Sunday Times bestselling author Caroline Taggart brings her usual gently humorous approach to punctuation, pointing out what really matters and what doesn't. In Roman times, blocks of texts were commonly written just as blocks without even spacing to help the reader interpret them. As we enter the Christian era and sacred texts were widely read it became ever more important to remove any likelihood of misinterpretation. To a potential murderer or adulterer for example there is a world of difference between 'If you are tempted, yield not, resisting the urge to commit a sin' and 'If you are tempted, yield, not resisting the urge to commit a sin'. The only surface difference is the positioning of a comma. This super helpful book clarifies the rules that do exist and sets out the options where the choice is yours and whether the use of emojis makes the world a better place. Throw in the odd semicolon and impress your friends. Inverted commas or italics? And where does that apostrophe go? 187pp.

The top ten motor bestsellers of the 60s included minis and saloons, luxury cars and sports cars. The 70s saw the oiling of the wheels of change with saloon cars and larger family cars; the 80s the rise of the super car and SUVs; the 90s incorporated cameras and culture, more luxurious SUVs and MPVs and the 2000s bestselling small family cars. Congestion charging was given the green light, and we saw new electric and hybrid cars, sports cars, SUVs, MPVs and cars of today and tomorrow. On huge glossy white pages are hundreds of spectacular colour photographs, contemporary advertising, happy families and dogs piling into their shiny new set of wheels, hatchbacks and soft tops, compact executive cars like the BMW 02-Series, stats and facts and a beauty pageant of our favourites like the Jaguar E-Type, AC Cobra, Triumph TR6, Aston Martin DB4, Ferrari 250 GTO, Mini Cooper S, and Porsche 911. A truly glamorous and nostalgic gallery including some racing scenes, off road, snow, motor shows and high-tech technology with massive powered, four-wheel drive and lightweight body shell construction.

Manchester Arena, Finsbury Park Mosque, the Bunch of Grapes bar at London Bridge, the 7/7 bombings, the nail bomb which ripped through the Admiral Duncan pub April 1999, the 1988 Omagh car bomb in Northern Ireland, the 1996 Manchester IRA bombing, the explosion onboard Pan Am 747 over Lockerbie, the Grand Hotel in Brighton, the Birmingham pub bombings, that is just some of the extraordinarily poignant and upsetting Daily Mirror newspaper photographs included in the section on Terrorism. Some of the earliest pictures are of the old buildings, many now demolished, which were the scene of Jack the Ripper's victims plus No 10 Rillington Place where bodies were found in the garden, the Acid Bath murderer John Haigh seen driving away from his hotel, the Moors Murderers, and Anne Downey mother of Lesley Ann pictured during a search for her daughter and another of her brother retrained by police as Ian Brady and Myra Hindley leave Hyde Court. Serial killers like Peter Sutcliffe, Harold Shipman, the Kray twins, grim basements, crowds outside courtrooms and prisons, police searches, here are killing sprees and mourners in this first-hand look at some of Britain's darkest moments. An impressive archive of the most infamous crimes caught on camera in this photographic collection. 144pp, mono throughout.

From the author of the Sunday Times number one bestseller The Etymologicon, Mark Forsyth presents the secret of writing unforgettable phrases, uncovering the techniques that have made immortal such lines as 'To be or not to be' and 'Bond. James Bond'. He takes apart famous quotations and shows how you too can write like Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, or John Lennon, and how writers through the ages have turned humble words into literary gold. With his considerable knowledge we look at alliteration, antithesis, merism, the blazon, synaesthesia, anadiplosis, periodic sentences, rhetorical questions, epistrophe, tricolon, syllepsis to Zeugma and with some laugh-out-loud examples showing for example the use of the isocolon: Brutus explaining why he killed Julius Caesar, John F. Kennedy in his inauguration address and Winston Churchill beating that with the slightly ridiculous: 'Fill the armies, rule the air, pour out the munitions, strangle the U-boats, sweep the mines, plough the land, build the ships, guard the streets, succour the wounded, uplift the downcast, and honour the brave.' Silly? Not this highly entertaining book for all wordsmiths. 205pp, shiny softback.

Known as Mahatma Gandhi, this popular and influential book covers the period from his birth in 1869 to the year 1921, describing his childhood, schooldays, early marriage, journeys abroad, legal studies and practise. One of the most inspiring figures of our time, Gandhi recounts the story of his life and how he developed his concept of Satyagraha or active non-violent resistance which propelled the Indian struggle for independence and countless other non-violent struggles of the 20th century. A prominent figure in the freedom struggle in India from British rule, he is also known as 'The Father of the Nation' in India. Thrown in prison he remained there for several years due to other political offenses allegedly committed by him. As British rule ended, Gandhi was saddened by India's partition and tried his best to bring peace among the Sikhs and Muslims. On 30th January 1948, Gandhi was shot dead by a Hindu nationalist for allegedly being highly concerned about the nation's Muslim population. This heavyweight softback has a new foreword by noted peace expert and teacher Sissela Bok. 528pp in facsimile reprint of the 1957 edition, an American imported paperback. Tiny remainder mark.

Told with skill, knowledge, enthusiasm and insight this is the enthralling history of Central Asia and the struggle between Tsarist Russia and Victorian Britain for the treasures of India, played out amidst the high passes and great deserts of Central Asia, and the political and military decisions taken in the 19th century which led to the rise and fall of the Soviet Union. For nearly a century these two most powerful nations fought a secret war and engaged in a shadowy struggle called 'The Great Game', a phrase immortalised in Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim. When play first began, the two rival empires lay nearly 2,000 miles apart, but in the end, some Russian outposts were within 20 miles of India. It is the story of that great imperial struggle for strategic and economic supremacy, fought across a cruel and desolate terrain stretching from the Caucasus to China - espionage and treachery on a grand scale and in exotic settings. This classic book tells the story through the exploits of the young officers both British and Russian who risked their lives playing it including Pottinger, Connolly and Burnes whose courage and resilience is quite astonishing. Disguised as holy men or native horse-traders, they mapped secret passes, gathered intelligence and sought the allegiance of powerful khans. Some never returned. This welcome chunky paperback reprint of the 1990 original includes 15 black and white illus. and six maps including Afghanistan and the NW Frontier, and the Pamir Region. 562pp, paperback.

A Haynes Owners' Workshop Manual covering HAS Mk.2, Mk.3 and HMA Mk.8 models, here is an insight into the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the Royal Navy's multi-role ship-borne helicopter. The design originated in the early 1960s initially for an Army battlefield helicopter. The Westland Lynx first entered service with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm in 1976 ahead of its Army counterpart. Seeing action in major operations such as the Falklands War of 1982 and the Gulf War of 1991, the Lynx proved itself a versatile and capable all-rounder. The final Rolls Royce gem-powered version in the maritime role, the HMA Mk.8 is the focus of this book. It has achieved significant success in counter-narcotics, counter-piracy and humanitarian assistance roles in recent years. Having assumed the lead in developing the helicopter anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare concepts during WW2, the Royal Navy blazed a trail that other navies have followed. Many countries' frigates and destroyers are now equipped with variants of the ubiquitous Westland Lynx. Fascinating on the technical detail, the anatomy, the systems and weaponry, operation, maintenance and design features, the book is packed with more than 300 colour photographs and technical drawings. 164 very large pages.

First published by Oxford University Press in 1926, this paperback 2017 edition is a welcome reprint. The aim of the book is to give some idea of the French Revolution to the general reader who is not an historical student. The narrative is based on many years' study of contemporary documents such as the 40 volumes of Buchez and Roux's Histoire Parlementaire, containing much that is inaccessible elsewhere, and great books on the history of Paris during the Revolution, plus letters and memoirs and de Tocqueville's L'Ancien Regime et la Révolution. The 12 chapters begin with The Calling of the States-General 1787-1789, The Struggle with the King, The Rule of the Constituent Assembly, The King and the Constitution, The War 30th September 1791 to 3rd July 1792, The Struggle Between the Gironde and the Mountain, The Reign of Terror I, II and III, Famine and Vengeance and The End of the Convention. When picturing the infamous French Revolution most of us think of the guillotine, mass execution and terror. E. D. Bradby shows us the other side - the grand ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity. His portrayal of figures like Robespierre, who had come to be viewed as a butcher but who started out as a patriot, are fair and full of nuance. Likewise King Louis and Marie Antoinette are written not as innocent victims nor as cruel tyrants but as flawed people making difficult choices. A revelation for any reader, the history focuses on the potential for friend to turn against friend and Bradby shows us the legacy of the French Revolution and its lasting impact on modern society. 512pp, paperback.

Using an original nostalgic image from the Ladybird Books series of the 1960s, a glamorous young mother wearing a red bathing costume is sunbathing, her little boy asleep beside her on a towel. Have fun completing this book sized mini 100 piece colourful jigsaw puzzle in this tongue-in-cheek nostalgic series.

6.5 x 9cm nostalgic mini pack of playing cards based on the Ladybird books popular series. The colour image is of four soldiers in brown uniform relaxing playing cards on a bedspread in their dormitory in a 50s style design. The jokey modern text on the box says "Three of these husbands are playing poker on one of them is reading a book about ghosts. They are not talking." Pack of 52 colour playing cards, first time discounted.