Best Selling Books by Michael Brett

The book uses the rise of the Fatimids to survey the Islamic world in the 4th century AH/10th century CE, and reinterpret the role of the dynasty in the history of Islam down to the period of the Crusades.

Property and Money is a simple guide to the investment and financial aspects of commercial property. Putting property into its financial context, it seeks to bridge the world of the surveyor and property developer and the investment and financial markets of the City of London. The book starts from first principles, assuming no pre-existing knowledge. It is thus suitable for students as well as more established property practitioners and its appeal extends to bankers, solicitors, accountants and fund managers whose work brings them into contact with commercial property transactions. This updated and expanded edition includes coverage of: - Principles and pitfalls of property finance - How the property investment market works - Evaluating property and its performance - Understanding property companies and their accounts - How property companies get into trouble - Bank loans, bonds, profit-share agreements, leasebacks and other methods of property finance - The crash of the early 1990''s and its consequences. Based on a widely acclaimed series of articles that appeared in Estates Gazette magazine, Property and Money is complemented by an extensive index and glossary and enlivened by Nick Newman''s cartoonist-eye view of the property world.

A complete history of the Fatimids, showing the significance of the empire to Islam and the wider worldThe Fatimid empire in North Africa, Egypt and Syria was at the centre of the political and religious history of the Islamic world in the Middle Ages, from the breakdown of the aAbbasid empire in the tenth century, to the invasions of the Seljuqs in the eleventh and the Crusaders in the twelfth, leading up to its extinction by Saladin. As Imam and Caliph, the Fatimid sovereign claimed to inherit the religious and political authority of the Prophet, a claim which inspired the conquest of North Africa and Egypt and a following of believers as far away as India. The reaction this provoked was crucial to the political and religious evolution of mediaeval Islam. This book combines the separate histories of Isma''ilism, North Africa and Egypt with that of the dynasty into a coherent account. It then relates this account to the wider history of Islam to provide a narrative that establishes the historical significance of the empire.Key FeaturesThe first complete history of the Fatimid empire in English, establishing its central contribution to medieval Islamic historyCovers the relationship of tribal to civilian economy and society, the formation and evolution of the dynastic state, and the relationship of that state to economy and societyExplores the question of cultural change, specifically Arabisation and IslamisationGoes beyond the history of Islam, not only to introduce the Crusades, but to compare and contrast the dynasty with the counterparts of its theocracy in Byzantium and Western Europe

Africa is a huge continent, as large as the more habitable areas of Europe and Asia put together. This book takes as its subject the last 10,000 years of African history, and traces the way in which human society on the continent has evolved from communities of hunters and gatherers to the complex populations of today.

Jurassic World is the long-awaited next installment of the groundbreaking Jurassic Park series. T. rex’s, velociraptors, triceratops—as well as some all-new dinosaurs—will roar across the screen in this epic action-adventure directed by Colin Trevorrow starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson! Dinosaur Field Guide, written by two noted paleontologists and illustrated in big bold colors, is a kid-friendly nonfiction guide that uses simple text to describe over 100 dinosaurs! Kids will learn tons of awesome facts about the most well-known dinosaurs and some of the newest discoveries. The Dinosaur Field Guide also includes a pull-out dinosaur poster!

Stripping away the mystique from the world of investment and finance, How to Read the Financial Pages is a layman''s guide to reading and understanding the financial press and the markets and events it covers. Assuming no financial knowledge, Michael Brett provides a valuable explanation of the workings of the financial world - from money markets to commodity markets, investment ratios to takeover bids. With an extensive glossary of financial terms, this book will help you through the financial columns to a better understanding of the language of markets and money. For ten years How to Read the Financial Pages has been an outstanding first-choice buy for everyone who wants a thorough - but friendly - grounding in finance and investment. --What are stock markets, currency markets, commodities markets? How do they operate? --What are derivatives? Could they cause the financial system to crash? --What is meant by insider dealing? Why is it illegal? --Who are the main players in the world of money? What do stock brokers, market makers, merchant bankers and underwriters actually do? --How has the Internet affected private investors? What are the new opportunities?

This Variorum volume is a collection of articles dealing with Egypt under the Fatimids, originally published in diverse journals and books between 1984 and 2013. The Fatimids came to power in North Africa in 910 CE, and ruled in Egypt from 969 to 1171 CE. As Imams and Caliphs, they claimed authority for the faith and the government of the Muslim world. In Egypt and Syria, they both reigned and ruled over the state. In North Africa and Sicily, the Hijaz and latterly the Yemen, they reigned but did not rule. In the rest of the Muslim world, they pursued their aim for recognition, notably through their missionaries active in Iraq and Iran A core theme is the evolution of the population and its passage from a Coptic to a Muslim majority. Two articles deal with the murderous history of the Wazirs of the Pen before the Armenian Badr al-Jamali began the rule of the Wazirs of the Sword. Four articles deal with the question of Fatimid diplomacy followed by three dealing with Badr al-Jamali and his revival of the dynasty, including his relations with the Yemen, his use of the Coptic church to extend Fatimid influence to Christian Nubia and Ethiopia, and his employment of his military as tax-farmers, creating a system which culminated in the Mamluk regime of the 13th to the 16th century. The final articles concern the Fatimid response to the Crusades which ended with Saladin and the death of the last Imam Caliph, leaving Ismailism to the breakaway sects of the Nizaris in Iran and the Tayyibis in the Yemen.

Dealing with the history of North Africa in the Middle Ages, this book examines the formation of an Islamic state system, and an Islamic society in which Arabism played an increasing part. The subject and the theme derive from the work of Ibn Khaldun at the end of the 14th century.

When Alex and Michael travel to the Alps with their family to celebrate their great-grandmother’s hundredth birthday, the last thing they expect is to be thrown into an adventure where worlds collide and everything is not what it seems… The two children arrive in the valley at the foot of The Dragon of Ice, a great glacier and the cold heart of a centuries-old legend. Their great-grandmother has arranged for them to go climbing, enlisting a geologist and a mountaineer to accompany them on their ascent. But as an ancient spell takes hold, the legends of the valley become reality, and Alex and Michael are transported to a medieval world of witchcraft, dragons and a devil king. Can they overcome fear and will heroism prevail?

DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: South Africa will lead you straight to the best attractions South Africa has to offer. Packed with information, detailed maps, beautiful cutaways, and floor plans of all major sites, this guide explores every facet of the "Rainbow Nation." This edition also introduces a new 56-page field guide to South Africa''s wildlife and the safari experience, with detailed information on safaris, wildlife reserves, and local species. From Zulu culture to majestic lions, DK Eyewitness Travel: South Africa is packed with essential information, whatever your budget. This fully updated and expanded South Africa guide provides comprehensive guidance on the best things to do in South Africa, from exploring the Palace of the Lost City and Kruger National Park to experiencing the multifaceted culture of a country with 11 official languages! The DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: South Africa provides all the insider tips every visitor to South Africa needs, with dozens of reviews for South African hotels, recommendations for South African restaurants, tips for shopping and all the best places for entertainment. Don''t miss a thing on your vacation with the DK Eyewitness Guide to South Africa.

From a single sanctuary established in 1926, South Africa now boasts a proud complement of 19 national parks that have been described by National Geographic as the finest protected area network in the world outside of the United States of America. Over the past two decades, concerted efforts have resulted in more than 1 000 000 hectares being added to the national park estate that now represents all of South Africa''s spectacular biomes. This book introduces what is undoubtedly South Africa’s most celebrated national treasure – its national parks. It includes information that has never before appeared in print, along with 24 comprehensive maps that contain up-to-date data regarding the latest land purchases and tourist developments in each park and the recently established transfrontier parks in neighbouring Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. Essential details for visitors, interesting facts on wildlife distribution and information about guest facilities are presented in easily accessible tables and text boxes. This book is an essential travel companion for anyone who plans to explore South Africa''s spectacular national parks. The author and photographer, Michael Brett, holds a Master’s degree in Protected Area Management from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and is an expert on African conservation and tourism.

This book provides a window through which readers can explore this fascinating country in the heart of Africa. Nearly 200 magnificent full-colour photographs evoke the land, its people and in particular the Maasai tribe and their tribal traditions.

The Eastern Cape province has something to offer every visitor, whether you are looking for a relaxed beach holiday or a close encounter with wildlife, a cultural experience or a trip back into history. The province contains areas of almost unrivalled natural beauty and the range of landscape and vegetation types is simply incredible, from the snowy mountains of the Drakensberg, the wide open arid plains and rugged mountains of the Karoo, gently rolling grassy hills with forest patches tucked into their valleys, and deeply incised, thicket crowded river valleys, not to forget the finest sandy beaches set on a pristine coastline. This authoritative and comprehensive guide contains up-to-date information that will help you to make the most of your visit to this region. This guide includes: • Background information on the province''s geography, climate, people and culture • Ten regional chapters from Tsitsikamma to the mountainous interior • Over 50 maps, including a map of each region, all the major towns and most of the smaller towns • The latest info on national parks and provincial reserves • Accommodation options from camping sites and backpackers'' lodges to guesthouses and hotels that will suit all budgets • Where to eat and where to shop

In 1926 was daar net een wildreservaat in Suid-Afrika. Vandag spog die land met altesaam 19 nasionale parke wat deur National Geographic as die beste netwerk beskermde gebiede in die wêreld buite die Verenigde State van Amerika beskryf is. In hierdie boek maak die leser kennis met wat ongetwyfeld Suid-Afrika se kosbaarste nasionale skat is – sy nasionale parke. Dit bevat inligting wat nog nooit in druk verskyn het nie, tesame met 25 uitvoerige kaarte wat die jongste gegewens oor grondaankope en toerismeontwikkeling in elke park en die onlangs gevestigde oorgrensparke in die naburige Mosambiek, Zimbabwe, Botswana en Namibië bevat. Noodsaaklike besonderhede vir besoekers, interessante feite oor wildverspreiding en inligting oor verblyfgeriewe word in maklik verstaanbare tabelle en tekskassies aangebied. Hierdie boek is ’n noodsaaklike reismetgesel vir enigeen wat beplan om Suid-Afrika se skouspelagtige nasionale parke te verken. Michael Brett is ’n kenner op die gebied van Afrika-bewaring en -toerisme, en ’n bedrewe kartograaf en fotograaf. Hy het ’n meestersgraad in Beskermde Gebied-bestuur aan die Universiteit van KwaZulu-Natal verwerf en was as konsultant by bewaringsprojekte in Suider-Afrika betrokke. Hy is die skrywer van 12 boeke oor Suid-Afrika, Kenia en die Verenigde State.

In the best-selling How to Read the Financial Pages, Michael Brett stripped the mystique from the world of investment and finance and sold over 180,000 copies as a result. In How to Figure Out Company Accounts the author once again applies the same practical, jargon-free method to help us all understand company accounts. For investors, both professional and amateur, or anyone in business, the annual report and accounts is the critical document that reveals the health (or otherwise) of a company and points the way forward towards the company''s growth plans and strategies. It is the annual scorecard from which much can be revealed - if you know what you are looking for. If you want to get inside a company, all the information you will need is there for all to see. But in order to understand that information, the "language" of the report has to be learned. This includes not only the financial information as set out in the balance sheet, profit and loss account and the cash flow statement, but also the Notes which contain critical data on how the company is run and by whom, the Chairman''s statement, the CFO''s financial review and the general Review of the year''s operations. All these elements are looked at and analysed in the author''s no-nonsense style. Key financial ratios are also explained, which in themselves provide a critical snapshot of how a company is performing. This is not about creating a set of account. It seeks to set out clearly the language of existing accounts for anyone who needs to understand or interpret them in the course of their work or their personal investment decisions. It assumes no previous financial or accounting knowledge. With his a step-by-step approach Michael Brett guides the non-expert through the basic concepts first before moving on to the more complex detail.

The discovery of a marriage which has lasted for eighty years prompts a newspaper to publicise the elderly couple and shower them with gifts. Yet Henry and Sarah turn out not to be the sweet old things of tradition. They cause a great deal of trouble and embarrassment to the staff of the newspaper, especially to one somewhat unsuccessful reporter, whose wife of four hours leaves him on their account. This and the many other complications of the play give rise to an abundance of comic incidents before the whole situation is finally resolved.

An illustrated guide to the nation''s national parks takes readers from the depths of the Grand Canyon to the icy slopes of Glacier Bay in Alaska.

Entrez dans le monde des créatures les plus populaires de la préhistoire ! Vous allez croiser dans ce guide 100 dinosaures différents et étonnants. Une fiche-portrait illustrée détaille chaque animal et déroule son histoire, comme au cinéma. Des rubriques en marge de la fiche avec des précisions sur la géographie, l''alimentation, la taille, le poids, les amis, les ennemis... Un point sur les découvertes les plus récentes, les sites Internet, les musées à visiter, et sur la vie des animaux contemporains des dinosaures. Les auteurs, deux paléontologues passionnés, vous apprennent même comment et où rechercher des fossiles.