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Edward Trencom has bumbled through life, relying on his trusty nose to turn the family cheese shop into the most celebrated fromagerie in England. But his world is turned upside down when he stumbles across a crate of family papers. To his horror, Edward discovers that nine previous generations of his family have come to sticky ends because of their noses. When he investigates further, Edward finds himself caught up in a Byzantine riddle to which there is no obvious answer . . . Giles Milton's deliciously comic debut novel is a mouth-watering blend of Louis de Bernieres, Tom Sharpe and P. G. Wodehouse with every page permeated by the pungent odour of cheese. 'The pong of ripe Limburger lingers impressively' - Observer 'Comic novels are difficult to write: any old halfwit can produce 400 pages of stinking high seriousness, but it takes a real wit to manage 400 pages of mild, fragrant good humour' Guardian

'Blue-Eyed Son is a personal history, but its themes - family, self-identity and filial love - are universal' Daily Mail Raised in a comfortable middle-class home, Nicky Campbell's Scottish Protestant family cared for and nurtured him as their own, while remaining open about the fact that he'd been adopted. His father - an ex-army man - and his mother helped him to a good school and a good university. Nicky rarely thought of his birth parents, until a combination of an imploding marriage and a chance meeting with a private dectective led him to track down his birth mother. Nicky Campbell brilliantly recalls their reunion and tentative steps towards a relationship, evoking all the complex and deep-seated emotions that being reunited elicited in each of them. But it soon became clear that there was more to Nicky's background than he expected. In this emotionally gripping and refreshingly honest memoir, Nicky Campbell describes the many sides of a family's dark history, and how it feels to find out where you come from.

In this eclectic selection of biographical sketches Bill Deedes remembers some of the key figures of the twentieth century. Political heavyweights such as Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin and Anthony Eden are reassessed and re-evalued, while record breakers such as Sir Edmund Hillary and Roger Bannister are shown to be far more than just their achievements. Further afield, W. F. Deedes ruminates on the chaotic and shady world of Imelda Marcos, the dignity and determination of anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman and the controversial leadership of Ian Smith in Rhodesia. But there are lighter portraits too. Noel Coward, with his useful advice on trains, Mary Whitehouse's inadvertent demonstration of pornography and Malcolm Muggeridge's half-hearted suicide attempt all feature in this delightful compendium. Like his previous books, Dear Bill and At War With Waugh, Brief Lives is an affectionate, perceptive and anecdotal book, bursting with life, humour and wit.

Beyond high iron gates fastened shut with a length of chain, lies the stark, beautiful Trawbawn. Here, haunted by a dark, mysterious past and largely ignored by the people of nearby Skibbereen, lives the frail Lydia Beauchamp. But old Ma Beauchamp's private existence is interrupted when a stranger arrives - a young man called Adam who wanders into the vast grounds of Trawbawn and becomes one of Lydia's most welcome contacts with the outside world. When Lydia sets her new confidante a challenge, he eagerly accepts - Adam must travel to Dublin to find her estranged daughter. But it is a task tainted by an air of menace. For what terrible past has driven a daughter from her mother? And what true motive lies behind Adam's generous act? Soon the unlikely friends are entwined in a deadly game, and a pursuit born of an old lady's desire for peace mutates into a terrible, relentless need for revenge . . .

For seventy-five years, W. F. Deedes has reported on the most important events, affairs and issues that have affected Britain, Europe and the World. Words and Deedes brings together a life's work, selecting the very best of his journalism to give a unique overview of the best part of the last century. Starting as a cub reporter in 1931, Deedes' inimitable eye was cast over the world caught in economic depression and inching closer to another devastating war. Yet, whether describing his campaign to alleviate the hardships of disadvantaged children or the ruthlessness of Mussolini's war machine, Deedes' pieces seem as fresh and vibrant now as they did then. This vivid and immediate style suffuses all his writing, making each story relevant, whether it be recent or more than fifty years old. This remarkable volume charts a course through some of the most turbulent times the world has ever seen, and yet on every page there is something to enlighten, delight or amuse. With this collection, W. F. Deedes cements his place as one of the very finest journalists of this, or any other century.

Waterstone's was DTI awarded as one of the three most financially successful business start-ups of the 1980s and, culturally, may be considered to have changed the complexion and scale of bookselling in the British isles and Europe. This massive success is in no small way due to Tim Waterstone's excellent business practices and belief that business can work for the good of the community. In this book he shares his top ten rules for creating businesses and making lives, using real-life case studies of how businesse succeed, and also how they can fail. Essential reading for anyone with a dream of starting up alone.

"e;They say there is no such thing as a perfect marriage, but of course there is. A perfect marriage is where two people live together for most of their lives until death separates them. What there is no such thing as is an easy marriage. And when it comes to love, people have somehow come around to equating love with ease"e;. New York food writer Tressa returns from honeymoon worried that she has married her impossibly handsome new husband Dan out of late-thirties panic instead of love. In 1930's Ireland, her grandmother, Bernadine, is married off to the local schoolteacher after her family are unable to raise a dowry for her to marry her true love, Michael. During the first year of her marriage, Tressa distracts herself from her stay-or-go dilemma by working on her grandmother's recipes, searching for solace and answers through their preparation. Through the stories of these two women RECIPES FOR A PERFECT MARRIAGE challenges the modern ideal of romantic love as a given and ponders whether true love can really be learned. 'This story is written with so much heart, its beat is palpable in every word on every page' Cecelia Ahern, author of P.S., I LOVE YOU

'Ann Pleshette Murphy is one of my heroes' T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., bestselling author of What Every Baby Knows This is the book every mum needs, and it hasn't been available until now. Seven Stages of Motherhood looks at the experience of parenting not only in the first year or two of a baby's life, but right on through childhood and adolescence and even into adulthood. Ann Pleshette Murphy argues that women evolve as mothers throughout the lives of their children, and her book is intended as a guide through this remarkable experience. Practical, sensible and above all readable, it will be invaluable to first-time parents and absolutely relevant to mothers of growing families. 'A beautiful insight into the joys and sorrows of motherhood, an emotional lifeline to mothers everywhere as they journey through the confusing yet rewarding stages of motherhood. Not to be missed' William Pollack, author of Real Boys 'Heartwarming, witty and wise ... let Annie be your guide on this charming tour through motherhood' Harvey Karp, MD, paediatrician and author of The Happiest Baby on the Block

'What happens to people like me who were once "e;pop"e; stars? Am I destined for a life of daytime television appearances, reunion tours and well-meaning strangers struggling to recognize me before hesitatingly asking "e;didn't you use to be Marc Almond?"e;' Despite an impending 45th birthday, a milestone age that can often result in some sort of mid-life crisis, Marc Almond, singer and songwriter, is not quite ready to take his place on the 'they were once famous' line-up. In Search of the Pleasure Palace, is Marc Almond's search for meaning in life now that he is in the Indian summer of his career. In this rollercoaster journey, Marc goes in pursuit of the thrills, spills and bellyaches that made each day of his youth memorable and created an image of him that was decadent, debauched and worryingly misunderstood. From swingers nights in Henley-on-Thames to the lost absinthe bars of Barcelona, from Russia's surreal underbelly to the pre-Giuliani clean-up of New York, Marc is your observant guide to a world that he was once master of -- through fantastic, wry anecdote.

Against Gravity is a stunning sci-fi thriller from Gary Gibson, author of the Shoal Sequence.In the late twenty-first century, you will find a very different world. Little is as it used to be, and many are not what they seem. Kendrick Gallmon, survivor of an infamous research facility called the Maze, is trying to pick up the pieces of his life, even though he knows the Labrat augments are slowly killing him. Then one day his heart stops beating, forever, and a ghost urges him to return to the source of all his nightmares, a long-abandoned military complex filled with entirely real voices of the dead.

There have been football books which have told their tale through the partisan heart of a besotted fan, and those that have dissected their subject through the scientific mind of an objective writer. But rarely does one fuse the blind passion of a lifelong supporter with the cold eye of an award-winning journalist in the way 44 Years With The Same Bird does.That bird is the Liver Bird, and on the surface this book is a pitch-side view of the entire modern era of Britain's most successful football club. It is Brian Reade's take on the extraordinary stories behind the 48 trophies he has seen Liverpool lift since watching them en route to their first ever FA Cup win in 1965, right through to the Champions League defeat in Athens in 2007. It takes in all of the big nights that propelled the club to five European Cups, three UEFA Cups, twelve titles, countless domestic cup triumphs, bitter failures, the tragic disasters in Sheffield and Brussels, as well as the barren years of the late 60s and the 90s.But the book goes far deeper than that. It's about how football allowed a father who was separated from his son to forge a precious bond. How a football club can make a city that is dying on its knees keep believing in itself. How you should never, as a professional, get too close to your heroes. How being part of a disaster at a football match (Hillsborough) can leave you a mental wreck, unwilling to carry on, but how witnessing a miracle on a football pitch (Istanbul) makes you realize that no matter how low you sink, you should never give in.

At the start of the first millennium AD, southern and western Europe formed part of the Mediterranean-based Roman Empire, the largest state western Eurasia has ever known, and was set firmly on a trajectory towards towns, writing, mosaics, and central heating. Central, northern and eastern Europe was home to subsistence farmers, living in wooden houses with mud floors, whose largest political units weighed in at no more than a few thousand people. By the year 1000, Mediterranean domination of the European landscape had been destroyed. Instead of one huge Empire facing loosely organised subsistence farmers, Europe - from the Atlantic almost to the Urals - was home to an interacting commonwealth of Christian states, many of which are still with us today . This book tells the story of the transformations which changed western Eurasia forever: of the birth of Europe itself.

Though John Glenday has long been admired for his lyrically delicate and emotionally powerful poetry, he has remained something of a well-kept secret. His third collection, Grain, makes his singular talent available to a wider audience. Sometimes Glenday's poems are forcefully direct; sometimes they are so quiet they feel as if they were composed within a capacious listening, as a form of secular prayer. Glenday's seamless lyric can also disguise some wild and surreal tales: the Beauty and the Beast told in reverse, a bizarre list of new saints, or a can of peaches waiting for the invention of the tin-opener. However, the lasting impression is of a genuinely spiritual poet, one with the ability to turn every earthly detail towards the same clear light. Grain announces Glenday as an essential voice in contemporary poetry.

Molly Harper is the manager of Ireland's only dedicated romance bookshop - 'Happily Ever After'. She can't stand Milo Jones, the super-smooth new owner but he does have a rather attractive son, Sam. When Milo decides he wants to change the bookshop into a highbrow literary one, Molly, with the help of her friends, must fight back if she wants to save the store. Her best friend, Paige Brady, local County Councillor and member of the popular 'Happily Ever After Book Club' has problems of her own. She has just launched a general election campaign and is astonished when another woman, Annette Higgins, starts to attack her in a very personal way. But Paige is determined to stay in the race. Can you judge a man by the shoes they wear? Kate Bowan, another Book Club afficionado, and Molly's housemate thinks so. Shop assistant in the trendy Burnaby designer shoe shop, 'Baroque' by day, she runs the popular dummy dating service 'Test-Crash Dates' by night. But one particular client is proving to be more than a handful. In the Irish village of Burnaby, life is about to change for three very different women.

Amy's life is not working out the way she always dreamed it would. She's about to turn the dreaded 3-0, her career is going nowhere fast and her love life is not exactly flourishing. To make matters worse, while things are falling apart for Amy, they seem to be coming together for everyone else in her life . . . Visiting her friend, Jodie, Amy finds that she and Jack, the man she once thought she might marry, have spent the night together. Her younger sister Suzi has just arrived home with her 'Golden Delicious' Australian fiance in tow, and announced their May wedding. And now Amy discovers that her best friend Beth is also planning on tying the knot, and Amy is asked to be bridesmaid. With a sinking heart, she remembers that old saying: always the bridesmaid, never the bride . . . Surely it can't be true? 'A real girlie page-turner that keeps you amused, entertained and guessing until the final page' Belfast Telegraph 'A rollicking hilarious romance. Definitely one to carry on to the plane' RTE Guide

Up until now, the Korean War has been the black hole of modern American history. The Coldest Winter changes that, giving readers a masterful narrative of the political decisions and miscalculations on both sides. He charts the disastrous path that led to the massive entry of Chinese forces near the Yalu, and that caught Douglas MacArthur and his soldiers by surprise. He provides astonishingly vivid and nuanced portraits of all the major figures -- Eisenhower, Truman, Acheson, Kim, and Mao, and Generals MacArthur, Almond, and Ridgway. At the heart of the book are the individual stories of the soldiers on the front lines who were left to deal with the consequences of the dangerous misjudgments and competing agendas of powerful men. We meet them, follow them, and see some of the most dreadful battles in history through their eyes. As ever, Halberstam was concerned with the extraordinary courage and resolve of people asked to bear an extraordinary burden. Contemporary history in its most literary and luminescent form, The Coldest Winter provides crucial perspective on the Vietnam War and the events of today.

Contrary to popular belief, fostered in countless school classrooms the world over, Christopher Columbus did not discover that the world was round. The idea of the world as a sphere had been widely accepted in scientific, philosophical and even religious circles from as early as the fourth century bc. Bizarrely, it was not until the supposedly more rational nineteenth century that the notion that the world might actually be flat really took hold. Even more bizarrely, it persists to this day. Based on a range of original sources, Garwood's history of flat-earth beliefs - from the Babylonians to the present day - raises issues central to the history and philosophy of science, its relationship with religion and the making of human knowledge about the natural world. Flat Earth is the first definitive study of one of history's most notorious and persistent ideas, and evokes all the intellectual, philosophical and spiritual turmoil of the modern age.'Highly entertaining and often hilarious ... an enjoyable romp through the dottier history of scientific and religious eccentricity' Sunday Times 'This entertaining history of the Flat Earth movement is full of crazy characters and fascinating details' Daily Telegraph'Wonderful ... an intriguing chronicle of 150 years of self- delusion' Financial Times

Set primarily in India and spanning the twentieth century, Filming tells a series of stories, including that of one-time prostitute Durga, who is persuaded to give away her young son, Ashok, and that of Saleem, the son of a prostitute and two-times star of the silver screen. As these stories intertwine and overlap, they combine to create a novel that is simultaneously about the small details and the bigger picture, weaving together major historical events - including Partition, the assassination of Gandhi, the rise of photography and the Bombay film industry, and the development of barbed wire - with the everyday moments that make up the fabric of our lives. 'Its plot, like a Bollywood melodrama, teems with characters and incident' Guardian 'Elegantly structured and taut with understated passion, Filming is a brilliant recreation of the lost world of early cinema and the continuing tragedy of religious hatred . . . Its delights as well as its message should find admiring readers everywhere' Independent 'Absorbing . . . Filming is distinguished by its ambition, its structural inventiveness and its highly evocative prose' TLS 'Underpinning this intriguing novel is a concern for the truth . . . In keeping with Khair's pertinent and thought-provoking musings on self-deception, its skill lies in making us question our assumptions about what we do and why we do it' New Statesman

Detective Harry Mason has rejoined the South African Police Service after a two-year leave of absence, and moved over to the specialised Serious and Violent Crimes unit, headed by the tough and fiery veteran commander Superintendent Carl 'Blackie' Swarts. Soon afterwards, Harry is assigned to investigate the slaying of a minor politician and his family, in a township west of Johannesburg. The case, at first seemingly unsolvable, is abruptly saved by an enigmatic grassroots anarchist whom Harry befriended during the apartheid riots of the '80s, and soon the SVC is hot on the heels of one of the country's most secretive and violent vigilante groups, known as 'The Guardians', headed up by two brothers whose brutality is legendary amongst the poor inhabitants of Johannesburg's squatter camps. As the investigation slices away at the layers of secrecy surrounding this group, other secrets surface - truths that ultimately pose a threat to Harry's unit, and to the city at large. When Harry is abruptly gunned down by unseen assassins during a dawn raid on a remote village, and a bomb is detonated in the judicial heartland of Johannesburg, his former police partner and long-time friend, Detective Jacob Tshabalala, is forced to take matters into his own hands, and expose a splinter faction of vigilantes operating within the police service itself - a faction whose connections stretch all the way into parliament itself.

Mei is a modern, independent Chinese woman. She runs her own business in Beijing, working as a private investigator; she owns a car; she even has that most modern of commodities, a male secretary. One day, 'Uncle' Chen - no relation but a close friend of her mother's - comes to Mei with a case to investigate. He asks her to find the Eye of Jade, a Han dynasty artefact of great value. The Eye of Jade was taken from its museum during the years of the Cultural Revolution when Red Guards swarmed the streets, destroying many remnants of the past. Mei's investigations reveal a story that has far more to do with the past, and her own family history, than she could ever have expected. This story forces her to delve into that dark part of China's history, Mao's labour camps and the countless deaths for which no-one was ever held responsible. It exposes the agonising choices made during the Revolution, to kill or be killed, to love or to live. Eye of Jade is a fascinating glimpse of city life in modern China. Liang captures vividly Beijing's bustle and noise, from seedy gambling dens and cheap noodle bars to the splendour of the Forbidden City. Through a rich cast of characters including immigrant workers and government officials, she examines the sometimes uneasy relationship between China's brutal communist past and its increasingly capitalist present.

Four women gather to celebrate their friendship. A quarter-century of intimacies shared, betrayals survived, differences reconciled. There is Claire, with her unsuitable men; she knows that life will never give her the one thing she has always wanted. Nora, the perfect housewife, has kept something hidden from her friends for over twenty-five years. Maggie has been unhappily married to Ray for longer than she cares to remember. And then there is Georgie, feisty and opinionated, who has had her own way more than is good for her. But tonight, the complex web of spouses, lovers and secrets that has bound them all together is about to unravel. And one of the four women plans not to be there. At a Time Like This, things can never be the same again . . . 'Dunne is such a gifted storyteller that she credibly recreates a world that pulls the reader in deep . . . ' Evening Herald

When Chelsea Duke took a year out to travel round the world alone, she had no idea what she was letting herself in for. Never having described herself as the outdoorsy type or having stayed in a hostel before, life on the backpacker trail held some rather unpleasant surprises. But by the end of the year she had amassed a range of survival techniques to rival Ray Mears, all of which she is generously passing on here. From beauty treatments to do before you set off and how not to kill yourself in a South American shower, to the indispensable nature of the sparkly flip-flop, High Heels and a Head Torch will tell you everything you need to know to keep yourself looking and feeling glam when your wardrobe fits into a shoe box and those little home comforts are a million miles away. As well as lists of DOs and DON'Ts and tons of useful advice on every aspect of the travel experience, including personal safety, High Heels and a Head Torch is full of hilarious anecdotes and is the ultimate survival tool for any glamorous girl about to set off in search of adventure.

Giles Wareing has started telling people he's forty, even though he's actually thirty-nine years and eleven months. It's supposed to help him conquer the fear, but in fact he has only given the fear a four-week head start. Giles is a freelance writer of amusing articles for a national newspaper. One day, feeling particularly fortyish, he happens to type 'Giles Wareing+unfunny' into a search engine. And that's when he discovers the thread. The thread is called 'The Giles Wareing Haters' Club', and is entirely devoted to holding everything he has ever written up to excoriating criticism and ridicule. As Giles becomes obsessed with the thread, with tracking down its participants, his angst begins to focus on one particularly scornful contributor, and it soon becomes clear that things are going really quite badly wrong . . . A tragedy, a farce and a detective story, The Giles Wareing Haters' Club is an absorbing, hilarious and razor-sharp look at the modern male in all his dysfunctional glory. 'Entertaining and unexpectedly poignant' Times Literary Supplement 'Very funny . . .Cringe comedy at its best' GQ 'An acerbically dry and hilarious tale' InStyle

Between the end of the nineteenth century and the Second World War Macmillan published a much-loved and extremely successful series of books under the title of 'Highways and Byways'. In them, the authors took readers on a delightful guided tour of the country, county by county, pointing out places of interest, key historical events and local lore and legend. Now, Macmillan is reissuing - in one beautifully designed volume - a selection of those highways and byways, which affords contemporary readers both a charming period piece and a wonderful glimpse of the very best of Britain.

When a pair of fighters step into an illegal ring, sometimes only one walks out. This is the story of two men from radically different backgrounds, but with one thing in common. For Rob, it's a question of talent and duty. For Paul, it's one of fear. In the bloody world of bare-knuckle boxing the stakes are mercilessly high. Testing the difficult relationships between fathers and their sons, The Fighter explores the lengths to which these men are driven for self-knowledge, and the depths they will plumb in order to belong.

Rowan Simons has lived (and played football) in China for over twenty years and Bamboo Goalposts is his amusing and insightful account of what it's like to live, work and play there. He presents and works with Beijing TV and runs his own media company, but his real passion is getting China to embrace the social and health benefits of amateur football. Which isn't easy in a country where for decades it was illegal for more than ten people to congregate for the purposes of a recreational sporting activity. Rowan built a football pitch and clubhouse and now heads Club Football - http://www.clubfootball.com.cn - whose growing membership has given him genuine hope that by the time the Beijing Olympics begin in 2008 he might be getting somewhere. No other book communicates more clearly, more humourously and more affectionately what contemporary China is like when viewed through Western eyes. Rowan speaks fluent Chinese and his love of the country and its people shines off every page. He has lived there for so long that he understands what it takes to get ahead, but at the same time he is still very much a down-to-earth English football fan who just wants to share his passion for the beautiful game. Bamboo Goalposts is a personal odyssey inspired by the selfless pioneers of amateur football who took the game around the world in centuries past, but somehow missed China.

When Robin was a boy, fishing with his father was an integral and much-loved part of family holidays, but as an adult he fished infrequently, with terrible technique and rare success. Until one day, feeling inspired to supplement the vegetables from his allotment with nature's free bounty, fish, he tentatively decided to try again. Full of dizzy excitement at all the equipment available - the rods, the reels, the rigs, the lures, the tackle box complete with light in its lid, into which everything packed so beautifully - he embarked on his journey as a born-again angler. What follows is a funny, touching and even informative book about Britain's most popular sport. From beachcasting off the stormy Pembrokeshire coast to flyfishing for trout in tranquil Hertfordshire, Robin shares his experiences, his successes and failures, and even some of his favourite recipes. Along the way he discovers exactly why anglers feel so passionate about their chosen sport.

Miniwa, Wisconsin, is under siege, but not by the usual summer tourists. The area's normally shy wolf population has begun stalking human prey, and their victims have been disappearing . . . or worse. Something is happening in the woods. Something no on can explain . . . Officer Jessie McQuade has seen plenty in her years on the force - but nothing as intriguing as the gorgeous, naked man she encounters while tracking a rogue wolf. Professor Will Cadotte is a Native American activist. He's also the only man capable of distracting Jessie from her work. And for a cop, distraction - no matter how pleasurable can be deadly. It's against Jessie's better judgement to accept Will's help in her investigation, yet she soon finds herself doing exactly that - and more. Will's dark, penetrating eyes see into a part of Jessie's soul she never knew existed. It's exhilarating, and terrifying. Now, as a town's deepest secrets come to light no one is safe: not friends, lovers, or strangers. And as Jessie follows a trail to the shocking truth, she'll have to decide who she can trust when the moon is full . . .

Invitations to John Aspinall and John Burke's illegal gambling parties were the most sought after in 1950s London - only the wealthy and well-connected were allowed past their door. When the police finally arrested them, Aspinall and Burke challenged the law - and won. As a result gambling was legalised. Which interested crime boss Billy Hill and his lieutenant Bobby McKew, because suddenly clubs sprang up everywhere and Billy had a foolproof way of fixing the cards. He also had his eye on the ultimate prize, Aspinall's exclusive new club, The Clermont... Revealing for the first time how Aspinall and Hill plotted to steal a fortune, based on testimony from Burke and McKew, The Hustlers is a riotous journey back to 50s and 60s London. With a cast of characters that ranges from safecracker Eddie Chapman to the reckless Earl of Derby, from croupier Louis the Rat to unlucky Lord Lucan, it vividly recreates the exploits of the gamblers and gangsters whose lives collided in the clubs and pubs of Mayfair. 'a fascinating glimpse into a bygone world . . . when chemmy parties took London by storm and toffs were often found to be rubbing shoulders with gangsters' Daily Express

Hector Kipling has everything to live for: he is a talented artist with loving parents, a beautiful girlfriend, dependable mates and good health. But when Kirk Church, one of his best friends, and a habitual painter of cutlery, announces that he may have a brain tumour, the prospect of a character-building bereavement, with all the attendant suffering and sympathy, is a little too difficult for Hector to resist. Will it make him a better artist? Will it make him as successful as his friend Lenny Snook, who fills limousines with blood and has just been nominated for the Turner Prize? As events begin to unravel it doesn't take long for Hector's charmed world to fall completely and irreparably apart. From settees to stalkers, con men to corpses, paranoid self-portraits to S&M, The Late Hector Kipling is an irreverent and candid exploration of life, death, art and everything in between. 'Wonderful entertainment . . . A funny and successful satire' Observer Review 'Exquisitely written with a warm heart and a wry wit, this is a stunning debut.' Elle 'David Thewlis has written an extraordinarily good novel, which is not only brilliant in its own right, but stands proudly beside his work as an actor, no mean boast.' Billy Connolly 'I laughed and laughed until I read my own name amongst the carnage of Thewlis's unfortunate characters. This book is a disgrace - it's mean, cruel and refreshingly cynical.' Jake Chapman