THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'I've been waiting for this book all my life and everyone needs to read it' Claudia Winkleman Anya Hindmarch is a mother of five, stepmother, entrepreneur and globally renowned businesswoman. In If In Doubt, Wash Your Hair, she shares what she has learned during her busy and eclectic life, what she still worries about, and what advice she has received along the way. From practical tips and quick fixes, to profound observations about confidence and creativity, this inspiring handbook will show you how to live a little better - and why sometimes, the answer can be as simple as washing your hair. 'Comforting, practical and beautifully personal. This book feels like your best friend telling you it's all going to be ok' Fearne Cotton 'Warm, friendly, and packed to the rafters with excellent advice - I loved it' India Knight 'A charming mix of memoir and manifesto' Grazia 'A hands-on, practical guide to managing the stresses of daily life' Evening Standard, Highlights for 2021 'Warm and refreshingly honest' Julia Samuel 'I loved this book - it's really unusual, surprising and inspiring' Viv Groskop 'A treasure trove of inspiring, down-to-earth and practical advice shared with humour and honesty' Alexandra Shulman

This comprehensive collection of Italian tales in English encourages a revisitation of the fairy-tale canon in light of some of the most fascinating material that has often been excluded from it. In the United States, we tend to associate fairy tales with children and are most familiar with the tales of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, and Disney. But the first literary fairy tales appeared in Renaissance Italy, and long before the Grimms there was already a rich and sophisticated tradition that included hundreds of tales, including many of those today considered "classic." The authors featured in this volume have, over the centuries, explored and interrogated the intersections between elite and popular cultures and oral and literary narratives, just as they have investigated the ways in which fairy tales have been and continue to be rewritten as expressions of both collective identities and individual sensibilities. The fairy tale in its Italian incarnations provides a striking example of how this genre is a potent vehicle for expressing cultural aspirations and anxieties as well as for imagining different ways of narrating shared futures.

'When an afflicted person is believed to be a victim of nazar, or the glance of the evil eye, a particular kind of incense, which is made of seeds of the wild rue, mixed with myrtle and frankincense, is burned at sunset; and while the smoke is curling about the head of the victim the following incantation is repeated...' The Wild Rue is a unique study of magic, myth and folklore in Iran. In this classic work, Bess Donaldson records the beliefs and superstitions of the country at a time when they were increasingly threatened by the Shah's programme of modernisation. This earlier way of life, with its belief in angels and the evil eye, and with its age-old rituals surrounding childbirth and burial, is recounted in a highly readable text. Among the wide variety of topics covered are cosmology, dreams, names and numbers, talismans and signs, oaths and curses, childbirth, angels, trees and plants, the evil eye, and the calendar. Long unavailable, The Wild Rue is indispensable to any serious student of Iran and will be welcomed by all with an interest in the country's culture and history.

Names such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi have been emerging in the world's eye over the past decade as exotic hotspots, wealthy from oil production and advanced in the means of technology. However, at the same time, the Arab Gulf States have managed to maintain their traditional culture, adapting it to modern life. With complete coverage on Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, Culture and Customs of the Arab Gulf States is a must-have for every high school and public library shelf. Clear and vivid descriptions of contemporary life in the Arab Gulf help students discover how traditions of the past have evolved into customs today. This exhaustive volume covers topics such as religion, festivals, cuisine, fashion, family life, literature, the media, and music, among many others. Up-to-date and comprehensive, this volume offers a unique and contemporary depiction of culture in some of the world's wealthiest, up-and-coming nations.

North Carolina Myths and Legends explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in North Carolina's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in North Carolina history. Read about the Cherokee legend of the Judaculla rock. Try to figure out if Tom Dula, subject of many a local myth and a popular folk song, really did murder his wife. Speculate as to what really caused the Carolina Bays indentations.

In the second haft of the nineteenth century, Jewish nationalism developed in Europe. One vital form of this nationalism that took root at the beginning of the twentieth century in Eastern Europe was the Yiddishist movement, which held that the Yiddish language and culture should be at the center of any Jewish nationalist efforts. As with most European concepts of folklore, the romantic-nationalist ideas of J. G. Herder on the volk were crucial in the formulation of the study and collection of Yiddish folklore.

Herder's volk, however, denoted the peasantry, whereas Polish Jewry were an urban population. This difference determined the focus and pioneering work that this group of collectors accomplished. Defining the Yiddish Nation examines how these folklorists sought to connect their identity with the Jewish past but simultaneously develop Yiddishism, a movement whose eventual outcome would be an autonomous Jewish national culture and a break with the biblical past.

Itzik Nakhmen Gottesman analyzes the evolution of Yiddish folklore and its role in the creation of Yiddish nationalism in Poland between the two world wars. Gottesman studies three important folklore circles in Poland: the Warsaw group led by Noyekh Prilutski, the S. Ansky Vilne Jewish Historic-Ethnographic Society, and the Ethnographic Commission d the Yivo Institute in Vilne.

This book is much more than a study of the evolution of one particular folklore tradition, it is a look into the formation of a nationalist movement. Defining the Yiddish Nation will prove invaluable for scholars of Jewish studies and Yiddish folklore.

Why are we so ambivalent about alcohol? Are we torn between our love of a drink and the need to restrict, or even prohibit, alcohol? How did saloon culture arise in the United States? Why did wine become such a ubiquitous part of French culture? Alcohol: A Social and Cultural History examines these questions and many more as it considers how drink has evolved in its functions and uses from the late Middle Ages to the present day in the West. Alcohol has long played an important role in societies throughout history, and understanding its consumption can reveal a great deal about a culture. This book discusses a range of issues, including domestic versus recreational use, the history of alcoholism, and the relationship between alcohol and violence, religion, sexuality, and medicine. It looks at how certain forms of alcohol speak about class, gender and place. Drawing on examples from Europe, North America and Australia, this book provides an overview of the many roles alcohol has played over the past five centuries.

Part of our new and growing Myths, Mysteries and Legends series, Myths, Mysteries and Legends of New Mexico explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in the Land of Enchantment's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in New Mexico history. Stories include the mysterious disappearance of lawyer and civic leader Albert J. Fountain-a man known both for defending Billy the Kid and for taking on cattle rustlers-and his little boy, Henry; the near discovery of when humans first came to America by George McJunkin, a black cowboy, born a slave; and the unsolved murders of an old mining town that lies at the depths of Bonito Lake.

Fashion in Fiction examines the ways in which dress 'performs' in a wide range of contemporary and historical literary texts. Essays by North American, European and Australian scholars explore the function of clothing within fictional narratives, including those of film, television and advertising. The book provides a groundbreaking examination of the interconnected worlds of fashion and words, providing perspectives from socio-cultural, historical and theoretical readings of fashion and text-based communication. Covering a variety of genres and periods, Fashion in Fiction analyses fashion's role within a range of creative media, exploring the many ways that dress communicates, disrupts and modulates meaning across different cultures and contexts.

This book puts the material back into clothing. In recent years social scientists have become increasingly interested in theories of fashion, but have rarely directly addressed the material qualities of clothing. By contrast, traditional studies of dress have focused on textiles but often neglect the larger cultural context within which dress becomes consumed as clothing. This book fills a major gap by combining these two 'camps' through an expressly material culture approach to clothing. In sustained case studies, Kchler and Miller argue that cloth and clothing are living, vibrant parts of culture and the body. From the recycling of cloth in Africa and India and the use of pattern in the Pacific, to the history of 'wash and wear' and why women wear the wrong clothes to restaurants in London, this book shows the considerable advantage gained by seamlessly combining material and social aspects of dress and textiles.

An important reintroduction to this literature, this compilation of Thomas Crane's original translations of Italian folk stories includes new critical analysis. For 19th-century folklorist Thomas Crane, the value of collecting, translating, and reproducing folktales lay in their "internationalism"-their capacity to reveal how the customs of a particular group, no matter how unique, are linked to many others. In his classic collection, edited and updated by contemporary folklorist Jack Zipes, Crane traces the roots of Italian folktales to their origins, often in the Orient, then shows how they diffused in unpredictable and marvelous ways throughout Italy and over the centuries. A contemporary of the brothers Grimm, Crane offers a richer, more complex selection of oral and literary tales. Unlike the Grimms, he doesn't edit or modify the tales, which deal openly with surprisingly contemporary subjects: murder, adultery, incest, child abuse, and brutal vengeance. The first English translations of Italian folktales, now available after more than a century of neglect Critical analysis and notes by the original editor, 19th-century folklorist Thomas Crane

Fashion Writing and Criticism provides students with the tools to critique fashion with skill and style. Explaining the history and theory of criticism, this innovative text demonstrates how the tradition of criticism has developed and how this knowledge can be applied to fashion, enabling students to acquire the methods and proper vocabulary to be active critics themselves. Integrating history and theory, this innovative book explains the development of fashion writing, the theoretical basis on which it sits, and how it might be improved and applied. Through concise snapshot case studies, top international scholars McNeil and Miller analyse fashion excerpts in relation to philosophical ideas and situate them within historical contexts. Case studies include classic examples of fashion writing, such as Diana Vreeland at Harper's Bazaar and Richard Martin on Karl Lagerfeld, as well as contemporary examples such as Suzy Menkes and the blogger Tavi. Accessibly written, Fashion Writing and Criticism enables readers to understand, assess and make value judgments about the fascinating and changeable field of fashion. It is an invaluable text for students and researchers alike, studying fashion, journalism, history and media studies.

Award-winning travel writer Lawrence Millman tromps through western Ireland's rugged countryside to record the oral history of its people before their hard-earned traditions are permanently stifled by industrialization and development. In doing so he produces a "lovely nugget of good writing" (New York Times) that relays the stories of traditional laborers-tinkers cartwrights, rat-charmers, coopers, thatchers, farriers, gleemen, pig-gelders-with candor and depth.

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE KIDS WHO FOUND A FERRARI BURIED IN THEIR GARDEN? WHAT ABOUT THE MAN WHO SUED SATAN? DO YOU KNOW THE LEGEND OF THE BUNNY MAN? Strange happenings, unsolved mysteries and seemingly supernatural events have gripped and shocked us for centuries, passed from person to person in whispers in classrooms, tales around the campfire and idle gossip among friends. Whether they're based on a grain of truth or a complete flight of fancy, the myths, legends and weird tales contained within this book will take you on a fascinating journey to the outer limits of plausibility, and dare you to believe the unbelievable.

While African American dress has long been noted as having a distinctive edge, many people may not know that debutante balls - a relatively recent phenomenon within African American communities - feature young women and men dressed, respectively, in conventional symbols of female purity and male hegemony, and conforming to gender stereotypes that have tended to characterize such events traditionally. Within the Hmong American community, mothers and aunts of teenagers use bangles, lace and traditional handwork techniques to create dazzling displays reflecting the gender and ethnicity of their sons and daughters, nieces and nephews, as they participate in an annual courtship ritual. This book examines these events to show how dress is used to transform gender construction and create positive images of African American and Hmong American youth. Coming-of-age rituals serve as arenas of cultural revision and change. For each of these communities, the choice of dress represents cultural affirmation. This author shows that within the homogenizing context of American society, dress serves as a site for the continual renegotiation of identity - gendered, ethnic and otherwise.