Nick Rennison Book order (chronological)

1974 was a year of major changes around the world. The roots of many aspects of today's societies which we take for granted lie in the 1970s and particularly in this, the pivotal year of the decade....

1922 was a year of great turbulence and upheaval. Its events reverberated throughout the rest of the twentieth century and still affect us today, 100 years later. In a sequence of vividly written sketches, Nick Rennison conjures up all the drama and diversity of an extraordinary year....

Sherlock Holmes is the most famous fictional detective ever created. The supremely rational sleuth and his dependable companion, Dr Watson, will forever be associated with the gaslit and smog-filled streets of late nineteenth and early twentieth century London. Yet Holmes and Watson were not the only ones solving mysterious crimes and foiling the plans of villainous masterminds in Victorian and Edwardian England. There were countless imitators in the genre, and this volume highlights some of those 'Rivals of Sherlock Holmes'.

How well do you know London? Here are 400 provocative, curious and humorous questions to enlighten and entertain. Even the most devoted Londoner will learn something new from these fun and wide-ranging trivia questions about London's history, monuments, architecture, famous residents, place-names, notable events, and more. A delightful way to explore the city, this fun book is a perfect stocking filler, with history ranging from obscure lore to facts and fascinating, often humorous histories. Where is the only cross-eyed statue in London and who does it depict? a) Next to the Royal Exchange in the City of London; George Peabody, the nineteenth-century American-born philanthropist b) At the point where Fetter Lane and New Fetter Lane converge; John Wilkes, the eighteenth-century politician c) Islington Green; Sir Hugh Myddleton, the seventeenth-century entrepreneur Answer: b) John Wilkes really did have a severe squint, as reproduced in the statue, but despite his looks, he was a legendary and eloquent womanizer who once said that, when meeting an attractive woman, it took him only ten minutes "to talk away his face."

Sherlock Holmes meets Flashman in the first instalment of Adam Carver's adventures: from the foggy streets of London to the bandit-infested wilds of Greece, this is a wonderfully exuberant piece of Victoriana.

It is 1870. When amateur archaeologist Adam Carver and his loyal but obdurate retainer Quint are visited in their lodgings in London's Doughty Street by an attractive young woman, their landlady is not pleased. The visitor's arrival pitches Carver and Quint headlong into an elaborate mystery which comes to centre on the existence (or not) of a lost text in Ancient Greek, one that may reveal the whereabouts of the treasure hoard of Philip II of Macedonia. Two deaths soon ensue as master and manservant follow what clues they can grasp in the roughest and most genteel parts of the teeming metropolis, with the whiff of cordite and blackmail never far from their nostrils. The scene shifts to Athens and the wilder fastness of a Greece gripped by political unrest as Carver and Quint join forces with Adam's former Cambridge tutor in an attempt to track down the elusive text. But nothing is quite what it seems, and no one involved is prepared for the final, shocking denouement amidst the extraordinary hilltop monasteries of Meteora...

If you do not want to live among wicked people, do not live in London. Richard of Devizes, 1192 (Benedictine monk and chronicler)

Lze napsat životopis fiktivní osoby? Nick Rennison, redaktor a spisovatel, to dokazuje na příkladu Sherlocka Holmese. Provádí nás jeho životem od dětství v Yorkshire až po poslední dny v Sussexu. Autor spojuje známá fakta s událostmi viktoriánské Anglie a přináší živý obraz detektiva, který pronásledoval nebezpečné zločince a po incidentu u Reichenbašských vodopádů, kdy byl považován za mrtvého, pracoval pro britskou vládu na tajných misích v Tibetu a Persii. Sledujeme jeho vyšetřování případu Jacka Rozparovače a odhalování intrik irských nacionalistů, kteří usilovali o život královny Viktorie, stejně jako jeho roli při formování britských tajných služeb. Nová fakta o jeho úhlavním nepříteli profesoru Moriartym a hlubší pohled na přátelství s doktorem Watsonem a vztah s bratrem Mycroftem přispívají k celkovému obrazu. Holmes je detektiv bez obdoby, jehož život je spojen s mnoha legendami, které autor potvrzuje nebo vyvrací. Zobrazuje ho jako výjimečného, ale chybujícího člověka, jehož vliv na britskou historii byl větší, než jak naznačuje Watson. Holmes usiloval o udržení společenského pořádku, ale zároveň ho fascinovaly temné stránky lidské povahy a jeho minulost skrývá mnohá tajemství.

Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography blends what we already know of the great sleuth's career with carefully documented social history to answer the questions admirers have long puzzled over. Nick Rennison reveals for the first time Holmes's influence on the political events of late 19th-century England and his connections to the British criminal underworld. It also brings to light his close friendships with key figures of the day, including Oscar Wilde and Sigmund Freud, and exposes the truth about his cocaine use.

Want to become a classic novel buff, or expand your reading of some of the finest novels ever published? With 100 of the best titles fully reviewed and a further 500 recommended, you'll quickly set out on a journey of discovery.

The book presents a comprehensive overview of contemporary British novelists, highlighting prominent authors such as Iain Banks, Jeanette Winterson, and Salman Rushdie. Each entry provides essential biographical details and insightful analyses of their major works and themes. With extensive cross-referencing and recommendations for further reading, it serves as an invaluable resource for students and enthusiasts of modern British fiction, offering a clear entry point into the diverse literary landscape of contemporary Britain.

More than 350 major authors, from Margaret Atwood to Mile Zola, through Bruce Chatwin, Aldous Huxley, and Nevil Shute, are arranged in alphabetical order, each with a short article on style, influences, settings, theme, along with a list of their salient works. At the end of each entry, a Read On" section directs readers to similar works by other authors."

Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for arrival. Waterstone's Guide To London Writing, paperback, A very good, clean and sound copy.