How to Play Chess (Paperback)

The Instant Guide

Instant Guides

Great British Battles (Paperback)

The Instant Guide

Instant Guides

English Grammar (Paperback)

The Instant Guide

Instant Guides

Ball of Confusion (eBook)

Puzzles, Problems and Perplexing Posers

Johnny Ball

TV maths star Johnny Ball presents brain-teasers from his regular slot on his daughter Zoe's Radio 2 show. Ball of Confusion is designed to twist your brain into enjoyable knots of empuzzlement, from puzzles solved in a twinkling of an eye to some that will knit your brow for hours. From how to cheat in a coin toss to why it is that some parts of a high speed train travelling at 125mph are actually going backwards, Ball of Confusion will bend your mind in places it's never been bent before.

'This is a lovely compilation of puzzles including many classics, and Johnny Ball's legendary enthusiasm and humour jump out of every page.' Rob Eastaway, co-author Maths for Mums & Dads.

Johnny Ball became TVu2019s best-loved mathematician in the 1970s and 80s, presenting Think of a Number for the BBC and Johnny Ball Reveals All on ITV.

The Etymologicon (eBook)

A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language

Mark Forsyth

'Witty and erudite … stuffed with the kind of arcane information that nobody strictly needs to know, but which is a pleasure to learn nonetheless.' Nick Duerden, Independent.

'Particularly good … Forsyth takes words and draws us into their, and our, murky history.' William Leith, Evening Standard.

The Etymologicon is an occasionally ribald, frequently witty and unerringly erudite guided tour of the secret labyrinth that lurks beneath the English language.

What is the actual connection between disgruntled and gruntled? What links church organs to organised crime, California to the Caliphate, or brackets to codpieces?

Mark Forsyth's riotous celebration of the idiosyncratic and sometimes absurd connections between words is a classic of its kind: a mine of fascinating information and a must-read for word-lovers everywhere.

'Highly recommended' Spectator.

Mark Forsyth is a writer, journalist and blogger. His book The Etymologicon was a Sunday Times Number One Bestseller and his TED Talk 'What's a snollygoster?' has had more than half a million views. He is also the author of The Horologicon and The Elements of Eloquence, and wrote a specially commissioned essay The Unknown Unknown for Independent Booksellers Week. He lives in London with his dictionaries, and blogs at blog.inkyfool.com.

A Practical Guide to Positive Psychology (eBook)

Achieve Lasting Happiness

Bridget Grenville-Cleave

The Dickens Dictionary (eBook)

An A-Z of Britain's Greatest Novelist

Jon Sutherland

For fans new and old, an enjoyable tour through the world of Dickens in the hands of a master critic. Charles Dickens, the 'Great Inimitable', created a riotous fictional world that still lives and breathes for thousands of readers today. But how much do we really know about the dazzling imagination that brought all this into being?
For the bicentenary of Dickens' birth, Victorian literature expert John Sutherland has created a gloriously wide-ranging alphabetical companion to Dickens' work, excavating the hidden links between his characters, themes, and preoccupations, and the minutiae of his endlessly inventive wordplay.
Covering America, Bastards, Childhood, Christmas, Empire, Fog, Larks, London, Madness, Murder, Orphans, Pubs, Punishment, Smells, Spontaneous Combustion and Zoo to name but a few – John Sutherland gives us a uniquely personal guide to the great man's work.
Excerpt: HANDS; Every Dickens novel has a master image. In Our Mutual Friend it is the river. In Bleak House it is the fog. In Little Dorrit, it is the prison. In Great Expectations it is the hand. We often know much more about the principals' hands in that novel than their faces. Who, when the name Magwitch is mentioned, does not think of those murderous 'large brown veinous hands'? Jaggers? One's nose twitches—scented soap (the lawyer, like Pontius Pilate, is forever washing his hands). Miss Havisham? Withered claws. So it goes on…

John Sutherland is the recently retired Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus at University College London: a title that one feels Dickens might have had some fun with. He has taught and published widely, particularly on Victorian fiction. His most recent relevant books are The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (Longman, 2009) and Lives of the Novelists: A History of Fiction in 294 Lives (Profile, 2011). He and Stephen Fender published Love, Sex, Death and Words: Surprising Tales from a Year in Literature with Icon Books in 2010.

The Universe Inside You (eBook)

The Extreme Science of the Human Body from Quantum Theory to the Mysteries of the Brain

Brian Clegg

Built from the debris of exploding stars that floated through space for billions of years, home to a zoo of tiny aliens, and controlled by a brain with more possible connections than there are atoms in the universe, the human body is the most incredible thing in existence.

In the sequel to his bestselling Inflight Science, Brian Clegg explores mitochondria, in-cell powerhouses which are thought to have once been separate creatures; how your eyes are quantum traps, consuming photons of light from the night sky that have travelled for millions of years; your many senses, which include the ability to detect warps in space and time, and why meeting an attractive person can turn you into a gibbering idiot.

Read THE UNIVERSE INSIDE YOU and you'll never look at yourself the same way again.

Brian Clegg is a science journalist and writer. He runs www.popularscience.co.uk and his previous books include Inflight Science (Icon, 2011), Before the Big Bang (St Martin's Griffin, 2011), Armageddon Science (St Martin's Press, 2010), and A Brief History of Infinity (Robinson Publishing, 2003). www.brianclegg.net

A Practical Guide to Philosophy for Everyday Life (eBook)

See the Bigger Picture

Trevor Curnow

How can we apply philosophy to our everyday lives? Can philosophy affect the way we live? This book will show how philosophy can help to improve your thinking about everyday life. And how, by improving the quality of your thinking, you can improve the quality of your life. It will make you more aware of what you think and why, and how knowing this can help you can change the way you think about your life. Full of practical examples and straightforward advice, and written by an expert in the field, this guide can help you become calmer and happier, and make better decisions.

Trevor Curnow is Reader in Philosophy at the University of Cumbria. He has taught philosophy for most of the last thirty years in various places including the Open University, the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Khartoum.

A Practical Guide to Building Self-Esteem (eBook)

Accept, Value and Empower Yourself

David Bonham-Carter

This Practical Guide shows you how raising your self-esteem can make you feel better about yourself; let you stop you worrying about whether you are doing the right thing or whether you are good enough; help you engage in relationships constructively without putting yourself down and allow you to assert yourself effectively in all situations. Self-esteem has been shown to be a key indicator of success in life and in the work place. Filled with straightforward, practical advice, this guide shows you how to improve your self-esteem and stop worrying about what other people think.

David Bonham-Carter is a member of the Association for Coaching and has MA in Social Work from the University of Kent. He was a social worker and probation officer for many years before becoming a specialist life and business coach.