"My heart always sinks within me when I hear the good housewife, of every class, say, 'I assure you the bed has been well slept in: and I can only hope it is not true. What? Is the bed already saturated with somebody else's damp before my patient comes to exhale in it his own damp? Has it not had a single chance to be aired? No, not one. It has been slept in every night."
From the best known work of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the originator and founder of modern nursing, comes a collection of notes that played an important part in the much needed revolution in the field of nursing. For the first time it was brought to the attention of those caring for the sick that their responsibilities covered not only the administration of medicines and the application of poultices, but the proper use of fresh air, light, warmth, cleanliness, quiet, and the proper selection and administration of diet. Miss Nightingale is outspoken on these subjects as well as on other factors that she considers essential to good nursing. But, whatever her topic, her main concern and attention is always on the patient and his needs.
One is impressed with the fact that the fundamental needs of the sick as observed by Miss Nightingale are amazingly similar today (even though they are generally taken for granted now) to what they were over 100 years ago when this book was written. For this reason, this little volume is as practical as it is interesting and entertaining. It will be an inspiration to the student nurse, refreshing and stimulating to the experienced nurse, and immensely helpful to anyone caring for the sick.

Mr Rens' murderer is carted off to Gloucester but Francis is still beset by problems. A fellow magistrate, Richard Ford, even manages to profit from them. Francis and Richard's long-term but mutually antagonistic friendship suffers a blow when in 1834, at a meeting of the Stow Savings Bank, Mr Baillie makes a personal attack on Francis, and Charles Pole. Canon Ford has something to do with it and the 'Baillie' affair is set to blow up out of all proportion.

Spanning over 250 years of history, Black Ink traces black literature in America from Frederick Douglass to Ta-Nehisi Coates in this "breathtaking anthology celebrating the power of the written word to forge change" (O, The Oprah Magazine).Throughout American history black people are the only group of people to have been forbidden by law to learn to read. This expansive collection seeks to shed light on that injustice, putting some of America's most cherished voices in a conversation in one magnificent volume that presents reading as an act of resistance. Organized into three sections--the Peril, the Power, and the Pleasure--and featuring a vast array of contributors both classic and contemporary, Black Ink presents the brilliant diversity of black thought in America while solidifying the importance of these writers within the greater context of the American literary tradition. "This electric and electrifying collection of voices serves to open a much-needed window onto the freedom struggle of black literature. It's a marvel, and a genuine gift for readers everywhere" (Wil Haygood, author of The Butler: A Witness to History). Contributors include: Frederick Douglass, Solomon Northup, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King, Jr., Toni Morrison, Walter Dean Myers, Stokely Carmichael [Kwame Ture], Alice Walker, Jamaica Kincaid, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Terry McMillan, Junot Diaz, Edwidge Danticat, Colson Whitehead, Marlon James, Roxane Gay, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Colson Whitehead. The anthology features a bonus in-depth interview with President Barack Obama.

From July to November 2021, Little Amal, a 3.5m-high puppet created by Handspring Puppet Company ('War Horse') will travel 8,000km from the Syria-Turkey border along the established refugee route through Europe to the UK, ending at the Manchester International Festival. With 100 theatrical events in 65 cities, along the way, 'The Walk' will be the world's largest live performance and its aim is to celebrate the contribution that migrants and refugees make to the cultures and communities through which they pass and to the countries in which they find a new home. With an introduction by Nizar Zuabi (artistic director of Good Chance) and an afterword by David Lan (formerly of The Young Vic and one of the producers of 'The Walk'), The Long Walk with Little Amal is the official companion book to a cross-border collaboration on a magnificent scale. The journey is documented by award-winning photojournalist Andre Liohn and contributing essayists include: PEN International Writer of Courage Samar Yazbek (Syria); prize-winning Turkish-Kurdish novelist Burhan Sonmez (Turkey); Greek-Armenian literary and crime writer Petros Markaris (Greece); Prix Goncourt-winning author and film director Philippe Claudel (France); Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell (UK); crime writer Olivier Norek whose fiction has been set in Calais' The Jungle (France); and bestselling author Timur Vermes (Germany).

The critics of Charles George Gordon accused him of vacillation and of instability of character. His supporters refused to admit that he was inconstant; they took the position that it was the Gladstone Cabinet which manifested a spirit of indecision that was fraught with terrible consequences. General Gordon was a prolific letter-writer, and he also kept a journal. Many official notes and dispatches deal with his final mission to Khartoum. This book, first published in 1933, attempts to get at the truth of Gordon's character and his time in the Sudan through these letters, this journal, these notes and despatches.

In the summer of 1630, Pieter van den Broecke returned to Amsterdam after completing his fifth voyage overseas as a commercial agent for various Dutch companies who were then expanding their worldwide trading networks. Van den Broecke used this homecoming to compose a lengthy manuscript describing his experiences, and to arrange its publication in 1634. However, this published version presented his account in a highly abridged and significantly altered form. The present edition offers for the first time an English translation of those parts of Van den Broecke's original manuscript which describe the four trading voyages he made to Africa in the early seventeenth century. His manuscript is an important historical source because he was among the earliest of Europeans to describe in detail the communities he encountered in West Africa and Central Africa and to describe in detail the sophisticated commercial strategies of Dutch merchants then trading on the Atlantic coast of Africa. This edition begins with an introductory essay presenting Van den Broecke's biography and places the writing of the manuscript within the context of his professional aspirations. The edited translation of Van den Broecke's narrative is extensively annotated with reference both to other contemporary accounts and to relevant modern scholarship.

Umberto Eco was an international cultural superstar. In this, his last collection, the celebrated essayist and novelist observes the changing world around him with irrepressible curiosity and profound wisdom. He sees with fresh eyes the upheaval in ideological values, the crises in politics, and the unbridled individualism that have become the backdrop of our lives--a "liquid" society in which it's not easy to find a polestar, though stars and starlets abound. In these pieces, written for his regular column in L'Espresso magazine, Eco brings his dazzling erudition and keen sense of the everyday to bear on topics such as popular culture and politics, being seen, conspiracies, the old and the young, new technologies, mass media, racism, and good manners. It is a final gift to his readers--astute, witty, and illuminating. "A swan song from one of Europe's great intellectuals . . . [Eco] entertains with his intellect, humor, and insatiable curiosity." -- Kirkus Reviews "An intelligent, intriguing, and often hilariously incisive set of observations on contemporary follies and changing mores." -- Publishers Weekly "Chronicles of a Liquid Society is a wonderful reminder of a great writer, thinker, and human being." -- Toronto Star

With Edward now his curate at Stanway and married with a family Francis' interest in national and county events is eclipsed by family and local events. The growing Oxford Movement, (or Tractarians), is now mentioned regularly and Francis begins to lean more towards the Movement and away from his previous view of himself as a 'traditional' clergyman. His attitude to the Triennial Music Meeting changes too from the enthusiasm of younger years to a distinctly negative view as he grows older.

The Dolphin Letters offers an unprecedented portrait of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick during the last seven years of Lowell's life (1970 to 1977), a time of personal crisis and creative innovation for both writers. Centred on the letters they exchanged with each other and with other members of their circle - writers, intellectuals, friends and publishers, including Elizabeth Bishop, Caroline Blackwood, Mary McCarthy and Adrienne Rich - this book has the narrative sweep of a novel, telling the story of the dramatic breakup of Lowell and Hardwick's twenty-one-year marriage and their extraordinary, but late, reconciliation.

Lowell's sonnet sequence The Dolphin (for which he controversially adapted Hardwick's letters as a source) and his last book, Day by Day, were written during this period, as were Hardwick's influential books Seduction and Betrayal: Women and Literature and Sleepless Nights. Lowell and Hardwick are acutely intelligent observers of marriage, children, friends and the feelings that their personal tribulations gave rise to.

The Dolphin Letters, edited by Saskia Hamilton, is a debate about the limits of art - what occasions a work of art, and what moral and artistic licence artists have to make use of their lives and the lives of others as material. The crisis of Lowell's The Dolphin was profoundly affecting to everyone around him, and Bishop's warning that 'art just isn't worth that much' haunts us today.

A New York Times Notable Book A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A Boston Globe and LitHub Best Book of the Year When "The Fourth State of Matter," her now famous piece about a workplace massacre at the University of Iowa was published in The New Yorker, Jo Ann Beard immediately became one of the most influential writers in America, forging a path for a new generation of young authors willing to combine the dexterity of fiction with the rigors of memory and reportage, and in the process extending the range of possibility for the essay form. Now, with Festival Days, Beard brings us the culmination of her groundbreaking work. In these nine pieces, she captures both the small, luminous moments of daily existence and those instants when life and death hang in the balance, ranging from the death of a beloved dog to a relentlessly readable account of a New York artist trapped inside a burning building, as well as two triumphant, celebrated pieces of short fiction. Here is an unforgettable collection destined to be embraced and debated by readers and writers, teachers and students. Anchored by the title piece--a searing journey through India that brings into focus questions of mortality and love-Festival Days presents Beard at the height of her powers, using her flawless prose to reveal all that is tender and timeless beneath the way we live now.

Once solely the province of ivory-tower professors and university classrooms, contemporary philosophy was finally emancipated from its academic closet in 2010, when The Stone was launched in The New York Times. First appearing as an online series, the column quickly attracted millions of readers through its accessible examination of universal topics like the nature of science, consciousness and morality, while also probing more contemporary issues such as the morality of drones, gun control and the gender divide. Collected in this handsomely designed volume, The Stone Reader presents 133 meaningful and influential essays from the series, placing nearly the entirety of modern philosophical discourse at a reader's grasp. The book, divided into four broad sections-Philosophy, Science, Religion and Morals and Society-opens with a series of questions about the scope, history and identity of philosophy: What are the practical uses of philosophy? Does the discipline, begun in the West in ancient Greece with Socrates, favour men and exclude women? Does the history and study of philosophy betray a racial bias against non-white thinkers or geographical bias toward the West? With an introduction by Peter Catapano that details the column's founding and distinct editorial process at The New York Times, and prefatory notes to each section by Simon Critchley, The Stone Reader promises to become not only an intellectual landmark but also a confirmation that philosophy is, indeed, for everyone.

The 40 Days series of journals helps you to make space for God amidst the busyness and chaos of everyday life. With Bible text, thoughtful comment, challenging questions and space for you to think, write, draw and pray; 40 Days: Luke gives you the chance to rediscover Jesus and all that he has for you.

In August 1961, 22-year-old Valerie Storie and 36-year-old Michael Gregsten were the victims of James Hanratty in the notorious 'A6 Murder'. After a five-hour ordeal, ending in a layby on the A6 in Bedfordshire, Michael was shot dead and Valerie was raped, shot and left for dead. She survived, but was paralysed and remained in a wheelchair until her death in 2016. In 1962, Hanratty became one of the last men in the UK to be hanged, unleashing forty years of fierce and passionate debate, as many were convinced of his innocence, until 2002 when DNA evidence proved that he was indeed guilty. Valerie, however, was never in any doubt, and picked out Hanratty in an identity parade. She always intended to write a book, and over the years had secretly drafted its contents and written hundreds of notes. Yet for over thirty-five years she gave no interviews, despite persistent media pressure to do so. The Long Silence is, in essence, Valerie's posthumous autobiography, explaining for the first time every explicit detail of the 'cat and mouse' drive, as Michael and Valerie tried on over twenty occasions to deter and thwart the apparently indecisive Hanratty.

Australian War Diaries of a Japanese P.O.W. is a remarkable story of survival and the endurance of Australian spirit in the face of adversity. Fred Lasslett went down with the HMAS Perth off Indonesia, and was captured by the Japanese. He spent the remainder of the war in POW camps in Indonesia and Japan, but through it all maintained a diary in the form of letters home to his "elusive girl", written on cigarette paper and preserved to this day. Fred's diaries include amazing stories of escape and recapture, with the author ultimately facing a Japanese firing squad and telling how he survived. These letters reveal a spirit unshaken in the face of long imprisonment, failed escape attempts and dreary conditions in the Japanese work camp. Grim, unquenchable, uplifting; Australian War Diaries of a Japanese P.O.W. is sure to inspire.

Wace's Roman de Rou relates the history of the Normans from Rollo (Rou) to the battle of Tinchebray, establishing their right to the English throne. Wace's Roman de Rou relates the origins of Normandy from the time of Rollo (Rou) to the battle of Tinchebray. It was commissioned by Henry II as a way of both celebrating the Norman past and justifying the right of Norman rulers to the throne of England: the accounts it gives of the early life of William the Conqueror and of the battle of Hastings, which occupy a substantial portion of the work, make it a valuable historical document as well as an important work of literature. Wace related the events partly in Alexandrines and partly in the octosyllabic rhyming couplets used by the romance writers of the day; indeed, at a time when the boundary between romance and history was blurred, he created a cast of characters and recounted a series of battles and adventures in a style worthy of any of the great masters of romance. He was also exceptionally good, like other contemporary romance writers, at realistic conversations, such as those between King Harold and his brother Gyrth before the battle of Hastings. As a historian, Wace was dedicated to the truth and willing to undertake personal research in order to verify the accuracyof his statements. As a storyteller, he had the ability to render events more dramatic by showing how they arose from the interplay of human beings. The translation, by GLYN S. BURGESS, is accompanied by full editorial notes(in collaboration with Elisabeth van Houts) and an introduction; the volume is completed by a critical essay by Professor van Houts. GLYN S. BURGESS is Emeritus Professor of the University of Liverpool; ELISABETH VAN HOUTS lectures in medieval history, University of Cambridge.

En 1760, le pieux Jean-Jacques Le Franc de Pompignan denonce a l'Academie francaise la litterature et la philosophie du moment. Se declenche alors un deluge de pamphlets, un grand nombre des fusees les mieux ciblees partant de Ferney, notamment des contes en vers parmi les plus celebres de Voltaire: "La Vanite", "Le Russe a Paris" et "Le Pauvre Diable". Apres quelques mois, celui-ci se decide de reunir ces ecrits dans un "Recueil des faceties parisiennes". A ses propres textes, il ajoute quelques contributions d'autres philosophes, mais egalement des morceaux du parti ennemi, agrementes d'ajouts assassins sous la forme de notes et de prefaces.

'Those who read or listen to our stories see everything as though through a lens. This lens is the secret of narration, and it is ground anew in every story, ground between the temporal and the timeless ...In our brief mortal lives, we are grinders of these lenses'. When John Berger wrote this apparently unclassifiable book, it was to become a sensation, translated into nine languages and indelible from the minds of those who read it. This stunning work is a shoebox filled with delicate love letters containing poetry and thoughts on mortality, art, love and absence, capturing moments in time that hover above Berger's surprising landscapes. From his lyrical description of the works of Caravaggio and profound explorations of death and immigration to the sight of some lilac at dusk in the mountains, this is a beautiful and most intimate response to the world around us.

Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE), Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, born at Rome, received training under his guardian and uncle emperor Antoninus Pius (reigned 138-161), who adopted him. He was converted to Stoicism and henceforward studied and practised philosophy and law. A gentle man, he lived in agreement and collaboration with Antoninus Pius. He married Pius's daughter and succeeded him as emperor in March 161, sharing some of the burdens with Lucius Verus.

Marcus's reign soon saw fearful national disasters from flood, earthquakes, epidemics, threatened revolt (in Britain), a Parthian war, and pressure of barbarians north of the Alps. From 169 onwards he had to struggle hard against the German Quadi, Marcomani, Vandals, and others until success came in 174. In 175 (when Faustina died) he pacified affairs in Asia after a revolt by Avidius. War with Germans was renewed during which he caught some disease and died by the Danube in March 180.

The famous "Meditations" of Marcus Aurelius (not his title; he simply calls them 'The matters addressed to himself') represents reflections written in periods of solitude during the emperor's military campaigns. Originally intended for his private guidance and self-admonition, the "Meditations" has endured as a potent expression of Stoic belief. It is a central text for students of Stoicism as well as a unique personal guide to the moral life.

Ruling your day just got easier with this journal by bestselling author Joel Osteen! You would like to savor each moment, grow into your best life, engage in productive relationships, and see your dreams come to pass. But distractions, delays, and disappointments relentlessly hijack your plans and undermine your good intentions. While you can't control everything that comes your way, you can control how life's unexpected setbacks affect your attitude, emotions, thoughts, and actions. In this beautifully packaged journal, Joel provides inspirational quotes and plentiful space on bleed-proof paper to write down your intentions and conversations with God while you ask Him to help you Rule Your Day. Don't settle for surviving when you could be thriving-Rule Your Day!

The fourth volume of this acclaimed edition of Britten's letters covers the composition of three key works and the world trip that was to radically inform the composer's style thereafter. One of the most illuminating biographical projects in recent years. PETER ACKROYD The fourth volume of the annotated selected letters of Benjamin Britten covers the years 1952-57, during which he wrote three major worksfor the stage - the Coronation opera Gloriana, the chamber opera The Turn of the Screw, and the full-length ballet The Prince of the Pagodas - as well as important vocal works such as Canticles II and III andthe Hardy song-cycle Winter Words. Correspondents include librettists William Plomer (Gloriana) and Myfanwy Piper (The Turn of the Screw), and friends and collaborators such as Edith Sitwell, E. M. Forster, Basil Coleman, Imogen Holst, Francis Poulenc, Lennox Berkeley, the Earl of Harewood and Britten's partner and principal interpreter, Peter Pears. The volume charts Britten's growing stature as a major figure of the Europeanmusical establishment as composer, conductor and pianist, and his continuing involvement with the Aldeburgh Festival, the English Opera Group, and Covent Garden. Central to the period is the world trip undertaken by Britten and Pears and the first-hand encounter with the music and cultures of Bali and Japan that were radically to inform Britten's compositional techniques from Pagodas onwards. The comprehensive and scholarly annotations vividly evoke a key period in twentieth-century musical and cultural history, and offer a wide range of detailed information fascinating for both the Britten specialist and the general reader. Published in association with The Britten-Pears Foundation.

From one of the most famous poets in history comes a new selection of writings to bereaved friends and acquaintances, providing comfort in a time of grief and words to soothe the soul.

Throughout his life, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke addressed letters to individuals who were close to him, who had contacted him after reading his works, or whom he had met briefly - anyone with whom he felt an inner connection. Within his vast correspondence, there are about two dozen letters of condolence. In these direct, personal and practical letters, Rilke writes about loss and mortality, assuming the role of a sensitive, serious and uplifting guide through life's difficulties. He consoles a friend on the loss of her nephew, which she experienced like the loss of her own child; a mentor on the death of her dog; and an acquaintance struggling to cope with the end of a friendship. The result is a profound vision of mourning and a meditation on the role of pain in our lives, as well as a soothing guide for how to get through it.

Where things become truly difficult and unbearable, we find ourselves in a place already very close to its transformation...

The French entered the Pacific in the late 17th century, but the ocean remained largely a Spanish preserve until British navigators began to cross its vast expanse in the mid 1760s. France's concerns that Britain might establish its superiority in the area, meant they welcomed Louis de Bougainville's voyage of exploration undertaken in 1766-9. After handing over the colony he had established in the Falkland Islands to Spain, he sailed through the still relatively unknown Straits of Magellan into the poorly charted South Pacific. He made a number of discoveries in the south west, but was too late to discover Tahiti, where Samuel Wallis had preceded him by less than a year. Reports on Bougainville's reception there and on life in the island were to create wide interest and controversy in Europe. He then sailed to the Samoan Islands and on to Vanuatu, as far as the Great Barrier Reef, and north towards New Guinea and the Samoan Islands making a number of discoveries and all the while leaving his name to a number of features, the best known of which are the island of Bougainville and the Bougainvillea flower. He returned home by way of the Dutch East Indies and the Indian Ocean. Although Bougainville published an account of his voyage in 1771, his original journal was published only in 1977; the present volume makes the latter text available for the first time in English translation.