though a great many men & not a few women knew Ferdinand Lopez very well none of them knew whence he had come Despite his mysterious antecedents Ferdinand Lopez aspires to join the ranks of British society. An unscrupulous financial speculator he determines to marry into respectability & wealth much against the wishes of his prospective father-in-law. One of the nineteenth centurys most memorable outsiders Lopezs story is set against that of the ultimate insider Plantagenet Palliser Duke of Omnium. Omnium reluctantly accepts the highest office of state; now at last he is the greatest man in the greatest country in the world. But his government is a fragile coalition & his wifes enthusiastic assumption of the role of political hostess becomes a source of embarrassment. Their troubled relationship & that of Lopez & Emily Wharton is a conjunction that generates one of Trollopes most complex & substantial novels. Part of the Palliser series The Prime Minister s tale of personal & political life in the 1870s has acquired a new topicality in the early twenty-first century. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford Worlds Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxfords commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more. ...

Muriel Spark's classic The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" features a schoolmistress you'll never forget in this beautifully repackaged " Penguin Essentials" edition. ' Give me a girl at an impressionable age & she is mine for life...' Passionate free-thinking & unconventional Miss Brodie is a teacher who exerts a powerful influence over her group of 'special girls' at Marcia Blaine School. They are the Brodie set the creme de la creme each famous for something
- Monica for mathematics Eunice for swimming Rose for sex
- who are initiated into a world of adult games & extracurricular activities they will never forget. But the price they pay is their undivided loyalty..." The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is a brilliantly comic novel featuring one of the most unforgettable characters in all literature. " Muriel Spark's novels linger in the mind as brilliant shards". (John Updike). " Spark's most celebrated novel". (" Independent"). " There is no question about the quality & distinctiveness of her writing with its quirky concern with human nature & its comedy". (William Boyd). "A brilliant psychological figure". (" Observer"). Muriel Spark was born & educated in Edinburgh. She was active in the field of creative writing since 1950 when she won a short-story writing competition in the " Observer" & her many subsequent novels include " Memento Mori" (1959) " The Ballad of Peckham Rye" (1960) " The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1961) " The Girls of Slender Means" (1963) & " Aiding & Abetting" (2000). She also wrote plays poems children's books & biographies. She became Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1993 & died in 2006."

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In Muriel Sparks novels the brevity is only equalled by the brilliance. This collection of four stories each a miniature masterpiece illustrates her development over four decades. Despite the seriousness of their themes all are fantastic comedies of manners bristling with wit. Her most famous book The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie has been made into a play & a film. It explores the perils of personal & political infatuation among schoolgirls & their teachers. Salvation is the theme of The Girls Of Slender Means which vividly evokes the life of postwar London. The Drivers Seat made into a film starring Elizabeth Taylor charts the heroines descent into madness. The Only Problem is a witty fable about suffering which brings the Book of Job to bear on contemporary terrorism. ...

Muriel Sparks The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Includes:: an introduction by Candia Mc William in Penguin Modern

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When a prostitute is found murdered in her bedsit the Metropolitan police set to work finding the perpetrator of this brutal attack. DNA samples lead them straight to George Marlow a man previously convicted of attempted rape. The police think they've found their man but things are not quite what they seem.. . Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison came through the ranks the hard way opposed & resented at every step by her male colleagues. So when DCI Shefford falls ill the opportunity for Tennison to get herself noticed finally arrives. But the boys are not happy & every one of her colleagues is willing her to trip up. Desperate to remove all doubt around her suspect Tennison struggles to make the charges stick. & then a second body turns up. With the team against her & a dangerous criminal still on the loose DCI Jane Tennison must fight to prove herself now or never. ...

As Vera Reynolds drag queen & night club star sways onstage singing ' Falling in Love Again' a sixteen-year-old rent boy lies in the older man's apartment engulfed in flames. Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison has moved up the ranks fighting every step of the way to break through Scotland Yard's glass ceiling. Now on her first day as the head of the Vice Squad this high-profile case threatens to destroy everything she has worked for. For when Tennison's investigation reveals an influential public figure as her prime suspect a man with connections to politicians judges & Scotland Yard she's given a very clear message about the direction some very important people would like her investigation to take. Suddenly in a case defined by murky details one fact becomes indisputably clear
- that for Tennison going after the truth will mean risking her happiness her career.. .and even her life.
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Jane Fonda Number 1 bestselling author actress & fitness pioneer is an icon for generations of women. Now you can learn her secrets to living life to the full with this intimate insight into her world. Combining stories from her own life & from the lives of others with new research Jane Fonda explores how the critical years from 45 & 50 & especially from 60 & beyond can be the time when you truly become the energetic loving fulfilled person you were meant to be. Covering the 11 key ingredients for vital living Fonda shows you how to enjoy a more insightful healthy & fully integrated life
- one that is profoundly in touch with yourself your body mind & spirit & with your talents friends & community. Covering health fitness sex love social growth & self-understanding Prime Time" offers a vision for successful living & maturing so you too can ensure that your forties & beyond are your own prime time."
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On 11 April 1987 the Italian writer Primo Levi fell to his death in the house where he was born. More than forty years after his rescue from a Nazi concentration camp it now seemed that Levi had committed suicide. Levis account of Auschwitz If This Is a Man is recognised as one of the essential books of mankind. No other work interrogates our recent moral history so incisively or conveys more profoundly the horror of the Nazi genocide. Ian Thomson spent over ten years in Italy & elsewhere researching & writing this rich & definitive biography. New light is shed on Levis recurring depressions & vital information is unearthed regarding the writers premature death. This matchless book unravels the strands of a life caught between the factory & the typewriter family & friends. ...

Primrose Bakery is a way of life. From croissants for breakfast to layer cakes at tea it has the whole day covered. & of course their signature buttercream cupcakes are delicious any time of day! With over 80 inspirational & easy-to-follow recipes for cupcakes layer cakes biscuits loaves & much more as well as tips like perfect icing The Primrose Bakery Book is a baking bible. It is also a gorgeously quirky window onto the very special day-to-day world of the Primrose Bakery. ...

Classic guide to acquiring & maintaining political power is refreshing in its directness yet often disturbing in its cold practicality. Starkly relevant to the political upheavals of the 20th century this calculating prescription for power remains today nearly 500 years after it was written a timely & startling lesson in the practice of autocratic rule. ...