Most people associate Jackie Chan with the smash hit films Rush Hour and Rumble in the Bronx, but there is a lot more of his work to see. Jackie learned his trade from the harsh world of Peking Opera School and began to appear in films as a child. He slowly progressed from minor roles to becoming a head stuntman and eventually lead actor in a number of kung fu movies in the 1970s. It was only when he began to direct his own films that the real Jackie Chan film was born. This book looks at his life and career, reviews and analyses his films, and provides references for further study. Buy

Tim Burton is a contradiction – a film-maker who has a unique style and yet remains grounded in the Hollywood studio system. How can someone who has such a distinctive personal vision survive in an aggressive and increasingly bland marketplace? How can he command such large budgets to realise his ideas? The answer is simple – Tim Burton may well be a cinematic artist but his films are also financially successful. Burton’s world is one of outsiders on the periphery of society. His heroes are psychologically scarred, perpetually naïve and childlike, misunderstood or unintentionally disruptive. They are all figures who upset conventional society and morality. Even his villains are rarely without merit; circumstance and society blur the divide between moral fortitude and personal action. But most of all his films have an overriding aura of the fairy tale, the fantastic and the magical. The Pocket Essential Tim Burton looks at the man and his films, from his early shorts right through to his latest blockbusters. It covers the films, their making and their merit. This is the essential companion to Hollywood’s premiere magician.

Vampire movies are almost as old as film itself. Constantly remade and reinvented for each new generation, the films, like the vampires themselves, adopt many shapes – from the faithful contemporary  adaptation of Francis Coppola’s Dracula (1992) to the art movie approach of Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu remake (1979] via the high-school horror of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992). This handy book traces the vampire film from its beginnings to millennium, acknowledging on its way all the classics of vampire cinema from the original Nosferatu (1921) up to 30 Days of Night (2007). From saucy French vampires to hopping Chinese ones, from Hammer horrors to Hollywood blockbusters, whatever your favourite bloodsucker you’ll find it here. If you want to go to the legacy accommodation of the whole Dracula saga you can see it reviewed here (also, shamelessly by us). You can buy it here

Our first book from nearly two decades ago ( and recently seen on amazon for  £0.01 bargain hunters)