Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's TV series about their shock buyout of Wrexham AFC has propelled the team to unimaginable new popularity. Lifelong fan Peter Read looks at his own obsessive support, the club's history, and developments over the first two seasons under the Hollywood stars.

Robert Angus Smith (1817-1884) was a Scottish chemist and a leading investigator into what came to be known as 'acid rain'. This study of his working life, contextualized through discussion of his childhood, education, beliefs, family, interests and influences sheds light on the evolving understanding of sanitary science during the nineteenth century. Born in Glasgow and initially trained for a career in the Church of Scotland, Smith instead went on to study chemistry in Germany under Just...

A Rape of the Soul So Profound began when a young researcher accidentally came upon restricted files in an archives collection. What he read overturned all his assumptions about an important part of Aboriginal experience and Australia's past. The book ends in the present, 20 years later, in the aftermath of the Royal Commission on the Stolen Generations. Along the way Peter Read investigates how good intentions masked policies with inhuman results. He tells the poignant stories of...

The Muspratt family form a fascinating dynasty in the history of British commerce and manufacturing. Associated principally with the development of the chemical industry in Liverpool - James Muspratt (1793-1884) was the first person to make alkali on a large scale using the Leblanc Process - the three generations of the family also contributed to wider Victorian and Edwardian culture through their interests in politics, education (founding the Liverpool College of Chemistry in 1848), art, ...

Why does a highly skilled and highly trained sculptor, the master of every style and technique, insist on working in the style of the Italian Renaissance? The answer is that to Dabro, every sculpture must speak to humanity, which means that it must be an element of humanity. If it does not, the sculptor has failed. Working with female models throughout his long life, he has sought to portray an essence of femininity, and therefore an essence of humanity.Ante Dabro believes that the...

- Ways to Recession-Proof Your Career- Financial Crisis, Housing Crisis, Recession, Budget Crisis, What It Means to Your Financial Planning- What to do if you're laid off in the recession- Why Social Applications Will Thrive In A Recession- The Best Recession-Proof Jobs- Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economy- Marketing Your Way Through a RecessionLiving in a recession can be a scary time for even the most successful person. People o...

This book covers an important part of British military history, namely the Trained Bands of the early Stuart period, 1603 - 1642. Both James I and Charles I tried to create a perfect militia during their reigns but how far did they get in achieving this aim? There is very little published about this organization. This book includes details on the men who served in it, how they were recruited, their social status, professions, and ages.The soldiers were mustered for training at leas...

Zone is the fruit of poet-translator Ron Padgett’s fifty-year engagement with the work of France’s greatest modern poet. This bilingual edition of Apollinaire’s poetry represents the full range of his achievement from traditional lyric verse to the pathbreaking visual poems he called calligrams, from often-anthologized classics to hitherto-untranslated gems, from poems of cosmic breadth to a poem about his shoes. Including an introduction by the distinguished scholar Peter Read, h...

Little known today, Henry Enfield Roscoe was one of the most prominent chemists and educational reformers in Victorian Britain. Having studied in Heidelberg, he worked to transform English education by using Germany as a model. He made Owens College, Manchester, viable and converted it into Victoria University (now the University of Manchester). He then campaigned for the reform of technical education in an alliance with like-minded campaigners which resulted in the Technical Instruction A...

Karl Phillips is a roofer, just one of the lads. But as Bootlegger, he keeps huge numbers of followers on social media hooked with his humorous musings. Whether duckin' around shooting videos about Wrexham AFC or slightly overdoing it on holiday, The Captain doesn't take himself too seriously!

Karl Phillips is a roofer, just one of the lads. But as Bootlegger, he keeps huge numbers of followers on social media hooked with his humorous musings. Whether duckin' around shooting videos about Wrexham AFC or slightly overdoing it on holiday, The Captain doesn't take himself too seriously!

In the Prohibition era, the speakeasies of New York City provide some much-needed respite, particularly for the likes of Michael Malloy, an isolated Irish immigrant. But times are tough and for an unlikely group of associates – a bar owner, an undertaker, a greengrocer, a cabbie and a local gangster – desperate times call for desperate measures. And so, a simple plan is hatched – take out life insurance on the unsuspecting Michael Malloy and help him along to an early grave. What follows i...