parthian books cardigan (271 results)

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The south Wales Valleys, 23rd June, 2016. It's another long day chopping beef carcasses up at the slaughterhouse for former reality TV star and Iron Man contender, Caleb Jenkins, whose untroubled world unravelled when his old man's carpet business went bust last year, another casualty of the global financial crisis. While he's busy trying to manage the well- being of his conspiracy-theorist brother, the mortgage keeping a roof over his bankrupt parents' heads, his own excruciating grief, internal rage and impossible credit score, politicians of all persuasions are promising the scared and voiceless people around him real change. Desperate for acknowledgement and a transformation he can't quite bring about by his own means, Caleb is on the edge. Easy Meat is a glimpse of a young man and a country on the verge of a momentous decision. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Wikipedia-obsessed cats, deleted tweets, James Franco's mother, west Wales, and Barcelona. Both bleak and joyously optimistic, All The Places We Lived is a collection of disparate, yet inextricably connected stories that are bound by the common threads that exist amongst young people in and out of love with each other and life in the twenty-first century. Whether keenly awaiting an imagined terror attack in a twenty-third floor glass box hotel, wandering Catalonian art galleries, or two AM jogging on pitch-black A-roads, solitude is never a truly concrete experience. There is always someone else: someone to buy a dilapidated rural house with, someone to laugh with, someone to get fired with, someone to fight with, someone to ride bikes with. Richard Owain Roberts has assembled a debut collection of contemporary fiction that is minimalist, confrontational, delicate, and, relentlessly, the absolute unfiltered truth. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Exploring a boy's childhood in Barcelona during the Franco dictatorship, Under the Dust is based on the autobiographical experience of prize-winning Catalan author Jordi Coca. In period and location - an oppressive late 1940s and early 50s when the dictatorship's repression was strongly felt at all levels of people's everyday lives - the novel echoes the recent bestseller The Shadow of the Wind. But the affecting closeness of the boy's first-person narrative and its pitiless realism set this book apart. The boy's bewildered responses to his father's violence and authoritarianism are played out at home and in a neighbourhood dominated by street gangs, where politics is never more than a block away. This novel was awarded the Sant Jordi prize in 2000. A tough implacable novel that makes no concessions.its ending has a rawness to chill the spirit of the hardiest reader. - Avui. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Beca Lewis was so hoping for the fluffy toy pony she had seen in the shop window. But on her birthday there was only an envelope from her parents on the table. She didn't know that she would soon be hugging her own real live pony. Siani the Shetland is black and furry, with quite a mind of her own. To Beca she is a dream come true. Siani's high spirits can land them both in trouble; but when danger threatens the farm, Siani knows what to do - even if it means putting herself at risk. It includes illustrations by Pamela Cartwright. It is suitable for ages 9-11 or Key Stage 2. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Traveling through Tanzanian landscapes and a Middle Eastern desert, this story charts a journey in which a fit, successful woman wakes up one morning to find something terribly wrong. Her condition defies diagnosis until a wise osteopath helps uncover a history, terror from the past, which her body has stored and remembered for her. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. For anyone struggling to conceive or have a child naturally, this straightforward self-help book could be the answer. Written in an easy-to-read style by consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician, Dr. Sean Watermeyer, the aim of the book is to enrich the knowledge of both individuals and couples so that the dream of having a child becomes a reality. Dr. Watermeyer has been helping couples to conceive, carry and deliver babies for over a decade, and now wants to share his expertise with as many people as possible. This comprehensive book explores the causes of infertility and miscarriage, available investigations and options and potential benefits, risks, and outcomes. It also provides a step-by-step guide to IVF. Filled with insightful detail, clinical case studies and clear diagrams, this book will also be a valuable tool for health professionals supporting couples experiencing fertility problems. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Good. Beautiful widow Joan D'Silva is at Howrah Station, fleeing Calcutta with her 11-year-old son Errol. Also on the same train is Laxhimi, a notorious hijira prostitute: charismatic, sensual and powerful. They are both running away to Lucknow to escape danger, but soon their lives will become entangled in a web of corruption and blackmail. Who is responsible for the poisoning at the factory? Is it the Workers Revolutionary Movement, the Children of God under the sway of the charismatic Swami Naik, or someone else entirely? If only the police could help. But Detective Inspector Mallothra has based his investigative style on Mickey Spillane novels so it's down to Joan, her friends, and of course Errol, to unmask the perpetrator. With a cast of colourful characters, this new novel by Glen Peters is inspired by his youth in the dwindling Anglo-Indian community. It is a witty, vivid tale of intrigue, immersed in the sights, sounds, smells and especially the tastes of 1960s India. The second title in Glen's series of Mrs D'Silva novels. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This selection of fiction marks the centenary of Rhys Davies' birth and includes some of his best work. Dark, witty, and acutely observed, these finely-crafted stories put small-town life under the microscope. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. In this informal guide to Wales, Griff Rhys Jones rediscovers "the land of his aunties". Born in Cardiff but raised in Essex, Griff is returning home on a mission to explore the real Wales: the one beyond the tourist trail that exists in the deep beautiful countryside, full of hidden treasures and eccentric characters that makes this country so unique. With help from a hidden hand, Griff is set a number of quests in eight distinct regions that not only test his knowledge of his homeland but his body too, as he climbs, abseils, rides and canoes his way through some truly breathtaking scenery. Join Griff on his journey through Snowdonia, Anglesey, the Gower, mid Wales, Brecon, Pembrokeshire, north Wales and Monmouthshire. Packed with all manners of weird, wonderful and enlightening facts, you'll learn as much about Wales as you do Griff. Is Griff insufficiently welsh? Published to coincide with Griff 's Guide to Wales on ITV1 (national) beginning at 8pm, Monday 6th January. Full colour hardback edition featuring photography from the series. Estimated viewing figure is 5 million. The series will run for eight weeks (30min per episode) and is backed by Visit Wales. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. In July 2013, David Thatcher died of a drug overdose in America. More than you were was written by his daughter, to try to understand what came after. The result is a striking collection of poetry which explores addiction, family politics, childhood memories and grief. Her short, sharp poems home in on situations to reveal their complex relationship and the challenges she faced after losing him. Thatcher weaves the darkest memories - the murder of pets, the burning down of a childhood home, the blood stains on white tiles - with ones which betray a tenderness and love. A brave debut, More than you were, explores what it means to lose a father to an addiction and live on. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. One of Merthyr's Victorian brickyard girls, Saran watches the world parade past her doorstep on the banks of the stinking and rat-infested Morlais Brook: the fair-day revellers; the chapel-goers and the funeral processions. She never misses a trip to the town's wooden theatres, despite her life ruled by the 5 a.m. hooter, pit strikes, politics and the First World War that takes away so many of her children. Her Glyn will work a treble shift for beer money; her brother Harry is the district's most notorious drinker and fighter until he is 'saved'. The town changes and grows but Saran is still there for Glyn, for Harry, for her children and grandchildren. In his 1935 novel "Black Parade", writer, soldier and political activist Jack Jones creates a superbly riotous, clear and unsentimental picture of Merthyr life as his home town reels headlong into the twentieth century. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. A slice of some of the best stories in Welsh writing, including Mrs Kuroda on Pen-y-Fan, An Evening with your Ex, Too Perfect, Antifreeze, and The Sleepwalker. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Paints a graphic portrait of the casual exploitation, tragedy and violence as well as the political hope and humanity of south Wales industrial workers of the 1920s and 1930s. Big Jim and his partner Shan endure and overcome the impact of strikes, riots and war, while their son Len emerges as a sharp thinker and dynamic political organiser. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. An English translation from an acclaimed Welsh writer, this romantic fantasy novel won the 1992 Welsh National Eisteddfod Prose Medal. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. These are hymns and elegies; protest songs and battle cries as Jones speaks to and for the disaffected: 'We are the tapestry / The crackling cracks of modernity / Dislocated desperations stitched together / By the disparate verses of our skin / I write therefore we exist / We exist therefore i write / And from this page this scream.' In this new anniversary edition some of the poems - like his popular, ever-evolving 'the guerilla tapestry' - have been reworked for 2021, taking in the contemporary concerns of Brexit, Extinction Rebellion, Black Lives Matter, Yes Cymru, food banks, asylum seekers and zero hour workers. 28 new poems turn their gaze to the personal, covering grief and loss, broken trust and marriage, betrayal and forgiveness, haunted by ghosts of both the living and the dead. An inventory of scars where love once lived. fuse / fracture also includes a selection of poems from his other publications over the past two decades: Darkness is Where the Stars Are (Cinnamon Press, 2008), The Aspirations of Poverty (Red Poets Press, 2017) and My Bright Shadow (Rough Trade Books, 2020) as well as some of his lyrics from James Dean Bradfield's recent album Even in Exile (BMG Music Publishing, 2020. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Wiltshire 1860: One year after Darwin's explosive publication of The Origin of Species, sisters Anna and Beatrice Pentecost awaken to a world shattered by science, radicalism and the stirrings of feminist rebellion; a world of charismatic religious movements, Spiritualist seances, bitter loss and medical trauma. Fetishist of working women Arthur Munby, irascible antiquary General Pitt Rivers, feminist Barbara Bodichon and other historical figures of the Victorian epoch wander through the backdrop of the novel, as Anna's anomalous love for Lore Ritter and her friendship with freethinking and ambitious Miriam Sala carry her into areas of uncharted desire - while Beatrice, forced to choose between her beloved Will Anwyl and the evangelist Christian Ritter, who marked her out as a wife when she was only a child, is pulled between passion and duty. Each is riven by inner contradictions, but who will survive when the sisters fall into a fatal conflict with one another? The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. RARELY HAS THE POWER OF CINEMA BEEN FELT BY SO MANY, IN SUCH OPPOSING WAYS. "Love Actually dulls the critical senses, making those susceptible to its hallucinogenic powers think they've seen a funny, warm-hearted, romantic film about the many complex manifestations of love. Colourful Narcotics. A perfect description of a bafflingly popular film." By any reasonable measurement, Love Actually is a bad movie. There are plenty of bad movies out there, but what gets under Gary Raymond's skin here is that it seems to have tricked so many people into thinking it's a good movie. In this hilarious, scene-by-scene analysis of the Christmas monolith that is Love Actually, Gary Raymond takes us through a suffocating quagmire of badly drawn characters, nonsensical plotlines, and open bigotry, to a climax of ill-conceived schmaltz. How Love Actually Ruined Christmas (or Colourful Narcotics) is the definitive case against a terrible movie. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. A freak tidal surge hits a shabby Welsh seaside town leaving considerable damage and three locals drowned. But when the remains of a fourth are found in the filth and debris it takes time for their identification as a celebrated Oxford historian Sara Meredith. The mystery of her disappearance from the town caused at the time that has still not died down. Now it returns to overshadow the lives of the few people who were close to her and causes one in particular to search for a resolution.What is known is that she arrived here in pursuit of her young runaway daughter: Eurwen- a Welsh name, a difficult name for an impossible girl. As any concerned parent would, Meredith has followed her to the home of her ex-husband where the girl was last seen. But from the moment she arrives here she is herself stalked by someone who appears to know a great deal too much about both mother and child. Her every move is dogged and, it seems, predicted while each desperate effort to locate the girl is thwarted rather than helped by the people she meets and the town itself. And then there are Meredith's own misdemeanours to be accounted for. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. In every atlas there is a country missing from the maps of South America: the Andean nation. For five months John Harrison journeys through this secret country, walking alone into remote villages where he is the first gringo the inhabitants have ever seen, and where life continues as if Columbus had never sailed. He lives at over 10,000 feet for most of the trip, following the great road of the Incas: the Camino Real, or Royal Road. Hand built over 500 years ago, it crosses the most difficult and dangerous mountains in all the Americas, diving into sweltering canyons and soaring up into the snows. 1500 miles, half of it on foot, takes him from the Equator to Cuzco and the most magical city of all: Machu Picchu. He is attacked, gets lost and is trapped by floods, but only when he goes home does he lose what he wants most. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Casablanca, 1992. In a white Art Deco villa, a man is pushed down the marble staircase to his death. His murder, never truly explained, fractures a family, a way of life, and the minds of both his wife and his daughter. To survive, his nine-year-old granddaughter carefully suppresses her memories until twenty years later, when her life is once more ripped apart, this time by a disastrous love affair. Returning to Casablanca, she relives the tragedy of her grandfather's murder and the events surrounding it. But now she sees it all not simply through the eyes of an innocent child, but with an adult's awareness that things - and people - might not always be quite as they seem. In a beautifully constructed first-person narrative that shifts in time and place, young French-Moroccan writer Ma -Do Hamisultane weaves a delicate web of fact and fiction. Her prose - sometimes luminous, often powerfully cinematographic - has drawn comparisons with Marguerite Duras, one of France's most famous novelists and experimental film-makers. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The Alone to the Alone unites Gwyn Thomas's lyrical and philosophical flights of narrative in a satire whose savagery is only relieved by irrepressible laughter. It is Gwyn Thomas' most shaped work: the underlying meaning of South Wales' history is not so much documented as laid bare for universal dissection and dissemination. The novel, with its distinctive plural narration, is a choric commentary on human illusion and knowledge, on power and its attendant deprivation, on dreams and their destruction. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Winner of the 2015 New Welsh Writing Awards: WWF Cymru Prize for Writing on Nature and the EnvironmentShortlisted for the 2016 Wales Book of the Year: The Open University in Wales Creative Non-Fiction Award'Eluned Gramich has written the perfect essay - a minutely detailed yet nuanced evocation of place and personalities that is full of ecologically precise imagery and is as attentive to the Japanese language as it is to Hokkaidan landscape.' - Mark CockerAs precise and nuanced as Japanese calligraphy, this memoir of the author's stay on the remote Hokkaido island in the far north of Japan, has at its heart the mountain, Yotei-san, the region's iconic equivalent to Mount Fuji. As much about learning a language (with connotations of 'reading' a wild landscape) as it is about nature, this dignified and nuanced work evokes what is cultured and cultivated, and yet also honours the wild; the untranslatable. With its themes of seasonal transformation, the peripheral, folklore, loneliness and learning to belong, this work takes a personal philosophical stance in relation to the centre and the periphery.'"Eluned Gramich" is a name to hear time and again in the future. [This writing] is as good as we the jurors have ever read. short but perfectly formed. absolutely perfect.' - Justin Albert'Quite beautiful. [The author encounters a culture that is completely alien] and she does it with a poet's eye. precisely and vitally. She reads this unfamiliarity with all her imaginative nerve-endings open: the effect is quite remarkable.' - Tony Brown'Most rewarding is the philosophical approach. [Gramich's] embracing of. cultural multiplicity, fluidity and adaptability. suits perfectly the changing boundaries of our modern world.' - Wales Arts Review As much about learning a language as it is about nature, this dignified and nuanced memoir of the author's stay on the remote Hokkaido island in the far north of Japan evokes what is cultured and cultivated, and yet also honours the wild; the untranslatable. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. With passion, humour and remarkable insight Gwyn Thomas captures the world of South Wales in the 1830s during the turbulent years of the Merthyr and Newport Risings. As the newly-built foundries enter their first decline, a travelling harpist from the rural north arrives in one of the new towns to find his friends caught in a fiercely-fought industrial dispute, a dispute which quickly spirals out of control. A powerful and sweeping novel by one of Wales's great literary figures, 'All Things Betray Thee', tells the epic story of a people, their joys and victories, but also their sorrows and defeats. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Eric Ngalle thought he was leaving Cameroon for a better life. Instead of arriving in Belgium to study for a degree in economics he ended up in one of the last countries he would have chosen to visit - Russia. Having seen his passport stolen, Eric endured nearly two years battling a hostile environment as an illegal immigrant while struggling with the betrayal that tore his family apart and prompted his exit. This painfully honest and often brutal account of being trapped in a subculture of deceit and crime gives a rare glimpse behind the headlines of a global concern. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Good. A phenomenon in Turkey with more than 120,000 copies sold, Women who Blow on Knots chronicles a voyage reaching from Tunisia to Lebanon, taken by three young women and septuagenarian Madam Lilla. Although the three young women embark on the road for different reasons - for each holds a dark secret - it is only at the journey's point of no return that Lilla's own murderous motivations for the trip become clear.Unique and controversial in its country of origin for its political rhetoric and strong, atypically Muslim female characters, Temelkuran weaves an empowering tale that challenges us to ponder not only the social questions of politics, religion and women in the Middle East, but also the universal bonds of sister- and motherhood.Ultimately, the novel begs the reader to mediate on the greatest problem women face today - can the power we hold make us happy, and how? The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. FINALIST FOR THE 72ND NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS BOOK CLUB CATEGORY ONE OF THE SUNDAY TIMES' BEST HISTORICAL FICTION BOOKS OF 2022 Zimler is an honest, powerful writer The Guardian 'A memorable portrait of the search for meaning in the shadow of the Shoah.' The Sunday Times From the acclaimed author of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon and The Warsaw Anagrams comes an unforgettable, deeply moving ode to solidarity, heroism and the kind of love capable of overcoming humanity's greatest horror. Maybe none of us is ever aware of our true significance. Benjamin Zarco and his cousin Shelly are the only two members of their family to survive the Holocaust. In the decades since, each man has learned, in his own unique way, to carry the burden of having outlived all the others, while ever wondering why he was spared. Saved by a kindly piano teacher who hid him as a child, Benni suppresses the past entirely and becomes obsessed with studying kabbalah in search of the 'Incandescent Threads' - nearly invisible fibres that he believes link everything in the universe across space and time. But his mystical beliefs are tested when the birth of his son brings the ghosts of the past to his doorstep. Meanwhile, Shelly - devastatingly handsome, charming and exuberantly bisexual - comes to believe that pleasures of the flesh are his only escape, and takes every opportunity to indulge his desires. That is, until he begins a relationship with a profoundly traumatised Canadian soldier and artist who helped to liberate Bergen-Belsen - and might just be connected to one of the cousins' departed kin. Across six non-linear mosaic pieces, we move from a Poland decimated by World War II to modern-day New York and Boston, hearing friends and relatives of Benni and Shelly tell of the deep influence of the beloved cousins on their lives. For within these intimate testimonies may lie the key to why they were saved and the unique bond that unites them. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Winner of the Writers' Trust of Canada Journey Prize Longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, Burrard Inlet is the body of water that divides Vancouver's North Shore from the rest of the Lower Mainland. In this collection of award-winning stories, Tyler Keevil uses that rugged landscape as a backdrop for characters who are struggling against the elements, each other, and themselves.A search-and-rescue volunteer looks for a missing snowboarder on Christmas Eve; two brothers retreat to the woods to shoot a film in memory of their dead friend; a reclusive forestry worker picks up a hitcher on his way down Mount Seymour; a young man finds a temporary haven on the ice barge where he works. Written in a lean, muscular style, these are stories awash in blood and brine, and steeped in images of freedom and confinement. Within that narrative framework, Burrard Inlet becomes more than a geographical location: it is a liminal space, a boundary and a barrier, a threshold to be crossed. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Hey Bert contains poems that speak intensely of the everyday, of nostalgia, friendship and love, the body, the sacred, all seen through Pastore's unique, eccentric filter of spirit animals, pop-culture, dreams and astrology. In the spirit of John Giorno, Anne Waldman, and Julia Heyward, Pastore's work draws from performance art, confessional poetry, mantra, and folklore to create a voice both fiercely contemporary and somehow out of time. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. In a remote Welsh village by the sea, four friends grow up together. Plain but charismatic Del is the ringleader, unstoppable, supremely confident in her ability to get her own way. Neil, shy and stuttering, and Ricky, full of rage and loneliness, are misfits at school until Del takes them under her wing. Steph is the outsider, but she too is mesmerised by Del's devil-may-care approach to life. They hang around together - mucking about in the woods, searching for treasure on the seashore, doing dares, sharing cigarettes. Then, one terrible day, the gang is broken up for good. Meeting ten years later in the now stagnating village, Neil, Ricky and Steph revisit their childhood haunts and re-live the memories that have cast a shadow over each of their lives. Del is, by turns, the beating heart at the centre of all their stories and a gaping absence. Set against the backdrop of the northern Welsh coast, and told through the voices of Neil, Ricky and Steph - the children left behind - Revenant pieces together their memories of childhoods broken by desertion, absence and death, and uncovers the secrets and betrayals of childhood friendships, with thoughtful, shocking brilliance. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Bill Rees has been living in the south of France for ten years working as an itinerant bookseller in Montpellier. The one thing he misses about England is table tennis. Then he sees an advert to join a club for experienced players only and veterans. He starts training immediately, hes forty and not as fit as he used to be but Bill Rees is returning to the game a la carte. Covering one Sunday tournament in the depths of Languedoc when his team bids to make the National Finals, Bill Rees produces a deeply felt and deeply funny homage to the beautiful game of ping-pong. Rees shows the sport for what it is: painful, exhilarating, tactical, fast (especially when his club mate Alain is at the table), consuming. All of which is revealed from the perspective of a Brit playing in French amateur leagues. Conveyed is the pain of competition, the agony of losing and the joys of victory. The reader is also regaled with a Zen-like insight into the sport. For all those athletes who dream of glory being around the corner and never too late. Contains illustrations by the Monpellier based artist Beachy. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.