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The Happy Humanist is a simple book for ordinary people who want to find greater enjoyment and peace in their lives. Happiness depends on who we think we are. We often get this wrong because it's difficult to know ourselves or other people. The self remains a mystery despite all the work of scientists and psychologists. That's why human relationships can be a problem for each of us. If we take this to heart we can appreciate that we may be asking for more than we're entitled to. Result? Strife and unhappiness. Happiness is a state of mind where we create an environment of enjoyment and calm; it's ours to create. The reality of life is that it is changing in every week, day and moment. It's u...
Young Ellen Colbert 'deserts' her paralysed husband when she can no longer bear caring for him. She takes work as part of the kitchen staff at the Marchmont mansion, where she meets the charming John Marchmont, who whisks her off to Australia. For months John and Ellen enjoy their lives at Mirabilly, a vast cattle station in the north owned by the Marchmonts, until a lawyer's letter arrives for John. They discover that by an accident of family deaths and a destroyed will he has inherited the bulk of the Marchmont wealth. John sets off immediately for London, leaving a jilted Ellen behind. John returns to Mirabilly four years later to discover that Ellen has married the head stockman and has a young son, Paul, who was born soon after John left for London. When Paul's father is tragically drowned, he begins to hear rumours about his true parentage… his mother denies it, but could he be Marchmont's son? This contemporary novel deals with the importance of knowing your paternity. Filled with romance and family issues, The Unforgiving Shore is a gripping read for fans of romantic fiction, as well as those who enjoy a family saga.
Published anonymously in 1824, this gothic mystery novel was written by Scottish author James Hogg. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner was published as if it were the presentation of a century-old document. The unnamed editor offers the reader a long introduction before presenting the document written by the sinner himself.
Set in Hong Kong at the time of the Cultural Revolution riots in 1967, Blue Lantern is a story of sex and police corruption. Mike Brodie a young police inspector from Glasgow is caught between two women. Helen is a talented and virtuous doctor, whom he can't match. Vanessa is a sordid temptress whom he finds it hard to resist. He needs more money than he earns to maintain his lifestyle, and finds himself drawn into a world of corruption and bribery.
My application to join the secret service was tongue-in-cheek. I was in no desperate need of another job, but the opportunity arose and I thought it would be interesting to test my skills against this world of deceit. Roger Conway is a daring liar who has invented a new identity for himself and bluffed his way into M16. He carries out an audacious mission for the ‘Disciples’, a secret cell of Oxbridge and Ivy League academics who are the masterminds behind the security services. Roger’s adventures in Cuba, during a new Cuban Missile Crisis, save the US from imminent rocket attacks, but frustrate the Disciple’s political plot against the president. Aided by his assistant, Herbert Yarham, Roger emerges as the top Anglo-US spy, a brilliant deceiver in a world of deceit.
Everybody at Butchers’ Row in Southwark has something to hide... Described as ‘London noir’, Night Shelter, the 9th novel from thriller writer Gil Hogg, delves deep into the seedy underground world of drugs, prostitution and corruption in Britain’s capital. Jimmy Morton, a supervisor at the Night Shelter for the homeless, finds himself unwittingly involved in the murder of Eva, a local prostitute found in a tenement in Butchers’ Row. The director of the Night Shelter and his guest Arnold Catesby have had a boys’ night out, a drug-fuelled sex party at a nearby pub close to where Eva’s body was discovered. Cynical and self-protective CI Dan Hamish from the Yard finds that Eva was at the party, but believes that Catesby and his friends are too big to touch. As the group are interrogated one-by-one, they assure Hamish that they have solid ‘insurance’ – but will it pay off? Night Shelter is a fast-paced detective novel that encapsulates the gritty, sardonic nature of London’s underground crime network. This book will appeal to fans of Peter Ackroyd and Mark Billingham, as well as fans of Hogg’s previous titles.
Contemporary works of art that remodel the canon not only create complex, hybrid and plural products but also alter our perceptions and understanding of their source texts. This is the dual process, referred to in this volume as “refraction”, that the essays collected here set out to discuss and analyse by focusing on the dialectic rapport between postmodernism and the canon. What is sought in many of the essays is a redefinition of postmodernist art and a re-examination of the canon in the light of contemporary epistemology. Given this dual process, this volume will be of value both to everyone interested in contemporary art—particularly fiction, drama and film—and also to readers whose aim it is to promote a better appreciation of canonical British literature.