Andrew Wilson

"Originally published in Great Britain in 2017 by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd."--Copyright page.

A Novel

A Talent for Murder

A new biography of Sylvia Plath, a literary icon who continues to haunt, fascinate, and enthrall even now, fifty years after her death On February 25 , 1956, twenty-three-year-old Sylvia Plath walked into a party and immediately spotted Ted Hughes. This encounter—now one of the most famous in all of literary history—was recorded by Plath in her journal, where she described Hughes as a “big, dark, hunky boy.” Sylvia viewed Ted as something of a colossus, and to this day his enormous shadow has obscured her life and work. The sensational aspects of the Plath-Hughes relationship have dominated the cultural landscape to such an extent that their story has taken on the resonance of a modern myth. Before she met Ted, Plath had lived a complex, creative, and disturbing life. Her father had died when she was only eight; she had gone out with literally hundreds of men, had been unofficially engaged, had tried to commit suicide, and had written more than two hundred poems. Mad Girl’s Love Song chronicles these early years, traces the sources of her mental instability, and examines how a range of personal, economic, and societal factors—the real disquieting muses— conspired against her. Drawing on exclusive interviews with friends and lovers who have never spoken openly about Plath before and using previously unavailable archives and papers, this is the first book to focus on the early life of the twentieth century’s most popular and enduring female poet. Mad Girl’s Love Song reclaims Sylvia Plath from the tangle of emotions associated with her relationship with Ted Hughes and reveals the origins of her unsettled and unsettling voice.

Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted

Mad Girl's Love Song

God created a physical world full of marvels both mundane and extraordinary, which portray glimpses of the sacred for those with eyes to see. In God of All Things, author Andrew Wilson celebrates the everyday created things that point us toward our Creator.

Rediscovering the Sacred in an Everyday World

God of All Things

“A heart of darkness beats within this sparkling series. Fizzy with charm yet edged with menace, Andrew Wilson’s Christie novels do Dame Agatha proud. Perfect for fans of Ruth Ware and Jacqueline Winspear.” —A.J. Finn, internationally bestselling author of The Woman in the Window Queen of Crime Agatha Christie returns to star in another stylish mystery, as she travels to the excavation of the ancient city of Ur where she must solve a crime with motives that may be as old as civilization itself. Fresh from solving the gruesome murder of a British agent in the Canary Islands, mystery writer Agatha Christie receives a letter from a family who believe their late daughter met with foul play. Before Gertrude Bell overdosed on sleeping medication, she was a prominent archaeologist, recovering ancient treasures in the Middle East. Found near her body was a letter claiming that Bell was being followed and to complicate things further, Bell was competing with another archeologist, Mrs. Woolley, for the rights to artifacts of immense value. Christie travels to far-off Persia, where she meets the enigmatic Mrs. Woolley as she is working on a big and potentially valuable discovery. Temperamental but brilliant, Mrs. Woolley quickly charms Christie but when she does not hide her disdain for the recently deceased Miss Bell, Christie doesn’t know whether to trust her—or if Bell’s killer is just clever enough to hide in plain sight. With Wilson’s signature “strong characters, shrewd plotting and a skillful blending of fact and fiction” (Shelf Awareness, starred review on A Talent for Murder), this is a thrilling adventure set amidst the cursed ruins of an ancient land.

Death in a Desert Land

Agatha Christie—the Queen of Crime—travels to the breathtaking Canary Islands to investigate the mysterious death of a British agent in this riveting sequel to the “twisty thriller” (Publishers Weekly) A Talent for Murder. Two months after the events of A Talent for Murder, during which Agatha Christie “disappeared,” the famed mystery writer’s remarkable talent for detection has captured the attention of British Special Agent Davison. Now, at his behest, she is traveling to the beautiful Canary Islands to investigate the strange and gruesome death of Douglas Greene, an agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service. As she embarks on a glamorous cruise ship to her destination, she suddenly hears a scream. Rushing over to the stern of the liner, she witnesses a woman fling herself over the side of the ship to her death. After this shocking experience, she makes it to the Grand Hotel in a lush valley on the islands. There, she meets a diverse and fascinating cast of characters, including two men who are suspected to be involved in the murder of Douglas Greene: an occultist similar to Aleister Crowley; and the secretary to a prominent scholar, who may also be a Communist spy. But Agatha soon realizes that nothing is what it seems here and she is surprised to learn that the apparent suicide of the young woman on the ocean liner is related to the murder of Douglas Greene. Now she has to unmask a different kind of evil in this sinister and thrilling mystery.

A Different Kind of Evil

In the early hours of 15 April 1912, after the majestic liner Titanic had split apart and the 1,500 men, women and children struggled to stay alive in the freezing Atlantic, the sea was alive with the sound of screaming. Then, as the ship sank to the ocean floor and the passengers slowly died from hypothermia, a deathly silence settled over the sea. Yet the echoes of that night reverberated through the lives of each of the 705 survivors. Shadow of the Titanic tells the extraordinary stories of some of those who survived. Although we think we know the story of the Titanic - the famously unsinkable ship that hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Britain to America in April 1912 - little has been written about what happened to the survivors after the tragedy. How did the loss of the ship shape the lives of the people who survived? How did those who were saved feel about those who perished? And how did they remember that terrible night, in effect a disaster that has been likened to the destruction of a small town? Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the sinking, SHADOW OF THE TITANIC will shed new light on this enduringly fascinating story by showing how the disaster continued to shape the lives of a cross-section of passengers who escaped the sinking ship.

The Extraordinary Stories of Those who Survived

Shadow of the Titanic

"A modern-day fairy tale infused with the darkness of a Greek tragedy, [this book] tells the complete sensational story [of designer Alexander McQueen], and includes never-before-seen photos. Those closest to the designer--his family, friends, and lovers--have spoken for the first time about the man they knew, a fragmented individual, a lost boy who battled to gain entry into a world that ultimately destroyed him. 'There's blood beneath every layer of skin, ' McQueen once said. Andrew Wilson's biography ... dispels myths, corrects inaccuracies, and offers new insights into McQueen's private life and the source of his creative genius"--

Blood Beneath the Skin

Alexander McQueen

Drawing on her diaries, notebooks and letters, and on material from her closest friends and lovers, this biography of Patricia Highsmith details the links between her life and work. It seeks to illuminate the dark corners of Highsmith's life, casting light on the mystery of the creative process.

A Life of Patricia Highsmith

Beautiful Shadow

Alastair J. Roberts

Tracing Themes of Redemption through Scripture

Echoes of Exodus

The life of Patricia Highsmith was as secretive and unusual as that of many of the best-known characters who people her "peerlessly disturbing" thrillers and short stories. Yet even as her work has found new popularity in the last few years, the life of this famously elusive writer has remained a mystery. For Beautiful Shadow, the first biography of Highsmith, British journalist Andrew Wilson mined the vast archive of diaries, notebooks, and letters she left behind, astonishing in their candor and detail. He interviewed her closest friends and colleagues as well as some of her many lovers. But Wilson also traces Highsmith's literary roots in the work of Poe, noir, and existentialism, locating the influences that helped distinguish Highsmith's writing so startlingly from more ordinary thrillers. The result is both a serious critical biography and one that reveals much about a brilliant and contradictory woman, one who despite her acclaim and affairs always maintained her solitude.

An Invitation to Eucharismatic Worship

Spirit and Sacrament

A profound, quirky, and amusing take on life's biggest questions. People encounter truth by sharing stories and asking questions. Andrew Wilson asks nine big questions about truth, origins, and redemption, and wonders aloud about the possible answers, representing a new fresh way of communicating the gospel.

Wondering Aloud About Truth, Origins and Redemption

If God, Then What?

God Most High. The LORD. I Am. YHWH. Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Maker of heaven and earth. Andrew Wilson explores 60 names and descriptions of the one true God, weaving profound biblical insight into each short chapter, and so unfolding the greatest subject our minds and hearts can ever contemplate. Endorsements "Reading this is like sucking in lungfuls of mountain air. There is a craving for beauty, vastness and wonder that shallow books cannot satisfy. What people gasp for is God, the real God, the God of the Bible. Andrew does not domesticate Him, trivialise Him or dumb Him down. Buy and read. Then read it again." Joel Virgo "Bite-sized chunks of great theology that will inform the mind and inspire the heart to worship." Tim Hughes "Clearly written, full of truth, and containing a wealth of helpful illustrations, this book is accessible theology that will draw you into the worship of God." John Hosier

Incomparable

The Designers Who Shaped 20th-Century Garden Style

Influential Gardeners

An ordinary meal, an extraordinary Man, and a world changed forever. Young Alex keeps hearing about a Man from the house of bread who has miraculous powers, who heals the sick and walks on water. When Alex finally witnesses the miracles and meets the Man, his life is forever changed. The Boy from the House of Bread shares the story of Jesus's ministry in a compelling way, through the eyes and voice of an African boy. Walk with Alex as he watches Jesus multiply loaves and call Himself the life-giving Bread. This recurring symbol fascinates Alex and leaves children ages 4 to 8—and the adults who read with them—thinking differently about not only the bread on their plates but also the Man who makes miracles happen.

The Boy from the House of Bread

This book is the first in English to explore both Belarus’s complicated road to nationhood and to examine in detail its politics and economics since 1991, the nation’s first year of true independence. Andrew Wilson focuses particular attention on Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s surprising longevity as president, despite human rights abuses and involvement in yet another rigged election in December 2010. Wilson looks at Belarusian history as a series of false starts in the medieval and pre-modern periods, and at the many rival versions of Belarusian identity, culminating with the Soviet Belarusian project and the establishment of Belarus’s current borders during World War II. He also addresses Belarus’s on-off relationship with Russia, its simultaneous attempts to play a game of balance in the no-man’s-land between Russia and the West, and how, paradoxically, Belarus is at last becoming a true nation under the rule of Europe’s “last dictator.”

The Last European Dictatorship

Belarus

"This is the most acute, informed and up-to-date account of Ukraine and its people. In this fourth edition Andrew Wilson refreshes his classic work with a new chapter covering Yanukovych's presidency, the uprising on the Kiev Maidan, the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine and the Crimea, the rise of Petro Poroshenko, and the challenges ahead."--Page 4 of cover.

Unexpected Nation

The Ukrainians

'I wouldn't scream if I were you. Unless you want the whole world to learn about your husband and his mistress.' Agatha Christie, in London to visit her literary agent, boards a train, preoccupied and flustered in the knowledge that her husband Archie is having an affair. She feels a light touch on her back, causing her to lose her balance, then a sense of someone pulling her to safety from the rush of the incoming train. So begins a terrifying sequence of events. Her rescuer is no guardian angel; rather, he is a blackmailer of the most insidious, manipulative kind. Agatha must use every ounce of her cleverness and resourcefulness to thwart an adversary determined to exploit her genius for murder to kill on his behalf.

There is no greater pursuit, no greater journey, and no greater joy than discovering the extraordinary character of God. Incomparable explores sixty names and descriptions of our creator. Each chapter is filled with profound Biblical insights and revelations that will inspire and enrich your faith. Selah moments allow for a time of reflection and worship. And practical applications connect each truth with your daily life. Throughout, Incomparable unfolds the greatest wonder our minds and hearts will ever contemplate. Immerse yourself in His character. Delve into the depths of His presence. And experience a God that is truly beyond compare.

Explorations in the Character of God

In this comprehensive, up-to-date guide to the modern Ukraine, Wilson concentrates on the country's complex relationship to Russia and its path to independence in 1991, including the economic collapse under its first president and the attempts at recovery under his successor. 36 b&w, 16 color illustrations.

Andrew Wilson

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