Search results for ""Carnival""

Launched at the 1982 Notting Hill Carnival, The Voice newspaper captured and addressed a generation figuring out what it meant to be Black and British. Written for and by Black people, the newspaper shone a light on systematic injustices as well as celebrating Black Britain's success stories. From hard hitting news reports covering the murder of Stephen Lawrence to championing the likes of Sir Lewis Hamilton and Idris Elba, the newspaper has campaigned, celebrated and educated people for the last forty years.As well as celebrating amazing successes in sport, politics and the arts, The Voice documented everyday life in the community, from the emergence of a Black middle class in the '90s and the achievements of Black entrepreneurs to how different facets of the community were explored in contemporary music and literature. Since its small beginnings in Hackney, The Voice has also become a fantastic training ground for prominent journalists and figures including former politician Trevor Phillips, broadcaster Rageh Omaar and writer Afua Hirsch. Today, The Voice is Britain's longest running and only Black newspaper.Told through news reports, editorials and readers' personal letters, this emotive book documents the social history of Black Britain over the last four decades. Each chapter is illustrated with amazing newspaper pages from The Voice's extensive archives as well as iconic and dramatic front covers from 1982 to the present day.With a foreword from Sir Lenny Henry and written by former and current Voice journalists, this powerful book is a celebration of the ground-breaking paper which gave a voice to the voiceless.

Read more less

The brilliant new fantasy novel from the acclaimed and multi-award winning author of City of Lies . . . 'Marvellous . . . will leave you reading late into the night.' SFX'Poisoners, deceit and treachery . . . will surely keep readers entranced.' TERRY BROOKS'One of the standout debuts - and books - of the year.' THE FANTASY HIVE'Absolutely loved this . . . a wonderful read.' JOHN GWYNNE'One of the best new fantasies I've seen in a long time.' ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY'A bold new fantasy voice.' LAURA LAM_____________________________________________You never get used to poisoning a child . . . Two years after a devastating siege tore the country apart, Silasta has recovered. But to the frustration of poison-taster siblings Jovan and Kalina, sworn to protect the Chancellor, the city has grown complacent in its new-found peace and prosperity. And now, amid the celebrations of the largest carnival the continent has ever seen, it seems a mysterious enemy has returned.The death of a former adversary sets Jovan on the trail of a cunning killer, while Kalina negotiates the treacherous politics of visiting dignitaries, knowing that this vengeful mastermind may lurk among the princes and dukes, noble ladies and priests. But their investigations uncover another conspiracy which now threatens not just Silasta and the Chancellor but also their own family. Assassins, witches and a dangerous criminal network are all closing in. And brother and sister must once more fight to save their city - and everyone they hold dear - from a patient, powerful enemy determined to tear it all down . . .

Read more less

In a career that spanned half a century, Caroline Durieux, a master lithographer, created prints that chronicled the beauty and absurdity of academia, New Orleans's famed Carnival season, characters observed from everyday life, and more. Caroline Durieux: Lithographs of the Thirties and Forties brings together fifty-eight images that reveal her keen understanding of both the comic and tragic aspects of satire. These remarkable works, with accompanying text by art historian Richard Cox, establish her place within the tradition of American satirical art. A new foreword by art historian Sally Main and archivist Susan Tucker considers Durieux's life and influence from her main periods of activity through the present day.Born in New Orleans in 1896, Durieux spent several years with her husband in Cuba before the two settled in Mexico City for a decade, and Latin American settings inspired some of her earliest forays into lithography. Her time in Mexico also brought her into contact with Diego Rivera, whose enthusiasm for her work brought her national and international attention. When Durieux returned to the United States in 1936, she taught art classes and held several positions with the Works Progress Administration (WPA), where she championed local artists and oversaw the creation of an index of Louisiana art and numerous public art projects. The prints collected in this volume showcase the artist's humor as well as her keen eye for the scenes and people she encountered in Louisiana and abroad.Originally published in 1977 and long unavailable, Caroline Durieux: Lithographs of the Thirties and Forties finally returns to print.

Read more less

Join travellers Cat and Bird as they explore the world in this fun search-and-find book. With every turn of the page, there's a new busy city scene to discover - a colourful carnival in Rio, a funfair in Paris, a treasure-filled souk in Morocco. Our intrepid duo have spent all year planning their amazing trip: a city-hopping tour around the globe! They've packed their bags and are ready to go, but they need your help... In each city there are all kinds of things to spot, from tasty festival food and traditional hats to a famous landmark, a unique souvenir and a local animal or two. You'll need to hunt high and low, peep inside buildings and search among the crowds. And don't forget to look for Cat and Bird in every city too. About Lonely Planet Kids: Lonely Planet Kids - an imprint of the world's leading travel authority Lonely Planet - published its first book in 2011. Over the past 45 years, Lonely Planet has grown a dedicated global community of travellers, many of whom are now sharing a passion for exploration with their children. Lonely Planet Kids educates and encourages young readers at home and in school to learn about the world with engaging books on culture, sociology, geography, nature, history, space and more. We want to inspire the next generation of global citizens and help kids and their parents to approach life in a way that makes every day an adventure. Come explore!

Read more less

In Playful Pictures, Chriscinda Henry explores the rise of private art collection in Renaissance Venice as a diporto, or pastime, practiced within a kaleidoscopic matrix of domestic leisure that encompassed the recitation of poetry and tales, games, music making, amateur theatrical activity, and the conversational arts.Between around 1490 and 1550, a new class of pictures emerged in Venice. These images—primarily paintings but also drawings, prints, book illustrations, and historiated architectural elements—feature quotidian, festive, allusive, and performative subjects that catered to the cultural and intellectual interests of avant-garde patrons and collectors. Several generations of Venetian artists, including Vittore Carpaccio, Giorgione, Titian, Sebastiano del Piombo, Giovanni Cariani, Bernardino Licinio, and Paris Bordon, rose to meet the demand of modern collectors seeking entertaining artworks that could speak to their personal values and taste. Playful Pictures connects painting and the graphic arts with other art forms engaged in the home: vernacular literature and the novella tradition; pastoral music, verse, and theater; urban dialect comedies; and carnival and ludic culture. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that treats these pursuits as linked forms of creative practice, Henry argues that they served as dynamic forms of personal and collective expression for patrons, collectors, artists, and other virtuosi seeking to express a new set of secular values and a contingent notion of selfhood.Incorporating fresh evidence from archival sources, this book expands the discourse on Renaissance art by situating it within the growing, and increasingly nuanced, scholarly understanding of Renaissance leisure and entertainment culture.

Read more less

A tragic accident . . . or was it?Emperor Domitian has been awarded (or rather, has demanded) yet another Triumph to celebrate two so-called victories. Preparations are going smoothly until one of the men overseeing arrangements for the celebration accidentally falls to his death from a cliff on the symbolic Capitoline Hill. But Flavia Albia suspects there's more to the incident than meets the eye, as there are plenty of people who would have been delighted to be rid of the overseer. He was an abusive swine who couldn't organise a booze-up in a winery and was caught up in a number of scams, including one surrounding the supply of imperial purple dye and a family of shellfish-boilers. As Flavia finds herself drawn into a theatrical world of carnival floats, musicians, incense and sacrificial beasts, can she see to the heart of the matter and catch those responsible for the unpopular man's untimely death?*************Praise for Lindsey Davis and the Flavia Albia series'Lindsey Davis has seen off all her competitors to become the unassailable market leader in the 'crime in Ancient Rome' genre . . . Davis's squalid, vibrant Rome is as pleasurable as ever' - Guardian'Davis's prose is a lively joy, and Flavia's Rome is sinister and gloriously real' - The Times on Sunday'For fans of crime fiction set in the ancient world, this one is not to be missed' - Booklist'Davis's books crackle with wit and knowledge . . . She has the happy knack of making the reader feel entirely immersed in Rome' - The Times

Read more less

A GRANTA BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELIST 2023'Hallucinogenic, electric and sharp.' JESSICA ANDREWS'Will make most readers howl with laughter and/or shut their eyes in horror.' GUARDIAN**Pre-order Eliza Clark's next novel, PENANCE, now**Irina is in a rut. She obsessively takes explicit photographs of average-looking men she scouts from the streets of Newcastle while her dead-end bar job slips away; she's more interested in drugs, alcohol, and extreme cinema. When she's offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery which promises to revive her career in the art world, it should feel like an escape. But the news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, drawing in her obsessive best friend and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention . . .BOY PARTS is the incendiary debut novel from Eliza Clark, a pitch-black comedy both shocking and hilarious, fearlessly exploring the taboos of sexuality and gender roles in the twenty-first century.'Smart, stylish, and very funny.' LARA WILLIAMS'Boundaries are for breaking and if anyone can crash through and reinterpret the fear of our time, Eliza Clark can.' MSLEXIA'A carnival funhouse ride: terrifying, feverish, hilarious.' JULIA ARMFIELDWHAT READERS ARE SAYING:'A dark, funny, nasty book. Brilliantly written, annoyingly good.' 5* reader review'I am obsessed.' 5* reader review'Both shocking and darkly funny, this razor-sharp debut is unlike anything I've read before.' 5* reader review'I loved this, properly loved it!!' 5* reader review'Left me both in awe and totally disturbed. Wow.' 5* reader review

Read more less

Winner of the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Fiction.Shortlisted for the Society of Authors' McKitterick Prize 2022.Finalist of the 2022 Firecracker Award in Fiction.Coconut trees. Carnival. Rum and coke. To many outsiders, these and other sunny images are all they know about life in the Caribbean. However, if you want to learn how the locals truly live and experience the dark and often harrowing truths that lurk behind the idyllic imagery of Caribbean culture, then come visit the town of Pleasantview.Come during election season, and see how one candidate sets out to slaughter endangered turtles - just for fun. Or come on the day the other candidate beats his "outside-woman," so badly she ends up losing their baby. Then come on the night of the political rally, where this grieving woman exacts a very public revenge. Stay a while, and see how this single event has a trajectory far beyond the lives of the immediate actors, with often tragic and heartbreaking consequences.Written in a remarkable combination of Standard English and Trinidad Creole, Pleasantview showcases the entrenched political, racial, and class dichotomies of life in Trinidad: the generosity (yet cruelty) of the average Trini; the sense of optimism (and yet, despair) which permeates everyday interaction; and the musicality of Caribbean creole (kriol) expression that masks an ingrained and frequently violent patriarchy.Merging the vibrancy and darkness of recent Caribbean writers such as Ingrid Persaud and Claire Adam with the linguistic experimentation of Marlon James's A Brief History of Seven Killings, Pleasantview is a landmark work in international fiction.

Read more less

The authoritative guide to planning, organising, managing and delivery events of all sizeAnyone responsible for organising a voluntary or public event will want to do it safely and well, complying with the legislation relating to different aspects of their event. This book will help you to research, plan, organise, manage and deliver any event, match, show, tournament or function that will be attended by more than a handful of people. You may be running a gymkhana, fete, fun run, steam fayre, half marathon, carnival, school sports day, jumble sale, tennis tournament, car boot sale, model aircraft show or even a huge pop festival or Formula 1 car race. Whatever it is, the principles are the same. As event manager you will need to research, plan, liaise with authorities, obtain permissions and licences, comply with legal requirements and then deliver the event to the public.Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. The event manager; 3. The event objective; 4. Planning the event; 5. Health & safety; 6. Type of event; 7. When to run the event; 8. Defining your target audience; 9. Audience size; 10. Advertising; 11. Event attractions; 12. Event requirements; 13. Accommodation and services; 14. Event site; 15. Traffic management; 16. Sign posting; 17. Permissions; 18. Car parking; 19. Radio communications; 20. Staffing; 21. First aid; 22. Security; 23. Insurance; 24. Emergency and normal procedures; 25. Formal presentation; 26. Event manager's manual; 27. Money; 28. Accounts; 29. Video diary/evidence; 30. Setting up; 31. Site maintenance; 32. Strip down/clear up; 33. Final debrief &; 34. Final report; 35. Conclusion; Annex A; Annex B; Index.

Read more less

Parade Magazine's “20 New LGBTQ+ Books We're Loving This Year”Women.com's “10 LGBTQ Must-Reads for Pride Month”She Knows.com's “10 Books Featuring Mother-Child Relationships & All Their Beautiful Complexity”In 1967, Fay Stonewell, a water tank escape artist in Florida, leaves for Vietnam to join the Amazing Humans—a jerry-rigged carnival there to entertain the troops—abandoning her disabled teenage son, Dickie, to the care of an abusive boyfriend. Months after Fay’s departure, Dickie’s troubled home life ends in a surprising act of violence that forces him to run away. He soon lands in Manhattan, where he’s taken in by eccentric artist Laurence Jones. Fay, meanwhile, is also facing dangerous threats. From the night her plane jolts onto a darkened Saigon runway, she is forced to confront every bad decision she’s ever made as she struggles to return to her son. But the Humans owner is hell-bent on keeping her in Vietnam, performing only for war-injured children at a hospital, daily reminders of the son she’s left behind. Decades later, Dickie is forty, living in a Massachusetts coastal town with a man who’s dying of AIDS, and doing everything he can to escape his past. But although Spin may be giving Dickie what he’s always wanted—a home without wheels—it seems that the farther Dickie runs, the tighter the past clings to him. Ultimately, What We Give, What We Take is a deeply moving story of second chances and rising above family circumstances, however dysfunctional they may be.

Read more less

All aboard for an exciting new Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam escapade!When Shifty and Sam are asked to bake on board the Pawrient Express, travelling to Venice for Carnival night, they find themselves caught up in a robbery. A sneaky thief has stolen the posh passengers' gems and she's making her escape in a getaway gondola! The doggy detectives are hot on her tail, but can they unmask that kitty-cat criminal and save the day?Tracey Corderoy is a multi-award-winning author and has written over 70 books for children including collaborations with Rosalind Beardshaw and Sarah Massini. Steven Lenton has created many books with Tracey Corderoy and also illustrates books by David Baddiel, Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Peter Bently. His books have won awards such as the Sainsbury's Children's Book Award and have been selected for the WHSmith Children's Book of the Year and Tom Fletcher Book Club. Read all the Shifty and Sam picture book adventures: Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Cat Burglar Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Diamond ChaseShifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Missing MasterpieceShifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: Santa's Stolen SleighShifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: Pirates Ahoy!Have you read Shifty and Sam's two-colour early readers? Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: Jingle Bells! Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: Up, Up and Away! Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Spooky School Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Aliens Are Coming!

Read more less

The first book in the bestselling SUPERTATO series - now in a new cased board book format! Meet Supertato! He's always there for you when the chips are down. He's the superhero with eyes everywhere - but now there's a pea on the loose. A very, very naughty pea. Has Supertato finally met his match? The fabulous new character from Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet, the bestselling, award-winning creators of Barry the Fish with Fingers, I Need a Wee and Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell.Perfect for fans of Oi Frog!Praise for Supertato: 'Hilarious... One of the funniest picture books this year - read it and laugh out loud!' Creative Steps Magazine 'Hendra introduces another very silly but irresistible creation in the grand tradition of Barry, Norman, Keith et al.' BooksellerPraise for Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell: 'Lovely glittery illustrations and simple text make this a must for pre-schoolers' The Daily MailPraise for No-Bot the Robot with No Bottom: 'Fabulously funny and wonderfully warm' Liverpool Echo 'Fans of Barry, Norman and Keith will absolutely adore this new wonderfully eccentric new character' MumsnetOther titles in the Supertato series:Supertato: Veggies AssembleSupertato: Run Veggies RunSupertato: Evil Pea RulesSupertato: Veggies in the Valley of DoomSupertato: Carnival CatastropeaSupertato: Books Are Rubbish (WBD)Supertato Sticker BookSupertato: Bubbly Troubly Supertato Sticker Skills Supertato: Night of the Living Veg Supertato: The Great Eggscape Supertato: Presents Jack and the Beanstalk Supertato: Mean Green Time Machine

Read more less

Trinidad is known for its vibrant musical traditions, which reflect the island’s ethnic diversity. The annual Carnival, far and away the biggest event in Trinidad, is filled with soca and calypso music. Soca is a dance music derived from calypso, a music with African antecedents. In parang, a Venezuelan and Spanish derived folk music that dominates Trinidadian Christmas festivities, groups of singers and musicians progress from house to house, performing for their neighbors. Chutney is also an Indo-Caribbean music. In Bacchanalian Sentiments, Kevin K. Birth argues that these and other Trinidadian musical genres and traditions not only provide a soundtrack to daily life on the southern Caribbean island; they are central to the ways that Trinidadians experience and navigate their social lives and interpret political events.Birth draws on fieldwork he conducted in one of Trinidad’s ethnically diverse rural villages to explore the relationship between music and social and political consciousness on the island. He describes how Trinidadians use the affective power of music and the physiological experience of performance to express and work through issues related to identity, ethnicity, and politics. He looks at how the performers and audience members relate to different musical traditions. Turning explicitly to politics, Birth recounts how Trinidadians used music as a means of making sense of the attempted coup d’état in 1990 and the 1995 parliamentary election, which resulted in a tie between the two major political parties. Bacchanalian Sentiments is an innovative ethnographic analysis of the significance of music, and particular musical forms, in the everyday lives of rural Trinidadians.

Read more less

Concerned about sanitation during a severe bout of plague in Milan, Leonardo da Vinci designed an ideal, clean city. Leonardo was far from alone among his contemporaries in thinking about personal and public hygiene, as Douglas Biow shows in The Culture of Cleanliness in Renaissance Italy. A concern for cleanliness, he argues, was everywhere in the Renaissance. Anxieties about cleanliness were expressed in literature from humanist panegyrics to bawdy carnival songs, as well as in the visual arts. Biow surveys them all to explain why the topic so permeated Renaissance culture. At one level, cleanliness, he documents, was a matter of real concern in the Renaissance. At another, he finds, issues such as human dignity, self-respect, self-discipline, social distinction, and originality were rethought as a matter of artistic concern. The Culture of Cleanliness in Renaissance Italy moves from the clean to the unclean, from the lofty to the base. Biow first examines the socially elevated, who defined and distinguished themselves as clean, pure, and polite. He then turns to soap, an increasingly common commodity in this period, and the figure of the washerwoman. Finally he focuses on latrines, which were universally scorned yet functioned artistically as figures of baseness, creativity, and fun in the works of Dante and Boccaccio. Paralleling this social stratification is a hierarchy of literary and visual artifacts, from the discourse of high humanism to filthy curses and scatological songs. Deftly bringing together high and low-as well as literary and visual-cultures, this book provides a fresh perspective on the Italian Renaissance and its artistic legacy.

Read more less

In the midst of the feuds and famine of Tipperary, Ireland in 1846, Jim Donnelly and Johannah McGee fall passionately in love. She is the beautiful daughter of an affluent estate manager, he the rebellious son of dispossessed peasants. With her father’s men in pursuit and a sizable price on Jim’s head, they board a ship set for Canada to start a new life and put the troubles of the old country behind them. Thousands of miles away in rural Ontario, they find the feuds and vendettas of Ireland are very much alive. Jim must make a place for his young family not just with his back, but with his fists. Fifteen years later, the Donnelly family have become one of the most powerful in Lucan Township, loved by some and hated by others. Jim and Johannah’s sons are notorious as both fighters and lovers and torment the townspeople, swinging shillelaghs, burning barns and seducing daughters. But certain citizens of Lucan have had enough. At midnight on February 3, 1880, a mob of thirty armed men in women’s clothing and carnival masks ride out for the Donnelly farm. Sustained by whisky and the blessings of the local priest, their goal is to wipe the Donnelly family from the face of the earth. Yet there is an eye witness and during the trial that follows, it becomes clear that in small town Ontario of the late 1800s, order is valued above truth. Eventful and conveyed with cinematic detail, Cursed! Blood of the Donnellys is an engaging and historically enlightening read.

Read more less

Winner of the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Fiction.Shortlisted for the Society of Authors' McKitterick Prize 2022.Finalist of the 2022 Firecracker Award in Fiction.Coconut trees. Carnival. Rum and coke. To many outsiders, these and other sunny images are all they know about life in the Caribbean. However, if you want to learn how the locals truly live and experience the dark and often harrowing truths that lurk behind the idyllic imagery of Caribbean culture, then come visit the town of Pleasantview.Come during election season, and see how one candidate sets out to slaughter endangered turtles - just for fun. Or come on the day the other candidate beats his "outside-woman," so badly she ends up losing their baby. Then come on the night of the political rally, where this grieving woman exacts a very public revenge. Stay a while, and see how this single event has a trajectory far beyond the lives of the immediate actors, with often tragic and heartbreaking consequences.Written in a remarkable combination of Standard English and Trinidad Creole, Pleasantview showcases the entrenched political, racial, and class dichotomies of life in Trinidad: the generosity (yet cruelty) of the average Trini; the sense of optimism (and yet, despair) which permeates everyday interaction; and the musicality of Caribbean creole (kriol) expression that masks an ingrained and frequently violent patriarchy.Merging the vibrancy and darkness of recent Caribbean writers such as Ingrid Persaud and Claire Adam with the linguistic experimentation of Marlon James's A Brief History of Seven Killings, Pleasantview is a landmark work in international fiction.

Read more less

From the vantage point of later middle life, Ian McDonald's collection looks into the heart of time passing: the coming death of ageing parents, the old men, the 'archive' of a disappearing Guyana who die one by one, the sight of 'my own lines of age' and the loss of pleasure in the glittering carnival of the senses. There are rich blessings of the arrival of a new child coming unexpected at this stage of life; and the consolations from books and in the power of art to preserve - at least for a time. But the very joys are made more piquant by the inescapable sense of the transitoriness of all things.Poems of moving domestic intimacy and humour ('To alarm their father's half to death / New-born babies hold their breath'), valedictory requiems for the characters who have given Georgetown life its flavour and regret for the country's loss of civility during its darkest recent years and songs in praise of nature are all part of a vision which looks into the darkness but says, 'Yes, it is as you say, / But let us get just one thing straight: / There is beauty in the world / ... And the star-tree blossoms in the night, / Night that will have an end' and asserts, 'Between silence and silence, there should be only praise.'Ian McDonald is Trinidadian by birth and Guyanese by long residence and adoption. He is the author of the recently filmed The Hummingbird Tree, four collections of poetry and a play. He edits Kyk-over-Al.

Read more less

In The Book of Fun, Polygon co-founder Russ Frushtick divulges the hidden backstories and fascinating facts about your favorite video games, theme parks, festivals, sports, and more. With 80+ digestible, entertaining entries, it's not just fodder for your next dinner party -- you might also discover your next great pastime, be it jousting, stunt acting, cheese rolling, or Swedish Bunny Hopping.For fans of pop-history, pop-science, and the many things mankind has invented to waste time, The Book of Fun explores:* Board Games: The world's oldest tabletop games (Senet, Go, Chess) and its most enduringly popular (Monopoly, Dungeons & Dragons, Settlers of Catan)* Toys: The history of your favorite playthings, like Barbie, Beanie Babies, Slinky, Furby, and LEGO* Video Games: The console wars of the '90s, the birth of game streaming, and unexpected Pokémon Go consequences* Theme Parks: Stories behind Coney Island's Cyclone, Disneyland's opening-day woes, and the bizarre parks built in a nuclear power plant and a Soviet bunker* Sports: The most fascinating athletic endeavors across the globe, from gladiatorial battles to Lucha Libre, pumpkin boat racing, and sumo wrestling* Stunts: Harry Houdini, Evel Knievel, Jackie Chan, and the incredible stunt artists you may not know* Festivals: From Carnival celebrations around the world to the stories of Woodstock, Burning Man, and a Spanish baby-jumping festival* Dressing Up: The origins of jesters, Halloween, cosplay, drag queen style, and more.* Roadside Attractions: Wacky spectacles like the 65-foot-tall Lucy the Elephant in New Jersey, the Mystery Hole in West Virginia, and the Cabazon Dinosaurs in California

Read more less

All aboard for an exciting new Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam escapade!When Shifty and Sam are asked to bake on board the Pawrient Express, travelling to Venice for Carnival night, they find themselves caught up in a robbery. A sneaky thief has stolen the posh passengers' gems and she's making her escape in a getaway gondola! The doggy detectives are hot on her tail, but can they unmask that kitty-cat criminal and save the day?Tracey Corderoy is a multi-award-winning author and has written over 70 books for children including collaborations with Rosalind Beardshaw and Sarah Massini. Steven Lenton has created many books with Tracey Corderoy and also illustrates books by David Baddiel, Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Peter Bently. His books have won awards such as the Sainsbury's Children's Book Award and have been selected for the WHSmith Children's Book of the Year and Tom Fletcher Book Club. Read all the Shifty and Sam picture book adventures: Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Cat Burglar Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Diamond ChaseShifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Missing MasterpieceShifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: Santa's Stolen SleighShifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: Pirates Ahoy!Have you read Shifty and Sam's two-colour early readers? Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: Jingle Bells! Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: Up, Up and Away! Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Spooky School Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Aliens Are Coming!

Read more less

With its archaeological sites, colonial architecture, pristine beaches, and alluring cities, Mexico has long been an attractive destination for travelers. The tourist industry ranks third in contributions to Mexico’s gross domestic product and provides more than 5 percent of total employment nationwide. Holiday in Mexico takes a broad historical and geographical look at Mexico, covering tourist destinations from Tijuana to Acapulco and the development of tourism from the 1840s to the present day. Scholars in a variety of fields offer a complex and critical view of tourism in Mexico by examining its origins, promoters, and participants. Essays feature research on prototourist American soldiers of the mid-nineteenth century, archaeologists who excavated Teotihuacán, business owners who marketed Carnival in Veracruz during the 1920s, American tourists in Mexico City who promoted goodwill during the Second World War, American retirees who settled San Miguel de Allende, restaurateurs who created an “authentic” cuisine of Central Mexico, indigenous market vendors of Oaxaca who shaped the local tourist identity, Mayan service workers who migrated to work in Cancun hotels, and local officials who vied to develop the next “it” spot in Tijuana and Cabo San Lucas. Including insightful studies on food, labor, art, diplomacy, business, and politics, this collection illuminates the many processes and individuals that constitute the tourism industry. Holiday in Mexico shows tourism to be a complicated set of interactions and outcomes that reveal much about the nature of economic, social, cultural, and environmental change in Greater Mexico over the past two centuries.Contributors. Dina Berger, Andrea Boardman, Christina Bueno, M. Bianet Castellanos, Mary K. Coffey, Lisa Pinley Covert, Barbara Kastelein, Jeffrey Pilcher, Andrew Sackett, Alex Saragoza, Eric M. Schantz, Andrew Grant Wood

Read more less

Honorable Mention for the 2008 Robert Park Outstanding Book Award given by the ASA’s Community and Urban Sociology Section Mardi Gras, jazz, voodoo, gumbo, Bourbon Street, the French Quarter—all evoke that place that is unlike any other: New Orleans. In Authentic New Orleans, Kevin Fox Gotham explains how New Orleans became a tourist town, a spectacular locale known as much for its excesses as for its quirky Southern charm. Gotham begins in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina amid the whirlwind of speculation about the rebuilding of the city and the dread of outsiders wiping New Orleans clean of the grit that made it great. He continues with the origins of Carnival and the Mardi Gras celebration in the nineteenth century, showing how, through careful planning and promotion, the city constructed itself as a major tourist attraction. By examining various image-building campaigns and promotional strategies to disseminate a palatable image of New Orleans on a national scale Gotham ultimately establishes New Orleans as one of the originators of the mass tourism industry—which linked leisure to travel, promoted international expositions, and developed the concept of pleasure travel. Gotham shows how New Orleans was able to become one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States, especially through the transformation of Mardi Gras into a national, even international, event. All the while Gotham is concerned with showing the difference between tourism from above and tourism from below—that is, how New Orleans’ distinctiveness is both maximized, some might say exploited, to serve the global economy of tourism as well as how local groups and individuals use tourism to preserve and anchor longstanding communal traditions.

Read more less

Keep your swearing as fresh as a f*cking daisy with The Little Book of Profanities. There's nothing better than that perfect swear word. In a battle of wits, it can make all the difference. And, like all things in life, variety is the spice of swear words. Why call someone a d*ck, when a choad is so much more – satisfying. Stuffed with 100 of the obscene, offensive and outrageous swear words known to construction workers all over the world, The Little Book of Profanities encourages you to flex and stretch your foul-mouthed muscles so when that awesome opportunity to use a big, hairy curse word arises you're not hoisted by your own petard. In these uncertain and challenging times of political and social chaos, when all you want to do is shout obscenities at the world for being crap, The Little Book of Profanities is here to help you survive the day in style. Swearing – it's big, it's clever and anyone who thinks otherwise can f*ck off. 'The sort of twee person who thinks swearing is in any way a sign of a lack of education or a lack of verbal interest is just a f*cking lunatic.' Stephen Fry on the joy of swearing, as seen on theguardian.com, 20 August 2007, by Sam Wollaston. Fact: The word's etymology can be traced back to around 450AD when scite (dung), scitte (diarrhoea) and scitan (to defecate) were all thrown about. Sh*t evolved millennia later into schitte (excrement) and shiten (to defecate). Example: 'Life is a crap carnival with sh*t prizes.' - Stephen King.

Read more less

A mesmerizing novel of unfolding dystopia amid the effects of climate change in a world very like our own, for readers of Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven and Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood. In this prequel to Eric Barnes's acclaimed cli-fi novel The City Where We Once Lived, six sets of characters move through a landscape and a country just beginning to show the signs of cataclysmic change. A father and his young children fleeing a tsunami after a massive earthquake in the Gulf. A woman and her husband punishing themselves without relent for the loss of both their sons to addiction, while wildfires slowly burn closer to their family home. A brilliant investor, assessing opportunity in the risk to crops, homes, cities, industries, and infrastructure, working in the silent comfort of her office sixty floors up in the scorching air. A doctor and his wife stuck in a refugee camp for immigrants somewhere in a southern desert. Two young men working the rides for a roadside carnival, one escaping a brutal past, the other a racist present. The manager of a chain of nondescript fast-food restaurants in a city ravaged by the relentless wind.. While every night the news alternates images of tsunami destruction with the baseball scores, the characters converge on a city where the forces of change have already broken—a city half abandoned, with one part left to be scavenged as the levee system protecting it slowly fails—until, in their vehicles on the highway that runs through it, they witness the approach of what looks to be just one more violent storm.

Read more less

Honorable Mention for the 2008 Robert Park Outstanding Book Award given by the ASA’s Community and Urban Sociology Section Mardi Gras, jazz, voodoo, gumbo, Bourbon Street, the French Quarter—all evoke that place that is unlike any other: New Orleans. In Authentic New Orleans, Kevin Fox Gotham explains how New Orleans became a tourist town, a spectacular locale known as much for its excesses as for its quirky Southern charm. Gotham begins in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina amid the whirlwind of speculation about the rebuilding of the city and the dread of outsiders wiping New Orleans clean of the grit that made it great. He continues with the origins of Carnival and the Mardi Gras celebration in the nineteenth century, showing how, through careful planning and promotion, the city constructed itself as a major tourist attraction. By examining various image-building campaigns and promotional strategies to disseminate a palatable image of New Orleans on a national scale Gotham ultimately establishes New Orleans as one of the originators of the mass tourism industry—which linked leisure to travel, promoted international expositions, and developed the concept of pleasure travel. Gotham shows how New Orleans was able to become one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States, especially through the transformation of Mardi Gras into a national, even international, event. All the while Gotham is concerned with showing the difference between tourism from above and tourism from below—that is, how New Orleans’ distinctiveness is both maximized, some might say exploited, to serve the global economy of tourism as well as how local groups and individuals use tourism to preserve and anchor longstanding communal traditions.

Read more less

Raymond Ramcharitar's vision is rooted in Trinidad, but as a globalised island with permeable borders, frequent birds of passage, and outposts in New York and London. One of the collection's outstanding qualities is that it is both utterly contemporary and written with a profound and disturbed sense of the history that shapes the island. As befits fiction from the home of carnival and mas', it is a collection much concerned with the flesh - often in transgressive forms as if characters are driven to test their boundaries - and with the capacity of its characters to reinvent themselves in manifold, and sometimes outrageous disguises. One of the masks is race, and the stories are acerbically honest about the way tribal loyalties distort human relations. Its tone ranges from the lyric - Trinidad as an island of arresting beauty - to a seaminess of the most grungy kind. It has an ambition that challenges a novel such as V.S. Naipaul's The Mimic Men, but is written with the anger and the compassion of a writer for whom the island still means everything. In the novella, 'Froude's Arrow', Ramcharitar has written a profound fiction that tells us where the Caribbean currently is in juxtaposing the deep, still to be answered questions about island existence (the fragmentations wrought by history, the challenges of smallness in the global market, race and class divides) and the scrabbling for survival, fame and fortune that arouse the ire of Ramcharitar's acerbic and satirical vision.Raymond Ramcharitar was born in Trinidad. He worked as a journalist and is the author of a controversial and provocative study of the deficiencies of the Trinidadian press, Breaking the News: Media & Culture in Trinidad.

Read more less

Beautiful Devon is a photographically led book, showcasing the beauty of the county of Devon, in southwest England. It is intended as a photographic memento of life in or a visit to Devon, covering many of the most well known visitor locations, such as Torbay, Plymouth, Clovelly and the beaches, plus Dartmoor, east Devon and Exmoor. Not just locations but also annual events are included, such as some of the agricultural shows, Plymouth's annual summer fireworks, Shaldon Water Carnival, and Ottery St Mary's Tar Barrels, to name just a few. The book's first chapter is mainly text, illustrated by some photos, giving an overview of Devon's landscape, environment and wildlife, along with some of its main cities and towns, plus overviews of the farming, fishing and tourism industries. The remaining four chapters are photoessays covering different parts of the county. Chapter 2 covers Exeter and east Devon, taking in the Topsham, Lympstone, Exmouth, Budleigh Salterton, Sidmouth, Seaton, Beer and Honiton areas. Chapter 3 covers the Riviera, reaching from Torbay to Plymouth, and taking in the Dawlish, Teignmouth, Torquay, Paignton, Brixham, Dartmouth, Bantham, Salcombe and Plymouth areas. Chapter 4 covers Dartmoor and the heart of Devon, taking in many locations and views across the national park, plus landscapes, gardens and events in rural mid-Devon. Chapter 5 covers north Devon and the Devonian part of Exmoor, covering the village of Clovelly, the coast of the Hartland region, the estuary of the Taw and Torridge Rivers, the surfing beaches at Saunton Sands, Croyde Bay and Woolacombe, the town of Ilfracombe, and the landscapes and coast of Exmoor, including Lynton and Lynmouth.

Read more less

If you like Conn Iggulden, Simon Scarrow and David Gemmell, you will love this spellbinding Viking adventure, packed with battles, blood and gore, from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Lancelot, Giles Kristian."An unabashed carnival of bloodletting and betrayal...Kristian has a knack for writing real blokes living their lives, not reciting their author's research." -- DAILY TELEGRAPH"A gripping tale of action and treachery which splendidly conjures up the sounds, sights and smells of Dark Age Britain..." - HARRY SIDEBOTTOM"A powerful, lightning-paced tale of the Norsemen in England..." - BERNARD CORNWELL"I have been thoroughly overwhelmed by the sheer brilliance of Kristian's writing style, depth and colour of story, meaningful characters and clever humour. I have been most definitely impressed and have almost finished the 3rd book in the series. Time to return to the beginning and read again." -- ***** Reader review*********************************************SOME CALLED THEM WOLVES OF THE SEA. OTHERS SIMPLY CALLED THEM VIKINGS. For two years Osric has lived a simple life, though he is feared and shunned for his mysterious past and blood-red eye. When raiders from across the sea ransack his village, Osric finds himself taken prisoner by their chief, Sigurd the Lucky.Immersed in the Norsemen's world and driven by their lust for adventure, Osric proves a natural warrior and forges a deep bond with Sigurd, who renames him Raven. But the Norsemen's world is a savage one, where loyalty is often repaid in blood, and a young man must become a killer to survive...Raven: Blood Eye is the first title in the Raven trilogy. The story continues in Raven: Sons of Thunder.

Read more less

Another laugh-out-loud story from the bestselling Supertato series in a brand new cased board book format. Meet Supertato! The supermarket superhero with eyes everywhere. It’s Sports Day in the supermarket and all the veggies are in training. Everyone has been practising hard and is ready and raring to go. However, a new competitor joins the event, accompanied by The Evil Pea, and is determined to win all the prizes. Things don’t seem quite right… but will Supertato be able to foil his nemesis’ plan in time? The fabulous character from Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet, the bestselling, award-winning creators of Barry the Fish with Fingers, I Need a Wee and Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell.Perfect for fans of Oi Frog!Praise for Supertato: 'Hilarious... One of the funniest picture books this year - read it and laugh out loud!' Creative Steps Magazine 'Hendra introduces another very silly but irresistible creation in the grand tradition of Barry, Norman, Keith et al.' BooksellerPraise for Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell: 'Lovely glittery illustrations and simple text make this a must for pre-schoolers' The Daily MailPraise for No-Bot the Robot with No Bottom: 'Fabulously funny and wonderfully warm' Liverpool Echo 'Fans of Barry, Norman and Keith will absolutely adore this new wonderfully eccentric new character' MumsnetOther titles in the Supertato series:SupertatoSupertato: Veggies AssembleSupertato: Evil Pea RulesSupertato: Veggies in the Valley of DoomSupertato: Carnival CatastropeaSupertato: Books Are Rubbish (WBD)Supertato Sticker Book Supertato: Bubbly Troubly Supertato: Night of the Living Veg Supertato: The Great Eggscape! Supertato: Presents Jack and the BeanstalkSupertato: Mean Green Time Machine

Read more less

Welcome back to I Spy Island . . . the unmissable new series from multi-million copy bestsellers Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet, creators of Supertato!In the middle of the ocean, miles from anywhere, something new has just washed ashore and a brand-new adventure is about to begin . . . Join Island, Glove, Banana, Bird, Bottle and Treasure Chest on their second sunny adventure, as they spy . . . a book who’s lost its story and a shark who just might eat them because he’s . . . bored?! This terrific tale of fun, friendship and the brilliance of books and storytelling will be beloved by children and adults alike and is brought to you by the inspired minds behind such bestselling and popular characters as Supertato, Barry the Fish with Fingers, Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell and No-Bot the Robot with No Bottom.Praise for I Spy Island:‘Sunny, silly and ideal for reading aloud’Sunday Express ‘It’s a blast of sunshine in book form’The ObserverALSO BY SUE HENDRA & PAUL LINNET:I Spy Island Supertato series:SupertatoSupertato: Veggies AssembleSupertato: Run, Veggies, Run!Supertato: Evil Pea RulesSupertato: Veggies in the Valley of DoomSupertato: Carnival Catastro-PeaSupertato: Bubbly Troubly!Supertato: Night of the Living VegSupertato: The Great Eggscape! (coming March 2022)Other Supertato books:Supertato Sticker Activity BookSupertato Super Squad Supertato Sticker SkillsSelected other titles by Sue Hendra & Paul Linnet:Barry the Fish with FingersNorman the Slug with the Silly ShellDoug the Bug that went Boing!I Need a Wee!No-Bot the Robot with No BottomNo-Bot the Robot's New Bottom

Read more less

With contributions from seven of Mexico's finest journalists, this is reportage at its bravest and most necessary - it has the power to change the world's view of their country, and by the force of its truth, to start to heal the country's many sorrows.Supported the Arts Council Grant's for the Arts Programme and by PEN PromotesVeering between carnival and apocalypse, Mexico has in the last ten years become the epicentre of the international drug trade. The so-called "war on drugs" has been a brutal and chaotic failure (more than 160,000 lives have been lost). The drug cartels and the forces of law and order are often in collusion, corruption is everywhere. Life is cheap and inconvenient people - the poor, the unlucky, the honest or the inquisitive - can be "disappeared" leaving not a trace behind (in September 2015, more than 26,798 were officially registered as "not located"). Yet people in all walks of life have refused to give up. Diego Enrique Osorno and Juan Villoro tell stories of teenage prostitution and Mexico's street children. Anabel Hernández and Emiliano Ruiz Parra give chilling accounts of the "disappearance" of forty-three students and the murder of a self-educated land lawyer. Sergio González Rodríguez and Marcela Turati dissect the impact of the violence on the victims and those left behind, while Lydia Cacho contributes a journal of what it is like to live every day of your life under threat of death. Reading these accounts we begin to understand the true nature of the meltdown of democracy, obscured by lurid headlines, and the sheer physical and intellectual courage needed to oppose it.

Read more less

The follow-up to Lonely Planet Kids’ Love Around the World, this beautifully illustrated picture book looks at concepts of happiness from across our planet. From forest bathing in Japan and playing the drums in Mali, to Danish hygge, Indian yoga and sharing a feast with family in the USA, every culture has its own unique take on how to achieve contentedness. Featuring Wazza Pink's stunning artwork, this book is the ultimate guide to the world of wellbeing. Contents includes:- Sharing a Meal With Family - USA- Remembering loved ones on the Day of the Dead - MEXICO - Getting ready for Carnival - BRAZIL- Being cosy (hygge) - DENMARK- Going for an evening stroll (La passeggiata) - ITALY- Having a sauna - FINLAND- Djembe drumming - MALI- Going forest bathing - JAPAN- Singing along with the hits at a noraebang ('singing room') - SOUTH KOREA- Tidying up for New Year - CHINA- Practising yoga - INDIA- Sharing fish with the community (Inati) - TOKELAU- Telling Dreamtime stories - AUSTRALIAAbout Lonely Planet Kids: Lonely Planet Kids - an imprint of the world's leading travel authority Lonely Planet - published its first book in 2011. Over the past 45 years, Lonely Planet has grown a dedicated global community of travelers, many of whom are now sharing a passion for exploration with their children. Lonely Planet Kids educates and encourages young readers at home and in school to learn about the world with engaging books on culture, sociology, geography, nature, history, space and more. We want to inspire the next generation of global citizens and help kids and their parents to approach life in a way that makes every day an adventure. Come explore!

Read more less

When a young white child growing up in Tanzania discovers why her family’s African gardener so dislikes the chameleon she spots in a tree, she is plunged into a puzzled awareness of the complexities of race, colour and difference.As the ‘I’ of the stories grows into adulthood in Nigeria, she too becomes a chameleon of sorts, one thing when she is with her Nigerian friends, another with the white tribe when she can no longer resist the lure of the scarce luxuries to be had at the British embassy. When the ‘I’ makes the crossing from Nigeria to the Caribbean, she discovers that it is not only people who are chameleons. Osun, the Yoruba orisha has also made the journey, a little outwardly changed, but inwardly the same in Trinidadian and Cuban manifestations.In the earlier stories, the ‘I’ has a childhood innocence that, in the comment of the distinguished poet UA Fanthorpe, ‘sees all the better for not understanding’. With increasing awareness comes a sense of being an outsider in almost all situations, though in playing mas’ in the Trinidad carnival, there is a glimpse of the transcendence of belonging to the collective. Whether as the child trying to understand her parents, their Muslim servant’s sense of the sacred, or the ‘incomprehensible prohibitions’ of a colonial childhood, there is a constant tension between the sense of separateness and the desire for belonging. And though each of the stories is a first person narrative, what stands out in Bryce’s careful, elegant writing is a very concrete sense of the reality and autonomy of other voices, other views.

Read more less

"I'd say you were a carnival barker, except that wouldn't be fair tocarnival barkers. A carnie will at least tell you up front that he's running a shell game. You, Mr. Lay, were running what purported to be the seventh largest corporation in America."-Senator Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL) to Enron CEO Kenneth Lay, Senate Commerce Science & Transportation's Subcommittee, Hearing on Enron, 2/12/02 The speed of Enron's rise and fall is truly astonishing and perhaps the single most important story of corporate failure in the twenty-first century. In Enron investigative journalist Loren Fox promises readers nothing short of the most compelling and insightful investigation into Enron's meteoric ascent-regarded by Wall Street and the media as the epitome of innovation-and its spectacular fall from grace. In a lively and authoritative manner, Fox discusses how the biggest corporate bankruptcy in American business history happened, why for so long no one (except for an enlightened few) saw it coming, and what its impact will be on financial markets, the U.S. economy, U.S. energy policy, and the public for years to come. With access to many company insiders, Fox's intriguing account of this corporate debacle also provides an overview of the corporate culture and business model that led to Enron's high-flying success and disastrous failure. The story of Enron is one that will reverberate in global financial and energy markets as well as in criminal and civil courts for years to come. Rife with all the elements of a classic thriller-scandal, dishonest accounting, personal greed, questionable campaign contributions, suicide-Enron captures the essence of a company that went too far too fast.

Read more less

Who are the English? And what images spring to mind when you think of the English and England? Ask a tourist and they would probably say Big Ben, English 'bobbies', black taxi cabs and the late Queen and royal family. Ask a Scot, Welshmen or Irishman and you may get a different answer. However, ask an Englishman (or woman) and you will probably get more intimate answers... mowing the lawn, going down the pub or maybe braving the beach on a frigid summer's day. Ask Chris Steele-Perkins, an internationally acclaimed and award-winning Magnum photographer of over 50 years, and he'll have a multitude of answers all captured through his lens. In this new edition of his wonderful photobook, Chris presents a sweeping, unique record of what he thinks makes England truly English. From Sunday cricket matches to snoozes in a deckchair, intimate family portraits to carefree children at play, circus shows with performing bears to the wilder performers of a street carnival, and from Saturday night dancing to race riots. Each picture tells a story of time and place and many of the images in this collection will strike a chord or a memory in the viewer. These natural and authentic photographs are a personal selection of the best and most important of Chris' photographs that he has taken over 40 years of photographing in England. Some are drawn from books he has made on English themes, others from stories he has worked on, others from pictures of family and friends, from random events encountered. This book is an honest testament to this odd but magnificent country that is England, the England of the people.

Read more less

The first book in the bestselling SUPERTATO series by picture book superstars Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet! Over 800k copies sold to date! SUPERTATO – as seen on TV! Meet Supertato! He's always there for you when the chips are down. He's the supermarket superhero with eyes everywhere - but now there's a pea on the loose. A very, very naughty pea. Has Supertato finally met his match? The much-loved character from Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet, the bestselling, award-winning creators of Barry the Fish with Fingers, I Need a Wee and Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell.Perfect for fans of Oi Frog!Praise for Supertato: 'Hilarious... One of the funniest picture books this year - read it and laugh out loud!' Creative Steps Magazine 'Hendra introduces another very silly but irresistible creation in the grand tradition of Barry, Norman, Keith et al.' BooksellerPraise for Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell: 'Lovely glittery illustrations and simple text make this a must for pre-schoolers' The Daily MailPraise for No-Bot the Robot with No Bottom: 'Fabulously funny and wonderfully warm' Liverpool Echo 'Fans of Barry, Norman and Keith will absolutely adore this new wonderfully eccentric new character' MumsnetOther titles in the Supertato series:Supertato: Veggies Assemble Supertato: Run Veggies Run Supertato: Evil Pea Rules Supertato: Veggies in the Valley of Doom Supertato: Carnival Catastropea Supertato: Books Are Rubbish (WBD) Supertato Sticker BookSupertato: Bubbly Troubly Supertato Sticker Skills Supertato: Night of the Living Veg Supertato: The Great Eggscape! Supertato: Presents Jack and the Beanstalk Supertato: Mean Green Time Machine

Read more less

A dazzling, epic biography of Levon Helm––the beloved, legendary drummer and singer of the Band.He sang the anthems of a generation: "The Weight," "Up on Cripple Creek," and "Life Is a Carnival." Levon Helm's story––told here through sweeping research and interviews with close friends and fellow musicians––is the rollicking story of American popular music itself. In the Arkansas Delta, a young Levon witnessed "blues, country, and gospel hit in a head-on collision," as he put it. The result was rock 'n' roll. As a teenager, he joined the raucous Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, then helped merge a hard-driving electric sound with Bob Dylan's folk roots, and revolutionized American rock with the Band. Helm not only provided perfect "in the pocket" rhythm and unforgettable vocals, he was the Band's soul. Levon traces a rebellious life on the road, from being booed with Bob Dylan to the creative cauldron of Big Pink, the Woodstock Festival, world tours, The Last Waltz, and beyond with the man Dylan called "one of the last true great spirits of my or any other generation." Author Sandra B. Tooze digs deep into what Helm saw as a devastating betrayal by his closest friend, Band guitarist Robbie Robertson––and Levon's career collapse, his near bankruptcy, and the loss of his voice due to throat cancer in 1997. Yet Helm found success in an acting career that included roles in Coal Miner's Daughter and The Right Stuff. Regaining his singing voice, he made his last decade a triumph, opening his barn to the Midnight Rambles and earning three Grammys. Cancer finally claimed his life in 2012. Levon is a penetrating, skillfully told tale of a music legend from Southern cotton fields to global limelight.

Read more less

A dazzling, epic biography of Levon Helm––the beloved, legendary drummer and singer of the Band. He sang the anthems of a generation: "The Weight," "Up on Cripple Creek," and "Life Is a Carnival." Levon Helm's story––told here through sweeping research and interviews with close friends and fellow musicians––is the rollicking story of American popular music itself. In the Arkansas Delta, a young Levon witnessed "blues, country, and gospel hit in a head-on collision," as he put it. The result was rock 'n' roll. As a teenager, he joined the raucous Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, then helped merge a hard-driving electric sound with Bob Dylan's folk roots, and revolutionized American rock with the Band. Helm not only provided perfect "in the pocket" rhythm and unforgettable vocals, he was the Band's soul. Levon traces a rebellious life on the road, from being booed with Bob Dylan to the creative cauldron of Big Pink, the Woodstock Festival, world tours, The Last Waltz, and beyond with the man Dylan called "one of the last true great spirits of my or any other generation." Author Sandra B. Tooze digs deep into what Helm saw as a devastating betrayal by his closest friend, Band guitarist Robbie Robertson––and Levon's career collapse, his near bankruptcy, and the loss of his voice due to throat cancer in 1997. Yet Helm found success in an acting career that included roles in Coal Miner's Daughter and The Right Stuff. Regaining his singing voice, he made his last decade a triumph, opening his barn to the Midnight Rambles and earning three Grammys. Cancer finally claimed his life in 2012. Levon is a penetrating, skillfully told tale of a music legend from Southern cotton fields to global limelight.

Read more less

The poet and musician Anthony Joseph met and spoke to Lord Kitchener just once, in 1984, when he found the calypso icon standing alone for a moment in the heat of Port of Spain’s Queen’s Park Savannah, one Carnival Monday afternoon. It was a pivotal meeting in which the great calypsonian, outlined his musical vision, an event which forms a moving epilogue to Kitch, Joseph’s unique biography of the Grandmaster.Lord Kitchener (1922 - 2000) was one of the most iconic and prolific calypso artists of the 20th century. He was one of calypso’s most loved exponents, an always elegantly dressed troubadour with old time male charisma and the ability to tap into the musical and cultural consciousness of the Caribbean experience. Born into colonial Trinidad in 1922, he emerged in the 1950s, at the forefront of multicultural Britain, acting as an intermediary between the growing Caribbean community, the islands they had left behind, and the often hostile conditions of life in post War Britain. In the process Kitch, as he was affectionally called, single handedly popularised the calypso in Britain.Kitch represents the first biographical study of Aldwyn Roberts, according to calypso lore, christened Lord Kitchener, because of his stature and enthusiasm for the art form. Utilising an innovative, polyvocal style which combines life-writing with poetic prose, the narrative alternates between first person anecdotes by Kitchener’s fellow calypsonians, musicians, lovers and rivals, and lyrically rich fictionalised passages. By focussing equally on Kitchener’s music as on his hitherto undocumented private and political life, Joseph gets to the heart of the man behind the music and the myth, reaching behind the sobriquet, to present a holistic portrait of the calypso icon.

Read more less

'I wonder what I have to do for people to recognise me as a threat. Do I have to smash a glass over the head of every single man I come into contact with, just so I leave a mark?' Irina takes erotic photos of average-looking men. Always behind the lens, she watches, she moulds, and she stalks. These boys are putty in her hands, just the way she likes it. When the opportunity to show her photographs in a fashionable London gallery coincides with a new boy to obsess over, cracks begin to appear. How far can she push her new prey for the perfect shot, or has she already gone too far? Based on the critically acclaimed debut novel by Eliza Clark, which was a finalist for the Women's Prize Futures Award, Boy Parts is a pitch-black psychological thriller that subverts the erotic gaze and asks what happens when our need for connection gets twisted. This stage adaptation for one actor by Gillian Greer was premiered in 2023 at Soho Theatre, London, in a co-production between Metal Rabbit Productions and Soho Theatre, and directed by Sara Joyce. Praise for Eliza Clark's novel: 'Hilariously sardonic… Will make most readers howl with laughter and/or shut their eyes in horror' Guardian 'A carnival funhouse ride: terrifying, feverish, hilarious' Julia Armfield 'Boundaries are for breaking and if anyone can crash through and reinterpret the fear of our time, Eliza Clark can' Mslexia 'Hallucinogenic, electric and sharp' Jessica Andrews 'Delightfully and deviously rooted in the now with its delectable internet and culture references and evocative and real-feeling portrait of women' Dazed 'Smart, stylish, and very funny' Lara Williams 'Explores the darkest corners of artistic practice, sexuality and violence with bold wit and fearlessness. A dazzling, horrifying debut' Irish Times

Read more less

'Astonishing ... enjoy its riches slowly, and savour every generous, erudite and undogmatic page' Boyd Tonkin, Financial Times'We English men have wits,' wrote the clergyman Ralph Lever in 1573, and, 'we have also framed unto ourselves a language.'Witcraft is a fresh and brilliant history of how philosophy became established in English. It presents a new form of philosophical storytelling and challenges what Jonathan Rée calls the 'condescending smugness' of traditional histories of philosophy. Rée tells the story of philosophy as it was lived and practised, embedded in its time and place, by men and women from many walks of life, engaged with the debates and culture of their age. And, by focusing on the rich history of works in English, including translations, he shows them to be quite as colourful, diverse, inventive and cosmopolitan as their continental counterparts.Witcraft offers new and compelling intellectual portraits not only of celebrated British and American philosophers, such as Hume, Emerson, Mill and James, but also of the remarkable philosophical work of literary authors, such as William Hazlitt and George Eliot, as well as a carnival of overlooked characters - priests and poets, teachers, servants and crofters, thinking for themselves and reaching their own conclusions about religion, politics, art and everything else.The book adopts a novel structure, examining its subject at fifty-year intervals from the sixteenth century to the twentieth. Researched over decades and illuminated by quotations from extensive archival material, it is a book full of stories and personalities as well as ideas, and shows philosophy springing from the life around it. Witcraft overturns the established orthodoxies of the history of philosophy, and celebrates the diversity, vitality and inventiveness of philosophical thought.

Read more less

The Binding meets The Handmaid's Tale - Discovering a book of dark and ancient power, a convent librarian must defend it with her life. Perfect for fans of dark academia and historical feminist fiction.'A wonderfully rich and absorbing tale' Observer'Expertly crafted and beautifully told' Jennifer Saint'All so good. I read it in two days flat, and wish I had spaced it out more' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ READER REVIEWBeatrice is the convent's librarian. For years, she has shunned the company of her sisters, finding solace only with her manuscripts. Then, one carnival night, two women, bleeding and stricken, are abandoned outside the convent's walls. Moments from death, one of them presses something into Beatrice's hands: a bewitching book whose pages have a dangerous life of their own. But men of the faith want the book destroyed, and a zealous preacher has tracked it to her door. Her sisters' lives - or her obsession. Beatrice must decide.The book's voice is growing stronger.An ancient power uncoils.Will she dare to listen?More praise for THE BOOK OF EVE:'What an extraordinary book' Harriet Tyce 'A ravishing, erudite feminist hijack of Renaissance Florence' Alice Albinia'A beautifully written, utterly enthralling read' Karen Coles 'Mysterious, bewitching and beautiful' Elizabeth Lee'Brutal and haunting' Melissa Fu 'Erudite and bewitching' Costanza CasatiAnd some early reader reviews:'It is a tribute to female strength, power and resilience' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'A very interesting take on myth, mythology and the power of women when they work together for the greater good' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'The writing was excellent with a compelling storyline and well developed characters and a fantastic setting' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'An emotional journey, I absolutely loved the story and characters' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Read more less

In Negotiating Performance, major scholars and practitioners of the theatrical arts consider the diversity of Latin American and U. S. Latino performance: indigenous theater, performance art, living installations, carnival, public demonstrations, and gender acts such as transvestism. By redefining performance to include such events as Mayan and AIDS theater, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, and Argentinean drag culture, this energetic volume discusses the dynamics of Latino/a identity politics and the sometimes discordant intersection of gender, sexuality, and nationalisms.The Latin/o America examined here stretches from Patagonia to New York City, bridging the political and geographical divides between U.S. Latinos and Latin Americans. Moving from Nuyorican casitas in the South Bronx, to subversive street performances in Buenos Aires, to border art from San Diego/Tijuana, this volume negotiates the borders that bring Americans together and keep them apart, while at the same time debating the use of the contested term "Latino/a." In the emerging dialogue, contributors reenvision an inclusive "América," a Latin/o America that does not pit nationality against ethnicity—in other words, a shared space, and a home to all Latin/o Americans.Negotiating Performance opens up the field of Latin/o American theater and performance criticism by looking at performance work by Mayans, women, gays, lesbians, and other marginalized groups. In so doing, this volume will interest a wide audience of students and scholars in feminist and gender studies, theater and performance studies, and Latin American and Latino cultural studies.Contributors. Judith Bettelheim, Sue-Ellen Case, Juan Flores, Jean Franco, Donald H. Frischmann, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Jorge Huerta, Tiffany Ana López, Jacqueline Lazú, María Teresa Marrero, Cherríe Moraga, Kirsten F. Nigro, Patrick O’Connor, Jorge Salessi, Alberto Sandoval, Cynthia Steele, Diana Taylor, Juan Villegas, Marguerite Waller

Read more less

Schumann: The Faces and the Masks is a groundbreaking account of a major composer whose life and works have been the subject of intense controversy ever since his attempted suicide and early death in an insane asylum. Schumann was a key figure in the Romanticism which swept Europe and America in the 19th century, inspiring writers, musicians and painters, delighting their enthralled audiences, and reaching to the furthest corners of the world. All the contradictions of his age enter Schumann's works, from the fantastic disguises of his carnival masquerades and his passionate love songs to his great 'Spring' and 'Rhenish' Symphonies. He was intensely original and imaginative, but he also worshipped the past-especially Shakespeare and Byron, Raphael and Michelangelo, Beethoven and Bach. He believed in political, personal and artistic freedom but struggled with the constraints of artistic form. He turned his tumultuous life into music that speaks directly to the heart, losing none of its power with the passage of time. Drawing on hitherto unpublished archive material, Chernaik sheds new light on Schumann's life and music, his sexual escapades, his fathering of an illegitimate child, the true facts behind his courtship of his wife Clara and the opposition of her monstrous father, and the ways in which the crises of his life, his dreams and fantasies, entered his music. Schumann's troubled relations with his fellow-Romantic composers Mendelssohn and Chopin are freshly explored, and the full medical diary kept at Endenich Asylum, long withheld, enables Chernaik to look again at the mystery of Schumann's final illness. Using her wide experience as a scholar of Romanticism and a novelist, Chernaik vividly brings Schumann's world and his extraordinary artistic achievement to life in all its rich complexity.

Read more less

Nestled between Santa Monica and Marina del Rey, Venice is a Los Angeles community filled with apparent contradictions. There, people of various races and classes live side by side, a population of astounding diversity bound together by geographic proximity. From street to street, and from block to block, million-dollar homes stand near housing projects and homeless encampments; and upscale boutiques are just a short walk from the infamous Venice Beach, where artists and carnival performers practice their crafts opposite cafes and ragtag tourist shops. In "Venice: A Contested Bohemia in Los Angeles", Andrew Deener invites the reader on an ethnographic tour of this legendary California beach community and the people who live there. In writing this book, the ethnographer became an insider; Deener lived as a resident of Venice for close to six years. Here, he brings a scholarly eye to bear on the effects of gentrification, homelessness, segregation, and immigration on this community. Through stories from five different parts of Venice-Oakwood, Rose Avenue, the Boardwalk, the Canals, and Abbot Kinney Boulevard-Deener identifies why Venice maintained its diversity for so long and the social and political factors that now threaten it. Drenched in the details of Venice's transformation, the themes and explanations in this book will resonate far beyond this one city. Deener reveals that Venice is not a single locale, but a collection of neighborhoods, each with its own identity and conflicts-and he provides a cultural map infinitely more useful than one that merely shows streets and intersections. Deener's Venice appears on these pages fully fleshed out and populated with a stunning array of people. Though the character of any neighborhood is transient, Deener's work is indelible, and this book will be studied for years to come by scholars across the social sciences.

Read more less

'A moving and engaging addition to the family saga and drama of The Four Streets... Vibrancy and colour warm the pages' LoveReading In equal measure gritty and tender, Coming Home to the Four Streets is the latest instalment in the Four Streets saga, from Sunday Times bestseller Nadine Dorries. Trouble is coming to the four streets, especially for its redoubtable women, who've struggled through a bitter winter to put food on the table. The Dock Queen Carnival is only weeks away, but there's no money for the usual celebrations. No sign of a tramp ship with illicit cargo to be quietly siphoned off by the dockers. Peggy Nolan, with seven boys and a husband too lazy to work, has hit rock bottom and is hiding a terrible secret. Little Paddy, her mischievous eldest, is all too often in trouble, but he'd do anything for the mother he loves. How can he save her from selling herself on the streets – or worse? Maura and Tommy Doherty always looked out for any neighbour in trouble, especially Peggy, but they're far away, running a pub in Ireland and corrupt copper, Frank the Skank, is moving into their old house on the four streets. Can anything bring them home in time? Praise for Nadine Dorries: 'A moving and engaging addition to the family saga and drama of The Four Streets... Just as warm, gossipy and familiar as I remember... Vibrancy and colour warm the pages... Coming Home to the Four Streets will appeal to anyone who loves an entertaining family saga, this is a satisfying and rewarding return to the series' LoveReading 'Charming, gutsy and full of raw emotions' Rachel Bustin 'The characters are engaging, the streets scenes cinematic and the theme of the novel – abuse, both sexual and domestic – powerful' The Times 'Angela's Ashes with a scouse accent' Irish Times

Read more less

The Binding meets The Handmaid's Tale - Discovering a book of dark and ancient power, a convent librarian must defend it with her life. Perfect for fans of dark academia and historical feminist fiction.'A wonderfully rich and absorbing tale' Observer'Expertly crafted and beautifully told' Jennifer Saint'All so good. I read it in two days flat, and wish I had spaced it out more' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ READER REVIEWBeatrice is the convent's librarian. For years, she has shunned the company of her sisters, finding solace only with her manuscripts. Then, one carnival night, two women, bleeding and stricken, are abandoned outside the convent's walls. Moments from death, one of them presses something into Beatrice's hands: a bewitching book whose pages have a dangerous life of their own.But men of the faith want the book destroyed, and a zealous preacher has tracked it to her door. Her sisters' lives - or her obsession. Beatrice must decide.The book's voice is growing stronger.An ancient power uncoils.Will she dare to listen?More praise for THE BOOK OF EVE:'What an extraordinary book' Harriet Tyce 'A ravishing, erudite feminist hijack of Renaissance Florence' Alice Albinia'A beautifully written, utterly enthralling read' Karen Coles 'Mysterious, bewitching and beautiful' Elizabeth Lee'Brutal and haunting' Melissa Fu 'Erudite and bewitching' Costanza CasatiAnd some early reader reviews:'It is a tribute to female strength, power and resilience' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'A very interesting take on myth, mythology and the power of women when they work together for the greater good' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'The writing was excellent with a compelling storyline and well developed characters and a fantastic setting' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'An emotional journey, I absolutely loved the story and characters' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Read more less

In 2011 the Government of Trinidad & Tobago declared a state of emergency to counter the violent crime associated with the drugs trade. Ground Level confronts the roots of the madness and chaos seething under the surface of this "crude season of curfew from ourselves" when the state becomes a jail. For Rahim, her country is a place "blind to what is going on, hooked on carnival and hedonism/ trivia in the press", where "No-one hears the measure of shadow in any rhythm". It is a place where the air is "made less fresh each year/as forests disappear". It is a place where "poets hurt enough to die". In this dread season, Rahim finds hope and consolation in the word and in those places where it is possible to find salvation in "this landscape of ever-opening doorways", such as Grand Riviere, the subject of a long, twelve-part reflection on the values that can still be found in rural Trinidad. Elsewhere she engages in dialogue with those writers who confronted the Janus face of Caribbean creativity and nihilism: poets such as Eric Roach, Victor Questel, Walcott, Brathwaite and Martin Carter, praying of the last "let his words drop on the conscience of a nation". To the late Jamaican poet Tony McNeill she confides that "The Ungod of things has not changed". This is an ambitious collection that speaks in both a prophetic and a highly literary, intertextual voice, which combines the personal and the public in mutually enriching ways. Rahim knows that it is "craft keeps every story true", that "language playing dead only/ to ambush change." This is Jennifer Rahim's fourth collection of poetry; it shows the assurance of a poet who has constantly worked at her craft, but who also takes formal risks to capture the reality of desperate times.

Read more less

If your mentally ill patient dies, are you to blame? For Dr. Françoise Davoine, a Parisian psychoanalyst, this question becomes disturbingly real as one of her patients commits suicide on the eve of All Saints' Day. She herself has a crisis, as she reflects on her thirty-year career and questions whether she should ever return to the hospital. But return she does, and thus commences a strange voyage across several centuries and countries, in which patients, fools, and the actors of medieval farces rise up from the past along with great thinkers who represent the author's own philosophical and literary sources: the humanist Erasmus, mathematician René Thom, writer Antonin Artaud, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, and physicist Edwin Schrödinger, to name a few. Imaginary dialogues ensue as the analyst conjures up an interconnected world, where apiculture, wondrous rituals, theater, and language games illuminate her therapeutic practice as well as her personal history. Deeply affected by her voyage of discovery, the author becomes capable of implementing the teachings of psychotherapist Gaetano Benedetti, a mentor she visits at carnival time on a final fictional stopover in Switzerland. His advice, that the analyst become the equal of her patients and immerse herself in their madness so as to open up a space for treatment, is premised on the belief that individual illness is a reflection and result of severe historical trauma. Mother Folly, which ends on a positive note, is an important intervention in the debate about how to treat the mentally ill, particularly those with psychosis. A practicing analyst and a skilled reader of literary and philosophical texts, Davoine provides a humane antidote to our increasingly mechanized and drug-reliant system of dealing with "fools and madmen."

Read more less