Roland Emmerich directs this political thriller based around the notion that William Shakespeare was not in fact the author of the canon of plays attributed to him. In Elizabethan England, political intrigue abounds as the Tudors and the Cecils battle it out over the succession of Queen Elizabeth I (Joely Richardson/Vanessa Redgrave), and the Essex Rebellion mobilises against her. Enter the dashing and wildly talented Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (Jamie Campbell Bower/Rhys Ifans), who not only fathers an illegitimate son in a clandestine incestuous relationship with Queen Elizabeth, but is also the secret author of the plays labeled with the name of William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall).

Australian supernatural suspense thriller/horror. Four teenagers find themselves on a ride to hell when they are tormented by a train without a driver in the wilds of the Australian outback.

Romantic comedy starring Jennifer Lopez. After years of directionless dating, Zoe (Jennifer Lopez) has finally decided that the wait for the perfect man has been too long. Determined to become a mother before it is too late, she decides to go it alone and signs up to conceive a baby through artificial insemination. But when she meets Stan (Alex O'Loughlin) on the same day as successfully conceiving twins, a comedy of errors ensues as Zoe tries to keep her new relationship alive while struggling with the early stages of pregnancy.

The declaration of the Republic of China in 1912 signalled an entirely new era. Not only did the revolution of 1911-1912 bring about the fall of the Qing dynasty: it also brought an end to the entire series of dynasties which had marked Chinese history for over two millennia. Radical reforms since 1901 had culminated in the ending of the political status quo and the rejection of the very idea of empire.  Drawing on the most recent historical research, Xavier Paulès provides a comprehensive account of the crucial but chaotic period that stretched from the founding of the Republic of China in 1912 to the civil war of 1945-49, which ended with the victory of the Chinese Communist Party and the establishment of the People's Republic of China.  Paulès challenges various common claims about this period. It is often assumed that the Chinese Communist Party was instrumental in bringing about key events by skilfully mobilizing the population to serve its ends. Paulès argues, by contrast, that the CCP took advantage of fortunate circumstances and that, even then, they were only in a position to challenge the supremacy of the Guomindang as late as 1944. His analysis takes a broad view by considering the importance of political actors both within and external to the revolutionary movement, enabling him to offer a balanced interpretation of the republican period which sheds new light on China’s political, cultural and economic development.

The first ever graphic novel in the New York Times bestselling The Last Kids on Earth series, now with over 5 million copies in print worldwide and an Emmy Award-winning Netflix Original series Includes SIX brand new Last Kids stories by Max Brallier, featuring full-colour artwork by Anoosha Syed, Xavier Bonet, Lorena Alvarez, Jay Cooper, Christopher Mitten and The Last Kids on Earth series illustrator Douglas Holgate! When a vicious monster attacks the tree house (rudely interrupting board game night!), our human heroes and their monster pals must decide who is brave enough to battle the beast alone. The only way to choose? An epic, end-of-the-world STORY SHOWDOWN! Jack launches into an epic, totally-heroic, super rad story of one of his many post-apocalyptic adventures. Soon, Quint, Dirk, June and Skaelka, and even Globlet regale the group with sometimes outrageous, often hilarious details of their action-packed escapades during the monster-zombie apocalypse. The challenge is on. Who will claim the ULTIMATE VICTORY? The Last Kids on Earth series: The Last Kids on Earth The Last Kids on Earth and the Zombie Parade The Last Kids on Earth and the Nightmare King The Last Kids on Earth and the Cosmic Beyond The Last Kids on Earth and the Midnight Blade The Last Kids on Earth and the Skeleton Road

'I knew the site of the hut and the hill behind it up which I had rushed, and in the flickering glow the eyes of the rats still shone with a sort of phosphorescence.' Beyond the genre-defining influence of Dracula, Bram Stoker was also a master of the short story form. This new collection of the author’s tales represents his diverse interests in the macabre and uncanny, ranging from the hallucinatory and dreamlike in ‘The Shadow Builder’ and ‘In the Valley of the Shadow’ to the more overtly horrifying in the mini- masterpieces of ‘The Judge’s House’ and ‘The Burial of the Rats’. Alongside acknowledged classics of the horror short story canon, this new volume also includes obscurities such as the darkly comic ‘Old Hoggen: A Mystery’ and the morbid fairy tale ‘The Castle of the King’ to reflect the full brilliance of the legendary writer.

The book offers new critical insights into the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable development in Africa. The extent to which CSR initiatives can contribute to sustainable development in Africa remains debatable. This book examines in a very clear structure how, when, and whether CSR initiatives are able to contribute to the realization of the sustainable development goals, peace, and environmental sustainability at the micro-levels of society. It also explores some macro-level issues such as the relationship between taxation and CSR, CSR and human rights, and CSR and public governance and, in so doing, challenges existing CSR dogmas. With themes aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this book provides useful practical guidance for policymakers and business leaders seeking to better understand the strength and limitations of CSR as a vehicle for advancing sustainable development in Africa. It will also appeal to scholars, researchers, and students of African studies, development studies, international business, strategic management, and business and society.

The Three Philosophers by Giorgione (Italian, 1477 1510) in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and St. Francis in the Desert by Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1424/35 1516) in The Frick Collection, New York, are two of the most celebrated paintings of the Venetian Renaissance. Between at least 1525 and 1556 the two paintings were displayed together in the same house in Venice, the palazzo of Taddeo Contarini (ca. 1466 1540), a member of one of Venice's wealthiest patrician families. For the first time in more than four hundred years, these two masterpieces will be reunited. Accompanying their display at the Frick, this book explores the origins of the paintings and re-evaluates their shared histories in the collection of Taddeo Contarini. AUTHOR: Xavier F. Salomon is the deputy director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator at the Frick Collection in New York. SELLING POINTS: . Reunites two Italian Renaissance masterpieces after more than four centuries apart, affording a re-examination of their joint history 35 colour illustrations

This pastel belongs to a small number of works of art at the Frick by a female artist. Rosalba Carriera (Italian, 1673 1757) spent most of her life in Venice, then a popular destination for young aristocrats from all over Europe undertaking the Grand Tour-a tour of the continent that served as an educational rite of passage into adulthood. Many of these travelers would go to Rosalba's studio to have a portrait painted, and Rosalba, who began her career as a miniaturist painter in Venice, became internationally acclaimed. Rosalba's pastels are technically innovative, remarkable for their soft edges and sumptuous effects. By binding colored chalk into sticks, she obtained a much wider range of prepared colors, which ultimately expanded the visual possibilities of this medium. Little is known about this portrait, painted about 1730. Despite the fragility of the medium-pastel-it is in pristine condition. The portrayal of the man as a pilgrim, with a black cape and holding a staff, may indicate that he was a member of the Pellegrini family-pellegrini being the Italian word for pilgrims-or that he is someone who traveled on a pilgrimage. More likely, however, his attire is simply a costume related to the Venetian Carnival. Designed to foster critical engagement and interest specialist and non-specialist alike, each book in the Frick Diptych series illuminates a single work in the Frick's rich collection with an essay by a Frick curator paired with a contribution from a contemporary artist or writer. AUTHORS: Born in Lausanne in 1980, Nicolas Party is a figurative painter who has achieved critical admiration for his familiar yet unsettling landscapes, portraits, and still lifes that simultaneously celebrate and challenge conventions of representational painting. His works are primarily created in soft pastel, an idiosyncratic choice of medium in the 21st-century, and one that allows for exceptional degrees of intensity and fluidity in his depictions of objects both natural and manmade. Xavier F. Salomon is deputy director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, The Frick Collection, New York. SELLING POINTS: . New volume in the best selling Frick Diptych series that began with Holbein's Sir Thomas More by Hilary Mantel . Volume 13 focuses on an exquisite eighteenth-century Italian portrait 45 colour illustrations

This book, translated from the original Spanish, is the primary academic and historical study of the Blue Division -- a Falangist initiative involving the dispatch of some forty-thousand Spanish combatants (over a half of whom paid with their lives, health, or liberty) to the Russian Front during the Second World War. Xavier Moreno Julia does not limit himself to relating their deeds under arms, but also analyses -- for the first time -- the political background in detail: the complex relations between the Spanish government and Hitler's Germany; the internal conflicts between the Falangists and the Army; the rise and fall of Franco's brother-in-law, Minister Ramon Serrano Suner, who inspired the Blue Division and became the second most powerful person in Spain; and the attitude of General Agustin Munoz Grandes, commander of the Blue Division, who was encouraged by Berlin to seriously consider the possibility of taking over the reins of Spanish power. In the end, there were 45,500 reasons that led to joining the Blue Division -- one for each young man who decided to enlist. To understand all of the complex reasons behind their military service under German command is impossible at this juncture. It is an irrecoverable past that lies in Spanish cemeteries and on the Russian steppes. This book, based on massive documentation in German, British and Spanish archives, is an essential source of information to understand Spain in the 1940s -- an epoch when the Caudillo's power and the regime's good fortune were less secure than is often believed. Published in association with the Canada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies, LSE.

'Never was a painter more nobly joyous, never did an artist take a greater delight in life, seeing it all as a kind of breezy festival and feeling it through the medium of perpetual success...He was the happiest of painters.' Henry James on Veronese, 1909 Collected here for the first time, these fascinating early biographies (one of which has never been translated before) describe and celebrate the astonishingly fertile art of Paolo Veronese. Most of what we know about Veronese comes from these three essays. 'I have known this Paolino and I have seen his beautiful works. He deserves to have a great volume written in praise of him, for his pictures prove that he is second to no other painter', wrote Veronese's contemporary Annibale Carracci in the margins to his copy of Vasari's writings, continuing 'and this fool passes over him in four lines. And just because he was not Florentine.' It was indeed a measure of his fame that Vasari, whose Life of Veronese is reprinted here, should have overcome his pro-Tuscan prejudices to write about his great Venetian contemporary; and he was followed in this by another Florentine, the theorist Raffaele Borghini. But the most striking record of the impact of Veronese's art on his countrymen is the extensive biography by his fellow Venetian, Carlo Ridolfi. Entirely original in the seriousness and passion with which he approached his subject, Ridolfi permanently changed the course of writing about art. This is the first translation of his work into English. Translated and introduced by Xavier F. Salomon, curator of Veronese: Renaissance Magnificence at the National Gallery, London. Fifty pages of colour illustrations cover the span of Veronese's breath-taking career.

This new introduction to El Greco (1541-1614) follows the artist from his native island to Venice, Rome, Madrid, and then Toledo, the ecclesiastical capital of Spain. El Greco's ability to assimilate different artistic techniques and approaches to religion and philosophy enabled him to develop one of the most original styles of painting in the history of Europe. Despite his highly successful career he was unappreciated for centuries after his death, and this book examines how his genius was rediscovered in the nineteenth century.

Climate change and energy consumption are at the forefront of current environmental debate. Whilst energy is essential to the functioning and survival of our societies, the environmental impact that energy consumption is having, particularly on climate change, is a growing concern and the design and practicalities of energy and energy-related environmental policies are under constant scrutiny. This innovative new book not only addresses the economic assessment of environmental and energy policies but also discusses the efficiency and distributional consequences these policies have for producers and consumers. With contributions from leading academics in the field, this comprehensive volume uses a variety of methodological approaches with which to explore a number of pertinent issues, including several studies on the EU Emission Trading System, as well as more advanced topics such as indeterminacy and optimal environmental public policies, energy-saving technological progress, oil shocks and energy transitions and policy design. Combining theoretical and empirical work, this timely book is a significant contribution to the existing literature and deals with issues at the frontier of current economic knowledge. Economic Modelling of Climate Change and Energy Policies is a unique and informative book and will have widespread appeal amongst scholars, students and policymakers.

Managing Disaster Risks to Cultural Heritage presents case studies from different regions in the world and establishes a framework for understanding, identifying, and analysing disaster risks to immovable cultural heritage. Including contributions from academics and practitioners from around the globe, the book presents a comprehensive view of the scholarship relating to cultural heritage, disaster risk preparedness and post-disaster recovery. Particular attention is given to the complex and dynamic nature of disaster risks and how they evolve during different phases of a catastrophic event, especially as hazards can create secondary effects that have greater impacts on cultural heritage, infrastructure, and economy. Arguing that risk preparedness and mitigation have historically been secondary to reactive emergency and first aid response, the book demonstrates that preparedness plans based on sound risk assessments can prevent hazards from becoming disasters. Emphasising that the protection of cultural heritage through preparedness and mitigation actions and risk adaptation measures, especially for climate change, can contribute to the resilience of societies, the book highlights the vital role of communities in such activities. Managing Disaster Risks to Cultural Heritage will be useful to students, professionals, and scholars studying and working with cultural heritage protection. It will be of particular interest to those working in the Cultural Heritage, Archaeology, Conservation and Preservation, Sustainable Development and Disaster Studies fields.

Family animation about the characters created by Tove Jansson. When the tranquility of Moominvalley is interrupted by pesky pirates, the family set sail on their own adventure to the French Riviera. After battling ferocious storms and tired from the long journey, the family are at first fascinated by the high society they encounter at their destination. Moominpappa (Nathaniel Parker) loves the lifestyle so much he adopts the name de Moomin to fit in better with his new friends, securing entry to the best hotel in the process, while Snorkmaiden (Stephanie Winiecki) is infatuated with a rich bachelor who dazzles her with his wealth. But it appears not all the family are as taken with the outlandish ways of the Riviera when Moominmamma (Tracy Ann Oberman) retreats to the shelter and calm of the boat and waits for the family to be reunited.

The vampire is one of the great enemies of humanity, a nightmarish figure who feeds on the living in order to sustain themselves. Born from ancient folklore, writers in the nineteenth century gave form to the vampire as we know it today. Still haunting our subconscious in the twentieth century, a new wave of writers continued to develop the imagery and traditions of the vampire -- and the vampire continued to evolve. From John Polidori's iconic short story 'The Vampyre' and tales of parasitic female companions to experimental and freshly thrilling takes by Robert Bloch, Angela Carter and Anne Rice, this new collection sets out to present the enrapturing range of the vampire story and our undying fascination with the monster at its heart.

How big is big? In this large board book from award-winning creator Xavier Deneux, children learn how different animals compare in size: from the tall turkey to the enormous blue whale. The turkey is a big bird, but a bear is bigger. A walrus is big, but a hippo is even bigger! The bold attention-grabbing visuals provide a close-up of the animals' large sizes and the added facts about what they eat--plus flaps, die-cuts and more--make this book a delightful introduction to the world of animals. * A captivating animal-themed book * Bold, eye-catching illustrations *interactive elements * Durable board book format Big, Big Animals is perfect for very young animal fans! * Fun family read-aloud books * Books for children aged 0-3 * Books for toddlers and preschoolers

Create your own one-of-a-kind kicks with painting, drawing, stenciling, and marbleizing techniques from celebrated sneaker customizer Xavier Kickz (aka Xavier Crews). In Art of Custom Sneakers, Xavier shares his innovative ideas and techniques for prepping, designing, and finishing custom sneakers for everyone. The book begins with the basics—including tools and materials, workspace setup, prep, finishing, and design planning—then moves on to dozens of incredible customizing projects. Whatever your level of artistic experience, Xavier’s in-depth, step-by-step instructions ensure your success as you start making your own custom kicks. Twenty-eight QR codes to supplemental video instruction offer additional step-by-step guidance. As you go, gather inspiration from amazing custom sneakers throughout history. Start with any clean sneaker—whether leather Nike Air Force 1s, or canvas Vans or Converse, or bargain shoes similar to any of these—then add your own personal touches with techniques such as:   Cartoon Style Paint Pen Camo Sharpie Tie-Dye Hydro-Dipped Marbleizing Galactic Splatter Bedazzled Flash Stop admiring custom sneakers from afar, and start making your own!

This book asks whether sovereignty can guarantee international equality by exploring the discourses of sovereignty and their reliance on the notions of civilisation and savagery in two historical colonial encounters: the French explorations of Canada in the 16th century and the domestic troubles linked to the Wars of Religion. Presenting the concept of 'civilised sovereignty', Mathieu reveals the interplay between the domestic and external claims to sovereignty, and offers a dynamic analysis of the theory and practice of the concept. Based on extensive archival research, this book provides an in-depth intellectual picture of the theory and practice of sovereignty in early modern France by focusing on the discourses deployed by French political theorists. Mathieu applies performativity in order to denaturalise these discourses of statehood and reveals how the domestic and international constructions of sovereignty feed into one another and equally rely on appeals to civilisation and savagery. Overall, the book questions the 'myth of sovereignty as equality' and reflects on the persistence of this association despite the overwhelming empirical evidence that it institutes international hierarchies and inequalities. Representing a major intervention in the existing IR debates about sovereignty, this book will be a valuable resource for researchers working on issues of sovereignty and equality in IR.

A major figure in the Arte Povera movement of the late 1960s, the renowned Italian artist Giuseppe Penone is known for his exploration of the relationship between art and the natural world in a body of work that includes sculpture, performance, works on paper, and even garden design. His first works in porcelain, the exquisite disks presented here draw attention to the moment of touch—the convergence of surface and skin—that underpins so much of his work. Published to accompany The Frick Collection, New York’s temporary installation of works by Penone, this new volume comprises eleven porcelain disks that the artist made during his 2013 residency at the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres, the influential porcelain factory founded in the 18th century. A continuation of his Propagazioni (Propagations) series, begun in 1995, which includes various media, each disk bears the imprint of one of the artist’s fingertips. One of them is in gold, its imprint a variation on the artist’s index finger. Never before presented to the public, the installation of the disks in a gallery adjacent to the Frick’s early Italian paintings on gold grounds and the porcelain room kindles a rich artistic dialogue with both porcelain and gold.