When King Charles II was dying, the name of only one of his many mistresses was in his mind and on his lips: that of Nell Gwyn. Born in extreme poverty, forced to become a child prostitute, she went on the stage and became the most popular actress of the time until Charles took her into his bed, where her beauty, wit and liveliness made her in the end preferable to his other many mistresses, who were either common prostitutes found for him in the bawdy-houses or on the streets by the royal...

Should a man be free to kill his adulterous wife? This is the most notorious trial for the most notorious crime of the eighteenth century. Count Guido Franceschini is accused of murdering his beautiful young wife Pompilia, said to have eloped with a handsome young priest. But did they actually commit adultery? Half of Rome believes she did; the other half claims she is innocent. In this book the trial is reconstructed from contemporary court reports, and the gossip of the time. Pompilia: g...

Derek and Julia Parker are two of the most famous and best-selling names in the field of astrology: their Compleat Astrologer introduced thousands to the subject. With this new encyclopedia, they have produced a must-have tool for the professional, student, and amateur astrologer. The Parkers’ work encompasses everything from the entire history of astrology to its terms and techniques. There’s plenty in here for everyone: fascinating facts and anecdotes, biographies of top astrologers, tex...

Franz Liszt, the son of poor parents, became the sensational and enormously rich 'greatest pianist in the world'. Touring Europe unceasingly for seven years he was adored by the public - especially by women, who fainted at his good looks and flamboyant behaviour, collected his cigar butts and the dregs from his wineglasses, and competed for the honour of being taken to bed after his concerts. The lover of Lola Montez and the Lady of the Camellias, he was pursued by women even after he took...

What is it about Silversands? The fact that the sun seemed always to shine down on the secluded beach? – the water so warm that it caresses your body like a soft, kindly hand? – the silver sand that gives the bay its name – sand which seems positively to invite you to stretch out on it as on the softest bed? Whatever the magic is, it seems to work on everyone who comes here – certainly on the family who live in the house built overlooking the beach: Paul and Olivia, who find each other bod...

John Opie, a young artist, falls under suspicion when a teen-age boy he has been using as a model disappears. But this is only the start of a story which involves him in murder and suspense as he and his girl-field Penny discover that young Jonny has been kidnapped by a world-wife paedophile ring run by a plump, amoral Englishman. They follow the trail to Athens, then to a remote village in the Peloponnese and the headquarters of the organisation. Opie, innocent of any knowledge of guns or...

It would be difficult to write a dull book about the history of astrology: history is crammed with fascinating and amusing incidents, bizarre, stimulating, crazy, brilliant characters - from the astrologer who practically ruled the Roman Empire to the one who hid behind a curtain to spy on the birth of a Dauphin and the modern astrologer who successfully predicted the assassination attempt on Hitler, and died on his way to a death camp. Yet these are only the lighter incidents in the histo...

All sex is here.Poetry has nothing to learn from prose, as far as eroticism and pornography are concerned. A glance through this book will prove that there's no aspect of sex – straight, gay and anything in between - which isn't given full rein: from dressing to undressing, from seduction to near-rape, from foreplay to orgasm.Men and women have enjoyed fucking since humankind first stood on two legs – and very possibly even earlier than that. And even before the invention of ...

John Donne rose from abject poverty to become Dean of St Pauls, and from being an unknown figure whose poetry was so erotic that it could only be circulated manuscript to being a distinguished man of the Church deeply uneasy to remember the sins of his youth. The confident of King James and King Charles, for the following two centuries and more following his death though his sermons (among the finest prose writing of the seventeenth century) were revered, his poetry was neglected. The twen...

Lord Byron was born in poverty, and remained in poverty for most of his life: money-lenders and other debtors paid for his luxurious life-style and his incessant womanizing. Famous overnight on the publishing of his poem 'Childe Harold', he became notorious for his affair with his half-sister - and with several other well-known society women. Fleeing from the women and the debtors, he settled in Venice (where he claimed to make love to over 300 women in the first two years) and eventually ...

Focusing on a diversely rich selection of writers, the pieces featured in Unfinalized Moments: Essays in the Development of Contemporary Jewish American Narrative explore the community of Jewish American writers who published their first book after the mid-1980s. It is the first book-length collection of essays on this subject matter with contributions from the leading scholars in the field. The manuscript does not attempt to foreground any one critical agenda, such as Holocaust w...

Imagined by one of the world's leading experts on Casanova, this fictionalised conversation presents the essential biography of history's most famous lover.Renowned as a great lover and seducer, Giacomo Casanova was far more than a bed-hopping rake. He founded the world s first national lottery, discussed theories of taxation with Frederick the Great, talked theology with Pope Clement XIII and lectured on Horace and Homer. He was also an accomplished swindler, an extraordinary wit,...