Search results for ""notorious""

The 18th-century meets the sharp blade of forensic science...In the notorious mental hospital known as Bedlam, Dr. Thomas Silkstone seeks out a patient with whom he is on intimate terms. But he is unprepared for the state in which he finds Lady Lydia Farrell. Shocked into action, Thomas vows to help free Lydia by appealing to the custodian of her affairs, Mr. Nicholas Lupton. But when Silkstone arrives at the Boughton Estate to speak to Lupton, he finds that another form of madness has taken over the village...Sweeping changes to the Boughton Estate threaten to leave many villagers destitute. After a single shot rings out and a man dies in the woods, it appears that the desperate villagers have turned to murder to avenge their cause. But for Thomas, a post-mortem on the victim raises more questions than answers. Although he manages to save an innocent man from the gallows, a second murder warns him of his potentially fatal situation. Soon he discovers a conspiracy far more sinister than anything he has ever faced. But who it leads to is the last person he suspects...Praise for Tessa Harris:'A densely plotted yarn about a crafty 18th-century poisoner wreaking havoc on the Oxfordshire estate of a noble family . . . we await - indeed, demand - the sequel' New York Times Book Review'Harris' research is meticulous. The results are a historical CSI with a romance and excellent mystery' Romantic Times'Populated with real historical characters and admirably researched, Harris's novel features a complex and engrossing plot' Library Journal'The author will have you flipping the pages at each unexpected turn in the plot. The novel is an absorbing read with a shocking twist at the end' Historical Novel Society'Well-rounded characters, cleverly concealed evidence, and an assured prose style point to a long run for this historical series' Publishers Weekly Starred Review'The exceptionally strong historical background in this 1780s London-set novel makes it impossible to put down. With each book, the mysteries have become stronger . . . Silkstone is an admirable character and he captures readers' emotional interest' RT Book ReviewsThe Dr Thomas Silkstone Mysteries:The Anatomist's ApprenticeThe Dead Shall Not RestThe Devil's BreathThe Lazarus CurseShadow of the RavenSecrets in the Stones

Read more less

Save when you purchase Volumes 1 and 2 in a bundle! The first volume of Spy Chiefs broadens and deepens our understanding of the role of intelligence leaders in foreign affairs and national security in the United States and United Kingdom from the early 1940s to the present. The figures profiled range from famous spy chiefs such as William Donovan, Richard Helms, and Stewart Menzies to little-known figures such as John Grombach, who ran an intelligence organization so secret that not even President Truman knew of it. The volume tries to answer six questions arising from the spy-chief profiles: how do intelligence leaders operate in different national, institutional, and historical contexts? What role have they played in the conduct of international relations and the making of national security policy? How much power do they possess? What qualities make an effective intelligence leader? How secretive and accountable to the public have they been? Finally, does popular culture (including the media) distort or improve our understanding of them? Many of those profiled in the book served at times of turbulent change, were faced with foreign penetrations of their intelligence service, and wrestled with matters of transparency, accountability to democratically elected overseers, and adherence to the rule of law. This book will appeal to both intelligence specialists and general readers with an interest in the intelligence history of the United States and United Kingdom. The second volume of Spy Chiefs goes beyond the commonly studied spy chiefs of the United States and the United Kingdom to examine leaders from Renaissance Venice to the Soviet Union, Germany, India, Egypt, and Lebanon in the twentieth century. It provides a close-up look at intelligence leaders, good and bad, in the different political contexts of the regimes they served. The contributors to the volume try to answer the following questions: how do intelligence leaders operate in these different national, institutional and historical contexts? What role have they played in the conduct of domestic affairs and international relations? How much power have they possessed? How have they led their agencies and what qualities make an effective intelligence leader? How has their role differed according to the political character of the regime they have served? The profiles in this book range from some of the most notorious figures in modern history, such as Feliks Dzerzhinsky and Erich Mielke, to spy chiefs in democratic West Germany and India.

Read more less

“It’s shocking to learn that this is McBride’s first book...Eat Your Mind does everything a good biography should and more” —Los Angeles Times The first full-scale authorized biography of the pioneering experimental novelist Kathy Acker, one of the most original and controversial figures in 20th-century American literature.Kathy Acker (1947–1997) was a rare and almost inconceivable thing: a celebrity experimental writer. Twenty-five years after her death, she remains one of the most original, shocking, and controversial artists of her era. The author of visionary, transgressive novels like Blood and Guts in High School; Empire of the Senses; and Pussy, King of Pirates, Acker wrote obsessively about the treachery of love, the limitations of language, and the possibility of revolution. She was notorious for her methods—collaging together texts stolen from other writers with her own diaries, sexual fantasies, and blunt political critique—as well as her appearance. With her punkish hairstyles, tattoos, and couture outfits, she looked like no other writer before or after. Her work was exceptionally prescient, taking up complicated conversations about gender, sex, capitalism, and colonialism that continue today. Acker’s life was as unruly and radical as her writing. Raised in a privileged but oppressive Upper East Side Jewish family, she turned her back on that world as soon as she could, seeking a life of romantic and intellectual adventure that led her to, and through, many of the most thrilling avant-garde and countercultural moments in America: the births of conceptual art and experimental music; the poetry wars of the 60s and 70s; the mainstreaming of hardcore porn; No Wave cinema and New Narrative writing; Riot grrrls, biker chicks, cyberpunks. As this definitive, “sympathetic, studious” (Edmund White, winner of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters) biography shows, Acker was not just a singular writer, she was also a titanic cultural force who tied together disparate movements in literature, art, music, theatre, and film. A feat of literary biography, Eat Your Mind draws on exclusive interviews with hundreds of Acker’s intimates as well as her private journals, correspondence, and early drafts of her work, acclaimed journalist and critic Jason McBride, offers a thrilling account and a long-overdue reassessment of a misunderstood genius and revolutionary artist.

Read more less

A detailed examination of the last 15 years of Crowley’s life• Reveals Crowley’s sex magick relations in London and his contacts with important figures, including Dion Fortune, Gerald Gardner, Jack Parsons, Dylan Thomas, and black equality activist Nancy Cunard • Explores Crowley’s nick-of-time escape from the Nazi takeover in Germany and offers extensive confirmation of Crowley’s work for British intelligence • Examines the development of Crowley’s later publications and his articles in reaction to the Nazi Gestapo actively persecuting his followers in Germany After an extraordinary life of magical workings, occult fame, and artistic pursuits around the globe, Aleister Crowley was forced to spend the last fifteen years of his life in his native England, nearly penniless. Much less examined than his early years, this final period of the Beast’s life was just as filled with sex magick, espionage, romance, transatlantic conflict, and extreme behavior. Drawing on previously unpublished diaries and letters, Tobias Churton provides the first detailed treatment of the final years of Crowley’s life, from 1932 to 1947. He opens with Crowley’s nick-of-time escape from the Nazi takeover in Germany and his return home to England, flat broke. Churton offers extensive confirmation of Crowley’s work as a secret operative for MI5 and explores how Crowley saw World War II as the turning point for the “New Aeon.” He examines Crowley’s notorious 1934 London trial, which resulted in his bankruptcy, and shares inside stories of Crowley’s relations with Californian O.T.O. followers, including rocket-fuel specialist Jack Parsons, and his attempt to take over H. Spencer Lewis’s Rosicrucian Order. The author reveals Crowley’s sex magick relations in London and his contacts with spiritual leaders of the time, including Dion Fortune and Wicca founder Gerald Gardner. He examines Crowley’s dealings with artists such as Dylan Thomas, Alfred Hitchcock, Augustus John, Peter Warlock, and Peter Brooks and dispels the accusations that Crowley was racist, exploring his work with lifelong friend, black equality activist Nancy Cunard. Churton also examines the development of Crowley’s later publications such as Magick without Tears as well as his articles in reaction to the Nazi Gestapo who was actively persecuting his remaining followers in Germany. Presenting an intimate and compelling study of Crowley in middle and old age, Churton shows how the Beast still wields a wand-like power to delight and astonish.

Read more less

CRIME NEVER SLEEPS.'CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR' Daily MailONE OF AMAZON'S BEST MYSTERY/THRILLERS OF THE YEAR* * * * *Detective Renée Ballard works 'The Late Show', the notorious graveyard shift at the LAPD. It's thankless work for a once-promising detective, keeping strange hours in a twilight world of crime.Some nights are worse than others. And tonight is the worst yet.Two shocking cases, hours apart: a brutal assault, and a multiple murder with no suspects.Ballard knows it is always darkest before dawn. But what she doesn't know - yet - is how deep her investigation will take her into the dark heart of her city, the police department and her own past...The Late Show will keep you up all night: it's time to meet Detective Renée Ballard.* * * * *'The new novel from America's greatest living crime writer is a gripping thrill ride that will entrance you and keep you reading until the small hours' Daily Express'It has been more than ten years since Connelly, one of the world's greatest crime writers, last launched a major new character. Superb storytelling - this cements Connelly's place at the very top of the crime-writing tree' Daily Mail'Classy and clever, with a tenacious heroine' Sunday Mirror'Connelly achieves an enormous amount in these pages: he creates a new character who immediately leaps into life; and controls a complex, fast-paced plot full of surprises' Evening Standard'The Late Show introduces a terrific female character: Detective Renée Ballard. The pacing is breathless ... Ballard has astonishing resourcefulness and bravery - she is complicated and driven' New York Times'Although the usual Connelly fingerprints are in evidence here - the real achievement is the creation of his tenacious heroine, Ballard' Guardian'Ballard is significantly more than a Bosch replacement or clone - an absorbing character on her own terms. Connelly has created yet another potentially iconic tarnished knight of those perennially mean streets' Irish Times'A characteristically complex tale of murder and police corruption' Mail on Sunday (Thriller of the Week)'First there was Detective Harry Bosch, then Lincoln lawyer Mickey Haller, and now comes Renee Ballard, ace thriller writer Michael Connelly's first new protagonist in 10 years. A nail-bitingly exciting investigation featuring a finely realised new character from one of America's finest contemporary novelists' Irish Independent

Read more less

One of the most iconic characters in children’s literature Hergé’s classic comic book creation Tintin is one of the most recognisable characters in children’s books. These highly collectible editions of the original 24 adventures will delight Tintin fans old and new. Perfect for lovers of graphic novels, mysteries and historical adventures. The world’s most famous travelling reporter learns the secret of the Unicorn. When Tintin stumbles across a model ship at the Old Street Market, he buys it as a gift for his friend Captain Haddock. But this isn’t just any old model ship … it’s the Unicorn. Built by one of Haddock’s ancestors it holds a clue to finding the treasure of a notorious pirate. Join the most iconic character in comics as he embarks on an extraordinary adventure spanning historical and political events, and thrilling mysteries. Still selling over 100,000 copies every year in the UK and having been adapted for the silver screen by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson in 2011. The Adventures of Tintin continue to charm more than 90 years after they first found their way into publication. Since then more than 230 million copies have been sold, proving that comic books have the same power to entertain children and adults in the 21st century as they did in the early 20th. Hergé (Georges Remi) was born in Brussels in 1907. Over the course of 54 years he completed over 20 titles in The Adventures of Tintin series, which is now considered to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, comics series of all time. Have you collected all the graphic novel adventures? Tintin in the Land of the SovietsTintin in AmericaTintin: Cigars of the PharaohTintin: The Blue LotusTintin: The Broken EarTintin: The Black IslandTintin: King Ottakar’s SceptreTintin: The Crab with the Golden ClawsTintin: The Shooting StarTintin: The Secret of the UnicornTintin: Red Rackham’s TreasureTintin: The Seven Crystal BallsTintin: Prisoners of the SunTintin: Land of Black GoldTintin: Destination MoonTintin: Explorers of the MoonTintin: The Calculus AffairTintin: The Red Sea SharksTintin in TibetTintin: The Castafiore EmeraldTintin: Flight 714 to SydneyThe Adventures of Tintin and the PicarosTintin and Alph-Art

Read more less

'Nothing gets me to a bookstore faster than Eloisa James' Julia Quinn*A New York Times bestseller*Eloisa James's dazzling new Georgian-set series continues with the Wildest hero them of all . . . The handsome, rakish heir to a dukedom, Lord Roland Northbridge Wilde - known to his friends as North - left England two years ago, after being jilted by Miss Diana Belgrave. He returns from war to find that he's notorious: polite society has ruled him "too wild to wed."Diana never meant to tarnish North's reputation, or his heart, but in her rush to save a helpless child, there was no time to consider the consequences of working as a governess in Lindow Castle. Now everyone has drawn the worst conclusions about the child's father, and Diana is left with bittersweet regret.When North makes it clear that he still wants her for his own, scandal or no, Diana has to fight to keep from losing her heart to the man whom she still has no intention of marrying.Yet North is returning a hardened warrior - and this is one battle he's determined to win. He wants Diana, and he'll risk everything to call her his own.Perfect for fans of Julia Quinn's Bridgertons and Eloisa's Desperate DuchessesThe Wildes of Lindow Castle series:Wilde in LoveToo Wilde to WedBorn to Be WildeSay No to the DukePraise for Eloisa James:'Eloisa James is extraordinary' Lisa Kleypas'Smart heroines, sensual heroes, witty repartee and a penchant for delicious romance have made James a fan favorite . . . readers will be hooked from beginning to end' RT Book Reviews'Romance writing does not get much better than this' People'Eloisa James writes with a captivating blend of charm, style, and grace that never fails to leave the reader sighing and smiling and falling in love' Julia Quinn'Charming, romantic and unexpectedly funny' Kirkus'With her usual wry sense of humour, Shakespearean references, delightful dialogue and highly heated love scenes, James creates an emotionally powerful romance destined for readers' keeper shelves' RT Book Review on Too Wilde to Wed'James elevates historical romance to sublime new heights through the lithe elegance of her writing, her exceptional gift for creating richly nuanced characters, and her ability to flawlessly marry potent sensuality with a deliciously dry sense of humor' Booklist

Read more less

“Brand practices his art to something like perfection.” —The New York Times“Max Brand is the Shakespeare of the Western range.” —Kirkus ReviewsIn "When Iron Turns to Gold," the sequel to Brand’s novel Iron Dust, a pardon exonerates Andrew Lanning of any crime he may have committed during his time as an outlaw. Marshal Hal Dozier, instrumental in obtaining that pardon, has urged Andy to return to Martindale and his former life there as a blacksmith. However, the residents of Martindale will not accept Andy back, fearing that he’ll break the law again. To make things worse, Larry la Roche and the members of the Allister gang are prepared to commit a bold robbery in Martindale and frame Andy for the crime if he refuses to rejoin them.Jimmy Bristol is the titular character in "The Two-Handed Man," with a reputation of being able to fire a six-gun accurately using either hand. Bristol is on the dodge when he stops briefly at the Graney Ranch to rest his horse. There, he meets Joe Graney and his daughter, Margaret, who tell Bristol about the thefts they have suffered at the hands of Dirk van Wey and his gang. Despite being pursued by the law himself, Bristol decides he will take a hand against van Wey.On a stormy night in "The Black Muldoon," a notorious outlaw shows up at the home of the storekeeper, Jefferson Peters. The Black Muldoon has a strange cargo, an infant boy whom he wants to leave with Peters so that he can be raised by Peters and his wife as their son. As young Jerry Peters grows up, he turns out to be exceptional at everything he tries, and as an adult manhunter, it is Jerry who takes to the trail to capture the Black Muldoon.Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction that takes place in the old West. Westerns—books about outlaws, sheriffs, chiefs and warriors, cowboys and Indians—are a genre in which we publish regularly. Our list includes international bestselling authors like Zane Gray and Louis L’Amour, and many more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Read more less

“It amazes me that after all these years and countless books, the scope of subject matter on The Beatles is so amazingly large that writers always find a new angle. This book does that in a very unique and clever way. It’s a must for every Beatles fan.” —Billy J. Kramer "...It’s a magical mystery tour through the band’s life and times." —Yahoo Entertainment The It-List "Part biography and part map to the stars, The Beatles: Fab Four Cities is your “Ticket to Ride” and walk in the footsteps of John, Paul, George and Ringo. It’s the next best thing to actually driving their car..."—Nina Violi, Capitol File. and Gotham magazine "While the book can be used as a handy tour guide filled with addresses, maps and photos, it also makes for great reading." —Steve Matteo, The Vinyl District "But now comes a “magic carpet volume” for Beatles fans that blends travel guide with historical reference in an expanded study of The Beatles’ homes, schools, pubs, venues, and important historic sites..." —Jude Southerland Kessler, Culture Sonar John Lennon said: "We were born in Liverpool, but we grew up in Hamburg." To paraphrase Lennon, we could say that: "The Beatles were born in Liverpool, grew up in Hamburg, reached maturity in London, and immortality in New York." Four cities. Four stars. The Fab Four - the Beatles - are revered the world over, but it is in these urban centres that their legacy shines brightest. Liverpool: where the band graduated from church halls, leaving their initial line-up as 'The Quarrymen' far behind. Hamburg: where their raucous stage act was honed; where arrests earned them a more notorious celebrity reputation, but they became a true emblem of rock 'n' roll. London: where The Beatles produced Sgt Pepper, and home to the iconic album cover for Abbey Road. And New York: the city that became John Lennon's home, where their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show announced them to 73 million Americans. The Beatles: Fab Four Cities invites the reader on a cosmopolitan trek across continents, tracing the Beatles' rise to fame from one metropolis to the next. Flush with timelines, stories, trivia, the numerous links and connections between the cities and both pop cultural and local history, this is a travel guide like no other.

Read more less

"With We Carry Their Bones, Erin Kimmerle continues to unearth the true story of the Dozier School, a tale more frightening than any fiction. In a corrupt world, her unflinching revelations are as close as we'll come to justice." –Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer-Prize Winning author of The Nickel Boys and The Underground RailroadForensic anthropologist Erin Kimmerle investigates of the notorious Dozier Boys School—the true story behind the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Nickel Boys—and the contentious process to exhume the graves of the boys buried there in order to reunite them with their families.The Arthur G. Dozier Boys School was a well-guarded secret in Florida for over a century, until reports of cruelty, abuse, and “mysterious” deaths shut the institution down in 2011. Established in 1900, the juvenile reform school accepted children as young as six years of age for crimes as harmless as truancy or trespassing. The boys sent there, many of whom were Black, were subject to brutal abuse, routinely hired out to local farmers by the school’s management as indentured labor, and died either at the school or attempting to escape its brutal conditions.In the wake of the school’s shutdown, Erin Kimmerle, a leading forensic anthropologist, stepped in to locate the school’s graveyard to determine the number of graves and who was buried there, thus beginning the process of reuniting the boys with their families through forensic and DNA testing. The school’s poorly kept accounting suggested some thirty-one boys were buried in unmarked graves in a remote field on the school’s property. The real number was at least twice that. Kimmerle’s work did not go unnoticed; residents and local law enforcement threatened and harassed her team in their eagerness to control the truth she was uncovering—one she continues to investigate to this day.We Carry Their Bones is a detailed account of Jim Crow America and an indictment of the reform school system as we know it. It’s also a fascinating dive into the science of forensic anthropology and an important retelling of the extraordinary efforts taken to bring these lost children home to their families—an endeavor that created a political firestorm and a dramatic reckoning with racism and shame in the legacy of America.

Read more less

The phenominal million-copy bestselling novel by Martha Hall Kelly.'Harrowing ... Lilac illuminates.' People'A compelling, page-turning narrative ... It's smart, thoughtful and also just an old-fashioned good read.' Fort Worth Star, Telegram'A powerful story for readers everywhere ... A novel that brings to life what these women and many others suffered ... I was moved to tears.' San Francisco Book Review__________or three women living through World War II, the threat of war poses very separate issues - that is, until their lives become intertwined in the most tragic of circumstances.New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline's world is forever changed when Hitler's army invades Poland in September 1939-and then sets its sights on France.An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. In a tense atmosphere of watchful eyes and suspecting neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences.For the ambitious young German doctor, Herta Oberheuser, an ad for a government medical position seems her ticket out of a desolate life. Once hired, though, she finds herself trapped in a male-dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power.The lives of these three women are set on a collision course when the unthinkable happens and Kasia is sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi concentration camp for women. Their stories cross continents-from New York to Paris, Germany, and Poland-as Caroline and Kasia strive to bring justice to those whom history has forgotten.__________'[A] compelling first novel . . . This is a page-turner demonstrating the tests and triumphs civilians faced during war, complemented by Kelly's vivid depiction of history and excellent characters.' Publishers Weekly'Kelly vividly re-creates the world of Ravensbrück.' Kirkus Reviews'Martha Hall Kelly has woven together the stories of three women during World War II that reveal the bravery, cowardice, and cruelty of those days.' Lisa See'Lilac Girls is the best book I've read all year. It will haunt you.' Jamie Ford'I can't remember the last time I read a novel that moved me so deeply.' Beatriz Williams

Read more less

'A gorgeous, clever feminist fantasy novel rich with magic, politics, hunger and fire. An absolute must-read' Tasha Suri, author of The Jasmine Throne Trapped in an arranged marriage to a man she does not love, Nehal dreams of attending the Weaving Academy. There, she can take control of her powers, bending any water to her will, and pursue a glorious future on the battlefield with the first all-female military regiment. Her husband, indifferent and secretive, is in love with another woman, a poor bookseller named Giorgina. Giorgina has her own secret. She is an earthweaver with dangerously uncontrollable powers. Her only solace comes from meetings with the Daughters of Izdihar, a women's rights group fighting for freedom. They come from very different means, yet Nehal and Giorgina have more in common than they think.Enticed by the group's enigmatic leader Malak Mamdouh, the two women are drawn into a web of politics, violence and threats of war as they find themselves fighting to earn - and keep - a lasting freedom.A powerful feminist fantasy set in an Egyptian-inspired world, with breathtaking elemental magic and sapphic romance, perfect for fans of The Jasmine Throne and The Once and Future Witches.Praise for The Daughters of Izdihar:'Hadeer Elsbai has written a powerful story of sisterhood, love, and struggle within a rich, vibrant world with complicated characters that leap from the page to smash the patriarchy!' P. Djèlí Clark, author of A Master of Djinn'A wondrously rich fantasy that highlights the true struggle to revolutionize a society. . . a debut not to be missed' Shannon Chakraborty, author of The City of Brass'Action-packed, magic-filled, and led by two fierce, vividly-rendered women, The Daughters of Izdihar is a compelling and empowering debut' Ava Reid, author of Juniper and Thorn'A thrilling tale of two women's fight for rights in their patriarchal society, peppered with elemental magic, politics, and a relentless desire for that which is wrongly forbidden.' Andrea Stewart, author of The Bone Shard Daughter'A powerful fantasy novel filled with clever magic, intriguing politics, and compelling characters who forge a path toward justice, no matter the obstacle' Chelsea Abdullah, author of The Stardust Thief'An absolutely enthralling tale of two women striving for a better world' Sarah Beth Durst, author of The Queen of Blood'Magnificent, complex, compelling' Davinia Evans, author of Notorious Sorcerer

Read more less

Dear reader, There is nothing to be found in Lemony Snicket’s ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ but misery and despair. You still have time to choose another international best-selling series to read. But if you insist on discovering the unpleasant adventures of the Baudelaire orphans, then proceed with caution… Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are intelligent children. They are charming, and resourceful, and have pleasant facial features. Unfortunately, they are exceptionally unlucky. In The Penultimate Peril, the siblings face a harpoon gun, a rooftop sunbathing salon, two mysterious initials, three unidentified triplets, a notorious villain, and an unsavoury curry… In the tradition of great storytellers, from Dickens to Dahl, comes an exquisitely dark comedy that is both literary and irreverent, hilarious and deftly crafted. Despite their wretched contents, ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ has sold 60 million copies worldwide and been made into a Hollywood film starring Jim Carrey. And in the future things are poised to get much worse, thanks to the forthcoming Netflix series starring Neil Patrick Harris. You have been warned. Are you unlucky enough to own all 13 adventures? The Bad Beginning The Reptile Room The Wide Window The Miserable Mill The Austere Academy The Ersatz Elevator The Vile Village The Hostile Hospital The Carnivorous Carnival The Slippery Slope The Grim Grotto The Penultimate Peril The End And what about All the Wrong Questions? In this four-book series a 13-year-old Lemony chronicles his dangerous and puzzling apprenticeship in a mysterious organisation that nobody knows anything about: ‘Who Could That Be at This Hour?’ ‘When Did you Last See Her?’ ‘Shouldn’t You Be in School?’ ‘Why is This Night Different from All Other Nights?’ Lemony Snicket was born before you were and is likely to die before you as well. He was born in a small town where the inhabitants were suspicious and prone to riot. He grew up near the sea and currently lives beneath it. Until recently, he was living somewhere else. Brett Helquist was born in Ganado, Arizona, grew up in Orem, Utah, and now lives in New York City. He earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Brigham Young University and has been illustrating ever since. His art has appeared in many publications, including Cricket magazine and The New York Times.

Read more less

A Homeland Denied follows the horrific journey of Waclaw Kossakowski, a young Warsaw University student whose peaceful life was changed dramatically and with far reaching consequences that fateful day of 1st September, 1939. From imprisonment in the notorious Kozelsk prison to the forced labor camp in the Siberian Arctic Circle, the compelling story pulls the reader into a world of suffering and brutality it would be impossible to imagine. Forced to dig runways in temperatures as low as-50oC while under constant threat from sadistic guards, it was an indescribable living hell with death the only companion. He endured and witnessed atrocities which haunted him for the rest of his life with so many friends murdered or frozen to death in the unforgiving cruelty of Siberia. But fate intervened and the icy wasteland was replaced by the blistering heat and dry deserts of the Middle East, where the student who had never picked up a gun was taught to fight-in the Italian campaign, at Monte Cassino, Ancona and Bologna.Yet the intense desire to return to his homeland never left him and only memories of his idyllic life before the war sustained him when he sank to the lowest depths of despair. Waclaw could not know of the terrible suffering of his family or the sacrifices of his countrymen as they fought so desperately to keep Warsaw, only to be denied their homeland in the cruelest way imaginable. Although they were ultimately the victors, they lost everything-their home, their loves, their country and nothing was ever the same again. In a country governed by Communist Russia and controlled by their secret police, it was impossible to return under fear of imprisonment or death and no knowledge of the achievements and bravery of the Poles was allowed to be known. No one was safe under the Stalinist reign of terror. Everything was strictly censored or destroyed and with the passage of time few people were left alive to tell their story. It was only in 1989 that Poland truly broke free from the Russian yoke and its people gained the freedom they had fought so valiantly for.This dramatic and poignant story based on the memories of Waclaw Kossakowski is recounted in vivid detail and documents a tragic period in the history of the Polish people in Europe. His story demands to be told and ensures that many other unrecognized Poles will not be forgotten.

Read more less

The Disappeared tells the extraordinary saga of Argentina’s attempt to right the wrongs of an unspeakably dark past. Using a recent human rights trial as his lens, Sam Ferguson addresses two central questions of our age: How is mass atrocity possible, and What should be done in its wake? From 1976 to 1983 thousands of people were the victims of state terrorism during Argentina’s so-called Dirty War. Ferguson recounts a twenty-two-month trial of the most notorious perpetrators of this atrocity, who ran a secret prison from the Naval Mechanics School in Buenos Aires. The navy executed as many as five thousand political “subversives,” most of whom were sedated and thrown alive out of airplanes into the South Atlantic. The victims of these secret death flights and others who went missing during the regime are known as los desaparecidos—“the disappeared.” Ferguson explores Argentina’s novel response to mass atrocity: the country’s remarkable and controversial decisions in 2003 to repeal a series of amnesty laws passed in the 1980s and to prosecute anew the perpetrators of the Dirty War a generation after the collapse of the country's last dictatorship. As of 2022 more than one thousand aging military officers have been indicted for their involvement in the Dirty War and hundreds of trials have commenced in the country’s civilian courts. Among the many facets of the book, Ferguson takes an in-depth look at allegations that Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, was involved in the disappearance of two Jesuit priests under his supervision in 1976. Bergoglio was called to testify in a closed-chambers session. Ferguson reviewed those secret proceedings and uses them as a springboard to explore the Argentine Catholic Church and its broader role in the Dirty War. The lingering but acute trauma of the victims who testified at the trial underscores the moral urgency of accountability. When a state strips its citizens of all their rights, the only response that approximates reparation is to restore the rule of law and punish the perpetrators. Yet the trial also revealed the limits of using criminal law to respond to mass atrocity. Justice demands a laser-like focus on evidence relevant to a crime, but atrocity begs for social understanding. Can the law ever bring full justice?

Read more less

The pharmaceutical industry has long and vehemently insisted that it has the willingness, the dedication, and the ability to police itself to insure that the public will not be unnecessarily harmed or defrauded. As the record shows with painful clarity, however, virtually no industry or professional group has ever adequately policed itself, and the pharmaceutical industry is no exception. Where the most flagrant abuses have been exposed and corrected, major credit must probably be divided among the media that publicized the situation, consumer groups that applied pressure, government officials who took actions that were often unpopular, and individual members of the pharmaceutical industry who had the courage to face up to their social responsibilities. In this book, the authors turn their attention to what happened in Third World countries when, because of worldwide pressures, the multinational drug companies largely corrected their notorious abuses. On the basis of painstaking research, much of it conducted in a great many Third World countries, the authors conclude that a plethora of small local firms have filled the dishonest sales channels vacated by the multinationals. The authors show in great detail how local drug firms in the Third World have taken advantage of loose regulatory practices and unscrupulous behavior on the part of regional and national health care professionals to promote the sale of dangerous or worthless drugs as remedies for diseases for which they were never intended. Warnings of bad side effects are omitted from promotional literature, drugs are sold that have not had proper trials, and drug firms have often bribed government officials, doctors, and hospital administrators in order to gain favorable treatment in the importation and sale of their products. Among the many topics treated in this book are the controversy over inexpensive generic drugs (including disclosures of fraud and bribery in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration), the actions of consumer groups, and the key role of government in preventing abuses by drug firms. The authors describe a remarkable attempt in Bangladesh, one of the poorest of all the developing countries, to develop a high-quality local drug industry. They also present as case histories reports on three extremely important drug products or groups—the dipyrones (for control of pain and fever), high-dosage estrogen-progesterone hormone products (for use in pregnancy tests), and clioquinol or Enterovioform (for treatment of diarrhea)—all of which were or still are centers of worldwide, heated controversy.

Read more less

Since it was first published in 2006, Riches, Rivals and Radicals has been the go-to text for introductory museum studies courses. It is also of great value to professionals as well as museum lovers who want to learn the stories behind how and why these institutions have evolved since the day the first mastodon bones, royal portraits and botanical specimens entered their dusty halls. For this third edition, Marjorie Schwarzer has mined new resources, previously unavailable archives and contemporary trends to provide a fresh look at the challenges and innovations that have shaped museums in the United States. Schwarzer argues that museums are fundamentally optimistic institutions. They build and preserve some of the nation’s most extraordinary architecture. They showcase the beauty and promise of new scientific discoveries, historical breakthroughs and artistic creation. They provide places of inspiration and repose. At the same time, museums have succeeded in exposing some of the nation’s most painful legacies – racism, inequity, violence – as they strive to be places for healing and reckoning. This too, one could argue, is an act of optimism, for it expresses the hope that museum visitors will gain empathy and understanding from the evidence of others’ struggles. Schwarzer shows us how museums are rooted in a contentious history tied to social, technological and economic trends and ultimately changing ideas of what it means to be a citizen. Along the way we meet some notorious and eccentric characters including business tycoons, architects, collectors, designers, politicians, political activists and progressive educators, all of whom have exerted their influence on what is a complex yet nonetheless enduring institution. Major additions since the last edition include material on digital curation, emergent exhibitions about civil rights, immersive museum environments, continuing efforts to diversify the field, how museums' role in our increasingly digital society, and a new foreword by American Alliance of Museums President and CEO Laura L. Lott.Museums new to this edition include the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.Beautifully written and lavishly illustrated, the third edition of this accessible, award-winning book brings the reader up to date on the stories behind the people and events that have transformed America’s museums from their beginnings into today’s vibrant cultural institutions.

Read more less

A vivid portrait of the Columbia River Bar that combines maritime history, adventure journalism, and memoir, bringing alive the history—and present—of one of the most notorious stretches of water in the worldOff the coast of Oregon, the Columbia River flows into the Pacific Ocean and forms the Columbia River Bar: a watery collision so turbulent and deadly that it’s nicknamed the Graveyard of the Pacific.Two thousand ships have been wrecked on the bar since the first European ship dared to try to cross it in the late 18thcentury. For decades ships continued to make the bar crossing with great peril, first with native guides and later with opportunistic newcomers, as Europeans settled in Washington and Oregon, displacing the natives and transforming the river into the hub of a booming region. Since then, the commercial importance of the Columbia River has only grown, and despite the construction of jetties on either side, the bar remains treacherous, even today a site of shipwrecks and dramatic rescues as well as power struggles between small fishermen, powerful shipowners, local communities in Washington and Oregon, the Coast Guard, and the Columbia River Bar Pilots – a small group of highly skilled navigators who help guide ships through the mouth of the Columbia.When Randall Sullivan and a friend set out to cross the bar in a two-man kayak, they’re met with skepticism and concern. But on a clear day in July 2021, when the tides and weather seem right, they embark. As they plunge through the currents that have taken so many lives, Randall commemorates the brave sailors that made the crossing before him – including his own abusive father, a sailor himself who also once dared to cross the bar – and reflects on toxic masculinity, fatherhood, and what drives men to extremes.Rich with exhaustive research and propulsive narrative, Graveyard of the Pacific follows historical shipwrecks through the moment-by-moment details that often determined whether sailors would live or die, exposing the ways in which boats, sailors, and navigation have changed over the decades. As he makes his way across the bar, floating above the wrecks and across the same currents that have taken so many lives, Randall Sullivan faces the past, both in his own life and on the Columbia River Bar.

Read more less

One of the most iconic characters in children’s literature Hergé’s classic comic book creation Tintin is one of the most recognisable characters in children’s books. These highly collectible editions of the original 24 adventures will delight Tintin fans old and new. Perfect for lovers of graphic novels, mysteries and historical adventures. The world’s most famous travelling reporter learns the secret of the Unicorn. When Tintin stumbles across a model ship at the Old Street Market, he buys it as a gift for his friend Captain Haddock. But this isn’t just any old model ship … it’s the Unicorn. Built by one of Haddock’s ancestors it holds a clue to finding the treasure of a notorious pirate. Join the most iconic character in comics as he embarks on an extraordinary adventure spanning historical and political events, and thrilling mysteries. Still selling over 100,000 copies every year in the UK and having been adapted for the silver screen by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson in 2011. The Adventures of Tintin continue to charm more than 90 years after they first found their way into publication. Since then more than 230 million copies have been sold, proving that comic books have the same power to entertain children and adults in the 21st century as they did in the early 20th. Hergé (Georges Remi) was born in Brussels in 1907. Over the course of 54 years he completed over 20 titles in The Adventures of Tintin series, which is now considered to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, comics series of all time. Have you collected all the graphic novel adventures? Tintin in the Land of the SovietsTintin in AmericaTintin: Cigars of the PharaohTintin: The Blue LotusTintin: The Broken EarTintin: The Black IslandTintin: King Ottakar’s SceptreTintin: The Crab with the Golden ClawsTintin: The Shooting StarTintin: The Secret of the UnicornTintin: Red Rackham’s TreasureTintin: The Seven Crystal BallsTintin: Prisoners of the SunTintin: Land of Black GoldTintin: Destination MoonTintin: Explorers of the MoonTintin: The Calculus AffairTintin: The Red Sea SharksTintin in TibetTintin: The Castafiore EmeraldTintin: Flight 714 to SydneyThe Adventures of Tintin and the PicarosTintin and Alph-Art

Read more less

Fly with the best in Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority—the definitive, highly illustrated, in-depth look at the Navy's famous fighter unit, including its history, technology, and culture.Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority begins with a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the blockbuster film that helped America shake off the trauma of the Vietnam War and once again take pride in its military. The book then launches into the even more incredible story of why and how such men consistently capture the imagination of children, adults, pilots, and audiences around the world. Chapters spotlight pivotal military movies and television shows that presaged the movie Top Gun, including edge-of-the-seat vignettes and anecdotes of pilots and their lifestyles, the origin of the Navy’s fighter pilot program and its rigorous training, and how it inspired the Air Force’s counterpart, Red Flag. Other chapters highlight what it takes to be a pilot in other branches of the armed forces, and takes a look back in time at the most notorious (and feared) pilots of World War I and World War II from all around the globe. Fast forward to the jet age, when the first aces flew hair-raising missions over Korea and Vietnam, and learn how past and contemporary aerial dogfighting really works. The book also reveals the many technological advances that transformed aerial combat from the dangerous, unsynchronized machine guns that bounced bullets off propellers in World War I to today, where air-to-air missiles are launched by pilots who have no visual contact with an adversary, and finally illustrates how drones are adding a new dimension to the meaning of Top Gun. Finish with an in-depth look at Naval Station Fallon, one of the most modern and renowned American naval stations, located outside Fallon, Nevada. Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority concludes with a look at Top Gun 2, the highly anticipated sequel to one of the biggest action movies of all time and the one that made Tom Cruise a worldwide superstar. Featuring over 200 photos, new interviews and stories from aces, engineers, commanders, and more, and written by best-selling author and president of the Military Writers Society of America, Dwight Zimmerman, Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority is the must-have guide to the fastest, deadliest, most storied aerial combat squadron the world has ever known.

Read more less

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICKMAJOR TV ADAPTATION IN DEVELOPMENT BY AMY ADAMS'Calling it The Handmaid's Tale crossed with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid goes some way to describe this novel's memorable world, but it is also wholly its own' KIRKUS '2021 is already a year that could use a little joy. Here to provide some is Outlawed . . . It's an absolute romp and contains basically everything I want in a book: witchy nuns, heists, a marriage of convenience, and a midwife trying to build a bomb out of horse dung' Vox 'Outlawed sets a high bar for the 12 months of publishing still to come . . . It upends the tropes of the traditionally macho and heteronormative genre while also being a rip-snortin' good read, too' THE WEEK (Most Anticipated Books of the Year) 'North is a riveting storyteller . . . Reader, you are in for a real treat' JENNY ZHANG'Fans of Margaret Atwood and Cormac McCarthy finally get the Western they deserve' ALEXIS COE 'A thrilling tale eerily familiar but utterly transformed ... In North's galloping prose, it's a fantastically cinematic adventure that turns the sexual politics of the Old West inside out' WASHINGTON POST 'A western unlike any other, Outlawed features queer cowgirls, gender nonconforming robbers and a band of feminists that fight against the grain for autonomy, agency and the power to define their own worth' MS. 'A grand, unforgettable tale' ESMÉ WEIJUN WANG In the year of our Lord 1894, I became an outlaw.On the day of her wedding-dance, Ada feels lucky. She loves her broad-shouldered, bashful husband and her job as an apprentice midwife.But her luck will not last. It is every woman's duty to have a child, to replace those that were lost in the Great Flu. And after a year of marriage and no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are hanged as witches, Ada's survival depends on leaving behind everything she knows.She joins up with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang. Its leader, a charismatic preacher-turned-robber, known to all as The Kid, wants to create a safe haven for women outcast from society. But to make this dream a reality, the Gang hatches a treacherous plan. And Ada must decide whether she's willing to risk her life for the possibility of a new kind of future for them all.

Read more less

The Deadly Trade takes readers on an epic and enthralling voyage through submarine warfare, including how U-boats in two world wars tried to achieve victory, first for the Kaiser and then 20 years later for Adolf Hitler. It tells the story of how such tiny craft took on mighty battleships, including U-boats sinking HMS Royal Oak and HMS Barham in WW2, along with the incredible exploits of British submariners in the Dardanelles and Baltic during WW1.The action-packed narrative includes bitterly contested Atlantic convoy fights of WW2 and submarines in the clash of battle fleets at Midway. Iain Ballantyne also reveals how the US Navy submarine service brought the Japanese empire to its knees in 1945, even before the atomic bombs were dropped. The Deadly Trade tells the amazing stories of not only pioneers such as Drebbel, Fulton and Holland, but also of legendary submarine captains, including Max Horton and Otto Weddigen in WW1. During WW2 we sail to war with Otto Kretschmer, Gunther Prien, Fritz-Julius Lemp, Malcolm Wanklyn, Dudley Morton, Richard O'Kane and Sam Dealey. We get involved in the famous fights of Britain's ace submarine-killing escort group leaders Frederic 'Johnny' Walker, Donald Macintyre and Peter Gretton. There is a dive into unconventional submarine warfare, including Japanese midget subs in the notorious Pearl Harbor raid plus British X-craft against the Tirpitz in Arctic waters. Iain Ballantyne plunges readers into famous Enigma machine captures that played a key role in deciding the outcome of WW2. He explains what the Nazis were up to at the end of WW2, pursuing Total Underwater Warfare, partly via the revolutionary Type XXI U-boat. Ballantyne reveals the incredible story of a proposed cruise missile attack on New York and considers the likelihood (or otherwise) of Hitler escaping to South America in a U-boat. The Deadly Trade takes us into the post-WW2 face-off between the Soviets and NATO, the sinking of the Indian frigate INS Khukri by Pakistan's PNS Hangor and attack on the Argentine cruiser ARA Belgrano by HMS Conqueror. The Deadly Trade concludes with today's growing submarine arms race and Putin's 'missile boat diplomacy' along with the use of cruise missiles by the British and Americans to try and decapitate rogue regimes. The Deadly Trade is the perfect companion to Hunter Killers, Iain Ballantyne's real-life Cold War submarine thriller.

Read more less

At the beginning of the 20th century Morris dancing had all but died out in much of England. It was militant suffragettes and slum girls who kick-started the revival that returned the forgotten dances of the countryside to towns and villages across the nation. As a result of their commitment to preserve and pass on the dances, the Morris survived as a living tradition that is still performed to this day. And the impetus to do so came from the women’s aspiration to change society for the better, the same impetus that drove them to militant action and to prison. The Morris revival and the militant suffrage movement were inextricably linked. The leader of the dance revival, Mary Neal, was a life-long radical campaigner for the rights of women and children. With her friend Emmeline Pethick she ran the Esperance Girls’ Club in one of London’s most deprived areas. She and Emmeline both sat on the national committee of Mrs Pankhurst’s militant Women’s Social and Political Union, the most notorious of the groups campaigning for the vote for women. The women’s embrace of traditional dance was rooted in Mary’s aspirations for equality and her commitment to social and political reform. The beginning of the dance revival and the launch of the militant suffragette campaign in London coincided almost exactly. Launched by a rather forlorn band of rebels, the WSPU grew into a movement capable of inspiring loyalty and loathing in equal measure. The Morris revival developed from an entertainment in a club for impoverished girls into a nationwide initiative. Mary and Emmeline’s associates in the dance revival ranged from young girls who worked in the militant campaign’s offices to hunger-striking daughters of the aristocracy. Mary and Emmeline provided the leadership and commitment that enabled two radical movements to flourish in the early years of the 20th century, but both found themselves marginalised after policy disagreements – with the folklorist Cecil Sharp and Mrs Pankhurst respectively - led to devastating splits in their respective organisations. Both then found themselves misrepresented and written out of the histories of movements which might never have got off the ground without them. Only in recent decades have women begun to reclaim their place in the Morris dance movement, the very existence of which is a legacy of the militant campaign for the vote.

Read more less

The story of the transport, known as “Kasztner’s Train” that carried 1, 676 Jewish men women and children from Budapest and its environs out of immediate danger, and eventually to freedom is one of the most compelling and thought-provoking episodes of the Holocaust. The Jews of Hungary were the last remaining large group of Jews left in Europe. Although subjected to anti-Jewish decrees and acts of violence, they remained mostly intact. That changed in March 1944 when the Nazis, afraid that their Hungarian cronies were about to capitulate to the Allies, occupied the country. Before long, the fate of the Jews in Hungary became precarious, then deadly. They were deported at a frightening rate, most directly to Auschwitz where almost ninety percent of the over 425,000 Jews perished. Against this backdrop, Rudolf Kasztner, a part of a Jewish aid group tried r=to prevent Jews from being deported. He negotiated directly with the notorious Nazi, Adolf Eichmann to release Jews in exchange for payment. Kasztner wanted a much larger arrangement, but it never happened. To some, Kasztner was a literal life saver. To others, he was a collaborator, a traitor to his people.Among those on that train, along with his mother and uncle, was eight-year-old Imi Mandel. The story of how he came to be included in that uncertain journey that travelled from Budapest to the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, and after six months, on to freedom in Switzerland is but one part of the tale told by Mandel’s friend, Terry Horowitz. Along the way Mandel and his family crossed paths with some of the memorable people we think about when studying the Holocaust: names like Hannah Szenes, Anne Frank and Raoul Wallenberg. Mandel’s father, Lajos was a prominent cantor in Budapest and an important figure in Jewish life there. But he was forced laborer hundreds of miles away and didn’t even know his wife and child had left Budapest. Eventually the family was reunited, first in Israel and later in the United States. Imi, now known as Manny, grew to adulthood, and has had a successful and rewarding life. He now regularly speaks about the Holocaust in front of various groups. The story of Manny and the entire Mandel family offers us a rich detail of the Jewish world before and during the war, along with its aftermath and how they overcame many tragedies and obstacles. Finally, their story becomes a chronicle of a quintessential American life.

Read more less

Some places make their own laws…When Ella Watson, a woman of wealth and status, is brutally stabbed to death in broad daylight it sends a shockwave through the Lake District community. Later that day, Keira Bradley meets the same fate. But whereas Ella’s murder is a tragedy, Keira’s death on the notorious Beacon Estate is just another statistic in a dangerous place.DI Kelly Porter has the unenviable job of running simultaneous investigations. Her efforts aren’t helped by a boss driven by protecting his reputation and a housing estate where fear rules and no one dare speak out. Kelly knows the answers can only be found by winning the trust of the residents at Beacon Estate. A task so hard it may be impossible.Kelly puts everything she has into finding justice for both victims. The only thing she hadn’t anticipated was a traitor in the ranks. When the evidence points to someone in her team, Kelly has to put feelings aside and work the case – no matter where it leads. By the time it is over, nothing in her world will ever be the same…A dark and gripping police procedural from million copy bestseller Rachel Lynch, for fans of Patricia Gibney and D. K. Hood.What readers are saying about Little Doubt 'Great characters, great story and a gripping finale. I just wish I could give it more than five stars' Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Another cracking book by Rachel Lynch... has quickly become one of my favourite crime series' NetGalley Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'I have never read any of the other books in this series but now I am going to have to go back and read them all as this was so good!' NetGalley Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'I just LOVE this series and this latest novel did not disappoint. Gritty, suspenseful and full of action with DI Kelly Porter at the top of her game... A well deserved 5 stars, cant wait for the next instalment!' NetGalley Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'This book is just as brilliant as the first six and had me captivated from the first page... Yet another superb book by Rachel Lynch in the Kelly Porter series. I can’t wait to read the eighth one!' NetGalley Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Another excellent novel by Rachel Lynch and I am so looking forward to the next one' Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read more less

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTELLER AND WINNER OF THE ATTITUDE BOOK AWARD'I love this man so much. He was, and always will be, my knight in shining Westwood.' DAVINA MCCALL'This is a story that should never have been told' KATE MOSS'The perfect beach read' THE SUNDAY TIMES'If you want to change your life but can't.. I strongly advise you read this book' TRACEY EMINAs one of club culture's most notorious - and best loved - figures, Tony is a complete force of nature. Here he tells the most extraordinary stories of depravity and hedonism, of week-long benders and extreme self-destruction - and of recovery, redemption, friendship and the joy of a good tune.___________________________________________________________________________'Anyone can get a party started, but no one keeps it going like Fat Tony, the energy never dips andwhat a life he's lived.. He's a tosser but we still love him.' ELTON JOHN & DAVID FURNISH___________________________________________________________________________DJ Fat Tony has been described as 'the closest thing that club culture has to a national treasure' and the 'unlikely cult hero of quarantine'. Few people have crammed so many lives into one: when your first line of cocaine is aged 16 with Freddie Mercury, where do you go from there?I Don't Take Requests is Fat Tony's breathtakingly candid and outrageous memoir of a life of extremes. From his childhood on an estate in Battersea where he honed his petty criminality, was abused by an older man and made friends with Boy George, to his teenage years spent parading the Kings Road in his latest (stolen) clobber, working as a receptionist for a prostitute, hanging out with Leigh Bowery and Sue Tilley and creating his drag persona, to his life as DJ to the stars and his spiral into serious drug addiction. Now, he is 16 years sober and, alongside working to help others overcome addiction, DJing for everyone from Elton John to Louis Vuitton - and running one of lockdown's most popular Instagram accounts with its wickedly funny memes. It is all here in horrifying, glorious, heart-breaking detail.___________________________________________________________________________'There is nobody in London, let alone the world who has lived a more extraordinary life... his journey from villain to real life hero is one of the most beautiful examples of humanity I have ever witnessed. I wouldn't be without this c*nt.' KELLY OSBOURNE'Hearing Tony's story is brutal and shocking. He is nothing short of a miracle and his willingness to be of service to others seeking sobriety is testament to how far he has come from the days of pulling his own teeth out.' MARC JACOBS

Read more less

The chronicles of Jean le Bel are one of the most important sources for the beginning of the Hundred Years' War. This is the first English translation of a work written from eyewitness accounts and personal experience. The chronicles of Jean le Bel, written around 1352-61, are one of the most important sources for the beginning of the Hundred Years' War. They were only rediscovered and published at the beginning of the twentieth century, thoughFroissart begins his much more famous work by acknowledging his great debt to the "true chronicles" which Jean le Bel had written. Many of the great pages of Froissart are actually the work of Jean le Bel, and this is the first translation of his book. It introduces English-speaking readers to a vivid text written by a man who, although a canon of the cathedral at Liège, had actually fought with Edward III in Scotland, and who was a great admirer of the English king. He writes directly and clearly, with an admirable grasp of narrative; and he writes very much from the point of view of the knights who fought with Edward. Even as a canon, he lived in princely style, with a retinue oftwo knights and forty squires, and he wrote at the request of John of Hainault, the uncle of queen Philippa. He was thus able to draw directly on the verbal accounts of the Crécy campaign given to him by soldiers from Hainault who had fought on both sides; and his description of warfare in Scotland is the most realistic account of what it was like to be on campaign that survives from this period. If he succumbs occasionally to a good story from one of theparticipants in the wars, this helps us to understand the way in which the knights saw themselves; but his underlying objective is to keep "as close to the truth as I could, according to what I personally have seen and remembered, and also what I have heard from those who were there". Edward may be his hero, a "gallant and noble king", but Le Bel tells the notorious story of his supposed rape of the countess of Salisbury because he believed it to be true,puzzled and shocked though he was by his material. It is a text which helps to put the massive work of Jean Froissart in perspective, but its concentrated focus and relatively short time span makes it a much more approachable and highly readable insight into the period.

Read more less

“Old Poets is an indispensable jewel.” —Washington Post“An astonishing array of encounters...Hall’s observations are shrewd and generous.” —Boston Globe Intimate portraits of great poets in old age, giving new insight into their work and their lives, and context to the often flawless art created by flawed human beings. The best of themselves endure, and the old poets’ existence and endurance gives readers courage to pursue their own vision. Donald Hall (Essays After Eighty and A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety) knew a great deal about work, about poetry, and about age. Each of those things come together in this unique collection. We hear about Robert Frost as Hall knew him: vain and cruel, a man possessed by guilt. But, as Hall writes, “The poet who survives is the poet to celebrate; the human being who confronts darkness and defeats it is the one to admire. For all his vanity, Robert Frost is admirable: He looked into his desert places, confronted his desire to enter the oblivion of the snowy woods, and drove on.”Hall’s essays are once both intimate portraits and learned treatises. He takes us on a pub crawl through the Welsh countryside with the word-mad Dylan Thomas; to the Faber & Faber office of T. S. Eliot, who had discovered more happiness in age than in youth; to a reading where Robert Frost’s public persona hid the truth; to Brooklyn for lunch with the enigmatic Marianne Moore; and to Italy and for a visit with the notorious Ezra Pound. By the time Hall met them, each poet was, he observed, “old enough to have detached from ongoing poetry, to feel alien to the ambitions of the grandchildren.”Also included are portraits of the poets who taught Hall as a writer: the unfailingly kind Archibald MacLeish and Yvor Winters, from whom he learned the most about poetry. Along the way are observations about many other poets and the literary cultures that sustained them.Contents include: “Vanity, Fame, Love, and Robert Frost,” “Dylan Thomas and Public Suicide,” “Notes on T. S. Eliot,” “Rocks and Whirlpools: Archibald MacLeish and Yvor Winters,” “Marianne Moore: Valiant and Alien,” and “Fragments of Ezra Pound.”For lovers of literature, this is a gorgeous remembrance and likely to compel an immediate visit to the poetry section of the nearest bookstore—as Hall writes, “Their presences have been emblems in my life, and I remember these poets as if I kept them carved in stone.”

Read more less

‘A thrilling new voice in Scottish fiction’ Marion ToddIf the dead could speak, what secrets would they tell?With her daughter on an archaeological dig, the only bodies DI Shona Oliver expects to find are long-dead. But when a corpse from the 1980s is unearthed, Shona quickly realises that it may be one of the missing “Girls in the Glen”, victim of a notorious serial killer.Shona’s superiors want her to stop looking to the past, and focus on a fresher crime scene. The attempted shooting of a local politician who likes to stoke controversy.As Shona finds herself pulled between crimes past and present, she soon realises that the secrets buried on Beild Moss are reaching into the present day.But when even her own officers are keeping things from her, who can she trust? Especially when more lives may be at stake…The third instalment in the thrilling DI Shona Oliver series, perfect for fans of Neil Lancaster, G. R. Halliday and Ann Cleeves.Praise for The Girls in the Glen ‘A gripping murder mystery and a must-read for fans of Scottish crime. The landscape is beautifully drawn and becomes a character in this tale of dark reprisal’ Stuart Johnstone, author of Into the DarkWhat readers are saying about the DI Shona Oliver series‘Full of twists and turns’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review‘Shona Oliver is the real McCoy… exceptional leader, mother and wife fighting crime and personal family issues in equal proportions with heart, skill, compassion, integrity and humanity’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review‘Great twists and turns and … a shocking climax. A brilliant read, I really enjoyed this one’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review‘A haunting and absorbing novel set against the backdrop of a notoriously stunning but dangerous landscape’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review‘Fast paced, unexpected turns and great character development’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review‘The sort of read that keeps you glued and up all night’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review‘This book has so many elements I enjoy; a strong, intelligent woman, an atmospheric setting and the history of this wild area. Lynne McEwan makes her characters come alive’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review‘Unputdownable! I was absolutely entranced with this and quickly read the whole book on tender hooks. One of the best I've read this year’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review‘Well written and plenty of interesting characters woven through a clever plot’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review

Read more less

A suspense filled tale of murder on the American frontier—shedding new light on a family of serial killers in Kansas, whose horrifying crimes gripped the attention of a nation still reeling from war.'A carefully researched and horribly compelling examination of unimaginable evil intruding upon everyday life' The ObserverIn 1873 the people of Labette County, Kansas made a grisly discovery. Buried by a trailside cabin beneath an orchard of young apple trees were the remains of countless bodies. Below the cabin itself was a cellar stained with blood. The Benders, the family of four who once resided on the property were nowhere to be found. The discovery sent the local community and national newspapers into a frenzy that continued for decades, sparking an epic manhunt for the Benders. The idea that a family of seemingly respectable homesteaders—one among the thousands relocating farther west in search of land and opportunity after the Civil War—were capable of operating "a human slaughter pen" appalled and fascinated the nation. But who the Benders really were, why they committed such a vicious killing spree and whether justice ever caught up to them is a mystery that remains unsolved to this day. Set against the backdrop of postbellum America, Hell’s Half-Acre explores the environment capable of allowing such horrors to take place. Drawing on extensive original archival material, Susan Jonusas introduces us to a fascinating cast of characters, many of whom have been previously missing from the story. Among them are the families of the victims, the hapless detectives who lost the trail, and the fugitives that helped the murderers escape. Hell’s Half-Acre is a journey into the turbulent heart of nineteenth century America, a place where modernity stalks across the landscape, violently displacing existing populations and building new ones. It is a world where folklore can quickly become fact and an entire family of criminals can slip through a community’s fingers, only to reappear in the most unexpected of places.“Dark and bloody, hard-nosed but lyrical, Hell’s Half-Acre is a true-crime mass-murder mystery from the Old West. Susan Jonusas has stripped down a notorious story, researched it to hell and back, and rebuilt in prose so immediate and immersive that it feels like she must have been there. Beware the Benders, but all hail Susan Jonusas. This is a stunning debut from a great and powerful new voice in narrative non-fiction.” Dan Jones, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Templars, The Plantagenets and Blood and Thrones

Read more less

New York Times bestselling author Steve Sheinkin presents a follow up to his award-winning book Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, taking readers on a terrifying journey into the Cold War and our mutual assured destruction. As World War II comes to a close, the United States and the Soviet Union emerge as the two greatest world powers on extreme opposites of the political spectrum. After the United States showed its hand with the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, the Soviets refuse to be left behind. With communism sweeping the globe, the two nations begin a neck-and-neck competition to build even more destructive bombs and conquer the Space Race. In their battle for dominance, spy planes fly above, armed submarines swim deep below, and undercover agents meet in the dead of night. The Cold War game grows more precarious as weapons are pointed towards each other, with fingers literally on the trigger. The decades-long showdown culminates in the Cuban Missile Crisis, the world's close call with the third-and final-world war. Praise for BOMB: A Newbery Honor book A National Book Awards finalist for Young People's Literature A Washington Post Best Kids Books of the Year title "This is edge-of-the seat material that will resonate with YAs who clamor for true spy stories, and it will undoubtedly engross a cross-market audience of adults who dozed through the World War II unit in high school." -BCCB, starred review "...reads like an international spy thriller, and that's the beauty of it." -School Library Journal, starred review "[A] complicated thriller that intercuts action with the deftness of a Hollywood blockbuster." -Booklist "A must-read." -Publishers Weekly, starred review "A superb tale of an era and an effort that forever changed our world." -Kirkus, starred review Also by Steve Sheinkin: The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War Born to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America

Read more less

The Fire of Tongues is a study of the religious and social thought of the Jesuit António Vieira (1608-97), one of the great preachers, writers, and missionaries of the seventeenth century. A key actor in European and Ibero-American politics of the period, Vieira argued throughout his seventy-year career that the Portuguese nation was destined to lead the Catholic church in its mission to convert the Jews of Europe and the non-Christian peoples of the New World. The tension between the missionary enterprise and the Portuguese imperial agenda provides The Fire of Tongues with its principal theme.The author focuses on three periods in Vieira's career. The first is his mission to Brazil (1653-61), which took place during an era marked by conflict between the Jesuit missionaries and their fellow Europeans. The latter resented the Jesuits' responsibility for administering the allocation of Indian workers, and Vieira exacerbated the conflict by bringing under Jesuit control the notorious slaving expeditions the Portuguese were conducting in the backlands. After being forcibly returned to Portugal by his opponents, Vieira spent five years in the custody of the Inquisition (1663-67).The author argues that the Inquisition's persecution of Vieira was a result of his criticism of the church hierarchy in the Luso-Brazilian world, set forth in his preaching and prophetic writings. For Vieira, the New World was a locus of prophecies that the Portuguese had been providentially chosen to reveal. Every group that participated in the imperial project—the crown and settlers, the missionaries and Indians, and the Inquisitors—had a role to play in the schema of revelation that Vieira drew from scripture and then read into Portuguese history and into the history of the missionary church.When Vieira returned to Brazil for the last time (1681-97), he brought with him an interpretation of colonial society and of the missionary vocation that differed greatly from the one he had brought to the Amazon almost thirty years before. No longer did he seek to enlist all Portuguese society in the missionary enterprise. Instead, Vieira focused in his later writings on two groups he believed could successfully advance that enterprise: the Jesuits and the Portuguese crown. Rather than being infused with the tongues of fire as the Apostles were on Pentecost, the Jesuits, Vieira argued, were infused with the fire of tongues manifested in their mastery of the languages they encountered in the mission field. Armed with the fire of tongues, the Jesuits would build a church that would embrace the many languages and peoples of the New World.

Read more less

"Master storyteller Christina Baker Kline is at her best in this epic yet intimate tale of nineteenth-century Australia. I loved this book." -Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife and Love and Ruin The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train returns with an ambitious, emotionally resonant historical novel that captures the hardship, oppression, opportunity and hope of a trio of women's lives-two English convicts and an orphaned Aboriginal girl - in nineteenth-century Australia.OPTIONED FOR TELEVISION BY BRUNA PAPANDREA, THE PRODUCER OF HBO'S BIG LITTLE LIESSeduced by her employer's son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early nineteenth-century London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered and sent to the notorious Newgate Prison. After months in the fetid, overcrowded jail, she learns she is sentenced to “the land beyond the seas,” Van Diemen's Land, a penal colony in Australia. Though uncertain of what awaits, Evangeline knows one thing: the child she carries will be born on the months-long voyage to this distant land. During the journey on a repurposed slave ship, the Medea, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with Hazel, a girl little older than her former pupils who was sentenced to seven years transport for stealing a silver spoon. Canny where Evangeline is guileless, Hazel-a skilled midwife and herbalist-is soon offering home remedies to both prisoners and sailors in return for a variety of favors. Though Australia has been home to Aboriginal people for more than 50,000 years, the British government in the 1840s considers its fledgling colony uninhabited and unsettled, and views the natives as an unpleasant nuisance. By the time the Medea arrives, many of them have been forcibly relocated, their land seized by white colonists. One of these relocated people is Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, who has been adopted by the new governor of Van Diemen's Land. In this gorgeous novel, Christina Baker Kline brilliantly recreates the beginnings of a new society in a beautiful and challenging land, telling the story of Australia from a fresh perspective, through the experiences of Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna. While life in Australia is punishing and often brutally unfair, it is also, for some, an opportunity: for redemption, for a new way of life, for unimagined freedom. Told in exquisite detail and incisive prose, The Exiles is a story of grace born from hardship, the unbreakable bonds of female friendships, and the unfettering of legacy.

Read more less

You can run.You can hide.But can you ever escape your past?'Lisa Gardner always delivers heart-stopping suspense' HARLAN COBEN'Stories that grip from the first page' KARIN SLAUGHTER'The absolute master of the psychological suspense novel' SHARON BOLTON'...a brilliant book, not to be missed under any circumstances' THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAYFROM THE INTERNATIONAL #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR comes an enthralling thriller, where getting closer to the truth forces the detectives to confront the uncomfortable truths in their pasts.____________________Annabelle Granger was seven years old when it first happened. She arrived home to find the suitcases packed and her parents desperate to flee their home. Then followed years spent running, from what, or who, she doesn't know, just an endless blur of new faces and new towns.Now, aged 30, Annabelle has finally settled in Boston and is happy with her life. Until the bodies of six girls are found in the grounds of an abandoned mental institute and a newspaper declares her one of the victims.Detectives D. D. Warren and Bobby Dodge are determined to unravel the decades-old riddle and they fear that the discovery signals the return of a notorious serial killer, Mr Bosu - Bobby's worst nightmare. As they get closer to the truth they will all be forced to confront the uncomfortable truths in their pasts; because ultimately, there is no hiding place...____________________Praise for Lisa Gardner thrillers:'Unpredictable, suspenseful from beginning to end... I loved it' ***** Reader Review'I was totally enthralled with this novel, it kept me held in a tight grip from beginning to end...' ***** Reader Review'I read lots of psychological thrillers but this was amongst the best... If you like a fast moving, suspense filled, sometimes gruesome, 3D character read, then this is it' ***** Reader Review'This book had me hooked from the start. I love how it kept me guessing all the way to the end and I still didn't figure it out. Great characters and storyline' ***** Reader Review' ...the most thrilling and enjoyable I have read and I intend to read every one of her books as, so far, they have all been excellent' ***** Reader Review'This is an excellent novel and I highly recommend this to other readers' ***** Reader Review'It starts well and finishes even better!' ***** Reader Review'There was barely time to pause for breath reading this!' ***** Reader Review'This author is unrivalled in the genre in my opinion' ***** Reader Review

Read more less

See the Grishaverse come to life on screen with Shadow and Bone, now a Netflix original series.Read from the beginning with this deluxe hardback collector's edition of the first novel in the worldwide-bestselling Shadow and Bone Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo! This edition features: *Brand-new artwork**Intricate foil iconography from the world of the book**Beautiful endpapers**Sprayed edges* Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her first trek across the Shadow Fold-a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. But when her regiment is attacked, Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed. Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue as she trains with the Grisha, her country's magical military elite-and falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes Alina can summon a force capable of destroying the Shadow Fold and reuniting their war-ravaged country, but only if she can master her untamed gift. As the threat to the kingdom mounts and Alina unlocks the secrets of her past, she will make a dangerous discovery that could threaten all she loves and the very future of a nation. Welcome to Ravka . . . a world of science and superstition where nothing is what it seems. Read all the books in the Grishaverse! The Shadow and Bone Trilogy (previously published as The Grisha Trilogy) Shadow and Bone Siege and Storm Ruin and Rising The Six of Crows Duology Six of Crows Crooked Kingdom The King of Scars Duology King of ScarsRule of WolvesThe Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous MagicThe Severed Moon: A Year-Long Journal of MagicThe Lives of Saints Praise for the Grishaverse "A master of fantasy." -The Huffington Post "Utterly, extremely bewitching." -The Guardian "The best magic universe since Harry Potter." -Bustle "This is what fantasy is for." -The New York Times Book Review "[A] world that feels real enough to have its own passport stamp." -NPR "The darker it gets for the good guys, the better." -Entertainment Weekly "Sultry, sweeping and picturesque. . . . Impossible to put down." -USA Today "There's a level of emotional and historical sophistication within Bardugo's original epic fantasy that sets it apart." -Vanity Fair "Unlike anything I've ever read." -Veronica Roth, bestselling author of Divergent "Bardugo crafts a first-rate adventure, a poignant romance, and an intriguing mystery!" -Rick Riordan, bestselling author of the Percy Jackson series

Read more less

Being BAD has never felt so GOOD! The second book in the villainously funny, highly illustrated young middle-grade series from author-illustrator Ryan Hammond. For fans of Amelia Fang, Dog Man and Grimwood. Don’t miss the third installment, How to Win the Gruesome Games, out in April 2024! ‘A charmingly villainous adventure about friendship, school and unspeakable evil.’ Louie Stowell, author of Loki: A Bad God’s Guide to Being Good ‘Criminally fun!’ Danny Wallace, author of The Day the Screens Went Blank It’s the start of the winter term and there’s a new teacher in town at Villains Academy – the notorious dragon-rider Felix Frostbite. Class Z are in awe of him and his lessons on venomous beasts and mythical creatures, but werewolf Bram is suspicious. Soon Bram and his friends the Cereal Killers uncover Felix Frostbite’s evil plan to steal all the dragons from the Wicked Woods and leave Villains Academy undefended. Have the gang learnt enough to outsmart their troublesome teacher, or will Felix Frostbite’s heist go down in villain history?PRAISE FOR VILLAINS ACADEMY: ‘Frightfully fun – Villains Academy had me cackling from the very first page!’ Katie Tsang, co-author of the Dragon Realm series ‘I loved the spookily funny Villains Academy. It's a work of (evil) genius!’ Jenny McLachlan, author of The Land of Roar ‘Heart-warming and hilarious – Villains Academy is a spookalicious treat, set to terrify every other book on your shelf.’ Jack Meggitt-Phillips, author of The Beast and the Bethany ‘An absolute HOOT! Evil laughs aplenty!’ Sophy Henn, author and illustrator of the Pizazz series ‘A joyful hug of a book with genuine warmth and heart.’ Hannah Gold, author of The Last Bear ‘A delightfully fun adventure with real heart and humour.’ Benjamin Dean, author of Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow ‘Immersive, funny, and with a cast of scarily loveable characters, Villains Academy made me feel like I was IN the book!’ Mel Taylor-Bessent, author of The Christmas Carrolls ‘A fabulously funny adventure. I want to enrol in Villains Academy!’ Nick Sheridan, author of The Case of the Runaway Brain ‘Wickedly funny and full of quirky yet loveable characters.’ Iona Rangeley, author of Einstein the Penguin ‘This is a brilliant, bonkers work packed with top-notch illustration.’ Jack Noel, author and illustrator of the Comic Classics series ‘Full of wonderful characters, Villains Academy is such a FUN read!’ Rikin Parekh, illustrator of The Worst Class in the World series

Read more less

The first instalment of the EPIC Crescent City series from multi-million and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan - Time Think Game of Thrones meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a drizzle of E.L. James – Telegraph Spiced with slick plotting and atmospheric world-building ... a page-turning delight – Guardian Sarah J. Maas does not disappoint … To be devoured with relish – Mail ****** BOUND BY BLOOD. TEMPTED BY DESIRE. UNLEASHED BY DESTINY. Bryce Quinlan loves her life. Every night is a party, and Bryce is going to savour all the pleasures Lunathion – also known as Crescent City – has to offer. But when a brutal murder shakes the very foundations of the city, Bryce’s world comes crashing down. Two years later, Bryce still haunts the city’s most notorious nightclubs – but seeking only oblivion now. Then the murderer attacks again. And when an infamous Fallen angel, Hunt Athalar, is assigned to watch her every footstep, Bryce knows she can’t forget any longer. As Bryce and Hunt fight to unravel the mystery and their own dark pasts, the threads they tug ripple through the underbelly of the city, across warring continents and down to the deepest levels of Hel, where things that have been sleeping for millennia are beginning to stir … House of Earth and Blood is a blockbuster modern fantasy set in a divided world where one woman must uncover the truth to seek her revenge. With unforgettable characters and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom – and the power of love. ***Reader reviews for House of Earth and Blood *** ‘I DEVOURED this book. I could not stop gobbling up the words, I loved it so much’ ***** READER REVIEW ‘This book in one word... Epic! And I wholeheartedly mean that! Read it and then tell everyone you know, and their Granny, to read it too! It's just that good!’ ***** READER REVIEW ‘It was brilliant, I was gripped, absolutely loved it, bits of it I forgot to breathe as I was reading. One of the best books I’ve read in a long time’ ***** READER REVIEW ‘I don't even know where to start. This is by far THE BEST BOOK SJM HAS EVER WRITTEN’ ***** READER REVIEW ‘Another incredible book by my favourite author - the depths of the world she builds and each character are just indescribable - what a wonderful talent to have to write at this level - no one else is doing it better’ ***** READER REVIEW

Read more less

“Tim O'Brien is the one American author whose works I look forward to the most. His new novel’s ironic depiction of a post-Iraq war, mid-COVID, and mid-Trump world is piercing and razor-sharp.” —HARUKI MURAKAMIAn American Master returns: the author of The Things They Carried delivers his first new novel in two decades, a brilliant and rollicking odyssey, in which a bank robbery sparks “a satirical romp through a country plagued by deceit” (Kirkus, starred review)One of Esquire's 20 Best Books of the Year * Named one of Fall 2023's most anticipated books: New York Times, Associated Press, Kirkus, Goodreads, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and moreAt 11:34 a.m. one Saturday in August 2019, Boyd Halverson strode into Community National Bank in Northern California.“How much is on hand, would you say?” he asked the teller. “I’ll want it all.”“You’re robbing me?”He revealed a Temptation .38 Special.The teller, a diminutive redhead named Angie Bing, collected eighty-one thousand dollars.Boyd stuffed the cash into a paper grocery bag.“I’m sorry about this,” he said, “but I’ll have to ask you to take a ride with me.”So begins the adventure of Boyd Halverson—star journalist turned notorious online disinformation troll turned JCPenney manager—and his irrepressible hostage, Angie Bing. Haunted by his past and weary of his present, Boyd has one goal before the authorities catch up with him: settle a score with the man who destroyed his life. By Monday the pair reach Mexico; by winter, they are in a lakefront mansion in Minnesota. On their trail are hitmen, jealous lovers, ex-cons, an heiress, a billionaire shipping tycoon, a three-tour veteran of Iraq, and the ghosts of Boyd’s past. Everyone, it seems, except the police.In the tradition of Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain, America Fantastica delivers a biting, witty, and entertaining story about the causes and costs of outlandish fantasy, while also marking the triumphant return of an essential voice in American letters. And at the heart of the novel, amid a teeming cast of characters, readers will delight in the tug-of-war between two memorable and iconic human beings—the exuberant savior-of-souls Angie Bing and the penitent but compulsive liar Boyd Halverson. Just as Tim O’Brien’s modern classic, The Things They Carried, so brilliantly reflected the unromantic truth of war, America Fantastica puts a mirror to a nation and a time that has become dangerously unmoored from truth and greedy for delusion.

Read more less

The Black Widows of of The Eternal City offers, for the first time, a book-length study of an infamous cause célèbre in seventeenth-century Rome, how it resonated then and has continued to resonate: the 1659 investigation and prosecution of Gironima Spana and dozens of Roman widows, who shared a particularly effective poison to murder their husbands. This notorious case has been frequently discussed over 350 years, but the earliest writers concentrated more on fortifying their reading constituency’s shared attitudes than accurately narrating facts. Subsequent authors remained largely content to follow their predecessors or keen to improve upon them. Most recent writers and bloggers were unaware that their earlier sources were generally unconcerned with a correct portrayal of real events. In the present study, Craig A. Monson takes advantage of a recent discovery—the 1,450-page notary’s transcript of the 1659 investigation. It is supplemented here by many ancillary archival sources, unknown to all previous writers. Since the story of Gironima Spana and the would-be widows is partially about what people believed to be true, however, this investigation also juxtaposes some of the “alternative facts” from earlier, sensational accounts with what the notary’s transcript and other, more reliable archival documents reveal. Written in a style that avoids arcane idioms and specialist jargon, the book can potentially speak to students and general readers interested in seventeenth-century social history and gender issues. It rewrites the life story of Gironima Spana (largely unknown until now), who has dominated all earlier accounts, usually in caricatures that reiterate the tropes of witchcraft. It also concentrates on the dozen other widows whose stories could be the most recovered from archival sources and whom Spana had totally eclipsed in earlier accounts. Most were women “of a very ordinary sort” (prostitutes; beggars; wives of butchers, barbers, dyers, lineners, innkeepers), the kinds of women commonly lost to history. The book seeks to explain why some women were hanged (only six, in fact, most of whom may not have directly poisoned anyone), while dozens of others who did poison their husbands escaped the gallows and, in some cases, were not even interrogated. It also reveals what happened to these other alleged perpetrators, whose fates have remained unknown until now. Other purported culprits, about whom less complete pictures emerge, are briefly discussed in an appendix. The study incorporates illustrations of archival manuscripts to demonstrate the challenges of deciphering them and illustrates “scenes of the crime” and other important locations, identified on seventeenth-century, bird’s eye-perspective views of Rome and in modern photographs. It also includes GPS coordinates for any who might wish to revisit the sites.

Read more less

'Rarely is such an important book this funny. And rarely is such a funny book this important' - RICHARD OSMAN'The second funniest book I have read about being a Labour supporter from Blair to Brexit' - JOHN O'FARRELL'Matt Forde is brilliant at finding the comedy which often accompanies political life. This book made me laugh out loud - and wince in recognition' - TONY BLAIR'This book is smarter and funnier than Donald Trump. Matt Forde was so bad at politics that I'd have considered working for him' - ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI'That Matt Forde is able to make the current political shit-show funny shows his genius. You'll be laughing too hard to notice, but this is a very clever book' - RUTH DAVIDSON'Definitely one of the books I will claim to have read this year' - JACK DEE'Absolutely brilliant. I didn't want the book to end but I'm glad Fordy's political career did. And I mean that as both a compliment and not a compliment' - RUSSELL HOWARD-----------Part memoir, part behind-the-scenes insider view, Politically Homeless is both a fascinating and funny book for anyone who feels annoyed by the current state of politics. Which should be around 65 million people in the UK alone.Matt Forde has been obsessed with politics ever since he was 9 years old. Raised by a single mum on benefits in inner city Nottingham, he joined the Socialist Workers Party as soon as he could, foisted issues of Marxism Today on innocent bystanders and attended his first political party conference. From then on, despite some career suicide moments such as chatting to the Prime Minister at Number 10 while badly drunk, Matt's whole future looked wedded to the Labour Party as he started working for MPs in dingy back rooms in Nottinghamshire.But then Labour started to fall apart, and so did Matt's sense of purpose. With the rise of Corbyn, Brexit and Trump, his love for politics that had been so profound began to quickly crumble.Exploring themes such as tribalism, the curse of complacency and why some politicians refuse to speak normally, Politically Homeless is a hugely entertaining book of (often hilarious) personal stories and thought-provoking insights into this complicated world. And despite everything, Matt's passion is still there. Through hosting his award-winning weekly podcast, 'The Political Party' (over 5 million downloads) involving interviews with some of politics' most powerful and notorious figures including Tony Blair, Nicola Sturgeon, Sadiq Khan, Michael Heseltine, Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg and performing critically acclaimed stand-up comedy shows, Matt has been able to keep enough faith that politics will get better. Maybe.

Read more less

A compelling and timely vision for gay reparations in the United States In the last two decades many nations have adopted "gay reparations," or policies intended to make amends for a history of discrimination, stigmatization, and violence on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Far from being a homogenous or uniform phenomenon, gay reparations encompass a small constellation of approaches including a formal apology to the LGBT community for past wrongdoing, financial compensation for victims of anti-LGBT laws and actions, and the erection of monuments to the memory of those who suffered because of structural homophobia. The United States, however, has been reluctant to embrace gay reparations, making the country something of an outlier among Western democracies. Beyond making the case for gay reparations in the United States, this book explores a wide range of questions provoked by the rise of the gay reparations movement. Among these questions, three stand out for what they reveal about the puzzling and complex nature of this new front in the struggle for LGBT equality. Why, after centuries of attempts to marginalize, dehumanize, and even eradicate LGBT people, are governments coming around to confront this dark and painful historical legacy? How do we make sense of the diversity of gay reparations being implemented by governments around the world? And, finally, what would an American policy of gay reparations look like? Omar G. Encarnación draws upon the rich history of reparations to confront the legacies of genocide, slavery, and political repression and argue that gay reparations are a moral obligation intended to restore dignity to those whose human rights have been violated because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Reparations are also necessary to close painful chapters of anti-LGBT discrimination and violence and to remind future generations of past struggles for LGBT equality. To this end, he traces America's dark and painful LGBT history--from colonial-era laws criminalizing homosexual conduct, to a postwar ban on homosexuals working in the federal bureaucracy, to the government's support of the junk-science underpinning the practice of "gay conversion" therapy promoted by the Christian Right. The book also examines how other Western democracies notorious for their repression of homosexuals--specifically Spain, Britain, and Germany--have implemented gay reparations. These foreign experiences reveal potential pathways for gay reparations in the United States. More importantly, they show that while there is no universal approach to gay reparations it is never too late for countries to seek to right past wrongs.

Read more less

The first instalment of the EPIC Crescent City series from multi-million and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan - Time Think Game of Thrones meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a drizzle of E.L. James – Telegraph Spiced with slick plotting and atmospheric world-building ... a page-turning delight – Guardian Sarah J. Maas does not disappoint … To be devoured with relish – Mail ****** BOUND BY BLOOD. TEMPTED BY DESIRE. UNLEASHED BY DESTINY. Bryce Quinlan loves her life. Every night is a party, and Bryce is going to savour all the pleasures Lunathion – also known as Crescent City – has to offer. But when a brutal murder shakes the very foundations of the city, Bryce’s world comes crashing down. Two years later, Bryce still haunts the city’s most notorious nightclubs – but seeking only oblivion now. Then the murderer attacks again. And when an infamous Fallen angel, Hunt Athalar, is assigned to watch her every footstep, Bryce knows she can’t forget any longer. As Bryce and Hunt fight to unravel the mystery and their own dark pasts, the threads they tug ripple through the underbelly of the city, across warring continents and down to the deepest levels of Hel, where things that have been sleeping for millennia are beginning to stir … House of Earth and Blood is a blockbuster modern fantasy set in a divided world where one woman must uncover the truth to seek her revenge. With unforgettable characters and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom – and the power of love. ***Reader reviews for House of Earth and Blood *** ‘I DEVOURED this book. I could not stop gobbling up the words, I loved it so much’ ***** READER REVIEW ‘This book in one word... Epic! And I wholeheartedly mean that! Read it and then tell everyone you know, and their Granny, to read it too! It's just that good!’ ***** READER REVIEW ‘It was brilliant, I was gripped, absolutely loved it, bits of it I forgot to breathe as I was reading. One of the best books I’ve read in a long time’ ***** READER REVIEW ‘I don't even know where to start. This is by far THE BEST BOOK SJM HAS EVER WRITTEN’ ***** READER REVIEW ‘Another incredible book by my favourite author - the depths of the world she builds and each character are just indescribable - what a wonderful talent to have to write at this level - no one else is doing it better’ ***** READER REVIEW

Read more less

A suspense filled tale of murder on the American frontier—shedding new light on a family of serial killers in Kansas, whose horrifying crimes gripped the attention of a nation still reeling from war. 'A carefully researched and horribly compelling examination of unimaginable evil intruding upon everyday life' The Observer In 1873 the people of Labette County, Kansas made a grisly discovery. Buried by a trailside cabin beneath an orchard of young apple trees were the remains of countless bodies. Below the cabin itself was a cellar stained with blood. The Benders, the family of four who once resided on the property were nowhere to be found. The discovery sent the local community and national newspapers into a frenzy that continued for decades, sparking an epic manhunt for the Benders. The idea that a family of seemingly respectable homesteaders—one among the thousands relocating farther west in search of land and opportunity after the Civil War—were capable of operating "a human slaughter pen" appalled and fascinated the nation. But who the Benders really were, why they committed such a vicious killing spree and whether justice ever caught up to them is a mystery that remains unsolved to this day. Set against the backdrop of postbellum America, Hell’s Half-Acre explores the environment capable of allowing such horrors to take place. Drawing on extensive original archival material, Susan Jonusas introduces us to a fascinating cast of characters, many of whom have been previously missing from the story. Among them are the families of the victims, the hapless detectives who lost the trail, and the fugitives that helped the murderers escape. Hell’s Half-Acre is a journey into the turbulent heart of nineteenth century America, a place where modernity stalks across the landscape, violently displacing existing populations and building new ones. It is a world where folklore can quickly become fact and an entire family of criminals can slip through a community’s fingers, only to reappear in the most unexpected of places. “Dark and bloody, hard-nosed but lyrical, Hell’s Half-Acre is a true-crime mass-murder mystery from the Old West. Susan Jonusas has stripped down a notorious story, researched it to hell and back, and rebuilt in prose so immediate and immersive that it feels like she must have been there. Beware the Benders, but all hail Susan Jonusas. This is a stunning debut from a great and powerful new voice in narrative non-fiction.” Dan Jones, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Templars, The Plantagenets and Blood and Thrones

Read more less

From the New York Times bestselling author of such “sizzling Stark novels” (RT Book Reviews) as Release Me and Say My Name comes a Stark International Novel featuring provocative bad boy Dallas Sykes—the first in a new trilogy in the S.I.N. series.It was wrong for us to be together, but it was even harder to be apart. The memory of Dallas Sykes burns inside of me. Everyone knows him as a notorious playboy, a man for whom women and money are no object. But to me, he’s still the one man I desperately crave—yet the one I can never have. Dallas knows me better than anyone else. We bear the same scars, the same darkness in our past. I thought I could move on by staying away, but now that we’re drawn together once more, I can’t fight the force of our attraction or the temptation to make him mine. We’ve tried to maintain control, not letting ourselves give in to desire. And for so long we’ve told ourselves no—but now it’s finally time to say yes.Praise for Dirtiest Secret “[A] high-octane contemporary, the first in [J. Kenner’s] new Stark International Novel (S.I.N.) trilogy . . . Kenner skillfully builds a top-notch thriller.”—Publishers Weekly “Fans of Kenner’s steamy, decadent and daring plotlines will feel right at home in her new S.I.N. series and revel in the escapades of her tortured characters and their forbidden passion. As always, Kenner delivers a sensual and heady physical relationship, fraught with danger, forbidden love and high-stakes complications.”—RT Book Reviews “Strong writing propels an exciting tale of longing, danger, and forbidden desire. The ending’s twist will leave readers eager for the next installment.”—Library Journal“This book had a little bit of everything. Mystery, suspense, emotion and dirty, hot sex.”—Shameless Book Club “Kenner wrote Dallas in such a way that you are enthralled with his character from the first page he graces. He’s sexy and extremely controlling but not quite what you think he is.”—Black Heart Reviews “Seduction and tangled emotions led the way in this first book of the Stark International Novels (S.I.N.) series. With a happy-for-now ending that had a twist at the end, I can’t wait to see what happens next in Jane and Dallas’s intriguing story.”—Harlequin Junkie “It was literally like [eating] the most decadently sinful piece of chocolate, knowing that you really need to lose those last ten pounds. I do believe that I just found my newest guilty pleasure and his name is Dallas Sykes.”—Hooker Heels Book Blog Dirtiest Secret is intended for mature audiences.

Read more less

John Dickinson’s entry into public life in Delaware and Pennsylvania is a highlight of the ninety-eight documents written over four years printed in Volume Two of The Complete Writings and Selected Correspondence of John Dickinson. The volume opens with Dickinson’s legal notes as he established himself as one of the most prominent and learned lawyers in colonial British North America. His cases dealt with, among other issues, interpretation of wills, disputes over land, sailors suing for wages, a fine on a Quaker who refused military service, and a notorious murder in a prominent Philadelphia family. It concludes with Dickinson offering thoughtful advice to a young man who was considering the arduous work in becoming a lawyer. “I think,” he wrote, “those must be infinitely the most happy, whose fatigues are softend by a conscious Benevolence of mind wishing & endeavouring to [pro]mote the Happiness of others as well as their own.” Dickinson’s hard work on behalf of his clients brought him success in other areas of his public life. In October 1759, he was elected to his first public position as a representative for Kent County, Del., the following year he was elevated to the position of speaker, and in 1762, he became a representative for Philadelphia County, Pa. As a legislator in two colonies, learning his craft as a global war unfolded, he contributed to bills on military and defense, Indian relations, infrastructure improvements and city management, and served on various committees. The death of George II occasioned debates over laws and judges, in which Dickinson participated. This era concludes with Dickinson playing a central role in managing the unfolding Paxton Riots, in which frontiersmen massacred peaceful Indians and threatened the Quaker leadership of Pennsylvania. In private, Dickinson lost the two most prominent male figures in his life in 1760, his father, Samuel, and soon thereafter, his mentor, colleague, and friend, John Moland. In honor of Moland, Dickinson published a poem and became a proxy head to Moland’s large family. Though his extant correspondence during this period is small, he exchanged letters with Mary Cadwalader Dickinson, Israel Pemberton, William Allason, George Read, Thomas McKean, and others. Perhaps most significant, he wrote a lengthy, unpublished essay on the flag-of-truce trade and also maintained commonplace books as he considered his place within the British Empire, opening up the next phase in Dickinson’s life as a leader of the resistance against Britain. Published by the University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

Read more less

A Sunday Times Book of the YearShortlisted for The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize 'This magnificent, highly readable double biography...brings these two driven, complicated women vividly to life' The Financial Times'A gripping saga of a double-biography' Daily Mail'A masterful portrait' The Times'Vastly enjoyable' Literary Review'Deeply absorbing and meticulously researched' The Oldie In 1815, the clever, courted and cherished Annabella Milbanke married the notorious and brilliant Lord Byron. Just one year later, she fled, taking with her their baby daughter, the future Ada Lovelace. Byron himself escaped into exile and died as a revolutionary hero in 1824, aged 36. The one thing he had asked his wife to do was to make sure that their daughter never became a poet. Ada didn't. Brought up by a mother who became one of the most progressive reformers of Victorian England, Byron's little girl was introduced to mathematics as a means of calming her wild spirits. Educated by some of the most learned minds in England, she combined that scholarly discipline with a rebellious heart and a visionary imagination. As a child invalid, Ada dreamed of building a steam-driven flying horse. As an exuberant and boldly unconventional young woman, she amplified her explanations of Charles Babbage's unbuilt calculating engine to predict, as nobody would do for another century, the dawn today of our modern computer age. When Ada died - like her father, she was only 36 - great things seemed still to lie ahead for her as a passionate astronomer. Even while mired in debt from gambling and crippled by cancer, she was frenetically employing Faraday's experiments with light refraction to explore the analysis of distant stars.Drawing on fascinating new material, Seymour reveals the ways in which Byron, long after his death, continued to shape the lives and reputations both of his wife and his daughter. During her life, Lady Byron was praised as a paragon of virtue; within ten years of her death, she was vilified as a disgrace to her sex. Well over a hundred years later, Annabella Milbanke is still perceived as a prudish wife and cruelly controlling mother. But her hidden devotion to Byron and her tender ambitions for his mercurial, brilliant daughter reveal a deeply complex but unsuspectedly sympathetic personality. Miranda Seymour has written a masterful portrait of two remarkable women, revealing how two turbulent lives were often governed and always haunted by the dangerously enchanting, quicksilver spirit of that extraordinary father whom Ada never knew.

Read more less

"At the same time that the dangerous war was being fought in the jungles of Vietnam, Campus Wars were being fought in the United States by antiwar protesters. Kenneth J. Heineman found that the campus peace campaign was first spurred at state universities rather than at the big-name colleges. His useful book examines the outside forces, like military contracts and local communities, that led to antiwar protests on campus." —Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times "Shedding light on the drastic change in the social and cultural roles of campus life, Campus Wars looks at the way in which the campus peace campaign took hold and became a national movement." —History Today "Heineman's prodigious research in a variety of sources allows him to deal with matters of class, gender, and religion, as well as ideology. He convincingly demonstrates that, just as state universities represented the heartland of America, so their student protest movements illustrated the real depth of the anguish over US involvement in Vietnam. Highly recommended." —Choice "Represents an enormous amount of labor and fills many gaps in our knowledge of the anti-war movement and the student left." —Irwin Unger, author of These United States The 1960s left us with some striking images of American universities: Berkeley activists orating about free speech atop a surrounded police car; Harvard SDSers waylaying then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara; Columbia student radicals occupying campus buildings; and black militant Cornell students brandishing rifles, to name just a few. Tellingly, the most powerful and notorious image of campus protest is that of a teenage runaway, arms outstretched in anguish, kneeling beside the bloodied corpse of Jeff Miller at Kent State University. While much attention has been paid to the role of elite schools in fomenting student radicalism, it was actually at state institutions, such as Kent State, Michigan State, SUNY, and Penn State, where anti-Vietnam war protest blossomed. Kenneth Heineman has pored over dozens of student newspapers, government documents, and personal archives, interviewed scores of activists, and attended activist reunions in an effort to recreate the origins of this historic movement. In Campus Wars, he presents his findings, examining the involvement of state universities in military research — and the attitudes of students, faculty, clergy, and administrators thereto — and the manner in which the campus peace campaign took hold and spread to become a national movement. Recreating watershed moments in dramatic narrative fashion, this engaging book is both a revisionist history and an important addition to the chronicle of the Vietnam War era.

Read more less

** CONTAINS NEW MATERIAL ** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTELLER & WINNER OF THE ATTITUDE BOOK AWARD 'Refreshing, inspiring and candid.' ATTITUDE 'I love this man so much. He was, and always will be, my knight in shining Westwood.' DAVINA MCCALL'This is a story that should never have been told' KATE MOSS'The perfect beach read' THE SUNDAY TIMES'If you want to change your life but can't.. I strongly advise you read this book' TRACEY EMINAs one of club culture's most notorious - and best loved - figures, Tony is a complete force of nature. Here he tells the most extraordinary stories of depravity and hedonism, of week-long benders and extreme self-destruction - and of recovery, redemption, friendship and the joy of a good tune.___________________________________________________________________________'Anyone can get a party started, but no one keeps it going like Fat Tony, the energy never dips andwhat a life he's lived.. He's a tosser but we still love him.' ELTON JOHN & DAVID FURNISH___________________________________________________________________________Harrowing, honest and funny, this is the candid and outrageous memoir of a life of extremes. It's a story of getting it all and losing it all. Addiction, recovery, and starting again. Drawing a vivid portrait of Britain's street culture from the 1980s to the noughties, DJ Fat Tony describes his childhood on a London estate where he honed his petty criminality, was abused by an older man and became best friends with Boy George. He spent his teenage years parading the Kings Road in his latest (mostly stolen) clobber, worked as a receptionist at a brothel, hung out with Leigh Bowery and Andy Warhol, and created his drag persona, before becoming DJ to the stars (including Prince and Madonna) and spiralling into a life-threatening drug addiction.This is a story of loss and redemption and living to tell all the tales in glorious, funny and often heart-breaking detail, from one of social media's best-loved meme-thieves and the world-renowned DJ.___________________________________________________________________________'There is nobody in London, let alone the world who has lived a more extraordinary life... his journey from villain to real life hero is one of the most beautiful examples of humanity I have ever witnessed. I wouldn't be without this c*nt.' KELLY OSBOURNE'Hearing Tony's story is brutal and shocking. He is nothing short of a miracle and his willingness to be of service to others seeking sobriety is testament to how far he has come from the days of pulling his own teeth out.' MARC JACOBS

Read more less