Not long ago it was thought that the Sun was simply a gigantic ball of burning gas which radiates light and heat out into the solar system. Turns out it’s a lot more complicated than that. Professor Lucie Green, solar physicist at UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory, (http://luciegreen.com/) is just the person to offer a packaged […]
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New Jersey based Harlan Coben (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_coben, http://www.harlancoben.com/) has a dedicated following for his taut, fast-paced mystery and thriller novels. He won the 1996 Anthony Award in the “Best Paperback original” category for his début novel Deal Breaker, which also received an Edgar award nomination in the same category. His addictive fiction has been flowing ever since. Why not
This is a book for all those, such as I, who love being by the sea. It is a book that convinces the reader of the centrality of the sea to human civilisation. Maine-based maritime historian Lincoln P. Paine (http://lincolnpaine.com/about-the-author/) takes a broad view of his subject, beginning in deepest antiquity: “It is impossible to know
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There is a bunch of people living in a land just 66 miles south of Lanark. Their population is 10 times the size of the Scots. Our Parliaments have been joined since 1707. This strange, complex and fascinating lot are called ‘The English’. It’s not really contentious to say that we’re dominated by them in these
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Anthony Quinn (http://unitedagents.co.uk/anthony-quinn) was born in Liverpool in 1964. From 1998 to 2014 he was the film critic of the Independent. He is the author of four very successful novels: The Rescue Man, which won the 2009 Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, Half of the Human Race, The Streets, which was shortlisted for the 2013
Chris Wilson (http://christopher-wilson.net/9701.html) is the author of several novels, including – Gallimauf’s Gospel, Baa, Blueglass, Mischief, Fou, The Wurd, The Ballad of Lee Cotton, and Nookie. His work has been translated into several languages, adapted for the stage, and twice shortlisted for the Whitbread Fiction Prize. Wilson completed a published Ph.D. on the psychology of humour at The
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An infant gurgling in its cot imagines that its nursery constitutes the whole world. The warm breast of its mother exists solely for its nurture. It takes a long series of painful adjustments to comprehend the immense scale of the world and diversity of other human beings, all with their individual motivations and interests which probably
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Many authors have had interesting and varied careers before being able to write full time. Stephen Leather (http://www.stephenleather.com/) is one of them. He has been employed as a biochemist for ICI, shovelled limestone in a quarry, been a baker, a petrol pump attendant, a barman, a journalist, and worked for the Inland Revenue. Leather has published an
Mason Cross (a.k.a. Gavin Bell) (http://masoncross.net/) was born in Cambuslang and has established himself as a first rate crime writer in a short time. Bell studied English at the University of Stirling and has worked in the voluntary sector, as tax officer, an events coordinator, and a project manager. He has written a number of short
