Life! Death! Prizes!

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Lonely Planet Joy of Wild Swimming - Dive into 180 of the world’s most enticing wild swimming spots with this joyful book, featuring fascinating insights from experts and local voices, with beautiful photography, maps, and essential planning tips. From Lake Tanganyika in Africa or the sea of Monterey Peninsula in California, to England’s romantic River Wye or swim around the scared Welsh island of Landdwyn. Nineteen year-old Billy Smith has an unhealthy obsession with the type of tabloid papers that print tales of the most horrific, downright stupid, and often tragic ways in which people can die. When his own mother’s life ends in a seemingly random act of violence, his world, and that of his much younger brother Oscar, is thrown into chaos. While Billy is trying his very best to take charge and hold on to some semblance of his normal life, all around him aunts, fathers, teachers, and co-workers are trying to force their own set of rules upon him in an attempt to take over control of his life. Airing in more than 220 different territories around the world, Midsomer Murders has been a fixture on our television screens since its premiere in 1997, which drew in 13.5 million viewers, making it ITV’s highest rated single drama of that year. 25 years on the show remains one of the channel’s most popular and pulls in some five million plus viewers per episode.

Stephen May’s Life! Death! Prizes!, a finalist for this year’s Costa Book Award for Best Novel, is a deeply affecting, modern tale of loss featuring a protagonist that’s so charming that he effortlessly fools the reader into agreeing with nearly all of his thoughts and choices. In fact, it’s not until much too late that they realize something isn’t quite right, but by that point they’ve already crossed beyond an invisible line of no return, watching as he spirals ever closer to disaster. Dive into the bloody, beating heart of horror history with Cursed Films, a thrilling five-part documentary series examining the stories behind some of Hollywood’s most iconic, spine-chilling cinematic masterpieces: Poltergeist, The Omen, The Exorcist, The Crow and The Twilight Zone movies.At the end of ‘Life, Death, Prizes’ I cried. As the tears rolled out of me, over the final three hundred words, I realised that I’d been holding them in the balance since the story began.

There is a stream of pure darkness running through this funny, touching story. The sadness of this tale is sown into every word of brilliant observational wit, social commentary and pop culture. As such, this reader found herself hurtling towards the finale in a never-quite-crying, never-quite-laughing state of perpetual unfolding. It is a well-crafted novel, which moves along with pace, builds in suspense and offers the reader many surprises. It is an emotional story. However, to rely on the cliché of the roller-coaster is to deny, entirely, the subtle art of May’s storytelling - ‘Life Death Prizes’ is a thoroughly modern novel, straddling the distance between our fears and expectations of a world, which is as daft as it is dark, painted for us, superbly, in all of its richness.

With a portfolio of twenty-one stunning and unique parks to choose from spread right across the UK, you can take your family away on a fun-filled vacation, all without the need for a passport! Imagine a week of relaxation on the warm Algarve coast. Thanks to Neutradol, the fresh air specialists with a product for every smelly situation, this fantastic four-star holiday could be yours. Billy is 19 years old when his mother is killed, a victim of a bungled street robbery. Taking a gap year before university, Billy is supposed to be living a carefree life. Now he has lost his mother, his father is non-existent and to top it off, Billy must now act as both mother and father to his six year old brother Oscar. Any participant found to be using robot forms to enter a competition will invalidate their entry to the competition and will be disqualified from the competition.

Competitions are open to anyone aged 18 or over based in the UK except for employees of Future PLC and DMRI. Writer-director Jay Cheelexplores the power of the seminal movies that scare and ensnare and the legends that surround them. This Shudder Original is one of the streaming channel’s most popular series and now, it’s available on Blu-ray courtesy of Acorn Media International – and we have ten copies up for grabs! It will also be available on digital. Billy is a nineteen-year-old dealing with the emotions of, well, being a nineteen-year-old, and all the associated grottiness and self-consciousness. His Mother has died pointlessly in a recent bungled street robbery leaving him parent to his little brother Oscar. There are plenty of pedestrian books on kids whose Mother has died but author Stephen May has voiced Billy with uncommon clarity. The book also takes satirical looks at the way society is in England, and wider in the world through Billy playing the computer game Empire, but mainly I think this book is about how those "Life! Death! Prizes!" can pollute your mind a little. At least that's what I got out of it.There is a darker side here too, plagued by thoughts of his mother's now hunted killer, the wayward Aidan Jebb, Billy gradually builds a picture of the youth, and frequently catches glimpses of him as if he is being stalked. But Billy's obsession is in danger of getting out of hand and looks to be heading for tragedy.