Biteback publishing london (Plus de 1 300 résultats)

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. Desperate Times is the brilliant and unfl inching new collection of sketches of contemporary political life by The Times's master of satire, Peter Brookes. Within these pages, the multiple winner of the British Press Awards Cartoonist of the Year showcases the standout pieces from his political cartoons in The Times, up to the minute and breathtaking in their bite and wit. Cataloguing two of the most turbulent years on record, Desperate Times provides an unsparing critique of political leaders and events at home and abroad. From Brexit and Megxit to Trump's departure and the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, this collection of exquisitely crafted cartoons provides vivid proof, were it needed, that we are indeed living through desperate times. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. During nearly two decades in the adrenaline-filled, egotistical and stressful world of Parliament, Mark Field had a remarkable capacity for getting into high-profile scrapes - most famously in his close friendship with future Prime Minister Liz Truss, his role in David Cameron's Piggate scandal and his skirmish with protesters at Mansion House. From his first foray into student politics at Oxford, where he got to know David Miliband, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove and Keir Starmer, to his years as a Foreign Office Minister alongside Boris Johnson and Rory Stewart, Mark casts an unsparing eye over forty years of British political life. Crammed with vivid pen portraits of some of the most influential political figures of our age, this wry and incisive memoir also reflects candidly on the changes that have taken place in the UK during Mark's lifetime. Recognising that his has been a golden generation that has benefited from a range of opportunities now denied to younger Britons, Mark emphasises how our unrealistic sense of exceptionalism risks holding us back from the urgent reform now needed in so many of our institutions. Above all, he argues that post-Brexit, it is the Conservative Party's failure to ensure we take responsibility for our own fate that has led to its rapid decline and fall. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. Courageous women change history and remould our culture. For centuries, rebel ladies have been punching up, fighting for freedoms and equality, challenging the world order. Today, the next generation continue the fight, boldly marching, banners flying, into a brighter future. And yet, womens contributions are routinely marginalised, squeezed aside by the usual cast of pale, male and stale characters. Determined to redress the balance, veteran journalist and author Yasmin Alibhai-Brown sets lesser-known names alongside the most famous, celebrating fifty daring, courageous, indomitable women. Theres Anne Lister, the lesbian landowner; Sophia Singh, the forgotten suffragette; detective superintendent Shabnam Chaudhri, the first Asian/Muslim to hold that role in the Met; and Harriet Wistrich, the superlative human rights lawyer. Theres Reni Eddo-Lodge, Caroline Criado Perez, Shazia Mirza; the list goes on. Featuring interviews with the women themselves, this refreshing compendium of fearless ladies is a fortifying tonic, reviving the stories of women lost to history and cheering on those who will lead the way to a more equal tomorrow. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. It was just one remote hilltop in an unnamed war in the late 1990s, but it would send out ripples that are still felt today, foreshadowing the chaos of 21stcentury conflicts in the Middle East. The hill, in Lebanon, was called the Pumpkin; 'flowers' was the military code word for casualties.Part memoir, part reportage and part haunting elegy for lost youth, award-winning writer Matti Friedman's powerful account follows the band of young soldiers - the author among them - conscripted out of high school into holding this remote outpost, and explores how the task would change them forever. Pumpkinflowers is a lyrical yet devastating insight into the day-to-day realities of war, and a powerful coming-of-age narrative. Raw and beautifully rendered, this essential chronicle casts an unfl inching look at the nature of modern warfare, in which there is never a clear victor and innocence is not all that is lost. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Good. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. Brexit is unravelling. Amid the turmoil of plots, government defeats, resignations and riots, the United Kingdom's choice to leave the European Union and make its own way in the world has left the country more fractured than ever. At the heart of the chaos is Alan, a special adviser to a government minister; Mitra, a Labour MP; Jenny, a TV news producer; and Davey, a UKIP activist. Each will struggle to keep control of their own lives as they navigate a political environment that becomes more aggressive and unpredictable by the day. This sweeping novel takes its characters from the streets of Westminster to decaying towns, from the dingiest of pool halls to the heart of No. 10, and finally brings them all together for a debate in front of a live audience during the 2019 election. That night, there is more at stake than just politics; at least one of them is in real danger. Will they all survive - and if they do, will they be able to start draining some of the poison from the political world they now inhabit? The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. Carrie Johnson is not only the consort of the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson; she is also considered by some to be the second most powerful unelected woman in Britain after the Queen. Since she moved into Downing Street in July 2019, questions have been raised about her perceived influence, her apparent desire to control events, and the number of her associates who have been appointed to positions of standing in the government machine. So, are these concerns justified? In this carefully researched unauthorised biography, Michael Ashcroft charts the extraordinary ascent of Mrs Johnson, speaking to multiple sources who have been close to her and to Boris Johnson in recent years to produce a fascinating portrait of a woman who is still under the age of thirty-five. The book scrutinises Mrs Johnson's colourful family, her attempt to become a professional actress, and her early decision to work in politics. Long before she moved into No. 10, Mrs Johnson made a name for herself as a Conservative Party press aide before becoming a special adviser to two Cabinet ministers and eventually director of communications at Conservative campaign headquarters. Aside from politics, she is also the mother of two young children and campaigns in the fields of the environment and animal welfare. Carrie Johnson is without doubt a very modern prime ministerial spouse. This examination of her career and life offers the electorate the chance to assess exactly what role she plays in Boris Johnson's unpredictable administration and why that matters. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. Statesman, pre-eminent leader and founder of the free worlds then largest and most formidable trade union, Ernest Bevin was one of the most rousing figures of the twentieth century. Minister of Labour in the wartime coalition during the Second World War, he was Churchills right-hand man, masterminding the home front while the war supremo commanded the battle front. Afterwards, he was Foreign Secretary at one of the most critical moments in international history, responsible for keeping Stalin and communism out of Western Europe, and for creating West Germany, NATO and the transatlantic alliance, all of which underpin European democracy and security to this day. An orphan farm boy from Bristol, Bevins astonishing rise to fame and power is unmatched by any leader to this day. In this discerning and wide-ranging biography, Andrew Adonis examines how the working-class John Bull grew to a position of such authority, and offers a critical reassessment of his life and influence. Finally exploring Bevins powerful legacy and lessons for our own age, Adonis restores this charismatic statesman to his rightful place among the pantheon of Britains greatest political leaders. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. Despite his tenure of three of the four Great Offices of State, his popularity with the electorate and the truly revolutionary 1944 Education Act that bears his name, Richard Austen 'Rab' Butler narrowly missed out on the premiership on three separate occasions during his political career, earning him the sobriquet that has attached to his name ever since - The Best Prime Minister That Britain Never Had.Banished from the inner council of the War Cabinet for his support of appeasement, Butler used his time as Education Minister wisely to emerge as the progressive face of the post-war Tory Party, going on to spend four years at the Treasury before the gradual but relentless eclipse of his career after Anthony Eden's accession.Was Butler an over-ambitious, condescending intellectual who had antagonised enough colleagues in the course of his career to ensure he would ultimately be thwarted? Or did he simply not want the leadership enough? Could this liberal Tory, in tune with the electorate, have led the Conservatives to victory in the 1964 election?In this robust and insightful biography of the great nearly-man of British politics, bestselling author Michael Jago looks to answer whether Rab Butler really was 'The Best Prime Minister We Never Had'. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. For twenty-six long years, John Nicholson was a vegetarian. No meat, no fish, no guilt. He was a walking advert for healthy eating. Brown rice, lentils, tofu, fruit, vegetables, low fat and low cholesterol - in the battle of good food versus bad, he should have been on the winning side. But the exact opposite was true: his diet was making him ill. Really ill. Joint pain? Tick. Exhaustion? Tick. Chronic IBS and piles? Tick, tick. Not to mention the fat belly and the sky-high cholesterol. His mind may have forgotten its taste for flesh and blood but had his body? Tired of being sick, John decided to do the unthinkable: eat meat and eat lots of it. Going against all the official healthy-eating advice, he returned to an old fashioned red-blooded, full-fat, high-cholesterol diet. The results were spectacular. Twenty-four hours later, he felt better. After forty-eight hours he was fighting fit. Twelve months on, he had become a new person. His health was utterly transformed. He was first shocked, then delighted, then damn angry. The Meat Fix charts one man's journey to the top of the food chain, uncovering in the process an alternate universe of research condemning everything we think we know about healthy eating as little more than illusion, guesswork and marketing. The body is a temple - but, as John Nicholson discovered, we may have forgotten how to worship it. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. He is a most unlikely revolutionary: a middle-aged, middle-class former grammar schoolboy who honed his radicalism on the mean streets of rural Shropshire. Last summer, this little-known outsider rode a wave of popular enthusiasm to win the Labour Party leadership by a landslide, with a greater mandate than any British political leader before him. This new edition of the critically acclaimed biography brings the Jeremy Corbyn story fully up to date, setting out how this very British iconoclast managed to snatch the leadership of a party he spent forty years rebelling against and, despite rebellion from within his own ranks, managed to galvanise millions to vote for him in the 2017 general election. Engaging, clear-sighted and above all revealing, Comrade Corbyn explores the extraordinary story of the most unexpected leader in modern British politics. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. FULLY UPDATED PAPERBACK EDITION On 23 June 2016, in the biggest ever vote in British history, 17.4 million people chose to leave the EU. So what does the future now hold after this momentous decision? What will life be like in Britain after we end our European marriage? Will Brexit precipitate the doom and gloom that many predict? Drawing on years of experience at the cutting edge of economic, business and policy issues, plus extensive discussions with leading politicians and diplomats across the UK, Europe and the world, Clean Brexit answers these questions - and more. Economists Liam Halligan and Gerard Lyons believe great days lie ahead. Brexit is an opportunity to strike deals with the world's fastest-growing economies, boosting British trade and job prospects. Freed from the EU's regulatory stranglehold, the UK can thrive, spreading wealth throughout the whole of the country. Directly elected MPs will once again have the final say over our laws, borders, taxes and trade negotiations. Important, balanced and accessible, Clean Brexit is the ultimate guide to making a success of Britain's divorce from the EU - and a source of strength for voters elsewhere in Europe who have long demanded EU reform, but have been rebuffed. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. …

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. On 23 June 2016, in the biggest ever vote in British history, 17.4 million people chose to leave the EU. So what does the future now hold after this momentous decision? What will life be like in Britain after we end our European marriage? Will Brexit precipitate the doom and gloom that many predict? Drawing on years of experience at the cutting edge of economic, business and policy issues, plus extensive discussions with leading politicians and diplomats across the UK, Europe and the world, Clean Brexit answers these questions - and more. Authors and economists Liam Halligan and Gerard Lyons believe great days lie ahead. Brexit is an opportunity to strike deals with the world's fastest-growing economies, boosting British trade and job prospects. Freed from the EU's regulatory stranglehold, the UK can thrive, spreading wealth throughout the whole of the country. Directly elected MPs will once again have the final say over our laws, borders, taxes and trade negotiations. Important, balanced and accessible, Clean Brexit is the ultimate guide to making a success of Britain's divorce from the EU - and a source of strength for voters elsewhere in Europe who have long demanded EU reform, but have been rebuffed. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. Longlisted for the FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2015. In September 2008, HBOS, with assets larger than Britain's GDP, was on the edge of bankruptcy. Its collapse would have created the biggest economic crisis since the 1930s and a major political disaster for the Labour government. With the help and support of Gordon Brown, HBOS was rescued by Lloyds TSB, one of the country's strongest banks, in circumstances that have since become the stuff of City legend. In the highly acclaimed Black Horse Ride, veteran financial journalist Ivan Fallon brings together the accounts of all the power players involved in this dramatic saga for the first time, including the key roles played by the Governor of the Bank of England, the Prime Minister and the Treasury. Through a compelling cast of prominent bankers, politicians and investors, Fallon reveals what really occurred in the aftermath of the crash of Lehman Brothers, perhaps the worst single day in banking history. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. It was a blustery late spring day in 1954 and a young Oxford medical student flung himself over the line in a mile race. There was an agonising pause, and then the timekeeper announced the record: three minutes, fifty-nine point four seconds. But no one heard anything after that first word - 'three'. One of the most iconic barriers of sport had been broken, and Roger Bannister had become the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. To this day, more men have conquered Mount Everest than have achieved what the slender, unassuming student managed that afternoon. Sixty years on and the letters still arrive on Roger Bannister's doormat, letters testifying to the enduring appeal of the four-minute mile and the example it set for the generation of budding athletes who were inspired to attempt the impossible. In this frank memoir, Sir Roger tells the full story of the talent and dedication that made him not just one of the most celebrated athletes of the last century, but also a distinguished doctor, neurologist and one of the nation's best-loved public figures. With characteristically trenchant views on drugs in sport, the nature of modern athletics and record-breaking, the extraordinary explosion in running as a leisure activity, and the Olympic legacy, this rare and brilliant autobiography gives a fascinating insight into the life of a man who has lived life to the fullest. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. In the summer of '61 John Profumo, Minister for War, enjoyed a brief affair with Christine Keeler.Late in the afternoon of Wednesday 31 July 1963, Dr Stephen Ward was convicted at the Old Bailey on two counts alleging that he lived on the earnings of a prostitute. He was not in the dock but comatose in hospital. The previous night he had attempted suicide, because (as he said in a note) 'after Marshall's [the judge's] summing up, I've given up all hope'. He died on Saturday 3 August, without regaining consciousness. Many observers of the proceedings thought the convictions did not reflect the evidence and that the trial was unfair, and this book will show that it breached basic standards of justice. Geoffrey Robertson brings his forensic skills and a deeply felt sense of injustice to the case at the heart of the Profumo affair, the notorious scandal that brought down a government. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. Tony Blair said his three priorities were Education, Education, Education. Andrew Adonis played a decisive role in turning this slogan into a reform programme. This book describes his quest to transform standards and opportunities in England's schools, and his ambition to make English education truly world class. The reinvention of the comprehensive school was the central Blair project. In 1997 a majority of comprehensives were failing or seriously underperforming, with calamitous consequences for society and the economy. Academies replaced comprehensives by a radically new form of independent state school characterised by strong leadership and an ethos of aspiration, success and social mobility. Adonis tells the story of academies, from the germ of a reform idea in the late 1990s to the national movement for educational transformation they have become today. Adonis argues that wider reform is imperative to make England's schools world-class and sets out a manifesto for change, including higher salaries and better training and selection to make teaching the nation's most prestigious profession, and further radical innovation in the creation of new and better schools to tackle school drop-out and the challenges of the future. Education, Education, Education is optimistic about the power of politics to transform society for the better, and practical about the ways to make it happen. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. On 12 May 2009 Margaret Evison's son Lieutenant Mark Evison of 1st Battalion, The Welsh Guards, died of wounds sustained whilst leading a patrol in Helmand Province. Hailed a hero, Mark's death was a national sacrifice, his grave to be one of many in the identical, ordered rows in a military cemetery. But to his mother Margaret it was the most intimate of griefs. In Death of a Soldier, she attempts to reconcile her own unanswerable sense of loss with the idea that her son died for a good cause. With her, we confront the horror of his death and witness her struggle to see epithets such as 'heroic' and 'noble' as more than a mask to hide that ugliness. Included in the book is Mark's diary, kept while he was in Afghanistan and delivered to Margaret at home some weeks later. Widely quoted since its discovery, it contains the thoughts of a sensitive young officer and serves as a poignant reminder of the terrible human cost of the war in Afghanistan. Death of a Soldier is an extraordinarily powerful tribute to Mark and a testament to Margaret's great love for him. It paints a portrait of Mark's short but accomplished life, bringing his extraordinary character into relief and underlining the loss suffered by all who knew him. Whilst this is a book about the nature of grief, it is also the story of a mother's struggle to understand how and why her son came to die, and as such it touches on issues of public interest. As Margaret eloquently demonstrates, that mixture of the personal and political is what uniquely characterises the death of a soldier. Articulate, revealing and at times almost unbearably moving, this is an important reflection on loss, war and our responsibilites to those we send to fight. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. …

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. Yes Minister is one of the most popular and critically successful British sit-coms of all time, partly due to its fascinatingly accurate observations of the eternal sparring between Paul Eddington's naive senior minister, Jim Hacker, and Nigel Hawthorne's infernally cunning Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby. Originally broadcast in three series from 1980 to 1984, Yes Minister won an unprecedented three BAFTA awards in a row, as well as an enduring appeal that has lived far beyond the series or its sequel Yes Prime Minister. Tracing the careers of Hacker, Sir Humphrey and his loyal sidekick Bernard, this amusing and brilliantly illustrated book will appeal to everyone who remembers the series with affection and can't resist watching the repeats. Containing obituaries of the three leading characters, written specially by Sir Anthony Jay, and the sketch written by Bernard Ingham for Margaret Thatcher to perform with Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne, the book contains many surprises as well as reflections on the series and its importance by politicians and journalists of the day. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. The English like their lions rough, not smooth. This is the story of the rise and fall and rise again of Wayne Rooney, a boy from the mean streets of broken Britain - few streets meaner than Croxteth in Liverpool - lifted out of poverty by his footballing genius to play for Manchester United and England. On the pitch (most of the time) a hero. Off it, the centrepiece, with his wife Coleen, of perhaps the most vacuous media soap opera of modern times. Wayne Rooney was a tabloid angel who became a demon overnight when it was alleged he'd been having sex with a PVC-clad grannie called the Auld Slapper. (There's no serious evidence that ever happened, but on Planet Rooney the truth is stranger than the headlines.) He shrugged off the abuse and carried on scoring goals. Lots of them. He can be bad-tempered and he can use bad language, but there's no doubting his passion for the beautiful game. Rough, working class, surrounded by an unlikely crew - including a controversial agent, a crooked lawyer, tarts and gangsters - ROONEY'S GOLD looks at the characters who have been attracted to the fabulous money Rooney gets for kicking a ball around a field. Some of them have tainted his gold. Some of them will not enjoy reading this book. One of them - his agent Paul Stretford, fined and banned for nine months by the Football Association - did his best to stop it. Others have tried to do their best by Rooney. John Sweeney's book is certainly no hagiography. Irreverent, hilarious and surprising, ROONEY'S GOLD is a warts-and-all biography of England's most famous sportsman and the iniquities of some of those who have sought their pound of flesh. It's an attack on how Big Money taxes our passion for football and an attack on celebrity culture. But it is, above all, the story of a boy who, despite all the forces pulling him down, rose up to become a hero. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. Two days before Christmas 2013, former MP Denis MacShane entered one of Europe's harshest prisons. Having pleaded guilty to false accounting at the Old Bailey, he had been sentenced to six months in jail. Upon arrival at Belmarsh Prison, his books and personal possessions were confiscated and he was locked in a solitary cell for up to twenty-three hours a day. Denis was the latest MP condemned to serve as an example in the wake of the expenses scandal. Written with scavenged pens and scraps of paper, this diary is a compelling account of his extraordinary experiences in Belmarsh and, later, Brixton. Recording the lives of his fellow prisoners, he discovers a humility and a willingness to admit mistakes that was conspicuously lacking in his former colleagues at the House of Commons. Woven into the narrative are thoughtprovoking re flections on a range of important topics, from the waning of public confidence in MPs - and the high-profile termination of his own political career - to the failings of the British judicial system. Above all, Prison Diaries reveals what life as a prisoner in Britain is really like, addressing issues such as rising inmate numbers, dehumanising conditions, high incarceration rates, lack of rehabilitation and an endemic political disinterest. This honest and fascinating diary is both a first-hand insight into the current prison system and a report on how it simply does not work. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. Swamped beneath the tide of fake news, wars on woke and social media storms lies democracy. Jo Phillips and David Seymour guide the reader through the workings of government and Parliament and make a passionate case for the power of democracy. Their argument is that young people should take back control of the future, hold politicians to account and get involved. In the last decade we've had a Brexit referendum, the Covid pandemic, war in Ukraine and Gaza, increasing fears over the climate emergency, a new monarch and since 2010, six Prime Ministers. Britain's influence in the world has been diminished, freedom to protest peacefully has been curtailed, the cost of further education is a concern, the health service is in crisis and the likelihood of owning your own home or even finding somewhere to rent is becoming less and less. If younger people turned out to vote in the same numbers that older people do, this country would be a very different place. Apathy is the enemy, not the answer. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. Over the past fifty years, Nigel West has been involved in almost every espionage-related investigation, breakthrough or revelation that you can think of. His molehunts have led to the unmasking of spies within MI5, MI6 and the CIA and the identification of numerous others - some of whom were crucial to the Allied victory in the Second World War and would have died without any public recognition if not for him. His first encounter with the intelligence community was a lecture given at his school by John le Carre, the guest of a Benedictine monk who had recently retired from MI6. Later, West worked as a researcher for SOE agent Ronnie Seth, who was sentenced to death by the Nazis after being captured during Operation blunderhead, and exposed two of the Cambridge spies recruited by Anthony Blunt. For the fortieth anniversary of the D-Day landings, West traced the double agent codenamed garbo and brought him to London so he could be decorated at Buckingham Palace. As action-packed as the lives of the spies he has written about, this is the story of the most enthralling and significant post-war intelligence revelations as told by Britain's most authoritative writer on espionage and the secret services. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. Heroines and Harridans is a tale of eccentricity (generally British), some bad behaviour (occasionally American) and rather odd love lives (some corking aristocrats). It is not by chance that the relation of matters in the past are called 'History'. It is, generally, 'his story' with many men doing grand things while the women stayed home to make the soup. Heroines and Harridans gives another, highly entertaining view on life as comedian Sandi Toksvig brings her trademark wit and humour to bear on 22 portraits of as eccentric a melange of women throughout history as you are ever likely to find. All of the featured characters were terrific good fun, helped shape the world they lived in but in many cases disappeared into obscurity. Each of Toksvig's gloriously funny pen portraits is accompanied by equally striking and imaginative illustrations by artist Sandy Nightingale. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. …

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. When Captain Ridley's shooting partyA" arrived at Bletchley Park in 1939 no-one would have guessed that by 1945 the guests would number nearly 10,000 and that collectively they would have contributed decisively to the Allied war effort. Their role? To decode the Enigma cypher used by the Germans for high-level communications. It is an astonishing story. A melting pot of Oxbridge dons maverick oddballs and more regular citizens worked night and day at Station X, as Bletchley Park was known, to derive intelligence information from German coded messages. Bear in mind that an Enigma machine had a possible 159 million million million different settings and the magnitude of the challenge becomes apparent. That they succeeded, despite military scepticism, supplying information that led to the sinking of the Bismarck, Montgomery's victory in North Africa and the D-Day landings, is testament to an indomitable spirit that wrenched British intelligence into the modern age, as the Second World War segued into the Cold War. Michael Smith constructs his absorbing narrative around the reminiscences of those who worked and played at Bletchley Park, and their stories add a very human colour to their cerebral activity. The code breakers of Station X did not win the war but they undoubtedly shortened it, and the lives saved on both sides stand as their greatest achievement. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Good. There are few characters in history about whom opinion has been more divided than the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his wife the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. On one hand, they are venerated as saints, innocent victims of Bolshevik assassins, and on the other they are impugned as the unwitting harbingers of revolution and imperial collapse, blamed for all the ills that befell the Russian people in the 20th century. Theirs was also a tragic love story; for whatever else can be said of them, there can be no doubt that Alix and Nicky adored one another. Soon after their engagement, Alix wrote in her fiance's diary: "Ever true and ever loving, faithful, pure and strong as death" - words which met their fulfilment twenty-four years later in a blood-spattered cellar in Ekaterinburg. Through the letters and diaries written by the couple and by those around them, Virginia Rounding presents an intimate, penetrating, and fresh portrayal of these two complex figures and of their passion - their love and their suffering. She explores the nature and possible causes of the Empress's ill health, and examines in depth the enigmatic triangular relationship between Nicky, Alix and their 'favourite,' Ania Vyrubova, protegee of the infamous Rasputin, extracting the meaning from words left unsaid, from hints and innuendoes. The story of Alix and Nicky, of their four daughters known collectively as 'OTMA' and of their haemophiliac little boy Alexei, is endlessly fascinating, and Rounding makes these characters come alive, presenting them in all their human dimensions and expertly leading the reader into their vanished world. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. When Valerie Pirie interviewed for her first real secretarial job after college, she did not expect to end up working for Stirling Moss. Regarded as the greatest driver who was never crowned world champion, he would become not only her new boss but also a lifelong friend. Here, in this playful and moving memoir, she opens up about the man behind the steering wheel. With a joie de vivre and unparalleled pluck, Pirie details the highs and lows of her many years working - and occasionally living - at very close quarters with a true pioneer of Formula One, recounting anecdotes from the track, the office and nights out in the West End of London with one of the best-known names in motor racing. Whether at Goodwood, Le Mans or the Nurburgring, Pirie was often there beside Moss to witness the wins, losses and technical malfunctions - and, of course, his career-ending crash in 1962. If she wasn't at his bedside in the hospital, managing his never-ending building works or - on one occasion - transporting his spare dentures to France, Pirie was accompanying Moss wherever he needed her most. Never `just' colleagues, the pair were true companions, and this book brings to light the story of their enduring friendship from the classic post-war era of motor racing through to today. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. With a foreword by Isabel Hardman HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED.how people feel about sleeping with the political enemy? .whether gambling markets are best at predicting political outcomes? .who Santa Claus would vote for? Then look no further. More Sex, Lies and the Ballot Box brings us another collection of concise chapters penned by leading political experts and delving into the fascinating field of electoral politics. Following on from the success of its bestselling predecessor, this illuminating book shines a light on how we vote in Britain and around the world. You'll learn about the shifting landscape of party politics and the perceptions and misconceptions that shape our opinions of our politicians and of each other. You'll learn about the factors informing voter habits - from class, race and gender to the internet and the weather. You'll also learn which political party has the most sexually satisfied supporters. Forget mind-numbing numbers and difficult demographics. This sharp and frequently hilarious volume is fizzing with accessible facts and figures that are more than just conversation starters - they're unexpected insights into the human condition. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. After a period following the Iraq War, when the reputation of Britain's spooks has hit an all-time low, John le Carre's intellectual hero George Smiley has come to be seen as the perfect spy, a man who would never allow secret intelligence to be misused for political purposes. Le Carre revealed shortly before the Iraq War that the model for Smiley was the author and MI5 officer John Bingham, the 7th Baron Clanmorris. Michael Jago's brilliant account of Bingham's life is not just the story of a perfect spy, it is also of a writer whose thrillers transcended the genre, exploring the emotions behind the darkest human behaviour. As an intelligence officer the bespectacled Bingham had a deep influence on Le Carre, then a junior colleague in MI5. Like Smiley, Bingham was an expert interrogator. His understanding of the human psyche, demonstrated so brilliantly in his seventeen novels, persuaded his subjects to give up the intelligence they were holding deep inside. He took part in many of MI5's greatest wartime and Cold War operations, from the Double Cross operation that ensured the success of D-Day, through the tracking of Soviet spies in Cold War Britain to the monitoring of Lord Lucan and others planning a right-wing coup in the 1970s. As le Carre said, 'Nobody who knew John and the work he was doing could have missed the description of Smiley in my first novel.'. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…

Paperback. Etat : Very Good. History is full to the brim with untold tales of heroics and villainy, gruesome battles, hilarious happenings and downright bizarre coincidences. Meet the war veteran who lost an eye and amputated his own fingers. Discover the original Die Hards, whose bravery would put even Bruce Willis to shame. Just who stole the still-missing Irish crown jewels and how did Adeline, Countess of Cardigan, scandalise society so completely? In Lessons from History, Alex Deane takes us on an uproarious romp through the tales you didn't hear at school. With stories ranging from the little-known characters who played their vital parts in the world's most famous wars to the remarkable adventures of figures across the centuries, to events so extraordinary as to be almost - almost - unbelievable, this book proves that fact is almost always wilder than fiction. Bringing these stories joyfully and often poignantly back to life, Deane finally shines a light on the tales lost to history, and on what we might learn from them today. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…