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Everyone s heard of Usain Bolt, but how many people know about Dineka Maguire? Like Bolt, the Irish woman is a world record holder but in the rather lesser known sport of bog snorkelling. She is just one of the hundreds of unsung heroes featured in this book chronicling the people who go to bizarre lengths to break world records in the weirdest categories; people who devote hours of intense training to spitting dung, eating cockroaches, sniffing feet or tossing tuna in the hope of one day being recognised as the best in the world. This astonishing compendium of the weirdest, wackiest and most disgusting world records will amuse and astound in equal measure.Entries include:Longest ear hairFastest marathon while wearing a deep-sea diving suitFastest bog snorkellerFarthest distance skateboarding by a goatMost bees on bodyMost milk crates balanced on head Fastest 5-km run while dressed as a penguin and jugglingHeaviest airplane pulled with teethFastest shopping trolleyLongest backwards motorcycle rideMost stairs climbed by bicycleFastest 30 metres on a scooter by a dogFirst water-skiing squirrel

Prepare to be even more revolted, flabbergasted, appalled and entertained by this incredible follow-up collection of bizarre but absolutely true trivia. Nothing is too distasteful for this astonishing compendium, including scores of eclectic lists to amuse, astonish and appal your friends.Entries include:10 Road-kill RecipesHistory s 10 Most Murderous Regimes10 Historic Sex Toys10 People who Married Their Nieces10 Deaths by Sex10 People Killed by Falling Animals 10 Ancient Remedies Containing Body Parts10 Flatalogical Facts8 Most Violent National Anthems15 Premature Obituaries10 Unusual Royal Deaths10 Cruel and Unusual Punishments10 Notable Executions12 Elizabethan Insults

Mathematics is a product of human culture which has developed along with our attempts to comprehend the world around us. In A Brief History of Mathematical Thought, Luke Heaton explores how the language of mathematics has evolved over time, enabling new technologies and shaping the way people think. From stone-age rituals to algebra, calculus, and the concept of computation, Heaton shows the enormous influence of mathematics on science, philosophy and the broader human story.The book traces the fascinating history of mathematical practice, focusing on the impact of key conceptual innovations. Its structure of thirteen chapters split between four sections is dictated by a combination of historical and thematic considerations. In the first section, Heaton illuminates the fundamental concept of number. He begins with a speculative and rhetorical account of prehistoric rituals, before describing the practice of mathematics in Ancient Egypt, Babylon and Greece. He then examines the relationship between counting and the continuum of measurement, and explains how the rise of algebra has dramatically transformed our world. In the second section, he explores the origins of calculus and the conceptual shift that accompanied the birth of non-Euclidean geometries. In the third section, he examines the concept of the infinite and the fundamentals of formal logic. Finally, in section four, he considers the limits of formal proof, and the critical role of mathematics in our ongoing attempts to comprehend the world around us. The story of mathematics is fascinating in its own right, but Heaton does more than simply outline a history of mathematical ideas. More importantly, he shows clearly how the history and philosophy of maths provides an invaluable perspective on human nature.

If there is one mountain that is known across the whole world, it must be the highest - Everest. To the people who live at its feet she is Chomolungma, Goddess Mother of the World. The disappearance of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine close to the summit in 1924 lent the mountain a tragic romanticism, of young men risking everything for a dream. When Norgay Tenzing and Ed Hillary became the first men to stand on the summit in 1953, it was the crowning glory for the coronation of Elizabeth II.But nearly fifty years on, there are scores of ascents nearly every season. There are stories of bodies and heaps of garbage abandoned on the slopes, of the loss of cultural identity among the Sherpas and Tibetans who live at the foot of Everest. Ed Douglas spent parts of 1995 and 1996 travelling in Nepal and Tibet, talking to politicians and environmentalists, to mountaineers and local people. He found a poor region struggling to develop, and encountering environmental problems far greater than rubbish left by climbers. Local people are resourceful and cultured, reliant on the work the mountaineers and the mountain provide, but striving to find a balance between the new and the old.

Here is the whole of recorded British royal history, from the legendary King Alfred the Great onwards, including the monarchies of England, Scotland, Wales and the United Kingdom for over a thousand years. Fascinating portraits are expertly woven into a history of division and eventual union of the British Isles - even royals we think most familiar are revealed in a new and sometimes surprising light. This revised and shortened edition of The Mammoth Book of British Kings & Queens includes biographies of the royals of recorded British history, plus an overview of the semi-legendary figures of pre-history and the Dark Ages - an accessible source for students and general readers.

Established in June 1940, the Long Range Desert Group was the inspiration of scientist and soldier Major Ralph Bagnold, a contemporary of T.E Lawrence who, in the inter-war years, explored the North African desert in a Model T Ford automobile.Mortimer takes us from the founding of the LRDG, through their treacherous journey across the Egyptian Sand Sea and beyond, offering a hitherto unseen glimpse into the heart of this most courageous organisation, whose unique and valiant contributions to the war effort can now finally be recognized and appreciated. Praise for Gavin Mortimer:"e;With unparalleled access to SBS's archive, Mortimer draws on private papers to produce the definitive account of the SBS's extraordinary exploits in WWII."e; Sunday Telegraph"e;The SBS is finally being recognised thanks to a remarkable new book. Author Gavin Mortimer spent more than a decade interviewing veterans, scrutinising SBS archives and poring over recently declassified documents to write The SBS in World War 2."e; Daily Mirror"e;This gripping first-hand account of the raid is one of many previously unpublished resources that Mortimer's book draws on."e; The Times"e;Mortimer deserves full credit for assembling a mountain of material and presenting it with lucidity and balance"e; Philip Ziegler, Daily Mail

'Delightful... as ever, Bowen does a splendid job of capturing the flavour of early twentieth-century New York and bringing to life its warm and human inhabitants.' Publishers WeeklyMolly's sixth sense is warning her - danger and death lie ahead!A woman private eye in a man's world, Molly Murphy is having a hard time succeeding in running her detective agency in New York. That's why she agrees to go undercover for the NYPD to expose a pair of spiritualist sisters as con artists, even though the offer of work has come from police captain Daniel Sullivan. Sullivan had once won Molly's heart - until she discovered he has a socialite fianc e and an upcoming society wedding. Still, needs must, and so Molly finds herself posing as an Irish cousin at the uptown mansion of Senator Barney Flynn. Flynn's invalid wife hopes the psychic sisters can contact her dead son, kidnapped and lost in a sensational crime, and after a spooky s ance, Molly isn't so sure the sisters are fake... but she's certain the police bungled the kidnapping case. All too soon her questions are leading her to danger... and it doesn't take a psychic to tell Molly that if she continues she may very well end up dead!'An evocative trip through Old New York... in the company of Irish immigrant Molly Murphy, a spirited and appealing guide.' SJ Rozan, author of Winter and Night 'Irish humour and gritty determination... with charm and optimism.' Anne Perry'Molly grows ever more engaging against a vibrant background of New York's dark side at the turn of the century.' Kirkus Reviews

Angel Crawford is finally starting to get used to life as a brain-eating zombie, but her problems are far from over. Her felony record is coming back to haunt her, more zombie hunters are popping up, and she s beginning to wonder if her hunky cop-boyfriend is involved with the zombie mafia. Yeah, that s right the zombie mafia.Throw in a secret lab and a lot of conspiracy, and Angel s going to need all of her brainpower and maybe a brain smoothie as well in order to get through it without falling apart.

Toby thought she understood her own past; she thought she knew the score.She was wrong.It's time to learn the truth.

Life isn t going terribly well for Derrick; he s become severely overweight, his only friend has turned on him, he s hopelessly in love with a girl way out of his league, and it s all because of his sister. Her depression, and its grip on his family, is tearing his life apart. When rumours start to circulate that a panther is roaming wild in his south London suburb, Derrick resolves to turn capture it. Surely if he can find a way to tame this beast, he ll be able to stop everything at home from spiraling towards disaster? Panther is a bold and emotionally powerful novel that deals candidly with the effects of depression on those who suffer from it, and those who suffer alongside them.

The dead are seldom silent. All that is required for them to be heard is that someone be willing to listen. I have been listening to the dead all my life. Lady Lilith Montgomery is the daughter of the sixth Duke of Radnor. She is one of the most beautiful young women in London and engaged to the city s most eligible bachelor. She is also a witch. When her father dies, her hapless brother Freddie takes on his title. But it is Lilith who inherits their father s role as Head Witch of the Lazarus Coven. And it is Lilith who must face the threat of the Sentinels, a powerful group of dark sorcerers . . . Lilith knows the Lazarus creed: secrecy and silence. She has spent her life honouring the code. But then she meets Bram. With him, she must not be secret nor silent. Despite her loyalty to the coven and duty to her family, Lilith cannot keep her life as a witch hidden from the man she loves yet, to tell him will risk everything.

The first instalment of the highly praised Toby Daye series.The world of Faerie never disappeared; it merely went into hiding, continuing to exist parallel to our own. Secrecy is the key to Faerie's survival: but no secret can be kept forever, and when the fae and mortal worlds collide, changelings are born.Outsiders from birth, these children spend their lives fighting for the respect of their immortal relations. Or in the case of October 'Toby' Daye, rejecting the fae completely. Toby has retreated into a 'normal' life - spending her nights stocking shelves at a San Francisco grocery store and her days asleep in her downtown apartment.But when Countess Evening Winterroseis murdered, Toby finds herself drawn abruptly back into the world she thought she'd left behind. It's going to take everything she's got just to stay alive, and the stakes are higher than anyone has guessed . . .

The sixth instalment of the highly praised Toby Daye series.It s been almost a year since October Toby Daye averted a war, gave up a county, and suffered personal losses that have left her wishing for a good day s sleep. She s tried to focus on her responsibilities, but she can t help feeling like her world is crumbling around her and her increasingly reckless behaviour is beginning to worry even her staunchest supporters.To make matters worse, Toby s just been asked to find another missing child only this time it s the changeling daughter of her fellow knight, Etienne. Chelsea is the kind of changeling the old stories warn about: the ones with all the strength and none of the control. She s opening doors that were never meant to be opened, releasing dangers that were sealed away centuries before and there s a good chance she could destroy Faerie if she isn t stopped. Now Toby must find Chelsea before time runs out, racing against an unknown deadline and through unknown worlds as she and her allies try to avert disaster.Toby thought the last year was bad. She has no idea.

The fourth instalment of the highly praised Toby Daye series.October Toby Daye, changeling knight in the service of Duke Sylvester Torquill, finds the delicate balance of her life shattered when she learns that an old friend is in dire trouble. Lily, Lady of the Tea Gardens, has been struck down by a mysterious, seemingly impossible illness, leaving her fiefdom undefended. Struggling to find a way to save Lily and her subjects, Toby must confront her own past as an enemy she thought was gone forever raises her head once more: Oleander de Merelands, one of the two people responsible for her fourteen-year exile.Time is growing short and the stakes are getting higher. With everything on the line, Toby will have to sort truth from lies to the people she loves most. If she can t, Toby will be forced to make the one choice she never dreamed she'd have to face again...

Things are starting to look up for October "e;Toby"e; Daye. She's training her squire, doing her job, and has finally allowed herself to grow closer to the local King of Cats. It seems like her life may finally be settling down...at least until dead changelings start appearing in the alleys of San Francisco, killed by an overdose of goblin fruit.Toby's efforts to take the problem to the Queen of the Mists are met with harsh reprisals, leaving her under sentence of exile from her home and everyone she loves. Now Toby must find a way to reverse the Queens decree, get the goblin fruit off the streets-and, oh, yes, save her own life, since more than a few of her problems have once again followed her home. And then there's the question of the Queen herself, who seems increasingly unlikely to have a valid claim to the throne...To find the answers, October and her friends will have to travel from the legendary Library of Stars into the hidden depths of the Kingdom of the Mists-and they'll have to do it fast, because time is running out. In faerie, some fates are worse than death.October Daye is about to find out what they are.

The fifth instalment of the highly praised Toby Daye series.October Toby Daye is finally doing all right and inevitably that means it's time for things to take a turn for the worse. Someone has kidnapped the sons of the Duke and Duchess of the Undersea Duchy of Saltmist. To prevent a war between land and sea, Toby must not only find the missing boys, but also prove that the Queen of the Mists was not behind their abduction.But someone is determined to stop her.From the streets of San Francisco to the lands beneath the waves, Toby will need all her guiles and the help of her allies if she wants to make it through this in one piece. As the battle grows more and more personal, one thing is chillingly clear. When Faerie goes to war, not everyone will walk away.

'Top of my urban-paranormal series list!' Felicia Day, author of You're Never Weird on the InternetPolitics have never been Toby Daye's strong suit. When she traveled to the Kingdom of Silences to prevent them from going to war with her home, the Kingdom of the Mists, she wasn't expecting to return with a cure for elf-shot and a whole new set of political headaches. Now the events she unwittingly set in motion could change the balance of modern Faerie forever, and she has been ordered to appear before a historic convocation of monarchs, hosted by Queen Windermere in the Mists and overseen by the High King and Queen themselves. Naturally, things have barely gotten underway when the first dead body shows up. As the only changeling in attendance, Toby is already the target of suspicion and hostility. Now she needs to find a killer before they can strike again - and with the doors locked to keep the guilty from escaping, no one is safe. As danger draws ever closer to her allies and the people she loves best, Toby will have to race against time to prevent the total political destabilization of the West Coast and to get the convocation back on track . . . and if she fails, the cure for elf-shot may be buried forever, along with the victims she was too slow to save.

Changeling knight in the court of the Duke of Shadowed Hills, October "e;Toby"e; Daye has survived numerous challenges that would destroy fae and mortal alike. Now Toby must take on a nightmarish new assignment. Someone is stealing both fae and mortal children-and all signs point to Blind Michael. When the young son of Toby's closest friends is snatched from their Northern California home, Toby has no choice but to track the villains down, even when there are only three magical roads by which to reach Blind Michael's realm-home of the legendary Wild Hunt-and no road may be taken more than once. If she cannot escape with all the children before the candle that guides and protects her burns away, Toby herself will fall prey to Blind Michael's inescapable power.And it doesn't bode well for the success of her mission that her own personal Fetch, May Daye-the harbinger of Toby's own death-has suddenly turned up on her doorstep...An Artificial Night is the third installment of the highly praised Toby Daye series.

Hi Dad . . . can we have a chat about your dementia . . . Can you remember how it started?When Ron Husband started to forget things - dates, names, appointments . . . daft things, important things - it took a while to realise that this was 'a different form of forgetting'. But it was just the first sign of the illness that gradually took him away from the family he loved.This is the touching, illustrated story of Tony's father and how dementia slowly took him away from his family. The title is a reference to his last words to his son - on a day when Tony had spent the day in the care home with no sign of recognition. The book is framed as a chat between Tony and his dad, who fades away through the last few pages of the book."e;... rather wonderful cartoon strips ... chronicling his father's dementia with loving charm and wit."e; Stephen Fry, Twitter

The second instalment of the highly praised Toby Daye series.October Toby Daye is a changeling, daughter of a fae and a mortal man. Like her mother, she able to read what has happened to a person through a mere taste of their blood. Toby is the only changeling who has earned knighthood, and she earns that position every day, undertaking assignments for her liege, Sylvester, the Duke of the Shadowed Hills. Now Sylvester has asked her to go to the County of Tamed Lightning otherwise known as Fremont, California to check up on his niece, Countess January O'Leary. A baby-sitting assignment or so it would seem; but Toby soon discovers that someone has begun murdering people close to January: if Toby can't find the killer, she may well become the next victim.

Things are looking up.For the first time in what feels like years, Toby Daye has been able to pause long enough to take a breath and look at her life - and she likes what she sees. She has friends. She has allies. She has a squire to train and a King of Cats to love, and maybe, just maybe, she can let her guard down for a change.Or not. When Queen Windermere's seneschal is elf-shot and thrown into an enchanted sleep by agents from the neighboring Kingdom of Silences, Toby finds herself in a role she never expected to play: that of a diplomat. She must travel to Portland, Oregon, to convince King Rhys of Silences not to go to war against the Mists. But nothing is that simple, and what October finds in Silences is worse than she would ever have imagined.How far will Toby go when lives are on the line, and when allies both old and new are threatened by a force she had never expected to face again? How much is October willing to give up, and how much is she willing to change? In Faerie, what's past is never really gone.It's just waiting for an opportunity to pounce.

By 1969, following the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, over 500,000 US troops were in country in Vietnam. Before America s longest war had ended with the fall of Saigon in 1975, 450,000 Vietnamese had died, along with 36,000 Americans. The Vietnam War was the first rock n roll war, the first helicopter war with its doctrine of airmobility , and the first television war; it made napalm and the defoliant Agent Orange infamous, and gave us the New Journalism of Michael Herr and others. It also saw the establishment of the Navy SEALs and Delta Force. At home, America fractured, with the peace movement protesting against the war; at Kent State University, Ohio National Guardsmen fired on unarmed students, killing four and injuring nine. Lewis s compelling selection of the best writing to come out of a war covered by some truly outstanding writers, both journalists and combatants, includes an eyewitness account of the first major battle between the US Army and the People s Army of Vietnam at Ia Drang; a selection of letters home; Nicholas Tomalin s famous The General Goes Zapping Charlie Cong ; Robert Mason s R&R , Studs Terkel s account of the police breaking up an anti-war protest; John Kifner on the shootings at Kent State; Ron Kovic s Born on the Fourth of July ; John T. Wheeler s Khe Sanh: Live in the V Ring ; Pulitzer Prize-winner Seymour Hersh on the massacre at My Lai; Michael Herr s It Made You Feel Omni ; Viet Cong Truong Nhu Tang s memoir; naval nurse Maureen Walsh s memoir, Burning Flesh ; John Pilger on the fall of Saigon; and Tim O Brien s If I Die in a Combat Zone .

A captivating story of love, family and survival, from a beloved author who 'tells a cracking story...an insight into people that is rarely found' (Nottingham Evening Post)Life is tough on the cobbled backstreet courtyards of Abbey Street, Warwickshire, in the 1840s: boys are destined for the pit and girls for the mill. Despite this, clever, feisty Maryann is happy there - until her mother dies. Her family collapses, leaving Maryann coping with everything, exhausted and lonely. Especially as Toby, the boy she is set on marrying, insists they wait.When things are at their bleakest, Maryann is offered a lifeline: a position as nanny to the daughter of the mill owner, Wesley Marshall. Though the house is filled with secrets and heartache, there is kindness, too, and to Maryann's surprise she grows close to Marshall. But their relationship has not gone unnoticed and it threatens to unleash a world of problems on them all . . .'A gifted writer. Tells a cracking story and does so with an insight into people that is rarely found' -Nottingham Evening Post

The year is 1742, and the people of Preston are looking forward to their ancient once-every-twenty-years festival of merriment and excess, the Preston Guild. But the prospect darkens as the town plunges into a financial crisis caused by the death of pawnbroker and would-be banker Philip Pimbo, apparently shot behind the locked door of his office. Is it suicide? Coroner Titus Cragg suspects so, but Dr Luke Fidelis disagrees. To untangle the truth Cragg must dig out the secrets of Pimbo's personal life, learn the grim facts of the African slave trade, search for a missing Civil War treasure and deal with the machinations of his old enemy Ephraim Grimshaw, now the town's mayor. Outwardly mild-mannered as ever, but passionate for justice, Cragg relies once again on the help and advice of his analytical friend Fidelis, his astute wife Elizabeth and the contents of a well-stocked library.As in his previous Cragg and Fidelis stories, Robin Blake brings a vivid cast of characters to the page in this third historical mystery about the dramas that pulse below the surface of life in a provincial Georgian town. Praise for Robin Blake:This is rollicking stuff. Financial TimesAn impressive whodunit. Publishers WeeklyFascinating . . . Blake's knowledge of an eighteenth century backwater just shaking off medieval superstitions is deep and engaging. Booklist (starred review)

1743, and the tanners of Preston are a pariah community, plying their unwholesome trade beside a stretch of riverside marsh where many Prestonians by ancient right graze their livestock. When the body of a newborn child is found in one of their tanning pits, Cragg's enquiry falls foul of a cabal of merchants, dead set on modernising the town's economy and regarding the despised tanners - and Cragg's apparent championship of them - as obstacles to their plan. The murder of a baby is just the evidence they need to get rid of the tanners once and for all. But the inquest into the baby's death is disrupted when the inn in which it is being held mysteriously burns down. Then Cragg himself faces a charge of lewdness, jeopardising his whole future as a coroner. But the fates have not finished playing with him just yet. The sudden and suspicious death of a very prominent person may just, with the help of Fidelis's sharp forensic skills, bring about Cragg's redemption...

In the summer of 1998, Walter Kirn - then a young novelist struggling with fatherhood and a dissolving marriage - set out on a peculiar, fateful errand: to personally deliver a crippled hunting dog from an animal shelter in Montana to the New York apartment of one Clark Rockefeller, a secretive young banker and art collector. Thus began a fifteen-year relationship that drew Kirn deep into the fun-house world of an outlandish, eccentric son of privilege who, one day, would be shockingly unmasked as a brazen serial impostor and brutal double-murderer.This is a one-of-a-kind story of an innocent man duped by a real-life Mr Ripley, taking us on a bizarre and haunting journey from the private club rooms of Manhattan to the courtrooms and prisons of Los Angeles.

Preston, 1741. The drowning of drunken publican Antony Egan is no surprise even if it comes as unpleasant shock to coroner Titus Cragg, whose wife is the old man s niece. But he does his duty to the letter, and the inquest s verdict is accidental death. But Cragg s close friend Luke Fidelis finds evidence to cast doubt on the events leading up to Egan s demise. Soon, suspicions are roused still further when a well-to-do farmer collapses and it appears he was in town on political business. Is there a conspiracy afoot? With the help of Fidelis s scientific ingenuity he sets about bringing the true criminals to light

The year is 1740. George II is on the throne, but England s remoter provinces remain largely a law unto themselves. In Lancashire a grim discovery has been made: a squire s wife, Dolores Brockletower, lies in the woods above her home at Garlick Hall, her throat brutally slashed.Called to the scene, Coroner Titus Cragg finds the Brockletower household awash with rumour and suspicion. He enlists the help of his astute young friend, doctor Luke Fidelis, to throw light on the case. But this is a world in which forensic science is in its infancy, and policing hardly exists. Embarking on their first gripping investigation, Cragg and Fidelis are faced with the superstition of witnesses, obstruction by local officials and denunciations from the squire himself. A Dark Anatomy marks the arrival of a remarkable new voice in mystery and a pair of detectives both cunning and complex.

Death and blackmail make an unwelcome visit to the hottest dancehall in town in this delicious Miss Fisher mystery.Dancing divinely through the murder and mayhem of her fifth adventure, the elegant Phryne Fisher remains unflappable. Gorgeous in her sparkling lobelia-coloured georgette dress, delighted by her dancing skill, pleased with her partner and warmed by the admiring regard of the banjo player, Miss Phryne Fisher had thought of tonight as a promising evening at the hottest dancehall in town, the Green Mill.But that was before death broke in. In jazz-mad 1920s Melbourne, Phryne finds there are hidden perils in dancing the night away like murder, blackmail and young men who vanish. This adventure leads to smoke-filled clubs, a dashingly handsome band leader, some fancy flying indeed across the Australian Alps and a most unexpected tryst with a gentle stranger.'Independent, wealthy, spirited and possessed of an uninhibited style that makes every one move out of her way and stand gawking a full five minutes after she walks by Phryne Fisher is a woman who gets what she wants and has the good sense to enjoy every minute of it!' - Davina Bartlett, Geelong Times

Angel Crawford is a loser.Living with her alcoholic deadbeat dad in the swamps of southern Louisiana, she's a high school dropout with a pill habit and a criminal record who's been fired from more crap jobs than she can count. Now on probation for a felony, it seems that Angel will never pull herself out of the downward spiral her life has taken.That is, until the day she wakes up in the ER after overdosing on painkillers. Angel remembers being in an horrible car crash, but she doesn't have a mark on her. To add to the weirdness, she receives an anonymous letter telling her there's a job waiting for her at the parish morgue--and that it's an offer she doesn't dare refuse.Before she knows it she's dealing with a huge crush on a certain hunky deputy and a brand new addiction: an overpowering craving for brains. Plus, her morgue is filling up with the victims of a serial killer who decapitates his prey--just when she's hungriest!Angel's going to have to grow up fast if she wants to keep this job and stay in one piece. Because if she doesn't, she's dead meat. Literally.