Bøger af Ian Sansom

Love Miss Marple? Adore Holmes and Watson? Professor Morley's guide to Devon is a story of bygone England; quaint villages, eccentric locals--and murder...Swanton Morely, the People's Professor, sets off for Devon to continue his history of England, The County Guides. Morley's daughter, Miriam, and his assistant, Stephen Sefton, pack up the Lagonda for a trip to the English Riviera. Morely has been invited to give the Founder's Day speech at All Souls School in Rousdon. But when the trio arrive they discover that a boy has died in mysterious circumstances. Was it an accident or was it murder?Join Morely, Sefton, and Miriam on another adventure into the dark heart of 1940s England. A must-read for fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Charles Todd, there'll be plenty of murder, mystery, and mayhem to confound.

Let us suppose for a moment that paper were to disappear.Would anything be lost?Everything would be lost.Paper surrounds us. Not only as books, letters and diaries, but as beer mats and birth certificates, board games and business cards, fireworks and flypaper, photographs and playing cards, tickets and tea bags. We are paper people.But the age of paper is coming to an end. E-books regularly outsell physical books. E-tickets replace the paper variety. Archives are digitized. The world we know was made from paper, and yet everywhere we look, paper is beginning to disappear. As we enter a world beyond paper, Ian Sansom explores the paradoxes of the greatest of man-made materials and shows how some kinds of paper, and the ghosts and shadows of paper, will always be with us.Paper: An Elegy is a history of paper in all its forms and functions. Both a cultural study and a series of personal reflections on the meaning of paper, this book is a timely meditation on the very paper it is printed on.

Love Miss Marple? Adore Holmes and Watson? Professor Morley's guide to Norfolk is a story of bygone England: quaint villages, eccentric locals?and murder ...It is 1937, and disillusioned Spanish Civil War veteran Stephen Sefton is broke. So when he sees a mysterious advertisement for a job where "intelligence is essential," he eagerly applies.Thus begins Sefton's association with Professor Swanton Morley, an omnivorous intellect. Morley's latest project is a history of traditional England, with a guide to every county.They start in Norfolk, but when the vicar of Blakeney is found hanging from his church's bell rope, Morley and Sefton find themselves drawn into a rather more fiendish plot. Did the reverend really take his own life, or is there something darker afoot?A must-read for fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Charles Todd, this novel includes plenty of murder, mystery, and mayhem to confound.

Welcome to Westmorland. Perhaps the most scenic county in England! Home of the poets! Land of the great artists! District of the Great Lakes! And the scene of a mysterious crime . . . .Swanton Morley, the People's Professor, once again sets off in his Lagonda to continue his history of England, The County Guides.Stranded in the market town of Appleby after a tragic rail crash, Morley, his daughter, Miriam, and his assistant, Stephen Sefton, find themselves drawn into a world of country fairs, gypsy lore and Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling. When a woman's body is discovered at an archaeological dig, for Morley there's only one possible question: could it be murder? Join Morley, Miriam, and Sefton as they journey along the Great North road and the Settle-Carlisle Line into the dark heart of 1930s England.

Mr. Dixon a member of the Ulster Association of Magicians, has gone missing--along with one hundred thousand pounds in cash. Israel Armstrong, bighearted and overly inquisitive, should stick to delivering library books to out-of-the-way readers and not get involved in the investigation. But of course, he can't help himself--which costs him his job and earns him a place of dishonor among the police's prime suspects. Can Israel clear his name and get his van back? Will the exhibition of old local photos he's been driving around County Antrim offer clues to Mr. D.'s whereabouts? And is a romance in the offing with winsome barmaid Rosie Hart? All will be revealed!

Ian Sansom is back with another antidote to the festive season with this brilliant collection of short stories filled with those same emotions we feel year upon year in the most trying and joyous of months - anticipation, frustration, despair and ecstasy. In these stories, Sansom''s vivid and varying characters peel back the many layers of the winter month, from a lonely mother to a guardian angel, a pest-controller to a bar-bar-bar owning brother to a baker selling lockdown sourdough kits, these snippets of lives are revealing and beautifully familiar.

Anthology of specially commissioned short stories exploring the weird, surreal, and dream-like. Bringing together some of the best of Northern Ireland's literary talents as well as new and exciting voices, this collection is dark, funny and unsettling. Contributors include Jan Carson, Michelle Gallen, Carlo Gebler, Bernie McGill and Sam Thompson.

One poet, his poem, New York City, and a world on the verge of change.W. H. Auden, a wunderkind, a victim-beneficiary of a literary cult of personality, became a scapegoat and a poet-expatriate largely excluded from British literary history because he left. And his poem, September 1, 1939, was his most famous and celebrated, yet one which he tried to rewrite and disown and which has enjoyedor been condemnedto a tragic and unexpected afterlife.These are the contributing forces underlying Ian Sansoms work excavating the man and his most celebrated piece of literature. But Sansoms book is also about New York City: an island, an emblem of the Future, magnificent, provisional, seamy, and in 1939about to emerge as the defining twentieth-century cosmopolis, the capital of the world.And so it is also about a world at a point of changeabout 1939, and about our own Age of Anxiety, about the aftermath of September 11, when many American newspapers reprinted Audens poem in its entirety on their editorial pages.More than a work of literary criticism or literary biography, this is a record of why and how we create and respond to great poetry.

Introducing Israel Armstrong, one of literature's most unlikely detectives in the first of a series of novels from the author of the critically acclaimed Ring Road.Israel is an intelligent, shy, passionate, sensitive sort of soul: he's Jewish; he's a vegetarian; he could maybe do with losing a little weight. And he's just arrived in Ireland to take up his first post as a librarian. But the library's been shut down and Israel ends up stranded on the North Antrim coast driving an old mobile library.There's nice scenery, but 15,000 fewer books than there should be. Who on earth steals that many books? How? When would they have time to read them all? And is there anywhere in this godforsaken place where he can get a proper cappuccino and a decent newspaper?Israel wants answers...

Israel Armstrong, one of literature's most unlikely detectives, returns for more crime solving adventure in this hilarious second novel from 'The Mobile Library' series.The second in the 'The Mobile Library ' detective series, 'Mr Dixon Disappears' once again features the magnificently hapless Israel Armstrong - the young, Jewish, duffle-coat wearing librarian who solves crimes, mysteries, and domestic problems all whilst driving a mobile library around the coast of Northern Ireland.Dixon and Pickering's, County Antrim's legendary department store, is preparing to celebrate its centenary. But the elderly Mr Dixon - a member of the Ulster Association of Magicians - has gone missing, along with one hundred thousand pounds in cash. It smells, pretty badly, of a kidnap.Israel becomes a suspect in the police investigation and is suspended from his job by his boss, the ever-fearsome Linda Wei. He's having to fight to clear his name.Does Israel's acclaimed five-panel touring exhibition showing the history of Dixon and Pickering's in old photographs and artefacts perhaps hold the key to Mr Dixon's mysterious disappearance? Will romance blossom between Israel and Rosie Hart, the barmaid at the First and Last? Will Linda Wei stick to her diet? And has nobody here heard of Franz Kafka? All will be revealed in this hilarious and endlessly inventive sequel to 'The Case of the Missing Books'.

This is a book about a poet, about a poem, about a city, and about a world at a point of change. More than a work of literary criticism or literary biography, it is a record of why and how we create and respond to great poetry.

'Beautifully crafted by Sansom, Professor Morley promises to become a little gem of English crime writing; sample him now' Daily MailOctober 1937. Swanton Morley, the People's Professor, sets off to Essex to continue his history of England, The County Guides. Morley's daughter Miriam continues to cause chaos and his assistant Stephen Sefton continues to slide deeper into depression and despair.Morley is an honorary guest at the Colchester Oyster Festival. But when the mayor dies suddenly at the civic reception suspicion falls on his fellow councillors. Is it a case of food poisoning? Or could it be ... murder?Join Morley, Miriam and Sefton on another journey into the dark heart of England.

A witty, personal and entertaining reflection on the history and meaning of paper during the (passing) era of its universal importance.Paper serves nearly every function of our lives. It is the technology with which we have made sense of the world.Yet the age of paper is ending. Ebooks now outsell their physical counterparts. Still, there are some uses of paper that seem unlikely to change - Christmas won't be Christmas without wrapped presents or crackers. And the language of paper - documents, files and folders - has survived digitisation.In 'Paper: An Elegy' Ian Sansom builds a museum of paper and explores its paradox - its vulnerability and durability.

'Beautifully crafted by Sansom, Professor Morley promises to become a little gem of English crime writing; sample him now' Daily MailWelcome to Westmorland. Perhaps the most scenic county in England! Home of the poets! Land of the great artists! District of the Great lakes! And the scene of a mysterious crime...Swanton Morley, the People's Professor, once again sets off in his Lagonda to continue his history of England, The County Guides.Stranded in the market town of Appleby after a tragic rail crash, Morley, his daughter Miriam and his assistant Stephen Sefton find themselves drawn into a world of country fairs, gypsy lore and Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling. When a woman's body is discovered at an archaeological dig, for Morley there's only one possible question: could it be murder?Join Morley, Miriam and Sefton as they journey along the Great North road and the Settle-Carlisle Line into the dark heart of 1930s England.

CREAM TEAS! SCHOOL DINNERS! SATANIC SURFERS!Join our heroes as they follow up a Norfolk Mystery with a bad case of ... DEATH IN DEVON.Swanton Morley, the People's Professor, sets off for Devon to continue his history of England, The County Guides. Morley's daughter Miriam and his assistant Stephen Sefton pack up the Lagonda for a trip to the English Riviera.Morley has been invited to give the Founder's Day speech at All Souls School in Rousdon. But when the trio arrive they discover that a boy has died in mysterious circumstances. Was it an accident or was it - murder?Join Morley, Sefton and Miram on another adventure into the dark heart of 1930s England.

Love Miss Marple? Adore Holmes and Watson? Professor Morley's guide to Norfolk is a story of bygone England; quaint villages, eccentric locals - and murder!It is 1937 and disillusioned Spanish Civil War veteran Stephen Sefton is stony broke. So when he sees a mysterious advertisement for a job where 'intelligence is essential', he applies.Thus begins Sefton's association with Professor Swanton Morley, an omnivorous intellect. Morley's latest project is a history of traditional England, with a guide to every county.They start in Norfolk, but when the vicar of Blakeney is found hanging from his church's bellrope, Morley and Sefton find themselves drawn into a rather more fiendish plot. Did the Reverend really take his own life, or was it - murder?Beginning a thrilling new detective series, 'The Norfolk Mystery' is the first of The County Guides. A must-read for fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, every county is a crime scene, and with 39 counties in store there'll be plenty of murder, mystery and mayhem to confound and entertain you for years to come.

This is a playful and provocative collection of 365 extracts sourced from the British Library's collections, encompassing a wide range of great works in literature, poetry, essays and letters, historical and scientific treatises along with a myriad of eclectic imagery.

A new collection from the author of "The Mobile Library" mysteries, addressing the intertwined magic and menace of December.

The Bad Book Affair features the magnificently hapless Israel Armstrong - the duffle-coat wearing, navel-gazing Jewish librarian who solves crimes, mysteries, and domestic problems whilst driving a mobile library around the north coast of Ireland.