Books by John Bird

More than a study of Mark Twain's language, this book delves into the psychological aspects of metaphor to reveal the writer's attitudes and thoughts, showing how using metaphor as a guide to Twain reveals much about his composition process. It offers readers not only insights into Twain but also an introduction to this interdisciplinary field.

This revised edition of John Bird's acclaimed biography of Percy Grainger gives a circumstantial account of the life and works of one of the strangest figures in 20th-century music. Included is a current discography and a selection of his seminal writings.

If you wanted to be a successful chef you would read Gordon Ramsay's autobiography. He tells you how he became the successful cook and businessman he is today. His book provides you with a model of how he did it. Allen Carr's book does the same. It tells how he became a world-renowned therapist, helping millions of people to give up smoking. Change Your Life is for everyone else. Those who have the best will in the world, but never get round to using it. Those who start something, but don't finish it. Those who fail, and then fail again.Drawing on John Bird's own life experiences, this book outlines the mistakes he has made and the subsequent lessons he has learned along the way. Change Your Life is about getting lost, feeling self-pity, feeling a failure, disliking the world and oneself; and then climbing out of it. John Bird will teach you how to be a success.

In this highly-accessible self-help book Big Issue founder John Bird explains his seven simple rules that could help you change your life. Whether you want to get a new job, quit smoking, stop drinking or go back to college, How to Change Your Life in 7 Steps explains how you can take what you've been given and turn it into something you'll be proud of, rather than spend your life wishing for everything you haven't got.For 99% of us life doesn't come knocking on the door; you have to go out and get it. But the trouble with aiming for the stars is that you're likely to end up in the gutter. John Bird has learnt through his work with the homeless that if you start by putting just 3% of your energy towards your final goal rather than a gutter-hitting 99% you will eventually make the changes you are looking for. John's six other rules are as straightforward as this first one, 'Start With 3%'. He writes with passion about the dangers of thinking like a victim and of not telling the truth; he shares with us the importance of thinking for yourself and never putting others down, and he encourages us not to define our successes by the failures of others and to recognise our own achievements.Written in his unique no-nonsense style this is a book about 'cutting through the bullshit and making the most of what you have.'

One of a series of textbooks which aims to deal simply and carefully with the fundamental mathematics essential in the development of technicians and designers. This edition has been updated expanded to cover the main areas of the BTEC's "Mathematics for Engineering" module for HNC and HND.