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Canongate
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Simon Tofield returns with a charming follow-up which sees the adorable but incorrigible cat embark on a series of adventures beyond the garden fence. Sharply observed and beautifully drawn, this new book promises to be an even bigger hit than the first. |
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When Henry receives a letter from an elderly taxidermist, it poses a puzzle that he cannot resist. As he is pulled further into the world of this strange and calculating man, Henry becomes increasingly involved with the lives of a donkey and a howler monkey — named Beatrice and Virgil — and the epic journey they undertake together. With all the spirit and originality that made Life of Pi so beloved, this brilliant new novel takes the reader on a haunting odyssey. On the way Martel asks profound questions about life and art, truth and deception, responsibility and complicity. |
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From the cruel irony of A member of the Family to the fateful echoes of The Go-Away Bird and the unexpectedly sinister The Girl I Left Behind Me, in settings that range from South Africa to the Portobello Road, Muriel Spark coolly probes the idiosyncrasies that lurk beneath the veneer of human respectability, displaying the acerbic wit and wisdom that are the hallmarks of her unique talent. The Complete Short Stories is a collection to be loved and cherished, from one of the finest short-story writers of the twentieth century. |
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Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, returns, revelling in his eternal penchant for booze, women and horse-racing as he makes the precarious journey from poet to screenwriter. Based on Bukowski's experiences when working on the film Barfly, the absurdity and egotism of the film industry are laid bare in this deadpan, touching and funny glimpse into the endless negotiations and back-stabbings of La-la land. Hollywood is an irreverent Roman a clef that serves up the beating heart of Hollywood with razor-sharp humour. |
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'Sounding like one instrument, a wild whirling bagpipe, the Stones chugged to a halt. But the crowd didn't stop, we could see Hells Angels spinning like madmen, swinging at people. By stage right a tall white boy with a black cloud of electric hair was dancing, shaking, infuriating the Angels by having too good a time.' The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones is not just the greatest book about the greatest rock 'n' roll band, it is one of the most important books about the 1960s capturing its zeitgeist — that uneasy mix of excess, violence and idealism — in a way no other book does. Stanley Booth was with the Rolling Stones on their 1969 U.S. tour, which culminated in the notorious free concert at Altamont. But this book is much more than a brilliant piece of journalism. It gives a history of the Rolling Stones from their early rhythm 'n' blues days in west London clubs to the end of the 1960s; and it interweaves with mastery the two tragic stories of the decline and death of Brian Jones and the terrifying Altamont concert itself, where the Hells Angels, supposedly providing security, ran amok and murdered a member of the audience. Although it took nearly fifteen years to write, the book that emerged has been rightly acclaimed as 'the one authentic masterpiece of rock 'n' writing'. |
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The study of sexual physiology — what happens, and why, and how to make it happen better — has been taking place behind closed doors for many hundreds of years. In this fascinating and funny book Mary Roach steps inside laboratories, brothels, pig farms, sex toy R&D lab — even in to Alfred Kinsey's attic — to tell us everything we wanted to know about sex, and a lot we'd never even thought to ask. |
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This title is now a major motion picture from Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee. One boy, one boat, one tiger... After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orangutan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years. |
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In this spellbinding new book, the man described by the Daily Telegraph as 'possibly the best living writer in Britain' takes on his biggest challenge yet: unlocking the film that has obsessed him all his adult life. Like the film Stalker itself, it confronts the most mysterious and enduring questions of life and how to live. |
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Hugo Chávez was a true phenomenon. On his death in March 2013 tens of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets and honoured a seven-day period of national mourning. Chávez has been compared to Napoleon, Nasser, Perón and Castro but the truth is there has never been a leader like him. He was democratically elected, reigned like a monarch from a mobile television throne, and provoked adoration and revulsion in equal measure. How did a charismatic autocrat seduce not just a nation but a significant part of world opinion? And how did he continue to stay in power despite the crumbling of Venezuela? When he first came to power in 1999, Chávez became a symbol of hope and freedom for his people. Yet, in his fourteen years as president, Chávez seized control of the lucrative Venezuelan oil industry, allowed basic government functions to wither, jailed political opponents and courted Castro and Ahmadinejad, all while occupying much of Venezuela's airwaves with his long-running television show, Aló Presidente!. In Comandante, acclaimed journalist Rory Carroll breaches the walls of Miraflores Palace to tell the inside story of Chávez's life and his political court in Caracas. Blending the lyricism and strangeness of magical realism with the brutal, ugly truth of authoritarianism — a powerful combination reminiscent of Ryszard Kapuscinski's The Emperor — Rory Carroll has written the definitive account of Hugo Chávez's presidency, and the legacy he has left behind. |
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For Iris, childhood memories are of long hot summers spent playing with her cousin Rosmarie in her grandmother's garden, a place where redcurrants turned to pale tears on the branches of trees and beautiful Aunt Inga shook sparks from the tips of her fingers. But now her grandmother is dead and, along with inheriting the property, Iris finds that she also inherits her family's darkest secrets. Reluctant to keep it, but reluctant to sell, Iris spends one more summer at the house. By day she swims at the local lake, where she rediscovers a childhood companion. Alone at night she roams through the familiar rooms, exploring the tall black shadows of the past. In the flicker between remembrance and forgetting, Iris recalls an enigmatic grandfather who went to war and came back a different man, the night her cousin Rosmarie fell through the conservatory roof and shattered her family's lives, and a moment of love that made all the trees in the orchard bloom over night. |
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A pocket-sized collection of play-themed Simon's Cat cartoons selected from the first three Simon's Cat books. In full colour and featuring a selection of brand new cartoons, Simon's Cat is back, smaller, cheaper and cuter, but still up to his usual tricks. |
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In the last five years, Simon's Cat has become a national treasure and a global phenomenon. Star of over twenty-five films, which have been watched over 300 million times, and winner of a dozen major industry awards, Simon's Cat has captured the hearts of a global audience. In this first major paperback edition author, animator and illustrator Simon Tofield brings together the best cartoons from the first three bestselling books, with exclusive new material and a unique 'How to Draw' section. This really is The Bumper Book of Simon's Cat. |
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In this wholly original and remarkably ambitious work, 'Atrocitologist' Matthew White considers man's inhumanity to man across several thousand years of history. From the First Punic War and the collapse of Mayan rule to the reign of Peter the Great and the cataclysmic events of the Second World War, White's epic book spans centuries and civilisations as it measures the hundred most violent events in human history. If we study history in order to avoid the mistakes of the past, then there can be no more important place to start. |
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We're all in Sales now. Parents sell their kids on going to bed. Spouses sell their partners on mowing the lawn. We sell our bosses on giving us more money and more time off. And in astonishing numbers we go online to sell ourselves on Facebook, Twitter and Match.com profiles. Relying on science, analysis and his trademark clarity of thought, Pink shows that sales isn't what it used to be. The low road of deceit and trickery is no longer a viable option, and success in persuasion now depends on being more, not less, human. |
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The extraordinary happens everyday. One night, George Duncan is woken by a noise in his garden. Impossibly, a great white crane has tumbled to earth, shot through its wing by an arrow. Unexpectedly moved, George helps the bird, and from the moment he watches it fly away, his life is transformed. The next day, a beautiful woman called Kumiko walks into his shop and begins to tell him the most extraordinary story. Wise, romantic, magical and funny, The Crane Wife is a celebration of the disruptive and redemptive power of love. |
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Isserley spends most of her time driving along empty, winding Highland roads in her red Toyota. She is interested in hitchhikers — so long as they are male, well-muscled and alone. But once she has coaxed them into her car, what she does to them is truly astonishing. Meeting Isserley is only the beginning of their journey, and a gateway to a new world. Cutting across different genres, Under the Skin is a wildly inventive, bold and beautifully written book that launched Michel Faber's international career and was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Book Award. And in Isserley, Faber created one of the most memorable and singular heroines of modern times. |
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George and Serena Pemberton arrive in the wilds of the North Carolina mountains to build a life together. Unlike any woman the timber empire has ever seen, Serena oversees crews, hunts rattlesnakes and even saves her husband's life in the wilderness. But when Serena learns she will never bear a child, it sets in motion a course of events that will change the lives of everyone in the community. |
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This is the story of two brothers. One is impassioned and one reserved. One is destined to go down in history and the other to be forgotten. In Philip Pullman's hands, this sacred tale is reborn as one of the most enchanting, thrilling and visionary stories of recent years. |
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