Benjamin Wood

Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, working his grandpa’s trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey, gloomy beach and scrape for shrimp, spending the afternoon selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and scum, pining for Joan Wyeth down the street, and rehearsing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but it remains a private dream.When a striking visitor turns up, bringing the promise of Hollywood glamour, Thomas is shaken from the drudgery of his days and begins to see a different future. But how much of what the American claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas?Haunting and timeless, this is the story a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows.

Get ahead! Medicine: 300 SBAs for Finals, fully revised and updated in this second edition, provides invaluable revision for all medical students preparing for finals exams through plentiful practice questions, similar to those you can expect in the real exam. It features: 300 SBA questions written in a similar style to the Medical Schools Council Assessment Alliance (MSC-AA) bank Examples of harder stems for students aiming for honours Eponymous details and derivatives for added interest Full explanatory answers including succinct subject summaries Covering the entire syllabus in a clear and comprehensive style, this book provides reliable and effective revision practice to help you pass your final medical exams.

Get ahead! Medicine: 300 SBAs for Finals, fully revised and updated in this second edition, provides invaluable revision for all medical students preparing for finals exams through plentiful practice questions, similar to those you can expect in the real exam. It features: 300 SBA questions written in a similar style to the Medical Schools Council Assessment Alliance (MSC-AA) bank Examples of harder stems for students aiming for honours Eponymous details and derivatives for added interest Full explanatory answers including succinct subject summaries Covering the entire syllabus in a clear and comprehensive style, this book provides reliable and effective revision practice to help you pass your final medical exams.

Longlisted for the Booker Prize, this "cinematically plotted...radiant" (The New York Times) novel follows shanker Thomas Flett as his quiet life in a small English coastal town is forever changed over the course of one fateful day. Twenty-year-old Thomas Flett lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, Northern England, working his grandpa's trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the drizzly shore to scrape for shrimp, and spends the afternoon selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and sea-scum, pining for his neighbor, Joan Wyeth, and playing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but this remains a private dream. Then a mysterious American arrives in town, and enlists Thomas's help in finding a perfect location for his next movie. Though skeptical at first, soon Thomas starts to trust the stranger, Edgar, and, shaken from the drudgery of his days by the promise of Hollywood glamour, begins to see a different future for himself. But how much of what Edgar claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas? Haunting and timeless, from "one of the finest British novelists of his generation" (The Times) Seascraper tells the story of a quiet existence upturned over the span of one day, and a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows.

A mesmerising portrait of a young man confined in by his class and the ghosts of his family's past, dreaming of artistic fulfilment. It confirms Benjamin Wood as an exceptional talent in British literature.'A huge talent' Hilary Mantel'Benjamin Wood is a magnificent writer and I intend to read everything he has written' Douglas StuartThomas lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, working his grandpa’s trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey, gloomy beach to scrape for shrimp; spending the rest of the day selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and scum, pining for Joan Wyeth down the street and rehearsing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but it remains a private dream.When a striking visitor turns up, bringing the promise of Hollywood glamour, Thomas is shaken from the drudgery of his days and begins to see a different future. But how much of what the American claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas?Haunting and timeless, this is the story of a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows.'Seascraper is powerful, poignant and poetic. I can’t recommend it enough' Benjamin Myers, award-winning author of Cuddy 'Britain's answer to Donna Tartt' Sunday Times'What a writer' Richard Osman

In the second decade of the twenty-first century, Quakers are increasingly divided over matters of theology, religious belonging, and the status of Friends’ Christian past. Recent controversies over Theism, Non-Theism and Universalism have highlighted deep-rooted transformations of Quaker self-understanding. In contrast to earlier decades, many contemporary Quakers hanker after an intensely inclusive community, unhampered by the particulars of Christian theology. Many British Friends no-longer see the Quaker movement as an expression of the Gospel nor a manifestation of the Universal Church. What might Friends be missing by re-imagining Quakerism in these resolutely post-Christian terms? Author Benjamin Wood argues that, far from limiting the bounds of Quaker identity, a selective return to Quakerism’s seventeenth-century roots can restore to modern Liberal Friends a shared story capable of deepening their spiritual life and worship-practice. Based neither on doctrinal agreement nor inflexible religious borders, the Quaker narrative recovered in The Living Fountain: Remembrances of Quaker Christianity is drawn together by sacred experiments in mutual love and enduring hope. Through a series of extended reflections on God, Jesus, and the language of salvation, Wood seeks to uncover a dynamic faith ncommitted to universal healing, reconciliation, and the crossing of religious and cultural boundaries. At the centre of this retrieval is the insistence that the God revealed in Quaker worship cherishes our differences and delights in our diversity.

In 2014 the jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) were consolidating their control over a vast area of the Middle East. They singled out the Yazidis, adherents of an ancient monotheistic religion, for annihilation. Unlike Christians or Jews, who were seen as "people of the book," Yazidis were classified as pagans and therefore subject to extermination. The men were to be executed and the women and children enslaved. In August ISIS fighters attacked Sinjar, an Iraqi city inhabited mostly by Yazidis. Some 50,000 panic-stricken civilians fled to Mount Sinjar in 110° heat with no food or water. The ISIS militants quickly surrounded the mountain and after several days people began to die of exposure, exhaustion, and dehydration. This is a history of the ISIS attack on the Yazidis and the American response, which represented the opening salvo in the war against ISIS. With a potential genocide looming, President Barack Obama ordered the U.S. military into action in order to save the thousands of men, women and children desperately calling for help from Mount Sinjar. While the U.S. Air Force dropped tons of food, water, and supplies to those stranded, U.S. Navy aircraft attacked ISIS positions at the base of the mountain. In the following months the United States assembled a coalition of nations which, along with Kurdish militias, eventually destroyed the Islamic State, saved the Yazidis and liberated millions from the brutal rule of ISIS.

'Britain's answer to Donna Tartt' Sunday Times'A huge talent' Hilary Mantel'Was this how it was going to be for ever? Wrapping things for customers in womenswear, no conversation. Polishing the counters so her face reflected in the brass and sweeping floors at closing time until the boss said she could leave. How much worse off would she be if she went driving with a stranger for a while?'When sixteen-year-old Joyce Savigear absconds from work to go out with a man she barely knows, she hopes a new, exciting life is just beginning. But, two years later, she is waiting on a railway station in the tranquil English countryside. It's the summer of 1952 and she and her younger brother Charlie have just been released from borstal. Another fresh start awaits - but can Joyce ever outrun the darkness of her past?'What a writer' Richard Osman 'An involving tale of revenge and responsibility, which, while it devastates, also tells us that new lives can be built among the ashes' FT 'The Young Accomplice shows the difference between a book that slides down the surface of things, and one that digs its claws into you and sticks there' The Times

Ben Wood is a larger than life figure, an American architect who re-imagined both the heart of New York and the heart of Shanghai and in this unique memoir, he tells a thousand outrageous and wonderful stories from the back blocks of the American South in the 1950s through to the glittering skylines of the 21st century. His design of the Xintiandi area of Shanghai set the standard for urban renewal across all of China's cities, but that's just the beginning of the amazing tales he has to tell in Into The Dragon's Mouth. A post-war Huckleberry Finn growing up in Georgia, Ben drove across the country while in high school, partook in the Summer of Love, and flew Phantom fighter jets with the USAF in Europe at the height of the Cold War. But his life's work has been the re-imagining of urban life. Ben's approach to architectural design is unique and the stories around all he has done are colorful, thought-provoking and emotionally-driven. Through this marvelous book, redolent of the style of the great Southern story-tellers, Ben Wood weaves a deep wisdom and philosophy, as well as perspectives on China and the United States from one who has seen and done far more than most.

Ben Wood is a larger than life figure, an American architect who re-imagined both the heart of New York and the heart of Shanghai and in this unique memoir, he tells a thousand outrageous and wonderful stories from the back blocks of the American South in the 1950s through to the glittering skylines of the 21st century. His design of the Xintiandi area of Shanghai set the standard for urban renewal across all of China's cities, but that's just the beginning of the amazing tales he has to tell in Into The Dragon's Mouth. A post-war Huckleberry Finn growing up in Georgia, Ben drove across the country while in high school, partook in the Summer of Love, and flew Phantom fighter jets with the USAF in Europe at the height of the Cold War. But his life's work has been the re-imagining of urban life. Ben's approach to architectural design is unique and the stories around all he has done are colorful, thought-provoking and emotionally-driven. Through this marvelous book, redolent of the style of the great Southern story-tellers, Ben Wood weaves a deep wisdom and philosophy, as well as perspectives on China and the United States from one who has seen and done far more than most.

'Britain's answer to Donna Tartt' Sunday Times'A huge talent' Hilary Mantel 'What a writer' Richard Osman In the summer of 1952, Joyce and Charlie Savigear are waiting on a railway platform in the quiet English countryside. The siblings have just been released from borstal to start a new life as apprentices at Leventree, an architecture practice with a difference.The architects who've chosen them are Florence and Arthur Mayhood, a married couple motivated to give young offenders second chances. At first, they seem to offer the Savigears a steady path to happiness. But when a menacing figure from Joyce's past comes knocking, they are lured back to the world they left behind. Will the Mayhoods' goodwill be enough to steer their young apprentices away from danger, or will the darkness of their past catch up with them?'Benjamin Wood is a beautiful writer and this is his best novel yet, both gripping and unputdownable' Andrew O'Hagan'The Young Accomplice shows the difference between a book that slides down the surface of things, and one that digs it claws into you and sticks there' The Times'Benjamin Wood is building a sublime body of work. This masterful, suspenseful novel is his best yet' David Whitehouse

Reprint of the original, first published in 1862.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1862.

Shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award and the European Union Prize for Literature 2019. "His mistakes are my inheritance. The rotten blood he gave me is the blood I will pass on." For twenty years, Daniel Hardesty has lived with the emotional scars of a childhood trauma which he is powerless to undo. One August morning, Daniel and his estranged father Francis--a character of irresistible charm and roiling self-pity--set out on a road trip that seems a promise to salvage their relationship. They have one shared interest, The Artifex, a children's TV program where Fran works on set, and Daniel has been promised special access to the studio. But with every passing mile, the layers of Fran's mendacity and desperation are exposed, pushing him to acts of violence that will define the rest of his son's life. The acclaimed author of The Ecliptic has written a novel of exceptional beauty about the bond between fathers and sons, and the invention and reconciliation of self--weaving a haunting story of lost innocence and love. "A novel written from the gut, and with a correspondingly visceral power. A superbly unsettling account of trauma and cautious recovery."--Sarah Waters, author of The Paying Guests