Take one tent Fill with 12 amateur bakers Garnish with one venerable cookery writer one blue-eyed bread-maker & two comedy queens with a love of innuendo & there you have the recipe for the most popular show of our times When The Great British Bake Off made its debut in August 2010 it had the makings of a modest hit But nobody
- not the programme-makers & certainly not those first contestants
- could have predicted what was to come Here was a show in which the biggest weekly drama was whether or not a sponge cake would sink in the middle & oh how we loved it Here is the ultimate Bake Off fan book from bread lion to bin-gate; heart throbs to Twitter trolls; soggy bottoms to sticky buns This is the celebration of Britain's most popular cookery contest

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In The Story of the Human Body Daniel Lieberman Professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard shows how we need to change our world to fit our hunter-gatherer bodies This ground-breaking book of popular science explores how the way we use our bodies is all wrong From an evolutionary perspective if normal is defined as what most people have done for millions of years then it's normal to walk & run 9 -15 kilometres a day to hunt & gather fresh food which is high in fibre low in sugar & barely processed It's also normal to spend much of your time nursing napping making stone tools & gossiping with a small band of people Our 21st-century lifestyles argues Daniel Lieberman are out of synch with our stone-age bodies Never have we been so healthy & long-lived
- but never too have we been so prone to a slew of problems that were until recently rare or unknown from asthma to diabetes to
- scariest of all
- overpopulation The Story of the Human Body asks how our bodies got to be the way they are & considers how that evolutionary history
- both ancient & recent
- can help us evaluate how we use our bodies How is the present-day state of the human body related to the past? & what is the human body's future? ' Monumental The Story of the Human Body by one of our leading experts takes us on an epic voyage'
- Neil Shubin author of Your Inner Fish' Riveting enlightening & more than a little frightening'
- Christopher Mc Dougall author of Born to Run Daniel Lieberman is the Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard & a leader in the field He has written nearly 100 articles many appearing in the journals Nature & Science & his cover story on barefoot running in Nature was picked up by major media the world over His research & discoveries have been highlighted in newspapers & magazines including The New York Times Boston Globe Discover & National Geographic






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It is a story like no other an epic of endurance against destruction of creativity in oppression joy amidst grief the affirmation of life against the steepest of odds It spans the millennia & the continents
- from India to Andalusia & from the bazaars of Cairo to the streets of Oxford It takes you to unimagined places to a Jewish kingdom in the mountains of southern Arabia; a Syrian synagogue glowing with radiant wall paintings; the palm groves of the Jewish dead in the Roman catacombs & its voices ring loud & clear from the severities & ecstasies of the Bible writers to the love poems of wine bibbers in a garden in Muslim Spain Within these pages the Talmud burns in the streets of Paris massed gibbets hang over the streets of medieval London a Majorcan illuminator redraws the world; candles are lit chants are sung mules are packed ships loaded with spice & gems founder at sea & a great story unfolds Not
- as often imagined
- of a culture apart but of a Jewish world immersed in & imprinted by the peoples among whom they have dwelled from the Egyptians to the Greeks from the Arabs to the Christians Which makes the story of the Jews everyone's story too


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The paperback edition of the bestselling biography The Kinks are the quintessential British sixties band revered for an incredible series of classic songs (' You Really Got Me' ' Waterloo Sunset' & ' Lola' to name but a few) & critically acclaimed albums (The Village Green Preservation Society) Featuring original interviews with key band members Ray Davies his brother Dave & Mick Avory as well as Chrissie Hynde & many others close to the group every stage of their career is covered in fascinating detail the hits the American successes of the 1970s & the legendary band in-fighting Nearly 50 years after they formed The Kinks influence is still being felt today as strongly as ever ...

We see unusual animals in the zoo or on TV but have you ever wondered how they came to be discovered? Some of these animals were so strange & different that they were originally thought to have been invented or made up These books tell the story of some of those animals the reports of their first discovery & people's reactions to them the search for evidence of their existence & how they became recognized as real animals The books also describe the animals themselves & what makes them special or different ...

This picture book tells the tale of a little mole who wakes up one morning only to have one of the other animals do its business on his head The mole then sets out to track down the culprit to exact his revenge in his own little way 24 pages 24 colour illustrations Holzwarth Werner ...

A phenomenal success since its publication in 1989 The Story of the Little Mole has delighted adults & children alike to become an all-time humour classic 24 pages Illustrated throughout Holzwarth Werner ...

After creating the successful but controversial DC-10 jetliner in the 1970s Mc Donnell Douglas updated the type to create the MD-11 in the early 1990s A lack of resources & time meant the MD-11 became much less
- a sales flop with a questionable safety record
- & much more
- a unique three-engines machine in the twin-jet era that went on to have a long & interesting career both in passenger operations & freight hauling This book shows the development of the aircraft with a detailed look at the history of Douglas the path through the DC-10 to the MD-11 it's troubled entry into service & its second wind as a reliable cargo hauler The text is accompanied by a detailed history of every airframe from delivery to retirement A fascinating chapter in the history of the Jet Age


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Richard Garay lives alone with his mother hiding his sexuality from her & from those around him Stifled by a job he despises he finds himself willing to take considerable risks Set in Argentina in a time of great change The Story of the Night is a powerful & moving novel about a man who as the Falklands War is fought & lost finds his own way to emerge into the world ...

A brilliant introduction to the history of The Olympics from the traditional games of Ancient Greece to their revival by Pierre de Coubertin & the pomp & ceremony of the modern Games Specially written as part of the Usborne Reading Programme for children growing in reading confidence & ability featuring humorous illustrations throughout by Paddy Mounter It is developed in consultation with Alison Kelly who is a senior lecturer in education & an early reading specialist from Roehampton University ...