{"title":"Timothy Balding","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-spectator-a-novel-book-timothy-balding-9781935830764","title":"The Spectator: A Novel","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51332780097809,"sku":"CIN1935830767G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52109892714769,"sku":"GOR013838581","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1935830767.jpg?v=1750996774"},{"product_id":"impostors-a-novel-book-timothy-balding-9781935830627","title":"The Impostors: A Novel","description":"Fiction. Contemporary British Fiction. Wealthy London banker Ronald Chapman is found dead  a suicide, apparently, though the police are still on the case. Janet, his beautiful widow and sole heir to their fortune, finally freed from her loveless marriage, turns to her beloved Shakespeare for solace: After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well; nothing can touch him further. As she awaits the release of Ronald's body for burial, there are arrangements to be made and appearances to uphold. She has only one problem: Ronald's best friend, who is expected by family and friends to speak at the funeral...doesn't actually exist. Can the Extra  agency  specialists in the rental of fake hecklers, phony cuckolds, inexistent relatives, sham boyfriends, and counterfeit job candidates  help? Extra 's boss, Mike Fielding, is ready for anything that's more or less within the law and might be approved by his alter ego, private-eye Philip Marlowe. The job falls on failed actor Will Power, who is buffeted between the dull reality of his own life and the exciting, romantic world of make-believe in this wicked comedy of deceit, treachery and love. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAll the world's a stage...From slapstick and laugh-out-loud to dry and satirical, Balding uses wit in all its forms to tell a story of lies and fa ades that, refreshingly, shows us the lighter side of deception...With a host of colourful characters, and plenty of secrets to uncover, THE IMPOSTORS is a hilarious look at the human capacity for lies, deception and fantasy.  N. J. Crosskey, author of \u003cem\u003ePoster Boy\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor everyone, this is a very funny book. But, if you're an aficionado of philosophy, it's a very, very funny book... . The hero, the improbably named Will Power (the first signal of some deeper meaning?), is an unsuccessful aspiring actor, who signs up with a theatrical agency with a standout Unique Selling Point: it sends its thespians out to play fictional parts in the real world, not in films or plays... . The plot, peopled with delightfully eccentric characters firmly rooted in middle class England, belts along at a hilarious and fast pace that brought back memories of Phillip King farces, although this modern version is more intellectual and wittier than these relics from the fifties and sixties... . There's a laugh in every line, or at least in every paragraph. So much for the comic novel; what about the philosophy? Who are we? Why are we here? Does it matter? If we are pretending to be someone else, are we really that person? Or, if we are being ourselves, are we really pretending? Is philosophy merely a parlour game, or should we take it seriously. Is existentialist angst a fad? Or maybe a hobby? Was Freud a fraud? Was Sartre a swindler? Like a good philosopher, Mr. Balding asks all these questions, and many others. And like a good philosopher, he doesn't answer any. A book to make you think. Nice work  An outstanding novel and a real pleasure to read.  James Gault, \u003cem\u003eThe Voice of Literature\u003c\/em\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53335954587921,"sku":"GOR014856333","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781935830627.jpg?v=1774297101"},{"product_id":"zucchini-conspiracy-a-novel-of-alternative-facts-book-timothy-balding-9781935830672","title":"The Zucchini Conspiracy: A Novel of Alternative Facts","description":"Fiction. The first-ever Donald Trump novel  The United States and Bangistan, a former Soviet satellite dictatorship, are edging towards nuclear conflict. At any moment, their war of words, insults and threats may escalate into an exchange of missiles and an apocalypse. In the White House, President Ronald Rump hesitates between negotiating a peace agreement and employing the full might of the American war machine, as the hawks around him advise that, rather than talk, he should wipe Bangistan off the world map. In the Presidential Palace of Petrobangorski, Great Leader Hakim Akim meanwhile ruminates on the advantages he might draw from the conflict. The world holds its breath as a last-ditch face-to-face meeting between Rump and Akim is finally announced to resolve the crisis. Can the US President clinch the deal, denuke Bangistan, and bring in a new era of peace? Or will Rump, deaf to all advice, abandon the talks in a fit of anger and order the military to raze the Bangistan capital? The hour is grave and the risk perhaps too great to leave to a roll of the dice...A small band of diplomats, politicians and spy agencies from the US and its allied nations, aided by several unwitting French peasants, believes so, and secretly plots to make sure Rump is never put to the test. The Zucchini Conspiracy is born... \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e'the first-ever Donald Trump novel' ... a free-wheeling farce, a three-ring circus ... politically pointed ... burlesque ... supremely silly and cheerful--think Kingsley Amis with all the black bile drained out ... moving quickly, amiably, wittily ... a fizzy romp with an inspired bit of slapstick near the end.--\u003cem\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis book is a masterpiece of hilarious and delightful nonsense. What kind of mischievous mind can conjure up, for a doppelganger of Donald Trump, a fat peasant woman who only speaks an obscure dialect from the South of France? What kind of ingenious intelligence can devise a plot where such a double can carry off a plot to deceive a foreign power in critical nuclear disarmament negotiations? Answer: the kind that belongs to author Timothy Balding. What credible explanation could there be, for instance, that would place a pyjama-clad British Prime Minister called Theresa in the bedroom of the US president with a knotted rope in her hand? None that I can think of. But never mind, suspend your disbelief and embark on a roller coaster of laughs and chuckles that will keep the pages turning until the end of the book. But, of course, as always with Timothy, there is a serious underbelly to this political farce. The author takes an incisive scalpel to the municipal politics of rural France and the intrigues and ambitions of diplomats and politicians. Then he heaves a huge axe through the inflated ego of the current US president. The result is a book that everyone but the most fervent Trump followers will love. Outstanding fun. Don't miss it.--\u003cem\u003eThe Voice of Literature\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTimothy has taught us so much in his previous books--he has taught us 'how to think'. In particular--how to think 'backward'--to make sense of that what we know, but that's the easier part. He tells us a story so mischievously trivial but so brutally profound. What he is teaching us now is how to think of the present and the future, how to think 'forward'. To look at the state of the world we live in and its downward spiral. Typically, Timothy would stop at that--with cynicism and a fantastic excuse for us to 'laugh it all away'. But this time--Timothy comes back with almost a religious zeal to show us that--the world could be a better place--and life could be a wonderful thing.--Stjepan Kra?un","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53482161832209,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53482162159889,"sku":"CIN1935830678G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781935830672.jpg?v=1777575631"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-timothy-balding.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}