Drawing on varied primary source materials, including secret Chinese intelligence reports and British journals, this intriguing study captures the collision between East and West that occured during Britain's abortive 1793 attempt to open China to Western trade.

This book is about ordinary and extraordinary people. They are all patients with different neurological problems, but the focus of the stories is on their personal struggles and their way of coping, rather than the disease. The stories delve into different issues: medical-ethical dilemmas, misunderstandings, secrets, and lies; as well as positive and up-beat attitudes, and the causes of imaginary illnesses. In all stories, however, the overarching theme is the patient and the history the patient relates. PROFESSIONAL REVIEWERS from Neurology have judged the stories to be: touching, poignant ... wonderfully written ... depicting a powerful image of a doctor-patient interaction ... a touching story (of the hard life of a miner) ... a compelling story by a proven author ... the value and pathos in every patient and their struggle to assert their humanity. EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK: 1 - But I need to be sure I am right and I am still bothered there is no family history of the illness. And to be sure, I need to ask you a very serious question. The older woman sat very still, hardly breathing, waiting. ... 2 - I can feed myself, too, she said with great difficulty. Margaret, he said, my young medical students need to know that patients can do surprising things on their own. ... 3 - Gary never remembered when the roof crashed down. His foreman had asked him to work through the lunch hour, to finish bolting up an offset in two roof heights. Suddenly a slab of coal broke free, hitting his helmet and forcing his face into the front of a bolting machine. Eugene found him moments later...

This is the story of a failed attempt by the British, in 1793, to open the Chinese Empire to Western trade. Led by Lord Macartney, whose distinguished diplomatic posts included India and the Caribbean, the enormous British expedition of nearly 700 men included doctors, scholars, painters, musicians, soldiers and young aristocrats, and lasted more than two years, and its success would have redefined the history of the 19th and 20th centuries. The author has made use of a variety of sources, including, on the British side, the diary of the 12-year-old Thomas Stanton, son of Macartney's deputy, who was the only person in the whole English fleet who spoke Chinese, and, on the Chinese side, the newly discovered secret reports of the Emperor's officials, all annotated by the Emperor himself.

Quand l'auteur du Dictionnaire de la réforme arrive à Matignon en mars 1993, il est l'homme du changement. Edouard Balladur a en effet confisqué à la gauche l'idée de la réforme pour la faire sienne ; il doit appliquer maintenant son programme. Les reculades, les rebuffades, la timidité au service de la réforme, voilà le sujet d'Eric Zemmour. Jacques Chirac ne s'y trompait pas en glissant, pervers : "L'immobilité ou les apparences du changement sont les pires ennemis"... Comment revenir sur les avantages acquis sans brutaliser les Français ? Faut-il résister à la fougue des Sarkozy, Madelin, et jadis Longuet ? De la loi Falloux au C.I.P., du plan social d'Air France à la privatisation avortée de France Telecom, de l'immigration à la politique de la ville, les écueils ne manquent pas. Portraits de l'entourage balladurien, précisions sur l'héritage pompidolien, anecdotes, analyse des blocages du système, Eric Zemmour, à la façon d'un Anti-dictionnaire de la réforme, éclaire un visage inédit de Balladur : l'homme qui prétendait que "les socialistes représentent l'ordre conservateur et la droite d'émancipation libérale" sera-t-il mis en contradiction avec lui-même ?

Avec Bergère ô tour Eiffel, Claude Mauriac poursuit sa quête de reflets et de concordances ; il élargit encore un peu plus le champ de ses investigations à mesure que les années coulent, comme se propage une onde à la surface de ses eaux. Sa quête s'arrête surtout, cette fois-ci, à la période de l'Occupation et aux plus récents événements traquant les liens secrets qui les unissent, à quarante ans de distance.

A l'heure des partages, des renoncements, des maisons qu'on abandonne et des amis qui vous quittent, nombreuses sont les ombres qui surgissent de ce montage mélancolique et minutieux. Elles se nomment ici Cocteau, Jouhandeau, Georges Auric, Chardonne, Jean Prévost, t'Serstevens, Duhamel, compagnons parmi d'autres de cette merveilleuse promenade sans fin, qui ruse avec le temps et rend aux passés divers la frémissante vérité d'un éternel présent.