From the highly acclaimed director of Midnight Express and The Commitments comes a sparkling story of a pickpocket's odyssey through America. During the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, seven-year-old Thomas Moran finds himself accidentally embarking on a career in pick-pocketing. In the following years he becomes a master of his dubious craft and grows to manhood traveling from state to state across America. His picaresque journey takes him through Prohibition and the Depression; into the desperate highs of the Hootchy-Kootchy and the dying vineyards of California, accompanied by an array of richly drawn characters frantically clutching at the crumbling American Dream. Italian and Chinese gangsters, con-artists, corrupt clergy, and speak-easy bootleggers all have a part to play in Tommy's destiny, but it is Effie, the great love of his life, who offers him the chance to change his future, and tries to save him from himself. Colorfully written, engaging and richly evocative of an extraordinary period in American history, The Sucker's Kiss marks the literary debut of a master storyteller.

The Sucker's Kiss

Literature & Fiction

Alan Parker

Contemporary

Sceptre

The sucker's kiss

Set against the first three decades of twentieth century American history, The Sucker's Kiss begins during the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Seven-year-old Thomas Moran finds himself accidentally embarking on a career in pick-pocketing that will eventually take him all over the United States as he grows to manhood and becomes a master of his dubious craft. His picaresque journey takes him through Prohibition and the Depression accompanied by an array of richly drawn characters desperately clutching at the crumbling American Dream: Italian and Chinese gangsters, con-artists, corrupt clergy, speak-easy bootleggers and most importantly Effie, the great love of his life - the woman who tries to save him from himself.

'THE MAKING OF ''EVITA'''

Humor & Entertainment

Movies

Boxtree Ltd.

Featuring an introduction by Madonna, the film's star, a  behind-the-scenes account of the making of the forthcoming motion  picture by its director features more than a hundred movie stills and  photographs. $30,000 ad/promo. Movie tie-in.

The old school register for Soho Parish Primary school has a note in the margin recording that five-year-old John Simon Ritchie turned up for his first day at school unaccompanied in September 1962. He'd walked from his mum's council flat near Drury Lane, across Covent Garden and several major road junctions to Gt Windmill Street alone. Somehow it's a fitting start to the wild and troubled life that would be Sid Vicious's. It's also a story that's indicative of the detailed research Alan Parker has put into this biography of Sid Vicious. He spent an evening discussing young Simon Ritchie's schooldays with the headmistress of Soho Parish, has interviewed the likes of fellow Sex Pistols Paul Cook and Glen Matlock at length, as well as numerous other punk luminaries. The basics of Sid Vicious's brief 21 years are well known: art school, junkie mother, life in a squat, a year in the Sex Pistols until their demise in 1978, Nancy Spungeon's death, Sid's arrest, followed by Sid's own fatal overdose on 2 February 1979. Parker brings a wealth of new detail to the story, much gained from the New York Police Department and extensive interviews with Anne Beverley (Sid's mother), prior to her own suicide in 1996. This enables him to come to dramatic conclusions about who killed Nancy Spungeon and how Sid himself ided. This will be the definitive and final word on Sid Vicious, and the perfect tribute to a man who has become a true icon of the 21st century.

Sid Vicious

Orion Publishing

Australian Signpost Maths 2 Student Book (AC 8.4)

Alan McSeveny

Diane McSeveny-Foster

Erika Johnson

Rachel McSeveny

Pearson Education Australia

Excel Mental Maths Strategies: Year 4

Jan Faulkner

Pascal Press

Educational: English language: readers & reading schemes

Antarctic Penguins PM Non Fiction Level 23&24 Silver: Animal Facts Polar Animals

Catherine Parker

Cengage Learning'

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Books by Alan Parker