In this commanding book Robert K Massie sweeps readers back to the extraordinary world of imperial Russia to tell the story of the Romanovs. Nicholass political naivete Alexandras obsession with the corrupt mystic Rasputin & little Alexiss brave struggle with haemophilia. Against a lavish backdrop of luxury & intrigue Massie unfolds a powerful drama of passion & history
- the story of a doomed empire & the death-marked royals who watched it crumble.
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Glasgow 1492. Gil Cunningham remarked later that if he had known he would find a corpse in the university coalhouse he would never have gone to the Arts Faculty feast. In this mysterious adventure Gil Cunningham returns to his old university for the Nicholas Feast where he & his colleagues are entertained by a play presented by some of the students. One of the actors William Irvine is later found murdered & Gil assisted by Alys begins to disentangle a complex web of espionage & blackmail involving Williams tutors & fellow students. Matters are further complicated by the arrival of Gils formidable mother who is determined to inspect his betrothed. Little do Alys & Gil realise that it will be she who provides the final vital key to unmask the murderer & lay his motives clear. ...

Following the success of Pickwick Papers & Oliver Twist Nicholas Nickleby was hailed as a comic triumph & firmly established Dickens as a literary gentleman. It has a full supporting cast of delectable characters that range from the iniquitous Wackford Squeers & his family to the delightful Mrs Nickleby taking in the eccentric Crummles & his travelling players the Mantalinis the Kenwigs & many more. Combining these with typically Dickensian elements of burlesque & farce the novel is eminently suited to dramatic adaptation. So great was the impact as it left Dickens pen that many pirated versions appeared in print before the original was even finished. Often neglected by critics Nicholas Nickleby has never ceased to delight readers & is widely regarded as one of the greatest comic masterpieces of nineteenth-centure literature. ...

One of the touchstones of the English comic novel the Penguin Classics" edition of Charles Dickens " Nicholas Nickleby" is edited with an introduction by Mark Ford. When Nicholas Nickleby is left penniless after his fathers death he appeals to his wealthy uncle to help him find work & to protect his mother & sister. But Ralph Nickleby proves both hard-hearted & unscrupulous & Nicholas finds himself forced to make his own way in the world. His adventures gave Dickens the opportunity to portray an extraordinary gallery of rogues & eccentrics: Wackford Squeers the tyrannical headmaster of Dotheboys Hall a school for unwanted boys the slow-witted orphan Smike rescued by Nicholas the pretentious Mantalinis & the gloriously theatrical Mr & Mrs Crummels & their daughter the infant phenomenon. Like many of Dickens novels " Nicholas Nickleby" is characterised by his outrage at cruelty & social injustice but it is also a flamboyantly exuberant work whose loose haphazard progress harks back to the picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett & Henry Fielding. In his introduction Mark Ford compares " Nicholas Nickleby" to eighteenth-century picaresque novels & examines Dickens criticism of the Yorkshire schools his social satire & use of language. This edition

Includes:: the original illustrations by Phiz Dickens original preface to the work a chronology & a list of further reading. Charles Dickens is one of the best-loved novelists in the English language whose 200th anniversary was celebrated in 2012. His most famous books including " Oliver Twist" " Great Expectations" "A Tale of Two Cities" " David Copperfield" & " The Pickwick Papers" have been adapted for stage & screen & read by millions. If you enjoyed " Nicholas Nickleby" you might like Dickens " David Copperfield" also available in " Penguin Classics". " The novel has everything: an absorbing melodrama with a supporting cast of heroes villains & eccentrics set in a London where vast wealth & desperate poverty live cheek-by-jowl." (Jasper Rees " The Times")."

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Left penniless after his feckless fathers death young Nicholas Nickleby has no choice but to make his own way in the world. For the sake of his mother & sister he is forced by his hard-hearted uncle to take a post as an assistant master at Dotheboys Hall a school for unwanted boys run by the cruel & tyrannical headmaster Wackford Squeers. But this is only the beginning of Nicholass adventures in this most entertaining of Charles Dickenss novels. We follow the progress of Nicholas & his slow-witted companion Smike on their travels & encounter a supporting cast of delectable characters including the rambunctious Crummles theatre company & their talented performing pony the dastardly Sir Mulberry Hawk the delightful Mrs. Nickleby the preposterous Kenwings & many more. Like many of Dickenss novels Nicholas Nickleby is characterized by his criticism of cruelty & social injustice but is above all one of the greatest comic masterpieces of nineteenth-century literature. ...

When Nicholas father dies he his mother & sister Kate are left penniless. To earn his keep Nicholas becomes a tutor at Dotheboys Hall but soon discovers that the headmaster Wackford Squeers is a one eyed tyrant who insists on a harsh regime. Nicholas embarks on an adventure that takes him from loathsome boarding schools to the London stage. Dickens confronts issues of neglect & cruelty in this blackly comic masterpeice. ...

Nicholas Parsons has enjoyed a long & varied career encompassing theatre television film & radio. He is perhaps best known as the straight man to Arthur Haynes in the 60s as the presenter of Sale of the Century in the 70s & today as the chairman of the long-running Radio 4 panel game Just a Minute". Along the way he has performed impersonations in the lavatories of a Clydebank engineering yard during the war been the voice of a Gerry Anderson Texan sheriff roller-skated in Charlie Girl at the Victoria Palace & appeared in a series of Doctor Who. His comedy chat show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is now in its tenth consecutive year. Here he recalls an extraordinary career that has led him to star on the West End stage work with some of Britains finest comedians including Kenneth Williams Tony Hancock Benny Hill & Paul Merton & appear in stockings & suspenders in " The Rocky Horror Show". Funny thoughtful & at times moving " Nicholas Parsons: With Just a Touch of Hesitation Repetition & Deviation" celebrates a fascinating life in comedy." ...

Forget the huge belly & the jolly old elf stuff because before Santa grew out the beard & shimmied his way down your chimney he was a swashbuckling young man with a bit of a wild streak-and a talent for wizardry. When St. Norths latest invention The Robot Genie falls under the spell of The Nightmare King Santa pays a terrible price. He is shrunken frozen in place & trapped in a metallic shell & turned into a toy which means he is powerless to stop The Robot Genie from enacting The Nightmare Kings evil plot to terrorize children. But toys are magical things arent they? Without being able to speak or interact they can form powerful & lasting bonds with young children children who care for them & love them with all of their hearts-and when St. North the toy falls into the hands of a little girl who needs a toy more than most they unlock the spell & set off a chain of events that send St. North on a sleigh ride through a starry starry night...and lays the foundation for the next Guardian books. ...

This is the first biography of the Deputy Prime Minister & Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg. The 2010 general election was a breakthrough moment in British politics for the Liberal Democrat Party. By forming an historic coalition partnership with the Conservatives their charismatic young leader steered them into government something they could not have dared think about only weeks previously. But who is this man who now leads our country whenever David Cameron is absent? Where is he from? What makes him who he is? This book gives the background on who Nick Clegg really is & what drives him. It charts Cleggs rise from MEP to Deputy Prime Minister & lynchpin in the historic coalition government. It also looks at the extraordinary family history that helps define him as a politician & the incidents in his own past that have threatened to derail him. Released in time for the September 2011 Liberal Democrat Conference Nick Clegg: The Biography will also be in a position to reflect upon the momentous first fifteen months of the coalition government
- including the results of the May 2011 referendum on AV
- & its impact upon both Clegg & the party he leads.

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Nick Knight is among the worlds most influential fashion photographers. His clients are among the top in fashion & design & include Alexander Mc Queen Calvin Klein Christian Dior Levi Strauss Yohji Yamamoto & Yves Saint Laurent. He has also shot album covers for Bjork David Bowie Kylie & Massive Attack & his work has been exhibited at international institutions such as the Victoria & Albert Museum & Saatchi Gallery. The book is a collection of Knights most beautiful & important images as well as previously unpublished photographs. Contents cover the different aspects of Knights work to explain & visually reveal his point of view on a range of topics that he believes are crucial to understanding the motivation behind what he does. The book contains an introductory essay by Charlotte Cotton the head of the Photography department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as well as a variety of images exploring new photographic technology: his video work & the body of imagery he has developed for showstudio.com. All in all this is a gorgeous comprehensive volume by one of the worlds most innovative highly respected fashion photographers. ...