The corpse was snoring softly behind the sofa. It is early November and the Wynmouth Fire Festival is in full flow. A dozen or more giant statues are about to be put to the torch. The locals jokingly refer to it as "the Bonfire Night Massacre". Fireworks and bonfires are the order of the day, and Simon Turing is looking forward to seeing the display. He is in town performing at a local theatre, a revival of a fifties mystery play. All is not well at the venue, however. The theatre is in financial trouble and there are tensions backstage. The management needs a good box office if the theatre is to survive the winter. Luckily, the fire festival is a significant draw to the town. But when the theatre's own contribution to the festivities erupts into flames a couple of days earlier than planned, it does not bode well for the rest of the run.
"You'll never get me up in one of those things. They're absolutely lethal." Seville, 1931. Six months after the loss of the British airship the R101, a German Zeppelin is coming in to land in Southern Spain. Hilary Manningham-Butler is an MI5 operative eking out a pitiful existence on the Rock of Gibraltar. The offer of a job in the Americas provides a potential life line but there are strings attached. First she must prove her mettle to her masters in London and that means stepping on board the Richthofen before the airship leaves Seville. A cache of secret documents has been stolen from Scotland Yard and the files must be recovered if British security is not to be severely compromised. Hilary must put her life on the line to discover the identity of the thief. But as the airship makes its way across the Atlantic towards Brazil it becomes clear that nobody on board is quite what they seem. And there is no guarantee that any of them will reach Rio de Janeiro alive... Keywords: agatha christie, mystery, british mystery, whodunnit, sis, mi5, mi6, zeppelin, zeppelin mystery, zeppelin disaster, R101, R101 disaster, hindenburg, hindenburg disaster, hindenburg mystery, airship, blimp, airship mystery, 1930, 1931, 1930s, period mystery, secret agent mystery, spanish republic, king alfonoso, secret documents, female detective, comedy, comedy detective, flashman, george macdonald fraser, jeeves and wooster, jeeves, pg wodehouse, p g wodehouse, audio mystery, audiobook mystery, british detectives, comedy audio, comedy audiobook, comedy detective book, comedy novel, fiction paperbacks, female spies, female spy, fiction paperbacks, girl spies, girl spy, golden age, golden age crime, golden age detective, harry flashman, historical fiction paperbacks, jazz age detective, woman spy, jazz age mystery, mystery farce, mystery novel, mystery novels, secret agent, secret agents, suspense, women spies
A long forgotten book conceals a dangerous secret. James Faraday is about to turn eighty and his daughter has organised a gathering of friends and family at Woodford Grange to celebrate the big day. There will be a marquee in the garden, plenty of food and drink, and a huge stack of birthday presents. One particular gift, however, is proving difficult to track down. For Simon Turing, who works in the local bookshop, it is just another order; an out of print book of wartime statistics. It only takes a day or two for him to locate a copy. As soon as the book arrives, however, things start to go awry. The shop is burgled. Simon is knocked off his bike on his way to the Grange. And a worker at the estate suffers a fatal accident. Is it just a run of bad luck or are more sinister forces at work? Simon is about to find out.
"Hurrah for the Blackshirts!” the headline screams on 15th January 1934. Hilary Manningham-Butler is less than impressed. She has inveigled her way into the January Club, an elite debating society which acts as a recruiting ground for the newly formed British Union of Fascists. The Security Service is concerned that the BUF may be receiving funds from a foreign power. Using her newly acquired contacts, Hilary is despatched to Rome to investigate. Arriving at the villa of a fellow club member, events take a sinister turn when one of the house guests meets with an unfortunate accident. Hilary is not convinced that the death is accidental and the Italian police are quick to come to the same conclusion. But can a police force in the pay of a fascist administration ever be relied upon to deliver justice?
While political history has plenty to say about the impact of Ronald Reagan’s election to the presidency in 1980, four Senate races that same year have garnered far less attention—despite their similarly profound political effect. Tuesday Night Massacre looks at those races. In examining the defeat in 1980 of Idaho’s Frank Church, South Dakota’s George McGovern, John Culver of Iowa, and Birch Bayh of Indiana, Marc C. Johnson tells the story of the beginnings of the divisive partisanship that has become a constant feature of American politics. The turnover of these seats not only allowed Republicans to gain control of the Senate for the first time since 1954 but also fundamentally altered the conduct of American politics. The incumbents were politicians of national reputation who often worked with members of the other party to accomplish significant legislative objectives—but they were, Johnson suggests, unprepared and ill-equipped to counter nakedly negative emotional appeals to the “politically passive voter.” Such was the campaign of the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC), the organization founded by several young conservative political activists who targeted these four senators for defeat. Johnson describes how such groups, amassing a great amount of money, could make outrageous and devastating claims about incumbents—“baby killers” who were “soft on communism,” for example—on behalf of a candidate who remained above the fray. Among the key players in this sordid drama are NCPAC chairman Terry Dolan; Washington lobbyist Charles Black, a top GOP advisor to several presidential campaigns and one-time business partner of Paul Manafort; and Roger Stone, self-described “dirty trickster” for Richard Nixon and confidant of Donald Trump. Connecting the dots between the Goldwater era of the 1960s and the ascent of Trump, Tuesday Night Massacre charts the radicalization of the Republican Party and the rise of the independent expenditure campaign, with its divisive, negative techniques, a change that has deeply—and perhaps permanently—warped the culture of bipartisanship that once prevailed in American politics.
In this long overdue and affectionate salute, celebrated comedy historian Robert Ross pays tribute to some of the finest, funniest and most fascinating names in comedy from both sides of the Atlantic. Monty Python’s Terry Jones wrote the foreword. With the passionate input of such comics as Tim Brooke-Taylor, Hattie Hayridge, Roy Hudd, Michael Palin, Ross Noble, Chris Addison and Bernard Cribbins, Ross honours these legends of humor who, for a variety of reasons, didn't quite reach the heady heights of stardom or, once they had, couldn't cope with the pressures. Whether it is a favorite from the distant smoke- and ale-stained world of the Music Hall like the great George Robey, or the downbeat poetry of Hovis Presley, who dropped disenchanted bombs on the late 1990s, Forgotten Heroes of Comedy will finally elevate them to the Hall of Fame where they belong. Forgotten, no longer. UK Joe Baker UK Eric Barker UK Alfie Bass UK Michael Bates India (to English parents) David Battley UK Michael Bentine UK Harold Berens UK Wilie Best USA Alec Bregonzi UK Michael Ward UK Douglas Byng UK Marti Caine UK Esma Cannon Australia (but moved to UK) Patrick Cargill UK Jimmy Clitheroe UK Danny Ross UK Billy Dainty UK Janet Davies UK Florence Desmond UK Jerry Desmonde UK Eddie Leslie UK Maidie Dickson UK Charlie Drake UK Jimmy Edwards UK Gus Elen UK Ray Ellington UK Dick Emery UK Pierre Etaix France Barry Evans UK Mario Fabrizi UK Doug Fisher UK Ronald Frankau UK Leslie Fuller UK Dustin Gee UK Peter Glaze UK Tommy Godfrey UK Harry Locke UK Ken Goodwin UK Bernard Gorcey Russia (died USA) Bert Gordon USA Monsewer' Eddie Gray UK Raymond Griffith USA Deryck Guyler UK Brian Hall UK Lloyd Hamilton USA Arthur Haynes UK Richard Hearne UK Dickie Henderson UK Gerard Hoffnung Germany (died UK) Shemp Howard USA Nat Jackley UK Rex Jameson UK Spike Jones USA John Junkin UK Dave King UK Roy Kinnear UK Dennis Kirkland UK Patsy Knox USA Debbie Linden UK Hugh Lloyd UK Malcolm McFee UK Moore Marriott UK Graham Moffatt UK Ray Martine UK Zeppo Marx USA Glenn Melvyn UK Eric Merriman UK Christopher Mitchell UK Albert Modley UK Robert Moreton UK Gladys Morgan UK Lily Morris UK Richard Murdoch UK Tom E. Murray USA David Nixon UK Larry Noble UK Ole Olsen USA Chic Johnson USA Ken Platt UK Sandy Powell UK Vince Powell UK Hovis Presley UK Cardew Robinson UK Joe E. Ross USA Patsy Rowlands UK Derek Roy UK Derek Royle UK Leslie Sarony UK Larry Semon USA Ronald Shiner UK Johnnie Silver USA Dennis Spicer UK Larry Stephens UK Jake Thackray UK Thelma Todd USA Jack Train UK Karl Valentin Germany Liesl Karlstadt Germany Norman Vaughan UK Tom Walls UK Ralph Lynn UK Elsie and Doris Waters UK Rita Webb UK John Wells UK George and Kenneth Western UK Gordon Wharmby UK Bert Wheeler USA Robert Woolsey USA Albert Whelan Australia (died UK) Robb Wilton UK Mike and Bernie Winters UK Georgie Wood UK Dolly Harmer UK Harry Worth UK Mario Zampi Italy (died UK)
A fascinating collection of historical articles charting the history of bonfire in Lewes from 1813 to the modern day. Plus a Time Line of relevant dates from 1555 to 2009, Bonfire Society Information and a complete list of the winners of the Pioneer Cup & Points Cup of the Lewes Bonfire Council Fancy Dress Competition.
"It's a bomb!" some fat idiot yelled, as I was heading for the exit. "They've found a bomb!" New York 1932. A letter bomb campaign throws the city into a panic and Hilary Manningham-Butler is anxious to get away. The RMS Galitia is setting sail for Southampton, but there will be no respite onboard ship. Another campaign is in the offing, less explosive but equally deadly. A series of anonymous letters are being distributed across the decks. Someone knows far too much about the passengers in first class and venom is spewing in every direction. It will not be long before that venom spills over into violence and murder…
The killer robots are having a quick cigarette outside the church hall. Filming is underway on the latest series of The Professor, a long-running television drama. Simon Turing has a small part in one episode, his first TV role. His character, David Egan, is due to be infected with a deadly virus and then to go on a murderous rampage. It all sounds great fun. Location shooting has begun down in Dorset, but all is not well with the production. Long simmering jealousies are rising to the surface and, when a crew member dies in suspicious circumstances, events threaten to spiral out of control.
