Bedi and Sushma's marriage is arranged. When they first meet, they stumble through a faltering conversation about happiness and hope and agree to go in search of these things together. But even after their children Selena, Tara and Rohan are grown up and have their own families, Bedi and Sushma are still searching.

Years later, the siblings attempt to navigate life without their parents. As they travel to the Ganges to unite their father's ashes with the opaque water, it becomes clear that each of them has inherited the same desire to understand what makes a life happy, the same confusion about this question and the same enduring hope.

A Person is a Prayer plumbs the depths of the spaces between family members and the silence that rushes in like a flood when communication deteriorates. It is about how short a life is and how the choices we make can ripple down generations.

My hair is a statement and always will be, even when I no longer have any.

The social revolution of the Swinging Sixties led to a renaissance of unchecked hair growth, and long hair, especially on men, was worn as a political or countercultural symbol of protest and as an expression of masculinity.

No-one who was affected by one of a turbulent decade's loudest controversies - or anyone who ever wondered what all the fuss was about - will fail to be interested in this personal account of when the 'us and them' divide between youth and elders was most profound.

An engaging, accessible mix of popular culture, social history and politics.

From the Watergate scandal, deposition of Haile Selassie and the expulsion of Solzhenitsyn from the Soviet Union, to ABBA's landmark victory at the Eurovision Song Contest and the production of the very first Volkswagen Golf--a concise, entertaining survey of an important year in 20th-century history, published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of 1974.

1974 was a year of major changes around the world.

Presidents resigned, emperors were deposed and new governments came to power.

In society, the second wave of feminism grew in strength and the rights of gays and ethnic minorities were more powerfully asserted.

The arts and the entertainment industry were in the midst of a period of great creativity and innovation.

The roots of many aspects of today's societies which we take for granted lie in the 1970s and particularly in this, the pivotal year of the decade.

From the Watergate scandal, deposition of Haile Selassie and the expulsion of Solzhenitsyn from the Soviet Union, to ABBA's landmark victory at the Eurovision Song Contest and the production of the very first Volkswagen Golf--a concise, entertaining survey of an important year in 20th-century history, published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of 1974.

1974 was a year of major changes around the world.

Presidents resigned, emperors were deposed and new governments came to power.

In society, the second wave of feminism grew in strength and the rights of gays and ethnic minorities were more powerfully asserted.

The arts and the entertainment industry were in the midst of a period of great creativity and innovation.

The roots of many aspects of today's societies which we take for granted lie in the 1970s and particularly in this, the pivotal year of the decade.

Alchemy has traditionally been viewed as the history of an error, an example of medieval gullibility and greed, in which alchemists tried to turn lead into gold, create fabulous wealth, and find the elixir of life. But alchemy has also been described as the mightiest secret that a man can possess, and it obsessed the likes of Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, and many of the founders of modern science. This book explores the history of the so-called Royal Art, from its mysterious beginnings in Egypt and China, through the Hellenistic world and the early years of Islam, and into medieval Europe. Some of the greatest minds of the Middle Ages, figures such as Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, and Thomas Aquinas, were drawn to alchemy, and legendary alchemists such as Nicholas Flamel were thought to have actually succeeded in finding The Philosopher's Stone. During the Renaissance, Paracelsus and his followers helped revolutionize medicine, and during the 17th century, alchemy played a major role in paving the way for modern science. During the 20th century, it became a focus of interest for the psychologist Carl Jung and his followers, who believed that the alchemists had discovered the unconscious. In this fully revised edition, Sean Martin has expanded the sections on Chinese and Indian alchemy and has added new material on the relationship between alchemy and early modern science, while also making a fresh assessment of this most enduringly mysterious and fascinating of subjects, to which all others have been described as child's play.

Using an interdisciplinary approach, this survey chronicles the historical and geographical evolution of infectious and non-infectious diseases, from their prehistoric origins to the present day, offering a comprehensive, accessible guide to ailments and the medical methods used to combat them. Even before recorded history began, disease plagued human civilizations, claiming more lives than natural disasters and warfare combined. The ongoing battle with new and resurgent diseases has challenged physicians, scientists, and historians in their struggle to identify causes, antidotes, and preventative measures to combat these epidemics. Analyzing case studies including the Black Death, Spanish Flu, cholera, leprosy, syphilis, cancer, and Ebola, this book systematically maps the development of trends and the latest research on disease into a concise and enlightening timeline. Offering a fascinating and compelling insight into a popular area of social history, this easy-to-read introduction will tell you all you need to know about disease and the ongoing quest to protect human health.

The Black Death is the name most commonly given to the pandemic of bubonic plague that ravaged the medieval world in the late 1340s. From Central Asia, the plague swept through Europe, leaving millions of dead in its wake. Between a quarter and a third of Europe's population died, and in England the population fell from nearly six million to just over three million. Sean Martin looks at the origins of the disease and traces its terrible march through Europe from the Italian cities to the far-flung corners of Scandinavia. He describes contemporary responses to the plague and makes clear how helpless the medicine of the day was in the face of it. He examines the renewed persecution of the Jews, blamed by many Christians for the spread of the disease, and highlights the bizarre attempts by such groups as the Flagellants to ward off what they saw as the wrath of God.

Incompetence, embarrassment, and general disaster--no it's not politics, it's a trip down the Thames! Three hapless fellows and a world weary dog decide they need a holiday from their exhausting hypochondria. Hilarious mayhem ensues.

It's gonna end Bardly

He's a bardass brother with the love of a fine woman. That is until some cloven hoofed honky starts talking crazy about variously hued sheep tupping the hell outta each other You gotta pity the fool who gets shafted by the green eyed monster. Let's hope Othello can work out who to trust before it's too late.

Since her debut in 1920 with The Mysterious Affair At Styles, Agatha Christie has become the chief proponent of the English village murder mystery. Although she created two enormously popular characters--the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and the inquisitive elderly spinster and amateur sleuth Miss Jane Marple of St Mary Mead--it is not generally acknowledged that she wrote in many different genres: comic mysteries (Why Didn't They Ask Evans?), atmospheric whodunits (Murder On The Orient Express), espionage thrillers (N or M?), romances (under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott), plays (The Mousetrap), and poetry. She was never afraid to break the rules either, and provoked a storm of controversy with the unorthodox resolution of The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd, now acclaimed as one of the classics of British crime fiction. Christie wrote complex whodunits in a clear, readable style, which is why her books are as popular now as they were 80 years ago. Exemplary film and TV adaptations (Peter Ustinov and David Suchet as Poirot, Margaret Rutherford, and Joan Hickson as Miss Marple), have also encouraged new readers to search out her work. The film, TV, and stage adaptations are listed in this guide, and appendices point readers to books and websites where they can find out more.

It's gonna end Bardly

He's a bardass brother with the love of a fine woman. That is until some cloven hoofed honky starts talking crazy about variously hued sheep tupping the hell outta each other You gotta pity the fool who gets shafted by the green eyed monster. Let's hope Othello can work out who to trust before it's too late.