Search results for ""Notorious""
Cornell University Press Before the Eyes of the World: Mexico and the 1968 Olympic Games
Mexican leaders eagerly anticipated the attention that hosting the world's most visible sporting event would bring, yet they could not have predicted the array of conflicts that would play out before the eyes of the world during the notorious 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Following twenty years of economic growth and political stability—known as the "Mexican miracle"—Mexican policy makers escaped their prior image of being economically underdeveloped to successfully craft an image of a nation that was both modern and cosmopolitan but also steeped in culture and tradition. Buoyed by this new image, they set their sights on the Olympic bid, and they not only won but also prepared impressive facilities. Prior to the opening ceremonies, several controversies emerged, the most glaring of which was a student protest movement that culminated in a public massacre, leaving several hundred students dead. Less dramatic were concerns that athletes would suffer harm in the high elevation and thin air, debates over the nature of amateurism, threats by nations opposing apartheid to boycott if South Africa was allowed to compete, and the introduction of drug and gender testing. Additionally the Olympics provided a forum for the United States and the Soviet Union to carry their Cold War rivalry to the playing field—a way to achieve victory without world destruction at stake. During the Games, one of the most significant controversies occurred when two African American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, raised their fists in the Black Power salute while on the medal stand. This gesture brought worldwide attention to racism within the United States and remains a lasting image of both the Mexico City Olympics and the Civil Rights movement. Although the Olympics are intended to bring athletes of the world together for harmonious competition, the 1968 Games will long be remembered as fraught with discord. This ambitious and comprehensive study will appeal to those interested in US history, Latin American history, sports history, and Olympic history.
£26.99
Johns Hopkins University Press Vision's Immanence: Faulkner, Film, and the Popular Imagination
William Faulkner occupied a unique position as a modern writer. Although famous for his modernist novels and their notorious difficulty, he also wrote extensively for the "culture industry," and the works he produced for it-including short stories, adaptations, and screenplays-bore many of the hallmarks of consumer art. His experiences as a Hollywood screenwriter influenced him in a number of ways, many of them negative, while the films turned out by the "dream factories" in which he labored sporadically inspired both his interest and his contempt. Faulkner also disparaged the popular magazines-though he frequently sold short stories to them. To what extent was Faulkner's deeply ambivalent relationship to-and involvement with-American popular culture reflected in his modernist or "art" fiction? Peter Lurie finds convincing evidence that Faulkner was keenly aware of commercial culture and adapted its formulae, strategies, and in particular, its visual techniques into the language of his novels of the 1930s. Lurie contends that Faulkner's modernism can be best understood in light of his reaction to the popular culture of his day. Using Theodor Adorno's theory about modern cultural production as a framework, Lurie's close readings of Sanctuary, Light in August, Absalom! Absalom!, and If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem uncover the cultural history that surrounded and influenced the development of Faulkner's art. Lurie is particularly interested in the influence of cinema on Faulkner's fiction and especially the visual strategies he both deployed and critiqued. These include the suggestion of cinematic viewing on the part of readers and of characters in each of the novels; the collective and individual acts of voyeurism in Sanctuary and Light in August; the exposing in Absalom! Absalom! and Light in Augustof stereotypical and cinematic patterns of thought about history and race; and the evocation of popular forms like melodrama and the movie screen in If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem. Offering innovative readings of these canonical works, this study sheds new light on Faulkner's uniquely American modernism.
£43.00
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Anon Pls.: A Novel
Called One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR"Dazzling, propulsive, and delightfully juicy, Anon Pls. is the digital age’s love letter to The Devil Wears Prada. Sexy, suspenseful, and so good you won’t want to put it down—not even to check on the latest stories in Deuxmoi’s feed. What an incredible debut." — Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of The UnhoneymoonersFrom the creator of @Deuxmoi, the popular—and infamous—celebrity gossip Instagram, comes a fun and charming debut novel about a stylist assistant whose drunken decision to turn her Instagram into a celeb gossip account turns her life completely upside down. When Cricket Lopez, assistant to one of the most notorious celebrity stylists, revamps her old fashion Instagram account and turns it into a source for celebrity gossip on a drunken whim, she never thinks it will become anything. It's just a way to blow off steam after a terrible, terrible day at work where her nightmarish boss screams at her and blames her for some 18-year-old influencer's screw-up. But when the account grows overnight and, even wilder, when she starts getting gossip from fans and insiders —juicy gossip—she has to face facts: her Instagram is now famous. She is now famous.Though no one knows that she is behind the account, its newfound success quickly wreaks havoc on her real life. Her boss wonders why she’s disappearing on the job, her friends are increasingly irritated by her dedication to the account, and she has celebrities, investors, and journalists approaching her nonstop. Plus, there's a steamy new love interest who she meets through her online persona—except she has no idea if she can truly trust his motives. As the account grows and becomes more and more influential, she has to wonder: is it—the fame, the insider access, the escape from real life—really worth losing everything she has?
£9.99
HarperCollins Publishers Curse of the Celts (The Once and Future Queen, Book 2)
An absolute must-read for fans of Shadow and Bone… You are accused of crimes against the Code. How do you plead? After failing to escape the Roman metropolis of Londinium with Devyn, her lover, and Marcus, her betrothed, Cassandra wakes in inky darkness to find the ground giving way to sand beneath her feet. All three of them have been carted back to the notorious arena at the heart of the city to stand trial by public vote. Cass knows they must escape at any cost: to warn the Celts of the mysterious blood curse ravaging their kin, to foil the schemes of the imperial council… To find the fabled Lady of the Lake, the one who could save them all. But even as the jaws of death close in around her, another threat looms in the shadows, a danger she never could have foreseen, a betrayal that could burn down her entire world. Fans of The Hunger Games will revel in this sweeping dystopian adventure set in an alternate fantasy universe where the Roman Empire never fell. Praise for The Once and Future Queen Series: ‘OH MY HEART AND SOUL … I am still reeling … seriously I would put this series up with the big ones, like Throne of Glass and The Cruel Prince’ Richelle, 5* NetGalley review ‘OMG. I will forever be in love with this series … this author has me as a fan for life’ Penelope, 5* NetGalley review ‘Beautifully written and one of the best dystopian novels I’ve read … an epic journey you won’t forget. I would love to see this made into a film’ Zoe, 5* NetGalley review ‘I couldn’t put it down. There were times when I gasped, when I cried and when I felt my jaw drop. The world Clara O’Connor has woven together is so intricate and real and the storytelling is flawless. Absolutely my favourite series I have read this year’ Jessica, 5* NetGalley review
£8.99
HarperCollins Publishers GCHQ
As we become ever-more aware of how our governments “eavesdrop” on our conversations, here is a gripping exploration of this unknown realm of the British secret service: Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ). GCHQ is the successor to the famous Bletchley Park wartime code-breaking organisation and is the largest and most secretive intelligence organisation in the country. During the war, it commanded more staff than MI5 and MI6 combined and has produced a number of intelligence triumphs, as well as some notable failures. Since the end of the Cold War, it has played a pivotal role in shaping Britain's secret state. Still, we know almost nothing about it. In this ground-breaking new book, Richard Aldrich traces GCHQ's evolvement from a wartime code-breaking operation based in the Bedfordshire countryside, staffed by eccentric crossword puzzlers, to one of the world leading espionage organisations. It is packed full of dramatic spy stories that shed fresh light on Britain's role in the Cold War – from the secret tunnels dug beneath Vienna and Berlin to tap Soviet phone lines, and daring submarine missions to gather intelligence from the Soviet fleet, to the notorious case of Geoffrey Pine, one of the most damaging moles ever recruited by the Soviets inside British intelligence. The book reveals for the first time how GCHQ operators based in Cheltenham affected the outcome of military confrontations in far-flung locations such as Indonesia and Malaya, and exposes the shocking case of three GCHQ workers who were killed in an infamous shootout with terrorists while working undercover in Turkey. Today's GCHQ struggles with some of the most difficult issues of our time. A leading force of the state's security efforts against militant terrorist organisations like Al-Qaeda, they are also involved in fundamental issues that will mould the future of British society. Compelling and revelatory, Aldrich's book is the crucial missing link in Britain’s intelligence history.
£13.49
Headline Publishing Group Children in Chains: A totally gripping and heart-racing crime thriller (DI Sterling Thriller Series, Book 2)
HE'S EVERY PARENT'S WORST NIGHTMARE . . .In the early hours of the morning, Detective Inspector Paolo Sterling receives a tip-off about a group of children being trafficked on to the streets of Bradchester as sex workers. Hoping he is one step closer to bringing down a notorious syndicate of twisted criminals, it soon becomes clear that Paolo and his team have been misled and that the gang have once again evaded arrest. Then a young girl is found dead in a shop doorway and, with all signs pointing towards the investigation, it quickly gathers momentum. As DI Sterling delves deeper into the darkest corners of society, he begins to unravel the most unimaginable crimes but with the shadowy leader always one step ahead, Paolo must work harder than ever before to bring the culprits to justice - before another child's life is taken.Lorraine Mace brings us the second unflinching and totally gripping instalment in her dark and gritty series featuring DI Paolo Sterling. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, M. J. Arlidge and Karin Slaughter.'Lorraine Mace has done it again. Crime fiction at its absolute finest' MARION TODD 'What an opening! Lorraine certainly knows how to write a gripping thriller. A chilling read' KAREN KINGLOVE FOR LORRAINE MACE'S WRITING:'I. Am. Not. Okay. That ending - mind blown!!!! Rage and Retribution deserves ALL the stars! It is AMAZING!' 5* Reader Review'Wow, just wow is all I can say. The whole series is just too good to miss.' 5* Reader Review'I am an absolutely massive fan of this series . . . the books are just getting better and better' 5* Reader Review'I am blown away by this story and LOVE everything about it. I cannot wait for the next instalment.' 5* Reader Review'OMG! That opening scene' 5* Reader Review'I could not put my kindle down while reading this!' 5* Reader Review
£9.67
Medina Publishing Ltd Charles Huber: France's Greatest Arabian Explorer
The French-Alsatian geographer Charles Huber (1847–84) achieved fame as one of the 19th century’s great Arabian explorers. On his two heroic journeys between 1880 and 1884, he pioneered the scientific mapping of inland Arabia and made some of the earliest records of ancient North Arabian inscriptions and rock art. His tragic murder in 1884 meant that he published little, and the only connected narrative that he managed to write was of his first journey in 1880–81. This highly significant document of Arabian exploration has not been published since 1885, and is presented here for the first time in English translation. Despite Huber’s great posthumous reputation, almost nothing has been written about him. William Facey’s biographical. introduction fills this void, revealing much that was hitherto unknown about Huber’s complex and risk-taking personality, and about his colourful life as a fervent French patriot coming of age in Strasbourg during a time of Franco-German conflict. New light is shed on the dates and itinerary of Huber’s first Arabian journey, an epic quest of some 5,000 kilometres on camelback requiring immense fortitude. For this he used Ha’il as a base before travelling with the pilgrim caravan to Iraq and thence to Syria. The focus then shifts to his return to Arabia in 1883 with Julius Euting, the eminent German Semitist, and the twists and turns of their unsuccessful collaboration. Having parted company with Euting at the great Nabataean site of Mada’in Salih in the northern Hijaz, Huber went back into central Arabia before making a dangerous journey to Jiddah. He was murdered shortly after, on 29 July 1884, by his guides on the Red Sea coast. Finally, the affair of the Tayma Stele, the celebrated Aramaic inscription now in the Musée du Louvre, comes under the spotlight. In a new analysis of this notorious Franco-German imbroglio, the prevailing idea that Huber first saw it in 1880 is held up to scrutiny, and Euting at last given his due for its discovery in 1884.
£30.00
Island Press A Good Drink: In Pursuit of Sustainable Spirits
Shanna Farrell loves a good drink. As a bartender, she not only poured spirits, but learned their stories—who made them and how. Living in San Francisco, surrounded by farm-to-table restaurants and high-end bars, she wondered why the eco-consciousness devoted to food didn’t extend to drinks. The short answer is that we don’t think of spirits as food. But whether it's rum, brandy, whiskey, or tequila, drinks are distilled from the same crops that end up on our tables. Most are grown with chemicals that cause pesticide resistance and pollute waterways, and distilling itself requires huge volumes of water. Even bars are notorious for generating mountains of trash. The good news is that while the good drink movement is far behind the good food movement, it is emerging. In A Good Drink, Farrell goes in search of the bars, distillers, and farmers who are driving a transformation to sustainable spirits. She meets mezcaleros in Guadalajara who are working to preserve traditional ways of producing mezcal, for the health of the local land, the wallets of the local farmers, and the culture of the community. She visits distillers in South Carolina who are bringing a rare variety of corn back from near extinction to make one of the most sought-after bourbons in the world. She meets a London bar owner who has eliminated individual bottles and ice, acculturating drinkers to a new definition of luxury. These individuals are part of a growing trend to recognize spirits for what they are—part of our food system. For readers who have ever wondered who grew the pears that went into their brandy or why their cocktail is an unnatural shade of red, A Good Drink will be an eye-opening tour of the spirits industry. For anyone who cares about the future of the planet, it offers a hopeful vision of change, one pour at a time.
£22.99
Headline Publishing Group Traitor in the Ice: Treachery has gripped the nation. But the King has spies everywhere.
'Full of tension and danger... powerfully atmospheric' JENNIFER SAINT'A beautifully crafted thriller... Breathtaking and bone-chilling' MANDA SCOTT'Maitland is a superlative historical novelist' REBECCA MASCULL---Whispers haunt the walls and treachery darkens the shadows in this captivating historical novel for readers of C.J. Sansom, Andrew Taylor's Ashes of London and Kate Mosse.Winter, 1607. A man is struck down in the grounds of Battle Abbey, Sussex. Before dawn breaks, he is dead.Home to the Montagues, Battle has caught the paranoid eye of King James. The Catholic household is rumoured to shelter those loyal to the Pope, disguising them as servants within the abbey walls. And the last man sent to expose them was silenced before his report could reach London.Daniel Pursglove is summoned to infiltrate Battle and find proof of treachery. He soon discovers that nearly everyone at the abbey has something to hide - for deeds far more dangerous than religious dissent. But one lone figure he senses only in the shadows, carefully concealed from the world. Could the notorious traitor Spero Pettingar finally be close at hand?As more bodies are unearthed, Daniel determines to catch the culprit. But how do you unmask a killer when nobody is who they seem?DANIEL PURSGLOVE BOOK TWO---Praise for THE DROWNED CITY'Dark and enthralling' ANDREW TAYLOR'This gripping thriller shows what a wonderful storyteller Maitland is' THE TIMES'Colourful and compelling' SUNDAY TIMES'Goes right to the heart of the Jacobean court' TRACY BORMAN'Devilishly good' DAILY MAIL'Spies, thieves, murderers and King James I? Brilliant' CONN IGGULDEN'There are few authors who can bring the past to life so compellingly... Brilliant writing and more importantly, riveting reading' SIMON SCARROW'The intrigues of Jacobean court politics simmer beneath the surface in this gripping and masterful crime novel' KATHERINE CLEMENTS'Beautifully written with a dark heart, Maitland knows how to pull you deep into the early Jacobean period' RHIANNON WARD
£17.76
Little, Brown Book Group The Viper: The dark and sexy spin-off series from the beloved Black Dagger Brotherhood
'Utterly absorbing and deliciously erotic' Angela Knight'Hot, sexy, unique, intriguingly wicked' Christine FeehanIn the next Prison Camp instalment, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author J. R. Ward pens a heart-wrenching tale of love and betrayal in the Black Dagger Brotherhood world . . . Framed for the grisly murder of his shellan , Kane is condemned to the notorious prison camp - unaware of the dark truth behind his arranged mating. Centuries later, when he is horribly burned while attempting to save others, he prays he'll finally be reunited in the Fade with his mate . . . not knowing what revelations await him.Nadya is a self-taught nurse who does what she can to ease the suffering of the prisoners. When Kane comes under her care, she cannot help but empathise with his condition for very personal reasons - and as the guards take him away one last time, she fears he is facing a terrible death.After a daring rescue, Kane is offered a treatment that will change his very nature. Choosing life, for the time being, he goes back for the female who took such good care of him - but his duty to Nadya sets him on a collision course with his own past. When long-buried secrets are exposed, his self-destruction is inevitable . . . unless true love can save his soul.Find out why readers are OBSESSED with the Black Dagger Brotherhood . . . Insanely good! . . . Intensely romantic and straight up flipping steamy, violent and gruesome, heartbreaking and deep. Her addictive writing tells a story like none other' Goodreads reviewer'I can't get enough of these sexy, tough, intriguing vampires' Amazon reviewer'Emotional by epic proportions' Kobo reviewer'The Black Dagger Brotherhood is a twisting, often surprising, but always awesome read' Amazon reviewer'A must read' Goodreads reviewer'The story had me captivated the whole way' Kobo reviewer'Each and every character is compelling' Amazon reviewer
£18.00
Simon & Schuster American Rascal: How Jay Gould Built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune
A gripping, “rollicking” (John Carreyrou, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Blood) biography of Jay Gould, the greatest of the 19th-century robber barons, whose brilliance, greed, and bare-knuckled tactics made him richer than Rockefeller and led Wall Street to institute its first financial reforms. Had Jay Gould put his name on a university or concert hall, he would undoubtedly have been a household name today. The son of a poor farmer whose early life was marked by tragedy, Gould saw money as the means to give his family a better life…even if, to do so, he had to pull a fast one on everyone else. After entering Wall Street at the age of twenty-four, he quickly became notorious when he paralyzed the economy and nearly toppled President Ulysses S. Grant in the Black Friday market collapse of 1869 in an attempt to corner the market on gold—an event that remains among the darkest days in Wall Street history. Through clever financial maneuvers, he gained control over one of every six miles of the country’s rapidly expanding network for railroad tracks—coming close to creating the first truly transcontinental railroad and making himself one of the richest men in America.American Rascal shows Gould’s complex, quirky character. He was at once praised for his brilliance by Rockefeller and Vanderbilt and condemned for forever destroying American business values by Mark Twain. He lived a colorful life, trading jokes with Thomas Edison, figuring Thomas Nast’s best sketches, paying Boss Tweed’s bail, and commuting to work in a 200-foot yacht. Gould thrived in an expanding, industrial economy in which authorities tolerated inside trading and stock price manipulation because they believed regulation would stifle the progress. But by taking these practices to new levels, Gould showed how unbridled capitalism was, in fact, dangerous for the American economy. This “gripping biography” (Fortune) explores how Gould’s audacious exploitation of economic freedom triggered the first public demands for financial reforms—a call that still resonates today.
£11.69
Trailblazer Publications Japan by Rail: Includes Rail Route Guide and 30 City Guides
Japan is steeped in legend and myth, perhaps the greatest of which is the popular misconception that the country is simply too expensive to visit. The truth is that flights to Japan are cheaper than they've ever been, accommodation can be great value, while the warm hospitality which awaits every visitor costs nothing at all. The real secret to travelling around the country on a budget, however, is the Japan Rail Pass. Use this comprehensive guide in conjunction with a rail pass to get the most out of a trip to Japan. * Practical information - planning your trip; when to go; suggested itineraries; what to take; festivals and events. * City guides and maps - where to stay, where to eat, what to see in 30 towns and cities; historical and cultural background. * Kilometre-by-kilometre route guides - covering train journeys from the coast into the mountains, from temple retreat to sprawling metropolis and from sulphurous volcano to windswept desert; 33 route maps. * Japan Rail service schedules - Bullet trains and main routes in this guide. * Customs, etiquette, Japanese words and phrases - with kanji- With kanji/hiragana/katakana for all place name text - readers can point to the text when asking Japanese speakers for directions. * Extended Highlights - extra colour sections make this book even more user-friendly and attractive. What's new in this fully-updated 5th edition? * Greater coverage of Tokyo with additional mapping following post-Olympic interest in the capital and the country * More hot-spring resorts added (including Kinosaki, Kinugawa and Nyuto) * More information about areas off the beaten track including the wood-carving town of Inami, Yanagawa where you can ride in a 'gondola' along its canals, Tomioka Silk Mill (where silk production was first mechanised), Okunoshima island (notorious for its WWII poison gas factory) * New Style Trailblazer guide with twin-colour layout and restyled maps * Expanded colour section with 'Best' lists to help plan a trip * Kanji and katakana are now included for all place names * Fully updated post Covid outbreak.
£17.99
Headline Publishing Group Traitor in the Ice: Treachery has gripped the nation. But the King has spies everywhere.
'Full of tension and danger... powerfully atmospheric' JENNIFER SAINT'A beautifully crafted thriller... Breathtaking and bone-chilling' MANDA SCOTT'Maitland is a superlative historical novelist' REBECCA MASCULL---Whispers haunt the walls and treachery darkens the shadows in this captivating historical novel for readers of C.J. Sansom, Andrew Taylor's Ashes of London and Kate Mosse.Winter, 1607. A man is struck down in the grounds of Battle Abbey, Sussex. Before dawn breaks, he is dead.Home to the Montagues, Battle has caught the paranoid eye of King James. The Catholic household is rumoured to shelter those loyal to the Pope, disguising them as servants within the abbey walls. And the last man sent to expose them was silenced before his report could reach London.Daniel Pursglove is summoned to infiltrate Battle and find proof of treachery. He soon discovers that nearly everyone at the abbey has something to hide - for deeds far more dangerous than religious dissent. But one lone figure he senses only in the shadows, carefully concealed from the world. Could the notorious traitor Spero Pettingar finally be close at hand?As more bodies are unearthed, Daniel determines to catch the culprit. But how do you unmask a killer when nobody is who they seem?DANIEL PURSGLOVE BOOK TWO---Praise for THE DROWNED CITY'Dark and enthralling' ANDREW TAYLOR'This gripping thriller shows what a wonderful storyteller Maitland is' THE TIMES'Colourful and compelling' SUNDAY TIMES'Goes right to the heart of the Jacobean court' TRACY BORMAN'Devilishly good' DAILY MAIL'Spies, thieves, murderers and King James I? Brilliant' CONN IGGULDEN'There are few authors who can bring the past to life so compellingly... Brilliant writing and more importantly, riveting reading' SIMON SCARROW'The intrigues of Jacobean court politics simmer beneath the surface in this gripping and masterful crime novel' KATHERINE CLEMENTS'Beautifully written with a dark heart, Maitland knows how to pull you deep into the early Jacobean period' RHIANNON WARD
£9.99
Simon & Schuster Ltd Niki Lauda: The Biography
LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR PRIZE 2020'The definitive biography of a racing driver who won three World Championship titles' Matt Dickinson, The Times, Sports Books of the Year'Thoroughly gripping...a fitting tribute' Justin Marozzi, Sunday Times Niki Lauda was one of the greatest stars in motor racing – a superb driver on the track and a much-loved personality off it. From his famous rivalry with James Hunt in 1976, as depicted in the film Rush, to working with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, his career helped define modern Formula One. Six weeks after the 1976 crash at the notorious Nürburgring that left him burned and receiving the last rites while obituaries were written, Niki Lauda stepped back into his Ferrari at Monza to defend his first World Champion title. Jackie Stewart called it ‘the most courageous thing I have ever witnessed in sport’. Lauda and Hunt were playing cat-and-mouse for the championship. At the final race of the season in Japan, the weather was appalling and conditions treacherous. Lauda had a narrow lead and an agonising decision to make – high-speed drama at its best. Following his extraordinary recovery from the accident, Lauda won the title in 1977 and again, following a return from retirement, in 1984 with McLaren. When he eventually hung up his helmet for good, he started his own airline and had to deal with the horrendous aftermath when one of his aircraft crashed, killing all 223 on board. He later returned to the sport in various management roles and successfully persuaded Lewis Hamilton to join Mercedes. Maurice Hamilton first came across Lauda in 1971 and in this definitive biography tells his remarkable story. Based on interviews with friends, family, rival drivers and colleagues, it is a superb tribute to a brave, supremely talented and much-missed star of Formula One.
£9.99
Taschen GmbH The History of EC Comics
In 1947, Bill Gaines inherited EC Comics, a new venture founded by his legendary father M. C. Gaines, who was responsible for midwifing the birth of the comic book as we know it during his tenure at All-American Comics, bringing the likes of Wonder Woman and Green Lantern to the world. Over the next eight years, Bill Gaines and a “who’s who” of the era including Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman, and Wally Wood would reinvent the very notion of the comic book with titles like Tales from the Crypt, Crime SuspenStories, Weird Science, and MAD. EC delighted in publishing gory, morbid horror and crime comics that had snap, ironic endings—but they also pioneered the first true-to-life war comics, the first “real” science-fiction stories, and a series of tales about such then-taboo subjects as racism, bigotry, vigilantism, drug addiction, police corruption, and anti-Semitism. Too good to last, they were eventually caught up by various 1950s guardians of morality, who were convinced that EC’s often over-the-top content was causing juvenile delinquency. A year or so after a full inquiry investigating horror and crime comics, the incredible EC Comics were no more. TASCHEN presents the full, fascinating story of this fabled company, written and expertly curated by EC-authority Grant Geissman. Even the most die-hard EC Fan-Addicts will find something new within these pages, with the Gaines family archives providing more than 100 rarities that have never seen print. Many of the cover images are reproduced from Gaines File Copies, which are widely regarded as the best surviving copies of the EC Comics. Gathering more than 1,000 illustrations that include the rarest and most notorious covers, interior pages and panels, photos, vintage original artwork, and some of the most celebrated stories ever to be printed in four colors for a dime, this is the ultimate EC Comics compendium and a must-have for any comics enthusiast or pop culture historian.
£150.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Canal Line 1940: The Dunkirk Campaign
The network of canals stretching from the coast at Gravelines, through St-Omer, B thune and La Bass e, follows the approximate boundary between Artois and Flanders and was, in 1940, the defensive line established on the western edge of the so-called Dunkerque Corridor designed by Lord Gort to provide an evacuation route to the channel coast. Even before events on the line of the Escaut line had concluded with yet another Allied withdrawal, Lord Gort was diverting units to bolster the Canal Line defenses This is probably the first occasion that the fighting along the Canal Line has been looked at in detail; overlooked by the inevitable withdrawal towards the channel coast, the units deployed along the canal faced some of the stiffest fighting in the whole 1940 France and Flanders campaign. Whole battalions, particularly those in the 2nd Division, were sacrificed as units were thrown into the battle in an attempt to slow down the German advance. The book looks in some detail at the ad hoc nature of the Usherforce and Polforce units, the units of the independent 25 Brigade and the vicious fighting that enveloped the 2nd Division. Time is given also to the notorious massacre of the Royal Norfolks at Louis Creton's farm near Le Paradis. Material concerning the deployment of units along the Canal Line in 1940 has been found in a variety of sources, including regimental histories and unit war diaries. The author has been fortunate in being able to access a number of personal diaries and accounts from men serving with the independent 25 Brigade and the 2nd Division, which has, in some cases, added to and enhanced the actions taken by those units while deployed on the canal. The book is illustrated by over a hundred contemporary and modern photographs and by five car tours and three walks, all of which give the tourist a greater access to the battlefield.
£14.99
Transworld Publishers Ltd Water: A haunting, confronting novel from the author of The Heart’s Invisible Furies
‘Subtle, intelligent and humane’ Sunday Telegraph'Boyne not only opens up conversations, he writes beautifully and sensitively' Woman&Home‘A perceptive, moving exploration of guilt, grief and complicity’ Sunday Express‘Boyne does not put a foot wrong in this masterly novella’ Mail on Sunday'An intriguing investigation of contemporary trauma... [a] short but powerful book' Guardian'His quietest novel... but one just as powerful as his larger canvases' Business Post___________From million-copy-bestselling author John Boyne comes a masterfully reflective story about one woman coming to terms with the demons of her past and finding a new path forward.The first thing Vanessa Carvin does when she arrives on the island is change her name. To the locals, she is Willow Hale, a solitary outsider escaping Dublin to live a hermetic existence in a small cottage, not a notorious woman on the run from her past.But scandals follow like hunting dogs. And she has some questions of her own to answer. If her ex-husband is really the monster everyone says he is, then how complicit was she in his crimes?Escaping her old life might seem like a good idea but the choices she has made throughout her marriage have consequences. Here, on the island, Vanessa must reflect on what she did - and did not do. Only then can she discover whether she is worthy of finding peace at all.Can you ever truly wash away your past?___________What readers are saying:'A scorching, devastating tale''Powerful, challenging and beautifully written’'Compelling, propulsive, and completely immersive’'Written with the same emotional intensity and thought provoking honesty as his longer works’'Packs a hard hitting punch with its depth of emotional understanding of what it is to be human’'What an astoundingly brilliant piece of writing this is . . . by its end you feel as though you have read something much more epic in length'
£12.99
Little, Brown Book Group The Viper: The dark and sexy spin-off series from the beloved Black Dagger Brotherhood
'Utterly absorbing and deliciously erotic' Angela Knight'Hot, sexy, unique, intriguingly wicked' Christine FeehanIn the next Prison Camp instalment, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author J. R. Ward pens a heart-wrenching tale of love and betrayal in the Black Dagger Brotherhood world . . . Framed for the grisly murder of his shellan , Kane is condemned to the notorious prison camp - unaware of the dark truth behind his arranged mating. Centuries later, when he is horribly burned while attempting to save others, he prays he'll finally be reunited in the Fade with his mate . . . not knowing what revelations await him.Nadya is a self-taught nurse who does what she can to ease the suffering of the prisoners. When Kane comes under her care, she cannot help but empathise with his condition for very personal reasons - and as the guards take him away one last time, she fears he is facing a terrible death.After a daring rescue, Kane is offered a treatment that will change his very nature. Choosing life, for the time being, he goes back for the female who took such good care of him - but his duty to Nadya sets him on a collision course with his own past. When long-buried secrets are exposed, his self-destruction is inevitable . . . unless true love can save his soul.Find out why readers are OBSESSED with the Black Dagger Brotherhood . . . Insanely good! . . . Intensely romantic and straight up flipping steamy, violent and gruesome, heartbreaking and deep. Her addictive writing tells a story like none other' Goodreads reviewer'I can't get enough of these sexy, tough, intriguing vampires' Amazon reviewer'Emotional by epic proportions' Kobo reviewer'The Black Dagger Brotherhood is a twisting, often surprising, but always awesome read' Amazon reviewer'A must read' Goodreads reviewer'The story had me captivated the whole way' Kobo reviewer'Each and every character is compelling' Amazon reviewer
£9.99
Dorling Kindersley Ltd American Revolution
Explore like never before a journey through one of the most famous revolutionary wars in history. Become an eyewitness to the American struggle for independence, from the events that sparked the war to the signing of the Constitution, this picture-led guide will take you on a visual tour through revolutionary America like never before. Discover how American soldiers won battles against the great British Empire, learn how soldiers were drilled, and go face-to-face with American revolutionaries including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. Throughout the pages of this newly- revised incredible history book, you can expect to find: -Up to 20 per cent new images, including photography and updated diagrams-All information updated by expert consultants-Packed with amazing facts, infographics, statistics, and timelines-Includes brand new eyewitness accounts from experts in the fieldThis museum in a book uses striking full-colour photographs and illustrations of colonial weaponry, the notorious British red-coat uniform, deadly warships, the historic Declaration of Independence, and much more as well as amazing facts, infographics, statistics, and timelines to help bring this extraordinary war to life. The unique visual approach immerses curious children in every page, and the added wall chart is the perfect historical-themed accessory for the bedroom or classroom! A must-have volume for curious children aged 9+ with a thirst for knowledge and learning, alongside teachers, parents and librarians.So, what's new? Part of DK's best-selling Eyewitness series, this popular title has been reinvigorated for the next generation of information-seekers and stay-at-home explorers, with a fresh new look, up to 20 per cent new images, including photography and updated diagrams, updated information, and a new "eyewitness" feature with fascinating first-hand accounts from experts in the field.Explore the series!Globally, the Eyewitness series has sold more than 50 million copies over 30 years. Join the journey to combat climate change with Eyewitness Climate Change or take a trip aboard the most famous ship in history with Eyewitness Titanic.
£9.99
Penguin Books Ltd The Collected Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker, more than any of her contemporaries, captured the spirit of the Jazz Age in her poetry and prose, and The Collected Dorothy Parker includes an introduction by Brendan Gill in Penguin Modern Classics.Dorothy Parker was the most talked-about woman of her day, notorious as the hard-drinking bad girl with a talent for stinging repartee and endlessly quotable one-liners. The decadent 1920s and 1930s in New York were a time of great experiment and daring for women. For the rich, life seemed a continual party, but the excesses took their emotional toll. In the bitingly witty poems and stories collected here, along with her articles and reviews, she brilliantly captures the spirit of the decadent Jazz Age in New York, exposing both the dazzle and the darkness. But beneath the sharp perceptions and acidic humour, much of her work poignantly expresses the deep vulnerability of a troubled, self-destructive woman who, in the words of philosopher Irwin Edman, was 'a Sappho who could combine a heartbreak with a wisecrack'.Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) was born in West End, New Jersey, and grew up in New York. In 1916 she sold some of her poetry to the editor of Vogue, and was subsequently given an editorial position on the magazine. She then became drama critic of Vanity Fair and the central figure of the celebrated Algonquin Round Table, whose members included George S. Kaufman and Harpo Marx. Her collections of poems included Enough Rope (1926) and Not So Deep as a Well (1936), and her collections of stories included Here Lies (1939); in addition, she collaborated on and wrote screenplays including the Oscar-winning A Star is Born (1937), and Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942).If you enjoyed The Collected Dorothy Parker, you might like Truman Capote's The Complete Stories, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.'She managed to express her real feelings in stanzas which snap and glitter like a Chanel handbag'Peter Ackroyd, The Times
£12.99
Taylor Trade Publishing Finding Anything About Everything in Texas: 100 Credible Books & 100 Reliable Websites
Back Cover Copy-with author photo Finding Anything about Everything in Texas offers a crash course in locating information about the Lone Star State. Each chapter begins with an engaging, little-known, even quirky story and then shows the reader how to follow the printed and electronic trail to uncover more details. Information sleuths discover the facts about "Santa Anna's Leg," "The Bird that Flew Backward," and "Heroes, Heroines, and Hoaxes" as well as the answers to questions like "Who Came, Who Stayed? Who Was Run Off?" and advice like "Don't Dig Up More Snakes Than You Can Kill." A field guide for information seekers, this book gives serious help in an entertaining romp through legendary Texas, authentic Texas, and virtual Texas. A teacher, historian, and information consultant to government agencies, film studios, and businesses, Edward M. Walters, Ph.D., has over twenty-five years experience retrieving information from special collections, databases, and the internet and translating it into user friendly form. Creator, script writer, narrator, and performer of the PBS television program "The People's Outlaw in American Folk Music," he was Director of the Eugene McDermott Library at the University of Texas at Dallas and now lives in Dallas, Texas. (with color photo head shot included in two prints and on disk) Back Cover Sample Questions · What notorious Texas villain dug up his amputated leg, paraded it through the streets, and gave it a full military burial to manage a political comeback? · What Texas steer-wrestling rodeo performer developed a method of bulldogging a steer by the lip? · What Texas historic fort today has adopted the Oozlefinch, "a rare featherless bird that flies backward," as its mascot? · How did the towns of Dime Box, Ding Dong, and Direct, Texas, get their names? · What does it mean to refer to someone as "last year's bird nest with the bottom punched out?" · How much did the painted fiberglass Enron cow sculpture, Moost-Imoovative, sell for at Sotheby's auction in 20
£13.66
Rowman & Littlefield B. Traven: A Vision of Mexico (Latin American Silhouettes)
Author of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and other popular novels about Mexico, B. Traven surrounded his identity with mysteries designed to confound biographers. Now Heidi Zogbaum has produced a study of this enigmatic yet important author, linking his oeuvre with both Mexican and German politics of the 1920s and 1930s. Most previous works on Traven have been either literary studies or mere attempts to establish his identity. Past theories, for example, have labelled him the illegitimate son of Kaiser Wilhelm II or of Mexican President, Adolfo Lopez Mateos. Dr Zogbaum, however, systematically explores for the first time Traven's fascination with the great political episodes of his day. The German writer who would call himself B. Traven came to Mexico in 1924, drawn like many other left-wing intellectuals by the country's revolutionary experiment. In the following years he wrote novels and short stories that initially glorified, then criticized, the country's economic and political systems. His huge output introduced German, British and US audiences to recent developments in Mexico and to the country's rural workers, whose exploitation continued nearly unchecked under the new regime. The book is organized chronologically, taking the reader through Traven's career from his arrival in Mexico to his final writings in 1940. In the course of her analysis, Dr Zogbaum provides detailed discussions of all of Traven's major novels, showing how Mexican history inspired him and shaped his works. In addition, this study reveals how events in Germany, where Traven's primary audience lived, affected his writing. While entertaining his readers, Traven sought also to further their political education, using events in Mexico as starting points for commentary on Hitler's dictatorship. Finally, Dr Zogbaum establishes the value of Traven's works as historical sources documenting the notorious logging trade of southern Mexico. Scholars of modern German literature and proletarian fiction should find this volume useful. However, its treatment of Traven in the context of contemporary politics should make this book an equally useful source for anyone interested in revolutionary Mexico and the far-reaching economic problems the country still faces.
£121.03
Hoover Institution Press,U.S. Eric Hoffer: The Longshoreman Philosopher
Eric Hoffer was unknown in the American literary and philosophical scene in 1951 when he published his first book, The True Believer. Almost overnight, the San Francisco dockworker became a public figure, helped by a 1956 profile in Look magazine that identified Hoffer as "Ike's Favorite Author"—elevating this blue-collar working man to the level of President Eisenhower's bedside table. Recognized as a highly original thinker, he became known as the "Longshoreman Philosopher." In this book, Tom Bethell paints a new, insightful portrait of this American original. He draws much of his material from Hoffer's personal papers—acquired by the Hoover Institution in 2000—and interviews with those who knew the man, as well as his own interviews with Hoffer, conducted shortly before his death. The result is a detailed portrait of an enigmatic philosopher who was interested in probing the depths of human behavior and discovering the motivations behind the twentieth century's wars and revolutions.Hoffer's life divides into two roughly equal parts. The first part is from birth to his move to San Francisco after Pearl Harbor. The second is his life in San Francisco. Before Pearl Harbor, Hoffer's life is documented only by what he said or wrote. His best friend, Lili Osborne, summarized the difficulty: "all we know about Eric's early life is what he told us." There is a wealth of information on his later life, however, and Bethell reveals it in great detail. He tells of Hoffer's emergence as a public figure in the 1950s, a period he referred to as a "paradise of lost innocence." He details the whirlwind that was Hoffer's life in the 1960s—a decade notorious for attitudes that Hoffer grew to detest—when he became a well-known figure on the national stage. And he provides an insightful look at Hoffer's gradual withdrawal from public life until his death in 1983.
£21.30
Louisiana State University Press The Fonville Winans Cookbook: Recipes and Photographs from a Louisiana Artist
Fonville Winans achieved fame with his crisp black-and- white photographs of midcentury Louisiana life, capturing indelible images of Depression-era Cajuns on Grand Isle, brides and socialites around Baton Rouge, and an array of (sometimes notorious) politicians and public figures. But many locals also knew the renowned photographer as a passionate cook who spent decades experimenting in the kitchen and perfecting dishes that ranged from Louisiana creole classics to popular foods and international cuisines, along with a healthy dose of cocktails for entertaining. The Fonville Winans Cookbook features over 100 recipes created by the world-famous photographer, often accompanied by his notes on his cooking trials as well as his comments on successful dishes.After Fonville's death in 1992, his daughter-in-law Melinda discovered journals full of original recipes, many extensively annotated over the years with his remarks on how to prepare dishes that would live up to his demanding standards. This bon vivant's love of spicy, roux-based dishes is evident in a dizzying array of recipes for Cajun gumbos, bisques, rice dishes, and other Louisiana staples. The state's celebrated seafood features in the recipes as well, with crabs and crawfish as central ingredients of many dishes, including his iconic Pintail Crab Stew, named for the boat in which he explored the coasts of Grand Isle in the 1930s. Fonville also investigated food trends popular in the 1950s and 1960s, developing his own recipes for unusual dishes such as Jook, Azafrán Rice, and Coquina Stew. His appreciation for Mexican food resulted in recipes for margaritas, mole, and, of course, hot tamales, which he made by hand.Along with a biography of Fonville culled from the memories of family members and friends, The Fonville Winans Cookbook presents dozens of his photographs, including many images never before published. It offers a new perspective on a man celebrated for capturing the spirit of Louisiana, pairing beautiful photography with easy-to-prepare, satisfying recipes steeped in the state's culture and cuisine.
£33.95
Rowman & Littlefield A Yankee in Meiji Japan: The Crusading Journalist Edward H. House
This unique book introduces nineteenth-century Japan through the compelling life story of Boston journalist Edward H. House (1836-1901), America's first regular correspondent in Japan. House's accomplishments were breathtaking in variety: shaping the reputations of John Brown and Mark Twain, influencing American attitudes toward Asia, persuading Congress to return a massive indemnity to Japan, editing Tokyo's earliest English-language newspaper (Tokio Times), constructing a powerful case against imperialism, and introducing Western orchestral music to Japan. House's experiences also illustrated many of the era's key themes: Japan's use of public relations as a diplomatic tool, the contentious relations of the expatriate community, the role foreign advisors played in Japan's drive toward modernity, and the complicated nature of U.S.-Japan relations. The book captures the human drama of a special breed of early journalist. It recounts the bohemianism that made House and his friends (e.g., Walt Whitman, Artemus Ward) notorious. It narrates his tender, tortured relationship with Aoki Koto, a girl he adopted when she was on the verge of suicide. It shows a courageous struggle with gout, including 20 years in a wheelchair given to him by the powerful Okuma Shigenobu. And it details a deep friendship with Mark Twain, which eventually was destroyed by a dispute over The Prince and the Pauper. Twain's unpublished 50-page manuscript on the experience, Concerning the Scoundrel E. H. House, is introduced here for the first time. Meticulously researched, the book draws on House's voluminous writings and on hundreds of letters between House and major figures in both America and Japan, including Mark Twain, U.S. Grant, John Russell Young, Edmund Clarence Stedman, Okuma Shigenobu, and Inoue Kaoru. With its lively, accessible prose and seamless interweaving of the life of House with the history of the Meiji era, this book will be welcomed by students, scholars, and general readers interested in modern Japanese history and in America's nineteenth-century foreign relations.
£114.24
University Press of Kansas Renegade for Justice: Defending the Defenseless in an Outlaw World
“This is a book of courtroom war stories, drawn from my forty years of experience as an obscure lawyer for the underdog and the downtrodden.” So begins Renegade for Justice, a memoir of a public interest lawyer driven by the cause of justice. While the stories Stephen Saltonstall tells are entertaining, they are also instructive, providing, as he says, “an insider look at the American justice system, which is rigged against the poor and people of color and tolerates police perjury.”Renegade for Justice begins by telling the story of how and why a privileged kid from Cambridge, Massachusetts, broke from family tradition and devoted his professional life to defending the defenseless in a justice system that is crippled by systemic injustice. Activist lawyer Stephen Saltonstall brings readers into the world of criminal defense by recounting narratives of his cases, including a successful attack on a Massachusetts death penalty statute, appeals of two notorious homicide cases (a serial murderer and a cop-killer), an effort to save the life of a little boy whose parents refused to give him the medical treatment he needed for acute lymphocytic leukemia, free speech cases for students and an environmentalist carpenter, litigation to save critical black bear and neotropical migratory songbird habitat from US Forest Service clear-cutting, and more. In a system biased against the public interest and the underprivileged, Saltonstall gives people a model for practicing values-based law.Channeling the spirit of radicals like William Kunstler, Saltonstall writes not only for activists who want to better understand our society, but also for those thinking about becoming a lawyer. As he writes in the preface, “I hope my stories will challenge those of you—you know who you are, you who dream of soft landings in the glittering halls of boring, soul-free law firms doing the bidding of the uber-rich and powerful—to visualize the alternative, a career that’s built on cases and causes that further the public interest, human rights, and care of the natural world.
£26.95
Pan Macmillan Too Big to Jail: HSBC and the Banking Scandal of the Century
‘Packed with insights and details that will both amaze and appal you’ – Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland and Butler to the WorldFrom journalist Chris Blackhurst, Too Big to Jail unveils how HSBC facilitated mass money laundering schemes for brutal drug kingpins and rogue nations – and thereby helped to grow one of the deadliest drugs empires the world has ever seen.While HSBC likes to sell itself as ‘the world’s local bank’ – the friendly face of corporate and personal finance – it was one decade ago hit with a record US fine of $1.9 billion. In pursuit of their goal of becoming the biggest bank in the world, between 2003 and 2010, HSBC allowed El Chapo and the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most notorious and murderous criminal organizations in the world, to turn its ill-gotten money into clean dollars.How did a bank, which boasts ‘we’re committed to helping protect the world’s financial system on which millions of people depend, by only doing business with customers who meet our high standards of transparency’ come to facilitate Mexico’s richest drug baron? And how did a bank that as recently as 2002 had been named ‘one of the best-run organizations in the world’ become so entwined with one of the most barbaric groups of gangsters on the planet?Too Big to Jail is an extraordinary story, brilliantly told by writer, commentator and former editor of The Independent, Chris Blackhurst, that starts in Hong Kong and ranges across London, Washington, the Cayman Islands and Mexico, where HSBC saw the opportunity to become the largest bank in the world, and El Chapo seized the chance to fuel his murderous empire by laundering his drug proceeds through the bank. It brings together an extraordinary cast of politicians, bankers, drug dealers, FBI officers and whistle-blowers, and asks what price does greed have? Whose job is it to police global finance? And why did not a single person go to prison for facilitating the murderous expansion of a global drug empire?
£10.99
Skyhorse Publishing Who Really Killed Nicole?: O. J. Simpson's Closest Confidant Tells All
The True Story Behind the Murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, from O.J. Simpson's Closest Confidante It’s the greatest crime story ever to play out on national television—the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson, the 35-year-old wife of famed pro football star O.J. Simpson, and Ron Goldman, a 25-year-old restaurant worker and friend of Nicole, who were brutally murdered by an unknown assailant outside Nicole’s home in Brentwood, California, on the evening of Sunday, June 12, 1994. Charged with the murders, O.J. Simpson underwent in October 1995 a nationally televised murder trial that lasted nearly nine months, ending in a dramatic acquittal that was watched live by over one-hundred-million people – one of the largest audiences to ever witness anything in the history of television. It was called the “trial of the century.” But people still want to know what really happened that summer night when Nicole Brown Simpson’s and Ron Goldman’s lives were literally cut short, and now, Norman Pardo—O.J.'s closest confidante and business manager for twenty years—offers readers the true story behind these murders. With revelatory never-before-seen evidence and previously undisclosed interviews with people who knew Simpson and Goldman, Pardo makes the case that the real killer was not O.J., whose only aim was to protect his children from Simpson's lifestyle. Rather, Pardo argues, the true murderer was notorious serial killer Glen Rogers, whose testimony in this book just may hold the key to unlocking the case once and for all. Equal parts eye-opening, shocking, and entertaining, Who Really Killed Nicole? is essential reading for everyone interested in the O.J. Simpson trial and the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, anyone interested in the case of Glen Rogers, and all those who still want to know the truth of what happened that fateful June evening in 1994.
£17.09
University of Minnesota Press Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works
When the hail starts to fall, Atina Diffley doesn’t compare it to golf balls. She’s a farmer. It’s “as big as a B-size potato.” As her bombarded land turns white, she and her husband Martin huddle under a blanket and reminisce: the one-hundred-mile-per-hour winds; the eleven-inch rainfall (“that broccoli turned out gorgeous”); the hail disaster of 1977. The romance of farming washed away a long time ago, but the love? Never. In telling her story of working the land, coaxing good food from the fertile soil, Atina Diffley reminds us of an ultimate truth: we live in relationships—with the earth, plants and animals, families and communities. A memoir of making these essential relationships work in the face of challenges as natural as weather and as unnatural as corporate politics, her book is a firsthand history of getting in at the “ground level” of organic farming. One of the first certified organic produce farms in the Midwest, the Diffleys’ Gardens of Eagan helped to usher in a new kind of green revolution in the heart of America’s farmland, supplying their roadside stand and a growing number of local food co-ops. This is a story of a world transformed—and reclaimed—one square acre at a time.And yet, after surviving punishing storms and the devastating loss of fifth-generation Diffley family land to suburban development, the Diffleys faced the ultimate challenge: the threat of eminent domain for a crude oil pipeline proposed by one of the largest privately owned companies in the world, notorious polluters Koch Industries. As Atina Diffley tells her David-versus-Goliath tale, she gives readers everything from expert instruction in organic farming to an entrepreneur’s manual on how to grow a business to a legal thriller about battling corporate arrogance to a love story about a single mother falling for a good, big-hearted man.
£15.99
University of Pennsylvania Press Machiavelli's Legacy: "The Prince" After Five Hundred Years
Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince is one of the most celebrated and notorious books in the history of Western political thought. It continues to influence discussions of war and peace, the nature of politics, and the relation of private ethics to public duties. Ostensibly a sixteenth-century manual of instruction on certain aspects of princely rule and behavior, The Prince anticipates and complicates modern political and philosophical questions. What is the right order of society? Can Western politics still be the model for progress toward peace and prosperity, or does our freedom to create our individual purposes and pursuits undermine our public responsibilities? Are the characteristics of our politics markedly different, for better or for worse, than the politics of earlier eras? Machiavelli argues that there is no ideal, transcendent order to which one can conform, and that the right order is merely the one that has the capacity to persist over time. The Prince's emphasis on the importance of an effective truth over any abstract ideal marks it as one of the first works of modern political philosophy. Machiavelli's Legacy situates Machiavelli in general and The Prince in particular at the birth of modernity. Joining the conversation with established Machiavelli scholars are political theorists, Americanists, and international relations scholars, ensuring a diversity of viewpoints and approaches. Each contributor elucidates different features of Machiavelli's thinking, from his rejection of classical antiquity and Christianity, to his proposed dissolution of natural roles and hierarchies among human beings. The essays cover topics such as Machiavelli's vision for a heaven-sent redemptive ruler of Italy, an argument that Machiavelli accomplished a profoundly democratic turn in political thought, and a tough-minded liberal critique of his realistic agenda for political life, resulting in a book that is, in effect, a spirited conversation about Machiavelli's legacy. Contributors: Thomas E. Cronin, David Hendrickson, Harvey Mansfield, Clifford Orwin, Arlene Saxonhouse, Maurizio Viroli, David Wootton, Catherine Zuckert.
£44.10
Columbia University Press Long Road Home: Testimony of a North Korean Camp Survivor
Kim Yong shares his harrowing account of life in a labor camp--a singularly despairing form of torture carried out by the secret state. Although it is known that gulags exist in North Korea, little information is available about their organization and conduct, for prisoners rarely escape both incarceration and the country alive. Long Road Home shares the remarkable story of one such survivor, a former military official who spent six years in a gulag and experienced firsthand the brutality of an unconscionable regime. As a lieutenant colonel in the North Korean army, Kim Yong enjoyed unprecedented privilege in a society that closely monitored its citizens. He owned an imported car and drove it freely throughout the country. He also encountered corruption at all levels, whether among party officials or Japanese trade partners, and took note of the illicit benefits that were awarded to some and cruelly denied to others. When accusations of treason stripped Kim Yong of his position, the loose distinction between those who prosper and those who suffer under Kim Jong-il became painfully clear. Kim Yong was thrown into a world of violence and terror, condemned to camp No. 14 in Hamkyeong province, North Korea's most notorious labor camp. As he worked a constant shift 2,400 feet underground, daylight became Kim's new luxury; as the months wore on, he became intimately acquainted with political prisoners, subhuman camp guards, and an apocalyptic famine that killed millions. After years of meticulous planning, and with the help of old friends, Kim escaped and came to the United States via China, Mongolia, and South Korea. Presented here for the first time in its entirety, his story not only testifies to the atrocities being committed behind North Korea's wall of silence but also illuminates the daily struggle to maintain dignity and integrity in the face of unbelievable hardship. Like the work of Solzhenitsyn, this rare portrait tells a story of resilience as it reveals the dark forms of oppression, torture, and ideological terror at work in our world today.
£31.50
HarperCollins Publishers A Most Intriguing Lady
The new Sunday Times bestseller! ‘She’s done it again, and I bet this one will be even more successful.’ Jeffrey Archer ‘Written with an incredible eye for detail of the historical setting, this wonderful romantic tale will earn your respect and keep you entertained’ Adele Parks ‘If you loved Her Heart for a Compass, you will love [this book]’ Sunday Times bestselling author Fern Britton ‘A rollicking, romantic tale of love and intrigue in aristocratic Victorian Scotland. Sarah Ferguson’s fascinatingly detailed novel kept me turning the pages as it’s very entertaining.’ Dame Joan Collins ‘A wonderful and colourful romance, well-researched, well-realised, and rich in historical detail. In short, another beguiling read from the Duchess of York’Lord Julian Fellowes ‘A fantastic historical mystery with plenty of passion as you would expect from the Duchess of York. A triumph’New York Times bestselling author Roma Downey OBE ‘Fast paced, romantic and good fun, this is a modern take on a classic period, with delightful characters to boot.’ Candis Magazine Scandals, seduction and secrets… and one woman’s quest to uncover the truth. The most intriguing historical romance of 2024, perfect for fans of Bridgerton. Victorian London is notorious for its pickpockets. But in the country houses of the elite, gentleman burglars, art thieves and con-men prey on the rich and titled. With reputations at stake, wealthy victims wouldn’t dream of going to the police. They need a society insider, a person of discretion and finely-tuned powers of observation, adept at navigating intrigue… Lady Mary Montagu Douglas Scott is the fiercely intelligent youngest daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch. Mary has deliberately cultivated a mousey persona that allows her to remain overlooked and underestimated by all. It’s the perfect cover for a sleuth… At a party at Drumlanrig Castle, Mary meets the handsome, distinguished war veteran, Colonel Walter Trefusis, and finds her powers of deduction tested. Like Mary, he too lives a double life, and together they form unlikely alliance to solve a series of audacious crimes …
£13.49
Cork University Press The Booles and the Hintons: Two Dynasties That Helped Shape the Modern World
In 1983 Gerry Kennedy set off on a tour through Russia, China, Japan and the USA to visit others involved in the global anti-war movement. Only dimly aware of his Victorian ancestors: George Boole, forefather of the digital revolution and James Hinton, eccentric philosopher and advocate of polygamy, he had directly followed in the footsteps of two dynasties of radical thinkers and doers.Their notable achievements, in which the women were particularly prominent, involved many spheres. Boole's wife, Mary Everest, niece of George Everest, surveyor of the eponymous mountain, was an early advocate of hands-on education. Of the five talented Boole daughters, Ethel Voynich, wife of the discoverer of the enigmatic, still unexplained Voynich Manuscript, campaigned with Russian anarchists to overthrow the Tsar. Her 1897 novel The Gadfly, filmed later with music by Shostakovich, sold in millions behind the Iron Curtain. She was rumoured to have had an affair with the notorious 'Ace of Spies', Sidney Reilly. One of Ethel's sisters married Charles Howard Hinton: a leading exponent of the esoteric realm of the fourth dimension and inventor of the gunpowder baseball-pitcher.Of their descendants, Carmelita Hinton also pioneered progressive education in the USA at her school in Putney, Vermont. Her children dedicated their lives to Mao's China. Appalled by the dropping on Japan of the atomic bomb that she had helped design, Joan Hinton defected to China and actively engaged in the Cultural Revolution. William Hinton wrote the influential documentary Fanshen based on his experience in 1948 of revolutionary change in a Shanxi village. Other members of the clan became renowned in their fields of physics, entomology and botany. Their combined legacy of independent and constructive thinking is perhaps typified by the invention of the Jungle Gym: the climbing-frame now used by children the world over. In The Booles and the Hintons the author embarks on a quest to reveal the stories behind their remarkable lives.
£38.47
Oxford University Press Inc The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe
In 1144, the mutilated body of William of Norwich, a young apprentice leatherworker, was found abandoned outside the city's walls. The boy bore disturbing signs of torture, and a story spread that it was a ritual murder, performed by Jews in imitation of the Crucifixion as a mockery of Christianity. The outline of William's tale eventually gained currency far beyond Norwich, and the idea that Jews engaged in ritual murder became firmly rooted in the European imagination. E.M. Rose's engaging book delves into the story of William's murder and the notorious trial that followed to uncover the origin of the ritual murder accusation - known as the "blood libel" - in western Europe in the Middle Ages. Focusing on the specific historical context - 12th-century ecclesiastical politics, the position of Jews in England, the Second Crusade, and the cult of saints - and suspensefully unraveling the facts of the case, Rose makes a powerful argument for why the Norwich Jews (and particularly one Jewish banker) were accused of killing the youth, and how the malevolent blood libel accusation managed to take hold. She also considers four "copycat" cases, in which Jews were similarly blamed for the death of young Christians, and traces the adaptations of the story over time. In the centuries after its appearance, the ritual murder accusation provoked instances of torture, death and expulsion of thousands of Jews and the extermination of hundreds of communities. Although no charge of ritual murder has withstood historical scrutiny, the concept of the blood libel is so emotionally charged and deeply rooted in cultural memory that it endures even today. Rose's groundbreaking work, driven by fascinating characters, a gripping narrative, and impressive scholarship, provides clear answers as to why the blood libel emerged when it did and how it was able to gain such widespread acceptance, laying the foundations for enduring antisemitic myths that continue to present.
£12.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Wicked Widow: A Wicked City Novel
Gin Kelly, the wicked redhead, is back! Readers will delight in next installment of the Wicked City series by New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams. June 1925. Audacious Appalachian flapper Geneva “Gin” Kelly prepares to trade her high-flying ways for respectable marriage to Oliver Anson Marshall, a steadfast Prohibition agent who happens to hail from one of New York’s most distinguished families. But just as wedding bells chime, the head of the notorious East Coast rum-running racket—and Anson’s mortal enemy—turns up murdered at a society funeral, and their short-lived honeymoon bliss goes up in a spectacular blaze that sends Anson back undercover...and into the jaws of a trap from which not even Gin can rescue him. As violence explodes around her, Gin must summon all her considerable moxie to trace the tentacles of this sinister organization back to their shocking source, and face down a legendary American family at a rigged game it has no intention of losing. June 1998. When Ella Dommerich’s ninetysomething society queen aunt Julie ropes her into digging up dirt on Senator (and Presidential candidate) Franklin Hardcastle in order to settle old family scores, she couldn’t be less enthusiastic. Pregnant Ella’s recently ditched her unfaithful husband and settled into cozy—if complicated—domesticity with her almost-too-good-to-be-true musician boyfriend, Hector. But then the Hardcastle secrets lead to a web of shady dealings Ella’s uncovered in her job as a financial analyst, and the bodies start to tumble out of the venerable woodwork. With the help of her ex-husband and her mysterious connection to a certain redheaded flapper, Ella digs up more than mere dirt…only to discover herself standing alone between a legendarily ruthless family and the prize it’s sought for generations. What ugly secrets lurk in the opulent enclaves—and bank accounts--of America’s richest families? And can two determined women from two different generations thwart the murderous legacy of the demon liquor?
£11.55
The Lilliput Press Ltd The State of Dark
Judith Mok was born in the Netherlands, to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. She trained as a classical singer and travelled the world performing as a soloist, while publishing a novel and poetry collection there. For the last twenty years she has been based in Ireland, where she has become the country's leading voice coach, working with classical singers and many international pop stars. In recent years she started to write in English, publishing a novel and poetry collection and contributing to publications like the Irish Times. The State of Dark is a memoir and detective story. Like many children of Holocaust survivors, she was raised with the emotional trauma of having no other family members, while her parents tried to rebuild their lives in postwar Europe. Despite the constant and occasionally intrusive presence of the past - Anne Frank's father Otto makes an emotional visit to her father to hand over some letters - she had little concrete information about the hundreds of members of her family who died. All the same, the Holocaust and its consequences continued to haunt her life. At one point in her career she worked with the great German soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. It was only years later that she discovered the full extent of Schwarzkopf 's collaboration with the Nazi regime. Not only was she a full member of the National Socialist Party, but was also the mistress of Hans Frank, the notorious 'Butcher of Poland'. Later, Mok would discover that Schwarzkopf had entertained the German troops in Poland at around the same time her family were being murdered there. A chance phone call made from her Dublin home in search of more information unleashes a whole process whereby Mok disovers, in shocking and intimate detail, the terrible fate of her family. The State of Dark is a highly original, moving and beautifully written memoir of the so-called Second Generation trauma, which documents how the Holocaust continues to be a living issue in European life and culture, including in Ireland.
£14.00
Vintage Publishing Henrietta Maria: Conspirator, Warrior, Phoenix Queen
***A Best Book of 2022, The Times******Book of the Year, Spectator***A myth-busting biography of Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, which retells the dramatic story of the civil war from her perspectiveHenrietta Maria, Charles I's queen, is the most reviled consort to have worn the crown of Britain's three kingdoms. Condemned as that 'Popish brat of France', a 'notorious whore' and traitor, she remains in popular memory the wife who wore the breeches and turned her husband Catholic - so causing a civil war - and a cruel and bigoted mother.Leanda de Lisle's White King was hailed as 'the definitive modern biography about Charles I' (Observer). Here she considers Henrietta Maria's point of view, unpicking the myths to reveal a very different queen. We meet a new bride who enjoyed annoying her uptight husband, a leader of fashion in clothes and cultural matters, an innovative builder and gardener and an advocate of the female voice in public affairs. No bigot, her closest friends included 'Puritans' as well as Catholics, and she led the anti-Spanish faction at court linked to the Protestant cause in the Thirty Years' War. When civil war came, the strategic planning and fundraising of his 'She Generalissimo' proved crucial to Charles's campaign.The story takes us to courts across Europe, and looks at the fate of Henrietta Maria's mother and sisters, who also faced civil wars. Her estrangement from her son Henry is explained, and the image of the Restoration queen as an irrelevant crone is replaced with Henrietta Maria as an influential 'phoenix queen', presiding over a court with 'more mirth' even than that of the Merry Monarch, Charles II.It is time to look again at this despised queen and judge if she is not in fact one of our most remarkable.'this is revisionist history at its absolute best' ANDREW ROBERTS'beautifully written and endlessly fascinating' ALEXANDER LARMAN'popular history of the finest kind' RONALD HUTTON
£14.61
Monacelli Press Michael Heizer: The Once and Future Monuments
The most comprehensive account available of Michael Heizer's art by a writer and curator who has critical experience with the artist and his work. Michael Heizer is among the greatest, and often least accessible, American artists. As one of the last living figures who launched the Land Art movement, his legacy of works that are literally and metaphorically monumental has an incalculable influence on the world of sculpture and environmental art. But his seclusion in the remote Nevada desert, as well as his notorious obduracy, have resulted in significant gaps in our critical understanding. Michael Heizer: The Once and Future Monuments spans the breadth of Heizer's career, uniquely combining fieldwork, personal narrative, and biographical research to create the first major assessment in years of this titan of American art. Author William L. Fox, founding director of the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art, has alternately been a sponsor, advocate, and critic of Heizer's work for decades. Fox's understanding of the artist's history and connection to landscape, his time spent with Heizer at the remote ranch where Heizer is finishing his magnum opus - the mile-long sculpture City - and his access to some of Heizer's key associates give him a unique position from which to discuss the artist's work. Fox has also made numerous site visits to Heizer's work - including early pieces in the Nevada desert now largely lost to the elements - to correct the often inconsistent accounts of their locations. Last, Fox imparts a crucial new understanding of Heizer's work by elaborating on the artist's bond with his father, the famed archaeologist and cultural ecologist Robert Heizer, who enlisted his son on important digs in Mexico and Peru, providing the young man with an appreciation of site, landscape, and geology that would thoroughly inform his work. Michael Heizer: The Once and Future Monuments is a long overdue addition to the critical and biographical literature of this major figure in American art.
£38.07
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Gordon Bennett and the First Yacht Race Across the Atlantic
The 1866 transatlantic yacht race was a match that saw three yachts battle their way across the Atlantic in the dead of winter in pursuit of a $90,000 prize. Six men died in the brutal and close-fought contest, and the event changed the perception of yachting from a slightly effete gentlemen’s pursuit into something altogether more rugged and adventurous. The race also symbolized the beginning of America’s ‘gilded age’, with its associated obscene wealth and largesse (the $90,000 prize put up by the three contestants is about $15 million in today’s money), as well as the thawing of relations between the US and UK. The narrative focuses on the victorious yacht Henrietta and her owner James Gordon Bennett. Bennett was the son of the multimillionaire proprietor of the New York Herald, and a notorious playboy. His infamous stunts included driving his carriage through the streets of New York naked, tipping a railway porter $30,000, and turning up at his own engagement party blind drunk and mistaking the fire for a urinal, which led to the coining of the phrase ‘Gordon Bennett!’. However, Bennett was also a serious yachtsman and had served with distinction during the civil war aboard Henrietta, and he was the only owner to be aboard his own boat during the race. Other characters include Bennett’s captain Samuel Samuels (legendary clipper skipper, ex-convict and occasional vaudeville actor), financier Leonard Jerome, aboard Henrietta as race invigilator (he also happened to be grandfather to Winston Churchill) and Stephen Fisk, a journalist so desperate to cover the race that he evaded a summons to appear as a witness in court and instead smuggled himself aboard Henrietta in a crate of champagne. Using the framework of the race to discuss the various historical themes, there’s ample drama, and the diverse and eccentric range of characters ensure that this is a book laced with plenty of human interest, scandal and adventure.
£10.99
Princeton University Press Economy of the Unlost: (Reading Simonides of Keos with Paul Celan)
The ancient Greek lyric poet Simonides of Keos was the first poet in the Western tradition to take money for poetic composition. From this starting point, Anne Carson launches an exploration, poetic in its own right, of the idea of poetic economy. She offers a reading of certain of Simonides' texts and aligns these with writings of the modern Romanian poet Paul Celan, a Jew and survivor of the Holocaust, whose "economies" of language are notorious. Asking such questions as, What is lost when words are wasted? and Who profits when words are saved? Carson reveals the two poets' striking commonalities. In Carson's view Simonides and Celan share a similar mentality or disposition toward the world, language and the work of the poet. Economy of the Unlost begins by showing how each of the two poets stands in a state of alienation between two worlds. In Simonides' case, the gift economy of fifth-century b.c. Greece was giving way to one based on money and commodities, while Celan's life spanned pre- and post-Holocaust worlds, and he himself, writing in German, became estranged from his native language. Carson goes on to consider various aspects of the two poets' techniques for coming to grips with the invisible through the visible world. A focus on the genre of the epitaph grants insights into the kinds of exchange the poets envision between the living and the dead. Assessing the impact on Simonidean composition of the material fact of inscription on stone, Carson suggests that a need for brevity influenced the exactitude and clarity of Simonides' style, and proposes a comparison with Celan's interest in the "negative design" of printmaking: both poets, though in different ways, employ a kind of negative image making, cutting away all that is superfluous. This book's juxtaposition of the two poets illuminates their differences--Simonides' fundamental faith in the power of the word, Celan's ultimate despair--as well as their similarities; it provides fertile ground for the virtuosic interplay of Carson's scholarship and her poetic sensibility.
£27.00
HarperCollins Publishers A Cornish Christmas Murder
‘A sparklingly delicious confection to satisfy the mystery reader’s appetite’ Helena Dixon, bestselling author of the Miss Underhay Mysteries A PINCH OF PARANOIA It’s three days before Christmas, and detective-turned-chef Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker is drafted in to cater a charity event run by a notorious millionaire at a 13th-century abbey on Bodmin Moor. A DASH OF DECEPTION Things get more complicated when a snowstorm descends, stranding them all, and the next morning they find one of the guests has been gruesomely murdered in their bed… A MURDER UNDER THE MISTLETOE Secrets mull in every corner – can Jodie solve the crime before the killer strikes again? A Cornish Christmas Murder is a must-read mystery full of heart and humour – perfect for fans of Richard Osman and The Appeal. This title was previously published in the US as A Murder Under the Mistletoe. What readers are saying… ‘She did it again! And this time with tinsel, Santa and mince pies… I have learned to not read Jodie Parker books on an empty stomach’ Natalie Normann, author of Christmas Island ‘I think Christie would be a big fan’ Tessa ‘A delicious English fictional dish that definitely deserves to be enjoyed without any moderation whatsoever! Yes, this is the perfect Xmas gift for a few hours of blissful reading’ Jean ‘I really loved this book and I finished it in a couple of hours accompanied by some delicious hot chocolate… the epitome of a cosy murder mystery perfect for a rainy day’ Louise ‘The book is full of secret passes and hidden doors, snarky comments and family love, red herrings and twisted plots, reveals and redemptions’ Linda ‘Another brilliant romp, despite a murder, in Cornwall. I am really enjoying this series, but the books do work as standalone pieces too’ Helen ‘I absolutely adored this book! The setting was perfect and I hope to re-read it again on a snowy winter day’ Crystal ‘Sit back in your favourite chair, hot chocolate at the ready and savour this perfect cozy read!’ Zoe
£9.99
Simon & Schuster The Princess Spy: The True Story of World War II Spy Aline Griffith, Countess of Romanones
What to Read in 2021 —The Washington Post The international bestselling author of the “exciting, suspenseful, inspirational” (Brad Thor, #1 New York Times bestselling author) Code Name: Lise weaves another exceptional and thrilling hidden history of an ordinary American girl who became one of the OSS’s most daring spies in World War II before marrying into European nobility. Perfect for fans of A Woman of No Importance and Code Girls.When Aline Griffith was born in a quiet suburban New York hamlet, no one had any idea that she would go on to live “a life of glamour and danger that Ingrid Bergman only played at in Notorious” (Time). As the US enters the Second World War, the young college graduate is desperate to aid in the war effort, but no one is interested in a bright-eyed young woman whose only career experience is modeling clothes. Aline’s life changes when, at a dinner party, she meets a man named Frank Ryan and reveals how desperately she wants to do her part for her country. Within a few weeks, he helps her join the Office of Strategic Services—forerunner of the CIA. With a code name and expert training under her belt, she is sent to Spain to be a coder, but is soon given the additional assignment of infiltrating the upper echelons of society, mingling with high-ranking officials, diplomats, and titled Europeans, any of whom could be an enemy agent. Against this glamorous backdrop of galas and dinner parties, she recruits sub-agents and engages in deep-cover espionage to counter Nazi tactics in Madrid. Even after marrying the Count of Romanones, one of the wealthiest men in Spain, Aline secretly continues her covert activities, being given special assignments when abroad that would benefit from her impeccable pedigree and social connections. Filled with twists, romance, and plenty of white-knuckled adventures fit for a James Bond film, The Princess Spy brings to vivid life the dazzling adventures of a remarkable American woman who risked everything to serve her country.
£15.96
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Bomber Command: Airfields of Lincolnshire
From the opening day of the Second World War, RAF Bomber Command took the offensive to the enemy and played a leading role in the liberation of Europe. Many of its squadrons were based in Lincolnshire, where the flat terrain and open fields made the county ideal for the development of new airfields. All of Bomber Command's major efforts involved the Lincolnshire-based squadrons. The Battles of the Ruhr, Hamburg and Berlin, during the hardest years of 1943/44, were just some of those when night after night hundreds of bombers took off from the county, many never to return. It was also from Lincolnshire that precision raids were mounted against targets such as the diesel engine factory at Augsburg, the notorious Dortmund-Ems Canal, the mighty German battleship Tirpitz, and, of course, the Ruhr Dams. Most of Lincolnshire's wartime bomber airfields have long gone, with many having reverted to their pre-war agricultural use. Only Coningsby, Scampton and Waddington remain in service with the RAF today, while others - such as Binbrook, Blyton, Spilsby, Strubby, Swinderby and Woodhall Spa - have long fallen victim to Defence cuts.Other airfields have survived and maintain the link with their flying past. All are included here, some well-known, others less so. From these airfields came countless acts of personal courage and self-sacrifice, with eight Victoria Crosses, the highest award for gallantry, being awarded to men flying from bomber airfields in Lincolnshire. All are included, as are stories of other personalities who brought these airfields to life. In all, the stories of the county's twenty-nine wartime airfields of Bomber Command are told, with a brief history of each accompanied by details of how to find them and what remains there today. Whatever your interest, be it aviation history or something more local, there is something to discover. Lincolnshire has truly earned its name of Bomber County.
£18.61
Little, Brown Book Group Evita Burned Down Our Pavilion: A Cricket Odyssey through Latin America
'A highly entertaining read, deftly melding social history with sporting memoir and travelogue' Mail on SundayA history of Latin America through cricketCricket was the first sport played in almost every country of the Americas - earlier than football, rugby or baseball. In 1877, when England and Australia played the inaugural Test match at the MCG, Uruguay and Argentina were already ten years into their derby played across the River Plate.The visionary cricket historian Rowland Bowen said that, during the highpoint of cricket in South America between the two World Wars, the continent could have provided the next Test nation. In Buenos Aires, where British engineers, merchants and meatpackers flocked to make their fortune, the standard of cricket was high: towering figures like Lord Hawke and Plum Warner took star-studded teams of Test cricketers to South America, only to be beaten by Argentina. A combined Argentine, Brazilian and Chilean team took on the first-class counties in England in 1932. The notion of Brazilians and Mexicans playing T20 at the Maracana or the Azteca today is not as far-fetched as it sounds.But Evita Burned Down Our Pavilion is also a social history of grit, industry and nation-building in the New World. West Indian fruit workers battled yellow fever and brutal management to carve out cricket fields next to the railway lines in Costa Rica. Cricket was the favoured sport of Chile's Nitrate King. Emperors in Brazil and Mexico used the game to curry favour with Europe. The notorious Pablo Escobar even had a shadowy connection to the game. The fate of cricket in South America was symbolised by Eva Peron ordering the burning down of the Buenos Aires Cricket Club pavilion when the club refused to hand over their premises to her welfare scheme.Cricket journalists Timothy Abraham and James Coyne take us on a journey to discover this largely untold story of cricket's fate in the world's most colourful continent. Fascinating and surprising, Evita Burned Down Our Pavilion is a valuable addition to cricketing and social history.
£12.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd A History of London County Lunatic Asylums & Mental Hospitals
From the Middle-Ages onwards, London's notorious Bedlam lunatic hospital saw the city's mad' locked away in dank cells, neglected and abused and without any real cure and little comfort. The unprecedented growth of the metropolis after the Industrial Revolution saw a perceived epidemic' of madness take hold, with county asylums' seen by those in power as the most humane or cost-effective way to offer the mass confinement and treatment believed necessary. The county of Middlesex - to which London once belonged - would build and open three huge county asylums from 1831, and when London became its own county in 1889 it would adopt all three and go on to build or run another eight such immense institutions. Each operated much like a self-contained town; home to thousands and often incorporating its own railway, laundries, farms, gardens, kitchens, ballroom, sports pitches, surgeries, wards, cells, chapel, mortuary, and more, in order to ensure the patients never needed to leave the asylum's grounds. Between them, at their peak London's eleven county asylums were home to around 25,000 patients and thousands more staff, and dominated the physical landscape as well as the public imagination from the 1830s right up to the 1990s. Several gained a legacy which lasted even beyond their closure, as their hulking, abandoned forms sat in overgrown sites around London, refusing to be forgotten and continuing to attract the attention of those with both curious and nefarious motives. Hanwell (St Bernard's), Colney Hatch (Friern), Banstead, Cane Hill, Claybury, Bexley, Manor, Horton, St Ebba's, Long Grove, and West Park went from being known as county lunatic asylums' to mental hospitals' and beyond. Reflecting on both the positive and negative aspects of their long and storied histories from their planning and construction to the treatments and regimes adopted at each, the lives of patients and staff through to their use during wartime, and the modernisation and changes of the 20th century, this book documents their stories from their opening up to their eventual closure, abandonment, redevelopment, or destruction.
£16.99
Oxford University Press One Hundred Letters From Hugh Trevor-Roper
The one hundred letters brought together for this book illustrate the range of Hugh Trevor-Roper's life and preoccupations: as an historian, a controversialist, a public intellectual, an adept in academic intrigues, a lover of literature, a traveller, a countryman. They depict a life of rich diversity; a mind of intellectual sparkle and eager curiosity; a character that relished the comédie humaine, and the absurdities, crotchets, and vanities of his contemporaries. The playful irony of Trevor-Roper's correspondence places him in a literary tradition stretching back to such great letter-writers as Madame de Sévigné and Horace Walpole. Though he generally shunned emotional self-exposure in correspondence as in company, his letters to the woman who became his wife reveal the surprising intensity and the raw depths of his feelings. Trevor-Roper was one of the most gifted scholars of his generation, and one of the most famous dons of his day. While still a young man, he made his name with his bestseller The Last Days of Hitler, and became notorious for his acerbic assaults on other historians. In his prime, Trevor-Roper appeared to have everything: a grey Bentley, a prestigious chair in Oxford, a beautiful country house, a wife with a title, and, eventually, a title of his own. But he failed to write the 'big book' expected of him, and tainted his reputation when in old age he erroneously authenticated the forged Hitler diaries. For an academic, Trevor-Roper's interests were extraordinarily wide, bringing him into contact with such diverse individuals as George Orwell and Margaret Thatcher, Albert Speer and Kim Philby, Katharine Hepburn and Rupert Murdoch. The tragicomedy of his tenure as Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, provided an appropriate finale to a career packed with incident. Trevor-Roper's letters to Bernard Berenson, published as Letters from Oxford in 2006, gave pleasure to a wide variety of readers. This more general selection of his correspondence has been long anticipated, and will delight anyone who values wit, erudition, and clear prose.
£18.99
Penguin Books Ltd The Island of Doctor Moreau
A parable on Darwinian theory, and a biting social satire, H.G. Wells's science fiction classic The Island of Dr Moreau is a fascinating exploration of what it is to be human. This Penguin Classics edition is edited by Patrick Parrinder with notes by Steven McLean and an introduction by Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale.Adrift in a dinghy, Edward Prendick, the single survivor from the good ship Lady Vain, is rescued by a vessel carrying a profoundly unusual cargo - a menagerie of savage animals. Tended to recovery by their keeper Montgomery, who gives him dark medicine that tastes of blood, Prendick soon finds himself stranded upon an uncharted island in the Pacific with his rescuer and the beasts. Here, he meets Montgomery's master, the sinister Dr. Moreau - a brilliant scientist whose notorious experiments in vivisection have caused him to abandon the civilised world. It soon becomes clear he has been developing these experiments - with truly horrific results.This edition includes a full biographical essay on Wells, a further reading list and detailed notes. Margaret Atwood's introduction explores the social and scientific relevance of this influential work.H.G. Wells (1866-1946) was a professional writer and journalist. Wells's prophetic imagination was first displayed in pioneering works of science fiction, but later he became an apostle of socialism, science and progress. Among his most popular works are The Time Machine (1895); The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), filmed with Bela Lugosi in 1932, and again in 1996 with Marlon Brando; The Invisible Man (1897); The War of the Worlds (1898), which was the subject of an Orson Welles radio adaptation that caused mass panic when it was broadcast, and a 2005 film directed by Stephen Spielberg; and The First Men in the Moon (1901), which predicted the first lunar landings.If you enjoyed The Island of Doctor Moreau, you might like Wells's The Time Machine, also available in Penguin Classics.
£8.42
Penguin Books Ltd Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade
Inspired by his own eccentric aunt, Patrick Dennis's Auntie Mame is a madcap comedy, published with an afterword by Matteo Codignola in Penguin Modern Classics.'Auntie Mame and I learned to love one another in as brief and painless a period as possible. That her amazing personality would attract me, just as it had seduced thousands of others, was a foregone conclusion. Her helter-skelter charm was, after all, notorious ...'When shy young heir Patrick is orphaned at the tender age of ten, the only family he has is his wealthy and eccentric aunt, a fabulous New York socialite named Mame. While prone to dramatic costumes, flights of fancy and expensive whims - not least her lives as a muse and a Southern belle - Auntie Mame will raise Patrick the only way she knows how: with madcap humour, mishaps, unforgettable friends and lots and lots of love. Turned into a play, a musical, and adapted into a 1974 film directed by Gene Saks and starring Lucille Ball, Auntie Mame is the most magnificent and hilarious work of love, style, wit and the life of a very modern Aunt. Patrick Dennis (1921-76) was one of the most widely read American authors of the 1950s and '60s. Among his sixteen novels, the majority of which were bestsellers, are Little Me, Around the World with Auntie Mame, Tony, How Firm a Foundation and Genius. A celebrity in bohemian New York culture, he led a double life as a bisexual man and a conventional husband and father, until becoming an exemplary butler to the elite in West Palm Beach and Chicago in the 1970s. In his own words, he attributed this change to being 'out of fashion' - and, 'I've said everything that I had to say. Twice.'If you enjoyed Auntie Mame, you might like Breakfast at Tiffany's, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.'Extravagant follies and delirious escapades'The New York Times
£9.99