From childhood kick-abouts on knee-scraping surfaces to junior football in shirts that reached your ankles to greet your socks, like many youngsters Steve Wignall dreamed of wearing a hallowed red shirt and becoming a professional footballer. Following his apprenticeship at Doncaster Rovers that dream came true and he embarked on a 20-year playing career that took him from Donny to Colchester, Brentford and Aldershot. When age and injury held up the red card, he went into coaching, scouting and management, returning to both Colchester and Doncaster Rovers as manager. Giving a fascinating, behind the scenes insight into life as a player and as a manager, and peppered with wonderful anecdotes that reflect his cheeky Scouse humour, Steve gives an honest account of his long journey of highs and lows in both his professional and personal life, from back-stabbing, rivalries and budget juggling to family upheavals and traumas. Throughout his long career, Steve's high expectations of himself, his loyalty, his tenacity and his vision as a player were mirrored in his management ethic and team training, at whatever level of football, and his skills and determination are what enabled him to survive and succeed in the tough, demanding and ever-changing world of football.

Maria Lawson rose to fame on the hit TV show The X Factor in 2005 but had already enjoyed some success as a singer/songwriter prior to this, having secured a recording and publishing contract through her own efforts and determination to break into the music industry. Life Starts Now follows Maria's journey from hopeful unknown, through the audition process and beyond to her appearance on a major national television show, taking the reader behind the scenes to find out what really goes on inside the hit show. This fascinating autobiography documents Maria's early life and explains how this ambitious young girl from a humble background fulfilled her dream of TV stardom and recording success. In this honest and heart warming account, Maria explains how she coped with the transition from obscurity to a life in the limelight only to come close to losing everything she worked so hard to achieve. More recently, Maria has emerged stronger than ever, having overcome past setbacks to release an exciting second album Emotional Rollercoaster and has secured a record deal with a new label. The birth of her son has meant that she now has to fit her busy schedule around her most important role as a mother. This book is not only an inspirational story, proving that it is possible for anyone to achieve their dreams, it is also a practical self help guide offering pregnancy and life skills advice based on Maria's own experiences as an artist, businesswoman and new mum.

Celebrated by writers from Petrarch to Peter Mayle, Provence's rugged mountains, wild maquis and lavender-filled meadows are world-famous. Historic cities like Arles, Avignon and Aix contain Roman amphitheatres, papal palaces and royal residences, while market towns and picturesque villages maintain age-old traditions of wine producing and agriculture. From the highland towns of Digne and Sisteron to the marshy expanse of the Camargue, Provence encompasses a rich variety of landscapes.Martin Garrett explores a region littered with ancient monuments and medieval castles. Looking at the vibrant dockside ambiance of Marseille and the luminous atmosphere of the Luberon, he considers how writers like Mistral and Daudet have captured the character of a place and its people. He traces the development of Provence as a Roman outpost, medieval kingdom and modern region of France, revealing through its landmarks the people and events that have shaped its often tumultuous history.Through its architecture, literature and popular culture, this book analyzes and celebrates the identity of a region famous for its pastis and petanque. Linking the past to the present, it also evokes the intense light and sun-baked stones that have attracted generations of painters and writers.

Patagonia is the ultimate landscape of the mind. Like Siberia and the Sahara, it has become a metaphor for nothingness and extremity. Its frontiers have stretched beyond the political boundaries of Argentina and Chile to encompass an evocative idea of place. A vast triangle at the southern tip of the New World, this region of barren steppes, soaring peaks and fierce winds was populated by small tribes of hunter-gatherers and roaming nomads when Ferdinand Magellan made landfall in 1520. A fateful moment for the natives, this was the start of an era of adventure and exploration. Soon Sir Francis Drake and John Byron, and sailors from Europe and America, would be exploring Patagonia's bays and inlets, mapping fjords and channels, whaling, sifting the streams for gold in the endless search for Eldorado.As the land was opened up in the nineteenth century, a crazed Frenchman declared himself King. A group of Welsh families sailed from Liverpool to Northern Patagonia to found a New Jerusalem in the desert. Further down the same river, Butch and Sundance took time out from bank robbing to run a small ranch near the Patagonian Andes.All these, and later travel writers, have left sketches and records, memoirs and diaries evoking Patagonia's grip on the imagination. From the empty plains to the crashing seas, from the giant dinosaur fossils to glacial sculptures, the landscape has inspired generations of travellers and artists.

The English West Country is a land of exceptional landscapes: many miles of wild, unspoilt coastline and vast expanses of wild moorland; great cities such as Exeter, Plymouth, Bath and Bristol; and market towns, villages and hamlets. Farming, mining, quarrying, fishing and trade are the traditional industries of the counties of Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall.On one level, the West Country is the most English of all English regions, home of clotted cream, thatch, church spires, folksong, hobby horses and Cecil Sharp. Yet the area was trading with Mediterranean Europe before the Romans. For many years Bristol was the centre of the slave trade, and many of its great mansions were built on the proceeds of slavery. Great swathes of land in Dorset, Wiltshire and Devon are still used by the military and are off-bounds to visitors. And within the West Country is the special case of Celtic Cornwall, and the even more remote Isles of Scilly. People lived in the West Country long before Britain, or England, were invented. From the great stone circles of Avebury and Stonehenge in Wiltshire to the menhirs of Cornwall, and the wealth of prehistoric remains on the Isles of Scilly, this has always been an inhabited landscape, crafted by men and women working closely with nature and natural forces. John Payne explores this culturally rich and varied region, revealing many facets of its distinctive and much-loved identity.

Football Crosswords

England's Secret Weapon explores the way Hollywood used Sherlock Holmes in a series of fourteen films spanning the years of World War II in Europe, from The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1939 to Dressed to Kill in 1946. Basil Rathbone's portrayal of Holmes has influenced every actor who has since played him on film, TV, stage and radio, yet the film series has, until now, been neglected in terms of detailed critical analysis. The book looks at the films themselves in combination with their historical context and examines how the studio 'updated' Holmes and recruited him to fight the Nazis, steering a careful course between modernising the detective and making sure he was still recognisable as the 'old Holmes' in clothes, locations and behaviour.

Before Russians crossed the Urals Mountains in the sixteenth century to settle their 'colony' in North Asia, they heard rumours about bountiful fur, of bizarre people without eyes who ate by shrugging their shoulders and of a land where trees exploded from cold. This region of frozen tundra, endless forest and humming steppe between the Urals and the Pacific Ocean was a vast, strange and frightening paradise. It was Siberia.Siberia is a cradle of civilizations, the birthplace of ancient Turkic empires and home to the cultures of indigenes, including peoples whose ancestors migrated to the Americas. It was a promised land to which bonded peasants could flee their cruel masters, yet also a 'white hell' across which exiles shuffled in felt shoes and chains. If in Stalin's era Siberia became synonymous with the gulag, today it is a vast region of bustling metropolises and magnificent landscapes, a place where the humdrum, the beautiful and the bizarre ignite the imagination. Tracing the historical contours of Siberia, A. J. Haywood offers a detailed account of the architectural and cultural landmarks of cities such as Irkutsk, Tobolsk, Barnaul and Novosibirsk.

Scattered off the west coast of mainland Greece are the seven Ionian Islands, celebrated for their spectacular landscapes, olive groves and classical associations. Together with the mountainous mainland region of Epirus, the combined populations of Corfu, Paxos, Lefkas, Ithaca, Kefalonia, Zakynthos and Kythira constitute less than a twentieth of the population of Greece, yet they have made a huge contribution to the culture of the country, before and since becoming part of the Greek state. The unsurpassed beauty of the islands and of the Pindus Mountains has stimulated the imagination of countless writers and artists from Homer to Byron, Edward Lear and the Durrells, Louis de Bernieres and Nicholas Gage, as well as scores of nineteenth-century travellers.Drawing a mosaic portrait of the Ionian Islands and special places of interest in Epirus, Corfu resident Jim Potts focuses on the landscapes, legends, traditions and historical events that have appealed most strongly to the imaginations of writers, residents and travellers.

The Basque Country is a land of fascinating paradoxes and enigmas. Home to one of Europe's oldest peoples and most mysterious languages, with a living folklore rich in archaic rituals and dances, it also boasts a dynamic post-modern energy, with the reinvention of Bilbao creating a model for the twenty-first-century city of cultural services and information technologies. Hugging the elbow of the Bay of Biscay on both the French and Spanish sides of the Pyrenees, this small territory abounds in big contrasts, ranging from moist green valleys to semi-desert badlands, from snowy sierras to sandy beaches, from harsh industrial landscapes to bucolic beech woods.This often idyllic scenery is the stage for fierce political passions. Almost every aspect of the Basque Country generates passionate disagreement, even its precise location. Spanish and French centralism, often authoritarian and sometimes brutal, has met with resistance for two centuries. Most recently and notoriously ETA, a terrorist group with deep popular support, has engaged in a bloody 45-year conflict. But many Basques consider themselves full French or Spanish citizens, and fear political and linguistic exclusion under Basque nationalist rule.

Kevin Poulsen exhacker az elmúlt tíz évben az egyik legjobb oknyomozó újságíróvá vált a cyberb?n?zés területén. A Kingpin az els? alkalom, hogy egyedülálló szakértelmét és kapcsolatait k?nyv formájában is élvezhetjük. A macska–egér harc t?rténetének lebilincsel? leírása eddig példátlan bepillantást enged a 21. századi szervezett b?n?zés legjellemz?bb formájába. A cyber-alvilágban futót?zként terjedt a hír: valaki – egy briliáns és vakmer? szélhámos – átvette az uralmat egy online b?n?z?i hálózat felett, amely dollármilliókat szivattyúzott ki az amerikai gazdaságból. Az FBI azonnal titkos akciót indított, hogy az új nagyf?n?k nyomára bukkanjon. ?gyn?kségek a világ minden tájáról beépített emberek és kett?s ügyn?k?k tucatjait állították csatasorba. A cyber-zsaruk együttes er?vel számos gyanútlan hackert csaltak t?rbe, legfontosabb célpontjuknak azonban megvan az a nyugtalanító tulajdonsága, hogy lépten-nyomon kiszagolja besúgóikat, és átlát a terveiken. A létez? legvalószín?tlenebb b?n?z?t keresték: egy hippi értékrendjével és egy f?gonosz kett?s személyiségével felruházott zseniális programozót. ?lvonalbeli fehérkalapos hackerként Max ?Vision” Butler egyfajta celeb volt a programozói berkekben, aki még az FBI-nak is dolgozott tanácsadóként. ?m feketekalapos ?Icemanként” az adathalászok világában kihagyhatatlan lehet?séget látott, amivel próbára tehette rendkívüli képességeit. Országszerte ezer meg ezer számítógépbe hatolt be, és t?bb millió hitelkártyaadatot lopott el. K?nny?szerrel felt?rte hackertársai gépét is, és az orruk el?l csaklizta el csalással szerzett javaikat. Egy sima beszéd? szélhámossal kar?ltve hatalmas b?nszervezetet hozott létre. ?s ezt éveken át képes volt látszólag büntetlenül fenntartani, mik?zben riválisainak folyamatosan ott volt a nyakán a rend?rség. Ahogy figyelte a folytonos civakodást a csalók besúgók fert?zte k?z?sségben, és látta módszereik hatástalanságát is, épp e b?n?z?i k?r?k m?k?désképtelenségében kezdte meglátni a végs? kihívást: magához ragadja az irányítást, kijavítja a hibákat, és úgy fogja irányítani a dolgokat, ahogy kell – még akkor is, ha ezzel a saját homlokára fest célkeresztet. Bár a t?rténet voltaképpen egy b?n?z? figyelemre méltó felemelkedésér?l és a rendfenntartó er?k hajtóvadászatáról szól, a Kingpin feltárja egy titokban zajló b?n?zési hullám bels? m?k?dését, amely t?bb millió amerikai életére van hatással. A k?nyv lapjai bepillantást engednek az online csalás hatalmas szupermarketjeibe, ahol halmokban állnak a hitelkártyaszámok, a hamis csekkek, a felt?rt bankszámlák, a titkos ?postaládák” és a hamis útlevelek. Képet kapunk a hackelés módszereir?l – a b?ngész? biztonsági réseinek kihasználásától, az adathalászaton át a trójai vírusokig, s?t még azon is túl –, amelyeket ezek a csalók mindennapi munkájuk során alkalmaznak, valamint nyomon k?vethetjük a bonyolult utat, amelyet bejárva a lopott adatokból dollármilliók lesznek. Poulsen mind rend?r?kkel, mind pedig b?n?z?kkel ápolt figyelemre méltó kapcsolatrendszerének k?sz?nhet?en beléphetünk a csendes, elszánt fegyverkezési versenybe, amelyet a rendfenntartó er?k a mai napig folytatnak a csalók ellen. A Kingpin végs? soron egy megd?bbent? erej? és széles látók?r? utazás az alvilágba, ahol hétk?znapi amerikai tinédzserek gyilkos orosz maffiózókkal dolgoznak együtt, és ahol egy egyszer? wifi-kapcsolat t?bb millió dollár érték? aranyat eredményezhet.

Az escseppek fenn születnek az égen, egy hatalmas felhpalotában. Annak is a belsejében. Puha fehérség veszi ket krbe. A csecsem escseppek azonban gyorsan fejldnek. Megszületésük után már egy-két órával vidáman ugrándoznak, hancúroznak. Ha megszomjaznak, finom páralevet isznak, ha megéheznek, ízletes felhcipót majszolnak. Gyorsan nnek. s gondtalan életük tele van mókával, meglepetéssel. Ugyanis a felhkastély, ami lassan úszik a kék égen, nem olyan, mint az emberek által épített házak, várak, kastélyok – merthogy a szobák nem maradnak ugyanott, hanem folyton vándorolnak, de még a feladatuk is állandóan változik. Az, ami reggel még a konyha volt, délidre hálószobává alakul át, estére pedig már fürdszoba lesz. Ezért az escsepp gyerekek élete csupa izgalmas kaland. Amikor egyik helyiségbl átfutnak a másikba, még nem tudják, hogy mi vár rájuk a kvetkez szobában. Ennek az az oka, hogy maga a palota is percrl percre arrébb mozdul az égen, a szél fújja tovább, az egész épület szüntelenül gomolyog. A legkisebbek ezért a palota kzepén cseperednek fel, mert a szélek, ahol a nagyobbak és a felnttek élnek, sokszor leszakadoznak, amikbl es hull a fldre.”

Megtalált álmok

Pszichológia mindenkinek 3.

Csak a csillagok

Vajon felépülhetünk egy a testünket és a lelkünket ért súlyos sérülésekb?l? Adam Avens harmonikus élete semmivé foszlik, amikor a menyasszonya, Cat életét veszti egy tragikus balesetben. A keser? gyász és az emészt? b?ntudat érzésében elmerülve teljesen reményvesztetté válik. ?m egy napon váratlanul berobban az életébe a szépséges Chloe. Adamet addig nem ismert vonzalom keríti a hatalmába a titokzatos, v?r?s hajú lány iránt, akit nem tud szám?zni a gondolataiból. Chloe er?szakkal teli múltja után keményen küzd, hogy a felszínen maradjon, de rendkívül kiábrándult és csalódott. Egészen biztos benne, olyan, hogy igaz szerelem, csak a romantikus k?nyvekben és mozivásznon létezik. Adam vonzó tekintete és tréfálkozásai iránti sóvárgása azonban er?sebbnek bizonyul, mint a félelmei a múlt démonaitól. Mégsem képes egyedül eltépni a láncokat, mindent elfelejteni és újra hinni. Az els? találkozásuk azonban mindkettejük sorsát megpecsételi. Hosszú út áll még el?ttük, a sebek nehezen gyógyulnak. A szerelem, amelyr?l már mindketten azt hitték, soha sem lesz részük benne, lassan enyhíteni kezdi a múltjuk fájdalmait. Az éppen sarjadó szerelmüket azonban váratlan fordulatok és fenyeget? üzenetek teszik próbára, feltépve a már heged? sebeket. Létezhet újrakezdés két megt?rt ember számára, akik már elvesztették a reményt? Vajon tényleg er?sebb a lelkünk vágyakozása a boldogságra, mint a félelmeink? Az Aranyk?nyv-díjra jel?lt Anne L. Green a 2015. év els?k?nyves felfedezettje legújabb romantikus-erotikus regényének lapjain a korábbiaknál is mélyebb érzelmekkel és borzongással bontakoztatja ki két megsebzett szerelmes vívódásait.

Acclaimed poet and Young People’s Poet Laureate Naomi Shihab Nye shines a spotlight on the things we cast away, from plastic water bottles to those less fortunate, in this collection of more than eighty original and never-before-published poems. A deeply moving, sometimes funny, and always provocative poetry collection for all ages.“Nye at her engaging, insightful best.”—Kirkus (starred review) “How much have you thrown away in your lifetime already? Do you ever think about it? Where does this plethora of leavings come from? How long does it take you, even one little you, to fill the can by your desk?”—Naomi Shihab Nye National Book Award Finalist, Young People’s Poet Laureate, and devoted trash-picker-upper Naomi Shihab Nye explores these questions and more in this original collection of poetry that features more than eighty new poems. “I couldn’t save the world, but I could pick up trash,” she says in her introduction to this stunning volume.With poems about food wrappers, lost mittens, plastic straws, refugee children, trashy talk, the environment, connection, community, responsibility to the planet, politics, immigration, time, junk mail, trash collectors, garbage trucks, all that we carry and all that we discard, this is a rich, engaging, moving, and sometimes humorous collection for readers ages twelve to adult. Features an index.

It all began in June 2005 when Bobby Henderson wrote an open letter to the Kansas School Board proposing a third alternative to the teaching of evolution and intelligent design in schools. Bobby is a prophet of sorts, the spiritual leader of a growing, world-wide group of followers who worship the teachings of The Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM). The FSM appeared to Bobby as a giant ball of spaghetti, with meatballs for eyes, and touched Bobby with “His noodly appendage” – resulting in the revelation that the FSM is the real creator of the universe. The FSM faithful look to Bobby as their prophet and spiritual leader. Shortly after Bobby’s revelation a website (www.flyingspaghettimonster.org) came into existence to promote the word. Then came the articles, which were worldwide: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian (UK), Die Welt (Germany), Surprise (Austria), and many others chimed in to report the existence of the FSM. Bobby received letters of support from academics and Kansas School Board members alike – not to mention a couple million hits per day on the website – and it was all-too-clear that there needed to be a book to lay out FSM *ure, rites and observances, proofs, and answers to the Big Questions. This is that book.

The third action-packed story in Matt Phelan’s acclaimed Knights vs. series! Five daring heroes face their most difficult challenge yet: saving Camelot itself. Can the band of friends survive an evil queen, a powerful Faerie King, and one nasty dragon? This heavily illustrated middle grade adventure is a hilarious tale of derring-do, perfect for reluctant readers as well as fans of The Terrible Two and The Wild Robot. A year has passed since the knights battled monsters on the mist-covered Orkney Isles. The knights have searched high and low for the elusive Queen Morgause, who is bent on destroying King Arthur and all of Camelot. Finally, a tip from the legendary Green Knight sends the heroes searching for the Faerie Realm, an eerie world where nothing is what it seems. Together, the knights will lose an old friend, discover a new ally, face a dangerous dragon, and learn what it means to be a legend. With art on nearly every page, including an epic fight scene depicted in several graphic-novel–style spreads, this engaging story is ideal for reluctant readers, aspiring knights, and action-adventure fans. Camelot may never be the same after these heroes come to the rescue!

Winner of the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for Historical FictionA Paperback OriginalFrom the author of A Dangerous Duet comes the next book in her Victorian mystery series, this time following a daring female painter and the Scotland Yard detective who is investigating her brother’s suspicious death.A young painter digs beneath the veneer of Victorian London’s art world to learn the truth behind her brother’s murder... Edwin is dead. That’s what Inspector Matthew Hallam of Scotland Yard tells Annabel Rowe when she discovers him searching her brother’s flat for clues. While the news is shocking, Annabel can’t say it’s wholly unexpected, given Edwin’s past as a dissolute risk-taker and art forger, although he swore he’d reformed. After years spent blaming his reckless behavior for their parents’ deaths, Annabel is now faced with the question of who murdered him—because Edwin’s death was both violent and deliberate. A valuable French painting he’d been restoring for an auction house is missing from his studio: find the painting, find the murderer. But the owner of the artwork claims it was destroyed in a warehouse fire years ago.As a painter at the prestigious Slade School of Art and as Edwin’s closest relative, Annabel makes the case that she is crucial to Matthew’s investigation. But in their search for the painting, Matthew and Annabel trace a path of deceit and viciousness that reaches far beyond the elegant rooms of the auction house, into an underworld of politics, corruption, and secrets someone will kill to keep.    

If you love Susan Mallery and Jill Shalvis, you won’t want to miss this new novel of second chances, dogs, and knitting, from the author of Pupcakes and Sit! Stay! Speak! Laid off, cheated on, mugged: what else can go wrong in Maeve Stephens’ life? So when she learns her birth mother has left her a house, a vintage VW Beetle, and a marauding cat, in the small town of Timber Creek, Washington, she packs up to discover the truth about her past. She arrives to the sight of a cheerful bulldog abandoned on her front porch, a reclusive but tempting author living next door, and a set of ready-made friends at the St. Francis Society for Wayward Pets, where women knit colorful sweaters for the dogs and cats in their care. But there’s also an undercurrent of something that doesn’t sit right with Maeve. What’s the secret (besides her!) that her mother had hidden?If Maeve is going to make Timber Creek her home, she must figure out where she fits in and unravel the truth about her past. But is she ready to be adopted again—this time, by an entire town…?