A play for two actors from acclaimed playwright, Nick Wilkes. Mike Meadows is a man who has just been left at the alter. Fat, forty and jilted, he feels that life is pretty rubbish. With his girlfriend gone, Mike desperately needs a new sense of purpose. Who'd have thought that a discarded 'stella' can would have given him one?
A full length play about one of the most terrifying experiences of your life...marriage! Written by Nick Wilkes, Writer in Residence at Malvern Theatres.
Three days before his assassination Abraham Lincoln had a dream. In it, he awoke to the sound of subdued cries. Slowly, he walked down the stairs and into the East Room of the White House where he was met with a sickening surprise. Before him, lay a catafalque on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Soldiers stood guard as mourners filed past the body."Who is dead in the White House," demanded Lincoln. "The President," replied a soldier. "He was killed by an assassin."April 14th, 1865 began like any other day for John Wilkes Booth until Harry Ford told him that Lincoln and Grant planned to attend the theatre that night. After Ford said those words, the wheels in Booth's head began to spin.Although neither Lincoln or Booth knew it, they were on a collision course with destiny.
Written from a strikingly fresh perspective, this new account of the Boston Tea Party and the origins of the American Revolution shows how a lethal blend of politics, personalities, and economics led to a war that few people welcomed but nobody could prevent. In this powerful but fair-minded narrative, British author Nick Bunker tells the story of the last three years of mutual embitterment that preceded the outbreak of America’s war for independence in 1775. It was a tragedy of errors, in which both sides shared responsibility for a conflict that cost the lives of at least twenty thousand Britons and a still larger number of Americans. The British and the colonists failed to see how swiftly they were drifting toward violence until the process had gone beyond the point of no return. At the heart of the book lies the Boston Tea Party, an event that arose from fundamental flaws in the way the British managed their affairs. By the early 1770s, Great Britain had become a nation addicted to financial speculation, led by a political elite beset by internal rivalry and increasingly baffled by a changing world. When the East India Company came close to collapse, it patched together a rescue plan whose disastrous side effect was the destruction of the tea. With lawyers in London calling the Tea Party treason, and with hawks in Parliament crying out for revenge, the British opted for punitive reprisals without foreseeing the resistance they would arouse. For their part, Americans underestimated Britain’s determination not to give way. By the late summer of 1774, when the rebels in New England began to arm themselves, the descent into war had become irreversible. Drawing on careful study of primary sources from Britain and the United States, An Empire on the Edge sheds new light on the Tea Party’s origins and on the roles of such familiar characters as Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, and Thomas Hutchinson. The book shows how the king’s chief minister, Lord North, found himself driven down the road to bloodshed. At his side was Lord Dartmouth, the colonial secretary, an evangelical Christian renowned for his benevolence. In a story filled with painful ironies, perhaps the saddest was this: that Dartmouth, a man who loved peace, had to write the dispatch that sent the British army out to fight.
It's 1598 and Will Shakespeare needs a new theatre... James Burbage is dead, his investment at Blackfriars stalled, and Shakespeare is stuck in the wrong part of town. Shoreditch is no longer the hotbed of theatrical life it once was, and Shakespeare and his company are stuck at the ageing Curtain Theatre, out on a limb. But south of the river business is booming...Outside of the harsh jurisdiction of the city, Southwarke is full of bear-baiting, cock-fighting, taverns and brothels. Here audiences are cramming into the best theatres England has ever seen; The popular Rose Theatre, and the resplendent new Swan Theatre, both making plays, pennies and pounds a plenty... Against this backdrop we witness an audacious plan with the highest of stakes, all whilst Shakespeare is writing his new play, a little history piece called Henry V.To Build a Wooden O is comedy, tragedy and history all rolled into one magnificent play.
Secrets, Lies, Privilege, and Power. An in-depth look at the hidden force and the inner workings of secret societies! Claims and counter-claims. Accusations and allegations. NSA spying and suppressed evidence. Cover-ups and threats. Documented connections and intrigue. Suggestions of a New World Order. Are we to believe the coincidences are mere chance? Might the paranoid be on to something? Who really holds the levers of power? History admonishes us to be vigilant of hidden plots and nefarious agendas of governments and the powerful. Exposing their deep reach into the operations of today's world, Secret Societies: The Complete Guide to Histories, Rites, and Rituals is packed with details on nearly 200 organizations, their histories, founding members, backgrounds, and suspected conspiracies. It uncovers and probes the hidden agendas of these secret cabals. Along the way, it debunks myths and presents the evidence on an invisible world of influence. Powerful cliques, their plots, and their chilling affects are examined, including ... the Illuminati the Freemasons the Bilderberg Group MKUltra Skull and Bones Ordo Templi Orientis FEMA Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn the Knights Templar Ku Klux Klan La Cosa Nostra Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship Council on Foreign Relations Montauk Project World Bankers the Secret Government extraterrestrial invaders and many, many more. With more than 140 photos and other graphics, Secret Societies is richly illustrated, and its helpful bibliography and extensive index add to its usefulness. For skeptics and theorists alike, this thoroughly researched reference overflows with fascinating information to make readers think about—and possibly reconsider—the state of the nation and the world!
A guide to the hidden mysteries and secrets of the world from an established author and expert on conspiracies, the unexplained, and the paranormal! History is written by the winners—and the powerful—but how much of it is fiction? And who is really in control today? From the dawn of civilization to the 21st century, from ancient aliens to the New World Order, Secret History: Conspiracies from Ancient Aliens to the New World Order examines, explores, and uncovers the hidden, overlooked, and buried history of civilization. The book moves from biblical, Egyptian, Mayan, Greek, and early mysteries of antiquity to the clandestine doings of the Nazis and the Masons and assassination plots of the more recent past to the surveillance, monitoring, mind-control, and secret schemes of today. Researcher Nick Redfern investigates the stories, mythologies, lore behind incredible events and clandestine groups of yesterday and today. More than 60 entries dig deep into the manipulation of events by influential groups, including ... Historical riddles—revealing, alien visitations, space gods, human–alien crossbreeding, and more. Government cover ups—exposing, mind control, murders, scientists' research, secret agents' agendas, and more. Powerful groups and intended consequences—illuminating, 9-11, new world order, bird-flu, chemtrails, and more. Tracing the chilling and lasting effects of conspiracies, cabals, and plots, Secret History: Conspiracies from Ancient Aliens to the New World Order exposes their deep reach in shaping today's world! Truly an eye-opening read!
On a Sunday afternoon in the spring of 1969, thousands of people defied Auckland city bylaws and came to party in Albert Park. A rock band played on the rotunda. Some people held hands, some danced alone, some sat under trees with guitars, flutes and bongos and made music of their own. They wore kaftans, ponchos and leather-fringed jerkins, floppy hats, headbands, beads and flowers. Poetry and political diatribes were delivered from a podium, improvised from an upturned tea chest. There were bikies, balloons, bubbles, sack races and a lolly scramble, lots of dogs and a pet possum. Someone brought a canoe and paddled it around the fountain, until it capsized. As the afternoon wore on there were joss sticks, skyrockets and what some will have recognised as the musky smell of marijuana. . . —From the PrologueIn Jumping Sundays, award-winning writer and broadcaster Nick Bollinger tells the story of beards and bombs, freaks and firebrands, self-destruction and self-realisation, during a turbulent period in New Zealand's history and culture.
Modern Chess Openings is the best and most trusted tool for serious chess players on the market. First published over a half-century ago, this is a completely revised and updated edition of the book that has been the standard English language reference on chess openings. An invaluable resource for club and tournament players, it now includes information on recent matches and the most up-to-date theory on chess openings. Modern Chess Openings is ideal for intermediate players ready to elevate their game to the next level or International Grandmasters who want to stay on top of recent chess innovations.
“LOTS OF CHARACTERS GET COMPARED TO MY OWN JACK REACHER, BUT PETRIE'S PETER ASH IS THE REAL DEAL.”—Lee Child *An Entertainment Weekly Must List Pick In the new novel featuring war veteran Peter Ash, “an action hero of the likes of Jack Reacher or Jason Bourne” (Lincoln Journal-Star), Ash has a woman’s life in his hands—and her mystery is stranger than he could ever imagine. War veteran Peter Ash sought peace and quiet among the towering redwoods of northern California, but the trip isn’t quite the balm he’d hoped for. The dense forest and close fog cause his claustrophobia to buzz and spark, and then he stumbles upon a grizzly, long thought to have vanished from this part of the country. In a fight of man against bear, Peter doesn’t favor his odds, so he makes a strategic retreat up a nearby sapling. There, he finds something strange: a climbing rope, affixed to a distant branch above. It leads to another, and another, up through the giant tree canopy, and ending at a hanging platform. On the platform is a woman on the run. From below them come the sounds of men and gunshots. Just days ago, investigative journalist June Cassidy escaped a kidnapping by the men who are still on her trail. She suspects they’re after something belonging to her mother, a prominent software designer who recently died in an accident. June needs time to figure out what’s going on, and help from someone with Peter’s particular set of skills. Only one step ahead of their pursuers, Peter and June must race to unravel this peculiar mystery. What they find leads them to an eccentric recluse, a shadowy pseudo-military organization, and an extraordinary tool that may change the modern world forever.
Ten years ago, retired astronaut Jim Mayfield closed himself up inside Bear Creek Inn, and he hasn’t been seen since. Just when the small town of Bear Creek had almost forgotten about their reclusive and mysterious resident, a man from out-of-town flies in on a private jet to meet with the astronaut. The visit prompts the good people of the small town to begin asking questions. Who is Jim Mayfield? Why did he lock himself away? And who is the stranger that visited him? While the small town asks these questions, the most puzzling thing of all occurs when Bear Creek Inn takes in two guests for the first time in ten years.
Which 100 novels represent the finest American literature ever produced? Let this book be your guide. Ordered A-Z by author this latest title in the popular Must-Read series provides a rich resource for your reading. It features 100 titles from 19th century classics: Melville's Moby Dick and Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, to the 1920s generation: Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald and William Faulkner, the Beat generation (Kerouac's On the Road) to the major writers of today: Toni Morrison (Beloved) Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay), Jonathan Franzen (The Corrections), Donna Tartt (The Secret History) and Barbara Kingsolver (The Poisonwood Bible). All the major figures are covered from Fenimore Cooper to the present day, as well as lesser known and more offbeat writers that you may not yet have discoverd such as Dawn Powell, William Maxwell and Marilynne Robinson. The Read-On suggestions provide up to 500 recommendations for further titles and a long Introduction provides contextual and historical background on American fiction, providing great value and everything you need to expand your range of reading.
This is the first exploration of the British army to combine labour, political and military history. It analyses the political lives of nineteenth century rank and file soldiers in the context of a developing working-class culture. It focuses on the significant radical and socialist movements, alongside influential working-class conservatism.
Starting plants from a seed grants earlier harvests, greater variety, healthier seedlings, lower costs, and the undeniable sense of satisfaction and reward. For the most complete, up-to-date information on starting plants from seed, turn to The New Seed-Starter's Handbook. Written by a gardener with 30 years of experience, this updated, easy-to-use reference explains everything you need to know to start seeds and raise healthy seedlings successfully. You'll find: - The latest research in seed starting - The best growing media - The newest gardening materials - Solutions to seed-starting problems - Source lists for seeds and hard-to-find gardening supplies The robust encyclopedia section lists more than 200 plants—including vegetables and fruits, garden flowers, wildflowers, herbs, trees, and shrubs—with details on how to start each from seed.
How often do you begin reading a book that makes you—immediately, urgently, desperately—want to read more books?” (Booklist). Nick Hornby has managed to write just such a book in this hilarious, insightful, and infectious volume. Ten Years in the Tub chronicles Hornby's journey through a decade’s worth of books, as related in his wildly popular Believer column “Stuff I’ve Been Reading.” Ten Years in the Tub is a one-way ticket into the mind of one of the most beloved contemporary writers on his favorite pastime, but it's also a meditation on what Celine Dion can teach us about ourselves, a warning about how John Updike can ruin our sex lives, and a recommendation for the way Body Shop Vanilla Shower Gel can add excitement to our days. This "decade-long addiction for many... makes standing in line at the bank a blessed interval for snorting another page.” (the New York Times Book Review)
The Unsavoury Tale of Alexander Pearce - The Convict Cannibal. Powerful and relentless, the hunger pursues you like a wild beast without respite. You can resist it for hours, even days, but it eventually overwhelms your reason with its desperate desire to be satisfied. Eat or be eaten ... that was the terrible choice facing the eight convict bolters from Macquarie Harbour, Australia's most remote and brutal penal colony. Lost and starving after a week in a wilderness no white man had ever crossed, order breaks down when one finally gives voice to their secret thoughts, 'I could eat a piece of a man.' Soon betrayal, lies and murder reign and the convicts start to fear each other more than the spears of the Aborigines. Who'll be served next? Will any of them reach the settled areas alive? Bloodlust is the story of this terrible journey as seen through the eyes of Irishman Alexander Pearce, who discovers what happens when men are pushed past their limits and what lies in the dark shadows beyond. Nick Bleszynski, author of the bestselling Shoot Straight You Bastards! and You'll Never Take Me Alive, mixes archive, history and the power of imagination to bring Australia's darkest and most controversial legend to life.
DIVA London Year is an anthology of short diary entries, one or more for each day of the year, which, taken together, provides an impressionistic portrait of life in the city from Tudor times to the twenty-first century. This ebook edition, with its own distinct cover, has been optimised for the digital reader. A hyperlinked contents page makes it easy for the reader to dip in and out of the book while each 'page' is dedicated to a separate day. To further improve formatting, the illustrations from the printed edition have been omitted. We promise this does not detract from the reading experience. This ebook serves as the perfect accompaniment to the print edition. There are more than two hundred featured writers, with a short biography for each. The most famous diarist of all - Samuel Pepys - is there, as well as some of today’s finest diarists like Alan Bennett and Chris Mullin. There are coronations and executions, election riots and zeppelin raids, duels, dust-ups and drunken sprees, among everyday moments like Brian Eno cycling in Kilburn or George Eliot walking on Wimbledon Common. Vividly evoking moments in the lives of Londoners in the past, providing snapshots of the city’s inhabitants at work, at play, in pursuit of money, sex, entertainment, pleasure and power, the ebook of A London Year is the perfect read for all who live in or love this eternal, ever-changing city./div
Deciding what to read next when you've just finished an unputdownable novel can be a daunting task. The Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide features hundreds of authors and thousands of titles, with navigation features to lead you on a rich journey through some the best literature to grace our shelves. This greatly expanded edition includes the latest contemporary authors and landmark novels, an expanded non-fiction section, a timeline setting historical events against literary milestones, prize-winner and book club lists. An accessible and easy-to-read guide that no serious book lover should be without. "The essential guide to the wild uncharted world of contemporary and 20th century writing." Robert McCrum, The Observer
Truly trivia you can't live without, A People's History of the Peculiar is filled with facts, lists, definitions, and astonishing information guaranteed to provide you with the best cocktail conversation for many years to come! Your guide, Nick Belardes, has devoted his life to poking around the peculiar and perplexing. Explore the unknown stories behind why the nation's capitol didn't stay in Philadelphia, why some fossils are smiling, and how, if Preparation H existed in the early 1800s, Napoleon would have won Waterloo. These real-world facts are outlandish enough to sharpen your brain and occupy your mind for hours of reading. This book is so fascinating and fun, you'll become obsessed, too!"--
A redistricting crisis is now upon us. This surprising, compelling book tells the history of how we got to this moment—from the Founding Fathers to today’s high-tech manipulation of election districts—and shows us as well how to protect our most sacred, hard-fought principle of one person, one vote. Here is THE book on gerrymandering for citizens, politicians, journalists, activists, and voters. “Seabrook’s lucid account of the origins and evolution of gerrymandering—the deliberate and partisan doctoring of district borders for electoral advantage—makes a potentially dry, wonky subject accessible and engaging for a broad audience.” —The New York Times Gerrymandering is the manipulation of election districts for partisan and political gain. Instead of voters picking the politicians they want, politicians pick the voters they need to get the election results they’re after. Surprisingly, gerrymandering has been around since before our nation’s founding. And with technology, those drawing the redistricting lines have, now more than ever, been able to microtarget their electoral manipulations with unprecedented levels of precision. Nick Seabrook, an authority on constitutional and election law and an expert on gerrymandering (pronounced with a hard G!), has written an illuminating, urgently needed book on how our elections have been rigged through redistricting, beginning with the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, and Reconstruction, and extending to the twentieth century’s gerrymandering battles at the Supreme Court and today’s high-tech manipulations of election districts. Seabrook writes of Patrick Henry, who used redistricting to settle an old score with political foe and fellow Founding Father James Madison (almost preventing the Bill of Rights from happening). He writes of Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry, and corrects the mistaken notion of the derivation of the term “gerrymander.” He writes of Abraham Lincoln and how his desire to preserve the Union led him to manipulate the admission of new states in order to maintain his majority in the Senate. And we come to understand the place of the Supreme Court in its fierce battles regarding gerrymandering throughout the twentieth century. First was Felix Frankfurter, who fought for decades to prevent the judiciary from involving itself in disputes concerning the drawing of districts. Then came the Warren Court and its series of civil rights cases culminating in the landmark decision (Reynolds v. Sims), written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, which says that state legislatures, unlike the United States Congress, must have representation in both houses based on districts containing equal populations—with redistricting as needed following each census. The result has been ever-increasing, hard-fought wrangling between the two political parties after each census. Seabrook explores the rise of the most partisan gerrymanders in American history, put into place by the Republican Party after the 2010 census, and how the battle has shifted to the states via REDMAP—the GOP’s successful strategy of the last decade to control state governments and rig the results of state legislative and congressional elections.
This new edition of Retreat from Injustice has the strengths and style of its predecessor: the account of human rights in Australia is firmly grounded in historical and international contexts; the availability and limitations of rights and freedoms are clearly detailed and illustrated with cases; and a particular spotlight is placed on key current human rights issues including terrorism, indigenous issues and asylum seekers.
From Nick Capodice & Hannah McCarthy, the hosts of New Hampshire Public Radio’s Civics 101, and New Yorker cartoonist Tom Toro, A User's Guide to Democracy is a lively crash course in everything you should know about how the US government works. Do you know what the Secretary of Defense does all day? Are you sure you know the difference between the House and the Senate? Have you been pretending you know what Federalism is for the last 20 years? Don’t worry--you’re not alone. The American government and its processes can be dizzyingly complex and obscure. Until now. Within this book are the keys to knowing what you’re talking about when you argue politics with the uncle you only see at Thanksgiving. It’s the book that sits on your desk for quick reference when the nightly news boggles your mind. This approachable and informative guide gives you the lowdown on everything from the three branches of government, to what you can actually do to make your vote count, to how our founding documents affect our daily lives. Now is the time to finally understand who does what, how they do it, and the best way to get them to listen to you.
In this new account of Franklin's early life, Pulitzer finalist Nick Bunker portrays him as a complex, driven young man who elbows his way to success. From his early career as a printer and journalist to his scientific work and his role as a founder of a new republic, Benjamin Franklin has always seemed the inevitable embodiment of American ingenuity. But in his youth he had to make his way through a harsh colonial world, where he fought many battles with his rivals, but also with his wayward emotions. Taking Franklin to the age of forty-one, when he made his first electrical discoveries, Bunker goes behind the legend to reveal the sources of his passion for knowledge. Always trying to balance virtue against ambition, Franklin emerges as a brilliant but flawed human being, made from the conflicts of an age of slavery as well as reason. With archival material from both sides of the Atlantic, we see Franklin in Boston, London, and Philadelphia as he develops his formula for greatness. A tale of science, politics, war, and religion, this is also a story about Franklin's forebears: the talented family of English craftsmen who produced America's favorite genius.
A work that reveals the profound links between the evolution, acquisition, and processing of language, and proposes a new integrative framework for the language sciences. Language is a hallmark of the human species; the flexibility and unbounded expressivity of our linguistic abilities is unique in the biological world. In this book, Morten Christiansen and Nick Chater argue that to understand this astonishing phenomenon, we must consider how language is created: moment by moment, in the generation and understanding of individual utterances; year by year, as new language learners acquire language skills; and generation by generation, as languages change, split, and fuse through the processes of cultural evolution. Christiansen and Chater propose a revolutionary new framework for understanding the evolution, acquisition, and processing of language, offering an integrated theory of how language creation is intertwined across these multiple timescales. Christiansen and Chater argue that mainstream generative approaches to language do not provide compelling accounts of language evolution, acquisition, and processing. Their own account draws on important developments from across the language sciences, including statistical natural language processing, learnability theory, computational modeling, and psycholinguistic experiments with children and adults. Christiansen and Chater also consider some of the major implications of their theoretical approach for our understanding of how language works, offering alternative accounts of specific aspects of language, including the structure of the vocabulary, the importance of experience in language processing, and the nature of recursive linguistic structure.
Florida was the third Southern state to secede from the United States in 1860-61. With its small population of 140,000 and no manufacturing, few Confederate resources were allocated to protect the state. Some 15,000 Floridians served in the Union and Confederate armies (the highest population percentage of any southern state), but perhaps Florida's greatest contributions came from its production of salt (an essential need for preserving meat and manufacturing gunpowder), its large herds of cattle (which fed two southern armies), and its 1500 mile shoreline (which allowed smugglers to bring critical supplies from Europe and the Carribean). Florida in the Civil War: Blockaders will focus on the men and ships that fought this prolonged battle at sea, along the long and largely vacant coasts of the Sunshine State and on Florida soil. The information will be drawn from official sources, newspaper articles and private accounts. Approximately fifty (50) period photographs and drawings will be incorporated into the text.
The first World Series was a best-of-nine series between the Boston Americans and the Pittsburg Pirates, with the first three games to be played in Boston starting at the Huntington Avenue Grounds on October 1, 1903. The series started with baseball's winningest pitcher, Cy Young, throwing the first pitch, and ended with baseball's greatest hitter, Honus Wagner, striking out on the last pitch. Boston won the series, five games to three. Each game of the 1903 World Series and its key plays and players are thoroughly covered here, and the authors also pay special attention to the great significance that first World Series held for the future of baseball. Not only was the survival of the American League at stake, but baseball's place as the preeminent sport in America. The 1903 World Series drew more than 100,000 people to the ballparks, and there was no doubt about the popularity of the game. It was, as the authors point out, played by men, who, had they not been baseball players, would have been among the working class that made up most of the audience.
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