When Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly in his early forties the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is seemingly an English idyll with a cobbled market square & an ancient abbey but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor teenagers at war with their parents wives at war with their husbands teachers at war with their pupils&8230; Pagford is not what it first seems. & the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion duplicity & unexpected revelations? Blackly comic thought-provoking & constantly surprising The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling&8217;s first novel for adults. Q&A with J.K Rowling " The Casual Vacancy" is radically different from Harry Potter. What made you want to write it? I had the idea on a plane this time- not on a train- & was immediately very excited by it. It is another novel about morality & mortality as Harry Potter was but contemporary. Its set in a small community which involves writing characters who are adolescents all the way up to people in their sixties. I love nineteenth century novels that centre on a town or village. This is my attempt to do a modern version. Why is it called " The Casual Vacancy"? Were there other possible titles? The working title was Responsible because a central theme is how much responsibility each of us has for where we are in life
- our happiness our health & our wealth
- & also the responsibility we have towards other people
- our partners our children & wider society. However when I came across the phrase a casual vacancy which is the correct term for a seat left empty on a council by the death of one of its members I knew at once that I had my new title. The title speaks to me on many different levels. First of all it seemed to me that the greatest casual vacancy is death itself which often arrives with no fanfare & creates unfillable vacuums. I was also aware that all of my characters have lacks & deficiencies in their lives that they are attempting to fill in a variety of ways: with food drink drugs fantasies or rebellious behaviour. These too could be called casual vacancies: those little emptinesss that we are perhaps not entirely conscious that we possess & yet we still feel the need to assuage. The novel has been described as blackly comic? Can you tell us a little more about the humour in the book? The humours rather dark. I wouldnt have described it as a black comedy personally. Perhaps a comic tragedy! Do you think its a particularly British novel? How much is it specifically about Britain today & how much does it contain universal themes? While the setting & characters are I think quintessentially English I am dealing with universal themes. My social issues are relevant anywhere: family & marital conflict the tensions between parents & their children the ideological conflict between an emphasis on self-reliance & state provided support. Its a book about a divided community
- & one of those divisions is between adults & children
- why? As families in developed western soc"




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When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is seemingly an English idyll with a cobbled market square & an ancient abbey but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor teenagers at war with their parents wives at war with their husbands teachers at war with their pupils... Pagford is not what it first seems. & the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion duplicity & unexpected revelations? A big novel about a small town The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other. ...

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is seemingly an English idyll with a cobbled market square & an ancient abbey but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor teenagers at war with their parents wives at war with their husbands teachers at war with their pupils... Pagford is not what it first seems. & the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion duplicity & unexpected revelations? A big novel about a small town The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other. ...

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is seemingly an English idyll with a cobbled market square & an ancient abbey but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor teenagers at war with their parents wives at war with their husbands teachers at war with their pupils... Pagford is not what it first seems. & the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion duplicity & unexpected revelations? A big novel about a small town The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other. ...

In the beginning God created man but seeing him so feeble He gave him the cat
- Warren Eckstein. Combining gorgeous & characterful
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She's in for the ride of her life. Her career is stuck in a rut. Her love life has been a tangle. But fortune favours the brave... When journalist Cat Mc Cabe lands a job reporting on the Tour de France she's confident it might give her stuttering career the boost it needs & provide a welcome distraction from a messy break-up. Or so she hopes. She quickly realizes Le Tour is not just all about the bikes. Large bulges huge egos lashings of Lycra & plenty of sexy shenanigans play their part & soon enough her own life starts to mirror the high peaks & perilous lows of the race as she battles for more than just a scoop. Whatever happens it's going to be the ride of her life. With sex drugs large bulges & larger egos the soap opera that is the Tour de France unfolds with Cat's life frequently mirroring the peaks & perils of the race. ...

Stories are like Russian dolls; open them up & in each one youll find another story. Conjured from a wickedly imaginative pen here is a new collection of short stories that showcases Joanne Harris exceptional talent as a teller of tales a spinner of yarns. Sensuous mischievous uproarious & wry these are tales that combine the everyday with the unexpected; wild fantasy with bittersweet reality. Come to the house where it is Christmas all year round; meet the ghost who lives on a Twitter timeline; be spooked by a new born baby created with sugar spice & lashings of cake; worry for a young girl in the Congo who rides the rapids to earn a crust of bread; & spy on Norse gods battling each other for survival in modern Manhattan. In her first short-story collection since Jigs & Reels" let Joanne Harris ensnare & delight you with the variety & inventiveness of her storytelling." ...

Late one night two teachers investigate a mysterious flashing light in the sports pavilion while the rest of the school sleeps. There among the lacrosse sticks they stumble upon the body of the unpopular games mistress
- shot through the heart from point blank range. The school is thrown into chaos when the 'cat' strikes again. Unfortunately schoolgirl Julia Upjohn knows too much. In particular she knows that without Hercule Poirot's help she will be the next victim...
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This title is part of Phonics Bug
- the first synthetic phonics programme to bring together research-based teaching methods with
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The fourth novel in the Alex Cross series First came the stunning bestseller ALONG CAME A SPIDER which introduced its memorable ...