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Written with charm and humour, Mary Essinger's page-turning memoir takes the reader on a highly entertaining journey from her pre-war life of spirited poverty in a Leicestershire village to a career as a lecturer in Spoken English, novelist and stand-up comedian. With a sharp eye for tragedy and a warm appreciation for joy, Mary recounts her wartime life and subsequent life as a dress designer in the economic boom conditions of the 1950s and falling in love with a German Jewish refugee who clicked his heels when he met her family. It's all here, in Mary, Quite Contrary.
When Mabelline sets out on a journey to visit her pen pal Rosa, she doesn't expect to be staying quite as long as she does. Mabelline quickly takes Rosa and her son Carlos to her heart, but she knows right away there is something different about the boy. When tragedy occurs, Mabelline becomes responsible for Carlos as he struggles to fit into a world based on rules he doesn't understand, and finds himself in serious trouble. This unlikely pair takes us on an emotional journey that warms the heart whilst illustrating the difficulties someone with Asperger Syndrome encounters trying to hold down a job as a flower grower, make friends, talk to girls, and cope with life.
This wise, humorous and highly entertaining book brings compassion, pithiness and excellent practical suggestions to the vital task of advising widows how to make themselves merry despite having lost the love of their life. After all, as Mary Essinger points out here in 'How to be a Merry Widow'...'Look on the positive side, no shirts to iron for a start. Rejoice in your independence. You can do exactly as you like; paint the house pink, invite your chain-smoking brother to stay or relocate to anywhere on the planet. Consider the good things about being alone. For the first time in your life you are free. Spoil yourself; spend his money on chocolate and taxis. You're worth it.Remove yourself...
The partnership of Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace was one that would change science forever. They were an unlikely pair – one the professor son of a banker, the other the only child of an acclaimed poet and a social-reforming mathematician – but perhaps that is why their work was so revolutionary. They were the pioneers of computer science, creating plans for what could have been the first computer. They each saw things the other did not: it may have been Charles who designed the machines, but it was Ada who could see their potential. But what were they like? And how did they work together? Using previously unpublished correspondence between them, Charles and Ada explores the relationship between two remarkable people who shared dreams far ahead of their time.
Traces the 200-year evolution of the principles of Jacquard's knitting machines to the information revolution of the twentieth century and the desk-top computer of today. --From cover (p. 4).
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