Search results for ""author isabel"

For fans of Kate Morton and Tracy Rees comes a captivating novel about two women, separated by centuries, whose fates are bound together by one haunting secret. *** ‘A fascinating tale with intriguing twists.’ Barbara Erskine‘I was hooked from the first pages.’ Gill Paul‘Atmospheric and compelling’ Sarah Morgan‘You just can’t put it down. Brilliant!’ Katie Fforde *** ‘I see it all again: the silver moon swimming beneath the water and the golden gown billowing out about her…’ 1765: Lady Isabella Gerard asks her maid to take her new golden gown and destroy it. Its shimmering beauty has been tainted by the actions of her husband the night before. Three months later: Lord Eustace Gerard stands beside the lake looking down at the woman in the golden gown. As the body slowly rolls over to reveal her face, it’s clear this is not his intended victim… 1996: Fenella Brightwell steals a stunning gown from a stately home. Twenty years later and reeling from the end of an abusive marriage, she wonders if it has cursed her all this time. Now she’s determined to discover the history behind the beautiful golden dress…

Read more less

It's Christmas, and Phryne has an invitation to the Last Best party of 1928, a four-day extravaganza being held at Werribee Manor house and grounds by the Golden Twins, Isabella and Gerald Templar. She knew them in Paris, where they caused a sensation. Phryne is in two minds about going when she starts receiving anonymous threats warning her against attending. She promptly decides to accept the invitation - after all, no one tells Phryne what to do. At the Manor, she is accommodated in the Iris room, and at the party meets two polo-playing women, a Goat lady (and goat), a large number of glamorous young men and a very rude child called Tarquin. The acolytes of the golden twins are smoking hashish and dreaming, and Phryne finds that the jazz is as hot as the drinks are cold and indulges in flirtations, dancing, and mint juleps. Heaven.It all seems like good clean fun until three people are kidnapped, one of them the abominable child, and Phryne must puzzle her way through the cryptic clues of the scavenger hunt to retrieve the hostages and save the party from disaster.

Read more less

A sweeping history of how Union victory in the American Civil War inspired democratic reforms, revolutions, and emancipation movements in Europe and the AmericasThe Age of Reconstruction looks beyond post–Civil War America to tell the story of how Union victory and Lincoln’s assassination set off a dramatic international reaction that drove European empires out of the Americas, hastened the end of slavery in Latin America, and ignited a host of democratic reforms in Europe.In this international history of Reconstruction, Don Doyle chronicles the world events inspired by the Civil War. Between 1865 and 1870, France withdrew from Mexico, Russia sold Alaska to the United States, and Britain proclaimed the new state of Canada. British workers demanded more voting rights, Spain toppled Queen Isabella II and ended slavery in its Caribbean colonies, Cubans rose against Spanish rule, France overthrew Napoleon III, and the kingdom of Pope Pius IX fel

Read more less

Feminist rewriting of history is designed not merely to reshape our collective memory and collective imaginary but also to challenge deeply ingrained paradigms about knowledge production. This feminist rewriting raises important questions for early modern scholars, especially in bringing to life the works of our foremothers and in reconsidering women’s agency.Recovering Women’s Past, edited by Séverine Genieys-Kirk, is a collection of essays that focus on how women born before the nineteenth century have claimed a place in history and how they have been represented in the collective memory from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century. Scrutinizing the legacies of such politically minded women as Catherine de’ Medici, Queen Isabella of Castile, Emilie du Châtelet, and Olympe de Gouges, the volume’s contributors reflect on how our histories of women (in philosophy, literature, history, and the visual and performative arts) have been shaped by the discourses of their representation, how these discourses have been challenged, and how they can be reassessed both within and beyond the confines of academia. Recovering Women’s Past disseminates a more accurate, vital history of women’s past to engage in more creative and artistic encounters with our intellectual foremothers by creating imaginative modes of representing new knowledge. Only in these interactions will we be able to break away from the prevailing stereotypes about women’s roles and potential and advance the future of feminism.

Read more less

Who is a citizen? What is a person? Who is my neighbor? These fundamental questions about group membership and social formation have been posed repeatedly in political and religious discourses. Citizen-Saint uses keys works by Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Milton to examine the aims, limits, and legacies of classic and modern citizenship in Western literature. Turning to the potent idea of political theology to recover the strange mix of political and religious thinking during the Renaissance, Julia Reinhard Lupton unveils the figure of the citizensaint, who represents at once divine messenger and civil servant, both norm and exception. Embodied by such diverse personages as Antigone, Paul, Barabbas, Shylock, Othello, Caliban, Isabella, and Samson, the citizen-saint is a sacrificial figure: a model of moral and aesthetic extremity that inspires new regimes of citizenship with his or her traumatic passage into the public sphere. And these scenes of civic entry ultimately dramatize the literature of citizenship in both its evident impasses and its enduring potential.

Read more less

The de Clare sisters Eleanor, Margaret and Elizabeth were born in the 1290s as the eldest granddaughters of King Edward I of England and his Spanish queen Eleanor of Castile, and were the daughters of the greatest nobleman in England, Gilbert ‘the Red’ de Clare, earl of Gloucester. They grew to adulthood during the turbulent reign of their uncle Edward II, and all three of them were married to men involved in intense, probably romantic or sexual, relationships with their uncle. When their elder brother Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, was killed during their uncle’s catastrophic defeat at the battle of Bannockburn in June 1314, the three sisters inherited and shared his vast wealth and lands in three countries, but their inheritance proved a poisoned chalice. Eleanor and Elizabeth, and Margaret’s daughter and heir, were all abducted and forcibly married by men desperate for a share of their riches, and all three sisters were imprisoned at some point either by their uncle Edward II or his queen Isabella of France during the tumultuous decade of the 1320s. Elizabeth was widowed for the third time at twenty-six, lived as a widow for just under forty years, and founded Clare College at the University of Cambridge.

Read more less

Analysis of Latin sacred music written during the century illustrates the rapid and marked change in style and sophistication. Winner of the 2007 AMS Robert M. Stevenson prize The arrival of Francisco de Peñalosa at the Aragonese court in May 1498 marks something of an epoch in the history of Spanish music: Peñalosa wrote in a mature, northern-oriented style, and his sacred music influenced Iberian composers for generations after his death. Kenneth Kreitner looks at the church music sung by Spaniards in the decades before Peñalosa, a repertory that has long been ignoredbecause much of it is anonymous and because it is scattered through manuscripts better known for something else. He identifies sixty-seven pieces of surviving Latin sacred music that were written in Spain between 1400 and the early 1500s, and he discusses them source by source, revealing the rapid and dramatic change, not only in the style and sophistication of these pieces, but in the level of composerly self-consciousness shown in the manuscripts. Withina generation or so at the end of the fifteenth century, Spanish musicians created a new national music just as Ferdinand and Isabella were creating a new nation. KENNETH KREITNER teaches at the University of Memphis.

Read more less

A collection of beautifully illustrated essays and interviews presenting a rich, inclusive, contemporary, and global vision of design diversity. As the design industry re-examines its emphasis on Eurocentric ideologies and wrestles with its conventional practices, Centered advocates for highlighting and giving a voice to the people, places, methods, ideas, and beliefs that have been eclipsed or excluded by dominant design movements. Curated by Kaleena Sales, a powerful voice and noted advocate for diversity in the design community, the thirteen essays and interviews in this volume will feature important and underrepresented design work and projects like: Gee's Bend Quilters, by Stephen Child and Isabella D'Agnenica A Chinese Typographic Archive, by YuJune Park and Caspar Lam Indigenous Sovereignty and Design: An Interview with Sadie Red Wing (Her Shawl is Yellow) The Truck Art of India, by Shantanu Suman New Lessons from the Bauhaus: An Interview with Ellen Lupton Vocal Type: An Interview with Tre Seals Decolonizing Graphic Design, A Must, by Cheryl D. Miller And more A must-read for design practitioners, educators, students, and anyone interested in expanding narratives and gaining a more inclusive understanding of design.

Read more less

The lives, works and imagery of women artists, patrons and icons in Renaissance Italy The story of the Renaissance in Italy is often told through the work of great male artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello and Leonardo. But what about the female half of the population? By exploring works made by, for, or about women, this book aims to reconsider a period of creative ingenuity and artistic excellence from their often-overlooked perspective. Drawing on the rich collection of paintings, ceramics, textiles, illustrated books and prints at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this publication focuses on images of feminine power, both sacred and secular, telling the stories of saints such as Mary Magdalen as examples of strength and ascetic devotion, Biblical heroines such as Judith as civic and domestic role models, and the mythical sorceress Medea as the ideal of a heroic nude. Women also asserted their presence as artists, artisans and patrons: Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Artemisia Gentileschi, Vittoria Colonna, Isabella d’Este and Eleonora Gonzaga are just some of the strong women who shaped the life and art of the Italian Renaissance.

Read more less

This collection features four urgent and explosive plays by award-winning playwright Evan Placey, each tackling issues facing young people today. They provide ideal material for teenagers to read, study and perform. Girls Like That explores the pressures caused by technology when a schoolgirl’s naked photograph goes viral. Commissioned in 2013 by Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Theatre Royal Plymouth and West Yorkshire Playhouse, it has subsequently been performed by school and youth-theatre groups across the UK, at the Unicorn Theatre, London, and in the Houses of Parliament. It won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Play for Young Audiences. Banana Boys, published here for the first time, is about the challenges of being on the school football team – and secretly gay. It was commissioned and produced by Hampstead Theatre’s heat&light company in 2010. In Holloway Jones, Holloway dreams of being a world-class BMXer, but she is held back by the tough reality of a parent in prison. Also making its debut in print here, the play was commissioned by Synergy Theatre Project, toured schools and the Unicorn Theatre in 2011, and won the 2012 Brian Way Award for Best Play for Young People. Finally, Pronoun is a love story about two childhood sweethearts dealing with the fact that one of them, Isabella, has now become a boy. As one of the plays in the 2014 National Theatre Connections Festival it proved enormously popular with youth theatres and college companies. 'Maybe change starts with plays like this' Lyn Gardner, Guardian, on Girls Like That

Read more less

Capturing Japan in Nineteenth-Century New England Photography Collections examines the evidence left behind from a famous first encounter-that of prominent New England Americans with the remnants of feudal Japan in the 1870s and 1880s. The study reveals that, despite these Americans' varied reasons for traveling to Japan and studying its culture, a common desire united all of their collecting activities: to gather photographic documentation of a Japan they believed was disappearing under the pressures of trade and industrialization. Eleanor Hight focuses on the case studies of six New Englanders, whose travel and photograph collecting influenced the flowering of Japonism in the late nineteenth-century Boston area-still visible today in institutions such as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Peabody Essex Museum, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The book also explores the history of Japanese photography and its main themes, from images of travel and historic sites, to exotic subjects such as geisha and samurai. The first history of its kind, this study makes fundamental points about the ways photographs, seeming conveyors of fact, imprint mental images and suppositions on their viewers.

Read more less

Pearls have enthralled global consumers since antiquity, and the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella explicitly charged Columbus with finding pearls, as well as gold and silver, when he sailed westward in 1492. American Baroque charts Spain's exploitation of Caribbean pearl fisheries to trace the genesis of its maritime empire. In the 1500s, licit and illicit trade in the jewel gave rise to global networks, connecting the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean to the pearl-producing regions of the Chesapeake and northern Europe.Pearls-a unique source of wealth because of their renewable, fungible, and portable nature-defied easy categorization. Their value was highly subjective and determined more by the individuals, free and enslaved, who produced, carried, traded, wore, and painted them than by imperial decrees and tax-related assessments. The irregular baroque pearl, often transformed by the imagination of a skilled artisan into a fantastical jewel, embodied this subjective appeal. Warsh blends environmental, social, and cultural history to construct microhistories of peoples' wide-ranging engagement with this deceptively simple jewel. Pearls facilitated imperial fantasy and personal ambition, adorned the wardrobes of monarchs and financed their wars, and played a crucial part in the survival strategies of diverse people of humble means. These stories, taken together, uncover early modern conceptions of wealth, from the hardscrabble shores of Caribbean islands to the lavish rooms of Mediterranean palaces.

Read more less

Sojourner Truth: ex-slave and fiery abolitionist, figure of imposing physique, riveting preacher and spellbinding singer who dazzled listeners with her wit and originality. Straight-talking and unsentimental, Truth became a national symbol for strong black women—indeed, for all strong women. Like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, she is regarded as a radical of immense and enduring influence; yet, unlike them, what is remembered of her consists more of myth than of personality. Now, in a masterful blend of scholarship and sympathetic understanding, eminent black historian Nell Irvin Painter goes beyond the myths, words, and photographs to uncover the life of a complex woman who was born into slavery and died a legend. Inspired by religion, Truth transformed herself from a domestic servant named Isabella into an itinerant pentecostal preacher; her words of empowerment have inspired black women and poor people the world over to this day. As an abolitionist and a feminist, Truth defied the notion that slaves were male and women were white, expounding a fact that still bears repeating: among blacks there are women; among women, there are blacks. No one who heard her speak ever forgot Sojourner Truth, the power and pathos of her voice, and the intelligence of her message. No one who reads Painter's groundbreaking biography will forget this landmark figure and the story of her courageous life.

Read more less

John Keats was a trained surgeon who studied at Guy’s Hospital, London while simultaneously making his way as a poet. This book focuses attention on an important but hitherto neglected Keats manuscript: the notebook he maintained during this period. Reconstructing the lively medical world that played a formative role in Keats’ intellectual and imaginative development, it seeks to show the intriguing connections between Keats’ medical knowledge and his greatest poetry. It offers new research on Keats’ medical career – including a new edition of his medical Notebook compiled from the manuscript – and recovers the various ways in which Keats’ creativity found expression in his two careers of medicine and poetry, enriching both. Topics explored include the ‘hospital poems’ Keats wrote at Guy’s; the medical milieu of his daily life; his methods of working as revealed by his medical Notebook and other archival sources; and the medical contexts that informed his composition of Endymion and the collection Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St Agnes, and Other Poems (1820).John Keats’ Medical Notebook: Text, Context and Poems reveals how Keats’ visceral knowledge of human life, gained during his medical training at Guy’s, transformed him into ‘a mighty poet of the human heart’.

Read more less

Creating Christian Granada provides a richly detailed examination of a critical and transitional episode in Spain's march to global empire. The city of Granada—Islam's final bastion on the Iberian peninsula—surrendered to the control of Spain's "Catholic Monarchs" Isabella and Ferdinand on January 2, 1492. Over the following century, Spanish state and Church officials, along with tens of thousands of Christian immigrant settlers, transformed the formerly Muslim city into a Christian one. With constant attention to situating the Granada case in the broader comparative contexts of the medieval reconquista tradition on the one hand and sixteenth-century Spanish imperialism in the Americas on the other, Coleman carefully charts the changes in the conquered city's social, political, religious, and physical landscapes. In the process, he sheds light on the local factors contributing to the emergence of tensions between the conquerors and Granada's formerly Muslim, "native" morisco community in the decades leading up to the crown-mandated expulsion of most of the city's moriscos in 1569–1570. Despite the failure to assimilate the moriscos, Granada's status as a frontier Christian community under construction fostered among much of the immigrant community innovative religious reform ideas and programs that shaped in direct ways a variety of church-wide reform movements in the era of the ecumenical Council of Trent (1545–1563). Coleman concludes that the process by which reforms of largely Granadan origin contributed significantly to transformations in the Church as a whole forces a reconsideration of traditional "top-down" conceptions of sixteenth-century Catholic reform.

Read more less

The No.1 bestselling novel from one of Ireland's most loved writers!With the threat of the First World War looming, tension simmers under the surface of Ireland. Bright, beautiful and intelligent, the Gifford sisters Grace, Muriel and Nellie kick against the conventions of their privileged, wealthy Anglo-Irish background and their mother Isabella's expectations.As War erupts across Europe, the spirited sisters soon find themselves caught up in Ireland's struggle for freedom.Muriel falls deeply in love with writer Thomas MacDonagh, artist Grace meets the enigmatic Joe Plunkett - both leaders of 'The Rising' - while Nellie joins 'The Citizen Army' and takes up arms to fight alongside Countess Markievicz in the rebellion. On Easter Monday 1916, the Rising begins, and the world of the Gifford sisters and everyone they hold dear is torn apart in a fight that is destined for tragedy.____________'Engrossing' Sunday Times'Marvellous ... A gripping read' Irish Independent'Finally, women are being written back into the history of [Ireland's] awakening' Irish Mail on Sunday

Read more less

Victorian London harbours many secrets: alien visitors, strange phenomena and unearthly powers. But a trio of investigators stands ready to delve into such mysteries - the Great Detective, Madame Vastra; her resourceful spouse, Jenny Flint; and their loyal valet, Strax. If an impossible puzzle needs solving, or a grave injustice needs righting, help can be found on Paternoster Row. But even heroes can never escape their past...Contains three new adventures - 1.Dining with Death by Dan Starkey. When negotiations between two warring alien races are sabotaged, Madame Vastra offers Paternoster Row as neutral ground upon which to continue their diplomacy – and the celebrate the treaty with a feast. While Strax frets about hosting two species with very different dietary needs, Jenny investigates the dissenters who want to halt the peace process. But a deadly plot is brewing, and the diners way not survive the cheese course...2.The Screaming Ceiling by Guy Adams. In one of the earliest cases of his illustrious career, Thomas Carnacki heads to the Highlands to embark upon the terrifying investigation of Castle Kraighten. On arrival, he finds that another party of sleuths has been engaged – surely these amateurs of Paternoster Row have nothing to teach the great Ghost Finder? But this is no ordinary haunting. A room in the castle has a mouth in the ceiling. And it screams...3. Spring-Heeled Jack by Gemma Arrowsmith. People are being stolen from the streets by a monster. By all accounts, it has burning eyes, breathes blue flames, and can leap the height of a building at a bound. While Vastra and Jenny fend off an over-eager member of the gutter press, Strax dives into dangerous waters. CAST: Neve McIntosh (Madame Vastra), Catrin Stewart (Jenny Flint), Dan Starkey (Strax), Hywel Morgan (Baron Gallos Flambo), Polly Kemp (Duchess Callys Flambo), Glen McCready (Auditor-General Otak Lame), Joe Jameson (Carnacki), David Shaw-Parker (John Campbell), Caroline Guthrie(Anna Campbell), Janet Henfrey (Dorothy), Isabella Inchbald (Elizabeth), Daniel Easton (Jimmy), Sophie Cotton (Gwendoline Platt), Joe Sims (Sergeant Grout). Other parts played by members of the cast.

Read more less

In the vein of Such a Fun Age, a whip-smart, compulsively readable novel about two upper-class stay-at-home mothers—one white, one Black—living in a "perfect" suburb that explores motherhood, friendship, and the true meaning of sisterhood amidst the backdrop of America’s all-too-familiar racial reckoning. De’Andrea Whitman, her husband Malik, and their five-year-old daughter, Nina, are new to the upper-crust white suburb of Rolling Hills, Virginia—a move motivated by circumstance rather than choice. De’Andrea is heartbroken to leave her comfortable life in the Black oasis of Atlanta, and between her mother-in-law’s Alzheimer's diagnosis, her daughter starting kindergarten, and the overwhelming whiteness of Rolling Hills, she finds herself struggling to adjust to her new community. To ease the transition, her therapist proposes a challenge: make a white girlfriend. When Rebecca Myland learns about her new neighbors, the Whitmans, she's thrilled. As chair of the Parent Diversity Committee at her daughters’ school, she’s championed racial diversity in the community—and what could be better than a brand-new Black family? It’s serendipitous when her daughter, Isabella, and Nina become best friends on the first day of kindergarten. Now, Rebecca can put everything she’s learned about antiracism into practice—especially those oh-so-informative social media posts. And finally, the Parent Diversity Committee will have some… well, diversity. Following her therapist’s suggestion, De’Andrea reluctantly joins Rebecca’s committee. The painfully earnest white woman is so overly eager it makes De’Andrea wonder if Rebecca’s therapist told her to make a Black friend! But when Rolling Hill’s rising racial sentiments bring the two women together in common cause, they find it isn’t the only thing they have in common. . . .

Read more less

A través de la historia es fácil comprobar que la pasión, bien sea amorosa, ideológica o simplemente vital, ha tenido consecuencias trágicas para el sexo femenino. Son muchos los casos en los que la consagración de una vida al arte, al amor, o a una causa política o religiosa ha tenido un trágico final. La eterna lucha entre Eros y Tanatos, la pasión y la muerte, es una constante en la biografía de muchas mujeres a lo largo de todas las épocas y en todas las latitudes.Por las páginas de este título, desfilan muchas de estas mujeres que, en su momento, fueron capaces de luchar por sus ideales o de vivir un amor aún a costa de su propia vida. Mujeres como Juana de Arco, Inés de Castro, Ana Bolena, María Estuardo, Mariana Pineda, Olimpia de Gouges, Mata Hari o Diane Fossey que murieron víctimas de la intolerancia de quienes las rodeaban o por haber cometido el delito de amar apasionadamente. Mujeres, que como Beatrice Cenci, Isabella di Morra o tantas víctimas de la violencia de géner

Read more less

The writings of a small group of scholars known as the ilustrados are often credited for providing intellectual grounding for the Philippine Revolution of 1896. Megan C. Thomas shows that the ilustrados’ anticolonial project of defining and constructing the “Filipino” involved Orientalist and racialist discourses that are usually ascribed to colonial projects, not anticolonial ones. According to Thomas, the work of the ilustrados uncovers the surprisingly blurry boundary between nationalist and colonialist thought. By any measure, there was an extraordinary flowering of scholarly writing about the peoples and history of the Philippines in the decade or so preceding the revolution. In reexamining the works of the scholars José Rizal, Pardo de Tavera, Isabelo de los Reyes, Pedro Paterno, Pedro Serrano Laktaw, and Mariano Ponce, Thomas situates their writings in a broader account of intellectual ideas and politics migrating and transmuting across borders. She reveals how the ilustrados both drew from and refashioned the tools and concepts of Orientalist scholarship from Europe. Interrogating the terms “nationalist” and “nationalism,” whose definitions are usually constructed in the present and then applied to the past, Thomas offers new models for studying nationalist thought in the colonial world.

Read more less

Hope to conceive a boy? Tie a tourniquet around your husband's left testicle. Pregnant and fear a weak or malformed baby? Frequent hearty laughter should reduce the risk. And if you're a teenager of good repute, avoid dancing at all costs and stay away from wine, cosmetics, and flashy dress. What may seem quirky to today's readers certainly wasn't to its original audience - Renaissance Italians. They read advice manuals prodigiously, seeking guidance from the latest books by best-selling alchemists and snake-oil peddlers like Mrs. Isabella Cortese and Dr. Leonardo Fioravanti with an avidity not bestowed even on a Dante or a Machiavelli. This work shows 16th-century Italy from an alternative perspective: through manuals which were staples in the households of middlebrow Italians just trying to lead a better life. Rudolph M. Bell uncovers a culture much like our own in which people sought advice for everything from reining in a wayward spouse to running an efficient household. Italians who faced such timeless challenges turned to these books, which were written specifically for families of moderate means, complete with indexes, tables of contents, and marginal summaries making them easy to consult as problems arose.

Read more less

Hope to conceive a boy? Tie a tourniquet around your husband's left testicle. Pregnant and fear a weak or malformed baby? Frequent hearty laughter should reduce the risk. And if you're a teenager of good repute, avoid dancing at all costs and stay away from wine, cosmetics, and flashy dress. What may seem quirky to today's readers certainly wasn't to its original audience - Renaissance Italians. They read advice manuals prodigiously, seeking guidance from the latest books by best-selling alchemists and snake-oil peddlers like Mrs. Isabella Cortese and Dr. Leonardo Fioravanti with an avidity not bestowed even on a Dante or a Machiavelli. This work shows 16th-century Italy from an alternative perspective: through manuals which were staples in the households of middlebrow Italians just trying to lead a better life. Rudolph M. Bell uncovers a culture much like our own in which people sought advice for everything from reining in a wayward spouse to running an efficient household. Italians who faced such timeless challenges turned to these books, which were written specifically for families of moderate means, complete with indexes, tables of contents, and marginal summaries making them easy to consult as problems arose.

Read more less

Summoning everyday Catholic laywomen to the forefront of twentieth-century Catholic history, Mary J. Henold considers how these committed parishioners experienced their religion in the wake of Vatican II (1962-1965). This era saw major changes within the heavily patriarchal religious faith-at the same time as an American feminist revolution caught fire. Who was the Catholic woman for a new era? Henold uncovers a vast archive of writing, both intimate and public facing, by hundreds of rank-and-file American laywomen active in national laywomen's groups, including the National Council of Catholic Women, the Catholic Daughters of America, and the Daughters of Isabella. These records evoke a formative period when laywomen played publicly with a surprising variety of ideas about their own position in the Catholic Church.While marginalized near the bottom of the church hierarchy, laywomen quietly but purposefully engaged both their religious and gender roles as changing circumstances called them into question. Some eventually chose feminism while others rejected it, but most, Henold says, crafted a middle position: even conservative, nonfeminist laywomen came to reject the idea that the church could adapt to the modern world while keeping women's status frozen in amber.

Read more less

Set in 15th-century Greece, this young adult novel tells the story of an extraordinary friendship between two boys from different cultural backgrounds. On the surface, Miguel, a refugee from post-Inquisition Spain, and David, the son of a wealthy Greek Jewish fabric merchant, have little in common. As they work together in David’s family shop, they find they share a special connection that goes beyond the divide of rich and poor, Spanish and Greek. Will an argument over David’s sister be more than their friendship can bear? A Shout in the Sunshine sheds light on an often forgotten part of Jewish history - the Greek Jewish experience. Set in tumultuous times for the Greek Jewish community, the book explores what happens when two distinct Jewish communities must learn to live together. In 1492 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expelled the Jewish community of Spain. Sultan Beyazit II invited these refugees to Thessalonika, a community already home to a diverse Jewish population with deep roots in Greece. The melding of these different Jewish groups created a vibrant Jewish community that was, tragically, almost entirely destroyed during World War II. This book is a testimony to the remarkable nature of this once thriving world.

Read more less

In Museum Skepticism, art historian David Carrier traces the birth, evolution, and decline of the public art museum as an institution meant to spark democratic debate and discussion. Carrier contends that since the inception of the public art museum during the French Revolution, its development has depended on growth: on the expansion of collections, particularly to include works representing non-European cultures, and on the proliferation of art museums around the globe. Arguing that this expansionist project has peaked, he asserts that art museums must now find new ways of making high art relevant to contemporary lives. Ideas and inspiration may be found, he suggests, in mass entertainment such as popular music and movies.Carrier illuminates the public role of art museums by describing the ways they influence how art is seen: through their architecture, their collections, the narratives they offer museum visitors. He insists that an understanding of the art museum must take into account the roles of collectors, curators, and museum architects. Toward that end, he offers a series of case studies, showing how particular museums and their collections evolved. Among those who figure prominently are Baron Dominique Vivant Denon, the first director of the Louvre; Bernard Berenson, whose connoisseurship helped Isabella Stewart Gardner found her museum in Boston; Ernest Fenollosa, who assembled much of the Asian art collection now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Albert Barnes, the distinguished collector of modernist painting; and Richard Meier, architect of the J. Paul Getty Center in Los Angeles. Carrier’s learned consideration of what the art museum is and has been provides the basis for understanding the radical transformation of its public role now under way.

Read more less

This book was previously published as Sweatpants at Tiffanie’s The knock out romantic comedy of the year! This brilliant, funny love story is perfect for fans of Jo Watson, Mhairi McFarlane and Zara Stoneley. ‘Absolutely loved Sweatpants at Tiffanie’s… I devoured every page’ Holly Martin True love packs a punch… Tiffanie Trent is not having a great week. Gavin, her boyfriend, has dumped her unceremoniously on their tenth anniversary, leaving her heartbroken and homeless. Frank Black, the owner of Blackie’s boxing gym and where Tiff has been book-keeper for the last decade, has dropped dead. He's not having a great week either. And if that wasn’t enough, Mike ‘The Assassin’ Fellner, boxer of international fame and Tiff’s first love, is back in town and more gorgeous than ever. Tiff can’t seem to go anywhere without bumping into his biceps. When she discovers Blackie has left her the gym, Tiff, with her saggy trackies and supermarket trainers, is certain she’ll fail. Can Tiff step up and roll with the punches, or will she be down and out at the first round? Readers love Pernille Hughes: ‘A fun, smart, sassy read full of likeable characters that stayed with me long after the last page’ Alex Brown ‘Punchy, pacy and packed with wit and warmth’ Sunday Times bestseller Cathy Bramley ‘A lovely, uplifting story…everything I look for in a romantic comedy’ Karen Clarke ‘A proper meet-cute…DEFINITELY unputdownable’ Isabella May ‘Funny, poignant and wonderfully descriptive…an unlikely but perfect romcom’ Rachel Burton ‘If you are looking for a wonderful rom-com, that also had a few surprises in it, then this is definitely worth a read’ Rachel’s Random Reads

Read more less

Barbara von Barghahn is Professor of Art History at George Washington University and a specialist in the art history of Portugal, Spain, and their colonial dominions, as well as Flanders (1400-1800). In 1993, she was conferred O Grão Comendador in the Portuguese Order of Prince Henry the Navigator. She has spent nearly a decade completing research about Jan van Eyck's diplomatic visits to the Iberian Peninsula. This manuscript investigates Van Eyck's patronage by the Crown of Portugal and his role as diplomat-painter of the Duchy of Burgundy following his first voyage to Lisbon in 1428-1429 when he painted two portraits of Infanta Isabella, who became the third wife of Philip the Good in 1430. New portrait identifications are provided in the Ghent Altarpiece (1432) and its iconographical prototype, the lost Fountain of Life. These altarpieces are analyzed with regard to King João I's conquest of Ceuta, achieved by his sons who were hailed as an"illustrious generation." Strong family ties between the dynastic houses of Avis and Lancaster explain Lusitania 's sustained fascination with Arthurian lore and the Grail quest. Several chapters of this book are overlaid with a chivalric veneer. A second "secret mission" to Portugal in 1437 by Jan van Eyck is postulated and this diplomatic visit is related to Prince Henrique the Navigator's expedition to Tangier and King Duarte's attempts to forge an alliance with Alfonso V of Aragon. Late Eyckian commissions are reviewed in light of this ill-fated crusade and additional new portraits are identified. The most significant artist of Renaissance Flanders appears to have been patronized as much by the House of Avis as by the Duchy of Burgundy.

Read more less

'When times are hard, fantasy and escapism are crucial' Alexander McQueen Having grown up in London’s East End, Alexander McQueen left school at 15 to become a tailor’s apprentice on Mayfair’s Savile Row. At 22, he joined the prestigious MA course at Central Saint Martins and, after presenting his 1992 graduate collection (bought on the spot by influential fashion stylist Isabella Blow), went on to change the course of fashion. McQueen was defiant in his opinions on creativity (‘Give me time and I’ll give you a revolution’), women (‘I design clothes because I don’t want women to look all innocent and naïve … I want people to be afraid of the women I dress’) and craft (‘You’ve got to know the rules to break them. That’s what I’m here for, to demolish the rules but to keep the tradition’). He drew much of his inspiration from the natural world (‘I have always loved the mechanics of nature and to a greater or lesser extent my work is always informed by that’) and consistently challenged perceptions of beauty (‘People find my things sometimes aggressive. But I don’t see it as aggressive. I see it as romantic, dealing with a dark side of personality’). This attractive book in an accessible format is the perfect gift for fans of fashion and Alexander McQueen, capturing the wit and spirit of a true visionary.

Read more less

'I found myself turning the pages with an inward leap of joy' - Isabella Tree*WINNER of the Richard Jefferies Award for Nature Writing**Shortlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Conservation*'Exquisite' GUARDIANIt was a tragic day for the nation's wildlife when England's last and loneliest golden eagle died in an unmarked spot among the remote eastern fells of the Lake District. But the fight to restore the landscape had already begun.Lee Schofield, ecologist and site manager for RSPB Haweswater, is leading efforts to breathe life back into two hill farms and their thirty square kilometres of sprawling upland habitat.Informed by the land, its turbulent history and the people who have shaped it, Lee and his team are repairing damaged wetlands, meadows and woods. Each year, the landscape is becoming richer, wilder and better able to withstand the shocks of a changing climate.But in the contested landscape of the Lake District, change is not always welcomed, and success relies on finding a balance between rewilding and respecting cherished farming traditions. This is not only a story of an ecosystem in recovery, it is also the story of Lee's personal connection to place, and the highs and lows of working for nature amid fierce opposition.

Read more less

***AMAZON BEST BOOK OF DECEMBER******A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF THE YEAR******LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER***A young queer science writer on some of the ocean's strangest creatures and what they can teach us about human empathy and survival'A miraculous, transcendental book' ED YONG'An astonishing debut' GUARDIANAs a mixed Chinese and white non-binary writer working in a largely white, male field, science journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments.Each essay in their debut collection profiles one such creature: the mother octopus who starves herself while watching over her eggs, the Chinese sturgeon whose migration route has been decimated by pollution and dams, the bizarre Bobbitt worm (named after Lorena) and other uncanny creatures lurking in the deep ocean, far below where the light reaches. Imbler's debut weaves the wonders of marine biology with stories of their own family and coming of age, implicitly connecting endangered sea life to marginalised human communities and asking how they and we adapt, survive and care for each other.This far-reaching, unique collection shatters our preconceptions about the sea and what it means to survive.'Astounding' PHILIP HOARE'A revelation' ISABELLA TREE

Read more less

The first biography of the rebel baron who deposed and murdered Edward II.One night in August 1323 a captive rebel baron, Sir Roger Mortimer, drugged his guards and escaped from the Tower of London. With the king's men-at-arms in pursuit he fled to the south coast, and sailed to France. There he was joined by Isabella, the Queen of England, who threw herself into his arms. A year later, as lovers, they returned with an invading army: King Edward II's forces crumbled before them, and Mortimer took power. He removed Edward II in the first deposition of a monarch in British history. Then the ex-king was apparently murdered, some said with a red-hot poker, in Berkeley Castle. Brutal, intelligent, passionate, profligate, imaginative and violent: Sir Roger Mortimer was an extraordinary character. It is not surprising that the queen lost her heart to him. Nor is it surprising that his contemporaries were terrified of him. But until now no one has appreciated the full evil genius of the man. This first biography reveals not only the man's career as a feudal lord, a governor of Ireland, a rebel leader and a dictator of England but also the truth of what happened that night in Berkeley Castle.‘Mortimer's book roars, races and sings... with a sense of passion and drama and an unrelenting pace’ Daily Telegraph

Read more less

On a diplomatic mission in France, Sir Baldwin and Simon encounter more than they bargained for... Baldwin and Simon uncover a deadly assassination plot in The King of Thieves, a gripping mystery in Michael Jecks' hugely popular medieval crime series. Perfect for fans of Paul Doherty and Susanna Gregory. 'Complicated, well-populated, written with cross-cutting gusto, and accompanied by scholarly extras' - Ellery Queen Magazine1325: Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Simon Puttock are in France guarding King Edward's son on his perilous journey to meet the French king, Charles IV. But they are unaware that King Edward's wife Isabella is disaffected and plotting her revenge...What first appears a simple diplomatic mission is fast becoming lethally dangerous. Meanwhile, two murders in Paris are causing alarm. Is there a connection between the killings and the shadowy 'King' of thieves? Simon and Baldwin know the future of the English crown is at risk. And in order to protect it they must put their own lives in jeopardy. What readers are saying about The King of Thieves: 'Fast pace, intricate plot, well-drawn characters and good period feel make this a must for all fans of this genre''I cannot praise Michael Jecks' writing highly enough, his books always keep me guessing right to the end''Fantastic read - five stars'

Read more less

The unmarried "care for the things of the Lord," said St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, while married men and women "care for the things of the world." The doctrine that virginity for both men and women is superior to marriage remained strong in Augustine, who believed that consecrated virgins were "a greater blessing" than the married. Even the current edition of the New Catholic Encyclopedia privileges the state of virginity because "it has as its object a superior good." In Pure Resistance Theodora A. Jankowski surveys the history of virginity in Christian thought from ancient times though the Renaissance, contrasting the Catholic tradition on this issue with Protestant doctrine as it developed in early modern England. With the Reformation, theologians argued that marriage was the ideal, even that vowed virginity was unnatural. If the multiple sexual, erotic, economic, and communal arrangements of Catholic Europe offered possibilities for destabilizing the categories male/female, married/virgin, chaste/unchaste, she contends, Protestant thought rigidified these binary oppositions. Exploring resistance to the patriarchal sexual economy, Jankowski considers representations of female virgins in English stage plays from 1590 to about 1670. In these dramatic texts she finds characters who range from collaborators with patriarchy to women who utterly repudiate marriage, opting instead for a life completely outside the heterosexual gender paradigm-and who thus, like Isabella in Measure for Measure or Moll Cutpurse in Dekker and Middleton's The Roaring Girl, become "queer virgins."

Read more less

Goes beyond the myths and legends to reveal new insights into the real life of Sojourner Truth Many Americans have long since forgotten that there ever was slavery along the Hudson River. Yet Sojourner Truth was born a slave near the Hudson River in Ulster County, New York, in the late 1700s. Called merely Isabella as a slave, once freed she adopted the name of Sojourner Truth and became a national figure in the struggle for the emancipation of both Blacks and women in Civil War America. Despite the dual discrimination she suffered as a Black woman, Truth significantly shaped both her own life and the struggle for human rights in America. Through her fierce intelligence, her resourcefulness, and her eloquence, she became widely acknowledged as a remarkable figure during her life, and she has become one of the most heavily mythologized figures in American history. While some of the myths about Truth offer inspiration, they have also contributed to distortions about American history, especially about the experiences of Black Americans and women. In this landmark work, the product of years of primary research, Pulizter-Prize winning biographer Carleton Mabee has unearthed the best available sources about this remarkable woman to reconstruct the most authentic account of her life to date. Mabee offers new insights on why she never learned to read, on the authenticity of the famous quotations attributed to her (such as Ar'n't I a woman?), her relationship to President Lincoln, her role in the abolitionist movement, her crusade to move freed slaves from the South to the North, and her life as a singer, orator, feminist and woman of faith. This is an engaging, historically precise biography that reassesses the place of Sojourner Truth—slave, prophet, legend—in American history.

Read more less

The image of Catherine of Aragon has always suffered in comparison to the heir-providing Jane Seymour or the vivacious eroticism of Anne Boleyn. But when Henry VIII married Catherine, she was an auburn-haired beauty in her twenties with a passion she had inherited from her parents, Isabella and Ferdinand, the joint-rulers of Spain who had driven the Moors from their country.This daughter of conquistadors showed the same steel and sense of command when organising the defeat of the Scots at the Battle of Flodden and Henry was to learn, to his cost, that he had not met a tougher opponent on or off the battlefield when he tried to divorce her.Henry VIII introduced four remarkable women into the tumultuous flow of England's history: Catherine of Aragon and her daughter 'Bloody' Queen Mary; and Anne Boleyn and her daughter, the Virgin Queen Elizabeth. 'From this contest, between two mothers and two daughters, was born the religious passion and violence that inflamed England for centuries,' says David Starkey. Reformation, revolution and Tudor history would all have been vastly different without Catherine of Aragon.Giles Tremlett's new biography is the first in more than four decades to be dedicated entirely and uniquely to the tenacious woman whose marriage lasted twice as long as those of Henry's five other wives put together. It draws on fresh material from Spain to trace the dramatic events of her life through Catherine of Aragon's own eyes. 'Enthralling biography . . . this lively and richly detailed book . . . describing the queen's fierce battle to retain her crown, Tremlett brilliantly breathes life into the shadowy figure of a stubborn and finally heroic woman.' Daily Telegraph

Read more less

Demonstrates the central role of Bergson for modernist art and intellectual history in the UK Brings to light new evidence of British artists' direct engagement with Bergson, opening new avenues of research and interpretation for the artists Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, John Duncan Fergusson, and artist-writers Roger Fry and Wyndham Lewis Based on archival material in Paris and US not previously accessed? (Biblioteque Jacques Doucet, Isabella Gardner Museum, Boston and Wyndham Lewis' marginalia in his editions of Bergson's texts at The University of Texas at Austin), in addition to primary sources in UK (Universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, London, and Strathclyde), and US (Universities of Cornell and Texas at Austin) Changes art history's standard readings of these artists as the evidence of their knowledge of and engagement with Bergson is irrefutable Explores concepts of duration, intuition, creativity; the image and perception as they were formulated by Bergson and understood by his contemporaries Demonstrates Bergson's relevance to key problematics for Art History: temporality, intuition, subjectivity, representation, the image. Charlotte de Mille shows that the reception of the philosophy of Henri Bergson by British artists and critics was far more wide spread and of far greater importance in the UK than has been previously thought. Based on archival material in Paris and the US, not all previously accessed, along with primary UK sources, she opens new avenues of research and interpretation on the work of artists Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, John Duncan Fergusson and artist-writers Roger Fry and Wyndham Lewis. De Mille demonstrates the profound impact of Bergson's work in UK culture immediately prior to World War One. Her interdisciplinary approach integrates philosophy, art criticism and art history. An Epilogue considers the proximity of Bergson's thought on temporality, perception, intuition and subjectivity to art history, from Alois Riegl and Aby Warburg, to practitioners today.

Read more less

In 1492, Granada, the last independent Muslim city on the Iberian Peninsula, fell to the Catholic forces of Ferdinand and Isabella. A century later, in 1595, treasure hunters unearthed some curious lead tablets inscribed in Arabic. The tablets documented the evangelization of Granada in the first century A.D. by St. Cecilio, the city's first bishop. Granadinos greeted these curious documents, known as the plomos, and the human remains accompanying them as proof that their city-best known as the last outpost of Spanish Islam-was in truth Iberia's most ancient Christian settlement. Critics, however, pointed to the documents' questionable doctrinal content and historical anachronisms. In 1682, the pope condemned the plomos as forgeries. From Muslim to Christian Granada explores how the people of Granada created a new civic identity around these famous forgeries. Through an analysis of the sermons, ceremonies, histories, maps, and devotions that developed around the plomos, it examines the symbolic and mythological aspects of a new historical terrain upon which Granadinos located themselves and their city. Discussing the ways in which one local community's collective identity was constructed and maintained, this work complements ongoing scholarship concerning the development of communal identities in modern Europe. Through its focus on the intersections of local religion and local identity, it offers new perspectives on the impact and implementation of Counter-Reformation Catholicism.

Read more less

The essential history of an iconic European city, by Cambridge academic Elizabeth Drayson. 'An admirable achievement... [Drayson has] expertise as a scholar and command as a storyteller' BBC History Magazine 'A glittering homage to one of the world's most beautiful and storied cities' Dan Jones 'Beauty built on blood and brutality... A fascinating new tome' Daily Mail From the early Middle Ages to the present, foreign travellers have been bewitched by Granada's peerless beauty. The Andalusian city is also the stuff of story and legend, with an unforgettable history to match. Romans, then Visigoths, settled here, as did a community of Jews; in the eleventh century a Berber chief made Granada his capital, and from 1230 until 1492 the Nasrids – Spain's last Islamic dynasty – ruled the emirate of Granada from their fortress-palace of the Alhambra. After capturing the city to complete the Christian Reconquista, the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella made the Alhambra the site of their royal court. In Lost Paradise, Elizabeth Drayson takes the reader on a voyage of discovery that uncovers the many-layered past of Spain's most complex and fascinating city, celebrating and exploring its evolving identity. Her account brings to the fore the image of Granada as a lost paradise, revealing it as a place of perpetual contradiction and linking it to the great dilemma over Spain's true identity as a nation. This is the story of a vanished Eden, of a place that questions and probes Spain's deep obsession with forgetting, and with erasing historical and cultural memory.

Read more less

Victorian Women's Travel Writing on Meiji Japan: Hospitable Friendship examines forgotten stories of cross-cultural friendship and intimacy between Victorian female travel writers and Meiji Japanese. Drawing on unpublished primary sources and contemporary Japanese literature hithero untranslated into English it highlights the open subjectivity and addective relationality of Isabella Bird, Mary Crawford Fraser, and Marie Stopes in their interactions with Japanese hosts. Victorian Women's Travel Writing on Meiji Japan demonstates how travel narratives and literary works about non-colonial Japan complicate and challenge Oriental stereotypes and imperial binaries. It traces the shifts in the representation of Japan in Victorian discourse from obsequious mousmé to virile samurai alongside transitions in the Anglo-Japanese bilateral relationship and global geopolitical events. Considering the ethical and political implications of how Victorian women wrote about their Japanese friends, it examines how female travellers created counter discourses. It charts the unexplored terrain of female interracial and cross-cultural friendship and love in Victorian literature, emphasizing the agency of female travellers against the scholarly tendency to depoliticize their literary praxis. It also offers parallel narratives of three Meiji women in Britain - Tsuda Umeko, Yasui Tetsu, and Yosano Akiko -and transnational feminist alliance. The book is a celebration of the political possibility of female friendship and literature, and a reminder of the ethical responsibility of representing racial and cultural others.

Read more less

'The most glorious cornucopia celebrating our enduring love affair with birds - an uplifting and eye opening tribute to the way they enrich our lives.' - Alan Titchmarsh MBE, British TV presenter, broadcaster, and gardener 'Wonderfully illustrated.' - Wall Street Journal Let your imagination take flight and celebrate the beauty and diversity of birds throughout art, science, history, and culture This visually stunning survey of birds, chronicling their scientific and popular appeal throughout the ages and around the world, showcases the remarkable diversity of species in the avian kingdom, from tiny hummingbirds to ostriches taller than humans, and icebound penguins to tropical macaws. With its content curated alongside an international panel of ornithologists, art historians, wildlife photographers, conservationists, and curators, this extraordinary book includes illustrations and artwork of all styles, with works by a diverse and often surprising range of creators from many different backgrounds, including: John James Audubon; Robert Clark; Mark Dion; Charley Harper; Barbara Kruger; Edward Lear; Ustad Mansur; John Ruskin; Joel Sartore; Sarah Stone; and Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe. Arranged in thoughtfully paired juxtapositions, it reveals how artists, illustrators, ornithologists, and photographers - from ancient Egypt to the present - have captured the spirit, likeness, character, and symbolism of birds. Including Tweety pie paired with the Twitter bird; birds as 300-foot desert carvings or 2-inch-tall ivory statuettes; bird bones, bird bank notes, sculptures and birds shaped as beds, the book's three hundred visually stunning entries span four thousand years of fine art, photography, ornithological drawings, popular culture, and scientific discovery from all corners of the globe to create the ultimate celebration of the winged world. Advisory panel: Dawn Balmer, Tim Birkhead FRS, Dr Alexander Bond, Gordon Campbell, Dr Sylke Frahnert, Joëlle Garcia, Elizabeth Hammer, David Lindo aka The Urban Birder, Jen Lobo, Fred G. Meijer, Sabine Meyer, Penny Olsen, Oliver Rampley, Katrina van Grouw and Dr Lisanne Wepler Additional texts: Giovanni Aloi, Sara Bader, Dr Alex Bond, Dr Michael Brooke, Tim Cooke, Clare Coulson, Nick Crumpton, Louisa Elderton, Diane Fortenberry, Carolyn Fry, Elizabeth Hammer, David Lindo, Fred G. Meijer, David B Miller, Rebecca Morrill, Penny Olsen, Michele Robecchi, Gill Saunders, James Smith, David Trigg, Katrina van Grouw, Martin Walters, Isabella Wing-Davey and Dr Lisanne Wepler

Read more less

WINNER OF THE PEOPLE'S BOOK PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION AND LONGLISTED FOR THE JAMES CROPPER WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR WRITING ON CONSERVATION. 'Enchanting… a joy to read.' JOANNA LUMLEY 'Vibrant and vital.' CHRIS PACKHAM 'Forget Me Not is a tonic.' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 'Remarkable.' NELL FRIZZELL 'A fierce, passionate stand for the wild.' MEGAN MCCUBBIN 'Funny, full of interest and often poignant.' ISABELLA TREE 'Beautiful. Rare. Profound. Hopeful.' CHARLOTTE PHILBY 'Passionate, pragmatic and seriously funny.' GILLIAN BURKE 'Wonderfully refreshing.' BENEDICT MACDONALD Join Sophie Pavelle on a low-carbon journey around Britain in search of ten animals and habitats threatened by climate change in the 21st century. Forget-me-not – a beautiful flower and a plea from our islands’ wildlife. When climate change has driven dozens of our most charismatic species to extinction, will they be forgotten? Like many of her generation, Sophie Pavelle is determined to demand action on climate change. In her hilarious and thought-provoking first book, she describes the trips she took to see ten rare native species: species that could disappear by 2050 and be forgotten by the end of the century if their habitats continue to decline. Sophie challenged herself to find them the low-carbon way, travelling the length of Britain on foot, by bicycle, in an electric car, by kayak, on ferries and in a lot of trains. From Bodmin Moor to the Orkney Islands, Sophie encountered species on the frontline of climate change in Britain. Which are going to be seriously affected, and why? Could some bounce back from the brink? Or are we too late to save them? Forget Me Not is a clarion call: we all need to play a part in tackling this most existential of threats. Everyone can see wildlife in the British Isles without contributing to its destruction. With joyful irreverence, Sophie shows us we can dare to hope. Journey with her, and she may even inspire you to take action for nature and head out on your own low-carbon adventure.

Read more less

Shakespeare is at the heart of the British theatrical tradition, but the contribution of Ira Aldridge and the Shakespearean performers of African, African-Caribbean, south Asian and east Asian heritage who came after him is not widely known. Telling the story for the first time of how Shakespearean theatre in Britain was integrated from the 1960s to the 21st century, this is a timely and important account of that contribution. Drawing extensively on empirical evidence from the British Black and Asian Shakespeare Performance Database and featuring interviews with nearly forty performers and directors, the book chronicles important productions that led to ground-breaking castings of Black and Asian actors in substantial Shakespearean roles including: · Zakes Mokae (Cry Freedom) as one of three black witches in William Gaskill’s 1966 production of Macbeth at the Royal Court Theatre. · Norman Beaton as Angelo in Michael Rudman’s 1981 production of Measure for Measure at the National Theatre – the first majority Black Shakespearean cast at the theatre. · Josette Simon as Isabella in Measure for Measure at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1987. · Adrian Lester in the title role of Nicholas Hytner’s 2003 production of Henry V. · Iqbal Khan on his 2012 production of Much Ado About Nothing – the first production with an all south Asian cast at the Royal Shakespeare Company. · Alfred Enoch and Rakie Ayola as Edgar and Goneril in Talawa Theatre Company’s 2016 production of King Lear · Paapa Essiedu as Hamlet in Simon Godwin’s 2016 production for the Royal Shakespeare Company. With first-hand accounts from key performers including Joseph Marcell, Adrian Lester, Josette Simon, Lolita Chakrabarti, Noma Dumezweni, Rakie Ayola, David Yip, Ray Fearon, Paterson Joseph, Alfred Enoch, Rudolph Walker and many more, this book is an invaluable history of Black and Asian Shakespeareans that highlights the gains these actors have made and the challenges still faced in pursuing a career in classical theatre.

Read more less

Royal murder mysteries never fail to intrigue readers and TV viewers. Here are some of the most haunting and even horrific episodes from the middle ages, based on latest historical research and historiography, and authentic and rare sources, including archaeology and DNA evidence, uncovering wonderful tales of pathos, tragedy, suffering and romance. This is history for specialists and general readers - and sceptics - given the intense media coverage, including TV, and interest in exciting and accessible popular history. The famous and also less well-known mysteries, which may be new to readers, surrounding British Royalty, are included from around the 11th to the 15th centuries. The murder mysteries show personal and individual tragedy but are also a vehicle for historical analysis. William II - William Rufus - was he murdered or killed accidentally by a 'stray arrow', allowing brother Henry to seize the throne, or was it God's punishment for William's irreligious living and persecution of the church? Or was Edward II murdered at the instigation of Queen Isabella - 'she-wolf of France' - and her lover, Roger Mortimer. who assumed the throne? Did he survive to live peaceably in Italy? Richard II resembled Edward II, as a rather inadequate figure, and was deposed by his rival, Henry IV. Did he die, and if so, was it murder or suicide? Was Edward IV a bigamist? Mystery, if not murder, but wrapped in dynastic rivalry and sex scandal, and usurpation of the throne. The 'Princes in the Tower' and who who killed them if anyone? A beguiling mystery for over 500 years with their usurping uncle Richard III's guilt contested by 'Ricardians'.

Read more less

The Dress of the Year is a deluxe study of exquisite fashion from 1963 to the present, drawn from the renowned collection at the Fashion Museum, Bath. Each year, a fashion-world luminary is invited to capture the definitive moment in an international whirlwind of creative style by choosing the outfit that truly represents that year's mood in fashion. The announcement of each winner is widely covered in the British press, and the resulting Dress of the Year collection is a treasure trove of international design. Among the extraordinary roll-call of design names are Mary Quant, Jean Muir, Ossie Clark, Biba, Calvin Klein, Karl Lagerfeld, Margaret Howell, Katharine Hamnett, Giorgio Armani, John Galliano, Paul Smith, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Ralph Lauren, Donatella Versace, Tom Ford, Marni, Prada, Alexander McQueen, Kate Moss for Top Shop, Vivienne Westwood and Sarah Burton. The choices are made and explained by a Who's Who of great style writers, including Felicity Green, Prudence Glynn, Beatrix Miller, Grace Coddington, Suzy Menkes, Colin McDowell, Liz Tilberis, Isabella Blow, Iain R. Webb, Alexandra Shulman, Hilary Alexander, Paula Reed and Hamish Bowles. Through specially-commissioned new photography, unseen archive material and contemporary media images, this sumptuous book reveals the Dress of The Year collection in all its glory for the first time. The book champions an important and fascinating fashion project, offering a detailed insight into our ever-changing styles and tastes since the early 1960s, and revealing the complex interplay between haute couture, celebrity endorsement and the High Street.

Read more less

After a decade trying to accept that London is home, a devastating bereavement pushes 29 year old May to return to the rural Vermont town she fled so long ago. Ignoring her sister’s strong misgivings, she immerses herself in creating a healing garden, bringing people together with the food she loves to cook, and renovating a dilapidated farmhouse until she starts to find a sense of peace and purpose. But as spring turns to sultry summer and she is thrown increasingly together with Harley, the man she loved and left ten years before, May is torn. Will she take a risk and follow her heart, or go back to London where her ever loyal sister is longing for her return? Mish Cromer’s latest novel of love and friendship and the healing power of the natural environment explores the impact of family, trauma and loss, and the powerful need we all have to find the place where we belong. Praise for Mish Cromer’s debut novel: Alabama Chrome You’ll come for the wonderful characters — gruff Cassidy with a dark past, wise Lark, Belle and her beauty parlour, Evangeline the mechanic, Brooke Adler the hard-nosed reality TV presenter... then you’ll be swept away by the fantastic sense of place. Set in small-town Kentucky and focusing on the bar which acts as the town’s front porch where stories are told and secrets are ultimately revealed, Alabama Chrome is a beautifully written page-turner, told in a voice that will stay with you — along with the book's big heart. — Alison Chandler You begin to understand, reading this story, how important it is to allow yourself to be understood, — Joanne Merrison A compassionate and skilful tale of a soulful young man’s struggle, vividly intertwined with the characters of a remote US town who welcomed him, and their reaction to the arrival of a controversial reality TV presenter. A gripping read. — Isabella

Read more less

A slow-burn romance in a cutthroat kitchen! There’s more to becoming a top chef for 17-year-old Isabella Fields than just not getting chopped … especially when the chances of things heating up with an intriguing boy and becoming a food star in the kitchen are both on the line.Isa’s family life has fallen apart after the death of her Cuban abuela and the divorce of her parents. And after moving in with her dad and her new stepmom, Margo, in Lyon, France, Isa feels like an outsider in her father’s new life. She balances her time between avoiding the awkward “why-did-you-cheat-on-Mom” conversation and her diligent aspiration to become a premiere chef.Despite Isa’s world being turned upside-down, her father’s house is located only 30 minutes away from the restaurant of world-famous Chef Pascal Grattard, who runs a prestigiously competitive international kitchen apprenticeship. The prize job at Chef Grattard’s renowned restaurant also represents a transformative opportunity for Isa who is desperate to get her life back in order—and desperate to prove she has what it takes to work in an haute kitchen. But Isa’s stress and repressed grief begin to unravel further when the enigmatic Diego shows up at the house unannounced.How can Isa expect to hold it together when she’s at the bottom of her class at the apprenticeship, her new stepmom is pregnant, she misses her abuela dearly, and things with Diego reach a boiling point?Mixing up only the best ingredients, Salty, Bitter, Sweet: Is a clean and wholesome rival-to-lovers trope set in a cutthroat kitchen environment Is a perfect book for foodies ages 13 and up, and features a Latina main character who is trilingual Explores complicated family dynamics and relatable themes of friendship, acceptance, grief, and learning to care for yourself Perfect for TV fans of Top Chef, Chopped, and The Great British Bake-off, as well as YA titles such as With the Fire on High or A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow Has authentic representation of Mayra Cuevas’ background

Read more less

Thirteen leading actors take us behind the scenes, each recreating in detail a memorable performance in one of Shakespeare's major roles. * Brian Cox on Titus Andronicus in Deborah Warner's visceral RSC production * Judi Dench on being directed by Franco Zeffirelli as a twenty-three-year-old Juliet * Ralph Fiennes on Shakespeare's least sympathetic hero Coriolanus * Rebecca Hall on Rosalind in As You Like It, directed by her father, Sir Peter * Derek Jacobi on his hilariously poker-backed Malvolio for Michael Grandage * Jude Law on his Hamlet, a palpable hit in the West End and on Broadway * Adrian Lester on a modern-dress Henry V at the National, during the invasion of Iraq * Ian McKellen on his Macbeth, opposite Judi Dench in Trevor Nunn's RSC production * Helen Mirren on a role she was born for, and has played three times: Cleopatra * Tim Pigott-Smith on Leontes in Peter Hall's Restoration Winter's Tale at the National * Kevin Spacey on his high-tech, modern-dress Richard II * Patrick Stewart on Prospero in Rupert Goold's arctic Tempest for the RSC * Penelope Wilton on Isabella in Jonathan Miller's 'chamber' Measure for Measure The actors discuss their characters, working through the play scene by scene, with refreshing candour and in forensic detail. The result is a masterclass on playing each role, invaluable for other actors and directors, as well as students of Shakespeare – and fascinating for audiences of the plays. Together, the interviews give one of the most comprehensive pictures yet of these characters in performance, and of the choices that these great actors have made in bringing them thrillingly to life. 'These passages of times remembered contribute vividly to the sense of a teemingly creative period when Shakespeare seemed to have been rediscovered.' Trevor Nunn, from his Foreword

Read more less

A collection of more than 100 extraordinary desserts—all with photos and meticulous instructions—by Cenk Sönmezsoy, creator of the internationally acclaimed blog Cafe Fernando. Written, styled, photographed, and designed by Cenk Sönmezsoy, The Artful Baker shares the inspiring story of a passionate home baker, beginning with his years after graduate school in San Francisco and showcasing the fruits of a baking obsession he cultivated after returning home to Istanbul. Sönmezsoy’s stories and uniquely styled images, together with his original creations and fresh take on traditional recipes, offer a thoughtful and emotional window into the life of this luminary artist. The Artful Baker is comprised of almost entirely new content, with a few updated versions of readers’ favorites from his blog, such as Brownie Wears Lace, his signature brownies topped with blond chocolate ganache and bittersweet chocolate lace (originally commissioned by Dolce & Gabbana and awarded “Best Original Baking and Desserts Recipe” by Saveur magazine); Raspberry Jewel Pluot Galette, a recipe inspired by Chez Panisse’s 40th year anniversary celebrations; and Devil Wears Chocolate, his magnificent devil’s food cake that graces the cover of the book. Each chapter highlights a variety of indulgences, from cookies to cakes and tarts to ice creams, including recipes like Pistachio and Matcha Sablés; Tahini and Leblebi (double-roasted chickpeas) Swirl Brownies; Sakura Madeleines; Sourdough Simit, the beloved ring-shaped Turkish bread beaded with sesame seeds; Isabella Grape and Kefir Ice Cream; Pomegranate Jam; and Blanche, a berry tart named after the Golden Girl Blanche Devereaux. Every recipe in The Artful Baker has gone through a meticulous development phase, tested by an army of home bakers having varying levels of skill, equipment, and access to ingredients, and revised to ensure that they will work flawlessly in any kitchen. Measurements of ingredients are provided in both volume and weight (grams). Where a volume measurement isn’t useful, weight measurements are provided in both ounces and grams.

Read more less