These sumptuous new hardback editions mark the 70th anniversary of Fitzgeralds death. Increasingly disillusioned by the rejection slips that studded the walls of his room & his on/off engagement to Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald began his third revision of the novel that was to become This Side of Paradise". It is the story of a young mans painful sexual & intellectual awakening that echoes Fitzgeralds own career it is also a portrait of the lost generation that followed straight on from the First World War grown up to find all Gods dead all wars fought all faiths in man shaken & wanting money & success more than anything else." ...

Amory Blaine intent on rebelling against his staid Midwestern upbringing longs to acquire the patina of Eastern sophistication. In his quest for sexual & intellectual enlightenment he progresses through a series of relationships until he is cast out into the real world. ...

This Side of Paradise tells the story of Amory Blaine the only child of wealthy parents whose journey from adolescence to adulthood follows him from prep school through to Princeton University where his literary talents flourish in contrast to his academic failure. A sequence of love affairs with beautiful young women are fatally damaged by the collapse of his family's fortune & the novel ends with him poised to face the challenge of making his own way in the world. Composed in an unconventional narrative mode the novel is a rich fusion of satiric & romance idioms & found a captivated audience on its publication in 1920. It made Fitzgerald rich & famous overnight. The Beautiful & Damned is a bleaker version of the corrosive power of wealth & its privileges one of Fitzgerald's abiding subjects. Anthony Patch is heir to a huge fortune whose marriage to the beautiful & indolent Gloria is increasingly shadowed by Anthony's fall into alcoholism. Though he wins a lawsuit to gain his inheritance of millions of dollars it is a pyrrhic victory for he is now a physically & morally broken man. ...

Rugby League football in an industrial northern city circa 1960 is a life of grime mud sweat intrigue & naked ambition. In This Sporting Life David Storey recounts the fortunes of gladiator hero Arthur Machin from the day of his inclusion in the local team to the match when he begins to feel age creeping up on him. Through Arthur we are taken into his raw often brutal world of players backers Saturday crowds bloody noses & broken teeth landladies & communal baths. ...

In 1831 Charles Darwin set off in HMS Beagle under the command of Captain Robert Fitzroy on a voyage that would change the world. Tory aristocrat Fitzroy was a staunch Christian who believed in the sanctity of the individual in a world created by God: Darwin the liberal cleric & natural historian went on to develop a theory of evolution that would cast doubt on the truth of the Bible & the descent of man. The friendship forged during their epic expeditions on land & sea turned into bitter enmity as Darwins theories threatened to destroy everything Fitzroy stood for.. . ...

Over 150 of the worlds leading scientists & thinkers offer their choice of the ideas strategies & arguments that will help all of us understand our world & its future better.

Includes:: contributions from: Richard Dawkins Stephen Pinker Daniel Dennett Clay Shirky Daniel Goleman Sam Harris Lee Smolin Matt Ridley Mark Henderson David Rowan Sir Martin Rees Craig Venter Brian Eno Jaron Lanier & David Brooks...among others. With his organisation Edge.org the literary agent & all-purpose intellectual impresario John Brockman has brought together the most influential thinkers of our age. Every year he sets them a question this year that question was: What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybodys Cognitive Toolkit? Their answers are collected in this book & explore philosophy psychology economics & other disciplines
- & all share one aim: to provide the most reliable ways of gaining knowledge about anything whether it be human behaviour corporate behaviour the fate of the planet or the future of the universe.


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Its been a year since a meteor collided with the moon catastrophically altering the Earths climate. For Miranda Evans life as she knew it no longer exists. Her friends & neighbours are dead the landscape is frozen & food is increasingly scarce. Mirand & her family are on the edge. & then a small party of surviors arrives on their doorstep threatening to stretch supplies to dangerous limits. Alex Morales is amongst them & he & Mirada must put aside their differences in order to fight for food
- with all of the odds against them...
...

Stories about ordinary people going about ordinary lives will always be fascinating when told by a writer blessed with extraordinary talent insight & compassion. This Year It Will Be Different brings us the magic & spirit of Christmas in fifteen stories filled with Maeve Binchys trademark wit charm & sheer storytelling genius. Instead of nostalgia Binchy evokes contemporary life; instead of Christmas homilies she offers truth; & instead of sugarplums she brings us the nourishment of holidays that precipitate change growth & new beginnings. The stories in This Year It Will Be Different powerfully evoke many lives during the one holiday of the year when feelings cannot be easily hidden: step-families grappling with exes; long-married couples faced with in-law problems; a wandering husband choosing between the other woman & his wife; a child caught in the grown-up tug-of-war. The time of year may be magical imbued with personal meaning but the situations are universal & Maeve Binchy makes us care about them all. ...

Filled with Maeve Binchys trademark wit & true storytelling genius THIS YEAR IT WILL BE DIFFERENT powerfully evokes the lives of wives husbands children friends & lovers. There are step-families grappling with exes; long-married couples faced with in-law problems; a wandering husband choosing between the other woman & his wife; a child caught up in a grown-up tug-of-war... Warm witty & with a deep understanding of what makes us tick THIS YEAR IT WILL BE DIFFERENT superbly demonstrates why Maeve Binchys stories have become world-beaters. ...

When King Henry VII negotiates peace with Scotland his daughters hand in marriage to James IV is the ultimate prize. A true princess Margaret Tudor leaves her beloved England & accepts her fate unquestioningly. But to her surprise she falls madly in love with the fearsome Scottish King & as Queen of Scotland for a while she is happy. But neither the marriage nor the peace are to last. When James IV is defeated in battle by Margarets own brother the widowed Queen is torn between fleeing to her home & staying to protect her sons future as the new King of Scots. It seems that once again her destiny is not to be her own... ...