The Old Boys by William Trevor - a novel of power, revenge, love and the failure of love from one of the world's best writers A group of septuagenarians revive schoolboy conflicts in the election of the President of the Old Boys Association. Jaraby expects to get the job, but he reckons without the bitterness of Nox, who still remembers the humiliations of his school years. And when Jaraby's son gets into trouble with the law, Nox has the perfect stick with which to beat him. Their powers may be failing but the old boys possess a fierce understanding of the things in life that matter - power, revenge, hatred, love, and the failure of love. The Old Boys was William Trevor's acclaimed first novel. It will be enjoyed by fans of The Story of Lucy Gault and Felicia's Journey, as well as readers of Colm Toibin and William Boyd. 'Uncommonly well-written, gruesome , funny and original' Evelyn Waugh 'Immaculately witty and inventive writing' Daily Telegraph William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, in 1928, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He has lived in England for many years. The author of numerous acclaimed collections of short stories and novels, he has won many awards including the Whitbread Book of the Year, The James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. He has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize: in 1976 with his novel The Children of Dynmouth, in 1991 with Reading Turgenev and in 2002 with The Story of Lucy Gault. He recently received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement.

In his magnificent new novel, Charles McCarry returns to the world of his legendary character, Paul Christopher, the crack intelligence agent who is as skilled at choosing a fine wine as he is at tradecraft, at once elegant and dangerous, sophisticated and rough-and-ready. As the novel begins, Paul Christopher, now an aging but remarkably fit 70ish, is dining at home with his cousin Horace, also an ex-agent. Dinner is delicious and uneventful. A day later, Paul has vanished. The months pass, Paulís ashes are delivered by a Chinese official to the American consulate in Beijing and a memorial service is held in Washington. But Horace is not convinced that Paul is dead and, enlisting the support of six other retired colleagues—a sort of all-star backfield of the old Outfit—Horace gets the "Old Boys" back in the game to find Paul Christopher. They start with a photo found in Paulís study: a womanís hand holding a centuriesí old scroll, once in the possession of the Nazis and now sought by the U.S. government and Muslim extremists alike. Harassed by American intelligence, hunted by terrorists, Horace Christopher and the Old Boys travel the globe, from Xinjiang to Brazil, from Rome to Tel Aviv, Budapest to Moscow, in search of Paul and the unspeakably dangerous truth.

To many in the United Kingdom, the British public school remains the disliked and mistrusted embodiment of privilege and elitism. They have educated many of the country’s top bankers and politicians over the centuries right up to the present, including the present Prime Minister. David Turner’s vibrant history of Great Britain’s public schools, from the foundation of Winchester College in 1382 to the modern day, offers a fresh reappraisal of the controversial educational system. Turner argues that public schools are, in fact, good for the nation and are presently enjoying their true “Golden Age,” countering the long-held belief that these institutions achieved their greatest glory during Great Britain’s Victorian Era. Turner’s engrossing and enlightening work is rife with colorful stories of schoolboy revolts, eccentric heads, shocking corruption, and financial collapse. His thoughtful appreciation of these learning establishments follows the progression of public schools from their sometimes brutal and inglorious pasts through their present incarnations as vital contributors to the economic, scientific, and political future of the country.

In 1906, cowboy Hewey Calloway realizes that the West is changing and that he must find a new way of life in a new era.

The “wryly entertaining” debut novel of old grudges and petty power struggles from the Whitbread Award–winning author of Love and Summer (The New York Times). Graduates of an elite English public school, the septuagenarian members of the Old Boys Association have convened in London to decide who shall be their next president. Mr. Jaraby has been proposed, and unless there is an objection from his circle of peers, he will assume the position automatically. It seems like little more than an excuse to get together and reminisce about old pranks played on the headmaster. But while none of their boyhood bonds have been forgotten, neither have their old cruelties been forgiven. Mr. Nox certainly remembers Jaraby’s behavior from their time as schoolmates. And when he decides to oppose Jaraby for the presidency, the conflict unleashes decades of buried rivalries, regrets, failures, and the savage nature hidden just beneath good English manners. “The elemental value of Mr. Trevor’s wryly entertaining story lies less in its grubby specifics than in its illuminating generalities. It reminds us that at every level of every society there are groups of Old Boys cocooned in smug insularity.” —The New York Times

The "masterful oral history" (Globe and Mail) that was praised, condemned, admired, vilified, eagerly devoured and hotly debated. This is the story of UCC - the institution that has educated the sons of the Canadian establishment for almost seven decades. In Old Boys, former students’ recollections are woven together to form a remarkably vivid portrait not merely of a private boys’ school in down town Toronto, but of the evolving society it reflects. Candid and arresting, controversial and revealing, Old Boys is an unforgettable look inside one of Canada’s most prestigious academic institutions.