Rock Bottom (eBook)

A Music Writer's Journey into Madness

Michael Odell

'One of the best music books ever written, because Michael Odell knows
music isn't about the musicians – it’s about what it does to the listener, even
if what it does ends up being wholly disastrous. It’s sad, funny, fascinating
and wise.' Michael Hann, former Guardian music editor 

‘Hilarious and disarmingly honest; a journey into the neurosis of rock
fame, but through doors you don’t expect.’ Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely
Pilgrimage of Harold Fry  

A tale of loving, living and surviving rock music

Michael Odell is a rock music writer who takes his responsibility as
cultural gatekeeper seriously; he asks rock stars the forbidden questions to
discover whether they’re worthy of readers’ admiration.

But after interviewing Mick Jagger and Keith Richards – two of the ‘Big Six’
icons – Michael is depressed. He has a public meltdown while chaperoning Oasis
at an awards ceremony; he’s lost joy in his bathroom full of rock’n’roll
memorabilia; and his young son is in trouble at school for emulating rock star
behaviour.

Reluctantly Michael consults Mrs Henckel, a no-nonsense therapist with zero
experience of pop culture. As Michael addresses his feelings about the past, in
particular his failed teenage band, Mental Elf, he’s forced to confront the
question: is it finally time to grow up and forget rock’n’roll?

Michael Odell is a former contributing editor to Q magazine and has written about music for NME, the Guardian, the Independent and Spin, among others. Currently he does interviews and writes on family matters for The Times. He lives in Bristol.

The Smell of Fresh Rain (eBook)

The Unexpected Pleasures of our Most Elusive Sense

Barney Shaw

Smell is the most emotional and evocative of our senses: it can bring back memories faster and with more immediacy than a photograph – so why is it so little understood?

Armed with a hungry curiosity and a willingness to self-experiment, author Barney Shaw goes in search of the hidden meanings of smells. Using plain words to describe what he finds, he investigates the chemistry, psychology, history and future of this underappreciated sense.

Journeying around boatyards, perfume shops and memories, Shaw opens your nose to the world, breaking down “chords” of smells into their component notes and through them revealing new ways of understanding the spaces through which we move.

An investigation into the biology, psychology and history of smell, and a search for effective ways to put into words scents that we instantly relate to, but find strangely ineffable, THE SMELL OF FRESH RAIN includes a 200-entry thesaurus of succinct descriptions of common smells.

Barney Shaw is an artist and former civil servant. He was Private Secretary to several Labour and Conservative Ministers, and went on to run government policy on, various aspects of work, unemployment and schools. This is his first book.

The French Exception (eBook)

Emmanuel Macron – The Extraordinary Rise and Risk

Adam Plowright

'Adam Plowright's excellent book captures the strangeness of Macron’s life' Evening Standard

THE FIRST BIOGRAPHY OF EMMANUEL MACRON IN ENGLISH

From total unknown to one of Europe's most powerful men in just a few years, at 39, France's youngest leader since Napoleon is intent on conquering the world stage. 

But what lies beneath the façade of this youthful, ultra-confident and calculating president? How did someone from small-town France assemble — in just 12 months — the network, team and finances to win the presidency? Now elected, can he make the French feel better about themselves? Can he rally Europe around him and turn the tide of right-wing nationalism sweeping the continent? Critically, what will his presidency mean for Britain?

Featuring never-before printed interviews with key members of Macron’s team, his friends, mentors and political detractors, acclaimed Paris-based journalist Adam Plowright asks: can the shine on this brilliant new president last? 

And for how long?

Adam Plowright is a former deputy editor-in-chief at Agence France Presse. Based in Paris, he has been a journalist for fifteen years.

Frank Whittle (Icon Science) (eBook)

The Invention of the Jet

Andrew Nahum

The story of the jet engine has everything: genius, tragedy, heroism, a world war, the individual vs. the state, and an idea that would change the world.

Frank Whittle always maintained that he was held back by a lack of government support. At the very moment in 1943 when his invention was unveiled to the world, his company, Power Jets, was forcibly nationalised.

Yet Whittle's brilliance, charm and charisma helped him recruit major support from the British government and the RAF, who gave him the green light to build a jet engine at a time when to do so made little sense. Here is a story of what pushing technology to its limits can achieve – and the effect that such achievement can have on those involved.

Andrew Nahum is currently Keeper Emeritus at the Science Museum, London. He is also author of Alec Issigonis and the Mini (Icon Books, 2004) and Fifty Cars that changed the World (Design Museum, 2009, 2016).

Who Is Dracula’s Father? (eBook)

And Other Puzzles in Bram Stoker’s Gothic Masterpiece

Jon Sutherland

When it was first published in 1897 – 120 years ago – Irish author Bram Stoker’s Dracula was ranked by the Daily Mail above work by Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe, as well as Wuthering Heights. Yet it never made

Stoker any money.

Since 1931’s film Nosferatu the Vampire, however, it has never been out of print and is legendary among fans of the dark, macabre and mysterious …

Critic John Sutherland, a Dracula fan since childhood – and author of the literary puzzle classics Is Heathcliff a Murderer? and Can Jane Eyre be Happy? explores the enigmas and puzzles of this towering giant of gothic

novels, such as:

Who was Dracula’s father? Why does the Count come to England? Does the Count actually give Jonathan a ‘love bite’? Why does every country we know of have a vampire legend? And finally – how long is it before we’re all vampires?

The book also includes 'Dracula Digested' by John Crace, author of the Guardian's Digested Reads column.

John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus at University College London and an eminent scholar in the field of Victorian fiction, author of many works including The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction. He has also written the bestselling popular titles Is Heathcliff a Murderer? and Can Jane Eyre be Happy?, and such scholarly jeux d’esprit as Curiosities of Literature.

Who Is Dracula’s Father? (Hardback)

And Other Puzzles in Bram Stoker’s Gothic Masterpiece

Jon Sutherland

When it was first published in 1897 – 120 years ago – Irish author Bram Stoker’s Dracula was ranked by the Daily Mail above work by Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe, as well as Wuthering Heights. Yet it never made

Stoker any money.

Since 1931’s film Nosferatu the Vampire, however, it has never been out of print and is legendary among fans of the dark, macabre and mysterious …

Critic John Sutherland, a Dracula fan since childhood – and author of the literary puzzle classics Is Heathcliff a Murderer? and Can Jane Eyre be Happy? explores the enigmas and puzzles of this towering giant of gothic

novels, such as:

Who was Dracula’s father? Why does the Count come to England? Does the Count actually give Jonathan a ‘love bite’? Why does every country we know of have a vampire legend? And finally – how long is it before we’re all vampires?

The book also includes 'Dracula Digested' by John Crace, author of the Guardian's Digested Reads column.

John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus at University College London and an eminent scholar in the field of Victorian fiction, author of many works including The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction. He has also written the bestselling popular titles Is Heathcliff a Murderer? and Can Jane Eyre be Happy?, and such scholarly jeux d’esprit as Curiosities of Literature.

Rooms with a View (eBook)

The Secret Life of Grand Hotels

Adrian Mourby

Salvador Dalí once asked room service at Le Meurice in Paris to send him up a flock of sheep. When they were brought to his room he pulled out a gun and fired blanks at them. George Bernard Shaw tried to learn the tango at Reid’s Palace in Madeira, and the details of India’s independence were worked out in the ballroom of the Imperial Hotel, Delhi.

The world’s grandest hotels have provided glamorous backgrounds for some of the most momentous – and most bizarre – events in history.

Adrian Mourby is a distinguished hotel historian and travel journalist – and a lover of great hotels. Here he tells the stories of 50 of the world’s most magnificent, among them the Adlon in Berlin, the Hotel de Russie in Rome, the Continental in Saigon, Raffles in Singapore, the Dorchester in London, Pera Palace in Istanbul and New York’s Plaza, as well as some lesser known grand hotels like the Bristol in Warsaw, the Londra Palace in Venice and the Midland in Morecambe Bay.

All human life is to be found in a great hotel, only in a more entertaining form.

Adrian Mourby was an award-winning BBC drama producer before turning to full-time writing. He has published three novels, two AA travel guides, a book based on his Sony Award-winning Radio 4 series Whatever Happened To…?, as well as the companion volume to this book, Rooms of One's Own: 50 Places that Made Literary History. In recent years Adrian has won two Italian awards for his travel journalism. He also writes extensively on opera, has produced works by Mozart, Handel and Purcell and leads cultural tours worldwide.

Is Heathcliff a Murderer? (eBook)

Puzzles in Nineteenth-Century Fiction

Jon Sutherland

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER IN A BRAND NEW EDITION

'Enchanting…the most engagingly boffiny book imaginable.' Spectator 

Does Becky kill Jos at the end of Vanity Fair? Why does no one notice that Hetty is pregnant in Adam Bede? How, exactly, does Victor Frankenstein make his monster? 
 

Readers of Victorian fiction often find themselves tripping up on seeming anomalies, enigmas and mysteries in their favourite novels. 

In Is Heathcliff a Murderer? John Sutherland investigates 34 conundrums of nineteenth-century fiction, paying homage to the most rewarding of critical activities: close reading and the pleasures of good-natured pedantry

John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus at University College London and an eminent scholar in the field of Victorian fiction, author of many works including The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction. He has also written the bestselling popular titles Is Heathcliff a Murderer? and Can Jane Eyre be Happy?, and such scholarly jeux d’esprit as Curiosities of Literature.

Is Heathcliff a Murderer? (Paperback)

Puzzles in Nineteenth-Century Fiction

Jon Sutherland

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER IN A BRAND NEW EDITION

'Enchanting…the most engagingly boffiny book imaginable.' Spectator 

Does Becky kill Jos at the end of Vanity Fair? Why does no one notice that Hetty is pregnant in Adam Bede? How, exactly, does Victor Frankenstein make his monster? 
 

Readers of Victorian fiction often find themselves tripping up on seeming anomalies, enigmas and mysteries in their favourite novels. 

In Is Heathcliff a Murderer? John Sutherland investigates 34 conundrums of nineteenth-century fiction, paying homage to the most rewarding of critical activities: close reading and the pleasures of good-natured pedantry

John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus at University College London and an eminent scholar in the field of Victorian fiction, author of many works including The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction. He has also written the bestselling popular titles Is Heathcliff a Murderer? and Can Jane Eyre be Happy?, and such scholarly jeux d’esprit as Curiosities of Literature.

Can Jane Eyre Be Happy? (eBook)

More Puzzles in Classic Fiction

Jon Sutherland

'Wonderful…concise, witty, effortlessly learned.' Sunday Times 

How does Magwitch swim to shore with a great iron on his leg? Where does Fanny Hill keep her contraceptives? Whose side is Hawkeye on? And how does Clarissa Dalloway get home so quickly? 

In this new edition sequel to the enormously successful Is Heathcliff a Murderer?, John Sutherland plays literary detective and investigates 32 literary conundrums, ranging from Daniel Defoe to Virginia Woolf. 

As in its universally loved predecessor, the questions and answers are ingenious and convincing, and return the reader with new respect to the great novels that inspire them.

John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus at University College London and an eminent scholar in the field of Victorian fiction, author of many works including The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction. He has also written the bestselling popular titles Is Heathcliff a Murderer? and Can Jane Eyre be Happy?, and such scholarly jeux d’esprit as Curiosities of Literature.

Can Jane Eyre Be Happy? (Paperback)

More Puzzles in Classic Fiction

Jon Sutherland

'Wonderful…concise, witty, effortlessly learned.' Sunday Times 

How does Magwitch swim to shore with a great iron on his leg? Where does Fanny Hill keep her contraceptives? Whose side is Hawkeye on? And how does Clarissa Dalloway get home so quickly? 

In this new edition sequel to the enormously successful Is Heathcliff a Murderer?, John Sutherland plays literary detective and investigates 32 literary conundrums, ranging from Daniel Defoe to Virginia Woolf. 

As in its universally loved predecessor, the questions and answers are ingenious and convincing, and return the reader with new respect to the great novels that inspire them.

John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus at University College London and an eminent scholar in the field of Victorian fiction, author of many works including The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction. He has also written the bestselling popular titles Is Heathcliff a Murderer? and Can Jane Eyre be Happy?, and such scholarly jeux d’esprit as Curiosities of Literature.

The 50 Greatest Churches and Cathedrals (eBook)

Sue Dobson

Cathedrals and great churches are among the most iconic sights of the world’s towns and cities.

Visible from miles around, the cathedrals of Canterbury, St Paul’s, Chartres and St Stephen’s in Vienna dominate their skylines. Others surprise by their statistics: Salisbury has Britain’s tallest spire, Wells the largest display of medieval sculptures in the world, while King’s College Chapel in Cambridge boasts the largest fan vaulting in existence. Not all are ancient: Dresden’s reconstructed Frauenkirche opened in 2005 and Gaudi’s masterpiece in Barcelona is still under construction.

Award-winning travel writer Sue Dobson gives us a highly personal tour of their highlights.

Sue Dobson is an awarding-winning travel writer and magazine editor with a passion for discovering the world, its art, music, religions and cultures. Her love of cities is balanced by the joy of landscapes as diverse as deserts and mountains.

Moving Heaven and Earth (Icon Science) (eBook)

Copernicus and the Solar System

John Henry

When Nicolaus Copernicus claimed that the Earth was not stationary at the centre of the universe but circled the Sun, he brought about a total revolution in the sciences and consternation in the Church.

Copernicus’ theory demanded a new physics to explain motion and force, a new theory of space, and a completely new conception of the nature of our universe. He also showed for the first time that a common-sense view of things isn’t necessarily correct, and that mathematics can and does reveal the true nature of the material world.

As John Henry reveals, from his idea of a swiftly moving Earth Copernicus sowed the seed from which science has grown to be a dominant aspect of modern culture, fundamental in shaping our understanding of the workings of the cosmos.

John Henry is a senior lecturer in Science Studies at Edinburgh University. He is the author of Knowledge is Power.

More Than Happiness (eBook)

Buddhist and Stoic Wisdom for a Sceptical Age

Antonia Macaro

‘This groundbreaking study provides a much-needed  philosophical framework for those practising mindfulness  as well as a call to recover the pragmatic and therapeutic dimensions of philosophy.’ – Stephen Batchelor, author of After Buddhism and Secular Buddhism

Modern readers tend to think of Buddhism as spending time alone meditating, searching for serenity.  Stoicism calls to mind repressing our emotions in order to help us soldier on through adversity. But how  accurate are our popular understandings of these traditions? And what can we learn from them without either buying in  wholeheartedly to their radical ideals or else transmuting them into simple self-improvement regimes that bear little  resemblance to their original aims?

How can we achieve more than happiness?

In More than Happiness, Antonia Macaro delves into both philosophies, focusing on the elements that fit with our sceptical age, and those which have the potential to make the biggest impact on how we live. From accepting that some things are beyond our control, to monitoring our emotions for unhealthy reactions, to shedding attachment to material things, there is much, she argues, that we can take and much that we’d do better to leave behind.

In this synthesis of ancient wisdom, Macaro reframes the ‘good life’, and gets us to see the world as it really is and to question the value of the things we desire. The goal is more than happiness: living ethically and placing value on the right things in life. 

Antonia Macaro is an existential psychotherapist, co-author of The Shrink and the Sage, and author of Reason, Virtue and Psychotherapy. She has many years’ clinical experience in the field of addictive behaviours. Antonia has a degree in Oriental Studies and an MA in Philosophy, and was part of the UK’s philosophical counselling movement from its early days.

Richard Feynman (eBook)

A Life in Science

John Gribbin

Mary Gribbin

One hundred years on from his birth, and 30 since his death, Richard Feynman’s discoveries in modern physics are still thoroughly relevant. Magnificently charismatic and fun-loving, he brought a sense of adventure to the study of science.

His extraordinary career included war-time work on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, a profoundly original theory of quantum mechanics, for which he won the Nobel prize, and major contributions to the sciences of gravity, nuclear physics and particle theory.

Interweaving personal anecdotes and recollections with clear scientific narrative, acclaimed science writers John and Mary Gribbin reveal a fascinating man with an immense passion for life – a superb teacher, a wonderful showman and one of the greatest scientists of his generation.

JOHN GRIBBIN’s numerous bestselling books include In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, 13.8, Science: A History and The Universe: A Biography. He is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sussex and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and was described as ‘one of the finest and most prolific writers of popular science around’ by the Spectator.|MARY GRIBBIN is a teacher and science writer, and previous winner of the TES Junior Information Book Award. She is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sussex, and her latest book, Out of the Shadow of a Giant: Hooke, Halley and the Birth of Science, co-written with John Gribbin published May 2017.