Amazon.co.uk Review:

Cybill Shepherd has always been that unique form of celebrity, combining the very best virtues of Hollywood glamour with the sexy down-to-earth appeal of a woman who knows what she wants and how to get it. Cybill Disobedience charts the life and times of the actress, best known for her role as Maddy in the hit 80s show “Moonlighting” and for parts in Taxi Driver and the Last Picture Show. She has since gone on to find fame as the star of her own sitcom but in Hollywood circles, it seems, the rumour mill cared less about her activity on screen and more about her life behind the bedroom doors. Along with several failed relationships she has had run-ins with some of the Tinseltown’s most admired men, and tales such as the night Elvis took her and a friend to the movies are recounted with wit and humour. The book really gets into its stride when Cybill dishes the dirt on her two most popular vehicles and there are some genuinely frank and surprising revelations to be found here. The bitchiness and backstabbing of TV executives, rival stars and script writers are all laid bare here though Cybill never pretends it all went on around her. She did, on more than one occasion, wade into the thick with all cannons blazing, though it usually ended up with another exec or star hating her. The rivalry with her “Cybill” co-star Christine Baranksi makes for particularly bitchy reading, though Cybill is careful not to actually attack her in print, instead ridiculing the press speculation that she tried to steal Christine’s best jokes, or more often than not, just the show. It’s an affectionate and honest story of Hollywood success and Cybill’s wry and witty voice shines through. She has genuinely laid herself out in the open and you can’t help but feel attracted to her somewhat self-imposed vulnerabilty. Open, honest and immensely readable, Cybill Disobedience is as sassy and sexy as its subject matter. –Jon Weir

In a world where words can come to life, an inability to spell can be a dangerous thing. And no one knows this better than apprentice wizard Nicodemus Weal.

Nicodemus is a cacographer, unable to reproduce even simple magical texts without ‘misspelling’ – a mistake which can have deadly consequences. He was supposed to be the Halcyon

Nicodemus Weal is a cacographer, unable to reproduce even simple magical texts without ‘misspelling’ – a mistake which can have deadly consequences. He was supposed to be the Halcyon, a magic-user of unsurpassed power, destined to save the world; instead he is restricted to menial tasks, and mocked for his failure to live up to the prophecy.

But not everyone interprets prophecy in the same way. There are some factions who believe a cacographer such as Nicodemus could hold great power – power that might be used as easily for evil as for good. And when two of the wizards closest to Nicodemus are found dead, it becomes clear that some of those factions will stop at nothing to find the apprentice and bend him to their will…