Pull out and examine handwritten letters and race agendas, a replica of Ayrton Senna's baptism certificate, a keepsake formal photograph, autographed team stickers and 20 more special items and interactive memorabilia in this heavyweight slipcased box set. During his lifetime, Brazilian Formula 1 racing champion Ayrton Senna was widely recognised as a leader in his sport, a pioneer in driving technique, a hard racer and a compassionate man. Since his fatal crash during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, his remarkable career and humanitarian outlook have continued to inspire the world and the Ayrton Senna Institute, his most important legacy, has helped educate more than 7.8 million Brazilian children. Included in this package are badges shaped in a driver's helmet, an Eddie Jordan personal note, his Team McLaren badge photocard from 1988, a signed poster of the 1991 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, an access pass to the circuit as a VIP Guest in the 1984 Brazilian GP, his British competition licence from 1991 as an international racing driver, a Japanese cartoon advertisement in a long strip format, and all of the items are of very good quality and colour printing. The Senna family has opened its archives and shared photographs of private moments at home and at the racetrack. The assortment of treasured ephemera is included in 13 beautiful envelopes which readers can pull out and examine and the book's striking imagery forms a focal point with exclusive interviews with his teammates sharing personal anecdotes and favourite memories. A true collector's item, 192pp, slipcased, 22 x 3.9 x 31.2cm.

In this "droll and very British" memoir, guitarist/songwriter Richard Thompson describes the founding of the band Fairport Convention and life on the road in its heyday. Thompson grew up in a typical 1960s suburban house, with its radiogram and G-Plan furniture. Aged 11 in 1960, Thompson was inspired by Cliff Richard's backing group The Shadows to dream of owning a Fender Stratocaster guitar. His dad brought home a damaged instrument, mended it, and Thompson acquired a beginner's manual. His first guitar teacher, Pete, disappeared when the squat he lived in was razed to the ground, but in spite of setbacks, by the age of 18 Thompson was a competent electric guitarist. His break came when he met Simon Nicol of the Electric Shuffle Orchestra who lived in a big house called Fairport on Hampstead's Fortis Green. Renaming themselves "Fairport Convention" they performed covers of the Byrds and Lovin' Spoonful and started to get bookings. In 1967 Fairport opened for Pink Floyd, a gig memorable for the fact that Floyd's Syd Barrett overdosed on LSD and Dave Gilmour had to play his guitar parts behind stage. Record producer Joe Hopkins of Sound Techniques, who had stage-managed Newport when Dylan went electric, signed Fairport up at that gig. Soon they were doing weekly live shows at Speakeasy, where Jimi Hendrix joined them onstage a few times. Looking down on the Beatles as mere pop artists, Richard refused a birthday party invite from Paul McCartney but with hindsight was embarrassed by his snobbery. In 1969 a fatal road accident killed Richard's girlfriend Jeannie and their superb drummer Martin Lamble. The band eventually reformed and meanwhile Richard's songwriting reflected his new interest in spirituality. Following his marriage to Linda in 1973 the couple made a life-changing pilgrimage to Mecca. The book ends with the decline of folk rock, the end of his marriage and the search for a new direction. Remainder mark, 326pp, paperback with entire lyrics of songs quoted in the text at the back.

Temperamental scheming and manipulative, known as "La Chatte", Mathilde Carré may have been driven by psychopathic tendencies, being "completely lacking in ordinary human understanding and sympathy", but it is more likely that she had a willingness to sacrifice more than 100 friends, colleagues and lovers for her own ends, fuelled by jealousy and a tendency to fantasize. As a double, possibly triple agent, Mathilde, codenamed Victoire, betrayed 60 Resistance workers, some of whom died as a result. During the occupation of France by Germany from May 1940, many subversive groups emerged with both right and left wing affiliations. There was a climate of mistrust not only of the German occupiers but also of their fellow-citizens. This book draws on previously unpublished material from MI5 files, and attempts to set the record straight on the complexities of the Interallié Affair. Victoire was an agent of the Interallié network, an organisation working on behalf of the Polish Secret Service in Occupied France, and on 18 November 1941 she was arrested by the Abwehr, subsequently becoming a double agent while still operating the Interallié radio and probably also becoming the mistress of Abwehr officer Feldwebel Hugo Bleicher, whom she accompanied on a series of round-ups of network operatives. 6 December was a particularly productive day in which Victoire met Betrand and Bob, who between them gave away the whereabouts of six other agents before being arrested, together with the plan of the local SOE Overcloud organisation. The Lucas network was a deception practised on SOE officer Pierre de Vomécourt, an imaginary network through which information was channelled direct to Bleicher, but Vomécourt was suspicious and persuaded Victoire to travel to England, where she was interned and returned to France after the war for trial, which resulted in imprisonment. With an impressive amount of detail the author charts all the stages of Victoire's treachery, though exactly where her real loyalties lay at any one point remains uncertain. Mainly she wanted men, money and revenge on her sexual rivals such as the agent "Violette". 488pp, photos.

Sub-titled 'Extraordinary Partnership Between Humans and Dogs', the popular TV nature presenter is a lifelong animal lover. Now living on an idyllic farm in Wales, Kate has achieved her dream of surrounding herself with as many varieties as possible, but as with many Brits, the dog has always held a special place in her heart. Here she uses her journey with her sheepdog puppy Teg to frame her examination of this very special relationship and her book is packed full of stories about rescue dogs, guide dogs, service dogs and medical dogs. Kate's journey takes her to the mountains of Afghanistan, a prison in Scotland, and a unique research centre in Austria. Meet ex-Royal Marine Jon with his chocolate Labrador Jester, Marjory with her beloved ex-guide dog Mouse, Colonel Neil Smith and his retired IED detection dog Fire, and many more people whose dogs have changed and saved countless lives by working together with their owners, handlers and human companions. Inspiring, eye-opening and heart warming by the writer and broadcaster specialising in science, wild life and rural affairs. A companion to Humble by Nature code 92848. 308pp, paperback, photos.

You would have to have a heart of stone not to be touched by Kate Humble's enthusiasm for her new way of life. In 2007 after 20 years of living in London, Kate and her husband Ludo decided it was time to leave the city behind. Three years later, now the owner of a Welsh smallholding, Kate hears that a nearby farm is to be broken up and sold off. Another farm loss, another opportunity for a young farmless farmer gone. Desperate to stop the sale, Kate contacts the council with an alternative plan - to keep the farm working and to run a rural skills and animal husbandry school alongside it. Against all the odds she succeeds. In her book she shares her highly personal account of her journey from London town house to Welsh farm. Along the way we meet Bertie and Lawrence the donkeys, Myfanwy and Blackberry the pigs and goats Biscuit and Honey, not forgetting a dog called Badger and his unladylike sidekick Bella. We are introduced to the tenant farmers Tim and Sarah, the locals who helped and some who didn't, and a whole host of newborn lambs, a hive of bees and various other hoofed, furred and fathered livestock. Based on their working farm in Monmouthshire, the couple also run courses in food. Full of warmth and passion for the natural world and a companion to her book Friend For Life we also have in stock code 92842. 282pp, paperback.

Drink up thy zider! Writer of dozens of many West Country songs, Adge Cutler died on his way home from a gig in 1974. At the time his group The Wurzels had reached the top of the charts. In 2012, they continue to pack venues all over the country, with Adge's band-mates Tommy Banner and Pete Budd still setting the whole Scrumpy and Western scene. This long overdue biography brings Adge Cutler back to life, not only his eight crazy Wurzels years, but from his early days in his beloved Nailsea to the lively camaraderie of the Portishead B power station's labourers, the thriving Bristol jazz and folk scenes of the 50s and 60s, and his spell as Acker Bilk's 'worst roadie in the world'. We take the road to Spain, the Zummerzet Zound, enjoy a giant Wurzelrama and an amazing vanishing Wurzels stick, and read about Yvonne and Adge's legacy. Includes discography, 154pp in well illustrated softback.

Sub-titled 'A Junior Doctor's Stories of Compassion and Burnout', Joanna Cannon entered medicine as a mature student with more life experience than many younger doctors, but this did not protect her from the rudeness, exploitation, humiliation and patronising treatment by peers and superiors, and from near burn-out. She eventually fell on her feet in psychiatry, but the message of her book is about the immense value of 'the human effect in medicine' and the whole-person model. 'Words are never, ever, just words' she writes in the context of giving a diagnosis and it is equally true that there is no spare word in her book. Frank and compassionate, her memoir tells the story in heart-rending snapshots and we walk with her through the wards, facing extraordinary and daunting moments, from attending her first post-mortem, sitting with a patient through their final moments, to learning the power of a well or badly chosen word. In a profession where weakness remains a taboo, this beautiful and moving story brings to life the human stories of doctors and patients, and shows us why we need to take better care of those who care for us. It is a powerful hymn to the NHS and to the dedication of so many of its workers. 162pp, paperback.

Gray authored, designed and illustrated seven novels, several books of short stories, a collection of his stage, radio and TV plays and a book of his visual art. In November 2019 he received a Lifetime Achievement award by the Saltire Society. He died in December 2019 at the age of 85. He is now regarded as the doyen of Scottish letters, and this publication is a fitting acknowledgement of his status. Born in 1934 in Glasgow, Alasdair Gray is considered by many to be one of the great Scottish writers and artists. In this frank, playful and typically unorthodox autobiography, he tells of how his early life experiences influenced his writing, including the creation of those landmarks of literature, Lanark and 1982, Janine. He details the inspirations behind his many acclaimed murals and artworks, and makes clear how his moral, social and political beliefs and his work are inextricably linked. Constructed from essays published and unpublished, the book is as much about people, place and politics as it is about Gray's own life in art. 'One of the most gifted writers to have put pen to paper in the English language.' - Irvine Welsh. A beautifully produced hefty softback, 470pp, beautifully typeset and with fairly large print covering many of his wee articles and radio talks, obituaries and postscripts and names from the art community like playwright Joan Ure, Ian Hamilton Finley, Anthony Burgess and Jack Vettraino, John Connelly and Will Self among them.

Turing said 'If a machine is expected to be infallible, it cannot also be intelligent.' Spring 1940, the Battle of the Atlantic rages. Vulnerable merchant convoys are at the mercy of German U-boats controlled by a cunning system of coded messages created by a machine called Enigma. Only one man believes that these codes can be broken - mathematician and Bletchley Park cryptanalyst Alan Turing. Winston Churchill later describe Turing's success in breaking the Enigma code as the single biggest contribution to the victory against Nazi Germany. Unheralded during his lifetime, he is now recognised as the father of modern computer science and as possessing one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. Here his ground-breaking work and his private side lifts the veil of secrecy, particularly with regard to his post-war contribution to computing science with the Americans and his work as Manchester Computing Machine Laboratory. Only in 1974 was the official ban on any mention of Ultra lifted. Watched by MI5, Turing died of cyanide poisoning. A vat of cyanide was found in the 'nightmare room' between his bedroom and the bathroom, and the coroner ruled that Turing had committed suicide 'while the balance of his mind was disturbed'. Yet no evidence was given about the state of his mind and the verdict has been questioned ever since. Slim illustrated biography, New full price paperback128pp.

Following a successful career as an award-winning, best-selling novelist, in 2004 Lisa St Aubin de Terán retreated to a remote village in northern Mozambique. There she found her own African roots, founded a charity, and confronted new challenges. Much has been written about her life and escapades with a trio of Venezuelan exiles, life on an Andean hacienda, her return to literary fame, and two decades living in a crumbling Umbrian palace. But despite all the media hype about her, she managed to hide much of her actual life. Now, like the Japanese art of kintsugi, in this new memoir Lisa puts the shattered pieces of her life back together, filling in many of the dramatic, and often scandalous, gaps. While her life has been said to be stranger than fiction, it is fiction that has kept her afloat. This autobiography sets the record straight and shows a writer who for over half a century has enjoyed following her dreams, even when those dreams outdistanced her reach. Lisa St Aubin de Terán is the prize-winning Anglo-Guyanese London-born author of 20 books, including novels, short stories and nonfiction. Much of her writing draws on her varied life experiences. And time warps, rural communities, isolation and grace under pressure are still the dominant themes in both her life and work. It has been featured in the Times and the Sunday Times also she is appearing on BBC Radio 4 Woman?s Hour and reviews will be in The Daily Telegraph, Lady Magazine and featured heavily on social media. Famous along with Salman Rushdie and Rose Tremain in the 1980s, wild child Lisa disappeared from the London literary scene for over 20 years. She has now returned with a suitcase full of her writing - this hugely enjoybable and curious autbiography, and a bunch of novels! She was neighbours with Eric Newby and a voracious reader, described by a school teacher as a "fatherless half-caste", she adored her charismatic father. Publication date 24th January. 326pp, 234 x 153mm. New Full price hardback.