Search results for ""author jake arnott""

'A work of dazzling imagination and linguistic inventiveness' ObserverNewgate Gaol, 1726. An anonymous writer sets down the words of Edgworth Bess as she confides the adventures and misfortunes that led her all too soon to the judgement of London:Cruelly deceived, Bess is cast out onto the streets of the wicked city - and by nightfall her ruin is already certain. What matters now is her survival of it.In that dangerous underworld known in thieves' cant as Romeville, she will learn new tricks and trades. And all begins with her fateful meeting, that very first night, with the corrupt thief-taker general Jonathan Wild.But it is the infamous gaol-breaker, Jack Sheppard, who will lay Romeville at her feet . . . Drawing on the true story that mesmerised eighteenth-century society, the acclaimed author of The Long Firm delivers a tour de force: a riveting, artful tale of crime and rough justice, love and betrayal. Rich in the street slang of the era, it vividly conjures up a murky world of illicit dens and molly-houses; a world where life was lived on the edge, in the shadow of that fatal tree - the gallows.

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'Hypnotic, feverish and altogether wonderful' (Guardian) - the author of the bestselling Long Firm trilogy turns his eye on the anarchic 1970s. As the dreams of the 1960s give way to anger and political unrest in the '70s, the charismatic anarchist Declan O'Connell commits suicide, leaving his boyfriend Pearson and fellow squatter Nina to try to make sense of what has happened. Enter Sweet Thing, a streetwise rent boy, who has an uncanny hold over glam rock star Johnny Chrome; and in the wings lurks Detective Sergeant Walker of the newly formed Bomb Squad, who knows more about O'Connell than anyone ever suspected. The course of all their lives is about to change forever.

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A mind-bending, thrilling journey into 20th-century history and outer space - 'a brightly coloured portrait of our times that is alternatively intimate and epic . . . brilliant' (Independent on Sunday). In 1941, Larry Zagorski was a naïve young writer of science-fiction. Seven decades on, he looks back on that crucial year and traces his place in a mysterious web - one that connects the Second World War with the Space Age, stretches from London to Cuba and Southern California, and links Ian Fleming with Rudolf Hess in a conspiracy that reverberates in the present.Could this be the secret history of the 20th century? In a mesmerising novel peopled by spies and propagandists, the conned and the heartbroken, dreamers and fanatics, the question is: who will you believe?

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'A consummate performance...virtuoso' GuardianA fascinating, unusual and seductive historical novel by the bestselling author of The Long Firm.In a Parisian restaurant, Aleister Crowley, the notorious occultist, chances on Major-General Sir Hector Macdonald: once one of the greatest heroes of the British Empire, now facing ruin in a shocking scandal - and vulnerable to Crowley's curious offer of help. An extraordinary night of transgression and revelation ensues . . . Probing beneath the surface of Victorian conformity, this is an enthralling tale of imperialism, sexuality and the nature of belief, which captures a world on the brink of a brutal new era.

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A blistering take on Cool Britannia and London's underbelly in the 1990s, the third novel in Jake Arnott's loose trilogy following The Long Firm and He Kills Coppers. It's 1995, and crime is the new cool. Actress Julie wants none of it as she comes to terms with her hidden criminal roots. But her public-school boyfriend is going all mockney and writing the script of his 'classic British gangster movie'. Meanwhile, 'Geezer' Gaz, wannabe villain, is losing control as he preys on the Essex rave scene. And sixties gang boss Harry Starks is back to haunt them all . . .New lads meet old lags, celebrity villains mix with media types and Cool Britannia is stripped bare in wickedly sardonic fashion. Welcome to Cruel Britannia.

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The cult bestseller that launched Jake Arnott as one of the most exciting new voices of the decade - 'A gangster novel every bit as cool, stylish and venomous as the London in which it's set' (Independent on Sunday)'I'll tell you what happens now,' Harry says, reading my mind. 'You can go now. We're quits. You don't talk to anybody about anything. You've had a taste of what will happen if you do.'Meet Harry Starks: club owner, racketeer, porn king, sociology graduate and Judy Garland fan. To be in his orbit is to be caught up in the music, the parties, the people and the sex of London in the Swinging Sixties. But behind the rough charm and cheap glamour is a man prepared to do what it takes to get what he wants.

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