Who is the Doctor, what are the Daleks and why is the TARDIS a police box? Here is a television programme that has been running for over fifty years and has seen twelve different actors play the title role, each a unique incarnation. Why are people so devoted to this phenomenon? What is all the fuss about? Will Hadcroft and Ian Wheeler present the basics, with an overview of each Doctor's era and recommended stories to try, delivering the essential information that you need to know, your introduction to a television legend. It is the perfect beginners' guide for anyone wondering where to start, and equally suited to the die-hard fan who wants be reminded of and relive the very best bits all over again. Will Hadcroft watched Doctor Who avidly from the age of seven and became rather obsessed with it throughout the 1980s. He fantasised about being a writer like series scribe Terrance Dicks. He is the author of the Anne Droyd children's books, the young adult novel The Blueprint, and the Mia series for younger children. His autobiography, The Feeling's Unmutual, was endorsed by Tripods trilogy author John Christopher and the Sixth Doctor himself, Colin Baker. Along with his writing, Will also runs FBS Publishing Ltd with Theresa Cutts. Ian Wheeler has contributed to books about Doctor Who and Blake's 7 and has written widely about cult television. He was Coordinator of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society from 2001 to 2007 and has spoken about the series on television and radio. He has written for publications as diverse as the Financial Times, Best of British, Dreamwatch Bulletin, Comics International, CSO, Celestial Toyroom, TARDIS and Odeon Cinema Magazine. In 2008, he won the Harrogate Advertiser Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival competition.

'Is it just because I am a grumpy old(ish) man that the number of things that drive me bonkers is increasing day by day?' Colin has written a weekly column for his local paper, the Bucks Free Press, for the past 21 years, giving readers the benefit of his wisdom on many and varied topics. Here is collection of Colin's wisdom, all in one pla

A New York Times bestseller | Soon to be a major motion picture “Witty, endearing and greatly entertaining.” —Wall Street Journal “Don’t trust anyone, including the four septuagenarian sleuths in Osman’s own laugh-out-loud whodunit.” —Parade Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves A female cop with her first big case A brutal murder Welcome to... THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves the Thursday Murder Club. When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case. As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it's too late?

It's well documented that Morrissey has a handful of friends that he keeps close. He values his privacy and that is to be respected, especially by a fan. But for a fan like Julie Hamill, of thirty years, it's hard not to want to know everything about him, the truth, not the fair-weather and often blackened portrayals of him in the press. These fans want to know for themselves: Who is Morrissey? What does he really talk about? What does he eat? How does he take his tea? What makes him laugh? Is he like me? Not wanting to intrude, or rummage through his bins, Julie simply wanted to know how human he is, because she knows she will never get that close to this genius that has been a constant in her life, both in terms of lyrical comfort, fascination and awe. Each interview led Julie to discover more than just how deeply people felt connected to Morrissey. She discovered more about each one as a person too. Their favourite things, what makes them tick, and out of one simple request to Mark Nevin for an autograph for her mum, Julie also ended up with a special collection of notes from all the contributors to her mum. With each interview taking around 15 minutes to read, this book gives a different perspective on the man, his music and his fans connection to him.

“A funny, savage appraisal of a totally automated American society of the future.”—San Francisco Chronicle Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paul’s rebellion is vintage Vonnegut—wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality. Praise for Player Piano “An exuberant, crackling style . . . Vonnegut is a black humorist, fantasist and satirist, a man disposed to deep and comic reflection on the human dilemma.”—Life “His black logic . . . gives us something to laugh about and much to fear.”—The New York Times Book Review

Starting at the very basics and working its way up to important language constructions, "An introduction to Japanese" offers beginning students, as well as those doing self-study, a comprehensive grammar for the Japanese language. Oriented towards the serious learner, there are no shortcuts in this book: no romanised Japanese for ease of reading beyond the introduction, no pretending that Japanese grammar maps perfectly to English grammar, and no simplified terminology. In return, this book explains Japanese the way one may find it taught at universities, covering everything from basic to intermediary Japanese, and even touching on some of the more advanced constructions.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • “Delightful . . . [a] captivating and slyly subversive fictional paean to the real women whose work on the Oxford English Dictionary went largely unheralded.”—The New York Times Book Review “A marvelous fiction about the power of language to elevate or repress.”—Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of People of the Book Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, an Oxford garden shed in which her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Young Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word bondmaid flutters beneath the table. She rescues the slip and, learning that the word means “slave girl,” begins to collect other words that have been discarded or neglected by the dictionary men. As she grows up, Esme realizes that words and meanings relating to women’s and common folks’ experiences often go unrecorded. And so she begins in earnest to search out words for her own dictionary: the Dictionary of Lost Words. To do so she must leave the sheltered world of the university and venture out to meet the people whose words will fill those pages. Set during the height of the women’s suffrage movement and with the Great War looming, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. Inspired by actual events, author Pip Williams has delved into the archives of the Oxford English Dictionary to tell this highly original story. The Dictionary of Lost Words is a delightful, lyrical, and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words and the power of language to shape the world. WINNER OF THE AUSTRALIAN BOOK INDUSTRY AWARD