IAIN BANKS was one of the finest writers of his generation. The Wasp Factory appeared in 1984, to great and gratifying controversy (one reviewer helpfully described it as “a work of unparalleled depravity”). There were a further 27 works of fiction from the prolific Banks before his untimely death in June 2013 at the age of 59, his customary method being to alternate between contemporary fiction and science fiction – the latter genre published under the name of Iain M. Banks. In 2008 The T...

Anthropophagy - humans eating their fellow-humans - creates a curious blend of revulsion and fascination in the ‘civilised’ Western world. When the perpetrator is a murderer - most commonly a sadistic serial killer - the crime not only shocks but it causes bewilderment. With this 2015 update of her comprehensive 1993 study of cannibalistic killers, Moira Martingale expands her original research about the making of such monsters. Cannibal Killers tracked the phenomenon from five hun...

Anthropophagy – humans eating their fellow-humans – creates a curious blend of revulsion and fascination. When the perpetrator is a murderer – most commonly a sadistic serial killer – the crime is not only shocking, but also bewildering.Moira Martingale’s comprehensive study, Cannibal Killers: The Impossible Monsters, was originally written in 1993, when the Internet was in its infancy, when few homes had computers and when the character Hannibal Lecter from the book and movie The ...

'A stunning book. Banks' powerful imagination is joined to a rare ability to be truly funny while exploring a nightmare world' Sunday TimesA man lies in a coma after a near-fatal accident. His body broken, his memory vanished, he finds himself in the surreal world of the bridge - a world free of the usual constraints of time and space, a world where dream and fantasy, past and future, fuse.Who is this man? Where is he? Is he more dead than alive?...

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.'Banks is a phenomenon' William GibsonThe Culture - a utopian human-machine symbiotic society - has thrown up many expert Game Players, and one of the greatest is Jernau Morat...

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.'Banks is a phenomenon' William GibsonThe man known as Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through i...

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.'Banks is a phenomenon' William GibsonThe "War in Heaven", a simulated war game, rages between civilisations. Its virtual battles have been fought for decades, and the victors...

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.'Banks is a phenomenon' William GibsonTwo and a half millennia ago in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year-old dying sun from a different universe, the artifact ap...

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.'Banks is a phenomenon' William GibsonIn the winter palace, the King's new physician has more enemies than she realises. But then she also has more defences than even her most...

A young ensign, recently graduated from the Northern Hemisphere Space Academy, is awakened abruptly in the middle of the night by alarms, flashing lights, and dire messages to abandon ship. The petite blonde pulls on some clothes and races through the spaceship in a desperate search for an available life pod-- but it appears all have already departed. So begins the epic story of Jenetta Carver. Get a tight grip on your book and prepare for an exciting adventure like few others because Jene...

The phenomenal number one bestseller and a major BBC TV series.A Richard and Judy Book Club Pick.Winner of the Specsavers National Book Award and Waterstones Book of the Year.**Beautiful, intoxicating and filled with heart-pounding suspense, Jessie Burton's historical novel set in Amsterdam, The Miniaturist, is a story of love and obsession, betrayal and retribution.'Completely immerses the reader in ...

We have all wondered about the meaning of life. But is there an answer? And do we even really know what we're asking? Terry Eagleton takes a stimulating and quirky look at this most compelling of questions: at the answers explored in philosophy and literature; at the crisis of meaning in modern times; and suggests his own solution to how we might rediscover meaning in our lives.