Book of British Common Sense

Author: Al Murray
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780340952184
Category : Common sense
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Book Description
We live in an age of waffle, mumbo-jumbo and bad thinking. We're forever being fed dodgy information by so-called experts, scientists, opinion-makers, politicians, journalists and jumped-up little graduates. Their combined bad thinking includes: *the idea that no one should win in running races at school, in case the losers get upset *the idea that owning a house in France is a decent way to spend your money *the idea that we should all talk about our feelings and that would make things better *speed cameras *mineral water *hummus *and the fact that everyone reckons they've got asthma. Why do we believe this nonsense? Because, as a nation we've forgotten the basic elements of common sense. Thank God then for Al Murray. Together with the collecting thoughts of hia locals, he's here to put good old-fashioned British common sense back where it belongs.

Al Murray the Pub Landlord Says Think Yourself British

Author: Al Murray
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780340924815
Category : English wit and humor
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Book Description
Al Murray's BOOK OF BRITISH COMMON SENSE helped Great Britain get back on her feet by providing an injection of Common Sense to counteract all the balls and waffle we've been subjected to in this once great nation of ours. Now he's back, and he's turning his attention to You. The Pub Landlord knows that you, like so many others in Broken Britain, need help to Help Yourselves. Which is why he has stepped out from behind the taps once again and written (well, dictated, be reasonable) this Help Yourself book, Think Yourself British. The guiding principle of Helping Yourself is this: in order to take one step forward, we must first take two steps backwards. Because you will only truly know that you are moving forwards if you have first seen what it's like to go backwards. And once you have read Think Yourself British you will undoubtedly become one of the most backwards people you know. Help Yourself to unlock your brainSpace(tm) and increase your brain'sPace* Help Yourself to Health, Nutrition, Dating, Health, Wealth, Success and Happiness. Help Yourself to make an omelette with a fried egg inside it. Help Yourself to Al Murray The Pub Landlord's Think Yourself British (remember to pay for it, though, don't just help yourself). * (tm) applied for. "Genius" The Sun (on The Pub Landlords Book of British Common Sense)

Watching War Films With My Dad

Author: Al Murray
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448150035
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Book Description
Al Murray's (AKA The Pub Landlord) musing on his childhood where his fascination with history and all things war began. Have you ever watched a film with someone who, at the most dramatic scene, argues that the plane on screen hasn't been invented yet? Or that the tank rumbling towards the hero at the end of the film is the wrong tank altogether? Al Murray is that someone. Try as he might, he can’t help himself. Growing up in the 1970s, Al, with the help of his dad, became fascinated with the history of World War Two. They didn’t go to football; they went to battlefields. Because like so many of his generation whose childhood was all about Airfix, Action Man and Where Eagles Dare, he grew up in the cultural wake of the Second World War. Part memoir, part life obsession, this is Al Murray musing on what he knows best. And he’s sure to tell you things about history that you were never taught at school.

The Pub Landlord's Great British Pub Quiz Book

Author: Al Murray
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1444715879
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Book Description
Who invented the pub quiz? The British, of course! Who doesn’t enjoy a rousing question-and-answer session over a pint and some scratchings? Indeed, what higher calling is there than standing in the pub loudly demanding answers to difficult questions like ‘d'you want some?’ Here, for your pleasure, Britain’s leading pub landlord, The Pub Landlord, presents the finest collection of facts imaginable. Enjoy the attention of friends and strangers by revealing how many James Bonds there were, how many times the French have capitulated and exactly how long those pickled eggs have been in that jar on the bar. The ladies love a well-read man and this book will give you the tools needed to impress her (don’t worry, answers are included). None of your French-type philosophical musings here. No, this is a proper quiz for the Great British Public. In a public house. Or your living room.

The Routledge History of Literature in English

Author: Ronald Carter
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415243179
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 598

Book Description
This is a guide to the main developments in the history of British and Irish literature, charting some of the main features of literary language development and highlighting key language topics.

The Last 100 Years (give or take) and All That

Author: Al Murray
Publisher: Quercus
ISBN: 1529411831
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
A fascinating and hilarious gallop through twentieth-century British history, by comedian Al Murray. An awful lot has happened in the last 100 years or so. In fact, when you look at how much went on in the 20th century, it's amazing it didn't take longer than that. And what have we learnt? A few obvious lessons include: megalomaniac men with moustaches in charge of countries tend to turn out to be BAD; anyone who thinks they can explain let alone sort out the Middle East is WRONG; France simply cannot be relied upon; America may or may not be the cause of everything GOOD and BAD in the world (depending on who you ask). This isn't your bog-standard history book. We all know that history books (Which Shall Not be Questioned because they ARE ALL TRUE according to our History Teachers of Yore) are dry and dull, and they go on as if there's only ONE version of history (spoiler: it's all about perspective). Enter Al Murray, alter-ego of everyone's favourite Pub Landlord. Al knows his way around 20th century Britain, and he's good enough to illuminate it for you. From the Big Bang of the 20th Century, DOUBLEYOUDOUBLEYOU ONE, to the eve of the new Millennium (when all the computers in the World DIDN'T stop working and the Queen had to do the Hokey Cokey with Tony Blair) and all the forgotten tales in between, this is a brilliantly funny, irreverent and eye-opening whistle-stop tour of Britain since 1914.

Economics in One Lesson

Author: Henry Hazlitt
Publisher: Crown Currency
ISBN: 0307760626
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Book Description
With over a million copies sold, Economics in One Lesson is an essential guide to the basics of economic theory. A fundamental influence on modern libertarianism, Hazlitt defends capitalism and the free market from economic myths that persist to this day. Considered among the leading economic thinkers of the “Austrian School,” which includes Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich (F.A.) Hayek, and others, Henry Hazlitt (1894-1993), was a libertarian philosopher, an economist, and a journalist. He was the founding vice-president of the Foundation for Economic Education and an early editor of The Freeman magazine, an influential libertarian publication. Hazlitt wrote Economics in One Lesson, his seminal work, in 1946. Concise and instructive, it is also deceptively prescient and far-reaching in its efforts to dissemble economic fallacies that are so prevalent they have almost become a new orthodoxy. Economic commentators across the political spectrum have credited Hazlitt with foreseeing the collapse of the global economy which occurred more than 50 years after the initial publication of Economics in One Lesson. Hazlitt’s focus on non-governmental solutions, strong — and strongly reasoned — anti-deficit position, and general emphasis on free markets, economic liberty of individuals, and the dangers of government intervention make Economics in One Lesson every bit as relevant and valuable today as it has been since publication.

The Circle

Author: Dave Eggers
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0385351402
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 404

Book Description
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A bestselling dystopian novel that tackles surveillance, privacy and the frightening intrusions of technology in our lives—a “compulsively readable parable for the 21st century” (Vanity Fair). When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.

Life After the State

Author: Dominic Frisby
Publisher: Unbound Publishing
ISBN: 1908717882
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 341

Book Description
In 2006, the comedian Dominic Frisby began to question the advice his financial advisers were giving him and began to look after his own money. He was fascinated by the world of finance. Mad though his friends and family thought him at the time, he put everything he owned into gold, which subsequently appreciated by several hundred per cent. Soon MoneyWeek were asking him to write a weekly column and he began seven years of obsessive reading and study. Life After the State is the culmination of that process. Just as Frisby saw the financial crash of 2008 coming, he now sees another one, even more calamitous, headed our way – only this one has serious political ramifications as well. But not one high-profile politician, economist or journalist seems to 'get it' – because not one of them has correctly identified the cause of the problem. For Frisby, the problem is the State. In every instance where government gets involved in people's lives with a desire to do good, it can always be relied on to make the situation much, much worse. Yet despite this reality, we all seem to imagine that a world without the state would be a wild and terrifying place. With wit and devastating clarity of argument, Frisby shows that human nature proves the opposite to be true. Combining the paradigm-busting wisdom of Nassim Nicholas Taleb's The Black Swan with the readable charm of Freakonomics, Life After the State is a book that will change the way you think about money, education, healthcare and social justice for ever.

Reading Law

Author: Antonin Scalia
Publisher: West Publishing Company
ISBN: 9780314275554
Category : Judicial process
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In this groundbreaking book, Scalia and Garner systematically explain all the most important principles of constitutional, statutory, and contractual interpretation in an engaging and informative style with hundreds of illustrations from actual cases. Is a burrito a sandwich? Is a corporation entitled to personal privacy? If you trade a gun for drugs, are you using a gun in a drug transaction? The authors grapple with these and dozens of equally curious questions while explaining the most principled, lucid, and reliable techniques for deriving meaning from authoritative texts. Meanwhile, the book takes up some of the most controversial issues in modern jurisprudence. What, exactly, is textualism? Why is strict construction a bad thing? What is the true doctrine of originalism? And which is more important: the spirit of the law, or the letter? The authors write with a well-argued point of view that is definitive yet nuanced, straightforward yet sophisticated.