DescriptionWhen Mary Dinwoodie is found choked in a ditch following a night out with her boyfriend, a mysterious caller phones the local paper with a quotation from Hamlet . The career of the Yorkshire Choker is under way... If Detective Superintendent Dalziel is unimpressed by the literary phone calls, he's downright angry when Sergeant Wield calls in a clairvoyant. Linguists, psychiatrists, mediums, it's all a load of nonsense as far as he's concerned. But meanwhile the Choker strikes again and again and again.
DescriptionA classical concert is like sex: you don't know how long it will last, you don't know what you should be thinking about, and it can be embarrassing if you start clapping in the wrong place. At last, All Classical Music Explained, brilliant stand-up comedian Rainer Hersch's funny and clever approach to a tricky subject. Ever wonder why they made you learn the recorder? What Mozart stole from ABBA? What they are actually singing in the opera? It all here, live and in hilarious form. Whether you are a music professor or can't tell a string quartet from a string vest, relax: All Classical Music Explained will teach you nothing but it will make you laugh. Really laugh.
DescriptionIn A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce describes the early life of Stephen Dedalus: significant memories from infancy, schooldays, family life, his first taste of sin, guilt, repentance - and his passage to freedom as he elects to leave Ireland forever. This is, in effect, an autobiography. Dedalus is Joyce; every person he encounters and every incident he experiences, is drawn from life. The writing, though, displays the colour and imagination of the very finest fiction, in language which cries out to be read aloud.
DescriptionYoung Cedric Errol lives in poverty in New York with his mother. When his father, who was disinherited for marrying an American, dies, Cedric is summoned to his grandfather's English estate. While the crotchety old Earl planned to transform the boy into a docile, traditional lording, it is Little Lord Fauntleroy who does the converting. Through his goodness and innocence, he wins the hearts of his English relatives who welcome his mother with open arms, and he teaches the Earl some valuable lessons about the true meaning of nobility. This classic tale embodies the author's belief that "Nothing in the world is so strong as a kind heart".
DescriptionOnce a scandalously inventive puppeteer, Mickey Sabbath at 64 is an aging, raging powerhouse, defiantly antagonistic and exceedingly libidinous. But after the death of his longtime mistress, Sabbath embarks on a turbulent journey into his past. Haunted by the ghosts of all the people who loved and hated him the most, Sabbath contrives a succession of farcical disasters that take him to the brink of madness and extinction. Acclaimed author Philip Roth is at the very peak of his creative powers in this bold and hilarious novel, a comic creation of epic proportions.
DescriptionThe same vulnerable but invincible spirit that captured our hearts in the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela's Ashes comes of age in 'Tis . Listen as Frank tells in his own inimitable voice his story of how at the age of 19 he traveled from Limerick to New York in pursuit of the American dream. Despite the abundance of unsolicited advice he gets to "join the cops" and "stick to his own kind", Frank knows that he should educate himself and somehow rise above his circumstances. And though he left school at 14, he talks his way into New York University, falls in love with the quintessential Yankee, long-legged and blond, and tries to live his dream. But it is not until he starts to teach - and to write - that Frank finds his place in the world. And for those of us who are lucky enough to come across his writings - and captivating readings - 'Tis a wonderful thing that he did.
