A journalist is murdered in Jerusalem's Armenian Cathedral & Detective Arieh Ben-Roi is spoilt for leads. But one seems out of place
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What if Jacques Lacan--the brilliant & eccentric Parisian psychoanalyst--had worked as a police detective applying his theories to solve crimes? This may conjure up a mental film clip starring Peter Sellers in a trench coat but in Lacan at the Scene Henry Bond makes a serious & provocative claim: that apparently impenetrable events of violent death can be more effectively unraveled with Lacans theory of psychoanalysis than with elaborate technologically advanced forensic tools. Bonds exposition on murder expands & develops a resolutely i ekian approach. Seeking out radical & unexpected readings Bond unpacks his material utilizing Lacans neurosis-psychosis-perversion grid. Bond places Lacan at the crime scene & builds his argument through a series of archival crime scene photographs from the 1950s--the period when Lacan was developing his influential theories. It is not the horror of the ravished & mutilated corpses that draws his attention; instead he interrogates seemingly minor details from the everyday isolating & rephotographing what at first seems insignificant: a single high heeled shoe on a kitchen table for example or carefully folded clothes placed over a chair. From these mundane details he carefully builds a robust & comprehensive manual for Lacanian crime investigation that can stand beside the FBIs standard-issue Crime Classification Manual. ...

Which one of you bitches is my mother?" Four elegant successful & sophisticated women in their forties are called to New Yorks Pierre Hotel to meet Lili
- a beautiful young & notoriously temperamental Hollywood movie star. None of the women knows exactly why she is there; each has a reason to hate Lili & each of them is astonished to see the others. They are old friends who share a guilty secret & who have for years been doing their best to keep that secret quiet. Their lives are changed forever however when Lili suddenly confronts them. When the women refuse to answer her Lili proceeds to travel around the world through the playgrounds of the rich & famous seeking to answer the question that has obsessed & almost destroyed her. LACE Shirely Conrans frank scandalous novel follows a group of women from adolescence to adulthood as they negotiate the world of work broken engagements heartbreak & lasting friendship."
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Lacey Carmichael leads a solitary life. To her neighbours she is the mad old woman who lives at the end of the lane crazy but harmless. Until she is arrested on suspicion of murder. When Rachel Moore arrives in the village escaping her own demons the two women form an unlikely bond. Unravelling in each other tales of loss & heartache they become friends. Rachel sees beyond the rumours believing in her innocence but as details of Lacey's life are revealed Rachel is left questioning where the truth really lies. ...

Alice Lacey couldnt be more different from her sister-in-law Cora. Alice is married to John Cora to his hapless younger brother Billie. Both women give birth to sons on one chaotic night in 1940. It is Coras jealousy & resentment that prompts her to swap her puny baby for Alices beautiful son. With Alices marriage in tatters she borrows money from Cora in order to purchase the lease of the tiny hairdresser where she works. Alice is talented; the business thrives & a chain of salons becomes Laceys of Liverpool. The relationships between the cousins Cormac & Maurice their parents Alices three girls & their eventual husbands & children combine to give a unique picture of Liverpool in the last sixty years of the twentieth century. ...

The Lacuna" is the heartbreaking story of a mans search for safety of a man torn between the warm heart of Mexico & the cold embrace of 1950s Mc Carthyite America. Born in the U.S. & reared in Mexico Harrison Shepherd is a liability to his social-climbing flapper mother Salome. Making himself useful in the household of the famed Mexican artists Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo & exiled Bolshevik leader Lev Trotsky young Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art & revolution. A violent upheaval sends him north to a nation newly caught up in World War II. In the mountain city of Asheville North Carolina he remakes himself in Americas hopeful image. But political winds continue to throw him between north & south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach
- the lacuna
- between truth & public presumption. This is a gripping story of identity loyalty & the devastating power of accusations to destroy innocent people. " The Lacuna" is as deep & rich as the " New World"."

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The Lacuna" is the heartbreaking story of a man's search for safety of a man torn between the warm heart of Mexico & the cold embrace of 1950s Mc Carthyite America. Born in the U.S. & reared in Mexico Harrison Shepherd is a liability to his social-climbing flapper mother Salome. Making himself useful in the household of the famed Mexican artists Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo & exiled Bolshevik leader Lev Trotsky young Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art & revolution. A violent upheaval sends him north to a nation newly caught up in World War II. In the mountain city of Asheville North Carolina he remakes himself in America's hopeful image. But political winds continue to throw him between north & south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach
- the lacuna
- between truth & public presumption. A gripping story of identity loyalty & the devastating power of accusations to destroy innocent people. " The Lacuna" is as deep & rich as the New World."

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Meet Akhilandeswari Akhila for short: forty-five & single an income-tax clerk & a woman who has never been allowed to live her own life
- always the daughter the sister the aunt the provider. Until the day she gets herself a one-way ticket to the seaside town of Kanyakumari. In the intimate atmosphere of the all-women sleeping car
- the ' Ladies Coupe'
- Akhila asks the five women she is travelling with the question that has been haunting her all her adult life: can a woman stay single & be happy or does she need a man to feel complete? This wonderfully atmospheric deliciously warm novel takes the reader into the heart of women's lives in contemporary India revealing how the dilemmas that women face in their relationships with husbands mothers friends employers & children are the same the world over.


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Prunella Scales & Patricia Routledge are full of fighting spirit in this eighth series of the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 comedy. The caustic correspondence between Irene Spencer & Vera Small is always richly entertaining & these latest letters are no exception. Catty & competitive as ever the pensioner pen-pals find themselves in yet more trouble in this latest series. Fundraising for her ancient local hospital Irene organises a charity dinner which Vera attends on the arm of her new beau local millionaire Alan Trumper. Unfortunately Vera has a choking incident & is admitted to that very hospital. Visiting her Irene then has a mishap with a trolley & ends up stuck in the same ward. Soon the Ladies are sniping at one another vying for Alan's attention & complaining about the struggling hospital's standard of cleanliness
- superbugs are taking over & rats running rampant on the wards. Meanwhile Vera's granddaughter Sabrina has accidentally let the cat out of the bag about Vera's harbouring of illegal immigrant Youssou & no sooner is Vera out of hospital than she finds herself arrested. While in prison she finds out that Alan has a sinister plot in mind & sets out to warn Irene
- who manages to embroil them all in a complex plan leading to injury imprisonment & an encounter with the Queen. What will Her Majesty make of the Ladies? ' An hilarious double act by Prunella Scales & Patricia Routledge'
- Northern Echo". ' Beautifully scripted & perfectly acted'
- " Daily Express"."



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The Ladies Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames) recounts the spectacular development of the modern department store in late nineteenth century Paris. The store is a symbol of capitalism of the modern city & of the bourgeois family; it is emblematic of consumer culture & the changes in sexual attitudes & class relations taking place at the end of the century. Octave Mouret the stores owner-manager masterfully exploits the desires of his female customers. In his private life as much as in business he is the great seducer. But when he falls in love with the innocent Denise Baudu he discovers she is the only one of the salesgirls who refuses to be commodified. This new translation of the eleventh book in the Rougon-Macquart cycle captures the spirit of one of Zolas greatest novels of the modern city. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford Worlds Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxfords commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more. ...