Outside a London theatre a throng of people wait expectantly for the last performance of a popular musical. But as the doors open at last, something spoils all thought of entertainment: a man in the queue is found murdered by the deadly thrust of a stiletto... ...

Written from the perspective of Filth's wife, Betty, this is a story which will make the reader weep for the missed opportunities, while laughing aloud for the joy & the wit.

Filth (Failed In London Try Hong Kong) is a successful lawyer when he marries Elisabeth in Hong Kong soon after the War. Reserved, immaculate & courteous, Filth finds it hard to demonstrate his emotions. But Elisabeth is different
- a free spirit. She was brought up in the Japanese Internment Camps, which killed both her parents, but left her with a lust for survival & an affinity with the Far East. No wonder she is attracted to Filth's hated rival at the Bar
- the brash, forceful Veneering. Veneering has a Chinese wife & an adored son
- & no difficulty whatsoever in demonstrating his emotions.. ..

How Elisabeth turns into Betty, & whether she remains loyal to stolid Filth or swept up by caddish Veneering, make for a page-turning plot, in a lovely novel which is full of surprises & revelations, as well as the humour & eccentricities for which Jane Gardam's writing is famous.






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Javier Mar-as' prize-winning novel follows the birth & death of a passion told in retrospect. A tenor known as 'the Lion of Naples' remembers a time when he travelled to Madrid to star in a production of Verdi's Otello. In the vibrant city his life is insular & routine, a daily cycle of rehearsals & hotel meals. That is, until he meets a strange trio & is incorporated into their group. Manur is a Flemish banker who employs a secretary, Dato, as a daily companion for his beautiful wife, Natalia. They begin to spend their days together, three inseparable friends, & yet as the friendship develops, Dato increasingly finds himself consumed by Natalia's unattainable beauty. & so passion & power frame this sophisticated, & at time perverse, comedy of manners. ...

Javier Mar-as's prize-winning novel describes the birth & death of a passion. The narrator, a tenor known as 'the Lion of Naples', recalls a moment of his life when, during a series of performances of Verdi's Othello in Madrid, he first encountered Manur, a Flemish banker, a man who he had noticed in a train, who was accompanied by his wife, Natalia, & his secretary, Dato. The emotional ties that link this little group, into the which the narrator proceeds to insinuate himself, form the background to this highly sophisticated, sometimes perverse, comedy of manners.. ...

31, 000 miles. 22, 840 feet high. 34 countries. 15 months. 2 amazing journeys.

In 2008, Mark Beaumont smashed the world

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On 15 February 2008, Mark Beaumont pedalled through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. 194 days & 17 hours previously, he had begun his attempt to circumnavigate the world in record time. Mark smashed the Guinness World Record by an astonishing 81 days. He had travelled more than 18, 000 miles on his own through some of the harshest conditions one man & his bicycle can endure, camping wild at night & suffering from constant ailments.

The Man Who Cycled the World is the story not just of that amazing achievement, but of the events that turned Mark Beaumont into the man he is today. From the early years of his free-spirited childhood in the Scottish countryside to present day, he has been equally determined not to settle for an average existence, but to break free & follow his dreams.

...

On 15 February 2008, Mark Beaumont pedalled through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. 194 days & 17 hours previously, he had set off from Paris in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in record time. Mark smashed the Guinness World Record by an astonishing 81 days. He had travelled more than 18, 000 miles on his own through some of the harshest conditions one man & his bicycle can endure, camping wild at night & suffering from constant ailments.

The Man Who Cycled the World is the story not just of that amazing achievement, but of the events that turned Mark Beaumont into the man he is today. From the early years of his free-spirited childhood in the Scottish countryside, he had been determined to break records, cycling across Scotland & then from John O' Groats to Land's End by the age of fifteen, raising thousands of pounds for charity. After leaving university, he had been equally determined not to settle for an average existence, but to break free & see the world from a saddle, to follow his dreams.

This is the tale not just of one of the last great circumnavigation world records, & of the incredible endurance it took to accomplish it, but an insight into many of the world's cultures from a unique perspective. From Paris to Istanbul, through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India & south-east Asia to Singapore, then across Australia, New Zealand & the United States before the final legs in Europe, all at hundred miles a day, this is the story of a quite remarkable adventure, by a quite remarkable man.



...

On 15 February 2008, Mark Beaumont pedalled through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. 194 days & 17 hours previously, he had begun his attempt to circumnavigate the world in record time. Mark smashed the Guinness World Record by an astonishing 81 days. He had travelled more than 18, 000 miles on his own through some of the harshest conditions one man & his bicycle can endure, camping wild at night & suffering from constant ailments.

The Man Who Cycled the World is the story not just of that amazing achievement, but of the events that turned Mark Beaumont into the man he is today. From the early years of his free-spirited childhood in the Scottish countryside to present day, he has been equally determined not to settle for an average existence, but to break free & follow his dreams.

...

Born in Prague, Hollar was the artist/engraver who drew London before & after the Great Fire of 1666. It is because of his panoramas that we know (for e.g.) what Old St Paul's was like, before it was completely destroyed & subsequently rebuilt by Wren. As a young engraver making a precarious living wandering round Europe during the 30 Years War, he was picked up by a colourful English figure: Lord Arundel who had a passion for art, beautiful things & collecting. Arundel gave him employment & brought him back to London, where Hollar made a name for himself with his fashion plates, maps & panoramas. During the Civil War, Hollar was in exile with the royalists in Antwerp. He returned to England ahead of Charles II, & continued to make his unique & invaluable record of the period of the Restoration
- & of London during a time of catastrophe & change.
...