The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare's most problematic plays, largely because of what is seen as its inherent anti-semitism. At the centre of the play is one of the most famous anti-heroes in Shakespeare: Shylock 'the Jew'. How to interpret Shylock baffles critics as they divide on whether Shakespeare is prejudiced or sympathetic. ...

What makes a man the greatest of all time? Eddy Merckx is to cycling what Muhammad Ali is to boxing or Pel? to football: quite simply the best there has ever been. Merckx was a machine. It wasn't just the number of victories (445); it was his remorseless domination that created the legend. In 1969, while already comfortably leading the Tour de France, Merckx hammered a further eight-&-a-half minutes out of his nearest rivals during an 85-mile solo break in the Pyrenees. He didn't just beat his opponents, he crushed them. But his triumphs only tell half a story that

Includes:: horrific injury, a doping controversy & tragedy. He was nicknamed ' The Cannibal' for his insatiable appetite for victory, but the moniker did scant justice to a man who was handsome, sensitive & surprisingly anxious. Britain's leading cycling writer, William Fotheringham, goes back to speak to those who were there at the time & those who knew him best to find out what made Eddy Merckx so invincible. ' Merckx
- a natural champion who, famously, never knew what prize money was, but regularly rode himself & others into agony & glory
- is a fine choice for a writer of Fotheringham's skill & cycling knowledge... A fascinating, often bleak portrait of a remarkable athlete & an unnerving man'



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Eddy Merckx is to cycling what Muhammad Ali is to boxing or Pel? to football: quite simply, the best there has ever been. Throughout his professional career Merckx amassed an astonishing 445 victories. Lance Armstrong, by comparison, managed fewer than 100. Merckx was a machine. It wasn't just the number of victories; it was his remorseless domination that created the legend. In 1969 while already comfortably leading the Tour de France, Merckx hammered a further eight-&-a-half minutes out of his nearest rivals during an 85-mile solo break in the Pyrenees. He didn't just beat his opponents, he crushed them. But his triumphs only tell half a story that

Includes:: horrific injury, a doping controversy & tragedy. He was nicknamed ' The Cannibal' for his insatiable appetite for victory, but the moniker did scant justice to a man who was handsome, sensitive & surprisingly anxious. For Britain's leading cycling writer, William Fotheringham, the burning question remains, why? What made Eddy Merckx so invincible? In Half Man, Half Bike, Fotheringham goes back to speak to those who were there at the time & those who knew Merckx best. The result is this extraordinary & definitive story of a man whose fear of failure would drive him to reach the highest pinnacles before ultimately destroying him.

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Eddy Merckx is to cycling what Muhammad Ali is to boxing or Pele to football: quite simply, the best there has ever been. Merckx was a machine. It wasn't just the number of victories (445); it was his remorseless domination that created the legend. He didn't just beat his opponents, he crushed them. ...

Insight depends on attentiveness, but can also strike us spontaneously as revelation. This collection features poems that are unified by the urge to look into things & reflect on them, but the responses they represent are as varied, & as revelatory, as the subjects they address. ...

Take off your thinking caps & toss 'em in a corner, 'cos you won't need 'em when you're watching this deliriously dumb thriller from 1997. Bruce Willis stars as a demoted FBI agent who comes to the aid of an autistic boy whose mind holds a potentially deadly secret. It seems that by gazing on a puzzle magazine & making order out of a hidden system of numbers, the 9-year-old autistic boy (Miko Hughes) has accidentally deciphered a sophisticated top-secret government code. This makes him the prime target of the ruthless bureaucrat (Alec Baldwin, in one of his silliest roles) & Willis comes to the rescue. This formulaic thriller sets up this plot with a lot of entertaining urgency but you can't give any thought to Mercury Rising or the whole movie collapses under the weight of its own illogic & nonsense. The redeeming values are the performances of Willis, young Hughes & newcomer Kim Dickens as a woman who agrees (perhaps too easily, it seems) to aid Willis in his plot to out manoeuvre the bad guys. Mercury Rising is not a waste of time compared to other formulaic thrillers but its entertainment value depends on how much you enjoy being smarter than the movie. ...

The hunt is finally over.

FBI agent Atlee Pine is at the end of her long journey to discover what happened to her

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Things are heating up between widow Bay Tanner, sometime private investigator, & Red, local sheriff's sergeant & her late husband's brother. But a new case that strikes too close to home endangers more than just her love life. An unexpected call from her housekeeper's son hints that a recent hit-&-run may have been more than an accident. ...

Meridon, the desolate Romany girl, is determined to escape the hard poverty of her childhood. Riding bareback in a travelling show, while her sister Dandy risks her life on the trapeze, Meridon dedicates herself to freeing them both from danger & want. But Dandy ...

Robert Merivel, physician & courtier to Charles II, loved for his ability to turn sorrow into laughter, now faces the agitations & anxieties of middle age. Questions crowd his mind: has he been a good father? Is he a fair master? Is he the King's frie ...