A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Brilliant. The unwritten Bowie book that needed writing' CAITLIN MORAN 'Splendid. Provides plenty of evidence of Bowie's restless, rummaging intelligence, and his pleasure in the fact that books allow readers to slip into someone else's skin and try it on for size' THE TIMES 'A witty and enlightening analysis of Bowie's 100 essential books . . . A handy, amusing, light-touch precis' OBSERVER 'What is your idea of perfect happiness?' 'Reading.' 'What is the quality you most like in a man?' 'The ability to return books.' Three years before he died, David Bowie made a list of the one hundred books that had transformed his life - a list that formed something akin to an autobiography. From Madame Bovary to A Clockwork Orange, the Iliad to the Beano, these were the publications that had fuelled his creativity and shaped who he was. In Bowie's Books, John O'Connell explores this list in the form of one hundred short essays, each offering a perspective on the man, performer and creator that is Bowie, his work as an artist and the era that he lived in. Brilliantly illustrated throughout and the perfect gift for Bowie fans and book lovers, Bowie's Books is much more than a list of books you should read in your lifetime: it is a unique insight into one of the greatest minds of our times, and an indispensable part of the legacy that Bowie left behind.

Introduces those with relatively little mathematical training and only an intermediate economic theory course to the important economic issues of collective choice and public welfare. Two central topics are addressed: the ability of government to assess and reflect social concerns, and the effectiveness of government in achieving its stated objectives. An important book for anyone interested in economic policy making.

This book is a celebration of letter-writing in all its guises, a showcase for the masterpieces we would all write if we had the time and inclination - the thank-you letter, a riotous despatch from a far-flung location, that heartfelt declaration of love.

Arthur Conan Doyle asks young journalist Bertram Fletcher Robinson to collaborate on a story. A research trip to deepest Dartmoor cements their friendship as they start work on what will become one of the world's most famous tales, 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'. But the experience will prove traumatic for both of them.

A tasty compendium of spices and a fascinating history and wide array of uses of the world's favorite flavors-The Book of Spice reveals the amazing history of spices both familiar and esoteric. John O'Connell's erudite chapters combine history with insights into art, religion, medicine, and science, and is richly seasoned with anecdotes and recipes. Discover why Cleopatra bathed in saffron and mare's milk, why wormwood-laced absinthe caused eighteenth-century drinkers to hallucinate and how cloves harvested in remote Indonesian islands found their way into a kitchen in ancient Syria. Almost every kitchen contains a bottle of cloves or a stick of cinnamon, almost every dish a pinch of something, whether chili or cumin. The Book of Spice is culinary history at its most appetizing.

This book is a record of the development of an institution with a remarkable history. Its foundations go back to the early part of the nineteenth century when the local Huddersfield community decided it wanted a place of learning to promote the education of the working classes. Since 1825 development has encompassed a mechanics institution, a female educational institute, a college of technology and a polytechnic, before becoming the University of Huddersfield we know today. The author, the late John O'Connell, was a Professor at Huddersfield and this book draws upon his research which now resides in the University archives.