For amiable City trader Jimmy Corby money was the new Rock n' Roll. His whole life was a party adrenalin charged & cocaine fuelled. If he hadn't met Monica he would probably have ended up either dead or in rehab. But Jimmy was as lucky in love as he was at betting on dodgy derivatives so instead of burning out his star just burned brighter than ever. Rich pampered & successful Jimmy Monica & their friends lived the dream bringing up their children with an army of domestic helps. But then it all came crashing down. & when the global financial crisis hit Jimmy discovers that anyone can handle success. It's how you handle failure that really matters. ...

Frances Angel drunk & disgruntled arrives in Italy to attend the I Zingari Art School leaving behind her dazzling career as a successful theatrical impresario & returning to a distant & painful past. She falls into an eclectic group of performance artists ex soldiers & a housewife who really just wants to paint something to match her settee. In the village a scale replica of the La Scala opera house becomes the setting for the great drama of Francis past to be played out on the worlds smallest stage. Francis expected to find some answers but what she didnt expect was romance & quite so much farce. ...

Rich. Beautiful. Damned. Sumptuously evoking the Golden Age of Hollywood a time when money is built on greed & love can be a trick of the light Daisy Waugh's stunning new novel is a compelling portrait of love fame & survival. It is the blistering summer of 1929 & Hollywood's glamorous set appear to have it all. Everybody everywhere is living the Hollywood dream including the elegant & charming high-society couple actor & actress Maximilian & Eleanor Beecham. But beneath the sophistication & glamour their insecure & unhappy marriage is on the brink of divorce & their finances are teetering on a knife's edge after a series of failed films. When the creditors come in to take possession of the house it seems all is lost & they have nowhere to turn but into the arms of their waiting lovers. But when they receive an invitation to one of the legendary weekend house parties at Hearst Castle
- which they know will be filled every Hollywood big-shot around
- they cannot resist one last shot of making it in the film industry. With gossip glamour scandal & decadence the party is the epitome of the Golden Era but for Maximilian & Eleanor the time has come to make a decision that will change their future. Will they sacrifice everything for fame & fortune or can Eleanor & Maximilian learn to love each other again?

...

Famous for pork pies & Stilton cheese the other side of Melton Mowbray is also revealed in this fascinating collection of more than 200 photographs
- a playground for royalty & the aristocracy. Here amongst the finest foxhunting country in the land the future King Edward VIII met Mrs Wallis Simpson & Count Zborowski the creator of Chitty Bang Bang grew up. This selection contains archive images of a working market town its stately lodges Queen Victoria & Prince Albert with the Belvoir Hunt
- & the day the Marquis of Waterford & his fellow huntsman quite literally painted the town red. The institutions events & people of the town
- the Christmas Cheer Committee of 1911 W.G. Grace turning out for the home team in 1872 notorious local rogue Guss Wortley
- are all captured in this an essential tribute to the towns heritage. With the majority of these images dating from the Second World War Melton Mowbray" offers the reader a unique glimpse of an era that is fast becoming the nostalgic memory of the few."



...

Famous for pork pies & Stilton cheese & its magnificent cathedrallike parish church the wider & older history & heritage of Melton Mowbray is illustrated in this book. The lost medieval stone crosses the towns connections with the little Saxon & Danish villages clustered along the valley of the River Wreake & Meltons ancient markets that date from before Domesday but are still thriving today in the bustling streets of the old town are all recorded here. Set in the heart of the finest foxhunting landscape in England Melton Mowbray was made prosperous by the hunting aristocracy who wined & dined their guests including royalty & the infamous Marquis of Waterford who quite literally painted the town red whilst on a drunken night out in 1837. Melton Mowbray Through Time offers the reader a unique glimpse of an era that is fast becoming the nostalgic memory of the few. ...

With delicacy of perception & memory humour & pathos Carson Mc Cullers spreads before us the three phases of a weekend crisis in the life of a motherless twelve-year-old girl. Within the span of a few hours the irresistible hoydenish Frankie passionately plays out her fantasies at her elder brother's wedding. Through a perilous skylight we look into the mind of a child torn between her yearning to belong & the urge to run away. ...

Over the last twenty years Adbusters" magazine has challenged consumerism championed the environment & provided a platform for some of our greatest thinkers. In 2011 they instigated Occupy Wall Street sparking a huge international movement. Now Kalle Lasn editor & founder of " Adbusters" brings us this thought provoking book which provides the building blocks in texts & visuals for a new way of looking at & changing our world. Illustrated in the distinctive style of the magazine & drawing on a brilliant cast of contributers " Meme Wars" debunks many of the assumptions about how we run our societies today. Placing fresh emphasis on the environmental & human factors that are often left out in discussions of economics & examining alternative economies " Meme Wars" is designed to be a textbook for the future
- one that brings to light inspiring ideas for positive change."
...

Unforgettably astounding & a joy to read Memento Mori is considered by many to be the greatest novel by the wizardly Dame Muriel Spark. In late 1950s London something uncanny besets a group of elderly friends: an insinuating voice on the telephone informs each Remember you must die." Their geriatric feathers are soon thoroughly ruffled by these seemingly supernatural phone calls & in the resulting flurry many old secrets are dusted off. Beneath the once decorous surface of their lives unsavories like blackmail & adultery are now to be glimpsed. As spooky as it is witty poignant & wickedly hilarious Memento Mori may ostensibly concern death but it is a book which leaves one relishing life all the more." ...

In this terrifying novel from the phenomenally successful Anne Rice the illustrious vampire Lestat makes a Faustian pact with Devil. Satan has come to New Orleans with an enticing proposition. Under the name Memnoch this lord of darkness takes Lestat on a tour through the boundaries of space & time offering an alternative & personalised account of the Bible exploring the events which shaped our world. Their journey comes to an apocalyptic conclusion in hell from which Lestat returns frail & broken. The experience has shattered his perceptions of the known Universe but can you ever trust the Devil? ...

He lived in the shadow of kings. One trusted him with his empire; the other feared his every move. Memnon of Rhodes (375-333 BC) walked in the footsteps of giants. As a soldier sailor statesman & general he was in the words of Diodorus of Sicily outstanding in courage & strategic grasp." A contemporary of Demosthenes & Aristotle Memnon rose from humble origins to command the whole of western Asia in a time of strife & slaughter. To his own people he was a traitor to his rivals a mercenary. But to the King of Kings his majesty Darius III of Persia Memnon was the one man capable of defending Asia Minor from the rising power of the barbaric Macedonians. In a war pitting Greek against Greek Memnon proved his quality beyond measure. His enemies fought for glory & gold; Memnon fought for something more: for loyalty for honour & for duty. He fought for the love of Barsine a woman of remarkable beauty & grace but most of all he fought for the promise of peace. Through the deathbed recollections of a mysterious woman the life of Memnon unfolds with brilliant clarity. It is a record of his triumphs & tragedies his loves & losses & of the determination that drove him to stand against the most renowned figure of the ancient world
- an ambitious & brilliant young conqueror called Alexander the Great."
...