Author: rrn69

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Boots sold for £6.7bn

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Boots, Britain’s 177-year-old, High Street Pharmacy and retail chain has been sold in an £6.7bn ($8.9bn) deal to Canadian billionaire Weston family according to Wittington Investments, the holding company confirmed to buy from US private equity firm Sycamore Partners and the Pessina family.  The Weston family were ranked fifth on this year’s Sunday Times Rich List with fortune of £19bn and owns the Canadian grocery chain Loblaws, Pharmacy business Shoppers Drug Mart and previously owned the London department stores Selfridges from 2003 to 2021, before selling it for $4billion and major owner of Associated British Foods, the parent company of Primark. … Continue reading Boots sold for £6.7bn

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Psyche of a teenage sniper

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Mathias Énard’s first novel, revolves around an unnamed city completely torn apart by civil war, a teenage sniper has only one goal: to fire the perfect shot. He sublimates himself into his weapon, controls his breath, stays serenely calm, and listen to his body and the beat of his heart. Lying in wait on rooftops, he shoots at civilians amid the movement of seagulls in the dawn sky.  At dawn he finds that the light is perfect- not too blinding, no reflections- and people are less careful. In one scene, he is soothed by the sight of a woman falling “like … Continue reading Psyche of a teenage sniper

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The higher you rise, the further you fall?

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Murder comes to London’s most luxurious high-rise: every resident is a suspect. The Heights: a gleaming, high-end and high-rise looming over Hyde Park. Newly built from steel and smoked glass, a billionaire’s playground offering sumptuous suites for the global elite. But when a night concierge is found murdered in the lobby, the building’s rarefied atmosphere is shattered, and the gilded lives within come under intense police scrutiny. In a world designed to keep prying eyes out, where the residents are not used to being held to account, born-bred Londoner Detective Gillian Gish must find a way past their power, wealth … Continue reading The higher you rise, the further you fall?

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Woman behind the powder and mascara

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Barbara Cartland’s magic made penniless virgins, Reckless dukes, Flappers, Airmen, Suffragettes fall in love. She wrote 723 books without touching a typewriter 750 million sales: instead she reclined on her sofa with a Pekinese on her lap- and romantic fiction billowed out of her. This dazzling biography reveals the woman behind the powder and mascara – a clever socially precarious writer navigating a twentieth-century world of war-damaged men, class conflict and sexual peril. After 49 proposals, she chose the wrong one. What followed was a life stranger than any of her novels. From country house weekends to Fleet Street offices, … Continue reading Woman behind the powder and mascara

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How the son of a genius has done his father very proud

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The Yellow Tie is a feature film about an incredible conductor, and is a Biographical Music Drama. Lasting 2hrs 25 mins the film is starring John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Sean Bean and Ben Schnetzer and premiered in Leicester Square on Wednesday 30 September 2026. The general release date is October 9. The Yellow Tie is distributed by ICON Film Distribution. With major stars in this biopic together with breathtaking classical music, The Yellow Tie is about the true life story of Sergiu Celibidache the Romanian born genius who was one of the greatest conductors of the twentieth century. Through hard … Continue reading How the son of a genius has done his father very proud

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Bravery of captain and passengers saved 174 lives

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Dubai-Tel Aviv flight Flydubai FZ1073 plunged more than 16,000 feet just over 30 seconds during its steepest descent.  Omani co-pilot Hamam Al-Hamami, who tried to crash the Flydubai flight to Israel by stabbing Indian pilot Smit Machchar (39), flight captain inside the cockpit savage attack freed after passengers and crew intervened and a reserve pilot landed the aircraft safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. It has been reported the co-pilot was already been banned from flying by Oman over concerns about radical ideological views, despite joining Flydubai.  Captain Smit Machchhar was seriously injured after multiple stab wound, realised he was not only fighting … Continue reading Bravery of captain and passengers saved 174 lives

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Unlock your full potential

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How to Style Dress with DNA Confidence by style-guru, Amanda Wakeley OBE,  a renowned fashion designer offers a beautiful approach to finding confidence, unlocking your full potential, and evolving personal style through every era. Amanda sets out her simple method to uncover individual style and confidence inspired by the myriad women she has been privileged to dress. She shares her stories from a lifetime of creating iconic clothes cherished by women all over the world. Amanda has dressed high-profile women including two Princesses of Wales, Diana and Catherine, as well as many other global icons including Beyoncé and Angelina Jolie. She … Continue reading Unlock your full potential

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Mammoth’s eliciting a momentary peace

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Novelist Naomi Alderman and her newly widowed father sets up a wildlife camera in the back garden of her parent’ home, a few months after he mother dies, capturing the first image of a strange new animal. Low to the ground about the size of a badger, flat face, long, trunk-like nose. Suddenly these “mimmoths” are as common as foxes or dogs. And no one knows where they’ve come from. Alderman created something curious, messy and unexpectedly comforting. The element of solace serves as a counterpoint in the novel’s emphasis on a world in cataclysm; at its centre is an … Continue reading Mammoth’s eliciting a momentary peace

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Female resilience and solidarity

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Award-winning Iranian-American novelist and filmmaker, Laleh Kahdivi’s  funny novel about a daughter discovering her mother’s secret past. When in Los Angeles, a senior accoutant Heti’s mother, Anahita, dies, she leaves behind a spotless legacy: affectionate parent, modern career woman, and life of the party. Heti moves in a daze until her grief is upended by the arrival of an unmarked package arrives from England, containing photographs of Anahita as a young woman- robed,  (her country of origin appears to be Iran by is unnamed), standing in front of a burning building in a black robe and pointing a gun at a group … Continue reading Female resilience and solidarity

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A nation in crisis: Amphetamine-fuelled trip across the US in the 1960s

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Patrick deWitt’s Dodge City is a novel about a young man Lee Clarke in 1967, Los Angeles, on an amphetamine-fuelled cross-country road trip, fleeing the draft for the safe haven of Canada. He has received his draft notice, calling him up to fight in the Vietnam War. A straitlaced, apolitical twenty-three-year-old from Concrete, Washington, Lee is studying at UCLA until a fistfight leads to his expulsion- and his removal from the deferment list. The draft notice forces him to make the first political decision of his life, and though he’s happy in California and loves his girlfriend, he will leave … Continue reading A nation in crisis: Amphetamine-fuelled trip across the US in the 1960s