First Love

This third volume of Maugham’s stories, introduced and selected by the author himself, contains the celebrated series about Ashenden, a secret service agent in WWI. Based on Maugham’s own experiences with the British Intelligence service in Switzerland, the stories are vignettes in which he dramatizes both the romance and absurdity of espionage as well as its ruthlessness and brutality.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The Age of Kali is a panorama of the Indian subcontinent, poised between chaos, westernization and immemorial tradition& It is like Dalrymple s previous books, erudite, engaging and entertaining Martin Gayford, Spectator Books of the Year

Ranging from the Peloponnesian war, to Trafalgar and Gettysburg, to the War in Iraq, this exciting book tells the stories of the most dramatic, memorable, and important conflicts in world history. This superb, one-volume reference describes almost 300 battles from around the world–from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, as well as from Europe and the Americas. All the battles are grouped in chapters which tell the wider story of a particular era or region, whether it be the ancient world or Asia and the Middle East. Each chapter includes an introduction that sets out the historical, tactical, and technological context, and looks at current debates among military historians. In addition, individual battles are placed within the wars of which they formed a part, allowing readers understand a battle’s full military and historical significance. With detailed maps, a wide range of illustrations, and an extensive index, this book offers a gold mine of information for everyone interested in world or military history.