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Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down: How One Generation of British Actors Changed the World
Alan Bates, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Tom Courtenay, Albert Finney, Richard Harris, Peter O’Toole, Robert Shaw and Terence Stamp: They are the most formidable acting generation ever to tread the boards or stare into a camera, whose anti-establishment attitude changed the cultural landscape of Britain.
This was a new breed, many culled from the working class industrial towns of Britain, and nothing like them has been seen before or since. Their raw earthy brilliance brought realism to a whole range of groundbreaking theatre from John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger to Joan Littlewood and Harold Pinter and the creation of the National Theatre. And they ripped apart the staid, middle-class British film industry with kitchen-sink classics like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, This Sporting Life, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, A Kind of Loving and Billy Liar before turning their sights on international stardom: Connery with James Bond, O’Toole as Lawrence of Arabia, Finney with Tom Jones and Caine in Zulu.
Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down brings alive the trail-blazing period of theatre and film from 1956-1964 through the vibrant energy and exploits of this revolutionary generation of stars who bulldozed over austerity Britain and paved the way for the swinging 60s. What Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders Raging Bulls did for American cinema writing so Don’t Let the Bastards will do for the British cinema.
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Unfit and Improper Persons: An Idiot’s Guide to Owning a Football Club FROM THE PRICE OF FOOTBALL PODCAST
‘A very funny book that tackles some serious football issues.’ Gary Lineker
‘Witty and wise.’ Clare Balding
‘Brilliant. Blows the lid off football. Hilarious, detailed and insightful.’ Alan Davies
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Ever dreamed of setting up your own football club?
Join the team behind The Price of Football podcast as they start a (fictional) football club and discover what’s really going on behind the scenes of the beautiful game.
Buying a football club will set you back a few quid, but you’ve also got to pass the Premier League and EFL’s ‘fit and proper persons test’. That all seems like a bit of a faff to the team behind the award-winning podcast The Price of Football, so acclaimed comedy writer Kevin Day, football finance expert Kieran Maguire and producer Guy Kilty start an imaginary club instead.
In Unfit and Improper Persons they take West Park Rovers on a hilarious journey from the lowest level of the FA pyramid right up to the English Football League, the Premier League and, if fortune favours the fictional, into the heart of Europe.
At least that’s the plan, but inevitably they face a few challenges along the way. Where to find a shirt sponsor? What should the mascot be – is a dog called Rover too obvious? Can they pay the women’s team the same as the men’s team? (Spoiler alert: hardly anyone else does.) And how can they get Messi to the Kleanwell Stadium next season, like they promised the fans?
Roofing over the toilets, paying the electric on the floodlights, salary caps, parachute payments and avoiding bankruptcy, never mind relegation – owning a football club isn’t all about stuffing prawn sarnies and quaffing champagne in the directors’ box.
Unfit and Improper Persons is informed, funny and, thanks to exclusive interviews with those who’ve been there, done that, it lays bare the labyrinthine world of football finance.
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Klima: Signs Of ∗language∗ (cloth)
In a book with far-reaching implications, Edward S. Klima and Ursula Bellugi present a full exploration of a language in another mode–a language of the hands and of the eyes. They discuss the origin and development of American Sign Language, the internal structure of its basic units, the grammatical processes it employs, and its heightened use in poetry and wit. The authors draw on research, much of it by and with deaf people, to answer the crucial question of what is fundamental to language as language and what is determined by the mode (vocal or gestural) in which a language is produced.
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British Politics For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Your updated and revised guide to British politicsSo, you want to be knowledgeable about British politics but don’t know where to start? You’ve come to the right place! British Politics For Dummies is your essential guide to understanding even the trickiest questions surrounding politics in the UK. In no time, you’ll have the confidence to discuss the ins and outs of past and present elections, political leaders, parties and ideologies.
Packed with understandable information on the origins, history and structure of the UK parliamentary system, British Politics For Dummies offers a fascinating glimpse into the rollercoaster world of politics. Explaining everything from key political ideologies and the spread of democracy to the current election process and the differences between political parties, this hands-on, friendly guide is an ideal companion to British politics and elections.
- Includes expanded coverage of coalition governments, devolution and independence efforts
- Provides updated information on UKIP and Britain’s place in Europe
- Serves as a helpful guide to elections and British political parties―electoral systems, voting behaviour and trends and the role of pressure groups and the media
- Offers a fascinating examination of British politics on the world stage
Whether you want to get to grips with British politics and government or build your knowledge beyond the basics, this updated edition of British Politics For Dummies is the place to start.
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£13.30£15.20British Politics For Dummies, 2nd Edition
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FIFTH SUN: A New History of the Aztecs
In November 1519, Hernando Cortés walked along a causeway leading to the capital of the Aztec kingdom and came face to face with Moctezuma. That story―and the story of what happened afterwards―has been told many times, but always following the narrative offered by the Spaniards. After all, we have been taught, it was the Europeans who held the pens. But the Native Americans were intrigued by the Roman alphabet and, unbeknownst to the newcomers, they used it to write detailed histories in their own language of Nahuatl. Until recently, these sources remained obscure, only partially translated, and rarely consulted by scholars.For the first time, in Fifth Sun, the history of the Aztecs is offered in all its complexity based solely on the texts written by the indigenous people themselves. Camilla Townsend presents an accessible and humanized depiction of these native Mexicans, rather than seeing them as the exotic, bloody figures of European stereotypes. The conquest, in this work, is neither an apocalyptic moment, nor an origin story launching Mexicans into existence. The Mexica people had a history of their own long before the Europeans arrived and did not simply capitulate to Spanish culture and colonization. Instead, they realigned their political allegiances, accommodated new obligations, adopted new technologies, and endured.
This engaging revisionist history of the Aztecs, told through their own words, explores the experience of a once-powerful people facing the trauma of conquest and finding ways to survive, offering an empathetic interpretation for experts and non-specialists alike.
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£13.40£16.60FIFTH SUN: A New History of the Aztecs
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Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History (Societas)
Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History surveys the origins, uses and manifestations of iconoclasm in history, art and public culture. It examines the various causes and uses of image/property defacement as a tool of political, national, religious and artistic process. This is one of the first books to examine the outbreak of iconoclasm in Europe and North America in the summer of 2020 in the context of previous outbreaks, and it examines the implications of iconoclasm as a form of control, censorship and expression.
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Making Sense of the Troubles: A History of the Northern Ireland Conflict
COMPLETELY REVISED AND UPDATED EDITION — THE ESSENTIAL HISTORY OF THE TROUBLES
‘Compellingly written and very even-handed. By far the clearest account of what happened in the Northern Ireland conflict and more importantly why it happened’ Irish News
‘Extraordinarily well-balanced, sane, comprehensive and rich in sober understatement’ Glasgow Herald
__________________________First published two decades ago, Making Sense of the Troubles is widely regarded as the most ‘comprehensive, considered and compassionate’ (Irish Times) history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Written by a distinguished journalist and a teacher of history in Northern Ireland, it surveys the roots of the problems from 1921 onwards, the descent into violence in the late 60s, and the three terrible decades that followed.
In this fully revised and updated version, McKittrick and McVea take into account the momentous events of the ten years that followed their first publication, including the disbanding of the IRA, Ian Paisley’s deal with the Republicans and the historic power-sharing government in Belfast.
__________________________‘An updated reissue of a collaborative study published 12 years ago to rave reviews as a frank, accurate and authoritative narrative of events which should be required reading for anyone hoping to understand what had been going on in the North’ Irish Independent
‘I would strongly advocate that it be made compulsory reading for everyone in Northern Ireland because for the first time it is our history, all of it warts and all, presented in a clear and understandable way’ Irish News
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A Short History of the Spanish Civil War: Revised Edition (Short Histories)
In elegant and accessible prose, Julián Casanova tells the gripping story of the Spanish Civil War. These anguished and traumatic years filled Spain with hope, frustration and drama. Not only did it pit countryman against countryman, and neighbour against neighbour, but from 1936-39 this bitterly contended struggle sucked in competing and seemingly atavistic forces that were soon to rage across the face of Europe, and then the rest of the world: nationalism and republicanism; communism and fascism; anarchism and monarchism; anti-clerical reformism and aristocratic Catholic conservatism. The ‘Guerra Civil’ is of enduring interest precisely because it represents much more than just a regional contest for power and governmental legitimacy. It has come to be seen as a seedbed for the titanic political struggles and larger social upheavals that scarred the entire 20th century. Charting the most significant events and battles alongside the main players in the tragedy, Casanova provides answers to some of the pressing questions (such as the roots and extent of anticlerical violence) that have been asked in the 70 years that have passed since the painful defeat of the Second Republic. Now with a revised introduction, Casanova offers an overview of key historiographical shifts since the title was first published; not least the wielding of the conflict to political ends in certain strands of contemporary historiography towards an alarming neo-Francoist revisionism.Read more
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Palestine
A powerful graphic novel, capturing the heart of day-to-day life in occupied Palestine.
In late 1991 and early 1992, at the time of the first Intifada, Joe Sacco spent two months with the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, travelling and taking notes.
Upon returning to the United States he started writing and drawing Palestine, which combines the techniques of eyewitness reportage with the medium of comic-book storytelling to explore this complex, emotionally weighty situation. He captures the heart of the Palestinian experience in image after unforgettable image, with great insight and remarkable humour.
The nine-issue comics series won a l996 American Book Award. It is now published for the first time in one volume, befitting its status as one of the great classics of graphic non-fiction.
‘The bar is set extremely high when it comes to graphic books and the Middle East: one thinks of Joe Sacco’s Palestine’ Guy Delise
‘Palestine is utterly compelling, and as affecting as the work of any war photographer or poet’ Varsity
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£13.60£16.10Palestine
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The housing debate (Policy and Politics in the Twenty-First Century)
The emergence of Britain as a fully-fledged home-owning society at the end of the last century has major implications for how people think about and use their housing not just as a home but as an asset. Housing has become a ‘bank’ which households use for various purposes, including: as a pension fund; to provide resources for care needs at all stages of life; to sponsor access to private education and other privately provided services; and, to draw on in emergencies. As a result the home has become a lynchpin of modern family life and the 21st century welfare state. The key debate in this important and timely book is whether social policy and people’s homes should be so closely connected in this way, especially when housing markets are so volatile. This book begins by outlining some of the fundamentals of housing policy and housing markets. It then describes reasons for the emergence of Britain as a home- owning society and, in a parallel development, the growth of council housing. It outlines the reasons behind the withdrawal of support for council housing and its ‘residualisation’ into a social safety net. The next chapter argues that a new social map has been drawn in Britain due to the connection between the home owning society and the conversion of the country to a service-based economy. The link is debated between housing and welfare state development, including comparisons between Britain and other countries. Finally this book reflects on the position of housing and housing policy in the post-credit crunch era with the Brown government seeking to expand a social housing programme and revive the housing market. This book argues that housing, having been a relatively neglected field of public policy, is now rightfully re-established at the forefront of public policy and as a major pillar of the post-industrial welfare state.Read more
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World Politics since 1989
1989 ushered in a new age of freedom and prosperity. Thirty years later, the golden era is over. What went wrong? How did the age of globalization – of growing connectivity, affluence, and growth – give way?
Jonathan Holslag navigates through the calm seas and rip tides of global politics from the Cold War to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He tells a story of faltering momentum and squandered opportunities that explains how the West’s sources of strength were lost to rising consumerism, unbalanced trade, and half-hearted diplomatic engagement. All the while, other powers, like China and Russia, grew stronger. With his trademark verve, Holslag untangles the threads of this story to reveal that it was not so much the ambition of China, the cunning of Putin, or the greed of African strongmen that led the world into this dark place; it was the failure of the West to listen to its people, to show clear leadership, and reinvent itself, in spite of ample evidence that things were going awry.
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£13.70£17.10World Politics since 1989
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The Victorian House: Domestic Life from Childbirth to Deathbed
The bestselling social history of Victorian domestic life, told through the letters, diaries, journals and novels of 19th-century men and women.
The Victorian age is both recent and unimaginably distant. In the most prosperous and technologically advanced nation in the world, people carried slops up and down stairs; buried meat in fresh earth to prevent mould forming; wrung sheets out in boiling water with their bare hands. This drudgery was routinely performed by the parents of people still living, but the knowledge of it has passed as if it had never been. Running water, stoves, flush lavatories – even lavatory paper – arrived slowly throughout the century, and most were luxuries available only to the prosperous.
Judith Flanders, author of the widely acclaimed ‘A Circle of Sisters’, has written an incisive and irresistible portrait of Victorian domestic life. The book itself is laid out like a house, following the story of daily life from room to room: from childbirth in the master bedroom, through the scullery, kitchen and dining room – cleaning, dining, entertaining – on upwards, ending in the sickroom and death.
Through a collage of diaries, letters, advice books, magazines and paintings, Flanders shows how social history is built up out of tiny domestic details. Through these we can understand the desires, motivations and thoughts of the age.
Many people today live in Victorian terraces, and so the houses themselves are familiar, but the lives are not. ‘The Victorian House’ will change all that.
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Reconstruction Updated Edition: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
From the “preeminent historian of Reconstruction” (New York Times Book Review), the prize-winning classic work on the post-Civil War period that shaped modern America.
Eric Foner’s “masterful treatment of one of the most complex periods of American history” (New Republic) redefined how the post-Civil War period was viewed.
Reconstruction chronicles the way in which Americans—black and white—responded to the unprecedented changes unleashed by the war and the end of slavery. It addresses the ways in which the emancipated slaves’ quest for economic autonomy and equal citizenship shaped the political agenda of Reconstruction; the remodeling of Southern society and the place of planters, merchants, and small farmers within it; the evolution of racial attitudes and patterns of race relations; and the emergence of a national state possessing vastly expanded authority and committed, for a time, to the principle of equal rights for all Americans.
This “smart book of enormous strengths” (Boston Globe) remains the standard work on the wrenching post-Civil War period—an era whose legacy still reverberates in the United States today.
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Anthropology For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Study the science of all of us
Anthropology is the organized study of what makes humans human. It takes an objective step back to view homo sapiens as a species and ask questions like: Given our common characteristics, why aren’t all of us exactly the same? Why do people across the world have variable skin and hair color and so many inventive ways to say hello? And how can knowing the reasons behind our differences―as well as our similarities―teach us useful lessons for the future? The updated edition of Anthropology For Dummies gives you a panoramic view of the fascinating fieldwork and theory that seeks to answer these questions―and helps you view the human world through impartial, anthropological eyes.
Keeping the jargon to a minimum, Anthropology For Dummies explores the four main subdivisions of the discipline, from the adventurous Indiana Jones territory of archaeology and the hands-on biological insights provided by our physical nature to the studious book-cracking brainwork of cultural and linguistic investigation. Along the way, you’ll journey deep into our prehistory where we begin to differentiate ourselves from our primate relatives―and then fast forward into the possibilities of centuries yet to come.
- Explore the history of anthropology and apply its methods
- Get a deep, scientific take on contemporary debates such as identity
- Excavate the human past through new fossil discoveries
- Peer into humanity’s future in space
Whether you’re studying anthropology for school or just want to know more about what makes us humans who we are, this is the perfect introduction to humanity’s past and present―and a clue to what we need to build a better future.
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£13.70£17.10Anthropology For Dummies, 2nd Edition
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They Killed Freddie Gray: The Anatomy of a Police Brutality Cover-Up
Based on new evidence and deep reporting, the riveting truth about a case that has become a touchstone in the struggle for racial justice and Black lives.They Killed Freddie Gray exposes a conspiracy among Baltimore leaders to cover up what actually happened to Freddie Gray, who was fatally injured in police custody in April 2015. After Gray’s death, Baltimore became ground zero for Black Lives Matter and racial justice protests that exploded across the country. State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby became a hero when she charged six officers in Gray’s death, and the trials of the officers generated national headlines for two years.
Yet the cause of Gray’s death has remained a mystery. A viral video showed an officer leaning on Gray’s back while he cried out in pain. But the autopsy concluded he was fatally injured later that morning while the van was in motion—during a multi-stop “rough ride”—from sudden impact to his head. None of the officers were convicted of any crimes based on this theory.
They Killed Freddie Gray solves the mystery of Gray’s death by uncovering new evidence of how he was killed by police and how his cause of death was covered up. In coordination with a documentary film now being produced, this book revisits a pivotal moment in US criminal justice history, providing new insight into what happened, the historical structures of power that allowed it to happen, and the personalities and dynamics involved—a story never told by the mainstream media. It includes a detailed map with annotations by the author, photographs, and a foreword by Rabia Chaudry.
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Against Decolonisation: Taking African Agency Seriously (African Arguments)
Selected as one of ‘100 Notable African Books of 2022’ in Brittle Paper
A leading African political philosopher’s searing intellectual and moral critique of today’s decolonisation movement.
Decolonisation has lost its way. Originally a struggle to escape the West’s direct political and economic control, it has become a catch-all idea, often for performing ‘morality’ or ‘authenticity’; it suffocates African thought and denies African agency.
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò fiercely rejects the indiscriminate application of ‘decolonisation’ to everything from literature, language and philosophy to sociology, psychology and medicine. He argues that the decolonisation industry, obsessed with cataloguing wrongs, is seriously harming scholarship on and in Africa. He finds ‘decolonisation’ of culture intellectually unsound and wholly unrealistic, conflating modernity with coloniality, and groundlessly advocating an open-ended undoing of global society’s foundations. Worst of all, today’s movement attacks its own cause: ‘decolonisers’ themselves are disregarding, infantilising and imposing values on contemporary African thinkers.
This powerful, much-needed intervention questions whether today’s ‘decolonisation’ truly serves African empowerment. Táíwò’s is a bold challenge to respect African intellectuals as innovative adaptors, appropriators and synthesisers of ideas they have always seen as universally relevant.
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Where Lizards Play Saxophone: From Hollywood to the Himalayas: A tale of the positively true adventures of a corporate dropout his search for truth, love and the Seven Summits
Where Lizards Play Saxophone is the story of man, confined by his own inability to express and understand his own feelings, having found himself in a life, rather than having chosen and continually choosing his life. He searches the world for answers to the questions he’s finally allowed himself to ask about truth, love and life. It’s a tale common to everyone who ever felt stuck in their lives, disconnected from themselves, for they journeyed on without reading the signs.
Michael, was a Hollywood agent at the top of his game, representing the biggest stars when he loses his first client, and is in love with a woman he just can’t quite find.
He takes us behind the scenes on an intimate journey into the inner circle and inner workings of 1990’s Hollywood, then around the world into every breath of climbing the highest mountain peaks of the Seven Summits.
It was prior to 9/11 and the expansion of the internet, before smart phones and social media… It was the end of an era, when the word ‘unreachable’ was still attainable.
This book is short, a one to two sit read… The reader should feel that they are in a constantly twisting water slide, moving fast being banged around, never really lingering in any environment too long but yet experiencing it’s essence, it’s understanding, until the end when right back to where you started – simple words said at the right time resonate to a feeling of peace and clarity, just like when you come out of that slide and into that warm pool and are free to swim at your own will again.
This is Michael’s first book.
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Limelight: Rush in the ’80s: Rush in the ’80s (Rush Across the Decades): Rush in the ’80s
In the follow up to Anthem: Rush in the ’70s, Martin Popoff brings together canon analysis, cultural context, and extensive firsthand interviews to celebrate Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart at the peak of their persuasive power. Rush was one of the most celebrated hard rock acts of the ’80s, and the second book of Popoff’s staggeringly comprehensive three part series takes readers from Permanent Waves to Presto, while bringing new insight to Moving Pictures, their crowning glory. Limelight: Rush in the is a celebration of fame, of the pushback against that fame, of fortunes made — and spent… In the latter half of the decade, as Rush adopts keyboard technology and gets pert and poppy, there’s an uproar amongst diehards, but the band finds a whole new crop of listeners. Limelight charts a dizzying period in the band’s career, built of explosive excitement but also exhaustion, a state that would lead, as the ’90s dawned, to the band questioning everything they previously believed, and each member eying the oncoming decade with trepidation and suspicion.
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Higher Politics: Revise and learn (Bright Red Study Guides)
Get exam ready with our brand-new Higher Politics Study Guide!
Written specifically for the Scottish curriculum, this unmissable new study guide from BrightRED Publishing covers a wide range of topics to help build your knowledge and equip you with the tools needed to succeed in Higher Politics. In this Study Guide, you will find:- Thorough coverage of the course and assessment
- Clear and concise explanations of key topics and challenging ideas, including political theory, systems, parties and elections
- Activities and content that will help you learn how to analyse and evaluate information from a wide range of sources
- Don’t Forget pointers that offer advice on key facts and how to avoid common mistakes.
- Things to Do and Think About sections which provide you with plenty of opportunities to put your knowledge into practice.
This guide is also supported by a host of free additional material available on the BrightRED Digital Zone!
Contents:
- Introduction
- Political Theory
- Political Systems
- Political Parties and Elections
- Source Questions
- Assignment
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Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur’an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence
Whether exploring the thorny issues of wives’ sexual duties, divorce, homosexuality, or sex outside marriage, discussions of sexual ethics and Islam often spark heated conflict rather than reasoned argument. In this updated and expanded edition of her ground-breaking work, feminist Muslim scholar Dr Kecia Ali asks how one can determine what makes sex lawful and ethical in the sight of God.
Drawing on both revealed and interpretative Muslim texts, Ali critiques medieval and contemporary commentators alike to produce a balanced and comprehensive study of a subject both sensitive and urgent, making this an invaluable resource for students, scholars, and interested readers.
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Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time
Redefining the traditional understanding of the New Deal, Fear Itself examines this pivotal American era through a sweeping international lens that juxtaposes a struggling democracy with enticing ideologies like Fascism and Communism. Ira Katznelson asserts that, during the 1930s and 1940s, American democracy was rescued yet distorted by a unified band of southern legislators who safeguarded racial segregation as they built a new national state to manage capitalism and assert global power. This study brings to life the politicians and pundits of the time, including Walter Lippmann, who argued that America needed a dose of dictatorship; Mississippi’s five-foot-two Senator Theodore Bilbo, who advocated the legal separation of races; and Robert Oppenheimer, who built the atomic bomb yet was undone by the nation’s hysteria. Fear Itself is a work vital to understanding America and the world the New Deal made.Read more
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The pink guide to adoption for lesbians and gay men 3rd edition
How easy is it for lesbian and gay couples to adopt? Can we adopt jointly? Is the adoption process any different from heterosexual adoption? Is it true that only hard-to-place children get placed with lesbians and gay men?The Pink Guide to Adoption is definitely the right read for anyone asking themselves these questions. It is an essential step-by-step guide for lesbians and gay men who are considering adoption in the UK, whether as single parents or jointly.
Illustrated throughout with quotations from those who have already experienced, or are currently involved in, the adoption process, this fully updated third edition also has useful points to consider for those wishing to embark on the adoption journey. Informative and inspiring, these stories bring to life the reality of what adoption means. They describe the highs and lows, the welcome they have received and also the prejudices encountered, the difficulties and the rewards. Many reveal how their lives have changed immeasurably since their adopted children moved in.
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The Coming Wave: The instant Sunday Times bestseller from the ultimate AI insider
**A Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, Sept 2023**
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE FT BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023**AI. SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY. QUANTUM COMPUTING. Everything is about to change. This is the only book you need to understand this new world.
From the ultimate AI insider, Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind, part of Google.
‘Fascinating, well-written, and important’ Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens
‘Deeply rewarding and consistently astonishing’ Stephen Fry
‘An excellent guide for navigating unprecedented times’ Bill GatesSoon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organise your life, operate your business, and run core government services. You will live in a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy.
None of us are prepared.
As co-founder of the pioneering AI company DeepMind, part of Google, Mustafa Suleyman has been at the centre of this revolution. The coming decade, he argues, will be defined by this wave of powerful, fast-proliferating new technologies.
In The Coming Wave, Suleyman shows how these forces will create immense prosperity but also threaten the nation-state, the foundation of global order. As our fragile governments sleepwalk into disaster, we face an existential dilemma: unprecedented harms on one side and the threat of overbearing surveillance on the other.
Can we forge a narrow path between catastrophe and dystopia?
This ground-breaking book from the ultimate AI insider establishes ‘the containment problem’ – the task of maintaining control over powerful technologies – as the essential challenge of our age.
‘A stunning book by a man at the very centre of the AI revolution’ Rory Stewart
‘Essential reading’ Daniel KahnemanRead more
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Political ideas for A Level: Liberalism, Socialism, Conservatism, Feminism, Anarchism 2nd Edition
These Student’s Books will help students understand the core ideas and principles behind the political ideologies, and how they apply in practice to human nature, the state, society and the economy.
– Comprehensive coverage of the ideologies of Liberalism, Socialism, Conservatism, Socialism, Feminism and Anarchism
– Definitions of key terms and concepts to help clarify knowledge and understanding of political language
– Exam focus sections at the end of each chapter to test and develop understanding of key topics, offering practice for short and long essay questionsRead more
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A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing
‘A guide to the mind of one of the great English novelists of the last half-century’ Guardian
‘Like hearing the voice of an old friend’ Observer
As well as her celebrated career as a novelist, Hilary Mantel long contributed to newspapers and journals, unspooling stories from her own life and illuminating the world as she found it. This strand of her writing was an integral part of how she thought of herself. ‘Ink is a generative fluid,’ she explains. ‘If you don’t mean your words to breed consequences, don’t write at all.’ A Memoir of My Former Self collects the finest of this writing over four decades.
Mantel’s subjects are wide-ranging. She discusses nationalism and her own sense of belonging; our dream life flopping into our conscious life; the mythic legacy of Princess Diana; the many themes that feed into her novels – revolutionary France, psychics, Tudor England – and other novelists, from Jane Austen to V. S. Naipaul. She writes about her father and the man who replaced him; she writes fiercely and heartbreakingly about the battles with her health she endured as a young woman, and the stifling years she found herself living in Saudi Arabia. Here, too, is a selection of her film reviews – from When Harry Met Sally to RoboCop – and, published for the first time, her stunning Reith Lectures, which explore the process of art bringing history and the dead back to life.
From her unique childhood to her all-consuming fascination with Thomas Cromwell that grew into the Wolf Hall Trilogy, A Memoir of My Former Self reveals the shape of Hilary Mantel’s life in her own dazzling words, ‘messages from people I used to be.’ Compelling, often very funny, always luminous, it is essential reading from one of our greatest writers.
‘A smart, deft, meticulous, thoughtful writer, with such a grasp of the dark and spidery corners of human nature’ Margaret Atwood
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£14.30£23.80A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing
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Inside Adoption: A parent’s story
Adoption has changed hugely in the past few decades. These days, most children placed with adoptive families are not babies; by the time they meet their new parents they may have been exposed to a range of traumatic experience – in utero, within their birth families and within the state care system. Exposure to drugs or alcohol in the womb and abuse in early childhood are increasingly known to have significant effects on a child’s psychological and relational development. The effects can endure throughout the whole of their life, regardless of the loving care and stability they receive in their adoptive home. This poses very real challenges for people stepping forward into the role of adoptive parent. Unlike most books on adoption, Inside Adoption is written by someone who has both worked within the adoption `industry’ and is an adoptive parent himself. Philip Teasdale describes here his own experience, along with his wife Anne, of adopting Jemma as a baby. This is the story of the difficult and traumatising years that followed, as they struggled to provide a loving home around their emotionally volatile and often violent adoptive daughter. It also describes the failure of the statutory services to provide support for the family and psychological help for Jemma to enable her to manage her personal demons and impulses. Teasdale brings to this first-person account an insightful analysis and critique of the adoption process as it has developed over the past two decades, highlighting its abject failure to acknowledge significant social trends in any meaningful way. There is, he argues, still too little funding going into the post-adoption period; adoptive parents are still left to sink or swim as best they can, while the statutory agencies tick the box for another child `placed’ and wash their hands of further responsibility.Read more
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Different Times: A History of British Comedy
They don’t make comedy like they used to . . .
From the slapstick comedy of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, the surrealism of Spike Milligan and Monty Python, and the golden age of political incorrectness helmed by Benny Hill, to the alternative scene that burst forth following the punk movement, the hedonistic joy of Absolutely Fabulous, the lacerating scorn of Jimmy Carr, Ricky Gervais, and Jo Brand and the meteoric rise of socially conscious stand up today: comedy can be many things, and it is a cultural phenomenon has come to define Britain like few others.
In Different Times, David Stubbs charts the superstars that were in on the gags, the unsung heroes hiding in the wings and the people who ended up being the butt of the joke. Comedians and their work speak to and of their time, drawing upon and moulding Britons’ relationship with their national history, reflecting us as a people, and, simply, providing raucous laughs for millions of people around the world.
Different Times is a joyous, witty and insightful paean to British comedy.
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£14.40£19.00Different Times: A History of British Comedy
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Delivering Dreams: A Century of British Film Distribution
Film Distributors are the unsung heroes of cinema. Without them, the film industry would grind to a halt. Drawing on the archives of the Film Distributors Association (FDA), as well as on interviews with leading British distributors of today, Delivering Dreams tells the, largely unacknowledged, story of how films were, and are, brought to British cinema-goers. It profiles some of the most flamboyant and controversial figures involved in UK distribution over the last 100 years, ranging from the founders of huge companies to visionaries who have launched small art house labels. Geoffrey Macnab also explores how the sector has reacted to a rapidly changing market and technological environment, from the transition to sound in the late 1920s to the spectre of TV in the 1950s and the move to digital in the 2000s. Ranging from the films of Charlie Chaplin to The King s Speech, and published to coincide with the centenary of the FDA s creation in December 1915, this book highlights the crucial role that distributors have played in maintaining the solid foundations of the British film industry.Read more
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Eyeliner: A Cultural History
A dazzling exploration of the intersections of beauty and power around the globe, told through the lens of an iconic cosmetic
‘Awe-inspiring and fascinating’ Funmi Fetto
‘A treat to read’ Kassia St ClairFrom the distant past to the present day, humans have been drawn to lining their eyes. The aesthetic trademark of figures ranging from Nefertiti to Amy Winehouse, eyeliner is one of our most enduring cosmetic tools; ancient royals and Gen Z beauty influencers alike would attest to its uniquely transformative power. It is undeniably fun – yet it is also far from frivolous.
Seen through Zahra Hankir’s (kohl-lined) eyes, this ubiquitous but seldom-examined product becomes a portal to history, proof both of the stunning variety among cultures across time and space and of our shared humanity. Through intimate reporting and conversations – with nomads in Chad, geishas in Japan, dancers in India, drag queens in New York, and more – Eyeliner embraces the rich history and significance of its namesake, especially among communities of colour. What emerges is a delightful, surprising, and unexpectedly moving journey through streets, stages, and bedrooms around the world, and a thought-provoking reclamation of a key piece of our collective history.
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£14.60£18.00Eyeliner: A Cultural History
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Politics, Poverty and Belief: A Political Memoir
‘For the past half-century Frank Field has been an outstanding parliamentarian, social reformer and champion of the disadvantaged. He joined the Labour Party at the age of 16 and was expelled from it at the age of 78.’ -Brian & Rachel Griffiths
‘Frank Field is one of the most important, iconoclastic and remarkable politicians of his generation. This book is told with his Christian belief, regrets and all, and his trademark searing honesty.’ -Nick Timmins
In the increasingly dirty world of British politics, one man has stood out for unimpeachable integrity – the former Labour Member of Parliament for Birkenhead, Frank Field.
In this touching but also profound memoir, the veteran former Labour MP and social campaigner Frank Field reveals the poverty of his own childhood and the deep and lasting effect of his Christian socialism.
Field has spent his life fighting poverty in Britain, and has found allies on all sides of the political spectrum. In this book, Field talk about his activism, his foundational work with the Child Poverty Action Group and his work passing legislation for the Minimum Living Wage. He explains why he has dedicated his life to speaking out against the corruption of greed and power and writes with great alacrity about the titans of his political age, including Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher. In the end, Field’s zeal for reform was too much for too many people, and, in 2015, he was deselected by his own local Labour party.
Politics, Poverty and Belief is an implicit indictment of modern British politics – the world of cash for questions, Partygate and all the rest – in which the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.
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£14.60£19.00Politics, Poverty and Belief: A Political Memoir
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Class War: A Literary History
A bold new history of the global class warA thrilling and vivid work of history, Class War weaves together literature and politics to chart the making and unmaking of social class through revolutionary combat. In a narrative that spans the globe and more than two centuries of history, Mark Steven traces the history of class war from the Haitian Revolution to Black Lives Matter.
Surveying the literature of revolution, from the poetry of Shelley and Byron to the novels of Émile Zola and Jack London, exploring the writings of Frantz Fanon, Che Guevara, and Assata Shakur, Class War reveals the interplay between military action and the politics of class, showing how solidarity flourishes in times of conflict. Written with verve and ranging across diverse historical settings, Class War traverses industrial battles, guerrilla insurgencies, and anticolonial resistance, as well as large-scale combat operations waged against capitalism’s regimes and its interstate system.
In our age of economic crisis, ecological catastrophe, and planetary unrest, Steven tells the stories of those whose actions will help guide future militants toward a revolutionary horizon.
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£14.60£18.00Class War: A Literary History
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Travelling Home: Essays on Islam in Europe
In our age of globalisation and pandemic, how should we react to the new Islamophobic movements now spreading in the West? Everywhere the far right is on the march, with nationalist and populist parties thriving on the back of popular anxieties about Islam and the Muslim presence. Hijab and minaret bans, mosque shootings, hostility to migrants and increasingly scornful media stereotypes seem to endanger the prospects for friendly coexistence and the calm uplifting of Muslim populations. In this series of essays Abdal Hakim Murad dissects the rise of Islamophobia on the basis of Muslim theological tradition. Although the proper response to the current impasse is clearly indicated in Qur’an and Hadith, some have lost the principle of trust in divine wisdom and are responding with hatred, fearfulness or despair. Murad shows that a compassion-based approach, rooted in an authentic theology of divine power, could transform the current quagmire into a bright landscape of great promise for Muslims and their neighbours.Read more
£14.70£17.10Travelling Home: Essays on Islam in Europe
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Sea Bean
A WATERSTONES NATURE AND TRAVEL BEST BOOK OF 2023
LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT NATURE WRITING PRIZE 2023
‘Modern, revealing and restorative, a coastal treasure’ Amy Liptrot
‘Like its talismanic title, Huband’s voice is distinct and singular. A gorgeous reckoning with the sea, islands and mythology’ Sinéad Gleeson
‘A wild melding of body and landscape. A deep, immersive, storm-tossed read’ Helen Jukes
‘As vital and complex as the oceans themseleves’ Joanna PocockA powerful journey of sea and self, trial and hope on the islands of Shetland
When a seed falls from a vine in the tropics and is carried by ocean currents across the Atlantic to the shores of Western Europe – it is known as a sea bean. It is still considered lucky to find a sea bean on the shore, they have been used as magical charms for more than a thousand years.
Sally’s search for a sea bean begins not long after she moves to the windswept archipelago of Shetland. When pregnancy triggers a chronic illness and forces her to slow down, Sally takes to the beaches. There she discovers treasure freighted with story and curiosities that connect her to the world.
The wild shores of Shetland offer glimpses of orcas swimming through the ocean at dusk, the chance to release a tiny storm petrel into the dark of the night and a path of hope. This beachcombing path takes her from the Faroese archipelago to the Orkney islands, and the Dutch island of Texel. It opens a world of ancient myths, fragile ecology, and deep human history. It brings her to herself again.
Sea Bean is a message in a bottle. An interconnection of our oceans, communities and ourselves, and an invitation to feel belonging when we are adrift.
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£14.70£18.00Sea Bean
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Colours of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes
‘What’s so wonderful about Bramesco’s book, outside of a visually splendid layout that embraces the first word of that title with detailed color breakdowns of each palette, is how much it enhances the critical language of the average viewer.’ – Brian Tallerico, Editor of RogerEbert.comTaking you from the earliest feature films to today, Colours of Film introduces 50 iconic movies and explains the pivotal role that colour played in their success.
The use of colour is an essential part of film. It has the power to evoke powerful emotions, provide subtle psychological symbolism and act as a narrative device.
Wes Anderson’s pastels and muted tones are aesthetically pleasing, but his careful use of colour also acts as a shorthand for interpreting emotion. And let’s not forget Schindler’s List (1993, dir. Steven Spielberg), in which a bold flash of red against an otherwise black-and-white film is used as a powerful symbol of life, survival and death.
In Colours of Film, film critic Charles Bramesco introduces an element of cinema that is often overlooked, yet has been used in extraordinary ways. Using infographic colour palettes, and stills from the movies, this is a lively and fresh approach to film for cinema-goers and colour lovers alike.
He also explores in fascinating detail how the development of technologies have shaped the course of modern cinema, from how the feud between Kodak and Fujifilm shaped the colour palettes of the 20th Century’s greatest filmakers, to how the advent of computer technology is creating a digital wonderland for modern directors in which anything is possible.
Filled with sparkling insights and fascinating accounts from the history of cinema, Colours of Film is an indispensable guide to one of the most important visual elements in the medium of film.
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£14.80£18.00Colours of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes
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Life Below Stairs: in the Victorian and Edwardian Country House (National Trust History & Heritage)
From the cook, butler and housekeeper to the footman, lady’s maid and nanny, this is a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of some of Britain’s grandest houses.
The largely untold stories of innumerable, rather humble, lives spent ‘in service’ are lying just below the surface of many great houses; the physical evidence can be seen in surviving servants’ quarters, the material of their everyday life, even their uniforms and possessions.
This account provides a fascinating glimpse at who’s who behind the scenes, from the cook, butler and housekeeper to the footmen, lady’s maids, governesses and tutors, nannies and nursemaids. Giving a fascinating insight into the heirarchy within the servant’s quarters – from the power-wielding cook to the ever-discreet butler – this guide describes how relationships were forged and changed as the gap between upstairs and downstairs was bridged.
Describing their typical working day as well as the holidays, entertainments and pastimes enjoyed on a rare day off, not to mention the whirl of the social season, this previously ‘unwritten history’ recalls vividly the nature of their lives below stairs.
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Everything is Everything: The Top 10 Bestseller
‘Infinitely more readable than the average journalism memoir, and decidedly more important.’ – Sathnam Sanghera, The Times
‘So engaging. You feel as if he is talking to you, sharing ideas and thoughts, as if you were a friend.’ – Yasmin Ahlibai-Brown
As a Bolton teenager with a paper round, Clive Myrie read all the newspapers he delivered from cover to cover and dreamed of becoming a journalist. In this deeply personal memoir, he tells how his family history has influenced his view of the world, introducing us to his Windrush generation parents, a great grandfather who helped build the Panama Canal, and a great uncle who fought in the First World War, later to become a prominent police detective in Jamaica.
He reflects on how being black has affected his perspective on issues he’s encountered in thirty years reporting some of the biggest stories of our time (most recently from Ukraine), showing us how those experiences gave him a better idea of what it means to be an outsider. He tells of his pride in his roots, but his determination not to be defined by his background in dealing with the challenges of race and class to succeed at the highest level.
Moving, engaging, revealing, Everything is Everything is a story of love and hate – but also hope.
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£15.00£22.00Everything is Everything: The Top 10 Bestseller
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Vision on: Film, Television and the Arts in Britain (Nonfictions)
Vision On narrates the turbulent yet distinguished history of one of the fundamental pillars of British broadcasting–the arts. This volume chronicles the years of dynamic and often controversial collaboration between broadcasters and the Arts Council, a key player in bringing art films to the wider public audience. Beginning with the earliest TV documentaries, the arts became central to the remit of public broadcasters, and by the 1980s Channel 4 and the Arts Council were boldly redefining the relationship of the arts and the media by commissioning and airing exclusive and innovative films. With detailed discussion of the cultural role of television programmes such as Civilisation (1966) and Arena (1974 onwards), close analysis of over 25 films and exclusive access to the Arts Council’s collection of the 450 films supported between 1953 and 1999, this volume illuminates the vanguard role the arts have played in the proud history of British public broadcasting, and attempts to locate the place of arts broadcasting in today’s multi-channel, multi-media world.Read more
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Help I S*xted My Boss: A hilarious guide to avoiding life’s awkward moments
‘Funny, filthy and fantastic. Cackled from start to finish’ – Rylan Clark
How do you ask your mate for that £50 back?
When is OK to trump in front of your partner?
And what should you do if you’ve accidentally sexted your boss?William and Jordan are from very different worlds.
William’s an etiquette expert, with his tongue firmly in his teacup and unparalleled knowledge of table linen. Jordan’s a TV and radio presenter, the patron saint of Burnley and an expert in all things common. Together they’ve entertained millions of listeners worldwide with their hit podcast Help I Sexted My Boss.
Now, they’ve pooled all of their wisdom on how to get through life’s most awkward moments.
From candlelight suppers to picky teas, first dates to flatmate dramas, Help I Sexted My Boss is full of both useful and useless advice. This is your indispensable guide to navigating the trepidation and challenges of modern life.
‘Hilarious lads.. and weirdly useful. This generation’s Ant and Dec. If one of them was really posh. Great read’ – Vicky Pattison
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The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism
‘One of the most important thinkers alive’ The Times
Ever since its publication in 1651, Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan has unsettled and challenged how we understand the world. Condemned and vilified by each new generation, Hobbes’ cold political vision continues to see through any number of political and ethical vanities.
In his wonderfully stimulating book The New Leviathans, John Gray allows us to understand the world of the 2020s with all its contradictions, moral horrors and disappointments through a new reading of Hobbes’ classic work. The collapse of the USSR ushered in an era of near-apoplectic triumphalism in the West: a genuine belief that a rational, liberal, well-managed future now awaited humankind and that tyranny, nationalism and unreason lay in the past. Since then, so many terrible events have occurred and so many poisonous ideas flourished, and yet still our liberal certainties treat them as aberrations which will somehow dissolve away. Hobbes would not be so confident.
Filled with fascinating and challenging perceptions, The New Leviathans is a powerful meditation on historical and current folly. As a species we always seem to be struggling to face the reality of base and delusive human instincts. Might a more self-aware, realistic and disabused ethics help us all?
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£15.20£19.00The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism
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Heartstopper 16-Month 2023-2024 Weekly/Monthly Planner Calendar with Bonus Stickers
Join Charlie, Nick, Elle, Tao, and their classmates from Truham and Higgs as they explore love, friendship, and life in the hit Netflix series Heartstopper. Included in this 16-month planner are colorful images and graphics from the show, along with bonus stickers.
Heartstopper is based on the New York Times LGBTQ+ bestselling graphic novel series by Alice Oseman.
Features include:- 7″ x 9″ (14″ x 9″ open)
- Spiral bound
- Printed on FSC-certified paper with soy-based ink
- Spans September 2023–December 2024
- Generous grid space for notes, appointments, and reminders
- Monthly at-a-glance grids
- Extra pages at back for notes, goals, and more
- Official major world holidays and observances
- Moon phases, based on Universal Time
- Includes stickers
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£15.20
