Creator: Robert Powell
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2000-11
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £39.04
Price: £39.04
Review Headlong: Complete & Unabridged / Chivers Audio Books:Dutch art has become fashionable with nineties novelists. Witness Deborah Moggach's Tulip Fever, set in 1630s Amsterdam where a painted portrait is the focus for a tale of doomed love. Or Tracy Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring, which centres on Vermeer's prosperous household in Delft in the 1660s. Michael Frayn has joined the Flemish fray in Headlong, where a Bruegel has a starring role. With these paintings the author can step into a story rather than a myth. Big religious representations and gaudy Classical scenes already have the weight of literature behind them. But an enigmatic portrait, a picture of a dimly lit interior or frolicking peasants is a tale waiting to be told. They're an invitation to interpretation, and Frayn's narrator accepts this role with alacrity. Youngish art historian Martin Clay (a Hugh Grant character gone to fat) identifies a lost Bruegel in a tumble-down country home. His intellectual dilettantism becomes focused by the arresting sight of a painting glimmering through the "grimy pane of time", and he decides to secure the painting for the nation, and a fortune for himself, without letting the owner discover its true value. [+]There follows much double-dealing, bamboozling and suppressed hysteria as Martin and the owner try to outwit each other. At the heart of the novel is Martin's search for the meaning of the painting that has become his fate, his "triumph and torment and downfall". He pitches from gallery to museum to library delivering an extended history lesson on iconography, iconology, landscape and the ever elusive story in the Bruegel. As his obsession takes hold, the pace of the novel picks up too, a breathless rush of action, comic anguish and scholarly speculation. At points there is some irritating slapstick-shady deals in underground car parks, art treasures being tipped into the back of a mucky Landrover, as Martin's machinations go haywire, and disaster looms. Frayn is good on the quest for the meaning of art and the lure of money and intellectual reputation, even if the plot is made to work too hard. Martin so beautifully describes the Bruegels he's studying that the reader cannot help wanting to look at them too, to step out of the story and into the picture. Thus, Headlong might have benefited from a set of illustrations. Of course, the whole novel could be an elaborate, enjoyable art hoax, and the Breugels he's describing don't actually exist at all. And if that's the case, it's very successfully done. -Eithne Farry.
Edition: Abridged edition
Publication date: 1998-12-10
RRP: £5.75
Price: £5.99
Review The Canterville Ghost (Penguin Longman Penguin Readers) / Longman:Oscar Wilde's story of The Canterville Ghost tells the tale of a malevolent ghost who discovers there is no peace to be found when a rumbustious American family take over his ancestral home. This classic tale by one of the 19th century's most celebrated wits is here reproduced in a stunning little book with stylish illustrations which perfectly capture the atmosphere and imagination of the story. An ideal gift for young readers who enjoy classic stories, The Canterville Ghost is perfect for reading alone or reading aloud. (Age 7 and over) -Susan Harrison.
Creator: Phyllida Nash
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 1999-01
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £42.49
Price: £42.49
Review Every Good Girl: Complete & Unabridged (Albert Campion Mysteries) / Chivers Audio Books:
Creator: Sian Phillips
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 1998-02
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £42.49
Price: £42.49
Review Kiss and Kin: Complete & Unabridged (Chivers Sound Library) / Chivers Audio Books:
Creator: Hayward Morse
Publication date: 2003-07
RRP: £47.95
Price: £33.22
Review Redcoat / ISIS Audio Books:
Creator: Richard Mitchley
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 1997-01-31
RRP: £37.95
Price: £37.95
Review The Midden / ISIS Audio Books:
Creator: Brigit Forsyth
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 1998-05
RRP: £18.34
Price: £18.34
Review A Pack of Liars: Complete & Unabridged / Chivers Children's Audio Books:
Creator: Julian Glover
Publication date: 2000-09
RRP: £42.49
Price: £42.49
Review A Fool's Alphabet: Complete & Unabridged / Chivers Audio Books:
Creator: Brigit Forsyth
Edition: Har/Cas Un
Publication date: 1998-09
RRP: £18.58
Price: £12.26
Review A Pack of Liars: Complete & Unabridged ("Read Along") / Read-Along:
Publication date: 2002-04-02
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.37
Review The Magic Finger: Complete & Unabridged / Collins Audio:
Creator: Peter Joyce
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 1996-09
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £17.99
Price: £17.99
Review Kidnapped (Victorian Collection) / Assembled Stories:
Creator: Christian Rodska
Publication date: 2001-12
RRP: £35.59
Price: £35.59
Review The Last Place God Made: Complete & Unabridged / Chivers Audio Books:
Creator: Colin Skipp
RRP: £4.88
Price: £4.88
Review The Canterville Ghost / CRS Records:Oscar Wilde's story of The Canterville Ghost tells the tale of a malevolent ghost who discovers there is no peace to be found when a rumbustious American family take over his ancestral home. This classic tale by one of the 19th century's most celebrated wits is here reproduced in a stunning little book with stylish illustrations which perfectly capture the atmosphere and imagination of the story. An ideal gift for young readers who enjoy classic stories, The Canterville Ghost is perfect for reading alone or reading aloud. (Age 7 and over) -Susan Harrison.
Creator: Samuel West
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 1999-04
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £42.49
Price: £42.49
Review The Two Destinies: Complete & Unabridged / Chivers Audio Books:
Creator: Cherie Lunghi
Publication date: 1988-09
RRP: £35.59
Price: £35.59
Review A Friend from England: Complete & Unabridged / Chivers Audio Books:
Creator: Eleanor Bron
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2000-04
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £42.49
Price: £42.49
Review The Reef: Complete & Unabridged / Chivers Audio Books:
Creator: Carole Boyd
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2002-12
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £47.09
Price: £47.09
Review Mary Anne / Chivers Audio Books:
Authors
- Bram Stoker
- Margaret Tarner
RRP: £11.52
Price: £11.52
Review Dracula: Intermediate Level (Heinemann Guided Readers) / Macmillan ELT:
Creator: Andrew Sachs
Publication date: 1996-05
RRP: £36.37
Price: £36.37
Review The Statement: Complete & Unabridged / Chivers Audio Books:
Creator: Vivien Heilbron
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 1997-07
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £43.42
Price: £43.42
Review Noble Deeds: Complete & Unabridged / Chivers Audio Books:
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Models & Brands:
Headlong: Complete & Unabridged, The Canterville Ghost (Penguin Longman Penguin Readers), Every Good Girl: Complete & Unabridged (Albert Campion Mysteries), Kiss and Kin: Complete & Unabridged (Chivers Sound Library), Redcoat, The Midden, A Pack of Liars: Complete & Unabridged, A Fool's Alphabet: Complete & Unabridged, A Pack of Liars: Complete & Unabridged ("Read Along"), The Magic Finger: Complete & Unabridged, Kidnapped (Victorian Collection), The Last Place God Made: Complete & Unabridged, The Canterville Ghost, The Two Destinies: Complete & Unabridged, A Friend from England: Complete & Unabridged, The Reef: Complete & Unabridged, Mary Anne, Dracula: Intermediate Level (Heinemann Guided Readers), The Statement: Complete & Unabridged, Noble Deeds: Complete & Unabridged |
