Teaches you skills that can help you in life, namely: how to tell decent jokes, three essential chords on the guitar, how to drill a hole and put a rawl plug in it, and how to play pool.

Books, television shows and websites are forever ordering us around - 100 things to do before you're 30; 50 albums you must own; this year's must-have handbag; change your life in two weeks. Why - is this an increasingly desperate search for happiness? What is this obsession with lists, and why should we care?

A magnificent study of Britain's royal heritage with a directory of royalty and over 120 of the most important historic buildings.

Offers practical tools for cutting through the claptrap and unravelling the spin - tackling propaganda, the psychology of deception, pseudo-news, bogus science, the weird cult of 'Aids reappraisal', and numerous conspiracy theories (including the one about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq).

Full title: 'Medieval Castles, Stately and Historic Houses of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'. From ancient times to the Wars of the Roses and 1485.

On December 28th 2000, Charlotte Wilson, a 27 year old VSO worker, was killed when her bus, was ambushed in war-torn Burundi. The attackers were members of the Hutu-extremist FNL. This is a political detective story, a memoir of grief and a portrait of an extraordinary woman who died at the very moment she had found fulfilment.

In a bid to recreate the golden age of fifties motoring for BBC TV, Richard Wilson packs his picnic, flask and period guidebooks and pulls gently away from the kerb to retrace the routes of six classic UK road tours

This title provides a history of one of the most populous and celebrated cities in England.

Tells the story of Alexander Selkirk, the Fife mariner who became the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe . This book covers the dramatic circumstances of his abandonment on the island when he asked to be stranded rather than risk drowning in the unseaworthy Cinque Ports.

This text examines recurring themes, recent scholarship, and provides close readings of plays to illustrate the influence of the shaded, secretive, dangerous, hidden life of the English Catholics on Shakespeare's work.

Looks at the building of English country houses as a whole in the two centuries after 1660. This book shows why owners embarked on building schemes, often following the Grand Tour or excursions around other houses in England; where they looked for architectural inspiration and assistance; and how the building work was actually done and its costs.

Divided into four chronological sections this fabulous book opens with the early Tudor palaces. The next section covers the so-called 'Prodigy Houses' of the Elizabethan era, which are followed by an inspiring selection of Jacobean palaces and stately homes. The final section explores the more modern buildings of the Restoration style.

When Mike Read asked Classic FM listeners to choose their favourite funny poems, he was inundated with suggestions. These CDs present the top 100 poems read by a selection of celebrities. Poems include work by Betjeman, Belloc, Carroll, Eliot, Lear, McGough, Milne and Wodehouse.

Shows the human reality of lives torn apart by the machinations of war and diplomatic expediency, where competing versions of the truth can be as deadly as bullets and machetes. This is a political detective story, a memoir of grief and a portrait of an extraordinary woman who died at the very moment she had found fulfilment.

Presents an account of the growth of the city, with its walls, streams, markets, hospitals and churches, and the lives of its citizens. This work traces activities and beliefs, as well as the tensions lying not far beneath the surface that eventually erupted in Kett's Rebellion of 1549.