Six years ago Pope Benedict XVI stunned the world by resigning, the first Pope in 700 years to do so. What drove this arch-conservative to break with sacred tradition and cede the way for Cardinal Bergoglio – a one-time tango club bouncer, football-loving reformer with the common touch – to become Pope Francis, one of most powerful men on earth? In this fascinating, gripping and often funny story of two very different men, Pope Benedict and Cardinal Bergoglio grapple with their complex pasts and uncertain futures. From coming of age under dictatorships in Germany and Argentina, to the scandal of sexual abuse by the clergy, The Pope shines a light into one of the world's most secretive institutions. At its heart lies a timeless question: in moments of crisis, should we follow the rules or our conscience?
Boxers are like painters, both smear their blood on the canvas. New York, 1984. Fifty-six-year-old Andy Warhol's star is falling. Jean-Michel Basquiat is the new wonder-kid taking the art world by storm. When Basquiat agrees to collaborate with Warhol on a new exhibition, it soon becomes the talk of the city. As everyone awaits the 'greatest exhibition in the history of contemporary art', the two artists embark on a shared journey, both artistic and deeply personal, that re-draws both their worlds. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at London's Young Vic Theatre in February 2022.
Thomas Edison holds over 1,000 patents, including those for the light bulb and the phonograph, but he is broke. To the rescue rides the "world's banker," J. P. Morgan, with his offer of almost unlimited cash for the two men to join forces to illuminate America and revolutionize in the way the world does business. Captivated by Morgan's glittering vision, Edison accepts, only to find the two men embroiled in the War of the Currents, pitting their Direct Current electrical system against the Alternating Current system promoted by George Westinghouse and Edison's former assistant, Nikola Tesla. Ever more enmeshed in Morgan’s personal life, Edison becomes infatuated by a world of privilege and power, where duty, desire, faith, and immorality are thrown into conflict, ultimately threatening his own spiritual and creative survival. As a result, Edison descends from his status as the godlike inventor of electric light to that of someone complicit in the invention of the electric chair. Brilliance brings to life the birth of the modern era, providing an indelible portrait of the times in which we now live.
THE STORY BEHIND THE SCREENPLAY OF THE TWO POPES, THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING ANTHONY HOPKINS AND JONATHAN PRYCE (PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AS THE POPE). From the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of The Theory of Everything and Darkest Hour comes the fascinating and revealing tale of an unprecedented transfer of power, and of two very different men - who both happen to live in the Vatican. In February 2013, the arch-conservative Pope Benedict XVI made a startling announcement: he would resign, making him the first pope to willingly vacate his office in over 700 years. Reeling from the news, the College of Cardinals rushed to Rome to congregate in the Sistine Chapel to pick his successor. Their unlikely choice? Francis, the first non-European pope in 1,200 years, a one time tango club bouncer, a passionate soccer fan, a man with the common touch. Why did Benedict walk away at the height of power, knowing his successor might be someone whose views might undo his legacy? How did Francis - who used to ride the bus to work back in his native Buenos Aires - adjust to life as leader to a billion followers? If, as the Church teaches, the pope is infallible, how can two living popes who disagree on almost everything both be right? Having immersed himself in these men's lives to write the screenplay for The Two Popes, Anthony McCarten masterfully weaves their stories into one gripping narrative. From Benedict and Francis's formative experiences in war-torn Germany and Argentina to the sexual abuse scandal that continues to rock the Church to its foundations, to the intrigue and the occasional comedy of life in the Vatican, The Two Pope glitters with the darker and the lighter details of one of the world's most opaque but significant institutions.
When a desperate car dealer advertises a competition with a simple premise -- that each contestant must keep one hand on a car at all times, and the last one standing will drive away the owner of a new Land Rover -- he sets in motion a chain of events that brings together an oddball group of individuals, each with a desperate need to win. For the contestants, this publicity gimmick represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a fresh start, a chance to break records, and to prove themselves in an unlikely test of endurance. It pits the patience of an elderly night watchman against the youthful vigor and carefully cultivated stamina of a high school track-and-field star. It sets a single mother who spends her life on her feet against a down-on-his-luck Mensa member who tells anyone who will listen that he's got the whole thing figured out. As the days and nights unavoidably carry on -- and big talk and clever strategies backfire -- the contestants' true colors come through in unexpected twists. At once lyrical and suspenseful, and by turns poignant and hilarious, Show of Hands and its all-too-human characters are ultimately unforgettable.
TWO HOURS TO VANISH. ONE CHANCE TO ESCAPE. ZERO ALTERNATIVES. Ten Americans have been carefully selected to Beta test a ground-breaking piece of spyware. FUSION can track anyone on earth. But does it work? For one contestant, an unassuming Boston librarian named Kaitlyn Day, the stakes are far higher than money, and her reasons for entering the test more personal than anyone imagines. When the timer hits zero, there will only be one winner… From four-time Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Anthony McCarten comes a breakneck, wickedly entertaining thriller for our times, a twisty, action-packed novel reminiscent of the best Michael Crichton technothrillers.
In this rollicking first novel, a small town its thrown into an uproar when several of its teenage citizens claim to have been impregnated by spacemen. Are they "spinning" tales? A crushed cow found lying in the center of a scorched, perfect circle in a nearby field suggests they're not--and the rumor mill goes into overdrive with the arrival of Phillip, the new librarian. He falls for Delia and is soon caught up in the irresistible drama of uncovering the town's darkest secrets. What he finds shakes the community far more than a flying saucer ever could.
A clever, moving novel about the impact of the internet on our relationships. Jim and Renata Delpe's life is in a very modern crisis. With their son, Jeff, sending text messages to his dead brother while slipping quickly into internet addiction, and with Renata engaged in a secret internet relationship with a figure she has never actually met, Jim Delpe - who has long had 'a love-hate relationship' with computers - is left with no choice but to log in himself, if the family is to be saved. In this ambitious, suspenseful and achingly human novel, set against the decline of the nuclear family and the unstoppable rise of digital relationships, In The Absence Of Heroes gives us the complex modern world, full of hard, binary choices: make one or two bad choices in a row and just see what happens . . . This is sequel to Death of a Superhero, now made into a movie, starring Andy Serkis and Thomas Brodie-Sangster.
Based on Jane Hawking's best-selling memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen Hawking, Anthony McCarten's screen adaptation for the hit movie The Theory of of Everything, starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, is one of the most talked about and award-worthy scripts of the film season. In the film, we follow Jane and Stephen Hawking from their first meeting to the first signs of Stephen's illness and their wedding, through to the challenges of having to deal with disability and unexpected success - and the strain this put on the loving couple's relationship. The result is a feat of cinematic brilliance and screenwriting bravura from the author of several acclaimed novels.
“McCarten's pulse-pounding narrative transports the reader to those springtime weeks in 1940 when the fate of the world rested on the shoulders of Winston Churchill. A true story thrillingly told. Thoroughly researched and compulsively readable.”—Michael F. Bishop, Executive Director of the International Churchill Society From the acclaimed novelist and screenwriter of The Theory of Everything comes a revelatory look at the period immediately following Winston Churchill’s ascendancy to Prime Minister “He was speaking to the nation, the world, and indeed to history....” May, 1940. Britain is at war. The horrors of blitzkrieg have seen one western European democracy after another fall in rapid succession to Nazi boot and shell. Invasion seems mere hours away. Just days after becoming Prime Minister, Winston Churchill must deal with this horror—as well as a skeptical King, a party plotting against him, and an unprepared public. Pen in hand and typist-secretary at the ready, how could he change the mood and shore up the will of a nervous people? In this gripping day-by-day, often hour-by-hour account of how an often uncertain Churchill turned Britain around, the celebrated Bafta-winning writer Anthony McCarten exposes sides of the great man never seen before. He reveals how he practiced and re-wrote his key speeches, from ‘Blood, toil, tears and sweat’ to ‘We shall fight on the beaches’; his consideration of a peace treaty with Nazi Germany, and his underappreciated role in the Dunkirk evacuation; and, above all, how 25 days helped make one man an icon. Using new archive material, McCarten reveals the crucial behind-the-scenes moments that changed the course of history. It’s a scarier—and more human—story than has ever been told.
This is the story of how two brilliant men came together and changed the world. But while the banker, J.P. Morgan, left the relationship unscathed, remaining the uncontested Napoleon of Wall Street, his vision of a corporate world set in motion, the renowned inventor, Thomas Alva Edison, went from being hailed as the "bringer of light" to be derided as "Wall Street's executioner." From his breakthrough with the light bulb to his complicity in the invention of the electric chair, this self-taught workhorse of a man put the principles of science to practical effect to set the stage for many of the advances - but also some of the scourges - of the twentieth century. But what went on in the mind and heart of this "genius" the public thought it knew? One can only imagine.Anthony McCarten's debut novel, Spinners (1998), was internationally acclaimed and has since been translated into four languages. His collection of short stories, A Modest Apocalypse, was shortlisted in the Heinemann-Reed Fiction Award in 1991. He has also written twelve stage plays, including co-writing the world-wide success Ladies Night, which won the prestigious Moliere prize, the Meilleure Piece Comique in 2001. McCarten has also adapted another of his plays, Via Satellite, into a feature film which he directed, and which had its world premiere at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. Born in 1961, Anthony McCarten grew up in New Plymouth and currently divides his time between Wellington, London and Los Angeles.
From the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour, and The Two Popes comes the fascinating account of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s friendship—one of the most impactful relationships in history, and the basis of an upcoming play and film. Few friendships have had such far-reaching implications for the world—from finance to technology to philanthropy—than that between Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. After meeting at a party in 1991, the two played cards and golf, shared jokes, swapped trade secrets, ate junk food, talked and listened. Their growing friendship would impact each man and lead to change on a grander scale, culminating in the development of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which holds nearly $50 billion in assets. How did such an unusual union blossom? In what ways specifically did each man begin to influence the other? How did these two avid wealth accumulators jointly decide to address some of the world’s most critical problems—poverty, disease, inequality—by giving their wealth away? And what, finally, does their giga-wealthy partnership mean for the rest of us in an age of great wealth—and great inequality? This book gives the fullest account yet of this extraordinary relationship and explores how it has transformed these two men—and is changing the world for the better for all of us.
From the prize-winning screenwriter of The Theory of Everything, this is a cinematic, behind-the-scenes account of a crucial moment which takes us inside the mind of one of the world's greatest leaders - and provides a revisionist, more rounded portrait of his leadership. May, 1940. Britain is at war, European democracies are falling rapidly and the public are unaware of this dangerous new world. Just days after his unlikely succession to Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, faces this horror - and a sceptical King and a party plotting against him. He wonders how he can capture the public mood and does so, magnificently, before leading the country to victory. It is this fascinating period that Anthony McCarten captures in this deeply researched, gripping day-by-day (and often hour-by-hour) narrative. In doing so he revises the familiar view of Churchill - he made himself into the iconic figure we remember and changed the course of history, but through those turbulent and dangerous weeks he was plagued by doubt, and even explored a peace treaty with Nazi Germany. It's a scarier, and more human story, than has ever been told.
In Deadline van Anthony McCarten moeten tien deelnemers dertig dagen uit handen van de opsporingsdiensten blijven om drie miljoen dollar te winnen. Maar voor sommigen is de inzet veel hoger... In de thriller Deadline van scenarist Anthony McCarten, bekend van gerenommeerde films als Bohemian Rapsody, The Theory of Everything en Darkest Hour, krijgen tien kandidaten een uitdaging met een torenhoge inzet: ze krijgen op een afgesproken tijdstip twee uur de tijd om van de aardbodem te verdwijnen. Als het ze lukt om dertig dagen uit handen van de geavanceerde opsporingsteams te blijven, winnen ze drie miljoen dollar. Cy Baxter is een techgenie, die samen met de CIA de ultieme spionagesoftware heeft gecreëerd, waarmee iedereen overal ter wereld opgespoord kan worden. Dit is zijn ultieme kans om te bewijzen dat hij iets unieks heeft gemaakt – en om steenrijk te worden. Kaitlin is een bescheiden bibliothecaris en een van de kandidaten. Ze lijkt geen partij voor Cy en zijn teams, maar overtreft alle verwachtingen met haar effectieve tactieken om uit beeld te blijven. Maar voor hoelang? Want haar redenen om mee te doen zijn persoonlijker dan iemand ooit had kunnen bedenken... 'Dit is een van de beste thrillers die ik in lange tijd heb gelezen.' - Douglas Preston, auteur van o.a. de Pendergast-serie
Er ist nur noch ein Abglanz seiner selbst und säuft sich in Florida zu Tode: Jack Kerouac, Idol der Beatniks, der einst das Leben seines Freundes Neal Cassady ausschlachtete, um es zu ›dem‹ Kultroman der Jugendbewegung zu verdichten, ›Unterwegs‹. Da steht aus heiterem Himmel eine Literaturstudentin vor seiner Tür. Ihr Traum: als seine erste Biographin sein Leben aufzuschreiben. Jack weigert sich und lässt sich doch von Jans Bewunderung zu einem Blick zurück verführen. Ein Trip, aus dem keiner der Beteiligten heil zurückkommt.
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