Search results for ""author sly"

A TIMES BOOK OF THE MONTH AND STYLIST BOOK OF THE WEEKA BAD FORM REVIEW PAPERBACK BOOK OF THE MONTH'Sharp, swiftly moving, darkly funny . . . [a] compassion filled delight' The Times'[A] sharp, assured debut' Daily Mail'A sensitive, sharp-eyed, slyly funny novel of venturing back into the foreign country that is your past— and discovering that you can never really shake the places and people that shaped you' Celeste Ng, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Our Missing Hearts'Delia Cai fully renders the uneasy marriage between past and present. Central Places is honest about the strangeness and revelation of returning home' Raven Leilani, New York Times bestselling author of LusterAudrey Zhou left Hickory Grove, the tiny central Illinois town where she grew up, as soon as high school ended, and she never looked back. She moved to New York City and became the person she always wanted to be, complete with a high-paying, high-pressure job and a seemingly faultless fiancé. But if she and Manhattan-bred Ben are to build a life together, in the dream home his parents will surely pay for, Audrey can no longer hide him, or the person she's become, from those she left behind.But returning to Hickory Grove is . . . complicated. Over the course of one disastrous week, Audrey's proximity to her family and to Kyle, her unrequited high school crush, forces her to confront the past and reexamine her fraught connection to her roots before she undoes everything she's worked toward and everything she's imagined for herself. But is that life really the one she wants?

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With an abandoned degree behind her and a thirtieth birthday approaching, amateur writer Bonnie Falls moves out of her parents’ home into a nearby flat. Her landlady, Sylvia Slythe, takes an interest in Bonnie, encouraging her to finish one of her stories, in which a young woman moves to the seaside, where she comes under strange influences. As summer approaches, Sylvia suggests to Bonnie that, as neither of them has anyone else to go on holiday with, they should go away together – to the seaside, perhaps.The new novel from the author of the Man Booker-shortlisted The Lighthouse is a tense and moreish confection of semiotics, suggestibility and creative writing with real psychological depth and, in Bonnie Falls and Sylvia Slythe, two unforgettable characters.

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A heartbreaking and hope-filled tale about the stories we tell ourselves to survive for fans of Kathleen Glasgow and Jennifer Niven. From the author of the Carnegie Medal nominated The Sky is Mine. You are strong. You are brave. You are not alone. Seventeen-year-old Iris is happy. She's fearless, she's strong. She is everything but a girl who lost her mum. But Iris's dad and step-mum have been keeping a secret. One big enough to unravel her. Only the magnetic Órla can provide an escape, until things get...complicated. As Iris questions who she is, it becomes clear she can't run away from grief. What happens when someone who has never faced up to the darkness lets it in? 'This poignant YA story of long-frozen grief and gradual self-discovery is slyly funny, romantic and filled with unlikely beauty.' Guardian ‘This beautiful book will floor you and deserves to be on every shelf, everywhere.’ Kathleen Glasgow, author of Girl in Pieces ‘I am in complete and utter love with everything Amy Beashel writes, but this one may just be my favourite.’ Jennifer Niven, author of All the Bright Places

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The truth commission is an increasingly common fixture of newly democratic states with repressive or strife-ridden pasts. From South Africa to Haiti, truth commissions are at work with varying degrees of support and success. To many, they are the best--or only--way to achieve a full accounting of crimes committed against fellow citizens and to prevent future conflict. Others question whether a restorative justice that sets the guilty free, that cleanses society by words alone, can deter future abuses and allow victims and their families to heal. Here, leading philosophers, lawyers, social scientists, and activists representing several perspectives look at the process of truth commissioning in general and in post-apartheid South Africa. They ask whether the truth commission, as a method of seeking justice after conflict, is fair, moral, and effective in bringing about reconciliation. The authors weigh the virtues and failings of truth commissions, especially the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in their attempt to provide restorative rather than retributive justice. They examine, among other issues, the use of reparations as social policy and the granting of amnesty in exchange for testimony. Most of the contributors praise South Africa's decision to trade due process for the kinds of truth that permit closure. But they are skeptical that such revelations produce reconciliation, particularly in societies that remain divided after a compromise peace with no single victor, as in El Salvador. Ultimately, though, they find the truth commission to be a worthy if imperfect instrument for societies seeking to say "never again" with confidence. At a time when truth commissions have been proposed for Bosnia, Kosovo, Cyprus, East Timor, Cambodia, Nigeria, Palestine, and elsewhere, the authors' conclusion that restorative justice provides positive gains could not be more important. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Amy Gutmann, Rajeev Bhargava, Elizabeth Kiss, David A. Crocker, Andre du Toit, Alex Boraine, Dumisa Ntsebeza, Lisa Kois, Ronald C. Slye, Kent Greenawalt, Sanford Levinson, Martha Minow, Charles S. Maier, Charles Villa-Vicencio, and Wilhelm Verwoerd.

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“London and Zelinsky have created something unendingly fun but also deeply meaningful: Art takes on a life of its own, no matter how much the artist thinks the work can be controlled!” —Brian Selznick, Caldecott Medal-winning author of The Invention of Hugo CabretA still life painting is a painting where everything is supposed to stay still. But what if it doesn’t? Acclaimed author Alex London and Caldecott Medal-winning artist Paul O. Zelinsky bring exquisite life and adventure to this slyly funny and inventive picture book for fans of Christopher Denise’s Knight Owl and Corinna Luyken’s The Book of Mistakes. Every young artist has drawn or painted a still life scene. Perhaps it is a bowl of fruit, or a toy, or a vase of flowers, or a chair. The only rule is that a still life painting must stay still.But staying still is hard! Especial

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Áróra becomes involved in the search for an Icelandic woman who disappeared from her home while making dinner, as she continues to hunt for her missing sister. The second breathtaking instalment in the chilling, addictive An Áróra Investigation series… ‘Icelandic crime-writing at its finest … immersive and unnerving’ Shari Lapena ‘Chilly and chilling … Lilja Sigurðardóttir's terrific investigator Áróra is back for another tense and thrilling read. Highly recommended!' Tariq Ashkanani ‘Lilja Sigurdardottir is rapidly becoming my favourite Icelandic writer. She doesn’t waste a word as she creates her twisty mysteries and her sly sense of humour highlights her clear-eyed view of human nature’ The Times ‘The Icelandic scenery and weather are beautifully evoked – you can almost feel the autumn fog seeping up from the pages – but it is the corkscrew twists that make it both chilling and mesmerising’ Daily Mail _____________________________ When entrepreneur Flosi arrives home for dinner one night, he discovers that his house has been ransacked, and his wife Gudrun missing. A letter on the kitchen table confirms that she has been kidnapped. If Flosi doesn’t agree to pay an enormous ransom, Gudrun will be killed. Forbidden from contacting the police, he gets in touch with Áróra, who specialises in finding hidden assets, and she, alongside her detective friend Daniel, try to get to the bottom of the case without anyone catching on. Meanwhile, Áróra and Daniel continue the puzzling, devastating search for Áróra’s sister Ísafold, who disappeared without trace. As fog descends, in a cold and rainy Icelandic autumn, the investigation becomes increasingly dangerous, and confusing. Chilling, twisty and unbearably tense, Red as Blood is the second instalment in the riveting, addictive An Áróra Investigation series, and everything is at stake… _________________________________ ‘Lilja is a stand-out voice in Iceland Noir’ James Oswald ‘Sure to please Scandi noir fans’ Publishers Weekly ‘One of my new favourite series … Áróra’s brains and brawn, combined with the super-cool Icelandic setting, is a winning combination’ Michael J. Malone ‘So atmospheric’ Crime Monthly ‘Áróra is a wonderful character: unique, passionate, unpredictable and very real’ Michael RidpathPraise for Lilja Sigurðardóttir ‘Another bleak, unpredictable classic’ Metro ‘Intricate, enthralling and very moving – a wonderful crime novel’ William Ryan ‘Three things we love about Cold as Hell: Iceland’s unrelenting midnight sun; the gritty Nordic murder mystery; the peculiar and bewitching characters’ Apple Books 'Smart writing with a strongly beating heart' Big Issue 'Tough, uncompromising and unsettling' Val McDermid 'Tense and pacey' Guardian 'Deftly plotted' Financial Times 'Tense, edgy and delivering more than a few unexpected twists and turns' Sunday Times ‘The intricate plot is breathtakingly original, with many twists and turns you never see coming. Thriller of the year’ New York Journal of Books 'Taut, gritty and thoroughly absorbing' Booklist 'A stunning addition to the icy-cold crime genre' Foreword Reviews

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This hilarious tale about problem-solving and ingenuity from bestselling author-illustrator Elise Parsley also slyly celebrates nonfiction books as a way to build skills and smarts!All Roy the wild boar wants is to enjoy his precious patch of delicious clover... but every time he turns around, his tasty treasure seems to be shrinking! Who's stealing his favorite meal from right under his snout? To make the tedious job of standing guard by the clover patch day and night more bearable, Roy's neighbor Jarvis the gopher helps by lending his never-ending stash of fascinating books that inevitably absorb Roy's attention--as the patch disappears bit by bit. All of that reading makes for a very smart boar, though... and in a surprise table-turning twist at the end, Roy might just get the better of that sneaky clover thief!

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Tackling the “darkest question in all of philosophy” with “raffish erudition” (Dwight Garner, New York Times), author Jim Holt explores the greatest metaphysical mystery of all: why is there something rather than nothing? This runaway bestseller, which has captured the imagination of critics and the public alike, traces our latest efforts to grasp the origins of the universe. Holt adopts the role of cosmological detective, traveling the globe to interview a host of celebrated scientists, philosophers, and writers, “testing the contentions of one against the theories of the other” (Jeremy Bernstein, Wall Street Journal). As he interrogates his list of ontological culprits, the brilliant yet slyly humorous Holt contends that we might have been too narrow in limiting our suspects to God versus the Big Bang. This “deft and consuming” (David Ulin, Los Angeles Times) narrative humanizes the profound questions of meaning and existence it confronts.

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'Shelf Life is whip-smart, slyly heartbreaking, and I felt the truth of it in my bones.’ Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water CureRuth is thirty years old. She works as a nurse in a care home and her fiancé has just broken up with her. The only thing she has left of him is their shopping list for the upcoming week.Starting with six eggs, and working through spaghetti and strawberries, apples and tea bags, this inventive novel builds a picture of a woman defined by the people she serves; her patients, her friends, and, most of all, her partner of ten years. Without him, Ruth needs to find out – with conditioner and single cream and a lot of sugar – who she is when she stands alone.With her fresh unpredictable style, Franchini skewers modern relationships and toxic masculinity, moving effortlessly between humour and heartbreak to tell the story of a woman rebuilding herself on her own terms.

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''Help Wanted is like a great nineteenth-century novel about now, at once an effervescent workplace comedy and an exploration of the psychic toll exacted by the labour market'' Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot''Poignant, funny, stealthily ambitious'' The New York Times''Eliot-like ... . It is simultaneously a joke, a homage, and a provocation for our unequal age. Help Wanted washes labour in a stately, almost Steinbeckian light, emphasizing its difficulty but also its dignity'' New YorkerTightly plotted, slyly caustic and often very funny'' Daily MailAt a superstore in a small town in upstate New York, the members of Team Movement clock in every day at 3.55 am. Under the red-eyed scrutiny of their self-absorbed and barely competent boss, they empty delivery trucks of mountains of merchandise, stock the shelves and stagger home (or to another poorly paid day job) before the customers arrive. When Big Will the store manager announces he''s leaving, everything changes. The eclectic team

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'We shall therefore confine our walk to Central London where people meet on business during the day, and to West London where they meet for pleasure at night. If you will walk about the first City in the British Empire arm in arm with Merriman-Labor, you are sure to see Britons in merriment and at labour, by night and by day, in West and Central London.'In Britons Through Negro Spectacles Merriman-Labor takes us on a joyous, intoxicating tour of London at the turn of the 20th century.Slyly subverting the colonial gaze usually placed on Africa, he introduces us to the citizens, culture and customs of Britain with a mischievous glint in his eye.This incredible work of social commentary feels a century ahead of its time, and provides unique insights into the intersection between empire, race and community at this important moment in history.Selected by Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo, this series rediscovers and celebrates pioneering books depicting black Britain that remap the nation.

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'Got under my skin in the way the best writing can' SHEILA HETIA fearless and savagely funny examination of masculinity under late capitalism, from an electrifying new voiceSet in Philly one year into Trump's presidency, Sean Thor Conroe's audacious, freewheeling debut follows our eponymous fuccboi, Sean, as he attempts to live meaningfully in a world that doesn't seem to need him. Reconciling past, failed selves -- cross-country walker, SoundCloud rapper, weed farmer -- he now finds himself back in his college city, trying to write, doing stimulant-fueled bike deliveries to eat. Unable to accept that his ex has dropped him, yet still engaged in all the same fuckery -- being coy and spineless, dodging decisions, maintaining a rotation of baes -- that led to her leaving in the first place. But now Sean has begun to wonder, how sustainable is this mode? How much fuckery is too much fuckery?Written in a riotous, utterly original idiom, and slyly undercutting both the hypocrisy of our era and that of Sean himself, Fuccboi is an unvarnished, playful, and searching examination of what it means to be a man.'Terse and intense and new and sort of fucked up but knowingly so. I loved it' TOMMY ORANGE, author of THERE THERE'Sean Conroe isn't one of the writers there's a hundred of . . . He writes what's his own, his own way' NICO WALKER, author of CHERRY'Like Knausgaard, Conroe has a knack for making the mundane enthralling' CHRIS POWER, author of A LONELY MAN'How brilliant to finally have a novel that examines contemporary masculinity with such candour, with such humour and style as to immediately read like amodern classic' BARRY PIERCE, IRISH TIMES

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The ultimate collection of stunning photographs documenting the career of one of the world’s greatest superstarsThere has never been or will there ever be an artist like Prince. “A 5' 3? Mastermind . . . satiated with virtuosity, controversy, stubbornness, and poise . . . His influence on Music transcended any and every category given titles by industry wizards and musicologists. Pop, Rock, Rhythm & Blues, Classical, Funk, Jazz, Soul, and Rap . . . He did it all and he did it well . . . and in his time . . . He did it first,” writes Randee St. Nicholas. For twenty-five years, this legendary photographer, with a storied career of her own, worked closely with Prince, capturing some of his most intimate and revealing moments both on and off stage. Now, the fruits of their numerous collaborations are on full display in My Name Is Prince, the largest collection of the most iconic photographs that will ever exist of one of the world’s greatest superstars.In this dazzling collector’s edition, readers are treated to a front-row seat to their innovative and awe-inspiring projects, from his music videos Gett Off and My Name Is Prince; to their impromptu photo shoots…just because; their adventures around the world from London to Tokyo to Prague, and his breathtaking, showstopping live concert appearances from great stages at Coachella and the 02 Arena to intimate nightclubs.Many of the trips, we will discover, are either unplanned or hastily arranged. And yet you will marvel at the results—as Prince expected nothing less than the best.When they met, Prince was ready for a change. The quixotic performer was known for seizing a moment and then on to the next.After their initial 1991 photo shoot in her Los Angeles studio, Prince assured St. Nicholas, “Don’t worry, I’ll be back.”Over the next twenty-five years he would return again and again, challenging himself and St. Nicholas to reach higher and to go further with every original pursuit.My Name Is Prince is the story of that unique working relationship and artistic evolution that produced many stunning images and lasted from their first meeting until the end:He had incredible timing, not just musically but spiritually, emotionally, and creatively . . . that Prince rhythm fueled a spontaneity that was contagious, enabling you to be more fearless and flexible than you thought you ever could be. When he would call . . . you had to be ready for anything . . . to jump on a plane with an hour or two notice, to put together a crew in a city you had never worked in before without any preparation time . . . or to simply just go outside your house at four in the morning where he was parked in his car, waiting for you to get in and listen to new music he had just recorded. One never knew what to expect . . . but it was always an inspired adventure.Told through 384 pages of striking visuals and poignant, intimate stories, the insights revealed in My Name Is Prince show a side of the enigmatic megastar that few have ever seen.We go beyond the genius and meet the man—playful, moody, disciplined, sensual, serious, and soulful. And in hundreds of photographs, we see that incandescent light behind his hypnotic eyes; that sly smile, strong hands, and transformative and transcendent presence that connected people from every part of the globe through his music. As his sound lives on, My Name Is Prince is a visual testimony to his greatness and a space that can never be filled.

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Hidden behind the picturesque facade of country lanes and rugged coastlines, quaint villages and busy market towns, the South West counties of Cornwall, Devon and Somerset have witnessed some of the most shocking murder cases in British history. West Country Murders brings together over 30 cases from the authors' previous collections here in one volume. They include stories of those who killed for greed, jealousy and lust, as well as those who committed murder in what a well-known judge once described as 'a gust of passion'. Some of the killers were undoubtedly insane at the time of their crimes; others were almost certainly innocent, yet paid the ultimate price for a murder they did not commit. Some remain unsolved to this day, despite the best efforts of the local constabularies. This book is sure to appeal to all those interested in the shady side of the West Country's history.

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ONE OF DAVID BOWIE'S TOP 100 MUST READ BOOKSTHE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE 2013 DOCUMENTARY FILM TEENAGEWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION FROM THE AUTHORThe acclaimed history of the century and a half of ferment, folly and angst that resulted in the arrival of 'the teenager' in 1945, from award-winning, Sunday Times bestselling author Jon Savage. 'One of Britain's most trusted cultural historians.'THE FACERinging with music, from ragtime to swing, Teenage roams London, New York, Paris and Berlin with hooligans and Apaches; explores free love and eternal youth; meets flappers and zootsuiters, the Bright Young People and the Lost Generation. The stories come fast and furious, comic, poignant, painfully moving; Savage fuses popular culture, politics and social history into a stunning chronicle of modern life. 'Compulsive reading . . . a rich, rewarding book that makes an important contribution to cultural history.'NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'The definitive history of youth in revolt.' ROLLING STONE'[Savage] can bring a beguiling blend of gravitas, wit, scholarship, and a slyly appreciative eye for the subversive, to any topic he approaches. Teenage provides a panoramic scope for his talents.'INDEPENDENT'Savage has produced a book that may well change how people think about teenagers.'GUARDIAN(This book is part of a reissue of Jon Savage's seminal works: 1966, Teenage, and England's Dreaming)

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In a landmark process that transformed global reparations after the Holocaust, Germany created the largest sustained redress program in history, amounting to more than $60 billion. When human rights violations are presented primarily in material terms, acknowledging an indemnity claim becomes one way for a victim to be recognized. At the same time, indemnifications provoke a number of difficult questions about how suffering and loss can be measured: How much is an individual life worth? How much or what kind of violence merits compensation? What is "financial pain," and what does it mean to monetize "concentration camp survivor syndrome"? Susan Slyomovics explores this and other compensation programs, both those past and those that might exist in the future, through the lens of anthropological and human rights discourse. How to account for variation in German reparations and French restitution directed solely at Algerian Jewry for Vichy-era losses? Do crimes of colonialism merit reparations? How might reparations models apply to the modern-day conflict in Israel and Palestine? The author points to the examples of her grandmother and mother, Czechoslovakian Jews who survived the Auschwitz, Plaszow, and Markkleeberg camps together but disagreed about applying for the post-World War II Wiedergutmachung ("to make good again") reparation programs. Slyomovics maintains that we can use the legacies of German reparations to reconsider approaches to reparations in the future, and the result is an investigation of practical implications, complicated by the difficult legal, ethnographic, and personal questions that reparations inevitably prompt.

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A reimagining of an instructional text on tumbling supports poems about the amateurishness of being human.Tumbling for Amateurs is a reimagining of James Tayloe Gwathmey’s 1910 book of the same name, published as part of Spalding’s Athletic Library. Bookended with “Propositions” on why tumbling is a skill that everyone should learn and “Extracts from Letters of Support,” each verso poem in this collection pairs with a recto illustration based on drawings from the source text. In the spirit of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, word and image work for each other, creating something more than just an instructional manual.Tumbling is, well, a metaphor for everything. And we all are, well, amateurs. Experimentation abounds in these poems and manipulated pictures. There are anaphoras, list sonnets, erasures, palimpsests and concrete poems, all working from tumbling’s limited vocabulary and central focus of acrobatics and gymnastics. In this experimentation of form and text is a search for the lyric, for an emotional connection when one isn’t always possible, in bodies, in movement, in desire. “We measure our lives by what our bodies can do.”"Matthew Gwathmey’s poems, springboarding from a genre of fitness manual popular in the early twentieth century, tumble us into the present through tests gamily set for body and mind. As ripped as his gymnast protagonists – evoked so fetchingly in the book’s illustrations – Gwathmey writes a poetry eschewing the lyrical in favour of a stripped-down, athletic language that gives shape to 'what must remain / nameless.' There’re so many ways to read ourselves into Tumbling for Amateurs. Go toe to toe with these poems and they’ll tone up your grip on what poetry is." – John Barton, author of Lost Family “We have no other way to touch each other. / Really no other way to touch each other. / We seek this particular exercise because / we have no other way to touch each other." Like the tumbling acts from which they spring, Gwathmey's poems are delightfully performative. They leap, loop, and reconfigure familiar forms into fresh and acrobatic new intimacies. Slyly queering his source text — an early 20th century tumbling manual for young men salvaged from the dusty closet of family history — Gwathmey transforms instruction into seduction as he conducts a tender and playful archeology of desire." – Suzanne Buffam, author of A Pillow Book"Gwathmey's poems go together like a troupe, somersaulting through the vocabulary of the way a body moves. They turn the still past into this moving present." – Paul Legault, author of The Tower

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The raucously witty Yiddish classic about a Jewish Paradise afflicted by very human temptations and pains, in a new translation On being expelled from Paradise, young Samuel Abba pulls a crafty trick, managing to arrive on earth with his memory intact. He quickly begins regaling the humans around him with mischievous stories of a Paradise far from their expectations: a world of drunken angels, lewd patriarchs and the same divisions and temptations that shape the human world. The Book of Paradise is a comic masterpiece, and the only novel by one of the great Yiddish writers. Written in the midst of rising anti-Semitism in 1930s Europe, its raucous blend of sacred and profane is a slyly profound reflection of the author's turbulent times.

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'One of Singapore's finest living authors' South China Morning Post 'Simply glorious. Every nook and cranny of 1930s Singapore is brought richly to life' CATRIONA MCPHERSON 'Charming' RHYS BOWEN 'One of the most likeable heroines in modern literature' SCOTSMAN ________________ The next title in the Mystery Tree series, exploring Singapore after the Japanese retreat and in the aftermath of WWII. ________________ Praise for Ovidia Yu: 'Chen Su Lin is a true gem. Her slyly witty voice and her admirable, sometimes heartbreaking, practicality make her the most beguiling narrator heroine I've met in a long while' Catriona McPherson 'Charming and fascinating with great authentic feel. Ovidia Yu's teenage Chinese sleuth gives us an insight into a very different culture and time. This book is exactly why I love historical novels' Rhys Bowen 'A wonderful detective novel . . . a book that introduces one of the most likeable heroines in modern literature and should be on everyone's Must Read list' Scotsman 'Unassuming, brilliantly observant' SCMP 'Ovidia Yu's writing helped me peel back the layers to understand Singapore. The story and Chen Su Lin's initiative and tenacity, set against a backdrop of wartime Singapore, intrigued both the historian and the mystery lover in me' Kara Owens CMG CVO, British High Commissioner to Singapore

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For outside observers, current events in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank are seldom related to the collective memory of ordinary Palestinians. But for Palestinians themselves, the iniquities of the present are experienced as a continuous replay of the injustice of the past. By focusing on memories of the Nakba or "catastrophe" of 1948, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were dispossessed to create the state of Israel, the contributors to this volume illuminate the contemporary Palestinian experience and clarify the moral claims they make for justice and redress. The book's essays consider the ways in which Palestinians have remembered and organized themselves around the Nakba, a central trauma that continues to be refracted through Palestinian personal and collective memory. Analyzing oral histories and written narratives, poetry and cinema, personal testimony and courtroom evidence, the authors show how the continuing experience of violence, displacement, and occupation have transformed the pre-Nakba past and the land of Palestine into symbols of what has been and continues to be lost. Nakba brings to light the different ways in which Palestinians experienced and retain in memory the events of 1948. It is the first book to examine in detail how memories of Palestine's cataclysmic past are shaped by differences of class, gender, generation, and geographical location. In exploring the power of the past, the authors show the urgency of the question of memory for understanding the contested history of the present. Contributors: Lila Abu Lughod, Columbia University; Diana Keown Allan, Harvard University; Haim Bresheeth, University of East London; Rochelle Davis, Georgetown University; Samera Esmeir, University of California, Berkeley; Isabelle Humphries, University of Surrey; Lena Jayyusi, Zayed University; Laleh Khalili, SOAS, University of London; Omar Al-Qattan, filmmaker; Ahmad H. Sa'di, Ben-Gurion University; Rosemary Sayigh, Lebanon-based anthropologist; Susan Slyomovics, University of California, Los Angeles

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'Wickedly smart and shamelessly funny' Kevin Kwan, New York Times bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians 'Sinfully good' Elin Hilderbrand Relationships are awful. They'll kill you, right up to the point where they start saving your life. Paul and Alice's half-sister Eloise is getting married! In London! There will be fancy hotels, dinners at 'it' restaurants and a reception at a country estate complete with tea lights and embroidered cloth napkins.They couldn't hate it more.The product of their mother's first marriage to a dashing Frenchman, Eloise has everything Paul and Alice have ever wanted: a seemingly endless trust fund, model good looks, an international life of luxury and their mother's unconditional love.Meanwhile, Alice is in her thirties, stuck in a dead-end job and mired in a rather predictable, though enjoyable, affair with her married boss, and Paul, who still isn't speaking to their mother after their father's death three years ago, has upended his life to move to Philadelphia for his tenured track professor boyfriend, who has recently started looking at other, younger men and talking wistfully about 'opening up'.As the estranged clan gathers, and Eloise's walk down the aisle approaches, Grant Ginder's bitingly funny, slyly witty and surprisingly tender story brings to vivid, hilarious life the power of family, and the complicated ways we hate the ones we love the most.

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THE INSTANT #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA Good Housekeeping Book We''re Most Looking Forward To * An Independent Today Best Fiction Books to Read * A GQ Magazine (UK) Best Book of 2024 * A Harper’s Bazaar (UK) Best Novels to Read * A Daily Record Best Novel Captivating [and] flawless...An affectingly hard-won romance. [Michael is] a sturdy and slyly amusing authority figure, … flailing amid the debris of a loving marriage gone sour. Marnie is a compulsively witty, winningly cranky near-agoraphobe...Both protagonists are prickly, smart and desperately yearning, but utterly guarded for understandably good reasons. Nicholls builds his own erotic and at times wrenchingly emotional suspense as the would-be lovers reveal past mishaps and surrendered dreams... As in the best romances, we cherish Michael’

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Small Island by bestselling author Andrea Levy won the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Orange Prize 'Best of the Best' as well as the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Whitbread. Possibly the definitive fictional account of the experiences of the Empire Windrush generation, it was selected by the BBC as one of its '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'.'A great read... honest, skilful, thoughtful and important' GuardianIt is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun.Queenie Bligh's neighbours don't approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but with her husband, Bernard, not back from the war, she has little choice in the matter.Gilbert Joseph was one of the many Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight Hitler. But when he returns to England as a civilian he doesn't receive the welcome he was expecting, and it's desperation that drives him to knock at Queenie's door. Gilbert's wife Hortense, who for years has longer for a better life in England, soon joins him. But London is far from the golden city of her dreams, and even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was.Small Island explores a point in England's past when the country began to change. In this delicately wrought and profoundly moving novel, Andrea Levy handles the weighty themes of empire, prejudice, war and love, with a superb lightness of touch and generosity of spirit.'An engrossing read - slyly funny, passionately angry and wholly involving' Daily Mail'Gives us a new urgent take on our past' Vogue

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The romantic and rebellious novelist George Sand, born in 1804 as Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, remains one of France’s most infamous and beloved literary figures. Thanks to a peerless translation by Gretchen van Slyke, Martine Reid’s acclaimed biography of Sand is now available in English.Drawing on recent French and English biographies of Sand as well as her novels, plays, autobiographical texts, and correspondence, Reid creates the most complete portrait possible of a writer who was both celebrated and vilified. Reid contextualizes Sand within the literature of the nineteenth century, unfolds the meaning and importance of her chosen pen name, and pays careful attention to Sand’s political, artistic, and scientific expressions and interests. The result is a candid, even-handed, and illuminating representation of a remarkable woman in remarkable times.With its clear, flowing language and impeccable scholarship, this Ernest Montusès Award–winning biography of the author of La Petite Fadette and A Winter in Majorca will be of great interest to those specializing in Sand and nineteenth-century literature—and to readers everywhere.

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A once-in-a-generation event held every twenty years, the Minnowbrook conference brings together the top scholars in public administration and public management to reflect on the state of the field and its future. This unique volume brings together a group of distinguished authors - both seasoned and new - for a rare critical examination of the field of public administration yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The book begins by examining the ideas of previous Minnowbrook conferences, such as relevance and change, which are reflective of the 1960s and 1980s. It then moves beyond old Minnowbrook concepts to focus on public administration challenges of the future: globalism, twenty-first century collaborative governance, the role of information technology in governance, deliberative democracy and public participation, the organization of the future, and teaching the next generation of leaders. The book ends by coming full circle to examine the current challenge of remaining relevant. There is no other book like this - nor is there ever likely to be another - in print. Simply put, the ideas, concepts, and spirit of Minnowbrook are one-of-a-kind. This book captures the soul of public administration past, present, and future, and is a must-read for anyone serious about the theory and practice of public administration.

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From the prize-winning author of Supper Club comes a wickedly funny and slyly poignant new satire on modern life - for fans of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Convenience Store Woman, and J. G. Ballard''s High Rise''Far from normal'' The Times''This book is a serious vibe'' Cosmopolitan''Lara Williams is the queen of smart modern satire. I could read her all day'' Emma Jane Unsworth Meet Ingrid. She works on a gargantuan luxury cruise liner, where she spends her days reorganizing the merchandise and waiting for long-term guests to drop dead in the changing rooms. On her days off, she disembarks from the ship and gets blind drunk on whatever the local alcohol is. It''s not a bad life. And it distracts her from thinking about the other life she left behind five years ago. Until one day she is selected for the employee mentorship scheme - an initiative run by the ship''s mysterious captain and self-anointed

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'One of Singapore's finest living authors' South China Morning Post'Simply glorious. Every nook and cranny of 1930s Singapore is brought richly to life' CATRIONA MCPHERSON'Charming' RHYS BOWEN'One of the most likeable heroines in modern literature' SCOTSMAN________________The Allies have defeated Germany in Europe, but Japan refuses to surrender the East.In Singapore, amid rumours the Japanese occupiers are preparing to wipe out the population of the island rather than surrender, a young aide is found murdered beneath the termite mushroom tree in Hideki Tagawa's garden and his plans for a massive poison gas bomb are missing. To prevent any more destruction it falls to Su Lin to track down the real killer with the help of Hideki Tagawa's old nemesis, the charismatic shinto priest Yoshio Yoshimo. ________________Praise for The Mushroom Tree Mystery'Beautifully written. . . effortless storytelling and sensitive character development make this a must-read novel for 2022' The Courier Praise for Ovidia Yu:'Chen Su Lin is a true gem. Her slyly witty voice and her admirable, sometimes heartbreaking, practicality make her the most beguiling narrator heroine I've met in a long while' Catriona McPherson'Charming and fascinating with great authentic feel. Ovidia Yu's teenage Chinese sleuth gives us an insight into a very different culture and time. This book is exactly why I love historical novels' Rhys Bowen'A wonderful detective novel . . . a book that introduces one of the most likeable heroines in modern literature and should be on everyone's Must Read list' Scotsman'Unassuming, brilliantly observant' SCMP'Ovidia Yu's writing helped me peel back the layers to understand Singapore. The story and Chen Su Lin's initiative and tenacity, set against a backdrop of wartime Singapore, intrigued both the historian and the mystery lover in me' Kara Owens CMG CVO, British High Commissioner to Singapore

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Discover TikTok's new favourite book.'I loved it and could have read a thousand more pages of it' Emma Cline, author of The Girls Selin, a tall, highly strung Turkish-American from New Jersey turns up at Harvard with no idea what to expect. What she doesn't expect is: - How much time she will spend thinking about language and its limitations - An opinionated cosmopolitan Serb named Svetlana, who will become her confidante - A mathematician from Hungary called Ivan, whom she will obsess over when she is supposed to be studying - Feeling dangerously overwhelmed by the challenges and possibilities of adulthood But most of all, Selin does not expect to embark on a study of precisely how baffling love can be when you are trying to forge a self... _______________- PRAISE FOR THE IDIOT: 'A moving, continent-hopping coming-of-age story' Observer 'Elif Batuman surely has one of the best senses of humour...refreshing and unique' Sheila Heti 'Full of zingy one-liners' Financial Times 'Hilarious, brilliant observations about writing, life and crushes' Curtis Sittenfeld 'Delightful and slyly funny' Red

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Longlisted for the Center for Fiction's 2021 First Novel Prize'Picaresque, gentle and slyly humorous; the glacial beauty of the northern landscape is the backdrop to arresting horrors, concealed passions, and a lifetime of kindnesses - all superbly rendered by Miller: a joy to read' Oisin Fagan, author of NobberIn 1916, Sven Ormson leaves Stockholm to seek adventure in Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago where darkness reigns four months of the year, and where he might witness the splendour of the Northern Lights one night or be attacked by a polar bear the next. After a devastating accident while digging for coal, Sven heads north again and ends up on an uninhabited fjord living in a hut he builds, alone except for the company of a loyal dog, testing himself against the elements. Years into his routine isolation, the arrival of an unlikely visitor sparks a chain of events that brings Sven into a family of fellow outsiders and determines the course of the rest of his life. Inspired by a real person and written with wry humour, in prose as beautiful as the stark landscape it evokes, The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven is a testament to the strength of human bonds, reminding us that even in the most inhospitable conditions, we are not beyond the reach of love.

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A hilarious new graphic novel from the author of Bloodlust and BonnetsKatie and Nas are best friends, exes, and co-dependents. They share everything, including a tiny room in a North London townhouse belonging to their landlord, Jeremy, former host of the hit 90s show Football Lads.While Katie bounces from job to job and obsesses about falling behind in life, Nas has bigger things in mind, such as waiting endlessly for their visa to come through and working on a seismic art project that will revolutionize politics and society as we know it.Their friend Emma, meanwhile, seems to have it all figured out – job, mortgage, engagement – yet the long hours working for tech giant Arko and endless wedding admin have left her similarly anxious and unsatisfied.But when Katie’s latest job finds her tutoring the daughter of Arko’s formidable CEO, and Emma welcomes the eccentric and enigmatic Alicia to her team at Arko, neither are aware that all of their lives – and possibly the future of society itself – are about to change forever . . .The new graphic novel from Emily McGovern, creator of the much loved webcomic My Life As A Background Slytherin, Twelve Percent Dread is an uproarious tale of female friendship in an anxious and tech-obsessed world.

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Inspired by #sorrywrongasian, Nothing Alike is a slyly funny picture book for readers aged 3 to 8 years that shines a light on the tricky topic of race, micro-aggressions and stereotyping. In Nothing Alike, a white boy who can't tell his two Asian classmates apart. Or can he? Reuben and his best friend think it's impossible to tell Esmé and Eunwoo apart! They both have the same dark hair, are both short, and they even wear the same school uniform. Except that once Reuben starts to think about it, of course he knows who is who. But the girls have a surprise in store for him. He and his best friend look more like than they realise! With the wry humour, child-centredness and friendship dynamics of Who's Your Real Mum?, Reuben's story will inspire readers to really see people as individuals and inspire them to be better friends.Nothing Alike is based on a true story, and a common experience among Asians. Author Zewlan Moor was continually mistaken for another Asian writer colleague, despite them looking nothing alike. In a curious twist of fate, Zewlan’s son came home from his new school and could not tell his two Asian classmates apart. And so her idea of this picture book about race, perception and stereotyping was born.

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An Amazon.ca Best Book of 2013A Globe and Mail Top 100 for 2013A Quill & Quire Best Book of 2013Longlisted, Frank O'Connor International Short Story AwardSavage Love marks the long-awaited literary return of one of Canada's most lauded and stylistically brilliant authors. Slyly holding forth with subversive wit, Glover skewers every conventional notion we've ever held about that cultural&emotional institution of love we are instructed to hold dear. Peopled with forensic archaeologists, members of ancient tribes, horoscope writers, dental hygienists, butchers — Glover's stories are of our time yet timeless; spectacular fables that stand in any era, any civilization. Whether we be sexually ambiguous librarians or desperadoes of the most despicable kind, Glover exposes the humanity lurking behind our masks, and the perversities that underlie our actions. Absurd, comic, dream-like, deeply affecting (on the molecular level): these stories revel in inventiveness yet preserve a strict adherence to the real. Glover directs his focus to moments when things seem too incredible to be supported, pointing us to truths that exhibit human nature in contexts we all recognize. Savage Love marks the return of a master, with laugh-out-loud stories of the best kind, often completely unexpected, rife with moments of tragedy or horror. This is Douglas Glover country, and we are all willing visitors.

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Nobody's Darling by Josephine Cox, Sunday Times bestselling author, explores worldly success and all it brings as well as all it leaves behind.'The fact that Josephine Cox brings so much freshness to the plot, and the characters, is an indication of her skills as a storyteller' Birmingham PostLizzie Miller worries about her beautiful eldest daughter. A mother shouldn't have favourites, but Ruby wins a special place in Lizzie's heart. Money is short in their little house in Blackburn, and Ruby yearns to give her beloved family a better life. Determined to enjoy the security only wealth can bring, she stifles her feelings for handsome Johnny Ackroyd. Ruby knows he cannot offer her the life she craves. She works as a maid for Mr Banks and his daughter, Cicely. The two girls hatch a mischievous plan to introduce Ruby to society at a party for the 'gentry' of Blackburn, where Ruby meets Luke Arnold, the dissolute heir to his father's fortunes. Seeing Ruby's dark beauty, he determines to despoil her innocence. When Luke slyly turns his charm on Cicely, Ruby feels compelled to warn her friend of his evil nature. Ruby quickly finds employment in a milliner's shop, and eventually takes over the business. But her worldly success still leaves an emptiness that riches cannot fill, and Ruby learns at last that the love of family and friends is beyond price . . .

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“A spellbinding, heart-stopping adventure.” —Booklist (starred review)“A dreamily written, slyly educational, rousing maritime adventure.” —New York Times Book ReviewIn the stand-alone companion to the New York Times–bestselling A Wolf Called Wander, a young orca whale must lead her brother on a tumultuous journey to be reunited with their pod. This gorgeously illustrated animal adventure novel explores family bonds, survival, global warming, and a changing seascape. Includes information about orcas and their habitats.For Vega and her family, salmon is life. And Vega is learning to be a salmon finder, preparing for the day when she will be her family’s matriarch. But then she and her brother Deneb are separated from their pod when a devastating earthquake and tsunami render the seascape unrecognizable. Vega must use every skill she has to lead her brother back to their family. The young orcas face a shark attack, hunger, the deep ocean, and polluted waters on their journey. Will Vega become the leader she’s destined to be?A Whale of the Wild weaves a heart-stopping tale of survival with impeccable research on a delicate ecosystem and threats to marine life. New York Times-bestselling author Rosanne Parry’s fluid writing and Lindsay Moore’s stunning artwork bring the Salish Sea and its inhabitants to vivid life. An excellent read-aloud and read-alone, this companion to A Wolf Called Wander will captivate fans of The One and Only Ivan and Pax.Includes black-and-white illustrations throughout, a map, and extensive backmatter about orcas and their habitats.

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The Accidental Woman is a wickedly funny novel from bestseller Jonathan CoeFor Maria, nothing is certain. Her life is a chain of accidents. Untouched by friendship, unimpressed by devoted Ronny and his endless marriage proposals, she lives in a world of her own, but not of her own making. Even as she stumbled on through university, work, marriage and motherhood, Maria finds it hard to see what all the fuss is about.Will our heroine ever be able to control the direction of her life, or will it end, as it began, by accident? What does chance next have in store for her?From the author of the award-winning The Rotters' Club and What a Carve Up!, The Accidental Woman will be enjoyed by readers of Nick Hornby and William Boyd and centres on a quirky and highly individual woman who is still struggling to find her place in life. 'The Accidental Woman has a cocky individual voice of its own. . . here's precocious, rebellious talent' Mail on Sunday'Slyly parodies the clichés of most first novels' Guardian'A convincing stuffy of the random impetuses by which human lives tend to be governed. It is also very funny' SpectatorJonathan Coe's novels are filled with biting social commentary, moving and astute observations of life and hilarious set pieces that have made him one of the most popular writers of his generation. His other titles, What a Carve Up! (winner of the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), A Touch of Love, The Rotters' Club (winner of the Everyman Wodehouse prize), The Closed Circle, The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, The House of Sleep (winner of the1998 Prix Médicis Étranger), and The Rain Before it Falls, are all available in Penguin paperback.

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LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA HISTORICAL DAGGER'Simply glorious. Every nook and cranny of 1930s Singapore is brought richly to life' CATRIONA MCPHERSON 'Charming' RHYS BOWEN'One of the most likeable heroines in modern literature' SCOTSMAN _________Mirza, a secretive neighbour of the Chens in Japanese Occupied Singapore, is a known collaborator and blackmailer. So when he is murdered in his garden, clutching a branch of mimosa, the suspects include local acquaintances, Japanese officials -- and his own daughters.Su Lin's Uncle Chen is among those rounded up by the Japanese as reprisal. Hideki Tagawa, a former spy expelled by police officer Le Froy and a power in the new regime, offers Su Lin her uncle's life in exchange for using her fluency in languages and knowledge of locals to find the real killer.Su Lin soon discovers Hideki has an ulterior motive. Friends, enemies and even the victim are not what they seem. There is more at stake here than one man's life. Su Lin must find out who killed Mirza and why, before Le Froy and other former colleagues detained or working with the resistance suffer the consequences of Mirza's last secret._________Praise for Ovidia Yu:'One of Singapore's finest living authors' South China Morning Post'Chen Su Lin is a true gem. Her slyly witty voice and her admirable, sometimes heartbreaking, practicality make her the most beguiling narrator heroine I've met in a long while' Catriona McPherson'Charming and fascinating with great authentic feel. Ovidia Yu's teenage Chinese sleuth gives us an insight into a very different culture and time. This book is exactly why I love historical novels' Rhys Bowen'A wonderful detective novel . . . a book that introduces one of the most likeable heroines in modern literature and should be on everyone's Must Read list' Scotsman'Unassuming, brilliantly observant' SCMP

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Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the West End… West End Producer, the masked man of Theatreland and author of the definitive guide to acting*, returns with the ultimate guide to the theatregoing experience – for anyone who's ever been to the theatre, or who thinks they might like to try it one day. As the Godfather of theatre producers, with an enviable track-record in uncovering new talent (via his competitions Search for a Twitter Star and Search for a Twitter Composer) and a regular column in The Stage newspaper, WEP is a cult figure in London's theatre scene, frequently attending press nights with his trusty Jean Valjean teddy by his side. Now he's ready to share his industry secrets once again, this time coming to the aid of audience members everywhere as they embark on the most perilous quest of all: going to the theatre. Packed with insider know-how and naughty advice, this book will tell you how to make your West End adventure as smooth as Craig Revel Horwood's nose, including tips and advice on: What shows to see and what to avoid (how to see the hits and not the shits) Where to sit (without developing ongoing neck problems and deep vein thrombosis) How to combat theatre rage (and get to the ladies' loos before anyone else) What to eat (crisps, sweets, or kebabs?) What to wear (from the correct attire at press night, to the importance of a good, reliable codpiece at Shakespeare's Globe) And, crucially, how to leave early if the show is rubbish (a 'shrubbish') It will even help you save a bit of money as well.** Also included are many of WEP’s most wickedly astute tweets, potted histories of some of the greatest West End shows, and handy instructions on how to become one of West End Producer's Theatre Prefects – protecting theatres from phone users, snorers, and persistent latecomers. So, put on your nicest frock, grab your tickets, and don't be late. This book will begin in five minutes. I repeat: five minutes, dear. 'All the crucial facts, naughty wit and insider knowledge that every theatregoer needs to have. Hysterically accurate, bitingly savage. Read this before buying your theatre ticket. Fab-u-lous, darling!' Craig Revel Horwood 'This book had me snorting prosecco out of my nostrils, dear. Hilarious yet chock-full of insider tips – and some stuff we all think about the theatre we know and love, but wouldn’t dare say whilst sober. Glorious.' Meera Syal 'West End Producer is shaping up to be the theatre's version of William Goldman: funny, astute and incisive, slyly twitching aside the curtains of the West End to reveal its most embarrassing secrets. A must for theatre-lovers (and haters).' Joanne Harris 'WEP does it again! His shrewd observation and deliciously waspish words neatly skewer and illuminate the rarefied world of theatre. I recommend everyone to read the section on what not to say to actors and applaud WEP's suggestion of a Theatre Prefect Programme. Theatre may be too dear – but WEP is very dear too.' Colin Baker * Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Acting, But Were Afraid To Ask, Dear ** After all, the Dom Pérignon won't buy itself.

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Georgette Heyer meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this smart, funny graphic novel by Emily McGovern, the award-winning author of My Life as a Background Slytherin. The year is 1820, and bored young debutante Lucy knows there must be more to life than embroidery and engagements - no matter how eligible the bachelor might be. Some bachelors, she has discovered, are less 'eligible' than they are 'bloodthirsty,' however... literally. It turns out that there are a lot of vampires in late-Regency England, and Lucy has an eye for spotting them and the desire to rid the world of them. It's not long before Lucy -- soon joined by the mysterious Sham, the blowhard Lord Byron (yes, from books), and Napoleon, Lord Byron's majestic psychic eagle -- is on the adventure of a lifetime. From ballrooms to bloodshed, from bonnets to bloodlust... Lucy will fight evil, be tempted by evil, fight again, be tempted again, and fight some more. A balm for the soul for readers who love Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, novels by Eloisa James and Jane Austen, and the action and adventure of Xena, Warrior Princess, Bloodlust & Bonnets is the most modern action-heavy love-story set two hundred years ago that you'll read this year. ***Readers Love Bloodlust & Bonnets*** 'If you like to make fun of Lord Byron (which I do), engage in some literary vampire-slaying (same), poignantly reflect on how very much we all want to be special (oh, shut up), hear some witty dialogue, and see some good Regency Lesbian Flirting then you’ll enjoy this. My only complaint is that I cannot access a sequel RIGHT NOW' -Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 'If you love historical satire, if you love farce, if you love slightly silly graphic novels, you’ll love this' -Nerds Like Me 'The setting, the characters and the adventure they go on all create this tapestry of bloodshed and romance. If you know about your Jane Austen’s and Charlotte Bronte’s but enjoy a splash of comical humour and a dollop of pure fantastical adventure, then you’ll eat this up. It’s a bleedin’ hoot' -Nerdly 'Bloodlust and Bonnets will delight Jane Austen fans with a sense of humour and anyone who likes their gags with a touch of the supernatural' -Starburst Magazine

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Life in the largely rural county of Dorset has not always been idyllic, for over the years it has experienced numerous murders, some of which are little known outside the county borders, others that have shocked the nation. These include arguments between lovers with fatal consequences, family murders, child murders and mortal altercations at Dorset's notorious Portland Prison. The entire country thrilled to the scandalous cases of Alma Rattenbury and Charlotte Bryant who, in the 1930s, found living with their husbands so difficult that both found a terminal solution to the problem. In 1856, Elizabeth Browne rid herself of a husband and, in doing so, became the inspiration for Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles'. The mystery of the Coverdale Kennels at Tarrant Keynston, where not one, but two kennel managers died in suspicious circumstances, remains unsolved to this day. And it was in Bournemouth that Neville Heath committed the second of his two murders, which led to his arrest and eventual execution in 1946. Illustrated with fifty intriguing illustrations, Dorset Murders will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of county's history.

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A Grim Almanac of the Black Country is a day-by-day catalogue of 366 ghastly tales from around the area. Full of dreadful deeds, strange disappearances and a multitude of mysteries, this almanac explores the darker side of the Black Country’s past. Here are stories of tragedy, torment and the truly unfortunate with diverse tales of mining disasters, freak weather, bizarre deaths and tragic accidents, including the gunpowder explosion at a factory in Tipton which claimed nineteen lives in 1922. Also featured is the corpse in West Bromwich that was twice wrongly identified in 1929, the collapse of a concert hall roof in Walsall in 1921, and the two labourers buried in molten glass near Stourbridge in 1893. All these, plus tales of fires, catastrophes, mysteries and executions, are here. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of the Black Country’s grim past. Read on ... if you dare!

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A Grim Almanac of Oxfordshire is a day-by-day catalogue of 366 ghastly tales from the county’s past. There are murders and manslaughters, including the killing by Mrs Barber of her entire family in 1909 while temporarily insane, and the brutal murder of four-year-old Edward Busby in 1871, killed by his mother to prevent his father ill-treating him. There are bizarre deaths, including those of four-year-old Charles Taylor, who was accidentally kicked clean through a top storey window in 1844 by a child playing on a swing, George Sheppard, who was struck by a cricket ball during a match in 1905, and of the vicar of Bucknell, who starved himself to death in 1935. There is an assortment of calamities which include strange and unusual crimes, devastating fires, rail crashes, explosions, disasters, mysteries, freak weather and a plethora of uncanny accidents. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of Oxfordshire’s grim past. Delve into the dreadful deeds of Oxford’s past, if you dare…

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A Grim Almanac of Somerset is a day-by-day catalogue of 365 ghastly tales from around the county. Full of dreadful deeds, macabre deaths, strange occurrences and heinous homicides, this almanac explores the darker side of Somerset's past. The wicked, the mad, the violent and the bad are all crammed into this volume. Here are stories of tragedy, torment and the truly unfortunate with such diverse tales as the soldier who stabbed himself with his own bayonet while turning a somersault in 1879, 'the murder that never happened' in 1837, the mother who threw her child into a cess pit in 1855, as well as a catalogue of disasters which include mining and railway accidents, explosions, riots, a devastating collapsing footbridge in Bath in 1930 and a circus big top destroyed by fire in Taunton in 1920, with the loss of five lives. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of Somerset's grim past. Read on... if you dare!

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A Ghostly Almanac of Devon & Cornwall is a month-by-month catalogue of reported spectral sightings and paranormal phenomena from around the South West of England. Contained within the pages of this book are strange tales of restless spirits appearing in streets, buildings and churchyards across the region, including a haunted German U-Boat wrecked off Padstow during the First World War; the 'Grey Lady' at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, so-named because of her grey nurse's uniform; the ghost of a Dartmoor Prison inmate seen herding sheep in the prison grounds and out on the moor itself; a shade with a penchant for horror films at Plymouth's Reel Cinema; and the infamous 'Hairy Hands of Dartmoor', which forces drivers off the road. Richly illustrated with 100 photographs and postcards, this chilling collection of stories will appeal to everyone with an interest in the West Country's haunted heritage, and is guaranteed to make your blood run cold.

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Murder by poison is often thought of as a crime mainly committed by women, usually to despatch an unwanted spouse or children. While there are indeed many infamous female poisoners, such as Mary Ann Cotton, who is believed to have claimed at least twenty victims between 1860 and 1872, and Mary Wilson, who killed her husbands and lovers in the 1950s for the proceeds of their insurance policies, there are also many men who chose poison as their preferred means to a deadly end. Dr. Thomas Neil Cream poisoned five people between 1881 and 1892 and was connected with several earlier suspicious deaths, while Staffordshire doctor William Palmer murdered at least ten victims between 1842 and 1856. Readily obtainable and almost undetectable prior to advances in forensic science during the twentieth century, poison was considered the ideal method of murder and many of its exponents failed to stop at just one victim. Along with the most notorious cases of murder by poison in the country, this book also features many of the cases that did not make national headlines, examining not only the methods and motives but also the real stories of the perpetrators and their victims.

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Riding horses is an age-old pleasure but one that can't be taken lightly. People who want to take up this wonderfully satisfying sport, and those who wish to improve their skill, will find this comprehensive and responsible book to riding styles and skills both inspiring and informative. Basic Riding Techniques tells you what you need to know to get started, section two goes into slightly more advanced skills, such as how to achieve bend and flexion. Introduction to Jumping explores the principles of rhythm and balance; The World of the Horse is a fascinating introduction to the world of competition and international horse shows; and, Equestrian Events examines the exciting world open to people who ride for sport and pleasure. (Parts of the book have been previously published in Debby's Practical Rider's Handbook, now OOP, with extensive new material and updates for this new volume.)

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'Broadmoor Inmates: True Crime Tales of Life and Death in the Asylum' brings together the histories of people who died in Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, each having committed a crime that led to them being pronounced criminally insane, necessitating their confinement and containment for their own protection, as well as that of the public. Nowadays, staff have a wide range of therapeutic tools at their disposal but historically the only treatment offered to patients was work, leisure activities and abundant fresh air. All human life is here - the addicts, the mentally deranged, the delusional, the tragic and the chronically and postnatally depressed - men and women whose acts of madness led them to be reviled and feared, but who were often as much victims of their own internal demons as were those they harmed. As well as wife murderers James Potter and Peter Whittle, the characters within include Henry Dommett, James Senior and Mary Ann Parr, who each killed their own children and Christiana Edmunds, who poisoned several people in Brighton to divert suspicion from herself, after attempting to murder her love rival. Other vignettes include serial arsonist John Green, counterfeiter Emma Jackson and James Stevenson and Roderick Edward McClean, both of whom took exception to the accession of Her Majesty Queen Victoria to the throne, the latter attempting to assassinate her. Daniel McNaughten became so paranoid about the 'Tory' spies that he believed followed him constantly that he killed a civil servant in 1843, mistakenly believing his victim to be prime minister Sir Robert Peel. Such was McNaughten's derangement that his crime spawned a new standard for the legal definition of insanity. Generously illustrated throughout, this book will prove of interest to those with a fascination for historical true crime and the way its perpetrators were dealt with by society.

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A superb examination of the history of the Fens, containing a great deal of stunning photographs.

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