Search results for ""Quercus Publishing""

The much-needed manifesto by the Sanest Politician in the Entire Cosmos, from capping the price of croissants at £1 to taking over Downing Street.'Count Binface will be Prime Minister. It's only a matter of time' IndependentGreetings, life-form! My name is Count Binface. I am an intergalactic space warrior, leader of the Recyclons and three-time British election veteran. And as part of my overarching mission to control the entire omniverse, I have come to conquer Britain. It's not that I want to do this - you need me to. Because the one thing everyone can agree on right now is that Earth is in an absolute state. And of all its messed-up nations, the British are particularly deranged. In this book, I share my story for the first time, my political beliefs and even the occasional recipe, in return for a reasonable - nay, bargain - amount of Earth currency. I also provide an alien's-visor-view of your past, so that you can learn from past mistakes. This isn't the first potted history of Britain ever to be committed to print, but I can guarantee that compared to any others, mine will be the most accurate. If anyone cares to argue about that, which one of us has had access to a time machine? So settle down, grab a beverage, and let's make your planet Count.'Count Binface in his steely, glimmering, elusiveness is both a galactically intimidating - and curiously heartening symbol of the future of British politics - #believeinthebin' Rory Stewart'Count Binface is out of this world' Emily Maitlis

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A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK'A riveting mother-daughter tale' Elle'Beautifully gripping' Heat'A joy to read' Christina Baker Kline, author of The Exiles Ann Tran is already at a crossroads when she gets the call that her beloved grandmother, Minh, has died. Ann has built a seemingly perfect life. She lives in a beautiful lake house and has a charming professor boyfriend, but it all crumbles away with one positive pregnancy test. With both her relationship and carefully planned future now in question, Ann returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother, Hu'o'ng. Under the same roof for the first time in years, mother and daughter must face the simmering questions of their past, while trying to rebuild their relationship without the one person who's always held them together. Running parallel to this is Minh's story, as she goes from a lovestruck teenager living in the shadow of the Vietnam War to a determined young mother immigrating to America in search of a better life. And when Ann makes a shocking discovery in the Banyan House's attic, long-buried secrets come to light as it becomes clear how decisions Minh made in her youth affected the rest of her life and her family. Spanning decades and continents, from 1960s Vietnam to the wild swamplands of the Florida coast, Banyan Moon is a stunning and deeply moving story of mothers and daughters, the things we inherit, and the lives we choose to make out of that inheritance.'Heart-shatteringly beautiful' Nguyen Phan Que Mai, author of The Mountains Sing

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Four young men and women fell into the magical land of Tír through a mysterious portal in Ireland - and now the fate of two worlds lies on their shoulders in this 'enthralling' (LA Times) and 'fast-paced, action-packed and truly fantastical journey' (Fantasy Book Review)The Tyrant has control of the artefact known as the Fáil, and as he strengthena his hold on the forces of dark magic, he now threatens Earth as well as Tír.In a violently dystopian London, Mark has joined forced with Nantosueta to search for the Sword of Feimhin, while on Tír, Alan has mustered a Shee army and is intent taking the fight to the Tyrant - but obstacles obstruct his path at every turn. And Kate, now in the in-between world of Dromenon, finds herself entering the Land of the Dead . . .Day by day and hour by hour, the looming threat grows.'Ryan's grand epic style . . . Passionate and dedicated fantasy fans will find a rich, immersive world and carefully handled characters' Booklist

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THE 12 MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE LEWIS TRILOGY AND THE CHINA THRILLERSAWARD WINNING AUTHOR OF THE CWA DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY 2021'Enzo MacLeod is one of the most unusual crime solvers I have ever met.' BookBrowse'No one can create a more eloquently written suspense novel than Peter May.' New York Journal of BooksA decade-old body exposed by a heat wave drives the explosive next chapter in the Enzo FilesTHE GIRL IN THE LAKEIn 1989, a killer dumped the body of twenty-year-old Lucie Martin into a picturesque lake in the West of France. Fourteen years later, during a summer heatwave, a drought exposed her remains.THE MAN ON THE CASENo one was ever convicted of her murder. But now, forensic expert Enzo Macleod is reviewing this stone-cold case - the toughest of those he has been challenged to solve.THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSETYet when Enzo finds a flaw in the original evidence surrounding Lucie's murder, he opens a Pandora's box that not only raises old ghosts but endangers his entire family.LOVED THE ENZO FILES? Try Peter May's China series, beginning with THE FIREMAKERLOVE PETER MAY? Order his new thriller, THE NIGHT GATE

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In the kitchen Gillian loads the Hotpoint and frets about letting her baby go. In the bathroom Clifford styles his hair like Cliff's and wishes for a television. In the front room Arthur smokes a pipe and plots to fend off the loan sharks. In her bedroom Annette lifts up her nightie and heads for Clifford's room. In a tour-de-force of undressed taboo, four monologues intertwine to begin the story of an ordinary family in the fifties. How their seemingly contented, simple world bubbles under with odd desires and secret pangs - how it is shaken when they come to light - and how, step by step with the dawning sixties, life for all of them is whirled into a carousel of fashion, debauchery and explosive revelation.

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Rebellion in the city, and a Royalist spy in his own ranks - Damian Seeker, Captain of Oliver Cromwell's guard, must eradicate both in this twisty, action-packed historical thriller for fans of CJ Sansom, Rory Clements and The Three Musketeers. 'MacLean skilfully weaves together the disparate threads of her plot to create a gripping tale of crime and sedition in an unsettled city' Sunday TimesLondon, 1655, and Cromwell's regime is under threat from all sides. Damian Seeker, Captain of Cromwell's Guard, is all too aware of the danger facing Cromwell. Parliament resents his control of the Army while the Army resents his absolute power. In the east end of London, a group of religious fanatics plots rebellion. In the midst of all this, a stonemason uncovers a perfectly preserved body dressed in the robes of a Dominican friar, bricked up in a wall in the crumbling Black Friars. Ill-informed rumours and speculation abound, but Seeker instantly recognises the dead man. What he must discover is why he met such a hideous end, and what his connection was to the children who have started to disappear from around the city. Unravelling these mysteries is challenging enough, and made still harder by the activities of dissenters at home, Royalist plotters abroad and individuals who are not what they seem...

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Brighton, 1950s, mid-winter. Two missing children are found buried under snow in this chilling new case for DI Stephens and Max Mephisto. Max's star turn in Aladdin has been overshadowed by the murder ­­of two local children. With fairy tales in the air, it's not long before the press have found a nickname for the case: 'Hansel and Gretel'.'An excellent whodunnit, matched by the terrific down-at-heel atmosphere of postwar Brighton' - The TimesDI Edgar Stephens has plenty of leads to investigate. The missing girl, Annie, used to write plays and perform them with her friends. Does the clue lie in Annie's unfinished - and rather disturbing - last script? Or might it lie with the eccentric actor types who have assembled for the pantomime?Once again Edgar enlists Max's help in penetrating the shadowy theatrical world that seems to hold the key. But is this all just classic misdirection?

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Susan wants another husband. Which comes as a shock to the current one. 'But not instead of you, Alan, my sugar - as well as. You see?' Yet once Susan has brazenly commandeered her boss's rich, elderly hand, Alan finds himself curiously cherishing the company - sharing wife, whisky and other, odder peccadilloes. Indeed Susan is forced to root out alternative amusements - and with their teenage daughter copying her disintegrating moral code, the complex machinery of their lives soon begins to break down. Joseph Connolly plunges the reader into a tumultuous medley of inner monologues with keen, unabashed relish; exposing marital bedroom and male bonding in this biting, excruciatingly funny observation of men, women and adolescent girls.

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THE 12 MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE LEWIS TRILOGY AND THE CHINA THRILLERSAWARD WINNING AUTHOR OF THE CWA DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY 2021'Enzo MacLeod is one of the most unusual crime solvers I have ever met.' BookBrowse'No one can create a more eloquently written suspense novel than Peter May.' New York Journal of BooksIn a sleepy French village, the body of a man shot through the head is disinterred by the roots of a fallen tree. A week later a famous art critic is viciously murdered in a nearby house. The deaths occurred more than seventy years apart.Asked by a colleague to inspect the site of the former, forensics expert Enzo Macleod quickly finds himself embroiled in the investigation of the latter. Two extraordinary narratives are set in train - one historical, unfolding in the treacherous wartime years of Occupied France; the other contemporary, set in the autumn of 2020 as France re-enters Covid lockdown.And Enzo's investigations reveal an unexpected link between the murders - the Mona Lisa.Tasked by the exiled General Charles de Gaulle to keep the world's most famous painting out of Nazi hands after the fall of France in 1940, 28-year-old Georgette Pignal finds herself swept along by the tide of history. Following in the wake of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa as it is moved from château to château by the Louvre, she finds herself just one step ahead of two German art experts sent to steal it for rival patrons - Hitler and Göring.What none of them know is that the Louvre itself has taken exceptional measures to keep the painting safe, unwittingly setting in train a fatal sequence of events extending over seven decades.Events that have led to both killings.The Night Gate spans three generations, taking us from war-torn London, the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, Berlin and Vichy France, to the deadly enemy facing the world in 2020. In his latest novel, Peter May shows why he is one of the great contemporary writers of crime fiction.LOVED THE NIGHT GATE? Read the first book in the acclaimed China Thrillers, THE FIREMAKERLOVE PETER MAY? Order his thrilling standalone, A SILENT DEATH

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The fourth Stephens and Mephisto mystery from the author of the bestselling Dr Ruth Galloway series - a must-read for fans of Bryant and May. 'Mixes cosiness and sharpness in a way that recalls the best of Agatha Christie' Sunday Express (on Smoke and Mirrors)What do a murdered Brighton flower seller, the death of Cleopatra and a nude tableau show have in common? Read the most dangerous case yet for Stephens and Mephisto to find out. Christmas 1953. Max Mephisto and his daughter Ruby are headlining Brighton Hippodrome, an achievement only slightly marred by the less-than-savoury support act: a tableau show of naked 'living statues'. This might appear to have nothing in common with DI Edgar Stephens' current case of the death of a quiet flowerseller, but if there's one thing the old comrades have learned it's that, in Brighton, the line between art and life - and death - is all too easily blurred...

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'SET IN DIVINE NORTH NORFOLK. INTENSELY ATMOSPHERIC AND GREAT' India KnightDr Ruth Galloway returns to the moody and beautiful landscape of North Norfolk to confront another killer. A devastating new case for our favourite forensic archaeologist in this acclaimed and bestselling crime series.The Night Hawks, a group of metal detectorists, are searching for buried treasure when they find a body on the beach in North Norfolk. At first Nelson thinks that the dead man might be an asylum seeker but he turns out to be a local boy, Jem Taylor, recently released from prison. Ruth is more interested in the treasure, a hoard of Bronze Age weapons. Nelson at first thinks that Taylor's death is accidental drowning, but a second death suggests murder.Nelson is called to an apparent murder-suicide of a couple at the isolated Black Dog Farm. Local legend talks of the Black Shuck, a spectral hound that appears to people before they die. Nelson ignores this, even when the owner's suicide note includes the line, 'He's buried in the garden.' Ruth excavates and finds the body of a giant dog.All roads lead back to this farm in the middle of nowhere, but the place spells serious danger for anyone who goes near. Ruth doesn't scare easily. Not until she finds herself at Black Dog Farm ...

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*THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2019**WITH NEW & EXCLUSIVE AFTERWORD*'Addictive ... a jaw-dropping read' STYLIST'Explosive ... Definitely one for the beach' ELLE'Paints a fascinating picture of an eccentric egomaniac who rails against all authority ... gripping stuff' SUNDAY TIMES___________How does it feel to be betrayed by your closest friend? A close friend who turns out to be the most prolific grifter in New York City...This is the true story of Anna Delvey (real name Anna Sorokin), the fake heiress whose dizzying deceit and elaborate con-artistry deceived the Soho hipster scene before her ruse was finally and dramatically exposed.After meeting through mutual friends, the 'Russian heiress' Anna Delvey and Rachel DeLoache Williams soon became inseparable. Theirs was an intoxicating world of endless excess: high dining, personal trainer sessions, a luxury holiday ... and Anna footed almost every bill.But after Anna's debit card was declined in a Moroccan medina whilst on holiday in a five-star luxury resort, Rachel began to suspect that her increasingly mysterious friend was not all she seemed.This is the incredible story of how Anna Sorokin conned the high-rollers of the NYC social scene and convinced her close friend of an entirely concocted fantasy, the product of falsified bank documents, bad cheques and carefully edited online photos. Written by Rachel DeLoache Williams, the Vanity Fair photography editor who believed Anna's lies before helping the police to track her down (fittingly, deciphering Anna's location using Instagram), this is Catch Me If You Can with Instagram filters. Between Anna, Fyre Festival's Billy McFarland (Anna even tried to scam Billy) and Elizabeth Holmes, whose start-up app duped the high and mighty of Silicon Valley, this is the year of the scammer.

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07:45am. A monk lies dead in Snowdonia, a knife protruding from his throat. A young family is being held at gunpoint in a house in Wimbledon. The mission has begun. 08:56am. A London Underground train is stationary in a tunnel, four hundred passengers trapped inside. All efforts to communicate with it have been met with silence. 09:15am. DCI Ed Mallory has just started his day. The Met's top hostage negotiator - despite having been blinded thirteen years earlier - Mallory is about to discover that, today, an underground train is not the only thing on the line.

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How do you know right from wrong when your certainties about life are slipping through your fingers?Phillip Snowe is a genius of the advertising world but what he can no longer do is sell himself to himself. Struggling to find meaning, he quits his career to give something back.Julia, his wife, a brilliant and beautiful lawyer, fights her own demons, but with her intelligence and hard work, she believes she can keep them at bay. And so far she has.Into their lives comes Laura Cusack, a single mother torn between the demands of her young daughters and her own unfulfilled passions.Whose needs should you put first? Your family's? Your neighbour's? A complete stranger's? Or your own? And once you have made that choice, how do you live with yourself?Spanning three generations, this compassionate and surprising story, touching profoundly upon love, art, religion and the search for fulfilment, grips from first to last as it explores the moral and emotional complexities of modern life.

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Passion and poetry: two love stories intertwine - a true historical one and an imagined contemporary one, both intimately connected with Emily Dickinson's life.In 1881 a young married couple, Mabel and David Todd, arrive in stuffy Amherst, Massachusetts. He will take up a post at Amherst College; she will embark on an affair that rocks the town. Emily Dickinson's brother is the College's Treasurer, Austin Dickinson, a respected citizen of the town and a married man with three children. Austin's sister Emily lives as a recluse in the house next-door to Austin. Over the months that follow the Todds' arrival, Austin falls passionately in love with Mabel, and she with him. In the present day, Alice Dickinson, 24 years old, seeks to escape her copy-writing job and make a living as a screenwriter. She takes a short holiday to Amherst to research a screenplay on a story that has fascinated her since college days, where a love of Emily Dickinson's poems was triggered by the coincidence of her own surname.The story is the illicit love affair between Austin Dickinson and Mabel Todd. As she researches one love affair taking place under the watchful eye of Emily Dickinson, Alice embarks on a passionate liaison of her own, and the novel interweaves the stories of these two loves, illuminating both past and present in the process.

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Ten-year-old Flambeau waits for his young mother to arrive from the Congo, along the same dangerous route that the human traffickers smuggled him. Homesick and pining for love, he sees a glimpse of life in his young neighbor, Eleanor, and her gangster boyfriend, Knight - a fellow Congolese. Eleanor, a pale Scottish beauty, offers Flambeau the warmth and empathy that London has hitherto failed to provide; while Knight - dressed to the nines and dressed to kill - might just have the contacts to find Flambeau's mother, Bijou. But Knight's past is so troubled, and his present so dangerous, that to challenge the traffickers to find Bijou might be more than his life is worth - something neither a lovesick girl nor a ten-year-old boy can be expected to understand.

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What has happened to Ingrid? Beautiful Ingrid inherits a fortune. She leaves her friends Julia and Ralph, who loves her, to marry the cold and intellectual Gil Grey and start a life amid the New York art scene. At 9 a.m. on September 11, 2001, she has a downtown appointment with her financial advisor. And is never seen again. A year later Ralph, heartbroken and sick, sends Julia to New York to piece together Ingrid's life away from them. Nothing will prepare Julia for what she ultimately discovers.

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We've all stood on a street corner and let the city's lights and sounds pass by. What do we hear when we listen to the sounds of the city? What traces do they leave in us? The city and the streets are the same as before, but the people who emerge in Echoes of a City have never been seen before. At the centre are Ewald and Maj Kristoffersen, but their fates are closely interwoven with the streets they live on. Down the road a couple has a butcher's shop. They have a son, Jostein, who goes deaf after a traffic accident. Jesper, Ewald and Maj's son, promises to be his ears in the world. The butcher couple and the widow Mrs Vik have a telephone, but not the Kristoffersen family. Jesper takes piano lessons, Mrs Vik meets the widower Olaf Hall who runs the second-hand bookshop at the cemetery. His stepson, Bjørn Stranger, is the one who saves Jostein's life when he gets run over.There are few - if any - who can conjure up a time and place in a way that makes it alive for us here and now like Lars Saabye Christensen.

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WINNER OF THE WINGATE PRIZE 2021SUNDAY TIMES "MUST READS" PICKECONOMIST "BEST BOOKS OF 2020" PICKKIRKUS REVIEWS "10 BOOKS TO LOOK FOR IN 2021" PICK"Boundless imagination and a vibrant style . . . a heroine of unforgettable grit" DAVID GROSSMAN"A story of great beauty and surprise" GARY SHTEYNGARTThe townsfolk of Motal, an isolated, godforsaken town in the Pale of Settlement, are shocked when Fanny Keismann - devoted wife, mother of five, and celebrated cheese-maker - leaves her home at two hours past midnight and vanishes into the night.True, the husbands of Motal have been vanishing for years, but a wife and mother? Whoever heard of such a thing. What on earth possessed her?Could it have anything to do with Fanny's missing brother-in-law, who left her sister almost a year ago and ran away to Minsk, abandoning their family to destitution and despair?Or could Fanny have been lured away by Zizek Breshov, the mysterious ferryman on the Yaselda river, who, in a strange twist of events, seems to have disappeared on the same night?Surely there can be no link between Fanny and the peculiar roadside murder on the way to Minsk, which has left Colonel Piotr Novak, head of the Russian secret police, scratching his head. Surely a crime like that could have nothing to do with Fanny Keismann, however the people of Motal might mutter about her reputation as a vilde chaya, a wild animal . . .Surely not.Translated from the Hebrew by Orr Scharf

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It is the final year of the twentieth century and King Sidi is dying . . .Mohamed has been the king's fool for thirty-five year, his closest counsel, privy to his deepest secrets and most intimate thoughts. It is an honoured position for which many would pay a hefty price. Something Mohamed understands only too well, for this closeness has indeed come at a terrible cost. The threat of imprisonment looms, even as the once-mighty monarch draws his final breaths.In the last days of this all-powerful tyrant of the twentieth century, his faithful court fool takes stock of the decades he spent in the Moroccan king's service. For the many years of corrosive love and loyalty have left certain indelible wounds . . .Translated from the French by Ben Faccini

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**THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO IS BACK!****The sixth in the Millennium series - more than 100 million copies sold worldwide**"Expertly told, the plot crackles with life" DAILY MAIL"Salander is centre stage . . . A pacy read" SUNDAY EXPRESS"Exciting and disturbing" LITERARY REVIEW"Salander and Blomkvist are just as compelling as ever" NEW YORK TIMES**********************************************************************************THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO HAS FRESH OUTRAGE TO AVENGEAs Salander follows the scorched trail of her twin sister to Moscow, Blomkvist fears for her safety.He should, perhaps, be more concerned for himself. The murder of a homeless man on the streets of Stockholm has drawn him into a conspiracy that scales the heights of Everest and plunges to the depths of Russia's criminal underworld.And now Lisbeth will face her nemesis. For the girl with the dragon tattoo, the personal is always political - and ultimately deadly. "A unique concoction that should leave Salander's legion of followers clamoring for more" Tom Nolan, Wall Street JournalTranslated from the Swedish by George Goulding

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A passenger liner runs aground on the muddy banks of the Río de la Plata. One by one, its passengers are abducted by Buenos Aires' criminal classes. As the kidnapping of three foreign businessmen sends stock markets into freefall, the job of solving the chaos falls onto the weary shoulders of Deputy Inspector Walter Carroza of the serious-crime squad. But top of his agenda is former Miss Bolivia Ana Torrente. Why are the bodies of the men who try to take her to bed always found minus a head?

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER 2023''[A] terrific crime novel'' Mick Herron''This moody, atmospheric novel is full of surprises'' Sunday Times (Crime Book of the Month)''[W]ell plotted and very funny'' ***** Sun''This has a TV series written all over it'' Daily Mail----------------------------------------------------------Ryan Wilkins grew up on a trailer park, a member of what many people would call the criminal classes. As a young Detective Inspector, he''s lost none of his disgust with privileged elites - or his objectionable manners. But he notices things; they stick to his eyes. His professional partner, DI Ray Wilkins, of affluent Nigerian-London heritage, is an impeccably groomed, sm

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From one of Britain's best-loved comedians comes this wonderfully funny, sharp and touching memoir and a celebration of the bond between man and dog - an autobidography, if you will. 'Hilarious and moving, it's a lovely read and the perfect gift for dog lovers' David Walliams'I loved The Lick of Love. It's often insightful, sometimes hilarious, frequently filthy - I'm a cat person, but if anything were ever to convince me to get a dog, it would be this' Joanne Harris'. . . wise and perceptive, and funny and moving. Each dog you meet marks a different chapter of your life and Julian writes about it so BEAUTIFULLY' Joanna Cannon'A quirky and witty excavation of memory lane in the company of his furry canine friends' Dame Joan CollinsThe Lick of Love takes us on a tour of Julian's colourful life - and wherever life has taken him, Julian has had a dog by his side. Fanny the Wonder Dog, who came into Julian's life when he was somewhat adrift, propelled him up the ranks of the alternative comedy circuit and onto television. Valerie, the whippet cross-breed escorted Julian through his forties, the Germaine Greer to his Bernard Manning. Albert, a jaunty geezer type who was sent to acclimatise Julian to middle age and helped him seduce his now husband, before being joined by naughty but nice Gigi, an unpredictable fur bullet of a dog. These canine characters have been there, bearing witness, on and off stage. Whether writing about encounters in seedy London nightclubs, finding success on television with Sticky Moments, the death of his partner, that Normant Lamont joke, a narrow squeak with a thwarted eastern European plot to kidnap him, his move to the country, or finally settling down, falling in love and getting married, Julian's unique voice bounces off the page. Ultimately, The Lick of Love is the story of a fascinating life and a love letter to the dogs that have played a loving and near constant part of it. Told with humour and great honesty, this promises to be one of the best memoirs of the year. 'Whatever else is going on, it is the water bowl in the kitchen, the dog hair on my jumper, the knowing gaze from the dog in the basket beside me that comforts me and tells me that all is well.' JC

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''The stories are rich in dialogue - indeed on many pages there is only dialogue - while the quick exchange of words beats out the rhythm of history on the move'' CLAIRE CONNOLLY from her preface to The Experiences of an Irish R. M.The stories in The Experiences of an Irish R. M. are almost entirely concerned with the doings of Skebawn in south-western Ireland and its surroundings. Originally published monthly in the Badminton Magazine from 1898 (alongside stories about golf, rugby, fishing and shooting) and subsequently in books from 1899. Each successive short tale offers a dazzling succession of incidents, quickfire dialogue and sudden turnabouts of fortune.

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''An important book'' Martin Wolf, Financial Times (BOOK OF THE YEAR)The clear-eyed, definitive history of the modern American economy and the decline of the American Dream, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist behind The New York Times''s The Morning newsletter.Two decades into the twenty-first century, the stagnation of living standards has become the defining trend of American life. Life expectancy has declined, economic inequality has soared, and, after some progress, the Black-white wage gap is once again as large as it was in the 1950s. How did this happen in the world''s most powerful country? And what happened to the American dream-the promise of a happier, healthier, more prosperous future-which was once such an inextricable part of our national identity?Drawing on decades of writing about the economy for The New York Times, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Leonhardt examines the past century of American history, from the Great

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A disturbing portrait of a modern American family'Imagine Richard Yates becoming fascinated by Donald Antrim before writing Revolutionary Road and you'll have some idea of Love Orange. One of the most satisfying novels you will read this year. This book rules' Christian Kiefer, author of Phantoms'I enjoyed every minute of it' Chris Power, author of Mothers'A stunningly accurate portrayal . . . shining with vivid dialogue and observation' Chloe Aridjis, author of Sea Monsters'[A]n exuberant, comic, irresistibly dark examination of contemporary anxieties' Vanity Fair'An exquisite balance of humour and pathos' LunateAn extraordinary debut novel by Natasha Randall, exposing the seam of secrets within an American family, from beneath the plastic surfaces of their new 'smart' home. Love Orange charts the gentle absurdities of their lives, and the devastating consequences of casual choices. While Hank struggles with his lack of professional success, his wife Jenny, feeling stuck and beset by an urge to do good, becomes ensnared in a dangerous correspondence with a prison inmate called John. Letter by letter, John pinches Jenny awake from the "marshmallow numbness" of her life. The children, meanwhile, unwittingly disturb the foundations of their home life with forays into the dark net and strange geological experiments. Jenny's bid for freedom takes a sour turn when she becomes the go-between for John and his wife, and develops an unnatural obsession for the orange glue that seals his letters...Love Orange throws open the blinds of American life, showing a family facing up to the modern age, from the ascendancy of technology, the predicaments of masculinity, the pathologising of children, the epidemic of opioid addiction and the tyranny of the WhatsApp Gods. The first novel by the acclaimed translator is a comic cocktail, an exuberant skewering of contemporary anxieties and prejudices.

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Family history has always been a mystery to Will Latymer. His father flatly refused to talk about it, and with no other relatives to consult, it seems that a mystery it shall always remain. Until of course, Will meets Ghislaine, his beautiful French cousin, in a chance encounter that sends him headlong into the life of his longlost grandfather, Henry Latymer. Reading Henry's old letters and diaries for the first time, Will discovers an idealistic young man, full of hopes and optimism - an optimism that will gradually be crushed as the realities of life under the Vichy regime become glaringly clear.But the more Will delves into Henry's past, and into France's troubled history, the darker the secrets he discovers about his grandfather become, and the more he has cause to wonder if sometimes, the past should remain buried.

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In a series of 50 accessible essays, Tony Crilly explains and introduces the mathematical laws and principles - ancient and modern, theoretical and practical, everyday and esoteric - that allow us to understand the world around us.From Pascal's triangle to money management, ideas of relativity to the very real uses of imaginary numbers, 50 Math Ideas is a complete introduction to the most important mathematical concepts in history.

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A masterclass in espionage thriller fiction from the heir to John le Carre for fans of Mick Herron, Charles Cumming and David McCloskey. Meet disgraced MI5 agent Slim Parsons, a character who - like Lisbeth Salander - will sear your soulSlim Parsons is all but burned. Her last deep cover job for MI5 ended with a life-and-death struggle on a private jet that caused her to go on the run from both the deadly target and her angry bosses in the Security Service. They say that violence comes too easily to her; that she's bordering on delinquent and unsuitable for the roll of an MI5 operative.Yet she is recalled and asked to infiltrate a news website that's causing alarm in the highest circles. It is staffed by a group descended from wartime codebreakers operating from an unassuming office block near Bletchley Park. Operation Linesman looks like a come down, the curtain on a brilliant career in the shadows. However, she accepts the assignment on condition that the Security Service searches for her missing brother. Linesman turns out to be anything but simple. Her personal loss, her previous deep cover role, and a threat to MI5 itself from her original target come together in a three-way collision. And all the while she is watched by someone even deeper in the shadows than she is.

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Through the friendship of two young Franco-Iranians, Exiles from Paradise is a novel that delves deep into the great conflict between enlightened Islam and fanaticism. Despite their academic achievements, Farhad and his circle of friends feel estranged from Paris, the city they grew up in, as they face prejudice from prospective employers and rejection for their Islamic culture. Searching for his roots, Farhad travels to Iran where he discovers that his ancestors fought the Assassins, the first terrorists in history. Encouraged by this glorious past and in a quest to track down a long-lost heirloom, the rare Alamut stone, Farhad follows the trail to London. His closest friend Reza is working for an Islamic charity in London, but his behaviour is becoming increasingly withdrawn, prompting fears of radicalisation. Farhad's courageous response is a hymn to bravery and ancestral values. First published in France to critical acclaim, Exiles from Paradise is a thought-provoking novel about discrimination, heritage and belonging. Brigitte Ades' captivating novel is a celebration of Iranian culture, community and connection, as well as a powerful interrogation of the nature of nationality and identity in the 21st century.Translated from the French by Iain Watson and Rosie Capell

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Based on 10 years of dedicated research, Dangerous Illusions is a battle cry for the human race to throw off religion in favour of logic and reason. In this committed and passionate book, author Vitaly Malkin - a philanthropist, business man and investor - argues for a radical shift in humanity's thinking about religion; that reason and religion cannot co-exist, and that mankind will only be truly happy if we are able to shake off the illusions of religion in order to live a life more rooted in the present. Dangerous Illusions sets out to explore the irrational demands that religion makes of man and asks the reader to question what benefit these acts offer human beings in this life. Malkin scrutinises topics such as suffering and evil, pleasure and asceticism, sex and celibacy, and circumcision and excision, through the lens of the three major world monotheistic religions - Christianity, Islam and Judaism. In doing so, the book fearlessly refutes our most careless beliefs, encouraging us to be more aware of the dangers religions pose to our society and, even to change our intellectual practices altogether.

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For dreamer Clare, a chance encounter with old family acquaintance Marcus brings up haunting memories of a childhood holiday, as they try to come to terms with the events and magic that have shaped their lives. They meet by chance in a department store, having not seen one another since a long-ago summer in Guernsey that was marred by tragedy. He lost his son, Tom, in inexplicable circumstances; she was Tom's friend and the last person to see him alive. The novel flits backwards and forwards in time, from the present-day affair fuelled by grief and loneliness, to the summer when Tom went missing - a time filled with sunshine and enchantment, moving inexorably towards heartbreak. The Magic Places is a spellbinding tale of the power of stories and imagination.

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Laura Glass's life seems perfect. She's beautiful, wealthy, her husband loves her and their teenage kids Leo and Jemima are at good schools. Then one day Laura's happiness is shattered when she sees her husband kissing a young woman in a doorway. Some of Laura's friends tell her to divorce him; others say ignore it. Instead Laura goes off on an adventure of her own with the beautiful young Jed. On their return, seeing that her husband is still continuing his affair, she invites his lover to live in their home. And Jed too, just, for good measure.

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In the early 1960s, travel-writer Simon Gandolfi drove a VW from England to Goa where he rented a bungalow on the beach at Calangute. And it was on Calangute beach that Gandolfi met and loved Vanessa and explored with her much of the subcontinent. The 2008 terrorist attack on the Taj Hotel in Mumbai prompted Gandolfi to re-explore the subcontinent on a small motorcycle. Collecting a Honda 125 from the factory outside Delhi, he rode for six months and 12,000 kilometres. He rediscovers the rented bungalow become a beach bar, his and Vanessa's bedroom a bottle store - and he learns of Vanessa's death soon after their parting. Memories of his travels with Vanessa became his companions as he continued his ride and are the connecting link in this chronicle of two journeys in which Gandolfi explores both the changes in India and in himself.

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"Rhodes' depiction of disaster and ensuring PTSD has the ring of authenticity: he was at Hillsborough that fateful day" DAILY MAIL"A remarkable thing to read. It has immense power and is utterly compelling" SCOTT PACKIn 1989, 18-year-old John Finch spends his Saturdays following Nottingham Forest up and down the country, and the rest of the week trudging the streets of his hometown as a postal worker. Leading inexorably towards the FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough, the worst sporting disaster on British history, 'Fan' glides between 1989 and 2004, when the true impact of this tragic day becomes evident.Fan is a book about personal and collective tragedy. It's about growing up and not growing up, about manhood and about what makes a man, and about football's role in reflecting a society never more than a brick's throw away from shattering point.Dark, haunting and deeply personal, Danny Rhodes' heart-felt novel explodes with gut-wrenching emotion and exposes how disaster can not only affect a life, but change its course for ever.

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In 1989, 18-year-old John Finch spends his Saturdays following Nottingham Forest up and down the country, and the rest of the week trudging the streets of his hometown as a postal worker. Leading inexorably towards the FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough, the worst sporting disaster on British history, 'Fan' glides between 1989 and 2004, when the true impact of this tragic day becomes evident.

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This mischievous roman a clef revolves around the interactions of five main characters. Victoria, barely twenty, finds herself acting as amanuensis to Laurence, an elderly man of letters, now blind, who lives in a ravishing house by the sea in northern Italy. Soon after her arrival, she indulges in a heady night of passion with Edgar, a youthful Englishman. Their subsequent union introduces Edgar's pretentious mother Lettice, who is jealous and suspicious of her daughter-in-law's prettiness and her ability to amuse Lettice's intellectual friends. While Victoria struggles to adapt to her new surroundings, Lettice, in a bid to maintain her own social superiority, attempts to thwart her every move in hilarious fashion. Enter Archie, one of the inner circle, whose relationship with Victoria provokes a scandal that threatens to destroy her. Darkly funny and deeply insightful, Lettice & Victoria is not just a love story with a fanciful and flawed female protagonist, but a wonderful portrait of English society.

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Yalo was a soldier on one of the many sides in Lebanon's sectarian civil war, before becoming a deserter and a thief, a nightwatchman in Paris, an arms smuggler, and then a rapist. And then he falls in love with his victim - who turns him in to the police. This novel is a modern Thousand and One Nights, a series of confessions extracted under torture, a recitation of all of his memories, all his sorrows, all his guilt - and of the other crimes his interrogators have him confess to. Beirut and the legacy of the wars of the Middle East are the texture of Elias Khoury's extraordinary literary achievement.

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Breslau in the 1920s is haunt of marquises and merchants, gamblers and gutter-rats. Eberhard Mock, the hardened Criminal Councillor, fits right in as he sways from the basements of grubby casinos to his beautiful young wife in their palatial mansion. But his beautiful young wife is feeling neglected. A series of sinister murders linked by the dates of past crimes has taken Mock out of the bedroom and into the archives. While Mock ransacks the city for clues, driven mad by the killer's tantalizing notes, his wife is seeking attention elsewhere. Engaging in perverted games with her less-than-innocent girlfriends, Mock's wife is being seduced by a mysterious sect which preaches the imminent end of the world.

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***Now the subject of a major sell-out exhibition at London's Victoria & Albert Museum***She revolutionized how women looked. She banned corsets, shortened skirts and scented the world with Chanel No.5. Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel was an icon. But how closely did her carefully moulded image match the truth? Born illegitimate and raised in an orphanage - not by the two aunts that she invented - Gabrielle Chanel fought constantly to escape the mundane. She rose from back-street milliner to become the head of a vast business empire, and socialised with Picasso, Stravinsky and Cocteau. Edmonde Charles-Roux also reveals one of Chanel's best-kept secrets - her love affair with a prodigal German spy.Chanel's legend did not fade with her death, and nor has the mark of sheer elegance that she left upon the world of fashion. This is the living woman behind the vibrant legend.

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The year is 1949 and the Allied Powers' advance on Moscow in the wake of Nazi defeat has failed. As Stalin's tanks rumble through the streets of London, Winston Churchill decides to put an end to his life. Fast forward to 1989 and England is divided between the Soviets and the Americans, with the capital split in two. Metropolitan People's Police detective Harry Stark is called to investigate a corpse found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge. An American infiltrator tells him the body is linked to a dissident plot involving Churchill's notorious suicide...

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Skeletons are discovered in a wasteland behind Cockpit Lane, a poor largely black area of inner south London, and DCI David Brock and DS Kathy Kolla of Scotland Yard's Serious Crimes Branch are called in to investigate. The discovery that the victims died during the Brixton riots, over twenty years before, lead Brock and Kolla on a dark and dangerous journey in which past and present come together in an intricate web of deception and intrigue as Brock encounters a formidable old antagonist, Spider Roach. In a desperate search to find a crucial piece of evidence, Brock and Kolla unwittingly set in train a series of events that erupt in a shocking, violent conclusion. Written with Maitland's characteristically vivid sense of character and place, "Spider Trap" is Maitland at his scrupulously plotted, complex and compelling best.

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'A captivating book - original, intelligent and very entertaining' Isabel Wolff 'Fane consistently focuses her smart, fluid prose and sophisticated thought on rendering a thoughtful, sorrowful and often highly amusing novel' The TimesPerdita Tree, the bored and beautiful wife of a Tory MP, believes that all women should have a magic door through which they can walk into a different life. So when she is kidnapped in Albania, she takes it in the spirit of one huge adventure. Adored by her kidnapper, who believes all things English are perfect, she is persuaded to rescue the Albanians from their dire history, and is vain enough to imagine that she can. The year is 1991, democracy is coming, but are the Albanians ready for it? And are they ready for Perdita?This book was featured at the Ways With Words Festival, Dartington, and the Chichester Festival, and was chosen for Waterstone's Summer Reads promotion, 2005.

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Laos, 1976. The monarchy has been deposed, the Communist Pathet Lao have taken over. Most of the educated class has fled, but Dr Siri Paiboun, a Paris-trained doctor remains. And so this 72-year-old physician is appointed state coroner, despite having no training, equipment, experience or even inclination for the job. But the job's not that bad and Siri quickly settles into a routine of studying outdated medical texts, scrounging scarce supplies, and circumnavigating bureaucratic red tape to arrive at justice. The fact that the recently departed are prone to pay Siri the odd, unwanted nocturnal visit turns out to be an added bonus in his new line of work. But when the wife of a party leader turns up dead and the bodies of tortured Vietnamese soldiers start bobbing to the surface of a Laotian lake, all eyes turn to Siri. Faced with official cover-ups and an emerging international crisis, the doctor enlists old friends, village shamans, forest spirits, dream visits from the dead - and even the occasional bit of medical deduction - to solve the crimes.

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