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The Fires of Autumn
by Irène Némirovsky Sandra SmithThe prequel to the bestselling Suite FrançaiseParis 1918, Bernard Jacquelain returns from the trenches a changed man. The city is a whirl of decadence and corruption and he embarks on a life of parties and shady business dealings, as well as an illicit affair. But as another war threatens, everything around him starts to crumble, and the future for him and for France suddenly looks dangerously uncertain.
Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari‘a Law
by Sadakat KadriThis book is important because it is:Unique. Heaven on Earth offers a critique of extremism that is human rights-based and entertaining – combining the comparative approach of Karen Armstrong and the immediacy of Ed Husain (The Islamist) with storytelling. Timely. At a time of veil bans, Qur’an burnings and English Defence League protests, Kadri voices a liberal view of Islamic history and shows Muslims working against repression. This book explains up-to-the-minute brutalities.Epic. Interviews, anecdotes, personal reflection and analysis are set against a narrative that sweeps from seventh-century Mecca to the war in Afghanistan. Civilisations are evoked via the vivid lives of caliphs, mystics, and travellers. Legal changes are described through the feuds, courtroom dramas, conquests and cataclysms that have left their mark on modern Islamic law. First-hand. On the road for five months, Kadri travelled through Iran just before the June 2009 election protests, and took part in a human rights conference there with ayatollahs and academics. Eye-opening. This book goes beyond the explosive headline issues (criminal justice, women, jihad, religious freedom) to reveal the stranger ones: genie exorcisms; the legal consequences of premature ejaculation; online fatwa advice; the sharia approach to Facebook and Qur’anic mobile phone ringtones, etc.Bold. Heaven on Earth primarily targets religious extremism, but also cuts anti-Muslim panic down to size.
Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation 1918-1940
by D J TaylorBright Young People/ Making the most of our youth/ They talk in the Press of our social success/ But quite the reverse is the truth. [Noel Coward]The Bright Young People were one of the most extraordinary youth cults in British history. A pleasure-seeking band of bohemian party-givers and blue-blooded socialites, they romped through the 1920s gossip columns. Evelyn Waugh dramatised their antics in Vile Bodies and many of them, such as Anthony Powell, Nancy Mitford,Cecil Beaton and John Betjeman, later became household names. Their dealings with the media foreshadowed our modern celebrity culture and even today,we can detect their influence in our cultural life.But the quest for pleasure came at a price. Beneath the parties and practical jokes was a tormented generation, brought up in the shadow of war, whose relationships - with their parents and with each other - were prone to fracture. For many, their progress through the 'serious' Thirties, when the age of parties was over and another war hung over the horizon, led only to drink, drugs and disappointment, and in the case of Elizabeth Ponsonby - whose story forms a central strand of this book - to a family torn apart by tragedy.Moving from the Great War to the Blitz, Bright Young People is both a chronicle of England's 'lost generation' of the Jazz Age, and a panoramic portrait of a world that could accommodate both dizzying success and paralysing failure. Drawing on the writings and reminiscences of the Bright Young People themselves, D.J. Taylor has produced an enthralling social and cultural history, a definitive portrait of a vanished age.
Kept: A Victorian Mystery
by D J TaylorA stuffed bear, a pet mouse, fraud and felony on the streets of London, and strange goings-on in the fens... Full of suspense and teeming with life, Kept is a Victorian mystery about the curious things men do to get - and keep - what they want. August 1863. Henry Ireland, a failed landowner, dies unexpectedly in a riding accident, and his young widow disappears. Three years later his friend James Dixey, a celebrated naturalist, is found dead on his grounds with his throat torn out. Are these deaths connected? What has happened to Mrs Ireland? And what are the sinister bonds that link these men to the poaching of osprey eggs in Scotland, the doomned romance of Dixey's kitchen maid and the first Great Train Robbery?
Things Can Only Get Better
by John O'FarrellLike bubonic plague and stone cladding, no-one took Margaret Thatcher seriously until it was too late. Her first act as leader was to appear before the cameras and do a V for Victory sign the wrong way round. She was smiling and telling the British people to f*** off at the same time. It was something we would have to get used to.'Things Can Only Get Better is the personal account of a Labour supporter who survived eighteen miserable years of Conservative government. It is the heartbreaking and hilarious confessions of someone who has been actively involved in helping the Labour party lose elections at every level: school candidate: door-to-door canvasser: working for a Labour MP in the House of Commons; standing as a council candidate; and eventually writing jokes for a shadow cabinet minister.Along the way he slowly came to realise that Michael Foot would never be Prime Minister, that vegetable quiche was not as tasty as chicken tikki masala and that the nuclear arms race was never going to be stopped by face painting alone.
The Private Lives Of The Impressionists
by Sue RoeManet, Monet, Pissarro, Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt. Though they were often ridiculed or ignored by their contemporaries, astonishing sums are paid today for the works of these artists. Their dazzling pictures are familiar - but how well does the world know the Impressionists as people? In a vivid and moving narrative, biographer Sue Roe shows the Impressionists in the studios of Paris, rural lanes of Montmartre and rowdy riverside bars as Paris underwent Baron Haussman's spectacular transformation.For over twenty years they lived and worked together as a group, struggling to rebuild their lives after the Franco-Prussian war and supporting one another through shocked public reactions to unfamiliar canvasses depicting laundresses, dancers, spring blossom and boating scenes. This intimate, colourful, superbly researched account takes us into their homes as well as their studios and describes their unconventional, volatile and precarious lives, as well as the stories behind their paintings.
The Girl King
by Meg Clothier'It is as if Henry VIII, Mary and Elizabeth were combined into one character, and unleashed for the first time: so much more fun than another Boleyn book' - Independent 'Compelling, exotic and fast-paced: a wonderful story of love and death that transports you into a forgotten world' - Vanora Bennett 'Speedy, gripping, historical fiction' - Marie Claire 'Clothier has a good story, a vigorous style and well-turned phrase' - Times Literary Suppl
Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert and the Death That Changed the Monarchy
by Helen RappaportWhen Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, died in December 1861 the nation was paralysed with grief. His death was a catastrophe for Victoria, who not only adored her husband but had, through twenty-one years of marriage, utterly relied on him: as companion, father of their children, friend, confidant, and unofficial private secretary. Without Albert to guide and support her, the Queen retreated into a state of pathological grief which nobody could penetrate and few understood. Drawing widely on contemporary letters, diaries and memoirs, Rappaport brings new light to bear on the causes of Albert's death and tracks Victoria's mission to commemorate her husband in perpetuity. Richly compelling, this is the story of a magnificent obsession that even death could not sever.
Falling Blossom
by Momoko Williams Peter PagnamentaSimon Winchester, author of A Crack in the Edge of the World and The Professor and the Madman:"The essence of this inexpressibly beautiful story will remain with me, I believe, for the rest of my life. This exquisitely crafted account of the loves and lives of Arthur and Masa, Violet and Kiyoshi - such very ordinary names, yet names that conceal extraordinary passions and confusions - is a tone poem to duty and honour, courage and enduring passion, set against the fantastically rich recent histories of Japan and Ireland, England and France. It is a long time since I have read so moving and haunting a book"This is the true story of an extraordinary love affair. When Captain Arthur Hart-Synnot, a disciplined, conservative officer, met Masa Suzuki, a bright, beautiful Japanese girl, when the British army posted him to Tokyo, he fell for her and within weeks they were living together. Arthur told her she was the 'supreme woman in the world' and they pledged they would love each other for the rest of their lives. But he could not tell the army about her, and they faced almost insuperable barriers of race and class. When he was recalled to London the question was whether Masa had, all the time, just been what expatriates referred to as 'a temporary wife', an exploited Madam Butterfly.Though separated for years at a time, and by huge distances, they remained devoted to each other. Based on a cache of over 800 letters found in Tokyo, the story is set against the wider history and the wars of the first half of the twentieth century. This is a record of enduring love and great loss, where events beyond Arthur and Masa's control dictate the final tragic outcome.
The Punic Wars: Rome, Carthage and the Struggle for the Mediterranean (Guide To... Ser. #16)
by Nigel BagnallThe Punic Wars (264-146BC) sprang from a mighty power struggle between two ancient civilisations - the trading empire of Carthage and the military confedoration of Rome. It was a period of astonishing human misfortune, lasting over a period of 118 years and resulting in the radical depletion of Rome's population and resources and the complete annihilation of Carthage. All this took place more than 2,000 years ago, yet, as Nigel Bagnall's comprehensive history demonstrates, the ancient conflict is remarkable for its contemporary revelance.
My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, And The Search For Peace Of Mind
by Scott StosselTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE 2015 As recently as thirty-five years ago, anxiety did not exist as a diagnostic category. Today, it is the most common form of officially classified mental illness. Scott Stossel gracefully guides us across the terrain of an affliction that is pervasive yet too often misunderstood.Drawing on his own long-standing battle with anxiety, Stossel presents an astonishing history, at once intimate and authoritative, of the efforts to understand the condition from medical, cultural, philosophical and experiential perspectives. He ranges from the earliest medical reports of Galen and Hippocrates, through later observations by Robert Burton and Søren Kierkegaard, to the investigations by great nineteenth-century scientists, such as Charles Darwin, William James and Sigmund Freud, as they began to explore its sources and causes, to the latest research by neuroscientists and geneticists. Stossel reports on famous individuals who struggled with anxiety, as well as the afflicted generations of his own family. His portrait of anxiety reveals not only the emotion’s myriad manifestations and the anguish it produces, but also the countless psychotherapies, medications and other (often outlandish) treatments that have been developed to counteract it. Stossel vividly depicts anxiety’s human toll – its crippling impact, its devastating power to paralyse – while at the same time exploring how those who suffer from it find ways to manage and control it.My Age of Anxiety is learned and empathetic, humorous and inspirational, offering the reader great insight into the biological, cultural and environmental factors that contribute to the affliction.
Cavalier Queen
by Fiona MountainShe was the Princess Diana of her day. Her story the English Gone With The Wind.She loved clothes and jewels and parties. She had exquisite taste in interior design. She seemed destined to reign as one of England's most glamorous queens, famed for the beautiful palaces she designed and decorated.Instead, Princess Henrietta Maria of France became caught up in the Civil War, one of the greatest cataclysms in English history. Swept from her life of luxury into the squalid brutality of battle and the loneliness of exile, her heart was torn by the two men she loved - her husband, tragic Charles I and charismatic Harry Jermyn, who designed and built most of London's West End, including the street which bears his name. This is their story.
The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex: What's Wrong With Modern Movies?
by Mark KermodeIf blockbusters make money no matter how bad they are, then why not make a good one for a change?How can 3-D be the future of cinema when it's been giving audiences a headache for over a hundred years? Why pay to watch films in cinemas that don't have a projectionist but do have a fast-food stand? And, in a world where Sex and the City 2 was a hit, what are film critics even for? Outspoken, opinionated and hilariously funny, The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex is a must for anyone who has ever sat in an undermanned, overpriced cinema and wondered: 'How the hell did things get to be this terrible?'
Hannibal: Fields Of Blood (Hannibal Ser. #2)
by Ben KaneThe killing fields of Cannae provide the setting for one of the bloodiest battles in history. But who will triumph? Hannibal and his warrior army, or the mighty legions of Rome. By the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Forgotten Legion trilogy.Hannibal's campaign to defeat Rome continues as he marches south to confront his enemy. With him is a young soldier, Hanno. Like his general, Hanno burns to vanquish Rome. Never has the possibility seemed so likely.But a stealthy game of cat and mouse is being played as Rome's generals seek to avoid confrontation. Eventually the two armies meet under a fierce summer sun. The place is Cannae - the fields of blood. The battle will go down in history as one of the bloodiest ever fought, a battle in which Hanno knows he must fight as never before - just to stay alive.
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
by Jake Bernstein Lou DuboseDick Cheney is the most powerful yet most unpopular vice president in American history. He has thrived alongside a president who, from day one, had little interest in policy and limited experience in the ways of Washington. Yet Cheney's relentless rise to prominence over three decades has happened almost by stealth. Now veteran reporters Lou Dubose and Jake Bernstein reveal the disturbing truth about the man who has successfully co-opted executive control over the U.S. government, serving as the de facto 'shadow president' of the most dominant White House in a generation. Cheney has always been an astute politician. He survived the collapse of the Nixon presidency, finding a position of power in the administration of Gerald Ford. He was then elected to the House of Representatives and later served in the cabinet of the first Bush presidency. But when he became George W. Bush's running mate, Cheney reached a new level of influence. From the engineering of his own selection as vice president to his support of policies allowing torture as a permissible weapon in the 'war on terror', Cheney has consistently steered America to the right. With unique access to numerous first-hand sources, Vice provides an unprecedented expose of Cheney's career. Its startling revelations concern the war in Iraq, his relationship with the CIA and with big business, his involvement with Enron, his attitude towards Iran and his ruthless manoeuvering which today effectively puts him in charge of American policy at home and abroad. In the tradition of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's All the President's Men, this powerful work of investigative journalism takes us behind the scenes in Washington, into hitherto secret meetings and deep into the heart of political decision-making. Utterly gripping, Vice chronicles and exposes the hijacking of the American presidency and illustrates the arrogance of power as never before.
Capital Crimes: Seven Centuries of London Life and Murder
by Max DecharneOver seven centuries London has changed dramatically - from walled medieval settlement to bustling modern metropolis. But throughout its history there has been one inescapable constant: murder. It winds through the heart of the capital as surely as the River Thames. Capital Crimes tells the story of crime and punishment in the city, from the killing of infamous 'questmonger' Roger Legett during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 through to the hanging of Styllou Christofi in 1954. Along the way we encounter such shocking characters as railway murderer Franz Muller, the ‘baby farmers’ of Finchley and the notorious political assassin John Bellingham. Some are well known, some obscure; the lives and fates of all, however, have much to tell us, providing a glimpse into the workings of London’s mysterious underworld and reminding us that dark deeds are not so far removed from everyday life as we would perhaps like to believe.
The Love Poems Of Rumi
by Dr Deepak ChopraBorn Jalal ad-Din Mohammed Balkhi in Persia early in the thirteenth century, the poet known as Rumi expressed the deepest feelings of the heart through his poetry. This volume consists of new translations edited by Deepak Chopra to evoke the rich mood and music of Rumi's love poems. Exalted yearning, ravishing ecstasy, and consuming desire emerge from these poems as powerfully today as they did on their creation more than 700 years ago. 'These poems reflect the deepest longings of the human heart as it searches for the divine. They celebrate love. Each poetic whisper is urgent, expressing the desire that penetrates human relationships and inspires intimacy with the self, silently nurturing an affinity for the Beloved. Both Fereydoun Kia, the translator, and I hope that you will share the experience of ravishing ecstasy that the poems of Rumi evoked in us. In this volume we have sought to capture in English the dreams, wishes, hopes, desires, and feelings of a Persian poet who continues to amaze, bewilder, confound, and teach, one thousand years after he walked on this earth' - Deepak Chopra
The Road of Bones
by Anne FineTold who to cheer for, who to believe in, Yuri grows up in a country where no freedom of thought is encouraged - where even one's neighbours are encouraged to report any dissension to the authorities. But it is still a shock when a few careless words lead him to a virtual death-sentence - sent on a nightmare journey up north to a camp amidst the frozen wastes. What, or who, can he possibly believe in now? Can he even survive? And is escape possible . . . ?
The Definitive Guide To Screenwriting
by Syd FieldPublished for the first time in the UK, Syd Field, acclaimed writer and director, tells you step-by-step how to identify and fix common screenwriting problems, providing the professional secrets that make films brilliant - secrets that can make your screenplay a success. He provides easily understood guidelines for writing a screenplay, from concept to finished product. The art of film-writing is made accessible to novices and helps practiced writers improve their scripts, as the author pinpoints stylistic and structural elements such as characterisation and plot. Tips and techniques on what to do after your screenplay has been completed and much more are all here. There are also practical examples from films which Syd Field has collaborated on such as Lord of the Rings, American Beauty and The Pianist. Written for all levels of screenwriters, this is an indispensable reference book for anyone who wants to make money as a great screenwriter.
The Forgotten Legion: (The Forgotten Legion Chronicles No. 1) (The Forgotten Legion Chronicles #1)
by Ben KaneThe Forgotten Legion - fighting for honour, freedom and revenge Romulus and Fabiola are twins, born into slavery after their mother is raped by a drunken nobleman. At thirteen years old they are sold - Romulus to gladiator school, Fabiola into prostitution, where she will catch the eye of one of the most powerful men in Rome. Tarquinius is an Etruscan, a warrior and soothsayer, born enemy of Rome, but doomed to fight for the Republic in the Forgotten Legion. Brennus is a Gaul, his entire family killed by the Romans, and he rises to become one of the most famous and feared gladiators of his day. The lives of these characters are bound and interwoven in an odyssey which begins in a Rome riven by political corruption and violence, but ends far away, at the very border of the known world, where the tattered remnants of a once-huge Roman army - the Forgotten Legion - will fight against overwhelming odds, and the three men will meet their destiny. Ben Kane was born in Kenya and raised there and in Ireland. He studied veterinary medicine at University College Dublin but after that he travelled the world extensively, indulging his passion for ancient history. Now he lives in North Somerset, where he researches, writes and practices as a small animal vet. The Forgotten Legion, born of a lifelong fascination with military history in general, and Roman history in particular, is his first novel. For more information please visit www.benkane.net
The Lady Grace Mysteries: The Lady Grace Mysteries (The Lady Grace Mysteries #2)
by Grace CavendishIn the court of Queen Elizabeth I, Maid of Honour Lady Grace, the Queen's favourite and her very own Lady Pursuivant, investigating intrigues at court. When Grace's fellow Maid of Honour, Lady Sarah, disappears after a trip to meet the Queen's fleet in the docks, Grace knows she has to find out what's going on. She believes Sarah has run away to be married to the handsome Captain Drake - but is she right? With the help of her acrobat friend Masou, Grace leaves the court in disguise in an attempt to track down Lady Sarah and try to save her honour. But this time Grace may be taking on more than she can cope with, as she faces life at sea, and the dangers of pirates! Will Grace and Masou ever return from their ill-fated voyage?
The Lady Grace Mysteries: Conspiracy (The Lady Grace Mysteries #3)
by Grace CavendishLady Grace and her fellow Maids of Honour are travelling with the Queen and the rest of the court on their summer Progress. It should be lots of fun but Grace can't help worrying about a series of accidents that have befallen the Queen. Was it just coincidence that she fell off her horse in the same day that a statue tumbled in the garden and almost hit her? Grace, the Queen's Lady Pursuivant, investigates just who could be behind these accidents - is there a conspiracy at work? Could the Queen's one true Love, the Earl of Leicester, be involved, or perhaps her trusted adviser, Lord Cecil. And surely her latest suitor, the dashing Swedish prince, wouldn't be attempting to murder his potential bride? Another fantastic romp through Elizabethan England, with the indomitable Grace at the fore.
The Lady Grace Mysteries: Deception (The Lady Grace Mysteries #4)
by Grace CavendishQueen Elizabeth is furious at the delays to the production of her new coin - and so Lady Grace and her fellow Maids of Honour escape her bad temper and set off to skate on the frozen Thames. But their outing turns sour when a body is discovered on the banks - a man blindfolded with coins on his eyes. Grace is sure something odd is going on and decides that, as the Queen's Lady Pursuivant, she should be the one to investigate. Along with her friends Ellie the laundrymaid and Masou the acrobat, she delves deep into a dangerous world of counterfeiting and corruption.
The Lady Grace Mysteries: Exile (The Lady Grace Mysteries #5)
by Grace CavendishThere's a new arrival - a mysterious and exotic young princess - at court and Lady Grace can't believe how many rumours there are about her already. The exiled Banoo Yasmine from Sharakand is a beautiful girl with a pet panther and - everyone believes - magical powers. Yasmine also possesses the renowned Heart of Kings Ruby - a huge stone that she wears around her neck to balls and feasts, that legend says has the power to make kings. When the famed jewel goes missing, the finger is pointed at Grace's dear friend Ellie the laundrymaid. Grace must prove her friend's innocence, find the true thief and restore the stone to its rightful owner.
The Lady Grace Mysteries: Feud (The Lady Grace Mysteries #6)
by Grace CavendishThere is much excitement at court as the famous painter Levina Teerlimc arrives to paint the Queen's portrait. The Maids of Honour are recruited to help entertain the Queen during the sittings, and to pose for the painter whilst the Queen is busy. They love being in the studio but have to beware as deadly arsenic is used in one of the paints!One of Lady Grace's fellow Maids of Honour, Carmina, begins to act rather strangely - she seems confused and always tired. Her family has recently been involved in a feud with another noble family after her father was killed in a jousting tournament - is it possible that Carmina is being poisoned? Could the painter or her assistant be involved? Can Grace solve the mystery and discover the truth behind the strange happenings at Court?