Books published by publisher Sam Short Books

Jeremy Keeling first met Amy, an abandoned orang-utan, when he was looking after the private menagerie of music impresario Gordon Mills. Amy had been born to an orang-utan with no maternal instincts and Jeremy, feeling a connection with the rejected primate, hand-reared her. A friendship was forged that would become the defining relationship of both their lives. One day in 1984, when Jeremy was driving along with one-year-old Amy sitting beside him in the passenger seat, he fell asleep at the wheel and caused a horrific car crash. The first policeman on the scene crawled into the wreckage where he was staggered to see a hairy, non-human hand cradling Jeremy's head amid the glass and twisted metal: having been saved by Jeremy, Amy now refused to let him go. For Jeremy, it was to be a long convalescence, but he and Amy joined forces with Jim Cronin, a tough-talking primate-lover from the Bronx, who shared his vision of creating a sanctuary for abused and abandoned monkeys. Pooling their knowledge, passion and meagre resources, the two men took on a derelict pig farm in Dorset and, over the next twenty years, slowly transformed it into a 65-acre, cage-less sanctuary for beleaguered primates, rescued from poachers, photographers and scientists on daring raids. Monkey World is now internationally famous and attracts some 800,000 visitors a year. This is a high-wire adventure story of grit and determination, and of love, hope and 88 Capuchin monkeys in the back of a Hercules transport plane, but most of all, at its heart, it is an inspiring tale of the life-changing bond between one man and his ape.

Crime Syndicate Magazine is back with nine of the hottest crime fiction short stories on the market today. This issue is full of variety with noir stories, transgressive stories, stories about betrayal and lust, heist stories, rock and roll stories and, surprisingly, baseball stories. Prepare to be entertained! A man bets big on the World Series while stuck on the wrong end of a kidnapping (or is he?) in Dietrich Kalteis's "Bottom of the Ninth."A couple of Hawaiian hoodlums are plagued by a negligent disk jockey on the night of their most serious heist to date in Matt Andrew's "The Song Remains the Same."There is no greater loyalty than that between a man and his dog, even under the darkest circumstances, in Mike O'Reilly's "Fight in the Dog."A lonely teen gets way more help than she bargained for in Preston Lang's "The Counselor."Samuel "Sugar" Cane is a hard man, but he's got a sweet spot for taking care of his own in Michael Bracken's "Sugar."Four British twenty-somethings seek Legendary status as they wreak mayhem on their town as well as their own lives, crossing nearly every line of decency imaginable, in Stephen McQuiggan's "Thunderstone."Gentrifiers learn the hard way how things work in their new Boston neighborhood in J.M. Taylor's "Secrets in the Snow."A pair of mysterious women, each with their own agenda, bring tidings of death with them everywhere they go in Jinapher Hoffman's "Jackpot Blue Thistles."A longtime store clerk remembers the rules as he prepares for the inevitable stickup in Nick Kolakowski's "Stickup."

"Congratulations on the purchase of this exclusive product, tailor-made just for you. It will provide you with years of continuous existence."So begins The Brain: A User’s Manual, Marco Magrini’s fascinating guide to the inner workings of one of nature’s most miraculous but misunderstood creations: the human brain.This user-friendly manual offers an accessible guide to the machine you use the most, deconstructing the brain into its constituent parts and showing you both how they function and how to maintain them for a longer life.Cutting through the noise of modern pop psychology, The Brain: A User’s Manual is a refreshingly factual approach to self-help. Written with a deft style and wry humour, it offers tips on everything from maximising productivity to retaining memory and boosting your mood.

"Remember the words of Ivan Rogers the next time you hear some plausible posh boy in a suit telling you `no deal' wouldn't hurt at all and might even be a jolly good thing." J.K. Rowling Two and a half years after Britain voted to leave the European Union, the political debate over Brexit seems as intense and as complicated as ever. Who and what can we trust? And how on earth do we make sense of it all? Ivan Rogers, the UK's former ambassador to the EU, is uniquely placed to tell some home truths about the failure of the British political class and the flaws, dishonesty and confusion inherent in the UK's approach to Brexit so far. In this short, elegant essay, Rogers draws up nine lessons that we, as a soon-to-be `third country', need to learn from the last few years, if the next few years - indeed the next decade - are not to be even more painful.

30th July 1966. For millions it was the greatest day of the greatest decade. They may never have seen the Beatles in the Cavern or danced at Woodstock, but they got to see the finest moment in English sporting history.This is the story of that extraordinary 24 hours, told through the eyes of the players, the fans on the terraces, and those watching and listening at home and abroad.Take the young policeman with the tricky task of swapping the real Jules Rimet trophy for a replica; the former German POW on holiday in Wales keeping his nationality secret as he watches the match in a stranger's house; and the Kent firecrew dousing a chimney fire as they watch the final on television.Full of fascinating details, this book evokes a period when football fans wore suits to matches, traffic policemen were invited into homes to watch the game, and the England squad could walk to the cinema undisturbed the evening before the biggest game of their lives.

Jeremy Keeling first met Amy, an orang-utan abandoned by his mother, when he was looking after the private menagerie of music impresario Gordon Mills. A friendship was forged that would become the defining relationship of both their lives. One day, when Jeremy was driving along with one-year-old Amy sitting beside him in the passenger seat, he fell asleep at the wheel and caused a horrific car crash. The first policeman on the scene crawled into the wreckage where he was staggered to see a hairy, non-human hand cradling Jeremy's head amid the glass and twisted metal: having been saved by Jeremy, Amy now refused to let him go. For Jeremy, it was to be a long convalescence, but he was able to repay his debt to Amy when he joined forces with Jim Cronin, a tough-talking primate-lover from the Bronx, who shared his vision of creating a sanctuary for abused and abandoned monkeys. Pooling their knowledge, passion and meagre resources, the two men took on a derelict pig farm in Dorset and, over the next twenty years, slowly transformed it into a 65-acre, cage-less sanctuary for beleaguered primates, rescued from poachers, photographers and scientists on daring raids. Monkey World is now internationally famous and attracts some 800,000 visitors a year.

One day in 1984, when Jeremy was driving along with one-year-old Amy sitting beside him in the passenger seat, he fell asleep at the wheel and caused a horrific car crash. The first policeman on the scene crawled into the wreckage where he was staggered to see a hairy, non-human hand cradling Jeremy's head amid the glass and twisted metal: having been saved by Jeremy, Amy now refused to let him go. For Jeremy, it was to be a long convalescence, but he and Amy joined forces with Jim Cronin, a tough-talking primate-lover from the Bronx, who shared his vision of creating a sanctuary for abused and abandoned monkeys. Pooling their knowledge, passion and meagre resources, the two men took on a derelict pig farm in Dorset and, over the next twenty years, slowly transformed it into a 65-acre, cage-less sanctuary for beleaguered primates, rescued from poachers, photographers and scientists on daring raids. Monkey World is now internationally famous and attracts some 800,000 visitors a year. This is a high-wire adventure story of grit and determination, and of love, hope and 88 Capuchin monkeys in the back of a Hercules transport plane, but most of all, at its heart, it is an inspiring tale of the life-changing bond between one man and his ape. Jeremy Keeling first met Amy, an abandoned orang-utan, when he was looking after the private menagerie of music impresario Gordon Mills. Amy had been born to an orang-utan with no maternal instincts and Jeremy, feeling a connection with the rejected primate, hand-reared her. A friendship was forged that would become the defining relationship of both their lives.

For many years, Lyn and Ros Rogers were the owners of Drifters, a famous game farm and backpacker lodge in the eastern mountains. But when President Robert Mugabe launched his violent land reclamation programme, everything changed. The Rogers found their home under siege, their friends and neighbours expelled, and their lives in danger. But instead of leaving, as their son pleaded with them to do, they hauled out a shotgun and stayed. Soon afterwards, Douglas returns to find the country of his birth in chaos, and his home transformed into something between a Marx Brothers romp and the Heart of Darkness: marijuana has supplanted maize in the fields; hookers have replaced gap-year kids as guests; soldiers, spies and teenage diamond dealers down beers at the bar. Beyond the farm gates, armed war veterans loyal to Mugabe circle like hungry lions. And yet, in spite of it all, the Rogers - with the help of friends and locals, black political dissidents among them - hold on. And Douglas begins to see his parents in a new light: unbowed, even heroic. In the process he learns that the "big story" he had pursued throughout his adult life was actually happening in his own backyard. The Last Resort is an inspiring, edgy roller-coaster adventure, but also a deeply moving testament to the love and loyalty inspired by Zimbabwe and her people.

The cutter came last night. I recognized her: her black clothes, her narrow face and the yellow whites of her eyes. 15-year-old Zahra has lived in England most of her life, but she is haunted by memories of her early childhood: the warm sun and loud gunfire, playing with her older sister in the time before "the visitors" came. It is hard to make sense of everything that happened, and it feels impossible to talk about, but when three eerily familiar women arrive unexpectedly for tea Zahra realises that the dangers of the past could still destroy her.What Was Never Said is the powerful story of a girl navigating the demands of two very different and conflicting worlds; a tale of surviving loss and overcoming fears.

Daughter of the famous romantic poet Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace was a child prodigy. Brilliant at maths, she read numbers like most people read words.Lady Byron wanted Ada to be as unlike her father as possible. Ada grew up surrounded by an army of tutors who taught her every subject every waking moment, except for poetry.In 1843 Ada came to the attention of Charles Babbage, a scientist and inventor who had just built a miraculous machine called the 'Difference Engine'. Ada and Mr Babbage started working together – a perfect partnership which led to the most important invention of the modern world: the computer!Short Books is re-releasing some of its finest writing as a newly designed series of six children's biographies called The Great Victorians. These are entertaining and engaging stories of some of history's most fascinating characters. They tell history in a novelistic, engaging way, a halfway house between storybooks and traditional history. There is abundant humour and drama too.With beautifully designed covers these books will catch the eyes of parents as well as children.