Description
by Balding, Clare, Ross, Tony | Children’s, young adult & educational
Published 18/05/2017 by Penguin Books Ltd (Puffin) as part of the Charlie Bass series
Paperback | 256 pages
Back to Our Favourites
The Racehorse Who Wouldn’t Gallop
£6.99
by Balding, Clare, Ross, Tony
Children’s, young adult & educational
Paperback
Related products
The Lost Words
All over the country, there are words disappearing from children's lives. These are the words of the natural world - Dandelion, Otter, Bramble and Acorn, all gone. The rich landscape of wild imagination and wild play is rapidly fading from our children's minds.
The Lost Words stands against the disappearance of wild childhood. It is a joyful celebration of nature words and the natural world they invoke. With acrostic spell-poems by award-winning writer Robert Macfarlane and hand-painted illustration by Jackie Morris, this enchanting book captures the irreplaceable magic of language and nature for all ages.
The Lost Spells
Kindred in spirit to The Lost Words but fresh in its form, The Lost Spells is a pocket-sized treasure that introduces a beautiful new set of natural spell-poems and artwork by beloved creative duo Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris.
As in The Lost Words, these "spells" take their subjects from relatively commonplace, and yet underappreciated, animals, birds, trees and flowers -- from Barn Owl to Red Fox, Grey Seal to Silver Birch, Jay to Jackdaw. But they break out of the triptych format of The Lost Words, finding new shapes, new spaces and new voices with which to conjure.
Written to be read aloud, painted in brushstrokes that call to the forest, field, riverbank and also to the heart, The Lost Spells summons back what is often lost from sight and care, and inspires protection and action on behalf of the natural world. Above all, it celebrates a sense of wonder, bearing witness to nature's power to amaze, console and bring joy.
Signed Copy
Free Speech: And Why It Matters
ISBN: 978-0349135380
Author: Andrew Doyle
Cover: Paperback
Pages: 144
Language: English
Category: Democracy, Religious History of Christianity, Political Science
Each book is sold with a signed bookplate
(Publication Date - 25th Feb 2021)
The Keystone of Civilisation
Free speech is one of the most important issues of our time. With increased political division, more and more are calling for greater restrictions on our ability to speak our minds. In this incisive and fascinating book, Andrew Doyle addresses the most common concerns of free speech sceptics, and offers a timely and robust defence of this most foundational of principles.
Over the past decade, many people have detected a pattern of minor changes in our culture. A new identity-based conceptualisation of ‘social justice’ has brought with it a mistrust of unfettered speech, appealing for greater intervention from the state. And yet without free speech, no other liberties exist. In the age of identity politics – with the collusion of Big Tech enabling some voices to be heard and silencing others, such as Parler – defenders of the concept run the risk of being accused of complicity with those considered repellent. But there is no contradiction in holding individuals in contempt for their repugnant views and simultaneously defending their right to express them. We all have a right to incivility, just as we have the right to opinions that are considered to be beyond the purview of permissible thought. Likewise, those who wish to criticise such forms of dissent are free to express their disapproval however they see fit within the law. This is the liberal system, and it works.
Andrew Doyle believes the concept of free speech is nothing less than the keystone of our civilisation. Readers may have reservations about this view. Readers may believe that unlimited speech enables the worst elements among us to commit harm. But a society that abandons freedom of expression risks exacerbating the very problems about which many of us are rightly concerned.
‘Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.’
– John Milton, Areopagitica
Andrew Doyle is a writer, broadcaster and satirist whose commentary on political and cultural issues is regularly published in the national press. He is a panellist on The Moral Maze (BBC Radio 4) and often appears on Sky News. In 2019, he toured the UK with his stand-up show Friendly Fire. He is the author, as Titania McGrath, of the satirical books Woke: A Guide to Social Justice and My First Little Book of Intersectional Activism. He has a doctorate in Renaissance literature from the University of Oxford, where he also worked as a stipendiary lecturer. He was formerly a Visiting Research Fellow at Queen's University, Belfast.
Word Perfect
Welcome to a year of wonder with Susie Dent, lexicographer, logophile, and longtime queen of Countdown's Dictionary Corner.
From the real Jack the Lad to the theatrically literal story behind stealing someone's thunder, from tartle (forgetting someone's name at the very moment you need it) to snaccident (the unintentional eating of an entire packet of biscuits), WORD PERFECT is a brilliant linguistic almanac full of unforgettable stories, fascinating facts, and surprising etymologies tied to every day of the year. You'll never be lost for words again.