Quite Honestly

Quite Honestly - a hilarious crime novel by bestselling Rumpole author John Mortimer Life couldn't be better for Lucinda Purefoy. She's got a steady boyfriend, a degree in social sciences and the offer of a job in advertising. With all this, she felt she should 'pay back her debt to society' and 'do a little good in the world'. That's why she joined SCRAP (short for 'Social Carers, Reformers and Preceptors'), an organization which trains girls like Lucy to become the 'guide, philosopher and friend' to ex-convicts coming out of prison, to find them a job, a home and to encourage them to kick the habit of stealing things. And so Lucy finds herself standing outside the gates of Wormwood Scrubs, on a windy March morning, waiting to greet her first SCRAP 'client', a career-burglar called Terry Keegan. What happens next confounds expectations and produces a story full of surprises. With a cast of characters that rivals anything in his famous Rumpole stories and a compulsive plot, Quite Honestly is a wonderfully comic novel. If you like to read P.D. James and P.G. Wodehouse, you will love this book. Sir John Mortimer was a barrister, playwright and novelist. His fictional political trilogy of Paradise Postponed, Titmuss Regained and The Sound of Trumpets has recently been republished in Penguin Classics, together with Clinging to the Wreckage and his play A Voyage round My Father. His most famous creation was the barrister Horace Rumpole, who featured in four novels and around eighty short stories. His books in Penguin include: The Anti-social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole; The Collected Stories of Rumpole; The First Rumpole Omnibus; Rumpole and the Angel of Death; Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders; Rumpole and the Primrose Path; Rumpole and the Reign of Terror; Rumpole and the Younger Generation; Rumpole at Christmas; Rumpole Rests His Case; The Second Rumpole Omnibus; Forever Rumpole; In Other Words; Quite Honestly and Summer's Lease.

Would I Lie to You? Not This Year. Veteran author and speaker Phil Callaway is no stranger to daunting challenges. He has been laughed at—repeatedly—by large crowds of people from Halifax to Hong Kong. He fathered three children in three years, spent much of last year on airplanes built by the lowest bidder, and flipped an out-of-control ATV, which doesn’t mean he sold it for a profit. So who better than Phil Callaway to boldly accept a challenge that would make the average person run and hide? Phil promised to tell the truth for an entire year, and he wasn’t joking. Twelve months later, his journal was crammed with successes, near-successes, and outright failures. During his year-long experiment with veracity, he made a disastrous financial investment, fielded hundreds of intrusive questions from friends and strangers, attended a thirty-year class reunion, and waded into possibly the most revealing—and hilarious—situations he has ever documented. Find out what happens when a follower of Jesus does his level best to always tell the truth. There is no doubt you’ll be entertained. But don’t be surprised if you are left with a question: how might your life be changed if you sold out to the truth—with no exceptions?

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” “Who will be guarding the guardians?”—Juvenal The U.S. president’s decisions on national security and foreign policy reverberate around the world. The National Security Council (NSC) and the national security advisor are central to the decision making process. But how was the role of the national security advisor originally understood, and how has that understanding changed over time? Above all, how has the changing role of the national security advisor affected executive decisions and the implementation of policy? Now, presidential scholar John P. Burke systematically and thoroughly addresses these questions. In Honest Broker?, he reviews the office of national security advisor from its inception during the Eisenhower presidency to its latest iteration in the White House of George W. Bush. He explores the ways in which the original conception of the national security advisor—as an “honest broker” who, rather than directly advocate for any certain policy direction, was instead charged with overseeing the fairness, completeness, and accuracy of the policymaking process—has evolved over time. In six case studies he then analyzes the implications of certain pivotal changes in the advisor’s role, providing thoughtful and sometimes critical reflections on how these changes square with the role of “honest broker.” Finally, Burke offers some prescriptive consideration of how the definition of the national security advisor’s role relates to effective presidential decision making and the crucial issues of American national security. Honest Broker? will be an important resource for scholars, students, political leaders, and general readers interested in the U.S. presidency, foreign policy, and national security

From one of the Guardian’s “10 Best Modern European Crime Writers,” this mystery set in the Caribbean stars “a fascinating heroine” (Kirkus Reviews). It’s the spring of 1990, and French-Algerian judge Anne Marie Laveaud has been living and working in the French Caribbean department of Guadeloupe for more than a decade—but her days are still full of surprises. She’s only just starting to investigate the suspicious suicide of a high-profile environmental activist and media personality when she’s pulled off the case. Is it because she was getting too close to the truth? From the award-winning author of the Inspector Trotti series, this “absorbing” tale of suspense set in the Leeward Islands is “laden with insights about the legacies of colonialism, such as nuanced racism, official corruption, and troubled interactions between men and women” (Publishers Weekly).

Sidhartha Mallya has had a unique life to say the least. Born into one of India's most prominent business families, he has had-from an outside perspective-what many would consider a blessed life. Appearances can often be deceiving, though, and at times what was going on inside was a very different story. In 2016, he went through depression. Something that came as a bit of a surprise to him, given that he seemingly had the world at his feet: he was young, had just graduated from a prestigious drama school and had upcoming film projects. However, despite all the wonderful opportunities that awaited him, he felt desperately unhappy, constantly low and like his insides were being crushed by a vice. That was when Sidhartha realized that something was not right and he sought professional help. Thus began the journey to understanding his current mental state as well as an exploration of the other mental issues he has suffered throughout his life and where they might have stemmed from. Sidhartha also writes about what helped him face and overcome his challenges.