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Chaucer
by Peter Ackroyd. Vintage. Pages 175. £ 4.75

ChaucerThis is a biography on Geoffrey Chaucer, who has some claim to being the greatest poet in the English language. Yet he has also been considered to be an invisible poet, self-deprecating and ironic, leaving only the breath of his comedy behind. In truth a great deal is known of him. He was a royal servant, who was indicted for rape and was also captured in battle and held for ransom. He knew at first hand the most powerful people in the country; and, as the king’s servant, was concerned with the most pressing events of the realm.

Yet even in this crowded life he found time and opportunity to write some of the finest poems in the language. Troilus and Criseyde is the first modern work of English literature. His genius was prolific and diverse and, while he was a true London artist, he was also part of the European renaissance of learning. The Canterbury Tales is an epic of Enlishness itself, presided over by the genial and generous figure of Geoffrey Chaucer.

If Love is a Game, These are the Rules
by Cherie Carter-Scott. Arora’s Book World. Pages 253. Rs 125

If Love is a Game, These are the RulesIn her bestseller If Life is a Game, These are the Rules, Cherie Carter-scott provided 10 rules for conquering life’s challenges and managing its unpredictable ups and downs.

Now, in If Love is a Game, These are the Rules, she presents 10 simple rules to help us find true love and create long-lasting, authentic relationships.

After 25 years of conducting workshops and seminars, Cherie has realised that the most important — and possibly the most difficult — part of the human experience is partnership.

Everyone is either looking for love or trying to find a way to sustain and feed the love that they already have-and we all know how difficult it can be to navigate love’s tempestuous waters.

Cherie’s ten rules are universal truths that we inherently know but often lose sight of in the confusing game of romance-rules as simple as "You Must Love Yourself First," "Communication Is Essential," and "You Must Nurture the Relationship for It to Thrive".

With No One as Witness
by Elizabeth George. Holder & Stoughton. Pages 584. £ 11.99

With No One as WitnessWhen the Metropolitan Police fail to realise a serial killer is at work, London ignites over the fact that the killer’s victims are young Black and mixed race boys. Institutionalised racism is claimed by the community’s activists and tabloids alike.

Acting Superintendent Thomas Lynley is given the case, and finds himself thwarted by office politics as he tries to have Barbara Havers reinstated, and to keep control of events surrounding the murders. Soon, his Scotland Yard task force is handling an epidemic of killings and a looming tragedy.

Elizabeth George has written 12 internationally bestselling novels before turning her masterly pen to the theme of the serial killer. She brings to that familiar subject a freshness and clarity of vision that provide illuminating insight into the psychological complexity of the tortured criminal mind. She does so within a richly textured, thrillingly suspenseful narrative that defies any reader to predict the outcome. Nor does she neglect our favourite characters, whose private lives provide an engrossing counterpoint to their professional duties.

Citizen Vince
by Jess Walter. Hodder & Stoughton. Pages 293. £6.90

Citizen VinceVince Camden is a forger, a drug dealer and a thief. He works in the day and plays poker at night. He’s not exactly a model citizen. In fact, he’s not even Vince Camden. Vince is really Marty Hagen, a career criminal from New Jersey given a new identity and a job working in a donut shop in a sleepy Northwest city by the Witness Protection Program. Since he testified against the hoods he used to run with, his rights have been restored — including his right to vote, something he’s never done.

For Vince, voting in the coming Presidential election suddenly becomes the most important thing in his life — a symbol that even a guy like him can change. But while Vince is busy remaking himself, his past arrives in town in the form of a contract killer that he recognises from his old life.

Has he come to kill Vince? Or was he hired by local gangsters, trying to muscle him out of the credit-card scan he has been running? With three days left until the election, Vince must duck crooks, cops (including a younger and fresher-looking Alan Dupree from Over Tumbled Graves) and an implacable killer, as he tries to figure out a way to save himself, and his dreams.

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