The genius behind such classic songs as Suzanne" " Bird on the Wire" & " Hallelujah" Leonard Cohen has been one of the most important & influential songwriters of our time a man of spirituality emotion & intelligence whose work has explored the definitive issues of human life
- sex religion power meaning love. Yet before he even began recording Cohen was an accomplished literary figure whose poetry & novels brought him considerable recognition. His dual careers in music & literature have transformed one another his songs revealing a literary quality rare in the world of popular music & his poetry & prose informed by a rich musicality. "I'm Your Man" explores the facets of Cohen's life
- from his early childhood in Montreal to his entree into the worlds of literature & music his immersion in Jewish culture obsession with Christian imagery & deep commitment to Buddhist detachment
- including the five years he spent at a monastery outside of Los Angeles & his ordainment as a Rinzai Zen Buddhist Monk. Sylvie Simmons draws on Cohen's private archives & a wealth of interviews with many of his closest associates colleagues & other artists whose work he has inspired as well as professors Buddhist monks & rabbis to share stories & details never before revealed & correct mistakes propounded in previous works. Unlike other biographies "I'm Your Man" gives equal time to Cohen's poetry & prose & balances his intellectual & religious sides. The result is this deeply insightful well-rounded portrait of an artist whose reach vision & incredible talent has had a profound impact on multiple generations & who continues to create magic today."


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I've lost it.: ( The only thing in the world I wasn't supposed to lose. My engagement ring. It's been in Magnus' family for three generations. & now the very same day his parents are coming I've lost it. The very same day. Do not hyperventilate Poppy. Stay positive!! :) A couple of glasses of bubbly with the girls & Poppy's life has gone into meltdown. Not only has she lost her engagement ring but in the panic that followed she's lost her phone too. When she spots an abandoned phone in a bin it seems it was meant to be. Finders Keepers! Except the phone's owner elusive businessman Sam Roxton doesn't agree. He wants his phone back & doesn't appreciate Poppy reading all his messages & wading into his personal life. Can things get any more tangled? ...

i-ssassins is part of the HEROES series created with series editor Frank Cottrell Boyce. Luke Kitson is training with ELITE a crack team of young hackers used by MI5 & currently investigating Your Life a new social networking site with vast ambitions. But disappearances begin
- first members of the site next MI5 agents & finally one of the ELITE hackers. Luke must infiltrate Your Lifes skyscraper headquarters & find his friend. One hundred floors. One thousand people who will do anything to stop him. Can Luke prove that he belongs to the ELITE?
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CONSIDER PHLEBAS The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died billions more were doomed. Moons planets the very stars themselves faced destruction cold-blooded brutal & worse random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender. Within the cosmic conflict an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture & the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza the Changer & his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries human & machine actually to find it & with it their own destruction. USE OF WEAPONS The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue dirty tricks or military action. The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity & pushed him towards his present eminence but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought. The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman's life by massacring her attackers in a particularly bloody manner. It believed the man to be a burnt-out case. But not even its machine intelligence could see the horrors in his past. THE PLAYER OF GAMES The Culture
- a human/machine symbiotic society
- has thrown up many great Game Players & one of the greatest is Gurgeh. Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board computer & strategy. Bored with success Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad cruel & incredibly wealthy to try their fabulous game.. .a game so complex so like life itself that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked blackmailed almost murdered Gurgeh accepts the game & with it the challenge of his life
- & very possibly his death.


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Ian Botham arrived on the international scene just in time to ride sports first big financial wave & exploit the Thatcherite mantra of go-out-&-get-what-you-want. He certainly needed the cash having been regularly short since leaving state school in Yeovil at 15. In an era short on glamour & personalities Botham brought an irresistible cocktail of talent energy & swagger. With the stench of economic failure still in the air he made the country feel good about itself again. He showed that Britain could still produce champions & that the working class still deserved to be valued. For this he won himself a fund of public goodwill a fund he sometimes threatened to drain but uncannily managed to replenish. He had an insatiable appetite & an uncanny knack for creating tales of heroism but if he failed on that score there was always the chance of a scandal or two. He gave the media everything they needed for front pages & back & some newspapers discovered that it didnt necessarily matter if the story was true or not as long as he was in it. Ian Botham tells the story a great piece of British sporting history one of the greatest: of a man for whom the glamour & the grit came together. & it was the grit of the times in which Botham had grown up & where he had come from. ...

CASINO ROYALE: Read by Dan Stevens LIVE & LET DIE: Read by Rory Kinnear MOONRAKER: Read by Bill Nighy DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER: Read by Damian Lewis FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE: Read by Toby Stevens DR NO: Read by Hugh Quarshie GOLDFINGER: Read by Hugh Bonneville ...

In 1942 Lieutenant-Commander Ian Fleming was personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence
- the dynamic figure behind
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In 1942 Lieutenant-Commander Ian Fleming was personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence
- the dynamic figure behind
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LET IT BLEED: Rebus finds himself sucked into an investigation that throws up more questions than answers. Was the Lord Provosts daughter kidnapped or just another runaway? & why on earth is Rebus invited to a clay pigeon shoot at the home of the Scottish Offices Permanent Secretary? Drawn into the machine that is modern Scotland Rebus confronts the fact that some of his enemies may be beyond justice. BLACK & BLUE: Rebus is juggling four cases trying to nail one killer
- & doing it under the scrutiny of an internal inquiry led by a man hes just accused of taking backhanders from Glasgows Mr Big. Added to that there are TV cameras at his back investigating a miscarriage of justice making Rebus a criminal in the eyes of millions of viewers. Just one mistake is likely to mean a slow & unpleasant death or worse still losing his job. THE HANGING GARDEN: DI John Rebus is on the trail of a WWII war criminal
- until the running battle between two rival gangs on the city streets arrives at his door. When his daughter is the victim of a hit-&-run Rebus is forced to acknowledge that there is nothing he wouldnt do to bring down the prime suspect
- even if it means cutting a deal with the devil.


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Ian Rankin has amassed an incredible portfolio of short stories which all share the best qualities of his phenomenally popular novels. Now his two critically acclaimed short story collections
- A GOOD HANGING & BEGGARS BANQUET
- come together in one volume along with ATONEMENT
- a new Rebus story written especially for this collection. A GOOD HANGING
- Twelve Inspector Rebus mysteries including the hanging of a student during the Edinburgh Festival a gruesome arson attack & the apparent witnessing of a miracle. Step off the tourist trail & into the macabre heart of Rebuss Edinburgh. BEGGARS BANQUET
- Ranging from suburban murders to the sinister workings of a serial killers mind here are twenty-one tales all bearing the hallmark of great crime writing. Included are seven Inspector Rebus mysteries & the Dagger award-winning story Herbert in Motion. ATONEMENT
- When Rebus comes to the aid of an old friend he uncovers some hard-to-swallow truths about life & death at a local home for the elderly.





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