Simon Schama explores the forces that tore Britain apart during two centuries of dynamic change - transforming outlooks, allegiances and boundaries.
From the beginning of July 1637, battles raged on for 200 years - both at home and abroad, on sea and on land, up and down the length of burgeoning Britain, across Europe, America and India. Most would be wars of faith - waged on wide-ranging grounds of political or religious conviction. But as wars of religious passions gave way to campaigns for profit, the British people did come together in the imperial enterprise of 'Britannia Incorporated'. The British Wars is a story of revolution and reaction, inspiration and disenchantment, of progress and catastrophe, and Schama's evocative narrative brings it vividly to life.Join Alfie and Dad as they spend time together in this wonderful collection of stories from the award-winning Shirley Hughes. Alfie's dad is always there for Alfie and Annie Rose. He's there to reassure Alfie during a restless night; he's there to find Alfie's favorite toy Flumbo when he gets left on the bus; and most of all he loves spending time with his children and they love spending time with him.
Alfie loves Nursery School - and so does Annie Rose! She can't wait to go there with him - in fact she's so desperate to join in that she gets Alfie into a very sticky situation in this collection of nursery school tales.
Join Alfie as he navigates playground games and special concerts in this heartwarming book from Shirley Hughes, creator of Dogger.
A blueprint for the 21st-century business: where employees share ownership, information, and profits of the businesses where they work
Offering inspiration and vision in the wake of financial Armageddon, this book is the story of ordinary people who share the ownership of the businesses where they work. It takes a hard look at arguments that shared ownership will never work, and reveals why this is prejudice masquerading as economic thinking. The book contains detailed case studies as well as interviews with a range of people whose inspiring stories of success fly in the face of received wisdom. These successes include: high levels of productivity; sustained rapid growth; fast-moving, innovative responses to changing worlds; high levels of investment aimed at long-term prosperity; and, above all, the sheer happiness employees experience in working together in businesses that they own together, sharing the wealth that they create. The enterprises discussed here come in all sizes, from companies employing just a few dozen people to large corporations: John Lewis in the UK, employing 70,000 partners; Mondragon, a highly entrepreneurial group of more than 100 businesses in Spain, employing more than 100,000; and many examples in the United States, some employing tens of thousands. It would be hard to imagine a better informed, more involved, or more enthusiastic set of employees--sharing the efforts of making their companies successful, and sharing all of the rewards. At a time when the orthodox corporate economy has been badly shaken, this book makes for essential reading.
The final stage of Simon Schama's epic voyage around Britain spans centuries, crosses the breadth of the empire and covers a vast expanse of topics - from the birth of feminism to the fate of freedom.
The Fate of the Empire asks crucial questions about the nature of empire, journeying from celebrations of industrial and imperialist power at the Great Exhibition, to the catastrophic Irish potato famine and the Indian Mutiny. Through the military and economic shocks and traumas of our past, Schama asks the question that is still with us - is the immense weight of our history a blessing or a curse, a gift or a millstone around the neck of our future? This third and final volume in the series is a vast compelling history, made more so by the lively storytelling and big bold characters at the heart of the action. But alongside flamboyant heroes, like Nelson and Churchill, Schama recalls unsung heroines and virtually unknown enemies. Alongside the grand ideas, he exposes the grand illusions that cost untold lives.Change - sometimes gentle and subtle, sometimes shocking and violent - is the dynamic of Simon Schama's unapologetically personal and grippingly written history of Britain, especially the changes that wash over custom and habit, transforming our loyalties.
What makes or breaks a nation? To whom do we give our allegiance and why? And where do the boundaries of our community lie - in our hearth and home, our village or city, tribe or faith? What is Britain - one country or many? Has British history unfolded 'at the edge of the world' or right at the heart of it? Schama delivers these themes in a form that is at once traditional and excitingly fresh. The great and the wicked are here - Becket and Thomas Cromwell, Robert the Bruce and Anne Boleyn - but so are countless more ordinary lives: an Irish monk waiting for the plague to kill him in his cell at Kilkenny; a small boy running through the streets of London to catch a glimpse of Elizabeth I. The first in a series, this volume paints a rich and vivid portrait of the life of the British people and their nation.For most of us, having a baby is the most profound, intense, and fascinating experience of our lives. Now scientists and philosophers are starting to appreciate babies, too.
The last decade has witnessed a revolution in our understanding of infants and young children. Scientists used to believe that babies were irrational, and that their thinking and experience were limited. Recently, they have discovered that babies learn more, create more, care more, and experience more than we could ever have imagined. And there is good reason to believe that babies are actually cleverer, more thoughtful, and even more conscious than adults.One of the most important and compelling books I've ever read, by one of Britain's most gifted writers. If you want to understand why we are in this crisis, listen to the voices all too often airbrushed from the political conversation OWEN JONES
Now We Have Your Attention makes sense of what is happening in British politics by taking a radically different perspective: the people's.
From a warehouse in Manchester to a pub in Essex, from the outskirts of Glasgow to a racecourse in Durham, Jack Shenker uncovers the root causes of our current crisis and the future direction of British politics through the lives of ordinary individuals. Taking us deep into communities hollowed out by austerity and decades of economic disadvantage, among a generation crippled by precarious work and unaffordable housing, he shows where the chaos at Westminster ultimately springs from - and how disillusionment with it is fuelling a passionate engagement with politics of a completely different kind: local, personal, effective and utterly fearless.
Joining a 'McStrike' protest on a roundabout in Cambridge and a gathering of the London Renters' Union in the aftermath of Grenfell, meeting hard-right bloggers in Newcastle and climate change protesters in Brighton, Shenker draws on exceptional access to campaign groups, activist movements and grassroots gatherings throughout the country - including unique access to Momentum, who have re-radicalised the Labour party from the outside in - to introduce us to the citizens and leaders of tomorrow: people who are changing things for themselves.
Inspiring and terrifying in equal measure, Now We Have Your Attention uncovers a revolutionary transformation in attitudes and behaviour, and a future that will shape us all.
'Terrifying yet funny, surprising yet predictable, simple yet poignant' Chris Packham
A shocking but informative, eye-catching and witty book of maps that illustrate the perilous state of our planet.