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After the Ice Age
After the Ice Age
Pielou, E. C.
¥147.15
The fascinating story of how a harsh terrain that resembled modern Antarctica has been transformed gradually into the forests, grasslands, and wetlands we know today."e;One of the best scientific books published in the last ten years."e;-Ottowa Journal"e;A valuable new synthesis of facts and ideas about climate, geography, and life during the past 20,000 years. More important, the book conveys an intimate appreciation of the rich variety of nature through time."e;-S. David Webb,Science
Trapped: The Terrifying True Story of a Secret World of Abuse
Trapped: The Terrifying True Story of a Secret World of Abuse
Rosie Lewis
¥58.86
Trapped was a Sunday Times bestseller and the first memoir from foster carer Rosie Lewis. Phoebe, an autistic nine-year-old girl, is taken into police protection after a chance comment to one of her teachers alerts the authorities that all might not be what it seems in her comfortable, middle-class home. Experienced foster carer Rosie accepts the youngster as an emergency placement knowing that her autism will represent a challenge – not only for her but also for the rest of the family. But after several shocking incidents of self-harming, Pica and threats to kill, it soon becomes apparent that Phoebe’s autism may be the least of her problems. Locked for nine years in a secret world of severe abuse, as Phoebe opens up about her horrific past, her foster carer begins to suspect that Phoebe may not be suffering from autism at all.
A Small Boy’s Cry
A Small Boy’s Cry
Rosie Lewis
¥11.77
A heartbreaking and shocking short story from foster carer Rosie Lewis. Toddler Charlie falls from the second floor window of his tower block home while his mother is busy shooting up in their dirty council flat. Laying alone on a pile of rubbish until concerned neighbours hear him whimpering, Charlie is taken to hospital by police officers who are unable to rouse his mother. With a gash to his head, a terrified Charlie is delivered to foster carer Rosie Lewis’s home. As Charlie opens up about his past, a picture of the traumatic life the little boy has endured so far becomes clear.
Staffordshire Bull Terrier: An Owner’s Guide
Staffordshire Bull Terrier: An Owner’s Guide
Alison Smith
¥57.00
A comprehensive guide to all aspects of owning a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, this highly illustrated book is full of practical information and expert advice for pet owners and breeders. Staffordshire Bull Terriers are renowned for their loyalty to their owners and stability of temperament which makes them great pets. When properly socialised and trained they are playful, energetic and have a real love of people. If you are considering getting a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, or are an existing owner who wants to learn more about the care of your dog then this book will be an invaluable resource. Contents include: ? History of the breed ? Acquiring a puppy ? Socialization and training ? Behaviour ? Showing and obedience work ? Healthcare
An A–Z of Exceptional Dogs
An A–Z of Exceptional Dogs
Mikita Brottman
¥73.58
In this charming bestiary of exceptional dogs, Mikita Brottman reflects on the role dogs play in our world, all explored through her relationship with her dog Grisby and many other examples of the dogs of great writers and artists from literature, lore, and life. While gradually unveiling her eight-year love affair with her French bulldog, Grisby, Mikita Brottman ruminates on the singular bond between dogs and humans. Why do prevailing attitudes warn us against loving our pet “too much”? Is her relationship with Grisby nourishing or dysfunctional, commonplace or unique? Challenging the assumption that there’s something repressed and neurotic about those deeply connected to a dog, she turns her keen eye on the many ways in which dog is the mirror of man. The Great Grisby is organised into twenty-six alphabetically arranged chapters, each devoted to a particular human-canine union drawn from history, art, philosophy, or literature. Here is Picasso’s dachshund Lump; Freud’s chow Yofi; Bill Sikes’s mutt Bull’s Eye in Oliver Twist; and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s spaniel Flush, whose biography was penned by Virginia Woolf. There are royal dogs, like Prince Albert’s greyhound Eos, and dogs cherished by authors, like Thomas Hardy’s fox terrier, Wessex. Brottman’s own beloved Grisby serves as an envoy for sniffing out these remarkable companions. Quirky and delightful, and peppered with incisive personal reflections and back-and-white sketches portraying a different dog and its owner, The Great Grisby reveals how much dogs have to teach us about empathy, happiness, love―and what it means to be human.
They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper
They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper
Bruce Robinson
¥76.91
LONGLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION A book like no other – the tale of a gripping quest to discover the identity of history’s most notorious murderer and a literary high-wire act from the legendary writer and director of Withnail and I. For over a hundred years, ‘the mystery of Jack the Ripper’ has been a source of unparalleled fascination and horror, spawning an army of obsessive theorists, and endless volumes purporting finally to reveal the identity of the brutal murderer who terrorised Victorian England. But what if there was never really any ‘mystery’ at all? What if the Ripper was always hiding in plain sight, deliberately leaving a trail of clues to his identity for anyone who cared to look, while cynically mocking those who were supposedly attempting to bring him to justice? In THEY ALL LOVE JACK, the award-winning film director and screenwriter Bruce Robinson exposes the cover-up that enabled one of history’s most notorious serial killers to remain at large. More than twelve years in the writing, this is much more than a radical reinterpretation of the Jack the Ripper legend, and an enthralling hunt for the killer. A literary high-wire act reminiscent of Tom Wolfe or Hunter S. Thompson, it is an expressionistic journey through the cesspools of late-Victorian society, a phantasmagoria of highly placed villains, hypocrites and institutionalised corruption. Polemic, forensic investigation, panoramic portrait of an age, underpinned by deep scholarship and delivered in Robinson’s inimitably vivid and scabrous prose, THEY ALL LOVE JACK is an absolutely riveting and unique book, demolishing the theories of generations of self-appointed experts – the so-called ‘Ripperologists’ – to make clear, at last, who really did it; and more importantly, how he managed to get away with it for so long.
The Loyal Lieutenant
The Loyal Lieutenant
George Hincapie,Craig Hummer,Lance Armstrong
¥66.22
The stunningly candid autobiography of one of cycling’s great names and the man who rode alongside Lance Armstrong for each of his now infamous seven Tour victories George Hincapie has always personified more than the sport in which he chose to compete, cycling, and his legacy will be more than the sum of his accomplishments on the road. It is also intertwined with the team-mates he helped to achieve success. As Lance Armstrong’s trusted sidekick, he helped re-write the record books of the greatest cycling event in the world, the Tour de France. No other team-mate was with Lance for all seven of his wins. No one was closer to him as a friend or confidante and no one was closer to the scandal which would ultimately bring down Armstrong and so many of those around him. Told with stunning candour, ‘The Loyal Lietenant’ offers the most transparent and engaging account yet of the now infamous years of cycling’s modern history. It is a book that will once again change our perceptions of what it means to be a sporting great.
Stan: Tackling My Demons
Stan: Tackling My Demons
Stan Collymore
¥80.25
The searingly honest and at times harrowing autobiography of the former Liverpool, Aston Villa and England striker. Exposes the dark and often seedy world hidden behind the glamorous facade of professional football. ‘I was a mess. I couldn’t get out of bed. I couldn’t structure my day properly. I couldn’t face having a shower or getting dressed. Those all seemed like major events I didn’t want to confront.’ Once the most charismatic and expensive player in the new Premiership flooded with cash, Stan Collymore had, by the age of 28, booked himself into The Priory to treat his depression, close to self-destruction and unable to get his head round playing at all. Along the way, he had been the goalscorer nobody wanted to congratulate, the centre-forward no one knew how to manage, a deeply reluctant star in a tabloid culture that saw him make the front pages as often as the back, and that waited for him to crack up or lash out. When he eventually did, it was, infamously, inevitably, at his then celebrity girlfriend, Ulrika Jonsson. But then retired from football in 2001 and finding himself in the commentary box, he proved he did care about the game, rather too much perhaps, sounding like a fan as much as an ex-player – and at a stroke he had more in common with the rest of the nation. He knew it was all so much more than a game, and what happened on the field was only a reflection of what was going on inside players’ heads. The contradictions remain. A man, who had a steady stream of celebrity women falling at his feet, shamed by his voyeurism in a Cannock car park; a star with everything who was once discovered by his wife tightening a belt around his neck; a loving dad of two whose own father walked out of the marital home and who Collymore continues to blot from his memory to this day; a footballer who abstains from drugs, yet who needs therapy at Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous; the loner slated for his aloofness who found critical acclaim as a football pundit on national prime-time radio. This is Stan Collymore’s own life story, the real person on his flawed character and personal demons, telling it like you have never seen before – raw and uncut.
The Special One: The Dark Side of Jose Mourinho
The Special One: The Dark Side of Jose Mourinho
Diego Torres
¥95.75
An explosive and shocking biography of Jose Mourinho - revealing the dark side of 'the special one'. When José Mourinho announced his return to English football, it sparked celebrations from fans and press alike. As one of the most charismatic figures in the game, his reappearance could surely only be a good thing… But is there a darker side to the Mourinho? A mischievous, scheming, even tyrannical quality to the man beneath the veneer of charm? As part of El Pais, Diego Torres is one of the premier investigative journalists in Spanish football, and in this explosive biography of 'the special one' he uncovers secrets and lies that will change the way we see Mourinho. From dodgy dealings to assassinations of players both outside and within his own team, and other shocking revelations, Prepare To Lose reveals Mourinho as a man far removed from the hero so many people consider him to be.
Undisputed Truth: My Autobiography
Undisputed Truth: My Autobiography
Mike Tyson
¥80.25
One of the most talked-about and bestselling books of last year, this is the no-holds-barred autobiography of a sporting legend driven to the brink of self-destruction. The bestseller that has everyone talking. In this, his first, autobiography, ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson pulls no punches and lays bare the story of his remarkable life and career. Co-written with Larry Sloman, author of Antony Keidis’s best-selling memoir ‘Scar Tissue’, this is a visceral, and unputdown-able story of a man born and raised to brutality, who reached the heights of stardom before falling to crime, substance abuse and infamy. Full of all the controversy and complexity that you would expect from a man who delighted as much as he shocked, this is a book that will surprise and reveals a fascinating character beneath the exterior of violence. If you think you know all about Mike Tyson, read this book and think again.
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
Humphrey Carpenter
¥58.47
‘It is not possible even at great length to "pot" The Lord of the Rings in a paragraph or two. It was begun in 1936, and every part has been written many times… the labour has been colossal; and it must stand or fall, practically as it is.’ J.R.R. Tolkien was one of the most prolific letter writers of this century. Over the years he wrote to his publishers, his family, to friends (including C.S. Lewis, W.H. Auden and Naomi Mitchison) and to fans of his books. The letters present a fascinating and highly detailed portrait of the man in many of his aspects: as storyteller, scholar, Catholic, parent and observer of the world around him. They also shed much light on his creative genius and grand design for the creation of a whole new world – Middle-earth. This collection will appeal not only to the legions of Tolkien fans, but will entertain anyone who appreciates the art of letter-writing, of which Tolkien was a master. ‘I am nearly always written to as Tolkein (not by you): I do not know why, since it is pronounced by me always -keen.’
Confessions of a Male Nurse (The Confessions Series)
Confessions of a Male Nurse (The Confessions Series)
Michael Alexander
¥56.90
From the people who brought you the bestselling Confessions of a Gp. From stampeding nudes to inebriated teenagers, young nurse Michael Alexander never really knew what he was getting himself into. But now, sixteen years since he was first launched into his nursing career - as the only man in a gynaecology ward - he's pretty much dealt with everything: body parts that come off in his hands; teenagers with phantom pregnancies; doctors unable to tell the difference between their left and right; violent drunks; singing relatives; sexism. . .and a whole lot of nudity. Confessions of a Male Nurse is a touching, shocking and frequently hilarious account of one man's life in nursing.
Soccernomics
Soccernomics
Simon Kuper
¥68.67
At last, football has its answer to Freakonomics, The Tipping Point and The Undercover Economist. Why do England lose?” “Why do Germany & Brazil Win?” “How have Spain conquered the World?” "Penalties - what are they good for?" “What is the price on achieving success and the true cost of failure?” These are questions every football fan has asked. Soccernomics (previously published as Why England Lose) answers them. Written with an economist's brain and a football writer's skill, it applies high-powered analytical tools to everyday football topics. Soccernomics isn't in the first place about money. It's about looking at data in new ways. It's about revealing counterintuitive truths about football. It explains all manner of things about the game which newspapers just can't see. It all adds up to a new way of looking at football, beyond clichés about "The Magic of the FA Cup", "England's Shock Defeat" and "Newcastle's New South American Star". No training in economics is needed to read Soccernomics but the reader will come out of it with a better understanding not just of football, but of how economists think and what they know.
The Dog Listener: Learning the Language of your Best Friend
The Dog Listener: Learning the Language of your Best Friend
Jan Fennell
¥80.25
You’ve heard of the Horse Whisperer – now meet the woman who uses similar methods to train dogs. Jan Fennell’s remarkable gifts have earned her the nickname “the dog listener”. Her unique understanding of the canine world and its instinctive language has enabled her to bring even the most desperate and delinquent of dogs to heel. This easy-to-follow guide to understanding Jan’s simple techniques draws on her countless case histories of problem dogs – from biters and barkers to bicycle chasers – to show how we can bridge the language barrier that separates man from his best friend. In The Dog Listener Jan shares her secrets, telling us how she grew determined to find a more compassionate alternative to standard “obedience” training techniques and ultimately how to communicate with canines.
SAS Survival Handbook: The Definitive Survival Guide
SAS Survival Handbook: The Definitive Survival Guide
John ‘Lofty’Wiseman
¥91.43
The original and best survival guide for any situation in every climate. Now with added techniques for handling Urban dangers, the ‘SAS Survival Handbook’ is the complete companion for adventurers everywhere.
An Autobiography
An Autobiography
Agatha Christie
¥58.47
Agatha Christie’s ‘most absorbing mystery’ – her own autobiography, with new exclusive CD containing newly discovered priceless recordings of Agatha dictating excerpts from more than 40 years ago. Over the three decades since her death on 12 January 1976, many of Agatha Christie’s readers and reviewers have maintained that her most compelling book is probably still her least well-known. Her candid Autobiography, written mainly in the 1960s, modestly ignores the fact that Agatha had become the best-selling novelist in history and concentrates on her fascinating private life. From early childhood at the end of the 19th century, through two marriages and two World Wars, and her experiences both as a writer and on archaeological expeditions with her second husband, Max Mallowan, Agatha shares the details of her varied and sometimes complex life with real passion and openness. Then, in 2008, Agatha Christie’s grandson made a remarkable discovery. While clearing out her old house in preparation for its opening to the public, Greenway in Devon, a box of old tape reels was found to contain the recordings of Agatha dictating her Autobiography for her typist. These remarkable recordings are not only an amazingly rare example of Agatha’s voice, but they also partly explain the engaging nature of her Autobiography - for they reveal the normally reclusive Agatha telling her own story in a lively, spontaneous and often conspiratorial way, whose passion in talking about her life is captured in the printed Autobiography. Now this new edition comes complete with a CD of highlights from these priceless tapes, giving Agatha Christie’s millions of fans the opportunity to hear the Queen of Crime’s story in her own words, and rediscover her remarkable full story in this special edition of her book, which is newly introduced by Mathew Prichard, the grandson who discovered the tapes.
Britney: Inside the Dream
Britney: Inside the Dream
Steve Dennis
¥72.40
Britney Spears – the princess of pop – is making a comeback, and there isn't a person out there who hasn't heard about it. In this fully up-to-date and authoritative biography, Steve Dennis reveals all there is to know about the much-loved star. Hitting our radios for the first time in 1998 with '…Baby One More Time', Britney Spears quickly became a pop idol. Now, at just 27 years of age, she has racked up five number one albums, seven top-ten singles and seven sell-out world tours, as well having performed on stage with both Madonna and Michael Jackson. Just a decade after breaking onto to scene, she has become nothing short of a pop legend. Her private life, however, has not been so easy. In 2004 Britney famously married a childhood friend at The Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas; since then her personal life has seemingly been thrown into turmoil. In the last five years she has had numerous failed relationships and endured a very public divorce and custody battle - all in the full glare of the international media. Drawing on exclusive interviews with those closest to the superstar, Britney: Inside the Dream is a engrossing portrait of fascinating star. A frank biography, with no detail spared, it reveals the real Britney Spears, like you’ve never known her before.
I Know This Much: From Soho to Spandau
I Know This Much: From Soho to Spandau
Gary Kemp
¥72.30
I Know This Much – by Gary Kemp, Spandau Ballet's prime mover – is simply the freshest, most exciting and best-written memoir to arrive for years. Gary's story begins in North London, where the Kemp family rented a home with no bathrooms and chickens in the yard. After a couple of failed attempts to kill his brother Martin, his parents gave him a guitar for Christmas. From schoolyard battles between the Bowie Boys and the Prog Rockers to Mrs Kemp's firm insistence on net curtains, from acting for the Children's Film Foundation to manning a fruit and veg stall on Saturdays, Gary brilliantly evokes an upbringing full of love, creativity and optimism. As the Thatcher years begin, Gary's account of the outrageous London club scene centred around the Blitz and Billy's is just sizzling. Out of this glamorous mayhem of kilt-wearing mascara'd peacocks would emerge Spandau Ballet - the band that would define the era, and hold high the victorious standard of the New Romantics. Gary's thrilling journey with Spandau Ballet would see them record worldwide hits such as True, Gold and Through the Barricades, play the biggest stadiums in the world, and take to the stage in togas when their luggage gets lost in flight. Stallions, supermodels and dwarves would be hired for video shoots, and through it all, Gary records the wonderful friendships, and the slowly-building tensions that would eventually see five old friends facing each other in court. I Know This Much tells the story of Spandau Ballet, but it's far more than a book about being in a band. Whether it's meeting Ronnie Kray before filming The Krays, sketching out the fashions and subcultures of the day, or hanging out with Princess Diana, this book offers a story on every page. And all the more so because it's all written – brilliantly – by Gary himself.
Forever in My Heart: The Story of My Battle Against Cancer
Forever in My Heart: The Story of My Battle Against Cancer
Jade Goody
¥80.25
Jade's heart-breaking diary of her fight against terminal cancer and her final precious months with her beloved family. In August 2007 Jade Goody received the shattering news that she had cervical cancer. She was only 27 years old. But with her usual strength of character, Jade was determined to beat the disease and carry on with life as normal with her two little boys Bobby and Freddy. Neither the chemotherapy, which left her weak and bald, or the hysterectomy that crushed her dreams of having a little girl, could break Jade's sunny personality or her fierce refusal to be a victim. But in February 2009, Jade received the tragic news that any mother dreads to hear: she was going to be torn from her beloved sons. The cancer had spread and was untreatable. Forever In My Heart is Jade's final 'love letter' to her two little boys. Covering her initial diagnosis while appearing on Celebrity Big Brother in India, their emotional last Christmas as a family, her magical wedding to her partner Jack Tweed and her dying wish to see be christened with her boys, Jade's heart-breaking diary of her final months is set against a backdrop of flashbacks to her difficult early years, her rise to fame in the Big Brother house and those moments of joy and laughter as the nation's darling. It is the powerful story of a young mother's brave fight against a terminal disease, her unique humour, her determination to provide for her sons and her fierce desire to leave a legacy which might prevent other young women being torn from their families in the prime of life. A percentage of profits from the book will be donated to Marie Curie Cancer Care.
Once Were Lions: The Players’ Stories
Once Were Lions: The Players’ Stories
Jeff Connor,Martin Hannan
¥139.99
Drawing on first hand interviews from more than 75 British Lions tourists since the golden age of the fifties, this book captures what it means to be a British Lions rugby player – the historic victories, the glorious failures and the stories surrounding the icons of rugby such as Edwards, Bennett, Hastings, Guscott, Dallaglio and Johnson. The British and Irish Lions are one of the most famous and recognised teams in world rugby. Every four years, the Lions – selected from the national sides of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland – head to the southern hemisphere to do battle with either New Zealand, Australia or South Africa. In Once Were Lions, acclaimed sportswriter Jeff Connor interviews a host of players – from the oldest surviving Lions from the 1946 tour and the icons of the game to those who have become mere footnotes in history – and draws out the compelling human stories from each Test series. It’s a book that captures the ups and downs of tour life: the pride of being a Lion, the numerous personal feuds and the many humorous anecdotes, taking in the historic wins and the ignoble losses. Many Lions had their lives enriched by having worn the famous red jersey; an equal number had their lives changed irrevocably in the opposite direction. Full of previously unchronicled stories – Des O’Brien was away from home for nine months on the 1946 tour which almost cost him his marriage; while in 1966 one well-known English winger ‘went off tour’ with a woman he met in a bar and reappeared only for the last two matches – the book concludes with the disastrous 2005 New Zealand tour and trenchant opinions from the players on the controversial Clive Woodward.
Shooting the Cook
Shooting the Cook
David Pritchard
¥66.22
The true story of a bumbling and undistinguished television producer who discovered Keith Floyd – and inadvertently changed the landscape of cookery programmes forever to give rise to the phenomenon of the ‘celebrity chef’. As the producer behind the phenomenally successful Keith Floyd and Rick Stein BBC cookery programmes, David Pritchard had unique view of what went on behind the scenes of the programmes that inspired the event of modern television chefs as we know them today. But back then, when David first met Floyd in his Bristol bistro, he was one of a kind. Charismatic, with a slight erratic edge, always happy to have a slurp of wine or two, and not afraid to say exactly what he thought on air, Floyd was a revelation, a chef that television had not seen the like of before. David shares the overwhelming excitement that went into making the early Floyd series - from sitting down to a silver service dinner aboard a tiny fishing trawler heading out of the Plymouth Sound, to attempting abortive hot-air balloon adventures over Alsace. Twenty-five years ago, no one could have foreseen the incredible popularity commanded by food programmes on television today. Now we have a whole army of chefs representing virtually every single personality trait from sexy to aggressive, to young and experimental. But it was Floyd that started it all. Tangled up amid the tales of the bust-ups, the botched camera shots and the exquisite regional food are reminisces about David's life growing up in ration-starved, post-war Britain. Also containing snapshots of life behind the scenes of sixties television-making and spanning the era from when avocados were virtually unheard of to a time when the term 'foodie' has gained an almost cult-like status, this is an outstanding memoir from the producer who single-handedly changed the face of food as we know it today.