Go Between

To recover an African artifact, St. Ives will trade $250,000—or his life Philip St. Ives is the kind of man who can convince a vice cop and a paroled mobster to sit down to a hand of poker. Once he was a reporter with a daily column, a fat Rolodex, and a reputation for indifference to criminal behavior. Now he is a go-between, a professional mediator between thieves and the people they rip off. For arranging the recovery of a stolen necklace, painting, or child, St. Ives takes ten percent of the ransom. His work takes him across the globe, but more importantly, it pays his alimony. An African warrior’s shield has come to Washington, where a gang of art-minded burglars pluck it from the museum. They demand $250,000 for the return of the priceless artifact, and request that St. Ives make the hand-off. But when he goes to deliver the cash, he finds himself playing a more deadly game than five-card draw.

This study offers a typology of the go-between across key texts from antiquity and several medieval literary traditions, analyzing the role of the third party in the poetics of love. The work provides the indispensable context for the study of the significant transformations undergone by the go-between. Legal and scientific sources are taken into account alongside Latin, French, and English literary works and literature of the medieval Islamic period for the critique of differences and intertextual links which inform the conception of the go-between. The case of the Medieval Spanish go-between is given a special attention due to the figure's complex relationship with diverse traditions. The range covered in the work provides a comprehensive view of the figure's trajectory and representation in each text.

The Go-Betweens earned a reputation as the ultimate cult band of the1980s, but when they reformed in 2000 they received considerable media attention, too. David Nichols relates their story with wit and verve, and since the Go-Betweens have personalities as well as talent, this book is not just for committed fans but for anyone interested in the contemporary music scene.

During the Napoleonic wars, three extraneous Danish court officials—a professional loudmouth (the buttonholer), a kiss-ass for hire (the lickspittle), and a successful dastard (the go-between)—are tossed out of court just as Denmark’s merchant fleet becomes of strategic importance. The three men journey to France and meet Napoleon’s top lickspittle, buttonholer, and go-between—who are females?! Unnecessarily complex plots abound, flying machines are destroyed, and the head of Marie Antoinette is discovered during the madcap struggle to save Copenhagen from British howitzers. With an extraordinary use of rhyming alexandrine verse, plus cameos by sestina, haiku, free verse, limericks, and sonnets, LICKSPITTLES, BUTTONHOLERS AND DAMNED PERNICIOUS GO-BETWEENS is a farce for the ages, a delightful romp no matter your poetic preferences.

This is the untold story of how some of Germany's top aristocrats contributed to Hitler's secret diplomacy during the Third Reich, providing a direct line to their influential contacts and relations across Europe — especially in Britain, where their contacts included the press baron and Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere and the future King Edward VIII. Using previously unexplored sources from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and the USA, Karina Urbach unravels the story of top-level go-betweens such as the Duke of Coburg, grandson of Queen Victoria, and the seductive Stephanie von Hohenlohe, who rose from a life of poverty in Vienna to become a princess and an intimate of Adolf Hitler. As Urbach shows, Coburg and other senior aristocrats were tasked with some of Germany's most secret foreign policy missions from the First World War onwards, culminating in their role as Hitler's trusted go-betweens, as he readied Germany for conflict during the 1930s — and later, in the Second World War. Tracing what became of these high-level go-betweens in the years after the Nazi collapse in 1945 — from prominent media careers to sunny retirements in Marbella — the book concludes with an assessment of their overall significance in the foreign policy of the Third Reich.

In his heyday as a top television news broadcaster, Ed Mitchell interviewed high-profile politicians such as Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair. He commanded a six-figure salary, travelled the world and had a seemingly perfect family life. But, behind the scenes, Ed was battling the demons of alcohol and debt which led ultimately to his homelessness. This is the astonishing true story of the newscaster who became known as the white-collar tramp. After he was sacked from his job at CNBC, his life began to spiral. Ed's marriage collapsed and he was eventually declared bankrupt. With nowhere to live, no job and not a penny to his name, he was forced to sleep rough on a bench in Brighton. Ed's story became headline news when a local reporter came across the astonishing tale of his dramatic fall from grace and within days, Ed was booked into Europe's most famous rehab centre, The Priory. In this stunningly candid book, Ed finally tells his whole, true story. He recalls hilarious anecdotes from his days as a news reporter, and with searing honesty says, 'I don't have any regrets, I don't blame and I don't sit around whinging.' His story gives an honest insight into the kind of problems that affect so many people and ultimately offers hope.

WINNER OF THE BIOGRAPHERS' CLUB SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 'Full of love, wisdom and yearning' Kit de Waal A coming-of-age story set in Birmingham in the 1980s and 1990s, The Go-Between opens a window into a closed migrant community living in a red-light district on the wrong side of the tracks. The adult world is seen through Osman's eyes as a child: his own devout migrant Muslim patriarchal community, with its divide between the world of men and women, living cheek-by-jowl with parallel migrant communities. Alternative masculinities compete with strict gender roles, and female erasure and honour-based violence are committed, even as empowering female friendships prevail. The stories Osman tells, some fantastical and humorous, others melancholy and even harrowing, take us from the Birmingham of Osman's childhood to the banks of the river Kabul and the river Indus, and, eventually, to the London of his teenage years. Osman weaves in and out of these worlds, struggling with the dual burdens of racism and community expectations, as he is forced to realise it is no longer possible to exist in the spaces in between.