POW Escape and Evasion covers everything you need to know about making a successful return to friendly territory. Beginning from the point where a combatant finds himself or herself trapped in enemy territory, the book offers useful tips and solid advice on how to evade capture and, if that fails, how to escape. Key topics include the will to survive; handling stress in captivity; escape techniques; survival in a variety of environments, including urban, rural, jungle and desert; how to forage for food; tracking and how to cover your tracks; navigation, with or without a map; and seeking recovery by friendly forces. The book also includes a number of real life accounts of POW escape from World War II (including The Great Escape story and Colditz), the Vietnam War (Dieter Dengler, with others, escaping from Laos), the Balkans, Iraq (Thomas Hamill in 2004) and Afghanistan. With more than 120 black-&-white artworks and with easy-to-follow text, POW Escape and Evasion is for anyone who wants to know how to survive in the most stressful of circumstances and emerge a winner. Presented in a handy, pocket-size format, this is a book you could take with you into the field. And it could save your life.

A collection of three enchanting plays adapted from popular fairy tales and suitable for family audiences:?Tin Soldier (adapted from The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen), A Tasty Tale (Hansel and Gretel), Hood in the Wood (Little Red Riding Hood). Acclaimed playwright Noel Greig, has recreated these well-known tales for the stage with wit and imagination. All three plays have been performed throughout the UK by Tangere Arts, winning a? Time Out Critics' Choice Award . Teachers, youth theatres and amateur groups working with young performers will use this collection time and again for productions, drama classes and workshops - whether for one performer or many. Suitable for children aged 7+ The simple form and language of the plays belie their theatrical and psychological sophistication. Tin Soldier ' a powerful poetic drama, an epic fable for our times.' **** ?Independent A Tasty Tale (Hansel and Gretel) ' Delicious moments... fashioned into a rhyming feast.' ****?Time Out Hood in the Wood (Little Red Riding Hood) ' a first-rate piece of storytelling that will make children squeal with terrified delight and parents shiver with recognition. ' **** ?Guardian

In June 1863, General Robert E. Lee and the 75,000-strong Army of Northern Virginia launched a second invasion of the North, crossing into Maryland and Pennsylvania to try to win a decisive victory over Federal forces. On July 1, Lee’s army encountered Major General Meade’s 90,000 strong Army of the Potamac at the small town of Gettysburg. After some initial success in dispersing the Federal advance guard, Lee launched attack after attack against the main army, but everywhere the Union line held. On July 3, Lee ordered a final assault of 12,500 Confederates at the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, known as Pickett’s Charge. The charge was repulsed with huge loss of life, bringing the battle to an end. Today, Gettysburg is recognized as the turning point in the Civil War and one of the iconic battles of the great struggle between North and South. Lee’s gamble didn’t pay off, leaving the Army of Northern Virginia fatally weakened and unable to continue its invasion of the North. Gettysburg is divided into five chapters, outlining the campaign, the fighting on July 1, July 2, and July 3, as well as a chapter dealing with the aftermath; an extended appendices provides biographical background of the main Federal and Confederate leaders who fought in the battle. Through letters, journal entries, and official reports, the book includes numerous first-hand accounts from those who survived. Color maps show the battle as it unfolded over three days of fighting in places that have a place in Civil War legend: Seminary Ridge, Little Round Top, Cemetery Hill, Devil’s Den, the Wheat Field, Culp’s Hill, the Peach Orchard. Including more than 200 archival photographs, illustrations, paintings, and maps, Gettysburg is a colorful, accessible guide to the great battle that marked the turning point in the Civil War.

Н?л Фер?юсон зауважу?: ?Ще на початку XV стол?ття сама лише думка про те, що наступн? п’ять стол?ть Зах?д буде дом?нувати над рештою св?ту, здалася б дуже дивною. А вт?м, це сталося?. ? нин? могутн?сть Заходу вража? нав?ть найбагатшу уяву... То чому ж так трапилося? Чому ?вропа, що на 1500-й р?к поступалася Сходу за багатьма показниками — економ?чними, технолог?чними, демограф?чними, — зум?ла р?зко рвонути уперед ? досягти безперечного св?тового панування? Як? складов? усп?ху зах?дно? цив?л?зац??? Саме ц? дражлив? питання украй см?ливо, часом нав?ть зухвало, а проте надзвичайно захопливо висв?тлю? Н?л Фер?юсон.

Vajon van esélye Hanna és Olivér szerelmének?Túlélheti a fiatal lány a végzetesnek hitt balesetet? ?s ha túl is éli, visszaállhat-e az élete a normális kerékvágásba?Mire képes a szerelem, mit bír el a szív? Elfogadni, megbocsátani, elengedni, újrakezdeni. A másik oldalról els? részében megismert szerepl?ké mellett új kapcsolatok alakulását is nyomon k?vethetjük. Együtt sírhatunk és nevethetünk a hétk?znapi h?s?kkel, akikkel végtelen természetességük miatt igazán k?nny? azonosulni. A korábbi k?tethez hasonlóan ezúttal is számtalan komoly téma vet?dik fel, a bonyodalmakkal dúsított, meglep?, néhol megd?bbent? fordulatokban gazdag t?rténet mégis k?nnyed, szórakoztató kikapcsolódást ígér. Papp Csilla legújabb k?nyvében, mely ott kezd?dik, ahol az els? regény véget ér, újra és újra rácsodálkozhatunk a szerelem erejére, mik?zben minden kétséget kizáróan el fogjuk hinni, hogy biztosan nincsenek véletlenek.

Leonardo's views of aesthetic are all important in his philosophy of life and art. The worker's thoughts on his craft are always of interest. They are doubly so when there is in them no trace of literary self-consciousness to blemish their expression. He recorded these thoughts at the instant of their birth, for a constant habit of observation and analysis had early developed with him into a second nature. His ideas were penned in the same fragmentary way as they presented themselves to his mind, perhaps with no intention of publishing them to the world. But his ideal of art depended intimately, none the less, on the system he had thrown out seemingly in so haphazard a manner. The long obscurity of the Dark Ages lifted over Italy, awakening to a national though a divided consciousness. Already two distinct tendencies were apparent. The practical and rational, on the one hand, was soon to be outwardly reflected in the burgher-life of Florence and the Lombard cities, while at Rome it had even then created the civil organization of the curia. The novella was its literary triumph. In art it expressed itself simply, directly and with vigour. Opposed to this was the other great undercurrent in Italian life, mystical, religious and speculative, which had run through the nation from the earliest times, and received fresh volume from mediaeval Christianity, encouraging ecstatic mysticism to drive to frenzy the population of its mountain cities. Umbrian painting is inspired by it, and the glowing words of Jacopone da Todi expressed in poetry the same religious fervour which the life of Florence and Perugia bore witness to in action. Italy developed out of the relation and conflict of these two forces the rational with the mystical. Their later union in the greater men was to form the art temperament of the Renaissance. The practical side gave it the firm foundation of rationalism and reality on which it rested; the mystical guided its endeavour to picture the unreal in terms of ideal beauty.The first offspring of this union was Leonardo. Since the decay of ancient art no painter had been able to fully express the human form, for imperfect mastery of technique still proved the barrier. Leonardo was the first completely to disengage his personality from its constraint, and make line express thought as none before him could do. Nor was this his only triumph, but rather the foundation on which further achievement rested. Remarkable as a thinker alone, he preferred to enlist thought in the service of art, and make art the handmaid of beauty. Leonardo saw the world not as it is, but as he himself was. He viewed it through the atmosphere of beauty which filled his mind, and tinged its shadows with the mystery of his nature. From his earliest years, the elements of greatness were present in Leonardo. But the maturity of his genius came unaffected from without. He barely noticed the great forces of the age which in life he encountered. After the first promise of his boyhood in the Tuscan hills, his youth at Florence had been spent under Verrocchio as a master, in company with those whose names were later to brighten the pages of Italian art. At one time he contemplated entering the service of an Oriental prince. Instead, he entered that of Caesar Borgia, as military engineer, and the greatest painter of the age became inspector of a despot's strongholds. But his restless nature did not leave him long at this. Returning to Florence he competed with Michelangelo; yet the service of even his native city could not retain him. His fame had attracted the attention of a new patron of the arts, prince of the state which had conquered his first master. In this his last venture, he forsook Italy, only to die three years later at Amboise, in the castle of the French king.

“From the fury of the Northmen, good Lord deliver us.” – Anonymous monk, Noirmoutier, France, 9th century AD Beginning in 789AD, the Vikings raided monasteries, sacked cities and invaded western Europe. They looted and enslaved their enemies. But that is only part of their story. In long boats they discovered Iceland and America (both by accident) and also sailed up the Seine to Paris (which they sacked). They settled from Newfoundland to Russia, founded Dublin and fought battles as far afield as the Caspian Sea. A thousand years after their demise, traces of the Vikings remain all the way from North America to Istanbul. They traded walruses with Inuits, brought Russian furs to Western Europe and took European slaves to Constantinople. Their graves contain Arab silver, Byzantine silks and Frankish weapons. In this accessible book, the whole narrative of the Viking story is examined from the eighth to the eleventh centuries. Arranged thematically, Vikings: A History of the Norse People examines the Norsemen from exploration to religion to trade to settlement to weaponry to kingdoms to their demise and legacy. But today questions remain: what prompted the first Viking raids? What stopped their expansion? And how much of the tales of murder, rape and pillage is myth? Illustrated with more than 200 photographs, maps and artworks, Vikings: A History of the Norse People is an expertly written account of a people who have long captured the popular imagination.

A manhunt can involve helicopters, hounds and hundreds of military or police personnel, but it can also turn on the evidence of one broken spider’s web. Manhunts today might involve the technology of infrared cameras and surveillance devices such as powerful satellite technology, but they may also rely on examining the width, depth, tread and intervals of footprints, or observing minute changes in the natural environment. From searching for high-value enemy targets such as Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein to finding soldiers caught behind enemy lines, from escaped prisoners and serial killers to a missing child, SAS and Elite Forces Guide: Manhunt explores just how the military and police forces track people down. Including many case studies of high-value targets, suspected criminals and fugitives from justice, and with extensive background on the different techniques in tracking used, from traditional Native American trackers’ skills to the latest high-tech methods, Manhunt brings together the history and science of tracking. Illustrated with 150 maps and photographs, SAS and Elite Forces Guide: Manhunt is an authoritative examination of tracking from footprints to forensics and a must for anyone interested in the latest military practices, true crime and survival skills.

To my thinking, all modern English books on the Devil and his works are unsatisfactory. They all run in the same groove, give the same cases of witchcraft, and, moreover, not one of them is illustrated. I have endeavoured to remedy this by localizing my facts, and by reproducing all the engravings I could find suitable to my purpose. I have also tried to give a succinct account of demonology and witchcraft in England and America, by adducing authorities not usually given, and by a painstaking research into old cases, carefully taking everything from original sources, and bringing to light very many cases never before republished. For the benefit of students, I have given—as an Appendix—a list of the books consulted in the preparation of this work, which, however, the student must remember is not an exhaustive bibliography on the subject, but only applies to this book, whose raison d’être is its localization. The frontispiece is supposed to be the only specimen of Satanic caligraphy in existence, and is[Pg vi] taken from the ‘Introductio in Chaldaicam Linguam,’ etc., by Albonesi (Pavia, 1532). The author says that by the conjuration of Ludovico Spoletano the Devil was called up, and adjured to write a legible and clear answer to a question asked him. Some invisible power took the pen, which seemed suspended in the air, and rapidly wrote what is facsimiled. The writing was given to Albonesi (who, however, confesses that no one can decipher it), and his chief printer reproduced it very accurately. I am told by experts that in some of the characters may be found a trace of Amharic, a language spoken in its purity in the province of Amhara (Ethiopia), and which, according to a legend, was the primeval language spoken in Eden. JOHN ASHTON. CHAPTER IUniversal Belief in the Personality of the Devil, as portrayed by the British Artist—Arguments in Favour of his Personality—Ballad—‘Terrible and Seasonable Warning to Young Men.’ The belief in a good and evil influence has existed from the earliest ages, in every nation having a religion. The Egyptians had their Typho, the Assyrians their Ti-a-mat (the Serpent), the Hebrews their Beelzebub, or Prince of Flies,[1] and the Scandinavians their Loki. And many religions teach that the evil influence has a stronger hold upon mankind than the good influence—so great, indeed, as to nullify it in a large degree. Christianity especially teaches this: ‘Enter ye by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.’ This doctrine of the great power of the Devil, or evil influence over man, is preached from every pulpit, under every form of Christianity, throughout the world; and although at the present time it is only confined to the greater moral power of the Devil over man, at an earlier period it was an article of belief that he was able to exercise a greater physical power. This was coincident with a belief in his personality; and it is only in modern times that that personality takes an alluring form. In the olden days the Devil was always depicted as ugly and repulsive as the artist could represent him, and yet he could have learned a great deal from the modern Chinese and Japanese. The ‘great God Pan,’ although he was dead, was resuscitated in order to furnish a type for ‘the Prince of Darkness’; and, accordingly, he was portrayed with horns, tail and cloven feet, making him an animal, according to a mot attributed to Cuvier, ‘graminivorous, and decidedly ruminant’; while, to complete his classical ensemble, he was invested with the forked sceptre of Pluto, only supplemented with another tine.

Charles Dickens’ timeless story is brought to life in this vibrant new version by the award-winning playwright Neil Duffield. Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year! Well, it is for everyone except the miserable Scrooge. He prefers to spend Christmas all alone in his large house, instead of celebrating with mistletoe and merriment. Bah, humbug! But one cold, dark Christmas Eve Scrooge is surprised by the ghost of Marley, his former business partner. Marley warns Scrooge that he will be called upon by three spirits – each will take him on a mysterious and magical journey to show him the error of his ways… Can Scrooge discover the true wonder and meaning of Christmas before it’s too late?

Дарону Аджемо?лу ? Джеймсу Роб?нсону вдалося, здавалося б, неможливе — в?дпов?сти на питання, яке до них безрезультатно вивчали стол?ттями: чому одн? кра?ни багат?, а ?нш? — б?дн?????рунтуючись на п’ятнадцятир?чних досл?дженнях у галузях ?стор??, пол?толог?? та економ?ки, автори легко ? доступно пояснюють, чому економ?чний усп?х держав не залежить в?д культури, кл?мату чи географ?чного положення.??Аджемо?лу та Роб?нсон переконан?: кра?ни стали найусп?шн?шими через те, що ?хн? громадяни повалили владну ел?ту ? створили сусп?льства, де головною ц?нн?стю стали р?вн? економ?чн? та пол?тичн? права кожного. На ?хню думку, саме свобода робить св?т багатшим.??Книга ?Чому нац?? занепадають? — сво?р?дний пос?бник, який допоможе краще зрозум?ти причини, що сприяють процв?танню держав та ?хньому занепаду.

A series of short, single voice plays by writers based in the North West of England. These powerful, contemporary monologues share the struggles, courage, conflicts and joys of different characters facing difficult decisions in their lives. Developed through consultation with young people, they offer a range of authentic, memorable voices to stimulate discussion and participatory drama work. ‘First Date’ by Anne-Marie O’Connor: Sometimes friendship comes with a heavy price tag. ‘Getting it Right’ by Peter Spafford: Luke can't choose between his shirts, let alone his parents. ‘Results Day’ by Aelish Michael: Karly’s mum thinks she’s an angel, but what if she flaps her wings? ‘Close to Home’ by Mary Cooper: Jay’s little sister is pregnant and he’s livid – who’s he going to punish? ‘Weighed Down’ by Carla Monvid-Jenkinson and Mary Cooper: When Claire’s dad left, she thought that he was all she would lose. ‘Giggsy’s Legs’ by Michael Harvey: Do you choose everything you are or does it choose you?

Welcome! Come on in! Take part in the project launch of ArtWorks, the new back to work initiative created and run by your friend and ours, the one, the only, the most fantastic… Vince Fine! And so begins the project launch from hell… Exploring issues of how society views those living on benefits, the ‘creative industries’ and what we should value in life, this dark comedy (running in real time) charts the fall from grace of the central comedic hero, Vince Fine, as he watches everything he’s ever dreamed of slip from his fingers. Includes some audience participation and interaction.

THE history, the features, and the most famous examples of European architecture, during a period extending from the rise of the Gothic, or pointed, style in the twelfth century to the general depression which overtook the Renaissance style at the close of the eighteenth, form the subject of this little volume. I have endeavoured to adopt as free and simple a mode of treatment as is compatible with the accurate statement of at least the outlines of so very technical a subject. Though it is to be hoped that many professional students of architecture will find this hand-book serviceable to them in their elementary studies, it has been my principal endeavour to adapt it to the requirements of those who are preparing for the professional pursuit of the sister arts, and of that large and happily increasing number of students who pursue the fine arts as a necessary part of a complete liberal education, and who know that a solid and comprehensive acquaintance with art, especially if joined to some skill in the use of the pencil, the brush, the modelling tool, or the etching needle, will open sources of pleasure and interest of the most refined description. The broad facts of all art history; the principles which underlie each of the fine arts; and the most precious or most noteworthy examples of each, ought to be familiar to every art student, whatever special branch he may follow. Beyond these limits I have not attempted to carry this account of Gothic and Renaissance architecture; within them I have endeavoured to make the work as complete as the space at my disposal permitted. THE architecture generally known as Gothic, but often described as Christian Pointed, prevailed throughout Europe to the exclusion of every rival for upwards of three centuries; and it is to be met with, more or less, during two others. Speaking broadly, it may be said that its origin took place in the twelfth century, that the thirteenth was the period of its development, the fourteenth that of its perfection, and the fifteenth that of its decline; while many examples of its employment occur in the sixteenth. In the following chapters the principal changes in the features of buildings which occurred during the progress of the style in England will be described. Subsequently, the manner in which the different stages of development were reached in different countries will be given; for architecture passed through very nearly the same phases in all European nations, though not quite simultaneously. It must be understood that through the whole Gothic period, growth or at least change was going on; the transitions from one stage to another were only periods of more rapid change than usual. The whole process may be illustrated by the progress of a language. If, for instance, we compare round-arched architecture in the eleventh century to the Anglo-Saxon form of speech of the time of Alfred the Great, and the architecture of the twelfth century to the English of Chaucer, that of the thirteenth will correspond to the richer language of Shakespeare, that of the fourteenth to the highly polished language of Addison and Pope, and that of the fifteenth to the English of our own day. We can thus obtain an apt parallel to the gradual change and growth which went on in architecture; and we shall find that the oneness of the language in the former case, and of the architecture in the latter, was maintained throughout. For an account of the Christian round-arched architecture which preceded Gothic, the reader is referred to the companion volume in this series. Here it will be only necessary briefly to review the circumstances which went before the appearance of the pointed styles.

"Where ocean bathes earth's footstool these sea-bowersBedeck its solid wavelets: wise was heWho blended shore with deep, with seaweed flowers,And Naiads' rivulets with Nereids' sea." Strictly speaking the peninsula on which the city stands is of the form of a trapezium. It juts out into the sea, beating back as it were the fierce waves of the Bosphorus, and forcing them to turn aside from their straight course and widen into the Sea of Marmora, which the ancients called the Propontis, narrowing again as it forces its way between the near banks of the Hellespont, which rise abrupt and arid from the European side, and slope gently away in Asia to the foot of Mount Ida. Northwards there is the little bay of the Golden Horn, an arm as it were of the Bosphorus, into which run the streams which the Turks call the Sweet Waters of Europe. The mouth of the harbour is no more than five hundred yards across. The Greeks of the Empire spanned it by a chain, supported here and there on wooden piles, fragments of which still remain in the Armoury that was once the church of S. Irene. Within is safe anchorage in one of the finest harbours of the world. South of the Golden Horn, on the narrow tongue of land—narrow it seems as seen from the hills of the northern shore—is the city of Constantine and his successors in empire, seated, like the old Rome, on seven hills, and surrounded on three sides by sea, on the fourth by the still splendid, though shattered, medi?val walls. Northwards are the two towns, now linked together, of Pera and Galata, that look back only to the trading settlements of the Middle Ages.The single spot united, as Gibbon puts it, the prospects of beauty, of safety, and of wealth: and in a masterly description that great historian has collected the features which made the position, "formed by Nature for the centre and capital of a great monarchy," attractive to the first colonists, and evident to Constantine as the centre where he could best combine and command the power of the Eastern half of his mighty Empire. Byzantium Before Constantine.It is impossible to approach Constantinople without seeing the beauty and the wonder of its site. Whether you pass rapidly down the Bosphorus, between banks crowned with towers and houses and mosques, that stretch away hither and thither to distant hills, now bleak, now crowned with dark cypress groves; or up from the Sea of Marmora, watching the dome of S. Sophia that glitters above the closely packed houses, till you turn the point which brings you to the Golden Horn, crowded with shipping and bright with the flags of many nations; or even if you come overland by the sandy wastes along the shore, looking across the deep blue of the sea to the islands and the snow-crowned mountains of Asia, till you break through the crumbling wall within sight of the Golden Gate, and find yourself at a step deep in the relics of the middle ages; you cannot fail to wonder at the splendour of the view which meets your eyes. Sea, sunlight, the quaint houses that stand close upon the water's edge, the white palaces, the crowded quays, and the crowning glory of the Eastern domes and the medi?val walls—these are the elements that combine to impress, and the impression is never lost. Often as you may see again the approach to the imperial city, its splendour and dignity and the exquisite beauty of colour and light will exert their old charm, and as you put foot in the New Rome you will feel all the glamour of the days that are gone by.

Dvadeset godina nakon epohalne promjene 1989., koja je na postjugoslavenski prostor djelovala na posve druk?iji na?in nego na druge prija?nje realsocijalisti?ke europske zemlje, ova studija predstavlja poku?aj analiti?kog osvrta na dva desetlje?a razvoja civilnog dru?tva na zapadnom Balkanu. Njen autor Sr?an Dvornik iz Hrvatske, u to je dobro upu?en. Nije slu?ajno ?to se kroz cijeli sadr?aj i u strukturi ove knjige ispreple?u teorija i praksa te odnosi unutar i izvan “civilnodru?tvenog” razvoja. (...) Ova je studija va?an doprinos, dosad nedostatnim, razmatranjima o mogu?nostima i ograni?enjima akter? civilnog dru?tva u (post)autoritarnim dru?tvima. Istovremeno ona donosi i pouku da instrumenti zapadne politike demokratizacije imaju pred sobom jo? dug put razvoja do to?ke na kojoj ?e posve iscrpsti svoje dosada?nje organizacijske i politi?ke potencijale, da bi potom na nove me?unarodne izazove, koje nam novi svjetski (ne)red postavlja posljednja dva desetlje?a, mogli primjerenije reagirati. dr. Azra D?aji?-Weber

A text-only edition of the hilarious Letters of Not. A collection of remarkable and completely made-up correspondence from the great and the good across history. Many books have collated the exceptional letters and personal writing of the famous, offering a fascinating insight into well-known figures’ personal lives and hidden desires. But what of the undistinguished epistles of the renowned? Can their less auspicious musings divulge clues to their hopes and ambitions? Probably not. But they can be quite funny. ‘Letters of Not’ assembles the fictional jotted dross that was never before considered worthy of collection. The Post-it notes, the shopping lists, the failed limericks and the birthday card sentiments of history’s most celebrated sons and daughters. This ‘lite’ edition contains 6 never before seen letters. Inside you will find: Werner Herzog’s impassioned note to his cleaning lady Patti Smith’s gym application Captain Scott’s other last letter to his wife Salvador Dali’s to do list Mark E. Smith’s audio tour of Ripon Cathedral Harold Pinter greetings cards Pope Benedict’s handover notes James Joyce’s out of office Dr Heimlich’s other manoeuvre A letter from the table next to the Algonquin Round Table Tweets from the 1966 Newport Folk Festival Instructions on what to do when you meet Van Morrison And many more, beautifully rendered in their original, blatantly falsified glory and hilariously transcribed for your pleasure.

Hadley Freeman brings us her personalised guide to American movies from the 1980s – why they are brilliant, what they meant to her, and how they influenced movie-making forever. For Hadley Freeman, American moves of the 1980s have simply got it all. Comedy in Three Men and a Baby, Hannah and Her Sisters, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future and Trading Places; all a teenager needs to know – in Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Say Anything, The Breakfast Club and Mystic Pizza; the ultimate in action – Top Gun, Die Hard, Young Sherlock Holmes, Beverly Hills Cop and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom; love and sex – in 9 ? Weeks, Splash, About Last Night, The Big Chill, Bull Durham; and family fun – in The Little Mermaid, ET, Big, Parenthood and Lean On Me. Born in the late 1970s, Hadley grew up on a well-rounded diet of these movies, her entire view of the world, adult relations and expectations of what her life might hold was forged by these cult classics. In this personalised guide, she puts her obsessive movie geekery to good use, detailing the decades key players, genres and tropes, and how exactly the friendship between Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi influenced the evolution of comedy. She looks back to a cinematic world in which bankers are invariably evil, despite this being the decade of Wall Street, where children are always wiser than adults, and science is embraced with an intense enthusiasm, and the future viewed with excitement. She considers how the changes between movies then and movies today say so much about pop culture’s and society’s changing expectations of women, young people and art, and explains why Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles should be put on school syllabuses immediately.

Mike Chaplin is one of the most popular art experts on the very successful Channel 4 series Watercolour Challenge. In this book he reveals how he works and puts forward his ideas and teaching methods, offering plenty of tips and practical advice for the amateur artist. This book is intended for artists with some painting experience who wish to develop their technique, style and outlook. It is a book to make them think and to push the technical and personal boundaries of what they believe they can achieve in paint. Mike’s teaching focuses not only on techniques but also on expanding the readers’ approach to their painting as a whole. Starting with a fascinating look at the development of watercolour as an expressive art, the book then covers selective techniques, both traditional and the more unusual, and topics such as observation, drawing, colour and composition. All kinds of painting subjects are included, from the natural landscape to urban scenes, and throughout the book Mike provides plenty of practical advice and useful tips about techniques. There are also a number of special features, focusing on particular aspects of painting, as well as several full step-by-step demonstration paintings.

The last of 6 eBook-only shorts from star of The Great British Sewing Bee and doyenne of the Women’s Institute, May Martin, including fabulous tips for making those difficult sewing techniques easy to master. May has been teaching sewing for over 40 years. From hems to facings May simplifies some of the trickiest methods in sewing for those already experienced and needing a little extra helping hand in the art of sewing. Beautifully styled and simple-to-follow, this authoritative sewing e-short, taken from May Martin’s Sewing Bible, offers three new approaches to some of the more complicated ways of sewing.

This is the definitive practical guide to getting the most out of your digital SLR camera, written by top working photographer, John Freeman. Full of inspiring photography and professional tips, it is ideal for all keen amateur photographers and those aspiring to move over from using a traditional film SLR camera. The digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera is now the must-have camera for all serious amateur photographers. Whether you already own one or are thinking of making the move from a point-and-shoot digital camera or a film SLR, this practical guide will provide all the help, advice and inspiration you need. Chapters include: understanding the DSLR system, seeing the picture, photographing landscapes, nature, people, architecture, still life, action, getting more from your DSLR and post-production techniques.