http://www.vintage-books.co.uk//books/ en-GB Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:56:55 GMT Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:06:55 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss vintagetrade@randomhouse.co.uk Amber 2 CMS http://www.vintage-books.co.uk//books/184792221x/catherine-fletcher/our-man-in-rome-henry-viii-and-his-italian-ambassador/ http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/184792221x/ The inside story of Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon.]]> Divorce. Deceit. Diplomacy.

1527. Gregorio 'The Cavalier' Casali is Henry VIII's man in Rome. An Italian freelance diplomat, he charmed his way into the English service before he was twenty. But now he faces an almighty challenge. Henry wants a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and Casali must persuade Pope Clement VII of his master's case.

Set against the backdrop of war-torn Renaissance Italy, Our Man in Rome weaves together tales from the grubby underbelly of Tudor politics with a gripping family saga to reveal the extraordinary true story behind history's most infamous divorce.

Through six years of cajoling, threats and bribery, Casali lives by his wits. He manoeuvres his brothers into lucrative diplomatic postings, plays off one master against another, dodges spies, bandits and noblemen alike. But as the years pass and Henry's case drags on, his loyalties are increasingly suspected. What will be Casali's fate?

Drawing on hundreds of unknown archive documents, Our Man in Rome reconstructs his tumultuous life among the great and powerful at this turning point for European history. From the besieged Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome to the splendours of Greenwich Palace, we follow his trail in the service of Henry VIII. Lavish ceremony and glamorous parties stand in contrast to the daily strains of embassy life, as Casali pawns family silver to pay the bills, fights off rapacious in-laws and defends himself in the face of Anne Boleyn's wrath.

This vivid and compelling book will make us think anew about Henry, Catherine and the Tudor world.]]> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.vintage-books.co.uk//books/009947848x/margaret-forster/lady-s-maid/ http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/009947848x/ Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.vintage-books.co.uk//books/0099507668/margaret-forster/over/ http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/0099507668/ real, rooted in the everyday experience of apparently ordinary lives that have been twisted out of shape by the messy business of living. Like Carol Shields' Unless, this novel takes a merciless, heartbreaking look at a mother's anguish]]> over. A daughter has died, suddenly, shockingly, and the different ways in which her mother and father respond to the tragedy, how this plays out within the family and affects the other siblings, is at the heart of things. The sad story is narrated by Louise, mother and primary school teacher, trying to hold herself together and get on with life, trying to understand not 'what happened', but what has happened to them all in the wake of the accident, and why.

At first the reader knows only that something bad has happened to one of the family, but not what or to whom. Gradually we learn some of the details - a storm blew up, a yacht hit rocks and capsized, but the body was never found. Louise's husband cannot come to terms with the lack of knowledge and certainty, and wants someone to blame. He becomes obsessive in his quest for a reason, and travels everywhere, neglecting work and family in pursuit of the 'truth'. His wife just wants to come to terms with it, can't think of blame, moves out into a tiny flat of her own and goes back to work at the infant school where she used to teach.Their other children handle the tragedy better than their parents. What they can't deal with is the way their parents are tearing each other and the family apart.

With characteristic subtlety, Forster holds back the essential truth till the end, when we realize that Louise is not as reliable as her matter-of-fact narration suggests. She blames her husband for destroying the family, but her intransigent determination to deal with grief in her own way, and her refusal to be defined by tragedy, has its dangers. And it's in these faultlines that the real tragedy lies.]]> Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.vintage-books.co.uk//books/0099388618/angela-carter/nights-at-the-circus/ http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/0099388618/ The Times]]>
Courted by the Prince of Wales and painted by Toulouse-Lautrec, she is an aerialiste extraordinaire and star of Colonel Kearney's circus. She is also part woman, part swan. Jack Walser, an American journalist, is on a quest to discover the truth behind her identity. Dazzled by his love for her, and desperate for the scoop of a lifetime, Walser has no choice but to join the circus on its magical tour through turn-of-the-nineteenth-century London, St Petersburg and Siberia.]]> Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.vintage-books.co.uk//books/0099592916/angela-carter/burning-your-boats-collected-short-stories/ http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/0099592916/
As well as her eight novels, Angela Carter published four wonderful collections of short stories during her lifetime, and contributed stories to several anthologies. The stories were scattered amongst different publishers, and a couple of the volumes are now out of print. In Burning your Boats they are gathered for the first time; this is a key collection and a major event for Angela Carter aficionados.]]> Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.vintage-books.co.uk//books/0099981106/angela-carter/wise-children/ http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/0099981106/ Sunday Times]]>
A richly comic tale of the tangled fortunes of two theatrical families, the Hazards and the Chances, Angela Carter's witty and bawdy novel is populated with as many sets of twins, and mistaken identities as any Shakespeare comedy, and celebrates the magic of over a century of show business.]]> Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.vintage-books.co.uk//books/0099588110/angela-carter/the-bloody-chamber-and-other-stories/ http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/0099588110/
From familiar fairy tales and legends - Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires and werewolves - Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories.]]> Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.vintage-books.co.uk//books/0099437058/anthony-burgess/little-wilson-and-big-god/ http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/0099437058/ This autobiography also deals with his awareness of a burgeoning artistic talent which for a long time could not find a proper outlet: should he be a cartoonist, a composer, a pianist, a poet? It deals with his unending struggle to reconcile a Catholic conscience with the prematurely discovered pleasures of sex. It also details the long tempestuous relationship with his first wife Lynne, an army career more comic than heroic, and his years as an education officer in Malaya and Borneo. As drinking, infidelity and despair take their toll, Burgess begins to write the first of the novels that would gain him fame if not money.]]> Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.vintage-books.co.uk//books/1847921558/peter-frankopan/the-first-crusade-the-call-from-the-east/ http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/1847921558/ The first book on the Crusades to pay focus on the real backdrop and catalyst of the First Crusade from a talented and gifted debut historian.]]>
With its themes of the rise of the papacy, the confrontation between Christianity and Islam, the evolution of the concept of holy war, of knightly piety and religious devotion, the First Crusade is one of the best-known and most written-about events in history.

Yet this fascinating and innovative study, Peter Frankopan shifts the paradigm and asks vital questions that have never been posed before. Why was there an overwhelming desire to liberate Jerusalem in the mid-1090s, given that the city had been taken by the Muslims nearly 500 years earlier? What were the causes of the Crusade in the east which provoked such an overwhelming response in the west? What role was played by the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople in the genesis and execution of the expedition? In short, why was there a First Crusade?

Rather than concentrating on the pope and the knights of western Europe who have dominated the history of the First Crusade for centuries, Frankopan focuses on Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. He brilliantly restores the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos to the heart of the story, with a series of catastrophic events in the mid-1090s serving to paint a compelling and strikingly original picture of the expedition to Jerusalem that will change our understanding of the Crusades as a whole.]]> Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.vintage-books.co.uk//books/1846555698/andrea-eames/the-white-shadow/ http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/1846555698/ 'Look after your sister, Tinashe.'

Tinashe is a young Shona boy living in a small village in rural Rhodesia. The guerilla war of the late 1960s haunts the bushlands, but it only infrequently affects his quiet life; school, swimming in the river, playing with the other kids on the kopje.

When his younger sister, Hazvinei, is born, Tinashe knows at once that there is something special about her. Their life in the village, once disturbed only by the occasional visits of his successful uncle and city cousin, Abel, now becomes entangled with the dual forces of the Shona spirit world and the political turmoil of the nation.

As Tinashe, Hazvinei and Abel grow older, their destinies entangle in ways they never expected. Tinashe is prepared to follow his sister anywhere - but how far can he go to keep her safe when the forces threatening her are so much darker and more sinister than he suspected?

Andrea Eames weaves together folklore and suspense in this compelling tale of a boy struggling to do the right thing in an unpredictable world.]]> Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT