At the heart of the Sultan's vast but fragile empire stands the Palace of Dreams, where an entire nation's consciousness is tapped into and meticulously laid bare in the form of images and symbols of the dreaming mind. This book talks about the thought-police who have been the most effective instruments of oppression at the service of dictators.

In this collection, Raymond Aron chronicles the 20th century with the authority of someone who was not simply a witness to the events he wrote about, but an active participant. His reading of events reminds us of what was really at stake over the century - and why it still matters.

Translated, this correspondence, from 1863-76, is unique in the history of French literature. Never have two great writers set down their ideas so candidly and over so long a period on the most varied topics, including the genesis of their own writings, a commentary on the Paris theatre, gossip from the literary world and their own domestic lives.

Presents an account of day-to-day life in a medieval French village. Using records gathered by the Catholic Church in its pursuit of heretics, this book shows the lives of a cast of village characters.

Tells the story of Klara, who, after her release from Auschwitz, wandered through war-ravaged Europe for two months before returning to Paris in August 1945. This book reveals the horror of the author's experiences in Auschwitz.

Presents a truthful story which is told in the form of diary, kept by Angelika, the sister-in-law and friend of Klara, who, after her release from Auschwitz, wandered through war-ravaged Europe for two months before returning to Paris. This work reveals the horror of what she experienced in Auschwitz as she struggles to readapt to normal life.

A passionate lover of women, Ibn Saud took many wives, had numerous concubines and fathered almost 100 children. Yet he remained an unswerving and devout Muslim, described by one who knew him well at the time of his death in 1953, as 'probably the greatest Arab since the Prophet Muhammad'.

Between 1924 and the fall of communism in 1991, many millions of visitors paid their respects to the embalmed body of Lenin in Red Square. This is the story of the mausoleum, told by the only survivor of the family that plunged the founder of the Soviet Union into a preserving solution.

Whilst King Louis XIV celebrates victory over Holland, his gardener at Versailles wages his own war to make his kitchen gardens nothing less than a work of art. Is his understanding of the soil and those who live by it enough to protect him as the Sun King's reign spirals into a regime of fear.

Antigone was originally produced in Paris in 1942, when France was an occupied nation and part of Hitler's Europe. The play depicts an authoritarian regime and the play's central character, the young Antigone, mirrored the predicament of the French people in the grips of tyranny.

An allegorical tale, urging readers to rediscover the harmonies of the countryside and prevent its wilful destruction.