The collaboration of Ethan Coen and Joel Coen has made for some of the finest American films of recent years, and their screenplays, rich in wit and imaginative detail, are a joy to read.

BLOOD SIMPLE (1984) A cuckolded Texan bar owner hires a slimy private investigator to kill his unfaithful wife and her boyfriend, but this is merely the start of a grisly chain of back-stabbings and murders.

RAISING ARIZONA (1987) Unable to conceive a child, recidivist stick-up man H. I. McDonnough and his policewoman wife kidnap one of the quintuplets of furniture tycoon Nathan Arizona, only to earn the unwelcome attentions of his ex-convict pals, and the menacing Lone Biker of the Apocalypse.

MILLER’S CROSSING (1990) In the era of Prohibition, Tom Reagan is the trusted lieutenant of Irish crime boss Leo, and endeavours to keep the peace when Leo gets locked into a feud with rival mobster Johnny Caspar.

BARTON FINK (1991) Newly-successful New York playwright Barton Fink accepts an invitation to Hollywood, but his grim assignment – a Wallace Beery wrestling picture – gives him writer’s block, and his only friend is insurance salesman Charlie Meadows, fellow guest at the creepy Hotel Earle.

Author: The Coen Brothers Publisher: Faber and Faber ISBN: 0571210961 Format: Paperback Pages: 288 Product Dimensions: 22.1 x 14 x 4.3 cm