This illustrated and colourful history charts the hey-day of the great liners, those grand and lavish vessels that cruised around the world carrying their glamorous passengers from port to port. Decorated to the highest of finishes, fitted out in the most luxurious of styles, these floating palaces epitomised their opulent age. Their iconic names, from Titanic to Mauretania, from Queen Elizabeth to QE2, conjure up visions of power, grace, elegance and nostalgia for this golden age of travel.Written by maritime and cruise liner expert William Miller, and accompanied by stunning photographs, artworks, Did You Know facts and quotations, The Great Liners Story is a must-have addition to any maritime library.

The longest-reigning monarch in European history! If the news about Harry, William, Kate, Meghan, and the rest of the British royals has you wondering about how this latest generation of princes, princesses, dukes, and duchesses got their start, you’re not alone. Queen Elizabeth II For Dummies takes you on a fascinating journey through the life of Great Britain’s longest-serving monarch. You’ll find revealing stories about Queen Elizabeth II’s family background, her childhood, early ascension to the throne, and her role during times of national crisis and triumph. The book combines must-know facts about the monarchy with details of the remarkable woman who has held the crown for over 68 years (and counting). You’ll also read about: Where shows like The Crown stay true-to-life and where they take artistic liberties with historical fact Queen Elizabeth II’s relationship with Prince Charles, the late Prince Phillip, Princess Diana, and the thousands of famous figures she has encountered during her reign The subtle and at times controversial role of a hereditary Head of State in a democracy Perfect for anyone with an interest in the monarchy, British governance, power and society, leadership, or the resurgence of the British monarchy in popular culture, Queen Elizabeth II For Dummies is a cracking read full of trivia, secrets, and history that puts one of the most central figures of the 20th and 21st centuries in the palm of your hand.

Mapmaking fulfills one of our most ancient and deepseated desires: understanding the world around us and our place in it. But maps need not just show continents and oceans: there are maps to heaven and hell; to happiness and despair; maps of moods, matrimony, and mythological places. There are maps to popular culture, from Gulliver's Island to Gilligan's Island. There are speculative maps of the world before it was known, and maps to secret places known only to the mapmaker. Artists' maps show another kind of uncharted realm: the imagination. What all these maps have in common is their creators' willingness to venture beyond the boundaries of geography or convention. You Are Here is a wide-ranging collection of such superbly inventive maps. These are charts of places you're not expected to find, but a voyage you take in your mind: an exploration of the ideal country estate from a dog's perspective; a guide to buried treasure on Skeleton Island; a trip down the road to success; or the world as imagined by an inmate of a mental institution. With over 100 maps from artists, cartographers, and explorers, You are Here gives the reader a breath-taking view of worlds, both real and imaginary.

"Seventeen-year-old Jim is having a really bad day. After getting up the nerve to tell his girlfriend, Rochelle, that he loves her, she asks him to help her poison her father. Is she joking? Just when it becomes clear that she's definitely not joking, Jim's mother wakes him up. It was all a dream! But Mom has bad news for him. Terrible news in fact. As the news becomes nightmarishly bad, Jim wakes up again. He's back with Rochelle, who tells him he fainted, and Dad comes home just in time for Rochelle to offer him a big glass of suspicious-looking milk. Now Jim isn't sure what's real and what's a dream, and every time he thinks he's got it figured out, his life takes another surprising left turn. A funny, spooky play about the nature of reality, Wake-Up Call starts as a nightmare and goes to places you'll never expect." -- Publisher website

Spanning the period from Elizabeth I's reign to Charles II's restoration, this study argues the garden is a primary site evincing a progressive narrative of change, a narrative that looks to the Edenic as obtainable ideal in court politics, economic prosperity, and national identity in early modern England. In the first part of the study, Amy L. Tigner traces the conceptual forms that the paradise imaginary takes in works by Gascoigne, Spenser, and Shakespeare, all of whom depict the garden as a space in which to imagine the national body of England and the gendered body of the monarch. In the concluding chapters, she discusses the function of gardens in the literary works by Jonson, an anonymous masque playwright, and Milton, the herbals of John Gerard and John Parkinson, and the tract writing of Ralph Austen, Lawrence Beal, and Walter Blithe. In these texts, the paradise imaginary is less about the body politic of the monarch and more about colonial pursuits and pressing environmental issues. As Tigner identifies, during this period literary representations of gardens become potent discursive models that both inspire constructions of their aesthetic principles and reflect innovations in horticulture and garden technology. Further, the development of the botanical garden ushers in a new world of science and exploration. With the importation of a new world of plants, the garden emerges as a locus of scientific study: hybridization, medical investigation, and the proliferation of new ornamentals and aliments. In this way, the garden functions as a means to understand and possess the rapidly expanding globe.