Other Non Fiction

"QI" is the smartest comedy show on British television, but few people know that we're also a major legal hit in Australia, New Zealand, (read more)

"QI" is the smartest comedy show on British television, but few people know that we're also a major legal hit in Australia, New Zealand, Israel and Africa and an illegal one on BitTorrent. We also write books and newspaper columns; run a thriving website, a Facebook page, a Twitter feed; and produce an iPhone App and a sister Radio 4 programme. At the core of what we do is the astonishing fact - painstakingly researched and distilled to a brilliant and shocking clarity.
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Among the thousands of great wines on the market, which should you try at least once in your lifetime? 1001 Wines You Must Try Before (read more)

Among the thousands of great wines on the market, which should you try at least once in your lifetime? 1001 Wines You Must Try Before You Die ensures that you make the right decision every time. This evocative and informative guide identifies the wines and vintages most likely to please the palate, explains what makes them so special and suggests when best to drink them. Some of the 1001 wines selected are old and rare, most are readily available and many represent spectacular value; a few are controversial, a few are curiosities, but all are worthy of their place.

Together they reflect the variety that is part of the enduring fascination of fine wine. Neil Beckett and his team of wine connoisseurs and writers recommend a huge variety of wines in 1001 factfilled and entertaining reviews packed with history, anecdote, facts and opinion. They share their experience and expertise through evocative and seductive tasting notes, and give guidelines on cost.
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The 20th century gave us two great theories of physics: the general theory of relativity, which describes the behaviour of things (read more)

The 20th century gave us two great theories of physics: the general theory of relativity, which describes the behaviour of things on a very large scale, including the entire Universe; and quantum theory, which describes the behaviour of things on a very small scale, the sub-atomic world. The refusal of the Universe to reveal an equation that combines these two great ideas has caused some people to doubt our whole understanding of physics. In this landmark new book, popular science master John Gribbin tells the dramatic story of the quest that has led us to discover the true age of the Universe (13.8 billion years) and the stars (just a little bit younger).
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147 Snooker Drills and Exercises will help players of all standards to improve their game. It presents a range of practice routines (read more)

147 Snooker Drills and Exercises will help players of all standards to improve their game. It presents a range of practice routines that covers all aspects of a player's game. Some are more advanced than others, allowing the player working on a particular area of their game to pick out the exercises they feel will help them most.

The routines become more difficult as the pages go on, so the beginner can work through them and use them to set targets to make their practice competitive. For coaches, the routines will assist in giving variety in lessons and helping to set targets in lessons.
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Sapiens showed us where we came from. Homo Deus looked to the future. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century explores the present. How (read more)

Sapiens showed us where we came from. Homo Deus looked to the future. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century explores the present.

How can we protect ourselves from nuclear war, ecological cataclysms and technological disruptions? What can we do about the epidemic of fake news or the threat of terrorism? What should we teach our children? Yuval Noah Harari takes us on a thrilling journey through today's most urgent issues. The golden thread running through his exhilarating new book is the challenge of maintaining our collective and individual focus in the face of constant and disorienting change. Are we still capable of understanding the world we have created? (hide)

A beautifully photographed guide for gardeners keen to attain the elusive colour-packed 'year-round garden'. Covering ideas on how (read more)

A beautifully photographed guide for gardeners keen to attain the elusive colour-packed 'year-round garden'. Covering ideas on how to use, combine, design with and prolong colour, the book focuses on achievable ways of growing plants of every tone through 12 months of the year. It provides gardeners with an inspiring and surprising palette of plants to furnish their plots with sumptuous colour with detailed lists for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

Bursting with practical advice on establishment and maintenance, the book also embraces plants for pots, cutting, difficult spaces and tiny gardens, and features long-season gardens from around the world. (hide)

Discover a forgotten British heritage. The protection and promotion of the UK's native rare breeds is something that's in Adam Henson's (read more)

Discover a forgotten British heritage. The protection and promotion of the UK's native rare breeds is something that's in Adam Henson's blood. His father, Joe, established the Rare Breeds Trust in 1973,and they have been a core attraction at their Cotswold Farm Park, and a part of the Henson family story ever since.

In A Breed Apart, Adam Henson takes readers on a very personal journey around the nation, discovering the animals that have shaped our lives and our land throughout the centuries. From postcard perfect Highland Cows to the Cotswold sheep (for whom the Cotswolds are named), to the fearsome, four-horned Manx Loagthan ram and the Ulster White Pig, Adam travels the length and breadth of the British Isles, uncovering the history of these ancient animals, meeting the specialists and farmers who are passionate about their preservation, and shares his hopes for the future of these magnificent and unique breeds and his fight for their survival (hide)

A collection of the most fascinating and picturesque cottages from the National Trust. We all dream of escaping to a hideaway in (read more)

A collection of the most fascinating and picturesque cottages from the National Trust. We all dream of escaping to a hideaway in the country - a green and pleasant idyll of country lanes with hawthorn hedges, a garden filled with hollyhocks and rosebushes, a cosy, flagstoned interior with a fire burning in the hearth...A Cottage in the Country presents a glorious collection of the most fascinating and picturesque small dwellings from the National Trust. From rustic workers' cottages to the inspirational homes of Thomas Hardy and Virginia Woolf, from the prettiest thatches to solid stone follies, this inspiring book celebrates the very best of cottage life.

Unlock your escapist fantasies with A Cottage in the Country, a visual delight showcasing 38 gorgeous cottages inside and out, along with the fascinating stories of their history and the lives of the people who have called them home.
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A vital, engaging, and hugely enjoyable guide to poetry, from ancient times to the present, by one of our greatest champions of literature (read more)

A vital, engaging, and hugely enjoyable guide to poetry, from ancient times to the present, by one of our greatest champions of literature What is poetry? If music is sound organized in a particular way, poetry is a way of organizing language. It is language made special so that it will be remembered and valued. It does not always work-over the centuries countless thousands of poems have been forgotten.

This little history is about some that have not. John Carey tells the stories behind the world's greatest poems, from the oldest surviving one written nearly four thousand years ago to those being written today. Carey looks at poets whose works shape our views of the world, such as Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Whitman, and Yeats. (hide)

The Scottish poet Robert Burns has been idolised and eulogised. He has been sainted, painted, tarted-up and toasted. He is famous (read more)

The Scottish poet Robert Burns has been idolised and eulogised. He has been sainted, painted, tarted-up and toasted. He is famous as the author of 'Auld Lang Syne', and he has long been the patron saint of the heartsore and the hungover.

But what about the poems? Beneath the cult of Burns Nights and patriotic yawps, there is the work itself, among the purest and most truthful created in any age. This is a Burns collection like no other, introduced, arranged and contextualised by the award-winning novelist and essayist Andrew O'Hagan. Above all, it is an accessible edition made for the pleasure of reading that brings Burns' timeless work to full, riotous, colourful life.
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