Books by Paul Simpson

A kaleidoscopic compendium of colour cultures and meanings that will change the way you see the spectrum.

Drawing on primary sources wherever possible, a myth-busting and thought-provoking examination of 33 intriguing serial killers from Australia, Great Britain, South Africa, Iran, the United States and elsewhere.

Is midlife for gay men the start of a slide towards the rejection, exclusion and misery associated with the spectre of the lonely old queen? Whilst exclusion is possible as gay men age, Middle Aged Gay Men, Ageing and Ageism offers a more nuanced view of gay ageing, using sociological tools to advance understanding beyond stereotypes.

What if Dorothy Gale wasn't the only person who went to see the Wizard of Oz? MGM's landmark 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, did not mark the beginning of adventures in Oz. Both before and since, dozens of tales have been told of the Marvellous Land of Oz, and its inhabitants such as the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, the Hungry Tiger and Jack Pumpkinhead. In this fascinating and wide-ranging book, Paul Simpson looks back at the Famous Forty - the original novels by L. Frank Baum and his successors which entranced generations of children with their wonderful world of munchkins, princesses and wicked witches. He examines the many ways in which the stories have been retold in movies - from the silent era to Disney's recent blockbuster Oz the Great and Powerful - and on television, featuring everyone from Tom & Jerry to trades union leaders. On stage, Oz has come to life in the many revivals of The Wizard of Oz musical and the worldwide reign of Elphaba in the smash hit Wicked. Celebrate the 75th anniversary of the world's best-loved film and the whole magical world of Oz with its vampires, muppets, dragons, living statues and so much more.

An incredible 30,000 flights at least arrive safely at their destinations every day. But a handful don t, while some come terrifyingly close to crashing. When even the smallest thing does go wrong at 35,000 feet, the result is nearly always a fast-unfolding tragedy. This extensive collection of compelling real-life accounts of air disasters and near-disasters provides a sobering, alternative history of the just over 105 years that passengers have been travelling by air, from the very earliest fatality to recent calamities.But there are incredible stories of heroism against the odds, too, such as that of Captain Chesley Sullenberger who successfully landed his aircraft with both engines gone on the Hudson River in New York, saving the lives of everyone aboard, and of the American Airlines crew who prevented terrorist Richard Reid from exploding a bomb hidden in his shoe three months after 9/11.The book also details the often ingenious, always painstaking work done by air-accident investigators, while a glossary helps to clarify the occasional, inevitable bits of jargon.

2014 marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of Stephen King s first novel Carrie in April 1974. Rescued from the rubbish by his wife Tabitha, the novel launched the Maine schoolteacher on a prolific and extraordinarily successful career. His name has become synonymous with horror and suspense through over fifty works, including The Dark Tower, a retelling of Byron s Childe Harold to the Dark Tower Came.Simpson traces the writer s life from his difficult childhood his father went out to the shops and never came back through his initial books under the pseudonym Richard Bachman to the success of Carrie, Salem s Lot and The Shining in the 1970s, and beyond. He examines how King s writing was affected by the accident that nearly killed him in 1999 and how his battles with alcohol and addiction to medication have been reflected in his stories. The guide will also take a look at the very many adaptation s of King s work in movies, on television and radio, and in comic books.

Everyone has heard the songs from The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein. The stage show was a roaring success in New York and London, and the much-loved feature film, directed by Hollywood veteran Robert Wise, continues to be a staple of television schedules 50 years after its release in 1965. In this fascinating and wide-ranging book, Paul Simpson explores the incredible story of the Von Trapp family and their escape from the Third Reich in all its incarnations, from real-life adventure, to book, to stage, to award-winning film to cultural phenomenon. He discusses the stage show, the many differences that were incorporated into the fictionalisation of the tale, and how that story was brought to the screen. He also looks at the numerous other ways in which the Von Trapp s story has been told, including the two West German movies from the 1950s and the extensive forty-part Japanese anime series from the 1990s, to explain why the story of the Von Trapp family has appealed to so many generations.Praise for A Brief Guide to Stephen King:'The best book about King and his work I have ever read' Books Monthly

True stories of prison breaks including those of Frank Abagnale, whose story is told in Catch Me If You Can; Henri Charri re who claimed to have escaped from the supposedly inescapable Devil's Island - the true story as opposed to his questionable memoir, Papillon; Bud Day, said to be the only US serviceman ever to have escaped to South Vietnam; the six prisoners who escaped from Death Row in Mecklenburg Correctional Center; and Pascal Payeret, the French armed robber who escaped not once, but twice from French prisons with the help of a helicopter.

An introduction to the English language through the medium of English literature. Through the use of examples from poetry, prose and drama, this work offers a guide to the concepts and techniques in English language study.

This introduction to the concept of point of view in language explores ways in which point of view intersects with and is shaped by ideology. It specifically focuses on the way in which speakers and writers linguistically encode their beliefs, interests and biases in a wide range of media.