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Showing 188301 - 188320 of 189143 items
By Ovid. 2004
'Still remarkably vivid. It is easier to read this for pure pleasure than just about any other ancient text' Nicholas…
Lezard, GuardianOvid's sensuous and witty poem begins with the creation of the world and brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation - often as a result of love or lust - where men and women find themselves magically changed into extraordinary new beings. Including the well-known stories of Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy, the Metamorphoses has influenced writers and artists from Shakespeare and Chaucer to Picasso and Ted Hughes. This translation by David Raeburn is in hexameter verse, which brilliantly captures the energy and spontaneity of the original.Translated by DAVID RAEBURN with an Introduction by DENIS FEENEYBy Adrian Henri, Brian Patten, Roger McGough. 2017
'The Mersey Sound is an attempt to introduce contemporary poetry to the general reader by publishing representative work by each…
of three modern poets in a single volume, in each case the selection has been made to illustrate the poet's characteristics in style and form'. With this modest brief, The Mersey Sound was conceived and first published in 1967. An anthology which features Roger McGough's work, alongside that of Brian Patten and Adrian Henri (The Liverpool Poets), it went on to sell over half a million copies and to become the bestselling poetry anthology of all time.By David Ovason. 1999
The secrets, the myths and the facts behind Washington, D.C.'s design and its Masonic significance.In this groundbreaking, original work, David…
Ovason reveals the intimate connections between the mysterious zodiacal symbols and the stellar lore of Washington, D.C. and the secret plan for the city.There are over fifty complete zodiacs in Washington, D.C., all witness to an extraordinary stellar mystery. Why did generations of architects and artists put their lives and energies on the line, when designing this City of the Stars? What was their shared secret language? What or who drove them to create a city overflowing with such esoteric symbolism? What is the meaning behind the secret symbolism of Washington, D.C.'s layout? And what does it mean for America's future?By Alan Titchmarsh. 2021
In this inspirational and practical guide to country life, passionate and hugely knowledgeable countryman Alan Titchmarsh explores the heritage of…
rural Britain, its landscapes and wildlife, its traditions, customs and crafts. The Lost Skills and Crafts Handbook will help you rediscover your love of the countryside, including:- a checklist of British butterflies and where to find them- how to keep chickens, ducks, goats and sheep- how to make soap, candles and your own herbal remedies- how to track animals and forage for food- essential knot tying- how to build a campfire without matches- how to create a kitchen garden- the origins of country superstitionsAnd much more. With beautiful line art illustrations throughout, this compendium of the British countryside and its delights will be an essential read for any nature lover in your life.By Carren Clem, Ron Clem. 2008
The Clems were a family living the American dream until their fifteen-year-old daughter Carren became addicted to Meth. Within two…
months of first taking the highly addictive drug, Carren had moved out of the family home, spent her entire savings on Meth and resorted to stealing, dealing and prostitution to pay for her habit. Told from both Carren's perspective and from the perspective of her father Ron, Loss of Innocence shares the shocking story of how a middle-class girl growing up in a stable home could get so lost. A former LA police officer, Ron describes how he went back to being a cop to try to rescue his daughter and how he suffered a heart attack in the street when he witnessed Carren selling herself to a drug dealer; Carren shares the events leading up to her first taste of drugs, and her descent into addiction with moving candour and dignity.Carren is now clean and sober, and in this frank, compelling book she and her family prove that there can be life after drug addiction.By Lorraine Kelly. 2014
From childhood family day trips to Loch Lomond, to her days as TVam’s roving correspondent, Lorraine Kelly has covered the…
length and breadth of Scotland. But certain special places tug at her heartstrings and lure her back time and time again. Travelling to the highlands and islands and all her favourite places in between, this is Lorraine’s personal journey around her beautiful and beguiling country. Each and every stop gives rise to fascinating stories and memories along the way, from her adopted home of Dundee to the wild and remote islands of St Kilda. She revisits childhood haunts in Glasgow, indulges in a spot of whisky-tasting on the island of Islay and reveals what led her to once arrive in Edinburgh pushing a pram and wearing a pair of rollerskates. She rediscovers the joys of the natural wilderness in the Highlands, visits a dramatic Viking fire festival in Shetland and recalls the week she and her family spent hunting the Loch Ness monster . . . Beautifully illustrated with stunning original photographs, Lorraine Kelly’s Scotland is a celebration of a gloriously diverse country with a deep and rich heritage, told with all Lorraine’s characteristic warmth and humour.By Sarah Howe. 2015
*WINNER OF THE T. S. ELIOT PRIZE 2015**WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES / PETERS FRASER + DUNLOP YOUNG WRITER OF…
THE YEAR AWARD 2015**SHORTLISTED FOR THE FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION 2015*There is a Chinese proverb that says: ‘It is more profitable to raise geese than daughters.’ But geese, like daughters, know the obligation to return home. In her exquisite first collection, Sarah Howe explores a dual heritage, journeying back to Hong Kong in search of her roots.With extraordinary range and power, the poems build into a meditation on hybridity, intermarriage and love – what meaning we find in the world, in art, and in each other. Crossing the bounds of time, race and language, this is an enthralling exploration of self and place, of migration and inheritance, and introduces an unmistakable new voice in British poetry.By Kalidasa. 1989
Kalidasa is the major poet and dramatist of classical Sanskrit literature - a many-sided talent of extraordinary scope and exquisite…
language. His great poem, Meghadutam (The Cloud Messenger), tells of a divine being, punished for failing in his sacred duties with a years' separation from his beloved. A work of subtle emotional nuances, it is a haunting depiction of longing and separation. The play Sakuntala describes the troubled love between a Lady of Nature and King Duhsanta. This beautiful blend of romance and comedy, transports its audience into an enchanted world in which mortals mingle with gods. And Kalidasa's poem Rtusamharam (The Gathering of the Seasons) is an exuberant observation of the sheer variety of the natural world, as it teems with the energies of the great god Siva.London Labour and the London Poor originated in a series of newspaper articles written by the great journalist Henry Mayhew…
between 1849 and 1850. A dozen years later, it had grown into the fullest picture we have of labouring people in the world's greatest city in the nineteenth century: a four volume account of the hopes, customs, grievances and habits of the working-classes that allows them to tell their own stories. Combining practicality with compassion, Mayhew worked unencumbered by political theory and strove solely to report on the lives of the London poor, their occupations and trades. This selection shows how well he succeeded. From costermongers to ex-convicts, from chimney-sweeps to vagrants, the underprivileged of London are uniquely brought to life - their plight expressed through a startling blend of first person accounts, Mayhew's perceptions, and sharp statistics.If a man supports Arsenal one day and Spurs the next then he is fickle but not necessarily illogical. From…
this starting point, and assuming no previous knowledge of logic, Wilfrid Hodges takes the reader through the whole gamut of logical expressions in a simple and lively way. Readers who are more mathematically adventurous will find optional sections introducing rather more challenging material. 'A lively and stimulating book' PhilosophyBy Jerry White. 2001
Jerry White's London in the Twentieth Century, Winner of the Wolfson Prize, is a masterful account of the city’s most…
tumultuous century by its leading expert.In 1901 no other city matched London in size, wealth and grandeur. Yet it was also a city where poverty and disease were rife. For its inhabitants, such contradictions and diversity were the defining experience of the next century of dazzling change.In the worlds of work and popular culture, politics and crime, through war, immigration and sexual revolution, Jerry White’s richly detailed and captivating history shows how the city shaped their lives and how it in turn was shaped by them.By Chantelle Houghton. 2006
From girl next door to the nation's sweetheart, this is the story of Chantelle's spectacular rise to fame and celebrity.…
Told in her own words, Chantelle takes us on what has been a sometimes bumpy, but a truly magical journey.As a little girl growing up in Essex, Chantelle Houghton dreamed of becoming famous and living the life of a star. But never could she have imagined just how this dream would eventually come true, transforming her into one of Britain's most loved and talked about celebrities.Here, we learn how her family played a crucial role in helping to shape her dreams and aspirations from an early age. We hear of the difficult times growing up and how Chantelle was able to overcome these obstacles, eventually launching a career in modeling.But it was to be Celebrity Big Brother that would change the course of Chantelle's life forever. She tells of the moment she first discovered she'd been picked, what really went on behind the scenes - the clashes of personalities in the house, the fallings out... and, of course, her falling in love with Preston.Winning Big Brother was a defining moment, and the madness that followed in those first few days outside of the house was to be just the beginning of Chantelle's new dream life. Learning to become accustomed to her new found fame hasn't been straightforward, but Chantelle has always kept her feet firmly on the ground. But it has been her love for Preston that has been the real fairy tale in Chantelle's extraordinary journey. She tells how their love grew away from the glare of paparazzi, and how this whirlwind romance ended up becoming the wedding of the year. In this honest and open autobiography, Chantelle shares her secret hopes and dreams for the future and looks back on the past year and reflects on just what an amazing fairy tale it's been.By Don Borchett. 2007
The public library - a haven of calm, source of information, home to the student, the geek and the aging…
librarian. Or so you might think.Don Borchert's ten years as assistant librarian have taught him that a library is more than just a place to borrow books, it's also a place where people hide from the law, fall in love, fight, deal drugs, introduce their children to reading, look up porn and pursue their dreams. Borchett's hilarious memoir delves behind the bookshelves as he discovers the weird, dangerous and downright dirty world of a public library and the fearless civil servants who patrol its aisles.By Thomas Hobbes. 2017
'The life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short' Written during the chaos of the English Civil War, Thomas…
Hobbes' Leviathan asks how, in a world of violence and horror, can we stop ourselves from descending into anarchy? Hobbes' case for a 'common-wealth' under a powerful sovereign - or 'Leviathan' - to enforce security and the rule of law, shocked his contemporaries, and his book was publicly burnt for sedition the moment it was published. But his penetrating work of political philosophy opened up questions about the nature of statecraft and society that influenced governments across the world. Edited with an Introduction by Christopher BrookeBy Rainer Maria Rilke. 2019
At the start of the twentieth century, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a series of letters to a young officer cadet,…
advising him on writing, love, sex, suffering and the nature of advice itself; these profound and lyrical letters have since become hugely influential for writers and artists of all kinds. This book also contains the 'Letter from a Young Worker', a striking polemic against Christianity written in letter-form, near the end of Rilke's life. In Lewis Hyde's introduction, he explores the context in which these letters were written and how the author embraced his isolation as a creative force. Charlie Louth's afterword discusses the similarities and contrasts of the two works, and Rilke's religious and sexual wordplay. This edition also contains a chronology, notes, and suggested further reading.By Dame Stephanie Shirley CH, Richard Askwith. 2019
A moving memoir from a woman who made a fortune in a man's world and then gave it all away...soon…
to be turned into a filmIn 1962, Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley created a software company when the concept of software barely existed. Freelance Programmers employed women to work on complex projects such as Concorde's black box recorder from the comfort of their own home. Shirley empowered a generation of women in technology, giving them unheard of freedom to choose their own hours and manage their own workloads. The business thrived and Shirley gradually transferred ownership to her staff, creating 70 millionaires in the process.Let It Go explores Shirley's trail blazing career as an entrepreneur but it also charts her incredible personal story - her dramatic arrival in England as an unaccompanied Kindertransport refugee during World War Two and the tragic loss of her only child who suffered severely from Autism.Today, Dame Stephanie Shirley is one of Britain's leading philanthropists, devoting most of her time, energy and wealth to charities that are close to her heart. In Let It Go, Shirley tells her inspirational story and explains why giving her wealth away - letting it go - has brought her infinitely more happiness and fulfilment than acquiring it in the first place.Co-written with Richard Askwith, the former Executive Editor of The Independent and the award-winning author of seven books in his own name, including biographies of Emil Zátopek and Lata Brandisová.'An extraordinary tale of creativity and resilience' - Guardian'This engrossing story of an extraordinary life is filled with lessons in what it means to be human' - Financial TimesBy Louai Al Roumani. 2020
One day, everything is going well; the next, disaster strikes. What do you do when every pillar is collapsing, every…
rule is being broken and chaos seems to be all around you?'Pessimism be damned. This man steered his bank through four years of a hellish civil war - and the lessons he learnt will benefit us all.' Sathnam Sanghera, author of EmpireLand ________________ An inspiring story of resilient leadership in the toughest of times. Louai Al Roumani was head of finance and planning at one of the largest banks in Syria when the war broke out in 2011. In Lessons from a Warzone, Al Roumani shares his very personal account of coping with the day-to-day realities of leading an organization in dangerous and hostile conditions. His story shows how inspiration can come from the unlikeliest of places, and how a business can not only survive in chaos, but can learn to thrive - the bank became the undisputed sector leader as people's trust in its capability to protect their life-long savings strengthened. In this book, Al Roumani distils the knowledge and skills he and his colleagues developed while steering the bank through four impossible years into ten lessons applicable to any leader facing a crisis today. His valuable and often counterintuitive advice will help anyone understand how to be resilient even in the most challenging of times. ________________ 'A compelling guide for leaders grappling with the pandemic... the lessons in resilient leadership in turbulent times that Roumani offers are universal.' Pilita Clark, Financial Times'Contains powerful lessons about resilience that show how companies can come out of crises better and stronger if they focus on long-term opportunities, no matter how tough it gets in the short term' Ana Botín, executive chair, Banco SantanderBy Walt Whitman. 2017
A collectible new Penguin Classics series: stunning, clothbound editions of ten favourite poets, which present each poet's most famous book…
of verse as it was originally published. Published by the acclaimed Coralie Bickford-Smith and beautifully set, these slim, A format volumes are the ultimate gift for poetry lovers. In 1855 Walt Whitman published his first collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass. The volume received great praise from leading Transcendentalist poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. This encouraged what would become a lifelong project as Whitman expanded and rewrote the volume until his death in 1892. Whitman's innovative use of free verse and the quotidian achieved his aim of reaching out to the everyday American. This edition, based on the earliest published version of 1855, features Whitman's most famous poem 'Song of Myself', an American epic inspired by his personal experiences.By Marie Brenner. 2022
AWARD-WINNING VANITY FAIR WRITER Marie Brenner shares a remarkable depiction of New York—a city in crisis—based on new, behind-the-scenes reporting…
that captures the resilience, peril, and compassion of the early days of the Covid pandemic.In the spring of 2020, COVID-19 arrived in New York City.Before long, America’s largest metropolis was at war against a virus that mercilessly swept through its five boroughs. It became apparent that if Covid wasn’t somehow halted, the death count in New York alone would be in the hundreds of thousands. And if New York’s hospitals failed, what chance did the rest of the country have?Brenner, having been granted unprecedented 18-month access to the entire New York-Presbyterian hospital system, tells the story of the doctors, nurses, residents, researchers, and suppliers who tried to save lives across Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn and the northern periphery of the city. Drawing on more than 200 interviews, Brenner takes us inside secure ICU units, sealed operating rooms, locked executive suites, unknown basement workshops, and makeshift clinics to provide extraordinary witness to the war as it was waged on the front line. But The Desperate Hours is more than a thrilling account of medicine under extreme pressure. It is an intimate portrait of courageous men and women coming together in their devotion to duty, their families, each other, and the city they loved more than any other.By Rachel A. Feinstein. 2019
When Rape was Legal is the first book to solely focus on the widespread rape perpetrated against enslaved black women…
by white men in the United States. The routine practice of sexual violence against enslaved black women by white men, the motivations for this rape, and the legal context that enabled this violence are all explored and scrutinized. Enlightening analysis found that rape was not merely a result of sexual desire and opportunity, or simply a form of punishment and racial domination, but instead encompassed all of these dimensions as part of the identity of white masculinity. This provocative text highlights the significant role that white women played in enabling sexual violence against enslaved black women through a variety of responses and, at times, through their lack of response to the actions of the white men in their lives. Significantly, this book finds that sexual violence against enslaved black women was a widespread form of oppression used to perform white masculinity and reinforce an intersectional hierarchy. Additionally, white women played a vital role by enabling this sexual violence and perpetuating the subordination of themselves and those subordinate to them.