At their stylish country retreat, Freda and Robert Caplan host a dinner party for their colleagues and friends, all executives at a transatlantic publishing company. Young, beautiful and successful they have the world at their feet. Then a cigarette box and and an ill-considered remark spark off a relentless series of revelations and other, more dangerous secrets are painfully exposed. As the truth spills out about the suicide of Robert's clever, reckless brother, and the group's perfect lives begin to crumble, the cost of professional and social success becomes frighteningly plain.

Playing for time explores connections between theatre time, the historical moment and fictional time. Geraldine Cousin persuasively argues that a crucial characteristic of contemporary British theatre is its preoccupation with instability and danger, and traces images of catastrophe and loss in a wide range of recent plays and productions. The diversity of the texts that are examined is a major strength of the book. In addition to plays by contemporary dramatists, Cousin analyses staged adaptations of novels, and productions of plays by Euripides, Strindberg and Priestley. A key focus is Stephen Daldry's award-winning revival of Priestley's An Inspector Calls, which is discussed in relation both to other Priestley 'time' plays and to Caryl Churchill's apocalyptic Far Away. Lost children are a recurring motif: Bryony Lavery's Frozen, for example, is explored in the context of the Soham murders (which took place while the play was in production at the National Theatre), whilst three virtually simultaneous productions of Euripides' Hecuba are interpreted with regard to the Beslan massacre of schoolchildren.

Live theatre was once the main entertainment medium in the United States and the United Kingdom. The preeminent dramatists and actors of the day wrote and performed in numerous plays in which crime was a major plot element. This remains true today, especially with the longest-running shows such as The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and Sweeney Todd. While hundreds of books have been published about crime fiction in film and on television, the topic of stage mysteries has been largely unexplored. Covering productions from the 18th century to the 2013-2014 theatre season, this is the first history of crime plays according to subject matter. More than 20 categories are identified, including whodunits, comic mysteries, courtroom dramas, musicals, crook plays, social issues, Sherlock Holmes, and Agatha Christie. Nearly 900 plays are described, including the reactions of critics and audiences.

Includes reports of the government agents of the various districts, as well as reports of departments.

Kwani? is arguably Africa's most exciting and varied literary initiative of recent years. Describing itself as ?a magazine of ideas, [that] seeks to entertain, provoke and create?, Kwani commissions and publishes stories, poetry, art and photography ?from all around the African continent and the diaspora'. Kwani 03 considers itself to be ?by far the most complete issue...published?, declaring that it reflects ?another Kenya growing out of [the] ashes [that] has learnt to need nobody; to be competitive and creative. It speaks Sheng. It is the Kenya we are waiting for'. This volume features the writing of Ed Pavlic, Billy Kahora, Mukoma Ngugi, Charles Mungoshi and M.G. Vassanji. It includes cartoons and photographs, and poetry and interviews in Sheng, a Swahili-based patois spoken in East Africa. Sheng is a rapidly evolving and dynamic language finding particular use among East African hip hop artists, such as Nonini, whose music has inspired the contributors of this volume. Members of the Kalamashaka trio, the pioneers of Swahili rap, also contribute poems to this section.