The Joy of Bad Verse

Humor & Entertainment

Parsons, Nicholas T.

Humor

Signal Books Ltd

<p>A traveller from another continent crosses the Minho River from Spain for the first time and arrives in northern Portugal. Enchanted by the Alto Minho region, he determines to make a home for himself there. Aged sixty-five, with a long career as a journalist in war-torn Israel and having recently lost a bitter legal battle with Prime Minister Netanyahu, he finds sanctuary on the edge of Europe, where a river meets the Atlantic. Igal Sarna buys a dilapidated village house and with a local architect and craftsmen begins renovations. Months of tribulations are interspersed with the joy of transforming a near ruin, with its overgrown land and cowshed, into a comfortable home. He makes friends along the way and is readily accepted as an exile by a kind and generous cast of neighbours and fellow foreigners. Spurred on by journalistic instinct, meanwhile, he begins to explore the history of both house and region, untangling the intrigues behind his new home and his adopted community. In a country still marked by Salazar's dictatorship, poverty and migration, tragic stories persist. Sarna searches for answers in the haunted rooms of abandoned houses and palaces, uncovering local family secrets and the dark legacy left by outsiders: the abandoned ashram of criminal Baba Shanti, and the deserted home of a troubled Danish artist whose disappearance remains a mystery. The Stranger's Homecoming is a love story to Portugal, but also a poignant tale of exile. It tells of a man creating a new home in a foreign land; who feels that, even late in life, he can still start again and return to the old continent his parents fled over eighty-five years before.</p>

The Stranger's Homecoming: A House in the Alto Minho, Portugal

Sarna, Igal

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Blood and Silver : Piracy in the Americas, 1500-1750

Kris Lane

The most European of South American cities, Buenos Aires evokes exile and nostalgia. This book explores this contradictory and culturally rich city by tracing its development from remote settlement to modern metropolis. It looks at the landmarks, events, people and writing which has shaped modern Buenos Aires and its cultural life.

Buenos Aires

Jason Wilson

<p>Celebrated by Matthew Arnold as the "city of the dreaming spires", Oxford has a long and illustrious history as one of Europe's oldest university towns. Its colleges, libraries and museums, ranging from the medieval to the modern, testify to the city's academic traditions and the dominant influence of "gown" over "town". But there is another Oxford, the city of car factories and housing estates, high-tech research and alternative culture. The University City: the seat of learning, inside the colleges, river and gardens, dons and students, "town and gown" conflict, the other university The Writer's City: Oxford loved and hated by Dr Johnson, Oscar Wilde and CS Lewis; Alice in Wonderland, Zuleika Dobson, and Inspector Morse. The Other Oxford: cars and marmalade; saints and sinners, museums and mausoleums, tramps and tourists.</p>

Oxford (Cities of the Imagination)

Travel

David Horan

Europe

Planted by royal whim in a harsh, sun-drenched tableland, Madrid flaunts its distinctive Spanish identity as the most vibrant of Europe's capitals. An imperial court, remote from external influences, produced durable curiosities like the siesta, the paseo and a joyously hectic nightlife. A city where decorative display and lunching are often rated above industry and money-making, Madrid's exuberant style nonetheless flourishes in the modern world. Elizabeth Nash explores the chaotic jumble of a city built by in-comers eager to serve - or use - a court by turns austere and ostentatious. In squares, parks, streets and monuments old and new, she tracks down aristocrats and artisans, servants and chancers who bred a unique urban culture combining deference and insolence, conformity and flair. THE CITY OF ARTISTS AND WRITERS: Vel?zquez and Goya, realism, the erotic and the macabre; Cervantes, Cela and Hemingway, the traditions of satire, the picaresque hero and the novel of war. THE CITY OF POWER POLITICS: the heart of the Spanish Empire; the scars of civil war and dictatorship; democracy and the movida of hedonistic excess and liberation, celebrated by film-maker Pedro Almod?var. THE CITY OF PASSIONS: the intellectual debates of caf? society; fiestas sacred and profane; the cult of bullfighting and the capital's love affair with football.

Madrid

Elizabeth Nash

Established on its many islands by Roman refugees, the heart of a maritime empire, a republic for a thousand years, Venice has always been distinct from the rest of Italy - and from anywhere else. Its unique light and hundreds of canals, palaces and churches  from mosaic encrusted Byzantine to harmonious Palladian - have attracted visitors, painters and writers as diverse as Turner, Proust and Pound.  Historically celebrated for its wealth and independence of mind, the city has also become a byword for beauty and decadence.  martin Garrett explores the extraordinary history and architecture of Venice and the islands of the lagoon. Looking at the legacy of the city's Jewish, Greek, Slav and Armenian minorities, he recalls the exploits of such legendary figures as Casanova and Byron. He also examines Venice's rich traditions in opera, drama and painting, reflecting the city's historical role as a great cultural magnet. City of Pomp and Ritual: the Grand Canal, palazzi, royal receptions; life on the water, gondolas and bridges; pageantry and pleasure  The City of Drama: commedia dell'arte, opera, carnival; from Monteverdi to Dario Fo; Death in Venice and the dream of decadence  The City of Literature and Art: the inspiration for Henry James, Thomas mann and John Ruskin; the imaginary home of Shylock and Volpone; futiurism, fascism and Marinetti

Venice - A Cultural and Literary Companion (Cities of the Imagination Series)

Martin Garrett

A new and innovative series offering in-depth cultural, historical and literary guides to the great cities of the world. More than ordinary guidebooks, they introduce the visitor or armchair traveller to each city's unique present-day identity and its links with the past. From its humble birth as a few thatched huts along the shoreline, Havana has emerged from five hundred years of turbulent history as the most fascinating city in the Caribbean. Spain's "Pearl of the Antilles" was in turn plundered by pirates, invaded by foreign fleets and then turned into a Mafia-run playground under U.S. tutelage. Since 1959 the seat of Fidel Castro's revolutionary regime, Havana is now shaking off forty years of blockade to face the new challenges of mass tourism. A city whose fabric has always been threatened by hurricanes and political upheaval, Havana has developed a wild edge, an energy and an alluring exoticism that have intrigued and enchanted visitors as diverse as Alexander yon Humboldt, Ana

Havana: A Cultural and Literary Companion (Cities of the Imagination) by Lightfoot, Claudia (2001) Paperback

Literature & Fiction

Claudia Lightfoot

History & Criticism

Kingston : A Cultural and Literary History

History

Americas

In 1840, French novelist Theophile Gautier was hired by the journal "La Presse" to write regular installments of a travelogue of his journey to and around Spain. Gautier recorded his experiences and impressions and the result was the 1845 book "Voyage en Espagne" - later translated into English as "A Romantic in Spain". For Gautier, Spain promised the allure of an exotic and passionate culture; it was a revelation, he said later, like discovering his true home, the native land of his spirit. Gautier covered the olive groves of Andalucia, the vibrant street life of Madrid, the central plains of La Mancha, and the Moorish buildings of Seville and Cordoba. Gautier, travelling by mule, carriage, or wagon, came into contact with a rich panoply of people and places. Gautier reveals a Spain in transition, emerging from civil war and a feudal past into the modern world.

A Romantic in Spain

GAUTIER, Théophile

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