Search results for ""Oldcastle Books Ltd""

Whoops! Apocalypse... The Horror! The Horror! Kurtz might be the apple of every brutish imperialist's eye, but his God complex is getting wildly out of hand in the depths of the jungle. What on earth will Marlow find when he finally gets downriver? Devil worship? Savages? Heads on sticks? Or just another nutty white man with his knickers in a twist?

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What happens when 'happy ever after' isn't quite so simple? Today's attitudes to love and romance are as varied and diverse as individuals, and audiences want and need more sophisticated, authentic films that show how we live and love now. So what does this mean for the screenwriter developing a romcom? And how do they write heart-warming stories for a genre that is constantly evolving, from bromcom to zomcom to famcom? Writing and Selling Romantic Comedy Screenplays offers a fresh approach to creating narratives for this ever-changing genre. Moving away from rigid and limited definitions that have evolved out of mainstream genre films, the book embraces a working definition that crosses cultural and national boundaries to give screenwriters around the world a truly international perspective on writing comedic love stories. It will be the first screenwriting guide to reflect the diversity of approaches in today's films that deal with the human need for emotional and physical intimacy using humour - the contemporary romantic comedy. Features of the book include: Illuminating, challenging and provocative about the state of the rom-com genre. Why do some films feel so dated, while others are perennially relevant? Explores and defines all subgenres of romcom, such as zomcom, bromedy, soromcom and famcom. Uniquely draws on creativity, screenwriting genre theory and film industry practice. Stimulating creative exercises at the end of every chapter, and 'hot tips' throughout. Adaptable concepts that can be applied to both feature films and short films. Encourages screenwriters to define their own values about love to ensure their voice and message is original - and commercial. Case studies and analyses of produced screenplays, including Dostana, Due Date, I Give it a Year, I love You, Man, Midnight in Paris, Ruby Sparks, Tamara Drewe, Ted and Warm Bodies. Interviews with writers, directors and producers. Genuine international perspective. Indispensible guide for both the student and the professional writer or filmmaker.

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In Easy Money David Spanier studies the psychological motivation of gamblers, those who beat the system and those beaten by it, portraying the personalities and legends of the gambling world of the time. Spanier ranges widely over his subject, considering the motivations of gamesters, stressing the physical sensations they experience, the percentages and chances, heuristic principles, the differences in European and American gambling, and the criminal element in U.S. gaming, but concentrates primarily on the human side of gambling rather than the mathematical or theoretical. While he is comfortable discussing Freud's analysis of the compulsive gambler, his real emphasis is on the individuals: the mathematician who devised a way to beat the house advantage at blackjack; the London man-about-town who ran games for the upper class; the cleric who founded the British Gamblers Anonymous; the physician who established a 'gamblers' hospital' in Brecksville, Ohio. This is an insider's analysis of the thrills, action, and intense emotional involvement that makes up the world of gambling.

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Today, people can watch television shows, feature films, live sporting events, and just about anything they want on their computers, tablets or phones. As the new media marketplace continues to grow, so does demand for original content and opportunities for filmmakers. Online distributors - such as YouTube, Hulu, and Funny or Die - are interested in acquiring web series (episodic digital entertainment, like mini-TV shows) that attract audiences and appeal to advertisers. Web TV Series... How to Make and Market Them provides advice and expertise to help readers create their own original, successful online shows - projects that can be profitable, potentially developed into film or television properties, and help to start a career in the industry. Readers will learn how to develop characters and stories designed for new media platforms, and find tips for planning, shooting, and editing that are tailored specifically to web series production. This book also extensively covers the latest distribution platforms and social media marketing strategies, as well as examples of how to find financial sustainability through advertisers, branded content, and sponsorship partners. Web Series has all of the tools necessary for both aspiring and experienced filmmakers to make the most of this growing new medium.

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The Knights Templar were the most powerful military religious order of the Middle Ages. Formed to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land, they participated in the Crusades and rapidly gained wealth, lands and influence and were answerable to none save the Pope himself. In addition to having a fearful military reputation, they were also Christendom's first bankers, and played a large part in inventing the modern banking system. They were also involved in developments in navigation, architecture, medicine, and engineering, amongst others. Seemingly untouchable for nearly two centuries, the Templars fell from grace spectacularly after the loss of the Holy Land. In 1307, all Templars in France were arrested on charges of heresy, homosexuality, denial of the cross and devil worship. The order was suppressed by the Pope in 1312, and Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master, was burnt at the stake as a heretic two years later. The myth of the Templars was born and in the ensuing centuries, they have occupied a unique position in European history. Orthodox historians see them as nothing more than soldier-monks whose arrogance was their ultimate undoing, while others see them as occultists of the first order, the founders of Freemasonry, possessors of the Holy Grail and the Turin Shroud. Sean Martin considers both the orthodox and conspiratorial version of events, and includes the latest revelations from the Vatican Secret Archives.

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For more than 2,000 years utopian visionaries have sought to create a blueprint of the ideal society: from Plato to HG Wells, from Cloud cuckoo land to Shangri-La, the utopian impulse has generated a vast body of work, encompassing philosophy and political theory, classical literature and science fiction. And yet these utopian dreams have often turned to nightmare, as utopia gives way to its dark reflection, dystopia. Utopia takes the reader on a journey through these imaginary worlds, charting the progress of utopian ideas from their origins within the classical world, to the rebirth of utopian ideals in the Middle Ages. Later we see the emergence of socialist and feminist ideas; while the twentieth century was to be dominated by expressions of totalitarian oppression. From the novel to the political manifesto, from satire to science fiction, utopias have always reflected the age that gave rise to them, and this guide will explore this historical context, offering both an analysis of the key texts and an account of their political and cultural background. Today, it is claimed that we are witnessing the death of utopia, as increasingly the ideals that give rise to them are undermined or dismissed. These arguments are explored and evaluated here, and contemporary examples of utopian thought used to demonstrate the enduring relevance of the utopian tradition.

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Risk everything, trust no one. Jen Shaw is climbing in the mountains near Alajar, Spain. And it's nothing to do with the fact that an old acquaintance suggested that she meet him there... But when things don't go as planned and her brother calls to voice concerns over the whereabouts of their mother, Morwenna, Jen finds herself travelling to a refugee camp on the south coast of Malta. Free-spirited and unpredictable as ever, Morwenna is working with a small NGO, helping her Libyan friend, Nahla, seek asylum for her family. Jen is instantly out of her depth, surrounded by stories of unimaginable suffering and increasing tensions within the camp. Within hours of Jen's arrival, Nahla is killed in suspicious circumstances, and Jen and Morwenna find themselves responsible for the safety of her daughters. But what if the safest option is to leave on a smuggler's boat?

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Erin McCabe is a New Jersey criminal defense attorney doing her best to live quietly in the wake of a profound personal change - until a newsworthy case puts her whole life at risk... Erin McCabe has been referred the biggest case of her career. Four months ago, the son of a New Jersey state senator was found fatally stabbed in a rundown motel near Atlantic City. Sharise Barnes, a nineteen-year-old transgender sex worker, is in custody, and, based on the evidence against her, there seems little doubt of a guilty verdict. As a transgender woman herself, Erin knows that defending Sharise will blow her own private life wide open and doubtless deepen her estrangement from her family. Yet she feels uniquely qualified to help Sharise and duty-bound to protect her from the possibility of a death sentence. While Erin works with her law partner, former-FBI-agent Duane Swisher, to show Sharise acted in self-defense, the senator begins using the full force of his influence to publicly discredit them and their efforts to mount a defense for Sharise. And behind the scenes, his tactics are even more dangerous. For his son had secrets that could destroy the senator's own political aspirations - secrets worth killing for...

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Jen Shaw has climbed all her life: daring ascents of sheer rock faces, crumbling buildings, cranes - the riskier the better. Both her work and personal life revolved around climbing, and the adrenaline high it gave her. Until she went too far and hurt the people she cares about. So she's given it all up now. Honestly, she has. And she's checked herself into a rehab centre to prove it. Yet, when Jen awakens to find herself drugged and dangling off the local lighthouse during a wild storm less than twenty-four hours after a 'family emergency' takes her home to Cornwall, she needs all her skill to battle her way to safety. Has Jen fallen back into her old risky ways, or is there a more sinister explanation hidden in her hometown? Only when she has navigated her fragmented memories and faced her troubled past will she be able to piece together what happened - and trust herself to fix it...

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The third novel in David Thomson's series inspired by movie genres - an enchanting yet haunting celebration of screwball romantic comedies. In 1985, with the acclaimed Suspects, and then in 1990 with the exhilarating Silver Light, David Thomson delivered unprecedented fictions in which the characters were figures from film noir and the Western. Now a trilogy is completed with Connecticut. Why Connecticut? Because that lovely, liberal state has been set aside as the resting place for every disturbed person in the nation! At first, this seems like an opportunity for meeting up with the merry ghosts of Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Carole Lombard, William Powell and Margaret Sullavan. We get glimpses of Bringing Up Baby, My Man Godfrey and The Lady Eve. But then the wild comedy darkens as we realize that Connecticut itself is on the edge of a demented and cruel war that challenges all its inmates to keep seeing the comic side of mishap and madness. The trilogy is revealed not just as a set of dazzling stories. But a commentary on how far we have all been steered towards delightful but dangerous fantasies by the movies. Aren't we all screwball now? Is Connecticut safe to visit?

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Eighteen years have passed since ten countries from Central & Eastern Europe joined the European Union and more than three decades since the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989 - but ignorance about what is popularly still called Eastern Europe is as widespread as ever. Slovenia still gets mixed up with Slovakia, the Slavs remain a mystery in a Europe apparently dominated by Romanic and Germanic nations and a country like the Czech Republic is labelled as Eastern European, although one needs to travel west to get from Vienna to Prague. First published in 2009 under the title What's so eastern about Eastern Europe?, this book is much more than a revised and updated version of the first edition. Its presentation of the political and cultural history of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, written in an accessible language is now complemented with recent developments in the region. The new edition digs into the reasons behind the illiberal turn in Poland, Hungary and elsewhere, putting the alleged democratic backslide into the wider context of European populism. Leon Marc offers a new and fresh perspective in explaining the roots of populism and social conservatism in the region, which the book sees in a mixture of historical factors, economic conditions, the heavy burden of Communist legacy, as well as a reaction to contemporary social developments in the West. Drawing on a wide range of literature, the book calls for more sensibility to these underlying causes, critical examination of the true European values, and for a coalition of defenders of Humanism and Judeo-Christian tradition as key pillars of its identity, in order to save Europe and its liberal democracy. This updated and expanded edition contains a brand new chapter bringing this book up to date with recent events, including Covid-19 and the Ukrainian conflict.

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Between 1967 and 1970 Italian auteur Giovanni 'Tinto' Brass directed four feature films in London, each starring a woman as the main character. Exploring the political, cultural and sexual ideas of their time, often in a deliberate pop-art style, they contain much priceless footage of now forgotten neighbourhoods, galleries, clubs and events as well as an abundance of contemporary music. Free Your Mind! describes the films, their stars, how they were made, and their influence on the social history, pop culture, cinema, music and TV of the time.

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\'Anyone interested in the challenges of housing policy will want to read this methodical analysis of what went well and what did not over much of the last century\' - LORD HESELTINE For nearly 150 years, living in a house in the country has been what many of us aspire to. This book explores how this idea was imported from the US by Ebenezer Howard, founder of the garden city movement, the impact it has had in the UK and why, on cost and environmental grounds, it\'s time to move on from this approach. House in the Country examines the developments in urban planning and residential architecture from 1815 to the present day and considers the legacy of Howard's garden city movement in twenty-first century Britain. An accessible and informative introduction, House in the Country presents a richly detailed narrative containing much historical, social and cultural commentary as well as interviews with key figures in this field.

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Andrei Tarkovsky is the most celebrated Russian filmmaker since Eisenstein, and one of the most important directors to have emerged during the 1960s and 70s. Although he made only seven features, each one was a major landmark in cinema, the most well-known of them being the mediaeval epic Andrei Rublev - widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time - and the autobiographical Mirror, set during the Russia of Stalin's purges in the 1930s and the years of stagnation under Brezhnev. Both films landed Tarkovsky in considerable trouble with the authorities, and he gained a reputation for being a tortured - and ultimately martyred - filmmaker. Despite the harshness of the conditions under which he worked, Tarkovsky built up a remarkable body of work. He burst upon the international scene in 1962 with his debut feature Ivan's Childhood, which won the Golden Lion at Venice and immediately established him as a major filmmaker. During the 1970s, he made two classic ventures into science-fiction, Solaris, regarded at the time as being the Soviet reply to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and later remade by Steven Soderbergh, and Stalker, which was thought to have predicted the Chernobyl disaster. Harassed at home, Tarkovsky went into exile and made his last two films in the West, where he also published his classic work of film and artistic theory, Sculpting in Time. Since his death in Paris in 1986, his reputation continued - and continues - to grow. Sean Martin considers the whole of Tarkovsky's oeuvre, from the classic student film The Steamroller and the Violin, across the full-length films, to the later stage works and Tarkovsky's writings, paintings and photographs. Martin also seeks to demystify Tarkovsky as a 'difficult' director, whilst also celebrating his radical aesthetic of long takes and tracking shots, which Tarkovsky was to dub 'imprinted' or 'sculpted' time, and to make a case for Tarkovsky's position not just as an important filmmaker, but also as an artist who speaks directly about the most important spiritual issues of our time.

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Looking for a New England covers the period 1975 to 1986, from Slade in Flame to Absolute Beginners. A carefully researched exploration of transgressive films, the career of David Bowie, dystopias, the Joan Collins ouevre, black cinema, the origins and impact of punk music, political films, comedy, how Ireland and Scotland featured on our screens and the rise of Richard Branson and a new, commercial, mainstream. The sequel to Psychedelic Celluloid, it describes over 100 film and TV productions in detail, together with their literary, social and musical influences during a time when profound changes shrank the size of the UK cinema industry.

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The Korean War of 1950-1953 ended in a frustrating stalemate, the echoes of which reverberate to this day. It was the only conflict of the Cold War in which forces of major nations of the two opposing systems - capitalism and communism - confronted each other on the battlefield. And yet, in the sixty years since it was fought it has been strangely neglected, perhaps because no one was able to claim the victor's spoils. The War That Never Ended details the origins, battles, politics and personalities of the Korean War - a war that has never ended, and for which no peace treaty was ever signed.

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When Rowland Sinclair volunteers his services as a pilot to fly the renowned international peace advocate, Egon Kisch, between Freemantle and Melbourne, he is unaware of how hard Australia's new Attorney General will fight to keep the reporter off Australian soil. In this, it seems, the government is not alone, as clandestine right-wing militias target Kisch... A Communist agent is murdered on the steps of Parliament House and Rowland finds himself drawn into a dangerous world of politics and assassination. Once again, he stands against the unthinkable with an artist, a poet and brazen sculptress by his side...

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Wealthy Australian artist Rowland Sinclair enjoys a comfortably bohemian existence which he shares with old allies - a poet, a fellow painter and a brazen sculptress. It's the early 1930s and a great Depression is engulfing the world, spawning misery and discontent. Tensions are mounting as the Far Right makes inroads which threaten national stability. Rowland's comfortable idyll is shattered when a vicious murder exposes a treacherous conspiracy... one which he and his redoubtable colleagues find themselves obliged to investigate. Sulari Gentill expertly weaves real events into her tension-fuelled murder mysteries. Rowland Sinclair and his friends are destined to become long-haul companions for lovers of mystery fiction and world history.

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Are you a lover of crime fiction looking for new discoveries or hoping to rediscover old favourites? Then look no further. There are few contemporary crime fiction guides that cover everything from the golden age to current bestselling writers from America, Britain and all across the world, but the award-winning Barry Forshaw, one of the UK's leading experts in the field, has provided a truly comprehensive survey with definitive coverage in this expanded new edition of the much admired Rough Guide to Crime Fiction. Every major writer is included, along with many other more esoteric choices. Focusing on a key book (or books) by each writer, and with essays on key crime genres, Crime Fiction: A Reader's Guide (with a foreword by Ian Rankin) is designed to be both a crime fan's shopping list and a pithy, opinionated but unstuffy reference tool and history. Most judgements are generous (though not uncritical), and there is a host of entertaining, informed entries on related films and TV.

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From Agatha Christie and Patricia Highsmith to Val McDermid and JK Rowling, After Agatha is an indispensable guide to women's crime writing over the last century and an exploration of why women read crime Spanning the 1930s to present day, After Agatha charts the explosion in women\'s crime writing and examines key developments on both sides of the Atlantic: from the women writers at the helm of the UK Golden Age and their American and Canadian counterparts fighting to be heard, to the 1980s experimental trio, Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky and Sue Grafton, who created the first female PIs, and the more recent emergence of forensic crime writing and domestic noir thrillers such as Gone Girl and Apple Tree Yard. After Agatha examines the diversification of crime writing and highlights landmark women's novels which featured the marginalised in society as centralised characters. Cline also explores why women readers are drawn to the genre and seek out justice in crime fiction, in a world where violent crimes against women rarely have such resolution. The book includes interviews with dozens of contemporary authors such as Ann Cleeves, Sophie Hannah, Tess Gerritsen and Kathy Reichs and features the work of hundreds of women crime and mystery writers. It is an essential read for crime fiction lovers.

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25% discount offer - use code CE25 at checkout 'If you decide to adapt a classic or much-loved book, your working maxim should be, 'How will it work best as a film?' However faithful it is to the original, if it's not interesting onscreen then you've failed.' - William Boyd in Story and Character: Interviews with British Screenwriters Hollywood. Netflix. Amazon. BBC. Producers and audiences are hungrier than ever for stories, and a lot of those stories begin life as a book - but how exactly do you transfer a story from the page to the screen? Do adaptations use the same creative gears as original screenplays? Does a true story give a project more weight than a fictional one? Is it helpful to have the original author's input on the script? And how much pressure is the screenwriter under, knowing they won't be able to please everyone with the finished product? Alistair Owen puts all these questions and many more to some of the top names in screenwriting, including Hossein Amini (Drive), Jeremy Brock (The Last King of Scotland), Moira Buffini (Jane Eyre), Lucinda Coxon (The Danish Girl), Andrew Davies (War & Peace), Christopher Hampton (Atonement), David Hare (The Hours), Olivia Hetreed (Girl with a Pearl Earring), Nick Hornby (An Education), Deborah Moggach (Pride & Prejudice), David Nicholls (Patrick Melrose) and Sarah Phelps (And Then There Were None). Exploring fiction and nonfiction projects, contemporary and classic books, films and TV series, The Art of Screen Adaptation reveals the challenges and pleasures of reimagining stories for cinema and television, and provides a frank and fascinating masterclass with the writers who have done it - and have the awards and acclaim to show for it.

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London, more than any other city, has a secret history concealed from view. Behind the official façade promoted by the heritage industry, lies a city of esoteric traditions, obscure institutions, and forgotten locations. Occult London rediscovers this history, unearthing the hidden city that lies beneath our own. From the Elizabethan magic of Dr Dee and Simon Forman, to the occult designs of Wren and Hawksmoor; from the Victorian London of Spring-Heeled Jack, to the fin de siècle heyday of Madame Blavatsky and Aleister Crowley. This book describes these practitioners of the occult and their unorthodox beliefs, alongside the myths and legends through which the city has always been perceived. The role of the occult within London's literary history is also outlined, while a gazetteer maps the sites of London's most resonant occult locations. Today we are experiencing a renewal of interest in the occult tradition, and Merlin Coverley examines the roots of this revival, exploring the rise of New Age philosophies and the emergence of psychogeography in shaping a new vision of the city.

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In August of 2007, the debt-fuelled bubble that had created an illusion of prosperity across the western world burst, leading to an international financial crisis of unprecedented scale and duration. Michael Nevin analyses the causes of the crisis in clear and understandable terms, and explains why successive attempts to tackle it by bank bailouts, quantitative easing and other piecemeal responses have failed. He predicts that the Euro cannot survive in its present form, while dollar instability and the inexorable rise in sovereign debt will continue to hamper economic growth worldwide. Unless a radically different approach is taken, an increasingly virulent economic nationalism could threaten the living standards of all of us and lead to a lost generation of young people with no prospect of work. This book sets out an alternative strategy for sustained recovery,including the orderly dismantling of the Euro, the end of the dollar's privileged status as an international reserve currency, and the restoration of sound money, founded on a new international currency that cannot be manipulated by bankers or politicians - The Golden Guinea. Michael Nevin's analysis of the credit crisis draws on his extensive experience of investment banking, project finance and economics, to explain what has gone wrong and why, what needs to be done now and what steps need to be taken to ensure it ever happens again.

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The marriage between the Duke of Marlborough and 17-year-old Consuelo Vanderbilt, the American railroad heiress, was the talk of two nations when it occurred in 1895. By 1903, the Duchess had produced the requisite heir-and-a-spare, and the Duke had taken a lover, the exotic, erotic Gladys Deacon. Kate and Charles are introduced to this uncomfortable menage-a-trois when they come to Blenheim Palace: Kate to work on a book about King Henry II and Fair Rosamund, said to have been poisoned there by Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Charles to follow the trail of a team of jewelry thieves. But the visit takes a disturbing turn when the hosts unwittingly begin to relive the legend...

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She doesn't trust the police. She used to be one of them. Hardened by ten years on the murder squad, DNA analyst Doctor Sian Love has seen it all. So when she finds human remains in the basement of her new home, she knows the drill. Except this time it's different. This time, it's personal... A page-turning cold case investigation, Dead Flowers is an intriguing, multi-layered story perfect for fans of Kate Atkinson's Case Histories and British crime dramas like Line of Duty and Unforgotten.

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Movies have constantly pushed at the boundaries of sexual representation, outraging censors, transgressing taboos and opening up formerly forbidden realms of sensual pleasure. Whether through an exploration of our dreamiest fantasies or our darkest desires, films have expanded our repertoire of erotic images and challenged who we are as sexual beings. The first book to look at truly contemporary erotic cinema, this publication gives in-depth analyses of sex scenes from over 100 films, more than half of them released in the 21st century. Beginning with an overview of how depictions of sex on screen have changed over the last 40 years, with particular attention to censorship controversies, the book is divided into three main parts - erotic genres, themes and acts - and covers sex comedies, body horror, alien sex and erotic animation; gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans films, movies about youth, marriage and infidelity, films dealing with incest, blasphemy and death; on-screen nudity and voyeurism, masturbation, oral and anal sex, the ménage à trois and the orgy, and bestiality, rape and sadomasochism. The films discussed include 9 Songs, American Pie, Bad Education, Black Swan, Brokeback Mountain, Intimacy, Last Tango in Paris, The Reader, The Wayward Cloud, Y Tu Mamá También and many more.

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From the very beginnings of cinema in America the Western has been a central genre. The hazardous lives of the settlers, their conflict with Native Americans ('the Indians'), the lawless frontier towns, outlaws and cattle rustlers, all found their way into the new medium of film. Folk heroes and heroines, such as Jesse and Frank James, Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane and Annie Oakley, were all eagerly seized on by filmmakers. Writers, from the very popular to the very literary, from Zane Grey to Owen Wister and James Fennimore Cooper, were plundered for storylines. The Western became popular worldwide too because it offered escape, adventure, stunning landscapes and romance; also themes that concerned people everywhere including survival, law and order, defence of family, and dreams of a new and better world. David Carter's book, The Western, starts with an introduction to the real American West and its famous historical figures, and traces the development of the genre from popular literature, through the early silent films, the sound era, the Golden Age of classic Westerns, TV and 'spaghetti westerns', to the self-reflexive and revisionist Westerns of recent decades. This book provides a basic work of reference for all the major directors and noteworthy films of the genre. The great Hollywood directors are all here, such as John Ford, Howard Hawks, Raoul Walsh, Michael Curtiz, Sam Peckinpah and Henry Hathaway, and great stars including John Wayne, James Stewart, Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Russell and Clint Eastwood.

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DNA doesn't lie. But what if the truth is dangerous? DNA expert Dr Sian Love has settled into running her own investigative agency and living with her partner, Kris. She's also started seeing a therapist to work through her traumatic past - a big step for Sian. Her life threatens to descend into chaos again when a teenage girl shows up at her office claiming to be Courtney Johnson - a child who went missing from a Brighton beach over fifteen years ago - but refusing to let Sian test her DNA. Wary but intrigued, Sian reluctantly revives the undercover skills she learned during her days as a police officer and begins investigating. But revisiting the past has consequences...

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Catharism was the most successful heresy of the Middle Ages. Flourishing principally in the Languedoc and Italy, the Cathars taught that the world is evil and must be transcended through a simple life of prayer, work, fasting and non-violence. They believed themselves to be the heirs of the true heritage of Christianity going back to apostolic times, and completely rejected the Catholic Church and all its trappings, regarding it as the Church of Satan; Cathar services and ceremonies, by contrast, were held in fields, barns and in people's homes. Finding support from the nobility in the fractious political situation in southern France, the Cathars also found widespread popularity among peasants and artisans. And again unlike the Church, the Cathars respected women, and women played a major role in the movement. Alarmed at the success of Catharism, the Church founded the Inquisition and launched the Albigensian Crusade to exterminate the heresy. While previous Crusades had been directed against Muslims in the Middle East, the Albigensian Crusade was the first Crusade to be directed against fellow Christians, and was also the first European genocide. With the fall of the Cathar fortress of Montsegur in 1244, Catharism was largely obliterated, although the faith survived into the early fourteenth century. Today, the mystique surrounding the Cathars is as strong as ever, and Sean Martin recounts their story and the myths associated with them in this lively and gripping book.

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Newlyweds Charles and Kate Sheridan have moved into Kate's ancestral Georgian home Bishop's Keep, where Kate plans to devote herself to her writing and Charles to the responsibilities of the landed gentry. He agrees to host an automobile exhibition and balloon race at Bishop's Keep attended by Europe's foremost investors and inventors, among them the young Mr. Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. But speed, competition, and money prove to be more explosive than gasoline - and for one automobile builder, more deadly....

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According to Apsley Cherry-Garrard, one of the men who went to Antarctica with Captain Scott, 'Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time that has ever been devised.' Despite this there has never been a shortage of volunteers willing to endure the bad times in pursuit of the glory that polar exploration sometimes brings. Nick Rennison's compelling book tells the memorable stories of people who have risked their lives by entering the white wastelands of the Arctic and the Antarctic, from the compelling tales of Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen, to those of lesser known explorers such as Elisha Kent Kane and Douglas Mawson. A Short History of Polar Exploration also looks briefly at the hold that the polar regions have often had on the imaginations of artists and writers in the last two hundred years examining the paintings, films and literature that they have inspired.

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It's one of the most successful - and surprising - of phenomena in the entire crime fiction genre: detectives (and protodetectives) solving crimes in earlier eras. There is now an army of historical sleuths operating from the mean streets of Ancient Rome to the Cold War era of the 1950s. And this astonishingly varied offshoot of the crime genre, as well as keeping bookshop tills ringing, is winning a slew of awards, notably the prestigious CWA Historical Dagger. Barry Forshaw, one of the UK's leading experts on crime fiction, has written a lively, wide-ranging and immensely informed history of the genre. Historical noir began in earnest with Ellis Peters' crime-solving monk Brother Cadfael in the 1970s and Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose in 1980, and has now taken readers to virtually every era and locale in the past. As in Nordic Noir, Euro Noir, Brit Noir and American Noir, Forshaw has produced the perfect reader's guide to a fascinating field; every major writer is considered, often through a concentration on one or two key books, and exciting new talents are highlighted.

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Secret Societies in one form or another have existed throughout the history of human culture. But what is their appeal? What is it that makes so-called respectable people indulge in peculiar ceremonies, dressed in fanciful costumes uttering blood-curdling oaths of loyalty with the threat of death hanging over them should they reveal the inner workings of the cult? Are these organisations simply a way for like-minded followers to get together in a convivial atmosphere for purely social reasons or is there really a dark side to their activities. Are they really trying, as some have suggested, to control world affairs for their own nefarious ends? Are the secret societies' claims that they are in the possession of great knowledge or valuable secrets also true? Are they really trying to engineer history or keep hidden that which may bring about the fall of a religion or a country? In Secret Societies, Nick Harding describes some of the best known organisations along with some of their least known counterparts. He highlights the similarities that all these cults have - they all work to a similar pattern and that basic human psychology plays a far more important role in their continued existence and their enduring appeal than any hidden wisdom, knowledge or world-shattering secret.

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Nelson continues to fascinate academics as well as the general public. He is still considered one of Britain's greatest heroes and featured within the top ten of the BBC poll of such figures. But why does Nelson still remain such a prominent figure in the national imagination? With 2005 being the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar, Victoria Carolan embarks on a timely reappraisal of Nelson, the myth and the man. Beginning with Nelson's early life and an analysis of the condition and practice of the Navy at the time of Nelson's entry into service, Carolan goes on to examine Nelson's naval battles before Trafalgar, particularly the pivotal Battle of the Nile in which the then Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson, with a fleet of fourteen ships, captured six and destroyed seven French vessels out of a total of seventeen and in the process achieved one of the most decisive victories in the age of sail and re-established British command of the Mediterranean. Devoting a full section to the Battle of Trafalgar, Carolan looks in detail at the build-up to the battle, the events and progress of the battle, at the Admirals of the French and Spanish navies and explains why the battle was so decisive in the Napoleonic Wars. She goes on to look at the immediate aftermath of Nelson's death and his state funeral and then to his legacy, the building of monuments (particularly Trafalagar Square and Nelson's Column), the development of the Nelson myth, his depiction in film, his value for propaganda purposes during the two world wars and the current state of scholarship on Nelson.

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On 8 March, 1965, 3,500 United States Marines of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade made an amphibious landing at Da Nang on the south central coast of South Vietnam, marking the beginning of a conflict that would haunt American politics and society for many years, even after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973. For the people of North Vietnam it was just another in a long line of foreign invaders. For two thousand years they had struggled for self-determination, coming into conflict during that time with the Chinese, the Mongols, the European colonial powers, the Japanese and the French. Now it was the turn of the United States, a far-away nation reluctant to go to war but determined to prevent Vietnam from falling into Communist hands. A Short History of the Vietnam War explains how the United States became involved in its longest war, a conflict that, from the outset, many claimed it could never win. It details the escalation of American involvement from the provision of military advisors and equipment to the threatened South Vietnamese, to an all-out shooting war involving American soldiers, airmen and sailors, of whom around 58,000 would die and more than 300,000 would be wounded. Their struggle was against an indomitable enemy, able to absorb huge losses in terms of life and infrastructure. The politics of the war are examined and the decisions and ambitions of five US presidents are addressed in the light of what many have described as a defeat for American might. The book also explores the relationship of the Vietnam War to the Cold War politics of the time.

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The recorded history of Brazil is brief when compared to most European countries, having been discovered by Portuguese sailor and explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral just over five hundred years ago. Since then, however, its history has been turbulent, blighted by rebellion, cruelty, dictatorship and poverty. But, it is also a vibrant, exciting and ethnically diverse nation that has, in the face of great adversity, emerged as one of the world's fastest growing major economies. A Short History of Brazil examines the events that have led to Brazil's ascendancy, looking at the indigenous peoples who populated the territory until its discovery in 1500 and chronicling the tempestuous years since, leading to the economic miracle of recent years. It covers the three centuries of Portuguese colonial rule when sugar became the main export, produced with the help of around three million slaves who were forced to make the deadly crossing of the Atlantic from Africa. It describes how Brazil declared independence from Portugal as a monarchy in 1822, the monarchy being replaced by a republic in 1889, and details the pattern of boom and bust in the Brazilian economy since then, covering the lives of some of the authoritarian rulers that seized power along the way. Finally, A Short History of Brazil looks at the many difficulties Brazil faces in the 21st century - the devastating social problems resulting from its dramatic economic inequality and the often ruthless exploitation of the country's natural resources which is a topic of major concern for the entire world. With Brazil's success has come increased global awareness and in the next four years global attention will be focused on the country as it plays host to two of the world's biggest events - the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016. With the eyes of the world on this immense South American country - the world's fifth largest - there could be no better time to examine the dramatic and fascinating history that has brought it to this point.

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Cannibals! Captives! Coconuts! Cannibals! Captives! Coconuts! One man's love of the sea leaves him stranded on a desert island with nothing but a few goats, a bible and a parrot for company. Will he ever escape? Will his new pal Friday learn to efficiently press a goatskin jerkin? Or will solitude send him totally barmy?

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One of the major icons of modern cinema, and hugely influential on pop-culture over the past three decades, Pixar Animation Studios has proved to be an endless source of imagination and delight for children and adults alike. From the Toy Story Trilogy to Brave, The Incredibles to Ratatouille, its films have played a vital role in reminding audiences around the globe of animation's capacity as both an entertainment and an art form. Every feature sits on the 'top 50 highest-grossing animated films of all-time' list, and with over 200 awards to their name, including numerous Oscars, they're as revered by critics as they are successful at the box-office. The Films of Pixar Animation Studio offers a one-stop guide to the studio's entire back catalogue, discussing in-depth the creative choices behind each film, and their place within the wider cinema landscape and animation history. It also offers an insight into their very particular way of working, and the role of the films' producers, writers, directors and animators on each project, examining their colourful and original use of a folk-tale sensibility, and their unique aesthetic.

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Is there anything left to say about the assassination of President John F Kennedy? Hell, yes! The subject of nearly 1000 books, half a dozen journals, two official inquiries, several million pages of declassified documents, dozens of TV documentaries and hundreds of Websites, the Kennedy assassination remains both the greatest whodunit of the post-World War Two era and the best route into recent American history. In Who Shot JFK? Robin Ramsay looks at the assassination through the work of the researchers who refused to buy the official cover-up story that Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin. He explores; the major alternative theories produced by the critics of the official version, the major landmarks in the Kennedy assassination research and the disinformation produced on the subject since the event.

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Screenplays ... How to Write and Sell Them is an accessible yet comprehensive book aimed at those with a keen interest in writing feature film screenplays. Using case studies, creative exercises and interviews from the industry, the book will guide readers through the necessary stages of writing a screenplay, from finding and developing ideas to creating and executing characters to shaping structure and constructing scenes. It will also consider how a screenplay might be sold, or used to raise interest in the writer, looking at areas such as finding and working with an agent, networking, using competitions, and raising private production funds. The book's approach is both creative and reflective, giving readers the opportunity to learn a wealth of creative skills alongside skills that will encourage them to think about themselves as writers and the work that they are developing. As such, the book will empower readers in their own creative processes and allow them to successfully tell the stories they want to tell. Rich with analyses from classic and contemporary films, littered with practical models, paradigms and creative tasks, and enhanced by the views of key industry figures, the book is a must for any aspiring feature film screenwriter.

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'Europe was created by history.' Margaret Thatcher What is Europe? Firstly, of course, it is a continent made up of countless disparate peoples, races and nations, and governed by different ideas, philosophies, religions and attitudes. Nonetheless, it has a common thread of history running through it; welded together by the continent's great institutions, such as the Church of Rome, the Holy Roman Empire, the European Union. Europe, however, is also an idea. From almost the beginning of time, people have harboured aspirations to make this vast territory one. The Romans came close and a few centuries later, the foundations for a great European state were laid with the creation of the Holy Roman Empire. Napoleon overreached himself in attempting to create a European-wide Empire - as did Adolf Hitler. The European Union is a club of which everyone in Europe wants to be a member; although, as the rejection of the European Constitution by the French and the Dutch, and the British situation demonstrates, we Europeans still cling to our national independence.

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The term 'New Wave' conjures up images of Paris in the early 1960s: Jean Seberg and Jean Paul Belmondo, the young Jean-Pierre Leaud, the three protagonists of Jules and Jim capering across a bridge, all from the films of French filmmakers Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. The impact of the French New Wave continues to be felt, and its ethos of shooting in real places, with non-professional actors and small crews would influence filmmakers as diverse as John Cassavetes and Martin Scorsese to Lars von Trier's Dogme 95 movement, all of whom sought to challenge the dominance of traditional Hollywood methods of both filmmaking and storytelling. But the French were not the only new wave, and they were not even the first. In New Waves in Cinema, Sean Martin explores the history of the many New Waves that have appeared since the birth of cinema, including their great forebears the German Expressionists, the Soviet Formalists and the Italian Neorealists. In addition, Martin looks at the movements traditionally seen as the French New Wave's contemporaries and heirs, such as the Czech New Wave, the British New Wave, the New German Cinema, the Hollywood Movie Brats and Brazilian Cinema Novo. The book also covers other new waves, such as those of Greece, Hungary, documentary - Cinema Verité and Direct Cinema - animation, avant garde and the so-called No Wave filmmakers. New Waves in Cinema also explores the differences - and similarities - between the concept of a 'new wave' and a national cinema, citing, among others, the example of the new Iranian cinema, which has given us directors as important as Abbas Kiarostami and the Makhmalbaf family, examines resurgent trends in the national cinemas of Mexico, Japan, American independent cinema and concludes with an examination of the most celebrated movement of the 1990s and 2000s, Dogme 95. New Waves in Cinema makes a convincing case for the necessity for the continued existence of new waves and national cinemas in the face of Hollywood and American cultural imperialism.

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An alternative world where big curves are cool... Sad, lonely Sharon Plunkett is a plus-size girl. She's tried every fad, every diet and every cream, but like stains of grease on a pure silk blouse, her rolls of fat refuse to budge. The man of her dreams isn't interested, and her skinny best friend only uses her to look good. But all that changes when Sharon visits Dr. Marvel's Miracle weight clinic, and steps into a strange new world where bill boards and magazines spill over with pictures of gorgeous size 20 celebs! Suddenly life is fantastic for Sharon, her platinum hair and voluptuous figure make her the perfect choice for designers Z&Zak. Before she can scoff another doughnut, she finds herself a top model moving up the ladder of fame. Rung by rung, she nets a footballer, dates a rock god, and snares the ultimate Hollywood heartthrob. Sharon, now known as 'Shaz', becomes a trend-setting icon of fame, and her life is bliss until the time it all starts to go very wrong. ...Sharon starts to lose weight. A deliciously wicked satire, Making It Big bites back at the 'skinny insanity' currently gripping the western world. Size Zero, celebrity weight-obsessed magazines, the fashion and advertising industries, high society and Hollywood - all are hit by a giant, witty dollop of fun.

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Why is the rainbow getting shorter? Tillie discovers Hecatey the Hideous, King of the Hobgoblins is planning something no-one would ever think of doing, and the beautiful sprites who create the rainbows are counting on Tillie to stop him. Stealing the thread from the rainbow to create a dazzling magic cloak, Hecatey knows when he wears it, that it has the power to suck the colour from whatever he passes - turning everything around him dull and grey. This way, the wicked hobgoblin believes he'll become the most magnificent sight in all the land. He succeeds. But in a way he doesn't expect! The Rainbow Weaver is a unique picture book appealing to both children and grown-ups, reminding us that magic is for all ages, not just for little children.

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Six decades. Seven people. One unspeakable secret. 1957. A catastrophe occurs at the pharmaceutical lab in Coventry where sixteen-year-old Wilf is working for the summer. A catastrophe that needs to be covered up at all costs. 2017. Phiney is shocked by the death of her grandfather, Wilf, who has jumped from a railway bridge at a Coventry station. Journalist Mat Torrington is the only witness. Left with a swarm of unanswered questions, Phiney, Mat and Wilf's wife, Dora, begin their own enquiries into Wilf's death. It is soon clear that these two events, sixty years apart, are connected - and that Wilf is not the only casualty. But what is the link? And can they find out before any more lives are lost?

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The 'splendid genre-pushing' (People) Vera Kelly series returns in full force as our recently out-of-the-spy-game heroine finds herself traveling from Brooklyn to a sprawling countryside estate in the Caribbean in her first case as a private investigator. When ex-CIA agent Vera Kelly loses her job and her girlfriend in a single day, she reluctantly goes into business as a private detective. Heartbroken and cash-strapped, she takes a case that dredges up dark memories and attracts dangerous characters from across the Cold War landscape. Before it's over, she'll chase a lost child through foster care and follow a trail of Dominican exiles to the Caribbean. Forever looking over her shoulder, she nearly misses what's right in front of her: her own desire for home, connection, and a new romance at the local bar. In this exciting second installment of the Vera Kelly series, Rosalie Knecht challenges and deepens the Vera we love: a woman of sparkling wit, deep moral fiber, and martini-dry humor who knows how to follow a case even as she struggles to follow her heart.

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Bedi and Sushma''s marriage is arranged. When they first meet, they stumble through a faltering conversation about happiness and hope and agree to go in search of these things together. But even after their children Selena, Tara and Rohan are grown up and have their own families, Bedi and Sushma are still searching. Years later, the siblings attempt to navigate life without their parents. As they travel to the Ganges to unite their father''s ashes with the opaque water, it becomes clear that each of them has inherited the same desire to understand what makes a life happy, the same confusion about this question and the same enduring hope.

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Emily and Poppy are living happily in the quaint village of Ashton Mead, where every household is friendly - with one exception. Unlike the other villagers, Silas Strang and his mother have a bad reputation. Rude and aggressive, they terrorise their neighbours and no one stops them. That is until Silas sets his sights on Emily's beloved dog Poppy, which Emily won't stand for. After a public altercation, Silas is mysteriously murdered. To Emily's dismay, the police view her as their number one suspect. Assisted by her friends, Hannah and Toby, Emily sets out to establish the truth and clear her name... but her enquiries have frightening consequences.

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