Guy Renton
Guy Renton

Author: Alec Waugh

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2011-09-28

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 1448202973

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First published in 1952, this is a tale of Austria. February 1925. A date that would always remain special for Guy Renton. There his chance meeting with the young and beautiful, but married, Mrs Renee Burton, precipitated the first crisis in his life. Hitherto he had been sure of himself temperamentally and emotionally: the 1914-18 war over, he had concentrated on his love of rugby, eventually being 'capped' for England, and he knew that one day, when too old to play, he would enter the family wine business. Until that far off day, life should have been carefree. But Renee was to change his plans radically. This story of their love and devotion is set in England between the wars: a time of changing standards when young men were ready to question and were unprepared to accept a way of life just because fathers thought it was their duty. Young women were taking advantage of a new found freedom and greater opportunities, and the young men respected them none the less for it. Guy's own family became representative of the new way of thinking. Peace and war, security and unease, happiness and tragedy are themes that weave themselves through this sensitive and beautifully characterised novel in which Alec Waugh has brilliantly conveyed the atmosphere of serenity and foreboding which characterised English life during this period.

The Blade Artist
The Blade Artist

Author: Irvine Welsh

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2016-04-07

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 1473520967

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‘Back to his violent best...dark, gruesome and captivating’ Esquire The most terrifying character from Trainspotting returns. Jim Francis has finally found the perfect life – and is now unrecognisable, even to himself. A successful painter and sculptor, he lives quietly with his wife, Melanie, and their two young daughters, in an affluent beach town in California. Some say he’s a fake and a con man, while others see him as a genuine visionary. But Francis has a very dark past, with another identity and a very different set of values. When he crosses the Atlantic to his native Scotland, for the funeral of a murdered son he barely knew, his old Edinburgh community expects him to take bloody revenge. But as he confronts his previous life, all those friends and enemies – and, most alarmingly, his former self – Francis seems to have other ideas. When Melanie discovers something gruesome in California, which indicates that her husband’s violent past might also be his psychotic present, things start to go very bad, very quickly. The Blade Artist is an elegant, electrifying novel – ultra violent but curiously redemptive – and it marks the return of one of modern fiction’s most infamous, terrifying characters, the incendiary Francis Begbie from Trainspotting.

Rosalund's Raiders
Rosalund's Raiders

Author: Allan Ede

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2002-02-24

Total Pages: 99

ISBN-13: 059572678X

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Wesley Hanson, an uninspired senior at Renton High School in Riverview, is attacked and badly beaten by a boy named B.J. and his Manglers, a notorious gang from the city's Southside. A friend of Wesley's tells him about Arthur Rosalund, an extremely rich man, who dreams of using his money and power to rid the world of gang violence. His gang, Rosalund's Raiders, will infiltrate other gangs and convince them that teaming up with his Raiders will assure them of a worthwhile future, filled with benefits, such as money, scholarships, and security. Wesley overcomes his fear of failing, and, after training vigorously in the martial arts, becomes a full-fledged Raider. His first mission is to contact Rufus Brown, the powerful head of the Rounders, and to convince him to bring fifty other gang leaders to Rosalund. While mixing with the Rounders, Wesley falls in love with Lisa, one of their members. She accompanies Wesley to a meeting of the warlords at Eagle Point Park. The gathering is interrupted by B.J. and his Manglers who are heavily armed and spoiling for blood. The police invade and, after a brutal confrontation, haul most of the gang members, including Wesley, to jail. Will Rosalund's dreams be thwarted? Will Wesley's love for Lisa jeopardize his commitment to Rosalund as one of his Raiders?

Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh

Author: Michael G. Brennan

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2013-02-14

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1441194177

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Evelyn Waugh: Fictions, Faith and Family is a wide-ranging survey of the prolific literary career of one of the most popular English writers of the 20th century. Michael G. Brennan here identifies three major themes as central to any understanding of Waugh's work: Catholicism, society and the concept of family. From Decline and Fall (published in 1928) to his final writings, this book draws not only on the major novels and short stories but also Waugh's substantial journalistic output, his private journals and correspondences and unpublished draft manuscripts. Through this comprehensive and systematic exploration, Brennan demonstrates the sustained creative importance of Catholicism to Waugh's literary work. In addition, the book goes on to consider how Evelyn Waugh's descendants - his son Auberon and his grandson Alexander Waugh - have echoed and developed these literary concerns in their own writing.