Thank Goodness You're Here!

The economy has been brutal to American workers for several decades. The chance to give one's children a better life than one's own — the promise at the heart of the American Dream — is withering away. While onlookers assume those suffering in marginalized working-class communities will instinctively rise up, the 2016 election threw into sharp relief how little we know about how the working-class translate their grievances into politics.

A new book distilling Wisdom's definitive masterpiece on mindfulness and all-time bestseller, Mindfulness in Plain English, down to a pocket-sized guide with everything you need to get started practicing mindfulness right now.

A unique history of plant and animal invaders of the British isles spanning thousands of years of arrivals and escapes, as well as defences mounted and a look to the future. As Brits we pride ourselves as stoic defenders, boasting a record of resistance dating back to 1066. Yet, even a cursory examination of the natural world reveals that while interlopers of the human variety may have been kept at bay, our islands have been invaded, conquered and settled by an endless succession of animals, plants, fungi and other alien lifeforms that apparently belong elsewhere. Indeed it's often hard to work out what actually is native, and what is foreign. From early settlement of our islands, through the Roman and mediaeval period, to the age of exploration and globalisation, today's complement of alien species tells a story about our past.

The 1960's was the decade when young people finally threw off the restrictions of previous generations and made a new 'pop' culture, just for themselves. From the black and white world of the Fifties, suddenly the Sixties exploded into glorious Technicolor. When USA's Time magazine dedicated it's 15 April 1966 issue to London: The Swinging City, it was recognizing that in the midst of a worldwide cultural revolution it was Britain, and London especially, that laid claim to being the centre of all things modern. British artists, writers, photographers, film makers and, most significantly, it's musicians, were bursting with creativity.

originally a british manufacturer of televisions and radios, pye records was formed in 1959 with a vision to release pop music by british artists. pye was the last of the major record companies to release a 45rpm single, but once it finally embraced the format in 1960 both pye and it’s little sister, piccadilly records, gave these british girls their voice and spawned a host of fantastic femme-pop 45s that provided the soundtrack to the colourful, confident and downright fun place that was swinging sixties britain, and it is in these companies catalogues that we find our inspiration for this compilation of some of the finest british female pop ever recorded. it includes hits & obscure songs from petula clark, tawny reed, val mckenna, the caravelles, sandra barry and many more.

2017 three CD set. One of RPM Records defining releases remains the Dream Babes series, the Brit Girl Sound collections which started in 1994 and ran until 2007 reaching volume 8. The scene for collecting such sounds has only grown bigger and more international since then. Now it is time for RPM's concluding word on the subject of it's own series with this set. 80 tracks, none duplicated from the DB series, many tracks fresh to CD, five tracks previously unreleased. Compiled with much learned, many archive tapes unearthed, and recordings dug from crates since the series last volume. Spanning the full spectrum of the scene, known for it's gratifying diversity, the box set offers slick originals and intriguing covers, from early girls to late girls, beat girls, folk girls, hippy girls and mod girls. Here, you'll also find the brash teeners, the raw belters, the wistful balladeers, the brassy pub singers, the breathy harmonizers and the bluesy shouters. There are Essex girls, lasses from Lancashire, Glasgwegians and hey there Geordie girls, Chelsea debs and daughters of Cardiff and Coventry, Stoke and Southend. The Commonwealth gets a nod too, with Kiwi gals and Caribbean queens. Not forgetting Schoolgirls and secretaries, convent girls and actresses, daughters of diplomats, god-daughters of royalty and stars before they were stars.

It's remarkable that this is Hope Tala's first album, given that three of her songs have already made Barack Obama's annual summer playlist: "All My Girls Like to Fight" (2020), "Cherries" (2022), and "I Can't Even Cry" (2024).