Stephen Parker

There is No Finish tells the roller-coaster story of the Backyard Ultra. Birthed from the high school musings of Lazarus Lake, renowned for the Barkley Marathons, the running event has spread globally-to over eighty countries- with sky-rocketing numbers. Runners have up to one hour to complete a 4.1-mile lap. At the start of the next hour, again they attempt to complete the same lap. The race keeps going, with no finish, until all except one person gives up. The winner is the last one standing who does one lap more than anyone else. With participants running until they drop, every race becomes an enthralling adventure with epic stories. Stephen Parker dives deep into the Backyard Ultra scene, running events, crewing for others, and exploring its amazing history. With races in Belgium, the USA, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Finland, South Africa, and many more, the book shares the agony and adrenaline of battles between colourful characters in stunning settings. If there is no finish, how far can you run?

We may all feel we know what an "English" garden is, but do we really? England's Gardens offers a holistic, modern-day tour and an update on the history of some of the most iconic, enduring, and influential gardens across the country. A fresh take on a much-loved subject, this book will help you get to know England's gardens up close and personal. Garden historian Stephen Parker leads you through England's horticultural history, unearthing the cultural context and hidden stories behind the gardens, and bringing lesser-known garden makers to the fore. In five detailed historical chapters, Parker explores the making of the so-called "English" garden - from its origins in the formal splendour of stately homes, all the way to climate-change resilience and future-facing designs of the modern era. Inside the pages of this stunning book on England's country gardens, you will find:- 5 chapters of detailed narrative essays arranged in chronological order.- Detailed profiles showcase significant garden makers.- More than 20 photography-led garden case studies explore key gardens to visit in England today.- Stunning, full-bleed, contemporary photography brings the gardens to life.- Archival photography and historical art sheds light on the history and making of the gardens. Discover the best gardens to visit today - with garden case studies showcasing everything England's gardens have to offer through stunning contemporary photography and careful analysis of planting schemes and garden makers' creative influences. From iconic sites like Sissinghurst and Great Dixter, to more unusual examples such as Prospect Cottage and The Laskett - this book celebrates England's gardens in all their glorious diversity, sublime beauty, and exuberant eccentricity.

Reading instruction in most local schools is in a state of crisis. Fully two-thirds of the nation's 4th and 8th graders are NOT proficient readers - this according to the US government publication Nation's Report Card. To rely on your local school to teach your child to read is to risk playing a form of Reading Roulette with your child's future. Don't do it. Parents have been teaching their own children to read for centuries. It's not difficult to do. All you need is a guide to help you perform the task in a manner that coincides with the reading science that has occurred in the last quarter-century. That science points to the use of Synthetic Phonics as the teaching method of choice. This book's Synthetic Phonics program will guide you as you teach your own preschooler how to read. No sight words, no guessing strategies are used. Using Synthetic Phonics, your child will learn how to decode unknown words by "sounding them out" into a full pronunciation. With minor adaptations, this book can also be used to teach older children, home-schooled children, or even illiterate adults. It's the ultimate guide for anyone wanting to bestow the gift of literacy.

Written specifically for grade school teachers, teachers-in-training, and interested parents, this book provides a stand-alone resource for using phonics as a method for teaching children to read. This type of phonics, known as Synthetic Phonics, doesn't rely on sight words or guessing strategies. Instead, it focuses on teaching the letter-sound relationships of the alphabetic code at the start of instruction, and then using that knowledge to both encode (spell) and decode (read) individual words. It's a method that relies on logic, reason, and the child's need to understand what he or she is asked to do. Taught explicitly and systematically, Synthetic Phonics takes only 2 years to complete. Given that 2 out of 3 grade school students never attain the level of "proficient" reader, isn't it time for a different approach?

12 stories from the heart of South Minneapolis: Lake Street. Lake Street cuts across Minneapolis from west to east, from the urbane to the urban to the blue-collar. North and south, it is the dividing line between inner-city neighborhoods and tidy bedroom communities. Lake Street is a polyglot of people from all corners of the world mixing with lifelong Minneapolitans. These stories range from people's hope for a new beginning, with the history of what was.

This first English language biography of Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) in two decades paints a strikingly new picture of one of the twentieth century’s most controversial cultural icons. First published in 2014 and now available in paperback, it was critically lauded and declared the definitive life of this great artist and writer. Drawing on letters, diaries and unpublished material, including Brecht’s medical records, Parker offers a rich and enthralling account of Brecht’s life and work, viewed through the prism of the artist. Tracing his extraordinary life, from his formative years in Augsburg, through the First World War, his politicisation during the Weimar Republic and his years of exile, up to the Berliner Ensemble’s dazzling productions in Paris and London, Parker shows how Brecht achieved his transformative effect upon world theatre and poetry. Bertolt Brecht: A Literary Life is a powerful portrait of a great, compulsively contradictory personality, whose artistry left its lasting imprint on modern culture.

Eureka: General Surgery and Urology is an innovative book for medical students that fully integrates core science, clinical medicine and surgery. The book benefits from an engaging and authoritative text, written by specialists in the field, and has several key features to help you really understand the subject: Chapter starter questions - to get you thinking about the topic before you start reading Break out boxes which contain essential key knowledge Clinical cases to help you understand the material in a clinical context Unique graphic narratives which are especially useful for visual learners End of chapter answers to the starter questions A final self-assessment chapter of Single Best Answers to really help test and reinforce your knowledge The book starts with the First Principles chapter which clearly explains key concepts such as assessment of the patient fitness for surgery, patient consent and pain management. The Clinical Essentials chapter provides an overview of the symptoms and signs of surgical disease, investigations and management options. A series of disease-based chapters briefly describe, by system, relevant structure and function, history and examination and main surgical presentations, each chapter introduced by engaging clinical cases that feature unique graphic narratives. The Emergencies chapter covers the principles of immediate care in situations such as acute appendicitis. Finally, the Self-Assessment chapter comprises 80 multiple choice questions in clinical Single Best Answer format, to thoroughly test your understanding of the subject. The Eureka series of books are designed to be a 'one stop shop': they contain all the key information you need to know to succeed in your studies and pass your exams.

MRCS Applied Basic Science and Clinical Topics offers a complete and up-to-date guide to specialty training in surgery, covering all the core topics examined in the MRCS Part A and B exams. Presented in a clear layout, chapters are mapped to the syllabus to deliver structured revision in all the systems. Featuring concise and easy-to-digest notes, this book provides clinical knowledge, practical skills and the essential revision tool to maximise chances of exam success. Key Points Presents topics in an accessible double-page format for rapid access to information Covers the full knowledge-base examined by the Royal College of Surgeons Highly illustrated with clinical photographs, imaging and diagrams to aid visual memory of topics Equips candidates with the necessary basic science and clinical knowledge to succeed in the MRCS exams Complements MRCS Part A: 500 SBAs and EMQs and MRCS Part B OSCE: Anatomy Highly Commended at the BMA Medical Book Awards 2013

This is the first in-depth exploration of the role of religion in the life and work of D. W. Winnicott. It uses previously unpublished materials from the Winnicott archives in London and New York to help trace the trajectory of Winnicott’s religious development over his lifespan. It also is the first book to explore the developmental sources for Winnicott’s own images and concepts of God. This book will benefit those who have followed the growing interest in the relationship between religion and psychology, especially psychoanalytic psychology. It offers a unique blend of biography and narrative to complement the more traditional logical arguments regarding the interaction between religion and psychology. This book also will be of interest to those who know of Winnicott’s contribution to the positive rethinking of the relationship between religion and psychology and who wish to learn more about the reciprocal impact of religion and psychology in the life and work of this influential explorer of these themes. The book traces the influence of Winnicott’s religious upbringing on his psychological theory as well as the impact of his work as a psychoanalyst on his religious development.

Despite the hype and noise there would appear to be some real credibility around the delivery of Cloud services. But are we really ready to trust the Cloud with our Line of Business applications? This book will provide you with the smart questions to help your planning process as you think about using the Cloud for your ERP systems.

This study of the legendary Berlin literary and cultural journal Sinn und Form (1949- ) has a twofold significance. Based on extensive archival research and a detailed reading of the journal’s published face, it is a comprehensive history of „Sinn und Form“, whose founding editor was Peter Huchel and whose authors include Bertolt Brecht, Ernst Bloch, Pablo Neruda, Romain Rolland, Peter Weiss, Christa Wolf, Heiner Müller and Durs Grünbein. As such, it offers a fascinating perspective on the cultural history of the GDR and post-unification Germany. The study is also a first typological analysis of the anatomy of such a journal, organised in seven analytical categories: founding conception; cultural-political context; institutional infrastructure; role of editors; network of contributors; textual and compositional dimension; readership and reception. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of culture, the authors set out to explain how the journal acquired and maintained its influence over the last 60 years. In turn, this conceptualisation of the journal as an agent in the cultural field opens the way for systematic research into literary and cultural journals from a comparative perspective, synthesising sociological and literary approaches.

The nature of religion on the domestic front in Britain during the Second World War has, hitherto, been relatively unexplored. This study focuses on Birmingham and describes wartime popular religion, primarily as recounted in oral testimony. The difference the War made to people's faith, and the consolation wrought by prayer and a religious outlook are explored, as are the religious language and concepts utilised by the wartime popular media of cinema and wireless. Clerical rhetoric about the War and concerns to spiritualise the war effort are dealt with by an analysis of locally published sources, especially parish magazines and other religious ephemera, which set the War on the spiritual as much as the military plane. A final section of the study is devoted to measuring the extent of the influence of the churches in the creation of a vision for post-war Britain and Birmingham.

This book seeks to move twentieth-century German literary history away from its stubbornly persistent reliance on the political turning-points of 1933 and 1945. In the first part of the book, the authors analyze a synchronic corpus of literary journals, identifying a restorative aesthetic mood in the years 1930-1960 which persists across political date boundaries. In the second part, the careers of five writers are considered diachronically against this prevailing restorative climate: Gottfried Benn, Johannes R. Becher, Bertolt Brecht, Günter Eich, and Peter Huchel. Combining these two approaches, the authors show that a fresh perspective that challenges established literary-historical periodisations can shed light on the common cultural and aesthetic ground shared by writers, editors and critics across the ideological divides of the era.

By the author of "Cohabitees", this book traces the boundaries of legal marriage since the Industrial Revolution, from informal marriage practices to modern cohabitation. Changes are placed in their economic, political and social contexts, seen to be the product of class and gender conflict.