Ivor Gurney is the first full length study of one of the most important English poets of the Twentieth Century. Drawing on biographical information, letters, reminiscences and anecdotes, John Lucas pieces together Gurney's difficult, indeed tragic life, in order to show that Gurney's wonderful poetry, while undoubtedly affected by his mental problems, his trench experiences in World War One, and his complex relationship to both Gloucester, the Cotswolds and London, is the sane utterance of a deeply radicalised writer. There is no suggestion that Gurney's experiences were unique. On the contrary, they were typical, as he well knew, and as he declares in poems which celebrate the implications of comradeship. What is unique is Gurney's ability to turn these experiences into major poetry. Gurney is the greatest of all those poets who fought in and survived the war and his achievement drastically affects our understanding of twentieth century poetry.

Contrary to a generally held view that pearls are found by chance in oysters, almost all are now produced from farms. This book is a comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the biology of pearl oysters, their anatomy, reproduction, genetics, diseases, etc. It considers how they are farmed from spawning and culturing larvae in hatcheries to adults in the ocean; how various environmental factors, including pollution affect them; and how modern techniques are successfully producing large numbers of cultured pearls. This is the ultimate reference source on pearl oysters and the culture of pearls, written and edited by a number of scientists who are world experts in their fields.
Comprehensive treatment of pearl oyster biology and pearl culture
Written by the top world authorities
Highly illustrated and figured
Of practical relevance to a broad readership, from professional biologists to those involved in the practicalities and practice of pearl production"

Greece has always had its admirers, though none seems to have cherished the Athenian tavernas, the murderous traffic and the jaded prostitutes, the petty bureaucratic tyrannies, the street noise and the heroic individualists with the irony and detachment of John Lucas. '92 Acharnon Street' is a gritty portrait of a dirty city and a wayward country. Yet Lucas' love for the realities of Greece triumphs- for the Homeric kindness of her people towards strangers, for the pleasures of her table and for the proximity of islands in clear blue water as a refuge from the noise and pollution of her capital city. This is Greece as the Greeks would recognise it, seen through the eyes of a poet.

A thriller about Manhattan's rich, famous and powerful and the glittering world of art, finance, theatre, government, fashion and interior design that they inhabit.

First published in 1966, this book collects six essays which discuss the experience of social change as it reveals itself in the work of several nineteenth century novelists. In the novels studied, and the discussion of fiction that follows, the authors argue that all these novelists' attempts to confront social change - to connect old with new, past with present and the attempted inclusiveness of vision in a changing society - sooner or later fail. The essays are polemic in arguing against the contemporary critical consensus that this failure is a limitation of imaginative intelligence rather than an endorsement of a receding past which the process of change was charged with destroying.

First published in 1980, this book surveys Dickens' growing power to drive deep into the causes of his contemporary conditions. It reveals the importance of nature to Dickens as a rich metaphor of human freedom and potentiality, and emphasises his concern with time and the problems of freedom. The author considers the peculiarity of Dickens being unanimously acclaimed as a great writer considering the difficulty in placing him definitively within the literary tradition. The author argues Dickens was an isolated figure, indifferent to changing fashions and with a strong sense of the dignity of human nature and that this formed the basis of his character and writings.

First published in 1977, this book studies three important nineteenth-century novelists: Mrs Gaskell, William Hale White and Thomas Hardy. They are all provincial novelists who wrote about social change and the attendant problems and pressures this brought with it. Unlike previous critics, who have tended to concentrate on her 'social-problem' novels, here the author treats Gaskell's Sylvia's Lovers and Cousin Phillis as central texts. However a chapter also examines Gaskell and Engels perception of social change in Manchester. This book also seeks to correct Hale White's neglect, anointing Revolution in Tanner's Lane and Clara Hopgood major works. The survey of women in Hardy's novels represents an illuminating new angle and leads on to a discussion of love and marriage in later Victorian fiction.

The intention of this collection of essays, first published in 1971, is to explore the political aspects of some nineteenth century English writers. Under the influence of the great revolutionary upheavals of the period almost all its most important writers were involved, explicitly or otherwise, in political ideas. This is an exploratory volume, and will be of absorbing interest to anyone studying the interaction between literature and ideas in the nineteenth century.

Jay is fifteen years old and a member of the Blake Street Boyz gang. With a knife in his pocket and his best friend Milk by his side, he spends his time fiercely defending their turf. He takes his lessons from the streets and thinks he knows everything about choices. Choose the right gang, and they will protect you. Choose the right clothes, the right chat, the right snacks and you will be respected. But now he's coming of age and he's being given the chance to step up. He must stab and kill a member of a rival gang... and there are no choices left. This is a story set against the backdrop of London's inner-city tower blocks, where killing can be easier than choosing a chocolate bar; where gang violence rules, and where loyalty can cost you your soul.

Spanning the past 20 years, this collection encompasses the work of a leading modern poetry critic.

The collection of essays presented in this volume represents some of the best recent critical work on William Blake as poet, prophet, visual artist, and social and political critic of his time. The critical range that is represented includes examples of Marxist, New Historicist, Feminist and Psychoanalytical approaches to Blake. Taken together, the essays consider all areas and moments of Blake's career as poet, from the early lyrics to his later epic poems, and they have been chosen to reveal not only the range of Blake's concerns but also to alert the reader to the rich variety of contemporary criticism that is devoted to him. Although the majority of essays are devoted to Blake as poet, others consider his work as printmaker, illustrator, and visionary artist. However severely individual essays choose to judge him, ultimately all the contributions to this book affirm Blake as one of the great geniuses of English art and letters. William Blake provides a valuable introduction by one of Britain's foremost critics and will be welcomed by students wanting to familiarise themselves with the work of Blake.

First published in 1966, this book collects six essays which discuss the experience of social change as it reveals itself in the work of several nineteenth century novelists. In the novels studied, and the discussion of fiction that follows, the authors argue that all these novelists' attempts to confront social change - to connect old with new, past with present and the attempted inclusiveness of vision in a changing society - sooner or later fail. The essays are polemic in arguing against the contemporary critical consensus that this failure is a limitation of imaginative intelligence rather than an endorsement of a receding past which the process of change was charged with destroying.

First published in 1980, this book surveys Dickens' growing power to drive deep into the causes of his contemporary conditions. It reveals the importance of nature to Dickens as a rich metaphor of human freedom and potentiality, and emphasises his concern with time and the problems of freedom. The author considers the peculiarity of Dickens being unanimously acclaimed as a great writer considering the difficulty in placing him definitively within the literary tradition. The author argues Dickens was an isolated figure, indifferent to changing fashions and with a strong sense of the dignity of human nature and that this formed the basis of his character and writings.

First published in 1977, this book studies three important nineteenth-century novelists: Mrs Gaskell, William Hale White and Thomas Hardy. They are all provincial novelists who wrote about social change and the attendant problems and pressures this brought with it. Unlike previous critics, who have tended to concentrate on her 'social-problem' novels, here the author treats Gaskell's Sylvia's Lovers and Cousin Phillis as central texts. However a chapter also examines Gaskell and Engels perception of social change in Manchester. This book also seeks to correct Hale White's neglect, anointing Revolution in Tanner's Lane and Clara Hopgood major works. The survey of women in Hardy's novels represents an illuminating new angle and leads on to a discussion of love and marriage in later Victorian fiction.

The intention of this collection of essays, first published in 1971, is to explore the political aspects of some nineteenth century English writers. Under the influence of the great revolutionary upheavals of the period almost all its most important writers were involved, explicitly or otherwise, in political ideas. This is an exploratory volume, and will be of absorbing interest to anyone studying the interaction between literature and ideas in the nineteenth century.