The reign of Richard III was one of the shortest in English history: yet the King himself was one of the most enigmatic personalities to have occupied the throne. Only 31 at the time of his death Richard in his brief career demonstrated an extraordinary range of contradictory qualities
- staunch loyalty & dissimulating perfidy dignified generosity & ruthless self-interest scrupulous honesty in government & a cynical manipulativeness. From the later 18th century onwards he has been a hero for those who are drawn to lost causes.
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The only biography to include the findings of the archaeological dig in the Leicester car park. Not many people would claim to be saints or alternatively consider themselves entirely without redeeming qualities. Some are unquestionably worse than others but few have been held in greater infamy than Richard Plantagenet afterwards Duke of Gloucester & later still King Richard III. Richard's character has been besmirched as often as it has been defended & the arguments between his detractors & supporters still rage after several centuries. Was he a ruthless hunchback who butchered his way to the throne a paragon of virtue who became a victim of Tudor propaganda or (as seems more likely) something in between? Some would argue that a true biography is impossible because the letters & other personal documents required for this purpose are simply not available; but David Baldwin has overcome this by an in-depth study of his dealings with his contemporaries. The fundamental question he has answered is 'what was Richard III really like'. Consists of 81 illustrations 57 of which are in colour. ...

Richard III is accused of murdering his nephews (the Princes in the Tower) in order to usurp the throne of Engl&. Since Tudor times he has been painted as the black legend the murderous uncle. However the truth is much more complicated & interesting. Rather than looking at all the killings Richard III did not commit this book focuses on the one execution for which we know that he was responsible. On Friday 13 June 1483 William Lord Hastings was hustled from a meeting of the Royal Council & summarily executed on Tower Green within the confines of the Tower of London. Peter A. Hancock sheds light on the mystery of this precipitate & unadvised action by the then Duke of Gloucester & reveals the key role of William Catesby in Richards ascent to the throne of Engl&. It explains his curious actions during that tumultuous summer of three kings & provides an explanation for the fate of the Princes in the Tower. ...

A major new biography of the young Richard III. Richard III is a paradox
- the most hated of English kings yet the most beloved
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Includes: regular exercises for students to complete practical ideas to try out examiner's tips & suggestions for further
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DARKNESS TELL US It starts at an end-of-term party. Six college kids & a Ouija board. The board that Professor Coreen Dalton had hidden at the back of a cupboard & sworn never to touch again
- not after Jakes death. & now here are these kids falling for the revelations of a spirit called Butler swallowing its promise of a fortune hidden in the mountains. Not that Corie believes they would be stupid enough to head off in to the wilderness on the say-so of a childs plaything. To embark on a two-day hike into the unknown where any foul danger may lie in wait to cut & slice & tear them limb from limb. But then professor or not Corie could be wrong...ONE RAINY NIGHT The water drops like a shroud on the town of Bixby. Warm viscous & unnatural it coats the inhabitants in an unending torrent
- & turns them into crazy hate-filled maniacs. A helpful stranger at a gas station shoves a petrol pump down a customers throat & squeezes the trigger. A soaking-wet queue of cinema-goers smashes its way inside the movie house to slice up the dry people within.A loving wife attacks her husband bouncing the back of his head on the marble floor until it sounds like sloppy wet meat...

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MIDNIGHTS LAIR Mordocks Cave is one of those wonders of the world: a place where thousands of sightseers every year taker an awe-inspiring boat trip on a lake deep beneath the earths surface & marvel at Natures handiwork. But the darkness is also the home of things Nature never intended
- things violent bestial & obscenely evil. & when a sudden power failure traps a group of tourists underground the unnatural creatures who dwell there emerge from the depths...ENDLESS NIGHT Jody Fargo is sweet sixteen but tougher than she looks -- she has to be. Shes sleeping over at a friends when the killers break in. They slaughter the family but Jody escapes rescuing twelve-year-old Andy on the way... Simon Quirt doesnt seem like the kind of fellow who would rape & murder in the dead of night. But together with his friends thats just what he does. Now Simon is alone. His task is to track down the only eyewitnesses to the massacre & dispose of them. Simon just cant wait to get his hands on Jody...
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THE TRAVELLING VAMPIRE SHOW is coming to town & Dwight Rusty & Slim are determined to go. But its for over 18s only. They decide to go & watch the crew set up anyway hoping to catch a glimpse of Valeria billed as the only known vampire in captivity. But when the three teenagers break the rules they run into big trouble. DREADFUL TALES Shane Malone sits sweltering in front of his computer trying to write an anthology in which every chilling tale must end in the death of a twenty-two-year-old woman in her apartment. But the deafening music from next door is not helping. He furiously bangs on his neighbours door & discovers shes a twenty-two-year-old woman who will not be argued with. Shane is about to find out that life really can imitate art. ...

SAVAGE Whitechapel November 1888: Jack the Ripper is committing his last known act of butchery in the one-room hovel occupied by the luckless harlot Mary Kelly. & beneath the bed on which the fiend is cruelly & cheerfully eviscerating his victim cowers a fifteen-year-old boy... This is just the start of the extraordinary adventures of Trevor Bently a boy who embarked on a errand of mercy & ran into the most notorious serial killer in criminal history a boy who became a man as he travelled on a quest of vengeance across a wild & untamed continent
- a boy who brought the horrors of Jack the Ripper to the New World. IN THE DARK Nothing much happens in Donnerville at least not in the public library. Then the new librarian Jane Kerry receives a strange envelope. Inside is a fifty-dollar bill & a note instructing her to Look homeward angel. Mystified Jane pulls Thomas Wolfes novel of that title off the shelf & finds a second envelope. This one contains a one-hundred dollar bill & a clue to another pay-off. Like the first one it is signed MOG (Master of Games). Suddenly Jane is hooked this is one game she must play to the end.
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AMONG THE MISSING Its 2:32am. Behind the wheel of a jaguar sits the beautiful wife of Professor Grant Parkington. She has left Grant behind. The man she wants is waiting for her on the roadside. Where to? she says. He suggests the Bend where theres a soft sandy beach
- an ideal place for love. But in the morning a naked body will be found
- a body missing more than its clothes...COME OUT TONIGHT Its the hottest night of the year so far & its also young couple Sherry & Duanes first time. Discovering they have no condoms Duane throws on his clothes & makes his way down to the twenty-four hour Speed-D-Mart. Not a place anyone would want to visit at night. Suddenly Sherry hears a noise from down the street. It sounds like a gunshot...

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