Provides an entertaining blueprint to all the elements of characterization - from initial inspiration to realization - with special insights into the power of secrets and contradictions, the embodiment of roles, managing the "tyranny of motive," and mastering crucial techniques required for memorable dialogue and unforgettable scenes.

What have the invention of the wheel, Pompeii, the Wall Street Crash, Harry Potter and the internet got in common? Why are all forecasters con-artists? What can Catherine the Great's lovers tell us about probability? Why should you never run for a train or read a newspaper? This title deals with this questions.

The volume comprises lightly annotated translation of a key medieval Arabic text that bears directly on the Crusades and Crusader society and the Muslim experience of them.

What if a demented London cabbie called Dave Rudman wrote a book to his estranged son to give him some fatherly advice? What if that book was buried in Hampstead and hundreds of years later, when rising sea levels have put London underwater, spawned a religion? This book offers a historical detective story set in the far future.

A selection of the "Chaucer's Canterbury Tales" that provides an introduction to one of the cornerstones of English literature. It offers character sketches of the colourful band of pilgrims who gather at a London inn on their way to Canterbury. It contains an introduction examining Chaucer's life and work and the literary influences on the Tales.