An overview of 19th- and 20th-century writing from the British Isles shows a constant interplay between metropolitan centers and regional peripheries--an interplay that points to the basic importance of place and belonging in literary creation and evaluation. This volume examines the relationship between British literature--including poetry, fiction, biography, and drama--and regional consciousness in the Victorian and modern periods, introducing the reader to a range of responses to the profound feelings of belonging engendered by the sense of place. The works covered are a mixture of familiar classics and less well-known writings from working-class writers or forgotten writers who were successful in their era. After accounting for the emergence of regional writing in the early 19th century, the author analyzes the development of regional writing in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, focusing on issues such as the sociopolitical context of the regional novel, the print and literary cultures around regional presses, and the place of documentary in regional consciousness.

Sarah Jacob was the Carmarthenshire farm girl who dominated the national and regional press for almost all of 1869. In the popular imagination she was 'the Welsh fasting girl' and although she was not the first anorexic, she was arguably the first to cause a national furore, and become something of a celebrity. She died despite a team of nurses from Guy's Hospital stationed at her home in Lletherneuadd, and after the best minds in British medicine had set theorised about the cause of her apparently supernatural existence - living in spite of starvation, losing no weight yet clearly suffering in all kinds of ways. Sarah's was not the only story here. Her parents were charged with murder and eventually convicted of manslaughter. The Girl Who Lived on Air retells this human story of an anorexic made to be the centre of a lucrative and also media-hungry 'spin' on the nineteenth century nexus of knowledge between science and superstition, folk-belief and religious asceticism. Stephen Wade covers new ground in examining the medical issues surrounding the case, the legal complexities (including the use of Welsh in court) and the interpretation on a newly enacted law which reformulated serious crime, the prison life of Sarah's parents, and the significance of folklore and superstition in an unusual and yet all too familiar story.

The collected essays explore the lives of several writers in Georgian and Victorian Britain, in terms of their knowledge and experience of prison life. This book focuses on the lives of the writers themselves, or on the prison stretches endured by their relatives or acquaintances. Some of these writers were locked up for debt, while others were deprived of liberty for sedition or treason. Here the reader will find, amongst many other stories, accounts of Dickens's father in debtors' prison, of Leigh Hunt living with his whole family in The Surrey House of Correction and of Oscar Wilde in Reading Gaol.

Some were industrialists and businessmen who stamped their name there. Others were writers and artists who made Leeds their source of inspiration. On the dark side we also love the villains: Most unusually, however, the book includes some forgotten names: quiet, steady 'heroes' who add that solid, dedicated work so necessary to civic urban community. It is a book about some of the men and women who made Leeds a powerful and fascinating City.

Curious Tales from Lincolnshire is filled with hilarious and surprising examples of folklore, eccentrics, historical and literary events, and popular culture from days gone by, all taken from Lincolnshire's tumultuous history. Here the reader will meet forgers, poets, aristocrats, politicians and some less likely residents of the county, including Spring-Heeled Jack - whose spectral figure reportedly jumped over Newport Arch - and the appearance of an angel in Gainsborough. There has always been much more to Lincolnshire than farm lands and sea-side towns: this is the county that brought us Lord Tennyson (whose brother was treated at an experimental asylum in the area), John Wesley and, in contrast, William Marwood, the notorious hangman; here too were found the Dam Busters, the first tanks and the fishing fleets of Grimsby. All may be found within the pages of this book, bound to delight residents and visitors alike.

A guide for those who wish to develop their professional writing skills, this book explains fundamental skills such as carrying out research for your book or project, identifying your target readership and submitting copy to editors.

The history of the British prison system only had systematic records from the middle of the nineteenth century. Before that, material on prisoners in local gaols and houses of correction was patchy and minimal. In more recent times, many prison records have been destroyed. In Tracing Your Prisoner Ancestors, crime historian Stephen Wade attempts to provide information and guidance to family and social history researchers in this difficult area of criminal records. His book covers the span of time from medieval to modern, and includes some Scottish and Irish sources. The sources explained range broadly from central calendars of prisoners, court records and gaol returns, through to memoirs and periodicals. The chapters also include case studies and short biographies of some individuals who experienced our prisons and left some records.

Jewish American writing is an exciting and controversial genre within post-war literature. In this book Stephen Wade offers a student guide to major writers, their key works and to influential background factors including the postmodern, the masternarrative and metafiction. The themes, issues and philosophies of writers including Saul Bellow, Philip Roth and Isaac Bashevis Singer are inter-related and wider literary and historical topics are alluded to and explained. Covering women's writing, novels, poetry and drama, the author offers a readable guide to the achievements of a key group of writers in twentieth-century American literature. Key Features * A student guide to major writers in post-war American literature * A chapter on each of the 5 main writers * Covers theoretical aspects -- the postmodern, the masternarrative and metafiction -- in an easily accessible way * Offers background material to situate the work of the writers