Dogs by Ian Zaczek Beautifully-produced, hardbound, 2-colour, well-researched and entertaining pocket history of the world of
Dogs, as pets, working animals, in history, sport art and religion. . A must for any dog-lover.

Introduction

A brief introduction to the zoological background. The distinction between
dogs, wolves, jackals, and foxes. The domestication of dogs. Dogs in the
ancient world.

Religious/Mythological/Superstition

Canine gods (e.g. Anubis), as well as dogs that appear in classical
mythology (Cerberus, Argus, Diana's hounds). Images of dogs were used
as guardian spirits in ancient China. African Kozo dogs (two-headed dogs).
Dog-headed people were mentioned in early travellers' tales. The Roman
superstition about 'dog days' (hence Dog Day Afternoon). Dog saliva as a
plague cure (the links with St. Roch).

Hunting/Sporting

Hunting through the ages. The different types of dogs that have been used.
Hunting by sight or smell. The sporting element will mainly be on greyhound
racing. Statistics on the career of 'Mick the Miller' and an American equivalent.
Sledge-racing with huskies.

The development of breeds/Dog Shows

The growing specialization and standardization of breeds, which leads to the establishment of dog shows. A list of all the breeds that competed at the last Cruft's, divided into their respective groups, along with a league table of the breeds that have won Cruft's most often and the origins of unusual breed names (e.g. Dandie Dinmont).

Working Dogs

Dogs have been used for a wide variety of tasks, e.g. sheepdogs, police dogs,
sniffer dogs, guide dogs, rescue dogs (Saint Bernard), haulage work, regimental
dogs, cosmonauts.

Famous Dogs & Owners

e.g. Charles II and his spaniels, Walter Scott, the Queen's corgis, Elizabeth
Barratt Browning (& the 'dog-nappers'), Greyfriars Bobby, the Revd. Jack
Russell, Barbara Bush (& the book 'written' by her dog Millie).

Fictitious Dogs

Mostly dogs from films and books, e.g. Pluto, Lassie, Gromit, K9, Rin Tin Tin,
Bonzo, Hound of the Baskervilles, Pete the Pup, 101 Dalmatians, etc.

About The Author

Iain Zaczek is a writer and art historian, with particular interest in Celtic and Pre-Raphaelite themes. He was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, and the Courtlauld Institute of Art. Born in Dundee, he is currently living in London. Over the years, he has kept many animals - ranging from spaniels, budgies, tortoises, and guinea pogs to the world's doziest rabbit - but pride of place now belongs to long-haired miniature dachshund.

This book is an ideal gift for any dog lover and would be a great stocking stuffer, perfect material for a quiet read in the smallest room in the house or to place in your guest room on the nightstand!

Each book is 96 pages in length, 2 color and portrait format (7 1/4" H x 4 1/2" W).
 

Sci-fi Movies Movies by John Grant Signed copy by the renowned writer on fantasy, sci-fi and animated cinema John Grant packed with the best and the worst of Sci-fi.

In Sci-fi Movies you will find the celebrated masterpieces as well as the beloved turkeys, the stars and the directors of the genres.

An ideal gift and it would be a great stocking stuffer for the science fiction buff in your house, perfect material for a quiet read in the smallest room in the house or to place in your guest room on the nightstand!

The book is 96 pages in length, 2 color and portrait format (7 1/4" H x 4 1/2" W).
 

Christmas by Cameron Brown An entertaining and informative little book to remind us all what lies behind the annual celebration of Christmas. Since about 400 AD, Christians have celebrated the birth of Jesus. 'Christ' means 'Messiah' or 'Anointed One' and 'Mass' is a religious festival. This elegant little book tells us about the religious background, the pagan precursors to the great festival and explores how Christmas is celebrated around the world today. How do you say "Happy Christmas" in Bulgarian? What does a Frenchman eat for his Christmas dinner? Who brings presents to a Syrian child (answer "a camel"!) and why do some countries celebrate Christmas on 24th December or 7th January? Which is "correct"? Publisher and author Cameron Brown informs and entertains with historical fact and amusing and little-known trivia. This book will entertain and inform and make a perfect Christmas gift.


This book is the ideal gift and a great stocking stuffer, perfect material for a quiet read in the smallest room in the house or to place in your guest room on the nightstand!

The book is 96 pages in length, 2 color and portrait format (7 1/4" H x 4 1/2" W).
 

Treasures of Disney Animation Art Treasures of Disney Animation Art - the Small Portfolio of the larger book by John Canemaker. Soft bound, 1st edition published by Abbeville Press, 312 pp, Mint in original shrink wrap. Price is for one.

 

Discarded Science by John Grant Ideas that seemed good at the time...Signed by the author.

A fascinating trawl through the history of those scientific idea which seemed plausible, at least to some, but turned out to be wrong. Includes flat earth, hollow earth, lost worlds and bizarre ideas about evolution; Piltdown man and other scams; alchemy, aliens, humorous and homunculi.

This sbokk is 300+ pages. Included topics are:

Defunct Science and Pseudoscience

A lightning-quick broad-brush history of science, focusing on its transformation from a wing
of philosophy via Bacon's introduction of the Scientific Method into the most powerful tool of understanding known to us. How scientific ideas have all the while fallen by the wayside as science has evolved. The difference between this and pseudoscience.


World in Upheaval

From the flat Earth at the centre of the Universe via the Copernican Revolution to the smallish
planet orbiting an average star. The Ptolemaic cosmologies. Theories like that of the hollow Earth
(and indeed the hollow Sun) - and do we live inside a hollow Earth? - as well as the annular theory,
catastrophism, elective polarity, the expanding Earth, macrocosm and microcosm, neptunism, plutonism, Velikovskianism . . .

Lost Worlds, Hidden Races, and Unknown Creatures

Atlantis, Lemuria, Mu, the Hesperides, the myths of great past civilizations destroyed by catastrophe. Races such as the Amazons and the Yeti, and cryptozoology.

The Evolutionary Wars

Early and bizarre ideas (primarily Greek) about evolution. Lamarckism and Lysenkoism. Wallace
and Darwin unravel the notion of natural selection. The Balance of Nature and the Chain of
Being. Piltdown Man and others. Ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny. Root races, succeeding races
of Man, the Shaver hoax, parallel evolution. The myth of racial purity. Creationism and Intelligent
Design. Panspermia, and notions of alien-assisted evolution.

Aliens Among Us

The Plurality of Inhabited Worlds. Ideas about what Venusians, Martians and others must be
like. The Moon Hoax and the Martian canals. Antichthon. Ancient astronauts à la von Däniken and
the various UFO crazes. The 1896 7 Airship Flap. Aliens from inside the hollow Earth.

Hard Science

Alchemy, animal electricity, animal magnetism, argentaurum, the Aristotelian elements, astrology,
caloric, the celestial sphere, cold fusion, continuous creation, the corpuscular theory of light,
effluvium, the fifth planet, globulism, Lawsonomy, levity, the luminiferous aether, the music of the
spheres, N-rays, orgonomy, pangenesis, perpetual motion, phlogiston, polywater, seriality, serial time, spontaneous generation, substantialism, the cool Sun, Vulcan, the World Ice Theory.

Us . . . Or Something Like Us

Humorous and homunculi, the acquisition of virtues through cannibalism, telegony and tailed
men defunct and bizarre ideas about the way human and other biology works, and the transposition of those ideas into "medicine". Allopathy, biomagnetics, colour therapy, dianetics, eye exercises, focal sepsis, iatrochemistry, iridiagnosis, leeching, mammarism, naturopathy, phrenology, psychicmedicine, radionics, the Rapture, the Doctrine of Signatures, spondylotherapy, swaddling, telegony, trepanation, vis plastica, vrilium, zone therapy . . .

This book is an ideal gift and would make a great stocking stuffer, perfect material for a quiet read in the smallest room in the house or to place in your guest room on the nightstand!

Over 300 pages in length, 2 color and portrait format (7 1/4" H x 4 1/2" W).
 

Noir Movies by John Grant Signed copy by the renowned writer on fantasy, sci-fi and animated cinema John Grant packed with the best and the worst of Noir.

In Noir Movies you will find the celebrated masterpieces as well as the beloved turkeys, the stars and the directors of the genres.

An ideal gift and it would be a great stocking stuffer the movie buff in your house, perfect material for a quiet read in the smallest room in the house or to place in your guest room on the nightstand!

The book is 96 pages in length, 2 color and portrait format (7 1/4" H x 4 1/2" W).

 

Beer by Paul Barnett Signed by the author.

Once looked down upon as a commoners' drink, beer has now regained its rightful - and historical - position as one of our greatest libations and today there is a growing awareness not just of excellent domestic beers but also of beers from all over the world. Beer now has its snobs every bit as much as wine does.

The old adage that the best way to find out about beer is to drink it has its obvious drawbacks - notable among them being that you may forget more than you learn. Either way, you will find plenty in this book to set your tastebuds tingling. From the dark impenetrable mysteries of stout to the delicacy of pilsner, from the sternness of barley wine to the hoppy fruitiness of a summer ale - here, in one brief international survey, are not just the facts but the legends, not just the best-known beers but the curios you may have to dare yourself to drink.

This book is an ideal gift and would be a great stocking stuffer, perfect material for a quiet read in the smallest room in the house or to place in your guest room on the nightstand!

Each book is 96 pages in length, 2 color and portrait format (7 1/4" H x 4 1/2" W).
 

Animated Movies by John Grant Signed copy by the renowned writer on fantasy, sci-fi and animated cinema John Grant packed with the best and the worst of animated films.

In Animated Movies Facts Figures & Fun is short but comprehensive and beautifully-produced guide to the world of animation in the movies. The book explores the origins of the form and its evolution through to the emergence of CGI. We see the masters of the art, the great studios and the characters who have generally outlived their creators. Features all the great movies (and some not-so-great ones too...).

An ideal gift and it would be a great stocking stuffer for your animation fan, perfect material for a quiet read in the smallest room in the house or to place in your guest room on the nightstand!

The book is 96 pages in length, 2 color and portrait format (7 1/4" H x 4 1/2" W).
 

The Olympics by Liam McCann An amusing but erudite look at the history of the world's most prestigious sporting event, from its Greek origins to the present day. A fascinating mix of history and sporting trivia with information on every one of the main Summer Games, the Paralympics and the Winter Games from their foundation in ancient Greece and revival in the 19th Century to the present day.

This book is an ideal gift for Olympic enthusiast in your home and would be a great stocking stuffer, perfect material for a quiet read in the smallest room in the house or to place in your guest room on the nightstand!

Each book is 96 pages in length, 2 color and portrait format (7 1/4" H x 4 1/2" W).

 

Witches by Nigel Suckling There are unpleasant people in any walk of life, but the wicked witch of popular superstition is as much of a phantom as the vampire or werewolf. As Nigel Suckling shows in this well-researched and entertaining book there has always been enough substance in the myth to make it horribly persuasive under the right conditions even if most of the unfortunates who have met nasty ends through being accused of witchcraft were innocent of anything more than being unpopular with their neighbors.

Read about the myths and legends, tools and the practices of witchcraft throughout the ages and around the world, with tales of the famous witches of history and accounts of witches in modern times. As always in this series, well-researched, illustrated, and beautifully-produced.

An ideal gift and it would be a great stocking stuffer, perfect material for a quiet read in the smallest room in the house or to place in your guest room on the nightstand!

The book is 96 pages in length, 2 color and portrait format (7 1/4" H x 4 1/2" W).
 

Wimbledon by Cameron Brown Everyone has heard of Wimbledon but how many people know that the game of lawn tennis was invented in the late 19th Century and was at first called Sphairistike? This elegant little hardback book is packed with facts, figures, records and statistics, and it's fun! It covers the history of the game, starting out with handball in the French monasteries of the middle ages, moving on to Real (or Royal) Tennis at the court of Henry VIII, to the modern game patented in 1874 by Major Walter Wingfield. The book also describes the history of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (Wimbledon's proper name) and the development of the modern championships. There are anecdotes and information about many of the great names of the 125 years or so since the championships began and, finally, a bit of background on the "village" of Wimbledon, where it all happens for 2 weeks a year.

This book is an ideal gift for that tennis player in your home and would be a great stocking stuffer, perfect material for a quiet read in the smallest room in the house or to place in your guest room on the nightstand!

Each book is 96 pages in length, 2 color and portrait format (7 1/4" H x 4 1/2" W).
 

Werewolves by Nigel Suckling From the earliest times man has been fascinated and frightened by those human beings mysteriously transformed into flesh-eating wolves by the power of the full moon. Nigel Suckling takes us on a trip through myth and legends from around the world, from ancient times to the werewolves of Victorian literature and the modern movie.

An ideal gift and it would be a great stocking stuffer, perfect material for a quiet read in the smallest room in the house or to place in your guest room on the nightstand!

The book is 96 pages in length, 2 color and portrait format (7 1/4" H x 4 1/2" W).
 

Love & Romance by Eve Devereux Signed by Eve Devereux this books offers an amusing but erudite look at the world of love and romance.

Romantic author Eve Devereux explores what these words mean and what they meant in other times and to other civilisations; she tells us about engagement and marriage customs and practices throughout history, delves into the world of aphrodisiacs and seduction, lists key gods and goddesses of love and fertility. She tells us the most important facts about the most famous and interesting romantic artists and authors and gives snippets of amusing and sometimes astonishing information about the subject which fascinates everyone.

This book is an ideal gift for that special someone in your life and would be a great stocking stuffer, perfect material for a quiet read in the smallest room in the house or to place in your guest room on the nightstand!

Each book is 96 pages in length, 2 color and portrait format (7 1/4" H x 4 1/2" W).


 

Vampires by Nigel Suckling In one form or another Vampires have haunted the dreams and nightmares of every known culture, but the vampire most people think of today originates mainly from Eastern Europe. In this well researched book Nigel Suckling takes the reader on an erudite and entertaining tour of the history and mystery of vampirism, from ancient tales which created the superstition, via recorded incidents of vampire activity in the middle ages, to the continuation of the myth in literature and film.

An ideal gift and it would be a great stocking stuffer, perfect material for a quiet read in the smallest room in the house or to place in your guest room on the nightstand!

The book is 96 pages in length, 2 color and portrait format (7 1/4" H x 4 1/2" W).
 

Cats by Eve Devereux Signed by Eve Devereux packed with information about cats. This book covers the history of the cat, the domestication of cats, different breeds, their role in myth and legend and in art and religion from the earliest times to the present day.

This book is an ideal gift for any cat lover and would be a great stocking stuffer, perfect material for a quiet read in the smallest room in the house or to place in your guest room on the nightstand!

Each book is 96 pages in length, 2 color and portrait format (7 1/4" H x 4 1/2" W).