Showing results by author "William Boyd" in All Categories

One for the Trouble: Book Slam, Volume One is the first release from the UK’s premier literary event. Eighteen Book Slam alumni, from household names like Irvine Welsh and William Boyd to newcomers like Kate Tempest and Sophie Woolley, were approached to take a song title for inspiration for a new short story or poem. Some took this literally (Jon McGregor’s moving reimagining of A House’s 'Endless Art', for example); others suggestively....

A producer. A novelist. An actress. It is summer in 1968, the year of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. While the world is reeling, our trio is involved in making a rackety Swingin' '60s British movie in sunny Brighton. All are leading secret lives. As the film is shot, with its usual drastic ups and downs, so does our trio's private, secret world begin to take over their public one. Pressures build inexorably - someone's going to crack. Or maybe they all will.

The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth depicts the random encounters that bring the past bubbling to the surface, the impulsive decisions that irrevocably shape a life and the endless hesitations and loss of nerve that wickedly complicate it. These funny, surprising and strangely moving stories are a resounding confirmation of Boyd's powers as one of our most original and compelling storytellers.

On Brazzaville Beach, on the edge of Africa, Hope Clearwater ponders the strange circumstances that led her to leave her husband, John, and his mathematical obsessions in England and venture to Africa to help world-renowned scientist Eugene Mallabar with his studies of wild chimps. But the more Hope studies Mallabar, the more she comes to believe that something isn't right. That behind Mallabar and his obsessive work there lies another more sinister truth: one that might also help explain Hope's reasons for leaving England.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Love Is Blind by William Boyd. Love Is Blind is William Boyd's sweeping, heart-stopping new novel. Set at the end of the 19th century, it follows the fortunes of Brodie Moncur, a young Scottish musician, about to embark on the story of his life. When Brodie is offered a job in Paris, he seizes the chance to flee Edinburgh and his tyrannical clergyman father, and begin a wildly different new chapter in his life. In Paris, a fateful encounter with a famous pianist irrevocably changes his future - and sparks an obsessive love affair with a beautiful Russian soprano, Lika Blum.

One May evening in London, as a result of a chance encounter and a split-second decision, the young climatologist Adam Kindred loses everything - home, job, reputation, passport, credit cards, money - never to get them back. With the police and a hit man in merciless pursuit, Adam has no choice but to go underground, joining the ranks of the disappeared, struggling to understand how his life has unravelled so spectacularly.

What happens when everything you thought you knew about your mother turns out to be an elaborate lie? During the summer of 1976, Ruth Gilmartin discovers that her very English mother, Sally, is really Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian émigrée and one-time spy.

One winter morning, Lorimer Black - young, good-looking, but with a somewhat troubled expression - goes to keep a perfectly routine business appointment and finds a hanged man. A bad start to the day by anyone's standards and an ominous portent. For Lorimer works in the only-slightly corrupt business of financial adjusting, and he is about to learn that it is much uglier - and even more crooked - than he ever imagined. Suddenly, he's being unfairly blamed for all kinds of irregularities. Next, his life is threatened.

Incredible Science Fiction collates a collection of some of the very best science fiction stories published in the ‘50s in one volume. All these stories (with the exception of "The Goldfish") are now in the public domain and were original published in Worlds of IF Science Fiction magazine. This is a lovingly curated collection of some of the very best stories published in the ’50s. This collection includes the Hugo Award-nominated “Rat in the Skull” by Rog Phillips. It also includes an original story by the curator and editor of this collection: Andrew Gibson.

Pull down the shades and settle in for pleasure with this trio of erotic novellas - handpicked by Susie Bright - showcasing stories that are hot and masterful. Susie Bright, hailed by The New York Times as "the avatar of American erotica", is the undisputed grandmaster of the genre. Now she has handpicked three rising stars - new masters - whose stories will delight, arouse, and captivate you. Connected by a central theme - the idea that one sexual moment can change a person forever - each story is wildly different from anything you have read or heard before.

A James Bond novel written by William Boyd. It is 1969 and James Bond is about to go solo, recklessly motivated by revenge. A seasoned veteran of the service, 007 is sent to single-handedly stop a civil war in the small West African nation of Zanzarim. Aided by a beautiful accomplice and hindered by the local militia, he undergoes a scarring experience which compels him to ignore M’s orders in pursuit of his own brand of justice.

A large amount of cash invariably leads to a robbery and an attempted bar-room suicide.

“He stood in awe of this new warm and mystic light that was now drawing him closer and filling him with an odd sense of both peace and trepidation. Had he succeeded? Will he withstand the test at this, the most significant gate? Will he be found worthy and qualified? Will he be admitted? He remembered this feeling. Was that moment so very long ago in the ante room – the masonic “West Gate” – actually a rehearsal for this moment? Was it his first necessary step in a journey designed specifically to prepare and bring him to this magnificent gate?” From the Author: Here begins a ...

Amory's first memory is of her father doing a handstand. She has memories of him returning on leave during the First World War. But his absences, both actual and emotional, are what she chiefly remembers. It is her photographer, uncle Greville, who supplies the emotional bond she needs, and,when he gives her a camera and some rudimentary lessons in photography, unleashes a passion that will irrevocably shape her future.

Gus Bishop lives in a trendy downtown Austin condo. He works in computer security for a high tech Austin tech company and drives a high performance car. Yet, something is missing. Every woman he wants eludes him, and his company is under the threat of being hacked. But after an internet search, Gus meets a strange man who represents a unique insurance company - this company insures its clients, not from death, but from a life that is no longer worth living.

“Noah stared for a moment at the open ante room door. He knew the room was empty, yet his mind had fixated on it; the feeling became an overwhelming curiosity, pulling him along to some point or to some lesson or message. He crossed the floor to the door that stood fully open and he could see into the empty room that lay on the other side. A single thought came to his mind, just as a new and mysterious scene might emerge in his mirror and it was the sudden, unquestionable, and seemingly imperative knowledge that in all times, the ante room has served as a portal to transport the good man ...

Funny, moving and sharply observed, these stories are confirmation of Boyd's status as one of English fiction's finest writers. Here are 24 gripping tales told in bold, distinct voices from Brazil to Africa and from Nice to Hollywood. This eclectic collection by the acclaimed author of Restless and Brazzaville Beach is a must for any lover of the short story.

Vienna, 1913. Lysander Rief, a young English actor, sits in the waiting room of the city's preeminent psychiatrist as he anxiously ponders the particularly intimate nature of his neurosis. When the enigmatic, intensely beautiful Hettie Bull walks in, Lysander is immediately drawn to her, unaware of how destructive the consequences of their subsequent affair will be. One year later, home in London, Lysander finds himself entangled in the dangerous web of wartime intelligence - a world of sex, scandal and spies that is slowly, steadily permeating every corner of his life....

1969. Ein altgedienter Geheimagent. Ein einsamer Auftrag. Eine Lizenz zum Töten. William Boyd, Meister der Täuschung und des doppelten Spiels, gilt seit seinem Roman Ruhelos als Großer der Spionageliteratur und führt nun erstmals 007 selbst auf Abwege. Ein raffiniert-verwickeltes James-Bond-Abenteuer: Klassisch, voll unerwarteter Wendungen, mit zwei enigmatischen Bond-Girls und endlich wieder einem 007, der Wodka Martini trinkt - geschüttelt, nicht gerührt.

Branch Patterson is running for sheriff, but Hoppy suspects the former sheriff has met with foul play.