Dear Subscribers
For
the last week before Christmas we're suggesting a shortlist of great
books that will get your Christmas shopping done in no time. How about
a fascinating cricket history by Gideon Haigh, a beautiful hardback
edition of C. S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew, some gorgeous
photography and travel writing from Burton Holmes, or the colour and
hip-ness that is Plastered (music posters, not a paean to
overindulgence, however timely that might be). There really is
something for everyone... and for you.
We'd like to thank you
all so much for your support in 2009. We hope you all have a great
Christmas and wish you all the best for 2010. Merry Christmas.
Cheers, The Fly By Night Books Team.
Travel, Photography and History Gifts
Burton Holmes Travelogues: The Greatest Traveler of His Time edited by Genoa Caldwell RRP$125 Our Price$50
 In
a time before air travel or radio, on the brink of a revolution in
photography and filmmaking, Burton Holmes (1870-1958) set upon a
lifelong journey to bring the world home. From the grand boulevards of
Paris to China's Great Wall, from the first modern Olympics in Athens
to the 1906 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Holmes delighted in finding
"the beautiful way around the world" and made a career of sharing his
stories, photographs, and films with audiences across America. Holmes
coined the term "Travelogue" in 1904 to advertise his unique
performance and thrilled audiences with two-hour sets of stories timed
to projections of hand-painted glass-lantern slides and some of the
first "moving pictures."
One of the first photos in this book is
a beautiful shot taken from inside Flinders St Station. A great gift
for that lover of photography, travel or both in your family.
The Faber Book of Exploration by Benedict Allen RRP$27.95
OUR PRICE $12
 Benedict
Allen's anthology of human exploration presents the words of those who
have set off into 'the unknown' and returned to tell the tale. This
volume is the first full-ranging anthology of the subject, bringing
together Vikings and cosmonauts, conquistadors and botanists. There is
no doubting Benedict Allen's voracious appetite for exploration, and as
such he is our ideal guide across these extraordinary pages.
The 'Times' Great Victorian Lives by Ian Brunskill RRP$53.99
OUR PRICE $20
 Obituaries
of the most influential Victorians as profiled by The Times, including
Dickens, Darwin, Ruskin, Peel, WG Grace and Florence Nightingale. For
over 150 years, The Times obituaries have been providing the most
respected and perceptive verdicts on the lives of the great and the
good. Scientists, social reformers, composers, writers, sportsmen and
politicians!Times Great Victorian Lives examines the achievements of
eminent Victorians, from Isambard Kingdom Brunel to Charles Darwin,
Disraeli to Gladstone and Florence Nightingale to Sarah Bernhardt.
Figures have been chosen according to their importance today and are
ordered chronologically. The Times Great Victorian Lives gives a
fascinating insight into Victorian history, revealing how the Victorian
figures we now consider 'great' were seen in their day.
Popular Culture and Art
Plastered by Murray Walding RRP$39.95
OUR PRICE $12
 Buying
a copy of Plastered is almost a rite of passage among dedicated
Fly-By-Nighters. If you haven't picked up your copy yet, this week's a
great opportunity. Plastered is a glorious celebration of popular
music in Australia with iconic bands featured such as INXS, Cold
Chisel, Crowded House and Silverchair. It takes the reader on a
chronological journey through popular music poster art, with more than
five hundred posters from the past five decades reproduced. Featuring
the work of renowned poster artists such as Ian McCausland and Reg
Mombassa, Plastered is a perfect gift for anyone who loves music.
1000 Lights edited by Peter Fiell RRP$99
OUR PRICE $30
 Designed
to be a companion to the classic title 1000 Chairs, this two-volume
edition contains an awesome selection of over 1200 lights. Presented
chronologically by decade are history's most interesting electric
lights, from Edison's first light bulb to Tiffany's beautiful leaded
glass shades to completely outrageous designs from the late 1960s and
1970s to the latest high-tech LED lamps. All major styles are
represented: Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Modern Movement,
De Stijl, Postwar, Pop, Radical, Post-Modern and Contemporary.
Orgy Planner Wanted: Odd Jobs and Curious Callings in the Ancient World by Vicki Leon OUR PRICE $10
 Two
thousand years ago, the denizens of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds
performed an amazingly diverse and challenging array of tasks to earn
their daily bread. Personal entrail-reader to the emperor; war-elephant
troop commander; mopper-up of dead gladiators; armpit-hair plucker;
stage actor; orgy planner: these are just a few of the career
opportunities that beckoned for our ancient Mediterranean ancestors.
144 ancient career options are described in this interesting book, from
the glittering to the gory, and from the strangely familiar to the
entirely strange and entirely unfamiliar. This book should be a great
conversation starter - or stopper - at your Christmas table.
Children Will Love...
The Magician's Nephew: Colour Gift Edition by C.S. Lewis RRP$37.95
OUR PRICE $15
 On
a daring quest to save a life, two friends are hurled into another
world where an evil sorceress seeks to enslave them. The first book in
"The Chronicles of Narnia" is now available in a full-color, unabridged
gift edition that includes all of the original Pauline Baynes
illustrations. This handsome new edition will make a wonderful family
keepsake to read aloud together.
A Christmas Gift for the Cricket Lover...
Silent Revolutions: Writings on Cricket by Gideon Haigh RRP$32
OUR SPECIAL PRICE $5  The
perfect cricket gift. In this panoramic collection of his writings,
Gideon Haigh ranges over 250 years of cricket history, picking out
those events, characters and even objects that have mattered -
sometimes far more than we know. From giants of the game such as
Bradman, Larwood and Miller to subjects including our fascination with
wasted talent and the evolution of the protector, Silent Revolutions
reveals the game within the game known only to the subtlest observers.
Featured Fiction
Restless by William Boyd (Hardback) RRP$59.95 OUR PRICE $15
 What
happens to your life when everything you thought you knew about your
mother turns out to be an elaborate lie? During the long, hot summer of
1976, Ruth Gilmartin discovers that her very English mother Sally is
really Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian emigre and one-time spy. In 1939
Eva is a beautiful twenty-eight year old living in Paris. As war breaks
out, she is recruited for the British Secret Service by Lucas Romer, a
mysterious, patrician Englishman. Under his tutelage she learns to
become the perfect spy, to mask her emotions and trust no one. Even
those she loves most. Since then Eva has carefully rebuilt her life -
but once a spy, always a spy. And now she must complete one last
assignment. This time, though, Eva can't do it alone: she needs her
daughter's help. Restless is a tour de force. Exploring the devastating
consequences of duplicity and betrayal William Boyd's gripping novel
captures the drama of the Second World War and a remarkable portrait of
a female spy. Full of suspense, emotion and history, this is
storytelling at its very finest.
Blandings Castle and Elsewhere by P.G. Wodehouse RRP$24.95
OUR PRICE $10
The ivied walls of Blandings Castle have seldom glowed as sunnily as in
these wonderful stories - but there are snakes in the rolling parkland
ready to nip Clarence, the absent-minded Ninth Earl of Emsworth, when
he least expects it. For a start the Empress of Blandings, in the
running for her first prize in the Fat Pigs Class at the Shropshire
Agricultural Show, is off her food - and can only be coaxed back to the
trough by a call in her own language. Then there is the feud with Head
Gardener McAllister, aided by Clarence's sister, the terrifying Lady
Constance, and the horrible prospect of the summer fete - twin problems
solved by the arrival of a delightfully rebellious little girl from
London. But first of all there is the vexed matter of the custody of
the pumpkin. Skipping an ocean and a continent, Wodehouse also treats
us to some unputdownable stories of excess from the monstrous Golden
Age of Hollywood.
Thank You, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse RRP$24.95 OUR PRICE $10
 "Thank
You, Jeeves" is the first novel to feature the incomparable valet
Jeeves and his hapless charge Bertie Wooster - and you've hardly
started to turn the pages when he resigns over Bertie's dedicated but
somewhat untuneful playing of the banjo. In high dudgeon, Bertie
disappears to the country as a guest of his chum Chuffy - only to find
his peace shattered by the arrival of his ex-fiancee Pauline Stoker,
her formidable father and the eminent loony-doctor Sir Roderick
Glossop. When Chuffy falls in love with Pauline and Bertie seems to be
caught in flagrante, a situation boils up which only Jeeves (whether
employed or not) can simmer down...
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