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It is 1939. Eva Delectorskaya is a beautiful 28-year-old Russian émigrée living in Paris. As war breaks out she is recruited for the British Secret Service by Lucas Romer, a mysterious Englishman, and under his tutelage she learns to become the perfect spy, to mask her emotions and trust no one, including those she loves most. Since the war, Eva has carefully rebuilt her life as a typically English wife and mother. But once a spy, always a spy. Now she must complete one final assignment, and this time Eva can't do it alone: she needs her daughter's help.
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERVienna, 1913. Lysander Rief, a young English actor, sits in the waiting room of the city's preeminent psychiatrist as he anxiously ponders the particularly intimate nature of his neurosis. When the enigmatic, intensely beautiful Hettie Bull walks in, Lysander is immediately drawn to her, unaware of how destructive the consequences of their subsequent affair will be. One year later, home in London, Lysander finds himself entangled in the dangerous web of wartime intelligence - a world of sex, scandal and spies that is slowly, steadily, permeating every corner of his life...
'The ultimate in immersive fiction . . . magnificent' Sunday Times 'Highly readable, entirely engaging and frequently funny' Observer 'Perfectly pitched . . . A deft and resonant alchemy of fact and fiction, of literary myth and imagination' Guardian Book of the Week Around the turn of the twentieth century young pianist Brodie Moncur quits Edinburgh's slate skies for the lights of Paris, his preacher father's words of denunciation ringing in his ears. There he joins forces with the fiery Irish virtuoso John Kilbarron and together the pair take Europe by storm. But when he falls for Kilbarron's lover - the mesmerizing Russian soprano Lika Blum - Brodie quickly realizes that the tide has turned and he must flee across a continent, haunted by his love for Lika, and pursued by the vengeful wrath of his rival. 'A giddying read . . . his most immersive historical novel to date' Daily Telegraph 'Elegant and affecting. A racing fin-de-siècle romance' The Times 'Boyd's talents as a rollicking storytelling [are] full on display in this historical blockbuster' Metro
"It is summer in 1968, the year of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. While the world is reeling our trio is involved in making a rackety Swingin' Sixties British movie in sunny Brighton. All are leading secret lives.As the film is shot, with its usual drastic ups and downs, so does our trio's private, secret world begin to take over their public one. Pressures build inexorably - someone's going to crack. Or maybe they all will"--Publisher description
***William Boyd's new novel, The Romantic, is available to pre-order now*** WINNER OF THE SUNDAY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 'Achingly memorable' The Times ________________________________ A quest for secrets in the blue afternoon . . . Los Angeles, 1936. Kay Fischer, a young and ambitious architect, is being followed by an old man. When confronted, he explains that his name is Salvador Carriscant - and that he is her father. In a matter of weeks Kay will join Salvador on an extraordinary journey as they delve back into his past to not only learn the truth behind her own birth, but also to discover the whereabouts of a woman long thought dead - and to uncover the identity of a killer. ________________________________ 'The finest storyteller of his generation' Daily Telegraph 'An extraordinary story' John Mortimer, Sunday Telegraph, Books of the Year 'Terrific' Jeremy Paxman, Independent, Books of the Year 'Richly entertaining' Independent 'A brilliant achievement' Time Out
The infamous literary prank that fooled a legion of art critics in the 1990s Artist Nathwell Tate was born in 1928 in Union Beach, New Jersey. On January 8 1960 he contrived to round up and burn almost his entire output of Abstract Expressionism. Four days later he killed himself. This book offers an account of Tate's life and work. --- When William Boyd published his biography of New York modern artist Nat Tate, a huge reception of critics and artists arrived for the launch party, hosted by David Bowie, to toast the late artist's life. Little did they know that the painter Nat Tate, a depressive genius who burned almost all his output before his suicide, never existed. The book was a hoax, and the art world had fallen for it. Nat Tate is a work of art unto itself - an investigation of the blurry line between the invented and the authentic, and a thoughtful tour through the spirited and occasionally ludicrous American art scene of the 1950s.
"William Boyd - survivor of a ten-year stint in boarding school - examined the phenomenon in two original films he wrote for television: the controversial Good and Bad at Games (produced by Quintet Films for Channel Four, 1983) and Dutch Girls (produced by London Weekend Television and broadcast on the ITV newtork, autumn 1985). School Ties contains the full scripts of both films plus a long essay by the author - a reflection on the institution and its repercussions on the individual, a discussion of the problems of script writing and a candid memoir of his own schooldays in the British gulag archipelago"--Book jacket.
***William Boyd's new novel, The Romantic, is available to pre-order now*** 'As ambitious as it is remarkable. Balances on seesaws of innocence and violence, sanity and lunacy, hilarity and horror' The Times _____________________________ 'We will all melt like ice-cream in the sun!' British soldier, East Africa, 1914 On the Western Front millions are being slaughtered. But in East Africa a ridiculous and utterly ignored campaign is being waged - one that continues after the Armistice because no one bothers to tell the participants to stop. As the conflict sweeps up Africans and colonials, so those left at home and those fighting abroad find themselves unable to escape the tide of history bearing down on them. _____________________________ 'A towering achievement' John Carey 'Compulsively readable' Blake Morrison, Observer 'Funny, assured, a seriocomic romp. A study of people caught in the side pockets of calamity that dramatizes their plights with humour, detail and grit' Harper's
***William Boyd's new novel, The Romantic, is available to pre-order now*** WINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE 'A brilliant storyteller . . . a book which stretches, tantalizes and delights' Financial Times _____________________________________ On Brazzaville Beach, on the edge of Africa, Hope Clearwater ponders the strange circumstances that led her to leave her husband John, and his mathematical obsessions, in England and venture to Africa to help world-renowned scientist Eugene Mallabar with his studies of wild chimps. But the more Hope studies Mallabar, the more she comes to believe that something isn't right. That behind Mallabar, and his obsessive work, there lies another, more sinister truth: one that might also help explain Hope's reasons for leaving England . . . _____________________________________ 'A most extraordinary parable about mankind. Quite unlike anything else I have read' Sunday Express 'Brilliant, daring. A gripping and compulsive story' Herald 'Hilarious and edgy' Sunday Times
One of our most acclaimed authors takes on a legendary literary character, James Bond -- producing a smart and stylish narrative of international espionage, conspiracy, and war It’s 1969, and, just having celebrated his 45th birthday, British agent James Bond -- 007 -- is summoned to headquarters to receive an unusual mission. Voltazia, a troubled West African nation, is being wracked by a bitter civil war, and M directs Bond to squash the rebel forces threatening the established regime. Bond senses that he’s not getting the full story about Britain’s interest in the outcome. His landing in Voltazia begins a feverish mission to discover the forces behind this brutal war -- and Bond rea...