Arrow Books No Hunger In Paradise. The Players. The Journey. The Dream Calvin Michael

Award-winning author of The Nowhere Men, Living on the Volcano and No Hunger in Paradise returns with his magnum opus on the state of modern football • First he revealed the extraordinary lives of football scouts in The Nowhere Men • Next he unearthed the pressures on football managers in Living on the Volcano • Then he chronicled the hardships of young players striving to make it in No Hunger in Paradise • Now in State of Play, in what marks the pinnacle of a career investigating the human stories of football, award-winning writer Michael Calvin turns his eye to the biggest story of all - the game itself • From mental health to money, concussion to Champions league, fan-owners to oligarchs, women's football to world cups, Calvin gets under the skin of the beautiful game, and reveals why it is truly the game of our lives

'The fountain was not working. Nothing unusual in that...' • Marcus Didius Falco and his laddish friend Petronius find their local fountain has been blocked - by a gruesomely severed human hand • Soon other body parts are being found in the aqueducts and sewers • Public panic overcomes official indifference, and the Aventine partners are commissioned to investigate. Women are being abducted during festivals, with the next Games only days away • As the heat rises in the Circus Maximus, they face a race against time and a strong test of their friendship. They know the sadistic killer lurks somewhere on the festive streets of Rome- preparing to strike again

What if you knew a child was in danger – and no one believed you? • Alex Lake’s day job is all about helping people, especially children. She cares about them passionately and does everything in her power to rescue them from those who mean them harm • When the case of three-year-old Ottilie Wade comes to her attention, Alex feels an overpowering need to make a real difference in the little girl's life, but no one is prepared to believe that Ottilie is in danger • In the end, Alex makes a decision that has consequences that no one, least of all Alex, could have foreseen

Eva Montgomery is at the peak of her career when she is viciously attacked by a stalker. While still traumatised, she makes the biggest mistake of her life - one she can never turn back from • Sixteen years later, Eva has managed to rebuild her life in a way that seemed impossible after the attack. Her home in Dorset, high on the cliffs overlooking the sea, is as elegant as she is, but bears none of the scars. To an outsider, her world seems perfect in every way • Then the past invades the present - with shattering consequences • Hurt, frightened and confused, Eva struggles desperately to put right the terrible mistake she made sixteen years ago and finally break free from a past that nearly destroyed her

Lady Maud, the spirited young daughter of the Earl of Marshmoreton, is confined to her home, Belpher Castle in Hampshire, under aunt's orders because of an unfortunate infatuation. Enter our hero, George Bevan, an American who writes songs for musicals and is so smitten with Maud that he descends on Hampshire's rolling acres to see off his rival and claim her heart. Meanwhile, in the great Wodehousian tradition, the Earl of Marshmoreton just wants a quiet life pottering in his garden, supported by his portly butler Keggs and free from the demands of his bossy sister and his silly-ass son • It is a sunny story which involves misunderstandings, butlers and gentle hearts torn asunder only to be reunited at last. This delightful novel which was twice filmed (once as a musical starring Fred Astaire) has all the wit and lightness of touch that we expect from the great comic writer

Contractors on schedule for corpses in Britannia • AD 75: as a passion for home improvement sweeps through the Roman Empire, Falco struggles to deal with a pair of terrible bath-house contractors who have been causing him misery for months • Far away in Britain, King Togidubnus of the Atrebates tribe is planning his own makeover. His huge new residence (known to us as Fishbourne Palace) will be spectacular - but the sensational refurbishment is beset by 'accidents'. The frugal Emperor Vespasian is paying for all this; he wants someone to investigate • Falco has a new baby, a new house, and he hates Britain. But his feud with Anacrites the Chief Spy has now reached a dangerous level, so with his own pressing reasons to leave Rome in a hurry, he accepts the task

Drowning in mystery, dying on stage • The spirit of adventure calls Marcus Didius Falco on a new spying mission for the Emperor Vespasian to the untamed East. He's picking up extra fees from his old friend Thalia, the snake dancer, as he searches for Sophrona, her lost water organist. With the Chief Spy Anacrites paying his fare, Falco knows anything can go wrong • A dangerous brush with the Brother, the sinister ruler of Nabataean Petra, sends Falco and his girlfriend Helena on a fast camel-ride to Syria. They join a traveling theatre group, which keeps losing members in non-accidental drownings • The bad acting and poor audiences are almost as bad as the desert and its scorpions - then as the killer hovers, Falco tries to write a play

Sunderland, 1941 • With a brief break in air raids providing some much-needed respite from the war, things are looking up for head welder Rosie, who has fallen head over heels for Detective Sergeant Miller. But how long can their romance last in such uncertain times? • Life remains full of challenges for Gloria, who must face her abusive ex-husband and confront her own guilty conscience about baby Hope’s real father. The secret is tearing her apart but if she admits the truth, she will risk losing everything • Both women are determined that their love and faith will be enough to keep the most difficult of promises, but nothing is as simple as it seems…

Еще совсем недавно было трудно поверить, что убеленный сединами наставник Оби-Ван Кеноби когда-то был безусым юнцом, а повергающий Галактику в трепет Император Палпратин - лишь амбициозным сенатором. И совершенно невозможно представить зловещего Дарта Вейдера маленьким мальчиком, который живет в рабстве на Татуине, а по ночам мечтает о далеких звездах. Мы попадаем в то самое время, когда рыцари-джедаи еще хранят мир и спокойствие в Галактике. Но темная сила, готовая поглотить планеты и народы, уже пробудилась, и только древнее пророчество джедаев об избранном, который принесет равновесие в Силу, дает надежду в преддверии катастрофы. Скрытая угроза нависла над Республикой, простоявшей не одну тысячу лет, но теперь погрязшей в пучине политических разногласий и интриг

The story of the homesick Italian girl who became the most feared woman in sixteenth-century France • Sullen-eyed and broken-hearted, fourteen-year-old Catherine de' Medici arrives in Marseilles to marry Henry of Orleans, second son of the King of France. On the promise of a dowry fit for a king, Catherine has left her true love in Italy, forced into trading her future for a stake in the French crown • Amid the glittering fetes and banquets of the most immoral court in sixteenth-century Europe, the reluctant bride becomes a passionate but unwanted wife. Humiliated and unloved, Catherine spies on Henry and his lover, the infamous Diane de Poitiers. And, tortured by what she sees, Catherine becomes dangerously occupied by a ruthless ambition destined to make her the most despised woman in France: the dream that one day the French crown will be worn be a Medici heir

The first novel in the wonderful new Railway Girls series, perfect for fans of Nancy Revell and Ellie Dean • In February, 1922, at the western-most entrance to Victoria Station in Manchester, a massive plaque was unveiled. Beneath a vast tiled map showing the lines of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway network, a series of seven bronze panels recorded the names of the men of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway who gave their lives for King and Country in the Great War - a total of 1,460 names • In March, 1940, a group of women of varying ages and backgrounds, stand in front of the memorial, ready to do their bit in this new World War • Mabel is determined to make a fresh start as a railway girl where no one will know the terrible thing she did and she can put her guilt behind her