A resident doctors’ strike,unionised butchers,and the same old hapless politicians.What (more) could possibly go wrong?When the government’s ruthless solution to an overwhelmed National Health Service is to start treating patients like farm animals, the British public is thrust into unimaginable chaos. Caught in the crossfire is Dougie Warren, an ex-rugby player and fiercely principled Yorks...

We are in crisis.As a society we have never been less connected.The internet and globalisation fuel ignorance and anger, while the disconnect between people's reality and perceived identities has never been greater.Karl Marx outlined the idea of a material 'base' and politico-cultural 'superstructure'. According to this formula, a material reality - wealth, income, occupation - determined your politics, leisure habi...

This volume synthesises the latest scholarship on First World War veterans in post-war Britain and Ireland, investigating the topic through its political, social and cultural dynamics. It examines the post-war experiences of those men and women who served and illuminates the nature of the post-war society for which service had been given. Complicating the homogenising tendency in existing scholarship it offers comparison of the experiences of veterans in different regions of Britain, inclu...

This contemporary story, set in the fictional town of Aidemby, England, is centred around the plight of a single mother of three teenage children,Annie Slade, who, having previously been such a ‘happy-go-lucky’ person, has recently become the subject of her family’s concerns, due to her having uncharacteristically fallen victim to the debilitating effects of depression. The root cause of Annie’s problems are unknown, until it duly emerges, that she is in fact, being subjected ...

Liverpool is a unique city within the United Kingdom - in terms of its dialect, hedonism, friendliness, rejection of 'Englishness', and most pertinently, its politics. It is bastion of working-class left-wing politics like no other - as evidenced by the suspension of a Liverpool FC match after the death of the Queen, for fear the Liverpool fans would boo the minute's silence. Yet it was not always so, and Liverpool's transformation from a stronghold of working-class Toryism to its current ...

Miss Marple, living a quiet life in St Mary Mead, is saddened to hear of the death of Jason Rafiel. Not that they were friends - the old financier was much too irascible and self-centred for friendship - but they had once been allies in solving a series of murders that took place on the tiny Caribbean island of St Honoré. She is therefore greatly surprised by a summons to the dead man's solicitor, where she receives a bizarre challenge in the form of a posthumous letter. According to Mr Ra...

All seven series of Andy Hamilton's fiendishly funny award-winning comedy set in Hell.'Satirical, philosophical - and devilishly funny' Gillian Reynolds, Daily TelegraphWelcome to Hell - where nobody can ever quite catch the barman's eye. In this collection, which contains all seven series of Old Harry's Game, get ready for some wicked one-liners and scorching satire.Satan is fed up after a millennia in charge of Hell, esp...

Liverpool is a unique city within the United Kingdom - in terms of its dialect, hedonism, friendliness, rejection of 'Englishness', and most pertinently, its politics. It is bastion of working-class left-wing politics like no other - as evidenced by the suspension of a Liverpool FC match after the death of the Queen, for fear the Liverpool fans would boo the minute's silence. Yet it was not always so, and Liverpool's transformation from a stronghold of working-class Toryism to its current ...

Comedy about the ruling family of Renaissance Italy's most inconsequential city-stateIn Monte Guano, a ridiculously small and penniless principality in Renaissance Italy, Prince Ludovico II finds his rule constantly undermined by those around him: his shrewd wife, his official mistress, and his three disappointing - if not outright humiliating - sons.As well as having to manage the ever-increasing tributes demanded by the Pope, Prince Ludovico must also con...

Jane Marple is being treated to a few days' holiday by her niece, staying at Bertram's Hotel - a dignified, establishment tucked away in a back street of busy Mayfair. It is a place where sedate upper-class ladies, retired military gentlemen and the higher echelons of the clergy can indulge in the comforts of a bygone age. But Miss Marple begins to feel uneasy. Something sinister lurks beneath the polished veneer. Why are so many major crimes associated in some way with the hotel and those...

In Agatha Christie’s They Do It with Mirrors**, the indomitable Miss Marple investigates some rather deadly doings at a rehabilitation center for delinquents.**Miss Marple senses danger when she visits a friend living in Stoneygates, a rehabilitation center for delinquents. Her fears are confirmed when someone shoots at the administrator. Although he is not injured, a mysterious visitor is less fortunate—shot dead simultaneously in another part of the buil...

Read by Joan HicksonA Murder is Announced in a small-town newspaper advertisement—and Miss Marple must unravel the fiendish puzzle when a crime does indeed occur.The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn are agog with curiosity when the Gazette advertises “A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.”A childish practical joke? Or a spiteful hoax? Unable to resi...