Notes On A Scandal

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize Zoë Heller's Notes on a Scandal ("A deliciously perverse, laugh-out-loud-funny novel." --Vogue) is a major motion picture from Fox Searchlight starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench Schoolteacher Barbara Covett has led a solitary life until Sheba Hart, the new art teacher at St. George's, befriends her. But even as their relationship develops, so too does another: Sheba has begun an illicit affair with an underage male student. When the scandal turns into a media circus, Barbara decides to write an account in her friend's defense--and ends up revealing not only Sheba's secrets, but also her own.

Follows pottery teacher Cate Blanchett as she enters into an affair with one of her students, causing upheaval in both her personal and professional life.

When Poppy's sister falls to her death from a railway bridge, she begins her own investigation, with devastating results ... A startlingly twisty debut thriller. 'Uncovering the truth propels her into a world of deception. An unsettling whirlwind of a novel with a startlingly dark core. 5 Stars' The Sun 'Sharp, confident writing, as dark and twisty as the Brighton Lanes' Peter James 'Superb up-to-the-minute thriller. Prepare to be seriously disturbed' Paul Finch ____________________ When India falls to her death from a bridge over a railway, her sister Poppy returns home to Brighton for the first time in years. Unconvinced by official explanations, Poppy begins her own investigation into India's death. But the deeper she digs, the closer she comes to uncovering deeply buried secrets. Could Matthew Temple, the boyfriend she abandoned, be involved? And what of his powerful and wealthy parents, and his twin sister, Ana? Enter the mysterious and ethereal Jenny: the girl Poppy discovers after hacking into India's laptop. What is exactly is she hiding, and what did India discover...? A twisty, dark and sexy debut thriller set in the winding lanes and underbelly of Brighton, centring around the social media world, where resentments and accusations are played out, identities made and remade, and there is no such thing as the truth. ____________________ 'Well written, engrossing and brilliantly unique, this is a fab debut' Heat 'With twists and turns in every corner, prepare to be surprised by this psychological mystery' Closer 'Lucy V Hay's fiction debut is a twisted and chilling tale that takes place on the streets of Brighton ... Like Peter James before her, Hay utilises the Brighton setting to create a claustrophobic and complex read that will have you questioning and guessing from start to finish. The Other Twin is a killer crime-thriller that you won't be able to put down' CultureFly 'Crackles with tension' Karen Dionne 'A fresh and raw thrill-ride through Brighton ́s underbelly. What an enjoyable read!' Lilja Sigurðardóttir 'Slick and compulsive' Random Things through My Letterbox 'A propulsive, inventive and purely addictive psychological thriller for the social media age' Crime by the Book 'Intense, pacy, psychological debut. The author's background in scriptwriting shines through' Mari Hannah 'The book merges form and content so seamlessly ... a remarkable debut from an author with a fresh, intriguing voice and a rare mastery of the art of storytelling' Joel Hames 'This chilling, claustrophobic tale set in Brighton introduces an original, fresh new voice in crime fiction' Cal Moriarty 'The writing shines from every page of this twisted tale ... debuts don't come sharper than this' Ruth Dugdall 'Wrong-foots you in ALL the best ways' Caz Frear 'Original, daring and emotionally truthful' Paul Burston 'A cracker of a debut! I couldn't put it down' Paula Daly

Extends the feminist analysis of representation to the realm of performance

A lonely schoolteacher reveals more than she intends when she records the story of her best friend's affair with a pupil in this sly, insightful novel Schoolteacher Barbara Covett has led a solitary existence; aside from her cat, Portia, she has few friends and no intimates. When Sheba Hart joins St. George's as the new art teacher, Barbara senses the possibility of a new friendship. It begins with lunches and continues with regular invitations to meals with Sheba's seemingly close-knit family. But as Barbara and Sheba's relationship develops, another does as well: Sheba has begun a passionate affair with an underage male student. When it comes to light and Sheba falls prey to the inevitable media circus, Barbara decides to write an account in her friend's defense—an account that reveals not only Sheba's secrets but her own. What Was She Thinking? is a story of repression and passion, envy and complacence, friendship and loneliness. A complex psychological portrait framed as a wicked satire, it is by turns funny, poignant, and sinister. With it, Zoë Heller surpasses the promise of her critically acclaimed first novel, Everything You Know. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize What Was She Thinking? is the basis of the 2006 film, Notes on a Scandal, starring Judi Dench and Kate Blanchett.

“[Zoe Heller] is an extraordinarily entertaining writer, and this novel showcases her copious gifts, including a scathing, Waugh-like wit.”—New York Times Best-selling author Zoe Heller has followed up the critical and commercial success of What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal with another tour-de-force on the meaning of faith, belief, and trust: The Believers. Tragic and comic, witty and intense, The Believers is the story of a dysfunctional family forced by tragedy to confront their own personal demons. In the vein of Claire Messud and Zadie Smith, Zoe Heller has written that rare novel that tackles the big ideas without sacrificing page-turning readability.

Many have told of the East India Company’s extraordinary excesses in eighteenth-century India, of the plunder that made its directors fabulously wealthy and able to buy British land and titles, but this is only a fraction of the story. When one of these men—Warren Hastings—was put on trial by Edmund Burke, it brought the Company’s exploits to the attention of the public. Through the trial and after, the British government transformed public understanding of the Company’s corrupt actions by creating an image of a vulnerable India that needed British assistance. Intrusive behavior was recast as a civilizing mission. In this fascinating, and devastating, account of the scandal that laid the foundation of the British Empire, Nicholas Dirks explains how this substitution of imperial authority for Company rule helped erase the dirty origins of empire and justify the British presence in India. The Scandal of Empire reveals that the conquests and exploitations of the East India Company were critical to England’s development in the eighteenth century and beyond. We see how mercantile trade was inextricably linked with imperial venture and scandalous excess and how these three things provided the ideological basis for far-flung British expansion. In this powerfully written and trenchant critique, Dirks shows how the empire projected its own scandalous behavior onto India itself. By returning to the moment when the scandal of empire became acceptable we gain a new understanding of the modern culture of the colonizer and the colonized and the manifold implications for Britain, India, and the world.

“[A] perfectly orchestrated girl-who-cried-wolf thriller.”—The New York Times Book Review A dark, utterly compulsive novel about what happens when the warped imagination of a teenage girl turns into reality… When fifteen-year-old Yasmin—obese, obsessive and deemed a freak by her peers—sees a sinister man watching Alice Taylor from the school fence, she becomes convinced he’s planning to take her. After all, who wouldn’t want the popular and perfect Alice? Then Yasmin realizes if she can find out who he is before he acts, she’ll be the only one who can tell the police, save Alice and become Alice’s heroine. But as Yasmin discovers more about this man, her affections begin to shift. Perhaps she was wrong about him. Perhaps she doesn’t need Alice after all… And then Alice vanishes.

Susan Sontag (1933-2004) spoke of the promiscuity of art and literature--the willingness of great artists and writers to scandalize their spectators through critical frankness, complexity, and beauty. Sontag's life and thought were no less promiscuous. She wrote deeply and engagingly about a range of subjects--theater, sex, politics, novels, torture, and illness--and courted celebrity and controversy both publicly and privately. Throughout her career, she not only earned adulation but also provoked scorn. Her living was the embodiment of scandal. In this collection, Terry Castle, Nancy K. Miller, Wayne Koestenbaum, E. Ann Kaplan, and other leading scholars revisit Sontag's groundbreaking life and work. Against Interpretation, "Notes on Camp," Letter from Hanoi, On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, I, Etcetera, and The Volcano Lover--these works form the center of essays no less passionate and imaginative than Sontag herself. Debating questions raised by the thinker's own images and identities, including her sexuality, these works question Sontag's status as a female intellectual and her parallel interest in ambitious and prophetic fictional women; her ambivalence toward popular culture; and her personal and professional "scandals." Paired with rare photographs and illustrations, this timely anthology expands our understanding of Sontag's images and power.