Michael Symmons Roberts’s fourth book of poetry, Corpus, was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize, and the Griffin International Prize. His sixth collection, Drysalter, was the winner of both the Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Prize in 2013. He collaborated with Paul Farley on Edgelands (Cape/Vintage) and will do so again in The Deaths of the Poets (Cape, 2017). He has also worked many times with the composer James MacMillan. He has published two novels, and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Michael Symmons Roberts

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Jo Bailey-Merritt

When Sam Bailey-Merritt was just two years old, almost overnight he lost the ability to communicate or function. His mother, Jo, was at a loss as to what to do as she saw her son grow increasingly isolated and begin to suffer from uncontrollable meltdowns. Eventually, Sam was diagnosed with autism. 
 
Sam's condition continued to worsen and, just when Jo had all but given up hope of being able to help him, the family went on a day trip to a nearby miniature pig farm. Sam immediately bonded with a tiny ginger piglet called Chester, who stood sad and alone, apart from the rest of the litter. The connection between the boy and the animal was immediate and their unusual friendship blossomed from the moment the family brought Chester home. The tiny pig refused to leave Sam's side - it was as if he knew that Sam needed a friend. And, for the first time in five years, Jo saw her son really laugh. 
 
While Sam's confidence grew, Chester grew in a different way: the micro pig that was supposed to become the size of a Cocker Spaniel in fact ballooned to three times that size - with hilarious consequences for the family! Chester has turned Sam's life around. He now has the ability to communicate his feelings, make friends and is caring and kind towards others. 
 
Sam and Chester is the heart-warming story of how a teacup-sized ginger pig helped to transform the life of a boy with autism. It is the emotional story of a mother's fight to win back her son.

Sam and Chester

How a Mischievous Pig Transformed the Life of My Autistic Son

Deborah Wearing

Clive Wearing has one of the most extreme cases of amnesia ever known. In 1985, a virus completely destroyed a part of his brain essential for memory, leaving him trapped in a limbo of the constant present. Every conscious moment is for him as if he has just come round from a long coma, an endlessly repeating loop of awakening. A brilliant conductor and BBC music producer, Clive was at the height of his success when the illness struck. As damaged as Clive was, the musical part of his brain seemed unaffected, as was his passionate love for Deborah, his wife. 
 
For seven years he was kept in the London hospital where the ambulance first dropped him off, because there was nowhere else for him to go. Deborah desperately searched for treatments and campaigned for better care. After Clive was finally established in a new special hospital, she fled to America to start her life over again. But she found she could never love another the way she loved Clive. Then Clive's memory unaccountably began to improve, ten years after the illness first struck. She returned to England. Today, although Clive still lives in care, and still has the worst case of amnesia in the world, he continues to improve. They renewed their marriage vows in 2002. 
 
This is the story of a life lived outside time, a story that questions and redefines the essence of what it means to be human. It is also the story of a marriage, of a bond that runs deeper than conscious thought.

Forever Today

A Memoir Of Love And Amnesia

Shed Simove

Learn secrets for success and how to unlock your creativity with a book that contains tips on how to achieve anything you desire, and charts the extraordinary and hilarious real-life adventures of Britain's most inspirational IDEAS MAN. 
 
Sheridan 'Shed' Simove is a modern day creative genius. He lives and breathes ideas. Every day of his life dozens of new ideas spring from his astonishingly active mind. The ideas can relate to pretty much anything - TV shows, ranges of sweets, executive toys, greeting cards, money-making schemes - the list is endless. And if an idea hasn't been done before, then Shed is sure to attempt it... 
 
IDEAS MAN is the true story of this visionary maverick's amazing adventures. At breakneck speed, Shed describes how dozens of his ideas came to be, how they succeed or sometimes disastrously fail. Some of Shed's ideas include: a range of adult sweets called 'Clitoris Allsorts', a groundbreaking documentary that involved him going undercover as a 16-year-old schoolboy (when he was 30) and the launch of his own currency - the 'EGO'. 
 
IDEAS MAN is a unique book written by a completely extraordinary character. A hilarious and inspirational real-life tale of eccentricity and enthusiasm, it's perfect for anyone who's ever had a dream and wondered how to make it come true. Shed is living proof that you really can make it happen...

Ideas Man

Phil Beadle

Phil Beadle is a former rock musician, the winner of the Secondary Teacher of the Year Award 2005, and the inspirational teacher who wowed the nation with his unorthodox teaching methods in Channel 4 series THE UNTEACHABLES. There, his bizarre but effective approach to teaching English included Punctuation Kung-Fu, and reciting Macbeth to a field of cows. Through techniques such as these Beadle seemingly achieved the impossible by successfully drawing out the desire to learn from a group of failing pupils. 
 
Now his focus is on spreading the word to parents: every child has the ability to learn, and to do better at school. In this book he tells parents that there is no such thing as a stupid child, only boring lessons. Intelligent, unconventional, humorous and inspirational, this hands-on guide blends personal anecdotes with the nitty gritty of how to best unlock your children's unique intelligence, and how to ensure they have the best possible chance to succeed at school.

Could Do Better!

Help Your Kid Shine At School

Danielle Steel

This is the story of an extraordinary boy with a brilliant mind, a heart of gold and a tortured soul.' 
 
From the day he was born, Nick Traina was his mother's joy. By nineteen, he was dead. This is Danielle Steel's powerful story of the son she lost and the lessons she learned during his courageous battle against darkness. Sharing tender, painful memories, Steel brings us a haunting duet between and singular young man and the mother who loved him - and a harrowing portrait of a masked killer called manic depression. 
 
Nick rocketed through life like a shooting star. He spoke in full sentences at the age of one. He was a brilliant, charming child who never slept. His gift for writing was extraordinary, his musical talent promised a golden future. But by the time he entered junior high, he was hurtling towards disaster. His mother tried desperately to get him the help he needed - the opening salvos for what would become a ferocious battle for his life. 
 
At once a loving legacy and an unsparing depiction of a devastating illness, Danielle Steel's tribute to her lost son is a gift of life, hope, healing and understanding to us all. 'I want to share the story, and the pain, the courage, the love, and what I learned in living through it...My hope is that someone will be able to use what we learned, and save a life with it'

His Bright Light

Karyn Bosnak

What would you do if you owed $20,000? Would you: 
 
a) Not tell your parents? 
b) Stop colouring your hair, having pedicures and buying Gucci? 
c) Start your own website that asks for money without apology? 
 
If you were Karyn Bosnak, you'd do all three... 
 
In New York for the first time, with the dream job and the smart flat, Karyn starts spending...and spending. But when it all goes horribly wrong, and her credit card balance mounts in a terrifying manner, Karyn knows that she has to take control. She starts her website www.savekaryn.com on which she fearlessly asks for donations to help pay off her debts. The website receives over 2 million hits and has replies from all over the world - some supportive, many abusive. But after four months, Karyn has become a new woman- debt-free, grateful and happy. This is the hilarious and touching true story of how she does it.

Save Karyn

Sarah Ban Breathnach

With the grace of her groundbreaking bestseller Simple Abundance, Sarah Ban Breathnach returns, offering a fresh start for women who have lost their financial and spiritual way in the world. 
 
'When money is plentiful, this is a man's world. When money is scarce, it is a woman's world.' This quote from Ladies' Home Journal, 1932, is the call to arms that begins...PEACE AND PLENTY 
 
This book is Sarah Ban Breathnach's answer to the world's - and her own personal fiscal crisis. Here, as she weaves together this compendium of advice, stories from her life, and excerpts from magazines, books and newspapers, particularly from the Great Depression, she inspires readers who are mired in economic problems. 
 
Focusing on her own journey, Sarah relates never-before-revealed details about how she fell from the financial top to the bottom. Readers will immediately feel how deeply she understands the plight of those trying to maintain a happy and comfortable home, while not even knowing if they will be able to make the mortgage payments to keep that home. 
 
For years, Sarah has been a reassuring guide, illuminating the beauty and meaning in the everyday. Now, in this enlightening book, she reaches out to those who are financially strapped, showing them how to pull themselves out of their psychological and monetary difficulties, as she provides support and cheer along the way.

Peace and Plenty

Finding your path to financial security

Kate McCann

'The decision to publish this book has been very difficult, and taken with heavy hearts ... My reason for writing it is simple: to give an account of the truth ... Writing this memoir has entailed recording some very personal, intimate and emotional aspects of our lives. Sharing these with strangers does not come easily to me, but if I hadn't done so I would not have felt the book gave as full a picture as it is possible for me to give. As with every action we have taken over the last five years, it ultimately boils down to whether what we are doing could help us to find Madeleine. When the answer to that question is yes, or even possibly, our family can cope with anything ... Nothing is more important to us than finding our little girl.' 
 
Kate McCann

Madeleine

Our daughter's disappearance and the continuing search for her

Andy McNab

Kevin Dutton

What is a good psychopath? And how can thinking like one help you to be the best that you can be? 
 
Professor Kevin Dutton has spent a lifetime studying psychopaths. He first met SAS hero Andy McNab during a research project. What he found surprised him. McNab is a diagnosed psychopath but he is a GOOD PSYCHOPATH. Unlike a BAD PSYCHOPATH, he is able to dial up or down qualities such as ruthlessness, fearlessness, conscience and empathy to get the very best out of himself – and others – in a wide range of situations. 
 
Drawing on the combination of Andy McNab’s wild and various experiences and Professor Kevin Dutton’s expertise in analysing them, together they have explored the ways in which a good psychopath thinks differently and what that could mean for you. What do you really want from life, and how can you develop and use qualities such as charm, coolness under pressure, self-confidence and courage to get it? The Good Psychopath Manifesto gives you a unique and entertaining road-map to self-fulfillment both in your personal life and your career.

The Good Psychopath's Guide to Success

Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem, icon of the women's liberation movement, is a co-founder of Ms magazine and author of the bestselling Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions.Revealing her own long quest for self-esteem, she explores the nature of this quality, showing how crippling a lack of it can be, and how recapturing it can transform our lives.Too many of us lose our sense of self-worth early on.Girls are especially vulnerable, often turning from free spirits into 'female impersonators' by adolescence.Gloria Steinem describes how, by returning to her childhood self through techniques such as imagery, guided meditation and artistic expression, she rediscovered the strong, secure person every one of us is born to be.She states reassuringly that anyone can heal the inner child of the past through these and other means, and inspires us with case histories of people who came to know how valuable they are.

The Revolution From Within

Lost Voice Guy

Lee Ridley

- 'A truly eye-opening book from a fantastic comedian.' ADAM KAY 
- 'The funniest book I've read in years.' DAVID WALLIAMS 
_______________ 
 
Lee Ridley won the hearts and minds of the nation on Britain's Got Talent. Now the much-loved comedian opens up on what it's like to be him. I'm Only In It for the Parking is a wonderful journey through Lee's extraordinary life, by way of the people who like to pray for him, the comparisons with Stephen Hawking, some perilous falls, some epic fails and more information about Lee's private life than you probably need. This is the wickedly funny story of the stand-up who struggles to stand up, but who learns to finds his feet. The Geordie without the accent. The entertainer who really can't speak at all, but who has something important to say. 
 
What readers are saying: 
 
***** 'Such a brilliant and honest book.' 
***** 'The funniest book I've read this year.' 
***** 'Written with poignancy and humour.' 
***** 'Had me laughing out loud all the way from start to finish.'

I'm Only In It for the Parking

Everything I know about life, laughter and disability

Life and laughter from the priority seats

Paul J. Zak

Human beings can be so compassionate. They can also be shockingly cruel. What if there was a master control for human behaviour? Switch it on and people are loving and generous. Switch it off and they revert to violence and greed. Pioneering neuroeconomist Paul J. Zak has discovered just such a master switch: a molecule in the human brain. 
 
Zak’s colleagues call him Dr Love. They also call him the vampire economist. He and his research team have travelled from his laboratory in California to the jungles of Papua new Guinea via a summer garden in Devon, taking blood from people as they attend a wedding, make decisions with money, play football on the field, even jump from an aeroplane. Their experiments to measure a chemical in the bloodstream called oxytocin reveal the answers to those mysteries about why we make the decisions we do: why we are sometimes rational, at other times irrational; why men cheat more than women; how the moral molecule operates in the market place, and most importantly, once we understand the moral molecule, how we can consciously use it to make our lives better.

The Moral Molecule

the new science of what makes us good or evil

Sarah Wilson

'I loved this book.' MATT HAIG 
__________ 
 
 If you have anxiety, this book is for you. 
 
If you love someone who is anxious, this book is for you. 
 
I Quit Sugar founder and New York Times bestselling author Sarah Wilson has lived through high anxiety - including bipolar, OCD and several suicide attempts - her whole life. Perhaps like you, she grew tired of seeing anxiety as a disease that must be medicated into submission. Could anxiety be re-sewn, she asked, into a thing of beauty? 
 
So began a seven-year journey to find a more meaningful and helpful take on anxiety. Living out of two suitcases, Sarah travelled the world, meeting with His Holiness The Dalai Lama, with Oprah's life coach, with major mental health organizations and hundreds of others in a quest to unravel the knotted ball of wool that is the anxious condition. She emerged with the very best philosophy, science and hacks for thriving with the beast. 
 
First, We Make the Beast Beautiful is a book with a big heart, paving the way for richer, kinder and wiser conversations about anxiety. 
__________ 
 
'Probably the best book on living with anxiety that I've ever read.' MARK MANSON, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

First, We Make the Beast Beautiful

A new conversation about anxiety

A new story about anxiety

Walter Mischel

A child is presented with a marshmallow and given a choice: Eat this one now, or wait and enjoy two later. What will she do? And what are the implications for her behaviour later in life? 
 
Walter Mischel’s now iconic 'marshmallow test,' one of the most famous experiments in the history of psychology, proved that the ability to delay gratification is critical to living a successful and fulfilling life: self-control not only predicts higher marks in school, better social and cognitive functioning, and a greater sense of self-worth; it also helps us manage stress, pursue goals more effectively, and cope with painful emotions. But is willpower prewired, or can it be taught? 
 
In his groundbreaking new book, Dr. Mischel draws on decades of compelling research and life examples to explore the nature of willpower, identifying the cognitive skills and mental mechanisms that enable it and showing how these can be applied to challenges in everyday life--from weight control to quitting smoking, overcoming heartbreak, making major decisions, and planning for retirement. 
 
With profound implications for the choices we make in parenting, education, public policy and self-care, The Marshmallow Test will change the way we think about who we are and what we can be. And since, as Mischel argues, a life with too much self-control can be as unfulfilling as one with too little, this book will also teach you when it’s time to ring the bell and enjoy that marshmallow.

The Marshmallow Test

Understanding Self-control and How To Master It

Jilly Cooper

'One truth I have learnt, as middle age enmeshes me like Virginia creeper, is that I shall never change-because my capacity for self-improvement is absolutely nil.' 
 
Jilly Cooper's observations from her days as a much-loved newspaper columnist cover everything to do with sex, socialising and survival - from marriage, friendship and the minutiae of family life, to the tedium of going to visit people for the weekend, the stress of hosting dinner parties and the descent of middle age. 
 
Entertaining and full of heart, this classic collection of journalism from the legendary author explores the highs and lows of everyday life with wit, wisdom and warmth.

Between the Covers

Jilly Cooper on sex, socialising and survival

Gordon Turnbull

The Ancient Greeks called it ‘trauma’. During the First World War it was known as ‘shellshock’. Only since Vietnam have we begun to understand the symptoms and causes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And to realise that it threatens us all. 
 
From victims of 9/11 and the London bombings, to soldiers and civilians in the world’s most devastating war zones and the victims and witnesses of violent crime at home, PTSD can affect anyone. Symptoms have been seen in those suffering bereavement, illness and infection, traffic accidents, house fires, and sexual assault and abuse. Thousands have become prisoners of their own devastated minds – overwhelmed by flashbacks, nightmares and a terrible feeling of isolation. But in almost every case, there is a cure. 
 
Gordon Turnbull recognised PTSD as a serious clinical condition from the start of his career. Since then he has offered his care and counsel to hundreds of sufferers, including the mountain rescue teams at Lockerbie, soldiers Andy McNab and Johnson Beharry VC, kidnap victims John McCarthy, Terry Anderson and Terry Waite, and many more from all walks of life. Part scientific detective story, part inspirational memoir, Trauma is the story behind the headlines, a fascinating and utterly compelling account of how he and his team help to rebuild lives, and piece together the fragments of troubled minds.

Trauma

From Lockerbie to 7/7: How trauma affects our minds and how we fight back

Janis Winehouse

Arguably the most gifted artist of her generation, Amy Winehouse died tragically young, aged just 27. With a worldwide fanbase and millions of record sales to her name, she should have had the world at her feet. Instead, in the years prior to her passing, she battled with addictions and was often the subject of lurid tabloid headlines. But who was the real Amy? 
 
Amy's mother, Janis, knew her in a way that no-one else did. In this warm, poignant and, at times, heartbreaking memoir, she reveals the full story of the daughter she loved. As the world watched the rise of a superstar, then the freefall of an addict to her untimely death, Janis simply saw her Amy, the girl she'd given birth to in 1983; the girl she'd raised and stood by despite her unruly behaviour; the girl whose body she was forced to identify two days after her death - and the girl she's grieved for every day since. 
 
Packed with exclusive material that has never been seen before, such as extracts from Amy's teenage diaries, photos and notes, Loving Amy offers a new and intimate perspective on the life and death of the phenomenon that is Amy Winehouse.

Loving Amy

A Mother's Story

Leslie Kenton

Leslie Kenton’s New Cura Romana Weightloss Plan  is a major advance on her original Cura Romana book.  It reveals her powerful new Consolidation process which makes it easier than ever for weight lost during Essential Spray+Food Plan to remain lost. This New Cura Romana Weightloss Plan book shares Kenton’s hands-on experience with thousands of men and women who have done Cura Romana in recent years then merges this with  important, up-to-the-minute, research. It guides you step-by-step through Kenton’s ground-breaking second-generation protocol. You learn how to banish addictions and clear food cravings. You discover secrets for staying healthy and lean for life. Many who have already experienced Cura Romana’s new three step process say it is little short of  life-changing.

New Cura Romana Weightloss Plan

Eric Berne

AS RECOMMENDED BY PHILIPPA PERRY IN THE GUARDIAN: 
 
'This is about learning what adaptations you may unconsciously have built up throughout your life and how much easier it is to connect after we have let those defences go' 
 
Have you ever met someone who seems to get their way in every conversation they have? This book explains why. From the multimillion-bestselling author of GAMES PEOPLE PLAY and one of the godfathers of modern psychology, perfect for fans of Philippa Perry, Dale Carnegie and James Clear. 
 
'More interesting and ambitious than his best-selling "Games People Play,"... the primary virtue of Berne's descriptions is... their comprehensibility and accessibility. Eric Berne has [offered] therapy to many thousands and [provided] advice and counsel to millions more.' - NEW YORK TIMES 
 
What Readers are saying: 
***** - 'This book changed my life; reading it helped me to identify the life scripts that I was unconsciously following.' 
***** - 'With almost every page my understanding of human conversation improved by an insane amount.' 
***** - 'If you want to communicate well and to understand yourself - and other people - better, you ab-so-lu-te-ly need to read Eric Berne.' 
 
 
******************************************************************************* 
 
This book explains what makes the winners win, the losers lose, and the in-betweens so boring... 
 
In it, Dr Eric Berne reveals how everyone's life follows a predetermined script - a script they compose for themselves during early childhood. 
 
The script may be a sad one, it may be a successful one; it decides how a person will relate to his colleagues, what sort of person he will marry, how many children he will have, and even what sort of bed he will die in... 
 
What Do You Say After You Say Hello? demonstrates how each life script gets written, how it works and, more important, how anyone can improvise or change his script to make a happy ending...

What Do You Say After You Say Hello

Gain control of your conversations and relationships

Betty Shine

The Sun acclaimed her as 'the world's number one healer'. The Independent admitted, 'Those who encounter Betty Shine's supernatural powers find it hard to remain sceptical.' Celebrated for her warmth and generosity of spirit, Betty Shine has for years helped and inspired people with her healing powers. Her study of the phenomenon of mind energy, as recounted in her two bestselling books, Mind to Mind and Mind Magic, has brought her a tremendous response. 
 
In Mind Waves, the third and final Mind book, Betty Shine explores the waves which we all project and which invade everything around us. By providing simple practical exercises, and by sharing with us personal anecdotes, experiences and feelings, she helps us gain the awareness needed to utilize mind waves in a positive manner. From that point, with a truer understanding of our fears and emotions, we can enhance our own lives and the lives of those about us. 
 
Mind Waves completes the psychic course started in Mind to Mind, providing simple answers to many aspects of the paranormal and once more setting the reader on a personal voyage of discovery.

Mind Waves

Derren Brown

The Sunday Times Bestseller 
 
'Really brilliant and just crammed with wisdom and insight. It will genuinely make a difference to me and the way I think about myself.' Stephen Fry 
 
___ 
 
 
Everyone says they want to be happy. But that's much more easily said than done. What does being happy actually mean? And how do you even know when you feel it? 
 
In Happy Derren Brown explores changing concepts of happiness - from the surprisingly modern wisdom of the Stoics and Epicureans in classical times right up until today, when the self-help industry has attempted to claim happiness as its own. He shows how many of self-help's suggested routes to happiness and success - such as positive thinking, self-belief and setting goals - can be disastrous to follow and, indeed, actually cause anxiety. 
 
Happy aims to reclaim happiness and to enable us to appreciate the good things in life, in all their transient glory. By taking control of the stories we tell ourselves, by remembering that 'everything's fine' even when it might not feel that way, we can allow ourselves to flourish and to live more happily. 
 
___ 
 
 
What readers are saying: 
***** 'Immensely positive and life-affirming' 
***** 'This is the blue print to a good life' 
***** 'Thought provoking and potentially life-changing.'

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