{"title":"Michael Bywater","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"lost-worlds-book-michael-bywater-9781862077980","title":"Lost Worlds","description":"They go. They vanish. People. Civilizations. Languages. Philosophies. Works of art disappear, species are extinguished, books are lost. Dunwich is drowned, Pompeii buried, Athena's statue gone from the Parthenon, Suetonius's Lives of the Great Whores gone the way of the Roman Empire. Whole libraries of knowledge, galleries of secrets. Gone. Little things, too. Train compartments. Snuff, galoshes, smog. Your mother's perfume. Our culture, our knowledge and all our lives are shadows cast by what went before. We are defined not by what we have but by what we have lost along the way. And so, Lost Worlds: a glossary of the missing, a cabinet of absent curiosities, weaving a web of everything we no longer have. Lost Worlds: the book the book that falls open at every page.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49511368851729,"sku":"GOR002769811","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49910268789009,"sku":"CIN1862077983G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52153406652689,"sku":"GOR001435784","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1862077983.jpg?v=1772273884"},{"product_id":"big-babies-book-michael-bywater-9781862078833","title":"Big Babies","description":"Have you ever had the feeling that, in some hard to define way, we are throwing away two and a half millennia of Western civilization, bit by bit, as our culture becomes more and more infantile? That day by day we grow more and more focused on the quick fix, the ticking-off, the expedient lie, the jingle, the spin, the catchy slogan, the obsession with safety, the horror of risk, the terror of complexity, the preoccupation with surface, the apportioning of blame, the instant gratification? Have you ever wondered what happened to grown-ups? Michael Bywater turns his penetrating eye on the state of Western culture, from politics and the media to show business and science, and concludes we are all Big Babies now. He argues that the Baby-Boom generation is now running the show, and its own commitment to perpetual infantility is reflected in its unstoppable drive to infantilize the rest of us. Ranging from the White House to Buckingham Palace, from MTV to the BBC, from mission statements to Viagra spam, Bywater examines advertising, music, politics, the health industry, education, religion, fashion, sport and publishing, and makes a fierce and often hilarious case that, in almost every area of our lives, we are inexorably becoming...Big Babies.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49518163951889,"sku":"GOR000791458","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50869644525841,"sku":"GOR001727591","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1862078831.jpg?v=1751123816"},{"product_id":"lost-worlds-book-michael-bywater-9781862077010","title":"Lost Worlds","description":"They...go. They vanish. People. Civilizations. Languages. Philosophies. Works of art disappear, species are extinguished, books are lost, cities drown, things once thought immortal suddenly aren't there. Dunwich is drowned, Pompeii buried, Athena's statue gone from the Parthenon. Whole libraries of knowledge, galleries of secrets. Gone. Lost worlds. Little things, too. Five Boys chocolate. Train compartments. Snuff, galoshes, smog. Your mother's perfume. Your father's tobacco The way Paris used to smell. Our culture, our knowledge and all our lives are shadows cast by what went before. We are defined, not by what we have, but by what we have lost along the way. And so, Lost Worlds: a glossary of the missing, a cabinet of absent curiosities. No mere miscellany, it weaves a web of everything we no longer have. Lost Worlds: the book that falls open at every page.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49553400135953,"sku":"GOR001662959","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50059712856337,"sku":"CIN1862077010G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51784464040209,"sku":"CIN1862077010VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52153778471185,"sku":"GOR008014579","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52527477063953,"sku":"GOR005766921","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1862077010.jpg?v=1751430992"},{"product_id":"chronicles-of-bargepole-book-michael-bywater-9780330328807","title":"The Chronicles of Bargepole","description":"For a while, it seemed that the columnist and scourge Bargepole might disappear forever from the global scene which he had straddled for so long like a snarling, priapic colossus on mindaltering drugs. But it was not to be. Dull dogs in suits, crushed and despairing, could shut down \"Punch\", Bargepole's home for years. Tax inspectors, wizened from spite and irritable bowel syndrome, could distrain upon, his chattels. Wicked moralists could ring up his women and preach Christianity and political correctness at them. But Bargepole could not be kept down. This compendium of columns from the late humour publication, the intensely irritated standard bearer for the dissatisfied fogies amongst us.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49580352700689,"sku":"GOR002871067","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49636630593809,"sku":"GOR003489409","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0330328808.jpg?v=1750695700"},{"product_id":"chronicles-of-bargepole-book-michael-bywater-9780224036207","title":"Chronicles of Bargepole","description":"A collection of satirical pieces from the \"Bargepole\" column in Punch.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49580678742289,"sku":"GOR001884424","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49601958347025,"sku":"GOR002886611","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51765024751889,"sku":"GOR008477859","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0224036203.jpg?v=1751227500"},{"product_id":"is-this-bottle-corked-book-kathleen-burk-9780307462916","title":"Is This Bottle Corked?","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50291052937489,"sku":"CIN0307462919G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51694205862161,"sku":"CIN0307462919VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0307462919.jpg?v=1751291254"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-michael-bywater.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}