Author:Paul Osborne
The full, true story of the dog featured on the cover of Clare Balding's HEROIC ANIMALS
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The incredible true story of Sherlock, the brave dog with a nose for saving lives.
Firefighter Paul Osborne works with the Fire Investigation Dog unit, where he handles Sherlock - an excitable, bright-eyed cocker spaniel.
What makes Sherlock different? He's the most talented investigative dog the Fire Brigade has ever produced, capable of identifying extraordinarily subtle traces and scents even after thousand-degree blazes - even when he has to wear special protective boots due to the dangerous environments.
Today, Paul and Sherlock fearlessly plunge into the most dramatic fire scenes in London, helping to keep the capital safe around the clock. With remarkable insight into the life of London's most heroic working dog, this inspiring account of the London Fire Brigade's four-legged heroes will delight and amaze.
Foreword by Dany Cotton, Commissioner for The London Fire Brigade
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Winners of the Mirror and RSPCA Animal Hero Awards 2017
Written in collaboration with and with full support from the London Fire Brigade
Heartwarming
—— i paperHe is absolutely remarkable.
—— Philip Schofield, This MorningNot all heroes wear capes, some wear special boots and work for the simple reward of a tennis ball. Meet Sherlock... the crime-fighting fire investigation dog.
—— K9 MagazineA special talent
—— Jo Fidgen , BBC World ServiceExtraordinary
—— Jo Good , 'The Barking Hour, BBC Radio LondonI was knocked sideways by this book and quite unexpectedly. Adam Weymouth takes his place beside the great travel writers like Chatwin, Thubron, Leigh Fermor, in one bound. But like their books this is about so much more than just travel.
—— Susan Hill[A] brilliant account of a summer spent paddling the 2,000-mile length of the Yukon River... Kings of the Yukon succeeds as an adventure tale, a natural history and a work of art. Its various threads of context and back story are woven seamlessly into the daily panorama of the river journey
—— Richard Adams Carey , Wall Street JournalDazzling, often in unexpected ways, Adam Weymouth is a wonderful travel writer, nature writer, adventure writer - along the way, he is also a nuanced examiner of some of the world's most fraught and urgent questions about the interconnectedness of people and the natural world.
—— Kamila Shamsie, author of 'Home Fire'This is the best kind of travel writing. Weymouth embarks on an ambitious journey - 2,000 miles down the Yukon in a canoe - voyaging, listening and learning. An outstanding book
—— Rob Penn , author of The Man Who Made Things Out of TreesAn enthralling account of a literary and scientific quest. Adam Weymouth vividly conveys the raw grandeur and deep silences of the Yukon landscape, and endows his subject, the river's King Salmon, with a melancholy nobility
—— Luke Jennings , author of Blood Knots and AtlanticAdam Weymouth's account of his canoe trip down the Yukon River is both stirring and heartbreaking. He ably describes a world that seems alternately untouched by human beings and teetering at the brink of ruin
—— David Owen , author of Where the Water GoesA moving, masterful portrait of a river, the people who live on its banks, and the salmon that connect their lives to the land. It is at once travelogue, natural history, and a meditation on the sort of wildness of which we are intrinsically a part. Adam Weymouth deftly illuminates the symbiosis between humans and the natural world - a relationship so ancient, complex, and mysterious that it just might save us
—— Kate Harris , author of Lands of Lost BordersShift over Pierre Berton and Farley Mowat. You, too, Robert Service. Set another place at the table for Adam Weymouth, who writes as powerfully and poetically about the Far North as any of the greats who went before him
—— Roy MacGregor , author of Original Highways: Travelling the Great Rivers of CanadaAdam Weymouth writes of the Yukon River, the salmon and the people, with language that flows and ripples like the water he describes. There may be a smoothness to the words, but pay attention, there are deep undercurrents here. You can hear the water dripping from his paddle between each stroke as he travels that river. It mingles with the voices of the many people he visits along its shores
—— Harold Johnson , author of Firewater: How Alcohol Is Killing My People (and Yours)Beautiful, restrained, uncompromising. The narrative pulls you eagerly downstream roaring, chuckling and shimmering just like the mighty Yukon itself
—— Ben Rawlence , author of City of Thorns and Radio CongoAn infatuated love letter to the river
—— Chris Fitch , GeographicalI thoroughly enjoyed traveling the length of the Yukon River with Adam Weymouth, discovering the essential connection between the salmon and the people who rely upon them. What a joy it is to be immersed in such a remote and wondrous landscape, and what a pleasure to be in the hands of such a gifted narrator
—— Nate Blakeslee , author of The Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the WestThis book is an important contribution to our understanding of threatened ecosystems and what it means to be human on the edge of ecological catastrophe. I loved the sensitive but deeply powerful weave of pesca-poetry, knowledge and encounter that immersed me in the midst of the Yukon's forces and left me subtly transformed
—— Miriam Darlington , author of Owl SensePeterson has become a kind of secular prophet who, in an era of lobotomised conformism, thinks out of the box ... His message is overwhelmingly vital
—— Melanie Philips , The Times[An] impressively wide-ranging and imaginative analysis gives us a deeper understanding of the gap between fact and popular perception.
—— Paul Gordon , Times Literary SupplementBoth compelling and creative.
—— Hettie O'Brien , ProspectWide-ranging and ambitious.
—— David Nowell Smith , New HumanistDavies’s account is full of acute observations.
—— Malcolm Bull , London Review of BooksHarari effortlessly jumps between diverse topics.
—— Dov Greenbaum and Mark Gerstein , ScienceA thought-provoking, provocative, informative, terrifying, fact-filled series of essays which get the reader thinking, worrying and hoping.
—— Marina Vaizey , The Tablet, **Books of the Year**Harari essentially takes the pulse of society today and worldwide.
—— Pierre Jacques , Revolution[Harari] is a rare voice of calm reassurance, slicing through chaos.
—— Allan Hunter , Daily MirrorVividly written and spiked with references to Monty Python and The Lion King, Harari’s essays are thought-provoking and accessible
—— Jane Shilling , Daily MailA rollercoaster philosophical review of where we find ourselves today… 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is an absorbing, realistic, stark, yet hopeful book.
—— Perry Timms , Dialogue ReviewA bold and provocative read that expands one's frame of mind on the present-day world as we know it with the author's unique perceptions.
—— Chirag Jain , News PuddleIf there are people around to write history books in the future, they will look back at the @ExtinctionR protestors and think they were the sanest people of our time. Read The Uninhabitable Earth by @dwallacewells if you don't know why.
—— Johann Hari, TwitterIf we don't want our grandchildren to curse us, we had better read this book.
—— Timothy Snyder, author of 'On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twenty-first Century'David Wallace-Wells argues that the impacts of climate change will much graver than most people realize, and he's right. The Uninhabitable Earth is a timely and provocative work.
—— Elizabeth Kolbert, author of 'The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History'Trigger warning: when scientists conclude that yesterday's worst-case scenario for global warming is probably unwarranted optimism, it's time to ask Scotty to beam you up. At least that was my reaction upon finishing Wallace-Wells' brilliant and unsparing analysis of a nightmare that is no longer a distant future but our chaotic, burning present.
—— Mike DavisA lucid and thorough description of our unprecedented crisis, and of the mechanisms of denial with which we seek to avoid its fullest recognition.
—— William GibsonBrilliant at the futility of human action.
—— Sarah CromptonA masterpiece of operatic proportions … What Powers means to explore is a sense of how we become who we are, individually and collectively, and our responsibility to the planet and to ourselves … A magnificent achievement: a novel that is, by turns, both optimistic and fatalistic, idealistic without being naïve.
—— KirkusHis masterpiece.
—— HeraldYou will careen through this book. The prose is driven. You don’t really get to draw breath … The writing is steel-edged, laser-sharp when Richard Powers wants it to be. When he sets out to nail meaning, it’s done. There are sentences you return to and wonder at.
—— Irish TimesThis walk through the woods via words is a passionate paean to the natural world that prompts us to appreciate afresh our place on the planet.
—— i news[I]t’s huge, it’s exciting, it’s wondrous … This really deserves to be read.
—— BookmunchThe Overstory is a book you learn from.
—— SpectatorDazzlingly written… Among the best novels I’ve read this decade… Despite its deep-time perspective, it could hardly be more of-the-moment
—— Robert Macfarlane , GuardianA beautiful novel about humans reconnecting with nature in a fascinatingly, inventive world with colourful, rich characters, it will rekindle your love for nature
—— Asian VoiceAn intriguing, powerful book
—— Maddy Prior , Daily ExpressAbsolutely blown away by this epic, heartbreaking novel about us and trees
—— Emma DonoghueThis extraordinary novel transformed my view of nature. Never again will I pass great tree without offering a quiet but heartfelt incantation of thanks, gratitude and wonder
—— Hannah Rothschild , Waitrose WeekendA sweeping novel that skilfully intertwines many different stories of trees and people to create a paean to the hidden power and vital importance of the natural world
—— Country & Town HouseAbsorbing, thought-provoking and more than enough incentive to embrace your inner tree-hugger
—— Culture WhisperThe Overstory is filled with character and incident enough to engage anybody, but it's also filled with philosophy, science, poetry, and colour. It's a celebration of the world and humanity, but also tells of our coming doom. Perhaps above all it's a eulogy to trees. Eulogy is the right word because the novel celebrates the life, the beauty and wisdom of trees-but also their death. The novel also casts a cold-but loving-eye on humanity
—— Richard Smith , British Medical JournalThe Overstory has the mix of science and fiction that I so love; it widens my understanding and respect for the creatures who share this planet
—— KAREN JOY FOWLERStunning... It's been one of those rare books that has had a profound effect on me, and which has changed my perspective on life
—— Paul Ready , Yorkshire PostMind-boggling and visionary. The multi-stranded novel is a masterpiece in which science and poetry are deeply intertwined
—— Andrea Wulf, author of MAGNIFICENT REBELS , GuardianA compelling read is that is near impossible to put down
—— Adoption TodayThe Overstory is a prescient novel that urges us to take responsibility for our actions
—— Far OutA masterpiece of storytelling at its very best. Powers weaves together science, poetry, nature and humanity so beautifully that it makes my heart ache and my mind fly
—— Andrea Wulf , GuardianA wild and expansive novel, knitting together a glorious and diverse cast of characters, some of them human, some of them trees. I defy you not to be moved, and then angered about what we are doing to our planet and these glorious sentinels rooted upon it
—— Greg Wise , WeekMy novel of the year was Richard Powers' masterpiece, The Overstory... it's a magnificent read
—— Mark Connors , Northern Soul, *Books of the Year*The Overstory by Richard Powers is likely the most beautiful book ever written about people and trees
—— Andy Hunter , Spectator