PATRICIA WRIGHT

Idyllic beaches, rain forests and parched deserts, lemurs and chameleons, the woodcarvers of Zafimaniry villages, the relaxed tropical ambience of Anjouan, the bustling flower market of Antananarivo, pirogues cruising the Tsiribihina River - Madagascar and the Comoros boast attractions as diverse as they are appealing. This guide is your essential companion - the only one to cover both destinations.

Spanish painter Francisco Goya had unique artistic genius, and this guide to his life and works is the perfect way to learn more about him! Discover how Goya escaped his humble background, learn why his work was suppressed by the Inquisition, and find out how weavers turned his paintings into tapestries. Richly detailed full-color photographs of his most famous works combine with biography and analysis to make this a compelling look at Goya and the world in which he lived.

Buckingham Palace is one of the most familiar buildings in the world, but who knows the real tales hidden behind its ceremonial gates? Who was the witch that once lived in the royal courtyard? How could courtesans once have plied their trade in front of the present royal windows? How dare a prime minister call the palace a monstrous insult to the nation? This text presents a detailed exploration of the ordinary and sometimes extraordinary people who owned or lived on the land now occupied by the Palace, and of the royal occupants who later inhabited it.The Strange History of Buckingham Palace reveals how Buckingham Palace came to be the place it is today, from the time when it probably formed the escape route from a Roman battle nearly 2000 years ago, to the establishment of the first gentlemans house there in the 17th century, and on into a chequered royal history, which includes an ambitious Saxon queen and James Is plan to found an English silk industry in the Palace gardens.