Kirjahaku

An adorable paperback edition of a popular hardback by bestselling humorist Rohan Candappa. It's an extraordinary world out there and The One Year Old is here to share his revelatory journey through babyhood.

Going to college or university can be a daunting experience. There are so many new experiences to try, so many new responsibilities to handle and so many parent-shocking debts to be accumulated. But all that lies way off in the future... So let's talk about Freshers Week.

Does your mother think it's really charming to talk to every rose bush on the street? The man who bought you The Little Book of Stress, The Little Book of Wrong Shui and The Autobiography of a One Year Old has hit the nail on the head once more.

Rohan Candappa, author of bestselling humour books such as the Little Book of Stress and The Curious Incident of the Weapons of Mass Destruction, is the son of a Sri Lankan father and Burmese mother. He grew up small and round in South London, riding his chopper bike and supporting Leeds United. But every day his mother would conjur delicious meals out of thin air. His father cooked too, with fiery flavourings, black curries and green coriander chutneys. Their home became the focus for family gatherings and feasts of such delicacy and exoticism that you'd never have known Norwood lay outside the window.Yet somewhere in his twenties Rohan forgot his culinary heritage and it wasn't until he was bringing up his own young family that he began to think more about his identity as a second generation immigrant and the binding, identifying power of the family meal caught his imagination.And so he began this beautifully written, funny, poignant memoir of his heritage and his home. Of curry leaves and curried chips. Hot chillis and hot dogs. Pataks and Heinz. About the past and the present - and the place where time should cease to matter... the family kitchen.

"I am a one-year-old and this is my autobiography...." Have you ever looked at your baby and wondered what he or she is thinking? Are you ready to find out? "I thought it was about time someone told it like it is. So I'm spilling the beans on the world of a one-year-old. A world where you're left in the charge of totally inept parents. Where everything's at completely the wrong height. Where you're not allowed to splash in the bath but you are in the pool. Where nobody understands a single word you say. And where diapers and poop loom large at every turn. "It's a roller-coaster ride through one heck of a year. I've laughed a lot, I've cried a lot, I've learned a lot. And so will you. You might even discover the answer to that age-old question: Humpty Dumpty -- did he fall or was he pushed? "Anyway, must run. I see a bowl of tepid gloop is being spooned out for me. What joy." Welcome to the wonderful world of your one-year-old.

What exactly does it mean to be British? Forget the official Citizenship Test, what do newcomers really need to understand to be part of this Great Nation? Does it involve wearing plastic Union Jack bowler hats? Perhaps sinking a tankard of ale? In these confused multicultural times it's difficult to know...Well, fear not, because Rules Britannia is here to answer the 101 Essential Questions of Britishness - from the straightforward ('What is the point of the Boat Race?') to the historical ('Why couldn't the Daleks conquer the universe?'); the metaphysical ('Who is the "one" who has been barred from "All Bar One"?') to the totally unfathomable ('Elizabeth Hurley. Explain.'). Within the wisdom-packed pages of this seminal tome you'll also discover how Tim Henman can be both a hero and a villain, why a stiff upper-lip is treated as a source of pride rather than a facial condition, and why custard and gravy - the two key lubricants of a frankly limited cuisine - are locked in a yin-and-yang like struggle for dominance which neither can ever win.Written with an absurd, off-beat sense of humour, bestselling author Rohan Candappa both sends up and celebrates our Sceptered Isle. And, after all, what could be more British than an absurd, off-beat sense of humour?