This book is dedicated to all those who have written for or otherwise contributed to the activities of the Institute of Contemporary British History in its first ten years (1986–96). In particular, I would like to dedicate it to the two principal ‘founding fathers’, David Butler and Sir Frank Cooper, who along with David Severn and Lady (Olive) Wood helped Peter Hennessy and me establish the ICBH.

MORE YEARS have passed since 1945 than from the beginning of the century to that date. The major issues and questions in British history from 1900–45 are now fairly well established and there have been

Betty Shine was known worldwide for her powers as a medium and healer. She was the author of 11 bestselling books, including Mind Magic which was a Sunday Times No.1 bestseller. A former opera singer, she was a therapist for over 40 years and a healer and medium for 25 years. Her untimely death has left many fans bereft, and this book is a fitting tribute.

Owning a dog is a huge responsibility but extremely rewarding. When you decide to welcome a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel into your home, you have to consider not only how he will fit into your lifestyle but also what you can offer him in return. He will need regular exercise, feeding, games and companionship as well as daily care.As a good owner, it is your responsibility to keep your Cavalier King Charles Spaniel fit and healthy. If you follow the basic guidelines in this book and socialize him, feed a nutritious diet, exercise him adequately, groom and play with him, you can prevent many common health problems. However, it is important that you learn to recognize the warning signs of problems and diseases so that you can treat them yourself or seek professional help from your vet before they get worse. Prevention is always preferable to cure, and a healthy, contented dog will become your trusted companion for many years.

A wife decided she would leave her drunken husband, but a neighbour persuaded her to give him one more chance. ‘Instead of nagging him,’ she was advised, ‘treat him nicely. Maybe he’ll feel so ashamed, he’ll stop drinking so heavily.’ So the next night when he staggered home, she did not rant as usual. She made him a cup of tea, warmed his slippers, loosened his collar and tie and stroked his head. ‘Shall we go to bed now?’ she suggested.‘Might as well,’ he replied. ‘If I go home, there’ll only be a row.’

The handsome Viscount Trent finally makes up his mind to accede to the pleadings of his family and get married. He is twenty-seven and for a long time they have been begging him to take a wife and produce an heir to his illustrious title, his famous stately home and his vast estate. On the whole he finds debutantes extremely boring and has enjoyed a number of affaires-de-coeur with older married women. However there is one girl, Marigold Marlow, he considers outstanding and she is the acknowledged great beauty of the Season. As she is so beautiful, the Viscount is convinced that Marigold will make him a perfect wife, but he is astonished when, having proposed to her, she tells him that she has not quite made up her mind. She will let him know on Wednesday if she accepts his proposal of marriage. As the Viscount expects her to fall immediately into his arms, he is surprised, but content to wait until Wednesday for her answer, which he is certain will be ‘yes’. As he drives away from Marigold’s house, a young girl holding a white Pekingese in her arms begs him to give her a lift to London. He sees no reason to refuse and finds as they drive off that she is Salvia, a cousin of the beautiful Marigold. He then learns that Marigold has her eyes on the son of the Duke of Northerncliff, who is seriously ill. In fact if he dies as expected, she intends to marry his heir as one day soon he will be a Duke. Feeling surprised and angry, he is even more astonished to learn that Marigold is cruel to animals and that Salvia is running away because she is so unkind to her dog as well as to her. How the Viscount dreams up a way to avenge himself on Marigold and, if the Duke does recover, how he can escape marrying her as he has now changed his mind. How the Viscount’s plan succeeds. And how Salvia takes London by storm, faces appalling danger and finally finds the love of her life is all told in this unusual story by BARBARA CARTLAND.

The beautiful Ariana Dancer is orphaned and has led a cheerless life in London with her disagreeable Guardian, Uncle Konstantin Bardici. He has shown little interest in his niece and she has been left very much to her own devices. One day Uncle Konstantin suggests that Ariana marry an Albanian Prince – one who is seeking an English wife and who claims to have fallen in love with her portrait – and it does not take much to persuade her to agree. Even before she sets out for Albania, she begins to dream of romance and her lonely heart ensures that she quickly fancies herself in love with a man she has never seen. She is sure in her heart that she will find everlasting happiness with Prince Stefan of Dukka in the depths of Albania.! But the journey she must take to fulfil her dreams is longer and more treacherous than she could ever have imagined. When she and her hapless maid are kidnapped en route to Castle Dukka by brigands, the rosy future she dreamed of becomes bitterly compromised. Soon life in the wild mountains begins to exert an unexpected pull, while the King of the Brigands turns out to possess an irresistible charm. Ariana discovers that love can have a double meaning and that image is not all that it seems. Forced to choose between honour and passion and faced with the responsibility of deciding life or death for the man she loves, she bravely makes the ultimate sacrifice. Even then Ariana’s torment is not over – Find out how Ariana unexpectedly finds all that she has been seeking, and more, in this exciting and unusual romantic tale by BARBARA CARTLAND

A story of courage, fear and defiance based on the authors own personal experience. A Pack Horse Called Rachel is the remarkable tale of a young woman, half Jewish, caught in the extraordinarily brutal world of France in 1944. Rachel moves through the pages of the book with her faithful dog Nourse, touching lives as her work with the Maquis based in the Auvergne takes her perilously close to danger on a day to day basis.The story is based on personal experience, the de*ion of historical events is as true as memory will allow, it is an elegantly written story capturing first hand Kellermann’s painful and lonely life as a resistance fighter within the ‘Maquis’, amidst the harsh beauty of the Auvergne. Beset by the freezing cold climate prevailing in winter, the Vichy traitors amongst the normal French Population and the hostility of ordinary people afraid for their own lives. Rachel overcomes the initial animosity and mistrust of the lecherous and alcoholic farmer Raboullet on whom she comes to rely; the wrath of the Gestapo, the betrayal of St Pré, a full and passionate love affair, tragic loss and yet she survives. Marcel Kellermann notes, with de*ive talent, and intricate detail that only someone especially observant could recall. From the opening raid to the closing trial, the book gives an incisive view, as we understand the mind and soul of the resistance better with each page. This is the story of a young woman paralleled with the struggle of a nation as it regains its courage to fight back.

Our everyday lives are continually influenced by inventors whose ideas have led to commercial products available in most high streets across the civilised world. For the most part these creative individuals have remained relatively unknown. Yet some of the companies set up by the successful inventors survive to this day albeit with company names no longer associated with the original idea. Volume 1 of this two volume set documents some of the key inventions from the ‘Spinning Jenny’ invented by Hargraves in the late eighteenth century, to some of the most commercially successful ideas of the early 20th century.

If God is good and all-powerful, why does he allow his creatures to suffer painAnd what about the suffering of animals, who neither deserve pain nor can be improved by itThe greatest Christian thinker of our time sets out to disentangle these knotty issues. With his signature wealth of compassion and insight, C. S. Lewis offers answers to these crucial questions and shares his hope and wisdom to help heal a world hungering for a true understanding of human nature.

Addressing some of the most difficult issues we face in our day-to-day lives, C. S. Lewis ardent and timeless words provide an unparalleled path to greater spiritual understanding. Considered by many to be his most moving address, The Weight of Glory extols a compassionate vision of Christianity and includes lucid and compelling discussions on forgiveness and faith.

A complete guide to dominating search engines with your WordPress siteAbout This BookEverything you need to get your WordPress site to the top of search engines and bring thousands of new customers to your blog or businessLearn everything from keyword research and link building to customer conversions, in this complete guidePacked with real-word examples to help get your site noticed on Google, Yahoo, and Bing Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone who runs any of the over 90,000,000 WordPress installations throughout the world. If you can login to your WordPress website, you can implement most of the tips in this book without any coding experience.What You Will LearnThe elements that search engines use to rank websites—and how to optimize your site for premium placementHarness social media sites to extend the reach of your site and gain more visitorsDiscover the high-volume, high-value search phrases that customers use when searching for your products or servicesAvoid dangerous black-hat optimization techniques and the people who advocate and purvey themBuild high-quality, high-value links from other websites to raise your rankings in search enginesCreate optimized and engaging content that both search engines and readers will loveAvoid common SEO mistakes that can get your site penalized by search engines In Detail WordPress is a powerful platform for creating feature-rich and attractive websites but, with a little extra tweaking and effort, your WordPress site can dominate search engines and bring thousands of new customers to your business. WordPress Search Engine Optimization will show you the secrets that professional SEO companies use to take websites to the top of search results. You'll take your WordPress site to the next level; you'll brush aside even the stiffest competition with the advanced tutorials in this book.Style and approach This is a practical, hands-on book based around sound SEO techniques specifically applied to WordPress. Each chapter starts with a brief overview of the important concepts then quickly moves into practical step-by-step actions you can take immediately. Throughout the book, you'll get clear instructions and detailed screenshots, so you can see exactly what to do each step of the way.

Lao-tzu's Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, is the classic manual on the art of living and one of the wonders of the world. In eighty-one brief chapters, the Tao Te Ching llods at the basic predicatment of being alive and gives advice that imparts balance and perspective, a serene and generous spirit. This book is about wisdom in action. It teaches how wo work for the good with the efforless skill that comes from being in accord with the Tao (the basic principle of the universe) and applies equally to good government and sexual love, to childrearing, business, and ecology. The Tao Te Ching is the most widely traslated book in world literature, after the Bible. Yet the gemlike lucidity of the original has eluded most previous translations, and they have obscured some of its central ideas. Now the Tao Te ching has been rendered into English by the eminent scholar and traslator Stephen Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell's Dropping Ashes on the Buddha is a modern Zen classic, and his translations of Rilke and of the Book of Job have already been called definitive for our time.

Utilize the powerful ingredients of Raspberry Pi to bring to life your amazing robots that can act, draw, and have fun with laser tagsAbout This BookLearn to implement a number of features offered by Raspberry Pi to build your own amazing robotsUnderstand how to add vision and voice to your robots.This fast-paced practical guide comprises a number of creative projects to take your Raspberry Pi knowledge to the next level Who This Book Is For This all-encompassing guide was created for anyone who is interested in expanding their knowledge in applying the peripherals of Raspberry Pi. If you have a fancy for building complex-looking robots with simple, inexpensive, and readily available hardware, then this book is ideal for you. Prior understanding of Raspberry Pi with simple mechanical systems is recommended.What You Will LearnAdd sensors to your robot so that it can sense the world around itKnow everything there is to know about accessing motors and servos to provide movement to the robotic platformExplore the feature of adding vision to your robot so it can “see” the world around itRefine your robot with the skill of speech recognition so that it can receive commandsPolish your robot by adding speech output so it can communicate with the world around itMaximize the use of servos in Raspberry Pi to create a drawing robotStrengthen your robot by adding wireless communication skills so you can see what the robot is seeing and control it from a distanceBuild an unbelievable autonomous hexcopter controlled by Raspberry Pi In Detail The Raspberry Pi is a series of credit card-sized single-board computers developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools. The Raspberry Pi is known as a tiny computer built on a single circuit board. It runs a Linux operating system, and has connection ports for various peripherals so that it can be hooked up to sensors, motors, cameras, and more. Raspberry Pi has been hugely popular among hardware hobbyists for various projects, including robotics. This book gives you an insight into implementing several creative projects using the peripherals provided by Raspberry Pi. To start, we’ll walk through the basic robotics concepts that the world of Raspberry Pi offers us, implementing wireless communication to control your robot from a distance. Next, we demonstrate how to build a sensible and a visionary robot, maximizing the use of sensors and step controllers. After that, we focus on building a wheeled robot that can draw and play hockey. To finish with a bang, we’ll build an autonomous hexcopter, that is, a flying robot controlled by Raspberry Pi. By the end of this book, you will be a maestro in applying an array of different technologies to create almost any imaginable robot.Style and approach This book is an easy-to-follow, project-based guide that throws you directly into the action of creating almost any imaginable robot through blueprints. It is full of step by step instructions and screenshots to help you build amazing robots in no time at all.

Build robust and highly scalable web applications with Google App EngineAbout This BookGet an in-depth look at how Google App Engine works under the hoodDesign and model your application around Google's highly scalable distributed NoSQL datastore to unlock its full potentialA comprehensive guide to ensure your mastery of Google App Engine Who This Book Is For If you have been developing web applications in Python or any other dynamic language but have always wondered how to write highly scalable web applications without getting into system administration and other plumbing, then this is the book for you. No experience in writing scalable applications is required.What You Will LearnScale and develop your applications with Google App Engine's runtime environmentGet to grips with request handling mechanism and write request handlersDeep dive into Google's distributed NoSQL and highly scalable datastore and design your application around itImplement powerful search with scalable datastorePerform long-running tasks in the background using task queuesWrite compartmentalized apps using multi tenancy, memcache, and other Google App Engine runtime servicesHandle web requests using the CGI, WSGI, and multi-threaded configurationsDeploy, tweak, and manage apps in production on Google App Engine In Detail Developing web applications that serve millions of users is no easy task, as it involves a number of configurations and administrative tasks for the underlying software and hardware stack. This whole configuration requires not only expertise, but also a fair amount of time as well. Time that could have been spent on actual application functionality. Google App Engine allows you develop highly scalable web applications or backends for mobile applications without worrying about the system administration plumbing or hardware provisioning issues. Just focus writing on your business logic, the meat of the application, and let Google's powerful infrastructure scale it to thousands of requests per second and millions of users without any effort on your part. This book takes you from explaining how scalable applications work to designing and developing robust scalable web applications of your own, utilizing services available on Google App Engine. Starting with a walkthrough of scalability is and how scalable web applications work, this book introduces you to the environment under which your applications exist on Google App Engine. Next, you will learn about Google's datastore, which is a massively scalable distributed NoSQL solution built on top of BigTable. You will examine the BigTable concepts and operations in detail and reveal how it is used to build Google datastore. Armed with this knowledge, you will then advance towards how to best model your data and query that along with transactions. To augment the powerful distributed dataset, you will deep dive into search functionality offered on Google App Engine. With the search and storage sorted out, you will get a look into performing long running tasks in the background using Google App Engine task queues along with sending and receiving emails. You will also examine the memcache to boost web application performance, image processing for common image manipulation tasks. You will then explore uploading, storing, and serving large files using Blobstore and Cloud storage. Finally, you will be presented with the deployment and monitoring of your applications in production along with a detailed look at dividing applications into different working modules.Style and approach This book is an in-depth guide where you will examine the problems in the context of highly scalable web applications. This book will take you through the libraries, services, and required configuration and finally puts everything together into a small web application that showcases all the capabilities of Google App Engine.

When beloved author Henri Nouwen set out to record this daybook of totally new reflections, he suddenly found himself on "a true spiritual adventure." For in these 366 original, interlocking morsels of daily wisdom, Nouwen provides both sustenance and a trail for us to follow, as he unveils, to his own surprise, his personal map of faith. From the delicate interplay of human experience to the surrender to Christ and the embrace of Christian community, that journey of Christian spirituality is explored and celebrated here in each eloquent, thought–provoking passage, "The table is one of the most intimate places in our lives. It is there that we give ourselves to one another. When we say, 'Take some more, let me serve you another plate, let me pour you another glass, don't be shy, enjoy it,' we say a lot more than our words express. We invite our friends to become part of our lives. We want them to be nurtured by the same food and drink that nurture us. We desire communion.... Every breakfast, lunch, or dinner can become a time of growing communion with one another." Intimately personal and inspiring, Bread for the Journey is a daily feast of fresh insight into the challenges and deep joys of a life lived in close communion with God. Nouwen is a wise, loving companion who invites us along as he finds joy in the community of loss, true freedom in forgiveness of others, and hope in surprising places. Each daily meditation is a stepping–stone along a path of private discovery, offering Nouwen's seasoned yet fresh ideas on kindness, love, suffering, and prayer, the Church as God's people, and the importance of Jesus in one's life–reflecting, as a whole, Nouwen's own 'personal creed.' Bread for the Journey brims with daily nourishment and guidance for devoted followers and new friends alike –– food for thought on a yearlong journey of discovery and faith.

Barbarians at the Gate has been called one of the most influential business books of all time -- the definitive account of the largest takeover in Wall Street history. Bryan Burrough and John Helyar's gripping account of the frenzy that overtook Wall Street in October and November of 1988 is the story of deal makers and publicity flaks, of strategy meetings and society dinners, of boardrooms and bedrooms -- giving us not only a detailed look at how financial operations at the highest levels are conducted but also a richly textured social history of wealth at the twilight of the Reagan era. Barbarians at the Gate -- a business narrative classic -- is must reading for everyone interested in the way today's world really works.

Successfully scrape data from any website with the power of PythonAbout This BookA hands-on guide to web scraping with real-life problems and solutionsTechniques to download and extract data from complex websitesCreate a number of different web scrapers to extract information Who This Book Is For This book is aimed at developers who want to use web scraping for legitimate purposes. Prior programming experience with Python would be useful but not essential. Anyone with general knowledge of programming languages should be able to pick up the book and understand the principals involved.What You Will LearnExtract data from web pages with simple Python programmingBuild a threaded crawler to process web pages in parallelFollow links to crawl a websiteDownload cache to reduce bandwidthUse multiple threads and processes to scrape fasterLearn how to parse JavaScript-dependent websitesInteract with forms and sessionsSolve CAPTCHAs on protected web pagesDiscover how to track the state of a crawl In Detail The Internet contains the most useful set of data ever assembled, largely publicly accessible for free. However, this data is not easily reusable. It is embedded within the structure and style of websites and needs to be carefully extracted to be useful. Web scraping is becoming increasingly useful as a means to easily gather and make sense of the plethora of information available online. Using a simple language like Python, you can crawl the information out of complex websites using simple programming. This book is the ultimate guide to using Python to scrape data from websites. In the early chapters it covers how to extract data from static web pages and how to use caching to manage the load on servers. After the basics we'll get our hands dirty with building a more sophisticated crawler with threads and more advanced topics. Learn step-by-step how to use Ajax URLs, employ the Firebug extension for monitoring, and indirectly scrape data. Discover more scraping nitty-gritties such as using the browser renderer, managing cookies, how to submit forms to extract data from complex websites protected by CAPTCHA, and so on. The book wraps up with how to create high-level scrapers with Scrapy libraries and implement what has been learned to real websites.Style and approach This book is a hands-on guide with real-life examples and solutions starting simple and then progressively becoming more complex. Each chapter in this book introduces a problem and then provides one or more possible solutions.

Gain expertise in troubleshooting most common issues to implement vSphere environments with easeAbout This BookPlan, analyze, and design effective solutions for your vSphere environmentTroubleshoot problems related to vSphere performanceFamiliarize yourself with the advanced troubleshooting conceptsand become an xpert level administrator Who This Book Is For The books is intended for mid-level System Engineers and System Integrators who want to learn VMware power tools to troubleshoot and manage the vSphere infrastructure. Good knowledge level and understanding of virtualization is expected.What You Will LearnConfigure vSphere management assistant and troubleshooting toolsUse troubleshooting tools to monitor performance and troubleshoot different issuesLearn how to troubleshoot High Availability and other commonly known problems with clusters such as insufficient resources, failing heartbeatsUse Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) to verify configurationDiagnose storage issues including iSCSI, NFS and VMFS problemsManage vSphere Network Virtual and Distributed Switches, Trunks, VLANSMonitor and shape network traffic, configure routes and DNSQuickly resolve common day-to-day problems by analysing logs of VMware vSphere hosts and VMware vCenter ServerDebug and resolve commonly known vSphere Cluster problems In Detail VMware vSphere is the leading server virtualization platform with consistent management for virtual data centers. It enhances troubleshooting skills to diagnose and resolve day to day problems in your VMware vSphere infrastructure environment. This book will provide you practical hands-on knowledge of using different performance monitoring and troubleshooting tools to manage and troubleshoot the vSphere infrastructure. It begins by introducing systematic approach for troubleshooting different problems and show casing the troubleshooting techniques. You will be able to use the troubleshooting tools to monitor performance, and troubleshoot issues related to Hosts and Virtual Machines. Moving on, you will troubleshoot High Availability, storage I/O control problems, virtual LANS, and iSCSI, NFS, VMFS issues. By the end of this book, you will be able to analyze and solve advanced issues related to vShpere environment such as vcenter certificates, database problems, and different failed state errors.Style and approach A step-by-step guide full of real world scenarios that will enhance advanced knowledge, skills, and abilities to achieve competence in troubleshooting the VMware vSphere environment. Basic concepts of vSphere and the most common vSphere infrastructure problems are explained with practical solutions to resolve it.

Build real-world hybrid mobile applications using the robust PhoneGap development platformAbout This BookGet to grips with the usage of PhoneGap and its command-line interfaceLearn to use numerous plugins to access several hardware capabilitiesStep-by-step instructions on creating captivating mobile applications using popular frameworks Who This Book Is For If you are a developer who wants to get started with mobile application development using PhoneGap, then this book is for you. Previous experience with data mining libraries will help, but is not mandatory. A basic understanding of web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is a must.What You Will LearnSet up a development environment to develop PhoneGap applicationsGenerate, build, and run applications using the PhoneGap command-line interfaceInstall plugins from the command line to add native capabilities to your applicationCall the JavaScript API of plugins and hook into native eventsManipulate DOM using zepto and xuijsDevelop a user interface using jQuery Mobile and the Ionic frameworkGet accustomed to using the PhoneGap Build service In Detail Developing mobile applications often feels intimidating. Especially when building cross-platform application. We have to learn a specific programming language to build an application for each platform. PhoneGap makes cross-platform mobile application development faster and easier by using web technologies such as HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. This book gives you practical lessons on how to build a world class mobile application using PhoneGap. Whether you are a brand new to mobile application development, a web developer expert, or a seasoned mobile application developer, this book will guide you through creating hybrid mobile applications. Starting with setting up a development environment, the book moves on to utilizing a new PhoneGap command-line tool, installing plugins, and designing your application. It then moves on to concepts such as file system, storage, and local database, the book effectively lays a solid base for advanced topics. By working through the steps in each chapter, you will quickly master the features of PhoneGap. By the end of the book, you will be able to successfully build a highly functional, real-world hybrid mobile application using PhoneGap.Style and approach And easy-to-follow guide full of practical examples of real-world mobile application. Each topic is explained step by step with detailed explanations on each concept.

Utilize ServiceStack as the rock solid foundation of your distributed systemAbout This BookTake advantage of the various data providers to access authentication and authorization, sessions, cache, and databaseLeverage asynchronous processing for decoupling components to ease scalingMonitor and tune the performance of your distributed system Who This Book Is For Mastering ServiceStack is targeted at developers who have already implemented web services with ASMX, WCF, or ServiceStack and want to gain more insight into the possibilities ServiceStack has to offer to build distributed systems of all scales.What You Will LearnDesign a prudent and resilient API, following the RESTful designUnderstand the internal processing chain and utilize the provided hooksIncorporate ServiceStack as a full service provider to your existing distributed systemLeverage the power of asynchronous processing and add message queues to your architectureAnalyze and tune the performance of your service In Detail Mastering ServiceStack covers real-life problems that occur over the lifetime of a distributed system and how to solve them by deeply understanding the tools of ServiceStack. Distributed systems is the enterprise solution that provide flexibility, reliability, scaling, and performance. ServiceStack is an outstanding tool belt to create such a system in a frictionless manner, especially sophisticated designed and fun to use. The book starts with an introduction covering the essentials, but assumes you are just refreshing, are a very fast learner, or are an expert in building web services. Then, the book explains ServiceStack's data transfer object patterns and teach you how it differs from other methods of building web services with different protocols, such as SOAP and SOA. It also introduces more low-level details such as how to extend the User Auth, message queues and concepts on how the technology works. By the end of this book, you will understand the concepts, framework, issues, and resolutions related to ServiceStack.Style and approach A step-by-step approach that follows the natural requirements of a distributed system in a conversational style.