Crassus is one of the most important yet least known of the major characters inhabiting the late Roman Republic in its transition to Empire. Cicero, Pompey, Mark Antony, and Julius Caesar are much more prominent in the public eye, yet the huge wealth of Crassus was decisive in promoting the upward trajectory of Caesar himself.
Crassus is mainly noted from the film Spartacus, where, portrayed by Sir Laurence Olivier, he crushed the gladiator and slave revolt led by Spartacus. But Crassus also met a tragic end when invading Parthia with inadequate resources.
His story is related in magnificent prose by former Times editor Peter Stothard, whose description of Crassus’ heart-rending demise, as molten gold was poured down his throat by the victorious Parthians, brings the adventure to a spectacular and climactic termination.
Julian Simpole is an experienced teacher who worked in a Brighton school which blended talented individual pupils with some who seemed psychopathic contenders for mass murder.
The bigoted and tyrannical Headmaster himself seems hardly more civilised than his more psychotic pupils, and the novice practitioner of the pedagogic arts is buffeted from all sides as he falls in love with a girl he is convinced is a pre-ordained legacy from a previous existence.
Is this book an exposé of early 1980s Stakhanovite teaching, or a nostalgic reminder of comparatively idyllic school life before the current metropolitan street plague of knife-wielding child killers?
The Most Honoured Profession by Julian Simpole. The trials besetting novice teacher Bob Waley are a distillation of
possible events illustrating the problems likely to arise in a large educational establishment such as a comprehensive
school, especially one whose hierarchy is dominated by an insecure bigot, as here, but the novel is actually a love story.
Difficulties at work are ameliorated by the young couple's coup de foudre rapport and mutual sense of having co-existed
in previous lives, Waley strongly believing their meeting in this lifetime to be inevitable, an ordained continuance of past
evolving joy. The thematic strands of…
Chess Grandmaster Nigel Short MBE is Britain’s most celebrated chess personality, having climbed to the pinnacle of the global chess hierarchy in 1993 and challenged Garry Kasparov for the world title. Nigel failed to dethrone the champion but, as they describe it in Spain, an honourable defeat elevated him to the status of Vice World Champion.
In this book, Nigel anthologises a series of games from important international tournaments which he has won, a novel approach never before undertaken by any chess champion or author. The notes are profound, transparent, and uniquely indicative of what it is like to dominate the world’s best in open competition.
Grandmaster Nigel Short realized that every tournament win has a unique narrative and challenge. In this exceptional chess book, Short discusses eight of his foremost tournament wins, describing the drama with insightful game annotations and entertaining anecdotes. For those wanting to win in chess, this book is the place to start.
I am a chess Grandmaster and former British chess champion. This book, my 206th to be published, is an attempt to link the game of chess with its own ancient history, history in general, as well as art, culture, literature and politics.
The book analyses games and matches played by the great champions of chess such as Steinitz, Alekhine, Fischer, Kasparov and Carlsen . It investigates Marcel Duchamp’s relationship with chess, recounts the Great Chess Murder Mystery, solved by the author, and unravels the truth behind the sensational cheating scandal involving Hans Niemann and Magnus Carlsen . The Year of the King refers to the coronation of King Charles III who shared digs with the author in their university days at Trinity College Cambridge.
A charming tale about a grumpy swan called Anton, who, after a rocky start, forms a friendly relationship with a young boy (the eponymous Marky).
The story can be read (or read out) on many levels, that of a two-year-old who loves nature, especially big white, elegant birds, swimming on the local pond, or on a deeper psychological level, as an anthropomorphic metaphor for a cruel parent or an angry god.
