Engaging, whimsical, and culturally reflective, *Mr. Punch's After-Dinner Stories* enchants readers with its vibrant array of comedic illustrations and narratives. This anthology, a tribute to the Victorian and Edwardian eras, features a collection of satirical pieces that explore themes of social mores, political nuances, and human folly. These stories are imbued with humor of various shades'Äîfrom the sharp wit of caricatures to the gentle irony found in quiet observations of everyday li...

Mr. Punch with the Children is a captivating anthology that delves into the whimsical yet poignant realm of childhood through the lens of classic illustration and narrative. This collection showcases an extensive array of literary and artistic styles, ranging from satirical caricatures to tender depictions of youthful innocence. Highlighting the societal nuances and cultural norms surrounding childhood between the Victorian and Edwardian eras, this anthology offers readers an engaging glim...

From cliffside cabins with views to gold-plated palace thrones, Flush takes you on a spectacular photographic journey through the 101 of world's most extraordinary loos, from the ancient world until the present.Discover toilets that are beautiful, bizarre, extravagant and utterly unexpected. Spanning continents, cultures and centuries, this eye-opening collection proves that the humble loo can be far more fascinating than you might imagine. Packed with str...

We don't just look at buildings: their facades, beautiful or ugly, conceal the spaces where we live. We are born, work, love, and die in architecture. We buy and sell it, rent and squat it, create and destroy it. All of these aspects of buildings-economic, erotic, political, and psychological-are crucial if we are to understand architecture properly. And because architecture molds us just as much as we mold it, understanding architecture helps us to understand our lives and our world....

The godfather of the hard-boiled detective novel, Dashiell Hammett is widely acknowledged as one of America's greatest mystery writers. This collection brings together the BBC radio adaptations of his works for the first time, including the iconic The Maltese Falcon featuring his most famous character: Sam Spade.The Maltese FalconSan Francisco, 1928. When his partner is murdered on an assignment, private detective Sam Spade is drawn into a ...

It’s San Francisco, 1928, and Sam Spade is a wisecracking, womanising Private Investigator. Missing husbands and unfaithful wives are his usual stock-in-trade, but when the beautifully distressed Miss Wonderley calls he gets involved in a dangerous caper most people would run a mile from. Miss Wonderley asks Sam’s partner, Miles Archer, to shadow Floyd Thursby, whom she maintains has kidnapped her sister. But then Archer is shot dead, and Miss Wonderley’s story turns out to be a lie – just...

At the age of fourteen, György Köves is plucked from his home in a Jewish section of Budapest and, without any particular malice, placed on a train to Auschwitz. He does not understand the reason for his fate. He doesn’t particularly think of himself as Jewish. And his fellow prisoners, who decry his lack of Yiddish, keep telling him, “You are no Jew.” In the lowest circle of the Holocaust, György remains an outsider.The genius of Imre Kertész’s unblinking novel lies in its refusal...

Five BBC Radio 4 full-cast crime dramas featuring DI Charlie Resnick'John Harvey is one of the all-time greats and remains one of my favourite writers.' - Ian RankinJazz-loving policeman Charlie Resnick is one of the most popular characters in contemporary crime fiction. This thrilling collection brings together three dramatisations and two original radio stories starring the Nottingham-based detective, all scripted by his creator,...

**An endlessly entertaining portrait of the unique city of Amsterdam, by the author of the acclaimed Island at the Center of the WorldUpdated Edition with a New Preface for Amsterdam's 750th Anniversary**Tourists know Amsterdam as a picturesque city of low-slung brick houses lining tidy canals; student travelers know it for its legal brothels and hash bars; art lovers know it for Rembrandt's glorious portraits.But the deeper history of Amsterdam, what makes...

A dazzling and generously illustrated journey through the philosophy and psychology of architecture and the indelible connection between our identities and our locations.One of the great but often unmentioned causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment: the kinds of walls, chairs, buildings, and streets that surround us. And yet a concern for architecture is too often described as frivolous, even self-indulgent. In The Architecture of ...

“Schama is a masterful stylist and storyteller.”—Boston Globe“A writer of gorgeous prose.”—Washington PostThe ever erudite, always delightfully curious Simon Schama returns with Scribble, Scribble, Scribble, a wonderful compendium of thirty provocative, witty, enlightening, and stimulating essays previously published but collected in a single volume for the first time. One of our most distinguished historians and commentators, Schama, the acclaimed author of...

How Should We Live? explores twelve universal topics-including love, family, and empathy; work, time, and money-and shows what history can teach us about the art of living.