As one of the richest sources of diversion for the people of Britain between the end of the First World War & the 1960s the variety theatre emerged from the embers of music hall a vulgar & rumbustious entertainment that had held the working classes in thrall since the 1840s. Music hall bosses decided they would do better business if a man going to theatres on his own could take his wife & children with him knowing they would see or hear nothing that would scandalise them. So variety a gentler less red-blooded entertainment was gradually established. At the top of the profession were Gracie Fields a peerless singer & comedienne & Max Miller a comic who was renowned for being risque but who in fact never cracked a dirty joke. They were supported by acts that matched the word variety: ventriloquists drag artists animal acts acrobats jugglers magicians & many more. But the variety theatre was constantly under threat first from revue then radio the cinema girlie shows the birth of rock n roll & finally television. By the end of the 1950s the variety business seemed to have given up but the recent & extraordinary popularity of talent shows on television has proved the public appetite is still there. Variety could be about to start all over again. ...

In the past 100 years Old Trafford has hosted World Cup & European Championship matches FA Cup Finals & a Champions League Final & has witnessed countless United wins draws & defeats. Yet it endures above all as a monument to the vision of the club's founder & first patron John Henry Davies. Recognising football's exponential growth in the 1900s & the need to safely house vast numbers of supporters Davies recognised that the champions of England & 1909 FA Cup winners needed a more spacious home than tatty old Bank Street in Clayton a ground with few facilities & a capacity of less than 25 000. A brewer by trade the chairman found a spare plot of land in Old Trafford & bolstered by the club's success appointed famed football stand architect Archibald Leitch to construct a 100 000 capacity stadium on the site. Built in 1909 & officially opened in February 1910 for the league visit of Liverpool Old Trafford was instantly acclaimed by one reporter as the most handsomest [sic] the most spacious & the most remarkable arena I have ever seen. As a football ground it is unrivalled in the world it is an honour to Manchester & the home of a team who can do wonders when they are so disposed." Unfortunately the stadium arrived at just the wrong time for the club as United were about to begin a 37 year trophy-free run the longest in the club's history. Consequently United's average attendance before the war rarely topped the 30 000 mark in a ground with a capacity of over 70 000. The luckless stadium suffered further blows on the nights of the 8th & 11th March 1941 when it was bombed during The Blitz. & so for four seasons after the war United were forced to play their 'home' fixtures at Maine Road. Now in its second 'life' Old Trafford was no longer alone as a large capacity stadium yet United's resurgence under Matt Busby filled it more often than not. The arrival of floodlights & European football heralded a new chapter: the stadium is widely regarded as at its best on such occasions & from the first game against the immortals of Real Madrid in 1957 the ground hosted continental opposition & became renowned across Europe. In the sixties the ground had a new cantilever stand added to the west in preparation for the 1966 World Cup Finals & later more seats were added at the Scoreboard End & behind the Stretford End. However these improvements were as nothing compared to the dramatic changes brought about in the wake of the Taylor Report. The birth of the Premier League & United's domestic dominance helped transform the ground
- first into an all-seater stadium then steady season-by-season growth saw it swell to hold over 75 000. For a period during the protracted construction of Wembley the ground even became the national stadium hosting twelve England matches. In ' Old Trafford' Iain Mc Cartney updates his original 1996 book. Featuring the original site plans never-seen-before pictures of the ground's construction development & of course the great matches hosted there. Almost alone now among the grounds built during the first football boom in the early 20th century Old Trafford has become an essential part of the English football landscape to the extent that it is inconceivable that any future World Cup bid would not feature it prominently. A century on it is still 'an honour to Manchester' & the north's prime football arena."
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The Old Ways" is the stunning new book by acclaimed nature writer Robert Macfarlane Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize ...

The Old Ways" is the stunning new book by acclaimed nature writer Robert Macfarlane. Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize ...

First published in 1908 The Old Wives' Tale" affirms the integrity of ordinary lives as it tells the story of the Baines sisters
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Storytelling kept alive the myths legends & history of the Blasket Islands. In her old age Peig Sayers recounted her life to her son who recorded the tale in this book. She recalls the events of her life & her simple philosophy in a moving poetic style. Such everyday tasks as collecting turf for roots catching & eating seals & preparing for a wake are depicted alongside such momentous events as drownings at sea pilgrimages & the spread of the news of the Easter uprising in 1916. There were 'clouds of sorrow' but helping to lift them was the friendship she found in the community which 'was like a little rose in the wilderness'. The Blasket Islands are three miles off Irelands Dingle Peninsula. Until their evacuation just after the Second World War the lives of the 150 or so Blasket Islanders had remained unchanged for centuries. A rich oral tradition of story-telling poetry & folktales kept alive the legends & history of the islands & has made their literature famous throughout the world. The 7 Blasket Island" books published by OUP contain memoirs & reminiscences from within this literary tradition evoking a way of life which has now vanished." ...

Discover the joys of gardening using traditional plants & planting methods that have withstood the test of time. Create & maintain a garden filled with hues & scents of old-fashioned plants. This book

Includes:: everything from natural horticultural methods of propagation soil fertilization care & cultivation to period garden design & layout. This is an absorbing reference for all those wishing to garden the traditional way.

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Dr Rob Hicks is instantly recognisable from his TV & radio shows & raids the kitchen & bathroom to show old-fashioned but effective ways to get better & stay healthy. In an age when many of us are looking for more natural remedies Rob explores two angles
- what do you need to fight particular illnesses such as arthritis or bad breath & what do kitchen staples (e.g. garlic) help to beat. How you can be healthy & save money by using old-fashioned natural remedies? He also looks at past disastrous cures including mercury for whitening the skin & teeth & belladonna for 'curing' fevers & headaches
- cures which generally killed or disfigured the patient instead. A fascinating book which will appeal to those who want to know more about what they're eating & its benefits or want to fight illness naturally.

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Catherine Alliott bestselling author of A Rural Affair" & "A Crowded Marriage" tells a hilarious story about the perils of helping someone in need in " The Old-Girl Network". Finding true loves a piece of cake
- as long as youre looking for someone elses true love... Polly McLaren is young scatty & impossibly romantic. She works for an arrogant & demanding boss & has a gorgeous if never-there-when-you-need-him boyfriend. But the day a handsome stranger recognises her old school scarf her life is knocked completely off kilter. Adam is American new to the country & begs Pollys help in finding his missing fiance. Over dinner at the Savoy she agrees
- the girls of St Gertrudes look out for one another. However the old-girl network turns out to be a spiders web of complications & deceit in which everyone & everything Polly cares about is soon hopelessly entangled. The course of true love never did run smooth. But no one said anything about ruining your life over it. & its not even Pollys true love... Step into Alliott country with " The Old-Girl Network". Praise for Catherine Alliott: " Possibly my favourite writer". (Marian Keyes). " Alliotts joie de vivre is irresistible". (" Daily Mail"). Catherine Alliott is the author of twelve bestselling novels: "A Crowded Marriage" "A Married Man" " Not That Kind of Girl" " Going Too Far" " The Old-Girl Network" " Olivias Luck" " Rosie Meadows Regrets..." " The Wedding Day" " The Real Thing" " The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton" " One Day in May" "A Rural Affair". She lives with her family in Hertfordshire."

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This book tells the story of Oldburys rise from overcrowded Victorian town to progressive municiple borough & its absorption into larger local authorities from 1966. Its success was built on coalmining metal working & chemicals. Further south off the coalfield lay the rural area of old Warley whose fields were lost to housing between the wars. Langley at the boundary of the coalfield was part industrial & part rural. Oldbury Langley & Warley Through Time describes the area in 1900 & traces its changes during the twentieth century. It shows some of the people organisations & events that made up life in this hardworking hard-living area. Much recorded here has become a victim of progress & we have only photographs reports & a few eye-witnesses to preserve the history of the place & its old lifestyle. ...