Eight days   three gold medals 
 three world records  one amazing reputation firmly established. Usain Bolt's life  and the world of sport  would never be quite the same again.

16 August 2008  Beijing, China  the Bird's Nest stadium  91,000 spectators and an unimaginably huge global television audience  the final of the men's 100 metres at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad.

The crack of the starter's pistol triggers thousands of camera flash bulbs  and precisely 9.69 seconds later a young Jamaican streaks across the finishing line to claim the gold medal and his destiny.

Four days later Bolt claims the 200 metres gold, setting a new world record of 19.30 into the bargain, the night before his 22nd birthday. Then on 22nd August he leads the Jamaican team to more glory in the 4 x 100 metres relay final, in yet another world record time.

Since those heady days of the Beijing Olympics in August 2008, Usain Bolt has lowered both the 100 metres and 200 metres world records once again  to a barely believable 9.58 and 19.19 seconds respectively.

At a stroke the Jamaican has become the greatest sports star in the world.

9.58 is Usain Bolt's story so far, in his own words.

It's about a skinny kid from the parish of Trelawny, where they harvest the best yams in the world. It's about growing up playing cricket and football in the warm Jamaican sun, then discovering that he could run fast, very fast. It's about family, friends and the laid-back Jamaican culture. It's about Auntie Lillian's pork and dumplings and Dad's grocery store in the sleepy village of Sherwood Content. It's about what makes Bolt tick, where he gets his motivation and where he takes his inspiration. It's about the highs and the lows, the dedication and sacrifices required to get to the top. It's about fast food, partying, dancehall music, fast cars and that lightning bolt pose. It's about radiating sport's biggest smile. This is the story of the fastest man on the planet.

Introductory Sociology is one of the most ambitious, scholarly and popular textbooks in its field. This welcome new edition builds on the strengths of its predecessor in its thematic coherence, clarity of exposition and analytical depth. It is carefully structured to cover all the main substantive topics studied at an introductory level within a framework that engages with exciting contemporary debates about modernity, globalisation and social identity.

Key features of the new edition include:

- A completely new chapter on the media
- Extended coverage of social divisions to include disability, youth and old age as well as class, gender and race
- Clearer and more compact treatment of social theory, incorporating discussion of work by such contemporary theorists as Habermas, Giddens and Beck
- An even stronger blend of theoretical, empirical and illustrative material, consolidating the critical and applied approach that is one of the text's most well-liked defining features

With outstanding presentation and pedagogical support for the student and hard-pressed lecturer alike, the text includes:

- An Instructor's Resource Pack, complete with powerpoint slides, available on the Palgrave website (or in hardcopy for adopters of the textbook, by written request)
- A detailed and extensive glossary - practically a 'mini dictionary' of sociology in its own right and an ideal reference tool
- chapter-specific further reading lists, annotated for further guidance and support
- Questions to think about, which can be used as the basis for essays, class discussion and further study
- Pictures, figures, graphs and tables

Fully updated colour wall map of the Caribbean showing each country and capital city, towns, major roads, railways and cities.

Details of all of the key islands in the Caribbean with all major places of interest noted. Call out panels highlight Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Monsterrat, Dominica, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and Barbados. Includes Caribbean regions of Latin America.