ROBERT MCCRUM

John McConnell s list of collaborators includes many household names Boots Faber & Faber Halfords Clarks John Lewis The man behind the Biba logo for which he won the D&AD Silver in 1969 the logo of the National Grid and the covers of a Penguin student textbook series from the early 70s has exerted a quiet influence over British design since the sixties His awards alone speak to his prowess the Prince Philip Designers Prize 2002 and the title of RDI Royal Designer of Industry 1987 among them Part biography part showcase for some of McConnell s most celebrated designs this book gathers McConnell s exclusive redesign for Faber & Faber a revolutionary new approach to book covers from the early 1980s

This work charts the tale of a language that came from nowhere to conquer the world. It is an introduction for both student and general reader alike.

Football in the 1880s was an unruly, rough, and often dangerous game. To curb the state the sport was in, William McCrum proposed a new and drastic sanction. He called it a penalty kick.In 1891, a contentious new measure against an excess of foul play, Rule 13, was proposed to the FA by an amateur goalkeeper from County Armagh. The Irishmans Motion modernised the worlds most popular game. Today in the shootout Rule 13 continues to influence the sport through its astonishing psychological grip on our imaginations.A tale of sportsmanship, chance and obsession, The Penalty Kick explores both the addiction of risk, and a doomed father-son relationship that could have been torn from the pages of a late-Victorian novel, inspired by the edgy, ruthless and egalitarian spirit of Northern Ireland.

With an introduction by Henry Marsh, author of Do No HarmMy brain, which had just let me down so badly, was perhaps never so active. The paramedics question was a fundamental one. Who are you? Yes indeed. Who am I?Robert McCrum was forty-two when he suffered a massive stroke which left one side of his body totally paralysed, his speech drastically impaired, and his sense of himself radically altered. What followed was a prolonged period of recovery, full of heart ache and frustration, as he gradually regained sensation, movement and self-esteem and as his family pulled together in the extraordinary effort necessary to make him well again. My Year Off is a moving story of determination, courage and love that sings with wit and honesty. An invaluable insight into the reality of life after stroke, the moments of hope, the anger and despair, this is a touching classic that gives voice to millions.

As read on BBC Radio 4 Book of the WeekMoving, intellectual and unsentimental. I think it will become a classic Melvyn BraggThoughtful, subtle, elegantly clever and oddly joyous, Every Third Thought is beautifulKate Mosse In 1995, at the age of forty-two, Robert McCrum suffered a dramatic and near-fatal stroke. Since that life-changing event, McCrum has lived in the shadow of death, unavoidably aware of his own mortality. And now, in his sixties, he is noticing a change: his friends are joining him there. Death has become his contemporaries every third thought.And so, with the words of McCrums favourite authors as travel companions, Every Third Thought takes us on a journey towards death itself. This is a deeply personal book of reflection and conversation with brain surgeons, psychologists, hospice workers and patients, writers and poets, and it confronts an existential question: in a world where we have learnt to live well at all costs, can we make peace with dying?

Enchanting - Simon Russell Beale Remarkable - James ShapiroWonderful . . . compulsively readable - Nicholas HytnerWhy do the collected works of an Elizabethan writer continue to speak to us as if they were written yesterday?When Robert McCrum began his recovery from a life-changing stroke, described in My Year Off, he discovered that the only words that made sense to him were snatches of Shakespeare. Unable to travel or move as he used to, McCrum found the First Folio became his book of life, an endless source of inspiration through which he could embark on journeys of the mind, and see a reflection of our own disrupted times.An acclaimed writer and journalist, McCrum has spent the last twenty-five years immersed in Shakespeares work, on stage and on the page. During this prolonged exploration, Shakespeares poetry and plays, so vivid and contemporary, have become his guide and consolation. In Shakespearean he asks: Why is it that we always return to Shakespeare, particularly in times of acute crisis and dislocation? What is the key to his hold on our imagination? And why do the collected works of an Elizabethan writer continue to speak to us as if they were written yesterday?Shakespearean is a rich, brilliant and superbly drawn portrait of an extraordinary artist, one of the greatest writers who ever lived. Through an enthralling narrative, ranging widely in time and space, McCrum seeks to understand Shakespeare within his historical context while also exploring the secrets of literary inspiration, and examining the nature of creativity itself. Witty and insightful, he makes a passionate and deeply personal case that Shakespeares words and ideas are not just enduring in their relevance they are nothing less than the eternal key to our shared humanity.

William McCrum, bisabuelo del autor, era un portero irlandés en un fútbol salvaje. En 1891, una época de pesadas pelotas de cuero, barro hasta las rodillas e indisciplina en el juego, se le ocurrió que los penaltis servirian para amansar a unos jugadores insumisos y descontrolados. Futbolistas y aficionados acogieron con espanto la ocurrencia de McCrum, pero el tiempo acabo dandole la razon y el penalti ha terminado ocupando un papel capital en la liturgia futbolistica.En El penalti, Robert McCrum se sirve de la invencion de la pena maxima como excusa para explorar cuestiones mas profundas y tortuosas como las relaciones familiares, los vinculos entre Inglaterra e Irlanda o los traumas y complejos del futbol ingles. Con ironia britanica y muchos datos historicos, el libro tiende un hermoso puente entre el asilvestrado deporte amateur de finales del siglo xix y el multimillonario negocio que conocemos hoy.Robert McCrum utiliza el penalti como una oportunidad para reflexionar, no solo sobre la belleza del futbol, sino tambien sobre su propia historia familiar.The Wall Street JournalSuerte, amor, decepcion; una extraordinaria historia familiar sobre la tirania de clase y las expectativas generacionales.Spectator