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Black in Time: The Most Awesome Black Britons from Yesterday to Today
By Alison Hammond, E. L. Norry. 2022
Hiya! Alison Hammond here! I love getting to know all about different people and I'll tell you a secret .…
. . sometimes people we don't know much about are the most interesting of all! Which is really what this book is all about.Let me ask you a question: How many Black people can you name from our history? Mary Seacole? Ira Aldridge? George Bridgetower? Pablo Fanque? Walter Tull? Have you heard of these people?Yes? That's great! But if you haven't, don't worry, you're not alone, which is why I'm so excited to tell you all about them. Because the people in this book should be totally famous given the AMAZING things they've done! And we're not going to stop in the past, I'll introduce you to people making waves right here and now!From sportspeople to scientists, activists to musicians, politicians to writers, we're going to meet a whole bunch of AWESOME people who have helped shape the world we live in. So, are ready for you a journey Black in time?? Course you are, let's go!The Birds and Other Plays
By Aristophanes. 1978
The plays in this volume all contain Aristophanes' trademark bawdy comedy and dazzling verbal agility. In THE BIRDS, two frustrated…
Athenians join the birds to build the utopian city of 'Much Cuckoo in the Clouds'. THE KNIGHTS is a venomous satire on Cleon, a prominent Athenian demagogue, while THE ASSEMBLY WOMEN deals with the battle of the sexes as the women of Athens infiltrate the all-male Assembly in disguise. The lengthy conflict with Sparta is the subject of PEACE, inspired by the hope of a settlement in 421 BC, and WEALTH reflects on the economic catastrophe that hit Athens after the war.Big Pig, Little Pig: A Year on a Smallholding in South-West France
By Jacqueline Yallop. 2017
As heard on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week'A delightful and entertaining memoir' Woman and HomeWhen Jacqueline moves to…
south-west France with her husband, she embraces rural village life and buys two pigs to rear for slaughter. But as she gets to know the animals better, her English sentimentality threatens to get in the way and she begins to wonder if she can actually bring herself to kill them. This is a memoir about that fateful decision, but it's also about the ethics of meat eating in the modern age, and whether we should know, respect and even love the animals we eat. At its heart, this book is a love story, exploring the increasing attachment of the author for her particular pigs, and celebrating the enduring closeness of humans and pigs over the centuries.Behind the Scenes at the Museum of Baked Beans: My Search for Britain's Maddest Museums
By Hunter Davies. 2010
'I am fascinated by people turning their daft dreams into a reality. How did they do it and why?'Driven by…
his own passion for collecting Hunter Davies has packed his notepad and set off in search of Britain's maddest museums. As he explores these hidden gems he soon discovers that they are everywhere and that they celebrate just about everything, from lawnmowers in Southport to pencils in Keswick.But as Hunter travels up and down the country he comes to realise that it isn't only the collections that are fascinating, it's also the people who have put them together. Whether they're a man who loves his Heinz so much he's changed his name to Captain Beany or a kleptomaniac Vintage Radio buff, these eccentric collectors are Britain's finest and could live in no other country in the world.Once you discover these museums and get to know their curators, Great Britain won't look quite the same again...The Beggar's Opera
By John Gay. 1986
The tale of Peachum, thief-taker and informer, conspiring to send the dashing and promiscuous highwayman Macheath to the gallows, became…
the theatrical sensation of the eighteenth century.In THE BEGGAR'S OPERA, John Gay turned conventions of Italian opera riotously upside-down, instead using traditional popular ballads and street tunes, while also indulging in political satire at the expense of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. Gay's highly original depiction of the thieves, informers, prostitutes and highwaymen thronging the slums and prisons of the corrupt London underworld proved brilliantly successful in exposing the dark side of a corrupt and jaded society.Barging Round Britain: Exploring the History of our Nation's Canals and Waterways
By John Sergeant, David Bartley. 2015
Barging Round Britain by David Bartley is a beautifully-illustrated guide to a unique and fascinating part of our history: the…
canal network.Explore the people and places that have forged this national treasure, from the birth of the Industrial Revolution to the leisure explosion on our waterways today. Fully-illustrated with maps and photographs, the book will trace canal routes across the UK, from the Georgian grandeur of Bath to the dramatic splendour of the Scottish Highlands.This is the official tie-in to the ITV series, coming to prime-time TV in January 2015. David Bartley's Barging Round Britain includes a foreword and chapter introductions by the presenter of the TV series, John Sergeant.The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro
By Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais. 1964
A French courtier, secret agent, libertine and adventurer, Beaumarchais (1732-99) was also author of two sparkling plays about the scoundrelly…
valet Figaro - triumphant successes that were used as the basis of operas by Mozart and Rossini. A highly engaging comedy of intrigue, The Barber of Seville portrays the resourceful Figaro foiling a jealous old man's attempts to keep his beautiful ward from her lover. And The Marriage of Figaro - condemned by Louis XVI for its daring satire of nobility and privilege - depicts a master and servant set in opposition by their desire for the same woman. With characteristic lightness of touch, Beaumarchais created an audacious farce of disguise and mistaken identity that balances wit, frivolity and seriousness in equal measure.Back to Methuselah
By George Bernard Shaw. 1949
Back to Methuselah (A Metabiological Pentateuch) is a 1921 series of five plays and a preface by George Bernard Shaw.…
The five plays are:In the Beginning: B.C. 4004 (In the Garden of Eden); The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas: Present Day; The Thing Happens: A.D. 2170; Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman: A.D. 3000; As Far as Thought Can Reach: A.D. 31,920 The plays were published with a preface titled The Infidel Half Century, and first performed in 1922 by the New York Theatre Guild at the Garrick Theatre.The Bacchae and Other Plays
By Euripides. 2005
Through their sheer range, daring innovation, flawed but eloquent characters and intriguing plots, the plays of Euripides have shocked and…
stimulated audiences since the fifth century BC. Phoenician Women portrays the rival sons of King Oedipus and their mother's doomed attempts at reconciliation, while Orestes shows a son ravaged with guilt after the vengeful murder of his mother. In the Bacchae, a king mistreats a newcomer to his land, little knowing that he is the god Dionysus disguised as a mortal, while in Iphigenia at Aulis, the Greek leaders take the horrific decision to sacrifice a princess to gain favour from the gods in their mission to Troy. Finally, the Rhesus depicts a world of espionage between the warring Greek and Trojan camps.As You Like It
By William Shakespeare. 1968
'All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players'Rosalind, banished by her cruel uncle, travels secretly…
to the Forest of Arden, where her exiled father holds court. There, dressed as a boy to avoid discovery, she encounters the man she loves - now a fellow exile - and resolves to remain in disguise to test his feelings for her. One of Shakespeare's most sunny, fast-paced and accessible comedies, As You Like It is an exuberant combination of concealed identities and verbal jousting, burlesque and pastoral dream, reconciliations and multiple weddings.Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by H. J. Oliver Introduction by Katherine Duncan-JonesThe Aran Islands (Penguin Modern Classics)
By J. M. Synge. 1992
In 1907 J. M. Synge achieved both notoriety and lasting fame with The Playboy of the Western World. The Aran…
Islands, published in the same year, records his visits to the islands in 1898-1901, when he was gathering the folklore and anecdotes out of which he forged The Playboy and his other major dramas. Yet this book is much more than a stage in the evolution of Synge the dramatist. As Tim Robinson explains in his introduction, "If Ireland is intriguing as being an island off the west of Europe, then Aran, as an island off the west of Ireland, is still more so; it is Ireland raised to the power of two." Towards the end of the last century Irish nationalists came to identify the area as the country's uncorrupted heart, the repository of its ancient language, culture and spiritual values. It was for these reasons that Yeats suggested Synge visit the islands to record their way of life. The result is a passionate exploration of a triangle of contradictory relationships – between an island community still embedded in its ancestral ways but solicited by modernism, a physical environment of ascetic loveliness and savagely unpredictable moods, and Synge himself, formed by modern European thought but in love with the primitive.Antony and Cleopatra
By William Shakespeare. 1977
'Shakespeare's play is death-haunted from the start, and its self-glorifying lovers exist in a dream of passion' GuardianA battle-hardened soldier,…
Antony is one of the three leaders of the Roman world. But he is also a man in the grip of an all-consuming passion for the tempestuous and alluring queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. And when their life of pleasure together is threatened by encroaching politics, the conflict between love and duty has devastating consequences. A tragic drama of love and loss, sex and power, told in language of poetic sublimity, Antony and Cleopatra is one of Shakespeare's supreme imaginative achievements.Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by Emrys JonesIntroduction by René WeisAn Angel At My Shoulder: True Stories of Angelic Experiences
By Glennyce S. Eckersley. 1996
Though angels have been part of our culture and our history for centuries, they have been forgotten in recent times,…
diminished to the level of christmas trinkets and the playthings of children. Until recently few would admit encountering angelic beings. Yet this extraordinary book shows angels are returning - and being acknowledged - once again. Here are true stories of countless ordinary people being rescued by angels, being comforted and healed by them, feeling their presence in the face of death and often appearing to little children. These tales are drawn from such countries as Britain, Australia, Ireland and the United States showing angels can be found all around the globe, helping people and often changing their lives completely. Full of warm and uplifting stories, An Angel At My Shoulder suggests it is more than time to reconsider our view of angels, to let them back into our hectic mechanized world and to realise we are never alone. . .Androcles and the Lion
By Dan Laurence, George Bernard Shaw. 1944
Androcles and the Lion is a 1912 play written by George Bernard Shaw.Androcles and the Lion is Shaw's retelling of…
the tale of Androcles, a slave who is saved by the requited mercy of a lion. In the play, Shaw makes Androcles out to be one of many Christians being led to the Colosseum for torture. Characters in the play exemplify several themes and takes on both modern and supposed early Christianity, including cultural clash between Jesus' teachings and traditional Roman values.All's Well That Ends Well
By William Shakespeare. 1970
'Shakespeare was not of an age, but for all time' Ben Jonson A poor doctor's daughter cures the King of…
France and, in return, is promised marriage to any nobleman she wishes. But the proud young count she chooses refuses to consummate the marriage and flees to Florence - after setting her a seemingly impossible task. Depicting the triumph of trickery over youthful arrogance, All's Well That Ends Well is among Shakespeare's darkest romantic comedies, yet it remains a powerful tribute to the strength of love.Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by Barbara EverettIntroduction by Janette DillonAgainst the Flow
By Tom Fort. 2010
'You have to be on your guard when you go back to special places. You may be able to locate…
them easily enough on the map, but maps tell only one story. Times change and places and people with them. The memory plays curious tricks, and things aren't always as you remember or expect.' Twenty years ago, Tom Fort drove his little red car onto the ferry at Felixstowe, bound for all points east. Eastern Europe was still a faraway place, just emerging from its half-century of waking nightmare, blinking, injured, full of fears but importantly full of hope too. Things were different then. Czechoslovakia was still Czechoslovakia, Russia was the USSR and the Warsaw Pact had not formally dissolved. But what did exist then, as they do now, were the rivers: the nations' lifeblood. It was along and by these rivers that Fort travelled around Eastern Europe meeting its people and immersing himself in its culture.Since that trip though, much has changed and in more recent years around one million Poles have settled in Britain. Fort's local paper has a Polish edition, his supermarket has a full range of Polish bread, sausage and beer and an influx of Polish businesses opened in his town centre. And it's not just the Poles, his gym has a Lithuanian trainer and the woman who cuts his hair is from Hungary. As a tide of people began to leave Eastern Europe and settle in the UK, Tom Fort started to wonder about what they were leaving behind and whether the friends he had made all those years ago remained. And so he decided to make the journey again, travelling against the flow of the steady human stream to explore the once familiar places. As he did so, many began to return as the recession took hold of Western Europe. Tom was keen to find out what had changed and how the places, people and way of life had moved on and of course fit in a spot of fishing along the way.Afropean: Notes from Black Europe
By Johny Pitts. 2019
Winner of the Jhalak Prize'A revelation' Owen Jones'Afropean seizes the blur of contradictions that have obscured Europe's relationship with blackness…
and paints it into something new, confident and lyrical' Afua Hirsch A Guardian, New Statesman and BBC History Magazine Best Book of 2019 'Afropean. Here was a space where blackness was taking part in shaping European identity ... A continent of Algerian flea markets, Surinamese shamanism, German Reggae and Moorish castles. Yes, all this was part of Europe too ... With my brown skin and my British passport - still a ticket into mainland Europe at the time of writing - I set out in search of the Afropeans, on a cold October morning.'Afropean is an on-the-ground documentary of areas where Europeans of African descent are juggling their multiple allegiances and forging new identities. Here is an alternative map of the continent, taking the reader to places like Cova Da Moura, the Cape Verdean shantytown on the outskirts of Lisbon with its own underground economy, and Rinkeby, the area of Stockholm that is eighty per cent Muslim. Johny Pitts visits the former Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, where West African students are still making the most of Cold War ties with the USSR, and Clichy Sous Bois in Paris, which gave birth to the 2005 riots, all the while presenting Afropeans as lead actors in their own story.Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England
By Stuart Maconie. 2009
Everyone talks about 'Middle England'. Sometimes they mean something bad, like a lynch mob of Daily Mail readers, and sometimes…
they mean something good, like a pint of ale in a sleepy Cotswold village in summer twilight. But just where and what is Middle England? Stuart Maconie didn't know either, so he packed his Thermos and sandwiches and set off to find out...Is Middle England about tradition and decency or closed minds and bigotry? Is it maypoles and evensong, or flooded market towns and binge drinkers in the park? And is Slough really as bad as Ricky Gervais and John Betjeman make out? From Shakespeare to JK Rowling, Vaughan Williams to Craig David, William Morris to B&Q, Stuart Maconie leads the expedition, with plenty of stop-offs for tea and scones, to discover the truth.100 Places That Made Britain
By Dave Musgrove. 2011
In 100, carefully selected places, BBC History Magazine editor Dave Musgrove takes us on an unforgettable historical tour through British…
history, from the Roman invasion to 1960s Liverpool. Musgrove has asked foremost British historians such as Dominic Sandbrook, to nominate the sites they believe to be the most important in our history, and has travelled to each place to provide a visitor's point of view alongside the captivating stories that make each one great.Covering the length and breadth of the British mainland and two thousand of years of history, 100 Places that Made Britain visits renowned sites such as the Tower of London and Runnymede, as well as less well-known places like Rushton Triangular Lodge in Northamptonshire - a three-sided, three-themed house built during the Reformation and designed to represent the Holy Trinity - and Jarrow, home of the first chronicler of Anglo-Saxon Britain, The Venerable Bede. Each essay adds another layer to our understanding of Britain's story, whether it be an advance in politics, religion, law or culture.Bringing the vast history of this small island to life, 100 Places that Made Britain is a captivating historical compendium that will have every reader criss-crossing the country to explore its myriad treasures.How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare
By Ken Ludwig. 2013
A foolproof, enormously fun method of teaching your children the classic works of William Shakespeare, by a Tony Award–winning playwright—now…
featuring two new chapters &“You and your children will be transformed by the magic and mystery of Shakespeare and his stories in an instant.&”—Sir Derek Jacobi, CBE Winner of the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare BookTo know some Shakespeare provides a head start in life. His plays are among the great bedrocks of Western civilization and contain the finest writing of the past 450 years. Many of the best novels, plays, poems, and films in the English language produced since Shakespeare&’s death in 1616—from Pride and Prejudice to The Godfather—are heavily influenced by Shakespeare&’s stories, characters, language, and themes. In How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, acclaimed playwright Ken Ludwig provides the tools you need to inspire an understanding, and a love, of Shakespeare&’s works in your children, and to have fun together along the way.Ken Ludwig devised his friendly, easy-to-master methods while teaching his own children. Beginning with memorizing short passages from the plays, his technique then instills children with cultural references they will utilize for years to come. Ludwig&’s approach includes understanding of the time period and implications of Shakespeare&’s diction as well as the invaluable lessons behind his words and stories. Colorfully incorporating the history of Shakespearean theater and society, How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare guides readers on an informed and adventurous journey through the world in which the Bard wrote.This book&’s simple process allows anyone to impart to children the wisdom of plays like A Midsummer Night&’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. And there&’s fun to be had throughout. Shakespeare novices and experts and readers of all ages will each find something delightfully irresistible in How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.