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It's 1938 and the world is changing quickly. Hitler is stirring the German nation into a xenophobic frenzy. Michael, a British officer in the Gurkhas serving in the North-West Frontier, is trying to keep the bloodthirsty and ruthless Afghan tribesmen, the Pathan, under control. The horrors perpetrated by the Pathan make Michael angry and vengeful. On leave in England, Michael finds that his war experiences have changed him and made him intolerant of the conventionality of British society. He begins to see his fiancée, Sarah, in a different light. On his return to India he seems to be heading for disaster...Julia Scott was born in Weymouth, Dorset. She attended Winchester School for Girls and gained a degree in French from Liverpool University. Her early working career was spent as a health journalist, and later as Editor of Director magazine for the Institute of Directors.In 1987 she married a neurologist and together they moved to Malta, and then to the United States where they lived for fifteen years before returning to England in 2005. In 2001 Julia was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and wrote Afghan Silk while fighting the disease and looking after her six children. She died aged 49 in 2006.
The biography of the comic actor Thomas Doggett and the famous Coat and Badge Race which he founded for watermen on the River Thames.Contents:Part I. The ManBy Theodore Andrea CookChapter I The Fame of Actors 3Chapter II Bartholomew Fair 10Chapter III Drury Lane 21Chapter IV Pugnacious Thomas 31Chapter V River Traffic and London Theatres 36Chapter VI Off the Stage 48Chapter VII Doggett's Bequest 60Part II.¿The RaceBy Guy NickallsChapter VIII Thames Watermen 71Chapter IX Some Famous Watermen, 1700-1800 81Chapter X History of Doggett's Race 86Chapter XI List of Winners 98Chapter XII Some Famous Winners 109Chapter XIII Accounts of the Best Races 116Chapter XIV Other Thames Wagers 167AppendicesAppendix I Epitome of The Country Wake 171Appendix II Notice of the Race Published in 1901 174Appendix III The Competitors for 1906 176Appendix IV Gravesend Watermen 177
William Coxe (1748-1828) was the stepson of Handel's amanuensis, John Christopher Smith. As such, he was ideally placed to write a biography of Smith, and also of Handel. These Anecdotes are therefore important sources for the lives of both composers. It is notable that many of the subscribers were close friends of Smith.The style of the original 1799 text is refreshingly simple and unaffected, and little change has been necessary to make it accessible to the modern reader. An introduction, notes and index have been added.William Coxe was a talented writer and historian whose output include several travel books and volumes on both Robert and Horace Walpole. He died at the age of eighty in his parish of Bemerton, Wiltshire. John Sharp, in a letter to Constable, wrote that he 'died of old age, unable to contend with two helps of salmon in lobster sauce, washed down with large draughts of Perry'.
Despite their modest size, the Lays of Marie de France are among the finest flowerings of Medieval French literature. They are charming, witty, and imbued with the code of courtly love. This new edition of Edith Rickert's translations will appeal to the general reader as much as the medievalist.Marie de France is thought to have been a noblewoman from the Isle de France or Normandy, living in England in the middle of the twelfth century. Her tales draw on the stories of Brittany and of her adopted country.Edith Rickert (1871-1938), a talented linguist and medievalist, received her degree from Vassar in 1891, and returned there in 1897 to teach English. She received a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1899. In 1900 she went to England where she combined academic research with a busy career as a professional writer. She returned to the United States in 1909 and later lectured at the University of Chicago. During the First World War, she worked as a codebreaker.
Richard de Bury's Philobiblon, completed in 1345, is the great medieval treatise on the love of books. He was an obsessive book-collector who argued that no price should hinder someone from buying books. However, unlike many later bibliomaniacs, he appreciated them for their true value, as a sources of wisdom, rather than as artefacts.Richard de Bury (1281-1345) was one of the most powerful and influential men of his age. He was High Chancellor of England from 1334 to 1335 and Treasurer from 1335. However, it was as Bishop of Durham that he was in his true element, and it was in this role that his book-collecting can be seen as a most philanthropic venture, building up a store of knowledge for present and future generations.
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