The best-loved English comedy of the 18-century mocks the snobbery of London through the manipulations of the country embodied in Tony Lumpkin. She Stoops to Conquer" also celebrates the virtues of "laughing comedy " which Goldsmith advocated over the prevalent sentimental forms of his contemporaries. Regularly revived on stage." ...

Liverpool late 1950s. This is a story of three people: a suppressed mother; a father projectionist at the local cinema which has seen better days; & their daughter Martha. It is a time of many escapes: Nureyev defects in London; Gagarin escapes the earths atmosphere to be the first man in space; the Beatles escape the dreariness of Liverpool to seek their fortune in Hamburg. In Britain the drab 50s are giving way to the lively 60s & the young sense it. With shades of Billy Liar & Absolute Beginners this novel brilliantly captures that longing for freedom. SHES LEAVING HOME is about the madness the intensity & the passion that made the sixties an iconic decade. ...

Liverpool late 1950s. This is a story of three people: a suppressed mother; a father projectionist at the local cinema which has seen better days; & their daughter Martha. It is a time of many escapes: Nureyev defects in London; Gagarin escapes the earths atmosphere to be the first man in space; the Beatles escape the dreariness of Liverpool to seek their fortune in Hamburg. In Britain the drab 50s are giving way to the lively 60s & the young sense it. With shades of Billy Liar & Absolute Beginners this novel brilliantly captures that longing for freedom. Sixteen year old Martha is leaving home. ...

Mike Zetterberg lives with his wife Ylva & their daughter in a house just outside Helsingborg. One evening Ylva isnt home as expected after work. Mike passes it off as a drink with a work friend but when shes still missing the next day he starts to worry. As Mike battles suspicion from the police & his own despair he is unaware that Ylva is still alive just a stones throw from his own home. Ylva has been drawn into a twisted plot of revenge & tragedy that leads back into her & her abductors shared past... ...

Queen Mabs niece Fiona has long been bored to tears by the intrigues of Court life. Shed prefer to cut loose at a punk club knock back a few Thai beers & hook up with a likely lad of similar interests. But when Fiona goes AWOL she only gets as far as Manhattans Inwood Park before a nasty demon nearly puts a permanent crimp in her plans
- & a dark stranger sparks her desire... All work & no play make Tobias Walker one cranky werewolf. After six months of doing his part to keep the peace during the delicate negotiations between the Others & humankind hed like nothing more than a good nights sleep
- preceded by an enthusiastic mating session. The alluring woman he rescues in the park might be the answer to his most lustful prayers but only if they can both stay alive long enough to find out who wants her dead & why. Now Fiona & Tobias must unravel a tangled web of treachery that spans branches of the Fae Other & mortal worlds all the while falling into a dangerous attraction that could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship
- or the end for them both...


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This is now a BBC4 series showing in March 2012. When Edward VI
- Henry VIII's longed-for son
- died in 1553 extraordinarily

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The boy in the bed was just fifteen years old. He had been handsome perhaps even recently; but now his face was swollen & disfigured by disease & by the treatments his doctors had prescribed in the attempt to ward off its ravages. Their failure could no longer be mistaken. When Edward VI
- Henry VIIIs longed-for son
- died in 1553 extraordinarily there was no one left to claim the title King of Engl&. For the first time all the contenders for the crown were female. In 1553 England was about to experience the monstrous regiment
- the unnatural rule
- of a woman. But female rule in England also had a past. Four hundred years before Edwards death Matilda daughter of Henry I & granddaughter of William the Conquerer came tantalisingly close to securing her hold on the power of the crown. & between the 12th & the 15th centuries three more exceptional women
- Eleanor of Aquitaine Isabella of France & Margaret of Anjou
- discovered as queens consort & dowager how much was possible if the presumptions of male rule were not confronted so explicitly. The stories of these women
- told here in all their vivid humanity
- illustrate the paradox which the female heirs to the Tudor throne had no choice but to negotiate. Man was the head of woman; & the king was the head of all. How then could a woman be king how could royal power lie in female hands?







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From the wicked Anglo-Saxons to the warmongering Tudors She Wolves" recounts the turbulent & ambition-filled lives of these alluring women. " She Wolves" is a history of the bad girls of Englands medieval royal dynasties
- the queens who earned themselves the reputation of being somehow notorious. Some of them are well known & have been the subject of biographies
- Eleanor of Aquitaine Emma of Normandy Isabella of France & Anne Boleyn for example
- while others have not been written about outside academic journals. The appeal of these notorious queens apart from their shared taste for witchcraft murder adultery & incest is that because they were notorious they attracted a great deal of attention during their lifetimes. " She Wolves" reveals much about the role of the medieval queen & the evolution of the role that led ultimately to the reign of Elizabeth I & a new concept of queenship."


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Sheaffer 100

This delightful Sheaffer 100 gift set features a ballpoint pen & a pencil that serve as a stunning companion

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Sheaffer 100

This delightful Sheaffer 100 gift set features a ballpoint pen & a pencil that serve as a stunning companion

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