A scintillating collection of stories from the master of science fiction. Since the beginning of his career in the 1940s Ray Bradbury has become synonymous with great science fiction from the pulp comic books of his early work to his adaptations for television stage & screen & most notably for his masterpiece Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury has done a rare thing; to capture both the popular & literary imagination. Within these pages the reader will be transported to foreign & extraordinary worlds become transfixed by visions of the past present & future & be left humbled & inspired by one of most absorbing & engaging writers of this century & the last. This is the second of two volumes offering the very best of his short stories including The Garbage Collector The Machineries of Joy & The Toynbee Convector. ...

Ray Harryhausen is one of the most innovative & influential film animators in the history of the medium responsible for such classic films as Jason & the Argonauts The 7th Voyage of Sinbad Clash of the Titans & One Million Years BC. A pioneer of stop-motion animation he has won countless awards including a star on the Hollwood Walk of Fame & inspired numerous film-makers such as Stephen Spielberg George Lucas & Peter Jackson. Ray's story has been told in books such as An Animated Life & many of his concept drawings & models have appeared in The Art of Ray Harryhausen (both of which books were also published by Aurum). This new book reveals a wealth of fascinating artefacts relating to his films that has never been seen before many of them recently discovered in a garage in Los Angeles. Designed in the form of a scrapbook it provides a visual feast for Harryhausen fans. There are models from unrealized projects such as dinosaurs from the unfinished film Evolution; prints of outtakes from various films including The Beast from 20 000 Fathoms; early concept drawings & storyboards; colour transparencies of Ray at work; written artefacts such as letters & production budgets & a diary that details Ray's first meeting with his mentor Willis O' Brien; early film treatments & script extracts; publicity posters & brochures; & much much more. Some of the items show Ray's earliest artistic endeavours such as watercolours painted when he was 15 years old & marionettes of creatures from King Kong that he made when he saw the film in 1933. Organized into themed chapters covering the different genres that Ray worked in each film is given a brief introduction & every image has a detailed caption. In many cases images are juxtaposed to show how a creature or effect evolved or to compare a concept drawing with a still from the finished film. The result is a treasure trove of rare artefacts & material which not only offer new insights into how Ray created particular effects but bring the worlds of his films to life in a new way & paint a fascinating visual portrait of the man himself & his creative imagination. This is a must for every Ray Harryhausen fan. ...

In RAYS MEARS GOES WALKABOUT Ray Mears journeys through the wilderness of the Australian Outback to learn about the people the wildlife & the culture of this extraordinary l&. He is joined by Australian survival experts who enrich his journey & deepen Rays understanding of the bushcraft of this incredible continent. These are journeys that encompass many of the themes of Rays world discovery the natural world indigenous culture adventure & survival. Above all they represent something very close to Rays heart the most important thing we can learn when travelling is to be open to new ideas new ways of doing things new experiences. For Ray this is the only way to promote understanding & learning. His voyage into the wilds of Australia encompasses so many different natural habitats with a rich indigenous culture & many tales of exploration & survival as well all his trademark survival knowledge & wilderness tips. ...

With the increase in computing speed & due to the high quality of the optical effects it achieves ray tracing is becoming a popular choice for interactive & animated rendering. This book takes readers through the whole process of building a modern ray tracer from scratch in C++. All concepts & processes are explained in detail with the aid of hundreds of diagrams ray-traced images & sample code. It is suitable for undergraduate & graduate computer graphics courses & for individual programmers who would like to learn ray tracing. ...

Theres so much more to Rays on-screen tough-guy image & his path to the top has been anything but plain sailing. He was every inch the rebel in his youth & was even a London schoolboy boxing champion; but he always had an affinity for acting. Deciding to pursue his dream through drama school he soon found himself an outsider & was expelled. But he managed to blag his way into an audition for what would prove to be his big break
- his cocky aggressive boxers gait making him perfect for the lead in Alan Clarkes Scum. Going on to both small
- & big-screen success as well as in the theatre Ray really cemented his place in the pantheon of British acting greats with his breathtaking performance in Nil By Mouth which earned him a BAFTA nomination. His subsequent roles in the likes of Sexy Beast The War Zone & Last Orders won him plaudits & continued his tradition of portraying tough uncompromising men. But every tough guy has a heart & Ray has tempered these roles with those in more light-hearted romantic comedies such as Fanny & Elvis & Theres Only One Jimmy Grimble. With roles in Indiana Jones 4 Beowulf (with Angelina Jolie) & London Boulevard & with such great British telefilms as Henry VIII Sweeny Todd & Vincent under his belt Ray Winstone continues to go from strength to strength.

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US Marshal Raylan Givens star of the series JUSTIFIED & protagonist of RIDING THE RAP PRONTO & the story FIRE IN THE HOLE is back in action this time with a federal warrant to serve on a dope dealer named Angel Arenas a man born in the U.S. but a hundred percent of him Hispanic. The state troopers are impressed when the marshal struts into the convicts hotel room without drawing his gun but Raylan soon finds that Angels already been the victim of another crime one thats way bigger than a few pot plants & clearly the work of a professional.. .RAYLAN shows Elmore Leonard at the height of his powers as we follow one of his favourite protagonists through a series of adventures with unlikely villains. As ever the work is filled with unexpected twists & the most vibrant crackling dialogue currently available in the English language. ...

The ancient market town of Rayleigh is rich in both its history & in the historians who have told the tale. Limelight Lantern lectures were first shown in 1884 when the population was just over 1 000 the railway had not yet arrived & the roads were at best comprised of compacted earth with granite chippings & had no drainage. That tradition continues today as historians continue to explore Rayleigh through slideshows lectures & books. During the ensuing 128 years the stories of the motte & bailey castle the martyrs burnt at the stake the windmills & the rapid development once the railway arrived in 1889 have not lost their fascination. The photographs in this book most of which have not been seen in print before present Rayleighs rich & varied heritage in vivid detail from its origins as a small agricultural village to the thriving town of today. ...

With four little books full of Christmas magic there is something to keep everyone happy on Christmas day. Based on Raymond briggs bestselling favourites The Snowman" & " Father Christmas" there are four concept-based books including words weather opposites & counting. This is the perfect introduction to the world of the Snowman for very little readers." ...

A major new biography of the writer who more than any other has defined modern crime fiction What we know of Raymond Chandler is shrouded in secrets & half-truths as deceptive as anything in his magisterial novel The Long Goodbye. Now drawing on new interviews previously unpublished letters & archives on both sides of the Atlantic literary gumshoe Tom Williams casts light on this most mysterious of writers. The Raymond Chandler revealed is a man troubled by loneliness & desertion from an early age
- experiences that fuelled his writing as much as they scarred his life. Born in Chicago in 1888 his childhood was overshadowed by the cruel collapse of his parents marriage his fathers alcohol-fuelled violence eventually forcing the boy & his doting mother to leave for Ireland & later London. As a young man eager to forge a new life unconstrained by the stuffy English class system he returned to the US where
- in corruption-ridden Los Angeles
- he met his one great love: Cissy Pascal a married woman 18 years his senior. It was only during middle age after his own alcoholism wrecked a lucrative career as an oilman that Chandler seriously turned to crime fiction although his success was to prove bittersweet. An obsessive attitude towards his craft unrealised literary ambitions & a suicidal turn after Cissys death combined to prevent him from recapturing the verve of his earlier writing. However his legacy
- the lonely ambiguous world of Philip Marlowe
- endures compelling generation after generation of crime writers to go down mean streets. In this long-awaited new biography the most thorough & comprehensive yet written Tom Williams shadows one of the twentieth centurys true literary giants & considers how crime was raised to the level of art.




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For five years before the Falklands War Hugh Bicheno was one of the top British spies in Argentina. As such he gathered hard corroborated intelligence on Argentine intentions over the Falklands
- which the British establishment then chose to ignore. The reasons behind this British decision & its disastrous & inevitable consequences in the South Atlantic are the main story of this book. There were three main players in the war each of them trying to overcome their own cultural baggage. The Argentines were riddled with guilt: after years of fighting a morally repugnant campaign against its own people the Argentine military saw a war for the Malvinas islands as a perfect opportunity to win back their self-respect. The hands of the Americans were also bloody from the likewise dirty wars they had sponsored & abetted in Central America. For Britain it was simply the last straw after decades of humiliation.
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