'I fight hard & love strong. I'm a traveller.' Paddy Doherty loves his life as an Irish traveller but as a child he felt like an outsider. He was different to his siblings. On the rare occasions he went to school he was bullied for being a gypsy boy. & beyond the gates of the camp he found nothing but hostility. Slowly Paddy's hurt turned into anger & by the age of 11 he had started out on an illustrious career in bare-knuckle fighting. This earned him a position as one of the most well-respected (and feared) men in the travelling community. Yet while he won countless contests in the ring the real battles he faced were very much outside. In this deeply honest autobiography he tells of how he has loved & lost five children; plummeted to seven stone while battling depression drink & drugs. He describes how it feels to be shot point-blank in the head & the lengths he'll go to to protect his people as well as life since My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" & " Big Brother". Told with all the warmth & humour he is famed for Paddy's rich & colourful story is one that will stay with you for a long time to come." ...

The first book in the bestselling Dan ' Spider' Shepherd series. Dan ' Spider' Shepherd is used to putting his life on the line. Working for an elite undercover squad he has lied cheated & conned in order to bring Britain's most wanted criminals to justice. But when a powerful drugs baron starts to kill off witnesses to his crimes Shepherd is given his most dangerous assignment yet. He has to go undercover in a top security prison a world where one wrong move will mean certain death. As Shepherd gambles everything to move in on his quarry he soon realises that the man he is hunting is even more dangerous than the police realise. & that he is capable of striking outside the prison walls & hitting Shepherd where it hurts most. ...

Laurence Valentine Lloyd
- Larry Lloyd
- was one of the toughest most uncompromising players in his heyday. His strength & battle-hardened

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I can assure you that notorious criminals were not the goody-goody types some writers make them out to be. Forget the Robin Hood syndrome face up to reality
- they were evil bastards." Don Smith was a regular soldier & later a prison officer for twenty-five years. Both occupations were good to him. He travelled the world & ended his career as a senior prison officer at HM Prison Parkhurst. He met both the Hard Men & the Jelly Babies."
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Scranton the strangest city on earth has an uneasy live & let unlive relationship with the supernatural. But when a vamp puts the bite on an unwilling victim or some witch casts the wrong kind of spell thats when they call me. My names Markowski a Detective Sergeant on the Scranton PDs Supernatural Crimes Investigation Unit. I carry a badge. Also a crucifix some wooden stakes a big vial of holy water & a 9mm Beretta loaded with silver bullets. This title takes you on a magical mystery tour of a murder case rife with supernatural suspects. Sit down for an enchanted evening of otherworldly entertainment
- Laura Resnick author of Unsympathetic" & " Vamparazzi"."
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A damning indictment of Utilitarianism & the dehumanising influence of the Industrial Revolution Charles Dickenss Hard Times" is edited with an introduction & notes by Kate Flint in " Penguin Classics". In " Hard Times" the Northern mill-town of Coketown is dominated by the figure of Mr Thomas Gradgrind school headmaster & model of Utilitarian success. Feeding both his pupils & family with facts he bans fancy & wonder from any young minds. As a consequence his obedient daughter Louisa marries the loveless businessman & bully of humanity Mr Bounderby & his son Tom rebels to become embroiled in gambling & robbery. & as their fortunes cross with those of free-spirited circus girl Sissy Jupe & victimized weaver Stephen Blackpool Gradgrind is eventually forced to recognize the value of the human heart in an age of materialism & machinery. This edition of " Hard Times" is based on the text of the first volume publication of 1854. Kate Flints introduction sheds light on the frequently overlooked character interplay in Dickenss great critique of Victorian industrial society. Charles Dickens is one of the best-loved novelists in the English language whose 200th anniversary was celebrated in 2012. His most famous books including " Oliver Twist" " Great Expectations" "A Tale of Two Cities" " David Copperfield" & " The Pickwick Papers" have been adapted for stage & screen & read by millions. If you enjoyed " Hard Times" you might like Dickens " Bleak House" also available in " Penguin Classics". "A masterpiece...a completely serious work of art". (F.R. Leavis)." ...

Unusually for Dickens Hard Times is set not in London but in the imaginary mid-Victorian Northern industrial town of Coketown with its blackened factories downtrodden workers & polluted environment. This is the soulless domain of the strict utilitarian Thomas Gradgrind & the heartless factory owner Josiah Bounderby. However human joy is not excluded thanks to Mr Slearys Horse-Riding circus a gin-soaked & hilarious troupe of open-hearted & affectionate people who act as an antidote to all the drudgery & misery endured by the ordinary citizens of Coketown. ...

This edition of Dickens tenth novel set in the industrial Midlands is that of the 1854 first edition. It has been re-edited in the light of scholarly findings made since 1990. Annotations have been revised & expanded. Sections on backgrounds sources & contemporary reactions include material on industrialism education & utilitarianism. The criticism section

Includes:: 17 essays on the novel seven of which are new to this edition.

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Coketown is dominated by the figure of Mr Thomas Gradgrind school headmaster & model of Utilitarian success. Feeding both his pupils & family with facts he bans fancy & wonder from any young minds. As a consequence his obedient daughter Louisa marries the loveless businessman & bully of humanity Mr Bounderby & his son Tom rebels to become embroiled in gambling & robbery. & as their fortunes cross with those of free-spirited circus girl Sissy Jupe & victimized weaver Stephen Blackpool Gradgrind is eventually forced to recognize the value of the human heart in an age of materialism & machinery. ...

Lucile Garrett is just thirteen when she meets Clint Palmer a charismatic stranger who will forever change her life. The year is 1934 & as the windblown dust of the Great Depression rakes the Oklahoma plains Palmer offers Lucile & her father homeless & hungry the irresistible promise of a better future. But when they follow Palmer to Texas Lucile's father mysteriously disappears launching man & girl on an epic journey through the American Southwest: a spree of violence & murder that culminates in one of the most celebrated criminal trials of the era. Based on a true story Hard Twisted is a chilling tale of survival & redemption & a young girl's coming of age in a world as cruel as it is beautiful. ...