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My Life As a Medium
My Life As a Medium
Betty Shine
¥73.58
The inside story of the ‘reluctant medium’, finally available in a mass-market A-format edition Betty Shine was originally an opera singer, but studied all forms of alternative healing, becoming a vitamin and mineral therapist. Guided by spirit voices from the age of two, she became a world-famous medium. This is the story of how she became the best known medium and healer in the UK. Through her books, tapes and absent healing service, she is in touch with thousands of people worldwide. The hardback publication of her book produced a tremendous response from both the media and the general public and this A-format edition will bring her story to an even wider audience.
Anita and Me
Anita and Me
Meera Syal
¥66.22
Nine-year-old Meena can’t wait to grow up and break free from her parents. But, as the daughter of the only Punjabi family in the mining village of Tollington, her struggle for independence is different from most. Meena wants fishfingers and chips, not chapati and dhal; she wants an English Christmas, not the usual interminable Punjabi festivities – but more than anything, she wants to roam the backyards of working-class Tollington with feisty Anita Rutter and her gang. Blonde, cool, aloof, outrageous and sassy, Anita is everything Meena thinks she wants to be. Meena wheedles her way into Anita’s life, but the arrival of a baby brother, teenage hormones, impending entrance exams for the posh grammar school and a motorcycling rebel without a future threaten to turn Anita’s salad days sour. Anita and Me paints a comic, poignant, compassionate and colourful portrait of village life in the era of flares, power cuts, glam rock, decimalisation and Ted Heath. It is a unique vision of a British childhood in the Seventies, a childhood caught between two cultures, each on the brink of change.
Ben, in the World
Ben, in the World
Doris Lessing
¥68.67
From Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the sequel to one of her most celebrated novels, ‘The Fifth Child’. ‘The Fifth Child’, Doris Lessing’s 1988 novel, made a powerful impact on publication. Its account of idyllic marital and parental bliss shattered by the arrival of the feral fifth child of the Lovatts made for unnerving and compulsive reading. That child, Ben, is the central character of this sequel, which picks up the fable at the end of his childhood and takes our primal, misunderstood, maladjusted teenager out into the world. He meets mostly with mockery, fear and incomprehension, but with just enough kindness and openness to keep him afloat as his adventures take him from London to the south of France and on to South America in his restless quest for community, companionship and peace. Lessing employs a plain, unadorned prose fit for fables; again, we have a childlike perspective at the heart of the book; again, the world in all its malevolence and misapprehension swirls around at the edge, while, occasionally, a strong character steps forward to try to set a good example.
Billy Connolly
Billy Connolly
Pamela Stephenson
¥68.57
The inside story of the one of the most successful British stand-up comedians, as told by the person best qualified to reveal all about the man behind the comic, his wife of over 20 years – Pamela Stephenson. Once in a lifetime, there strides upon the stage someone who can truly be called a legend. Such a person is the inimitable, timeless genius who is Billy Connolly. His effortlessly wicked whimsy has entranced, enthralled – and split the sides of – thousands upon thousands of adoring audiences. And when he isn't doing that…he's turning in award-winning performances on film and television. He's the man who needs no introduction, and yet he is the ultimate enigma. From a troubled and desperately poor childhood in the docklands of Glasgow he is now the intimate of household names the world over. How did this happen, who is the real Billy Connolly? Only one person can answer that question: his wife, Pamela Stephenson. Pamela’s writing combines the very personal with a frank objectivity that makes for a compelling, moving and hugely entertaining biography. This is the real Billy Connolly. This genre-defining book is now released as an ebook for a new generation of comedy fans, with a new Foreword from the author. Pamela’s vision of Billy is as true now as it ever was – as groundbreaking, as moving and as laugh-out-loud funny – and here she brings the book fully into its context, as one of the most influential biographies ever written.
Cary Grant: A Class Apart (Text Only)
Cary Grant: A Class Apart (Text Only)
Graham McCann
¥65.24
The ultimate biography of this ever-popular star and icon, from a young Cambridge don who has already made his name with a much praised biography of Marilyn Monroe. Cary Grant made men seem like a good idea. Tall, dark and handsome with a rare gift for light comedy, he played a leading man who liked to be led, a man of the world who was a man of the people. Cary Grant was Hollywood’s quintessential democratic gentleman. Born in England as Archie Leach, made famous in America as Cary Grant, he was a star for more than 30 years, in more than 70 movies, his popularity still intact when he brought his career to a close. He was never replaced: nobody else talked like that, looked like that, behaved like that. He was a class apart. Cary Grant never explained how he came to play ‘Cary Grant’ so well. ‘Nobody is every truthful about his own life,’ he said. ‘There are always ambiguities.’ This book explores the ambiguities in the life and work of Cary Grant: a working class Englishman who portrayed a well-bred American; the playful entertainer who became a powerful businessman; the intimate stranger who was often the seduced male. Thorough and meticulously researched, this book is a dazzling and entertaining account of Cary Grant’s broad and enduring appeal.
Cocaine Nights
Cocaine Nights
J. G. Ballard,James Lever
¥57.09
‘Snort up “Cocaine Nights”. It’s disorientating, deranging and knocks the work of other avant-garde writers into a hatted cock’ Will Self Five people die in an unexplained house fire in the Spanish resort of Estrella de Mar, an exclusive enclave for the rich, retired British, centred on the thriving Club Nautico. The club manager, Frank Prentice, pleads guilty to charges of murder – yet not even the police believe him. When his Charles arrives to unravel the truth, he gradually discovers that behind the resort’s civilized fa?ade flourishes a secret world of crime, drugs and illicit sex. At once an engrossing mystery and a novel of ideas, ‘Cocaine Nights’ is a stunningly original work, a vision of a society coming to terms with a life of almost unlimited leisure. This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard’s works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including Neil Gaiman, Zadie Smith, John Lanchester and Martin Amis) and brand-new cover designs.
C. S. Lewis: A Biography
C. S. Lewis: A Biography
A. N. Wilson
¥82.01
This acclaimed biography charts the progress of the brilliant, prolific writer, C. S. Lewis. C. S. Lewis was a deeply complex man, capable of inspiring both great devotion and great hostility. This acclaimed biography charts the progress of the clever child from the ‘Little End Room’ of his Ulster childhood and adult life, exploring Lewis’s unwilling conversion to Christianity, the genesis of his writing, and the web of his relationships.
The Verruca Bazooka (GUNK Aliens, Book 1)
The Verruca Bazooka (GUNK Aliens, Book 1)
Jonny Moon
¥27.27
Aliens are coming… to get up your nose! A long time ago, on a planet really, really far away, a bunch of slimy aliens discovered the secret to clean, renewable energy – snot! That was when the Galactic Union of Nasty Killer Aliens (G.U.N.K.) was born. Its mission: to find human life and drain its snot. Rockets were sent to the four corners of the known universe, each carrying representatives from the major alien races. Three of them were never heard from again. But one of them landed on a planet quite simply full of humans. This one. Now all that stands between earth and alien invasion is a hero named Jack. Problem is, he’s not even out of primary school yet…
Bird Migration (Collins New Naturalist Library, Book 113)
Bird Migration (Collins New Naturalist Library, Book 113)
Ian Newton
¥206.30
The phenomenon of bird migration has fascinated people from time immemorial. The arrivals and departures of different species marked the seasons, heralding spring and autumn, and providing a reliable calendar long before anything better became available. Migration is shown by many kinds of animals, including butterflies and other insects, mammals, marine turtles and fish, but in none is it as extensively developed as in birds. The collective travel routes of birds span almost the entire globe, with some extreme return journeys covering more than 30,000 km. As a result of migration, bird distributions are continually changing – in regular seasonal patterns, and on local, regional or global scales. Migration has repeatedly prompted familiar questions, such as where birds go or come from, why do they do it, how do they know when and where to travel, and how do they find their way? In this book, Ian Newton sets out to answer these – and other – questions. The book is divided into four main sections: the first is introductory, describing the different types of bird movements, methods of study, and the main migration patterns seen around the British Isles; the second part is concerned mainly with the process of migration – with timing, energy needs, weather effects and navigation; the third with evolution and change in migratory behaviour; and the fourth with the geographical and ecological aspects of bird movements.
Branson
Branson
Tom Bower
¥80.25
The sensational critical biography of this phenomenal entrepreneur and his business practices – fully updated to cover Branson’s recent ventures. No British tycoon is more popular, few claim to be richer and none has masterminded a more recognisable brand than Richard Branson. What is behind the success of the buccaneering balloonist, the tabloids’ favourite celebrity nude, the ‘grinning jumper’ and the scourge of corporate goliaths? Helped by eyewitness accounts of more than 250 people with direct experience of Branson, Tom Bower has a uncovered a different tale to the one so eagerly promoted by Virgin’s publicists. Here is the full story of Branson: his businesses, his friendships, his ambition, his law-breaking, his drug-taking, his bullying. From the cockpit of a balloon in the clouds to the centre of Branson’s operations in his Holland Park home this book is an intimate scrutiny of exactly how Richard Branson created himself and sold himself. Tom Bower’s biography reveals Branson to be a single-minded profiteer who, while occasionally generous to others, has a fixed purpose to enhance his family’s wealth in secret off-shore trust funds. Instead of a glittering saint, Branson emerges as a devious actor, proud of plucking for his own profit the good ideas of others. From his quest to acquire the license for the National Lottery to his plans to launch space tourism with Virgin Galactic, this fully updated edition follows Branson’s enterprises and investments up to the recent, failed bid for Northern Rock.
The Clumsies Make A Mess (The Clumsies, Book 1)
The Clumsies Make A Mess (The Clumsies, Book 1)
Sorrel Anderson
¥22.46
Three crazy, funny stories, featuring the two clumsiest talking mice you’ll ever meet… ‘The mouse started to trundle away, glancing at Howard over its shoulder, nervously. “You may well glance at me nervously," said Howard, picking up an empty water glass and placing it over the mouse. "You'll stay in there so I can eat my breakfast in peace. I shall deal with you afterwards…”’ But you can't really deal with the Clumsies, afterwards or at any time. Once you've got them, you're stuck with them. From the moment when Howard Armitage first finds two talking mice under his desk – the inimitable and hilarious Purvis and Mickey Thompson – his life, and his belongings, are turned forever upside down. Obsessed with biscuits and forever playing incomprehensible games of their own devising, the Clumsies are not your average mice – and though they're desperate to help Howard get out of trouble with his evil boss, they're only really good for one thing… …making a mess.
The Clumsies Make a Mess of the Seaside (The Clumsies, Book 2)
The Clumsies Make a Mess of the Seaside (The Clumsies, Book 2)
Sorrel Anderson
¥27.27
More hilarious stories about the two clumsiest talking mice you’ll ever meet… It’s Clumsies on Sea as Howard and the Clumsies head to the seaside for what Howard calls a “conference” and the Clumsies call a “holiday”! Will Howard manage to impress his evil boss Mr Bullerton? Will he get to the hotel on time? And will the trip pass without mess or incident of any kind? Of course not. Nothing goes to plan when the Clumsies are about! Sandcastles, talking donkeys, runaway supermarket trollies: this clumsy adventure has it all!
Invisible i (The Amanda Project)
Invisible i (The Amanda Project)
Stella Lennon
¥51.50
Amanda Valentino is the most mysterious, the most magnetic girl you’ll never meet. But if you join THE AMANDA PROJECT you just might find out what happened to her… Who is Amanda? And why did she vanish? When Amanda Valentino started at Endeavor High on Halloween, she changed everything. A fabulous mix of the weird and the wonderful, Amanda was the most extraordinary student ever. Amanda herself was drawn to only three other students: Callie, Hal and Nia – the popular girl, the loner and the intellectual misfit. Without Amanda they would never had been friends, but now Amanda has disappeared and it’s up to them to find out what happened. Reluctantly, and with only the most cryptic of clues and the fragments of her life that Amanda let slip, this unlikely trio must find out where she’s gone, and why… The mystery begins in THE AMANDA PROJECT, Invisible i and continues online at www.theamandaproject.com
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (Poirot)
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (Poirot)
Agatha Christie
¥61.51
A classic Agatha Christie short story, available individually for the first time as an ebook. Asked to investigate an incident that needs to be dealt with discretion, Poirot reluctantly agrees to spend Christmas in the countryside with the Laceys. Dreading the cold and traditional English fare Poirot attempts to locate a missing ruby in order to save a kingdom…
Parker Pyne Investigates
Parker Pyne Investigates
Agatha Christie
¥58.47
A collection of short stories featuring the ‘heart specialist’, Parker Pyne. Mrs Packington felt alone, helpless and utterly forlorn. But her life changed when she stumbled upon an advertisement in The Times which read: ‘ARE YOU HAPPY? IF NOT, CONSULT MR PARKER PYNE’. Equally adept at putting together the pieces of a marriage or the fragments of a murder mystery, Mr Parker Pyne was possibly the world’s most unconventional private eye – and certainly its most charming.
Darkness Under the Sun
Darkness Under the Sun
Dean Koontz
¥10.10
An exclusive novella, available only as an eBook, from the international bestselling master of suspense. The chilling account of a pivotal encounter between innocence and ultimate malice, Darkness Under the Sun is the perfect read for Halloween – or for any haunted night – and reveals a secret, fateful turning point in the career of Alton Turner Blackwood, the killer at the dark heart of What the Night Knows, the forthcoming novel by Sunday Times bestselling author Dean Koontz. There once was a killer who knew the night, its secrets and rhythms. How to hide within its shadows. When to hunt. He roamed from town to town, city to city, choosing his prey for their beauty and innocence. His cruelties were infinite, his humanity long since forfeit. But still…he had not yet discovered how to make his special mark among monsters, how to come fully alive as Death. This is the story of how he learned those things, and of what we might do to insure that he does not visit us. Darkness Under the Sun is as chilling as it is unforgettable. It is available exclusively for download in electronic book format.
Shimmer (Strictly Come Dancing Novels)
Shimmer (Strictly Come Dancing Novels)
Amanda Roberts
¥51.50
A 100% official Strictly Come Dancing novel, featuring the dancers, stars and judges you love! What if an ordinary girl's Strictly dreams became a glittering reality? Meet Amanda Roberts: a production runner on the set of Strictly Come Dancing, desperate to fit into the world of the dazzling and the beautiful. And when she discovers all the backstage drama, Amanda wonders if she is tough enough to survive. But then things start to change… And incredibly she finds more GLITZ, more MAGIC and more ROMANCE than she could possibly have imagined. Prepare to be dazzled as you tango into the glamour and mayhem of the world behind the glitter ball. PREPARE TO BE SHIMMERED!
Liberty and the Dream Ride (Pony Club Secrets, Book 11)
Liberty and the Dream Ride (Pony Club Secrets, Book 11)
Stacy Gregg
¥51.50
Saddle up for the eleventh Pony Club Secrets adventure! Issie leaps to new heights with showjumper Comet, but will she ride to victory on Liberty? The penultimate book in a best-selling pony adventure series. Issie and Comet have travelled to Lexington, USA to take on the best riders in the world at the famed four-star horse trials. It’s Issie first experience of competing against adult professional riders and she begins to worry that she’s out of her depth. But then the competition gets even more exciting when Tara Kelly calls with the offer of a chance ride on another horse. With everything at stake does Issie have what it takes to win?
Ink in the Blood: A Hospital Diary
Ink in the Blood: A Hospital Diary
Hilary Mantel
¥19.13
Just after ‘Bring Up the Bodies’ author Hilary Mantel won the Man Booker for ‘Wolf Hall’, she fell gravely ill. This is her remarkable hospital diary. Originally published in the London Review of Books, this diary by the acclaimed author Hilary Mantel explores in forensic detail her loss of dignity, her determination, the concentration of the senses into an animalistic struggle to get through, and the attendant hallucinations she was plagued by during her stay in hospital. With her health now improved, and the acknowledgement of the Man Booker prize-winning follow-up to ‘Wolf Hall’, ‘Bring Up the Bodies’ as one of our greatest works of fiction, ‘Ink in the Blood’ remains a significant testament to the traumas of illness, and one of the most incredible and haunting essays published in a very long time.
Brida
Brida
Paulo Coelho
¥57.09
The spellbinding novel from one of the world's best-loved authors, Paulo Coelho, now in ebook. This is the story of Brida, a young Irish girl, and her quest for knowledge. She has long been interested in various aspects of magic, and has taken courses in astrology, tarot, and numerology, but is searching for something more. Her search leads her to people of great wisdom, who begin to teach her about the world. Her teachers sense that Brida has a gift, but cannot tell what that is. Meanwhile, Brida pursues her course ever deeper into the mysteries of life, seeking to answer questions about who she is. She meets a wise man who dwells in a forest, and teaches her about overcoming her fears and trusting in the goodness of the world, and a woman who teaches her how to dance to the music of the world, and how to pray to the moon. She seeks her destiny, as she struggles to find a balance between her relationships and her desire to become a witch. This enthralling novel incorporates themes fans of Paulo will love. It is a tale of love, passion, mystery and spirituality.
Stephen Fry in America
Stephen Fry in America
Stephen Fry
¥80.25
Britain's best-loved comic genius Stephen Fry turns his celebrated wit and insight to unearthing the real America as he travels across the continent in his black taxicab. Stephen's account of his adventures is filled with his unique humour, insight and warmth in the fascinating book that orginally accompanied his journey for the BBC1 series. 'Stephen Fry is a treasure of the British Empire.' - The Guardian Stephen Fry has always loved America, in fact he came very close to being born there. Here, his fascination for the country and its people sees him embarking on an epic journey across America, visiting each of its 50 states to discover how such a huge diversity of people, cultures, languages, beliefs and landscapes combine to create such a remarkable nation. Starting on the eastern seaboard, Stephen zig-zags across the country in his London taxicab, talking to its hospitable citizens, listening to its music, visiting its landmarks, viewing small-town life and America's breath-taking landscapes - following wherever his curiosity leads him. Stephen meets a collection of remarkable individuals - American icons and unsung local heroes alike. Stephen starts his epic journey on the east coast and zig-zags across America, stopping in every state from Maine to Hawaii. En route he discovers the South Side of Chicago with blues legend Buddy Guy, catches up with Morgan Freeman in Mississippi, strides around with Ted Turner on his Montana ranch, marches with Zulus in New Orleans' Mardi Gras, and drums with the Sioux Nation in South Dakota; joins a Georgia family for thanksgiving, 'picks' with Bluegrass hillbillies, and finds himself in a Tennessee garden full of dead bodies. Whether in a club for failed gangsters (yes, those are real bullet holes) or celebrating Halloween in Salem (is there anywhere better?), Stephen is welcomed by the people of America - mayors, sheriffs, newspaper editors, park rangers, teachers and hobos, bringing to life the oddities and splendours of each locale. A celebration of the magnificent and the eccentric, the beautiful and the strange, Stephen Fry in America is our author's homage to this extraordinary country.