There are a lot of criminals around - but, fortunately for the rest of us, a lot of them are really quite dense. Like the bungling burglar who logged on to his own Facebook page at his victim's house - and forgot to turn the computer off when he left, or the gormless getaway driver who wrote in his dairy 'Go Porsmouth sic] Robbery happens' and left it for police to find. The Daily Mirror's crime-fighter extraordinaire Andrew Penman has scoured the country for this hilarious collection of those who are not just bad, but also dim - very dim.

Local prosecution associations were a method of controlling crime which was devised in the second half of the eighteenth century, fifty years before the introduction of police forces. They were a national phenomenon, and it is estimated that by the end of the 1700s around 4000 of them existed in England, but this book tells the story of one particular society: the Hathersage Association for the Prosecution of Felons and Other Offenders. Hathersage is a Peak District village which recently came top in a Country Living poll to determine the '20 best hidden gems in the UK'. The tourists who now visit the village in their thousands each year come as walkers, climbers, and cyclists. Its grimy history of wire and needle manufacturing is almost forgotten. In addition to telling the story of its ancient prosecution organisation, this book seeks to illuminate some of the less conspicuous aspects of Hathersage's social history by shining a light from the unusual direction of minor crime and antisocial behaviour. It also describes the lives of some of the residents of the village: minor gentry; industrialists; clergy; and farmers, in addition to the mill workers and labourers. With access to hand-written records going back to 1784 which had never been studied before, the author has drawn on contemporary newspaper articles and census returns to assemble a montage which depicts the life of the village, particularly during the 19th century. Many of these original records have been reproduced in order to offer reader an opportunity to interpret the old documents themselves. While striving for historical accuracy throughout, the author has produced a book which is both entertaining and informative. Any profits from the sale of this book will go to the Hathersage Association and will, in turn, be donated to the local charities which the Association supports. Those charities include Edale Mountain Rescue, the Air Ambulance, Helen's Trust, Bakewell & Eyam Community Transport, and Cardiac Risk in the Young.

Hazel Hendry is a remarkable woman. She worked tirelessly raising money for charities, and particularly for TEARFUND, including walking the form of a cross from John Oa Groats to Lands End and from Ramsgate to Fishguard in Wales. When the Croatian War began, the founder of TEARFUND, George Hoffman, told her, a Hazel, the people of Croatia need your helpa . So she raised money to send over 50 lorries, full of much needed supplies of food, furniture, medical equipment and toiletries, into Croatia. She travelled personally with many of them during and after the war. Hazel delivered aid right to the Front Line risking her life to help people who had lost their homes, livelihoods, and families. This book is about her experiences during those dangerous years, and the people who helped her and those that she helped. It is based on journals which she kept at the time and later recollections of particular people and events. As such, it is a vivid account of how the Croations in the War Zone suffered at the hands of the Chetniks who would attack their villages while leaving neighbouring villages in Croatia where Serbs lived unscathed. Some of the details that she recalls are not for the squeamish, but the way in which her faith supported her throughout this period shines through on every page.

Follow the story of a dog named Skye, who really was found in a skip and after many adventures, her return home after six years. This heart warming true tale is a tribute to the power hope, and of the microchip!

This work provides readers with an authoritative resource for understanding the true extent and nature of gun violence in America, examining the veracity of claims and counterclaims about mass shootings, gun laws, and public attitudes about gun control. This work is part of a series that uses evidence-based documentation to examine the veracity of claims and beliefs about high-profile issues in American culture and politics. Each book in the Contemporary Debates series is intended to puncture rather than perpetuate myths that diminish our understanding of important policies and positions; to provide needed context for misleading statements and claims; and to confirm the factual accuracy of other assertions. This particular volume examines beliefs, claims, and myths about gun violence, gun laws, and gun rights in the United States. Issues covered in the book include trends in firearm violence, mass shootings, the impact of gun ownership on rates and types of crime, regulations and Supreme Court decisions regarding gun control and the Second Amendment, and the activities and influence of organizations ranging from the National Rifle Association to Everytown for Gun Safety. All of these topics are examined in individualized entries, with objective responses grounded in up-to-date evidence. Easy-to-navigate Q&A format Quantifiable data from respected sources as the foundation for examining every issue Extensive Further Reading sections for each entry providing readers with leads to conduct further research Examinations of claims made by individuals and groups of all political backgrounds and ideologies

The book contains stories on various subjects, starting with the contemplations of passengers in an airplane during a fictitious flight on various situations in their life, through the memories captured by ZS during his study and work, as well as stories based on pub talks and on the imagination of the author.

WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES ALAN PATON AWARD

In the spring of 1999, in the beautiful and seemingly tranquil hills of the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, a young white farmer is shot dead on the dirt road running from his father's farmhouse to his irrigation fields. The murder is the work of assassins rather than robbers.

Journalist Jonny Steinberg travels to the midlands to investigate. It is clear that the young white man is not the only one who will die and that the story of his and other deaths will illuminate a great deal about the early days of post-apartheid South Africa.

Midlands is a triumph of literary investigative journalism.

The extraordinary story of the Afghan women judges who fought for their careers and their lives, and the international network of women who helped them to escape the Taliban

Combining moment-by-moment drama with an emotional story of friendship and bravery, The Escape from Kabul is also a searing insight into the captive fate of women in Afghanistan.

The fact that so many were betrayed by the speed and disorganisation of British and American retreat on the fall of Kabul is well known. What is less well known is that a collection of women judges from around the world operated a successful rescue mission for the majority of female Afghan judges, and their families.

In the twenty years since 2001, Afghan women had obtained legal degrees, became judges and set out to transform their country - tackling corruption, and reducing horrifying levels of violence against women and children. These educated women of power were clear targets for the Taliban. But their friends – and sister judges – from the UK, Poland, USA and ANZ were not prepared to abandon them, using WhatsApp and sheer bloody-minded persistence, they found escape routes and new homes for family after family.

This is a heart stopping story of rescue; but also a moving account of ambition, public service and the difficulties of having to build a new life abroad. Veteran, best-selling journalist Karen Bartlett's compelling account also celebrates the capabilities and global power of united, working women and of the bond of a career spent in service to justice. Individuals who are often the last and only check to unbridled power, influence and violence.

Daughter. Wife. Mother. Mystic. Discover the life of this fifteenth century merchant's wife from King's Lynn who despite being unable to read or write created the first autobiography in English. Explore Margery's world of visions, pilgrimages and the constant threat of being burned for heresy.

'This is an urgent and compelling account of great bravery and passion. Delphine Minoui has crafted a book that champions books and the individuals who risk everything to preserve them.' Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book In 2012 the rebel suburb of Daraya in Damascus was brutally besieged by Syrian government forces. Four years of suffering ensued, punctuated by shelling, barrel bombs and chemical gas attacks. People's homes were destroyed and their food supplies cut off; disease was rife. Yet in this man-made hell, forty young Syrian revolutionaries embarked on an extraordinary project, rescuing all the books they could find in the bombed-out ruins of their home town. They used them to create a secret library, in a safe place, deep underground. It became their school, their university, their refuge. It was a place to learn, to exchange ideas, to dream and to hope. Based on lengthy interviews with these young men, conducted over Skype by the award-winning French journalist Delphine Minoui, The Book Collectors of Daraya is a powerful testament to freedom, tolerance and the power of literature. Translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud.

a RA ALISER UN RA VE A 75 ANSa Ca est le rA (c)cit da une aventure extraordinaire, la rA (c)ussite da un circuit de la Suisse A pied, A vA (c)lo et en kayak, en suivant au plus prAs la ligne frontiAre. Une distance totale de prAs de 2a 500 km et 120a 000 m de dA (c)nivelA (c) (environ 13 fois la hauteur de la Everest!) parcourue en 115 jours en 2015 et 2016, dans des conditions parfois dangereuses, hors des sentiers battus. Au cours de cette pA (c)riode, la auteur a escaladA (c) un peu plus da une centaine de sommets et un nombre A (c)quivalent de cols sur la frontiAre, y compris des sommets mythiques comme le Mont Rose et le Cervin; il a fait de la randonnA (c)e dans le Jura, le Tessin et les Grisons et du kayak sur le lac LA (c)man et le Rhin. Ca A (c)tait aussi un exploit, A 75 ans! Le livre comprend des sections sur la contrebande et des exemples de retrait des glaciers, ainsi qua une trentaine da A"histoires de frontiAreA", qui constituent une source da informations prA (c)cieuse sur la histoire et la gA (c)ographie de la frontiAre suisse.

A searing account of corruption, racism and mismanagement inside Britain's most famous police force Barely a week goes by without the Metropolitan Police Service being plunged into a new crisis. Demoralised and depleted in numbers, Scotland Yard is a shadow of its former self. Spanning the three decades from the infamous Stephen Lawrence case to the shocking murder of Sarah Everard, Broken Yard charts the Met's fall from a position of unparalleled power to the troubled and discredited organisation we see today, barely trusted by its Westminster masters and struggling to perform its most basic function: the protection of the public. The result is a devastating picture of a world-famous police force riven with corruption, misogyny and rank incompetence. As a top investigative reporter at the Sunday Times and The Independent, Tom Harper covered Scotland Yard for fifteen years, beginning not long after the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian killed by Met Police officers after being mistaken for a terror suspect in 2005. Since then, reporting on Scotland Yard has been akin to witnessing a slow-motion car crash. Using thousands of intelligence files, witness statements and court transcripts provided by police sources, as well as first-hand testimony, Harper explains how London's world-famous police force got itself into this sorry mess - and how it might get itself out of it.