In 1714 Parliament offer a £20,000 prize for anyone who can provide an accurate means of measuring longitude at sea. John Harrison (Michael Gambon) flies in the face of popular opinion by saying that the stars do not provide the answer, and provides his own solution with the invention of a mechanical clock. However, it takes Harrison forty years to prove his theory, and he is eventually forgotten in the mists of time. Centuries later, Robert Gould (Jeremy Irons) attempts to restore Harrison's reputation by tracking down and repairing the four clocks he originally constructed.

Steven Simms short story, explores the moments of impending death when his character Saul, tries to take his own life. Saul enters his own special purgatory, and reviews his past life. The book is intended as a supplement to the album "Precious Empires" by Scottish Band, Roads To Damascus, in which Steven is lead vocalist and songwriter, alongside Calum Jamieson. Steven has also performed it as a spoken word and audio book. The story as with the album "Precious Albums" looks at the importance we place on the materialistic and superficial and asks the question "Why are we here?." Steven is not religious in the conventional sense, but certainly believes in a smile behind the Universe. At the end of the story there is a chance to review your own life and develop. Don't take it to seriously though, and enjoy the drama of this fictional, concept piece, whilst listening to the album when it is released in late 2014. www.roadstodamascus.co.uk

The braai is so much more than a social event or a meal. It is a ritual, an experience, perhaps the closest thing to a meditative state many of us will achieve. Even the vegetarians know that. Sometimes, however, things get burned, fights break out and somebody gets naked. And covered in potato salad. What does this have to do with the book you're scanning curiously? MK has a big problem - she has woken up a week later than she went to bed. Somebody has been feeding her cat. She has no explanation for it, but is smart enough to know it can't be good. In Johannesburg and Cape Town, sinister plots are afoot, and MK - no stranger to the deep end - may just be in over her head. The lady usually causing all the trouble now faces it from all sides - political fanatics, a Hollywood party girl, a secret agent, and most diabolical of all - local television.

Miss Kwa Kwa (or MK) is learning that in a country supposedly so black-and-white, there are a million shades of grey - 'Coconuts', 'Wiggas' and 'Buppies' are a few examples. But behind the simple facade of the rural, charming Miss Kwa Kwa lies a mind as sharp as a panga and just as deadly - and somewhere in this Rainbow Nation is a pot of gold with her name on it. Unaware that several people are chasing her, MK begins stalking a politician who has just checked his wife into rehab. Utterly charmed by MK, he takes her to the top-secret Studio 94 with its exclusive clientele. Throw in coincidence/fate, skulduggery, a crazed prostitute named Leeyann, a terrifying thunderstorm and a blackout, and it's a recipe for disaster. Everything comes to a head at Studio 94, resulting in comeuppance, fame and an unusual romance. And Miss Kwa Kwa becomes the host of her own new talk show called Kwa Kwa Konfidential.

Kenneth Branagh's star-studded version of Shakespeare's play has a more intimate and equivocal approach to war than Laurence Olivier's 1944 classic. The young King (Branagh), his days of carousing behind him, is advised of his legal claim to the throne of France. He decides to invade with his small and somewhat rag-tag army, taking on the massed might of the King of France's (Paul Scofield) forces.