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The Upside of the Downturn

The Upside of the Downturn

Contributors

Geoff Colvin

Price and format

Price
£16.99
Format
Hardcover
Never waste a crisis – the current recession is a turning point into a new economic world, a world full of opportunity for those who understand what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what it means for them. Some businesses – and some people – will emerge from this downturn stronger and more dominant than when it started. Others will weaken and fade. It all depends on critical choices they make right now.

Geoff Colvin, one of world’s most respected business journalists, says even the scariest recession has an upside. The best managers know that conventional thinking won’t help them win in these tough times. They’re taking smart, practical steps that will not only keep them strong, but will also distance them from the pack for years to come. The dozens of top-performing leaders Colvin interviewed reject the common view that slashing costs and firing employees is all that matters. They see the recession as a rich opportunity to restructure, reinvent and reimagine their businesses and lay the groundwork for future growth.

Written in Colvin’s characteristic reader-friendly style, The Upside of the Downturn shows how anyone – from small business owner to global conglomerate CEO – can benefit from his ten solidly grounded strategies. He shows how to find opportunities that will increase your company’s competitiveness and build its long-term value. For example: reset priorities. Easy to say, harder to do. Pursuing the lofty goals set in good times can be disastrous now; re-evaluate people and steal some good ones. Mass layoffs are a tempting way to cut costs, but great companies often find smarter alternatives. And if your competitors are unwise enough to fire their best people, grab them; keep investing in the core.

Trim the fat from your budgets but not the muscle. The best companies actually increase some spending in a recession, funding the areas that make them unique and valuable; and, price with courage. Many companies assume they must – yet the long-term damage often outweighs the short-term boost.

Colvin shows how these strategies really work, using examples of major companies that have applied them with inspiring results and discovered those hidden gems of opportunity and those elusive ‘green shoots’ of recovery.
Bad Girls

Bad Girls

Contributors

Caitlin Davies

Price and format

Price
£12.99
Format
Paperback
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LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING

‘Davies’s absorbing study serves up just enough sensationalism – and eccentricity – along with its serious inquiry’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘[A] revealing account of the jail’s 164-year history’ DAILY TELEGRAPH, 5* review

‘Insightful and thought-provoking and makes for a ripping good read’ JEREMY CORBYN

‘A much-needed and balanced history’ OBSERVER

‘Davies explores how society has dealt with disobedient women – from suffragettes to refugees to women seeking abortions – for decades, and how they’ve failed to silence those who won’t go down without a fight’ STYLIST

Society has never known what to do with its rebellious women.

Those who defied expectations about feminine behaviour have long been considered dangerous and unnatural, and ever since the Victorian era they have been removed from public view, locked up and often forgotten about. Many of these women ended up at HM Prison Holloway, the self-proclaimed ‘terror to evil-doers’ which, until its closure in 2016, was western Europe’s largest women’s prison.

First built in 1852 as a House of Correction, Holloway’s women have come from all corners of the UK – whether a patriot from Scotland, a suffragette from Huddersfield, or a spy from the Isle of Wight – and from all walks of life – socialites and prostitutes, sporting stars and nightclub queens, refugees and freedom fighters. They were imprisoned for treason and murder, for begging, performing abortions and stealing clothing coupons, for masquerading as men, running brothels and attempting suicide. In Bad Girls, Caitlin Davies tells their stories and shows how women have been treated in our justice system over more than a century, what crimes – real or imagined – they committed, who found them guilty and why. It is a story of victimization and resistance; of oppression and bravery.

From the women who escaped the hangman’s noose – and those who didn’t – to those who escaped Holloway altogether, Bad Girls is a fascinating look at how disobedient and defiant women changed not only the prison service, but the course of history.
The Year Without Summer

The Year Without Summer

Contributors

Guinevere Glasfurd

Price and format

Price
£8.99
Format
Paperback
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LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT HISTORICAL FICTION PRIZE 2021
SHORTLISTED FOR THE HWA GOLD CROWN AWARD 2020
‘A STRIKINGLY SHARP AND SUBTLE WRITER’ Guardian
‘SUPERB…BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN…UNFORGETTABLE’ FT Weekend
‘SKILFUL’ Sunday Times
‘RICH, INTRICATE, IMPRESSIVELY REALISED’ Observer
‘VIVIDLY REALISED’ The Times
‘A VISION OF THE PAST AND A VISION OF THE FUTURE’ Irish Times

‘A VIVID SLICE OF HISTORICAL FICTION’ Sunday Express

1815, Sumbawa Island, Indonesia
Mount Tambora explodes in a cataclysmic eruption, killing thousands. Sent to investigate, ship surgeon Henry Hoggcan barely believe his eyes. Once a paradise, the island is now solid ash, the surrounding sea turned to stone. But worse is yet to come: as the ash cloud rises and covers the sun, the seasons will fail.

1816
In Switzerland, Mary Shelley finds dark inspiration. Confined inside by the unseasonable weather, thousands of famine refugees stream past her door. In Vermont, preacher Charles Whitlock begs his followers to keep faith as drought dries their wells and their livestock starve.

In Suffolk, the ambitious and lovesick painter John Constable struggles to reconcile the idyllic England he paints with the misery that surrounds him. In the Fens, farm labourer Sarah Hobbs has had enough of going hungry while the farmers flaunt their wealth. And Hope Peter, returned from the Napoleonic wars, finds his family home demolished and a fence gone up in its place. He flees to London, where he falls in with a group of revolutionaries who speak of a better life, whatever the cost. As desperation sets in, Britain becomes beset by riots – rebellion is in the air.

The Year Without Summer is the story of the books written, the art made; of the journeys taken, of the love longed for and the lives lost during that fateful year. Six separate lives, connected only by an event many thousands of miles away. Few had heard of Tambora – but none could escape its effects.

‘VIVID, VIBRANT, HARD TO PUT DOWN’ Hilary Spurling
‘THOUGHT-PROVOKING, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND VERY COMPELLING’ Harriet Tyce
‘INGENIOUS AND ABSORBING’ Kirsty Wark
‘ASTONISHING, RIVETING, MASTERFUL, POETIC’ Emily Rapp Black
‘A WORLDWIDE CANVAS BROUGHT TO LIFE IN VIVID, HEARTBREAKING DETAIL’ Marianne Kavanagh
The Race to the Future

The Race to the Future

Contributors

Kassia St Clair

Price and format

Price
£20
Format
Hardcover
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‘An incredible and stirring story . . . a mix of competition, camaraderie as well as a larky sense of adventure . . . Down goes the flag. Smash goes the bottle. Shards of emerald glass and champagne spume catch the light. The race from Peking to Paris has begun’ Spectator

‘And it’s Go, Go, Go . . . A captivating history of a seemingly impossible journey and one of the most challenging endurance trials in the history of motoring . . . Skillful researcher and fine storyteller, St Clair’s narrative is full of surprises . . . Fabulous . . . she hopes to follow Prince Borghese on his heroic journey and – if you share my absorbed interest in her adventurous narrative you may want to emulate her. See you there?’ Miranda Seymour, Literary Review

10 June 1907, Peking. Five cars set off in a desperate race across two continents on the verge of revolution.

An Italian prince and his chauffeur, a French racing driver, a conman and various journalists battle over steep mountain ranges and across the arid vastness of the Gobi Desert. The contestants need teams of helpers to drag their primitive cars up narrow gorges, lift them over rough terrain and float them across rivers. Petrol is almost impossible to find, there are barely any roads, armed bandits and wolves lurk in the forests. Updates on their progress, sent by telegram, are eagerly devoured by millions in one of the first ever global news stories. Their destination: Paris.

More than its many adventures, the Peking-to-Paris provided the impetus for profound change. The world of 1907 is poised between the old and the new: communist regimes will replace imperial ones in China and Russia; the telegraph is transforming modern communication and the car will soon displace the horse. In this book bestselling author Kassia St Clair traces the fascinating stories of two interlocking races – setting the derring-do (and sometimes cheating) of one of the world’s first car races against the backdrop of a larger geopolitical and technological rush to the future, as the rivalry grows between countries and empires, building up to the cataclysmic event that changed everything – the First World War.

The Race to the Future is the incredible true story of the quest against the odds that shaped the world we live in today.
Hot Stew

Hot Stew

Contributors

Fiona Mozley

Price and format

Price
£8.99
Format
Paperback
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Longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize

‘Ambitious, clever, brilliant and very funny . . . If Elmet announced the arrival of a bright new voice in British literature, Hot Stew confirms Mozley as a writer of extraordinary empathic gifts’ Observer

A dazzling Dickensian tale . . . In an age when so many novelists of Mozley’s generation take refuge in the dystopian, she has reinvigorated large-scale social realism for our times’ Guardian, Book of the Day

‘Where the mystical, elemental qualities of Elmet earned it comparisons with Lawrence and Hardy, her second novel is a sprawling urban comedy more likely to recall Ben Jonson or Dickens’ Daily Telegraph

‘Did you know in Tudor times all the brothels were south of the river in Southwark and it was only much later that they moved up this way to Soho. Stews, they were called then.’

Pungent, steamy, insatiable Soho; the only part of London that truly never sleeps. Tourists dawdling, chancers skulking, addicts shuffling, sex workers strutting, punters prowling, businessmen striding, the homeless and the lost. Down Wardour Street, ducking onto Dean Street, sweeping into L’Escargot, darting down quiet back alleyways, skirting dumpsters and drunks, emerging on to raucous main roads, fizzing with energy and riotous with life.

On a corner, sits a large townhouse, the same as all its neighbours. But this building hosts a teeming throng of rich and poor, full from the basement right up to the roof terrace. Precious and Tabitha call the top floors their home but it’s under threat; its billionaire-owner Agatha wants to kick the women out to build expensive restaurants and luxury flats. Men like Robert, who visit the brothel, will have to go elsewhere. Those like Cheryl, who sleep in the basement, will have to find somewhere else to hide after dark. But the women won’t go quietly. Soho is their turf and they are ready for a fight.

A complex mosaic of urban life . . . The Soho Mozley captures with such intensity is not a mere locality. It is a microcosm of swarming humanity’ The Times

At its best, it recalls the kind of capacious, rollicking satires Britain produced in and around the Thatcher era – ambitious, scathing and damn good fun’ TLS
I Wish I'd Known

I Wish I'd Known

Contributors

Fiona Spargo-Mabbs

Price and format

Price
£10.99
Format
Paperback
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SUCH AN IMPORTANT BOOK… ESSENTIAL READING FOR PARENTS’ Gabby Logan
INCREDIBLY POWERFUL… A MUST-READ’ Victoria Derbyshire

When Dan died, I realised many things.

I realised drugs were closer to our door than I’d thought.
I realised drugs have become normalised for young people.
I realised drugs are more affordable, accessible and available than ever before.
And I realised I didn’t know enough, and nor did Dan, to navigate the choices and come back alive.

When Daniel Spargo-Mabbs was 16, he went to a party and never came home. The party was an illegal rave and Daniel – bright, popular, big-hearted prom king Dan – died from a fatally strong overdose of MDMA.

In the seven years since, the range of substances has become wider, the levels of exposure higher, and the threat to young people’s physical and mental health from drugs greater than ever before. Despite this, there is almost no guidance for parents to help their children navigate this perilous landscape and to stay safe.

To come home at night.

To grow up.

This book is everything Fiona Spargo-Mabbs wishes she’d known, everything she wishes she’d done, before she lost her son. Because however you parent, and whatever you do, at some point your child is likely to be in a situation where they have to make a decision about drugs. What if that decision is ‘yes’? Do they know what the risks are? Do they have strategies they can bring to bear if things go wrong?

I Wish I’d Known interweaves the story of one family’s terrible loss with calm, measured and practical advice for parents. It explores the risks posed by illegal drugs, and explains the way the adolescent brain makes decisions. There is practical advice for saying safe, information on reducing harm, and ‘talking points’ for parents and their children to do, talk about, look at, look up or consider.

A life lost to drugs is a loss like no other. Throughout the book, Daniel’s story – his life, his death and what happened afterwards – not only provides a compelling reminder of the importance of those conversations, but also serves as an unforgettable eulogy to a son, brother, boyfriend and friend whose legacy continues to touch, and perhaps even save, the lives of other young people.
Kiki Man Ray

Kiki Man Ray

Contributors

Mark Braude

Price and format

Price
£10.99
Format
Paperback
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‘Exuberantly entertaining’ NYT Book Review
‘Mark Braude’s writing and subject make this book irresistible, as was Kiki herself.’ Jim Jarmusch
‘A delightful, marvelously readable, meticulously-researched romp of a book, Kiki Man Ray brings to life not just the kaleidoscopically talented Kiki herself, but the endlessly fascinating Montparnasse milieu over which she reigned.’ Whitney Scharer, author of THE AGE OF LIGHT

Though many have never heard her name, Alice Prin – Kiki de Montparnasse – was the icon of 1920s Paris. She captivated as a ground-breaking nightclub performer, wrote a bestselling memoir, sold out exhibitions of her paintings, and shared drinks and ideas with the likes of Pablo Picasso, Peggy Guggenheim, and Marcel Duchamp. She also shepherded along the career of a then-unknown American photographer: Man Ray.

Following Kiki in the years between 1921 and 1929, when she lived and worked with Man Ray, Kiki Man Ray charts their complicated entanglement and reveals how Man Ray – always the unabashed careerist – went on to become one of the most famous photographers of the twentieth century, enjoying wealth and prestige, while Kiki’s legacy was lost.

But this isn’t a story of an overbearing male genius and his defeated muse. During the 1920s it was Kiki, not Man Ray, who was the brighter of the two rising stars and a powerful figure among the close-knit community of models, painters, writers and café wastrels who made their homes in gritty Montparnasse. Following the couple as they created art, struggled for power and competed for fame, Kiki Man Ray illuminates for the first time Kiki’s seminal influence on the culture of 1920s Paris, and challenges ideas about artists and muses, and the lines separating the two.

‘Kiki de Montparnasse was more than a muse she was a vivacious, independent woman whose talent and magnetism helped make Paris the center of the art world in the 1920s. In Mark Braude’s riveting cultural history, the Queen of Montparnasse rises again. This is a lively and compassionate tribute to the chanteuse, model, and portraitist who held center stage in her life, and who inspired some of the finest Surrealist art of the twentieth century.’ Heather Clark, author of Pulitzer Prize-finalist Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
The Daily Show Presidential Twitter Library

The Daily Show Presidential Twitter Library

Contributors

Trevor Noah

Price and format

Price
£14.99
Format
Hardcover
As seen on The Daily Show, an illustrated portrait of the Donald J. Trump Twitter account, with analysis and ‘scholarly’ commentary from the writers of The Daily Show and an introduction by Trevor Noah.

In June 2017, just steps from Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah opened The Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library, a 4,000-square-foot museum space that gave the 45th president and his amazing Twitter legacy the respect they deserve. In the single weekend it was open to the public, the Library pop-up drew 7,500 visitors and had to turn away countless others.

But the Presidential Twitter Library experience should not be limited to the elite coastal few. Not fair! All citizens, even the Mexican ones, should have the chance to see Donald Trump’s tweets in their rightful context – organized and commented on in the fearless, hilarious, insightful voice of The Daily Show.

This one-of-a-kind exhibition catalogue presents the Library’s complete contents, including:

The Masterpieces: In-depth critical appreciations of history’s most important Trump tweets, from ‘Very Stable Genius’ to ‘Covfefe’ to ‘Trump Tower Taco Bowl/I Love Hispanics!’
The Greatest Battles: @realDonaldTrump’s brutal Twitter campaigns against fellow Republicans, Diet Coke, women generally, and Kristen Stewart specifically
Sad! A Retrospective: a compendium of the many people, events and twists of fate that apparently made Donald Trump feel this human emotion
Trumpstradamus: DJT’s amazing 140-character predictions-none of which came true!
The Hall of Nicknames: the greatest of Trump’s monikers, from ‘Lyin’ Ted’ to ‘Low I.Q. Crazy Mika’, accompanied by original caricature artwork
Trump vs. Trump: You’re going to want to sit for this one. Donald Trump has sometimes been known to contradict himself.
Always the Best: the greatest boasts of the greatest boaster of all time, ever!

Comprising hundreds of Trump tweets, and featuring a foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham, and even a place for readers to add their own future Trump tweet highlights – because he is making new Twitter history literally every day – The Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library is a unique portrait of an artist whose masterworks will be studied by historians, grammarians, and mental health professionals for years to come.
A Memoir of My Former Self

A Memoir of My Former Self

Contributors

Hilary Mantel

Price and format

Price
£12.99
Format
Paperback
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‘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

‘Extraordinary . . . a quality of timelessness and prescience’ New Statesman, Book of the Year

‘Magical . . . Here we meet not just Mantel the Cromwell-catcher, but Mantel the quill-sharp critic of contemporary life’ The Times, Book of the Year

THE MAGNIFICENT FINAL BOOK FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE WOLF HALL TRILOGY

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

‘Mantel was a queen of literature . . . her reign was long, varied and uncontested’ Maggie O’Farrell
The Chambers Crossword Dictionary, 4th Edition

The Chambers Crossword Dictionary, 4th Edition

Contributors

Chambers

Price and format

Price
£16.99
Format
Paperback
The bestselling reference for crossword solvers and setters
The Chambers Crossword Dictionary is the perfect tool for any crossword solver – and you know it because it is used by the setters themselves!

What makes The Chambers Crossword Dictionary different? Comprehensive, reliable and easy-to-use, this major new edition has been thoroughly revised and updated by a team of crossword experts, and is specially tailored to the needs of crossword solvers. With more than 500,000 solutions to cryptic and quick clues, plus explanations of cryptic clue types and the use of anagram and other indicators, and insights into the world of crossword setting and memorable clues, it is truly the ultimate crossword bible.

This new edition features:
– Over 500,000 solutions for every kind of crossword.
– More than 2,500 crossword code words alerting you to cryptic ploys.
– Over 19,500 ‘one-stop’ entries, with both synonyms and encyclopaedic material, for extra guidance in finding the right answer.
– A wealth of recent synonyms to give you up-to-the-minute answers.
– New topic lists to help you solve general-knowledge clues.
– Word lists sorted by length and then alphabetically to make finding solutions easy.
– Includes words, phrases, abbreviations, symbols, codes and other cryptic ‘building blocks’.
– Packed with crossword jargon, anagram and other indicators and essential cryptic vocabulary.
– Draws on the latest Chambers Dictionary 13th Edition and the authoritative Chambers reference range.

It is packed with expert advice and editorial from:
– Derek Arthur (1945-2010), co-editor of The Listener crossword in The Times and of The Chambers Crossword Dictionary, 2nd edition
– Ross Beresford, former co-editor of The Listener crossword
– Peter Biddlecombe, The Sunday Times crossword editor and The Times Crossword Championship winner (2000, 2007)
– Jonathan Crowther, better known to cryptic crossword solvers as Azed, having set crosswords for The Observer for over 40 years
– Don Manley, crossword setter for many quality newspapers under various pseudonyms (Duck, Quixote, Bradman, Giovanni) and Church Times crossword editor
– Tim Moorey, crossword setter for The Sunday Times and The Times, and crossword editor and setter for The Week and MoneyWeek magazines. He is author of How to Crack Cryptic Crosswords

Chambers is one of the world’s most respected dictionary and thesaurus publishers.
Maiden Voyages

Maiden Voyages

Contributors

Siân Evans

Price and format

Price
£10.99
Format
Paperback
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HOW THE GOLDEN AGE OF TRANSATLANTIC TRAVEL BETWEEN THE WARS TRANSFORMED WOMEN’S LIVES ACROSS ALL CLASSES – A VIVID CROSS SECTION OF LIFE ON-BOARD THE ICONIC OCEAN LINERS FROM BELOW DECKS TO THE CAPTAIN’S TABLE.

‘In this riveting slice of social history, Siân Evans does a brilliant job of describing the unexpected textures of life at sea…By deep diving into the archives, Siân Evans has discovered a watery in-between world where the usual rules didn’t quite apply and a spirited woman could get further than she ever would on dry land. – Mail on Sunday


Migrants and millionairesses, refugees and aristocrats all looking for a way to improve their lives. After WW1 a world of opportunity was opening up for women … Before convenient air travel, transatlantic travel was the province of the great ocean liners and never more so than in the glory days of the interwar years. It was an extraordinary undertaking made by many women. Some traveled for leisure, some for work; others to find a new life, marriage, to reinvent themselves or find new opportunities. Their stories have remained largely untold – until now.

Maiden Voyages is a fascinating portrait of these women, and their lives on board magnificent ocean liners as they sailed between the old and the new worlds. The ocean liner was a microcosm of contemporary society, divided by class: from the luxury of the upper deck, playground for the rich and famous, to the cramped conditions of steerage or third class travel. These iconic liners were filled with women of all ages, classes and backgrounds: celebrities and refugees, migrants and millionairesses, aristocrats and crew members.

Full of incredible gossip, stories and intrigue, Maiden Voyages has a diverse cast of inspiring women – from A-listers like Josephine Baker, a dancer from St Louis who found fame in Paris, Marlene Dietrich and Wallis Simpson, Violet ‘the unsinkable’ Jessop, a crew member who survived the sinking of the Titanic, and entrepreneur Sibyl Colefax, a pioneering interior designer.

Whichever direction they were travelling, whatever hopes they entertained, they were all under the spell of life at sea, a spell which would only break when they went ashore. Maiden Voyages is a compelling and highly entertaining account of life on board: part dream factory, part place of work, independence and escape – always moving.
Chronic Pain The Drug-Free Way

Chronic Pain The Drug-Free Way

Contributors

Phil Sizer

Price and format

Price
£9.99
Format
Paperback
Buy this book and make sure that your doctor reads it too!” – Dr Steve Gilbert, Staff Specialist in Anaesthesia and Pain Management, former Lead Clinician for Chronic Pain in Scotland

Phil’s book has everything necessary to help people with chronic pain change their life. To live, thrive and not just survive. A must-read for people in pain: learn to live again.” – Linz Stevens, living well despite chronic pain.

Chronic pain is much more common than you might think – it affects nearly one-fifth of the population. Chronic pain is defined as any pain that continues for longer than three months. It has a variety of causes including arthritis, back pain, fibromyalgia, accidents or operations, although sometimes there is no apparent cause.

Many people suffering from chronic pain have been told by medical professionals that ‘I’m sorry, there’s nothing more we can do for you’, leaving them feeling abandoned and isolated. If you have been told this, or you think this news may be in your future, then this book is for you.

Self-management is an important approach to coping better and managing this long term condition. Written with humour, and making use of cartoons and line drawings, this book encapsulates 20 years of pain management courses given by Phil Sizer at Pain Association Scotland to patients, GPs, and other health professionals. Divided into three sections (Understanding, Managing, Coping) Its approach is based on a holistic, bio-psycho-social model of health including CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy), ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), positive psychology, relaxation, hypnotherapy, motivational interviewing and coaching.

Topics include:
introduction by Pain Association Scotland
understanding chronic pain – definitions, acute vs chronic
pacing – how to avoid over-doing
realistic goal-setting
stress management
relaxation and sleep
dealing with flare-ups
diet and foods to avoid
coping with unhelpful thinking (racing mind, anxiety and negative thoughts)
challenging limiting beliefs
relationships with others
accepting help
importance of humour – attitude and values
being a person not a condition

If you can learn how to make changes and live better with your pain, things will improve, be different, and most importantly, so much better.
Small Data

Small Data

Contributors

Martin Lindstrom Company

Price and format

Price
£10.99
Format
Paperback
The New York Times Bestseller named one of the “Most Important Books of 2016” by Inc, and a Forbes 2016 “Must Read Business Book”

‘If you love ‘Bones’ and ‘CSI’, this book is your kind of candy’ Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy

‘Martin’s best book to date. A personal, intuitive, powerful way to look at making an impact with your work’ Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow

Martin Lindstrom, one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in The World and a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, harnesses the power of “small data” in his quest to discover the next big thing.

In an era where many believe Big Data has rendered human perception and observation ‘old-school’ or passé, Martin Lindstrom shows that mining and matching technological data with up-close psychological insight creates the ultimate snapshot of who we really are and what we really want. He works like a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, accumulating small clues – the progressively weaker handshakes of Millenials, a notable global decrease in the use of facial powder, a change in how younger consumers approach eating ice cream cones – to help solve a stunningly diverse array of challenges. In Switzerland, a stuffed teddy bear in a teenage girl’s bedroom helped revolutionise 1,000 stores – spread across twenty countries – for one of Europe’s largest fashion retailers. In Dubai, a distinctive bracelet strung with pearls helped Jenny Craig offset its declining membership in the United States and increase loyalty by 159% in only one year. In China, the look of a car dashboard led to the design of the iRobot, or Roomba, floor cleaner – a great success story.

SMALL DATA combines armchair travel with forensic psychology in an interlocking series of international clue-gathering detective stories. It shows Lindstrom using his proprietary CLUES Framework – where big data is merely one part of the overall puzzle – to get radically close to consumers and come up with the counter-intuitive insights that have in some cases helped transform entire industries.

SMALL DATA presents a rare behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to create global brands, and reveals surprising and counter-intuitive truths about what connects us all as humans.
Chambers Word Lover's Crossword Dictionary Set

Chambers Word Lover's Crossword Dictionary Set

Contributors

Chambers

Price and format

Price
£70
Format
Hardcover
“Chambers is the one I keep at my right hand”
-Philip Pullman-

Special two-in-one set for crossword lovers.
Meticulously researched and expertly written, the highly acclaimed Chambers range has been at the forefront of presenting knowledge and learning in an engaging and accessible way since it was first established in the 19th century. This new two-in-one set comprising of the 12th edition of The Chambers Dictionary and the latest Chambers Crossword Dictionary, is the ideal companion for word lovers and crossword enthusiasts all over the world!

What’s in the Chambers Crossword Lover’s Dictionary Set?

– The Chambers Dictionary (New 12th Edition)

The dictionary of choice for word lovers
Immerse yourself in the most interesting, authoritative, and helpful English dictionary available–the unrivalled guide for lovers. Whether you’re an avid wordgamer or just enjoy revelling in the quirks and curiosities of the English language, The Chambers Dictionary is your ultimate companion. The Chambers Dictionary delves deep into all the glories of the English language, covering weird and wonderful words like spoffish, jobernowl, mullligrubs and humdudgeon, all the while ensuring it covers the latest developments in English.

– The Chambers Crossword Dictionary (New edition)
The ultimate resource for all crossword lovers
It is the essential resource for crosswords of all kinds. Comprehensive, reliable and easy-to-use, this major new edition has been thoroughly revised and updated by a team of crossword experts, and is specially tailored to the needs of crossword solvers. With more than 500,000 solutions to cryptic and quick clues, plus explanations of cryptic clue types and the use of anagram and other indicators, and insights into the world of crossword setting and memorable clues, it is an indispensable companion for all cruciverbalists.

What’s special about these editions?

– The Chambers Dictionary (12th edition)


New words
Now in its 12th edition, the dictionary has been updated to include words and expressions that have entered the language in the four years since the last edition was published.

Word Lover’s Miscellany
The 12th edition includes a Word Lover’s Miscellany with list upon list of words to appeal to the English language addict:

– words to impress and surprise
– words to cherish
– words that are extinct
– words that merit rescue
– words to use in Scrabble(R) and other word games
– words to watch
– collective nouns
– useful similes
. . . and many more

Beautiful finishing touches

Ribbon: The Chambers Dictionary is the only popular dictionary to still provide one. Why? Simply because people love them.

Beautifully flat on a desk: The Chambers Dictionary lies perfectly flat on a desk so you can read the whole page with ease – even into the spine.

Strong cloth binding, gold blocking, beautiful endpapers: The Chambers Dictionary is made to an incredibly high quality, guaranteed to withstand years of love.

Foiled cover: Foiling on the cover gives The Chambers Dictionary a luxurious aesthetic.

Less cumbersome than other dictionaries: Slimmer and easier to hold, despite the fact that it contains more words than any other single volume dictionary. And all without reducing text size. It’s a neat trick.

Thumb index: Only provided by Chambers! A standard version without a thumb index is also available.

– The Chambers Crossword Dictionary (3rd edition)


New solutions, synonyms, and topic lists
This brand new edition, compiled from Chambers’ highly acclaimed and vast crossword resources, has been fully updated with thousands of new solutions to be even more useful to crossword fans. New synonyms for publication such as ‘podcast’ and ‘blog’ bring the content bang up-to-the-minute. New topic lists such as ‘curries’ and ‘geese’ help solve general knowledge clues. All words are grouped by meaning, then by number of characters, then alphabetically, to make finding the solution quick and easy. Special cryptic crossword words which indicate anagrams, reversals, etc give hints and tips for solvers.

The best-selling reference for crossword solvers and setters
– Over 500,000 solutions for every kind of crossword
– More than 2,500 crossword code words to alert you to cryptic ploys
– New synonyms to give you up-to-the-minute answers
– New topic lists to help you solve general knowledge clues
– Over 19,600 ‘one-stop’ entries, with both synonyms and encyclopedic material
– Word lists sorted by length and then alphabetically to make finding solutions easy
– Includes words, phrases, abbreviations, symbols, codes and other cryptic ‘building blocks’
– Packed with crossword jargon, anagram and other indicators and essential cryptic vocabulary
– Draws on The Chambers Dictionary, the authoritative Chambers reference range and the vast Chambers crossword clue database

Packed with expert advice from crossword masters

– Derek Arthur (1945-2010), co-editor of The Listener crossword in The Times and of the Chambers Crossword Dictionary, 2nd edition
– Ross Beresford, former co-editor of The Listener crossword
– Jonathan Crowther, better known to cryptic crossword solvers as Azed, having set crosswords for The Observer for almost 40 years
– Don Manley, crossword setter for many quality newspapers under various pseudonyms (Duck, Quixote, Bradman, Giovanni) and Church Times crossword editor
– Tim Moorey, one of the crossword setting team for The Sunday Times, crossword editor of The Week and author of How to Master The Times Crossword


The Crazy Busy Cure *BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS WINNER 2022*

The Crazy Busy Cure *BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS WINNER 2022*

Contributors

Zena Everett

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£10.99
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Paperback
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THE BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS WINNER 2022

“Don’t mistake being busy for being productive! Create time to read this important book and start spending your time where it counts.” Marshall Goldsmith, New York Times #1 bestselling author

How we spend our time is one of the greatest indicators of how successful we will be. We achieve our goals when we ruthlessly prioritise tasks and people that are important to us.

This book is for you if:
· You feel unrelentingly busy and overwhelmed.
· 3pm arrives and you’ve not done any of the tasks you intended.
· When you’re not working, you’re still ‘on’ – checking emails and always thinking about what you haven’t done.
· You over-commit and find it hard to say no.
· You sacrifice your own priorities for disorganised people’s urgent demands.
· Meetings, emails, and constant interruptions suck the life out of you.
· Your HR department’s emails about wellness week are the final straw: meditation won’t help your wellbeing, less meetings would.

If we focus our time, energy and attention on the wrong things we will never achieve the success or happiness that we aspire to. The problem is that the low value, low impact tasks that distract us from our priorities, are hard to ignore. They scream out at us all day: digital distractions, other people’s urgent demand for ‘five minutes’ that’s never five minutes, the meetings that you shouldn’t be in, the pointless email chains, the reports you write that don’t get read. We get a hit from ticking these tasks off a list. It’s got us hooked on crazy busyness. But all we are doing is scratching off a layer of fake work on top of the real, valuable work.

The Crazy Busy Cure is full of intensely practical tips to save you from this addiction and get productive again. It will show you how to have a laser focus on your priorities, manage others so they can get on with the work and find more head space. With tips for remote working and office working alike as well as productivity hacks for people with learning and thinking differences, this lively read is jam packed with solutions.

Zena Everett is executive coach and organisational psychologist and draws from her many thousands of hours and coaching and speaking to people about productivity blockers and how to shift them.

Stay energised, find your freedom from distractions and regain your productivity.
Tall Tales and Wee Stories

Tall Tales and Wee Stories

Contributors

Billy Connolly

Price and format

Price
£20
Format
Hardcover
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘Connolly’s raucous run through his life is as furious, funny and foul-mouthed as you’d expect’ Sunday Times


In December 2018, after fifty years of belly-laughs, energy and outrage, Billy Connolly announced his retirement from live stand-up comedy. It had been an extraordinary career.

When he first started out in the late sixties, Billy played the banjo in the folk clubs of Scotland. Between songs, he would improvise a bit, telling anecdotes from the Clyde shipyard where he’d worked. In the process, he made all kinds of discoveries about what audiences found funny, from his own brilliant mimes to the power of speaking irreverently about politics or explicitly about sex. He began to understand the craft of great storytelling. Soon the songs became shorter and the monologues longer, and Billy quickly became recognised as one of the most exciting comedians of his generation.

Billy’s routines always felt spontaneous. He never wrote scripts, always creating his comedy freshly on stage in the presence of a live audience. A brilliant comic story might be subsequently discarded, adapted or embellished. A quick observation or short anecdote one night, could become a twenty-minute segment by the next night of a tour.

Billy always brought a beautiful sense of the absurd to his shows as he riffed on his family, hecklers, swimming in the North Sea or naked bungee jumping. But his comedy can be laced with anger too. He hates pretentiousness and calls out hypocrisy wherever he sees it. His insights about the human condition have shocked many people, while his unique talent and startling appearance on stage gave him license to say anything he damn well pleased about sex, politics or religion.

Billy got away with it because he has always had the popular touch. His comedy spans generations and different social tribes in a way that few others have ever managed.

Tall Tales and Wee Stories brings together the very best of Billy’s storytelling for the first time and includes his most famous routines including, The Last Supper, Jojoba Shampoo, Incontinence Pants and Shouting at Wildebeest. With an introduction and original illustrations by Billy throughout, it is an inspirational, energetic and riotously funny read, and a fitting celebration of our greatest ever comedian.
Betrayal in Berlin

Betrayal in Berlin

Contributors

Steve Vogel

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£12.99
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Paperback
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‘Riveting and vivid … At the heart of the book is Blake’s own remarkable story, which Vogel tells with some sympathy, if not approval. It reads like a Hollywood screenplay’ Foreign Affairs

‘A fascinating account of Blake’s career as a spy … Blake’s story has been told before, as has the tunnel’s, but Steve Vogel pulls them together accessibly and comprehensibly, along with the wider political context and entertaining detail about personalities of the period’ Spectator

‘Excellent… although there are other books on Blake, Mr. Vogel’s handling of his tale is original and rewarding… meticulously researched and full of vivid detail’ Wall Street Journal

‘A spy thriller that kept me up all night. Magnificent story-telling’ Peter Snow


A true Cold War espionage thriller set around the ultra-secret Berlin Tunnel – where British officer George Blake must run a high-stakes double cross to maintain his cover.


The ultra-secret “Berlin Tunnel” was dug in the mid-1950s from the American sector in southwest Berlin and ran nearly a quarter-mile into the Soviet sector, allowing the CIA and the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) to tap into critical KGB and Soviet military underground telecommunication lines.

George Blake, a trusted officer working in a highly sensitive job with SIS, was privy to every aspect of the plan. Over the course of eleven months from May 1955 to April 1956, when the Soviets discovered the tunnel, “Operation Gold” provided seemingly invaluable intelligence about Soviet capabilities and intentions. The tunnel was celebrated as an astonishing CIA coup upon its disclosure, and the agency basked in its new reputation as a bold and capable intelligence agency that had, for once, outwitted the KGB. But in 1961, a Polish defector shocked the CIA and SIS by revealing that Blake was a double agent who had disclosed plans for the tunnel to the KGB before it was even built. Blake was arrested and sentenced in 1961 to 42 years in prison, the longest term ever imposed under modern English law. In the years since, the tunnel has been labelled a failure, based on the assumption that the Soviets would never have allowed any information of importance to be transmitted through the tapped lines. Not so.

In a work of remarkable investigative reporting, Steve Vogel now reveals that the information picked up by the CIA and SIS was more valuable than even they believed. But why would the Soviets, knowing full well that the tunnel existed, have let slip many of their most valuable secrets? Or did they actually know?
Churchill & Son

Churchill & Son

Contributors

Josh Ireland

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£12.99
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Paperback
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‘In this fascinating account of the turbulent Churchill father-and-son relationship, Josh Ireland shows how central Winston and Randolph were to each other’s lives’ Andrew Roberts

Few fathers and sons can ever have been so close as Winston Churchill and his only son Randolph. Both showed flamboyant impatience, reckless bravery, and generosity of spirit. The glorious and handsome Randolph was a giver and devourer of pleasure, a man who exploded into rooms, trailing whisky tumblers and reciting verbatim whole passages of classic literature. But while Randolph inherited many of his fathers’ talents, he also inherited all of his flaws. Randolph was his father only more so: fiercer, louder, more out of control. Hence father and son would be so very close, and so liable to explode at each other.

Winston’s closest ally during the wilderness years of the 1930s, Randolph would himself become a war hero, serving with the SAS in the desert and Marshal Tito’s guerrillas in Yugoslavia, a friend of press barons and American presidents alike, and a journalist with a ‘genius for uncovering secrets’, able to secure audiences with everyone from Kaiser Wilhelm to General Franco and Guy Burgess.

But Randolph’s political career never amounted to anything. As much as he idolised Winston and never lost faith in his father during the long, solitary years of Winston’s decline, he was never able to escape from the shadow cast by Britain’s great hero. In his own eyes, and most woundingly of all his father’s, his life was a failure. Winston, ever consumed by his own sense of destiny, allowed his own ambitions to take priority over Randolph’s. The world, big as it was, only had space for one Churchill. Instead of the glory he believed was his birthright, Randolph died young, his body rotted by resentment and drink, before he could complete his father’s biography.

A revealing new perspective on the Churchill myth, this intimate story reveals the lesser-seen Winston Churchill: reading Peter Rabbit books to his children, admonishing Eton schoolmasters and using decanters and wine glasses to re-fight the Battle of Jutland at the table. Amid a cast of personalities who defined an era – PG Wodehouse, Nancy Astor, The Mitfords, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Lord Beaverbrook, William Randolph Hearst, Oswald Mosley, Graham Greene, Duff and Diana Cooper, the Kennedys, Charlie Chaplin, and Lloyd George – Churchill & Son is the lost story of a timeless father-son relationship.
Remembered for a While

Remembered for a While

Contributors

Nick Drake, Gabrielle Drake, Cally Callomon

Price and format

Price
£45
Format
Hardcover
‘Probably the most ambitious, generous and thorough volume about a musician to see publication’ Mouth Magazine

The authorised companion to the music of Nick Drake, compiled, composed and edited by Cally Callomon and Gabrielle Drake, with contributions from Nick’s friends, critics, adherents, family and from Nick Drake himself.

Remembered For A While is not a biography. It is, rather, an attempt to cast a few shards of light on Nick Drake the poet, the musician, the singer, the friend, son and brother, who was also more than all of these. We hope it will accompany all those in search of an elusive artist, whose haunting presence defies analysis.

The book contains:

* In-depth interviews with many of Nick’s friends, most notably Paul Wheeler, Nick’s close friend from Cambridge days, a singer-songwriter who, of all Nick’s friends, perhaps best understood, from personal experience, Nick’s journey through musical creation to despair and back again.

* A selection of photos from all eras – some never seen before – with reproductions of documents such as the scrapbook Molly Drake kept of her son’s press cuttings, and the original and rejected album covers.

* Images of Nick’s handwritten and typed lyrics, including the lyrics of some songs for which the music has never been found.

* Newly commissioned pieces by Nick’s friends Jeremy Harmer, Brian Wells, Robin Frederick and the poet Will Stone. Contributions also from the sleeve designer Michael Trevithick, Island Records’s Ann Sullivan and the photographer and artist Nigel Waymouth.

*Extracts from Nick’s letters – part of an extensive correspondence that exists between Nick and his parents, which charts their relationship from the time he first went to boarding school until the time he came home, when his depression had settled upon him and he felt he had nowhere else to go. From this point, Nick’s life was documented by his father, Rodney Drake, who kept a detailed diary, as he and his wife Molly struggled to understand their son’s state of mind and how to help him. Passages from this poignant record are included.

* A short musical guide to each song’s key and tuning to accompany the lyrics, together with an explanatory interpretation of Nick’s guitar performance, the result of several years close study by singer-songwriter Chris Healey.

* A comprehensive guide to all of Nick’s live performances.

* And a lengthy essay by noted music critic Pete Paphides, which includes interviews with Nick’s musical collaborators and friends – his producer Joe Boyd, his recording engineer John Wood and his orchestrator, the late Robert Kirby – as well as descriptions of the recording process of each album.
Jeremy Hutchinson's Case Histories

Jeremy Hutchinson's Case Histories

Contributors

Thomas Grant

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Price
£12.99
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Paperback
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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA NON-FICTION DAGGER

‘Thomas Grant has brought together Hutchinson’s greatest legal hits, producing a fascinating episodic cultural history of post-war Britain that chronicles the end of deference and secrecy, and the advent of a more permissive society . . . Grant brings out the essence of each case, and Hutchinson’s role, with clarity and wit’ Ben Macintyre, The Times

‘An excellent book . . . Grant recounts these trials in limpid prose which clarifies obscurities. A delicious flavouring of cool irony, which is so much more effective than hot indignation, covers his treatment of the small mindedness and cheapness behind some prosecutions’ Richard Davenport-Hines, Guardian


Born in 1915 into the fringes of the Bloomsbury Group, Jeremy Hutchinson went on to become the greatest criminal barrister of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. The cases of that period changed society for ever and Hutchinson’s role in them was second to none. In Case Histories, Jeremy Hutchinson’s most remarkable trials are examined, each one providing a fascinating look into Britain’s post-war social, political and cultural history.

Accessibly and entertainingly written, Case Histories provides a definitive account of Jeremy Hutchinson’s life and work. From the sex and spying scandals which contributed to Harold Macmillan’s resignation in 1963 and the subsequent fall of the Conservative government, to the fight against literary censorship through his defence of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Fanny Hill, Hutchinson was involved in many of the great trials of the period. He defended George Blake, Christine Keeler, Great Train robber Charlie Wilson, Kempton Bunton (the only man successfully to ‘steal’ a picture from the National Gallery), art ‘faker’ Tom Keating, and Howard Marks who, in a sensational defence, was acquitted of charges relating to the largest importation of cannabis in British history. He also prevented the suppression of Bernardo Bertolucci’s notorious film Last Tango in Paris and did battle with Mary Whitehouse when she prosecuted the director of the play Romans in Britain.

Above all else, Jeremy Hutchinson’s career, both at the bar and later as a member of the House of Lords, has been one devoted to the preservation of individual liberty and to resisting the incursions of an overbearing state. Case Histories provides entertaining, vivid and revealing insights into what was really going on in those celebrated courtroom dramas that defined an age, as well as painting a picture of a remarkable life.

To listen to Jeremy Hutchinson being interviewed by Helena Kennedy on BBC Radio 4’s A Law Unto Themselves, please follow the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04d4cpv

You can also listen to him on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs with Kirsty Young: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03ddz8m
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