Is slang a playful, innocuous outlet for youthful high spirits, or is it something more profound? Tom Dalzell delves into the subversive quality of slang and its place in the culture of dissent, analysing the origins and social application of hundreds of words created by marginalized and oppressed groups including African Americans and prison inmates, gay men, hippies, blue collar workers and even the military.

Manchester has the largest and most active consular corps in the country outside London. This study is the first detailed history of consuls and their activities for any region of the UK. Limited edition.

The success of Germany's blitzkrieg tactics in the early stages of the Second World War made Hitler's relentless advance seem unstoppable. By 1943 however, the picture was changing: defeat at Stalingrad, surrender in Tunisia and the loss of Sicily all demonstrated that the tide had turned. This study focuses on this pivotal year of the war as the Wehrmacht, now unable to mount its feared lightning attacks, was forced onto the back foot.

Roy Mason swapped the colliery for Westminster when elected MP for Barnsley in 1953. He went on to become one of the leading figures in the Labour Party during the 1960s and 1970s, holding a number of prestigious offices including Defence Secretary from 1974 and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1976. This photographic biography presents images from Mason's own archive charting his personal and political life from the Yorkshire pits to the House of Lords.

On 14 February 1989, Salman Rushdie was sentenced to death by the Ayatollah Khomeini, guilty of having written The Satanic Verses, a book 'against Islam'. In this memoir he tells the story of the nine years that followed, describing his life as a writer forced underground, moving from house to house, always with an armed police protection team, struggling to be free of the fatwa and living under another name - Joseph Anton.

From prison cell to the political limelight and back again, Tommy Sheridan was one of the most colourful figures in the drab world of party politics. Written by his closest political advisor and based on a raft of documentary and eyewitness evidence, this no-holds- barred biography charts his rise from hero of the poll-tax riots to leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, revealing the tragic flaws that led to his conviction for perjury in 2010.

These 150 pages are full of ogres, princesses, grandmas, giants etc - the stuff of fairy tales for you to make up some new ones.

Who is the owner of a painting - the owner of the wooden tablet, or the artist who painted it? What about texts written on parchment? These questions were much debated by jurists in the later Middle Ages, when distinctions between the materiality of the object and the intrinsic nature of intellectual productions were first elaborated. Madero examines the extensive glosses and commentaries in which legal thinkers sought to establish subtle distinctions and taxonomies through which proprietary rights could be granted.

A chance encounter with a tiger from Mr Jamrach's menagerie in Victorian London changes everything for young Jaffy Brown, setting him on course for voyages and adventures that will push faith and friendship to their limits. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, 2011.

In this set of eleven stories, Scott Fitzgerald paints a comic portrait of Pat Hobby, an unscrupulous film writer and a relic from the silent movie era. Looking for success, yet lazy, artless and insensitive, Hobby just about keeps his head above water in the changing world of the movies. The stories are read here by Kerry Shale. 3 Audio CDs, running time 3 hours.

Cutting-edge chef Angelo Sosa is a master of flavour - his dishes combine ingredients in highly original ways with incredible results. Dishes such as Soy-Steeped Chicken with Tea Leaves, Tuna Ribbons with Crystallised Wasabi or Sweet Tomato Soup with Curried Whipped Cream are simultaneously familiar and unexpected, and draw on cuisines from all over the world. Here he shares his secrets and shows how easy it is to create original and exciting food at home.

Louis Osman trained as an architect in the 1930s and established a successful practice designing buildings and decorative works for both public and private clients. From the 1950s he became increasingly interested in making objects in silver and gold and his success in this field led to prestigious commissions, including the crown for the investiture of Prince Charles in 1969. This illustrated biography examines Osman's career in both disciplines and includes an inventory of his works.

This is one of Monaco's series of lavishly illustrated Photo Guides - perfect companions for visitors interested in exploring the history and culture of new destinations. The book presents the highlights of Berlin, followed by an 'Explorer' section with details of places to eat, shopping and hotels, walks in the city; and a comprehensive atlas and place index.

An MP from 1974 to 2010, when he was elevated to the House of Lords, Michael Spicer was a distinguished member of Margaret Thatcher's government, serving as minister for aviation, housing, electricity and coal. Honest, witty and perceptive, his diaries chart the intrigues and rivalries of the Thatcher administration, and the dispiriting years in opposition before the rise of David Cameron, while shedding light on the arcane rituals of Parliament with humour and insight.

Even with the sophisticated craft of today and highly evolved weather warning systems, storms at sea can still take the most experienced sailor by surprise. Covering all types of wild weather such as cyclones, monsoons and hurricanes, the book explains weather systems throughout the world, and features dramatic photography, personal reminiscences and stories of rescues and tragic losses.

In this celebrated novel, first published in 1921, the friend and executor of Miss M presents the memoirs of his 'little woman-of- letters'. It is the story of a bright, inquisitive mind, isolated but not defeated by her diminutive size: 'Smallest of bubbles I might be, tossing on the great waters, but I reflected the universe.'

From the early 17th century, when Sir Hugh Platt recommended that 'in Sommer time, your chimney may be trimmed with a fine banke of moss' in which to arrange pots of flowers or herbs, to the present day and the ubiquitous moth orchid, Horwood traces changing fashions in houseplants. Her novel combination of social history, plant history and the history of interior design covers topics as diverse as the first 'exoticks' and NASA research into the peace lily's effect on air quality.

Steve Davey has been hooked on festivals since yearly outings to the Weston-super-Mare carnival as a boy, and still visits as many as possible to 'experience the magic'. His colourful survey begins in Africa with Ethiopia's Maskal day (celebrating St Helena's discovery of the True Cross), and visits festivals great and small, from the vast Kumbh Mela bathing festivals of India or the Palio of Siena to flaming tar barrels in Ottery St Mary, Devon.

A childhood spent outdoors led the authors of this inspiring book to offer their six children a similarly free upbringing in the Highlands of Scotland. Charmingly illustrated, this miscellany of all things outdoors includes sections on bird and tree identification, cloud spotting, treehouse building, survival tips, foraging, outdoor games and camping. For any family wishing to spend more time in nature and less time in front of a screen, this book is the perfect companion.

In the 1960s, men's fashion witnessed an extraordinary rebirth that media commentators described as the Peacock Revolution. This richly illustrated book recalls the shops, celebrity photographers, tailors and fashionable dressers who made up 'the scene'. The photographs and ephemera, drawn from the V&A's superb archives, evoke the Sixties atmosphere of optimism and opportunity and include some of the era's most stylish figures, among them David Hemmings, Ossie Clark and Patrick Lichfield and iconic shops such as Blades and Mr Fish.

Best known for his shocking psychological drama Miss Julie, August Strindberg was described by Arthur Miller as 'the mad inventor of modern theatre'. Supported by extensive new research, this illuminating biography charts the Swedish playwright's eventful and complicated life and the way it informed his prodigious output of 60 plays and 18 novels. It investigates the reasons why he remains controversial to this day, and reveals for the first time the real-life suicide that inspired his most famous work.

This volume brings together Bentham's responses to the new liberal regime in Spain following the decree imposing an oath of loyalty to the new Constitution in 1820. As well as essays, the book includes Bentham's two letters to the Morning Chronicle in March and April 1820 and Letters to Count Toreno on the Proposed Penal Code. Edited, with a substantial introduction and notes, by Catherine Pease-Watkin and Philip Schofield. No jacket.

In 38 essays in sections including research design, participation, vote choice, self- and other interests, non-presidential elections, and elites and institutions, the Handbook offers both theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of American elections and political behaviour.

When Reagan told Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, it was not only a political act. In the course of this beautifully written travelogue, Marcello Di Cintio discovers that razor wire, concrete and steel divide more than nations. From Belfast to Cyprus, from the West Bank to the US-Mexico border, they divide people and cultures. This haunting and inspiring book records the personal stories of those who live in their shadow.

Virginia Woolf described the young Christopher Isherwood as 'a slip of a wild boy: with quick silver eyes'. In this final volume of his warm, sharply observed and richly funny diaries, the author of Goodbye to Berlin finds domestic contentment in Los Angeles with his partner, the artist Don Bachardy, and spiritual peace through Eastern religion, and turns his quicksilver gaze on the literati, the Hollywood glitterati, and the stars of the art world, from David Bowie to Andy Warhol.

According to Haitian tradition, zombies are dead people whose souls have been captured by a sorcerer, leaving their decaying bodies to be controlled by their master in a ghastly living death. Necromancers, maverick scientists and even governments have been tantalized by the possibility of such power and this book investigates attempts throughout history to re-animate the dead and control living beings by means of drugs or hypnosis.

When 'Les Schtroumpfs' appeared in a Belgian comic in 1958, no one could anticipate that a few decades later the world would fall in love with the Smurfs. The perfect companion for Smurf fans young and old, this compendium of the Smurfs' world and its inhabitants - Papa, Brainy, Clumsy and Smurfette - tells the story of their creation and includes pull-outs and mini-comics, a poster and a sticker sheet.

As the Allies struggled to wrest Europe from the retreating Nazis, many historic cities were reduced to rubble. How did Paris escape this fate? Focusing on the dramatic days of August 1944 when the city was liberated, this history deftly tracks the forces vying for the French capital: the US Army under Omar Bradley, De Gaulle's Free French, diplomats, officials, resistance fighters, collaborators, and the ordinary Parisians who took to the barricades to save their city.

Published quarterly, Illustrators covers all kinds of illustration, from war comics to glamour. Each issue comprises lavishly illustrated articles on four or five graphic artists, along with general articles, book reviews and readers' letters.

Issue 4 has a definite sixties feel, including features on Michael Johnson, Chris McEwan, cutaway artist Leslie Ashwell Wood and 'the Nightmare Painters' of covers for the Pan Book of Horror Stories.

The Nobel Prizewinning author of Lord of the Flies was a famously acute observer of children. What was it like to be his daughter? In this frank and engaging family memoir, Judy Golding recalls growing up with this brilliant, loving and sometimes difficult parent through the years that saw his transformation from an impecunious schoolteacher to a bestselling novelist. Looking back on their warm, humorous and volatile family life, she sheds light on the internal conflicts that fuelled Golding's writing.

It's not easy being a dictator these days. With the end of the Cold War and the rise of new media, tyrants must adapt and change if they are to survive. Drawing on first-hand testimony from both dissidents and government sources, this fascinating book explores the way authoritarian regimes in Russia, China, Venezuela, Egypt, Malaysia and the Middle East are seeking more subtle and sophisticated means of controlling their citizens while representing themselves as 'democracies'.

The daughter of stage designer Jocelyn Herbert, and granddaughter of author AP Herbert, Sandra Lousada grew up among writers, actors and artists. This privileged access allowed her to build a career as a photographer of the arts which later progressed to beauty and fashion commissions for Vogue and Harper's and Queen. This fine collection of her work includes intimate pictures of celebrated figures of the theatre and art world, including Laurence Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave and David Hockney.

Modern interest in a Loch Ness Monster was sparked by a 1933 sighting reported by an English tourist. The event was duly recorded by the Daily Mirror - as all the intriguing developments in the story have been ever since, from credible witness accounts to blatant hoaxes. Collecting over a century of reports from the pages of the newspaper, this book examines the unfolding tale of Nessie as well as other ongoing mysteries such as UFOs, ghost sightings and crop circles.

With five essays and reproductions of over 80 works, this volume examines, as a coherent group, the works of art that Andy Warhol derived from tabloids and other news sources. It begins with Warhol's earliest drawings of newspaper headlines, and goes on to cover his screen printed canvases, prints, photographs and electronic media, concluding with the works he produced in collaboration with Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The book accompanied an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Compact, sturdy and colourful, this InGuide offers a richly illustrated survey of the sights of Barcelona, a selection of its shops, restaurants and hotels, details of cultural events, introductions to major museums, and guided walks exploring the city's most interesting places. The book includes a pull-out map and pages for personal notes and is bound in a mock leather, with a silk marker and elastic closure.

Compact, sturdy and colourful, this InGuide offers a richly illustrated survey of the sights of Rome, a selection of its shops, restaurants and hotels, details of cultural events, introductions to major museums, and guided walks exploring the city's most interesting places. The book includes a pull-out map and pages for personal notes and is bound in a mock leather, with a silk marker and elastic closure.

The Olympic Games have provided many powerful visual stories thanks to unforgettable sporting moments but also to evocative design and presentation, exemplified by Leni Riefenstahl's groundbreaking film of the 1936 Berlin Games. This thoughtful analysis considers the design of posters, medals and stadia over the years as well as the resonance of images such as the terrorist in the athletes' village at the Munich Games and the American sprinters' Black Power salute in Mexico City.

This study of Anglo-papal relations during the 14th century focuses on the forms and structures of diplomatic communication, rather than its content and 'end-products' such as alliances and treaties. The author applies theories of international relations and draws on a range of unpublished sources to examine the complex dialogue between Westminster and the popes Clement VI and Innocent VI concerning two 'grand themes': ecclesiastical administration and the preservation of peace.

The story of Aninku and Pepichek who go to town to buy fresh milk for their sick mother is based on a Czech opera by Adolf Hoffmeister and Hans Krasa, which was performed by the children in the Terezin concentration camp. The strange adventure of the brother and sister and the three talking animals and three hundred schoolchildren who help them defeat Brundibar the bully and raise money for the milk is retold by Tony Kushner, with illustrations by Maurice Sendak. Age 5+

From a new production Holcroft's The Road to Ruin on 3 January 1880, to the 1899 pantomime season, when the audience cheered a snub to the Boer leader in Jack and the Beanstalk, this year-by-year record of notable theatrical events of the 19th century covers legendary performances by great actors, Shakespeare revivals and premieres of works by, among others, Wilde, Ibsen, Chekhov and Gilbert and Sullivan, with quotations from contemporary reviews and over 220 illustrations.

'To capture the character, spirit and shape of this momentous year', Bostridge's book approaches 1914 through stories and episodes ranging from headline news, including the slashing of Velazquez's Rokeby Venus by a suffragette, to obscure events such as the opening of the new Glastonbury Festival on 5 August; and throughout the year there are comments by Prime Minister Asquith himself - not from a political diary, but from his letters to the young woman he loved.

George Bataille (1897-1962) was described by Foucault as 'one of the most important writers of his century'. In this concise biography, Kendall examines the tremendous diversity of Bataille's work in relation to the tensions and contradictions of his life. Slightly off-mint

The book is part of the Critical Lives series, that relates the lives of leading writers and cultural figures of the modern period to their major works.

Featuring the work of excellent wildlife photographers, this book from the World Life Library profiles the albatross, whose future is threatened by fishery operations. Tony Martin gives a lucid and informative account of the bird's life cycle, habitats and behaviours, the various species of albatross and the efforts being made to save them from extinction.

Memoir, love letter, confession and settling of accounts, The Marlowe Papers - a novel in verse - brings to life the world of Chrisopher Marlowe, as the playwright himself reveals the elaborate ruse of his 'death'. American-cut pages.

From the moment the explorer Paul du Chaillu had his first, fleeting glimpse of a gorilla, our understanding of this extraordinary animal - and of our own place in the universe - changed irrevocably. Part swashbuckling jungle adventure, part gas-lit Victorian thriller, this book recounts Du Chaillu's extraordinary story, restoring a forgotten hero to his rightful place and charting a controversy that embroiled many notable figures of the age, including Charles Darwin,Thomas Hardy and Abraham Lincoln. Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge and American-cut pages.

Compiled and introduced by the military historian Trevor Royle, this varied collection of writings - including poetry, prose, fiction and non-fiction, letters and articles - illustrates how the First World War affected the Scots, whether at home or at the front. The substantial extracts from works by, among others, John Buchan, Ian Hay, Hugh MacDiarmid and Naomi Michison, also show how the war changed Scotland in profound ways, not least by ushering in a literary renaissance and the rise of nationalism.

This recording presents 59 of the Laura sonnets, including some of the most powerful, addressed to her spirit after death by the heartbroken poet. Anton Lesser reads from the 1931 translation by the American poet Joseph Auslander. 1 CD; running time 62 min.