Search results for ""canongate books""

Distinguished by irony, compassion and the author's own dry wit, these three novels paint a memorable picture of life in the streets, schools and tenements of Glasgow in the 1950s and 60s. With a unique vision of loneliness, old age, sexual longing, hot young blood and youth's casual cruelty, George Friel's books explore a dark comedy of tangled communication, human need and fading community. All these elements come together in the humorous parable of greed, religion and slum youth that is The Boy Who Wanted Peace; in the fate of old and disturbed Miss Partridge who is obsessed with the innocence of young Grace; and in the mental collapse of Mr Alfred, a middle-aged schoolteacher who is in love with one of this pupils. The humour, realism and moral concern of Friel's work clearly anticipate and stand alongside the novels of Alan Spence, Alasdair Gray, William McIlvanney and James Kelman.

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MACCAIG * MORGAN * LOCHHEADThis book contains a selection of the finest work from three of Scotland's best-known and best-loved poets: Norman MacCaig, Edwin Morgan and Liz Lochhead. They have fascinated and charmed thousands of readers and listeners across Europe and America with the energy, humour and compassion of their vision.MacCaig's memorable celebrations of the physical world and the tragic-comic note of many of his short lyrics contrast strikingly with Morgan's poems on the modern world and city life. Liz Lochhead writes with an alert and sensitive eye on personal relationships and women's experience of them. The book provides an invaluable introduction to modern Scottish poetry and to the poets who are arguably its greatest practitioners.

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Jean-Marie Charles d'Aumout is many things. Orphan, soldier, diplomat, spy, lover. And chef.This is his story.We meet Jean-Marie d'Aumout as a penniless orphan eating beetles by the side of a road. His fate is changed after an unlikely encounter finds him patronage and he is sent to military academy. Despite his lowly roots, and thanks to wit and courage in great measure, he grows up to become a diplomat and spy.Passion, political intrigue and international adventure abound in Jean-Marie's life, yet his drive stems from a single obsession: the pursuit of the perfect taste. Three-Snake Bouillabaisse, Pickled Wolf's Heart and Flamingo Tongue are just some of the delicacies he devours on his journey toward the ultimate feast. Rising through the ranks of eighteenth-century French society, he feasts with lords, ladies and eventually kings, at the Palace of Versailles itself.But beyond the palace walls, revolution is in the air and the country is clamouring with hunger of a different kind.

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A patriotic young woman . . . A dangerously exhilarating young aristocrat . . . A scandalous secret . . .Meggie Elliot is a young woman of above average intelligence, and on the brink of adulthood. Living with her aunt and uncle in London at the outbreak of World War 2 she''s intent on going to university, then pursuing a career in law. She is encouraged in this by her solicitor - a man she admires a little too much. Too old for her, he lets her know it.Meggie follows her dream as best she can, knowing it''s unlikely it will ever come to fruition. In a burst of patriotism she joins the WRNS to do her bit for the war effort. Sent to work in a decoding unit she meets the dangerously exhilarating young aristocrat, Nicholas Cowan, who sweeps her off her feet. But Meggie suspects Nick of being the man who burgled her aunt''s home, and to expose him would ruin a lot of lives. Against all reason Meggie and Nick begin to fall in love .

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Five families come together for a summer vacation that will change their lives forever in this moving tale of love, loss and hope.The Edwards, the Ames, the Epsteins, the Currans and the Templetons - five families bound together by the decades-old tradition of spending their August vacation at the idyllic Mount Haven Inn in New Hampshire.Despite living separate, disparate lives, the summer ritual of reconnecting remains an important yearly fixture for the families, with the inn and its tranquil surroundings offering a welcome safe haven and respite from their struggles - a place to draw comfort from their shared past and memories. But strained relationships, heartache, loss and devastating secrets all come to a head one climactic summer - a summer that will change their lives forever . . .

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