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100 of the most astonishing stories of human survival, adventure and exploration, chosen by Levison Wood. We are always captivated by tales of courage and bravery, of world-firsts and death-defying experiences. In this anthology, explorer and bestselling author Levison Wood has gathered 100 of the most fascinating accounts of human endurance throughout history. From the heroism of Antarctic explorers to pioneering women in the Middle East; from record-breaking athletes to survivors of war and torture, this wide-ranging collection embraces both classics of the genre, as well as new and neglected voices. The extracts are organised around a range of themes; you will find those who sought out new frontiers, or who purposely tested their physical limits in full knowledge of the dangers or risks they might face, but also those who endured persecution and suffering, or were thrust into life or death situations yet defied the odds to survive. Endurance is packed full of you-couldn't-make-it-up true stories and adventure fiction classics, from the high seas to the poles, from inhospitable jungles and deserts to the unknown realms of space, through physical and mental despair to euphoric highs. Yet all of these extraordinary stories celebrate the enduring nature of the human spirit, and show the mental and physical determination it sometimes takes to achieve one's aims. This varied and compelling collection will take you on an adventure around the world, but also on an emotional journey exploring what it means to be human. Includes extracts about and by Ernest Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay, Amelia Earhart, Marie Colvin, John Krakauer, Solomon Northrup, Ella Maillart, Freya Stark, Ed Stafford, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Aron Lee Ralston, MarÃa Elena Moyano, Gertrude Bell, Isabelle Eberhart, Nellie Bly, Alex Honnold, Nelson Mandela, David Nott, Jules Verne, Neil Armstrong and Scott Kelly. -
Independent filmmaker Mary Haverstick thought she'd stumbled onto the project of a lifetime - a biopic of a little-known aviation legend whose story seemed to embody the hopeful spirit of the dawn of the space age. But after she received a mysterious warning from a government agent, Haverstick began to suspect that all was not as it seemed. What she found as she dug deeper was a darker story - a story of double identities and female spies, a tangle of intrigue that stretched from the fields of the Congo to the shores of Cuba, from the streets of Mexico City to the dark heart of the Kennedy assassination in Dallas, Texas. As Haverstick attempted to learn the truth directly from her subject in a cat-and-mouse game that stretched across a decade, she plunged deep into the CIA files of the 1950s and 60s. A Woman I Know brings vividly to life the duplicities of the Cold War intelligence game, a world where code names and doubletalk are the lingua franca of spies bent on seeking advantage by any means necessary. As Haverstick sheds light on a remarkable set of women whose high-stakes intelligence work has left its only traces in redacted files, she also discovers disturbing and shocking new clues about what really happened at Dealey Plaza in 1963. Offering new clues to the assassination and a vivid picture of women in mid-century intelligence, A Woman I Know is a gripping real-life thriller. -
Twenty years after leaving London, Nina Stibbe is back in town with her dog, Peggy. Together they take up lodging in the house of writer Deborah (Debby) Moggach in Camden for 'a year-long sabbatical'. It's a break from married life back in Cornwall, or even perhaps a fresh start altogether. Debby does not have many demands - only to water the garden, watch for toads, and defrost the odd pie - so Nina is free to explore the city she once called home. Between scrutinising her son's online dating developments, navigating the politics of the local pool, and taking detergent advice at the laundrette, this diary of a sixty-year-old runaway reunites us with the inimitable voice of Love, Nina, as the writer becomes, as she puts it, 'a proper adult' at last. 'An utter, UTTER treat! It was like spending time with my most clever, insightful, funny, FUNNY friend' - Marian Keyes 'No one writes heartbreak more hilariously, or hilarity more heartbreakingly' - Katherine Heiny -
Do leaders make history, or does history make leaders? What should we do when the wrong people are in power?And how can we find and become better leaders today?A deep-dive into the art, science and practice of leadership around the world and across the ages by a Harvard professor and historian - essential reading for our turbulent times. Across the world, and throughout time, there have been people who have risen to the challenge of leading others. Sometimes their power is undeserved, sometimes it's ill-used, but always their actions have impact. But do leaders really make history, or does history make leaders? And how might we harness the answers to find and become better leaders today?For the past decade, Moshik Temkin has been exploring these questions at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and at universities around the world. In this book, he offers a deep dive into the nature of leadership, from the highest ranks to the most hopeless situations. Drawing on stories from across history and culture, Temkin considers how leaders have made decisions, inspired others and forged a path in challenging circumstances - from the Great Depression to the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, from the Suffragettes to the anticolonial wars of the 20th century to the civil rights struggle - and how, in a world desperate for good leadership, we can evaluate those decisions and draw lessons for ourselves today. Published 30th November 2023 - Order Now. -
The most provocative philosopher of our times returns with a rousing and counterintuitive analysis of our global predicament. We hear all the time that it's five minutes to global doomsday, so now is our last chance to avert disaster. But what if the only way to prevent a catastrophe is to assume that it has already happened - that we're already five minutes past zero hour? Why do we seem unable to avert our course to self-destruction? Too Late to Awaken sees Slavoj Zizek deliver his most forceful, hopeful account of our discontents yet. Surveying the interlocking crises we currently face - global warming, war, famine, disease - he points us towards the radical, emancipatory politics that we need in order to halt our drift towards disaster. Pithy, urgent and witty, Zizek's diagnosis reveals our current geopolitical nightmare in a startling new light, and shows why, in order to change our future, we must reimagine our past. -
Following on from the success of the first three books in the How to Be Our Best Self series comes this timely guide to a journey towards improving mental health. This much-needed book provides practical ways to take positive steps to look after your mental health that can be incorporated into your daily routine. Even in the midst of a very stressful life you can still be your best self. Published 30th November 2023 - Order Now. -
John F. Deane opted for a Selected and New rather than the tombstone of a Collected to mark his eightieth year before heaven. He is still a living force, in physical and spiritual space: a Selected Poems (Snow Falling on Chestnut Hill, 2012) already exists. With substantial new work to share, it seemed timely to produce an essential volume, with compelling new work added to underline his witness. Deane's poems explore the beauty of the island where he was born, on the west coast of Ireland, and the wonders of natural creation everywhere. His imagination is most at home in rural Ireland, where the long centuries of scholarship and faith have retained their focus and shape. Music is present everywhere in his selection, in the poems' lyricism and in their reference to composers and compositions, particularly Beethoven and Olivier Messiaen. The poems move from a childhood encounter with a basking shark off his Achill Island home, to an elderly gentleman climbing the stairs to bed. A love of the landscape of his home island is developed in poems that combine an awareness of beauty and fragility with the spiritual significance the physical world offers those who are open to it. A 'rewilding' of old certainties of faith and worship, a movement through the gifts of spirit and Spirit occur. A new sequence, 'For the Times and Seasons', completes this generous celebration of a long life spent, and still spending, in poetry and faith. -
A brilliant account of the coming of the French Revolution, and the culminating work of this most distinguished historian 'Events do not come naked into the world. They come clothed - in attitudes, assumptions, values, memories of the past, anticipations of the future, hopes and fears and many other emotions. To understand events, it is necessary to describe the perceptions that accompany them, for the two are inseparable.'When a Parisian crowd stormed the Bastille in July 1789, it triggered an event of global consequence: the overthrow of the monarchy and the birth of a new society. Most historians account for the French Revolution by viewing it as the outcome of underlying conditions such as a faltering economy, class conflict or Enlightenment ideology. Without denying any of these, Robert Darnton offers a different explanation: what Parisians themselves, those at the centre of the Revolution, thought was happening at the time and how it guided their actions. To understand the rise of what he calls 'the revolutionary temper', Darnton draws on a lifetime's study of pamphlets, books, underground newsletters, songs and public performances, exploring Paris as an information society not unlike our own. Its news circuits were centred in cafes and market-places, on park benches, and under the Palais-Royal's Tree of Cracow, a favourite gathering-place for gossips. He shows how the events of forty years - from disastrous treaties, official corruption and royal scandal to thrilling hot-air balloon ascents and a new conception of the nation - all entered the collective consciousness of ordinary Parisians. As news and opinion travelled across this profoundly unequal society, public trust in royal authority eroded, its legitimacy was undermined, and the social order unravelled. Much of Robert Darnton's work has explained the hidden dynamics of history, never more so than in this exceptional book. It is a riveting narrative, but it adds a new dimension, the perceptions of contemporary Parisians, which allows us to see these momentous decades afresh. -
The third volume of Alison Weir's magisterial history of the queens of medieval England. Medieval queens were seen as mere dynastic trophies - yet, as Alison Weir shows in this group biography, many of the Plantagenet queens of the High Middle Ages dramatically broke away from the restrictions imposed on their sex. Using personal letters and fascinating sources, Weir evokes the lives of these five extraordinary women: Marguerite of France, Isabella of France, Philippa of Hainault, Anne of Bohemia and Isabella of Valois. At the same time, she recreates a truly astonishing period of history - the turbulent, brutal Age of Chivalry. 'Places the reader in the midst of...complex, gripping events, telling the stories of five royal wives who lived through them' BBC History 'Weir is an excellent storyteller' Spectator 'Weir's history books are as gripping as novels' The Times -
Pure Filth, Aidan Mathews' fifth volume of poetry, follows upon Windfalls (Dolmen, 1977), Minding Ruth (Gallery, 1983), According to the Small Hours (Cape, 1998) and Strictly No Poetry (Lilliput, 2017). At its heart, the collection is about reflections on a career and sustained loves for people, God and art, with themes threaded throughout such as the pandemic, suburban Dublin, Irish landscape and history and the Holocaust. His critic and biographer David Wheatley says:'It is no exaggeration to say that Mathews does not have themes so much as obsessions. If his Catholic faith provides the ground base for all his work, sexuality, mental illness and the Holocaust recur in poem after poem, stitching together the quotidian and the extreme ... Synthesizing the sexual, the sacred, and the secular, Mathews' poetry is a testament of great personal power, answerable to the cloister and the locked ward, the social lepers and the captains of the ship of state.' (Irish Poetry, Wake Forest 2017) -
A groundbreaking new history of the people at the centre of Europe, from the Second World War to todayIn 1945, Germany lay in ruins, morally and materially. The German people stood condemned by history, responsible for a horrifying genocide and a war of extermination. But by 2015 Germany looked to many to be the moral voice of Europe, welcoming almost one million refugees. At the same time, it pursued a controversially rigid fiscal discipline and made energy deals with a dictator. Many people have asked how Germany descended into the darkness of the Nazis, but this book asks another vital question: how, and how far, have the Germans since reinvented themselves?Trentmann tells the dramatic story of the Germans from the middle of the Second World War, through the Cold War and the division into East and West, to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunited nation's search for a place in the world. Their journey is marked by extraordinary moral struggles: guilt, shame and limited amends; wealth versus welfare; tolerance versus racism; compassion and complicity. Through a range of voices - German soldiers and German Jews; environmentalists and coal miners; families and churches; volunteers, migrants and populists - Trentmann paints a remarkable and surprising portrait over 80 years of the conflicted people at the centre of Europe. -
'Mary Gaitskill is willing to think about the problematic with complexity and humanity, and without taking sides or engaging in all the fashionable moral hectoring that passes for serious thought these days.' Eimear McBride. Nuanced, daring and tender, these essays from the celebrated author of This is Pleasure and Bad Behavior, consistently fascinate and provoke. Mary Gaitskill takes on a broad range of topics from Nabokov to horse-riding with her unique ability to tease out unexpected truths and cast aside received wisdom. Written with startling grace and linguistic flair, and delving into the complicated nature of love and the responsibility we owe to the people we encounter, the work collected here inspires the reader to think beyond their first responses to life and art. Spanning thirty years of Mary Gaitskill's writing, and covering subjects as diverse as Dancer in the Dark, the world of Charles Dickens and the Book of Revelation with her characteristic blend of sincerity and wit, Oppositions is never less than enthralling. -
A staple of every kitchen, this is the ultimate guide to cooking chicken in just one pan. Providing solutions for if you're cooking in the oven, on the stovetop, or need to use up leftovers, best-selling author and professional chef Claire Thomson offers up her best 70 recipes with chicken as star of the show, revealing just how simple it is to create delicious one-pan meals that all of the family will love. Whether you're using a casserole dish, roasting pan, baking tray, frying pan, or stockpot, you'll find delicious and inventive recipes using all your favourite and most popular cuts, including Chicken Piccata, Miso Butter Chicken and Chicken Wrapped with Ham and fried with Sage and Grapes, to Caesar Salad, 'Get Better Soon' Chicken Soup and Peri Peri Chicken. There are even whole bird recipes, to gather everyone around the table, like Chicken Roasted with Fennel and Bay, Roast Chicken with Porcini and Truffle Stuffing to wow friends, and Whole Poached Chicken with Tarragon. An essential cookbook for easy mealtime solutions, or simply if you want to explore new flavours and techniques, One Pan Chicken is a practical and dynamic source of kitchen inspiration. -
'Good writers offer advice. Great writers offer condolences'... If you want to be a writer, then you'd better be ready to hurl yourself at the door. That's the message from Stephen Marche in this irresistibly droll broadside. Perseverance, in the teeth of rejection, forms the essence of a writer's life. It's what it takes, so no whining. Even the greatest of writers grapple with failure. Marche's provocative, often very funny vignettes range through literary history from Samuel Johnson ('broke as f*ck') to Jane Austen's lacklustre publishing deals, to Dostoevsky facing mock-execution. The trick is to endure. As James Baldwin famously exhorts us: 'Write. Find a way to keep alive and write.' For new and seasoned writers, Marche's words are salutary and, in a paradoxical way, consoling. All writers are up against it. Success is just an attire. -
Over the last thirty years, through a mixture of naivety and arrogance, the West has lost its global advantage. Today's challenges are profound: climate change, polarisation in society, and tensions with Russia and China. Instead of a liberal world order, a new world disorder has emerged. Yet the triumph of the West had seemed unstoppable not that long ago. After the end of the Cold War, the democratic market economy took hold in the former Eastern Bloc, Russia went from being an enemy to a partner, and even China turned to capitalism. Then came the terrorist attacks of 9/11 that shook the world. The War on Terror destabilised an entire region; the Arab Spring only brought forth new autocracies; and, following the annexation of Crimea, the confrontation with Russia intensified. The West is under pressure, and it has only itself to blame. It's time for a new start: modernity must become sustainable if it is to survive. Peter R. Neumann, an internationally acclaimed expert on terrorism and geopolitics, uncovers the mistakes that led to our present situation and sets out the dangers the world will face if the West fails to reinvent itself. -
From the bestselling author of Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine comes the extraordinary story of how the West tried to reverse the Russian Revolution. In the closing months of the First World War, Britain, America, France and Japan sent arms and 180,000 soldiers to Russia, with the aim of tipping the balance in her post-revolutionary Civil War. From Central Asia to the Arctic and from Poland to the Pacific, they joined anti-Bolshevik forces in trying to overthrow the new men in the Kremlin, in an astonishingly ambitious military adventure known as the Intervention. Fresh, in the case of the British, from the trenches, they found themselves in a mobile, multi-sided conflict as different as possible from the grim stasis of the Western Front. Criss-crossing the shattered Russian empire in trains, sleds and paddlesteamers, they bivouacked in snowbound cabins and Kirghiz yurts, torpedoed Red battleships from speedboats, improvised new currencies and the world's first air-dropped chemical weapons, got caught up in mass retreats and a typhus epidemic, organised several coups and at least one assassination. Taking tea with warlords and princesses, they also turned a blind eye to their Russian allies' numerous atrocities. Two years later they left again, filing glumly back onto their troopships as port after port fell to the Red Army. Later, American veterans compared the humiliation to Vietnam, and the politicians and generals responsible preferred to trivialise or forget. Drawing on previously unused diaries, letters and memoirs, A Nasty Little War brings an episode with echoes down the century since vividly to life. 'Reid brilliantly depicts the disastrous failure of our intervention in the "Russian" civil war. The atmosphere, the characters, the absurdity are all there' Antony Beevor 'Vivid and remarkably timely' Martin Sixsmith -
"I've grown old - now my own name rings a bell." In each of the short poems in Billy Collins's Musical Tables, the former United States Poet Laureate tempers his characteristically jocular voice with what he calls the "thrill of mortality" - flashes of profundity amongst the mundane, startling reminders of the wonder of being alive. Through the brevity of these poems, Collins' knack for coaxing the poetry out of the everyday becomes ever more refined. Whether reflecting on mornings spent in the thicket of Los Angeles traffic, or turning over cliches on the tongue until old metaphors become new again, Musical Tables is Billy Collins at his most meditative: brief, and all the more brilliant for it. 'America's favourite poet' - Wall Street Journal -
Can you solve the puzzles and piece together the clues to find out who dunnit? Perfect for fans of Murdle. The Museum Heist is an interactive book where murder mystery meets escape room-style puzzle solving, in an epic adventure for all the family. Put yourself to the test, and follow the story, working your way through a whole host of challenges - from deciphering clues at crime scenes and searching for hidden pieces of evidence in the pages - to satisfy your inner detective. Look out also for interactive elements within the book that will take each mystery to a whole new level. 'I'm just mad about the Mystery Agency, and even madder about Henry Lewis. Like, it makes me actually mad how wonderfully talented he is at puzzle creation and storytelling. This book is an utter delight, one that should be in the collection of any sharp thinker. I hated how much I loved it. Can't recommend it enough.'-- Neil Patrick Harris, puzzle-master and award-winning actor. -
A sweeping history of and meditation on humanity's relationship with machines, showing how we got here and what happens next. Faith in technological fixes for our problems is waning. Automation, which promised relief from toil, has reactivated the long-standing fear of job redundancy. Information technology, meant to liberate us from traditional authority, is placing unprecedented powers of surveillance and control in the hands of a purely secular Big Brother. And for the first time, artificial intelligence threatens anthropogenic disaster - disaster caused by our own activities. Scientists join imaginative writers in warning us of the fate of Icarus, whose wings melted because he flew too close to the sun. This book tells the story of our fractured relationship with machines from humanity's first tools down to the present and into the future. It raises the crucial question of why some parts of the world developed a 'machine civilisation' and not others, and traces the interactions between capitalism and technology, and between science and religion, in the making of the modern world. Taking in the peaks of philosophy and triumphs of science, the foundation of economics and speculations of fiction, Robert Skidelsky embarks on a bold intellectual journey through the evolution of our understanding of technology and what this means for our lives and politics. 'Unless we understand technology as a system of ideas rather than as a necessity,' he writes, 'we will be powerless to choose which technology is best suited to our needs and purposes.' -
The most complete and penetrating biography of the rock master, whose stature grows every year. Since his death ten years ago, Lou Reed's living presence has only grown. The great rock-poet presided over the marriage of Brill Building pop and the European avant-garde, and left American culture transfigured. In Lou Reed: The King of New York, Will Hermes offers the definitive narrative of Reed's life and legacy, dramatizing his long, brilliant, and contentious dialogue with fans, critics, fellow artists, and assorted habitues of the demimonde. We witness Reed's complex partnerships with David Bowie, Andy Warhol, John Cale, and Laurie Anderson; track the deadpan wit, street-smart edge, and poetic flights that defined his craft as a singer and songwriter with the Velvet Underground and beyond; and explore the artistic ambition and gift for self-sabotage he took from his mentor Delmore Schwartz. As Hermes follows Reed from Lower East Side cold-water flats to the landmark status he later achieved, he also tells the story of New York City as a cultural capital. The first biographer to draw on the New York Public Library's much-publicized Reed archive, Hermes employs the library collections, the release of previously unheard recordings, and a wealth of recent interviews to give us a new Lou Reed-a pioneer in living and writing about nonbinary sexuality and gender identity, a committed artist who pursued beauty and noise with equal fervor, and a turbulent and sometimes truculent man whose emotional imprint endures. 'A monumental work filled with first-person accounts of the master's life and a dizzying array of never-before heard details' Michael Imperioli, author of The Perfume Burned His Eyes. -
Have you ever relied on the kindness of strangers? What brings people together to find hope and solidarity? What do we owe each other as citizens and comrades? Questions of care, intimacy, education, meaningful work, and social engagement lie at the core of our ability to understand the world and its possibilities for human flourishing. In Lean On Me feminist thinker Lynne Segal goes in search of hope in her own life and in the world around her. She finds it entwined in our intimate commitments to each other and our shared collective endeavours. Segal calls this shared dependence 'radical care'. In recounting from her own life the moments of motherhood, and of being on the front line of second-wave feminism, she draws upon lessons from more than half a century of engagement in left feminist politics, with its underlying commitment to building a more egalitarian and nurturing world. The personal and the political combine in this rallying cry to transform radically how we approach education, motherhood, and our everyday vulnerabilities of disability, ageing, and enhanced needs. Only by confronting head-on these different forms of interdependence and care can we change the way we think about the environment and learn to struggle - together -against impending climate catastrophe. -
In Lani O’Hanlon’s debut collection of poems, dance is, variously, a way for her young mother “to pay the milk bill, the bread bill”, a practical method for friends to come together, and “a homage to the women they called unmarried mothers”. It is, in other words, at the very heart of life. At the heart of O’Hanlon’s poetry is connection and community, and the poems reach towards formative moments in the poet’s childhood as they also offer guidance for the road ahead. Sensual, as one might expect of poems of movement and the body, O’Hanlon’s are brightly perceptive and fully alert to the lives of others who are never reduced to mere bystanders by her often striking and light-footed performances. Landscape of the Body explores love, loss, fellowship and sisterhood with a sense of presence, emotional intelligence and confidence that is difficult not to be moved by. -
A delightfully thought-provoking study of why we have sex, from award-winning psychoanalyst Darian Leader. 'It was just sex.' It's a familiar claim. But is it really possible? The old idea that sexuality is a smouldering, animalistic force within us, desperate for release yet restrained by social forces, has little to support it. Bodies aren't just sticks that make fire when you rub them together, and the pain, heartache, and regret that can accompany the highs of sexual excitement show us that much more is at stake. So, what are we really thinking about when we think about sex? And what are we really doing when we do it? As acclaimed psychoanalyst Darian Leader argues, with his trademark clarity, energy and wit, there is no such thing as 'just sex'. It is always about so much more than that - about phantasy, anxiety, guilt, revenge, violence, love - and Leader draws on his analytic experience, historical research and case studies to explore their importance to every aspect of our sexual lives. 'One of our most important contemporary thinkers' Guardian 'Leader is as much a philosopher as a psychoanalyst and his ideas are engrossing and enlightening' Metro If you would rather not use 35 products on your face every morning or watch how-to videos on TikTok, or if you have ever looked in the mirror and found yourself thinking 'Who is that?', then India Knight's Beauty Edit is the book you've been waiting for. It is a glorious and indispensable celebration of how to be old(er) with minimum fuss and a generous helping of grace, confidence and style. 'India Knight is a LEGEND in the beauty industry. I am OBSESSED with her column because you can trust her to get it right every single time!' Charlotte Tilbury -
"With beauty, as with so much else, knowledge is power. Here's all of mine." Why has my favourite eyeliner stopped looking flattering? What can I do about the skin on my neck? Am I too old for contour? What is contour? Every week, tens of thousands of women turn to India Knight's beauty column in the Sunday Times Style Magazine, to be directed to beauty products that really work by someone they can trust - and who understands how much this stuff matters. It matters because looking, and therefore feeling, like yourself at every stage of life is fundamental. In this brilliant, essential, reassuring book, India has distilled her beauty wisdom into practical advice for every part of the face and beyond: from tips for thinning lips and thinning hair, to the best skincare for older faces, to the make-up products that really make a difference, to demystifying the scientific jargon beloved by the beauty industry. If you would rather not use 35 products on your face every morning or watch how-to videos on TikTok, or if you have ever looked in the mirror and found yourself thinking 'Who is that?', then India Knight's Beauty Edit is the book you've been waiting for. It is a glorious and indispensable celebration of how to be old(er) with minimum fuss and a generous helping of grace, confidence and style. 'India Knight is a LEGEND in the beauty industry. I am OBSESSED with her column because you can trust her to get it right every single time!' Charlotte Tilbury -
Brian Dowling and Arthur Gourounlian are among Ireland's most beloved television personalities and social media stars. The internet exploded when the couple announced they were expecting their first child, with Brian's sister Aoife acting as their surrogate. Their daughter, Blake, was born in September 2022. In this book, Brian and Arthur detail their long journeys, separately and together, before finally realising the dream of creating their own very happy family. From births, to deaths, marriage and everything in between this heartfelt and hilarious memoir brings Arthur and Brian's positive and inspiring attitude to the page as they journey towards parenthood. Brian and Arthur's Modern Family reflects on the universal cycles of adversity, love and grief experienced by all of us as we strive to achieve our dreams, sharing what they have learned along the way about what really matters. -
This is a specialist US Import title - please allow 3 weeks for delivery. In this inspirational and insightful book, Steven Pressfield teaches us how to win the inner creative battle and seize the potential of our lives. What keeps so many of us from doing what we long to do? Why is there a naysayer within? How can we avoid the roadblocks of any creative endeavor? Steven Pressfield identifies the enemy that every one of us must face, outlines a battle plan to conquer this internal foe, then pinpoints just how to achieve the greatest success. The War of Art emphasizes the resolve needed to recognize and overcome the obstacles of ambition and then effectively shows how to embrace creative discipline. Whether an artist, writer or business person, this simple, personal, and no-nonsense book will inspire you to seize the potential of your life. -
'What defines the car-saddo condition is not being able to recall a time when the toy-car-era of your life actually ended. Because for us sufferers, it never does.' Nobody knows cars like Chris Harris does. He calls it 'unhinged geekery', but the rest of the world call it infectious enthusiasm, adrenalin fuelled escapism and rigorous journalistic integrity. And then there are his famous skills at the wheel, from city cars to rally cars, not forgetting the Guinness World Record 3.4km sideways in an electric car. And now for the first time, Harris takes us down the road of his life-long obssession with the automobile - along surprising diversions, around hazards and obstructions, down the fast lane collecting Gs and back to the lock-up to prep the stock. From the six-year-old who could recite the stats from What Car? magazine to the YouTube car guru whose honest reviews got him banned by Ferrari. From the Scalextric track of his childhood, to podiums as a racing driver out in the world. From behind his garage doors to the floodlit Top Gear studio. Variable Valve Timings brings you an incredibly engaging story of adventure and petrolhead joy, told with wit, warmth and disarming honesty. This book is a true one-off, just like Chris. -
Doing well with money isn't necessarily about what you know. It's about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people. Money-investing, personal finance, and business decisions-is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don't make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life's most important topics. -
Here before you is Joe Wilkinson's brilliantly absurd account of his time on - and briefly off - planet Earth. Through cartoon stories (illustrated by Henry Paker) Joe recounts the defining moments and bizarre encounters of his life - from his schoolboy misfortunes to his formative years on the dating scene, to his money-making schemes and globetrotting adventures. With tall stories including... -Winning 'most nits' at school-That time I threw a turd into a tornado-Becoming the bad boy of fly tipping-The disastrous double date-My car airbag addiction-The time I tunnelled too far out of prison and ended up in the prison next door-The real reason Bigfoot went into hiding...this book is a delightfully absurd journey into the mind of a comic maverick. Hilarious, heart-warming and utterly unique, Joe Wilkinson: My Autobiography is the off-the-wall life story of one of our most beloved and unorthodox comedians. 'Joyfully absurd and hilarious.' ADAM KAY -
'Brutto is actually bellissimo. A perfect cookbook for lovers of true Tuscan food. Simply brilliant.'- STANLEY TUCCI This is the food of Florence - rigorously simple, few ingredients, exceptionally good. Anchovy with cold butter and sourdough; Penne with tomato and vodka; Sausages with braised lentils and mustard; Roasted squash with borlotti bean and salsa verde; Country-style bread and tomato salad; 3-ingredient meringue hazelnut cookies... The food of Florence rests on humble ingredients - not many - brought together in the rough-and-ready style of everyday cooking with flavour at its heart. This stunning brand-new cookbook offers outstanding recipes from Russell Norman's acclaimed new restaurant, Trattoria Brutto, alongside an ode to one of Italy's most beloved cities, Florence, and specifically the bohemian district of Santo Spirito. Including Russell's captivating stories and insider advice, Brutto is a proudly fuss-free recipe book to use every day, wherever you are, and an joyous tribute to Italy's greatest rustic cuisine. -
Following the breakout success of his first cookbook, From Crook to Cook, Snoop Dogg returns with this new collection of recipes in collaboration with his friend and iconic Bay Area rapper E-40. Drawing inspiration from both rappers' musical catalog, Snoop's VH1 show with Martha, and E-40's Filipino food business, Lumpia, here are 65+ crowd-pleasing dishes that range from drinks to main courses to desserts. Also included are suggested menus for celeb-worthy events ranging from Super Bowl Sunday to Father's Day Feast, a 4/20 Potluck, and a Summertime Block Party. A number of Snoop and E-40's well-known industry pals appear in recipe headnotes and in sidebar stories about their most epic dinner parties and nights out. Seriously entertaining, this next-level cookbook is the follow-up that fans are waiting for. Packaged with a series look that gestures to From Crook to Cook but feels fresh with E-40's distinctive influence, this book will draw home cooks who love Snoop Dogg and E-40, as well as the 300,000 people who bought and loved From Crook to Cook and are eager for more recipes straight from these rappers themselves. -
A humorous and informative guide to surviving history's most challenging threats, from outrunning dinosaurs to making it off the Titanic alive. History is the most dangerous place on earth. From dinosaurs the size of locomotives to meteors big enough to sterilize the planet, from famines to pandemics, from tornadoes to the Chicxulub asteroid, the odds of human survival are slim but not zero - at least, not if you know where to go and what to do. In each chapter of How to Survive History, Cody Cassidy explores how to survive one of history's greatest threats: getting eaten by dinosaurs, being destroyed by the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, succumbing to the lava flows of Pompeii, being devoured by the Donner Party, drowning on board the Titanic, falling prey to the Black Death, and more. Using hindsight and modern science to estimate everything from how fast you'd need to run to outpace a T. rex to the advantages of different body types in surviving the Donner Party tragedy, Cassidy gives you a detailed battle plan for survival, helping you learn about the era at the same time. History may be the most dangerous place on earth, but that doesn't mean you can't visit. You can, and you should. And with a copy of How to Survive History in your back pocket, you just might make it out alive. -
Do you want to make money while making the world a better place? Then this is the book for you. After the bestselling success of Girls Just Wanna Have Funds, the founders of Female Invest are back, and this time they're focusing on impact investing. Cutting through the noise and ditching the jargon, this book teaches you how to build wealth while creating positive change. From understanding investment basics to identifying the ethics behind different assets, you'll learn how to make money while supporting the issues you really care about. By introducing you to important concepts and strategies, and combining them with simple, actionable steps, aligning your investments with your values has never been easier. The good news? You don't need to be rich or an expert to get started. Published 23rd November 2023 - Order Now. -
We're living in a time of amazing innovation, but we're not paying enough attention to one of the most important of all: the innovation to the company itself. Now, bestselling author of The Second Machine Age, Andrew McAfee, explains how engineers and geeks are changing the world of business - with extraordinary results. A new model is being pioneered by geeks; a radical new mindset that has shifted the paradigm entirely on what a business can - and should - be. They do not follow the rules of the Industrial era, with their hierarchies and bureaucratic ways of thinking. They do not follow the principles preached in business schools since the dawn of time. They have all dedicated themselves to approaching business as a geek would: through trial and error, egalitarianism, evidence and stress-testing ideas in a group setting - rather than relying on the boss's instincts. By investigating and surveying the contemporary research in psychology, economics and the behavioural sciences, as well as first-hand accounts from the 'geek' leaders of today, McAfee's groundbreaking exploration of this emerging phenomenon gets to the heart of the tectonic shifts taking place all over the business world. We have entered a new age. And this age will transform how we achieve great things, now and into the future. The future is geek. 'The most compelling analysis I've seen of what Silicon Valley has learned about building more effective organisations' - Adam Grant. -
The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them. They can change our minds, heal our bodies and even help us avoid environmental disaster; they are metabolic masters, earth-makers and key players in most of nature's processes. In Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake takes us on a mind-altering journey into their spectacular world, and reveals how these extraordinary organisms transform our understanding of our planet and life itself. The smash-hit Sunday Times bestseller now illustrated with over 100 spectacular full-colour images, showcasing this wondrous and wildly various lifeform as never before. 'Astonishing ... it seems somehow to tip the natural world upside down' Observer 'Completely mind-blowing ... reads like an adventure story' Sunday Times *WINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY BOOK PRIZE 2021* *WINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION WRITING 2021 -
Drawing People focuses on perfecting how to draw faces, characters and people on the move. This interactive journal features a mix of 100 prompts, playful activities and step-by-step projects on the theme of people to help you explore your creativity. Whether you're new to drawing and want to learn how to sketch or you're an experienced artist in search of inspiration, Drawing People will (re)ignite your love of art. Viktorija's easy techniques and helpful hints will show you how to hone your people drawing skills, add colour to your sketches and develop your own personal style. Drawing People is the springboard to unleashing your creativity and building a unique collection of artwork. Published 23rd November 2023 - Order Now. -
With entries for every day of the year, ranging from mini-essays to pithy and engaging sentences, Don't Stop the Music is a novel musical companion - a way of charting your year through the major events and tiny incidents in the lives and careers of pop stars and recording artists. Whether it be when pop became newsworthy; when future stars attended notable gigs; when that K-Pop act issued their first single; or when Elvis Presley found himself on TV singing 'Hound Dog' to a basset hound, there are surprising and enlightening events from the history of popular music for every single day of the year. And esteemed music writer Justin Lewis has compiled them all for you, informatively and divertingly. 'A wonderful ride through our pop universe amongst thousands of bright stars, gnarled debris and twinkling nuggets of music and events made distant over time. Lewis has made all of it up-close and vivid through this indispensable companion for anyone who loves music and popular culture. Whatever the age of the reader, it's brimming with new discoveries and triggering classics: memories and signposts make this an intoxicating music journey!' Peter Curran A brilliant musical almanac, compiled by an engaging writer whose musical knowledge is not just detailed but wide-ranging and generous.' Jonathan Coe -
From bestselling author John Crace comes a blisteringly hilarious tour through the whirlwind of post-Brexit Britain, from the ousting of Boris to the dawn of a new era... sort of. O brave new world, that has such people in't. Or not. William Shakespeare clearly had never imagined a clusterf*ck on this scale. Given the state of the country right now, he would be in need of a long lie down. Another month, another prime minister - how many have we been through now? But fear not: despite all the nonsense that has spewed forth from Westminster over the past two years, John Crace's brilliantly lacerating political sketches have provided the nation with some desperately needed relief. Taking in everything from Partygate, BoJo's drawn-out farewell and the disastrous reign of Liz Truss, to thepsychodrama of the Tory leadership contest(s), the return of Rishi Sunak and the shenanigans of his impressively inept colleagues, Depraved New World is a worryingly funny collection which captures British politics at its most absurd. -
The new edition of the much-loved classic, with a fresh chapter that brings the surprising and moreish tale of the Italian way of eating right up to the present. Delizia! takes the reader on a revelatory historical journey through the flavours of the cities that shaped the Italian love for good eating. From the bustle of Medieval Milan, to the bombast of Fascist Rome; from the pleasure gardens of Renaissance Ferrara, to the putrid alleyways of nineteenth-century Naples. In rich slices of Italian life, Delizia! shows how violence and intrigue, as well as taste and creativity, went to make the world's favourite cuisine. With its mix of vivid story-telling, ground-breaking research and shrewd analysis, John Dickie's Delizia! is as appetising as the dishes it describes. 'If only we could all write as brilliantly on Italy and its food as John Dickie does. He may well know Italy and Italians better than they know themselves' Stanley Tucci. -
The Cure are arguably the biggest alternative rock band in the world. Between 1985 and 2000 every album they released went to at least Gold in the UK, the US or both. In America they have earned four Platinum albums, and they are estimated to have sold 30 million albums worldwide. Their iconic status as elder statesmen of Alternative Rock remains undiminished - if anything, their tireless touring has ensured that it has grown with every passing year - and lead singer Robert Smith is an endlessly fascinating figure to successive generations of fans. The Cure's influence reverberates through genres including Emo, Goth, Industrial and Indie Rock. The book is an encyclopaedic A-Z of The Cure examining and riffing on miscellaneous trivia, biographies of the band members past and present, summaries of each album and selected songs, details of the band's various tours and films, and essays on broader topics such as their image, their politics and their influences. Playful, eccentric and irreverent - true to the spirit of the band itself - CUREPEDIA is a comprehensive biography of one of the biggest alternative rock bands in the world. The hardback edition features interior pages printed in red and black ink, a ribbon marker, and bespoke C-U-R-E letter endpapers specially designed by Andy Vella - celebrated artist and collaborator (as part of Parched Art) with The Cure on their album artwork for four decades. -
A Poetry Book Society Winter Recommendation 2023. In Child Ballad, David Wheatley's sixth collection, he explores a world transformed by the experience of parenthood. Conducting his children through landscapes of Northern Scotland, he follows pathways laid down by departed Irish missionaries and by wolves. He maps a rich territory of rivers, trees and mountains. Also present are histories, some evidenced, some no longer visible and yet to be inferred. Stylistically, Child Ballad is multifaceted, drawing on influences from the Scottish ballad tradition and the Gaelic bards, on French symbolism and on the American Objectivists. Wheatley is an Irish poet living and teaching in Scotland: as a cultural corridor, his Scotland is a space of migrations and palimpsests, different traditions held in dynamic balance and fusion. Writing across geographical and historical distances as he does, Wheatley develops an aesthetic of complex intimacy, alert to questions of memory and loss, communicating the ache of the here and now. He sees through the eyes of young children and the world looks very different in its gifts and threats. Wheatley provides intimate descriptions of parenthood as well as of a Northern Scottish natural world. He deploys an ambitious range of poetic styles and forms. His poems put deep roots down into history and geology, and with translation into other languages. Themes of migration and politics are never far away. Child Ballad sings of midlife, of resettlement and marriage as well as of parenthood. Published 30th November 2023 - Order Now. -
Want to learn chess? Not sure where to start?Go from beginner to winner quicker than you ever imagined with this simple-to-follow guide!Chess streaming sensation Kevin Bordi and FIDE master Samy Robin introduce you to a world of fun and excitement. Drawing on their experiences and unique playing style, they demystify the rules of the games, arm you with winning tactics and propel you towards success. With more than 450 annotated illustrations, you will gain invaluable tips and tricks to refine your strategies and finally understand what is going on in the heads of champions. Great for Ages 10+. -
From the bestselling author of Talk Like TED, renowned communications coach Carmine Gallo reveals the leadership secrets of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos - and gives you the tools to master them yourself. Jeff Bezos built Amazon. A dreamer who turned a bold idea into the world's most influential company, a brand that likely touches your life every day. As a student of leadership and communication, he learned to elevate the way Amazonians write, collaborate, innovate, pitch and present. He created a scalable model that grew from a small team in a Seattle garage to one of the world's largest employers. In The Bezos Blueprint, Carmine Gallo reveals the communication strategies that Jeff Bezos pioneered to fuel Amazon's astonishing growth. As one of the most innovative and visionary entrepreneurs of our time, Bezos reimagined the way leaders write, speak and motivate teams and customers. The communication tools Bezos created are so effective that former Amazonians who worked directly with Bezos adopted them as blueprints to start their own companies. Now, these tools are available to you. 'Carmine Gallo examines more than two decades of Bezos letters to reveal the writing and communication strategies that should be taught to everyone with a story to tell' - Marc Randolph, co-founder and first CEO of Netflix. Published 30th November 2023 - Order Now. -
A major new history of architecture in Britain and Ireland that looks at buildings and their construction in detail while revealing the cultural, material, political, and economic contexts that made them Architecture in Britain and Ireland, 1530-1830 presents a comprehensive history of architecture in Britain during this three-hundred-year period. Drawing on the most important advances in architectural history in the last seventy years, ranging across cultural, material, political, and economic contexts, this book also encompasses architecture in Ireland and includes substantial commentary on the buildings of Scotland and Wales. Across three chronological sections: 1530-1660, 1660-1760, and 1760-1830, this volume explores how architectural culture evolved from a subject carried solely in the minds and skills of craftsmen to being embodied in books and documents and with new professions-architects, surveyors and engineers-in charge. With chapters dedicated to towns and cities, landscape, infrastructure, military architecture, and industrial architecture, and beautifully illustrated with new photography, detailed graphics, and a wealth of historic images, Architecture in Britain and Ireland, 1530-1830 is an invaluable resource for students, historians, and anyone with an interest in the architecture of this period, and promises to become a definitive work of scholarship in the field. -
From ancient dwellings to modern high-tech skyscrapers, discover everything there is to know about the history of architecture worldwide. Covering over 6,000 years of human history, Architecture charts the most important developments in building materials, technology, design, and the social changes that have shaped the architectural landscape. Explore every significant architectural period and style in depth through critical examples. Take a tour of some of the world's most iconic buildings, beautifully illustrated with brilliant photography and specially commissioned CGI artworks. Dive deep into the pages of this book about architecture to discover:- An innovative approach to the story of architecture using iconic examples. - Explores buildings throughout history and across the world. - A combination of creative photography and specially commissioned CGI artworks to analyse every significant architectural style. - Profiles of the latest developments in architectural practice, including "green" technology, such as living facades. - Published in association with the Smithsonian Institution in the US- Optional 56-page reference section profiles key architects and contains profiles of additional important buildingsFind out why so many ancient Roman structures have withstood the test of time. Learn how the soaring ceilings of Gothic cathedrals are held up. And discover the architectural innovations that are helping to combat climate change. Architecture is the perfect book for anyone fascinated by the built world - its visual character and the factors that have formed it - and who wants to understand more. -
Like millions of women, Eve Ensler has been waiting much of her lifetime for an apology. Sexually and physically abused by her father, Eve has struggled her whole life from this betrayal, longing for an honest reckoning from a man who is long dead. After years of work as an anti-violence activist, she decided she would wait no longer; an apology could be imagined, by her, for her, to her. The Apology, written by Eve from her father's point of view in the words she longed to hear, attempts to transform the abuse she suffered with unflinching truthfulness, compassion and an expansive vision for the future. 'One of the most shatteringly brilliant books I have read. As soon as I finished it, I read it again, and again, and again' Decca Aitkenhead, Sunday Times 'A masterpiece. Truly one of the most courageous and original works of our time' Naomi Klein 'One of the most original and profound books of the decade' Johann Hari -
A panoptical vision of modern America, from the brilliant mind of Jill Lepore. The past decade has marked a shift in America's trajectory. Jill Lepore, the acclaimed writer and New Yorker columnist, has been tracing its contested storylines in real time, beginning with the run-up to Donald Trump's election, through to the chaos and confusion left in its wake. Here we encounter Americans' rising techno-utopianism, frantic fractiousness, and unprecedented - but armed - aimlessness. With the wit and verve that has made her the acclaimed national historian of a generation, these essays reflect on the consuming public fissures of this era: culture wars and the corrosion of the media; disruptive innovation and the future of technology; constitutional crises surrounding gun rights and the racial history behind the very language of insurrection. Balancing a penetrating personal lens with indispensable history, she makes sense of life in a moment of aberration and extremity that has left our political landscape forever changed. The American Beast offers an arresting portrait of America, capturing the tumultuous relationship between the country's violent past and fractured present. -
Knit 20 adorable hats to keep your little one cozy. This cute and colourful book contains a range of hats, with design styles that will appeal to every knitter. The 20 designs fall into four categories: basic beanies; animal hats; food hats and quirky hats. So whether you fancy making a simple beanie, a cute panda, fox or bee, a colourful watermelon or strawberry, or a quirky Christmas pudding, this book has it all. Choose from hats with ears, stripes, pompoms, tassels, topknots and more - all the techniques are included. Clear instructions and simple patterns. As babies vary so much in size, each design can be made in three sizes: 0-6 months, 6-12 months, 12-24 months. The yarns recommended are all hypoallergenic, washable and with some elasticity, to help the hats keep their shape. The hats use relatively small amounts of yarn so are ideal for quick, portable projects. Perfect for thoughtful gifts. Hats are a timeless must-have baby item, especially if you have knitted them yourself! This is a fantastic little project book in a handy pocket-size format, so you can even knit on the go. -
A city drawn in sand. Inspired by the tales of Homer and his own ambitions of empire, Alexander the Great sketched the idea of a city onto the sparsely populated Egyptian coastline. He did not live to see Alexandria built, but his vision of a sparkling metropolis that celebrated learning and diversity was swiftly realised and still stands today. Situated on the cusp of Africa, Europe and Asia, great civilisations met in Alexandria. Together, Greeks and Egyptians, Romans and Jews created a global knowledge capital of enormous influence: the inventive collaboration of its citizens shaped modern philosophy, science, religion and more. In pitched battles, later empires, from the Arabs and Ottomans to the French and British, laid claim to the city but its independent spirit endures. In this sweeping biography of the great city, Islam Issa takes us on a journey across millennia, rich in big ideas, brutal tragedies and distinctive characters, from Cleopatra to Napoleon. From its humble origins to dizzy heights and present-day strife, Alexandria tells the gripping story of a city that has shaped our modern world. -
The feminists across Latin America, Africa, and Europe making self-managed abortion available to all - and the transnational movement they have built along the way. Drawing on years of research with activists around the world, sociologist Naomi Braine describes the strategies, politics, and tactics of direct action feminists bringing abortion pills, information, and support to people seeking to end unwanted pregnancies. From combatting the legal strictures of Bolsonaro's Brazil, to navigating the NGO-dominated landscape of Kenya and Nigeria, feminist activists are making safe, accessible abortion care available against the odds. Even more important, these women are building a robust transnational feminist network. Tactics developed in the Global South - hotlines, practices of accompaniment and peer-to-peer care, and scientific information - are now being shared with activists in Europe and North America, building a new model for international feminist solidarity. -
Turn the page, and step into a stunning, evocative world where nature, magic and fate are inextricably linked, and one wrong - or right - step can take you from the modern world into one filled with both danger and wonder. This beautiful volume contains the award-winning novellas A Pocketful of Crows, The Blue Salt Road and Orfeia. Fully illustrated by Bonnie Helen Hawkins, with a brand new introduction by the author and three original short stories, this is a landmark collection which gloriously reimagines traditional British folktales into a timely, relevant and powerful new stories. -
It's thirty years from now and we're making progress, mitigating climate change, slowly but surely. But what about all the angry people who can't let go? For young Americans a generation from now, climate change isn't controversial, it's just an overwhelming fact of life. But so are the great efforts to contain and mitigate it. Entire cities are being moved inland from the rising seas. Vast clean-energy projects are springing up everywhere. Disaster relief, the mitigation of floods and superstorms, has become a skill for which tens of millions of people are trained every year. The effort is global. It employs everyone who wants to work. Even when national politics oscillates back to right-wing leaders, the momentum is too great; these vast programmes cannot be stopped in their tracks. But there are still those Americans who cling to their red trucker caps, their grievances, their anger, their nostalgia for the golden age of assault rifles. Their alternative news sources reassure them their resentment is right and pure and climate change is a con. They're your grandfather, your uncle, your great-aunt. They're not going anywhere. And they're armed to the teeth. -
A pocket-sized, unmissable essay on the importance of children's literature by the bestselling and award-winning author, Katherine Rundell. 'It's a very short book but it packs a real punch... A real delight' - Financial Times 'Rundell is the real deal, a writer of boundless gifts and extraordinary imaginative power whose novels will be read, cherished and reread long after most so-called "serious" novels are forgotten' - Observer 'Rundell's pen is gold-tipped' - Sunday Times Katherine Rundell - Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and prize-winning author of five novels for children - explores how children's books ignite, and can re-ignite, the imagination; how children's fiction, with its unabashed emotion and playfulness, can awaken old hungers and create new perspectives on the world. This delightful and persuasive essay is for adult readers. -
Staff Pick: "What was life like for the ordinary person living in East Berlin? What happened to former Stasi after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989? Funder answers these questions for us by telling us the true experiences of GDR resistance life in a surveillance state via personal interviews of residents of East Berlin in a skilful and empathetic way." Sarah J.