In 1843, despite the fact that Dickens is a successful writer, the failure of his latest book puts his career at a crossroads, until the moment when, struggling with inspiration and confronting reality with his childhood memories, a new character is born in the depths of his troubled mind; an old, lonely, embittered man, so vivid, so human, that a whole world grows around him, a story so inspiring that changed the meaning of Christmas forever.
Tells of the daring heist of The Stone of Destiny in the 1950s by a charming group of idealistic Scottish undergraduates, whose action rekindled Scottish nationalistic pride.
Daley Thompson is taken from the streets of his boyhood in Notting Hill to Olympia, the site of the Ancient Games where his iconic event began, an epic journey told from around the world: with Seb Coe at the 2023 World Championships in Hungary; with former nemesis and now friend Jurgen Hingsen at the Coliseum in Los Angeles, the setting for their titanic battle in 1984, where Daley’s irresistible will to win snatched victory from the German world record holder and firm favourite; and with Caitlyn Jenner, the legendary American decathlete, who Daley watched in awe, when, as Bruce, he set a new benchmark for the decathlon at the Montreal Games.
Howard Spitz is a cranky, has-been detective novelist out of money and out of luck - until he meets eight-year-old Samantha, who convinces him he has what it takes to write children's books.
