2012 is the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, now widely used in the Church of England and throughout the Anglican Communion. Comfortable Words draws together some of the world's leading liturgical scholars and historians who offer a comprehensive and accessible study of the Prayer Book and its impact on both Church and society over the last three and a half centuries. Comfortable Words includes new and original scholarship here about the use of the Book of Common Prayer at different periods during its life. It also sets out some key material on the background to the production of both the Tudor books and the seventeenth-century book itself. The book is aimed at scholars, students in theological colleges, courses and universities, but there is sufficient accessibility of style for it to be accessible to others who are interested in the Prayer Book more widely in the church and to intelligent lay people. The book is unique in the way that it studies the Prayer Book and looks at the impact of it, both on the Church and on English society.

The rapidly evolving inter-disciplinary field of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a vital means of evaluating the likely significant environmental consequences of implementing land use plan proposals. The European SEA directive, which came into effect in 2004, requires member states to implement SEA requirements. This book provides an authoritative, international evaluation of the SEA of land use plans and provides context using a variety of case studies in which the uniquely qualified contributors evaluate systems in Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Sweden, The UK, and the USA. Each SEA system is evaluated against a set of generic criteria specially designed to analyse different aspects of SEA. Numerous figures and tables are used to summarize the evaluative findings.

Epic battles, hideous monsters and a host of petty gods--the world of Classical mythology continues to fascinate and inspire. Heroes like Herakles, Achilles and Perseus have influenced Western art and literature for centuries, and today are reinvented in the modern superhero. What does Iron Man have to do with the Homeric hero Odysseus? How does the African warrior Memnon compare with Marvel's Black Panther? Do DC's Wonder Woman and Xena the Warrior Princess reflect the tradition of Amazon women such as Penthesileia? How does the modern superhero's journey echo that of the epic warrior? With fresh insight into ancient Greek texts and historical art, this book examines modern superhero archetypes and iconography in film as the crystallization of the hero's journey in the modern imagination.

Elsie and Norm have decided to have a bit of a bash at culture by staging a production of Macbeth in their living-room. After a spot of judicious re-writing by Norm to make it snappier and more punchy, and undaunted by the large cast, Elsie and Norm set out to act "one of the greatest pieces of literature what has ever been wrote in the English language", playing all the characters between them.1 woman, 1 man

Action comedy starring Fred Ward as a street-smart NYPD cop who regains consciousness after a bizarre mugging and has a new face and a new identity. Now he's Remo Williams, the #1 recruit of a top-secret organisation, and he's toppling evil at every turn - even atop the Statue of Liberty. Trained by a quirky Korean martial arts master (Joel Grey) to dodge bullets, brave terrifying heights and thwart attackers with his bare hands, Remo become the ultimate criminal exterminator. But when he faces off against a corrupt millionaire and his army of henchmen, the real adventure begins.

Did you know that Kakadu National Park in Australia boasts some of the oldest exposed rock on the planet and is known to have been inhabited continuously for over 40,000 years? That Lake Malawi contains the largest number of fish species of any lake in the world-over 3,000? Or that the tiny Madeiran archipelago off the coast of Northern Africa is the last vestige of the original majestic laurel forests that once covered most of Southern Europe? Published in partnership with UNESCO World Heritage, Our Natural World Heritage showcases 50 of the planet's most beautiful and biodiverse landscapes, each identified as a site of outstanding universal value and an irreplaceable source of life and inspiration. Over 900 colour images and evocative, accessible text reveal what makes each site unique, through an exploration of its flora, fauna, and natural history. This is awe-inspiring natural beauty that belongs to us all.

A steep hillside garden in Singapore. A garden defined by shape and light in Marrakech. A haunting tree museum in Switzerland. These are just a few of the outstanding gardens featured in Gardenlust, a sumptuous exploration of the world's best new gardens. Intrepid plant expert Christopher Woods explores the best modern gardens from around the world, introducing us to private and public spaces that offer unparalleled innovation and beauty. Traveling from the Americas and Europe to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, from Asia to Australia and New Zealand, readers will discover the people and plants that bring these gardens to life and the stories that make them memorable. Featuring fifty gardens and packed with hundreds of stunning photographs, Gardenlust is a remarkable and unforgettable botanical tour.

Writing, the ability to make language visible and permanent, is one of humanity's greatest inventions. This book presents current perspectives on the origins and development of writing in Mesopotamia and Egypt, providing an overview of each writing system and its uses. Essays on writing in China and Mesoamerica complete coverage of the four "pristine" writing systems - inventions of writing in which there was no previous exposure to texts. The authors explore what writing is, and is not, and sections of the text are devoted to Anatolian hieroglyphs of Anatolia, and to the development of the alphabet in the Sinai Peninsula in the second millennium BC and its spread to Phoenicia where it spawned the Greek and Latin alphabets. This richly illustrated volume, issued in conjunction with an exhibit at the Oriental Institute, provides a current perspective on, and appreciation of, an invention that changed the course of history.