{"title":"Books by Robert McCrum","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780571275083","title":"The Story of English","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe Story of English\u003c\/b\u003e is the extraordinary tale of the origins and development of the English language.  Two thousand years ago English was confined to a handful of savage tribes on the shores of north-west Europe; today, in one form or another, it is spoken by a billion people around the world.  More widely scattered, written and spoken than any other language in history, English has become a global phenomenon.  Exploring its amazing success, \u003cb\u003eThe Story of English\u003c\/b\u003e is an essential companion for student and general reader alike.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56291575955829,"sku":"9780571275083","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780571275083_a7630b0f-d91e-4e71-bab1-29dfa5e5de44.jpg?v=1786014147"},{"product_id":"9781447289265","title":"My Year Off","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWith an introduction by Henry Marsh, author of \u003ci\u003eDo No Harm\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy brain, which had just let me down so badly, was perhaps never so active. The paramedics' question was a fundamental one. Who are you? Yes indeed. Who am I?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRobert McCrum was forty-two when he suffered a massive stroke which left one side of his body totally paralysed, his speech drastically impaired, and his sense of himself radically altered. What followed was a prolonged period of recovery, full of heart ache and frustration, as he gradually regained sensation, movement and self-esteem and as his family pulled together in the extraordinary effort necessary to make him well again. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMy Year Off\u003c\/i\u003e is a moving story of determination, courage and love that sings with wit and honesty. An invaluable insight into the reality of life after stroke, the moments of hope, the anger and despair, this is a touching classic that gives voice to millions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56300155208053,"sku":"9781447289265","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781447289265_b1cddacc-1e9b-4a7a-815c-b8da525f32a1.jpg?v=1786020804"},{"product_id":"9781509815296","title":"Every Third Thought","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAs read on BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Moving, intellectual and unsentimental. I think it will become a classic' Melvyn Bragg\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Thoughtful, subtle, elegantly clever and oddly joyous, \u003ci\u003eEvery Third Thought\u003c\/i\u003e is beautiful' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eKate Mosse \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1995, at the age of forty-two, Robert McCrum suffered a dramatic and near-fatal stroke. Since that life-changing event, McCrum has lived in the shadow of death, unavoidably aware of his own mortality. And now, in his sixties, he is noticing a change: his friends are joining him there. Death has become his contemporaries’ every third thought.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd so, with the words of McCrum’s favourite authors as travel companions, \u003ci\u003eEvery Third Thought\u003c\/i\u003e takes us on a journey towards death itself. This is a deeply personal book of reflection and conversation – with brain surgeons, psychologists, hospice workers and patients, writers and poets, and it confronts an existential question: in a world where we have learnt to live well at all costs, can we make peace with dying?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301485392245,"sku":"9781509815296","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781509815296_dacb2ce6-21df-4133-94da-78265a9d0822.jpg?v=1786021811"},{"product_id":"9781509896981","title":"Shakespearean","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Enchanting’ - Simon Russell Beale \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Remarkable’ - James Shapiro\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Wonderful . . . compulsively readable’ - Nicholas Hytner\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhy do the collected works of an Elizabethan writer continue to speak to us as if they were written yesterday?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Robert McCrum began his recovery from a life-changing stroke, described in \u003ci\u003eMy Year Off\u003c\/i\u003e, he discovered that the only words that made sense to him were snatches of Shakespeare. Unable to travel or move as he used to, McCrum found the First Folio became his ‘book of life’, an endless source of inspiration through which he could embark on ‘journeys of the mind’, and see a reflection of our own disrupted times.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn acclaimed writer and journalist, McCrum has spent the last twenty-five years immersed in Shakespeare’s work, on stage and on the page. During this prolonged exploration, Shakespeare’s poetry and plays, so vivid and contemporary, have become his guide and consolation. In \u003ci\u003eShakespearean\u003c\/i\u003e he asks: Why is it that we always return to Shakespeare, particularly in times of acute crisis and dislocation? What is the key to his hold on our imagination? And why do the collected works of an Elizabethan writer continue to speak to us as if they were written yesterday?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eShakespearean \u003c\/i\u003eis a rich, brilliant and superbly drawn portrait of an extraordinary artist, one of the greatest writers who ever lived. Through an enthralling narrative, ranging widely in time and space, McCrum seeks to understand Shakespeare within his historical context while also exploring the secrets of literary inspiration, and examining the nature of creativity itself. Witty and insightful, he makes a passionate and deeply personal case that Shakespeare’s words and ideas are not just enduring in their relevance – they are nothing less than the eternal key to our shared humanity.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301514785141,"sku":"9781509896981","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781509896981_bb0d28d7-85f6-48db-b16b-82bbfd1d0614.jpg?v=1786021870"},{"product_id":"9781912559572","title":"The Penalty Kick","description":"\u003cb\u003eA rousing history of the penalty kick and its introduction in English football by a famed British writer \u0026amp; editor.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFootball, in the 1880s, was a rough and dangerous game. To address the abhorrent state of the sport, William McCrum, an amateur Irish goalkeeper and the author's great-grandfather, proposed the penalty kick, a new and drastic sanction introduced to the game in 1891. For over a hundred years, this extraordinary phenomenon has not only regulated the conduct of football (also known as soccer) but has also inspired game theories and infiltrated classics of contemporary literature.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn enthralling portrait of a lost age, \u003ci\u003eThe Penalty Kick: The Story of a Gamechanger \u003c\/i\u003eis a family history, a social history, and a history of the world's most popular sport. It considers an extraordinary phenomenon as it examines the penalty kick’s psychological—even philosophical—grip on our imaginations, with its distillation of risk and chance into the penalty shoot-out, an all-or-nothing moment.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308612759925,"sku":"9781912559572","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781912559572_9a0acb19-c566-40e9-92b2-1b9606993c85.jpg?v=1786030629"},{"product_id":"9781903385470","title":"The 100 Best Novels","description":"Everybody loves a list but this is a list of major ambition: namely, to select the best 100 novels in the English language, published from the late 17th century to the present day. This list has been built up week by week in The Observer since September 2013, and selected by writer and Observer editor Robert McCrum. With a short critique on each book, this is a real delight for literary lovers.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308801700213,"sku":"9781903385470","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781903385470_b63e3c95-1676-448c-a15c-c9e927c9db98.jpg?v=1786029266"},{"product_id":"john-mcconnell","title":"John McConnell","description":"\u003cp\u003eJohn McConnell's list of collaborators includes many household names - Boots, Faber \u0026amp; Faber, Halfords, Clarks, John Lewis. The man behind the Biba logo (for which he won the D\u0026amp;AD Silver in 1969), the logo of the National Grid and the covers of a Penguin student textbook series from the early '70s has exerted a quiet influence over British design since the sixties. His awards alone speak to his prowess: the Prince Philip Designers' Prize (2002) and the title of RDI (Royal Designer of Industry, 1987) among them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart biography, part showcase for some of McConnell's most celebrated designs, this book gathers McConnell's exclusive redesign for Faber \u0026amp; Faber - a revolutionary new approach to book covers from the early 1980s.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57647675834741,"sku":"9781788840873","price":14.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781788840873.jpg?v=1791827791"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-robert-mccrum.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}