Gerald Diffey has spent four decades immersed in the world of food, wine and hospitality, from early days waiting tables in old English hotels to establishing two of the best places in the world to drink and eat: the award-winning Gerald’s Bar in North Carlton – Heston Blumenthal described it as ‘a proper, proper old fashioned sort of bar’ – and Gerald’s Bar in San Sebastian. Beggars Belief is a collection of funny, poignant, insightful and just plain ludicrous stories from Gerald’s life in kitchens and behind bars: his formative years in the UK, memories of food and family; tales and tips from forty years of service; journeys and meals, people and places, from lunch on the side of a volcano in Sicily to dinner on a beach in East Timor; stories and recipes and drinks suggestions from North Carlton and San Sebastian; vignettes, slices of life, observations. ‘Romance,’ writes Gerald in the introduction. ‘That’s what I sell. Sensual pleasures. Sights, sounds, smells, touch, taste. Cyrano de Bergerac said: “I have tried to live my whole life with panache.” If I said that, I’d sound like a twat. But you get the drift. I’m off to bone some quails.’

Over last thirty years, new technology, fashion, and social set-ups have spawned new cliches galore. Everything on the Internet is available at the 'click of a mouse', TV presenters ask the audience to 'give it up' when they want them to applaud, call centres tell us 'we value your call' even though 'all our operators are busy'. And if you're 'gobsmacked' by all this you may be told to 'get a life', 'chill out' or 'whatever'. It's Not Rocket Science sifts through all aspects of modern life to find the most prevalent, ubiquitous and downright irritating cliches of our age. This high-octane, caffeine-fuelled, dictionary of cliches highlights the freshly-hackneyed phrases we're being subjected to 24/7. So how good is that? And what's not to like?

A young girl navigates the joys and sorrows of rural life on the cusp of the modern world in mid-twentieth century Turkey. A close-knit family is transformed forever when its matriarch tragically dies, leaving behind a husband, Timur the blacksmith, and their three young daughters. The Blacksmith's Daughter follows the life of the eldest daughter, Gül, who is growing up in rural Turkey in the 1940s and '50s. When Timur remarries, the girls' new stepmother has none of their mother's warmth, so Gül feels compelled to take on the role of mother to her younger siblings. Their village upbringing is full of simple pleasures- summer evenings sat outside listening to the radio, games played in the street. But the world is evolving, and with an emerging focus on economic growth and prosperity as modernity creeps in, Gül's future is unknown. Through all the hardships and uncertainty, what remains ever-constant is the close bond she shares with her father, who deeply respects and cherishes his first-born. The Blacksmith's Daughter is an enchanting glimpse into how a young girl navigates loss, identity and altered family dynamics, while her simple way of life is changing too. “Gül is often frustratingly reticent, like a character in a 19th-century novel, unwilling to say the very thing that will save her. But because we readers see her in such detail and are aware of her every thought, we feel everything she feels in this exceptionally fine, beautifully translated novel.” —Declan O’Driscoll, The Irish Times “Reading it was like falling in love. If everyone read this book, the world would be a better place – more considerate, more liveable, more tolerant.” —Fatih Akın, director of the film The Edge of Heaven

In this devastating exposé, investigative journalist Jon Mitchell reveals the shocking toxic contamination of the Pacific Ocean and millions of victims by the US military. For decades, US military operations have been contaminating the Pacific region with toxic substances, including plutonium, dioxin, and VX nerve agent. Hundreds of thousands of service members, their families, and residents have been exposed—but the United States has hidden the damage and refused to help victims. After World War II, the United States granted immunity to Japanese military scientists in exchange for their data on biological weapons tests conducted in China; in the following years, nuclear detonations in the Pacific obliterated entire islands and exposed Americans, Marshallese, Chamorros, and Japanese fishing crews to radioactive fallout. At the same time, the United States experimented with biological weapons on Okinawa and stockpiled the island with nuclear and chemical munitions, causing numerous accidents. Meanwhile, the CIA orchestrated a campaign to introduce nuclear power to Japan—the folly of which became horrifyingly clear in the 2011 meltdowns in Fukushima Prefecture. Caught in a geopolitical grey zone, US territories have been among the worst affected by military contamination, including Guam, Saipan, and Johnston Island, the final disposal site of apocalyptic volumes of chemical weapons and Agent Orange. Accompanying this damage, US authorities have waged a campaign of cover-ups, lies, and attacks on the media, which the author has experienced firsthand in the form of military surveillance and attempts by the State Department to impede his work. Now, for the first time, this explosive book reveals the horrific extent of contamination in the Pacific and the lengths the Pentagon will go to conceal it.

All humans see the world in two fundamentally different ways: even babies have a rich understanding of both the physical and social worlds. They expect objects to obey principles of physics, and they’re startled when things disappear or defy gravity. Yet they can also read emotions and respond with anger, sympathy, and joy.In Descartes’ Baby, Bloom draws on a wealth of scientific discoveries to show how these two ways of knowing give rise to such uniquely human traits as humor, disgust, religion, art, and morality. How our dualist perspective, developed throughout our lives, profoundly influences our thoughts, feelings, and actions is the subject of this richly rewarding book.

This volume examines the nineteenth century not only through episodes, institutions, sites and representations concerned with union, concord and bonds of sympathy, but also through moments of secession, separation, discord and disjunction. Its lens extends from the local and regional, through to national and international settings in Britain, Europe and the United States. The contributors come from the fields of cultural history, literary studies, American studies and legal history.

Featuring a new introduction in response to Julia Gillard's memoir, this revised edition brings Paul Kelly's masterpiece on the Rudd–Gillard years up to the present. Drawing on more than sixty on-the-record interviews with all the major players, Triumph and Demise is full of remarkable disclosures. It is the inside account of the hopes, achievements and bitter failures of the Labor Government from 2007 to 2013. Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard came together to defeat John Howard, formed a brilliant partnership and raised the hopes of the nation. Yet they fell into tension and then hostility under the pressures of politics and policy. Veteran journalist Paul Kelly probes the dynamics of the Rudd-Gillard partnership and dissects what tore them apart. He tells the full story of Julia Gillard’s tragedy as our first female prime minister—her character, Rudd's destabilisation, the carbon tax saga and how Gillard was finally pulled down on the eve of the 2013 election. Kelly documents the most misunderstood event in these years—the rise of Tony Abbott and the reason for his success. It was Abbott's performance that denied Rudd and Gillard the chance to recover. Labor misjudged Abbott and paid the price. Kelly writes with a keen eye and fearless determination. His central theme is that Australian politics has entered a crisis of the system that, unless corrected, will diminish the lives of all Australians.