Although there are one or two belly laughs along the way for the most part The Parole Officer gets by on the pleasantly old-fashioned charm of a latter-day Ealing comedy & despite a handful of gross-out moments (involving a roller coaster at Blackpool a severed head & a wasp) most of the humour comes from the interaction of a good ensemble cast It’s the first big-screen vehicle for Steve Coogan who plays the titular officer as a watered-down more likeable version of his most famous creation Alan Partridge After being set up by a corrupt detective Coogan’s hapless Simon Garden--in fact always identified as a Probation Officer so presumably the film’s title is an attempt to attract a transatlantic audience--must recruit a motley gang of his ex-con clients to plan & execute a bank robbery in Manchester Indeed one of the film’s principal attractions is its affectionate use of that city centre as a setting instead of the more usual seedy London locations of most British caper-comedies Coogan’s gang are a familiarly dysfunctional bunch redeemed by sympathetic performances from notably Om Puri as irascible serial bigamist George & the young Emma Williams as serial car thief Kirsty Not enough effort goes into fleshing out the characters though & in particular Lena Headey as Coogan’s policewoman girlfriend is far too thinly sketched to seem convincing However much fun is had by all as the team bond bicker & construct A Team-style the tools they need for the big heist The bank raid itself is the film’s highlight & features a surprising deus ex machina appearance from a very distinguished guest star If The Parole Officer never stretches to the sublime heights (or psychological depths) of I’m Alan Partridge it does play out in a brisk 90 minutes like an extended episode of Coogan’s Run; which is to say it’s got plenty of easygoing charm even if it never pushes any boundaries ...

Whether for personal practical or planetary reasons more & more people are adopting a flexitarian diet that has less meat & fish & is mostly vegetarian In The Part-Time Vegetarian Nicola Graimes presents a collection of fresh new recipes all vegetarian but many with a Part-Time Option showing how to include meat or fish if you want She explores a world of vegetarian flavours that will turn your expectations of meat-free eating around Try Smoked Cheese Potato Cakes with Crispy Kale for the ultimate comfort food supper or go for the variation of Salmon Potato Cakes as an indulgent weekend brunch Or make the flavour-packed options of Lebanese Labneh Balls or Spiced Lamb Meatballs when entertaining vegetarian & non-vegetarian guests This is a creative guide to a delicious way of eating ...

Winner of the 2013 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books It was the universe's most elusive particle the linchpin for everything scientists dreamed up to explain how physics works It had to be found But projects as big as CERN's Large Hadron Collider don't happen without incredible risks
- & occasional skullduggery In the definitive account of this landmark event Caltech physicist & acclaimed science writer Sean Carroll reveals the insights rivalry & wonder that fuelled the Higgs discovery & takes us on a riveting & irresistible ride to the very edge of physics today
...

The Partition Method for a Power Series Expansion Theory & Applications explores how the method known as 'the partition method for a power series expansion' which was developed by the author can be applied to a host of previously intractable problems in mathematics & physics In particular this book describes how the method can be used to determine the Bernoulli cosecant & reciprocal logarithm numbers which appear as the coefficients of the resulting power series expansions then also extending the method to more complicated situations where the coefficients become polynomials or mathematical functions From these examples a general theory for the method is presented which enables a programming methodology to be established Finally the programming techniques of previous chapters are used to derive power series expansions for complex generating functions arising in the theory of partitions & in lattice models of statistical mechanics ...

It was supposed to be a celebration How did it all go so wrong? An explosive family drama perfect for fans of Big Little Lies 'A tense & riveting story about one night gone horribly wrong & the fallout within a family & a group of friends' Megan Miranda author of All the Missing Girls Sweet sixteen It's a coming of age a milestone a rite of passage Of course Jeff & Kim Sanders will throw a party for their daughter Hannah She's a good kid with good grades & nice friends & it isn't going to be a big indulgent affair Just four girls coming over for pizza & cake movies & a sleepover What could possibly go wrong? But things do go wrong horrifically wrong After a tragic accident Jeff & Kim's flawless life in a wealthy San Francisco suburb begins to unravel The injured girl's mother Lisa files a lawsuit that turns friends into enemies reveals dark secrets in the Sanders' marriage & exposes the truth about their perfect daughter Hannah Lisa's determination to make the Sanders pay stems from a fierce love for her only child & Lisa's own dark & damaged past In The Party Christos Tsiolkas's The Slap meets Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies taking us behind the facade of the perfect family exploring the secrets betrayals & moral lapses the neighbors don't see The Party uncovers the lies & duplicities that children & parents tell each other & tell themselves 'A compulsive page-turner that mines the push-pull between basic impulses & doing the right thing' The Party is a domestic drama that spins off the rails with hellish consequences' Erica Ferencik author of The River at Night 'A tense & riveting story about one night gone horribly wrong & the fallout within a family & a group of friends Secrets desires choice & consequence The Party reveals that what lies inside a family-and each person-is not always as it seems I was hooked from the opening scene & could not look away until I reached the very last page' Megan Miranda New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls ' Cleverly constructed & brilliantly paced The Party is a raw telling of a family coming apart at the seams Robyn Harding weaves a riveting tale that is impossible to put down' Bill Clegg New York Times bestselling author of Did You Ever Have a Family ...

A gripping story of obsession & betrayal privilege & hypocrisy set in the unassailable heart of the British establishment Witty dark & compelling' Sebastian Faulks As the train pressed on I realised that my life was in the process of taking a different direction plotted according to a new constellation Because although I didn't know it yet I was about to meet Ben & nothing would ever be the same again' Martin Gilmour is an outsider When he wins a scholarship to Burtonbury School he doesn't wear the right clothes or speak with the right kind of accent But then he meets the dazzling popular & wealthy Ben Fitzmaurice & gains admission to an exclusive world Soon Martin is enjoying tennis parties & Easter egg hunts at the Fitzmaurice family's estate as Ben becomes the brother he never had But Martin has a secret He knows something about Ben something he will never tell It is a secret that will bind the two of them together for the best part of 25 years At Ben's 40th birthday party the great & the good of British society are gathering to celebrate in a haze of champagne drugs & glamour Amid the hundreds of guests
- the politicians the celebrities the old-money & newly rich
- Martin once again feels that disturbing pang of not-quite belonging His wife Lucy has her reservations too There is disquiet in the air But Ben wouldn't do anything to damage their friendship Would he?

...

Richard Mc Gregor's The Party has been established as the book on China & its political leadership It is indispensable to understanding what may soon become the most powerful country on earth & here is it is newly updated to include material on the once-in-a-decade leadership changes taking place in November 2012 Newly updated version including analysis of the once-in-a-decade leadership changes taking place in November 2012 China's Communist Party is the largest most powerful political machine in the world Here Richard Mc Gregor delves deeply into its inner sanctum revealing how this secretive cabal keeps control of every aspect of the country
- its military & media legal system & businesses even its religious organizations How has the Party merged Marx Mao & the market to create a global superpower? & what does this mean for the world?' Extraordinary' Sunday Times' Masterful entertaining & insightful' Economist' Superb an essential riveting guide to how the rising power really works' Jonathan Fenby' If you read only one book about China this year it should be this one & if you do not read this book you probably do not understand China today' Arthur Kroeber China Economic Quarterly'A compelling exploration of the world's largest & most successful political machine' New Statesman'A book that is as informative as it is entertaining China has been transformed The system that takes the credit is brilliantly described by Mc Gregor' Chris Patten Financial Times Having joined the Financial Timesin 2000 in Shanghai & being appointed China bureau chief in 2005 Richard Mc Gregor is now Washington Bureau Chief for the FT Mc Gregor has won numerous awards throughout his nearly two decades of reporting from north Asia including a 2010 Society of Publishers in Asia Editorial Excellence Award for his coverage on the Xinjiang Riots & 2008 SOPA Awards for Editorial Intelligence He has spent twenty years in north Asia starting in Taiwan & then in Tokyo Hong Kong & Beijing where he established offices for The Australian newspaper He has also contributed articles & reports to the BBC the International Herald Tribune & the Far Eastern Economic Review
...

Banned in its native Czechoslovakia THE PARTY & THE GUESTS has been long regarded as one of the most politically-charged films of the 60s ...

Track Listings Disc 1 1 The Fifth Dimension
- Aquarius 2 The Byrds
- Hey Mr Tambourine Man 3 Fleetwood Mac
- Albatross 4


...

An epic awe-inspiring novel of good & evil
- now a global bestseller Amy Harper Bellafonte is six years old & her mother thinks
...