Nothing much happens in the village of Foxglove, or so

This book is a translation, accurate and readable, of one of the wittiest pieces of medieval Arabic prose — Abu ‘Uthman al-Jahiz’s Avarice and the Avaricious. In the opinion of most Arab literary critics, Abu ‘Uthman al-Jahiz is one of the finest writers of Arabic of all time, described as the "sultan of style" and the very symbol of literary ability. He was a native of the city of Basra in southern Iraq, then the commercial and intellectual centre of the recently established Abbasid caliphate and the crucible where Islamic culture crystallised and assumed its form. Jahiz is characterised by wit, satire, irony and a wide-ranging erudition pinned to sharp observation of character. His language is agile and vigorous, lucid and precise. It is formally literary but inspired by the rhythms of ordinary speech. Digression and anecdote are commonplace as he passes seamlessly from the serious to the entertaining (and back again) for the improvement and pleasure of his readers. Hypocrisy and pretension are his targets. Reason, good sense, and a wholly uncynical good humour — the very salt of mirth — are his weapons. These qualities can all be found in the present work; one of his best-known books and, as the title suggests, an expose of the vice of miserliness among his contemporaries.

Hailed by The New Yorker as "wickedly enjoyable," Nicholas Coleridge's newest novel is a sharp comedy of manners about two powerful men engaged in a bitter rivalry. Their feud rages from the boardroom to the bedroom as old money takes on the new Gazing from his magnificent Chawbury Manor, Miles Straker has it all. But when noveau riche Ross Clegg buys and builds on the land adjoining his country estate, ruining his perfect view, Miles is irate. Even worse, Ross is quickly taken up by the country gentry, who admire his success and his down-to-earth manners. But Miles is a dangerous enemy and he vows to take the Clegg empire apart piece by piece. A rich read full of wit, Pride and Avarice is sure to be Coleridge's biggest selling book to date.

Why did people talk so much about avarice in late Renaissance France, nearly a century before Moliere's famous comedy, L'Avare? As wars and economic crises ravaged France on the threshold of modernity, avarice was said to be flourishing as never before. Yet by the late sixteenth century, a number of French writers would argue that in some contexts, avaricious behaviour was not straightforwardly sinful or harmful. Considerations of social rank, gender, object pursued, time, and circumstance led some to question age-old beliefs. Traditionally reviled groups (rapacious usurers, greedy lawyers, miserly fathers, covetous women) might still exhibit unmistakable signs of avarice -- but perhaps not invariably, in an age of shifting social, economic and intellectual values. Across a large, diverse corpus of French texts, Jonathan Patterson shows how a range of flexible genres nourished by humanism tended to offset traditional condemnation of avarice and avares with innovative, mitigating perspectives, arising from subjective experience. In such writings, an avaricious disposition could be re-described as something less vicious, excusable, or even expedient. In this word history of avarice, close readings of well-known authors (Marguerite de Navarre, Ronsard, Montaigne), and of their lesser-known contemporaries are connected to broader socio-economic developments of the late French Renaissance (c.1540-1615). The final chapter situates key themes in relation to Moliere's L'Avare. As such, Representing Avarice in Late Renaissance France newly illuminates debates about avarice within broader cultural preoccupations surrounding gender, enrichment and status in early modern France.

Dan Johnson, a lifelong accountant, has a dream of owning his own business. He soon finds that opportunity when Larry Tolliver offers him the chance to purchase a small but profitable manufacturing company at a reasonable price. Soon after Johnson accepts the offer, he realizes that he has been had and that, in fact, Larry Tolliver has set in motion a chain of events that will bring ruin not only to his newly purchased company but to his professional and personal life as well. Johnson comes to see that his only hope is to outsmart Tolliver and defeat him in the only place he has a chance to win, the courtroom. Author Donald Turner was born in Virginia and raised in North Carolina. He spent most of his career as a manager in various capacities throughout the Southeastern United States until retiring in 2007. Currently, he teaches business management and economics for a local university on a part time basis, while devoting his nights to working on his next novel. He is a fan of the works of Dan Brown and Tom Clancy and hopes to bring the same kind of intrigue and excitement to his own novels, which are centered in and around the modern business world. Publisher's website: http: //www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/GreedAndAvarice.htm

"An exceptionally good crime thriller, loved the Scottish setting" Gary Miller When a body is found in a remote Scottish glen, DI Munro comes out of retirement to investigate The Police chief wants everything wrapped up before the upcoming regatta, but the locals are remarkably unforthcoming with helpful information. Sassy and quick, London detective sergeant Charlotte West is roped in by DI Munro to help solve what is now a murder case. It is good police work that will unravel the truth behind the crime, but not without ruffling a few feathers first. Will the killer escape the sharp-witted detectives' grasp? If you enjoy a whodunnit with a twist, this atmospheric novel is for you Set in the coastal town of Inverkip in the north-west of Scotland, AVARICE is a straightforward murder mystery with more twists and turns than Spaghetti Junction. No blood, no gore, no serial killers! But it's a cracker. AVARICE is the second book by Pete Brassett to feature DI Munro and DS West, the detectives that first appeared in SHE. It's not a sequel and can be read as a standalone. However, those who have read SHE will have a head start on the characters' profiles. The third book, ENMITY, is also now available. Look out for Pete Brassett's many other titles on Kindle, including The Girl From Kilkenny, Prayer for the Dying and Kiss The Girls.