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Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World
Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World
H.R.H. Prince of Wales,Tony Juniper,Ian Skelly
¥173.05
A practical guide to what we have lost in the modern world, why we have lost it and how easily it is to rediscover. Harmony is a blueprint for a more balanced, sustainable world that the human race must create to survive. For more than 30 years His Royal Highness Prince Charles The Prince of Wales has been at the forefront of a growing ecological movement. Originally treated with scepticism, many of his ideas are now widely accepted and gaining increasing impact and influence. His work has sought to meet a huge range of modern challenges, from urbanisation to deforestation. In every case, however, the philosophy that is the foundation of his work has always been the same, but has always been unspoken, until now. For the first time, Prince Charles, with the help of his two leading advisors, has brought together his vast knowledge and experience to set out this philosophy - a philosophy that is as robust as it is practical. In Harmony, Prince Charles looks at different aspects of our modern world to demonstrate how many of the challenges seen in areas as diverse as architecture, farming and medicine can be traced to how we have abandoned a classical sense of balance and proportion. From the rice farms of India to America's corn belt, Harmony spans the globe, dissecting the specific practices of modern life that have put us at odds with the world and showing how this imbalance manifests itself throughout our lives. Harmony shows how the imbalance that has emerged is at heart of a crisis which now threatens our very civilisation. It tells the story of how our disconnection from Nature has contributed to the greatest crisis in the history of mankind and how seeking balance in our actions will return us to a more considered, secure, comfortable and cleaner world. Drawing on his own practical experience, Prince Charles charts how changes to how we look at the world could lead us toward a better future. He describes how knowledge and perspectives now largely lost could help us meet very modern challenges, including in the built environment, engineering, medicine and farming.
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror
Richard Holmes
¥95.75
Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, Richard Holmes’s dazzling portrait of the age of great scientific discovery is a groundbreaking achievement. The book opens with Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook’s first Endeavour voyage, who stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769 fully expecting to have located Paradise. Back in Britain, the same Romantic revolution that had inspired Banks was spurring other great thinkers on to their own voyages of artistic and scientific discovery – astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical – that together made up the ‘age of wonder’. In this breathtaking group biography, Richard Holmes tells the stories of the period’s celebrated innovators and their great scientific discoveries: from telescopic sight to the miner’s lamp, and from the first balloon flight to African exploration.
Men of War: The Changing Face of Heroism in the 19th Century Navy (Text Only)
Men of War: The Changing Face of Heroism in the 19th Century Navy (Text Only)
David Crane
¥221.12
Through the lives of three outstanding naval officers – each considered the most brilliant commander of his generation – David Crane offers a unique portrait of the Royal Navy at a time when it held unchallenged dominion over the world's oceans. Although all three died young, their careers covered virtually every war of significance in which the navy was involved during the nineteenth century. They fought against French and Americans, Russians, Turks, Egyptians, Indians and Chinese, in fleet engagements and naval bombardments, on the walls of Canton and the banks of the Mississippi, against Malay pirates and sepoy mutineers. As an eleven-year-old volunteer, Frank Hastings saw action at Trafalgar, and he went on to be revered as a hero of the Greek War of Independence. Yet, as the architect and captain of the first successful steam warship and the champion of gunnery and total war, he unwittingly prepared the way for much that would be bloodiest in the century ahead. Nobody who saw him in the trenches of the Crimea would ever forget William Peel's air of inviolable self-mastery under fire, and it was the same in India, where he could ride through a landscape of decomposing corpses as if it were some mythological world conjured up to try his knightly resolve. What was it that enabled a man of his intelligence, temperament, piety and background to fight with such brilliance in defence of an Ottoman Empire that was repugnant to every tenet he held most strongly? If James Goodenough chased Glory as assiduously as Hastings and Peel had done, it was the Glory of the next world, and not this. Throughout his career he strove to reconcile the demands of his faith and his profession, but when he finally met his martyrdom at the hands of the 'savages' of the Pacific islands, a shocked nation was left to face up to the inconsistencies, hypocrisies and self-deceptions on which floated its vision of divine election. Combining thrilling scenes of battle with acute psychological insight, Men of War provides a remarkable picture of the nature of courage, command and warfare. Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.
Getting into Guinness: One man’s longest, fastest, highest journey inside the wo
Getting into Guinness: One man’s longest, fastest, highest journey inside the wo
Larry Olmsted
¥72.99
Getting Into Guinness is the hilarious true story of record breaking attempts, how record obsession has become a global phenomenon, the weird and wonderful characters that set records and the history of the Guinness Book of World Records. Meet Larry Olmsted, a freelance travel and sports writer, always on the hunt for new and intriguing stories. In Spring 2003, somewhere over the North Atlantic, Larry stumbled on an article about the worldwide popularity of Guinness. Inspired by what he read, and in a bid to impress his editor, he took the drastic decision to set a record of his own and become part of the book's history. This leads Larry to break the record for the greatest distance travelled between two rounds of golf played on the same day and two years later to play poker continuously for 72 hours. After his own hilarious record attempts, Larry sets out to discover more about the vast and colourful history of the Guinness Book of World Records. This leads him to his fellow record setters with their widely varied motives for record-mania. Meet Ashrita, Record Breaker for God, who has been breaking records for 30 years and has set or broken 177 Guinness World Records in his lifetime. And Jackie 'The Texas Snakeman' Bibby, who became one of the book's all time icons by sharing a bathtub with poisonous rattlesnakes and dangling them from his mouth, and who literally puts his life on the line every time he breaks one of his rattlesnake records.
Dusty Warriors: Modern Soldiers at War (Text Only)
Dusty Warriors: Modern Soldiers at War (Text Only)
Richard Holmes
¥72.30
Foremost military historian Richard Holmes offers us a compelling and at times terrifying account of what it means to be a contemporary soldier. In this remarkable book, Holmes draws on the testimonies and personal photographs of the 700 soldiers of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment in Iraq to vividly capture their day-to-day experiences of the conflict, from camp kitchens to the heart of an armoured convey barrelling out across the desert. As colonel-in-chief of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment himself from 1999 until 2007, Holmes combines acute observation with heartfelt experience to produce a gripping and deeply moving vision of his regiment at war.
Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland Before the Romans (Text Only)
Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland Before the Romans (Text Only)
Francis Pryor
¥80.25
An authoritative and radical rethinking of the history of Ancient Britain and Ancient Ireland, based on remarkable new archaeological finds. British history is traditionally regarded as having started with the Roman Conquest. But this is to ignore half a million years of prehistory that still exert a profound influence. Here Francis Pryor examines the great ceremonial landscapes of Ancient Britain and Ireland – Stonehenge, Seahenge, Avebury and the Bend of the Boyne – as well as the discarded artefacts of day-to-day life, to create an astonishing portrait of our ancestors. This major re-revaluation of pre-Roman Britain, made possible in part by aerial photography and coastal erosion, reveals a much more sophisticated life in Ancient Britain and Ireland than has previously been supposed. This edition does not include illustrations.
A Model Victory
A Model Victory
Malcolm Balen
¥66.22
A vivid retelling of the Battle of Waterloo, based on unpublished soldiers’ written accounts. When a patriotic model-maker recorded the days’ events for posterity he left us with a glorified version of an English victory. Malcolm Balen brings us the muddy truth. More than fifty thousand died or were wounded on the single bloody day of the Battle of Waterloo. This was killing on the scale of the First World War, and yet the glory of the British victory soon came to overshadow any notion of its gore. In this electrifying account of the day itself, Malcolm Balen combines extraordinary first-hand accounts of the battle with the story of William Siborne, a model-maker who, in the wake of the battle, wanted to leave to posterity a perfect and accurate representation of the crucial moment in the battle. The question was: Who won it? Was it Wellington’s forces or Blucher’s Prussians, or a combination of the two? The accounts Siborne used to piece the muddy truth together read as if Waterloo had been fought yesterday. But the accuracy he relentlessly pursued came up against the British establishment and the Duke of Wellington’s desire to control the narrative of the day. In this fascinating and refreshing account of one of the bloodiest days in history, Malcolm Balen interweaves two battles fought: one in the muddy fields of Belgium, and the other over history itself.
Carbon Counter (Collins Gem)
Carbon Counter (Collins Gem)
Mark Lynas
¥36.79
What effect are you having on the environment? If you buy Kenyan green beans what is the CO2 cost? What about your journey to work, your fridge or your clothes? The Gem Carbon Counter is your portable instant green reckoner. This handy little book includes: ? Introduction by Mark Lynas author of Hide Tide: News from a Warming World ? Welcome to the Greenhouse: Explains what the Greenhouse effect actually is, all the issues surrounding global warming and your carbon footprint? ? Your Carbon Footprint: Measure your own carbon footprint covering all aspects of your life from your food shopping to your work, holidays and clothes. Starting with your home gas and electricity supplies and usage, the handy green reckoner takes you through each part of your life and helps you add up the impact you are making on the environment. So, in turn, it allows you to identify the key parts of your life which you’ll need to adapt to reduce your carbon footprint: from which coffee you drink to how often you go on holiday. ? Sustainability: How do you measure up in comparison to the average person’s carbon footprint? What can you do to generate your own energy and therefore reduce your footprint and what sort of targets can you set yourself? ? Helpful Appendices: Includes information on carbon emissions for journeys by car, train and plane. A list of corporate companies, their emissions and what they are doing to reduce their carbon footprint so that as a consumer, you can make decisions on who you support. A helpful carbon diary where you can record your carbon footprint for the year. Useful websites where you can read more about green issues.
Henry VIII: History in an Hour
Henry VIII: History in an Hour
Simon Court
¥18.05
Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour. King of England, claimant King of France, Lord – and later King – of Ireland, Supreme Head of the Church of England and, perhaps most famously, six times a husband, Henry VIII is England’s most notorious monarch. Succeeding his father, Henry VII, he allied with the Holy Roman Emperor and began his many obsessive invasions of France. Meanwhile the handsome, worldly king embarked on his famous quests for a suitable wife and heir. With marriage to Anne Boleyn came the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church, Reformation and the Dissolution of the Monasteries. From his childhood to his later years and famed appetites for food, sex and validation, ‘Henry VIII: History in an Hour’ describes the life of a man whose desires and determination changed England and the world. Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour…
Churchill: History in an Hour
Churchill: History in an Hour
Andrew Mulholland
¥18.05
Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour… Sir Winston Churchill was a soldier, journalist, writer, Nobel Prize winner and, above all, a leader. Conservative then Liberal then Conservative again, his political instincts won him a sustained career at the summit of British government, while his resolve and politics of personality made him broadly regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century. With his early radicalism, bold decisions regarding the Gold Standard and Iron curtain analysis, Churchill was, for many, a highly controversial figure. For others, he was Britain’s finest Prime Minister. From his career as a young army officer – serving in British India, The Sudan, and the Second Boer War, in which he won fame as a war correspondent – to his later pursuits as a historian, a writer, and an artist, ‘Churchill: History in an Hour’ is the perfect guide to the colorful, long and varied life of a historic titan. Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour…
Birds of India (Collins Field Guide)
Birds of India (Collins Field Guide)
Norman Arlott
¥221.02
This comprehensive new field guide is an excellent addition to the world-renowned series – the ultimate reference book for travelling birdwatchers. Every species of bird you might encounter in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Andaman Islands, the Nicobar Islands and the Maldives is featured, apart from non-established introductions. Beautiful artwork depicts their breeding plumage, and non-breeding plumage when it differs significantly. The accompanying text concentrates on the specific characteristics and appearance of each species that allow identification in the field, including voice and distribution maps.
Spitfire Women of World War II
Spitfire Women of World War II
Giles Whittell
¥68.67
This is the incredible true story of a wartime sisterhood of women pilots: a group of courageous pioneers who took exceptional risks to fly Spitfires, Hurricanes and Lancasters to the frontlines of World War II. The women pilots of Air Transport Auxiliary came from all countries and backgrounds. Although not allowed into combat, they demonstrated astonishing bravery in their supporting role: flying unarmed, without radios or instruments, and at the mercy of the weather and enemy aircraft, they delivered battle-ready planes to their male counterparts, the fighter pilots of the RAF. The story of these remarkable women pilots – among them Amy Johnson and Lettice Curtis – is a riveting account of women in wartime, and a fitting tribute to their spirit and valour.
Henry: Virtuous Prince
Henry: Virtuous Prince
David Starkey
¥80.25
Bestselling royal historian David Starkey’s captivating biography is a radical re-evaluation of Henry VIII, the British monarchy’s most enduring icon. Larger than life in every sense, Henry VIII was Britain’s most absolute monarch – but he was not born to rule. In this brilliantly readable history, David Starkey follows the promising young prince – a Renaissance man of exceptional musical and athletic talent – as he is thrust into the limelight after the death of his elder brother. His subsequent quest for fame was as obsessive as that of any modern celebrity, and his yearning for a male heir drove him into dangerous territory. The culmination of a lifetime’s research, David Starkey’s biography is an unforgettable portrait of the man behind the controversies, the prince turned tyrant who continues to tower over history.
The Bitter Sea: The Struggle for Mastery in the Mediterranean 1935–1949
The Bitter Sea: The Struggle for Mastery in the Mediterranean 1935–1949
Simon Ball
¥73.58
A gripping history of the Mediterranean campaigns from the first rumblings of conflict through the Second World War and into the uneasy peace of the late 1940s. The Mediterranean Sea lies at the very heart of recent world history. To the British during the Second World War, the Mediterranean was the world’s great thoroughfare. To the Americans, it represented the answer to anti-imperialism. And to Mussolini, it encapsulated his violent vision of conquest. These three great powers attempted to overthrow the existing order in the Mediterranean, resulting in a collision of allies as well as enemies that hadn’t been seen before: the Germans fought against the Italians, the Americans against the Arabs, the Jews against the British, the French against nearly everyone. The Mediterranean was indeed ‘the bitter sea’. In this masterly history, Simon Ball takes us through the tumultuous events set in motion by Mussolini’s lust for conquest that ended with the creation of Israel. Long drawn-out battles on land, sea and air – dominated by WWII’s most illustrious leaders, Churchill, Eisenhower and Rommel amongst them – resulted in Allied victory in the battle of El Alamein, the terrifying desert campaigns of Africa and the eventual defeat of Italy and then Germany. The wars in the Mediterranean had huge consequences for all those who fought in them, but none more profound than those experienced by the lands, nations and peoples that lived around the sea itself. Based on entirely original research, ‘The Bitter Sea’ is expertly written, utterly compelling and unquestionably important.
Hilary’s Story (Individual stories from WISH YOU WERE HERE!, Book 1)
Hilary’s Story (Individual stories from WISH YOU WERE HERE!, Book 1)
Lynn Russell,Neil Hanson
¥11.77
One of seven touching true stories from Wish You Were Here!, the tale of Butlin’s holiday camps. ‘When I got to the camp I felt as if I’d suddenly walked into Utopia – it was so colourful, so warm, so friendly. There were lights across the roads, there were banners fluttering in the breeze… There seemed to be laughter coming from every building.’ With grey post-WWII skies hanging low over Britain, factories lining the streets and smoke stacks dotting the horizon, there was one way that ordinary families could escape: the ever-cheerful holiday camps of Butlin’s. When Billy Butlin founded his holiday camps in 1936, they were bastions of community spirit and havens of luxury. Here, for one week, wives and mothers were freed from the toil and drudgery of housework, children ran free through the grounds, fathers and husbands hung up their work clothes. Ever-helpful redcoats were on hand all hours of the day, dinner halls ready with plentiful food for old and young alike, bars stocked to quench any level of thirst, ballrooms waiting to be flooded with shiny shoes, rustling dresses and peals of laughter. And, as the sun went down on another exhausting, happy day, a chorus line was ready to sing holidaymakers back to their beds. Rich in period detail and highly evocative, Wish You Were Here! follows the lives of seven of the camps’ key figures through the highs and lows of the holiday season: from redcoats searching for stardom to young families who returned year after year, to pensioners who rediscovered an inner youth. The laughter and tears, the loves and losses, and the fun and friendships that have lasted a lifetime – it's all here. Funny, moving and heartwarming, they are tales of swimming pools and sing-a-longs, Glamorous Grannies and bicycle rides, and of a community spirit that burned brightly in a much-loved British institution.
The Barefoot Emperor: An Ethiopian Tragedy
The Barefoot Emperor: An Ethiopian Tragedy
Philip Marsden
¥72.40
A fascinating narrative excursion into a bizarre episode in 19th century Ethiopian and British imperial history featuring a remote African despot and his monstrous European-built gun. On one of Addis Ababa's main roundabouts today sits a huge recently installed mortar. This is a replica of 'Sevastopol', a 70-ton lump of ordnance commissioned by one of the most extraordinary leaders Africa has ever produced - King of Kings of Ethiopia, the Emperor Theodore. In 1867, as his kingdom collapsed around him, Theodore retreated to his mountain-top stronghold in Magdala. It took his army six months to haul 'Sevastopol' through the gauges and passes of the highlands. Sixty miles to the north, a British expeditionary force under Sir Robert Napier - consisting of more than 10,000 fighting men, at least as many followers and 20,000 pack-animals, including a number of Indian elephants - had been ferried to the Red Sea Coast and built a railway line through the desert. Their object: to rescue the British consul and sixty Europeans, held prisoner by the increasingly erratic Theodore, who had taken to massacring his prisoners-of-war and pitching captives over the cliffs of Magdala. The resulting fate of Theodore and his mortar forms the climax to this strange extravaganza, in which an isolated medieval kingdom came dramatically face-to-face with an ascendant Europe. Philip Marsden tells the tale with all his proven narrative skill, deep love and first hand knowledge of Ethiopia.
Monarchy: From the Middle Ages to Modernity
Monarchy: From the Middle Ages to Modernity
David Starkey
¥68.67
To coincide with the Channel 4 series to be aired at the end of this year – David Starkey's ‘Monarchy’ charts the rise of the British monarchy from the War of the Roses, the English Civil War and the Georgians, right up until the present day monarchs of the 20th Century. David Starkey’s magisterial new book Monarchy charts the rise of the British crown from the insurgency of the War of the Roses, through the glory and dangers of the Tudors, to the insolvency of the Stuarts and chaos of the English Civil War, the execution of Charles I, the rule of a commoner who was ‘king in all but name’, the importing of a German dynasty, and the coming-to-terms with modernity under the wise guidance of another German, Victoria’s Prince Consort Albert. An epilogue brings to story up to the present and asks questions about the future. The crown of England is the oldest surviving political institution in Europe. And yet, throughout this book Starkey emphasises the Crown’s endless capacity to reinvent itself to circumstances and reshape national polity whilst he unmasks the personalities and achievements, the defeats and victories, which lie behind the kings and queens of British history. Each of these monarchs has contributed, in their own way, to the religion, geography, laws, language and government that we currently live with today. In this book,Starkey demonstrates exactly how these states were arrived at, how these monarchs subtly influenced each other, which battles were won and why, whose whim or failure caused religious tradition to wither or flourish, and which monarchs, through their acumen and strength or single minded determination came to enforce the laws of England. With his customary authority and verve, David Starkey reignites these personalities to produce an entertaining and masterful account of these figures whose many victories and failures are the building blocks upon which Britain today is built. Far more than a biography of kings and queens, ‘Monarchy’ is a radical reappraisal of British nationhood, culture and politics, shown through the most central institution in British life.
Street Boys
Street Boys
Tim Pritchard
¥73.58
The shocking, powerful true story of the lives of 7 young kids, marred by guns, gangs and violence on one of Britain’s toughest estates. ‘Eight years old. That’s when life went downhill. From eight years old nobody looked after me. I just lived on the streets and made do by myself. There was no one except me and my friends.’ Simon This is the story of 7 young boys who have one thing in common – they grew up in a London street gang. JaJa looks out of his kitchen window and sees drug dealers, pimps and whores. He ends up as a kid leading a street gang. Phat Si comes home from school one day to find his mother gone so he takes to the streets. He’s 8 years old. Ribz's mother sells crack and is sent to prison. He doesn't know who his father is but does know that his dad has an unknown number of children living on the same estate. He’s determined to find some kind of family. Street Boys tells a powerful and important true story of courage, determination and hope – of creating a family from your friends and starting again when the world seems against you.
Mavis’s Story (Individual stories from WISH YOU WERE HERE!, Book 2)
Mavis’s Story (Individual stories from WISH YOU WERE HERE!, Book 2)
Lynn Russell,Neil Hanson
¥11.77
One of seven touching true stories from Wish You Were Here!, the tale of Butlin’s holiday camps. ‘When I got to the camp I felt as if I’d suddenly walked into Utopia – it was so colourful, so warm, so friendly. There were lights across the roads, there were banners fluttering in the breeze… There seemed to be laughter coming from every building.’ With grey post-WWII skies hanging low over Britain, factories lining the streets and smoke stacks dotting the horizon, there was one way that ordinary families could escape: the ever-cheerful holiday camps of Butlin’s. When Billy Butlin founded his holiday camps in 1936, they were bastions of community spirit and havens of luxury. Here, for one week, wives and mothers were freed from the toil and drudgery of housework, children ran free through the grounds, fathers and husbands hung up their work clothes. Ever-helpful redcoats were on hand all hours of the day, dinner halls ready with plentiful food for old and young alike, bars stocked to quench any level of thirst, ballrooms waiting to be flooded with shiny shoes, rustling dresses and peals of laughter. And, as the sun went down on another exhausting, happy day, a chorus line was ready to sing holidaymakers back to their beds. Rich in period detail and highly evocative, Wish You Were Here! follows the lives of seven of the camps’ key figures through the highs and lows of the holiday season: from redcoats searching for stardom to young families who returned year after year, to pensioners who rediscovered an inner youth. The laughter and tears, the loves and losses, and the fun and friendships that have lasted a lifetime – it's all here. Funny, moving and heartwarming, they are tales of swimming pools and sing-a-longs, Glamorous Grannies and bicycle rides, and of a community spirit that burned brightly in a much-loved British institution.
A Brief History of Crisps
A Brief History of Crisps
Steve Berry,Phil Norman
¥22.66
A tasty trip down memory lane, perfect for crisp fanatics. A colourful, witty and irreverent encyclopedia of all the crisps of your youth. The authors have been given access to the archives, factories and warehouses of some of the leading crisp manufacturers in the country and have delivered a book that is packed full of fascinating historical research… … and lots and lots of crisps. A ‘Brief History of Crisps’ originally featured in ‘The Great British Tuck Shop’, the ultimate book of sweetie nostalgia.
Anji’s Story (Individual stories from WISH YOU WERE HERE!, Book 6)
Anji’s Story (Individual stories from WISH YOU WERE HERE!, Book 6)
Lynn Russell,Neil Hanson
¥11.77
One of seven touching true stories from Wish You Were Here!, the tale of Butlin’s holiday camps. ‘When I got to the camp I felt as if I’d suddenly walked into Utopia – it was so colourful, so warm, so friendly. There were lights across the roads, there were banners fluttering in the breeze… There seemed to be laughter coming from every building.’ With grey post-WWII skies hanging low over Britain, factories lining the streets and smoke stacks dotting the horizon, there was one way that ordinary families could escape: the ever-cheerful holiday camps of Butlin’s. When Billy Butlin founded his holiday camps in 1936, they were bastions of community spirit and havens of luxury. Here, for one week, wives and mothers were freed from the toil and drudgery of housework, children ran free through the grounds, fathers and husbands hung up their work clothes. Ever-helpful redcoats were on hand all hours of the day, dinner halls ready with plentiful food for old and young alike, bars stocked to quench any level of thirst, ballrooms waiting to be flooded with shiny shoes, rustling dresses and peals of laughter. And, as the sun went down on another exhausting, happy day, a chorus line was ready to sing holidaymakers back to their beds. Rich in period detail and highly evocative, Wish You Were Here! follows the lives of seven of the camps’ key figures through the highs and lows of the holiday season: from redcoats searching for stardom to young families who returned year after year, to pensioners who rediscovered an inner youth. The laughter and tears, the loves and losses, and the fun and friendships that have lasted a lifetime – it's all here. Funny, moving and heartwarming, they are tales of swimming pools and sing-a-longs, Glamorous Grannies and bicycle rides, and of a community spirit that burned brightly in a much-loved British institution.