Christianity, one of the world’s great religions, has had an incalculable impact on human history. This book, now the most comprehensive and up to date single volume work in English, describes not only the main ideas and personalities of Christian history, its organisation and spirituality, but how it has changed politics, sex, and human society. Diarmaid MacCulloch ranges from Palestine in the first century to India in the third, from Damascus to China in the seventh century and from San Francisco to Korea in the twentieth.

He is one of the most widely travelled of Christian historians and conveys a sense of place as arrestingly as he does the power of ideas. He presents the development of Christian history differently from any of his predecessors. He shows how, after a semblance of unity in its earliest centuries, the Christian church divided during the next 1400 years into three increasingly distanced parts, of which the western Church was by no means always the most important: he observes that at the end of the first eight centuries of Christian history, Baghdad might have seemed a more likely capital for worldwide Christianity than Rome.

This is the first truly global history of Christianity.

Facing the disarray and disorientation around his father’s death, a man contends with the strange and haunting power of the house his parents once lived in. He sets about the mundane yet exhausting process of sorting through the remnants of his father’s life – clearing away years of accumulated objects, unearthing forgotten memories and the haunted realms of everyday life. At the same time, he embarks on an eccentric side-project.

And as he grows increasingly obsessed with this new project, his grip on reality seems to slip.

This is a book about mothers and motherless daughters, and about a woman so scared of leaving her own children that she is hardly able to mother them herself. After a troubled upbringing that saw the early death of her mother from cancer, Sarah Gabriel had created a happy home life with her partner and two beautiful daughters. Then, at 44, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and learned that while you can turn your back on your past, you can’t escape your genetic legacy.

The problem was MI8T, a rare and deadly genetic mutation that was responsible for the death of her mother and countless female ancestors. In Gabriel’s struggle for survival, she takes us on a white-knuckle ride through contemporary genetics, the rigours of her treatment for cancer, and the impact of the disease on her family’s dynamics. It is a fight not just for physical survival, but for identity, for sanity, for hope.

Laced with black humour, written with a mixture of passion and clinical accuracy, “Eating Pomegranates” is an intensely powerful and moving memoir about mothers, daughters and breast cancer that is as beautiful as it is brutal.

Knitting is still one of the most popular needlecrafts and is a great way to make beautiful and original clothes and accessories. This book of specially commissioned designs for both fashion garments and home accessories has been created with the style-conscious in mind. Contemporary knits in beautiful yarns and subtle colors fill the pages of this inspirational book.

Designs for a shawl, waistcoat, shrug, scarf and dress are just some of the very wearable pieces featured. Additionally, why not knit yourself a pretty blanket, a throw or a cushion cover for your home? All patterns have been thoroughly tested and give clear instructions with diagrams and charts where necessary. With a comprehensive introduction to the techniques of this beautiful craft, this book is your one-stop guide to knitting.

Motor racing, in all its forms, is one of the world’s most popular sports, both live and on television. For more than a century, motorsports fans around the world have thrilled at men, and occasionally women, driving at extreme speeds with apparently scant regard for their safety. “World Motor Sport Records 2011″ is an indispensable guide to every category of top international motor sport, from Formula One to NASCAR, to the World Rally Championship, to the Le Mans 24 Hours and touring cars.

However, this is much more than a simple records book. Complementing the various lists on a vast range of topics are potted biographies of racing legends, with stories behind records and brief reports of famous races. If you ever get into an argument about motor sports facts and stats, anywhere in the world, “World Motor Sport Records 2011″ will give you with the definitive answer.