Riddle, sham, requiem, detective story — Antonio Muñoz Molina's novel "A Manuscript of Ashes" is one nasty revenge tale, bound to trip up readers as mercilessly as it flogs its characters.
Once the suspected killer, Boris Godunov, became tsar himself he ripped its tongue out, had it flogged, and sent it into exile in Siberia for centuries.
Its sell-off really began in 2004, when the secretive family firm who then still owned it flogged a controlling stake to a Texan private equity firm.
Does it flog mobile phones?
IBM already makes more money selling its technology to firms like Dell than it does flogging its own PCs.Wintel's worriesFor Microsoft and Intel, the two halves of the Wintel monopoly, life also seems likely to grow harder.
No, the investment bank felled by the mortgage miasma is not rising from the dead: its administrators are merely flogging its remaining assets to repay creditors.
France is flogging its regional airports: it sold a 49.9% stake in Toulouse airport to a Chinese-led consortium in December.
Yes, I know Tesco is terrible, and that Always gets to look good while flogging its products, but if it means more girls get to go to school, I'm happy to break the habit of a lifetime and write about tampons.
When the company went bust, its administrators flogged Loaded to Paul Baxendale-Walker, the entrepreneur, adult movie producer – and occasional porn star.
The Scrooges among us will be irritated at being emotionally manipulated by a company flogging its wares: especially one that is still to pay its cleaners the living wage.
