The secret stories of what leaves mean - and what they mean to us.Leaves are one of nature's marvels. We watch them turn red in Autumn, make medicine from them, invent folklore around them, and mark the passing of time by them.But how do they grow? Why are they the shapes they are? What makes an evergreen, evergreen?The Lives of Leaves is a beautiful compendium of the tales, science and history of leaves from all around the world, from suga...

Dan Starkey reads this brand new novel based on a storyline by Douglas Adams.The Doctor promised Romana the end of the universe, so she’s less than impressed when what she gets is a cricket match. But then the award ceremony is interrupted by eleven figures in white uniforms and peaked skull helmets, wielding bat-shaped weapons that fire lethal bolts of light into the screaming crowd. The Krikkitmen are back.Millions of years ago, the people of Krikkit learned they were not...

This highly readable edited collection focuses on the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx. Each contributor to this volume explores a different facet of Proulx's striking attention to geography, place, landscape, regional environments, and local economies in her writing. Covering all of her novels and short story collections, scholars from the United States, Canada, and abroad engage in critical analyses of Proulx's new regionalism, use of geographical settings, and themes o...

Understanding Language Testing presents an introduction to language tests and the process of test development that starts at the very beginning. Assuming no knowledge of the field, the book promotes a practical understanding of language testing using examples from a variety of languages.While grounded on solid theoretical principles, the book focuses on fostering a true understanding of the various uses of language tests and the process of test development, scoring test per...

*CO-WINNER OF 2026 SAGE/ILTA BOOK AWARD*Fundamental Considerations in Technology Mediated Language Assessment aims to address issues such as how the forced integration of technology into second language assessment has shaped our understanding of key traditional concepts like validity, reliability, washback, authenticity, ethics, fairness, test security, and more.Although computer-assisted language testing has been around for more than two ...

Leaves are one of nature's marvels. We watch them turn red in Autumn, make medicine from them, invent folklore around them, and mark the passing of time by them.But how do they grow? Why are they the shapes they are? What makes an evergreen, evergreen?The Lives of Leaves is a beautifully illustrated compendium of the tales, science and history of leaves from all around the world, from sugar maple and how leaves change colour, to gingko and the history and future of...

“They say cats have nine lives so I’ve been giving them a bit of a run. I’ve died three times on an operating table and had the same number of goes at killing myself. Luckily, the doctors were brilliant at saving my life and I was crap at ending it.”For years living was a fate worse than death for Dan Biddle. In a moment of someone else’s madness, he lost all meaning to his existence along with both his legs, his left eye, his spleen and all hearing in his left ear.His body...

WINNER: Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain LiteratureRon Fawcett is a natural-born climber. In 1969, while still at school in his native Yorkshire, he tied into a climbing rope for the first time and was instantly hooked. From that moment on, it seemed nothing else in his life mattered nearly as much as his next vertical fix.Ten years later, Fawcett was the most famous rock climber in Britain and among the best in the world, part of a new w...

It has begun, prophecy is unfolding and a world is in jeopardy. A twisted tale of a troubled priest and a father racing against time to save his son. A group of secret organizations with one goal in mind, world domination. The will to kill for it. A hunger for lust, greed, sex and murder. Everything is at stake. Humanity has fallen and it's earth's final days. A fight between good and evil. Where a friend becomes a foe. Scripture has foretold of a Dark Prophet that will rise in earth's fin...

Few thinkers from outside the United States have touched American culture in as many ways as Rudolf Steiner. Agriculture, education, spirituality, and medicine--or more precisely, alternative practices in these fields--all bear clear marks of his influence, for those with eyes to see. Yet the very breadth of Steiner's impact has perhaps made him harder, not easier, for observers of American culture to notice.American Philosophy and Rudolf Steiner aspires to raise Steiner's...

Underestimated, under-researched, and often poorly understood, the body-focused repetitive disorders nevertheless cause human suffering that is serious, persistent, and pervasive. These disorders can occur in both adults and children and manifest themselves as hair pulling (trichotillomania), pathologic skin picking, thumb sucking, and nail biting. Although these disorders are common, very few medical students and residents hear them addressed in lectures or know where to begin when confro...

The Dispossessed has been described by political thinker Andre Gorz as 'The most striking description I know of the seductions-and snares-of self-managed communist or, in other words, anarchist society.' To date, however, the radical social, cultural, and political ramifications of Le Guin's multiple award-winning novel remain woefully under explored. Editors Laurence Davis and Peter Stillman right this state of affairs in the first ever collection of original essays devoted to Le...