In 1970, one of Mississippi's more colourful weekly newspapers, The Ford County Times, went bankrupt. To the surprise & dismay of many, ownership was assumed by a 23 year-old college drop-out, named Willie Traynor. The future of the paper looked grim until a young mother was brutally raped & murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Willie Traynor reported all the gruesome details, & his newspaper began to prosper. The murderer, Danny Padgitt, was tried before a packed courtroom in Clanton, Mississippi. The trial came to a startling & dramatic end when the defendant threatened revenge against the jurors if they convicted him. Nevertheless, they found him guilty, & he was sentenced to life in prison. But in Mississippi in 1970, 'life' didn't necessarily mean 'life', & nine years later Danny Padgitt managed to get himself paroled. He returned to Ford County, & the retribution began. ...

In 1970, one of Mississippi's more colourful weekly newspapers, The Ford County Times, went bankrupt. To the surprise & dismay of many, ownership was assumed by a 23 year-old college drop-out, named Willie Traynor. The future of the paper looked grim until a young mother was brutally raped & murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Willie Traynor reported all the gruesome details, & his newspaper began to prosper. The murderer, Danny Padgitt, was tried before a packed courtroom in Clanton, Mississippi. The trial came to a startling & dramatic end when the defendant threatened revenge against the jurors if they convicted him. Nevertheless, they found him guilty, & he was sentenced to life in prison. But in Mississippi in 1970, 'life' didn't necessarily mean 'life', & nine years later Danny Padgitt managed to get himself paroled. He returned to Ford County, & the retribution began. ...

In 1970, one of Mississippi's more colourful weekly newspapers, The Ford County Times, went bankrupt. To the surprise & dismay of many, ownership was assumed by a 23 year-old college drop-out, named Willie Traynor. The future of the paper looked grim until a young mother was brutally raped & murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Willie Traynor reported all the gruesome details, & his newspaper began to prosper. The murderer, Danny Padgitt, was tried before a packed courtroom in Clanton, Mississippi. The trial came to a startling & dramatic end when the defendant threatened revenge against the jurors if they convicted him. Nevertheless, they found him guilty, & he was sentenced to life in prison. But in Mississippi in 1970, 'life' didn't necessarily mean 'life', & nine years later Danny Padgitt managed to get himself paroled. He returned to Ford County, & the retribution began. ...

In 1970, one of Mississippi's more colourful weekly newspapers, The Ford County Times, went bankrupt. To the surprise & dismay of many, ownership was assumed by a 23 year-old college drop-out, named Willie Traynor. The future of the paper looked grim until a young mother was brutally raped & murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Willie Traynor reported all the gruesome details, & his newspaper began to prosper. The murderer, Danny Padgitt, was tried before a packed courtroom in Clanton, Mississippi. The trial came to a startling & dramatic end when the defendant threatened revenge against the jurors if they convicted him. Nevertheless, they found him guilty, & he was sentenced to life in prison. But in Mississippi in 1970, 'life' didn't necessarily mean 'life', & nine years later Danny Padgitt managed to get himself paroled. He returned to Ford County, & the retribution began. ...

In 1970, one of Mississippi's more colourful weekly newspapers, The Ford County Times, went bankrupt. To the surprise & dismay of many, ownership was assumed by a 23 year-old college drop-out, named Willie Traynor. The future of the paper looked grim until a young mother was brutally raped & murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Willie Traynor reported all the gruesome details, & his newspaper began to prosper. The murderer, Danny Padgitt, was tried before a packed courtroom in Clanton, Mississippi. The trial came to a startling & dramatic end when the defendant threatened revenge against the jurors if they convicted him. Nevertheless, they found him guilty, & he was sentenced to life in prison. But in Mississippi in 1970, 'life' didn't necessarily mean 'life', & nine years later Danny Padgitt managed to get himself paroled. He returned to Ford County, & the retribution began. ...

When Claude goes to the Isle of Skye for a quiet holiday with his dad & aunt, all recuperating from the recent death of his mother, he expects his only adventures to be in his active imagination. However, having been befriended by Roddy, an old fisherman, Claude is amazed to see what look like hundreds of body parts being washed up on the beach. On closer examination, these turn out to be shop-window dummies & a curious attraction leads Roddy to keep one of the heads as a souvenir. But Roddy's harmless pilfering surely shouldn't attract the attentions of two very dangerous-looking men from Italy, who mysteriously appear on Skye? A fantastic mystery story, which moves from Scotland to Italy, & will grip the reader all the way. ...

In 1957, Giuseppe Tomasi, Prince of Lampedusa, the last member of a great Sicilian family, died childless, impoverished & unknown, leaving behind him a recently completed manuscript of a novel. The following year that novel, The Leopard, was published to great acclaim & is now recognised as one of the finest works of twentieth-century fiction. For a quarter of a century Italian & foreign scholars were denied access to the reclusive writer's papers until, following a meeting with Lampedusa's adopted son, David Gilmour succeeded in gaining permission to work in the writer's last home in Sicily. There, & in the nearby ruin of the Palazzo Lampedusa, he found many letters, diaries, notebooks & photographs which had not seen the light of day since Lampedusa's death. In The Last Leopard, David Gilmour brings to life not only an enigmatic writer of genius, but the slow, careful distillation of an undoubted masterpiece. ...

In 1960, when Sir Francis Chichester first raced singlehanded across the Atlantic, it was widely regarded as an insane stunt. Nowadays, the Singlehanded Transatlantic Race is not only accorded the greatest of respect but is also recognised as a true test of stamina & seamanship.

Almost half a century after Chichester

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14 August 1945. As Emperor Hirohito recorded a message of surrender for the Japanese people, rebel troops commanded by high-ranking officers from War Minister Anami¹s staff burst into the Imperial palace. Their intention was to stage a coup, destroy the recording & issue forged orders for Japan to continue the war. Had they succeeded, there would have been massive kamikaze attacks on allied forces, causing carnage & possibly provoking America to drop a third atomic bomb on an already devastated Japan...

But on that fateful night, in the skies approaching Tokyo, a stream of B-29B ' Superfortress' bombers were heading towards Japan's last functioning oil refinery. Fearing that the approaching planes could be carrying another atom bomb, Japanese air defences ordered a total black out of the city & the Imperial palace & in so doing completely disrupted the rebels' plans, enabling soldiers loyal to the Emperor to sieze back control. At midday on 15 August 1945, the Imperial message of surrender was broadcast throughout Japan. The Second World War was finally over.

THE LAST MISSION is gripping work of speculative investigation into one of the least known yet profoundly significant episodes of World War II.



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At the end of Chéri the young Chéri left his aging mistress Léa on the eve of his marriage. Having served in the army during the war Chéri returns to Paris haunted by memories of his carefree youth & the bounty of his benevolent mistress. In the post-war 1920's he finds it impossible to settle down to a new life with his efficient & entrepreneurial wife & friends. As his looks & his reputation begin to deteriorate Chéri's life is thrown into crisis as he attempts to recapture the contentment & companionship of his luxurious youth. As Chéri & Léa confront each other, & the changes a decade has wrought on their lives & their looks, Colette displays the incredible sensitivity & insight for which she is justly famous ...