Search results for ""unbound""

As we face global challenges like climate change and inequality, what if women could use their investments to build a cleaner, fairer and more sustainable world?Financial feminism – the belief in the financial equality of women – has been gathering momentum, largely in the context of the gender pay gap: on average a woman earns 80% of what a man does. But there’s another gap – the gender investing gap – which shows women are investing less than men, saving less for retirement and parking more in cash. When compounded by the gender pay gap, this results in a significant shortfall, but there’s more to financial feminism than simply addressing these gaps: women also care about where their money is invested and the impact it can have.In this practical and accessible guide, sustainable investing expert Jessica Robinson shows how through financial feminism, women can use their financial power to invest in a sustainable future and build the kind of world they want to live in. With jargon-free explanations and real-world examples, she demystifies the financial services industry, breaks down just what sustainable investing is and demonstrates the societal and environmental impact of the investment decisions we make.Arming women with the information they need to get started – and keep going – she hopes that more women will embrace financial feminism, invest to grow their own wealth and, in doing so, use their financial decisions to demand a better world.

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'Extremely intriguing with intricate twists and turns' Frederick ForsythWhen maverick police sergeant Jolly Macken is banished to the sleepy 1950s Irish border village of Blackwatertown, he vows to find the killer of his brother – even if the murderer is inside the police. But a lot can happen in a week. Over seven days Macken falls in love, uncovers dark family secrets, accidentally starts a war and is hailed a hero and branded a traitor. When Blackwatertown explodes into violence, who can he trust?And is betrayal the only way to survive?

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Arriving in New York with a failing relationship and a body she felt out of touch with, Stephanie Theobald set off on a 3,497 mile trip across America to re-build her orgasm from the ground up. What started as a quest for the ultimate auto-erotic experience became a fantastic voyage into her own body.She takes us from ‘body sex’ classes with the legendary feminist Betty Dodson to an interview with the former US Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, who was fired for suggesting that masturbation should be talked about in schools. Along the way, we are immersed in a weird, countercultural America of marijuana farms and ‘ecosexual sexologists’.Sex Drive is a memoir about desire and pleasure, merging sexuality and spirituality, eighteenth-century porn and enlightenment philosophy. A new sexual revolution has begun – and this time round, it’s all about the women.

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Let legendary rock manager Simon Napier-Bell take you inside the (dodgy) world of popular music – not just a creative industry, but a business that has made people rich beyond their wildest dreams. He balances seductive anecdotes – pulling back the curtain on the gritty and absurd side of the industry – with an insightful exploration of the relationship between creativity and money. This book describes the evolution of the industry from 1713 – the year parliament granted writers ownership over what they wrote – to today, when a global, 100 billion pound industry is controlled by just three major players: Sony, Universal and Warner. Inside you will uncover some little-known facts about the industry, including: How a formula for writing hit songs in the 1900s helped create 50,000 of the best-known songs of all time. How infighting in the American pre-war music industry shut down traditional radio and created an opening for country music, race records and rock'n'roll. How Jewish immigrants and black jazz musicians dancing cheek-to-cheek created a template for all popular music that followed. How rock tours became the biggest, quickest, sleaziest and most profitable ventures the music industry has ever seen. After reading Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay, you'll never listen to music in the same way again.

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“A bold attempt to portray the greyness of growing up without roots or identity, cast adrift in an uncomprehending and uncertain world.” Caroline Moorehead, Times Literary Supplement.March, 1945. The ravaged face of London will soon be painted with victory, but for Sylvie, the private battle for peace is just beginning. When one of her twins is stillborn, she is faced with a consuming grief for the child she never had a chance to hold. A Small Dark Quiet follows a mother as she struggles to find the courage to rebuild her life and care for an orphan whom she and her husband, Gerald, adopt two years later.Born in a concentration camp, the orphan’s early years appear punctuated with frail speculations, opening up a haunting space that draws Sylvie to bring him into parallel with the child she lost. When she gives the orphan the stillborn child’s name, this unwittingly entangles him in a grief he will never be able to console. His own name has been erased, his origins blurred. Arthur’s preverbal trauma begins to merge with the loss he carries for Sylvie, released in nightmares and fragments of emerging memories to make his life that of a boy he never knew. He learns all about ‘that other little Arthur’, yearning both to become him and to free himself from his ghost. He can neither fit the shape of the life that has been lost nor grow into the one his adopted father has carved out for him.As the novel unfolds over the next twenty years, Arthur becomes curious about his Jewish heritage, but fears what this might entail – drawn towards it, it seems he might find a sense of communion and acceptance, but the chorus of persecutory voices he has internalised becomes too overwhelming to bear. He is threatened as a child with being sent back where he belongs but no one can tell him where this is. He wanders as an adult looking for purpose but is unable to find his place. Feeling an imposter both at home and in the city, Arthur’s yearning for that sense of belonging echoes in our own time. Meeting Lydia seems to offer Arthur the opportunity to recast himself, yet all too soon he is trapped in a repetition of what he was trying to escape. A past he can neither recall nor forget lives on within him even as he strives to forge a life for himself. Survival, though, insists Arthur keeps searching and as he opens himself to the world around him, there are flashes of just how resilient the human heart can be. Through Sylvie’s unprocessed grief and Arthur’s acute sense of displacement, A Small Dark Quiet explores how the compulsion to fill the empty space death leaves behind ultimately makes the devastating void more acute. Yet however frail, the instinct for empathy and hope persists in this powerful story of loss, migration and the search for belonging.

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Bent Met police detective DI Frederick Street rules as the `Sheriff of Shoreditch' who loves shaking down the street goons he arrests. Elvis Street is the son who cannot stand his father for being the balls-out crook he caught in bed with his girl. Elvis wants to take Frederick down and end him forever. Neither father or son realises how much the other understands what controls them. Neither father or son will ever back down. Night Time Cool is the story of why?

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Hektor’s life of privilege is forever changed when a man, allegedly possessed by the sun god, inspires revolution among the oppressed townspeople of Wilusa – the historical Troy of myth. For Hektor, son of Bronze Age Wilusa’s despotic ruler, social equality contradicts every principle he has been indoctrinated into believing. But his principles and obsession with duty is alienating him from his young son, Hapi, with whom he has a fractured relationship. When the ‘possessed’ man saves Hapi’s life, Hektor is compelled to question the foundations upon which his father has constructed his life as he rebuilds his relationship with his child through the breaking of a foal. Wilusa collapses into political violence as the commoners rise up, and Hektor must decide whether to defend the people, but lose his identity, or remain loyal to an irrational, dangerous father. Breaking the Foals is a breathless gallop through an ancient world carved out by tradition, stained with blood and immortalised in the lives of heroes and villains.

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You say Lee-doh, We say Ly-doh  From beautiful Art Deco lidos to humble, fiercely loved community pools, this is the definitive photographic guide to around 130 lidos in the UK and Channel Islands. This unique collection has been updated, and each entry details what makes the pool special and what swimming there is like, as well as providing information about refreshments, accessibility and much more. This guide is organised geographically and includes information on how to find the lidos, it also suggests other nearby pools so you can plan your own lido road trips.

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'Ought to become a classic. It is an enshrinement of [Meades's] intense baroque and catholic cleverness' Roger Lewis, The Times'One of the foremost prose stylists of his age in any register . . . Probably we don’t deserve Meades, a man who apparently has never composed a dull paragraph' Steven Poole, Guardian'There are more gems in this wonderful book than I could cram into a dozen of these columns' Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph'Such a useful and important critic . . . He is very much on the reader’s side, bringing his full wit to bear on every single thing he writes' Nicholas Lezard, SpectatorThis landmark publication collects three decades of writing from one of the most original, provocative and consistently entertaining voices of our time. Anyone who cares about language and culture should have this book in their life.Thirty years ago, Jonathan Meades published a volume of reportorial journalism, essays, criticism, squibs and fictions called Peter Knows What Dick Likes. The critic James Wood was moved to write: ‘When journalism is like this, journalism and literature become one.’Pedro and Ricky Come Again is every bit as rich and catholic as its predecessor. It is bigger, darker, funnier and just as impervious to taste and manners. It bristles with wit and pin-sharp eloquence, whether Meades is contemplating northernness in a German forest or hymning the virtues of slang.From the indefensibility of nationalism and the ubiquitous abuse of the word ‘iconic’, to John Lennon’s shopping lists and the wine they call Black Tower, the work assembled here demonstrates Meades's unparalleled range and erudition, with pieces on cities, artists, sex, England, France, concrete, faith, politics, food, history and much, much more.

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If you read only one book on business writing, make it this one. Chapters by the twelve partners of the Dark Angels Collective set out a comprehensive approach to writing more effectively for business. For nearly twenty years the Dark Angels programme has been championing the cause of more human, more emotive writing in the business world – because it’s this kind of writing that works, in branding, in copywriting, in writing for design, in annual reports, in all genres and all sectors.The Dark Angels approach is to draw on techniques from fiction, poetry and memoir to tell better stories – stories that connect with readers across all commercial media. The results, endorsed here by many of the most respected writers in the field, are gathered in this book as an indispensable source of inspiration and practical advice. It’s the book that sets the new benchmark for professional writers.

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When Chuck Mullin began to suffer from anxiety and depression aged seventeen, she turned to drawing comics as a way to make sense of her experience. She soon found that pigeons were the perfect subjects through which to explore the complexities of living with mental illness, and several years later, her funny, quirky birds have won legions of fans online.From Bad Times to Positivity, the comics in Bird Brain use humour to provide a glimpse of what’s going on in Chuck’s head: dissociative episodes; cycles of anxiety; her struggle to accept she’s not alone; and the power of optimism on the days it’s possible.

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Comedy is a game that all humans play. There are big social prizes if you win, but it is easy to end up with custard pie on your face... or worse. Comedy can soothe our pain, vent our anger, make us feel less alone and provide the answer to life's most difficult questions, such as, What do you call a man with a seagull on his head?'* It's a social glue but it can also be divisive, and the joke is on us if we don't understand how it works. So, what are the rules? How does comedy do its magic and why does it matter? Join professional comedy writer Joel Morris on a hilarious journey into the hidden world of shared laughter where he reveals the mechanisms that make jokes work and what comedy can teach us about ourselves. Offering astute analysis of everything from stand-up to slapstick and sitcom to spoof, Morris examines comedic patterns, rhythms and dynamics to uncover the algorithms that secretly underpin comedy. Packed with gags and examples of

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''Will allow you to find the peace, the rage, the acceptance, the anger, the love, the hatred, the joy and the connection that we all need to be allowed to feel'' Pippa Vosper, author of Beyond Grief No One Talks About This Stuff is a support group for almost-parents: it is a place to share journeys of loss and limbo, to confront social pressure and to find courage in the darkness of tragedies which happen every day yet are brushed under the carpet. So, we hear from a stepmother who wrestles with infertility. A husband and wife each tell their experience of losing their baby. A lesbian comes of age at a time when gay people rarely become parents. A father finds loss to be his unlikely superpower. Complex post-traumatic stress disorder impacts a person's choices about having a family. A black woman unpacks ancestral shame while finding renewed purpose. And each person shares how they lived through it. This captivatingly beautifu

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Diversity programmes are everywhere. But despite all the intention and focus, progress is painfully slow. Homophobia, transphobia, racism and misogyny remain stubbornly pervasive, and unfortunately, many inclusion programmes do more to create negativity toward the diversity agenda than they do to bring about measurable and lasting change. Why isn’t change happening more rapidly? What are we doing wrong? Or better yet, what should we be doing differently if we want to drive different outcomes? Although most of us are curious about diversity, and some would go so far as to call ourselves allies, very few of us are skilled in inclusion. In the absence of knowing what to do, we double down on being nice and hope that will be enough. Unfortunately, this optimistic attitude may harm as much as help. This book is for anyone who wants to dive into the complex task of supporting diversity and increasing inclusion. It’s filled with insight and practical know-how. It will help you navigate the polarised and divisive issues we face, and move beyond just talking about diversity to playing an active role in shaping an inclusive future.

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Shareware Heroes is a comprehensive, meticulously researched exploration of an important and too-long overlooked chapter in video game history.Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the internet takes readers on a journey, from the beginnings of the shareware model in the early 1980s, the origins of the concept, even the name itself, and the rise of shareware's major players — the likes of id Software, Apogee, and Epic MegaGames — through to the significance of shareware for the ‘forgotten’ systems — the Mac, Atari ST, Amiga — when commercial game publishers turned away from them.This book also charts the emergence of commercial shareware distributors like Educorp and the BBS/newsgroup sharing culture. And it explores how shareware developers plugged gaps in the video gaming market by creating games in niche and neglected genres like vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-ups (e.g. Raptor and Tyrian) or racing games (e.g. Wacky Wheels and Skunny Kart) or RPGs (God of Thunder and Realmz), until finally, as the video game market again grew and shifted, and major publishers took control, how the shareware system faded into the background and fell from memory.

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An eye-opening exploration of the weird and wonderful things human beings have done in pursuit (and denial) of the mighty orgasm, based on the hit Twitter account @WhoresofYoreThis is not a comprehensive study of every sexual quirk, kink and ritual across all cultures throughout time, as that would entail writing an encyclopaedia. Rather, this is a drop in the ocean, a paddle in the shallow end of sex history, but I hope you will get pleasantly wet nonetheless. The act of sex has not changed since people first worked out what went where, but the ways in which society dictates how sex is culturally understood and performed have varied significantly through the ages. Humans are the only creatures that stigmatise particular sexual practices, and sex remains a deeply divisive issue around the world. Attitudes will change and grow – hopefully for the better – but sex will never be free of stigma or shame unless we acknowledge where it has come from. Drawing upon extensive research from Dr Kate Lister's Whores of Yore website and written with her distinctive humour and wit, A Curious History of Sex covers topics ranging from twentieth- century testicle thefts to Victorian doctors massaging the pelvises of their female patients, from smutty bread innuendos dating back to AD 79, to the new and controversial sex doll brothels. It is peppered with surprising and informative historical slang and illustrated by eye-opening, toe- curling and hilarious images. In this fascinating book, Lister deftly debunks myths and stereotypes and gives unusual sexual practices an historical framework, as she provides valuable context for issues facing people today, including gender, sexual shame, beauty and language.

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Beware the buried skull underfoot and watch out for children with fur on their backs...Blood on Satan's Claw is widely regarded as part of the ‘unholy trinity’ of cult classics which gave birth to the film genre that would become known as folk horror. Along with The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General, it found new ways to terrify audiences using elements of superstition and folklore.Now, fifty years after its release, readers can experience the unearthing of this terror in the film’s first official novelisation: a compelling and frightening retelling of the fate of unfortunate villagers sacrificed by their own children as devil worship infiltrates their rural existence.Written by the film’s original screenwriter Robert Wynne-Simmons and featuring haunting new illustrations from Richard Wells, it is an atmospheric and defining cult classic in the making.

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Did you know that Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka was the first woman in the world to become a democratically elected prime minister? That Tina Anselmi was a wartime resistance fighter who became the first woman to serve as a cabinet minister in Italy? Or that Sylvie Kinigi of Burundi was the first woman to serve as a prime minister in Africa? It is high time these extraordinary women who helped shape our world became household names, and this book brings them at last to the fore.Women Who Won is a celebration of 70 women from the last 100 years: politicians from around the globe who fought for election in a man’s world… and won. Beautifully illustrated by artist Emmy Lupin, it features well-known figures, including Kamala Harris, Benazir Bhutto, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Jacinda Ardern and Julia Gillard, alongside lesser-known women whose stories are ready to be heard: Shidzue Katō, one of the first women elected to the Diet of Japan Yulia Tymoshenko, the first woman prime minister of Ukraine Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to the US Congress Peri-Khan Sofieva, the first democratically elected Muslim woman Ethel Blondin-Andrew, the first Indigenous woman elected to Canadian parliament Women of the past, but also women of the present and future. Women who smashed the political glass ceiling. Women who fought to leave a positive legacy for future generations. Women who paved the way for girls of today to become women who won.

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THE NO. 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERWhen Douglas Adams died in 2001, he left behind 60 boxes full of notebooks, letters, scripts, jokes, speeches and even poems. In 42, compiled by Douglas’s long-time collaborator Kevin Jon Davies, hundreds of these personal artefacts appear in print for the very first time.Douglas was as much a thinker as he was a writer, and his artefacts reveal how his deep fascination with technology led to ideas which were far ahead of their time: a convention speech envisioning the modern smartphone, with all the information in the world living at our fingertips; sheets of notes predicting the advent of electronic books; journal entries from his forays into home computing – it is a matter of legend that Douglas bought the very first Mac in the UK; musings on how the internet would disrupt the CD-Rom industry, among others.42 also features archival material charting Douglas’s school days through Cambridge, Footlights, collaborations with Graham Chapman, and early scribbles from the development of Doctor Who, Hitchhiker’s and Dirk Gently. Alongside details of his most celebrated works are projects that never came to fruition, including the pilot for radio programme They’ll Never Play That on the Radio and a space-inspired theme park ride.Douglas’s personal papers prove that the greatest ideas come from the fleeting thoughts that collide in our own imagination, and offer a captivating insight into the mind of one of the twentieth century’s greatest thinkers and most enduring storytellers.

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In this bold and intimate memoir Ariel Anderssen charts her journey from a strict religious upbringing as a Jehovah’s Witness to her current position as one of the most widely recognised BDSM performers in the world. Her route between the two includes a period as a wretchedly miserable, teenage political activist, a phase touring with a Christian theatre group, and accidentally discovering a talent for posing for art nude photography. This surprising and unconventional career path led her to a life-altering introduction to BDSM-themed erotic artwork and a whole world she never imagined existing.This is a book about BDSM, and about sexuality, but most of all it is about one woman’s struggle for self-acceptance and the rewards that come from confronting who you are with honesty and compassion.TRIGGER WARNING: this book contains descriptions of sexual violence that some readers may find upsetting

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Ever wanted to know more about the Big Bang but didn’t have Brian Cox’s email address? Ever wanted to cry out, ‘What on Earth is a black hole?’ but been afraid you’d be shouting into the abyss? Ever wanted to find out how gravity works but never found the book to pull you in?Well, have no fear: DARK is an easily digestible beginner’s guide to the Universe in a handy A to Z format, with entries on everything from Dark Matter and Quantum Physics to NASA and the Zoo Hypothesis.What’s more, the book is beautifully presented, so you’ll want to keep it out on display, dipping in to check exactly when it is that we humans are likely to be engulfed by the furnace of the Sun. It boasts a number of stunning design elements throughout, including original artworks and bespoke lettering to accompany each of the twenty-six chapters, as well as inspiring, enlightening and amusing quotes about space rendered in exquisitely considered typography.So, if you want to brush up on your astronomical ABCs while simultaneously receiving a visual massage from some rather splendid art and design, then this may well be the cosmic coffee-table book for you.

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When Lizzie Pickering's young son Harry died in 2000, she set out on a journey to understand how she could survive her grief and learn to live with it. In When Grief Equals Love, she details the lessons she’s learned from her own experiences and those of others, who share their thoughts in this moving and tender book.Lizzie opens her diaries, written in the early years after Harry’s death, revealing her observations on the grief of his siblings and family, what helped and what hurt. Revisiting those diaries, she reflects on time passing, and what has changed for her and her family since.Lizzie looks at the myth of closure, survivor’s energy and cumulative grief – when life experiences pile up and become too much to bear. She includes interviews with bereaved friends, who share their own insights, and she provides a toolkit based on what has helped her and what she recommends to those she now helps with grief guidance.In most lives, unfortunately, grief and loss are inevitable. But living with grief can still be living. This book is for those going through grief and anyone who might need to support them. There are no easy answers, but nobody should have to cope alone.

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This is the definitive behind-the-scenes account of Capcom’s horror video game series Resident Evil – one of the most popular, innovative and widely influential franchises of all time. Industry expert Alex Aniel spent two years interviewing key former members of Capcom staff, allowing him to tell the inside story of how Resident Evil was envisioned as early as the late 1980s, how its unexpected and unprecedented success saved the company from financial trouble, how the series struggled at the turn of the century and, eventually, how a new generation of creators was born after the release of Resident Evil 4. Itchy, Tasty narrates the development of each Resident Evil game released between 1996 and 2006, interspersed with fascinating commentary from the game creators themselves, offering unique insight into how the series became the world-conquering franchise it is today.

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Joe Bovshover had chosen the park. He knew that this full moon he’d become wolf. He knew the deer in the park would make easy prey. The deer lived simply and were soft, there was no wildness to these city animals, but there was in Joe. . .It’s now 1980, and Joe, the skinhead werewolf, once again stalks London. Lights in the night, burning red and white; amidst aggro, proper shmatta, and mod witches.Tim Wells brings us another short, sharp instalment of his pulp skinhead-punk-horror series.

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Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone is a book of poems and meditations with a difference. More than a hundred short texts have been typed onto small squares of gold leaf, then photographed. These pieces are arranged in a sequence which culminates in a glorious final section made up of texts typed directly onto leaves, bark and feathers. Jackie started to write the pieces shortly after her father died, and for the first time ever she found herself unable to paint. The words grew out of her grief and, guided by her deep intimacy with the natural world, these objects emerged to fill the space her paintings had left behind. This book is full of the light and wind that fills the Pembrokeshire coast where it was crafted, each page anchored to the landscape by the mechanical rhythm of Jackie’s antique typewriters. The result is a collection of individual artworks to be both looked at and read. It is poetry re-imagined by a visual artist; words transformed back into their original function as images.Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone announces a new departure for Jackie Morris and confirms her as an artist and writer at the peak of her power.

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The time of peace is over. The time of war has begun.Bera is struggling to reconcile her desire to be an ordinary woman with the weight of her Valla duty to shape the future. Love and friendship vie with her longing for freedom at sea on her beloved longboat. Warned that Chaos is coming and that Vikings have taken her kin as slaves, Bera realises her destiny is to follow them to Wolf Island, a land that has abandoned the old gods. In a quest to save her loved ones, Bera must use her smith’s iron lore and the knowledge of her Valla ancestors to follow an ancient path into a dark labyrinth, where human time is meaningless. There, she confronts her worst foe to finally bring peace – at the cost of a life.The voyage that began with Sea Paths and continued with Obsidian ends with Landfall, Bera’s most dangerous and important journey of all.

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Folk tales take us beyond our own boundaries into unknown lands. Yet within these adventures, riddles and enchantments we find our common ground and shared humanity. Lost & Found is Elizabeth Garner’s own retelling of fifteen treasured folk tales that have nurtured, sustained, terrified and enthralled her in equal measure. Some of the stories are taken from the books of her childhood, some are remembered, and others she has discovered in her reading over the years.Garner’s tapestry of words is adorned with engraver Phoebe Connolly's beautiful woodcut illustrations that bring the friends and foes of folklore to life. Included in the collection are stories such as ‘The Riddle of the Crossroads’, ‘The Twisted Oak’, ‘The Wits of the Whetstone’ and many more. With a varied and diverse cast of characters, Garner’s retellings expertly traverse a myriad of mysterious worlds; always staying true to tradition, while simultaneously speaking to modern times.This illustrated collection is another link in the chain between storyteller, listener and our shared ancestors: tales from the past, told to enrich the present and to be carried forward into the future.

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In 2001, fans of the internet were introduced to scanned pages from spoof local newspaper The Framley Examiner. Packed with humdrum and preposterous news stories, classified ads, local business features and headlines that seemed to have been typed while asleep, it skewered the banal madness of small-town existence, perfectly encapsulating the British national character.Framley’s strange yet familiar community – stuffed with its own cast, insane geography and rich local history – struck a chord with those who recognised their own home towns in its reflection. The website was loved and shared by an eager public as well as famous fans from Little Britain, The Simpsons and the Cambridge Centre for Theoretical Cosmology (Professor Stephen Hawking was a Framley enthusiast).Marking the twentieth anniversary of the website's first appearance The Incomplete Framley Examiner combines the pages of the original book, published in 2002, with all the pages published online in the years since and brand new material for a bigger, more luxurious, toilet-proof compendium for the annals of history.

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Plastic bottles, cardboard boxes, aluminium cans… we all get through a lot of rubbish, but do you really know what happens after you put it in the bin? Are you even sure which bin it goes in?Recycling has never been more important – but it has also never been more complicated. Where do you put bottle lids? Why can't black plastic be recycled? What do you do with labels? The Rubbish Book answers all these questions and many more, providing you with all the information you need to become a true recycling expert, so you can help protect the planet with confidence.Written by an award-winning sustainability expert, it includes an A–Z of household items and whether they can be recycled; an in-depth look at the collection and sorting processes; a break-down of what the recycling symbols on our packaging actually mean; and an insight into the future of recycling and the new materials that will change the way we look at rubbish for ever.

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Zeynel, a carpet merchant turned vampire, has accepted his fate and now searches for the stories of his past. With his ties to Istanbul threadbare after the passing of his wife, Ayşe, he travels across the West in search of a new home. On the invitation of a young friend, Alfred Grimsley, Zeynel moves to a quiet English town where he is confronted by a fad for all things Turkish – but not as he knows it.Zeynel’s new life is thrown off balance when Mora Strigoi, the vampire responsible for Zeynel’s death, appears at his door begging for forgiveness. With Mora’s arrival and Alfred on the trail of a mysterious serial killer, Zeynel must decide whether he can make peace with the past before everything he has built begins to unravel.The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya, Vol II is the second and final instalment of the Eisner-nominated graphic novel. A modern Gothic story that takes apart the 'vampire as other' trope, it tells of the healing balm of compassion and the redemptive power of forgiveness.

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'This honest and beautiful book is a story of resilience and doing life your way' Fearne Cotton'Kris's story should make you feel grateful for every second you're alive. It's a testament to her positivity, empathy, bravery and her unfailing sense of humour' Dermot O'Leary'A manifesto for how to be alive. It will leave you calm, hopeful and unafraid' Dawn O'PorterKris was living a totally normal life as a twenty-three-year-old: travelling the world, falling in love, making plans. However, when she found a lump in her boob and was told that it was not only cancer, but also incurable, life took on a completely new meaning. She was diagnosed at an age when life wasn’t something to be grateful for, but a goddamn right.Little did Kris know it was cancer that would lead her to a life she had never considered: a happy one. From founding a charity to visiting Downing Street, campaigning at festivals to appearing on TV, and being present at the birth of her nephew; in the face of all the possible prognoses, Kris is surviving, thriving, and resolutely living.Glittering a Turd is more than just another cancer memoir; it’s a handbook for living life to the fullest, shining a new perspective on survival and learning to glitter your own turd, whatever it might be. Kris has survived the unsurvivable for twelve years. Here, she begins to discover why.

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Song is just a boy when he sets out from Lishui village in China. Brimming with courage and ambition, he leaves behind his impoverished broken family, hoping he’ll make his fortune and return home. Chasing tales of sugarcane, rubber and gold, Song embarks upon a perilous voyage across the oceans to the British colony of Guiana, but once there he discovers riches are not so easy to come by and he is forced into labouring as an indentured plantation worker.This is only the beginning of Song’s remarkable life, but as he finds himself between places and between peoples, and increasingly aware that the circumstances of birth carry more weight than accomplishments or good deeds, Song fears he may live as an outsider forever.This beautifully written and evocative story spans nearly half a century and half the globe, and though it is set in another century, Song’s story of emigration and the quest for an opportunity to improve his life is timeless.

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Before Edward Powys Mathers wrote Cain's Jabwone, the world's most difficult literary puzzle, he was a cryptic crossword creator. Published under his pseudonym ‘Torquemada’, his puzzles would taunt readers for days. He created his first cryptic crossword puzzle in 1924 and went on to set them for the Saturday Westminster and the Observer for the next 15 years. His true identity was only revealed when he died in 1939.As well as earning the reputation for setting the world's toughest crosswords, Torquemada – or 'Torq' as he was often referred to – was also delightfully creative: with many puzzles written in perfectly constructed verse or delivered as mini-narratives to their solvers. This selection of Torquemada's best crosswords was originally published in 1942 and this edition contains tributes to his life and achievements, including one by his widow, R.C. Mathers as well as a foreword by the crossword puzzle editor for the New York Times, Will Shortz.The successful revival of Cain's Jawbone has inspired a new generation of puzzle solvers. Here is the next challenge for Torquemada's fans – dare you take it on?Health warning: These crosswords are extremely difficult and not for the faint-hearted.

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‘Fabulous. I read this in a single weekend and I didn’t want it to end. Scammers, con-artists, catfishers – you have met your match’ Jeremy Vine‘A brilliant read. Moves effortlessly between hilarious and informative and back again’ Ed Byrne, comedian and actor'Astonishing' Daily MailOnline romance fraud is a problem across the globe. It causes financial and emotional devastation, yet many people refuse to take it seriously. This is the story of one middle-aged woman in a cardigan determined to understand this growing phenomenon.No other woman has had so many online romances – from Keanu Reeves to Brad Pitt to Prince William – and Becky Holmes is a favourite among peacekeeping soldiers and oil rig workers who desperately need iTunes vouchers. By winding up scammers and investigating the truth behind their profiles, Becky shines a revealing, revolting and hilarious light on a very shady corner of the internet.Featuring first-hand accounts of victims, examples of scripts used by fraudsters, a look into the psychology of fraud and of course plenty of Becky’s hysterical interactions with scammers, this is a must-read for anyone who needs a reminder that Keanu Reeves is NOT in love with them.

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‘As educational as it is enlightening … Read this’ SARA PASCOE‘Passionately argued, meticulously researched and angry as hell ... leads the reader beyond the strip club and on to the battlefield where sex workers fight for their rights’ KATE LISTER‘Deeply impressive ... An important book, sorely needed’ CAROL LEIGH'An unflinching takedown of inadequate working conditions … A must read’ JUNO MAC, co-author of Revolting ProstitutesForget everything you think you know about strippersIn this powerful book, Stacey Clare, a stripper with over a decade of experience, takes a detailed look at the sex industry – the reality of the work as well as the history of licensing and regulation, feminist themes surrounding sex work, and stigma. Bringing her personal knowledge of the industry to bear, she offers an unapologetic critique and searing indictment of exploitation, and raises the rights of sex workers to the top of the agenda.The Ethical Stripper rejects notions of victimhood, challenges stigma and shame, and unpacks decades of confusion and contradictions. It’s about the sex-work community’s fight for safety and self-determination, and it challenges you to think twice about every newspaper article, documentary and film you have seen about stripping and sex work.

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Shortlisted for the CWA Daggers Debut Award 2022Cullrothes, in the Scottish Highlands, where Innes hides a terrible secret from his girlfriend Alice, a gorgeous, cheating, lying schoolteacher. In the same village, Donald is the aggressive distillery owner, who floods the country with narcotics alongside his single malt; when his son goes missing, he becomes haunted by an anonymous American investor intent on purchasing the Cullrothes Distillery by any means necessary. Schoolgirl Jessie is trying to get the grades to escape to the mainland, while Grandpa counts the days left in his life.This is a place where mountains are immense and the loch freezes in winter. A place with only one road in and out. With long storms and furious midges and a terrible phone signal. The police are compromised, the journalists are scum, and the innocent folk of Cullrothes tangle themselves in a fermenting barrel of suspicion, malice and lies.The Mash House uses multiple narratives to weave together the parallel lives of individuals in the village. Each fractured by the fears and uncertainty in their own minds.

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Preston, 1981. Maud, who is twelve and lives with her dysfunctional parents and her elder brother, spends a lot of her time in her bedroom writing letters to her favourite popstar, Tom Harding, the lead singer of a punk band called Horsefly.No one really understands her or tries to – and she thinks Tom just might have some answers to her many, many questions...

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Hannah Dines and Jess Leyden are two perfectly normal, brilliant women. One, a world record-holding athlete and a Paralympian on the trike. The other, a multiple age-group world champion and one of the most promising rowers Great Britain has to offer. In the five years (yes, that’s right) between Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, they will face cancer scares, crushing defeats, and the biggest global health crisis in a century. They will get dropped, they will get injured, and they will win medals. They will spend the best years of their lives knowing that at any moment, it could all come crashing down. That all the training, all the sacrifice could be in vain, wasted effort as a pandemic raged. That maybe these could be the years that will shape their finest hour – or that maybe, after everything that they’ve been through, it could all still be snatched away at the last…

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Featuring a foreword by Will SelfWe’ll all experience recovery at some point in our lives, whether from addiction, physical illness, mental health issues or loss. Many of us heal, and we may discover ways to live with our changed selves, to reclaim a life. We may find a new voice, or unearth a voice that has been submerged.Vitally, recovery can mean community. This anthology – which grew out of a small creative writing class run by Lily Dunn at Hackney Recovery Service, and was later broadened into a nationwide call for submissions by Dunn and her teaching partner, Zoe Gilbert – represents a community of writers: new, unheard voices alongside emerging and established authors.Theirs are stories from the dark back alleys, the deep crevices of the mind, and from the wild, ecstatic heights of life before, during and after recovery. These are voices that urgently need to be heard, in all their variety.

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The strangest detective story in the history of music – inspired by a true incident.A world spiralling towards war. A composer descending into madness. And a devoted woman struggling to keep her faith in art and love against all the odds.1933. Dabbling in the fashionable “Glass Game” – a Ouija board – the famous Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Arányi, one-time muse to composers such as Bartók, Ravel and Elgar, encounters a startling dilemma. A message arrives ostensibly from the spirit of the composer Robert Schumann, begging her to find and perform his long-suppressed violin concerto.She tries to ignore it, wanting to concentrate instead on charity concerts. But against the background of the 1930s depression in London and the rise of the Nazis in Germany, a struggle ensues as the “spirit messengers” do not want her to forget.The concerto turns out to be real, embargoed by Schumann’s family for fear that it betrayed his mental disintegration: it was his last full-scale work, written just before he suffered a nervous breakdown after which he spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital. It shares a theme with his Geistervariationen (Ghost Variations) for piano, a melody he believed had been dictated to him by the spirits of composers beyond the grave.As rumours of its existence spread from London to Berlin, where the manuscript is held, Jelly embarks on an increasingly complex quest to find the concerto. When the Third Reich’s administration decides to unearth the work for reasons of its own, a race to perform it begins.Though aided and abetted by a team of larger-than-life personalities – including her sister Adila Fachiri, the pianist Myra Hess, and a young music publisher who falls in love with her – Jelly finds herself confronting forces that threaten her own state of mind. Saving the concerto comes to mean saving herself.In the ensuing psychodrama, the heroine, the concerto and the pre-war world stand on the brink, reaching together for one more chance of glory.

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‘His marginalisation in dual cultures ascribed to him allows him a brilliant birds-eye view of both, which he employs in his bid to untangle the cultural mindsets he comes across’ Muslim News‘Offers invaluable insights into how a modern cosmopolitan navigates the complex and delicate contours of faith, identity and belonging in an otherwise globally, interconnected world’ Ekow Nelson, reimaginingWhether negotiating the mind-games of the Israeli intelligence services or performing ablutions in a London bathroom, Mohammad Chowdhury’s life as a British Muslim travelling the world brings daily challenges. Border Crossings is the story of Chowdhury’s journey, gripping in some parts and shame-inducing in others, as he describes a lifelong struggle to reconcile the British, Asian and Muslim sides of his identity, constantly dealing with the mistrust of Westerners alongside the hypocrisies of his own community and their misunderstanding of Islam.Chowdhury's story echoes the experience of thousands of Western Muslims who since 9/11 have been subjected to a constant barrage of questions that cast doubt over the very goodness of their faith. It is the story of a man who cries when England win the Ashes, yet still finds himself screaming in the face of racism and religious bigotry. This timely book powerfully rejects the poisonous narrative that Muslims can no longer be trusted as honest citizens of the West.

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From modern pop culture to anti-Blackness, faith and family, politics, education, creativity and working life; this anthology gives visibly Muslim women a space to speak. SPOILER ALERT: We won’t be answering the usual questions! Perceived as the visual representation of Islam, hijab-wearing Muslim women are nevertheless rarely afforded a platform on their own terms. Harangued by awkward questions, radical commentators sensationalising our existence, non-Muslims and non-hijabis making assumptions, men speaking on our behalf, or stereotypical norms being perpetuated by the same old faces, hijabis are tired. Cut from the Same Cloth? seeks to tip the balance back in our favour. Here, twenty-one women of all ages and races look beyond the tired tropes, exploring the breadth of our experience and spirituality. It’s time we, as a society, stop with the hijab-splaining and make space for the women who know. Essays by Negla Abdalla, Zahra Adams, Sabeena Akhtar, Mariam Ansar, Fatima Ahdash, Shaista Aziz, Suma Din, Khadijah Elshayyal, Ruqaiya Haris, Raisa Hassan, Fatha Hassan, Sumaya Kassim, Rumana Lasker Dawood, Suhaiymah Manzoor Khan, Asha Mohamed, Sofia Rehman, Yvonne Ridley Aisha Rimi, Khadijah Rotimi, Sophie Williams, Hodan Yusuf.

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'A labour of undiluted love and enthusiasm' Daily TelegraphAs Daniel Hardcastle careers towards thirty, he looks back on what has really made him happy in life: the friends, the romances… the video games. Told through encounters with the most remarkable – and the most mind-boggling – games of the last thirty-odd years, Fuck Yeah, Video Games is also a love letter to the greatest hobby in the world.From God of War to Tomb Raider, Pokémon to The Sims, Daniel relives each game with countless in-jokes, obscure references and his signature wit, as well as intricate, original illustrations by Rebecca Maughan. Alongside this march of merriment are chapters dedicated to the hardware behind the games: a veritable history of Sony, Nintendo, Sega and Atari consoles.Joyous, absurd, personal and at times sweary, Daniel's memoir is a celebration of the sheer brilliance of video games.

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LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2021 SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA DAGGERS HISTORICAL AWARD 2022 Spring, 1840. In the Dorset market town of Wimborne Minster, a young choirboy drowns himself. Soon after, the choirmaster—a belligerent man with a vicious reputation—is found murdered, in a discovery tainted as much by relief as it is by suspicion. The gaze of the magistrates falls on four local men, whose decisions will reverberate through the community for years to come. So begins the chronicle of Crow Court, unravelling over fourteen delicately interwoven episodes, the town of Wimborne their backdrop: a young gentleman and his groom run off to join the army; a sleepwalking cordwainer wakes on his wife’s grave; desperate farmhands emigrate. We meet the composer with writer’s block; the smuggler; a troupe of actors down from London; and old Art Pugh, whose impoverished life has made him hard to amuse. Meanwhile, justice waits…

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'The top chronicler of British comedy' Film Review'Robert’s knowledge of English comedy is formidable' Phil CollinsIn this long overdue and affectionate salute, celebrated comedy historian Robert Ross pays tribute to some of the finest, funniest and most fascinating names in comedy from both sides of the Atlantic. Delving into the careers of the beguiling Avril Angers, the Clitheroe Kid himself, the forgotten Stooge Shemp Howard, Hollywood golden girl Thelma Todd, Italian film-maker Mario Zampi and many more between, Ross honours these legends of humour who, for a variety of reasons, didn't quite reach the heady heights of stardom – or, once they did, they couldn't cope with the pressures. Whether it is a favourite from the distant smoke and ale-stained world of the Music Hall like the great George Robey, or the downbeat poetry of Hovis Presley, who dropped disenchanted bombs on the late 1990s, the Forgotten Heroes of Comedy will finally elevate them to the Hall of Fame where they belong. Forgotten, no longer.

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This the memoir of Gerard Basset, OBE, the greatest wine professional of his generation.A school dropout, Gerard had to come to England to discover his passion. He threw himself into learning everything he could about wine, immersing himself in the world of Michelin star restaurants and beginning the steep climb to the top of the career ladder.Tasting Victory charts his business successes: co-founding and selling the innovative Hotel du Vin chain and founding, with his wife Nina, the much-loved Hotel TerraVina. It recounts in detail just how he managed to earn his unprecedented sequence of qualifications; Gerard is the first and only individual to hold the famously difficult Master of Wine qualification simultaneously with that of Master Sommelier and MBA in Wine Business. But it is his pursuit of the most important award of all that forms the core of this book – how, at his seventh attempt, and after a training regime that would shame most Olympic athletes, the fifty-three-year-old Gerard Basset was finally crowned the Best Sommelier of the World, and acknowledged as the greatest sommelier of his generation. Gerard's memoir is not only the story of how a champion is made, but also a record of how fine dining and hospitality changed in England, going from stale and unexciting to the world-leading sector it is today. Above all, it’s a book about succeeding against great odds: in typical fashion it was when he was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus that Gerard responded by deciding to write Tasting Victory, which he completed shortly before his death in January 2019.

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'I enjoyed Out of Love hugely! It's vivid, very compelling storytelling' Marian Keyes 'I fell in love with this book. The writing was good enough to make me forget I had a phone, put it that way' Aisling Bea 'Out of Love will fill the gap that Normal People left in our heart . . . Trust us, this is the book of the summer' Evoke 'Wise, compelling and beautifully written' Daily Mail 'What a book . . . Hayes references Nora Ephron throughout and she's a pretty good successor judging from this debut' StylistA novel for anyone who has loved and lost, and lived to tell the tale.As a young woman packs up her ex-boyfriend’s belongings and prepares to see him one last time, she wonders where it all went wrong, and whether it was ever right to begin with. Burdened with a broken heart, she asks herself the age-old question . . . is love really worth it?Out of Love is a bittersweet romance told in reverse. Beginning at the end of a relationship, each chapter takes us further back in time, weaving together an already unravelled tapestry, from tragic break-up to magical first kiss. In this dazzling debut Hazel Hayes performs a post-mortem on love, tenderly but unapologetically exploring every angle, from the heights of joy to the depths of grief, and all the madness and mundanity in between. This is a modern story with the heart of a classic: truthful, tragic and ultimately full of hope.

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Over the last five years, transgender people have seemed to burst into the public eye: Time declared 2014 a ‘trans tipping point’, while American Vogue named 2015 ‘the year of trans visibility’. From our television screens to the ballot box, transgender people have suddenly become part of the zeitgeist.This apparently overnight emergence, though, is just the latest stage in a long and varied history. The renown of Paris Lees and Hari Nef has its roots in the efforts of those who struggled for equality before them, but were met with indifference – and often outright hostility – from mainstream society.Trans Britain chronicles this journey in the words of those who were there to witness a marginalised community grow into the visible phenomenon we recognise today: activists, film-makers, broadcasters, parents, an actress, a rock musician and a priest, among many others.Here is everything you always wanted to know about the background of the trans community, but never knew how to ask.

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