The Bronte story has been written many times but rarely as compellingly as by the Brontes themselves In this selection of letters & autobiographical fragments we hear the authentic voices of the three novelist sisters Charlotte Emily & Anne their brother Branwell & their father the Reverend Patrick Bronte We share in their progress over the years the exuberant childhood absorbed in wild imaginative games; the years of struggling to earn a living in uncongenial occupations before Jane Eyre Wuthering Heights & The Tenant of Wildfell Hall took the literary world by storm; the terrible marring of that success as one by one Branwell Emily & Anne died tragically young; the final years as Charlotte battling against grief loneliness & ill health emerged from anonymity to take her place in London literary society & finally found an all too brief happiness in marriage to her father's curate Juliet Barker author of the highly acclaimed biography The Brontes has used her unrivalled knowledge of the family to select extracts from letters & manuscripts many of which are appearing here in print for the first time Charlotte was a letter-writer of supreme ability ranging from facetious notes & homely gossip to carefully composed pages of literary criticism & most movingly of all elegiac tributes to her beloved brother & sisters Emily & Anne remain tantalizingly evasive Very few of their letters are extant Emily's are mere businesslike notes though these have been supplemented by her more revealing diary papers; Anne's letters are equally frustrating but only because their quality makes us regret their paucity Branwell emerges as distinctly as Charlotte from his letters Whether trying to impress William Wordsworth with his literary abilities showing off to his artistic friends or finally coming to terms with a life of failed ambition his character is laid bare on every page The Reverend Patrick Bronte's devotion to his children & passionate advocacy of liberal causes are equally well illustrated in what can only be a small selection from his voluminous correspondence The Bronte letters are supplemented by extracts from other contemporary sources which allow us to see the family as their friends & acquaintances saw them A brief narrative text guides the reader through the letters & sets them in context By allowing the Brontes to tell their own story Juliet Barker has not only produced an innovative form of biography but also given us the unique privilege of participating intimately in the lives of one of the most famous & best-loved families of English literature ...

Comics grow up The humanized super hero On December 15 1978 the dreams of generations of American children finally came true " You&ll believe a man can fly" read the posters & billboards for the blockbuster film Superman With an undeniable mass appeal it cemented the role of the super hero as America&s most enduring archetype & the comic book as one of the country&s most significant native art forms That art form however was already moving in a new direction Influenced by the emergence of underground comics & shifting political tides DC&s line of comics was increasingly aimed at adults & sold in comic book shops rather than on newsstands Socially relevant subjects such as drug addiction racism & women&s rights had entered the mainstream & comics weren&t just for kids anymore The Bronze Age of DC Comics

Includes:: an original interview with Green Lantern Green Arrow writer Denny O& Neil About the series Taschen&s series on DC Comics explores the origins of comics& most enduring legends & the behind-the-scenes stories of the men & women who created them era by era Expanded from the Eisner Award-winning XL book 75 Years of DC Comics this new series hits the shelf at a reader-friendly size with essays updated by author Paul Levitz & more than 1000 new images across five volumes Thousands of covers & interiors original illustrations photographs film stills & collectibles have been reproduced to bring the story lines the characters & their creators to vibrant life making this an invaluable reference for comics fans

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A magnificent epic of love war & Russia from the international bestselling author of TULLY & ROAD TO PARADISELeningrad 1941 the white nights of summer illuminate a city of fallen grandeur whose palaces & avenues speak of a different age when Leningrad was known as St Petersburg Two sisters Tatiana & Dasha share the same bed living in one room with their brother & parents The routine of their hard impoverished life is shattered on 22 June 1941 when Hitler invades Russia For the Metanov family for Leningrad & particularly for Tatiana life will never be the same again On that fateful day Tatiana meets a brash young man named Alexander The family suffers as Hitler's army advances on Leningrad & the Russian winter closes in With bombs falling & the city under siege Tatiana & Alexander are drawn inexorably to each other but theirs is a love that could tear Tatiana's family apart & at its heart lies a secret that could mean death to anyone who hears it Confronted on the one hand by Hitler's vast war machine & on the other by a Soviet system determined to crush the human spirit Tatiana & Alexander are pitted against the very tide of history at a turning point in the century that made the modern world ...

Please note this is a region B Blu-ray & will require a region B or region free Blu-ray player in order to play The Brood is one of director David Cronenberg&s most chilling & disturbing works as shocking today as it was when originally released Frank Carveth is becoming increasingly concerned about his ex-wife Nola&s secretive treatment at the sinister & Somafree Institute of Psychoplasmics& Headed by cult figure Dr Raglan his controversial & extreme methods seek to unleash his patients rage which take on physical manifestations As Nola&s increasingly psychoticanger is vented during her sessions brutal murders befall those at whom it&s directed When Frank&s daughter is abducted he is led to Raglan&s Insitute & a terrifying repellant final confrontation renowned as one of the most notorious scenes in horror cinema Actors Oliver Reed Samantha Eggar Art Hindle Henry Beckman Nuala Fitzgerald Cindy Hinds Susan Hogan Gary Mc Keehan Michael Magee Robert A Silverman Joseph Shaw Larry Solway Reiner Schwartz Felix Silla & John Ferguson Director David Cronenberg Certificate 18 years & over Year 1979 Languages English Duration 1 hour & 32 minutes (approx) ...

Lying on a bed of bare rock this large yellow dragon has its wings raised curled protectively around a clutch of 6 eggs Its tail curls around them forming a protective barrier & it leans in to gaze proudly at the first hatchling sitting upright in its egg & gazing out towards the world with wonder Perfect for any proud parent this draconic statuette is a great addition to any side table or mantelpiece ...

Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play Recently dumped by his girlfriend & his band perpetual underachiever Alex (Ryan O& Nan) toils away at a comically depressing real estate office picking up solo gigs wherever he can After an altercation with a colleague (Wilmer Valderrama) he also finds himself jobless & without purpose After hearing one of Alex&s sets an eccentric spectator named Jim (Michael Weston) comes up with a plan for the two of them to tour the country as a musical duo Realizing the state of his existential quandary Alex reluctantly joins Jim on the road Despite gracelessly fumbling their way between bizarre shows & touring pitfalls Alex & Jim manage to play off one another & create a strangely alluring sound When Cassidy (Arielle Kebbel) an inexperienced tour manager abruptly leaves them in a tight spot Alex abandons the tour & shows up at his older brother&s (Andrew Mc Carthy) house looking for a place to stay What follows is a crash course in self-actualization as Alex comes to terms with who he is in relation to what others expect of him Actors Ryan O& Nan Michael Weston Arielle Kebbel Andrew Mc Carthy Jason Ritter Wilmer Valderrama Christopher Mc Donald Melissa Leo Jake Miller Charles Chu Philip Ettinger Steven Boyer & Charlie Hewson Director Ryan O& Nan Certificate 15 years & over Year 2011 Languages English ...

'I was looking for a quiet place to die Someone recommended Brooklyn & so the next morning I travelled down there from Westchester to scope out the terrain ' So begins Paul Auster's remarkable new novel The Brooklyn Follies Set against the backdrop of the contested US election of 2000 it tells the story of Nathan & Tom an uncle & nephew double-act One in remission from lung cancer divorced & estranged from his only daughter the other hiding away from his once-promising academic career & indeed from life in general Having accidentally ended up in the same Brooklyn neighbourhood they discover a community teeming with life & passion When Lucy a little girl who refuses to speak comes into their lives there is suddenly a bridge from their pasts that offers them the possibility of redemption Infused with character mystery & humour these lives intertwine & become bound together as Auster brilliantly explores the wider terrain of contemporary America
- a crucible of broken dreams & of human folly ' Auster at the top of his game This superb novel about human folly turns out to be tremendously wise' New Statesman
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'I was looking for a quiet place to die Someone recommended Brooklyn & so the next morning I travelled down there from Westchester to scope out the terrain ' So begins Paul Auster's remarkable new novel The Brooklyn Follies Set against the backdrop of the contested US election of 2000 it tells the story of Nathan & Tom an uncle & nephew double-act One in remission from lung cancer divorced & estranged from his only daughter the other hiding away from his once-promising academic career & indeed from life in general Having accidentally ended up in the same Brooklyn neighbourhood they discover a community teeming with life & passion When Lucy a little girl who refuses to speak comes into their lives there is suddenly a bridge from their pasts that offers them the possibility of redemption Infused with character mystery & humour these lives intertwine & become bound together as Auster brilliantly explores the wider terrain of contemporary America
- a crucible of broken dreams & of human folly ' Auster at the top of his game This superb novel about human folly turns out to be tremendously wise' New Statesman
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The Broons fair enjoy a good laugh So the family have all pitched in to compile their favourite funnies Each joke has a Scottish flavour
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One January morning in 1734 cloth merchant Peter Collinson hurried down to the docks at London's Custom House to collect cargo just arrived from John Bartram in the American colonies But it was not bales of cotton that awaited him but plants & seeds Over the next forty years Bartram would send hundreds of American species to England where Collinson was one of a handful of men who would foster a national obsession & change the gardens of Britain forever Philip Miller author of the bestselling Gardeners Dictionary; the Swede Carl Linnaeus whose standardised botanical nomenclature popularised botany; the botanist-adventurer Joseph Banks & his colleague Daniel Solander who both explored the strange flora of Tahiti & Australia on Captain Cook's Endeavour This is the story of these men
- friends rivals enemies united by a passion for plants Set against the backdrop of the emerging empire & the uncharted world beyond The Brother Gardeners tells the story how Britain became a nation of gardeners
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