Bravo to our amazing Jane Brocket who has such a distinct personal flavour & shares with us ways to play with floral fabrics. I defy anyone who quilts not to go running to a fabric shop & get stuck into a new project. Kaffe Fassett * Create totally unique quilts for family & friends * stunning inspirational photography throughout * Discover how to quilt & design with complete confidence The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making is a charming inspirational & practical collection of 15 quilts for would-be quilters by leading author Jane Brocket. Theres a Russian Shawl Quilt inspired by traditional motifs of Russian folk art a Floral Frocks Quilt inspired by summer dresses flower gardens & herbaceous borders & a Suits & Ties Quilt reusing sober woollen suiting contrasting with extravagant silk ties designed in an Irish Chain. Finally a practical section covers all the knowledge youll need
- from chain-piecing h&-quilting & sandwiching to binding storage & caring for your quilt. Armed with the design tools you can embark on your quilting journey & begin creating your own personal masterpiece.
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With an emphasis on Jane Brockets gentle approach to craft this book celebrates the simple act & very enjoyable pleasures of stitching. In a collection of more than 40 projects Jane will show you how to make simple stylish & eye-catching pieces for your home. Whatever you choose to make from quilts & samplers to needlepoint pin cushions & stitched greetings cards Janes unique take on stitching will ensure that the creative process is as enjoyable as seeing the finished object. The authors text & photographs outline her inspiration for each project &

Includes:: her top tips on the best places to find fabrics ribbon buttons & everything else you need to create beautiful gentle stitching. With techniques as varied as Japanese Sashiko kantha quilting traditional cross stitch & modern day crinoline ladies there is something here for every keen stitcher. Word count: 50 000

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This hilarious take on motoring from the AA offers advice on every conceivable aspect of motoring
- from the desirability of lashings
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Have you ever found that once you are between the sheets Madame Bovary is too heavy magazines are too slippery & The Guns of Navarone too long? In that case A Gentleman's Bedside Book" is perfectly designed to satisfy those final moments of the days with facts stories ideas & instructions that will help every bright boy to become a smarter man with a well rounded curriculum of lessons in Science English Home Economics R.E Modern Languages P.E Art Music & Woodwork. This is a lucky dip of bedside derring-do humour & oddity written in his unique style by best-selling humourist Tom Cutler. It is constantly surprising ridiculously fascinating & very very funny. It

Includes:: such entries as: human anatomy for the practical man; the most frequent dream subjects; delicious caustic curries you can make; emergency meals from nowhere; shaving
- top tips from the pros; deerstalkers & why they matter; & how to grow a dashing moustache. This title also

Includes:: entries such as: how to open a Champagne bottle with a sword; Samuel Pepys
- the rude bits; best ever book titles; tongue twisters; those you may not marry from " The Book of Common Prayer"; the worst ever movie dialogue; useful foreign chat-up lines; an international swearing dictionary; filthy foreign food; historic dumb predictions; the history of concrete; dad rock; coming out on top in a pub brawl; how to dissolve your wife; mental arithmetic tricks for the practical man
- ten tricks; famous car crashes & victims; the seven habits of the highly effective Lothario; really bad chat-up lines; best urban legends
- a list; sword swallowing for fun & profit; how to develop a gigantic memory; & mind blowing mind reading for the complete novice."







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Once upon a time ordering a cocktail at a bar was the kind of thing an aging lothario might do to impress a girl. But these days knowing your Margarita from your Mojito & your Old-Fashioned from your Tom Collins is essential knowledge for every modern gent. In The Gentleman's Guide to Cocktails Alfred Tong will teach you all you need to know about the fine art of mixology. From tools of the trade to muddling & mixing schmoozing & shaking & including secrets from some of the world's best bartenders you'll be mixing with mojo in no time. Hone your skills with over 100 recipes ranging from classics like Bloody Marys & Whiskey Sours to modern marvels such as the Flirtini the Don Draper & Under the Boardwalk. Slick & stylish dapper & dandy The Gentleman's Guide to Cocktails will turn you into the man who mixes. Is it worth the time just to get a drink I hear you ask? Well yes it does require some effort but then so does having a suit made seducing a woman or landing that contract. Doing it properly matters. This book is going to show you how. ...

Who has time nowadays to put in the graft to succeed? & why bother when the truly important things in life only take a quarter of an hour to master? Here Tom Cutler proves that following the path to becoming disgustingly rich stylish intelligent thin happy classy successful & a legend in the bedroom need take no longer than it does to cut your toenails or listen to The Archers. You can learn how to become as popular as your dog. Which sports car suits your personality? How to work out the date of your death. Are you a genius? With Tom Cutler's help you will soon find inner perfection & hugely impress your family friends & work colleagues. From the author of the brilliant A Gentleman's Bedside Book" this is a hilariously funny but deeply practical guide to self-improvement." ...

At St Oswalds a long-established boys grammar school in the north of England a new year has just begun. For the staff & boys of the school a wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits paperwork & Information Technology rule the world; & Roy Straitley the eccentric veteran Latin master is finally
- reluctantly
- contemplating retirement. But beneath the little rivalries petty disputes & everyday crises of the school a darker undercurrent stirs. & a bitter grudge hidden & carefully nurtured for thirteen years is about to erupt.

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Gentlemen v Players was a first-class cricket match first played in 1806 which was subsequently an annual fixture at Lords between teams consisting of amateurs (the Gentlemen) & of professionals (the Players). The amateur was not merely someone who played the sport in his spare time but a particular type of first-class cricketer. The key difference between the amateur & the professional was much more than one of remuneration whereby the one received expenses for playing & the other was paid a wage. It was shaped by English class structure through the perception that the amateur had a higher station in life & was therefore a class apart from the professional. The great Yorkshire player Len Hutton was asked to go amateur if he wanted to captain Engl&. This book focuses on the final ten years of amateurism & the Gentlemen v Players fixture starting with Charles Williams own presence in the (amateur) Oxbridge teams that included future England captains such as Peter May Colin Cowdrey & MJK Smith & concluding with the abolition of amateurism in 1962 when all first-class players became professional. The amateur innings was duly declared closed. Charles Williams the author of a richly acclaimed biography of Donald Bradman was himself a first-class cricketer for Oxford University & Essex
- & an amateur. His vivid social history-cum-memoir looks at the attempt in post-war Britain to recreate a Golden Age one whose expiry exactly coincided with the beginnings of top-class one-day cricket & a cricket revolution.
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The English love affair with the landscape garden reached its height in the eighteenth century when the creation of some of our greatest gardens set a stylistic lead which Continental Europe was eager to follow. In this informed & entertaining book Timothy Mowl reveals how this development in garden style came about through an interaction between the garden owners who had a vision of what these gardens might become & the professionals who had the expertise to realise this vision. Ideas technologies & discoveries were exchanged & theories were absorbed popularised & then discarded in a fascinating sequence of action & reaction. It was a mould-breaking revolutionary period in garden history. Mowl takes the reader on a fascinating journey to the magnificent gardens at Chiswick Stowe Castle Howard Painshill Stourhead & an astonishing host of lesser Edens & casts a fresh & illuminating perspective on the great age of the English Arcadia (1620-1820). ...

Everyone loves a romantic rogue whose exciting exploits feature a cheeky disregard for the law narrow escapes & lots of love interest. Even at the height of highway robbery activity it was thought that the death penalty was too harsh for these wayward scoundrels. There was the ever-courteous Claude du Vall the epitome of gentlemanliness; the infamous Katherine Ferrars who was the inspiration for the film The Wicked Lady; Dick Turpin the most famous highwayman of them all; & lesser-known characters like William Gordon whose corpse was subjected to an experiment in reanimation. All these & more form an entertaining volume that will keep the reader glued to the page following the mounted thief in his or her endless match against the law & a death by public hanging. ...