Few living artists can claim to have had the influence of Michael Craig- Martin Celebrated around the world for his distinctive work & with major retrospectives high-profile commissions & numerous honours to his name he has also helped nurture generations of younger artists among them Julian Opie Damien Hirst Sarah Lucas Liam Gillick & Gary Hume Often described as the godfather of the YBAs he taught by combining personal example & individual guidance offering students encouragement practical advice & insights gained from his own professional highs & lows This powerful combination gave them the self-knowledge confidence & motivation to flourish as some of the most successful figures in contemporary art Now Craig-Martin shares the same benefit of his experiences with yet another generation Part memoir & part instructional guide On Being An Artist is a remarkable mix of reminiscence personal philosophy anecdote self-examination & advice for the budding artist In a series of short episodes he reflects with both wit & candour on the many ideas events & people that have inspired & shaped him throughout his life from his childhood in the postwar United States through his time as an art student at Yale in the 1960s & subsequent work as a teacher to his international success in later years More than the life of one of the most creative minds of our age On Being An Artist provides lesson after valuable lesson to anyone wishing to know what it means & what it takes to be an artist today ...

Most books that want to change us seek to make us richer or thinner This book wants to help us to be nicer that is less irritable more patient readier to listen warmer less prickly Niceness may not have the immediate allure of money or fame but it is a hugely important quality nevertheless & one that we neglect at our peril This is a guidebook to the uncharted landscape of Niceness gently leading us around the key themes of this forgotten quality We learn how to be charitable how to forgive how to be natural & how to reassure We learn that niceness is compatible with strength & is no indicator of naivety Niceness deserves to be rediscovered as one of the highest of all human achievements ...

Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play Emotionally devastated by the death of his uncle Boston carpenter Jack O& Toole (Mc Intyre) writes a play inspired by the man&s wake When nobody will produce the play Jack quits his job to produce it himself imagining that this play will give a new start to the strained relationship Jack has with his father But the only stage Jack can afford is in the back room of a neighbourhood pub In this humble environment Jack pulls together a theatre company of sorts & brings his story to the stage & in the process he brings together his family & friends & helps them move beyond their loss ...

A 1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit Everyone knows this Each of us contributes his share But we tend to take the situation for granted Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit & to avoid being taken in by it So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is why there is so much of it or what functions it serves & we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us In other words as Harry Frankfurt writes we have no theory Frankfurt one of the world's most influential moral philosophers attempts to build such a theory here With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity psychological insight & wry humor Frankfurt proceeds by exploring how bullshit & the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying He argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do that is by deliberately making false claims about what is true In fact bullshit need not be untrue at all Rather bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth & falsity are irrelevant Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner's capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true By virtue of this Frankfurt writes bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are ...

A collection of charming & celebrated writings about cats from Doris Lessing winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature Doris Lessing's love affair with cats began at a young age when she became intrigued with the semi-feral creatures on the African farm where she grew up Her fascination remained undiminished by the handsome domesticated creatures who shared her flats & her life in London & grew into real love with El Magnifico the awkwardly lovable cat who in his later years suffered the great indignity of becoming a three-legged beast Consisting of Lessing's celebrated collection of stories Particularly Cats & Rufus' & the poignant though unsentimental memoir The Old Age of El Magnifico' this book is a brilliant evocation of the feline world ...

It is July 1962 Edward & Florence young innocents married that morning arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast At dinner in their rooms they struggle to suppress their private fears of the wedding night to come ...

A seasonal anthology of Christmas-themed writings to savour during the highs & lows of Christmas Day This delightful book offers a diverse array of classic & contemporary writers who have expressed their thoughts about Christmas over the centuries
- with joy nostalgia & dazzling wit 192 pages
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A must-have homeware accessory for anyone who loves wine & unicorns! This blush coloured stemless wine glass features the words ' On Cloud Wine' in metallic gold Exclusive to Something Different Wholesale Not suitable for microwave or dishwasher use This product is part of our Unicorn Blush collection ...

The difference between success & failure often hangs on a fascinatingly small & elusive concept that our standard education system never touches confidence This is a guidebook to what confidence consists of why we lack it
- & how we can acquire more of it in our lives On Confidence walks us gently & wryly around the key issues that stop us from making more of our potential We hear about the impostor syndrome the wisdom of imagining the great in their bathrooms & what Nietzsche & Montaigne (among others) have to tell us about resilience & courage We often stay stuck with the level of confidence we have because we implicitly regard being confident as a matter of slightly freakish & unrepeatable good luck In fact as this essay charmingly shows the opposite is true Confidence is a skill based on a set of ideas about our place in the world
- & its secrets can quietly & deftly be learnt

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The inspirational stories of the diverse & courageous acts of men & women awarded the Victoria Cross & George Cross 400 pages 2x 8pp plate section The Sebastopol Project ...