In 1975, the unconsciously bigoted Archibald Kelly is busy celebrating his mayoral inauguration at Happyland Community Centre in Barretton when a young girl is seen being murdered behind the building. The witness, Iain McCune drunkenly panics and hops into his car, mowing down a nearby pedestrian. Hamish Milligan, Archibald's "friend" and a detective, is forced to return to town and make a decision about his family while Helen, Archibald's barely-of-age and Black girlfriend who sees the go...

An alternative look at Japanese life, history and cultureYour Rough Guide or Lonely Planet book can tell who where to stay or what to see, but how do you really get under the skin of Japan? In this book Ben Stevens explores the serious and the frivolous, the history and the obsessions of a fascinating nation.Taking an A-Z walk through Japanese culture, A Gaijin's Guide To Japan looks at everything from akachochin bars to chikan (the weird blokes who touch you up on trains),...

It is entirely possible that God could have existed without the universe, and without humans, for all eternity. But for some reason, He decided to create anyway. What inspired Him to start the human story in the first place, and how should the answer to that question affect the way we view our lives? Few Christians ever stop to seriously consider these deepest-of-all deep questions.Jonathan Edwards explains, in his original dissertation: God's inherent predisposition to spread out ...

We spend most of our lives in buildings and see new ones being created around us all the time. But the number of people and disciplines involved in a building's creation make it hard to understand the process as a whole. The Birth of a Building is an introduction to those aspects of finance, law, urban planning, architecture, engineering, construction, and real estate development which underlie this fascinating event.Part One focuses on the "birds and the bees," explaining the econ...

An A-Z guide to martial arts heroesWho gave Bruce Lee advice on kicking and taught Muhammad Ali how to punch? Which Welshman is revered in Japan as a karate expert, novelist and environmentalist? On which film did Jackie Chan fracture his skull and almost lose his life? All these questions and more are answered in From Lee To Li.Ben Stevens, a lifelong martial arts fan, has compiled a quirky and informative guide to the giants of martial arts history. From Bruce Lee to Jet L...

Curtis Duncan makes an epic journey through the nation’s capital in pursuit of his most treacherous target yet, finding himself ensnared in a devious conspiracy that could lead to his demise.In the dangerous underbelly of Washington D.C., Curtis Duncan, “America's Baddest Bounty Hunter,” finds himself summoned to the nation’s capital on a million-dollar bounty that will test his grit and resolve like never before. A notorious Haitian crime boss nicknamed “Johnny Bo...

First published in 1881, the subtitle of this book tells us that it was written “for children and those who love children”. Heidi, a 5-year-old orphan, is handed off by her young Aunt Dete to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. Though her new life is foreign, Heidi soon falls in love with her grandfather, and he with her. They share a contented life of goat-herding.But when Grandfather refuses to allow Heidi to attend school in the small village below, quarrels ensue. Heid...

From the thrilling Ember War story arc, the epic sci-fi adventure continues with Ember War Pathfinders.Light the Way, Book oneIf you want the most dangerous job in the galaxy, be a Pathfinder.At the leading edge of humanity's trek across the stars they are experts in exploring strange new worlds and beating any threat that awaits. When a mysterious gate is found on an ancient planet, the Pathfinders are called in to light the way into the m...

European tourists travel languidly along the Nile River to Abousir, at the southern frontier of Egypt, aboard “a turtle-bottomed, round-bowed stern-wheeler,” the Korosko. But Dervish warriors threaten danger and then attack and kidnap the tourists.In this novel, Doyle explores themes of British Imperialism and a defensive European perspective on North Africa; racial paternalism; and debates on interference with other countries’ politics and religions. This wonderful novel ...

This collection arguably contains some of the most charming lyrics ever written in English. The childlike simplicity and trust of these artless verses are unique.Blake’s poems can be enjoyed, not only for their historical importance in an age which was fiercely proud of its genius and its traditions, but also for their simple and beautiful expression of “two contrary states of the human soul.”Songs of Innocence was originally a complete collection of twenty-three poems, fir...

Brought to you by Penguin.We tend to think that everything important comes from the centre: from big cities, from established orthodoxies in the sciences and the arts, from the Establishment in all its forms. We think this because the centre tells us it is so, but it's a lie. It is only at the edges that we think, innovate and thrive.This book travels to the frontiers of human culture and consciousness; to the edges of continents, of evolution, of artistic ...

A long-overdue reappraisal of the groundbreaking nineteenth-century writer who reshaped the literary and social norms of her age.By the age of thirty, the young woman who was born Aurore Dupin in 1804 in a Paris garret had become the internationally renowned George Sand. In English, her novels were outselling even Victor Hugo. Her enormous and radical corpus would grow to include seventy novels, travel writing, plays, autobiography, and political writing. But despi...