’s life lurches from one mishap to another: his nose crushed by the doctor’s forceps during birth, christened with the wrong name, an unfortunate incident involving a slamming sash window… Discover the anti-autobiography of the hilarious Tristram Shandy

An unnamed author waits in a bar in Tel Aviv on a stifling hot night. He is there to give a reading of his work but as he sits, bored, he begins to conjure up the life stories of the people he meets. Later, when the reading is done he asks a woman for a drink. She declines and the author walks away, only to climb the steps to her flat, later that night. Or does he? • In Amos Oz's beguiling, intriguing story the reader never really knows where reality ends and invention begins

Former Prime Minister and the country’s longest-serving Chancellor, Gordon Brown has been a guiding force for Britain and the world over three decades. This is his candid, poignant and deeply relevant story • In describing his upbringing in Scotland as the son of a minister, the near loss of his eyesight as a student and the death of his daughter within days of her birth, he shares the passionately-held principles that have shaped and driven him, reminding us that politics can and should be a calling to serve. Reflecting on the personal and ideological tensions within Labour and its successes and failures in power, he describes how to meet the challenge of pursuing a radical agenda within a credible party of government • He explains how as Chancellor he equipped Britain for a globalised economy while swimming against the neoliberal tide and shows what more must be done to halt rising inequality

Когда Саладин отбил Иерусалим у крестоносцев в 1187 году, вернув Священный город исламскому правлению, он вызвал волну потрясений по всей христианской Европе и мусульманскому Ближнему Востоку, которые ощущаются и сегодня • Это была кульминация в высшей степени захватывающей жизни. Родившийся в знатной курдской семье на севере Ирака, этот воин и дипломат сражался под знаменем джихада, но в то же время неустанно трудился над построением империи, простиравшейся от Северной Африки до Западного Ирака. Собрав вместе неспокойную коалицию,он смог захватить Иерусалим только для того,чтобы начать Третий крестовый поход и встретиться лицом к лицу со своим величайшим противником, королем Ричардом Львиное Сердце • Опираясь на богатую смесь арабских и европейских источников,это исчерпывающий рассказ как о человеке,так и о легенде, которую он породил, ярко описывающий неустанные действия его жизни и прослеживающий их последствия в культуре и политике вплоть до наших дней

In this non-fiction novel – road trip, confession, and erotic tour de force – Emmanuel Carrere pursues two consuming obsessions: the disappearance of his grandfather amid suspicions that he was a Nazi collaborator in the Second World War; and a violently passionate affair with a woman that he loves but which ends in destruction. Moving between Paris and Kotelnich, a grisly post-Soviet town, Carrere weaves his story into a travelogue of a journey inward, travelling fearlessly into the depths of his tortured psyche

Life...is shapeless, it does not point to and gather round anything, it does not cohere. Artistically, it's dead. Life's dead • So begins a love letter to life, a resuscitation of sorts, encountering vibrant characters from Saul Bellow, to Philip Larkin to Iris Murdoch and Elizabeth Jane Howard, and to the person who captivated Amis' twenties, the alluringly amoral Phoebe Phelps • Amis addresses our burning questions: how to live, how to grieve, and how to die?