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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Jenny Lewis

Many people regard stammering as a joke, reinforced by the fact that they are usually portrayed on film and television as figures of fun: Michael Palin in a Fish Called Wanda, Ronnie Barker in Open All Hours. But for those who stammer - and there are half a million in Britain -the affliction is a constant source of misery and embarrassment. The Stammering Handbook aims to help stammerers of all ages cope with it in everyday life - at work, at home, at school, at play. It will be illustrated with case histories and contains advice and help for friends and relations, too. Fully endorsed by and written with the help of The British Stammering Association, THE STAMMERING HANDBOOK is essential reading.

The Stammering Handbook

A Definitive Guide to Coping With a Stammer

David Benjamin

Through the telling of his own madcap childhood, David Benjamin pays homage to the exuberance of young boys at play.  Whether he's stalking frogs though the swamps of Tomah, Wisconsin, playing four-kid baseball with his bothersome little brother and two favourite cousins, or sneaking into the cinema to watch Saturday-afternoon Westerns, David Benjamin is the kind of kid who would have eagerly fallen in with Tom Sawyer. In relating his adventures - including one truly sorry incident with Snappy, the snapping turtle, and a run-in with a particularly fiendish squirrel - David Benjamin is by turns hysterically funny, movingly sincere, caustic, aggrieved and intrepid.  Traversing the nooks and crannies of kidhood from playing fields to swimming holes, The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked captures a time and a place in twentieth-century life and magically recalls the myriad scrapes and adventures and wanderlust that once made childhood such an exhilarating enterprise.

The Life And Times Of The Last Kid Picked

Evelyn Prentis

Desperate circumstances were something Evelyn Prentis had to get very used to when she began her life as a nurse. It was in 1934 that Evelyn left home for the first time to enrol as a trainee at a busy Nottingham hospital in the hope of £25 a year. 
 
A Nurse in Time is Evelyn's affectionate and funny account of those days of dedication and hardship, when never-ending nightshifts, strict Sisters and permanent hunger ruled life, and joy was to be found in a late-night pass and a packet of Woodbines. 
 
The second memoir in this collection is A Nurse in Action. Surprising Matron as well as herself, Evelyn Prentis managed to pass her Finals and become a staff-nurse. Encouraged, she took the brave leap of moving from Nottingham to London - brave not least because war was about to break. 
 
Not only did the nurses have to cope with stray bombs and influxes of patients from as far away Dunkirk, but there were also RAF men stationed nearby - which caused considerable entertainment and disappointment, and a good number of marriages ... 
 
But despite all the disruption to the hospital routine, Evelyn's warm and compelling account of a nurse in action, shows a nurse's life would always revolve around the comforting discomfort of porridge and rissoles, bandages and bedpans.

Evelyn Prentis Bundle: A Nurse in Time/A Nurse in Action

Sue Nelson & Richard Hollingham

The Lives Less Ordinary series brings you the most exciting, adventurous and entertaining true-life writing that is out there, for men who are time-poor but want the best. Lives Less Ordinary drops you into extreme first-hand accounts of human experience, whether that's the adrenaline-pumping heights of professional sport, the brutality of the modern battlefield, the casual violence of the criminal world, the mind-blowing frontiers of science, or the excesses of rock 'n' roll, high finance and Hollywood. Lives Less Ordinary also brings you some of the finest comic voices around, on every subject from toilet etiquette to Paul Gascoigne. 
 
Everyone wants to live forever, right? Well award-winning science journalists Richard Hollingham and Sue Nelson explain how the latest cutting-edge science might mean your fantasy is closer to being true than you might believe. From advances in medicine, cryogenics and ways of preserving your consciousness, they explain all the mind-blowing options with a mix of insight and dry humour. 
 
This digital bite has been extracted from Sue Nelson and Richard Hollingham's fascinating book How to Clone the Perfect Blonde.

How to Live Forever

Lives Less Ordinary

Anne Simon

Anne Simon is a world-renowned biologist and expert on plant viruses. She has also been scientific advisor to the X-Files since the series began. In this fascinating book she explores the extraordinary realities that lie behind the strange discoveries made in each episode by agents Mulder and Scully, weird and threatening life forms, mutations and alien creatures. Despite the achievements of modern science and technology, she points out, it is estimated that less than 1 per cent of our fellow living creatures have yet been identified. Unknown plants, animals and microbes still inhabit our planet, and new and astonishing discoveries are made every year - like the giant interconnected fungus Amilaria Ostoyae, which spans an area of 2. 5 miles and is thus the largest organism on earth, found recently in the state of Washington. Dr Simon goes on to discuss such hot scientific topics as cloning, genetic engineering, hybrid organisms and genetics, cancer and ageing, cyrogenics, killer viruses and much else - and throughout she refers constantly to the X-Files episodes relevant to her subject, and gives the inside story of how the story-line was developed.

Monsters, Mutants & Missing Links

The Real Science Behind the X-Files

Alena Tkach

When llife gives you llemons, make llamanade! Everything you will ever need to know in llife, you can llearn from a llama. 
 
Fluffy, funny looking, curious creatures who spit to show their disgust, what’s not to llove? Discover 120 empowering quotes and positive aphorisms alongside llight-hearted llama illustrations. This is llife llessons, llama-style. 
 
The perfect gift for all llama llovers.

Llive, Llaugh, Llove: Llike a Llama

Tony Bleetman

Note to customers: This book is also available under the title "You Can't Park There!: The Highs and Lows of an Air Ambulance Doctor". 
 
 'People get into this work for "the juice", meaning the adrenaline rush, but they don't tell you about the other juices - the mud, blood, snot and grot.' 
 
 Confessions of an Air Ambulance Doctor is the first ever behind-the-scenes account of life onboard an air ambulance. The first of its kind to carry doctors and surgeons who can take the hospital to the patient. Drug addicts, lorry crashes, open-heart surgery, stab wounds, headless chickens, mating llamas, and strip routines – it’s all in a day’s work for emergency doctor Tony Bleetman and his team. 
 
 Whether they are landing in the middle of the M1 or at a maximum security jail, Tony and his crew Helimed 999 are the first on the scene in the most critical of emergencies. 
 
 This gripping read will make you laugh, cry and marvel at the wonders of life (and death) in equal measure.

Confessions of an Air Ambulance Doctor

Nanny Smith with Nina Grunfeld

No parent wants a constantly naughty, screaming or aggressive child -but when does parental discipline become over-control? How can you balance guidelines for good behaviour with allowing the child freedom to develop his or her own character? This helpful, practical and insightful book offers the key to confident parenting. Nanny Smith's tried and tested methods will turn a misbehaving child into a well-balanced child full of character and fun - and will help the parent at the same time.

Nanny Knows Best - Coping With Temper Tantrums

Marie Herbert

When her two daughters were approaching the finish of their education Marie Herbert felt the need to mark the end of the child-rearing phase of her life by a rite of passage, a way to find herself a new place in the grand scheme of things. Long drawn to the Native American spiritual tradition, she planned a visit to the United States and an extraordinary journey of personal transformation under the guidance of Native American Healers. However, the end of her time of motherhood coincided tragically with the sudden death of one of her daughters and so her odyssey was to become far sadder and more urgent than she could have imagined. HEALING QUEST is the fascinating description of Marie Herbert's inner and outer journey of the heart. Vivid portraits of the people she met along the way are combined with honest accounts of the change in her feelings - together with ideas about how the readers, too, may learn from what she experienced and so gain insights into his or own life, whether in practical, emotional or spiritual terms.

Healing Quest

A Journey of Transformation

Oonagh Shanley-Toffolo

The Voice of Silence is by an Irishwoman who has had an extraordinary life. Oonagh Shanley-Toffolo was brought up in 1930s rural Ireland where her father initiated her into the healing arts. At the age of 16, she entered a convent where she trained as a nurse, and was sent to India to look after the elderly (and knew Mother Teresa). Here, she felt it was the young, rather than the old, who needed more help and so she left her order and trained in midwifery. Later, in Paris, she was asked to nurse the Duke of Windsor just before he died - and many years later was introduced to Princess Diana and became her weekly confidante. In between, were bouts of serious illness, studying acupuncture in China - and being photographed by Snowdon. The Voice of Silence is the life story of a very unusual woman who has learned far more than most from all the remarkable things that have happened to her. It is also the author's thoughts on healing, spirituality and love - and how closely the three are intertwined. Full of feeling, poetic vision and insight, this book cannot fail to touch the heart of the reader, and inspire.

The Voice Of Silence

A Life of Love, Healing and Inspiration

Desmond Morris

The personality of the cat is a fascinating mixture of affection, domesticity and active independence. You may think you know your cat as he purrs in your lap, but come across your pet in the street on a dark night and you might think that Bagpuss suffers from a dual personality. 
 
Every single feline pet carries an inheritance of amazing sensory capacities, vocal utterances, body language and territorial displays. By answering such questions as 'what does a cat signal with its ears? 'why does a cat rub up against your leg?' and 'why does a cat swing its head from side to side when staring at its prey?', Desmond Morris decodes the private world of the cat. 
 
Your cat is full of surprises and our finest zoologist is about to reveal their secrets in this beautifully repackaged edition of a much loved bestseller.

Catwatching

Jon Nicholson

'This account will not hide from the truth of what this illness does to the one who is suffering, and to all those whom that person loved the most. Above all, however, I want to write this book because my story, which is also Emma's and that of our three wonderful children, is nevertheless a story of hope.' 
 
Living Without Emma is Jon's Nicholson's moving account of how he and their three young children coped when their mother was diagnosed with the cancer that ultimately took her life. On her 35th birthday, Emma Nicholson was told she had a tumour - it turned out to be osterosarcoma, a very rare form of bone cancer. 
 
For 14 months she fought the disease and here Jon writes about how her illness put unimaginable strains on his relationship with his wife and the loved ones around them, how it pitched them all into roles they had never foreseen, and how as a family they coped and pulled together in the dark days after her death to discover a life that, although very different from the one they had planned, is happy.

I Want My Mummy Back

A Moving True Story of One Family's Loss

Glennyce S. Eckersley

Saved by the Angels gives warm and uplifting true stories of the extraordinary things that can happen to people (or their friends and relatives) if they have a near-death experience. This might include seeing the Angel of Death, having clairvoyant dreams, being aware of special fragrances, strange symbols and coincidences. Glennyce Eckersley, author of the hugely successful An Angel At My Shoulder, has collected many true stories of how angels can affect people's day-to-day lives. As more of us search for greater spiritual fulfilment, they give us hope that we live, not in a purely chaotic world, but in one of harmony, meaning and order.

Saved By The Angels

Chris Riddell

Bears are seriously underestimated creatures when it comes to spirituality and religious feeling. For the first time, this book recognises their huge potential and offers ursine students of Buddhism everywhere the opportunity to focus their skills and follow the path to enlightenment. From the meditation to the essential concepts of Zen, all the fundamentals are set out here in a series of concise interpretations of Buddhist teaching. Wonderfully illustrated by well-known illustrator Chris Riddell, this is the perfect gift with a difference.

Buddhism For Bears

The funniest French Bulldogs in costumes from around the world, captured for pawsterity. 
 
Meet BATBULL, FRENCHIE THE POOH, SNOOP FRENCHIE FRENCH and many, many more mostly stylish, always adorably funny Frenchies in costumes.

Fancy Frenchies

French Bulldogs in Costumes

Deepak Chopra

Leonard Mlodinow

Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Hawking have had a major impact on the loud and popular debate between 'aggressive atheists' and religion. The huge sales of their bestselling books show just how much interest people have in their ideas. 
 
Now 'the rock star of the new spirituality', Deepak Chopra, is entering this debate, sparring with leading physicist, Professor Leonard Mlodinow (the co-author, with Stephen Hawking, of The Grand Design). 
 
In War of the Worldviews, Chopra argues that there is design in our universe and a deep intelligence behind life. Without defending organised religion, he debunks randomness as an explanation for how Nature evolves and shows how consciousness comes first and matter second. 
 
On the other side, Mlodinow argues the viewpoint of science, specifically what modern quantum physics can tell us about our world. In his view, physics, genetics and cosmology will shed far more light on the big questions than rethinking ancient spiritual concepts can ever do. 
A major work of our time, War of the Worlds will not only offer more food for thought for those fascinated by the two sides of this modern conundrum - it will also place Deepak Chopra firmly in the ring of some of the most remarkable, and bestselling, thinkers of our era

War of the Worldviews

Science vs Spirituality

Allegra Taylor

Death is the most predictable thing that will happen to any of us and one of the few experiences we share with every other human being, yet we hardly give it a thought. Most of us behave as if pretending it didn't exist gives is a measure of control over it. The traditional supports that used to cradle us in times of need are no longer there. 
 
Acquainted with the Night is the story of Allegra Taylor's year spent working in a hospice and training to become part of London Lighthouse, the support network for people with AIDS. 
 
Accessible, anecdotal and warmly personal, this is an important book. For it shows us that death is not the enemy; that it is possible to 'be there' for someone who is dying or bereaved, to grieve well in the face of death and, when the time comes, to die well ourselves.

Acquainted With The Night

A Year on the Frontiers of Death

Don Greene

We've all been there: that make-it-or-break-it moment of our careers - on the brink of a deal, poised at the starting gate, under the spotlight waiting to speak or perform in front of our peers.  At this point, where everything seems to be on the line, most of us experience one overriding reaction - fear - and this fear can have negative physical, mental and emotional consequences on how well we do our job. Don Greene, sports psychologist and stress coach to top executives and entertainers, has spent decades studying fear and its effect on performance.  In this groundbreaking book, Dr Greene shares the proven techniques he has used with Olympic athletes, Grand Prix drivers, the New World Symphony and Merrill Lynch traders to help them perform their best under pressure. Fight Your Fear and Win begins with a self-assessment performance survey that will allow you to pinpoint your own reactions to stress: how you handle distractions, how you are affected by nervousness, your mental outlook, your response to fear and your ability to bounce back from failure.

Fight Your Fear And Win

7 Skills for performing your best under pressure

Jenny Lewis With The Psoriasis Association

Psoriasis is a common and sometimes painful skin condition affecting more than 1. 5 million people in Britain. Brought to most people's attention in Dennis Potter's THE SINGING DETECTIVE, it can vary in severity from simply being a mild nuisance to being so bad that the sufferer has to be admitted to hospital. With no known longterm cure, this comprehensive guide seeks to give practical help to all age groups, describes the different types of psoriasis and lists the possible causes. Following the style established by Jenny Lewis's three previous titles, THE PSORIASIS HANDBOOK contains invaluable case histories showing how individuals cope with psoriasis, as well as the various treatments available. Packed with essential information, THE PSORIASIS HANDBOOK is THE guide for suffers, friends and relations.

The Psoriasis Handbook

A Definitive Guide to the Causes,Symptoms and all the Latest Treatments

Brian Roet

During therapy many people burst into tears as if they have found the only safe place to cry and come to terms with problems that disturb their peace of mind and undermine their physical health. 
 
In his new book, Dr Brian Roet - bestselling author of All In The Mind? - shows us how we can use therapeutic techniques to release deep-seated emotions, acknowledge out strengths and weaknesses, and establish emotional equilibrium. Drawing upon numerous case histories and years of professional experience, his reassuring and practical advice guides us towards new ways to enjoy a more fulfilling life.

A Safer Place To Cry

Deborah Ziegler

Every muscle in my body ached. I told myself to grieve, get it out of my system, so that I could be the mother my daughter needed me to be. The agony of knowing what was coming...endless. 
 
 Just married, vivacious and thrill-seeking, Brittany Maynard was in the prime of her life at the age of twenty nine. Then she was delivered devastating news. She had unknowingly been living with a terminal brain tumour for the past ten years that would slowly and painfully kill her. Desperate to take control of the situation, she asked her mother to help her die with dignity. 
 
 In this heart-breaking and powerful book, Brittany's mum opens up about her experiences, offering hope and inspiration to anyone facing the loss of a loved one.

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