-
High Society: Ben Elton
$6.00The War on drugs has been lost. The simple fact is that the whole world is rapidly becoming one vast criminal network. From pop stars and royal princes to crack whores and street kids, from the Groucho Club toilets to the poppy fields of Afghanistan, we are all partners in crime. This is the story our world today - told in this collection of interconnected stories that takes the reader on a hilarious, heart breaking and terrifying journey through the kaleidoscope world that the law has created and from which the law offers no protection. -
Dead Famous: Ben Elton
$6.00One house, ten contestants, thirty cameras, forty microphones. Yet again the public gorges its voyeuristic appetite as another group of unknown and unremarkable people submit themselves to the brutal exposure of the televised reality soap opera, House Arrest. Everyone knows the rules: total strangers are forced to live together while the rest of the country watches them do it. Who will crack first? Who will have sex with who? Who will the public love and who will they hate? All the usual questions. And then suddenly, there are some new ones. A murder. No evidence. How was it done under the constant watchful eyes of the cameras and the nation? And why? And...who will be next... A killer read - literally - from Ben Elton. Cover art by Tony Stone. -
Douglas Kingsley is sent to Flanders in 1917 to investigate the murder of a British Officer amid the hell of the Third Battle of Ypres. But both the evidence and the witnesses are disappearing into the mud that surrounds him. Fundamental questions are explored: what is murder? What is justice in the face of horrific daily slaughter? Where is the honour in saving a man from the gallows if he is only to be returned to die in a suicidal battle? Most important of all - what is the first casualty of war? -
Dead Famous: Ben Elton
$6.00One house, ten contestants, thirty cameras, forty microphones. Yet again the public gorges its voyeuristic appetite as another group of unknown and unremarkable people submit themselves to the brutal exposure of the televised reality soap opera, House Arrest. Everyone knows the rules: total strangers are forced to live together while the rest of the country watches them do it, Who will crack first? Who will have sex with who? Who will the public love and who will they hate? All the usual questions. And then suddenly, there are some new ones. A murder. No evidence. How was it done under the constant watchful eyes of the cameras and the nation? And why? And...who will be next... A killer read - literally - from Ben Elton. Cover art by Tony Stone. -
Meltdown: Ben Elton
$6.00For amiable City trader Jimmy Corby money was the new Rock n' Roll. His whole life was a party, adrenalin charged and cocaine fuelled. If he hadn't met Monica he would probably have ended up either dead or in rehab. But Jimmy was as lucky in love as he was at betting on dodgy derivatives, so instead of burning out, his star just burned brighter than ever. Rich, pampered and successful, Jimmy, Monica and their friends lived the dream, bringing up their children with an army of domestic helps. But then it all came crashing down. And when the global financial crisis hit, Jimmy discovers that anyone can handle success. It's how you handle failure that really matters. -
Chart Throb: Ben Elton
$6.00Chart Throb - the ultimate pop quest! Ninety five thousand hopefuls...three judges...one winner. And that's Calvin Simms, the genius behind the show. He always wins because he writes the rules. But this year, as he sits in judgement on the Mingers, Clingers and Blingers who've been pre-selected in his careful 'search for a star', he's got no idea that the rules are changing. The 'real' is about to be put back in reality television and Calvin and his fellow judges are about to become EX-factors. Ben Elton successfully takes the mickey out of another televisual fad - the modern television talent show. -
When you're in bed alone and the phone rings at 2.15 a.m., you know that something is wrong. Only someone bad would ring at that hour. Or someone good with bad news, which would probably be worse. The answering machine kicks in with your very own Blast From the Past. In the early 80s, Polly was a seventeen-year-old ideological peace protestor and Jack was a U.S. Army captain stationed at England's Greenham Common and they had a secret and very unlikely affair. No two people could have had more to argue about, save that they couldn't live without each other, yet one day Jack came to the conclusion that he loved soldiering more than Polly and sacrificed their love to be a career army man. Now, sixteen years later, Polly is a lonely thirty-something social services employee and Jack is a four-star general who has returned to Britain to find her, his only true love. With only one night to resolve their differences, and a knife-wielding stalker lurking in the shadows, for everyone concerned this will be a night like no other. Cover photograph by Bruce Ayres. -
Stark: Ben Elton
$6.00STARK has more money than God and the social conscience of a dog on a croquet lawn. What's more, they know the world is dying. Deep in Western Australia, a planet sized plot takes shape. Some green freaks pick up the scent. Colin, a Pommie poseur, Rachel the rebel, Zimmerman, a brain-fried Vietnam Vet, Walter the Hippie, who sees nothing wrong in lying on the carpet, giggling and eating Mars Bars, Mr and Mrs Culboon, an Aboriginal couple who have been cheated out of their land by STARK...not much against a conspiracy that controls society. If you're up against the richest and most disgusting conspiracy in history, you have to do more than stick up two fingers and say, "Peace." The Earth has been done to death by big business - and the murderers are planning to abandon ship...Cover art by David Scutt.
-
We'd all like to save the world but there seems to be a lot of it and the individual seems so puny. Surely it's sensible to make other arrangements. Hence the appeal of the very marketable Claustrosphere, invented by despotic media mogul Plastic Tolstoy: a domestic, self contained, stunningly tough eco-shelter for the average bloke. It is also the most irresponsible idea ever: the death of the Earth becomes survivable. When Nathan, a self-absorbed British script writer gets access to Tolstoy to pitch his end-of-the-world movie, he feels his time has come. But why is Nathan's script so dangerous? It's the perfect vehicle for Max, the ex-jeans model and multi media superstar. And should Max be falling for beautiful and utterly stroppy eco-terrorist Rosalie? And what is it about the Claustrosphere marketing campaign that requires the loss of innocence and the slaughter of the innocent?
