'On Corkscrew Hill' chronicles a journey through the contemporary landscape of a nation on its knees. From the prospect of economic oblivion to mounting social problems and a decaying health system, from bankers to builders to the emasculated Irish male, Stephen Murray asks, in a place approaching a century of independence, what it really means to be Irish.

Notre-Dame of Amiens is one of the great Gothic cathedrals. Its construction began in 1220, and artistic production in the Gothic mode lasted well into the sixteenth century. In this magisterial chronicle, Stephen Murray invites readers to see the cathedral as more than just a thing of the past: it is a living document of medieval Christian society that endures in our own time. Murray tells the cathedral's story from the overlapping perspectives of the social groups connected to it, exploring the ways that the layfolk who visit the cathedral occasionally, the clergy who use it daily, and the artisans who created it have interacted with the building over the centuries. He considers the cycles of human activity around the cathedral and shows how groups of makers and users have been inextricably intertwined in collaboration and, occasionally, conflict. The book travels around and through the spaces of the cathedral, allowing us to re-create similar passages by our medieval predecessors. Murray reveals the many worlds of the cathedral and brings them together in the architectural triumph of its central space. A beautifully illustrated account of a grand, historically and religiously important building from a variety of perspectives and in a variety of time periods, this book offers readers a memorable tour of Notre-Dame of Amiens that celebrates the cathedral's eight hundredth anniversary. Notre-Dame of Amiens is enhanced by high-resolution images, liturgical music, and animations embedded in an innovative website.

In "Homosexualities," one of the world's leading authorities on global homosexualities has produced a magnum opus. Breathtaking in its historical and geographical scope, Stephen O. Murray's landmark work provides a sweeping examination of the construction of male and female homosexualities, stressing both the variability of the forms same-sex desire can take and the key recurring patterns it has formed throughout history. From imperial China to Tudor England, and from medieval Egypt to the Ottoman Empire to modern-day Japan, Murray expertly explores the full range of both behavior and meaning in same-sex relationships.

Four vintage episodes from the classic seafaring sitcom, including the original pilot episode and the final regular episode Operation Fag End ('Working Their Passage') 5 April 1959 New head honcho Commander Povey is heading to the island to inspect the crew - just as Pertwee's consignment of 50,000 smuggled cigarettes is about to arrive... The Bugged and Burgled Beer ('Bugging') 1 October 1967 Pertwee has a purchasing problem: the two cases of beer he sold to his customers have ended up in Povey's custody. Can a bugging device help him recover his haul? Number One's Anniversary ('Biff Boff Boffing Their Way Through') 11 July 1971 With his first wedding anniversary approaching, Mr Murray is in a bad mood - and Captain Povey is in trouble after switching the photos of two applicants for his wife's advertisement for an au pair. Captain Wilberforce Pertwee ('Having a History Lesson')18 January 1976 After Pertwee's ingenious defence gets Phillips acquitted at a court martial, he recounts how he got his inventiveness from his wily Great-Great-Grandfather Wilberforce Pertwee. Starring Jon Pertwee, Leslie Phillips, Richard Caldicot, Stephen Murray and Tenniel Evans, with Dennis Price, Ronnie Barker, Michael Bates, Heather Chasen, Pamela Buck, Norma Ronald and April Walker.

A book of 31 sermons that can be used by anyone for guidance in every day life.

In-Company TVET in the Developing World This ground-breaking and practical study addresses the issue of training within companies and among groupings of companies and other stakeholders such as training centres and government agencies. The first part of the book uses current theory to investigate the topic of innovation in training. The second part analyses the reality of vocational training and presents a series of best practices based on experiences in sectors such as textile manufacture in South Africa, mining in Indonesia and oil and gas in India. The book confirms that long- term self-sufficiency in poor communities can be greatly aided by educating people from apprentices to mastercraftsmen to use their talent and the opportunities offered by their local environment, all achieved with the cooperation of firms and other stakeholders.

Taking Our Amusements Seriously: The Realist One-Act Play in the English Theatre, 1900 to 1920. This study looks at the one-act play-form during what was arguably its greatest period, from the end of Queen Victorias reign to the years after the First World War. The author analyses the form very carefully in terms of aesthetic and social considerations. He argues that it played a central part in the "theatricalisation" of the music hall, the presentation of critical social commentary, the campaign for improved social rights and suffrage for women, and the discussion about the suffering by soldiers and civilians alike during the time of the Great War. The author addresses these issues by identifying the key foreign and native influences on the development of the short play, and by looking in minute detail at the plays themselves.

The 'Crags' is a typical suburban area, a place where people spend money they don't have, to buy things they don't need, to impress people they don't even like. It's quiet and peaceful. But all of this is about to change because two neighbours have had an argument about a fence. From one small, insignificant incident, the bad feeling and hostilities escalate as they try to get the better of each other. The battle lines have been drawn, - if you want peace, prepare for war. One caveat though, if you're of a nervous disposition or have a particular dislike of violence or Machiavellian scheming, put this book down right now! You have been warned.

Twenty years of cleaning windows has given Jack Wilde an interesting insight into the private lives of others, and what really goes on behind closed doors. He's about to commit them to the printed page, and he's holding nothing back!

A historian of medieval art and architecture with a rich appreciation of literary studies, Stephen Murray brings all those fields to bear in presenting a new way of understanding the great Gothic churches of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries: as rhetorical constructs.
"Plotting Gothic" begins by positioning the rhetoric of the Gothic as a series of plots, or stories intended for visitors, then extends that concept to the relationship between a building, its audience, and the many interlocutors involved in that relationship, such as builders, scholars, tour guides, and resident clergy. What were the rhetorical commonplaces that such interlocutors used to interpret the Gothic when it was new? Drawing on building records and personal recollections of architects and churchmen, Murray traces common analogies between rhetoric and architectural space that date back to late antiquity, then shows how those links were translated into wood, stone, and space under specific local conditions. The resulting book offers an invigorating new way to understand some of the most lasting achievements of the medieval era.

A 60th anniversary celebration of the much-loved nautical comedy, featuring six classic episodes plus bonus material On 29 March 1959, The Navy Lark sailed the airwaves for the very first time. Starring Leslie Phillips, Jon Pertwee and Stephen Murray, with regular appearances from Ronnie Barker and Heather Chasen, it soon became a radio favourite and ran for 18 years - one of the longest-running BBC sitcoms. This anniversary collection comprises six of the best episodes from the iconic series - Operation Fag End (5 April 1959), The Hank of Heather (17 May 1959), The Lighthouse Lark (29 January 1960), A Deliberate Bashing (19 April 1963), When Sub Lt Phillips Was at Dartmouth (29 October 1967) and The Jubilee Navy Lark (16 July 1977). Bonus items include a mini-episode from The Light Entertainment Show; two crossover episodes from spin-off series The Embassy Lark: National Grumpschnog Week (12 April 1966) and Sub-Lt Phillips Drops In (16 April 1968), and a discussion from Bob Holness Presents: Farewell to the Paris, which sees Leslie Phillips and Jon Pertwee reminiscing about the making of The Navy Lark. So step aboard HMS Troutbridge for laughs ahoy! PLEASE NOTE: The CD inlay makes reference to the programme Left Hand Down a Bit. This programme is not included in the collection.