Hobbies

Keeping bees is a wonderfully relaxing and rewarding pursuit. Whether you have a large garden, small backyard or roof terrace there is enough room for a hive or two - and that is all you need to produce delicious honey. Suitable for both beginner and the experienced beekeeper, this practical guide covers everything from setting up and locating a hive to harvesting honey and wax. This book includes step-by-step photographs, seasonal tasks and checklists and delicious recipes for your home-made honey.

This is a must-have guide to the Halo universe. Venture into the fascinating world of Halo with The Halo Encyclopedia and discover everything you ever wanted to know about the characters, weapons, vehicles, equipment and locations from Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo WARS, Halo 3 ODST and most recently, Halo: Reach. Humanity teeters on the brink of extinction, as hostile forces and ancient mysteries threaten to snuff out our first fiery foray into the universe. Find out all about Halo's human history and structure as well as an insigh... read more

The interactive puzzle book is reinvented in 2011 with The Great Global Treasure Hunt on Google Earth, which challenges readers to take a virtual adventure right around the world in search of fabulous hidden treasure, for a whopping prize of 50,000. The beautiful full-colour artworks and evocative text contain a series of clues to places, people and things. With the help of the amazing images of our world contained in Google Earth, you'll be able to begin piecing the answers together. Each clue takes you that bit closer to the sol... read more

For the fans of Enigma and Enigma 2, here are over a hundred enigmas to solve, as well as logical puzzles, magic squares, brain teasers, riddles and more to wake up, perk up and bend your grey matter. Thrown deep into the fascinating and mysterious world of the Celts, will you, shrewd reader, be capable of foiling the traps of these tricky games and enigmas? There's no magic sickle or druid's potion to help you, rather an alert mind, a little reflection and a lot of cunning will be needed to get to the bottom of these Celtic enigmas.

A great starter for new family history researchers plus valuable advice and information for people who want to move to the next stage: writing and publishing their family's story. Expanded from lectures given by John MacGibbon at the National Library of New Zealand.

Hornby is a household name with a history that goes back over 80 years. This book looks at the Hornby range in depth, and shows how Hornby models can be used to build a model railway layout to suit the space available and all levels of modelling skill. Now completely revised and updated, it is packed with hints and tips for easy layout building, scenic structure modelling, track laying and wiring and extra detailing, and provides ideas for working at the simplest level, including a layout for very young enthusiasts, through to the ... read more

Considered by many magicians and card sharps to be the one essential guidebook to attaining the highest level of card mastery. Includes author's own systems of false shuffling, false riffling and cutting, dealing from the bottom, palming cards, "skinning the hand" - even three-card monte, plus 14 dazzling card tricks.

These books are a modern fitness studio for the brain! A total of 300 diverse puzzles help to keep your mind flexible and train your mental stamina in logical and mathematical thinking. Time and time again, the collection of widely-varied games of mental agility contained in these two volumes will set you new tasks to challenge your grey cells! Accept the challenge posed by these two training programs and discover the fun of finding your own logical path through the puzzle labyrinth!

These books are a modern fitness studio for the brain! A total of 300 diverse puzzles help to keep your mind flexible and train your mental stamina in logical and mathematical thinking. Time and time again, the collection of widely-varied games of mental agility contained in these two volumes will set you new tasks to challenge your grey cells! Accept the challenge posed by these two training programs and discover the fun of finding your own logical path through the puzzle labyrinth!

After his ambitious project to create a 1/1 scale Spitfire, James May returns to the brand synonymous with model kits to learn more about the history of Airfix. Over the years Airfix's range has included figures, trains, trackside accessories, military vehicles, engines, rockets, sailing ships, warships, liners, vintage cars, performance cars, motorcycles, spaceships and more, available in many different scales and for different skill levels. Modern kits are increasingly accurate and minutely detailed, as precision mouldings and so... read more

Fresh from his world record attempt at the legendary Brooklands motor racing circuit, in which the Toy Stories team built a 2.7-mile circuit entirely out of Scalextric track, James May re-enters the world of Scalextric, Britain's leading slot-car racing brand. Remembering many childhood hours spent recreating the thrills and spills of Goodwood, Silverstone and Brands Hatch, James examines the development and expansion of Scalextric from its true British roots to its international appeal today. He investigates the history of the bra... read more

Can you really learn the ancient art of calligraphy in just 24 hours? Yes, you can! Just get started on the first of the 24 one-hour lessons contained in this book, follow the suggestions for practicing your new skills at the end of one lesson before going on to the next, and then continue this process right through to the end. Calligraphy in 24 Hours is a carefully-structured beginner’s course where readers will quickly learn the basic principles and then go on to learn beautiful calligraphy in a series of 24 one-ho... read more

There are 62 lego bricks for every person in the world, and at age 30, Jonathan Bender realized that he didn't have a single one of them. While reconsidering his childhood dream of becoming a Master Model Builder for The Lego Group, he discovers the men and women who are skewing the averages with collections of hundreds of thousands of Lego bricks. What is it about the ubiquitous, brightly-coloured toys that makes them so hard for everyone to put down? He finds his Lego journey twinned with a second creative endeavour - to have a c... read more

Starting with simple tricks such as shuffling and progressing to the more complex, you can explore the various branches of magic to find tricks that will be as entertaining to watch as they are to perform.

Take a truly technicolour tour of one of the most remarkable construction projects of 2009 in all its architectural glory. British broadcaster, writer and toy 'nut-case' James May lived a childhood dream by designing, building and sleeping in a quite stunning full-size house inspired by and completely made from LEGO, one of the world's most favourite toys and a design icon in its own right. James May's "Lego House" provides a complete photographic record of this stunning creation which now proudly holds the Guinness World Record fo... read more

In Volume 17, "Make Magazine" goes really old school with a special section on steampunk, featuring projects that blend Victorian era technology with the cutting edge. Build your own marble adding machine or geared candleholder, and make music with a random music generator. "Make" continues to be a leader in the tech DIY movement due to its uncanny instinct to nail the curiosity, vitality, and passion of the growing community of Makers - DIY enthusiasts, hobbyist engineers/designers, and many others. If you like to tweak, disassemb... read more

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Sharpening workshop tools is probably the most diverse of all workshop activities and the one that is least understood by the majority of workshop owners. This is not unreasonable in view of the wide range of equipment suggested for the task, ranging from the complex (typically an industrial tool and cutter grinder) through to the humble off hand grinder. This book illustrates how most sharpening tasks can be carried out using an off hand grinder and a few simply made accessories to a standard comparable to that achieved usi... read more

This updated edition of Bradford's Crossword Solver's Lists gives hundreds of wide-ranging wordlists to help with solving cryptic and quick crossword clues. The lists, which are sorted alphabetically and by length, provide an invaluable reference for all crossword-solvers. A must for all crossword-solvers, this updated edition of the Bradford's Crossword Lists has been compiled from the Collins thesaurus database, with help from Anne Bradford. It gives hundreds of useful wordlists covering a wide range of subjects, with each list ... read more

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