“An unusually candid account of the state of Turkish politics… Lyrical, even romantic, about the potential of a forceful, creative and mostly free people to realise their own implied glorious future.” The New York Times
Presents the complete account of one of the greatest imperial powers in history—the Ottoman Turks—from the beginnings of their sultanate in 1300 A.D. under Osman I through the height of their civilization under Suleiman the Magnificent.
The Road to Oxiana is more than a travel diary, indeed it isn’t really a diary at all although it reads like one, as Byron actually took several years to produce something that appears to have been written at the time. This is one of the all time classic travel books. From a review by David Jackson.
Madeleine Peyroux is the best selling jazz vocalist of the last decade. With her new album Bare Bones Madeleine has crafted her best album yet, for the first time all the songs on the album have been written or co-written by Madeleine herself. “This really is a new experience for me - it’s almost as if I got to make my first record again,” she says. “I’d co-written a couple of times in the past, but this was a big leap for me as a writer, not only in the experience of writing but also the message I wanted to portray”.
A two CD collection of Dr John’s work. The first CD a showcase of the more experimental earlier works with the Cajun New Orleans magic roots clearly visible;the second CD showing the Night Tripper’s range of skills including the seriously funky, up there with Funkadelic and the best. A brilliant price for the recording, one for real fans.
This album, which catapulted Polish composer Henryk Górecki to into the international spotlight, takes texts born in pain and turns them into statements of affirmation through the use of music that ebbs and flows in mystic minimalism. The clear voice of soprano Dawn Upshaw, singing the Polish texts, is a large part of the success of this particular recording, but the music, contemporary without either dissonance or movie-music mawkishness, clarifies and uplifts the words. This is a moving and essential element of the modern repertoire. Sarah Bryan Miller
Sunday, June 28, 2009 A man and his wife were awakened at 3am by a loud pounding on the door. The man gets up and goes to the door where a drunken stranger, standing in the pouring rain, is asking for a push.
Friday, June 19, 2009 Sir Alex Ferguson hears that there’s a brilliant young footballer in Iraq, but is nervous about going there. A friend sets him up with a movie makeup artist, so that even his own family wouldn’t recognise him and with a couple of suitable minders, off he goes.
Friday, June 19, 2009 From one of my daily ‘must reads’, Prodicus, writing about Tom Bower’s biography of Gordon Brown, has this gem about the saviour of the world.
It’s a horror story about a pathological megalomaniac who is also a compulsive liar.
Spot on!
Thursday, June 11, 2009 A cowboy sitting in a saloon one Saturday night recognized an elderly man standing at the bar who, in his day, had the reputation of being the fastest gun in the West. The young cowboy took a place next to the old-timer, bought him a drink and told him the story of his great ambition to be the fastest gunfighter ever.
Monday, June 8, 2009 
Like many people, Brown made the mistake of thinking that Wales was full of sheep.
Friday, June 5, 2009 He has come out lacking.
Barry Sheerman MP
No prizes for guessing about whom he was speaking.
Thursday, June 4, 2009 Shamelessly stolen from the outstanding Daily Politics blog, I give you (part of) the wording of the Fraud Act, 2006:
2 Fraud by false representation.
(1) A person is in breach of this section if he—
(a) dishonestly makes a false representation, and
and
(b) intends, by making the representation—
(i) to make a gain for himself or another,
or
(ii) to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.
(2) A representation is false if—
(a) it is untrue or misleading, and
(b) the person making it knows that it is, or might be, untrue or misleading.
Now, can someone explain why most of our ‘honourable’ members of parliament are not languishing in the cells right now?
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 Into June now and I’ve still not been exposed to that execrable talent show that makes Simon somebody-or-other a fortune. I really do think that the League Against Cruel Sports should forget about fox hunting and turn their attention to mindless TV shows like this.
For a much more amusing take on this subject go and read The Daily Mash. In fact, make The Daily Mash your homepage; it’s hilarious but maybe NSFW.
Friday, May 22, 2009 The two finalists in a poetry competition were a Cambridge graduate and a chav. The final task was for them to compose a poem in two minutes containing a word that would be given to them by the judges. The word was “TIMBUKTU.”
Twenty-four ten is licensed under a
Creative Commons Public Domain License.