The Philosopher at the End of the Universe demonstrates how anyone can grasp the basic concepts of philosophy while still holding a bucket of popcorn. Mark Rowlands makes philosophy utterly relevant to our everyday lives & reveals its most potent messages using nothing more than a little humour & the plot lines of some of the most spectacular, expensive, high-octane films on the planet. Learn about: The Nature of Reality from The Matrix, Good & Evil from Star Wars, Morality from Aliens, Personal Identity from Total Recall, The Mind-Body dilemma from Terminator, Free Will from Minority Report, Death & the Meaning of Life from Blade Runner & much more- A search for knowledge about ourselves & the world around us with a star-studded cast that
Includes:: Tom Cruise, Plato, Harrison Ford, Immanuel Kant, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigourney Weaver, Rene Descartes & Keanu Reeves. & if Keanu can understand Descartes surely you can?
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' It's Schopenhauer & the will. It's Plato, it's Hume, Baudrillard & the concept of the Nietzschean superman!' Keanu Reeves on ...

In the English town of Ennistone hot springs bubble up from deep beneath the earth. In these healing waters the townspeople seek health & regeneration, rightousness & ritual cleansing. To this town steeped in ancient lore & subterranean inspiration the Philosopher returns. He exerts an almost magical influence over a host of Ennistonians, & especially over George Mc Caffrey, the host of Ennistonians, & especially over George Mc Caffrey, the Philosophers old pupil, a demonic man desperate for redemption. ...

In the English town of Ennistone hot springs bubble up from deep beneath the earth. In these healing waters the townspeople seek health & regeneration, rightousness & ritual cleansing. To this town steeped in ancient lore & subterranean inspiration the Philosopher returns. He exerts an almost magical influence over a host of Ennistonians, & especially over George Mc Caffrey, the host of Ennistonians, & especially over George Mc Caffrey, the Philosophers old pupil, a demonic man desperate for redemption. ...

* For most of us, having a baby is the most profound, intense, & fascinating experience of our lives. Now scientists & philosophers are starting to appreciate babies, too.

* The last decade has witnessed a revolution in our understanding of infants & young children. Scientists used to believe that babies were irrational, & that their thinking & experience were limited. Recently, they have discovered that babies learn more, create more, care more, & experience more than we could ever have imagined. & there is good reason to believe that babies are actually cleverer, more thoughtful, & even more conscious than adults.

* This new science holds answers to some of the deepest & oldest questions about what it means to be human. A new baby



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Ever since the piano was invented, people have longed to own one. By the nineteenth century the big, unwieldy instruments were everywhere: they shrank in the heat of the colonies, swayed on steamships & sang in the drawing room of every genteel home. Some of these old pianos have become treasured family heirlooms, some just firewood. But others have led a more itinerant life, occasionally finding their way to a secret, glass-roofed workshop in Paris where they are lovingly restored by a piano repairer with a passion for his job. When T. E. Carhart came upon Luc & his atelier, his life changed. As he explored the Eldorado of pianos in Luc's back room, absorbed Luc's wisdom on life & music & finally found the baby grand of his dreams, he rediscovered his deep love for this most magical of instruments. In this wonderfully atmospheric book, full of Parisian life, the story of a musical friendship & a mutual obsession is intertwined with reflections on how pianos work, their glorious history & the people who care for them, from the most amateur pianist to the tuners & craftsmen who make the mechanism sing. ...

Ever since the piano was invented, people have longed to own one. By the nineteenth century the big, unwieldy instruments were everywhere: they shrank in the heat of the colonies, swayed on steamships & sang in the drawing room of every genteel home. Some of these old pianos have become treasured family heirlooms, some just firewood. But others have led a more itinerant life, occasionally finding their way to a secret, glass-roofed workshop in Paris where they are lovingly restored by a piano repairer with a passion for his job. When T. E. Carhart came upon Luc & his atelier, his life changed. As he explored the Eldorado of pianos in Luc's back room, absorbed Luc's wisdom on life & music & finally found the baby grand of his dreams, he rediscovered his deep love for this most magical of instruments. In this wonderfully atmospheric book, full of Parisian life, the story of a musical friendship & a mutual obsession is intertwined with reflections on how pianos work, their glorious history & the people who care for them, from the most amateur pianist to the tuners & craftsmen who make the mechanism sing. ...

When young Charles Dickens was commissioned to write the text for a series of sporting illustrations in 1836, no one could have suspected that this journeyman task was to turn in to one of the great comic novels in English literature. After the premature death of the original illustrator, Dickens took charge of the project, which was published in monthly parts. The result is a brilliant panorama of English life in the 1830s, a cornucopia of stories & vignettes featuring dozens of vividly drawn characters. Chief among them are Mr Pickwick himself, a later day Don Quixote travelling about the country righting wrongs; & his Sancho Panza, Sam Weller, whose pithy sayings & bizarre anecdotes immediately became & remained part of national mythology. With The Pickwick Papers Dickens established himself at a single stroke as a major creative artist, revealing the depth of his human sympathies, the breadth of his interests & his extraordinary linguistic virtuosity. His first novel, published when he was 25, is his first masterpiece. The Everyman edition

Includes:: 43 illustrations by Seymour & ' Phiz' which accompanied the original edition & also reprints the 1907 preface by G. K. Chesterton.

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The dreaded Great Aunt has invited herself to stay with Nancy & Peggy just as their friends Dick & Dorothea arrive for the Summer holiday. Nancy & Peggy have to become Martyrs, wearing dresses & reading poetry (but breaking out at night), while Dick & Dorothea become Picts, secret inhabitants of the country who must never let themselves be seen. It's a desperate gamble to keep everyone out of trouble
- but can it possibly work against the eagle eyes of the fearsome Great Aunt?
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