New Release Books by Peter Kirby

What kinds of jobs did children do in the past, and how widespread was their employment? Why did so many poor families put their children to work? How did the state respond to child labour? What problems arise in the interpretation of evidence of child employment? Child Labour in Britain, 1750-1870 - Offers a broad empirical analysis of how the work of children was integrated with the major economic and occupational changes of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain - Argues that working children occupied a unique position within the context of the family, the labour market and the state - Discusses the key issues involved in the study of children''s employment In this clear and concise study, Peter Kirby convincingly argues that child labour provided an invaluable contribution to economic growth and the incomes of working-class households. Consequently, the picture that emerges is much more complex than that portrayed in many traditional approaches to the subject.

A comprehensive study of the occupational health of employed children within the broader context of social, industrial and environmental change between 1780 and 1850.

A Guatemalan journalist is kidnapped, and the only message from her kidnappers is the murder of her lawyer. In a race against time, Luc Vanier sets about reconstructing her life, through the sordid world of human trafficking, the secretive underbelly of a multinational mining corporation, and the hiding places of desperate refugees. When Vanier is brutally warned off the investigation, he throws away the rule book and goes after the villains with a vengeance.

This book provides a unique work of reference cutting across ancient cultural divisions within Dark Age Britain, and it enables the reader to follow the careers of people as far apart in time and place as the early Kentish kings and Viking earls of Orkney. Entries range from well-known characters such as Merlin, Alfred the Great, the historian Bede and the Danish warlord Cnut to the more obscure Pictish kings and abbots of Iona. Each entry is presented in a succinct and compact form in an easily accessible A to Z format. Here experts on a multitude of early historic peoples in Britain have brought together a dossier of scholarly findings on all those whose lives can be reconstructed from an examination of early source material, incorporating the very latest research. Englishmen from Wessex to Northumbria, Welshmen and Cornishmen, Northern Britons, Scots and Picts, Scandinavians from the Danelaw and York as well as from the Viking earldom of Orkney and the Southern Isles, all take their place in this wide-ranging survey of the people of Dark Age Britain. This detailed work of reference, supplemented by chronological and genealogical tables, will be an essential tool for all those with an interest in Dark Age Britain.

London based design consultancy Browns are five years old. In that time they have achieved an award-winning global reputation based on their ability to bridge the gap between the cultural and corporate arenas, manifesting itself as a successful design business. This is the fourth in the ''GCE Directions Series'' that takes a look at famous design groups around the globe. In an amazingly short space of time and on top of their expanding brand/identity work, Browns have designed and published some thirteen award-winning books. The books have not only been influential from a design point of view but have also forced the design world to re-think how the barriers separating publishing and design can be broken down. From a New York Sex Club to a frozen Scottish Loch, the book takes a look at how six of these books came to be. In a visual scrap book format, the book tells the story of the personalities, adventures, travels and process surrounding each book, visually all laid bare on the printed page. It gives an insight into the level of commitment, drive and passion required for designers to successfully enter the publishing arena.

Inspector Luc Vanier is back, and Montreal''s Hochelaga district is in the throes of gentrification. Its drug dealers and prostitutes are disappearing, and Vanier, investigating the brutal death of one, suspects the neighbourhood cleanup may involve murdering the unwanted. The local Police Commander sees only declining crime rates and his improving career prospects, and is willing to go easy on a local militia group that''s expanding its influence. When Vanier is suspended for brutality, he''s on his own. He continues to probe the dark side of progress, while struggling to help his son, just back from Afghanistan and crippled by PTSD. As the threats against him mount, Vanier fights to prove his innocence and discover who really controls the streets. Have the government and police stepped back to allow the militia to impose order? Is the militia the price of order when governments run out of money?

Inspector Luc Vanier finds himself in the back rooms of the Catholic Church, boardrooms of Montreal''s business elite and the soup kitchens as he struggles to reveal who is doing the killing before the murder count climbs.

The first in a series this is the story of a woman who after being widowed realises that she has been missing out on life and throws caution to the wind in trying to catch up on twenty years of a loveless marriage while at the same time keeping the family in line.After inheriting shares in the firm her husband had founded she decided to take an active part in the running of the company with the aim of making it a multi-national household name.She wonders after so many years of refraining from sex if she is still attractive to the opposite sex and goes over the top in trying to make herself look available. Surprised at the effect her newly found sexuality has on men she uses this to obtain what she wants.

This is the third in the series of stories covering the lives and cases of DCI Victor Moyes and his second in command DS Victoria Morgan. The stories are set in the nineteen sixties before the age of DNA and at the start of the computer age and rely on old fashioned policing which were slow and laborious. Luckily Victor Moyes had in the shape of Victoria Morgan not only a beautiful partner but also an intelligent woman although this was something he didn''t realise or would have admitted to.