Sean Condon – författare

'Everyone wants to be Cary Grant – even me.'Cary GrantWhen eight-year-old Henry Powdermaker makes a short film that abruptly ends his parents' marriage, the course of his life is set. From that early traumatic moment Henry, who wants to be in films at any cost, has trouble distinguishing the real world from its celluloid counterpart. He lies in bedat night and imagines himself and his girlfriend Madeleine as the leads in a film, 'the only two swimmers in a sea of two-dimensional extras'. Later, his conviction that he actually is in a screwball comedy – he smokes a meerschaum pipe, wears tweed and calls everyone kid, bub, Joe or fella, including his boss – followed by the realisation that he is not Cary Grant propels him pretty rapidly onto the psychiatrist's couch.It's hard to keep track of yourself when you are constantly wishing you're someone else and Film brilliantly tracks Henry's Orson Wellesian dreams and extremely indirect path from home wrecker to Hollywood. It's a journey that is dramatic, funny, and oddly moving.Co-starring Charles Rocket as the best friend, Ethan Vaughan as the flatmate who looks like James Coburn with his head in a vice, Ethan's girlfriend Bambi Yessno as herself, Jack Powdermaker as 'Big Dad' (a professional cadaver in the making) and Alec Name as 'Henry Powdermaker'. Featuring controversial cameos by Quentin Tarantino, Janeane Garofalo, Peter Bogdanovich and many more. Rated PG.

Throughout the late summer and fall of 1786, farmers in central and western Massachusetts organized themselves into armed groups to protest against established authority and aggressive creditors. Calling themselves "regulators" or the "voice of the people," these crowds attempted to pressure the state government to lower taxes and provide relief to debtors by using some of the same methods employed against British authority a decade earlier. From the perspective of men of wealth and station, these farmers threatened the foundations of society: property rights and their protection in courts and legislature. In this concise and compelling account of the uprising that came to be known as Shays' Rebellion, Sean Condon describes the economic difficulties facing both private citizens and public officials in newly independent Massachusetts. He explains the state government policy that precipitated the farmers' revolt, details the machinery of tax and debt collection in the 1780s, and provides readers with a vivid example of how the establishment of a republican form of government shifted the boundaries of dissent and organized protest.Underscoring both the fragility and the resilience of government authority in the nascent republic, the uprising and its aftermath had repercussions far beyond western Massachusetts; ultimately, it shaped the framing and ratification of the U.S. Constitution, which in turn ushered in a new, stronger, and property-friendly federal government. A masterful telling of a complicated story, Shays' Rebellion is aimed at scholars and students of American history.

Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisherHumorous tales of travel and misadventure.Lonely Planet knows that some of life's funniest experiences happen on the road. Whether they take the form of unexpected detours, unintended adventures, unidentifiable dinners or unforgettable encounters, they can give birth to our most found travel lessons, and our most memorable - and hilarious - travel stories.These 31 globegirdling tales that run the gamut from close-encounter safaris to loss-of-face follies, hair-raising rides to culture-leaping brides, eccentric expats to mind-boggling repasts, wrong roads taken to agreements mistaken. The collection brings together some of the world's most renowned travellers and storytellers with previously unpublished writers.Includes stories by Wickam Boyle, Tim Cahill, Joshua Clark, Sean Condon, Chistopher R.Cox, David Downie, Holly Erikson, Bill Fink, Don George, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Jeff Grenwald, Pico Iyer, Amanda Jones, Kathie Kertesz, Doug Lansky, Alexander Ludwick, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Jan Morris, Brooke Neill, Rolf Potts, Laura Resau, Michelle Richmond, Alana Semuels, Deborah Steg, Judy Tierney, Edwin Tucker, Jeff Vize, Danny Wallace, Kelly Watton, Simon Wichester, Michelle WittonAbout Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places where they travel.TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards 2012 and 2013 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia) *#1 in the world market share - source: Nielsen Bookscan. Australia, UK and USA. March 2012-January 2013