THE SECRET PURPOSES, David Baddiel's third novel, takes us into a little-known and still somewhat submerged area of British history: the internment of German Jewish refugees on the Isle of Man during the Second World War. Isaac Fabian, on the run with his young family from Nazism in East Prussia, comes to Britain assuming he has found asylum, but instead finds himself drowning in the morass of ignorance, half-truth, prejudice, and suspicion that makes up government attitudes to German Jews in 1940. One woman, June Murray, a translator from the Ministry of Information, stands out - and when she comes to the island on a personal mission to uncover solid evidence of Nazi atrocities, her meeting with Isaac will have far-reaching consequences for both of them. A haunting and beautifully written tale of love, displacement and survival, THE SECRET PURPOSES profoundly questions the way that truth - both personal and political - emerges from the tangle of history.

An interdisciplinary study of the nature of money and its impact on our economic, social, political, legal and spiritual lives.

A History of Corporate Financial Reporting provides an understanding of the procedures and practices which constitute corporate financial reporting in Britain, at different points of time, and how and why those practices changed and became what they are now. Its particular focus is the external financial reporting practices of joint stock companies. This is worth knowing about given the widely held view that Britain (i) pioneered modern financial reporting, and (ii) played a primary role in the development of both capital markets and professional accountancy. The book makes use of a principal and agent framework to study accounting’s past, but one where the failure of managers always to supply the information that users’ desire is given full recognition. It is shown that corporate financial reporting did not develop into its current state in a straightforward and orderly fashion. Each era produces different environmental conditions and imposes new demands on accounting. A proper understanding of accounting developments therefore requires a careful examination of the interrelationship between accountants and accounting techniques on the one hand and, on the other, the social and economic context within which changes took place. The book’s corporate coverage starts with the legendary East India Company, created in 1600, and continues through the heyday of the statutory trading companies founded to build Britain’s canals (commencing in the 1770s) and railways (commencing c.1829) to focus, principally, on the limited liability company fashioned by the Joint Stock Companies Act 1844 and the Limited Liability Act 1855. The story terminates in 2005 when listed companies were required to prepare their consolidated accounts in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, thus signalling the effective end of British accounting.

This is a study of the 'secret history', a polemical form of historiography which flourished in England during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

Venereal disease existed in epidemical proportions in 18th-century France and Britain. Initially regarded as the subject for jokes and boasts of Restoration promiscuity, its prevalence as the century wore on forced people to take it seriously. Linda Merians offers a detailed study of the disease.

Dream Quest reveals a series of vivid lucid dreams that foretell the future and delve into the nature of being. The dreams happened as described, although they are presented within the context of a fictionalized trek that is set on the slopes of New Hampshire's Mount Major. Alexander and his companions Verity and Futura eventually find refuge from the night's chill within Madame Leonedria's grotto. Therein, his dreams about the future, human nature, and reality are discussed in depth. Alexander felt both cursed and blessed by these remarkable events, for the gift that allowed him to find a metaphysical path to God's door slowly began consuming his mind. Indeed, the condition that sparked his visions degenerated Alexander's brain, and his memories are now fading. However, the experiences were recorded long ago, and they leave a message that might change your life. This is far more than a book about spirituality or morality. This is a quest for purpose.