And Thereby Hangs A Tale

Millions of readers around the world have relished Jeffrey Archer’s short stories. Taking inspiration from his favourite short story writers – F. Scott Fitzgerald, Maupassant, H. H. Munro, W. Somerset Maugham and O. Henry – Jeffrey Archer has written five bestselling collections over the years. Jeffrey has a natural aptitude for short stories which are stylish, witty and entertaining. His mastery of characterisation and suspense, combined with a gift for the unexpected, jaw-dropping plot twist, show him at the height of his powers and demonstrate why he is one of Britain’s bestselling authors. All of Jeffrey’s collections of short stories have been top ten bestsellers and he is undoubtedly the bestselling English-language short story writer of our times.

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Empire Of Booze

From renowned booze correspondent Henry Jeffreys comes this rich and full-bodied history of Britain and the Empire, told through the improbable but true stories of how the world’s favourite alcoholic drinks came to be. Read about how we owe the champagne we drink today to 17th-century methods for making sparkling cider; how madeira and India Pale Ale became legendary for their ability to withstand the long, hot journeys to Britain’s burgeoning overseas territories; and why whisky became the familiar choice for weary Empire builders who longed for home. Jeffreys traces the impact of alcohol on British culture and society: literature, science, philosophy and even religion have reflections in the bottom of a glass.

Total Commitment

Spirited Paula O’Brien wants to escape her family home and start a new life, but is scared of defying her abusive father. He had her put away in an asylum as a child and he threatens her with the same treatment if she disobeys him now. When she sees a newspaper advert for a live-in nanny, her best friend persuades her to apply. When grieving widower Jeffrey Lawson invites Paula to an interview, she doesn’t realise it will change her life forever. And Jeffrey doesn’t expect to meet a woman like Paula, who enters his life, and that of his family, on that snowy afternoon. But can Paula put her past behind her?

Tell Tale

This new collection of short stories offers an insight into the people Jeffrey Archer has met, the tales he has heard, and the countries he has visited during the past ten years. Find out what happens to the hapless young detective from Naples who travels to an Italian hillside town to find out WHO KILLED THE MAYOR? and the pretentious schoolboy in THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS whose discovery of the origins of his father’s wealth changes his life in the most profound way. Revel in the stories of the woman who dares to challenge the men at her Ivy League university during the 1930s in A GENTLEMAN AND A SCHOLAR, and another young woman who thumbs a lift and gets more than she bargained for in A WASTED HOUR…plus ten other original tales.

The News Quiz: Through The Years

A finely matured selection of episodes from the long-running topical Radio 4 panel show, chaired by Barry Norman, Barry Took, Simon Hoggart, Sandi Toksvig and Miles Jupp. These fourteen archive editions, all published for the first time, span the decades from 1978 to 2017 and recall the headline-grabbing issues, incidents and individuals of yesteryear. Joining regular panellists Alan Coren, Richard Ingrams, Francis Wheen, Jeremy Hardy and Andy Hamilton are a plethora of guest players including Clive James, Angela Rippon, Jeffrey Archer, Peter Cook, Clive Anderson, Ian Hislop, Kate Adie, John Sergeant, Jack Dee, Mark Steel, Phill Jupitus, Sarah Millican, Sarah Kendall, Lucy Porter and many more. A special Tribute to Alan Coren is included. Also making appearances on the panel are future News Quiz chairs Sandi Toskvig and Miles Jupp, and none other than the future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom – at that time editor of The Spectator – Boris Johnson.

Cannibal Killers

Anthropophagy – humans eating their fellow-humans – creates a curious blend of revulsion and fascination. When the perpetrator is a murderer – most commonly a sadistic serial killer – the crime is not only shocking, but also bewildering. Moira Martingale’s comprehensive study, Cannibal Killers: The Impossible Monsters, was originally written in 1993, when the Internet was in its infancy, when few homes had computers and when the character Hannibal Lecter from the book and movie The Silence Of The Lambs was regarded as an entirely fictional character, with no real-world counterparts or inspirations. The book demonstrated that this was an erroneous assumption. Translated into several languages and widely used as a resource by students studying for criminology degrees, this seminal work tracked the phenomenon of cannibalistic murderers throughout history, from the monstrous Sawney Bean, who killed and ate hundreds of travellers in Scotland five hundred years ago, to Jeffrey Dahmer, Andrei Chikatilo, Ed Kemper and Issei Sagawa – all loners, hiding their most terrible of secrets. Then came the World Wide Web. In this comprehensively updated edition we see that in the twenty-first century cannibals who thirst for human flesh and blood are still among us, and, alarmingly, they have moved online to find their victims.

The Law At Miles City

Dave Harmon, former lawman, drifted into Miles City. After a casual conversation with well-known rancher, Jeffrey Munro, Munro is attacked by three toughs. When Dave tries to intervene, a fourth man clubs him with a pistol and is about to shoot him when Pete Green, a gambler, kills the attacker. Green wants no thanks from Dave, but he does tell him that now he owes the gambler a life. Munro persuades the town council to appoint Dave as principal marshal. Pete Green urges Dave to take the job. It is uncertain how anything will play out, and Dave’s future unfolds in a totally unpredictable, even dangerous way, one in which it becomes exceedingly difficult for Dave to distinguish between foe and friend.

More To Life Than This

Kate Lewis is 35 and feeling restless. She’s fed up of worrying about the ironing and would like her husband Jeffrey to pay more attention to her than his golf clubs. There must be more to life than this! Kate enrols herself on a T’ai Chi course and takes best friend Sonia along for the ride. She’s determined to “find herself” but it’s easier said than done, especially when she finds the distracting Ben Mahler first .