And Now The Shipping Forecast

The rhythmic lullaby of ‘North Utsire, South Utsire’ has been lulling the nation’s insomniacs to sleep for over 90 years. It has inspired songs, poetry and imaginations across the globe – as well as providing a very real service for the nation’s seafarers who might fall prey to storms and gales. It has inspired everyone from Seamus Heaney to Radiohead, and from Radio 4 announcers to the writers of Keeping Up Appearances. In 1995, a plan to move the late-night broadcast by just 12 minutes caused a national outcry and was ultimately scrapped. Published with Radio 4 and the Met Office, The Shipping Forecast is the official miscellany for seafarers and armchair travellers alike. It features fascinating facts alongside lyrics from Seamus Heaney, Carol Ann Duffy, Radiohead and more. From the places themselves – how they got their names, what’s happened there through the ages – to the poems and parodies that it’s inspired, this is a beautifully evocative tribute to one of Britain's – and Radio 4's – best-loved broadcasts.

Peter Jefferson presented The Shipping Forecast for over 40 years, and his familiar voice continued to be heard reading quotations on BBC Radio 4's Quote... Unquote. This book is both an affectionate memoir and a history of the science and BBC programming behind the forecast. Peter explains how it came out, who collects all the information and what it's like to read this bulletin. Even though the information in the forecast is now readily available in many formats, The Shipping Forecast is something of a 'must listen' for fans gathered over the decades. For reasons not quite understood, it has become a much-loved part of the British cultural landscape with an avid following of listeners who find its poetry is the perfect cure for insomnia. This book is perfect for those fans.

Rain Later, Good is the award winning story of Peter Collyer's extraordinary journey around the Shipping Forecast areas and has been a bestseller since first publication. The artist's brilliant and detailed paintings reproduced actual size, offer a series of images which help conjure up the most mythical locations, whilst his delightful idiosyncratic text provides a wealth of fascinating insights. He introduces us to the people who live and work in these areas, and passes on snippets of tantalising information to give a powerful impression of the place and convey a real feeling of being there. The beautiful paintings which come from Peter Collyer's travels truly capture the spirit of these wild and isolated spots. This is a book to be treasured, and its reissue will be welcomed by Peter's many admirers. 'A very remarkable painter. His work is simply stunning with an observed intensity which makes him very special indeed.' Chris Beetles in The Daily Telegraph 'The most delightful and unexpected book I've encountered this year... a wonderful book.' John Naughton, The Times

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News is a vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family. Quoyle, a third-rate newspaper hack, with a “head shaped like a crenshaw, no neck, reddish hair...features as bunched as kissed fingertips,” is wrenched violently out of his workaday life when his two-timing wife meets her just desserts. An aunt convinces Quoyle and his two emotionally disturbed daughters to return with her to the starkly beautiful coastal landscape of their ancestral home in Newfoundland. Here, on desolate Quoyle’s Point, in a house empty except for a few mementos of the family’s unsavory past, the battered members of three generations try to cobble up new lives. Newfoundland is a country of coast and cove where the mercury rarely rises above seventy degrees, the local culinary delicacy is cod cheeks, and it’s easier to travel by boat and snowmobile than on anything with wheels. In this harsh place of cruel storms, a collapsing fishery, and chronic unemployment, the aunt sets up as a yacht upholsterer in nearby Killick-Claw, and Quoyle finds a job reporting the shipping news for the local weekly, the Gammy Bird (a paper that specializes in sexual-abuse stories and grisly photos of car accidents). As the long winter closes its jaws of ice, each of the Quoyles confronts private demons, reels from catastrophe to minor triumph—in the company of the obsequious Mavis Bangs; Diddy Shovel the strongman; drowned Herald Prowse; cane-twirling Beety; Nutbeem, who steals foreign news from the radio; a demented cousin the aunt refuses to recognize; the much-zippered Alvin Yark; silent Wavey; and old Billy Pretty, with his bag of secrets. By the time of the spring storms Quoyle has learned how to gut cod, to escape from a pickle jar, and to tie a true lover’s knot.

Spaces of Longing and Belonging contains theoretical and interpretative studies of spatiality centered on a variety of literary and cultural contexts. The essays provide a collection of innovative scholarship on central questions relating to literary spatiality in a context of increased global awareness.

If you are doing an RYA course or are simply seeking to gain a greater understanding of the weather, this edition of the RYA Weather Handbook (which covers the Northern and Southern Hemispheres) is full of practical and useful information, on aspects such as theory, weather charts, clouds, predicting the wind, and the technology used in sourcing meteorological information. This edition provides more information than ever before about where to obtain forecasts, the growing use of technology in forecasting weather and obtaining up-to-date information and in particular monitoring the tell-tale signs around you for any indication that the weather may not be doing what was forecast. The areas that have been substantially updated and enhanced with additional content are: Tropical weather (hurricanes, cyclones and sailing in the tropics) Climate change New technology The illustrations have also been completely modernised and the look and feel of the layout has benefitted from an overall redesign, making even the most complicated subject easily understandable. This book takes advantage of Google's accessibility features (https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/6006564?hl=en-GB).

'It's like a big hug in a book' - Janice Hallett, author of The Appeal Sometimes the end is only the beginning . . . Annie is single, unemployed and just a bit stuck when her beloved father dies unexpectedly. Furious at his partner’s plans to scatter his ashes somewhere of no emotional significance, Annie seizes the urn and, on a whim, decides to take it on a tour of the thirty-one sea areas that make up the shipping forecast, which her father loved listening to, despite living in landlocked St Albans. Travelling around the coastline of Britain searching for the perfect place to say goodbye, she starts to wonder if it might be time to rethink some of the relationships in her life – but is it too late for second chances? A novel about love, loss and the importance of living life to the full, Annie Stanley, All at Sea by Sue Teddern is proof that it’s often the most difficult moments in life that show us what really matters. 'Witty, wise with wonderful characters. I absolutely loved this book' - Katie Fforde, author of A Springtime Affair

In 1997, Tony Blair won the biggest Labour victory in history to sweep the party to power and end 18 years of Conservative government. He has been one of the most dynamic leaders of modern times; few British prime ministers have shaped the nation's course as profoundly as Blair during his ten years in power, and his achievements and his legacy will be debated for years to come. Now his memoirs reveal in intimate detail this unique political and personal journey, providing an insight into the man, the politician and the statesman, and charting successes, controversies and disappointments with an extraordinary candour.