Unforgettably astounding & a joy to read Memento Mori is considered by many to be the greatest novel by the wizardly Dame Muriel Spark. In late 1950s London something uncanny besets a group of elderly friends: an insinuating voice on the telephone informs each Remember you must die." Their geriatric feathers are soon thoroughly ruffled by these seemingly supernatural phone calls & in the resulting flurry many old secrets are dusted off. Beneath the once decorous surface of their lives unsavories like blackmail & adultery are now to be glimpsed. As spooky as it is witty poignant & wickedly hilarious Memento Mori may ostensibly concern death but it is a book which leaves one relishing life all the more." ...

In this terrifying novel from the phenomenally successful Anne Rice the illustrious vampire Lestat makes a Faustian pact with Devil. Satan has come to New Orleans with an enticing proposition. Under the name Memnoch this lord of darkness takes Lestat on a tour through the boundaries of space & time offering an alternative & personalised account of the Bible exploring the events which shaped our world. Their journey comes to an apocalyptic conclusion in hell from which Lestat returns frail & broken. The experience has shattered his perceptions of the known Universe but can you ever trust the Devil? ...

He lived in the shadow of kings. One trusted him with his empire; the other feared his every move. Memnon of Rhodes (375-333 BC) walked in the footsteps of giants. As a soldier sailor statesman & general he was in the words of Diodorus of Sicily outstanding in courage & strategic grasp." A contemporary of Demosthenes & Aristotle Memnon rose from humble origins to command the whole of western Asia in a time of strife & slaughter. To his own people he was a traitor to his rivals a mercenary. But to the King of Kings his majesty Darius III of Persia Memnon was the one man capable of defending Asia Minor from the rising power of the barbaric Macedonians. In a war pitting Greek against Greek Memnon proved his quality beyond measure. His enemies fought for glory & gold; Memnon fought for something more: for loyalty for honour & for duty. He fought for the love of Barsine a woman of remarkable beauty & grace but most of all he fought for the promise of peace. Through the deathbed recollections of a mysterious woman the life of Memnon unfolds with brilliant clarity. It is a record of his triumphs & tragedies his loves & losses & of the determination that drove him to stand against the most renowned figure of the ancient world
- an ambitious & brilliant young conqueror called Alexander the Great."
...

David Waddington Baron Waddington was a Conservative MP from 1968 to 1990 before becoming a life peer. For over twenty years he was a government Chief Whip then served in the Cabinet as Home Secretary from 1989 to 1990 & Leader of the House of Lords from 1990 to 1992. A junior minister under Margaret Thatcher he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department of Employment Minister of State at the Home Office & Chief Whip from 1987 until his elevation to Cabinet level becoming Home Secretary in 1989. In 1990 he was created a life peer as Baron Waddington of Read in the County of Lancashire. He served as Lord Privy Seal & Leader of the House of Lords until 1992. He served as Governor of Bermuda 1992
- 1997. This book contains the fascinating reflections of a man who spent his career at the heart of power.
...

This heart-warming account of veterinary life traces Ivor Smiths early days as a student at university through to setting up his own practice in the Cotswolds recounting a memorable 40 years in the profession. Following in the Herriot tradition of veterinary humour Ivors memories of life as a vet in a very mixed practice include hilarious incidents colourful local characters & engaging patients. From calving cows in the middle of cold Spring nights handling ferocious gerbils & operating on lame greyhounds to setting up home in a mouse-infested farmhouse winning over farmers & estate managers alike & even finding a new-born baby on his doorstep Ivor shares his respect for animals & joy of the beautiful Cotswold countryside in this entertaining & absorbing read. Memories of a Cotswold Vet" is a highly readable & light-hearted account of country life which is sure to appeal to animal lovers & all who know the Cotswolds." ...

Sunday Times Celebrity Book of the Year 2010 In Its Not What You Think Chris Evans had seemingly found the recipe for success. He was rich famous & now the owner of his own radio station & media company. What could possibly go wrong? As it turned out the answer was everything...well almost. When we left our loveable ginger hero at the end of Its Not What You Think it looked like Chris had made it. But things were about to take a very dark turn. Soon Chriss childhood dreams of a job in radio lay in tatters & as an endless drink-fuelled lifestyle began to take its toll he plunged into a downward spiral so deep that escape seemed almost impossible. & then his salvation appeared in the form of a young singer called Billie Piper. Told with the same wit verve & startling honesty that surprised & delighted readers of Its Not What You Think this is the final part
- for now
- of Chris Evanss journey of self discovery.

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This story is a rare & utterly engaging experience. It tells the extraordinary story of a geisha -summoning up a quarter century from 1929 to the post-war years of Japan's dramatic history & opening a window into a half-hidden world of eroticism & enchantment exploitation & degradation. A young peasant girl is sold as servant & apprentice to a renowned geisha house. She tells her story many years later from the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Her memoirs conjure up the perfection & the ugliness of life behind rice-paper screens where young girls learn the arts of geisha
- dancing & singing how to wind the kimono how to walk & pour tea & how to beguile the land's most powerful men.
...

Michael Mansfield QC is Britains most high-profile defence lawyer whose unparalleled commitment to his clients & radical approach to forensics evidence & disclosure have made him a scourge of the establishment & a champion of the individual in many miscarriages of justice cases. Passionate about unveiling corruption & unafraid to challenge received wisdom he has taken on many of the most controversial cases of our times including the Bloody Sunday Inquiry Angela Cannings Jill Dando & Barry George Dodi Fayed & Princess Diana Stephen Lawrence Arthur Scargill & the miners & most recently the tragic death of Jean Charles de Menezes. Dissecting these cases with incisive intelligence subtlety & humour & interspersing revealing personal reminiscences he offers a fascinating insight into the idiosyncrasies of the English legal system & how it has changed from the late 1960s to the present. ...

When Naomi tries to piece back the fragments of the last three & a half years of her life she discovers a lot. She has a boyfriend but cant remember him her mother & father are divorced & she has forgotten that she is supposed to hate her mother. She also has a group of friends which simply doesnt seem that attractive any more & despite having meticulously kept a diary she only mentioned what she ate every day in it! But its not all bad because when a girl loses three & a half years she gets a chance to reinvent herself. After all who is to say that everything has to be the same? ...

Why are we desperate for what we dont have or cant have often at great cost to what we do have? Why do we risk our peace & contentment even our lives? Why are we so moved by our addictions either succumbing to them or spending our energy fighting them? In Memoirs of an addicted Brain" Marc Lewis illuminates how the fundamental workings of the brain are at the root of the problem. Lewis relationship with drugs began in a New England boarding school where bullied & homesick he made brief escapes from reality by way of cough medicine & alcohol. From there he moved to Berkeley California in its hippie heyday where he developed an infatuation with LSD & ultimately an addiction to heroin. In Asia he stole pharmaceutical morphine from a hospital joined American medics sniffing nitrous oxide in the Malay jungle & found a second home in the opium dens of Calcutta. As a student & then as a clinician in a mental hospital he resorted to stealing drugs from labs & doctors offices; finally arrested & convicted of an attempted robbery of a drugstore pharmacy came the tortuous road to recovery. At the age of thirty he traded in his pharmaceutical supplies for the life of a graduate student eventually becoming a professor of developmental psychology & then of neuroscience
- his field for the last 12 years. Now he studies the brains of children who get into trouble using the electric signals from their scalps to explore whats going on underneath. But he never forgets that he was once one of those kids
- & no matter how many scientific conferences he attends always will be. In this unique personal narrative told with courage candor & wit Lewis shows in detail the different neurological effects of a variety of powerful drugs from alcohol & marijuana to methamphetimine LSD oxycodone & heroin & shows how they speak to the brain
- itself designed to seek rewards & soothe pain
- it its own language. & he illuminates the science of craving
- an intensely focused need that overtakes the nervous system again & again sculpting a synaptic network dedicated to the pursuit of a singular goal
- at the expense of everything else."





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