Search Results for: Rules of civility

The New York Times bestseller

‘Achingly stylish’
Guardian

‘Irresistible’
Daily Telegraph

‘Impossibly glamorous’
The Times

‘Fabulous’
Observer

‘Gripping’
Sunday Times

The unforgettable debut by the bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway

On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate New York City jazz bar trying to stretch three dollars as far as it will go.

But a chance encounter with the handsome banker at the next table changes everything, opening the door to the upper echelons of New York society and a glittering new social circle. Plunged into a dizzy world of cocktail parties, sprawling mansions and glamorous magazine offices, Katey soon learns that there are rules to play by and riches can turn to rags in the trip of a heartbeat . . .


PRAISE FOR AMOR TOWLES

‘Towles is not a one trick pony. Like all the best storytellers, he has range’
Bill Gates

‘He makes it all seem effortless’
Tana French

‘A masterful writer’
Washington Times

‘One of the best of today’s historical novelists’
Express

‘A supreme storyteller’
Publishers Weekly

The world as we know it is unrecognisable.

Almost 500 years have passed since civilization’s brush with extinction. Perfect order reigns and humanity’s gretaest threats have been silenced by the ruling totalitarian government. There is no disease. No passion. No hate. No war. There is only peace.

Until one man discovers the truth hidden in a secret journal: the human heart has been stripped of all that makes it human and exists only in a kind of living death. But when Rom exposed himself to the vial of blood contained in the journal he was filled with uncontrollable emotions. Only Rom is now truly alive, and only he has the knowledge that can reawaken humanity. But the way is dangerous and the cost staggering . . . the way is forbidden.

Britain in the mid-1980s is a country in the grip of a brutal fascist regime.

There is rioting in the streets, cold-blood massacres by extremist political
groups, attempted coups by liberating forces based on the continent.

Mak Seaton is a senior civil servant whose strengths and weaknesses are
bound up in the view that his duty is to the ruling faction.

But when Seaton uncovers evidence of corruption at the highest levels of power,
even his wealth and position cannot protect him from the Triumvirate.

Six interlinked short stories that follow Evelyn Ross – the character from Amor Towles’s bestselling novel Rules of Civility – to Hollywood in 1938.

‘Impossibly glamorous’ The Times
‘Achingly stylish’ Guardian

Near the end of RULES OF CIVILITY, the fiercely independent Evelyn Ross boards a train from New York to Chicago to visit her parents, but never disembarks.

Six months later, she appears in a photograph in a gossip magazine exiting the Tropicana Club on Sunset Boulevard on the arm of Olivia de Havilland.

In this chain of six richly detailed and atmospheric stories, each told from a different perspective, Towles unfolds the events that take Eve to the heart of old Hollywood. Beginning in the dining car of the Golden State Limited in September 1938, we follow Eve to the elegant rooms of the Beverly Hills Hotel, the fabled tables of Antonio’s, the amusement parks on the Santa Monica piers, the afro-Cuban dance clubs off Central Avenue, and ultimately the set of Gone with the Wind.

With the glamour and grit of the studio system’s golden age as a backdrop, Towles introduces in each story a memorable new character whose fate may well be altered by their encounter with Eve. But in following the thread of these varied encounters, we also watch as Eve forges a new and unexpected life for herself in late 1930s Los Angeles.

When the deputy commander of Rome’s Imperial Security Service is assassinated on the island of Rhodes, Cassius Corbulo swiftly finds himself embroiled in the investigation. Assisted once more by ex-gladiator bodyguard Indavara and servant Simo, his search for the truth is complicated by the involvement of the dead man’s headstrong daughter, Annia.

Braving hostile seas, Cassius and his allies follow the assassin’s trail south aboard a ship captained by a roguish Carthaginian smuggler and manned by his disparate, dangerous crew. Their journey leads them to the farthest reaches of the empire; to a ruined city where the rules of Roman civilization have long been abandoned, and a deadly battle of wits with a brutal, relentless foe.

Rise and Fall opens with the Akkadian Empire, which ruled over a vast expanse of the region of ancient Mesopotamia, then turns to the immense Roman Empire, where we trace back our western and eastern roots. Next Strathern describes how a great deal of western classical culture was developed in the Abbasid and Umayyid Caliphates. Then, while Europe was beginning to emerge from a period of cultural stagnation, it almost fell to a whirlwind invasion from the East, at which point we meet the Emperors of the Mongol Empire . . .

Combining breathtaking scope with masterful concision, Paul Strathern traces connections across four millennia and sheds new light on these major civilizations – from the Mongol Empire and the Yuan Dynasty to the Aztec and Ottoman, through to the most recent and biggest Empires: the British, Russo-Soviet and American. Charting 5,000 years of global history in ten succinct chapters, Rise and Fall makes comprehensive and inspiring reading to anyone fascinated by the history of the world.

IN 2012, THE DIAMOND JUBILEE YEAR, HER MAJESTY’S DIARIES ARE OPENED AT LAST…

***Offering insight from the top on all the major events of 2012, including the two Royal weddings, the phone hacking scandal, and the Duke of Edinburgh’s tarts and vicars-themed 90th birthday party.***

‘Had a quick run-through of the opening ceremony. One wanted to call it “The Empire Strikes Back” but it was generally felt that might intimidate the smaller nations.’

Queen of sixteen sovereign nations, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. She’s one of the world’s most well-known and powerful leaders and has reigned for 60 years. But what does she really think?

‘One does enjoy the Eurovision Song Contest. Lovely to be reminded how much more civilized the British are than our European neighbours. Royal Eurovision Fancy Dress Party to celebrate. Unfortunately Camilla misread the invitation as ‘Euro-tunnel Fancy Dress Party’ and came as a train.’

These diaries reveal the seldom-seen workings of state and reveal how an octogenarian is quietly ruling the world and still has time for a gin.

For fans of ITV’s ‘Des’, starring David Tennant as Dennis Nilsen.

Only one TV interview with a serial killer has ever been recorded in a British jail and broadcast. This is the exclusive story of that dramatic event, carried out by award-winning documentary maker Mike Morley with Dennis Nilsen, then the country’s most prolific murderer.

In what became front page news, Morley overcame two eleventh hour government attempts (in the High Court and Court of Appeal) to stop ITV in the UK screening any extracts of the Nilsen interview. Controversially, the court ruled no more than 4 minutes of a four-hour interrogation should ever be shown.

The Dennis Nilsen Tapes: In Jail with Britain’s Most Infamous Serial Killer covers those full four hours, plus two days spent face to face with Nilsen in Albany Prison and two years of graphic correspondence and confessions from the infamous Scottish serial killer.

With fresh insight from world famous psychological profilers and a leading pathologist, Morley completes almost three decades of investigation into what turned the former chef, policeman and civil servant into one of the world’s most notorious murderers and necrophiles.

“as indispensable to confronting, say, your domineering mother-in-law or your local city council as it is to helping foment an ongoing and ever-escalating insurrection against, say, a sexist, racist, nepotistic power-mad oligarchy threatening to destroy democracy as we know it…My advice: Buy one” – VOGUE

A guerrilla guide to radical protest and joyful political resistance from artist, activist and Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova.

The face of modern protest is wearing a brightly colored ski mask.

Nadya Tolokonnikova, founding member of the Russian activist group Pussy Riot, is a creative activist, professional protestor, brazen feminist, shocking visual artist, and force to be reckoned with. Her spontaneous, explosive approach to political action has involved jumping over barbed wire, kissing police officers, giving guerilla performances in crowded subway cars, and going on a hunger strike to protest the abuse of prisoners. She’s been horse-whipped by police in Sochi, temporarily blinded when officers threw green paint in her eyes, and monitored by the Russian government. But what made Nadya an activist icon overnight happened on February 21, 2012, when she was arrested for performing an anti-Putin protest song in a Moscow church.

She was sent to a Russian prison for 18 months and emerged as an international symbol of radical resistance, as calls to “Free Pussy Riot” resounded around the world. With her emblematic ski mask, black lipstick, and unwavering bravery, Nadya has become an emissary of hope and optimism despite overwhelming and ugly political corruption.

Read & Riot is structured around Nadya’s ten rules for revolution (Be a pirate! Make your government shit its pants! Take back the joy!) and illustrated throughout with stunning examples from her extraordinary life and the philosophies of other revolutionary rebels throughout history. Rooted in action and going beyond the typical “call your senator” guidelines, Read & Riot gives us a refreshing model for civil disobedience, and encourages our right to question every status quo and make political action exciting–even joyful.