william collins harpercollins london (28 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good+. Second printing, hardcover, has a light lean to the binding, and bumps to the spine ends and cover corners. Overall, this is a solid, tight, Very Good+ copy in a like, unclipped dust jacket, which has bumps with some shallow creasing and peels to the spine ends and corners, and faint rubbing with a few minor scrapes to the covers.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. Jacket by Corbis (illustrator). 1st Edition. First edition, first impression with '1' on copyright page. Some slight edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, not price clipped (£20.00), no inscriptions, internally clean tight and square, overall a vg++ copy. 342pp, illustrated. The remarkable life of the vivacious, clever and forgotten Kennedy sister, who charmed the English aristocracy and was almost erased from her family history. The favourite child of Joe Kennedy and favourite sister of Jack, Kick Kennedy was spirited, vivacious and legendary for her charm. When the Kenndys sailed to Britain in 1938 she was presented as a debutante amid the pre war social whirl of the British aristocracy. Here she met a shy, tall, handsome man called Billy, and, rebelling against family, faith, and country, soon married him. He was William Cavendish, heir to Chatsworth and the Duke of Devonshire, the most eligible bachelor in England. But their days of married bliss proved short, as war would bring tragedy and loss. Uncovering her spectacular life in full for the first time, Paula Byrne depicts a remarkable woman who bewitched the Churchills, Astors and Mitfords, and yet was almost erased from Kennedy family history.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. Jacket by Anna Morrison (illustrator). 1st Edition. First edition, first impression with '1' on copyright page. Some very slight edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, not price clipped (£20.00), no inscriptions, internally clean tight and square, overall a vg++ copy. 288pp, illustrated. Investigating the literary culture of the early interaction between European countries and East Africa, Edward Wilson-Lee uncovers an extraordinary sequence of stories in which explorers, railway labourers, decadent emigres, freedom fighters, and pioneering African leaders made Shakespeare their own in this alien land. Exploring the unexpected history of Shakespeare's global legacy, 'Shakespeare in Swahililand' is a breathtaking combination of travel, history, biography and satire. It traces Shakespeare's influence in Zanzibar, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya, where Cambridge lecturer Edward Wilson-Lee was raised. From Victorian expeditions in which the Bard's works were the sole reading material, Wilson-Lee shows how Shakespeare's works have been a vital link throughout the region. The Plays were printed by liberated slaves as one of the first texts in Swahili, performed by Indian labourers while they built the Uganda Railway, used to argue for native rights, and translated by intellectuals, revolutionaries and independence leaders. Revealing how great works can provide a key insight into modern history, these stories investigate the astonishing poignancy of beauty out of place.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. First edition, first impression with '1' on copyright page. Some minuscule edge wear to top of jacket and spine, corners very very slightly bruised, not price clipped (£20.00), no inscriptions, internally clean tight and square, overall a vg++ copy, looks unopened, unread. 401pp, illustrated. The historical race to reach one of the world's most mythologized places, and the story of how a contemporary band of archivists and librarians, fight to save its ancient manuscripts from destruction at the hands of al Qaeda. The author's debut book.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. Jacket photos by Karsten Windhorst and Jai Stkes (illustrator). 1st Edition. First edition, first impression with full number line. SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, WITHOUT DEDICATION, IN BLACK PEN, ON TITLE PAGE. Some slight edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, some yellowing to page block, 'Signed by the author' sticker to front jacket, remains of old sticky label to bottom back jacket, top corners very slightly bruised, not price clipped (£20.00), no other inscriptions, internally clean tight and square, overall a vg+ copy. 336pp. During 25 years as BBC Newsnight''s supreme inquisitor, Jeremy Paxman proved himself as the master of the political interview. From John Major to Theresa May and Tony Blair to Ed Miliband, he had them quaking in their boots. But it wasn't just politicians. Paxman's interviews with Dizzee Rascal, David Bowie, Russell Brand and Vivienne Westwood are legendary. He discussed belief with religious leaders and philosophers, economics with CEOs and bankers, books with writers, and art and theatre with artists. After 23 years on University Challenge, Paxman was also the longest serving active quizmaster on British television. In 'A Life in Questions' the tables are turned. The quizmaster answers our burning questions, telling terrifying stories and laughing at much of the silliness in the world. These are the long awaited memoirs of the greatest political interviewer of our time. Quite scarce signed. Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. First edition, first impression with full number line. Some very slight edge wear to top of jacket, not price clipped (£20.00), no inscriptions, internally clean tight and square, overall an excellent copy, looks almost new. 366pp, illustrated. From Samuel Johnson Prize shortlisted author David Crane, this book is about the Britain that fought the battle of Waterloo ż from pauper to painter, poet to prince, soldier to civilian. Midnight, Sunday, 17 June 1815. There was no town in England that had not sent its soldiers, hardly a household that was not holding its breath, not a family, as Byron put it, that would escape żhavocżs tender merciesż at Waterloo, and yet at the same time life inevitably went on as normal. As Wellingtonżs rain-sodden army retreated for the final, decisive battle, men and women in England were still going to the theatre and science lectures, still working in the fields and the factories, still reading and writing books and sermons, still painting their pictures and sitting in front of Lord Elginżs marbles as if almost five thousand did not already lie dead. After ten hours of savage fighting, Waterloo would be littered with the bodies of something like 47,000 dead and wounded. Meanwhile, as the day unfolded, a whole nation, countryside and town, artisan and aristocrat, was brought together by war.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. Jacket by Jo Thomson (illustrator). 1st Edition. First edition, subsequent impression with '4' on copyright page. Some slight edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, not price clipped (£25.00), no inscriptions, internally clean square and tight, overall a vg+ copy. 338pp, illustrated. The sinking of the White Ship in 1120 is one of the greatest disasters England had ever suffered. In one catastrophic night, the king's heir and the flower of Anglo Norman society were drowned and the future of the crown was thrown violently off course. In an accomplished narrative Charles Spencer follows the story from the Norman Conquest through to the decades that would become known as the Anarchy, a civil war of untold violence that saw families turn in on each other with English and Norman barons, rebellious Welsh princes and the Scottish king all playing a part in a desperate game of thrones. All because of the loss of one vessel, the White Ship, the medieval Titanic. Quite a scarce book.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. Jacket by Joe McLaren (illustrator). 1st Edition. First edition, first impression with '1' on copyright page. Some slight edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, Some faint brown marks and grubby fingerprints (unlaminated jacket) to back and front jacket, some very slight damp cockling to back jacket (taken out searching for a Roman road?), not price clipped (£20.00), no inscriptions, internally clean tight and almost square, overall a vg+ copy. 353pp, illustrated. For two thousand years, the roads the Romans built have determined the flow of ideas and folktales, where battles were fought and where pilgrims trod. Almost everyone in Britain lives close to a Roman road, if only we knew where to look. In the beginning was Watling Street, the first road scored on the land when the invading Romans arrived on a cold and alien Kentish shore in 43 CE. Campaign roads rolled out to all points of the compass, forcing their way inland and as the Britons fell back, the roads pursued them relentlessly, carrying troops, supplies and military despatches. In the years of fighting that followed, as the legions pushed onwards across what is now England, into Wales and north into Scotland in search of booty, mineral wealth, land and tribute, they left behind a vast road network, linking marching camps and forts, changing the landscape, etching the story of the Roman advance into the face of the land, channelling our lives today. Christopher Hadley, acclaimed author of 'Hollow Places', takes us on a lyrical journey into this past, retracing and searching for an elusive Roman road that sprang from one of the busiest road hubs in Roman Britain. His passage is not always easy. Time and nature have erased many clues; bridges rotted and whole woods grew across the route. Carters found an easier ford downstream, and people broke up its milestones to mend new paths. Year after year the heavy clay swallowed whole lengths of it, the once mighty road became a bridleway, an overgrown hollow way, a parched mark in the soil. Hadley leads us on a hunt to discover, in Hilaire Belloc's phrase 'all that has arisen along the way'. Gathering traces of archaeology, history and landscape from poems, church walls, hag stones and cropmarks, oxlips, killing places, hauntings and immortals, and things buried too deep for archaeology 'The Road' is a mesmerising journey into two thousand years of history only now giving up its secrets. Quite a scarce book.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good+. First Edition, Limited, Signed. First edition, hardcover, limited edition signed by Hastings on a tipped in page, the book has a shallow skew to the binding, light bumps to the spine ends, mild shelfwear to the cover edges and corners, and a thin scrape near the tail of the back cover. Otherwise, this is a solid, tight, Very Good+ copy in a like, unclipped dust jacket, which has slight bumps to the spine ends and corners, and faint rubbing. The jacket is wrapped in Mylar.

Hb. Condition: VG. Dust Jacket Condition: None. First Edition. Light paperthin bumping to head & foot of spine. Thin light smudge to bottom edge. Very clean content, b&w illustrations, binding tight. 273p.

Hardcover. Condition: As New. Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket. Various (illustrator). First Edition. Contents clean and tight. A fine copy. A comprehensive guide and bibliography for the New Naturalist collector. Size: 4to. Signed by Author(s). Book.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First edition, second impression with '2' on copyright page. Some slight edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, corners very slightly bruised, very slight lean, not price clipped (£20.00), internally clean and tight, overall a vg+ copy. 376pp, illustrated. Who owns England? Behind this simple question lies this country's oldest and best kept secret. This is the history of how England's elite came to own our land, and an inspiring manifesto for how to open up our countryside once more. This book has been a long time coming. Since 1086 in fact. For centuries, England's elite have covered up how they got their hands on millions of acres of our land, by constructing walls, burying surveys and more recently, sheltering behind offshore shell companies. But with the dawn of digital mapping and the Freedom of Information Act, it's becoming increasingly difficult for them to hide. Trespassing through tightly guarded country estates, ecologically ravaged grouse moors and empty Mayfair mansions, writer and activist Guy Shrubsole has used these 21st century tools to uncover a wealth of never before seen information about the people who own our land, to create the most comprehensive map of land ownership in England that has ever been made public. From secret military islands to tunnels deep beneath London, Shrubsole unearths truths concealed since the Domesday Book about who is really in charge of this country, at a time when Brexit is meant to be returning sovereignty to the people. Melding history, politics and polemic, he vividly demonstrates how taking control of land ownership is key to tackling everything from the housing crisis to climate change and even halting the erosion of our very democracy. It's time to expose the truth about who owns England and finally take back our green and pleasant land. Quite a scarce book.

Hardcover. Condition: As New. Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket. Various (illustrator). First Edition. 352 pages, numerous colour and b/w illustrations. Contents clean and tight, signed to the title page by Timothy Loe. A fine tight as new copy. A comprehensive guide and bibliography for the New Naturalist collector. Size: 4to. Signed by Author(s). Book.

First Edition. 280mm x 230mm (11" x 9"). 352pp. Signed by authors on title page. Heavy book extra shipping needed for overseas. VG : in very good condition without dust jacket as issued Illustrated hardback board cover.

Hardcover. Condition: As New. Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket. Various (illustrator). First Edition. An association copy from the library of John Mitchell with small posthumous bookplate to the half title page "From the library of John Mitchell, author and naturalist"; Mitchell wrote New Naturalist No. 88 Loch Lomondside; additionally signed to the title page by Timothy Loe. 352 pages, numerous colour and b/w illustrations. Contents clean and tight. A fine copy. A comprehensive guide and bibliography for the New Naturalist collector. Size: 4to. Signed by Author(s). Book.

Octavo; hardcover; 312pp., with maps and diagrams, 8pp. of colour plates and many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear. Dustwrapper. Near fine. Postage quoted is for a standard format octavo book. Final charges may vary depending on size and weight. "The subtitle of Daisy Dunn's first book - 'the life of Rome's most erotic poet' - may prove something of a letdown for the dirty mac brigade. Aficionados of lively, finely crafted biography, however, are well served. Dunn acknowledges that independent evidence of Catullus's life in the last century BC is all but nonexistent, leaving the poetry - assumed to be autobiographical - as the chief source of illumination. She skilfully avoids the pitfalls of obscurity or glibness, and the central thread of Catullus's great love for the married Clodia Metelli, the 'Lesbia' of his poems, is both haunting and fascinating. Weaving well-researched social history with a compelling account of political machinations in Rome, the picture here is not just of a libertine prone to writing of his obscene desires, but a soulful man at the heart of a remarkable age." - Alexander Larmand.

Hardcover. Condition: As New. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine+. First Edition, First Printing. " A powerful and tragic tale of wartime espionage . . . " (front flap) 286 pp. plus: Acknowledgements, References, List of Illustrations, Index. Unclipped DJ has very slight top edge wear. Bookseller's Inventory # 202302.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good-. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good-. First Edition. Ex-library, Some library labels and markings. Dust-jacket in clear plastic cover, taped to boards. ; xii, [2], 480, [2] pages. Green boards with gilt lettering on spine. Page dimensions: 215 x 147mm. Illustrations include colour and black and white artist drawings, and colour photographic illustrations. Series: The New Naturalist Library, #136. "Beetles are arguably the most diverse organisms in the world, with nearly half a million beetle species described and catalogued in our museums, more than any other type of living thing. This astonishing species diversity is matched by a similar diversity in shape, form, size, life history, ecology, physiology and behaviour. Beetles occur everywhere, and do everything. And yet they form a clearly discrete insect group, typically characterised by their attractively compact form, with flight wings folded neatly under smooth hard wing-cases. Almost anyone could recognise a beetle, indeed many are intimately associated with human society. Groups like ladybirds are familiar to us from a very young age. Large stag beetles and handsome chafers are celebrated for their imposing size and bright colours. The sacred scarabs of the ancient Egyptians were given iconic, if not god-like, status and even though the exact religious meanings may be fading after three millennia, their bewitching jewellery and monumental statuary inspire us still. Despite this ancient and easy familiarity with beetles, the Coleoptera remains tainted by the notion that it is a 'difficult' group of insects. The traditional routes into studying British natural history, through birdwatching, butterfly-collecting and pressing wild flowers, now extend to studying dragonflies, bumblebees, grasshoppers, moths, hoverflies and even shieldbugs. These are on the verge of becoming popular groups, but beetles remain the preserve of the expert, or so it seems. So many British beetles are easy to find and easy to identify by the non-expert, but that bewildering background diversity, and the daunting numbers of species in the Coleoptera as a whole, have been enough to dissuade many a potential coleopterist from grasping the nettle and getting stuck in. Richard Jones' groundbreaking New Naturalist volume on beetles encourages those enthusiasts who would otherwise be put off by the, to date, rather technical literature that has dominated the field, providing a comprehensive natural history of this fascinating and beautiful group of insects.".

Brown hardback leather cover. Condition: VG: in very good condition. Limited Edition 100. 230mm x 160mm (9" x 6"). x, 401pp. With dust jacket. Signed by author on bookplate. Heavy item - shipping supplement may apply for overseas.

Green hardback cloth cover. Condition: VG : in very good condition. First Edition. 220mm x 160mm (9" x 6"). xii, 418pp. With dust jacket. Signed by author on title page. Heavy item - shipping supplement may apply for overseas.

Brown hardback leather cover. Condition: VG: in very good condition. First Edition. 230mm x 160mm (9" x 6"). xi, 508pp. With dust jacket. Signed by author on title page. Heavy item - shipping supplement may apply for overseas.

Green hardback cloth cover. Condition: VG : in very good condition. First Edition. 220mm x 160mm (9" x 6"). x, 419pp. With dust jacket. Signed by author on title page. Heavy item - shipping supplement may apply for overseas.

Brown hardback leather cover. Limited Edition 49/50. 230mm x 160mm (9" x 6"). xi, 628pp. With dust jacket. Signed by author on limitation plate. Heavy item - shipping supplement may apply for overseas. VG: in very good condition and brown slipcase.

Brown hardback leather cover. Limited Edition 16/50. 230mm x 160mm (9" x 6"). xii, 480pp. With dust jacket. Signed by author on limitation plate. Heavy item - shipping supplement may apply for overseas. VG: in very good condition and brown slipcase.

Brown hardback leather cover. Limited Edition 15/50. 230mm x 160mm (9" x 6"). xi, 508pp. With dust jacket. Signed by author on limitation plate. Heavy item - shipping supplement may apply for overseas. VG: in very good condition and brown slipcase.

Brown hardback leather cover. Limited Edition 10/50. 230mm x 160mm (9" x 6"). x, 401pp. With dust jacket. Signed by author on limitation plate. Heavy item - shipping supplement may apply for overseas. VG: in very good condition and brown slipcase.

Brown hardback leather cover. Limited Edition 11/50. 230mm x 160mm (9" x 6"). xi, 354pp. With dust jacket. Signed by author on limitation plate. Heavy item - shipping supplement may apply for overseas. VG: in very good condition and brown slipcase.

Brown hardback leather cover. Limited Edition 3/50. 230mm x 160mm (9" x 6"). xv, 366pp. With dust jacket. Signed by author on limitation plate. Heavy item - shipping supplement may apply for overseas. VG: in very good condition and brown slipcase.