Will Harker has always believed the best things in life are free: the great outdoors, a good laugh, a perfectly steeped brew. He's earning his keep as an apprentice farrier at Stanley Lampitt's workshop - although his gaffer would say he makes half the money and causes double the trouble. But business isn't exactly booming. While Stanley's trying to make ends meet Will is handed a wedge of family inheritance - and a problem as big as a horse to sort out... As every Yorkshireman knows, where there's muck there's brass. So just how dirty are Will's hands going to get? A laugh-out-loud caper packed with Yorkshire humour, heart and charm, from the author of Forging On - longlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize 2019.
From rebels to writers, athletes to astronauts, join Kate Fox takes on an entertaining and eye-opening journey through the lives of these extraordinary women whose lives and achievements have too long been hidden.
In the glorious May of 1998, the governors of the Tanswold School Trust are looking forward to a new era in which they are about to build a new dining hall for their independent school. However, the unbridled optimism soon turns to despondency as they realise that the bursar has been doing DIY stock-broking with a very large bequest which has provided security for the school. For the band of elderly socialites that form the governing body this is not just a disaster, but a scandal that attracts the attention of the fraud squad of the Middle Riding of Yorkshire Constabulary who open up a financial can of worms. And it’s not just financial; the appalling standard of hygiene in the school dining hall leads to a serious outbreak of food-poisoning with heart-breaking consequences. The headmaster is placed under the spotlight and his management becomes more and more capricious as the spotlight is shone on him. The remaining part of the summer term becomes more and more of a comedy of errors as he loses his grip. As for speech day...
“Those who lament that the novel has lost its prophecy should pay heed and cover-price: Muck is the future, both of Jerusalem and of literature. God is showing some rare good taste, by choosing to speak to us through Dror Burstein.” —Joshua Cohen, author of Moving Kings and Book of Numbers In a Jerusalem both ancient and modern, where the First Temple squats over the populace like a Trump casino, where the streets are literally crawling with prophets and heathen helicopters buzz over Old Testament sovereigns, two young poets are about to have their lives turned upside down. Struggling Jeremiah is worried that he might be wasting his time trying to be a writer; the great critic Broch just beat him over the head with his own computer keyboard. Mattaniah, on the other hand, is a real up-and-comer—but he has a secret he wouldn’t want anyone in the literary world to know: his late father was king of Judah. Jeremiah begins to despair, and in that despair has a vision: that Jerusalem is doomed, and that Mattaniah will not only be forced to ascend to the throne but will thereafter witness his people slaughtered and exiled. But what does it mean to tell a friend and rival that his future is bleak? What sort of grudges and biases turn true vision into false prophecy? Can the very act of speaking a prediction aloud make it come true? And, if so, does that make you a seer, or just a schmuck? Dramatizing the eternal dispute between poetry and power, between faith and practicality, between haves and have-nots, Dror Burstein’s Muck is a brilliant and subversive modern-dress retelling of the book of Jeremiah: a comedy with apocalyptic stakes by a star of Israeli fiction.
In a town deep in the Florida Everglades, where high school football is the only escape, a haunted quarterback, a returning hero, and a scholar struggle against terrible odds. The loamy black “muck” that surrounds Belle Glade, Florida once built an empire for Big Sugar and provided much of the nation's vegetables, often on the backs of roving, destitute migrants. Many of these were children who honed their skills along the field rows and started one of the most legendary football programs in America. Belle Glade’s high school team, the Glades Central Raiders, has sent an extraordinary number of players to the National Football League – 27 since 1985, with five of those drafted in the first round. The industry that gave rise to the town and its team also spawned the chronic poverty, teeming migrant ghettos, and violence that cripples futures before they can ever begin. Muck City tells the story of quarterback Mario Rowley, whose dream is to win a championship for his deceased parents and quiet the ghosts that haunt him; head coach Jessie Hester, the town’s first NFL star, who returns home to “win kids, not championships”; and Jonteria Willliams, who must build her dream of becoming a doctor in one of the poorest high schools in the nation. For boys like Mario, being a Raider is a one-shot window for escape and a college education. Without football, Jonteria and the rest must make it on brains and fortitude alone. For the coach, good intentions must battle a town’s obsession to win above all else. Beyond the Friday night lights, this book is an engrossing portrait of a community mired in a shameful past and uncertain future, but with the fierce will to survive, win, and escape to a better life.
Every once in while a book comes along that shows us how to affect real, meaningful change in ones life. How to Master Your Muck is just such a book. Whether you are a corporate executive, a stay-at-home parent, or a small business entrepreneur, this compelling guidebook will give you the skills to conquer the areas in your life that often become stuck and overwhelming: paper piles, time overwhelm, technology strangleholds, and more. You will learn simple but powerful methods that will help you take control of your possessions, your time, and your image, so that you can begin to achieve your full potential.
The salt marsh is not so friendly to humans, but it's the only place to be for many creatures and plants. Breathtaking photographs and fascinating facts reveal the secrets of the salt marsh and celebrate this squishy and surprising habitat.
