Educational Books

100 Great inventors book: Learn more about the fascinating lives of the famous inventors whose creations helped shape the world we live in today

This book provides biographical information on great inventors of the past and present. Reviewers praise it for being well-researched, full of valuable information, and well-presented. 

In a journey spanning 50 books, hundreds of ideas and over a century, 50 Psychology Classics looks at some of the most intriguing questions relating to what motivates us, what makes us feel and act in certain ways, how our brains work, and how we create a sense of self.

50 Psychology Classics explores writings from some iconic figures such as Freud, Adler, Jung, skinner, James, Piaget and Pavolv, but also highlights the work of contemporary thinkers such as Gardner, Gilbert, Goleman and Seligman. We all need a personal theory of what makes people tick. To survive and thrive, we have to know who and what we are, and to be canny about the motivations of others. The common route to this knowledge is life experience, but we can advance our appreciation of the subject more quickly through reading.

Goleman taught us the importance of Emotional Intelligence. Since the publication of his Eq 'exposition', a whole array of Emotional Intelligence books has appeared, with each title purporting to put those theories of Eq into practice. This book goes deeper. Revealing the structure beneath Emotional Intelligence, 7 Steps utilises its unique framework to combine Eq and Neuro Linguistic Programming (Nlp) - the study of excellence that examines how behaviour is neurologically formulated. 

This incredible reference resource covers eight subject areas and provides 8000 bulleted facts. There are 800 panels each containing an illustration and ten ke fects, satr facts and news flashes. There are no long passages of text - just facts.

Big ideas sometimes come from the strangest places. In this wide ranging introduction, James M Russell takes the fear out of philosophy and selects seventy-six works - from Plato, Descartes and Wittgenstein to Philip K Dick and the Moomins as well as contemporary thinkers such as Peter Singer and John Rawls. Dividing into accessible sections - history, contemplation, happiness, and -isms, Russell gives us the lives as well as the lessons of the great thinkers, including a digest of their key ideas. 

Was there a beginning of time? Could time run backwards? Is the universe infinite or does it have boundaries? These are just some of the questions considered in an internationally acclaimed masterpiece by one of the world's greatest thinkers. It begins by reviewing the great theories of the cosmos from Newton to Einstein, before delving into the secrets which still lie at the heart of space and time, from the Big Bang to black holes, via spiral galaxies and strong theory. To this day A Brief History of Time remains a staple of the scientific canon, and its succinct and clear language continues to introduce millions to the universe and its wonders.

A History of Passenger Aircraft is an illustrated aviation book written by William (Bill) Sweetman, a prominent British aviation journalist and defense editor. William Sweetman is a highly respected aviation writer who has authored over 50 books on military and commercial aircraft. He has served as a senior editor for the Aviation Week Network and Janes Information Services. 

Our understanding of world history is changing, as new discoveries are made on all the continents and old prejudices are being challenged. In this truly global journey, political journalist Andrew Marr revisits some of the traditional epic stories, from classical Greece and Rome to the rise of Napoleon, but surrounds them with less familiar material, from Peru to the Ukraine, China to the Caribbean. He looks at cultures that have failed and vanished, as well as the origins of today’s superpowers, and finds surprising echoes and parallels across vast distances and epochs.

A History of the World is a book about the great change-makers of history and their times, people such as Cleopatra, Genghis Khan, Galileo and Mao, but it is also a book about us. For ‘the better we understand how rulers lose touch with reality, or why revolutions produce dictators more often than they produce happiness, or why some parts of the world are richer than others, the easier it is to understand our own times.’

Neil MacGregor's A History of the World in 100 Objects takes a bold, original approach to human history, exploring past civilizations through the objects that defined them.

Encompassing a grand sweep of human history, A History of the World in 100 Objects begins with one of the earliest surviving objects made by human hands, a chopping tool from the Olduvai gorge in Africa, and ends with objects which characterise the world we live in today.

Seen through MacGregor's eyes, history is a kaleidoscope - shifting, interconnected, constantly surprising, and shaping our world today in ways that most of us have never imagined. A stone pillar tells us about a great Indian emperor preaching tolerance to his people; Spanish pieces of eight tell us about the beginning of a global currency; and an early Victorian tea-set speaks to us about the impact of empire.

An intellectual and visual feast, this is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books published in years.

'I am 94. I've had an extraordinary life. It's only now that I appreciate how extraordinary.

As a young man, I felt I was out there in the wild, experiencing the untouched natural world - but it was an illusion. The tragedy of our time has been happening all around us, barely noticeable from day to day - the loss of our planet's wild places, its biodiversity.

I have been witness to this decline. A Life on Our Planet is my witness statement, and my vision for the future. It is the story of how we came to make this, our greatest mistake - and how, if we act now, we can yet put it right.

We have one final chance to create the perfect home for ourselves and restore the wonderful world we inherited.'

All we need is the will to do so.'

How do you decide what is a 'story' and what isn't? What does a newspaper editor actually do all day? How do hacks get their scoops? How do the TV stations choose their news bulletins? How do you persuade people to say those awful, embarassing things? Who earns what? How do journalists manage to look in the mirror after the way they sometimes behave? The purpose of this insider's account is to provide an answer to all these questions and more. Andrew Marr's brilliant, and brilliantly funny, book is a guide to those of us who read newspapers, or who listen to and watch news bulletins but want to know more. Andrew Marr tells the story of modern journalism through his own experience. This is an extremely readable and utterly unique modern social history of British journalism, with all its odd glamour, smashed hopes and future possibility.

In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail--well, most of it. In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand--and, if possible, answer--the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world's most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.

The book titled "AESOP’S FABLES – Brimax" is an edition of the classic tales published by Brimax Books. The fables within are adaptations for younger readers, with specific editions adapted by Lucy Kincaid and illustrated by Gill Guile. The book contains a collection of well-known fables, adapted by Lucy Kincaid. The stories are accompanied by color illustrations from Gill Guile. Examples of included fables are "The Hare and the Tortoise", "The Dog and his Reflection", and "A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing". The writing style has been described as formal yet direct, which makes it suitable for independent reading by children (suggested reading age varies by edition, but generally targets elementary school children). 

Richard Dowden is perhaps our leading journalist of African affairs. Since first arriving in Idi Amin's Uganda in 1971 he has never stopped learning about and reporting on real Africans and the realities of life in Africa's many and varied lands. Like many young Westerners, he first went to Africa to 'save' it, but he stayed to learn from it. Africans taught him how to laugh and dance, how to tease but not command, how not to expect the truth and never to blurt it out, how to avoid danger, and how to be patient. Very, very patient. Such patience has served Dowden well, for he returns now from his decades-long journey among Africans with a report on their various ways and dreams, their priorities and pressures, that is far more revealing about the past, present and future of this fascinating and bewildering continent than any number of war stories or economic reports. Dowden combines a novelist's gift for atmosphere with the unblinking scholar's grasp of historical change to produce one of the most compelling and revealing accounts of modern sub-Saharan Africa yet. His experiences there required him to re-evaluate all he had been taught to believe 

‘The Nile, the white fountains of the Nile. . .’

Her father’s last words haunt Harriet Latimer long after she has been rescued from the Nubian desert which they had been attempting to cross. Her rescuer, the insolent and devastatingly handsome Raoul Beauvais, is a French explorer and geographer with the same objective – to find the source of the Nile in Africa. Despite Harriet’s requests, Raoul swears that women have no place on his expedition, but he makes an exception for the beautiful Circassian Narinda. Can Harriet realise her father's dream and make the journey that no European woman has attempted before?

Do you know why Africa is so poor? What really happens to your charity money? Why do trade rules fail African countries and yet cost you too? We've heard it all before: the corrupt leaders, heartless global corporations, the wicked World Bank.

But the answers are much closer to home... and so are the solutions

When Giles Bolton began working in the world of aid and development, he travelled to Africa convinced that he could solve problems, save villages and sing songs with the locals under a shimmering sunset. The reality proved rather less romantic, and far more shocking...

Aid and Other Dirty Business is a radical, brilliantly readable and totally original approach to the seemingly unending problem of poverty in Africa. It may change your life, but, more importantly, it will help you change the lives of others.

Sir Richard Francis Burton's translation, titled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night

 (1885–1888), remains the most famous unexpurgated English version of the classic Middle Eastern folktale collection. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (1888), subtitled A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, is the only complete English language translation of One Thousand and One Nights (the Arabian Nights) to date – a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age (8th−13th centuries). It stands as the only complete translation of the Macnaghten or Calcutta II edition (Egyptian recension) of the "Arabian Nights".

As Princesses of Crete and daughters of the fearsome King Minos, Ariadne and her sister Phaedra grow up hearing the hoofbeats and bellows of the Minotaur echo from the Labyrinth beneath the palace. The Minotaur - Minos's greatest shame and Ariadne's brother - demands blood every year.

When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives in Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls in love with him. But helping Theseus kill the monster means betraying her family and country, and Ariadne knows only too well that in a world ruled by mercurial gods - drawing their attention can cost you everything.

In a world where women are nothing more than the pawns of powerful men, will Ariadne's decision to betray Crete for Theseus ensure her happy ending? Or will she find herself sacrificed for her lover's ambition?

ARIADNE gives a voice to the forgotten women of one of the most famous Greek myths, and speaks to their strength in the face of angry, petulant Gods. Beautifully written and completely immersive, this is an exceptional debut novel.

Planet Earth. Four elements. One incredible story. Lonely Planet Kids' The Big Earth Book takes children on a rollercoaster ride through history, geography, science and more to show how four elements - earth, fire, air and water - created the world and everything that exists today. Amazing facts, photography and illustrations bring our planet and its past to life in an exciting, engaging way.

Written by Mark Brake, a science writer and broadcaster who's worked for NASA, the BBC and the National Science Museum of Thailand, and created in consultation with Dr Mike Goldsmith, a research scientist and writer with a PhD in astrophysics from Keele University in the UK.

Read At Home is the best-selling home reading series designed for young, beginner readers. It features all the popular Oxford Reading Tree characters in exciting stories written for parents to support their child's reading at home. Read At Home First Experiences introduce young children to new situations and are ideal for parent and child to read together. Read At Home First Experiences help parents to: BL Explore the wider world with their child BL Talk about shared feelings and emotions BL Build vocabulary through the fun activities RAH Level: Although these books have been created for parents to share with their child, they have been written to Level 4 of Read At Home. Level 4 is for children Building Confidence in Reading - those children who can recognise 30-50 words by sight, can read harder sentences, with less support, and can use sounds to help make words. The story is written with simple but more varied sentence structure and vocabulary with three to four sentences per page.

Children's A to Z Encyclopedia is an extensive illustrated encyclopedia for 5+ year olds. Covering a huge variety of topics, the alphabetic approach helps children find the information they want quickly. Each page presents a new subject illustrated by photos and artwork, with captions and annotations to help children understand more difficult concepts. Throughout the book there are fact boxes, vocabulary panels, activities and experiments, while cartoons inject fun into learning, and cross-references make researching a topic far easier. There is everything a child could possibly need in their quest for knowledge in this one fantastic book.

Traces the first eighty-six years of the twentieth century and describes important events in politics, industry, art, music, literature, religion, and sports. It consists of a month-by-month chronicle of the events of the twentieth century, with each entry written as though it were a contemporary news report. Books under this title were published in multiple countries, but with independently prepared content from the perspective of each country's news sources.

The Collins Family Encyclopedia book from 1981 is an inexpensive, single-volume general reference work that is readily available from online booksellers. It typically sells for a low price and does not have significant collectible value as an encyclopedia, although its value can vary depending on its condition. 

This Collins First School Dictionary is an ideal introduction to the world of words for children age 5+. The careful choice of vocabulary, clear definitions and simple examples, together with the beautifully designed illustrations help make learning easy, memorable, and fun.

This school dictionary for children offers an easy way to find out the meanings of everyday words, and includes a carefully written section which provides support in grammar, spelling and punctuation in preparation for school tests. The images in this illustrated student dictionary engage children and help them understand what words mean, while example sentences show how words can be used. Simple grammatical labels introduce children to different word groups, all of which are clearly explained in the introduction. Simple, fun and easy-to-use, this is perfect for any child’s first school dictionary. 

This ultimate space encyclopedia for children makes learning at home fun and is designed to blow your mind with incredible CGI images, from the deep darkness of black holes to the spectacular sparkle of supernovas.

The many mysteries of the Universe are explored in breathtaking detail, including in-depth cross-sections and lifelike cutaways to showcase the planets, stars, moons, and space stations. Featuring absolutely everything under the Sun, this exciting visual reference guide is your guaranteed one-stop shop for space.

Bursting with up-to-date facts, infographics, and the latest NASA images, Knowledge Encyclopedia Space! is sure to enthral and inform readers of all ages.

Whether it's through raw power, elegant curves or just an eye-watering price tag, there are a small number of cars that mark the pinnacle of automotive design - and now the experts at Top Gear have chosen the very best of them.

Top Gear: Dream Cars - The Hot 100 is a celebration of the cars that achieve that perfect blend of art and engineering.

From the supercar muscleof the Porsche 918 and Ferrari LaFerrari to the technological prowess of the Nissan DeltaWing and the mighty McLaren P1, with stunning visuals, including jaw-dropping photography (some 3D) and detailed reviews of each car, Top Gear: Dream Cars 

The groundbreaking bestseller that redefines intelligence and success Does IQ define our destiny? Daniel Goleman argues that our view of human intelligence is far too narrow, and that our emotions play major role in thought, decision making and individual success. Self-awareness, impulse control, persistence, motivation, empathy and social deftness are all qualities that mark people who excel: whose relationships flourish, who are stars in the workplace. With new insights into the brain architecture underlying emotion and rationality, Goleman shows precisely how emotional intelligence can be nurtured and strengthened in all of us.

Encyclopedia of World Events: Eighty Turning Points in History (also published as Encyclopedia of Events That Changed the World) is a historical reference book authored by Robert Ingpen and Philip Wilkinson, first published in 1991. 

The book covers a diverse range of topics in politics, science, and social change, including: 

• Ancient & Medieval: Rise of Buddhism, Asoka and the Mauryan Empire, the Black Death, and the rise of Christianity.

• Exploration & Conflict: Magellan's circumnavigation, the Spanish Armada, the French Revolution (Fall of the Bastille), and the American Civil War.

• Science & Progress: Marie Curie's discovery of radium, Einstein’s relativity, the discovery of DNA's structure, the launch of Sputnik 1, and the development of antiseptic surgery by Joseph Lister.

• Modern Era: Gandhi’s Salt March, Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" speech, and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. 

The book you are referring to is likely the Encyclopedia of World History  published by Parragon Books (sometimes listed as Parragon Book Service Ltd or Paragon Books, Bath), not "Paragon Books London" as a distinct entity. Parragon Books was a UK-based publisher known for publishing general reference and gift books. 

Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales are iconic stories like "The Little Mermaid," "The Ugly Duckling," "The Snow Queen," and "The Emperor's New Clothes," known for blending traditional folklore with his unique imagination, often exploring themes of resilience, love, and societal critique, influencing generations of storytellers and becoming beloved classics for children and adults.