Patrick OBrians Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. Patrick OBrian is regarded by many as the greatest historical novelist now writing. Post Captain the second novel in his remarkable Aubrey/ Maturin series led Mary Renault to write: Master & Commander raised dangerously high expectations; Post Captain triumphantly surpasses them. This tale begins with Jack Aubrey arriving home from his exploits in the Mediterranean to find England at peace following the Treaty of Amiens. He & his friend Stephen Maturin surgeon & secret agent begin to live the lives of country gentlemen hunting entertaining & enjoying more amorous adventures. Their comfortable existence however is cut short when Jack is overnight reduced to a pauper with enough debts to keep him in prison for life. He flees to the continent to seek refuge: instead he finds himself a hunted fugitive as Napoleon has ordered the internment of all Englishmen in France. Aubreys adventures in escaping from France & the debtors prison will grip the reader as fast as his unequalled actions at sea. ...

Henry Chinaski is a lowlife loser with a h&-to-mouth existence. His menial post office day job supports a life of beer one-night stands & racetracks. Lurid uncompromising & hilarious Post Office is a landmark in American literature & over 1 million copies have been sold worldwide. The new edition is augmented with an anecdotal introduction by the modern Welsh cult-literary author Niall Griffiths
- a writer who was working in a British post office when he first read Bukowskis Post Office.
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Cinderella meets Bonnie & Clyde in this 1930s tale of the boom & bust of capitalism by one of Europe's most revered authors. Like Neil Tennant we were bowled over by this deeply humane story about a post office girl offered a fleeting taste of unimaginable wealth
- only to have it snatched away...A young Austrian woman Christine toils away in a provincial post office when out of the blue a telegram arrives inviting her to join an American aunt she's never known in a fashionable Swiss resort. She accepts & is swept up into a world of almost inconceivable wealth & unleashed desire. She feels herself utterly transformed. Then just as abruptly her aunt cuts her loose & she has to return to the post office where
- yes
- nothing will ever be the same. Christine meets Ferdinand a bitter war veteran & disappointed architect forced to work on construction sites. They are drawn to each other just as they are crushed by a sense of deprivation anger & shame. Inevitably their attempts at love look set to flounder until in one desperate & decisive act they find a way to remake their world from within.


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The new novel from the Orange Prize winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin It all hinges on one kiss. Whether Irina Mc Govern does or does not lean in to a specific pair of lips in London will determine whether she stays with her disciplined intellectual partner Lawrence or runs off with Ramsey a hard-living snooker player. Using a parallel universe structure we follow Irinas life as it unfolds under the influence of two drastically different men. Lawrence is Irinas partner of nearly ten years. Ramsey is the ex-husband of a sometime friend a once-a-year acquaintance to whom Irina has never paid a great deal of attention. Where Lawrence is supportive & devoted; Ramsey is flighty & spontaneous. Lawrence is emotionally withdrawn to the point of repression; Ramsey is fiery & passionate but volatile. The contrasts between the two men have ramifications for Irinas relationships with friends & family for her career as an illustrator & more importantly for the texture of her daily life. This love is about trade-offs. Both men in Irinas dual future are worthy of her affection but deeply flawed. The answer is that there is no perfect answer: one of the things that draws us to our mates is what is wrong with them. The Post-Birthday World is written with all the subtlety perceptiveness & drama that made We Need to Talk About Kevin an international bestseller. ...

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a term were hearing a lot of these days as members of our military return home shell shocked by battle experiences. But you dont have to have been on the battlefield to suffer from PTSD in fact anyone whos been in a very stressful situation can develop it. Stressful conditions can range from a terrorist attack to a serious car accident to sexual abuse or even bullying at school or work. If you think that you or someone you care about may have been affected by PTSD then this book will help you understand what caused your problem what the symptoms are & where to get help. Most importantly of all it suggests ways for you to help yourself & a sense of empowerment is important in an illness that leaves a person feeling helpless. In this book weve put together the information that will help you make the decisions & find the help you or your loved one will need to reclaim your life & happiness. ...

WATFORD has witnessed an unprecedented number of changes over the years. The nineteenth & early twentieth centuries saw a great industrial & residential expansion which was followed by the Blitz the reconstruction & the changes of the 1960s & 1970s to accommodate the growing traffic. Watford has been fortunate in having a number of dedicated photographers to record the developments as they happened. This informative & interesting volume places an emphasis on the people of Watford
- where they worked how they travelled & what they did to relax & enjoy themselves. This brand new selection of images from John Cooper is sure to surprise & delight anyone who knows & loves this area.
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From around 1880 for almost 100 years shipowners commissioned a wealth of paintings that depicted as well as their magnificent liners the routes they travelled their exotic destinations & life on board. These paintings rich in imagination & atmosphere appeared on posters & postcards to advertise the companies & their ships; & so was born a whole genre that produced tens of thousands of images that form a wonderful record of the great era of the passenger liner. Here bought vividly to life in more than 500 colourful postcards are the ships in which so many of our predecessors sailed as emigrants soldiers or administrators in distant lands or simply as tourists. These cards
- now highly collectible
- show how the ships developed over the years & are also a fine tribute to the artists who painted them. A glossary of some 170 illustrators forms an important reference section in the book; the author also gives useful advice on collecting. This new paperback edition will be sought after by postcard collectors as well as liner enthusiasts & by all those with an interest in the vanished world of elegant travel on the finest ships of their day. An evocative story of the vanished world of elegant ships & leisurely travel.. .sumptuous. Western Morning News This is a really fabulous book. Ocean Liner Society

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NYPD detective Jacob Kanon is on a tour of Europes most gorgeous cities. But the sights arent what draw him
- he sees each museum
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This is story of Loyal Blood a man who spends a lifetime on the run from a crime so terrible that it renders him forever incapable of touching a woman. The odyssey begins on a freezing Vermont hillside in 1944 & propels Blood across the American West for forty years. Denied love & unable to settle he lives a hundred different lives: mining gold growing beans hunting fossils trapping prospecting for uranium & ranching. His only contact with his past is through a series of postcards he sends home
- not realising that in his absence disaster has befallen his family & their deep-rooted connection with the land has been severed with devastating consequences...' Postcards' was Annie Proulx's first novel which received huge acclaim & marked the launch of an outstanding literary career. Her works include short story collections ' Bad Dirt' ' Close Range' (featuring ' Brokeback Mountain') & novels such as ' The Shipping News' & ' Accordion Crimes'.
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Postcards From a Rock & Roll Tour" is drummer Gordon Marshalls witty & wry take on life on the road touring with legendary rock band The Moody Blues. Part memoir part travelogue its a candid unexpected & often hilarious account of just what its like to travel around the world playing to sell-out audiences living out of a suitcase & spending days & days on a tour bus. If you thought being in a rock band was all sex drugs & rock & roll then think again." ...