The astonishing feats of Sir Jack Hobbs continue to resonate more than a century after he first played Test cricket. During his long career that stretched from the age of W.G. Grace to the era of Don Bradman he scored more first-class runs & centuries than any player. Even today he remains Englands greatest run-maker in Ashes Tests. He changed the art of batting with his elegant style & transformed the status of professional cricketers through the strength of his quiet dignified personality. Despite his significance in the game there has never been a comprehensive biography of Hobbs. Now Leo Mc Kinstry the acclaimed author of a best-selling life of Geoff Boycott has remedied that. Based on a wealth of new material including interviews with the Hobbs family the book provides fresh insights into every aspect of his story from his poverty-stricken upbringing in Cambridge to his central role in some of Test crickets most explosive series. It is a tale full of controversy such as the previously unknown row over his actions in the First World War when he was accused of scandalous behaviour by the cricket establishment. Other dramatic episodes include a bitter dispute over the England captaincy in the 1920s as well as & two occasions when he came close to death. With its colourful detail historical context & readable style this ground-breaking book is an important addition to sports literature. ...

The astonishing feats of Sir Jack Hobbs continue to resonate more than a century after he first played Test cricket. During his long career that stretched from the age of W.G. Grace to the era of Don Bradman he scored more first-class runs & centuries than any player. Even today he remains Englands greatest run maker in Ashes Tests. He changed the art of batting with his elegant style & transformed the status of professional cricketers through the strength of his personality. Born into poverty Hobbs rose to have a central role in some of Test crickets most explosive series but not without controversy & dispute. At last here is a comprehensive biography of Hobbs giving us fresh insights into every aspect of his story. SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2012 CRICKET BOOK OF THE YEAR. ...

Many straight men & gay men are best friends but if the phenomenon is an urban commonplace it has never been treated before as the focus of a major novel. Jack Holmes is in love but the man he loves never shares his bed. The other men Jack sleeps with never last long & he dallies with several women. He sees a shrink & practices extreme discretion about his gay adventures since the book begins in the 1960s before gay liberation & ends after the advent of AIDS in the 1980s. Jacks friend Will Wright comes from old stock has aspirations to be a writer & like Jack works on the Northern Review a staid cultural quarterly. Will is shy & lonely-and Jack introduces him to the beautiful brittle young woman he will marry. Over the years Will discovers his sensuality & almost destroys his marriage in doing so. Towards the end of the 1970s Jacks & Wills lives merge as they both become accomplished libertines. Jack Holmes & his Friend deploys Edmund Whites wonderful perceptions of American society to dazzling effect as character after character is delicately & colourfully rendered & one social milieu after another glows in the readers mind. He is a connoisseur of the nuances of personality & mood & here unveils his very human cast in all their radical individuality. New York itself is a principle character with its old society & its bohemians rich & poor with its sleek European immigrants & its rough-&-tumble transplanted Midwesterners. With narrative daring & a gifted sense of the rueful submerged drama of life the novel is a beautifully sculpted exploration of sexuality & sensibility. ...

In the 1970s after his incredible run of comics for Marvel including Avengers" " Fantastic Four" "X-Men" " Thor" & others Jack Kirby returned to "DC Comics" to create such groundbreaking series as " Kamandi" " The New Gods" & more. During that period Kirby also created a number of projects that lasted only a few issues such as " The Sandman" starring a super hero who delves into the world of dreams as well as Atlas (from 1st Issue Special) " Kobra" & " Kung Fu Fighter". Now for the first time these titles are collected in a massive hardcover. This volume collects Kirbys 1980s work on the " Super Powers" series based on a very popular toy line. These issues represent Kirbys only work on the " Justice League of America" including " Batman" " Wonder Woman" " Green Lantern" & " The Flash"." ...

This fourth & final volume of Jack Kirbys Fourth World Omnibus" collects the remaining issues of the classic 1970s series " The New Gods" " The Forever People" & " Mister Miracle" in chronological order as they originally appeared! As our heroes fight Darkseids many minions while Darkseid himself continues his quest for the Anti-Life Equation the series come to their end with the wedding of Mister Miracle & Big Barda. Also included in this volume are Kirbys sequel to " The New Gods" & the graphic novel " The Hunger Dogs" along with rarely seen Kirby art from DCs " Whos Who" series all from the mid-1980s." ...

Jack's family are Shian 'otherworld' creatures who have crept in & out of human affairs throughout history. & Jack's family are special: working for the Shian Congress they have been watching over the Stone of Destiny
- one of the great Shian treasures
- for seven hundred years. Its homecoming has energised the dormant Shian folk giving renewed strength to their ancient powers & gifts. However the prospect of the Stone's power causes different factions to quarrel as they did centuries ago & when Jack's parents disappear separately under mysterious circumstances the trouble is just beginning.

...

Secret Agent Jack Stalwart is about to decipher a code from his missing brother Max when he's called on a mission to Kenya. Someone has been killing precious African elephants for their tusks. Can Jack find the poachers & stop them before they strike again? ...

Off the coast of Australia a diver has vanished & along with him an unknown treasure from the wreck of the HMS Pandora. Can Secret Agent Jack Stalwart find the diver & defeat a deadly band of pirates before they sail away with the treasure for-ever? ...

The Royal Navy to which Admiral Lord Nelson sacrificed his life depended on thousands of sailors & marines to man the great wind-powered wooden warships. Drawn from all over Britain & beyond often unwillingly these ordinary men made the navy invincible through skill courage & sheer determination. They cast a long shadow with millions of their descendants alive today & many of their everyday expressions such as skyscraper & loose cannon continuing to enrich our language. Yet their contribution is frequently overlooked while the officers became celebrities. JACK TAR gives these forgotten men a voice in an exciting enthralling often unexpected & always entertaining picture of what their life was really like during this age of sail. Through personal letters diaries & other manuscripts the emotions & experiences of these people are explored from the dread of press-gangs shipwreck & disease to the exhilaration of battle grog prize money & prostitutes. JACK TAR is an authoritative & gripping account that will be compulsive reading for anyone wanting to discover the vibrant & sometimes stark realities of this wooden world at war. ...

Earth stands on the brink of acceptance into the Galactic Milieu a benevolent political & telepathic alliance of alien races. But some are wary as their new supervisors have introduced stringent new laws. Leading humanity is the powerful Remillard family but a ruthless entity known only as the Fury has its own agenda for the Galactic Milieu. It starts to murder those with metapsychic talents triggering a chaos that could delay Earths inclusion. At this delicate juncture Teresa wife of clan leader Paul Remillard conceives a child who could represent humanitys future. But Jacks birth is illegal under Milieu law & she will need the formidable mental abilities of Uncle Rogi & Jacks older brother Marc to cover her tracks. Young Jack promises to be the most powerful mental talent ever seen. But hes destined to be destroyed by his own DNA unless the Fury gets to him first. Galactic-scale intrigue.. .engaging Publishers Weekly A compelling vision of humanitys future.. . Highly recommended Library Journal ...