Glass is Elastic is a book of surfaces and reflections, mirrors and windows. What do we see - what do we know - in a world experienced through lenses and screens? 'Don't blink. Nobody's / looking, nobody's seeing.' Jon Glover explores the treachery and creativity inherent in the eye's lens, in the eyeball itself, in a microscope or camera, in a telescope, in the mysterious properties of glass, malleable as time itself. We translate the shape of the world into maps, pixels, mathematical dat...

The teasing title poem of this book is about weather. Rain falls, wind cracks its cheeks as in Macbeth; the noises are drops like kisses falling, 'fallen into birdsong on Mars'. What would it sound like, be like, to hear it? The poem wants to know what it can't yet know. But as the book proceeds, the poet - on a human heath, tormented by loss - hears something like it, unearthly sounds on a planet without atmosphere, sound making quite another kind of sense. Jon Glover wrote most of the po...

Brought to you by Penguin.Being strategic is a critical skill. It enables you to solve problems on a day-to-day basis while also keeping an eye on the long term, anticipating and mitigating opportunities and threats along the way.How to be Strategic is your accessible but comprehensive guide to strategic thinking in any situation. Fred Pelard distills 20 years' experience training executives at all levels from leading companies around the world int...

London during the long, dark days of the Blitz: a city outwardly in ruins, weakened by exhaustion and rationing - and DCI Edward Greenaway keeps a careful eye on everyone. Out on the streets, something nastier is stirring: London's prostitutes are being murdered, their bodies left mutilated to taunt the police. As he follows a bloody trail through backstreets, Greenaway must use all his skill to stop the slaughter.

April 1943: four boys playing in Hagley Woods, Worcestershire make a gruesome discovery. Inside an enormous elm tree, there is the body of a woman, her mouth stuffed with a length of cloth. As the case goes cold, mysterious graffiti starts going up across the Midlands: 'Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?'To Ross Spooner, a police officer working undercover for spiritualist magazine Two Worlds, the messages hold a sinister meaning. He's been on the track of a German spy ring who have le...

Jon Glover reads this novelisation of an outlandish adventure for the Sixth Doctor and Peri.The TARDIS materialises aboard the Vipod Mor, a galactic survey ship captained by the repulsive Orlous Moston Slarn.Things are not going well on board the spacecraft. A mysterious killer stalks the infrastructure, and a junior officer - whose body is four years older than his brain - commands its bridge. The craft's computer seems to be developing its own distinctive...

Brought to you by Penguin.'Made me almost tearful with gratitude that a book as clever as this could give such uncomplicated pleasure ... And when you find a book like this, you grab it, and you hold it close.' JOHN SELF'A delight ... As funny and vivid as Dickens, as moving and memorable as Nabokov ... An extraordinarily large-hearted work.' THE CRITIC______________________...

Complete Poemsbrings together the published and unpublished work of one of the most significant poets of the late twentieth century; thefounding editor of Standand of the Northern House imprint. As well as reprinting all the poems included in Silkin's books, (from The Portrait and Other Poemsin 1950 to Making a Republicin 2002), it includes significant poems previously unpublished or published only in a wide variety of journals, and work transcribed from...

Five full-cast BBC radio dramatisations, starring Bill Nighy as Charles ParisThespian sleuth Charles Paris is his own worst enemy, a louche lush who can resist anything except temptation - especially in the form of women and alcohol. Estranged from his long-suffering wife, Frances, his personal life is shambolic, and as an actor, he's C-list at best. But he does have a talent for solving murders - which is just as well, because wherever he goes, someone seems to dr...

Bill Nighy returns as the actor and amateur sleuth, Charles ParisBored, broke and reduced to baring all as a life model, Charles Paris is relieved to land a role in a new sitcom – even if it is woefully unfunny. But no sooner has filming begun than things start to go wrong. First a charmless PA dies in a freak accident, then the young, cocksure director bites the dust. Once again, Charles finds himself on the case, hunting for clues from a host of showbiz suspects ...

Actor and sleuth Charles Paris is back in this full-cast BBC radio dramatisation of Simon Brett's novel, starring Bill NighyLocked down with his semi-detached wife Frances, Charles has thrown himself into a new career as a handyman, becoming quite the DIY expert. He's developed muscles, stopped smoking and even cut back on the booze.Then his agent, Maurice, offers him the chance to get back on stage - and in a West End play, no less. The st...

Bill Nighy stars as the irrepressible Charles Paris in these five BBC Radio dramatisationsActor, alcoholic and amateur sleuth Charles Paris returns in another quintet of humorous theatrical thrillers. All Charles asks for is a nice juicy part in a successful play - but wherever he appears on the bill, murder and mystery always play a starring role...The Cinderella Killer - Panto seems the perfect way to spend the Christmas season f...