What is about about women in their forties and beyond that seems to enrage - almost everyone? In the last few years, as identity politics has taken hold, middle-aged women have found themselves talked and written about as morally inferior beings, the face of bigotry, entitlement and selfishness, to be ignored, pitied or abused. Hags asks the question why these women are treated with such active disdain. Each chapter takes a different theme - care work, beauty, violence, political organization, sex - and explores it in relation to middle-aged women's beliefs, bodies and choices. Victoria Smith traces the attitudes she describes back to the same anxieties about older women that drove Early Modern witch hunts, and explores the very specific reasons why this type of misogyny is so powerful today. The demonisation of hags has never felt more now. Victoria Smith has decided in this book that she will be the Karen so nobody else has to be, and she ends on a positive note, exploring potential solutions which can benefit all women, hags and hags-in-waiting.

This insightful book uniquely charts the events, experiences and challenges faced by teachers during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic including periods of national lockdowns and school closures. Research-based and evidence informed, this key title explores the multiple media outputs created by teachers in a variety of different socio-economic contexts. The authors reflect on their stories through a series of themed analyses, as well as describe and discuss key issues related to the enactment of teacher professionalism in challenging times. With fascinating vignettes and interview extracts that reinforce the idea that teachers can manage rather than survive, this book unveils a strong sense of moral purpose, professional identity, commitment, care, and resilience. It will be of interest to teachers, headteachers and teacher educators internationally.

This insightful book uniquely charts the events, experiences and challenges faced by teachers during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic including periods of national lockdowns and school closures. Research-based and evidence informed, this key title explores the multiple media outputs created by teachers in a variety of different socio-economic contexts. The authors reflect on their stories through a series of themed analyses, as well as describe and discuss key issues related to the enactment of teacher professionalism in challenging times. With fascinating vignettes and interview extracts that reinforce the idea that teachers can manage rather than survive, this book unveils a strong sense of moral purpose, professional identity, commitment, care, and resilience. It will be of interest to teachers, headteachers and teacher educators internationally.

This book contributes to current debates about the importance of early literacy and the different ways that literacy resources offer support to parents with young children. It sheds light on the impact of policy discourse and austerity measures on community resources designed to support children's early literacy learning. Based on an ethnographic study carried out in a small town in the East Midlands, UK, the book shows how government policy is enacted in four local resources - Sure Start children's centres, pre-schools, a public library and privately run parent and child early education classes. It reveals how inequalities and contradictions exist in different forms of community literacy provision which can explain some of the educational differences evident when children start school. With a particular focus on mothers, the book reveals how parents are supported differently depending on where they go and how they are viewed by the professionals they encounter. The book contributes to the current literature around literacy in early childhood and combines a unique case study with theoretical concepts to offer a new way of thinking about early intervention, parental engagement and school readiness. Local Literacies in Early Childhood will be highly relevant reading for researchers, academics and post-graduate students in the field of early childhood education and literacy education. It will also be of interest to policymakers, early childhood professionals, literacy advisors and librarians from different local, national and international contexts wishing to support parents and children more equitably so that learning opportunities can be maximised and educational inequalities tackled.

The Little Lark Still Sings is a true story of a quest for Italy's sweet life gone awry, then becoming better than the dream. When Victoria and Larry, happily married for two decades, move to their favorite hilltown in Tuscany, what was a romantic adventure becomes an unexpected drama of perseverance and change. Every day new Italian adventures unfold: beauty, art, architecture, food, and history. But so do unexpected challenges of managing daily life in a foreign culture, surviving the chaos of construction, navigating narrow roads, longing for friends, stumbling with language, obeying rules they don't understand or agree with - struggles that undermine Victoria's confidence which, in turn, wear Larry's patience thin. Though they share a dream, they discover their personal goals are different. His are to study and write, hers are to create the perfect Italian home and make friends. He needs quiet time; she needs his help. From the joys and near disasters of renovating an ancient stone farmhouse to celebrating their first Italian dinner party, Victoria learns about Italy, herself, and their marriage. In The Little Lark Still Sings, she shares their humorous and character-stretching experiences with insight and wisdom - offering lessons that enchant, encourage, and uplift.

'Rich, complex and witty' ROSE GEORGE, SPECTATOR 'Devastating and clever' BEL MOONEY, DAILY MAIL 'Could not be more necessary' RACHEL COOKE, OBSERVER What is about women in their forties and beyond that seems to enrage - almost everyone? In the last few years, as identity politics have taken hold, middle-aged women have found themselves talked and written about as morally inferior beings: the face of bigotry, entitlement and selfishness, to be ignored, pitied or abused. In Hags, Victoria Smith asks why these women are treated with such active disdain. Each chapter takes a different theme - care work, beauty, violence, political organization, sex - and explores it in relation to middle-aged women's beliefs, bodies, histories and choices. Smith traces the attitudes she describes through history, and explores the very specific reasons why this type of misogyny is so very now. The result is a book that is absorbing, insightful, witty and bang on time.

This is the grinding axe of anger and its consequence overcome by the arrogance of youth during the development of a young man.

On the eve of Samhain, Micaela visits her grandmother on the family farm in the Berkshire Mountains. Micaela's childhood friend, Reece, is missing and she is called upon to use metaphysical gifts she has suppressed since her parents sudden death fifteen years ago. She finds Reece, a victim of a bizarre animal attack. She can no longer run from herself, no longer jam the paranormal into a logical explanation. A successful investment banker for a small Wall Street firm, she is working with Byrne Connor, reclusive owner of Knowth Corp of Ireland. She begins a professional cyber-relationship with his personal representative, Liam, witty, handsome, a keeper of secrets. As she struggles to avoid her destiny as High Priestess for the Druids, her career takes a new turn. A group of reclusive international investors, including Knowth Corp, selects Moran & Boru and Micaela, specifically, to structure a private bank in the Swiss tradition. Unknown to Micaela, the investors are vampires who use the electronic age, including 24-hour global trading to prosper and hide in plain sight. Their daytime representatives are shapeshifters. Imbolc arrives and Micaela attends an opening hosted by one of the investors, Ivan Vasilievich. She meets Francois Leveque of La Tene Corp. Micaela sees fear in Francois' aura when he attempts to speak to her privately, but they are interrupted by the Baron who dominates Micaela's time. Within 48 hours, Micaela finds Leveque eviscerated in his luxury hotel room. Det. Nikki Suassuna, Micaela's friend, is assigned to the case by someone high up in NYPD. In a second interview, it is implied that another client, Ethan Lowell of First Colony and her firm are implicated in Francois murder. While Micaela has conflicting images of Lowell, she is certain that she and her firm are not involved. When Ivan arrives at her apartment to express concern for her safety, they begin a kiss which she cannot remember the next day. After a dinner for the participants in Brussels, Micaela, Nikki, and Liam are ambushed in Sonian Forest. Even in the dark, the attackers do not appear human. Certain that death is near for herself and her friends, Micaela invokes the Morrigan. Gravely injured, Micaela is evacuated to Knowth Manor. As Micaela's memories of the attack sharpen, she realizes that Ekaterina Vilkas, Ivan's representative, was one of the attackers. Sufficiently recovered, Liam takes Micaela to an ancient stone circle where she has a vision of an ancient Druid ritual which Liam reacts to strangely and flees. Unnerved by events at Knowth, she departs Ireland for Bridewell. At Logan Airport, she is intercepted by Ethan Lowell who takes her to Lowell Manor, to await the arrival of Byrne, Liam and Nikki. When Micaela is in the wrong place at dusk, Ethan is revealed as a vampire. Although horrified, she begins to piece together what happened to Francois and in the Sonian. She concludes that Ivan is a vampire and Ekaterina a shapeshifter. When the rest of the group arrives in Boston, she confronts Liam, Byrne, and Nikki about what they are. At the same time, Micaela repeatedly calls her grandmother to let her know that she is safe but becomes worried when there is no answer. She receives a text from Ivan saying he has taken her grandmother as a means to reach her. Accompanied by Liam, Ethan, Nikki and others she returns to the place she first found Reece six months earlier. Ivan admits to attacking to control the group. But it is a jealous Kat who instigated the attacks against Micaela. During a bloody conflict between vampires, shapeshifters and humans, Kat launches an assault on Micaela. Micaela calls on her powers to destroy Kat while Ivan is destroyed by Ethan and Byrne. Micaela's grandmother is safe and nonplussed by the nature of her captors and rescuers. But Micaela knows she must come to terms with who she is and how she fits into this new world.

Teenager Alice is a shy English girl growing up in 1970's America, where she struggles to fit in with a world of fast food, flirting and fashion. She has a high IQ and sees things differently from most - numbers have colours - and so do flavours and days of the week. Gawky Alice is too naive to be popular, until she gets caught up with the strange happenings of a lodge in the woods near her home. What she discovers leads her to challenge her preconceptions of life and herself, as jealousy, revenge and violence force her to grow up fast. Armed with her own ability to feel other's pain, and the skills of her wisecracking younger brother, Alice is forced to confront a time and place where racism, injustice and cruelty lurk just beneath the surface. The Lodge in the Woods is edgy fiction for those looking for a thriller with a difference.