SHORTLISTED for the Baillie Gifford Prize’s 25th Anniversary Winner of Winners award WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2020 A Spectator Book of the Year • A Times Book of the Year • A Telegraph Book of the Year • A Sunday Times Book of the Year From the award-winning author of Ma’am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret comes a fascinating, hilarious, kaleidoscopic biography of the Fab Four. John Updike compared them to ‘the sun coming out on an Easter morning’. Bob Dylan introduced them to drugs. The Duchess of Windsor adored them. Noel Coward despised them. JRR Tolkien snubbed them. The Rolling Stones copied them. Loenard Bernstein admired them. Muhammad Ali called them ‘little sissies’. Successive Prime Ministers sucked up to them. No one has remained unaffected by the music of The Beatles. As Queen Elizabeth II observed on her golden wedding anniversary, ‘Think what we would have missed if we had never heard The Beatles.’ One Two Three Four traces the chance fusion of the four key elements that made up The Beatles: fire (John), water (Paul), air (George) and earth (Ringo). It also tells the bizarre and often unfortunate tales of the disparate and colourful people within their orbit, among them Fred Lennon, Yoko Ono, the Maharishi, Aunt Mimi, Helen Shapiro, the con artist Magic Alex, Phil Spector, their psychedelic dentist John Riley and their failed nemesis, Det Sgt Norman Pilcher. From the bestselling author of Ma’am Darling comes a kaleidoscopic mixture of history, etymology, diaries, autobiography, fan letters, essays, parallel lives, party lists, charts, interviews, announcements and stories. One Two Three Four joyfully echoes the frenetic hurly-burly of an era.

IMAGINE THESE UNLIKELY--BUT TRUE--ENCOUNTERS:
Martha Graham and Madonna
Igor Stravinsky and Walt Disney
Frank Lloyd Wright and Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe and Nikita Khrushchev
President Richard M. Nixon and Elvis Presley
Harpo Marx and George Bernard Shaw
Salvador Dali and Sigmund Freud
Groucho Marx and T. S. Eliot
BRILLIANT IN CONCEPTION AND DIZZYING IN EXECUTION, "Hello Goodbye Hello" is a daisy chain of 101 fascinating true encounters, chance meetings, and disastrous collisions between the celebrated and the gifted, the famous and the infamous. Witty and wicked, "Hello Goodbye Hello" is the perfect example that truth is stranger than fiction (and infinitely more enjoyable).

‘Our greatest living satirist’ Sunday Times ‘The most screamingly funny living writer’ Mail on Sunday From the bestselling and award-winning author of Ma'am Darling and One Two Three Four, a selection of Craig Brown's finest writing collected together for the first time. Haywire presents a survival guide to the 21st century. The acclaimed biographer of Princess Margaret and The Beatles considers such diverse topics as gloves, outer space, the Marx Brothers, Richard Dawkins, Hitler’s hair, John Stonehouse, Katie Price, tongue-twisters, Bruce Springsteen, Harry and Meghan, Stanley Spencer, Brian Epstein, Downton Abbey, Sigmund Freud and Karl Lagerfeld’s cat. With the full battery of the humourist's armoury – clerihews, tongue twisters, whimsy, parody, farce, satire, social observation, nonsense – Brown skewers the fads and delusions of the contemporary world.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CRAIG BROWN, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ONE TWO THREE FOUR Everybody knows the Beatles: John, Paul, George, Ringo ... and Brian. The Fab Four's meteoric rise is one of the most famous rags-to-riches stories ever told. And behind it all was Brian Epstein, the 'fifth Beatle' and legendary manager, who transformed the group from a small-time club band into global superstars. What was his secret? How did one man lead these scruffy Liverpool lads to change the world of popular music forever? A Cellarful of Noise is Brian Epstein's original 1964 memoir of a life spent making music history. It includes thirty contemporary photographs which offer a glimpse of Brian and the Beatles on their way to phenomenal success. Eye-opening, moving and constantly entertaining, this is essential reading for every Beatles fan.

Social Theory and the Political Imaginary: Practice, Critique and History is an innovative work of synthesis, critique, and analysis. It presages a social theory perspective that recognises the constitutive significance of the political imaginary in modernity. Social theory’s current dilemmas are explored through a series of interlinked asssessments of some of its recent substantial strands, specifically, Luc Boltanski’s pragmatism and the wider ‘practical turn’, the perspectives of multiple modernities and global modernity, the outlook of social and political imaginaries, and critical social theory. The political imaginary’s reconfigurations are evident in the tensions of global modernity and original social theory interpretations are advanced of landmark instances of twenty-first century social contestation: the Hong Kong protests conditioned by threats to civil freedoms and a lack of self-determination, the radical democratic practices of anti-austerity movements contesting capitalist globalisation’s injustices, and the inverted cosmopolitanism of the 2005 French Riots challenging the oppression and inequalities experienced by immigrant communities and marginalised youth. These incisive applications of social theory and complementary conceptual innovations illuminate the vicissitudes of social struggles, political forms, and theoretical perspectives. Similarly, reflection on the political imaginary is found to enable a necessary rethinking of the interrelationship of practice, critique and history.

'The most screamingly funny living writer' Barry Humphries, Mail on Sunday From the bestselling and award-winning author of Ma'am Darling and One Two Three Four, a selection of Craig Brown's finest writing collected together for the first time. What is James Bond's middle name? How does Jacob Rees-Mogg's nanny set about cleaning him up in the morning? When did Piers Morgan introduce his special guest Kim Jong-Un as “the straight-talking boy from North Korea who grew up to become a global superstar”? All these important questions, and a great many more, are answered in Craig Brown's Haywire. Featuring handy household tips from Mary Berry (‘When eating a boiled egg be careful to remove the shell first, or it can be a little crunchy’) and historic admissions from Queen Elizabeth 1st to Oprah Winfrey concerning her mother's beheading (‘Thank you for having the courage to share that with us’), Haywire presents a survival guide to the 21st century. In one chapter, Brown writes about the influence of Blackpool on Sigmund Freud and Les Dawson. In another, he unearths the Historical Online Archive and discovers that the invention of the wheel in Mesopotamia in 4000 BC drew fierce criticism on social media. “My mate tried it, says it's total rubbish” wrote Brian from Sumeria. The acclaimed biographer of Princess Margaret and The Beatles delivers essays on such diverse figures as Ronald Searle, John Stonehouse, Bruce Springsteen, Richard Dawkins, Katie Price, Stanley Spencer, Harry and Meghan, Brian Epstein, Kenneth Williams, Ronald Reagan, Simon Dee and the Marx Brothers. With the full battery of the humourist's armoury – clerihews, tongue-twisters, whimsy, parody, farce, satire, social observation, nonsense – Brown skewers the passing fads and delusions of the contemporary world. ‘Our greatest living satirist’ Sunday Times ‘Exquisitely naughty and hilarious’ Guardian ‘Craig Brown’s humour will outlive his victims … his journalism is one of the few compensations for being British now’ Sunday Telegraph

The funny and tragic, bestselling biography of The Queen's sister, Princess Margaret, perfect for fans of Netflix's The Crown. A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR * A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR * A DAILY MAIL BOOK OF THE YEAR 'I honked so loudly the man sitting next to me dropped his sandwich' Observer She made John Lennon blush and Marlon Brando clam up. She cold-shouldered Princess Diana and humiliated Elizabeth Taylor. Jack Nicholson offered her cocaine and Pablo Picasso lusted over her. To her friends Princess Margaret was witty and regal, to her enemies, she was rude and demanding. Ma'am Darling looks at her from many angles, creating a kaleidoscopic biography, and a witty meditation on fame and art, snobbery and deference, bohemia and high society.

Every engagement that has resulted in an official 'kill' by all U.S. forces since the end of the Vietnam conflict is chronicled in this book. Not only is this the only complete work on the subject, but almost every one of the fifty-six accounts are told by the pilots involved. These engagements involve F-14s, F-15Cs, F-15Es, F-16s, F/A-18s, and A-10s. Many of these stories have never been told outside of classified reports, and many of the photos have never been previously published. Debrief is the first book from author and former USAF fighter pilot Craig "Quizmo" Brown. The foreword is by USAF Ace and legend BGen Robin Olds.

Introduces you to the promises and problems of Charles Taylor's thought in major contemporary debatesCharles Taylor is one of the most influential contemporary philosophers, arguably the most important living political philosopher writing in English. 'Taylor and Politics' assesses Taylor's thought and its relevance to contemporary political challenges, especially religion and secularity, multicultural diversity, political alienation and demands for greater democracy. Craig Browne and Andrew Lynch outline Taylor's key concepts and highlight the substantive applications of his ideas. They explain the substantial differences between Taylor's conception of social imaginaries and that of Cornelius Castoriadis, and contrast Taylor's account of the political form of modernity with Claude Lefortas.

In this accomplished, sophisticated and up-to-date account of the state of critical social theory today, Craig Browne explores the key concepts in critical theory (like critique, ideology, and alienation), and crucially, goes on to relate them to major contemporary developments such as globalization, social conflict and neo-liberal capitalism. Critical theory here is not solely the work of Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse and Habermas. The book begins with the Frankfurt School but uses this as a base to then explore more contemporary figures such as: Nancy Fraser Axel Honneth Luc Boltanski Cornelius Castoriadis Ulrich Beck Anthony Giddens Pierre Bourdieu Hannah Arendt A survey of critical social theory for our times, this is an essential guide for students wishing to grasp a critical understanding of social theory in the modern world.

People have been gobbling up yummy, nutritious raisins for centuries. Ancient Greeks and Romans awarded them at sporting events and astronauts have taken raisins into space. Find out how grapes become raisins, who introduced the seedless grape, and the many uses for raisins.

101 chance meetings, juxtaposing the famous and the infamous, the artistic and the philistine, the pompous and the comical, the snobbish and the vulgar, told by Britain's funniest writer. Life is made up of humans meeting one another. They speak, or don't speak. They get on, or fall out. They laugh, they cry, are excited, are indifferent. One on One is a chain of 101 extraordinary but true encounters, from Tolstoy rumbling Tchaikovsky in 1876 to George Galloway baiting Michael Barrymore in 2006. The Royal Family giggle at T.S. Eliot, Walter Sickert draws the curtains on the carol-singing Edward Heath, Youssoupoff assassinates Rasputin, Marilyn Monroe commissions Frank Lloyd Wright. Circular in its construction, panoramic in its breadth, One on One is a book like no other. 'Brown's glorious book is an original and a complete delight' Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times, Books of the Year

The Lost Diaries is a wide-ranging anthology of the world's greatest diarists, each of them channelled onto paper through the considerable psychic force that is Craig Brown. Arranged on a day-to-day basis, spread throughout an entire year, these diary extracts form a patchwork quilt of observation, reflection, contemplation and, above all, self-promotion. As the months unfold, different diarists offer their insights on the events that pass: John Prescott on going to Royal Ascot, Nigella Lawson on preparing Christmas lunch, W.G. Sebald on enjoying an ice lolly by the beach, Karl Lagerfeld on the need for an umbrella in Spring. Among over 200 diarists featured are Martin Amis, Jordan, Germaine Greer, The Duchess of Devonshire, President Barack Obama, Philip Roth, HM the Queen, Heather Mills McCartney, Victoria Beckham, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Sir Cecil Beaton, John Prescott, Mohamed Fayed, Harold Pinter, Yoko Ono, Barbara Cartland, Jilly Cooper, Christopher Ricks, Jeremy Clarkson, Jeanette Winterson, Sylvia Plath, Keith Richards, Maya Angelou and Frank McCourt. The Lost Diaries is the first time all Craig Brown's greatest parodies have been gathered together in one book. Arranged day-by-day, full of invigorating and sometimes shocking juxtapositions, they constitute a treasure-trove, choc-a-bloc with all the fantasies and illusions of our times.

The book provides an overview of the policy frameworks that have been employed to support offshore wind power, and their efficacy in nurturing sustainable cost reductions across the industry.A growing number of countries are increasingly receptive to the prospect of implementing policies to support the deployment of large-scale renewable energy. The promise of carbon-free, utility-scale power generation from offshore wind farms has incentivised and nurtured offshore wind development. However, the high relative costs of deploying offshore wind compared to alternatives have a history of making it political divisive pursuit. At the same time when many countries are just beginning to explore the possibility of developing an offshore wind industry, many other countries are experiencing what can be described as policy fatigue over supporting offshore wind. If cost reductions are not proven sustainable by the early 2020's, then government support for offshore wind may start to erode and even completely evaporate in several key offshore wind markets - with global repercussions. This book will provide the reader with a clear picture of the current status and future challenges of the offshore wind industry globally, incorporating both a technical analysis of the cost drivers as well as a detailed analysis of policy design and economics of industry.

Disputes over fishing rights in the North Atlantic Ocean, sealing rights in the Behring Sea and on the Pribilof Islands, reciprocal trade relations, and the settlement of the Alaska Boundary are considered in relation to the underlying problem of competition between American and Canadian economic nationalism Originally published in 1964. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
While working on this book, Craig Brown traveled to the Grand Canyon to observe the only mule train delivery route in the United States. MULE TRAIN MAIL introduces readers to Anthony Paya, who wears a cowboy hat, chaps, and spurs, and leads a train of mules on a daily three-hour trek down into the Grand Canyon to bring mail to the townspeople of Supai.

"Ending Up" is a grotesque and memorable dance of death, full of bickering, bitching, backstabbing, drinking (of course), and idiocy of all sorts. It is a book about dying people and about a dying England, clinging to its memories of greatness as it succumbs to terminal decay.
Everyone wants a comfortable place to die, and Kingsley Amis's characters have found it in Happeny Tuppeny Cottage, out in the country, where assorted septuagenarians have come together to see one another out the door of life. There's grotesque Adela, whose sole passion is her cheapness; her cursing and scoffing brother Brigadier Bernard Bastable, always strategizing a new retreat to the bathroom before sallying forth to play some especially nasty practical joke; Shorty, the servant, who years ago had a fling with the brigadier in the barracks and now organizes his daily rounds from woodpile to wardrobe around a trail of hidden bottles; George Zeyer, the distinguished professor of history, bedridden and helpless to articulate his still- coherent thoughts; and Marigold, who slowly but surely is forgetting it all.
And now it is Christmas. Children and grandchildren are coming to visit their ailing elders. They don't know what lies in store before the story ends. None of us do.