Anecdotal and immensely charming, Ted and I is a unique portrait of a shared childhood between Gerald Hughes and his younger brother Ted, one of the finest and best-loved poets of modern times. Ted's love for Gerald was probably one of the most enduring and sustaining forces in his life. Hughes brings alive a period when the two brothers would roam the countryside, camping, making fires, pitching tents, hunting rabbits, rats, wood pigeon and stoats. Ted's fascination with all wildlife subsequently fed directly into his sublime poetry. Gerald describes watching his brother evolving into a great poet and describes them continuing their relationship, even when many miles apart. Containing a great many unique and never-before seen family photographs of Ted Hughes, as well as unpublished material, this extraordinary memoir is an achingly poignant tale of childhood and youth and togetherness; the tenderness of brotherly love and the development of a poetic mind as Hughes went into the air force, on to Cambridge where he published his first poems and met Sylvia Plath, before settling in Devon with Sylvia, where their children were born. Ted and I also features a foreword by Gerald's niece Frieda Hughes, the daughter of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath and herself a well-known painter and poet.

Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less? Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare? Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of prac­ticing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . . In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct com­plex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By complet­ing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. Kaufman personally field-tested the meth­ods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard key­board, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the sim­ple techniques he teaches: Define your target performance level: Fig­ure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better. Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcompo­nents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first. Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice. Create fast feedback loops: Getting accu­rate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve. Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chain­saws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.

A young boy manages to get his busy father's attention with the help of a special imaginary friend.

With more than 1.5 million books sold, the Baseball Card Adventures series brings the greatest players in history to life! Joe "Stosh" Stoshack has an incredible ability. He can travel through time using baseball cards. But the FBI has learned of his talent, and now they have a mission for him: go back to 1941 and warn President Roosevelt about the attack on Pearl Harbor! Stosh is reluctant, until he finds out that his "ticket" to 1941 is a Ted Williams card. Williams was one of the greatest hitters of all time, even though he lost years of his career to serve in the Marines. How many more home runs would the Splendid Splinter have hit if he had those years back? What if Stosh can prevent the attack on Pearl Harbor and convince Williams not to serve in the military? With black-and-white photographs and stats throughout, plus back matter separating fact from fiction, Ted & Me is the perfect mix of history and action for every young baseball fan.

From the head of TED and based on expertise drawn from the best TED Talks, an entertaining and practical guide to speaking, pitching and telling stories, filled with valuable insight for salespeople, leaders, teachers and writers Amid today’s proliferating instant-communication channels, one form has emerged as the most effective way to communicate—a brief, polished, live-audience video talk. Since taking over TED in the early 2000s, Chris Anderson has tapped the world’s most brilliant minds to share their expertise on myriad subjects. Anderson discovered early on that the keys to getting an audience to sit up and pay attention are to condense a presentation into 18 minutes or less and to heighten its impact with a powerful narrative: in other words, to tell a terrific story. TED Talks is chock full of personal presentation suggestions from such TED notables as Sir Ken Robinson, Mary Roach, Amy Cuddy, Bill Gates, Elizabeth Gilbert, Dan Gilbert, Matt Ridley and dozens more—everything from how to focus your speech’s content to what you should wear onstage. This is a lively, fun read with great practical value, from the man who knows what goes into a great speech. In TED Talks, Anderson pulls back the TED curtain for anyone who wants to learn from the world’s best on how to prepare a top-notch presentation.

On 17 August 1930, nine-year-old Gerald Hughes was introduced to his new baby brother, Ted, born in the middle of the night by the light of a bright star. From the moment Ted could toddle, they were inseparable, with Ted following his older brother everywhere: roaming the Yorkshire countryside, camping, making fires, pitching tents, hunting rabbits, rats, wood pigeon and stoats, flying kites, building model planes, fishing. All these adventures were to fuel the future Poet Laureate's fascination with wildlife and the countryside, many of his finest poems having their roots in these early experiences. Those carefree, magical days are beautifully recalled in these pages, along with delightful portraits of the close-knit family Hughes - Mam, Dad, grandparents and a host of colourful aunts and uncles. Although their paths were to diverge - Gerald joining the air force as an engineer when war broke out and subsequently moving to Australia, Ted going to Cambridge, where he published his first poems and met Sylvia Plath - they remained close to the last. Through his visits to England and their frank and regular correspondence, Gerald was privy to the vicissitudes of his brother's life - the traumatic lows, the triumphant highs - and he writes about these later times also, drawing on Ted's letters and on Sylvia's, some hitherto unpublished, as well as on the recollections of their sister Olwyn and of Ted's widow Carol. Gerald Hughes' poignant and delightful memoir is further enriched by a touching foreword by Frieda Hughes, Ted and Sylvia's daughter, as well as by the author's own sketches, and by a wealth of family photos, many of which have never been seen before.

A book that clearly explains the principles of jazz soloing. Logically organized, with hundreds of musical examples, this method is the result of many years of Ted's teaching and research.