One good thing about a recession is that we need to go back to making our own fun. Games are in the Brandreths' blood, they have spent thousands of weekends and rainy holidays playing them and now Gyles, Saethryd and seven-year-old Rory want to share the very best with you. THE LOST ART OF HAVING FUN picks out over 250 games, guaranteed to make even the grumpiest child or adult laugh, and then with all kinds of interesting stories and lovely illustrations, it shows you clearly (and very entertainingly) how to play them. There are classic parlour games alongside all kinds of interesting ones you might not have come across yet. Nine chapters cover pretty much every eventuality: Rainy Day Games, Car Journey, Analogue Fun in a Digital World, Music and Drama, Word Games and Brainteasers, Racing Games, Party Games (split between children's birthday parties and dinner parties), Country House Weekend and last but not least Seasonal Games: Christmas, New Year and Easter. Forget consoles and board games, this beautiful book is all you need. And Queen Victoria (whose favourite games are here too) would be amused. Very amused.

Malba Tahan is the creation of a celebrated Brazilian mathematician looking for a way to bring some of the mysteries and pleasures of mathematics to a wider public. The adventures of Beremiz Samir, The Man Who Counted, take the reader on a journey in which, time and again, Samir summons his extraordinary mathematical powers to settle disputes, give wise advice, overcome dangerous enemies, and win for himself fame, fortune, and rich rewards. We learn of previous mathematicians and come to admire Samir's wisdom and patience. In the grace of Tahan's telling, these stories hold unusual delights for the reader.

While the Western was dying a slow death across the cultural landscape, it was blazing back to life as a video game in the early twenty-first century. Rockstar Games' Red Dead franchise, beginning with Red Dead Revolver in 2004, has grown into one of the most critically acclaimed video game franchises of the twenty-first century. Red Dead Redemption: History, Myth, and Violence in the Video Game West offers a critical, interdisciplinary look at this cultural phenomenon at the intersection of game studies and American history. Drawing on game studies, western history, American studies, and cultural studies, the authors train a wide-ranging, deeply informed analytic perspective on the Red Dead franchise-from its earliest incarnation to the latest, Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018). Their intersecting chapters put the series in the context of American history, culture, and contemporary media, with inquiries into issues of authenticity, realism, the meaning of play and commercial promotion, and the relationship between the game and the wider cultural iterations of the classic Western. The contributors also delve into the role the series' development has played in recent debates around working conditions in the gaming industry and gaming culture. In its redeployment and reinvention of the Western's myth and memes, the Red Dead franchise speaks to broader aspects of American culture-the hold of the frontier myth and the "Wild West" over the popular imagination, the role of gun culture in society, depictions of gender and ethnicity in mass media, and the increasing allure of digital escapism-all of which come in for scrutiny here, making this volume a vital, sweeping, and deeply revealing cultural intervention.

From familiar urban areas to new alien worlds, adventures in the Starfinder RPG can take place just about anywhere! Starfinder Flip-Mat: Basic Terrain Multi-Pack contains two double-sided maps, each featuring a different subtle texture-a grassy plain, a mountain stream, a stretch of asphalt, and clean, tiled floor-that provide you a blank canvas to draw any area of exploration, terrestrial battlefield, or adventure set piece you desire. Starfinder Flip-Mats present ready-to-use science-fantasy set pieces for the busy Game Master. With Starfinder Flip-Mat: Basic Terrain Multi-Pack, you'll be ready for just about everything! This set includes two flip mats, each measuring 24" x 30" unfolded, and 8" x 10" folded. A Flip-Mat's coated surface can handle any dry erase, wet erase, or even permanent marker. Usable by experienced GMs and novices alike, Starfinder Flip-Mats fit perfectly into any Game Master's arsenal!

Join Jo-Rosie Haffenden and Nando Brown, the animal trainers from ITV’s hit show Teach My Pet To Do That, as they reveal the surprising truth about training cats

You might think that cats don’t do obedience, but this simple, practical guide will have you and your cat mastering the basics of trick training in no time and will open up a whole new world of fun for both of you.

Whether your feline is shy and retiring, or loves the limelight, there’s something for every personality type. Trick-training is a great way to get to know your cat better, deepen your bond and help keep them keep fit and stimulated.

Full of hints, tips and photographs, and taking you from the very simplest training fundamentals to show-stopping tricks like ‘Ring the Bell for Dinner’ and ’Wipe Your Feet’, the only limit to where you end up is your imagination.

We all know that 'we only use ten per cent of our brain' is a myth, but it is true that giving our brains a workout can really help our day-to-day problem-solving abilities. In Brain Coach Intense, puzzle master Dr Gareth Moore has designed an intensive 40-day training plan to really stretch your mental agility, along with tips and tricks to help you overcome mental strain and increase your brain function and explanations of how the puzzles help your brain. Each day you'll be introduced to a puzzle format and shown how to solve a simple example, before tackling the increasingly devilish variations by yourself. Train your brain and improve and maintain your mental agility with the focused challenges in Brain Coach Intense and see a difference in 40 days.

Battle or befriend more than 100 weird and alien life forms in this creature collection for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game! Every new world and space station comes with its own dangers, from strange new cultures to extraterrestrial predators to massive spacefaring organisms capable of battling starships. Inside this book, you'll find rules and ecological information for creatures from across the known worlds, plus exotic alien gear, complete magical polymorphing rules, and more. A robust selection of template grafts gives you the tools you need to populate any planet with environment-appropriate fauna, and racial rules for many of the new species let you be the alien! Want to play an intelligent, multi-legged centipede? An emotionless, mask-wearing mollusk? An uplifted bear? Explore the limits of your galaxy and your game with Starfinder Alien Archive 2!

What forgotten mysteries and deadly perils await in the depths of the jungle? No Game Master wants to put the action on pause to draw every overgrown ruin or tangle of tropical trees. Fortunately, you don't have to! Pathfinder Flip-Mats provide ready-to-use and captivatingly detailed fantasy set pieces for the busy Game Master. Whether the heroes seek to explore an overgrown ruin, navigate a twisting pathway, discover a hidden waterfall, or seek shelter in a local village, these jungle scenes have you covered with four different combat maps in all! Don't waste your time sketching when you could be playing. With Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Jungle Multi-Pack, you'll be ready next time your players head into the jungle! This set includes two flip mats, each measuring 24" x 30" unfolded, and 8" x 10" folded. A Flip-Mat's coated surface can handle any dry erase, wet erase, or even permanent marker. Usable by experienced GMs and novices alike, Pathfinder Flip-Mats fit perfectly into any Game Master's arsenal!

Pay a visit to London and a black cab will probably be one the first things you will see. The London taxi drivers are almost as famous as the black cabs in which they drive, this is mainly due to their in-depth knowledge of London and ability in taking their occupants to their desired destination amid the congestion and the chaos that you often find when travelling through London's streets. London taxi drivers go through stringent training to obtain their licence, they need to pass 'The Knowledge', a test which is amongst the hardest to pass in the world, and has been described as 'like having an atlas of London implanted into your brain'. The test requires you to master no fewer than 320 basic routes, all of the 40,000 streets that are scattered within the basic routes and approximately 20,000 landmarks and places of public interest that are located within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross. This book breaks the test down into a series of head-scratching questions and features enough trivia about the capital to surprise even born and bred Londoners. It's the perfect gift for anyone who thinks they know London inside-out, or wants to learn more!

'I adore Sydney's approach to play... good for our planet, and good for our souls too.' - Daisy Upton, author of Five Minute Mum 'For some serious playtime inspiration follow Sydney Piercey. She does it with zero fuss or show off. She is just brilliant'. - Clover Stroud Parenting blogger and mother-of-three, Sydney Piercey, gained traction online with her environmentally friendly DIY toys made entirely out of cardboard. Filled with 60+ creative, accessible and plastic-free projects and play ideas, Sustainable Play is packed with crafts and games to enjoy with your children on slow, rainy or drawbridge days at home. Sydney provides you with budget-friendly, easy-to-follow ideas to play and create in this handbook, inspired by her family's love of the simple things. From step-by-step projects to create magical toys from your leftover cereal boxes to joy-filled games using everyday objects from around your home, Sustainable Play will equip you with the inspiration you need to entertain your children in a creative, stimulating and sustainable way - being kind to the planet in the process.

Gear Up and Throw Down! When sword and spell just won't be enough to win the day, it's time to power up your game with clockwork gears, lightning coils, and black powder! Guns & Gears, the latest hardcover rulebook for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game (Second Edition), brings the excitement of firearms and fantasy technology to your tabletop! Unravel the secrets of clockworks with the new inventor class or blow away your opposition as a firearm-wielding gunslinger! In addition to new classes, a plethora of archetypes, backgrounds, vehicles, siege engines, gadgets, and the new automaton ancestry are all ready to expand your game with options for battlefields large and small. Guns & Gears features: Two new classes: the clever inventor and the sharpshooting gunslinger Automaton ancestry for players who want to play a customizable construct Firearms of all stripes, from the simple and effective flintlock pistol to versatile gunblades More than a dozen new archetypes Scores of new gadgets and vehicles Siege engines and accompanying rules A gazetteer of Golarion revealing how firearms and technology fit into the Age of Lost Omens, including a look at the technology of the continents of Arcadia and Tian Xia and never-before-revealed secrets of the rough-and-tumble, gritty city of Alkenstar Written by: Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, and Logan Bonner, Jessica Catalan, John Compton, Andrew D. Geels, Steven Hammond, Sen H.H.S., Brent Holtsberry, Jason Keeley, Dustin Knight, Luis Loza, Ron Lundeen, Chris Mastey, Liane Merciel, Jacob W. Michaels, Dave Nelson, Samantha Phelan, Mikhail Rekun, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Sydney Meeker, Kendra Leigh Speedling, Andrew Stoeckle, Calliope Lee Taylor, Sara Thompson, Andrew White, and Scott D. Young

An adventurer's life can be difficult, but long journeys and heavy burdens are easier when you have company. This guide to the world of Pathfinder presents the people and organizations that can help-or hinder-heroes like you! The Lost Omens Character Guide features new heritages and feats for existing ancestries, as well as three brand-new ancestries for unusual heroes forging a place for themselves in an uncertain age. Join five of Golarion's most influential organizations, fight alongside the rank-and-file members provided in these pages, or clash against them in pursuit of your own passions and goals! This must-have 136-page guidebook for characters of all types introduces three new ancestries to Pathfinder Second Edition-the regimented and warlike hobgoblin, the plant-like leshy, and the inquisitive lizardfolk-provides 10 new heritages for the game's core ancestries, offers nearly 100 new ancestry feats, and presents 10 new archetypes to allow characters of any class to participate in the world's most notable organizations, from the adventurous Pathfinder Society to the rabble-rousing Firebrands to the magical masters of the Magaambya! This deluxe special edition is bound in faux leather with metallic deboss cover elements and a bound-in ribbon bookmark.

For the first time, the collected texts from the critically and commercially acclaimed fantasy video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are bound together in three exciting volumes. Lavishly illustrated and produced, these titles are straight out of the world of Skyrim - and a must for any wandering adventurer.

From the fringes, the unknown beckons. Pathfinder Dark Archive contains secrets that any player or GM can use to reveal the paranormal lurking in their Pathfinder games! This spine-tinglingly secretive 224-page hardcover rulebook presents two new character classes perfect for delving into the unexplained: Unleash the untold power of your mind as the psychic or leverage supernatural secrets and mystic implements as the thaumaturge! Beyond these new classes, eight secret case files each provide player options, GM tools, and lore into a different paranormal topic, including: * Strange cryptids glimpsed in the night, gear to track them, and the powers you might gain by surviving an encounter with one * Cults and esoteric belief, with apocryphal divine magic and the secret of becoming a living vessel for an eldritch being * Temporal anomalies, with archetypes that skim along the surface of time and a new mystery for oracles unbound from causality Each file concludes with a short adventure to immerse players in the paranormal, spanning across Golarion-play all eight to uncover the inexplicable phenomena of the Age of Lost Omens!