Yes Minister Miscellany
Author: Anthony Jay
Publisher:
Published: 2011-07-19
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781849540643
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"Yes Minister was more than a sitcom, it was a crash course in Contemporary Political Studies." Armando Iannucci
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Johnson's Life of London
Author: Boris Johnson
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2012-05-31
Total Pages: 269
ISBN-13: 1101585684
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe exhilarating story of how London came to be one of the most exciting and influential places on earth—from the city’s colorful, witty, and well-known mayor. Once a swampland that the Romans could hardly be bothered to conquer, over the centuries London became an incomparably vibrant metropolis that has produced a steady stream of ingenious, original, and outsized figures who have shaped the world we know. Boris Johnson, the internationally beloved mayor of London, is the best possible guide to these colorful characters and the history in which they played such lively roles. Erudite and entertaining, he narrates the story of London as a kind of relay race. Beginning with the days when “a bunch of pushy Italian immigrants” created Londinium, he passes the torch on down through the famous and the infamous, the brilliant and the bizarre—from Hadrian to Samuel Johnson to Winston Churchill to the Rolling Stones—illuminating with unforgettable clarity the era each inhabited. He also pauses to shine a light on innovations that have contributed to the city’s incomparable vibrancy, from the King James Bible to the flush toilet. As wildly entertaining as it is informative, this is an irresistible account of the city and people that in large part shaped the world we know.
Comedy Rules
Author: Jonathan Lynn
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2011-08-18
Total Pages: 207
ISBN-13: 0571277977
DOWNLOAD EBOOKJonathan Lynn's credits include creating and co-writing the long-running comedy series Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, as well as hit films Clue, My Cousin Vinny, Nuns on the Run and The Whole Nine Yards. With experience as a comedy actor, writer and director, here Jonathan Lynn shares valuable and hilarious lessons in all aspects of creating great comedy, all illustrated with brilliantly insightful and revealing anecdotes about his work and the legedary actors, writers and comedians he's worked alongside.
The Complete Yes Minister
Author: Jonathan Lynn
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2011-06-08
Total Pages: 528
ISBN-13: 1446416488
DOWNLOAD EBOOK'We have had diaries from other Cabinet Ministers, but none I think which have been quite so illuminating... It is a fascinating diary... It is shorter than Barbara Castle's... and although it is rather more accurate than Dick Crossman's, it is distinctly funnier' - Lord Allen of Abbeydale (formerly Permanent Secretary at the Home Office) in The Times 'It has an entertainment and educational value which is unique. It is uproariously funny and passes the acid test of becoming more amusing at every subsequent reading... I will go so far as to claim that in the characters of Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey Appleby, Messrs Lynn and Jay have created something as immortal as P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster and Jeeves' - Brian Walden in The Standard
A Year with G. K. Chesterton
Author: Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: 2012
Total Pages: 418
ISBN-13: 1595554939
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"A Year with G.K.Chesterton will be a treasure, both for those who are coming to his wit andwisdom as a fresh discovery, and for those who have known and loved his workfor years. . . . Chesterton's talent for paradox, and his ability to embodyprofound truth in simple images, makes him as compelling now as he was ahundred years ago. . . . He was a prophet in his own time and a prophet forours, speaking out against insidious evils and kindling us all again to acommon love of the common good." --The Reverend Dr. Malcolm Guite, chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge University "This world of ours has some purpose; and if there is apurpose, there is a Person. I had always felt life first as a story: and ifthere is a story, there is a Storyteller." --G. K. Chesterton A Year with G. K. Chesterton daily brings this truth to life. And we areheir to the winsome, arresting, utterly original outpouring of Chesterton'sreasons for hope. During his lifetime, a host of perspectives clamored for hisattention, but he saw nothing as vital and alive as Christianity. Readers ofthis book will find their faith strengthened and enriched, even as they see themany reasons why George Bernard Shaw called Chesterton "a colossal genius." A true anthology, the best of Chesterton's many works are presented in concise, memorableselections. From New Year's Day to New Year's Eve, each page contains a passageof Scripture and myriad moments for reflection, appreciation, and laughter. "Chesterton once aday? Well, that's a start. It is good to see that someone is finallyrecognizing the need for a daily minimum requirement of mirth and meditationfrom GKC." --Dale Ahlquist, President, AmericanChesterton Society "Kevin Belmonte writes in the preface to this excellent bookthat his editing of it has been a gift. As an author who has written regularlyon Chesterton I can understand his sense of gratitude at having been able tospend so much time with a genius as genial as the great GKC. Thanks toBelmonte's labor of love we can all spend a few moments of every day of the yearin Chesterton's inimitable company. All admirers of Chesterton and theChristian truth he explicates so sublimely will be grateful to Kevin Belmontefor this gem of a gift." --Joseph Pearce, author of Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G. K.Chesterton "Who could not be grateful for a year spent with GKC?The great subverter of everything taken for granted, he stretches and deepensus with his insights, shakes us with his startling paradoxes and delights uswith his wit. Thank God there is no getting to the end of Chesterton." --Os Guinness, author of A Free People's Suicide
A Very Courageous Decision
Author: Graham McCann
Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA
Published: 2014-10-16
Total Pages: 332
ISBN-13: 1781313229
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA behind-the-scenes history of one of the most successful and admired British sitcoms of the 1980s. In 1977 the BBC commissioned a new satirical sitcom set in Whitehall. Production of its first series was stalled, however, by the death throes of Jim Callaghan’s Labour government and the ‘Winter of Discontent’; Auntie being unwilling to broadcast such an overtly political comedy until after the general election of 1979. That Yes Minister should have been delayed by the very events that helped bring Margaret Thatcher to power is, perhaps, fitting. Over three series from 1980—and two more as Yes, Prime Minister until 1988—the show mercilessly lampooned the vanity, self-interest and incompetence of our so-called public servants, making its hapless minister Jim Hacker and his scheming Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey two of the most memorable characters British comedy has ever produced. The new prime minister professed it her favourite television programme—a ‘textbook’ on the State in inaction—and millions of British viewers agreed. In the years since Yes Minister has become a national treasure: Sir Humphrey’s slippery circumlocutions have entered the lexicon, regularly quoted by political commentators, and the series’ cynical vision of government seems as credible now as it did thirty years ago. Much of this success can be credited to its writers, Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, who drew on their contacts in Westminster to rework genuine political folly as situation comedy. Storylines that seemed absurd to the public were often rooted in actual events—so much so that they occasionally attracted the scrutiny of Whitehall mandarins. In A Very Courageous Decision acclaimed entertainment historian Graham McCann goes in search of the real political fiascos that inspired Yes Minister. Drawing on fresh interviews with cast, crew, politicians and admirers, he reveals how a subversive satire captured the mood of its time to become one of the most cherished sitcoms of Thatcher’s Britain.
The Rest Is Noise
Author: Alex Ross
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2007-10-16
Total Pages: 706
ISBN-13: 1429932880
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWinner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism A New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book of the Year Time magazine Top Ten Nonfiction Book of 2007 Newsweek Favorite Books of 2007 A Washington Post Book World Best Book of 2007 In this sweeping and dramatic narrative, Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, weaves together the histories of the twentieth century and its music, from Vienna before the First World War to Paris in the twenties; from Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia to downtown New York in the sixties and seventies up to the present. Taking readers into the labyrinth of modern style, Ross draws revelatory connections between the century's most influential composers and the wider culture. The Rest Is Noise is an astonishing history of the twentieth century as told through its music.
Gentle and Lowly
Author: Dane C. Ortlund
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2020-03-18
Total Pages: 192
ISBN-13: 1433566168
DOWNLOAD EBOOKChristians know that God loves them, but can easily feel that he is perpetually disappointed and frustrated, maybe even close to giving up on them. As a result, they focus a lot—and rightly so—on what Jesus has done to appease God’s wrath for sin. But how does Jesus Christ actually feel about his people amid all their sins and failures? This book draws us to Matthew 11, where Jesus describes himself as “gentle and lowly in heart,” longing for his people to find rest in him. The gospel flows from God’s deepest heart for his people, a heart of tender love for the sinful and suffering. These chapters take readers into the depths of Christ’s very heart for sinners, diving deep into Bible passages that speak of who Christ is and encouraging readers with the affections of Christ for his people. His longing heart for sinners comforts and sustains readers in their up-and-down lives.
Typo
Author: David Silverman
Publisher: Catapult
Published: 2009-02-01
Total Pages: 301
ISBN-13: 1593763050
DOWNLOAD EBOOKTwo months before David Silverman’s 32nd birthday, he visited the Charles Schwab branch in the basement of the World Trade Center to wire his father’s life savings towards the purchase of the Clarinda Typesetting company in Clarinda, Iowa. Typo tells the true story of the Clarinda company’s last rise and fall — and with it one entrepreneur’s story of what it means to take on, run, and ultimately lose an entire life’s work. This book is an American dream run aground, told with humor despite moments of tragedy. The story reveals the impact of losing part of an entire industry and answers questions about how that impacts American business. The reader sees in Clarinda’s fate the potential peril faced by every company, and the lessons learned are applicable to anyone who wants to run his or her own business, succeed in a large corporation, and not be stranded by the reality of shifting markets, outsourcing, and, ultimately, capitalism itself.
Salt
Author: Mark Kurlansky
Publisher: Vintage Canada
Published: 2011-03-18
Total Pages: 490
ISBN-13: 030736979X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFrom the award-winning and bestselling author of Cod comes the dramatic, human story of a simple substance, an element almost as vital as water, that has created fortunes, provoked revolutions, directed economies and enlivened our recipes. Salt is common, easy to obtain and inexpensive. It is the stuff of kitchens and cooking. Yet trade routes were established, alliances built and empires secured – all for something that filled the oceans, bubbled up from springs, formed crusts in lake beds, and thickly veined a large part of the Earth’s rock fairly close to the surface. From pre-history until just a century ago – when the mysteries of salt were revealed by modern chemistry and geology – no one knew that salt was virtually everywhere. Accordingly, it was one of the most sought-after commodities in human history. Even today, salt is a major industry. Canada, Kurlansky tells us, is the world’s sixth largest salt producer, with salt works in Ontario playing a major role in satisfying the Americans’ insatiable demand. As he did in his highly acclaimed Cod, Mark Kurlansky once again illuminates the big picture by focusing on one seemingly modest detail. In the process, the world is revealed as never before.
