The highly praised biography of an archetypal great house & the family who lived there for over 250 years. The Big House is the biography of a great country house & the lives of the Sykes family who lived there with varying fates for the next two hundred & fifty years. It is a fascinating social history set against the backdrop of a changing England with a highly individual pugnacious & self-determining cast including: Old Tat Sykes said to be one of the great sights of Yorkshire (the authors great-great-great-grandfather) who wore 18th-century dress to the day of his death at ninety-one in 1861. His son was similarly eccentric wearing eight coats that he discarded gradually throughout the day in order to keep his body temperature at a constant. He was forced to marry aged forty-eight eighteen-year-old Jessica Cavendish-Bentick -- a lively & highly intelligent woman who relieved the boredom of her marriage by acquiring a string of lovers writing novels & throwing extravagant parties (her nickname became Lady Satin Tights) all the while accumulating debts that ended in a scandalous court case. Their son Mark died suddenly whilst brokering the peace settlement at the Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War I; Sledmere was destroyed by fire shortly afterwards. But the rebuilt Sledmere rose from the flames to resound again with colourful brilliant characters in the 1920s & 1930s including the authors grandmother Lily who had been a celebrated bohemian in Paris. The Big House is vividly written & meticulously researched using the Sykes own familys papers & photographs. In this splendid biography of place & time Christopher Simon Sykes has resuscitated the lives of his ancestors & their glorious home from the 18th- through to the 20th-century. ...

Discover the big ideas that changed our world. From matches to mobiles antibiotics & the flexible drinking straw
- some inventions
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Welcome to the Island of Struay home of one of the best-loved characters in children's books
- Katie Morag Mc Coll! This lavish
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This is an exciting sticker book packed full of fun & lively scenes with hundreds of big machines for children to discover. Each scene is begging to be filled with diggers cranes trucks bulldozers & workers with simple text gently suggesting which scene needs which big vehicles. With over 300 of stickers to choose from this book is guaranteed to last for hours & offers great value for your money. ...

Breaking a decades-long silence Clarence Big Man Clemons superlative saxophonist & right-hand man to Bruce Springsteen reveals all about life both & off the road with one of the worlds most famous rock stars. For 35 years Clemons has performed with the E Street Band & has not only observed but been a huge presence in Springsteens career. In BIG MAN Clarence tells astounding true stories & spins a few legendary yarns to add to the already mystical lore of the E Street B&. From breaking into Graceland to meet the King to sharing a drink or three with Robert De Niro Clarence & his closest friend Don Reo have woven a patchwork quilt of truth & fiction that is truly groundbreaking. A must-have for anyone even remotely interested in The Boss BIG MAN contains stories that even the most dedicated fan will never have heard before. ...

In October 1988 an Inuit hunter saw three grey whales trapped in the frozen Arctic ocean near Barrow an isolated Alaskan outpost. They were working together to keep their blow hole open the two adolescents caring for the weaker baby. It was a poignant sight. Filmed by a local television reporter this tiny regional news story snowballed into a global media frenzy. In this gripping insightful book Tom Rose describes how journalists poured into Barrow all woefully ill equipped for the sub-zero temperatures warming up on bootleg alcohol. As the locals cheerfully found ways to profit from the visitors Greenpeace activist Cindy Lowry battled to mount an extraordinary rescue operation that would unite conservationists & oil companies the Inuit & the military President Reagan & the Kremlin. At times a marvellously funny story.. . Beneath the heartwarming aspect of the rescue are darker tales of human greed & about the power television has acquired to set the agenda of the news Washington Post Few novels could match the characters plot & dramatic tension Chicago Tribune ...

In March 2004 Hank Haney received a call from Tiger Woods in which the golf champion asked Haney to be his coach. It was a call that would change both men's lives. Tiger
- only 28 at the time
- was by then already an icon judged by the sporting press as not only one of the best golfers ever but possibly the best athlete ever. But Tiger was always looking to improve & he wanted Hank's help. Over the next six years of working together the supremely gifted Woods collected six major championships & rewrote golf history. Hank was one of the very few people allowed behind the curtain. Always haunting Tiger was his fear of 'the big miss'
- the wildly inaccurate golf shot that can ruin an otherwise solid round
- & it was because that type of blunder was sometimes part of Tiger's game that Hank carefully redesigned his swing mechanics. Towards the end of their time together the champion's laser-like focus began to blur & he became less willing to put in punishing hours practicing. Hints that Tiger hungered to reinvent himself were present in his bizarre infatuation with elite military training &
- in a development Hank didn't see coming
- in the scandal that would make headlines in late 2009. It all added up to a big miss that Hank try as he might couldn't save Tiger from. There's never been a book about Tiger Woods that is as intimate & revealing
- or one so wise about what it takes to coach a superstar athlete.






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The hills only come back the same: I dont mind.. . begins Kirsty Gunns The Big Music" a novel that takes us to a new understanding of how fiction can affect us. Presented as a collection of found papers appendices & notes " The Big Music" tells the story of John Sutherland of The Grey House who is dying & creating in the last days of his life a musical composition that will define it. Yet he has little idea of how his tune will echo or play out into the world
- & as the book moves inevitably through its themes of death & birth change & stasis the sound of his solitary story comes to merge & connect with those around him. In this work of fiction Kirsty Gunn has created something as real as music or as a dream. Not so much a novel as a place the reader comes to inhabit & to know " The Big Music" is a literary work of undeniable originality & power."
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Already a New York Times best-seller its two firsts in one for a Big Nate book! The first Sundays-only & first full-colour Big Nate collection both debut in Big Nate All Work & No Play. Enjoy more than two years of Sunday cartoons portraying the colourful life of Nate Wright. This spunky eleven-year-old holds the school record for detentions & is in little chance of losing that distinction but that doesnt stop him from dreaming big! Hes a self-described genius a sixth-grade renaissance man & a full-fledged believer in his future as a cartoonist. Equipped with a No. 2 pencil & the unshakable belief that he is No. 1 Nate fights a daily battle against overzealous teachers undercooked cafeteria food & all-around conventionality. ...

Aspiring cartoonist Nate Wright is the star of Big Nate the daily & Sunday comic strip distributed by Newspaper Enterprise Association since 1991. Nate is eleven years old four-&-a-half feet tall & the all-time record holder for detentions in school history. He's a self-described genius & sixth grade Renaissance Man. Equipped with only a 2 pencil & the unshakable belief that he is 1 Nate fights a daily battle against overzealous teachers undercooked cafeteria food & all-around conventionality. He's the original rebel without a clue alternately abrasive & endearing to classmates & teachers alike. Nate blazes an unforgettable trail through the sixth grade at P.S. 38 earning straight A's in laughs along the way. ...