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Книги издательства «Little, Brown and Company»
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Livia Pertini is 79 and struggling to interest her granddaughter Rosa in the age-old recipes of her home, Fiscino, a tiny hamlet on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. These recipes reveal the unimaginable hardships of the Second World War — mouse stew, dandelion frittatas — but also tell the story of a young, vivacious Livia. Naive and already war-weary, James Gouding takes up a British Field Security Service position in Naples, 1943. What he doesn't anticipate is that this involves a limited menu of fried Spam fritters and interrogating the would-be Italian fiancees of members of the armed forces. James's chance at true heroism arrives when a German tank is sighted and he is caught in its path. However, it is the imperious and dogmatic Livia who opens the hatch and yells at him to stop being such an idiot. Livia gladly becomes cook, translator and general factotum to James. The two begin to fall in love, knowing that Livia's husband away at war and James's girl back home will mean they can never acknowledge their passion. But the eruption of Vesuvius triggers a chain of explosive events that will force the two to flee behind enemy lines and will alter their lives immeasurably. |
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Mycroft Holmes, charged with ensuring the personal safety of Queen Victoria, calls on his brother for help when a number of attempts have been made on her life and when two unexplained deaths occur amongst the staff at her Scottish residencies. Accompanied by Dr Watson, Sherlock Holmes goes north by train, examining the few facts Mycroft has been able to cryptically supply. To Watson's bafflement he is sure there is a link between these deaths and the murder in the old royal apartments at Holyrood of the secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots: a killing which left a bloodstain that daily refreshes itself and in a room where voices can be heard in the darkest hours of the night. Can Holmes's extraordinary deductive powers solve the historical crime as well as the contemporary one? An original, beautifully crafted mystery story which is also a respectful homage to the master of the whodunnit. |
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I propose to watch animals and write about them. I will visit places where animals are studied (university departments and field studies here and abroad) and spend time with the researchers and the animals. I will also watch in an unofficial way — birds outside my study window, ants on the patio, zoos, safari parks, my cats... I will use these travels and observations to encounter not only the watchers and the watched but also more general human behaviour and of course myself. The book will move in its last segment into a discussion of how we watch ourselves: psychology, sociology and surveillance. It will be a very personal take on all this. Not academic and taking the freedom to write about my own experience as both a watcher (a teacher in state schools and a 'free school' I set up in the 70's) and as watched (childhood, school, psychiatric hospital, writer). |
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Dr Johnson, having completed his life's major work (the first ever Dictionary of the English Language) is running an increasingly chaotic life, torn between his strict morality and his undeclared passion for Mrs Thrale, the wife of an old friend. Her daughter, Queeney, narrates. |
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Born in 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution, the 85 years of Eric Hobsbawm's life are backdropped by an endless litany of wars, revolutions and counter-revolutions. He has led a remarkably fulfilling and long life; historian and intellectual, fluent in five languages, a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, until it dissolved itself, and writer of countless volumes of history. He has personally witnessed some of the critical events of our century, from Hitler's rise to power in Berlin to the fall of the Berlin wall. Hobsbawm has kept his eyes and ears open for 85 years, and has been constantly committed to understanding the interesting times (as the Chinese curse puts it) through which he has lived. His autobiography is one passionate cosmopolitan Jew's account of his travels through that past which is another country, where they do things differently, and how it became the world we now live in. |
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Lisa Moore's Alligator moves with the swiftness of a gator in attack mode through the lives of a group of brilliantly rendered characters in a city whose spiritual location is somewhere in the heart of Flannery O'Connor country. Madeleine, the driven, ageing filmmaker whose mission is to complete a Bergmanesque magnum opus before she dies Frank, a young man of innocence and determination whose life is a strange anthology of unpredicatable dangers Valentin, the sociopathic Russian refugee whose predatory tendencies threaten everyone he encounters Colleen, at seventeen, a hard-edged female Holden Caulfield, drawn inexorably to the places where alligators thrive. |
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Want to know the best way to get over being dumped? Do you need to pull a sickie? Do you want to pull a popstar? Or is your flatmate driving you mad having constant sex with her boyfriend? Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Sharon Marshall have had their fair share of life's little grenades. Now they've learned how to throw them back. To live the good life, it helps to be bad sometimes. So this is their take on how to be naughty. Want to spot a love rat? Hitchhike (onto a private jet)? Convince that man you've got the perfect body? It's all here in THE NAUGHTY GIRL'S GUIDE TO LIFE. You'll never want to be well behaved again. |
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Louise and Rebecca, good friends since their BBC days in Belfast, work for a film company and are scouring the south of England for a suitable location to shoot a movie about Elizabeth I. As they stumble across Wooldene House, they meet Diana and Henry, who own the property. Diana, widowed, feels her life is slowly crumbling along with the house, and yearns for new romance. Diana spends her time looking after their aunt Lucy who, as she senses time is running out, begins the share the startling secrets in her past. And Henry, retired from the Army after a stint in Northern Ireland, is increasingly drawn to Louise — but their shared history, which places them on opposite sides of the troubles — threatens them both... |
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Fascinating and extraordinary, thrilling and poignant, My Judy Garland Life will speak to anyone who has ever nursed an obsession or held a candle to a star. Judy Garland has been an important figure in Susie Boyt's life since she was three years old, comforting, inspiring and at times disturbing her. In this unique book, Boyt travels deep into the underworld of hero worship, reviewing through the prism of Judy our understanding of rescue, consolation, love, grief and fame. What does it mean to adore someone you don't know? What is the proper husbandry of a twenty-first century obsession? Boyt's journey takes in a duetting breakfast with Mickey Rooney, a Munchkin luncheon, tea with the largest collector of Garlandia, an illicit late-night spree at the Minnesota Judy Garland Museum and a breathless, semi-sacred encounter with Miss Liza Minnelli... |
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'Justinian took a wife: and the manner she was born and bred, and wedded to this man, tore up the Roman Empire by the very roots' Procopius Charming, charismatic, heroic? Theodora of Constantinople rose from nothing to become the most powerful woman in the history of Byzantine Rome. In Stella Duffy's breathtaking new novel, she comes to life again? a fascinating, controversial and seductive woman. Some called her a saint. Others were not so kind... When her father is killed, the young Theodora is forced into near slavery to survive. But just as she learns to control her body as a dancer, and for the men who can afford her, so she is determined to shape a very different fate for herself. From the vibrant streets and erotic stage shows of sixth century Constantinople to the holy desert retreats of Alexandria, Theodora is an extraordinary imaginative achievement from one of our finest writers. |
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With his big seller AVALANCHE, Jack Drummond reinvented the disaster genre for the 21st century. With DIVE he returns with a thrilling new adventure, sure to satisfy his growing number of fans and new readers alike. |
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Sisters-in-law Kate, Helen and Miranda all have one thing in common? They're hiding something. It's not easy being part of the high-achieving Fox family: the expectations and demands of their husbands and children; the jealousies and rivalries; and the endless Sunday lunches where somehow everything feels like a competition. So when mysterious Sasha enters their lives, bloodied from the battlefield of a painful divorce, buried frustrations rush to the surface. Why is Kate's husband Jonny working so late at the office, and how will she cope at home alone? Can army-wife Helen trust Jago to come back to her next time, or is he drawn by temptations in a foreign field? And will Simon's explosive secret blow Miranda's marriage apart once and for all? Three sisters-in-law. One devastating divorcee. Whose husband is about to play with fire? |
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An assignment brings Vincent — permanent student and budding young writer — into the world of Sebastian Wells and the Prometheus League. Under the guise of a Victorian gaming society it operates extremist and covert activities. Threatening exposure, Vincent is thrown into a game of life or death. |
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Nyree and Cia live on a remote farm in the east of what was Rhodesia in the late 1970s. Beneath the dripping vines of the Vumba rainforest, and under the tutelage of their heretical grandfather, theirs is a seductive childhood laced with African paganism, mangled Catholicism and the lore of the Brothers Grimm. Their world extends as far as the big fence, erected to keep out the 'Terrs' whom their father is off fighting. The two girls know little beyond that until the arrival from the outside world of 'the bastard', their orphaned cousin Ronin, who is to poison their idyll for ever. |
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'The Southern Cross cuts through my heart instead of through the sky' Grace Cleave is spending a weekend away from London, where she has been battling with writer's block. But on holiday in the north of England she feels more and more like a migratory bird as the pull of her native New Zealand makes life away from it seem transitory. Grace longs to find her own place in the world if she can only decide where that is. But first she must learn to be comfortable in her own skin, feathers and all. From the author of An Angel at My Table comes an exquisitely written novel of exile and return, homesickness and belonging. Written in 1963 when Janet Frame was living in London, this is the first publication of a novel she considered too personal to be published in her lifetime. |
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Contrary to popular belief, some people have had enough of silly love songs. Especially ones that are so overwrought, inept, or narcissistic that they actually do the opposite of their intent: they creep you out. In Touch Me, I'm Sick, Tom Reynolds, the author of the best-selling book on depressing songs, I Hate Myself and Want to Die, analyses 52 love songs that for various reasons have gone off the rails into the realm of the tawdry (Paul Anka's 'You're Having My Baby'), the maudlin (Pearl Jam's 'Black') the obsessive (Eminem's 'Stan'), the self-involved (Kevin Federline's 'To Know Him Is To Love Him') and the stupendously weird (Michael Jackson's 'Ben'). Organising his list into ten different categories, the author examines songs from the 50s to the present day, sung by artists as diverse as James Blunt, Melissa Etheridge, Sinead O'Connor, The Spice Girls and The Police. Complete with a ranked 'Countdown of Creepiness' and sinister black and white line art throughout, Touch Me, I'm Sick is a must-have compilation of rhythmic wretchedness — and the perfect Christmas gift for the music lover on your list. |
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As unrest stirs across the Eleven domains, subversive questions lead to unexpected answers. And ghosts of the dead walk in increasing numbers — for those few that can see. In a land where stonecasters foretell destinies for a fee and gods talk to those who can listen, the future is uncertain and is built on a bloodsoaked past. So what did happen one thousand years ago, when Acton's people came across the mountains? Was Acton himself a hero and liberator, or a bloodthirsty invader and scourge of the travelling people? Wild magic gives Bramble some dangerous insights into a land's disturbed history. And why did Ash's Traveller father not teach him the secret songs of his people? The ultimate answers to all these questions are hidden in time, where perhaps they should stay. |
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The 'Corrections and Clarifications' column of Old Git magazine continues to offer its readers an opportunity to ask and provide answers to the most pressing questions of our times. Questions such as: Would it help global warming if I left my fridge door open? What's the riskiest game of risk ever played? If I fell down a disused mineshaft would Lassie really run and get help, or just sit there licking his balls? Do Bats Have Bollocks? features a host of completely new and untrue questions and answers. With bags more rude jokes, shaggy dog stories and the odd entry from a new, bewildered editor who's wondering what the hell he's got himself into, this book is every bit as laugh-out-loud funny as last year's hugely successful volume Do Ants Have Arseholes? |
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On midsummer's day, Phoebe Bowler star-sign demon should have returned home an ecstatically happy new bride. Instead, she's been jilted at the altar. In need of sympathy, perhaps she could turn to her neighbour, the dishy Rocky Lancaster? But with problems of his own he's turned into Mr Grumpy and wants to be left alone. That is until Essie Rivers arrives on the scene, and then Phoebe and Rocky's paths seem destined to collide with a very big bump. Essie knows far more about astrology, personolgy, numerology any 'ology' you care to mention than Phoebe has ever heard of. But it is the secret magic of 'birthday-ology' that catches Phoebe's eye. Can she really use a birthday to find a perfect match or to set her and Rocky back on the path to happiness? Phoebe thinks so, but that's when things start to go really wrong... |
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Lola Dakota had to call in the police several times to restrain her abusive husband, but he always returned, so when they got wind of his plan to hire a hitman to kill her she agrees to play her part in the sting which would see both men arrested. It proves to be a great success, but several hours later and when her husband is under lock and key, Lola is truly dead and by someone's hand. The police team on the original sting are in disarray, so Alex Cooper and Mike Chapman are swiftly in place to take over. Looking beyond her husband into her professional life, they discover a university department riddled with jealousies, extra-marital affairs, swindled funds and the unexplained disappearance of a student known to be a drug user. The one thing which seems to link all the players with all the misdemeanours is the university's research site on an island off Manhattan where they were investigating the remains of the Victorian isolation hospitals and lunatic asylums and the morgue — the deadhouse. But why Lola's murder is connected to the place is not so easy to prove, nor the identity of her killer. |
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