Shortlisted for the HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown It is 31 March 1836. A new monthly periodical is launched entitled The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Conceived and created by the artist Robert Seymour, it contains four of his illustrations. The words to accompany them are written by a young journalist, under the pen-name Boz. The journalist's real name is Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers soon becomes a phenomenal, unprecedented sensation, read and discussed by the entire British Isles. Before long, its success is worldwide. Stephen Jarvis's novel tells of the dawning of the age of global celebrity. It is a story of colossal triumph and of the depths of tragedy, based on real events - and an expose of how an ambitious young writer stole another man's ideas.

Views the Victorian novel through the prism of literary imitations that it inspired.

The year was 1925. Five years of Prohibition had seemingly accomplished little other than to foster a widespread belief that the unpopular edict was just a thinly-disguised attempt to legislate morals, and Americans had begun to push back by drinking more than ever. A new dance sensation called the Charleston was sweeping the country. During the early morning hours of July 4, a crowd of Prohibition-defying revelers were kicking up their heels to that latest craze when they unknowingly triggered the deadliest building collapse in Boston's history. The dingy, smoke-filled speakeasy on the second floor of a rundown, five-story former hotel was still packed with holiday celebrants as the clock neared three that morning. The orchestra had time to play only two more numbers. The last one would be something mellow but, for the second last, the conductor chose a popular ragtime number. When the spirited music began, dozens of couples crowded onto the small, linoleum-covered dance floor to do the Charleston. For nearly five minutes they jumped, kicked, and stomped-blissfully unaware that the steady, rhythmic pounding was causing dangerous, resonant vibrations throughout the unstable building's entire support structure. Finally, the music stopped. Many of the exhausted couples were still on the floor, waiting for the night's last dance, when the lights grew strangely dim, flickered a few times, and then went out, plunging the room into darkness. A moment later the old building began to shake so violently that some of the dancers lost their balance and fell. Anguished screams were drowned out by the ear-splitting screech of boards and timbers being torn apart, then the ripping, tearing noise gave way to a thunderous roar as countless tons of bricks and debris crashed down from the upper floors. Terrified patrons rushed for the door. Many of them didn't make it. The floor gave way beneath them sending everyone and everything-tables, chairs, bricks, beams, and plaster-tumbling downward like an avalanche into a pitch-black abyss. The Pickwick Club Disaster spotlights the mistakes and the negligence that brought the building to that sorry state. It describes the hurried investigation, the criminal trial, and the frantic efforts of public officials to distance themselves from blame, and takes a glimpse into the lives of each of the forty-four people who perished.

A masterly synthesis of the history of the contemporary world, The World Since 1945 offers the ideal introduction to the events of the period between the end of the Second World War and the present day. P. M. H. Bell and Mark Gilbert balance a clear narrative with in-depth analysis to guide the reader through the aftermath of the Second World War, the Cold War, decolonization, Détente and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, up to the on-going ethnic strife and political instability of the 21st century. The new edition has been thoroughly revised to fully reflect developments in the history and historiography of the post-war world, and features five new chapters on the post-Cold War world, covering topics including: - The rise and fall of American hegemony - The decline of Europe - The rise of Asia - Political Islam as a global force - The role of human rights The World Since 1945 challenges us to better understand what happened and why in the post-war period and shows the ways in which the past continues to exercise a profound influence on the present. It is essential reading for any student of contemporary history.

In the tradition of "The Late Shift" comes the dramatic inside story of how upstart Fox News toppled CNN and MSNBC for cable news supremacy.

In a reimagining of Charles Dickens’ classic The Pickwick Papers, Heather Redmond’s fourth Victorian-era mystery in the Dickens of a Crime series finds a young Charles tossed into Newgate Prison for a murder he didn’t commit, and his fiancée Kate Hogarth striving to clear his name… London, January 1836: Just weeks before the release of his first book, Charles is intrigued by an invitation to join the exclusive Lightning Club. But his initiation in a basement maze takes a wicked turn when he stumbles upon the corpse of Samuel Pickwick, the club’s president. With the victim’s blood literally on his hands, Charles is locked away in notorious Newgate Prison. Now it’s up to Kate to keep her framed fiancé from the hangman’s noose. To solve this labyrinthine mystery, she is forced to puzzle her way through a fiendish series of baffling riddles sent to her in anonymous poison pen letters. With the help of family and friends, she must keep her wits about her to corner the real killer—before time runs out and Charles Dickens meets a dead end…