25 BOOK REVIEWS BRITAIN ACCORDING TO KALEB By Kaleb Cooper RRP: £20 Format: Hardback Ever wondered what goes down at a Tar Barrel festival? Don’t know your wassailing from your wife carrying? Well, buckle up, because farmer Kaleb Cooper – star of hit TV show Clarkson’s Farm and Sunday Times bestselling author – is here to take you on a guided tour of some of the UK’s most eccentric rural traditions. In his smash hit debut book The World According to Kaleb, we learnt how Kaleb feels about everything from existentialism to comb-overs, and why he doesn’t want to visit the Mediterranean. In this follow-up, Kaleb casts his focus closer to home to examine what people like to get up to in the great outdoors. You’ll go gravy wrestling in Lancashire, nettle eating in Somerset, and venture to Hereford for the significant occasion that is Best Dressed Stick. Along the way Kaleb will muse on enduring British traditions like Morris Dancing and country fairs with his trademark warmth and deadpan wit. For the many fans of Kaleb’s unique perspective and amusing hot takes, this will be a must-read – and will make a wonderful Christmas gift. www.quercusbooks.co.uk BEDSIDE COMPANION FOR FOOD LOVERS By Jane McMorland Hunter RRP: £22.95 ISBN: 9781849947961 Format: Hardback A mouthwatering anthology of food in fiction, non-fiction, poetry and even a smattering of recipes, with one piquant extract for every night of the year. This absorbing book is a literary feast for every food lover.Within these pages you’ll discover a wealth of foodie extracts from around the world and throughout time. The latest in Batsford’s Bedside Companions series, this is a delectable book to keep by your bedside and the perfect gift for the food-lover in your life. Featuring writing by Nigella Lawson on how much cheese to buy for a dinner part, to Christmas feasts in Tudor england, as well as extracts from the works of renowned food writers such as Elizabeth David, Madhur Jaffrey and Anthony Bourdain. The literary greats like Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Maya Angelous share their intriguing and delectable thoughts on recipes and edible delights, with Tantalizing gingerbread from Jane Austen’s Emma, and ingenious wartime solutions in MFK Fisher’s How to Cook aWolf. Dip into this delightful anthology and savour a whole world of delictious, witty and creative entries every night of the year, featuring writing from over 200 authors. www.batsfordbooks.com THE LITTLE BOOK OF FLIRTING: TIPS AND TRICKS TO HELP YOU MASTER THE ART OF LOVE AND SEDUCTION By Sadie Cayman RRP: £6.99 Whether you choose to treat your flirting talents as a delicate science or simply as a fun way to meet new people, this pocket guide will set you well on your way to charming the socks off anyone you set your sights on. From chat-up lines to online-dating nopes, these pages will arm you with all the flirting know-how you could ever need. www.summersdale.com THE DEFECTOR By Chris Hadfield RRP: £20 Format: Hardback Israel, October 1973. As the Yom Kippur War flares into life, a state-ofthe-art Soviet MiG fighter is racing over the arid scrublands below . . . and promptly disappears. NASA Flight Controller and former US test pilot Kaz Zemeckis watches from the ground – and is quickly pulled into a dizzying game of spies, lies and a possible high-level defection that plays out across three continents. The prize is beyond value: the secrets of the Soviets’ mythical ‘Foxbat’ MiG-25, the fastest, highestflying fighter plane in the world and the key to Cold War air supremacy. But every defection is edged with risk, and Kaz must tread a careful line between trust and suspicion. Ultimately, he must invite the fox into the henhouse − bringing the defector into the heart of the United States’ most secret test site − and hope that the game plays out his way. For Chris Hadfield’s second heart-stopping thriller, we move from Space to another rich and exciting part of Chris’s CV: his time as a top test pilot in both the US Air Force and the US Navy, and as an RCAF fighter pilot intercepting armed Soviet bombers in North American airspace. Full of insider detail, excitement and political intrigue drawn from real events, The Defector brings us the nerve-shredding rush of aerial combat, as told by one of the world’s best fighter pilots. www.quercusbooks.co.uk
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