From mere trainee to lowly geek to triumphal Big Swinging Dick: that was Michael Lewis' pell-mell progress through the dealing rooms of Salomon Brothers in New York & London during the heady mid-1980s when they were probably the world's most powerful & profitable merchant bank. A true-life Bonfire of the Vanities funny frightening breathless & heartless his is a tale of hysterical greed & ambition set in an obsessed enclosed world. ...

With his second collection of short stories Richard Yates continues to extend his range as a writer of stunning power & eloquence. ...

He was a traitor a rabble-leader a rebel a liar & a pretender to the throne. We have tried to forget him here. For fans of The Good Man Jesus & the Scoundrel Christ" by Phillip Pulman Naomi Aldermans " The Liars Gospel" is the story of a Jewish man Yehoshuah who wandered Roman-occupied Judea giving sermons & healing the sick. Now a year after his death four people tell their stories. His mother flashes between grief & rage while trouble brews between her village & the occupying soldiers. Iehuda who was once Yehoshuahs friend recalls how he came to lose his faith & find a place among the Romans. Caiaphas the High Priest at the great Temple in Jerusalem tries to hold the peace between Rome & Judea. Bar-Avo a rebel strives to bring that peace tumbling down. " The Liars Gospel" makes the oldest story entirely new. Viscerally powerful in its depictions of the realities of the period: massacres & riots animal sacrifice & human betrayal it finds echoes of the present in the past. It was a time of political power-play & brutal tyranny & occupation. Young men & women took to the streets to protest. Dictators put them down with iron force. Rumours spread from mouth to mouth. Rebels attacked the greatest Empire the world has ever known. The Empire gathered its forces to make those rebels pay. & in the midst of all of that one inconsequential preacher died. & either something miraculous happened or someone lied. " Remarkable. Alderman is a supremely talented writer". (Joanne Harris). "A glittering style a compulsive pleasure". (" Metro"). " Witty dark & compelling". (Charlotte Mendelson). Naomi Alderman grew up in the Orthodox Jewish community in northwest London. Her first novel " Disobedience" was published in 10 languages & won the Orange Award for New Writers & the " Sunday Times" Young Writer of the Year prize. Like her second novel " The Lessons" it was broadcast as Radio 4s " Book at Bedtime". She is a frequent radio broadcaster & a regular contributor to the " Guardian" & " Prospect". She lives in London." ...

In this critical intervention against those liberal commentators who fervently beat the war drums
- from Christopher Hitchens to
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A liberal society seeks not to impose a single way of life but to leave its citizens as free as possible to choose their own values & ends. It therefore must govern by principles of justice that do not presuppose any particular vision of the good life. But can any such principles be found? & if not what are the consequences for justice as a moral & political ideal? These are the questions Michael Sandel takes up in this penetrating critique of contemporary liberalism. Sandel locates modern liberalism in the tradition of Kant & focuses on its most influential recent expression in the work of John Rawls. In the most important challenge yet to Rawls' theory of justice Sandel traces the limits of liberalism to the conception of the person that underlies it & argues for a deeper understanding of community than liberalism allows. ...

A slip of a wild boy: with quick silver eyes as Virginia Woolf saw him in the 1930s Christopher Isherwood journeyed & changed with his century until by the 1980s he was celebrated as the finest prose writer in English & the Grand Old Man of Gay Liberation. In this final volume of his diaries capstone of a million-word masterwork he greets advancing age with poignant humour & an unquenchable appetite for the new; aches illnesses & diminishing powers are clues to a predicament still unfathomed. The mainstays of his mature contentment his Hindu guru Swami Prabhavananda & his long term companion Don Bachardy draw from him an unexpected high tide of joy & love. Around his private religious & domestic routines orbit gifted friends both anonymous & infamous. Bachardys burgeoning career pulled Isherwood into the 1970s art scene in Los Angeles New York & London where we meet Rauschenberg Ruscha & Warhol (serving foetid meat for lunch) as well as Hockney (adored) & Kitaj. Collaborating with Bachardy on scripts for their prize-winning Frankenstein & their Broadway fiasco A Meeting by the River" extended ties in Hollywood & the theatre world. John Huston Merchant & Ivory John Travolta John Voight Elton John David Bowie Joan Didion Armistead Maupin each take a turn through Isherwoods densely populated human comedy sketched with both ruthlessness & benevolence against the background of the Vietnam War the Energy Crisis the Nixon Carter & Reagan White Houses. In his first book of this period Kathleen & Frank Isherwood unearthed the family demons that haunted his fugitive youth. When contemporaries began to die he responded in " Christopher & His Kind" & " My Guru & His Disciple" with startling fresh truths about shared experiences. These are the most concrete & the most mysterious of his diaries candidly revealing the fear of death that crowded in past Isherwoods fame & showing how his life-long immersion in the day-to-day lifted him paradoxically towards transcendence." ...

Saddle up for the eleventh Pony Club Secrets adventure! Issie leaps to new heights with showjumper Comet but will she ride to victory on Liberty? The penultimate book in the Uks bestselling pony adventure series. Issie & Comet have travelled to Lexington USA to take on the best riders in the world at the famed four-star horse trials. Its Issie first experience of competing against adult professional riders & she begins to worry that shes out of her depth. But then the competition gets even more exciting when Tara Kelly calls with the offer of a chance ride on another horse. With everything at stake does Issie have what it takes to win? ...

Despite its long history as a leading textile design house & retailer Liberty has yet to produce its own inspirational book of home sewing. That is set to change. This sumptuous book has been created to showcase Liberty Art Fabrics to inspire the reader with their versatility & to provide irresistible original designs for the home. Divided into three chapters
- Essential Organisation & luxury
- this book contains projects ranging from practical fold-up shopping bags to elegant cushions through handy display boards & slipcovers to indulgent kimonos beanbags & throws. Variations are included for many projects so the core collection is in fact an inexhaustible resource of ideas. This book offers the opportunity to add an element of Liberty style using as much or as little Liberty fabric as you choose. While respecting the essential timelessness of the Liberty brand the projects present a modern way of using the prints for a contemporary take on home furnishings. They include both core items as well as more special designs but they are all characterised by the imaginative use of fabric with often unexpected combinations of colour & pattern. The projects in this book all showcase Liberty fabrics to maximum effect.

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This book combines pretty cross-stitch designs with classic Liberty prints to create gorgeous h&-stitched items for you your home & your family & friends. Helene Le Berres stylish designs give the simple traditional technique of cross stitch a fresh contemporary appeal & places it firmly in the twenty-first century. With clear step-by-step instructions beautiful photographs full-size patterns & easy-to-follow cross-stitch charts you will be amazed at how easily you can make something that has beauty style & a professional finish. There are twenty-four designs to choose from including lovingly made toys a quilt tiny slippers & a handy little bag for you & your baby; photo frames cushions colourful pot holders & other items for the home; & perfect gifts to give away or keep that include bags purses & earrings. Even the timeless little black dress is revisited & given a h&-embroidered finish. So even if you have never stitched before you are guaranteed to find something in this book you would love to own plus everything you need in order to make it. ...

Dr. Ron Paul's newest book LIBERTY DEFINED returns to the format & scope of his no 1 New York Times bestseller The Revolution. Rather than delve so deeply into one issue (as End The Fed did) or simply update the topics discussed in The Revolution this is a brand new comprehensive A-Z guide to his position (unwavering support of personal liberty & small government) on 50 of the most important issues of our times both foreign & domestic. His devoted followers will be able to use it as a guide book for 2012 & beyond for all their political & educational efforts. With entries ranging in length from a few pages to over ten LIBERTY DEFINED is very accessible easy to digest & clear cut in its ideology. ...