Robinson Publishing

From a leading expert in Japanese history, this is one of the first full histories of the art and culture of the Samurai warrior. The Samurai emerged as a warrior caste in Medieval Japan and would have a powerful influence on the history and culture of the country from the next 500 years. Clements also looks at the Samurai wars that tore Japan apart in the 17th and 18th centuries and how the caste was finally demolished in the advent of the mechanized world.

Jake Haggar has been kidnapped by his father who is threatening to sell the boy to a paedophile ring. Carlyle is struggling to get him back. It's not his case but it is his problem - it was his fault Jake was taken in the first place. But Carlyle's own caseload includes the murder of Agatha Mills. Her husband, Henry, has been arrested for murder but his explanation is so outlandish that Carlyle wonders if it may just be true. Agatha is the sister of William Pettigrew, a priest killed in Chile during the Fascist coup in 1973 and after 30 years of campaigning, Agatha was about to see his killer brought to justice. So a seemingly straightforward case of murder quickly escalates into a diplomatic incident that has Carlyle, once again, clashing with his bosses and their political masters...

The history of the Freemasons has been often shrouded in mystery and suspicion. Since 1717, with the establishment of the Grand Lodge in London, the Freemasons have been a power within the nation, withstanding attacks from the Catholic Church, Hitler and public disapproval. Throughout the last three hundred years, the Freemasons have been influential in some of the most important turning points in History. Jasper Ridley explores the role of the society in both the American and French Revolutions and whether Mozart's "The Magic Flute" was an expose of secret rituals. He reveals that Pushkin, Winston Churchill, Booker T. Washington, Clark Gable, Walter Scott, members of the royal family and at least 16 US Presidents were all members.

Beginning in the broken aftermath of the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles that made German recovery almost impossible, Whittock tells not just the account of the men who rose to the fore in the dangerous days of the Weimar republic, circling around the cult of personality generated by Adolf Hitler, but also a convincing and personality-driven overview of how ordinary Germans became seduced by the dreams of a new world order, the Third Reich. The book also gives a fascinating insight into the everyday life in Germany during the Second World War and explores key questions such as how much did the Germans know about the Holocaust and why did the regime eventually fail so disastrously?

Zkratka KIA připojená ke jménu pilota znamenala smrt v boji. V případě F/Lt Benigna Štefana to byla smrt v kokpitu stíhačky britského Královského letectva na pobřeží daleké Bretaně. Téměř před sedmdesáti lety, v předvečer nejtragičtějšího konfliktu v dějinách lidstva, nastalo v českém národě nebývalé vzepětí národního cítění. Tehdy odešlo z vlasti, okupované Hitlerem, do zahraničí mnoho mladých mužů, odhodlaných se zbraní v ruce vybojovat zpět ztracenou svobodu. Příběh královéhradecké rodiny Stefanů toto vlastenectví přímo ztělesňuje. Benignus Štefan, jeho bratři, jeho matka, jeho kamarádi - ti všichni naplnili pojem láska k vlasti měrou vrchovatou. Jejich příběhy jsou o umírání a strádání, ale jejich raport nám dává právo být na ně hrdi. A to je pocit, který není běžně ke koupi. Publikace je rovněž doplněna mnoha fotografiemi - černobílými a barevnými.

The morning of Agatha's marriage to James Lacey dawns bright and clear. But her luck runs out in the church when Jimmy, the husband she had believed long dead, turns up large as life and twice as ugly. Agatha has a go at strangling him. James breaks off the engagement. So when Jimmy is found murdered next day, Agatha and James are both the prime suspects. And they'll have to work together in order to clear their names ...Praise for the Agatha Raisin series: 'M. C. Beaton's imperfect heroine is an absolute gem.' Publishers Weekly 'The detective novels of M. C. Beaton, a master of outrageous black comedy, have reached cult status.' The Times 'Being a cranky, middle-aged female myself, I found Agatha charming!' Amazon customer review 'I dream of being able to speak out like Aggie ...she's a heroine!' A. Lucas, Essex, reader review

Despite our tendency to think of the demonic as evil and the angelic as good, our own legends don't always bear this out. Angels can be the incarnation of light and salvation, but they can also fall - Satan himself is a fallen angel. Demons can be truly demonic, but these unearthly creatures can also, on occasion, lend humankind a hand. Temptation can lead to revelation, supernatural messengers who bring true justice may not be welcomed, and beings seeking redemption can be blind to mortal needs. Stories from world-renowned authors of science fiction and fantasy - including Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin and Joyce Carol Oates - and rising stars portray angels in all their glory, demons at their most dreadful, and a surprising variety of modern interpretations of ancient myth.

42 fantastic stories from Britain's best crime writers. A superb collection of the year's most outstanding short crime fiction published in the UK. Jakubowski has succeeded, as ever, in showcasing the impressive breadth of crime writing, from cosy tales of detection to noir mayhem and psychological suspense and terror. There are puzzles to solve, nagging questions about the nature of the society in which we live, but, above all, there is an abundance of first-class entertainment. Last year saw a sixth Crime Writers Association Dagger award for the series - shared between Margaret Murphy and Cath Staincliffe - and an Edgar award for Peter Turnbull. All three award-winning stories are included in this volume. Lee Child makes his debut and there is a first story from Neil Gaiman, too, in Sherlockian rather than fantastical mode. Return offenders include Ann Cleeves, Phil Lovesey and Ruth Rendell, among many other familiar names. There are a number of newcomers to the series, too, including Nina Allan, Joel Lane and Lisa Tuttle.

A collection of 48 original, sensual and provocative sexual adventures, the twelfth volume of The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica offers the very best new work of both deservedly well-known names and up-and-coming talents, including Peggy Munson, for the first time; Elissa Wald; French author Emma Becker; award-winning SF writer Kij Johnson; an acclaimed crime author writing as Pat McStone; San Francisco photographer Charles Gatewood; and newcomer I. J. Miller. Here you will find an exciting diversity of erotic writing which explores the full breadth of human emotional, sensual and sexual experience - vanilla is emphatically not the only flavour - in stories which are by turns intriguing, shocking, fascinating and enchanting. Other contributors include Michael Hemmingson, Victoria Janssen, Ashley Lister and Kristina Lloyd. 'Contract between Czarina and her Submissive Anais' by Gala Fur and Veronique Bergen 'The Horniest Girl in San Francisco' by Charles Gatewood 'Spar' by Kij Johnson 'Whore' by D. L. King 'The Blood Moon Kiss' by Mitzi Szereto 'Stella' by Saskia Walker And many more ...

Our dark past brought to life by leading contemporary crime writers A new generation of crime writers has broadened the genre of crime fiction, creating more human stories of historical realism, with a stronger emphasis on character and the psychology of crime. This superb anthology of 12 novellas encompasses over 4,000 years of our dark, criminal past, from Bronze Age Britain to the eve of the Second World War, with stories set in ancient Greece, Rome, the Byzantine Empire, medieval Venice, seventh-century Ireland and 1930s' New York. A Byzantine icon painter, suddenly out of work when icons are banned, becomes embroiled in a case of deception; Charles Babbage and the young Ada Byron try to crack a coded message and stop a master criminal; and New York detectives are on the lookout for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Deirdre Counihan, Tom Holt, Dorothy Lumley, Richard A. Lupoff, Maan Meyers, Ian Morson, Anne Perry, Tony Pollard, Mary Reed and Eric Mayer, Steven Saylor, Charles Todd, Peter Tremayne

Monsterrific stories by top names in horror writing Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies, Ghouls ...these and many other Creatures of the Night are featured in this bumper collection of stories by such authors as Clive Barker, Harlan Ellison, Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, Tanith Lee, Michael Marshall Smith, Kim Newman, Joe R. Lansdale, Lisa Tuttle, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Basil Copper and many others. Here you'll discover creatures both unnatural and manmade, as the walking dead rise from their graves, immortal bloodsuckers seek human nourishment, deformed monstrosities pursue their victims across the countryside, and the ugliest of nightmares is revealed to have a soul. Drawn from the pages of legend and literature, these stories feature Things that slither, stagger, swoop, stomp and scamper. So bolt the doors, lock the windows and shiver in the shadows, because no-one is safe when the Monsters are loose .

An anthology focusing on newer elements of steampunk, one which deconstructs the staples of the genre and expands on them, rather than simply repeating them, with a greater spread both in terms of location and character. This is steampunk with a modern, post-colonial sensibility. Contributors include: Jeff VanderMeer, Caitlin Kiernan, Mary Robinette Kowal, Jay Lake, Cherie Priest, Cat Rambo, Catherynne M. Valente, Genevieve Valentine and many more.

A humorous collection of hundreds of funny news stories, whacky phenomena, and hilarious blunders and gaffes from around the world, such as: the woman who smuggled 75 live snakes in her bra; the man who held a funeral for his amputated foot; the radioactive cat which got mistaken for a bomb; the human tongue that got served up in a hospital; the X-ray that revealed E.T.'s face in a duck; the youth who woke to find a bullet in his tongue; the tortoise that set a house on fire; and many more.

You can't keep a good (or bad) corpse down, and they rise up in spectacular form in this new collection. The mindless, shambling zombies of yesteryear are rapidly being replaced by sprinters and runners with an insatiable appetite for human flesh. These days zombies are the rock and roll of horror monsters. Presenting a mix of voodoo victims, creepy somnambulists, and flesh eating, rock n roll deadheads, The Mammoth Book of Zombie Comics brings you the best the graveyard can give. From film sources and literary sources to some very strange sources, here over 20 of the best zombie comics ever produced. They include the first Vince Locke Deadworld comic, Scott Hampton's awesome adaptation of RE Howard's Pigeons From Hell, plus stories from Steve Niles, Darko Macan, and many, many more. If it's dead, moving and hungry, you'll find it here! Praise for Mammoth Book of War Comics 'Whether read cover-to-cover or dipped into at random, it is exactly what anthologies should be: rich, varied and endlessly rewarding.' Irish Times '...an admirable and enlightening collection.' The List

The zombie - a soulless corpse raised from the grave to do its master's bidding - may have had its factual basis in the voodoo ceremonies of the West Indies, but it is in fiction, movies, video games and comics that the walking dead have flourished. What makes a zombie? This Twentieth Anniversary Edition of one of the first and most influential zombie anthologies answers that question with 26 tales of rot and resurrection from classic authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, M. R. James and J. Sheridan Le Fanu, along with modern masters of the macabre Clive Barker, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, Hugh B. Cave, Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Lumley, Graham Masterton, Kim Newman, Michael Marshall Smith, Lisa Tuttle, Karl Edward Wagner and many more. From Caribbean rituals to ancient magic, mesmerism to modern science, these terrifying tales depict a wide range of nefarious methods and questionable reasons for bringing the dead back to life again.

A "mosaic novel" set in the near-future, when a desperate and ever-more controlling UK government decides to restore a sense of national pride with a New Festival of Britain. However, controversial plans to build on the site of an old church in South London releases a centuries-old plague that turns its victims into flesh-hungry ghouls whose bite or scratch passes the contagion on to others. Even worse, the virus may also have a supernatural origin with the power to revive the dead. Despite the attempts of the police, the military and those in power to understand and contain the infection commonly referred to as "The Death", it soon sweeps across London, transforming everyone who comes into contact with it. With the city - and the country - falling into chaos, even a drastic attempt at a "Final Solution" to eradicate the outbreak at its source fails to prevent it from spreading to Europe and then quickly throughout the rest of the world. Soon there is no more news coming out of Britain ...and it is up to those survivors in other countries to confront the flesh-eating invaders within their midst. Will humanity triumph over a world-wide zombie plague, or will the walking dead ultimately inherit the Earth? Told through various disparate and overlapping eye-witness accounts, through texts, e-mails, blogs, letters, diaries, transcripts, official reports and other forms of communication, a picture builds up of a world plunged into chaos - where the dead attack the living, and only one of them can be the ultimate victor. Written by some of the biggest and best-known names in horror and science fiction, these interconnected narratives create a unique vision of the End of the World brought about by a plague that may have its origins in both science and the occult. Praise for Stephen Jones: 'Horror's last maverick.' - Christopher Fowler 'Stephen Jones ...has a better sense of the genre than almost anyone in this country.'- Lisa Tuttle, The Times Books 'The best horror anthologist in the business is, of course, Stephen Jones.' - Roz Kavaney, Time Out 'Edited by Stephen Jones, a member of that tiny band of anthologists whose work is so reliably good that you automatically reach out and grab hold of any new volume spotted if you are wise.' - Gahan Wilson, Realms of Fantasy 'One of the genre's most enthusiastic cheerleaders.' - Publishers Weekly