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The first in-depth biography of Sam Francis, the legendary American abstract painter who broke all the rules in his personal and artistic life.Light on Fire is the first comprehensive biography of Sam Francis, one of the most important American abstract artists of the twentieth century. Based on Gabrielle Selz’s unprecedented access to Francis’s files, as well as private correspondence and hundreds of interviews, this book traces the extraordinary and ultimately tragic journey of a complex and charismatic artist who first learned to paint as a former air-corps pilot encased for three years in a full-body cast. While still a young man, Francis saw his color-saturated paintings fetch the highest prices of any living artist. His restless desire resulted in five marriages and homes on three continents; his entrepreneurial spirit led to founding a museum, a publishing company, a reforestation program and several nonprofits. Light on Fire captures the art, life, personality, and talent of a man whom the art historian and museum director William C. Agee described as a rare artist participating in the “visionary reconstruction of art history,” defying creative boundaries among the likes of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning. With settings from World War II San Francisco to postwar Paris, New York, Tokyo, and Los Angeles, Selz crafts an intimate portrait of a man who sought to resolve in art the contradictions he couldn’t resolve in life.

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When Tom Breihan launched his Stereogum column in early 2018, "The Number Ones"-a space in which he has been writing about every #1 hit in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, in chronological order-he figured he'd post capsule-size reviews for each song. But there was so much more to uncover. The column has taken on a life of its own, sparking online debate and occasional death threats.The Billboard Hot 100 began in 1958, and after four years of posting the column, Breihan is still in the early aughts. But readers no longer have to wait for his brilliant synthesis of what the history of #1s has meant to music and our culture. In The Number Ones, Breihan writes about twenty pivotal #1s throughout chart history, revealing a remarkably fluid and connected story of music that is as entertaining as it is enlightening.The Numbers Ones features the greatest pop artists of all time, from the Brill Building songwriters to the Beatles and the Beach Boys; from Motown to Michael Jackson, Prince, and Mariah Carey; and from the digital revolution to the K-pop system. Breihan also ponders great artists who have never hit the top spot, like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and James Brown. Breihan illuminates what makes indelible ear candy across the decades-including dance crazes, recording innovations, television phenomena, disco, AOR, MTV, rap, compact discs, mp3s, social media, memes, and much more-leaving readers to wonder what could possibly happen next.

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Winner, Bolton-Johnson Prize, Conference on Latin American History, 2011 Murdo J. McLeod Book Prize, 2011On the eastern coast of Brazil, facing westward across a wide magnificent bay, lies Salvador, a major city in the Americas at the end of the eighteenth century. Those who distributed and sold food, from the poorest street vendors to the most prosperous traders—black and white, male and female, slave and free, Brazilian, Portuguese, and African—were connected in tangled ways to each other and to practically everyone else in the city, and are the subjects of this book. Food traders formed the city's most dynamic social component during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, constantly negotiating their social place. The boatmen who brought food to the city from across the bay decisively influenced the outcome of the war for Brazilian independence from Portugal by supplying the insurgents and not the colonial army. Richard Graham here shows for the first time that, far from being a city sharply and principally divided into two groups—the rich and powerful or the hapless poor or enslaved—Salvador had a population that included a great many who lived in between and moved up and down.The day-to-day behavior of those engaged in food marketing leads to questions about the government's role in regulating the economy and thus to notions of justice and equity, questions that directly affected both food traders and the wider consuming public. Their voices significantly shaped the debate still going on between those who support economic liberalization and those who resist it.

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When Bill Meissner’s collection of short stories Hitting into the Wind was published in 1994, it was called “a quiet masterpiece of baseball writing” by the Greensboro, North Carolina, News and Record. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer said, “Bill Meissner captures baseball with all its crystalline beauty—the remarkable reverberation of time and space and character.” And The New York Times Book Review said, “Just about every tale here recalls those precious years when a chance to play in the majors was all a boy could ask from life.” Now, in his first novel, Bill Meissner again uses baseball as a window to his characters. In Spirits in the Grass, we meet Luke Tanner, a thirty-something ball player helping to build a new baseball field in his beloved hometown of Clearwater, Wisconsin. Luke looks forward to trying out for the local amateur team as soon as possible. His chance discovery of a small bone fragment on the field sets in motion a series of events and discoveries that will involve his neighbors, local politicians, and the nearby Native American reservation. Luke’s life, most of all, will be transformed. His growing obsession with the ball field and what’s beneath it threatens his still fragile relationship with his partner, Louise, and challenges Luke’s assumptions about everyone, especially himself. Spirits in the Grass rings true with small-town Midwestern values. The characters, including Luke’s independent partner Louise, grapple with their passion and their identities. In this beautiful and haunting novel, baseball serves as a metaphor for life itself, with its losses and defeats, its glories and triumphs.

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From the fall of 1947 through the summer of 1951 composer Igor Stravinsky and poet W. H. Auden collaborated on the opera The Rake's Progress. At the time, their self-consciously conventional work seemed to appeal only to conservative audiences. Few perceived that Stravinsky and Auden were confronting the central crisis of the Modern age, for their story of a hapless eighteenth-century Everyman dramatizes the very limits of human will, a theme Auden insists underlies all opera. In The Last Opera, Chandler Carter weaves together three interlocking stories. The central and most detailed story explores the libretto and music of The Rake's Progress. The second positions the opera as a focal point in Stravinsky's artistic journey and those who helped him realize it—his librettists, Auden and Chester Kallman; his protégé Robert Craft; and his compatriot, fellow composer, and close friend Nicolas Nabokov. By exploring the ominous cultural landscape in which these fascinating individuals lived and worked, the book captures a pivotal twenty-five-year span (from approximately 1945 to 1970) during which modernists like Stravinsky and Auden confronted a tectonic disruption to their artistic worldview. Ultimately, Carter reveals how these stories fit into a larger third narrative, the 400-year history of opera. This richly and lovingly contextualized study of The Rake's Progress sheds new light on why, despite the hundreds of musical dramas and theater pieces that have been written since its premier in 1951, this work is still considered the "the last opera."

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NFL Films changed the way Americans view football. Keepers of the Flame: NFL Films and the Rise of Sports Media traces the subsidiary's development from a small independent film production company to the marketing machine that Sports Illustrated named "perhaps the most effective propaganda organ in the history of corporate America." Drawing on research at the NFL Films Archive and the Pro Football Hall of Fame and interviews with media pioneer Steve Sabol and others, Travis Vogan shows how NFL Films has constructed a consistent, romanticized, and remarkably visible mythology for the National Football League. The company packages football as a visceral and dramatic sequence of violent, beautiful, graceful, and heroic gridiron battles. Historically proven formulas for presentation--such as the dramatic voiceovers once provided by John Facenda's baritone, the soaring scores of Sam Spence's rousing background music, and the epic poetry found in Steve Sabol's scripts--are still used today. From the Vincent Price-narrated Strange but True Football Stories to the currently running series Hard Knocks, NFL Films distinguishes the NFL from other sports organizations and from other media and entertainment. Vogan tells the larger story of the company's relationship with and vast influence on our culture's representations of sport, the expansion of sports television beyond live game broadcasts, and the emergence of cable television and Internet sports media. Keepers of the Flame: NFL Films and the Rise of Sports Media presents sports media as an integral facet of American popular culture and NFL Films as key to the transformation of professional football into the national obsession commonly known as America's Game.

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As traditional news outlets’ international coverage has waned, several prominent nongovernmental organizations have taken on a growing number of seemingly journalistic functions. Groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Médecins Sans Frontières send reporters to gather information and provide analysis and assign photographers and videographers to boost the visibility of their work. Digital technologies and social media have increased the potential for NGOs to communicate directly with the public, bypassing traditional gatekeepers. But have these efforts changed and expanded traditional news practices and coverage—and are there consequences to blurring the lines between reporting and advocacy?In NGOs as Newsmakers, Matthew Powers analyzes the growing role NGOs play in shaping—and sometimes directly producing—international news. Drawing on interviews, observations, and content analysis, he charts the dramatic growth in NGO news-making efforts, examines whether these efforts increase the organizations' chances of garnering news coverage, and analyzes the effects of digital technologies on publicity strategies. Although the contemporary media environment offers NGOs greater opportunities to shape the news, Powers finds, it also subjects them to news-media norms. While advocacy groups can and do provide coverage of otherwise ignored places and topics, they are still dependent on traditional media and political elites and influenced by the expectations of donors, officials, journalists, and NGOs themselves. Through an unprecedented glimpse into NGOs’ newsmaking efforts, Powers portrays the possibilities and limits of NGOs as newsmakers amid the transformations of international news, with important implications for the intersections of journalism and advocacy.

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Though we commonly make them the butt of our jokes, weather forecasters are in fact exceptionally good at managing uncertainty. They consistently do a better job calibrating their performance than stockbrokers, physicians, or other decision-making experts precisely because they receive feedback on their decisions in near real time. Following forecasters in their quest for truth and accuracy, therefore, holds the key to the analytically elusive process of decision making as it actually happens. In Masters of Uncertainty, Phaedra Daipha develops a new conceptual framework for the process of decision making, after spending years immersed in the life of a northeastern office of the National Weather Service. Arguing that predicting the weather will always be more craft than science, Daipha shows how forecasters have made a virtue of the unpredictability of the weather. Impressive data infrastructures and powerful computer models are still only a substitute for the real thing outside, and so forecasters also enlist improvisational collage techniques and an omnivorous appetite for information to create a locally meaningful forecast on their computer screens. Intent on capturing decision making in action, Daipha takes the reader through engrossing firsthand accounts of several forecasting episodes (hits and misses) and offers a rare fly-on-the-wall insight into the process and challenges of producing meteorological predictions come rain or come shine. Combining rich detail with lucid argument, Masters of Uncertainty advances a theory of decision making that foregrounds the pragmatic and situated nature of expert cognition and casts into new light how we make decisions in the digital age.

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Far from an elite practice reserved for the highly educated, criticism is all around us. We turn to the Yelp reviewers to decide what restaurants are best, to Rotten Tomatoes to guide our movie choices, and to a host of voices on social media for critiques of political candidates, beach resorts, and everything in between. Yet even amid this ever-expanding sea of opinions, professional critics still hold considerable power in guiding how we make aesthetic judgements. Philosophers and lovers of art continue to grapple with questions that have fascinated them for centuries: How should we engage with works of art? What might enhance such encounters? Should some people's views be privileged? Who should count as a critic? And do critics actually help us appreciate art? In Two Thumbs Up, philosopher Stephanie Ross tackles these questions, revealing the ways that critics influence our decisions, and why that's a good thing. Starting from David Hume's conception of ideal critics, Ross refines his position and makes the case that review-based journalistic or consumer reporting criticism proves the best model for helping us find and appreciate quality. She addresses and critiques several other positions and, in the process, she demonstrates how aesthetic and philosophical concerns permeate our lives, choices, and culture. Ultimately, whether we're searching for the right wine or the best concert, Ross encourages us all to find and follow critics whose taste we share.

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Doris Salcedo, a Colombian-born artist, addresses the politics of memory and forgetting in work that embraces fraught situations in dangerous places. Noted critic and theorist Mieke Bal narrates between the disciplines of contemporary culture in order to boldly reimagine the role of the visual arts. Both women are pathbreaking figures, globally renowned and widely respected. Doris Salcedo, meet Mieke Bal. In "Of What One Cannot Speak", Bal leads us into intimate encounters with Salcedo's art, encouraging us to consider each work as a 'theoretical object' that invites - and demands - certain kinds of considerations about history, death, erasure, and grief. Bal ranges widely through Salcedo's work, from "Salcedo's Atrabiliarios" series - in which the artist uses worn shoes to retrace los desaparecidos ('the disappeared') from nations like Argentina, Chile, and Colombia - to Shibboleth, Salcedo's once-in-a-lifetime commission by the Tate Modern, for which she created a rupture, as if by earthquake, that stretched the length of the museum hall's concrete floor. In each instance, Salcedo's installations speak for themselves, utilizing household items, human bones, and common domestic architecture to explore the silent spaces between violence, trauma, and identity. Yet Bal draws out even deeper responses to the work, questioning the nature of political art altogether and introducing concepts of metaphor, time, and space in order to contend with Salcedo's powerful sculptures and installations. An unforgettable fusion of art and essay, "Of What One Cannot Speak" takes us to the very core of events we are capable of remembering - yet still uncomfortably cannot speak aloud.

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Feel great, look good and live well with this simple home fitness and healthy eating plan! In GET FIT, GET HEALTHY. GET HAPPY, TV presenter, footballer and fitness coach Mark Wright introduces the Train Wright philosophy – a simple formula for a healthy lifestyle: live well, eat healthily and train smart. Mark is a big fan of the home workout and firmly believes you can lose weight, keep fit and build strength without going to the gym. Healthy habits for life can begin with small changes – getting enough sleep, eating nutritious but tasty meals at home, developing a positive attitude to wellness and building in short blasts of regular exercise. And the good news is, while it really will change your life, you won’t have to make any drastic changes and you’ll still be able to enjoy the things you love. The secret of the Train Wright lifestyle is balance. Train smart – a simple six-week exercise plan you can do at homeEat healthily – delicious meals you can prepare easilyLive well – simple positive changes that will make you love life This book is the gateway to feeling fantastic, with Mark as your cheerleader you can achieve the body you have always wanted. Using positive affirmations, he will help you to change your mindset, eat better and get fit too. With weekly exercise plans and fresh and delicious recipes, this book is a complete programme for anyone who wants to get back in shape and on the road to a healthy lifestyle.

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1941. The bombs still fall, but in St. Ives Christmas is finally approaching for the Cornish Girls… With the war ongoing, Lily is feeling anything but festive. That is, until Eva asks if she’ll join her in working at an officers’ convalescent home, lifting her spirits no end. Eva came to St. Ives to be near the man who almost gave his life to protect hers. But will the wounded pilot ever help to heal himself by opening his heart to love? Rose suspects the local orphanage is mistreating its charges – and it’s her job to uncover the truth before it’s too late… Can the Cornish Girls help one another through the darkest days in order to give everyone in St. Ives the sparkling Christmas they so deserve? The second in the uplifting wartime Cornish Girls series, perfect for fans of Nancy Revell and Donna Douglas. Readers LOVE the Cornish Girls: ‘A wonderful story that I couldn't put down… Beautiful.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A lovely story about friendship, bravery, and the strength of women in hard times!’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I wanted this book to go on and on…’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Truly beautiful historical fiction set in WWII. What a wonderful cast of characters to meet!’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I simply adored this book!… Wonderful… It leaves you wanting more!’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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‘Moving – at times almost unbearably so – and fascinating’ Antonia Fraser A family’s story of human tenacity, faith and a race for survival in the face of unspeakable horror and cruelty perpetrated by the Nazi regime against the Jewish people. Growing up in the safety of Britain, Jonathan Wittenberg was deeply aware of his legacy as the child of refugees from Nazi Germany. Yet, like so many others there is much he failed to ask while those who could have answered his questions were still alive. After burying their aunt Steffi in the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, Jonathan, now a rabbi, accompanies his cousin Michal as she begins to clear the flat in Jerusalem where the family have lived since fleeing Germany in the 1930s. Inside an old suitcase abandoned on the balcony they discover a linen bag containing a bundle of letters left untouched for decades. Jonathan’s attention is immediately captivated as he tries to decipher the faded writing on the long-forgotten letters. They eventually draw him into a profound and challenging quest to uncover the painful details of his father’s family’s history. Through the wartime correspondence of his great-grandmother Regina and his grandmother, aunts and uncles, Jonathan weaves together the strands of an ancient rabbinical family with the history of Europe during the Second World War and the unfolding policies of the Nazis, telling the moving story of a family whose lives are as fragile as the paper on which they write, but whose faith in God remains steadfast.

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A simple guide to computers that'll show you what all the fuss is about Most people new to computers find them a little intimidating at first. But with the right guidance, even a total novice can be sending email and banking online in no time at all. Computers For Seniors For Dummies is your must-have computing companion, full of crystal clear, step-by-step instructions for accessing websites, opening and using programs, and keeping yourself safe from viruses and hackers. And unlike the confusing "tips" from your son-in-law, you can rely on the For Dummies brand to deliver advice that actually works! Whether you've set up your computer and are ready to start using it or it's still sitting in the box, this book walks you through each and every step you need to take to connect with your family or share your photos with your friends on Facebook. It'll also show you how to: Research topics you're interested in on the web while steering clear of malicious websites and emails that can harm your computer Shop online in a way that keeps your credit card info secure Find recipes, diet tips, the latest news, or your favorite TV show Computers For Seniors For Dummies is your one-stop resource for taking control of your computer, transforming it from an expensive paperweight into the most useful gadget in your home. Filled with easy-on-the-eyes type and tons of explanatory images, this is the book that will finally get you up to speed on personal computing.

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The history of wine production in Greece dates back more than four millennia, yet for many consumers and aficionados Greek wine is still synonymous with the retsina they drank in tavernas as tourists. Here, Master of Wine Konstantinos Lazarakis argues that to dismiss Greek wine in this way today is to miss out on an array of varied and vibrant wines – even retsina, in the hands of boutique producers, has become a drink worthy of a second chance. From the foothills of Mount Olympus to the plain of Thessaly in Central Greece and scattered across the vast number of islands, each of Greece’s vineyards has its own challenges, history and varieties. Yet terroir, in Greece, goes far beyond soil-types and weather conditions – it emanates from the culture of the country and the spirit of a people whose ancestors even had a god for wine. The wines of Greece begins with a summary of Greece’s wine history, geography and grape varieties. The many responses of vine growers and winemakers to the land have created a host of different wines – sweet wines from Samos, the famed Malvasia from the Peloponnese and new, surprising wines from oenological innovators throughout the country. It is to the work of these winemakers that the bulk of the book is dedicated; Lazarakis has tirelessly explored Greece’s 700 wineries and here focuses on some of the most inventive producers and interesting wines available. Greek wine is on the brink of a new era; anybody curious to rediscover a lost gem of winemaking will have their enthusiasm charged by this lovingly written book.

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The City of London was always going to be an obvious target for German bombers during the Second World War. What better way for Nazi Germany to spread fear and panic amongst the British people than by attacking their capital city?Although not vastly populated in the same way that a bigger city or larger town would be, there were still enough people working there during the day for attacks on it to take their toll. The city's ancient and iconic buildings also bore the brunt of the German bombs, including churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire in 1666. The book looks at the effects of war on the City of London, including the damage caused by the 8 months of the Blitz between September 1940 and May 1941. The most devastating of the raids took place on 29 December 1940, with both incendiary and explosive bombs causing a firestorm so intense it was known as the Second Great Fire of London. It also looks at the bravery of the staff at St Bart's Hospital, which was one of the medical facilities that remained open during the course of the war. Other stories include the sterling work carried out by the City's civilian population and the different voluntary roles that they performed to help keep the city safe, including the Home Guard and the Fire Watchers, who spent their nights on the city's rooftops looking out for incendiary devices dropped by the German Luftwaffe. Despite the damage to its buildings and its population, by the end of the war the City of London was able to rise, like a phoenix, from the flames of destruction, ready to become the vibrant and flourishing borough that it is today.

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Poole is the second largest natural harbour in the world and the largest in Europe, resulting in a trading history which dates back to Roman times. In the Middle Ages, commodities for export, particularly wool, were funnelled into Poole and it became a place where merchants could dock, store their goods and display their wares. The port grew in importance during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the boom years of trade with Newfoundland, but suffered from an economic slump throughout most of the nineteenth century and into the 1920s and ’30s. However, in the decades after the Second World War, many major national companies were attracted to the town, resulting in 10,000 more homes being built in Poole between 1946 and 1966. A major slum clearance scheme also took place during the same period, as over 1,000 condemned homes were demolished, many in the labyrinth of narrow backstreets and alleyways leading from the Eastern Quay into the Old Town. Poole is still a working port, particularly on the Hamworthy side, where Sunseeker yachts off the production line can be seen adjacent to industrial cargo ships moored nearby and the ferry terminal. On the Poole side, the Fishermen’s Dock nestles incongruously adjacent to a yachting marina. The Quay and Old Town has preserved many cobbled streets and alleyways containing historic buildings, some dating back to the fourteenth century, once a haunt of Newfoundland merchants, pirates, smugglers and press gangs. This fascinating A–Z tour of Poole, its interesting people, places and historic events, is fully illustrated with photography and will appeal to all those with an interest in this Dorset coastal town.

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The first book on zoo/captive animal behavior and how this applies to welfare. Despite growing evidence of the need to implement more suitable, naturalistic practices into zoo animal welfare, it still seems to be somewhat overlooked - this book will address this oversight. Includes specific detail and examples focusing on taxa, a huge factor in managing animals in zoos that has not previously been addressed in this way. Covers invertebrates as well as vertebrate species. Would be a recommended or core text on Zoo Biology courses, BScs in Animal Science, and Animal Welfare MScs, as well as an invaluable practitioner reference. A lot of students interested in animal behaviour are interested in zoos. Each chapter covers species-specific content include the following information: Ecology and natural history as relevant to the zoo, behaviour and welfare measures based on ecological knowledge, feeding ecology and nutritional management, mating systems and reproductive characteristics, enrichment and behavioural diversity. The chapters are consistently formatted for ease of information, with end of chapter summaries, boxes with selected enrichment devices or welfare assessment methods for assessing welfare state, and directed reading of peer reviewed and other reputable sources that help advance care. A final Part explores welfare assessment tools, quality of life, veterinary interventions and evidence-based approaches. It looks at ways to increase the value of zoo and aquarium animals by enhancing visitor interest and visitor behaviour change. Also, research needs for keepers and how to build evidence into a daily routine, as well as management of native species programmes and the future of zoo research.

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Inspired by real bloodstains and from detailed research comes a refreshingly different historical romance between a god-fearing woman and a known murderer My Husband: The Extraordinary History of Nicholas Brome combines fifteenth century imagery with themes of morality and forgiveness in a historical novel that takes inspiration from a true story of love and murder. It explores the life of Nicholas Brome, a Warwickshire lord with a violent, blood-soaked past, through the soul-searching of his third wife and widow, Lettice Catesby. Their residence, Baddesley Clinton, features prominently in the novel, and still stands as a historical property people can tour today - including Nicholas’ grave where he demands to be buried standing up. An enduring punishment - but is it a just one? When Lettice married Nicholas, 25 years her senior, she believed she knew all there was about his violent past and the murders he committed. He had pleaded to the King and the Pope for pardon and both Lettice and God had long ago forgiven him. But on his deathbed, Nicholas confesses once more and this time there can be no forgiveness. Shocked, desperate, Lettice examines all she knows of his life for an explanation: his childhood torn apart by the power struggles between Yorkists and Lancastrians, the promise and pain of his marriages, his love of family and his amends for his violent behaviour. An inspiring story of love and loyalty in the face of a very real fear of Hell.

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'The Fever Pitch of five-a-side' TONY PARSONSA must-have for anyone who has ever played and enjoyed amateur football.James Brown has been playing football since growing up in the backstreets of Leeds. The sudden death of one of his long-standing team mates made James ponder the unique bond between men who meet each other once a week for years, but don't know any personal details beyond pitch prowess.Five-a-Side football is where you play the beautiful game for love, not money. You play it for life and you play it everywhere. Your kit is damp and your legs are a leopard's back of bruises. Shirts are often tight around the belly, with your hero's name plastered across your shoulder blades. The showers are too cold in winter and too hot in summer. Your used sports bag stays unpacked in the hall, and your water bottles are under the kitchen sink. The post-match warm down takes place in the pub. As does the match analysis. By contrast the warm up is non-existent. Your performance is patchy and maybe not what it used to be. But we all still think we played great. Five-a-Side is sporting Karaoke - a time and place to live out our dreams.This is a book for all of us - school mates, work colleagues, total strangers - bonded by the desire to blast one into the net from two feet away.

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The Sunday Times Bestseller and Number 1 Sport Book of 2016'A tale that's truly inspirational' The SunAn ordinary lad from Sheffield, Jamie Vardy has become known as an against-the-odds footballing hero the world over. Yet a few years ago, things couldn’t have been any more different. Rejected as a teenager by his boyhood club, Jamie thought his chance was gone. But from playing pub football and earning £30 a week at Stocksbridge Park Steels, while still working in a factory, his off-the-cuff performances saw him rise.Jamie had a wild and turbulent youth, but football became his saving grace and, once he filled his boots with goals at FC Halifax Town and Fleetwood Town, he moved to Leicester City. After the miracle of surviving relegation, the team of unlikely outsiders bonded together to achieve the unthinkable: Jamie set the record as the first player to score in 11 consecutive Premier League matches and Leicester beat odds of 5000-1 to become champions.Jamie has now been nominated for the Ballon d’Or, firmly establishing himself as one of England’s leading goal scoring footballers. Not forgetting his roots, however, he has set up the V9 Academy in a bid to find the next big talent from non-league football. Defying all expectations, this is the story of the boy from nowhere who reached the top in his own unflinching, honest words.

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Literature not only represents Canada as "our home and native land" but has been used as evidence of the civilization needed to claim and rule that land. Indigenous people have long been represented as roaming "savages" without land title and without literature. Literary Land Claims: From Pontiac's War to Attawapiskat analyzes works produced between 1832 and the late 1970s by writers who resisted these dominant notions. Margery Fee examines John Richardson's novels about Pontiac's War and the War of 1812 that document the breaking of British promises to Indigenous nations. She provides a close reading of Louis Riel's addresses to the court at the end of his trial in 1885, showing that his vision for sharing the land derives from the Indigenous value of respect. Fee argues that both Grey Owl and E. Pauline Johnson's visions are obscured by challenges to their authenticity. Finally, she shows how storyteller Harry Robinson uses a contemporary Okanagan framework to explain how white refusal to share the land meant that Coyote himself had to make a deal with the King of England. Fee concludes that despite support in social media for Theresa Spence's hunger strike, Idle No More, and the Indian Residential School Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the story about "savage Indians" and "civilized Canadians" and the latter group's superior claim to "develop" the lands and resources of Canada still circulates widely. If the land is to be respected and shared as it should be, literary studies needs a new critical narrative, one that engages with the ideas of Indigenous writers and intellectuals.

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Reader reviews for The Sinister Booksellers of Bath:'Garth Nix demonstrates his mastery of the fantasy genre''An extraordinary work of fiction''A cracking sequel to The Left-Handed Booksellers of London''An amazing fantasy adventure''Well, this is a heap of fun!''Wizards, sorcery, Ancients and living statues - what more could you ask for'There is often trouble of a mythical sort in Bath. The booksellers who police the Old World keep a careful watch there, particularly on the entity who inhabits the ancient hot spring. Yet this time it is not from Sulis Minerva that trouble starts. It comes from the discovery of a sorcerous map, leading left-handed bookseller Merlin into great danger. A desperate rescue is attempted by his sister the right-handed bookseller Vivien and their friend, art student Susan Arkshaw, who is still struggling to deal with her own recently discovered magical heritage.The map takes the trio to a place separated from the world, maintained by deadly sorcery performed by an Ancient Sovereign and guarded by monstrous living statues of Portland Stone. But this is only the beginning, as the booksellers investigate centuries of disappearances and deaths and try to unravel the secrets of the murderous Lady of Stone, a serial killer of awesome powers.If they do not stop her, she will soon kill again. And this time, her target is not an ordinary mortal.A wintry return to the world of The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, as a magical map leads to a dangerous adventure.Praise for Garth NixGarth Nix is one of the best world-builders in fantasy. (BRANDON SANDERSON)

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This title offers 25 practical ideas for hand-crafted leather projects that are easy to make at home. It includes accessible and original leather projects designed by some of today's leading artists. It demonstrates the versatility and beauty of leather in projects such as a picture frame and a leather chain belt. Techniques for 25 practical and desirable designs are shown in clear step-by-step photographs and diagrams. Templates are provided so that you can cut out pieces of leather accurately. It is suitable for all levels of leatherworker, from the novice to the more experienced: includes a comprehensive guide to all you need to know about materials and equipment and the basic skills of the craft. It features over 300 specially commissioned photographs with step-by-step sequences. Since the introduction of man-made materials the use of hand-worked leather has declined, but the art and craft of leatherwork is still popular and designs can easily be produced at home in a wide range of shades and finishes. This practical book offers several projects aimed at all levels of skill, including a child's sheepskin hat and vest, suede cushion covers, slippers, a personal organizer, a useful blanket carrier, a briefcase and a pair of sandals. An introduction to the basic techniques also outlines details of the essential materials and special tools and equipment that you will need, as well as ways of dyeing and finishing natural leather. Clear photographs of the finished projects will inspire you to try some of them out for yourself. A gallery of antique and contemporary pieces highlights the versatility and beauty of leather, and its use for everyday objects and clothing - as well as for more ornate and decorative pieces.

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In October 1999 during a trip to Cairo, Cyrus Kadivar, an exiled Iranian living in London, visited the tomb of the last shah and opened a Pandora's box. Haunted by nostalgia for a bygone era, he recalled a protected and idyllic childhood in the fabled city of Shiraz and his coming of age during the 1979 Iranian revolution. Back in London, he reflected on what had happened to him and his family after their uprooting and decided to conduct his own investigation into why he lost his country. He spent the next ten years seeking out witnesses who would shed light on the last days of Pahlavi rule. Among those he met were a former empress, ex-courtiers, disaffected revolutionaries, and the bereaved relatives of those who perished in the cataclysm. In Farewell Shiraz, Kadivar tells the story of his family and childhood against the tumultuous backdrop of twentieth-century Iran, from the 1905-1907 Constitutional Revolution to the fall of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, before presenting accounts of his meetings with key witnesses to the Shah's fall and the rise of Khomeini. Each of the people interviewed provides a richly detailed picture of the momentous events that took place and the human drama behind them. Combining exquisite vignettes with rare testimonials and first-hand interviews, Farewell Shiraz draws us into a sweeping yet often intimate account of a vanished world and offers a compelling investigation into a political earthquake whose reverberations still live with us today.

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Text in English and German. Peter Kulka is a major German architect. His buildings in recent years have been characteristically succinct and minimalist. This started with the Sächsischer Landtag in Dresden. Since then Kulka has produced numerous works of high creative ambition. His projects regularly feature in architecture magazines, and also on the arts pages in the daily press. Following a 1996 publication, this is the second monograph on his work. The book accompanies the show of his work in the Deutsches Architektur Museum in Frankfurt am Main from late 2005 to early 2006. The exhibition is based on Kulka's archives, which contain an extensive range of first-class architectural photographs as well as project designs and visual presentations. 22 projects are presented, centred around his work over the past 15 years and leading up to the most recent projects like the rebuilding of the Schloß in his home town of Dresden. Kulka studied under Selman Selmanagic' in Weißensee, Berlin. He then worked with Hermann Henselmann in East Berlin, later moving to Hans Scharoun in West Berlin. He had his first major success in the Herzog, Köpke, Kulka, Töpper and Siepmann partnership with the design for the University of Bielefeld. In 1979 he started his own practice in Cologne, followed by a Dresden branch in 1991. Alongside the Sächsischer Landtag in Dresden, Kulka's best-known designs include the "Haus der Stille" in the Abtei Königsmünster in Meschede, the Bosch Haus Heidehof in Stuttgart, and also the new chamber music hall and the new foyer in the Konzerthaus Berlin, Karl Friedrich Schinkel's former Deutsches Schauspielhaus.

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Winegarden recounts episodes in the life of Jacob Winegarden, an agnostic Jewish professor of theoretical physics whose speciality is 'thought experimentation'. A burly, vague, distracted man, a fan of popular films such as Toy Story and Fantastic Voyage, Jacob is still forlornly infatuated with his enigmatic wife, Miriam. She brings him back to reality: he is in a world of his own, she says, but there are things that need doing in this one.Winegarden operates at the elusive boundary between physics and metaphysics, trying to understand what the world of quantum mechanics can tell us about the soul, the existence of God, the meaning of love and memory; about how those who are absent can also be present. He uses pencil and paper, and classic aids to thought such as cats, zombies or occasionally Golems, because these creatures occupy ambiguous spaces between states of being and not-being and can thus illuminate the nature of the universe. His apparently whimsical thought experiments are revealed to have a deadly serious purpose. Making connections between his life and his work is his way of coping with the uncertainties of love, the trailing tendrils of his Jewish heritage, and the trauma of a devastating loss. Winegarden fears certainty: if the truth is bleak, it may be better not to know, to be uncertain. And if it has to be known, then there will be thought experiments that can imagine other universes where things might be different.Moving backwards and forwards in time and touching on different parts of Winegarden's life and thoughts, the stories are designed to fit together as a novella. Together they tell a larger personal story of grief and survival, the ambivalence and persistence of love, and the meaning of being Jewish.

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The guide has been written by Rab Anderson, Kevin Howett and Colin Moody, who have been driving forces in the development of the Islands, and their insight and local knowledge is contained within to help you plan your trip and get the most out of it when you are there. For the first time in recent history, the jewel of Scottish (possibly even British!) sea cliff climbing gets the SMC comprehensive guidebook treatment. Written by the activists themselves, this guide provides the go-to resource for climbing in the Outer Hebrides. Uninhabited islands, committing sea cliff adventures, seaside cragging, mountain cliffs and the mighty Sron Uladail - all in one book. - 2500 routes from Moderate to E9 - 28 detailed maps and access information - 177 photo diagrams covering all major cliffs (and then some) - Tens of new future classic venues - Hundreds of new routes throughout the Islands - Comprehensive logistical information to help you plan your trip - Inspiring action photos in full colour throughout This guide provides comprehensive cover and photo diagrams to all of the popular areas, as well as publishing for the first time tens of new future classic venues and hundreds of routes, capturing all of the development that has taken place in recent years. Amongst this detail you can also find information on areas still under development, with possibilities for new routes of your own! Note-worthy is the fact that this guide provides options for the hard-core climber on a dedicated trip, as well as those wanting the option of a day or two out cragging whilst on a family holiday.

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Despite your accomplishments, do you ever worry that you aren't good enough or capable enough? Have you reached high levels of success, yet still suspect that you're just "faking it?" If so, you may have imposter syndrome-the persistent, internalized, irrational fear of being exposed as a fraud, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. You aren't alone. Too often, highly talented and successful people allow self-doubt to cloud their view of themselves. So, how can you start celebrating your hard-earned success and move forward in life with confidence? In Overcoming Imposter Anxiety, imposter syndrome expert Ijeoma Nwaogu offers proven-effective and culturally informed strategies grounded in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to help you stand up to imposter anxiety, alleviate self-doubt and the fear of failure, and live with authenticity. You'll learn to anticipate and understand the triggers that cause your imposter thoughts, and discover ways to shift your mindset so you can move past fear, honour your achievements, and focus on your goals. You'll also learn how to: - Respond to imposter thoughts and feelings - Overcome your fear of failure and affirm your competence - Embrace the qualities that make you unique - Build an encouraging support network - Help yourself by helping others It's time to ditch self-limiting beliefs, so you can start living life with greater courage, confidence, and authenticity. This book will help guide you, step by step.

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Best-selling title now updated with 16 pages of photos associated with recipes throughout the book!Friendly chatter, cheery farm stands, bushels of produce, baskets of fruit and Mason jars overflowing with just-picked blooms. The farmers’ market is in full swing! With everything in sight locally grown, there’s just no better place to find the absolute freshest foods. In Farmers’ Market Favorites you’ll find the best, tried & true recipes to get the tastiest meals on the table. Wake up your family to Blueberry Buckle Coffee Cake or pancakes topped with Fresh Raspberry Butter. For lunch, whip up Dilly Chicken Sandwiches or Ranch BLT Wraps with a yummy side of Crispy Zucchini Fritters or Tangy Summer Slaw. If you’re having girlfriends over for a plant swap, serve Sunflower Strawberry Salad and Garden-Fresh Gazpacho with slices of Aunt B’s Sweet Butter Bread. And everyone will ask for seconds of Apple Blush Pie and Mom’s Blackberry Cake. We’ve tucked in lots of market shopping tips, along with a handy conversion chart for when it’s off-season and fresh ingredients just aren’t available. And in the spirit of the saying, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without,” we’ve included crafty tips for reusing favorite vintage finds. So, come along with us to the farmers’ market for wholesome, delicious food and where old-fashioned neighboring is still a part of every day. 222 Recipes.

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If there's one thing we know about our current president, it's that he lies. Donald Trump's lies are so ubiquitous, so incessant, and so habitual that they have become inescapable -- from his false claims about the size of his inauguration crowd to his whole cloth invention of a terrorist attack in Sweden to his assertion that Democrats are planning to give free cars to undocumented immigrants. But while he may lie more frequently and brazenly than any other American president, he is certainly not the first to mislead the public.With Lying in State, bestselling historian and commentator Eric Alterman asks how we ended up with such a pathologically dishonest commander in chief -- and what consequences his serial mendacity might have for the future. To answer these questions, Alterman explores the long history of presidential lying, showing that from early on, the United States has persistently expanded its power and hegemony on the basis of presidential lies. Over time, these deceptions have had a cumulative and pernicious effect: each lie a president tells makes it easier and more acceptable for subsequent presidents to lie. Worse still, the media have largely abandoned their responsibility as referees of news and information, uncritically repeating presidential lies and failing to issue corrections even after lies are revealed. Donald Trump, then, represents not an aberration but the culmination of an age-old trend.Full of vivid historical examples and trenchant analysis, Lying in State is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how we arrived in this age of alternative facts.

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Ruth and DCI Nelson are working on a murder case in which their friend Cathbad emerges as the prime suspect. Can they uncover the truth in time to save him?'Galloway now seems as real as Marple and Morse' The TimesWhen builders renovating a café in King's Lynn unearth a human skeleton, they call for DCI Harry Nelson and Dr Ruth Galloway, Head of Archaeology at the University of North Norfolk. Ruth is preoccupied with the threatened closure of her department and by her ever-complicated relationship with Nelson.The bones are identified as those of Emily Pickering, an archaeology student who went missing in the 1990s. Emily attended a course run by her Cambridge tutor. Suspicion falls on him and on another course member - Ruth's friend Cathbad, who is still frail following his near death from Covid. As they investigate, Nelson and his team uncover a tangled web of relationships within the student group and the adults leading them. Then, just when the team seem to be making progress, Cathbad disappears.The trail leads Ruth and Nelson to the Neolithic flint mines in Grime's Graves. The race is on, first to find Cathbad and then to exonerate him, but will Ruth and Nelson uncover the truth in time to save their friend?*******************************Praise for The Last Remains'One of our very best writers. Bravo!' The Times 'A great pleasure to read' 5* Reader Review'Typically intriguing' Sunday Times'Couldn't put it down. Great characters, great plot' 5* Reader Review 'One of Ruth's best investigations' Belfast Telegraph'Kept you guessing until the very end' 5* Reader Review

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When someone starts killing his fellow bounty hunters in the port of Fairhaven, Drago Appleroot is happy to help his contacts in the City Watch with their investigation—for a reasonable fee, of course. But posing as an assassin-for-hire to draw out the killer attracts the attention of two separate groups from a far-off Elven kingdom whose private war is being fought on the streets of his home town. Pitched into a maelstrom of treachery and lethal politics, Drago is forced into a long and dangerous journey to the heart of the Sylvan Marches, where one determined gnome might just decide the destiny of a kingdom. If he can survive long enough to decide which side he ought to be on. About Alex Stewart's Shooting the Rift: “Stewart makes his [faster than light travel] technology as accessible and relevant as the neuroware, genetic engineering, anti-gravity, and other assorted techno-furniture of the milieu. His various venues . . . are limned with vigor, vividness and vivacity. The personages are all true-to-life, delivering fine banter and plot-propelling dialogue, arising out of fully believable motivations and drives and desires. . . . the best of what ambitious adventure SF has always done and can plainly continue to do.”—Locus “Stewart writes with sly wit. He pokes fun at modern science fiction tropes. His clever writing even satirizes science fiction satire. He combines this with rollicking adventure, original plot twists and unexpected revelations and endings. Shooting the Rift is fun to read. Better still it promises a sequel.”—Galveston County Daily News

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Praise for Michael McClure: "Michael McClure shares a place with the great William Blake, with the visionary Shelley, with the passionate D.H. Lawrence."--Robert Creeley "McClure's poetry is a blob of protoplasmic energy."--Allen Ginsberg "Without McClure's roar there would have been no Sixties."--Dennis Hopper Michael McClure is a living legend. One of the poets who participated in the famous Six Gallery reading that featured the public debut of Allen Ginsberg's landmark poem Howl, he was immortalized by Jack Kerouac in his novel Big Sur. A central figure of the Beat Generation, McClure collaborated with Wallace Berman and Bruce Conner and was later associated with San Francisco's psychedelic counterculture. Originally self-published in 1964 and long out of print, Ghost Tantras is one of McClure's signature works, a book mostly written in "beast language." A mix of lyrical, guttural, and laryngeal sound, lion roars, and a touch of detonated dada, this is one of his best-known but least available books, a deep well from which decades of poetry have drawn. McClure's inspiration has always been the animal consciousness that still lives in mankind, and he has had a consistent message: "When a man does not admit that he is an animal, he is less than an animal." Ghost Tantras is his original and singular manifesto for a poetry that relies not on images and pictures, but on muscular, sensual, energetic sound. Michael McClure has received numerous awards and continues to reach new audiences through his poetry, plays, and performance.

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—A cross-country road rally of 100,000 automobiles —A continuous political parade from the Atlantic to the Pacific —A story about the famous Lincoln Highway in 1924 The political caravan highlighting the 1924 presidential campaign of Calvin Coolidge and his running mate, Charles G. Dawes, was a political masterpiece. This book is compiled from eyewitness accounts of the Coolidge-Dawes Lincoln Tour. It was documented by E. A. Seidel, who drove the lead vehicle and newspaper accounts along the route, all illustrated with 100 vintage photographs and political artifacts. Starting in Coolidge’s hometown of Plymouth, Vermont, the caravan wound its way down to New York City, then followed the Lincoln Highway across the country to San Francisco, then along the Pacific Coast. L Over five million people turned out to witness the caravan as it rolled along 6,500 miles — much of it still unpaved, ranging from dirt in good weather to mud in bad weather — and involving over 100,000 vehicles! Along the way local bands played, horns honked, most of the cars were decorated in red, white and blue, and two million campaign buttons were distributed. Civil War veterans who had voted for Abraham Lincoln were invited to sign a roster at the various stops and they turned out by the hundreds. National GOP dignitaries provided the rhetoric at the stops, making over 400 speeches promoting the re-election of Coolidge. The newspaper press along the route loved the event, proclaiming it “the largest continuous procession of any kind in all history.”

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In October 1999 during a trip to Cairo, Cyrus Kadivar, an exiled Iranian living in London, visited the tomb of the last shah, which opened a Pandora’s box. Haunted by nostalgia for a bygone era, he recalled a protected and idyllic childhood in the fabled city of Shiraz and his coming of age during the 1979 Iranian revolution. Back in London, he reflected on what had happened to him and his family after their uprooting and decided to conduct his own investigation into why he lost his country. He spent the next ten years seeking out witnesses who would shed light on the last days of Pahlavi rule. Among those he met were a former empress, ex-courtiers, disaffected revolutionaries, and the bereaved relatives of those who perished in the cataclysm. In Farewell Shiraz, Kadivar tells the story of his family and childhood against the tumultuous backdrop of twentieth-century Iran, from the 1905–1907 Constitutional Revolution to the fall of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, before presenting accounts of his meetings with key witnesses to the Shah’s fall and the rise of Khomeini. Each of the people interviewed provides a richly detailed picture of the momentous events that took place and the human drama behind them. Combining exquisite vignettes with rare testimonials and first-hand interviews, Farewell Shiraz draws us into a sweeping yet often intimate account of a vanished world and offers a compelling investigation into a political earthquake whose reverberations still live with us today.

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'One of the greatest mountaineering survival stories never told.' – The Sunday Times Some mountains are high; some mountains are hard. Few are both. On the afternoon of 13 July 1977, having become the first climbers to reach the summit of the Ogre, Doug Scott and Chris Bonington began their long descent. In the minutes that followed, any feeling of success from their achievement would be overwhelmed by the start of a desperate fight for survival. And things would only get worse. Rising to over 7,000 metres in the centre of the Karakoram, the Ogre – Baintha Brakk – is notorious in mountaineering circles as one of the most difficult mountains to climb. First summited by Scott and Bonington in 1977 – on expedition with Paul ‘Tut’ Braithwaite, Nick Estcourt, Clive Rowland and Mo Anthoine – it waited almost twenty-four years for a second ascent, and a further eleven years for a third. The Ogre, by legendary mountaineer Doug Scott, is a two-part biography of this enigmatic peak: in the first part, Scott has painstakingly researched the geography and history of the mountain; part two is the long overdue and very personal account of his and Bonington’s first ascent and their dramatic week-long descent on which Scott suffered two broken legs and Bonington smashed ribs. Using newly discovered diaries, letters and audio tapes, it tells of the heroic and selfless roles played by Clive Rowland and Mo Anthoine. When the desperate climbers finally made it back to base camp, they were to find it abandoned – and themselves still a long way from safety. The Ogre is undoubtedly one of the greatest adventure stories of all time.

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The hilarious romantic comedy from the Sunday Times bestseller – perfect for fans of Gill Sims Laura Swan was dreading the school sports day mums’ race – but whoever would have thought it could be quite so life-changing? Sports Day at her children's school is a nightmare for Laura because of the event she dreads – the Mums' Race. She knows the other mothers have been in training for at least three months – even though they're trying to pretend that they haven't. Laura's vowed never to take part, but the morning of the School Sports Day she makes a fatal error and promises her daughter that if she eats her Rice Crispies, she will run. With no escape, Laura is forced to take part and as she moves towards her inevitable humiliation, she is horrified to spot her husband Jed flirting with Celeste the delectable French girl who works with him. Determined to put up a fight and to show Jed there is still plenty of spice left in their marriage, Laura decides it is time to give her body the work out it has been desperately crying out for. But when Laura makes a special new friend at the running club that she has joined, she gets much more than she bargained for. From buying sexy lingerie displayed alongside the gherkins at Tesco to struggling into the last playsuit in Topshop, this novel is full of humour and Laura is a true heroine for our times. A sparkling, witty novel, that fizzes off the page.

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How to Innovate and Execute Leaders already know that innovation calls for a different set of activities, skills, methods, metrics, mind-sets, and leadership approaches. And it is well understood that creating a new business and optimizing an already existing one are two fundamentally different management challenges. The real problem for leaders is doing both, simultaneously. How do you meet the performance requirements of the existing business--one that is still thriving--while dramatically reinventing it? How do you envision a change in your current business model before a crisis forces you to abandon it? Innovation guru Vijay Govindarajan expands the leader's innovation tool kit with a simple and proven method for allocating the organization's energy, time, and resources--in balanced measure--across what he calls "the three boxes": * Box 1: The present--Manage the core business at peak profitability * Box 2: The past--Abandon ideas, practices, and attitudes that could inhibit innovation * Box 3: The future--Convert breakthrough ideas into new products and businesses The three-box framework makes leading innovation easier because it gives leaders a simple vocabulary and set of tools for managing and measuring these different sets of behaviors and activities across all levels of the organization. Supported with rich company examples--GE, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hasbro, IBM, United Rentals, and Tata Consultancy Services--and testimonies of leaders who have successfully used this framework, this book solves once and for all the practical dilemma of how to align an organization on the critical but competing demands of innovation.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'A fascinating demythologising of the Playboy brand and Hefner himself' - Pandora Sykes'A raw, honest unveiling of the misogyny and darkness of the Playboy Mansion. . . I almost feel compelled to send a copy to every young woman who still believes the legacy of Playboy holds some glamour or promise' - Ellie FlynnOne of Stylist’s 'best non-fiction for 2024'One of the Independent’s 2024 'must-reads'One of The Sunday Times 'most exciting memoirs' for 2024'I was 21 years old when I found myself on the front stoop of the Playboy Mansion. I want to tell the real story of my time there - the good and the bad, the dark and the light.'In 2008 the Playboy mansion became Crystal Harris's sanctuary - a shimmering vestige of opportunity. Within months she had ascended its hierarchy to become Hugh Hefner's top girlfriend. But her new home came at a cost. Forced to follow strict rules that governed everything from her appearance to behaviour, she began to lose her identity. By the time she married Hef in 2012, the mansion had become her prison.Having made a promise to Only Say Good Things, for years Crystal suppressed the truth of what really happened behind the mansion's closed doors. Now, in this raw and honest memoir, she's finally ready to expose it all.Laying bare the devastating impact that a culture of relentless objectification and misogyny had on her health, Crystal's extraordinary story carries powerful lessons that are relevant to us all.

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Written as a vehicle for Coward’s own acting talents alongside his frequent stage partner Gertrude Lawrence, Tonight at 8:30 is Coward’s ambitious series of ten one-act plays which saw him breathe new life into the one-act form. From vaudeville to satire, from farce to intricate comedy of manners, from melodrama to romance, these plays span the full, glorious range of Coward’s writing. Peep through your fingers at the chaotic Red Peppers music-hall show, witness a bankrupt couple use all Ways and Means to scheme their way out of debt, and break your heart along with Laura in the famous Still Life, the original version of the film Brief Encounter. First performed in London in 1936, the plays perfectly showcase Coward's talents as a playwright, providing a sparkling, fast-paced and remarkably varied selection of theatrical gems. Coward wrote of the first series of three plays with characteristic delight: ‘They are all brilliantly written, exquisitely directed, and I am bewitching in all of them.’ Gertrude Lawrence wrote to Coward in 1947, ‘Dearest Noël, wherever I go . . . all I hear is "please revive Tonight at 8.30!"' All ten plays are collected together into this volume that features both Coward’s own preface and an introduction by Barry Day, Coward expert and editor of The Letters of Noël Coward. This new edition of Tonight at 8.30 is published to coincide with English Touring Theatre and the Nuffield Southampton's revival for the first time in the UK since Coward starred in them in 1936.

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A tale of obsession and very big fish from Jeremy Wade, the presenter of ITV's RIVER MONSTERS.Over ten feet long, it weighs in at nearly a quarter of a ton. Covering its back are armoured plates made of bone. Five hundred stiletto-sharp teeth line its long crocodilian jaws. It's a prehistoric beast of staggering proportions; a fearsome creature from the time of the dinosaurs.But the Alligator Gar, an air-breathing survivor from the Cretaceous period is still with us today, patrolling inland rivers, hunting in murky waters shared by human communities.And for Jeremy Wade, described as the 'greatest angling explorer of his generation', the Gar and other outlandish freshwater predators have been an obsession for all his adult life. With names like Arapaima, Snakehead, Goonch, Goliath Tigerfish and Electric Eel, many of them have acquired an almost mythical status.In a quest that has taken him from the Amazon to the Congo, and from North America to the mountains of India, Wade has pursued the truth about these little known, often misunderstood animals. Along the way he's survived a plane crash, malaria and a fish-inflicted blow to the chest that, according to a later scan, caused permanent scarring to his heart.In RIVER MONSTERS, Wade delivers a sometimes jaw-dropping blend of adventure, natural history, legend and detective work. It reads like a hunt for the Loch Ness Monster. But it's all true. These are fisherman's tales like you've never heard before. The stories of the ones that didn't get away ...

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Take your plein air artwork to the next level through easy-to-understand workshop-style lessons and skill-building exercises. In Plein Air Techniques for Artists, award-winning artist and respected workshop instructor Aimee Erickson demystifies how to capture a variety of light effects and guides you in strengthening your plein air skills through practice. This accessible book covers: Materials and gear. Gain a basic knowledge of the possibilities so you can keep your options open and your plein air process fresh. Composition and value. Explore the impact of proportion, color, value, line, edges, shape, and texture. Color. Consider how knowledge and intention, your color palette, and what you see—your perspective—take turns being in charge of the color game, inventing rules and finding solutions. Light effects. Learn how conditions of the day—how much light there is, and whether it’s soft, diffuse, golden, harsh, pale, or dusky—affect everything we see and how we paint. Design and the visual idea. Discover strategies for developing a visual idea, from creating serial studies to working with a camera to improvisation. Featuring exceptional still lifes, figures, and landscapes by other noted artists working in a range of mediums, Plein Air Techniques for Artists gives artists at all levels of experience the guidance they need to grow as a plein air artist. The For Artists series expertly guides and instructs artists at all skill levels who want to develop their classical drawing and painting skills and create realistic and representational art.

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In 1900 the Catholic Church stood staunchly against human rights, religious freedom, and the secular state. According to the Catholic view, modern concepts like these, unleashed by the French Revolution, had been a disaster. Yet by the 1960s, those positions were reversed. How did this happen? Why, and when, did the world’s largest religious organization become modern?James Chappel finds an answer in the shattering experiences of the 1930s. Faced with the rise of Nazism and Communism, European Catholics scrambled to rethink their Church and their faith. Simple opposition to modernity was no longer an option. The question was how to be modern. These were life and death questions, as Catholics struggled to keep Church doors open without compromising their core values. Although many Catholics collaborated with fascism, a few collaborated with Communists in the Resistance. Both strategies required novel approaches to race, sex, the family, the economy, and the state.Catholic Modern tells the story of how these radical ideas emerged in the 1930s and exercised enormous influence after World War II. Most remarkably, a group of modern Catholics planned and led a new political movement called Christian Democracy, which transformed European culture, social policy, and integration. Others emerged as left-wing dissidents, while yet others began to organize around issues of abortion and gay marriage. Catholics had come to accept modernity, but they still disagreed over its proper form. The debates on this question have shaped Europe’s recent past—and will shape its future.

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A landmark history of the antisemitic blood libel myth—how it took root in Europe, spread with the invention of the printing press, and persists today.Accusations that Jews ritually killed Christian children emerged in the mid-twelfth century, following the death of twelve-year-old William of Norwich, England, in 1144. Later, continental Europeans added a destructive twist: Jews murdered Christian children to use their blood. While charges that Jews poisoned wells and desecrated the communion host waned over the years, the blood libel survived.Initially blood libel stories were confined to monastic chronicles and local lore. But the development of the printing press in the mid-fifteenth century expanded the audience and crystallized the vocabulary, images, and “facts” of the blood libel, providing a lasting template for hate. Tales of Jews killing Christians—notably Simon of Trent, a toddler whose body was found under a Jewish house in 1475—were widely disseminated using the new technology. Following the paper trail across Europe, from England to Italy to Poland, Magda Teter shows how the blood libel was internalized and how Jews and Christians dealt with the repercussions.The pattern established in early modern Europe still plays out today. In 2014 the Anti-Defamation League appealed to Facebook to take down a page titled “Jewish Ritual Murder.” The following year white supremacists gathered in England to honor Little Hugh of Lincoln as a sacrificial victim of the Jews. Based on sources in eight countries and ten languages, Blood Libel captures the long shadow of a pernicious myth.

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In 1940 Sergei Rachmaninoff, living in exile in America, broke his creative silence and composed a swan song to his Russian homeland. What happened in those final haunted years and how did he come to write his farewell masterpiece, the Symphonic Dances?Rachmaninoff left Petrograd in the throes of the Russian Revolution in 1917. He was 44 years old, at the peak of his powers as composer-conductor-performer, moving in elite Tsarist circles and running the family estate, his refuge and solace. He had already written the music which, today, has made him one of the most popular composers of all time: the second and third Piano Concertos and two symphonies. Reeling from the trauma of a life in upheaval, he wrote almost no music and quickly had to reinvent himself as a fêted virtuoso pianist, building up untold wealth and meeting the stars, from Walt Disney and Charlie Chaplin to his Russian contemporaries and polar opposites, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Still, the melancholy of leaving his homeland never lifted. Using a wide range of sources, including important newly translated texts, Maddocks' immensely readable book conjures impressions of this enigmatic figure, his friends and the world he encountered. It explores his life as an emigré artist and how he clung to an Old Russia which no longer existed. That forging of past and present meets in his Symphonic Dances (1940), his last composition, written on Long Island shortly before his death in Beverly Hills, surrounded by a close-knit circle of Russian exiles.

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"Account planning exists for the sole purpose of creating advertising that truly connects with consumers. While many in the industry are still dissecting consumer behavior, extrapolating demographic trends, developing complex behavioral models, and measuring Pavlovian salivary responses, Steel advocates an approach to consumer research that is based on simplicity, common sense, and creativity--an approach that gains access to consumers' hearts and minds, develops ongoing relationships with them, and, most important, embraces them as partners in the process of developing and advertising. A witty, erudite raconteur and teacher, Steel describes how successful account planners work in partnership with clients, consumer, and agency creatives. He criticizes research practices that, far from creating relationships, drive a wedge between agencies and the people they aim to persuade; he suggests new ways of approaching research to cut through the BS and get people to show their true selves; and he shows how the right research, when translated into a motivating and inspiring brief, can be the catalyst for great creative ideas. He draws upon his own experiences and those of colleagues in the United States and abroad to illustrate those points, and includes examples of some of the most successful campaigns in recent years, including Polaroid, Norwegian Cruise Line, Porsche, Isuzu, "got milk?" and others. The message of this book is that well-thought-out account planning results in better, more effective marketing and advertising for both agencies and clients. And also makes an evening in front of the television easier to bear for the population at large."

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Now a major TV series on the BBC'The Noughts & Crosses series are still my favourite books of all time and showed me just how amazing story-telling could be' STORMZY'Malorie's Noughts & Crosses series is the first time I saw myself in a book . . . they were pacey, exciting, rich. What Malorie Blackman has always done so brilliantly is put the minority front and centre, both in society and politics.' CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS 'The most original book I've ever read' BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH "Malorie Blackman is absolutely amazing ... [Noughts & Crosses] really spoke to me, especially as a woman of dual heritage." ZAWE ASHTON_____'Stop it! You're all behaving like animals! Worse than animals - like blankers!'Sephy is a Cross: she lives a life of privilege and power. But she's lonely, and burns with injustice at the world she sees around her. Callum is a nought: he's considered to be less than nothing - a blanker, there to serve Crosses - but he dreams of a better life. They've been friends since they were children, and they both know that's as far as it can ever go. Noughts and Crosses are fated to be bitter enemies - love is out of the question. Then - in spite of a world that is fiercely against them - these star-crossed lovers choose each other. But this is love story that will lead both of them into terrible danger . . . and which will have shocking repercussions for generations to come. Voted as one of the UK's best-loved books, Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses is a seminal piece of YA fiction; a true modern classic.

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