Building the ordinary into the extraordinary - brick by brick. This first official book for Adult Fans of LEGO® takes the reader on a visually stunning journey from the very earliest hollow bricks to the complex shapes and building techniques of today. LEGO bricks are design icons and marvels of engineering. Virtually unchanged for over fifty years, the brick is still at the very centre of LEGO's ethos: each brick connects to every other brick, allowing the construction of almost anything you can imagine. LEGO minifigures may be the friendly faces of the LEGO world, but bricks in all their different shapes and forms are its very foundation. The Secret Life of LEGO® Bricks explores the brick's rich history in full colour and unparalleled detail. Granted unprecedented access by the LEGO Group, Daniel Konstanski has interviewed design masters, element testers and the so-called 'rock stars', the set designers, to reveal for the first time how and why new LEGO bricks are made. This is the book the fans have always wanted: a truly behind-the-scenes look at the story of the beloved LEGO brick and the company which makes it, with a wealth of exclusive visual material from the LEGO Archive in Billund.
20 GOTO 10 - a book of numbers for computer nerds & deep technical wizards Whether you're interested in machines from the mainstream such as Sinclair, Acorn, Atari, Famicom, Sega, Nintendo, Sony, and Commodore, or the lesser known cabal of Dragon, Tandy, Oric, Amstrad, DEC, Jupiter, Vectrex, TI, and NewBrain (or even the virtually unheard of COSMAC Elf) 20 GOTO 10 is a book of numbers that describes the many facets of computing history, focusing on the golden age of old computers and retro games and consoles of the 1980s and 90s. It covers the hardware, software, and social history of the era showing how they're linked through numbers, such as 48K, C90, and 35899. Each entry starts with a number, and by choosing a related number you'll create a unique adventure through the book and into a web of forgotten geek lore and incredible facts. With luck, you'll find a way to arrive at the number used to grant infinite lives in Jet Set Willy!
Bardskull is the record of three journeys made by Martin Shaw, the celebrated storyteller and interpreter of myth, in the year before he turned fifty. It is unlike anything he has written before. This is not a book about myth or narrative: rather, it is a sequence of incantations, a series of battles.Each of the three journeys sees Shaw walk alone into a Dartmoor forest and wait. What arrive are stories – fragments of myth that he has carried within him for decades: the deep history of Dartmoor itself; the lives of distant family members; Arthurian legend; and tales from India, Persia, Lapland, the Caucasus and Siberia. But these stories and their tellers don’t arrive as the bearers of solace or easy wisdom. As with all quests, Shaw is entering a domain of traps and tests.Bardskull can be read as a fable, as memoir, as auto-fiction or as an attempt to undomesticate myth. It is a magnificent, unclassifiable work of the imagination.
Shareware Heroes is a comprehensive, meticulously researched exploration of an important and too-long overlooked chapter in video game historyShareware Heroes: Independent Games at the Dawn of the Internet takes readers on a journey, from the beginnings of the shareware model in the early 1980s, the origins of the concept, even the name itself, and the rise of shareware's major players – the likes of id Software, Apogee, and Epic MegaGames – through to the significance of shareware for the ‘forgotten’ systems – the Mac, Atari ST, Amiga – when commercial game publishers turned away from them.This book also charts the emergence of commercial shareware distributors like Educorp and the BBS/newsgroup sharing culture. And it explores how shareware developers plugged gaps in the video gaming market by creating games in niche and neglected genres like vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-ups (e.g. Raptor and Tyrian) or racing games (e.g. Wacky Wheels and Skunny Kart) or RPGs (God of Thunder and Realmz), until finally, as the video game market again grew and shifted, and major publishers took control, how the shareware system faded into the background and fell from memory.
A manifesto for Gentle Protest: how to change our world one stitch at a time.Award-winning campaigner and founder of the global Craftivist Collective Sarah Corbett shows how to respond to injustice not with apathy or aggression, but with gentle, effective protest.This is a manifesto – for a more respectful and contemplative activism; for conversation and collaboration where too often these is division and conflict; for using craft to engage, empower and encourage us all to be the change we wish to see in the world.Sarah's craftivism has helped change laws and business policies as well as hearts and minds; here, with thoughtful principles and practical examples, she shows that quiet action can speak as powerfully as the loudest voice.
One woman's road trip across America in search of her lost libido.Arriving in New York with a failing relationship and a body she felt out of touch with, Stephanie Theobald set off on a 3,497 mile trip across America to re-build her orgasm from the ground up. What started as a quest for the ultimate auto-erotic experience became a fantastic voyage into her own body.She takes us from ‘body sex’ classes with the legendary feminist Betty Dodson to an interview with the former US Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, who was fired for suggesting that masturbation should be talked about in schools. Along the way, we are immersed in a weird, countercultural America of marijuana farms and ‘ecosexual sexologists’.Sex Drive is a memoir about desire and pleasure, merging sexuality and spirituality, eighteenth-century porn and enlightenment philosophy. A new sexual revolution has begun – and this time round, it’s all about the women.
YouTube sensation Stuart Ashen is back with his second instalment of terrible old computer games you’ve probably never heard of... because what the world needs right now is to know exactly how bad Domain of the Undead for the Atari 8-bit computers was.Attack of the Flickering Skeletons is even bigger than the original Terrible Old Games You’ve Probably Never Heard Of – this second excavation of gaming’s buried past will not only unearth more appalling excuses for digital entertainment, but also feature guest contributors and several special interest chapters not based around single specific games.These are NOT the games you’ve heard of a million times in YouTube videos. This is a compilation of truly obscure and dreadful games. Dripping with wry humour and featuring the best, worst graphics from the games themselves, this book encapsulates the atrocities produced in the days of tight budgets and low quality controls.Welcome to a world of games you never knew existed. You will probably wish you still didn’t.
'A powerful manifesto for women who long to walk alone – and safely – in the countryside' Dr. Sharon Blackie, author of If Women Rose RootedWhy is it radical for women to walk alone in the countryside, when men have been doing so for centuries? The Hard Way is a powerful and illuminating book about addressing this imbalance, reclaiming fearlessness and diving into the history of the landscape from a woman’s point of view.Setting off to follow the oldest paths in England, the Ridgeway and the Harrow Way, Susannah Walker comes across artillery fire, concern from passing policemen and her own innate fear of lone figures in the distance: a landscape shaped by men, from prehistoric earthworks to today’s army bases.But along the way, Susannah finds Edwardian feminists, rebellious widows, forgotten writers and artists, as well as all their anonymous sisters who stayed at home throughout history. They become her companions over 135 miles of walking, revealing how much, or how little, has changed for women now.'An urgent call' Guy Shrubsole, author of Who Owns England?'A fascinating personal journey' Sophie Pierce, author of The Green Hill'Thought provoking, rich and interesting' Andrew Ziminski, author of The Stonemason
An unofficial guide to Alien: Isolation, the greatest, scariest horror game ever made.There aren’t many computer games that can justify an entire book, but for superfans, Alien: Isolation is truly extraordinary and Perfect Organism reveals all there is to know about every aspect of this masterful game.Discover the rationale and authenticity of the set design and art direction, learn about the alien’s unnerving abilities to second-guess the players and the importance of its unique height, find out more about the importance of the dynamic audio and the use of seventies archive soundbites, as well as the darkly beautiful music. And immerse yourself in the technical brilliance of the level design and the user interface, before reading about the deleted content, and the scenes and features that never made the final cut.Alien: Isolation is a game of remarkable depth, complexity, and detail, and together with a level-by-level mission guide, this book will answer all of your questions, as well as many you haven’t yet thought to ask!
"Unapologetic about the cross-over of cultures, it’s bright, vibrant and dynamic." — Vivek Singh"Packed full of approachable and inspiring recipes . . . thoroughly modern and highly rewarding." — Ravinder Bhogal"Every recipe is packed with flavour." — Dan LepardSanjana Feasts is a collection of dazzling recipes of modern Indian diaspora vegetarian and vegan food.Sanjana Modha’s flavourful and vibrant recipes are rooted in her Indian heritage, East African family background, and Yorkshire childhood. This book showcases the varied ingredients and unique combinations that are authentic to Sanjana’s upbringing, and includes signature dishes such as Ruffled Biryani, Madras Mac and Cheese with Naan Crumbs, Desi-inspired French Bread Pizza and Sticky Toffee Gulab Jamun, as well as delicious Indian classics.Over the last few years Sanjana has seen a visible shift in the Western understanding of what Indian food is. It’s gone from curry-house creations, to an exploration of regional food, to fusion cuisine and more recently, an appreciation of street food and casual dining. Today, Indian food is a cacophony of all these elements and more, and Sanjana is forging yet another new direction with the food of diasporic communities, and the flavours of a new generation.Sanjana Feasts will inspire you both to incorporate these delicious recipes into your everyday cooking, and to raise your game in the kitchen with her tips for the classics.
"A blistering body-horror following two imperfect strangers ensnared by a sinister media powerhouse."--Provided by publisher.
"Original, compelling, witty and historically illuminating – hilarious and essential reading." — Helen Lederer, comedian, actress and founder of Comedy Women in PrintParis, 1940. The course of Fatiha Bin-Khalid’s life is changed forever when she befriends the Muslim feminist Doria Shafik. But after returning to Egypt and dedicating years to the fight for women’s rights, she struggles to reconcile her political ideals with the realities of motherhood.Cairo, 1966. After being publicly shamed when her relationship with a bisexual boyfriend is revealed, Fatiha’s daughter is faced with an impossible decision. Should Yasminah accept a life she didn’t choose, or will she leave her home and country in pursuit of independence?Bristol, 2011. British-born Nadia is battling with an identity crisis and a severe case of herpes. Feeling unfulfilled (and after a particularly disastrous one-night stand), she moves in with her old-fashioned Aunt Yasminah and realises that she must discover her purpose in the modern world before it’s too late.Following the lives of three women from the Bin-Khalid family, Daughters of the Nile is an original and darkly funny novel that examines the enduring strength of female bonds. These women are no strangers to adversity, but they must learn from the past and relearn shame and shamelessness to radically change their futures.Everyone’s talking about Daughters of the Nile..."A writer to watch." — @ElementaryMyDear_"Mesmerising." — @alicetheunique"Not to be missed." — @Silvia_reviews"A true gem." — @stratospherekawaiigirl
A magical, long-forgotten masterpiece, The Romance of William and the Werewolf is the story of two princes who overcame their wicked family to reclaim their inheritance and build a society based on tolerance and equality.Originally titled William of Palerne, it was first translated from French and then converted into an alliterative Middle English romance by an obscure Gloucestershire scribe in c. 1350. It has never been translated into modern English – until now.Written over 600 years ago, it is a multi-layered tale of poverty, justice, exile and 'otherness'; its themes of inheritance, the freedom of women, fairness and forgiveness, familial responsibility and social class, speak to us just as clearly today, and challenge us to reflect upon our class-driven politics and the corruption, entitlement and indifference which underlie it.As with Michael Smith’s other translations – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and King Arthur’s Death – The Romance of William and the Werewolf will feature a detailed historical introduction, a comprehensive glossary and notes, and Michael’s own rich and beautiful linocut illustrations.
Billy Elliot meets Bend It Like Beckham in this unforgettable debut about aiming high and defying expectation – the perfect uplit read this year.Joyful, defiant and dazzling, this is the story of Rafi Aziz – a Northern boy dreaming of his name up in lights.It's 1981 in the suburbs of Blackburn and, as Rafi’s mother reminds him daily, the family moved here from Pakistan to give him the best opportunities. But Rafi longs to follow his own path. Flamboyant, dramatic and musically gifted, he wants to be a Bollywood star.Twenty years later, Rafi is flying home from Australia for his best friend’s wedding. He has everything he ever wanted: starring roles in musical theatre, the perfect boyfriend and freedom from expectation. But returning to Blackburn is the ultimate test: can he show his true self to his community?Navigating family and identity from boyhood to adulthood, as well as the changing eras of ABBA, skinheads and urbanisation, Rafi must follow his heart to achieve his dreams.
Fair or Foul considers different aspects of ambition and its place in our lives. It asks: what does success mean? When is enough enough? And is Lady Macbeth right to suggest that only those with the 'illness' of ambition achieve the highest goals?Stefan Stern draws on the major themes of Macbeth and discusses how they can be applied to ambition in modern life. From the success of the first US woman vice president, Kamala Harris, the obstacles she faced and the possibilities that still lie ahead, to Boris Johnson's young aspirations to be 'world king' and the pathological intensity of his ambition, Stern considers the careers and personal lives of politicians, sports stars and business people, to name a few, to illuminate this strange and powerful driver. Expect to discover how ambition and success work together, how attitudes have shifted over time, and how gender roles have an impact on our goals.Incisive, contemporary and accessible, this book is for anyone who is looking for a change of direction or emphasis on how to move forward. It will also provide consolation, amusement and plenty of insightful meditations on the complex nature of ambition.
"Endlessly informative and leaning hard into the British Isles’ reputation for the off-beat, this is a delight." — Publisher's WeeklyFolklorist Ben Gazur guides you through the dark alleys of British history to uncover how our food habits have been passed down through generations of folklore.Who was the first person to throw salt over their shoulder? Why do we think carrots can help us see in the dark? When did we start holding village fairs to honour gigantic apple pies? Or start hurling ourselves down hills in pursuit of a wheel of cheese? Gazur investigates the origins of famous food superstitions as well as much more bizarre and lesser-known tales too, from what day the devil urinates on blackberries to how to stop witches using eggshells as escape boats.Hilarious and fascinating, A Feast of Folklore will introduce you to the gloriously eccentric folk who aren’t often noticed by historians. Here lies a smorgasbord of their dark remedies and deadly delicacies, waiting to be discovered.
Magic Realms celebrates the incredible art of the brilliant and highly respected fantasy and science fiction artists who, over the years, worked with the Fighting Fantasy authors to bring their interactive adventures to vivid life.Each artist is profiled along with select examples of their best work – in vibrant full colour, the astonishing detail on display in all its glory. It features the work some of the world’s best fantasy artists including Chris Achilléos, John Blanche, Jim Burns, Les Edwards, Karl Kopinski, Iain McCaig, Martin McKenna, Ian Miller and Russ Nicholson, among others.Written by Fighting Fantasy co-creator Ian Livingstone and Fighting Fantasy historian Jonathan Green, Magic Realms is a Who’s Who of fantasy art – an absolutely essential collector's item for any Fighting Fantasy fan.
Twenty Gentle Protest craft projects to help you make a positive difference in our world.If we want our world to be more beautiful, kind and fair, can we make our activism more beautiful, kind and fair? ‘Gentle Protest’ is a unique methodology of strategic, compassionate and visually intriguing activism using handicrafts as a tool. Since its creation in 2009, the award-winning global Craftivist Collective has helped change laws, policies, hearts and minds around the world as well as expand the view of what activism can be.Dreams inspire positive action, so stitch a Dream Cloud to hang up at home or work and prompt you to think past a problem to the solution. Sew a Gentle Nudge Label to help keep your conscience sharp and your spirit strong. Craft your own Mini Protest Banner to turn heads and influence change, or fly solidarity’s flag for those suffering as a result of the world’s injustices. Stitch a Handmade Hedgerow to champion one of the solutions to the climate crisis or if you are nervous about protesting in public or if there’s a ban on public rallies where you live, let a doll speak your truth by creating a Toy Protest.This handbook is for everyone, wherever you are in the world: whether you are a skilled crafter or a burnt-out activist, an introvert, highly sensitive person, or struggling with anxiety or overwhelm. These 20 projects and tools use the slow, soothing and thoughtful process of craft to help channel feelings of sadness, anger or powerlessness into proactive, encouraging effective actions to help make hope possible.
The tale of an imaginative childhood set in 1980s Nottinghamshire, from Sunday Times-bestselling author, Tom Cox.Benji is an imaginative eight-year-old boy, living with his parents in a mining village in Nottinghamshire amidst the spoil heaps and chip shops that characterise the last industrially bruised outposts of the Midlands, just before Northern England begins. His family are the eccentric neighbours on a street where all the houses are set on a tilt, slowly subsiding into the excavated space below. Told through Benji’s voice and a colourful variety of others over a deeply joyful and strange twelve month period, it’s a story about growing up, the oddness beneath the everyday, what we once believed the future would be, and those times in life when anything seems possible.1983 is steeped in the distinctive character of a setting far weirder than it might at first appear: from robots living next door, and a school caretaker who is not all he seems, to missing memories and the aliens Benji is certain are trying to abduct him.
This anthology contains work from both the established masters of Folk Horror, and some more surprising contributors: from Shirley Jackson and M. R. James to E. F. Benson and William Croft Dickinson. Tales Accursed will raise the hairs on your neck and keep you alert to the slightest rustle in the trees.
“If you’re ready for an extra-hard, old-time challenge, haveat it!”-- Will ShortzFrom the creator and publisher behind the viral sensation Cain's Jawbone: A Very Novel Mystery, is a collection of 112 difficult cryptic crossword puzzles.Before Edward Powys Mathers wrote the world's most fiendishly difficult literary puzzle, he was a cryptic crossword creator. Under his pseudonym "Torquemada", his puzzles would taunt readers for days. He created his first cryptic crossword puzzle in 1924 and went on to set them for the Saturday Westminster and the Observer for the next 15 years. His true identity was only revealed when he died in 1939. As well as earning the reputation for setting the world's toughest crosswords, Torquemada - or 'Torq' as he was often referred to - was also delightfully creative: with many puzzles written in perfectly constructed verse, or delivered as mini-narratives to their solvers. There's even a version where the clues are knock-knock jokes. For many years cryptic crosswords were simply known as puzzles in the 'Torquemada style'. This selection of Torquemada's best crosswords was originally published in 1942 and contains three short accounts of Torquemada's life and achievements, including one by his widow, R.C. Mathers as well as a foreword by the crossword puzzle editor for the New York Times, Will Shortz. The successful revival of Cain's Jawbone has inspired a new generation of puzzle solvers.Here then is the next challenge for Torquemada's fans - dare you take it on?
"Over 60 boxes full of notebooks, research, letters, scripts, jokes, speeches, to-do lists, hard drives and even poems. Welcome to the incredible archive of Douglas Adams."--
"... a celebration of 70 women from the last 100 years: politicians from around the globe who fought for election in a man's world... and won."--Provided by publisher.
From the co-author and illustrator of The Lost Spells, and The Lost Words—single animal focused meditations in accordion formAn Accordion Book doesn’t open, it unfolds. One side is filled with beautiful watercolour images of an animal: sometimes in motion, sometimes at rest. The other is filled with text – poems, descriptions, invocations – inspired by the same animal.Together they work as spells to summon the animal’s spirit. Jackie Morris has painted them using antique watercolours, some from boxes which hadn't been opened for over 150 years, woken from their slumber with a single drop of water. Fox and Otter are the first two Accordions in a series that will go on to include Hare, Owl, Hound and Cat among many others.
From the co-author and illustrator of The Lost Spells, and The Lost Words—single animal focused meditations in accordion form. An Accordion Book doesn’t open, it unfolds. One side is filled with beautiful watercolour images of an animal: sometimes in motion, sometimes at rest. The other is filled with text – poems, descriptions, invocations – inspired by the same animal.Together they work as spells to summon the animal’s spirit. Jackie Morris has painted them using antique watercolours, some from boxes which hadn't been opened for over 150 years, woken from their slumber with a single drop of water. Fox and Otter are the first two limited edition “accordions” in a series that will go on to include Hare, Owl, Hound and Cat among many others.
Discover twenty-five remarkable new voices in these award-winning stories published by Unbound in collaboration with Creatd, the parent company of digital storytelling platform Vocal. Based in the US and open to content creators and podcasters of every kind, Vocal has over 700,000 users all over the world.The stories have been chosen from over 13,000 entries submitted to the Vocal+ Fiction Awards and are by writers from round the globe who have risen to the top on the Vocal platform. Winners have been selected by well-known writer, critic and former Times literary editor Erica Wagner.Compelling narrative, vivid language, tales of family, of hope, of terror, of the worlds that await us. These stories showcase the diversity, ingenuity and imagination of Vocal¿s unique voices.
Words begin to lose their meanings, flaking off into air like moths. Friendships cultivated over a lifetime fall apart in testing circumstances. What does the stranger with yellow eyes really want?From Far Around They Saw Us Burn is the eagerly awaited first short story collection from Alice Jolly, one of the most exciting and accomplished voices in British fiction today. The extraordinary range of work gathered here is united by a fascination with how everyday interactions can transform our lives in unpredictable ways. These are stories of lonely people, outcasts and misfits, and the ghosts that inhabit our intimate spaces. The result is a compelling, arresting and, at times, devastating collection â¿ not least in the title story, which was inspired by the tragic true events of the 1943 Cavan orphanage fire. Written with an exemplary eye for detail and an intimate understanding of the complexities of human nature, Jolly's collection builds up towards the ultimate question: what is revealed of us when we peel away the surfaces, and is it enough?
Dan Fogarty, an Irishman living in England, is looking after his sister Una, now seventy and suffering from dementia in a care home in Margate. From Dan's anarchic account, we gradually piece together the story of the Fogarty family. How the parents are exiled from a small Irish village and end up living the hard immigrant life in England. How Dots, the mother, becomes a call girl in 1950s Soho. How a young and overweight Una finds herself living in a hippie squat in Kilburn in the early 1970s. How the squat appears to be haunted by vindictive ghosts who eat away at the sanity of all who live there. And, finally, how all that survives now of those sex-and-drug-soaked times are Una's unspooling memories as she sits outside in the Margate sunshine, and Dan himself, whose role in the story becomes stranger and more sinister. Poguemahone is a wild, free-verse monologue, steeped in music and folklore, crammed with characters, both real and imagined, on a scale Patrick McCabe has never attempted before.
Have your kids ever shaved the dog? Or decided pants are optional? Don't worry, you are not alone. Parenting is hard and this mummy is f*cking tired. Inspired by the story of a beloved caterpillar, The Very F*cking Tired Mummy is an all-too-relatable tale of the frustration, exhaustion and sometimes unexpected joy of parenthood. Here we follow the journey of one mummy over the course of a week, taking everything life throws at her with a side of wine, coffee, chocolate from last Christmas, the kids' leftover lunch and even the occasional dog treat. It will comfort anyone for whom eight hours of sleep seems like a distant memory, and serve as a welcome reminder that sometimes, just sometimes, we all need a break...
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