JAMES HAMILTON PATERSON

The hero of this black farce of a book is Gerald Samper, a ghostwriter to unbearable sports celebrities and rock stars, whose dream is to write the libretto of an opera... Muy divertida, un argumento

1961. A squadron of Vulcan aircraft, Britains most lethal nuclear bomber, flies towards the east coast of the United States. Highly manoeuvrable, the great delta-winged machines are also equipped with state of the art electronic warfare devices that jam American radar systems. Evading the fighters scrambled to intercept them, the British aircraft target Washington and New York, reducing them to smoking ruins. They would have done, at least, if this were not an exercise. This extraordinary raid (which actually took place) opens James Hamilton-Patersons remarkable novel about the lives of British pilots at the height of the Cold War, when aircrew had to be on call 24 hours a day to fly their nuclear-armed V-bombers to the Western USSR and devastate the lives of millions. This is the story of Squadron-Leader Amos McKenna, a Vulcan pilot who is suffering from desires and frustrations that are tearing his marriage apart and making him question his ultimate loyalties. Relations with the American cousins are tense; the future of the RAF bomber fleet is in doubt. And there is a spy at RAF Wearsby, who is selling secrets to his Russian handlers in seedy East Anglian cafes.A macabre Christmas banquet at which aircrew under intolerable pressures go crazy, with tragic consequences, and a dramatic and disastrous encounter with the Americans in the Libyan desert, are among the high points of a novel that surely conveys the beauty and danger of flying better than any other in recent English literature.

In 1945 Britain was the worlds leading designer and builder of aircraft - a world-class achievement that was not mere rhetoric. And what aircraft they were. The sleek Comet, the first jet airliner. The awesome delta-winged Vulcan, an intercontinental bomber that could be thrown about the sky like a fighter. The Hawker Hunter, the most beautiful fighter-jet ever built and the Lightning, which could zoom ten miles above the clouds in a couple of minutes and whose pilots rated flying it as better than sex.How did Britain so lose the plot that today there is not a single aircraft manufacturer of any significance in the country? What became of the great industry of de Havilland or Handley Page? And what was it like to be alive in that marvellous post-war moment when innovative new British aircraft made their debut, and pilots were the rock stars of the age?James Hamilton-Paterson captures that season of glory in a compelling book that fuses his own memories of being a schoolboy plane spotter with a ruefully realistic history of British decline - its loss of self confidence and power. It is the story of great and charismatic machines and the men who flew them: heroes such as Bill Waterton, Neville Duke, John Derry and Bill Beaumont who took inconceivable risks, so that we could fly without a second thought.

Seven-Tenths is James Hamilton-Patersons classic exploration of the sea. A beautifully-written blend of literature and science, it is here brought back into print in a revised and updated edition which includes the acclaimed essay Sea Burial.

A classic of travel writing. For many years award-winning writer James Hamilton-Paterson spent a third of each year on an otherwise uninhabited Philippine island, spear-fishing for survival. Playing with Water tells us why he did. Yet it also gives an account of life in that class-bound country as a whole. For it is in places like this rather than Manila of the international news reports that the underlying political and cultural reality of the Philippines may be seen.

In 1945 Britain was the worlds leading designer and builder of aircraft - a world-class achievement that was not mere rhetoric. And what aircraft they were. The sleek Comet, the first jet airliner. The awesome delta-winged Vulcan, an intercontinental bomber that could be thrown about the sky like a fighter. The Hawker Hunter, the most beautiful fighter-jet ever built and the Lightning, which could zoom ten miles above the clouds in a couple of minutes and whose pilots rated flying it as better than sex.How did Britain so lose the plot that today there is not a single aircraft manufacturer of any significance in the country? What became of the great industry of de Havilland or Handley Page? And what was it like to be alive in that marvellous post-war moment when innovative new British aircraft made their debut, and pilots were the rock stars of the age?James Hamilton-Paterson captures that season of glory in a compelling book that fuses his own memories of being a schoolboy plane spotter with a ruefully realistic history of British decline - its loss of self confidence and power. It is the story of great and charismatic machines and the men who flew them: heroes such as Bill Waterton, Neville Duke, John Derry and Bill Beaumont who took inconceivable risks, so that we could fly without a second thought. In this special fully illustrated and lavishly produced large format hardback edition Jamess text is joined by glorious photographs that precisely capture the elegance, excitement and genius of these extraordinary aircraft, and offer a behind the scenes glimpse into a lost world of pioneering design, engineering and the daring of a generation of test pilots.

Nearing the end of his career, Sir Edward Elgar impulsively decides to travel by ship to Brazil, where he encounters a woman from his past. Set in 1923 and based on true events, Gernontius is a modern classic, and takes the great composer out of his depths in this beautiful, episodic, mysterious novel set in 1923.

La gent que caçava micos a la jungla un dia va inventar un parany senzillpero eficaç: quan lanimal va trobar un platan dins dun pot gros de collestret, hi va enfonsar la pota per treurel. Pero no va poder. Si el mico nodeixava anar el platan, estava atrapat.Nosaltres, es clar, som aquell mico atrapat, paralitzats pels nostres estilsde vida moderns i pels nostres habits de consum: la tirallonga constantdenviaments de compres per correu, la nostra dependencia compulsivadels aparells digitals, lobsessio amb els animals de companyia. Aquestesaddiccions, per petites i inofensives que puguin semblar, estan destruintsilenciosament el planeta. I les alternatives ecologiques que alleugen lanostra mala consciencia sovint no son gaire millors.A El mico atrapat, James Hamilton-Paterson ens mostra la veritatque hi ha darrere dels habits quotidians que alimenten la crisi climatica.Basant-se en dades cientifiques reveladores i en estadistiques xocants,dissecciona sense pietat un espectre ampli delements de la vida moderna:animals de companyia, jardineria, esports, vehicles, moda, benestar,vacances, etc. Aquest llibre, ferotgement impavid i intelligent, us faraplantejar els costums innocents que tot sovint donem per fet.