Years

A brilliant, bittersweet novel about love and family, husbands and wives, parents and children.From beloved bestselling author David Nicholls.Douglas and Connie - scientist and artist, husband and wife - live a quiet and quietly unremarkable life in the suburbs of London. Until, suddenly, after more than twenty years of marriage, Connie decides she wants a divorce.Heartbroken but determined, Douglas comes up with the perfect plan: he is going to win back the love of his wife and the respect of Albie, their teenage son, by organising the holiday of a lifetime.The hotels are booked, the tickets bought, the itinerary planned and printed.What could possibly go wrong?

Nick Winter hates Christmas. No, he doesn't just hate it. He loathes it. Despises it. And all because he saw his mummy killing Santa Claus on Christmas Eve thirty years ago. Oh, and it was his dad dressed as Santa ...December is the worst time of year, but as a postman, Nick is forced to endure a mind-numbing amount of joy and festivities year in and year out. He sulks around, drinks too much, shouts at anyone who wishes him a 'Merry Christmas!' and don't you dare offer him a mince pie or expect him to wear a Christmas jumper ...John, his best friend of twenty-odd years, has had enough. He's a trained therapist, but Nick has refused his help every single year. But not this year. This year is going to be different.John creates a 25 day advent countdown for Nick; a list of Christmas events, traditions and activities for him to complete to help him come to terms with his childhood trauma and finally enjoy the Christmas season. Maybe he'll even find love and be happy for once ...As Nick st

Rich bonus features for the deluxe edition include: Gorgeous full-color interior artBeautiful sprayed edgesAdditional scenesIn the cozy town of Adenashire, long-time orc partners Verdreth and Ervash are preparing for their biggest adventure yet: becoming grandparents.Of course Verdreth is thrilled to take on this new role with his long-time partner since he never imagined they'd experience such an honor...particularly with the rocky start to their relationship.As their family gathers to celebrate the arrival of a new generation, the soon-to-be grandparents decide it's time to share the story they've never fully told--their own love story. They were very different orcs when they met over thirty years prior, but with Ervash's permission, Verdreth starts at the beginning...Since, in fact, the beginning is always a good place to start.

The six concertos that Johann Sebastian Bach presented to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg, in 1721 are among his most beloved works. First termed the "Brandenburg Concertos" by Philipp Spitta in his monumental nineteenth-century Bach biography, they have become household names. To many, they are the essence of Bach's music: irrepressibly upbeat, animatedly vibrant, and astonishingly contrapuntal. Together with Handel's Messiah and Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, they represent the very heart of the Baroque repertory. In this new and lively account, leading musicologist George B. Stauffer takes the reader into the world of the Brandenburg Concertos. He begins by tracing the emergence of the instrumental concerto in Italy toward the end of the seventeenth century before describing Bach's compositional epiphany upon discovering the concertos of Antonio Vivaldi around 1713, an encounter that resulted in the Brandenburg project eight years later. Stauffer then delves into the music it

In recent years, LGBTQ+ rights have become a global battleground, shaping political alliances and conflicts. From the United States' fight against terrorism, backed by the discourse of "homonationalism", to Russia's anti-LGBTQ+ laws and framing of its invasion of Ukraine as part of a struggle for "traditional values", the world is often described as divided into two opposite geopolitical camps: those who support LGBTQ+ rights and those who oppose them. Beyond Queer Cold Wars challenges this idea by bringing together case studies of how sexuality and gender are entangled in geopolitical relations in multiple and sometimes unexpected ways. The chapters move between social movement mobilization, media, arts and popular culture, religion, economic forces and high-level international politics, and show the richness, complexity and nuanced histories of contemporary politics of gender and sexuality. By examining the blurred lines between support and opposition to LGBTQ+ rights, Beyond Queer C