Orion Books

Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football

Jonathan Wilson, 2006

From the war-ravaged streets of Sarajevo, where turning up for training involved dodging snipers' bullets, to the crumbling splendour of Budapest's Bozsik Stadium, where the likes of Puskas and Kocsis masterminded the fall of England, the landscape of Eastern Europe has changed immeasurably since the fall of communism. Jonathan Wilson has travelled extensively behind the old Iron Curtain, viewing life beyond the fall of the Berlin Wall through the lens of football. Where once the state-controlled teams of the Eastern bloc passed their way with crisp efficiency — a sort of communist version of total football — to considerable success on the European and international stages, today the beautiful game in the East has been opened up to the free market, and throughout the region a sense of chaos pervades. The threat of totalitarian interference no longer remains; but in its place mafia control is generally accompanied with a crippling lack of funds. In «Behind the Curtain» Jonathan Wilson goes in search of the spirit of Hungary's 'Golden Squad' of the early fifties, charts the disintegration of the footballing superpower that was the former Yugoslavia, follows a sorry tale of corruption, mismanagement and Armenian cognac through the Caucasuses, reopens the case of Russia's greatest footballer, Eduard Streltsov, and talks to Jan Tomaszewski about an autumn night at Wembley in 1973... Подробнее

Innocent When You Dream

Mac Montandon, 2007

'I've never met anyone who made it with a chick because they owned a Tom Waits album. I've got all three, and it's never helped me', Tom Waits. Born, seemingly, in the back of a taxi cab outside a hospital in California, in December 1949, the young Tom Waits graduated through the jobs of janitor, dishwasher and cook to the position of doorman at a small L.A. club. Existing on a diet of whiskey, cigarettes and beat writing, he now added folk and jazz to his formative influences. In 1969, Captain Beefheart manager Herb Cohen discovered him — and five years later he released his first album, Closing Time, a record soaked in equal parts bourbon and melancholy. His drunken bohemian persona kicked in after this ('The Piano Has Been Drinking, Not Me'), and his familiar hoary rasp ('a voice that could guide ships through dense fog'), tales of losers, outsiders, hobos, dingy bar-room joints and seedy diners became the stuff of cult legend, covered by the likes of the Eagles, championed by Elton John, and instantly recognisable from a thirty-year career that has seeped through music (over 20 albums), theatre and film. Waits has never written an autobiography, has notoriously played fast and loose with the truth, but this collection of interviews is practically Tom Waits in his own words. Witty, enigmatic and currently fired up about the state of America (his latest album 'Real Gone' has been his most successful yet), Innocent When You Dream is a must-have for any Waits fan. Подробнее

Whitethorn Woods

Maeve Binchy, 2009

The town of Rossmore is a special place, full of character and charm. Nestled beside the Whitethorn Woods, the town has grown since the days when it was small and friendly and everyone knew everyone else; now it has chain stories and traffic problems and housing estates. But it still has the woods, with the well dedicated to St Ann, where generations have come to pray or make wishes or just to look back at the pretty little town. Which is why there is going to be such a fuss about the plans for the new road, cutting through Whitethorn Woods. The people of Rossmore are divided. No one is more concerned than the curate, Father Brian Flynn, who has no idea which faction to support. Surely Neddy Nolan's family should take the compensation being offered for their land? But wasn't Neddy's mother given a cure at the well many years ago? And what about the childless London woman who came to Whitethorn Woods begging the saint for help, with unexpected consequences? Full of Maeve Binchy's warmth, humour and compassion, «Whitethorn Woods» tells of the people of Rossmore, each with their own story, as they wait for the great road of progress... Подробнее

Neuropath

Scott Bakker, 2009

Tom's life is not what it once was. His marriage to the beautiful Nora is on the rocks and he now sees his two young children only on her say so. His best friend — and best man — Neil has moved away to California to teach neurology. He has one successful book — on human psychology — but he now wiles away the time teaching bored grad students. But that all changes when Neil comes back into his life. For it seems that his best friend was no teacher — he was working for the US government, cracking the minds of suspected terrorists. But now it is Neil himself that has cracked and gone AWOL — what's more he has left behind evidence that he has been employing his unique skills on civilians — obsessed with the idea that he can control the human brain. Thus begins a terrifying sequence of events as Neil starts to kidnap and mutilate people with a connection to Tom. But it is only when he gets near his ultimate target does he reveal the full horror of his plan... Подробнее

Excavation

James Rollins, 2009

High in the Andes, Dr. Henry Conklin discovers a 500-year-old mummy that should not be there. While deep in the South American jungle, Conklin's nephew, Sam, stumbles upon a remarkable site nestled between two towering peaks, a place hidden from human eyes for thousands of years. Ingenious traps have been laid to ensnare the careless and unsuspecting, and wealth beyond imagining could be the reward for those with the courage to face the terrible unknown. But where the perilous journey inward ends — in the cold, shrouded heart of a breathtaking necropolis — something else is waiting for Sam Conklin and his exploratory party. A thing created by Man, yet not humanly possible. Something wondrous...something terrifying. Подробнее

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Sanction

Eric Van Lustbader, 2009

For university professor David Webb — forever caught between two identities — life can never be ordinary. Lately he seems to have found some well-earned normality. But David is still haunted by the splintered nightmares his former life — as Jason Bourne. Soon he finds himself embroiled in a Central Intelligence operation to hunt down a terrorist organisation planning a major attack, and is plunged into the deadliest and most tangled assignment of his double life — and the murky underworld he's been trying to escape. With his own side trying to take him down, all the while an assassin as brilliant and damaged as himself is getting closer by the minute... Подробнее

Horrid Henry's Christmas Cracker

Francesca Simon, 2006

Four fabulously funny stories that will invoke every family's worst Christmas nightmares, as Horrid Henry sabotages the school play, tries to do his Christmas shopping without spending his pocket money, ambushes Father Christmas with some serious accusations, and endures Christmas dinner with the guests from hell. Подробнее

Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman (+ Audio CD)

Francesca Simon, 2007

Building a snowman brings out Henry's competitive streak; he sets up his Monstrous Makeovers business to rival Moody Margaret's Miraculous Makeovers; things go badly wrong when a famous author comes to school; and he thinks 'You'll all be sorry when I'm dead' and spends a rainy day writing his will. Подробнее

The Bride Hunter

Amy Appleton, 2008

Becca Orchard is the Bride Hunter... the woman filthy rich executives turn to when they decide it's time to supplement the perfect house, the perfect car and the perfect job with the perfect wife. Sacked by her ex-lover (and boss) from her corporate head-hunting job, Becca has turned her hand to playing the world's most ruthless cupid. She knows marriages aren't made in heaven — and her success rate speaks for itself. Though she never advertises, and most clients choose to keep her involvement secret, her reputation is growing. So much so that a phone call brings her first ever female client, Sam, who is uncompromising in her husband wish-list. Sam's ever-growing demands threaten to take Becca away from her other match-making assignments, involving a groom-to-be who doesn't even know his employers are setting him up. With three love lives in her control, it's a good job Becca's single. But when a man who meets all of Sam's demands appears on the scene, it's time for Becca to examine her own feelings. And work out whether finding true love really is as simple as matching up CVs… Подробнее

The Sanctuary

Raymond Khoury, 2008

Naples, 1750. In the dead of the night, three men with swords burst into the palazzo of a marquis. The intruders' leader, the Prince of San Severo, accuses the marquis of being an impostor, and demands to know a secret that he believes the man harbours. In the fight that ensues, the false marquis escapes over the rooftops, leaving behind a burning palazzo and a raging prince who is now obsessed with finding his quarry at any cost. Baghdad, 2003. An American army unit hunting down Saddam's inner circle makes a horrifying discovery: a state-of-the-art, concealed lab where dozens — men, women, children — have died after enduring gruesome experiments. The mysterious scientist they were after, a man believed to be working on a bioweapons program and known only as the hakeem — the doctor — escapes, taking with him the startling truth about his work. A puzzling clue is left behind, crudely carved into the wall of one of the underground prison's cells: a circular symbol of a snake feeding on its own tail. So begins Raymond Khoury's explosive new novel, placing two bold women at the centre of the action as they get caught up in a murderous trail of ancient clues. Подробнее

The Secret Shopper's Revenge

Kate Harrison, 2008

New mum Emily wants revenge on the stick-thin assistants who laugh at her post-baby tummy and post-baby budget. But frumpiness has its advantages when you're wielding a secret camera — and sending the damning footage straight to head office. Store manager Sandie has a lifelong love of the world of retail — the glitz, the glamour, the stockroom. Then she's fitted up by an ambitious assistant and secret shopping is the only way to keep her one passion alive. Glamorous widow Grazia can't leave behind the high life, despite her chronically low bank balance. The more she's buying — and spying — the less time she has to mourn her husband or her fair-weather friends who've dumped her. They're Charlie's Shopping Angels, controlled by a mysterious figure who sends them assignments. But when they're sent to stitch up a doomed shop owned by Will, the angels begin to feel divided loyalties ... Подробнее

Don't Be Horrid, Henry! (+ Audio CD)

Francesca Simon, 2008

It's a dreadful shock for Horrid Henry when Perfect Peter is born, and despite his best — or worst — efforts, he can't manage to get rid of him. As Peter gets bigger, Henry gets crosser. But the day comes when Henry inadvertently finds himself saving Peter from a big fierce dog, and discovers that it's rather nice to be a hero. Подробнее

Jane Austen

Carol Shields, 2001

The prizewinning novelist Carol Shields, whose novels have themselves been compared to the works of Jane Austen, gives us a beautifully written, perceptive look at the life of one of the finest and most popular English novelists of all time. Jane Austen spent the first 25 years of her life in Steventon and the last eight in nearby Chawton, and did most of her writing in these two places. She never married although many of her novels are about marriage, and always lived with her parents and sister Cassandra. Whilst not unaware of the larger political and social goings-on at the time, she chose a small canvas for her novels, preferring to focus on the family as a microcosm through which to explore human nature. Carol Shields has written a wonderfully observant and revealing biography of this remarkable writer whose characters are as alive today as they were two hundred years ago, when Jane Austen first gave them breath. Подробнее

Pianist (film tie-in)

Wladyslaw Szpilman, 2002

The powerful and bestselling memoir of a young Jewish pianist who survived the war in Warsaw against all odds. Made into a Bafta and Oscar-winning film. Подробнее

Elizabeth's London: Everyday Life in Elizabethan London

Liza Picard, 2004

Like its acclaimed predecessors, RESTORATION LONDON and DR JOHNSON'S LONDON, this book is the result of the author's passionate interest in the practical details of everyday life — and the conditions in which most people lived — so often ignored in conventional history books. The book begins with the River Thames, which — from its surly water-men to its great occasions — played such a central part in the city's life. It moves on to the streets, houses and gardens; cooking, housework and shopping; clothes, jewellery and make-up; health and medicine; sex and food; education, etiquette and hobbies; religion, law and crime. Подробнее

Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years

Michael Palin, 2007

Michael Palin has kept a diary since newly married in the late 1960s, when he was beginning to make a name for himself as a TV scriptwriter (for the Two Ronnies, David Frost etc). Monty Python was just around the corner. This first volume of his diaries reveals how Python emerged and triumphed, how he, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, the two Terrys — Jones and Gilliam — and Eric Idle, came together and changed the face of British comedy. But this is but only part of Palin's story. Here is his growing family, his home in a north London Victorian terrace; here, too, is his solo work — as an actor, in Three Men in a Boat, his writing endeavours (often in partnership with Terry Jones) that produces Ripping Yarns and even a pantomime. Meanwhile Monty Python refuses to go away: the hugely successful movies that follow the TV (his account of the making of both The Holy Grail and The Life of Brian movies are pager-turners), the at times extraordinary goings on of the many powerful personalities who coalesced to form the Python team, and much more — all this makes perceptive, funny and riveting reading. Подробнее

Old Ironsides: The Military Biography of Oliver Cromwell

Frank Kitson, 2007

Oliver Cromwell was an undistinguished backbench MP in his forties when the English Civil War began. Like many other gentleman farmers, he recruited a regiment and led it to war. However, unlike most of the amateur leaders, he demonstrated a remarkable apptitude for soldiering and rose to become one of Parliament's leading generals. Ultimately he would use his power-base within the army to seize power and rule all Britain. General Sir Frank Kitson's concise military biography reveals how and why Cromwell proved so successful. His accessible narrative provides an excellent potted history of the Civil War, peppered with asides on the practicalities of soldiering in the 17th century. Подробнее

Selling Olga: Stories of Human Trafficking

Louisa Waugh, 2007

… But it feels like another war is still being fought here… a war against women. They are trafficked like cargo, and traded like stock; the price for each calculated according to how much profit can be extracted from her afterwards.' Louisa Waugh has spent three years researching and writing this vivid, unflinching investigation into human trafficking across Europe. She journeys to some of the places most infested with trafficking; talking to women who have been trafficked, and the people who support them in defiance of personal risk. She visits Bosnia and Kosovo, where, more than a decade after civil war first erupted across former Yugoslavia, women are still sold in bars and confined inside private apartments; and where the UN and NATO are both finally attempting to address the ugly complicity of their own peacekeepers. She travels to northern Albania, where chronic poverty coerces women into sex work. In Moldova she meets Olga, who tells her own story in angry, heartbreaking detail. But trafficking is not confined to the Balkans. In Sicily she spends time with Nigerian women who were trafficked by other women, and who are now fighting back. These journeys are courageous attempts to understand trafficking in situ; and to investigate why, in spite of global awareness, relentless anti-trafficking campaigns, and increasing numbers of traffickers being imprisoned, this is still the world's fastest-growing organised crime. She also explores human trafficking in Britain; what happens to women sold into our sex industry, and to migrants trapped in other forms of forced labour within our 'ultra flexible labour market'. Finally, Louisa Waugh puts forward a passionate case for why, in spite of everything, there is genuine hope of change. Подробнее

Twelve Days: Revolution 1956: How the Hungarians Tried to Topple Their Soviet Masters

Victor Sebestyen, 2007

The Hungarian Revolution in 1956 is a story of extraordinary bravery in a fight for freedom, and of ruthless cruelty in suppressing a popular dream. A small nation, its people armed with a few rifles and petrol bombs, had the will and courage to rise up against one of the world's superpowers. The determination of the Hungarians to resist the Russians astonished the West. People of all kinds, throughout the free world, became involved in the cause. For 12 days it looked, miraculously, as though the Soviets might be humbled. Then reality hit back. The Hungarians were brutally crushed. Their capital was devastated, thousands of people were killed and their country was occupied for a further three decades. The uprising was the defining moment of the Cold War: the USSR showed that it was determined to hold on to its European empire, but it would never do so without resistance. From the Prague Spring to Lech Walesa's Solidarity and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the tighter the grip of the communist bloc, the more irresistible the popular demand for freedom. Подробнее

Elizabeth's Spymaster: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War That Saved England

Robert Hutchinson, 2007

Francis Walsingham was the first 'spymaster' in the modern sense. His methods anticipated those of MI5 and MI6 and even those of the KGB. He maintained a network of spies across Europe, including double-agents at the highest level in Rome and Spain — the sworn enemies of Queen Elizabeth and her Protestant regime. His entrapment of Mary Queen of Scots is a classic intelligence operation that resulted in her execution. As Robert Hutchinson reveals, his cypher expert's ability to intercept other peoples' secret messages and his brilliant forged letters made him a fearsome champion of the young Elizabeth. Yet even this machiavellian schemer eventually fell foul of Elizabeth as her confidence grew (and judgement faded). The rise and fall of Sir Francis Walsingham is a Tudor epic, vividly narrated by a historian with unique access to the surviving documentary evidence. Подробнее

Orion Books

Книги

Художественная литература

Фантастика

Детектив

Детская литература

Юмор. Комиксы.

Кулинария

Эротика и секс (18+)

Семья