Social Sciences
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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
£11.40£12.30 -
Chaucer Here and Now
The Geoffrey Chaucer of this book is not the Father of English Literature that you think you know. In this wide-ranging collection of essays you will find wartime Chaucer, postcolonial Chaucer, feminist Chaucer, misogynist Chaucer, radical Chaucer and conservative Chaucer, among many other interpretations. Featuring beautiful illustrations of early manuscripts and rare editions, Chaucer Here and Now gives a picture of how varied adaptations of and responses to his work have been, from fifteenth- century scribes who finished off incomplete tales, through early printers who constructed Chaucer as the Father of the Nation, to contemporary postcolonial writers such as Zadie Smith. The book moves through years of censorship, the creation of children’s Chaucer, Protestant Chaucer and imperial Chaucer – and the travels of Chaucer all around the world. It also explores Chaucer on film and Chaucer in the present moment. Today’s creative responses follow in a line of irreverent, partial responses that we can trace back to Chaucer’s very first readers and editors, showing that Chaucer is available for every here and now to remake, rework and reinvent.Read more
£28.50Chaucer Here and Now
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Immediacy, Or The Style of Too Late Capitalism
Why speed, flow, and direct expression now dominate cultural styleContemporary cultural style boosts transparency and instantaneity. These are values absorbed from our current economic conditions of “disintermediation”: cutting out the middleman. Like Uber, but for art. Immediacy names this style to make sense of what we lose when the contradictions of twenty-first-century capitalism demand that aesthetics negate mediation. Surging realness as an aesthetic program synchs with the economic imperative to intensify circulation when production stagnates. “Flow” is the ultimate twenty-first-century buzzword, but speedy circulation grinds art down to the nub. And the bad news is that political turmoil and social challenges require more mediation. Collective will, inspiring ideas, and deliberate construction are the only way out, but our dominant style forgoes them. Considering original streaming TV, popular literature, artworld trends, and academic theories, Immediacy explains the recent obsession with immersion and today’s intolerance of representation, and points to alternative forms in photography, TV, novels, and constructive theory that prioritize distance, impersonality, and big ideas instead.
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£17.10 -
The Wheel is Spinning but the Hamster is Dead: A Journey Around the World in Idioms, Proverbs and General Nonsense
Know your tater trap from your sniffle herring in Sharp’s journey around the world in idioms, proverbs and general nonsense – the perfect gift for Christmas
‘Brilliant, hilarious fun from a master wordsmith – you will LOVE this book’ Kit de Waal
‘Extremely entertaining and very useful for new insults’ Russell Kane
‘Utter genius’ Marian Keyes
‘Brilliant’ Brian BilstonJoin wordsmith Adam Sharp as he journeys around the world in idioms, proverbs and general nonsense. Learn unusual insults from France (You are a potato with the face of a guinea pig), how to hurry someone up in the US (You’re going as slow as molasses in January) and what they call a shark in Vietnam (fat fish).
Full of fascinating, ridiculous and hilarious translations from around the world, Adam has rounded up the very best of what every corner of the globe has to offer.
Let’s get this show on the road! Or:
Let’s saddle the chickens! (German)
On with the butter! (Icelandic)
Forward with the goat! (Dutch)Read more
£5.70 -
The British Bloke, Decoded: From Banter to Man-Flu. Everything finally explained.
‘I laughed a lot and now understand blokes a lot more than I ever wanted to’ – Katherine Ryan‘Geoff is one of the funniest intelligent thinkers in comedy and this book reflects that perfectly’ – Romesh Ranganathan
‘Geoff’s examination of blokeness is Geoff all over – funny and insightful, making serious points without committing the cardinal sin of taking itself too seriously. Top bloke.’ – Adrian Chiles
‘Highly informative. Geoff will make a proper bloke out of me yet.’ – Hugo Rifkind
‘A brilliant and hilarious book which defends blokes without denigrating women’ – Konstantin Kisin
If you see a man drinking a pint in an airport pub alone, that’s a bloke.
If you see a man driving to the tip on a Saturday morning with a smile on his face, that’s a bloke.
And if you see a man heading back from the tip and on the way to the pub, that’s a very happy bloke.The British Bloke appears simple and straightforward. He loves football, cricket, beer, sheds, wearing socks and books about the SAS.
But beneath that simple exterior lies a mysterious and complex being.
In The British Bloke Decoded, writer, comedian and regular bloke, Geoff Norcott peels back the layers of blokedom, revealing the truth behind the sometimes inexplicable behaviour of Britain’s husbands, dads and brothers.
Based on 46 years of field research and almost scientific insights, Geoff digs deep into subjects as wide as: the value of Banter, the surprising roots of Mansplaining, the near impossibility of getting blokes to send birthday cards, and whether there could be a medal system for Hoovering.
And ultimately, he concludes that whilst the toxic men have been grabbing all the publicity – perhaps now’s the time to celebrate the simple British bloke in all his eccentric splendour.
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£9.60£10.40 -
Welcome to the O.C.: The Oral History
“A fascinating peek behind the making of a megahit, and a delightful bit of nostalgia for those of us who remember life before streaming TV.” —Town & Country
Welcome to the O.C., b*tch: it’s the definitive oral history of beloved TV show The O.C., from the show’s creators, featuring interviews with the cast and crew, providing a behind-the-scenes look into how the show was made, the ups and downs over its four seasons, and its legacy today.
On August 5th, 2003, Ryan Atwood found himself a long way from his home in Chino—he was in The O.C., an exclusive suburb full of beautiful girls, wealthy bullies, corrupt real-estate tycoons, and a new family helmed by his public defender, Sandy Cohen. Ryan soon warms up to his nerdy, indie band-loving new best friend Seth, and quickly falls for Marissa, the stunning girl next door who has secrets of her own. Completing the group is Summer, Seth’s dream girl and Marissa’s loyal—and fearless—best friend. Together, the friends fall in and out of love, support each other amidst family strife, and capture the hearts of audiences across the country.
Just in time for the show’s twentieth anniversary, The O.C.’s creator Josh Schwartz and executive producer Stephanie Savage are ready to dive into how the show was made, the ups and downs over its four seasons, and its legacy today. With Rolling Stone’s chief TV critic and bestselling author Alan Sepinwall conducting interviews with the key cast members, writers, and producers who were there when it all happened, Welcome to the O.C. will offer the definitive inside look at the beloved show—a nostalgic delight for audiences who watched when it aired, and a rich companion to viewers currently discovering the show while it streams on HBO Max and Hulu.
The O.C. paved the way for a new generation of iconic teen soaps, launched the careers of young stars, and even gave us the gift of Chrismukkah. Now, it’s time to go back where we started from and experience it all over again.
Includes exclusive interviews with: Ben McKenzie * Mischa Barton * Adam Brody * Rachel Bilson * Peter Gallagher * Kelly Rowan * Melinda Clarke * Tate Donovan * Chris Carmack * Autumn Reeser * Willa Holland * Samaire Armstrong * Alan Dale * Colin Hanks * Amanda Righetti * Navi Rawat * Shannon Lucio * Michael Cassidy * McG * Imogen Heap * Alex Greenwald * Ben Gibbard * Paul Scheer * Doug Liman * and many more!
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£23.80 -
Phew, Eh Readers?: The Life and Writing of Tom Hibbert
Idiosyncratic.Iconoclastic.
Acerbic.
Hilarious.
The influence of Tom Hibbert’s music writing across print, radio, TV and podcasts is incomparable. From his genre-defining work at Smash Hits to his ‘Who the Hell … ?’ profiles for Q magazine and beyond, this book brings together many of Hibbert’s funniest writings.
Compiled by Barney Hoskyns and Jasper Murison-Bowie at Rock’s Backpages, the archive of music journalism, Phew, Eh Readers? showcases some of Hibbert’s greatest pieces. Presented thematically and chronologically, they highlight his marvellously eccentric perspective on life and popular culture.
Many leading writers and journalists attest to Hibbert’s genius. This compendium supplements his writing with new reflections on Tom from some of his peers, colleagues and admirers, including Mark Ellen, Bob Stanley, Tom Doyle, Chris Heath, Sylvia Patterson, along with his widow Allyce.
Phew, Eh Readers? is a must-read homage to one of the most influential writers of our time, a man who left an indelible mark on our cultural landscape.
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£19.20£20.90 -
Critical Hits: Writers on Gaming and the Alternate Worlds We Inhabit
‘A loot drop of brilliance’ Naomi Alderman, author of The Power
Whether you’re an avid gamer, a Twitch subscriber, or just an incidental Subway Surfer, video games have changed the way you interact with the world, and have been part of our lives for over fifty years. Critical Hits is a celebration of play and playfulness, and the lasting impact of videogames.
Composed of sharp, impassioned, and inquisitive essays, this collection begins with an introduction by Carmen Maria Machado and presents video games through the eyes of eighteen writer-gamers as they straddle real and artificial worlds. In games, they find solace from illness and grief, test ideas about language, bodies, race, and technology, and see their experiences and identities reflected in-or complicated by-the interactive virtual realities they inhabit.
From a deep dive into “portal fantasy” games by Charlie Jane Anders and a comic by MariNaomi about her time as a video game producer, to the overlaps in gaming and poetry by Stephen Sexton, Critical Hits illuminates fragments of an industry that is wildly popular, grossly misunderstood, and absolutely spellbinding.
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£12.30£13.50 -
The Old Gays’ Guide to the Good Life: The must-read memoir and manifesto from the TikTok sensation @theoldgays
‘I’ve fallen in love with this fabulous foursome … They are a phenomenon!’ Drew Barrymore
From @theoldgays, the internet’s most beloved foursome, a book of inspirational stories and aspirational advice for living life at the fullest.
The Old Gays have taken TikTok by storm with their viral videos, by turns outrageous and hilarious, fashionable and fierce. But as four gay men, aged from 67 to 80, Mick, Jessay, Robert, and Bill have lived through decades of momentous change and they’ve got stories that take more than three minutes to tell.
They grew up in the closet, experienced Stonewall, lived large during the gay sexual revolution, lost friends during the AIDS crisis, dealt with their own HIV+ diagnoses, and saw gay marriage became legal. Between them, they’ve been through it all – divorce, depression, bankruptcy, near-death experiences. And then there’s the dinner parties, the nudism, the professional bodybuilding, the orgies and the matter of church.
These are the tales – sometimes scandalous, sometimes profound, sometimes heart-breaking – that only an older gay man can tell. Their Guide to the Good Life is a celebration of lives lived to the fullest, and the art of getting old without getting bored. Whether it’s ageing, coming out, losing everything, starting over, finding happiness or just injecting a little more fun into proceedings, it’s good to know someone’s been there before, and they’re more than happy to give their best, bawdiest, most hard-won advice.
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£6.90£16.10 -
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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£5.70 -
Eye for An Eye: The brand-new book club thriller that will get everyone talking
OUR MOST NOTORIOUS CRIMINALS HAVE HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT.
UNTIL NOW…‘Emily’ is a devoted single mother.
‘Jack’ starts a new job in a new town.
They both share the same secret:
neither of them are who they say they are.They are among only nine criminals in the UK who have been granted lifelong anonymity, for their own safety, because of their terrible crimes.
But what if someone exposed their true identities to the families of their victims, who are desperate for revenge?
Probation officer Olivia Campbell is caught in the crossfire of this crisis – and as the search for the mole behind it all intensifies, so too does the hunt for the vigilante killers let loose by the leaks…
RIGHT OR WRONG?
CRIMINAL OR VICTIM?
REDEMPTION OR REVENGE?*****
‘A big, bold, twisting thriller’ CHRIS WHITAKER
‘A thought-provoking masterclass’ DANIEL COLE#EyeForAnEye
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£4.70£9.50 -
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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£15.20£19.00
