Mary, mourning the death of her son Robin, is at the home of her widowed mother, when a motley group of relatives arrives for Christmas and a severe snowstorm strands them all together

The birds of the air

Thomas Ellis, Alice

Duckworth & Co.

The Origin of Writing

Reference

roy-harris

Foreign Language Study & Reference

Guilt makes no compromises. One may be a little in love or a little bit angry, but the idea of degrees of guilt is meaningless. Any guilt, whether of the emotional, religious or legal variety, is fiendishly intense. The word itself points to a mysterious intensity of indebtedness, and this with an absolution extraordinary in human affairs. This book aims to go to the heart of the mystery. Its theme, that of the absolutism of guilt, is explored from a variety of different perspectives and through a series of anecdotes. The author examines the sources of the word "guilt"; languages and cultures without the concept of guilt; the religious importance and meaning of guilt, in Judaism, Christianity and other religions; psychological investigations of guilt, by Freud and Jung, among others; guilt and criminal behaviour; guilt and mourning; the effect of guilt as a creative stimulant in modern times, on literature, art, politics, law and film; and the mysterious persistence of guilt in modern secular societies Throughout, the text is supported with quotations from authors ancient and modern.

An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Guilt (Intelligent Person's Guide Series)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Paul Oppenheimer

Psychology & Counseling

The Genius of Alexander the Great

By the time of his death in 323 B.C., Alexander III of Macedonia had built an empire that stretched from the eastern Mediterranean coast through Asia Minor and into the Indus valley. Even before his sudden death, Alexander had achieved mythical status throughout his kingdom, and in the centuries that followed his life became the subject of countless chronicles and biographies.      N. G. L. Hammond, the foremost expert on ancient Macedonian history, here presents a new account of Alexander's fabled career. Based on a thorough analysis of the ancient sources and enriched by a lifetime of research, Hammond's narrative pronounces the Macedonian conqueror a man truly deserving of the title Alexander the Great.      According to Hammond, Alexander was a visionary statesman and general, the force behind a kingdom which rose above racism and nationalism to enjoy peace and prosperity. His intellect and charismatic personality, which earned him the respect, admiration, and devotion of his subjects, also help explain Alexander's endurance as a source of fascination into the present day.

Nicholas Hammond

Health is on of those subjects that seems easy to define and then, the closer one gets, is more and more difficult to understand. Does the health of a schizophrenic really improve by being sedated and kept in an asylum? Is a course of Prozac or psychotherapy aimed to make someone happy really a medicine? These incompatible views are most visible in the NHS which has over the decades become the focus of all these projections of health. At the expense of the taxpayer many are being "cured" while there is no money for some of those who have physical ailments in a real sense. In this book, Theodore Dalrymple sets out to tear into the myths that he believes our politicians have created, with anecdotes from his own experience as a doctor.

An Intelligent Person's Guide to Medicine

Theodore Dalrymple

Using correspondence and personal papers as well as their published works, this biography tells the tale of two nineteenth century women who travelled to Canada expecting to make their fortunes and join the cream of colonial society only to face desperate privation: forest fires, wild animals, frostbite and starvation. Their fortitude and hard-won success as writers and the first chroniclers of the native flora made them icons of early Canadian literature.

Sisters in the Wilderness : The Lives of Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Traill

Gray, Charlotte

Biographies & Memoirs

In 1845 a young man from Dublin who had been, under his own admission, "indulging in intemperance the week before" walked into the British Museum and headed for Room Ten where the Portland Vase sat on a pedestal under a thick, glass case. He waited until the attendant, who was responsible for two rooms, had strolled next door, then he picked up a handy lump of basalt - a fragment of a monument from the ancient city of Persepolis - and hurled it at the glass case. The vase that had survived nearly 2000 years was smashed into 200 pieces. Painstakingly reconstructed and now back on display as one of the British Museum's most treasured objects, the Portland Vase enjoys a fascinating story. It has passed through the hands of a remarkable cast of characters - rich and poor, titled and plebeian, famous and obscure. Among its owners were Flaminio Vacca (the tomb robber, cum budding achaeologist), the Princess of Palestrina (the notorious gambling addict), Sir William Hamilton (the famous cuckold), Josiah Wedgwood (genius of ceramics) and Horace Walpole (wit and dilettante). The Duchess of Portland dropped it but it didn't break. Robin Brooks recreates the lengthy travels and the powerful influence of this unique piece of art, which has long been an inspiration for artists, poets and historians, together with engaging portraits of the eccentric individuals through whose hands it has passed.

The Mystery of the Portland Vase

Arts & Photography

Robin Brooks

Other Media

Period mystery thriller set on board a Cunard steamship in the early part of the last century. In 1907, the world applauds as the Cunard Line launches a history-making ship. The magnificent Lusitania, hoping to capture the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing from Liverpool to New York, attracts both the beautiful and the damned for its maiden voyage. Among its privileged passengers strolls the debonair American George Porter Dillman, a shipbuilder's son - and a detective secretly hired to find the con artists, gigolos, and thieves who prey on the rich and unwary. But the robbery of the ship's blueprints and a shocking murder take Dillman by surprise. Now, attracted to a lady who may not be what she seems, Dillman plunges into a drama of love and intrigue set in the glittering salons of this floating palace. And perhaps plays right into a killer's hands...

Murder on the 'Lusitania

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Conrad Allen

Mystery

This is a sourcebook that draws upon the 400 years of transition from ancient Greek philosophy to the medieval philosophy of Islam and the West. Philosophy was then often written in the form of commentaries on the works of Plato and Aristotle. Many ideas wrongly credited to the Middle Ages derive from this period, e.g. that of impetus in dynamics and intentional objects in philosophy of mind. The later Neoplatonist commentators fought a losing battle with Christianity, but inadvertently made Aristotle acceptable to Christians by ascribing to him belief in a Creator God and human immortality. They also provided a panorama of up to 1000 years of preceding Greek philosophy, much of it otherwise lost. They serve as the missing link essential for understanding the history of Western philosophy. Psychology was for the Neoplatonist commentators the gateway to metaphysics and theology. It was the subject on which Plato and Aristotle disagreed most, and the subject on which the commentators went furthest beyond them in their search for an amalgamation. Ethics and religious practice fall naturally under psychology and are included in this volume. All sources appear in English translation and are carefully linked and cross-referenced by editorial comment and explanation.

The Philosophy of the Commentators, 200-600 Ad Psychology

Politics & Social Sciences

Richard Sorabji

Philosophy

Helmut Newton: Autobiography

A master of the risque, Helmut Newton has scandalized and intrigued the world for half a century with his provocative photographs of women and his "bad boy" persona. Now, Newton presents a candid portrait of himself, revealing a lifetime of adventure and providing compelling insights into the connection between his life and work. Born in Berlin in 1920 to a wealthy Jewish family, Helmut Newton was an overprotected child with no interest in school. At the age of twelve, he purchased his first camera, beginning a fascination with photography that would eventually propel him to the heights of international celebrity. Barely eighteen when Kristallnacht tore Germany apart, Newton managed to escape the Nazis. However, he never made it as far as his intended destination of China. After indulging in a series of shipboard romances, Newton arrived in Singapore. But the world was at war and talk of interning German Jews became prevalent even on the streets of Singapore. So Newton decamped once more, ending up in Australia where he joined the Australian army and served as a private for five years. Subsequently he opened his first 'tiny' photography studio in Melbourne and in 1948, he married his wife June, a successful actress. His controversial "White Women", published in 1976, earned him the titles of King of Kink and Prince of Porn. His distinctive visual vocabulary has been widely imitated. With irrepressible spirit and utter charm, Helmut Newton brings us his story for the very first time in his own words.

Helmut Newton : Autobiography

HELMUT NEWTON

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