This is a book for the three million 'social' bridge players (in the UK alone) who know the rules & can play a reasonable h&, but want to refine their skills & improve their understanding of the game.

The 121 tips offered range from simple to more advanced & all offer solid advice on how best to deal with a variety of situations. Tips are clearly explained & are followed by an example hand & a reader's test. There is no simpler way to improve your bridge.

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Sam can't believe it when big-mouth Malcolm tells everyone that her dad sings in a male voice choir. Even worse, he's now planning to sing at her school in a fund-raising concert! But it's even worse for her new friend, Eddie. His dad is an Elvis Presley impersonator- Sam's sorry for Eddie, until she hears the REALLY bad news: the two dads are going to perform TOGETHER! ...

' Within the first 15 pages I was carried away by the sheer craziness of it all. Some Minipirates find a baby bear with blue fur inside a walnut shell floating on the ocean towards a giant whirlpool. They rescue him & teach him about knots & waves, & that a good white lie is often considerably more exciting than the truth. Then, when he outgrows their ship to such an extent that he is in danger of sinking it, they abandon him on an island with a bottle of seaweed juice & a loaf of seaweed bread. Thus Bluebear comes to the end of his first life & embarks on his second. By the end of the book, he has expended exactly half of his 27 lives. Again & again, Moers confounds our expectations as the narrative twists & turns, travels backwards & forwards in time. Part science fiction, part fairy tale, part myth, part epic, the book is a satire on all these genres & so constantly satirises itself. Very amusing' Daily Telegraph ...

* Henry V is regarded as the great English hero. Lionised in his own day for his victory at Agincourt, his piety and ...

* Henry V is regarded as the great English hero. Lionised in his own day for his victory at Agincourt, his piety and ...

142 Strand was the home of the brilliant, unconventional young publisher John Chapman. All the daring & avant-garde writers & thinkers of Victorian London gathered here, among them Thomas Carlyle, Dickens, Thackeray, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, & the scientist Thomas Henry Huxley (Darwin's 'bulldog'), as well as visiting Americans like Emerson, refugees from revolutionary Europe like Mazzini, & radical feminists like Barbara Leigh Smith, later founder of Girton College, Cambridge. They contributed to Chapman's campaigning Westminster Review & attended his lively evening parties. In 1851 Chapman brought Marian Evans
- the future George Eliot
- to London to edit the Review. Her arrival caused rows in the household, which included Chapman's wife & also his mistress.

The Strand was packed with booksellers, magazine publishers, theatres, clubs, & quack doctors. Just behind lay the brothels of Covent Garden & the disreputable pornographers of Holywell Street, while Westminster & the Houses of Parliament were a short distance away. Chapman's circle touched all these worlds, & the vivid story of these unconventional lives & unorthodox views
- marvellously told by Rosemary Ashton
- takes us to the heart of Victorian culture, uncovering its surprising energy, its doubts & arguments, &, above all, its passionate reforming spirit.





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142 Strand was the home of the brilliant, unconventional young publisher John Chapman. All the daring & avant-garde writers & thinkers of Victorian London gathered here, among them Thomas Carlyle, Dickens, Thackeray, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, & the scientist Thomas Henry Huxley (Darwin's 'bulldog'), as well as visiting Americans like Emerson, refugees from revolutionary Europe like Mazzini, & radical feminists like Barbara Leigh Smith, later founder of Girton College, Cambridge. They contributed to Chapman's campaigning Westminster Review & attended his lively evening parties. In 1851 Chapman brought Marian Evans
- the future George Eliot
- to London to edit the Review. Her arrival caused rows in the household, which included Chapman's wife & also his mistress.

The Strand was packed with booksellers, magazine publishers, theatres, clubs, & quack doctors. Just behind lay the brothels of Covent Garden & the disreputable pornographers of Holywell Street, while Westminster & the Houses of Parliament were a short distance away. Chapman's circle touched all these worlds, & the vivid story of these unconventional lives & unorthodox views
- marvellously told by Rosemary Ashton
- takes us to the heart of Victorian culture, uncovering its surprising energy, its doubts & arguments, &, above all, its passionate reforming spirit.





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Do you know how to change a tyre? Give a speech? Or shave without leaving a nasty rash? How about ironing a shirt? Urinal etiquette? Or how to know if you are falling in love?

Neither did 24-year-old author Gareth May until he started to gather centuries-old male wisdom for the

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Although 1759 is not a date as well known in British history as 1215, 1588, or 1688, there is a strong case to be made that it is the most significant year since 1066. In the two great battles of 1759, Britain effectively beat France for global supremacy & founded the first British Empire. From the almost uninterrupted series of victories that year came momentous consequences. Victory in the East, in India & the Philippines, which in turn led to the colonisation of Australia & New Zeal&. Victory in North America secured Canada for the empire &, by removing the French, created the conditions which inspired American rebellion. Until now, the story of the causes & consequences of The Seven Years War (1756-63) has been largely obscured. As Thackeray famously remarked in Barry Lindon, it would take a theologian, rather than an historian, to unravel the true causes. Drawing on a mass of primary materials
- from texts in the Vatican archives to oral histories of the North American Indians
- Frank Mc Lynn shows how the conflict between Britain & France triggered the first 'world war', raging from Europe to Africa; the Caribbean to the Pacific; the plains of the Ganges to the Great Lakes of North America, & also brought about the War of Independence, the acquisition by Britain of the Falkland Islands & ultimately, The French Revolution.

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