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READING THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY - AMMON SHEA ALLEN LANE ISBN 9781846141980
THE GRASS ARENA - JOHN HEALY PENGUIN
THE CINEMA OF JOHN SAYLES - MARK BOULD WALLFLOWER
USA BY RAIL - JOHN PITT BRADT ISBN 1 84162 255 2
DELTA BLUES - GOIA NORTON
DIRECT CINEMA -DAVE SAUNDERS WALLFLOWER ISBN 1905674152
THE JAZZ SINGERS: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE BACKBEAT BOOKS
THE CALL OF TRAINS - JIM SHAUGHNESSY/JEFF BROUWS NORTON
MY STROKE OF LUCK - KIRK DOUGLAS PIATKUS ISBN: 9780749940362
THE RAILWAY: ART IN THE AGE OF STEAM YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS ISBN 978-0-300-13878-8
DOCUMENTARY DISPLAY - KEITH BEATTIE WALLFLOWER ISBN 9781905674725
PENGUIN
MEDITATIONS ON LIVING, DYING AND LOSS - GRAHAM COLEMAN PENGUIN What is death? How can I help those who are dying? How can I prepare for my own death? And how can I come to terms with bereavement? With an introductory commentary by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Meditations on Living, Dying, and Loss is a compilation of writings from the first complete translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which explores these central questions. Each chapter is introduced by the editor of the acclaimed first translation, Graham Coleman. Based on his experience of bereavement and his knowledge of contemporary near death research, he reveals the immense creativity that deepening our insight into the relationship between living and dying can bring. This comforting book explains how, by changing our outlook on the world, we can overcome our fear of change and create our own ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card. It explores how our moment by moment feelings and thoughts actually arise and the enormous power of choice we have as to how we react to adverse and painful circumstances. The processes of death, and even perhaps glimpses of the after-death state, have been described by many people who have had a near-death experience. There is an extraordinary parallel between these medical reports and the descriptions in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Scientists would argue that these experiences come about while a person is not absolutely clinically dead and do not point to the existence of an afterlife. Whichever way one views this, the fact is that to understand the psychological significance of these universal experiences is one of the most powerful ways of understanding death and coping with bereavement. As the Dalai Lama would say, the book has tremendous value in our daily life, whether or not we believe in an afterlife. This is an accessible and moving introduction to The Tibetan Book of the Dead, whose visionary perspective on living, dying, and loss is one of the most inspirational and compelling in world literature. Meditations on Living, Dying, and Loss is an essential guidebook for every voyager through life, death and rebirth. LOVE ME TENDER - CRYER FRANCES LINCOLN ISBN: 9780711229112
BOUNDER! - MCCANN AURUM ISBN 9781845133184
BEATING STRESS, ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION PIATKUS ISBN: 9780749928506 The term depression refers to both expected and pathologically chronic or severe levels of sadness, perceived helplessness, disinterest, and other related emotions and behaviours. Being ‘depressed’ is often regarded as synonymous with feeling ‘sad’, but both clinical and non-clinical depression can also refer to a conglomeration of factors that can also include anger, fear, anxiety, despair, guilt, apathy and grief. The epidemic of stress, anxiety and depression sweeping the Western world is accompanied by huge social, economic and personal costs. This accessible and groundbreaking book by Jane Plant and Janet Stephenson is designed to help sufferers, their families and health professionals. The authors, who have had personal experience of depression, argue that contemporary medicine’s current approach isn’t working. They aim to dispel the fear and prejudice surrounding mental illness and present a new programme for dealing with stress, anxiety and depression, describing the successes that they and others have achieved. The book shows how you can discover your risk factors and reduce them, how mental health problems can be diagnosed more effectively and how to ensure the best possible treatment. The authors examine ten lifestyle factors that may affect the likelihood of developing problems and reveal the ten food factors that can improve mental well-being. This is an invaluable book full of sound advice that could change many peoples’ lives dramatically for the better by tackling this frighteningly widespread problem. GROWN UP DIGITAL - DON TAPSCOTT MCGRAW HILL
LOVE BEGINS AT 40 - GILCHRIST & OWEN HAY HOUSE ISBN 9781401915957
POP GOES THE WEASEL - ALBERT JACK ALLEN LANE Young children have fun with traditional nursery rhymes while learning new vocabulary, rhythm and rudimentary counting skills. English language examples mostly originated from the 17th century onwards, sometimes having been created as an oral political cartoon at times when dissenting speech could get the speaker imprisoned. Some rhymes are considerably older - Sing a Song of Sixpence being found in written records as far back as the Middle Ages. Some nursery rhymes, such as Mary Had a Little Lamb, originated in the United States, but the most famous collection of nursery rhymes is Charles Perrault's french seventeenth-century collection of fairy tales which became known as Contes de ma mère l’Oie, or Tales of Mother Goose. Many nursery rhymes may have been lost, since they are mainly an oral tradition and poor literacy meant that in the past they were seldom written down. Those that survive often have an intriguing history and Albert Jack explores dozens of them in this irresistible book. Who were little Jack Horner, Dr Foster, Mary Quite Contrary and Georgie Porgie? How could Hey Diddle Diddle offer an essential astronomy lesson? Why do Jack and Jill go up the hill to fetch water when water generally runs downhill? And if Ring a Ring a Roses isn’t about catching the plague, then, what is it really about? This book reveals the surprising hidden meanings of well-known nursery rhymes and songs and discovers all kinds of strange tales ranging from Viking raids to firewalking and from political rebellion to slaves being smuggled to freedom. Childhood songs and rhymes will never sound the same again. See also Albert Jack’s earlier book exploring the oddities of the English language, Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep. WHY NOT CATCH 21? - GARY DEXTER FRANCES LINCOLN And why does Catch 22 sound so much better? Which classic works of literature might we have known as The Whale, The High-Bouncing Lover or The Last Man In Europe? Gary Dexter has the answers to these and many other questions in this selection taken from his long-running Sunday Telegraph column and further expanded. Each of the 50 chapters focuses on the origins of one of the great titles of world literature, presenting a bite-sized piece of literary history, with fascinating details of the work’s genesis and composition. Why is there no postman in The Postman Always Rings Twice? Why no Oleanna in Oleanna? The emphasis is on titles that are literally inexplicable without some background knowledge. Any lover of literature will delight in this book and if you want to know how F Scott Fitzgerald came up with The Great Gatsby; James M. Cain with The Postman Always Rings Twice, or Edward Albee with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, this is the place to look. A good title is often crucial to the success of a poem, play or novel, and a kind of magic is involved in choosing exactly the right one. Gary Dexter’s highly enjoyable book of curios makes perfect bedtime reading and will enable you to amaze and impress everyone you meet with your erudition. Like much else in his book, the brilliant (apocryphal?) conversation between editor Max Perkins and publisher Charles Scribner about Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises is both funny and perceptive. GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST CINEMA - IAN ROBERTS WALLFLOWER PRESS German Expressionist cinema developed in Germany, mainly in Berlin, during the 1920s. Based on the ideas of the Expressionism movement that started in the early 1900s, the filmmakers of the UFA studio evolved a unique style that used symbolism and mise en scène to add mood and deeper meaning to their creations. The dada movement was highly influential at the time and led to an urge to embrace change and experimentation. The first Expressionist films, such as The Golem (1920), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Nosferatu (1922) and The Last Laugh (1924), were often deliberately surrealistic. They made up for modest budgets by using set designs that were wildly non-realistic, with walls and floors painted to represent lights, shadows and objects. The stories often dealt with madness, insanity, betrayal and other adventurous topics that were completely unlike the standard action and romantic films of the time. Expressionism soon became integrated into more mainstream films and was brought to America when the Nazis gained power and many German directors and cameramen moved to Hollywood, where they had a profound influence, especially on the horror film and film noir. Directors such as Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock introduced the Expressionist style to crime dramas of the 1940s and its effects can still be seen today. This study by Ian Roberts outlines the movement’s origins in art and literature, showing its technical, stylistic and thematic developments. Covering the famous classics as well as lesser known examples such as Asphalt (1929), this latest addition to Wallflower’s excellent Short Cuts series illuminates an innovative and influential film movement that resulted in some of cinema’s greatest achievements. LEWIS CARROLL IN NUMBERLAND - ROBIN WILSON ALLEN LANE
THE PENGUIN BOOK OF GHOSTS ALLEN LANE
THE CINEMA OF NEIL JORDAN - ZUCKER WALLFLOWER ISBN 9781905674411 The Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan was born in Sligo in 1950 his early career began as a writer. Since winning The Guardian Fiction Prize for his book of short stories, Night In Tunisia, he has gone on to publish three successful novels. In 1982 he wrote and directed his first feature film, Angel, followed by The Company Of Wolves (1984), Mona Lisa (1986, starring Michael Caine, Cathy Tyson and Bob Hoskins), The Crying Game (1992), Interview With the Vampire (1994) and Michael Collins (1996). The recent release of his golden-globe nominated film, The Brave One (2007), makes this comprehensive, illuminating study of Jordan’s work particularly timely. His diverse, often idiosyncratic output has ranged from gothic horror, Irish history and literary adaptation (The End of the Affair) to explorations of sexual identity. The first in-depth study of its kind, the book discusses Jordan’s entire oeuvre with a full, up-to-date analysis of The Brave One and foreword by the internationally renowned actor, Stephen Rea, who has acted in no less than nine Jordan films, receiving an Oscar nomination for his lead in The Crying Game. Author Carole Zucker is Professor of Film Studies at Concordia University, Montreal, and has published several volumes of interviews with American, British and Irish actors. Here she looks beyond ideological and national concerns to view Neil Jordan’s films through the prism of Celtic folklore, fairy tales, the gothic, romanticism and postmodernism. Incorporating discussion of Jordan’s literary work and benefiting from extensive access to his personal archives, this book explains the mythic and poetic impulses that suffuse the director’s work. Subtitled Dark Carnival, this is a welcome exploration of the work of a stylish and highly individual director. THE OPERA COMPANION – GEORGE MARTIN AMADEUS ISBN 9781574671681
SHAGGY DOGS AND BLACK SHEEP - ALBERT JACK PENGUIN Why are Yeoman Warders at the Tower of London called Beefeaters? Who was the first person to pour oil on troubled waters? The English language is full of odd phrases and sayings that we use without thinking. It's only when we’re asked who Gordon Bennett, Smart Aleck or Billio (as in ‘go like Billio’) were, where feeling in the pink or once in a blue moon come from, or even what letting the cat out of the bag really means that we realize there is a lot more to English than we thought. Albert Jack has a wonderful talent for noticing these oddities and a passion for tracking them down to their origins. His research has taken all over the world, exploring the sources for hundreds of phrases and coming up with many fascinating stories along the way. Sayings have often originated in the navy, army and law, or been down to confidence tricksters and highwaymen, the practices of ancient civilizations, or been found at the Music Hall and in pubs. Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep is crammed with fascinating facts and educated conjecture, making it the perfect book for anyone wishing to learn how to interrupt a party with enlightening information. TIME: A USER'S GUIDE - STEFAN KLEIN PENGUIN ISBN 9780141034638 Time is a basic component of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the duration of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects. It has long been a major subject of religion, philosophy and science, but defining time in a non-controversial manner applicable to all fields of study has consistently eluded the greatest scholars. Ancient Greek philosophers often wrote on the nature of time, comparing it to the passing of sand through an hourglass. The sand at the top is the future, which flows through the present into the past. The past is ever expanding and the future ever decreasing, with future grains becoming the past through the present. St. Augustine asked, ‘What then is time? If no one asks me, I know: if I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not.’ Isaac Newton believed time and space form a container for events, which is as real as the objects it contains. In Existentialism, time is considered fundamental to the question of being. In Time: A User’s Guide, former Science Editor of Der Spiegel and bestselling author Stefan Klein explores the hidden dimensions of time, looking at everything from when the present becomes the past to the tribe that see the future backwards, from when sex is best, to why the years seem to speed by as we age. He reveals how we can learn to live in harmony with the secret clock within us, altering our perceptions to transform our lives. Why are there morning people and night people? How come time flies when you are having fun and three minutes can sometimes seem an eternity? Would time exist if we did not measure it - and why is there never enough? We race from one thing to the next, believing on some level that a mysterious cosmic force called ‘time’ is ticking on and is always in short supply. But is the time we live really like that? Could there in fact be another, alternative version, entwined with the official one? Stefan Klein brilliant book is a fascinating, accessible and enlightening study of one of life’s greatest mysteries. BRYSON’S DICTIONARY – BILL BRYSON DOUBLEDAY ISBN: 0385610440
HUNGRY? - LINDSEY BAREHAM MICHAEL JOSEPH ISBN: 9780141031422 Cookery books are heaped up in every bookshop and regularly top the best-seller lists but how many are really of practical use? Lindsey Bareham is best known for her daily recipe column in the Evening Standard, which she wrote for eight years. As a freelance food writer and broadcaster she wrote the weekly ‘Cheat’s Dinner Party’ column in the Sunday Telegraph Stella magazine and now writes an after-work recipe column for The Times and contributes to Saga Magazine. She has written eleven cookery books, including In Praise of the Potato and A Celebration of Soup, and collaborated with Simon Hopkinson to produce The Prawn Cocktail Years. Her latest book, Hungry? Easy Food For Students and Beginners, was inspired when her son first went to university and wanted to take some of her recipes with him. Now this is the book of choice for students and beginners everywhere, full of simple, unpatronising, no nonsense recipes – the perfect first cookbook for people of any age but particularly for those who may not have the money or inclination to cook but still want really good food. As well as foolproof recipes for the likes of shepherd’s pie and risotto, there are invaluable tips on how to peel tomatoes, add oomph to baked beans and find inventive things to do with stale bread. ‘Lindsey Bareham is one of those food writers - like Elizabeth David or Jane Grigson before her - whose books have the power to change the way people cook and eat’ - Sunday Times. BODY SIGNS – EGAN/LIEBMANN-SMITH MICHAEL JOSEPH
THE CINEMA OF LARS VION TRIER – CAROLINE BAINBRIDGE WALLFLOWER ISBN 9781905674435 Danish film director Lars von Trier was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1956. Raised by nudist communist parents, Trier has said that his parents did not allow much room for ‘feelings, religion, or enjoyment’ and also refused to make any rules for their children. He found in cinema an outlet to the outside world and began making his own films at the age of 11. During his time as a student at the Danish Film School (where peers nicknamed him ‘von Trier’ as a joke) he made the films Nocturne and Image of Liberation, both of which won Best Film awards at the Munich Film Festival. Lars von Trier has said that ‘a film should be like a rock in the shoe’ and that in order to create original art filmmakers need to distinguish themselves stylistically, often by placing restrictions on the filmmaking process. The most famous restriction is the cinematic ‘vow of chastity’ of the Dogme95 movement with which he is associated, although only one of his films, The Idiots, with its unsimulated sex and non-conformist politics, is an actual Dogme 95 film. The goal of the Dogme collective is to purify filmmaking by refusing expensive and spectacular special effects, postproduction modifications and other gimmicks. The emphasis on purity forces the filmmakers to focus on the actual story and on the actors’ performances. The audience may also be more engaged as they do not have overproduction to alienate them from the narrative, themes, and mood. In Dancer in the Dark, dramatically-different colour palettes and camera techniques were used for the ‘real world’ and musical portions of the film, and in Dogville everything was filmed on a sound stage with no set where the walls of the buildings in the fictional town were marked as a line on the floor. Caroline Bainbridge’s lucidly-written book is the first English-language study to analyse in depth this controversial figure, investigating the remarkable changes he has brought to modern film. Von Trier’s name has become a by-word for taboo-breaking cinema and he has worked with actresses such as Björk and Nicole Kidman, from whom he coaxed fine performances in Dancer in the Dark and Dogville respectively. More recently, von Trier has made a number of announcements suggesting that he may stop making films altogether. The book discusses von Trier’s entire output including recent films like The Five Obstructions and The Boss of It All and his other artistic projects, such as television special events, music videos and art installations. By taking a variety of perspectives - historical, cultural and psychoanalytical - the book explores the work’s recurring themes of betrayal, vengeance, salvation, femininity and goodness. This is an indispensable guide to understanding the work of one of modern cinema’s most intriguing auteurs. FIVE WISHES – GAY HENDRICKS MICHAEL JOSEPH A chance meeting and a powerful question inspired Gay Hendricks’s new book, subtitled How Answering One Simple Question Can Make Your Dreams Come True. In Five Wishes, Hendricks shares the conversation that changed his life and the powerful, yet simple process he discovered for turning dreams into a reality. An encounter at a party changed Gay Hendricks forever when a stranger asked him to imagine himself on his deathbed and to consider this question: ‘Was your life a complete success?’ If not, then ‘What would be the things you’d wish had happened that would have made it a success?’ The stranger said, ‘turn that wish into a goal, and put it in the present tense.’ Hendricks reveals the process he learned and refined for turning his wishes into attainable goals, and provides examples and stories of how others have used and benefited from the process. Forget about breakable New Year’s resolutions, this short, focused book promises to show you how to establish their own attainable five wishes for a lastingly fulfilled life. Gay Hendricks is a seminar leader, web entrepreneur, filmmaker and author of more than 20 books, including the bestseller, Conscious Loving. His new book is an easy read and by following the exercises included you could be inspired to make positive changes to your life. ‘With brilliance and clarity, Gay Hendricks shares this inspirational story from the heart. Five Wishes can help anyone find the power within to change their life.’ - John Gray, author of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. HAPPIER – TAL BEN-SHAHAR MCGRAW-HILL Earlier this year, Denmark came top in a world map of happiness (the UK ranked 41st out of 178 nations) and for more than thirty years it has ranked first in European satisfaction surveys. So what makes Danes so content? Suggestions range from the unlikely (hair colour, genes, food and language) to the more plausible, such as family life, health, a prosperous economy, winning the 1992 European Football Championship, or simply feeling satisfied because expectations are somewhat lower than those of people in other countries. ‘Happiness depends upon ourselves’, said Aristotle, but can we learn how to be happy? Tal Ben-Shahar teaches one of Harvard University’s most popular courses and is an expert in the new field of ‘positive psychology’. In this book, Ben-Shahar credibly combines scientific studies, scholarly research, self-help advice and spiritual enlightenment, weaving them together into a set of principles that you can apply to your daily life. Here you can discover whether you are a rat racer, a hedonist or a nihilist. Once you open your heart and mind to Happier’s thoughts, Ben-Shahar claims, you will feel more fulfilled, more connected and, consequently, happier. The book is divided into three sections: ‘What is Happiness?’, ‘Happiness Applied’ and ‘Meditations on Happiness’. Each offers the author’s personal reflections and considered insights, with exercises to help us unlearn bad habits and practices that undermine our ability to maximise personal happiness. Dr. Ben-Shahar stresses the need to live for both today and tomorrow, and to incorporate both pleasure and meaning into life. Happier is inspiring, uplifting and readable without being simplistic - one of those rare self-help books that really could change your life. SO WHEN DOES THE FAT LADY SING? – MICHAEL WALSH AMADEUS PRESS ‘No opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible’ - W. H. Auden. Opera is a form of musical and dramatic work in which singers convey the drama, with performances incorporating many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes dance. Jacopo Peri’s Dafne (1597) is commonly regarded as the first opera, but the first great composer of this art form was Claudio Monteverdi. Opera soon spread from Venice and Rome throughout Italy and the rest of Europe: Schütz in Germany, Lully in France, and Purcell in England all helped to establish their national traditions in the 17th century. In the 18th century, Italian opera seria was the most prestigious form of opera until Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his ‘reform’ operas in the 1760s. The most influential figure of late 18th century opera was Mozart, especially for his Italian comic operas, and the 19th century saw the highpoint of the bel canto style, with Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini, as well as the golden age of opera, led by Wagner in Germany and Verdi in Italy. This continued through the verismo era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Puccini and Strauss in the early 20th century. At the same time, new operatic traditions emerged in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia and Bohemia. The 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism (Schoenberg and Berg), Neo-Classicism (Stravinsky), and Minimalism (Philip Glass and John Adams). With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso became known to audiences beyond the circle of opera fans. It’s a rich and reward ing heritage, if a tad confusing and daunting for the newcomer. If you think opera’s just about starving artists, vengeful goddesses, randy noblemen, and adulterous lovers, think again. In ‘So When Does The Fat Lady Sing?’, Michael Walsh, the former music critic for Time magazine, takes audiences on a wise and witty dash through 400 years of operatic history and culture. More a freewheeling dialogue between author and reader than a traditional quiz book, ‘So When Does The Fat Lady Sing?’ (subtitled ‘Questions and Answers About Life, Sex, Love, and - oh yes – Opera’) poses irreverent and impertinent questions (sample: ‘Which beloved opera features not one but two heroines who are basically cheap, trampy, man-hunting gold diggers?’) designed not so much to test knowledge as to inspire and entertain both expert and novice alike. Highly recommended. RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX – DAVID J. BODYCOMBE PENGUIN ISBN: 9780141030371 A puzzle is a problem or enigma that challenges ingenuity. In a basic puzzle you piece together objects in a logical way in order to come up with the desired shape, picture or solution. Puzzles are often contrived as a form of entertainment, but they can also stem from serious mathematical or logistical problems - in such cases, their successful resolution can be a significant contribution to mathematical research. Solutions to puzzles may require recognising patterns and creating a particular order. People with a high inductive reasoning aptitude may be better at solving these puzzles than others. This unique book features ‘the puzzles, word games, brainteasers, conundrums, maps, mysteries, codes and ciphers that have baffled, entertained and confused the world over the last 100 years’. The world’s most popular brainteasers have fascinating stories behind them, from the original ‘riddles of the Sphinx’ via Lewis Carroll’s word ladders to the work of present-day puzzle compilers. Why are they so popular and how did the Times crossword win World War Two? David J. Bodycombe is an author and games show consultant, who has worked on television and radio shows such as The Crystal Maze and X Marks the Spot. Over two million people in the UK read his puzzles every day, and internationally his work is syndicated to over 180 newspapers. As well as thousands of intriguing puzzles - perfect ‘brain food’ - his new book offers sound advice on how to find solutions (also included). THE BOB DYLAN SCRAPBOOK, 1956-1966 SIMON & SCHUSTER ISBN: 0743228286
THE CINEMA OF TERRENCE MALICK – HANNAH PATTERSON WALLFLOWER ISBN 9781905674251 In a career spanning decades, Malick has directed one short film (Lanton Mills, 1969) and four feature-length films: Badlands (1973), Days of Heaven (1978), The Thin Red Line (1998) and The New World (2005). His work is characterised by naturalist cinematography and a meditative directorial and editing style; his films being full of rich, lingering, repetitive images of natural beauty. He often makes extensive use of off-screen narration by his characters, as well as music, to illuminate, heighten and counterpoint the action on screen. Badlands and Days of Heaven are acclaimed masterpieces and Malick was nominated for an Academy Award for both Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director for The Thin Red Line (nominated for seven Academy Awards). Although notoriously withdrawn from public life, friends such as actor Martin Sheen have remarked that he is a very warm and humble man who prefers to work without media intrusion. His contracts stipulate that no current photographs of him are to be taken and he routinely declines requests for interviews. First published in 2003, The Cinema of Terrence Malick was the only book-length study to investigate the director, and this second edition updates the discussion with three new essays on The New World by Mark Cousins, Adrian Martin and James Morrison. In addition to this new material, the book continues its explorations of identity, place and existence in Badlands, Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line. The collection discusses Malick’s work from a series of vantage points, including the poetics of cinema, the symbolic use of sound and representations of landscape, youth culture and the American West. Tracing his unique and under-explored filmmaking style from the ‘Golden Age’ of cinema to the present, each essay provides innovative ways of reading Malick’s films, thus highlighting the significance of this truly original director. Editor Hannah Patterson is a writer and critic, and co-editor of Contemporary North American Film Directors: A Wallflower Critical Guide. The Cinema of Terrence Malick is an indispensable guide to one of cinema’s most enigmatic and original filmmakers. THE STUDS TERKEL READER NEW PRESS The Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, historian and broadcaster Louis ‘Studs’ Terkel was born in 1912 in New York City. At the age of ten he moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois, where he has spent most of his life. From 1926 to 1936, his parents ran a rooming house that was a collecting point for people of all types, and Terkel credits his knowledge of the world to the tenants who gathered in the lobby of the hotel and the people who congregated in nearby Bughouse Square. After studying at the University of Chicago, he joined the Works Progress Administration's Federal Writers’ Project, working in radio, doing work ranging from voicing soap opera productions and announcing news and sports, to presenting shows of recorded music and writing radio scripts and advertisements. The one-hour Studs Terkel radio programme aired each weekday on WFMT Chicago between 1952 and 1997, featuring interviews with guests such as Bob Dylan and Leonard Bernstein. Terkel is the author of twelve outstanding books of oral history and the Studs Terkel Reader, originally published under the title My American Century, collects the best interviews from eight of these classic histories, together with his magnificent introductions to each work. Featuring selections from American Dreams, Coming of Age, Division Street, ‘The Good War’, The Great Divide, Hard Times, Race, and Working, this ‘greatest hits’ volume is a treasury that will delight his many fans and provide a perfect introduction for those who have not yet experienced the joy of reading this great American. The book includes an introduction by Robert Coles surveying Terkel’s work and a new foreword by Calvin Trillin. ‘The older you are, the freer you are, as long as you last’ - Studs Turkel at 95. THE BUMPER BOOK OF LOOK AND LEARN RANDOM HOUSE ISBN 1846052912
ARMED MADHOUSE – GREG PALAST PENGUIN ISBN 978-0141018270 Award-winning guerrilla journalist Greg Palast has gone where most have been too scared to venture to unearth the ugly truth about the haves and have-mores who rule our world…America. He reports from behind enemy lines to reveal just how bad it has become in a dangerous regime: how elections are bought and free speech comes at a price. How citizens are ruled by fear. And how our brave new globalised world means the poor get hammered, while corporations silently buy up the planet. It’s not pretty - but it’s all true. Palast takes the reader on a global tour from Baghdad to New Orleans, to expose the official mendacity and corporate piggery of America in this paperback edition of Armed Madhouse – accurately subtitled ‘undercover dispatches from a dying regime’. These shocking reports from the frontline reveal facts - as brutal as they are funny - that you don’t get from the Powers That Be and what the Guardian describes as ‘investigations up there with Woodward and Bernstein’. This new edition, published on the second anniversary of the devastating Hurricane Katrina, tells in a new chapter how Palast’s uncovering of how the White House drowned New Orleans led to anti-terror charges being brought against him. Greg Palast has been described as ‘Bill Hicks with a press pass’ and like that great American comedian/subversive he is an angry, passionate and fearless witness to the crimes and greed at the heart of his country’s social and political landscape. That he bases his charges on research and fact makes this shocking and sometimes darkly funny polemic all the more devastating. ‘Upsets all the right people’ - Noam Chomsky. 100 SECRET STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL INVESTING – RICHARD FARLEIGH PENGUIN ISBN 9780141033426 Australian multi-millionaire Richard Farleigh is the nice, sensible member of television’s irresistible Dragon’s Den programme. He generally comes across as shrewd yet willing to take a calculated punt where necessary – just the sort of man to turn to for advice on how to become rich while remaining a decent human being. Now based in Monte Carlo, Farleigh studied economics and mathematics before managing a hedge fund in the 1980s and early 90s, after which he ‘semi-retired’ and has since operated as a business angel successfully backing early-stage companies, mostly in the UK. When he started his career in an investment bank in Sydney in his early twenties, he didn’t think that he could out-perform the markets. Investment and trading seemed to be just gambling. Gradually however he came to believe that market prices are predictable and he developed a repeatable methodology based on observation and reasoning. In this useful and easy to read guide, the self-confessed ‘deal junkie’ shares the techniques and strategies that propelled him to the top from an unpromising start in life. The ideas are presented as 100 different laws spread over ten chapters, exploring topics such as markets, risk, recognising patterns and anomalies, understanding trends, timing and, most importantly, ‘avoiding temptation’. Richard Farleigh writes fluently as he explains how obvious ideas can offer great opportunities, and giving much sound advice: ‘Experts are vastly over-rated. Most professionals in the markets are not actually outguessing the price, but are making money from clients, transactions and commissions.’ This easy to read book is one that no serious investor can afford to be without. AUSTERITY BRITAIN – DAVID KYNASTON BLOOMSBURY ISBN 9780747579854
INFERNO – KEITH LOWE VIKING ISBN 0670915576 The Battle of Hamburg, codenamed Operation Gomorrah, was a series of air raids conducted by the RAF and USAAF starting at the end of July 1943 and lasting ten days. At the time it was the heaviest assault in the history of aerial warfare and at times the firestorm created reached temperatures of 800°C, causing asphalt on the streets to burst into flame and incinerating eight square miles of the large German port city. At least 50,000 people were killed, many of cooked to death in air-raid shelters, and over a million civilians were left homeless. Approximately 3,000 aircraft were deployed, 9,000 tons of bombs dropped and 250,000 houses destroyed. More than half a century later, the allied bombing of Germany’s cities remains a controversial topic. The campaign may have served no military purpose and been of little strategic value but it left an entire generation traumatised. As those who survived emerged from their ruined cellars and air-raid shelters, they were confronted with a unique vision of hell: a sea of flame that stretched to the horizon, the burned-out husks of fire engines that had tried to rescue them, charcoaled corpses and roads that had become flaming rivers of melted tarmac. This book is the first comprehensive narrative of the Hamburg firestorm for almost thirty years. Using many new first-hand acccounts, Keith Lowe gives the human side of an inhuman story, and the result is an epic tale of devastation and survival, and a much-needed reminder of the human face of war. The author combines the gripping eye-witness accounts with thorough research to tell the story of these appalling events with clarity, compassion and sensitivity. THE LORD OF THE RINGS – ERNEST MATHIJS WALLFLOWER 1904764827 J. R. R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings, began as a sequel to his earlier fantasy book The Hobbit and was written in stages between 1937 and 1949. Originally published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955, it has since been reprinted many times and been translated into dozens of languages, becoming one of the most popular works in 20th-century literature. Three film adaptations have been made, the first being by animator Ralph Bakshi in 1978 and the second an animated television special by Rankin-Bass in 1980. The third best-known and most ambitious film adaptation has been Peter Jackson’s extraordinarily successful live action trilogy, produced by New Line Cinema and released in three instalments as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). This exhaustive study, edited by Ernest Mathijs, takes the release of the film trilogy as a point of departure for an overview of the international impact of The Lord of the Rings in a range of cultural environments (the US, the UK, New-Zealand and Europe). The book analyses thoroughly all aspects of merchandising, box office figures, distribution, critical reception, fan following and cult status of the films, showing how the different features of the phenomenon, such as trailers, DVD editions, websites, computer games, music, location tours, and even erotic spin-offs contributed to making The Lord of the Rings the most publicly recognised brand image of its time. URBAN LEGENDS UNCOVERED – MARK BARBER SUMMERSDALE Urban legend is a kind of modern folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them. The stories are not necessarily untrue, but they are often distorted, exaggerated or sensationalised. Despite the name, an urban legend doesn’t necessarily originate in an urban setting (the term is used to differentiate them from the traditional folklore of pre-industrial times). Urban legends have been repeated in news stories and distributed by e-mail but are most often tales that happened to a ‘friend of a friend’. Some urban legends have survived a long time, evolving only slightly over the years, as in the case of the story of a woman killed by spiders nesting in her elaborate hairdo. Newer legends tend to reflect modern circumstances, like the story of people ambushed, anaesthetised and waking up minus one kidney, which was surgically removed for transplantation. Other well-known urban legends tell of an old woman who attempted to dry a wet poodle in a microwave oven, the vanishing hitchhiker, and the alligators that allegedly live in New York City’s sewers. In this fascinating book, subtitle ‘An Investigation into the Truth Behind the Myths’, Mark Barber considers whether urban legends are merely harmless tales or whether there is something more sinister lurking beneath the surface. How and why do urban legends exist? Have they been created or manipulated for political, propaganda, or marketing reasons? From campfire classics that send shivers down the spine to the paranoia that followed the events of 9/11, the author considers hundreds of chilling stories, analysing their origins and what effects. He reveals how the creators of The Blair Witch Project used the power of urban legends as a clever marketing tool, and how Churchill and Hitler used urban legends in their wartime propaganda campaigns to play mind games with each other. Learn how urban legends are manufactured to target large corporations such as Microsoft and McDonalds, and how hoax e-mails and computer viruses have almost brought businesses and governments to their knees. THE CONTINUUM ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BRITISH LITERATURE ISBN: 0826418392 This huge one-volume encyclopedia from Continuum is a terrific guide to the literary tradition of Britain, including works written in English in Africa, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, India, Ireland and New Zealand. The book’s vast scale (over a thousand pages) means that subjects can be covered in extraordinary depth, from Aneirin and the poet of Widsith to Caedmon and the author of Beowulf; from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Geoffrey Chaucer; from Spenser to Shakespeare; from Donne to Milton to Dryden; from Dr. Johnson and Jane Austen to William Blake; from Thackeray, the Brontes, and Dickens to Virginia Woolf, Jonathan Coe, and Zadie Smith. The contributors, coming from the UK and USA, are all experts in their fields, and include: R. S. White on William Blake; W. H. New on Canadian Literature in English; Derek Brewer on Geoffrey Chaucer; Ian Ousby on Detective Fiction before 1945; David Kirby on Expatriates; Merryn Williams on Thomas Hardy; Sandie Byrne on Tony Harrison; Fred Marchant on Ted Hughes; Peter Barnes on Ben Jonson; Ian MacKillop on F. R. Leavis; Norman Kelvin on William Morris; Claire Tomalin on Samuel Pepys; and Peter Finch on Poetry since 1945. The whole massive enterprise is edited by Steven R. Serafin, a leading authority on modern world literature, and Valerie Grosvenor Myer, author of many biographies of major literary figures. This comprehensive encyclopedia is an invaluable addition to the bookshelf, both as a reference work and as an enjoyable way to learn about rewarding new writers, particularly from overseas. Superbly researched and authoritative - this is essential reading for anyone interested in the pleasures of British literature. THE BOB DYLAN ENCYCLOPEDIA – MICHAEL GRAY CONTINUUM ISBN 0826469337 Born on 24 May 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, Robert Alan Zimmerman grew up in nearby Hibbing. ‘The Greatest Songwriter Ever’ has released more than 40 albums since his 1962 debut began to change the world’s perceptions of popular music. Around five hundred songs later (Like a Rolling Stone was recently voted the best song of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine and the NME) Dylan continues to surprise, challenge, mystify and fascinate in equal measure as he pursues his ‘Never Ending Tour’, having performed thousands of shows around the world in a career spanning five decades. His latest album, Modern Times, has already sold more than two million copies, and both Uncut and Mojo magazines recently named Dylan as their ‘Man Of The Year’. The first volume of his memoirs, Chronicles, was much acclaimed and Martin Scorsese’s ‘No Direction Home’ documentary also contributed to the great man’s renaissance. Despite countless words written about him over the years though, the coolest man on the planet remains, partly by his own choice, an enigma. Even Michael Gray’s weighty and phenomenally comprehensive encyclopedia can’t hope to include every facet of a remarkable career that spans over 45 years of American history but the book is as definitive as any to date. It includes: Biographies of singers, musicians, songwriters and composers who have influenced Bob Dylan and/or worked with him; Critical assessments and factual details for all Dylan’s albums and for a large number of individual songs; Dylan’s key career and biographical moments; Biographies of writers, poets and other cultural figures who have impacted on Dylan’s work and/or who are mentioned within it, from William Blake to William Carlos Williams and from Lenny Bruce to Franz Kafka; Short biographies of music critics and authors of books and major websites on Dylan; Critical assessments and facts on Dylan’s own books and films; Discursive subjects, from Dylan Interpreters to Cowboy Heroes, and from The Use of Hollywood Dialogue in Dylan’s lyrics, to ‘frying an egg on stage’. This meticulously researched book with its many insights, shrewd opinions and rewarding digressions, is clearly a labour of love and will be avidly devoured by Dylan fans everywhere. If you want to know what became of Suze Rotolo, what Muhammad Ali talked to Dylan about and whether Bob really did meet Elvis, this is the place to look. Indispensable! THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS – CONN & HAL IGGULDEN HARPER COLLINS
CINEMA OF STEVEN SPIELBERG - NIGEL MORRIS WALLFLOWER ISBN 1904764886 Steven Allan Spielberg is the most financially successful movie director of all time, winning three Academy Awards as well as an Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. He has massive influence in Hollywood and at the end of the 20th century LIFE named him the most influential person of his generation. His films are sometimes portrayed as the archetype of modern Hollywood blockbuster film-making but in later years he has tackled such emotionally-charged issues as the Holocaust, slavery and war. Nigel Morris examines the director’s long and varied career, as well as considering his work as writer, producer and studio mogul. Best known for creating crowd-pleasing hits such as Jaws, E.T. and Jurassic Park, Spielberg has lately started to be reappraised by critics as a serious director. Later works such as Schindler’s List, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan and Munich all deal with adult themes and through detailed textual analyses of every film from Duel (1971) to Munich (2005), Morris argues that Spielberg’s movies have always demanded proper consideration. The author reveals how the films function as a self-reflexive commentary on cinema. Rather than straightforwardly consumed realism or fantasy, they invite divergent readings and self-conscious spectatorship. Morris makes a strong case against assumptions that Spielberg’s films tend towards ideological conservatism, cuteness, racism, triviality and escapism. The Cinema of Steven Spielberg: Empire of Light argues that triumphant marketing is not the only cause of Spielberg’s success; rather the powerful emotional appeal and ambiguities of the films themselves maximise audiences and generate media attention. This fascinating book puts forward a persuasive argument for taking this astonishingly successful director seriously as an auteur as well as a cinematic institution. Essential reading. HOW TO BE FREE – TOM HODGKINSON HAMISH HAMILTON ISBN 0241143217 Have you caught yourself wondering whether modern life might not be quite your cup of tea after all? Wondering why you bother to go to work, why consumer culture is so soulless and whether there might be a better, happier, freer way to live our lives? How To Be Free answers these questions and many more by drawing upon the various philosophies of William Blake, French existentialists, British punks and US beats, hippies, anarchists, medieval thinkers and back-to-the-landers. Author Tom Hodgkinson is the editor and co-founder of the excellent Idler and his latest subversive book sets out a simple, joyful blueprint for improving modern day life. With this survival guide you can learn how to throw off the shackles of anxiety, bureaucracy, debt, governments, housework, guilt, boredom, work and much else besides. Some pieces of advice (throw away your watch) are easier to do than others (play the ukelele) but there is much challenging food for thought here and many people will recognise all too well the author’s description of that ‘greedy monster’ called a career. Following on from the success of his earlier book, How to be Idle (Penguin ISBN 0141015063), Tom Hodgkinson has created an entertaining, intelligent and well-researched guide, packed with quotes to back up his arguments. The twenty-nine chapters have provocative titles urging us to ‘Reject career and all its empty promises’, ‘Forget government’ and ‘Stop working, start living’. This book is essential reading for anyone who feels out of step with modern life and is looking for a way to exchange their life for a merrier one. We have nothing to lose but our ID cards. THE PENGUIN TV COMPANION - JEFF EVANS PENGUIN ISBN 0141024240 This third edition of Penguin’s thoroughly enjoyable, nostalgic trip through the world of television features everything from Little House on the Prairie to Little Britain, The X Files to The X Factor, and Department S to Desperate Housewives. Try to catch the book out by looking up your old favourites and you will almost certainly fail. Broderick Crawford’s Highway Patrol is included, as are Whirligig (with early appearances by Mr Turnip, Sooty and Rolf Harris), Mike Hammer and the Cisco Kid. This huge and comprehensive book has over 900 packed pages covering 2,200 programmes, with full cast lists, transmission dates and detailed lively synopses. It also features more than 1,500 entries for important TV people - actors, writers, producers and others: from Lew Grade to Ricky Gervais, David Coleman to Simon Cowell, and Chris Tarrant to David Tennant. Star ratings reveal arguably the best and the worst of 70 years of viewing and DVD availability is included for the first time. From Sooty to The Simpsons, On the Buses to The Osbournes, The X-Files to Z Cars, Magnusson to Davina McCall, and from Dennis Potter to Jeremy Paxman, this wonderful companion gives you all you could wish to know about television: the programmes, the people, the companies and the history. No television addict should be without this marvellously compelling book. THE PRAWN COCKTAIL YEARS – SIMON HOPKINSON & LINDSEY BAREHAM PENGUIN ISBN 0718149807 The Prawn Cocktail Years celebrates dozens of restaurant favourites from the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies - years when Britain was learning how to eat out. While Lindsey Bareham and Simon Hopkinson were putting together the best-selling book, ‘Roast Chicken and Other Stories’, they began to reminisce about hotel and restaurant dishes they had grown up with and loved. Classics such as Duck a l’Orange, Weiner Schnitzel, Moussaka, Garlic Mushrooms and, of course, Prawn Cocktail, have been neglected, derided and dismissed as hopelessly naff, yet when made with fine, fresh ingredients and prepared with care, they are fit to grace the most discerning of tables. This splendid book sets out to rehabilitate the food we once loved and found exciting. In so doing, the authors take us on a cook’s tour of the legendary post-war hotels and gentlemen’s clubs with their Mulligatawny and Shepherd’s Pie, as well as to the bistros of Swinging London, the first Italian trattorias and the ‘Continental’ restaurants with their exotic offerings of Beef Stroganoff, Chicken Kiev and Rhum Baba. Recipes for all these old favourites have been brought back to life as well as those classics that were once described as the Great British Meal - Prawn Cocktail, Steak Garni with Chips and Black Forest Gateau. Cooked as they should be, this much derided and often ridiculed dinner can still be something very special. From Victorian breakfast kedgeree to jam roly poly, from sole Veronique to profiteroles, each recipe is introduced with a brief but fascinating history of where it originated and how it became a ‘British’ favourite. Delicious! THE CINEMA OF AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND WALLFLOWER Australia cinema has a long history. The first feature length narrative film in the world was a 1906 Australian production, The Story of the Kelly Gang, and one of the world’s earliest film studios was The Limelight Department, operated by the Salvation Army in Melbourne between 1891 and 1910. Australian film production declined after the 1920s and never fully recovered until the boom of the 1970s and 1980s, when government funding increased and the Australian Film Commission was created. Films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir) and The Getting of Wisdom (Bruce Beresford) initiated the ‘golden age’ of Australian cinema with many internationally successful actors (including Sam Neill, Mel Gibson, Guy Pearce, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Judy Davis, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe and Heath Ledger) and directors (Peter Weir, Baz Luhrmann, Phillip Noyce and Gillian Armstrong). The first New Zealand feature film, Hinemoa, was made in 1914 but it was only in the early 1990s that the country gained real international recognition with Jane Campion’s The Piano and Heavenly Creatures, directed by Peter Jackson, who has continued to make his films in New Zealand, including the hugely successful Lord of the Rings trilogy. Other films made in New Zealand include The Last Samurai, King Kong and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This revealing study, edited by Geoff Mayer and Keith Beattie, celebrates the commercially successful feature films produced by these countries as well as key documentaries, shorts and independent films. This coverage also invokes issues involving national identity, race, history and the ability of two small film cultures to survive the economic and cultural threat from Hollywood. As well as the more famous directors, the authors also consider less celebrated, but equally important, films and filmmakers such as Jedda (Charles Chauvel, 1955), They’re a Weird Mob (Michael Powell, 1966), Vigil (Vincent Ward, 1984) and The Goddess of 1967 (Clara Law, 2000). Expertly researched, this fascinating book is essential reading for anyone interested in the lively world of Australasian cinema. ON SECOND THOUGHTS… SIMON BRETT SUMMERSDALE ISBN 1840245476 In this witty and brilliantly inventive book, Simon Brett invents what might have been found in the imaginary wastepaper baskets of the famous and great from history. Things could have been very different if King Arthur had figured out the seating plan for a square table, if Picasso hadn’t received the wrong prescription for his spectacles or if George W. Bush hadn’t misspelled ‘unclear’ as ‘nuclear’ in his email to Tony Blair. He reveals lost scenes from Hemingway, the true origins of the Bayeux Tapestry, the first draft of ‘Waiting for Godot’ - where Godot entered in Scene One - and the Freudian slips in Sigmund Freud’s more trivial correspondence. Just as revealing are the overdue library books of Bono, David Cameron and Boris Johnson, together with hilarious pastiches of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Simon Brett has published over 70 books including the Charles Paris, Mrs Pargeter and the Fethering series of crime novels. His psychological thrillers include Dead Romantic, which was adapted for BBC2, and A Shock to the System, made into a feature film starring Michael Caine. His humorous books include How to be a Little Sod and the Baby Tips series. He is also the author of the radio series No Commitments and After Henry, which was adapted into a successful television series starring Prunella Scales. On Second Thoughts is one of his best yet – a wonderfully funny, clever and subversive commentary on ‘the great and t |
This phenomenally successful book is the perfect antidote to television and the ubiquitous computer game. Where else can you find out how to thrash someone at conkers, race your own go-cart and identify the best quotations from Shakespeare? The Dangerous Book for Boys is packed with information about such varied topics as the laws of football and cricket, astronomy, girls (it’s important to listen, apparently), famous battles, catapults, the seven wonders of the world (ancient and modern), patron saints, artillery, common British trees, chess, navigation and juggling with balls. Learn such things as how to make the world’s greatest paper plane, build a treehouse (a big job), skim stones, perform coin tricks, make an easy periscope, hunt and cook a rabbit, write in secret ink, decipher enemy codes, construct a pinhole camera, play marbles, grow sunflowers and teach a dog new tricks. Read inspiring stories of courage and bravery by people like Scott of the Antarctic, Lord Horatio Nelson, Douglas Bader and Robert the Bruce. The book’s Fifties-style retro Boys’ Own presentation only adds to the fun and it’s easy to see how this surprise best-seller has proved such an irresistible treat for boys – and quite a few girls – of all ages. ‘Just William would be proud’ - Daily Mail.