Thelfl D A Ladybird Expert Book

A "marvelous" (Economist) account of how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination. Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion-an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus-was to be worshipped as a god. Dominion explores the implications of this shocking conviction as they have reverberated throughout history. Today, the West remains utterly saturated by Christian assumptions. As Tom Holland demonstrates, our morals and ethics are not universal but are instead the fruits of a very distinctive civilization. Concepts such as secularism, liberalism, science, and homosexuality are deeply rooted in a Christian seedbed. From Babylon to the Beatles, Saint Michael to #MeToo, Dominion tells the story of how Christianity transformed the modern world.

An heir of John Buchan and Rider Haggard, Holland is a storyteller, dealing in mysteries and marvels ... he holds the reader's attention in an iron grip' DAILY TELEGRAPH 1878. The golden days of dinosaur discoveries. In the still-Wild West, fossils of a monstrous size are being uncovered by America's two greatest bone-hunters, Professors Marsh and Cope. Caught in the bitterest of feuds, their rival gangs steal or smash up each other's collections of bones, and clash murderously in the badlands of the West. Back in New York, the two professors are sniffing out tantalising rumours of the ultimate find. Also lured by these hints are enigmatic English scientist Captain Dawkins and Miss Lilian Prescott, a naïve but wilful heiress. Drawn into a web of corruption and murder, they are forced on a desperate hunt for a box of mysterious fossils - a quest filled with danger, adventure and extraordinary discoveries.

Egypt, 1922: the Valley of the Kings. After years of fruitless labour, the archaeologist Howard Carter discovers a mysterious tomb, sealed and marked with a terrible curse. But what is the nature of the tomb's deadly secret? And what is the web of strange connections spreading back through millennia, to the very heart of Egypt's fabulous past? In a glorious Arabian Nightmare of lost cities, treacherous priests and daring archaeologists, an ancient civilisation shimmers into life; colourful, magical, and unutterably strange. 'True adventure stories are all too scarce nowadays. And adventure stories that have the capacity to make the reader think and wonder are an even rarer commodity. Tom Holland's latest novel manages both with tremendous verve ... a galloping page-turner' DAILY TELEGRAPH

Of all the civilisations existing in the year 1000, that of Western Europe seemed the unlikeliest candidate for future greatness. Compared to the glittering empires of Byzantium or Islam, the splintered kingdoms on the edge of the Atlantic appeared impoverished, fearful and backward. But the anarchy of these years proved to be, not the portents of the end of the world, as many Christians had dreaded, but rather the birthpangs of a radically new order. MILLENNIUM is a stunning panoramic account of the two centuries on either side of the apocalyptic year 1000. This was the age of Canute, William the Conqueror and Pope Gregory VII, of Vikings, monks and serfs, of the earliest castles and the invention of knighthood, and of the primal conflict between church and state. The story of how the distinctive culture of Europe - restless, creative and dynamic - was forged from out of the convulsions of these extraordinary times is as fascinating and as momentous as any in history.

"My name is Jorem Farr, a sorcerer born in a city that despises magic and all who wield it. For the past several months I have been desperately trying to escape an army of mage-hating fanatics and their leader, the so-called "Inquisitrix." I never would have survived this long without the help of my beautiful amazon bodyguard, Kaseya. She pledged her sword--and her perfect body--to my service, and together we rescued my old lover, Valuri, from the clutches of the enemy. Thankfully Val doesn't mind sharing my affections...as long as she gets a piece of Kaseya too!We have become a better team than I ever could have imagined. In the span of a few short weeks we have unraveled several ancient mysteries, thwarted a barbarian invasion, and saved Kaseya's people from total annihilation. Oh, and naturally we've had a preposterous amount of sex, too...Unfortunately, the Inquisitrix isn't done with us just yet. She and her mage-slaying Senosi Huntresses are plotting an invasion of Highwind, and they have accumulated enough power that they might just be able to pull it off. Our only hope is to seek out new allies and figure out a way to stop the enemy before it's too late. Kaseya is determined to hunt down and destroy the Inquisitrix for all the devastation her crusade has wrought, and if there's one thing I've learned it's that no one should underestimate an amazon on a quest for vengeance."THE AMAZON'S VENGEANCE is an action-packed erotic romp that continues the story from Sarah Hawke's best-selling THE AMAZON'S PLEDGE series. At 64,000 words, it is also her longest book to date! **Content Warning: This book contains fantasy violence and numerous explicit sex scenes, including male-female, female-female, and some male-female-female bondage**

Wiltshire, during the dying days of Oliver Cromwell's Republic. Robert Vaughan is the son of a Parliamentarian officer who is investigating a series of grisly murders which suggest a link with Satanic rituals at Stonehenge. The return of a notoriously wicked Cavalier, signalling the impending royalist restoration, leads to a terrible tragedy for the Vaughans. Robert's flight from his violent, terrifying past leads him to Restoration London, where he works as scribe for Milton, and where he survives the Plague and the Great Fire. But Robert is led along a dark path, to vampirism and beyond, as he devotes himself to gaining the powers that will enable him to fight an evil killer of seemingly satanic powers. He will travel the globe, from the ancient ghetto of Prague to the virgin forest of the New World, as he aims to gain revenge on those who betrayed him.

In 1888 Dr John Eliot returns to London haunted by the memory of a terrible expedition to a remote Himalayan kingdom, where he had uncovered horrors far beyond the frontiers of science. Yet Eliot's faith in reason is to be tested even further when the body of a friend, drained white of blood, is dragged up from the Thames, and another associate goes missing. Eliot's quest to uncover the mystery reveals a deadly conspiracy, but then, in the lair of an enigmatic Eastern adventuress, he glimpses hints of a truth yet more extraordinary, of dark and terrible pleasures, of a whole new world ... Vampires and immortals walk the gas-lit streets of Victorian London, mingling with Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker and Lord Byron, and Tom Holland meshes fact with fiction in this brilliantly imaginative novel of passion and suspense.

Magnus meets Valentine in battle as the Circle attacks the Downworlders of New York City. One of the ten adventures in the Bane Chronicles. In the time of the Uprising, Valentine’s Circle goes after Downworlders in New York...and the Shadowhunters of the Institute must decide whether to join him, or fight with Magnus and his kind. This is the first time Magnus sees Jocelyn, Luke, and Stephen—but not the last. It is not long before Jocelyn seeks him out... This standalone e-only short story illuminates the life of the enigmatic Magnus Bane, whose alluring personality populates the pages of the #1 New York Times bestselling series The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices. This story in The Bane Chronicles, The Last Stand of the New York Institute, is written by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Maureen Johnson.