Search results for ""Córner""

Hidden in the heart of the rainforest lies a secret... can three friends survive long enough to find it? An action-packed jungle adventure, perfect for fans of Katherine Rundell's The Explorer and M.G. Leonard's Twitch.Billionaire beauty mogul Anura Hegarty has pledged to acquire as much of the rainforest as possible to preserve it. But when armed guards appear and bring in portable terrariums to capture wildlife, Jessica and her friend Renata realise something much more sinister is going on.The rainforest holds a frog with a secret to staying young forever, and Jessica and Renata know they must find and save it first! Together with Briony-Rose, the girls journey deeper into the rainforest. Danger and betrayal lurk in every corner, and soon they're running for their lives, dodging blow darts and falling into traps. Will the children make it out of the forest alive?Praise for Mitch Johnson'Fizzes with adventure and great characters who pop from the page' - Peter Bunzl, bestselling author of Cogheart'I read it all in one gulp!' - Ross Welford, bestselling author of Time Travelling with a Hamster'A bonkers Willy-Wonka nightmare designed to get children thinking about the effects of everything they buy' - Ross Montgomery, bestselling author of The Midnight Guardians'A zany adventure that will make you bubble with laughter and fizz with indignation on behalf of our planet' - Maria Kuzniar, bestselling author of The Ship of Shadows'An exploding soda geyser of a book - an adventure story that will make you laugh, make you angry and make you want to do something to fix this crazy, messed up world' - Charlie Higson, bestselling author of Young Bond and The Enemy'Pop! is an explosive and unforgettable adventure with defiant heroes, devious villains, deadly corporate secrets all told with Johnson's brilliant humour. I loved it' - Tamsin Winter, bestselling author of Jemima Small Versus the Universe

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For those obsessed with Premier League soccer, following your favorite team is a true collective experience, where it is easy to feel as one with thousands of others. It is also an individual one, in which the emotions you feel are your emotions, the experiences you feel are your experiences, and nobody else can perfectly understand. Over the course of the 2019–20 season, two longtime Liverpool FC followers wrote to each other about those emotions and experiences. American writer Michael MacCambridge, living in Austin, Texas, is a devoted Liverpool follower. Five thousand miles away, his friend Neil Atkinson, Liverpool resident and a longtime season ticket holder, is the host of the popular podcast The Anfield Wrap. Each week throughout the historic season, Atkinson and MacCambridge exchanged letters, contemplating Liverpool’s progress, comparing and contrasting their different perspectives on the club and the sport, meditating on the manner in which their shared obsession for Liverpool works its way into nearly every corner of their personal lives, and discussing the differences between how the game is consumed in the United States and the United Kingdom and the role modern media plays in shaping our views of sport. Their collaboration was both timely and serendipitous, as Liverpool marched toward its first ever Premier League title and its first league title in thirty years, with a charismatic manager and the most entertaining team in the sport. In March, of course, the soccer story was overtaken by the larger story of the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc throughout the world, including sports events. In the course of their correspondence, Red Letters provides a real-time account of the pandemic that threatened the very existence of the season that Liverpool followers had been waiting more than a generation to experience.Red Letters provides a different way to examine the culture of a worldwide sport and development of a soccer season—game by game, in real time, with hopes and expectations tested and altered as the season progresses to Liverpool’s Premier League championship, with insight from two avid supporters.

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What was it about Barack Obama's campaign of hope that resonated so much not just with Americans, but people the world over? Have we really become so despairing in the face of collapsed economies and the threat of violence around every corner that a simple rallying cry to remember hope can have such a powerful effect? In this moving and thoughtful book, Ronald Aronson explores our relationship to hope at a time some have called the end of history, others the end of politics, in order to formulate a more active stance, one in which hope is far more than a mood or feeling it is the very basis of social will and political action. Aronson examines our own heartbreaking story: a century of violence, upheaval, and the undelivered promises of progress all of which have contributed to the evaporation of social hope. As he shows, we are now in an era when hope has been privatized, when despite all the ways we are connected to each other we are desperately alone, struggling to weather the maelstrom around us, demoralized by the cynicism that permeates our culture and politics, and burdened with finding personal solutions to social problems. Yet social hope, Aronson argues, still persists. Carefully exploring what we mean when we say we "hope" and teasing hope apart from its dangerously misconstrued sibling, progress, he locates real seeds of change. He argues that always underlying our experience even if we completely ignore it is a sense of social belonging, and that this can be reactivated into a powerful collective force, an active we. He looks to various political movements, from the massive collective force of environmentalists to the stunning rise of movement-centered politicians such as Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn, as powerful examples of socially energized, politically determined, and actionably engaged forms of hope. The result is an illuminating and inspiring call that anyone can clearly hear: we can still create a better future for ourselves, but only if we do it together.

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The former director of the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm makes his literary debut with this dramatic and riveting novel of book publishing, émigrés, spies, and diplomats in World War II Sweden, based on his grandfather’s life In 1933, after Hitler and the Nazi Party consolidated power in Germany, Immanuel Birnbaum, a German-Jewish journalist based in Warsaw, is forbidden from writing for newspapers in his homeland. Six years later, just months before the German invasion of Poland that ignites World War II, Immanuel escapes to Sweden with his wife and two young sons. Living as a refugee in Stockholm, Immanuel continues to write, contributing articles to a liberal Swiss newspaper under the name Dr. B. He becomes increasingly entangled with British intelligence agents who plan several acts of sabotage on the orders of Winston Churchill. But when the Swedish postal service picks up a letter written in invisible ink, clearly by Dr. B. himself, the Allied plotters are exposed. But could a Jew living in exile and targeted for death by the Nazis have wanted to tip them off? Illuminated by the wartime experiences of the author’s grandfather, Dr. B. is a riveting story of émigrés, spies and diplomats that shines a light on a forgotten corner of World War II history. ‘A superb thriller, a cross between Tom Stoppard’s Travesties and The Thirty-Nine Steps … You can’t put it down. This is an astonishing debut and Daniel Birnbaum is clearly a talent to look out for’ The Jewish Chronicle ‘If you’re looking for a ridiculously brilliant story, you can stop looking … He’s got the world’s best story – he’s got Dr B’ Svenska Dagbladet ‘An astonishing thriller-novel … reminiscent of both Hjalmar Söderberg’s Doctor Glass as well as the dreamy melancholy in The Rings of Saturn by W.G Sebald’ Aftonbladet ‘A moving evocation of a life beset by conflicts in a troubled time’ Kirkus Reviews

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Tales of Hardship, Love and Happiness in Tate & Lyle’s East End Factories. The Sugar Girls went straight to No.10 in the Sunday Times Bestseller List, spending five weeks in the top ten. ‘On an autumn day in 1944, Ethel Alleyne walked the short distance from her house to Tate & Lyle’s refinery on the shining curve of the Thames. Looking up at the giant gates, Ethel felt like she had been preparing for this moment all her life. She smoothed down her frizzy hair, scraped a bit of dirt off the corner of her shoe and strode through. She was quite unprepared for the sight that met her eyes …’ In the years leading up to and after the Second World War thousands of women left school at fourteen to work in the bustling factories of London’s East End. Despite long hours, hard and often hazardous work, factory life afforded exciting opportunities for independence, friendship and romance. Of all the factories that lined the docks, it was at Tate & Lyle’s where you could earn the most generous wages and enjoy the best social life, and it was here where The Sugar Girls worked. Through the Blitz and on through the years of rationing The Sugar Girls kept Britain sweet. The work was back-breakingly hard, but Tate & Lyle was more than just a factory, it was a community, a calling, a place of love and support and an uproarious, tribal part of the East End. From young Ethel to love-worn Lillian, irrepressible Gladys to Miss Smith who tries to keep a workforce of flirtatious young men and women on the straight and narrow, this is an evocative, moving story of hunger, hardship and happiness. Tales of adversity, resilience and youthful high spirits are woven together to provide a moving insight into a lost way of life, as well as a timeless testament to the experience of being young and female. www.thesugargirls.com

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In the second half of the twentieth century, Reiki went from an obscure therapy practiced by a few thousand Japanese and Japanese Americans to a global phenomenon. By the early twenty-first century, people in nearly every corner of the world have undergone the initiations that authorize them to channel a cosmic energy—known as Reiki—to heal body, mind, and spirit. They lay hands on themselves and others, use secret symbols and incantations to send Reiki to distant recipients, and strive to follow five precepts to cultivate their spiritual growth. Reiki’s international rise and development is due to the work of Hawayo Takata (1900–1980), a Hawai‘i-born Japanese American woman who brought Reiki out of Japan and adapted it for thousands of students in Hawai‘i and North America, shaping interconnections across the North Pacific region as well as cultural transformations over the transwar period spanning World War II.Alternate Currents: Reiki’s Circulation in the Twentieth-Century North Pacific analyzes how, from her training in Japan in the mid-1930s to her death in Iowa in 1980, Takata built a vast trans-Pacific network that connected Japanese American laborers on Hawai‘i plantations to social elites in Tokyo, Hollywood, and New York; middle class housewives in American suburbs; and off-the-grid tree planters in the mountains of British Columbia. Using recently uncovered archival materials and original oral histories, Stein examines how these relationships between healer and patient, master and disciple, became deeply infused with values of their time and place and how they interplayed with Reiki’s circulation, performance, and meanings along with broader cultural shifts in the twentieth-century North Pacific. Highly readable and informative, each chapter is structured around a period in the life of Takata, the charismatic, rags-to-riches architect of the network in which Reiki spread for decades. Alternate Currents explores Reiki as an exemplary transnational spiritual therapy, demonstrating how lived practices transcend artificial distinctions between religion and medicine, and circulate in global systems while maintaining strong connections with the practices’ homeland.

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Amateur sleuth Astrid Swift swaps the sporting summer in England for a British expat enclave in Spain, where everyone has a mysterious reason for leaving the UK. Amidst the sun and sangria, something sinister is lurking on the Spanish coast... It’s the end of the summer season in the harbour town of Estepona. The holidaymakers are heading home, leaving the British expats to reclaim their little corner of paradise. Art restorer Astrid Swift has sailed into town to reunite with her estranged father, but has instead been tasked with catching an internet troll who’s been threatening his wife. Soon Astrid is entwined in the lives of all the expats, from the boozy local heckler to the socially awkward beachcomber. And then she discovers a body in the bunker of the golf course... Can Astrid uncover the 'Costa del Troll' behind the poison-pen campaign before they reveal everyone’s secret past? Or will they tear this cosy community – including Astrid and her father – even further apart? The Astrid Swift cosy mysteries are perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Janice Hallett and SJ Bennett. 'Quirky ex-pats, a feisty heroine, and suspense under the Spanish sun... The perfect holiday mystery.’ FIONA LEITCH 'The characters are charming, the setting is irresistible and the jokes are funny - just as we've come to expect from M.H. Eccleston. ' TOM MEAD 'Crime and grime aplenty for Astrid to investigate, to say nothing of the weird and wonderful people that she encounters while doing so.' Crime Fiction Lover Praise for the Astrid Swift mysteries: 'Feelgood fun.' The Times 'An enchanting murder mystery.' Janice Hallett, author of The Appeal 'Macabre murders, quirky characters and delightful settings combine in a way that would make Midsomer proud.' Crime Fiction Lover 'A feisty heroine, an ingenious plot and a cast of quirky characters... A cozy crime to savour.' Merryn Allingham, author of The Bookshop Murder 'Intelligent and gently humorous, with a suitably eccentric cast of characters.' M.S. Morris, author of the Bridget Hart books

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Sumo offers a unique behind-the-scenes view into the secret and fascinating world of sumo, a living breathing showcase of ancient Japan. Sumo is one of the oldest sports in the world, stretching back over 2,000 years. Within the Japanese establishment, there exists a great sense of pride that so little about the sport has changed in the past millennium. Wrestlers still live by a strict code, in and outside of the dojo, and to commit to the sport requires complete devotion from an early age. As Japan has surged forwards into modernity, this fascinating corner of culture has remained anchored to the past. Gaining behind-the-scenes access is notoriously difficult as sumo is a sport shrouded in secrecy. A full year was spent by the author knocking on doors and filling out endless paperwork before he was eventually granted permission to chronicle the lives of wrestlers; a world where history, culture, pride, and athleticism combine. Sumo documents the strict codes to which wrestlers adhere. The photographs bring to life the stringent dietary and training regimes which require enormous dedication and the many unique practices which make sumo fascinating – a living, breathing showcase of ancient Japan. This book offers a unique set of over 95 photographs that are sequenced rhythmically and poetically in order to give the armchair viewer an insight into not only the drama and excitement of the tournaments, but also the dedication of the wrestlers and the sacrifices they make in order to have a chance to compete at the highest level. The first photographic account authorised by the Japan Sumo Association Aimed at anyone interested in Japanese culture and traditions as well as fans of the sport Over 95 beautiful images capture the lives of the rikishi (wrestlers) as they compete to reach yokozuna, the highest rank in sumo Lord K2 is an award-winning photographer and curator of The Museum of Urban Art

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A gripping, “rollicking” (John Carreyrou, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Blood) biography of Jay Gould, the greatest of the 19th-century robber barons, whose brilliance, greed, and bare-knuckled tactics made him richer than Rockefeller and led Wall Street to institute its first financial reforms. Had Jay Gould put his name on a university or concert hall, he would undoubtedly have been a household name today. The son of a poor farmer whose early life was marked by tragedy, Gould saw money as the means to give his family a better life…even if, to do so, he had to pull a fast one on everyone else. After entering Wall Street at the age of twenty-four, he quickly became notorious when he paralyzed the economy and nearly toppled President Ulysses S. Grant in the Black Friday market collapse of 1869 in an attempt to corner the market on gold—an event that remains among the darkest days in Wall Street history. Through clever financial maneuvers, he gained control over one of every six miles of the country’s rapidly expanding network for railroad tracks—coming close to creating the first truly transcontinental railroad and making himself one of the richest men in America.American Rascal shows Gould’s complex, quirky character. He was at once praised for his brilliance by Rockefeller and Vanderbilt and condemned for forever destroying American business values by Mark Twain. He lived a colorful life, trading jokes with Thomas Edison, figuring Thomas Nast’s best sketches, paying Boss Tweed’s bail, and commuting to work in a 200-foot yacht. Gould thrived in an expanding, industrial economy in which authorities tolerated inside trading and stock price manipulation because they believed regulation would stifle the progress. But by taking these practices to new levels, Gould showed how unbridled capitalism was, in fact, dangerous for the American economy. This “gripping biography” (Fortune) explores how Gould’s audacious exploitation of economic freedom triggered the first public demands for financial reforms—a call that still resonates today.

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When Norman Maclean sent the manuscript of A River Runs through It to New York publishers, he received a slew of rejections. One editor, so the story goes, replied, "It has trees in it." Forty years later, the title novella is widely recognized as one of the great American tales of the twentieth century, and Maclean as one of the most beloved writers of our time. Maclean's later triumph, Young Men and Fire, has over the decades also established itself as a classic of the American West. And with this twenty-fifth-anniversary edition, a fresh audience will be introduced to Maclean's beautiful prose and understated emotional insights. A devastating and lyrical work of nonfiction, Young Men and Fire describes the events of August 5, 1949, when a crew of fifteen of the US Forest Service's elite airborne firefighters, the Smokejumpers, stepped into the sky above a remote forest fire in the Montana wilderness. Two hours after their jump, all but three of the men were dead or mortally burned. Haunted by these deaths for forty years, in his last decades Maclean put together the scattered pieces of the Mann Gulch tragedy in Young Men and Fire, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. This twenty-fifth-anniversary edition includes a powerful new foreword by Timothy Egan, author of The Big Burn and The Worst Hard Time. Though he grew up in the first decades of the twentieth century in the western Rockies working summers in logging camps and for the US Forest Service and cultivating a lifelong passion for the dry fly it was only at the age of seventy, as a retired English professor, that Norman Maclean discovered what he was meant to do: write. Moving and profound, Young Men and Fire honors the literary legacy of a man who improbably gave voice to an essential corner of the American soul.

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From the author of The School for German Brides, this captivating historical novel set in nineteenth-century and post–World War II Paris follows two fierce women of the same family, generations apart, who find that their futures lie in the four walls of a simple bakery in a tiny corner of Montmartre. 1870: The Prussians are at the city gates, intent to starve Paris into submission. Lisette Vigneau—headstrong, willful, and often ignored by her wealthy parents—awaits the outcome of the war from her parents’ grand home in the Place Royale in the very heart of the city. When an excursion throws her into the path of a revolutionary National Guardsman, Théodore Fournier, her destiny is forever changed. She gives up her life of luxury to join in the fight for a Paris of the People. She opens a small bakery with the hopes of being a vital boon to the impoverished neighborhood in its hour of need. When the city falls into famine, and then rebellion, her resolve to give up the comforts of her past life is sorely tested. 1946: Nineteen-year-old Micheline Chartier is coping with the loss of her father and the disappearance of her mother during the war. In their absence, she is charged with the raising of her two younger sisters. At the hand of a well-meaning neighbor, Micheline finds herself enrolled in a prestigious baking academy with her entire life mapped out for her. Feeling trapped and desperately unequal to the task of raising two young girls, she becomes obsessed with finding her mother. Her classmate at the academy, Laurent Tanet, may be the only one capable of helping Micheline move on from the past and begin creating a future for herself. Both women must grapple with loss, learn to accept love, and face impossible choices armed with little more than their courage and a belief that a bit of flour, yeast, sugar, and love can bring about a revolution of their own.

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‘Joyful, life-affirming, greedy. I loved it’ – DIANA HENRY ‘Whether you are an avid cyclist, a Francophile, a greedy gut, or simply an appreciator of impeccable writing – this book will get you hooked’ – YOTAM OTTOLENGHI The nation’s ‘taster in chief’ cycles 2,300 km across France in search of the definitive versions of classic French dishes. A green bike drunkenly weaves its way up a cratered hill in the late-morning sun, the gears grinding painfully, like a pepper mill running on empty. The rider crouched on top in a rictus of pain has slowed to a gravity-defying crawl when, from somewhere nearby, the whine of a nasal engine breaks through her ragged breathing. A battered van appears behind her, the customary cigarette dangling from its driver’s-side window… as he passes, she casually reaches down for some water, smiling broadly in the manner of someone having almost too much fun. ‘No sweat,’ she says jauntily to his retreating exhaust pipe. ‘Pas de problème, monsieur.’ A land of glorious landscapes, and even more glorious food, France is a place built for cycling and for eating, too – a country large enough to give any journey an epic quality, but with a bakery on every corner. Here, you can go from beach to mountain, Atlantic to Mediterranean, polder to Pyrenees, and taste the difference every time you stop for lunch. If you make it to lunch, that is… Part travelogue, part food memoir, all love letter to France, One More Croissant for the Road follows ‘the nation’s taster in chief’ Felicity Cloake’s very own Tour de France, cycling 2,300km across France in search of culinary perfection; from Tarte Tatin to Cassoulet via Poule au Pot, and Tartiflette. Each of the 21 ‘stages’ concludes with Felicity putting this new found knowledge to good use in a fresh and definitive recipe for each dish – the culmination of her rigorous and thorough investigative work on behalf of all of our taste buds.

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Escape to Villa Limoncello… where dreams come true in the most unexpected ways.With Christmas around the corner, Izzie Jenkins is ready to kickstart the new ‘Snowflakes and Christmas Cakes’ course at Villa Limoncello with chef and business partner, Luca Castelotti. However, secrets are stirring with their latest guests and when nasty accidents keep befalling the group it looks like Izzie will have to turn detective once more to protect the Villa’s fledgling reputation. On top of all this, Izzie’s been offered the job of a lifetime – back home in Cornwall. Will she be coming home for Christmas, or will Tuscany work its magic to keep her at Villa Limoncello with Luca?A gorgeous festive read perfect for fans of Sarah Morgan and Jenny Oliver.Praise for Christmas Secrets at Villa Limoncello ‘A fun read, it made me crave to be in Tuscany at wintertime. The plot is engrossing and entertaining, the setting lovely. Recommended!’ Reader review‘I have fallen in love with this series by the talented Daisy James. It was really festive and magical. Add the setting and the sweet treats together and you've got yourself a perfect novel!’ 5* Reader review‘Merry Christmas, Tuscan-style! Bursting with all the joys of the season that you can imagine. Do you want beautiful scenery, savory Tuscan meals and desserts, marvelous craft sessions and cooking classes, Christmas choirs and carols every day, and even some snow? It’s all here in this festive, clean and wholesome romance.’ Reader review‘Another absolutely delicious and stunning read from Daisy James. This is another book I haven't wanted to put down.’ 5* Reader review‘A Christmas gift wrapped in a beautiful cover! When reading this series I find myself immersed in Villa Limoncello and its amazing gardens in Tuscany as Daisy writes with so much description, you can almost smell the lemons and the coffee. A beautiful romance with the added bonus of several recipes in the book!' 5* Reader review

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This new, thoroughly updated third edition of Bradt's Tajikistan is the most practical guide dedicated exclusively to this breathtaking country, central Asia's smallest, but home to the biggest tea house in the world! Bradt's Tajikistan caters for all interests, whether you're a nature lover, explorer, just want to soak up the stunning surroundings, or a wildlife enthusiast in search of eagles, elusive snow leopard or extraordinary Marco Polo sheep. Locals call Tajikistan 'Bam-i-Dunya', the Roof of the World, and travelling the Pamir Highway you can understand why. With first-hand descriptions of everything from Sogdian ruins to playing the traditional sport of buz kashi, trekking on the Murgohab Plateau and eating shashlik in garden tea houses, the authors bring the country alive. This latest edition covers all the most recent developments, notably the significant increase in hotels, restaurants, guesthouses and homestays, along with improvements to travel and transport, all following the government's investment in tourism. New attractions are also featured, including the new cable car in Khujand over the Syr Darya Sirdarya river and new trekking destinations, festivals and exhibitions. There are also details of which sites require additional permits and permissions and how much they cost, and where border crossings have been closed or have become more accessible. Mountains, crystal clear lakes (including Lake Sarez), wildlife and epic trekking routes are all here, as well as ancient Buddhist sites, Silk Road trading posts, medieval shrines, and planned Soviet cities. The modern population continues to draw upon its diverse heritage from Persia, China, Afghanistan, and Russia, creating a complex and intriguing culture. Bradt's Tajikistan covers every corner of the country, from the Wakhan Corridor to the Fann Mountains and Garm Chashma springs, Dushanbe to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Sarazm and Tajik National Park, making this comprehensive guide an ideal companion for a perfect trip whether travelling independently or on an organised tour.

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The heart-warming true story of the dog who played Fang in Harry PotterMonkey is a young Neapolitan Mastiff; larger than life, full of energy and eager to please. But his human doesn't like him. He shouts at him all the time - Monkey doesn't know why - and he won't feed him. Monkey's so hungry his ribs are showing. Eventually his owner gives him away, saying Monkey is too aggressive, and Monkey finds himself in a rescue centre where he's cared for - but by people who are scared of him.Meanwhile, up and coming animal trainer for the movies Julie Tottman is about to start filming Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth in the Harry Potter series, when crisis strikes: the dog playing Fang has dropped out. Julie needs to find a blue Neapolitan Mastiff to fill the part and fast. A big believer in rescuing dogs, she starts calling centres. As chance would have it, one in Northampton has a dog who might fit the bill - but he's supposed to be aggressive: too big a risk for a film set with children. But something tells Julie she should visit the dog first, just to be sure.When she sees the gangly Monkey bounding over to her to say hello and looking up at her gently as she tickles his ears, she knows she has to take a chance on him. He needs feeding up, love, attention and something to put his energy into - and she can give him all those things. But with the film just around the corner, can Monkey become the movie star Julie is looking for? Rescue Me is the incredible true story of what a dog can do when someone believes in them.If you like this book you might also like the first book in the Paws of Fame series: Will You Take Me Home?

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The Top Gear Years brings together Jeremy Clarkson's collected magazine columns for the first time.Clarkson at his pithy, provocative, hilarious bestWe now know all about the world according to Clarkson. In a series of bestselling books Jeremy has revealed it to be a puzzling, frustrating place where all too often the lunatics seem to be running the asylum. But in The Top Gear Years, we get something rather different. Because ten years ago, at an ex-RAF aerodrome in Surrey, Jeremy and his friends built a world that was rather more to his liking: they called it Top Gear HQ. And Top Gear is for Jeremy what the jungle is for Tarzan: the perfect place to work and play. But they didn't stop there . . . With this corner of Surrey sorted out, Jeremy and the boys decided to have a crack at the rest of the world. With Top Gear Live charging through with the subtlety of a touring heavy rock band and far flung outposts across the globe from North America to China - an empire of petrol-headed upon which the sun never set. And all along Jeremy was writing about it in Top Gear magazine. Here, collected for the first time, are the fruits of his labours: the cars, the hijinx, the pleasure and the pain. Brilliantly written and laugh out loud funny.The Top Gear Years follows Jeremy Clarkson's many bestselling titles including Round the Bend and The World according to Clarkson series. Praise for Jeremy Clarkson:'Jeremy Clarkson is very funny and his well-honed political incorrectness is a joy. .' - Daily TelegraphJeremy Clarkson began his writing career on the Rotherham Advertiser. Since then he has written for the Sun, the Sunday Times, the Rochdale Observer, the Wolverhampton Express & Star, all of the Associated Kent Newspapers and Lincolnshire Life. Today he is the tallest person working in British television.

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Making a major part of England's literary heritage accessible to a new audience, Peter Ackroyd's The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling renders Geoffrey Chaucer's timeless tales in lucid, compelling modern English prose, with illustrations by Nick Bantock in Penguin Classics.On a pilgrimage to Canterbury, a group of travellers agree to a storytelling competition. As they make their way on the road, they drink, laugh, flirt, argue and try to outdo each other with their tales. From the exuberant Wife of Bath's Arthurian legend to the Miller's worldly, ribald farce, these tales can be taken as a mirror of fourteenth-century London. Incorporating every style of medieval narrative - bawdy anecdote, allegorical fable and courtly romance - the tales encompass a blend of universal human themes, retold here for our times by bestselling author Peter Ackroyd.The edition also includes an introduction by Ackroyd, detailing some of the historical background to Chaucer and the Tales, and why he has been inspired to translate them for a new generation of readers.Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400) was an English author, poet, philosopher, courtier and diplomat, best known as the author of The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer is credited as being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language. The first poet to have been buried in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey, his other works include The House of Fame, Troilus and Criseyde and The Book of the Duchess.Peter Ackroyd (b. 1949) is an award-winning writer and historian. Formerly literary editor of The Spectator and chief book reviewer for the The Times, he is the author of novels such as Hawksmoor (1985) and The House of Doctor Dee (1993), as well as non-fiction including Dickens: Public Life and Private Passion (2002), London: The Biography (2000), and Thames: Sacred River (2007). 'Ackroyd's retelling is compulsive, bold and rare ... as fresh as new paint'Observer'The only version to read'Time Out

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___________________________________A gripping Temperance Brennan novel from world-class forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, the international no. 1 bestselling crime thriller writer and the inspiration behind the hit TV series Bones.During one of the hottest summers on record, Dr Temperance Brennan is haunted by a string of horrifying events.First, the bones of a newborn baby are discovered in a wood stove. The mother is nowhere to be found.Next, a plane flies into a rock face. The dead pilot and passenger are burned beyond recognition, and covered in an unknown substance.And then a store of bones is found in a remote corner of the county. What has happened, and who will be the next victim? The answers lie hidden deep within the bones - but Tempe must find them in time to stop further disaster.___________________________________Dr Kathy Reichs is a professional forensic anthropologist. She has worked for decades with chief medical examiners, the FBI, and even a United Nations Tribunal on Genocide.However, she is best known for her internationally bestselling Temperance Brennan novels, which draw on her remarkable experience to create the most vividly authentic, true-to-life crime thrillers on the market and which are the inspiration for the hit TV series Bones.___________________________________Many of the world's greatest thriller writers are huge fans of her work:'Kathy Reichs writes smart – no, make that brilliant – mysteries that are as realistic as nonfiction and as fast-paced as the best thrillers about Jack Reacher, or Alex Cross.' JAMES PATTERSON'One of my favourite writers.' KARIN SLAUGHTER'I love Kathy Reichs? – always scary, always suspenseful, and I always learn something.' LEE CHILD'Nobody does forensics thrillers like Kathy Reichs. She’s the real deal.' DAVID BALDACCI'Each book in Kathy Reichs’s fantastic Temperance Brennan series is better than the last. They’re filled with riveting twists and turns – and no matter how many books she writes, I just can’t get enough!' LISA SCOTTOLINE'Nobody writes a more imaginative thriller than Kathy Reichs.' CLIVE CUSSLER

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'His book reads as an inspirational text (Emmanuel is an altruistic entrepreneur and activist who started his first charity as a teenager), and a rousing heartfelt testimony in which self-love trumps self-loathing ... his graceful book fulfils its humble ambition to act as "a guide to recognising the nightmare - and a blueprint for dreaming your way out of it."' OBSERVER'A moving and powerful memoir.' THE BRITISH BLACK LIST'Both personal and political, weaving tales of his own life with advice for other young people and a call for everyone to do their part in creating an equal society ... Emmanuel is a great communicator; he writes and speaks with confidence. It's easy to see how, from such a young age, he has been able to engage people on the issues he wants to tackle.' EVENING STANDARD________________I wanted to change the world, but the world I was born into changed me first.My name is Jeremiah Emmanuel. I'm twenty one years old. I'm an activist, an entrepreneur, a former deputy young mayor of Lambeth and member of the UK Youth Parliament.Raised in south London, I lived in an area where crime and poverty were everywhere and opportunities to escape were rare. Violence was accepted, prison was expected. That was the world I knew; the only one I thought was possible for people like me.Then I discovered another world, one with opportunities round every corner. As I grew my network, I realised that the system actively works against certain members of society, silently preventing people from succeeding. I made it my mission to change this, and to teach people like me about the secret rules of society that empower some to get ahead and keep others down. This is my story of how I made it, and how others can too.Memoir meets manifesto, Dreaming in a Nightmare is a powerful account of the challenges faced by a new generation and how readers can rally to create change.

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The former director of the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm makes his literary debut with this dramatic and riveting novel of book publishing, émigrés, spies, and diplomats in World War II Sweden based on his grandfather’s life In 1933, after Hitler and the Nazi Party consolidated power in Germany, Immanuel Birnbaum, a German-Jewish journalist based in Warsaw, is forbidden from writing for newspapers in his homeland. Six years later, just months before the German invasion of Poland that ignites World War II, Immanuel escapes to Sweden with his wife and two young sons. Living as a refugee in Stockholm, Immanuel continues to write, contributing articles to a liberal Swiss newspaper under the name Dr. B. He becomes increasingly entangled with British intelligence agents who plan several acts of sabotage on the orders of Winston Churchill. But when the Swedish postal service picks up a letter written in invisible ink, clearly by Dr. B. himself, the Allied plotters are exposed. But could a Jew living in exile and targeted for death by the Nazis have wanted to tip them off? Illuminated by the wartime experiences of the author’s grandfather, Dr. B. is a riveting story of émigrés, spies and diplomats that shines a light on a forgotten corner of World War II history. ‘A superb thriller, a cross between Tom Stoppard’s Travesties and The Thirty-Nine Steps … You can’t put it down. This is an astonishing debut and Daniel Birnbaum is clearly a talent to look out for’ The Jewish Chronicle ‘If you’re looking for a ridiculously brilliant story, you can stop looking … He’s got the world’s best story – he’s got Dr B’ Svenska Dagbladet ‘An astonishing thriller-novel … reminiscent of both Hjalmar Söderberg’s Doctor Glass as well as the dreamy melancholy in The Rings of Saturn by W.G Sebald’ Aftonbladet ‘A moving evocation of a life beset by conflicts in a troubled time’ Kirkus Reviews

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The fully updated Green Guide Northern France and the Paris Region unlocks the secrets of the northern corner of France. Venture outside the Paris city center in all directions for fascinating day trips; explore quaint villages and towns dotted across scenic rolling hills and pastures; experience the rich culture of historic Lille, the capital of French Flanders. Michelin’s famed star-rating system for attractions, clear maps, multiple driving and walking tours, color photos, plus recommendations for hotels and restaurants complete the picture for a great trip. · 11th edition, updated, with full-color photos and plenty of details travelers look for. · Attractions reviewed and rated, using Michelin’s celebrated star-rating system. Visit the rose-scented streets of the beautiful two-star village of Gerberoy and its 18C timbered brick houses or the magnificent three star 13C Gothic cathedral of Chartres and its superb stained-glass windows; or stop at one-star Bavay and sample its famed mint candies. · The Île de France area unfolds through half- and full-day trips from Paris. Cruise the waterways, soak up the history and culture while strolling through Lille, or take a trip on meandering country roads to explore northern France. Travelers discover more through Michelin’s walking and driving tours and excursions. · Walk-throughs of major museums, galleries, churches and attractions; includes illustrations and floor plans. · Introduction to the northern France region, covering culinary specialties, folklore, traditional sports and games, history, interior decoration, art, architecture and culture, and nature. · Sidebars throughout the guide on such intriguing topics as stained glass in Gothic churches to coal mines in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. · Detailed visitor information given for every attraction, including opening hours, entry fees, tour times, phone, website. Michelin area/city maps. · Includes suggested places to eat and stay for a variety of budgets. Audience: · Travelers to Northern France and the Paris region looking for comprehensive, detailed travel information. · Discerning travelers seeking unique, enriching travel experiences

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“A Winner . . . Blood Tide is the best high-adventure escape I’ve taken in years.” —Elmore LeonardIn the tradition of Clive Cussler and Alistair MacLean, Blood Tide is a gripping novel of betrayal and revenge set in a remote and lawless corner of the Philippines.Unjustly blamed for a failed escape attempt from a North Vietnamese prison, James Culdee, a career US Navy noncom who has served his country with distinction for twenty years, is suddenly and unfairly forced into a disgraceful retirement. Devestated, Culdee retreats into alcoholism until he is rescued by his daughter, Miranda, a charter-boat skipper whose sloop, the Seamark, has been stolen.When Miranda learns that the Seamark has been sighted into the dangerous and primitive Flyaway Islands of the Philippines, father and daughter sail off in pursuit, on a voyage that will carry them across the Pacific. Arriving in the Flyaways, where local pirates and drug smugglers are as treacherous as the hidden shoals and reefs, Culdee and Miranda join a band of Filipinio insurgents plotting to overthrow a tyrannical American drug lord, who may or may not be the same “slimy” who betrayed Culdee in Vietnam.Filled with action, suspense, and nautical lore, Blood Tide is a tale of intrigue, courage, and passion—of a father and a daughter’s battle against overwhelming odds in infernal jungles where murder is a sport and madness a way of life.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

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Pat Hammond is not your ordinary artist. In fact, she doesn’t even consider herself an artist. She takes everyday objects, such as spinning tops and jars of cicada shells, and infuses them with new meaning and hope. Through humor and personalization, she uses insignificant and unconventional objects to illuminate a “grand truth” about the world, and even about herself.Author Christopher Ornelas found out about Hammond through her remarkable kite collection—hundreds of kites amassed over twenty years. Hammond’s kites, which have been featured at the Smithsonian and the Modern Museum of Art, were gathered from every corner of the world, including Guatemala, Korea, and Polynesia.Hammond also designs her own kites, drafting ideas and sketches for numerous creations she has dreamed of flying. While many of these kites have never made it into the air, they demonstrate her untamed creativity: a corset on a string titled “Of Corset Flies,” a kite made of chicken wire titled “Flew de Coop.” Hammond’s idiosyncratic humor soars beyond her kites, and as Ornelas quickly discovers, they are just a stroke on the canvas of an artistic life that includes troves of trinkets laced with whimsy and beautiful intentions, all displayed in Hammond’s home in San Antonio, Texas. Hammond’s love for the unexpected and her fascination with science and physics are contagious. She is passionate about bees and collecting honey, and her shelves upon shelves of books touch on subjects as varied at Goya and Asimov. From her assortment of animal specimens (bird wings, butterflies, beetles) to crates of small spinning tops (she makes hundreds of them from round metal discs and matchstick spindles), every item is an exploration illustrating the heart of an artist and the legacy of a true free spirit.With a foreword by poet and friend Naomi Shihab Nye and intimate photographs of Hammond’s home and collections, Name Them—They Fly Better offers a portrait of a woman who has sought to transform each moment into a creative act.

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This adventure series is created especially for readers who love the fight of good vs. evil, magical academies like Hogwarts in the Harry Potter saga, and games like Minecraft, Terraria, and Pokemon GO.Stevie and Alex thought they defeated Herobrine completely, but they soon discover that he’s still on the loose. He has returned to Stevie’s nightmares, taunting him with threats to now destroy the human world.The prophecies on music discs suggest that only Stevie and Alex, plus Maison, Destiny and Yancy, their friends from the human world will be able to defeat Herobrine. But the prophecies also warn that one of the friends will betray the rest, putting all the worlds at risk. Tensions run high as the group must figure out how to save the world while they try to discern the traitor in their midst. Maison, It isn’t long before the traitor is discovered.Stevie and Alex find themselves separated from the others and must first journey into the Nether to find a special treasure that will enable them to confront Herobrine. The clock is ticking as they put their heads together to survive in the fiery depths of the Nether. Monsters are waiting for them around every corner and it won’t be much longer before they come face-to-face with Herobrine, who has become more powerful than ever.Sky Pony Press, with our Good Books, Racehorse and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of books for young readers—picture books for small children, chapter books, books for middle grade readers, and novels for young adults. Our list includes bestsellers for children who love to play Minecraft; stories told with LEGO bricks; books that teach lessons about tolerance, patience, and the environment, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

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Esta obra, publicada originalmente en 1936, constituye uno de los trabajos académicos más influyentes de C. S. Lewis en el campo de la literatura medieval. En ella se desarrolla un profundo estudio sobre la poesía amorosa alegórica de la Edad Media, cuyo origen se sitúa en los poemas de «amor cortés» de los trovadores del Languedoc desde el siglo XI, a través de su transformación y fin a finales del siglo XVI.Esta poesía de los trovadores, que constituiría el primer modo de expresión del amor «romántico», supuso tal cambio respecto de la literatura precedente que, como el propio Lewis señala, «no dejó intocado rincón alguno en nuestra ética, nuestra imaginación y nuestra vida diaria, erigiendo barreras infranqueables entre nosotros y el pasado clásico o el presente oriental. Comparado con esta revolución, el Renacimiento es un simple remolino en la superficie de la literatura».Resulta particularmente relevante dentro del presente ensayo el estudio que Lewis realiza de El libro de la rosa, obra cumbre del género dentro de la literatura tardo medieval.The Allegory of LoveThis work, originally published in 1936, constitutes one of the most influential academic works of C.S. Lewis in the field of medieval literature. It develops an in-depth study of the allegorical love poetry of the Middle Ages, whose origins lie in the "courtly love" poems of the Languedoc troubadours in eleventh century, through its transformation and gradual demise at the end of the sixteenth century.This poetry of the troubadours, which would constitute the first mode of expression of «romantic» love, supposed such a change with respect to the preceding literature that, as Lewis himself points out, "it left no corner untouched in our ethics, our imagination and our lives. daily, erecting insurmountable barriers between us and the classical past or the Eastern present. Compared with this revolution, the Renaissance is a mere whirlpool on the surface of literature."Lewis's study of The Book of the Rose, the masterpiece of the genre within late medieval literature, is particularly relevant in this essay.

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Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and demise of the Soviet Union, prominent Western thinkers began to suggest that liberal democracy had triumphed decisively on the world stage. Having banished fascism in World War II, liberalism had now buried communism, and the result would be an end of major ideological conflicts, as liberal norms and institutions spread to every corner of the globe. With the Brexit vote in Great Britain, the resurgence of right-wing populist parties across the European continent, and the surprising ascent of Donald Trump to the American presidency, such hopes have begun to seem hopelessly naïve. The far right is back, and serious rethinking is in order. In Dangerous Minds, Ronald Beiner traces the deepest philosophical roots of such right-wing ideologues as Richard Spencer, Aleksandr Dugin, and Steve Bannon to the writings of Nietzsche and Heidegger—and specifically to the aspects of their thought that express revulsion for the liberal-democratic view of life. Beiner contends that Nietzsche's hatred and critique of bourgeois, egalitarian societies has engendered new disciples on the populist right who threaten to overturn the modern liberal consensus. Heidegger, no less than Nietzsche, thoroughly rejected the moral and political values that arose during the Enlightenment and came to power in the wake of the French Revolution. Understanding Heideggerian dissatisfaction with modernity, and how it functions as a philosophical magnet for those most profoundly alienated from the reigning liberal-democratic order, Beiner argues, will give us insight into the recent and unexpected return of the far right. Beiner does not deny that Nietzsche and Heidegger are important thinkers; nor does he seek to expel them from the history of philosophy. But he does advocate that we rigorously engage with their influential thought in light of current events—and he suggests that we place their severe critique of modern liberal ideals at the center of this engagement.

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REVISED 2023 Streetwise Florence Map is a laminated city center map of Florence, Italy. The accordion-fold pocket size travel map includes train tracks & stations. Coverage includes: Main Florence, Italy Map 1:10,000 Florence Area Map 1:150,000 Central Florence Map 1:5,700 Dimensions: 4" x 8.5" folded, 8.5" x 27" unfolded Florence is a city that should be discovered on foot. In order to cut down on the city center congestion, major sites are closed to car traffic (Santa Maria Novella and Duomo). Many of the major exhibits are in the outlying areas like Bagno a Ripoli, Fiescole, Figline and Scandicci. This has allowed visitors to discover less explored areas. Be sure to enjoy the Renaissance era through the beauty of the cathedrals, churches, museums, paintings, sculptures and frescoes of Florence. Not to be missed during your visit: Piazza del Duomo, the Uffizi Gallery, Palazzo Vecchio, Museo del Bargello, Chiesa di San Loreno and the Medici tombs, Galleria Palantina in the Palazzo Pitti, Museo di San Marco, and Frescoes by Ghirlandaio in Chiesa di Santa Maria Novella. STREETWISE® Florence Italy Map, complete with street, site and hotel index, enables you to explore each hidden corner of this city and to discover its historic importance and artistic richness on your own. The Regional map of Florence will guide you on your discovery to the hillside towns surrounding Florence, giving you greater freedom to discover the glory of Tuscany, Italy. The pocket size map of Florence is laminated for durability and accordion folding for effortless use. For more travel detail and to help make the most of your trip to Florence search for the Michelin Green Guide Tuscany or Green Guide to Italy. For a selection of the best hotels and restaurants in Florence, check out the MICHELIN Guide Main Cities of Europe. For driving outside the city center, pick up the Michelin Central Italy Map No. 563.

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For fans of Katie Flynn and Dilly Court, A Winter Hope is a heart-warming novel from the Queen of family saga, and author of The Winter Baby and The Nursemaid's Secret, Sheila Newberry.All they want is a new home. Number five Kitchener Avenue heralds the start of a new life for the Hope family. For pregnant Miriam it is a warm, safe environment to bring up her child. For her sister, fourteen-year-old Barbara, it means independence . . . and boys. And for Fred it provides the security he craves for his young family. In the lead up to Christmas, the Hopes settle in, and start to make happy memories in their new home. But World War II is round the corner, and this carefree life can't last. Soon the family are split up. Bar, wanting to do her bit for the war effort, joins the ATS, while Miriam and her children are evacuated to the countryside and away from her husband. As the country is thrown into turmoil, can the Hope family come back together and find the happiness they crave? 'A Winter Hope is a heartwarming novel following two sisters from pre-war to post-war, their parallel stories filled with love and loss. I found myself completely wrapped up with their experiences and shed a tear at the twists and turns of their lives.' Mollie Walton, author of The Daughters of Ironbridge 'I have long been a fan of Sheila Newberry's novels. I love their wonderful warmth and charm.' Maureen Lee, bestselling author of The Seven Streets of Liverpool'Reading a Sheila Newberry book is like having dinner with your mother in her warm and cosy kitchen. You can feel the love and care put into every juicy morsel' - Diane Allen, bestselling author of For the Sake of Her FamilyPreviously published as The Family at Number Five.

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Step into the world of Katie Fforde where love, romance and the happiest of happy endings are just around the corner. The new novel by the number one bestselling author and queen of feel-good romance.'A joy of a read' Bella'Another delightful read. Fforde never disapoints' Weekly'This is the perfect Mother's Day read' Take a Break'A joy of a read from Katie Fforde' That's Life'This enjoyable read will appeal to die-hard romantics' Heat Magazine____________Ever since she can remember, Meg has wanted to be a professional cook.But it's 1966, and in restaurant kitchens all over England it is still a man's world.Then she gets a call from her mother who is running a small hotel in Dorset.There's an important banqueting event coming up. She needs help and she needs it now!When Meg arrives, the hotel seems stuck in the past. But she loves a challenge, and sets to work.Then Justin, the son of the hotel owner, appears, determined to take over the running of the kitchen.Infuriated, Meg is determined to keep cooking - and soon sparks between them begin to fly.Will their differences be a recipe for disaster? After all, the course of true love never did run smooth...____________Readers love One Enchanted Evening ...***** 'One Enchanted Evening is a literary hug that filled me with a comforting warmth and made me crave for more.'***** 'I loved this book so much that I devoured it in a day and a half. The characters were very well rounded and you instantly become invested in the storyline, the characters, and the beautiful old hotel.'*****'A lovely relaxing read, perfect for a winters day, or for that matter as a holiday read!'***** 'One Enchanted evening is everything you need in a novel when the weather outside demands you snuggle under a blanket with a good book.'***** 'This is a nice, escapist tale.'

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What do our myths say about us? Why do we choose to believe stories that have been disproven? David M. Krueger takes an in-depth look at a legend that held tremendous power in one corner of Minnesota, helping to define both a community’s and a state’s identity for decades.In 1898, a Swedish immigrant farmer claimed to have discovered a large rock with writing carved into its surface in a field near Kensington, Minnesota. The writing told a North American origin story, predating Christopher Columbus’s exploration, in which Viking missionaries reached what is now Minnesota in 1362 only to be massacred by Indians. The tale’s credibility was quickly challenged and ultimately undermined by experts, but the myth took hold.Faith in the authenticity of the Kensington Rune Stone was a crucial part of the local Nordic identity. Accepted and proclaimed as truth, the story of the Rune Stone recast Native Americans as villains. The community used the account as the basis for civic celebrations for years, and advocates for the stone continue to promote its validity despite the overwhelming evidence that it was a hoax. Krueger puts this stubborn conviction in context and shows how confidence in the legitimacy of the stone has deep implications for a wide variety of Minnesotans who embraced it, including Scandinavian immigrants, Catholics, small-town boosters, and those who desired to commemorate the white settlers who died in the Dakota War of 1862.Krueger demonstrates how the resilient belief in the Rune Stone is a form of civil religion, with aspects that defy logic but illustrate how communities characterize themselves. He reveals something unique about America’s preoccupation with divine right and its troubled way of coming to terms with the history of the continent’s first residents. By considering who is included, who is left out, and how heroes and villains are created in the stories we tell about the past, Myths of the Rune Stone offers an enlightening perspective on not just Minnesota but the United States as well.

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"Once again, Bragg has turned his discerning eye and formidable talents on a topic and the results are outstanding. Both those new to the business and the long-established entrepreneur will benefit greatly when he joins forces with E. James Burton to produce this outstanding work." —Mary S. Schaeffer, Editorial Director Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow "I use the tips and practices found in [this book] all through the year. They are clear, direct, and efficient-which, in turn, improves our company and our bottom line. I recommend [this book] to anyone wanting to improve their own bottom line." —D. R. Drum, CIO, CSO Engineering/Accounting, Dragon Moon Productions "Eminently accessible, this book is a must-read for the entrepreneur, both new and established alike. Organizationally, the work flows smoothly and logically in a way that is valuable for the start-up as well as the veteran needing a refresher on specific aspects of the small business accounting/financing picture. I found particularly useful the rich resourcefulness that Messrs Burton and Bragg brought to the table in compiling the essential checklists for every conceivable corner of the entrepreneur's financial realm from fraud prevention to financing options. As a small business owner myself, I was well pleased with the real-world guidance and instant 'useability' this book offers." —David Struthers, JDFacilitator/Trial Lawyer "This book is essential for any small business owner, manager, or accountant's business tool kit. This easy-to-read book distills complex subject matter into meaningful and understandable information and is a great refresher course for those deeply involved in the accounting and financial matters of a small business. The book contains many examples that can be used immediately in daily operations to improve the quality of information for better decision making. The book provides those involved in small business the framework to manage what they measure." —Jim Bologa, CFODaticon, Inc.

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A collection of 36 short stories from a Raqqa, Syria native whose home was commandeered by ISIS and later destroyed by coalition airstrikes.Musa Al-Halool developed these stories based on a sense of embitterment toward the Syrian regime. Now, after his country has fallen from the grips of an obtuse and rigidly bureaucratic state into the uncertainties of war . . . he presents his stories as the response of one still-same voice in the midst of madness.Musa Al-Halool’s stories depict a Kafkaesque Middle Eastern world. The collection opens with eight political fables in a chapter titled Ratistan . . . or the country of Rats. These fables introduce themes which are picked up and developed in the later stories or simply serve as counterpoint to the longer pieces.The Dusk Visitor is an object lesson for Western readers. In just a few words, it invokes the warnings of Ernest Hemingway about the dangers of Fascism in 1920s Italy and the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s . . . that resulted in WWII. The author shows in compelling detail that Middle East dictators and the upside down world of security state rule in the Middle East are the reward for functioning civil societies where a few too many ”good people” find it more convenient to collaborate rather than to resist.Western readers, in their arrogance, are accustomed to pity such dysfunctional societies. In The Dusk Visitor, the tables are turned. Musa Al-Halool forces us to look in the mirror: Middle Eastern style comical inanity and inefficiency as well as torture, mass murder, and other human rights horrors are just around the corner for the EU, UK, US, and other societies where it is OK to raise half-truths, lies, and exaggeration above traditional journalism, dilute the judiciary, gerrymander the election system, usher in strongmen who prefer to be rulers for life, and threaten legal action against one’s political opponents.The Dusk Visitor is a MUST-READ for anyone concerned about the growth of subtle and overt fascism within modern civil society.

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Text in German. Munich is lucky. A city that is at the top of the popularity scale needs nothing more than attractive building land. There has been a great deal more of this in recent years since industry and commerce have moved off to the periphery, barracks have been closed, the goods station and the airport have been relocated and the exhibition centre has gone to the empty site in Riem that was freed up. This meant that the Theresienhohe became an urban development area as well. Trade-exhibition halls were still being built around the historic parkland, established as an exhibition park around the turn of the century, in the 1980s. In 1997, an architectural competition was looking for ideas for an "inner-city, dense mixture of use for culture, as a central, for housing and commerce". The prize-winning suggestion by Steidle + Partner became the basis for further planning. The convincing feature was the instinctive sureness with which the practice imposed scale and urban character of the surrounded quarters on to the former exhibition-centre site. The development proposal, which could be interpreted in many ways but proposed an easily remembered line, is continued in the architecture, with its sets of buildings staggered against each other. The first buildings to be completed included the KPMG head office, which emerged from a workshop procedure: the ground plan for the complex uses a meander pattern, completed at one corner by a high-rise residential building -- which means that the quarter principle of reversible residential and office use is demonstrated within a single block. A central entrance courtyard provides access to the office block, but there is access from the outside elsewhere as well, should the function ever be changed. The building rises to seven storeys, and is pleasingly disturbing because of the lively colours on its facade of glazed ceramic panels. The even staccato of the narrow windows forms a contrast with this. Both together give the architecture the appeal of a mysterious musical instrument -- certainly intended for very young, rhythmic music.

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A 1999 LOS ANGELES TIMES BEST BOOKDELUXE EDITION, WITH NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN RECOVERED CHAPTERS—Los Angeles, 1967—With gleaming detail and blinding precision, Lou Mathews freeze-frames a hidden corner of L.A.’s outlaw culture in the moments before it becomes extinct. The heart of the culture is the drive-in, where street racers meet to challenge their rivals and place their bets. This world comes to life after dark, lit by headlights and street lamps, a moveable feast of drag races, peopled with its own lost generation: young men and women who have left high school but have no thoughts of college.Drifting from one dead end job to another, supplementing their income through thieving, doing the occasional stint in prison, and reluctantly entering the armed services when there is nothing else left, they live, and sometimes die, for the excitement, the danger, the money of racing. In the world of drag racing—fleeting and bittersweet, like the end of summer—the stakes the stakes grow higher and higher as, one by one, each player spins out and disappears from the scene:Here, we meet Vaca, crippled in soul and body, prefers the armor of his car to a wheelchair. The ex-con Brody—Vaca’s driver—is the best street racer in town. Reinhard, a loner who has no one and nothing but the exquisite machines he builds and races. Charlie, the race organizer who tells the story. And Connie, who rolls her eyes at the whole parade, never without a sarcastic riposte, but who can’t stay away from the boys and their toys.Stunning, bleakly beautiful, and laugh-out-loud funny, L.A. Breakdown paints a riveting portrait of 1960s Los Angeles, frozen in time yet disintegrating before our eyes with all the reckless speed of romantic era.“Mathews keeps the reader so firmly focused on horsepower, hand-rubbed black lacquer paint jobs and custom pinstripes that the small epiphanies that unfold here really do sneak up, as surprising and pungent as burning oil.” —Los Angeles Times

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This prize-winning book is both an illustrated tour of a Tokyo rarely seen in Japan travel guides and an artist's warm, funny, visually rich, and always entertaining graphic memoir.Florent Chavouet, a young graphic artist, spent six months exploring Tokyo while his girlfriend interned at a company there. Each day he would set forth with a pouch full of color pencils and a sketchpad, and visit different neighborhoods. This stunning book records the city that he got to know during his adventures. It isn't the Tokyo of packaged tours and glossy guidebooks, but a grittier, vibrant place, full of ordinary people going about their daily lives and the scenes and activities that unfold on the streets of a bustling metropolis.Here you find businessmen and businesswomen, hipsters, students, grandmothers, shopkeepers, police officers, and other urban types and tribes in all manner of dress and hairstyles. A temple nestles among skyscrapers; the corner grocery anchors a diverse assortment of dwellings, cafes, and shops—often tangled in electric lines. The artist mixes styles and tags his pictures with wry comments and observations. Realistically rendered advertisements or posters of pop stars contrast with cartoon sketches of iconic objects or droll vignettes, like a housewife walking her pet pig, a Godzilla statue in a local park, and an urban fishing pond that charges 400 yen per half hour.This very personal guide to Tokyo is organized by neighborhood with hand-drawn maps that provide an overview of each neighborhood, but what defines them is what caught the artist's eye and attracted his formidable drawing talent. Florent Chavouet begins his introduction by observing that, "Tokyo is said to be the most beautiful of ugly cities." With wit, a playful sense of humor, and the multicolor pencils of his kit, he sets aside the question of urban ugliness or beauty and captures the Japanese essence of a great city in this genuinely vital portrait.

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Winner of the the British Academy Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding 2018 Winner of the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year 2017 Winner of the 2017 Highland Book Prize Winner of the Saltire Society Book of the Year 2017 Shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2018 Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2017 Shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize 2017 Shortlisted for the Bread and Roses Award 2018 Shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2017 Shortlisted for the National Circle of Critics Award 2017 When Kapka Kassabova was a child, the borderzone between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece was rumoured to be an easier crossing point into the West than the Berlin Wall so it swarmed with soldiers, spies and fugitives. On holidays close to the border on the Black Sea coast, she remembers playing on the beach, only miles from where an electrified fence bristled, its barbs pointing inwards toward the enemy: the holiday-makers, the potential escapees. Today, this densely forested landscape is no longer heavily militarised, but it is scarred by its past. In Border, Kapka Kassabova sets out on a journey to meet the people of this triple border - Bulgarians, Turks, Greeks, and the latest wave of refugees fleeing conflict further afield. She discovers a region that has been shaped by the successive forces of history: by its own past migration crises, by communism, by two World wars, by the Ottoman Empire, and - older still - by the ancient legacy of myths and legends. As Kapka Kassabova explores this enigmatic region in the company of border guards and treasure hunters, entrepreneurs and botanists, psychic healers and ritual fire-walkers, refugees and smugglers, she traces the physical and psychological borders that criss-cross its villages and mountains, and goes in search of the stories that will unlock its secrets. Border is a sharply observed portrait of a little-known corner of Europe, and a fascinating meditation on the borderlines that exist between countries, between cultures, between people, and within each of us.

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We live in a world that is known, every corner thoroughly explored. But has this knowledge cost us the ability to wonder? Wonder, Caspar Henderson argues, is at its most supremely valuable in just such a world because it reaffirms our humanity and gives us hope for the future. That's the power of wonder, and that's what we should aim to cultivate in our lives. But what are the wonders of the modern world?Henderson's brilliant exploration borrows from the form of one of the oldest and most widely known sources of wonder: maps. Large, detailed mappae mundi invited people in medieval Europe to vividly imagine places and possibilities they had never seen before: manticores with the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the stinging tail of a scorpion; tribes of one-eyed men who fought griffins for diamonds; and fearsome Scythian warriors who drank the blood of their enemies from their skulls. As outlandish as these maps and the stories that went with them sound to us today, Henderson argues that our views of the world today are sometimes no less incomplete or misleading. Scientists are only beginning to map the human brain, for example, revealing it as vastly more complex than any computer we can conceive. Our current understanding of physical reality is woefully incomplete. A New Map of Wonders explores these and other realms of the wonderful, in different times and cultures and in the present day, taking readers from Aboriginal Australian landscapes to sacred sites in Great Britain, all the while keeping sight questions such as the cognitive basis of wonder and the relationship between wonder and science.Beautifully illustrated and written with wit and moral complexity, this sequel to The Book of Barely Imagined Beings is a fascinating account of the power of wonder and an unforgettable meditation on its importance to our future.

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'An inspiring and necessary book that challenges the narratives we set for our lives and reveals the beauty beyond them' CLEMENTINE FORDAlexandra Collier was a writer living in a light-filled Brooklyn brownstone in New York with the man she loved. But when she woke up to a ravenous hunger to have a baby that her partner didn't share, her life took a sharp turn.She found herself back in Melbourne at 37, single, heartbroken and living with her parents.Ally began dating with dedication, with sometimes hilarious and often soul-crushing results. Like many 30-something single women, though, she found that her reproductive timeline was rapidly outpacing her romantic life. So she began to explore a controversial option: conceiving a baby with donor sperm. Insightful, moving and relatable, this is an uplifting memoir about taking hold of your own future.'Inspiring, challenging and often very funny, Inconceivable is an important read about one woman's choice to become a parent' THE AUSTRALIAN'Bravely rewrites the script about how to make a family' GINA RUSHTON, author of The Most Important Job in the World'An important story, fantastically told' CELIA PACQUOLA'Powerful, singular story I rejoiced in reading. Finally, here is a story about a woman who has created her own happily ever after, without submitting to traditional forms of family-building. Collier writes movingly of the judgement single women face in society. Necessary, immersive read' JESSIE TU'A bright light in a shrouded corner of parenthood' ASHE DAVENPORT, author of Sad Mum Lady'An assured first book that walks the fine line between lightness and gravity' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD'A candid and heartwarming account of Collier's journey to motherhood that will stay with you long after putting it down' BETTER READING'A vibrant story about gaining agency through motherhood that challenges the status quo of the traditional family' NICOLA REDHOUSE

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In 1941, philosopher and poet Gendun Chopel (1903-51) sent a large manuscript by ship, train, and yak across mountains and deserts to his homeland in the northeastern corner of Tibet. He would follow it five years later, returning to his native land after twelve years in India and Sri Lanka. But he did not receive the welcome he imagined: he was arrested by the government of the regent of the young Dalai Lama on trumped-up charges of treason. He emerged from prison three years later a broken man and died soon after. Gendun Chopel was a prolific writer during his short life. Yet he considered that manuscript, which he titled Grains of Gold, to be his life's work, a book to delight his compatriots with tales of an ancient Indian and Tibetan past, while alerting them to the wonders and dangers of the strikingly modern land abutting Tibet's southern border, the British colony of India. Now available for the first time in English, Grains of Gold is a unique compendium of South Asian and Tibetan culture that combines travelogue, drawings, history, and ethnography. Gendun Chopel describes the world he discovered in South Asia, from the ruins of the sacred sites of Buddhism to the Sanskrit classics he learned to read in the original. He is also sharply, often humorously critical of the Tibetan love of the fantastic, bursting one myth after another and finding fault with the accounts of earlier Tibetan pilgrims. Exploring a wide range of cultures and religions central to the history of the region, Gendun Chopel is eager to describe to his Buddhist audience in Tibet all the new knowledge he gathered in his travels. At once the account of the experiences of a tragic figure in Tibetan history and the work of an extraordinary scholar, Grains of Gold is an accessible, compelling book animated by a sense of discovery of both a distant past and a strange present.

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Teenager Ruben, entrusted with a time travelling cube, must save the world... it's not just a toy. The Cube has been brought to Earth by a time-travelling, biomechanical, shape-shifting alien dude, from a badass murderous nation, from a dusty corner of the cosmos, who are hell-bent on the annihilation of all breathing life forms. This alien nation needs somewhere new to live and Earth fits their requirements almost perfectly, once they have evicted the current tenants. The powerful object becomes the centre of a jealous and deadly power struggle and is nearly destroyed in a war between royal Hungarian twin brothers circa 898A.D. in Central Europe. Remains of the damaged Cube pass down through the generations, until it falls into the hands of young, twenty-first- century, Ruben Novak. Ruben is your average teenager about to spend his summer vacation surfing, swimming, and hanging out at the beach in L.A. with his girlfriend. His preordained destiny, written many hundreds of years ago, means the fun must stop and his gap year will have to wait. However, part of the alien cleansing process has already begun, with a ring of detonating spore bombs dumping deadly DNA-altering nano-particles high up in the upper atmosphere. The atomic clock is ticking, and Ruben hasn't even had breakfast yet. Guided by a powerful Overlord alien being, via the Cube, he will travel through time on five dangerous adventures to collect the remnants of the device needed to restore its full functionality and solve the ultimate puzzle: how to preserve life on Earth. At every twist and turn Ruben will be pursued by the mysterious and deadly Time-Warriors who are determined to take the Cube from him. They are a well-organised team of merciless henchmen whose actions are being directed, through time. Ruben's mission is critical; only he and the Cube will prevent the total annihilation of life on Earth

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Like its companions West Aegean and East Aegean, Ionian is ideal for charterers and flotilla sailors who are onboard for a relatively short time, but also for longer term cruisers on their own yachts who are looking for additional pilotage and background information for this popular cruising ground. As with all the Heikell guides, Ionian not only gives all the essential information you need but also exudes the charm and flavour of this corner of the Mediterranean. 'Heikell's style is easy to digest and gives pleasure in the details of the history, geography and social circumstances of the places described as well as the essential sailing information.' The Little Ship 'This book, as well as being a practical manual on Ionian cruising, seems to have absorbed much of the author's personal feelings regarding the charm which draws him back to it, and any reader who has had a whiff of the magic spell of the Greek islands will sense this, and inevitably renew the resolve to return and experience it once again in greater measure.' Nautical Magazine 'Rod Heikell nowadays is to the Mediterranean as gin is to tonic. It is difficult to imagine sailing there without one of his guides. Clear pilot notes, chartlets and plentiful illustrations, with entertaining commentaries on each place. Up-to-date observations on local and national regulations. The new edition does not disappoint. If one must choose, I would have no hesitation in recommending Heikell.' Cruising Association 'Rod has a knack for dropping in snippets of interest and colour to give the reader a feel for the atmosphere of each port or bay.' Yachting Monthly 'Like all Rod Heikell's pilots, it is also a travel guide in its own right.' Ionian Magazine 'The sailing directions are particularly useful when entering the smaller anchorages and harbours, for which little information is to be found on charts, and include excellent harbour plans and top quality aerial photographs.' Flying Fish Magazine (Ocean Cruising Club)

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Folkestone resident and globe-trotting travel writer Simon Richmond turns the spotlight on his home county in this brand-new title, part of Bradt's award-winning series of Slow travel guides to UK regions. Walkers, cyclists, families, food and art lovers, and wildlife enthusiasts are all catered for, with coverage of a wide range of attractions, as well as all the practical information you could need to plan and enjoy time spent in this delightful corner of England. The diversity of Kent is striking, from Canterbury Cathedral, part of a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site, to Dungeness, Kent's southernmost point, an extraordinary location and home to artist and film-maker Derek Jarman's Prospect Cottage. The village of Pluckley was once named England's most haunted by the Guinness World Records, while St Leonard's Church in Hythe has the largest and best-preserved collection of ancient human skulls and bones in Britain. This in-depth guide covers all the most popular places as well as many of the lesser-known ones, dividing the county into five easy-to-follow chapters. Explore Dover and spend time at its iconic White Cliffs, saunter through Vita Sackville-West's gorgeous gardens at the National Trust's Sissinghurst estate, visit the grave of Pocahontas in Gravesend, and contemplate the delightful and thought-provoking public art of the revitalised seaside town of Folkestone. History has been made in Kent, at Hever Castle, where Anne Boleyn spent her childhood and which was later restored by William Waldorf Astor, and at Chartwell, the family home and garden of Sir Winston Churchill. Kent's food and drink offering is increasingly celebrated, with a growing reputation for high quality restaurants and boutique wineries, not to mention the world's oldest brewer and largest collection of fruit trees at Faversham. From flora and fauna to castles, watersports, beaches and wildlife, discover Kent with Bradt's unique Slow travel guide.

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This new edition of Bradt's Taiwan continues to offer some of the most comprehensive coverage available and has been fully updated to reflect all the most recent developments on the ground. Author and long-term resident of Taiwan Steven Crook has been to every corner of the main island and every one of the outlying archipelagos. He has written about Taiwan's cultural and scenic attractions for international newspapers and inflight magazines and he has a keen understanding of what international visitors are likely to enjoy and what they need help with to appreciate. This new edition includes an even greater emphasis on the Taiwanese favourite pastime of local food, as well as increased coverage of increasingly popular east Taiwan and expanded information about the National Palace Museum Southern Branch. Place names and other useful words and phrases (for ordering food and arranging transport) are presented in Chinese script for convenient communication. Detailed coverage of the capital city Taipei is complemented by a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the rest of the country, from Hakka Country to Kaohsiung and Pingtung and the minor islands. More than 58% of Taiwan is covered by forest, making the country as interesting for its wildlife and outdoor activities as for its cities and towns. Taroko Gorge, Mount Jade, national parks, beaches and birdwatching, temples and monasteries, peaks and mountains are all covered, along with beguiling islands such as coral Little Liuqiu, saltwater hot springs, the East Rift Valley and popular Lukang. Taiwan is often described as 'more Chinese than China', but in reality it's a complex blend of 18th-century China, ancient Austronesia and 20th-century Japan, with dabs of post-war Americana and an abiding passion for anything that tastes good, wherever it comes from. Bradt's Taiwan is the perfect companion for discovering all of this, written by an expert who knows the country inside out and is well versed in delivering exactly what you need for a successful trip.

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We live in an age of political polarization. As political beliefs on the left and the right have been pulled closer to the extremes, so have our social environments: we seldom interact with those with whom we don't see eye to eye. Making matters worse, we are being appealed to--by companies, products, and teams, for example--based on our deep-seated, polarized beliefs. Our choice of Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts, Costco or Sam's Club, soccer or football, New York Times vs. Wall Street Journal is an expression of our beliefs and a reinforcement of our choice to stay within the confines of our self-selected political community, making us even more polarized. Letting it bleed into these choices in every corner of our lives, we take democracy too far and it ends up keeping us apart. We overdo democracy. When we overdo democracy, we allow it to undermine and crowd out many of the most important social goods that democracy is meant to deliver. What's more, in overdoing democracy, we spoil certain social goods that democracy needs in order to flourish. A thriving democracy needs citizens to reserve space in their social lives for collective activities that are not structured by political allegiances. To ensure the health and the future of democracy, we need to forge civic friendships by working together in social contexts in which political affiliations and party loyalties are not merely suppressed, but utterly beside the point. Drawing on his extensive research, Talisse sheds light on just how deeply entrenched our political polarization has become and opens our eyes to how often we allow politics to dictate the way we see almost everything. By limiting our interactions with others and our experience of the world so that we only encounter the politically like-minded, we are actually damaging the thing that democracy is meant to preserve in the first place: the more fundamental good of recognizing and respecting each other's standing equals.

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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire is the tale of a catastrophic confrontation between fantasy and reality, embodied in the characters of Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Arthur Miller.'I have always depended on the kindness of strangers'Fading southern belle Blanche DuBois is adrift in the modern world. When she arrives to stay with her sister Stella in a crowded, boisterous corner of New Orleans, her delusions of grandeur bring her into conflict with Stella's crude, brutish husband Stanley Kowalski. Eventually their violent collision course causes Blanche's fragile sense of identity to crumble, threatening to destroy her sanity and her one chance of happiness.Tennessee Williams's steamy and shocking landmark drama, recreated as the immortal film starring Marlon Brando, is one of the most influential plays of the twentieth century.Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) was born in Columbus, Mississippi. When his father, a travelling salesman, moved with his family to St Louis some years later, both he and his sister found it impossible to settle down to city life. He entered college during the Depression and left after a couple of years to take a clerical job in a shoe company. He stayed there for two years, spending the evenings writing. He received a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1940 for his play Battle of Angels, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 and 1955. Among his many other plays Penguin have published The Glass Menagerie (1944), The Rose Tattoo (1951), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), The Night of the Iguana (1961), and Small Craft Warnings (1972).If you enjoyed A Streetcar Named Desire, you might like The Glass Menagerie, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.'Lyrical and poetic and human and heartbreaking and memorable and funny'Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather'One of the greatest American plays'Observer

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A RECOMMENDED BOOK FROM:Bon Appetit * The New York Times Book Review * Epicurious * Plate * Saveur * Grub Street * Wired * The Spruce Eats * Conde Nast Traveler * Food & Wine * HeatedFor the last 100 years, Nom Wah Tea Parlor has been slinging some of the world’s greatest dim sum from New York’s Chinatown. Now owner Wilson Tang tells the story of how the restaurant came to be—and how to prepare their legendary dishes in your own home.Nom Wah Tea Parlor isn’t simply the story of dumplings, though there are many folds to it. It isn’t the story of bao, though there is much filling. It’s not just the story of dim sum, although there are scores and scores of recipes. It’s the story of a community of Chinese immigrants who struggled, flourished, cooked, and ate with abandon in New York City. (Who now struggle, flourish, cook, and eat with abandon in New York City.) It’s a journey that begins in Toishan, runs through Hong Kong, and ends up tucked into the corner of a street once called The Bloody Angle. In this book, Nom Wah’s owner, Wilson Tang, takes us into the hardworking kitchen of Nom Wah and emerges with 75 easy-to-make recipes: from bao to vegetables, noodles to desserts, cakes, rice rolls, chef’s specials, dumplings, and more.We’re also introduced to characters like Mei Lum, the fifth-generation owner of porcelain shop Wing on Wo, and Joanne Kwong, the lawyer-turned-owner of Pearl River Mart. He paints a portrait of what Chinatown in New York City is in 2020. As Wilson, who quit a job in finance to take over the once-ailing family business, struggles with the dilemma of immigrant children—to jettison tradition or to cling to it—he also points to a new way: to savor tradition while moving forward. A book for har gow lovers and rice roll junkies, The Nom Wah Cookbook portrays a culture at a crossroads.

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A.S.J. Tessimond (1902-1962) was one of the most individual, versatile and approachable voices in 20th century poetry. Influenced at first by the Imagists, his poetry is remarkable for its lucidity and formal exactness and for its witty, humane depiction of life in the modern city. Out of step with his contemporaries - both Pound and Eliot as well as Auden and his followers - Tessimond was always a marginalised figure, publishing only three collections in his lifetime, one in each decade from 1934 to 1958. Yet his work has been popular enough to be included in numerous anthologies and has been a perennial favourite with listeners of radio programmes such as Poetry Please. This edition is a long awaited reissue of the posthumous Collected Poems edited by his friend the writer Hubert Nicholson, who characterised his poems as 'beautiful, shapely, well wrought and elegant, whether in public of private mode', penetrating the heart of both London and England: 'His hallmark, his unique contribution to the body poetic, is to be found in those poems encapsulating urban types - and the institutions that shape and demarcate their lives, the popular press and radio, films, money, advertising, houses, tube stations, the implacable streets...He wrote a good deal about love, its hopes and ecstasies and its frustrations and sadness.' As Nicholson has pointed out, Tessimond wrote many poems in the first person, 'but they are not in the least egotistical. They are imaginative projections of himself into types, places, generalised Man, even God or Fate.' He was 'entirely a man of the city', his 'landscape' pieces depicting Hyde Park Corner, Chelsea Embankment, a Paris cafe and even an overcrowded bus in Jamaica. 'He loved the life around him and was a meditative as well as an observant man. He reflected, and reflected on, the passing show, kindly, honestly, and with wit and wisdom.' Tessimond has been described as an eccentric, a night-lifer, loner and flaneur. He loved women, was always falling in love, but never married. He suffered from frequent bouts of depression, alleviated neither by a succession of psychiatrists nor by electric shock therapy. The fact that he was plagued by self-doubt and was fiercely critical of his own work must have contributed to his work being too little published and too much neglected, despite being championed by an extraordinary variety of admirers, from Michael Roberts, John Lehmann and Ceri Richards to Bernard Levin, Maggie Smith, Bill Deedes and Trevor McDonald. Maggie Smith read his poem 'Heaven' at the funeral of Bernard Levin, for whom Tessimond was 'a quiet voice, which makes it easy to miss the resonances, but they are there, and although I doubt if he will achieve a widespread fame, I am sure that any future anthology of twentieth-century English verse that does not include a sample of his work will be less complete, less representative and less valuable than it might have been.' In an obituary for The Times, Tessimond's friend, the critic George Rostrevor Hamilton, said he was 'modest about his poetry, and sometimes thought it too small to be worthwhile. But over and above a dry wit and fancy, he had an exquisite feeling for words, meticulous but, like himself, without affectation. In his own way he was unrivalled.'

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‘Wow!!...This is a must read, heartwarming Christmas story. I would easily give this book hundreds of stars’ Little Miss Book Lover 87Sylvie Magnusson is going to be lonely this Christmas. Instead of jetting off for her honeymoon, she’s freezing at home in Cheshire. Guess that’s what happens when your fiancé dumps you a week before your wedding…Sylvie’s best friend, Nari, plans a trip to see the Northern Lights and get Sylvie’s mojo back. But as their Lapland getaway approaches, Sylvie realises that Frozen Falls is the hometown of Stellan Virtanen, her dreamy Finnish ex-boyfriend, the one that got away.When they meet, Stellan’s still gorgeous – and her heart is warmed when he shows her the romantic delights of Lapland (as well as some adorable Husky puppies). But when she returns to England, can she really leave Stellan behind? Or will she find that her heart belongs in the frozen North?Curl up with the perfect cosy read this winter. Fans of Sarah Morgan and Carole Matthews will adore this feel good, heart-warming romcom. Readers are loving Christmas At Frozen Falls:‘this book was just sheer gorgeousness from the first page to the last, and I loved every moment…A really special book, and an author to watch for the future’ Being Anne‘What an adorable, emotional, and beautiful read!!...made me believe in the Christmas magic all over again…This is certainly one of my favourite holiday reads and a book that will stick with me’ Diary of a Book Fiend‘This was one of those books that you smiled reading from the very first page. It is such a feel-good, rom-com…Is it possible to stay at Frozen Falls?’ Kelly’s Book Space‘This book is jam packed full of festive fun, friendship and romance… Oh…and huskies, don’t forget the huskies!! Love this book!! Would definitely recommend!!’Stardust Book Reviews‘the epitome of Christmas, winter wonderlands, sleds, warm fires and the coziest of romances…If Kiley keeps writing holiday stories like this I may give up all other genres of books.’ Reading Girl Reviews‘This is a delightful second chance romance, complete with some adorable Husky puppies…great characters, fantastic frozen scenery...and a couple of romances to melt even a frozen heart.’ Splashes Into Books‘Kiley is the master of memorable stories…Christmas at Frozen Falls is the perfect recipe for a festive read’ Stacy is Reading‘A heart-warming and uplifting romantic read about love lost and found, second chances and new beginnings...will leave you with a great big smile on your face.’ Bookish Jottings‘With plenty of Christmassy feel-good vibes and cute puppies, it's a wonderful holiday romance.’ Ellesea Loves Reading‘It is such a lovely, escapist read, full of glistening snow, reindeers, sparkling ice caves…Love and friendship with a festive twist in spades.’ Books, Life and Everything‘such a lovely read… a brilliant feel-good Christmas book, which I thoroughly enjoyed.’ Black Books Blog‘Full of festive feeling, fabulous characters, friends, family, and snow…I just loved every second of this book.’ (5 stars) Rachel’s Random Reads‘There's many types of Christmas books. But the best ones? Those are the ones that leave you feeling things...Kiley Dunbar managed to make me fall in love with her characters and left me with actual tears in my eyes.’ Walking Through The Pages'It's so festive and wintery and simply gorgeous!...The characters were enjoyable to get to know and I loved the location.’ The Cosiest Corner

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