Throughout its chequered history snooker has had more than its fair share of heroes & villains champions & chumps rascals & rip-off artists. In the last 20 years every sleazy scandal imaginable has attached itself to this raffish sport: corruption match fixing bribery sex recreational drugs performance-enhancing drugs ballot rigging fraud theft domestic violence common-or-garden violence paranoid politicking dirty tricks
- all against a background of inept petty tsars fixated on the pursuit retention & abuse of power. In Black Farce & Cue Ball Wizards" Clive Everton recounts the glory & despair the dreams & disillusion & the treachery & greed that have characterised the game since it was invented as an innocent diversion by British Army officers in India in the nineteenth century. He tells the true & unexpurgated tale of snookers transformation into a television success story second only to football & exposes how its potential has been shamefully squandered."
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It is the Black Dawn a time of environmental apocalypse. It is the Bright Day a time generations hence when a peace has descended across the world. In each era a child undertakes a perilous journey to find a dark messiah known as the Crowman. But is he our saviour
- or the final incarnation of evil?
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Albert Johanneson became one of the first high profile black players in football when he joined Leeds United from the poverty of South African township life in 1961. Over the next nine years he became a favourite with the Leeds fans amassing over 200 appearances & 68 goals whilst enduring racism endemic in that era on & off the pitch. In 1970 after a spate of injuries Leeds United manager Don Revie released Albert & he joined York City for two seasons before retiring from football. Unfortunately life after his football career did not go well for Albert & he died in Leeds in 1995 an alcoholic penniless recluse. Journalist Paul Harrison was working with Albert writing his autobiography at the time of his death. Now some 17 years later with encouragement from Alberts friends he has decided to complete his story of The Black Flash a player acclaimed by Elland Road fans & of who the great George Best said of hes a brave man with a lot of skill. ...

Maggie ODell is back in an explosive new thriller. Silence. Smoke. Then the Screaming begins. As suicide bombers strike at the heart of America FBI profiler Maggie ODell faces the toughest deadliest case of her career. Sifting through the debris for answers ODell discovers that worse is yet to come with more attacks imminent
- & the consequences unimaginable. In less than twenty-four hours ODell must figure out what the next target is & who exactly she is fighting against. Struggling to put the pieces together in time she realizes just what is at stake
- & that her own brother may be in the firing line.

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Colin & Prill were looking forward to their summer holiday in Ireland but almost from the moment they arrive things start to go horribly wrong. This modern family on holiday awake memories of the Irish famine. Colin & Prill were looking forward to their summer holiday in Ireland but almost from the moment they arrive things start to go horribly wrong. Whilst Colin is plagued by a terrible smell rising from the land as if from the land of the dead Prill is visited by a strange creature creeping into her dreams. Who is she & what does she want? Only cousin Oliver seems untouched by the danger. As the hot summer days continue their terror mounts & their baby sister becomes critically ill. Oliver links the present horror with the terrible famine in Ireland of the 1840s
- & he must bring about a reconciliation to save himself & his cousins. An atmospheric play which gradually builds the tension & will have the audience on the edge of their seats... The book contains a haunting playscript suitable for classwork & school production accompanied by resources including background material & lively activities.
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Theres a new ship of vampirates roaming the seas leaving a trail of fear & devastation in its wake. When a high-profile pirate is slain the Pirate Federation takes decisive action & begins training up a ship of dedicated vampire hunters. Amongst the dynamic crew is young pirate prodigy Connor Tempest. Meanwhile Connors twin sister Grace enjoys a bittersweet reunion with their mother Sally who has some important & shocking news for her daughter. As Grace uncovers the truth about her familys past she realises that she & Connor face a daunting & uncertain future. ...

Wait wait! Save us! Whatll we do? Simon is determined to become a painter when he grows up so he sets off to London to make his fortune. But the city is plagued by wolves & mysterious disappearances. The Twite household where Simon is lodging seems particularly shifty. Before he even gets a chance to open his glistening new paints Simon stumbles right into the centre of a plot to kill the King. & worse than that Simon is kidnapped & sent to sea! Luckily there are two friendly stowaways aboard
- the feisty Dido Twite & the spoiled young Justin. But when the ship catches fire things look pretty dire. Can they escape? Will they save the king in time?
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Simon paid off the driver & turned to follow Mrs Twite. But she seemed to have locked the door behind her & as he rattled the latch unavailingly & then rapped the locker something dark & suffocating was forced down over his head & a pair of hands gripped his throat." Simon coming to London to study painting with his old friend Dr Field finds he has vanished without trace. Determined to discover what lies behind his disappearance Simon is trapped in a fiendish plot. Why has his landlord got guns in his cellar & how does one deal with his irrepressible daughter Dido.. .?" ...

And you thought your adolescence was scary. Suburban Seattle the mid-1970s. We learn from the outset that a strange plague has descended upon the areas teenagers transmitted by sexual contact. The disease is manifested any number of ways
- from the hideously grotesque to the subtle (and concealable)
- but once youve got it thats it. Theres no turning back. As we inhabit the heads of several key characters
- some kids who have it some who dont some who are about to get it
- what unfolds isnt the expected battle to fight the plague or bring heightened awareness of it or even to treat it. What we become witness to instead is a fascinating & eerie portrait of the nature of high-school alienation itself
- the savagery the cruelty the relentless anxiety & ennui the longing for escape. & then the murders start. As hypnotically beautiful as it is horrifying (and believe it or not autobiographical) Black Hole" transcends its genre by deftly exploring a specific American cultural moment in flux & the kids who are caught in it
- back when it wasnt exactly cool to be a hippie any more but Bowie was still just a little too weird. To say nothing of sprouting horns & moulting your skin..."





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At the beginning of the 21st century physics is being driven to very unfamiliar territory
- the domain of the incredibly small
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