2016 marks the 20th anniversary of the 1996 European Cup, hosted in England, when the national football team reached the semi-finals to be knocked out, on penalties, by Germany. It was also the end of a generation – these were the last footballers to be brought up on beer and sweat. In September '96 Arsene Wenger arrived at Arsenal with his ‘continental’ philosophy of diets and training, and by 1998 Beckham had arrived, changing the face of football the world over. 1996 was also a significant date across the British spectrum. It was the year that Brit-Pop went global. The Lad culture of the 90’s peaked in 1996 when James Brown turned Loaded Magazine from a 100k readership into a 1 million+ readership, and Simon Fuller of 19 Management was making his first steps into turning footballers into the next celebrities. And, of course, Skinner and Baddiel wrote that song, which became an anthem for a generation who seemed to have never had it so good. The Tories were on their way out, although unemployment was at a record low, Blair could do no wrong, and it was a glorious summer, where everything seemed possible. Though it wasn’t all a haze of a halcyon summer, it was the first time that England had played a unified Germany since before the war, old prejudices reared their heads and the marginalised hooligans of the game were hidden only by a lick of paint that the old Wembley stadium got ahead of the tournament. Starting with Gazza's goal against Scotland and ending later that summer when the dream was over, but the belief remained that this really was a great time for Britain. Through that narrative will be woven a portrait of an England which was proud to wear Three Lions on the Shirt.

Are Walter’s “uncles” really ex-bank robbers? He’s about to spend a summer with them and find out! Poor Walter! His mom, Mae, an irresponsible beauty past her prime and down on her luck, has dumped him off with his two eccentric old “uncles,” Hub and Garth. Mae’s convinced that the old men have millions stashed away from bank robberies—and she’s determined that she and Walter deserve a piece of the pie. So while Mae’s off trying to find a husband, Walter tries to make himself at home in the company of these older, grumpier men—and some other relatives that are equally determined to get their share of the family assets. Soon Walter is transfixed and transformed by the stories Garth tells of his and Hub’s dashing younger years: how they were in the French Foreign Legion and how Hub won the love of the Sultan’s daughter and evaded the jealous Sheik’s assassins. Are Hub and Garth sitting on a fortune, or is that a story too? And who’s going to get it if they are?

The Iranian revolution of 1979 launched a vast, global diaspora, with many Iranians establishing new lives in the United States. In the four decades since, the diaspora has expanded to include not only those who emigrated immediately after the revolution but also their American-born children, more recent immigrants, and people who married into Iranian families, all of whom carry their own stories of trauma, triumph, adversity, and belonging that reflect varied and nuanced perspectives on what it means to be Iranian or Iranian American. The essays in My Shadow Is My Skin are these stories. This collection brings together thirty-two authors, both established and emerging, whose writing captures the diversity of diasporic experiences. Reflecting on the Iranian American experience over the past forty years and shedding new light on themes of identity, duality, and alienation in twenty-first-century America, the authors present personal narratives of immigration, sexuality, marginalization, marriage, and religion that offer an antidote to the news media’s often superficial portrayals of Iran and the people who have a connection to it. My Shadow Is My Skin pulls back the curtain on a community that rarely gets to tell its own story.

Loud, scary noises frighten a child until quiet and calmness return.

"Vintage Follett . . . This is his most ambitious novel and it succeeds admirably." —USA Today Ellis, the American. Jean-Pierre, the Frenchman. They were two men on opposite sides of the Cold War, with a woman torn between them. Together, they formed a triangle of passion and deception, racing from terrorist bombs in Paris to the violence and intrigue of Afghanistan—to the moment of truth and deadly decision for all of them. . . .