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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James Patterson

Cory Friedman was an ordinary fun-loving little boy. That fateful March morning in 1989 started just like any other but later that day, he started to feel very different and the course of his life was set to change. It started with an irresistible urge to shake his head, and before long, his body became a volatile, explosive and unpredictable force. Overtaken by physical urges, tics and compulsions, the bright young boy started to feel and look like a puppet on a string. 
 
Cory had developed a rare combination of Tourette Syndrome, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Anxiety Disorder and other neurological conditions. The life he knew had been torn apart and his family was left watching him suffer. Desperate to help and hopeful of a cure, they embarked on a fifteen year plight which took them beyond breaking point. Cory was seen by thirteen doctors who in total prescribed sixty potent medicines. He was mistakenly sent to a psychiatric ward and. On the brink of utter despair, he and his family decided to try a form of intervention that had never been tried in cases such as Cory's: he was sent to a wilderness survival camp in a bitter, unforgiving snowy Utah winter. This felt like their final chance. 
 
Throughout his young life, Cory struggled to have the same childhood and adolescence as his friends. From time to time an overwhelming anger and frustration overcame him when one doctor after another and an unprecedented number of medicines continually failed him. Still, throughout it all, Cory battled against the extraordinary events that were unfolding, and would take him on one of the most terrifying personal journeys ever recorded. 
 
Torn Apart is a true story of one family's courage, heartbreak, sacrifice and ultimately, triumph.

Torn Apart

The Heartbreaking Story of a Childhood Lost

Mark Wallington

Boogie is an unattractive but street-wise mongrel from Stockwell, used to travelling everywhere on London Transport. His two-legged companion is Mark. This is a heroic study of survival against the odds, as together they take a journey, up hill and down dale, with rucksacks full of kennomeat, along Britain's longest coastal footpath - from Somerset to Devon, from Cornwall to Dorset.

Five Hundred Mile Walkies

David Bellamy

David Bellamy is a natural story teller whose memoir will be packed full of funny anecdotes and observations. It is the story of how a city boy, brought up in the middle of London, went for a trip into the countryside one day, an event which was to transform his life by setting in motion the amazing love of nature which would make famous this larger-than-life character. In his infectious style he illumines on, amongst other things, the fact that his father, the manager of a branch of Boots, had to grease his hair straight - because in those days managers of Boots weren't allowed to have curly hair! Then there was the time he and his brother discovered an exploded bomb, kept in the garden shed - and then accidentally blew off the front of the house with it. He reveals his secret passion is  ballet dancing - and how his mother only found out about it when she saw him on stage at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon.  His career as an academic, then author, broadcaster, consultant and television personality, spans 35 years and his main passion - campaigning for the environment - have led to many adventures including his being twice imprisoned in the Third World.

Jolly Green Giant

David Lines

Continuing the tradition of parodying all things sacred, the author of The XXXX Files and PMT takes up the reigns of satire by rewriting the essential 1970s hippy handbook Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Instead of a seagull for a hero, this updated classic features a bloated, cynical, grungy pigeon, who looks not to the skies for inspiration, but to the London Underground. Cutting corners wherever possible and living the life of a fully fledged MTV-generation feral pigeon, Jonathan's rite of passage is more a celebration of modern-day teenage apathy set against a backdrop of 90s Pop Culture and Victorian underground architecture than a voyage of delicious self-discovery. Matching the original page-for-page in content and layout, Jonathan Livingston Trafalgar Square Pigeon is a modern-day morality tale that will, by its very nature, attract plenty of attention whilst ever so gently ruffling a few feathers along the way.

Jonathan Livingston Trafalgar Square Pigeon

Charles Handy

Elizabeth Handy

Twenty-eight women, ranging from Anita Roddick and Prue Leith to less well-known names, write their own personal stories which are accompanied by Elizabeth Handy's black and white photographs and an introductory essay by Charles Handy.   This generation of women is entering the sixties more healthy, more educated and more energetic than most of their mothers.    The subjects in this book provide the models for what has become, for the first time, a new age for many women.    Released from most of the cares and responsibilities that accompany midlife for women, they are free to reinvent themselves, to give more time to their career or calling, or to luxuriate in the serenity and friendships that few had time for in the past. Some enter new relationships, some start new careers or go back to study, some find that their work is only now reaching its peak. Many have survived traumas and tragedies, but 'the past is just the prologue' as one of them explains.

Reinvented Lives

Women at Sixty: A Celebration

Paul Osborne

The full, true story of the dog featured on the cover of Clare Balding's HEROIC ANIMALS 
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The incredible true story of Sherlock, the brave dog with a nose for saving lives. 
 
Firefighter Paul Osborne works with the Fire Investigation Dog unit, where he handles Sherlock - an excitable, bright-eyed cocker spaniel. 
 
What makes Sherlock different? He's the most talented investigative dog the Fire Brigade has ever produced, capable of identifying extraordinarily subtle traces and scents even after thousand-degree blazes - even when he has to wear special protective boots due to the dangerous environments. 
 
Today, Paul and Sherlock fearlessly plunge into the most dramatic fire scenes in London, helping to keep the capital safe around the clock. With remarkable insight into the life of London's most heroic working dog, this inspiring account of the London Fire Brigade's four-legged heroes will delight and amaze. 
 
Foreword by Dany Cotton, Commissioner for The London Fire Brigade 
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Winners of the Mirror and RSPCA Animal Hero Awards 2017 
 
Written in collaboration with and with full support from the London Fire Brigade

Sherlock: The Fire Brigade Dog

Anna Quindlen

What started as an ode to Quindlen's aging black Labrador in her Newsweek column has become a life-affirming short book about happiness, in the tradition of A SHORT GUIDE TO A HAPPY LIFE and BEING PERFECT. 
 
In this wise little book, Anna Quindlen writes: "The life of a good dog is like the life of a good person, only shorter, more compressed." Quindlen continues, with her trademark wonderful writing, sound wisdom and humor, to explain how her life has unfolded in tandem with Beau, and how she's learned how to enjoy life, in the simplest of ways, by watching him. 
 
She writes, "When I was a mixed-breed puppy, I could never have imagined how simple and basic contentment could be. And that's what I've learned from watching Beau: to roll with the punches, to take things as they come, to measure myself not in terms of the past or the future but of the present, to raise my nose in the air from time to time and, at least metaphorically, holler, "I smell bacon!"

Life with Beau

A Tale of a Dog and His Family

Maggie Bennett

This gripping saga about midwives, on and off duty, is perfect for fans of Call the Midwife, Katie Flynn, Dilly Court and Catherine Cookson. Let much loved author Maggie Bennett take you on a heartfelt and passionate journey with a group of women whose emotions and reactions are ultimately no different from the women they serve... 
 
READERS ARE LOVING NIGHTS ON, NIGHTS OFF 
'Loved this book' -- ***** Reader review 
'Extraordinary' -- ***** Reader review 
'Didn't want to put it down' -- ***** Reader review 
****************************************************************************************** 
SOMETIMES THINGS REALLY ARE A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH... 
 
In the heightened atmosphere of a busy maternity unit, there are inevitable tensions between modern technology and the demands by some mothers for a 'natural childbirth'. For widowed midwife, Shirley Pierce, there is no argument: the safety of the baby is always paramount. Feeling passionate about this, she is never afraid to speak her mind. 
 
Her strongly held views are further deepened when she meets a young man who has been irrevocably brain-damaged since birth - and friendship blossoms into love of a kind. 
 
 Shirley's defiant attitude and her refusal to heed the warnings of her friends lead to her involvement in a horrific tragedy, and she soon discovers that there is a heavy price to be paid for resisting authority...

Nights On, Nights Off

a thrilling saga set in the highly charged world of a busy maternity unit

Guardian News and Media Ltd

When the powers that be reduced the speed limit on Lake Windermere to 10 knots, waterskiers complained that their sport was now completely scuppered. So just how slow can you waterski before you start to sink beneath the waves? 
 
And, while we're about it, how long can you survive in a freezer? What are the chances of being struck by lightning in bed? And why is it so esay to raed wrods eevn wehn the lteetrs are mdduled up? 
 
Everyday life can pose some mind-boggling questions - but where do you find the answers? The Guardian's popular 'This Week' column has been looking into the science behind the news for three years, and How Slow Can You Waterski? draws together a selection of the most imaginative questions and the most surprising answers. If you've ever wondered what makes a planet a planet, why submarines keep bumping into things or even if it's safe to eat mud, How Slow Can You Waterski? will prove irresistible - and enlightening - reading.

How Slow Can you Waterski?

and other puzzling questions ...

The sequel to "500-mile Walkies". When the author set off in a 100-year-old camping skiff to find the source of the Thames, he didn't want to take his dog, Boogie. He would have left him in kennels but the other dogs complained and things do not work out as he planned.

Boogie Up The River

One Man and His Dog to the Source of the Thames

Iain Stewart

Man with hammer, rucksack and GSOH offers gritty adventure holidays. Looking for sun, sea, sand and - science. 
 
Scheduled to tie in with a major new BBC series, Hot Rocks explores the Mediterranean - the cradle of western civilisation - and discovers alongside its tranquil, sun-lapped shores, one of the most volatile places on an ever-changing earth. The Mediterranean we know today has been forged in a violent crucible of clashing continents, rising mountains, restless seas and a turbulent climate. Millions of Britons are drawn to the Mediterranean every year and whether they go for the beautiful scenery and relaxing beaches or the culture and architecture or food, none of it would be there were it not for geology. Forward-thinking geologist and television presenter Dr Iain Stewart, uncovers the hidden Mediterranean and brings a fresh and dramatic eye to geology to show just why it is that geology should be restored to its rightful place as the grandfather of sciences. From earthquakes and volcanoes to Roman architecture and cuisine, Iain discovers just how geology has shaped our lives and how we can expect it to affect us in years to come.

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