Otsing: 81913

Sometimes we swim, sometimes we float, other times we are drowning. Its not always easy to know which is which. It is the ten-year anniversary of her sisters death, and Nia is grappling with her grief, and balancing the complicated relationships weaving through her life. There is smart and sexy Temi; Melvin, her teenage love; and her new yet intimate friendship with Rahul and Crystal. But looming large over everything is her mother SuSu, whose battle with bipolar disorder continues to cast a profound shadow over Nia. Delving deep into the intricate tapestry of Nia's life, Like Water Like Sea is a poignant tale of self-discovery and resilience, sexuality and motherhood, and falling apart to become truly whole. Autorid: Olumide Popoola

Longlisted: RSL Ondaatje Prize 2025 The Seers follows the first weeks of a homeless Eritrean refugee in London. Set around a foster home in Kilburn and in the squares of Bloomsbury, where its protagonist Hannah sleeps, the novel grapples with how agency is given to the sexual lives of refugees, presenting gender-fluid, trans and androgynous African immigrants, and insisting that the erotic and intimate side of life is as much a part of someones story as land and nations are. Hannah arrives in London with her mothers diary, containing a disturbing sexual story taking place in Keren, Eritrea, where the Allies defeated the Italians in the Second World War. In a gripping, continuous paragraph, The Seers moves between the present day and the past to explore intergenerational histories, colonial trauma, and the realities of the UK asylum system and its impact on young refugees. Autorid: Sulaiman Addonia

Following the success of his ground-breaking first book in this series, Barry Ord Clarke (recently voted Flytyer of the World) is sharing his latest innovations in this publication. As with his first book, each step-by-step photographic tying sequence is linked to the online video of him tying each of the flies featured. This gives flytyers the best of both worlds. They can work carefully at their own pace using the book, while the QR code next to each sequence takes them straight to the optional video which gives the overall visual tying lesson. Flies included are: The Ubiquitous Nymph, Danica Mayfly Nymph,Moose Mane Nymph, Clarkes All Purpose Emerger, Midge Emerger, Emergent Sparkle Pupa, Hares ear soft Hackle, All Fur Wet Fly, Hares Ear Parachute, Anorexic Mayfly, CDC Mayfly Dun, Mallard Slip Wings, Compara Dun, Clarkes Caddis, Diving Caddis, Dyret, Welshmans Button, Fluttering caddis, Red Panama, Giant Stonefly, Braided Blue Damsel, The Worm, Float Foam Ant, Madam X, Foam Cylinder Cranefly, Phantom Zonker, Gummi Grub, Silicone Fry. Autorid: Barry Ord Clarke

A prowl through words reveals the unstable character of the cosmos.With entries as varied as ‘elbow’, ‘Ophelia’, ‘progress’, the painter Giorgio Morandi, ‘chess’, ‘Eulalia’ (a friend of the author’s aunt), and ‘unicorn’, Ida Vitale constructs a dictionary of her long and passionately engaged artistic life. Taking the reader by the arm, she invites us to become her confidant, sharing her remarkable 20th century as a member of a storied generation of Latin American writers, of whom she is the last remaining alive. It’s a compendium of friendship, travel, reading, and the endless opportunities she found for 'the joyful possibility of creation.' Like every dictionary, Lexicon of Affinities seeks to impose order on chaos, even if in its exuberant, whimsical profusion it lays bare the unstable character of the cosmos. Autorid: Ida Vitale, Sean Manning

Poetry Book Society Recommendation "The poet laureate of UK jazz." The Guardian "One of the most important writers working today." Dr Obaro Ejimiwe aka Ghostpoet Joshua Idehen's collected works has been a long time coming. Songbook comprises verses from Mercury-nominated and MOBO-winning albums by Sons of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming, alongside watershed poems of spoken word legend, newly captured in book form. From Poejazzi and Benin City to a string of supreme collaborations, Idehen's impact resonates far and wide across the landscapes of poetry and jazz/electronica. Cross-examining colonialism, Brexit Britain, masculinity, mental health and ways of healing, his writing is an essential provocation, a comedy roast, an intervention, a cannonball from which no one is safe, least of all himself. "Songbook feels like a large, black, tattered flag, running at enemy hordes, screaming, It's on." Roger Robinson "A few Idehen songs before bedtime will leave you feeling revolutionary." Leone Ross "A writer whose poems leap from the page. Idehen's indomitable spirit shines through in Songbook." Yomi Sode Autorid: Joshua Idehen

When fourteen-year-old Aaron Hunter finally meets his disgraced scientific hero, Eric Woods, he's violently thrust into an ancient cosmic war that Earth never knew existed. Now, wielding mysterious powers and fighting alongside unlikely allies, Aaron must confront an unknown and brutal being who holds the key to Earths extinction. But becoming a warrior may cost Aaron everything, including his humanity. As it dawns on Aaron that the cosmic war spans multiple lives and dimensions, he realises this conflict hinges on the decisions he will make and the battles he will face. When the final battle threatens everything he loves, Aaron must make an impossible choice: embrace his warrior destiny or watch humanity fall to an enemy who knows him better than himself. Autorid: Samuel David

Over the past decade, we have begun to talk more openly about the widespread harm inflicted by men on women. But little has been said about the fact that many of these men are also fathers. In Daddy Issues Katherine Angel draws on thinkers and writers from D. W. Winnicott to Valerie Solanas, from Virginia Woolf to Alison Bechdel, as she examines the place of fathers in contemporary culture. She tracks how the relationship between fathers and daughters is so often presented as a twisted romance, with the burden falling always on the daughter. Bold, challenging and nuanced, Daddy Issues asks how the mixture of love and hatred we feel towards our fathers can be turned into a relationship that is generative rather than destructive. If we are to effectively dismantle patriarchy, it is vital that fathers are kept on the hook. Autorid: Katherine Angel, Helen Charman

In Diary of an Ending, internationally renowned photographer Lina Scheynius expands her artistic vision to prose, offering an unflinching and intimate exploration of heartbreak and self-recovery. Blurring the boundaries between diary and essay, Diary of an Ending explores the break-up of a relationship, combining extracts from Scheyniuss diary written in Swedish and translated by Saskia Vogel with reflective essays written in English five years on, exploring ideas about art and photography, sex and passion, the act of diary-making, destructive relationships, motherhood and home. Interspersed with black-and-white photographs, and written with the same unashamed and unfiltered honesty that defines Scheyniuss photography, Diary of an Ending is an intimate hybrid of memoir and autofiction, a meditation on the passage of time and the transformative power of creativity. Autorid: Lina Scheynius, Saskia Vogel, Traven T. Croves

In each edition, Vintage Home, Country Livings yearly book, celebrates four different ways to bring vintage style into your home, whether you are after a full-blown look (think French farmhouse or industrial) or are simply wanting to add subtle elements to complement your more modern interior. Decorating sections offer inspiration, plus we showcase vintage homeware shops and emporiums around the UK and how to curate collectables, from Liberty fabric to vinyl records. Autorid: Country Living

Over the last four decades, Lynne Tillman has established herself as one of America's most audacious writers, a tireless innovator whose shorter works have reimagined the story form. Thrilled to Death collects a bold, anarchic, and eclectic ensemble of Tillman's fictions. By turns outrageous and melancholy, meditative and abrupt, these stories are animated by deliciously paradoxical characters who are imbued with intelligence and ambivalence. Curated by the author, this definitive collection will surprise and delight established fans and new readers alike. Autorid: Lynne Tillman

Introduced by Professor Jennie Batchelor Commemorating the 250th anniversary of the birth of the literary legend, this anthology features a vibrant mix of short stories, essays, interviews and poetry contributed by over 30 writers and artists. It presents a delightful blend of both contemporary and classic works, accompanied by humorous illustrations and timeless quotes from Jane Austen herself. With an introductory overview of Austens life and work by author and academic Professor Jennie Batchelor, this volume also showcases notable contributors such as Bridgerton author Julia Quinn, actor and writer Talulah Riley, bestselling author Charlie Lovett, and two Pulitzer Prize-winning poets, Edna St Vincent Millay and Sara Teasdale. Includes an exclusive interview with Martin Jennings about the making of the new bronze sculpture of Jane Austen which will be unveiled on October 16th at Winchester Cathedral. Autorid: Jennie Batchelor, Katharine Reay, Julia Quinn, Talulah Riley, Janet Todd, Charlie Lovett, Natalie Jenner, Edna St Vincent Millay, Sara Teasdale, Martin Jennings

Reflections from a life lived in the struggle by black British feminist and activist, Stella Dadzie. Stella Dadzie has been a key figure in the Black womens movement in Britain since the 1970s. This unique new collection showcases her creative, personal and political writings, covering themes from her family life and early years to political activism, travel in Africa and the Caribbean, and race and racism in Britain. Featuring short stories, poems, speeches and travel writings, in addition to personal photographs and a curated selection of her artwork in a photo spread at its centre, this definitive collection presents Dadzie as she has never been seen before: raw, funny and human, both artist and activist, it offers new insights into the issues that defined a generation of black women. This is the fifth book in Lawrence Wishart's Radical Black Women Series, in partership with the Black Cultural Archives. Autorid: Stella Dadzie

In Bad Language, So Mayer blends memoir and manifesto as they explore the politics of speech, while looking at how language has been used and abused in their own life. What is the relationship between language and sexual violence? And how can we make ourselves up in language when words themselves are encoded by a dominant culture that insists we see ourselves as powerless listeners rather than active speakers? Examining the semantic traps of their multi-lingual childhood and taking in texts from the Torah to Grimms Fairytales, from protest bust cards to the works of Ursula K. Le Guin Mayer asks who gets to speak, and who is forced into silence. Bad Language calls out the harm that words can do, while searching for crafty ways through which we can collectively reclaim language for protest and pleasure. Autorid: So Mayer

When Em's best friend Carla is cursed to become a hag for all eternity, Em helps her hunt for the perfect prince to kiss her and break the spell. But soon the girls will move to different colleges and Em is running out of chances to tell Carla how she really feels. Something is getting broken at the fairytale ball - Carla's curse or Em's heart. Brimming with charm, cheekiness and heart, How (Not) to Kiss a Prince is a sapphic romantic comedy that flips fairytale tropes on their head. Set in a world where curses are as common as crushes, this vibrant YA debut explores friendship, identity, magic, and the messy beauty of first love. Autorid: B Wheeler

Winner of the 2024 Prototype Prize, Significant Others is a luminous and radical collection of hybrid texts exploring intimacy, language, and the porous boundaries between the human and the other-than-human. The world is always speaking to you. Held together by a shared language, all beings are constantly, endlessly chatting away, saying something or other. What this language constitutes may vary, but all matter is alive, and it always has something to say. Significant Others is not a world of magical realism, but a different means of describing the existing world. It offers an opposition to the reductive logic of Western capitalism which views other-than-humans as only resources for extraction. Other beings feature as metaphors, or omens, but also as fleshly, agential creatures. Often the encounters are erotically charged, using Audre Lordes definition of the erotic as an intentionality that can permeate all aspects of life. In one story, the protagonist attempts to figure out how to have sex with a bathroom mirror; in another, a catfish drags itself through Piccadilly Circus tube station with an uncomfortable level of intimacy with all the surfaces they come into contact with; a person births a stone from their rectum; a lump of topaz in someones brain triggers their depression; a human tries to talk to a limestone cliff using touch; a swan drinks the bathwater of their human lover. This book is a collection of different fictionalised narratives, but across them they chart, somewhat anachronistically, a journey from total withdrawal to reimmersion in the ebb and flow of living, alongside a growing recognition that isolation is never truly possible. Life insists. so many people everywhere. Autorid: frank r jagoe

The foreigner is within me, hence were all foreigners. If were all foreigners, there are no foreigners. Julia Kristeva Strangers Within is an anthology exploring the idea of documentary as encounter through essays, stories, interviews and other creative responses by filmmakers, artists, and writers. The texts engage with the risks of encounter, unsettling assumptions about the distinctions between host and guest; stranger and friend; self and other; documentarian and protagonist. Opening up a series of questions about the mystery of another person, whose difference and unknowability is already a part of ones self, the anthology offers a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the convergences between encounter, hospitality and autobiography. With contributions by Khalik Allah, Ruth Beckermann, Jon Bang Carlsen, Adam Christensen, Annie Ernaux, Gareth Evans, Jane Fawcett, Xiaolu Guo, Umama Hamido, Therese Henningsen, Marc Isaacs, Mary Jiménez Freeman-Morris, Juliette Joffé, Andrew and Eden Kötting, David MacDougall, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Toni Morrison, Bruno de Wachter and Andrea Luka Zimmerman. Autorid: Therese Henningsen & Juliette Joffé, Umama Hamido, Khalik Allah, Ruth Beckermann, Jon Bang Carlsen, Adam Christensen, Annie Ernaux, Gareth Evans, Jane Fawcett, Xiaolu Guo

Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Republic of Consciousness Prize Polar bears emerge from t-shirts. Reeboks come to life. Nothing is normal in the house of Mother Normal. In Isabel Waidners second novel, we follow an unnamed narrator who looks like Eleven from Stranger Things, but is in fact a 36-year-old migrant working for minimum wage in a run-down hotel on the Isle of Wight. Along with their best friend, Shae, the narrator faces Ukip activists, shapeshifting creatures, and despotic bosses while trying to hold down their job and preparing for their Life in the UK test. This is fiction that extends the avant-garde tradition beyond the upper-class experience that it usually chronicles making it over as an ally of working-class queer experience. Set against a backdrop of austerity and decline, We Are Made of Diamond Stuff is an irreverent, boundary-erasing piece of work that celebrates the radical potential of resistance, ingenuity, and friendship. Autorid: Isabel Waidner

Giorgio Gomelsky was at the centre of the counterculture in 60s' London and 70s' Paris before running a studio for avant-garde musicians in New York. He was the original manager of the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds in London, then managed the French supergroup Magma and developed the career of Gong. Dumaurier recounts his friend Gomelsky's love of life, his dynamism, and the creativity that made him "push the envelope". With a keen eye for talent, Gomelsky's ideas helped shape the rock music we know and love today - acting as a catalyst for change and innovation. With recollections from colleagues, friends and musicians: Larry Birnbaum, Madeleine Carr, Raul Gonzalez, Brian Gooding, Bob Gruen, Roman Iwasiwka, Amy Madden, Jesse Malin and Bradley Rim. Autorid: Francis Dumaurier, Rick Rees, Cheryl Robson

Providing both the strategic context and tactical detail of the Battle of Minden, Like a Brazen Wallgives a fresh and more balanced perspective. Autorid: Ewan Carmichael

This fully waymarked trail runs for 101 miles/162 km southward from the beautiful natural harbour of Tarbert to Macrihanish, near the Mull of Kintyre. Criss-crossing the entire peninsula, you pass castles, abbeys and prehistoric remains, sometimes walking along rugged coastline, sometimes high on forestry tracks with glorious views over Arran, the Firth of Clyde and towards Ireland. You will enjoy many wildlife sightings in this peaceful area, famous as Scotland only "mainland island". Since it opened (2006) the route has changed in places. The 2023 edition of this essential guidebook contains all you need to plan and enjoy your holiday: 11 pages with mapping showing the whole route (1:70,000); the Way step-by-step, with summaries of distance, terrain and refreshment stops; habitats and wildlife; whisky-making in Kintyre; side-trip to the island of Gigha; and planning information for travel by car, ferry, bus and plane. The book is printed on rainproof paper throughout, and has over 90 colour photographs. Autorid: Sandra Bardwell, Jacquetta Megarry

Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT), created by Joan Skinner, is a somatic movement, dance and creative practice with a core underlying principle of releasing blocked energy, held tension and habitual patterns in body mind. It enables us to move with greater freedom and ease whilst awakening creativity and spontaneity. The 21 contributors to this book describe how SRT informs their own movement and/or dance practice and influences wider fields of practice including meditation, architecture, poetic listening, visual art, writing, technology and choreography. For them SRT is a transformative and lifelong practice that deepens connections with self, other, more than human life forms and with natural and urban landscapes. This is a book for anyone drawn to explore body mind, somatic, movement and dance practices, and for those who are exploring ways of living in the world creatively, empathically and with more ease and natural grace. Autorid: Manny Emslie

Here are over 100 familiar first words for you to learn together in English! From zoos and farms to things that go, each illustrated scene is full of details to discuss and discover. Point at the pictures then find the English word down the side. Young characters on each page ask questions to help you practise saying English words out loud. A QR code on the back cover links to free audio of the words being read aloud by a native speaker, hosted on the publisher's website. The perfect board book as you start your journey in English. Autorid: Vicky Barker, Vicky Barker

"Everything becomes familiar eventually. But there was something else, I'd tried to explain, a rhythmic presence like breath, barely a sound, more like pressure. I feel it on my stomach in bed, a weight. The hairs on my neck stand on end. She still doesn't believe me..." Tower Street, East London, 1975: a crumbling block of artists' studios shaped by the myth of male genius but maintained by Connie, a female caretaker struggling to find her creative voice. Cut to 2017, and this same building is now luxury apartments, the new home of young couple Jane and Tam. Yet their fresh start is jeopardized when a chance discovery brings past secrets to light. Drawing on interviews with artists, photographers and administrators, as well as autobiographical elements, Innominate is a mystery story about privilege and power, in which buildings (and bodies) alternately nurture, trap, and entangle their inhabitants. Perhaps it is only by dissecting the architecture of a place that we can truly understand what happened there? Autorid: Naomi Pearce

21 MILES revisits the much-loved protagonist of 29 LOCKS two years after his canal boat adventure as a fifteen-year-old. Older, wiser and more confident, life is going well for the former gang member whod escaped a brutal life of criminal exploitation. But when Donny and his best friend Zoe plan a day trip to France ahead of their sixth form exams, Donny loses his passport and is arrested as an illegal migrant. To survive, he must rely on the help of unaccompanied teenage refugees, living rough in the dunes east of Calais. Autorid: Nicola Garrard

An exclusive source of reference on the operational history of MiG-15, MiG-17, and MiG-19 fighter jets in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, and Syria from 1955 until 1965. This is the first volume in a mini-series. Egypt and Czechoslovakia signed the so-called ‘Czechoslovak Arms Deal’, thus initiating a unique era of close cooperation between major Arab military powers, the former Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and its allies. During the first decade of this period, the air force of Egypt, followed by those of (in chronological order) Syria, Iraq, Morocco and Algeria, were all equipped with dozens and then hundreds of Soviet-made fighters designed by the Mikoyan I Gurevich Design Bureau – the same swept-wing jets that took the Western powers by surprise during the Korean War.While the first generation of MiG jet fighter – the MiG-15 – saw only a relatively brief service in Egypt, its more efficient and upgraded successor, the MiG-17F, entered service in bigger numbers, and then formed the backbone of additional air forces around the Middle East. The MiG-17PF became the first radar-equipped combat aircraft while the MiG-19 became the first supersonic fighter flown by the air forces of Egypt and Iraq, in the period 1958-1963. In Morocco and Algeria, the MiG-17 was the first and the only jet fighter in service during the first half of the 1960s. Unsurprisingly, MiG-15s, MiG-17s and MiG-19s thus served with many different units and – especially in Egypt and Algeria, and also in Syria – wore a wide range of very different, and often very colorful unit insignia and other markings. They were also flown by many pilots who subsequently played crucial roles in the future of their nations.Based on original documentation and extensive interviews with veterans, and richly illustrated, MiGs in the Middle East, Volume 1 is a unique source of reference on the operational history of MiG-15, MiG-17, and MiG-19 fighter jets in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, and Syria from 1955 until 1956. This is the first volume in a mini-series. Autorid: Davis Nicolle, Tom Cooper

Greekling,the much-anticipated debut poetry collection by Kostya Tsolakis, celebrates and commemorates damaged and rejected Greek bodies, be they of flesh and blood, made of marble, or natural bodies. In intertwining Greek culture, history and poetic influences with the contemporary queer experience, this collection is perceptive, lyrical, and deeply evocative of time and place. From an Athenian childhood to a closeted adolescence in the shadow of the AIDS epidemic, towards sexual self-discovery, maturity and freedom Tsolakis charts the pursuit of unconditional happiness. These poems explore queer joy on dance floors, darkrooms and bedsits, but also the risks of crossing strangers thresholds or in encountering the violent machismo and hypermasculine expectations of the society you grow up in. And ever-present through the collection is Athens the city the poet once turned his back on at eighteen but has come to love again. Moving between lament and celebration, Greekling reflects on a changing and often misrepresented country, the nature of motherlands and mother tongues; it is a voyage out and a return. Autorid: Kostya Tsolakis

"I'm embarrassed when I remember Les. Anything but him, with his crisp and coleslaw breath, his tongue slipping inside my mouth - a mouth much too small. A tongue prising the shell away from the outer membrane of an egg, while a blueish, angular embryo wriggles underneath, uncomfortable, fearful at being prematurely exposed to the light..." Shae wants to stop shagging other women's husbands and be a proper queer. Plus, she's bored of only ever getting to use her new strap on a pile of cushions. The answer seems simple enough: come out, go out, and finally get it on with the fit bird at Dyke Night. Or it would be if Evaline, a wayward silicone mistress from the future, wasn't jealous.... A surreal, dirty little book that falls somewhere between Derek McCormack, David Cronenberg, and the tentacle porn you 'accidentally downloaded', Silicone God is for those who like it very, very weird. Autorid: Victoria Brooks

Drumz Of The South: The Dubstep Years (2004-2007) is the first photography book to present the early days of dubstep in detail. Seminal to the sound's growth from the spaced-out expression of a handful of producers, to the global genre that it is today, Drumz Of The South is both a personal and a cultural document. It features over 200 photographs from events and radio stations such as FWD>> at Plastic People, DMZ and Rinse FM, plus pioneering producers, DJs and MCs like Burial, Skream and Benga, Mala & Coki, Loefah and Sgt Pokes, Plastician, Kode9, Hatcha & Crazy D, Skepta, Wiley, and Mary Anne Hobbs. Autorid: Georgina Cook

A major new account of the Victorio Campaign of 1879-1881, the most intensive confrontation between Apaches and the USA since the early 1860s. This volume covers the background to the Victorio Campaign of 1879-1881. In the early 1870s, a mixture of diplomacy and successful military campaigning by General George Crook led to the formation of several reservations for various Apache groups such as the Mescalero, Chiricahua and Western Apaches. Almost before the ink was dry on these treaties, an effort was made to rationalize this arrangement by placing the Apaches upon one reservation (the concentration policy). The first reservation to close was the Fort Bowie reservation, which belonged to the Chokonen (Central Chiricahua) Apaches. Some chose to resist, and this resistance - combined with the continued drive for concentration - brought about the closure of the Chihenne (Eastern Chiricahua) Apache reservation at Ojo Caliente, New Mexico, in 1877 and their removal to the San Carlos reservation in Arizona. The Chihennes were led by Victorio, Nana and Loco at this time, and they chose to accept the move, even though this was to the territory of the Western Apaches (with whom they often had a mutually hostile relationship). The land they were allocated was not healthy and a deadly feud between the Chihennes and the San Carlos Apaches quickly flared up; in September 1877, Victorio led a large portion of his people off San Carlos and tried to return to Ojo Caliente. Between 1877 and 1879, Victorio and his followers resisted their removal back to San Carlos - periodically fleeing and raiding mainly in Mexico to survive; they minimized hostile activity in the USA in order to keep alive their hopes of a return to Ojo Caliente. By August 1879, Victorio gave up hope that a return to Ojo Caliente was possible and declared war on the USA, as well as continuing their conflict with the Mexicans. Between September and December 1879, Victorio and his warriors - no more than 150 strong (and often as little as 50) - inflicted a number of defeats upon the Ninth Cavalry, US citizen volunteers and Mexican State troops. By the end of this volume, they had taken refuge - undefeated - in Northern Mexico and were poised to return to continue their battle with the USA for the return of their reservation. This research will outline the previously unreconstructed and sophisticated strategies and tactics utilized by Victorio, Nana and their followers to defeat every opponent sent against them. Autorid: Robert N. Watt

Coming-of-age novel set in contemporary London and Hertfordshire. Fifteen-year-old Donald Leroy Samson is the son of an absentee St Lucian father and a drug-addicted English mother. Growing up in dire poverty in Hackney, East London, his life is shaped by casual violence, gang initiation, drug-dealing and knife crime. When Donnys bored, rich, white girlfriend Zoe is offered a dubious modelling audition, the couple borrow a barge and navigate the 29 locks on the canal system from Hertfordshire down into Kings Cross. When they start out on their journey, the future for both of them looks unpromising, like the fake audition, but as each lock is navigated and conquered, as the waters fall then rise again, their adventure takes on a new dimension. Life will never be the same again. A gritty, urban tale of redemption! Autorid: Nicola Garrard

Black Women's hair is a topic that has been at the centre of contemporary conversation for some time. This informative book explores the rich cultural history of Black Womens' Afros, weaving in anecdotal tales from Black women along the way. Exploring the ways in which Black women's natural hair is often politicised and judged, A Quick Ting On The Black Girl Afro chronicles the ways in which the styling of Black Women's hair has influenced popular culture and intersected with Black expression. Complete with intimate interviews and real-life stories about natural hair journeys and the hunt for hair products, A Quick Ting On The Black Girl Afro is a powerful exploration into the Black Woman's Afro - celebrating the versatility and diversity of Black women's natural hair. Autorid: Zainab Kwaw-Swanzy

'It's not a high concept movie, there's actually no story there really. Its what happens in between the story thats important' Bill Forsyth The story of an American businessman sent to buy the Scottish village of Ferness with the aim of turning it into an oil refinery, Local Hero is one of Scotlands most beloved, and most misunderstood, films. When Bill Forsyths incredible success with the low-budget That Sinking Feeling and Gregorys Girl found him collaborating with Britains best-known film producer, David Puttnam, he soon found his independent ethos clashing with Hollywoods desire for superstar actors and a happy ending. Jonathan Melville checks into the MacAskill Arms and looks back at Bill Forsyths career with the help of new and archive interviews, before spending time with the cast and crew, including stars Peter Riegert and Denis Lawson, who made Local Hero on location in Houston and Scotland in 1982. With access to early drafts of the Local Hero script (including hand-written notes) that reveal more about Mac and mermaids, excerpts from a previously unpublished interview in which Bill Forsyth explains why he refuses to call his film 'feel-good', and a look at long-lost deleted scenes with exclusive commentary from those involved, this is the definitive history of the Scottish classic. Genuine fairy tales are rare; so is film-making that is thoroughly original in an unobtrusive way. Bill Forsyth's quirky disarming Local Hero is both . . . it demonstrates Mr. Forsyth's uncanny ability for making an audience sense that something magical is going on, even if that something isn't easily explained Janet Maslin, The New York Times 'Local Hero is kind of transcendent. It's poetic in a way that most films can't hope to be' Frank Cottrell-Boyce 'Local Hero is one my favourite films of all time . . . A timeless masterpiece' Mark Kermode Autorid: Jonathan Melville

Accompanying a major exhibition at Philip Mould & Company, Without Hands: The Art of Sarah Biffin presents the work of the remarkable 19th-century disabled artist who has been largely overlooked by art historians. This book and exhibition celebrate her art, life and legacy. Sarah Biffin (17841850) came from humble origins yet rose to fame in the 19thcentury as an exceptionally talented miniaturist. As a working-class, disabled female artist, her artworks many proudly signed without hands are a testament to her talent and life-long determination. Despite her prolific artistic output, Biffins life and work has been largely overlooked by art historians until now. Sarah Biffin was born with the condition phocomelia, described on her baptism record as born without arms and legs. She spent her childhood in her family home where she learnt to sew and write. Biffin was later contracted to Mr Dukes, who ran a travelling sideshow, where Biffin would write and paint in front of an audience. The crowds who turned up left with a sample of her writing included in the cost of their ticket. In her mid-twenties she began formal tuition with a miniature painter, William Marshall Craig, and from 1816 she set herself up as an independent artist. Biffin travelled extensively, exhibiting her artwork and taking commissions all over the country, before finally settling in Liverpool. Throughout her long and successful career, she took commissions from nobility and royalty, and recorded her own likeness across the years through exquisitely detailed self-portraits. Working closely with the projects advisor artist Alison Lapper MBE (born with the same condition as Sarah Biffin 180 years later) and consultant and contributor Professor Essaka Joshua (specialist in Disability Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana) this publication and exhibition seek to celebrate Biffin as a disabled artist who challenged contemporary attitudes to disability. It is fully illustrated and includes original research. Autorid: Emma Rutherford, Ellie Smith, Essaka Joshua, Alison Lapper, Elle Shushan

Andy Howard has been photographing Otters for more than a decade, especially on the Isle of Mull, Shetland, and Vancouver Island in Canada. His stunning photography will amaze and enlighten. Otters are among Britain’s most popular and endearing wild creatures. Made famous by literary phenomenon Ring of Bright Water, they have taken the place in the hearts of the British people. Previously threatened, their survival is now as assured as that of any wildlife can be. Andy Howard has been photographing them for more than a decade, especially on the Isle of Mull, Shetland, and Vancouver Island in Canada. His stunning photography will amaze and enlighten. His story will be reread many times. Autorid: Andy Howard, Gordon Buchanan

As Amrita gets ready for her sister's wedding with Mum, she learns that her beautiful brown skin can shine in any colour she loves - especially in her favourite sunflower-yellow lehenga. At the celebrations, she spots her best friend, Kiki, who is also dancing in rainbow-bright colours! The two friends make a special promise to be 'Sunflower Sisters', spreading joy and showing that beauty comes in all different shades. Focusing on their experiences within their respective South Asian and Nigerian communities, particularly during wedding celebrations, the story addresses colorism, while celebrating the girls' dark brown skin (with their mothers playing crucial roles in empowering and protecting them). Through their journey, the girls grow into confident young women who embrace their skin colour and inspire others to do the same, symbolically compared to proud, radiant sunflowers. Autorid: Monika Singh Gangotra, Micheala Dias-Hayes

A journey through the archive of BAFTA award-winning curator and film programmer, June Givanni. It contains thousands of films from across Africa, the Caribbean and the diaspora amassed in over forty years. Using four film festivals as her touchstones, author Onyeka Igwe offers a way to encounter Pan-African film. The book starts with Third Eye, the film festival that propelled June into a career in Pan-African cinema. Through connections she made there, she travelled to FESPACO in 1985. Participating in the festival while Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso was under the leadership of revolutionary Thomas Sankara was a formative experience. In Ouagadougou she connected with film programmers Suzy Landau and Claire Andrade Watkins, who would take steps to organise Images Caraibes, Fort de France, Martinique, 1988, and Celebration of Black Cinema, Boston, US. Using original oral history research with June and other key figures in Pan-African and Black British cinema, Onyeka uncovers the important role that women festival organisers, programmers and cultural workers have played in Pan-African cinema history. She conceptualises June Givanni's Pan-African Cinema Archive (JGPACA) as a feminist counter archive that foregrounds marginalised histories and proposes a radical approach to archiving itself. In tracing and naming the cinematic legacies that ground political filmmaking practices today, she preserves June's work, knowledge and fervour for Pan African cinema for future generations. Autorid: Onyeka Igwe

They said I couldn't change the world; it wasn't worth the fight. But in my head, a small voice said...maybe you might.A young girl makes a choice to plant a seed by a long dead riverbed. Little does she know that from this single, small act, a vibrant ecosystem will grow. This inspiring poem - bursting with hope for a greener world - is a love letter to our ailing planet. It shows us that even when the future appears most bleak, each one of us can make a difference. Autorid: Imogen Foxell, Anna Cunha

Illustrated with over 150 photographs, this book explores the rise and fall of the British motorcycle industry, detailing its history over the years as well as each brand, giving the complete story of these amazing machines. Classic British motorcycles were more than simple machines, they were a cultural phenomenon that lasted half a century. From the early days of motoring, British innovators led the way, building some of the world’s most famous motorcycles, as well as some of the best performers. At one point, the rest of the motorcycle world followed Britain’s lead, and by the late 1950s, the British were by far the largest producers of motorcycles in the world. However, barely a decade later, the British motorcycle industry was almost bankrupt and in utter disarray. Illustrated with over 150 photographs, this book explores the rise and fall of the British motorcycle industry, looking at its history through the years and then at the motorcycles themselves by brand, giving the complete story of these amazing machines. Autorid: Andy Tallone

Bring the magic of music into your home with this interactive book, which features a wind-up mechanism that sounds just like a musical jewellery box. Wind and play the nostalgic carol Deck the Halls as you settle down to share Clement C. Moore's classic story 'Twas Night Before Christmas. The holidays never sounded so magical. Autorid: Clement C. Moore, Raquel Martin