|
One Fine Day In The Middle Of The Night
''One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night'' (1999) is the fourth novel by Scottish writer Christopher Brookmyre. Plot Gavin Hutchinson, purveyor of non-threatening holidays to the British masses has organised a reunion for his old school classmates. The reunion will take place on his latest project - a unique "floating holiday experience" on a converted North Sea oil rig, a haven for tourists who want a vacation in the sun but without the hassle of actually interacting with any foreigners. And what better way to test out his venture than to host a fifteenth-year high school reunion, the biggest social event of his life... except no one remembers who Gavin is. Gavin may have been a non-entity while at school in Auchenlea, but now that he's made his fortune, he's looking forward to lording it over his old classmates, especially now he's having an affair with Catherine O'Rourke, PR specialist and one-time pin-up for his male classmates at St Michael's. Meanwhile, Gavin's wife, Sim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Brookmyre
Christopher Brookmyre (born 6 September 1968) is a Scottish novelist whose novels, generally in a crime or police procedural frame, mix comedy, politics, social comment and action with a strong narrative. He has been referred to as a Tartan Noir author. His debut novel was ''Quite Ugly One Morning''; subsequent works have included '' All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye'' (2005), ''Black Widow'' (2016) and ''Bedlam'' (2013), which was written in parallel with the development of a first-person shooter videogame, also called Bedlam. He also writes historical fiction with his wife, Dr Marisa Haetzman, under the pseudonym Ambrose Parry. Biography Brookmyre was born in Glasgow and raised and schooled in Barrhead, attending St. Mark's Primary School and St. Luke's High School, before attending the University of Glasgow. Brookmyre is married to Dr. Marisa Haetzman, an anaesthetist, with whom he has a son, and supports St Mirren F.C., references to Scottish football ('fit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cynical
Cynicism is an attitude characterized by a general distrust of the motives of "others". A cynic may have a general lack of faith or hope in people motivated by ambition, desire, greed, gratification, materialism, goals, and opinions that a cynic perceives as vain, unobtainable, or ultimately meaningless and therefore deserving of ridicule or admonishment. The term originally derives from the ancient Greek philosophers, the Cynics, who rejected conventional goals of wealth, power, and honor. They practiced shameless nonconformity with social norms in religion, manners, housing, dress, or decency, instead advocating the pursuit of virtue in accordance with a simple and natural way of life. By the 19th century, emphasis on the ascetic ideals and the critique of current civilization based on how it might fall short of an ideal civilization or negativistic aspects of Cynic philosophy led the modern understanding of cynicism to mean a disposition of disbelief in the sincerity or goo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novels By Christopher Brookmyre
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the histori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1999 British Novels
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Death and state funeral of King Hussein, funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major List of school shootings in the United States by death toll, school shootings in the United States; the Year 2000 problem ("Y2K"), perceived as a major concern in the lead-up to the year 2000; the Millennium Dome opens in London; online music downloading platform Napster is launched, soon a source of Online piracy, online piracy; NASA loses both the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander; a destroyed t-55, T-55 tank near Prizren during the Kosovo War., 300x300px, thumb rect 0 0 200 200 Death and state funeral of King Hussein rect 200 0 400 200 1999 İzmit earthquake rect 400 0 600 200 Columbine High School massacre rect 0 200 300 400 Kosovo War rect 300 200 600 400 Year 2000 problem rect 0 400 200 600 Mars ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holiday Resort
A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that tries to provide most of a vacationer's wants, such as food, drink, swimming, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping, on the premises. The term ''resort'' may be used for a hotel property that provides an array of amenities, typically including entertainment and recreational activities. A hotel is frequently a central feature of a resort, such as the Grand Hotel at Mackinac Island, Michigan. Some resorts are also condominium complexes that are timeshares or owned fractionally or wholly owned condominium. A resort is not always a commercial establishment operated by a single company, but in the late 20th century, that sort of facility became more common. In British English, "resort" means a town which people visit for holidays and days out which usually contains hotels at which such holidaymakers stay. Examples would include Blackpool and Brighton. Destination resort A destination re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Country Of The Blind
Published in 1997, ''Country of the Blind'' is Christopher Brookmyre's second novel. Following on from the adventures in '' Quite Ugly One Morning'', the storyline fast-forwards to find Parlabane living in domestic bliss and about to get hitched. As part of the engagement package, he has promised his soon-to-be-missus that he'll give up the more dangerous, dodgy and illegal parts of his investigative-journalism career. Plot summary Set against the mounting dissatisfaction at the ineffective and overly self-indulgent Tory government of John Major, all hell breaks loose when conservative tabloid media mogul Roland Voss is found murdered in his country house in Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the .... Next to Voss's body is that of his murdered wife, while the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Be My Enemy (novel)
''Planesrunner'' is a 2011 young adult science fiction novel by British author Ian McDonald, and the first installment of the ''Everness'' series. The book follows British teenager Everett Singh as he travels between alternate universes in search of his missing theoretical physicist father. Plot British teenager Everett Singh witnesses the kidnapping of his father, theoretical physicist Dr. Tejendra Singh, and begins to suspect a conspiracy when he receives from his father an automated software download called the Infundibulum. Tejendra's colleague, the offbeat research fellow Colette Harte, gives Everett video evidence that Tejendra's theoretical research into the existence of multiple universes is no longer theoretical. Using Heisenberg Gate technology, Tejendra and his team have discovered and contacted nine alternate universes so far. An alliance called the Plenitude of Known Worlds is already in place among the government leaders from these parallel universes—termed pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tradesman
A tradesman, tradeswoman, or tradesperson is a skilled worker that specializes in a particular trade (occupation or field of work). Tradesmen usually have work experience, on-the-job training, and often formal vocational education in contrast to an apprentice, who is learning the trade. As opposed to a craftsman or an artisan, the occupation of a tradesman is not necessarily restricted to manual work. History In Victorian England: :The terms "skilled worker," "craftsman," "artisan," and "tradesman" were used in senses that overlap. All describe people with specialized training in the skills needed for a particular kind of work. Some of them produced goods that they sold from their own premises (e.g. bootmakers, saddlers, hatmakers, jewelers, glassblowers); others (e.g. typesetters, bookbinders, wheelwrights) were employed to do one part of the production in a business that required a variety of skilled workers. Still others were factory hands who had become experts in some ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Situation Comedy
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, where a comedian tells jokes and stories to an audience. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. A situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the program's production format. The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track. Critics disagree over the utility of the term "sitcom" in classifying shows that have come into existence since the turn of the century. Many contemporary American sitcoms use the single-camera setup and do not feature a laugh track, thus often resembling the dramedy shows of the 1980s and 1990s rather t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stand-up Comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke, one-liners, stories, observations or a shtick that may incorporate Theatrical property, props, comedy music, music, Magic (illusion), magic tricks or ventriloquism. It can be performed almost anywhere, including comedy clubs, comedy festivals, bars, nightclubs, colleges or theatres. History Stand-up as a Western world, Western art form has its roots in the Stump speech (minstrelsy), stump speech of American minstrel shows, which featured an actor in blackface delivering nonsensical monologue to the audience. While the intention of stump speeches was to mock African-Americans, they also occasionally contained political and social satire. The minstrel show would later influence theatrical traditions of the late 19th and early 20th centu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quite Ugly One Morning
''Quite Ugly One Morning'' is Christopher Brookmyre's first novel which introduces Jack Parlabane, the writer's most used character. It was published to popular and critical acclaim, winning the inaugural First Blood Award for the best first crime novel of the year. Comedian Ed Byrne is known for being a fan of this story, as well as a friend of the author: he also chose it for his appearance on Radio 4's ''A Good Read''. Plot Summary Jack Parlabane rents a flat from a friend in Edinburgh (which just happens to be opposite a police station), and investigating the unpleasant murder of a gambling medic in the flat below proves too much to resist, the victim mutilated and the crime scene grossly vandalized; the victim, Dr Jeremy Ponsonby, is tied up, missing both his nose and his index fingers, had his throat cut, and the crime scene is covered in urine and faeces and vomit, the latter being from the postman who found the body. Parlabane soon finds himself involved with a number o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or exposing the perceived flaws of individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society. A feature of satire is strong irony or sarcasm —"in satire, irony is militant", according to literary critic Northrop Frye— but parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing. This "militant" irony or sarcasm often professes to approve of (or at least accept as natural) the very things the satirist wishes to question. Satire is found in many a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
