The Northern Echo | Non-Fiction

How To Watch The Olympics: Scores And Laws, Heroes And Zeros – An Instant Initiation To Every Sport by David Goldblatt and Johnny Acton

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:15:25 +0000

ONE of the many joys of the Olympics is the chance to immerse oneself temporarily in a sport which is normally consigned to the outer reaches of the Eurosport 2 schedules.

On Booze by F Scott Fitzgerald

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:14:49 +0000

THIS slim hardback gathers up sketches and fragments from letters and memoirs inspired by the American writer’s life-long affair with alcohol.

The Beauty And The Sorrow: An Intimate History Of The First World War by Peter Englund

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:10:49 +0000

TO find a book this well written and detailed about the First World War, written by a professor from a country that was not involved, is both rare and refreshing.

Everywhere We Went: Top Tales From Cricket’s Barmy Army by Ben Dirs

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:16:25 +0000

SPORTS journalist Ben Dirs – who some of you may recognise from his live blogging of Test cricket on the BBC website – has compiled stories and interviews from cricket’s 12th team member, the Barmy Army.

Unnatural Workings by David Smith (Quoin Publishing, 1£7.50)

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:40:17 +0000

MANY poets celebrate the countryside. Many might picture a barn – from the outside. But probably few would record its “corner gloom”, dimly revealing “a cobra of plough cord and/A set of harrows, crooked teeth grinning”.

The Missing Martyrs by Charles Kurzman (OUP, £16.99

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:49:28 +0100

GOING by what we see on TV and read in the newspapers, the West is about to be overwhelmed by Muslim terrorists, many of whom are seemingly only too eager to martyr themselves for their beliefs. This message is constantly being hammered home scaring the living daylights out of most of us and demonising Muslims around the world.

Popular Errors Explained by Stewart McCartney (Preface, £14.99)

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:36:10 +0100

UNASHAMEDLY borrowing Schott’s typeface but with the addition of illustrations, this handsome larger format book, whose York-born author has worked on the Brain of Britain, Mastermind and Round Britain Quiz, tills much the same ground as the Book of Ignorance – but with a perhaps unintended Northern bias.

Sorry, I’m British by Ben Crystal and Adam Russ (One World, £9.99)

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:38:11 +0100

CARTOONS – eg hikers face a hoarding saying A Warm Welcome to Yorkshire.

To War with Wellington by Peter Snow (John Murray, £9.99)

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:39:19 +0100

WELLINGTON’S march from the coast of Portugal to victory at Waterloo is one of the greatest military achievements in British history, but the great hero had many smaller heroes (both officers and men) serving under him.

Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan AC Brown (OUP, £7.99)

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:42:03 +0100

DROP the veil, tear away the burka and learn the truth about Muhammad the man, his beliefs and his inspiration.