Showing results by publisher "Quercus" in All Categories

America, 1960. In Washington, DC, John F. Kennedy has just been elected president. In Havana, Fidel Castro has been in office for a year, and with Cold War tensions rapidly heating up and the Soviets leading the space race, the thought of a Communist leader so close to home is already raising American blood pressure. Anti-communist fever is rampant in the USA, with a paranoid establishment seeing reds under every bed. Nevertheless, the decision to snuff out the threat of Castro by hiring Tom Jefferson, America's best assassin, to kill him comes from an unusual quarter: the Mafia.

It's a cruel, cruel world out there. Trust me, I've seen it. You're pretty much doomed unless you know how to survive. Which you don't. Which I do. Which is why I have written the ultimate survival guide to life. My name is TommyInnit. I've been around the block these past twenty years. I've seen things you couldn't handle. I've eaten things you couldn't taste. Handled taxes in ways that (probably) won't get you arrested. Always prepped for the apocalypse, I know a thing or two about surviving.

Brighton, 1963. Edgar Stephens has been promoted to Superintendent and is married to his former sergeant, Emma Holmes. Edgar's wartime partner in arms, magician Max Mephisto, is a movie star in Hollywood, while his daughter Ruby has her own TV show. The funeral of an old friend highlights just how much the gang's lives have changed in the last nine years. Edgar is struggling with fresh responsibilities and the new swinging Brighton of rioting mods and rockers; Emma is chafing against the restrictions of life as a housewife.

My name is James Milner and I'm not a Ribena-holic. Let me share insights into what it's like being a professional footballer, across my different experiences with Newcastle, Aston Villa, Manchester City and now Liverpool (not forgetting a six-match loan spell at Swindon). Plus my highs - and a few too many lows - playing for England. There isn't a current player who's been playing Premier League football as long as I have, and that gives me a pretty rare perspective into how the top-flight game has changed over the past 17 years.

Anne is a former patient from a women's asylum trying to carve out a new life for herself in a world that doesn't understand her. Newcomer Lawrence is desperate to develop his talent as a photographer and escape the restrictions of his puritanical upbringing. Ellis, an army surgeon, has lived through the trauma of one civil war and will do anything to avoid another bloodbath. Each keeps company with the restless beasts of Paris' Menagerie, where they meet, fight their demons, lose their hearts, and rebel in a city under siege.

The Lick of Love takes us on a tour of Julian's colourful life - and wherever life has taken him, Julian has had a dog by his side. Fanny the Wonder Dog, who came into Julian's life when he was somewhat adrift, propelled him up the ranks of the alternative comedy circuit and onto television. Valerie, the whippet cross-breed escorted Julian through his 40s, the Germaine Greer to his Bernard Manning.

The event of the Périgord tourist season is to be the re-enactment of the liberation of the historic town of Sarlat from the English in 1370. But it all goes wrong when the man playing the part of the French general is almost killed in the heat of the action. The immediate question for chief of police Bruno Courrèges is was this an accident - or deliberate? The stakes rise when Bruno learns that the man, Kerquelin, was running Frenchelon, the secret French electronic intelligence base nearby, after being recruited from a brilliant Silicon Valley career.

Louisiana, 1875: in the tumultuous aftermath of Reconstruction, three young women set off as unwilling companions on a perilous quest. Louisiana, 1987: Arriving in Augustine, Louisiana, first-year teacher Benedetta Silva finds herself teaching students whose poverty-stricken lives she can scarcely comprehend. The town is impossibly set in its ways, suspicious of new ideas and new people. But amid the gnarled live oaks and ancient plantation homes lies the century-old history of three young women, a long-ago journey and a hidden book that could change everything.

There are plenty of self-help books for mourners, but nothing in the way of a modern, approachable and above all useful field guide for the living. And all of us - young, old, sick and well - could use the help. After all, pregnant couples have ample resources available to them as they prepare to bring a new life into the world: Lamaze courses, elaborate birth plans, tons of manuals. Why don't we have a What to Expect When You're Expecting to Die book?

Climate is a journey in embracing change both internally and externally. It guides listeners through all the weather they face. From heartbreak to the storms we create inside our brain, Climate reminds listeners to embrace the sun, storm, and rain. Most importantly, it emphasizes the beauty, value, and consistency of change.

Elizabeth II's coronation is looming, but the murder of their wartime commander, Colonel Cartwright, spoils the happy mood for DI Edgar Stephens and magician Max Mephisto. A playbill featuring another deceased comrade is found in Colonel Cartwright's possession, and a playing card, the ace of hearts: the blood card. The wartime connection and the suggestion of magic are enough for him to put Stephens and Mephisto on the case.

Astronomer Florian Freistetter has chosen 100 stars that have almost nothing in common. Some are bright and famous, some shine so feebly you need a huge telescope. There are big stars, small stars, nearby stars and faraway stars. Some died a while ago, others have not even yet come into being. Collectively they tell the story of the whole world, according to Freistetter. There is Algol, for example, the Demon Star, whose strange behaviour has long caused people sleepless nights.

In the winter of 1941 an alien-seeming object was captured in a death-defying dash by an RAF reconnaissance pilot flying a lone unarmed Spitfire across the French coast. Balanced upon the cliffs near Le Havre was what appeared to be a giant convex dish, directed across the Channel at the war-torn British coastline. With Britain's cities being pounded by fearsome bombing raids, teams of experts studied the photograph worriedly.

Max, now divorced and living in London, is on the way to visit Ruby and her new-born daughter when he is hailed by an old magician friend Ted English, aka The Great Deceiver. Ted is terrified because his assistant, Cherry, has been found dead in her Brighton boarding house and he's convinced that he'll be accused of her murder. Max agrees to talk to Edgar, who is investigating the case. But what Max doesn't know is that the girl's family have hired private detective duo Emma Holmes and Sam Collins to do some digging of their own.

With two million copies sold worldwide, Sarah Knight's best-selling No F--ks Given Guides prove that she's the Queen of No: no to a single extraneous f--k given, to unwanted obligations, overcommitting and overcomplicating her life. For Sarah, saying no is easy. For the rest of us, it's stress-inducing, blood pressure-raising, teeth-grinding hard. But it doesn't have to be. F--k No! is filled with tips, techniques and practical strategies that will arm you with not only permission to decline but plenty of ammunition for doing so.

In the 1970s, a single night in a remote hunting lodge with a Hollywood director and his leading lady causes an international scandal that wrecks Astrid's glittering stage career and rips apart her marriage. Her ex-husband, Scottish actor Magnus Fellowes, finds global fame, while Astrid retreats to a Sussex windmill. Now 82, she lives there still, with a troupe of dachshunds and her loyal friend, Mrs Baker, who came to clean over twenty years ago, and never left. But Mrs Baker has a troubled past too. There has been an 'Awful Incident' at the windmill; police are sniffing around.

Ten days before Gwen Kingston turned twelve, her beloved mother - with whom she shared a birthday - died. She left behind two chests - one for Gwen and one for her brother - filled with lovingly wrapped presents and letters marking the milestones she would miss: driver's licences, graduations and every one of their birthdays until the age of thirty. Each gift a chance to reach back into the past and, for the briefest moment, hear her voice again.

John Long, who for decades has been on the cutting edge of shark research, weaves a thrilling story of sharks' unparalleled reign. The Secret History of Sharks showcases the global search to discover sharks' largely unknown evolution, led by Long and dozens of other extraordinary scientists.

Spring 1832: Donegal, north west Ireland. Coll Coyle wakes to a blood dawn and a day he does not want to face. The young father stands to lose everything on account of the cruel intentions of his landowner's heedless son. Although reluctant, Coll sets out to confront his trouble. And so begins his fall from the rainsoaked, cloud-swirling Eden, and a pursuit across the wild bog lands of Donegal. Behind him is John Faller - a man who has vowed to hunt Coll to the ends of the earth - in a pursuit that will stretch to an epic voyage across the Atlantic.

Behind the most famous movie ever made is a tale of love, magic and one incredible woman. Hollywood, 1938: As soon as she learns that M-G-M is adapting her late husband's masterpiece, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, for the screen, Maud Gage Baum sets about trying to visit the set. Nineteen years after Frank's passing, Maud is the only person who can help the producers stay true to the spirit of the book - because she's the only one left who knows its secrets....