Search results for ""Canongate Books""

LONGLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD'Exquisite' Daily Telegraph'A haunting tale' Irish TimesTwenty years ago, Oona left the island of Inis for the very first time. A wind-blasted rock of fishing boats and turf fires, where girls stayed in their homes until they became mothers themselves, the island was a gift for some, a prison for others. Oona was barely more than a girl, but promised herself she would leave the tall tales behind and never return.The Island Child tells two stories: of the girl who grew up watching births and betrayals, storms and secrets, and of the adult Oona, desperate to find a second chance, only to discover she can never completely escape. As the strands of Oona's life come together, in blood and marriage and motherhood, she must accept the price we pay when we love what is never truly ours . . .Rich, haunting and rooted in Irish folklore, The Island Child is a spellbinding debut novel about identity and motherhood, freedom and fate, and the healing power of stories.

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A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN TIME, EVENING STANDARD and METROWhen Tash, daughter of a Russian oligarch, is sent to an English boarding school, she is new to the strange rituals of the girls there. Theirs is a world of strict pecking orders, eating disorders and Instagram angst.While she spends her time with the other girls at the lake and the stables, a hand-picked few are invited to join the Headmaster at his house for extra lessons. Then her friend Bianca mysteriously vanishes, and quickly the routines of her dorm-mates seem darker and more alien than ever before. Oligarchy is the fierce new novel about power, privilege and peer pressure from the bestselling author of The End of Mr. Y.

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In Letters of Note: Music, Shaun Usher brings together a riveting collection of letters by and about some of the musicians and music that enrich our lives. It is a wonderfully wide-ranging and illuminating book that will delight music lovers of all stripes.Includes letters by:Ludgwig van Beethoven, Nick Cave, Helen Keller, Keith Richards,Yo-Yo Ma, Tom Waits, Erik Satie, Angélique Kidjo, Leonard CohenJohn Coltrane, Kim Gordon & many more

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In The Mathematics of the Breath and the Way, Charles Bukowski considers the art of writing, and the art of living as writer. Bringing together a variety of previously uncollected stories, columns, reviews, introductions, and interviews, this book finds him approaching the dynamics of his chosen profession with cynical aplomb, deflating pretentions and tearing down idols armed with only a typewriter and a bottle of beer.From numerous tales of the author's adventures at poetry readings, parties, film sets, and bars, to an unprecedented gathering of Bukowski's singular literary criticism, the author discusses his writing practices and his influences. The Mathematics of the Breath and the Way is a perfect guide to the man behind the myth and the disciplined artist behind the boozing brawler.

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WHEN EVIE TALKS TO ANIMALS . . . THEY TALK BACK.Eleven-year-old Evie has a talent: a supertalent. She can HEAR what animals are thinking.She promises to keep it top secret, but then an evil pet-thief strikes.Every animal in town is in danger and only by DARING TO BE HERSELF can Evie save her furry and feathered friends.

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For most of human history, we have had a close relationship with the stars. Once they shaped our religious beliefs, power structures, scientific advances and even our biology. But over the last few centuries we have separated ourselves from the universe that surrounds us. And it comes at a cost.The Human Cosmos is a tour of this history: from the Hall of the Bulls in Lascaux to Tahitian sailors navigating by the stars; from medieval monks grappling with the nature of time to Einstein realising that space and time are the same. It shows we need to rediscover the universe we inhabit, its effect on our health, and its potential for inspiration and revelation.

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Anne Marie's Da, a Glaswegian painter and decorator, has always been game for a laugh. So when he first tells his family that he's taking up meditation at the Buddhist Centre in town, no one takes him seriously. But as Jimmy becomes more involved in his search for the spiritual his beliefs start to come into conflict with the needs of his wife, Liz, and cracks begin to form in their previously happy family.With grace, humour and humility Anne Donovan's beloved debut tells the story of one man's search for a higher power. But in his search for meaning, Jimmy might be about to lose the thing that matters most.

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In this seminal new study of resilience, Meg Jay tells the stories of a diverse group of people who have overcome trauma in their childhoods to go on and live successful lives as adults. These are the 'supernormal', who having shouldered greater than average hardship as children defy expectation and achieve better than average success as adults. But how, and at what cost?Whether it was experiencing parental divorce, or growing up with an alcohol or drug-abusing parent, living with a parent or sibling with mental illness, being bullied, living in poverty, being a witness to domestic violence, suffering physical or emotional neglect, the people Meg Jay introduces us to are all survivors. She explores what they have in common that made it possible for them to transcend the trauma of their early years and to build successful adult lives. And she asks the questions: What was the cost of developing those powers? And having survived, even thrived, how do you go on and build a trusting, fulfilled life?Drawing on her clinical experience with survivors of childhood trauma, Meg Jay documents ordinary people made extraordinary by the experience of all-too-common trauma. Bringing together personal, scientific and cultural knowledge Jay gives a voice to the experience of the 'supernormal', furnishes them with the tools to better understand themselves and take full advantage of their strengths, and gives a window into their world for those who seek to understand them.

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As Ben Fountain sees it, the United States is facing its third existential crisis. The first was the struggle over slavery, culminating in the Civil War. The second was the Great Depression, the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialised world, which brought about the New Deal. The third, is Donald Trump. But how will it end?Taking in America's love affair with firearms, celebrity culture, Russia, Obamacare, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Trump himself, Beautiful Country Burn Again explores how the United States reached a new crisis point and asks how America really can be great again.

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From 2011 up until his death at the end of 2016, the inimitable AA Gill reigned supreme as Uncle Dysfunctional, Esquire's resident advice columnist. In this raffish, hilarious, scathing yet often surprisingly humane collection, Gill applies his unmatched wit to the largest and smallest issues of our time.

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FOLLOW-UP TO THE PHENOMENAL INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERINCLUDING LETTERS FROM:Jane Austen, Richard Burton, Helen Keller, Alan Turing, Albus Dumbledore, Eleanor Roosevelt, Henry James, Sylvia Plath, John Lennon, Gerald Durrell, Janis Joplin, Mozart, Janis Joplin, Hunter S. Thompson, C. G. Jung, Katherine Mansfield, Marge Simpson, David Bowie, Dorothy Parker, Buckminster Fuller, Beatrix Potter, Che Guevara, Evelyn Waugh, Charlotte Brontë and many more.Discover Richard Burton's farewell note to Elizabeth Taylor, Helen Keller's letter to The New York Symphony Orchestra about 'hearing' their concert through her fingers, the final missives from a doomed Japan Airlines flight in 1985, David Bowie's response to his first piece of fan mail from America and even Albus Dumbledore writing to a reader applying for the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts.More Letters of Note is another rich and inspiring collection, which reminds us that much of what matters in our lives finds its way into our letters.

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SHORTLISTED FOR SALTIRE FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR, 2017LONGLISTED FOR THE EDGE HILL PRIZE, 2018A local tries to sell his sister to a trucker as he passes through town; a couple put their children to bed and hear a loud scratching at the wall; a man looks into a mirror and reflects on becoming more like his father.Sparky, touching and brilliantly daring, these stories uncover human feeling in the ordinary and the everyday, and are a reminder of Kelman's exceptional talent.

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In this investigation into loss, losing and being lost, Rebecca Solnit explores the challenges of living with uncertainty. A Field Guide to Getting Lost takes in subjects as eclectic as memory and mapmaking, Hitchcock movies and Renaissance painting.Beautifully written, this book combines memoir, history and philosophy, shedding glittering new light on the way we live now.

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'Compassionate' Guardian'Extremely affecting' ScotsmanAs a teenager, Harriet Shawcross stopped speaking at school for almost a year. As an adult, she became fascinated by the limits of language.From the inexpressible trauma of trench warfare and the aftermath of natural disaster to the taboo of coming out, Harriet examines all the ways in which words scare us. She studies wartime poet George Oppen, interviews the author of The Vagina Monologues, meets Nepalese earthquake-survivors and the founders of the Samaritans and asks what makes us silent?

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This is the story of Maxine and Sheila Kohler, two sisters who grew up in the suffocating gentility of 1950s South Africa. When Maxine is just shy of her fortieth birthday her husband, a brilliant and respected surgeon, drives their car off the road and kills her. Devastated, Sheila returns to the country of her birth, haunted by questions. How had she failed to protect her sister? Was Maxine's death a matter of chance, or destiny? What lies in the soil of their troubled motherland that condemns its women to such violence?

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Prince Rogers Nelson released his first album in 1978. In the almost 40 years that followed he became a superstar, a recluse, an inspiration, an enigma, a slave and a symbol. He was a master of reinvention, but the one constant in his astonishing career was his genius: as a singer, a songwriter, a performer and musician. He sold more than 100 million albums, won Grammys and an Oscar. His ability to fuse styles and genres made him one of the most unique, influential and beloved artists in music history. In Prince: A Thief in the Temple, music journalist Brian Morton reveals the highs and lows of an incredible musical life.

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'A luminous writer' Olivia Laing'Compelling' The Times'Beautifully nuanced' Daily MailPippa seems to have everything in life. But suddenly she finds her world beginning to unravel. Amid the buzzing lawnmowers and suburban coffee mornings, she starts to wonder how she came to be in this place. The answer is a story of wild youth, unexpected encounters, affairs and betrayals, and the dangerous security of marriage.The Private Lives of Pippa Lee brilliantly reveals the challenges of modern life - and all the possibilities that it holds.

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BELIEVE IN THE IMPOSSIBLEYou are about to read the TRUE STORY of FATHER CHRISTMAS. If you are one of those people who believe that some things are impossible, you should put this book down right away. (Because this book is FULL of impossible things.)Are you still reading?Good. Then let us begin...

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Charlotte Salomon is born into a family stricken by suicide and a country at war. But there is something exceptional about her - she has a gift, a talent for painting. And she has a great love, for a brilliant, eccentric musician. But just as she is coming into her own as an artist, death is coming to control her country. The Nazis have come to power and, as a Jew in Berlin, Charlotte's life is narrowing, and she knows every second is precious.Inspiring, unflinching, terrible and hopeful, Charlotte is the heartbreaking true story of a life filled with curiosity, animated by genius and cut short by hatred.

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In On Love, we see Charles Bukowski reckoning with the complications of love and desire. Alternating between the tough and the tender, the romantic and the gritty, Bukowski exposes the myriad faces of love in the poems collected here - its selfishness and its narcissism, its randomness, its mystery and its misery, and, ultimately, its true joyfulness, endurance and redemptive power.Whether writing about his daughter, his lover, or his work, Bukowski is fiercely honest and reflective, using love as a prism to look at the world and to view his own vulnerable place in it.

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The debut work, a short story collection from the bestselling, critically acclaimed author of Under the Skin, The Crimson Petal and the White and The Book of Strange New Things.Michel Faber's short stories reveal an extraordinarily vivid imagination, a deep love of language and an adventurous versatility. Playful, yet profoundly moving, wickedly satirical yet sincerely humane, these tales never fail to strike unexpected chords. 'Some Rain Must Fall' juxtaposes the tragic circumstances of traumatised schoolchildren with the interior monologue of a teacher/psychologist enlisted to aid their recovery. In the pseudo-sci-fi 'Fish' a mother tries to protect her child in a terrifying world where fish swim through the streets and lurk in alleyways. Faber's collection is rich and assured, with a dazzling reach.

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Richard Rogers, founder of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, is a pre-eminent architect of his generation, whose approach to buildings is infused with his enthusiasm for modernism, love of life and strong sense of social justice.From the Pompidou Centre in Paris to the Lloyds Building in the City of London, and from airports, to cancer care centres to low-cost homes, the buildings he and his partners have designed blend private use, public space and civic value.In part inspired by his 2013 Royal Academy exhibition, A place for all people is a mosaic of life, projects and ideas for a better society. Ranging backwards and forwards over a long and creative life, and integrating relationships, projects, stories, collaborations and polemics, with case studies, drawings and photographs A place for all people is a dazzling and inspiring book as original as its author.

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INTRODUCTION BY JO NESBØAFTERWORD BY PAUL AUSTERNineteenth-century Kristiania is an unforgiving place, and work is thin on the ground. Roaming the streets of Norway's capital, a penniless young writer searches for inspiration whilst trying desperately to make ends meet. Driven to extraordinary lengths, sleeping under the stars with his stomach growling, the writer's behaviour becomes increasingly irrational and his world spirals into chaos. Hunger was Knut Hamsun's first novel and earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920. A disturbing and darkly humorous masterpiece of existential fiction, Hunger anticipated and influenced some of the twentieth century's most acclaimed writers including Camus, Kafka and Fante.

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GILLIAMESQUE LIMITED EDITION£250To celebrate Terry Gilliam's 75th birthday, Canongate are releasing an exceptional limited edition of Gilliamesque. As well as a signed copy of Gilliam's 'pre-posthumous' memoir, this limited edition features an exclusive signed and numbered print, 'Book Worms', by Terry Gilliam, created exclusively for this volume. The book and print are cased in a beautiful cloth-bound collector's box. Only 75 copies are available.More on GILLIAMESQUE, the book:Telling his story for the first time, the director of Time Bandits, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - not to mention co-founder of Monty Python's Flying Circus - recalls his life so far. Packed with never-before-seen artwork, photographs and commentary, Gilliamesque blends the visual and the verbal with scabrous wit and fascinating insights.This book is an unrestrained look into a unique creative mind and an incomparable portrait of late twentieth-century popular culture.

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A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE IRISH TIMES and IRISH INDEPENDENTShortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Irish Book AwardsShortlisted for Novel of the Year, Dalkey Literary AwardsShortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year AwardLuke O'Brien has left Dublin to live a quiet life on his family land on the bend of the River Sullane. Alone in his big house, he longs for a return to his family's heyday and turns to books for solace.One morning a young woman arrives at his door and enters his life with profound consequences. Her presence presents him and his family with an almost impossible dilemma.In a novel that pays glorious homage to Joyce, The River Capture tells of one man's descent into near madness, and the possibility of rescue. This is a novel about love, loyalty and the raging forces of nature. More than anything, it is a book about the life of the mind and the redemptive powers of art.

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WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS"John is so many miles from love now and home. This is the story of his strangest trip."A novel of family, ghosts, love, music and the quest for truth, Beatlebone recounts a wild journey through the west of Ireland in 1978. At its helm is John, a maddened genius fleeing fame and seeking peace. With his deadpan Irish driver, Cornelius, at his side, John is hellbent on reaching the Island of Dorinish, an assignment he arranged ten years before. Lyrical, freewheeling, quixotic and fun, Beatlebone is a sad and beautiful comedy.

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You've heard the controversy, now read the book:Sticky Fingers is Joe Hagan's pulsing account of 50 years of rock'n'roll excess from Jann Wenner, founder of Rolling Stone magazine and one of the best-connected men of the twentieth century. Featuring exclusive interviews with Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Tom Wolfe, Bette Midler and many more, Hagan's book captures the spirit of the age and paints an unforgettable portrait of one of the most significant cultural forces of our time.

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2015SHORTLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD 2015LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2016'Unsettling, deeply moving and very, very readable. I loved it' NATHAN FILER, The Shock of the Fall'A striking and highly enjoyable debut' SOPHIE HANNAHYasmin would give anything to have a friend . . .And do anything to keep one.The first time I saw you, you were standing at the far end of the playing field. You were looking down at your brown straggly dog, but then you looked up, your mouth going slack as your eyes clocked her. Alice Taylor. I was no different. I used to catch myself gazing at the back of her head in class, at her silky fair hair swaying between her shoulder blades.If you'd glanced just once across the field you'd have seen me standing in the middle on my own, looking straight at you, and you'd have gone back through the trees to the path quick, tugging your dog after you. You'd have known you'd given yourself away, even if only to me.But you didn't. You only had eyes for Alice.

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Following the incredible success of his first book, In His Own Write, John Lennon's second collection of stories, drawings and poems is just as witty, whimsical and wonderful as his debut. First published in 1965 it is now back in print, looking just as it did when it first appeared half a century ago.CONTENTSA Spaniard in the WorksThe Fat BudgieSnore Wife and some Several DwartsThe Singularge Experience of Miss Anne DuffieldThe Faulty BagnoseWe must not forget the General ErectionBenjaman DistastefulThe Wumberlog (or The Magic Dog)Araminta DitchCassandleThe National Health CowReaders LettuceSilly NormanMr. Boris MorrisBernice's SheepLast Will and TesticleOur DadI Believe, Boot . . .

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The stories that shape our children's lives are too important to be left to chance. With The Story Cure, bibliotherapists Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin have put together the perfect manual for grown-ups who want to initiate young readers into one of life's greatest pleasures. There's a remedy for every hiccup and heartache, whether it's between the covers of a picture book, a pop-up book, or a YA novel. You'll find old favourites like The Borrowers and The Secret Garden alongside modern soon-to-be classics by Michael Morpurgo, Malorie Blackman and Frank Cottrell-Boyce, as well as helpful lists of the right reads to fuel any obsession - from dogs or dinosaurs, space or spies. Wise and witty, The Story Cure will help any small person you know through the trials and tribulations of growing up, and help you fill their bookshelves with adventure, insight and a lifetime of fun.

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BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU . . . 1984 is the year in which it happens. The world is divided into three superstates. In Oceania, the Party's power is absolute. Every action, word, gesture and thought is monitored under the watchful eye of Big Brother and the Thought Police. In the Ministry of Truth, the Party's department for propaganda, Winston Smith's job is to edit the past. Over time, the impulse to escape the machine and live independently takes hold of him and he embarks on a secret and forbidden love affair. As he writes the words 'DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER', his personal rebellion begins . . .

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In 1966 John Berger spent three months in the Forest of Dean shadowing an English country GP, John Sassall. Sassall is a fortunate man - his work occupies and fulfils him, he lives amongst the patients he treats, the line between his life and his work is happily blurred.In A Fortunate Man, Berger's text and the photography of Jean Mohr reveal with extraordinary intensity the life of a remarkable man. It is a portrait of one selfless individual and the rural community for which he became the hub. Drawing on psychology, biography and medicine A Fortunate Man is a portrait of sacrifice. It is also a profound exploration of what it means to be a doctor, to serve a community and to heal.With a new introduction by writer and GP, Gavin Francis.

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TRUE HONOUR IS ENDLESS. JOIN US. 1935. Norfolk.War is looming in Great Britain and the sprawling country estate of Alderberen Hall is shadowed by suspicion and paranoia. Alderberen's newest resident, Delphine Venner, is determined to uncover the secrets of the Hall's elite society, which has taken in her gullible mother and unstable father.As she explores the house and discovers the secret network of hidden passages that thread through the estate, Delphine uncovers a world more dark and threatening than she ever imagined. With the help of head gamekeeper Mr Garforth, Delphine must learn the bloody lessons of war and find the soldier within herself in time to battle the deadly forces amassing in the woods . . . The Honours is a dark, glittering and dangerously unputdownable novel which invites you to enter a thrilling and fantastical world unlike any other.

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In this brilliant debut novel, Noe's family - his wife, sons and daughters-in-law - tell what it's like to live with a man touched by God, while struggling against events that cannot be controlled or explained.For when Noe orders his sons to build an ark, he can't tell them where the wood will come from, just that God will provide. When he sends his daughter-in-law out to gather the animals, he can offer no directions, money, or protection. Just faith. But once the rain starts, they all come to realise that the harshest test of their faith is just beginning.The novel is a wickedly funny, wildly imaginative retelling of one of the most dramatic stories known to mankind. At its core it's about a family caught in the midst of an extraordinary event. David Maine infuses this timeless tale with humanity, tension and wit.

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The Peanuts gang offer their wisdom on family life in this beautifully produced gift book for all generations. Whether it's Charlie Brown helping his little sister Sally with her homework, Snoopy going in search of his beloved sister Belle or Linus learning how to cope with having a big sister who is always in charge, in this new book siblings are celebrated in all their glory. Even Lucy will admit that little brothers can sometimes be useful to have in your corner. The millions of faithful Charles Schulz fans and those who fondly remember our best-loved beagle and his friends will cherish this latest title in Canongate's Peanuts Guide to Life series.

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With her freckles and sports kit, Peppermint Patty shares her outlook on life in this beautifully produced gift book for all generations. In her incomparable style, Peppermint Patty spends her days trying to persuade her best friend Marcie to stop calling her 'Sir', misunderstanding pretty much everyone around her, falling asleep in class, talking to Charlie Brown about matters of the heart and accepting kisses on the nose from Snoopy. For the millions of faithful Charles Schulz fans, and those who fondly remember this forthright little tomboy, this new series of books sees the beguiling Peanuts gang share their sentiments on everything from food to friendship.

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AS SEEN IN THE BIG MAN STARRING LIAM NEESONThe big man is Dan Scoular, a legend of physical prowess in a decaying Ayrshire mining community. When a bare-knuckle fight offers both money and a purpose, he finds it turns into a monumental struggle to keep his heritage and integrity intact.

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YOU'RE THE LAST. I'M SORRY. THE END IS COMING.For two centuries Jacob Marlowe has wandered the world, enslaved by his lunatic appetites and tormented by the memory of his first and most monstrous crime. Now, the last of his kind, he knows he can't go on. But as Jake counts down to his demise, a violent murder and an extraordinary meeting plunge him straight back into the desperate pursuit of life.

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Includes contributions from Graham Norton, Sue Perkins, Jenny Eclair and Gyles Brandreth. As its nine hundredth episode approaches, Just a Minute has consistently entertained BBC Radio 4 listeners since its first broadcast in December 1967. Inspired by a punishment handed out at school, the show's creator Ian Messiter devised a deceptively simple and versatile set of rules that has allowed the game to adapt and thrive as each new era of comedy entertainers emerges. Over forty-seven consecutive years, fans have laughed along with Kenneth Williams' outrageously funny 'battles' with Sheila Hancock, Paul Merton's imaginative flights of fancy, Clement Freud's acerbic wit, Julian Clary's flagrant innuendos, Graham Norton's celebrity 'gossip', Jenny Eclair's brutal honesty, Gyles Brandreth's extravagant monologues and Sue Perkins' infectious enthusiasm to name only a handful of the more than two hundred star entertainers who have braved the Just a Minute panel. In this official celebration, chairman Nicholas Parsons, the only person to have appeared in every programme, recalls the very best, occasionally awkward and often hilarious, moments from the last six decades. Magical minutes, verbal dexterity, sharp one-liners and witty challenges can all be marvelled at once again as Nicholas tells the Just a Minute story from its inauspicious pilot episode, through television and stage versions, and on to the present day, without hesitation, repetition or deviation...

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In this headline-making book, Daniel Bergner turns everything we thought we knew about women's desire on its head. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with renowned behavioural scientists, sexologists, psychologists and everyday women, Daniel Bergner asks:- Do women really crave intimacy and emotional connection? - Are women more disposed to sex with strangers or multiple partners than either science or society have ever let on? - And is 'the fairer sex' actually more sexually aggressive and anarchic than men?

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1314. On a marsh-fringed plain south of Stirling Castle, King Robert the Bruce led the Scottish army in a singularly devastating victory over the English. Bannockburn was Scotland's greatest battlefield triumph, achieved against the odds by a combination of brilliant tactical leadership and the fatal overconfidence of the English King, Edward II.On the 700th anniversary of the battle, Peter Reese's definitive history shines a spotlight on this pivotal moment in Scottish History and considers the wider implications of this momentous victory.

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE TED HUGHES PRIZE 2015Tabard Inn to Canterb'ry Cathedral,Poet pilgrims competing for free picks,Chaucer Tales, track by track, it's the remixFrom below-the-belt base to the topnotch;I won't stop all the clocks with a stopwatchwhen the tales overrun, run offensive,or run clean out of steam, they're authenticand we're keeping it real, reminisce this:Chaucer Tales were an unfinished business.In Telling Tales award-winning poet Patience Agbabi presents an inspired 21st-century remix of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales retelling all of the stories, from the Miller's Tale to the Wife of Bath's in her own critically acclaimed poetic style.Celebrating Chaucer's Middle-English masterwork for its performance element as well as its poetry and pilgrims, Agbabi's newest collection is utterly unique. Boisterous, funky, foul-mouthed, sublimely lyrical and bursting at the seams, Telling Tales takes one of Britain's most significant works of literature and gives it thrilling new life.

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'I wonder what you'd think of me if you found out that I've done something really serious . . .'So begin the confessions of Thomas Quick - Scandinavia's most notorious serial killer. In 1992, behind the barbed wire fence of a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane, Thomas Quick confessed to the murder of an eleven-year-old boy who had been missing for twelve years. Over the next nine years, Quick confessed to more than thirty unsolved murders, revealing he had maimed, raped and eaten the remains of his victims. In the years that followed, a fearless investigative journalist called Hannes Råstam became obsessed with Quick's case. He studied the investigations in forensic detail. He scrutinised every interrogation, read and re-read the verdicts, watched the police re-enactments and tracked down the medical records and personal police logs - until finally he was faced with a horrifying uncertainty. In the spring of 2008, Råstam travelled to where Thomas Quick was serving a life sentence. He had one question for Sweden's most abominable serial killer. And the answer turned out to be far more terrifying than the man himself . . .

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Simon Westow, the city''s unwavering thief-taker, must confront betrayal, history and murder in this gritty page-turner set in nineteenth-century Leeds.Leeds, May 1825. Thief-taker Simon Westow is hired by Sir Robert Foley to find four silver cups stolen by his servant. The cups are a family treasure, crafted by local silversmith Arthur Mangey over a century before.Meanwhile, Simon has also been invited to witness the demolition of Middle Row, where Mangey reputedly had a secret workshop for coin clipping, the very crime he was hanged for in 1696. Is it a coincidence or a terrible omen? Simon''s curiosity swiftly turns to horror when he discovers Foley''s servant lying dead in the clandestine room.How can a long-dead criminal be involved in the servant''s demise? Simon needs all the help he can get from his assistant Jane and deadly protégé Sally to navigate the twisted path from history to the present amidst the growing number of dead bo

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