Among the top-grossing Hollywood blockbusters of all time, Star Wars launched one of the most successful movie and licensing franchises in history. Yet much of the film's backstory was set in Britain, where the original trilogy was made and where early efforts at tie-in merchandising were spearheaded. The author provides a detailed account of the saga's British connection, including personal recollections of fans in the UK, exclusive interviews with staff members of Palitoy who took on the challenge of producing millions of toys, and the story of how a group of writers from the underground press in London combined with Marvel comics to produce the first Star Wars expanded universe.

Between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the galaxy was plunged into the shadows . . . STAR WARS(c) : SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE v The minds behind the Star Wars galaxy have created a phenomenon of epic proportions, designed to unfold in nearly every medium at their disposal. This intensely researched volume guides you through this Star Wars event--as its creators reveal the secrets behind the multimedia release of the year. The tendrils of this dark drama will reach throughout the Star Wars galaxy: --The evil crimelord Xizor challenges the power of Darth Vader in an exciting new novel of Imperial intrigue. --Leia, Lando, and Dash Rendar launch an all-out attempt to rescue Han Solo in a state-of-the-art Nintendo video game. --Xizor's agents search the galaxy for Luke Skywalker in the taut comic book mini-series. Their mission: kill the son of Vader. --The secrets of the Imperial homeworld are revealed in brilliantly painted trading cards. --A fully orchestrated soundtrack and exciting new Star Wars action figures embellish the adventure. STAR WARS: THE SECRETS OF SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE provides the official guide to the heroes, the villains, and all the major combatants. When this war is over, only one will control the Empire's violent underworld. . . .

From literary classics to cookery books, blockbuster airport novels to self-help manuals, John Sutherland offers a portrait of Britain through the books that have inspired, excited and encouraged us to part with our cash. By exploring popular reading since 1945 Sutherland reveals a rich and compelling picture of the books themselves, the tremendous social changes and our responses to them. After the upheaval of World War II, Dr Eustace Chesser's ground-breaking sex manual Love without Fear reminded us how to make love not war; amid the austerity of food rationing, Elizabeth David wrote the first of her bestselling cookery books when most people could only dream of new foods and flavours. However, optimism soon turned to Cold War paranoia, which inspired John Wyndham to create his apocalyptic science fiction of the 1950s. Ian Fleming and John le Carr responded with their espionage thrillers of the 1960s and, in the 1980s, Peter Wright achieved notoriety with his all-too-factual Spycatcher. Occasionally, developments in publishing have themselves prompted social change. The acquittal of Lady Chatterley's Lover for obscenity in 1960 emancipated fiction in Britain, opening the way both for the 'bonkbuster'a novelists of the 1970s and 1980s and, in the 1990s, for the shocking realism of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. With media globalization, Stephen King's Carrie and Bronowski's The Ascent of Man became forerunners in a franchise industry embracing print, film and merchandise, continuing today with the enormous success of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. Lively, entertaining, and often humorous, Reading the Decades provides a unique view of the cultural and social history of the later twentieth century.

A guide to North American film directors arranged in alphabetical order.

A fascinating new textbook providing an overview of the religious diversity of the UK