In 1988, Dave Thomas was an unemployed plumber in Gloucester with a seemingly impossible dream: to enter the world of fashion. He moved to London, worked weekends as a caf dishwasher and evenings as a toilet attendant in a West End nightclub, and in every spare moment he hammered on the doors of fashion editors until one of them finally opened a tiny crack. Thomas seized the chance to be an unpaid dogsbody at Riva magazine, where he worked with legends of style Judy Blame and Isabella Blow and dressed artists like Lisa Stansfield, Boy George, and Kylie Minogue. Soon after, he was hired by Esquire UK and became the youngest fashion editor in the world. He ultimately moved on to edit fashion at Vogue Hommes, Vanity Fair, and Interview, and his work has since been published in a raft of international magazines. In the intervening decades, the business of styling ascended from the pavement to the penthouse. What began as kids playing dress up with ribbons and safety pins evolved into the backbone of a multibillion-dollar style and clothing industry. And Thomas, now one of Hollywood's most successful stylists, rose along with it. Covering more than thirty years of fashion and celebrity, Vanity Project traces the evolution of celebrity styling from the streets of London in the 1980s to the red carpets of Hollywood today. Featuring interviews conducted by Boy George alongside 250 full-color images, the book gives readers a behind-the-curtain look at more than three decades' worth of glamour and tantrums, friendships and rivalries, and the surprisingly hard graft of celebrity styling.

In contrast to literary or cultural studies linguistics is not taught in the EFL classroom, yet, it plays a major role in any English language teaching degree. Given this discrepancy it does not come as a surprise that students sometimes ask: "I want to be a teacher! Why do I need all this?" The main goal of this textbook is to demonstrate the relevance of linguistic expertise for the EFL classroom. It explores a wide range of topics (phonetics/phonology, lexis, corpus linguistics, text linguistics and the power of language) with a clear focus on providing a convincing answer to the question above. With its highly accessible style and layout, a wealth of examples and exercises as well as a large range of additional innovative online materials this textbook sets out to convince its readers that they will be better teachers if they are good linguists.

Fortunes of Officials is a story about the whole process of StrongIdeal Gao to become the most powerful person-- the secretary from deputy secretary of municipal committee of Near Violet City with a population of seven million people and to resign from the post. Like other place, Near Violet was filled opportunities, restlessness and uneasiness in the transformation period. As the most powerful person in the city, StrongIdeal Gao had to face various enticements and schemes and sufferings, but he withstood various challenges, took the great opportunities of the Reform and Opening Door Policy, and made a great contribution to the economic development of the city under the tenet: As the most powerful person in the place, local people must benefit from his performance, thus he was well loved by the people of the city. The novel described the officials working at the city level using a documentary method about their political fortunes and personal trails from a positive angle with the ups and downs and lively scenes. The novel was a signature novel which laid foundation for the author to become the well-known author about officialdom in China.

The diaries of the author's years as editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair also serves as a portrait of the 1980s in New York and Hollywood, describing her summons from London in the hopes of saving Condé Nast's periodical and her experiences within the world of glamour magazines

From the New York Times bestselling author of Fair Play and "the Marie Kondo of relationships" comes an inspirational guide for setting new personal goals, rediscovering your interests, cultivating creativity, and reclaiming your Unicorn Space. With her acclaimed New York Times bestseller (and Reese’s Book Club pick) Fair Play, Eve Rodsky began a national conversation and launched a movement toward greaterequality on the home front. But she soon realized that even when the domestic workloadbecame more balanced, women were still reporting dissatisfaction in their lives—that is,unless they used the precious time they carved out for activities that filled not just theircalendar but also their soul. Rodsky calls this vital time our “Unicorn Space”—the active pursuit of creative selfexpressiondoing the thing that makes you uniquely YOU. To help readers embrace allthe unlikely, surprising, and delightful places where their own Unicorn Space may befound, she speaks with thought leaders and countless real women who have discoveredtheirs everywhere—from activism to artistic endeavors to second careers. Rodsky revealswhat researchers already know: Creativity is not optional. It’s essential. Though most ofus do need to remind ourselves how (and where) to find it. With her trademark mix of how-to advice and big-picture inspirational thinking, Rodskyshows us a clear plan to reclaim the lost art of having fun, manifest your own UnicornSpace in an already too-busy life, and unleash your talents into the world.

UNLOCK THE MAGIC OF THEATRE THIS CHRISTMAS - GO BEHIND THE CURTAIN WITH WEST END LEGEND, MICHAEL BALL IN HIS FIRST MEMOIR 'Love, laughter and tears abound in this warm, entertaining read' Woman and Home 'Glittering' Daily Mail 'Wonderful' The Sun In 1989, a young Michael Ball landed the lead role in the musical Aspects of Love. It was a moment that changed his life forever. It was the first time he worked with legends of the stage like Andrew Lloyd Webber and Trevor Nunn; the show featured his smash hit song, Love Changes Everything, which rode high in the charts for 15 weeks; it was then, also, that he first met his long-term partner Cathy McGowan and battled back against the stage fright that had threatened his career. Over three decades later, Michael returned to a new production of the same show where he made his name, and with a lifetime's worth of stories to tell. In Different Aspects, Michael takes us backstage inside the making of a West End hit, while also diving back into his memories to share untold anecdotes and explore a glittering career that has made him a household name - from his first stage experiences in Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera, to delighting and shocking his audiences in equal measure in Hairspray and Sweeney Todd, as well as his chart-topping musical success (and some howlers too!). Exploring Michael's life, career and relationships alongside the pitfalls and pratfalls of modern theatre, Different Aspects is the story of a life lived on the stage. There will be laughter, tears and an abundance of heart. There's even some Roger Moore, though, famously, not quite enough. Take your seats ladies and gentlemen, the lights are dimming, the performance is about to start. Readers are loving Different Aspects... 'A very funny, insightful glimpse of the highs and lows of a musical theatre star' 'If you love Michael Ball, you'll love this' 'His story made me smile' 'Filled with wonderful little stories' 'Interesting, honest and revealing'

"This book, in one convenient volume, is the first comprehensive exploration of all episodes of Xi Jinping's (b. 1953) life history and his political career, begun at age 17. Part I explores Xi's formative childhood and youth experience as well as his governance record spanning every administrative level from the village to the capital. Part II focuses on Xi's first five-year term as General Secretary (2012-2017) and as President (2013-2018). The author discusses all major issues including Xi's legitimacy building, consolidation of power, ideological redefinition, party rectification, anti-corruption efforts, and control of dissent up until 2018. He explores reforms in the economy, social policy, the judiciary, military, and foreign relations in the same period. Xi's political life mirrors the vicissitudes of the Maoist and reform eras, and sheds light on the regime's hopes and fears, strengths and weaknesses, and the changing zeitgeist of the times. By adopting a multi-disciplinary, comparative, and social science approach, this book unpacks and explains immensely complex phenomena, and offers fresh insights into the dynamics of governance in China encompassing both progressive and regressive features. It synthesizes a large corpus of cutting-edge research on China, takes issue with influential theories such as the "one party, two coalitions" view of Chinese politics, and rejects conventional wisdom that views China as a "frozen and closed system" under "one-man rule." This original contribution to scholarship explores how Xi Jinping and his team introduced an unprecedented transformation of Chinese society and politics, and initiated an activist global outreach"--