Visar resultat för..."Lume Books"

Julian Bream is recognised as one of the world's leading guitarists, some would say the greatest. He was certainly for many years Britain's senior ambassador as a guitarist and lutenist, touring more widely and more frequently than almost any other artist in the international arena.Bream also did incomparable work in the recording studio to establish both the guitar and the lute as concert instruments. Not content with his unique status as a performer, however, Julian Bream has always been actively concerned with new music - commissioning works from a stream of leading contemporary composers.Surprisingly for a man of his international reputation, Julian Bream was his own secretary. He planned his own concerts, made his own travel arrangements, drove himself around, checked his own lighting and carried his own baggage. At the same time, he was an avid amateur cricketer and country gardener - growing his own fruit and vegetables all year round.In 1981 this intriguingly self-contained man agreed to share some of the load. Tony Palmer travelled with him in Europe and America over several months, drawing out from the essentially private Julian Bream his views on his art and on his position in the world of music. The result is Julian Bream: a Life on the Road, where the Maestro discusses the history of his beloved guitar and its role as a solo instrument, as well as his relationships with giants of contemporary music. With self-deprecating wit, he gives a unique insight into all that he then felt about his life on the road: where he was going, what good he believed he did, why he carried on, how he 'did it' - the guitar, the lute, touring, recording, commissioning, 'the old musicke racket', his home. Daniel Meadows accompanied them, and his beautiful photographs add to this unusual and exhilarating picture of a self-made man - who built, out of nothing, his own unrivalled status as a man of music.The re-publishing of Palmer's acclaimed book - for so long out-of-print and thus a much sought-after collector's item - will be welcomed by music lovers and guitar aficionados around the world.

Oleg Gordievsky was the highest ranking KGB officer ever to work for Britain.For eleven years, from 1974 to 1985, he acted as a secret agent, reporting to the British Secret Intelligence Service while continuing to work as a KGB officer, first in Copenhagen, then in London.He provided Western security organizations with such a clear insight into the mind and methods of the KGB and the larger Soviet government that he has been credited with doing more than any other individual in the West to accelerate the collapse of Communism.In this thrilling memoir, Gordievsky lays out his extraordinary, meticulously planned escape from Russia, a story that has been described as 'one of the boldest and most extraordinary episodes in the history of spying.' (Ben Macintyre - The Times)Peopled with bizarre, dangerous and corrupt characters, Gordievsky introduces the reader to the fantastical world of the Soviet Embassy, tells of the British MPs and trade unionists who helped and took money from the KGB, and reveals at last what the author told Margaret Thatcher and other world leaders which made him of such value to the West.Gordievsky's autobiography gives a fascinating account of life as a secret agent. It also paints the most graphic picture yet of the paranoid incompetence, alongside the ruthless determination, of the all-encompassing and sometimes ridiculous KGB.

We can all stand on principles until evil pays us a visit... The year is 1894 when Mr Simeon Crosby, a retired executioner, comes to Wigan with his wife and brother to give a talk on his life's work. Whilst he has an eager following, there are also many people who strongly object to Crosby's profession and do not wish his melancholy shadow to be cast over their town. Protests have been organised and threats have been made. Detective Sergeant Brennan is tasked with overseeing the security of the controversial visitor and all seems to be going to plan... until a murder is committed on the night of Crosby's talk. As Brennan and his brawny constable Fred Jaggery begin their lines of inquiry, they become overwhelmed with suspects and frustrated at the ambiguity of the evidence. And then a second body is found. Brennan soon discovers that both victim and killer can take many, sometimes indistinguishable, forms. Hanging Murder is one of A.J. Wright's Lancashire Detective Mystery series of cleverly crafted Victorian whodunits, which also includes Sitting Murder and Elementary Murder.

In this heart-warming tale of female empowerment, a young woman comes to terms with the revelation that she may be able to fly. This is an extraordinary novel, exploring one woman's identity whilst posing universal questions: Who is she? Where does she belong? And must she accept her lot, or can she spread her wings and be free at last?

Captain Tom Caine knows he should be out with the throngs of revellers celebrating Victory in Europe but, instead of elation, he only feels anger. How can he celebrate when he is haunted by the horrors of the war and the friends he was unable to save? When Caine takes a post in the war crimes investigation team, it's not long before he makes an unforgivable discovery; allied forces and military police, the very people who should be supporting their mission, have been intentionally obstructing their progress. But what are they trying to hide? And what about Celia Blaney, field security officer and the object of his affections, reported MIA? Could the two be linked? This action-packed thriller offers insight into the chaotic state of post-war Europe, depicting the harrowing aftermath of the atrocities wreaked by Nazi occupation.

'Nancy Bilyeau's passion for history infuses her books' - ALISON WEIRThe year is 1911 when twenty-year-old heiress Peggy Batternberg is invited to spend the summer in America's Playground.The invitation to Coney Island is unwelcome. Despite hailing from one of America's richest families, Peggy would much rather spend the summer working at the Moonrise Bookstore than keeping up appearances with New York City socialites and her snobbish, controlling family.But soon it transpires that the hedonism of Coney Island affords Peggy the freedom she has been yearning for, and it's not long before she finds herself in love with a troubled pier-side artist of humble means, whom the Batternberg patriarchs would surely disapprove of. Disapprove they may, but hidden behind their pomposity lurks a web of deceit, betrayal, and deadly secrets. And as bodies begin to mount up amidst the sweltering clamor of Coney Island, it seems the powerful Batternbergs can get away with anything... even murder.Extravagant, intoxicating, and thumping with suspense, bestselling Nancy Bilyeau's magnificent Dreamland is a story of corruption, class, and dangerous obsession.

In eighteenth century London, porcelain is the most seductive of commodities. Fortunes are made and lost upon it, and kings do battle with knights and knaves for possession of the finest pieces - and the secrets of their manufacture. Can Genevieve discover the secrets of 'The Blue'?