Peter Murphy

It is 1964 and Ben Schroeder, first introduced in A Higher Duty, is building his career at the Bar; juggling the demands of different challenging cases, while trying to allow a little romance into his life. Ben is already defending a vicar, accused of indecent assault on a choir boy, when he is plunged into a capital murder case. The accused is Billy Cottage, charged with murder after a frenzied attack on a young courting couple aboard a houseboat. The young man, Frank Gilliam, dies in the attack, while his girlfriend, Jennifer Doyce, is raped and seriously injured. The attacker steals a gold cross and chain from Jennifer, which makes the crime a capital offence. When the police recover the cross and chain from Billy's sister, and find his fingerprint inside the houseboat, things start to look ominous. But then comes the crucial piece of evidence of his propensity to sing a particular song. To make matters worse, Ben is being led by Martin Hardcastle, an arrogant QC with a serious drinking problem. In his fight to save Billy Cottage's life, Ben finds that he has both the law and the facts against him; and the tide of public opinion has not yet turned against capital punishment.

The English Heritage Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (RCZAS) programme has produced a wealth of new information, with over 45 survey reports now completed. Alongside this, the offshore survey completed as part of the Marine Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund has increased understanding of early prehistoric coastal change, while other researchers have extended back the time scale for a human presence in England to at least 900,000 years. From a wider Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management perspective, there has been increased participation by English Heritage in Defra and Environment Agency initiatives. It is apt, now, to review what has been achieved and learnt from the RCZAS and other recent coastal historic environment studies. The book will include an introduction to the coastal historic environment, a consideration of long-term coastal change, an outline of survey, recording and characterisation methodology, a national review of the coastal historic environment and a separate discussion of regional significance, a set of research priorities for the future, and a final section considering how England’s coastal heritage should be managed in the future. The fact that climate change will impact significantly, and mostly adversely, on the coastal historic environment, gives a special urgency to this new publication.

Shall We Gather At The River tells the story of Enoch O'Reilly, the great flood that afflicts his small town, and the rash of mysterious suicides that accompany it. Charlatan, Presleyite and local radiovangelist, O'Reilly is a man haunted by the childhood ghosts of his father's sinister radio set... a false prophet destined for a terrible consummation with that old, evil river.A suicide mystery and a rich patchwork narrative of legend, myth, occult inheritance, eco-conspiracy, viral obsession, airwaves, water and death, Shall We Gather At The River is a spellbinding piece of work, marked by prose that is by turns haunting, poetic and blackly humourous. With shades of Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood, Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides, of Twin Peaks and Wisconsin Death Trip, Shall We Gather At The River is a novel that will further cement Murphy's reputation as one of the most original and exciting novelists to emerge in recent years.

Written in 1989 when the modern tourist industry had reached a crucial stage in its development, when increased mobility and affluence had led to more extensive and extravagant travel, and competition within the industry had intensified, this book is comprehensive examination of tourism development. The author provides a new perspective for its evaluation, and a suggested strategy for its continued development and evolution. He examines tourism from the viewpoint of destination areas and their aspirations, and recommends an ecological, community approach to developing and planning – one which encourages local initiative, local benefits, and a tourism product in harmony with the local environment and its people.

A denounced President, her kidnapped daughter, a Hindu extremist group and the threat of nuclear war: America is once again thrown into turmoil in Peter Murphy's sequel to Removal As Ellen Trevathan settles into her presidency, she feels confident to come out as a lesbian to the press, an announcement that unleashes a storm of criticism against her authority. Her personal life becomes increasingly unstable when her daughter, Dani, is kidnapped by a Hindu extremist group, Svatantra Kashmir (SK). Director of the FBI, Kelly Smith, is called in to investigate and is soon immersed in a situation with far wider implications. Under pressure to comply with orders made by SK, Ellen has to tackle the threat of nuclear war between India and Pakistan and ensure the safety of her daughter. As the crisis escalates, public duty and personal concerns are thrown into conflict. The severity of the situation demands that one has to be sacrificed, and only Ellen can choose...

If you know something about passion, and desire, and giving everything to live your dreams then leave your world behind for a while. Come with Janice to Dublin, in the mid nineteen-eighties when a better future beckoned and the past was restless, whispering in the shadows for the Old Ways. Janice has grown tired of her sheltered existence in Toronto and when Aidan leads her through the veils of the Celtic Twilight, she doesn't hesitate. In their love, Aidan, Dublin's rising poet, sees a chance for redemption and Janice sees a chance for recognition. Sinead tells her that it is all nonsense as she keeps her head down and her eyes fixed on her own prize - a place in Ireland's prospering future. She used to go out with Aidan, before he met Janice, so there is little she can say. And besides, she has enough to do as her parents are torn apart by the rumours of church scandals. But after a few nights in Grogan's, where Dublin's bohemians gather, or a day in Clonmacnoise among the ruins of Celtic Crosses, it won't matter as the ghosts of Aidan's mythologies take form and prey on the friends until everything is at risk. Lagan Love is a sensuous story of Love, Lust and Loss that will bring into question the cost we pay for our dreams.

"This book is majestic and squalid at the same time, as if the Bible were actually about Elvis. The rhythms and music carry you like a baby on a raft on the river, but it's the precision of the words that cinches you."--Richard Hell, author of I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp "A passionate dream of a book. Dazzling, but lucid--as though Flannery O'Connor had gone back to the Ireland of her forebears to write a novel."--Peter Behrens, author of The Law of Dreams A small Irish town. A river flood. The return of a prodigal son. On the banks of the river Rua, when the rains have stopped and the waters receded, nine bodies are found. What took them to the river? Enoch O'Reilly, a self-made preacher and Elvis impersonator claiming to be just returned to Ireland from America, launches a radio show Revival Hour. It enjoys a short but spectacular run, and its disastrous end forces Enoch back to the family home. There he finds clues to a mythic connection between the dead--this brotherhood of the flood--the natural rhythms of the earth, a secret language called riverish, and his lost father. Conjuring together various traditions--gothic, Irish, Southern, musical, poetic, our deep connections to stories, to our homelands, and to nature--Peter Murphy establishes himself as one of Ireland's literary wonders. "A wild and inventive butt-kicker, but also strangely tender, and the language is charged, vivid, luminous."--Kevin Barry, author of City of Bohane "Murphy can write like an angel, but] his gaze is mischievous."-- Irish Times

Ben Schroeder, a talented young man from an East End Jewish family, has been accepted as a pupil into the Chambers of Bernard Wesley QC. But Schroeder is an outsider, not part of this privileged society, where wealth and an Oxbridge education are essentials. He encounters prejudice, intrigue and scandal. Kenneth Gaskell, a rising star of Wesley's Chambers has become involved in an affair with a high-profile client and the relationship, if known, could ruin his career, and the careers of all those around him. But Bernard Wesley has some information - he knows about a student prank that went terribly wrong - can he use this knowledge in a desperate gamble to save his Chambers and turn the tables on his old rival, Miles Overton QC? Ben Schroeder has proved his ability, but he is no more than a pawn in this game. Can he survive in this world where nothing, not even justice, is sacred?

Written in 1989 when the modern tourist industry had reached a crucial stage in its development, when increased mobility and affluence had led to more extensive and extravagant travel, and competition within the industry had intensified, this book is comprehensive examination of tourism development. The author provides a new perspective for its evaluation, and a suggested strategy for its continued development and evolution. He examines tourism from the viewpoint of destination areas and their aspirations, and recommends an ecological, community approach to developing and planning – one which encourages local initiative, local benefits, and a tourism product in harmony with the local environment and its people.

When the philandering US President lies to his wife and to the American people he weaves a tangled web that leads to disastrous results... President Steve Wade believes his latest affair with a beautiful Lebanese woman, Lucia Benoni, is a secret. When Lucia is murdered in mysterious circumstances, FBI Agent Kelly Smith...

The Collective Imagination explores the social foundations of the human imagination. In a lucid and wide-ranging discussion, Peter Murphy looks at the collective expression of the imagination in our economies, universities, cities, and political systems, providing a tour-de-force account of the power of the imagination to unite opposites and find similarities among things that we ordinarily think of as different. It is not only individuals who possess the power to imagine; societies do as well. A compelling journey through various peak moments of creation, this book examines the cities and nations, institutions and individuals who ply the paraphernalia of paradoxes and dialogues, wry dramaturgy and witty expression that set the act of creation in motion. Whilst exploring the manner in which, through the media of pattern, figure, and shape, and the miracles of metaphor, things come into being, Murphy recognises that creative periods never last: creative forms invariably tire; inventive centres inevitably fade. The Collective Imagination explores the contemporary dilemmas and historic pathos caused by this-as cities and societies, periods and generations slip behind in the race for economic and social discovery. Left bewildered and bothered, and struggling to catch up, they substitute empty bombast, faded glory, chronic dullness or stolid glumness for initiative, irony, and inventiveness. A comprehensive audit of the creativity claims of the post-modern age - that finds them badly wanting and looks to the future - The Collective Imagination will appeal to sociologists and philosophers concerned with cultural theory, cultural and media studies and aesthetics.

Advancement in the arts and sciences is a primary driver of economic production and social policy in post-industrial societies. Imagination steps back and asks ‘what advances the arts and sciences?’ This book explores the collective, social and global dimension of human imagining–and the ambivalent relationship of social institutions, including universities, schools, economies, media and culture industries, to the collective imagination. Basic discovery requires high levels of creative thinking: Imagination looks at the social conditions that make path-breaking thought possible on a large scale. It examines the role of aesthetic, pictorial, digital, paradoxical and other imaginative styles of thinking, and the times and places in which such styles become socially prominent and a significant force in economic and cultural production. It looks at successful societies as they are approaching their peak, when new ideas are driving them forward.

Advancement in the arts and sciences is a primary driver of economic production and social policy in post-industrial societies. Imagination steps back and asks ‘what advances the arts and sciences?’ This book explores the collective, social and global dimension of human imagining–and the ambivalent relationship of social institutions, including universities, schools, economies, media and culture industries, to the collective imagination. Basic discovery requires high levels of creative thinking: Imagination looks at the social conditions that make path-breaking thought possible on a large scale. It examines the role of aesthetic, pictorial, digital, paradoxical and other imaginative styles of thinking, and the times and places in which such styles become socially prominent and a significant force in economic and cultural production. It looks at successful societies as they are approaching their peak, when new ideas are driving them forward.

This is the story of John Devine -- stuck in a small town in the eerie landscape of Southeast Ireland, worried over by his single, chain-smoking, bible-quoting mother, Lily, and spied on by the "neighborly" Mrs. Nagle. When Jamey Corboy, a self-styled Rimbaudian boy wonder, arrives in town, John's life suddenly seems full of possibility. His loneliness dissipates. He is taken up by mischief and discovery, hiding in the world beyond as Lily's mysterious illness worsens. But Jamey and John's nose for trouble may be their undoing and soon John will be faced with a terrible moral dilemma. Joining the ranks of the great novels of friendship and betrayal -- A Separate Peace, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha -- John the Revelator grapples with the pull of the world and the hold of those we love. Suffused with family secrets, eerie imagery, black humor, and hypnotic prose, John the Revelator is a novel to fall in love with and an astounding debut.

This lively and original book changes the way we see globalization and the knowledge economy. Creativity, exchange and the open flow of ideas have long shaped states, economies and everyday life. But knowledge now has an extraordinary dynamism. The world is crisscrossed by traffic in people, data and images. A world society is emerging, though governance is yet to reflect this. Global Creation shows that global creativity is transforming in two ways. First, global synchrony and convergence are changing the conception, production and sharing of creative work and this is feeding back into the core structures of the social world. Second, the global dimension is itself a human product and one that is continually being created. This book explores acts of imagining, producing and regulating the global dimension of action in the past, present and future. It will interest all intelligent readers, particularly those engaged with the history of ideas, political economy, sociology, innovation, or business organization. It follows Creativity and the Global Knowledge Economy (Peters, Marginson, Murphy 2009), also published by Peter Lang.

Stuck in a small town, worried over by his single mother - the chain-smoking, bible-quoting Lily - and the 'neighbourly' Mrs Nagle, John Devine yearns for escape. When Jamey Corboy, a self-styled Rimbaudian boy wonder, arrives in town John's life suddenly seems to be full of possibility. But together their nose for trouble may be their undoing and, as John hides from the reality of his mother's ever-worsening health, he is soon faced with a terrible moral dilemma. Brilliantly evoking all the frustrations and pent-up energy of a small-town adolescence, it also gradually becomes the story of Lily herself, and the secrets of her past. Suffused with eerie imagery, black humour and hypnotic prose, John the Revelator is a novel to fall in love with.

This is a study of how the coastline of Britain has changed and interacted with mankind over the centuries. Economic and social factors are explored as well as the problems of climate change and what may be in store for us in the future.This book examines the interaction between people and the coast of England. It spans from 700,000 years ago, and the earliest evidence of humans in this remote corner of north-west Europe, to the end of the 20th century. The coastline has witnessed interesting and significant events throughout history and looks set to do so in the future. Often it is the first place where changes can be seen, for example the effects of climate change. It is also where evidence for human adaptation to environmental changes can most readily be seen.The coast has, of course, also been a cultural contact zone for millennia in terms of trade, industry, immigration and conflict. We are certainly at a time of great environmental and economic transition, so it is apt to now take a long view and place current events in context. Some changes happening today may seem unprecedented but in fact are not, while others are entirely new. One thing we can be sure of is that the coast and sea will become increasingly important to us, both as an economic benefit and as a threat.