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Showing 61 - 80 of 7703 items
By Chris Packham. 2016
Voted the UK’s Favourite Nature BookThe memoir that inspired Chris Packham's BBC documentary, Asperger’s and MeEvery minute was magical, every…
single thing it did was fascinating and everything it didn't do was equally wondrous, and to be sat there, with a Kestrel, a real live Kestrel, my own real live Kestrel on my wrist! I felt like I'd climbed through a hole in heaven's fence.An introverted, unusual young boy, isolated by his obsessions and a loner at school, Chris Packham only felt at ease in the fields and woods around his suburban home. But when he stole a young Kestrel from its nest, he was about to embark on a friendship that would teach him what it meant to love, and that would change him forever. In his rich, lyrical and emotionally exposing memoir, Chris brings to life his childhood in the 70s, from his bedroom bursting with fox skulls, birds' eggs and sweaty jam jars, to his feral adventures. But pervading his story is the search for freedom, meaning and acceptance in a world that didn’t understand him.Beautifully wrought, this coming-of-age memoir will be unlike any you've ever read.By Amir Khan. 2020
'Honest, compassionate, brave and big hearted' - LORRAINE KELLY'Celebrates human beings in all their glorious, messy imperfection' - CAT DEELEY…
Sunday Times Bestseller updated with a new chapter on Amir's experiences during the coronavirus pandemic and being on the frontlines of the historic vaccination effort.60 hours a week240 patients 10 minutes to make a diagnosis Welcome to the surgery. Charting his 15 years working as a GP, from rookie to becoming a partner in one of the UK's busiest surgeries, Dr Amir Khan's stories are as much about community and care as they are about blood tests and bodily fluids. Along the way, he introduces us to the patients that have taught him about love, loss and family - from the regulars to the rarities - giving him the most unbelievable highs and crushing lows, and often in just 10 minutes. There is the unsuspecting pregnant woman about to give birth at the surgery; the man offering to drop his trousers and take a urine sample there and then; the family who needs support through bereavement, the vulnerable child who will need continuing care for a long-term health condition; and, of course, the onset of COVID-19 that tested the surgery at every twist and turn. But, it's all in a day's work for Amir. The Doctor Will See You Now is a powerful story of hope, love and compassion, but it's also a rare insider account of what really goes on behind those surgery doors.By Roger Osborne. 1999
Detective story, social history, human drama, The Deprat Affair recreates the hothouse atmosphere of colonial Indochina in the early twentieth…
century. Among its cliques, its bitter rivalries, its nepotism and favours, how are we to disentangle the scientific, the moral and the legal 'truths' of the affair? Most of all, the story centres on one compelling individual - Jacques Deprat. En route to a golden future as one of France's greatest geologists, he is suddenly accused of fraud and plunged into a desperate fight to save his reputation. Convicted of placing European fossils among samples collected in Indochina, he is dismissed from his job, and expelled from the Société Géologique de France. Thrown out of the science to which he has given everything, he re-invents himself, changes his name, and begins not one, but two fascinating new lives - each as extraordinary and colourful as the one he left behind. And even in the manner of his premature death, Deprat proved his ability to shake the world. Eighty years on from his conviction, the truth of the Deprat affair is still in doubt - and is still passionately debated among French scientists. But innocent or guilty, Jacques Deprat is an astonishing figure, whose capacity to overcome the world's disgrace and the dissolution of his dreams makes an amazing and captivating story.By Father Philip Larrey. 2017
The world as we know it is changing. Driverless cars, drone deliveries and autonomous weapon systems are no longer the…
stuff of science fiction.But what's next for technology and business, and how will it impact our society?In Connected World, Philip Larrey of the Pontifical Lateran University explores the consequences of the new digital age in conversation with leaders including Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google's parent company Alphabet, and Maurice Lévy, CEO of Publicis Groupe.Ranging from the death of privacy to the rise of artificial intelligence, Connected World asks the existential questions which will come to define our age.By Dr Tony Bleetman. 2013
Note to customers: This book is also available under the title "You Can't Park There!: The Highs and Lows of…
an Air Ambulance Doctor". 'People get into this work for "the juice", meaning the adrenaline rush, but they don't tell you about the other juices - the mud, blood, snot and grot.' Confessions of an Air Ambulance Doctor is the first ever behind-the-scenes account of life onboard an air ambulance. The first of its kind to carry doctors and surgeons who can take the hospital to the patient. Drug addicts, lorry crashes, open-heart surgery, stab wounds, headless chickens, mating llamas, and strip routines – it’s all in a day’s work for emergency doctor Tony Bleetman and his team. Whether they are landing in the middle of the M1 or at a maximum security jail, Tony and his crew Helimed 999 are the first on the scene in the most critical of emergencies. This gripping read will make you laugh, cry and marvel at the wonders of life (and death) in equal measure.By Michelle Meagher. 2020
We live in the age of big companies where rising levels of power are concentrated in the hands of a…
few. Yet no government or organisation has the power to regulate these titans and hold them to account. We need big companies to share their power and we, the people of the world, need to reclaim it. In Competition is Killing Us, top business and competition lawyer Michelle Meagher establishes a new framework to control capitalism from the inside in order to make it work for the many and not just the few. Meagher has spent years campaigning against these multi-billion and trillion dollar mammoths that dominate the market and prioritise shareholder profits over all else; leading to extreme wealth inequality, inhumane conditions for workers and relentless pressure on the environment.In this revolutionary book, she introduces her wholly-achievable alternative; a fair and comprehensive competition law that limits unfair mergers, enforces accountability and redistributes power through stakeholder governance.By Alexandra Zelman-Doring. 2014
What is it like to have someone die in your arms? Can we return from the dead? And why has…
nobody heard of therapeutic hypothermia? Forced to come to terms with doctors pronouncing her husband ‘clinically dead’, Alexandra Zelman-Doring embarks on an exploration of what death means to us and how we might face it. Initally she is overwhelmed by the difficulty of accepting the loss of a loved one, and the anger, sadness and sense of isolation that it brings. But her suffering pushes her towards a life-store of reading, and here she finds words with which to contemplate death; from Turgenev on death as an ‘unanswerable reproach’ to Norbert Elias on the extraordinary collective will to endure it.Equally inspiring are the true stories of unlikely survivors: from a species of frog whose organs stop, frozen, throughout the winter, only to stir back to life in the spring, to Anna Bagenholm whose iced brain and body held out against all odds after a fatal accident. These incidents inform a development in medical science where cardiac arrest is treated with ‘therapeutic hypothermia’, in some cases allowing the body to last without oxygen just long enough for doctors to return the near-dead to life.By Stephen Anderton. 2010
Christopher Lloyd (Christo) was one of the greatest English gardeners of the twentieth century, perhaps the finest plantsman of them…
all. His creation is the garden at Great Dixter in East Sussex, and it is a tribute to his vision and achievement that, after his death in 2006, the Heritage Lottery Fund made a grant of £4 million to help preserve it for the nation. This enjoyable and revealing book - the first biography of Christo - is also the story of Dixter from 1910 to 2006, a unique unbroken history of one English house and one English garden spanning a century. It was Christo's father, Nathaniel, who bought the medieval manor at Dixter and called in the fashionable Edwardian architect, Lutyens, to rebuild the house and lay out the garden. And it was his mother, Daisy, who made the first wild garden in the meadows there. Christo was born at Dixter in 1921. Apart from boarding school, war service and a period at horticultural college, he spent his whole life there, constantly re-planting and enriching the garden, while turning out landmark books and exhaustive journalism. Opinionated, argumentative and gloriously eccentric, he changed the face of English gardening through his passions for meadow gardening, dazzling colours and thorough husbandry. As the baby of a family of six - five boys and a girl - Christo was stifled by his adoring mother. Music-loving and sports-hating, he knew the Latin names of plants before he was eight. This fascinating book reveals what made Christo tick by examining his relationships with his generous but scheming mother, his like-minded friends (such as gardeners Anna Pavord and Beth Chatto) and his colleagues (including his head gardener, Fergus Garrett, a plantsman in Christo's own mould).'An inspirational manifesto for change' Caroline Lucas, former leader of The Green Party 'A remarkable and important book' Steve Backshall,…
Naturalist, Broadcaster, and Author'Astute, erudite and crystalline, Bella writes with visionary clarity and passion [...] It's a wonderful book' Dara McAnulty, award-winning author of Diary of a Young Naturalist____________________________Across the planet, the futures of young people hang in the balance as they face the harsh realities of the environmental crisis. Isn't it time we made their voices heard?The Children of the Anthropocene, by conservationist and activist Bella Lack, chronicles the lives of the diverse young people on the frontlines of the environmental crisis around the world, amplifying the voices of those living at the heart of the crisis.Advocating for the protection of both people and the planet, Bella restores the beating heart to global environmental issues, from air pollution to deforestation and overconsumption, by telling the stories of those most directly affected. Transporting us from the humming bounty of Ecuador's Choco Rainforest and the graceful arcs of the Himalayan Mountains, to the windswept plains and vibrant vistas of life in Altiplano, Bella speaks to young activists from around the world including Dara McAnulty, Afroz Shah and Artemisa Xakriabá, and brings the crisis vividly to life.It's time we passed the mic and listened to different perspectives. Bella's manifestos for change will inspire and mobilize you to rediscover the wonders and wilds of nature and, ultimately, change the way you think about our planet in crisis. This is your chance to hear the urgent stories of an endangered species too often overlooked: the children of the Anthropocene. ____________________________'Extraordinarily moving, wild and engaging - the book of the moment' Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland and author of Climate Justice'A visionary statement for the future [...] Pragmatic, positive & beautifully written' Ben Macdonald, Award-Winning Conservation Writer, Wildlife TV Producer and NaturalistBy Hannah Jackson. 2021
Sunday Times bestsellerLessons to live by, without getting up with the lark Hannah Jackson (aka The Red Shepherdess) grew up…
in the Wirral, and hadn't set foot on a farm until she was 20-years-old. But she'd always loved animals and on a visit to the Lake District, she saw a lamb being born and had a light bulb moment - a burning desire to succeed as a farmer - and never looked back.In Tales of a Shepherdess, Hannah gives us a unique insight into farm life and the values it has taught her that we can use in our everyday lives to change ourselves and our world for the better - from connection, communication and community, to leadership, patience and resilience. Hannah will show us how becoming a lambing and farming contractor in a male-dominated and traditional world taught her grit and determination; how training her loyal sheepdog Fraser taught her to trust; and how sometimes failure can teach us more about ourselves than success. Hannah's journey also teaches us how we should find what sets our hearts on fire and throw everything into it.Hannah's simple and universal wisdom, practical advice, and words of encouragement will inspire you to achieve your goals, follow your dreams and focus on what's really important in life.By Lisa Lynch. 2010
Updated with new material, The C Word is the incredibly moving, darkly humorous account of one woman's fight against breast…
cancer. Now a BBC Drama starring Sheridan Smith. The last thing Lisa Lynch had expected to put on her 'things to do before you're 30' list was beating breast cancer, but them's the breaks. So with her life on hold, and her mind stuffed with unspoken fears, questions and emotions, she turned to her computer and started blogging about the frustrating, life-altering, sheer pain-in-the-arse inconvenience of getting breast cancer at the age of 28.The C-Word is an unflinchingly honest and darkly humorous account of Lisa's battle with The Bullshit, as she came to call it. From the good days when she could almost pretend it wasn't happening, to the bad days, when she couldn't bear to wake up, Lisa's story is emotional, heartbreaking and often hilarious. The C-Word will make you laugh and cry, and ultimately reaffirm your faith in life.By Richard Dawkins. 2021
'A rich feast of his essays, reviews, forewords, squibs and conversations, in which talent and passion are married to deep…
knowledge.' Matt Ridley'Enjoy the unfailing clarity of his thought and prose, as well as the grandeur of his vision of life on Earth.' - Mark Cocker, Spectator'Richard Dawkins is a thunderously gifted science writer.' Sunday TimesIncluding conversations with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Steven Pinker, Matt Ridley and more, this is an essential guide to the most exciting ideas of our time and their proponents from our most brilliant science communicator.Books Do Furnish a Life is divided by theme, including celebrating nature, exploring humanity, and interrogating faith. For the first time, it brings together Richard Dawkins' forewords, afterwords and introductions to the work of some of the leading thinkers of our age - Carl Sagan, Lawrence Krauss, Jacob Bronowski, Lewis Wolpert - with a selection of his reviews to provide an electrifying celebration of science writing, both fiction and non-fiction. It is also a sparkling addition to Dawkins' own remarkable canon of work.Plenty of other scientists write well, but no one writes like Dawkins... here is Dawkins the teacher, the scholar, the polemicist, the joker, the aesthete, the poet, the satirist, the man of compassion as well as indignation, the slayer of superstition and, above all, the scientist. - Areo MagazineBy Georgie Edwards. 2013
‘I am one of the old school and believe that a woman’s place is within the home … However, I…
cannot, I will not, condone unfairness amongst females. I suggest that in due course you send your Matron a letter of thanks. You had after all a most unusual reference.’In 1949, Staff Nurse Georgie Edwards is asked to chaperone medical students undertaking their practical exams when suddenly the penny drops. Georgie wants to learn to diagnose and treat too.Against the odds, she wins herself a place to study medicine at London’s St Bartholomew’s Hospital and she sets about becoming not a consultant ‘who sweeps by’ but a doctor who listens and cares. Yet Georgie wants to fall in love and start a family as well as have a career – is this one dream too many for a woman in the 1950s?Warm and full of humour, The Best Medicine is Georgie’s fascinating memoir of her early years as a nurse and doctor.By Charles Darwin. 1986
The Autobiographies of Charles Darwin (1809-82) provide a fascinating glimpse into the mind of one of the world's intellectual giants.…
They begin with engaging memories of his childhood and youth and of his burgeoning scientific curiosity and love of the natural world, which led to him joining the expedition on the Beagle. Darwin follows this with survey of his career and ends with a reckoning of his life's work. Interspersed with these recollections are fascinating portraits - from his devoted wife Emma and his talented father, both bullying and kind, to the leading figures of the Victorian scientific world he counted among his friends, including Lyell and Huxley. Honest and illuminating, these memoirs reveal a man who was isolated by his controversial beliefs and whose towering achievements were attained by a life-long passion for the discoveries of science.By Gary Fildes. 2016
A Bricklayer's Guide to the Galaxy . . . The inspirational memoir of a former brickie who followed his passion…
for the stars and built his own observatory. Perfect for readers of Robert Macfarlane, Helen Macdonald and James Rebanks - as well as fans of Brian Cox and the BBC’s Sky at Night Gary Fildes left school at sixteen, got a trade like most of his mates and was soon married with four kids. His life seemed set. But he had a secret. Something he only practised late at night with a few like-minded friends. Then one day, middle age approaching alarmingly, he acted on his lifelong passion. He finally came out. As an astronomer.Today, Gary is the founder and lead astronomer of Kielder Observatory, one of the top ten stargazing sites in the world, which he also helped to build. Situated in the beautiful forests of Kielder, Northumberland, within Europe’s largest protected dark sky park, it offers some of the UK's most spectacular views of stars, planets and galaxies.An Astronomer’s Tale is Gary’s inspirational story: part memoir, part nature writing, part seasonal guide to the night sky. It is a book brimming with passion; and at a time when the world is captivated by space, it will leave you ready to get out there and explore the wonders of the skies for yourself.By Fredrik Sjöberg. 2006
Accidental Journeys with the Bestselling Author of The Fly TrapStories just begin. We rarely know where and almost never why.…
It doesn't matter. Nothing is certain any longer. I just want to shut my eyes, point at random and say, as a sort of experiment, that once, when I was sixteen years old, I spent a whole night singing romantic songs in the top of a pine tree. That's where it may have started.Fredrik Sjöberg continues his exploration of the pleasures and trials of those who spend their time tracing the smallest details of the natural world in these two tales of ambition, fear and hapless romance. Calling on his childhood memories and experience as a hoverfly collector, and following the trail of long forgotten entomologists before him who left their native Sweden for the national parks of the United States, Sjöberg contemplates the richness of life and the strange paths it leads us on.Discover the profound and moving portrait of one doctor's life and work in the NHS'Wonderful - insightful and compassionate' Dr…
Richard Shepherd, bestselling author of Unnatural Causes________They can't teach you how to be a doctor at medical school . . .As a junior doctor, Dr Tom Templeton learnt how to do his job from books, professors and other doctors and nurses. But the most important lessons - tolerance, kindness, resilience and bravery - he learnt from his patients.Here, he shares the stories of just 34, and how they changed his life while he was helping theirs.From a stillbirth to the old woman who lived a century, from the inhabitants of stately homes to the homeless, these stories whether heartwarming or heartbreaking, funny or tragic, are always inspiring and illuminating.We are all patients, but discover for the first time how the doctors see us . . .________'An admirably told story' Spectator'Informative and personal, humbling and healing' ObserverBy Sandeep Jauhar. 2023
Named a best book of the year by The New Yorker | A Smithsonian top ten science book of 2023…
| One of AARP magazine's favorite books of 2023“Blending the humor, compassion, and absorbing family drama of first-rate memoir with expert science writing, [Sandeep Jauhar] has composed a can’t-miss introduction to what has been called the Age of Alzheimer’s.” —Sanjay Gupta, author of Keep Sharp and World War CA deeply affecting memoir of a father’s descent into dementia, and a revelatory inquiry into why the human brain degenerates with age and what we can do about it.Almost six million Americans—about one in every ten people over the age of sixty-five—have Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia, and this number is projected to more than double by 2050. What is it like to live with and amid this increasingly prevalent condition, an affliction that some fear more than death? In My Father’s Brain, the distinguished physician and author Sandeep Jauhar sets his father’s struggle with Alzheimer’s alongside his own journey toward understanding this disease and how it might best be coped with, if not cured.In an intimate memoir rich with humor and heartbreak, Jauhar relates how his immigrant father and extended family felt, quarreled, and found their way through the dissolution of a cherished life. Along the way, he lucidly exposes what happens in the brain as we age and our memory falters, and explores everything from ancient conceptions of the mind to the most cutting-edge neurological—and bioethical—research. Throughout, My Father’s Brain confronts the moral and psychological concerns that arise when family members must become caregivers, when children’s and parents’ roles reverse, and when we must accept unforeseen turns in our closest relationships—and in our understanding of what it is to have a self. The result is a work of essential insight into dementia, and into how scientists, caregivers, and all of us in an aging society are reckoning with the fallout.By M. J. Fievre. 2021
Discover Incredible Inventions by Black People (Ages 8-12) #1 New Release in Children's Inventors Books Young Trailblazers: The Book of…
Black Inventors and Scientists is a fun new book for children that teaches kids about inventions by Black people that have impacted the world through their ingenuity and trailblazing innovation. From Black Inventors to Black Scientists. Take your child on an adventure and travel through time to meet famous black inventors who changed the game. Countdown to liftoff with Katherine Johnson, who helped pioneer U.S. crewed space missions. Safely cross the street with Garrett Morgan, who invented the traffic signal—or even sing your heart out with James West&’s invention of the microphone. All of these inventions by Black people have, in one way or another, shaped the past and present through trailblazing creativity and resilience; these stories are sure to inspire every child. Experience an array of rich Black history. In this book, there are Black scientists and Black inventors we all know, such as Lewis Howard Latimer and Sarah Boone. There are also dozens of Black trailblazers that we don&’t, all of whom have accomplished remarkable things in literature, entertainment, education, STEM, business, military and government services, politics and law, activism, sports, spirituality, and more. Inside this book of inventions by Black people, you&’ll find: A fun and engaging introduction to Black inventors for kids Essential Black history for kids to learn about Interesting fun facts and beautiful illustrations If you enjoyed Black Women in Science, Black Inventors, or Black Heroes, then you&’ll love Young Trailblazers.By Jason Roberts. 2024
From the bestselling author of A Sense of the World comes this dramatic, globe-spanning and meticulously-researched story of two scientific…
rivals and their race to survey all life on Earth.In the 18th century, two men dedicated their lives to the same daunting task: identifying and describing all life on Earth. Their approaches could not have been more different. Carl Linnaeus, a pious Swedish doctor with a huckster's flair, believed that life belonged in tidy, static categories. Georges-Louis de Buffon, an aristocratic polymath and keeper of France's royal garden, viewed life as a dynamic swirl of complexities. Both began believing their work to be difficult, but not impossible—how could the planet possibly hold more than a few thousand species? Stunned by life's diversity, both fell far short of their goal. But in the process they articulated starkly divergent views on nature, on humanity's role in shaping the fate of our planet and on humanity itself. The rivalry between these two unique, driven individuals created reverberations that still echo today. Linnaeus, with the help of acolyte explorers he called "apostles" (only half of whom returned alive), gave the world such concepts as mammal, primate and homo sapiens—but he also denied species change and promulgated racist pseudo-science. Buffon coined the term reproduction, formulated early prototypes of evolution and genetics, and argued passionately against prejudice. It was a clash that, during their lifetimes, Buffon seemed to be winning. But their posthumous fates would take a very different turn.With elegant, propulsive prose grounded in more than a decade of research, featuring appearances by Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin and Charles Darwin, bestselling author Jason Roberts tells an unforgettable true-life tale of intertwined lives and enduring legacies, tracing an arc of insight and discovery that extends across three centuries into the present day.