Search results for ""Notorious""
Rowman & Littlefield A Yankee in Meiji Japan: The Crusading Journalist Edward H. House
This unique book introduces nineteenth-century Japan through the compelling life story of Boston journalist Edward H. House (1836-1901), America's first regular correspondent in Japan. House's accomplishments were breathtaking in variety: shaping the reputations of John Brown and Mark Twain, influencing American attitudes toward Asia, persuading Congress to return a massive indemnity to Japan, editing Tokyo's earliest English-language newspaper (Tokio Times), constructing a powerful case against imperialism, and introducing Western orchestral music to Japan. House's experiences also illustrated many of the era's key themes: Japan's use of public relations as a diplomatic tool, the contentious relations of the expatriate community, the role foreign advisors played in Japan's drive toward modernity, and the complicated nature of U.S.-Japan relations. The book captures the human drama of a special breed of early journalist. It recounts the bohemianism that made House and his friends (e.g., Walt Whitman, Artemus Ward) notorious. It narrates his tender, tortured relationship with Aoki Koto, a girl he adopted when she was on the verge of suicide. It shows a courageous struggle with gout, including 20 years in a wheelchair given to him by the powerful Okuma Shigenobu. And it details a deep friendship with Mark Twain, which eventually was destroyed by a dispute over The Prince and the Pauper. Twain's unpublished 50-page manuscript on the experience, Concerning the Scoundrel E. H. House, is introduced here for the first time. Meticulously researched, the book draws on House's voluminous writings and on hundreds of letters between House and major figures in both America and Japan, including Mark Twain, U.S. Grant, John Russell Young, Edmund Clarence Stedman, Okuma Shigenobu, and Inoue Kaoru. With its lively, accessible prose and seamless interweaving of the life of House with the history of the Meiji era, this book will be welcomed by students, scholars, and general readers interested in modern Japanese history and in America's nineteenth-century foreign relations.
£114.24
University Press of Kansas Renegade for Justice: Defending the Defenseless in an Outlaw World
“This is a book of courtroom war stories, drawn from my forty years of experience as an obscure lawyer for the underdog and the downtrodden.” So begins Renegade for Justice, a memoir of a public interest lawyer driven by the cause of justice. While the stories Stephen Saltonstall tells are entertaining, they are also instructive, providing, as he says, “an insider look at the American justice system, which is rigged against the poor and people of color and tolerates police perjury.”Renegade for Justice begins by telling the story of how and why a privileged kid from Cambridge, Massachusetts, broke from family tradition and devoted his professional life to defending the defenseless in a justice system that is crippled by systemic injustice. Activist lawyer Stephen Saltonstall brings readers into the world of criminal defense by recounting narratives of his cases, including a successful attack on a Massachusetts death penalty statute, appeals of two notorious homicide cases (a serial murderer and a cop-killer), an effort to save the life of a little boy whose parents refused to give him the medical treatment he needed for acute lymphocytic leukemia, free speech cases for students and an environmentalist carpenter, litigation to save critical black bear and neotropical migratory songbird habitat from US Forest Service clear-cutting, and more. In a system biased against the public interest and the underprivileged, Saltonstall gives people a model for practicing values-based law.Channeling the spirit of radicals like William Kunstler, Saltonstall writes not only for activists who want to better understand our society, but also for those thinking about becoming a lawyer. As he writes in the preface, “I hope my stories will challenge those of you—you know who you are, you who dream of soft landings in the glittering halls of boring, soul-free law firms doing the bidding of the uber-rich and powerful—to visualize the alternative, a career that’s built on cases and causes that further the public interest, human rights, and care of the natural world.
£26.95
Pan Macmillan Too Big to Jail: HSBC and the Banking Scandal of the Century
‘Packed with insights and details that will both amaze and appal you’ – Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland and Butler to the WorldFrom journalist Chris Blackhurst, Too Big to Jail unveils how HSBC facilitated mass money laundering schemes for brutal drug kingpins and rogue nations – and thereby helped to grow one of the deadliest drugs empires the world has ever seen.While HSBC likes to sell itself as ‘the world’s local bank’ – the friendly face of corporate and personal finance – it was one decade ago hit with a record US fine of $1.9 billion. In pursuit of their goal of becoming the biggest bank in the world, between 2003 and 2010, HSBC allowed El Chapo and the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most notorious and murderous criminal organizations in the world, to turn its ill-gotten money into clean dollars.How did a bank, which boasts ‘we’re committed to helping protect the world’s financial system on which millions of people depend, by only doing business with customers who meet our high standards of transparency’ come to facilitate Mexico’s richest drug baron? And how did a bank that as recently as 2002 had been named ‘one of the best-run organizations in the world’ become so entwined with one of the most barbaric groups of gangsters on the planet?Too Big to Jail is an extraordinary story, brilliantly told by writer, commentator and former editor of The Independent, Chris Blackhurst, that starts in Hong Kong and ranges across London, Washington, the Cayman Islands and Mexico, where HSBC saw the opportunity to become the largest bank in the world, and El Chapo seized the chance to fuel his murderous empire by laundering his drug proceeds through the bank. It brings together an extraordinary cast of politicians, bankers, drug dealers, FBI officers and whistle-blowers, and asks what price does greed have? Whose job is it to police global finance? And why did not a single person go to prison for facilitating the murderous expansion of a global drug empire?
£10.99
Skyhorse Publishing Who Really Killed Nicole?: O. J. Simpson's Closest Confidant Tells All
The True Story Behind the Murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, from O.J. Simpson's Closest Confidante It’s the greatest crime story ever to play out on national television—the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson, the 35-year-old wife of famed pro football star O.J. Simpson, and Ron Goldman, a 25-year-old restaurant worker and friend of Nicole, who were brutally murdered by an unknown assailant outside Nicole’s home in Brentwood, California, on the evening of Sunday, June 12, 1994. Charged with the murders, O.J. Simpson underwent in October 1995 a nationally televised murder trial that lasted nearly nine months, ending in a dramatic acquittal that was watched live by over one-hundred-million people – one of the largest audiences to ever witness anything in the history of television. It was called the “trial of the century.” But people still want to know what really happened that summer night when Nicole Brown Simpson’s and Ron Goldman’s lives were literally cut short, and now, Norman Pardo—O.J.'s closest confidante and business manager for twenty years—offers readers the true story behind these murders. With revelatory never-before-seen evidence and previously undisclosed interviews with people who knew Simpson and Goldman, Pardo makes the case that the real killer was not O.J., whose only aim was to protect his children from Simpson's lifestyle. Rather, Pardo argues, the true murderer was notorious serial killer Glen Rogers, whose testimony in this book just may hold the key to unlocking the case once and for all. Equal parts eye-opening, shocking, and entertaining, Who Really Killed Nicole? is essential reading for everyone interested in the O.J. Simpson trial and the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, anyone interested in the case of Glen Rogers, and all those who still want to know the truth of what happened that fateful June evening in 1994.
£17.09
University of Minnesota Press Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works
When the hail starts to fall, Atina Diffley doesn’t compare it to golf balls. She’s a farmer. It’s “as big as a B-size potato.” As her bombarded land turns white, she and her husband Martin huddle under a blanket and reminisce: the one-hundred-mile-per-hour winds; the eleven-inch rainfall (“that broccoli turned out gorgeous”); the hail disaster of 1977. The romance of farming washed away a long time ago, but the love? Never. In telling her story of working the land, coaxing good food from the fertile soil, Atina Diffley reminds us of an ultimate truth: we live in relationships—with the earth, plants and animals, families and communities. A memoir of making these essential relationships work in the face of challenges as natural as weather and as unnatural as corporate politics, her book is a firsthand history of getting in at the “ground level” of organic farming. One of the first certified organic produce farms in the Midwest, the Diffleys’ Gardens of Eagan helped to usher in a new kind of green revolution in the heart of America’s farmland, supplying their roadside stand and a growing number of local food co-ops. This is a story of a world transformed—and reclaimed—one square acre at a time.And yet, after surviving punishing storms and the devastating loss of fifth-generation Diffley family land to suburban development, the Diffleys faced the ultimate challenge: the threat of eminent domain for a crude oil pipeline proposed by one of the largest privately owned companies in the world, notorious polluters Koch Industries. As Atina Diffley tells her David-versus-Goliath tale, she gives readers everything from expert instruction in organic farming to an entrepreneur’s manual on how to grow a business to a legal thriller about battling corporate arrogance to a love story about a single mother falling for a good, big-hearted man.
£15.99
University of Pennsylvania Press Machiavelli's Legacy: "The Prince" After Five Hundred Years
Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince is one of the most celebrated and notorious books in the history of Western political thought. It continues to influence discussions of war and peace, the nature of politics, and the relation of private ethics to public duties. Ostensibly a sixteenth-century manual of instruction on certain aspects of princely rule and behavior, The Prince anticipates and complicates modern political and philosophical questions. What is the right order of society? Can Western politics still be the model for progress toward peace and prosperity, or does our freedom to create our individual purposes and pursuits undermine our public responsibilities? Are the characteristics of our politics markedly different, for better or for worse, than the politics of earlier eras? Machiavelli argues that there is no ideal, transcendent order to which one can conform, and that the right order is merely the one that has the capacity to persist over time. The Prince's emphasis on the importance of an effective truth over any abstract ideal marks it as one of the first works of modern political philosophy. Machiavelli's Legacy situates Machiavelli in general and The Prince in particular at the birth of modernity. Joining the conversation with established Machiavelli scholars are political theorists, Americanists, and international relations scholars, ensuring a diversity of viewpoints and approaches. Each contributor elucidates different features of Machiavelli's thinking, from his rejection of classical antiquity and Christianity, to his proposed dissolution of natural roles and hierarchies among human beings. The essays cover topics such as Machiavelli's vision for a heaven-sent redemptive ruler of Italy, an argument that Machiavelli accomplished a profoundly democratic turn in political thought, and a tough-minded liberal critique of his realistic agenda for political life, resulting in a book that is, in effect, a spirited conversation about Machiavelli's legacy. Contributors: Thomas E. Cronin, David Hendrickson, Harvey Mansfield, Clifford Orwin, Arlene Saxonhouse, Maurizio Viroli, David Wootton, Catherine Zuckert.
£44.10
Columbia University Press Long Road Home: Testimony of a North Korean Camp Survivor
Kim Yong shares his harrowing account of life in a labor camp--a singularly despairing form of torture carried out by the secret state. Although it is known that gulags exist in North Korea, little information is available about their organization and conduct, for prisoners rarely escape both incarceration and the country alive. Long Road Home shares the remarkable story of one such survivor, a former military official who spent six years in a gulag and experienced firsthand the brutality of an unconscionable regime. As a lieutenant colonel in the North Korean army, Kim Yong enjoyed unprecedented privilege in a society that closely monitored its citizens. He owned an imported car and drove it freely throughout the country. He also encountered corruption at all levels, whether among party officials or Japanese trade partners, and took note of the illicit benefits that were awarded to some and cruelly denied to others. When accusations of treason stripped Kim Yong of his position, the loose distinction between those who prosper and those who suffer under Kim Jong-il became painfully clear. Kim Yong was thrown into a world of violence and terror, condemned to camp No. 14 in Hamkyeong province, North Korea's most notorious labor camp. As he worked a constant shift 2,400 feet underground, daylight became Kim's new luxury; as the months wore on, he became intimately acquainted with political prisoners, subhuman camp guards, and an apocalyptic famine that killed millions. After years of meticulous planning, and with the help of old friends, Kim escaped and came to the United States via China, Mongolia, and South Korea. Presented here for the first time in its entirety, his story not only testifies to the atrocities being committed behind North Korea's wall of silence but also illuminates the daily struggle to maintain dignity and integrity in the face of unbelievable hardship. Like the work of Solzhenitsyn, this rare portrait tells a story of resilience as it reveals the dark forms of oppression, torture, and ideological terror at work in our world today.
£31.50
HarperCollins Publishers A Most Intriguing Lady
The new Sunday Times bestseller! ‘She’s done it again, and I bet this one will be even more successful.’ Jeffrey Archer ‘Written with an incredible eye for detail of the historical setting, this wonderful romantic tale will earn your respect and keep you entertained’ Adele Parks ‘If you loved Her Heart for a Compass, you will love [this book]’ Sunday Times bestselling author Fern Britton ‘A rollicking, romantic tale of love and intrigue in aristocratic Victorian Scotland. Sarah Ferguson’s fascinatingly detailed novel kept me turning the pages as it’s very entertaining.’ Dame Joan Collins ‘A wonderful and colourful romance, well-researched, well-realised, and rich in historical detail. In short, another beguiling read from the Duchess of York’Lord Julian Fellowes ‘A fantastic historical mystery with plenty of passion as you would expect from the Duchess of York. A triumph’New York Times bestselling author Roma Downey OBE ‘Fast paced, romantic and good fun, this is a modern take on a classic period, with delightful characters to boot.’ Candis Magazine Scandals, seduction and secrets… and one woman’s quest to uncover the truth. The most intriguing historical romance of 2024, perfect for fans of Bridgerton. Victorian London is notorious for its pickpockets. But in the country houses of the elite, gentleman burglars, art thieves and con-men prey on the rich and titled. With reputations at stake, wealthy victims wouldn’t dream of going to the police. They need a society insider, a person of discretion and finely-tuned powers of observation, adept at navigating intrigue… Lady Mary Montagu Douglas Scott is the fiercely intelligent youngest daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch. Mary has deliberately cultivated a mousey persona that allows her to remain overlooked and underestimated by all. It’s the perfect cover for a sleuth… At a party at Drumlanrig Castle, Mary meets the handsome, distinguished war veteran, Colonel Walter Trefusis, and finds her powers of deduction tested. Like Mary, he too lives a double life, and together they form unlikely alliance to solve a series of audacious crimes …
£13.49
Cork University Press The Booles and the Hintons: Two Dynasties That Helped Shape the Modern World
In 1983 Gerry Kennedy set off on a tour through Russia, China, Japan and the USA to visit others involved in the global anti-war movement. Only dimly aware of his Victorian ancestors: George Boole, forefather of the digital revolution and James Hinton, eccentric philosopher and advocate of polygamy, he had directly followed in the footsteps of two dynasties of radical thinkers and doers.Their notable achievements, in which the women were particularly prominent, involved many spheres. Boole's wife, Mary Everest, niece of George Everest, surveyor of the eponymous mountain, was an early advocate of hands-on education. Of the five talented Boole daughters, Ethel Voynich, wife of the discoverer of the enigmatic, still unexplained Voynich Manuscript, campaigned with Russian anarchists to overthrow the Tsar. Her 1897 novel The Gadfly, filmed later with music by Shostakovich, sold in millions behind the Iron Curtain. She was rumoured to have had an affair with the notorious 'Ace of Spies', Sidney Reilly. One of Ethel's sisters married Charles Howard Hinton: a leading exponent of the esoteric realm of the fourth dimension and inventor of the gunpowder baseball-pitcher.Of their descendants, Carmelita Hinton also pioneered progressive education in the USA at her school in Putney, Vermont. Her children dedicated their lives to Mao's China. Appalled by the dropping on Japan of the atomic bomb that she had helped design, Joan Hinton defected to China and actively engaged in the Cultural Revolution. William Hinton wrote the influential documentary Fanshen based on his experience in 1948 of revolutionary change in a Shanxi village. Other members of the clan became renowned in their fields of physics, entomology and botany. Their combined legacy of independent and constructive thinking is perhaps typified by the invention of the Jungle Gym: the climbing-frame now used by children the world over. In The Booles and the Hintons the author embarks on a quest to reveal the stories behind their remarkable lives.
£38.47
Oxford University Press Inc The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe
In 1144, the mutilated body of William of Norwich, a young apprentice leatherworker, was found abandoned outside the city's walls. The boy bore disturbing signs of torture, and a story spread that it was a ritual murder, performed by Jews in imitation of the Crucifixion as a mockery of Christianity. The outline of William's tale eventually gained currency far beyond Norwich, and the idea that Jews engaged in ritual murder became firmly rooted in the European imagination. E.M. Rose's engaging book delves into the story of William's murder and the notorious trial that followed to uncover the origin of the ritual murder accusation - known as the "blood libel" - in western Europe in the Middle Ages. Focusing on the specific historical context - 12th-century ecclesiastical politics, the position of Jews in England, the Second Crusade, and the cult of saints - and suspensefully unraveling the facts of the case, Rose makes a powerful argument for why the Norwich Jews (and particularly one Jewish banker) were accused of killing the youth, and how the malevolent blood libel accusation managed to take hold. She also considers four "copycat" cases, in which Jews were similarly blamed for the death of young Christians, and traces the adaptations of the story over time. In the centuries after its appearance, the ritual murder accusation provoked instances of torture, death and expulsion of thousands of Jews and the extermination of hundreds of communities. Although no charge of ritual murder has withstood historical scrutiny, the concept of the blood libel is so emotionally charged and deeply rooted in cultural memory that it endures even today. Rose's groundbreaking work, driven by fascinating characters, a gripping narrative, and impressive scholarship, provides clear answers as to why the blood libel emerged when it did and how it was able to gain such widespread acceptance, laying the foundations for enduring antisemitic myths that continue to present.
£12.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Wicked Widow: A Wicked City Novel
Gin Kelly, the wicked redhead, is back! Readers will delight in next installment of the Wicked City series by New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams. June 1925. Audacious Appalachian flapper Geneva “Gin” Kelly prepares to trade her high-flying ways for respectable marriage to Oliver Anson Marshall, a steadfast Prohibition agent who happens to hail from one of New York’s most distinguished families. But just as wedding bells chime, the head of the notorious East Coast rum-running racket—and Anson’s mortal enemy—turns up murdered at a society funeral, and their short-lived honeymoon bliss goes up in a spectacular blaze that sends Anson back undercover...and into the jaws of a trap from which not even Gin can rescue him. As violence explodes around her, Gin must summon all her considerable moxie to trace the tentacles of this sinister organization back to their shocking source, and face down a legendary American family at a rigged game it has no intention of losing. June 1998. When Ella Dommerich’s ninetysomething society queen aunt Julie ropes her into digging up dirt on Senator (and Presidential candidate) Franklin Hardcastle in order to settle old family scores, she couldn’t be less enthusiastic. Pregnant Ella’s recently ditched her unfaithful husband and settled into cozy—if complicated—domesticity with her almost-too-good-to-be-true musician boyfriend, Hector. But then the Hardcastle secrets lead to a web of shady dealings Ella’s uncovered in her job as a financial analyst, and the bodies start to tumble out of the venerable woodwork. With the help of her ex-husband and her mysterious connection to a certain redheaded flapper, Ella digs up more than mere dirt…only to discover herself standing alone between a legendarily ruthless family and the prize it’s sought for generations. What ugly secrets lurk in the opulent enclaves—and bank accounts--of America’s richest families? And can two determined women from two different generations thwart the murderous legacy of the demon liquor?
£11.55
The Lilliput Press Ltd The State of Dark
Judith Mok was born in the Netherlands, to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. She trained as a classical singer and travelled the world performing as a soloist, while publishing a novel and poetry collection there. For the last twenty years she has been based in Ireland, where she has become the country's leading voice coach, working with classical singers and many international pop stars. In recent years she started to write in English, publishing a novel and poetry collection and contributing to publications like the Irish Times. The State of Dark is a memoir and detective story. Like many children of Holocaust survivors, she was raised with the emotional trauma of having no other family members, while her parents tried to rebuild their lives in postwar Europe. Despite the constant and occasionally intrusive presence of the past - Anne Frank's father Otto makes an emotional visit to her father to hand over some letters - she had little concrete information about the hundreds of members of her family who died. All the same, the Holocaust and its consequences continued to haunt her life. At one point in her career she worked with the great German soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. It was only years later that she discovered the full extent of Schwarzkopf 's collaboration with the Nazi regime. Not only was she a full member of the National Socialist Party, but was also the mistress of Hans Frank, the notorious 'Butcher of Poland'. Later, Mok would discover that Schwarzkopf had entertained the German troops in Poland at around the same time her family were being murdered there. A chance phone call made from her Dublin home in search of more information unleashes a whole process whereby Mok disovers, in shocking and intimate detail, the terrible fate of her family. The State of Dark is a highly original, moving and beautifully written memoir of the so-called Second Generation trauma, which documents how the Holocaust continues to be a living issue in European life and culture, including in Ireland.
£14.00
Vintage Publishing Henrietta Maria: Conspirator, Warrior, Phoenix Queen
***A Best Book of 2022, The Times******Book of the Year, Spectator***A myth-busting biography of Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, which retells the dramatic story of the civil war from her perspectiveHenrietta Maria, Charles I's queen, is the most reviled consort to have worn the crown of Britain's three kingdoms. Condemned as that 'Popish brat of France', a 'notorious whore' and traitor, she remains in popular memory the wife who wore the breeches and turned her husband Catholic - so causing a civil war - and a cruel and bigoted mother.Leanda de Lisle's White King was hailed as 'the definitive modern biography about Charles I' (Observer). Here she considers Henrietta Maria's point of view, unpicking the myths to reveal a very different queen. We meet a new bride who enjoyed annoying her uptight husband, a leader of fashion in clothes and cultural matters, an innovative builder and gardener and an advocate of the female voice in public affairs. No bigot, her closest friends included 'Puritans' as well as Catholics, and she led the anti-Spanish faction at court linked to the Protestant cause in the Thirty Years' War. When civil war came, the strategic planning and fundraising of his 'She Generalissimo' proved crucial to Charles's campaign.The story takes us to courts across Europe, and looks at the fate of Henrietta Maria's mother and sisters, who also faced civil wars. Her estrangement from her son Henry is explained, and the image of the Restoration queen as an irrelevant crone is replaced with Henrietta Maria as an influential 'phoenix queen', presiding over a court with 'more mirth' even than that of the Merry Monarch, Charles II.It is time to look again at this despised queen and judge if she is not in fact one of our most remarkable.'this is revisionist history at its absolute best' ANDREW ROBERTS'beautifully written and endlessly fascinating' ALEXANDER LARMAN'popular history of the finest kind' RONALD HUTTON
£14.61
Monacelli Press Michael Heizer: The Once and Future Monuments
The most comprehensive account available of Michael Heizer's art by a writer and curator who has critical experience with the artist and his work. Michael Heizer is among the greatest, and often least accessible, American artists. As one of the last living figures who launched the Land Art movement, his legacy of works that are literally and metaphorically monumental has an incalculable influence on the world of sculpture and environmental art. But his seclusion in the remote Nevada desert, as well as his notorious obduracy, have resulted in significant gaps in our critical understanding. Michael Heizer: The Once and Future Monuments spans the breadth of Heizer's career, uniquely combining fieldwork, personal narrative, and biographical research to create the first major assessment in years of this titan of American art. Author William L. Fox, founding director of the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art, has alternately been a sponsor, advocate, and critic of Heizer's work for decades. Fox's understanding of the artist's history and connection to landscape, his time spent with Heizer at the remote ranch where Heizer is finishing his magnum opus - the mile-long sculpture City - and his access to some of Heizer's key associates give him a unique position from which to discuss the artist's work. Fox has also made numerous site visits to Heizer's work - including early pieces in the Nevada desert now largely lost to the elements - to correct the often inconsistent accounts of their locations. Last, Fox imparts a crucial new understanding of Heizer's work by elaborating on the artist's bond with his father, the famed archaeologist and cultural ecologist Robert Heizer, who enlisted his son on important digs in Mexico and Peru, providing the young man with an appreciation of site, landscape, and geology that would thoroughly inform his work. Michael Heizer: The Once and Future Monuments is a long overdue addition to the critical and biographical literature of this major figure in American art.
£38.07
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Gordon Bennett and the First Yacht Race Across the Atlantic
The 1866 transatlantic yacht race was a match that saw three yachts battle their way across the Atlantic in the dead of winter in pursuit of a $90,000 prize. Six men died in the brutal and close-fought contest, and the event changed the perception of yachting from a slightly effete gentlemen’s pursuit into something altogether more rugged and adventurous. The race also symbolized the beginning of America’s ‘gilded age’, with its associated obscene wealth and largesse (the $90,000 prize put up by the three contestants is about $15 million in today’s money), as well as the thawing of relations between the US and UK. The narrative focuses on the victorious yacht Henrietta and her owner James Gordon Bennett. Bennett was the son of the multimillionaire proprietor of the New York Herald, and a notorious playboy. His infamous stunts included driving his carriage through the streets of New York naked, tipping a railway porter $30,000, and turning up at his own engagement party blind drunk and mistaking the fire for a urinal, which led to the coining of the phrase ‘Gordon Bennett!’. However, Bennett was also a serious yachtsman and had served with distinction during the civil war aboard Henrietta, and he was the only owner to be aboard his own boat during the race. Other characters include Bennett’s captain Samuel Samuels (legendary clipper skipper, ex-convict and occasional vaudeville actor), financier Leonard Jerome, aboard Henrietta as race invigilator (he also happened to be grandfather to Winston Churchill) and Stephen Fisk, a journalist so desperate to cover the race that he evaded a summons to appear as a witness in court and instead smuggled himself aboard Henrietta in a crate of champagne. Using the framework of the race to discuss the various historical themes, there’s ample drama, and the diverse and eccentric range of characters ensure that this is a book laced with plenty of human interest, scandal and adventure.
£10.99
Princeton University Press Economy of the Unlost: (Reading Simonides of Keos with Paul Celan)
The ancient Greek lyric poet Simonides of Keos was the first poet in the Western tradition to take money for poetic composition. From this starting point, Anne Carson launches an exploration, poetic in its own right, of the idea of poetic economy. She offers a reading of certain of Simonides' texts and aligns these with writings of the modern Romanian poet Paul Celan, a Jew and survivor of the Holocaust, whose "economies" of language are notorious. Asking such questions as, What is lost when words are wasted? and Who profits when words are saved? Carson reveals the two poets' striking commonalities. In Carson's view Simonides and Celan share a similar mentality or disposition toward the world, language and the work of the poet. Economy of the Unlost begins by showing how each of the two poets stands in a state of alienation between two worlds. In Simonides' case, the gift economy of fifth-century b.c. Greece was giving way to one based on money and commodities, while Celan's life spanned pre- and post-Holocaust worlds, and he himself, writing in German, became estranged from his native language. Carson goes on to consider various aspects of the two poets' techniques for coming to grips with the invisible through the visible world. A focus on the genre of the epitaph grants insights into the kinds of exchange the poets envision between the living and the dead. Assessing the impact on Simonidean composition of the material fact of inscription on stone, Carson suggests that a need for brevity influenced the exactitude and clarity of Simonides' style, and proposes a comparison with Celan's interest in the "negative design" of printmaking: both poets, though in different ways, employ a kind of negative image making, cutting away all that is superfluous. This book's juxtaposition of the two poets illuminates their differences--Simonides' fundamental faith in the power of the word, Celan's ultimate despair--as well as their similarities; it provides fertile ground for the virtuosic interplay of Carson's scholarship and her poetic sensibility.
£27.00
HarperCollins Publishers A Cornish Christmas Murder
‘A sparklingly delicious confection to satisfy the mystery reader’s appetite’ Helena Dixon, bestselling author of the Miss Underhay Mysteries A PINCH OF PARANOIA It’s three days before Christmas, and detective-turned-chef Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker is drafted in to cater a charity event run by a notorious millionaire at a 13th-century abbey on Bodmin Moor. A DASH OF DECEPTION Things get more complicated when a snowstorm descends, stranding them all, and the next morning they find one of the guests has been gruesomely murdered in their bed… A MURDER UNDER THE MISTLETOE Secrets mull in every corner – can Jodie solve the crime before the killer strikes again? A Cornish Christmas Murder is a must-read mystery full of heart and humour – perfect for fans of Richard Osman and The Appeal. This title was previously published in the US as A Murder Under the Mistletoe. What readers are saying… ‘She did it again! And this time with tinsel, Santa and mince pies… I have learned to not read Jodie Parker books on an empty stomach’ Natalie Normann, author of Christmas Island ‘I think Christie would be a big fan’ Tessa ‘A delicious English fictional dish that definitely deserves to be enjoyed without any moderation whatsoever! Yes, this is the perfect Xmas gift for a few hours of blissful reading’ Jean ‘I really loved this book and I finished it in a couple of hours accompanied by some delicious hot chocolate… the epitome of a cosy murder mystery perfect for a rainy day’ Louise ‘The book is full of secret passes and hidden doors, snarky comments and family love, red herrings and twisted plots, reveals and redemptions’ Linda ‘Another brilliant romp, despite a murder, in Cornwall. I am really enjoying this series, but the books do work as standalone pieces too’ Helen ‘I absolutely adored this book! The setting was perfect and I hope to re-read it again on a snowy winter day’ Crystal ‘Sit back in your favourite chair, hot chocolate at the ready and savour this perfect cozy read!’ Zoe
£9.99
Simon & Schuster The Princess Spy: The True Story of World War II Spy Aline Griffith, Countess of Romanones
What to Read in 2021 —The Washington Post The international bestselling author of the “exciting, suspenseful, inspirational” (Brad Thor, #1 New York Times bestselling author) Code Name: Lise weaves another exceptional and thrilling hidden history of an ordinary American girl who became one of the OSS’s most daring spies in World War II before marrying into European nobility. Perfect for fans of A Woman of No Importance and Code Girls.When Aline Griffith was born in a quiet suburban New York hamlet, no one had any idea that she would go on to live “a life of glamour and danger that Ingrid Bergman only played at in Notorious” (Time). As the US enters the Second World War, the young college graduate is desperate to aid in the war effort, but no one is interested in a bright-eyed young woman whose only career experience is modeling clothes. Aline’s life changes when, at a dinner party, she meets a man named Frank Ryan and reveals how desperately she wants to do her part for her country. Within a few weeks, he helps her join the Office of Strategic Services—forerunner of the CIA. With a code name and expert training under her belt, she is sent to Spain to be a coder, but is soon given the additional assignment of infiltrating the upper echelons of society, mingling with high-ranking officials, diplomats, and titled Europeans, any of whom could be an enemy agent. Against this glamorous backdrop of galas and dinner parties, she recruits sub-agents and engages in deep-cover espionage to counter Nazi tactics in Madrid. Even after marrying the Count of Romanones, one of the wealthiest men in Spain, Aline secretly continues her covert activities, being given special assignments when abroad that would benefit from her impeccable pedigree and social connections. Filled with twists, romance, and plenty of white-knuckled adventures fit for a James Bond film, The Princess Spy brings to vivid life the dazzling adventures of a remarkable American woman who risked everything to serve her country.
£15.96
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Bomber Command: Airfields of Lincolnshire
From the opening day of the Second World War, RAF Bomber Command took the offensive to the enemy and played a leading role in the liberation of Europe. Many of its squadrons were based in Lincolnshire, where the flat terrain and open fields made the county ideal for the development of new airfields. All of Bomber Command's major efforts involved the Lincolnshire-based squadrons. The Battles of the Ruhr, Hamburg and Berlin, during the hardest years of 1943/44, were just some of those when night after night hundreds of bombers took off from the county, many never to return. It was also from Lincolnshire that precision raids were mounted against targets such as the diesel engine factory at Augsburg, the notorious Dortmund-Ems Canal, the mighty German battleship Tirpitz, and, of course, the Ruhr Dams. Most of Lincolnshire's wartime bomber airfields have long gone, with many having reverted to their pre-war agricultural use. Only Coningsby, Scampton and Waddington remain in service with the RAF today, while others - such as Binbrook, Blyton, Spilsby, Strubby, Swinderby and Woodhall Spa - have long fallen victim to Defence cuts.Other airfields have survived and maintain the link with their flying past. All are included here, some well-known, others less so. From these airfields came countless acts of personal courage and self-sacrifice, with eight Victoria Crosses, the highest award for gallantry, being awarded to men flying from bomber airfields in Lincolnshire. All are included, as are stories of other personalities who brought these airfields to life. In all, the stories of the county's twenty-nine wartime airfields of Bomber Command are told, with a brief history of each accompanied by details of how to find them and what remains there today. Whatever your interest, be it aviation history or something more local, there is something to discover. Lincolnshire has truly earned its name of Bomber County.
£18.61
Little, Brown Book Group Evita Burned Down Our Pavilion: A Cricket Odyssey through Latin America
'A highly entertaining read, deftly melding social history with sporting memoir and travelogue' Mail on SundayA history of Latin America through cricketCricket was the first sport played in almost every country of the Americas - earlier than football, rugby or baseball. In 1877, when England and Australia played the inaugural Test match at the MCG, Uruguay and Argentina were already ten years into their derby played across the River Plate.The visionary cricket historian Rowland Bowen said that, during the highpoint of cricket in South America between the two World Wars, the continent could have provided the next Test nation. In Buenos Aires, where British engineers, merchants and meatpackers flocked to make their fortune, the standard of cricket was high: towering figures like Lord Hawke and Plum Warner took star-studded teams of Test cricketers to South America, only to be beaten by Argentina. A combined Argentine, Brazilian and Chilean team took on the first-class counties in England in 1932. The notion of Brazilians and Mexicans playing T20 at the Maracana or the Azteca today is not as far-fetched as it sounds.But Evita Burned Down Our Pavilion is also a social history of grit, industry and nation-building in the New World. West Indian fruit workers battled yellow fever and brutal management to carve out cricket fields next to the railway lines in Costa Rica. Cricket was the favoured sport of Chile's Nitrate King. Emperors in Brazil and Mexico used the game to curry favour with Europe. The notorious Pablo Escobar even had a shadowy connection to the game. The fate of cricket in South America was symbolised by Eva Peron ordering the burning down of the Buenos Aires Cricket Club pavilion when the club refused to hand over their premises to her welfare scheme.Cricket journalists Timothy Abraham and James Coyne take us on a journey to discover this largely untold story of cricket's fate in the world's most colourful continent. Fascinating and surprising, Evita Burned Down Our Pavilion is a valuable addition to cricketing and social history.
£12.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd A History of London County Lunatic Asylums & Mental Hospitals
From the Middle-Ages onwards, London's notorious Bedlam lunatic hospital saw the city's mad' locked away in dank cells, neglected and abused and without any real cure and little comfort. The unprecedented growth of the metropolis after the Industrial Revolution saw a perceived epidemic' of madness take hold, with county asylums' seen by those in power as the most humane or cost-effective way to offer the mass confinement and treatment believed necessary. The county of Middlesex - to which London once belonged - would build and open three huge county asylums from 1831, and when London became its own county in 1889 it would adopt all three and go on to build or run another eight such immense institutions. Each operated much like a self-contained town; home to thousands and often incorporating its own railway, laundries, farms, gardens, kitchens, ballroom, sports pitches, surgeries, wards, cells, chapel, mortuary, and more, in order to ensure the patients never needed to leave the asylum's grounds. Between them, at their peak London's eleven county asylums were home to around 25,000 patients and thousands more staff, and dominated the physical landscape as well as the public imagination from the 1830s right up to the 1990s. Several gained a legacy which lasted even beyond their closure, as their hulking, abandoned forms sat in overgrown sites around London, refusing to be forgotten and continuing to attract the attention of those with both curious and nefarious motives. Hanwell (St Bernard's), Colney Hatch (Friern), Banstead, Cane Hill, Claybury, Bexley, Manor, Horton, St Ebba's, Long Grove, and West Park went from being known as county lunatic asylums' to mental hospitals' and beyond. Reflecting on both the positive and negative aspects of their long and storied histories from their planning and construction to the treatments and regimes adopted at each, the lives of patients and staff through to their use during wartime, and the modernisation and changes of the 20th century, this book documents their stories from their opening up to their eventual closure, abandonment, redevelopment, or destruction.
£16.99
Oxford University Press One Hundred Letters From Hugh Trevor-Roper
The one hundred letters brought together for this book illustrate the range of Hugh Trevor-Roper's life and preoccupations: as an historian, a controversialist, a public intellectual, an adept in academic intrigues, a lover of literature, a traveller, a countryman. They depict a life of rich diversity; a mind of intellectual sparkle and eager curiosity; a character that relished the comédie humaine, and the absurdities, crotchets, and vanities of his contemporaries. The playful irony of Trevor-Roper's correspondence places him in a literary tradition stretching back to such great letter-writers as Madame de Sévigné and Horace Walpole. Though he generally shunned emotional self-exposure in correspondence as in company, his letters to the woman who became his wife reveal the surprising intensity and the raw depths of his feelings. Trevor-Roper was one of the most gifted scholars of his generation, and one of the most famous dons of his day. While still a young man, he made his name with his bestseller The Last Days of Hitler, and became notorious for his acerbic assaults on other historians. In his prime, Trevor-Roper appeared to have everything: a grey Bentley, a prestigious chair in Oxford, a beautiful country house, a wife with a title, and, eventually, a title of his own. But he failed to write the 'big book' expected of him, and tainted his reputation when in old age he erroneously authenticated the forged Hitler diaries. For an academic, Trevor-Roper's interests were extraordinarily wide, bringing him into contact with such diverse individuals as George Orwell and Margaret Thatcher, Albert Speer and Kim Philby, Katharine Hepburn and Rupert Murdoch. The tragicomedy of his tenure as Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, provided an appropriate finale to a career packed with incident. Trevor-Roper's letters to Bernard Berenson, published as Letters from Oxford in 2006, gave pleasure to a wide variety of readers. This more general selection of his correspondence has been long anticipated, and will delight anyone who values wit, erudition, and clear prose.
£18.99
Penguin Books Ltd The Island of Doctor Moreau
A parable on Darwinian theory, and a biting social satire, H.G. Wells's science fiction classic The Island of Dr Moreau is a fascinating exploration of what it is to be human. This Penguin Classics edition is edited by Patrick Parrinder with notes by Steven McLean and an introduction by Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale.Adrift in a dinghy, Edward Prendick, the single survivor from the good ship Lady Vain, is rescued by a vessel carrying a profoundly unusual cargo - a menagerie of savage animals. Tended to recovery by their keeper Montgomery, who gives him dark medicine that tastes of blood, Prendick soon finds himself stranded upon an uncharted island in the Pacific with his rescuer and the beasts. Here, he meets Montgomery's master, the sinister Dr. Moreau - a brilliant scientist whose notorious experiments in vivisection have caused him to abandon the civilised world. It soon becomes clear he has been developing these experiments - with truly horrific results.This edition includes a full biographical essay on Wells, a further reading list and detailed notes. Margaret Atwood's introduction explores the social and scientific relevance of this influential work.H.G. Wells (1866-1946) was a professional writer and journalist. Wells's prophetic imagination was first displayed in pioneering works of science fiction, but later he became an apostle of socialism, science and progress. Among his most popular works are The Time Machine (1895); The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), filmed with Bela Lugosi in 1932, and again in 1996 with Marlon Brando; The Invisible Man (1897); The War of the Worlds (1898), which was the subject of an Orson Welles radio adaptation that caused mass panic when it was broadcast, and a 2005 film directed by Stephen Spielberg; and The First Men in the Moon (1901), which predicted the first lunar landings.If you enjoyed The Island of Doctor Moreau, you might like Wells's The Time Machine, also available in Penguin Classics.
£8.42
Penguin Books Ltd Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade
Inspired by his own eccentric aunt, Patrick Dennis's Auntie Mame is a madcap comedy, published with an afterword by Matteo Codignola in Penguin Modern Classics.'Auntie Mame and I learned to love one another in as brief and painless a period as possible. That her amazing personality would attract me, just as it had seduced thousands of others, was a foregone conclusion. Her helter-skelter charm was, after all, notorious ...'When shy young heir Patrick is orphaned at the tender age of ten, the only family he has is his wealthy and eccentric aunt, a fabulous New York socialite named Mame. While prone to dramatic costumes, flights of fancy and expensive whims - not least her lives as a muse and a Southern belle - Auntie Mame will raise Patrick the only way she knows how: with madcap humour, mishaps, unforgettable friends and lots and lots of love. Turned into a play, a musical, and adapted into a 1974 film directed by Gene Saks and starring Lucille Ball, Auntie Mame is the most magnificent and hilarious work of love, style, wit and the life of a very modern Aunt. Patrick Dennis (1921-76) was one of the most widely read American authors of the 1950s and '60s. Among his sixteen novels, the majority of which were bestsellers, are Little Me, Around the World with Auntie Mame, Tony, How Firm a Foundation and Genius. A celebrity in bohemian New York culture, he led a double life as a bisexual man and a conventional husband and father, until becoming an exemplary butler to the elite in West Palm Beach and Chicago in the 1970s. In his own words, he attributed this change to being 'out of fashion' - and, 'I've said everything that I had to say. Twice.'If you enjoyed Auntie Mame, you might like Breakfast at Tiffany's, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.'Extravagant follies and delirious escapades'The New York Times
£9.99
Little, Brown Book Group Too Late: A dark and twisty thriller from the author of global phenomenon VERITY
A breath-taking psychological suspense about obsession and dangerous love. If you loved Verity, this is the No.1 bestselling book you need to read next . . . Sloan will go through hell and back for those she loves. And she does so, every single day. Caught up with the alluring Asa Jackson, a notorious drug trafficker, Sloan has finally found a lifeline to cling to, even if it's meant compromising her morals. She was in dire straits trying to pay for her brother's care until she met Asa. But as Sloan became emotionally and economically reliant on him, he in turn developed a disturbing obsession with her - one that becomes increasingly dangerous every day. When undercover DEA agent Carter enters the picture, Sloan's surprised to feel an immediate attraction between them, despite knowing that if Asa finds out, he will kill him. And Asa has always been a step ahead of everyone in his life, including Sloan. No one has ever gotten in his way. No one except Carter. Together, Sloan and Carter must find a way out before it's too late . . .This is the new edition of Too Late from the TikTok phenomenon. SEE WHAT READERS ARE SAYING . . .'Had me absolutely hooked. I literally did not have a clue what would happen next!' ***** Reader Review'Colleen Hoover is my go-to author and she honestly never fails to deliver' ***** Reader Review'She doesn't sugarcoat the bad parts and glitter the good ones, the heroes are flawed and the villains are human' ***** Reader Review'There is seriously no other author who writes books that take you right to the brink and then bring you back' ***** Reader Review'A dark and twisty romance that keeps you on the edge of your seat' ***** Reader Review'Another incredible book by Colleen Hoover. Her writing gets to me every time. I was so invested in this' ***** Reader ReviewToo Late was a No.1 Kindle bestseller on 26.08.23
£9.99
Skyhorse Publishing Devils Within
William C. Morris Award FinalistAlabama Library Association 2019 Young Adult Award WinnerKirkus Best Book of 20172018 Best Fiction for Young Adults, YALSA2019 Sequoia Master List2018-2019 Green Mountain Book Award Master List2019-2020 Volunteer State Book Award Nominee2020 Georgia Peach Book Award NomineeAge range 14+Killing isn't supposed to be easy. But it is. It's the after that's hard to deal with. Nate was eight the first time he stabbed someone, he was eleven when he earned his red laces — a prize for spilling blood for 'the cause.' And he was fourteen when he murdered his father (and the leader of The Fort, a notorious white supremacist compound) in self-defense, landing in a treatment centre while the state searched for his next of kin. Now, in the custody of an uncle he never knew existed, who wants nothing to do with him, Nate just wants to disappear. Enrolled in a new school under a false name, so no one from The Fort can find him, he struggles to forge a new life, trying to learn how to navigate a world where people of different races interact without enmity. But he can't stop awful thoughts from popping into his head, or help the way he shivers with a desire to commit violence. He wants to be different — he just doesn't know where to start. Then he meets Brandon, a person The Fort conditioned Nate to despise on sight. But Brandon's also the first person to treat him like a human instead of a monster. Brandon could never understand Nate's dark past, so Nate keeps quiet. And it works for a while. But all too soon, Nate's worlds crash together, and he must decide between his own survival and standing for what's right, even if it isn't easy. Even if society will never be able to forgive him for his sins.
£10.66
Skyhorse Publishing Walking with Ghosts in Papua New Guinea: Crossing the Kokoda Trail in the Last Wild Place on Earth
Rick Antonson has lots of miles under his belt: from the summit of Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, to the abandoned stretches of Route 66, from going to Timbuktu for a haircut, to travels in Iraq and Iran. He didn't think twice when one day a chance Australian acquaintance invited him for a "walk across the country" of Papua New Guinea.The "walk" turned out to be a grueling trek on the notorious Kokoda Trail — a narrow, 60-mile footpath featuring rough jungle, 6,000 feet in elevation change, and punishing weather extremes. The Kokoda Trail featured some of the fiercest fighting of World War II among the Australian, Japanese, and American armies. The stark history unfolds with each conquered mile, as Antonson's astute asides bring out real names and people from the faceless fog of history.Antonson sets out to understand the magnetism of Papua New Guinea, a place both misunderstood and lionised by the likes of Amelia Earhart, Errol Flynn, and Michael Rockefeller, whose cameos add vibrant colours to his journey. Antonson struggles with his own demons summoned by the unforgiving trail: travelling with a mostly Australian group, he catches himself sympathising with the Australian war casualties over the Japanese ones, despite being intellectually aware of the impartial horrors of war. Further, Antonson fights the temptation to carry on the sensationalist reportage of headhunting and cannibalism, the scourging stereotypes the young country is still trying to shake off. His writing shows that dated imagery in sharp contrast to today's realities, and Antonson's new-forged friendships with the expedition's porters, Bowrie, Winterford, and Woody, who represent the best of Papua New Guinea: proud of their land and eager to share it without sacrificing their dignity. Walking with Ghosts in Papua New Guinea is like the Kokoda Trail itself: a winding path that glimmers with beauty one moment, and darkness the next, illuminated by its inhabitants, both living and ghosts.
£21.25
Rowman & Littlefield Archy Lee's Struggle for Freedom: The True Story of California Gold, the Nation’s Tragic March Toward Civil War, and a Young Black Man’s Fight for Liberty
In San Francisco, CA, in 1858, a young African American man was freed from the claims of a white man who sought to return him to slavery in Mississippi. This was one year after the Supreme Court’s notorious Dred Scott decision and during the California Gold Rush, which saw the population of the state rise from 7,000 to more than 60,000 in a few short years. Archy Lee was the name of the man who, with the aid of anti-slavery lawyers and determined opponents of human bondage, had just won his freedom from the claims of Charles Stovall. With the aid of pro-slavery lawyers and equally determined supporters, Stovall had sought to capture him and carry him back to a far-away slave plantation. Yet the book is not solely about Archy Lee. It is also about the travel routes that the gold-seekers followed to California in the 1850s, some by land over the Great Plains, some by sea around Cape Horn, yet others by sailing from the east coast of North America to the isthmus of Panama, where they crossed over the land there by train and continued on by sea to San Francisco. It is about the efforts of the racially motivated lawmakers to suppress the rights of all of California’s residents except whites, and to subject people of African, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American descent to second-, third-, or even fourth-class citizenship. It is about the residents of the state—including many whites—who fought back against those efforts, seeking to ameliorate or repeal the discriminatory laws and introduce a measure of fairness and justice into California’s civil life. It is about the lawyers and judges who participated in Archy Lee’s legal struggles in 1858, some supporting his claims for freedom while others ferociously opposed them and, in the process, elevated their own political and professional profiles.
£20.43
Dundurn Group Ltd The Flyer Vault: 150 Years of Toronto Concert History
A visual tour de force showcasing Toronto’s vast concert history.“Not sure there’s ever been anything like this...The graphics are fascinating, the script is comprehensive. It’s staggering what’s been unleashed from the Vault.” — Gary Topp, promoter, half of the legendary duo the Garys“These pages will take you on a musical magical mystery tour of Toronto’s important place in concert history. Reading The Flyer Vault gives you a rush, just like the one you get when the house lights go down!” — Dan Kanter, multi-platinum-selling songwriter/producer“The Flyer Vault book helps bottle the lore, bringing me a little bit closer to my Toronto and its shows that have only grown in renown.” —Danko Jones, lead singer/guitarist of the rock trio Danko Jones Duke Ellington. Johnny Cash. David Bowie. Nirvana. Bob Marley. Wu-Tang Clan. Daft Punk. These are just some of the legendary names that played Toronto over the last century. Drawing from Daniel Tate’s extensive flyer collection, first archived on his Flyer Vault Instagram account, Tate and Rob Bowman have assembled a time capsule that captures a mesmerizing history of Toronto concert and club life, ?running the gamut of genres from vaudeville to rock, jazz to hip-hop, blues to electronica, and punk to country.The Flyer Vault: 150 Years of Toronto Concert History traces seminal live music moments in the city, including James Brown’s debut performance in the middle of a city-wide blackout, a then-unknown Jimi Hendrix backing up Wilson Pickett in 1966 — the year a new band from London named Led Zeppelin performed in Toronto six times — and the one and only show by the Notorious B.I.G., which almost caused a riot in the winter of 1995.Complementing the book’s flyers is the story of the music, highlighting such iconic venues as Massey Hall, the Concert Hall/Rock Pile/Club 888, and the BamBoo, alongside lesser-known but equally important clubs such as Industry Nightclub and the Edge.
£22.45
Whittles Publishing The Nearly Man
The Nearly Man is the true, yet almost unbelievable, story of one man's incredible life, beginning in rural Scotland in the reign of Queen Victoria, and ending on the west coast of Canada in the 1970s. In one of the 20th century's great untold stories we travel with Francis Metcalfe on an amazing journey from the great estates of Scotland to the battlefields of Flanders, and the trenches of the Somme. His associations with the soon-to-be famous and his brushes with death were followed by his heroics in the ice fields of Arctic Russia, wasted years in post-war London, and a narrow escape from being murdered by Sinn Fein in Ireland. After a spell in prison for fraud, Metcalfe became a fugitive from Scottish Law as he engineered a daring escape to France, while the attention of the police was diverted. After hiding in Paris during the 1920s, among the 'Lost Generation' of writers, Metcalfe was arrested at gunpoint and thrown in France's most notorious jail. In his own words, Metcalfe tells the astounding story of his flight from justice, his subsequent trial, imprisonment, followed by release, his second escape from the police, his capture and his decision to start a new life in Canada. . . . only to become embroiled in Communist riots, the hardship of the depression, the infamous 'Ottawa Trek', and the impending war. The Nearly Man tells the story of one man's adventures through some of the last century's lesser- known conflicts, and his encounters with the famous thinkers, writers and soldiers of his time. But it also shows how his exploits impacted the people around him. Francis Metcalfe almost became one of Britain's notable war heroes, poets, writers, adventurers, businessmen and criminals. If Metcalfe had succeeded, he would doubtless be immortalised in history. Instead, his incredible adventures through some of history's forgotten events had become lost in time, until his story was painstakingly unearthed for this book.
£18.99
Little, Brown & Company After the Miracle: The Political Crusades of Helen Keller
Raised in Alabama, she sent shockwaves through the South when she launched a public broadside against Jim Crow and donated to the NAACP. She used her fame to oppose American intervention in WWI. She spoke out against Hitler the month he took power in 1933 and embraced the anti-fascist cause during the Spanish Civil War. She was one of the first public figures to alert the world to the evils of Apartheid, raising money to defend Nelson Mandela when he faced the death penalty for High Treason, and she lambasted Joseph McCarthy at the height of the Cold War, even as her contemporaries shied away from his notorious witch hunt. But who was this revolutionary figure?She was Helen Keller.From books to movies to Barbie dolls, most mainstream portrayals of Keller focus heavily on her struggles as a deafblind child-portraying her Teacher, Annie Sullivan, as a miracle worker. This narrative-which has often made Keller a secondary character in her own story-has resulted in few people knowing that her greatest accomplishment was not learning to speak, but what she did with her voice when she found it.After the Miracle is a much-needed corrective to this antiquated narrative. In this first major biography of Keller in decades, Max Wallace reveals that the lionization of Sullivan at the expense of her famous pupil was no accident, and calls attention to Keller's efforts as a card-carrying socialist, fierce anti-racist, and progressive disability advocate. Despite being raised in an era when eugenics and discrimination were commonplace, Keller consistently challenged the media for its ableist coverage and was one of the first activists to highlight the links between disability and capitalism, even as she struggled against the expectations and prejudices of those closest to her.Peeling back the curtain that obscured Keller's political crusades in favor of her "inspirational" childhood, After the Miracle chronicles the complete legacy of one of the 20th century's most extraordinary figures.
£25.00
University of Minnesota Press Internet Spaceships Are Serious Business: An EVE Online Reader
EVE Online is a socially complex, science-fiction-themed universe simulation and massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) first released in 2003. Notorious for its colossal battles and ruthless player culture, it has hundreds of thousands of players today. In this fascinating book, scholars, players, and EVE’s developer (CCP Games) examine the intricate world of EVEOnline--providing authentic accounts of lived experience within a game with more than a decade of history and millions of “real” dollars behind it.Internet Spaceships Are Serious Business features contributions from outstanding EVE Online players, such as The Mittani, an infamous member of the game’s community, as well as academics from around the globe. They cover a wide range of subjects: the game’s technicalities and its difficulty; its projection of humanity’s future in space; the configuration of its unique, single-server game world; the global nature of warfare in its “nullsec” territory (and how EVE players have formed a global concept of time); stereotypes of Russian players; espionage play; in-game memorials to Vile Rat (aka U.S. State Department official Sean Smith, murdered in the 2012 Benghazi attack); its gendered playing experience; and CCP Games’ relationship with players; and its history and legacy.Internet Spaceships Are Serious Business is a must for EVE Online players interested in a broad perspective on their all-consuming game. It is also accessible to scholars, game designers seeking to understand and replicate the successful aspects unique to EVE Online, and even those who have never played this notoriously complex game.Contributors: William Sims Bainbridge, National Science Foundation; Chribba; Jedrzej Czarnota; Kjartan Pierre Emilsson; Dan Erdman; Rebecca Fraimow; Martin R. Gibbs, U of Melbourne; Catherine Goodfellow; Kathryn Gronsbell; Keith Harrison; Kristin MacDonough; Mantou (Zhang Yuzhou); Oskar Milik; The Mittani (Alexander Gianturco); Joji Mori; Richard Page; Christopher Paul, Seattle U; Erica Titkemeyer, U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Nick Webber, Birmingham City U.
£19.99
John Wiley & Sons Inc Hydrodynamics of Free Surface Flows: Modelling with the Finite Element Method
A definitive guide for accurate state-of-the-art modelling of free surface flows Understanding the dynamics of free surface flows is the starting point of many environmental studies, impact studies, and waterworks design. Typical applications, once the flows are known, are water quality, dam impact and safety, pollutant control, and sediment transport. These studies used to be done in the past with scale models, but these are now being replaced by numerical simulation performed by software suites called “hydro-informatic systems”. The Telemac system is the leading software package worldwide, and has been developed by Electricité de France and Jean-Michel Hervouet, who is the head and main developer of the Telemac project. Written by a leading authority on Computational Fluid Dynamics, the book aims to provide environmentalists, hydrologists, and engineers using hydro-informatic systems such as Telemac and the finite element method, with the knowledge of the basic principles, capabilities, different hypotheses, and limitations. In particular this book: presents the theory for understanding hydrodynamics through an extensive array of case studies such as tides, tsunamis, storm surges, floods, bores, dam break flood waves, density driven currents, hydraulic jumps, making this a principal reference on the topic gives a detailed examination and analysis of the notorious Malpasset dam failure includes a coherent description of finite elements in shallow water delivers a significant treatment of the state-of-the-art flow modelling techniques using Telemac, developed by Electricité de France provides the fundamental physics and theory of free surface flows to be utilised by courses on environmental flows Hydrodynamics of Free Surface Flows is essential reading for those involved in computational fluid dynamics and environmental impact assessments, as well as hydrologists, and bridge, coastal and dam engineers. Guiding readers from fundamental theory to the more advanced topics in the application of the finite element method and the Telemac System, this book is a key reference for a broad audience of students, lecturers, researchers and consultants, right through to the community of users of hydro-informatics systems.
£115.95
Little, Brown Book Group Something Wilder: a swoonworthy, feel-good romantic comedy from the bestselling author of The Unhoneymooners
'Something Wilder is exactly what we all need right now . . . a true escape within the pages of a book, filled with adventure, rekindled romance and second chances' Jodi Picoult, No.1 New York Times bestselling authorThe New York Times bestselling authors of The Unhoneymooners present a charming, laugh-out-loud novel filled with adventure, treasure, and, of course, love.Lily has never forgotten the man that got away . . . but she certainly hasn't forgiven him either! As the daughter of a notorious treasure hunter, Lily makes ends meet using her father's coveted hand-drawn maps, guiding tourists on fake treasure hunts through the canyons of Utah. When the man she once loved walks back into her life with a motley crew of friends, ready to hit the trails, Lily can't believe her eyes. Frankly, she'd like to take him out into the wilderness - and leave him there.Leo wants nothing more than to reconnect with his first and only love. Unfortunately, Lily is all business: it's never going to happen. But when the trip goes horribly and hilariously wrong, the group wonders if maybe the legend of the hidden treasure wasn't a gimmick after all. Alone under the stars in the isolated and dangerous mazes of the Canyonlands, Leo and Lily must decide whether they'll risk their lives, and their hearts, on the adventure of a lifetime . . . Find out why readers LOVE Christina Lauren . . . 'Pure, irresistible magic from start to finish' Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read'Witty and downright hilarious . . . a perfect feel-good romantic comedy' Helen Hoang, author of The Kiss Quotient'Pure joy' Sally Thorne, USA Today bestselling author of The Hating Game'Writing duo Christina Lauren are my go-to when I'm feeling sad' Beth O' Leary, author of The Flatshare'What a joyful, warm, touching book! This is the book to read if you want to smile so hard your face hurts' Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author of The Proposal
£9.99
Three Rooms Press Standalone: A Dickie Cornish Mystery
“Top 25 Mystery Novels of 2022” —The Strand Magazine“Chambers makes the smell and harrowing vibe of the mean streets of the nation’s capital come alive.” —Publishers WeeklyDickie Cornish, Washington, DC street denizen turned unlicensed private investigator, is forced at gunpoint to track down the daughter of an ex-con, setting up a chain of events that unleashes a war within the corrupt police force, exposes shocking conduct in child services, and unearths a secret that threatens to tear the nation’s capital apart. The second book in the Dickie Cornish mystery series, STANDALONE is a must-read for fans of S. A. Cosby, George Pelecanos, and Joe Ide.It’s been over year since that bleak Christmas when a rich man peeled homeless, drug-addled Dickie Cornish from a steam grate, cleaned him up, and convinced him to use his street connections to track down his missing property. Now, as the summer sun bakes those same mean streets, the air is thick with crime, contagion, corruption. Dickie struggles with sobriety, anti-psychotic meds, and counseling at the VA, but manages to make a meager living as a private investigator with his sidekick, “Stripe”—until an ex-con named Al-Mayadeen Thomas sticks a gun to Dickie’s forehead and kidnaps him to a grim flophouse—a motel filled with squatters more desperate than the poor souls in the shelters. Thomas demands that Dickie find his daughter, missing for years from the motel in a notorious cold case. The other squatters plead for him to find their vanished children as well. Thomas takes his own life to seal Dickie’s help, Police Chief Linda Figgis hauls Dickie in, gives him a Faustian choice: she directs him to help her close the Thomas cold case, but only if he forgets about the other vanished and abused children. To his horror, Dickie finds himself in the middle of a war within the police, with either side closing in for the kill to keep the truth hidden.
£10.99
Three Rooms Press Yippie Girl: Exploits in Protest and Defeating the FBI
HONORABLE MENTION, Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award, Autobiography & Memoir!Lifelong activist Judy Gumbo, an original member of The Yippies, a 1960s anti-war satirical protest group, offers an insider feminist memoir of her involvement with the Yippies, Black Panthers, women's rights, environmental actions, and a life of activism. In 1968, a 24-year-old woman moved to Berkeley, California and immediately became enmeshed in the Youth International Party, aka The Yippies, an anti-war satirical protest group. In the next few years, Judy Gumbo (a nickname given her by Eldridge Cleaver), was soon at the center of counter-cultural activity—from protests in People’s Park, to meetings at Black Panther headquarters, to running a pig for President at the raucous Democratic National Convention in Chicago, a protest that devolved into violent attacks by the police and arrests that led to the notorious Chicago Conspiracy Trial. In this historical account, Gumbo reveals intimate details of—and struggles with—her fellow radicals Jerry Rubin, Anita & Abbie Hoffman, Eldridge Cleaver, Paul Krassner, Stew Albert, and more, detailing their experiences in radical protests. This deep dive into her activism includes details of her organization of a national women's rights group, her visit to North Vietnam during the war, her travels around the globe to promote women's liberation and anti-war protest, and her environmental activism. It also includes extensive excerpts from illegal wiretaps and surveillance by the FBI.“A welcome addition to the literature of radical activism.” —Kirkus Reviews “A fun read and a valuable political document, long overdue.” —Counterpunch Yippie Girl explores Gumbo’s life as a protester to show that, while circumstances always change, protesters can stay loyal to the causes they believe in and remain true to themselves. She also reveals how dogmatism, authoritarianism, and interpersonal conflict can damage those same just causes, offering a timeless and strategic guide for activists today protesting against injustice in all its forms.
£11.99
John Murray Press The Barbizon: The New York Hotel That Set Women Free
AS HEARD ON RADIO 4 WOMAN'S HOUR'Captivating . . . a brilliant many-layered social history of women's ambition and a rapidly changing New York' Observer'A fascinating look at a piece of forgotten female history' Sunday Times'A treat, elegantly spinning a forgotten story of female liberation, ambition and self-invention' Guardian'A deeply researched history, leavened with gossip . . . offers a full sweep of the changing status of American women in the twentieth century' TLSWELCOME TO THE BARBIZON, NEW YORK'S PREMIER WOMEN-ONLY HOTELBuilt in 1927 as a home for the 'Modern Woman' seeking a career in the arts, the Barbizon became the place to stay for ambitious, independent women, who were lured by the promise of fame and good fortune. Sylvia Plath fictionalized her time there in The Bell Jar, and over the years, its 688 tiny floral 'highly feminine boudoirs' also housed Joan Crawford, Grace Kelly (notorious for sneaking in men), Joan Didion, Candice Bergen, Charlie's Angel Jaclyn Smith, Ali MacGraw, Cybil Shepherd, Elaine Stritch, Liza Minnelli, Eudora Welty, The Cosby Show's Phylicia Rashad, Grey Gardens's Edith Bouvier Beale, and writers Mona Simpson and Ann Beattie, among many others. Mademoiselle boarded its summer interns there - perfectly turned-out young women, who would never be spotted hatless - as did Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School its students - in their white-gloves and kitten heels - and the Ford Modelling Agency its young models.THE BARBIZON is a colourful, glamorous portrait of the lives of the young women, who -- from the Jazz Age New Women of the 1920s to the Liberated Women of the 1960s -- came to New York looking for something more.'The story of the Barbizon is in many ways the story of American women in the twentieth century' Economist 'Illuminating . . . this vivid, well researched account is testament to its vibrant history and the women who made it such a powerhouse' Daily Express
£9.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The House of Brides: A Novel
Jane Cockram makes her thrilling debut with this page-turning tale of psychological suspense in which a young woman whose life is in tatters flees to the safety of a family estate in England, but instead of comfort finds chilling secrets and lies.Miranda’s life and career has been a roller-coaster ride. Her successful rise to the top of the booming lifestyle industry as a social media influencer led to a humiliating fall after a controversial product she endorsed flopped. Desperate to get away from the hate-spewing trolls shaming her on the internet, she receives a mysterious letter from a young cousin in England that plunges her into a dark family mystery. Miranda’s mother Tessa Summers, a famous author, died when Miranda was a child. The young woman’s only connection to the Summers family is through Tessa’s famous book The House of Brides—a chronicle of the generations of women who married into the infamous Summers family and made their home in the rambling Barnsley House, the family’s estate. From Gertrude Summers, a famed crime novelist, to Miranda’s grandmother Beatrice, who killed herself after setting fire to Barnsley while her children slept, each woman in The House of Brides is more notorious than the next. The house’s current “bride” is the beautiful, effervescent Daphne, her Uncle Max’s wife—a famed celebrity chef who saved Barnsley from ruin turning the estate into an exclusive culinary destination and hotel.Curious about this legendary family she has never met, Miranda arrives at Barnsley posing as a prospective nanny answering an advertisement. She’s greeted by the compelling yet cold housekeeper Mrs. Mins, and meets the children and her Uncle Max—none of whom know her true identity. But Barnsley is not what Miranda expected. The luxury destination and award-winning restaurant is gone, and Daphne is nowhere to be found. Most disturbing, one of the children is in a wheelchair after a mysterious accident. What happened in this house? Where is Daphne? What darkness lies hidden in Barnsley?
£12.69
The University of Chicago Press The Man Who Stole Himself: The Slave Odyssey of Hans Jonathan
The island nation of Iceland is known for many things majestic landscapes, volcanic eruptions, distinctive seafood but racial diversity is not one of them. So the little-known story of Hans Jonathan, a free black man who lived and raised a family in early nineteenth-century Iceland, is improbable and compelling, the stuff of novels. In The Man Who Stole Himself, Gisli Palsson lays out Jonathan's story in stunning detail. Born into slavery in St. Croix in 1784, Jonathan was brought as a slave to Denmark, where he eventually enlisted in the navy and fought on behalf of the country in the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen. After the war, he declared himself a free man, believing that not only was he due freedom because of his patriotic service, but because while slavery remained legal in the colonies, it was outlawed in Denmark itself. Jonathan was the subject of one of the most notorious slavery cases in European history, which he lost. Then, he ran away never to be heard from in Denmark again, his fate unknown for more than two hundred years. It's now known that Jonathan fled to Iceland, where he became a merchant and peasant farmer, married, and raised two children. Today, he has become something of an Icelandic icon, claimed as a proud and daring ancestor both there and among his descendants in America. The Man Who Stole Himself brilliantly intertwines Jonathan's adventurous travels with a portrait of the Danish slave trade, legal arguments over slavery, and the state of nineteenth-century race relations in the Northern Atlantic world. Throughout the book, Palsson traces themes of imperial dreams, colonialism, human rights, and globalization, which all come together in the life of a single, remarkable man. Jonathan literally led a life like no other. His is the story of a man who had the temerity the courage to steal himself.
£20.68
Wymer Publishing Easy Action: The Original Alice Cooper Band
The astonishing run of albums unleashed upon an unsuspecting public within the span of five years created the legend of Alice Cooper that lives on to this day. But we’re talking about the original Alice Cooper group here, a band called that with a lead singer also going by that name. In other words, the legend was built by Vincent “Alice Cooper” Furnier, Michael Bruce, Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway and “platinum god” Neal Smith. It is all of them working together — along with producer Bob Ezrin — that created the mystique of songs like “I’m Eighteen,” “Is It My Body,” “Desperado,” “Under My Wheels,” “Be My Lover,” “Elected” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” And it is all of them working together — along with crack management in Shep Gordon and Joe Greenberg—that created the shock rock buzz that kept the newspapers full of indignation about this band set out to destroy human civilization. Easy Action: The Original Alice Cooper Group tells the story in meticulous chronological detail, from the band’s early days in Phoenix as The Spiders, through being broke on the Sunset Strip, followed by a career-reviving relocation to a notorious party house on the outskirts of Pontiac, Michigan. Corroborating the improbable sequence of events is a plethora of stories from the band themselves, who explain how the original Alice Cooper group went from politely ignored pariahs in Los Angeles to international Public Enemies No. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Listen to the guys and their good-natured explanations behind the mayhem, and it soon becomes apparent that the ghoulish makeup around the singer’s eyes and the boa constrictor around his neck — not to mention the head-choppings, the hangings and the hard rock — were all served up in good fun. Now it’s time for you, dear reader, to join in the fun and see why Alice Cooper was, for a golden moment in time fully 50 years ago now, the most feared and revered act in all of rock ‘n’ roll.
£16.99
John Murray Press Heida: A Shepherd at the Edge of the World
'HEIDA IS A FORCE OF NATURE . . . EXACTLY THE RIGHT SORT OF MODERN ROLE MODEL' SUNDAY TIMESThe inspiring story of Icelandic sheep farmer, former model and feminist heroine Heida Asgeirsdottir has become a double prize-winning international bestseller.As heard on Radio 4's Start the WeekI'm not on my own because I've been sitting crying into a handkerchief or apron over a lack of interested men. I've been made every offer imaginable over the years. Men offer themselves, their sons . . . drunk fathers sometimes call me up and say things like: "Do you need a farmhand?" "I can lift the hay bales" "I can repair your tractors". . .Heida is a solitary farmer with a flock of 500 sheep in a remorseless area bordering Iceland's highlands. It's known as the End of the World. One of her nearest neighbours is Iceland's most notorious volcano, Katla, which has periodically driven away the inhabitants of Ljótarstaðir ever since people first started farming there in the twelfth century. This portrait of Heida written with wit and humour by one of Iceland's most acclaimed novelists, Steinunn Sigurðardóttir, tells a heroic tale of a charismatic young woman, who walked away from a career as a model to take over the family farm at the age of 23. I want to tell women they can do anything, and to show that sheep farming isn't just a man's game. Divided into four seasons, Heida tells the story of a remarkable year, when Heida reluctantly went into politics to fight plans to raise a hydro-electric power station on her land. This book paints a unforgettable portrait of a remote life close to nature. Translated into six languages, Heida has won two non-fiction prizes and has become an international bestseller.We humans are mortal; the land outlives us, new people come, new sheep, new birds and so on but the land with its rivers and lakes and resources, remains.'UTTERLY CHARMING' MAIL ON SUNDAY'REVELATORY AND INSPIRING' HERALD
£10.99
Little, Brown Book Group Evita Burned Down Our Pavilion: A Cricket Odyssey through Latin America
'A highly entertaining read, deftly melding social history with sporting memoir and travelogue' Mail on SundayA history of Latin America through cricketCricket was the first sport played in almost every country of the Americas - earlier than football, rugby or baseball. In 1877, when England and Australia played the inaugural Test match at the MCG, Uruguay and Argentina were already ten years into their derby played across the River Plate.The visionary cricket historian Rowland Bowen said that, during the highpoint of cricket in South America between the two World Wars, the continent could have provided the next Test nation. In Buenos Aires, where British engineers, merchants and meatpackers flocked to make their fortune, the standard of cricket was high: towering figures like Lord Hawke and Plum Warner took star-studded teams of Test cricketers to South America, only to be beaten by Argentina. A combined Argentine, Brazilian and Chilean team took on the first-class counties in England in 1932. The notion of Brazilians and Mexicans playing T20 at the Maracana or the Azteca today is not as far-fetched as it sounds.But Evita Burned Down Our Pavilion is also a social history of grit, industry and nation-building in the New World. West Indian fruit workers battled yellow fever and brutal management to carve out cricket fields next to the railway lines in Costa Rica. Cricket was the favoured sport of Chile's Nitrate King. Emperors in Brazil and Mexico used the game to curry favour with Europe. The notorious Pablo Escobar even had a shadowy connection to the game. The fate of cricket in South America was symbolised by Eva Peron ordering the burning down of the Buenos Aires Cricket Club pavilion when the club refused to hand over their premises to her welfare scheme.Cricket journalists Timothy Abraham and James Coyne take us on a journey to discover this largely untold story of cricket's fate in the world's most colourful continent. Fascinating and surprising, Evita Burned Down Our Pavilion is a valuable addition to cricketing and social history.
£20.00
Headline Publishing Group Ozark Dogs: GUARDIAN BEST CRIME AND THRILLERS OF 2023
***THE GUARDIAN BEST CRIME AND THRILLERS OF 2023***THE TIMES BEST THRILLERS OF THE MONTH*** ***MAIL ON SUNDAY BEST NEW FICTION***FINANCIAL TIMES BEST NEW THRILLERS***'Powerful' THE GUARDIAN 'A gritty, authentic triumph, one howling to be turned into a film or TV series' FINANCIAL TIMES'Atmospheric and tense thriller that has TV series written all over it.' THE SUN'Eli Cranor is that rare writer who can make you gasp, cry and cheer often in the same paragraph' S. A. COSBYAfter his son is convicted of murder, Vietnam War veteran Jeremiah Fitzjurls takes over the care of his granddaughter, Joanna, raising her with as much warmth as can be found in an Ozark junkyard outfitted to be an armory.He teaches her how to shoot and fight, but there is not enough training in the world to protect her when the dreaded Ledfords, notorious meth dealers and fanatical white supremacists, come to collect on Joanna as payment for a long-overdue blood debt.Headed by rancorous patriarch Bunn and smooth-talking, erudite Evail, the Ledfords have never forgotten what the Fitzjurls family did to them, and they will not be satisfied until they have taken an eye for an eye. As they seek revenge, and as Jeremiah desperately searches for his granddaughter, their narratives collide in this immersive story about family and how far some will go to honor, defend-or in some cases, destroy it.'Ozark Dogs tunnels into your brain with feverish power... thrillingly told, deeply wrenching, not to be missed.' MEGAN ABBOTTPraise for Eli Cranor:'Southern noir at its finest, a cauldron of terrible choices and even more terrible outcomes . . . one of the best debuts of 2022' NEW YORK TIMES'A gripping novel about rage and trauma, redemption and damnation,. . . Cranor's characters bristle with desperation and frustrated masculinity, a volatile cauldron of emotion that brings tension to every page' STEPH CHA'A major work from a bright, young talent' USA TODAY
£10.99
Boatman Cryptics Boatman - The Second 50: More Crosswords from the Guardian and the Stories Behind Them
Boatman is back with fifty more puzzles from the Guardian and an additional five bonus puzzles previously only available online, including the notorious Referendum Day puzzle that was able to predict the result of the UK’s vote over its membership of the European Union with complete confidence. Get inside the mind of one of Britain’s most challenging and innovative crossword compilers, as he tells the story behind the development of each puzzle: how he thought of the theme, the ideas that didn’t make it into print and the odd connections that emerged afterwards. Expect talk of crosswords and coincidences, politics and particle physics. Solve extra clues and hear from solvers who enjoyed the puzzles when they were first published. Dave Gorman writes: Put the kettle on. That’s my advice. Boatman’s puzzles are best served with a cup of tea. If a crossword is painting pictures with words, then every setter has his or her own style. Some create clues that remind me of a Heath Robinson cartoon – full of intricate detail and connections – while others bring to mind the simple brush strokes of an Al Hirschfeld caricature, where there can be almost nothing on the page and yet, somehow, Liza Minelli’s face is staring back at you. Boatman’s puzzles are Magic Eye posters. You stare at them for a while and then suddenly something three dimensional pops out as your eyes defocus. When you first scan through a puzzle, a theme may be apparent. Words will be repeated. Newspaper, newspaper, newspaper, Guardian, red-top, newspaper, newspaper, Independent. It may make you feel dizzy. So put the kettle on. Make that cup of tea. Relax. Defocus. He’s a devious sod and he enjoys going back to the same source and coming back with something different. And you know that it will always be different. No two ‘newspapers’ are ever the same. That’s his thing. Don’t be dizzied by it. Dance with it. Enjoy. Then enjoy again as you get the insight from the commentaries that follow. Mine’s white with no sugar. Ta.
£11.95
Little, Brown Book Group Someone to Care
'One of the best!' Julia Quinn, Sunday Times bestselling author of the Bridgerton series When adventure calls in the form of a handsome aristocrat, will Viola Kingsley throw all caution to the wind?Two years after the death of the Earl of Riverdale, his family has overcome the shame of being stripped of their titles and fortune - except for his one-time countess, Viola. With her children grown and finding herself no longer part of the social whirl of the ton, she is uncertain where to look for happiness - until quite by accident her path crosses once again with that of the Marquess of Dorchester, Marcel Lamarr. Marcel has been a notorious womanizer since the death of his wife nearly twenty years earlier. Viola caught his eye years ago, but she evaded his seduction at the time. She is all the more irresistible to him now.When the two defy convention and run away together, they discover that the ties of respectability are not so easily severed, and pleasure can ensnare you when you least expect it . . .This is the sparkling fourth novel in the Regency romance Westcott series by New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh - perfect for fans of Grace Burrowes and Stephanie Laurens The Westcott Series:Someone to LoveSomeone to HoldSomeone to WedSomeone to CareSomeone to TrustSomeone to HonourSomeone to RememberSomeone to RomanceSomeone to CherishPraise for Mary Balogh'Today's superstar heir to the marvellous legacy of Georgette Heyer' Susan Elizabeth Phillips'A grand mistress of the genre' Romantic Times'Balogh is the queen of spicy Regency-era romance, creating memorable characters in unforgettable stories' Booklist'Mary Balogh sets the gold standard in historical romance' New York Times bestselling author Jayne Ann Krentz'A romance writer of mesmerising intensity, Mary Balogh has the gift of making a relationship seem utterly real and utterly compelling' Mary Jo Putney
£9.99
Penguin Books Ltd Crime in Progress: The Secret History of the Trump-Russia Investigation
** THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** The never-before-told, inside story of the Steele Dossier and the Trump-Russia investigation'The best procedural yet written about the discovery of Trump's Russia ties' New York TimesThe founders of the Washington-based intelligence firm Fusion GPS Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch were the first to uncover Trump's disturbing ties to the Kremlin and the crimes that have since plagued his presidency. Working with British former MI6 agent and Russia expert Christopher Steele, they produced the notorious dossier which disclosed that the Trump team was deeply compromised by a hostile foreign power bent on disrupting the West and influencing the US presidential election.In Crime in Progress, the authors chronicle their high-stakes investigation and desperate efforts to warn both the American and British governments, the FBI and the media - no matter the cost. When the dossier finally exploded onto the world stage after a leak, it led to the Mueller report and disrupted Trump's secret planned rapprochement with Putin's Russia. After years on his trail, the authors' inescapable conclusion is that Trump is an asset of the Russian government, whether he knows it or not.A real-life political thriller with the makings of a modern classic, Crime in Progress is the definitive story of the pursuit of the truth about Trump and one of the greatest betrayals in American history.'I've read all the books on this subject - this is the one you want to read . . . I feel fairly steeped in this matter and I learned something on every page' Rachel Maddow, MSNBC'You don't need to read John le Carré or Tom Clancy to find espionage thrills in Washington these days, turn over any stone in the Beltway's secret world and you'll observe the seething mass of conspiracy and subterfuge beneath . . . Take Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, who have become central characters in a quite terrifying international spy thriller' Josh Glancy, Sunday Times
£10.99
Savas Beatie Hellmira: The Union’s Most Infamous POW Camp of the Civil War
Long called by some the “Andersonville of the North,” the prisoner of war camp in Elmira, New York, is remembered as the most notorious of all Union-run POW camps. It existed for only a year—from the summer of 1864 to July 1865—but in that time, and for long after, it became darkly emblematic of man’s inhumanity to man. Confederate prisoners called it “Hellmira.” Hastily constructed, poorly planned, and overcrowded, prisoner of war camps North and South were dumping grounds for the refuse of war. An unfortunate necessity, both sides regarded the camps as temporary inconveniences—and distractions from the important task of winning the war. There was no need, they believed, to construct expensive shelters or provide better rations. They needed only to sustain life long enough for the war to be won. Victory would deliver prisoners from their conditions. As a result, conditions in the prisoner of war camps amounted to a great humanitarian crisis, the extent of which could hardly be understood even after the blood stopped flowing on the battlefields. In the years after the war, as Reconstruction became increasingly bitter, the North pointed to Camp Sumter—better known as the Andersonville POW camp in Americus, Georgia—as evidence of the cruelty and barbarity of the Confederacy. The South, in turn, cited the camp in Elmira as a place where Union authorities withheld adequate food and shelter and purposefully caused thousands to suffer in the bitter cold. This finger-pointing by both sides would go on for over a century. And as it did, the legend of Hellmira grew. In Hellmira: The Union’s Most Infamous POW Camp of the Civil War, Derek Maxfield contextualizes the rise of prison camps during the Civil War, explores the failed exchange of prisoners, and tells the tale of the creation and evolution of the prison camp in Elmira. In the end, Maxfield suggests that it is time to move on from the blame game and see prisoner of war camps—North and South—as a great humanitarian failure.
£12.60
Skyhorse Publishing When Pigmen Fly: Redstone Junior High #6
For boys and girls who love Minecraft, a graphic novel adventure that uses over 700 images to transport young readers into the world of the game they love most.Before they can graduate, they must face their greatest challenge! It’s the last semester at Redstone Junior High and Pixel, Sky, and Uma are about to enter into their most exciting adventure yet. The students must complete a bold and dangerous challenge by graduation: travel to the End and ride the notorious Ender dragon. Their first step is to gather the valuable items needed to complete this quest, but a treacherous storm is brewing and nothing is going according to plan.What begins as a simple trade with a villager leads to an accidental explosion, and the students and Mr. Z are cast out of a remote village into the raging storm. The kids survive the night in a cave only to discover that their beloved teacher Mr. Z, has gone missing. Pixel, Sky, and Uma will use every trick in the book to find him, but they risk revealing his deep secret in the process.It will take precious resources, courage, and teamwork to complete their quest in time for graduation, but not everyone is working well together. An old nemesis has joined the class, so Pixel and Uma are watching their backs every step of the way. Tensions are high between even the best of friends as old enemies become friends and old friends become rivals. A journey to the Nether fortress tests their bonds as together they battle blazes, magma cubes, ghasts, and zombie pigmen to get the blaze rods they need. Sky finds himself in need of rescue with no plan for escape. Can Pixel and her friends find Sky, secure the blaze rods, and make it back home in time to build a portal, or will they fail their final project and be trapped in the Nether forever?The students must find a way to band together to make their final days at Redstone Junior High memorable and triumphant.
£13.87