Peter Seddon – författare

This is the seventeenth volume in the series the Public Sculpture of Britain, part of the PMSA National Recording Project, which will eventually cover the whole of the country. The introduction considers the ways in which the rural and urban landscapes of Sussex, from market town, rural village and country estate, to city, major seaside resort and new town development, are reflected in the county’s public sculptures. The historical period covered ranges from the allegedly pre-historic (the Long Man of Wilmington) to the present day (the most recent entry is Maggi Hambling’s The Resurrection Spirit, 2013). There is a high proportion of nineteenth- century sculptures, including significant works by John Flaxman, Michael Rysbrack, Frances Chantrey and John Edward Carew; the ‘statuemania’ that characterised the last part of this century is well illustrated by Thomas Brock’s imposing statue celebrating Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee on Hove seafront. The achievements of major twentieth and twenty-first century sculptors are represented by Elisabeth Frink and William Pye among others. Many works from this period are the result of public art initiatives by local councils, often as part of more wide-ranging regeneration schemes for Sussex towns. The patronage of health authorities, influenced by new thinking about the calming and healing qualities of art in public places has also benefitted both local sculptors and those based elsewhere in the country. Each individual work is catalogued, with precise details of location, condition and history, including commissioning, opening ceremonies and re-siting. Most are individually illustrated in black and white. Biographies of local and less well-known sculptors, together with a selected bibliography are included at the end of the volume.

In this hugely entertaining collection of stories taken from over a hundred years of world tennis history, award-winning sports historian Peter Seddon has gathered together the most extraordinary events ever to occur on a tennis court.They include the Wimbledon final between the tea-drinking vicar and a convicted murderer, and the ‘Match of the Century’ between the ‘Women’s Libber’ and the ‘Male Chauvinist Pig’. There are matches played on board ship and on the wings of an airborne plane, a game played in full regimental dress, and meet the player who rated himself so highly he played an entire match while carrying someone ‘piggy-back’. The stories in this book are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious, and, most importantly, true.Revised, redesigned and updated for a new generation of tennis fanatics, this book is a unique look at the curiosities of an endlessly popular sport, revealing the ‘strawberries and cream’ game as you’ve never seen it before.Word count: 45,000

A rollicking collection of barely believable stories from five centuries of legal history – you’ll be gripped by these tales of murder, intrigue, crime, punishment and the pursuit of justice. Meet the only dead parrot ever to give evidence in a court of law, the doctor with the worst bedside manner of all time, the murderess who collected money from her mummified victim for 21 years, and explore one of the most indigestible dilemmas – if you’d been shipwrecked 2,000 miles from home, would you have eaten Parker the cabin boy? The tales within these pages are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious and, most importantly, true. This brand new edition, redesigned in splendid hardback for 2019, is the perfect gift for lawyers, armchair detectives and true crime aficionados everywhere.