A sports journalist sent to a Midlands town on a weekly assignment finds himself confronted by ghosts from the past when he disembarks at the railway station. Memories of one of his best most trusted friends a tragically young victim of cancer begin to flood through his mind as he attempts to go about the routine business of reporting a football match. B. S. Johnsons famous book in a box in which the chapters are presented unbound to be read in any order the reader chooses is one of the key works of a novelist now undergoing an enormous revival of interest. It is a book of passionate honesty & dark courageous humour: a meditation on death & a celebration of friendship which also offers a remarkably frank self-portrait of its author. ...

For eleven years the world's leading drivers contested international races at the Aintree circuit on the outskirts of Liverpool. Fangio Surtees Clark Moss Hawthorn & many more were on the grid. The British Grand Prix was held there five times along with many other major events at the venue that shared its ground with the famous horse-racing track. But in April 1964 the final Aintree 200 was run & the sights & sounds of Grand Prix cars were never to be experienced at Aintree again. Club & national level racing continued until July 1982 when it ceased altogether & there appears to be little likelihood of it ever returning. So what is the story behind the dramatic rise & fall of Aintree as a premier motor sport venue in Britain? How & why did motor racing come to be staged there? What caused its eventual demise as a circuit? This book explores the fascinating history of Aintree before during & after its all-too-brief reign as Britain's Grand Prix venue. Supported by around 200 rare photographs many never before published this book fills a significant gap in the history of post-war racing in Britain. ...

When the body of Pauline Brent is found hanging from a yew tree in a local graveyard DS Wesley Peterson immediately suspects foul play. Then history provides him with a clue. Wesley's archaeologist friend Neil Watson has excavated a corpse at his nearby dig
- a young woman who local legend has it had been publicly hanged from the very same tree before being buried on unhallowed ground five centuries ago. Wesley is now forced to consider the possibility that the killer knows the tree's dark history. Has Pauline also been 'executed' rather than murdered & if so for what crime? To catch a dangerous killer Wesley has to discover as much as he can about the victim. But Pauline appears to have been a woman with few friends no relatives & a past she has carefully tried to hide.. .
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Thomas atte Bridge a man no one likes is found hanging from a tree near Cow-leys Corner. All assume he has taken his own life but Master Hugh & Kate find evidence that this may not be so. Many of the town had been harmed by Thomas & Hugh is not eager to send one of them to the gallows. Then he discovers that the priest John Kellet atte Bridges partner in crime in A CORPSE AT ST. ANDREWS CHAPEL was covertly in Bampton at the time atte Bridge died. Master Hugh is convinced that Kellet has murdered atte Bridge
- one rogue slaughtering another. He sets out for Exeter where Kellet now works. But there he discovers that the priest is an emaciated skeleton of a man who mourns the folly of his past life. Hugh must return to Bampton & discover which of his friends has murdered his enemy.. .
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In March 1807 the British Parliament passed an Act making the trading & transportation of slaves illegal. It was many years before slavery as it was known then was abolished & slavery still continues today in different ways but it was a big step forward towards the empancipation of a people. Malorie Blackman has drawn together some of the finest of today's writers & poets to contribute to this important anthology. Their short stories & poems sit alongside first-hand accounts of slavery from freed slaves making a fascinating & absorbing collection that remembers & commemorates one of the most brutal & long-lasting inflictions of misery that human beings have inflicted upon other human beings. ...

First light Ascension morning. From the top of the tower at the College of Transfiguration voices rise in song. Felicity's delight turns to horror when a black-robed body hurtles over the precipice & lands at her feet. Her fiance Father Antony recognizes the corpse as Hwyl Pendry a former student who has been serving as Deliverance Minister in a Welsh diocese. The police ignoring the strange emblem of a double-headed snake clutched in the dead man's hand label the death as suicide. But Hwyl's widow is convinced otherwise & please for Felicity & Antony to help her uncover the truth. Matters grow murkier as Felicity & Antony leading a youth pilgrimage through rural Wales encounter the same sinister symbol as they travel. Lurking figures following them. Then a body is found face-down in a well... ...

Young Philippa Cranley is living a lie. Her tyrannical father Archer forces her to masquerade as a man in order to comply with the terms of her maternal grandfathers Will & enable him to inherit the glassworks. By threatening her fragile mother with imprisonment in a mental institution he forces Philippa to become Philip wearing mens clothes & unable to reveal her identity to anyone. To increase her humiliation Archer Cranley forces Philip to do a stint in the glassworks which puts her in danger from her rough co-workers as well as from the machinery itself. There the girl is befriended by Joshua Fairley whose pity is aroused by the gentle lad. But soon Joshua finds his feelings for Philip are more than just pity & is tormented by the thought that he is being tempted into a homosexual relationship. Luckily by the end of the novel Philippa is able to reveal the truth & marry Joshua. ...

Its one of the most iconic vignettes in history: three men on camels arriving at a manger bearing gifts of gold frankincense & myrrh. An impossibly bright star is suspended in the vast desert sky above. Its a moment of serenity & grace. A holy night... But what do we really know about the Three Kings of the Nativity? The Bible says little about this enigmatic trio. Not even their names are mentioned. The historical record is vague at best. How doe know that they were three kings from the East? What if they were petty murderous thieves
- led by a mercurial individual called Balthazar
- on the run escaping through Judea under cover of night who stumble upon the famous manger its newborn child & his earthly parents? Here the brilliant & slightly warped mind behind Pride & Prejudice & Zombies takes a little mystery plays fast & loose with a bit of history to weave an epic tale. Its an adventure that will see these thieves fight the last magical creatures of the Old Testament cross paths with historical figures such as Pontius Pilate & John the Baptist & deliver the family
- as the Bible tells us
- to the safety of Egypt. Indeed this may just be the greatest story never told...



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Addicted to coke & booze & reliant on selling her body for cash Katie the heroine of Clare Gee's bestselling Hooked" can no longer cope with the life she's created for herself. She has messed up badly & thrown everything away. Mentally she is an anxious wreck & physically she is in pieces. Yet she is terrified of who she will become without her vices. She has to do something though & her choices are get help or die. She leaves London & admits herself to a residential rehab centre for three months. In " Unhooked" reformed addict Clare Gee draws on her own experiences of cocaine addiction alcoholism & prostitution in telling a moving story of a young woman battling through hell to create a sober life for herself. There are threats of expulsion from rehab & relapses but through dedication & honesty Katie begins the long journey to becoming clean & finding peace of mind." ...

Meet the Rat: A dancing football-playing gangster-baiting ten-year-old. When she foresaw her fathers death she picked up her football & decided to head for New York. Meet her older brother Bob: Protector of the Rat but more often her follower he is determined to find their uncle in America & discover a new life for them both. On their adventures across the flatlands of Winnipeg & through the exciting streets of New York Bob & the Rat make friends with a hilarious con man & a famous rap star & escape numerous dangers. But is their Uncle a rich business man or is the word on the street that he something more sinister true? & will they ever find him? Hughes has created a funny warm unique world that lives & breathes. Like I Capture the Castle Breakfast at Tiffanys The Curious Incident Hughes story & characters will resonate for many & for years to come. ...