Graham Thomas

The Dan Brown Enigma is an insightful look into the world of Dan Brown that will not only enthral and entertain, but will unlock the secrets of one of the world's most exciting and enigmatic writers. Dan Brown is already one of the bestselling authors that the world has ever seen.Due to the success of his gripping novels Digital Fortress, Deception Point, Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol, he has become a household name. But how did he achieve this? What's his secret? This in-depth biography reveals how, with a heady mix of science, religion, fact and fiction, he has captured the public's imagination and secured his place in the history of the popular thriller. Despite his enormous success, Dan Brown is an unassuming man. This book includes a look at his early years -- long before the fame and fortune that came with the success of The Da Vinci Code -- when he was a musician, teacher and writer of humour titles. It also examines the crucial role that his wife, Blythe Brown, plays in his life and work. His skilful storytelling, with its intricate, twisting plotlines, is certainly something that sets him apart from other thriller writers. The Dan Brown Enigma also looks at his extraordinary attention to detail and reveals how important research is to each of his books. Through hours and hours of careful study, he brings to light ancient rites and rituals that are buried deep within our collective subconscious. This combination of Brown's imagination with the secret truths, myths and legends from a variety of ancient institutions -- including the Freemasons and the Catholic Church -- are perhaps why his novels are so successful...and, at times, controversial.

The Dan Brown Enigma

Other than their artistic merits, little research has been done on postcards as historic and cultural artefacts. Behind this void lie many reasons. In part because of their very nature, the fact that they were popular and mass market rather turned the serious historian away. In part because they are disposable, and they were cheap. They possess no status. As Arisa Yamaguchi writes in Sartorial Japonisme and the Experience of Kimonos in Britain, 1865-1914 ‘the fast and easy to send postcard was…considered the letter of the poor because it was cheap.’ In part it is because they are rarely accompanied by a narrative. (Most of the big collections hold pristine examples that are unspoiled with a written message.) Hence most postcards are little more than snapshots of scenes such as the countryside, towns, villages, events, portraits of celebrities and ordinary people but rarely do they have background information added. Over the years their subject matter has become increasingly opaque, and their significance lost. And, it has to be acknowledged, many postcards carry images that are banal and possess no inherent - or obvious - artistic or historic merit. Nor do we have much insight into what postcards actually meant to either the sender or the recipient, and the role they played in people’s lives. Yet during this Golden Age whether in Japan, Britain, and many other countries, they became a critical part of telling and spreading the story of a nation. In some instances they had an important role in disseminating propaganda but most importantly, for a swathe of the population, they were an aide to communication when people were neither articulate or literate. Let the postcard do the talking, in a manner of speaking. This collection and analysis is very different most critically as the postcards enjoy the continuity of coming from one person, sent frequently over three years. They were the equivalent of today’s text and social media messaging and posts, sent at a time that was pivotal in Japan’s history. Each postcard is illustrated and described while the first chapters look at Japan during the late Meiji era, and the introduction and early history of picture postcards. Much has never been covered before so this will be of interest not only to Japan historians but also those interested in the evolution of the picture postcard and why they became so popular.

Japan In The Late Meiji Era. A Unique Postcard History

Mostly when we read stories about advertising in the media or in books, they concentrate on the big names of the business - whether advertisers and their brands, agencies, or people. Yet while they sit at the undoubted glamorous end of the spectrum, picking up creative awards and with tales of off-screen outré antics to spill, they represent only the tip of the iceberg in terms of numbers. Under the waterline most of the smaller ad agencies were independent; a few were the regional subsidiaries of the biggest agencies (Saatchis, Dorlands, JWT, McCanns, Royds and Streets all had offices in Manchester for example); a few were also second string agencies in London set up by the main agency for a variety of reasons: specialist agencies that worked in recruitment, finance, corporate, and business-to-business advertising for example; or to handle conflicting accounts, or clients that were too small for the main agency to handle profitably. But as Campaign once wrote, there is a ‘stigma attached to these agencies.’ They were (still are?) seen as second class and on the fringes of the business. Rarely did they act as feeder agencies for talent (unlike journalism where many leading journalists started their careers on local newspapers before ending up on Fleet Street). Even the Chairman of JWT Manchester admitted in the early ‘80s that ‘Northern advertising people have a bit of a complex about their London counterparts. All regional agencies are in danger of being a bit provincial in their outlook.’ This volume looks at those agencies mainly through a diary written in the late 1970s. This gives a vivid, truthful, warts-and-or portrayal of what life was like in the tail-end of the advertising business.

A History of Advertising Volume Three

Neither The Biggest Or Best

Adrian Hilton

Thomas B. Moeslund

The first book of its kind devoted to this topic, this comprehensive text/reference presents state-of-the-art research and reviews current challenges in the application of computer vision to problems in sports. Opening with a detailed introduction to the use of computer vision across the entire life-cycle of a sports event, the text then progresses to examine cutting-edge techniques for tracking the ball, obtaining the whereabouts and pose of the players, and identifying the sport being played from video footage. The work concludes by investigating a selection of systems for the automatic analysis and classification of sports play. The insights provided by this pioneering collection will be of great interest to researchers and practitioners involved in computer vision, sports analysis and media production.

Computer Vision in Sports

Brianna Chesser

Geoffrey Horgan

Evidence in Practice is designed to assist the reader to critically examine the development, role and use of the laws of evidence. It will also assist the reader to prepare for a moot and gives practical advice on how a real trial might be prepared for and conducted. Concentrating on the areas of evidence law that the reader should be familiar with, Evidence in Practice then offers advice as to how that knowledge might be employed in the setting of a moot and trial. The Honourable Justice Peter Kidd, Chief Judge of the County Court of Victoria - "The journey into the law of evidence must start somewhere. This book is a useful starting point. It is succinct and clearly written, intended for those who are inexperienced with the law of evidence, rather than a professional text for the initiated. In that sense it is a primer, preparing the way for, hopefully, the subsequent mastering of the complexities of this important area of law... I highly recommend this book for what it is, a very readable and concise introduction to the law of evidence under the Uniform Evidence Acts."

Evidence in Practice

Detective-Chief Superintendent Erskine Powell of New Scotland Yard goes for a vacation fishing trip a cold blooded murder soon turns his haven into a busman's holiday.

Malice in the Highlands

'Here's one of the most niche Bond Books I've read recently and it's very good.' Prof Neil Martin. 'It's a wonderfully researched and well-written book.' @MyBudgetBond 'Wonderfully Informative as usual from Mr Thomas.' Reader review from Literary 007. 'The quality and variety is endlessly fascinating.' Reader review from Literary 007.' An excellent and much needed insight into the once mysterious Mr Saito!' Reader review from Literary 007. This is the fan's guide to the writing and filming of You Only Live Twice, bringing you much that you might have never known before. Now over fifty years old it remains one of Fleming’s most fascinating stories whether in book or film form. It is also the story with the longest and most interesting gestation that started when Fleming first visited Japan in 1959, and then only came to some sort of finale when the film was released in 1968. This is the definitive story of the story; a story that is a literary history, a film history, a travel book, and is definitely more than just a film location guide. The reader will be taken on a unique 007 journey.If you love James Bond you’ll love the insights and details; if you love Japan, you will find it equally enjoyable and will want to follow in the same footsteps as Fleming and Bond. Written by Graham Thomas who is a critically acclaimed author of books about Japan and a regular contributor to Literary 007, (a must-view resource for the serious James Bond buff) this book has pages packed with detail never published before.

Fleming, Bond and Connery in Japan

The Definitive Story of You Only Live Twice

ERSKINE POWELL OF SCOTLAND YARD INVESTIGATES MURDER ON THE MOORS. On a remote, fog-enshrouded estate in the North York Moors, a murderer lays a cunning trap. The prey, it seems, is Dickie Dinsdale, the greedy landowner who bulldozes people's lives like so many old barns. Easily a dozen residents of Blackamoor would derive pleasure from Dinsdale's slow, painful death. But, Detective-Chief Superintendent Erskine Powell asks himself, which of them is bold enough to do the deed? Is it Dinsdale's old gamekeeper, dismissed without warning? The environmentalist he assaulted and humiliated? The sexy stepsister he spied upon? Suspects are as thick as grouse in summer, and bringing down a killer on the wing is very tricky--even for a pro like Erskine Powell. . . .

Malice on the Moors

In 1868, Frank Toovey Lake, a young British Midshipman, died while serving with the Royal Navy and was interred on the island of Hiroshima in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan. Up until recently Lake’s grave on Hiroshima had been identified only by his family name ‘Lake,’ and he was described as an English officer who died while serving on the Royal Navy survey ship, HMS Sylvia. However no further information on Lake could be found until new research showed that in one important detail these facts were wrong: namely that the ship had been incorrectly identified as HMS Sylvia when in fact he died on HMS Manilla. From knowing this, it has now been possible to give the young officer his full name, Frank Toovey Lake, and to build an understanding of his life. Since the burial the islanders have both maintained and improved the grave until the present day. This led to admiration among the late-19th century British community in Japan (including prominent members such as Sir Ernest Satow and Thomas Glover), and a flurry of newspaper articles appeared around the world in 1899 recounting the story and praising the conscientiousness of the local people. Since then the grave’s story has made only sporadic appearances in the media but continues to be celebrated locally. This grave is far from unique: the graves of many foreigners can be found in Japan, most within the foreign cemeteries in cities such as Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki and to whose numbers we can add those of souls buried at sea within Japan’s waters. But there are at least two good reasons to celebrate its continued existence. First, in the mid-19th century as Japan became more accessible to the outside world this created, at least initially, mutual distrust between foreigners and Japanese; these newcomers were viewed as barbarians and intruders (albeit at times justifiably), and this was a period when some were slain and their vessels fired upon. So without suggesting that widespread conflict existed - because it didn’t - nonetheless it is notable that during this period a group of villagers decided to care for and not destroy the grave, and that today this grave is as well tended as ever. Second, at one time Lake’s death was commemorated on a monument in the churchyard of the village where he was born. A few years ago that monument - along with other Toovey graves - was swept away, the graveyard cleared for ease of maintenance, and all trace of Frank Toovey Lake has now gone. This story also touches on other aspects of Japan and Britain’s 19th century history not least the display of typical contradictory characteristics of Pax Britannica in the Inland Sea: the rapid deployment of the Royal Navy into Japan’s territorial waters yet undertaking surveying and other benign operations; the threat and occasional use of gunboat diplomacy, and at times an arrogance towards the country yet countered by great affection for the place and its people by some - or many -individuals. The story also involves personalities such as Richard Henry Brunton, T B Glover and the British diplomat Ernest Satow who took important roles in helping Japan develop. In short, the story of Lake and his grave is more than the story of an individual and a granite monument.

The life and death of Frank Toovey Lake

A Victorian Sailor's Grave in the Seto Inland Sea

Hats Off to Brandenburg

This is the story of a Welshman who became one of the most ruthless and brutal buccaneers of the golden age of piracy. His name was Captain Sir Henry Morgan and, unlike his contemporaries, he was not hunted down and killed or captured by the authorities. Instead he was considered a hero in England and given a knighthood as well as being made governor of Jamaica. As Graham Thomas reveals in this fresh biography of this complex and intriguing character, Morgan was an exceptional military leader whose prime motivation was to amass as much wealth as he could by sacking and plundering settlements, towns and cities up and down the Spanish Main.??As featured on BBC Radio Wiltshire and in Cardiff Times.

The Story of Captain Henry Morgan

The Buccaneer King

DETECTIVE-CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT ERSKINE POWELL RETURNS--INVESTIGATING MALICE IN HIS OWN BACKYARD. When a murder victim is discovered in the murky waters of the River Thames, Erskine Powell of Scotland Yard plunges into the most diabolical case of his distinguished career. A second brutal slaying draws Powell even deeper into a tangled web of greed, deception, and blackmail. From Tower Bridge to Soho, from Mayfair to Bloomsbury, Powell throws a dragnet across London, racing against time to link two savage crimes--and stop a cold-blooded killer dead in his tracks. . . .

Malice in London

INTRODUCING ERSKINE POWELL OF SCOTLAND YARD Crime, investigation, punishment. They're all in a day's work to Detective Chief Superintendent Erskine Powell of New Scotland Yard. As a member of the Yard's Murder Squad, Powell tracks miscreants all over London. Now, seeking distance from the criminal constituency--and the bureaucratic drudgery of the Yard--Powell embarks on a salmon-fishing competition in the Scottish Highlands. There, in the castle-dotted countryside along the picturesque River Spey, he seeks peace and seclusion. But a cold-blooded murderer soon turns Powell's haven into a busman's holiday--and a quiet anglers' paradise becomes just as deadly as the mean streets of London.

Graham Thomas

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