Search results for ""Unbound""
Unbound Mud, Maul, Mascara: When fighting for a dream can make you and break you
Longlisted for William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2020'This pioneering memoir . . . engagingly balances the highs of captaincy and grand slams with striking emotional honesty as to herregrets' Guardian Books of the Year'Her struggle is that of women’s rugby and it is told here with great honesty' Sunday Times Books of the YearCatherine Spencer was the captain of the England women’s rugby team for three years. She scored eighteen tries for England, won six of the eight Six Nations competitions she took part in, and captained her team to three championship titles, a European cup, two Nations Cup tournament victories and the World Cup final held on home soil in 2010, which thrust women’s rugby into the limelight. All of this while holding down a full time job, because the women’s team, unlike the men’s, did not get paid for their sport. Mud, Maul, Mascara is an effort to reconcile alleged opposites, to show the woman behind the international sporting success. Painfully honest about the mental struggles Catherine faced during, and after, her career as an elite athlete, it is also warm, funny and inspirational – a book for anyone who has ever had a dream, or self-doubt, or a yearning for a really good, mud-proof mascara.
£17.09
Unbound The Undiscovered Country
'A smart and pacy debut' Irish Times‘One is struck by its mordant wit and fierce intelligence’ Martin W. Sandler, National Book Award-winning author and historian'A cracker read about morality and ethics in a time of conflict . . . A really accessible way of getting into complex stuff on nation-building and justice' Claire Hanna, MP for Belfast South1920, the Irish War of Independence. Amid the turmoil of an emerging nation, two young IRA members assigned to police a rural village discover the body of a young boy, apparently drowned.One of them, a veteran of the First World War, recognises violence when he sees it – but does one more corpse really matter in this time of bitter conflict?The reluctant detectives must navigate the vicious bloodshed, murky allegiances and savage complexities of a land defining itself to find justice for the murdered boy. Neither of them realises just how dangerous their task will become.
£8.99
Unbound The Scottish Boy
1333. Edward III is at war with Scotland. Nineteen-year-old Sir Harry de Lyon yearns to prove himself, and jumps at the chance when a powerful English baron, William Montagu, invites him on a secret mission with a dozen elite knights. They ride north, to a crumbling Scottish keep, capturing the feral, half-starved boy within and putting the other inhabitants to the sword.But nobody knows why the flower of English knighthood snuck over the border to capture a savage, dirty teenage boy. Montagu gives the boy to Harry as his squire, with only two rules: don't let him escape, and convert him to the English cause.At first, it's hopeless. The Scottish boy is surly and violent, and eats anything that isn't nailed down. Then Harry begins to notice things: that, as well as Gaelic, the boy speaks flawless French, with an accent much different from Harry's Norman one. That he can read Latin too. And when Harry finally convinces the boy – Iain mac Maíl Coluim – to cut his filthy curtain of hair, the face revealed is the most beautiful thing Harry has ever seen.With Iain as his squire, Harry wins tournament after tournament and becomes a favourite of the King. But underneath the pageantry smoulder twin secrets: Harry and Iain's growing passion for each other, and Iain's mysterious heritage. As England hurtles towards war once again, these secrets will destroy everything Harry holds dear.
£12.99
Unbound Johnny Ruin
‘Strange, intense, brilliant’ S. J. Watson‘A witty, zappy fable ... Powerful’ GuardianDepression can be hell.Heartbroken and lonely, the narrator has made an attempt on his own life. Whether he meant to or not he can't say. But now he’s stuck in his own head, and time is running out.To save himself, he embarks on a journey across an imagined America, one haunted by his doomed relationship and the memory of a road trip that ended in tragedy.Help arrives in the guise of Jon Bon Jovi, rock star and childhood hero. An unlikely spirit guide, perhaps, but he's going to give it a shot...
£9.04
Unbound West of West: Travels along the edge of America
Swim out into the Pacific and look back to the shore. To the couple kissing in the hot afternoon, and the young girl rollerskating along the front, and the family setting up camp on the soft, warm sand. To the blues and yellows and pinks of fierce, determined revelry. Santa Monica, where the wooden pier juts out into the Pacific Ocean, marks the end of Route 66. The great American journey west culminates here, and it is on this short stretch of coast that Sarah Lee began shooting her photographic series in 2015. In West of West Sarah Lee and Laura Barton explore the idea of the West in shaping American identity, with its idealism and notions of the frontier, and what the American West means in an age of political turbulence, when the East is the rising global force and the frontier is shifting once more.
£22.50
Unbound Obsidian: Book II in The Book of Bera trilogy (A thrilling Viking adventure)
A gripping Viking tale of one woman's courage, fighting old and new gods amid the savage beauty of Ice Island: the second instalment of The Book of Bera fantasy adventure seriesBera, the Viking seer, has been having visions. During the hard birthing of her daughter, she feels the earth convulse, an upheaval that somehow links the black bead of her necklace to the precious stone: Obsidian.As her destructive visions start to become reality, she has no choice but to set out for the Far North, to steal Obsidian and put it to use. But Bera is not the only one who wants the stone – to what lengths will she go to win it?Steeped in the life and beliefs of the Norse peoples, this standalone second instalment in The Book of Bera trilogy is a gripping, atmospheric adventure.
£8.99
Unbound The Black Prince: Adapted from an original script by Anthony Burgess
‘I’m working on a novel intended to express the feel of England in Edward III’s time ... The fourteenth century of my novel will be mainly evoked in terms of smell and visceral feelings, and it will carry an undertone of general disgust rather than hey-nonny nostalgia’ – Anthony Burgess, 1973 The Black Prince is a brutal historical tale of chivalry, religious belief, obsession, siege and bloody warfare. From disorientating depictions of medieval battles to court intrigues and betrayals, the campaigns of Edward, the Black Prince, are brought to vivid life.This rambunctious book, based on a completed screenplay by Anthony Burgess, showcases Adam Roberts in complete control of the novel as a way of making us look at history with fresh eyes, all while staying true to the linguistic pyrotechnics and narrative verve of Burgess’s best work.
£9.99
Unbound So Here It Is: The Autobiography
'No Slade = No Oasis. It's as devastating and as simple as that' Noel Gallagher With six consecutive number one singles and the smash hit ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’, Slade were unstoppable. Now, the man whose outlandish costumes and unmistakable hairstyle made Slade one of the definitive acts of the Glam Rock era tells his story. But there’s more to Dave’s life than rock 'n' roll and good times. So Here It Is also covers the band’s painful break-up, Dave’s subsequent battle with depression, and his recovery from the stroke that threatened to cut short his performing career. If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to be a working-class lad from the Midlands suddenly confronted by unimaginable fame, So Here It Is is the definitive account, told with heart and humour and filled with never-before-seen photos.
£8.99
Unbound Four Feet Under: Untold stories of homelessness in London
‘Touching, insightful and human – this book demands a social and, above all, a political response’ Jon SnowTamsen Courtenay spent two months speaking to people who live on London’s streets, the homeless and the destitute – people who feel they are invisible. With a camera and a cheap audio recorder, she listened as they chronicled their extraordinary lives, now being lived four feet below most Londoners, and she set about documenting their stories, which are transcribed in this book along with intimate photographic portraits. A builder, a soldier, a transgender woman, a child and an elderly couple are among those who describe the events that brought them to the lives they lead now. They speak of childhoods, careers and relationships; their strengths and weaknesses, dreams and regrets; all with humour and a startling honesty. Tamsen’s observations and remarkable experiences are threaded throughout. The astonishing people she met changed her for ever, as they became her heroes, people she grew to respect. You don’t have to go far to find these homegrown exiles: they’re at the bottom of your road. Have you ever wondered how they got there?
£18.00
Unbound A Long and Messy Business
Winner of the Guild of Food Writers General Cookbook Award 2019'I get fed up with the number of cookbooks that promise quick and easy meals, those that promise a three-course dinner that can be knocked up in thirty minutes. Most cooking, and certainly most enjoyable cooking, takes a little longer. I can knock something up in a hurry if I have to – there are plenty of quick and easy recipes in this book – but that ability was a long time in the acquisition, and I still prefer to take my time, in order to do it better than I did it last time.'These recipes and essays, first published in the Financial Times, are a distillation of Rowley Leigh’s forty years as both a professional chef and a home cook. They detail with precision and wit how to cook and enjoy both unusual and familiar ingredients through the seasons. With Leigh’s succinct wine recommendations and over 120 recipes, this is a book to get messy with overuse in the kitchen and to pore over in an armchair with a glass of the author’s beloved Riesling close to hand.
£22.50
Unbound Between the Regions of Kindness
Coventry, 1941. The morning after one of the worst nights of the Blitz. Twenty-two-year-old Rose enters the remains of a bombed house to find her best friend dead. Shocked and confused, she makes a split-second decision that will reverberate for generations to come.More than fifty years later, in modern-day Brighton, Rose’s granddaughter Lara waits for the return of her eighteen-year-old son Jay. Reckless and idealistic, he has gone to Iraq to stand on a conflict line as an unarmed witness to peace.Lara holds her parents, Mollie and Rufus, partly responsible for Jay’s departure. But in her attempts to explain their thwarted passions, she finds all her assumptions about her own life are called into question.Then into this damaged family come two strangers – Oliver, a former faith healer, and Jemmy, a young woman devastated by the loss of a baby. Together they help to establish a partial peace – but at what cost?
£8.99
Unbound The Good Immigrant: 21 writers reflect on race in contemporary Britain
First published in 2016, The Good Immigrant has since been hailed as a modern classic and credited with reshaping the discussion about race in contemporary Britain. It brings together a stellar cast of the country’s most exciting voices to reflect on why immigrants come to the UK, why they stay and what it means to be ‘other’ in a place that doesn’t seem to want you, doesn’t truly accept you – however many generations you’ve been here – but still needs you for its diversity monitoring forms. This 5th anniversary edition, featuring a new preface by editor Nikesh Shukla, shows that the pieces collected here are as poignant, challenging, angry, humorous, heartbreaking and important as ever.
£9.37
Unbound The Broken Mirror
Can desire really transform reality?From award-winning novelist Jonathan Coe and distinguished Italian artist Chiara Coccorese comes The Broken Mirror, a political parable for children, a contemporary fairy tale for adults, and a fable for all ages.One day Claire, to escape her quarrelsome parents, takes refuge in the dump behind her house. There she finds a broken mirror, a nasty piece of sharp glass… yet she is strangely drawn to it. She soon discovers it has the power to transform even the most drab reality into a fairy-tale world: the grey sky is reflected blue, and Claire’s modest, suburban house is transformed into the most beautiful castle.As Claire grows older, always accompanied by her magic mirror, she can see her face without her teenage acne, and her town before it fell victim to thieving property developers. But, in reality, libraries are being turned into luxury flats wherever she looks, and the boy Claire loves is instead her worst enemy.Frustrated and angry with the mirror’s illusions, Claire is about to destroy it when the mysterious Peter steps in: he has also found a shard of broken mirror, and so begins their journey to piece together the larger puzzle…Previously published in Italian, French, Greek and Dutch, The Broken Mirror comes to life in English for the first time, to be read with equal pleasure by children and adults.
£9.99
Unbound A Country of Refuge
A Country of Refuge is a poignant, thought-provoking and timely anthology of writing on asylum seekers from some of Britain and Ireland’s most influential voices.Compiled and edited by human rights activist and writer Lucy Popescu, this powerful collection of short fiction, memoir, poetry and essays explores what it really means to be a refugee: to flee from conflict, poverty and terror; to have to leave your home and family behind; and to undertake a perilous journey, only to arrive on less than welcoming shores.These writings are a testament to the strength of the human spirit. The contributors articulate simple truths about migration that will challenge the way we think about and act towards the dispossessed and those forced to seek a safe place to call home.
£8.99
Unbound Miracle Brew: Adventures in the Nature of Beer
Beer is the most popular alcoholic drink on the planet, but few who enjoy it know much about how its four ingredients – hops, malted barley, water and yeast – miraculously combine.From the birth of brewing in the Middle East, through the surreal madness of drink-sodden hop-blessings in the Czech Republic and the stunning recreation of the first ever modern beer, Miracle Brew is an extraordinary journey through the nature and science of the world's greatest beverage.Along the way, we’ll meet and drink with a cast of characters who reveal the magic of beer and celebrate the joy of drinking it.
£9.99
Unbound The Worldwide Forager
A new approach to foragingRoger Phillips is the legendary godfather of foraging. Drawing upon decades of experience, his knowledge of wild food is unrivalled and in this richly illustrated book he shares some of his most recently gathered wisdom, collected from around the world.Roger reveals the edible and therapeutic secrets of our fields, woodlands and flower beds, and suggests tips for sourcing delicious morsels growing throughout the countryside and in our gardens. He also describes the native habitat and history of many fascinating plants and fungi, both common and unusual: from the camas bulbs eaten by the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, to the Italian and Spanish favourite, Caesar’s amanita; from hostas, the familiar garden foliage consumed as a succulent vegetable in Japan, to the newly popular Australian citrus fruits.The Worldwide Forager is divided into four sections: mushrooms and fungi; flowers, leaves and herbs; fruit and nuts; and roots and tubers, and Roger uses each one to provide a wide range of ideas for making your meals more colourful, delicious and sustainable.
£22.50
Unbound A Year in the Life: Adventures in British Subcultures
After nearly a decade of dutifully climbing the corporate ladder to become a partner in a headhunting firm, Lucy Leonelli was feeling restless in a life that was seemingly mapped out for her, and she could not shake the sense that she was missing out on something… something out there.Realising that the answer was right in front of her – in a country so full of clandestine communities and colourful, eccentric characters – Lucy made the daring decision to hit the pause button on her career and hang up her suit in favour of a year exploring twenty-six wildly different subcultures.Over the next twelve months, she lived with battle re-enactors, circus performers, hill baggers, Morris dancers, naturists, trainspotters, yogis, zeitgeist political activists and more, experiencing first-hand their social rituals and customs in the hope that, somewhere along the way, she might just uncover the most authentic version of herself. A Year in the Life charts Lucy’s adventure as she sang naked karaoke with naturists, jumped from one very high place to another with parkour daredevils, partied in tight latex with self-proclaimed vampires and fought the undead in an epic LARP battle. It tells of the importance of community in an increasingly isolating society; of the unquenchable human thirst for a sense of belonging; of how misguided our own prejudices can be; and of how when we open the door to others, we might just learn something about ourselves.
£9.99
Unbound This Party's Dead: Grief, Joy and Spilled Rum at the World's Death Festivals
'Poignant and often hilarious' Publishers WeeklyWhat if we responded to death... by throwing a party?By the time Erica Buist’s father-in-law Chris was discovered, upstairs in his bed, his book resting on his chest, he had been dead for over a week. She searched for answers (the artery-clogging cheeses in his fridge?) and tried to reason with herself (does daughter-in-law even feature in the grief hierarchy?) and eventually landed on an inevitable, uncomfortable truth: everybody dies.With Mexico’s Day of the Dead festivities as a starting point, Erica decided to confront death head-on by visiting seven death festivals around the world – one for every day they didn’t find Chris. From Mexico to Nepal, Sicily, Thailand, Madagascar, Japan and finally Indonesia – with a stopover in New Orleans, where the dead outnumber the living ten to one – Erica searched for the answers to both fundamental and unexpected questions around death anxiety.This Party’s Dead is the account of her journey to understand how other cultures deal with mortal terror, how they move past the knowledge that they’re going to die in order to live happily day-to-day, how they celebrate rather than shy away from the topic of death – and how when this openness and acceptance are passed down through the generations, death suddenly doesn’t seem so scary after all.
£10.99
Unbound Field Notes: Walking the Territory
Field Notes is the record of a territory in full colour: a book of words and artworks that capture a year spent on foot in the Lincolnshire landscape.It is about topography and time. Chalk and flint and marsh. The coming and going of the sea, Neolithic farmers and the razzle-dazzle of weary coastal towns. It is as much about the ghost of a mammoth as it is the scream of a jet fighter, heading east. Each image is a still from a film – a film that is under constant production inside Maxim Peter Griffin’s skull.Griffin’s art is about taking somewhere and looking at it over and over so that with each looking it becomes strange and new. As well as being a testament to the isolated beauty of Lincolnshire itself, Field Notes is an extraordinary account of what it is like to be present in, to fully inhabit, a place.
£12.99
Unbound Poguemahone
‘If you’re looking for this century’s Ulysses, look no further … a stunningly lyrical novel’ Alex Preston, Observer‘Pitched – deliriously – between high modernism and folk magic, between gorgeous free-verse and hilarious Irish vernacular, Poguemahone is a stunning achievement … profoundly affecting’ David Keenan‘A blistering, brilliant ballad of mad tales from rural Ireland to London Town. The characters are electric, the narrative fuelled with a brilliant frenetic energy. McCabe is truly original’ Elaine FeeneyDan Fogarty, an Irishman living in England, is looking after his sister Una, now seventy and suffering from dementia in a care home in Margate. From Dan’s anarchic account, we gradually piece together the story of the Fogarty family. How the parents are exiled from a small Irish village and end up living the hard immigrant life in England. How Dots, the mother, becomes a call girl in 1950s Soho. How a young and overweight Una finds herself living in a hippie squat in Kilburn in the early 1970s. How the squat appears to be haunted by vindictive ghosts who eat away at the sanity of all who live there. And, finally, how all that survives now of those sex-and-drug-soaked times are Una’s unspooling memories as she sits outside in the Margate sunshine, and Dan himself, whose role in the story becomes stranger and more sinister. Poguemahone is a huge, shape-shifting epic from one of modern Ireland's greatest writers. It is a wild, free-verse monologue, steeped in music and folklore, crammed with characters, both real and imagined, on a scale Patrick McCabe has never attempted before.
£18.00
Unbound OneTrackMinds: True stories about life-changing songs
Put your headphones on, close your eyes. Embrace the possibility of the life-changing power of music. And perhaps one of these songs will change your life too.Music can inspire our greatest creations, salve our deepest wounds, make us fall in – or out of – love. It can also be a window into another’s soul. Based on the popular live storytelling series, OneTrackMinds is a collection of twenty-five compelling answers to the question, ‘What was the song that changed your life?’Featuring pieces from a stellar cast of contributors including Peter Tatchell, Inua Ellams, Cash Carraway, Rhik Samadder, Ingrid Oliver and Joe Dunthorne, alongside some of the UK’s most exciting new voices, the book compiles many of the standout stories from the live show so far. Just as rich and varied are the songs themselves, by artists ranging from Nina Simone and Joni Mitchell to Aphex Twin and the Replacements via Tupac, Prince and the Spice Girls.The result is an entertaining, enlightening musical guide to the best of what makes us human.
£12.99
Unbound The Draftsman
Martin Cox is a brilliant but untrained draftsman in his early twenties. He is rich, damaged, obsessive.Shadowhurst Hall, remote, desolate and forgotten, exerts a peculiar pull. The country landscape, a world of shades and shadows, both confuses and beguiles Martin, a man more comfortable in black and white, with facts and numbers.As he explores the house, the landscape and its history it leads him on a journey – back in time to two world wars, and forwards, unexpectedly, towards a healing. A novel of memory and history, and of the scars left by unacknowledged damage and how they can shape us, The Draftsman is also a story of renewal.
£9.99
Unbound Not as Nature Intended
Relying on a hidden camera, a bluff and a little bit of luck, award-winning investigative journalist Rich Hardy finds imaginative ways to meet the people and industries responsible for the lives and deaths of the billions of animals used to feed, clothe and entertain us. What he discovers will shock, but it may just inspire you to re-evaluate your relationship with all animals and what role you let them play in your life. Sometimes dangerous, often emotional and occasionally surreal, this one-of-a-kind perspective examines what it’s like to live and work amongst your adversaries and what you can achieve if you feel strongly enough about something. ‘Cruelty to animals goes on daily behind the closed doors of factory farms or deep in the forests where wild animals are trapped for their fur. Rich’s book exposes us to the raw truth behind these animal trades. Whilst it’s a deeply personal story, it has the potential to change, not just your own life, but the lives of millions of animals. I urge you to read it!’ Joanna Lumley, Actress, author and activist 'An incredible and moving exposé of the horror that animals go through to create a product that destroys the environment & keeps people sick and miserable.’ Moby, Musician and activist ‘It is beautifully and lucidly written...it avoids gratuitous expression but delivers the truth in a compelling and penetrating narrative. Not As Nature Intended is a must read.’ Peter Egan, Actor and animal advocate 'A 007 of the animal world.’ Rhian Lubin, The Daily Mirror ‘As you read this book, if you have a heart and a soul, you too won't fail to be bowled over by Rich's courage.’ Jane Dalton, The Independent ‘All the evidence we need to make our future a plant-based one.’ Christina Rees MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Vegetarianism and Veganism ‘An eye-opening insight into the horrors endured by animals around the world - and into the minds of those who risk everything to help them.’ Maria Chiorando, Plant Based News
£9.89
Unbound The Decade in Tory: The Sunday Times Bestseller: An Inventory of Idiocy from the Coalition to Covid
In 2020 the United Kingdom reached a bewildering milestone: ten successive years of Conservative rule. In that decade there were three prime ministers, each in turn described as the worst leader we ever had; ministerial resignations by the hundred; and an unrelenting stream of ineffectual, divisive bum-slurry oozing from 10 Downing Street.The Decade in Tory is an inglorious, rollicking and entirely true account of ten years of demonstrable lies, relentless incompetence, serial corruption, abuse of power, dereliction of duty and hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths. With his signature scathing wit, Russell Jones breaks down the government’s interminable failures year by year, covering everything from David Cameron’s pledge to tackle inequality – which reduced UK life expectancy for the first time since 1841 – through to Boris Johnson’s calamitous response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It will leave you gasping and wondering: how could things get any worse?
£13.49
Unbound How to be a Craftivist
'This is mindful activism . . . thought-out, strategic and engaging' Guardian'I love what Sarah does! It's quiet activism for everyone including introverts' Jon Ronson'Sarah Corbett mixes an A-grade mind with astonishing creativity and emotional awareness' Lucy SiegleIf we want a world that is beautiful, kind and fair, shouldn't our activism be beautiful, kind and fair?Award-winning campaigner and founder of the global Craftivist Collective Sarah Corbett shows how to respond to injustice not with apathy or aggression, but with gentle, effective protest.This is a manifesto – for a more respectful and contemplative activism; for conversation and collaboration where too often these is division and conflict; for using craft to engage, empower and encourage us all to be the change we wish to see in the world.Sarah's craftivism has helped change laws and business policies as well as hearts and minds; here, with thoughtful principles and practical examples, she shows that quiet action can speak as powerfully as the loudest voice.
£13.01
Unbound Unbelievable
Neona White is rather extraordinary. The thing is, while she knows that she's very different from other teenagers, she doesn't know quite how different…yet. A traumatic incident leaves Neona without the desire to keep living and a fear that she's not entirely human, and her mother is less than forthcoming. She is soon sent to live with her Grandmother where, after making some unusual new friends, she begins a dangerous quest to unravel the mysteries of her identity. Her supernatural identity.Neona continues to face the eternal struggle between what people want her to be and who she actually is, as the world she thought she knew begins to disclose its unbelievable secrets.
£11.00
Unbound I Could Read the Sky
‘Think about a tune … the unsayable, the invisible, the longing in music. Here is a book of tunes without musical notes … It wrings the heart’ John Berger'The voice that O'Grady has crafted succeeds so well...running in parallel, Pyke's stark arresting images are laced between the paragraphs and chapters. The interplay between the two mediums is delicately powerful' Hilary White‘A masterpiece’ Robert Macfarlane‘O’Grady does not just respond to Pyke’s stark, beautiful photographs: he gives voice to thousands’ Louise Kennedy‘The experience of Irish emigration uniquely and powerfully illuminated’ Mark Knopfler‘If the words tell the story of the voiceless, the bleak lovely photographs show their faces. Fiction rarely gets as close to the messy, glorious truth as do memories and photographs. This rare novel dares to use both’ Charlotte Mendelson, TLSAn old man lies alone and sleepless in London. Before dawn he is taken by an image from his childhood in the West of Ireland, and begins to remember a migrant’s life. Haunted by the faces and the land he left behind, he calls forth the bars and boxing booths of England, the potato fields and building sites, the music he played and the woman he loved.Timothy O’Grady’s tender, vivid prose and Steve Pyke’s starkly beautiful photographs combine to make a unique work of fiction, an act of remembering suffused with loss, defiance and an unforgettable loveliness. An Irish life with echoes of the lives of unregarded migrant workers everywhere. Since it was first published in 1997, I Could Read the Sky has achieved the status of a classic.
£17.99
Unbound Live!: Why We Go Out
'ABC', as perfect as anything I've ever witnessed up until that point in my tiny little life. Three minutes of divine delirium.In 1972, when Robert Elms was thirteen years old, he saw the Jackson 5 play live at the Empire Pool. At some point during the performance, he found himself in a state of otherworldly perfect synchronicity with everything happening around him. This single event would set him off on an endless pursuit for that same height of pleasure.Since then, Robert has lived his life through live music, from pub rock to jazz funk, punk to country, and everything in between. Each gig is memorable in its own way, and his snapshots of musicians past and present are both evocative and startlingly concise: Tom Waits showboating with an umbrella, Grace Jones vogueing with a mannequin, Amy shimmying shamelessly like a little girl at a wedding, Gil Scott-Heron rapping with a conga drum. While in our changed times, Robert notes that we have found new ways of listening – of being part of something special by uniting fans with their favourite performers online – there is not, nor can there ever be, anything quite like the live experience. Live!: Why We Go Out is a memoir and a musing on why experiencing live music really matters.
£17.09
Unbound Underneath The Archers: Nature’s secret agent on Britain’s longest-running drama
'As hilarious, charming, eccentric, informative, addictive and delightful as the show itself' STEPHEN FRYMuch-loved radio drama The Archers has been at the heart of British life for over seventy years, and the momentous events and changes of this time have all found a place in Ambridge. For more than three decades, scriptwriter Graham Harvey was the man behind the show’s farming storylines, writing over 600 episodes and crafting some of its most memorable moments: the Great Flood, the trashing of Brian’s GM crop, the loss of the Grundy family farm.In this book Graham interweaves personal memories of these moments with extracts from the scripts he created, offering behind-the-scenes details of how key characters and plotlines were developed, keeping pace with the real changes taking place in village and farm life. He also explores the part the show played in setting Britain on its disastrous transition from small-scale, sustainable farming to industrial agriculture. Could it now help guide the nation back to the nature-friendly, planet-saving methods we so desperately need?Underneath The Archers relates a personal drama, too: how Graham uncovered his father’s dark, wartime secret, the trauma which was to blight their family life. The insecurities of his youth gave Graham a deep attachment to the fictional community he was creating. The reassurance he found was in a love for England: its land, its soil, its farming culture – a love that found its perfect expression in the world of Ambridge and its inhabitants.
£17.09
Unbound The Unwinding Cards
The front of each card features one of Jackie’s paintings from the book; on the back, there is short quote, spell or poem from the book plus space for you to write, draw or paint messages which you can send to spread peace and beauty to the people you love and care about. Inspired by dreams and wishes, these cards will ease the soul and offer respite from an increasingly frantic and complex world.Including new words and illustrations, this postcard box will be an elegant work of art in its own right, as useful as it is beautiful.
£18.00
Unbound Under the Knife: Life Lessons from the Operating Theatre
Dr Liz O’Riordan is a breast cancer surgeon who has battled against social, physical and mental challenges to practise at the top of her field. Under the Knife charts Liz’s incredible highs: performing like a couture dressmaker as she moulded and reshaped women’s breasts, while saving their lives; to the heart-breaking lows of telling ten women a day that they had cancer.But this memoir is more than just an eye-opening look at the realities of training to be a female surgeon in a man’s world. In addition to this high-powered, high-pressured role, Liz faced her own breast cancer diagnosis, severe depression and suicidal thoughts, in tandem with commonplace sexual harassment and bullying. And by revealing how she coped when her life crashed around her, she demonstrates there is always hope.
£12.99
Unbound Underdogs: Uprising
It’s the last days of the war. The fate of humanity is at stake. The stage is set for the Underdogs’ final battle.After thirteen months of vicious warfare, the fight between the Underdogs and Nicholas Grant’s forces is almost at an end. The neurodiverse heroes of Spitfire’s Rise have fought a war to be proud of, however their greatest challenge still lies ahead.In this epic conclusion to the series, the world is on the brink of annihilation and the survival of humankind hangs in the balance. Grant is finally in a position where he could be defeated – but, once again, the Underdogs do not have numbers on their side. They must overcome the odds that have been stacked against them since day one and infiltrate New London to prevent global destruction.Underdogs: Uprising sees the Great British Rebellion come to a head in a cataclysmic showdown. Nobody knows what the country and the wider world will look like once the dust settles around the survivors; the only certainty is that the final night of the war will determine the destiny of the human population.
£10.99
Unbound The Low Road
Two young women. One passionate love. Will their paths ever cross again?Norfolk, 1813. In the quiet Waveney Valley, the body of a woman – Mary Tyrell – is staked through the heart after her death by suicide. She had been under arrest for the suspected murder of her newborn child. Mary leaves behind a young daughter, Hannah, who is later sent away to the Refuge for the Destitute in London, where she will be trained for a life of domestic service.It is at the Refuge that Hannah meets Annie Simpkins, a fellow resident, and together they forge a friendship that deepens into passionate love. But the strength of this bond is put to the test when the girls are caught stealing from the Refuge's laundry, and they are sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay, setting them on separate paths that may never cross again.Drawing on real events, The Low Road is a gripping, atmospheric tale that brings to life the forgotten voices of the past – convicts, servants, the rural poor – as well as a moving evocation of love that blossomed in the face of prejudice and ill fortune.
£17.09
Unbound Fox: Accordion Book No 1
An Accordion Book doesn’t open, it unfolds. One side is filled with beautiful watercolour images of an animal: sometimes in motion, sometimes at rest. The other is filled with text – poems, descriptions, invocations – inspired by the same animal.Together they work as spells to summon the animal’s spirit. Jackie Morris has painted them using antique watercolours, some from boxes which hadn't been opened for over 150 years, woken from their slumber with a single drop of water.Fox and Otter are the first two Accordions in a series that will go on to include Hare, Hound, Owl and Cat among many others.
£12.99
Unbound Legends of the Leaf: Unearthing the secrets to help your plants thrive
Finalist for the Garden Media Guild Awards 2023Have you ever wondered why the leaves of the Swiss cheese plant have holes? How aloe vera came to be harnessed as a medicinal powerhouse? Or why – despite your best efforts – you can’t keep your Venus flytrap alive?You are not alone: houseplant expert Jane Perrone has asked herself those very questions, and in Legends of the Leaf she digs deep beneath the surface to reveal the answers. By exploring how they grow in the wild, and the ways they are understood and used by the people who live among them, we can learn almost everything we need to know about our cherished houseplants.Along the way, she unearths their hidden histories and the journeys they’ve taken to become prized possessions in our homes: from the Kentia palms which stood either side of Queen Victoria’s coffin as she lay in state; to the dark history of the leopard lily, once exploited for its toxic properties; to English ivy, which provided fishermen with a source of bait.Each houseplant history in this beautifully illustrated collection is accompanied by a detailed care guide and hard-won practical advice, but it is only by understanding their roots that we can truly unlock the secrets to helping plants thrive.
£13.49
Unbound How to be a Good Bboy: What a cat’s kindness teaches us about human justice
‘Bboy’ means ‘boy’ in a very particular form of internet cat-speak. You can pronounce it ‘boy’, ‘buh-boy’ or ‘bee-boy’, whatever makes your heart happiest. It’s not always easy to live your life with kindness, but Ellen Murray and her cat Bilbo are doing their best to spread messages of positivity to their followers. As an LGBT+ and disability activist, Ellen’s goal has always been to make love, care and safety a reality for all – but fighting for your own rights or standing as an ally to others can be daunting, intimidating and confusing work.How to Be a Good Bboy is an accessible guide to understanding what human rights work is all about: how to get involved, navigate the inevitable pitfalls, overcome imposter syndrome and own your vulnerability and power.It is about Bilbo, and about Ellen. About her work, and about how Bilbo’s online presence is not just an accessory to that work but a way to channel the greater goals of her activism to a wider audience. It is about dignity, respect and justice, and ultimately how to be a very good bboy.
£15.29
Unbound Haramacy: A collection of stories prescribed by voices from the Middle East, South Asia and the diaspora
'A beautiful love letter to the diaspora, Haramacy is an essential collection of essays that push the conversation forward on issues to do with visibility, mental health, race and class' Nikesh Shukla'A superbly crafted collection of essays. Often elegant, often visceral, always essential' Musa OkwongaJournalism in the UK is 94 per cent white and 55 per cent male, while only 0.4 per cent of journalists are Muslim and 0.2 per cent are Black. The publishing industry’s statistics are equally dire. Many publications will use British Black, Indigenous People of Colour when it’s convenient; typically, when the region the writer represents is topical and newsworthy. Otherwise, their voices are left muted.Haramacy amplifies under-represented voices. Tackling topics previously left unspoken, this anthology offers a space for writers to explore ideas that mainstream organisations overlook. Focusing on the experiences of twelve Middle Eastern and South Asian writers, the essays explore visibility, invisibility, love, strength and race, painting a picture of what it means to feel fractured - both in the UK and back home. Appreciating both heritage and adopted home, the anthology highlights the various shades that make up our society.The title, Haramacy, is an amalgamation of the Arabic word ‘haram’, meaning indecent or forbidden, and the English word ‘pharmacy’, implying a safe, trustworthy space that prescribes the antidote to ailments caused by intersectional, social issues. The book features contributions by novelists, journalists, and artists including Aina J. Khan, Ammar Kalia, Cyrine Sinti, Joe Zadeh, Kieran Yates, Nasri Atallah, Nouf Alhimiary, Saleem Haddad and Sanjana Varghese, as well as essays by editors Dhruva Balram, Tara Joshi and Zahed Sultan.
£10.99
Unbound Little Dancer
Paris, 1878. Ballet dancer Marie van Goethem is chosen by the unknown artist Edgar Degas to model for his new sculpture: Little Dancer, aged fourteen years.But Marie is much more than she seems. By day she’s a 'little rat' of the opera, contorting her starving body to entertain the bourgeoisie. By night she’s plotting to overthrow the government and reinstate the Paris Commune, to keep a promise she made to her father, a leading Communard who died in the street massacres of 1871.As Marie watches the troubling sculpture of herself come to life in Degas’ hands, she falls further into the intoxicating world of bohemian, Impressionist Paris, a world at odds with the socialist principles she has vowed to uphold.With the fifth Impressionist Exhibition looming, a devastating family secret is uncovered which changes everything for both Marie and Degas. As Degas struggles to finish his sculpture and the police close in on Marie, she must decide where her loyalties lie and act to save herself, her family and the Little Dancer.
£10.99
Unbound 100 Voices: 100 women share their stories of achievement
'Remarkably brought together, heartwarming and uplifting . . . showing that despite differences in age and background, geography and lifestyle, there is so much that binds up, so much we share' Kit de Waal'A stimulating collection of women's voices to help inspire us for the next 100 years' Elizabeth Day100 Voices is an anthology of writing by women across the country on what achievement means for them, and how they have come to find their own voice. Featuring poetry, fiction and memoir, the pieces range from notes on making lemon curd, to tales of marathon running and riding motorbikes, to accounts of a refugee eating English food for the first time, a newlywed learning her mother tongue and a woman rebuilding her life after an abusive relationship.The poignant, funny and inspiring stories collected here are as varied and diverse as their authors, who include established names such as Louise Jensen, Sabrina Mahfouz, Yvonne Battle-Felton and Miranda Keeling alongside a host of exciting new writers. Taken together, they build a picture of what it’s really like to be a woman in the UK today.
£10.99
Unbound Philosophers' Dogs: How history's greatest thinkers stole ideas from their four-legged friends
What does it mean to be a good dog? Are tennis balls always real? Is a bark ever truly worse than a bite? All these questions and more are answered in Philosophers’ Dogs, the groundbreaking treat-ise that has been dog years in the making. The book reveals a long-kept secret: that every human philosopher has stolen their best ideas from their canine companions, shamelessly disguising the dogs’ original thoughts as their own.Featuring beautiful illustrations alongside meticulously researched historical fact,* Philosophers’ Dogs follows the trials, tribulations and tail-wagging of the pooches owned by famous philosophers and essayists. It is a vital addition to the bookshelves of philosophy students and dog lovers alike, packed with insights hitherto (wrongly) attributed to everyone from Confucius to Simone de Beauvoir via Socrates, Karl Marx and Mary Wollstonecraft. *Not necessarily historical or factual.
£9.99
Unbound Gender Euphoria: Stories of joy from trans, non-binary and intersex writers
'Earlier in my life and in my transition, Gender Euphoria would be the book that I needed’ Chelsea Manning‘Upends the baked-in narrative about pain and unhappiness . . . This book’ll inspire you’ Christine Burns MBEGENDER EUPHORIA: a powerful feeling of happiness experienced as a result of moving away from one’s birth-assigned gender.So often the stories shared by trans people about their transition centre on gender dysphoria: a feeling of deep discomfort with their birth-assigned gender, and a powerful catalyst for coming out or transitioning. But for many non-cisgender people, it’s gender euphoria which pushes forward their transition: the joy the first time a parent calls them by their new chosen name, the first time they have the confidence to cut their hair short, the first time they truly embrace themself.In this groundbreaking anthology, nineteen trans, non-binary, agender, gender-fluid and intersex writers share their experiences of gender euphoria: an agender dominatrix being called ‘Daddy’, an Arab trans man getting his first tattoos, a trans woman embracing her inner fighter.What they have in common are their feelings of elation, pride, confidence, freedom and ecstasy as a direct result of coming out as non-cisgender, and how coming to terms with their gender has brought unimaginable joy into their lives.
£11.79
Unbound Greetings from Effin' Birds: 100 Tear-Out Postcards
100 SWEARY TEAR-OUT POSTCARDS TO DELIGHT YOUR NEAREST AND DEAREST, FROM THE CREATOR OF EFFIN’ BIRDS Ever since Effin’ Birds first appeared on social media, fans have been clamouring for a way to deliver these lavishly illustrated profane messages in the real world. Today is the day that their prayers and DMs are answered: Greetings from Effin' Birds is a book of 100 tear-out postcards, featuring new birds and new jokes, plus 100 absolutely true* Bird Facts that will help you spot these fine avian creatures in your everyday life. The bewildered gander wants to talk about how fucked everything is... The fretful scaup wants to know how long this bullshit is going to take... The rational sheldrake is losing its fucking mind over here... and 97 more!*All 100 Bird Facts are completely untrue.
£13.49
Unbound Running Tracks: The playlist and places that made me a runner
Rob Deering has been listening to music his whole life, but it was only in his mid-thirties that – much to his surprise – he found himself falling in love with the hugely popular, nearly perfect, sometimes preposterous activity of runningIn this vividly conjured collection, Rob shares stories of when a run, a place and a tune come together in a life-defining moment. His adventures in running have spanned four continents, fifteen marathons and numberless miles of park and pavement, and the carefully chosen music streaming through his headphones has spurred him forward throughout. What makes the perfect running tune? Where can you find the best routes, even in an unfamiliar town? Why do people put themselves through marathons? In Running Tracks, Rob Deering shares his sometimes surprising answers to these questions, and explains how a hobby became an obsession that changed his life forever.
£9.99
Unbound Women on Nature: 100+ Voices on Place, Landscape & the Natural World
There has, in recent years, been an explosion of writing about place, landscape and the natural world. But within this, women’s voices have remained in the minority. This anthology gathers the voices of women from the fourteenth to the twenty-first centuries whose subject is the natural world in Britain, Ireland and the outlying islands of our archipelago. Alongside the traditional forms of the travelogue, the walking guide, books on birds, plants and wildlife, Women on Nature embraces alternative modes of seeing and recording that turn the genre on its head. Katharine Norbury has sifted though the pages of women’s fiction, poetry, biography, gardening diaries and recipe books and garnered accounts from artists, farmers, theologians and natural scientists to demonstrate the multitudinous ways in which women have observed the world about them. From the fourteenth-century spiritual revelations of Julian of Norwich to the seventeenth-century travel journals of Celia Fiennes, and including a host of twenty-first-century voices such Sarah Evans, Sinéad Gleeson, Kathleen Jamie, Jackie Kay, Rachel Lichtenstein, Amy Liptrot, Helen Mort, Anita Sethi and more, Women on Nature presents a fresh vision of the natural world and is of unique importance in terms of women’s history and the history of writing about nature.
£22.50
Unbound In Other Words
A shift in the nature of light reveals an eighth colour in the visible spectrum. A boy befriends the last tree in the natural world. A single mother finds help at the darkest point of her life. A young man finds himself trapped in a university overrun by crows.These stories and more form In Other Words, an anthology as diverse as the writers themselves. Some cover trauma, societal issues and stigma; others offer fragments of hope and light. Some reach back in time while others transport us to another dimension altogether. There is heartbreak, wit, humour, poignancy and above all a mastery of the imagination.What these transcendent stories share is that they were created by autistic writers, people often dismissed as unimaginative or incapable of creativity – a myth that has persisted for generations. This collection hopes to shatter those stereotypes, those misconceptions and misunderstandings, and the perception that one must be neurotypical to be afforded a voice in the arts.
£9.99
Unbound Between the Devil and the Deep: One Man's Battle to Beat the Bends
'One of the best accounts ever written of deep-water diving and its staggering, haunting dangers' Robert Kurson, New York Times bestselling author of Shadow DiversDeep underwater lurks a mysterious man-made illness. It has gone by many names over the years – Satan’s disease, diver’s palsy, the chokes – but today, medics call it decompression sickness. You know it as the bends.That’s the devil British diver Martin Robson faces each time he plunges beneath the surface. In the winter of 2012, Robson was part of an expedition to Blue Lake, southern Russia, which sought to find a submerged cave system never seen by the human eye. On the final day of the expedition, as Robson returned from diving deeper into the lake than anyone had before, disaster struck: just seventy-five feet down, he was ambushed by the bends.Robson knew that if he continued up to the surface he would probably die before help arrived. Instead, he sank back into the water, gambling on an underwater practice most doctors believe is a suicidal act. Soon the only hope he had of saving his life would rest in the hands of a dramatic mercy mission organised at the highest levels of the Russian government.Between the Devil and the Deep is the first book to tell the terrifying true story of what it feels like to get the bends, taking you inside the body and mind of a man who suffered the unthinkable. Writer Mark Cowan also explores the grimly fascinating history of decompression sickness, the science behind what causes the disease, and the stories of the forgotten divers who pushed the limits of physical endurance to help find a solution.
£22.50
Unbound The Future of Stuff
Where and who do we want to be? How might we get there? What might happen if we stay on our current course?The Future of Stuff asks what kind of world will we live in when every item of property has a digital trace, when nothing can be lost and everything has a story. Will property and ownership become as fluid as film is today: summoned on demand, dismissed with a swipe? What will this mean for how we buy, rent, share and dispose of stuff? About what our stuff says about us? And how will this impact on us, on manufacturing and supply, and on the planet?This brief but mighty book is one of five that comprise the first set of FUTURES essays. Each standalone book presents the author's original vision of a singular aspect of the future which inspires in them hope or reticence, optimism or fear. Read individually, these essays will inform, entertain and challenge. Together, they form a picture of what might lie ahead, and ask the reader to imagine how we might make the transition from here to there, from now to then.
£6.66
Unbound A Hundred Years to Arras
On a painful, freezing Easter Monday in 1917, Private Robert Gooding Henson of the Somerset Light Infantry is launched into the Battle of Arras. Robert is twenty-three years old, a farmer’s boy from Somerset, who joins up against his father’s wishes. Robert forms fast friendships with Stanley, who lied about his age to go to war, and Ernest, whose own slippery account betrays a life on the streets. Their friendship is forged through gas attacks, trench warfare, freezing in trenches, hunting rats, and chasing down kidnapped regimental dogs. Their life is one of mud and mayhem but also love and laughs.This is the story of Robert’s journey to Arras and back, his dreams and memories drawing him home. His story is that of the working-class Tommy, the story of thousands of young men who were caught in the collision between old rural values and the relentlessness of a new kind of war. It is a story that connects the past with the present through land, love and blood.
£9.99