There is No Finish tells the roller-coaster story of the Backyard Ultra. Birthed from the high school musings of Lazarus Lake, renowned for the Barkley Marathons, the running event has spread globally-to over eighty countries- with sky-rocketing numbers.

Runners have up to one hour to complete a 4.1-mile lap. At the start of the next hour, again they attempt to complete the same lap. The race keeps going, with no finish, until all except one person gives up. The winner is the last one standing who does one lap more than anyone else.

With participants running until they drop, every race becomes an enthralling adventure with epic stories. Stephen Parker dives deep into the Backyard Ultra scene, running events, crewing for others, and exploring its amazing history. With races in Belgium, the USA, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Finland, South Africa, and many more, the book shares the agony and adrenaline of battles between colourful characters in stunning settings.

If there is no finish, how far can you run?

We may all feel we know what an English garden is, but do we really? England's Gardens offers a holistic, modern-day tour and an update on the history of some of the most iconic, enduring, and influential gardens across the country.

A fresh take on a much-loved subject, this book will help you get to know England's gardens up close and personal. Garden historian Stephen Parker leads you through England's horticultural history, unearthing the cultural context and hidden stories behind the gardens, and bringing lesser-known garden makers to the fore. In five detailed historical chapters, Parker explores the making of the so-called English garden - from its origins in the formal splendour of stately homes, all the way to climate-change resilience and future-facing designs of the modern era.

Inside the pages of this stunning book on England's country gardens, you will find:

- 5 chapters of detailed narrative essays arranged in chronological order.
- Detailed profiles showcase significant garden makers.
- More than 20 photography-led garden case studies explore key gardens to visit in England today.
- Stunning, full-bleed, contemporary photography brings the gardens to life.
- Archival photography and historical art sheds light on the history and making of the gardens.

Discover the best gardens to visit today - with garden case studies showcasing everything England's gardens have to offer through stunning contemporary photography and careful analysis of planting schemes and garden makers' creative influences. From iconic sites like Sissinghurst and Great Dixter, to more unusual examples such as Prospect Cottage and The Laskett - this book celebrates England's gardens in all their glorious diversity, sublime beauty, and exuberant eccentricity.

uberant eccentricity.

Reading instruction in most local schools is in a state of crisis. Fully two-thirds of the nation's 4th and 8th graders are NOT proficient readers - this according to the US government publication Nation's Report Card. To rely on your local school to teach your child to read is to risk playing a form of Reading Roulette with your child's future. Don't do it. Parents have been teaching their own children to read for centuries. It's not difficult to do. All you need is a guide to help you perform the task in a manner that coincides with the reading science that has occurred in the last quarter-century. That science points to the use of Synthetic Phonics as the teaching method of choice. This book's Synthetic Phonics program will guide you as you teach your own preschooler how to read. No sight words, no guessing strategies are used. Using Synthetic Phonics, your child will learn how to decode unknown words by sounding them out into a full pronunciation. With minor adaptations, this book can also be used to teach older children, home-schooled children, or even illiterate adults. It's the ultimate guide for anyone wanting to bestow the gift of literacy.

Written specifically for grade school teachers, teachers-in-training, and interested parents, this book provides a stand-alone resource for using phonics as a method for teaching children to read. This type of phonics, known as Synthetic Phonics, doesn't rely on sight words or guessing strategies. Instead, it focuses on teaching the letter-sound relationships of the alphabetic code at the start of instruction, and then using that knowledge to both encode (spell) and decode (read) individual words.It's a method that relies on logic, reason, and the child's need to understand what he or she is asked to do. Taught explicitly and systematically, Synthetic Phonics takes only 2 years to complete. Given that 2 out of 3 grade school students never attain the level of proficient reader, isn't it time for a different approach?

Christianity is in decline in the Unites States, and churches are caught without a strategy to reverse that trend. Except for a precious few, mainline churches in America are not growing, and most are watching their numbers dwindle. Each decade brings new fads and gimmicks that have accomplished little more than leaving church leaders frustrated and church members confused. The external marketing image of positivism that many churches present hides leaders who are are frightened and sometimes futilistic about the ever-changing trends being presented by Church Growth experts. Stephen Parker explores the history of how the church has gotten to this state and what it will take to turn this whole trend around, bringing evangelistic revival back to the United States. The book does not present more theories or innovation to the serious problem of decline. Rather, it returns the reader to the Bible to rediscover what God has called the church to be and to do, much of which had been overlooked, ignored, or simply rejected. In order for Christian churches in America to stem the tide of increasing secularism within and without the church, we must first acknowledge the fact that in our attempts to impact the world, the world has actually changed us. The experts that we have turned to in desperation: marketing experts, sociologists, pollsters, and church growth gurus have not only not helped churches grow, but have actually helped create the very decline trends that they were supposed to prevent us from experiencing. What we are doing is not working We need a new, biblical plan That is just what this book offers. A must read for both church members and leaders.

This first English language biography of Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) in two decades paints a strikingly new picture of one of the twentieth century's most controversial cultural icons. First published in 2014 and now available in paperback, it was critically lauded and declared the definitive life of this great artist and writer.

Drawing on letters, diaries and unpublished material, including Brecht's medical records, Parker offers a rich and enthralling account of Brecht's life and work, viewed through the prism of the artist. Tracing his extraordinary life, from his formative years in Augsburg, through the First World War, his politicisation during the Weimar Republic and his years of exile, up to the Berliner Ensemble's dazzling productions in Paris and London, Parker shows how Brecht achieved his transformative effect upon world theatre and poetry.

Bertolt Brecht: A Literary Life is a powerful portrait of a great, compulsively contradictory personality, whose artistry left its lasting imprint on modern culture.

Clearing the Path is a 'must read' for any sincere and dedicated aspirant of classical Yoga. This grand treatise by Stephen Parker (Stoma) is one of the best ever explorations bringing together ancient and modern perspectives of the mind and mindfulness. It provides integrative and wholesome answers to inquisitive questions about the mind, how to clear way all the hurdles, how to make it our friend, and finally how to go beyond it, thus merging our limited individuality into infinite universality. The Yogic path is very clearly laid out; the rationale is provided in depth. It is now our call to walk the path, the grand path to liberation.

- Yogacharya Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani, Md, CYT, chairman, ICYER at Ananda Ashram, Pondicherry, India

Dr. Parker, with beautiful clarity, articulates two of my favorite areas of study - the expansive psychology of the Yoga Sutras and recent revelations of neuroscience, which reveal and validate the transformative power of that ancient map of consciousness - it's a gem.
- Jim Nelson, MA, LP, author, Running on Empty

It is a marvelous attempt to unveil the subtle shades of emotions blossoming into an all-pervading awareness.
- Subodh Tiwari, director, Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute, Lonavla, India

12 stories from the heart of South Minneapolis: Lake Street. Lake Street cuts across Minneapolis from west to east, from the urbane to the urban to the blue-collar. North and south, it is the dividing line between inner-city neighborhoods and tidy bedroom communities. Lake Street is a polyglot of people from all corners of the world mixing with lifelong Minneapolitans. These stories range from people's hope for a new beginning, with the history of what was.

This book examines the law and policy governing school acts of collective worship in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, and their equivalent in Scotland, which is known as religious observance. It aims to shine a light on an important issue that has often been neglected and ignored by policy-makers.

This volume brings together three key and contested areas facing educationalists within schools, colleges and universities: values education, religious education and human rights education. Challenges and opportunities within each of these three areas may be illuminated and explored by bringing them into creative dialogue.

1 Introduction to Policy and Inequality in Education.- 2 The illusion of meritocracy and the audacity of Elitism: Expanding the evaluative space.- 3 Emerging biological rationalities for policy: (Molecular) biopolitics and the new authorities in education.- 4 Neoliberalism and beyond: The possibilities of a social justice agenda?.- 5 Widening participation in France and its effects on the field of elite higher education and on educational policy.- 6 Fanon, Education, and the Fact of Coloniality.- 7 Equality and Education Policy in the European Union: An example from the case of Roma.- 8 Imagining policy [Data] differently.- 9 Redefining equality through incentive-based policies.- 10 Education policy and the intensification of teachers' work: The changing professional culture of teaching in England and implications for social justice.- 11 Pedagogical habitus engagement in a developing country context: A narrative-based account of a teachers' pedagogical change within a professional learning community.

This book seeks to move twentieth-century German literary history away from its stubbornly persistent reliance on the political turning-points of 1933 and 1945. In the first part of the book, the authors analyze a synchronic corpus of literary journals, identifying a restorative aesthetic mood in the years 1930-1960 which persists across political date boundaries. In the second part, the careers of five writers are considered diachronically against this prevailing restorative climate: Gottfried Benn, Johannes R. Becher, Bertolt Brecht, Günter Eich, and Peter Huchel. Combining these two approaches, the authors show that a fresh perspective that challenges established literary-historical periodisations can shed light on the common cultural and aesthetic ground shared by writers, editors and critics across the ideological divides of the era.

1 Introduction to Policy and Inequality in Education.- 2 The illusion of meritocracy and the audacity of Elitism: Expanding the evaluative space.- 3 Emerging biological rationalities for policy: (Molecular) biopolitics and the new authorities in education.- 4 Neoliberalism and beyond: The possibilities of a social justice agenda?.- 5 Widening participation in France and its effects on the field of elite higher education and on educational policy.- 6 Fanon, Education, and the Fact of Coloniality.- 7 Equality and Education Policy in the European Union: An example from the case of Roma.- 8 Imagining policy [Data] differently.- 9 Redefining equality through incentive-based policies.- 10 Education policy and the intensification of teachers' work: The changing professional culture of teaching in England and implications for social justice.- 11 Pedagogical habitus engagement in a developing country context: A narrative-based account of a teachers' pedagogical change within a professional learning community.

The nature of religion on the domestic front in Britain during the Second World War has, hitherto, been relatively unexplored. This study focuses on Birmingham and describes wartime popular religion, primarily as recounted in oral testimony. The difference the War made to people's faith, and the consolation wrought by prayer and a religious outlook are explored, as are the religious language and concepts utilised by the wartime popular media of cinema and wireless. Clerical rhetoric about the War and concerns to spiritualise the war effort are dealt with by an analysis of locally published sources, especially parish magazines and other religious ephemera, which set the War on the spiritual as much as the military plane. A final section of the study is devoted to measuring the extent of the influence of the churches in the creation of a vision for post-war Britain and Birmingham.

By the author of Cohabitees, this book traces the boundaries of legal marriage since the Industrial Revolution, from informal marriage practices to modern cohabitation. Changes are placed in their economic, political and social contexts, seen to be the product of class and gender conflict.

Bern, Berlin, Frankfurt/M., New York, Paris, Wien, 1998. British and Irish Studies in German Language and Literature. Vol. 15 General Editors: H.S. Reiss and W.E. Yates The present study is the first full-length literary biography in any language devoted to Peter Huchel (1903-81), the German poet, radio author and editor of Sinn und Form. It draws upon a very substantial body of fresh archival material, much of it accessible only since 1989, and upon testimonies, including those of his first wife and their daughter. The study traces the course of Huchel's well-nigh unique progression through 20th-century German literary life, from the Weimar to the Federal Republic via the Third Reich, the Berlin of the years 1945-49 and the GDR. There, his legendary editorship of Sinn und From in the 1950s lent him a unique mediating position between writers from East and West, until the journal's 'all-German' approach was deemed antagonistic to SED policy. For all the cause celebre of Huchel's conflict with the SED, key elements of his career have hitherto been obscured by the spell of silence that the charismatic Huchel cast over much of his life and by a historiography uncertain in the evaluation of the development of German culture within the two dictatorships. A fresh appreciation of Huchel's achievements emerges from the detailed examination of his life and work in relation to the notoriously volatile social and historical conditions of his age. Contents: Peter Huchel (1903-81) - Literary biography - Huchel's unique progression in German literature - First poems as Potsdam schoolboy in Wilhelmine Germany - Student years in Berlin, Freiburg, Vienna and Paris - Promoted by Willy Haas in Dieliterarische Welt, 1930-33 - Kolonne Prize for Poetry 1932 and subsequent association with Kolonne Circle - Non-Nazi radio play author, 1934-40 - Soldier, 1941-5 - Creative and managerial posts at Soviet-controlled Radio Berlin, 1945-8 - Gedichte, 1948 - Editorship of Sinn und Form, 1948-62 - Chausseen Chausseen, 1963 - Refused permission to leave GDR, 1963-71 - Departure for West, 1971 - Gezahlte Tage, 1972 - Die neunte Stunde, 1979

This book explores how religion shaped and informed the life and work of D. W. Winnicott, the eminent British pediatrician and psychoanalyst. It highlights the influence of his Wesleyan Methodist upbringing upon his work as well as how his career in psychoanalysis changed his view of religion. It traces the nature of Winnicott's religious behavior and practice over his life and describes his contributions to the positive role of religion in life and culture.

Are you an elder, or considering serving as an Elder in your church? The Heart of an Elder invites you on a two-week journey to explore what the scriptures have to say about a crucial role. This practical book will help you discern whether, and know how, to serve in healthy, biblical and sustainable ways.

A war has been raging since the beginning of time and we need tools to fight in this war. Our adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour. If we are not equipped for battle, we will become a casualty in this cosmic war. Though our enemy may seem powerful, there is a much greater power that exists; God, also know as Yahweh, Creator of heaven and earth! There is no greater power than his in all of the universe. God has given us the power and the necessary tools to fight in this war against Satan, but not only to fight, but to win! What will you do when the enemy comes against you and your family? Will you cower down and allow the enemy to have his way with you? Or will you align yourself with God, put on your armor, and fight the enemy? This book contains practical, yet power tools to use to defeat the devil. You will have the victory!

This book proposes an alternative, Dominican Thomist vision of a procedurally secular society that comprises three realms, namely sacred, secular and profane. Derived from experience and classroom research into dialogic RE interventions; a socially productive pedagogy is advocated as a starting point for the development of a procedurally secular society.