Colin Bell

Flight-Lieutenant Colin Bell's Bloody Dangerous is a powerful and inspiring portrait of bravery in action, full of touching admiration for his RAF comrades - one in four of whom were killed. He paints an extraordinarily vivid picture of what it was like to fly a Mosquito - the wooden wonder - in 50 raids over Germany, 13 of them to Berlin itself. There, coned by searchlights, he experienced the terror of being tracked by devastatingly effective 88 mm radar-controlled anti-aircraft guns when he wasn't being chased by night-fighting Messchersmitt 262s - the only aircraft in the German armoury capable of outrunning the Mosquito. Bell suffered engine failures, fuel starvation, near fatal ice, numerous hits to his plane and, on one occasion, an explosion so close there was shrapnel in his parachute and burn marks on his navigator's flying suit. Bell takes us from pre-war London, where he wooed his girlfriend with tickets to see a new film opening in Leicester Square (it was Gone with the Wind), to terrifying scenes of the Blitz itself - he joined up after seeing a bomb fall on the other side of the street on which he was walking. As a member of the elite Pathfinder 608 squadron he was part of the force that, arguably, did more than any other bombing unit to bring about the Nazis' final surrender.

Lions are the stuff of legends. Revered and feared in equal measure, both majestic and terrifying, they once reigned supreme over an extensive domain. But this once-dominant beast’s original range has contracted by some 85%, and the world population is thought to have dropped to just over 20,000 individuals. The IUCN Red Data List now classifies lions as Vulnerable, and the West African subpopulation as Critically Endangered. Not only are lion numbers crashing, but the remaining populations cling to their existence on ever smaller, more fragmented pockets of land. Feared and despised by farmers trying to eke out a living on marginal land, lions are increasingly being exterminated or repurposed for commercial gain. Trophy hunters pay extortionate sums to bag specimens in their prime, and lion bones are being sold for the roaring Eastern trade in ‘tiger wine’. This landmark book aims to halt the downward spiral. It takes you on a journey across the continent and into the lives of rangers, scientists and communities, and the majestic creatures they work to conserve. Along with the bad news about today’s lions, it offers a message of hope, showing how innovative conservationists are rethinking our approach to human-lion coexistence. This book, with its searing, inspiring images and vivid accounts from the experts and foot-soldiers of conservation, brings the plight of lions to the attention of the world and is an urgent plea for the actions that need to be taken before it’s too late. Sales points: A must-have for anyone interested in wildlife, conservation and the environment. Text by a host of top scientists, conservationists and others in the field. Outstanding photography by award-winning photographers.

Originally published in 1971, this was the first text on community studies which analysed the major empirical work in this field in a comparative perspective. It is concerned both with the sociology of community and the sociology of community studies. It takes both the findings of individual studies and the research process itself as significant sociological data in their own right, and it asks continually: how do we know what we know about communities?Community Studies is, then, not only a contribution to that particular field but also to our understanding of the interaction between theory and method in sociology. Studies are analysed from North and Latin America, Britain and Western Europe, and India. Two central problems, stratification and power, are considered at greater length.This book would prove to be an invaluable introduction not only for students of sociology but also for architects, planners and all those who had an interest in the community at the time. Its authors were, and had been, actively engaged in field research in this area.

Originally published in 1971, this was the first text on community studies which analysed the major empirical work in this field in a comparative perspective. It is concerned both with the sociology of community and the sociology of community studies. It takes both the findings of individual studies and the research process itself as significant sociological data in their own right, and it asks continually: how do we know what we know about communities?Community Studies is, then, not only a contribution to that particular field but also to our understanding of the interaction between theory and method in sociology. Studies are analysed from North and Latin America, Britain and Western Europe, and India. Two central problems, stratification and power, are considered at greater length.This book would prove to be an invaluable introduction not only for students of sociology but also for architects, planners and all those who had an interest in the community at the time. Its authors were, and had been, actively engaged in field research in this area.

‘When I was born, there were a million elephants roaming Africa. By the time my daughter Charlotte was born in 2015, the numbers of savannah elephants had crashed to just 350,000. At the current pace of illegal poaching, when Charlotte turns twenty-five the African elephant could be gone from the wild.’ HRH Prince William, Duke of Cambridge An elephant is killed in Africa every 15 minutes. If this continues, these extraordinary animals will become extinct in less than three decades. This magnificently produced book offers a passionate, graphic and moving picture of the African elephant today in over 250 astonishing colour images captured by Africa’s most celebrated wildlife photographers. With texts contributed by leading scientists, conservationists, filmmakers and criminologists on the ground, the book covers the elephant populations of South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Chad and Mali. The book has been created to make the world aware of the devastating problem and as a tribute to those who risk their lives each day to stem the tide of poaching. The Last Elephants – is the title prophetic? We hope not.

First Published in 1974. In this collection Colin Bell and Howard Newby have reaped a rich harvest from the sociological field of community studies. The selection from the work in that field presented here should satisfy readers of many different tastes and interests. Specialists in the sociology of community studies will find the authors' brief, informative and succinct survey of the field and the introductory summaries to each chapter as useful for their own teaching and research as the comprehensive selection of articles itself. All those concerned with the welfare of people, whether social workers and nurses or magistrates and local authorities, will find here information about the community aspects of peoples' lives which all too often still fails to find a place in their professional training.

As increased access to employment and educational opportunities brought dramatic changes to women's lives, sociologists began to look at the effect of women's changing roles on their children and families. Based on empirical investigations and personal experience, the studies included in The Sociology of Gender and the Family set of the International Library of Sociology set out to establish patterns and regularities in social behaviour, and to understand the social roles of kinship groups, mothers, wives, children and the elderly.

As increased access to employment and educational opportunities brought dramatic changes to women's lives, sociologists began to look at the effect of women's changing roles on their children and families. Based on empirical investigations and personal experience, the studies included in The Sociology of Gender and the Family set of the International Library of Sociology set out to establish patterns and regularities in social behaviour, and to understand the social roles of kinship groups, mothers, wives, children and the elderly.

First Published in 1974. In this collection Colin Bell and Howard Newby have reaped a rich harvest from the sociological field of community studies. The selection from the work in that field presented here should satisfy readers of many different tastes and interests. Specialists in the sociology of community studies will find the authors' brief, informative and succinct survey of the field and the introductory summaries to each chapter as useful for their own teaching and research as the comprehensive selection of articles itself. All those concerned with the welfare of people, whether social workers and nurses or magistrates and local authorities, will find here information about the community aspects of peoples' lives which all too often still fails to find a place in their professional training.