1989, London. Julia Dylan is running a successful security consultancy. When an eccentric academic disappears on his quest to find Spanish gold, Julia is hired to find him. Her husband Thomas, is stuck in MI6 writing reports no one will ever read. When he's suddenly sent to Turkey to find a consignment of hijacked Russian missiles, suspicions grow. Thomas and Julia find their paths leading to Madeira, it can't be a coincidence. Someone is pulling their strings, but why? Does the answer lie with a distinguished family of local wine merchants? Perhaps with a former MI6 officer working for the Americans in Panama? Or even with a retired Russian spy residing peacefully on the island? The peace cannot last. The Cold War might be ending, but its consequences are explosive.

Forests have histories that need to be told. This examination of wood and woodlands in East and Southeast Asia brings together case studies from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Sumatra to explore continuities in the history of forest management across these regions as well as the distinctive qualities of human-forest relations within each context. With a general introduction to forest histories in East and Southeast Asia and a multidisciplinary set of authors, The Cultivated Forest constructs alternative lineages of forest knowledge that aim to transcend the frameworks imposed by colonial or national histories. Across these regions, forests were sites of exploitation, contestation, and ritual just as they were in Europe and America. This volume puts studies of Asian forests into conversation with global forest histories.

Julia Dylan's aunt, Eveline Sadeghi, vanishes while sailing from Kefalonia to Syracuse in Sicily. Julia and her new husband Thomas abandon their honeymoon and join the search. In Syracuse they encounter a suspiciously well-informed detective who is investigating the murder of an Iranian journalist. Thomas is convinced that Eveline's disappearance is somehow connected. Julia's uncle, the Director General of Defence Intelligence, asks MI6 to investigate but MI6 has higher priorities. The CIA have uncovered a Russian spy at a NATO airbase north of Syracuse. Could it all be connected? And could the connection go all the way back to an infamous Mafia massacre in 1947? To unravel the mystery of Eveline Sadeghi's death, Julia and Thomas Dylan must not just understand history but must understand families, especially their own. John le Carre meets Agatha Christie in the second gripping novel in The Dylan Series.

Inthe follow-up to Coincidence of Spies, Thomas Dylan finds himself on the front line in the Angolan civil war. In Angola the largest tank battle since the second world war is taking place. South African troops are battling to preserve apartheid. Thomas Dylan is sent to the front line. Ministers want MI6 to provide support, but discreetly. But death is soon much closer to home. After thirty years in British Intelligence Adam Joseff has retired to his stamp collection. His loyalty is beyond question. Until he is murdered in the Caribbean. Then the questions start. Has Joseff betrayed his country? Or has he been betrayed? And why was he so interested in an Angolan student young enough to be his granddaughter? As the Dylans start pulling the clues together they must confront death, betrayal and their own conscience. Then the politicians take over.

Thomas Dylan is an unlikely spy. Rejected by MI6 he joins the Ministry of Defence where his first mission is a total failure. Unexpectedly he is then sent to Rio de Janeiro to recover a submarine interrogator stolen from the US Navy. In Brazil he discovers that those supposedly on his side, MI6 and the CIA, have their own priorities and that his life is definitely not one of them. A murderous game which began with the death of a British spy in Argentina is being played out in a city of sun, sea and secret police. When Dylan comes face-to-face with the brutal realities of Brazil's military dictatorship he knows he has to trust somebody. But who? The only thing he knows for sure is that the woman he wants to trust has been lying to him from the very beginning - should he take the risk? This is a fast-paced thriller in the vein of John le Carre and Eric Ambler.

A tale of intrigue stretching from the Volga to the Adriatic via snowy Polish lakes and sleepy Cornish villages. Third in The Dylan Series. Winter 1981. Poland is in turmoil. The Communist regime is close to collapse and the CIA wants to help it on its way. They ask for MI6 assistance but insist the MI6 Station in Warsaw is not involved. Why not? And who will the Americans accept? MI6 agent Thomas Dylan is sent from Moscow. His wife has just witnessed a murder and the Russian authorities want her out of the country. But when Thomas and Julia arrive in Warsaw the bullets start to fly. Two American agents disappear near the Polish lakes, a terrified Polish sailor jumps ship in Middlesbrough, and a Polish peasant claims to have found the lost crown of a medieval King. Somebody needs to work out what's happening. And quickly. Because back in London a KGB killer is on the loose.

Forests have histories that need to be told. This examination of wood and woodlands in East and Southeast Asia brings together case studies from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Sumatra to explore continuities in the history of forest management across these regions as well as the distinctive qualities of human-forest relations within each context. With a general introduction to forest histories in East and Southeast Asia and a multidisciplinary set of authors, The Cultivated Forest constructs alternative lineages of forest knowledge that aim to transcend the frameworks imposed by colonial or national histories. Across these regions, forests were sites of exploitation, contestation, and ritual just as they were in Europe and America. This volume puts studies of Asian forests into conversation with global forest histories.

The American road to empire started when the first English settlers landed in Virginia. Simultaneously, the first Russians crossed the Urals and the two empires that would dominate the twentieth century were born. Empires Apart covers the history of the Americans and Russians from the Vikings to the present day. It shows the two empires developed in parallel as they expanded to the Pacific and launched wars against the nations around them. They both developed an imperial 'ideology' that was central to the way they perceived themselves.

Soon after, the ideology of the Russian Empire also changed with the advent of Communism. The key argument of this book is that these changes did not alter the core imperial values of either nation; both Russians and Americans continued to believe in their manifest destiny. Corporatist and Communist imperialism changed only the mechanics of empire. Both nations have shown that they are still willing to use military force and clandestine intrigue to enforce imperial control. Uniquely, Landers shows how the broad sweep of American history follows a consistent path from the first settlers to the present day and, by comparing this with Russia's imperial path, demonstrates the true nature of American global ambitions.

A multidisciplinary environmental history of early China’s political systems, featuring newly available Chinese archaeological data   “Over four thousand years of unsustainable growth, Chinese states replaced a diverse ecosystem with a monocropping grain state. All states destroy environments, but only the state can save us. So ancient China's spectres still haunt our modern crisis. A brilliant and disturbing analysis!�—Peter C. Perdue, author of Environmental History in China and the West: Its Origins and Prospects   This book is a multidisciplinary study of the ecology of China’s early political systems up to the fall of the first empire in 207 BCE. Brian Lander traces the formation of lowland North China’s agricultural systems and the transformation of its plains from diverse forestland and steppes to farmland. He argues that the growth of states in ancient China, and elsewhere, was based on their ability to exploit the labor and resources of those who harnessed photosynthetic energy from domesticated plants and animals. Focusing on the state of Qin, Lander amalgamates abundant new scientific, archaeological, and excavated documentary sources to argue that the human domination of the central Yellow River region, and the rest of the planet, was made possible by the development of complex political structures that managed and expanded agroecosystems.