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Sam and Chester: How a Mischievous Pig Transformed the Life of My Autistic Son
By Jo Bailey-Merritt. 2016
When Sam Bailey-Merritt was just two years old, almost overnight he lost the ability to communicate or function. His mother,…
Jo, was at a loss as to what to do as she saw her son grow increasingly isolated and begin to suffer from uncontrollable meltdowns. Eventually, Sam was diagnosed with autism.Sam's condition continued to worsen and, just when Jo had all but given up hope of being able to help him, the family went on a day trip to a nearby miniature pig farm. Sam immediately bonded with a tiny ginger piglet called Chester, who stood sad and alone, apart from the rest of the litter. The connection between the boy and the animal was immediate and their unusual friendship blossomed from the moment the family brought Chester home. The tiny pig refused to leave Sam's side - it was as if he knew that Sam needed a friend. And, for the first time in five years, Jo saw her son really laugh.While Sam's confidence grew, Chester grew in a different way: the micro pig that was supposed to become the size of a Cocker Spaniel in fact ballooned to three times that size - with hilarious consequences for the family! Chester has turned Sam's life around. He now has the ability to communicate his feelings, make friends and is caring and kind towards others.Sam and Chester is the heart-warming story of how a teacup-sized ginger pig helped to transform the life of a boy with autism. It is the emotional story of a mother's fight to win back her son.The Sacrifice: How Bolivian miners extract their wealth
By Thomas Graham. 2019
2019 RUNNER-UP OF THE BODLEY HEAD | FINANCIAL TIMES ESSAY PRIZE‘In the Andean cultural context, the mouth of the mine…
is a portal between worlds. Outside, the miners are Catholic. Inside, the human soul has escaped the jurisdiction of God.’In this searing investigation, Thomas Graham crosses the Bolivian altiplano and ventures into Siglo XX, once the world’s richest tin mine. Describing the historical and political landscape of this near post-apocalyptic world, he is invited into the local mining community where he uncovers the true costs it has exacted on their lives.Russian Thinkers
By Isaiah Berlin. 1956
Few, if any, English-language critics have written as perceptively as Isaiah Berlin about Russian thought and culture. Russian Thinkers is…
his unique meditation on the impact that Russia's outstanding writers and philosophers had on its culture. In addition to Tolstoy's philosophy of history, which he addresses in his most famous essay, 'The Hedgehog and the Fox,' Berlin considers the social and political circumstances that produced such men as Herzen, Bakunin, Turgenev, Belinsky, and others of the Russian intelligentsia, who made up, as Berlin describes, 'the largest single Russian contribution to social change in the world.'Travelling on horseback through southern England in the early 19th century, William Cobbett provides evocative and accurate descriptions of the…
countryside, colourful accounts of his encounters with labourers, and indignant outbursts at the encroaching cities and the sufferings of the exploited poor. Ian Dyck's new edition places these lively accounts of rural life in the context of Cobbett's political and social beliefs and reveals the volume as his platform for rural radical reform.A Room of One's Own (Penguin Great Ideas)
By Virginia Woolf. 2004
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other.…
They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.The Robin: A Biography (The Bird Biography Series #1)
By Stephen Moss. 2017
Acclaimed naturalist and birdwatcher Stephen Moss brings us a year in the life of Britain's favourite bird - the robin.…
In The Robin Moss records a year of observing the robin both close to home and in the field to shed light on the hidden life of this apparently familiar bird. We follow its life cycle from the time it enters the world as an egg, through its time as a nestling and juvenile, to the adult bird; via courtship, song, breeding, feeding, migration - and ultimately, death. At the same time, we trace the robin's relationship with us: how did this bird - one of more than 300 species in its huge and diverse family - find its way so deeply and permanently into our nation's heart and its social and cultural history? It's a story that tells us as much about ourselves as it does about the robin itself. No other bird is quite so ever-present and familiar, so embedded in our culture, as the robin. But how much do we really know about this bird? 'There is no doubt that Moss's book, with its charming cover and quaint illustrations, will make it into many a stocking this year' The TimesA River Passes By Here
By Caroline Eaton Tracey. 2021
RUNNER-UP OF THE 2020 BODLEY HEAD / FINANCIAL TIMES ESSAY PRIZE'Just before the COVID-19 quarantine, I moved into my girlfriend's…
apartment, a renovated garage in a forgotten triangle of blocks where three Mexico City neighbourhoods come together.'A River Passes By Here is a story about Mexico City, its climate, its history and the life and love that flourishes within it. It describes efforts over more than a century to tame a unique natural environment, and explores what nature means to us when we are forcibly separated from it. It is a deeply evocative and enchanting portrait of a very particular time in an exceptional place.The River: A Love Story, a New Life in the Country, and One Idyllic Year With Otters
By Philippa Forrester. 2009
When TV presenter Philippa Forrester first met Charlie, a wildlife cameraman, she thought he was a show-off - and he…
thought she was arrogant. The second time, despite being hungry, thirsty and trapped in torrential rain aboard the world's most uncomfortable boat, they fell in love. This is the story of their move out of London, deep into the heart of the English countryside. When they impulsively buy an old mill-worker's cottage, they are entranced by its river, teeming with kingfishers, mink and water fowl. But they are overjoyed when they spot an animal long thought to have abandoned the area: an otter, swimming happily past their house. Inspired, they decide to make a film about the otters on their doorstep ... at the same time as having a baby, setting up house, and pursuing their careers. Unsurprisingly, things turn out to be easier said than done.Written with endless charm and real affection, featuring a cast of memorable characters, The River is packed with hilarious stories spanning floods, chicken keeping and wildlife watching. The result is sheer delight.The Restless Earth: Rural China in Transition
By Miriam Driessen. 2019
2018 RUNNER-UP OF THE BODLEY HEAD | FINANCIAL TIMES ESSAY PRIZEThe Restless Earth explores the lives of communities who remain…
sceptical of China’s big city allure. As the traditions of the New Year bring urban dwellers back to rural Qinghe, Miriam Driessen interrogates the tensions between the proud stoicism of rural family members and the ambitions of their returning relatives. Thoughtful and immersive, it is a portrait of a community whose existence is much more than a hurdle on the way to urbanization.Rescue Me: My Life with the Battersea Dogs
By Melissa Wareham. 2013
Melissa Wareham always wanted to work with dogs. After failing her biology O-level she realised she'd have to start at…
the bottom, cleaning out kennels at Battersea Dogs Home. From frail old men looking for a four-legged companion to famous folk who've lost their favourite hound, it seemed that at some point everyone passes through Battersea's doors. Amongst the clamour of thousands of lost pets crying 'Rescue Me!' and the noise of the railway lines above, Melissa found she had come home.The first dog Melissa fell for was Tulip, a sweet, elderly and somewhat dotty mongrel who decided a solo bus ride into the West End might be fun. Next up was Roscoe: found by the ambulance team with his dead owner, he is rehabilitated with a little help from his master's hat. And then - many, many dogs later - there is Gus. With his owner in jail, Melissa finally finds the dog she is to take home as her own.Heart-warming and compulsively readable, Rescue Me is Melissa's memoir of her fifteen years at Britain's most-loved dogs' home.Records of Shelley, Byron and the Author
By Edward John Trelawny. 2013
In February 1822 the writer and adventurer Edward John Trelawny arrived in Pisa to make the acquaintance of his heroes…
Shelley and Byron, leaving a broken marriage and an exotic seafaring career behind him. He became a close companion to them and their circle, and this collection of his reminiscences is one of the most fresh and intriguing documents of the Romantic age. It records his initial meeting with a cynical and flippant Byron, his impressions of a youthful, otherworldly Shelley and, most memorably, the poet's death at sea and the subsequent burning of his body on the sand. Trelawny's Records combine vigorous prose, vivid description and mythmaking to create one of the most memorable portraits of an age.Rosemary Ashton's new introduction explores the mysterious life and quixotic character of Trelawny, and this edition includes all the author's later revisions.Edward John Trelawny (1792-1881) was one of the most curious figures of the English Romantic Movement, and spent his long life travelling extensively as a naval officer, biographer and adventurer. After a brief education, Trelawny was assigned as a volunteer in the Royal Navy by the age of thirteen, and led an unaccomplished naval career until his resignation at nineteen. He met Shelley and Byron in Italy in 1822, where he became fascinated, almost hypnotized, by the two poets. His Records of Shelley, Byron and the Author, written after both their deaths, is the end-product of this strange obsession. An incorrigible romancer, Trelawny had three marriages - the second of which was to Tersitza, sister of the Greek warlord Odysseus Androutsos, whose cause he had joined and whose mountain fortress he looked after when Odysseus was arrested. He died after a fall at the age of eighty-eight, in England, and his ashes were buried in Rome in a plot adjacent to Shelley's grave.Rosemary Ashton was educated at the universities of Aberdeen, Heidelberg and Cambridge. She taught English literature at University College London from 1974 to 2012, and is Emeritus Quain Professor of English Language and Literature and an Honorary Fellow of UCL. She has published critical biographies of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas and Jane Carlyle, George Eliot, and George Henry Lewes, two books on Anglo-German literary and cultural relations in the nineteenth century, The German Idea: Four English Writers and the Reception of German Thought 1800-1860 (1980) and Little Germany: Exile and Asylum in Victorian England (1986), and two books about Victorian radicalism, 142 Strand: A Radical Address in Victorian London (2006) and Victorian Bloomsbury (2012).David Wright (1920-1994) was born in Johannesburg and came to England aged fourteen to attend the Northampton School for the Deaf. His first poem was published shortly after graduating from Oriel College, Oxford, and he published poetry throughout his life, including Moral Stories (1954), Monologue of a Deaf Man (1958), Metrical Observations (1980) and Elegies (1990). He was both a remarkable poet and a remarkable editor, responsible for, among others, the Penguin Classics edition of Edward Thomas's Selected Poems and Prose, The Penguin Book of English Romantic Verse and, with John Heath-Stubbs, The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Verse. He was also the author of a number of books on Portugal, a biography of Roy Campbell and a memoir, Deafness: A Personal Account.The Puppy and the Orphan
By Suzanne Lambert. 2017
A heart-warming new story from the bestselling author of Christmas at the Ragdoll OrphanageChristmas, 1953When little Billy discovers a lost…
puppy in the grounds of his orphanage home, he knows that the nuns will never allow him to keep a pet. But as Billy stares into the adorable Labrador's big brown eyes, he knows in his heart that he can't bear to be parted from his new friend.So he comes up with a plan.With the help of his fellow orphans, Billy hides the puppy in the caretaker's cottage. Together the children swear not to reveal the secret to the grown-ups. Yet as Billy and the puppy's special bond develops, his dread of discovery and being separated from his beloved dog grows . . .The Puppy and the Orphan tells the story of many lost souls who have found refuge at the orphanage, and how love helps each of them to fight for a second chance of somewhere to call home.Praise of Folly
By Desiderius Erasmus. 1971
Erasmus of Rotterdam (c. 1466-1536) is one of the greatest figures of the Renaissance humanist movement, which abandoned medieval pieties…
in favour of a rich new vision of the individual's potential. Praise of Folly, written to amuse his friend Sir Thomas More, is Erasmus's best-known work. Its dazzling mixture of fantasy and satire is narrated by a personification of Folly, dressed as a jester, who celebrates youth, pleasure, drunkenness and sexual desire, and goes on to lambast human pretensions, foibles and frailties, to mock theologians and monks and to praise the 'folly' of simple Christian piety. Erasmus's wit, wordplay and wisdom made the book an instant success, but it also attracted what may have been sales-boosting criticism. The Letter to Maarten van Dorp, which is a defence of his ideas and methods, is also included.Poetics
By Aristotle. 1996
One of the most powerful, perceptive and influential works of criticism in Western literary history In his near-contemporary account of…
classical Greek tragedy, Aristotle examines the dramatic elements of plot, character, language and spectacle that combine to produce pity and fear in the audience, and asks why we derive pleasure from this apparently painful process. Taking examples from the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, the Poetics introduced into literary criticism such central concepts as mimesis ('imitation'), hamartia ('error') and katharsis ('purification'). Aristotle explains how the most effective tragedies rely on complication and resolution, recognition and reversals. The Poetics has informed thinking about drama ever since.Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Malcolm HeathPlay It Again, Tom
By Augustus Brown. 2007
Dogs can smell electricity. Cats can heal bones by purring. Kittens can contact their mothers via a secret, ultra-sonic language.…
Dogs can understand a vocabulary of 200 human words. Every day, it seems, new scientific discoveries are fuelling the age old argument about which of man's two best friends really is the superior species. Augustus Brown fans the flames further with this collection of the weirdest, most wonderful and downright incredible of these truths about cats and dogs. Did you know, for instance, that dogs can see moving objects 900 yards away, and that cats can sense earthquakes coming? Or that dogs prefer Bach to Britney, while cats prefer drugs to chocolate? Fascinating, funny and provocative, his book may not settle the debate once and for all. But it is certain to set cat and dog lovers arguing like, well you know what...Plant Trees, Sow Seeds, Save The Bees: Simple ways to bee-friendly
By Nicola Bradbear. 2021
Discover the wonder of bees (and other stripey insects) and how to help them survive. In this little book of…
bees, wasps, hoverflies and more, discover the easy ways to make your gardens, window boxes and pots insect havens. Rewild your garden with plants for bees and honeybees - simple acts of kindness to save the planet. Expert Nicola Bradbear, from Bees for Development charity, shows you how and why it's so important.There are lots of fun things you can do to make a big difference.With every book sold, proceeds will be donated to Bees for Development (www.beesfordevelopment.org)Planet Earth III: Accompanies the Landmark Series Narrated by David Attenborough
By Matt Brandon, Michael Gunton, Jonny Keeling. 2023
The official tie-in to the third instalment in the legendary Planet Earth franchiseFew places on Earth remain untouched by humans,…
creating challenges for the wildlife we share it with. We have entered a new age, and we must look at the splendour of the natural world through a different lens.From the depths of our oceans, to scorching deserts and the most remote jungles, Planet Earth III features spectacular places and surprising animal behaviours from all corners of our world. And for the first time, a human element is introduced to each landscape, highlighting how, in the age of the Anthropocene, today's planet has been forever changed by humanity and that wildlife now faces new challenges in our crowded, modern world.Featuring over 250 beautiful full-colour photographs, Planet Earth III reveals the wonders and trials of life on an increasingly fragile planet, bringing you closer than ever before to our world’s most intriguing species, unseen landscapes and natural phenomena.Pigs: The Homoeopathic Approach to the Treatment and Prevention of Diseases
By George Macleod. 1994
Written in response to a growing demand on the part of pig farmers, here is a text-book which will provide…
a working manual to which reference can be readily made.Not all the diseases discussed in the text are of interest to pig producers in the United Kingdom but they have been included in the hope that they may be of interest to pig farmers in other countries. Also some of the diseases discussed are subject to the restrictions under the Diseases of Animals Acts and Orders, but they have been included in the hope that owners may recognise the cardinal symptoms of these diseases and take action accordingly.Pets in Need
By Marc Abraham. 2012
Marc Abraham, the UK's favourite vet, introduces a cast of loveable characters in this story of his life as an…
emergency vet. From the bouncy retriever puppy with a sore tummy to the tiny gerbil pregnant with triplets, every poorly pet is cared for in Marc's busy surgery. Featuring real-life insight into life as a practicing vet, as well as hints and tips on caring for your own pets, this is a perfect book for animal lovers everywhere.Abridged from the adult edition, Vet on Call.One of the greatest nineteenth-century scientist-explorers, Alexander von Humboldt traversed the tropical Spanish Americas between 1799 and 1804. By the…
time of his death in 1859, he had won international fame for his scientific discoveries, his observations of Native American peoples and his detailed descriptions of the flora and fauna of the 'new continent'. The first to draw and speculate on Aztec art, to observe reverse polarity in magnetism and to discover why America is called America, his writings profoundly influenced the course of Victorian culture, causing Darwin to reflect: 'He alone gives any notion of the feelings which are raised in the mind on first entering the Tropics'.