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        Literature & Literary Studies
        December 2005

        Graham Swift

        by Daniel Lea, Susan Williams

        This book offers an accessible critical introduction to the work of Graham Swift, one of Britain's most significant contemporary authors. Through detailed readings of his novels and short stories from 'The Sweet Shop Owner' (1980) to 'The Light of Day' (2003), Daniel Lea lucidly addresses the key themes of history, loss, masculinity and ethical redemption, to present a fresh approach to Swift. This study proposes that one of the side-effects of modernity has been the destruction of traditional pathways of self and collective belief, leading to a loss of understanding between individuals about their duties to each other and to society. Swift's writing returns repeatedly to the question of what we can believe in when all the established markers of identity - family, community, gender, profession, history - have become destabilised. Lea suggests that Swift increasingly moves towards a notion of redemption through a lived ethical practice as the only means of finding solace in a world lacking a central symbolic authority. ;

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        Biography & True Stories
        March 2024

        Barbara Comyns

        A savage innocence

        by Avril Horner

        The extraordinary twentieth-century writer Barbara Comyns led a life as captivating as the narratives she spun. This pioneering biography reveals the journey of a woman who experienced hardship and single-motherhood before the age of thirty but went on to publish a sequence of novels that are unique in the English language. Comyns turned her hand to many jobs in order to survive, from artist's model to restoring pianos. Hundreds of unpublished letters reveal an occasionally desperate but resourceful and witty woman whose complicated life ranged from enduring poverty when young to mixing with spivs, spies and high society. While working as a housekeeper in her mid-thirties, Comyns began transforming the bleak episodes of her life into compelling fictions streaked with surrealism and deadpan humour. The Vet's Daughter (1959), championed by Graham Greene, brought her fame, although her use of the gothic and macabre divided readers and reviewers. This biography not only excavates Comyns's life but also reclaims her fiction, providing a timely reassessment of her literary contribution. It sheds new light on a remarkable author who deftly captured the complexities of human life.

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        Fiction
        November 2018

        Beard's Roman Women

        By Anthony Burgess

        by Graham Foster

        Anthony Burgess draws upon an autobiographical episode to create Beard's Roman Women, the story of a man haunted by his first wife, presumed dead. But is she? A marvellously economical book, full-flavoured, funny, and heartfelt, showing its author at the height of his powers. This new edition is the first to be published with David Robinson's photographs for over 40 years. The text of the novel has been restored using the original typescripts, and Graham Foster's new introduction provides valuable insight into the fictional and biographical contexts of the novel. The text is fully annotated with a detailed set of notes and this edition includes the previously unpublished script for Burgess's television film By the Waters of Leman: Byron and Shelley at Geneva, and a rare piece of Burgess's writing about Rome.

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        Fiction
        September 2017

        A Vision of Battlements

        by Anthony Burgess

        by Andrew Biswell, Paul Wake

        A Vision of Battlements is the first novel by the writer and composer Anthony Burgess, who was born in Manchester in 1917. Set in Gibraltar during the Second World War, the book follows the fortunes of Richard Ennis, an army sergeant and incipient composer who dreams of composing great music and building a new cultural world after the end of the war. Following the example of his literary hero, James Joyce, Burgess takes the structure of his book from Virgil's Aeneid. The result is, like Joyce's Ulysses, a comic rewriting of a classical epic, whose critique of the Army and the postwar settlement is sharp and assured. The Irwell Edition is the first publication of Burgess's forgotten masterpiece since 1965. This new edition includes an introduction and notes by Andrew Biswell, author of a prize-winning biography of Anthony Burgess.

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        June 2018

        The Lady in White

        by Donald Willerton

        Mogi Franklin is a typical eighth-grader–except for the mysterious things that keep happening in his life. And the adventures they lead to as he and his sister, Jennifer, follow Mogi's unique problem-solving skills–along with dangerous clues from history and the world around them–to unearth a treasure of unexpected secrets.In The Lady in White, Mogi is working as a cowboy over the summer vacation on one of the largest ranches in New Mexico when hundreds of cattle start mysteriously dying there. Trying to understand the cause, he finds himself embroiled in the life of a boy who was kidnapped by Comanche Indians in 1871. In this seventh book of the exciting Mogi Franklin Mysteries, Mogi comes face-to-face with the ghost of the boy's mother, and must face the reality of the past to save the ranch from the enemies of the present.

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        March 2016

        Bell Tower and Drum Tower

        by Liu Xinwu

        A story within one day – from 5 a. m. to 5 p. m. A vivid picture of secular life in Beijing. Winner of Mao Dun Literature Prize. Everything begins in an archaic quadrangle dwelling in Beijing, where Xue Jiyue’s mother gets up early to prepare for the son’s wedding banquet.Other characters show up one after another. After narrating their behaviors during the day, the author goes back and tells about their past, with a special concern about the influences from vicissitudes of time, especially how the Cultural Revolution changed those individuals’ courses of life.The Bell Tower and Drum Tower stand there still, witnessing all of those earthshaking changes.

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        The Arts
        May 2005

        Andrew Davies

        by Sarah Cardwell, Jonathan Bignell, Sarah Cardwell, Steven Peacock

        One of Britain's foremost TV practitioners, Andrew Davies is the creator of programmes such as 'A Very Peculiar Practice', 'To Serve Them All My Days', 'Pride and Prejudice', 'Othello' and 'The Way We Live Now'. Although best known for his adaptations of the work of writers such as Jane Austen and George Eliot, he has written numerous original drama series, single plays, films, stage plays and books. This volume offers a critical appraisal of Davies's work, and assesses his contribution to British television. Cardwell also explores the conventional notions of authorship and auteurism which are challenged by Davies's work. Can we identify Davies as the author of the varied texts attributed to him? If so, does an awareness of his authorial role aid our interpretation and evaluation of those texts? How does the phenomenon of adaptation affect the issue of authorship? How important is 'the author' to television? This book will appeal to both an academic readership, and to the many people who have taken pleasure in Davies's work. ;

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2017

        The Arctic in the British imagination 1818–1914

        by Andrew Thompson, John M. MacKenzie, Rob David

        The Arctic region has been the subject of much popular writing. This book considers nineteenth-century representations of the Arctic, and draws upon an extensive range of evidence that will allow the 'widest connections' to emerge from a 'cross-disciplinary analysis' using different methodologies and subject matter. It positions the Arctic alongside more thoroughly investigated theatres of Victorian enterprise. In the nineteenth century, most images were in the form of paintings, travel narratives, lectures given by the explorers themselves and photographs. The book explores key themes in Arctic images which impacted on subsequent representations through text, painting and photography. For much of the nineteenth century, national and regional geographical societies promoted exploration, and rewarded heroic endeavor. The book discusses images of the Arctic which originated in the activities of the geographical societies. The Times provided very low-key reporting of Arctic expeditions, as evidenced by its coverage of the missions of Sir John Franklin and James Clark Ross. However, the illustrated weekly became one of the main sources of popular representations of the Arctic. The book looks at the exhibitions of Arctic peoples, Arctic exploration and Arctic fauna in Britain. Late nineteenth-century exhibitions which featured the Arctic were essentially nostalgic in tone. The Golliwogg's Polar Adventures, published in 1900, drew on adult representations of the Arctic and will have confirmed and reinforced children's perceptions of the region. Text books, board games and novels helped to keep the subject alive among the young.

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        Biography & True Stories
        June 2014

        A Biography of Paul Watzlawick

        The Discovery of the Present Moment

        by Andrea Köhler-Ludescher

        This book, the world's first biography of Paul Watzlawick, written by his great-niece, describes the life of this philosopher, therapist, and best-selling author. Paul Watzlawick had a talent for languages and he led an adventurous life, from his childhood in Villach to studying in Venice after the war, to analyst training under C. G. Jung in Zurich, an attempt at establishing himself in India and then in El Salvador as a therapist, and finally to the Mental Research Institute (MRI) in the United States, headed by Don D. Jackson, a venerable scientist. This marked the beginning of the second half of his life, his amazing career as a communication researcher, a pioneer of systemic therapy, a radical constructivist, and a great thinker regarding the divisions between East and West. With many letters, lectures, interviews, and statements from contemporary witnesses and family members, this book makes Paul Watzlawick accessible as a human being and as a spiritually inspired, leading 20th century thinker. It includes a variety of unpublished material from Watzlawick, and introduces a comprehensive and exciting picture of the scientist and cosmopolitan person, Paul Watzlawick.   Target Group: For people interest in Paul Watzlawick, communication sciences, systemic therapy, and constructivism.

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2022

        Chinese religion in contemporary Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan

        The cult of the Two Grand Elders

        by Fabian Graham

        In Singapore and Malaysia, the inversion of Chinese Underworld traditions has meant that Underworld demons are now amongst the most commonly venerated deities in statue form, channelled through their spirit mediums, tang-ki. The Chinese Underworld and its sub-hells are populated by a bureaucracy drawn from the Buddhist, Taoist and vernacular pantheons. Under the watchful eye of Hell's 'enforcers', the lower echelons of demon soldiers impose post-mortal punishments on the souls of the recently deceased for moral transgressions committed during their prior incarnations. Chinese religion in contemporary Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan offers an ethnography of contemporary Chinese Underworld traditions, where night-time cemetery rituals assist the souls of the dead, exorcised spirits are imprisoned in Guinness bottles, and malicious foetus ghosts are enlisted to strengthen a temple's spirit army. Understanding the religious divergences between Singapore and Malaysia (and their counterparts in Taiwan) through an analysis of socio-political and historical events, Fabian Graham challenges common assumptions about the nature and scope of Chinese vernacular religious beliefs and practices. Graham's innovative approach to alterity allows the reader to listen to first-person dialogues between the author and channelled Underworld deities. Through its alternative methodological and narrative stance, the book intervenes in debates on the interrelation between sociocultural and spiritual worlds, and promotes the destigmatisation of spirit possession and discarnate phenomena in the future study of mystical and religious traditions.

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        Lifestyle, Sport & Leisure
        November 2024

        Other Everests

        One mountain, many worlds

        by Paul Gilchrist, Peter Hansen, Jonathan Westaway

        A hundred years after the tragic 1924 British Everest expedition, this collection explores the wider social and cultural history of the mountain. Mount Everest looms large in the popular imagination. Since the deaths of mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine in 1924, histories of the mountain have overwhelmingly focused on the mythologies of western male adventure and conquest. But there are many more stories waiting to be told. Other Everests brings together new voices and perspectives on the historical and cultural significance of Everest in the modern world. The book shines a light on the overlooked role of local people and high-altitude workers, while also revealing the significant contributions women have made to climbing the mountain and writing its history. It explores the depiction of Everest in a range of media and investigates how the forces of nationalism and commercialism have shaped many different 'Everests'. After years of exploitation, Indigenous people are now reclaiming Mount Everest in the twenty-first century. Other Everests re-examines the past and present of the world's highest peak, presenting an exciting vision of what Everest might become in the future.

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        June 2018

        Die besten Kinderbuchklassiker zum Vorlesen

        Der Wind in den Weiden, Peter Pan und Grimms Märchen

        by Barrie, James Matthew; Grahame, Kenneth; Grimm, Jacob und Wilhelm

        Die Kinderbuchklassiker „Der Wind in den Weiden“, „Peter Pan“ und die beliebtesten Märchen der Brüder Grimm - liebevoll und kindgerecht nacherzählt und wunderschön illustriert. Maulwurf, Ratterich und der Dachs müssen ihrem Freund, dem Kröterich, mal wieder aus der Patsche helfen. Er kann einfach nicht auf seine halsbrecherischen Abenteuer verzichten. Zahllose Abenteuer warten auch auf Wendy und ihre Brüder. Denn Peter Pan und die Fee Tinker Bell nehmen sie mit auf eine fantastische Reise nach Nimmerland. Und Dornröschen, Hänsel und Gretel, die Bremer Stadtmusikanten und viele andere bekannte Figuren entführen in märchenhafte Welten. Wunderbare Bilderbuchklassiker zum Vorlesen ab 4 Jahren!

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        October 2023

        Post-Mortem

        Autopsy stories: the unusual experiences of a pathologist

        by Roland Sedivy

        — True crime stories from the morgue — Famous deaths and autopsy stories resolved, such as Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and the case of Anne Greene, who survived her execution by hanging The post-mortem examination. A glimpse inside the interior of the human being. Many find the idea fascinating; for others it is creepy or even repugnant. There are still numerous myths and horror stories surrounding the autopsy, many of them associated with primal human fears such as that of being buried alive, which have existed since Antiquity. It is precisely for this reason that it is important to carry out the post-mortem examination with the utmost conscientiousness. Pathologist Roland Sedivy provides an exciting insight into his profession. Profound and with tremendous humour, he tells us about the early days of the autopsy, and shares with us some macabre and some mysterious cases.

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