Having learned Mandarin & travelling alone by foot bicycle & train Colin Thubron set off on a 10 000 mile journey from Beijing to the borders of Burma. He travelled through the wind-swept wastes of the Gobi desert & finished at the far end of the Great Wall. What Thubron reveals is an astonishing diversity a land whose still unmeasured resources strain to meet an awesome demand & an ancient people still reeling from the devastation of the Cultural Revolution. ...

Aged 16 White was the youngest snooker player to win the English Amateur Championship. By 1984 he was a professional success & married but not settled. He has survived a life of gambling women & marathon binges with showbiz friends to tell in candid detail the story of his own life. ...

When Gregory Matthews patriarch of the Poplars is found dead one morning imperious Aunt Harriet blames it on the roast duck he ate for supper after all she had warned him about his blood pressure. But a post-mortem determines that the cause of death is much more sinister. Murder by poison. Suspicion falls immediately amongst his bitter quarrelsome family. Each has a motive; each opportunity. It falls to Superintendent Hannasyde to sift through all the secrets & lies & discover just who killed Gregory Matthews before the killer strikes again... ...

The brilliant new novel by the internationally bestselling author of the Sister Fidelma mystery series. AD 664: Sister Fidelma finds herself in the seaport of Genua en route from Rome back to her native Cashel. Her old teacher Brother Ruadan lies dying in the abbey of Bobium
- an isolated abbey in a disturbed country where even the Christians are in bloody conflict with one another & the worship of the pagan gods often prevails. Fidelma is determined to see Brother Ruadan before he dies. But from the moment she enters the beautiful valley of the Trebbia there is danger on every side. Her dying teachers last words send her off on her most dangerous adventure where murder follows murder & a vicious civil war threatens before an extraordinary conspiracy is revealed. & from the start Fidelma is on her own...
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With as little plot as its creator Alan Plater could get away with & as much jazz as he could manage the 1985 television drama The Beiderbecke Affair had a far-reaching impact inspiring sequels novels albums & even jazz tours. Much like its Bix Beiderbecke-style soundtrack Platers quietly joyous drama was unconventional free: its narrative following the lives & relationships of its leading characters
- teachers-turned-amateur detectives Trevor Chaplin (James Bolam) & Jill Swinburne (Barbara Flynn)
- with a gentle whimsical humour. William Gallaghers illuminating study is the first critical account of this much-loved series. Drawing on interviews with cast members & musicians the production team & Yorkshire TV executives as well as on insights from Plater himself Gallagher explores Beiderbeckes origins in Platers 1981 tv drama Get Lost! before moving on to an in-depth analysis of the series itself to reveal why such an unassuming series remains one of the best-loved examples of British television drama. The book also

Includes:: a previously unpublished BBC Radio 4 short story featuring the character of Jill Swinburne A Brief Encounter with Richard Wagner.



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Get Straight to the Heart of the city Top Sights. The city s must-see sights plus expert advice to make your trip even better. Local Life. Discover how to unlock the city with guides to areas that the locals really love. Best of Beijing. We ve found the best walks food art shopping views nightlife & more. Plus: Maps for every neighbourhood Walking tours & day planners Packed with expert travel tips 100% independent advice ...

Dai Wei lies in his bedroom a prisoner in his body after he was shot in the head at the Tiananmen Square protest ten years earlier & left in a coma. As his mother tends to him & his friends bring news of their lives in an almost unrecognisable China Dai Wei escapes into his memories weaving together the events that took him from his harsh childhood in the last years of the Cultural Revolution to his time as a microbiology study at the Beijing University. As the minute-by-minute chronicling of the lead-up to his shooting becomes ever more intense the reader is caught in a gripping emotional journey where the boundaries between life & death are increasingly blurred. The result is an outstanding work of fiction & an extraordinary insight into modern China. ...

Presents work on priestly identity embracing the contemporary varieties of priestly ministry. Aimed at priests priests in training & those considering the ministry this title examines the root the shape & the fruit of priestly identity & is applicable to various denominations. It takes into account the new Church of England Ordinal. ...

Although he is an indubitably international superstar Sir Sean Connery still knows the city of Edinburgh practically street by street from delivering the morning milk as a schoolboy. His round included Fettes College where Ian Fleming had sent his fictional James Bond after he was expelled from Eton. BEING A SCOT is a vivid & highly personal portrait of Scotland & its achievements which is self-revelatory whilst full of Sir Seans desire to shine light upon Scottish success & heroic failure. His personal quest with his friend & co-writer Murray Grigor has been to seek answers to some perplexing questions: How did Scots come to devise so many new sports & games or raise others to new heights? What gave fire to the Gothic tendency in Scottish literature? Why have so many creatively inventive & influential architects been Scots? Where did Scotlands unreal blend of psychotic humour originate? & what about the national tradition of self-deprecation sometimes called the Scottish cringe? Sean Connery offers a correction to misconceptions that many believe are part of the historical record whilst revealing as never before his own vibrant personal history. ...