Birmingham's magnificent Town Hall has hosted events of every kind and variety during its long life. Now, after a 35m refurbishment and restored to the original 1834 design, it reopens in October 2007 - an occasion which this pictorial history commemorates. Lavishly illustrated with some 250 pictures, it recalls many of the astonishing events and occasions that the Hall has witnessed in its 173-year history. These range from royal visits by Queen Victoria and subsequent monarchs, outsize banquets, usage in wartime, legendary speakers including Charles Dickens and the many famous personalities...

In the tradition of The Stand, The Man in the High Castle, and The Road, comes an epic story of struggle against tyranny in a future America.... The year is 2141. Islam controls most of the civilized world, including all that exists of the former United States. Climate change has made fresh drinking water a scarce, and valuable, commodity. Islamic states that once controlled the oil now control the largest fresh water deposit in the world, the American Great Lakes. Washington D.C. and New York City are mere memories of the old world, as a new regime of Caliphs has ruled the eastern half of...