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Genius Of Shakespeare
by Jonathan BateWith an introduction by Simon CallowJudgements about the quality of works of art begin in opinion. But for the last two hundred years only the wilfully perverse (and Tolstoy) have denied the validity of the opinion that Shakespeare was a genius. Who was Shakespeare? Why has his writing endured? And what makes it so endlessly adaptable to different times and cultures? Exploring Shakespeare's life, including questions of authorship and autobiography, and charting how his legacy has grown over the centuries, this extraordinary book asks how Shakespeare has come to be such a powerful symbol of genius. Written with lively passion and wit, The Genius of Shakespeare is a fascinating biography of the life - and afterlife - of our greatest poet. Jonathan Bate, one of the world's leading Shakespearean scholars, has shown how the legend of Shakespeare's genius was created and sustained, and how the man himself became a truly global phenomenon. 'The best modern book on Shakespeare' Sir Peter Hall
John Clare: A Biography (Laurie Lee Memorial Lectures #No. 5)
by Jonathan Bate‘What distinguished Clare is an unspectacular joy and a love for the inexorable one-thing-after-anotherness of the world’ Seamus Heaney John Clare (1793-1864) was a great Romantic poet, with a name to rival that of Blake, Byron, Wordsworth or Shelley – and a life to match. The ‘poet’s poet’, he has a place in the national pantheon and, more tangibly, a plaque in Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner, unveiled in 1989. Here at last is Clare’s full story, from his birth in poverty and employment as an agricultural labourer, via his burgeoning promise as a writer – cultivated under the gaze of rival patrons – and moment of fame, in the company of John Keats, as the toast of literary London, to his final decline into mental illness and the last years of his life, confined in asylums. Clare’s ringing voice – quick-witted, passionate, vulnerable, courageous – emerges through extracts from his letters, journals, autobiographical writings and poems, as Jonathan Bate brings this complex man, his revered work and his ribald world, vividly to life.
Mad about Shakespeare: From Classroom To Theatre To Emergency Room
by Jonathan Bate‘Enlightening, moving’ SIR IAN MCKELLEN From the acclaimed and bestselling biographer Jonathan Bate, a luminous new exploration of Shakespeare and how his themes can untangle comedy and tragedy, learning and loving in our modern lives.
Radical Wordsworth: The Poet Who Changed The World
by Jonathan BateA dazzling new biography of Wordsworth’s radical life as a thinker and poetical innovator, published to mark the 250th anniversary of his birth.
Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare
by Jonathan BateHow did plague turn Shakespeare from a jobbing hack into a courtly poet? How did Bottom's dream rewrite the Bible? How did Shakespeare's plays lead to the deaths of an earl and a king? And why was he the one dramatist of his generation never to be imprisoned?Weaving a dazzling tapestry of Elizabethan beliefs and obsessions, private passions and political intrigues, Soul of the Age leads us on an exhilarating tour of the extraordinary, colourful and often violent world that shaped and informed Shakespeare's thinking. Written by one of the world's leading experts, it combines almost everything there is to know about the man and his work in one sensational narrative, and brings us closer than ever to understanding what being Shakespeare was actually like.
Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life
by Jonathan BateSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2015 SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE ‘Gripping and at times ineffably sad, this book would be poetic even without the poetry. It will be the standard biography of Ted Hughes for a long time to come’ Sunday Times ‘Seldom has the life of a writer rattled along with such furious activity … A moving, fascinating biography’ The Times
Wild Hope
by null Marisa BateRetracing my mother’s footsteps in search of women’s freedom 1974. A 22-year-old Jacqui French stands for a photograph in Omaha, Nebraska, thousands of miles from home. Behind a carefree smile lies a fierce hope, fuelled by the promise of a new beginning and the tapestry of opportunity an America of Gloria Steinem, Dorothy Pitman Hughes, and the newly passed Roe v. Wade, appeared to offer. The world was changing, and women’s fortunes seemed to be changing with it. It was this photo of her mother, discovered by accident decades later, that set Marisa on the path to writing this book. The face echoed one she knew intimately, yet the image revealed an untold story. Marisa’s memories of her mother are of a woman shorn of that same carefree energy, a mum worn down by the direct actions of men in her life, still resolutely determined to show Marisa and her brother a world wider than their own. Generous with what little time single motherhood and a full-time job afforded her. An inspirational sharer of stories. But tired. Always tired. The photo offered a glimpse of something different, of what came before. Today this story of promise similarly seems at risk of being written over, as women around the world suffer in the face of populism, a politics that thrives on divisiveness, and a determined assault on women’s rights. Meanwhile, the women for whom this all feels disturbingly familiar are being lost to time. That same tapestry of opportunity now feels threadbare. Did hope, for Marisa’s mother and women like her, get left in 1974? The answer lies in what happened in between. Following a great feminist tradition of sharing women’s stories, and with a keen understanding of the principal “the personal is political”, Marisa will attempt to fill in the gaps. In Wild Hope, Marisa traces her mother’s story across decades, following in her footsteps to discover what happened next. In doing so, a much bigger story of women across that same period will be told, as she seeks context for the events that shaped her mother’s life.
Hercules: An action-packed insider’s account of what it’s like to fly in the RAF's Hercules
by Scott BatemanRead the legendary story of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft, seen through the eyes of former RAF captain Scott Bateman'An engaging and revealing read' JOHN NICHOL---Anytime, Anywhere, Anyhow. Whether it’s war, natural disaster, or humanitarian emergency, for over fifty years the RAF’s Hercules force was the first in and last out of any crisis faced by the UK government around the globe.First conceived in the 1950s, the US-built Lockheed C-130 Hercules earned its spurs flying difficult and dangerous missions in the Vietnam War before entering service with air forces around the world. Originally designed as transport aircraft, the Hercules has been pressed into service as an aerial tanker, gunship, spyplane, air-sea rescuer and bomber.Instantly recognisable, it became synonymous with daring special forces missions like the legendary raid in Entebbe in which dozens of hostages were rescued from the clutches of terrorists. In RAF colours it's seen action on every continent on the planet including Antarctica, flying life and death missions in the Falklands, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Sudan and all points in between.Former RAF Hercules Captain Scott Bateman opens the cockpit to give an action-packed insider’s account of what it’s like to fly this legendary flying machine in peace and war, and at home and abroad, paying tribute to the remarkable men and women who operated this much loved aircraft, and to those comrades in arms who, in doing so, made the ultimate sacrifice.
William the Conqueror (English Monarchs Ser.)
by David BatesFifteen years in the making, a landmark reinterpretation of the life of a pivotal figure in British and European history In this magisterial addition to the Yale English Monarchs series, David Bates combines biography and a multidisciplinary approach to examine the life of a major figure in British and European history. Using a framework derived from studies of early medieval kingship, he assesses each phase of William’s life to establish why so many trusted William to invade England in 1066 and the consequences of this on the history of the so-called Norman Conquest after the Battle of Hastings and for generations to come. A leading historian of the period, Bates is notable for having worked extensively in the archives of northern France and discovered many eleventh- and twelfth-century charters largely unnoticed by English-language scholars. Taking an innovative approach, he argues for a move away from old perceptions and controversies associated with William’s life and the Norman Conquest. This deeply researched volume is the scholarly biography for our generation.
Diary of a Wartime Affair: The True Story of a Surprisingly Modern Romance
by Doreen Bates'Unflinchingly honest... this diary is exceptional' Elizabeth Buchan'Tuesday 23 October, 1934 Another glorious sunny day. Lunch in Kens Gdns. E had not slept well "as I longed and longed for you". It made me happy that he wanted me. I suppose that is mean. He said, "I could pick you out in the dark from fifty women . . ." ' The diary of Doreen Bates is a candid, spellbinding portrait of a gutsy young woman working in London in the years before and during the Second World War, as well as an extraordinary account of her long affair with an older, married colleague - one that brazenly challenged the strict conventions of the day.'Startlingly frank and readable' David Kynaston'Absolutely engrossing' Virginia Nicholson'Astute, passionate, remarkably intimate, showing us the day-to-day picture of a long relationship' Guardian
Grace
by Mark BateyENTER THE SHIPS' GRAVEYARD. A watchful Northumbrian family, devoted to duty in the lighthouse on the treacherous Farne Islands. A vicious North Sea storm, during which a consummate ship's captain makes a fatal error of navigation. A daring rescue of shipwreck survivors, spurring an unwanted rise to celebrity status. A country in the throes of industrial and social upheaval, while much of today's world takes shape. Welcome to the timeless whole life story of Britain's sea rescue heroine, GRACE DARLING. Set in Victorian Northumberland, with its astounding castles and coastline, this new dramatisation is a fast-moving tale of triumph and tragedy, ordinary people in extraordinary situations, and the birth of an enduring legacy. But who is the mysterious narrator, commenting to readers as the story unfolds?
Notorious: The Maddest And Baddest Sportsmen On The Planet
by Richard BathStraddling humour, trivia and sport, ‘Notorious’ brings together for the first time one hundred of the most potty sportsmen in history. From boxing to cycling, soccer to baseball, and most sports in between, here are the hard-men and the criminals, the psychos and the loonies, that make up the sporting madness hall of shame.
Behind Enemy Lines: The Autobiography of Britain's Most Decorated Living War Hero
by Richard Bath Sir Tommy MacphersonWith three Military Crosses, three Croix de guerre, a Légion d'honneur and a papal knighthood for his heroics during the Second World War, Sir Tommy Macpherson is the most decorated living soldier of the British Army. Yet for 65 years the Highlander's story has remained untold. Few know how, aged 21, he persuaded 23,000 SS soldiers of the feared Das Reich tank column to surrender, or how Tommy almost single-handedly stopped Tito's Yugoslavia annexing the whole of north-east Italy. Twice captured, he escaped both times, marching through hundreds of miles of German-held territory to get home. Still a schoolboy when war broke out, Tommy quickly matured into a legendary commando, and his remarkable story features a dizzyingly diverse cast of characters, including Winston Churchill, Field Marshal Montgomery and Charles de Gaulle.
The Lighthouse Stevensons: The Extraordinary Story Of The Building Of The Scottish Lighthouses By The Ancestors Of Robert Louis Stevenson (G. K. Hall Nonfiction Ser.)
by Bella BathurstBella Bathurst’s epic story of Robert Louis Stevenson’s ancestors and the building of the Scottish coastal lighthouses against impossible odds.
Kids
by Camila Batmanghelidjh Tim RaymentWhat was lost when Kids Company imploded last summer? More than reputations. The charity's founding vision, that there is a gap called love in how the state responds to abused and abandoned children, also vanished.In this book, the founder of Kids Company lays out the thinking behind a model of care that broke the cycle of neglect for thousands of vulnerable children. She reveals the true scale of Britain's failure in children's services, making public two decades of candid exchanges with Prime Ministers and senior politicians to explain why the sector has not improved since Victorian times. She also reveals the deceits used by local authorities to stop the magnitude of the problem becoming known.This is a book of hope, however. Calling on a plethora of moving case histories, it presents the science that gives cause for optimism; proof that even the most troubled young lives can be turned around. Looking forward rather than back, the book shows how a new model of support could be cheaper and far more effective than existing provision.Kids Company has gone. And yet something like it must be the future. It is imperative that the breakthroughs in understanding that came from its work are now shared with the widest audience.This book is an unusual collaboration between two outstanding individuals. One author is Camila Batmanghelidjh, who spent thirty years working with troubled families. The other is an award-winning journalist, Tim Rayment, who was sent to investigate Camila but decided instead that the real public interest lay in hearing her vital, life-changing message.
Gin and Phonics (via the occasional pub): My Journey Through Middle-class Motherhood (via The Occasional Pub)
by Clara Batten‘I was asked the other day what I thought the hardest part of parenting was. I’d have to say that it’s definitely the kids.’
The Improbable Adventures of Miss Emily Soldene: Actress, Writer, and Rebel Victorian
by Helen Batten'I rode on the stage in such style, that the men in front forgot I was a girl, and also forgot to laugh.'From humble beginnings as the daughter of a Clerkenwell milliner, Emily Soldene rose to become a leading lady of the London stage and a formidable impresario with her own opera company. The darling of London's theatreland, she later reinvented herself as a journalist and writer who scandalised the capital with her backstage revelations.Weaving through the spurious glamour of Victorian music halls and theatres, taking encounters with the Pre-Raphaelites and legal disputes involving Charles Dickens in her stride, Emily became the toast of New York and ventured far off the beaten track to tour in Australia and New Zealand. In The Improbable Adventures of Miss Emily Soldene, a life filled with performance, travel and incident returns to centre stage.
The Scarlet Sisters: My nanna’s story of secrets and heartache on the banks of the River Thames
by Helen Batten‘Oh my goodness – another girl Mrs Swain!’ Clara’s normal iron composure broke and she screamed, ‘No! That’s not the bloody deal!’And that is how my nanna, Bertha Swain, entered the world.When Helen Batten’s marriage breaks down, she starts on a journey of discovery into her family’s past and the mysteries surrounding her enigmatic nanna’s early life. What she unearths is a tale of five feisty red heads struggling to climb out of poverty and find love through two world wars. It’s a story full of surprises and scandal – a death in a workhouse, a son kept in a box, a shameful war record, a clandestine marriage and children taken far too soon. It’s as if there is a family curse. But Helen also finds love, resilience and hope – crazy wagers, late night Charlestons and stolen kisses. As she unravels the story of Nanna and her scarlet sisters, Helen starts to break the spell of the past, and sees a way she might herself find love again.
Sisters of the East End: A 1950s Nurse and Midwife
by Helen BattenHeart-warming tales of nursing and midwifery from the Sisters who worked with Jennifer Worth.‘A second’s silence and then an almighty scream. It was the most moving thing I had ever seen … A baby, a real live baby, another human life had entered the world. It didn’t seem possible and yet I had witnessed it with my very own eyes.’Born into a happy working-class North London family in the mid-twentieth century, Katie is determined to ‘do something’ with her life. Working in the impoverished East End in the 1950s, she meets the Sisters of St John the Divine – a community of nuns dedicated to nursing and midwifery. The Sisters have been present at births, cared for the sick and laid out the dead of the East Enders for a hundred years, and Katie soon joins them to start her journey to becoming Sister Catherine Mary. As a nurse and midwife, Katie learns to deal with everything from strokes to breech births. Tragedy is never far away, but there are also moments of pure joy as lives are saved and the Poplar residents rally round. As a young novice Katie rallies against the vow of obedience, yet over the years learns much about the nature of dedication and love.Full of desperate hardship, humour and compassion, Katie’s story brings to life the unique world of these nursing Sisters in London’s East End. Sister Catherine Mary’s story was written by Helen Batten after in-depth interviews with today’s Sisters of the Community of St John the Divine.The Community of St John the Divine was founded in 1848 in a bid to make nursing a respectable profession. Early Sisters worked in the Crimea with Florence Nightingale and were instrumental in developing recognised training and qualifications for nurses and midwives. In the early 20th century they were working in areas such as Poplar and Deptford becoming a treasured part of the community. Today the Sisterhood is based in Birmingham and their website is www.csjd.org.uk.Helen Batten studied history at Cambridge and then journalism at Cardiff University. She went on to become a producer and director at the BBC and now works as a writer and a psychotherapist. She lives in West London with her three daughters.
Ordinary Dogs
by Eileen BattersbyEileen Battersby is the chief literature critic of The Irish Times and is, in the words of John Banville, 'the finest fiction critic we have'. But her first full-length book is not about international literature or the state of the novel. It is about dogs. Two dogs in particular, with the unlikely names of Bilbo and Frodo. She adopted the first from a horrible dog pound, and the second decided he liked her and moved in to join the family. She was in her very early twenties, an intensely serious student and runner who had just moved to Ireland from California. The dogs became her most loyal companions for over twenty years, witnesses to an often difficult human life and more important to her than most other humans.This book is about two animals with personalities, emotions and prejudices. It is unlike any other book ever written about dogs. It is not sentimental or twee. Battersby became intimately involved in the lives of these intelligent, shrewd creatures, and brings them to life with rare passion and insight. She writes honestly and movingly about the reasons why, for certain people - especially women - there is more integrity in the mysterious relationship with a mammal who cannot speak than there is in most of the relationships that human society has to offer.
Lost and Found: True tales of love and rescue from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home
by Battersea Dogs & Cats HomeIn the heart-warming Lost and Found, discover tales from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home that celebrate the power of animals to transform people's lives.We hear from the young boy whose Battersea dog helped him to deal with a serious autoimmune disease, and from a woman whose Staffie was the friend who got her through cancer. We meet the couple who were brought together by a Battersea dog; the man who took on a three-legged kitten which changed his life; and the former Battersea hound who became a search and rescue dog.Read these and many other powerful stories from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. Lost and Found has something for dog and cat lovers alike, and is perfect reading for fans of A Streetcat Named Bob and Paul O'Grady's For The Love Of Dogs.Battersea Dogs & Cats Home is the UK's oldest and most famous home for dogs and cats. The Home aims never to turn away a dog or cat in need of help, reuniting lost dogs and cats with their owners or caring for them until new homes can be found. Battersea also works to educate the public about responsible pet ownership. Every year the Home cares for over 9,000 lost, abandoned and neglected dogs and cats, and in 2010 the home marked its 150th anniversary.
A Crime in the Family
by Sacha BatthyányA memoir of brutality, heroism and personal discovery from Europe's dark heart, revealing one of the most extraordinary untold stories of the Second World WarIn the spring of 1945, at Rechnitz on the Austrian-Hungarian border, not far from the front lines of the advancing Red Army, Countess Margit Batthyany gave a party in her mansion. The war was almost over, and the German aristocrats and SS officers dancing and drinking knew it was lost. Late that night, they walked down to the village, where 180 enslaved Jewish labourers waited, made them strip naked, and shot them all, before returning to the bright lights of the party. It remained a secret for decades, until Sacha Batthyany, who remembered his great-aunt Margit only vaguely from his childhood as a stern, distant woman, began to ask questions about it.A Crime in the Family is Sacha Batthyany's memoir of confronting these questions, and of the answers he found. It is one of the last untold stories of Europe's nightmare century, spanning not just the massacre at Rechnitz, the inhumanity of Auschwitz, the chaos of wartime Budapest and the brutalities of Soviet occupation and Stalin's gulags, but also the silent crimes of complicity and cover-up, and the damaged generations they leave behind. Told partly through the surviving journals of others from the author's family and the vanished world of Rechnitz, A Crime in the Family is a moving and revelatory memoir in the vein of The Hare with the Amber Eyes and The House by the Lake. It uncovers barbarity and tragedy but also a measure of peace and reconciliation. Ultimately, Batthyany discovers that although his inheritance might be that of monsters, he does not bear it alone.
Fishing from the Rock of the Bay: The Making of an Angler
by James BattyI hardly remember life without a rod in my hand, writes James Batty in the opening sentence of his autobiography in fishing. When his American wife moved with him to Cornwall, she saw his family photo album and commented that there was hardly a single picture of him in which he wasn't fishing. This witty, wacky account is James' tale of his obsession with his hobby of fishing, wherever his work took him around the world, seeking out lemon sharks in the Gambia, Striped Bass in New York and salmon in British Columbia. James' genre of writing is a mixture of John Gierach and Bill Bryson: his style is wry, witty and incisive. The end result is an entertaining insight into the mind of a dedicated angler, full of fishing anecdotes, tips and thought-provoking ideas. Extracts from the book The great thing about anglers – especially when we meet fellow anglers – is that we don’t try to hide our nuttiness. Pointless, I’m holding a rod, so are you, game over. We both know we’re talking to a person who’s a few bananas short of a bunch. When you reckon you’re going to catch something, you make more effort. If you think the session’s a lost cause, ‘one last cast’ translates into, well, one last cast. Unthinkable. If you feel you’re in with a chance it reverts to its normal meaning: half a dozen chucks with the diving plug, then a few with the slider just in case, and ten minutes on the sandeel shad because you really never know. Guiding is not a job I’d do again, not as long as there’s alternative employment cleaning out the grease traps at fast food restaurants or hand sorting the output of sewage farms. They’ll take jelly-fry under an inch long when the water’s full of plump sandeels, and I don’t know why. But it’s the mysteries that keep us fishing. The fish can’t see my modest reel or my battered rod until it’s too late to say, ‘I have my pride, I refuse to be landed on that old shite’. My financial situation was as tight as a toreador’s Y-fronts. Wave and weather are a mystery, like who’s going to win next year’s Grand National, where the stock market’s going, or why people watch television shows about forgotten minor celebrities eating baboons’ foreskins. Long range forecasts are as reliable as horoscopes, just less entertaining. Maybe the Met Office should juice them up, ‘The month will be marked by deep Atlantic lows, even deeper discounts at your local supermarket. Don’t be too proud to pick up some sausages.’ Or they could tell the truth: ‘Expect a combination of sunshine, rain, freezing fog, calm days, violent storms, blizzards, and perhaps a plague of frogs. Dress warmly but don’t forget to pack a swimsuit.’
Either/Or: From the bestselling author of THE IDIOT
by Elif BatumanSELIN IS THE LUCKIEST PERSON IN HER FAMILY:The only one who was born in America and got to go to Harvard. Now it's her second year, 1996, and Selin knows she has to make it count. The first order of business: to figure out the meaning of everything that happened over the summer. Why did Selin's elusive crush, Ivan, find her that job in the Hungarian countryside? What was up with all those other people in the Hungarian countryside? Why is Ivan's ex-girlfriend now trying to get in touch with her? On the plus side, her life feels like the plot of an exciting novel. On the other hand, why do so many novels have crazy, abandoned women in them? How does one live a life as interesting as a novel-a life worthy of becoming a novel-without becoming a crazy, abandoned woman oneself?Guided by her literature syllabus and by her more worldly and confident peers, Selin reaches certain conclusions about the universal importance of parties, alcohol, and sex, and resolves to execute them in practice - no matter the cost. Next on the list: international travel.Unfolding with the propulsive logic and intensity of youth, Either / Or is a landmark novel by one of our most brilliant writers. Hilarious, revelatory, and unforgettable, its gripping narrative will confront you with searching questions that persist long after the last page.
The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir Of Life In Death (4th Estate Matchbook Classics Ser.)
by Jean-Dominique Bauby‘Locked-in syndrome: paralysed from head to toe, the patient, his mind intact, is imprisoned inside his own body, unable to speak or move. In my case, blinking my left eyelid is my only means of communication.’