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If you thought being middle-class meant your own home, something set aside for the kids and a comfortable retirement – think again.For the first time ever, today’s middle classes will struggle to enjoy the same privileges of security and comfort that their grandparents did. How did this situation come about? What can be done about it?In this beautifully shaped inquiry, David Boyle questions why the middle classes are diminishing and how their status, independence and values are being eroded. From Thatcher’s boost of the mortgage market to Blair and Brown’s posturing over public services, ‘Broke’ examines the key moments in recent history that created ‘the squeezed middle’.Can the middle classes be revived? Should they be? Although they were not innocent in their downfall, Boyle argues that a newly galvanised middle class could be the key to future economic stability. The middle class may be broke, but it is not beyond repair.

A super-sweet guide to all your favourite sweets from years gone by.A History of Sweets in 50 Wrappers is a colourful and comical history of sweets and chocolates.If you ever dreamt of being the Milkybar Kid, if you remember when Snickers were Marathons and Double Deckers had raisins in them, if you ever checked the colour of your next Fruit Pastille before offering it out, this book is for you. It will lead you down memory lane until you reach the corner shop and load up a 10p mix-up bag.Fully illustrated, with hundreds of classic wrappers and adverts, A History of Sweets in 50 Wrappers is packed full of memories, fun facts, historical research …… and lots and lots of sweets!

An illustrated guide to chocolate that every self-respecting chocoholic should read.Do you remember when a Snickers was a Marathon? And when you could burst in to a sweet shop and ask for ‘an Oliver Twist, two Tiffins and a Big Wig, please!’ and keep a straight face? Those were the good days: when a Dairy Milk bar was 22p and you’d never seen anything as big as a Wagon Wheel.Revisit some of your forgotten favourites and current addictions, as Steve Berry and Phil Norman take you on a tour of cocoa’s finest moments. Fully illustrated with hundreds of wrappers, ads and pack shots, ‘A Brief History of Chocolate’ brings together research from the archives, factories and warehouses of some of the leading chocolate manufacturers in the country to create a book that is packed full of fascinating historical research…… and lots and lots of chocolate.Warning: may contain nutsA ‘Brief History of Chocolate’ originally featured in ‘The Great British Tuck Shop’, the ultimate book of sweetie nostalgia.

How Understanding Flocks, Schools and Colonies Can Make Us Better at Communicating, Decision Making and Getting Things Done.The modern world may be obsessed with speed and productivity, but twenty-first century humans actually have much to learn from the ancient instincts of swarms. A fascinating new take on the concept of collective intelligence and its colourful manifestations in some of our most complex problems, Smart Swarm introduces a compelling new understanding of the real experts on solving our own complex problems relating to such topics as business, politics, and technology.Based on extensive globe-trotting research, this lively tour from National Geographic reporter Peter Miller introduces thriving throngs of ant colonies, which have inspired computer programs for streamlining factory processes, telephone networks, and truck routes; termites, used in recent studies for climate-control solutions; schools of fish, on which the U.S. military modelled a team of robots; and many other examples of the wisdom to be gleaned about the behaviour of crowds-among critters and corporations alike.In the tradition of James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds and the innovative works of Malcolm Gladwell, Smart Swarm is an entertaining yet enlightening look at small-scale phenomena with big implications for us all.

A classic and highly controversial exposé of the secret world of the Freemasons reissued with an introduction by Martin Short, author of ‘Inside the Brotherhood’.The Freemasons have long fascinated outsiders. The subject of Dan Brown’s new novel – set for release in 2007 – this secret and exclusive society, thought to be the largest in Britain today, remains a mystery to the many excluded from its ranks. One would never know if a father or brother was a member due to the mandatory vow of secrecy.In this classic, controversial exposé, Stephen Knight talks to the men on the inside – those who have broken their vow of secrecy to reveal the darker side of the ‘brotherhood’. Do they influence the law? Is the KGB involved? And is there is a secret group of Masons running the country today, perhaps influencing every move we make?Now with an introduction by Martin Short, acclaimed author of ‘Inside the Brotherhood’, this is the unmissable, true story of an ancient, and mysterious brotherhood operating in our midst.

In this remarkable, landmark publication, countryman Sir Johnny Scott evokes all that is romantic about the British countryside, its people, customs and traditions. Over its 600 gloriously illustrated pages, Johnny draws on his wisdom and knowledge to reveal a forgotten culture, and encourages us all to rediscover a beautiful Britain.“I always think of nightingales when spring arrives in the south of England and winter is still reluctant to release its grip north of the Border. I heard my first as a very small child while staying with my grandparents on the Ashdown Forest. My sister woke me one night with an excited whisper, 'A nightingale! You must listen to the nightingale sing!' Together we sat on the window seat, gazing across moonlit lawns towards the forest. At that moment, as if nature had not already done enough to impress, the most wonderful sound I had ever heard filled the silence, as the nightingale started to sing. A rapid succession of varied, unconstructed notes, some harsh, some liquid, sung with great exuberance and vigour, changed to a long, slow, pleading song that rose in volume to a sudden piteous crescendo, before reverting to a tune of jollity and mirth. In my mind's eye I saw it erect and glowing, somewhere in the darkness among the oak trees, but no amount of searching that morning produced a single golden feather.”Throughout the pages of A Book of Britain, Johnny Scott celebrates the landscape and people and reveals why, through centuries of careful management, conservation and cultivation, Britain looks as it does. We discover Royal forests and protected oaks; learn animal behaviour and how best to observe wildlife whether on the moors or in your garden; we learn about traditional country sports from familiar hobbies such as fishing and shooting to lesser-known activities such as “swan upping”. Johnny teaches us to look to animals and nature to predict the weather, and reveals many customs and traditions that are in danger of being lost.This book is a gift in every sense – not only in its sheer scope and presence, but in the rich legacy it will leave behind for future generations.

Is pleasure selfish and are we selfish to pursue it, scientifically speaking?'I know the ways of pleasure, the sweet strains,The lullings and relishes of it' George HerbertThis is a book about the lengths people will go to nuzzle out some pleasure – and the scientific reasons that lie behind those impulses, written in an accessible and entertaining way.Paul Martin looks at changing attitudes to pleasure over the centuries, including religious and philosophical lawgiving on the subject, before moving on to the scientific hardwiring that supports all this human frenzy. He looks too at chemical pleasures, at our attempts to bottle the pleasure-giving principle for easy access and regular self-medication – from caffeine to heroin, from tobacco to glue. Which brings us to addiction, and the darker side of pleasure's many moons – before coming back full circle to the therapeutic bliss of pleasure, its key role in an individual's health, and that least-promoted, most-undervalued but most satisfying daily pleasure of all – sweet sleep.

A lively and authoritative investigation into the lives of our ancestors, based on the revolution in the field of Bronze Age archaeology which has been taking place in Norfolk and the Fenlands over the last twenty years, and in which the author has played a central role.One of the most haunting and enigmatic archaeological discoveries of recent times was the uncovering in 1998 at low tide of the so-called Seahenge off the north coast of Norfolk. This circle of wooden planks set vertically in the sand, with a large inverted tree-trunk in the middle, likened to a ghostly ‘hand reaching up from the underworld’, has now been dated back to around 2020 BC. The timbers are currently (and controversially) in the author’s safekeeping at Flag Fen.Francis Pryor and his wife (an expert in ancient wood-working and analysis) have been at the centre of Bronze Age fieldwork for nearly 30 years, piecing together the way of life of Bronze Age people, their settlement of the landscape, their religion and rituals. The famous wetland sites of the East Anglian Fens have preserved ten times the information of their dryland counterparts like Stonehenge and Avebury, in the form of pollen, leaves, wood, hair, skin and fibre found ‘pickled’ in mud and peat.Seahenge demonstrates how much Western civilisation owes to the prehistoric societies that existed in Europe in the last four millennia BC.

A word of mouth bestseller which has become one of the best loved and most successful books in the parenting field from Australian writer and lecturer Steve Biddulph, who’s been called ‘a mixture of Billy Connelly and Dr Spock’ by The Times.In this expanded and updated edition, Steve Biddulph shares and gives practical and honest advice to parents so they can recognise the different stages of boyhood and learn how to raise happy, confident and kind young men.Boys need to be parented in a different way from girls with their own very special psychological and physical make-up. Home, society and education have failed boys badly – and these failures lead to unhappy men who cannot fully become happy, responsible, emotionally-confident adults.While it is essential that boys spend more time learning about manhood from their fathers, Biddulph updates his classic to include helpful information for mothers and single mothers with baby boys.This extended edition explores some important topics:.• How ADHD may be caused by stress in the first year of life.• Whether boys should start school later than girls.• Help for single mothers raising sons.• How to choose a sport that does more good than harm.• What we can do about boys and binge drinking.• What science can tell us about teenage boys and driving – and how we can keep our sons safe.Raising Boys offers parents real-life situations, thought-provoking insights, humour and help.

Jacked is the story behind the most successful video game franchise in history. Over its numerous sequels and spinoffs, including the long awaited GTA IV, the game has sold over 50 million units and generated over a billion dollars in revenue. Grand Theft Auto lets players live out their fantasies. But few videogame fantasies match the real-life adventures of the GTA creators, Rockstar Games.From the back bedrooms of suburban London to the most powerful offices on Capitol Hill, this story takes the reader on a journey through the pioneering and exciting, yet controversial rise of Rockstar Games and the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Almost a decade ago brothers Sam and Dan Houser and their friend Terry Donvan invaded New York with a then-outrageous dream: to make video-games cool. They would elevate a medium built on Mario and Pokémon into something defiantly grown-up – games that would earn a place on shelves between Scarface and Licensed to Ill. Violent, sexually explicit and held responsible for the corrupting the youth of today, the GTA games are constantly the subject of intense media attention and will continue to make headlines when GTA V is launched in 2011.As well as the rock star lifestyles and unrivalled success, award-winning journalist and author, David Kushner also investigates the darker side of Rock Star Games – the financial irregularities, management shuffles and numerous court cases that have plagued company over the years to paint the most accurate and thrilling picture of the company behind one of the most influential cultural phenomena of the 21st century.

Mark Dolan meets the world’s most extrordinary people. Previously published as The World’s Most Extraordinary People… And Me.Looks aren’t everything. But what if, like the owner of the world’s biggest enhanced breasts, the man who turned himself into a cat or the seven-year-old who can benchpress his own bodyweight, they mean you are totally unique?Inspired by his hit Channel 4 series, Mark Dolan is determined to find out more about these extraordinary people.This is the story of that quest: an intelligent, heartfelt and moving account of the lives of some of the most special and unique people the world has to offer.

An almanac of the future for anyone who wants to know what’s new and exciting and around the corner…Originally published in 1999.We all know that the year 2000 is almost here – we all sense the exciting and enormous changes that are happening at breakneck speed: the world is getting bigger, but the world is also getting smaller, the old are young and the young are older, the lines between work and home are blurring… But in what specific way are these changes actually playing themselves out in our lives today and tomorrow? What do we need to know about the future to successfully negotiate the many paths open to us?NEXT is a hip, provocative and intelligent compendium of what is really happening today, tomorrow and into the millennium. How we will work, relax, travel, form relationships. What we will read, watch and listen to. From the realms of business and leisure, from what we will eat to what we will wear, from sexual attitudes to how our homes will look, NEXT tells you everything you need to know, including:The new generation gaps:• Global youth• Ageing. Who, me? The emergence of ‘mid-youth’High-tech families and parenting in the digital age.The fast track: women making their own breaks.Entertainment, retail and marketing in cyberspace.