Steve Roud was Local Studies Librarian for the London Borough of Croydon and served as Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society for over fifteen years. He has been researching British folklore for over thirty years and is the joint author of the Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore, plus other books on traditional drama and folk song, and the Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, which won the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award in 2004. His publications include London Lore (2008) and The Lore of the Playground (2010). He also compiles the Folk Song Index and the Broadside Index, two internationally acclaimed computer databases of traditional folk and popular song. He lives in Sussex.

Steve Roud

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Ann Summers

Ten women reveal all to our mysterious hostess, Madame B. Nothing is out of bounds and passion is pushed to its very limit. 
 
Under Offer - Sally just can't keep her eyes off the hot estate agent. By the third apartment, Sally can't control her lust any longer and makes him an offer he can't refuse... 
Backstage Pass - Everyone knows him, the rock star who regularly tops the charts. Ali just has to have him, and blags a backstage pass... 
Executive Decision - It's the career chance of a lifetime. PA to a gorgeous, jet-setting executive. Amanda wants the job - and him - so badly. Then he asks if she has any 'extra services' to offer. 
Shopaholic - Zoe's bored with her look. So when a friend recommends personal shopper and stylist Maria, she books in for a session. Maria knows just how to make Zoe feel fabulous - and it all kicks off in the changing room. 
Coming Up Roses - Kara can't face a day in the office and calls in sick. That's when she notices two attractive gardeners working outside her apartment window. It's hot, they're sweating. So Kara invites them both in for a shower... 
Filthy Rich - At a salsa club, Jen and Mike meet an older, wealthy couple, who invite them back to their mansion. The place is a millionaire's paradise - acres of land, and a sexy outdoor jacuzzi... 
Double Fantasy - Identical twins and flatmates Gilly and Annie secretly share their men. So when fit delivery guy Rob turns up with a washing machine, Gilly has her fun on top of it - and then lets Annie take over. 
Curtain Raiser - Cathy's boyfriend confesses he's always wanted to try a seedy peep show. She's not so sure. But once they're inside the cubicle, Cathy can't get enough. 
Tunnel Vision - She spots him at check-in, and he's sitting opposite her in first class. He passes her a mobile number. She texts. He texts. And things get steamy... 
Father Figure - Jane's always fancied her ex-boyfriend's dad. Then she bumps into him at a taxi rank. They share a cab, but they don't even make it indoors... 
 
With private indulgences stripped bare for all to see, Too Hot to Handle ensures that nothing remains a secret any more.

Too Hot to Handle

True Stories as Told to Madame B

Meet Madame B, our extraordinary hostess, a woman who elicits the most provocative confessions from those she meets. In this new collection of erotic tales, ten women, each with their own wild fantasies and dark desires, reveal all to Madame B. Nothing is out of bounds and passion is pushed to its very limit. 
 
Hard Hat - a sexy builder turns out to be the tall, dark and silent type 
Model Misbehaviour - supermodel Anna Lamb has a memorable catwalk experience, thanks to her rockstar boyfriend Joey and some very special lingerie 
Toy Story - two housemates find a very special kind of toy in the house 
Bossy - power games in the office show the boss who's really in charge 
Car-ma Sutra - fantasies about sex in public lead a young married couple to an unexpected midnight encounter 
Steaming - a stressed businesswoman gets the gold-standard treatment at a very special sauna 
A Working Girl - hard up for cash, a young magazine assistant decides to become an escort, but first she has to attend a private interview... 
Ash - Nina picks up skinny indie kid Ash at a gig, but there's more to him than meets the eye 
All Tomorrow's Parties - when artist David meets dancer Charlie, and discovers she is a virgin, he furthers her education in more ways than one 
Waterbaby - a young woman discovers that keeping it all in can lead to new heights of ecstasy. 
 
With private indulgences stripped bare for all to see, True Stories As Told to Madame B ensures that nothing remains a secret any more.

True Stories As Told To Madame B

Lucien Young

Leavis Carroll

Lying on a riverbank on a lazy summer’s afternoon – 23rd June 2016, to be precise – Alice spots a flustered-looking white rabbit called Dave calling for a referendum. Following him down a rabbit-hole, she emerges into a strange new land, where up is down, black is white, experts are fools and fools are experts... 
 
She meets such characters as the Corbynpillar, who sits on a toadstool smoking his hookah and being no help to anyone; Humpty Trumpty, perched on a wall he wants the Mexicans to pay for; the Cheshire Twat, who likes to disappear leaving only his grin, a pint, and the smell of scotch eggs remaining; and the terrifying Queen of Heartlessness, who’ll take off your head if you dare question her plan for Brexit. Will Alice ever be able to find anyone who speaks sense?

Alice in Brexitland

Woody Allen

'I am greatly relieved that the universe is finally explainable. I was beginning to think it was me.' Thus begins 'Strung Out', Woody Allen's hilarious application of the laws of the universe to daily life. Mere Anarchy, Woody Allen's first collection in over 25 years, features eighteen witty, wild and intelligent comic pieces - eight of which have never been in print before. 
 
Surreal, absurd, rich in verbal play, bitingly satirical and just plain daft in the mode we have grown to love from his finest films, this flight-of-fancy collection includes tales of a body double who, mistaken for the film's star, is kidnapped by outlaws; a pretentious novelist forced to work on the novelisation of a Three Stooges film; a nanny secretly writing an expose of her Manhattan employers; crooks selling bespoke prayers on eBay; and how to react when you're asked to finance a Broadway play about the invention and manufacture of the adjustable showerhead.

Mere Anarchy

Jenna leads a double life: by day she's a government researcher; by night she's one of the hottest dominatrixes on the London fetish scene. But her sex life spills over into her professional life when she starts working for Alexander Louth, a young, arrogant MP. Neither is used to taking orders, and Jenna and Alex discover a shared passion, one that makes overtime at the office a unique experience... 
 
Provocative and erotic, Lust and Longing ensures that nothing remains a secret any more.

Lust and Longing

Rhona Cameron

'It was dark when I came to. What woke me was the cold and the water on my legs. I was doing spoons with Scotty, me behind him. We were on a beach. We didn't speak for the first minute, we were so disorientated. I had to genuinely think very hard about where I was. Then I remembered I was in Australia.' 
 
It's the late eighties and 24-year-old Kerry has been drifting aimlessly through life in Edinburgh. Rarely having plans of any kind, she gets drunk and things happen: sex, drugs, parties, relationships, and, when she's really pushed, work. 
 
Setting off on a hastily arranged visit to Australia, Kerry packs only three items of clothing, a pair of flip-flops, two hundred pounds and her young persons' work visa. Soon broke, hungry and homeless, she joins ART, a likeable but mismatched band of travellers who sell dodgy oil paintings door-to-door in the suburbs. Young, beautiful and free, they drink wildly and live for the moment. 
 
Embarking on a riotous road trip together, their lives become deeply entangled, and the drinking spirals out of control. Eventually, Kerry is forced to admit that her journey to Australia isn't quite what it seems ...

The Naked Drinking Club

Malcolm Hardee

John Fleming

To satisfy the needs of the hundreds of thousands of people who pay good money to see stand-up every year, Malcolm Hardee ('the comedian's comedian' WHSmith Online; 'a national monument' The Guardian) presents a comedy club on the page with a bill featuring the glitterati of British stand-up comedy. We let the famous names and new talents alike try out their written humour and their only brief is to make us laugh. We plan to make the book an annual event, and are sure it will soon become the world's largest virtual comedy club. Contributors include: Keith Allen, Jo Brand, Simon Day, Jenny -clair, Boothby Graffoe, Ricky Grover, Jeremy Hardy, Hattie Hayridge, John Hegley, Jeff Innocent, Mark Lamarr, Chris Lynam, Simon Munnery, Rob Newman, Mark Steel, Arthur Smith, Jim Tavare, Mark Thomas

Sit-Down Comedy

Stand-ups swap the stage for the page

Freshly out of a long term relationship, Katie is a woman on a mission: to experience every kinky thrill that life can offer. Bored by the 'vanilla' sex that she's had before, she decides it's time to experiment. Toys, sex clubs, bondage, group sex, roleplay, and more: she's determined to make all her fantasies come true, no matter how long it takes, and how far it pushes her personal limits. 
 
Katie loves her adventures in the sexual playground, learning more about herself with every swish of a crop, stamp on a slave and taste of a woman. But when she meets Alex, a sexy older man who thinks kinky sex is wrong, she faces her greatest challenge yet: to bring him round to her way of thinking. She's drawn to his intellect, his sophistication and his twinkling green eyes, but without changing his mind she knows that any chance of a relationship is doomed. After all, she can't face a life of vanilla sex - can she? 
 
Although Alex initially falls for Katie's charms, and seems willing to acquiesce to her desires, she soon realises that everything is not as it seems and faces the ultimate dilemma. Should she sacrifice her lifestyle for the man that she loves and accept a life without kink, or are her fetishes more important than her man? Can she really cope with what it means to be vanilla?

True Passion

A Tale of Desire as Told to Madame B

Ronnie Barker

With a fondness for spoonerisms and double entendres, Ronnie Barker is one of the nation’s greatest comics. Gathered together in this second ‘best of’ volume is a cocktail of his sketches and monologues from every strand of his long and brilliant career.

A Few Well-Frozen Worms

Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins

Justin Jordan

Felipe Magaña

THE PERFECT GIFT FOR GAMERS 
 
The first in a series of original graphic novels, starring Ninja (Tyler Blevins) - the most influential public figure in gaming today - as he embarks on exciting gaming adventures, with the fate of the world at stake. 
 
Tyler Blevins (aka "Ninja") - the undisputed champion of the world's most popular online battle royale - enjoys a captivated audience of millions as he does what he loves: decimating the competition. At the end of one fateful stream, however, Ninja receives a strange email with a link to an impossibly realistic, challenging, and addictive game that simultaneously explodes in popularity. As the best player in the world, Ninja's unable to resist a challenge and soon discovers that there's more to this game than meets the eye. Teleported into the battle royale's universe, a digitized Ninja must start from scratch, finding a way to win the game--and save the world. Along the way, he meets valuable friends and ultimately fulfills a destiny larger than he ever could have imagined. Set in a fictional world created by notable comics writer Justin Jordan and comics artist Felipe Magaña, this is the first in a graphic novel series that offers a new way for Ninja fans of all ages to experience the gaming streamer's unmatched wits and skill.

Ninja: The Most Dangerous Game

A Graphic Novel

Sarah Brown

Gil McNeil

From inspirational mums who are not afraid of anything - except spiders - to magical mums, reluctant mums and mums behaving badly, this is a wonderful collection of fiction and memoir from some of Britain's best-loved writers. 
 
With touching and amusing anecdotes from celebrity mums such as Nigella Lawson and Arabella Weir, as well as original illustrations from the likes of Shirley Hughes and Quentin Blake, this rich treasure trove with proceeds going to children's charity PiggyBankKids reflects many voices from across the generations and is a glorious celebration of motherhood.

Mums

A Celebration of Motherhood

Phil Shoenfelt

Camden Town. The late 1980s. A hinterland of rundown squats, petty crime and hard drugs. 
 
Amid this sordid milieu, junkies Phil and Cissy go about their daily routine of sex, shooting up and dodging the police. For a while they have each other and nothing else seems to matter. But as their addictions worsen, money runs short and Cissy's psychotic ex-boyfriend is released from prison, their relationship begins to disintegrate into mutual distrust and loathing... 
 
Raw, repellent and yet shot through with mordant wit, Junkie Love is Phil Shoenfelt's semi-fictionalised account of the heroin addiction that almost cost him his sanity and his life.

Junkie Love

Richard Littler

Welcome to the weird and warped world of Scarfolk, a town forever trapped in the 1970s... Based on the cult blog, the massive online hit which has over a million page views in a year, this is an illustrated guide to the Lancashire town which brings nightmarish childhood memories relentlessly back to life. Fans of Charlie Brooker, The League of Gentlemen and Brass Eye will love this... 
 
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING 
'Delicious and hilarious' -- ***** Reader review 
'Witty and savage' -- ***** Reader review 
'Brutally funny and scarily accurate' -- ***** Reader review 
'Marvellously dark and dangerous' -- ***** Reader review 
 
*********************************************************************************************** 
"Scarfolk is a town in north-west England that did not progress beyond 1979. The entire decade of the 1970s loops ad infinitum. In Scarfolk children must not be seen OR heard, and everyone has to be in bed by 8 p.m. because they are perpetually running a slight fever..." 
 
 Part-comedy, part-horror, part-satire, Discovering Scarfolk is the surreal account of a family trapped in the town. Through public information posters, news reports, books, tourist brochures and other ephermera, we learn about the darker side of childhood, school and society in Scarfolk. 
 
 A massive cult hit online, Scarfolk re-creates with shiver-inducing accuracy and humour our most nightmarish childhood memories. 
 
 The perfect gift or self-purchase for any forty or fifty-something with a dark sense of humour!

Discovering Scarfolk

a wonderfully witty and subversively dark parody of life growing up in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s

Felix Dennis

When Jack Sued Jill is the latest collection of original verse by maverick multimillionaire publisher Felix Dennis. Taking the innocence of nursery rhymes and turning them into something altogether darker, Dennis turns his piercing eye on the follies and absurdities of modern life. 
 
From ASBOs to Osama Bin Laden, creationism to crack houses, Humpty Dumpty to Tony Blair, nothing and no one is spared. Even more shockingly, once you've read Dennis's updating of 'Little Miss Muffet', you'll never be able to think of her in the same way again. 
 
Scathing and hilarious, imaginative and unpredictable, When Jack Sued Jill is an essential collection of twisted nursery rhymes for the twenty-first century.

When Jack Sued Jill

Pam Ayres

Ellie Snowdon

A beautiful collection from much-loved poet Pam Ayres, compiling her best verse dedicated to animals, illustrated by Ellie Snowdon. Now a Sunday Times bestseller. 
 
'Oh WHY must you bark at the postman? 
 Why must you batter my ears? 
 I know it seems rum 
 But the postman has come 
 Every morning for SEVENTEEN YEARS.' 
 
 From her very first encounter with a friendly golden Labrador at just three years old, Pam Ayres has been enchanted by animals. Now, for the first time, in this beautiful new illustrated work, she has gathered together her life's work of poems, new and old, dedicated to her love of them. 
 
This definitive collection brings to life the charming characters and voices of all creatures great and small through Pam's poetry over the last five decades. From delightful tales of our British wildlife in 'I'm a Starling Me Darling' and the difficulties of keeping farm animals in 'Fleeced', to her hilarious observations of our pets in 'Ode to a Jack Russell' and poignant reflections on the end of their lives in 'Tippy Tappy Feet', Pam Ayres on Animals is a celebration of animals everywhere.

Pam Ayres on Animals

In this fourth collection of sexy tales told to hostess Madame B, ten women reveal all to our mysterious host. Nothing is out of bounds and passion is pushed to its very limit. 
 
Midas - long-distance love with a twist, as a lover's gift ensures his partner can still enjoy him while he's overseas 
Hire Love - Hannah hires a male escort for a high-powered work party, but it turns into more than a simple business transaction 
Sucker Punch - Carrie falls for a boxer that she sees on TV; and finds that he more than lives up to her expectations in the flesh 
Always the Bridesmaid - the night before Polly's wedding, she shares the bridal suite with her best friend Sammy, and sees her bridesmaid in a whole new light... 
The Mistress's Apprentice - Tina discovers how thrilling power can be when she finds herself working in a place where submission and domination are all in a day's work 
The HItcher - Alice and Paul's erotic encounter with a young hitchhiker turns into the ride of a lifetime 
The Diagnosis - at a fancy dress party, strangers Jay and Leila play 'doctors and nurses' adult-style 
Window Shopping - a shared fantasy of sex in public is made real when Bethany and Max take a big risk... 
El Ritmo del Noche - at a fiesta on holiday in Spain, Helen finds out that even the prissiest English girl needs a little Latin in her 
Going, Going, Gone - businesswoman Abigail sells her body to the highest bidder, and is ready to submit to whatever pleasures - and pains - are on offer... 
 
 With private indulgences stripped bare for all to see, Lost in Lust: More Tales from Madame B ensures that nothing remains a secret any more.

Lost in Lust

More Tales from Madame B

Caitlin Moran

‘I’ve lived through ten iOS upgrades on my Mac – and that’s just something I use to muck about on Twitter. Surely capitalism is due an upgrade or two?’ 
 
When Caitlin Moran sat down to choose her favourite pieces for her new book she realised that they all seemed to join up. Turns out, it’s the same old problems and the same old ass-hats. 
 
Then she thought of the word ‘Moranifesto’, and she knew what she had to do… 
 
This is Caitlin’s engaging and amusing rallying call for our times. Combining the best of her recent columns with lots of new writing unique to this book, Caitlin deals with topics as pressing and diverse as 1980s swearing, benefits, boarding schools, and why the internet is like a drunken toddler. 
 
And whilst never afraid to address the big issues of the day – such as Benedict Cumberbatch and duffel coats – Caitlin also makes a passionate effort to understand our 21st century society and presents us with her ‘Moranifesto’ for making the world a better place. 
 
The polite revolution starts here! Please.

Moranifesto

Sunday Times Bestseller 
 
The brand new collection of verse from the nation’s favourite poet, Pam Ayres. 
 
With the same magic that has enchanted her fans for more than four decades, Pam’s new collection is by turns hilarious, reflective and profound. From the dubious joy of being an exhausted, panic-stricken hostess in ‘The Dinner Party’ or feelings of unease about pub tableware in ‘Don’t Put My Dinner on the Slate!’, to a poignant reflection of war in 'Down the Line'and the bittersweet nostalgia of ‘Up in the Attic’, this new collection will tickle and move readers in equal measure.

Up in the Attic

Terry Pratchett

Ian Stewart

Jack Cohen

The fourth book in the Science of Discworld series, and this time around dealing with THE REALLY BIG QUESTIONS, Terry Pratchett’s brilliant new Discworld story Judgement Day is annotated with very big footnotes (the interleaving chapters) by mathematician Ian Stewart and biologist Jack Cohen, to bring you a mind-mangling combination of fiction, cutting-edge science and philosophy. 
 
Marjorie Daw is a librarian, and takes her job – and indeed the truth of words – very seriously. She doesn’t know it, but her world and ours – Roundworld – is in big trouble. On Discworld, a colossal row is brewing… 
 
The Wizards of Unseen University feel responsible for Roundworld (as one would for a pet gerbil). After all, they brought it into existence by bungling an experiment in Quantum ThaumoDynamics. But legal action is being brought against them by Omnians, who say that the Wizards’ god-like actions make a mockery of their noble religion. 
 
As the finest legal brains in Discworld (a zombie and a priest) gird their loins to do battle – and when the Great Big Thing in the High Energy Magic Laboratory is switched on – Marjorie Daw finds herself thrown across the multiverse and right in the middle of the whole explosive affair. 
 
As God, the Universe and, frankly, Everything Else is investigated by the trio, you can expect world-bearing elephants, quantum gravity in the Escher-verse, evolutionary design, eternal inflation, dark matter, disbelief systems – and an in-depth study of how to invent a better mousetrap.

The Science of Discworld IV

Judgement Day

Kerry Katona

Leanne Crompton had it all - beauty, fame, money. But when Leanne is sacked by her modelling agency she soon finds herself penniless. With her seven-year-old daughter Kia to support, she has no option but to head north to her home town . . . back to her wayward family. 
 
With a brother just released from prison, another being taken for a mug by his wannabe-WAG girlfriend, and two sisters trying to escape her shadow, life with the Cromptons is a harsh reminder of how far she's fallen. 
 
Now, starting over and with an explosive secret to hold on to - the identity of Kia's dad - things start to get tough. Can she trust her ruthless mother Tracy not to sell her out to the papers? Or will Kia's dad catch up with her and silence her for good? 
 
Tough Love is the startling debut novel from former pop star and tabloid favourite Kerry Katona. Her memoir, Too Much Too Young, was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller.

Tough Love

Everyone knows you but nobody knows the truth

Roundworld is in trouble again, and this time it looks fatal. Having created it in the first place, the wizards of Unseen University feel vaguely responsible for its safety. They know the creatures who lived there escaped the impending Big Freeze by inventing the space elevator - they even intervened to rid the planet of a plague of elves, who attempted to divert humanity onto a different time track. But now it's all gone wrong - Victorian England has stagnated and the pace of progress would embarrass a limping snail. Unless something drastic is done, there won't be time for anyone to invent spaceflight and the human race will be turned into ice-pops. 
 
Why, though, did history come adrift? Was it Sir Arthur Nightingale's dismal book about natural selection? Or was it the devastating response by an obscure country vicar called Charles Darwin, whose bestselling Theology of Species made it impossible to refute the divine design of living creatures? Either way, it's no easy task to change history, as the wizards discover to their cost. Can the God of Evolution come to humanity's aid and ensure Darwin writes a very different book? And who stopped him writing it in the first place?

Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch

Julian Clary

Hello, I'm Johnny Debonair and this is my book - Murder Most Fab. Buy it. You won't regret it. Everything that has happened so publicly is explained. Of course, I'd prefer it if you remember me as I was at my height, before the past caught up with me so spectacularly - TV's Mr Friday Night with an enviable lifestyle and the nation at my feet. My fame might have looked easy to you at the time, but getting to the top of the celebrity ladder is hard work. It took talent, beauty, commitment and, uniquely in my case, a number of unfortunate deaths. If we were being picky you might describe me as a serial killer, but I really don't see myself that way. It sounds trite to say 'one thing led to another' but it's true. 
 
As you'll discover I owe something of my rise and my fall to three individuals: my mother, an eccentric country girl who taught me exhibitionism by hanging naked from the clocktower of Hythe town hall; Catherine, my best friend, then partner in business &shy;- a devil in red heels, who, in her clear Essex accent, taught me how to 'look after number one'; and Timothy, who broke my heart and caused me to seek refuge in sex, money and celebrity. 
 
But in the end you have to take responsibility for your own actions. No one was forcing me, were they? I hope you, the public, can forgive me and enjoy this sordid tale for what it is &shy;- my final entertainment for you.

Murder Most Fab

In the third volume of Madame B's saucy tales our intriguing hostess tells all. Ten women confess their stories of seduction, revealing their most intimate and devilish desires and steamy sexual encounters. 
 
Jet - a young woman finds herself joining a very exclusive club when she is upgraded to business class 
Menage a Trois - a voyeur gets to see her neighbours at close quarters 
The End of the Pier Show - a night out clubbing in Brighton comes to an unexpected climax for Kyra and her friends Rick and Sam 
I Heard Love Is Blind - deprived of sight, a woman goes on a sensory journey with her young lover 
Rumble in the Jungle - a yoga retreat is spoiled by the presence of the obnoxious David; or do opposites attract? 
The Camera Never Lies - models Sara and Kim get carried away at a magazine photoshoot 
Fetisch - a waitress at a fetish club meets an intriguing new customer 
The Captain's Table - an invitation to dine with the captain on a swinging cruise ship means more than just dinner for one young couple 
Shopped - a security guard comes up with a novel 'punishment' for shoplifting 
Fireman's Pole - on her hen night, a bride-to-be decides to have one last fling... with the stripper! 
 
No fantasy is off limits, and with private indulgences stripped bare for all to see, Madame B's Stories of Seduction ensures that nothing remains a secret any more.

Madame B's Stories of Seduction

Jordan Bolton

See the poetry in every day... 
 
Jordan Bolton’s Blue Sky Through The Window of A Moving Car is a poignant collection of comics that explore universal experiences and emotions through art and poetry. Small yet powerful, and equal parts heart-breaking and heart-warming, these poetic comics are intensely relatable and go straight to the heart of what it means to be human. 
 
'The kind of book you want to pass around to all of your friends to make sure they’ve read it’ - Jack Edwards' 
 
‘Tremendous… Cinematic and poetic, it captures the heartbreak of everyday life’ - Malaka Gharib 
 
'Truthful observations of things and thoughts unsaid’ - Matthew Johnstone 
 
This first comic collection from artist Jordan Bolton explores the fleeting details that unite us. Jordan brings together the visual language of comics with the heartfelt language of poetry, to express moments of love and heartbreak, embarrassment and shame, hope and disappointment, grief and happiness. Split into sections that reflect where we spend the majority of our time — In Public, In Transit, and At Home — Bolton shines spotlights on the lives and stories unfolding around us every day that we might otherwise ignore. 
 
With the addition of new and unseen comics, Blue Sky Through The Window of A Moving Car is a gentle reminder that everything is ordinary, everything is extraordinary, and everything is connected.

Blue Sky Through the Window of a Moving Car

Comics for beautiful, awful and ordinary days

Alice Daumier is an award-winning film actress, envied by every woman she meets and desired by every man. But she tires of her sedate husband, Pierre, and the same people at the same old Parisian parties. When a figure from her past reappears, the mysterious writer Jacques, old passions are reignited. Alice risks her career and renown for sexual thrills like she has never known before... 
 
An erotic novella that will excite and shock in equal measure, in Secret Surrender passions are stripped bare for all to see.

Secret Surrender

The fantastic first book in the Sunday Times bestselling Science of Discworld series 
 
When a wizardly experiment goes adrift, the wizards of Unseen University find themselves with a pocket universe on their hands: Roundworld, where neither magic nor common sense seems to stand a chance against logic. 
 
The Universe, of course, is our own. And Roundworld is Earth. As the wizards watch their accidental creation grow, we follow the story of our universe from the primal singularity of the Big Bang to the internet and beyond. 
 
Through this original Terry Pratchett story (with intervening chapters from Cohen and Stewart) we discover how puny and insignificant individual lives are against a cosmic backdrop of creation and disaster. Yet, paradoxically, we see how the richness of a universe based on rules, has led to a complex world and at least one species that tried to get a grip of what was going on. 
 
 Terry Pratchett is the acclaimed creator of the global bestselling Discworld series, the first of which, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983. Raising Steam is his fortieth Discworld novel. His books have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he is the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, as well as being awarded a knighthood for services to literature. After falling out with his keyboard he now talks to his computer. Occasionally, these days, it answers back. 
 
www.terrypratchett.co.uk 
@terryandrob 
 
 Professor Ian Stewart is the author of many popular science books. He is the mathematics consultant for New Scientist and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick. He was awarded the Michael Faraday Prize for furthering the public understanding of science, and in 2001 became a Fellow of the Royal Society. 
 
 Dr Jack Cohen is an internationally-known reproductive biologist, and lives in Newent, Gloucestershire. Jack has a laboratory in his kitchen, helps couples get pregnant by referring them to colleagues, invents biologically realistic aliens for science fiction writers and, in his spare time, throws boomerangs. Jack, who has more letters to his name than can be repeated here, writes, lectures, talks and campaigns to promote public awareness of science, particularly biology. He is mostly retired.

The Science Of Discworld

Acclaimed The Science of Discworld centred around an original Pratchett story about the wizards of Discworld. In it they accidentally witnessed the creation and evolution of our universe, a plot which was interleaved with a Cohen &amp; Stewart non-fiction narrative about Big Science. 
 
In The Science of Discworld II: The Globe our authors join forces again to see just what happens when the wizards meddle with history in a battle against the elves for the future of humanity on Earth. London is replaced by a dozy Neanderthal village. The Renaissance is given a push. The role of fat women in art is developed. And one very famous playwright gets born and writes The Play. 
 
Weaving together a fast-paced Discworld novelette with cutting-edge scientific commentary on the evolution and development of the human mind, culture, language, art, and science, The Globe presents a fascinating and brilliantly original view of the world we live in. The scene of the final epic battle is the first production of A Midsummer's Night Dream at the Globe Theatre.

The Science Of Discworld II

The Globe

Judy Corbett

What happens when your beloved only daughter's friend turns out to be a destructive cuckoo in the nest? When girlish charm turns to seduction and teenage friendship to manipulation. How can just one teenage girl wreak havoc on a decent, loving household? 
 
Envy is a uniquely absorbing novel focusing on two teenage girls. Isabel the charmed, golden daughter of a wealthy, devoted daddy, and Diane, whose bitter, downtrodden mother lives on a rented cottage on Isabel's family's land. They become friends and Diane, our compelling narrator, driven by her loveless childhood and terrible envy, manoeuvres her way into the family, and slowly begins to break them apart. 
 
Running through this suspensful, shocking novel, are undertones of heat, sexuality and betrayal. After her highly acclaimed account of life in a medieval castle, Envy shows Judy Corbett to be a novelist of unusual precision and style. A distinctive writer who reveals the malice in youth and the destructiveness of love. 
 
Envy is a powerful, gripping read and darkly enjoyable twist on the coming-of-age novel.

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