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      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        September 2008

        Thorold Dickinson

        A world of film

        by Philip Horne, Peter Swaab

        The films of Thorold Dickinson (1903-1984), now being rediscovered, engage with major issues including national identity, the post-colonial world, and political violence - and they also show a rare mastery of style, a thrilling eroticism, a preoccupation with the psychology of betrayal. But the director of Gaslight, The Next of Kin and The Queen of Spades was also an editor, documentarist, trade unionist, film producer (for the British Army and the UN), pioneering academic and controversialist. His adventurous and truly global involvement in film took him to Paris in the heyday of silent cinema in the 1920s, to Stalin's USSR in 1937, to the Spanish Civil War, to Africa, India, Israel and America. This book gives a lively, multi-angled account of Dickinson's works, life and times, conveying a sense of his own voice and fascinating character. It includes a richly detailed introduction, a film-by-film discussion of Dickinson with Scorsese, vivid personal memoirs of the director, a dossier of Dickinson's original writings and interviews from 1924 to 1973 (some never previously published), critical essays on all the feature films, and a ground-breaking reference section. The book draws on extensive archival research and close consultation with those who knew Dickinson well. Contributors include: Martin Scorsese, Gavin Millar, Lutz Becker, Charles Barr, Laura Marcus, Kevin Jackson, Kevin Gough-Yates, Ian Christie, Gregory Dart, Hillel Tryster, Janet Moat. ;

      • Fiction
        October 2016

        Listen to the Child

        by Elizabeth Howard

        It’s 1875 and London’s East End heaves with children who work as prostitutes, hawkers, beggars and thieves. Constance rescues as many as she can, but there is only so much she and other charity workers can do. Then a solution is offered that sounds perfect – Canada, with its wide green plains, has farmers who need help, while their wives want housemaids. Shipping children to this land of plenty offers them a future far from the temptations of London’s overcrowded streets. Widow, Mary Trupper, is wary, but the promise of good food and an education for her children is strong. Are the fields green? Is the food plentiful? For some, yes. For others, the harsh winters reflect the welcome.

      • July 2021

        The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream

        The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer

        by Dean Jobb

        “When a doctor does go wrong, he is the first of criminals, he has the nerve and he has the knowledge,” Sherlock Holmes observed. At the time the words of the fictional detective appeared in The Strand Magazine, a real-life Canadian doctor was murdering women in London’s downtrodden Lambeth neighbourhood. Dr. Thomas Cream had been a suspect in two deaths in Canada, and killed four people in Chicago before arriving in London in 1891 and using pills laced with strychnine to kill prostitutes. The "Lambeth Poisoner" became one of the most prolific serial killers in history.   Dean Jobb reveals how bungled investigations, corrupt officials, and failed prosecutions allowed Cream to evade detection and kill again. Alongside an inside account of Scotland Yard’s desperate search for a brazen killer, Jobb explores how the morality and hypocrisy of the Victorian era enabled Cream to poison the vulnerable and desperate women who had turned tohim for help.

      • Fiction

        Frost & Payne - Die mechanischen Kinder 1: Die Jagd beginnt

        by Luzia Pfyl

        Former thief Lydia Frost runs an agency for lost and missing property. Her latest job sees her reunited with the notorious Madame Yueh and her so-called ‘Dragons’ – the very organization from which she only recently managed to extricate herself! Adding to her woes, Frost is tasked with tracking down missing Pinkerton agent Jackson Payne. But the American detective is on a mission of his own. Frost soon finds herself caught in a crossfire and must choose between Payne’s life and her own freedom.

      • Crime & mystery

        The Case of the Russian Chessboard a Sherlock Holmes Mystery Only Now Revealed

        by Charlie Roxburgh

        Mr Holmes, save my sister from whatever nameless horror has just driven this friend of ours to her death! It is late on a foggy November afternoon and a desperate young woman arrives at Baker Street, imploring Sherlock Holmes to help her. She is terrified about what may be going on inside a secretive London refuge for Russian exiles, where her sister works. And so begins a frightening case which deeply strains both Holmes and Watson because of dreadful consequences of failure and the mystifying nature of the forces against them. The case leads into strange territory. Into the circles of Victorian London’s radicals and idealists, where early feminists and socialists rub shoulders with exiled foreign revolutionaries. To a utopian anarchist commune in Essex wilderness, which imitates Tolstoy’s farm communes in Russia. Into the dark political world from which London’s Russian exiles have fled. The trail leads on - to one shocking discovery after another, as Holmes unravels a conspiracy as evil and twisted as a labyrinth in hell. Lengthwise, The Case of the Russian Chessboard totals three original Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Narrated by Dr Watson, the tale respects Sherlock Holmes traditions and 1890s historical facts. Mingling mystery with gaslight, it offers a gripping, atmospheric and thought-provoking read.

      • February 2011

        In Favor of Lightning

        by Barbara Molloy-Olund

        Fine poems that bring the imagination out to the senses.

      • Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
        May 2010

        Long Look Back...

        by Tom Tottis

        Told that she must not have children Julia stubbornly ignores all advice and risks her life to have a son, Tommy. In the following years and decades both mother and son are forced by circumstances to draw upon their determination, courage, wit and self-preservation to survive. Tragedy and death, personal and emotional loss, the horrors he witnessed in the war make Tommy an adult by the age of 10 and shape Tommy's character. He risks his life in 1956 and escapes from Communism that has risen from the ashes of Fascism. Working hard in a new country he must deal with different obstacles. From Budapest in the 'twenties, to London in the 'nineties, this is a family saga of three generations, ravaged by two wars and adverse circumstances. Ultimately, the story proves that there is always hope, even against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, provided one has courage, resilience, and mental stamina.

      • Fiction
        July 2021

        Blue Postcards

        by Douglas Bruton

        Once there was a street in Paris and it was called the Street of Tailors. This was years back, in the blue mists of memory.   Now it’s the 1950s and Henri is the last tailor on the street. With meticulous precision he takes the measurements of men and notes them down in his leather-bound ledger. He draws on the cloth with a blue chalk, cuts the pieces and sews them together. When the suit is done, Henri adds a finishing touch: a blue Tekhelet thread hidden in the trousers somewhere, for luck. One day, the renowned French artist Yves Klein walks into the shop, and orders a suit.   Set in Paris, this atmospheric tale delicately intertwines three connected narratives and timelines, interspersed with observations of the colour blue. It is a meditation on truth and lies, memory and time and thought. It is a leap of the imagination, a leap into the void.

      • March 2011

        Alcools

        Poems

        by Guillaume Apollinaire, translated by Donald Revell

        A new translation of this complex and beautiful poetry.

      • October 2012

        Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction

        by John Rieder

        Groundbreaking study of science fiction’s relation to colonialism and imperialism

      • Fiction
        May 2013

        Ancestors

        A Tale of Two Worlds

        by Rob Collinge

        Genealogy, the search for one's ancestors, has become in recent years a hugely popular pastime, enjoyed by millions. Using a variety of genealogical tools, Rob Collinge has constructed a story in novel form, based on real events, that spans 1830s Germany, pioneer Texas, the Civil War, Lancashire cotton mills during the Industrial Revolution and World War 1.

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