William Cook

The illustrated story of Eric and Ernie’s early years as variety entertainers, and the first ever biography to reveal how they became Britain’s best loved comedy double act. Eric Morecambe & Ernie Wise were Britain's greatest ever double act, but there's never been a book which really revealed the era that made them such a special part of our national culture. Until now. Although they ended up on TV, they started out in variety, and their record-breaking Christmas shows were a secret homage to that forgotten world. For a quarter of a century, from the early Forties until the late Sixties, they were a live act first and foremost, playing pantomime and summer season, variety theatres and seaside piers. 'You're making us look like a cheap music hall act,' Ernie used to complain, in mock protest. 'Well, we are a cheap music hall act,' Eric would reply. Morecambe and Wise Untold is a book about Eric and Ernie's live years. What was it really like, that lost world which they came from? How did it shape them? What were the other acts like? And the theatres? And the shows? Why did they survive, while so many other variety acts vanished? This is the story of the spit and sawdust places where they served their showbiz apprenticeship, told through the reminiscences of the people they met along the way. Morecambe and Wise Untold contains brand new interviews with Ken Dodd and Bruce Forsyth (who worked with Eric and Ernie in Variety) plus Michael Grade, Ernest Maxin and John Ammonds, who got to know them as a live act, and went on to mastermind their phenomenally successful TV shows. There are interviews with Gail and Gary Morecambe (Eric's children), Joan Morecambe (Eric's widow) and a rare and revealing interview with Doreen Wise – the first time that Ernie's widow has ever been interviewed for a book about Morecambe & Wise. The text is accompanied by a wealth of rare and previously unseen photos by Gary Morecambe from his father’s family archive and from the collections of friends, fellow performers and fans who captured the emerging story of a legendary showbiz partnership in the making.

Auberon Waugh was a philosopher - savage, eccentric, but a philosopher nonetheless. More than any writer of his era, Auberon Waugh had a genius for dividing his readers, into the delighted and the infuriated, and he retains the ability to start a squabble, even from beyond the grave. Kiss Me, Chudleigh is a collection of Waugh's best writing. It is also a compact biography. It consists of excerpts from the things he wrote, drawn from every stage of his career, from his salad days on the Catholic Herald to his swansong on the Literary Review. Probably the most prolific journalist of his generation (and surely the wittiest) he wrote copiously for publications as diverse as the New Statesman and The Daily Telegraph. He wrote a political column for The Spectator and a country column in the Evening Standard, a wine column, a medical column and heaps of entertaining travel pieces. Arranged both chronologically and thematically, marrying his main preoccupations with the main phases of his life: school (where he received a record number of beatings); university (he came down from Oxford after one year, without a degree); Fleet Street (where he cut his teeth writing captions for the Sunday Mirror's bathing beauties); France (where he lived while writing his second novel, and returned regularly throughout his life); the House of Commons (where he won his spurs as a political correspondent); Grub Street (where he found his comic voice, writing for Private Eye); Somerset (where he made his home) and Abroad (from war reporting in Biafra to travel writing in Bangkok).

Issues in Bioethics and the Concept of Scale arose from the author’s deep and committed interest in ecology, moral philosophy, and medicine, and how they are interrelated. William A. Cook expands on the recognition that spatial and temporal scale characteristics are factors in the understanding and modeling of ecological systems and in decision-making around ecological and environmental issues, and introduces this dynamic to the field of bioethics. The concept of scale, from hierarchy theory as it is used in ecology to deal with the complexity and interrelationships of systems, is explored and identified as a factor and potential source of conflict in the field of bioethics. This notion of scale is conceptually useful for considering the complexity of some bioethical issues.

Diary of a voyage from London to Australia in 1852 on board the sailing barque Abel Gower.

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are the greatest double act that Great Britain has ever produced. This collection of their works is a comprehensive compilation of the finest comedy sketches that Cook and Moore ever wrote together - from the beginning of their partnership, in the groundbreaking stage show, Beyond The Fringe, to the notorious taboo busting Derek and Clive LPs that captured the spirit of punk rock, and inspired the scatological anarchy of Alternative Comedy. Featuring transcripts of one night stands long since almost forgotten, as well as a wealth of virtually unknown material, including previously unpublished scripts for Not Only But Also, Goodbye Again is a revelation, even for Cook and Moore's most informed fans. As well as illuminating their work, this book also promises to shed light on their intimate yet turbulent relationship. It will show how these two diametrically opposed men; tall and athletic Cook from a middle class public boarding school background, and diminutive, club-footed Moore, working class but with an impressive musical talent, came together to develop the closest of partnerships based on an instinctive, virtually intuitive sense of humour. Goodbye Again will chart the extraordinary friendship between the two men and its almost telepathic intensity, which not only bought them together but also pulled them apart time after time, until their eventual reconciliation.

This collection ranges from Peter Cook's first writing, via "Beyond the Fringe" with Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller, his duologues with Moore and their TV series "Not Only But Also" to transcripts of his late TV appearances and a selection of his journalism.

The authors—professional psychologists who work with children and families—believe that adults can help children build hope and combat hopelessness, and use stories that children construct about themselves to document the hope-building process. Included are two useful appendixes and a new introduction, in which the authors respond to readers’ questions and reactions to the original edition, which was published by Westview Press in 1997. From the Introduction to the Percheron Press Edition . . . '[H]ope results when an adult spends the time and effort to convey hopeful thinking to a child. Hope is a highly personal experience. The power rests in the adult who is committed to raising a child’s hope.' From the Foreword . . . 'The authors . . . have captured and conveyed the preciousness of hope in human development throughout one’s life span. Here you will encounter numerous stories that illustrate the formidable power of positive possibilities in helping people to cope with and grow from the challenges of everyday life.' Michael J. Mahoney, University of North Texas and Saybrook Graduate Research Center