This remarkable book combines autobiography with a subtle, almost painterly sense of the ways in which the objects which we surround ourselves, & the places in which we live, build up our private maps of reality & shape our personal mythologies. David Malouf begins by describing in love, evocative detail, the house in Brisbane where he was born & grew up, moving from room to room, always relating the smallest items in it to the life he remembers & his widening perception of the world at large. He moves on to describe life in the Tuscan village where he lived, & the arrival of an Australian Television crew; reflecting on his first visit to India, he touches on the problems of interpreting & evaluating unfamiliar places; back in Australia, he recalls a traumatic wartime journey with his father from Brisbane to Sydney. Funny, humane & beautifully written, this is a unique & extraordinary essay in autobiography. ...

This is a book for the three million 'social' bridge players (in the UK alone) who know the rules & can play a reasonable h&, but want to refine their skills & improve their understanding of the game.

The 121 tips offered range from simple to more advanced & all offer solid advice on how best to deal with a variety of situations. Tips are clearly explained & are followed by an example hand & a reader's test. There is no simpler way to improve your bridge.

...

Sam can't believe it when big-mouth Malcolm tells everyone that her dad sings in a male voice choir. Even worse, he's now planning to sing at her school in a fund-raising concert! But it's even worse for her new friend, Eddie. His dad is an Elvis Presley impersonator- Sam's sorry for Eddie, until she hears the REALLY bad news: the two dads are going to perform TOGETHER! ...

' Within the first 15 pages I was carried away by the sheer craziness of it all. Some Minipirates find a baby bear with blue fur inside a walnut shell floating on the ocean towards a giant whirlpool. They rescue him & teach him about knots & waves, & that a good white lie is often considerably more exciting than the truth. Then, when he outgrows their ship to such an extent that he is in danger of sinking it, they abandon him on an island with a bottle of seaweed juice & a loaf of seaweed bread. Thus Bluebear comes to the end of his first life & embarks on his second. By the end of the book, he has expended exactly half of his 27 lives. Again & again, Moers confounds our expectations as the narrative twists & turns, travels backwards & forwards in time. Part science fiction, part fairy tale, part myth, part epic, the book is a satire on all these genres & so constantly satirises itself. Very amusing' Daily Telegraph ...

* Henry V is regarded as the great English hero. Lionised in his own day for his victory at Agincourt, his piety and ...

142 Strand was the home of the brilliant, unconventional young publisher John Chapman. All the daring & avant-garde writers & thinkers of Victorian London gathered here, among them Thomas Carlyle, Dickens, Thackeray, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, & the scientist Thomas Henry Huxley (Darwin ...

142 Strand was the home of the brilliant, unconventional young publisher John Chapman. All the daring & avant-garde writers & thinkers of Victorian London gathered here, among them Thomas Carlyle, Dickens, Thackeray, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, & the scientist Thomas Henry Huxley (Darwin's 'bulldog'), as well as visiting Americans like Emerson, refugees from revolutionary Europe like Mazzini, & radical feminists like Barbara Leigh Smith, later founder of Girton College, Cambridge. They contributed to Chapman's campaigning Westminster Review & attended his lively evening parties. In 1851 Chapman brought Marian Evans
- the future George Eliot
- to London to edit the Review. Her arrival caused rows in the household, which included Chapman's wife & also his mistress.

The Strand was packed with booksellers, magazine publishers, theatres, clubs, & quack doctors. Just behind lay the brothels of Covent Garden & the disreputable pornographers of Holywell Street, while Westminster & the Houses of Parliament were a short distance away. Chapman's circle touched all these worlds, & the vivid story of these unconventional lives & unorthodox views
- marvellously told by Rosemary Ashton
- takes us to the heart of Victorian culture, uncovering its surprising energy, its doubts & arguments, &, above all, its passionate reforming spirit.





...

142 Strand was the home of the brilliant, unconventional young publisher John Chapman. All the daring & avant-garde writers & thinkers of Victorian London gathered here, among them Thomas Carlyle, Dickens, Thackeray, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, & the scientist Thomas Henry Huxley (Darwin's 'bulldog'), as well as visiting Americans like Emerson, refugees from revolutionary Europe like Mazzini, & radical feminists like Barbara Leigh Smith, later founder of Girton College, Cambridge. They contributed to Chapman's campaigning Westminster Review & attended his lively evening parties. In 1851 Chapman brought Marian Evans
- the future George Eliot
- to London to edit the Review. Her arrival caused rows in the household, which included Chapman's wife & also his mistress.

The Strand was packed with booksellers, magazine publishers, theatres, clubs, & quack doctors. Just behind lay the brothels of Covent Garden & the disreputable pornographers of Holywell Street, while Westminster & the Houses of Parliament were a short distance away. Chapman's circle touched all these worlds, & the vivid story of these unconventional lives & unorthodox views
- marvellously told by Rosemary Ashton
- takes us to the heart of Victorian culture, uncovering its surprising energy, its doubts & arguments, &, above all, its passionate reforming spirit.





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