The Falklands, at the time of this story, were a little known group of islands miles away from anywhere that most people hadn't even heard of. Of course, nearly everyone has now heard of them and most even have a good idea where they are. Back in the late 60's and early 70's they were a sleepy spot on the map where nothing much happened. They didn't bother anyone and no-one bothered them. For two hundred years nothing much had changed in that respect and the modern world had only just begun to impinge on the islanders' way of life. There was no TV and, of course, no internet. Telephone communications to "Home," as the UK was called, were limited to a few minutes per day when a particular satellite passed by and then only from a special room in Port Stanley, its capital. The author was pitched into a way of life that was completely unlike anything most Brits ever experience and this book describes his struggle to adapt to a new way of life at the same time as learning how to teach in extraordinary circumstances. The things that happened to him were unusual, often very funny (in retrospect) and his story gives the reader a unique insight to the Falklands at that time, the place and its people. The islands have, of course, changed dramatically since the war of 1982 and the advent of fishing licences, tourism and, latterly, oil exploration have had a major impact, not to mention the presence of thousands of military personnel. The sovereignty row with Argentina rumbles on and the islanders' future has a dark cloud looming over the horizon. It is in the hands of politicians outside of their homeland. This book depicts an altogether more innocent, unspoilt and peaceful time.

This book explores the mingling of two rather different perspectives, those of the naval and aeronautical schools of thought, and the impact that they had upon one another in natural, professional and geopolitical settings. To explain the manner in which air power was incorporated into warfare between 1914 and 1945 it studies the deeds of practitioners, the limitations of technology, the realities of combat and the varying institutional dynamics and strategic priorities of the major maritime powers. It is underpinned by an appreciation of the geostrategic setting of the key maritime states, while addressing the challenges of operating in this multifaceted environment and the major technological developments which enabled air power to play an ever greater role in the maritime sphere. The potential for air power to influence warfare in the maritime environment was fully realised during the Second World War and its impact is demonstrated through an analysis of a wide range of the fleet operations and how it was utilised in the defence of trade and sea lanes. As such this book will be of interest to both naval and air power historians and those wanting a fuller perspective on maritime strategy in this period.

Peter Jernigan's life is slipping out of control. His wife's gone, he's lost his job and he's a stranger to his teenage son. Worse, his only relief from all this reality - alcohol - is less effective by the day. And when the medicine doesn't work, you up the dose. And when that doesn't work, what then? (Apart from upping the dose again anyway, because who knows?) Jernigan's answer is to slowly turn his caustic wit on everyone around him - his wife Judith, his teenage son Danny, his vulnerable new girlfriend Martha and, eventually, himself - until the laughs have turned to mute horror. But while he's busy burning every bridge back to the people who love him, Jernigan's perverse charisma keeps us all in thrall to the bitter end. Shot through with gin and irony, Jernigan is a funny, scary, mesmerising portrait of a man walking off the edge with his eyes wide open - wisecracking all the way.

This book explores the mingling of two rather different perspectives, those of the naval and aeronautical schools of thought, and the impact that they had upon one another in natural, professional and geopolitical settings. To explain the manner in which air power was incorporated into warfare between 1914 and 1945 it studies the deeds of practitioners, the limitations of technology, the realities of combat and the varying institutional dynamics and strategic priorities of the major maritime powers. It is underpinned by an appreciation of the geostrategic setting of the key maritime states, while addressing the challenges of operating in this multifaceted environment and the major technological developments which enabled air power to play an ever greater role in the maritime sphere. The potential for air power to influence warfare in the maritime environment was fully realised during the Second World War and its impact is demonstrated through an analysis of a wide range of the fleet operations and how it was utilised in the defence of trade and sea lanes. As such this book will be of interest to both naval and air power historians and those wanting a fuller perspective on maritime strategy in this period.

Hugely admired by Tolstoy, David Copperfield is the novel that draws most closely from Charles Dickens's own life. Its eponymous hero, orphaned as a boy, grows up to discover love and happiness, heartbreak and sorrow amid a cast of eccentrics, innocents, and villains. Praising Dickens's power of invention, Somerset Maugham wrote: "There were never such people as the Micawbers, Peggotty and Barkis, Traddles, Betsey Trotwood and Mr. Dick, Uriah Heep and his mother. They are fantastic inventions of Dickens's exultant imagination...you can never quite forget them."

This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition includes a new Introduction by Pulitzer Prize finalist David Gates, in addition to new explanatory notes.

Seventy percent of the oil America uses each year goes to transportation. In "Transport Beyond Oil", leading experts show how to slash that statistic and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The authors demonstrate that smarter development and land use decisions, paired with better transportation systems, can dramatically lower energy consumption. John Renne calculates how oil can be saved through a future with more transit-oriented development. Petra Todorovitch examines the promise of high speed rail. Peter Newman envisions 100 per cent oil-free cities through the development of electric-transit, renewable natural gas, and other sustainable energy sources. Additional topics include funding transit, freight transport, and non-motorised transportation systems. Each chapter provides policy prescriptions and their measurable results. "Transport Beyond Oil" delivers practical solutions, based on quantitative data. This fact-based approach offers a new vision of travel that is both transformational and achievable.

This excellent collection of Donald Barthelme's literary output during the 1960s and 1970s covers the period when the writer came to prominence--producing the stories, satires, parodies, and other formal experiments that altered fiction as we know it--and wrote many of the most beautiful sentences in the English language. Due to the unfortunate discontinuance of many of Barthelme's titles, 60 Stories now stands as one of the broadest overviews of his work, containing selections from eight previously published books, as well as a number of other short works that had been otherwise uncollected.

The Falklands, at the time of this story, were a little-known group of islands miles away from anywhere that most people hadn't even heard of. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, they were a sleepy spot on the map where nothing much happened. They didn't bother anyone and no one bothered them. For two hundred years, nothing much changed in that respect and the modern world had only just begun to impinge on the islanders' way of life. There was no TV, and of course, no Internet. Telephone communications to home, as the UK was called, were limited to a few minutes per day when a particular satellite passed by and then only from a special room in Port Stanley, its capital. The author was pitched into a way of life that was completely unlike anything most Brits ever experience and this book describes his struggle to adapt to a new way of life while learning how to teach in extraordinary circumstances.

'...a stupendous service for the serious enquirer...' Rev. Richard Bewes OBE I am impressed at how much helpful information this book contains which is presented in a very easy manner.' Rev. Dr Derek Tidball, Former Principal of the London School of Theology Nearly two thousand years after the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, he continues to arouse strong emotions, controversy and debate. In a secular-driven society, it can be difficult for a novice to obtain a lucid introduction to Jesus's story and the origins of the Christian faith. In this clearly structured guide, David Gates sets out to provide just such an introduction. Aimed at those wishing to find out more about the life and death of Jesus, A Serious Beginner's Guide contains the vital information, questions and answers in an accessible and thought-provoking style. In spite of having a degree in Theology and Pastoral Studies, it has taken David Gates some three years to write this book. David has worked and lived in both Turkey and Cyprus. He has travelled in the Middle East including Iran and Israel.

Unlike land and maritime military warfare, which has evolved over thousands of years, the history of war in the air is as short as it has been spectacular: only 100 years have passed since the first flight in a powered aircraft. Despite its brief history, however, military air power is not an insignificant part of the modern military machine: on the contrary, it has played a strikingly prominent role in recent conflicts and humanitarian relief operations, and is likely to take the leading position in many future ones. In the decades since World War II the skies, and increasingly space, have acquired ever more importance as the ultimate "high ground."
In "Sky Wars," David Gates examines the history of military aerospace power, discussing technical developments between both World Wars and the use of air power in specific wars in the latter part of the 20th century, including the recent conflict with Iraq. At the same time he analyses the military and civil applications of airpower in the contemporary world, some of which have led to scientific and technical advances of great benefit to humanity. As well as looking at the ways in which developments in air power, military prowess and space exploration have had a major impact on our daily lives, he highlights more contentious issues, for example the so-called "CNN factor," whereby the increasing capacity for journalistic intrusion into ongoing military operations compels armed forces to be much more sensitive to public opinion.

The Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal was the most bitterly fought contest of nineteenth-century Europe. From 1808 to 1814, Spanish regulars and guerrillas, along with British forces led by Sir John Moore and the duke of Wellington, battled Napoleon's troops across the length and breadth of the Iberian Peninsula. Napoleon considered the war so insignificant that he rarely bothered to bring to it his military genius, relying instead on his marshals and simultaneously launching his disastrous Russian campaign of 1812. Yet the Peninsular War was to end with total defeat for the French, and in 1813 Wellington's army crossed the Pyrenees into mainland France. What Napoleon had called "the Spanish ulcer" ultimately helped bring down the French empire. Michael Howard of Oxford University hailed this book as "a major achievement...the first brief and balanced account of the war to have appeared within our generation." Illustrated with over a hundred maps and fifty contemporary drawings and paintings, this is a richly detailed history of a crucial period in history that resonates powerfully to this day--and figures prominently in Bernard Cornwell's internationally acclaimed novels of the Napoleonic era.

The author of the highly acclaimed novels Jernigan (Pulitzer Prize Finalist) and Preston Falls (National Book Critics Cirlce Award Finalist) offers up a mordantly funny collection of short stories about the faulty bargains we make with ourselves to continure the high-wire act of living meaningful lives in late twentieth-century America.

Populated by highly educated men and women in combat with one another, with substance abuse, and above all with their own relentless self-awareness, the stories in The Wonders of the Invisible World take place in and around New York City, and put urbanism into uneasy conflict with a fleeting dream of rural happiness.  Written with style and ferocious black humor, they confirm David Gates as one of the best-and funniest-writers of our time.

"Beautifully written.... Gates [has a] pitch-perfect ear for contemporary speech...and...[a] keen, journalistic eye."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

In this comic, fiercely compassionate novel, David Gates, whose first novel Jernigan was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, sends his protagonist on a visceral journey to the dark side of suburban masculinity, explores the claims youth makes on middle age, and the tenacious --at times perverse--power of love to assert itself.

When Doug Willis has a mid-life crisis, he doesn't join a gym or have an affair. Instead he gets himself arrested while camping with his wife and kids, takes a two month leave of absence from his PR job, and retreats to his farmhouse in rural Preston Falls--where he plugs in his guitar and tries to shut out his life.

While his wife, Jean, struggles to pay the bills and raise their sullen, skeptical kids, Willis's plans for hiatus crumble into Dewars-and-cocaine fueled disarray. A shattered window, an unguarded gun, and a shady small town attorney force a crisis--and Willis can't go home again. With its biting humor and harsh realism, Preston Falls confirms David Gates as a talent in the tradition of Russell Banks and Richard Ford: a master of dark truths and private longings.

From Holden Caulfield to Moses Herzog, our best literature has been narrated by malcontents. To this lineage add Peter Jernigan, who views the world with ferocious intelligence, grim rapture, and a chainsaw wit that he turns, with disastrous consequences, on his wife, his teenaged son, his dangerously vulnerable mistress--and, not least of all, on himself. This novel is a bravura performance: a funny, scary, mesmerizing study of a man walking off the edge with his eyes wide open--wisecracking all the way.

With these audacious and murderously witty stories, Donald Barthelme threw the preoccupations of our time into the literary equivalent of a Cuisinart and served up a gorgeous salad of American culture, high and low. Here are the urban upheavals reimagined as frontier myth; travelogues through countries that might have been created by Kafka; cryptic dialogues that bore down to the bedrock of our longings, dreams, and angsts. Like all of Barthelme's work, the sixty stories collected in this volume are triumphs of language and perception, at once unsettling and irresistible.

Published in 1811, Sense and Sensibility has delighted generations of readers with its masterfully crafted portrait of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Forced to leave their home after their father's death, Elinor and Marianne must rely on making good marriages as their means of support. But unscrupulous cads, meddlesome matriarchs, and various guileless and artful women impinge on their chances for love and happiness. The novelist Elizabeth Bowen wrote, "The technique of [Jane Austen's novels] is beyond praise....Her mastery of the art she chose, or that chose her, is complete."

This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition contains a new Introduction by Pulitzer Prize finalist David Gates, in addition to new explanatory notes.

Known collectively as the 'Great War', for over a decade the Napoleonic Wars engulfed not only a whole continent but also the overseas possessions of the leading European states. A war of unprecedented scale and intensity, it was in many ways a product of change that acted as a catalyst for upheaval and reform across much of Europe, with aspects of its legacy lingering to this very day. There is a mass of literature on Napoleon and his times, yet there are only a handful of scholarly works that seek to cover the Napoleonic Wars in their entirety, and fewer still that place the conflict in any broader framework. This study redresses the balance. Drawing on recent findings and applying a 'total' history approach, it explores the causes and effects of the conflict, and places it in the context of the evolution of modern warfare. It reappraises the most significant and controversial military ventures, including the war at sea and Napoleon's campaigns of 1805-9. The study gives an insight into the factors that shaped the war, setting the struggle in its wider economic, cultural, political and intellectual dimensions.