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Pleasure Island
by Aran AsheThe beautiful Anya, betrothed to the prince of Lidir, has set sail for his homeland. On the way, her ship is beset by pirates. Captured and put into chains, Anya is subjected to a harsh shipboard regime of punishment and cruel pleasures at the hands of the captain and his crew. When landfall is made on a mysterious island populated by dark-eyed amazons, Anya plots her escape. But she is unaware of the fate that awaits any man or woman who dares to venture ashore.
Pleasure Hunt
by Sophie DansonParis. City of Passion. From elegant hotels to squalid alleyways, Olympia Deschamps pursues her goal: to become accepted into the Legion D' Amour, exclusive society of libertines. The Legion's rules are strict. Olympia's taste for sexual adventure is tested again and again as she enjoys a crescendo of libidinous challenges.
The Pleasure Garden
by Leon GarfieldEastward in Clerkenwell lies the Mulberry Pleasure Garden: six acres of leafy walks, colonnades and pavillions. In this bosky setting parade a variety of characters of awesome granduer, innocence and evil - and all are subject to a ring of blackmail terror.
The Pleasure Chamber
by Brigitte MarkhamAfter an unsuccessful attempt at seduction by her friend Laura, Mary escapes to the French chateau where her flatmate, Philippe, is spending a holiday. The count at the chateau has some curious ways of entertaining his guests, however, and the naïve Mary and Philippe are soon initiated into new and perverse ways of loving. Laura, worried about Mary, follows her to France and joins in the bizarre games at the chateau. But what they don't realise is that the count harbours a terrible secret, which puts all their lives in danger.
Pleasing Them
by William DoughtyThe young servant girl slid helplessly into the foaming water which filled her mistress's marble bath.Her black and white maid's uniform was instantly drenched and clung to her in a way that outlined every part of her curvaceous body."We may, in the seclusion of this home, begin to explore what most people would think of as forbidden pleasures."With these words Robert Shanescrosse introduces his young and beautiful wife to the peculiar delights he shares with his carefully selected servants at the most peculiar house in Victorian England. Yet he has an even darker secret which requires everyone at the manor to work hard to satisfy the strange desires of three men of dubious integrity.Why does the puritanical Mr Blanking send young ladies into muddy pond wearing only theit hats? Can the wicked Sir Horace ever obtain the satisfaction he craves through cruelty? And why is David making such strange demands? How can Robert, Jane and their servants offer pleasures extreme enough to please them?
Please Will Someone Help Me?
by Sophie YoungSophie Young tells her shocking true story in Please Will Someone Help Me?Sophie Young was born into a dysfunctional family, with a violent mother and father. Sophie was routinely neglected and harmed, starved and left to fend for herself. Social workers were often involved but, despite numerous visits and extensive reports, nothing was ever done.When Sophie was six, her life took another horrible turn: her adored grandfather began to sexually abuse her.Please Will Someone Help Me? is Sophie Young's heartbreaking story about a young girl at the mercy of the adult world. With full access to her social work files, she shows how those who are meant to help children can be blind to the reality of their lives; but how, ultimately, love conquers all.Sophie Young was the eldest of three, born into a dysfunctional family that she fought for years to escape. Now forty years old, she lives in England with her husband and children, and works as a volunteer for a national children's charity.
Please Sir!
by Jack SheffieldA NEW YEAR AT RAGLEY-ON-THE-FOREST SCHOOL...It's 1981, the time of Adam and the Ants, Rubik's Cube, the Sony Walkman and the Falklands War, as head teacher Jack Sheffield returns to Ragley-on-the-Forest School for another rollercoaster year.Vera, the ever-efficient chool secretary, has to grapple with a new-fangled computer - and enjoys a royal occasion - while Ruby the caretaker rediscovers romance with a Butlin's Redcoat. And for Jack, wedding bells are in the air. But the unexpected is just round the corner...
Please Mrs Butler
by Allan AhlbergThe bestselling and much-loved children's poetry classic, Please Mrs Butler by Allan Ahlberg is celebrating its 30th anniversary! With a fresh new look for a brand new generation of school children to take to its heart, every teacher, parent and child should have a copy.Nobody leave the room.Everyone listen to me.We had ten pairs of scissorsAt half-past two, And now there's only three.This witty collection of school poems by Allan Ahlberg, re-jacketed for its 30th anniversary and for a whole new generation of school children to fall in love with, is full of typical classroom events that will be recognized and enjoyed by everyone. From never-ending projects, reading tests, quarrelling, making-up, excuses and 'Please, Sir, it isn't fair.' Fritz Wegner's line drawings beautifully complement the hilarious and poignant verses.Please Mrs Butler was voted the most important twentieth-century children's poetry book in a Books for Keeps poll.Praise for Please Mrs Butler:'Hilarious and poignant school verses about primary school life. A real winner' - Guardian'Clever, funny and nostalgic, the collection is a delight' - Sunday TimesPLEASE MRS BUTLER - The most important 20th-century children's poetry book' - Books for Keeps pollPraise for Allan Ahlberg:'By far our best writer for the young,' - Telegraph
Please Let It Stop: The true story of my abused childhood
by Jacqueline Gold'In retrospect, I can see I was the perfect candidate for child abuse. My parents had divorced and my mother didn't show me much love. Her self-imposed isolation kept me away from other children. My abuser had nobody in his way.'Please Let It Stop is a gripping and ultimately inspiring memoir of suffering and determination, of obstacles and inner battles. Jacqueline Gold was abused by her stepfather for many years, but one day she summoned the courage to ask him to stop. Jacqueline went on to become Chief Executive of Ann Summers, but the journey was far from easy. In this, her no-holds-barred autobiography, Jacqueline describes her abused childhood, her tumultuous struggles to find love and conquer depression, and the heartbreak of undergoing IVF. Told with remarkable honesty, her story is a testament to one woman's ability to overcome the darkest of times.
Please Don't Go: Big John's Journey Back to Life
by John HartsonIn July 2009, former Celtic and Wales soccer star John Hartson was diagnosed with testicular cancer, which had also spread to his lungs and brain. But before his treatment even began, John came to the brink of death after contracting pneumonia, ceasing to breathe and undergoing emergency brain surgery. Against all the odds, he pulled through, and in Please Don't Go he documents his incredible fight for life.Profoundly moving, John's own story is interwoven with the poignant recollections of his pregnant wife, Sarah, as well as with extracts from his sister Victoria's personal diary. This remarkable book covers the five-week period during which John's survival was most in jeopardy.John's truly inspirational account of how he has managed to overcome a very aggressive form of cancer will offer hope and courage to others affected by the disease. It is a touching and ultimately uplifting insight into the bravery of the popular football hero, who has fought back to full health in the face of adversity.
Please Don't Cry: A family torn apart by grief. An incredible act of love.
by Jane Plume'I’m glad I could do her this one last favour. If it had been the other way round, I know Gina would have done the same for me.’Jane and Gina were the best of friends. When Gina’s husband Shaun was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2009, Jane vowed to do everything she could to help her best mate and her two small sons through the awful time to come. But things were about to take a tragic turn for the worse. In 2010, Gina was killed in a shock car crash. Though devastated by her own grief, Jane knew that Gina needed her now more than ever – to help with the boys she had left behind. And after cancer claimed Shaun's life, Jane stepped in to care for the two orphans, becoming the mother her best friend could no longer be.This is the moving true story behind an incredible act of love.
Pleasant Vices: the perfect, light-hearted, laugh-out-loud read from bestselling author Judy Astley
by Judy AstleyBestselling author Judy Astley hits the funnybone of contemporary life yet again in this delicious comedy, perfect for fans of Carole Matthews, Jenny Colgan, Lucy Diamond and Milly Johnson'Fast and fun' -- Woman & Home'It sparkles with Astley's wry wit' -- Peterborough Evening Telegraph'Loved reading this book' -- ***** Reader review'Enjoyed this from beginning to end' -- ***** Reader review'This is my happy book and I loved it so much I've read it twice' -- ***** Reader review'Very funny' -- ***** Reader review**************************************************************************************************EVERYONE HAS THEIR GUILTY PLEASURES...The residents of the Close were much concerned with crime - preventing it, that is. With all those out-of-work teenagers on the nearby council estate hanging around, stealing, joy-riding and goodness knows what else, it was just as well that Paul Mathieson was setting up a Neighbourhood Watch scheme.Not that the inhabitants of the Close did not have their own little activities, of course, but these were hardly the same thing...If Jenny and Alan's daughter was caught travelling on the underground without a ticket, and their son was doing a little experimenting with certain substances, and Laura didn't see the need to declare her earnings from hiring out her house to a film crew, and Jenny drove home only just over the legal limit - well, these were quite different matters, not to be compared with what went on in the Estate.And then there was Jenny's discovery, when she advertised flute lessons, that she could work up quite a nice little earner in a rather unexpected way...As the leafy London street resounded to the efforts of its citizens to keep crime at bay, Jenny realised that it was her marriage, rather than her property, that needed watching.
The Pleader: An Autobiography
by Len MurrayLen Murray, described by a High Court judge as the most respected pleader of his generation, practised as a solicitor in Glasgow for over 40 years. As part of a triumvirate of top lawyers based in the city during its period of renaissance, he built up one of the most respected law practices in the country. Among the benchmark cases with which Murray was involved was that of Tony Miller, one of the last people to be hanged in Scotland. Despite a desperate appeal by Murray, the 19-year-old was sent to his death on 22 December 1960. In his candid account Murray describes both the legal arguments and the personal effect the case had on him.Murray was also involved in bringing the Nazi war criminal Antanas Gecas to justice after his discovery in Edinburgh, he was the only solicitor ever to be retained by both Rangers and Celtic footballers who were accused of assaulting each other during a match at Ibrox, and he made a cheeky defence of famous Beatle Paul McCartney who was arrested on drugs charges. The Pleader recounts these and many more tales of the courts and the characters who inhabited them, whether they sat on the bench or stood in the dock. Reluctant to go public until now, Murray has always upheld the simple tenet that client confidentiality is paramount. His decision to publish his memoirs at this time reflects a feeling that he has a responsibility to new students of law and to old friends to put the record straight on many of the fascinating stories to come before the Scottish courts. From the simplest of violations to the most serious of capital crimes, he opens his amazing and hitherto secret files to the world.
playtime
by Andrew McMillan**WINNER OF THE POLARI PRIZE 2019**‘Vivid, accessible and honest, sometimes uncomfortably so’ Alan Bennett, London Review of BooksIn these intimate, sometimes painfully frank poems, Andrew McMillan takes us back to childhood and early adolescence to explore the different ways we grow into our sexual selves and our adult identities. Examining our teenage rites of passage: those dilemmas and traumas that shape us – eating disorders, masturbation, loss of virginity – the poet examines how we use bodies, both our own and other people’s, to chart our progress towards selfhood.McMillan’s award-winning debut collection, physical, was praised for a poetry that was tight and powerful, raw and tender, and playtime expands that narrative frame and widens the gaze. Alongside poems in praise of the naivety of youth, there are those that explore the troubling intersections of violence, masculinity, class and sexuality, always taking the reader with them towards a better understanding of our own physicality. ‘isn’t this what human kind was made for’, McMillan asks in one poem, ‘telling stories learning where the skin/is most in need of touch’. These humane and vital poems are confessions, both in the spiritual and personal sense; they tell us stories that some of us, perhaps, have never found the courage to read before.
Playthings Of The Private House
by Esme OmbriuexWhen Olena, nubile and much-appreciated guest at the secretive flagellant community that is the Private House, is kidnapped, Supreme Mistress Jem Darke and her lover Julia, chief of the guards, are unusually at a loss as to what to do. But Talia, the fey, submissive but resourceful leader of the forest people, who live a bucolic but perverted life on the House's large estate, has evidence that leads to Madame la Patronne, Jem's rival in the arts of dominance. Jem, Julia, Talia and her lover Anne agree a plan of pursuit. Their actions lead Talia straight into deep sexual waters: how far will she be required to submit to Madame la Patronne, whose imperious sexuality knows no limits? And even if Talia's tormented odyssey brings her to Olena, will either even want to return?
Plaything
by Penny BirchThis classic book in the Penny Birch series features some of bad girl Penny's dirtiest antics ever. After going a whole month without doing anything naughty, she is desperate to be even more filthy, despite her imminent departure to Brittany where she is instructed to set up a university field course. Once there, her academic responsibilities get pushed aside for more deliciously rude indulgences. This time, however, she will encounter a French voyeur called Tom,whose penchant for dirty fun will shock even Penny and her playmates.
Plays Political: The Apple Cart, On the Rocks, Geneva
by Dan Laurence George Bernard ShawWhile some of Shaw’s earlier plays are still performed, his later plays, such as the ones in this volume, are barely known. As the collective title indicates, the themes here are political; yet, frankly, it is doubtful how seriously we can now take Shaw as a political thinker. Despite writing in the 1930s, he has little to say of the nature of totalitarianism: although he satirises Fascist dictators in “Geneva”, the satire is disappointingly mild. Neither did Shaw appear to foresee (on the evidence of these plays, at least) the imminent collapse of the British Empire.But it is Shaw the dramatist rather than Shaw the political philosopher who still holds our attention – even in plays as explicitly political as these. He had a sharp intellect and a quirky sense of humour, and his dialogue still glints and sparkles: he couldn’t write a dull line if he tried. No matter how serious the themes he addresses, the crispness of his writing and his lightness of touch still scintillate.Shaw seems, perhaps unfairly, out of fashion nowadays. But even in these lesser-known works, he demonstrates his matchless ability, still undimmed, to provoke and to entertain.
Plays Extravagant: Too True to be Good, The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles, The Millionairess
by Dan Laurence George Bernard ShawThis is a collection of the plays of George Bernard Shaw that includes "The Millionairess", "Too True to be Good" and "The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles".
Plays and Fragments
by MenanderMenander (c. 341-291 BC) was the foremost innovator of Greek New Comedy, a dramatic style that moved away from the fantastical to focus upon the problems of ordinary Athenians. This collection contains the full text of 'Old Cantankerous' (Dyskolos), the only surviving complete example of New Comedy, as well as fragments from works including 'The Girl from Samos' and 'The Rape of the Locks', all of which are concerned with domestic catastrophes, the hazards of love and the trials of family life. Written in a poetic style regarded by the ancients as second only to Homer, these polished works - profoundly influential upon both Roman playwrights such as Plautus and Terence, and the wider Western tradition - may be regarded as the first true comedies of manners.
Plays: The Seagull [and] The Cherry Orchard
by Anton ChekhovAt a time when the Russian theatre was dominated by formulaic melodramas and farces, Chekhov created a new sort of drama that laid bare the everyday lives, loves and yearnings of ordinary people. Ivanov depicts a man stifled by inactivity and lost idealism, and The Seagull contrasts a young man's selfish romanticism with the stoicism of a woman cruelly abandoned by her lover. With 'the scenes from country life' of Uncle Vanya, his first fully mature play, Chekhov developed his own unique dramatic world, neither tragedy nor comedy. In Three Sisters the Prozorov sisters endlessly dream of going to Moscow to escape the monotony of provincial life, while his comedy The Cherry Orchard portrays characters futilely clinging to the past as their land is sold from underneath them.
Playing With Stars
by Jan HarlowMariella, like her father before her, is an astrologer. Before she can inherit his fortune, she must fulfil the terms of his will. He wants her to write an explicitly sexual, accurate account of the male sexual habits of the twelve star signs. Naughty Mariella's aroused by the challenge, but she has her work cut out: she has only one year to complete the book and must have a full-on sex session with a man of each sign in order to fulfil the obligation. From hot-headed Aries, who's up for it anytime, anywhere, through to languid Pisces, who likes to take his own sweet time, Mariella sets about researching her zodiac lovers' technique with much enthusiasm. Which sign will she rate highest?
Playing With Fire
by Nasser HussainNasser Hussain was acclaimed as England's best cricket captain since Mike Brearley. Under his leadership, a side more famous for its batting collapses and ability to seize defeat from the jaws of victory discovered its backbone. With coach Duncan Fletcher he put some steel into the side; they became a difficult team to beat.Hussain wore his heart on his sleeve: railing against complacency, defying critics of his place in the batting line-up and making a principled stand at the last World Cup when the ECB seemed incapable of it.Expect passion, integrity, insight and candour in his eagerly awaited autobiography.
Playing to the Gallery: Helping Contemporary Art in its Struggle to Be Understood
by Grayson Perry'I have never read such a stimulating short guide to art' Lynn Barber, Sunday Times Now Grayson Perry is a fully paid-up member of the art establishment, he wants to show that any of us can appreciate art (after all, there is a reason he's called this book Playing to the Gallery and not 'Sucking up to an Academic Elite'). Based on his hugely popular BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures and full of pictures, this funny, personal journey through the art world answers the basic questions that might occur to us in an art gallery but seem too embarrassing to ask.
Playing Hard
by Tina TroyLili wrestles men for money. And they pay well. She's the best in the business and her powerful body and stunning looks have her gentleman visitors begging for more rough treatment. Her golden rule is never to date a client, but when James Travers starts using her services she relents and accepts a date.Lili cannot help but be intrigued by his mystery, power and obvious wealth. But is she doing the right thing by getting involved with a stranger? Always a control freak, she discovers her own pleasure is in submission of a different kind. It is a conflict that's difficult to live with.