Right up until his death in 2008, John Leonard was a lion in American letters. A passionate, erudite, and wide-ranging critic, he helped shape the landscape of modern literature. He reviewed the most celebrated writers of his age—from Kurt Vonnegut and Joan Didion to Toni Morrison and Thomas Pynchon. He championed Morrison’s work so ardently that she invited him to travel with her to Stockholm when she accepted her Nobel Prize. He also contributed many pieces on television, film, politics,...

Pat Leonard served throughout the Great War as a Chaplain to the Forces in France, Belgium and, after the Armistice, in Germany. Along with the many hundreds of letters he wrote to the relatives of those parishioners who died or were wounded, he found time to describe for his parents back at home the awful reality of life in the Trenches, and on the makeshift aerodromes from which the pilots of the Royal Flying Corps operated from the Observers seat which liberated his spirit from the mud ...

Sports have their own controversies: fights over tactics, disputes over refereeing calls, the specter of drugs and cheats. Then there are those with dark political overtones. Foul! Tackling Politics and Sport takes a look at controversial moments when sport and politics have collided during the past century, some tragic, others plain sinister, a few bizarre; all the subject of hot dispute. Ranging from the infamous Berlin Olympics, hijacked by Hitler and the Nazis, the tragedy of ...

Any research that uses new organic chemicals, or ones that are not commercially available, will at some time require the synthesis of such compounds. Therefore, organic synthesis is important in many areas of both applied and academic research, from chemistry to biology, biochemistry, and materials science. The third edition of a bestseller, Advanced Practical Organic Chemistry is a guide that explains the basic techniques of organic chemistry, presenting the necessary inf...

In The Value of Milton, leading critic John Leonard explores the writings of John Milton from his early poetry to his major prose. Milton's work includes one of the most difficult and challenging texts in the English literary canon, yet he remains impressively popular with general readers. Leonard demonstrates why Milton has enduring value for our own time, both as a defender of political liberty and as a poet of sublimity and terror who also exhibits moments of genuine humanity and compas...

Waddington, Director of a Working Man's Ballet is a biography of the former Stoke City manager, Tony Waddington, one of the most underrated figures in 1960s and 1970s football. It charts how a man with the appearance of an urbane bank manager belied the stereotype of the hard-nosed football manager as he turned around the fortunes of an ailing club on the brink of going out of business. Instead, Waddington led the Potters to promotion, secured the club's first major trophy, and ch...

Escape from Berlin: England' s Bert Sproston and the Football Refugee is an inspiring footballing tale of redemption. From British Sports Book Awards-nominated author John Leonard, a former sports journalist and TV programme editor. Leeds United full-back Bert Sproston is controversially forced to make the Nazi salute along with the other England players in Berlin in 1938. But as he leaves the Olympiastadion he befriends a refugee who wants to escape the Nazis. Th...

The book takes a look at the implications of getting the doctrine of sin correct or not. Reformation theology makes sense when the nature of sin is taken seriously. Get the problem of sin wrong, and the diagnosis/cure will not be sufficient or needs to be manipulated.

A rollicking debut novel from award-winning playwright and screenwriter John Pielmeier reimagines the childhood of the much maligned Captain Hook: his quest for buried treasure, his friendship with Peter Pan, and the story behind the swashbuckling world of Neverland.Long defamed as a vicious pirate, Captain James Cook (a.k.a Hook) was in fact a dazzling wordsmith who left behind a vibrant, wildly entertaining, and entirely truthful memoir. His chronicle offers a counter narrative t...

will benefit it is attentive and brilliant readers, of whom John Leonard is without doubt one of its finest. - Martin Harrison Australian poetry from a 21st century perspective, with a selection from a wide range of living poets as well as familiar voices from the past. There is an emphasis on social observation and personal experience of Australia's changing history that gives new context to poetry by previous generations from Wright and Hope through Lawson and Paterson to Harpur, Kendall...

Have you ever tried to housebreak more than one puppy at a time, or a dog that lived his whole life outdoors? Have you ever had to convince yourself there is room for just one more? Have you ever met a cat that struck fear in a pack of dogs?I have, and experienced great joys and the occasional sorrow as a result. This expanded edition of Always a Next One is a true account of how we went from caring bystanders to front-line animal rescue volunteers. Follow our journey of rescuing m...

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins has sold more than three million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling books promoting atheism of all time.Now John Leonard systematically dismantles the argument in The God Delusion point by point, leaving the reader with very few questions as to which worldview is more logical. After he has dispensed with Dawkins, Leonard makes a powerful argument for intelligent design that should eliminate any lingering doubts in the mind of the...