A warm, humane, and sharply observed tale of small town life that is by equal turns hilarious and moving. Big Davey Jones is coming home. He's been gone almost 20 years now, but nobody's forgotten him. Davey's a local hero -- his miracle birth as the seventh son of a seventh son brought fame to this little town and they've been grateful ever since. But Davey's home town has changed much in the intervening years. The traditional family business like Billy Finlay's Auto-Supplies and Calton's Bakery and Tea Rooms have been replaced with 'Exciting New Housing Developments!' and even a nightclub called 'Paradise Lost'. The locals haven't changed much though. Bob Savory, who always had it in him, has made a million with his company Sandwich Classics, and he's branching out now, with an Irish themed restaurant on the ring road. trying to convert the town through his Fish-and-Chip Biblical Quiz Nights and his Good Friday Carvery & Gospel Night. And Sammy, the town's best plumber, is depressed as ever and looking for solace at the bottom of the whisky bottle. Clever, touching and, above all, utterly spot-on in its depiction of small town life, Ring Road is confirms Ian Sansom's status as one of our most perceptive authors working today.

Ring Road

Literature & Fiction

IAN SANSOM

Classics

Harper-perennial

A warm, humane, and sharply observed tale of small town life that is by equal turns hilarious and moving. Big Davey Jones is coming home. He's been gone almost 20 years now, but nobody's forgotten him. Davey's a local hero - his miracle birth as the seventh son of a seventh son brought fame to this little town and they've been grateful ever since. But Davey's home town has changed much in the intervening years. The traditional family business like Billy Finlay's Auto-Supplies and Calton's Bakery and Tea Rooms have been replaced with 'Exciting New Housing Developments!' and even a nightclub called 'Paradise Lost'. The locals haven't changed much though. Bob Savory, who always had it in him, has made a million with his company Sandwich Classics, and he's branching out now, with an Irish themed restaurant on the ring road. Francie McGinn, the divorced minister at The People's Fellowship, is still trying to convert the town through his Fish-and-Chip Biblical Quiz Nights and his Good Friday Carvery & Gospel Night. And Sammy, the town's best plumber, is depressed as ever and looking for solace at the bottom of the whisky bottle. Clever, touching and, above all, utterly spot-on in its depiction of small town life, Ring Road is confirms Ian Sansom's status as one of our most perceptive authors working today.

Harperperennial

HardCover. Pub Date :2013-09-12 Pages: 300 Language: English Publisher: Fourth Estate Ltd Love Miss Marple Adore Holmes and Watson Professor Morley's guide to Norfolk is a story of bygone England; quaint villages. eccentric locals - and murder It! is 1937 and disillusioned Spanish Civil War veteran Stephen Sefton is stony broke. So when he sees a mysterious advertisement for a job where 'intelligence is essential'. he applies.Thus begins Sefton's association with Professor Swanton Morley. an omnivorous intellect. Morley's latest project is a history of traditional England. with a guide to every county.They start in Norfolk. but when the vicar of Blakeney is found hanging from his church's bellrope. Morley and Sefton find themselves drawn into a rather more fiendish plot. Did the Reverend really take his own life. or was it - murderBeginning a thrilling new detective series. ...

The Norfolk Mystery (The County Guides)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

Fourth Estate Ltd.

Swanton Morley, the Peoples Professor, sets off for Devon to continue The County Guides, his history of England; but when he arrives at All Souls School, he hears that a pupil has died in mysterious circumstances. Cue another adventure in the dark heart of 1930s England for Morley, Sefton and Miriam - the trio first encountered in The Norfolk Mystery.

Death in Devon

HARPER/COLLINS

ESSEX POISON-COUNTY GUIDES HB

Literary

'Beautifully crafted by Sansom, Professor Morley promises to become a little gem of English crime writing; sample him now' Daily Mail October 1937. Swanton Morley, the People's Professor, sets off to Essex to continue his history of England, The County Guides. Morley's daughter Miriam continues to cause chaos and his assistant Stephen Sefton continues to slide deeper into depression and despair. Morley is an honorary guest at the Colchester Oyster Festival. But when the mayor dies suddenly at the civic reception suspicion falls on his fellow councillors. Is it a case of food poisoning? Or could it be ... murder? Join Morley, Miriam and Sefton on another journey into the dark heart of England.

Essex Poison

This is a playful and provocative collection of 365 extracts sourced from the British Library's collections. Selected to challenge and inform the reader, each excerpt is accompanied by the unique shelfmark number of the source publication. Encompassing a wide range of great works in literature, poetry, essays and letters, historical and scientific treatises, and including beloved and popular authors as well as controversial writers, each extract will encourage enquiry and stimulate the imagination.\nBeautifully designed and illustrated with the Library's collections, with one extract for every day of the year, this book can be read as a thought to start the day or can be dipped into for inspiration at random.\nIncludes extracts from: 
Joseph Conrad: The Mirror of the Sea: Memories and Impressions 
Sigmund Freud: 'The Interpretations of Dreams' 
Betty Friedan: The Feminine Mystique 
David Hume: A Treatise of Human Nature 
Plato: The Republic 
Hannah Arendt: The Human Condition 
Jane Austen: letter to Cassandra Austen, 17/18 Oct. 1815 
Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol 
George Orwell: The English People 
Adam Smith: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations 
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Reading Room: Inspiration Extracts for Every Day of the Year

Short Stories & Anthologies

British Library Publishing

The Truth About Babies

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Granta Books

Refugee Tales: Volume Iii

Emma Parsons

ABDULRAZAK GURNAH

Lisa Appignanesi

Bernardine Evaristo

Jonathan Skinner

Jonathan Wittenberg

patrick-gale

David Constantine

ROMA TEARNE

Monica Ali

Gillian Slovo

David Herd

Lytton Smith

Comma Press

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