Other Non Fiction

What is it to be a stand-up comedian? To be funny, solo? You have no character-role, no double-act partner, and nowhere to look but (read more)

What is it to be a stand-up comedian? To be funny, solo? You have no character-role, no double-act partner, and nowhere to look but out into the darkness, with just a microphone, an audience and your imagination. This is a job without an annual appraisal; a job where you are publicly appraised every ten seconds. The results are harsh and obvious: if the audience isn't laughing, you 'died'; if they can't stop, you 'killed'.

Deborah Frances-White and Marsha Shandur unpack the inner-workings of the minds of comics, sharing their secrets, insecurities and successes; their betes noires and their biggest fears. Featuring interviews with a host of comedians including Eddie Izzard, Moshe Kasher, Sarah Millican, Jim Jeffries, Stewart Lee, Lewis Black, Jenny Eclair, Todd Barry, Richard Herring, Marc Maron, Stephen K Amos, Rich Hall, Zoe Lyons, Marcus Brigstocke, Phill Jupitus, Gary Delaney, Mark Watson, Greg Davies and many more, this excellent book lets you in to the hearts and minds of celebrated comedians, away from the stage and off the mic. (hide)

All seven series of Andy Hamilton's fiendishly funny award-winning comedy set in Hell Welcome to Hell - where Oliver Reed can never (read more)

All seven series of Andy Hamilton's fiendishly funny award-winning comedy set in Hell

Welcome to Hell - where Oliver Reed can never quite catch the barman's eye. In this 21 CD box set, which contains all seven series, get ready for some wicked one-liners and scorching satire. Satan is fed up after a millennia in charge of Hell, and the prospect of an eternity still running the damned place.

Duration: 21 hours approx. (hide)

Here, for the first time, is a completely authoritative guide on how to look after your old house - whether it's a timber framed (read more)

Here, for the first time, is a completely authoritative guide on how to look after your old house - whether it's a timber framed medieval cottage, an eighteenth century urban terrace or an example of Victorian or Edwardian speculative development. Taking their lead from the conservation approach of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (who have approved and authorised this volume), the approach is one of respect, restraint and repair rather than 'restoration' which can so easily and permanently destroy the rich historical legacy of any old building. This book provides richly and deeply informed practical guidance, with sections including: * Breathability and Damp * Structural Movement * Roofs * Timber and Carpentry * Windows Doors and joinery.

It will be essential reading for anyone with an old house in need of any kind of repair or maintenance. 'For any of us working on or living in old buildings, this brilliant and properly illustrated volume is the manual we've been waiting for. Thank you SPAB.' Kevin McCloud, Presenter of Grand Designs, Channel 4
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The bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics takes us on an enchanting, consoling journey to discover the meaning of (read more)

The bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics takes us on an enchanting, consoling journey to discover the meaning of time. 'We are time. We are this space, this clearing opened by the traces of memory inside the connections between our neurons. We are memory.

We are nostalgia. We are longing for a future that will not come.'Time is a mystery that does not cease to puzzle us. Philosophers, artists and poets have long explored its meaning while scientists have found that its structure is different from the simple intuition we have of it. (hide)

Otters hold an almost unique place in the animal kingdom of the British Isles, being one of the very few creatures that give birth (read more)

Otters hold an almost unique place in the animal kingdom of the British Isles, being one of the very few creatures that give birth once every two years. They are the most secretive yet also the most popular mammals - they are found in every county but are so rarely seen that they have been raised to mythical status. When Simon Cooper bought an abandoned water mill that straddles a small chalkstream in southern England, little did he know that he would come to share the mill with a family of wild otters.

Yet move in they did, allowing him to begin to observe them, soon immersing himself in their daily routines and movements. He developed an extraordinary close relationship with the family, which in turn gave him a unique insight into the life of these fascinating creature.

Pub Date:23/03/2017 (hide)

Our Uninvited Guests perfectly captures the spirit of upheaval at the beginning of the Second World War when thousands of houses (read more)

Our Uninvited Guests perfectly captures the spirit of upheaval at the beginning of the Second World War when thousands of houses were requisitioned by the government to provide accommodation for the armed forces, secret services and government offices as well as vulnerable children, the sick and the elderly, all of whom needed to be housed safely beyond the reach of Hitler's Luftwaffe.

Julie Summers gives the reader a behind-the-scenes glimpse of life in some of Britain's greatest country houses that were occupied by people who would otherwise never have set foot in such opulent surroundings.Blenheim Palace was colonised by schoolboys who slept in the Long Library; Polish special agents trained in the grounds of Audley End House, learning to forge and lie their way into occupied Europe in the old nursery. (hide)

The owl has captivated the human imagination for millennia; as a predator, messenger, emblem of wisdom or portent of doom. Owl Sense (read more)

The owl has captivated the human imagination for millennia; as a predator, messenger, emblem of wisdom or portent of doom. Owl Sense tells a new story. On 'owl walks' with her teenage son, Benji, Miriam Darlington begins a quest to identify every European species of this elusive bird.

From Britain she travels to Spain, France, Serbia and Finland, and to the frosted borders of the Arctic. Along the way, however, Benji succumbs to a mysterious and disabling illness, and Miriam's endeavour soon becomes entangled with the search for his cure. Bringing the strangeness and magnificence of owls to life, Owl Sense is a book about wildness in nature but also in the unpredictable course of our human lives. (hide)

The Oxford Paperback Dictionary & Thesaurus is a great value-for-money product. It is the ultimate one-stop reference, containing (read more)

The Oxford Paperback Dictionary & Thesaurus is a great value-for-money product. It is the ultimate one-stop reference, containing both a dictionary and a thesaurus in one handy reference volume. The dictionary and thesaurus texts have an integrated design which has been tried and tested with users to speed up browsing and look-up.

The dictionary has excellent coverage of everyday English, containing over 90,000 words, phrases and definitions and incorporating the newest words and phrases from Oxford's language research programmes. The thesaurus provides over 100,000 synonyms and antonyms. This handy dictionary and thesaurus is ideal for anyone who needs an affordable and portable, all-in-one reference work. (hide)

Praise for the author's 2007 earlier edition: "In speed and presentation, one of North America's top talents is Patrick McMurray." (read more)

Praise for the author's 2007 earlier edition: "In speed and presentation, one of North America's top talents is Patrick McMurray." -The New York Times. Consider this: France's 3,400 oyster growers produce most of the world's oysters, about 130,000 tons annually, and the French consume about 50% of those oysters between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day alone. During that same week, however, Parisian hospitals receive about 2,000 oyster-shucking-related injuries! Perhaps it's time to let an expert show you how to open them safely.

In The Oyster Companion renowned expert Patrick McMurray takes readers down the path to oyster expertise and injury-free enjoyment. Patrick knows oysters. For him it was love at first taste as a sixteenyear-old busboy in Toronto and he's never looked back, going so far that he launched three restaurants where oysters take pride of place, and he holds two Guinness World Records for oyster shucking - 38 in a minute, and 8,800 in an hour in a team of 10.
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This book has Paper Panda's very distinctive stamp on it and begins with a design section which takes the reader through a personal (read more)

This book has Paper Panda's very distinctive stamp on it and begins with a design section which takes the reader through a personal account of what inspires her, how she works, and how Paper Panda came about. The techniques involved in papercutting are fairly simple and easy to explain, and this is covered through step-by-step demos illustrating various techniques such as infilling. There is a design section, taking readers through the design process itself and including numerous examples of Louise's papercut designs.

Starting with the themes and subjects that inspire her, it explains how she creates finished artwork suitable for papercutting, followed by how to make the template itself, and how to use the papercut to make cards, framed pictures, and so on. The aim of this section will be not only to provide readers with an insight into Paper Panda's creative world, but also to inform and inspire people to design papercuts for themselves. There are 20 papercut projects in the book; five from Paper Panda herself and five each from three of Paper Panda's design colleagues (Sarah Trumbauer, Louise Dyer and Suzy Taylor - all accomplished papercutters with online presences).

Pub Date:
30/11/2016 (hide)