With delicacy of perception & memory humour & pathos Carson Mc Cullers spreads before us the three phases of a weekend crisis in the life of a motherless twelve-year-old girl. Within the span of a few hours the irresistible hoydenish Frankie passionately plays out her fantasies at her elder brother's wedding. Through a perilous skylight we look into the mind of a child torn between her yearning to belong & the urge to run away. ...

Over the last twenty years Adbusters" magazine has challenged consumerism championed the environment & provided a platform for some of our greatest thinkers. In 2011 they instigated Occupy Wall Street sparking a huge international movement. Now Kalle Lasn editor & founder of " Adbusters" brings us this thought provoking book which provides the building blocks in texts & visuals for a new way of looking at & changing our world. Illustrated in the distinctive style of the magazine & drawing on a brilliant cast of contributers " Meme Wars" debunks many of the assumptions about how we run our societies today. Placing fresh emphasis on the environmental & human factors that are often left out in discussions of economics & examining alternative economies " Meme Wars" is designed to be a textbook for the future
- one that brings to light inspiring ideas for positive change."
...

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."
...

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." ...

These memoirs of the great fellwalker Alfred Wainwright author of the Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells & many other volumes of walking guides & sketchbooks are full of his thoughts on life & on his experiences on the fells. Wainwright writes about his boyhood in Blackburn his work & interests as a young man & the visit to the Lake District at the age of 23 which kindled in him a lasting passion for the fells. He reveals how he set about researching & compiling the Pictorial Guides the labour of love which occupied so many years of his life. For walkers & other lovers of the Lakeland fells this is a great read. ...

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.

...

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. ...