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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This completely updated guide reflects post-Olympic Beijing. There is also a special colour chapter on Beijings disappearing & historic hutong (passageways). You can explore old & new Beijing: from the Great Wall to the Birds Nest LP have got it covered. Crammed with more maps than any other guidebook; all maps & attractions are listed in both English & Chinese. ...

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. ...

Being Alive is the sequel to Neil Astleys Staying Alive which became Britains most popular poetry book because it gave readers hundreds of thoughtful & passionate poems about living in the modern world. Now he has assembled this equally lively companion anthology for all those readers whove wanted more poems that touch the heart stir the mind & fire the spirit. Being Alive is about being human: about love & loss fear & longing hurt & wonder. Staying Alive didnt just reach a broader readership it introduced thousands of new readers to contemporary poetry giving them an international gathering of poems of great personal force poems with emotional power intellectual edge & playful wit. It also brought many readers back to poetry people who hadnt read poetry for years because it hadnt held their interest. Being Alive gives readers an even wider selection of vivid brilliantly diverse contemporary poetry from around the world. A third companion anthology Being Human (2011) completes this modern poetry trilogy. ...