Amazing & Extraordinary Facts: Shakespeare is a fascinating collection of surprising revelations, quirky characters and other fascinating pieces of trivia from the world of the great English bard. From the stories behind his well-known plays and poems, through the actors and theatres that have entertained his works, to his legacy in popular culture and beyond, an intriguing and unusual history of his life and times is revealed. Drawing back the curtains on this iconic English character, there is something here for every enthusiast to relish. This authoritative and absorbing book is published to coincide with the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare's death on 23rd April 2016.

Tristessa is a strange fever-dream of morphine sickness and belly-deep sadness. Or, in the words of Allen Ginsberg: ‘a narrative meditation studying a hen, a rooster, a dove, a cat, a chihuahua dog, family meat, and a ravishing, ravished junky lady, first in their crowded bedroom, then out to drunken streets, taco stands, and pads at dawn in Mexico City slums’.

An essential introduction to Fanon’s remarkable life and philosophy. Connecting his writing, psychiatric practice and lived experience in the Caribbean, France and Africa, Gibson highlights Fanon’s philosophical commitments and the vision of revolution that he stood for. Fanon’s oeuvre is essential to thinking about race today.

Revolutionary humanist and radical psychiatrist Frantz Fanon was one of the greatest Black thinkers of the twentieth century. Born in Martinique and known for his involvement in the Algerian liberation movement, his seminal books Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth are widely considered to be cornerstones of anti-colonial and anti-racist thought.

In this essential introduction to Fanon’s remarkable life and philosophy, Nigel C. Gibson argues that Fanon’s oeuvre is essential to thinking about race today. Connecting Fanon’s writing, psychiatric practice and lived experience in the Caribbean, France and Africa, Gibson highlights Fanon’s his philosophical commitments and the vision of revolution that he stood for. Despite his untimely death, the revolutionary pulse of Fanon’s ideas has continued to beat ever more strongly in the consciousness of successive revolutionary generations, from the Black Panthers and Black power to the Black Lives Matter and Fallist student movements, as well as to grassroots resistance movements working to improve the lives of Black and indigenous people who are continuously oppressed by systems of capitalism, imperialism and colonialism.

As Fanon’s thought comes alive to new activists thinking about their mission to ‘humanise the world,’ Gibson reminds us that Fanon’s revolutionary humanism is fundamental to all forms of anti-colonial struggle across the world.

Jane Austen is one of the most extensively read writers in English literature, renowned around the world for her much-loved romantic novels. Little is often known about this brilliant author, yet in this absorbing collection of stories and trivia readers will find answers to the amazing and extraordinary aspects of Austen's life, work and legacy. From her development as a world-class author from unassuming origins and the secrets of her own life and loves, through insights into her novels and their characters along with the changing reception to them over the years, to intriguing stories behind the screen and stage adaptations of her works and her continued legacy, there is something for every enthusiast to relish. This authoritative and absorbing book is published to coincide with the 200th Anniversary of Austen's death in 2017.

George Orwell is a difficult author to summarize. He was a would-be revolutionary who went to Eton, a political writer who abhorred dogma, a socialist who thrived on his image as a loner, and a member of the Imperial Indian Police who chronicled the iniquities of imperialism. Both the books in this volume were published in the 1930s, a "a low, dishonest decade," as his coeval W.H. Auden described it. Orwell's subjects in Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier are the political and social upheavals of his time. He focusses on the sense of profound injustice, incipient violence, and malign betrayal that were ubiquitous in Europe in the 1930s. Orwell's honesty, courage, and sense of decency are inextricably bound up with the quasi-colloquial style that imbues his work with its extraordinary power. His descriptions of working in the slums of Paris, living the life of a tramp in England, and digging for coal with miners in the North make for a thoughtful, riveting account of the lives of the working poor and of one man's search for the truth. Our edition includes the following essays: Marrakech; How the Poor Die; Antisemitism in Britain; Notes on Nationalism

A staggering memoir from New York Times-bestselling author Ada Calhoun tracing her fraught relationship with her father and their shared obsession with a great poetWhen Ada Calhoun stumbled upon old cassette tapes of interviews her father, celebrated art critic Peter Schjeldahl, had conducted for his never-completed biography of poet Frank O'Hara, she set out to finish the book her father had started forty years earlier. As a lifelong O'Hara fan who grew up amid his bohemian cohort in the East Village, Calhoun thought the project would be easy, even fun, but the deeper she dove, the more she had to face not just O'Hara's past, but also her father's, and her own. The result is a groundbreaking and kaleidoscopic memoir that weaves compelling literary history with a moving, honest, and tender story of a complicated father-daughter bond. Also a Poet explores what happens when we want to do better than our parents, yet fear what that might cost us; when we seek their approval, yet mistrust it. In reckoning with her unique heritage, as well as providing new insights into the life of one of our most important poets, Calhoun offers a brave and hopeful meditation on parents and children, artistic ambition, and the complexities of what we leave behind.

Jane Was Here is a whimsical, illustrated guide to Jane Austen's England – from the settings in her novels and the scenes in the wildly popular television and film adaptations, to her homes and other important locations throughout her own life.

Discover the stately homes of Basildon Park and Ham House and the lush landscapes of Stourhead and Stanage Edge. Tread in Jane's footsteps as you explore her school in the old gatehouse of the ruined Reading Abbey; her perfectly-preserved home in her Chawton cottage, where she spent the last eight years of her life; or her final resting place in Winchester Cathedral.

Whether you want to embark on a real Austenian pilgrimage of your own, or experience the journey from the comfort of your own living room, Jane Was Here will take you – with a tone as wry as Jane herself's – on an enchanting adventure through the ups and downs of the world of Jane Austen. Publishing in time for the 250th anniversary of Austen's birth, this book is the perfect companion for any Austenophile looking for a novel way to celebrate.

The Book of Small is a collection of thirty-six short stories about a childhood in a town that still had vestiges of its pioneer past. Emily Carr tells stories about her family, neighbours, friends and strangers-who run the gamut from genteel people in high society to disreputable frequenters of saloons-as well as an array of beloved pets. All are observed through the sharp eyes and ears of a young and ever-curious girl. Carr's writing is a disarming combination of charm and devastating frankness.

Widely recognized as Canada's finest literary humorist, Stephen Leacock was a prolific author, publishing over sixty books during his lifetime, in addition to countless articles and pamphlets. He was also a devoted correspondent, writing hundreds of letters to friends, relatives, and business associates. Illustrated with several original photographs, The Letters of Stephen Leacock brings together over 800 letters, most of them never before published. Together they give a vivid picture of one of the twentieth century's most distinguished men of letters, a man who was honest, compassionate, and committed to his craft. From the brief, unpolished lines he wrote as a boy to his father, to the final letters he wrote before his death, Leacock's correspondence reveals much about the man behind the humour: the devoted son, husband, and father; the distinguished McGill professor; the proud Canadian; the generous uncle; the social critic; and the private citizen consumed and deeply troubled by the two world wars. Fans of Leacock's many books of humour will find glimpses of his trademark wit in letters on subjects ranging from the Scottish penchant for whiskey to the beauty of the west. More than a humorist, Leacock was an intellectual and an educator who wrote serious works on many topics, including political economy, education, and social reform, and many of his strong views on these subjects are laid out plainly in letters to associates and friends. He was also an astute businessman, and was, as letters to numerous publishers show, a writer by profession. As Leacock himself wrote of his letters to a friend and associate, 'We wrote in the plain straighforward way only possible in such an interchange of letters, about what we thought of this new world that seemed to overwhelm us in our old age.' These are the letters of a gentleman, written with charm, grace, and humour, occassionally blunt and assertive in dealings with publishers, but - in keeping with his humour - never mean-spirited or designed to injure. Together, they represent a fascinating collection that will captivate anyone who enjoys Canadian fiction or history. David Staines has spent 15 years bringing together Leacock's letters, many of them from private collections in Britain, the United States, and Canada. His ten chapter introductions place these carefully selected and annotated letters in the context of Leacock's life and work.

The story of Penguin Books, Allen Lane and how they changed the world, to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Penguin

By founding Penguin books and popularizing the paperback, Allen Lane not only changed publishing in Britain, he was also at the forefront of a social and cultural revolution that saw the millions of people given access to what had previously been the preserve of a wealthy few.

In Penguin Special, Jeremy Lewis brings this extraordinary era brilliantly to life, recounting how Allen Lane came to launch his Penguins for the price of a packet of cigarettes; how they became enormously influential in alerting the public to the threat of Nazi Germany; and how Penguin itself gradually became a national institution, like the BBC and the NHS, whilst at the same time challenging the status quo through the famous Lady Chatterley case. Above all, it is the story of how one often fallible, complex man used his vision to change the world.

Systemic racism and sexism caused one of South Africa’s most important writers to disappear from public consciousness. Is it possible to justly restore her historical presence?

Regina Gelana Twala, a Black South African woman who died in 1968 in Swaziland (now Eswatini), was an extraordinarily prolific writer of books, columns, articles, and letters. Yet today Twala’s name is largely unknown. Her literary achievements are forgotten. Her books are unpublished. Her letters languish in the dusty study of a deceased South African academic. Her articles are buried in discontinued publications. Joel Cabrita argues that Twala’s posthumous obscurity has not developed accidentally as she exposes the ways prejudices around race and gender blocked Black African women like Twala from establishing themselves as successful writers.

Drawing upon Twala’s family papers, interviews, newspapers, and archival records from Pretoria, Uppsala, and Los Angeles, Cabrita argues that an entire cast of characters—censorious editors, territorial White academics, apartheid officials, and male African politicians whose politics were at odds with her own—conspired to erase Twala’s legacy. Through her unique documentary output, Twala marked herself as a radical voice on issues of gender, race, and class. The literary gatekeepers of the racist and sexist society of twentieth-century southern Africa clamped down by literally writing her out of the region’s history.

Written Out also scrutinizes the troubled racial politics of African history as a discipline that has been historically dominated by White academics, a situation that many people within the field are now examining critically. Inspired by this recent movement, Cabrita interrogates what it means for her —a White historian based in the Northern Hemisphere—to tell the story of a Black African woman. Far from a laudable “recovery” of an important lost figure, Cabrita acknowledges that her biography inevitably reproduces old dynamics of White scholarly privilege and dominance. Cabrita’s narration of Twala’s career resurrects it but also reminds us that Twala, tragically, is still not the author of her own life story.

Ivan Petrov was born in 1934 in the industrial town of Chapaevsk. His father was shot by Stalin as an 'enemy of the people', and Ivan was brought up by his mother and violent stepfather - both alcoholics, along with most of the rest of the town. By his early 20s, Ivan had also succumbed to the lure of the bottle. 'Smashed in the USSR' is his eye-opening, frequently eye-watering story.

Andy West teaches philosophy in prisons. He has conversations with people inside about their lives, discusses their ideas and feelings and listens as the men and women he works with explore new ways to think about their situation. Could we ever be good if we never felt shame? What makes a person worthy of forgiveness? Could someone in prison ever be more free than someone outside? These questions about how to live are ones we all need to ask, but in this setting they are even more urgent. When Andy steps into jail, he also confronts his inherited guilt: his father, uncle and brother all spent time in prison. He has built a different life for himself, but he still fears that their fate will be his. As he discusses questions of truth, identity and hope with his students, he searches for his own form of freedom. Moving, sympathetic, wise and frequently funny, The Life Inside is an elegantly written and unforgettable book. Through its blend of memoir, storytelling and gentle philosophical questioning, readers will gain a new insight into our justice system, our prisons and the plurality of lives found inside.

One of our most formidable literary critics explores how nine women artists flourished creatively in their final acts.

In 2008, academic and scholar Susan Gubar was told by a trusted oncologist that she had only a few years left to live. Though she outlived that dire prognosis, this brush with mortality refocused her attention on the boons of a longevity she did not expect to experience. She began to think: In the last years of our lives, can we shape and change our creative capabilities?

The resulting volume, Grand Finales, answers this question with a resounding yes. Despite the losses generally associated with aging, quite a few writers, painters, sculptors, musicians, and dancers have managed to extend and repurpose their creative energies. Gubar spotlights very creative old ladies: writers, painters, sculptors, musicians, and dancers from the past and in our times.

Each of Grand Finales’ nine riveting chapters features women artists―George Eliot, Colette, Georgia O’Keeffe, Isak Dinesen, Marianne Moore, Louise Bourgeois, Mary Lou Williams, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Katherine Dunham―who transformed the last stage of existence into a rousing conclusion. Gubar draws on their late lives and works to suggest that seniority can become a time of reinvention and renewal. With pizzazz, bravado, and geezer machismo, she counters the discrediting of elderly women and clarifies the environments, relationships, activities, and attitudes that sponsor a creative old age.

’I can’t recall us ever talking about anything other than eels and how to best catch them, down there by the stream. Actually, I can’t remember us speaking at all. Maybe because we never did.’

The European eel, Anguilla anguilla, is one of the strangest creatures nature ever created. Remarkably little is known about the eel, even today. What we do know is that it’s born as a tiny willow-leaf shaped larva in the Sargasso Sea, travels on the ocean currents toward the coasts of Europe – a journey of about four thousand miles that takes at least two years. Upon arrival, it transforms itself into a glass eel and then into a yellow eel before it wanders up into fresh water. It lives a solitary life, hiding from both light and science, for ten, twenty, fifty years, before migrating back to the sea in the autumn, morphing into a silver eel and swimming all the way back to the Sargasso Sea, where it breeds and dies.

And yet . . . There is still so much we don’t know about eels. No human has ever seen eels reproduce; no one can give a complete account of the eel’s metamorphoses or say why they are born and die in the Sargasso Sea; no human has even seen a mature eel in the Sargasso Sea. Ever. And now the eel is disappearing, and we don’t know exactly why.

What we do know is that eels and their mysterious lives captivate us.

This is the basis for The Gospel of the Eels, Patrik Svensson’s quite unique natural science memoir; his ongoing fascination with this secretive fish, but also the equally perplexing and often murky relationship he shared with his father, whose only passion in life was fishing for this obscure creature.

Through the exploration of eels in literature (Günter Grass and Graham Swift feature, amongst others) and the history of science (we learn about Aristotle’s and Sigmund Freud’s complicated relationships with eels) as well as modern marine biology (Rachel Carson and others) we get to know this peculiar animal. In this exploration, we also learn about the human condition, life and death, through natural science and nature writing at its very best.

• Daarna is dit ‘n gepaste geskenk vir enige tyd van die jaar.
• Kunstig saamgestel, duursaam en inspirerend.
• Nie net ‘n mooi geskenk nie, dis ‘n kunswerk en ‘n erfstuk.
• Die boek bestaan uit 8 hoofstukke met gepaste digkuns en kunswerk wat jou op reis neem - deur jou eie weermag herinneringe.
• Daar is ‘n stewige koevert waarin die oorlog veteraan memorabilia soos foto’s, dokumente, balkies en ‘n usb (vir video’s, foto’s en stemboodskappe) kan plaas.
• Dit bevat ook kaarte waarop oud makkers kan aandui waar hulle opleiding ontvang het en aangewend is.
• Die boek sluit ‘n kleiner handleiding in wat inspirasieprikkelaars (prompts) bevat. Die doel is om leiding te gee, sonder om voorskriftelik te wees.