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Showing 1 - 20 of 28888 items
By Annabel Goldsmith. 2006
A loveable local legend and true character to all who knew him, Copper was no ordinary dog. With more stories…
to tell than you could count on the pads of one paw, this curly-tailed, shaggy-bearded mongrel (but don't let him hear you call him that) led a truly astonishing life. Famed for his remarkable wanderlust, canine curiosity took him all over the place, from Richmond and Kingston to Brighton, sometimes travelling on buses with his friend Jessie the cat, often stopping off at his favourite pubs, or chasing unsuspecting joggers in the park - a hobby which nearly ended his life. In this delightful book, Copper tells us of his astounding adventures with the finest of tail-wagging wisdom. He sniffs out all the important things in life: the comings and goings, the loves and losses - and, of course, what it's like to live in high society. Sometimes cheeky, most of the time charming, but always cherished, Copper's story is by turns funny and moving, the tale of a real canine hero.There's an epidemic sweeping the nationSymptoms include:*Acute embarrassment at the mere notion of 'making a fuss'*Extreme awkwardness when faced with…
any social greeting beyond a brisk handshake *An unhealthy preoccupation with meteorology Doctors have also reported several cases of unnecessary apologising, an obsessive interest in correct queuing etiquette and dramatic sighing in the presence of loud teenagers on public transport. If you have experienced any of these symptoms, you may be suffering from VERY BRITISH PROBLEMS.VERY BRITISH PROBLEMS are highly contagious. There is no known cure.Rob Temple's hilarious new book reveals all the ways in which we are a nation of socially awkward but well-meaning oddballs, struggling to make it through every day without apologising to an inanimate object. Take comfort in misfortunes of others. You are not alone.By Donn F. Draeger. 1989
Ninja-the very word inspires awe and terror in equal measure. Master of espionage and assassination, stealth and concealment, the ninja's…
ability to move swiftly and silently gave rise to popular legends of amazing exploits, invincibility and supernatural powers.In Ninjutsu: The Art of Invisibility, Donn Draeger draws back the veil of mystery shrouding the arcane practices of feudal Japan's shadow warriors. Stripping away myth and exaggeration, Draeger reveals the secret tactics, exotic weapons, tricks and disguises that earned the ninja a reputation as history's most feared secret agents.By Maggie Fergusson. 2007
George Mackay Brown was one of Scotland's greatest twentieth-century writers, but in person a bundle of paradoxes. He had a…
wide international reputation, but hardly left his native Orkney. A prolific poet, admired by such fellow poets as Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes and Charles Causley, and hailed by the composer Peter Maxwell Davies as 'the most positive and benign influence ever on my own efforts at creation', he was also an accomplished novelist (shortlisted for the 1994 Booker Prize for Beside the Ocean of Time) and a master of the short story. When he died in 1996, he left behind an autobiography as deft as it is ultimately uninformative. 'The lives of artists are as boring and also as uniquely fascinating as any or every other life,' he claimed. Never a recluse, he appeared open to his friends, but probably revealed more of himself in his voluminous correspondence with strangers. He never married - indeed he once wrote, 'I have never been in love in my life.' But some of his most poignant letters and poems were written to Stella Cartwright, 'the Muse of Rose Street', the gifted but tragic figure to whom he was once engaged and with whom he kept in touch until the end of her short life.Maggie Fergusson interviewed George Mackay Brown several times and is the only biographer to whom he, a reluctant subject, gave his blessing. Through his letters and through conversations with his wide acquaintance, she discovers that this particular artist's life was not only fascinating but vivid, courageous and surprising.By Maira Kalman. 2002
The Snicker candy bar appeared and Babe Ruth hit his 611th home run P …
P That was also the year the John J Harvey fireboat was first launched It had levers buttons buckets brass trim and five engines and it fought fires on the piers But by 1995 the city had little use for a fireboat and it sold the Harvey to group of people who restored and used it for fun P P Then came 9 11 something so huge and horrible happened that the whole world shook The Harvey was called back into service Firefighters attached their hoses to the boat and fought fires for four days and nights P P Kalman does some extraordinary things in this beautiful picture book She takes the fireboat s history and puts it within the context of a city that has endured framing the enormity of 9 11 so young readers and even small children can begin to grasp what happened At the same time she makes the event part of life s continuum of loss and enduranceBy Ashley Martin. 2010
The Complete Martial Arts Training Manual is for beginners who want to explore options in terms of disciplines and veteran…
martial artists looking to expand their knowledge into other martial arts arenas.Author Ashley P. Martin provides a catalog of the various martial arts being taught worldwide and where each one is focused. He then covers the basics of hand-to-hand techniques within each of those disciplines, from strikes to ground fighting. Finally, he offers information on the overall health and well-being of the martial artist, including important nutritional information and stretching techniques. The Complete Martial Arts Training Manual provides a solid foundation for beginners and is a key supplement to the veteran martial artist's library.By Barry Miles. 1989
Barry Miles has accounted the life of one of the most extraordinary poets. Drawing on his long literary association with…
Ginsberg, as well as on the poet's journals and correspondence, he presents an account of a controversial life.By Brian Hayden. 2018
The Power of Ritual in Prehistory is the first book in nearly a century to deal with traditional secret societies…
from a comparative perspective and the first from an archaeological viewpoint Providing a clear definition as well as the material signatures of ethnographic secret societies Brian Hayden demonstrates how they worked what motivated their organizers and what tactics they used to obtain what they wanted He shows that far from working for the welfare of their communities traditional secret societies emerged as predatory organizations operated for the benefit of their own members Moreover and contrary to the prevailing ideas that prehistoric rituals were used to integrate communities Hayden demonstrates how traditional secret societies created divisiveness and inequalities They were one of the key tools for increasing political control leading to chiefdoms states and world religions Hayden s conclusions will be eye-opening not only for archaeologists but also for anthropologists political scientists and scholars of religionBy Fi Cotter-Craig, Zebedee Helm. 2012
The Middle Class ABC is the book loos, bedside tables and farmers markets the length and breadth of the land…
have been waiting for - a humorous celebration of the facts (some are even true) and foibles, manners and mores, peccadilloes and armadillos, of contemporary British middle-class life.Letter by letter, the occasionally clever, witty and absurd observations and cartoons will ring true for all good Middlings. WARNING: you might even recognize your own or your friends' choices of children's names, foodie fads, holiday destinations . . . Crammed with affectionately teasing jokes and some truly dreadful puns, this is a book to enjoy at any time of the year in the course of going about one's business.By Edward Gibbon. 1984
By Jim White. 2007
On Sunday mornings Jim White has the following choice: visit the supermarket, buy trellising at B'n'Q, or stand on the…
sidelines of a muddy municipal football pitch, his trouser cuffs wetter than a weekend in Llandudno, shoulder-to-shoulder with a motley crew of mums, dads, step-parents and same-sex life partners all screaming at their beleaguered offspring. You'll find Jim in the same place every week, failing to organise a bunch of lads into something resembling a team while on the far side of the park his opposite number, a wannabe Mourinho in brashly monogrammed tracksuit, struts the sidelines, shouting - always shouting. This is the hilarious story of Jim White's time as manager of his son's football team: the highs, the lows, and the dog turd in the centre circle. At this level, winning spirit is not so much about passion, pride and belief as praying that your star centre forward has remembered his boots. Most importantly, it's about the enduring relationship between fathers, sons and football. This is the story no one who has ever watched his or her child play sport will want to miss.By Jim White. 2009
Manchester United:The Biography will do for the football team what Peter Ackroyd did for London in his huge biog of…
the same name. The book follows the club?s extraordinary journey from its birth in the railway works of Newton Heath to its current statusBy Jeff Green. 2002
What happens when those two most incompatible of creatures - the human male and the human female - settle down…
for a life of togetherness and arguments about the toilet seat? Award-winning comedian Jeff Green bravely sets out to discover the truth. Why is, 'Wow, you're a fantastic cleaner', not considered a compliment? And what is it about women and candles...? Along the way he offers helpful advice (why you shouldn't cheer when your partner says, 'I'm not angry, I'm disappointed'), handy tips (ways to avoid becoming broody: get up every hour throughout the night and burn £200) and essential buys (see 'exercise equipment and other places to hang wet washing'). Whether you're hopelessly coupled or gratefully single, The A-Z of Living Together has all the answers you need. Because it's not just men who behave badly...By Jeff Green. 2006
Congratulations! You're having a baby! Or maybe you're a proud parent, holding your little bundle of joy with a mixture…
of ecstasy, wonder and sheer unadulterated TERROR? But don't panic! Real help is at hand, in the form of new dad and award-winning comedian Jeff Green. Let him guide you through the late nights, the stretch marks, the haemorrhoids... (and that's just the dads) and reassure you that you are NOT ALONE. So Dad, if you're suffering from father blues (the slow realisation that all your holidays will now be at Center Parcs), and Mum, if you're still miffed that your partner kept just out of punching range during childbirth, then this book is most definitely for you. Because it's not just babies who have teething problems...By Sumit Chakraberty. 2014
Master Laster takes you beyond Sachin Tendulkar s career aggregates and passionate assertions …
There are almost as many books about Sachin Tendulkar as there are centuries by him But just as there is only one Tendulkar century that came in a winning run chase in the last innings of a Test match rare are the books that look at his personal records through the prism of how much they mattered to the team In fact there are none because the easiest thing to do is to produce adulatory tomes for his doting fans But there are an equal number of cricket fans out there who want to know something more than gushing accolades and who don t shy away from asking difficult questions The book covers 1 a quarter of a century of Indian cricket bringing back to life many a game played during Tendulkar s time 2 it indulges fans in one of the enduring joys of cricket discussing a point threadbare from multiple angles 3 how many of his centuries made a difference to the team 4 what is his track record under pressure None of the books on Tendulkar has engaged fans in these debates There is the odd question raised here or a critical comment made there in memoirs by former cricketers but not a single book that sifts through the mountain of Tendulkar records to see what value can be attached to them from a team s point of view An exercise like that can be quite revealing even startling and certainly a lot of fun for cricket lovers It sets the Tendulkar debate against specific data taking it beyond career aggregates and passionate assertions Master Laster covers the variables in the game and its infinite possibilities It also deals with why this game is so fascinates so many of usBy Barney Ronay. 2010
Ever since the dawn of the professional era, the beautiful game's most intriguing individual has been inching his way from…
the boot room towards the back pages. Along the way he has shared in the preoccupations of the nation - from conflicts and economic crises, to a fascination with fashion and a wholly unhealthy interest in celebrity. This book traces the remarkable journey of the football gaffer, from his humble beginnings as club secretary, to his modern incarnation - the man we all recognise, venting his spleen at the ref, or having a huff at a post-match press conference. THE MANAGER takes the reader beyond the well-worn anecdotes, deeper into the stories of football's top men and the world they inhabit. Barney Ronay asks the important questions about these compelling characters - Where did they come from? Why are they so miserable? Where do they get their suits? Hilarious and absorbing, this book contains enough revelations to provide the most avid fan with a library of fresh tales. You'll never look at the man on the touchline in the same way again.By Gary Paulsen. 1979
By Max Davidson. 2012
The history of sport is littered with tales of exemplary courage: sportsmen and women pushing their bodies through the pain…
barrier, or defying career-threatening injuries, in quest of victory. From the goalkeeper who played in a FA Cup Final with a broken neck to the batsman who saved a Test match with his arm in plaster, their heroics have inspired generations of schoolchildren. But courage is as much a moral as a physical attribute. Some of the most inspiring chapters in sport feature men and women of principle who have challenged authority, fought prejudice or simply had the guts to confess to weaknesses that went against the grain of their profession. Ben Hogan, Jackie Robinson, Marcus Trescothick, Billie-Jean King, Eric Lidell . . . Max Davidson's cavalcade of sporting heroism celebrates virtues that transcend winning and losing -- and explains why sport at its best is so inspirational.By Dan Kieran. 2009
What is it about an engine roaring into life that makes grown men go weak at the knees? This is…
a book about machines and the men who love them. Some of these men are quite odd. Having always been a mechanaphobe himself, living in the slow lane, Dan Kieran is on a mission to discover the allure of machines and man's need for speed. Follow Dan as he climbs aboard a penny-farthing for a jaunt around west London, drives a steam train through the 'alps', joins the pit lane crew of Mitsubishi for the Britcar 24-hour race at Silverstone, discovers the link between Lawrence of Arabia and the 'wall of death', meets tank (yes, tank) collectors and the men behind 'digger ballet', learns to fly in the shadow of Douglas Bader and, along the way, wrestles with Aristotle, Jeremy Clarkson, Plato, Hunter S. Thompson and, mostly, himself.Join Dan as he makes a journey of discovery into another world, the happy and quirky world of the Great British potterer and machine enthusiast. Could he even be tempted to stay there?By Harry Pearson. 2012
Slipless in Settle is a sentimental journey around club cricket in the north of England, a world far removed from…
the clichéd lengthening-shadows-on-the-village-green image of the summer game. This is hardcore cricket played in former pit villages and mill towns. Winner of the 2011 MCC Cricket Book of the Year, it is about the little clubs that have, down the years, produced some of the greatest players Britain has ever seen, and at one time spent a fortune on importing the biggest names in the international game to boost their battle for local supremacy.Slipless in Settle is a warm, affectionate and outrageously funny sporting odyssey in which Andrew Flintoff and Learie Constantine rub shoulders with Asbo-tag-wearing all-rounders, there's hot-pot pie and mushy peas at the tea bar, two types of mild in the clubhouse, and a batsman is banned for a month for wearing a fireman's helmet when going out to face Joel Garner . . .