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Transworld Publishers
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After tales from the USA and Britain, Bill Bryson turns his roving eye to Australia, the only island that is also a continent and the only continent that is also a country. It is the driest, flattest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents. It has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way that anywhere else. Yet when Bill Bryson travelled to Australia he promptly fell in love with the country. And who can blame him? The people are cheerful, the cities safe and clean, the food is excellent, the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines. He tries to find out why Aussies are so cool, digging up a past that reveals convicts, explorers, gold diggers and outlaws. |
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A year after arriving in France, Englishman Paul West is still struggling with some fundamental questions: What is the best way to scare a gendarme? Why are there no health warnings on French nudist beaches? And is it really polite to sleep with your boss' mistress? Paul opens his English tea room, and mutates (temporarily) into a Parisian waiter; samples the pleasures of typically French hotel-room afternoons; and, on a return visit to the UK, sees the full horror of a British office party through Parisian eyes. Meanwhile, he continues his search for the perfect French mademoiselle. But will Paul find l'amour eternel, or will it all end in merde? In his second comedy of errors, Paul West continues to sabotage the entente cordiale. Author's apology: I'd just like to say sorry to all the suppository fans out there, because in this book there are no suppositories. There are, however, lots of courgettes, and I see this as progress. Suppositories to courgettes — I think it proves that I'm developing as a writer. Stephen Clarke. |
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At eighteen, in that first golden Oxford summer, Milly's best friends were Rupert and his American lover Allan. When Rupert suggested that she and Allan should get married, just so that Allan could stay in the country, it all seemed just a bit of fun — and to make it seem real she dressed up in cheap wedding finery and posed on the steps of the registry office for photographs. Ten years later, Milly is a very different person. Engaged to Simon — who is wealthy, serious, and believes her to be perfect — she is facing the biggest and most elaborate wedding imaginable. Her dreadful secret is locked away so securely she has almost persuaded herself that it doesn't exist — until, with only four days to go, her past catches up with her. |
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HE WATCHES Something terrible has happened in the snowbound village of Kingdom Come, Wyoming. Twelve eerily identical houses stand dark and abandoned. The people who lived in them appear to have vanished, seemingly into thin air. HE WAITS Maura Isles is driving through the area with a group of friends when they find themselves trapped in a snowstorm. They stumble into the abandoned village to take shelter. But their nightmare has only just begun. THEY DISAPPEAR Days later, Jane Rizzoli flies to Wyoming to search for her missing friend. A crashed vehicle has been found with four badly burned bodies still inside. Can one of the corpses be Maura's? Jane's hunt for the truth leads her to Kingdom Come. Where the person who was watching Maura now lies waiting for her... |
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When Mitchell is released from prison after serving three years for a vicious attack he doesn't remember, he reluctantly finds himself caught up with Robert Gant, a ruthless lowlife with violent plans. Attempting to stay out of Gant's way, Mitchell finds work as a handyman at the mansion of a faded movie actress. When she eagerly plies him with cash, cars and sex, Mitch starts to wonder if even this job comes with a catch. But it isn't long before Mitchell's violent past catches up with him. When people close to him start getting hurt, Mitchell is forced to act, and take brutal on revenge on those who've stolen his life... |
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For once in Becky Bloomwood's life, things are going smoothly. She's got the dream job as a personal shopper (spending other people's money — and getting paid for it.) She's got a fabulous Manhattan apartment with her boyfriend Luke. They've even opened a joint bank account (although they can't quite agree on whether a Miu Miu skirt counts as a household expense). Then Luke proposes — and all of a sudden life gets hectic. Becky's Mum wants her to get married in Oxshott and wear her old frilly wedding dress. Luke's mother wants to host a grand extravaganza at the New York Plaza, complete with woodland glade and the New York Philharmonic. Becky knows she has to sit down and decide — but to be honest, it's a lot more fun tasting cake, trying on dresses and registering wedding presents. Time's ticking by, plans are being made both sides of the Atlantic and soon she realizes she's in trouble... |
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Was the Battle of Hastings a French victory? Non! William the Conqueror was Norman and hated the French. Were the Brits really responsible for the death of Joan of Arc? Non! The French sentenced her to death for wearing trousers. Was the guillotine a French invention? Non! It was invented in Yorkshire. Ten centuries' worth of French historical 'facts' bite the dust as Stephen Clarke looks at what has really been going on since 1066... |
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An astonishing, ambitious and masterful new novel, with echoes of Birdsong, that reads at the pace of a thriller. On its way to the Galapagos Islands, a light aircraft crashes into the sea. Zoologist Daniel Kennedy is confronted with a stark Darwinian choice. Should he save himself, or Nancy, the woman he loves? But how can one moment of betrayal ever be forgiven? And after he escapes the plane and swims for help, who is the elusive figure who guides him away from certain death? Back in London, Daniel thinks he finds the answer; it is connected with his great grandfather and the first horrific day of Passchendaele. But as the past collapses into the present, the fissures in his relationship with Nancy show through. Until he is given a second chance to prove his courage and earn her forgiveness. The Blasphemer is a novel that speaks to the head as well as the heart of the reader. |
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«This work combines two of Bill Bryson's best-loved books and demonstrates his take on life — from either side of the pond. The books, «Notes from a Small Island» and «Notes From a Big Country», went on to become major bestsellers. «The Complete Notes» combines these two popular books into one volume. Written in the form of bite-sized essays, both books are gently humorous as they highlight the idiosyncracies of the USA and Great Britain.» |
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A day like any other for security chief Tracy Waterhouse, until she makes a purchase she hadn't bargained for. One moment of madness is all it takes for Tracy's humdrum world to be turned upside down, the tedium of everyday life replaced by fear and danger at every turn. Witnesses to Tracy's Faustian exchange in the Merrion Centre in Leeds are Tilly, an elderly actress teetering on the brink of her own disaster, and Jackson Brodie who has returned to his home county in search of someone else's roots. All three characters learn that the past is never history and that no good deed goes unpunished. Kate Atkinson dovetails and counterpoints her plots with Dickensian brilliance in a tale peopled with unlikely heroes and villains. Started Early, Took My Dog is freighted with wit, wisdom and a fierce moral intelligence. It confirms Kate Atkinson's position as one of the great writers of our time. |
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What if teleportation was really possible? Englishman Richie Fisher is about to find out… Richie and his wife Clara have won a weekend in New York in a newspaper competition. While Clara is off blowing their spending money, Richie wanders aimlessly, chewing on a veggie-burger, ending up in a gift-shop where he finds himself standing in front of an instant transporter machine. It looks nothing like the open-plan teleporter on Captain Kirk’s Starship Enterprise; in fact, it seems more like a glorified microwave oven.Richie places his burger inside, hits the return key on the linked-up computer — and the burger disappears. But if he can teleport a half-eaten veggie-burger, what else could you do with the machine? For criminals, the possibilities are endless. Who could catch you if you beamed drugs into nostrils a hundred miles away? And how much would illegal immigrants pay to be teleported into the rich host country of their choice? Richie buys a teleporter and takes it back to England, where the chaos begins... |
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Just as bogus doctors are occasionally discovered in hospitals, Jimmy Conway has become a bogus celebrity; winning an award for something he never did, being photographed in Hello! in someone else's house, and ultimately making a fool of the entire mad, shallow celebrity merry-go-round. |
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A gripping psychological thriller played out in cyberspace, from the bestselling author of Chocolat and The Lollipop Shoes. Once there was a widow with three sons, and their names were Black, Brown and Blue. Black was the eldest; moody and aggressive. Brown was the middle child, timid and dull. But Blue was his mother's favourite. And he was a murderer. Blueyedboy is the brilliant new novel from Joanne Harris: a dark and intricately plotted tale of a poisonously dysfunctional family, a blind child prodigy, and a serial murderer who is not who he seems. Told through posts on badguysrock@webjournal.com, this is a thriller that makes creative use of all the disguise, deception and mind games that are offered by playing out one's life on the internet. |
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Two sisters, two very different lives... Victoria — a chubby little girl with blond hair, blue eyes and ordinary looks — has spent her whole life being second best to her perfect younger sister Gracie, being told that she is a disappointment to her parents, and unable to win their approval. While waging a ceaseless war against her weight, enduring her father's belittling comments about her appearance and seeing her academic achievements go unacknowledged, she knows that she has to get as far away from home as possible. Home is Los Angeles, where beauty and appearance are all. She moves to New York City, where she finds a job she loves — as a high school teacher — amongst the sleek and slinky of Manhattan. Her lifeline to her family is through Gracie — they couldn't be more different, but they love each other unconditionally. Victoria finds her own life in New York, while her battle with her weight continues. And then a chance encounter starts an incredible chain of events. But can Victoria really leave behind all the hurt, neglect and loss that she has tried to forget and step into a new and fulfilling future? And whatever the scales tell her, she is determined to cherish who she is. |
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