It's a grim fact that the world isn't as nice as it used to be. People are ruder, more greedy, more selfish, and more violent. And even though those hardback retro books with flock covers and embossed titles look nice, they won't help turn back the clock. Making a pin-hole camera, skimming stones, and whittling wood isn't going to bring world peace. In fact, the world is only made more dangerous by people making their own bunsen burners and careering down hills in soap-box carts. Well, here's an alternative book for boys--although it won't just mock the things that Dad did. Though if you can build a tree house along the lines suggested by certain authors, you're better off starting a loft extension business. The book will also have useful suggestions for skills to acquire that will actually help you as you grow up, namely: how to tell decent jokes, three essential chords on the guitar, how to drill a hole and put a rawlplug in it, how to play pool, and how to learn the half-volley in any sport.

Richard Wilson remains best-known for his satirical science fiction novels, including "Those Idiots from Earth" and "Girls from Planet 5." "And Then the Town Took Off" originally appeared as half of an Ace Double novel.

Explores the network of social, political and spiritual connections in north west England as a site for regional drama, introducing the reader to the non-metropolitan theatre spaces which formed a vital part of early modern dramatic activity. Uses the possibility that Shakespeare began his theatrical career to provide a range of new contexts for reading his plays. Examines the contexts in which the apprentice dramatist would have worked, providing new insight into regional performance, touring theatre & the patronage of the Earls of Derby. Examines the experiences of Catholic families and the way in which Lancashire's status as a Catholic stronghold led to conflict with central government's attempts to create a united state.. All this feeds into innovative readings of individual plays such as Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. -- .

This collection of essays is part of a new phase in Shakespeare studies. The traditional view of Shakespeare is that he was a man of the theater who showed no interest in the printing of his plays, producing works that are only fully realized in performance. This view has recently been challenged by critics, arguing that Shakespeare was a literary "poet-playwright," concerned with his readers as well as his audiences. "Shakespeare's Book" offers a vital contribution to this critical debate, and examines its wider implications for how we conceive of Shakespeare and his works. Bringing together an impressive group of international Shakespeare scholars, the volume explores both Shakespeare's relationship with actual printers, patrons, and readers, and the representation of writing, reading, and print within his works themselves.

This important collection of essays focuses on the place of Roman Catholicism in early modern England, bringing new perspectives to bear on whether Shakespeare himself was Catholic. In the Introduction, Richard Wilson reviews the history of the debate over Shakespeare's religion, while Arthur Marotti and Peter Milward offer current perspectives on the subject. Eamon Duffy offers a historian's view of the nature of Elizabethan Catholicism, complemented by Frank Brownlow's study of Elizabeth's most brutal enforcer of religious policy, Richard Topcliffe. Two key Catholic controversialists are addressed by Donna Hamilton (Richard Vestegan) and Jean-Christophe Mayer (Robert Parsons). Robert Miola opens up the neglected field of Jesuit drama in the period, whilst Sonia Fielitz specifically proposes a new, Jesuit source-text for Timon of Athens. Carol Enos (As You Like It), Margaret Jones-Davies (Cymbeline), Gerard Kilroy (Hamlet) and Randall Martin (Henry VI 3) read individual plays in the light of these questions, while Gary Taylor's essay fittingly investigates the possible influence of religious conflicts on the publication of the Shakespeare First Folio. Theatre and religion: Lancastrian Shakespeare as a whole represents a major intervention in this fiercely contested current debate. -- .

New Historicism has been one of the major developments in literary theory over the last decade, both in the USA and Europe. In this book, Wilson and Dutton examine the theories behind New Historicism and its celebrated impact in practice on Renaissance Drama, providing an important collection both for students of the genre and of literary theory.

Christopher Marlowe has provoked some of the most radical criticism of recent years. There is an elective affinity, it seems, between this pre-modern dramatist and the post-modern critics whose best work has been inspired by his plays. The reason suggested by this collection of essays is that Marlowe shares the post-modern preoccupation with the language of power - and the power of language itself. As Richard Wilson shows in his introduction, it is no accident that the founding essays of New Historicism were on Marlowe; nor that current Queer Theorists focus so much on his images of gender and homosexuality. Marlowe staged both the birth of the modern author and the origin of modern sexual desire, and it is this unique conjunction that makes his drama a key to contemporary debates about the state and the self: from pornography to gays in the military. Gay Studies, Cultural Materialism, New Historicism and Reader Response Criticism are all represented in this selection, which the introduction places in the light not only of theorists like Althusser, Bataille and Bakhtin, but also of artists and writers such as Jean Genet and Robert Mapplethorpe. Many of the essays take off from Marlowe's extreme dramatisations of arson, cruelty and aggression, suggesting why it is that the thinker who has been most convincingly applied to his theatre is the philosopher of punishment and pain, Michel Foucault. Others explore the exclusiveness of this all-male universe, and reveal why it remains so offensive and impenetrable to feminism. For what they all make disturbingly clear is Marlowe's violent, untamed difference from the cliches and correctness of normative society.

At a time when the relevance of literary theory itself is frequently being questioned, Richard Wilson makes a compelling case for French Theory in Shakespeare Studies. Written in two parts, the first half looks at how French theorists such as Bourdieu, Cixous, Deleuze, Derrida and Foucault were themselves shaped by reading Shakespeare; while the second part applies their theories to the plays, highlighting the importance of both for current debates about borders, terrorism, toleration and a multi-cultural Europe. Contrasting French and Anglo-Saxon attitudes, Wilson shows how in France, Shakespeare has been seen not as a man for the monarchy, but a man of the mob. French Theory thus helps us understand why Shakepeare's plays swing between violence and hope. Highlighting the recent religious turn in theory, Wilson encourages a reading of plays like Hamlet, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelth Night as models for a future peace. Examining both the violent history and promising future of the plays, Shakespeare in French Theory is a timely reminder of the relevance of Shakespeare and the lasting value of French thinking for the democracy to come.

At a time when the relevance of literary theory itself is frequently being questioned, Richard Wilson makes a compelling case for French Theory in Shakespeare Studies. Written in two parts, the first half looks at how French theorists such as Bourdieu, Cixous, Deleuze, Derrida and Foucault were themselves shaped by reading Shakespeare; while the second part applies their theories to the plays, highlighting the importance of both for current debates about borders, terrorism, toleration and a multi-cultural Europe. Contrasting French and Anglo-Saxon attitudes, Wilson shows how in France, Shakespeare has been seen not as a man for the monarchy, but a man of the mob. French Theory thus helps us understand why Shakepeare's plays swing between violence and hope. Highlighting the recent religious turn in theory, Wilson encourages a reading of plays like Hamlet, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelth Night as models for a future peace. Examining both the violent history and promising future of the plays, Shakespeare in French Theory is a timely reminder of the relevance of Shakespeare and the lasting value of French thinking for the democracy to come.

Shakespeare's Catholic context was the most important literary discovery of the last century. No biography of the Bard is now complete without chapters on the paranoia and persecution in which he was educated, or the treason which engulfed his family. Whether to suffer outrageous fortune or take up arms in suicidal resistance was, as Hamlet says, 'the question' that fired Shakespeare's stage. In 'Secret Shakespeare' Richard Wilson asks why the dramatist remained so enigmatic about his own beliefs, and so silent on the atrocities he survived. Shakespeare constructed a drama not of discovery, like his rivals, but of darkness, deferral, evasion and disguise, where, for all his hopes of a 'golden time' of future toleration, 'What's to come' is always unsure. Whether or not 'He died a papist', it is because we can never 'pluck out the heart' of his mystery that Shakespeare's plays retain their unique potential to resist. This is a fascinating work, which will be essential reading for all scholars of Shakespeare and Renaissance studies. -- .

Christopher Marlowe has provoked some of the most radical criticism of recent years. There is an elective affinity, it seems, between this pre-modern dramatist and the post-modern critics whose best work has been inspired by his plays. The reason suggested by this collection of essays is that Marlowe shares the post-modern preoccupation with the language of power - and the power of language itself. As Richard Wilson shows in his introduction, it is no accident that the founding essays of New Historicism were on Marlowe; nor that current Queer Theorists focus so much on his images of gender and homosexuality. Marlowe staged both the birth of the modern author and the origin of modern sexual desire, and it is this unique conjunction that makes his drama a key to contemporary debates about the state and the self: from pornography to gays in the military. Gay Studies, Cultural Materialism, New Historicism and Reader Response Criticism are all represented in this selection, which the introduction places in the light not only of theorists like Althusser, Bataille and Bakhtin, but also of artists and writers such as Jean Genet and Robert Mapplethorpe. Many of the essays take off from Marlowe's extreme dramatisations of arson, cruelty and aggression, suggesting why it is that the thinker who has been most convincingly applied to his theatre is the philosopher of punishment and pain, Michel Foucault. Others explore the exclusiveness of this all-male universe, and reveal why it remains so offensive and impenetrable to feminism. For what they all make disturbingly clear is Marlowe's violent, untamed difference from the cliches and correctness of normative society.

New Historicism has been one of the major developments in literary theory over the last decade, both in the USA and Europe. In this book, Wilson and Dutton examine the theories behind New Historicism and its celebrated impact in practice on Renaissance Drama, providing an important collection both for students of the genre and of literary theory.

This book is a detailed study of the United States Marine Corps unit insignia in the Republic of Vietnam from the Marine Advisors in the early 1960s to the Marine Security Forces evacuation of the Embassy in 1975. A complete order of battle of all U.S. Marine Air and Ground Forces that served "in country" during the Vietnam War is included, in addition to United States' Allied and foreign forces serving under the III Marine Amphibious Force, culminating in over 350 full color individual unit insignia down to at least battalion and squadron levels. With its comprehensive descriptions and pricing guide for even the most highly sought after and extremely rare unofficial "in-country" (theater) made patches, this photographic reference is a must have for the military insignia collector and historian.

The use of thermal and calorimetric methods has shown rapid growth over the last two decades, in an increasingly wide range of applications. In addition, a number of powerful new techniques have been developed. This book supplies a concise and readable account of the principles, experimental apparatus and practical procedures used in thermal analysis and calorimetric methods of analysis. Brief accounts of the basic theory are reinforced with detailed applications of the methods and contemporary developments. Also included is information on standard test methods and manufacturers. Written by acknowledged experts, Principles of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry is up-to-date, wide-ranging and practical. It will be an important source of information for many levels of readership in a variety of areas, from students and lecturers through to industrial and laboratory staff and consultants.

The Third International School on Energetics was devoted to the subject of Energy for the Year 2000. By this title we hoped to avoid discussion of such matters as the role of OPEC in raising oil prices. In one sense, therefore, our task was made easier; we could merely look into our crystal balls. The choice of lecturers was made with the idea that no reason able source of energy can be overlooked. We omitted detailed lectures on oil and natural gas because we took it as a given fact that we would continue to use as much of these fuels as we can get at a reasonable price. To give us an overview we started the School by discussing U.S. energy policy and possible U.S. energy scenarios. As might be ex pected, there was some disagreement about the current energy program in the U.S., but little disagreement about the facts presented."

On December 28th 2000, Charlotte Wilson, a 27-year-old VSO worker, was killed when her bus, the inauspiciously named Titanic Express, was ambushed in war-torn Burundi. The attackers were members of the Hutu-extremist FNL, a faction linked to those responsible for the Rwandan genocide. Twenty others died with Charlotte, including her Burundian fiance. One of the few survivors was given a chilling message for the Burundian government: "We're going to kill them all and there's nothing you can do". In "Titanic Express", Charlotte's brother Richard charts his painful struggle to unravel what happened that day, to understand the complex and brutal history that lay behind it. Cutting through the obfuscations of the authorities, he uncovers a story of violence, fanaticism and neglect that exposes the self-interest and double standards at the heart of our supposed commitment to human rights and the fight against terror. As the facts begin to emerge, the family's deep personal grief is compounded by the realisation that this murder is just one among thousands, in a war fuelled as much by western cynicism and African greed as by ethnic divisions. "Titanic Express" is a political detective story, a memoir of grief and a moving portrait of an extraordinary woman who died at the very moment she had found fulfilment. In gripping detail it shows the human reality of lives torn apart by the machinations of war and diplomatic expediency, where competing versions of the truth can be as deadly as bullets and machetes. "I have watched in growing admiration how, with dogged persistence, Richard Wilson has conducted a singular crusade, not just to bring his sister's murderers to justice, but to understand who they were and why they killed her." Jon Swain, Sunday Times

This sumptuously illustrated history presents, in an updated new edition, an in-depth account of Britain's most important buildings, from castles, royal palaces and stately homes to fortified manors and the great country houses, and provides a wealth of stories and information on this glorious architectural past and heritage. Detailed coverage is given of the World Heritage Sites of Edward I's castles at Beaumaris, Harlech, Caenarvon and Conwy, plus other spectacular buildings such as Blenheim Palace, The Tower of London, Burghley House and Windsor Castle. Special features focus on important art and architectural movements and on the great architects including Wren, Adam, Wyatt and Lutyens.

This book includes essays by leading authors on Shakespeare drawing on contemporary and early continental philosophy. This collection of 15 essays by celebrated authors in Shakespeare studies and in continental philosophy develops different aspects of the interface between continental thinking and Shakespeare's plays. The authors draw from current continental philosophy (e.g. Lacan, Foucault, Derrida) as well as from the 19th-century continental tradition (e.g. Hegel, Kierkegaard) and from the early roots of continental tradition (e.g. Aristotle, Ibn Sina). The chapters address the span of the tragedies, comedies and history plays in the light of thinkers as diverse as Aristotle, Ibn Sina and Jean-Luc Marion, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Schmitt, Arendt, Lacan, Levinas, Foucault and Derrida. The blend of new work and classic position papers provides a thorough overview of Shakespeare and continental thought. It sheds new light on Shakespeare and on continental philosophy. Authors in the collection are leaders in each discipline in the US and UK / Europe and include: Edward S. Casey, Howard Caygill, Paul A Kottman, Julia Reinhard Lupton, Christopher Norris, Nicholas Royle, and, Catherine Belsey.

Since 1888, Rangers and Celtic football clubs have been locked into an intense and frequently explosive rivalry: Rangers the product of West Scotland's Protestant establishment, Celtic the team founded to raise money for the Catholic underclass of Glasgow. On 2 January 2010 the two teams met in the Old Firm's New Year Derby, a fixture that had been banned for ten years because of the trouble it brought with it. Richard Wilson puts that game at the centre of a book which delves into the history and widens out to the cultural resonance of the fixture within Scotland. It is a potent mix of close-up observation and big-picture thinking, with insight, understanding and depth.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the Joint IAPR International Workshop on Structural Syntactic, and Statistical Pattern Recognition, S+SSPR 2016, consisting of the International Workshop on Structural and Syntactic Pattern Recognition SSPR, and the International Workshop on Statistical Techniques in Pattern Recognition, SPR. The 51 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 68 submissions. They are organized in the following topical sections: dimensionality reduction, manifold learning and embedding methods; dissimilarity representations; graph-theoretic methods; model selection, classification and clustering; semi and fully supervised learning methods; shape analysis; spatio-temporal pattern recognition; structural matching; text and document analysis.

A comprehensive rereading of Shakespeare's plays in light of current debates about free speech and toleration.