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The Egos Have Landed: Rise and Fall of Palace Pictures
This work provides an insight into the rise and fall of Palace Pictures, one of the movie phenomena of the last decade. It is the story of two mavericks, Steve Woolley and Nick Powell, who through a combination of brash marketing tactics and inspired risk-taking, fought to produce and distribute films during a period when the world had written off the British film industry as dead and buried. Containing stories about Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Bob Hoskins, David Bowie, Miranda Richardson, John Hurt, Neil Jordan, Richard Branson and many other celebrities, it gives the inside story on the company whose films include “Absolute Beginners”, “The Company of Wolves”, “Mona Lisa”, “Scandal” and “The Crying Game”.Read more
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Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: The Inside Story of HandMade Films
In 1978, George Harrison, the Monty Python team and American businessman Denis O’Brien formed HandMade films, which was responsible for such classics as “Monty Python’s Life of Brian”, “Time Bandits”, “The Long Good Friday”, “A Private Function”, “Mona Lisa” and “Withnail and I”. This book looks at the life and times of this film company. Robert Sellars has secured detailed and exclusive interviews with such diverse artists as Alan Bennett, John Cleese, Sean Connery and Richard E. Grant.Read more
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Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art
‘Destined to become a new classic’
A dazzlingly original reassessment of women’s stories, bodies and art – and how we think about them.
For decades, feminist artists have confronted the problem of how to tell the truth about their experiences as bodies. Queer bodies, sick bodies, racialised bodies, female bodies, what is their language, what are the materials we need to transcribe it?
Exploring the ways in which feminist artists have taken up this challenge, Art Monsters is a landmark intervention in how we think about art and the body, calling attention to a radical heritage of feminist work that not only reacts against patriarchy but redefines its own aesthetic aims.
Writing in the tradition of Susan Sontag, Hélène Cixous and Maggie Nelson, Lauren Elkin demonstrates her power as a cultural critic, weaving daring links between disparate artists and writers – from Julia Margaret Cameron’s photography to Kara Walker’s silhouettes, Vanessa Bell’s portraits to Eva Hesse’s rope sculptures, Carolee Schneemann’s body art to Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s trilingual masterpiece DICTEE – and shows that their work offers a potent celebration of beauty and excess, sentiment and touch, the personal and the political.
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£11.40£12.30Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art
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The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance
In The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance, the most persecuted man on Earth, Alex Jones, gives you the good news about the failing plans of the globalists to control humanity.The expression “Get woke, go broke” has entered the common lexicon as we’ve seen company after company invoke the false gods of diversity, equity, and inclusion to their financial demise. But this surface discussion masks a much darker truth. What we are witnessing is nothing less than the failed plans of social Darwinists to capture free market capitalism and turn it toward their fascist aims of controlling and depopulating the globe.
Working with New York Times bestselling author Kent Heckenlively, Jones masterfully gives you the deeper discussion about such hot button topics as the truth behind the globalists plans for artificial intelligence (AI), the central bank digital currency, social credit scores, Big Tech tyranny, censorship, fifteen-minute cities, the unholy alliance between big business and big government, the military-intelligence-industrial complex—which is hell-bent on eternal war—and the all-out assault on free speech and the Second Amendment.
The good news is that these plans are destined to fail, if we wake up to the anti-human future the globalists have planned for us. The globalists hate freedom, and what they hate the most is the greatest freedom document in human history, the United States Constitution. Jones does not shy away from the darker parts of American history—the way we have been systematically deceived by the intelligence agencies since their assassination of President John F. Kennedy—but he provides example after example of people who have broken free from the matrix of lies to tell the truth.
The people the globalists fear the most are the members of their own systems of control, who wake up and then decide to act against the machine. The globalists believe they’ve planned for every possible contingency, but they hadn’t counted on the conscience and love of truth, which lives in the souls of good people.
St. Augustine once wrote: “The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.” No figure in our modern times has roared louder against the enemies of freedom than Alex Jones. In the calm and dispassionate style that made his first book, The Great Reset: And the War for the World, such a smash hit, Alex lays out the flaws in the plans of the globalists and how they seek to create a world in direct opposition to God’s plans for our glorious human future. But God consistently works His will in our world, even through imperfect individuals like Donald Trump, Alex Jones, or you.
If you want to read one book this year to understand your world and help lead humanity to the next great human renaissance, you need to order this book today.
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£19.30£22.60 -
Normal Women: From the Number One Bestselling Author Comes 900 Years of Women Making History
A NEW STATESMEN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023
‘A lasting work of social history’ THE TIMES
‘A genuinely new history of our nation’ DAN JONES
‘This celebration of women is a triumph of popular history’ SPECTATOR
FROM THE MULTI-MILLION BESTSELLING HISTORICAL NOVELIST COMES THE CULMINATION OF HER LIFE’S WORK
- Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry?
- That the Peasant’s Revolt was started and propelled by women, protesting a tax on women?
- Or that celebrated naturalist Charles Darwin believed not just that women were naturally inferior to men but that they’d evolve to become ever more inferior?
These are just a few of the startling findings you will learn from reading Philippa Gregory’s Normal Women. In this ambitious and ground-breaking book, she tells the story of our nation over 900 years, but for the very first time women – some fifty per cent of the population – are no longer invisible in this history of England, but are at its beating heart.
Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records to find highway women, beggars and shepherdesses, through newspapers and diaries to find murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The ‘normal women’ you will meet in her pages went to war, ploughed the fields, campaigned, wrote, and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency and built ships, corn mills and houses as part of their everyday lives They committed crimes, or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted. A lot. They built our society to be as diverse and varied as the women themselves. They are there in the archives – if you look – and they made our history.
‘You’ll lose count of the number of things you learn about women and their skewed place in history as you read Philippa Gregory’s stunning Normal Women … the book reframes the past … an essential read’ INDEPENDENT, FIVE-STAR REVIEW
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Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction: 97 (Very Short Introductions)
This book introduces readers to the concepts of political philosophy. It starts by explaining why the subject is important and how it tackles basic ethical questions such as ‘how should we live together in society?’ It looks at political authority, the reasons why we need politics at all, the limitations of politics, and whether there are areas of life that shouldn’t be governed by politics. It explores the connections between political authority and justice, a constant theme in political philosophy, and the ways in which social justice can be used to regulate rather than destroy a market economy. David Miller discusses why nations are the natural units of government and whether the rise of multiculturalism and transnational co-operation will change this: will we ever see the formation of a world government?ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
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£7.10£8.50 -
In the Thick of It: ‘One of the most explosive political diaries ever to be published’ DAILY MAIL
‘Sensational … One of the most explosive political diaries ever to be published … As candid, caustic and colourful as the sensational Alan Clark Diaries of the 1990s’ DAILY MAIL
The Sunday Times bestseller
As Minister of State at the Foreign Office, Alan Duncan was once described as Boris Johnson’s ‘pooper-scooper’. For two years, he deputised for the then Foreign Secretary, now Prime Minister. Few are more attuned to Boris’s strengths and weaknesses as a minister and his suitability for high office than the man who helped clear up his mistakes.
Riotously candid, these diaries cover the most turbulent period in recent British political history – from the eve of the referendum in 2016 to the UK’s eventual exit from the EU. As two prime ministers fall, two general elections unfold and a no-confidence vote is survived, Duncan records a treasure-trove of insider gossip, giving biting and often hilarious accounts of petty rivalries, poor decision-making, big egos, and big crises.
Nothing escapes Alan’s acerbic gaze. Across these unfiltered daily entries, he builds a revealing and often profound picture of UK politics and personalities. A rich seam of high politics and low intrigue, this is an account from deep inside the engine room of power.
Alan Duncan’s book ‘In the Thick of It’ was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 12-04-2021.
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Apocalypse How?: Technology and the Threat of Disaster
‘Entertaining and insightful’ — Evening Standard
‘One of the most important books of the year… Compelling’ Jamie Bartlett, Literary Review
‘Timely’ — New StatesmanAs the world becomes better connected and we grow ever more dependent on technology, the risks to our infrastructure are multiplying. Whether it’s a hostile state striking the national grid (like Russia did with Ukraine in 2016) or a freak solar storm, our systems have become so interlinked that if one part goes down the rest topple like dominoes.
In this groundbreaking book, former government minister Oliver Letwin looks ten years into the future and imagines a UK in which the national grid has collapsed. Reliant on the internet, automated electric cars, voice-over IP, GPS, and the internet of things, law and order would disintegrate. Taking us from high-level government meetings to elderly citizens waiting in vain for their carers, this book is a wake up call for why we should question our unshakeable faith in technology. But it’s much more than that: Letwin uses his vast experience in government to outline how businesses and government should respond to catastrophic black swan events that seem distant and implausible – until they occur.Read more
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Ways of Seeing: John Berger (Penguin Modern Classics)
Based on the BBC television series, John Berger’s Ways of Seeing is a unique look at the way we view art, published as part of the Penguin on Design series in Penguin Modern Classics.
‘Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.’
‘But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.’
John Berger’s Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the Sunday Times critic commented: ‘This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures.’ By now he has.
John Berger (b. 1926) is an art critic, painter and novelist.born in Hackney, London.
His novel G. (1972) won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Booker Prize.If you enjoyed Ways of Seeing, you might like Susan Sontag’s On Photography, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.
‘Berger has the ability to cut right through the mystification of professional art critics … he is a liberator of images: and once we have allowed the paintings to work on us directly, we are in a much better position to make a meaningful evaluation’
Peter Fuller, Arts Review‘The influence of the series and the book … was enormous … It opened up for general attention areas of cultural study that are now commonplace’
Geoff Dyer in Ways of Telling‘One of the most influential intellectuals of our time’
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War and Punishment: The Story of Russian Oppression and Ukrainian Resistance
‘History is made up of myths,’ writes the renowned Russian dissident journalist Mikhail Zygar. ‘Alas, our myths led us to the fascism of 2022. It is time to expose them.’ Drawing from his perilous career investigating the frontiers of the Russian empire, Zygar reveals how 350 years of propaganda, bad historical scholarship, folk tales and fantasy spurred his nation into war with Ukraine.
How did a German monk’s fear of the Ottoman Empire drive him to invent the fiction of a united Russian world? How did corny spy novels about a ‘Soviet James Bond’ inspire Vladimir Putin to join the KGB? How did Alexander Pushkin’s admiration for a poem by Lord Byron end with him slandering the legendary chief of the Cossacks? And how did Putin underestimate a rising TV comic named Volodymyr Zelensky, failing to see that his satire had become deadly serious, and that his country would be a joke no longer?
A noted expert on the Kremlin with unparalleled access to hundreds of players in the current conflict – from politicians to oligarchs, gangsters to comedians (not least Zelensky himself) – Zygar chronicles the power struggles from which today’s politics grew, and digs out the essential truths from behind layers of seductive legend. By surveying the strange, complex record of Russo-Ukrainian relations, War and Punishment reveals exactly how the largest nation on Earth lost its senses. A work of history can’t undo the past or transform the present, but sometimes it can shape the future.
In fact, that’s how the story begins.
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Strong Female Character: What Movies Teach Us
‘At a time when fluff and gossip reign supreme, Hanna Flint’s work is consistently insightful, informative and engaging all at once. I always finish reading it feeling just a tad bit smarter.’ Candice Frederick, Huffington Post‘One of the smartest pop culture commentators out there.’ Toby Moses, Guardian
The leading film critic of her generation offers an eloquent, insightful and humorous reflection on the screen’s representation of women and ethnic minorities, revealing how cinema has been the key to understanding herself, her body image and her ambitions as well as the world we live in.
A staunch feminist of mixed-race heritage, Hanna has succeeded in an industry not designed for people like her. She interweaves anecdotes from familial and personal experiences – from episodes of messy sex and introspection to the time when actor Vincent D’Onofrio tweeted that Hanna Flint sounded ‘like a secret agent’ – to offer a critical eye on the screen’s representation of women and ethnic minorities. Divided into sections ‘Origin Story’, ‘Coming of Age’, ‘Adult Material’, ‘Workplace Drama’ and ‘Strong Female Character’, the book ponders how the creative industries could better reflect our multicultural society.
Warm, funny and engaging and full of film-infused lessons, Strong Female Character will appeal to readers of all backgrounds and seeks to help us better see ourselves in our own eyes rather than letting others decide who and what we can be.
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£11.90£12.30Strong Female Character: What Movies Teach Us
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The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson
‘A riveting read that skips along at pace. Illuminating and concerning, it lifts the lid on the tawdry world of Westminster powerbroking’ Tim Shipman, The Times
The explosive behind-the-scenes account of the plot to bring down Boris Johnson
YOU THINK YOU LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE THE ELECTED ARE CHOSEN BY THE PEOPLE.
THINK AGAIN.
When Boris Johnson came to power in 2019, he did so with the largest Conservative majority since Margaret Thatcher. Rewriting the political map, he united a party and shattered Labour’s fabled red wall. And yet, just three years later, he was ousted by the same members who had once greeted his leadership so rapturously.
What had gone so wrong?
The Plot is the seismic, fly-on-the-wall account of how the saviour of the Conservative Party became a pariah. Told with unparalleled access, from multiple inside sources talking with astonishing candour, it reveals the shocking truth about powerful forces operating behind the scenes in the heart of Westminster and those who became the architects of a Prime Minister’s downfall.
This is the story of a damning trail of treachery and deceit fuelled by an obsessive pursuit of power, which threatens to topple the very fabric of our democracy.
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£12.99 -
Islam and the West
Hailed in The New York Times Book Review as “the doyen of Middle Eastern studies,” Bernard Lewis has been for half a century one of the West’s foremost scholars of Islamic history and culture, the author of over two dozen books, most notably The Arabs in History, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, The Political Language of Islam, and The Muslim Discovery of Europe. Eminent French historian Robert Mantran has written of Lewis’s work: “How could one resist being attracted to the books of an author who opens for you the doors of an unknown or misunderstood universe, who leads you within to its innermost domains: religion, ways of thinking, conceptions of power, culture–an author who upsets notions too often fixed, fallacious, or partisan.”
In Islam and the West, Bernard Lewis brings together in one volume eleven essays that indeed open doors to the innermost domains of Islam. Lewis ranges far and wide in these essays. He includes long pieces, such as his capsule history of the interaction–in war and peace, in commerce and culture–between Europe and its Islamic neighbors, and shorter ones, such as his deft study of the Arabic word watan and what its linguistic history reveals about the introduction of the idea of patriotism from the West. Lewis offers a revealing look at Edward Gibbon’s portrait of Muhammad in Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (unlike previous writers, Gibbon saw the rise of Islam not as something separate and isolated, nor as a regrettable aberration from the onward march of the church, but simply as a part of human history); he offers a devastating critique of Edward Said’s controversial book, Orientalism; and he gives an account of the impediments to translating from classic Arabic to other languages (the old dictionaries, for one, are packed with scribal errors, misreadings, false analogies, and etymological deductions that pay little attention to the evolution of the language). And he concludes with an astute commentary on the Islamic world today, examining revivalism, fundamentalism, the role of the Shi’a, and the larger question of religious co-existence between Muslims, Christians, and Jews.
A matchless guide to the background of Middle East conflicts today, Islam and the West presents the seasoned reflections of an eminent authority on one of the most intriguing and little understood regions in the world.Read more
£11.40Islam and the West
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The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson
‘A riveting read that skips along at pace. Illuminating and concerning, it lifts the lid on the tawdry world of Westminster powerbroking’ Tim Shipman, The Times
The explosive behind-the-scenes account of the plot to bring down Boris Johnson
YOU THINK YOU LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE THE ELECTED ARE CHOSEN BY THE PEOPLE.
THINK AGAIN.
When Boris Johnson came to power in 2019, he did so with the largest Conservative majority since Margaret Thatcher. Rewriting the political map, he united a party and shattered Labour’s fabled red wall. And yet, just three years later, he was ousted by the same members who had once greeted his leadership so rapturously.
What had gone so wrong?
The Plot is the seismic, fly-on-the-wall account of how the saviour of the Conservative Party became a pariah. Told with unparalleled access, from multiple inside sources talking with astonishing candour, it reveals the shocking truth about powerful forces operating behind the scenes in the heart of Westminster and those who became the architects of a Prime Minister’s downfall.
This is the story of a damning trail of treachery and deceit fuelled by an obsessive pursuit of power, which threatens to topple the very fabric of our democracy.
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£19.00£23.80 -
Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics
*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*
*A Financial Times 2023 book to watch*‘Forceful … The fundamental thrust of Goodwin’s argument is right … a new centre ground of British politics is being formed – even if both parties have yet to fully comprehend it’ The Times
What has caused the recent seismic changes in British politics, including Brexit and a series of populist revolts against the elite? Why did so many people want to overturn the status quo? Where have the Left gone wrong? And what deeper trends are driving these changes?
British politics is coming apart. A country once known for its stability has recently experienced a series of shocking upheavals. Matthew Goodwin, acclaimed political scientist and co-author of National Populism, shows that the reason is not economic hardship, personalities or dark money. It is a far wider political realignment that will be with us for years to come. An increasingly liberalised, globalised ruling class has lost touch with millions, who found their values ignored, their voices unheard and their virtue denied. Now, this new alliance of voters is set to determine Britain’s fate.
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Are Trams Socialist?: Why Britain Has No Transport Policy (Perspectives)
Transport is key to our daily lives. The transport system is essential to ensure the movement of people and goods, and most of us will use the roads or public transport every day. Vast sums are tied up in it and are spent on trying to resolve the problems of congestion and delays. And yet it is a most neglected field of politics. Britain has never had a coherent transport policy. Transport ministers are regarded as minnows compared with their big beast colleagues in other ministries. Successive governments have barely attempted to get to grips with the challenge of getting people around efficiently and safely while limiting the environmental damage caused by transport. In this entertaining polemic, Christian Wolmar, an author and journalist who has written about transport for over two decades, explains why politicians have not addressed the crucial issue of balancing transport needs with environmental considerations. Instead, they have been seduced by the popularity of the car and pressure from the car lobby, and they have been sidetracked by dogma. Solutions are at hand and successful examples can be seen elsewhere in Europe but courage and clear thinking are needed if they are to be implemented.Read more
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Islam: A Very Short Introduction 2/e (Very Short Introductions)
Islam features widely in the news, often in its most militant versions, but few people in the non-Muslim world really understand the nature of Islam.Malise Ruthven’s Very Short Introduction contains essential insights into issues such as why Islam has such major divisions between movements such as the Shi’ites, the Sunnis, and the Wahhabis, and the central importance of the Shar’ia (Islamic law) in Islamic life. It also offers fresh perspectives on contemporary questions: Why is the greatest ‘Jihad’ (holy war) now against the enemies of Islam, rather than the struggle against evil? Can women find fulfilment in Islamic societies? How must Islam adapt as it confronts the modern world?
In this new edition, Ruthven brings the text up-to-date by reflecting upon some of the most significant changes in the Muslim world in recent years; from the emergence of al-Qaeda and the attacks on New York and Washington on 9/11 and the ensuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. Ruthven includes new material surrounding the concept of a globalized Islam, bringing into question the effects of economic globalization, the effect of international events in Middle Eastern countries, the issues surrounding Islam and democracy, and the reception and perception of Islam in the West.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
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£7.10£8.50 -
The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising
Famous for his colorful personality and formidable intellect, David Ogilvy left an indelible mark on the advertising world, transforming it from a disreputable business into a dynamic industry full of passionate, creative individuals. This first-ever biography traces Ogilvy’s remarkable life, from his short-lived college education and undercover work during World War II to his many successful years in New York advertising. Ogilvy’s fascinating life and career make for an intriguing study from both a biographical and a business standpoint. Idiosyncratic, full of contradictions, and characterized by a powerful intellect, he redefined the business and became an icon within the advertising world, inspiring countless people to devote their lives to it. This biography is based on a wealth of material from decades of working alongside the advertising giant, including a large collection of photos, memos, recordings, notes, and extensive archives of Ogilvy’s personal papers.Read more
£19.20£19.90 -
The Islamic Enlightenment: The Modern Struggle Between Faith and Reason
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2017
‘An eye-opening, well-written and very timely book’ Yuval Noah Harari
‘The best sort of book for our disordered days: timely, urgent and illuminating’ Pankaj Mishra
‘It strikes a blow…for common humanity’ Sunday Times
The Muslim world has often been accused of a failure to modernise and adapt. Yet in this sweeping narrative and provocative retelling of modern history, Christopher de Bellaigue charts the forgotten story of the Islamic Enlightenment – the social movements, reforms and revolutions that transfigured the Middle East from the early nineteenth century to the present day. Modern ideals and practices were embraced across the region, including the adoption of modern medicine, the emergence of women from purdah and the development of democracy.
The Islamic Enlightenment looks behind the sensationalist headlines in order to foster a genuine understanding of Islam and its relationship to the West. It is essential reading for anyone engaged in the state of the world today.
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Lesbian and Gay Fostering and Adoption: Extraordinary Yet Ordinary
Very little material exists on the experiences of gay men and lesbians who have adopted, fostered or provided respite care for children. This book presents a collection of personal accounts, based on interviews and written testimonies, by lesbian and gay parents from many different social and ethnic backgrounds. Their stories record good and bad experiences, but overall, the accounts are positive and emphasise the rewards of parenting. This book will dispel a lot of misconceptions: it will also be useful to gay men and lesbians who are thinking about adopting or fostering children.Read more
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Modern Chinese Ink Paintings: A Century of New Directions
Displaying the beauty and skill of Chinese ink paintings through a selection of highlights from the British Museum’s collection, Modern Chinese Ink Paintings features hanging scrolls, hand scrolls, large-scale paintings and album leaves to explore the innovative contributions of individual masters from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Clarissa von Spee explores how their artistic work has helped shape the image of modern China, revealing how their works reflect the political climates and important events of the times in which they were created. With reference to artistic exchanges between Picasso and Zhang Daqian, the relationship between modern Chinese painting and the modern Western art scene is also highlighted in this informative and accessible introduction to the subject.Read more
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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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£13.50£14.20 -
The British Horror Film from the Silent to the Multiplex: From the Silents to the Multiplex
When Hammer Films broke box office records in 1957 with `The Curse of Frankenstein’, the company not only resurrected the gothic horror film, but also created a particularly British-flavoured form of horror that swept the world. `The British Horror Film from the Silent to the Multiplex’ is your guide to the films, actors, and filmmakers who have thrilled and terrified generations of movie fans. In just one book, you will find the literary and cinematic roots of the genre to the British films made by film legends such as Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, Hammer’s accomplishments starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, and the post-Hammer horrors such as Peter Walker’s `Frightmare’ and huge British-made successes such as `Alien’ and the zombie craze of the twenty-first century. Featuring the history, the films, the stars, the directors, and the studios in one fascinating, fun, and fact-filled volume, whether you are an absolute beginner or a seasoned gore-hound, this volume covers everything you ever wanted to know about the British horror movie, but were too bone-chillingly afraid to ask.Read more
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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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Law’s Strangest Cases: Extraordinary but true tales from over five centuries of legal history
A quirky collection of true stories from the stranger side of the legal system, including a dead parrot in a courtroom, a mummified murder victim and a strange case of cannibalism.
A rollicking collection of barely believable stories from five centuries of legal history – you’ll be gripped by these tales of murder, intrigue, crime, punishment and the pursuit of justice. Meet the only dead parrot ever to give evidence in a court of law, the doctor with the worst bedside manner of all time, the murderess who collected money from her mummified victim for 21 years, and explore one of the most indigestible dilemmas – if you’d been shipwrecked 2,000 miles from home, would you have eaten Parker the cabin boy? The tales within these pages are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious and, most importantly, true.
Revised, redesigned and updated for a new generation of legal eagles, this book is the perfect gift for lawyers, armchair detectives and true crime afficionados everywhere.
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The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth Edition
With well over 6,300 articles, including over 500 new entries, this fourth edition of The Encyclopedia of British Film is a fully updated invaluable reference guide to the British film industry. It is the most authoritative volume yet, stretching from the inception of the industry to the present day, with detailed listings of the producers, directors, actors and studios behind a century or so of great British cinema.
Brian McFarlane’s meticulously researched guide is the definitive companion for anyone interested in the world of film. Previous editions have sold many thousands of copies and this fourth edition will be an essential work of reference for enthusiasts interested in the history of British cinema, and for universities and libraries.
— .
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War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict
Russia’s brutal February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has attracted widespread condemnation across the West. Government and media circles present the conflict as a simple dichotomy between an evil empire and an innocent victim. In this concise, accessible and highly informative primer, Medea Benjamin and Nicolas Davies insist the picture is more complicated.
Yes, Russia’s aggression was reckless and, ultimately, indefensible. But the West’s reneging on promises to halt eastward expansion of NATO in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union played a major part in prompting Putin to act. So did the U.S. involvement in the 2014 Ukraine coup and Ukraine’s failure to implement the Minsk peace agreements. The result is a conflict that is increasingly difficult to resolve, one that could conceivably escalate into all-out war between the United States and Russia―the world’s two leading nuclear powers.
Skillfully bringing together the historical record and current analysis, War In Ukraine looks at the events leading up to the conflict, surveys the different parties involved, and weighs the risks of escalation and opportunities for peace. For anyone who wants to get beneath the heavily propagandized media coverage to an understanding of a war with consequences that could prove cataclysmic, reading this timely book will be an urgent necessity.
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£10.20£12.30War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict
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Dance of the Photons: Einstein, Entanglement and Quantum Teleportation
A Nobel Laureate explains quantum entanglement and teleportation and why Einstein was wrong about the nature of reality
What is the true nature of reality? To find out, Nobel Laureate Anton Zeilinger takes us (along with his fictional students Alice and Bob) on a voyage through a quantum wonderland, explaining entanglement, teleportation, time-travel paradoxes and why our view of the world must change.
Originally published in America in 2012, a new Afterword in the light of the author’s 2022 Nobel Prize means the book brings readers up-to-date with the most recent developments in quantum teleportation. This describes the author’s collaboration to perform the first intercontinental video call encrypted using quantum cryptography, and how Chinese scientists teleported entangled quantum states to an orbiting satellite. Readers also learn how both volunteer humans and astronomical objects billions of light years away have been part of experiments to conclusively prove that quantum states cannot provide a full description of reality at a local level.
Einstein had always refused to accept aspects of quantum theory, deriding the notion of instantaneous communication between faraway ‘entangled’ particles as ‘spooky action at a distance’. However, this playful yet deep book takes readers through a series of ingenious experiments conducted in various locations that demonstrate entanglement is indeed real, and speculates that information is an essential part of reality.
From a dank sewage tunnel under the River Danube to the balmy air between a pair of mountain peaks in the Canary Islands, with various time-travel paradoxes explained along the way, the author and his fictional physics students Alice and Bob demonstrate the true nature of quantum entanglement and teleportation using photons, or light quanta, created by laser beams. The ideas described have laid the foundations for a new era of quantum technology, including the development of quantum computers and much more.
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£9.40£10.40 -
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
£14.40£16.10 -
Gas Safety Core Revision Guide – Domestic UK: CCN1, CENWAT, MET1 training for ACS (ACS Gas Knowledge for Trainees and Reassessments)
Key Features:- Covers CCN1, CENWAT, and MET1 certification
- Includes all main areas related to domestic gas safety
- Covers gas pipework, fittings, combustion, flueing, ventilation, and more
- Provides exam tips and possible exam questions
- Presents relevant information in a jargon-free manner
- Ideal companion for the practical assessment
- Doubles as a two-day revision guide before the exam dates
- Ensures thorough revision of main assessment topics
- Compact format for easy browsing during the exam
Written by a gas safe qualified engineer, in this revision guide for CCN1, CENWAT, and MET1 certification, you will find an essential resource covering a range of information on critical elements for the modern gas professional. You will find all the main areas related to domestic gas safety covered, from gas pipework and fittings through to combustion, flueing, ventilation, and much more.
It also has exam tips and what to look out for and possible questions you may be asked in the exam. Unlike other manuals, this book contains the most relevant information required to successfully complete the exam and gives it in a jargon-free way so you understand it and remember it. It’s an ideal companion to take with you to the assessment.
This reference pack can also be used as a two-day revision guide right before the exam dates helping you retain and recollect what you have learnt previously and making sure you have revised all the main topics you will be assessed on. It will help you when you need it the most and is easy to browse through as it doesn’t contain hundreds of pages because you simply won’t have the time to look through a huge manual to find what you need during the exam.
To complement this book, we have the ACS Gas Exam Questions Book with Answers, by the same author, which is a valuable companion to this book, providing essential revision material for the CCN1, CENWAT, and MET1 certification written exams.
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This is Europe: The Way We Live Now
‘Thrilling’ – The Financial Times
‘Vivid, urgent and unsettling’ – Tom Holland
_____What does it now mean to call yourself European? Who makes up this population of some 750 million, sprawled from Ireland to Ukraine, from Sweden to Turkey? Who has always called it home, and who has newly arrived from elsewhere? Who are the people who drive our long-distance lorries, steward our criss-crossing planes, lovingly craft our legacy wines, fish our depleted waters, and risk life itself in search of safety and a new start?
In a series of vivid, ambitious, darkly visceral but always empathetic portraits of other people’s lives, journalist Ben Judah invites us to meet them. Drawn from hours of painstaking interviews, these vital stories reveal a frenetic and vibrant continent which has been transformed by diversity, migration, the internet, climate change, Covid, war and the quest for freedom.
Laid dramatically bare, it may not always be a Europe we recognize – but this is Europe.
_____‘An astonishing achievement’ – Evening Standard
‘Brilliantly told . . . highly readable’ – The Times
‘Unflinching’ – The GuardianRead more
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Spying and the Crown: The Secret Relationship Between British Intelligence and the Royals
A Daily Mail Book of the Year and a The Times and Sunday Times Best Book of 2021
‘Monumental.. Authoritative and highly readable.’ Ben Macintyre, The Times
‘A fascinating history of royal espionage.’ Sunday Times
‘Excellent… Compelling’ Guardian
For the first time, Spying and the Crown uncovers the remarkable relationship between the Royal Family and the intelligence community, from the reign of Queen Victoria to the death of Princess Diana.
In an enthralling narrative, Richard J. Aldrich and Rory Cormac show how the British secret services grew out of persistent attempts to assassinate Victoria and then operated on a private and informal basis, drawing on close personal relationships between senior spies, the aristocracy, and the monarchy.
Based on original research and new evidence, Spying and the Crown presents the British monarchy in an entirely new light and reveals how far their majesties still call the shots in a hidden world.
Previously published as The Secret Royals.
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What Really Happens in Vegas: Discover the infamous city as you’ve never seen it before
‘James Patterson and Mark Seal have brought Sin City to life’ TELEGRAPH
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas – until now.
Whether you’re a Vegas regular or have only heard the city’s tales through whispers, this book will surprise and astound you . . . It’s not just the five-star dining, or the casinos, or the clubs, or the crowds. It’s the electrifying chemistry of America’s most round-the-clock city.
In this dazzling 24-hour journey, James Patterson lifts the lid on America’s notorious hub of gambling and excess. Fuelled by original interviews and in-depth reporting, What Really Happens in Vegas uncovers the vice, crime and entertainment that made Sin City an infamous desert mecca.
This is Vegas as you’ve never seen it before, filled with unbelievable stories from the people who make the city tick, simmer – and even explode.
_____________________________
PRAISE FOR JAMES PATTERSON
‘Patterson knows where our deepest fears are buried… there’s no stopping his imagination’ NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
‘A writer with an unusual skill at thriller plotting’ GUARDIAN
‘The master storyteller of our times’ HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
‘No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent – which is what Jim has, in spades’ LEE CHILD
‘Patterson boils a scene down to the single, telling detail, the element that defines a character or moves a plot along. It’s what fires off the movie projector in the reader’s mind’ MICHAEL CONNELLY
‘James Patterson is The Boss. End of.’ IAN RANKIN
‘It’s no mystery why James Patterson is the world’s most popular thriller writer … Simply put: nobody does it better’ JEFFREY DEAVER
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Rugby Behind Barbed Wire: The 1969/70 Springboks Tour of Britain and Ireland
‘We spent all our time surrounded by police cordons and barbed wire, never mind having our bus hijacked.’ – Tommy Bedford, Springboks No. 8 2019 and 2020 mark the fiftieth anniversary of the controversial 1969/70 Springbok rugby tour of the British Isles – a landmark event on both a sporting and political level. Taking place during the time of South Africa’s apartheid dispensation, the tour was characterised throughout by violent demonstrations against the ‘ambassadors of apartheid’. Scenes of chanting demonstrators at the players’ hotels and airports were not uncommon, nor was the sight of protesters being dragged off the field of play by police. Smoke bombs and flour bombs also became a match-day fixture. These were wild and unnerving times for the players on tour, whose movements were badly inhibited and who had to play hide-and-seek to avoid possible violence between games of rugby. During a demanding tour that lasted more than three months and took them to and fro between England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, they endeavoured to sustain a proud tradition of highly successful Springbok tours through the Isles. Through personal interviews with the players, including team captain Dawie de Villiers, vice-captain Tommy Bedford and other senior members of the squad, as well as key figures such as anti-apartheid campaigner Peter Hain, Rugby Behind Barbed Wire takes readers into the inner circle of a besieged group of sportsmen who just wanted to play rugby despite concerted efforts to deny them. The author also looks at the political context of events, and why so many felt that disrupting the tour was a matter of moral and political necessity.Read more
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The Art of Protest: What a Revolution Looks Like
2023 WINNER OF THE BOLOGNA RAGAZZI AWARD!2022 WINNER OF THE BRITISH BOOK DESIGN & PRODUCTION AWARDS IN THE CHILDREN’S TRADE 9 TO 16 CATEGORY!
“Start making. Start being the change you want to see in this world.” – De Nichols
From the psychedelic typography used in ‘Make Love Not War’ posters of the 60s, to the solitary raised fist, take a long, hard look at some of the most memorable and striking protest artwork from across the world and throughout history. With an emphasis on design, analyse each artwork to understand how colour, symbolism, technique, typography and much more play an important role in communication, and learn about some of the most influential historical movements.
Tips and activities are also included to get you started on making some of your own protest art.
Guided by activist, lecturer and speaker De Nichol’s powerful own narrative and stunningly illustrated by a collaboration of young artists from around the world, including Diana Dagadita, Olivia Twist, Molly Mendoza, Raul Oprea and Diego Becas, Art of Protest is as inspiring as it is empowering.
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£12.10£16.10The Art of Protest: What a Revolution Looks Like
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Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Advertising Industry (and Why This Matters)
An intimate and profound reckoning with the changes buffeting the $2 trillion global advertising and marketing business from the perspective of its most powerful players, by the bestselling author of Googled
Advertising and marketing touches on every corner of our lives, and is the invisible fuel powering almost all media. Complain about it though we might, without it the world would be a darker place. And of all the industries wracked by change in the digital age, few have been turned on its head as dramatically as this one has. We are a long way from the days of Don Draper; as Mad Men is turned into Math Men (and women–though too few), as an instinctual art is transformed into a science, the old lions and their kingdoms are feeling real fear, however bravely they might roar.
Frenemies is Ken Auletta’s reckoning with an industry under existential assault. He enters the rooms of the ad world’s most important players, some of them business partners, some adversaries, many “frenemies,” a term whose ubiquitous use in this industry reveals the level of anxiety, as former allies become competitors, and accusations of kickbacks and corruption swirl. We meet the old guard, including Sir Martin Sorrell, the legendary head of WPP, the world’s largest ad agency holding company; while others play nice with Facebook and Google, he rants, some say Lear-like, out on the heath. There is Irwin Gotlieb, maestro of the media agency GroupM, the most powerful media agency, but like all media agencies it is staring into the headlights as ad buying is more and more done by machine in the age of Oracle and IBM. We see the world from the vantage of its new powers, like Carolyn Everson, Facebook’s head of Sales, and other brash and scrappy creatives who are driving change, as millennials and others who disdain ads as an interruption employ technology to zap them. We also peer into the future, looking at what is replacing traditional advertising. And throughout we follow the industry’s peerless matchmaker, Michael Kassan, whose company, MediaLink, connects all these players together, serving as the industry’s foremost power broker, a position which feasts on times of fear and change.
Frenemies is essential reading, not simply because of what it says about this world, but because of the potential consequences: the survival of media as we know it depends on the money generated by advertising and marketing–revenue that is in peril in the face of technological changes and the fraying trust between the industry’s key players.
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£3.90£14.20 -
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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Politics: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
In this provocative but balanced essay, Kenneth Minogue discusses the development of politics from the ancient world to the twentieth century. He prompts us to consider why political systems evolve, how politics offers both power and order in our society, whether democracy is always a good thing, and what future politics may have in the twenty-first century.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
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£7.10£8.50 -
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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Sign Language
A sign language guide will help kids learn to sign easily and effectively. Kids are extremely receptive to new languages and signing is no exception. Pictures and diagrams in the study guide will help kids learn proper finger placement when forming signs. This will help communication flow more easily. Having a study guide will be empowering for kids as they can learn on their own and at their own pace.Read more
£2.80Sign Language
£2.80
