Steve Roud was Local Studies Librarian for the London Borough of Croydon and served as Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society for over fifteen years. He has been researching British folklore for over thirty years and is the joint author of the Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore, plus other books on traditional drama and folk song, and the Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, which won the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award in 2004. His publications include London Lore (2008) and The Lore of the Playground (2010). He also compiles the Folk Song Index and the Broadside Index, two internationally acclaimed computer databases of traditional folk and popular song. He lives in Sussex.

Steve Roud

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John George Freeman

Wryly humorous and quintessentially British, Three Men and a Bradshaw collects the previously unpublished holiday journals of John Freeman, who travelled Britain with his brothers during the 1870s. Each year the trio would settle upon a destination, buy their tickets and set off – armed, of course, with their trusty Bradshaw's Descriptive Railway Hand-book. 
 
John's delightful records of their trips contain much that will resonate with the modern traveller, from the eccentricities of fellow passengers and locals to the tender mercies of the British climate. At the same time they offer insights into the experiences particular to a Victorian tourist, and are full of valuable local history on everywhere from Devon and Jersey to Scotland and Wales. 
 
Beautifully illustrated throughout with John’s original drawings, this is a fascinating and uniquely personal historical artefact, as well as an enchanting and frequently hilarious evocation of a distant but still wholly recognisable Britain.

Three Men and a Bradshaw

Lucy H Spelman

Ted Y Mashima

Meet Mohan, a rhino with painfully sore feet. 
And Patch, a falcon with a broken wishbone. 
And Kachina, a bear cub with brittle bones. 
Not to mention Alfredito, a hippo suffering from a sever bout of toothache. 
 
All these animals owe their lives to the dedicated zoo and wild animal vets who employ boundless ingenuity and expertise to care for them and who, in this beguiling book, tell the stories of their most memorable cases. They describe not only the meticulous detective work that goes into making a diagnosis but also the pioneering techniques they have developed. And they talk freely and movingly about the bonds they form with their exotic patients.. 
 
Whether it's one doctor's determined effort to save a critically ill lemur, the neurosurgeon who was persuaded to operate on a paralysed kangaroo, or the vet who refused to give up on an orphaned baby beluga whale, these are acts of rescue, kindness and co-operation that will warm every animal lover's heart.

The Hippo with Toothache

Heart-warming stories of zoo and wild animals and the vets who care for them

Richard Desmond

From the age of five, when he helped his deaf father negotiate advertising contracts, Richard Desmond has always had an eye for business. In The Real Deal he offers a no-holds-barred account of an extraordinary career that has taken him from cloakroom attendant at a north London club to billionaire media owner. En route he tells of his early life as a rock and roll drummer, his first steps in the world of magazine publishing as a purveyor of leisure and top-shelf titles, and finally, after decades of paying his dues building smaller brands, his arrival in the big league with the launch of OK! magazine and the acquisition of Express Newspapers, his purchase and sale of Channel 5, and his £80 million investment in the Health Lottery, combining business innovation with help for good causes. 
 
Along the way, he imparts many of the secrets of his astounding success, as well as giving his forthright opinion (and he always has one) on such diverse subjects as politicians, religion, and the similarities between being a rock and roll drummer and running a business – as well as his views on a cast of characters ranging from Alan Sugar to Victoria Beckham and from Simon Cowell to Jennifer Aniston. 
 
Often controversial, frequently revelatory, always entertaining, The Real Deal is the brilliantly frank account of a life spent at the sharp end.

The Real Deal

The Autobiography of Britain’s Most Controversial Media Mogul

Michael Palin

If you've ever wondered what happened to the young fellow from Malta who bought his grandfather an altar… 
 
If you're concerned about the camper called Jack who found a huge snake in his pack… 
 
And if you suspect that an eccentric landowner called Grey spent Christmas a very strange way but aren't sure precisely what that entailed… 
 
Then a dip into Michael Palin's Sackful of Limericks will provide all the answers – and a lot of fun besides.

A Sackful of Limericks

Ripley

Ripley’s has spent 100 years compiling strange-but-true facts from around the world. Now, the most extraordinary stories from the last century are brought together in a single colourful volume. 
 
Featured Believe It Or Not stories include: 
 
· The chicken that lived for months without its head 
· The man who swallowed seven swords at once 
· The jockey who died while riding his horse – but won the race anyway 
 
With spectacular photos throughout, 100 Best Believe It Or Not Stories is a must-have for any Ripley’s fan. 
 
Incredibly hard to believe. Undeniably true!

Ripley’s 100 Best Believe It or Nots

Incredibly Hard to Believe. Undeniably True!

Julia Shaw

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 
 
'Truly fascinating.' Steve Wright, BBC Radio 2 
 
 
- Have you ever forgotten the name of someone you’ve met dozens of times? 
- Or discovered that your memory of an important event was completely different from everyone else’s? 
- Or vividly recalled being in a particular place at a particular time, only to discover later that you couldn’t possibly have been? 
 
 
We rely on our memories every day of our lives. They make us who we are. And yet the truth is, they are far from being the accurate record of the past we like to think they are. In The Memory Illusion, forensic psychologist and memory expert Dr Julia Shaw draws on the latest research to show why our memories so often play tricks on us – and how, if we understand their fallibility, we can actually improve their accuracy. The result is an exploration of our minds that both fascinating and unnerving, and that will make you question how much you can ever truly know about yourself. Think you have a good memory? Think again. 
 
 
'A spryly paced, fun, sometimes frightening exploration of how we remember – and why everyone remembers things that never truly happened.' Pacific Standard

The Memory Illusion

Remembering, Forgetting, and the Science of False Memory

Mark Mason

At 10.41am on a Tuesday morning in September, Mark Mason boards the number 1A bus at Land’s End in Cornwall. Forty-six buses and eleven days later he disembarks at John O’Groats in Scotland. Move Along Please is his account of that gruelling 1100-mile odyssey; a paint-by-bus-numbers portrait of Britain. 
 Along the way he visits everywhere from the village where the internet enters Britain to the urban sprawl of Birmingham (inspiration for the Two Towers in Lord of the Rings). He samples staples of the British diet from curry to the deep-fried Mars Bar, and uncovers countless fascinating facts about his native land – did you know, for example, that Crewe Alexandra football club is named after the wife of Edward VII, that Loch Ness could hold the water from all the lakes in England and Wales, or that there is a village which rejoices in the name Tongue End? 
 Set against the backdrop of 2000 years of history and with a full supporting cast drawn from that most unusual of species, the Great British Public, this is the unmissable story of a man rediscovering his nation in all its idiosyncratic glory.

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