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The Breaking of Bumbo was first published fifty years ago when the
author was twenty-two. It was an immense success and caused
something of stir. To quote from the original blurb, 'Bumbo Bailey
is a coward and a bit of a hero; a martyr, an egoist, a clown, a
debs' delight and a Suez mutineer; a non-conformist Old Etonian
Guardee . Partly his own victim, and partly the victim of his own
small world, he is Made, and has his Season; and is Broken. Bumbo
pursues his career from Caterham to an Officers' Training School;
from the Officers' Training School to Wellington Barracks; and from
Wellington Barracks to any number of wildly assorted parties. He
learns a lot about Sex and Love and Discipline - and a little about
himself; in the end he behaves very oddly indeed; and faces, in his
own way, the consequences.' This however is more than a period
piece, the social milieu it describes may have vanished, but the
novel's satirical brio lifts it above its immediate provenance; it
continues to read freshly. 'This bitter, ironical and very clever
first novel paints a devastating portrait of an upper-class misfit,
half clown, half Hamlet . . .' Evening Standard 'Gruesomely funny .
. . a violent virility that is infectious' Tatler
The prohibition of liquor in the United States from 1920 to 1933
created the myth of the flapper and gangster. Andrew Sinclair's
account was the first comprehensive study and it shows how this
extraordinary experiment was the product of the age-old conflict of
country against city, of the God-fearing farmer against the corrupt
urban rich and the new immigrants with their imported religions and
beer. Prohibition represented the last attempt of rural America to
stem the tide of history that was transforming the country from an
agricultural to an industrial nations. It stood for tradition and
the old American way of life. Its defeat was tragedy as well as a
comedy. The lessons of such an attempt at social control are
relevant to all societies, old and new. 'This is a definitive
biography of an era; a social history, comprehensive, detailed,
documented, and well written.' Arthur Weinberg, Chicago Tribune
'Here is a work of real social history, at once scholarly and
entertaining, thoughtful, penetrating and analytical.' John A.
Garraty, The New Leader
'I would rather have been in London under siege between 1940 and
1945 than anywhere else,' John Lehmann said, 'except perhaps Troy
in the time that Homer celebrated.' Paradoxically perhaps the 1940s
was a decade of cultural efflorescence. Writing, painting, theatre,
cinema and dancing all thrived: Henry Moore, Francis Bacon, T. S.
Eliot, George Orwell and Laurence Olivier all produced some of
their best work in this period. In this sweeping and important
book, Andrew Sinclair recreates the world of the 1940s with its
encounters and characters, its conflicts and its discoveries, its
hopes and its disillusions. It was a world of pubs and clubs, where
scarce drink could be found and the war forgot. It was the time of
the short piece, the poem, the story and the sketch. Anyone who
knew anyone in the loose coterie of Fitzrovia could have anything
published. Everything printed was read by a nation avid for
learning and waiting for action. War Like a Wasp recreates a
feverish and democratic time using the words of the period. In his
original and witty account of the decade, Andrew Sinclair has made
sure nobody will ever think of the 1940s in the same way again.
'Soho and the disease writers caught there, Sohoitis, are the main
enthusiasm of War Like a Wasp. They make Sinclair's book a keen
Remembrance of Times Pissed - Dylan Thomas brawling, brawling,
getting the DTs, Dan Davin slugging or about to be slugged, the
unsubsidised editor Tambimuttu (known to some as Tuttifrutti)
cadging drinks and poems, louche painters clustered about Nina
Hamnett's dying Parisian flame, huge Anna Wickham biting people in
the head, all the rough traders, brief encounters and lost girls.'
Valentine Cunningham, the Observer 'He has a talent for creating
memorable phrases. He calls Dylan Thomas 'the poet with lips like
Michelin tyres'. He describes the aftermath of a bombing raid in
prose that is uncommonly vivid. He makes you see and smell the
terrible damage.' Michael Sheldon, Washington Post
'We need London's mythical wolf almost as much as we need the wildernesses of the world, for without such ghost-animals from the depths of the human subconscious we are alone with ourselves' - from the introduction This volume of the best of Jack London's famed stories of the North includes The Call of the Wild, London's masterpiece about a dog learning to survive in the wilderness, along with 'Bâtard', 'Love of Life', and White Fang, the story of a wild dog's acclimation to the world of men, generally considered the companion piece to The Call of the Wild. In his introduction, James Dickey probes London's strong personal and literary identification with the wolf-dog symbol and totem. Andrew Sinclair, London's official biographer and the volume's editor, provides a brief account of London's life as sailor, desperado, socialist, adventurer and acclaimed author.
The scene is Cambridge in the early 1960s. Ben Birt, an
intellectual Brando from a grammar school, sees the University
through proud, bawdy and anarchic eyes. Classless but deeply
class-conscious. Brought up on Shakespeare and the classics, much
influenced by contemporary French and American, he talks a vivid
new language. Ben, above all, is alive. He does: and does not
apologize for what he does. He gives to life without giving in; and
takes from life without being taken in. He ends up on his own,
beginning to see Cambridge has more to offer than a three years'
muckabout in a festering fen. 'Very clever indeed . . . This
portrait of la vie de boheme universitaire should raise squeals of
outraged delight . . . all along the line from Belgravia to
Budleigh Salterton.' Daily Telegraph
The semiautobiographical Martin Eden is the most vital and original character Jack London ever created. Set in San Francisco, this is the story of Martin Eden, an impoverished seaman who pursues, obsessively and aggressively, dreams of education and literary fame. London, dissatisfied with the rewards of his own success, intended Martin Eden as an attack on individualism and a criticism of ambition; however, much of its status as a classic has been conferred by admirers of its ambitious protagonist. Andrew Sinclair's wide-ranging introduction discusses the conflict between London's support of socialism and his powerful self-will. Sinclair also explores the parallels and divergences between the life of Martin Eden and that of his creator, focusing on London's mental depressions and how they affected his depiction of Eden.
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Gog (Paperback)
Andrew Sinclair
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R908
Discovery Miles 9 080
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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'The book is a bravura performance, exhibiting the virtuosity that
has lit up all Sinclair's work.' - C.P. Snow, "Financial Times"
'This is a rich and satisfying hybrid work - part fiction and part
biography. Its hold on the reader stems, at least in part, from its
use of one of the most successful of literary formulae: the quest.
It was this structure which gave A.J.A. Symons's "The Quest for
Corvo" such hypnotic appeal.... Mr Sinclair's insights, credited to
Pons, are those of a distinguished novelist. He intuitively
perceives the relationship between Poe's life and work, anatomising
it in witty and sometimes brilliant prose.' - Paul Ableman,
"Spectator"
'Clever, macabre, spellbinding, "The Facts in the Case of E. A.
Poe" is Andrew Sinclair's brilliant combination of biography and
fiction, taken to the limits of the united genre.... T]he result is
a strangely disturbing and powerfully revealing piece of
literature, one Poe himself - if sober - might have genuinely
approved.' - "Houston Post"
' E]xtremely clever and enjoyable, and one that Poe might himself
have appreciated. Mr. Sinclair's dovetailing of Poe's life and
Pons's reflections is so smoothly done, and his narrative touch so
delicate, that those who know nothing of Poe's sad story are likely
to be held as firmly as those familiar with it.... The ghost of Poe
can have inspired few more entertaining or ingenious books.' -
Julian Symons, "New York Times"
'Sinclair is one of our most intelligent novelists, and "The Facts
in the Case of E. A. Poe" is a book full of wit, thought and
perception - an ingeniousness of composition which the author of
"The Raven" might have himself approved.' - "The Scotsman"
'The book (bionovel? autofictography? madnessscript?) turns out to
be a thoroughly absorbing read. The use of an eccentric fictional
biographer like Pons gives the "real" biographer, Sinclair, the
freedom to indulge in amusingly wild flights of speculative fancy
which he would no doubt have suppressed in a more conventional
work.' - "The Listener"
Ernest Albert Pons is a Holocaust survivor with an unusual coping
mechanism: he lives in the delusion that he is, in fact, Edgar
Allan Poe. His psychiatrist Dupin (chosen because he shares a name
with Poe's fictional detective) has a radical idea for treatment:
Pons must see for himself that he is not Poe by retracing the
poet's steps and writing an analysis of his life. As Pons pursues
Poe from his childhood and university years in Virginia to his
adult life in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, we gradually
learn the secrets of both men's pasts. But when Pons begins to
suspect Dupin may be engineering an elaborate scheme to kill him,
is it just another part of his delusion, or is Dupin plotting a
macabre twist worthy of Poe?
A wholly unique book that manages to blend seamlessly a
page-turning mystery with an important work of Poe criticism and
biography, "The Facts in the Case of E. A. Poe" (1979) was widely
acclaimed on its initial publication and returns to print in this
new edition, which includes a new introduction by Andrew Sinclair.
The changing role and status of women in America from colonial
times to the present, and the American woman's unrelenting struggle
for complete equality with men are the major themes of this work.
The works of leading feminists, suffragists, abolitionists,
unionists, and temperance workers are explored.
Shattered by tropical disease and a gruelling voyage across the Pacific, Jack London spent many of the last months of his life writing in Hawaii. His search for untouched civilizations had revealed cruelty and ignorance beside startling beauty, a flawed paradise. Tales of the Pacific is the fruit of this quest. The stories embody the power and harshness of Hemingway and demonstrate a mastery of the short-story form equal to that of Conrad or Kipling. They spring from London's desire to reconcile the dream of an unfallen world with the harsh reality of twentieth-century materialism.
Over the years, observers of American politics have noted the
deleterious effects of party polarization in both the national and
state legislatures. Reformers have tried to address this problem by
changing primary election laws. A theory underlies these legal
changes: the reformers tend to believe that 'more open' primary
laws will produce more centrist, moderate, or pragmatic candidates.
The 'top-two' primary, just implemented in California, represents
the future of these antiparty efforts. Nonpartisan Primary Election
Reform examines California's first use of the top-two primary
system in 2012. R. Michael Alvarez and J. Andrew Sinclair evaluate
the primary from a variety of perspectives and using several
different methodologies. Although the first use of this primary
system in California did not immediately reshape the state's
politics, it also did not have many of the deleterious consequences
that some observers had feared. This study provides the foundation
for future studies of state primary systems.
The political use of terror has always been with us, whether in the
murderous seizing of power by the ancients, through the outlawed
campaigns of guerrillas, or via the state sanctioned terror of war.
From Homer to Al Qaeda, terrorism has flourished in one form or
another, bloodily shaping our history. Andrew Sinclair's unique
book brilliantly explores the methods and thinking behind terrorism
and shows how the nature of terror has not changed since the days
of the Assassins and the Mongol hordes. Meticulously researched and
beautifully written, An Anatomy of Terror dissects the uses of
atrocity from the Roman destruction of Carthage to the suicide
attacks on the World Trade Center. Bold, incisive and compelling,
An Anatomy Of Terror is an essential history for our times.
Over the years, observers of American politics have noted the
deleterious effects of party polarization in both the national and
state legislatures. Reformers have tried to address this problem by
changing primary election laws. A theory underlies these legal
changes: the reformers tend to believe that 'more open' primary
laws will produce more centrist, moderate, or pragmatic candidates.
The 'top-two' primary, just implemented in California, represents
the future of these antiparty efforts. Nonpartisan Primary Election
Reform examines California's first use of the top-two primary
system in 2012. R. Michael Alvarez and J. Andrew Sinclair evaluate
the primary from a variety of perspectives and using several
different methodologies. Although the first use of this primary
system in California did not immediately reshape the state's
politics, it also did not have many of the deleterious consequences
that some observers had feared. This study provides the foundation
for future studies of state primary systems.
Man and Horse is a magisterial history of the mounted warrior and
the relationship with his steed. Andrew Sinclair takes as his
inspiration Walter Prescott Webb's seminal work, The Great Plains.
The horse until very recently has been the decisive factor in
determining military success. Great exponents of the art of
equestrian warfare include, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, King
Arthur, Saladin, the Knights of the Templar, the Reivers of the
Scottish Borders, the Mongols, North American Indians, the
Confederate forces during the American Civil War and the Boers.
Sinclair also explores the uses of the horse by highwaymen and
figures such as Ned Kelly. Andrew Sinclair brilliantly shows that
the art of warfare from horseback with its culture of mobility has
always been at conflict with the urban domesticated culture. This
tension has created much of the great art and culture of humankind.
This is a hugely ambitious and exhilarating book that cannot fail
to enthral and stimulate.
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