This highly topical volume, with contributions from leading experts in the field, explores a variety of questions about membership based organizations of the poor. Analyzing their success and failure and the internal and external factors that play a part, it uses studies from both developed and developing countries. Put together by a group of prestigious editors, the contributors address a range of questions, including: What structures and activities characterize MBOPs? What is meant by success and what factors account for success? What are the internal (governance structure and leadership) and external (policy environment) factors that account for success? Are these factors replicable across countries or even within countries? What are the constraints to successful MBOPs expanding, or to new ones being formed? What sort of policy environment enables the success of MBOPs and the formation of successful MBOPs? What types of institutional reforms are needed to ensure the representation of the poor through their own MBOs? This is an insightful work, that will be invaluable for students and researchers studying or working in the areas of international and development economics and development studies.

This highly topical volume, with contributions from leading experts in the field, explores a variety of questions about membership based organizations of the poor. Analyzing their success and failure and the internal and external factors that play a part, it uses studies from both developed and developing countries.

Put together by a group of prestigious editors, the contributors address a range of questions, including:

• What structures and activities characterize MBOPs?
• What is meant by success and what factors account for success?
• What are the internal (governance structure and leadership) and external (policy environment) factors that account for success?
• Are these factors replicable across countries or even within countries?
• What are the constraints to successful MBOPs expanding, or to new ones being formed?
• What sort of policy environment enables the success of MBOPs and the formation of successful MBOPs?
• What types of institutional reforms are needed to ensure the representation of the poor through their own MBOs?

This is an insightful work, that will be invaluable for students and researchers studying or working in the areas of international and development economics and development studies.

'Columbanus' ('The Dove of the Church'), not to be confused with his near-contemporary Columba of Iona, was a towering figure in the religious and political life of Europe in the Dark Ages. In this lively biography of the saint, Carol Richards evokes the violent and unstable age that laid the foundations for the achievements of the Middle Ages.

Essays dealing with the question of how "sense of place" is constructed, in a variety of locations and media. The term "sense of place" is an important multidisciplinary concept, used to understand the complex processes through which individuals and groups define themselves and their relationship to their natural and cultural environments, and which over the last twenty years or so has been increasingly defined, theorized and used across diverse disciplines in different ways. Sense of place mediates our relationship with the world and with each other; it providesa profoundly important foundation for individual and community identity. It can be an intimate, deeply personal experience yet also something which we share with others. It is at once recognizable but never constant; rather it isembodied in the flux between familiarity and difference. Research in this area requires culturally and geographically nuanced analyses, approaches that are sensitive to difference and specificity, event and locale. The essayscollected here, drawn from a variety of disciplines (including but not limited to sociology, history, geography, outdoor education, museum and heritage studies, health, and English literature), offer an international perspectiveon the relationship between people and place, via five interlinked sections (Histories, Landscapes and Identities; Rural Sense of Place; Urban Sense of Place; Cultural Landscapes; Conservation, Biodiversity and Tourism). Ian Convery is Reader in Conservation and Forestry, National School of Forestry, University of Cumbria; Gerard Corsane is Senior Lecturer in Heritage, Museum and Galley Studies, International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, Newcastle University; Peter Davis is Professor of Museology, International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, Newcastle University. Contributors: Doreen Massey, Ian Convery, Gerard Corsane, Peter Davis, David Storey, Mark Haywood, Penny Bradshaw, Vincent O'Brien, Michael Woods, Jesse Heley, Carol Richards, Suzie Watkin, Lois Mansfield, Kenesh Djusipov, Tamara Kudaibergonova, Jennifer Rogers, Eunice Simmons, Andrew Weatherall, Amanda Bingley, Michael Clark, Rhiannon Mason, Chris Whitehead, Helen Graham, Christopher Hartworth, Joanne Hartworth, Ian Thompson, Paul Cammack, Philippe Dube, Josie Baxter, Maggie Roe, Lyn Leader-Elliott, John Studley, Stephanie K.Hawke, D. Jared Bowers, Mark Toogood, Owen T. Nevin, Peter Swain, Rachel M. Dunk, Mary-Ann Smyth, Lisa J. Gibson, Stefaan Dondeyne, Randi Kaarhus, Gaia Allison, Ellie Lindsay, Andrew Ramsay

This small book of poems with much to tell holds poignant vignettes of one woman's life. From the humor and empathy of character studies about people whose lives touched hers to the terror of a nocturnal tornado; from the depth of her love for nature to the life-long love that survived despite wartime separations that often left her to raise four children alone, Thompson heralds the unique joys and struggles of being a woman that embraces all of life.

Feeling frazzled, frustrated, or anxious? Seeking a purposeful path to peace and contentment? Often, people look to drugs or alcohol to take away the anxiety and stress. When you feel stretched to your limit, instead of self-medicating, why not try something different? Take a break and self-meditate. Open to any page in this book. Take a few minutes to go within and listen to your higher self. Learn to be your own healing source. Allow yourself to soothe your soul and lift your spirit. Wonders will unfold for you as you connect with your true self.

Feeling frazzled, frustrated, or anxious? Seeking a purposeful path to peace and contentment? Often, people look to drugs or alcohol to take away the anxiety and stress. When you feel stretched to your limit, instead of self-medicating, why not try something different? Take a break and self-meditate. Open to any page in this book. Take a few minutes to go within and listen to your higher self. Learn to be your own healing source. Allow yourself to soothe your soul and lift your spirit. Wonders will unfold for you as you connect with your true self.

You know of course about the Sword in the Stone. You have heard the story of how King Arthur, when he was a boy, was chosen High King of Britain because he was able to draw from the stone a sword which no-one else could move. But that is neither the beginning nor the end of the story of the sword. King Arthur never used the sword. He fought his battles with Excalibur, the sword given to him by the Lady of the Lake. That was because the sword in the stone was more than magical, it was sacred. It was the Sword of Truth. And this is how it came to be in the world. In this lively translation the author has attempted to reconstruct the 5th century book that is at the heart of Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur and set it in its proper historical and religious context.

Christmas 1497. Lambeth Palace on the banks of the Thames, the official home of the Archbishop of Canterbury and England's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Cardinal John Morton. As the second most powerful man in England after King Henry VII, Cardinal Morton is holding a grand Christmas feast for the entertainment of the Spanish Ambassador who has arrived to sign the marriage contract between Prince Arthur and Princess Catherine of Aragon. The other ambassadors invited to witness this event, of France, Flanders and Portugal, are eyeing the prospect of an Anglo-Spanish alliance with some consternation. They would dearly like to throw a spanner in the works... ..who is at that moment languishing in the Cardinal's cellar beneath the palace.

A literary novel based on the life of French novelist Guy De Maupassant

A dark mysterious stranger riding across the wilderness of Bushey Heath late at night stumbles upon two bodies in the road. One of them is the young highwayman Ned Carey known as "The Ghostrider" for his ability to elude his pursuers by apparently vanishing into the hillside. The stranger takes the body to town where it is collected by Michael and Katie, the highwayman's younger brother and sister. Who is this mysterious man and why is he so kind to them? What is the connection between their much-admired Schoolmaster and the dreaded 'Resurrection Men'? How does the Ghostrider return from the dead? Is he a ghost after all?