London's Coats of Arms and the Stories They Tell By Richard Crosley Contents Include: Introduction The City of London The London County Council Battersea Bermondsey Bethnal Green Camberwell Chelsea Deptford Finsbury Fulham Greenwich Hackney Hammersmith Hampstead Holborn Islington Royal Borough of Kensington Lambeth Lewisham Paddington Poplar St. Marylebone St. Pancras Shoreditch Southwark Stepney Stoke Newington Wands worth The City of Westminster Woolwich

What happens when the minibus full of your fellow wedding travellers hits a bear in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness? Or you hear the voice of your high school's long lost queen bee from a bathroom cubicle? Why is there always a moment of utter disorientation when you emerge at street level from the tube station, no matter how many times you make the journey? It seems that Sloane Crosley can barely step outside her front door without being reminded of just how perplexing and absurd adult life can be. With her characteristic brio, Sloane recounts her amusing attempts to navigate the bumps of daily life. Pleasant existential confusion awaits you.

Wry, hilarious, and profoundly genuine, this debut collection of literary essays from Sloane Crosley is a celebration of fallibility and haplessness in all their glory.
From despoiling an exhibit at the Natural History Museum to provoking the ire of her first boss to siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor, Crosley can do no right despite the best of intentions -- or perhaps because of them. Together, these essays create a startlingly funny and revealing portrait of a complex and utterly recognizable character who aims for the stars but hits the ceiling, and the inimitable city that has helped shape who she is. "I Was Told There'd Be Cake" introduces a strikingly original voice, chronicling the struggles and unexpected beauty of modern urban life.
Sloane Crosley is also the author of "How Did You Get This Number."

Wry, hilarious, and profoundly genuine, this debut collection of literary essays is a celebration of fallibility and haplessness in all their glory. From despoiling an exhibit at the Natural History Museum to provoking the ire of her first boss to siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor, Crosley can do no right despite the best of intentions-or perhaps because of them. Together, these essays create a startlingly funny and revealing portrait of a complex and utterly recognizable character that's aiming for the stars but hits the ceiling, and the inimitable city that has helped shape who she is. "I Was Told There'd Be Cake" introduces a strikingly original voice, chronicling the struggles and unexpected beauty of modern urban life.

If you'd like to know how to change your underachieving firm, "At The Crossroads: The Remarkable CPA Firm That Nearly Crashed, Then Soared" may hold the key to a bright new future. This innovative book is told in story form, drawing the reader behind the scenes of a dysfunctional team that applies Crosley's Practice Growth Model to overcome the defects to produce a highly functional team.

A 2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE TIMES ‘The witty, improbably propulsive rom-com you didn't know you were waiting for' ELIF BATUMAN ‘Razor sharp and very funny on the cult of modern dating' PANDORA SYKES ‘So good. I couldn't stop reading it' NICK HORNBY ‘Cult Classic makes an uproarious time of romantic carnage' RAVEN LEILANI 'A witty and fantastical story of dating and experimental psychology in New York City' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review) One night in New York City's Chinatown, Lola is at a dinner with former colleagues when she excuses herself to buy a pack of cigarettes. On her way back, she runs into a former boyfriend. The next night, she runs into another ex. And then… another. The city has become awash with ghosts of heartbreaks past. What might have passed for coincidence becomes something far stranger when the recently engaged Lola must contend not only with the viability of her current relationship, but the fact that her best friend and her former boss – a magazine editor turned mystical guru – might have an unhealthy investment in its outcome. As memories of the past swirl and converge, Lola is forced to decide if she will surrender herself to the conspirings of one very contemporary cult. A smart, sharp and hugely entertaining tale of luck and love, Cult Classic asks: is it possible to have a happy ending in an age when the past is ever at your fingertips and sanity is for sale?

A classic in every sense of the word, the re-issuing of this book is sure to provoke an enthusiastic response. First published in 1986 by Airlife, its publishing history has seen a great number of glowing reviews generated, coming from both historians and participants in the proceedings that the author so eloquently relays. The book charts Crosleys service career in the Fleet Air Arm during the entire period of the Second World War. Part of his service saw him in action aboard HMS Eagle, flying Sea Hurricanes on the Harpoon and Pedestal Malta convoys of June and August 1942\. It was during this time that he shot down his first enemy aircraft and survived the dramatic sinking of HMS Eagle. From there he graduated on to Seafires, (the Naval equivalent of the Spitfire), and flew this type in Combat Air Patrols over Norway and ramrod strikes from Operation Torch (the invasion of French North Africa in November 1942), through to D-Day in June 1944 in the European Theatre of Operations, and then in the Pacific abroad HMS Implacable as part of the British Pacific Fleet in 1945 until the end of the Pacific War, by which time he had command of his own combined squadron, 801 and 880. The narrative is well written in a frank and often scathingly critical way of Fleet Air Arm operations during the Second World War and beyond. The book looks set to bring the endeavours of Crosley to a whole new generation of enthusiasts, and it should appeal across the board to fans of aviation, naval history and families and friends of Armed Forces, past and present.

This book covers the author's flying career from the finish of World War II until his final appointment as CO of the Naval Test Squadron at Boscombe Down. Having had an outstanding wartime record 'Mike' Crosley became heavily involved with the introduction of Britain's first carrier-borne jet aircraft. The book explains how modern techniques, such as the angled flight deck, steam catapult and deck landing mirror sights were developed and tested. At Boscombe down he developed the 'hand's-off' launch technique for the Buccaneer which saved it from probable cancellation at a very difficult time for British naval aviation.

Love, luck and hipster cults converge in this high-concept and hugely entertaining New York City rom-com, from the bestselling essayist and novelist Sloane Crosley.

Lola – a diehard New Yorker with the ex-boyfriends, late nights, cigarette habit and sharp wit to prove it – is out to dinner with old colleagues in Chinatown; people she’s grown apart from, but with whom she shares an unshakeable connection. While reminiscing about the past, Lola runs into an ex-boyfriend. They get a late night drink and she returns home to her fiancé, a man she knows should be the perfect choice. But is he?

The next day, near the same place, Lola runs into another ex. And another. And another. Something strange is happening.

Lola has become the experimental mark of a hipster cult, headed up by her enigmatic former boss and headquartered in an abandoned synagogue. They are using their collective meditative energy (along with social media and the power of intention) to re-order her experience of the world – which just might be the push she needs to understand her past and get on with her future.