This fascinating selection of photographs traces some of the many ways in which Pimlico has changed and developed over the last century.

A World by Itself is Shirley Guiton's second book about life in the Venetian Lagoon, following No Magic Eden; but whereas that book was principally concerned with the island of Torcello, where the author had made her home, A World by Itself, takes a broader view, encompassing the northern lagoon islands of Torcello, Burano, Santa Christina and San Francesco del Deserto, and considers how the island communities there would react to the technological upheavals of the twentieth century. As she says, 'Though tradition in the lagoon is strong, the forces of change in this century are stronger.' With its astute depictions of the islands and islanders and its moving concern for the future of their ways of life, A World by Itself, first published in 1977, is as ground-breaking as its predecessor. With this book and No Magic Eden, it may be said that Shirley Guiton has done for the Venetian Lagoon what Ronald Blythe did for Akenfield.

Roy Brooks became a legend in his own time for the puckish delight he took in telling the truth, the whole truth - and even the unwholesome truth - about the properties, as an estate agent, that he advertised for sale. From 1950 to his death in 1971, his fame for these revolutionary, outrageous, funny, and on occasions, painful advertisements spread far and wide. In a trade well known for its euphemisms, optimistic cliches and skilful camouflage, he won the delighted applause of the property-buying and newspaper-reading, public.;This is a collection of the best of Roy Brooks' property advertisements in the Sunday Times and Observer newspapers.

This fascinating selection of photographs traces some of the many ways in which Belgravia and Knightsbridge have changed and developed over the last century.

One boy, one street and one summer he will never forget.

A classic study of military leadership uncovering why generals fail The Crimea, the Boer War, the Somme, Tobruk, Pearl Harbor, the Bay of Pigs: these are just some of the milestones in a century of military incompetence, of costly mishaps and tragic blunders. Are these simple accidents—as the "bloody fool" theory has it—or are they inevitable? The psychologist Norman F. Dixon argues that there is a pattern to inept generalship, and he locates this pattern within the very act of creating armies in the first place, which in his view produces a levelling down of human capability that encourages the mediocre and limits the gifted. In this light, successful generals achieve what they do despite the stultifying features of the organization to which they belong. On the Psychology of Military Incompetence is at once an original exploration of the battles that have defined the last two centuries of human civilization and an essential guide for the next generation of military leaders.