Search results for ""author victoria"

In this well-researched book, Philip Massolin takes a fascinating look at the forces of modernization that swept through English Canada, beginning at the turn of the twentieth century. Victorian values - agrarian, religious - and the adherence to a rigid set of philosophical and moral codes were being replaced with those intrinsic to the modern age: industrial, secular, scientific, and anti-intellectual. This work analyses the development of a modern consciousness through the eyes of the most fervent critics of modernity - adherents to the moral and value systems associated with Canada's tory tradition. The work and thought of social and moral critics Harold Innis, Donald Creighton, Vincent Massey, Hilda Neatby, George P. Grant, W.L. Morton, Northrop Frye, and Marshall McLuhan are considered for their views of modernization and for their strong opinions on the nature and implications of the modern age. These scholars shared concerns over the dire effects of modernity and the need to attune Canadians to the realities of the modern age. Whereas most Canadians were oblivious to the effects of modernization, these critics perceived something ominous: far from being a sign of true progress, modernization was a blight on cultural development. In spite of the efforts of these critics, Canada emerged as a fully modern nation by the 1970s. Because of the triumph of modernity, the toryism that the critics advocated ceased to be a defining feature of the nation's life. Modernization, in short, contributed to the passing of an intellectual tradition centuries in the making and rapidly led to the ideological underpinnings of today's modern Canada.

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Nellie Dowell was a match factory girl in Victorian London who spent her early years consigned to orphanages and hospitals. Muriel Lester, the daughter of a wealthy shipbuilder, longed to be free of the burden of money and possessions. Together, these unlikely soulmates sought to remake the world according to their own utopian vision of Christ's teachings. The Match Girl and the Heiress paints an unforgettable portrait of their late-nineteenth-century girlhoods of wealth and want, and their daring twentieth-century experiments in ethical living in a world torn apart by war, imperialism, and industrial capitalism. In this captivating book, Seth Koven chronicles how each traveled the globe--Nellie as a spinster proletarian laborer, Muriel as a well-heeled tourist and revered Christian peacemaker, anticolonial activist, and humanitarian. Koven vividly describes how their lives crossed in the slums of East London, where they inaugurated a grassroots revolution that took the Sermon on the Mount as a guide to achieving economic and social justice for the dispossessed. Koven shows how they devoted themselves to Kingsley Hall--Gandhi's London home in 1931 and Britain's first "people's house" founded on the Christian principles of social sharing, pacifism, and reconciliation--and sheds light on the intimacies and inequalities of their loving yet complicated relationship. The Match Girl and the Heiress probes the inner lives of these two extraordinary women against the panoramic backdrop of shop-floor labor politics, global capitalism, counterculture spirituality, and pacifist feminism to expose the wounds of poverty and neglect that Christian love could never heal.

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Edward Elgar (1857-1934) is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating, important, and influential figures in the history of British music. He rose from humble beginnings and achieved fame with music that to this day is beloved by audiences in England, and his work has secured an enduring legacy worldwide. Leading scholars examine the composer's life in Edward Elgar and His World, presenting a comprehensive portrait of both the man and the age in which he lived. Elgar's achievement is remarkably varied and wide-ranging, from immensely popular works like the famous Pomp and Circumstance March no. 1--a standard feature of American graduations--to sweeping masterpieces like his great oratorio The Dream of Gerontius. The contributors explore Elgar's Catholicism, which put him at odds with the prejudices of Protestant Britain; his glorification of British colonialism; his populist tendencies; his inner life as an inspired autodidact; the aristocratic London drawing rooms where his reputation was made; the class prejudice with which he contended throughout his career; and his anguished reaction to World War I. Published in conjunction with the 2007 Bard Music Festival and the 150th anniversary of Elgar's birth, this elegant and thought-provoking volume illuminates the greatness of this accomplished English composer and brings vividly to life the rich panorama of Victorian and Edwardian Britain. The contributors are Byron Adams, Leon Botstein, Rachel Cowgill, Sophie Fuller, Daniel M. Grimley, Nalini Ghuman Gwynne, Deborah Heckert, Charles Edward McGuire, Matthew Riley, Alison I. Shiel, and Aidan J. Thomson.

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"I do not say you are it, but you look it, and you pose at it, which is just as bad," Lord Queensbury challenged Oscar Wilde in the courtroom which erupted in laughter accusing Wilde of posing as a sodomite. What was so terrible about posing as a sodomite, and why was Queensbury's horror greeted with such amusement? In Oscar Wilde Prefigured, Dominic Janes suggests that what divided the two sides in this case was not so much the question of whether Wilde was or was not a sodomite, but whether or not it mattered that people could appear to be sodomites. For many, intimations of sodomy were simply a part of the amusing spectacle of sophisticated life.Oscar Wilde Prefigured is a study of the prehistory of this "queer moment" in 1895. Janes explores the complex ways in which men who desired sex with men in Britain had expressed such interests through clothing, style, and deportment since the mid-eighteenth century. He supplements the well-established narrative of the inscription of sodomitical acts into a homosexual label and identity at the end of the nineteenth century by teasing out the means by which same-sex desires could be signaled through visual display in Georgian and Victorian Britain. Wilde, it turns out, is not the starting point for public queer figuration. He is the pivot by which Georgian figures and twentieth-century camp stereotypes meet. Drawing on the mutually reinforcing phenomena of dandyism and caricature of alleged effeminates, Janes examines a wide range of images drawn from theater, fashion, and the popular press to reveal new dimensions of identity politics, gender performance, and queer culture.

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Through the impact of shops like Habitat and IKEA, and of the countless glossy magazines, books and catalogues that focus on the concept of 'interior design', we have all become familiar with the idea of our homes and public interiors containing items of modern furniture and decor. Yet design historian and critic Penny Sparke shows that, unlike designed buildings and artefacts, the fixed idea of the 'modern interior' has only ever been an abstract and idealized concept, promoted through exhibitions, retail contexts and the mass media, and that it rarely exists in an absolute form. "The Modern Interior" provides a persuasive account of the forces, conflicts and debates that have underpinned the emergence of something we now effortlessly refer to as the 'modern interior'. Offering fascinating and eloquent insights into the work of international designers including C.R. Mackintosh, Adolf Loos, Josef Frank, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marcel Breuer, Lilly Reich, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Philippe Starck, and Charles and Ray Eames, Sparke focuses on the realities as well as concepts of the modern interior, whether in the hands of professional decorators and designers, or in those of its amateur inhabitants. By doing so, she deftly unravels the shift from Victorian to modern style, and demonstrates that the easy transition to the modern interior so frequently portrayed is little more than a mythology. "The Modern Interior" is essential reading for all students of modern design, architecture and culture, as well as anyone interested in why the interior spaces we inhabit look the way they do.

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In Spinning Tea Cups: A Mythical American Memoir, Alexandra Teague explores cycles of family trauma and both the dangerous and recuperative powers of fantasy. Teague attempts to understand and contextualize her “feral Victorian” family in terms of trauma and mental health, but also with deep love and humor. How did people who prided themselves on making everything from scratch take annual trips to Disney World? What did it mean that Teague’s mother claimed to have psychic abilities? How did her sensitive youngest nephew end up talking in a voice that wasn’t his own? Why did Teague, the daughter of educated non-conformist parents, marry as a teenager (with her parents’ blessing) and spend seven years in an abusive relationship? How do family legacies of grief and dysfunction and creativity intersect? How do any of us make meaning or escape our circumstances without replicating the fantasies or escapism with which we’ve been raised? Teague is carefully attuned to the vagaries of geographical cultures, and she weaves her family’s history and weighty explorations of trauma and psychology not just with pop culture but with the specific cultures of the places she and her family pass through: the Bay Area, a tiny college town in the Inland Northwest, a Southwest ghost town, a Texas city, an Arkansas hippie bubble, and Central Florida suburb. Spinning Tea Cups will appeal to readers interested in American cultural studies, those concerned with the ongoing crisis of mental illness in this country, and those who simply love strange, quirky, richly told stories.

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***Pre-order Hannah Dolby's next Historical rom-com, How to Solve Murders Like a Lady, now! Perfect for fans of cosy mysteries and female detectives*** *** Violet Hamilton is a woman who knows her own mind. Which, in Victorian Hastings, can make things a little complicated... At 28, Violet's father is beginning to worry she will never find a husband. But every suitor he presents, Violet finds a new and inventive means of rebuffing. Because Violet does not want to marry. She wants to work, and make her own way in the world. But more than anything, she wants to find her mother Lily, who disappeared from Hastings Pier 10 years earlier. Finding the missing is no job for a lady, but when Violet hires a seaside detective to help, she sets off a chain of events that will put more than just her reputation at risk. Can Violet solve the mystery of Lily Hamilton's vanishing before it's too late? A delightfully joyful, funny and gripping historical novel, perfect for fans of The Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting and The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels. *** 'Glorious... it's funny from the start.' – The Daily Mail 'Delightfully quirky, joyful and original... it will help you bounce exuberantly into spring' – Adele Parks 'If you loved Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, you'll love to snuggle up with this novel!' – Chat *** A delightfully joyful, funny and gripping historical novel, perfect for fans of The Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting and The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels.

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When Joanna Wolfarth was pregnant with her first child, she assumed she would breastfeed, as her mother had fed her. Yet she was unprepared for the startling realities of new motherhood. Then, just four weeks after the birth, she found herself back in hospital with an underweight baby, bewildered by inconsistent advice and overcome with feelings of guilt and isolation.Months later, her cultural historian's impulse led her to look to the past for guidance. What she discovered, neglected in the archives, amazed and reassured her. By piecing together cultural debris - from fragments of ancient baby bottles to eighteenth-century breast pumps, from the Palaeolithic Woman of Willendorf figurine to the poignantly inventive work of Louise Bourgeois and from mythical accounts of the creation of the Milky Way to advice found in Victorian medical manuals - Joanna began to understand how feeding our babies can be culturally, economically and physiologically determined as well as deeply personal and emotive.Using the arc of her own experience, Joanna takes us on an intimate journey of discovery beyond mother and baby, asking how the world views caregivers, their bodies, their labour and their communal bonds. By bringing together art, social histories, philosophy, folk wisdom and contemporary interviews with women from across the world, Milk reveals how infant feeding has been represented and repressed, celebrated and censured. In doing so, Joanna charts previously unexplored territory and offers comfort and solace to anyone who has fed or will feed a child.

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR.SUNDAY TIMES SPORT BOOK OF THE YEAR. From its late-Victorian flowering in the mill towns of the northwest of England, football spread around the world with great speed. It was helped on its way by a series of missionaries who showed the rest of the planet the simple joys of the game. Even now, in many countries, the colloquial word for a football manager is not 'coach' or 'boss' but 'mister', as that is how the early teachers were known, because they had come from the home of the sport to help it develop in new territories. In Rory Smith's stunning new book Mister, he looks at the stories of these pioneers of the game, men who left this country to take football across the globe. Sometimes, they had been spurned in their own land, as coaching was often frowned upon in England in those days, when players were starved of the ball during the week to make them hungry for it on matchday. So it was that the inspirations behind the 'Mighty Magyars' of the 1950s, the Dutch of the 1970s or top clubs such as Barcelona came from these shores. England, without realising it, fired the very revolution that would remove its crown, changing football's history, thanks to a handful of men who sowed the seeds of the inversion of football's natural order. This is the story of the men who taught the world to play and shaped its destiny. This is the story of the Misters.

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'Invigorating ... engaging ... thrilling' Samantha Ellis, GUARDIAN'An astonishing tour-de-force . . . Juliet has found the biographer she deserves' Marion TurnerA cultural, historical, and literary exploration of the birth, death, and legacy of the ultimate romantic heroine - Shakespeare's Juliet CapuletJuliet Capulet is the heartbeat of the world's most famous love story. She is an enduring romantic icon. And she is a captivating, brilliant, passionate teenage girl who is read and interpreted afresh by each new generation.Searching for Juliet takes us from the Renaissance origin stories behind William Shakespeare's child bride to the boy actor who inspired her creation onstage. From enslaved people in the Caribbean to Italian fascists in Verona, and real-life lovers in Afghanistan. From the Victorian stage to 1960s cinema, Baz Luhrmann, and beyond.Sophie Duncan draws on rich cultural and historical sources and new research to explore the legacy and reach of Romeo and Juliet far beyond the literary sphere. With warmth, wit, and insight, she shows us why Juliet is for now, for ever, for everyone.'Deeply researched and wryly written, Searching for Juliet makes us think again about a character and a story we thought we knew' Robert Douglas-Fairhurst'Original, stylish, and compelling . . . It's a marvellous book, and one that delivers a powerfully inspiring message to the young Juliets of our own troubled times' Miranda Seymour'A powerful, witty, and provocative exploration of sex and gender, youth and age, love and death' Anna Beer

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Michelle Gomez, who last played the Doctor’s best friend and wicked enemy, Missy, in the Doctor Who television series in 2017, returns to her role in some brand new audio adventures from Big Finish Productions made in arrangements with BBC studios. 1.1 Spoonful of Mayhem by Roy Gill. In a spot of bother in Victorian London, Missy is forced to take on governess duties but she has another scheme in mind, and her charges are simply in the way. She’s going to have to teach the children some rather harsh lessons about getting what you want. And there will be tears before bedtime. 1.2 Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated by John Dorney. Missy arrives in Tudor England, throwing the plans of another renegade Time Lord into chaos.King Henry VIII is on the throne, and aliens are stomping through the countryside. Missy just wants to be Queen. And the Monk? Once he knows who else is on the scene, he’ll be glad just to stay alive. 1.3 The Broken Clock by Nev Fountain. Tonight, on Dick Zodiac’s America’s Most Impossible Killers, Detective Joe Lynwood hunts the most impossible killer of his career. There’s a trail of bodies. Impossible bodies. And Joe has one long night to solve the case. Luckily, D.I. Missy Masters from Scotland Yard in England, London, England is here to help. 1.4 The Belly of the Beast by Jonathan Morris. Missy’s scheme nears completion. All she must do is subjugate one little planet and bend the inhabitants to her will. Not too much to ask. But slaves will keep rebelling. It’s almost as if they don’t want to unearth an ancient artefact to fulfil Missy’s plans for universal domination.She’ll have to do something about that. CAST: Michelle Gomez (Missy/Matis), Rufus Hound (The Monk), Oliver Clement (Oliver Davis), Bonnie Kingston (Lucy Davis), Simon Slater (Montague Davis / Moses Walker / Coachman), Dan Starkey (Mr. Cosmo / Park Keeper / Old Man / Sphinx), Beth Chalmers (Djinn / Housemaid), Maggie Service (Catherine Parr), Leighton Pugh (Sir Foxcroft / Gramoryan 1 / Priest), Graham Seed (Gramoryan 2 / Taverner / Squire), Kenneth Jay (Dick Zodiac), Guy Paul (Joe Lynwood), Ryan Forde Iosco (The Actor Playing Joe Lynwood), Daniel Goode (Mark /Roy), Rachel Verkuil (Frankie and The Actress Playing Missy), Abbie Andrew (Aleyna), John Scougall (Cort / Guards), Lucy Goldie (Sath / Mother), Jason Nwoga(Doctor Goodnight), Jamie Laird (Mister Bryce / Father). Other parts played by members of the cast.

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Mrs Warren's Profession, Candida, and You Never Can Tell are plays which give a clear sense of the range of Shaw's first forays into playwriting. Together they showcase his early negotiations between his political and social concerns and the constraints and possibilities of the British stage at the fin de siècle. These plays are bound together by shared concerns with gender roles, sexuality, concepts of familial and social duty, and how all these are shaped by wider financial, political, literary, philosophical and theatrical influences. Mrs Warren's Profession is the best known of Shaw's 'Plays Unpleasant', his first exercises in using the theatre as a means to awaken the consciences of morally complacent audiences. Written in 1893 in angry response to the success of A. W. Pinero's sensational hit The Second Mrs Tanqueray and a revival of Dumas's La dame aux camélias, Mrs Warren's Profession did not receive a public performance in Britain until 1925. Shaw's provocative response to the sentimental 'fallen woman' plays that dominated the fin-de-siècle stage was a play in which prostitution was presented not as a question of female sexual morality, but as a direct result of the systematic economic exploitation of women. Candida (1894), by contrast, was categorised by Shaw as one of his 'Plays Pleasant', but the label was characteristically deceptive. The play appeared at first sight to offer audiences a reassuringly familiar drama of a marriage threatened by an interloper but ultimately reaffirmed when the wife recognises her true place and her dangerous admirer is sent out into the cold. But, as critics have noted, the play was a re-working by Shaw of Ibsen's A Doll's House in which the husband played the part of the over-protected doll, unaware of the real power dynamics of his marriage. You Never Can Tell (1897) was Shaw's seaside comedy of manners, complete with an all-knowing waiter, exuberant twins, a lovelorn dentist, a long-lost father, lashings of food, and a comic catchphrase to provide the title. Shaw took all these familiar elements of Victorian farce and reworked them into a modern play of ideas, in which etiquette and ideologies collide. Just as in Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (a comparison which Shaw always stubbornly rejected), questions of class, marriage, manners, money, sex and identity underpin the plot of love-at-first-sight, mislaid parents and reunited families.

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How has Paris, the world's fashion capital, influenced Milan, New York, and Tokyo? When did the Marlboro Man become a symbol of American masculinity? Why do Americans love to dress down in high-tech Lycra fabrics, while they wax nostalgic for quaint, old-fashioned Victorian cottages? Fashion icons and failures have long captivated the general public, but few scholars have examined the historical role of business and commerce in creating the international market for style goods. Producing Fashion is a groundbreaking collection of original essays that shows how economic institutions in Europe and North America laid the foundation for the global fashion system and sustained it commercially through the mechanisms of advertising, licensing, marketing, publishing, and retailing. The collection reveals how public and private institutions—from government censors in imperial Russia to large corporations in the United States—worked to shape fashion, style, and taste with varying degrees of success. Fourteen contributors draw on original research and fresh insight into the producers of fashion—advertising agents, architects, corporate executives, department stores, designers, editors, government officials, hairdressers, haute couturiers, and Web retailers—in their bid for influence, acclaim, and shoppers' dollars. Producing Fashion looks to the past, revealing the rationale behind style choices, while explaining how the interplay of custom, invented traditions, and sales imperatives continue to drive innovation in the fashion industries.

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A Washington Post Book of the YearWinner of the Merle Curti AwardWinner of the Jacques Barzun PrizeWinner of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award“A masterful study of privacy.”—Sue Halpern, New York Review of Books“Masterful (and timely)…[A] marathon trek from Victorian propriety to social media exhibitionism…Utterly original.”—Washington PostEvery day, we make decisions about what to share and when, how much to expose and to whom. Securing the boundary between one’s private affairs and public identity has become an urgent task of modern life. How did privacy come to loom so large in public consciousness? Sarah Igo tracks the quest for privacy from the invention of the telegraph onward, revealing enduring debates over how Americans would—and should—be known. The Known Citizen is a penetrating historical investigation with powerful lessons for our own times, when corporations, government agencies, and data miners are tracking our every move.“A mighty effort to tell the story of modern America as a story of anxieties about privacy…Shows us that although we may feel that the threat to privacy today is unprecedented, every generation has felt that way since the introduction of the postcard.”—Louis Menand, New Yorker“Engaging and wide-ranging…Igo’s analysis of state surveillance from the New Deal through Watergate is remarkably thorough and insightful.”—The Nation

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Recent scholarship has revealed that pioneering Victorian scientists endeavored through voluminous writing to raise public interest in science and its implications. But it has generally been assumed that once science became a profession around the turn of the twentieth century, this new generation of scientists turned its collective back on public outreach. "Science for All" debunks this apocryphal notion. Peter J. Bowler surveys the books, serial works, magazines, and newspapers published between 1900 and the outbreak of World War II to show that practicing scientists were very active in writing about their work for a general readership. "Science for All" argues that the social environment of early twentieth-century Britain created a substantial market for science books and magazines aimed at those who had benefited from better secondary education but could not access higher learning. Scientists found it easy and profitable to write for this audience, Bowler reveals, and because their work was seen as educational, they faced no hostility from their peers. But when admission to colleges and universities became more accessible in the 1960s, this market diminished and professional scientists began to lose interest in writing at the nonspecialist level. Eagerly anticipated by scholars of scientific engagement throughout the ages, "Science for All" speaks to our own era and the continuing tension between science and public understanding.

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'A hugely entertaining Victorian mystery' New York Times 'I enjoyed this - properly creepy and Gothic' Ian Rankin_______________A CASE FOR FREY & McGRAY The Scottish Highlands, 1889. When a young heir receives a sinister death threat, Inspectors Frey and 'Nine-Nails' McGray answer a desperate plea to offer him protection. The detectives travel north to the remote and misty Loch Maree, site of an ancient burial ground. They must stay with the mysterious Koloman family - any one of whom might be a suspect. But Frey and McGray have little time to get their bearings. Even before they arrive the boy's guardian is brutally murdered, and one thing becomes clear to the two detectives: Someone is willing to kill to protect the secrets of Loch Maree._______________Praise for the Frey & McGray series: 'This is wonderful. A brilliant, moving, clever, lyrical book - I loved it. Oscar de Muriel is going to be a name to watch' Manda Scott 'Fun to read and a fast page-turner. Love and murder - they go together like strawberries and cream' Independent 'A brilliant mix of horror, history, and humour. Genuinely riveting with plenty of twists, this will keep you turning the pages. It's clever, occasionally frightening and superbly written ... Everything you need in a mystery thriller' Crime Review 'Fast-paced, well-researched and thoroughly spellbinding. The mismatched pair is as entertaining as Holmes and Watson at their best' Historical Novel Society

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Lost Detroit is the latest in the series from Anova Books that traces the cherished places in a city that time, progress and fashion have swept aside before concerned citizens or the National Register of Historic Places could save them from the wrecker's ball. Organised chronologically, starting with the earliest losses and ending with the latest, the book features much-loved Detroit insitutions that failed to stand the test of time. Long before there was a motor industry, the city lost the Central Market (1889), the Belle Isle swimming pool and the Capitol Building (1893). Grand buildings erected in the Victorian era that were too costly to be refurbished, or movie theaters that the age of television made redundant are featured. Alongside the city's iconic and much-missed buildings, Lost Detroit also looks at the industries that have declined or left town. Sites include: Detroit Boat Club, Belle Isle Casino, Pontchartrain Hotel, Hotel Cadillac, Electric Park, Detroit House of Corrections, Federal Building, Temple Theatre, the Tashmoo, Hammond Building, Packard Car Company, Detroit Museum of Art, Waterworks Park, City Hall, Hudson Motor Co, Ford Rotunda, the Opera House, Kerns department store, Union Station, Grace Hospital, Dodge factory, Convention Hall, Olympia Stadium, Michigan Central Railroad, the Tuller Hotel and many more.

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Ireland holds a special place in people’s hearts – even for many who haven’t been there. To some the appeal is its natural beauty, to others it’s the history; to some it’s the country’s strong folk tradition, to others it even seems to be a mystical place. Ireland presents more than 200 outstanding photographs celebrating the island’s most evocative and beautiful places, whether in nature or man-made, from the miles of near empty beaches to the Mourne Mountains in County Down, from the pretty fishing towns of County Cork to Dublin’s elegant Georgian streets. Featuring images from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the book ranges widely across landscapes and history, from rugged cliffs and rolling hills to mysterious stone circles, magnificent cathedrals and ruined abbeys; and from medieval forts and castles to grand Victorian follies and villages abandoned during the Potato Famine. While some images such as the striking basalt columns of the Giant’s Causeway may be familiar, others you may know only from Game of Thrones and the Star Wars films but never realized that they, too, are in Ireland. Presented in a handy pocket-sized landscape format and with captions explaining the story behind each entry, Ireland is a stunning collection of images celebrating the island’s natural beauty, culture and history.

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Until the nineteenth century all time was local time. On foot or on horseback, it was impossible to travel fast enough to care that noon was a few minutes earlier or later from one town to the next. The invention of railways and telegraphs, however, created a newly interconnected world where suddenly the time differences between cities mattered.The Clocks Are Telling Lies is an exploration of why we tell time the way we do, demonstrating that organizing a new global time system was no simple task. Standard time, envisioned by railway engineers such as Sandford Fleming, clashed with universal time, promoted by astronomers. When both sides met in 1884 at the International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC, to debate the best way to organize time, disagreement abounded. If scientific and engineering experts could not agree, how would the public? Following some of the key players in the debate, Scott Johnston reveals how people dealt with the contradictions in global timekeeping in surprising ways – from zealots like Charles Piazzi Smyth, who campaigned for the Great Pyramid to serve as the prime meridian, to Maria Belville, who sold the time door to door in Victorian London, to Moraviantown and other Indigenous communities that used timekeeping to fight for autonomy.Drawing from a wide range of primary sources, The Clocks Are Telling Lies offers a thought-provoking narrative that centres people and politics, rather than technology, in the vibrant story of global time telling.

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This book examines how Wilkie Collins's interest in medical matters developed in his writing through explorations of his revisions of the late eighteenth century Gothic novel, from his first sensation novels to his last novels of the 1880s. Throughout his career, Collins made changes in the prototypical Gothic scenario. The aristocratic villains, victimized maidens and medieval castles of classic Gothic tales were reworked and adapted to thrill his Victorian readership. With the advances of neuroscience and the development of criminology as a significant backdrop to most of his novels, Collins drew upon contemporary anxieties and used the medical more and more to propel his criminal plots. While the archetypal castles were turned into modern medical institutions, his heroines no longer feared ghosts but the scientist's knife. This study underlines the way in which Collins's Gothic adaptations increasingly tackled medical questions, using the medical terrain to capitalize on the readers' fears. It demonstrates how Wilkie Collins's fiction revised Gothic themes and presented them through the prism of contemporary scientific, medical and psychological discourses, from debates revolving around mental physiology to those dealing with heredity and transmission. The book's structure is chronological, covering a selection of texts in each chapter; with a balance between discussion of the more canonical of Collins's texts, such as The Woman in White, The Moonstone and Armadale, and some of his more neglected writings.

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WINNER- Indie Book Awards 2015 (Best Debut Fiction Book)WINNER- The ABIA Award (Literary Fiction Book of the Year) 2015WINNER- Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists of 2015WINNER- Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award 2013'Foreign Soil will stay with you with the force of elemental truth. Clarke is the real deal' Dave EggersIn this collection of award-winning stories, Melbourne writer Maxine Beneba Clarke has given a voice to the disenfranchised, the lost, the downtrodden and the mistreated. It will challenge you, it will have you by the heartstrings. This is contemporary fiction at its finest.In Melbourne's western suburbs, in a dilapidated block of flats overhanging the rattling Footscray train lines, a young black mother is working on a collection of stories.The book is called Foreign Soil. Inside its covers, a desperate asylum seeker is pacing the hallways of Sydney's notorious Villawood detention centre, a seven-year-old Sudanese boy has found solace in a patchwork bike, an enraged black militant is on the warpath through the rebel squats of 1960s Brixton, a Mississippi housewife decides to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her son from small-town ignorance, a young woman leaves rural Jamaica in search of her destiny, and a Sydney schoolgirl loses her way.The young mother keeps writing, the rejection letters keep arriving . . .'A woven tapestry of the shared experience of living in a country that is not your own' Stylist

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'A hugely entertaining Victorian mystery' New York Times'I enjoyed this - properly creepy and Gothic' Ian RankinA spellbinding concoction of crime, history and horror - perfect for fans of Sherlock Holmes and Jonathan Creek_______Edinburgh, 1888. A violinist is murdered in his home.The dead virtuoso's maid swears she heard three musicians playing in the night. But with only one body in the locked practice room - and no way in or out - the case makes no sense.Fearing a national panic over another Ripper, Scotland Yard sends Inspector Ian Frey to investigate under the cover of a fake department specializing in the occult.However, Frey's new boss, Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray, actually believes in such supernatural nonsense.McGray's tragic past has driven him to superstition, but even Frey must admit that this case seems beyond reason.And once someone loses all reason, who knows what they will lose next . . ._______'This is wonderful. A brilliant, moving, clever, lyrical book - I loved it' Manda Scott'A great cop double-act . . . It's the pairing of the upright Frey and the unorthodox McGray that notches up the stars for this book' Sunday Sport'A brilliant mix of horror, history, and humour. Genuinely riveting . . . with plenty of twists, this will keep you turning the pages. It's clever, occasionally frightening and superbly written - The Strings Of Murder is everything you need in a mystery thriller' Crime Review

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Gross explores our complex fascination with uncanny children in works of fiction. Ranging from Victorian to modern works—Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio, Henry James’s What Maisie Knew, J. M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy, Franz Kafka’s “The Cares of a Family Man,” Richard Hughes’s A High Wind in Jamaica, Elizabeth Bowen’s The Death of the Heart, and Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita—Kenneth Gross’s book delves into stories that center around the figure of a strange and dangerous child. Whether written for adults or child readers, or both at once, these stories all show us odd, even frightening visions of innocence. We see these children’s uncanny powers of speech, knowledge, and play, as well as their nonsense and violence. And, in the tales, these child-lives keep changing shape. These are children who are often endangered as much as dangerous, haunted as well as haunting. They speak for lost and unknown childhoods. In looking at these narratives, Gross traces the reader’s thrill of companionship with these unpredictable, often solitary creatures—children curious about the adult world, who while not accommodating its rules, fall into ever more troubling conversations with adult fears and desires. This book asks how such imaginary children, objects of wonder, challenge our ways of seeing the world, our measures of innocence and experience, and our understanding of time and memory.

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A FLAME TREE NOTEBOOK. Beautiful and luxurious the journals combine high-quality production with magnificent art. Perfect as a gift, and an essential personal choice for writers, notetakers, travellers, students, poets and diarists. Features a wide range of well-known and modern artists, with new artworks published throughout the year.BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED. The highly crafted covers are printed on foil paper, embossed then foil stamped, complemented by the luxury binding and rose red end-papers. The covers are created by our artists and designers who spend many hours transforming original artwork into gorgeous 3d masterpieces that feel good in the hand, and look wonderful on a desk or table.PRACTICAL, EASY TO USE. Flame Tree Notebooks come with practical features too: a pocket at the back for scraps and receipts; two ribbon markers to help keep track of more than just a to-do list; robust ivory text paper, printed with lines; and when you need to collect other notes or scraps of paper the magnetic side flap keeps everything neat and tidy.THE ARTIST. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has a gallery dedicated to the paintings of the remarkable Victorian artist Marianne North, who had a great eye for botanical detail. THE FINAL WORD. As William Morris said, "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

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A landmark illustrated history of rural church monuments - the forgotten national treasures of England and WalesDeep in the countryside, away from metropolitan abbeys and cathedrals, thousands of funerary monuments are hidden in parish churches. These artworks - medieval brasses and elegant marble effigies, stone tomb chests and grand mausoleums - are of great historical and cultural significance, but have, due to their relative inaccessibility, faded from accounts of our art history.Over twenty-five years, C. B. Newham FSA has visited and photographed more than eight thousand rural churches, cataloguing the monumental sculptures encountered on his quest. In Country Church Monuments, he presents 365 of the very best, each accompanied by detailed photographs, biographies of both the deceased and their sculptors and a wealth of contextual material. Many of these works commemorate famous historical figures, from scheming Tudor courtier Richard Rich to Victorian prime minister William Ewart Gladstone. But more moving are the countless others - minor aristocrats, small-time industrialists, much-loved mothers, fathers and children - who, if not for their memorials, would wholly be lost to time.As Newham blows the dust off these artworks and breathes life into the stories they tell, a new aesthetic history of rural England and Wales emerges. Country Church Monuments is a poignant record of the art we make at the borders of life and death, of our ceaseless human striving for eternity.

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Between the years 1850 and 1950, Americans became the leading energy consumers on the planet, expending tremendous physical resources on energy exploration, mental resources on energy exploitation, and monetary resources on energy acquisition. A unique combination of pseudoscientific theories of health and the public’s rudimentary understanding of energy created an age in which sources of industrial power seemed capable of curing the physical limitations and ill health that plagued Victorian bodies. Licensed and “quack” physicians alike promoted machines, electricity, and radium as invigorating cures, veritable “fountains of youth” that would infuse the body with energy and push out disease and death. The Body Electric is the first book to place changing ideas about fitness and gender in dialogue with the popular culture of technology. Whether through wearing electric belts, drinking radium water, or lifting mechanized weights, many Americans came to believe that by embracing the nation's rapid march to industrialization, electrification, and “radiomania,” their bodies would emerge fully powered. Only by uncovering this belief’s passions and products, Thomas de la Peña argues, can we fully understand our culture’s twentieth-century energy enthusiasm.

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Could she be everything you aren't, but somehow—still be you? It’s the year 2015 and Sonnet McKay is the daughter of a globe-trotting diplomat, home for the summer from her exotic life. Everything would be perfect if not for her stunning sister, whose bright star has left her in the shadows. In 1895, Emma Sweetwine is trapped in a Victorian mansion, dreaming of wings to fly her far from her mother, who gives her love to her sons, leaving nothing for her daughter. Fate puts them in the same house at the same moment, 120 years apart, and the identical fifteen-year-olds are switched in time. In their new worlds, Sonnet falls in love with a boy, Emma falls in love with a life, and astonishing family secrets are revealed. Torn, both girls want to still go home— but can either one give up what they now have? But Not Forever is an enchanting story of love and longing, and the heart's ultimate quest to find where it belongs.

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Six funny and perceptive monologues about the stresses of modern female life. Meryl Davenport – A mother who tells the story of her non-stop day in a rapid-fire internal monologue. Tiggy Entwhistle – A cactus lover bravely attempting to rise above her relationship crisis. Mary O'Donnell – A feisty teenage schoolgirl competing in a talent quest. Theresa McTerry – An increasingly disillusioned bride on her wedding day. Winsome Webster – A widow with an appetite for the unexpected. Zoe Struthers – An American cabaret singer who's had her fair share of personal problems. Joanna Murray-Smith's play Bombshells was first performed by Caroline O'Connor at the Fairfax Theatre, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne, Australia, in December 2001. It was revived at the same venue in 2004, transferring to the York Theatre in Sydney in April 2004. A reduced version consisting of four monologues was performed by Caroline O'Connor as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, in 2004. This production – now consisting of all six monologues – transferred to the Arts Theatre in the West End in September 2004.

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Explore 31 of Connecticut's most haunted sites along with a clairvoyant with first hand knowledge of the spirits of whom she speaks! On this spectral tour encounter ghosts in famous homes, including the residences of Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The lively spirits in Hartford, Fairfield, Litchfield County, Middlesex, New Haven, New London, Tolland, and Windham County are all revealed. Meet the ghost of a young murder victim haunting the Pettibone Tavern, the prisoners who never left the mines of Old New-Gate prison, and visit an abandoned town so cursed local residents have changed the name of the road leading to it to keep the curious away. Connecticut's history of witchcraft and the Victorian séances of Hartford are also revealed. Fascinating text provides details of ghost-hunting methods used during research, useful methods for cleansing negative spirits, and directions to the sites. Everyone intrigued by ghosts and life beyond death will enjoy the thirty-two images that provide evidence of spirits moving among us.

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This delightful book examines the graphics found on all kinds of children's alphabet ware, along with fascinating histories of the firms that produced it. Primarily made in nineteenth century Britain, America, and Germany, these ceramic plates, metal table and flatware, glass dishes, and mugs are considered a reflection of the technologies, values, and styles of the Victorian era. Alphabetically arranged, the twenty-six lettered chapters each tell part of the story: A begins the tale with a bit of American history, B tells of the early bonfires and nineteenth century bottle ovens, C discusses commercialism, D displays deep dishes, E reviews the role of the ware in educating the young … and so on, all the way to Z. The extensively researched text is accompanied by over 1000 stunning photographs of these historic pieces, with detailed captions providing measurements, information on manufacturers and marks, circa dates, and current values. A must for every enthusiast's library, this unique and comprehensive text guides readers through every aspect of collecting alphabet ware.

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A history of pets and their companions in Britain from the Victorians to today.Pet Revolution tracks the British love affair with pets over the last two centuries, showing how the kinds of pets we keep, as well as how we relate to and care for them, has changed radically. The book describes the growth of pet foods and medicines, the rise of pet shops, and the development of veterinary care, creating the pet economy. Most importantly, pets have played a powerful emotional role in families across all social classes, creating new kinds of relationships and home lives.For the first time, through a history of companion animals and the humans who lived with them, this book puts the story of the ‘pet revolution’ alongside other revolutions — industrial, agricultural, political — to highlight how animals contributed to modern British life. 'Hamlett and Strange state that their aim is to chart 200 years of pet-keeping in order to ‘understand how pets became so integral to the British and their homes’. In this richly detailed and enjoyable history, they have achieved their purpose.' — Daily Mail'From pet economics to pet cemeteries, this wonderfully engaging history explains the changing role of pets over two hundred years. It is as entertaining as it is informative, comprising charming stories and smart analysis.' — Claire Langhamer, Director of the Institute of Historical Research, London'Pet Revolution chronicles the increasing integration of pets into British life in fresh and fascinating detail. It shows how the definition of 'pet' narrowed over the last two centuries, as pet ownership spread through all social classes and the status of non-human animals evolved. The broad range of sources and engaging illustrations document the intense commitment that pets (or animal companions, as they are sometimes termed currently) inspired in their humans.' — Harriet Ritvo, Arthur J. Conner Emeritus Professor of History, MIT

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A soul-stirring novel about the bonds between mother and child and the redemption that comes with facing the past and letting it go. Thirty-two-year-old Jess Abbot has lost everything: her job, her apartment, and—most heart-wrenching—her eight-year-old son, Chance, to a tragic accident. Haunted by memories and grief, Jess packs what’s left and heads for the small mountain town of Pine Lake, where she takes a position as caregiver to an eccentric old woman. A rumored clairvoyant, Lucy is strange but welcoming and immediately intuits Jess as a “loose end” in need of closure. But Jess isn’t the only guest in Lucy’s large Victorian home. There’s also Star, a teenage runaway with a secret too painful to share. And the little boy with heart-shaped stones, who comes with a hope for reconciliation—and a warning. Soon Jess learns that she’s not the only lost soul running from the ghosts of the past. She and Star have been brought together for a reason: to be saved by the very thing that destroyed them.

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At first sight, this intriguing map appears to offer a guide to the pubs of Victorian Oxford, designed in a similar way to tourist maps today. Beerhouses, breweries and other licensed premises are all shown, clustered around a specific part of the city centre. But an explanation on the reverse shows this wasn’t the original intention. Published in 1883 by the Temperance Movement, the map was designed to show how the poorer areas of Oxford were heavily populated with drinking establishments and the text explains the detrimental effect of alcohol on local inhabitants: ‘the result is idleness and ill-health, and very frequently poverty and crime.’ The map also reveals how few ‘drink-shops’ (shown in red) appear in North Oxford, where the magistrates who granted the licences were most likely to live. This unique map was therefore intended to prevent alcohol consumption, while at the same time demonstrating how easy it was to find somewhere to drink. Today, it offers a fascinating insight into the drinking habits of the former citizens of this world-renowned city. 'The Drink Map' is reproduced with the original text and a commentary on the reverse.

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A new mother takes us on a tour of Hamil- ton, a Rust Belt city born of the Industrial Revolution and dying a slow death due to globalization. This mother represents the city s next wave of inhabitants the artists and young parents who swarm a run-down area for its affordability, inevitably reshaping the neighborhoods they take over. Creation looks at gentrification from the inside out an artist mother making a home and neighborhood for her family, struggling to find her place amid the exist- ing and emerging communities. While pushing her child s stroller around Hamilton, Nickerson shows us the warehouse filled with open barrels of toxic sludge, the parking lot where the city s homeless population sleeps, and the re- furbished Victorian house (complete with elegant chandeliers) that is now a state- of-the-art yoga studio. Creation presents the city as a living thing a place where many small lives intersect and where death, motherhood, pollution, poverty, and violence are all interconnected. Drawn in evocative watercolor, Cre- ation is unafraid to leave questions open- ended as Nickerson wanders the city and ponders just where the personal and political intersect, and where they ought to intersect.

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What happens if we read nineteenth-century and Victorian texts not for the autonomous liberal subject, but for singularity—for what is partial, contingent, and in relation, rather than what is merely "alone"? Feminine Singularity offers a powerful feminist theory of the subject—and shows us paths to thinking subjectivity, race, and gender anew in literature and in our wider social world. Through fresh, sophisticated readings of Lewis Carroll, Christina Rossetti, Charles Baudelaire, and Wilkie Collins in conversation with psychoanalysis, Black feminist and queer-of-color theory, and continental philosophy, Ronjaunee Chatterjee uncovers a lexicon of feminine singularity that manifests across poetry and prose through likeness and minimal difference, rather than individuality and identity. Reading for singularity shows us the ways femininity is fundamentally entangled with racial difference in the nineteenth century and well into the contemporary, as well as how rigid categories can be unsettled and upended. Grappling with the ongoing violence embedded in the Western liberal imaginary, Feminine Singularity invites readers to commune with the subversive potentials in nineteenth-century literature for thinking subjectivity today.

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British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) has been described as one of the Finest portraitists of the nineteenth century-in any medium. Raised in a well-connected and creative family, Cameron led an unconventional life for a woman of the Victorian age. After devoting herself to an artistic and literary salon at her home on the Isle of Wight and raising eleven children, Cameron took up photography in her late forties. Over the next fourteen years, she produced more than a thousand strikingly original and often controversial images. Her searching portraits of her friends and acquaintances, including Alfred Tennyson and Charles Darwin, have been called the world's first close-ups. This biography casts new light on the artist's links with the leading cultural figures of her time and on the techniques she used to achieve her distinctive style. It is published to coincide with a travelling exhibition of Cameron's photographs that will be on display at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the National Museum of Photography, Film and Televison, Bradford, England, in spring 2003 and will open at the Getty Museum in October 2003.

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Designed for classroom use, The First Anglo-Afghan Wars gathers in one volume primary source materials related to the first two wars that Great Britain launched against native leaders of the Afghan region. From 1839 to 1842, and again from 1878 to 1880, Britain fought to expand its empire and prevent Russian expansion into the region's northwest frontier, which was considered the gateway to India, the jewel in Victorian Britain's imperial crown. Spanning from 1817 to 1919, the selections reflect the complex national, international, and anticolonial interests entangled in Central Asia at the time. The documents, each of which is preceded by a brief introduction, bring the nineteenth-century wars alive through the opinions of those who participated in or lived through the conflicts. They portray the struggle for control of the region from the perspectives of women and non-Westerners, as well as well-known figures including Kipling and Churchill. Filled with military and civilian voices, the collection clearly demonstrates the challenges that Central Asia posed to powers attempting to secure and claim the region. It is a cautionary tale, unheeded by Western powers in the post–9/11 era.

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Designed for classroom use, The First Anglo-Afghan Wars gathers in one volume primary source materials related to the first two wars that Great Britain launched against native leaders of the Afghan region. From 1839 to 1842, and again from 1878 to 1880, Britain fought to expand its empire and prevent Russian expansion into the region's northwest frontier, which was considered the gateway to India, the jewel in Victorian Britain's imperial crown. Spanning from 1817 to 1919, the selections reflect the complex national, international, and anticolonial interests entangled in Central Asia at the time. The documents, each of which is preceded by a brief introduction, bring the nineteenth-century wars alive through the opinions of those who participated in or lived through the conflicts. They portray the struggle for control of the region from the perspectives of women and non-Westerners, as well as well-known figures including Kipling and Churchill. Filled with military and civilian voices, the collection clearly demonstrates the challenges that Central Asia posed to powers attempting to secure and claim the region. It is a cautionary tale, unheeded by Western powers in the post–9/11 era.

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Many of London’s original power stations have either been demolished, converted for other use, or stand derelict awaiting redevelopment that is seemingly always just out of reach. However, in their prime these mighty ‘cathedrals of power’ played a vital role in London’s journey towards becoming the world’s most important city. Gasworks also played a key role, built in the Victorian era to manufacture gas for industry and the people, before later falling out of favour once natural gas was discovered in the North Sea. London’s Lost Power Stations and Gasworks looks at the history of these great places. Famous sites that are still standing today, such as those at Battersea and Bankside (now the Tate Modern gallery), are covered in detail, but so are the previously untold stories of long-demolished and forgotten sites. Appealing to anyone with even the slightest interest in London, derelict buildings or urban exploring, this book uses London’s power supply as the starting point for a fascinating hidden history of Britain’s capital, and of the more general development of cities from the era of industrialisation to the present day.

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David Fathers presents a unique and richly illustrated guide to the London section of the Thames Path, newly updated to reflect the city's ever-changing landscape. The iconic path, which stretches from the lost floodplains of Richmond all the way to the Thames Barrier, is a panoramic 40-mile walk through 2000 years of London's history. From the old docks and wharves that primed the Industrial Revolution, through the heart of British Government, Monarchy and Church to the City of London that took its very existence from the river. From the site of the Putney Debates at St Mary's Church to Wren's mighty baroque cathedral of St Paul's. From the great Victorian engineering works of Sir Joseph Bazalgette and his attempts to clean up a polluted London and the river to the Thames Barrier seeking to protect huge parts of London from rising sea levels. From London Bridge, site of the oldest crossing point, to the Millennium Bridge, the Thames' newest crossing. This book explains the panorama we see today, what came before and how the changes came about. Each double page shows the distance covered so you can plan your own tour of the river.

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Samuel Palmer (1805–1881) was one of the leading British landscape painters of the 19th century. Inspired by his mentor, the artist and poet William Blake, Palmer brought a new spiritual intensity to his interpretation of nature, producing works of unprecedented boldness and fervency. Pre-eminent scholar William Vaughan—who organized the Palmer retrospective at the British Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2005—draws on unpublished diaries and letters, offering a fresh interpretation of one of the most attractive and sympathetic, yet idiosyncratic, figures of the 19th century. Far from being a recluse, as he is often presented, Palmer was actively engaged in Victorian cultural life and sought to exert a moral power through his artwork. Beautifully illustrated with Palmer's visionary and enchanted landscapes, the book contains rich studies of his work, influences, and resources. Vaughan also shows how later, enthralled by the Pre-Raphaelite movement, Palmer manipulated his own artistic image to harmonize with it. Little appreciated in his lifetime, Palmer is now hailed as a precursor of modernism in the 20th century.Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

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Artist, designer, and lifestyle entrepreneur, April Cornell, opens her home and her life, to reveal how she captures the beauty of nature and expresses it throughout her personal and private living space. Features April's own introspections and illustrations, homey sketches that perfectly punctuate each page. In this refreshingly eclectic and intimate assemblage of home design inspirations, April takes the reader on a walk through her world of colour, textures and style, using her charming Victorian-style family home in Vermont as the showcase for her personal approach to design and decorating. In doing so, she inspires readers to rethink their own relationship with the natural world and suggests ingenious ways to enhance any home using nature's perfect palettes. Beautifully illustrated throughout, the book is a cornucopia of refreshingly simple, yet sumptuous home decorating ideas. It is also the inspiring story of an artist who has "looked" at her life and has been so dazzled by its inherent beauty that her focus is unwaveringly uncomplicated. Readers need not mimic April's style to appreciated the sagacity and sensuality of her design philosophy; her serene approach to home decorating is both infectious and achievable.

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By the second half of the 1920s, old-fashioned Victorian morals had gone the way of starched collars and cruel corsets and a "no holds barred" attitude reigned in their place. "The Party of the Century" had begun in earnest and fashions responded by climbing to the knees! Using a combination of vintage images, professional photographs of existing garments, and period artists' illustrations, this comprehensive book presents a dazzling look at fashions from 1925 through 1929. Fashions for men, women, and children are featured, including evening andday wear, coats and jackets, lounge and resort wear, sports fashions, and lingerie. Whenever possible, styles are shown with their appropriate accessories, such as hats, shoes, purses, fans, parasols, and more. Fascinating timelines place the fashions in their proper settings describing each year's film, music, literary, and couture trends. Among the book's many highlights are rare French pochoir fashion plates and photos of an original haute couture Chanel evening gown. This in-depth look at one of our most exciting decades will appeal to fashion enthusiasts and history buffs alike. A companion volume covers the years 1920 to 1924.

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Whether you are visitor, vacationer, or resident, this tour book will be your indispensable guide to the history and charm of Cape May Point, New Jersey, as you stroll past its wonderful collection of nineteenth-century cottages. Three walking tours encompass more than 70 of Cape May Point’s earliest buildings – each illustrated in full color with engaging descriptions of their architectural features. Each tour is a delightful way to spend a leisurely hour or so. Additionally, two-dozen rare photographs portray handsome houses that did not survive the ravages of development and storms that devastated one-fifth of the original community. Ten “top pick” contemporary homes are also featured and described. If you cannot tell a baluster from a bargeboard, have no fear. The fully illustrated glossary interprets any professional jargon so that you will soon become knowledgeable about domestic Victorian architecture. Cape May Point attracts many for its delightful cottages, intimate scale, gracious town plan, and preserved natural beauty. How did this combination happen? And what are the distinctive architectural results? This book will tell you and present the magic of Cape May Point. Read and explore.

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Collecting toothpick holders is about to become easier and more rewarding than ever! Here is the only publication to focus exclusively on toothpick holders made of porcelain. Over 600 beautiful color photographs showcase toothpick holders from around the world, including major ceramics manufacturers from Austria, Bavaria, Czechoslovakia, England, Germany, and the United States. A large section on Prussian toothpick holders shows the many different molds used by the manufacturers located there, and includes line drawings to show mold details. The section on Royal Bayreuth shows examples of nearly every shape and decoration known from that company, and the Japanese (Nippon) section shows the wide range of shapes, hand-painted decorations, and quality that originated there. Many manufacturers’ marks are included. Information on contemporary and reproduction toothpick holders is also included, as well as tips on collecting, displaying, and insuring your collection. The book is organized to be easy-to-use and is an indispensable reference for everyone interested in ceramics from the late Victorian period through the 1930s. Current value ranges are given for all items pictured.

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Watercolour has an anomalous position in the visual arts. Its association with Victorian lady-amateurs, the (incorrect) idea that it is a fugitive medium and will fade over time, as well as the contradictory ideas that it is very difficult to use and that it is a beginner's medium, mean that it has long been sidelined in favour of oil and acrylic paints. But 'Watercolour', a recent blockbuster show at the Tate Britain, and the contemporary interest in less conventional media point to a renewed interest in this underrated art-form. Watercolour painting does have particular difficulties - it is transparent and therefore fairly unforgiving, for a start - but its advantages are huge. It is light and easy to carry the kit about, it is easy to clean and to prepare, it is unobtrusive, and a lot of the material you need you will already have around the house - a jam jar, water and don't forget the most important item: toilet tissue! Watercolour is also a great and constantly evolving challenge, and can be used in all sorts of ways. Within these pages a range of artists share their very diverse approaches to painting in watercolour, to give the reader an idea of how adaptable and enjoyable this medium really is.

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The first performance of Handel’s 'Messiah' in Dublin in 1742 is now legendary. Gentlemen were asked to leave their swords at home and ladies to come without hoops in their skirts in order to fit more people into the audience. Why then, did this now famous and much-loved oratorio receive a somewhat cool reception in London less than a year later? Placing Handel’s best-known work in the context of its times, this vivid account charts the composer’s working relationship with his librettist, the gifted but demanding Charles Jennens, and looks at Handel’s varied and evolving company of singers together with his royal patronage. Through examination of the composition manuscript and Handel’s own conducting score, held in the Bodleian, it explores the complex issues around the performance of sacred texts in a non-sacred context, particularly Handel’s collaboration with the men and boys of the Chapel Royal. The later reception and performance history of what is one of the most successful pieces of choral music of all time is also reviewed, including the festival performance attended by Haydn, the massed-choir tradition of the Victorian period and today’s ‘come-and-sing’ events.

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A fresh, unstuffy guide to the stained-glass windows of England's churches, including a list of the top 50 places to see outstanding examples. The magical qualities of stained glass have an enduring appeal, but church windows tend to be ignored as a form of creative and artistic expression. Yet churches are accessible treasure trove of history, art and craftsmanship. No other set of historic buildings with such superb and important architectural and artists assets is as easy to visit. How to Look at Stained Glass is the companion guide that's needed to make sense of and enjoy the vast array of stained-glass windows in the churches of England. This fresh, unstuffy guide: - Uses an A-Z format to reveal a multitude of fascinating details - all the way from apples to zig-zags - Explores stained glass by themes, patterns, designs and effects - Requires no previous historical, artistic or religious knowledge - Covers all the major periods and styles, from medieval to modern, Victorian to postwar, eighteenth century to Arts and Crafts, figurative to abstract - Examines the fascinating and evolving iconography of stained glass - Makes looking at gloriously colourful, artistically important windows both entertaining and rewarding - Features a list of the top 50 places to see outstanding examples - Offers a useful index of churches by county

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