When 46-year-old crane driver and former comedy stunt-diver Maurice Flitcroft chanced his way into the Open – having never before played a round of golf in his life – he ran up a record-worst score of 121. The sport’s ruling classes went nuclear, and banned him for life. Maurice didn’t take it lying down.
In a hilarious game of cat-and-mouse with The Man, he entered tournaments again – and again, and again – using increasingly ludicrous pseudonyms such as Gene Pacecki, Arnold Palmtree and Count Manfred von Hoffmanstel (more often than not disguised by a Zapata moustache soaked in food dye). In doing so, he sent the authorities into apoplexy, and won the hearts of hackers from Muirfield to Michigan, becoming arguably the most popular – but certainly the bravest – sporting underdog the world has ever known.

Do you know how to trim your whiskers properly? With beards and moustaches more popular than ever, this delightful little book sets out to answer this pressing question. And if a trim is not required, then it will show you how to wax, polish and maintain your face furniture so that it is always in tip-top condition. Alongside these manly grooming tips is a guide to famous facial-hair afficionados, from Karl Marx to Des Lynam; a breakdown of styles; and a perambulation through hirsute history, including an explanation of why the beard was considered sacred by the ancient Greeks.

Illustrated guide to the crucial Italian philosopher and author of The Prince. ‘Machiavellian’ is a popular byword for treachery and opportunism. Machiavelli’s classic book on statecraft, The Prince, published over 400 years ago, remains controversial to this day because of its electrifying frankness as a practical guide to power.

Is it a how-to manual for dictators, a cynical philosophy of ‘the end justifies the means’, or a more complex and subtle analysis of successful government? Machiavelli was a loyal servant of the Florentine republic. His opposition to Medici despotism led him to torture on the rack and exile, and yet he chose as his model for the Prince the most notorious tyrant, Cesare Borgia. Introducing Machiavelli traces the colourful life of this paradoxical realist whose clear-sighted patriotism made him the first truly modern political scientist.

Machiavelli is seen as central to the postmodern debate on Civil Society. This book brings the creative turbulence of Renaissance Italy to life, and presents a compelling portrait of a key figure of European political history.

This is a fantastic book packed with amazing facts and terrific trivia about things that kids have done when they are 9 from developing computer programmes or running ...

Read more on I’m 9 and I’ve Farted 46,021 Times! : Terrific Trivia About Kids Your Age

During the nineteenth century, British collectors were among the most active, passionate and eccentric in the world. Drawing on journals, eye-witness accounts and news reports, ‘Magpies, Squirrels and Thieves’ tells the stories of some of the period’s most intriguing collectors, following their hazardous journeys across the globe. Closer to home, it explores the perils of dodgy dealing and forgery, the cut-throat world of the fashionable London market and the competitive spirit that drove the country’s collectors, to build a picture of a fascinating world in the midst of change. From John Charles Robinson, curator of the new South Kensington Museum (known to us now as the Victoria and Albert) and his struggles with his superiors over the direction of the museum’s collections, to Charlotte Schreiber, an aristocrat who shocked London Society by her marriages, first to an industrialist, and subsequently to the tutor of her children; from silversmith Joseph Mayer in London and Liverpool to doctor Stephen Wootton Bushell in Beijing, Jacqueline Yallop traces the development of Victorian Britain’s obsession with the collecting of beautiful things, both private and public. Along the way she explores how the modern roles of dealer, collector and curator emerged; the expansion of local and provincial museums; how collecting became a middleclass pastime, rather than being confined to the aristocracy, while the involvement of women and the impact of empire expanded the notions of what was collectable: from china and the oriental decorative arts to fans and playing cards. And we see how the Victorian era saw the emergence of a newfound obsession with things, with possessions and how they reveal our taste and status to others – one that remains with us to this day.