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万本电子书0元读

The Nipper
The Nipper
Charlie Mitchell
¥63.77
Charlie's earliest memory at two and a half was listening to his dad batter his latest girlfriend in their Scottish tenement flat. Beaten and tortured by a violent alcoholic father in 70s' poverty-stricken Dundee, Charlie's early life was one of poverty and misery, but at least he had his best friend Bonnie a German shepherd puppy to turn to. Charlie lives with Jock, his violent, disturbed, alcoholic father in a Dundee tenement. Money is scarce, and Jock's love of vodka means that Charlie bears the brunt of his abuse. Often too bruised to go to school, Charlie lives in constant fear of Jock's next outburst. Subjected to hours of physical and mental torture, Charlie can only think of killing his dad. The only thing Charlie can rely on is Bonnie, a German Shepherd puppy, brought home to keep Charlie company while Jock goes out on his drinking sessions. But even Bonnie doesn't escape Jock's brutality. Please Don’t Hurt Me, Dad is an evocative portrait of seventies and eighties working-class Dundee, where everyone is on the dole, alcoholism is rife and most people have illegal jobs on the side. Somehow Charlie escaped from the everyday struggle for survival. Bonnie wasn't so lucky. Charlie's way out came in the form of a beautiful young woman who became the love of his life and his saviour.
Welcome to My World
Welcome to My World
Coleen McLoughlin
¥58.86
One of the most photographed women in Britain, Coleen knows what it's like to live in the celebrity glare. Since she was a teenager the press have followed her every move. Welcome to My World' is Coleen’s first book and offers exclusive insights into her transformation from an ordinary Liverpudlian schoolgirl into a glamorous style icon. Coleen has become a huge inspiration to girls everywhere. We have watched in admiration as she has become sought after for the cover of the world’s fashion and style magazines, featured in Vogue, presented her own TV programme, become a regular magazine columnist and worked as the face of high profile brands. ‘Welcome to My World’ is Coleen's chance to share with her millions of fans the ways in which she has developed her taste in fashion, and the tips she can pass on from her increasingly admired style and her fitness regime. She also gives fascinating insights into what life is really like in the unrelenting celebrity spotlight and amidst the glare of the constant paparrazi flashbulbs. Along with often humorous insights into Coleen's world, the book includes her tips on fashion and style do's and don'ts based on her own experience of growing up in the limelight. It will be an inspiration to anyone interested in fashion, glamour and how one girl coped when she was thrust into the celebrity spotlight and her life changed forever.
The Duchess (Text Only)
The Duchess (Text Only)
Amanda Foreman
¥72.99
A tale of decadence and excess, great houses and wild parties, love and sexual intrigue, this biography of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, casts an astonishing new light on the nobility of eighteenth-century England. Fashionable, extravagant and universally adored, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, was one of the most influential women of her day. But her flamboyant public persona hid a multitude of personal troubles: drug addiction, vast gambling debts, an unhappy ménage à trois with her husband and best friend, and a doomed affair with the future prime minister. Like her descendant, Diana, Princess of Wales, Georgiana was a vulnerable woman living the life of an icon. This utterly absorbing biography, recently made into a major film starring Keira Knightley as the Duchess of Devonshire, paints a touching portrait of a misunderstood woman.
Mia’s World: An Extraordinary Gift. An Unforgettable Journey
Mia’s World: An Extraordinary Gift. An Unforgettable Journey
Mia Dolan,Rosalyn Chissick
¥54.25
In the follow up to the Sunday Times bestseller, The Gift, we are taken on a journey further into the psychic world of Mia Dolan, one of Britain's most gifted psychics. Mia’s World is an amazing psychic adventure which reveals the truth about the spirit world. In Mia’s World, Mia Dolan takes on a student – Roz Chissick, a writer with absolutely no previous psychic training, and teaches her how to tap into her innate psychic gift. The result is an exciting psychic adventure not only for Roz but also for you the reader. Mia reveals more of her fascinating experiences of ghosts, spirits and explains the truth about the darker forces from the other side. We are taken on ghost-busts, to the mystical site of Avalon and astral travels to the home of her spirit guide. Mia reveals how we find happiness in this world and answers profound questions about life, death and psychic phenomena: - What is it like to die? - How can we still communicate with loved ones after death? - Do angels and demons exist? - Is there such a thing as a soul mate? - Is there such a thing as destiny or do we control our own fate? - What happens to our souls after we die? 'I wish there was some way I could share my ability to see things other people can't. We all have a guide, but not everyone can see or hear theirs. I've no idea what opened up the link between Eric and me, but I consider it a gift.' Mia Dolan in Real magazine
Read My Heart
Read My Heart
Jane Dunn
¥81.03
From the bestselling author of ‘Elizabeth and Mary’, the remarkable love story of Dorothy Osborne and Sir William Temple, set against the turbulence and romance of 17th-century England. [Note that the family trees contained in this ebook are best viewed on a tablet.] Sir William Temple (1628-99), handsome and intelligent, son of a staunch Parliamentarian, become a celebrated essayist and diplomat in Charles II’s time. Captivating him from their first meeting, when he was just 20, Dorothy Osborne (1627-1696) was an intellectual romantic from a family of committed Royalists. After a long and at times desperate courtship, in which Dorothy rejected numerous other suitors (including Henry Cromwell, son of the Lord Protector), they married in 1654. Their union had been fiercely opposed by both their families, but they went on to build a passionate marriage that brought personal tragedies and public triumphs and betrayals during the huge political upheavals of the age. Their relationship was intellectually collaborative; both were gifted writers, and possessed of strikingly modern sensibilities. Seventy-seven letters written by Dorothy to William during their long clandestine courtship survive, masterpieces of wit and style, with a conversational intimacy that transports the reader to her side. Both were at the social and political centre of life: confidants of William of Orange and Mary, who were instrumental in promoting their marriage, contemporaries of Pepys, and employers of Jonathan Swift. Drawing upon extensive research and the Temples’ own extraordinary writings, Jane Dunn brings to life their remarkable story, offering a rare perspective on one of the most turbulent periods of British history. In illuminating the personal lives, politics and passions of two endearing and independent-minded people, she brilliantly captures not only the story of a marriage, but the spirit of a dawning modern age.
Just Another Kid: Each was a child no one could reach – until one amazing teache
Just Another Kid: Each was a child no one could reach – until one amazing teache
Torey Hayden
¥68.67
A dramatic and remarkable narrative of an extraordinary teacher's determination, from the author of the Sunday Times bestsellers ‘The Tiger's Child’ and ‘One Child’. Torey Hayden faced six emotionally troubled kids no other teacher could handle – three recent arrivals from battle-torn Northern Ireland, badly traumatised by the horrors of war; an eleven-year-old boy, who only knew life inside an institution; an excitable girl, aggressive and sexually precocious at the age of eight; and seven-year-old Leslie, perhaps the most hopeless of all, unresponsive and unable to speak. But Torey's most daunting challenge turns out to be Leslie's mother, a stunning young doctor who soon discovers that she needs Torey's love and help just as much as the children. ‘Just Another Kid’ is a beautiful illustration of nurturing concern, not only for a few emotionally disturbed children, but for one woman facing a personal battle.
Stuart: A Life Backwards
Stuart: A Life Backwards
Alexander Masters
¥66.22
Stuart does not like the manu*. He's after a bestseller, "like what Tom Clancy writes". "But you are not an assassin trying to frazzle the president with anthrax bombs," I point out. You are an ex-homeless, ex-junkie psychopath, I do not add.' This is the story of a remarkable friendship between a reclusive writer ('a middle-class scum ponce, if you want to be honest about it, Alexander'), and Stuart Shorter, a homeless, knife-wielding thief. Told backwards -- Stuart's idea -- it starts with a deeply troubled thirty-two-year-old and ends with a 'happy-go-lucky little boy' of twelve. This brilliant biography, winner of the Guardian First Book Award, presents a humbling portrait of homeless life, and is as extraordinary and unexpected as the man it describes.
Walter Sickert: A Life (Text Only)
Walter Sickert: A Life (Text Only)
Matthew Sturgis
¥82.01
This edition does not include illustrations. The first major life of the outstanding British painter – and Jack the Ripper suspect – Walter Sickert (1860-1942), by the highly acclaimed biographer of Aubrey Beardsley. Walter Richard Sickert is perhaps the outstanding figure of British art during the last hundred years. Many contemporary painters, from Hodgkin and Bacon to Auerbach and Kossof, acknowledge a debt to his influence. His career spanned six decades of unceasing experiment and achievement. As a young artist, he was welcomed and encouraged by Degas. He was the disciple of Whistler and mentor of Beardsley. He founded the London Impressionists and the Camden Town Group. He was taken up by both the Woolfs and the Sitwells. He gave painting lessons to Winston Churchill. His energy was prodigious and his personality fascinating: he was also an illustrator, cartoonist, writer, polemicist, teacher and wit. He relished controversy: his early paintings of London music halls and his late works, based on 18th-century etchings and contemporary news photographs, provoked outraged criticism from conventional commentators. Sturgis also devotes an appendix to charting in detail Sickert's posthumous life as a player in the 'Jack the Ripper' circus, assessing (and demolishing) the arguments of Patricia Cornwell and others in the light of his own discoveries.
The Pain and the Privilege: The Women in Lloyd George’s Life
The Pain and the Privilege: The Women in Lloyd George’s Life
Ffion Hague
¥81.52
‘Men’s lives are a perpetual conflict. The life that I have mapped out will be so especially – as lawyer and politician. Woman’s function is to pour oil on the wounds – to heal the bruises of spirit…and to stimulate to renewed exertion.’ Lloyd George was a man who loved women and the tale of his intertwined relationships contains many mysteries and a few unsolved intrigues. He was involved in a divorce case, fought two libel cases over his private life, and had persuaded the prettiest girl in Criccieth to be his wife. Lloyd George’s life was indeed a ‘perpetual conflict’. He was a habitual womaniser and despite his early, enduring attachement to Margaret Owen, marriage did not curb his behaviour. There were many private scandals in a life devoted to public duty. Ffion Hague illuminates his complex attitude to women. Her own interest stems from the many parallels in her own life.
Take That – Now and Then: Inside the Biggest Comeback in British Pop History
Take That – Now and Then: Inside the Biggest Comeback in British Pop History
Martin Roach
¥72.40
This book recounts the entire story of the most successful British band since The Beatles. From their humble beginnings to the break-up that shook the pop world, to their explosive and successful come-back tour a decade later, TAKE THAT – NOW AND THEN exposes the intimate details of the band that changed pop history. Containing hot behind-the-scenes information on the band’s sell-out come-back tour, Take That – Now and Then gives a complete history of the band, with revelations on what's happened over the band's time together and apart, and allows you to relive the tour experience all over again. Formed in Manchester in the early '90s, everyone had their Take That favourite, from the cheeky Robbie to gorgeous Mark Owen. Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Jason Orange completed the group, and they went from strength to strength with their unique mix of high-energy dance tunes and soulful ballads. But theirs was not an easy beginning. Gruelling training schedules, tours across the nation in gay clubs that saw their bottoms pinched and empty school halls on a 'Safe Sex tour', all had to be endured before the boys finally 'made it' in the fickle world of pop music. But once they made it, boy did they make it! The only thing more certain than Take Take's next single going straight into the Top Ten was that they would clean up at every award ceremony going, both as a group and as individuals. But behind the glamour and success, tensions were mounting. Robbie Williams was sliding into the depths of depression, and on the eve of their 1995 tour, he left the band. By 1996, Take That were no more. Speaking exclusively to those inside the music industry who knew them best, many of whom have never spoken publicly about their experiences, music journalist Martin Roach recounts exactly what went on behind the scenes during those years, as well as providing first-hand accounts of the fickle world of pop from members of some of the UK's most prolific boy-band members.
Neil Lennon: Man and Bhoy
Neil Lennon: Man and Bhoy
Neil Lennon
¥73.58
Captain of Celtic and midfield enforcer for Northern Ireland, Neil Lennon is one of the most controversial figures in British football. His story is an extraordinary tale of religious bigotry, life-threatening career injury, tumultuous football success at club level, and of the remarkable events that led him to turn his back on his country. The first Northern Irish Roman Catholic to play for Celtic and to be chosen to captain his country, Lennon was sensationally forced to quit the captaincy even before he took the field following death threats by Loyalist paramilitaries. In Northern Ireland, the words ‘Neil Lennon RIP’ were painted on a wall near his family home, while in Scotland, he has been the target of vicious verbal and physical assault by fans of Old Firm rivals Rangers – including being mugged on the street and hung in effigy. Now he will give his side of these stories, revealing in full the terrible consequences of the religious hatred that has tainted his career. Lennon will write of his Leicester years under Martin O’Neill, and how the Midlands club defied bigger rivals by maintaining their Premiership League status and winning two League Cups. He will also tell the inside story of Celtic under O’Neill; how his ?5 million transfer to Parkhead nearly didn’t happen; his wrongful arrest on a club night out; lifting the domestic treble in a glorious first season with Celtic, and the continued revival of the club to the point where they reached the UEFA Cup Final (narrowly losing out to a Jose Mourinho-inspired Porto); and his relationship with current boss Gordon Strachan and the team’s successful season in 2005/06. As he approaches the twilight of his playing career, Lennon has decided the time is right to reveal all about his life on the field – including his horrific spinal injury and his less than happy apprenticeships at Motherwell and Manchester City – as well as his hitherto closely guarded private life, including his battle with depression. It’s a book that will shock football to its core.
Someone to Love Us: The shocking true story of two brothers fostered into brutal
Someone to Love Us: The shocking true story of two brothers fostered into brutal
Terence O’Neill
¥63.77
The harrowing true story of the young boy who captured the heart of the nation when he testified in court, to find justice against those responsible for his brother’s death. Terry O’Neill was just ten years old when he stood up in court to testify against his brutal foster parents, accused of the manslaughter of his twelve-year-old brother, Dennis. Terry and his brother had been taken into care and moved through many foster homes until they came to live on the Shropshire farm owned by Reginald and Esther Gough in 1945. There they were to suffer brutal beatings and little care or love – they survived as best they could, looking out for each other, until the terrible morning when Terry couldn’t wake Dennis. In a time when the country was united by war and struggle, the case shocked the nation and made headlines around the world. Terry, a small figure in the courtroom, captured the hearts of mothers and families everywhere, and the public outcry against the foster services led to the instigation of the first provisions to protect other vulnerable children from neglect and cruelty.
Heroes, Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britain’s Track Cycling Revolutio
Heroes, Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britain’s Track Cycling Revolutio
Richard Moore
¥66.22
Fully updated to include the extraordinary scenes at London 2012, where Hoy won two more gold medals to bring his total to six and overtake Sir Steve Redgrave, this is the story of Britain's greatest ever Olympian. Chris Hoy has been instrumental in British track cycling's remarkable transformation from also-rans to world superpower. Now, having rewritten the record books as Olympic champion in four different cycling disciplines, and with six gold medals, Hoy has become a household name and established himself in the pantheon of sporting greats. This is a fly-on-the-wall account of Hoy and his team as he prepared for the Beijing Olympics, where he became the first Briton in a century to win three gold medals in a single Games, and it has now been fully updated to include the extraordinary scenes at London 2012, where Hoy won two more gold medals, to bring his total to six and overtake Sir Steve Redgrave as Britain's greatest ever Olympian. The story begins with Hoy's introduction to cycling as a BMX racer and his progression to Olympic champion, and explains the origins and evolution of Britain's world-beating team. It includes a bizarre visit to the world's highest velodrome in Bolivia and a spellbinding journey from the razzmatazz of the European six-day circuit to the craziness of the Japanese keirin races. Award-winning writer Richard Moore tracks Hoy throughout a season in the saddle, explores his motivations and mentors from a young age, and provides an unblemished insight into the mind of a champion and the largely unknown world of track cycling. It's a story that is fully updated with the remarkable events in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, two successive Olympic Games that were dominated by Hoy and the British track cycling team.
Full Blown: Me and My Bipolar Family
Full Blown: Me and My Bipolar Family
David Lovelace
¥90.57
David Lovelace, along his brother and both his parents, is bipolar. This is his extraordinary and vivid memoir of life within his memorable, maddening, loving and unique family. Full Blown is Lovelace's poignant, humorous, and vivid account of growing up and coming to terms with the highs and lows of manic depression. David's father was a Princeton-trained theology professor deemed too eccentric for the ministry and his mother battled depression all her life. Manic episodes were part of family life - they called them the 'whim-whams'. David was a teenager when his first serious depression hit, and at college when he first became manic. He ran to escape it – to Mexico, South America and then New York, to drugs and alcohol – before he realised the futility of running. A father himself, a son and a brother, David's matter-of-fact approach to growing up surrounded by the unique creativity often sparked by manic depression is compelling. In the vein of Stuart, A Life Backwards and Augusten Burroughs’ Running with Scissors , David’s poetic ability to detail the unique highs and harrowing lows makes a remarkable and gripping read.
The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things
The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things
Paula Byrne
¥73.58
Who was the real Jane Austen? Overturning the traditional portrait of the author as conventional and genteel, bestseller Paula Byrne’s landmark biography reveals the real woman behind the books. In this paperback of the landmark biography, bestselling biographer Paula Byrne uses objects that conjure up a key moment in Austen’s life and work – a silhouette, a vellum notebook, a topaz cross, a writing box, a royalty cheque, a bathing machine, and many more – to unlock the biography of this most beloved author. The woman who emerges is far tougher, more socially and politically aware, and altogether more modern than the conventional picture of ‘dear aunt Jane’ allows. Byrne’s lively book explores the many forces that shaped Austen’s life, her long struggle to become a published author, and brings Miss Austen dazzlingly into the twenty-first century.
Graeme Le Saux: Left Field
Graeme Le Saux: Left Field
Graeme Le Saux
¥69.26
A former Southampton, Blackburn, Chelsea and England full-back, the erudite and engaging Graeme Le Saux is far removed from the archetypal British footballer. His distinctive commentary on all the major issues in football, on the pitch and beyond, promises to challenge everyone's perception of the game in this country. Graeme Le Saux made an outstanding international debut for Terry Venables' new-look England side in a 1-0 win over Denmark at Wembley in March 1994, becoming the first Channel Islander ever to be capped for England. After joining Chelsea direct from Jersey, his career flourished under the guidance of Kenny Dalglish at Blackburn Rovers where they won the Premiership title in 1994-95. Graeme transferred back to Chelsea in 1997 for a record fee of ?5.5 million before joining Southampton in 2003. He retired as a player in 2005. In his book, Le Saux addresses the gay slurs that dogged his career – including the infamous Robbie Fowler exposure – how he was vilified by a minority that labelled him a Guardian reader and too smart for football, and life at Stamford Bridge before Roman Abramovich millions changed the club and the game. His thoughtful manner and views on the modern game (he is now consulted for comment regularly by BBC, ITV, Sky and Channel Five) are expanded upon here, with particular focus on the huge amounts of money in top-flight football, players’ agents and the spiralling debts of countless football clubs. As a player, Le Saux was always seen as different – someone who broke the mould, an individual with his own agenda who sought more to life than playing 90 minutes of football. His insight into the game is informed by those experiences.
Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?: The Autobiography
Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?: The Autobiography
Steven Tyler,David Dalton
¥37.77
The long-awaited, never-before-told, no-holds-barred memoir from the legendary Aerosmith frontman. Finally, all the lurid tales of debauchery, sex, drugs and rock n' roll are told straight from the horse's lips as The Demon of Screamin' describes his unimaginable highs and unbelievable lows as lead singer of the biggest rock band in the world. Prolific frontman, rock icon and sex symbol, Steven Tyler is a living legend. With his raw, sharp-edged vocals, musical versatility and unprecedented song writing skills, Tyler has, as lead singer of Aerosmith, sold millions of records and played sell-out concerts to as many as 450,000 people. Now, at last, he tells his own story, taking us on a wild rollercoaster ride through the bust-ups, binges, orgies and good old American excess in the jaw-droppingly honest, in-your-face way that only Tyler can. Following a fateful meeting with his 'mutant twin' Joe Perry in the summer of 1970, Aerosmith was formed…and the rest, as they say, is rock history. They released their first album in 1973, and by 1976 Aerosmith had gone from being nobodies to massive to off the radar, making history as a multi-platinum, chart-topping band. But with great success comes great excess. Nicknamed the Toxic Twins for their insatiable appetite for drugs, booze and women, Tyler and Perry got caught up in the glamour of self-destruction - smashing each other up with guitars, having seizures and passing out on stage. By 1980 it seemed that the band and its members were set to implode, but after successful stints in drug rehab, Aerosmith were back on track and better than ever. But although he may have given up his wicked, wicked ways, Tyler still enjoys talking about the bad old days. He has so many outrageous stories to tell, and he's gonna tell them all. All the uncensored, head-spinning tales of debauchery, sex, booze, transcendence and chemical dependence you will ever want to hear. As raucous, intoxicating and edgy as his music, this is the most outrageous rock n' roll autobiography of all time.
The Times Great Victorian Lives
The Times Great Victorian Lives
Ian Brunskill
¥154.12
Obituaries of the most influential Victorians as profiled by The Times, including Dickens, Darwin, Ruskin, Peel, WG Grace and Florence Nightingale. For over 150 years, The Times obituaries have been providing the most respected and perceptive verdicts on the lives of the great and the good. Scientists, social reformers, composers, writers, sportsmen and politicians…Times Great Victorian Lives examines the achievements of eminent Victorians, from Isambard Kingdom Brunel to Charles Darwin, Disraeli to Gladstone and Florence Nightingale to Sarah Bernhardt. Figures have been chosen according to their importance today and are ordered chronologically. The Times Great Victorian Lives gives a fascinating insight into Victorian history, revealing how the Victorian figures we now consider 'great' were seen in their day.
Bobby Moore: By the Person Who Knew Him Best (Text Only)
Bobby Moore: By the Person Who Knew Him Best (Text Only)
Tina Moore
¥72.99
THE STORY WHICH INSPIRED THE MAJOR ITV DRAMA TINA AND BOBBY. Bobby Moore’s untimely death in 1993, at the age of 51, had a profound impact on the people of this country. As the only English football captain ever to raise the World Cup, he was not just a football icon but a national one. Yet Bobby was an intensely reserved, almost mysterious personality. Only one person was his true friend and confidante – his boyhood sweetheart, Tina, whom he met at 17 and married soon after. Tina Moore’s story of her life with Bobby, the triumphs and crises of his football career, the break-up of their marriage and what happened afterwards, is a moving tribute to a national icon by the person who knew him better than anyone.
Coleridge: Darker Reflections
Coleridge: Darker Reflections
Richard Holmes
¥80.25
Timely reissue of the second volume of Holmes’s classic biographies of one of the greatest Romantic poets. Richard Holmes’s biography of Coleridge transforms our view of the poet of ‘Kubla Khan’ forever. Holmes’s Coleridge leaps out of these pages as the brilliant, animated and endlessly provoking poet of genius that he was. This second volume covers the last 30 years of Coleridge’s career (1804-1834) during which he travelled restlessly through the Mediterranean, returned to his old haunts in the Lake District and the West Country, and finally settled in Highgate. It was a period of domestic and professional turmoil. His marriage broke up, his opium addiction increased, he quarrelled with Wordsworth, his own son Hartley Coleridge (a gifted poet himself) became an alcoholic. And after a desperate time of transition, Coleridge re-emerged on the literary scene as a new kind of philosophical and meditative author. Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.
Coleridge: Early Visions
Coleridge: Early Visions
Richard Holmes
¥95.75
Winner of the 1989 Whitbread Prize for Book of the Year, this is the first volume of Holmes’s seminal two-part examination of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of Britain’s greatest poets. ‘Coleridge: Early Visions’ is the first part of Holmes’s classic biography of Coleridge that forever transformed our view of the poet of ‘Kubla Khan’ and his place in the Romantic Movement. Dismissed by much recent scholarship as an opium addict, plagiarist, political apostate and mystic charlatan, Richard Holmes’s Coleridge leaps out of the page as a brilliant, animated and endlessly provoking figure who invades the imagination. This is an act of biographical recreation which brings back to life Coleridge’s poetry and encyclopaedic thought, his creative energy and physical presence. He is vivid and unexpected. Holmes draws the reader into the labyrinthine complications of his subject’s personality and literary power, and faces us with profound questions about the nature of creativity, the relations between sexuality and friendship, and the shifting grounds of political and religious belief. Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.