Mendelssohn (eBook)

The Great Composers

Michael Steen

Welcome to The Independent’s new ebook series The Great Composers, covering fourteen of the giants of Western classical music.

Extracted from Michael Steen’s book The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, these concise guides, selected by The Independent’s editorial team, explore the lives of composers as diverse as Mozart and Puccini, reaching from Bach to Brahms, set against the social, historical and political forces which affected them, to give a rounded portrait of what it was like to be alive and working as a musician at that time.

That Mendelssohn was phenomenally gifted is beyond question. Born into a wealthy German Jewish family at the beginning of the 19th century, he was a boy prodigy of the piano, he wrote poetry, painted well, played several instruments, spoke several languages, and was an excellent athlete. At only sixteen he composed the celebrated Octet for Strings, one of the finest pieces in the chamber repertoire. He made friends with Goethe, whom he met as a boy of twelve when the poet was in his 70s, and at twenty was a prime mover in the revival of Bach's music to which we owe so much. Not only an inspiring conductor who did much to raise the standards of performance, he also wrote many works which found enduring fame: his Violin Concerto in E minor, his oratorio Elijah (particularly beloved of the English), his Italian Symphony, his 48 miniatures, Songs Without Words, and his incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, which contains the famous Wedding March.

Michael Steen follows Mendelssohn's progress from his cultured and cosmopolitan background to the years of relentless travelling (he went ten times to England and became friends with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert), and his directorship of music at Dusseldorf and at Leipzig – years that would see him exhaust himself until his early death just six months after the death of his adored sister, Fanny.

Michael Steen OBE was born in Dublin. He studied at the Royal College of Music, was the organ scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, and has been the chairman of the RCM Society and of the Friends of the V&A Museum, the Treasurer of The Open University, and a trustee of Anvil Arts and of The Gerald Coke Handel Foundation. He is also the author of Short Guides to Great Operas, a series of concise, entertaining and easy to read ebooks about the world's best-known operas.

Mahler (eBook)

The Great Composers

Michael Steen

Welcome to The Independent’s new ebook series The Great Composers, covering fourteen of the giants of Western classical music.

Extracted from Michael Steen’s book The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, these concise guides, selected by The Independent’s editorial team, explore the lives of composers as diverse as Mozart and Puccini, reaching from Bach to Brahms, set against the social, historical and political forces which affected them, to give a rounded portrait of what it was like to be alive and working as a musician at that time.

Mahler's brilliance as a conductor has never been in doubt. Tyrannical and difficult, he immeasurably improved standards of musical performance, and was partly responsible for revolutionising how operas are presented. But it is only relatively recently that his genius as a composer has come to the fore. His epic symphonies and the song symphony Das Lied von der Erde only really began to be enthusiastically appreciated after the Second World War, by audiences who could relate to the complicated and angst-ridden world they evoke.

Michael Steen traces the twists and turns of Mahler's life, lived out in the decaying Habsburg Empire with its constant rumbles of anti-Semitism. After a hard childhood, Mahler went to study in Vienna. Despite the disadvantage of his Jewish birth, he eventually secured top conducting positions, first in Hamburg, then in Vienna and New York. In the spare time of the career of a conductor as great and extensive as Toscanini himself, he succeeded in composing ten symphonies of immense range and reach. He also had an exceptional number of successful love affairs, although his marriage to Alma Schindler, ‘the most beautiful girl in Vienna’, and nearly twenty years younger than him, did not work out well. His struggles during the great years at the Imperial Opera, the climax of his conducting achievement, were compounded by the anti-Semitism prevalent in the prosperous, but superficial, fin-de-siècle Vienna.

Michael Steen OBE was born in Dublin. He studied at the Royal College of Music, was the organ scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, and has been the chairman of the RCM Society and of the Friends of the V&A Museum, the Treasurer of The Open University, and a trustee of Anvil Arts and of The Gerald Coke Handel Foundation. He is also the author of Short Guides to Great Operas, a series of concise, entertaining and easy to read ebooks about the world's best-known operas.

Haydn (eBook)

The Great Composers

Michael Steen

Welcome to The Independent’s new ebook series The Great Composers, covering fourteen of the giants of Western classical music.

Extracted from Michael Steen’s book The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, these concise guides, selected by The Independent’s editorial team, explore the lives of composers as diverse as Mozart and Puccini, reaching from Bach to Brahms, set against the social, historical and political forces which affected them, to give a rounded portrait of what it was like to be alive and working as a musician at that time.

Haydn's long life spanned the transition between the baroque and the classical. Though sometimes called the ‘father of the symphony’, in reality he elevated the genre to an unprecedented degree of sophistication; his 104 symphonies still enchant today. His contribution to the quartet was similarly immense; he transformed it into what was to become the most expressive form of Western instrumental composition. Of the 90 still extant, the great musicologist Hans Keller deemed 45 of them ‘absolutely flawless, consistently original master quartets’.

Haydn's vast output included opera (not much heard today), keyboard and chamber music, masses and two oratorios. Yet this amazing inventiveness was achieved, for the most part, in the 30 years he spent closeted away in the fabulously rich Esterhazy palace 30 miles outside Vienna. ‘There was no one near to confuse me, so I was forced to become original,’ he said later.

Michael Steen shows the young Haydn from his village beginnings becoming a chorister in Vienna, and his struggles when thrown on to the streets at seventeen, all played out against the backdrop of the glittering reign of Maria Theresa and the later upheavals of her son's reforms. From the relative security of the Esterházys' patronage, Haydn went on to become internationally famous, travelling twice to England. Friend to Mozart, teacher of Beethoven, Haydn died as Napoleon's troops rained down shells on Vienna.

Michael Steen OBE was born in Dublin. He studied at the Royal College of Music, was the organ scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, and has been the chairman of the RCM Society and of the Friends of the V&A Museum, the Treasurer of The Open University, and a trustee of Anvil Arts and of The Gerald Coke Handel Foundation. He is also the author of Short Guides to Great Operas, a series of concise, entertaining and easy to read ebooks about the world's best-known operas.

Handel (eBook)

The Great Composers

Michael Steen

Welcome to The Independent’s new ebook series The Great Composers, covering fourteen of the giants of Western classical music.

Extracted from Michael Steen’s book The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, these concise guides, selected by The Independent’s editorial team, explore the lives of composers as diverse as Mozart and Puccini, reaching from Bach to Brahms, set against the social, historical and political forces which affected them, to give a rounded portrait of what it was like to be alive and working as a musician at that time.

Born within ten days of Bach and within a distance of 100 miles, Handel could not provide a greater contrast with the Lutheran master. Where Bach made pilgrimages to hear church organists, Handel sought out opera in Italy. Where Bach was ‘parsimonious and prudent’, Handel, the Italian-trained extrovert, became a risk-taking entrepreneur on an international scale, ending his life a wealthy man, with a house in Mayfair, honoured by his adopted nation.

Michael Steen follows Handel from his early years in Hamburg, through his apprenticeship in Florence and Rome to his five decades spent in the bustling London of the early 18th century. Arriving in 1710, Handel plunged into the musical world of the capital, composing and mounting a stream of Italian operas – on average almost one every nine months during the 1720s – to universal acclaim. He set up his own opera company with royal support and went talent-hunting on the continent to bring back the best singers. When the fashion for Italian opera was finally overtaken, Handel reinvented himself as a composer of oratorios and found renewed success with audiences. Even today, annual performances of Messiah are embedded in this country's musical life, as are the coronation anthem Zadok the Priest, the Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. Three thousand people attended his funeral at Westminster Abbey when he died.

Michael Steen OBE was born in Dublin. He studied at the Royal College of Music, was the organ scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, and has been the chairman of the RCM Society and of the Friends of the V&A Museum, the Treasurer of The Open University, and a trustee of Anvil Arts and of The Gerald Coke Handel Foundation. He is also the author of Short Guides to Great Operas, a series of concise, entertaining and easy to read ebooks about the world's best-known operas.

Chopin (eBook)

The Great Composers

Michael Steen

Welcome to The Independent’s new ebook series The Great Composers, covering fourteen of the giants of Western classical music.

Extracted from Michael Steen’s book The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, these concise guides, selected by The Independent’s editorial team, explore the lives of composers as diverse as Mozart and Puccini, reaching from Bach to Brahms, set against the social, historical and political forces which affected them, to give a rounded portrait of what it was like to be alive and working as a musician at that time.

‘After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own.’ In his typically perverse way, Oscar Wilde puts his finger on the fact that no one can capture a mood quite like Chopin. Where Liszt dazzles with technical virtuosity, Chopin's music concentrates on nuance and expressive depth. His ballades, nocturnes, preludes and etudes, and even those pieces based on dance forms, the waltzes, polkas and mazurkas, belong essentially to the salon (it is reckoned Chopin gave no more than 30 public concerts in his life). Yet his predominantly solo piano works, full of harmonic invention and poetic power, are universally acknowledged as a pinnacle of the repertoire.

Frederic Chopin, though born in Poland, spent most of his adult life in France. Michael Steen follows his tragically short life from the early years in Warsaw and Vienna, to the Paris of the 1830s, the Paris of Rossini, Berlioz, Liszt and George Sand. Chopin's notorious affair with Sand, the outrageous free-thinking, trouser-wearing, smoking, female author, was a central feature of his life, but it ended bitterly. Strangled with tuberculosis, exhausted with coughing, he undertook a short visit to England and Scotland. Soon after returning to France, he finally yielded to the disease which had been gnawing away at him for so long.

Michael Steen OBE was born in Dublin. He studied at the Royal College of Music, was the organ scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, and has been the chairman of the RCM Society and of the Friends of the V&A Museum, the Treasurer of The Open University, and a trustee of Anvil Arts and of The Gerald Coke Handel Foundation. He is also the author of Short Guides to Great Operas, a series of concise, entertaining and easy to read ebooks about the world's best-known operas.

Brahms (eBook)

The Great Composers

Michael Steen

Welcome to The Independent’s new ebook series The Great Composers, covering fourteen of the giants of Western classical music.

Extracted from Michael Steen’s book The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, these concise guides, selected by The Independent’s editorial team, explore the lives of composers as diverse as Mozart and Puccini, reaching from Bach to Brahms, set against the social, historical and political forces which affected them, to give a rounded portrait of what it was like to be alive and working as a musician at that time.

It was Schumann who first hailed Brahms as ‘the natural heir and successor to Beethoven’, and that is how many have seen him since, although to Brahms himself it was something of a burden. With his devotion to classical precepts, he proved himself a master of all the major forms bar one. His four symphonies, his concertos, his vast body of chamber music, where discipline underpins the wonderful romantic harmonies, remain central to the repertoire. During his own life, it was the rapturous reception of his German Requiem which established him beyond all doubt. The only form he never attempted was opera, which would have been ill-suited to his virtues as a composer.

Michael Steen shows how Brahms came to be raised up as the champion of traditional values against the new music of composers such as Liszt and Wagner, in one of the most bitterly fought controversies of the age. On tour as a young man from Hamburg, Brahms met the violin virtuoso Joachim, who introduced him to Schumann. During Schumann's period of insanity and especially after his death, Brahms developed a lifelong friendship with his widow, Clara. Steen chronicles his autumns teaching in Detmold, his passing loves, and eventual move to Vienna, where he would spend his winters, escaping to a variety of resorts to compose over the summer. He died at 63, still a bachelor.

Michael Steen OBE was born in Dublin. He studied at the Royal College of Music, was the organ scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, and has been the chairman of the RCM Society and of the Friends of the V&A Museum, the Treasurer of The Open University, and a trustee of Anvil Arts and of The Gerald Coke Handel Foundation. He is also the author of Short Guides to Great Operas, a series of concise, entertaining and easy to read ebooks about the world's best-known operas.

Beethoven (eBook)

The Great Composers

Michael Steen

Welcome to The Independent’s new ebook series The Great Composers, covering fourteen of the giants of Western classical music.

Extracted from Michael Steen’s book The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, these concise guides, selected by The Independent’s editorial team, explore the lives of composers as diverse as Mozart and Puccini, reaching from Bach to Brahms, set against the social, historical and political forces which affected them, to give a rounded portrait of what it was like to be alive and working as a musician at that time.

In this ebook Steen traces Beethoven's tumultuous life, buffeted by the violent cross-currents of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars which convulsed Europe from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th. Born in Bonn, Beethoven became a successful musician patronised by the aristocracy. Though scornful of social convention, he conquered Vienna, creating works which rewrote the rulebook for all the musical forms he touched.

Irascible and argumentative, Beethoven was a troubled genius; frustrated by politics, exasperated by friends, foes, and family, and plagued by the gradual loss of his hearing which began when he was still in his 20s. While conflicts raged about him and within him, he constantly surprised people by doing the unexpected and staying fiercely independent. He was among the first to bring the piano to the fore rather than the harpsichord, as the larger sound could play along with the rest of the orchestra in a hall. Beethoven could always turn to his love of music even when ill-health led him to consider suicide, the wars devalued his earnings, and the love for his nephew Karl and the infamous ‘Immortal Beloved’ was never returned. Today he remains one of the world's best-loved composers.

Michael Steen OBE was born in Dublin. He studied at the Royal College of Music, was the organ scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, and has been the chairman of the RCM Society and of the Friends of the V&A Museum, the Treasurer of The Open University, and a trustee of Anvil Arts and of The Gerald Coke Handel Foundation. He is also the author of Short Guides to Great Operas, a series of concise, entertaining and easy to read ebooks about the world's best-known operas.

Bach (eBook)

The Great Composers

Michael Steen

Welcome to The Independent’s new ebook series The Great Composers, covering fourteen of the giants of Western classical music.

Extracted from Michael Steen’s book The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, these concise guides, selected by The Independent’s editorial team, explore the lives of composers as diverse as Mozart and Puccini, reaching from Bach to Brahms, set against the social, historical and political forces which affected them, to give a rounded portrait of what it was like to be alive and working as a musician at that time.

Indisputably the greatest composer before Mozart, and for many, the greatest composer ever, Johann Sebastian Bach lived out his life in relative obscurity. It may seem incredible to us now, but during his own lifetime he was recognised primarily as an organ virtuoso, rather than a composer of genius. Fewer than a dozen of his compositions were published while he lived and, had not Mendelssohn started the revival of his music in the 19th century, his transcendently beautiful music might easily have been lost to us for ever.

At the end of each of his cantata scores, Bach appended the initials SDG: Soli Deo Gloria, to the Glory of God alone. For him ‘the aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul’. Michael Steen follows the profoundly religious Bach through his tough upbringing, to his years of growing fame, replaced by gradual neglect as different fashions overtook his music. Bach's progress as a jobbing musician through the world of small 18th-century German territories was frequently hard and he often found himself out of step with the authorities. Steen explains the background of petty squabbles and the crushing workload against which Bach was to compose polyphony which fused absolute mathematics and absolute poetry; in Wagner's words, ‘the most stupendous miracle in all music’.

Michael Steen OBE was born in Dublin. He studied at the Royal College of Music, was the organ scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, and has been the chairman of the RCM Society and of the Friends of the V&A Museum, the Treasurer of The Open University, and a trustee of Anvil Arts and of The Gerald Coke Handel Foundation. He is also the author of Short Guides to Great Operas, a series of concise, entertaining and easy to read ebooks about the world's best-known operas.

A Practical Guide to Productivity (eBook)

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Graham Allcott

To do: 

take the stress out of work
defeat ‘information overload’ 
be more efficient.  

Whether you are overwhelmed by your to-do list, or get stressed just looking at your full inbox, this Practical Guide from productivity expert Graham Allcott reveals how to think, and act, more productively and to start loving work.

Following a simple A-Z of expert tips and real-life examples, you will learn to improve your focus, regain control, and feel cool, calm and collected.

Graham Allcott is the author of How to be a Productivity Ninja and How to be a Study Ninja and the founder of Think Productive, one of the world’s leading productivity training companies. Think Productive’s diverse list of clients includes eBay, the British Library and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Ryder Cup (Paperback)

A History 1927 - 2014

Henry Lord

Peter Pugh

Played every two years, originally between Great Britain and Ireland and the USA and, since 1979, between Europe and the USA, The Ryder Cup is golf’s greatest tournament.

Peter Pugh and Henry Lord present the latest edition of their Cup history, telling stories that include the world’s most successful golfers – Walter Hagen, Henry Cotton, Gene Sarazen, Peter Alliss, Sam Snead, Max Faulkner, Ben Hogan, Dai Rees, Lee Trevino, Tony Jacklin, Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Tiger Woods and Colin Montgomerie.

With photographs including Jacklin shaking hands with Nicklaus after the American had conceded a two-and-a half-foot putt to finalise a draw in 1969, this edition is published on the eve of September 2014’s match at the beautiful Gleneagles. Europe hold the trophy after their dramatic victory at Medinah Country Club, Chicago, in 2012.

The Ryder Cup – described as ‘well-researched … a historical but entertaining account of the Cup’ by National Club Golfer – is the essential companion.

Peter Pugh was educated at Oundle and Cambridge, where he was a member of the golf team. He has written many books on golf and golf clubs as well as about 50 company histories, including The Magic of a Name, a three-volume history of Rolls-Royce.

Henry Lord is the co-author of the highly acclaimed golf course coffee-table books, all published by Icon, Creating Classics, Masters of Design and St Andrews, which includes a Foreword from the great Ryder Cup player and captain, Seve Ballesteros.

Under Fire (eBook)

Fred Burton

Samuel M. Katz

Benghazi, Libya. 9/11/2012. Just over a year after the fall of Gaddafi, and on the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a group of heavily armed Islamic terrorists had their sights set on the U.S. diplomatic and intelligence presence in the city.

In the prolonged attack, four Americans died, including the American ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, the Information Officer Sean Smith, and two former Navy SEALs, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, working for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Based on confidential eyewitness sources within the intelligence, diplomatic, and military communities, Under Fire is the terrifying account of that night, and of a desperate last stand amid the chaos of rebellion.

Fred Burton is a former State Department counter terrorism deputy chief and one of the world's foremost experts on security, terrorists and terrorist organizations. He is the author of a bestselling memoir, Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent, and Chasing Shadows: A Special Agent’s Hunt to Bring a Cold War Assassin to Justice (Palgrave, 2011). Samuel Katz is an internationally recognized expert on Middle East security issues, international terrorism, and military special operations and counter-terrorism.

The Classics Magpie (eBook)

From chariot-racing hooligans to debauched dinner parties - a miscellany that shakes the dust off the ancient world

Jane Hood

Who first thought of atoms? How much can you learn about archaeology from an oil lamp? Who came up with the theory of the ‘wandering womb’?

Oxford Classicist Jane Hood delves into the history, culture, literature, mythology and philosophy of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, using her expert eye to unearth unexpected gems, glittering fragments and quotable nuggets from a lost world.

From ancient cosmetics to the earliest known computer, from the deciphering of ancient languages to the amazing things the Romans did with concrete, this is the essential miscellany for all curious minds, whether you learned the Classics at school or not.

Jane Hood has been a lecturer in Classical Languages and Literature, and in Philosophy, ending up as a Fellow in Ancient Philosophy at the University of Oxford specialising in Aristotle and Ancient Medicine. She has held Research Fellowships in Philosophy in Paris and in Ancient Medicine with the Wellcome Institute in London. She is also a qualified teacher who has taught people from the age of 4 to 72. She likes nothing more than a few peaceful moments by the sea on the Gower in South Wales.

Sciku (eBook)

The Wonder of Science – in Haiku!

Students of The Camden School for Girls

Simon Flynn

An attractive force
Between all objects with mass
Just like you and me

Science is a thing of magic and wonder. It reveals complex patterns – and often thrilling chaos – at the heart of nature; the strange alchemy of reactions between invisible atoms; the bewildering origins of our universe; and the connections in our brains that create love, fear, joy – and poetry. Sciku brings together more than 400 revealing, poignant, witty haiku on scientific subjects. Written by students at The Camden School for Girls, these poems reflect on topics as varied as Newton’s laws, climate change, time travel and evolution. They are also elegiac, enigmatic and often extremely beautiful.

Dissolving confusion
To some, solutions
Are answers; to chemists they
Are still all mixed up.

Camden School for Girls is a comprehensive secondary school for girls, with a co-educational sixth form, in the London Borough of Camden in North London. The girls who contributed to this book range from the ages of 11 to 18.

Simon Flynn is the author of the Science Magpie ('a cornucopia of curious facts, anecdotes and quotations … sure to entertain and surprise' New Scientist) and is a teacher of science at Camden School for Girls.

Sciku (Paperback)

The Wonder of Science – in Haiku!

Students of The Camden School for Girls

Simon Flynn Simon Flynn

An attractive force
Between all objects with mass
Just like you and me

Science is a thing of magic and wonder. It reveals complex patterns – and often thrilling chaos – at the heart of nature; the strange alchemy of reactions between invisible atoms; the bewildering origins of our universe; and the connections in our brains that create love, fear, joy – and poetry. Sciku brings together more than 400 revealing, poignant, witty haiku on scientific subjects. Written by students at The Camden School for Girls, these poems reflect on topics as varied as Newton’s laws, climate change, time travel and evolution. They are also elegiac, enigmatic and often extremely beautiful.

Dissolving confusion
To some, solutions
Are answers; to chemists they
Are still all mixed up.

Camden School for Girls is a comprehensive secondary school for girls, with a co-educational sixth form, in the London Borough of Camden in North London. The girls who contributed to this book range from the ages of 11 to 18.

Simon Flynn is the author of the Science Magpie ('a cornucopia of curious facts, anecdotes and quotations … sure to entertain and surprise' New Scientist) and is a teacher of science at Camden School for Girls.

Do You Still Think You're Clever? (eBook)

Even More Oxford and Cambridge Questions!

John Farndon

From the ever-curious mind that brought you the bestselling Do You Think You’re Clever? comes a brand-new trip to the far reaches of the intellectual universe, courtesy of even more notoriously provocative Oxbridge interview questions.

How would you poison someone without the police finding out? (Medicine, Cambridge)
What makes a strong woman? (Theology, Oxford)
Instead of politicians, why don’t we let the managers of IKEA run the country? (Social and Political Sciences, Cambridge)
How do you organise a successful revolution? (History, Oxford)

Whether you’re interested in going to Oxbridge or just want to give your brain a workout, join polymath John Farndon on another exhilarating journey through the twists and turns of thought, and explore just what it means to be genuinely clever – rather than just smart.

John Farndon is the author of numerous bestsellers on science, ideas and the natural environment, as well as being a playwright, composer and poet.

He has been shortlisted a record five times for the Royal Society Junior Science Book Prize. Do You Think You’re Clever? was shortlisted for the Society of Authors Education Award. Canada’s Globe and Mail named his Atlas of Oceans as a 2011 top ten science book. He is currently writing The Omnipaedia for Square Peg.

A Charm of Magpies (eBook)

An ebook bundle of The Science Magpie, The Antiques Magpie and The Nature Magpie

Daniel Allen

Marc Allum Simon Flynn

The Science Magpie is Simon Flynn’s bestselling collection of enthralling facts, stories, poems and more from science’s history, from the Large Hadron Collider rap to the sins of Isaac Newton.

With Antiques Roadshow regular Marc Allum as your guide, go in search of stolen masterpieces, explore the first museums, learn the secrets of the forgers and brush up on your auction technique with The Antiques Magpie.

And with acclaimed nature writer Daniel Allen, join naturalists, novelists and poets as they explore the most isolated parts of the planet and discover which plants can be used to predict the weather in The Nature Magpie.

Simon Flynn was a publisher and is now training as science teacher. He has degrees in Chemistry and Philosophy. Marc Allum is a freelance art and antiques writer and consultant based in Wiltshire. Marc has been a miscellaneous specialist on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow programme since 1998. Dr Daniel Allen is a British author making a name for himself in the world of animal/nature writing.

Allum's Antiques Almanac 2015 (eBook)

An Annual Compendium of Stories and Facts From the World of Art and Antiques

Marc Allum

From the BBC Antiques Roadshow specialist and author who brought you The Antiques Magpie comes the first annual almanac keeping you bang up to date with the vibrant, pacey and often amusingly idiosyncratic global art and antiques market.

Find out:

* How much the wedding ring of Lee Harvey Oswald sold for
* What the world’s most expensive printed book cost per word
* Which First World War artefacts have enthused collectors amid the centenary commemorations

…and much more

Written with Marc’s trademark blend of knowledge, enthusiasm, irreverence and wit, Allum’s Antiques Almanac 2015 provides a unique insight into a boundless world fuelled by history, avarice and passion, making it a must-read for the inherent collector in all of us.

Marc Allum is a freelance art and antiques writer, broadcaster, consultant and lecturer based in Wiltshire. He has been
a miscellaneous specialist on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow since 1998. He writes regularly for magazines, has contributed
to numerous books and is the author of The Antiques Magpie (Icon, 2013).

One Stop, One Life (eBook)

From market stall to 1000 shops in 25 years

Kevin Threlfall

In the 1970s Kevin Threlfall built up the chain of Lo-Cost discount stores from a single grocery stall on Cannock market.

Having sold out to RCA of America he then went on to build an empire of 1,215 shops in just 25 years from a single cigarette kiosk on Wolverhampton market.

Trading as Supercigs, Dillons, Preedy, One-Stop and Day & Nite, T&S Stores plc became the largest specialised convenience store group in Britain, eventually selling out to Tesco in 2002 for £530 million.

But it was not all plain sailing, as among other challenges he survived having his appendix removed without anaesthetic. Then on 23 April 2014, before completing this book, he dropped down dead for 40 minutes on the golf course and was saved only by the actions of his quick-thinking golf partners.

This is the remarkable story of his life, in which passion, hard work, good timing and luck all played a part in bringing together a fascinating tale that is a real page-turner of a book.

Kevin Threlfall was born in 1948 and educated at Denstone College near Uttoxeter. He has spent his whole working life in retail, beginning as a stallholder on Cannock market before moving into convenience stores, eventually amassing over 1,000 shops in total and selling his business to Tesco. Along the way he was a Director of Lo-Cost Discount Stores and Chairman and founder of T&S Stores plc. He is currently Chairman of ABC Leisure Group, a governor of Denstone College and President of Fordhouses Cricket Club. His hobbies include playing golf and watching Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club, and he enjoys travelling and watching most sports. He is married to Gill and together they have two children, Nicholas and Jade, and four grandchildren.

The Year of Living Danishly (eBook)

Uncovering the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country

Helen Russell

* NOW WITH A NEW CHAPTER *

'A hugely enjoyable romp through the pleasures and pitfalls of setting up home in a foreign land.'- Guardian

Given the opportunity of a new life in rural Jutland, Helen Russell discovered a startling statistic: Denmark, land of
long dark winters, cured herring, Lego and pastries, was the happiest place on earth.

Keen to know their secrets, Helen gave herself a year to uncover the formula for Danish happiness.

From childcare, education, food and interior design to SAD and taxes, The Year of Living Danishly records a funny,
poignant journey, showing us what the Danes get right, what they get wrong, and how we might all live a little more Danishly
ourselves.

In this new edition, six years on Helen reveals how her life and family have changed, and explores how Denmark, too – or
her understanding of it – has shifted. It’s a messy and flawed place, she concludes – but can still be a model for a better
way of living.

Helen Russell is a journalist and former editor of MarieClaire.co.uk. She now lives in rural Jutland and works as a Scandinavia correspondent for the Guardian, as well as writing a column on Denmark for the Telegraph.

Science for Life (eBook)

A manual for better living

Brian Clegg

In Science for Life acclaimed science writer Brian Clegg cuts through the vested interests and confusing contradictory statements that litter the media and the internet, to give a clear picture of what science is telling us right now about changing our lives for the better.

Discover the much-advertised antioxidants that aren’t good for you, the truth about fat and sugar and why one of the healthiest foods contains carcinogens and 21 E-numbers. Find out what does and what doesn’t enhance brainpower – from the failure of playing Mozart to babies to the surprising abilities of caffeine and nicotine. Understand the tools that advertisers use to persuade us and how to turn the psychological pressure back on them.

From the shortcomings of the five second rule to the truth about phone masts and nuclear power, kept up-to-date on a partnering website, Science for Life is your guide to surviving and thriving in the modern world.

Science writer Brian Clegg studied physics at Cambridge University and specialises in making the strangest aspects of the universe, from infinity to time travel and quantum theory, accessible to the general reader. He is editor of www.popularscience.co.uk and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. His previous books include Inflight Science, The Universe Inside You, Dice World, The Quantum Age and Introducing Infinity: A Graphic Guide.