Mike Leigh Bücher

Three screenplays by Mike Leigh. Naked presents a bleak picture of urban society, Life is Sweet is a gentle comedy in which the pain of everyday life is borne with a wry smile, and High Hopes is a comedy of class-ridden life in contemporary Britain.

Secrets & Lies was awarded the Palme d'Or for Best Film at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. It tells the story of Hortense, a young black Londoner who goes in search of her birth mother. Hortense's voyage of discovery leads her to Cynthia - a depressed, unmarried, white woman who has uneasy relationships with both her second daughter and her brother. Hortense's attempt to uncover the hidden, almost forgotten, world of her parents fundamentally affects each of the characters. The film culminates in a lunch party at which the characters reveal the secrets that have blighted their lives, and with this outpouring of truth comes the possibility of renewal.

Gilbert and Sullivan's operas are some of the world's best-loved musical works, delighting audiences with their joyous wit, topsy-turvy logic and extravagant wordplay. This glorious treasury is the definitive annotated edition of all fourteen of their operas. From the partially lost work "Thespis", the first collaboration between W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, through the triumphant comic romps "The Pirates of Penzance" and "The Mikado", to lesser-performed gems such as the fanciful "The Sorcerer" and the acerbic lampoon "Patience", Gilbert's libretti are collected here in their most accurate and faithful form. There is a fascinating commentary on each work, telling the extraordinary stories behind the inspiration for the opera and its performance history, and giving plot summaries and original cast lists. Also containing original illustrations from Gilbert's "Bab Ballads", as well as extensive notes for every work, this ultimate Gilbert and Sullivan collection will delight all devotees of the incomparable duo.