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.

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Tristram Hunt

Josiah Wedgwood, perhaps the greatest English potter who ever lived, epitomized the best of his age. From his kilns and workshops in Stoke-on-Trent, he revolutionized the production of ceramics in Georgian Britain by marrying technology with design, manufacturing efficiency and retail flair. He transformed the luxury markets not only of London, Liverpool, Bath and Dublin but of America and the world, and helping to usher in a mass consumer society. Tristram Hunt calls him 'the Steve Jobs of the eighteenth century'. 
 
But Wedgwood was radical in his mind and politics as well as in his designs. He campaigned for free trade and religious toleration, read pioneering papers to the Royal Society and was a member of the celebrated Lunar Society of Birmingham. Most significantly, he created the ceramic 'Emancipation Badge', depicting a slave in chains and inscribed 'Am I Not a Man and a Brother?' that became the symbol of the abolitionist movement. 
 
Tristram Hunt's hugely enjoyable new biography, strongly based on Wedgwood's notebooks, letters and the words of his contemporaries, brilliantly captures the energy and originality of Wedgwood and his extraordinary contribution to the transformation of eighteenth-century Britain.

The Radical Potter

Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain

Leander Kahney

In 2011, Tim Cook took on an impossible task - following in the footsteps of one of history's greatest business visionaries, Steve Jobs. Facing worldwide scrutiny, Cook (who was often described as shy, unassuming and unimaginative) defied all expectations. Under Cook's leadership Apple has soared: its stock has rocketed to become the world's first two-trillion-dollar company. From the massive growth of the iPhone to more recent victories like the Apple Watch, Cook is leading Apple to a new era of success. 
 
But he's also spearheaded a cultural revolution within the company. Since becoming CEO, Cook has introduced a new style of management that emphasizes kindness, collaboration and honesty, and has quietly pushed Apple to support sexual and racial equal rights and invest heavily in renewable energy. 
 
Drawing on authorized access with several Apple insiders, Kahney, the world's leading reporter on Apple, tells the inspiring story of how one man attempted to replace the irreplaceable and succeeded better than anyone thought possible.

Tim Cook

The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level

L.T.C Rolt

Engineering genius, technical innovator and one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel changed the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs and ingenious constructions. L. T. C. Rolt's masterly biography is the definitive work on Brunel, tracing the life, times and monumental achivements of the man who helped to build modern Britain.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Jeremy Clarkson

Get tucked in to a third bestselling helping of Clarkson's Farm from our favourite wellie-wearing wannabe farmer, Jeremy Clarkson 
 'Brilliant . . . laugh-out-loud' Daily Telegraph 
 
 'Outrageously funny . . . will have you in stitches' Time Out 
 --- After three years, Jeremy Clarkson has discovered the golden rule of farming: 
 
 whatever you hope will happen, won't. 
 
 Enthusiastic schemes to diversify face defeat at the hands of the Council Planning department, or derision from Kaleb. Jeremy's plans for a business empire founded on rewilding and nettle soup are doubted by Lisa. And the stifling thickets of red tape keep only one person smiling – Cheerful Charlie, who charges by the hour. 
 
 But the animals couldn’t be happier. A rented bull called Break-Heart Maestro is delighting the cows. The pigs are bringing home the bacon. And the goats are . . . most probably psychopaths. 
 
 Yet on the good days it hard not to be optimistic. 
 Where else do you get to harvest blackberries with a vacuum cleaner? 
 
 Maybe it’s not just Break-heart Maestro who gets a happy ending? 
 
---- 
 
Readers are loving Diddly Squat: Pigs Might Fly 
 
‘Another funny book from Jeremy. This one made me chuckle but, my only complaint it's too short. I wanted more. Hopefully Another book is being written as we speak’ ***** Reader Review 
 ‘I love the show and I love the books. Both make me chuckle but have also given me an insight into farming and how hard farming is’ **** Reader Review 
 ‘I’ve read the previous books and loved those as well. 
 Witty and funny with depth and a bit of seriousness’ **** Reader Review 
 ‘Loved it, quickest book I've ever read. Can't wait for the next Clarkson instalment’ **** Reader Review

Diddly Squat: Pigs Might Fly

Roald Dahl

In war are we at our heroic best or our cowardly worst? Featuring the autobiographical stories from Roald Dahl's time as a fighter pilot in the Second World War as well as seven other tales of conflict and strife, Dahl reveals the human side of our darkest days. 
 
Among other stories, you'll read about the pilot shot down in the Libyan desert, the fighter plane lost in mysterious thick cloud and the soldier who returns from war but has been mysteriously changed by it. 
 
Roald Dahl reveals even more about the darker side of human nature in seven other centenary editions: Lust, Madness, Cruelty, Deception, Trickery, Innocence and Fear.

Welcome back to Clarkson’s Farm. 
The spring crop failed. Farming sheep, pigs and cows was hardly more lucrative (better off breeding ostriches…) 
 
But in the face of uncooperative weather, bureaucracy, and the world’s persistent refusal to recognise his genius, our hero’s not beaten yet. Not while the farm shop’s still doing a roaring trade in smelly candles, he isn’t. 
 
Misery loves company and in girlfriend Lisa, Farm Manager Kaleb, Cheerful Charlie and Gerald his Head of Security Jeremy’s got the best. And it’s hard to feel too gloomy with a JCB telehandler, a crop-spraying hovercraft and a digger in the barn.

Diddly Squat: Home to Roost

John Wyndham

For British pilot Dale Curtance, the Keuntz Prize - to be awarded to the first person to take a spaceship to another planet and back - is the ultimate challenge. Not only has he to build a ship to survive the journey, assemble a top-notch crew and choose a destination, he's also got to beat the Russians and Americans. 
 
Soon the GLORIA MUNDI blasts off from Salisbury Plain, bound for Mars. There's only one problem - a stowaway called Joan. Not only does her presence wreck calculations and threaten the mission, but her tale suggests that Mars may be a more dangerous destination than they ever expected.

Stowaway to Mars

Paul Tremelling

This is the story of what it takes to make it in fighter combat. In the cockpit or crew room, the pressure is relentless, the humour merciless. 
It's no place for the faint-hearted. 
 
Whether landing on a pitching aircraft carrier deck at midnight, or 
saving heroes under fire in Afghanistan, there is no room for self-doubt; only confidence and do-or-die hard truth. In return, Paul Tremelling and his comrades enjoyed levels of exhilaration unimaginable anywhere else. 
 
Combining visceral action with sharp intelligence, laced with acerbic humour, 
Harrier brings to life the hi-octane, unforgiving world of the fighter pilot. 
 
Strap in...

Harrier: How To Be a Fighter Pilot

Jeremy Clarkson puts the pedal to the floor in Don't Stop Me Now, a collection of his Sunday Times motoring journalism. 
 
There's more to life than cars. Jeremy Clarkson knows this. There is, after all, a whole world out there just waiting to be discovered. So, before he gets on to torque steer and active suspension, he takes time out to consider: 
 
* The madness of Galapagos tortoises 
 
* The similarities between Jeremy Paxman and AC/DC's bass guitarist 
 
* The problems and perils of being English 
 
* God's dumbest creation 
 
Then there are the cars: whether it's the poxiest little runabout or an exotic, firebreathing supercar, no one does cars like Clarkson. Unmoved by mechanics&amp;rsquo; claims and unimpressed by press junkets, he approaches anything on four wheels without fear or favour. What emerges from the ashes is rarely pretty. But always very, very funny. 
 
Praise for Jeremy Clarkson 
'Brilliant . . . laugh-out-loud' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Outrageously funny . . . will have you in stitches' Time Out 
 
'Very funny . . . I cracked up laughing on the tube' Evening Standard

Don't Stop Me Now

Pull on your wellies, grab your flat cap and join Jeremy Clarkson in this hilarious and fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the infamous Diddly Squat Farm 
 
THE NO. 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
'Brilliant . . . laugh-out-loud' Daily Telegraph 
'Outrageously funny . . . will have you in stitches' Time Out 
_________ 
 
Welcome to Clarkson's farm. 
 
It's always had a nice ring to it. Jeremy just never thought that one day his actual job would be 'a farmer'. 
 
And, sadly, it doesn't mean he's any good at it. 
 
From buying the wrong tractor (Lamborghini, since you ask . . .) to formation combine harvesting, getting tied-up in knots of red tape to chasing viciously athletic cows, our hero soon learns that enthusiasm alone might not be enough. 
 
Jeremy may never succeed in becoming master of his land, but, as he's discovering, the fun lies in the trying . . . 
_________ 
 
'Very funny . . . I cracked up laughing on the tube' Evening Standard 
 
Praise for Clarkson's Farm: 
 
'The best thing Clarkson's done . . . it pains me to say this' GUARDIAN 
 
'Shockingly hopeful' INDEPENDENT 
 
'Even the most committed Clarkson haters will find him likeable here' TELEGRAPH 
 
'Quite lovely' THE TIMES 
 
Diddly Squat, Number 1 Sunday Times bestseller, October 2022

Diddly Squat

A Year on the Farm

Steven Johnson

What connects the "miracle on the Hudson" to the planning of the French railway system, or the mysterious outbreak of strange smells in downtown Manhattan to the invention of the Internet? With his characteristic flair for multidisciplinary storytelling, Steven Johnson shows in Future Perfect that what lies behind these and many other fascinating human stories is the concept of networked thinking. 
 
Exploring a new vision of progress, Johnson argues that networked thinking holds the key to an incredible range of human achievements, and can transform everything from local government to drug research to arts funding and education. Future Perfect paints a compelling portrait of a new model of political change that is already on the rise, and shows that despite Western political systems hopelessly gridlocked by old ideas, change for the better can happen, and that new solutions are on the horizon.

Future Perfect

The Case For Progress In A Networked Age

Jeremy Clarkson is once more Driven to Distraction. 
 
Brace yourself. Clarkson's back. 
 
And he'd like to tell you what he thinks about some of the most awe-inspiring, earth-shatteringly fast and jaw-droppingly cool cars in the world (oh, and a few irredeemable disasters...). 
 
Or he would if he could just get one or two things off his chest first. Matters such as: 
 
* The prospect of having Terry Wogan as president 
 
* Why you'll never see a woman driving a Lexus 
 
* The unforeseen consequences of inadequate birth control 
 
* Why everyone should spend a weekend with a digger 
 
Driven to Distraction is Jeremy Clarkson at full throttle. So buckle up, sit tight and enjoy the ride. You're in for a hell of a lot of laughs. 
 
Praise for Jeremy Clarkson: 
 
'Brilliant . . . laugh-out-loud' Daily Telegraph 
'Outrageously funny . . . will have you in stitches' Time Out 
'Very funny . . . I cracked up laughing on the tube' Evening Standard

Driven to Distraction

Alex James

There is nothing that can touch the sound made by a close-knit group of people who have been playing together for years and years and years, playing as though their lives depended on it. For many years, all our lives did, and actually, I’d suddenly realised, they did still. 
 
One winter’s night, Alex James received an unexpected call. Blur had been invited to play their biggest gig ever: Wembley Stadium. The only trouble was, he and his bandmates hadn’t spoken to – or even shouted at – each other for years. And he now had five children, an out-of-control menagerie of cats, and a sprawling farm to run. 
 
This is the story of what happened next. Taking us behind the scenes of a raucous, rollercoaster year, Alex describes how the band made a surprise – and emotional – return, recording an acclaimed album and playing sold-out shows around the world, from Colchester to Colombia and beyond. Plus: how he went on a crash diet to fit back into his ‘Britpop Trousers,’ somehow organised an entire festival of his own, and tried to perfect the recipe for a giant Frazzle. 
 
Over the Rainbow is a heartfelt and hilarious account of what it feels like to be catapulted back into the limelight with one of the world’s biggest bands. It is a love letter to Blur, to friendship and to music. And it shows us all that, however old – or hungover – we might feel, nothing’s ever truly over: it’s always just the start of the next thing.

Over the Rainbow

Tales from an Unexpected Year

From Steven Johnson, the bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From, comes How We Got to Now, the companion book to his six-part BBC One television series exploring the power and the legacy of great ideas. 
 
How did photography bring about social reform? What connects refrigeration to Hollywood? And how did our battle against dirt help create smartphones? In this story of ingenious breakthroughs and unsung heroes, Steven Johnson explores the essential innovations that changed the world and how we live in it. 
 
'A new Steven Johnson book is something not to be missed. The author has become the leading writer on how inventions happen' Daniel Finkelstein, The Times, Books of the Year 
 
'Graceful and compelling ... you'll find yourself exhilarated' The New York Times Book Review 
 
'Readable, entertaining, and a challenge to any jaded sensibility that has become inured to the everyday miracles all around us' Peter Forbes, Guardian'This nimble history of invention . . .is a many-layered delight' Nature

How We Got to Now

Six Innovations that Made the Modern World

What Could Possibly Go Wrong... is the eighth book in Jeremy Clarkson's bestselling Clarkson on Cars series. 
 
There's nothing quite like messing about on four wheels. In fact, there's no better way to contemplate the madness of the world than from the driver's seat of something which is zooming by very fast indeed. 
 
Or so Jeremy Clarkson believes. 
 
For he's been pondering some really rather important matters, such as why: 
 
- God has a streak of German perfectionism 
- Crab spread beats Heston Blumenthal's rhubarb mousse 
- Monaco's billionaires are ruining the Grand Prix 
- The back of a dog tastes nicer than marzipan 
 
Someone's got to. And while a full tank and the open road might not quite reveal the meaning of life, there's certainly some fun to be had along the way . . . 
 
'Brilliant . . . laugh-out-loud' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Very funny . . . I cracked up laughing on the tube' Evening Standard 
 
'Outrageously funny . . . will have you in stitches' Time Out

What Could Possibly Go Wrong. . .

Raynor Winn

Nature holds the answers for Raynor and her husband Moth. After walking 630 homeless miles along The Salt Path, living on the windswept and wild English coastline; the cliffs, the sky and the chalky earth now feel like their home. 
 
Moth has a terminal diagnosis, but against all medical odds, he seems revitalised in nature. Together on the wild coastal path, with their feet firmly rooted outdoors, they discover that anything is possible. 
 
Now life beyond the Salt Path awaits and they come back to four walls, but the sense of home is illusive and returning to normality is proving difficult - until an incredible gesture by someone who reads their story changes everything. 
 
A chance to breathe life back into a beautiful farmhouse nestled deep in the Cornish hills; rewilding the land and returning nature to its hedgerows, becomes their saving grace and their new path to follow. 
 
The Wild Silence is a story of hope triumphing over despair, of lifelong love prevailing over everything. It is a luminous account of the human spirit's instinctive connection to nature, and how vital it is for us all.

The Wild Silence

Born to be Riled is a collection of hilarious vintage journalism from Jeremy Clarkson. 
 
Jeremy Clarkson, it has to said, sometimes finds the world a maddening place. And nowhere more so than from behind the wheel of a car, where you can see any number of people acting like lunatics while in control (or not) of a ton of metal. 
 
In this collection of classic columns, first published in 1999, Jeremy takes a look at the world through his windscreen, shakes his head at what he sees - and then puts the boot in. 
 
Among other things, he explains: 
 
* Why Surrey is worse than Wales 
* How crossing your legs in America can lead to arrest 
* The reason cable TV salesmen must be punched 
* That divorce can be blamed on the birth of Jesus 
 
Raving politicians, pointless celebrities, ridiculous 'personalities' and the Germans all get it in the neck, together with the stupid, the daft and the ludicrous, in a tour de force of comic writing guaranteed to have Jeremy's postman wheezing under sackfuls of letters from the easily offended. 
 
Praise for Jeremy Clarkson: 
 
'Brilliant . . . laugh-out-loud' Daily Telegraph 
'Outrageously funny . . . will have you in stitches' Time Out 
'Very funny . . . I cracked up laughing on the tube' Evening Standard

Born to be Riled

Jerry Brotton

North, south, east and west: almost all societies use the four cardinal directions to orientate themselves, to understand who they are by projecting where they are. 
 
In Four Points of the Compass, Jerry Brotton takes the reader on a journey of directional discovery. He reveals why Hebrew culture privileges east; why Renaissance Europeans began drawing north at the top of their maps; why early Islam revered the south; why the Aztecs used five colour-coded cardinal directions; and why no societies, primitive or modern, have ever orientated themselves westwards. He ends by reflecting on our digital age in which we, the little blue dot on the screen, have become the most important compass point. Throughout, Brotton shows that the directions reflect a human desire to create order and that they only have meaning, literally and metaphorically, depending on where you stand.

Four Points of the Compass

The Unexpected History of Direction

Jennifer Jacquet

'This brilliantly subversive and witty book lays bare the techniques of manipulation and disinformation that keep the rich and powerful rich and powerful. . . A landmark book' Brian Eno 
 
'Very funny, as satire should be, until you realise it's deadly serious' Adam Rutherford, BBC Radio 4 Start the Week 
 
Knowledge is power. Which is why the rich and powerful don't want you to have it. 
 
The Playbook is an exposé of the extraordinary lengths that corporations will go to in order to spread disinformation and deny the scientific facts - around climate change, public health risks and worker safety - when they don't suit their agenda. 
 
Written in the form of a corporate handbook for tobacco, oil and pharmaceutical company executives, it is a litany of obfuscation techniques, denial, delays and outright lies, including: how to recruit an academic 'expert' who is willing to compromise their integrity (or is just short of cash), how to massage the statistics, how to use legal and even physical intimidation against reporters and activists, and how, just as in a casino, to keep your customers comfortable, unquestioning, unthinking and playing along for as long as possible. 
 
Part satire, part social history, part guide to resistance, The Playbook is a charge sheet against the powerful. It shows us how, by understanding the methods and motives of disinformation campaigns, we may be able to outwit them.

The Playbook

How to Deny Science, Sell Lies, and Make a Killing in the Corporate World

THE NO. 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
Head back down to Clarkson Farm with the bestseller from our favourite welly-wearing wannabe farmer, Jeremy Clarkson 
___________ 
 
Enthusiastic trainee farmer Jeremy Clarkson made just £144 in his first year at Diddly Squat Farm. This year he's determined to do better. Not because he now knows what he's doing. But because he's fed up of getting stick from Kaleb. 
 
Yet farming continues to be a challenge. 
 
For instance . . . 
· Loading a grain trailer was more demanding than flying an Apache gunship? 
· Cows were more dangerous than motor-racing? 
· It's easier to get planning permission to build a nuclear plant than to turn a barn into a restaurant? 
 
Jeremy's always got a plan. Loads of them. Often cunning. 
 
Not always greeted with wild enthusiasm by Kaleb and Cheerful Charlie, however . . . 
___________ 
 
PRAISE FOR DIDDLY SQUAT 
 
'Clarkson has done more for farmers in one series than Countryfile achieved in 30 years' James Rebanks, author of A Shepherd's Life 
 
'Clarkson has showcased the passion, humour and personalities of the people who work throughout the year to grow the nation's food . . . and brought an understanding of many of the issues faced by farmers to the British public' National Farmers Union 
 
'A deserving Farming Champion of the Year' Farmers Weekly 
 
'I don't know anything about farming. It's like David Attenborough doing jet-skiing, or Nicholas Witchell saying, "I'm going to be a cage fighter'" Jeremy Clarkson 
 
Number 1 Sunday Times bestseller, October 2022

Diddly Squat: ‘Til The Cows Come Home

Jon Gertner

From its beginnings in the 1920s until its demise in the 1980s, Bell Labs-officially, the research and development wing of AT&amp;T-was the biggest, and arguably the best, laboratory for new ideas in the world. From the transistor to the laser, from digital communications to cellular telephony, it's hard to find an aspect of modern life that hasn't been touched by Bell Labs. 
 
In The Idea Factory, Jon Gertner traces the origins of some of the twentieth century's most important inventions and delivers a riveting and heretofore untold chapter of American history. At its heart this is a story about the life and work of a small group of brilliant and eccentric men-Mervin Kelly, Bill Shockley, Claude Shannon, John Pierce, and Bill Baker-who spent their careers at Bell Labs. 
 
Today, when the drive to invent has become a mantra, Bell Labs offers us a way to enrich our understanding of the challenges and solutions to technological innovation. Here, after all, was where the foundational ideas on the management of innovation were born.

The Idea Factory

Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation

In I Know You Got Soul, Jeremy Clarkson writes about the machines that he believes have 'soul'. 
 
It will come as no surprise to anyone that Jeremy Clarkson loves machines. But it's not just any old bucket of blots, cogs and bearings that rings his bell. In fact, he's scoured the length and breadth of the land, plunged into the oceans and taken to the skies in search of machines with that elusive certain something. 
 
And along the way he's discovered: 
 
*	The safest place to be in the event of nuclear war 
*	Who would win if Superman, James Bond and The Terminator had a fight 
*	The stupidest person he's ever met 
*	What an old Cornish institution called Arthur has to do with 0898 
chat lines 
*	And how Jean Claude Van Damme might get eaten by a lion . . . 
 
In I Know You Got Soul, Jeremy Clarkson tells stories of the geniuses, innovators and crackpots who put the ghost in the machine. From Brunel's SS Great Britain to the awesome Blackbird spy-plane and from the woeful - but inspiring - Graf Zeppelin to Han Solo's Millennium Falcon, they can't help but love them in return.

I Know You Got Soul

Christoph Keller

Most stories of disability follow a familiar pattern: Life Before Accident. Life After Accident. For Christoph Keller, it was different: his childhood diagnosis with a form of Spinal Muscular Atrophy only revealed what had been with him since birth. SMA III, the 'kindest one', allows those who have it to live a long life, and it progresses slowly. There is no cure. By the age of 25, he had to use a wheelchair some of the time. 'There were two of me: Walking Me. Rolling Me.' By 32, he could still walk into a restaurant with a cane or on somebody's arm. At 45, 'Rolling Me' took over altogether. 
 
Intimate, absurdist and winningly frank, Every Cripple a Superhero is at once a memoir of life with a progressive disorder, and a profound exploration of the challenges of loving, being loved, and living a public life - navigating restaurants, aeroplanes, museums and artists' retreats - in a world not designed for you. Threaded throughout are Keller's own photographs of the unexpected beauty found in puddle-filled 'curb cuts', the pavement ramps that, left to disintegrate, form part of the urban obstacle course. Those puddles become portals into a different, truer city; and, as they do, so this book - told with humour and immense grace - begins to uncover a truer world: one where the 'normal' is not normal, where disability is far more widespread than we might think, and where there always exist, just alongside our own, the lives of everyday superheroes.

Every Cripple a Superhero

Guenther Steiner

**THE INSTANT NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** 
 
'Gripping to read. Funny, real, exciting. It's a brilliant book.' - Chris Evans 
 
'Fearless and candid... A gleeful guide to a bonkers sport from a loveable rogue insider.' - The Times 
 
--- 
 
'People talk about football managers being under pressure. Trust me, that's nothing. Pressure is watching one of your drivers hit a barrier at 190mph and exploding before your eyes...' 
 
Guenther Steiner is one of motor racing's biggest and most celebrated characters, known to millions for his show-stealing appearances on Netflix's hugely popular fly on the wall series, Drive to Survive. 
 
In Surviving to Drive, the Haas team principal takes readers inside his Formula 1 team for the entirety of the 2022 season, giving an unobstructed view of what really takes place behind the scenes. Through this unique lens, Guenther takes us on the thrilling rollercoaster of life at the heart of high stakes motor racing. 
 
Packed full of twists and turns, from hiring and firing drivers, balancing books, pre-season preparations, the design, launch and testing of a car - and of course, the race calendar itself - this is the first time that an F1 team has allowed an acting team principal to tell the full story of a whole season. 
 
Uncompromising and searingly honest, told in Steiner's inimitable style, this is a fascinating and hugely entertaining account of the realities of running a Formula 1 team. 
 
--- 
 
'Very colourful. Like having a conversation with Steiner.' - Radio 4, Today

Surviving to Drive

A Year Inside Formula 1

Mark Urban

In this gripping, authorised account, bestselling historian Mark Urban tells the story of the wartime creation and development of Britain's elite airborne infantry - who ranged from circus performers to solicitors, policemen to gravediggers, Christians and Jews to communists. 
 
Through the fates of six men - including recently widowed Geoffrey Pine-Coffin, who had to leave his little boy at home to head to the front, and Mike Lewis, whose photographs became iconic images of war - Urban vividly shows what it took to succeed in this new regiment. All six men would shed blood for their country in daring actions at D-Day, Arnhem and across the Second World War; two would not survive, and one would face disgrace. 
 
Based on deep archival research, British and German sources and new material from the men's families, Urban's unvarnished history is a compelling and moving depiction of the highs and lows of battle.

Red Devils

The Trailblazers of the Paras in World War Two

The Trailblazers of the Parachute Regiment in World War Two: An Authorized History

Francis Bourgeois

The adventure filled memoir from the world's most beloved trainspotter, TikTok sensation Francis Bourgeois. 
 
'Francis is one of the kindest, most genuine people I've met in a long time. His passion and unadulterated happiness is inspiring. I can't wait for more magical adventures with him.' - Joe Jonas 
 
'A National Treasure Of The TikTok Age.' - Grazia 
 
'Thrashing builds and builds. I look down and pull up my sleeve: I've got goosebumps, making all the hairs on my arm stand on end. I'm absolutely buzzing.' 
 
From sleeping in a car to get a good shot of 73962 Dick Mabbutt to trainspotting with Niall Horan, Francis Bourgeois has been on one hell of a ride over the past year. Bringing joy to millions, his epic journeys have highlighted the importance of connecting with your passions. 
 
In The Trainspotter's Notebook, Francis shares his greatest trainspotting adventures and takes you with him across the fields and footbridges of Britain, passing through historic terminals and backwater stations in pursuit of tones, thrash and locomotive perfection. Told in his inimitable style, these hilarious and heart-warming tales take you behind the scenes of his most popular videos, and celebrate the places and people of the railway. 
 
Are you ready to depart? 
 
'Oh for goodness sake, I'm on the wrong platform!'

The Trainspotter's Notebook

Arthur Parkinson

Most of us want a dog, or a cat, or a pony when we are young &ndash; but for Arthur Parkinson, it was always hens. Growing up in an ex-mining town in Nottinghamshire, the other kids in the playground called him 'Chicken Boy'. The quiet fulfilment of keeping hens became his sanctuary, a tonic for mental and physical health, a connection with his family and the natural world. Illustrated with Arthur's own characterful watercolours and photographs of his &lsquo;girls&rsquo;, Chicken Boy is a one-of-a-kind memoir of a life in nature.

Chicken Boy

My Life With Hens

J E Gordon

In &quot;The New Science of Strong Materials&quot; the author made plain the secrets of materials science. In this volume he explains the importance and properties of different structures.

Structures

Or Why Things Don't Fall Down

Samantha Cristoforetti

‘I read a lot of writings by astronauts in my research for Orbital, but this was my go-to. It's written with clarity, generosity, humour, humility and heart’ Samantha Harvey 
 
'Today I woke up on Earth. And I will fall asleep in space' 
 
In space the sun rises and sets 16 times a day. You fly over every sea, every mountain and desert, every city and every port. The most ordinary things -- eating, sleeping, brushing your teeth or cutting your hair -- have to be relearned, until they become familiar again. This is the story of Samantha Cristoforetti's incredible journey to becoming an astronaut, and her journey beyond Earth. 
 
Her voyage as an apprentice astronaut began when she was in her early thirties: five years of intense training around the world, from Houston to Japan to the legendary Star City in Russia. Countless hours spent in centrifuges, spaceship simulators and under water for spacewalk practice. Then, one day, a rocket was waiting for her on the launch pad. And after eight minutes of wild ascent, she was on orbit, crunched up with her two crewmates in a tiny spaceship that took them to the International Space Station. 
 
With honesty and warmth, Cristoforetti chronicles the two hundred days she spent on the ISS, the joys and challenges of being in an extraordinary place, from the sublime sight of seeing Earth for the first time to more unusual concerns, such as mastering the art of floating. How do you find your bearings when there is no up and down? What is it like to run in weightlessness? And how do you cook in space? 
 
This is an enthralling, inspiring and surprisingly down-to-earth story about what it really takes to pursue your dreams.

Diary of an Apprentice Astronaut

Mark Miodownik

A series of glasses of transparent liquids is in front of you: but which will quench your thirst and which will kill you? And why? Why does one liquid make us drunk, and another power a jumbo jet? 
 
From the bestselling author of Stuff Matters comes a fascinating tour of the world of these surprising or sinister substances - the droplets, heartbeats and ocean waves we encounter day-to-day. Structured around a plane journey which sees encounters with water, wine, and oil, among others, Miodownik shows that liquids are agents of death and destruction as well as substances of wonder and fascination. Just as in Stuff Matters his unique brand of scientific storytelling brings them and their mysterious properties alive in a captivating new way.

Showing results for: ‘Steve Roud’

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