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A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF COFFEE AND CAFES A People's History of Coffee and Cafés is an exploration into how a certain plant became a global commodity, creating fortunes and despair, bringing people together and tearing them apart, playing a starring role in the remarkable awakening of our modern world. The theme is coffee and the venue is the coffeehouse - one of the few places where prince and pauper might meet on equal footing. But where did coffee really come from? And how did it get to us? |
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| EIGHT WEEKS IN THE SUMMER OF VICTORIA'S JUBILEE: the Queen, the Jews and a Murder Black Apollo Press, 2012 ISBN: 9781900355711 Jubilee Summer, June 1887. Britain is deep in lavish celebration of Empire. That same month, in the East End of London a quiet young man, recently arrived from Warsaw, is accused of murdering an Angel. Two writers at the start of their career – Z, a brilliant Anglo-Jewish novelist and Maggie, a fiery social reformer – are brought together in a remarkable encounter as they investigate Eight Weeks in the Summer of Victoria’s Jubilee is a brilliant study of London’s East End at the turn of the century and a fascinating exploration into a murder case that shook the very foundations of British justice. |
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JOSEPH RADKIN INVESTIGATIONS: BOOKS 1 - 5 Originally published in 1985 by Pluto Press as part of their new list of social and political mysteries, the Joseph Radkin Investigations series was taken up in the late 80s and early 90s by Victor Gollancz for their distinctive yellow jacket collection. Black Apollo Press takes pride in bringing the complete set of Joseph Radkin titles back into print for a new generation of readers - including a final book previously unpublished in the UK. Radkin is an investigative journalist attempting to balance demands of career with questions of integrity – putting him in constant conflict with editors who try to muzzle his dogged insistence that truth always comes before corporate needs – even if 'truth' isn't always that clear. The themes of the Radkin books are powerful - the use of genetic engineering for military purposes, the destruction of ancient forests by corporate asset strippers, the link between fundamentalism and big business in the antiquities trade of Central America - but the mysteries themselves are good fun, written with a lightness of touch and wry humour. The characters are universally engaging, human and vulnerable, while the stories expose larger issues that are as relevant today as they were twenty-five years ago. The Radkin books were given excellent reviews by the British press when first published: "Has a zip and freshness of narration hard to resist … funny as well." The Guardian; "More red herrings than a Moscow fishmonger's" Yorkshire Post; "Difficult to put down!" Scotland on Sunday; "Nothing is what it seems territory with a few extra twists, mayhem and a cruel message. Formidable!" The Sunday Times |
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LETTERS
TO NANETTE From the Beatnik cafes of San Francisco, hanging out with the likes of Ginsberg, to an Army boot camp in Georgia, this novel explores America's entry into Vietnam seen through the eyes of a young man caught up in the madness. “Other wars have inspired not only best selling tales of heroic but also biting satires. Vietnam did not. Not, that is, until Bob Biderman gave us his superb Letters to Nanette…” About Books, American Library Association |
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STRANGE
INHERITANCE The first book of the Joseph Radkin series begins with a carton of letters and a stack of hundred dollar bills - an inheritance Radkin has received from his recently deceased dad. As Radkin’s father was a life-long union activist who died disillusioned and broke, where did all this money come from? Tracing his father’s mysterious life from clues in letters written aboard a remarkable merchant ship, bound for North Africa during WW II, he stumbles upon a compelling story of one man’s quest for social justice in the aftermath of the cold war. "This is a wonderful pot pourri of a book – part thriller, part contemporary history, part family saga… It is also gripping reading, beautifully written and, at times, very funny." Tribune |
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KOBA Who is Koba? For Morris Kaplan, Koba was a fellow student protester.
Left-wing attorney, Rocky Calhoon believes he was a freedom fighter killed
in Bolivia. Others think he is still alive and running drugs from South
America. A taut, witty atmospheric thriller set in 80's San Francisco
and peopled with survivors of May '68. |
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GENESIS
FILES When an outbreak of salmonella at a San Francisco hospital coincides with a mysterious and deadly explosion at its research laboratory there is some dangerous detective work to be done by Joseph Radkin, a feisty investigative journalist and anxious father-to-be, reluctantly covering the story for a down-market tabloid. What was Dr Greene, the last bastion of community medicine, doing in the laboratory at the dead of night? And why was he there with Professor Krohl, a genetic engineer ‘whose idea of public health was giving every frog an extra head’?
The Genesis Files was selected by the Guardian as one of the ten best crime novels of 1998. |
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KNIGHT AT SEA (as R. J. Raskin) On the 12th of April, 1955 Raymond Chandler boarded the Mauritania in New York setting sail for the England of his youth. Four years later, he died, a lonely alcoholic, in a small town on the South Californian coast. A Knight at Sea is a fictional account of this story. Woven like a film noir this is a Chandleresque tale of bizarre friendship coupled with intrigue and murder. "Probably the best novel about Raymond Chandler ever written! Brilliant, bold, witty, political and totally absorbing!" Ozymandias |
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TECHNOFARM
A strange disease is killing off the residents of Cambridge. Could it have to do with an agricultural research station experimenting in bio-genetics? Or does it involve something equally sinister - the distribution of tainted cooking oil that caused hundreds of deaths in Spain. The clock is ticking as famed epidemiologist, Peter Grant, races to solve the mystery before the city succumbs to a serious plague. Timely and terrifying as today’s headlines! |
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JUDGEMENT
OF DEATH Joseph Radkin is sent to London to take over a story
comparing two sensational poison trials: one contemporary; the other
a notorious Victorian case.
His assignment soon takes on a sinister aspect as Radkin learns that
his predecessor’s death may not have been an accident. Tracing
the shadowy connections between past and present, Radkin uncovers corruption – and
worse – among the highest echelons of British society. |
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PAPER
CUTS Investigative journalist Joseph Radkin is sent to Oregon
to look into a bitter dispute between the logging industry and environmentalists.
When a famed ecologist is killed, coupled with the disappearance of
a lumber boss’ daughter, Radkin finds himself caught up in a
dangerous story that goes far beyond clear-cutting the ancient redwoods. |
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SACHA
DUMONT'S EUROMYSTERIES: AMSTERDAM This is the first in a series of books exploring cities of the new Europe through an interconnected mystery. Sacha Dumont, the author and protagonist, is a British journalist of French and German extraction assigned to cover the emerging Europe of the 21st century by comparing stories of past and present. This adventure focuses on Amsterdam, where Sacha lived as a young man and where a close friend, an artist and bohemian, has been accused of murdering a prostitute. Following a twisty path through history, Sacha is led on a heady journey of discovery giving the reader a unique insight into the contrasts and contradictions from which the new Europe is being constructed. |
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MAYAN
STRAWBERRIES A young Mixtec Indian from Guatemala follows the trail of tears through Mexico to a migrant camp in the strawberry fields of California. There, instead of refuge, he finds himself accused of murder. Is he the killer or a patsy set up to distract attention from a right wing cult? Mayan Strawberries combines a fascinating anthropological study with the deadly politics of Central America in an exciting thriller by the author of Paper Cuts, Judgment of Death and Genesis Files. Last in the series. |
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RED
DREAMS Set in the political turmoil of McCarthy's America, a young man searches for his father gone into hiding to escape the witch-hunts. Red Dreams is a coming-of-age adventure that leads from the straight-laced provinces of the American Midwest to the anarchy of 50's Hollywood. A compelling story - warm and humorous. |
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RED
DREAMS Alan a la malchance de grandir en plein maccarthysme dans une famille de juifs communistes. Son père, recherché par le Comité de lutte contre les organisations antipatriotiques, est contraint de disparaître un temps. Le jeune Alan et sa mère vont devoir affronter les difficultés économiques et connaître l’humiliation. Le retour du père ne fera que révéler un peu plus le mal de vivre en Amérique, pourtant le pays de tous... |
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FURTHER
EDUCATION An American academic changes places with a British lecturer in hopes of spending a year in the gentle land of Auden but finds himself instead lost in the insanity of a London College of Further Education.
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| CHILDREN'S BOOKS | ||
ANNA
AND THE JEWEL THIEVES (as Mortimer Tune) When Anna came to England with her mother and father, she hadn’t quite expected to end up with the Queen’s jewels sewn into the lining of her coat. Nor did she think she’d be helping a gang of would-be robbers dispose of the loot in Paris. A whimsical tale that grows funnier as each page turns. Lots of slap-stick and satire for children eight to eighty-nine. |
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| NON-FICTION | ||
THE
SOCIAL HISTORY OF COFFEE |
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| SHORT STORIES | ||
THE
POLKA-DOTTED POSTMAN and Other Stories A Collection of humorous stories and tales for adults of all ages.
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| ILLUSTRATED BOOKLETS | ||
ROMANCING PARIS - AGAIN Bob Biderman and his wife, the poet, Joy Magezis, revisit the Paris of their youth. |
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LEFT-HANDED PORTUGUESE ZEN |
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