Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams, Christopher Cerf The Salmon of Doubt is the late Douglas Adams' third comic novel about "holistic detective" Dirk Gently. Ten tantalising chapters of this unfinished project are padded to book size with about 50 short Adams pieces, mostly non-fiction.

Additional material includes introductions by Stephen Fry and editor Peter Guzzardi (who stitched together the Salmon fragment from disk drafts), The Guardian's Adams biography, Richard Dawkins' farewell piece, and the order of the memorial service.

The non-fiction by the man himself ranges from perhaps a dozen meaty articles and speeches to brief squibs, interview/questionnaire answers and tiny asides like: We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works. How do you recognise something that is still technology? A good clue is if it comes with a manual.

There are enjoyable pieces on computers (especially), atheism, dogs, manta rays on the Great Barrier Reef, the Save the Rhino stunt climb, and PG Wodehouse. Much of the rest is ephemeral; you can't help reflecting that Adams himself never chose to collect all this lightweight newspaper work.

Lovers of his fiction will welcome the Hitch-Hiker-related short stories "The Private Life of Genghis Khan" and "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe", despite the latter's dreadfully dated political punch line.

What of The Salmon of Doubt itself, a quarter of this book? There's a glimpse of a far-future estate agent's utopia, a woman asking Dirk Gently to investigate a cat that's literally only half there (his puzzling reluctance to take the case may echo Adams' own feelings about the novel), Gently's capricious trip to America in response to an unknown client's total lack of instructions, the tragic death of a rhino as perceived by the rhino... Many teasing questions; we'll never know the answers.

Overall it's a must-have for devoted Adams fans and completists, a likely disappointment (though with pleasant exceptions) for new readers. —David Langford

Scott Adams

Scott Adams

Scott Adams With more than 10 million books in print and more than 9.5 million calendars sold, DILBERT is the voice for the embattled cubicle dwelling Everyman. With best friend Dogbert and a veritable who's who of accompanying office characters, ranging from the Boss and Wally to Alice and Catbert, DILBERT offers a welcome dose of laughter in response to the inanity of corporate culture and middle management mores. DILBERT has become everyone's favourite corporate pin-up boy. Millions of office dwellers all over the world stick Scott Adams' comic strip to their cubicle walls when murdering their boss is not a viable option!

Jean Adamson, Gareth Adamson

Jean Adamson, Gareth Adamson

Jean Adamson, Gareth Adamson

Peter Adamson, Raymond Lamont-Brown

Kingsley Amis

Kingsley Amis

Kingsley Amis

Lorenzo Amoruso, David McCarthy, Keith Jackson

Colin Andrews F. Paul Wilson writing as Colin Andrews.

Anon

Anonymous

Robert Anwood Ever wondered whether Bob Holness really did play the saxophone solo on Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street? Or whether a swan can break a man's arm? Or whether computer games are illegal in Greece?! If so, you've probably spent far too much time down the pub, conversing with a mate on the wrong end of four pints of lager. We've all heard them: wild claims, spurious rumours and barely believable 'pub facts'. Don't pretend you've never wondered whether a crocodile really can run faster than a racehorse. Or pondered the possibility that there is only one cash machine in the whole of Albania? If this sort of thing keeps you awake at night, then this book has come to the rescue. Bears Can't Run Downhill...debunks and explains 201 common claims and popular misconceptions. It?s the ideal stocking-filler for the quiz fanatic, the trivia buff, the show-off down the pub ? or the wife or girlfriend who wants a way to a) get the upper hand and b) put a stop to this nonsense once and for all. So here is the definitive tome ? all you will never need (until the sequel at least) - of well-known ?facts? both true and apocryphal.

Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer Former MP and prospective Mayor of London Jeffrey Archer's latest offering is an ambitious international thriller of expansive scope, a tale of espionage, intrigue and suspense at the very highest echelons of power. Archer wastes no time diving into his rollercoaster of a plot; we are introduced to our hero, Connor Fitzgerald, "the CIA's most deadly weapon", as he completes his mission—to assassinate a presidential candidate in Colombia. The far-reaching consequences of his act are not immediately apparent as he makes his way back to a loving wife and daughter and his life of "normality"—as far as they are concerned he is an insurance specialist—but in his inimitable style, Archer drives the plot along at speed, never lingering for longer than necessary as we are introduced to a succession of characters of great stature, ranging from the President of the United States to his headstrong CIA director and a new, extremist president in Russia. As the plot develops, Connor becomes ensnared in a political intrigue which will see him have to draw on all his wits and resourcefulness as he struggles for self-preservation and the safety of the free world as we know it.

One might assume that, given Archer's proximity to genuine political power for much of his life, he would be in a position to bring a greater realism to his story of high-stakes political manoeuvring than other authors without his experience. He certainly encourages this belief on his page of acknowledgements, which includes a former director of the CIA and FBI and a U.S. National Security Advisor. However, readers anticipating evidence of any great insight into this world should prepare to be disappointed—this is not where the strength of the book lies, although there are some nice touches, and a certain suspension of disbelief is necessary to get the best out of it. Mind you, one doesn't doubt that Archer's eleventh commandment, "Thou shalt not be caught", is a maxim many politicians and power-brokers, himself included, have lived their lives by. Where he does succeed, though, is in story-telling, with a relentless plot and the creation of a sympathetic, if barely plausible, central character capable of drawing readers in and carrying them, thrill-a-minute, to a dramatic, surprising and ultimately satisfying conclusion. —Alisdair Bowles

Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer Story telling of the highest calibre

Jeffrey Archer New York, 1939. Tom Bradshaw is arrested for first degree murder. He stands accused of killing his brother. When Sefton Jelks, a top Manhattan lawyer, offers his services for nothing, penniless Tom has little choice but to accept his assurance of a lighter sentence. After Tom is tried, found guilty and sentenced, Jelks disappears, and the only way for him to prove his innocence would be to reveal his true identity — something that he has sworn never to do in order to protect the woman he loves. Meanwhile, the young woman in question travels to New York, leaving their son behind in England, having decided she'll do whatever it takes to find the man she was to marry — unwilling to believe that he died at sea. The only proof she has is a letter. A letter that has remained unopened on a mantelpiece in Bristol for over a year. In Jeffrey Archer's epic novel, family loyalties are stretched to their limits as secrets unravel, and the story moves from the backstreets of Bristol to the boardrooms of Manhattan.

Jeffrey. Archer

Jeffrey. Archer Danny, an East End Cockney, leaves Clement Attlee Comprehensive School at the age of 15 to take up a job at a local garage. Spencer Craig after leaving university he becomes a criminal barrister. Their lives will never be the same again. For one of them is arrested for murder, while the other ends up as the Prosecution's chief witness.

Alexander Armstrong, Richard Osman A funny and clever humour gift book in the tradition of QI from the presenters of BBC One's hit TV series.

Campbell Armstrong

Campbell Armstrong

Campbell Armstrong

Campbell Armstrong

Campbell Armstrong

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Kate Atkinson

Kate Atkinson

Kate Atkinson Family history and identity are Kate Atkinson's twinned keynote themes. Behind the Scenes at the Museum (winner of the Whitbread Book of the year), had "The Family" at its centre, a sweep of charming, related genes who sauntered through the fin de siècle to the less glamorous 1992. Her second novel, Human Croquet starred the Fairfaxes, all missing mothers, perfumed with nicotine and danger, and strange aunts. Larkin may be right, your parents fuck you up but in Atkinson's novels you have to find out who they are before you can start laying blame.

On the surface, Emotionally Weird follows the trend. Effie and her mother Nora are staying in the decaying family home on a small island off the West coast of Scotland. To keep themselves amused they begin telling stories. Nora's are about their ancestors, in whose veins blood blue as "delphiniums and lupins" flows, and the real identity of Effie's father and mother. Nora's language is like her "sea-change eyes", full of poetry and strange beauty. Effie's tales of life at the University of Dundee and her life with Star Trek obsessed Bob are more prosaic and funny: "I did so hope that Bob was a dress rehearsal, a kind of mock relationship, like a mock exam, to prepare me for the real thing."

The novel becomes troublesome where it follows Effie to a creative writing course at the university. The class is run by Martha: who writes poetry "with impenetrable syntax about a life where nothing happened." The other characters in the novel are pre-occupied with the same need to find meaning through writing. Archetypal detective stories, sword and sorcery fantasy, doctor and nurse romantic scenarios, existential angst and liberal use of ellipses are given free reign. Whilst this self-conscious wordplay is fun for those who enjoy a more literary book, those who simply enjoy a good read may get lost in the jostle of competing language construction.

In this novel, confused paternity is only part of the struggle for identity, the words you use are also defining- you are what you write. Some readers will revel in the Shandy-esque shape of the experimental in this narrative, others may find it's a literary joke taken too far.—Eithne Farry.

Kate Atkinson Almost like new. A very good copy.

Kate Atkinson London published Fiction

Jean M Auel Leaving the valley of horses with Jondalar, the handsome man she loves, Ayla embarks on a journey that will lead her to the Mamutoi. But as she settles into this new life among a people disturbingly different, she finds herself drawn to Ranec, their master-carver. She is compelled to make a fateful choice between the two men.

Jean M Auel Books Sold by IBX

Jean M. Auel Hardback, Original Green Cloth, 8.5" X 5.25", 571pp, The Dust Jacket Is Illustrated By Barbara Lofthouse

Jean M. Auel The Clan of the Cave Bear is the start of Jean M Auel's epic Earth's Children series. When her parents are killed by an earthquake, five-year-old Ayla wanders through the forest completely alone. Cold, hungry, and badly injured by a cave lion, the little girl is as good as gone until she is discovered by a group who call themselves the Clan of the Cave Bear. This clan, left homeless by the same disaster, has little interest in the helpless girl who comes from the tribe they refer to as the "Others". Only their medicine woman sees in Ayla a fellow human, worthy of care. She painstakingly nurses her back to health—a decision that will forever alter the physical and emotional structure of the clan. Although this story takes place roughly 35,000 years ago, its cast of characters could easily slide into any modern tale. The members of the Neanderthal clan, ruled by traditions and taboos, find themselves challenged by this outsider, who represents the physically modern Cro-Magnons. And as Ayla begins to grow and mature, her natural tendencies emerge, putting her in the middle of a brutal and dangerous power struggle.

Although Jean Auel obviously takes certain liberties with the actions and motivations of all our ancestors, her extensive research into the Ice Age does shine through—especially in the detailed knowledge of plants and natural remedies used by the medicine woman and passed down to Ayla. Mostly, though, this first in the series of four is a wonderful story of survival. Ayla's personal evolution is a compelling and relevant tale. —Sara Nickerson, Amazon.com—This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Jean M. Auel Jean Auel's The Plains of Passage, the fourth volume in the Earth's Children sequence, is one of the most massive yet (running to nearly 1,000 pages) and has all the sweep and vigour of the earlier books in the series. There are few writers who demonstrate the sheer range and ambition of Auel in the fantasy field. The Clan of the Cave Bear was a truly ground-breaking work, with its sweeping historical saga crammed with the kind of detail that had never been seen before in the genre. The Valley of Horses and The Mammoth Hunters continued to enthral readers with their breathtaking panoplies of an ancient world.

The Plains of Passage continues the epic description of our civilisation as it was 25,000 years ago. Auel's protagonists Ayla the orphan and Jondalar the traveller decide to forsake the comfort and safety of life with the mammoth hunters by the Black Sea, and set out on a daunting odyssey. Their plan is to traverse a continent, heading for the Cro-Magnon settlement which Jondalar called home as a young man. Their journey across unimaginable distances is fraught with spectacular dangers, and their only companions are the half-tame Wolf, the magnificent stallion Racer and the mare Whinney.

As so often in Auel's work, it's the brilliantly evocative scene-setting that makes her narratives of high adventure so impressive. Characterisation is, as always, functional rather than inspired, but it's perfectly suited to the Technicolor landscapes the reader is confronted with. And the descriptive passages are as evocative as ever: The rising sun peaked over the eastern edge with a blinding burst of light that illuminated an incredible scene. To the west, a flat, utterly featureless dazzling white plain stretched out before them. Above it the sky was a shade of blue she had never seen in her life. It had somehow absorbed the reflection of the red dawn, and the blue-green undertone of glacial ice... —Barry Forshaw

Jean M. Auel The Clan of the Cave Bear is the start of Jean M Auel's epic Earth's Children series. When her parents are killed by an earthquake, five-year-old Ayla wanders through the forest completely alone. Cold, hungry, and badly injured by a cave lion, the little girl is as good as gone until she is discovered by a group who call themselves the Clan of the Cave Bear. This clan, left homeless by the same disaster, has little interest in the helpless girl who comes from the tribe they refer to as the "Others". Only their medicine woman sees in Ayla a fellow human, worthy of care. She painstakingly nurses her back to health—a decision that will forever alter the physical and emotional structure of the clan. Although this story takes place roughly 35,000 years ago, its cast of characters could easily slide into any modern tale. The members of the Neanderthal clan, ruled by traditions and taboos, find themselves challenged by this outsider, who represents the physically modern Cro-Magnons. And as Ayla begins to grow and mature, her natural tendencies emerge, putting her in the middle of a brutal and dangerous power struggle.

Although Jean Auel obviously takes certain liberties with the actions and motivations of all our ancestors, her extensive research into the Ice Age does shine through—especially in the detailed knowledge of plants and natural remedies used by the medicine woman and passed down to Ayla. Mostly, though, this first in the series of four is a wonderful story of survival. Ayla's personal evolution is a compelling and relevant tale. —Sara Nickerson, Amazon.com—This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Jane Austen

David Baddiel

David Baddiel Vic is a nearly-famous rock guitarist thinking about shacking up in south London with his foul-mouthed thirty-something girlfriend Tess; Vic's best friend Joe is a geeky, AIDS-researching biochemist who shares a son and a flash yuppie pad with the beautiful and slightly Irish Emma. On the day of Princess Diana's death Vic falls into bed with Em; a few months later Joe sort of does the same with Tess. If that were all there was to this book, it would hardly be worth bothering with: just another Hampstead (or rather, Herne Hill) adultery novel. What raises it up a considerable notch, quite apart from Baddiel's obvious gift for very good jokes, is his less expected gift for deadpan but dryly insightful prose, and his even more unexpected talent for fleshing out character. Every player in this touching, tragic tale: female as well as male, minor as much as major, villainous alongside virtuous, is eminently believable, and harrowingly feasible. Not quite so convincing is the Princess-Diana-death subplot that forms a background to the early chapters. Like the hysteria over the Queen of Hearts itself, the whole thing rather peters out, and provides little more than an excuse for the book's well-chosen title (it's a famous Prince Chuck quote apropos his then fiancée Diana). Taken as a whole, small misgivings aside, this is a fine and impressive novel: funny, sad, warm, dark, tender, wise and bleakly memorable. —Sean Thomas

Louise Bagshawe

Louise Bagshawe

J. G. Ballard

Iain Banks

Iain Banks Iain M. Banks paints a grim picture of a European nation after a bloody battle. Armed forces roam the lawless land where dark columns of smoke rise up from the surrounding farms and houses. For a young lord and lady, however, the trouble is only starting.

The couple are being kept captive in their home—a castle—by a sadistic female lieutenant from an outlaw band of guerillas. They are pawns in her dangerous game of desire, deceit, and death. The physical, sexual and political tensions that ensue catapult the narrative from war story to universal morality tale.

Iain Banks There's no question that the anticipation for each successive Iain Banks novel grows ever greater, and Dead Air is a literary event. The sardonic, inventive prose guarantees a unique reading experience with each new book (the misfires may be counted on one hand), and whatever genre he tackles, Banks is one of the most stimulating writers at work in Britain today.

His protagonist here is Ken Nott, a character as penetratingly realised as ever. He's a committed contrarian, ekeing out a living as a left-wing radio shock-jock in London. He makes his home in a loft apartment in the East End, in a former factory due to be demolished in a few days. After a wedding breakfast, people begin to pitch fruit from a balcony on to a deserted car park 10 storeys below; then they begin dispatching other things: a broken TV, a loudspeaker with a ruptured cone, bean bags and other useless furniture. Then the guests enter a kind of frenzy and start dropping things that are still working, at the same time trashing the rest of the apartment. But suddenly mobile phones start to ring urgently and they're told to turn on the TV, because a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center. And Ken Nott finds his life is to change irrevocably.

Banks's subject here is nothing less than the survival of the individual in the face of a chaotic world. The destruction of personality under the lacerating values of modernity is a subject repeatedly addressed by JG Ballard (and that author's shadow is clearly evident here), and although this is one of the Iain Banks novels in which he pointedly does not use the "M" in his name that marks his science fiction, this nightmare vision of contemporary London has more than a trace of that genre in its sense of fractured reality. But all the caustic humour and dark character development that Banks excels in are fully in place. —Barry Forshaw

Iain Banks

Iain Banks

Iain Banks * The long-awaited and stunning new novel from the unrivalled Iain Banks - a high-definition, hyper-real apocalyptic fable for our times

Iain M. Banks In The Player of Games, Iain M. Banks presents a distant future that could almost be called the end of history. Humanity has filled the galaxy, and thanks to ultra-high technology everyone has everything they want, no one gets sick, and no one dies. It's a playground society of sports, stellar cruises, parties, and festivals. Jernau Gurgeh, a famed master game player, is looking for something more and finds it when he's invited to a game tournament at a small alien empire. Abruptly Banks veers into different territory. The Empire of Azad is exotic, sensual and vibrant. It has space battle cruisers, a glowing court— all the stuff of good old science fiction—which appears old-fashioned in contrast to Gurgeh's home. At first it's a relief, but further exploration reveals the empire to be depraved and terrifically unjust. Its defects are gross exaggerations of our own, yet they indict us all the same. Clearly Banks is interested in the idea of a future where everyone can be mature and happy. Yet it's interesting to note that in order to give us this compelling adventure story, he has to return to a more traditional setting. Thoughtful science fiction readers will appreciate the cultural comparisons, and fans of big ideas and action will also be rewarded. — Brooks Peck

Iain M. Banks

Iain M. Banks

Iain M. Banks It's not easy to disturb a mega-utopia as vast as the one Iain M. Banks has created in his popular Culture series, where life is devoted to fun and ultra-high-tech is de rigueur. But more than two millennia ago the appearance—and disappearance—of a star older than the universe caused quite a stir. Now the mystery is back, and the key to solving it lies in the mind of the person who witnessed the first disturbance 2,500 years ago. But she's dead, and getting her to cooperate may not be altogether easy.

Iain M. Banks Science fiction readers know that Iain Banks writes "respectable" novels (such as The Wasp Factory) while his alter ego Iain M. Banks produces equally well-written but often more playful sci-fi—most famously, the gaudy and galaxy- spanning Culture series. In Inversions, Banks is being tricky again. Besides extra moons in the sky and stories of devastating meteor showers that toppled a former Empire, this novel's squalid, preindustrial world seems to have no sci-fi elements. The two entwined stories feature a woman who becomes personal physician to one kingdom's absolute monarch, and the male bodyguard of a rival and more "progressive" country's Cromwell-like Protector. Both protagonists are mysterious outsiders from farther away than the King or Protector can ever imagine. Readers of Banks's other science fiction will spot the clues to their origins. Others may be slightly puzzled, especially by a seeming miracle which intervenes when the doctor faces torture—but can still enjoy the elegant narrative reversals, reflections and echoes. There are also generous helpings of blood, violence, poisoning, ingenious deceits and high excitement, spiced with political philosophy. Banks continues his pleasant habit of never repeating himself. —David Langford

Iain M. Banks When using that middle initial M., Iain Banks writes grand space opera combining galactic scope with twisty, tricky probes into the darkest secrets of human and other minds. Look to Windward revisits the utopian but ruthless interstellar Culture introduced in Consider Phlebas, exploring the complex aftermath of a rare Culture mistake—humanitarian tinkering with an unjust civilization that accidentally led to massive civil war and billions dead.

After a harrowing battle flashback, the scene shifts to one of the Culture's wonderfully landscaped, ring-shaped artificial worlds called Orbitals. A ghastly light is awaited in the sky from distant suns detonated in the war of Consider Phlebas eight centuries earlier; an occasion for sombre festivity, pyrotechnics, and a memorial symphony from exiled alien composer Ziller. Meanwhile another tortured member of Ziller's race—aggressors and victims in that more recent civil war—arrives on a mission whose dreadful nature emerges through fragments of slowly returning memory. Elsewhere, in the exuberantly imagined airsphere home of floating "behemothaurs" almost too huge to imagine, the clue to what's happening falls belatedly into inexperienced hands...

While scattering red herrings and building tension for his final burst of literal and moral fireworks, Banks shows us around the Orbital in sensuous, lyrical travelogues. Rich scenery, high living, low comedy and dangerous sports contrast with reflections on mortality and the lingering aftershock of both those wars, recalled by ravaged veterans. Look to Windward culminates with deft twists, inversions, parallels, and savage justice, as unexpected as we expect from this author. Recommended. —David Langford

Iain M. Banks In The Algebraist, Iain Banks returns to spectacular space opera but not to his familiar Culture universe. His new setting is a complex, war-torn galaxy with an entirely different history going back almost to the Big Bang...

For short-lived 'Quick' races like humans, space is dominated by the complicated, grandiose Mercatoria whose rule is both military and religious. To the Dwellers who may live billions of years, the galaxy consists of their gas-giant planets—the rest is debris.

Our human hero Fassin Taak is a 'Slow Seer' privileged to work with the Dwellers of the gas-giant Nasqueron in his home system Ulubis. His life work is rummaging for data in their vast, disorganised memories and libraries. Unfortunately, without knowing it, he's come close to an ancient secret of unimaginable importance.

Though Ulubis is currently cut off from the galactic wormhole travel network, two interstellar battle fleets are racing for this secret. The hissable arch-villain Luseferous—whose tastes run to torture, atrocity and genocide—seems bound to arrive in overwhelming strength before the Mercatorian rescue squadron.

So Fassin is reluctantly conscripted into security forces, and enters the hell of Nasqueron's atmosphere to seek the magic key (code? signal frequency? equation?) that might save everything. Even at their most helpful and charming, though, Dwellers are maddeningly elusive. For ancients, they seem bumbling and whimsical, far more interested in hunting, kudos, and extreme sports like GasClipper Races or Formal War than in saving humanity's skin. Their ramshackle transport and awesome yet run-down floating cities suggest that Dweller legends of hypertechnology are sheer bluff. But are they keeping something dark?

Fassin's journeys and discoveries are exhilarating, witty, sometimes mind-boggling. Exotic weaponry abounds. The Dwellers are engagingly eccentric, like AI Minds in the Culture books—but the Mercatoria has banned artificial intelligence as Abomination, and this too is a plot strand. Additionally there are human revenge, intrigue and betrayal subplots; surprises and upsets; and the mother of all shaggy-dog revelations. Once again Banks is having enormous fun with space opera, and his exuberant enjoyment is infectious. Highly readable stuff.—David Langford

Iain M. Banks

Greg Bear This is book number two in the new Second Foundation Trilogy being written by hard science fiction authors Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, and David Brin, otherwise known as the "Killer B's". In this book, Bear continues where Benford's Foundation's Fear left off, as the trial of legendary psychohistorian Hari Seldon is about to begin. Bear writes with a style uncannily similar to Foundation creator Isaac Asimov's, and he even manages to incorporate some of Asimov's own writing in the novel. Aside from the trial, Bear also focuses on the nearly immortal robots that serve the Foundation, including R. Daneel Olivaw, who is set to guide one of the Foundation's first great undertakings. But Olivaw runs into trouble from an unexpected quarter, his best operative, Lodovik Trema, whose positronic brain has been irrevocably altered in a strange accident that has given him freedom from the supposedly immutable laws of robotics. —Craig Engler

Matt Beaumont

Alan Bennett

James Bibby

James Bibby

Edwin Black

Lawrence Block

Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton Edition Hodder Children's Books (a division of Hodder Headline Ltd.), 2004. ISBN: 0-340-89363-X. HARDBACK. 504 pages, size: 15.3 x 21.7 x 4.5 cm. This collection includes three stories: "Five On a Secret Trail", "Five Go To Demon's Rock", and "Five Have a Mystery to Solve". 504 pages. The book remains in excellent condition throughout. Text all clean, neat and tight. Prompt dispatch from UK.

Enid Blyton Good: A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dust cover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels.Some of our books may have slightly worn corners, and minor creases to the covers. Please note the cover may sometimes be different to the one shown.

Enid Blyton

Michael Bond Title: Paddington Suitcase <>Binding: Paperback <>Author: Michael Bond <>Publisher: COLLINS CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Edward De Bono This guide to practical thinking skills is a sort of cerebral exercise plan currently called the de Bono method.

Frankie Boyle Ever since being brought up by The Beatles, Frankie Boyle has been a tremendous liar. Join him on his adventures with his chum Clangy The Brass Boy and laugh as he doesn't accidentally kill a student nurse when a party gets out of hand.

Marion Zimmer Bradley, Julian May, Andre Norton

Karren Brady

E.R. Braithwaite

Fleur Britten

J. Bronowski:

Bronte

Terry Brook

Christopher Brookmyre * A change in direction for Christopher Brookmyre with a novel of Big Ideas - but with all his customary compelling readability

Terry Brooks Terry Brooks' new Shannara epic The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara kicks off its first volume Ilse Witch with the discovery of a mad Elf drifting on wreckage miles out at sea with his tongue and eyes removed, and a map secreted among his possessions. It rapidly emerges that he is a lost prince who set out decades earlier to find old magic on another continent. Walker the Druid persuades the Elf King that both vengeance and prudence dictate a second expedition and assembles the usual crew of talented misfits to travel by airship into unknown territory. The forces of evil are on their way as well—the shadowy figure known as the Ilse Witch and the lizard-like mercenaries forced on her by her untrustworthy ally the Morgawr are closing in too, with acquisition and murder in their hearts.

Fans of Terry Brooks will know precisely what to expect from him: undemanding sword—and—sorcery adventure with touches of the gloomily mysterious and of the more complex emotions. This is Brooks at his best and this novel is the least dependent on earlier models as it becomes clear that in this sequence the relationship between good and evil is more complicated than usual. —Roz Kaveney

Terry Brooks The second in Terry Brooks' landmark new series linking the worlds of Shannara and The Word and The Void

Terry Brooks

Warner Bros

Dan Brown In The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown masterfully concocts an intelligent and lucid thriller that marries the gusto of an international murder mystery with a collection of fascinating esoterica culled from 2,000 years of Western history.

A murder in the silent after-hours halls of the Louvre reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected by a clandestine society since the days of Christ. The victim is a high-ranking agent of this ancient society who, in the moments before his death, manages to leave gruesome clues at the scene that only his daughter, noted cryptographer Sophie Neveu, and Robert Langdon, a famed symbologist, can untangle. The duo become both suspects and detectives searching for not only Neveu's father's murderer but also the stunning secret of the ages he was charged to protect. Mere steps ahead of the authorities and the deadly competition, Neveu and Langdon embark on a breathless flight through France, England and history itself.

Brown has created a page-turning thriller that also provides an amazing interpretation of Western history. Brown's hero and heroine embark on a lofty and intriguing exploration of some of Western culture's greatest mysteries—from the nature of the Mona Lisa's smile to the secret of the Holy Grail. Though some will quibble with the veracity of Brown's conjectures, therein lies the fun. The Da Vinci Code is an enthralling read that provides rich food for thought. —Jeremy Pugh, Amazon.com

Dan Brown Book with masonic content

Steven Brust

Steven Brust

Steven Brust

Steven Brust

Steven Brust

Steven Brust

Steven Brust

Steven Brust

Steven Brust

Steven Brust

Steven Brust

Steven Brust

Steven Brust

Steven Brust

Steven Brust

John Buchan

Malcolm Burgess

John Burns

John Burns

John Burns

Rohan Candappa

Elizabeth Carlassare More and more women are striking out on their own in cyberspace. DotCom Divas, by internet strategist Elizabeth Carlassare, profiles 20 of the best and the brightest of these founding females, distilling key e-business insights and strategies. Moving beyond the model of two guys working in a garage, the author describes "successful women who are creating real thriving Web companies from visions that were initially just twinkles in their eyes".

Her choices of women Web entrepreneurs are fascinating and eclectic: Nancy Evans and Candice Carpenter at iVillage, Janina Pawlowski of E-Loan, Eugenie Diserio of the astrology site Astronet, and oneNest founder Durreen Shahnaz, who links disadvantaged artisans to global markets.

Carlassare's readable profiles are not puff pieces. She organises her visionary leaders into four areas of the Internet economy: Web portal, Web-based services, e-commerce and e-business applications. Each chapter explores one company and founder in terms of the source of their winning business idea, the business plan, fundraising, teambuilding and meeting the challenges of growing and marketing their business. Chapter-end summaries capture the essence of each woman's unique strategies for success.

Carlassare offers many engaging excerpts from a day in the life of her divas. For example: oneNest CEO Durreen Shahnaz trekking in Bangladesh; Nancy Evans and Candice Carpenter raiding their personal bank accounts to meet the iVillage payroll; and Janina Pawlowski, standing on the floor of Goldman Sachs, sweating out E-Loan's public offering.

The book could have been strengthened by a concluding chapter to underline key success patterns. Still, each chapter offers specific insights and inspiration for both experienced and aspiring Web entrepreneurs. And these powerful perspectives are not for women only. —Barbara Mackoff

Stephen L. Carter A complex, smart mystery filled with intrigue, drama, and more than a little danger awaits readers in Stephen L Carter's engaging debut novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park.

After the funeral of his powerful father (a federal judge whose nomination to the US Supreme Court became a public scandal), Talcott Garland, an African-American law professor at an Ivy League university, is left to unravel the meaning of a cryptic note and carry out "the arrangements" his father left behind. Armed with fortitude and familial devotion—though paranoid of his wife's fidelity—Talcott soon finds himself in an investigation that entangles him with a number of questionable Washington DC denizens, including lawyers and government officials, law professors, the FBI, shady underworld figures, chess masters, and friends and family. All the while Talcott tries not to hurt his lawyer wife's chance for a judicial nomination—and their fragile marriage—but the closer he comes to unravelling his father's dark secrets, the more dangerous things become.

Clocking in at over 650 pages, the novel could easily have been streamlined; many of Talcott's thoughts are unnecessarily repeated. But Carter's storytelling skills are adept: tension builds, surprises are genuine and clues are not handed out freely. The prose, while somewhat meandering, can be crisp and insightful, as demonstrated in Carter's description of the misguided paths of young lawyers who sacrifice, "all on the altar of career... at last arriving... at their cherished career goals, partnerships, professorships, judgeships, whatever kind of ships they dream of sailing, and then looking around at the angry, empty waters and realizing that they have arrived with nothing, absolutely nothing, and wondering what to do with the rest of their wretched lives". —Michael Ferch

Eric Chaline

Lee Child There's deadly trouble in the wilds of Nebraska... and Jack Reacher walks right into it. First he falls foul of the Duncans, a local clan that has terrified an entire county into submission. But it's the unsolved case of a missing eight-year-old girl, already decades-old, that Reacher can't let go. The Duncans want Reacher gone - or dead.

Arthur C. Clarke

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Clarkson, the opinionated motoring journalist, has something to say on just about everything, not just cars, in this collection of his columns from both Top Gear Magazine and The Sunday Times.

Whether you love or loathe him, Born to be Riled makes for an entertaining and lively read as Clarkson vents his anger and frustration at, among other things, Sunday drivers, caravans and politicians. Even places are not safe from his poisonous tongue, with Surrey, Birmingham and Norfolk being on the receiving end of some particularly venomous rants.

Clarkson's views on cars and motoring make for interesting reading but do tend to speak to the more initiated enthusiast than the casual driver and analogies and comparisons are often lost on all but the most technically minded car fanatic.

However, Clarkson writes with joyous wit and even when his arguments seem a little shaky, you can't help but find yourself nodding in agreement or realising that he is riled by all the things in life that you are—being stuck behind a caravan on a country back road or the drink-driving laws in this country. In much the same way as Bill Bryson chronicles life's daily woes and pitfalls with a scathing sense of humour, so Clarkson speaks for a silent majority who are secretly incensed by a million and one things everyday of their lives, but are just a little too British to say anything.

In this book, Clarkson has become the common man's champion and when he is fighting for the cause with this much humour and wit, long may he remain in that position. —Jonathan Weir

Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson Books Sold by IBX

Jeremy Clarkson He’s difficult, argumentative but totally unafraid to express views guaranteed to tread on many people's toes — that's Jeremy Clarkson. And it's for those very reasons why for everyone for whom his name is anathema, there are an equal number will avidly consume his every word. As For Crying Out Loud: The World According to Clarkson, Volume 3 forcefully reminds us, Clarkson’s must venomous hatreds are reserved for political correctness, and his conducting of a one-man war on ‘crimes against common sense’ has made him an unlikely hero for many, who husband their opinions with much greater care. Clarkson continues to be driven into a frenzy by a great variety of things that impinge on his consciousness, and his splenetic responses are immensely entertaining.

‘What is the matter with people these days?’ If you've ever wondered that, you’ll find a hundred answers in this book, along with a discussion of why binge drinking is good for you, the difficult task of drumming in middle age (and, allied to this, the secret of eternal youth). Oh yes — and America. Don't get Jeremy Clarkson started on America (in fact, it's too late… you'll find some pithy observations on the States within these pages that are likely to make quite a few people's blood temperatures rise). Ironically, if we were to get stuck behind a taxi driver who harangued us like Jeremy Clarkson, we’d be praying for a short journey. So why is it that For Crying Out Loud is so disgracefully entertaining? Perhaps it is because Clarkson — when he is away from his beloved (and slightly boring) cars — is immensely articulate at voicing his enthusiasms and pet hatreds (more of the latter than the former, it has to be admitted). One warning should accompany the book, though — if you give it as a present to a loved one, be prepared to have great chunks read out loud ad infinitum (and perhaps ad nauseam) along the lines of ‘Listen to what Clarkson says about X or Y! Boy, has he got this right!’ You might not want to share a taxi journey with Jeremy Clarkson, but reading his books are a whole different experience — and, who knows, you might just end up agreeing with him. —Barry Forshaw

Jeremy Clarkson Tells you what the author thinks about some of the most gorgeous cars in the world. This book looks at the joys, absurdities and frustrations of modern life.

Julian Clary Hello, I'm Johnny Debonair and this is my book - "Murder Most Fab". Buy it. You won't regret it. Everything that has happened so publicly is explained. Of course, I'd prefer it if you remember me as I was at my height, before the past caught up with me so spectacularly - TV's Mr Friday Night with an enviable lifestyle and the nation at my feet. My fame might have looked easy to you at the time, but getting to the top of the celebrity ladder is hard work. It took talent, beauty, commitment and, uniquely in my case, a number of unfortunate deaths. If we were being picky you might describe me as a serial killer, but I really don't see myself that way. It sounds trite to say 'one thing led to another' but it's true.As you'll discover I owe something of my rise and my fall to three individuals: my mother, an eccentric country girl who taught me exhibitionism by hanging naked from the clocktower of Hythe town hall; Catherine, my best friend, then partner in business - a devil in red heels, who, in her clear Essex accent, taught me how to 'look after number one'; and Timothy, who broke my heart and caused me to seek refuge in sex, money and celebrity. But in the end you have to take responsibility for your own actions. No one was forcing me, were they? I hope you, the public, can forgive me and enjoy this sordid tale for what it is - my final entertainment for you.

John Cleese, Connie Booth

Bill Clinton An exhaustive, soul-searching memoir, Bill Clinton's My Life is a refreshingly candid look at the former president as a son, brother, teacher, father, husband and public figure. Clinton painstakingly outlines the history behind his greatest successes and failures, including his dedication to educational and economic reform, his war against a "vast right-wing operation" determined to destroy him, and the "morally indefensible" acts for which he was nearly impeached. My Life is autobiography as therapy—a personal history written by a man trying to face and banish his private demons.

Clinton approaches the story of his youth with gusto, sharing tales of giant watermelons, nine-pound tumours, a charging ram, famous mobsters and jazz musicians and a BB gun standoff. He offers an equally energetic portrait of American history, pop culture and the evolving political landscape, covering the historical events that shaped his early years (namely the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr and JFK) and the events that shaped his presidency (Waco, Bosnia, Somalia). What makes My Life remarkable as a political memoir is how thoroughly it is infused with Clinton's unassuming, charmingly pithy voice:

I learned a lot from the stories my uncle, aunts, and grandparents told me: that no one is perfect but most people are good; that people can't be judged only by their worst or weakest moments; that harsh judgments can make hypocrites of us all; that a lot of life is just showing up and hanging on; that laughter is often the best, and sometimes the only, response to pain.

However, that same voice might tire readers as Clinton applies his penchant for minute details to a distractible laundry list of events, from his youth through the years of his presidency. Not wanting to forget a single detail that might help account for his actions, Clinton overdoes it—do we really need to know the name of his childhood barber? But when Clinton sticks to the meat of his story—recollections about his mother, his abusive stepfather, Hillary, the campaign trail and Kenneth Starr—the veracity of emotion and revelations about "what it is like to be President" make My Life impossible to put down.

To Clinton, "politics is a contact sport" and while he claims that My Life is not intended to make excuses or assign blame, it does portray him as a fighter whose strategy is to "take the first hit, then counterpunch as hard as I could". While My Life is primarily a stroll through Clinton's memories, it is also a scathing rebuke—a retaliation against his detractors, including Kenneth Starr, whose "mindless search for scandal" protected the guilty while "persecuting the innocent" and distracted his administration from pressing international matters (including strikes on al Qaeda). Counterpunch indeed.

At its core, My Life is a charming and intriguing if flawed book by an intriguing and flawed man who had his worst failures and humiliations made public. Ultimately, the man who left office in the shadow of scandal offers an honest and open account of his life, allowing readers to witness his struggle to "drain the most out of every moment" while maintaining the character with which he was raised. It is a remarkably intimate, persuasive look at the boy he was, the president he became and the man he is today. —Daphne Durham, Amazon.com

Martina Cole Is The Graft up to Martina Cole’s usual standard? The unarguable success of her sizable tally of crime novels must be a source of envy to other practitioners. Almost from the beginning, she has gleaned praise for her gritty and pungent fiction. Even the very ordinary TV adaptations of such books as Dangerous Lady stripped no lustre from her reputation, when novels as good as The Know flowed from her pen. Her prose style is always pared down and vivid—which is, thankfully, still very much the case with The Graft.

Nick Leary is having trouble sleeping, what with sultry heat and business and family problems weighing on his mind. His wife is sleeping beside him, when he hears a noise downstairs—and soon he has to decide how much violence he will use to defend his home and family. The decision he makes is to change his life forever. Nick and his wife are taken to the very extremes of human behaviour—and he is obliged to decide how high a price he will pay to keep what he values most.

As ever, Cole exerts an effortless grip throughout her unsettling narrative. We’re used to her exuberantly characterised heroines, but the beleaguered Nick shows that’s she’s just as on-the-nail with her male characters. The edgy plotting has the kind of no-nonsense handling that is Cole's métier. Perhaps a touch more psychological strip-mining of her protagonists would have deepened her achievement, but what the hell—all the right buttons are pressed here.—Barry Forshaw

Eoin Colfer Eoin Colfer, author of Artemis Fowl, describes his creation as "Die Hard with fairies". He's not far wrong. Artemis Fowl is the most ingenious criminal mastermind in history and with his trusty sidekicks, Butler and Juliet, in tow he hatches a cunning plot to divest the fairyfolk of their pot of gold. Of course, he isn't foolish enough to believe in all that "gold at the end of the rainbow" nonsense. Rather, he knows that the only way to separate the little people from their stash is to kidnap one of their number and wait for the ransom to arrive. But when the time comes to put his plan into action he reckons without Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaisance) Unit—a sort of extra small Clarice Starling with pointy ears and wings—and her senior officer Commander Root, a man (sorry, elf) who will stop at nothing to get her back.

Fantastic stuff from beginning to end, Artemis Fowl is a rip-roaring, 21st-century romp of the highest order. The author has let his imagination run riot by combining folklore, fantasy and a fistful of high-tech funk in an outrageously devilish book that could well do for fairies what Harry Potter has done for wizardry. But be warned: this is no gentle frolic so don't be fooled by the fairy subject matter. Instead what we have here is well written, sophisticated, rough and tumble storytelling with enough high-octane attitude to make it a seriously cool read for anyone over the age of 10. —Susan Harrison

Eoin Colfer 1st edition hardcover, fine book in fine (as new) dw,

Eoin Colfer The third instalment of high-tech, criminal whizz-kid adventures set in the fairy-magic-filled world of Master Artemis Fowl may be reassuringly familiar but it is also bulging with author Eoin Colfer's trademark wit and thrilling seat-of-the-dwarf-pants adventure. Following on from Artemis's opening encounter with the fairy underworld in Artemis Fowl and its thumping sequel Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Encounter, The Eternity Code takes the books' eponymous young anti-hero, who with each successive adventure turns out to be a little less bad after all, on his most dangerous mission yet.

Artemis and his bodyguard Butler have set up a meeting in Chicago with dangerous international businessman Jon Spiro. In his latest eager attempt to make money, using a priceless futuristic cube of purloined Fairy gadgetry that can do just about anything, Artemis has underestimated Spiro and arrived at the rendezvous under-prepared. Big mistake. It is an ambush, and though Artemis escapes with his life, Butler is mortally wounded.

The cube may be lost but Artemis refuses to accept his friend's demise and quickly deep freezes Butler in the restaurant kitchen. He calls on the only people he knows who might be able to get him back—Holly Short of the subterranean Fairy police and her race's super-advanced technology. Holly and Artemis must find a way to bring Butler back from the dead and retrieve the lost Eternity Cube that could change the balance of power between humans and fairies forever. It is a Herculean task and the price exacted upon Artemis for such assistance is very high indeed.

What Colfer's latest plot may lack in depth or sophistication is more than made up for by the sheer verve and energy of his settings, characters and action. These books are very entertaining indeed and hugely readable, and once you're a Fowl fan you'll be hooked until Artemis decides to go straight. Recommended for ages nine and above. —John McLay

Jenny Colgan Travelling East across the United States in a silver Thunderbird, Ellie Eversholt is a woman on a mission. She's Looking for Andrew McCarthy, and hoping that when she finds him she can ask him a few pertinent questions, such as why, at the grand old age of 30, life hasn't turned out the way it was portrayed in the Brat Pack films of the 1980s.

Feeling misled by the glittering façade presented to her in the dimly-lit cinemas of her teenage years, bored with her career, fed-up with her failing love life and ashamed that at 30 she's still renting a room in a flat owned by Big Bastard, the Neanderthal flatmate-from-hell, Ellie needs some answers—and she needs them now. Gathering up a group of similarly disillusioned friends, Ellie makes her way to America, and together they set off, Thelma and Louise-style (except without the cliff-ending suicide pact) to criss-cross America in search of 80s screen idol Andrew McCarthy. In a tale which explores every avenue of the old saying "it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive", Ellie and friends on both sides of the Atlantic share in the joys and disappointments of her quest: a journey which takes her to the four corners of the States and brings her into contact with a variety of outrageous characters, ranging from hunky tanned scriptwriters to six foot tall transvestites and even Frosty II, the world's largest pig.

Does she find the real Andrew McCarthy? And will she ever come to terms with why she hasn't spent her life living in a huge apartment with billowing curtains, wearing a big pink dress and being dated by a succession of handsome men, like a modern-day Molly Ringwald? —Emily Lowson

Jenny Colgan Jenny Colgan has carved out some highly individual territory as a writer of great warmth and humour; she is a clear-eyed observer of human nature, as ready to extend sympathy to her characters as she is to be sardonic about their foibles. With Working Wonders, this brand of humorous writing is satisfyingly in evidence once more, wedded this time to a complex and intriguing plot.

Arthur Pendleton has led an unexciting life, working as a town planner and slowly realising that his life holds few surprises. Then he encounters the head of a team of management consultants, the beguiling and beautiful Gwyneth Morgan, a woman Arthur finds himself intimidated by. Her job is to inspire Arthur and his ill-assorted team of planners to take on a daunting task—ensure that Coventry becomes the new European city of culture. Looking around at such colleagues as nerdish computer expert Sven and the unhappy (and long-suffering) Cathy, Arthur becomes increasingly dispirited. And then, astonishingly, Gwyneth shows signs of being attracted to him, and (even more surprisingly) his team begins to fire on all cylinders with ideas. But which is more achievable: beginning a relationship with the intriguing Gwyneth, or making Coventry appear interesting? The elements that made Jenny Colgan's earlier books bestsellers are firmly in place here: quirkily observed characters, capricious plotting and a truly involving sense of the way in which most of us live our lives. Both Arthur and Gwyneth are beautifully drawn, and even if the basic theme (dull hero and brighter heroine in a non-metropolitan culture clash) may owe something to David Lodge's Changing Places, it's none the worse for that; this is an enchanting read. —Barry Forshaw

Joan Collins

William Cook, Fulchester Industries Good: A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dust cover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels.Some of our books may have slightly worn corners, and minor creases to the covers. Please note the cover may sometimes be different to the one shown.

Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell When your everyday life is filled with death it's easy to find yourself a little edgy. The audio version of Patricia Cornwell's Point of Origin gives fans of her familiar heroine, Dr Kay Scarpetta, a little something extra, a chance to hear the deep hurt and burning cynicism of the chief medical examiner's biting words. "You don't put your hands inside their ruined bodies and touch and measure their wounds .... You see clean case files and glossy photos and cold crime scenes. You spend more time with the killers than with those they ripped from life. And maybe you sleep better than I do, too. Maybe you still dream because you aren't afraid to."

Perhaps because Kate Reading has also narrated Cornwell's Unnatural Exposure and Cause of Death, her voice conveys experience and the history of what has come before, allowing listeners to hear between the lines. Using a subtle but effective range of vocal inflections, Reading lifts the characters off the page and carries them along as the plot spins ever faster, tangling Scarpetta in a snarl of arson, deceit and psychopathic murder. With her nemesis making threats and suspicious fires leaving calcified corpses, Dr. Scarpetta's long-overdue romantic getaway has gone up in smoke. It's just one more day at the morgue and Point of Origin, another hit in the popular series of Scarpetta mysteries, finds the good doctor's attitude honed to a razor sharp point.—George Laney

Patricia Cornwell With the phenomenal success of her Scarpetta books, Cornwell set herself something of a problem: how to strike off in new directions with different protagonists. It's good to report that the trio introduced so compellingly in Hornet's Nest Police Chief Judy Hammer and colleagues Virginia West and Andy Brazil make an assured return in this up-tempo sequel. The locale this time is Richmond, Virginia, and Cornwell quickly immerses us in the personal lives and politics of a big-city police force reeling from corruption and intrigue. Hammer is there to reduce the crime rate, but is still trying to come to terms with the death of her husband. And when a gang of juvenile killers starts creating havoc, she finds herself dealing with both public scrutiny and the resentments of her staff. While the characterisation and plotting (always Cornwell's strong suits) remain as razor sharp as ever, there is more emphasis on humour, making a piquant contrast to the high-octane action (although some might find the whimsical character names—Smudge, Muskrat, Weed et al—a tad too Dickensian for this kind of urban thriller). Supremely entertaining stuff, and though some may yearn for the return of her doughty pathologist heroine, Cornwell has demonstrated that she is no one-trick pony. —Barry Forshaw

Patricia Cornwell The postmortem is in—Black Notice, the 10th in Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series—is a gore- splattered, intensely exciting read.

As winter grips Richmond, Virginia, an air of sombreness pervades chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta's world. Her beloved niece Lucy is involved in a dangerous undercover police operation in Miami, and auntie fears for her life. A tyrannical new deputy chief, Diane Bray, wants to get Kay's department under her jurisdiction. Meanwhile, back at the office, someone has tinkered with the e-mail system, stealing Kay's identity and sending off slanderous and hurtful messages. Emotionally battered, Scarpetta fears she is going insane. Or, could it be that someone is deliberately sowing this harvest of sorrow?

Despite her personal problems, Scarpetta is still the reigning diva at the department of death. She is sent to investigate the purified remains of a man found inside a container ship, "eyes bulged froglike, and the scalp and beard were sloughing off with the outer layer of darkening skin." Kay finds strange, animal-like hairs on the man's clothing—the same hairs that she discovers on a murdered store clerk a few days later. In actuality, the bizarre killings extend well beyond Virginia; whoever killed the Richmond victims also butchered people in France. Kay and police captain Pete Marino are whisked off to Paris where they must collect top-secret information from a Paris morgue, and avoid becoming victims themselves.

This macabre tome is the stuff that classic Scarpetta tales are made of: creepy but compulsive autopsy scenes, plentiful plot twists and the compelling, if slightly more vulnerable, chief medical examiner herself. —Naomi Gesinger

Patricia Cornwell What is peculiarly impressive about The Last Precinct, Patricia Cornwell's new addition to her popular series about the pathologist Kay Scarpetta, is that it is a book in which everything is up for grabs and all is at stake. Murders we thought settled for good in previous books, with guilt allocated and people arrested or killed, suddenly come bubbling to the surface again. Kay finds herself accused of killing difficult Deputy Police Chief Diane Bray, and of framing the deformed psychopath who killed Diane and burst into Kay's home with murderous intent. Even the hideous death of Kay's lover Benton, several books ago, turns out to have been more complicated than we thought. Kay finds herself in jeopardy several times over with her headstrong lesbian niece, her only entirely reliable ally. This is a book in which Cornwell takes her heroine into new areas—we get the same amount of complicated forensic lore, but there is a new personal urgency to it, a sense that detection is not a game. Kay's relationships with colleagues have always been prickly, but here they become more problematic than ever before; Cornwell's admirers will be pleased by this, her most tense and nervy book for years. —Roz Kaveney

Patricia Cornwell Be aware: this is not your typical Cornwell novel. Not only is there no Kay Scarpetta, but Isle of Dogs is a comic romp, a real departure for this author. It centres around a couple of characters from past books—police chief Judy Hammer and reporter-turned-cop Andy Brazil of Hornet's Nest and Southern Cross—but the plot, style and tone will remind you more of Carl Hiaasen's dark comedies.

The madcap doings get underway when the addled, nearly blind governor of Virginia confusedly launches a speed-trap program on isolated Tangier Island, whose prickly, eccentric residents promptly attempt secession. Cornwell adeptly interweaves other crisscrossing plot lines involving a gang of street-stupid thugs gunning for Hammer and Brazil, an angel-faced serial killer, a kidnapped dog and more. She does miss a few beats: the pacing sags during certain episodes, and at times the writing strains so hard for laughs that instead it draws winces. Nonetheless, Isle of Dogs is for the most part a funny, diverting read and a refreshing departure for Cornwell. —Nicholas H Allison, Amazon.com

Patricia Cornwell Few books receive the kind of pre-publicity that Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper—Case Closed generated. Some of it was good, some of it not so good, but all was calculated to get reader interest running at fever pitch. In fact, Patricia Cornwell's actions in trying to solve the world's most famous serial-killer mystery (just who was Jack the Ripper?) have been highly controversial, but since when has controversy undercut interest in a book? And who better than a writer whose name is synonymous with the scientific solving of crime to tackle London's legendary mass murderer?

Using the methods of her character Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell's forensic investigation has pointed the bloody finger of guilt at a figure who has long figured prominently in the Ripper files. The investigation here is an intriguing mix of the personal and the professional: as well as orchestrating a Scarpetta-like search for the identity of the Ripper, Cornwell involves several very personal connections with the task she has set herself, and this is no dry thesis. Needless to say, the more gruesome aspects of this famously grisly case give no pause to a woman who has taken us into the grimmer aspects of forensics with her unsqueamish protagonist, and we are spared no details here (but who would purchase Portrait of a Killer if they had delicate sensibilities?). The arguments here are intelligently marshalled, and laid out with the precision and attention to detail of Cornwell's novels.

In order to prove her thesis, Cornwell purchased (and made tests on) some great works of art, but the tale of how she arrived at her highly contentious conclusions is quite as fascinating as one of the Scarpetta books. You may not agree with her, but you will not put this book down. —Barry Forshaw

Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell Break out the champagne: Patricia Cornwell has thankfully moved on from her controversial campaign to lay the Jack the Ripper murders at the door of the painter Walter Sickert, and in Trace is again raising our pulse rate by taking us into the dangerous world of consultant pathologist Dr Kay Scarpetta.

In this latest outing, Kay finds herself back in Virginia examining a curious death, that of the youthful Gilly Paulson. Joel Marcus, her successor as Chief Medical Examiner, has summoned a reluctant Scarpetta to help out, but her professional work is compromised by her unhappiness at the radical changes occurring in her old territory: Scarpetta's old morgue has been bulldozed, and she isn’t happy working with the man who took her job. Other members of the familiar Scarpetta crew make an appearance: her partner Benton Wesley and her niece Lucy Farinelli are tracking down an assailant who has nearly ended the life of one of Lucy’s colleagues. The two cases turn out to be connected (surprise!), and soon several lives are at stake.

After the recent misfires, it’s a relief to note that Patricia Cornwell is back on track, dealing comfortably with her most familiar protagonist and a plot that yokes in bomb-makers and some bizarre sexual practices. A resounding welcome back, to both Ms Cornwell and Ms Scarpetta.—Barry Forshaw

Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell Another Patricia Cornwell appears, and it's a pretty safe bet that At Risk will storm its way to the top of the best-selling charts. Cornwell has been at the top of the American crime writing tree for so long now that her position is virtually unassailable—even when she produces the odd misfire (which he has been known to do). Fortunately, At Risk can be counted among her successes, though its brevity may disappoint some.

The book is based on a recent story of the same name serialised in The New York Times, but those hoping for the return of Cornwell’s resourceful forensic specialist Dr Kay Scarpetta will have to wait a little longer, as Cornwell introduces a new central character in this book. Having inhabited the mind of a female protagonist for so long, the author has felt the need to move into very different territory with a charismatic male police investigator at the centre of the narrative. The book takes the reader from the cool climes of Cambridge, Massachusetts to the overbearing heat of Knoxville Tennessee. Win Garano is handed a tricky assignment: he is to investigate a murder case that is over two decades old. District Attorney Monique Lamont isn't concerned about the difficulties of the case, though—she simply wants results for personal reasons. Win is convinced that he has been saddled with a very low priority case, but quickly finds that there is much more to this twenty-year-old mystery than he thought. As some very dangerous secrets are uncovered, Win finds himself dealing with both the consequences of his investigation and the remarkable ambitiousness of Monique Lamont as he pursues a political grand prize. In the past, when Cornwell has moved away from the safe territory of the Kay Scarpetta novels, she has slightly alienated her dedicated fan base. But she is absolutely right to take chances like this in order to freshen her literary inspiration, and this fast-moving piece is a laudable effort, even if it comes in at a rather shortish page count. —Barry Forshaw

Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell Omslag onfris / Cover not so good, Gevouwen rug / Folded back / 9780751538755 / Suspense / Thrillers / Engels / English / Anglais / Englisch / paperback / 13 x 20 cm / 500 .pp /

Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell London published Crime Fiction

Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell delivers the twenty-third engrossing thriller in her high-stakes series starring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Dr. Kay Scarpetta is working a suspicious death scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts when an emergency alert sounds on her phone. A video link lands in her text messages and seems to be from her computer genius niece Lucy. But how can it be? It's clearly a surveillance film of Lucy taken almost twenty years ago. As Scarpetta watches she begins to learn frightening secrets about her niece, whom she has loved and raised like a daughter. That film clip and then others sent soon after raise dangerous legal implications that increasingly isolate Scarpetta and leave her confused, worried, and not knowing where to turn. She doesn't know whom she can tell - not her FBI husband Benton Wesley or her investigative partner Pete Marino. Not even Lucy. In this new novel, Cornwell launches these unforgettable characters on an intensely psychological odyssey that includes the mysterious death of a Hollywood mogul's daughter, aircraft wreckage on the bottom of the sea in the Bermuda Triangle, a grisly gift left in the back of a crime scene truck, and videos from the past that threaten to destroy Scarpetta's entire world and everyone she loves. The diabolical presence behind what unfolds seems obvious - but strangely, not to the FBI. Certainly that's the message they send when they raid Lucy's estate and begin building a case that could send her to prison for the rest of her life. In the latest novel in her bestselling series featuring chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell will captivate readers with the shocking twists, high-wire tension, and cutting-edge forensic detail that she is famous for, proving yet again why she's the world's #1 bestselling crime writer.

Phil Roxbee Cox Frog on a Log

Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton

Andrew Crumey

Edwina Currie

Edwina Currie

Edwina Currie

Edwina Currie Edwina Currie has written some steamy thrillers, but in this latest novel she has produced a credible vehicle for some serious ideas that show her as unusually free-thinking despite her own political roots.

The Ambassador falls somewhere between political thriller and science fiction, with a small romantic drama running through it. Set in 2099, the book advances a coherent vision of a fully federal European Union that has become so powerful it is the leading superpower. China remains in careful isolationism, as does a weak United States. The reason for the European success is its work on genetics; diseases and disabilities, along with tendencies to destructive behaviour, are eliminated carefully at conception or shortly after birth. Prosperity and long life are freely on offer. There seems to be no unhappiness. Can it be that, in Voltaire's ironic words, "the best of all possible worlds" has now arrived?

William "Bill" Strether, American ambassador to London, suspects not. Coming from a country where Fundamentalist Christianity has ensured the abolition of genetic work and cloning of humans, he has to overcome his distaste for the society while admiring its success (a nice inversion of how Europeans think of the U.S. in the present day). A naïve but brave humanist, he is impressed at first, but finds more and more reasons for concern as the futuristic paradise reveals sinister and secretive machinations. The novel acknowledges Brave New World as a model, but the abuse of eugenics has an even more terrible side in The Ambassador; Currie knows the political establishment and its arrogance and power well, of course, and compellingly renders the smooth self-justifications of her villains and the sickening terror of state control. In fact, the book transcends the thriller genre in its debates about genetic science; Currie articulates every side of this complex moral issue, and one's sympathies slide and waver.

The book also achieves a political wit in its details and asides that makes it even more of a pleasure. Despite the triumph of meritocracy in the U.S., the abolition of discrimination in Europe (not to mention the official denials about cloning), and the withering of the hereditary principle, the names of Currie's minor characters show that dynasties somehow maintain power anyway. A Kennedy is US President; a young Murdoch is still a media tycoon. Another media tycoon bears the hybrid name "Maxwell Packer". Margaret Thatcher is spoken of as a figure from history books, sometimes with approval and sometimes more sardonically. At one point President Clinton is referred to: "the second one, you know—Chelsea". These humorous references remind one that this amusing and compelling piece of political science fiction is based on themes—European federalism, genetics, civil liberties—that are, and will continue to be, highly topical.—Robert Potts

Edwina Currie There is an avalanche of books dealing with the sexual problems of twenty-something and thirty-something women, so many will applaud Edwina Currie tackling a typical modern woman who just happens to be approaching mid-life. Of course, being written by the unblushing Ms. Currie, Chasing Men is anything but a sociological study—more a raunchy narrative in the style of her A Parliamentary Affair and A Woman's Place but with erotic scenes that make her previous work look like something written for a ladies' sewing circle. Even before the book was available, there was much word of mouth on a three-page sequence in which Currie's heroine Hetty vigorously investigates the joys of masturbation and this is a pretty solid indicator of what curious readers might expect (in other words, if sexual discretion in novels is your preference, this is not for you). But those in search of a an exuberant and fiery tale about a woman deciding to re-establish her own sexual identity will definitely find this unputdownable.

Hetty Clarkson, attractive and single, is stuck in a flat she is not happy with and finding it difficult to get that elusive job in the media. But unlike the thousands of young women facing this situation, Hetty is that awkward creature, the mid-life single woman. After a failed marriage, she is being advised by friends and family to chase men—but Hetty isn't convinced. Needless to say, for she decides to alter her life and she is soon sampling an interesting range of men who offer a very diverse range of sexual experiences. Currie has ensured that her sympathetic heroine is surrounded by a satisfyingly characterised group of soul mates: a priest with a taste for the bawdy, an ageing professor and the gay couple upstairs (The treatment of the latter couple reminds one that in her days as an MP, Currie upset many in her party by her distinctly liberal views). All of the characters have challenged convention in one way or another—but does Hetty have what it takes to defy society's hidebound rules and find what she is looking for? As in the earlier books, Currie knows precisely how to keep the reader hanging on for that next paragraph: Hetty sat on the edge of the bed, lifted the whisky glass to her lips and drank. She shook her head as if to disperse the alcohol more quickly, then poured herself another. The bedside light's pink shade cast a rosy glow over the duvet, the pillows, the library copy of Anais Nin ... and the copy of Hot Sex left on the studio canteen table, which nobody had claimed. She took off her clothes with calm deliberation, let them fall unhindered to the floor. And sat facing the mirror. It needed more whisky: she had never done this before. Never needed to before ... —Barry Forshaw

Clive Cussler

Roald Dahl

Erich von Daniken

Yvonne Deutch

Julian Dibbell LambdaMOO is one of the more successful net domains where the multiple fanciful identities of its users chat, politick and have surprising quantities of virtual sex. It was also a domain where community had to be built from scratch to expel a persona who had committed outrageous verbal sexual violence, a place that briefly found itself at the cutting edge where good manners is forced to become frontier law. Dibbell started off as a journalist who visited the domain in pursuit of a hot story. For a few heady months he was the chronicler of the growth of effective democracy, its struggle with an implicit elite of technocrat programmers and the campaign to punish an annoying polemicist with expulsion that had been the penalty for virtual rape. In the same months, he was adding terrain to the domain—a garden which actualised the I Ching—and learning the jealousies that go with virtual sex and gender swap. And, in the end, he left, deciding that real life was more important. This is an attractive and thoughtful book; its criticism of the virtual lifestyle is reasoned and not without ambiguity—Dibbell has rejected the home and friends he once loved, but with pain, not anger. —Roz Kaveney

Francis Dick

William Diehl

William Diehl

Michael Dobbs

Michael Dobbs

Michael Dobbs

Michael Dobbs

Michael Dobbs

Michael Dobbs

Michael Dobbs

Michael Dobbs

Michael Dobbs

Eric Dominy

Stephen Donaldson

Stephen Donaldson

Stephen Donaldson

Stephen Donaldson

Stephen Donaldson

Stephen Donaldson

Stephen Donaldson In 1977, Stephen Donaldson changed the face of epic fantasy. With the publication of THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT THE UNBELIEVER, Donaldson took the world of fantasy publishing by storm, and created a true phenomenon: an epic fantasy instant bestseller that has gone on to sell millions. The 'hero', Thomas Covenant, is mysteriously struck down with a disease believed eradicated; he is abandoned by his wife and young son and becomes a pariah. Alone and despairing, Covenant falls - and is drawn into a mysterious new world, where gentle people work magic and the earth itself brings healing. He is welcomed as the reincarnation of a legendary saviour, but Covenant refuses to believe; he's convinced he's having delusions. At the end of the sixth book, as Covenant battles to save the world, he is killed - in both worlds - as Dr Linden Avery, his horrified companion, looks on. Now comes the book every fantasy reader has been waiting for. It's ten years later, and Linden Avery thought she would never see the Land, or Covenant, her beloved, again. But Lord Foul has stolen her adopted son, and is unmaking the very laws of nature.And though she believes Covenant dead, he keeps sending Linden messages: 'Find me', and 'Don't trust me'. The Land is in turmoil, and Lord Foul has plans for them all ...

Stephen Donaldson Stephen Donaldson returns to the internationally bestselling story of Thomas Covenant and The Land in this awesome, cataclysmic adventure.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Margaret Drabble

Alexandre Dumas Inspiration for many a movie and TV adaptation, this is an epic of chivalry, honour and derring-do, set in France during the 1620s, and is satisfyingly peopled with romantic heroes, unattainable heroines, kings, queens, cavaliers and criminals, and contains in abundance adventure, espionage, conspiracy, murder, vengeance, love, and scandal.

David Eddings

David Eddings

Imogen Edwards-Jones

Imogen Edwards-Jones

Imogen Edwards-Jones

Imogen Edwards-Jones

Imogen Edwards-Jones, Anonymous

Bret Easton Ellis A novel that confounds one expectation after another, passing through comedy and mounting psychological and supernatural horror toward an astonishing resolution - about love and loss, fathers and sons.

Ben Elton

Ben Elton

Ben Elton

Ben Elton

Ben Elton It's 2.15 a.m. and the phone wakes you. Only someone bad would ring you at such an hour, or someone with bad news, which would probably be worse. You hear the answer-machine kick in and feel your heart beat. You listen. And then you hear the voice you least expect - a blast from the past."

Blast From The Past is the fifth novel from Ben Elton, the celebrated and controversial comedian/playwright/author whose TV credits include The Young Ones and Blackadder as well as the previous novels Stark and Popcorn. Jack Kent, US Captain stationed at Greenham Common during the early eighties, has a secret and unlikely affair with the Polly Sacred Cycle of the Womb and Moon, a 17-year-old ideological peace protester: the star-crossed lovers made Romeo and Juliet look like an arranged marriage! Pamela Anderson and the Ayatollah Khomeni would have made a more natural-looking couple. Sixteen years later and a four star General, Kent returns to Britain to seek out his only true love. Polly, now a lonely thirtysomething Equal Opportunities employee, is being stalked by the Bug when the phone rings.

Set in the staid, politically-correct nineties of New Labour Britain, the story flashes back with comic effect to the early eighties, a time of protest, strikes and Cold War. While hardcore Elton fans might be disappointed with the weak plot and smaller helpings of piercing wit and wacky socio-political observations, Blast from the Past still offers up some laugh-out-loud lines and entertaining reading. —Andrew Crawford

Ben Elton Ben Elton's Dead Famous brings together his talents in comedy and crime writing to produce a hilarious and devastating novel on the gruesome world of reality TV. Peeping Tom productions invent the perfect TV programme: House Arrest. Its slogan is: "One house. Ten contestants. Thirty cameras. Forty microphones. One survivor." This is all a clever parody of the massive TV hit Big Brother, with its vain, ambitious contestants with their:tattoos and their nipple rings, their mutual interest in star signs, their endless hugging and touching, and above all their complete lack of genuine intellectual curiosity about one single thing on this planet that was not directly connected with themselves. However, Elton adds a clever twist to this very funny send-up. On Day 27 of the programme, one of the housemates is killed live on TV. Everyone in the country has a theory about the killer, "indeed the only person who seemed to have absolutely no idea whatsoever of the killer's identity was Inspector Stanley Spencer Coleridge, the police officer in charge of the investigation". Coleridge is an old fogey from the 1950s, who has to learn quickly about lesbians, piercings, blow jobs and the seductions of TV fame before he can crack the case. Elton's wicked parody of the housemates is brilliant, the murder fiendish in its ingenuity, and the ending wonderfully over the top. Dead Famous is great fun, and even has some social comment thrown in for good measure. —Jerry Brotton

Ben Elton Ben Elton's new novel High Society initially appears to be a cautionary tale about Britain today, but its vision of a society totally in thrall to criminality has elements of the visionary novel about it. Happily, the state of the nation is not (yet) quite as awful as it's rendered in this terrifying kaleidoscope. We're taken into a world in which drug use holds total sway, and the whole world essentially functions as a single criminal network. From royalty and the upper crust to drug abusers and prostitutes—right across the social spectrum—we are (in Elton's unsparing universe) plunging into a criminal world.

Elton's cast of characters is massive, but all (notably a government minister who is trying to push through a bill to legalise drugs) are etched in with maximum vividness. Interestingly, although Elton casts a cold eye across the whole of society (including an unforgiving look at the media) the final effect of the book is anything but bleak. All the trademark wit is here, along with a sense of focus that is considerably more sophisticated than anything Elton has tackled before. As a serious satirical novel (yes, there is such a thing), High Society makes an indelible mark. —Barry Forshaw

Ben Elton

Ben Elton

Ben Elton

Ben Elton

Ben Elton For amiable City trader Jimmy Corby money was the new Rock n' Roll. His life was a party, adrenalin charged and cocaine fuelled. If he hadn't met Monica he would probably have ended up either dead or in rehab. But Jimmy was as lucky in love as he was at betting on dodgy derivatives, so instead of burning out, his star burned brighter than ever.

Ben Elton For amiable City trader Jimmy Corby money was the new Rock n' Roll. His life was a party, adrenalin charged and cocaine fuelled. If he hadn't met Monica he would probably have ended up either dead or in rehab. But Jimmy was as lucky in love as he was at betting on dodgy derivatives, so instead of burning out, his star burned brighter than ever.

Steven Erikson

Steven Erikson

Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum, Janet Evanovich's bounty hunter star of Seven Up, is good at her job partly because of her infinite resourcefulness and partly because her world is one in which everyone on all sides of the law knows at least one member of her extended family. In this, the seventh offering in the Stephanie Plum series, she is chasing an elderly mobster who used to go out with her grandmother. Eddie DeChooch, though, is no less formidable for being old and he constantly eludes Stephanie, the police who want to question him about the corpse Stephanie found in his garage and Joyce, her arch-rival in the bail bond enforcement business. Stephanie's crowded social life gets ever more intense with her family pressing her to name a date for her wedding to Joe, her unreliable cop fiancé, her drastically attractive colleague Ranger, asking her for a night of bliss, her horribly perfect sister Valerie back from California with a down on men and the idiot stoners Moonman and Doug wandering around in super-hero costumes. Evanovich constantly ups the comic ante; DeChooch and his sidekicks manage to be menacingly obnoxious while remaining credibly characters in a farce. The social observation of families is as acute as ever while never passing up the chance for snappy one-liners. Above all, Stephanie herself remains a delightful tone of voice—a heroine considerably braver than she ever lets herself notice and rather smarter an investigator than she or anyone else gives her credit for being. —Roz Kaveney

Janet Evanovich Bombshell bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is back on her Harley. As she spirals and tumbles through the frenetic and incendiary world of Plum she can hardly catch her breath, let alone her man - even if she could decide which one to chase...

Janet Evanovich

Janet Evanovich

Janet Evanovich

Janet Evanovich

Janet Evanovich

Janet Evanovich

Janet Evanovich

Janet Evanovich

Ron Evans, Douglas Thompson Meet Ron Evans. He's a normal, laconic guy in his late-fifties, with an incredible and revealing story to tell. Ron spent fifteen years as a member of the 'A Squad', the Protection Officers of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch. In his thirty-year career Ron has been flying by the seat of his pants. Equipped with what he describes as a 'Boy Scout's training' by SO19, he was quickly sent onto the streets and into the firing line with a licence to kill. Charged with the personal protection of some of the world's highest-profile figures - politicians, businessmen, the cultural elite - expecting to 'take a bullet' day after day, armed with a shoot-to-kill policy and instinctive bravery, this exceptional man walked a deadly path throughout his career. He still does, as an international protection officer.Many spies and politicians have told their stories before, but Ron is the first Protection Officer ever to break ranks.

Nicholas Fairbairn

Jan Fairley

John & Simon Welfare. Fairley

Norma (ed) Farnes

Sebastian Faulks A variety of authors have written 007 novels since the death of Bond's creator, Ian Fleming — and the results have been mixed, to say the least. As 'Robert Markham', Kingsley Amis penned the very first post-Fleming Bond, and this attempt by a novelist better known for his 'literary' work was judged a success. Now, after a decade of less successful entries by such writers as John Gardener, we have another serious writer, Sebastian Faulks (author of such acclaimed novels as Birdsong), taking up the challenge.

Devil May Care has already collected a jaw-dropping amount of publicity, with even the Royal Navy helping to put the book firmly at the top of the best-seller charts (Bond is, of course, a naval commander), and few books have had such wind under their sails (the relaunch of the movie franchise with the re-make of Casino Royale and Daniel Craig's second Bond film, Quantum of Solace, is all part of the ever-accelerating momentum). Of course, this also gives the book farther to fall if it misses the mark.

Faulks' author credit on the book ('Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming') is both revealing and encouraging – the author has reportedly said that he undertook the task with total seriousness, and he has tried to work within the parameters of the Ian Fleming formula (Faulks re-read all the extant Bond novels and stories) rather than the more glossy film incarnation. Among several very canny moves by the author is his decision to keep his 007 in the 1960s rather than catapulting him into the 21st century (as other ersatz Fleming novels – and, of course, the films — have done. So how successful are the results?

Fleming aficionados can relax – this is a sterling job of recreation, and a novel that functions with total authority in its own right. The evocation of time and place (or places, notably Paris and the Middle East) is impeccable, as are the plotting and detail (as colourful and violent as anything in Fleming); there is a satisfyingly unpleasant larger-than-life villain, Julius Gorner, with a grotesque deformity of the kind Fleming often gave such characters (the chapter 'The monkey's hand' gives this away) and grandiose, evil ambitions. Best of all, this is Ian Fleming's James Bond – not a superman — worried about his health and his physical powers (which he fears may be on the wane). Delicious stuff in fact. Now... can Faulks be persuaded to write another such novel? —Barry Forshaw.

Vanessa Feltz

Sarah Ferguson, Jeff Coplon

Helen Fielding In the course of the year recorded in Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget confides her hopes, her dreams, and her monstrously fluctuating poundage, not to mention her consumption of 5277 cigarettes and "Fat units 3457 (approx.) (hideous in every way)." In 365 days, she gains 74 pounds. On the other hand, she loses 72! There is also the unspoken New Year's resolution—the quest for the right man. Alas, here Bridget goes severely off course when she has an affair with her charming cad of a boss. But who would be without their e-mail flirtation focused on a short black skirt? The boss even contends that it is so short as to be nonexistent.

At the beginning of Helen Fielding's exceptionally funny second novel, the thirtyish publishing puffette is suffering from postholiday stress syndrome but determined to find Inner Peace and poise. Bridget will, for instance, "get up straight away when wake up in mornings." Now if only she can survive the party her mother has tricked her into—a suburban fest full of "Smug Marrieds" professing concern for her and her fellow "Singletons"—she'll have made a good start. As far as she's concerned, "We wouldn't rush up to them and roar, 'How's your marriage going? Still having sex?'"

This is only the first of many disgraces Bridget will suffer in her year of performance anxiety (at work and at play, though less often in bed) and living through other people's "emotional fuckwittage." Her twin-set-wearing suburban mother, for instance, suddenly becomes a chat-show hostess and unrepentant adulteress, while our heroine herself spends half the time overdosing on Chardonnay and feeling like "a tragic freak." Bridget Jones's Diary began as a column in the London Independent and struck a chord with readers of all sexes and sizes. In strokes simultaneously broad and subtle, Helen Fielding reveals the lighter side of despair, self-doubt, and obsession, and also satirizes everything from self-help books (they don't sound half as sensible to Bridget when she's sober) to feng shui, Cosmopolitan-style. She is the Nancy Mitford of the 1990s, and it's impossible not to root for her endearing heroine. On the other hand, one can only hope that Bridget will continue to screw up and tell us all about it for years and books to come. —Kerry Fried

Helen Fielding 7:15 am Hurrah! The wilderness years are over. For four weeks and five days now have been in functional relationship with adult male thereby proving am not love pariah as previously feared. So begins The Edge of Reason, Bridget Jones' hilarious foray into the not-so-sexy realities of relationships, the laughable legions of self-help theories and a television career that would have her model "tiny shorts next to a blow-up of Fergie in gym wear". Picking up where Bridget Jones' Diary left off, everyone's favourite singleton has finally landed her love, Mark Darcy. However, she's finding—among other things—that her dreamboat is less than ideal. Aside from never doing the washing up or foraging through the isles at Tesco, Mark, it seems, has taken an interest in the viperous "jellyfish" Rebecca, who has "thighs like a baby giraffe" and a penchant for boyfriend snatching.

If that isn't enough, Richard "I'm thinking bunny girl! I'm thinking Gladiator! I'm thinking canvassing MP!" Finch, Bridget's smarmy, cocaine-encrusted boss and Executive Producer of Sit Up, wants her to be the show's clown, in effect making her the arse of television. What's more, a builder who has an obsession for large, slimy fish seems to have forgotten about the hole he knocked out in her flat, putting her entire life on display for the neighbours. Not to mention a mother who wants her to go to see Ms. Saigon with a Kikuya tribesman hijacked from Kenya.

Never fear, Bridge's singleton posse—Shazzer, Jude and Tom—are always a phone call away and armed with bottles of Chardonnay, packs of Silk Cut, pizza and a cornucopia of self-help literature. Whether they're decoding acronyms in singles ads (GSOH and WLTM? "Giant sore on head. Willy, limp, thin mollusc."), developing the ground-breaking "Pashima theory" or dolling out unsolicited advice, the FOBs (friends of Bridget) make up most of the comedy.

Although The Edge of Reason is filled with signature B.J. manoeuvres, such as drunken Christmas card writing and wearing an unruly rubber girdle, it's a departure from the original. Throughout most of its 422 pages the plot clips at a steady rate, then, much like Bridget's train of thought, the ending skitters, careens and breaks off into two incoherent tracks—one more absurd than the other. The outcome is a metamorphosed Bridget, one more reminiscent of a British Alley McBeal than the personification of England's everywoman. —Rebekah Warren

Katrina S Firlik

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Carl Fogarty Carl Fogarty—"Foggy" to his legion of fans around the globe—is, quite simply, a Superbike legend and arguably the best ever motorbike rider from Britain. He is also something of a sporting rarity. Not only is he a consistent British world champion, but superstar status has failed to affect his honest and down-to-earth approach to life.

He is the major box office attraction of the increasingly popular World Superbike Championship, which he has won a record four times, amongst other world crowns. In 1999, an amazing 120,000 fans turned up to watch him race at Brands Hatch.

Foggy is a typically frank account of the transformation from a shy awkward teenager to the self-assured celebrity and Superbike legend. It details the dangers of his sport, personal tragedies, the hell-raising years and the sport's unique sex appeal. But Fogarty is essentially a family man and he has retained his roots in the Lancashire town of Blackburn, where he lives with his wife Michaela and his two daughters.

The book provides a unique insight the big money deals that have made him a multi-millionaire and the problems that go hand in hand with such wealth. Track rivals are not spared the forthright Fogarty treatment in some startling revelations about the cut-and-thrust world of his profession. Most of all, though, he displays an ability to laugh at himself, one of the endearing charms that makes Carl Fogarty's life story a rollercoaster ride of humour and emotion.

Colin Forbes

Colin Forbes

Colin Forbes

Colin Forbes Intriguingly, the books that come to mind as distant progenitors of Colin Forbes’ The Vorpal Blade are John Buchan's Richard Hannay thrillers; there's the same continent-spanning feel along with the notion of an ill-assorted yet highly functional group banding together to defeat a wily opponent who threatens the West. Of course, Forbes is always contemporary in his range of references and his protagonists (homicide cop Tweed and his SIS colleagues Paula Grey and Bob Newman) have little in common with Buchan’s gentleman adventurers. But Forbes more than stands comparison with his illustrious predecessor and the action here has a kinetic quality that leaps off the page.

A series of grisly murder cases land on Tweed’s desk and he's obliged to revert to his role as Homicide Superintendent at the Yard. But he's still Deputy Director of the SIS and he can call on his usual team. As he realises the imposing organisation that's behind the systematic slayings, he travels from Bray in Britain to Maine in the USA (via Montreux and Switzerland) and finds he's dealing with no-one less than Russell Straub, the US vice president. Straub may soon be the most powerful man in the world—but what is his connection with the bizarre Arbogast family? It's Tweed's colleague, the shrewd and tough Paula Grey, who finally tracks down the knife-wielder—with terrifying results.

Forbes' breathtaking productivity (this is his 28th novel) has never led him into mere by-rote word spinning (unlike several of his contemporaries) and this is a dizzying ride of a thriller, barrelling unstoppably to a grim closure. —Barry Forshaw

Frederick Forsyth

Clare Francis 'In the downpour, the taxi window was like bottle glass, it made her image distort and shimmy and blur. Yet even as he wiped the fog impatiently from the glass, something in the woman's half-profile, in the line of her jaw, in the way she walked, made him sit up and press his nose to the window. The red wall of a slow-moving bus blocked his vision at the critical moment, but he knew.' ........... Joe struggling to survive his job in a high-powered law firm, is faced with the challenge of finding his childhood friend Jenna who has been missing for four years. But has she disappeared through choice? Or is she under the powerful influence of her husband, the restless, troubled Chetwood? For Joe, the search is a matter of duty, but also of conscience - for he introduced them to each other, he was enthralled by them both... Helped by his prickly girlfriend, Sarah, Joe manages to find the beautiful, faded Jenna, only to realize too late that he has set some terrible events in motion...

Duane Franklet

Stephen Franzoi This distinctive, theory-driven text uses “The Self” as a theme to give students a meaningful context for exploring the key concepts of social psychology. New "Applications" sections have been incorporated into most chapters, and new "Featured Study" sections at the end of every chapter summarize the purpose, method, and results of recently published scientific articles. Retaining the emphasis on methodology, the fourth edition also continues the tradition of strong gender coverage, while expanding the coverage of social cognition and social neuroscience and introducing the new SocialSense CD-ROM.

Michael Frayn Michael Frayn's first novel for over fifteen years is a witty and playful account of what it's like to be on the fringes of the creative process. It is written in the form of a series of letters sent by a minor English Literature academic to his old friend in Australia.

Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry Ned Maddstone has it all. He's handsome and talented; he has the love of a beautiful woman and in 1980, he stands at the brink of a glittering future. He rounds off an outstanding public school career with a sailing trip to Scotland, which is where his fortunes enter a terrifying tailspin. Determined to honour the dying wish of his sailing instructor, Ned returns to London, where the schemes of jealous classmates catapult him into a 10-year nightmare. Confined to a solitary Hell, believed dead by all those who loved him, Ned transforms from a terminally nice guy into a creature bent on revenge, a revenge both satisfying and apocalyptic.

Few writers can deliver so much in one package, but here Stephen Fry combines a riotous satire of the privileged classes with elements of the darkest thrillers. While the plot bounces from the sublime to the surreal, his characters remain acutely real. Ned's classmates, slow-witted hedonist Rufus Cade, and the Machiavellian climber Ashley Barson-Garland—who is aroused by the sight of straw boaters—are masterful creations. This novel has nothing to do with tennis, and everything to do with the cruel logic of Fate. Game, set and match to Mr Fry. - - Matthew Baylis

Stephen Fry Stephen Fry is not just a multi-award-winning comedian and actor, but also an author, director and presenter. He is one of the most influential cultural forces in the country. This title details some of the most turbulent and least well known years of his life.

Elizabeth Gage

Elizabeth Gage

Neil Gaiman Best known for his Sandman graphic novels about Morpheus, Lord of Dreams, Neil Gaiman has also written the standalone books Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett), Never Where from his BBC TV series revealing a fantastic realm under London, and Star Dust, a poignant fairy tale. His shorter fantasies are regularly picked for Year's Best collections. Smoke and Mirrors assembles 36 of his favourite stories, prose poems, and verse pieces. Among the imaginative inventions here are a murder mystery set among angels in heaven; the discovery of the Holy Grail at Oxfam; warped retellings of fairy tales and folklore, including a Snow White that's black beyond belief; several clever variations on vampirism; a firm of contract killers with a very remarkable discount scheme; homages to Michael Moorcock and H.P. Lovecraft (one splendidly funny) that avoid mere pastiche; an SF world of rapid and reversible sex changes; Beowulf retold as a Baywatch episode; a tasty amalgamation of computers and black magic; a new final book of the Bible; and the grim wedding present that's simply a manuscript telling a bleakly different story of the recipients' unfolding marriage. SF/fantasy professionals themselves envy Gaiman's perpetual flow of new ideas and ability to put a fresh spin on old ones. Smoke and Mirrors is a dazzlingly varied and rewarding collection. —David Langford

Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman, Edward E. Kramer "Wake up, sir. We're here". It's a simple enough opening line—although not many would have guessed back in 1991 that this would lead to one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comics of the second half of the century.

In Preludes and Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman weaves the story of a man interested in capturing the physical manifestation of Death but who instead captures the King of Dreams. By Gaiman's own admission there's a lot in this first collection that is awkward and ungainly—which is not to say there are not frequent moments of greatness here. The chapter "24 Hours" is worth the price of the book alone; it stands as one of the most chilling examples of horror in comics. And let's not underestimate Gaiman's achievement of personifying Death as a perky, overly cheery, cute goth girl! All in all, there is a roguish breaking of new ground in this book which is preferable to the often dull precision of the concluding volumes of the Sandman series. —Jim Pascoe

Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett Pratchett (of Discworld fame) and Gaiman (of Sandman fame) may seem an unlikely combination, but the topic (Armageddon) of this fast-paced novel is old hat to both. Pratchett's wackiness collaborates with Gaiman's morbid humour; the result is a humanist delight to be savoured and read again and again. You see, there was a bit of a mix-up when the Antichrist was born, due in part to the machinations of Crowley, who did not so much fall as saunter downwards, and in part to the mysterious ways as manifested in the form of a part-time rare book dealer, an angel named Aziraphale. Like top agents everywhere, they've long had more in common with each other than the sides they represent, or the conflict they are nominally engaged in. The only person who knows how it will all end is Agnes Nutter, a witch whose prophecies all come true, if one can only manage to decipher them. The minor characters along the way (Famine makes an appearance as diet crazes, no-calorie food and anorexia epidemics) are as much fun as the story as a whole, which adds up to one of those rare books which is enormous fun to read the first time, and the second time, and the third time.…

James Finn Garner

Paul Gascoigne

Bill Gates So where do you want to go tomorrow? That's the question Bill Gates tries to answer in Business @ the Speed of Thought. Gates offers a 12-step programme for companies wanting to do business in the next millennium. The book's premise: Thanks to technology, the speed of business is accelerating at an ever-increasing rate and to survive, it must develop an infrastructure—a "digital nervous system"—that allows for the unfettered movement of information inside a company. Gates writes: "The most meaningful way to differentiate your company from your competition ... is to do an outstanding job with information. How you gather, manage and use information will determine whether you win or lose."

The book is peppered with examples of companies that have already successfully engineered information networks to manage inventory, sales, and customer relationships better. The examples run from Coca-Cola's ability to download sales data from vending machines to Microsoft's own internal practices, such as its reliance on e-mail for company-wide communication and the conversion of most paper processes to digital ones (an assertion that seems somewhat at odds with the now-infamous "by hand on sheets of paper" method of tracking profits that was revealed during Microsoft's antitrust trial).

While Gates breaks no new ground—dozens of authors have been writing about competing on a digital playing field for some time, among them Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian in Information Rules and Patricia Seybold in Customers.com—businesses that want a wakeup call may find this book a ringer. With excerpts in Time magazine, a dedicated Web site and an all-out media assault, Microsoft is working hard to push Business @ the Speed of Thought into the international dialogue and for many it will be difficult to see the book as anything but a finely tuned marketing campaign for the forthcoming versions of Windows NT and MS Office. Nevertheless, as Gates has shown time and time again, he, Microsoft, and perhaps even this book you may ignore at your own peril. —Harry C. Edwards, Amazon.com

Bill Gates, etc. Love him or loathe him, Mr Microsoft is certainly an influential voice in the modern business world and The Road Ahead is definitely an important addition to any business library. Gates's description of the beginnings of the information age, while somewhat over-emphasizing his own contributions and downplaying those of his competitors, is nonetheless as clear and enlightening as any in print today. Likewise, his view of the digital future—from hardware to software and education to entertainment—should be read and studied by all who use technology in their business today or plan to use it on the road ahead.

David Gemmell

David Gemmell

David Gemmell

David Gemmell This novel continues the story of the Druss and Nadir tribes, which began in "Legend" and "Druss the Legend".

David Gemmell Upon the death of three kings the world will be plunged into darkness. Two of the kings are dead and the third is about to be born. All the terrifying forces of evil range against the pregnant queen and it is up to three old men, discarded by the king, to save the unborn king.

David Gemmell The prophecy had come true. The world spun. Tidal waves lashed the planet, and a new ice age dawned. The few survivors of a once great empire struggled to rebuild, to hold their ground against the rising barbarian tide. Then two moons appeared in the skies, unleashing a terrible evil.

David Gemmell

David Gemmell Bane the Bastard is the illegitimate son of the Rigante king who men called Demonblade. Born of treachery, Bane grew up an outcast in his own land, feared by his fellow highlanders, and denied by the father whose unmistakable mark he bore–the eyes of Connavar, one tawny brown, the other emerald green.

Hounded from the country of his birth, Bane found acceptance across the seas–only to have it stripped away in an instant by a cruel and deadly swordsman. Now fighting as a gladiator in the blood-soaked arenas of the Empire, Bane lives for one thing: revenge. And he pursues his goal with the same single-minded determination that won his father a crown.

But more is at stake than a young warrior’s quest for vengeance. The armies of the Stone are preparing to march on the lands of the Rigante. The fate of human and Seidh alike will be decided by the clash of swords–and by the bonds of twisted love and bitterness between a father and a son . . .

From the Paperback edition.

David Gemmell

David Gemmell

David Gemmell When it comes to the crackle of action, high adventure, lush worlds, and vivid magic, bestselling author David Gemmell is the master. But Gemmell’s supreme gift is his ability to create mythic characters, good and evil, who rise up to become flesh and blood. Now, with Ravenheart, Gemmell continues his Rigante series in a novel that is as satisfying as it is astonishing.

RAVENHEART

Eight hundred years have passed since King Connavar of the Rigante and his bastard son, Bane, defeated the invading army of Stone. In that time, Connavar has become a legend, and the Rigante have lost the freedom so many gave their lives to preserve. A conquered people, they live and die under the iron rule of the Varlish, their culture all but destroyed. The laws are oppressive and severely enforced: No Rigante can own a sword nor wear the clan colors. Any who disobey the law will answer to the Moidart, the cruel and vengeful Lord of Eldacre Castle. They will answer with the swift punishment of death.

Only one woman remains who follows the ancient paths once trod by the Rigante. She is the Wyrd of Wishing Tree Wood–and she alone knows the nature of the evil soon to be unleashed on a doomed and unsuspecting world.

In a perilous land, facing an uncertain future, the Wyrd finds her initial hopes pinned on two men: Jaim Grymauch, the giant Rigante fighter, a man haunted by his failure to save his best friend from betrayal; and Kaelin Ring, a youth whose deadly talents will earn him the rancor of all Varlish. One will become the Ravenheart, an outlaw leader whose daring exploits will inspire the Rigante. The other will forge a legend–and light the fires of revolution.

But in truth, all hope may ultimately rest on a third man: a man who must overcome generations of fear and hatred to fulfill his destiny. With the blood of Connavar the King running through his veins, he is a Varlish nobleman. But even worse–he is the son of the Rigante’s most brutal enemy.

David Gemmell Spellbinding action and breathless adventure–these are the realms of David Gemmell. His mythic characters represent the ultimates in good and evil, and everything in between. Brilliant warriors, they are heartbreakingly human in their ability to love, sacrifice, and summon extraordinary courage when all seems lost. With Stormrider, Gemmell continues his spectacular Rigante saga as the imperiled highland clan faces its deadliest threat . . . and calls for it's greatest hero.

STORMRIDER
A Novel of the Rigante

Centuries ago, Connavar’s triumphant battles against the invading army of Stone gained the Rigante their freedom, yet magic that once flourished has been all but snuffed out. The Varlish king and his barons have stolen Rigante lands and robbed the people of their culture and liberty. From the Rigante's former seat of power the black-hearted Moidart rules; only in the north are the clansmen free. There, in the Druagh mountains, the magic still reigns, strengthened by bold, brilliant victories of the outlaw leader known as Ravenheart.

One glorious spark, one moment of Rigante rebellion, has ignited a revolution and forged a legend. The conquered clans set about to rediscover their greatness–yet theirs is not the only call to arms. In the south, civil war has drenched the land in blood, and the armies of destruction have begun creeping north. There the brooding Ravenheart waits, knowing the forces of the hated Moidart will come, led by the brutal ruler’s only son, Stormrider.

Ravenheart and Stormrider: enemies of uncommon courage, are unaware that the fate of the world lies in their hands. Faced with this inexorable advance, deadly foes will be forced to unite, and a secret lost in the uncharted past will return to haunt these two warriors as they face the vengeance of an ancient evil. Immense armies of darkness advance on the highlanders, and it seems as if nothing will stop them. They crush their enemies with ease, until only a few thousand men stand before them, with no help in sight.

But these are not ordinary men they face. They are clansmen, and more than that, they are Rigante.

David Gemmell White Wolf marks a return to the bestselling Drenai series and David Gemmell’s most popular hero of all, Druss the Legend.

Skilgannon the Damned had vanished from the pages of history. No-one knew where he had gone, following the terrible triumph at Perapolis, and the assasins sent by the Witch Queen could find no trace of his passing. Three years later, a murderous mob gathers outside a monastery, faced by a single, unarmed priest. In a few terrifying seconds their world is changed for ever, and word spreads across the lands of the East — Skilgannon is back.

Now he must travel across a perilous, demon-haunted realm seeking a mysterious temple and the ageless goddess who rules it. With assassins on his trail and an army of murderous foes ahead, the Damned sets off on a quest to bring the dead to life. But he does not travel alone. The man beside him is Druss the Legend.

In this tale of love, betrayal and treachery, in a world torn by war, White Wolf examines the nature of heroism and friendship and the narrow lines dividing good and evil.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

David Gemmell

David Gemmell

David Gemmell, Stella Gemmell Darkness falls on the Great Green, and the Ancient World is fiercely divided.

On the killing fields outside the golden city of Troy, forces loyal to the Mykene King mass. Among them is Odysseus, fabled storyteller and reluctant ally to the Mykene, who knows that he must soon face his former friends in deadly combat.

Within the city, the Trojan king waits. Ailing and bitter, his hope is pinned on two heroes: his favourite son Hektor, and the dread Helikaon who will wreak terrible vengeance for the death of his wife at Mykene hands.

War has been declared — a war filled with bloodlust, and peopled by heroes who will live forever in a story that will echo down the centuries.

From the Paperback edition.

David A. Gemmell

David A. Gemmell

Tess Gerritsen For a considerable time Tess Gerritsen has been producing some of the most challenging — and disturbing — crime novels being written today. A speciality, of course, is her preparedness to go further than most authors would dare to — male or female — and with The Mephisto Club, she once more seems prepared to face the reader and say: if you can take it, I can dish it out. While Gerritsen has found new things to say in the genre of the serial killer novel, what really distinguishes her work is the brilliant characterisation of her twin heroines, medical examiner Dr Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli. Both protagonists feature in this latest novel, and while it might not crank up the tension to the same degree as the remarkable Vanish, it will be a rare reader indeed who will be able to put this one down.

Christmas in Boston brings horror rather than good cheer when a woman's body is found dismembered in a crime scene that leaves even hardened cops queasy. Doctor Maura Isles is assigned to the case, but soon another brutal murder takes place: a woman has been mutilated and murdered on Beacon Hill, near the home of the director of the Mephisto Club. This is a clandestine society whose subject is the study of evil — and its agenda is to confront it in its most unadulterated forms. As Detective Jane Rizzoli becomes involved, it’s quickly apparent that both women (no strangers to the bloodiest extremes of human cruelty) are up against something which is close to a distillation of the purest evil.

This isn't quite Tess Gerritsen on her very best form, but it’s still more compelling and audacious than most thrillers being written today. The legions of Tess Gerritsen fans need not hesitate. —Barry Forshaw

William Gibson

William Gibson Former rock singer Hollis Henry has lost a lot of money in the crash, which means she can't turn down the offer of a job from Hubertus Bigend, sinister Belgian proprietor of mysterious ad agency Blue Ant. Milgrim is working for Bigend too. Bigend admires the ex-addict's linguistic skills and street knowledge so much that he's even paid for his costly rehab. So together Hollis and Milgrim are at the front line of Bigend's attempts to get a slice of the military budget, and they gradually realize he has some very dangerous competitors. Which is not a great thought when you don't much trust your boss either. Gibson's new novel, set largely in London, spookily captures the paranoia and fear of our post-Crash times.

William Golding Now reissued with a new jacket the first volume of Golding's sea trilogy, which follows the trials and fortunes of a warship captain bound for Australia. Whilst at sea he writes a journal to send back to England in which he records the mounting tensions onboard ship. From the author of LORD OF THE FLIES.

William Golding

Laurence Gough Ross has done his four-year bit and is out on parole.

He has few good memories of the slammer, though he did form a friendship with Garret, a con who was doing twenty-five years for robbing an armoured car and murdering the guards. Garret’s partner in the heist, Billy, got away with two hundred and twenty thousand dollars, but was later found dead – and penniless. The money was never recovered.

Garret’s life in prison revolved around his relationship with his girlfriend, Shannon. Over the years, as Garret told Ross the stories of their romance over and over again, Ross had come to feel he knew Shannon as well as if he had been her boyfriend. When Garret, still doing time, died of stomach cancer, Ross and Shannon became pen pals.

Now he’s out, and she’s eager to see him and relive events that strangely mirror her relationship with Garret. Is Shannon falling in love with Ross? Or is it his connection with Garret and the missing money that she finds so alluring?

Meanwhile,Vancouver police detectives Jack Willows and Claire Parker are investigating the murder of a city police officer, who had a very arcane sex life. But is that the key to his death?

Once again, Laurence Gough brilliantly evokes the sights and sounds of Vancouver, as Willows and Parker do whatever it takes to solve the murder of a fellow cop, no matter where the investigation leads them…

Charles L Grant

Rob Grant

Rob Grant

John Gray

Simon R. Green A novel set in the Darkwood in the Forest Kingdom, ten years after the Demon Wars chronicled in "Blue Moon Rising". After taking delivery of a consignment of gold, a border-fortress has fallen silent, and a group consisting of a soldier, a witch, a swordswoman and a bowman are sent to investigate.

Robert Greene "Learning the game of power requires a certain way of looking at the world, a shifting of perspective," writes Robert Greene. Mastery of one's emotions, and the arts of deception and indirection are, he goes on to assert, essential. The 48 laws outlined in this book "have a simple premise: certain actions always increase one's power ... while others decrease it and even ruin us."

The laws cull their principles from many great schemers—and scheming instructors— throughout history, from Sun-Tzu to Talleyrand; from Casanova to con man Yellow Kid Weil. They are straightforward in their amoral simplicity: "Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit," or: "Discover each man's thumbscrew." Each chapter provides examples of the consequences of observance or transgression of the law, along with "keys to power," potential "reversals" (where the converse of the law might also be useful), and a single paragraph cleverly laid out to suggest an image (such as the aforementioned thumbscrew); the margins are filled with illustrative quotations. Practitioners of one-upmanship have been given a new, comprehensive training manual, as up-to-date as it is timeless.

Alec Guinness The memoirs of the actor Sir Alec Guinness. The tape includes accounts of Guinness's film career, religious beliefs and war experiences.

Mark Haddon The title The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (or the curious incident of the dog in the night-time as it appears within the book) is an appropriate one for Mark Haddon's ingenious novel both because of its reference to that most obsessive and fact-obsessed of detectives, Sherlock Holmes, and because its lower-case letters indicate something important about its narrator.

Christopher is an intelligent youth who lives in the functional hinterland of autism—every day is an investigation for him because of all the aspects of human life that he does not quite get. When the dog next door is killed with a garden fork, Christopher becomes quietly persistent in his desire to find out what has happened and tugs away at the world around him until a lot of secrets unravel messily.

Haddon makes an intelligent stab at how it feels to, for example, not know how to read the faces of the people around you, to be perpetually spooked by certain colours and certain levels of noise, to hate being touched to the point of violent reaction. Life is difficult for the difficult and prickly Christopher in ways that he only partly understands; this avoids most of the obvious pitfalls of novels about disability because it demands that we respect—perhaps admire—him rather than pity him. —Roz Kaveney

Mark Haddon

Mwenye Hadithi

Andy Hamilton, Alistair Beaton

Ray Hammond

Dian Hanson

David T. Hardy, Jason Clarke Someone was bound to go after Michael Moore eventually and Michael Moore Is A Big Fat Stupid White Man holds nothing back. An immensely popular figure to political left-wingers, Michael Moore presents himself as a regular working-class guy in a baseball cap with the courage to take some rich and powerful folks to task for their corrupt and deceitful ways. David T. Hardy and Jason Clarke say this populist, muckraker image is pure whitewash. Believing that this charade has gone on for too long, and done too much damage to the U.S., they have written this book to expose Moore as narcissistic and irresponsible and his body of work "as manipulative as totalitarian propaganda." To prove their point, they pick apart Moore's books and movies to illustrate how he is consistently manipulative, dishonest, and, at times, simply absurd. They show how he altered the timeline of his film Roger and Me in order to unfairly blame things on General Motors that happened before their layoffs, not as a result of them. Regarding Bowling for Columbine, the authors explain how he took quotes out of context and reassembled them to give the impression that people made speeches they did not make—-most famously his interview with Charlton Heston, then president of the NRA. They also illustrate how Moore manipulated statistics in his books Dude, Where’s My Country and Stupid White Men to fit his theories, making some truly outrageous claims in the process. The authors have certainly done their homework, and it's impossible to view Moore's work the same way after reading this book. "How does a man with so many contradictions manage to blind his enormous trove of followers to how hypocritical he really is? How does he get away with it?" they ask. If the authors have their way, he won't much longer. Now that Moore has joined the ranks of the rich and powerful, Hardy and Clarke have engaged in bit of muckraking of their own. —Shawn Carkonen, Amazon.com

Thomas Hardy

Robert Harris Present-day Russia is the setting for this stunning new novel from Robert Harris, author of the bestsellers Fatherland and Enigma.
        
Archangel tells the story of four days in the life of Fluke Kelso, a dissipated, middle-aged former Oxford historian, who is in Moscow to attend a conference on the newly opened Soviet archives.
        
One night, Kelso is visited in his hotel room by an old NKVD officer, a former bodyguard of the secret police chief Lavrenty Beria. The old man claims to have been at Stalin's dacha on the night Stalin had his fatal stroke, and to have helped Beria steal the dictator's private papers, among them a notebook.
        
Kelso decides to use his last morning in Moscow to check out the old man's story. But what starts as an idle inquiry in the Lenin Library soon turns into a murderous chase across nighttime Moscow and up to northern Russia—to the vast forests near the White Sea port of Archangel, where the final secret of Josef Stalin has been hidden for almost half a century.
        
Archangel combines the imaginative sweep and dark suspense of Fatherland with the meticulous historical detail of Enigma. The result is Robert Harris's most compelling novel yet.

Thomas Harris

Thomas Harris Invite Hannibal Lecter into the palace of your mind and be invited into his mind palace in turn. Note the similarities in yours and his, the high vaulted chambers of your dreams, the shadowed halls, the locked storerooms where you dare not go, the scrap of half-forgotten music, the muffled cries from behind a wall.

In one of the most eagerly anticipated literary events of the decade, Thomas Harris takes us once again into the mind of a killer, crafting a chilling portrait of insidiously evolving evil—a tour de force of psychological suspense.

Seven years have passed since Dr. Hannibal Lecter escaped from custody, seven years since FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling interviewed him in a maximum security hospital for the criminally insane. The doctor is still at large, pursuing his own ineffable interests, savoring the scents, the essences of an unguarded world. But Starling has never forgotten her encounters with Dr. Lecter, and the metallic rasp of his seldom-used voice still sounds in her dreams.

Mason Verger remembers Dr. Lecter, too, and is obsessed with revenge. He was Dr. Lecter's sixth victim, and he has survived to rule his own butcher's empire. From his respirator, Verger monitors every twitch in his worldwide web. Soon he sees that to draw the doctor, he must have the most exquisite and innocent-appearing bait; he must have what Dr. Lecter likes best.

Powerful, hypnotic, utterly original, Hannibal is a dazzling feast for the imagination. Prepare to travel to hell and beyond as a master storyteller permanently alters the world you thought you knew.

Peter Haswell

Stephen W.; Sagan, Carl [intro]; Hawking

Mo Hayder Sometimes things are far worse than you can possibly imagine. Mo Hayder's second novel The Treatment takes us further into the heart of psychological darkness than we expect to go. Someone broke into the Peaches' house and left a husband and wife chained to radiators to die of thirst and starvation, taking their young son off to an even worse fate. Inspector Jack Caffery lost his own brother to abduction and murder, which makes his hunt for the killer perhaps rather too personal. Caffery is in a dysfunctional relationship with the equally disturbed sculptor Rebecca, who survived with him through the events of Hayder's Birdman; the edginess this gives him makes him at once a brilliant investigator of an insane crime and a danger to all around him. And the killer has already struck again—another family are chained up in their home, awaiting the worst atrocity of all...This is a compellingly dark thriller—Hayder's sense of South London as an overlapping patchwork of social worlds is particularly strong and she makes an ordinary place like Brockwell Park a site of deep unease. Hayder's imaginative intensity makes her book a powerful nightmare, but works just as well when describing Caffery's eventual healing. —Roz Kaveney

Mo Hayder

Mo Hayder November in the West Country. Evening is closing in as murder detective Jack Caffery arrives to interview the victim of a car-jacking. He's dealt with routine car-thefts before, but this one is different. This car was taken by force. And on the back seat was a passenger. An eleven-year-old girl. Who is still missing.

Lian Hearn

John Hennessy

Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson

Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert A beautiful new package with a new introduction…

Millennia have passed on Arrakis, and the oncedesert planet is green with life. Leto Atreides, the son of the world’s savior, the Emperor Paul Muad’Dib, is still alive but far from human. To preserve humanity’s future, he sacrificed his own by merging with a sandworm, granting him nearimmortality as God Emperor of Dune for the past 3,500 years.

Leto’s rule is not a benevolent one. His transformation has not only made his appearance inhuman, but his morality. A rebellion has risen to oppose the despot’s rule, led by Siona, a member of the Atreides family. But Siona is unaware that Leto’s vision of a Golden Path for humanity requires her to fulfill a destiny she never wanted…or could possibly conceive…

Frank Herbert Leto Atreides, the God Emperor of Dune, is dead. In the fifteen hundred years since his passing, the Empire has fallen into ruin. The great Scattering saw millions abandon the crumbling civilization and spread out beyond the reaches of known space. The planet Arrakis-now called Rakis-has reverted to its desert climate, and its great sandworms are dying.

Now, the Lost Ones are returning home in pursuit of power. And as factions vie for control over the remnants of the Empire, a girl named Sheeana rises to prominence in the wastelands of Rakis, sending religious fervor throughout the galaxy. For she possesses the abilities of the Fremen sandriders-fulfilling a prophecy foretold by the late God Emperor...

Frank Herbert A beautiful new hardcover package for the "exciting and gripping" (Kirkus Reviews) New York Times bestselling science fiction classic.

The desert planet Arrakis, called Dune, has been destroyed. The remnants of the Old Empire have been consumed by the violent matriarchal cult known as the Honored Matres. Only one faction remains a viable threat to their total conquest-the Bene Gesserit, heirs to Dune's power.

Under the leadership of Mother Superior Darwi Odrade, the Bene Gesserit have colonized a green world on the planet Chapterhouse, and are turning it into a desert, mile by scorched mile. And once they've mastered breeding sandworms, the Sisterhood will control the production of the greatest commodity in the known galaxy-the spice Melange. But their true weapon remains a man who has lived countless lifetimes-a man who served under the God Emperor Paul Muad'Dib.

James Herbert The final part of the author's classic rodents trilogy, Domain sets an apocalyptic vision of earth. With the city torn apart by nuclear war, the people either dead or mutilated, a group of mutant rats prey on the weakened population.

James Herbert Sometimes horror is in the mind and sometimes its real. Telling the difference isnt always easy. It wasnt for Joe Creed. Hed just photographed the unreal. Now he had to pay the price, because he always thought that demons were just a joke. But the joke was on himand it wasnt very funny. It was deadly.

Eric Hill Paperback. Pub Date :2010-08-05 Pages: 24 Language: English Publisher: Puffin This bigger. brighter paperback edition of Eric Hills iconic first lift-the-flap book celebrates 30 years since first publication in hardback. The simple text and colourful pictures will engage a whole new generation of pre-readers as they lift the picture flaps in search of Spot. A number 1 bestseller since it was first published in 1980. this interactive favourite has stayed in the charts ever since.

Robin Hobb With the creation of the magnificent Farseer and Liveship Traders trilogies, Robin Hobb has emerged as one of the foremost fantasy authors of our time. Now she continues the tale of FitzChivalry Farseer in the first book of what promises to be her most spectacular trilogy yet.

A work of dazzling scope, brilliance, and sheer imaginative artistry, Fool’s Errand is the captivating story of a man finally confronting the two magics that divide not only himself but his land.

Fool’s Errand

For fifteen years, since the events that shattered his old life, FitzChivalry Farseer has lived in a self-imposed exile, assumed to be dead by almost all who once cared about him.

A bastard with royal Farseer blood, he has retreated to an isolated cottage far from the intrigues and dangers of the capital. Now he believes himself content to exist in obscurity, raising his adopted son, Hap, and sharing his solitude with his faithful wolf bondmate, Nighteyes.

Despite the rumors he hears of savage reprisals against those posssessing the Wit magic, he is determined to remain aloof from the conflict. After all he has served his kingdom, sacrificed what was dearest to him, and he deserves his peace.

But all that is about to change when destiny comes seeking him once again. High summer brings visitors to his door, and with them his past. Jinna, a hedge-witch, foresees that a long-lost love will return to him. Chade — court assassin and Fitz’s mentor from his own assassin days, now growing infirm — has reasons of his own for desiring Fitz to return to Buckkeep Castle.

And when the Fool, the former White Prophet, reappears as the wealthy and charming Lord Golden, he beckons Fitz to take up his duties as Catalyst, the one who enables others to be heroes and change forever the path of time.

To all of them Fitz says no. He has done his duty — more than one man should be expected to do. But then comes the summons he cannot ignore.

Prince Dutiful, the young heir to the Farseer throne, has vanished from Buckkeep Castle without a trace. Whether Dutiful has been kidnapped or has fled his impending arranged betrothal is unclear. What is clear is that the Prince is rumored to be Witted at a time when public superstition is running high against those possessing that “beast magic.”

Endowed with both the royal Skill magic and the despised Wit, FitzChivalry may be the only one who can retrieve the Prince before his betrothal ceremony — thus sparing the Six Duchies profound political embarrassment ... or worse.

But even Fitz does not suspect the web of treachery that awaits him. Everyone seems to have an agenda for the young Prince, and soon FitzChivalry is plunged into a situation where his loyalties to his Queen, his Wit partner Nighteyes, and those who share his magic will be tested to the breaking point.

Robin Hobb The acclaimed Farseer and Liveship Traders trilogies established Robin Hobb as one of the most splendidly imaginative practitioners of world-class fantasy.

Now, in Book 2 of her most stunning trilogy yet, Hobb continues the soul-shattering tale of FitzChivalry Farseer. With rich characters, breathtaking magic, and sweeping action, Golden Fool brings the reluctant adventurer further into the fray in an epic of sacrifice, salvation, and untold treachery.

Golden Fool

Prince Dutiful has been rescued from his Piebald kidnappers and the court has resumed its normal rhythms. But for FitzChivalry Farseer, a return to isolation is impossible. Though gutted by the loss of his wolf bondmate, Nighteyes, Fitz must take up residence at Buckkeep and resume his tasks as Chade’s apprentice assassin. Posing as Tom Badgerlock, bodyguard to Lord Golden, FitzChivalry becomes the eyes and ears behind the walls. And with his old mentor failing visibly, Fitz is forced to take on more burdens as he attempts to guide a kingdom straying closer to civil strife each day.

The problems are legion. Prince Dutiful’s betrothal to the Narcheska Elliania of the Out Islands is fraught with tension, and the Narcheska herself appears to be hiding an array of secrets. Then, amid Piebald threats and the increasing persecution of the Witted, FitzChivalry must ensure that no one betrays the Prince’s secret—a secret that could topple the Farseer throne: that he, like Fitz, possesses the dread “beast magic.”

Meanwhile, FitzChivalry must impart to the Prince his limited knowledge of the Skill: the hereditary and addictive magic of the Farseers. In the process, they discover within Buckkeep one who has a wild and powerful talent for it, and whose enmity for Fitz may have disastrous consequences for all.

Only Fitz’s enduring friendship with the Fool brings him any solace. But even that is shattered when unexpected visitors from Bingtown reveal devastating secrets from the Fool’s past. Now, bereft of support and adrift in intrigue, Fitz’s biggest challenge may be simply to survive the inescapable and violent path that fate has laid out for him.

Robin Hobb The first book in a brand new trilogy from the author of the Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies. When the two-hundred year war between the kingdoms of Vania and Landsing ended the Landsingers were left in triumphant possession of Vania's rich coal and coast territories. When young King Troven assumed the throne of Vania thirty years later, he was determined to restore her greatness, not through waging another assault upon their traditional enemies, but by looking in the opposite direction and colonising the wild plains and steppes to their east. Over the next twenty years, cavalry forces manage to subdue the rolling plains formerly wasted on nomadic herders and tribesmen.Troven's campaign restores the pride of the Varnian military and to reward them, Troven creates a new nobility that is extremely loyal to their monarch. Beyond the grasslands lies the current frontier of Varnia, the heavily forested Barrier Mountains, home to enigmatic Specks: a dappled, forest dwelling people, unable to tolerate the heat and full sunlight of the plains. The new settlers find the Specks slightly dim-witted and overly placid, and yet strangely difficult to control. There are tales that they are 'blood-drinkers' and their nature worship of ancestral trees has presented difficulties for those who wish to harvest the forest's exotic timber. They also harbour strange diseases, ones that cause the Specks little more than a week or two of discomfort but which frequently kills those settlers and soldiers who fall victim to it. For that reason, prolonged contact, and especially intimate contact with the Specks is judged both fool-hardy and disgusting. Nevare Gerar is the second son of one of King Troven's new lords. Following in his father's footsteps, a commission as a cavalry officer at the frontier and an advantageous marriage await him, once he has completed his training at the King's Cavalry Academy.

Robin Hobb, Megan Lindholm A heralded writer of epic fantasy, Robin Hobb has given readers worlds within worlds in her heroic Farseer and Liveship Traders trilogies. Now she takes the final step in the breathtaking trilogy of the Tawny Man, as the tale of FitzChivalry Farseer comes to an epic end. Rife with boundless adventure and unforgettable characters, Fool’s Fate is destined to become a classic of the genre.Assassin, spy, and Skillmaster, FitzChivalry Farseer, now known only as man-at-arms Tom Badgerlock, has become firmly ensconced in the queen’s court at Buckkeep. Only a few are aware of his fabled, tangled past—and the sacrifices he made to survive it. And fewer know of his possession of the Skill magic. With Prince Dutiful, his assassin-mentor Chade, and the simpleminded yet strongly Skilled Thick, FitzChivalry strives to aid the prince on a quest that could ultimately secure peace between the Six Duchies and the Outislands—and win Dutiful the hand of the Narcheska Elliania. For the Narcheska has set the prince on an unfathomable task: to behead a dragon trapped in ice—the legendary Icefyre, on the island of Aslevjal. Yet not all the clans of the Outislands support the prince’s effort to behead their legendary defender. Are there darker forces at work behind the Narcheska’s imperious demand? As the prince and his coterie set sail, FitzChivalry works behind the scenes, playing nursemaid to the ailing Thick, while striving to strengthen their Skill—ultimately bringing his unacknowledged daughter into the web of the Skill magic, where the truth must finally unfold.The quest emerges amid riddles that must be unraveled, a clash of cultures, and the ultimate betrayal. For knowing that the Fool has foretold he will die on the island of ice, FitzChivalry has plotted with Chade to leave his dearest friend behind. But fate cannot so easily be defied.

Paul Hoffman 'Listen. The Sanctuary of the Redeemers on Shotover Scarp is named after a damned lie for there is no redemption that goes on there and less sanctuary'. The Sanctuary of the Redeemers is a vast and desolate place - a place without joy or hope. Most of its occupants were taken there as boys and for years have endured the brutal regime of the Lord Redeemers whose cruelty and violence have one singular purpose - to serve in the name of the One True Faith. In one of the Sanctuary's vast and twisting maze of corridors stands a boy. He is perhaps fourteen or fifteen years old - he is not sure and neither is anyone else. He has long-forgotten his real name, but now they call him Thomas Cale. He is strange and secretive, witty and charming, violent and profoundly bloody-minded. He is so used to the cruelty that he seems immune, but soon he will open the wrong door at the wrong time and witness an act so terrible that he will have to leave this place, or die. His only hope of survival is to escape across the arid Scablands to Memphis, a city the opposite of the Sanctuary in every way: breathtakingly beautiful, infinitely Godless, and deeply corrupt. But the Redeemers want Cale back at any price...not because of the secret he now knows but because of a much more terrifying secret he does not.

Mark Holborn

Wendy Holden

Wendy Holden

Wendy Holden A witty, winning escapade through the south of France from the internationally bestselling author of Gossip Hound.

The only intrepid reporter in her hometown hamlet, Kate Clegg has dreams of parlaying her dead-end job at the Mercury, or Mockery, as it is affectionately known, into an award-winning career with the most celebrated papers in London. But things seem to be going in the toilet, literally, since her biggest break thus far has been investigating a drainage disaster at the local high school. At least things can't get worse...

That is until shady billionaire Peter Hardstone pulls up outside the Mercury's tiny storefront office in his gold Ferrari and begins firing the staff. Soon enough, Kate herself decides that leaving the Mockery behind may just be the best career move she'll ever make-until Hardstone's wildly attractive son, Nat, takes up residence at the Mercury's office with an offer Kate cannot refuse-a chance to cover the Cannes Film Festival on the luxurious Côte d'Azur.

With internationally acclaimed author Wendy Holden's signature verve, intelligence, and originality, Azur Like It is a rollicking ride through the parties, haute couture, and glamour of the French Riviera where, behind the glitz, lies a mystery that would make even the most jaded journalist salivate.

Wendy Holden

Wendy Holden

Wendy Holden

Eamonn Holmes

Tom Holt

Anthony Hope The Prisoner of Zenda, 1898, by Anthony Hope. The history of 3 months in the life of an English gentleman. Illustrated with 5 full pages of illustrations. Red hardcover with 307 pages, published by Henry Holt & Company.

Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby In Nick Hornby's How To Be Good, Katie Carr is certainly trying to be. That's why she became a GP. That's why she cares about Third World debt and homelessness, and struggles to raise her children with a conscience. It's also why she puts up with her husband David, self-styled "Angriest Man in Holloway". But one fateful day, she finds herself in a Leeds car-park, having just slept with another man. What she doesn't yet realise is that her Fall from Grace is just the first step on a spiritual journey more torturous than the M25 at rush-hour. Because, prompted by his wife's actions, David is about to stop being Angry. He's about to become Good—not Guardian-reading, organic-food-eating good, but Good in the fashion of the Gospels. And that's no easier in modern-day Holloway than it was in ancient Israel.

Mr Hornby fires his central theme at us from the title page: how can we be good, and what does that mean? But, quite apart from demanding that his readers scrub their souls with the nearest available Brillo pad, he also mesmerises us with that cocktail of wit and compassion which has become his trademark. The result is a multi-faceted jewel of a book: a hilarious romp, a painstaking dissection of middle-class mores, and a powerfully sympathetic portrait of a marriage in its death throes. It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry as we watch David forcing his kids to give away their computers, drawing up schemes for the mass redistribution of wealth and inviting his wife's most desolate patients round for a Sunday roast. But that's because How To Be Good manages to be both brutally truthful and full of hope. It won't outsell the Bible, but it's a lot funnier. —Matthew Baylis

David Hudson

Keri Hulme

Walter Isaacson

James H. Jackson

Quintin Jardine

Quintin Jardine The heat is on for Bob Skinner, Scotland’s most revered and, in some circles, most feared cop. His career hangs by a thread, as a recent illness gives his enemies a weapon to use against him. A body found in the detritus of a flood is identified as the hated brother whose existence Skinner has kept hidden for years. On the crime front, an incendiary device destroys a valuable painting in Edinburgh’s Royal Scottish Academy. As Skinner and his team tackle these crises, his wife Sarah—left in America, with their children, to recover from the tragic death of her parents—finds comfort with an old college lover. When fate leaves her staring at a seemingly inevitable murder conviction, Skinner will need all his fearsome resources to sort out the tangled mess of his life. But is he still up to the challenge? Lightning–paced and emotionally gripping, Fallen Gods is Quintin Jardine’s breakthrough novel.

Quintin Jardine

Alexander Jirousek

Ulrika Jonsson

Robert Jordan The Eye of the World and its sequels in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series show the extent to which one can go with a traditional fantasy framework, with added gusto. Stock elements are abound: a reluctant hero—in fact five humble village folk—plucked from wholesome obscurity to fight dark powers; an eternal evil enemy who can be defeated but not destroyed, until the end of the world, which is fast approaching; a mysterious sisterhood with vast powers and who love to manipulate thrones and kingdoms from the shadows (think of the Bene Gesserit of the Dune series); a ferocious battle-hardened warrior race (echoes of the Fremen of Dune, or the Haruchai of the Thomas Covenant novels).

Jordan didn't become a bestselling author merely by mixing up traditional ingredients; a master storyteller, he ingeniously gives unusual twists to these conventional fantasy elements. He also excels in the descriptive and narrative skills needed to create a detailed and coherent imaginary world. The many lands he portrays are vast in scope and contain amazingly varied countries and peoples, while retaining the inner coherence needed to make them satisfying places for a fantasy fan to roam around in. However, Jordan's writing never attains the subtlety or sophistication of, say, George RR Martin and there are some annoying stylistic tics: he seems unable to introduce a female character without commenting on her neckline and thereafter has them forever smoothing their dresses.

To his publisher's credit, Jordan's books are fortunate among fantasy novels in not having covers that look like an explosion of a teenager's bedroom. The absence of such lurid artwork is, perhaps, part of their appeal. —David Pickering

Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan The bloodthirsty barbarian hero Conan the Cimmerian was created by Robert E. Howard in 17 stories written between 1932 and his suicide at age 30 in 1936. This influential saga of swords and sorcery has been rearranged and extended by other authors and Robert Jordan—now famous in fantasy for his Wheel of Time sequence—wrote seven new Conan novels in the early 1980s. The Conan Chronicles is an omnibus of the first three: Conan the Invincible, Conan the Defender and Conan the Unconquered. Though perhaps lacking that touch of inspired madness that shone through Howard's clumsy writing and made Conan immortal, these are competent, full-blooded fantasy thrillers. Conan clashes with typical Howard foes, such as Amanar the Necromancer, servant of that snaky god-demon the Eater of Souls; Albanus the intending royal usurper, who has assembled an armoury of magic weapons to take a throne which Conan finds himself defending; and Jhandar the chaos mage of the Cult of Doom, who unwisely decides to eliminate Conan as an obstacle to his planned empire. Throughout there are lashings of swordplay, blood, loot, sex, human sacrifice, supernatural nasties and battles against impossible odds. Conan always ends up footloose, underfunded and ready for fresh exploits. As in soap opera, the charm of sword-and-sorcery fantasy is that the adventures go on forever. —David Langford

Robert Jordan Robert Jordan has created a rich and intricate tapestry of characters in his Wheel of Time series. In this seventh volume, Rand al'Thor—the Dragon Reborn—draws ever closer to the Last Battle as a stifling heat grips the world.

Robert Jordan Robert Jordan's bestselling Wheel of Time epic is one of the most popular fantasy series of all time for a reason. Jordan's world is rich and complex, and he's assembled an endearing, involving core of characters while mapping out an ambitious and engaging story arc.

But with the previous book, Crown of Swords, and now with Path of Daggers, the series is in a bit of a holding pattern. Path continues the halting gait of the current plot line: Rand is still on the brink of losing it, all the while juggling the political machinations around him and again taking to the field against the Seanchan. The rest of the Two Rivers kids and company don't seem to be moving much faster. Egwene continues to slowly consolidate her hold as the "true" Amyrlin (finally getting closer to Tar Valon and the inevitable confrontation with Elaida), and Nynaeve and Elayne keep on wandering toward the Lion Throne, again on the run from the Seanchan. Mat Cauthon is barely mentioned and fellow ta'veren Perrin keeps busy with politics in Ghealdan. The ending does provide promise, though, that book nine might match the pace and passion of the previous books.

If you're already hooked, you could sooner overcome a Weave of Compulsion than avoid picking up a copy of Path of Daggers. But if you're new to the series, start at the beginning with the engrossing, much-better-paced Eye of the World. —Paul Hughes

Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" sequence is one of the more ambitious current fantasy epics; its ninth volume Winter's Heart advances a conclusion by fundamentally changing the rules of its war between overwhelming evil and deeply crippled good. Rand Al-Thor, in some sense a doomed hero born again, continues to travel the world seeking allies—as before, he finds himself caught up disastrously in the local politics of small city states and has to sort them out at some cost to himself. His fellow villagers—now the paladins of his crusade—deal with their own local problems; the agents of evil are abroad everywhere and have started to take this coterie of magically gifted youths seriously as a threat to their power and the return of their Dark master. The well-intentioned but over-reaching Aes Sedai nuns have started at last to deal with the infiltrators in their midst, and the invading Seanchan start to pursue goals beyond their strange cultural games of dominance and submission. And now Rand finally does something drastic—he attempts to cleanse male magic of the taint of madness that has crippled his world. Jordan's many fans will be enthralled by this latest volume. —Roz Kaveney

Robert Jordan With Crossroads of Twilight, Jordan's gargantuan fantasy sequence The Wheel of Time reaches its tenth huge volume and hits some of the consequences of its own sheer scale. Jordan is running so many story lines—the struggle with the covert agents of evil, the creation of a male magic that is not polluted, the war with magic-using dragon-riders from across the sea, the adventures of a travelling circus—that he has to spend almost all of this book just keeping us in touch with the movements of his characters and how they are getting on.

This is a book with a fair amount of incident, but nothing you could really call a climax. One of Jordan's strengths has always been his ability to send things off at interesting and imaginative tangents, revealing that his is a stranger world than we have begun to know—there is not enough of that here, and rather too much in the way of confrontations and kidnappings and dilemmas of conscience that recapitulate things he has done before. His decent, lumbering "grey" style means that there are no moments when the writing thrills us either—this is a book for those who have committed to Jordan's sequence for the long haul rather than one for new readers to sample. —Roz Kaveney

Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson

Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson The penultimate volume in the international bestselling Wheel of Time series.

Belle de Jour

Philip Keep

Lucy Kellaway, Martin Lukes

Jack Kerley

Marian Keyes

Stephen King More of a mystery than a horror novel, Dolores Claiborne contains only the briefest glances at the supernatural. The novel presents Stephen King as a writer experimenting with style and narrative, time and perspective. Fans looking for a skin-crawling, page-turning fright or an undead bloodbath will be disappointed, but a patient reader willing to savour King's leisurely study of character and island life will find many rewards. And all of this is not to say that the book is without suspense.

The story unfolds in one continuous chapter, told in the first person by the cranky, 65-year-old housekeeper, Dolores, who is explaining to police officers and a stenographer how and why she killed her husband, Joe, 30 years ago. At the same time, in her rambling monologue, she insists that she did not kill her longtime employer, Vera Donovan—notwithstanding what the residents of Little Tall Island may be whispering. Joe was a drinker, and, as Dolores gradually argues, he deserved to die for the horrifying crimes he committed against his family. But Vera, despite her cantankerous disposition as a lady governing her decaying estate with her precise rules about even the most mundane household chore ("Six pins! Remember to use six pins! Don't you let the wind blow my good sheets down to the corner of the yard!"), was a good woman—or at least not an evil one. She was the woman who hired the young Dolores and kept her on even after Dolores got pregnant again. Dolores cleaned and cared for her even as the old matron faded into senility.

Dolores Claiborne is a rich novel that recalls the regionalist writing of the turn of the century. It is a fine place for a sceptical newcomer—put off by King's reputation for outright terror—to start. And for fans, it is a book that offers new insights into an author who's an old favourite. —Patrick O'Kelley

Stephen King

Dick King-Smith

Dick King-Smith

Sophie Kinsella

Stephen Knight "The Brotherhood removes the blanket of secrecy over Freemasonry and permits an objective investigation into a topic of considerable public interest. In Italy, recent scandals have toppled the government, and the echoes of that scandal continue to reverberate.

In this incisive book, Stephen Knight goes behind the scenes of a tightly knit, all-male society, many of whose members hold very influential positions, all of whom are bound by fierce oaths of secrecy. Does Freemasonry discriminate in favor of its members when it comes to jobs, career promotions, and business? How compatible is Freemasonry with Christianity and Judaism? A large number of instances in this book show how and where masonic ideas of morality, charity, and fraternity have been abused.

The secrecy that surrounds Freemasonry has traditionally been its greatest strength. Today it has become its own worst enemy. The revelations in this book will challenge many strongly held beliefs."

Eric Kroll

Stephen LaBerge, Howard Rheingold

Stieg Larsson Brand New Item, Fast Dispatch

Stieg Larsson Brand New Item, Fast Dispatch

Adam Lashinsky Inside Apple How the world's most famous company works

Velda Lauder A beautifully illustrated guide to lingerie, this book includes a history of bras and girdles from early times up to the present, as well as sections on achieving that all-important correct fit and where to buy the most beautiful lingerie.

Nick Leeson When Nick Leeson was arrested in 1995 for bringing Barings Bank to its proverbial knees, it initially seemed as if he had single handedly crushed this most well-established and well-respected financial institution, and indeed it was he alone who found himself in a Singapore jail serving time for deceiving the auditors of Barings in a way "likely to cause harm to their reputation" and to cheating SIMEX (Singapore International Money Exchange). In Rogue Trader Leeson tells his own story with more than a hint of the bitterness—and, at times, suspended belief—of an ordinary Joe from Watford made scapegoat by a cast of characters who may not have been guilty by design, but certainly appear to be guilty of simply not adhering to the basic procedures which would have picked up any discrepancies long before any real damage was done. Hard to feel sorry for such wheeler- dealers, perhaps, and certainly hard to feel sorry for Leeson, but he manages to successfully tell an incredible story which moves at breakneck speed from his appointment as General Manager for Barings in Singapore to his fast and furious downfall, which began as a simple cover-up of a mistake by an inexperienced member of staff and ended in multi-million pound fraud, with earth-shattering repercussions across the financial markets of the world. Anyone who ever wondered how one man could do so much damage will find the explanation between the pages of Rogue Trader, but more than that they will also find a hugely compelling, tense and decidedly hair- raising story that defies imagination to the point where, if it had been written as fiction no one would ever believe it. —Susan Harrison

Ira Levin

Owen Linzmayer Apple Confidential examines the tumultuous history of America's best-known Silicon Valley start-up—from its legendary founding almost 30 years ago, through a series of disastrous executive decisions, to its return to profitability, and including Apple's recent move into the music business. Linzmayer digs into forgotten archives and interviews the key players to give readers the real story of Apple Computer, Inc. This updated and expanded edition includes tons of new photos, timelines, and charts, as well as coverage of new lawsuit battles, updates on former Apple executives, and new chapters on Steve Wozniak and Pixar.

Jonathan Littman

Robert Llewellyn

John Lloyd, John Mitchinson

John Markoff

MarkWeakland Title: Thud!( Wile E. Coyote Experiments with Forces and Motion) <>Binding: Library Binding <>Author: MarkWeakland <>Publisher: CapstonePress

Adrian Mathews

Rik Mayall

Alan McArthur, Steve Lowe

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

Frank Mccourt

William McIlvanney

Andy McNab

Andy McNab USED - BOOK . Please have a look listing photos and judge for yourself the condition of this book. You will receive this book which are on photos.(1)

Andy McNab

Andy McNab Crisis Four is Andy McNab's fourth book and his second work of fiction, but he has already established himself as a brand name. His trademark is the SAS and dirty operations, so it will come as no surprise to anyone that the hero, Nick Stone, is a hard but fair ex-SAS man, now working for £250 per day as a freelance agent for British Intelligence on undercover missions which will be denied if they go wrong. The basic story is relatively straightforward. Stone undertook a mission to Afghanistan in the late 80s with a mysterious femme fatale, the posh Sarah; they had a fling and she promptly dumped him on her return. In 1995, they meet up briefly on another undercover mission to Syria which starts to go horribly wrong as Sarah appears to be working to a different briefing. Then, in 1998, Stone gets a summons on his pager to meet his bosses at Gatwick. Sarah has gone AWOL from her apartment in Washington DC and Stone's job is to find her. This he ingeniously achieves quite quickly and there then follows a long, tense chase across the US. Sarah's true past, and the secret that she holds, is gradually revealed and the ending is truly gripping.

For all McNab's authentic detail—we get lots of information on how to kill people and survive attacks—reading Crisis Four is a bit like playing Tombraider on the computer. It's a compelling other world, where reality is only paid lip service to, but the action comes so thick and fast that you can't help turning the page. And this is what marks Crisis Four as a cut above the average thriller. It is an unashamedly blokeish book—you won't find much in the way of subtlety of characterisation—though compared to Dick Francis McNab is positively Henry James—and you have to put up with the odd few pages that read more like instruction manuals for military hardware than narrative, but these are relatively minor quibbles. So many times you get to the end of a thriller only to wonder why on earth you bothered; Crisis Four delivers on its promises. —John Crace

Andy McNab All freelances have problems when work dries up, but Nick Stone, hero of Andy McNab's second adventure thriller Firewall has worse problems than most of us. Expensively trained by the SAS, he now works for British Intelligence as a deniable operative, and he needs a regular income to take care of his responsibilities, which include psychiatric care for a traumatised orphan. He takes a lucrative mercenary job kidnapping a leading Chechen Mafioso; when the job goes sour, his victim is impressed by his grace under pressure and hires him to baby-sit a computer espionage expert on a jaunt into Finland. Not all is as it seems—Nick was engaged in wishful thinking to believe it was—and he finds himself adrift with little money and no weapons in Estonia in the dead of winter with a friend to rescue, the interests of the West to retrieve and, if possible, money to earn... This is an effective thriller because of the clash between its hero's competence and his less than entire brightness—Nick gets himself into messes and then gets out of them because of skills in combat, disguise and survival. This is a book filled with adrenaline-pumping excitement and a sense of bitterly cold places. —Roz Kaveney

Andy McNab Tells the stories of what the author describes as 'modern-day heroes fighting modern-day wars'. This title recounts the courage and hardship of British servicemen and supports staff as they have faced the difficulties posed by the conflict in Afghanistan.

Nancy Mcphee

Chris Melissinos The Art of Video Games "Published in cooperation with the Smithsonian American Art Museum." Full description

Gavin. Menzies

A. A. Milne h/b Edition with DJ VERY GOOD condition. Total 316 pages

Margaret Mitchell

Kevin D. Mitnick, William L. Simon The Art of Deception is about gaining someone's trust by lying to them and then abusing that trust for fun and profit. Hackers use the euphemism "social engineering" and hacker-guru Kevin Mitnick examines many example scenarios.

After Mitnick's first dozen examples anyone responsible for organisational security is going to lose the will to live. It's been said before but people and security are antithetical. Organisations exist to provide a good or service and want helpful friendly employees to promote the good or service. People are social animals who want to be liked. Controlling the human aspects of security means denying someone something. This circle can't be squared.

Considering Mitnick's reputation as a hacker guru the least and last point of attack for hackers using social engineering are computers. Most of the scenarios in The Art of Deception work just as well against computer-free organisations and were probably known to the Pheonicians. Technology simply makes it all easier. Phones are faster than letters after all and large organisations mean dealing with lots of strangers.

Much of Mitnick's security advice sounds practical until you think about implementation, when you realise more effective security means reducing organisational efficiency: an impossible trade in competitive business. And anyway, who wants to work in an organisation where the rule is "Trust no one"? Mitnick shows how easily security is breached by trust, but without trust people can't live and work together. In the real world effective organisations have to acknowledge total security is a chimera—and carry more insurance. —Steve Patient

Michael Moorcock

Michael Moore Stupid White Men, Michael Moore's screed against "Thief-in-Chief" George Bush's power elite, hit No. 1 at Amazon.com within days of publication. Why? It's as fulminating and crammed with infuriating facts as any right-wing bestseller, as irreverent as The Onion, and as noisily entertaining as a wrestling smackdown. Moore offers a more interesting critique of the 2000 election than Ralph Nader's Crashing the Party (he argued with Nader, his old boss, who sacked him), and he's serious when he advocates ousting Bush. But Moore's rage is outrageous, couched in shameless gags and madcap comedy: "Old white men wielding martinis and wearing dickies have occupied our nation's capital.... Launch the SCUD missiles! Bring us the head of Antonin Scalia!... We are no longer [able] to hold free and fair elections. We need UN observers, UN troops". Moore's ideas range from on-the-money (Arafat should beat Sharon with Gandhi's non-violent shame tactics) to over-the-top: blacks should put inflatable white dolls in their cars so racist cops will think they're chauffeurs; the ever-more-Republicanesque Democratic Party should be sued for fraud; "no contributions toward advancing our civilization ever came out of the South [except Faulkner, Hellman, and RJ Reynolds]," because it's too hot to think straight there; Korean dictator Kim Jong-il "has got to broaden himself beyond porn and John Wayne" by watching better movies, like Dude, Where's My Car? (which contains "all you need to know about America"). Whatever your politics, Stupid White Men should make you blow your stack. —Tim Appelo

Michael Moore Plenty of liberal scholars, entertainers and pundits have railed against the hoodwinking of the American people, but Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? stands out for its thoroughly positive perspective. He says America has been tricked by Republican lawmakers and their wealthy corporate pals, who use a combination of concocted bogeymen and lies to stay rich and in control. Moore is angry and has harsh words for George W Bush and his fellow conservatives concerning the reasoning behind going to war in Iraq, the collapse of Enron and other companies, and the relationship between the Bushes, the Saudi Arabian government and Osama bin Laden. But his book is intended to serve as a handbook for how people with liberal opinions (which is most of America, Moore contends, whether they call themselves liberals or not) can take back their country from the conservative forces in power.

Moore uses his trademark brand of confrontational, exasperated humour skilfully as he offers a primer on how to change the world view of one's annoying conservative blowhard brother-in-law, and he crafts a surprisingly thorough "Draft Oprah for President" movement. Refreshingly, Dude, Where's My Country? avoids being completely one-sided, identifying areas where Moore believes Republicans get it right and making some cutting criticisms of his fellow lefties. Such allowances, brief though they may be, make one long for a political climate where the shouting polemicists on both sides would see a few more shades of grey. Dude, Where's My Country? is a little bit scattered, as Moore tries to cram opinions on Iraq, tax cuts, corporate welfare, Wesley Clark and the Patriot Act into one slim volume—and the penchant to go for a laugh sometimes gets in the way of clear arguments. But such variety also gives the reader a broader range of his bewildered, enraged yet stalwartly upbeat points of view. —John Moe

Mark Morris

Sylvia Mulholland

Bill Murphy

Al Murray

Martina Navratilova

Chris Niles

Queen Noor

Wendy Northcutt

Wendy Northcutt The Darwin Awards book two, subtitled "More True Stories of How Dumb Humans Have Met Their Maker", offers further proof of the kind unearthed in the original Darwin Awards, of just how stupid mankind can be. Taking its title from the cult Web site of the same name which Northcutt set up in 1993, the book contains a collection of cautionary tales of intensely stupid behaviour. Loosely based on Darwin's theory of natural selection, the idea behind the Darwin Awards is that a person can be so stupid that it would be detrimental to the human race for their genes to survive. If, therefore, someone was to behave so stupidly that they died or rendered themselves unable to reproduce, they would be doing the rest of us a favour by removing themself from the gene pool. It is this self-sacrifice that the Web site—and the books—applaud and reward, although, of course, nearly all Darwin Awards are necessarily posthumous. After all, "If someone does manage to survive an incredibly stupid feat, then his genes defacto must have something to offer (and) he is therefore noteligible for a Darwin award". Having explained the basic premise behind the awards, the book catalogues examples of foolish, and often extremely funny, misadventures in sections such as watery deaths, fatal ingenuity and sex-related incidents. What sets the Darwin Awards apart from other apparently similar books of urban myths is the care taken by Northcutt to verify the stories which are then classified as "confirmed" (by reputable newspaper articles, or confirmed TV (reports),"unconfirmed" and "urban myths". On top of this, the book draws on surveys carried out on the Web site to provide a glimpse into the thoughts of those who use it, strengthening the air that this is more than just fun, it is light-hearted research into the way people think. —Anoushka Alexander

Paul O'Grady Paul O'Grady, apart from being one of Britain's best loved entertainers, is a classic example of reinvention, as At My Mother’s Knee demonstrates. The young Liverpool entertainer, an altar boy from Irish Catholic Birkenhead, becomes the acid-tongued and outrageous drag queen Lily Savage, and moves from gay pubs to national television, creating something of a British comic institution en route (O'Grady's caustic drag character was a world away from safer predecessors such as Danny La Rue). But O'Grady (like other comic performers such as John Cleese) realised that comic creations can have a limited shelf life, and reinvented himself as ‘Paul O'Grady’, coming out from behind the false breasts and towering wigs as a toned-down (but still camp), more audience-friendly TV presenter (wisely, he retained the abrasive voice and a Scouse accent that could be cut with a knife).

At My Mother's Knee and Other Low Joints is an entertaining autobiography from someone who really does have a life that is worth writing about. Gossipy, sharp and colourful, the cast of characters in Paul O'Grady's life includes rogues and rascals galore, all of whom are evoked here with great comic skill. O'Grady was variously a boxer, a civil servant, a conman and even a cat burglar - all of these failed careers are on display here, as is a surprisingly pungent picture of the Liverpool nightclub scene. When so many showbiz autobiographies these days are written by people who have a barely had a life outside of their fame, it's refreshing to encounter one by somebody whose story would be interesting even if he were not a major TV star. —Barry Forshaw

Aleksandr Orlov Aleksandr Orlov has in the last year become one of the most loved figures in British culture and his catchphrase - Simples! - can be heard from the playground to the office. This autobiography offers the same humour as his TV ads, giving us the full story of his ancestor's Journey of Courageousness from the Kalahari to Russia.

Tilman Osterwold The pop artists of the 1960s had a profound effect on the cloth of art history and their influence can be clearly seen in art. This work explores the styles, themes, and sources of pop art around the world.

Dennis Overbye In his first book, Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos, New York Times science writer Dennis Overbye humanized the formidable intellects who have probed the inner workings of the universe. With Einstein in Love, he takes on the most formidable intellect of all—and the result does justice to a complicated man and his equally complicated work. Overbye's narrative concentrates on the years between 1896 (when the 17-year-old Einstein arrived in Zurich to study physics) and 1919 (when he used measurements of light deflection during a solar eclipse to support his new theory of relativity thus beginning a reign as the 20th century's most famous scientist). It's no accident this period begins with Einstein meeting fellow student Mileva Maric, who would become his first wife, and closes with his second marriage. "Physics was not all Einstein's life," writes Overbye. "He lived on Earth with a belly and a heart." Accordingly, Einstein in Love depicts a young man who liked to hike, play the violin, flirt and tell dirty jokes. Albert and Mileva had a child before they were married (Michelle Zackheim's popular 1999 book, Einstein's Daughter, attempted to unravel the mystery of Lieserl's fate), and the young father was as careless of convention in his dress and grooming as in his scientific work. Indeed, although Overbye nicely captures Einstein's personality, the real excitement comes in those chapters delineating his thought. The book effortlessly incorporates a capsule history of physics from the Greeks to the Victorians, both laying out the issues with which Einstein grappled and suggesting just why his solutions were so revolutionary. Even those with little grounding in science will easily grasp why Einstein's ideas made such an impact, not just on fellow physicists, but on a populace that at the dawn of the 20th century was ready to accept the demise of all the old certainties. As usual, Overbye's work is a model of science writing for the general reader; it's also a perceptive biography highlighting Einstein's most creative years. —Wendy Smith

Michael Palin This book is compiled from Michael Palin's diaries, records the pleasure and pain of his most challenging journey so far and Basil Pao captures the sensational beauty of the finest mountain scenery in the world.

Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Sharon Marshall

James Patterson

James Patterson

James Patterson

James Patterson

James Patterson

James Patterson

James Patterson A breathtakingly beautiful supermodel disappears from a swimsuit photo shoot at the most glamorous hotel in Hawaii. Only hours after she goes missing, Kim McDaniels' parents receive a terrifying phone call. Fearing the worst, they board the first flight to Maui and begin the hunt for their daughter.

Michelle Paver Dazzling entertainment, seamless storytelling - the second adventure in Torak's quest to vanquish the terrifying Soul-Eaters.

Michelle Paver Dazzling entertainment, seamless storytelling - the third adventure in Torak's quest to vanquish the terrifying Soul-Eaters.

Emily Perkins

Lisa Peters

Robin Pilcher

Robin Pilcher It's a double-edged sword, being the son or daughter of a famous novelist. Martin Amis quickly established the fact that his novels were nothing at all like his father Kingsley's, and one approaches Robin Pilcher's novel wondering if it's in the rich and detailed style of his mother Rosamund. The answer is yes and no: the characterisation has the evocative and sweeping quality of his mother's, but his narrative is tougher and more concerned with the present than the effects of the past.

When his wife dies of cancer, David Costorphine finds himself totally unable to cope. Withdrawing from his three children and the family whiskey business, he escapes into his much-loved garden, establishing an order there that is not possible in the rest of his life. When he is forced by business to go to America, his rehabilitation begins when he meets the remarkable Jennifer and her son Benji. As he builds a relationship with both mother and son, a disturbing discovery forces him to return home and come to terms with the neglect he's been practising. Pilcher's prose is much more forceful and less elegiac than his mother's, but it's clear that he shares her narrative gifts. Slowly An Ocean Apart begins to exert an inexorable grip on the reader, and David's fate becomes a matter of concern and interest. —Barry Forshaw

Robin Pilcher

Robin Pilcher

Rosamunde Pilcher

Rosamunde Pilcher

Maggie Pinkney

Robert M. Pirsig

Sir Terry Pratchett It was a sudden strange fancy, and now Polly Perks, in her brother''s clothes and her hair cut off, has joined up to fight for her country. But who is the enemy? What is she really fighting for? War teaches you a lot, she finds, when it turns out that you joined the Monstrous Regiment.

Sir Terry Pratchett Finding himself alone on a desert island when everything and everyone he knows and loved has been washed away in a huge storm, Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He's also completely alone - or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. This children's novel encompasses the themes of death and nationhood.

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett The latest in Terry Pratchett's series about the fantasy Discworld. The world's main city is under attack from a giant fire-breathing dragon and Captain Vimes is assigned to capture it. The preceding stories include "Pyramids", "Wyrd Sisters", "Sourcery", "Mort" and "Equal Rites".

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett There are strange goings-on at the Opera House in Ankh-Morpork. A ghost in a white mask is murdering, well, quite a lot of people, and two witches (it really isn't wise to call them "meddling, interfering old baggages"), or perhaps three, take a hand in unravelling the mystery. Fans of the popular Discworld series will be happy to see some old friends again in Maskerade, the 18th novel in the series.

Terry Pratchett In Feet of Clay, Terry Pratchett continues the fantasy adventures on Discworld—where anything goes. Anything but murder, that is. Commander Vimes of the Watch must investigate a puzzling series of deaths, with help from various trolls and dwarfs. Pratchett's humour and excellent writing skills draw the reader effortlessly into his zany world. Feet of Clay is 19th in the series. —Blaise Selby

Terry Pratchett What could more genuinely embody the spirit of Christmas (or Hogswatch, on the Discworld) than a Terry Pratchett book about the holiday season? Every secular Christmas tradition is included. But as this is the 21st Discworld novel, there are some unusual twists.

This year the Auditors, who want people to stop believing in things that aren't real, have hired an assassin to eliminate the Hogfather. (You know him: red robe, white beard, says, "Ho, ho, ho!") Their evil plot will destroy the Discworld unless someone covers for him. So someone does. Well, at least Death tries. He wears the costume and rides the sleigh drawn by four jolly pigs: Gouger, Tusker, Rooter and Snouter. He even comes down chimneys. But as fans of other Pratchett stories about Death know, he takes things literally. He gives children whatever they wish for and appears in person at Crumley's in The Maul.

Fans will welcome back Susan, Death of Rats (the Grim Squeaker), Albert and the wizardly faculty of Unseen University and revel in new personalities like Bilious, the "oh god of Hangovers." But you needn't have read Pratchett before to laugh uproariously and think seriously about the meanings of Christmas. —Nona Vero, Amazon.com

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett Marvellous Discworld, which revolves on the backs of four great elephants and a big turtle, spins into Interesting Times, the 17th outing in Terry Pratchett's rollicking fantasy series. The gods are playing games again, and this time the mysterious Lady opposes Fate in a match of "Destinies of Nations Hanging by a Thread". —Blaise Selby

Terry Pratchett Jingo is the 20th of Pratchett's Discworld novels, and the fourth to feature the City Guard of Ankh-Morpork. As Jingo begins, an island suddenly rises between Ankh- Morpork and Al-Khali, capital of Klatch. Both cities claim it. Lord Vetinari, the Patrician, has failed to convince the Ruling Council that force is a bad idea, despite reminding them that they have no army—"I believe one of those is generally considered vital to the successful prosecution of a war." Samuel Vimes, Commander of the City Watch, has to find out who shot the Klatchian envoy, Prince Khufurah, and set fire to their embassy, before war breaks out.

Pratchett's characters are both sympathetic and outrageously entertaining, from Captain Carrot, who always finds the best in people and puts it to work playing football, to Sergeant Colon and his sidekick, Corporal Nobbs, who have "an ability to get out of their depth on a wet pavement". Then there is the mysterious D'reg, 71-hour Ahmed. What is his part in all this, and why 71 hours? Anyone who doesn't mind laughing themselves silly at the idiocy of people in general and governments in particular will enjoy Jingo. —Nona Vero

Terry Pratchett Terry Pratchett's 22nd Discworld novel, The Last Continent, is a lighthearted tour of the fantasy land of Fourecks, a very Australian sort of place, with brief courses in theoretical physics and evolution thrown in for good measure. Pratchett returns to his first Discworld protagonist, the inept and cowardly wizard Rincewind, who habitually runs into trouble as fast as he flees. Rincewind's arrival in Fourecks has distorted the space-time continuum, and he has to sort it out before the whole place dries up and blows away. The situation is complicated because the actual problem is located 30,000 years in the past—just where the Faculty of the Unseen University currently are. Pretty frightening, given "the true wizard's instinct to amble aimlessly into dangerous places," and then "stop and argue ... about exactly what kind of danger it [is]."

If you're baffled by all this, no worries, mate. You needn't have read Pratchett before—not even the five previous Discworld novels starring Rincewind (The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Eric, and Interesting Times)—to enjoy this latest romp. Nor to have visited Australia. When you finish, however, you'll likely want to rush out and do both. —Nona Vero

Terry Pratchett Carpe Jugulum is the 23rd Discworld novel, and with it this durable series continues its juggernaut procession onwards. Pratchett is an author who inspires such devotions that his fans will fall on the novel with cries of joy. Non-fans, perhaps, will want to know what all the fuss is about; and that's something difficult to put into a few words. The best thing to do for those completely new to Pratchett is to sample him for themselves, and this novel is as good a place to start as any. But fans have a more precise question. They know that Discworld novels come in one of two varieties: the quite good, and the brilliant. So, for instance, where Hogfather and Maskerade were quite good, Feet of Clay and Jingo were brilliant. While true fans wouldn't want to do without the former, they absolutely live for the latter. And with Carpe Jugulum Pratchett has hit jackpot again. This novel is one of the brilliant ones.

The plot is a version of an earlier Discworld novel, Lords and Ladies, with the predatory elves of that novel being replaced here by suave and deadly vampires, and the tiny kingdom of Lancre being defended by its witches. But plot is the least of Pratchett's appeal, and Carpe Jugulum is loaded with marvellous characters (not least the witches themselves, about whom we learn a deal more here), comic touches and scenes of genius, and even some of the renowned down-to-earth Pratchett wisdom (here about the inner ethical conflicts we all face, and the wrongness of treating people as things). Pratchett's vampires are elegant Bela Lugosi types, and they come up against an unlikely but engaging alliance of witches, blue-skinned pixies like Rob Roy Smurfs, a doubting priest with a boil on his face and a magical house-sized Phoenix in a seamless, completely absorbing and feel-good-about-the- universe mixture. Highly recommended. —Adam Roberts

Terry Pratchett Terry Pratchett has a seemingly endless capacity for generating inventively comic novels about the Discworld and its inhabitants but there is in the hearts of most of his admirers a particular place for those novels which feature the hard-bitten captain of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch Samuel Vimes. Sent as ambassador to the Northern principality of Uberwald where they mine gold, and iron and fat, but never silver, he is caught up in an uneasy truce between dwarfs, werewolves and vampires, in the theft of the Scone of Stone (a particularly important piece of dwarf bread) and in the old werewolf custom of giving humans a short start in the hunt and then cheating...

Pratchett is always at his best when the comedy is mixed with a real sense of jeopardy that even favourite characters might be hurt if there was a good joke in it. As always the most unlikely things crop up as the subjects of gags—Chekhov, grand opera, the Caine Mutiny—and as always there are remorselessly funny gags about the inevitability of story: "They say that the fifth elephant came screaming and trumpeting through the atmosphere of the young world all those years ago and landed hard enough to split continents and raise mountains.

No one actually saw it land, which raised the interesting philosophical question: when millions of tons of angry elephant come spinning through the sky, and there is no one to hear it, does it—philosophically speaking—make a noise?

As for the dwarfs, whose legend it is, and who mine a lot deeper than other people, they say that there is a grain of truth in it". All this, the usual guest appearances and Gaspode the Wonder Dog... — Roz Kaveney

Terry Pratchett The Truth is Terry Pratchett's 25th novel about Discworld in general and the dirt-encrusted metropolis of Ankh-Morpork in particular—home of the sinister Patrician, the Unseen University of magicians and guilds for everything from Assassins to Thieves, taking in Clowns (but not mimes) along the way. Ankh-Morpork has weathered several influxes of technology in its time—a demon-inspired invention of the movies, the brief fad for Music with Rocks in it—and now it has acquired a free press, dedicated newshounds, dwarf printers with not especially nasty tempers (for dwarves), and people who want to see their amusing vegetables in the "On a Lighter Note" section. The business of politics (attempts by the old aristocracy to unseat the Patrician) is ratcheted up a notch and Vimes, of the City Watch, is in a worse temper than usual. William de Worde, editor, reporter and investigator, is another attractive Pratchett hero, captured for us in the middle of wonderfully parodied routines from old movies and fiction that he, in his world, is doing for the first time. This is inventive farce with touches of high seriousness and ethical good sense, and two of the nastiest doomed hitmen outside Tarantino. —Roz Kaveney

Terry Pratchett Terry Pratchett's Thief of Time, confronts Discworld and a variety of its defenders with an insidious menace; never before has the phrase "The End of History" had quite so sinister a sound. In the great stinking metropolis of Ankh Morpork, an obsessed clockmaker receives an unusual commission from an excessively beautiful woman whose feet do not touch the ground; strict school-teacher Susan finds herself summoned by her grandfather Death, to do him a favour; the monks who manage the even distribution of Time find themselves with a recalcitrant novice; and dairyman Ronnie Soak muses on his glory days, when he was the Fifth Rider of the Apocalypse, the one who left before they got famous.

As always, the sometimes startlingly surrealistically original, sometimes comfortingly groanworthy, jokes are underlain by some intensely complex ideas and tight plotting. Susan sto Helit makes a reappearance as one of Pratchett's more interesting heroines; the sinister Lady LeJean is one of Pratchett's most interesting villains, particularly once we learn the answer to the mystery about her.

There is an attractive darkness to much of the humour here—Pratchett is often at his best when at his darkest.—Roz Kaveney

Terry Pratchett A new Discworld story is always an event. Terry Pratchett's The Last Hero is unusually short, a 40,000-word "Discworld Fable" rather than a full novel, but is illustrated throughout in sumptuous colour by Paul Kidby.

The 160 pages cover the series' longest and most awesome (but still comic) journey yet, a mission to save all Discworld from a new threat. An old threat, actually. Aged warrior Cohen the Barbarian has decided to go out with a bang and take the gods with him. So, with the remnants of his geriatric Silver Horde, he's climbing to the divine retirement home Dunmanifestin with the Discworld equivalent of a nuke—a 50-pound keg of Agatean Thunder Clay. This will, for excellent magical reasons, destroy the world.

It's up to Leonard of Quirm, Discworld's da Vinci, to invent the technology that might just beat Cohen to his goal. His unlikely vessel is powered by dragons, crewed by himself and two popular regular characters, and secretly harbours a stowaway. Before long we hear the Discworld version of "Houston, we have a problem..."

Kidby rises splendidly to the challenge of painting both funny faces and cosmic vistas. As Pratchett puts it, The Last Hero "has an extra dimension: some parts of it are written in paint!" New characters include Evil Dark Lord Harry Dread, who started out with "just two lads and his Shed of Doom", and a god so tiresome that his worshippers are forbidden chocolate, ginger, mushrooms and garlic.

Pratchett's story alone is strong and effective, with several hair-raising frissons contrasting with high comedy; Kidby's paintings make it something very special. Don't miss this one. —David Langford

Terry Pratchett The new Discworld novel Night Watch has the power and energy that characterizes Terry Pratchett at his occasional best, as well as the wild surreal humour he always gives us. Sam Vimes, running hero of the Guards sequence, finds himself cast back in time to the Ankh-Morpork of his youth—a much nastier city, with an actively deranged Patrician and a sadistic secret police—and finding himself filling in for Keel, the tough honest copper who teaches the young Vimes everything he knows. And, more worryingly, who dies heroically in the insurrection Vimes knows to be imminent. With a psychopath from his own time rising in the vile ranks of the Cable Street Unmentionables complicating things, Vimes has to ensure that history takes its course so that he will have the right future to go back to, and to keep his younger self alive—this is Pratchett's plotting at its most thoroughly constructed and wonderfully devious. Ankh-Morpork has for a long time been one of the most thoroughly imagined cities in fantasy—here Pratchett gives us a fascinating gloomy glimpse of its past and of the younger selves of some of his best-loved characters, and of the brief-lived People's Republic of Treacle-Mine Road. —Roz Kaveney

Terry Pratchett When you have an author as good as Terry Pratchett writing for children, you expect that the result will be a novel of great invention, assured comic timing and a generally all-round highly readable fantasy tour de force. Readers of The Wee Free Men will not be disappointed. After winning the prestigious Carnegie Medal award for his previous story of Discworld for younger readers, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, Pratchett has followed up with another irresistibly entertaining adventure.

Miss Perspicacia Tick, a witch of some renown, is worried about a ripple in the walls of the universe—probably another world making contact. Which is not good. This errant activity is centred on some chalk country—where traditionally good witches simply do not grow well. Fortunately, Miss Tiffany Aching of Home Farm on The Chalk, nine years old, misunderstood and yearning for excitement, wants to be a witch and has just proved herself to be of great potential by whacking a big Green Monster from the river with a huge frying pan while using her annoying younger brother as bait. Miss Tick is impressed. So, after travelling to the chalky downs at once and dispensing some stop gap advice to Tiffany about holding the fort until she gets back with more help, Miss Tick is off.

Any hesitation Tiffany may have had about the seriousness of the situation expires when the Queen of the fairies kidnaps her younger brother. With the help of a talking frog, loaned by Miss Tick, and an army of thieving, warmongering, nippy, boozy wee free men called the Nac Mac Feegle (who used to work for the Queen but rebelled), Tiffany sets off rescue her kin.

There's humour at every turn, and the situations that follow are both wonderfully dramatic and preposterously unreal. Pratchett really is the master of his genre and it's difficult to imagine a more entertaining read. (Age 10 and over) —John McLay

Terry Pratchett Pratchett's third children's novel set in the Discworld, and the second to feature wannabe witch Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men, is so ridiculously well written and consistently funny it makes you wonder how he can keep writing such superlative novels without cheating a bit. It would be reassuring to think that the Carnegie Medal-winning author of The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents and The Wee Free Men had his own small army of professional helpers, not unlike like a US sitcom, inventing and deliberating about which are the best jokes and plot lines to use to ensure the best quality quotient. But it's all his own work and that makes each brilliant novel more remarkable because of it.

A Hat Full of Sky continues the adventures of eleven-year-old Tiffany as she endeavours to become a proper witch. She's 'done' magic before, quite spectacularly and to great effect, but now she must be apprenticed to an established practitioner of the craft, the amazing Miss Level, in order to learn exactly how she did it. Unfortunately for her, there's a crazed and malevolent ancient spirit buzzing about, called a Hiver, who is looking for a convenient host to consume. Hiver's are attracted to greatness, and Tiffany hides an enormous talent that seems ripe for domination.

Still grateful for Miss Aching's past help, a crack team of several Wee Free Men, nature's funkiest, drunkest and bluest fairy folk, take it upon themselves to help Tiffany out. Hiver's, however, are unbeatable and it's a definite "sooey-side mission" to save the big wee hag from harm.

It's great to see writing of such quality in a children's novel, and it's further evidence that this sector of the publishing world is having a bit of a golden decade. Long may it continue! (Age 10 and over)—John McLay

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett Brand New Item, Fast Dispatch

Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman 'The Apocalypse has never been funnier' Clive Barker

Russell Punter Stanley is a cat who's scared of anything and everything. So how will he cope when his friends leave him on his own in a house full of strange noises? Part of the 'First Reading' series, this title is aimed at children who are beginning to read.

Paula Radcliffe

Ian Rankin Success has a price, and the remarkable acclaim (both critical and commercial) that greeted the gritty Edinburgh-set crime novels of Ian Rankin has set the author a considerable problem. How does he maintain the freshness of detail and atmosphere that have made his books such riveting reading? And how does he keep his tough detective DI John Rebus from degenerating into a series of mannerisms? If Raymond Chandler grew tired of Philip Marlowe and Conan Doyle of Holmes, Rankin would have been in good company if he gave up on Rebus. Fortunately, his belief in the character clearly remains as powerful as ever, and The Falls is the most impressive Rebus novel in many a moon. The detective's personal problems—overused of late—are wisely sidelined in order to concentrate on a highly intriguing (and topical) plot.

When a student vanishes in Edinburgh, there is pressure on Rebus to find her, particularly as she is the scion of a family of extremely rich bankers. Needless to say, this is more than just the case of a spoilt rich girl breaking out of the cage of family responsibilities, and a carved wooden doll in a coffin found in her home village leads Rebus to the Internet role-playing game that she was involved in. And when DC Siobhan Clarke, a key member of Rebus' team, tackles the Virtual Quizmaster, Rankin finds himself struggling to save her from the same fate as the missing girl.

Consummate plotting has always been Rankin's trademark, and that skill is put to maximum use here. The balance between developing the characterisation of the ill-assorted team of coppers that Rebus assembles and the labyrinthine twists of the plot is maintained with an iron hand, and Rankin's mordant eye remains as keen as ever: "You okay, John?" Curt reached out a hand and touched his shoulder. Rebus shook his head slowly, eyes squeezed shut. Curt didn't make it out the first time, so Rebus had to repeat what he said next: "I don't believe in heaven." That was the horror of it. This life was the only one you got. No redemption afterwards, no chance of wiping the slate clean and starting over. Rebus said "There is no justice in the world." "You'd know more about that than I would", Curt replied.

—Barry Forshaw

Ian Rankin Sometimes crime affects you directly: in A Question of Blood Inspector John Rebus is caught up in two cases that are closer to home than he would like. He is under investigation for the burning alive of a minor psychopath who threatened his attractive young sergeant Siobhan Clarke; and the son of an estranged cousin has been murdered in a high-school shooting.

As always in Rankin's novels, Rebus's bad attitude to his superiors comes back to bite him: even though doctors testify that damage to his hands is a scalding from trying drunkenly to get into an over-hot bath, it is regarded as circumstantial evidence of his possible guilt. The high-school shooting looks at first sight like another ex-SAS crazy going wild—and here Rebus's own past as an SAS washout comes to haunt him—and the constant meddling of army investigators screams cover-up. In fact, though, this is one of those occasions on which Rebus's slightly paranoid preparedness to see connections everywhere pays off and he manages to solve both crimes and a lot of other unsuspected pieces of mayhem besides. Along the way, the book offers Rankin's usual intense commentary on embattled masculinity and what it means to be a Scot, and this excellent sequence's usual portrayal of an Edinburgh where modernity rubs up against time-worn slums and ancient privilege. —Roz Kaveney

Ian Rankin Fleshmarket Close is not one of the best of Rankin's John Rebus thrillers, but his second-best is still more than excellent. Middle age is catching up with Rebus—he currently has no desk as a none-too-subtle hint from his superiors that he should seek retirement—but he and his friend and protegee Siobhan, who is still not his lover, race around investigating a variety of seemingly unconnected cases… The sister of a dead rape victim is missing; stolen medical skeletons turn up embedded in a concrete floor; a Kurdish journalist is brutally killed; the son of a Glasgow ganglord has moved in to the Edinburgh vice scene.

Much of the book is dominated by two new settings—a sink estate divided between racist thugs and refugees, and a small town whose economy is dominated by an internment camp for those about to be deported; this is one of Rankin's preachier thrillers, but it is never less than intelligent and evocative in its descriptions of a contemporary squalor that spreads beyond the inner city. These are never quite orthodox police procedurals—Rebus' method is a little too like the standard private eye's way of wandering around being rude to people until something comes loose—but they have a deep seriousness about the way we live now that transcends mere noir moodiness.—Roz Kaveney

Ian Rankin Is it a comforting or precarious feeling, being the UK's number one best-selling male crime writer? Only Ian Rankin could answer that, but it's clear that the author is not content to rest on his laurels, and is always prepared to reinvigorate his excellent Inspector Rebus novels whenever a sense of déjà vu starts to creep in. And now we have Rankin's The Flood, a reissue of his first, unremarked novel. Was Rankin wise to sanction the re-release of this early book? After all, when we were given the chance to read again all the novels of Martin Cruz Smith had written before his groundbreaking Gorky Park, it was a sobering experience — as the latter novel was a quantum leap in achievement beyond the previous books. Not so with The Flood: while this darkly disquieting novel caused ripples on its first publication, its reappearance after 20 years is something of a cause for celebration. Rankin began the novel as a 25-year-old student, and its publication by a small university publishing house (with a modest print run) escaped any critical attention. It took the atmospheric and gritty Rebus novels for us to see just how talented Rankin was, and it's a fascinating experience to re-encounter this tyro work.

The Flood is not a crime novel. Mary Miller is an alienated young woman. As a child, she had had an accident involving a flood of chemical discharges from the local coal mine — she had survived, badly injured, but sympathy for her plight evaporated when the man who was responsible for the accident met his death in a mining accident shortly after. The pious community she lives in views her with superstitious dread. Time passes, and she gives birth to an illegitimate son, Sandy. Her unsatisfactory love affair with a teacher is going nowhere, and her son has started a relationship with a homeless girl. But both Sandy and his mother have to confront the past, and both find their lives will be changed by elemental forces — notably the flood of the title.

As the above conveys, this is sombre stuff, but that won't put off Rankin aficionados, who look for the dark and disturbing in his work. While the book is (inevitably) not as fully achieved as his later work, there are many fascinating pre-echoes of the off-kilter psychology that is Rankin’s stock-in-trade, and any rough edges of the narrative are more than offset by the power of the already highly individual vision on offer here. —Barry Forshaw

Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin Books Sold by IBX

Robert Rankin

Robert Rankin

Robert Rankin

PIERS PAUL READ

Vic Reeves New Year's Day, 1999. Vic Reeves wakes up to discover a flock of seven white doves of peace flying around his bedroom, "casting a Disneylike sense of well-being about." However, all is not well; Vic re- awakens several hours later to discover that the doves have stolen his prized bust of Caligula: "a foreboding sense of gloom now hangs over the home". So begins Vic Reeves' Sunboiled Onions, a fictional diary packed with Vic's own paintings and drawings of a month in the mind of one of the UK's most popular comedians.

Like his TV series with sidekick Bob Mortimer, Sunboiled Onions has a surreal menace in its humour, reflected in Vic's weird drawings of famous figures, which are often uncannily accurate yet strangely disconcerting with their eyes drawn too far apart. Elvis crops up throughout the book, appearing as Sir Walter Raleigh in King Lear (naked from the waist down, of course), buying fan heaters from Argos with Frank Sinatra and ironing his slacks in his bucolic cottage. Alongside such reveries, Vic deals with the problems of his everyday life: "January 10—Flies swarm around the pork in my attic, so I get rid of it, all 150 lbs of it, in a ditch near B&Q". Along the way, Vic muses on various celebrities and their foibles, including Michael Jackson, Abba, Henry VIII, Eric Morecombe and Richard Nixon. Those who love Reeves and Mortimer will celebrate Sunboiled Onions as another manifestation of the genius of the man they call the Darlington Dadaist. —Jerry Brotton

Kathy Reichs Reichs' stunning debut thriller draws on her experience as a forensic anthropologist in North Carolina and Montreal, but it has considerably more going for it than the mere stamp of authenticity. The devil is in the details, and it is the small betraying details—the alignment of cuts in bloody bone—that convince Temperance Brennan that a series of women, murdered in different ways, were killed and dismembered by the same hand and the same saw. Knowing what she knows is one thing, but convincing her police colleagues is quite another.

Reichs skilfully depicts police canteen culture and the way it ensures that someone who is an expert outsider, not one of the lads, is always going to have to go that extra mile to prove herself and her ideas. Brennan is a toughie, though, and not too fussy about demarcation disputes. Reichs has found a way of having her cake and eating it and giving us a detective who combines professional expertise with enthusiastic amateurism. Even more compellingly, the suspense is turned up several notches when Brennan realizes that she is hunted as well as hunter—they find the killer's lair and find her photograph among his trophies... —Roz Kaveney

Kathy Reichs After one of the more startling crime debuts of recent years, Déjà Dead, Kathy Reichs has found herself, at a stroke, regarded as a possible contender for Patricia Cornwell's crown as queen of forensic detection novels. As the new book opens, her forensic anthropologist heroine Temperance Brennan is doing what she usually does—helping to identify remains about which there is almost nothing suspicious. In this case she is dealing with a 19th-century nun of vast sanctity, for whose beatification her relics and burial site need authenticating. What could be simpler or less menacing? Almost immediately, Tempe is called in on a bad case: arson, which has left remains so damaged that a normal pathologist cannot cope—and the victims that pathologists normally cope with include infants stabbed to death.

Something sinister is going on, and whether in Quebec, where she has her practice, or the sleepy South, where she teaches, Tempe is not safe. Reichs' first book was good on the domesticity and friendship to which Tempe retreats—and this time we meet her younger sister, Harriet, who has just got rid of her balloonist lover and is looking for a new interest. —Roz Kaveney

Kathy Reichs Kathy Reichs' forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan is arguably the best of the current crop of thriller pathologists—quiet in her desire to avenge the helpless and coldly clinical in her intelligence. Her third outing, Deadly Decisions, pits her reconstructive skills against a bunch of Hell's Angels with a taste for ultra-violence. She pieces together the jigsaw fragments of identical twins and she finds herself engaged in identifying the teenage girl whose skull and long bones turned up near the grave of some earlier victims of inter-gang strife. In addition to the usual fascinating material about the identification of human bones, Reichs tells us all about the way that biker gangs have become a serious part of the criminal underworld, a subculture with a taste for mayhem and with rules it is death to break. This tactful abridgement for audio includes all the details one could wish of Tempe's gruesome trade, but not at the expense of her bad hair days, her irritating nephew and the rest of her messy private life. Katherine Borowitz's quiet characterisation brings us close to the cool intense delicacy of Reichs's character, without ever quite becoming so quiet as to be monotonous. —Running time approx 5 hours —Roz Kaveney

Kathy Reichs Tempe Brennan, Kathy Reichs' forensic anthropologist heroine, often finds herself in physical jeopardy. In Fatal Voyage, her fourth outing, someone is trying to kill her and also to destroy her professional reputation with trumped-up charges of unethical behaviour.

Tempe is called in when a plane full of college athletes goes down in the remoter parts of the forests of North Carolina. She finds herself investigating a spare foot she rescued from coyotes, a foot which is significantly more decomposed than the crash victims and which has symptoms of gout, a disease most of the dead young people had no time to contract. There is a locked house and walled courtyard out in the woods that do not appear on any maps and it seems almost as if her simple knowledge of their being there has offended the powerful of the world.

As always, Kathy Reichs manages to combine a detailed knowledge of who the dead were and how they died with a profound sense of the sadness of things. This is a book that never lets us forget amid the dissections and tests for genetic markers that each human death is that of a tragic and irreplaceable human being. Tempe is one of the more attractive of the current crop of women detectives simply because she is flawed and vulnerable as well as smart, righteous and brave. Reichs never lets you forget that crime novels should acquaint us with good people as well as human evil. —Roz Kaveney

Kathy Reichs In Bare Bones Kathy Reichs leads her heroine, Temperance Brennan, into one of her scariest, most gruesome adventures yet. As fans of this popular series already know, Tempe is a forensic anthropologist: an expert in the human form (especially bones) who helps solve crimes. A dead baby is only the first in a series of grisly remains, both human and animal, that Tempe must sort through and decode. Meanwhile, as several seemingly unrelated cases begin to intertwine, her sleuthing puts her in the crosshairs of a very nasty stalker who hides behind an e-mail alias.

Reichs knows how to keep the narrative ball rolling with a canny mix of plot developments, character delineation and scientific detail, all relayed via Tempe's smart, breezy, sarcastic voice. In fact, Bare Bones has a few too many characters and plot lines for Reichs—or most readers—to keep perfect track of. But it's a fun ride anyway, enlivened by some steamy romantic scenes and some fascinating, appalling facts about the illicit trade in endangered wildlife, including the information that bears' gall bladders fetch more money per ounce than cocaine. Bare Bones is a crisp, enjoyable read that cements Kathy Reichs' standing as the best forensic-thriller writer at work today. —Nicholas H Allison, Amazon.com

Kathy Reichs In Monday Mourning Tempe Brennan finds the bones of three dead adolescents in a basement and she has to convince her police colleagues that they are recent enough that the case should be investigated. The book has all the technical know-how, crisply explained, that we expect from Kathy Reichs; readers find themselves peering over Tempe's shoulder as she works out, not only the solution to a puzzle, but how to begin to solve it.

Reichs is a practising forensic archaeologist in real life—but she never forgets that her readers cannot be expected to know everything she does. For a genuine expert though, she is remarkably unpatronising to our ignorance—one of the reasons why Tempe has so many colleagues who know comparatively little is so that her explanations can instruct us while we watch prickly Tempe tread on colleagues' toes. Like all of Reichs' books, Monday Mourning has a pronounced sense of place—Montreal in the snow has rarely seemed so real. If there is a downside to this clever police procedural, it is that we get rather too much of Tempe's fairly conventional emotional life—apparent problems with her lover Ryan end up in quite the corniest of explanations for apparent individuality, while her concern for an apparently suicidal friend adds artificial suspense to a plot that was doing the whole thing quite well in the first place. —Roz Kaveney

Kathy Reichs Books Sold by IBX

Kathy Reichs

Burkhard Reimschneider

Anne Rice

Anne Rice

Anne Rice

Anne Rice

Anne Rice

Anne Rice

Anne Rice In The Vampire Armand, Anne Rice returns to her indomitable Vampire Chronicles and recaptures the gothic horror and delight she first explored in her classic tale Interview with the Vampire . The story begins in the aftermath of Memnoch the Devil. Vampires from all over the globe have gathered around Lestat, who lies prostrate on the floor of a cathedral. Dead? In a coma? As Armand reflects on Lestat's condition, he is drawn by David Talbot to tell the story of his own life. The narrative abruptly rushes back to 15th-century Constantinople, and the Armand of the present recounts the fragmented memories of his childhood abduction from Kiev. Eventually, he is sold to a Venetian artist (and vampire), Marius. Rice revels in descriptions of the sensual relationship between the young and still-mortal Armand and his vampiric mentor. But when Armand is finally transformed, the tone of the book dramatically shifts. Raw and sexually explicit scenes are displaced by Armand's introspective quest for a union of his Russian Orthodox childhood, his hedonistic life with Marius, and his newly acquired immortality. These final chapters remind one of the archetypal significance of Rice's vampires; at their best, Armand, Lestat, and Marius offer keen insights into the most human of concerns.

The Vampire Armand is richly intertextual; readers will relish the retelling of critical events from Lestat and Louis's narratives. Nevertheless, the novel is very much Armand's own tragic tale. Rice deftly integrates the necessary back-story for new readers to enter her epic series, and the introduction of a few new voices adds a fresh perspective—and the promise of provocative future installments. —Patrick O'Kelley

Anne Rice

Stella Rimington With At Risk, Dame Stella Rimington's first novel, she is probably aware that she'll be under negative pressure for her literary efforts quite as she was for her true-life revelations concerning the world of spooks in her autobiography Open Secret. In fact At Risk is a strikingly assured debut, with a female perspective on the secret world (via Rimington's heroine Liz) that is as fresh as it is plausible. Rimington's position in MI5 led to the inevitable comparisons with Judi Dench's performances as the first female M in the James Bond films, but what we're shown here is clearly a picture of the author in her early days—Liz is an overworked lower-echelon secret service operative, dealing with both the casual chauvinism of her colleagues and a potentially devastating terrorist plot. The latter is handled with terrifying verisimilitude (one senses the author's intimate knowledge of this world here), and the chapters involving the activities of the 'invisible' (a terrorist who passes as a native of the host country) is probably the most chillingly handled section of the book.

At Risk appears to be partly autobiographical—a novel with a female intelligence officer as its heroine will be construed that way—but it wouldn't be enough to carry an indifferently written book—and this is anything but that. In a plot that mixes East End gangsters, hierarchy and the role of women in government organisations, the central theme here is terrorism. Rimington clearly sees this as the major threat to homeland security in this day and age. Liz Carlisle is a very promising character—and the fact that a series is pending is welcome news. —Barry Forshaw

Stella Rimington

Stella Rimington

Stella Rimington MI5 intelligence officer Liz Carlyle has just been despatched to Northern Ireland to monitor the brutal breakaway Republican groups who never accepted the peace process and want to continue their 'war'. The situation becomes perilous when her informant turns tail...

Rick Riordan

Don Rittner This revision of The iMac Book, a popular guide to what may be the friendliest full-featured personal computer ever, adds a lot of substance to what was already a fact-packed volume. With coverage of Mac OS 9.0.4 (not the most current version of the system, but pretty close), this book retains the sense of fun and focus on community that made the first edition so popular. Coverage of iMovie 2, with FireWire support, is an important addition to this book, as is a guide to the iTools suite of utilities. It also includes coverage of all current and historical iMac hardware options.

iMacs often represent a user's first foray into personal computing, so the book takes time to explain such details as electronic mail signatures and virus protection. It also emphasises the social aspects of owning a Mac—communication is a big part of personal computing, after all. So everything from using electronic mail to setting up mailing lists on Internet-connected servers is explained. The book also makes lots of references to online Mac resources, ranging from the very technical to the happily social, so further research is easy and often fun. —David Wall

Topics covered:Personal Computing for the iMacInternet ConnectivityAppleWorksiMovie 2iToolsInternet ResourcesNetiquetteCommunities of Mac and iMac Users

Anne Robinson Anne Robinson's most recent public persona—the hardened battleaxe of television's The Weakest Link—is but a very small part of this quizmistress; Memoirs Of An Unfit Mother will most likely change your perceptions of the star. This book is a good read, but not a comfortable one. It's interesting: a saga-style across-the-generations tale of the Robinson clan. Of course, as a long-standing journalist before she hit the TV big time, Robinson's written style ensures the pages turn quickly. Memoirs of An Unfit Mother reads like a deposition for the defence of Anne Robinson, by Anne Robinson. It's hard to tell how many prospective readers know much of her life before the consumer TV programme Watchdog, so the author's decision to lay down hard facts about her alcoholism, the demise of a troubled marriage, blind ambition and the subsequent loss of custodial rights to her daughter Emma is risky.

Certainly, there have been hard lessons learnt. Which reader cannot sympathise with the empty dread a mother must feel when a child is taken away? The desperate loneliness? The horror of being judged as a failed parent? Sad things have certainly happened. But Robinson¹s reasoning—that the same would not happen to a hard-drinking workaholic man—only half helps her case for public support. It is difficult to empathise with someone who equates herself with Margaret Thatcher at every turn since the 1970s. Someone who recognises greed as a good point. And someone who seems to take great pride in telling how her husband was derided by colleagues when she became his boss. Readers who remember "Auntie Annie" from Watchdog may be shocked by her—perhaps self-protectively—hardened heart. Those who believe the hype for TV's Mrs Nasty are also mistaken—there aren't many intended wrongs here. Instead, Anne Robinson has laid herself bare, in an appeal to public opinion that she's been wronged by the system. Maybe she has. All in all, Memoirs of an Unfit Mother is worth reading, and worth learning from. It's all down here in black and white, but it is the grey areas in between which hold the intrigue. —Helen Lamont

Tony Roper

Joel Rosenberg

Joel Rosenberg

Joel Rosenberg

Joel Rosenberg

Joel Rosenberg

Jonathan Ross Irreverent, tangental, highly intelligent, and irrepressibly exuberent, Jonathan Ross is Britain's best-known television personality for good reason and his take on growing up, and the world around him, is laugh-out-loud funny. With stories that range from discovering B-movies to fashion, from diets to childhood sweetshops, favorite presents and from sex to pets (and back to sex) he tells his story of his life with all his customary energy, wit, lasciviousness, self-deprecatory humor, and random meandering, revealing that in short trousers he was as cheeky, vain, and frankly ridiculous at times, as he is in those suits.

J. K. Rowling The long-awaited, eagerly anticipated, arguably over-hyped Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has arrived, and the question on the minds of kids, adults, fans, and skeptics alike is, "Is it worth the hype?" The answer, luckily, is simple: yep. A magnificent spectacle more than worth the price of admission, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will blow you away. However, given that so much has gone into protecting the secrets of the book (including armored trucks and injunctions), don't expect any spoilers in this review. It's much more fun not knowing what's coming—and in the case of Rowling's delicious sixth book, you don't want to know. Just sit tight, despite the earth-shattering revelations that will have your head in your hands as you hope the words will rearrange themselves into a different story. But take one warning to heart: do not open Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince until you have first found a secluded spot, safe from curious eyes, where you can tuck in for a good long read. Because once you start, you won't stop until you reach the very last page.

A darker book than any in the series thus far with a level of sophistication belying its genre, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince moves the series into murkier waters and marks the arrival of Rowling onto the adult literary scene. While she has long been praised for her cleverness and wit, the strength of Book 6 lies in her subtle development of key characters, as well as her carefully nuanced depiction of a community at war. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, no one and nothing is safe, including preconceived notions of good and evil and of right and wrong. With each book in her increasingly remarkable series, fans have nervously watched J.K. Rowling raise the stakes; gone are the simple delights of butterbeer and enchanted candy, and days when the worst ailment could be cured by a bite of chocolate. A series that began as a colorful lark full of magic and discovery has become a dark and deadly war zone. But this should not come as a shock to loyal readers. Rowling readied fans with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by killing off popular characters and engaging the young students in battle. Still, there is an unexpected bleakness from the start of Book 6 that casts a mean shadow over Quidditch games, silly flirtations, and mountains of homework. Ready or not, the tremendous ending of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will leave stunned fans wondering what great and terrible events await in Book 7 if this sinister darkness is meant to light the way. —Daphne Durham

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Begin at the Beginning
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Hardcover
Paperback Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Hardcover
Paperback Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Hardcover
Paperback Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Hardcover
Paperback Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Hardcover
Paperback
Why We Love Harry
Favorite Moments from the Series
There are plenty of reasons to love Rowling's wildly popular series—no doubt you have several dozen of your own. Our list features favorite moments, characters, and artifacts from the first five books. Keep in mind that this list is by no means exhaustive (what we love about Harry could fill ten books!) and does not include any of the spectacular revelatory moments that would spoil the books for those (few) who have not read them. Enjoy.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
* Harry's first trip to the zoo with the Dursleys, when a boa constrictor winks at him.
* When the Dursleys' house is suddenly besieged by letters for Harry from Hogwarts. Readers learn how much the Dursleys have been keeping from Harry. Rowling does a wonderful job in displaying the lengths to which Uncle Vernon will go to deny that magic exists.
* Harry's first visit to Diagon Alley with Hagrid. Full of curiosities and rich with magic and marvel, Harry's first trip includes a trip to Gringotts and Ollivanders, where Harry gets his wand (holly and phoenix feather) and discovers yet another connection to He-Who-Must-No-Be-Named. This moment is the reader's first full introduction to Rowling's world of witchcraft and wizards.
* Harry's experience with the Sorting Hat.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
* The de-gnoming of the Weasleys' garden. Harry discovers that even wizards have chores—gnomes must be grabbed (ignoring angry protests "Gerroff me! Gerroff me!"), swung about (to make them too dizzy to come back), and tossed out of the garden—this delightful scene highlights Rowling's clever and witty genius.
* Harry's first experience with a Howler, sent to Ron by his mother.
* The Dueling Club battle between Harry and Malfoy. Gilderoy Lockhart starts the Dueling Club to help students practice spells on each other, but he is not prepared for the intensity of the animosity between Harry and Draco. Since they are still young, their minibattle is innocent enough, including tickling and dancing charms.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
* Ron's attempt to use a telephone to call Harry at the Dursleys'.
* Harry's first encounter with a Dementor on the train (and just about any other encounter with Dementors). Harry's brush with the Dementors is terrifying and prepares Potter fans for a darker, scarier book.
* Harry, Ron, and Hermione's behavior in Professor Trelawney's Divination class. Some of the best moments in Rowling's books occur when she reminds us that the wizards-in-training at Hogwarts are, after all, just children. Clearly, even at a school of witchcraft and wizardry, classes can be boring and seem pointless to children.
* The Boggart lesson in Professor Lupin's classroom.
* Harry, Ron, and Hermione's knock-down confrontation with Snape.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
* Hermione's disgust at the reception for the veela (Bulgarian National Team Mascots) at the Quidditch World Cup. Rowling's fourth book addresses issues about growing up—the dynamic between the boys and girls at Hogwarts starts to change. Nowhere is this more plain than the hilarious scene in which magical cheerleaders nearly convince Harry and Ron to jump from the stands to impress them.
* Viktor Krum's crush on Hermione—and Ron's objection to it.
* Malfoy's "Potter Stinks" badge.
* Hermione's creation of S.P.E.W., the intolerant bigotry of the Death Eaters, and the danger of the Triwizard Tournament. Add in the changing dynamics between girls and boys at Hogwarts, and suddenly Rowling's fourth book has a weight and seriousness not as present in early books in the series. Candy and tickle spells are left behind as the students tackle darker, more serious issues and take on larger responsibilities, including the knowledge of illegal curses.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

* Harry's outburst to his friends at No. 12 Grimmauld Place. A combination of frustration over being kept in the dark and fear that he will be expelled fuels much of Harry's anger, and it all comes out at once, directly aimed at Ron and Hermione. Rowling perfectly portrays Harry's frustration at being too old to shirk responsibility, but too young to be accepted as part of the fight that he knows is coming.
* Harry's detention with Professor Umbridge. Rowling shows her darker side, leading readers to believe that Hogwarts is no longer a safe haven for young wizards. Dolores represents a bureaucratic tyrant capable of real evil, and Harry is forced to endure their private battle of wills alone.
* Harry and Cho's painfully awkward interactions. Rowling clearly remembers what it was like to be a teenager.
* Harry's Occlumency lessons with Snape.
* Dumbledore's confession to Harry.

Magic, Mystery, and Mayhem: A Conversation with J.K. Rowling

"I am an extraordinarily lucky person, doing what I love best in the world. I’m sure that I will always be a writer. It was wonderful enough just to be published. The greatest reward is the enthusiasm of the readers." —J.K. Rowling

Find out more about Harry's creator in our exclusive interview with J.K. Rowling.

Did You Know? The Little White Horse was J.K. Rowling's favorite book as a child. </ a> Jane Austen is Rowling's favorite author. Roddy Doyle is Rowling's favorite living writer.

A Few Words from Mary GrandPré

"When I illustrate a cover or a book, I draw upon what the author tells me; that's how I see my responsibility as an illustrator. J.K. Rowling is very descriptive in her writing—she gives an illustrator a lot to work with. Each story is packed full of rich visual descriptions of the atmosphere, the mood, the setting, and all the different creatures and people. She makes it easy for me. The images just develop as I sketch and retrace until it feels right and matches her vision." Check out more Harry Potter art from illustrator Mary GrandPré.

J. K. Rowling The Final Chapter
Harry is waiting in Privet Drive. The Order of the Phoenix is coming to escort him safely away without Voldemort and his supporters knowing if they can. But what will Harry do then? How can he fulfil the momentous and seemingly impossible task that Professor Dumbledore has left him with.

In this final, seventh installment of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling unveils in spectactular fashion the answers to the many questions that have been so eagerly awaited. The spellbinding, richly woven narrative, which plunges, twists and turns at a breathtaking pace, confirms the author as a mistress of storytelling, whose books will be read, reread and read again

Visit the Harry Potter Store
Our Harry Potter Store features all things Harry, including books, audio CDs and cassettes, DVDs, toys and more.

Begin at the Beginning
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Hardcover
Paperback Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Hardcover
Paperback Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Hardcover
Paperback Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Hardcover
Paperback Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Hardcover
Paperback Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Hardcover
Paperback
Why We Love Harry
Favourite Moments from the Series
There are plenty of reasons to love Rowling's wildly popular series—no doubt you have several dozen of your own. Our list features favourite moments, characters, and artefacts from the first six books. Keep in mind that this list is by no means exhaustive (what we love about Harry could fill ten books!) and does not include any of the spectacular revelatory moments that would spoil the books for those (few) who have not read them. Enjoy.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
* Harry's first trip to the zoo with the Dursleys, when a boa constrictor winks at him.
* When the Dursleys' house is suddenly besieged by letters for Harry from Hogwarts. Readers learn how much the Dursleys have been keeping from Harry. Rowling does a wonderful job in displaying the lengths to which Uncle Vernon will go to deny that magic exists.
* Harry's first visit to Diagon Alley with Hagrid. Full of curiosities and rich with magic and marvel, Harry's first trip includes a trip to Gringotts and Ollivanders, where Harry gets his wand (holly and phoenix feather) and discovers yet another connection to He-Who-Must-No-Be-Named. This moment is the reader's first full introduction to Rowling's world of witchcraft and wizards.
* Harry's experience with the Sorting Hat.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
* The de-gnoming of the Weasleys' garden. Harry discovers that even wizards have chores—gnomes must be grabbed (ignoring angry protests "Gerroff me! Gerroff me!"), swung about (to make them too dizzy to come back), and tossed out of the garden—this delightful scene highlights Rowling's clever and witty genius.
* Harry's first experience with a Howler, sent to Ron by his mother.
* The Duelling Club battle between Harry and Malfoy. Gilderoy Lockhart starts the Duelling Club to help students practice spells on each other, but he is not prepared for the intensity of the animosity between Harry and Draco. Since they are still young, their minibattle is innocent enough, including tickling and dancing charms.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
* Ron's attempt to use a telephone to call Harry at the Dursleys'.
* Harry's first encounter with a Dementor on the train (and just about any other encounter with Dementors). Harry's brush with the Dementors is terrifying and prepares Potter fans for a darker, scarier book.
* Harry, Ron, and Hermione's behaviour in Professor Trelawney's Divination class. Some of the best moments in Rowling's books occur when she reminds us that the wizards-in-training at Hogwarts are, after all, just children. Clearly, even at a school of witchcraft and wizardry, classes can be boring and seem pointless to children.
* The Boggart lesson in Professor Lupin's classroom.
* Harry, Ron, and Hermione's knock-down confrontation with Snape.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
* Hermione's disgust at the reception for the veela (Bulgarian National Team Mascots) at the Quidditch World Cup. Rowling's fourth book addresses issues about growing up—the dynamic between the boys and girls at Hogwarts starts to change. Nowhere is this more plain than the hilarious scene in which magical cheerleaders nearly convince Harry and Ron to jump from the stands to impress them.
* Viktor Krum's crush on Hermione—and Ron's objection to it.
* Malfoy's "Potter Stinks" badge.
* Hermione's creation of S.P.E.W., the intolerant bigotry of the Death Eaters, and the danger of the Triwizard Tournament. Add in the changing dynamics between girls and boys at Hogwarts, and suddenly Rowling's fourth book has a weight and seriousness not as present in early books in the series. Candy and tickle spells are left behind as the students tackle darker, more serious issues and take on larger responsibilities, including the knowledge of illegal curses.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

* Harry's outburst to his friends at No. 12 Grimmauld Place. A combination of frustration over being kept in the dark and fear that he will be expelled fuels much of Harry's anger, and it all comes out at once, directly aimed at Ron and Hermione. Rowling perfectly portrays Harry's frustration at being too old to shirk responsibility, but too young to be accepted as part of the fight that he knows is coming.
* Harry's detention with Professor Umbridge. Rowling shows her darker side, leading readers to believe that Hogwarts is no longer a safe haven for young wizards. Dolores represents a bureaucratic tyrant capable of real evil, and Harry is forced to endure their private battle of wills alone.
* Harry and Cho's painfully awkward interactions. Rowling clearly remembers what it was like to be a teenager.
* Harry's Occlumency lessons with Snape.
* Dumbledore's confession to Harry.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

* This book is much darker than the rest. Lord Voldemort has been creating chaos in the Wizard and Muggle communities alike, the war is in full swing and the Wizarding community now lives in fear.
* It is much more emotional. The story turns at the whim of a temperamental teenager from war and life-changing tragedy, to euphoria and glistening happiness.

Magic, Mystery, and Mayhem: A Conversation with J.K. Rowling

"I am an extraordinarily lucky person, doing what I love best in the world. I’m sure that I will always be a writer. It was wonderful enough just to be published. The greatest reward is the enthusiasm of the readers." —J.K. Rowling

Find out more about Harry's creator in our exclusive interview with J.K. Rowling.

Did You Know? The Little White Horse was J.K. Rowling's favourite book as a child. </ a> Jane Austen is Rowling's favourite author. Roddy Doyle is Rowling's favourite living writer.

J. K. Rowling

J.K Rowling Say you've spent the first 10 years of your life sleeping under the stairs of a family who loathes you. Then, in an absurd, magical twist of fate you find yourself surrounded by wizards, a caged snowy owl, a phoenix-feather wand and jellybeans that come in every flavour, including strawberry, curry, grass and sardine. Not only that, but you discover that you are a wizard yourself! This is exactly what happens to young Harry Potter in J K Rowling's enchanting, funny debut novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In the non-magical human world—the world of "Muggles"—Harry is a nobody, treated like dirt by the aunt and uncle who begrudgingly inherited him when his parents were killed by the evil Voldemort. But in the world of wizards, small, skinny Harry is renowned as a survivor of the wizard who tried to kill him. He is left only with a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, curiously refined sensibilities and a host of mysterious powers to remind him that he's quite, yes, altogether different from his aunt, uncle, and spoilt, pig-like cousin Dudley.

A mysterious letter, delivered by the friendly giant Hagrid, wrenches Harry from his dreary, Muggle-ridden existence: "We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry". Of course, Uncle Vernon yells most unpleasantly, "I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" Soon enough, however, Harry finds himself at Hogwarts with his owl Hedwig ... and that's where the real adventure—humorous, haunting, and suspenseful—begins.

This magical, gripping, brilliant book—a future classic to be sure—will leave children clamouring for a sequel. (Ages 8-13) —Karin Snelson

J.K. Rowling J K Rowling's sequel to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone carries on where the original left off. Harry is returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after the summer holidays and, right from the start, things are not straightforward.

Unable to board the Hogwarts express, Harry and his friends break all the rules and make their way to the school in a magical flying car. From this point on, incredible events happen to Harry and his friends—Harry hears evil voices and someone, or something is attacking the pupils. Can Harry get to the bottom of the mystery before it's too late?

As with its predecessor Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a highly readable and imaginative adventure story with real, fallible, characters, plenty of humour and, of course, loads of magic and spells. There is no need to have read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to enjoy this book. However, if you have read it, this is the book you have been waiting for. (Ages 9 to Adult). —Philippa Reece

J.K. Rowling The worry, when faced with the follow-up to books as good as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (both winners of the Nestlé Smarties Prize Gold Award), is that it won't be as good. With J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban any concerns are banished from page one. This, the third in the series, continues where the previous two left off and is a fantastic adventure of mystery, magic and mayhem combined with liberal doses of humour and plenty of suspense.

Forced to do his homework in the dead of night and forbidden to refer to his magic skills or his life at Hogwarts school, Harry Potter is forced to endure the summer holidays with the dreaded Dursleys. The arrival of Aunt Marge is the final straw and, in a fit of anger, Harry breaks all the rules and casts a spell on her, causing her to blow up like a balloon. Running away from his dreaded relatives, Harry expects to be expelled from Hogwarts for his blatant flaunting of the rule not to use magic outside term time. However, the arrival of the mysterious Knight Bus and a meeting with Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, result in Harry enjoying the rest of the holidays in the wonderful surroundings of the Leaky Cauldron.

The escape of Sirius Black—one time friend of Harry's parents, implicated in their murder and follower of "You- Know-Who"—from Azkaban, has serious implications for Harry for it would appear that Black is bent on revenge against Harry for thwarting "You-Know-Who". Back at Hogwarts, Harry's movements are restricted by the presence of the Dementors—guards from Azkaban on the look out for Black—however, this doesn't stop him throwing himself into the new Quidditch season and going about his normal business—or at least attempting to. Despite warnings Harry is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding Sirius Black—how could this one-time close friend of his parents become the cause of their deaths?

And why does the presence of the Dementors have such a devastating effect on him, causing him to hear the last moments of his mother's life?

With another four Harry Potter novels planned, Jo Rowling is creating a series of books which will become classics to rival C.S. Lewis'Chronicles of Narnia—books written for children but loved by adults too. (Ages 9 and up) —Philippa Reece

J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire CD Set, Part 1 tells the first half of Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in nine CDs. Part 2, also containing nine CDs, tells the second half, or you can get the complete story on 18 CDs.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the long-awaited, heavily hyped fourth instalment of a phenomenally successful series that has captured the imagination of millions of readers, young and old, across the globe. For J K Rowling the pressure is certainly on to continue to come up with thrilling, pacey storylines that allow her hero to mature into a young man without detracting from the magical secret that has made Harry into a superstar. In this book, the teenage Harry has a certain gawky charm that fits well with his advancing adolescence. As the story moves on, Harry too moves on to a new level of maturity that leaves the reader wondering how he will learn from his experiences, and liking him all the more as a character.

Once returned to Hogwarts after his summer holiday with the dreadful Dursleys and an extraordinary outing to the Quidditch World Cup, the 14-year-old Harry and his fellow pupils are enraptured by the promise of the Triwizard Tournament: an ancient, ritualistic tournament that brings Hogwarts together with two other schools of wizardry—Durmstrang and Beauxbatons—in heated competition. But when Harry's name is pulled from the Goblet of Fire, and he is chosen to champion Hogwarts in the tournament, the trouble really begins. Still reeling from the effects of a terrifying nightmare that has left him shaken, and with the lightning-shaped scar on his head throbbing with pain (a sure sign that the evil Voldemort, Harry's sworn enemy, is close), Harry becomes at once the most popular boy in school. Yet, despite his fame, he is totally unprepared for the furore that follows.

This is a hefty volume: 636 pages, of which probably at least 200 could have been cut without detracting from the story. The weight and complexity of the book is perhaps a hint that Rowling now has her eye sharply focused on her adult audience, and the average child-reader (particularly one who is coming to Harry Potter for the first time) may well find its girth daunting. Rowling's ironic and pointed observations on tabloid journalism and the nature of media hype is just one of the references littered through the book that will tickle the grown-ups but may well fly over the heads of her young fans.

However, after a slow start, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire really starts to sparkle halfway through with Rowling's familiar magic (and yes, there is a death—sudden and tragic—and yes, Harry does start to notice girls). The crux of this story, however, is Harry's gradual coming-of-age and his handling of the increasingly determined threats to his own life.

This book is pivotal, not just for the author for whom the heat is well and truly on, but for Harry and his readers who, by the last chapter, are left in little doubt that there is much more to come. (Ages 10 to adult) —Susan Harrison

J.K. Rowling Harry Potter fans will love this boxed set, containing hardback editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. A fantastic gift for the true Harry collector, or a great way to introduce the uninitiated to the world of Hogwarts. —Susan Harrison

J.K. Rowling As his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry approaches in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 15-year-old Harry Potter is in full-blown adolescence, complete with regular outbursts of rage, a nearly debilitating crush, and the blooming of a powerful sense of rebellion. It's been yet another infuriating and boring summer with the despicable Dursleys, this time with minimal contact from our hero's non-Muggle friends from school. Harry is feeling especially edgy at the lack of news from the magic world, wondering when the freshly revived evil Lord Voldemort will strike. Returning to Hogwarts will be a relief… or will it?

Book five in JK Rowling's Harry Potter series follows the darkest year yet for our young wizard, who finds himself knocked down a peg or three after the events of last year. Over the summer, gossip (usually traced back to the magic world's newspaper, the Daily Prophet) has turned Harry's tragic and heroic encounter with Voldemort at the Triwizard Tournament into an excuse to ridicule and discount the teenager. Even Professor Dumbledore, headmaster of the school, has come under scrutiny from the Ministry of Magic, which refuses to officially acknowledge the terrifying truth: that Voldemort is back. Enter a particularly loathsome new character: the toad-like and simpering ("hem, hem") Dolores Umbridge, senior undersecretary to the minister of Magic, who takes over the vacant position of defence against dark arts teacher—and in no time manages to become the high inquisitor of Hogwarts. Life isn't getting any easier for Harry Potter. With an overwhelming course load as the fifth years prepare for their examinations, devastating changes in the Gryffindor Quidditch team line-up, vivid dreams about long hallways and closed doors, and increasing pain in his lightning-shaped scar, Harry's resilience is sorely tested.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, more than any of the four previous novels in the series, is a coming-of-age story. Harry faces the thorny transition into adulthood, when adult heroes are revealed to be fallible, and matters that seemed black and white suddenly come out in shades of gray. Gone is the wide-eyed innocent, the whiz kid of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Here we have an adolescent who's sometimes sullen, often confused (especially about girls), and always self-questioning. Confronting death again, as well as a startling prophecy, Harry ends his year at Hogwarts exhausted and pensive. Readers, on the other hand, will be energised as they enter yet again the long waiting period for the next title in the marvellous magical series. —Emilie Coulter

J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in J.K. Rowling’s bestselling series, picks up shortly after we left Harry at the end of The Order of the Phoenix. Lord Voldemort is acting out in the open, continuing his reign of terror which was temporarily stopped almost 15 years beforehand. Harry is again at the Dursleys, where the events of the previous month continue to weigh on his mind, although not as much as the impending visit from his Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. Given their last meeting, Harry is understandably confused as to why the old wizard would want to visit him at home.

Rowling opens with a chapter she had wanted to use for the first book, of The Philosopher’s Stone—Lord Voldemort has been creating chaos in the Wizard and Muggle communities alike, the war is in full swing and the Wizarding community now lives in fear. The press have been questioning the events at the Ministry which led to the admission of Voldemort’s return, and of course Harry’s name is mentioned a number of times. Harry’s got his problems, but his anxiety is nothing compared to Hermione’s when the OWL results are delivered. There’s a new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, an assortment of new characters and creatures, and startling revelations about past characters and events.

Gone is the rage-filled Harry of The Order of the Phoenix—he’s not being kept in the dark any more, his unjustified Quidditch ban has been lifted and he has matured considerably in his short time out of school. Half-Blood Prince follows Harry into the world of late-teens, and his realisation that nobody is infallible has made his growth that much easier. Accepting his destiny, Harry continues to behave as teenagers do, enjoying his time with his friends, developing his relationships outside of his usual circle, and learning more about how he must, eventually, do what he is destined to do.

J.K. Rowling delivers another fantastic tale which will have the readers gasping for more, capturing the characters perfectly and continuing a tale which readers will enjoy over and over again. —Ziggy Morbi

Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan

Frank Ryan

Annie Sanders

Bruce Schneier At the moment, it seems that hardly a day passes without fresh news of some glaring Internet security breach; online banks, of all things, seem to be particularly vulnerable at the moment. All of which will come as no great surprise to network security cum cryptography guru, Bruce Schnier. His latest book, Secrets and Lies, paints a very gloomy overview of the true state of network security. Schnier, founder of Counterpane Internet Security, has some harsh words to say about the state of network security, though, to be fair, his criticisms are directed far and wide; not one scapegoat, (not even Microsoft) is singled out for special attention. Depressingly, the words "fundamentally flawed" crop up time and time again in this absorbing book.

Secrets and Lies is a thorough backgrounder in all aspects of network security, an extremely wide remit that stretches from passwords to encryption, passing through authentication and attack trees along the way. The book is divided in to three broad categories, The Landscape, which covers attacks, adversaries and the need for security; Technologies, which discusses cryptography, authentication, network security, secure hardware and security tricks; and concludes with Strategies, which looks at vulnerabilities, risk assessment, security policies and the future of security. Mercifully there's a dim light at the end of this tunnel and Schnier ultimately remains upbeat about maintaining computer security and details a way forward in his conclusion.

Although working in a necessarily techie environment, Schnier's book is surprisingly jargon-free and easy to understand, even if you're not au fait with the inner workings of TCP/IP—it's common-sense, practical style makes a potentially dense and arcane subject accessible by just about anybody. It's also bang up to date, which makes for a pleasant change. Secrets and Lies is never less than thought-provoking and should be essential reading for every network administrator in the land. Be afraid, be very afraid! —Roger Gann

Gerald Seymour

William Shakespeare

William Shatner

Paul Slade, Christine Hall

Karin Slaughter When so many top-selling names in the crime genre have been showing signs of exhaustion lately, it's always refreshing to pick up a new Karin Slaughter and find that her writing is as laser-sharp as ever. Faithless may feature the author’s familiar protagonists (police chief Jeffrey Tolliver and medical examiner Sara Linton) but Slaughter consistently finds new challenges for her characters, along with new facets of their ever-fluid relationship.

Those weaned on the grisly delights of such Slaughter outings as Blindsighted and Kisscut will know what to expect. And if the novel starts a tad implausibly (Tolliver and Linton, walking in the woods, come across the corpse of a young woman—what are the odds against that?), we're more than prepared to forgive Slaughter this device, when the ever-tightening grip of the narrative takes hold. The duo looks at the evidence, and concludes that the young girl has been literally frightened to death. But during the course of an autopsy, Sara makes a startling discovery—one that gives even the unshockable pathologist pause. She and Tolliver find that there is a trail of evidence leading to a secluded community in the next county, and decide to call in talented detective Lena Adams to aid them. But as the trio draw nearer to the heart of a grim mystery, a destabilising element threatens to undercut their work: Lena’s increasing instability.

While there is nothing particularly groundbreaking in this latest outing for Slaughter, all the customary skills are firmly in place. A particular achievement (as so often with this author) is the faultless pacing of the narrative: the slow, steady accruing of detail has the reader on the point of impatience, when a brilliantly orchestrated set piece will be delivered. Perhaps Karin Slaughter's run of luck will come to an end at some point—but not with this book. —Barry Forshaw

Karin Slaughter

Rupert Smith

Wilbur Smith

Greg Snow

Susan Spindler

Lindi St.Clair, Pamela Winfield

Eric Stanton, Burkhard Riemschneider

Robert Louis Stevenson

Clifford Stoll

Nick Stone

Linda Stratmann

Talkingto

Bruce Talkington, John Kurtz

Margaret Thatcher

Louis Theroux

Paul Theroux A journey into the forbidden - the erotic, the remote, the uncharted. Slade Steadman has written one of the most famous travel books ever. But he has been unable to write anything else for thirty years. A journey downriver in a remote eastern province of Ecuador among the Secoya indians gives Steadman the experience he has been seeking - and a miracle drug. He returns tothe USA with the drug that induces temporary blindness. He is energized - able not only to write and remember, but granted an almost uncanny prescience, bordering on second sight. He is able to work again, and enjoys a period of intense creativity back home on Martha's Vineyard, where he has lived as a recluse. He finishes the book he had always dreamed of writing and becomes famous once more. But the drug he has been taking has possessed him, and it seems there is no way to reverse its blinding effects. He becomes a captive - of the woman he has been his lover, of the man who helped him in Ecuador, of the scandal surrounding his blindness.

Craig Thomas

Craig Thomas

Craig Thomas

Craig Thomas

Craig Thomas

Craig Thomas

Craig Thomas

Craig Thomas

Craig Thomas

Craig Thomas

D.C. Thomson

D.C. Thomson comic 1983 paperback

D.C. Thomson

D.C. Thomson

D.C. Thomson

D.C. Thomson London published Children's Annuals

D.C. Thomson London published Children's Annuals

D.C. Thomson Oor Wullie 2007 (Bi-Annual)

D.C. Thomson

J. R. R. Tolkein

J R R Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien Although The Silmarillion takes place in the same imaginary world as J.J.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and was originally published four years after the author's death and over two decades after the former book, it is set much earlier, in the First Age of the World. The tales and the book which reads as a fusion between a story collection and historical chronicle, are a matter of legend even to the characters of The Lord of the Rings:In the beginning Eru, the One, who in the Elvish tongue is named Ilúvatar, made the Ainur of his thought; and they made a great Music before him Tolkien wrote the heart of this material very early in his career, and continued to work on it throughout his life. It fell to his son, Christopher Tolkien, to edit it into book form, and such proved the unquenchable public appetite that he subsequently oversaw 12 volumes of The History of Middle-Earth. This edition features 20 highly evocative colour plates by Ted Nasmith, themselves worth the price of admission, while reinforcing the sense of a historical work are genealogical tables, an extensive index, appendix and colour map. Far removed from the genial style of The Hobbit, this is Tolkien at his most formal, his prose austere, poetically beautiful, his storytelling capturing the epic scale, high drama and melancholy wonder of myth. These stories of elves and heroes and old gods are quite literally the foundation of the entire modern fantasy-publishing revival, and are therefore essential reading. —Gary S. Dalkin

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

Steve Toltz

Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend Adrian Mole is balding, he's bitter and he's back, this time aged 30¼. Working at the Hoi Polloy restaurant, Soho, where a typical menu includes:Heinz Tomato Soup,
(with white bread floaters)

Grey Lamb Chops
Boiled Cabbage avec Dan Quayle Potatoes
Dark Brown onion gravy

Spotted Dick à la Clinton
Bird's Eye Custard

Cheddar Cheese, Cream Crackers
Nescafé
After Eight Mint he is spotted by a cable TV producer and ends up starring in a celebrity chef show celebrating offal. Though he may be older he is certainly no wiser, still passing his time by dreaming of Pandora (now a shining star in Tony Blair's New Government) after his marriage to a Nigerian beauty ends in tatters. But underneath the layers of experience and sophistication, fans of the Mole family will find the same dysfunctional mess that made Adrian's Secret Diary an instant bestseller—his young son is being brought up by his mother in Ashby-de-la- Zouch, his 16-year-old sister leaves home to live with her multiply pierced boyfriend and his father is bed- bound with manic depression. Adrian still makes constant lists of juvenile neuroses and concentrates on his penis activity to an unhealthy extent (it is when it reaches 0/10 he realises something has to be done).

Townsend's trademark acerbic wit is still much in evidence; Zippo kissed my mother's hand and complimented her on the shirt she was wearing. 'Is it Vivienne Westwood?' he murmered.
'No', she muttered back. 'It's BhS'.
'You clever thing', he crooned. it is only the frames of reference that have changed. Occasionally verging on the corny ("I arrived at the Brent Cross shopping centre car-park, to find that my car had been towed away five days ago and was in a police compound somewhere in Purley. A £25 cab ride took me to the Purley gates …") true Mole fanatics will forgive Townsend her occasional excesses for the numerous laugh-out-loud moments that punctuate Adrian's existence as he blunders on towards middle age.

Accessible, amusing and appealing, The Cappuccino Years see an Adrian who has survived the Growing Pains; thought better of True Confessions; is out of the Wilderness Years and is facing the only really important question that remains: Is Viagra cheating? —Lucie Naylor

Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend Adrian Mole is 39 and a quarter. Unable to afford the mortgage on his riverside apartment, he has been forced to move into a semi-detached converted pigsty next door to his parents, George and Pauline. His ravishing wife Daisy loathes the countryside, longs for Dean Street and has yet to buy a pair of Wellingtons.

Lynne Truss SOLD Everyone knows the basics of punctuation, yet we see ignorance and indifference everywhere. Its Summer! says a sign that cries out for an apostrophe. ANTIQUE, S, says another

Lynne Truss SOLD Everyone knows the basics of punctuation, yet we see ignorance and indifference everywhere. Its Summer! says a sign that cries out for an apostrophe. ANTIQUE, S, says another

Carrie Tucker

Anthea Turner The celebrity memoir is a dangerous beast, and Fools Rush In by television personality Anthea Turner certainly knows how to bare its teeth. Cleverly ghost-written by romance writer Wendy Holden, the pace here is fast and breathless, and pages turn fast; this is certainly a recommended holiday read for fans of Hello! and OK!. Tracing her origins from the English Pottery district, through her rise to Auntie's prime-time sugar babe and on to the sticky mess of her marriage break up, Turner is remarkably frank throughout. She exposes the frailties of those around her—ex-fiance Bruno Brookes' dangerous temper and Eamonn Holmes' "ultimate betrayal". Even ex-husband Peter Powell's tendency to be "emotionally distant—we didn't share a marital bed"— is laid bare (remarkable considering Peter Powell is still Turner's manager and therefore sanctioned the book)—this story is filled with titbits of gossip that can be described as both meaty and tacky in equal measures.

Turner's truthfulness—at least, the truth as seen through her own, Peter-Pan eyes—seems unquestionable, and while this latest contender for the Turner Prize for Publicity leaves ex-lovers shivering naked in the spotlight, Anthea perhaps tells us more about herself than she intends by dropping in priceless quotes. "I was at the very peak of my career, rivalled only, according to one paper, as the blonde most little girls wanted to be" she lisps blithely, before informing us "I'm a big Michael Flatley fan". More telling are her recurrent references to money, from "Pete and I divorced for #127.50" to "It has cost Grant and I over 1 million pounds to be together"; but most dangerous of all are her over-earnest justifications as she faced trial by her public. Surely it is the relationship with her young stepdaughters, who she clumsily mentions and should have left well alone, which needs work. Anthea Turner hoped to set the record straight with this autobiography. Instead with Fools Rush In—hugely entertaining for all the wrong reasons—she may have made things worse. There was once a time when it looked like chocolate wouldn't melt in the mouth of TV's golden girl, now it seems a certain Cadburys' snowflake bar—as shown ill-advisedly in a wedding publicity snap—has melted her perfect image. —Eilidh McLean

Dan Verton

Jack Vettriano A collection of 100 canvases of an artist whose erotic, provocative and emotionally charged paintings have made him one of Britain's most successful contemporary artists.

Mia Wallace, Clint Spanner

Mark Weakland

Hayley Westenra, Darren Henley Hayley's first performance as 'Little Star' in a Christmas play was enthusiastically received. She was six years old. Since then her string of musical accolades is astonishing and her audiences range from royalty to premiers. This book tells her story, from her first performance, through later roles in productions such as 'The Sound of Music'.

Dennis Wheatley

Kathryn White

Neil White

Owen Whittaker

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Tad Williams Otherland, the quartet of which Mountain of Black Glass is the powerful third part, combines some terrifying speculation on the future of virtual reality with adventures none the less terrifying because they are technologised dreaming—these are dreams from which the adventurers cannot awaken and in which, if they die, they are dead...An epidemic of comatose children has led Rennie and her San friend !Xabbu into the net and to a series of dream worlds created as palaces by the corrupt aspiring immortals, the Grail Brotherhood; two of those children, Orlando and Fredericks, have become adventurers in their own right, while their parents' lawyer Ramsey follows real world money, and lesbian cop Calliope tracks a serial killer with serious ambitions to become an angry god. In this volume we have adventures in a mythic Ancient Egypt and a rambling Gormenghast-like house before all the virtual adventurers meet where they were always destined to, before the walls of Troy...

All around, death. It was not a quiet presence during the long day—not a pale-faced maiden bringing surceasse from pain, not a skillful reaper with a scalpel-sharp blade... Death on the Trojan plain was a crazed beast that roared and clawed and smashed, which was everywhere at once, and which in its unending fury showed that even armoured men were terribly frail things.

Tad Williams takes the gameworld and turns it on its head, passionately; how do we know that what bleeds does not feel pain? He is writing a classic of cyberspace adventure which has a sorrowful heart. —Roz Kaveney

Tad Williams Tad Williams began his Otherland series with the massive City of Golden Shadow and continues it with the equally hefty River of Blue Fire. Williams says it will require four (big) books to tell his complex, multifaceted tale, and at the rate that the plot of this second novel moves, readers will see what he means. Not that the book is a slow read; in fact, River of Blue Fire is as much a suspenseful page-turner as the first book.

As it opens, we join up again with the ragtag bunch of searchers trapped in an astoundingly detailed and frightfully dangerous virtual world known as Otherland. Lurking in disguise among the group is the brutally vicious serial killer Dread, trying to find information that will help him overthrow his Grail Brotherhood masters. The group follows a ubiquitous river through world after world, unable to go offline, and subject to the increasingly terrifying certainty that things in this supposedly virtual place are all too real. Meanwhile, Paul Jonas, an amnesiac (but somehow pivotal) character fleeing from two sinister beings, finds more and more of his memory as he does his own Huck Finn river trip. As in the first novel, each new world that the characters enter, from Palaeolithic Ice Age to something suspiciously like Oz, is fully realized and completely unpredictable.

Williams is a master at parcelling out information to the reader in dribs and drabs, which is frustrating yet tantalizing, like a particularly good computer game. When the group is split up and the adventure divides further, the reader senses the author as a puppet master, following some incredibly complex flows of information. The best course is just to hang on and enjoy Williams's deft characterizations, lush descriptions and wildly divergent plot. If you've ever been white-water rafting, you'll recognize the feeling. —Therese Littleton

Tad Williams Otherland, the quartet of which Mountain of Black Glass is the powerful third part, combines some terrifying speculation on the future of virtual reality with adventures none the less terrifying because they are technologised dreaming—these are dreams from which the adventurers cannot awaken and in which, if they die, they are dead...An epidemic of comatose children has led Rennie and her San friend !Xabbu into the net and to a series of dream worlds created as palaces by the corrupt aspiring immortals, the Grail Brotherhood; two of those children, Orlando and Fredericks, have become adventurers in their own right, while their parents' lawyer Ramsey follows real world money, and lesbian cop Calliope tracks a serial killer with serious ambitions to become an angry god. In this volume we have adventures in a mythic Ancient Egypt and a rambling Gormenghast-like house before all the virtual adventurers meet where they were always destined to, before the walls of Troy...

All around, death. It was not a quiet presence during the long day—not a pale-faced maiden bringing surceasse from pain, not a skillful reaper with a scalpel-sharp blade... Death on the Trojan plain was a crazed beast that roared and clawed and smashed, which was everywhere at once, and which in its unending fury showed that even armoured men were terribly frail things.

Tad Williams takes the gameworld and turns it on its head, passionately; how do we know that what bleeds does not feel pain? He is writing a classic of cyberspace adventure which has a sorrowful heart. —Roz Kaveney

Tad Williams With Sea of Silver Light, Tad Williams completes his massive Otherland quartet, one of SF's more intriguing explorations of the eroding boundaries of the human and the non-human, the living and the dead. Otherland is a sequence that contains many secrets, and Williams plays fair by unpacking all of them in the final book. A group of adventurers, searching for a cure for comatose children, find themselves trapped in a sequence of virtual worlds, the only opponents of a conspiracy of the rich to live forever in a dream. Now, they are forced to make an uneasy alliance with their only surviving former enemy against his treacherous sidekick Johnny Wulgaru, a serial killer with a chance to play god forever.

Williams manages a vast cast of emotionally involving characters with considerable panache, but the real strength of the book is its endlessly questing intelligence; it is, among other things, an enquiry into the nature of story-telling as a way that human beings give structure to their perceptions of the universe around them. It is as story that Sea of Silver Light ultimately works so well—involving us in the gruelling descent of a vast mountain, the siege of an underground fortress, gun-battles in a nightmare Wild West. Williams never neglects to tell us how things feel. He efficiently ties up every plot strand and convincingly reveals every secret in this large complex plot. —Roz Kaveney

Tad Williams The third volume of master storyteller Tad Williams' long-awaited return to epic fantasy.

Susan Winemaker

David Wolstencroft

Trinny Woodall, Susannah Constantine In What Not to Wear we established the rules for dressing to suit your body shape. While you now know which skirt to avoid and which dress length to wear, many women say they still don't know what to wear to certain occasions - a job interview, a hot date, a wedding, a school function, going on from work, or just running around. This book is occasion led. It brings together those other elements that will give you total confidence to attend any event, work in any environment, go anywhere on holiday, and feel totally appropriately dressed, FOR YOU. Whether you want your look to be casual, trendy or smart, Susannah and Trinny will show you how to sally forth with style and confidence.

Trinny Woodall, Susannah Constantine Books Sold by IBX

Trinny Woodall, Susannah Constantine Books Sold by IBX

Trinny Woodall, Susannah Constantine

Trinny Woodall, Susannah Constantine, Jessica Cowie Susannah and Trinny's straight-talking fashion advice has made them Britain's best-known style duo. In their second BBC2 series screened this autumn, more unsuspecting style casualties will be made-over. The sartorial sisters show how to develop personal style, whilst making the most of your body shape, hiding your defects and flaunting those assets!

This book enlarges upon what is shown in the series. Susannah and Trinny are not about fashion; they are about personal style - dressing for your body shape and personality - and this book shows you how.

'Trinny and Susannah can be breathtakingly irritating but also happen to have extremely good taste.' Elizabeth Hurley

'Shopping with the girls is like running a marathon, and it's fun too.' Lulu

'I'd rather eat my own hair than shop with these two again.' Jeremy Clarkson

Stuart Woods

Jeffrey S. Young, William L. Simon HardCover. Pub Date: 2005. Pages: 368 in Publisher: Wiley iCon takes a look at the most astounding figure in a business era noted for its mavericks. Oddballs and the Iconoclasts Drawing on a wide range of sources. Jeffrey Young and William Simon provide new perspectives on the legendary creation of Apple. detail Jobs's meteoric rise. and the devastating plunge that left him not only out of Apple. but out of the computer-making business entirely. This unflinching and completely unauthorized portrait reveals both sides of Jobs's role in the remarkable rise of the Pixar animation studio. also re-creates the acrimony between Jobs and Disney's Michael Eisner. and examines Jobs's dramatic his rise from the ashes with his recapture of Apple. The authors examine the takeover and Jobs's reinvention of the company with the popular iMac and his transformation of the industry with the r...

Jeffrey S. Young, William L. Simon

Robyn Young