Search results for ""icon books""

The perfect companion to any flight - a guide to the science on view from your window seat. There are few times when science is so immediate as when you're in a plane. Your life is in the hands of the scientists and engineers who enable tons of metal and plastic to hurtle through the sky at hundreds of miles an hour. Inflight Science shows how you stay alive up there - but that's only the beginning. Brian Clegg explains the ever changing view, whether it's crop circles or clouds, mountains or river deltas, and describes simple experiments to show how a wing provides lift, or what happens if you try to open a door in midair (don't!). On a plane you'll experience the impact of relativity, the power of natural radiation and the effect of altitude on the boiling point of tea. Among the many things you'll learn is why the sky is blue, the cause of thunderstorms and the impact of volcanic ash in an enjoyable tour of mid-air science. Every moment of your journey is an opportunity to experience science in action: Inflight Science will be your guide.

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Foreign Policy, Most Anticipated Books of 2024A stunning investigation and indictment of the elements in United States' foreign lobbying industry and the threat they pose to democracy. For years, one group of Americans has worked as foot-soldiers for the most authoritarian regimes around the planet. In the process, they've not only entrenched dictatorships and spread kleptocratic networks, but they've secretly guided U.S. policy without the rest of America even being aware. And now, journalist Casey Michel contends some of them have begun turning their sights on American democracy itself. These Americans are known as foreign lobbyists, and many of them spent years ushering dictatorships directly into the halls of Washington, all while laundering the reputations of the most heinous, repressive regimes in the process. These lobbyists include figures like Ivy Lee, the inventor of the public relations industry - a man who whitewashed Mussolini, opened doors to the Soviets, and advised

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Over 50 years ago, astronomers launched the world's first orbiting telescope. This allowed them to gaze further into outer space and examine anything that appears in the sky above our heads, from comets and planets to galaxy clusters and stars. Since then, almost 100 space telescopes have been launched from Earth and are orbiting our planet, with 26 still active and relaying information back to us.As a result of these space-based instruments, such as NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope, we know much more about the universe than we did half a century ago. But why is Hubble, orbiting just 540 kilometres above the Earth, so much more effective than a ground-based telescope? How can a glorified camera tell us not only what distant objects look like, but their detailed chemical composition and three-dimensional structure as well? In Eyes in the Sky, science writer Andrew May takes us on a journey into space to answer these questions and more. Looking at the development of revolutionary instruments, such as Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope, May explores how such technology has helped us understand the evolution of the Universe.

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Everyone has an interest in the weather, whether it's to check the prospects for a day out or to know when best to harvest a crop. The Earth's weather systems also provide some of the most dramatic forces of nature, from the vast release of energy in a lightning flash to the devastating impact of tornadoes and hurricanes. For centuries, our only real guide to future weather was folklore, but with the introduction of the first weather forecasts and maps in Victorian times, attempts were made to give some warning of the weather to come. Until relatively recently, these forecasts could be wildly inaccurate - think of Michael Fish's denial that there was a storm on the way the night before the UK's great storm of 1987. This was due to the mathematically chaotic nature of weather systems, first discovered in the 1960s, the understanding of which would transform forecasting from the 1990s and mean that meteorologists became some of the foremost users of supercomputers. From the crystalli

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The definitive history of Sunderland AFC. Formed by a group of teachers nearly 150 years ago in 1879, Sunderland AFC have a long and storied history in English football. The club has won six top-flight titles, only six other teams have won more, and they have lifted the FA Cup twice - in 1937 and in 1973. The Black Cats are renowned for having one of the largest and most loyal fan bases in the country, and records have regularly been broken for attendance figures at the Stadium of Light. After hitting a nadir with back-to-back demotions from the Premier League down to the third division in 2018, the club are now back on the ascendancy and plotting a return to the top-flight. Drawing on interviews with key players, managers and staff members, esteemed club historian Rob Mason delves into Sunderland's 150-year history, charting the glorious highs and the ignominious lows to trace how the Black Cats have come to dominate football in the North-East.

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'What Aitken writes about fun is worth reading' Mail on Sunday'Irresistible' Christopher Somerville, author of The January Man and Walking the Bones of Britain'A great book' Simon Rimmer, Sunday Brunch'Aitken's writing is always a delight' Madeleine Bunting, author of The SeasideAre you getting enough? Bestselling travel writer Ben Aitken wasn't. Increasingly flat and decreasingly zen, Ben gave boredom the boot and stress the cold shoulder by embarking on a whimsical journey into the serious business of having a laugh. He did a pilgrimage in Spain, a summer camp in Kent, and a cruise of the Baltic with 2,000 grannies. And when he wasn't on the road, he searched for merriment at home: by giving bridge a go, volunteering a chance, and gardening a crack of the whip. By incorporating the thoughts of key thinkers and boffins, Here Comes the Fun offers a satisfying balance of the playful and the profound, the serious and the silly, the daft and the deep.

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'A history that makes perfect sense when the sky is falling down.' - The Sunday TimesBeneath the psychedelic utopianism of the sixties lay a dark seam of apocalyptic thinking that seemed to rupture into violence and despair by 1969.Literary and cultural historian James Riley descends into this underworld and traces the historical and conspiratorial threads connecting art, film, poetry, politics, murder and revolt. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the Manson Family and Roman Polanski, ley-line hunters and Illuminati believers, Aldous Huxley, Joan Didion and the Beat poets, radical protest movements and occult groups all come together in Riley's gripping narrative. Steeped in the hopes, dreams and anxieties of the late 1960s and early '70s, The Bad Trip tells the strange stories of some of the period's most compelling figures as they approached the end of an era and imagined new worlds ahead.

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Dudley Buck was a brilliant scientist who developed or invented several early pieces of now-common technology (e.g. microchips, flash drives)in the 1950s. Like his Nobel-winning colleagues, he might have benefitted from them greatly, had he not died aged 32 of a mysterious heart attack, just after a high-profile group of Soviet scientists visited his lab on a cold war-era tour of the USA. Buck was not the only scientist to expire that day - his colleague Dr Ridenour, chief scientist at Lockheed, also died of an unexplained heart attack. Both deaths are consistent with KGB contact-poison hits.Recently discovered papers reveal Buck's extensive career in clandestine government work, that had led to his contact with Russia's top computer scientists. His work was filed away and rediscovered in the 1980s when it was used in research projects by NASA.A fascinating narrative history of Cold War era computer and tech research, combining social historical elements to produce a brilliant portrait of America in the mid-20th century.

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Teenagers love horror, both in verse and in stories. This book will introduce them to the genre through a mixture of well-known and much loved texts as well as less familiar but equally eerie tales from the past, taking the theme in its broadest sense. Contents include some darker versions of traditional tales as well as material from classic texts and books in translation - Frankenstein, Dracula, Beowulf, Sir Gawain, some Shakespeare, Faust, Shelley, Keats, Walter de la Mare and Edgar Allen Poe.

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A Guardian Book of the Day''By telling the story of Putin and Berezovsky - a sort of modern reincarnation of Stalin and Trotsky - Knight shines a penetrating light on post-communist Russia''In The Kremlin''s Noose Amy Knight tells the riveting story of Vladimir Putin and the oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who forged a relationship in the early years of the Yeltsin era. Berezovsky later played a crucial role in Putin''s rise to the Russian presidency in March 2000. When Putin began dismantling Boris Yeltsin''s democratic reforms, Berezovsky came into conflict with the new Russian leader by reproaching him publicly. Their relationship quickly disintegrated into a bitter feud played out against the backdrop of billion-dollar financial deals, Kremlin in-fighting and international politics.Dubbed the ''Godfather of the Kremlin'' by the slain Russian-American journalist Paul Klebnikov, Berezovsky was a successful businessman and media mogul who had an outsized role in Russia after 1991. Worth a

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The incredible story of a 3,500-mile cycle ride to explore the onshore and offshore lighthouses around the coastline of England and Wales, proving that a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis doesn't mean giving up on a lifelong dream. The Beacon Bike is the inspirational tale of one man's quest to fulfil the promise he made to himself as a small child, nestled in the bed of an attic room while the glow of Dungeness lighthouse flashed past his window - a comforting, ever-present companion. It is also a loving tribute to the coast; not only its beautiful landscape, but also the communities that make it so special. It celebrates the generosity of spirit found in people around the country, as well as the history of the iconic lights that brighten their world. This journey is a testament to the joy of life's simple pleasures. A warm welcome at the end of a long day. The fire of a child's imagination, rekindled in later life. The power of a light that pierces the darkness.

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''A serious reinvestigation full of revealing background information that sheds additional light on what was then and now remains a shocking crime'' Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking''This riveting, eye-opening investigation of a 70-year-old murder mystery reads like a whodunit ... A true crime must-read'' Dean Jobb, author of The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream''As much social history as it is gripping true crime'' Jeremy Craddock, author of The Jigsaw Murders''A meticulously researched re-examination'' Caitlin Davies, author of Private Inquiries: The Secret History of Female Sleuths1950s France. A British establishment figure. A shocking crime. A miscarriage of justice. The search for truth.In 1952, in a peaceful corner of Provence, a farmer''s son stumbled upon a terrible scene. Three bodies: a husband and wife shot dead, their ten-year-old daughter savagely beaten to death. They were all British. So begins one of the most notorious murder cases in French history.Sir Jack Dr

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''Lucid, poetic and fascinating'' ALICE ROBERTS''Engaging, authoritative and full of fascinating stories of the past'' RAY MEARS''A gentle, personal and very readable book'' JULIA BLACKBURN AUTHOR OF TIME SONG''A triumph!'' JAMES CANTON, AUTHOR OF THE OAK PAPERS''I loved this book'' FRANCIS PRYOROn paths, roads, seas, in the air, and in space - there has never been so much human movement. In contrast we think of the past as static, ''frozen in time''. But archaeologists have in fact always found evidence for humanity''s irrepressible restlessness. Now, latest developments in science and archaeology are transforming this evidence and overturning how we understand the past movement of humankind. In this book, archaeologist Jim Leary traces the past 3.5 million years to reveal how people have always been moving, how travel has historically been enforced (or prohibited) by people with power, and how our forebears showed incredible bravery and ingenuity to journey across continents and ocea

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''A masterful, must-read contribution to conversations on power, justice, healing, and devotion from a singular voice I now trust with my whole heart''GLENNON DOYLE, author of Untamed**Roxane Gay''s Book Club March 2023 Pick**When Lamya is fourteen, she decides to disappear. It seems easier to ease herself out of sight than to grapple with the difficulty of taking shape in a world that doesn''t fit. She is a queer teenager growing up in a Muslim household, a South Asian in a Middle Eastern country. But during her Quran class, she reads a passage about Maryam, and suddenly everything shifts: if Maryam was never touched by any man, could Maryam be... like Lamya? Written with deep intelligence and a fierce humour, Hijab Butch Blues follows Lamya as she travels to the United States, as she comes out, and as she navigates the complexities of the immigration system - and the queer dating scene. At each step, she turns to her faith to make sense of her life, weaving stories from the Quran to

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**A REVISED AND SIGNIFICANTLY UPDATED EDITION OF ROB TANNER'S 5000-1- NOW COVERING THE FIVE YEARS SINCE LEICESTER CITY'S INCREDIBLE PREMIER LEAGUE TITLE WIN.**On 2 May 2016, English football was spectacularly altered as 5000-1 longshots Leicester City were crowned Premier League champions. Their victory broke a long-standing monopoly at the top of the table, and propelled the club into the Champions League for the first time.In The Leicester City Story: Five Years On, acclaimed Athletic Leicester City correspondent Rob Tanner relives City's title win, their summer of celebration and the highs and lows of the next five years that led to their first FA Cup win in 2021.Detailing the dramatic changes in the club's management since 2016, and reflecting on the great legacy of the club's much-loved owner, Khun Vichai, Tanner tells the inside story of a remarkable team still on the rise.

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From the medicine we take, the treatments we receive, the aptitude and psychometric tests given by employers, the cars we drive, the clothes we wear to even the beer we drink, statistics have given shape to the world we inhabit. For the media, statistics are routinely 'damning', 'horrifying', or, occasionally, 'encouraging'. Yet, for all their ubiquity, most of us really don't know what to make of statistics. Exploring the history, mathematics, philosophy and practical use of statistics, Eileen Magnello - accompanied by Bill Mayblin's intelligent graphic illustration - traces the rise of statistics from the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians and Chinese, to the censuses of Romans and the Greeks, and the modern emergence of the term itself in Europe. She explores the 'vital statistics' of, in particular, William Farr, and the mathematical statistics of Karl Pearson and R.A. Fisher.She even tells how knowledge of statistics can prolong one's life, as it did for evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould, given eight months to live after a cancer diagnoses in 1982 - and he lived until 2002. This title offers an enjoyable, surprise-filled tour through a subject that is both fascinating and crucial to understanding our world.

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'A hugely useful and fascinating resume of rewilding - what it means, where it came from, why it's important and where it's going. Jepson and Blythe have done a masterly job, explaining the science behind rewilding in an accessible, honest and compelling way. It deserves to be widely read and become a book of great influence.' Isabella Tree, author of Wilding 'Compelling ... [a] succinct and objective account' Financial TimesRewilding is the first popular book on the ground-breaking science behind the restoration of wild nature.As ecologists Paul Jepson and Cain Blythe show, rewilding is a new and progressive approach to conservation, blending radical scientific insights with practical innovations to revive ecological processes, benefiting people as well as nature. Its goal is to restore lost interactions between animals, plants and natural disturbance that are the essence of thriving ecosystems.With its sense of hope and purpose, rewilding is breathing new life into the conservation movement, and enabling a growing number of people - even urban-dwellers - to enjoy thrilling wildlife experiences previously accessible only in remote wilderness reserves. 'De-domesticated' horses galloping across a Dutch 'Serengeti'; beavers creating wetlands in the British countryside; giant tortoises restoring the wildlife of the Mauritian islands; perhaps one day even rhinos roaming the Australian outback - rewilding is full of exciting and inspirational possibilities.

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A NEW EDITION OF MICHAEL VLISMAS' EYE-OPENING BIOGRAPHY OF ELON MUSK, NOW WITH NEW MATERIAL COVERING THE LATEST IN MUSK'S FAMILY AND BUSINESS LIFEIn 2022 Elon Musk - one of the richest and best-known people on earth - made headlines worldwide with his bid to buy Twitter, and he is often in the news for his entrepreneurial exploits and his controversial tweets. Who is this boundary-pushing billionaire with grand plans of inhabiting Mars, and what lies at the heart of his vision? Why is he so utterly unafraid of risk?As an awkward Pretoria schoolboy who loved comics and science fiction, Musk's early years and singular family background were crucial in forming his stellar ambitions. Journalist and author Michael Vlismas, who attended the same high school as Musk, knows well the environment that shaped him and offers new insights into Musk's development, including his troubled relationship with his father.Tracing his remarkable life, from his South African childhood to his move to Canada at 17 and then to the US - where Musk made millions out of PayPal and built Tesla and SpaceX into two of the world's most famous companies - this is the revealing new story of a man driven to preserve the optimism he sees in humanity and find a future for humans 'out there among the stars'.

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The stone age, the iron age, the steam and electrical ages all saw the reach of humankind transformed by new technology. Now we are living in the quantum age, a revolution in everyday life led by our understanding of the very, very small.Quantum physics lies at the heart of every electronic device from smartphones to lasers; quantum superconductors allow levitating trains and MRI scanners, while superfast, ultra-secure quantum computers may soon be a reality. Yet quantum particles such as atoms, electrons and photons remain mysterious, acting totally unlike the objects we experience directly.With his trademark clarity and enthusiasm, acclaimed popular science author Brian Clegg reveals the amazing world of the quantum that lies all around us.

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This is the dramatic story of the ups and downs of a born entrepreneur.Malcolm Walker was born in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1946. With fellow Woolworth's trainee manager Peter Hinchcliffe, Walker opened a small frozen food shop called Iceland in the Shropshire town of Oswestry in 1970. Iceland became a public company 14 years later, through one of Britain's most successful stock exchange flotations of all time, and by 1999 it had grown into a £2 billion turnover business with 760 stores.In August 2000, Iceland merged with the Booker cash and carry business and Walker announced that he would step down as CEO in March 2001. In preparation for his retirement, he sold half his shares in the company and left for the holiday of a lifetime in the Maldives. However, while he was away the new management of the company slashed profit expectations, plunging Iceland into a £26m loss rather than the £130m profit the City had been expecting. Walker was fired and spent three years under investigation by the authorities before being cleared of any wrongdoing.In Walker's absence, Iceland's sales collapsed as customers deserted the company - and, almost exactly four years after he had left the business, he returned as its boss. His amazing revival of Iceland has seen like-for-like sales grow by more than 50% and the business winning the accolade of Best Big Company To Work For In the UK. In March 2012 Walker led a £1.5bn management buyout of the company and is now personally worth over £200m.The incredible story of Walker's life - which he tells here for the first time - is as dramatic as any you will find in business, and it serves as a model for how, through hard work and intelligent risk-taking, it is possible from a relatively modest upbringing to build a national enterprise and a household name known to millions.

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Father of existentialism or the Eeyore of philosophy?Known as the first modern theologian, SørenKierkegaard was a prolific writer of the Danish 'golden age'. A philosopher,poet and social critic, his key concepts of angst, despair, and theimportance of the individual, influenced many 20th-century philosophers andliterature throughout Europe.Dave Robinson and Oscar Zarate's brilliant graphicguide explains what Kierkegaard means by 'anti-philosophy', and tells anilluminating story of the strange life and ideas of a man tortured by hisattempts to change the very priorities of Western thought.

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THE BRILLIANT AND HUGELY INFLUENTIAL BOOK BY THE WINNER OF THE 2017 ROYAL SOCIETY INSIGHT INVESTMENT SCIENCE BOOKS PRIZE'Fun, droll yet deeply serious.' New Scientist'A brilliant feminist critic of the neurosciences ... Read her, enjoy and learn.' Hilary Rose, THES'A witty and meticulously researched exposé of the sloppy studies that pass for scientific evidence in so many of today's bestselling books on sex differences.' Carol Tavris, TLSGender inequalities are increasingly defended by citing hard-wired differences between the male and female brain. That's why, we're told, there are so few women in science, so few men in the laundry room - different brains are just suited to different things.With sparkling wit and humour, Cordelia Fine attacks this 'neurosexism', revealing the mind's remarkable plasticity, the substantial influence of culture on identity, and the malleability of what we consider to be 'hardwired' difference. This modern classic shows the surprising extent to which boys and girls, men and women are made - not born.

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Illustrated guide to the crucial French philosopher who denied bring a philosopher at all. 'I am like no one else in the whole world ...' Thus begins Jean-Jacques Rousseau's defiant Confessions - an autobiography of astounding psychological insight. Musician, poet, novelist and botanist, but above all, a philosopher who firmly denied being one, Rousseau was the first to ask: "What is the value of civilization?" His answer - that civilization corrupts natural goodness and increases social inequalities - shocked his Enlightenment contemporaries and still challenges us today. Did Rousseau inspire the French Revolution? Can Romanticism, psychoanalysis and Existentialism all be traced back to him? Introducing Rousseau presents a maverick thinker whose ideas revolutionized our understanding of childhood, education, government, language and much else. Dave Robinson's clear and concise account of Rousseau's ideas, engagingly dramatized by Oscar Zarate's illustrations, guides the reader through Rousseau's turbulent life of lost innocence, persecution and paranoia.

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Illustrated guide to the controversial sociologist Jean Baudrillard, who died in 2007. Did the Gulf War take place? Is it possible to fake a bank robbery? Was sexual liberation a disaster? Jean Baudrillard has been hailed as one of France's most subtle and powerful theorists. But his provocative style and assaults on sociology, feminism and Marxism have exposed him to accusations of promoting a dangerous new orthodoxy - of being the 'pimp' of postmodernism. Introducing Baudrillard cuts beneath the controversy of this misunderstood intellectual to present his radical claims that reality has been replaced by a simulated world of images and events ranging from TV news to Disneyland. It provides a clear account of Baudrillard's work on obesity, pornography and terrorism and traces his development from critic of mass consumption to prophet of the apocalypse. Chris Horrocks' text and Zoran Jevtic?s artwork invite us to decide whether Baudrillard was a cure for the vertigo of contemporary culture - or one of its symptoms

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How did the mind evolve? How does the human mind differ from the minds of our ancestors, and from the minds of our nearest relatives, the apes? What are the universal features of the human mind, and why are they designed the way they are? If our minds are built by selfish genes, why are we so cooperative? Can the differences between male and female psychology be explained in evolutionary terms? These questions are at the centre of a rapidly growing research programme called evolutionary psychology.

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"Introducing The Enlightenment" is the essential guide to the giants of the Enlightenment - Voltaire, Diderot, Adam Smith, Samuel Johnson, Immanuel Kant, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. The Enlightenment of the 18th century was a crucial time in human history - a vast moral, scientific and political movement, the work of intellectuals across Europe and the New World, who began to free themselves from despotism, bigotry and superstition and tried to change the world. "Introducing The Enlightenment" is a clear and accessible introduction to the leading thinkers of the age, the men and women who believed that rational endeavour could reveal the secrets of the universe.

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Fractals are the geometry of the natural world. They're about the broken, wrinkled, wiggly world- the uneven shapes of nature, unlike the idealised forms of Euclidean geometry. We see fractals everywhere; indeed, we are fractals ourselves. Fractal geometry is an extension of classical geometry which can make precise models of physical structures, from ferns to galaxies. It can describe the shape of a cloud as precisely as an architect can describe a house. Introducing Fractals traces the historical development of this mathematical discipline, explores its descriptive powers in the natural world, and then looks at the applications and the implications of the discoveries it has made. As John Archibald Wheeler, protégé of Niels Bohr, friend of Albert Einstein and mentor of Richard Feynman has said, 'No one will be considered scientifically literate tomorrow, who is not familiar with fractals.'

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Islam is one of the world's great monotheistic religions. Islamic culture, spanning 1,500 years, has produced some of the finest achievements of humanity. Yet the religion followed by a fifth of humankind is too often seen in the West in terms of fundamentalism, bigotry and violence- a perception that couldn't be more wrong. Introducing Islam recounts the history of Islam from the birth of Prophet Muhammad in the 6th century to its status as a global culture and political force today. Charting the achievements of Muslim civilisation, it explains the nature and message of the Qur'an, outlines the basic features of Islamic law, and assesses the impact of colonialism on Muslim societies. Ziauddin Sardar and Zafar Abbas Malik show how Muslims everywhere are trying to live their faith and are shaping new Islamic ideas and ideals for a globalised world.

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What connects Marliyn Monroe, Disneyworld, "The Satanic Verses" and cyber space? Answer: Postmodernism. But what exactly is postmodernism? This Graphic Guide explains clearly the maddeningly enigmatic concept that has been used to define the world's cultural condition over the last three decades. Introducing Postmodernism tracks the idea back to its roots by taking a tour of some of the most extreme and exhilarating events, people and thought of the last 100 years: in art - constructivism, conceptual art, Marcel Duchamp, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol; in politics and history - McCarthy's witch-hunts, feminism, Francis Fukuyama and the Holocaust; in philosophy - the work of Derrida, Baudrillard, Foucault and Heidegger.The book also explores postmodernism's take on today, and the anxious grip of globalisation, unpredictable terrorism and unforeseen war that greeted the dawn of the 21st century. Regularly controversial, rarely straightforward and seldom easy, postmodernism is nonetheless a thrilling intellectual adventure. Introducing Postmodernism is the ideal guide.

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'[An] insightful analysis of 19th-century futurism ... Morus's account is as much a cautionary tale as a flag-waving celebration.' - DUNCAN BELL, NEW STATESMAN'[How the Victorians Took Us to the Moon] rattles thrillingly through such developments as the Transatlantic telegraph cable, the steam locomotive and electric power and recalls the excitable predictions of the fiction of the time.' KATY GUEST, THE GUARDIAN'Excellent ... A terrific insight into why the Victorian era was a golden age of engineering.' - NICK SMITH, ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINEBy the end of the Victorian era, the world had changed irrevocably. The speed of the technological development brought about between 1800 and 1900 was completely unprecedented in human history. And as the Victorians looked to the skies and beyond as the next frontier to be explored and conquered, they were inventing, shaping and moulding the very idea of the future. To get us to this future, the Victorians created a new way of ordering and transforming nature, built on grand designs and the mass-mobilisation of the resources of Empire - and they revolutionised science in the process. In this rich and absorbing book, distinguished historian of science Iwan Rhys Morus tells the story of how this future was made. From Charles Babbage's dream of mechanising mathematics to Isambard Kingdom Brunel's tunnel beneath the Thames, from George Cayley's fantasies of powered flight to Nikola Tesla's visions of an electrical world, this is a story of towering personalities, clashing ambitions, furious rivalries and conflicting cultures - a vibrant tapestry of remarkable lives that transformed the world and ultimately took us to the Moon.

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An offbeat guided tour of the Universe, focusing on weird and wonderful facts.Astrophysicist Dr Jillian Scudder knows more than most of us what a surreal place the Universe can be. In this light-hearted book she delves into some of the more arcane facts that her work has revealed, and tells us how we have actually managed to discover these amazing truths.Did you know: the galaxy is flatter than a credit card; supermassive black holes can sing a super-low B flat; it rains iron on a brown dwarf, and diamonds on Neptune; you could grow turnips on Mars if its soil weren't full of rocket fuel; the Universe is beige, on average; Jupiter's magnetic field will short-circuit your spacecraft - and, of course, the Milky Way smells of rum and raspberries.

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Think you already know the story of Charles Dickens' life? Think again.Almost everything you're familiar with was first mentioned in an authorised biography written by Dickens' close friend John Forster 150 years ago. It's the version of events that Dickens himself chose to make public, and newly accessible archives reveal that it's crammed with gaps, inconsistencies, and outright lies. There's the sister whose existence Dickens kept secret and the Jewish relations whose faith he strove to conceal. There's plagiarism, fraud, and suicide.And that's only for starters. Helena Kelly, author of the acclaimed Jane Austen, the Secret Radical, retells Dickens' story from his childhood to his deathbed, uncovers the truths he tried to keep hidden, and offers a fresh - and deeply troubling - perspective on the man who remains one of Britain's best-known novelists.You won't be able to look at him - or his work - in the same way again.

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'A 21st-century Nora Ephron' Stephen May'Witty, hilarious at times, poignant' Alyson Feltes, writer, OzarkPRINCE CHARMING? HAPPILY EVER AFTER? CHILDHOOD FAIRY TALES ARE FULL OF PROMISES, BUT THE REALITY - LIFE - IS A VERY DIFFERENT STORY. AND THAT STORY HAS A HELL OF A LOT TO TEACH US. Writing with searing honesty, wry humour and endless warmth, Christina Ford takes us on a real-life Sex and the City-like journey as she looks back on four decades of dates, loves, marriages, friends, frenemies, affairs, divorces, parenting disasters and step-parenting nightmares. Bravely and candidly, she shares heartrending details of the betrayal and hurt caused by the end of her marriage, shows how she overcame her fears about starting again and lets us in on the secret of the perfectly timed fling that was more effective than years of therapy. Together, these intimate insights show exactly how such experiences and their lessons came to define the woman she is today.In Search of Mr Darcy is for anyone who has ever wondered if there is life after divorce, if there is sex after 40, or if they will ever find love again. Hearts get broken, and even life's best-planned journeys can drop you somewhere unexpected, leading you to ask yourself, 'How did I get here? And, more importantly, who can I blame?' But Christina Ford is here to tell you that is exactly where the real adventure begins.This book will help you redefine love, womanhood, and what it means to come of age ... middle age.

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Award-winning journalist - and author of Hello, Shadowlands - Patrick Winn reveals the inside story of a forbidden republic - the narco-state of the Wa The jagged mountains dividing China and Burma belong to the Wa, an indigenous group who have outwitted the CIA to create the world's mightiest narco-state, controlling more territory than Israel and with more troops than Sweden. Are they crime lords? Or visionaries? Wa State has become a real nation with its own highways, anthems, schools and flags. Its leaders promise a utopia, using profits from trafficking heroin and meth to attain what China's other frontier peoples, Tibetans and Uighurs, can only dream of: a state of their own. Patrick Winn (author of Hello, Shadowlands) embarks on a risky journey of discovery, chasing clues about the forbidden republic from Thailand to Burma to the secretive Wa State itself.

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A NEW EYE-OPENING ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF MEERA SENTHILINGAM'S TIMELY GUIDEFor decades scientists have been warning of a global pandemic, and the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak has realised their worst fears.Covid-19 and monkeypox make Outbreaks & Pandemics an essential guide to the future. It narrates a disquieting journey through the history, science, and politics of humankind's ongoing war against contagion; investigates modern responses; and assesses the chances of eradicating disease in the future. it also reveals how globalisation, mobile populations, climate change, vaccine hesitancy, and drug-resistant pathogens have combined to create the perfect conditions for pandemics to spread.This updated and illustrated edition is essential reading, combining extensive research with illuminating photographs and infographics to chart the pattern of outbreaks and reveal the microscopic world at their heart.

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Time travel is a familiar theme of science fiction, but is it really possible?Surprisingly, time travel is not forbidden by the laws of physics - and John Gribbin argues that if it is not impossible then it must be possible.Gribbin brilliantly illustrates the possibilities of time travel by comparing familiar themes from science fiction with their real-world scientific counterparts, including Einstein's theories of relativity, black holes, quantum physics, and the multiverse, illuminated by examples from the fictional tales of Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, Carl Sagan and others.The result is an entertaining guide to some deep mysteries of the Universe which may leave you wondering whether time actually passes at all, and if it does, whether we are moving forwards or backwards. A must-read for science fiction fans and anyone intrigued by deep science.

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**THE FIRST AND ONLY BIOGRAPHY OF DUTCH FORMULA ONE WUNDERKIND MAX VERSTAPPEN, NOW DOUBLE WORLD CHAMPION**Few drivers have ever shaken up Formula 1 in quite the same way as Max Verstappen. Already the youngest competitor in F1 history, having made his breakthrough in 2015 aged just 17, his debut race for Red Bull at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix saw him become the youngest driver ever to win a race, achieve a podium finish or even lead a lap.As the son of F1 legend Jos and elite-level kart driver Sophie Kumpen, Max was destined to be a racing driver. And since that headline-grabbing debut, he has continued to make an indelible impression on the sport, courting criticism and plaudits in equal measure.Sports journalist James Gray seeks to understand the outspoken nature and aggressive driving style that make Verstappen a must-watch before, during and after races, and why his Dutch fans, who turn up to cheer him on in their orange-clad droves, are quite so fanatical.

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'Holgate guides us expertly and with a deft touch along the journey towards the holy grail of unlimited energy for all.' - JIM AL-KHALILI'What is nuclear fusion? In clear and accessible language, this book explains the basics and the hope for the future. A valuable addition to the Hot Science series.' - JOHN GRIBBINCould the Sun hold the key to a future of clean energy? Since the 1950s, scientists have attempted to harness nuclear fusion - the process that creates the Sun's energy - to generate near-limitless amounts of electricity. But the fact that we still have no fusion power plants is testament to the complexities of the challenge. Now, the deepening climate crisis means that researchers around the world are in a race to create a mini-Sun here on Earth. The glittering prize is an energy source that emits no greenhouse gases and could solve energy equity and supply issues at a stroke. Sharon Ann Holgate, a former Young Professional Physicist of the Year, tells the compelling story of the ongoing scientific quest for a revolutionary new era of green energy production.

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The Far Land swells in the cause and effect of actions of passion. Brandon Presser's fascinating narrative of the relentless consequences of the Bounty mutineers asks: were they brave or damned? They lived so very troubled ever after. You can't make this stuff up! A highly accomplished travel writer, Brandon Presser's The Far Land hits a lot of my pleasure centers: remote islands, then-and-now non-fiction, historical mysteries and forthright travelogues. The first night I started reading, I dreamed about Pitcairn Island. Meticulously researched...Armchair adventurers will appreciate the author's sharp and sympathetic eye, showing us the mechanics of a truly remote civilization. Presser's detailed account provides a sense of authority to a story too bizarre to be anything but true. Brandon Presser moves far beyond the Mutiny on the Bounty to the devastating tale of the Pitcairn Island settlement, a real-life Lord of the Flies tragedy. As Brandon finds when he makes a protracted visit to the island, it's a story still unwinding and a definite reminder that island and paradise are two words which often don't go together. It's a tale which seamlessly blends his new take on the mutiny and its aftermath with his own experiences on Pitcairn today. The Far Land uncovers the almost unbelievable true story of Pitcairn Island, while taking readers on an exciting journey to one of the most remote communities in the world... Presser excels at depicting the strangeness, but his novelistic account of what happened to the original colonists is stranger and bloodier-and unforgettable in its shocking details... Lord of the Flies pales in comparison. A mash-up of an 18th-century adventure novel and the darkest episode of 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' imaginable. Riveting and obsessively researched. AUTHOR: Brandon Presser is a travel writer and 'rough-and-tough adventurer' (Entertainment Weekly). His writing has been featured in numerous publications including Bloomberg, Harper's Bazaar, Conde Nast Traveler and Lonely Planet.

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'Ghost towns, corporate cruelty, the centuries-old relationship between humans and a species almost magical in its abilities ... fabulous.' The New York Times'Eye-opening' Geographical 'A beautifully written book on diamond smuggling, the universe, life and much of what lies in between.' Toby Muse, author of Kilo: Life and Death Inside the Secret World of the Cocaine CartelsFor nearly 80 years, a huge portion of coastal South Africa was closed off to the public. With many of its pits now deemed "overmined" and abandoned, journalist and author Matthew Gavin Frank set out across the infamous Diamond Coast to investigate an illicit trade - the smuggling of diamonds by carrier pigeon - that supplies a global market.Uncovering a long overlooked truecrime story dating back to the founding of the De Beers corporation, and blending elements of reportage, memoir and legend, he weaves interviews with local diamond divers, who extract mineral wealth from the seabed by day and raise pigeons in secret by night, with harrowing anecdotes from former heads of security, environmental managers, and vigilante pigeon hunters.A rare and remarkable portrait of exploitation and greed, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers reveals how these feathered bandits became outlaws in every mining town.

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To some, science is simply a means to an end; to others it is an almost spiritual meditation on theoriesand formulae.The Curious World of Science embraces both views and much more besides. Focusing on the human endeavours at the heart of science, it presents a miscellany of essential classifications, intriguing biographies, amusing curiosities, and irresistible trivia. Bite-size morsels of text explore the worlds of physics, chemistry, biology, and maths, while also venturing into those magical areas where science meets art.This illustrated edition is brimming with graphics and illustrations, and includes a system of icons to signpost different paths through the miscellany. From the Large Hadron Collider rap to the sins of Isaac Newton, it offers a dizzying flight through the wonderfully human world of scientific knowledge.

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'A groundbreaking debut from an extraordinary writer ... a testament to where a woman can go after rock-bottom'PIPER KERMAN, New York Times bestselling author of ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACKKeri Blakinger's brave, brutal memoir, Corrections in Ink, is a riveting story about suffering, recovery and redemption' DAVID SHEFF, NEW YORK TIMES'A raw, fast-paced portrait of one woman's descent into a mental abyss'Irish IndependentKeri Blakinger had always lived at full throttle. Whether flying through the air, chasing Olympic dreams on the ice rink; surviving on as few calories as she could; or balancing a heroin addiction with pursuing a degree at an Ivy League university. But on a cold December day, Keri is arrested with a Tupperware container full of heroin. Shortly afterwards, she is convicted and sent to prison.Forced to confront her addiction, Keri finally manages to break free of it, and finds herself in a place unlike anything she has experienced before: a world built on senseless brutality, but whose inhabitants, her fellow inmates, will change her life forever.Written in luminous prose, with searing honesty and flashes of dark humour, Corrections in Ink shines a light on a broken prison system, and the cruelty and kindness Blakinger experienced there. It is a radical call for justice, and a testament to the power of finding one's voice.

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'I love [Rachael's] comics - human, humane, funny and always surprising.' Chris Addison, comedian and director of VeepAfter going through a breakup and attempting to get on with her new, single life, award-winning comic-creator and author of Quarantine Comix, Rachael Smith, found solace in documenting her experiences through comic strips.Stand in Your Power, which follows on from where Wired Up Wrong left off, takes on the universal yet highly personal topics of loneliness, friendship, depression, love, figuring out who you are and moving on, among many others.Always extremely relatable, this collection, which was previously shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print award, has Rachael's trademark warmth, honesty and humour.

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'An original, wide-ranging and carefully researched book ... contains important lessons for humanity.' Mark Cocker, The SpectatorA fascinating insight into climate change biology around the globe, as well as in our own backyards.Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid is the first major book by a biologist to focus on the fascinating story of how the natural world is adjusting, adapting, and sometimes measurably evolving in response to climate change. Lyrical and thought-provoking, this book broadens the climate focus from humans to the wider lattice of life.Bestselling nature writer Thor Hanson - author of Buzz (a Radio 4 'Book of the Week') - shows us how Caribbean lizards have grown larger toe pads to grip trees more tightly during frequent hurricanes; and how the 'plasticity' of squid has allowed them to change their body size and breeding habits to cope with altered sea temperatures.Plants and animals have a great deal to teach us about the nature of what comes next, because for many of them, and also for many of us, that world is already here.

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**Longlisted for the Mountbatten Maritime Media Awards 2022**A groundbreaking history of the Black Joke, the most famous member of the British Royal Navy's anti-slavery squadron, and the long fight to end the transatlantic slave trade.Initially a slaving vessel itself, the Black Joke was captured in 1827 and repurposed by the Royal Navy to catch its former compatriots. Over the next five years, the vessel liberated more enslaved people than any other in Britain's West Africa Squadron.As Britain attempted to snuff out the transatlantic slave trade by way of treaty and negotiation, enforcing these policies fell to ships such as the Black Joke as they battled slavers, weather disasters, and interpersonal drama among captains and crew that reverberated across oceans.The Black Joke is a crucial and deeply compelling work of history, both as a reckoning with slavery and abolition and as a lesson about the power of political will - or the lack thereof.

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'A thriller-like tale ... [Mazur] is a good story-teller, with a flair for details that brings the criminal and their world to life' Daily Mail'Bob Mazur delivers again ... he artfully takes the reader through the harrowing account of life as an undercover cop embedded in the drug cartels' BRYAN CRANSTON'A book you can't put down, nor will you' JOSEPH PISTONE, aka Donnie BrascoFrom the bestselling author who inspired Bryan Cranston's The Infiltrator.Three years after undercover agent Robert Mazur infiltrated Pablo Escobar's Medellín drug cartel, he re-emerged, a half-million-dollar bounty still on his head, with a new identity for a risky new sting.Deployed to Panama, he worked, travelled, partied and washed millions with Central America's criminal elite. Partnered with a DEA task force agent, Mazur slipped effortlessly into Colombia's notorious Cali drug cartel. But as his underworld reputation skyrocketed, the operation started going dangerously off the rails.Robert Mazur's riveting true story exposes the corruption at the heart of one of the most explosive undercover missions of his career.Refusing to acknowledge the danger, Mazur was obsessed with seeing the mission through to its treacherous end: expose the Cali cartel, find out who betrayed him, and escape with his life. This is his true story.

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'A man who had such a huge impact on my career and so many other young players at West Ham United. I highly recommend this fantastic read.' FRANK LAMPARD JR'This man passed on the West Ham DNA to the best generation of academy graduates to come through the West Ham system.' RIO FERDINAND'A West Ham United man, a must read for every West Ham United fan.' MARK NOBLEThe autobiography of a West Ham legend - including exclusive interviews with Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole and Mark Noble.Tony Carr is one of the most influential coaches of all time. Having achieved his boyhood dream of signing with West Ham United in 1966 and training alongside the inimitable Bobby Moore, a leg break forced Carr to end his playing career before it had even begun. Not to be deterred, he decided to forge himself a new path and was appointed director of youth football at West Ham in 1973, aged just 23.As Carr tells in this book the very first time, over the next 43 years he honed his craft, becoming hugely admired for identifying and nurturing young talent, guiding multiple generations of international starlets through the ranks at The Academy of Football.In his brilliant, understated style, Tony tells the incredible story of his footballing life. He recounts the highs and lows of his time with West Ham, with tales of the twelve managers he coached under. This unique evocation of a coach's craft includes exclusive interviews with Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole and current West Ham captain Mark Noble as they talk frankly about football and their place within it.

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