Set contains Get Started In Writing For Children, Get Started In Self-Publishing and Get Started In Writing Erotic Fiction. Buy all three in the Teach Yourself series and save even more.

Son-of-a-gun (British sea slang), sour grapes (the allusion is to the fable of the fox who tried to reach some grapes hanging up on a vine), from A-1 (origin Lloyds of London) and Abracadabra, the cabalistic word shown here as a triangle symbol, to Xmas (Greek letter Chi written X) and Zest, the book explains the intriguing origins of hundreds of unusual words and expressions. For your delectation, entertainment and perusal, handily organised in alphabetical form, the answers to these etymological mysteries uncover the roots of the modern English language and shares facts and trivia along the way. There are even ten quizzes for extra fun and solutions. 286pp.

Crack those cryptic clues! Verbophiles can work their way through double straight clues, double meaning clues, word exchange clues, homophone clues and anagrams. Here are all the clever crossword clues beloved of crossword compilers explained by solver Kevin Skinner in easy steps. Once you recognise the type of cryptic clue used, you are half way to finding the answer. Work your way through example crosswords provided and hone your new-found skills. The explanations show how the answers are arrived at so that next time you come across a clue of the same type, you will be able to tease out the answer for yourself and beat the compilers at their own game. First published in 1993, we have the facsimile reprint paperback, 160pp.

Scrolls from the Middle Ages is a beautifully illustrated, full-colour guide which celebrates the paper phenomenon, highlights the most interesting items in the period and represent the people who made, commissioned and used them. The author, Thomas Forrest Kelly is a historian and professor of music at Harvard University who has estimated there are about 600 scrolls in Latin and European vernacular languages. The book transports readers to Ancient Egypt where papyrus scrolls were an exclusive product for the country as the plant was cultivated along the Nile, and then travels on to Ancient Greece and Rome where Ionic capitals on pillars resembled a scroll partially opened. Learn that a scroll usually represented audible, often important, speech such as the words of angels, evangelists and prophets including in depictions of the Annunciation scene where the angel Gabriel might appear with a scroll on which is written 'Ave Maria' and a similar one rests on the Virgin Mary with the response 'Ecce ancilla domini'. Discover the most famous map in scroll form, Tabula Peutingeriana (Peutinger's map) from the 13th century, which shows the itineraries of the late Roman world and attempts to put everything about travel into a single document. The book also gives thorough insight into the use of scrolls among performers during the Middle Ages as medieval plays, moralities, mysteries and farces would give each actor their own part written out separately on a scroll which could be held inconspicuously. The author also notes that the scroll itself became associated with the part so we now refer to characters in performances as actors' roles'. But the most spectacular part of the book is the collection of photos of medieval scrolls. There is a photo of a 15th century Indulgence Roll which consists of seven little prayers to be said with Hail Mary and Our Father in order to gain indulgence. The 16th century Ripley Scroll is featured in detail and depicts an alchemist as a 'Philosophical Tree' growing from a fountain in which nude male and female figures cavort. There are also photos of two mosaics from the 6th century church of San Vitale in Ravenna which shows the prophet Jeremiah displaying his scroll in classical fashion while evangelist Saint Luke holds a codex that reads 'Secundum lucam' (according to Luke) while a container full of scrolls sits at his feet. Colour photographs, 194pp.

'The Queen was very approachable. I felt that if I had met her in the street she would have talked to me, or to anyone for that matter. She seemed to be very interested, and seemed to have an unspoken understanding.' Having medals pinned on, trophy awards, on a Windsor walkabout during the Diamond Jubilee, receiving an MBE at Windsor Castle, performing for the Queen's birthday, being recognised for fund raising, official openings for example of the Perpetual Park in Henley-on-Thames or the Henley Royal Regatta Headquarters, here are members of the public who have been privileged to have met the late Her Majesty the Queen. 'The Queen asked Heather about going off to Afghanistan and me about my training for the World Championships in South Korea. She finished by saying she could see our rowing careers were still going very well. It did seem like quite a long chat which I enjoyed immensely and worth every second.' - Heather Glover MBE and Heather Stanning MBE, 2013. Lots of smiles and handshaking and never-before-seen photographs of Her Majesty at work, there is a colour page portrait of each contributor, a summary of what the Queen said in one paragraph, pithy quotes and memories galore, lifechanging moments of inspiration and wonderful anecdotes from 35 contributors who have shared the Queen's company as she has brought a smile to many faces. Her personality and sense of humour shine through and there are wonderful historical facts about The Queen's Watermen or the role of Mace Bearers, the Royal British Legion or MENCAP and the differences in meaning of OBEs. CBEs, KBEs etc. Each anecdote is written with its own integrity at its heart with no frills. Our Editor Annie Quigley has her own anecdotes! A wonderful way to say Thank You to our late monarch. With golden satin page marker, colour photos, 196pp.

In the famous Teach Yourself yellow learning series, here is the ultimate guide to becoming an English as a Foreign Language teacher with what to teach in English and how. Now fully revised to include insights from teachers working around the world, up-to-date information on technology as an aid to learning, comprehensive guidance on the increasingly popular task-based learning, invaluable advice on making the transition from learning to teaching, clear guidance on ongoing professional development and useful examples of teaching in different international contexts. Packed with info on teaching techniques, classroom management, practical lesson planning, successful job hunting and career development. With fantastic topics like fluency versus accuracy, lesson aims, unexpected problems, teaching one to one, grammar and conditional sentences, language terminology and useful glossary and much more. 270 page paperback with clear headers and layout.

The head of TED has produced in the words of Tim Harford 'The single best book on public speaking I've ever read' in his official TED New York Times bestseller. It is an insider's guide to creating talks that are unforgettable, an inspiring, contemporary guide to the venerable art of oratory. It is also a brilliant and profound look at how to communicate for anyone ready to create an impact with their ideas. It includes everything from how to craft your talk's content, be more effective on stage, and key tools that empower any speaker. He also shares insights from favourites such as Sir Ken Robinson, Amy Cuddy, Jamie Oliver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Jon Ronson and dozens more as he shows how the carefully crafted short talk can be the key to unlocking empathy, stirring excitement, sharing knowledge and promoting a shared dream. Done right, a talk can electrify a room and transform an audience's world view. He also looks at talk styles to avoid and drills down to what is your point, the presentation process, rehearsal, notecards, voice, presence and even wardrobe, mental prep and the lectern. 269pp, paperback.

Sub-titled 'The Remarkable Twists and Turns of English Words' and brimming with hidden histories, the book tells the extraordinary stories behind ordinary words. Busking for instance originally meant piracy. Grin meant to snarl. A bimbo was a man. Nice meant ignorant. Glamour was magic and a cupboard was a table. Buxom used to mean obedient, a cloud was a rock and raunchy originally meant dirty. As we find out the origin of the word aficionado as borrowed from the Spanish, about bullfighting in the mid 1600s and how its original meaning was translated into fanatic in the 1802 English edition of Fischer's Travels in Spain. Focussing on 100 surprising threads in the evolution of English, the book reveals the etymological origins and quirky developments that have led to meanings we take for granted today. Short, witty essays on each chosen word packed with fascinating and entertaining info. 242pp.

A charming book about language, love and the wine-dark sea by the author who has delighted readers with her irreverent tales of pencils, punctuation and punctiliousness over three decades in The New Yorker's celebrated copy department. Here Mary Norris delivers a wise and witty paean to the art of expressing oneself clearly and convincingly, this time filtered through her greatest passion - all things Greek. From convincing her bosses to pay for Ancient Greek studies to travelling the sacred way in search of Persephone, her book is also an unforgettable account of her lifelong love affair with words and her solo adventures in the land of olive trees and ouzo. Along the way she explains how the alphabet originated in Greece, making the case for Athena as a feminist icon and revealing the surprising ways Greek helped form English. With delightful facts and brimming with nerdish, bookish joy, Mary is a jaunty companion and her lessons slip down sweetly as we join her pouring beer libations and skinny-dipping in the waters of Aphrodite. 228pp with appendix of the Greek Alphabet. Remainder mark, US first edition.

'Language, Power, and Alexander Graham Bell's Quest to End Deafness' is the sub-title of this revelatory and revisionist biography of the renowned inventor of the telephone, and powerful enemy of the deaf community. 'Deaf people who couldn't speak were often referred to as monkeys, or prehuman. I didn't know that the chief person behind the campaign to keep deaf children from learning ASL (American Sign Language) was the man who most people thought of differently, pleasantly, as the inventor of the telephone. Or that the movement he led would change forever what was expected of the deaf.' When Alexander Graham Bell first unveiled his telephone to the world, it was considered miraculous, but few people know that it was inspired by another supposed miracle - his work teaching deaf people to speak. He was the son of one deaf woman and husband to another, motivated by a desire to empower deaf people by integrating them into the hearing world. But he ended up becoming their most powerful enemy, waging a war against sign language and deaf culture that still rages today. The book tells the dual stories of Bell's remarkable, world-changing invention and his dangerous ethnocide of deaf culture and language. It also charts the rise of deaf activism and tells the triumphant tale of a community reclaiming a once-forbidden language. In 1863 at the age of 16, Bell first started work on his speaking machine, with a mechanical body like an organ with keys to depress different portions and exhale full words. His father Alexander Melville Bell was an elocutionist who was designing a universal phonetic alphabet, one that would be able to document any sound in any language. Melville called his alphabet Visible Speech, because it acted as an instructional guide on how to shape the mouth into different sounds. Each symbol was part of a code of where to put the tongue in the mouth, how to breath, how open the lips should be. Well researched, it is a timely reminder of the flawed humanity that lies behind so much of our technological innovation. 402pp.