August, 1914. The silver wedding celebrations of Sir George Barsham, MP, and his wife, Lady Adelaide, are overshadowed by the declaration of war with Germany. Over the following months, as the male estate workers head for the Front and the maids disappear to work in the newly-opened munitions factory, the Barsham family's comfortable, aristocratic lifestyle is set to change forever. Determined to do his bit for King and country, James Barsham enlists as an officer and heads for Flanders, leaving Lady Adelaide's maid Polly devastated. To Lady Adelaide's dismay, her younger daughter Millie learns to drive an ambulance: a most unladylike skill. Meanwhile Millie's sister Gina finds fulfilment in helping the local wives and children, left destitute while their husbands are away fighting. During the course of the war, with devastating loses, the strength of character of the four Barsham siblings will be tested as never before. They will encounter hardship, danger, heartache - and unexpected love.

The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies presents discussions by leading experts on all significant aspects of this diverse and fast-growing field. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies deals with the history and culture of the Byzantine Empire, the eastern half of the Late Roman Empire, from the fourth to the fourteenth century. Its centre was the city formerly known as Byzantium, refounded as Constantinople in 324 CE, the present-day Istanbul. Under its emperors, patriarchs, and all-pervasive bureaucracy Byzantium developed a distinctive society: Greek in language, Roman in legal system, and Christian in religion. Byzantium's impact in the European Middle Ages is hard to over-estimate, as a bulwark against invaders, as a meeting-point for trade from Asia and the Mediterranean, as a guardian of the classical literary and artistic heritage, and as a creator of its own magnificent artistic style.

The comfortable, upper-class lives of the aristocratic Barsham family are set to change forever with the onset of World War I. August, 1914. The silver wedding celebrations of Sir George Barsham, MP, and his wife, Lady Adelaide, are overshadowed by the declaration of war with Germany. Over the following months, as the male estate workers head for the Front and the maids disappear to work in the newly-opened munitions factory, the Barsham family's comfortable, aristocratic lifestyle is set to change forever. Determined to do his bit for King and country, James Barsham enlists as an officer and heads for Flanders, leaving Lady Adelaide's maid Polly devastated. To Lady Adelaide's dismay, her younger daughter Millie learns to drive an ambulance: a most unladylike skill. Meanwhile Millie's sister Gina finds fulfilment in helping the local wives and children, left destitute while their husbands are away fighting. During the course of the war, with devastating loses, the strength of character of the four Barsham siblings will be tested as never before. They will encounter hardship, danger, heartache - and unexpected love.

The cutting-edge papers in this collection reflect the wide areas to which John Pryor has made significant contributions in the course of his scholarly career. They are written by some of the world's most distinguished practitioners in the fields of Crusading history and the maritime history of the medieval Mediterranean. His colleagues, students and friends discuss questions including ship construction in the fourth and fifteenth centuries, navigation and harbourage in the eastern Mediterranean, trade in Fatimid Egypt and along the Iberian Peninsula, military and social issues arising among the crusaders during field campaigns, and wider aspects of medieval warfare. All those with an interest in any of these subjects, whether students or specialists, will need to consult this book.

"Digenis Akritis" is Byzantium's only epic poem, telling of the exploits of a heroic warrior of "double descent" on the frontiers between Byzantine and Arab territory in Asia Minor in the ninth and tenth centuries. It survives partially in six versions, of which the two oldest are edited here. This edition and translation aims to highlight the nature of the lost poem, and to provide a guide through the maze of recent discussions about the epic and its background.

The cutting-edge papers in this collection reflect the wide areas to which John Pryor has made significant contributions in the course of his scholarly career. They are written by some of the world's most distinguished practitioners in the fields of Crusading history and the maritime history of the medieval Mediterranean. His colleagues, students and friends discuss questions including ship construction in the fourth and fifteenth centuries, navigation and harbourage in the eastern Mediterranean, trade in Fatimid Egypt and along the Iberian Peninsula, military and social issues arising among the crusaders during field campaigns, and wider aspects of medieval warfare. All those with an interest in any of these subjects, whether students or specialists, will need to consult this book.

'Rhetoric in Byzantium' explores the ways in which rhetoric functioned in Byzantine society - as a tool for the effective communication of ideas and ideologies, but at times also a barrier that inhibited the expression of real feelings and everyday realities, and imposed a burden of decoding on outsiders. After an introduction on the practical and textual background to Byzantine rhetoric, the essays are grouped in five sections. The first two deal with the basis of rhetoric in Byzantium and its public uses, principally in imperial and ecclesiastical ceremonial. The next sections look at how rhetoric affects the definition of literature in a Byzantine context and the aesthetic to be used in approaching Byzantine literature, with reference to current critical approaches, and specifically at the role of rhetoric in the writing of history - does it only obscure the facts, or does the rhetorical process itself provide information at other levels? The final essays examine the interaction of the written word and pictorial representation and the question of whether real connections between rhetorical training and artistic production can be demonstrated.

The papers in this volume derive from the 29th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies. This was held for the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies in the University of London in March 1995, in order to complement the British Museum exhibition 'Byzantium. Treasures of Byzantine Art and Culture'. The objective of the symposium was to explore the ways in which British scholars, travellers, novelists, architects, churchmen and critics came into contact with Byzantium, and how they perceived what they saw. The present volume sets out some of the results of this enquiry. Byzantium is treated both as a source of influence on British culture as well as an 'idea' which British culture constructed in different ways in different periods of history. To give some comparative context, attention is also paid to attitudes towards Byzantium in continental Europe. Papers deal, amongst other topics, with the collecting of objects representative of Byzantine culture and with the changing appreciation of Byzantine manuscripts. They also include a series of case studies of individual historians and Byzantinists, and two deal in particular with Ruskin, who emerges as a perceptive 19th-century critic of Byzantine culture. Through the Looking Glass is volume 7 in the series published by Ashgate/Variorum on behalf of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies.

Sir Steven Runciman's History of the Crusades (1951-4) remains widely read and influential but represents only a part of his wide-ranging, erudite and immensely readable literary activity. His early work focused on Byzantium in the tenth century (The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus) and the history of the first Bulgarian empire. Later he wrote with authority on ecclesiastical relations between the eastern and western Churches (The Eastern Schism), more generally on Byzantine culture (Byzantine Style and Civilization), with forays into medieval diplomacy (The Sicilian Vespers) and British colonial society (The White Rajahs). With a diplomatic past which informed his studies, he was the doyen of Byzantine studies in Britain. This volume of essays explores topics relevant to Sir Steven's interests, long planned in his honour by British Byzantinists of all generations, and includes a memoir of his life and a full bibliography of his work.

The comfortable, upper-class lives of the aristocratic Barsham family are set to change forever with the onset of World War I. August, 1914. The silver wedding celebrations of Sir George Barsham, MP, and his wife, Lady Adelaide, are overshadowed by the declaration of war with Germany. Over the following months, as the male estate workers head for the Front and the maids disappear to work in the newly-opened munitions factory, the Barsham family's comfortable, aristocratic lifestyle is set to change forever. Determined to do his bit for King and country, James Barsham enlists as an officer and heads for Flanders, leaving Lady Adelaide's maid Polly devastated. To Lady Adelaide's dismay, her younger daughter Millie learns to drive an ambulance: a most unladylike skill. Meanwhile Millie's sister Gina finds fulfilment in helping the local wives and children, left destitute while their husbands are away fighting. During the course of the war, with devastating loses, the strength of character of the four Barsham siblings will be tested as never before. They will encounter hardship, danger, heartache - and unexpected love.

Sir Steven Runciman's History of the Crusades (1951-4) remains widely read and influential to this day but represents only a part of his wide-ranging, erudite and immensely readable literary activity. His early work focused on Byzantium in the tenth century (The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus) and the history of the first Bulgarian empire. Later he wrote with authority on ecclesiastical relations between the eastern and western churches (The Eastern Schism), more generally on Byzantine culture (Byzantine Style and Civilization), with forays into medieval diplomacy (The Sicilian Vespers) and British colonial society (The White Rajahs). With a diplomatic past which informed his studies, he was the doyen of Byzantine studies in Britain. This volume of essays on topics relevant to Sir Steven's interests, long planned in his honour by British Byzantinists of all generations, includes a memoir of his life and a full bibliography of his work.

A war widow finds new love in this absorbing First World War romance Newly widowed after a whirlwind wartime romance, Stella Nolan is preparing to meet her late husband's family for the first time. But not all her new in-laws are prepared to offer Stella a warm welcome. The war has left a bitter legacy and at Warren's End Stella finds a family riven with tension, disappointments, shameful secrets and bitter quarrels. In particular, Stella's new sister-in-law Rosalie makes her hostility plain, and it's not always easy for Stella to stand up to her overbearing mother-in-law. An unforeseen turn of events means that Stella ends up staying with the Nolan family a great deal longer than she had planned - and her extended visit is destined to bring joy, heartbreak, scandal - and unexpected love.

Digenis Akritis is Byzantium's only epic poem, telling of the exploits of a heroic warrior of 'double descent' on the frontiers between Byzantine and Arab territory in Asia Minor in the ninth and tenth centuries. It survives in six versions, of which the two oldest, dating from the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, are presented here in an edited version. The manuscripts are preserved in the Grottaferrata monastery near Rome and the Escorial Library in Spain. Behind these two versions lies a twelfth-century poem that can now be glimpsed at but not reconstructed. This edition and translation aims at highlighting the nature of the lost poem, and at providing a guide through the maze of recent discussions about the epic and its background.

Constantinople in the mid-twelfth century saw the composition of the first sustained fictional narratives in the European world - novels - since late antiquity. Four members of the Byzantine intelligentsia produced for the entertainment of their colleagues, their aristocratic patrons, and not least themselves, pastiches in verse and prose of the romantic tales of Achilles Tatius and Heliodorus. These novels are perhaps the most attractive, as well as the most unexpected, literary products of the Byzantine millennium. More than one of the four novels translated here was well known in Renaissance Europe, but all have been largely neglected by later generations of readers and scholars as insipid and derivative eroticism. This is regrettable since they antedate by several decades the works of Chretien de Troyes, the French father of the European novel. This Byzantine phase in the history of the genre, though not part of its central development, deserves exploration. Building on recent work which has begun to rehabilitate these texts, this book marks the first English translation of all four texts in one volume, placing them and their writers in their literary and historical contexts and opening up their world to all those interested in the novel and in European medieval literature. LUP gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Dr Costas Kaplanis, alumnus of King's College London, who suggested the idea of the series to Professor Herrin and has underwritten the initial expenses.

The charming village of New Hope, Pennsylvania, and many of the surrounding river towns on both sides of the Delaware, are buzzing with restless spirits, shadowy figures & ghostly energy. Haunted Village & Valley (co-authored and published posthumously by the author's daughter, Lynda Elizabeth Jeffrey), is a compilation of true paranormal incidents and real-life spooky experiencees that have occurred in this rich, colorful, historic and eerie area. Illustrated throughout with stunning photographs and graphic images, Haunted Village & Valley covers a wide range of ghostly legends and haunting experiences. For the first time ever, Jeffrey also gives readers a glimpse of her own supernatural encounters, along with her unique views and theories pertaining to the "what" and the "why" of ghosts. Do you believe in ghosts? If Adi-Kent Thomas Jeffrey can't convince you... nobody will.

When Edward Price-Carpenter arrives in Wyford, Essex, he immediately catches Cassie Jordan's eye. Handsome and persuasive, the young man has come to oversee work on his father's racing yacht, and takes lodgings in the Falcon Inn where Cassie lives with her family. As romance blossoms between them, Cassie finds herself torn between the man she loves and Luke Turnbull, a childhood friend whom she is destined to marry. Though she raises a family with Luke and lives an outwardly happy life, inside Cassie is tormented by thoughts of her lost love Edward and longs for a way to be reunited with him. When tragedy strikes, will Cassie finally learn where her true affections lie?

A dramatic saga of love lost and found again

Rachel Gardner's family life is far from a happy one. Her father, Stanhope, is cold and remote, and her mother Nellie seems to care for nothing but housework. Then, one day, Stanhope collapses in the street and dies--and the facade he had built up carefully for so many years is revealed as a sham. Sad and confused, Rachel leaves home and flees to the one place she has known parental kindness: the home of the rector's daughter Angela, her school friend. As her feelings for Angela's elder brother David deepen into romance, Rachel believes she has everything she ever desired. But after the outbreak of World War II, David joins the RAF and returns horribly injured, refusing to see her. Fate, however, gives Rachel another chance at love. And just as the pieces of her once-shattered life are falling into place, a new disaster threatens everything she holds dear.

After heartbreaking news, Ginny is forced to make a decision no woman should have to make

When Ginny Appleyard's childhood sweetheart returns after his racing season aboard the yacht "Aurora," her hopes that he is bringing her an engagement ring are shattered, as Nathan disembarks with Isobel Armitage, the daughter of "Aurora"'s owner. Instead of the hoped-for proposal, Nathan tells Ginny that he is leaving Colne, in East Anglia, and following Isobel to London to pursue his dreams of becoming an artist. Already distraught at the tragic death of her father, Ginny is devastated to hear that Nathan and Isobel are to be married. More heartache is in store when Ginny realizes that she is pregnant. Forced by her mother to choose between a loveless marriage of convenience to the rough sailor Will Kesgrave, and the more sinister option of being "put away," Ginny Appleyard's future is far from certain.

A dramatic historical family saga, filled with scandal and intrigue

The year is 1916 and 20-year-old Poppy Barlow is clearing the desk of her late father when she comes across a faded photograph of her father with his two sisters--aunts that Poppy never knew she had--along with their address. Poppy contacts her aunts, and is thrilled when they invite her to stay with them in Sheffield. But while Dale House might look grand from the outside, on closer inspection, the place is run-down and crumbling. Poppy determines to change all this and applies for a job at the local scythe works, to the horror of her aunts. As Poppy learns to survive, she is tormented by many unanswered questions. Why had her father rejected Dale House? Why had he never mentioned his sisters or the past? And what could have happened between her aunts and Frederick Kenton, her new boss, that could cause them so much anguish every time his name, or the scythe works, is mentioned?

A wedding day revelation changes everythingin this romantic saga

Abandoned as a baby, Joanna was brought up by the cruel farmer who found her and put to work on his land as soon as she could walk. Despite such hardship, Jo still keeps her spirits up, strengthened by the knowledge that she was discovered in a luxurious blue velvet cloak--evidence that her true mother must have been a fine lady. When successful factory owner Abraham Silkin decides that she has the potential to make him a good wife, Jo believes that her dreams of living in splendor are finally coming true--but she hasn't bargained on her forbidden attraction to Abraham's godson. Nor does she realize that the truth about her family lurks just around the corner, and is getting ready to reveal itself on the most important day of her life.

After the death of her mother, Mollie Barnes is sent to live in her aunt and uncle's house and forced to endure her aunt's simmering resentment. One day, the tension explodes, leading to a shocking revelation about Mollie's parentage. Every day, Mollie had been working by the shore, under the shadow of a large and imposing house. Now she knows that the master of the house, James Grainger, is her real father, she vows that one day she will sit at his table. But her dreams of finding acceptance are shattered as she finds herself the unwilling object of her half-brother's affections . . .

Will a long-hidden secret ruin one woman's hard-won happiness?

When lovely Laura Chapman wakes up to find herself destitute in a London workhouse with all her belongings stolen, she cannot imagine how she will ever get over the shame. An orphan newly arrived from India, Laura is at the mercy of Jack Plant, the workhouse overseer, whose intentions are far from honorable. Distraught and penniless, Laura is taken in by the poor by kindly Taylor family and, determined to pay her way, becomes a factory girl at Beresford's Silk Mill where she comes to the attention of Alex Beresford, the talented engineer son of the factory owner. It begins to seem as if love and happiness are still possible for a girl whose life has been blighted by sorrow--until the day Jack Plant appears to threaten her newfound security by revealing the secret she has tried so hard to keep.

A young woman's fight to prove that her family name is one to be reckoned with

When Hannah Fox's younger brother Sam is ridden down in the street by Thomas Truswell, the spoiled son of the most powerful industrialists in Sheffield, she sets off to the Truswell's estate to complain. Lady Truswell is taken with the hot-tempered young girl who has come to demand an apology of her son. Promising to deal with Thomas, Lady Truswell offers Hannah a position as housemaid on the estate, but Hannah's father forbids her to have anything to do with the Truswells. In his anger he reveals that his grandfather was once in partnership with a Truswell, who stole his silver designs and made a fortune that should rightly have been shared with the Foxes. Dismissing this as history, Hannah resolves to defy her father--only to find that the Truswells' taste for treachery is not all past.

For Abigail Chiswell, the Colne river front in Colchester, Essex is a second home. With its own sights and sounds - of crowded quaysides, fishing smacks and packed oyster barrels - it means more to her than all the lofty rooms and comforts of her father's home. When she falls for local fisherman Matthew Bateman, Abigail's family loyalty is stretched to breaking point. While Hiltop House represents the pinnacle of her father's wealth and success, for Abigail its very luxury keeps her from the life - and the man - she loves. She followed her heart and gave up a life of luxury. Will she find a way to thrive in the new and unfamiliar world she's facing?