William Collins India. A History Keay John

From award-winning writer Edward Wilson-Lee, this is a thrilling true historical detective story set in sixteenth-century Portugal • A History of Water follows the interconnected lives of two men across the Renaissance globe. One of them – an aficionado of mermen and Ethiopian culture, an art collector, historian and expert on water-music – returns home from witnessing the birth of the modern age to die in a mysterious incident, apparently the victim of a grisly and curious murder. The other – a ruffian, vagabond and braggart, chased across the globe from Mozambique to Japan – ends up as the national poet of Portugal • The stories of Damiao de Gois and Luis de Camoes capture the extraordinary wonders that awaited Europeans on their arrival in India and China, the challenges these marvels presented to longstanding beliefs, and the vast conspiracy to silence the questions these posed about the nature of history and of human life

Три тысячи лет китайской истории в доступном и авторитетном единственном томе "Китай. История" • Несмотря на недавний подъем Китая к доминирующим позициям на мировой экономической арене, китайская история остается малоизученной темой. И все же именно это обширное повествование об ужасающих потерях, сверхчеловеческих усилиях и невероятных изобретениях сделало Китай той сверхдержавой, которой он является сегодня. От зарождения легенд до преемственности великих династий, от Конфуция до председателя Мао, от шума революции до соблазна скользкого капитализма Джон Кей проводит читателя в увлекательное путешествие по истории Китая. Это окончательный и незаменимый отчет о стране, которой суждено сыграть важную роль в нашем будущем • Книга на английском языке

«Баламут предлагает тост» – продолжение одной из самых известных книг британского писателя и теолога Клайва Стейплза Льюиса. Оригинальное произведение, «Письма Баламута», было оформлено в виде писем старого беса Баламута, опытного искусителя и верного прислужника «всенизшего». Письма были адресованы его племяннику, юному бесу Гнусику, и попали в руки Льюиса тайным путём, который он отказывался рассекречивать. Несмотря на колебания автора, через несколько лет после публикации «Писем» читатель всё же смог добиться от него продолжения • Теперь, в 75-ю годовщину первой публикации «Писем», издательство William Collins представляет новое издание книги «Баламут предлагает тост», включающее также и другие произведения автора • «Баламут предлагает тост», книга выдающегося британского писателя Клайва Стейплза Льюиса, является знаковым произведением для направления популярной теологии

A history of Nehru that dives deep into the debates of his era to understand his ideology – and that of his contemporaries and opponents, asking what India would look like had another bold young mind with fiercely held views led during the country’s formative years of independence • Sixty years after the death of Jawaharal Nehru, the independence activist and first prime minister of India continues to be deified and vilified in equal measure. And still in contemporary political debate, the ideological spectrum remains defined by the degree of divergence from Nehru’s ideas. With the Nehruvian ideals increasingly juxtaposed against the positions of Nehru’s erstwhile contemporaries and questions asked about what might have happened on the Indian subcontinent had another hero of that era taken leadership, this book explores his encounters with key contemporaries to excavate and evaluate the views that were in circulation

This stunning book by renowned television historian Dan Cruickshank tells the history of architecture through the stories of 100 iconic buildings • Journeying through time and place, from the ancient Egyptian pyramids to the soaring skyscrapers of Manhattan, renowned architectural historian Dan Cruickshank explores the most impressive and characterful creations in world architecture • His selection includes many of the world’s best-known buildings that represent key or pioneering moments in architectural history, such as the Pantheon in Rome, Hagia Sophia in Turkey, the Taj Mahal in India and the Forbidden City in China • But the book also covers less obvious and more surprising structures, the generally unsung heroes of an endlessly fascinating story

Eleven years when Britain had no king • In 1649 Britain was engulfed by revolution • On a raw January afternoon, the Stuart king, Charles I, was executed for treason. Within weeks the English monarchy had been abolished and the ‘useless and dangerous’ House of Lords discarded. The people, it was announced, were now the sovereign force in the land. What this meant, and where it would lead, no one knew • The Restless Republic is the story of the extraordinary decade that followed. It takes as its guides the people who lived through those years. Among them is Anna Trapnel, the daughter of a Deptford shipwright whose visions transfixed the nation. John Bradshaw, the Cheshire lawyer who found himself trying the King. Marchamont Nedham, the irrepressible newspaper man and puppet master of propaganda

From Aristotle to Ada Lovelace: a brief history of the mathematical ideas that have forever changed the world and the everyday people and pioneers behind them. The story of our best invention yet • From our ability to calculate the passing of time to the algorithms that control computers and much else in our lives, numbers are everywhere. They are so indispensable that we forget how fundamental they are to our way of life • In this international bestseller, Mickael Launay mixes history and anecdotes from around the world to reveal how mathematics became pivotal to the story of humankind. It is a journey into numbers with Launay as a guide. In museums, monuments or train stations, he uses the objects around us to explain what art can reveal about geometry, how Babylonian scholars developed one of the first complex written languages, and how ‘Arabic’ numbers were adopted from India

From the bestselling author Simon Winchester, a human history of land around the world: who mapped it, owned it, stole it, cared for it, fought for it and gave it back • In 1889, thousands of hopeful people raced southward from the Kansas state line and westward from the Arkansas boundary to stake claims on the thousands of acres of unclaimed pastures and meadows. Across the twentieth century, water was dammed and drained in Holland so that a new province, Flevoland, rose up, unchartered and requiring new thinking. In 1850, California legislated the theft of land from Native Americans. An apology came in 2019 from the governor, but what of the call for reparations or return? What of government confiscation of land in India, or questions of fairness when it comes to New Zealand’s Maori population and the legacy of settlers? • The ownership of land has always been complicated, opaque, and more than a little anarchic when viewed from the outside

Combining practical birdwatching tips, the insights of internationally renowned ornithologists and the science, nature, art and history of birds, The Collins Garden Birdwatcher’s Bible is a glorious celebration of the stunning world of birds • Brimming with lavish photographs, The Collins Garden Birdwatcher’s Bible offers handy tips on identifying and attracting British garden birds, as well as discovering more about the evolution, history and art of birds of the world. With detailed visual profiles of the key birds of the region, readers will learn how to identify birds by their colours, calls and behaviour, the best equipment and resources to use, as well as learning to create bird-friendly gardens and bird houses, choosing the ideal food for bird types by season and how we can become better bird advocates

A fresh, opinionated history of all the brilliant women you should have learned about in school but didn't • For hundreds of years we have heard about the great men of history, but what about herstory? • In this freewheeling history of modern Britain, Cathy Newman writes about the pioneering women who defied the odds to make careers for themselves and alter the course of modern history; women who achieved what they achieved while dismantling hostile, entrenched views about their place in society. Their role in transforming Britain is fundamental, far greater than has generally been acknowledged, and not just in the arts or education but in fields like medicine, politics, law, engineering and the military • While a few of the women in this book are now household names, many have faded into oblivion, their personal and collective achievements mere footnotes in history

The theory of evolution by natural selection did not spring fully formed and unprecedented from the brain of Charles Darwin. Rather it has been examined and debated by philosophers the world over for thousands of years • This lively history traces the evolution of the idea of evolution, showing how it has changed and been changed by different societies over time. It will put 'Darwin’s Dangerous Idea' into its proper context, showing how it built on what went before and how it was developed in the twentieth century, through an understanding of genetics and the biochemical basis evolution. None of this diminishes the achievement of Darwin himself in perceiving the way evolution works at the level of individuals and species, but his contribution was one link in a chain that extends back into antiquity, and is still being forged today

There is not just one story of silk • In silk is science, history and mythology • In silk is the future • Aarathi Prasad’s Silk is a gorgeous new history weaving together the story of a unique material that has fascinated the world for millennia • Through the scientists who have studied silk, and the biology of the animals from which it has been drawn, Prasad explores the global history, natural history, and future of a unique material that has fascinated the world for millennia • For silk, prized for its lightness, luminosity, and beauty is also one of the strongest biological materials ever known. More than a century ago, it was used to make the first bulletproof vest, and yet science has barely even begun to tap its potential. As the technologies it has inspired – from sutures to pharmaceuticals, replacement body parts to holograms – continue to be developed in laboratories around the world, they are now also beginning to offer a desperately needed, sustainable alternative to the plastics choking our planet