{"title":"Martyn Burke","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"commissar-s-report-book-martyn-burke-9780586063378","title":"Commissar's Report","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49622821601553,"sku":"GOR003903985","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50183299039505,"sku":"GOR003691603","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50242309751057,"sku":"GOR003700871","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0586063374.jpg?v=1750815450"},{"product_id":"ivory-joe-book-martyn-burke-9780553071825","title":"Ivory Joe","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50356981596433,"sku":"CIN0553071823G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50356983857425,"sku":"CIN0553071823VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0553071823.jpg?v=1751040404"},{"product_id":"music-for-love-or-war-book-martyn-burke-9781507200919","title":"Music for Love or War","description":"\u003cb\u003eThis \"glorious, globetrotting epic\" (Craig Davidson, author of \u003ci\u003eCataract City\u003c\/i\u003e) follows two military men searching for the women they love.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Danny, a Canadian sharpshooter, and Hank, in the US Army, have been stationed in Kandahar, but they are in Los Angeles. They are desperate to find the Hollywood psychic who will reveal the whereabouts of the women they love. From Grenadier Pond in Toronto, to Malibu and finally, to Afghanistan, \u003ci\u003eMusic for Love or War\u003c\/i\u003e is a compulsively readable saga of men, women, war, and love \"that readers will find alternately gripping and amusing\" (\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50387879788817,"sku":"CIN1507200919VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/B01MA54WYM.jpg?v=1751307731"},{"product_id":"ivory-joe-book-martyn-burke-9781587215407","title":"Ivory Joe","description":"\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eHere is a love story that begins with the divorce: a riotous, colorful, nostalgic tale of an unusual girl's coming of age amid the swirling adult world of New York nightlife, with its Runyonesque mix of gamblers, showgirls, and zoot-suited mobsters.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eChristie Klein isn't fazed by the wild parties thrown by Leo, her utterly lovable, charmingly irresponsible father, while her mother Tina spends yet another night in jail for illegally picketing Leo's Seventh Avenue dress factory. Christie and her sister, Ruthie, are accustomed to the liquor and the smoke, the raucous laughter and, always, the wonderful music.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eFor Christie, music means her mother's newest quest: stardom for Negro singer Ivory Joe in a world dominated by white singers and mob-controlled record companies. By necessity Ivory Joe is a boxer. But by calling he is a heart-busting singer and pianist who practices his craft nightly in dusty back rooms. With his group, the Classics, Ivory Joe is ushering in a strange, pulsating, erotic new music that would come to be known as rock 'n' roll.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eThrough it all, Christie tells us the tangled love story of her parents, who met in a 52nd Street nightclub when Leo came in to shake down Tina's date for an overdue gambling debt. Leo grew up in the Bronx along with other street kids who pushed garment racks on Seventh Avenue before going into loan-sharking for the Mafia. Tina grew up in a shabby Brooklyn walk-up, smart and tough enough to do anything: road-managing Ivory Joe and the Classics in the bitterly divided deep South, succeeding at photojournalism, organizing unions even keeping the affection of an irrepressible rake of an ex-husband.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eNow, Christie and Ruthie who longingly compares her preadolescent womanhood to the voluptuous nudes on the back of Leo's gambling cards earnestly scheme to put their parents' rocky marriage back together. But the girls have plenty of growing up to do themselves before they can help the wildly incompatible Tina and Leo or cope with Ivory Joe's turbulent ascent to success.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eIn this warm, witty novel set in a more innocent time, 1950s' America, Martyn Burke establishes himself as a writer with a sure voice of his own. Burke's evocation goes far beyond nostalgia: He conjures up unforgettable characters and achingly real personalities who linger long after the last page has been turned.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51038798840081,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51038801658129,"sku":"NIN9781587215407","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52345209487633,"sku":"NLS9781587215407","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1587215403.jpg?v=1750762304"},{"product_id":"tiara-book-martyn-burke-9780759610293","title":"Tiara","description":"\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eFrank and Zoot are two battle-scarred romantics. Friends and adventurers who have distinguished themselves by flying unpopular missions in various undeclared wars, they repeatedly smack into turbulence in their own lives. Frank's need to be in \"the kingdom of the air\" invariably triumphs over any desire for a quiet and routine life. And Zoot has never quite recovered from the breakup of his marriage to the beautiful Lela, who vanished mysteriously from his life over twenty years ago. He's tried to forget her replace her with other women but has failed miserably.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eNow Zoot's entire life's mission is to find Lela, and Willard the enigmatic man from Washington whom Frank and Zoot refer to as the Prince of Darkness has promised to reveal her whereabouts if he and Frank will retrieve a priceless object code-named \"Tiara\" from Baghdad before the Gulf War hits. So what's Tiara? Nuclear weaponry, gold bars, secret documents? Wrong. Tiara's a fiery young woman with absolutely no intention of leaving her clothing video tapes and parties behind because of an inconvenient war.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eIn their many and varied adventures, Zoot and Frank have never encountered anything or any\u003ci\u003eone\u003c\/i\u003e quite like Tiara. The struggle to bring her to safety is at turns hilarious and poignant, a battle of strong wills and deep emotions, not to mention a little fracas with some materialistic Iraqi soldiers.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFunny, sexy and studded with wry zingers on love, lust and the aches and pains of the soul, \u003ci\u003eTiara\u003c\/i\u003e is a wild romp of a novel, a nonstop adventure tale, zapped with real danger and deadpan humor.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51137475969297,"sku":"NIN9780759610293","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52136488927505,"sku":"NLS9780759610293","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0759610290.jpg?v=1750784885"},{"product_id":"laughing-war-book-martyn-burke-9781587215131","title":"Laughing War","description":"\u003cp align=\"center\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eBien Hoa airbase, outside Saigon, wasn't a very funny place, but Barney's job had one advantage: he always played to a packed house. The soldiers flocked to his shows, and the war-zone comedian coaxed his battle-weary audiences first into chuckles and then into guffaws of healing laughter with material drawn from the lunacy around them: the little old VC with the single-shot rifle taking potshots at the jets, the international \"peace-keeping\" mission, the Vietnamese \"car wash\" racket, the numbering routine of army life, the officers\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eOne officer in particular: Colonel Isaacs, the blood-and-guts commander of the base, a driven man whose soldiers pay the price of his obsessions. Barney often ridiculed his authority from in front of the footlights, and after hours he wooed the colonel's woman, Donna, a beautiful singer with a secret. So far, he had gone unpunished\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eBut the colonel had included Barney in his plan for a jungle showdown with the enemy, a battle that would turn an abandoned firebase into a bloody killing ground and the scene of Barney's greatest performance.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eLAUGHING WAR does for Vietnam what Catch-22 did for World War II, laying bare the absurdity of war with a taut, fast-moving, darkly humorous tale of romance and suspense in a combat zone.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52089113280785,"sku":"NLS9781587215131","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781587215131.jpg?v=1756905809"},{"product_id":"commissar-s-report-book-martyn-burke-9781587215148","title":"The Commissar's Report","description":"\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eIn 1954 he was the most promising spy Russia had ever smuggled into the United States. By 1984 he was one of the richest capitalists in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Commissar's Report\u003c\/i\u003e begins deep in the doldrums of the 1950s. Stalin's in the Kremlin shooting intellectuals, Ike's on the golf course shooting above par, the KGB and the CIA are shooting each other, the Cold War is getting hot, and Dimitri is in love with Enemy Number One. He's simply bonkers about all the things that make America great: the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cadillac convetibles, Bloomingdale's, \u003ci\u003eLife, Time, Fortune\u003c\/i\u003e, and pink flamingos. His first problem is that, as a Russian spy, he's supposed to be hatching plots to conquer the good old U.S.A. Worse still, he's becoming, through no fault of his own, one of the wealthiest capitalists in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eDimitri's dilemma is rooted in the dark, deadly days of post-war Stalinist Russia when his father, a member of the secret police, smuggled home contraband copies of \u003ci\u003eLife\u003c\/i\u003e magazine. While Dad was at the office liquidating his rivals, Dimitri and his brother were furtivel6y reading \u003ci\u003eLife\u003c\/i\u003e at home in the Worker's paradise.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"From every photograph, Enemy Number One drew us into its secrets and mysteries and its power. We soared in its planes and raced in its Buicks Suddenly wew were in Florida, where the nightclub echoed to Latin musica and gangsters with blondes sat in velvet chairs It was the women of Enemy Number One that sent us into ecstasy. The brassiere ads totally wiped us out, as they say. We sat there gaping at these nearly naked creatures with their two white shiny cones beckoning us to illicit thrills. There was nothing like them in our city. All the women were like our mother. Shaped like wood stoves.\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eThus is our young hero of the Russian Revelution secretly smitten by the sirens of capitalism. In due course Dimitri is marked by the Kremlin as a young man with an exceedingly devious mind. Accordingly they assign him to the New York Consulate of the U.S.S.R. For Dimitri, at last united with his love, it is a dream assignment.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eBut, as dreams go, America quickly takes on the colors of a nightmare from which there is no awakening. In short order, Dimitri finds himself intrigued against his own chief of station, whose highest ambition is to ship the young spy back to Moscow preferably in a steamer trunk. At home in the consulate, he finds his future threatened by Katya, his voluptuous wife, whose highest ambition is to have an unlimited and most unsocialistic charge account at Bergdorf's. On the streets, he is stalked by Lavrenti, a boyhood friend turned CIA-agent and nemesis, whose thirst for revenge compels him to kill Dimitri in a thousand little ways and one big final payment. And down on Wall Street, Dimitri is plagued by his own wild talent for making money in the stock market, a lot of money, enough money to make him one of the hundred richest men in America something that his employers in Red Square would find difficult to overlook if they knew.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eAnd, as Dimitri knows too well, the old men of the Kremlin have a deadly habit of knowing everything sooner or later.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eA unique and highly entertaining table of dark humor and rich understanding, \u003ci\u003eThe Commissar's Report\u003c\/i\u003e is that rare novel that is simultaneously thrilling, moving, and hilarious. What Joseph Heller did to World War II with \u003ci\u003eCatch-22\u003c\/i\u003e, Martyn Burke does to the Cold War with \u003ci\u003eThe Commissar's Report\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52339202654481,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52339203080465,"sku":"NLS9781587215148","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781587215148.jpg?v=1758169504"},{"product_id":"commissar-s-report-book-martyn-burke-9781587215391","title":"The Commissar's Report","description":"\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eIn 1954 he was the most promising spy Russia had ever smuggled into the United States. By 1984 he was one of the richest capitalists in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Commissar's Report\u003c\/i\u003e begins deep in the doldrums of the 1950s. Stalin's in the Kremlin shooting intellectuals, Ike's on the golf course shooting above par, the KGB and the CIA are shooting each other, the Cold War is getting hot, and Dimitri is in love with Enemy Number One. He's simply bonkers about all the things that make America great: the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cadillac convetibles, Bloomingdale's, \u003ci\u003eLife, Time, Fortune\u003c\/i\u003e, and pink flamingos. His first problem is that, as a Russian spy, he's supposed to be hatching plots to conquer the good old U.S.A. Worse still, he's becoming, through no fault of his own, one of the wealthiest capitalists in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eDimitri's dilemma is rooted in the dark, deadly days of post-war Stalinist Russia when his father, a member of the secret police, smuggled home contraband copies of \u003ci\u003eLife\u003c\/i\u003e magazine. While Dad was at the office liquidating his rivals, Dimitri and his brother were furtivel6y reading \u003ci\u003eLife\u003c\/i\u003e at home in the Worker's paradise.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"From every photograph, Enemy Number One drew us into its secrets and mysteries and its power. We soared in its planes and raced in its Buicks Suddenly wew were in Florida, where the nightclub echoed to Latin musica and gangsters with blondes sat in velvet chairs It was the women of Enemy Number One that sent us into ecstasy. The brassiere ads totally wiped us out, as they say. We sat there gaping at these nearly naked creatures with their two white shiny cones beckoning us to illicit thrills. There was nothing like them in our city. All the women were like our mother. Shaped like wood stoves.\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eThus is our young hero of the Russian Revelution secretly smitten by the sirens of capitalism. In due course Dimitri is marked by the Kremlin as a young man with an exceedingly devious mind. Accordingly they assign him to the New York Consulate of the U.S.S.R. For Dimitri, at last united with his love, it is a dream assignment.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eBut, as dreams go, America quickly takes on the colors of a nightmare from which there is no awakening. In short order, Dimitri finds himself intrigued against his own chief of station, whose highest ambition is to ship the young spy back to Moscow preferably in a steamer trunk. At home in the consulate, he finds his future threatened by Katya, his voluptuous wife, whose highest ambition is to have an unlimited and most unsocialistic charge account at Bergdorf's. On the streets, he is stalked by Lavrenti, a boyhood friend turned CIA-agent and nemesis, whose thirst for revenge compels him to kill Dimitri in a thousand little ways and one big final payment. And down on Wall Street, Dimitri is plagued by his own wild talent for making money in the stock market, a lot of money, enough money to make him one of the hundred richest men in America something that his employers in Red Square would find difficult to overlook if they knew.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eAnd, as Dimitri knows too well, the old men of the Kremlin have a deadly habit of knowing everything sooner or later.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eA unique and highly entertaining table of dark humor and rich understanding, \u003ci\u003eThe Commissar's Report\u003c\/i\u003e is that rare novel that is simultaneously thrilling, moving, and hilarious. What Joseph Heller did to World War II with \u003ci\u003eCatch-22\u003c\/i\u003e, Martyn Burke does to the Cold War with \u003ci\u003eThe Commissar's Report\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52339329532177,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52339330220305,"sku":"NLS9781587215391","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781587215391.jpg?v=1758169618"},{"product_id":"shelling-of-beverly-hills-book-martyn-burke-9781587214882","title":"The Shelling of Beverly Hills","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this sequel to the critically acclaimed \u003ci\u003eIVORY JOE,\u003c\/i\u003e Christy is flung into a world as strange as the Amazon where she has studied the savage tribes bent on annihilating one another.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eChristy has arrived in Beverly Hills, a world where annihilation is usually accomplished by legal documents. From the depths of the mansion territory north of Sunset Boulevard, her sister Ruthie lives a life hilariously untouched by reality as it is understood in the rest of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEspecially the world that begins to intrude when the old Clark Gable mansion goes up in smoke.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBut then as Ruthie says, 'It was a teardown anyway.'\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"center\"\u003e\u003cu\u003ePRAISE FOR MARTYN BURKE S \u003ci\u003eIVORY JOE\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'A funny wonderfully affecting novel,' \u003cu\u003ePublisher s Weekly\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'\u003ci\u003eIVORY JOE\u003c\/i\u003e is a real pleasure' \u003cu\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e' a vast unruly, quintessentially American landscape. Prepare to get carried away. Burke is a storyteller of lavish generosity.' \u003cu\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52339526172945,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52339530072337,"sku":"NLS9781587214882","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781587214882.jpg?v=1767347922"},{"product_id":"shelling-of-beverly-hills-book-martyn-burke-9781587214899","title":"The Shelling of Beverly Hills","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this sequel to the critically acclaimed \u003ci\u003eIVORY JOE,\u003c\/i\u003e Christy is flung into a world as strange as the Amazon where she has studied the savage tribes bent on annihilating one another.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eChristy has arrived in Beverly Hills, a world where annihilation is usually accomplished by legal documents. From the depths of the mansion territory north of Sunset Boulevard, her sister Ruthie lives a life hilariously untouched by reality as it is understood in the rest of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEspecially the world that begins to intrude when the old Clark Gable mansion goes up in smoke.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBut then as Ruthie says, 'It was a teardown anyway.'\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"center\"\u003e\u003cu\u003ePRAISE FOR MARTYN BURKE S \u003ci\u003eIVORY JOE\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'A funny wonderfully affecting novel,' \u003cu\u003ePublisher s Weekly\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'\u003ci\u003eIVORY JOE\u003c\/i\u003e is a real pleasure' \u003cu\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e' a vast unruly, quintessentially American landscape. Prepare to get carried away. Burke is a storyteller of lavish generosity.' \u003cu\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52344528994577,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52344529715473,"sku":"NLS9781587214899","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781587214899.jpg?v=1767355660"},{"product_id":"ivory-joe-book-martyn-burke-9781587215155","title":"Ivory Joe","description":"\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eHere is a love story that begins with the divorce: a riotous, colorful, nostalgic tale of an unusual girl's coming of age amid the swirling adult world of New York nightlife, with its Runyonesque mix of gamblers, showgirls, and zoot-suited mobsters.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eChristie Klein isn't fazed by the wild parties thrown by Leo, her utterly lovable, charmingly irresponsible father, while her mother Tina spends yet another night in jail for illegally picketing Leo's Seventh Avenue dress factory. Christie and her sister, Ruthie, are accustomed to the liquor and the smoke, the raucous laughter and, always, the wonderful music.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eFor Christie, music means her mother's newest quest: stardom for Negro singer Ivory Joe in a world dominated by white singers and mob-controlled record companies. By necessity Ivory Joe is a boxer. But by calling he is a heart-busting singer and pianist who practices his craft nightly in dusty back rooms. With his group, the Classics, Ivory Joe is ushering in a strange, pulsating, erotic new music that would come to be known as rock 'n' roll.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eThrough it all, Christie tells us the tangled love story of her parents, who met in a 52nd Street nightclub when Leo came in to shake down Tina's date for an overdue gambling debt. Leo grew up in the Bronx along with other street kids who pushed garment racks on Seventh Avenue before going into loan-sharking for the Mafia. Tina grew up in a shabby Brooklyn walk-up, smart and tough enough to do anything: road-managing Ivory Joe and the Classics in the bitterly divided deep South, succeeding at photojournalism, organizing unions even keeping the affection of an irrepressible rake of an ex-husband.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eNow, Christie and Ruthie who longingly compares her preadolescent womanhood to the voluptuous nudes on the back of Leo's gambling cards earnestly scheme to put their parents' rocky marriage back together. But the girls have plenty of growing up to do themselves before they can help the wildly incompatible Tina and Leo or cope with Ivory Joe's turbulent ascent to success.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eIn this warm, witty novel set in a more innocent time, 1950s' America, Martyn Burke establishes himself as a writer with a sure voice of his own. Burke's evocation goes far beyond nostalgia: He conjures up unforgettable characters and achingly real personalities who linger long after the last page has been turned.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52345052954897,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52345056755985,"sku":"NLS9781587215155","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781587215155.jpg?v=1758175244"},{"product_id":"tiara-book-martyn-burke-9781587215162","title":"Tiara","description":"\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eFrank and Zoot are two battle-scarred romantics. Friends and adventurers who have distinguished themselves by flying unpopular missions in various undeclared wars, they repeatedly smack into turbulence in their own lives. Frank's need to be in \"the kingdom of the air\" invariably triumphs over any desire for a quiet and routine life. And Zoot has never quite recovered from the breakup of his marriage to the beautiful Lela, who vanished mysteriously from his life over twenty years ago. He's tried to forget her replace her with other women but has failed miserably.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eNow Zoot's entire life's mission is to find Lela, and Willard the enigmatic man from Washington whom Frank and Zoot refer to as the Prince of Darkness has promised to reveal her whereabouts if he and Frank will retrieve a priceless object code-named \"Tiara\" from Baghdad before the Gulf War hits. So what's Tiara? Nuclear weaponry, gold bars, secret documents? Wrong. Tiara's a fiery young woman with absolutely no intention of leaving her clothing video tapes and parties behind because of an inconvenient war.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eIn their many and varied adventures, Zoot and Frank have never encountered anything or any\u003ci\u003eone\u003c\/i\u003e quite like Tiara. The struggle to bring her to safety is at turns hilarious and poignant, a battle of strong wills and deep emotions, not to mention a little fracas with some materialistic Iraqi soldiers.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFunny, sexy and studded with wry zingers on love, lust and the aches and pains of the soul, \u003ci\u003eTiara\u003c\/i\u003e is a wild romp of a novel, a nonstop adventure tale, zapped with real danger and deadpan humor.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52345066357009,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52345070158097,"sku":"NLS9781587215162","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781587215162.jpg?v=1758175256"},{"product_id":"laughing-war-book-martyn-burke-9781587215384","title":"Laughing War","description":"\u003cp align=\"center\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eBien Hoa airbase, outside Saigon, wasn't a very funny place, but Barney's job had one advantage: he always played to a packed house. The soldiers flocked to his shows, and the war-zone comedian coaxed his battle-weary audiences first into chuckles and then into guffaws of healing laughter with material drawn from the lunacy around them: the little old VC with the single-shot rifle taking potshots at the jets, the international \"peace-keeping\" mission, the Vietnamese \"car wash\" racket, the numbering routine of army life, the officers\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eOne officer in particular: Colonel Isaacs, the blood-and-guts commander of the base, a driven man whose soldiers pay the price of his obsessions. Barney often ridiculed his authority from in front of the footlights, and after hours he wooed the colonel's woman, Donna, a beautiful singer with a secret. So far, he had gone unpunished\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eBut the colonel had included Barney in his plan for a jungle showdown with the enemy, a battle that would turn an abandoned firebase into a bloody killing ground and the scene of Barney's greatest performance.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003eLAUGHING WAR does for Vietnam what Catch-22 did for World War II, laying bare the absurdity of war with a taut, fast-moving, darkly humorous tale of romance and suspense in a combat zone.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52345169412369,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52345173410065,"sku":"NLS9781587215384","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781587215384.jpg?v=1758175321"},{"product_id":"gossip-columnist-book-martyn-burke-9798993024516","title":"The Gossip Columnist","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53668394008849,"sku":"NIN9798993024516","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9798993024516.jpg?v=1781474118"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-martyn-burke.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}