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‘A marvel of clarity, fluency, and (Morris’s favourite word in
her final days) kindness.’ The Sunday Times The first full
account of the remarkable life of Jan Morris: writer, soldier,
traveller, and trans pioneer. Jan Morris is widely considered one
of Britain’s best-loved writers, known for her observational
genius, lyricism, and humour. Born in 1926, she spent her childhood
amidst Oxford’s Gothic beauty and later participated in military
service in Italy and the Middle East, before becoming an
internationally fêted foreign correspondent. However, public
success masked a private dilemma that was only resolved when she
transitioned genders in the late sixties. She went on to live
happily with her wife Elizabeth in Wales for another five decades,
and never stopped writing and publishing. Here, for the first time,
the many strands of Morris’s rich and at times paradoxical life
are brought together.Â
The Austrian composer Hanns Eisler was Bertolt Brecht's closest
friend and most politically committed collaborator. In these
conversations with Hans Bunge which took place over a period of
four years, from 1958 until his death in 1962, Eisler offers a
compelling and absorbing account of his and Brecht's period of
exile in Europe and the USA between 1933 and 1947, and of the
quality of artistic, social and intellectual life in post-war East
Germany. Brecht, Music and Culture includes a discussion of a
number of Brecht's principal plays, including Life of Galileo and
The Caucasian Chalk Circle, considers the place of music in
Brecht's work and discusses the time that Brecht was brought before
The House of Un-American Activities Committee. It includes lively
accounts of Brecht's meetings with key cultural figures, including
Arnold Schoenberg, Charlie Chaplin and Thomas Mann, and offers
throughout a sustained response to the question of the purpose of
art in a time of political turmoil. Throughout the conversations,
Eisler provides illuminating and original insights into Brecht's
work and ideas and gives a highly entertaining first-hand account
of his friend's personality and attitudes. First published in
Germany in 1975, and now published in English for the first time,
the conversations provide a fascinating account of the lives and
work of two of the twentieth century's greatest artists.
In August 1939 the Irish travel writer Richard Hayward set out on a
road trip to explore the Shannon region just two weeks before the
Second World War broke out. His evocative account of that trip,
Where the River Shannon Flows, became a bestseller. The book, still
sought after by lovers of the river, captures an Ireland of small
shops and barefoot street urchins that has long since disappeared.
Eighty years on, inspired by his work, Paul Clements retraces
Hayward's journey along the river, following - if not strictly in
his footsteps - then within the spirit of his trip. From the
Shannon Pot in Cavan, 344 kilometres south to the Shannon estuary,
his meandering odyssey takes him by car, on foot, and by bike and
boat, discovering how the riverscape has changed but is still
powerful in symbolism. While he recreates Hayward's trip, Clements
also paints a compelling portrait of twenty-first century Ireland,
mingling travel and anecdote with an eye for the natural world. He
sails to remote islands, spends times in rural backwaters and
secluded riverside villages where the pub is the hub, and attempts
a quest for the Shannon connection behind the title of Flann
O'Brien's novel At Swim-Two-Birds. The book gives a voice to
stories from water gypsies, anglers, sailors, lock keepers, bog
artists, 'insta' pilgrims and a water diviner celebrating wisdom
through her river songs and illuminates cultural history and
identity. It focuses on the hardship faced by farmers and
householders caused by the flooding of the river, which in recent
winters left fields and towns under siege by water. Wildlife,
nature, and the built heritage, including historic bridges, all
play a part. The Shannon Callows, which used to be 'corncrake
central', is explored for birdlife, along with the wildflower
secrets of roadside hedges and riverbanks. On a quixotic journey by
foot, boat, bike and car, Paul Clements produces an intimate
portrait of the hidden countryside, its people, topography and
wildlife, creating a collective memory map, looking at what has
been lost and what has changed. Through intermittent roaming, he
maps the geography of the river in stories, testimonies and
recollections, intercutting the past and the present in an eternal
rhythm. Beyond the motorways and cities, you can still catch the
pulse of an older, quieter Ireland of hay meadows and bogs,
uninhabited islands and remote towpaths. This is the country of the
River Shannon that runs through literature, art, cultural history
and mythology with a riptide pull on our imagination. This is a
tribute to Ireland's longest river reflecting the deep vein flowing
through the culture of the country
This book uses cultural and psycho-social analysis to examine the
beat writer Charles Bukowski and his literature, focusing on
representations of the anti-hero rebel and outsider. Clements
considers the complexities, ambiguities, and contradictions
represented by the author and his work, exploring Bukowski's
visceral writing of the cultural ordinary and everyday
self-narrative. The study considers Bukowski's apolitical,
gendered, and working-class stance to understand how the writer
represents reality and is represented with regards to
counter-cultural literature. In addition, Clements provides a
broader socio-cultural focus that evaluates counterculture in
relation to the American beat movement and mythology, highlighting
the male cool anti-hero. The cultural practices and discourses
utilized to situate Bukowski include the individual and society,
outsiderdom, cult celebrity, fan embodiment, and disneyfication,
providing a greater understanding of the beat generation and
counterculture literature.
'A marvel of clarity, fluency, and (Morris's favourite word in her
final days) kindness.' The Sunday Times 'A measured and elegant
biography that Morris aficionados will find fascinating.' The Times
The first full account of a truly remarkable life. When Jan Morris
passed away in 2020, she was considered one of Britain's best-loved
writers. The author of Venice, Pax Britannica, Conundrum, and more
than fifty other books, her work was known for its observational
genius, lyricism, and humour, and had earned her a passionate
readership around the world. Morris's life was no less fascinating
than her oeuvre. Born in 1926, she spent her childhood amidst
Oxford's Gothic beauty and later participated in military service
in Italy and the Middle East, before embarking on a career as an
internationally feted foreign correspondent. From being the only
journalist to join the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953 to
covering the trial of Adolf Eichmann, Morris's reportage spanned
many of the twentieth century's defining moments. However, public
success masked a private dilemma that was only resolved when she
transitioned genders in the late sixties, becoming renowned as a
transgender pioneer. She went on to live happily with her wife
Elizabeth in Wales for another five decades, and never stopped
writing and publishing. Here, for the first time, the many strands
of Morris's rich and at times paradoxical life are brought
together. Based on a wealth of interviews, archival material, and
hitherto unpublished documents, Jan Morris: life from both sides
portrays a person of extraordinary talent, curiosity, and joie de
vivre.
Paul Clements champions the creative underground and expressions of
difference through visionary avant-garde and resistant ideas. This
is represented by an admixture of utopian literature, manifestos
and lifestyles which challenge normality and attempt to reinvent
society, as practiced for example, by radicals in bohemian enclaves
or youth subcultures. He showcases a range of 'art' and
participatory cultural practices that are examined sociopolitically
and historically, employing key theoretical ideas which highlight
their contribution to aesthetic thinking, political ideology, and
public discourse. A reevaluation of the arts and progressive
modernism can reinvigorate culture through active leisure and
post-work possibilities beyond materialism and its constraints,
thereby presenting alternatives to established understandings and
everyday cultural processes. The book teases out the difficult
relationship between the individual, culture and society especially
in relation to autonomy and marginality, while arguing that the
creative underground is crucial for a better world, as it offers
enchantment, vitality and hope.
This book uses cultural and psycho-social analysis to examine the
beat writer Charles Bukowski and his literature, focusing on
representations of the anti-hero rebel and outsider. Clements
considers the complexities, ambiguities, and contradictions
represented by the author and his work, exploring Bukowski's
visceral writing of the cultural ordinary and everyday
self-narrative. The study considers Bukowski's apolitical,
gendered, and working-class stance to understand how the writer
represents reality and is represented with regards to
counter-cultural literature. In addition, Clements provides a
broader socio-cultural focus that evaluates counterculture in
relation to the American beat movement and mythology, highlighting
the male cool anti-hero. The cultural practices and discourses
utilized to situate Bukowski include the individual and society,
outsiderdom, cult celebrity, fan embodiment, and disneyfication,
providing a greater understanding of the beat generation and
counterculture literature.
This cross-disciplinary book, situated on the periphery of culture,
employs humour to better comprehend the arts, the outsider and
exclusion, illuminating the ever-changing social landscape, the
vagaries of taste and limits of political correctness. Each chapter
deals with specific themes and approaches - from the construct of
outsider and complexity of humour, to Outsider Art and spaces -
using various theoretical and analytical methods. Paul Clements
draws on humour, especially from visual arts and culture (and to a
lesser extent literature, film, music and performance), as a tool
of ridicule, amongst other discourses, employed by the powerful but
also as a weapon to satirize them. These ambiguous representations
vary depending on context, often assimilated then reinterpreted in
a game of authenticity that is poignant in a world of facsimile and
'fake news'. The humour styles of a range of artists are
highlighted to reveal the fluidity and diversity of meaning which
challenges expectations and at its best offers resistance and,
crucially, a voice for the marginal. This book will be of
particular interest to scholars in art history, cultural studies,
fine art, humour studies and visual culture.
Paul Clements champions the creative underground and expressions of
difference through visionary avant-garde and resistant ideas. This
is represented by an admixture of utopian literature, manifestos
and lifestyles which challenge normality and attempt to reinvent
society, as practiced for example, by radicals in bohemian enclaves
or youth subcultures. He showcases a range of 'art' and
participatory cultural practices that are examined sociopolitically
and historically, employing key theoretical ideas which highlight
their contribution to aesthetic thinking, political ideology, and
public discourse. A reevaluation of the arts and progressive
modernism can reinvigorate culture through active leisure and
post-work possibilities beyond materialism and its constraints,
thereby presenting alternatives to established understandings and
everyday cultural processes. The book teases out the difficult
relationship between the individual, culture and society especially
in relation to autonomy and marginality, while arguing that the
creative underground is crucial for a better world, as it offers
enchantment, vitality and hope.
Following the spirit of the world's longest coastal driving route,
Paul Clements sets out to discover the real west of Ireland. Along
the way he encounters memorable characters living on the Atlantic
edge and presents a unique portrait of their lives. We meet the
last man standing on a remote Galway island, listen to the banter
at Puck Fair, and hear from a descendant of the original
sixteenth-century wild Atlantic woman. Tagging along on his
meandering journey is the swashbuckling presence of the Celtic sea
god, Manannan Mac Lir. For his first travel book in 1991, Paul
hitchhiked the same route. Now retracing his steps along the Wild
Atlantic Way - this time by car and bike, on horseback and on foot
- he looks at how Ireland has changed and realises everyone still
has a story to tell. Laced with wry humour and endless curiosity,
this is a distinctive mix of travel writing, social history and
nature. Also by this author: `The Height of Nonsense: The Ultimate
Irish Road Trip' Praise for this author: "Stacks of free copies
should be sent to all our tourist desks abroad." - The Irish Times.
"For sheer pleasure, nothing I read beat Paul Clements' `The Height
of Nonsense'." - The Observer. "A compulsive, educational,
laugh-out-loud read." - Sunday Independent. "A fascinating journey
around the hidden corners of Ireland." - BBC Radio
With specific reference to the cultural policy set out by New
Labour in the UK, this research explores the individual and social
function of the arts and the extent to which they are agents of
inclusion. The arts, an important aspect even driver of culture can
be perceived as exclusive with taste reflecting socio-economic
concerns which contradicts this function. Such a paradox requires
an investigation into the complex and sometimes contradictory
relationship between cultural and social inclusion and exclusion,
as well as the methods used of evaluating impact
Revised, updated and expanded Basic Water Treatment remains an
essential reference on all aspects of water quality and treatment
systems. A bestselling text, this book has been written by two of
the world s leading experts in the field and remains the definitive
reference for all those involved in water treatment systems.
This widely-accepted introduction and practical guide to water
treatment focuses on the issues of most interest to practising
engineers, summarising the key issues and criteria in short and
accessible sections with additional theory to explain and support
the treatment processes considered. The book also presents
up-to-date information on UK, European and American water-quality
standards, including the 2007 amendments to the English and Welsh
drinking water regulations. Expanding further on topics such as
membrane processes and water demands, the fourth edition includes a
new section on water re-use, and two new chapters on water safety
plans and private water supplies.
Basic Water Treatment is an essential resource for water
engineers at all levels. Ideal as a textbook for students, a
handbook for young engineers or chemists, and an indispensable
guide full of practical information for the established
practitioner.
"
We are a nation in process, we have the tools to excel to greater
heights. For some of those that confronted our shores in the late
19th and early 20th century, you are either unaware of this country
foundation or unconcerned of it's undead roots. There is a spirit
in this land that still awaits its resting place.
Richard Hayward was one of Ireland’s best-loved cultural figures
of the mid-twentieth century. A popular Irish travel writer, actor
and singer, he led an intense and productive life, leaving behind a
remarkable body of work through his writing and recordings.
However, since his death in a car crash in 1964, the man who was a
celebrated Irish household name has suffered neglect. Originally
published to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his death, Romancing
Ireland has now been reissued in an elegant paperback edition. Paul
Clements brings to life the flamboyant personality, laced with
hubris, of a largely forgotten figure who contributed a cosy and
unthreatening narrative to the construction of an Irish cultural
world. Romancing Ireland uncovers an extraordinary man with
limitless energy and passionate perceptions, who captured a newly
independent Ireland in all its changing hues.
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