The First Day in Paradise tells the story of a young orphaned family who have been passed on from one set of relations to another, and whose eldest sibling, Adam, becomes enthralled by the impending opening nearby of a gigantic and beautiful shopping-mall by a flamboyant entrepreneur. To the consternation of his aunt and uncle, who run a small business, he joins the staff of one of its stores, and begins a dizzying ascent through the ranks, until circumstances induce him to question whether his entire value-system has become corrupted. Functioning both as social-economic critique, and as a personal moral fable about the conjuration of ambition from present-day consumer culture, The First Day in Paradise is an engrossing and layered tale loosely modelled on Dante's Paradiso, but most of all it's simply a great read.
A “fresh and entertaining” survey of the human emotional landscape—and how it has shifted over the centuries (Kirkus Reviews). Using Charles Darwin’s survey of emotions as a starting point, Stuart Walton’s A Natural History of Human Emotions examines the history of each of our core emotions—fear, anger, disgust, sadness, jealousy, contempt, shame, embarrassment, surprise, and happiness—and how these emotions have influenced both cultural and social history. We learn that primitive fear served as the engine of religious belief, while a desire for happiness led to humankind’s first musings on achieving a perfect utopia. Challenging the notion that human emotion has remained constant, A Natural History of Human Emotions explains why, in the last 250 years, society has changed its unwritten rules for what can be expressed in public and in private. Like An Intimate History of Humanity and Near a Thousand Tables, Walton’s A Natural History of Human Emotions is a provocative examination of human feelings and a fascinating take on how emotions have shaped our past.
From its original meaning as a gaping void, or the emptiness that precedes the whole of creation, chaos has taken on the exclusive meaning of confusion, pandemonium and mayhem. This definition has become the overarching word to describe any challenge to the established order; be it railway strikes or political dissent, any unexpected event is routinely described in the media and popular parlance as 'chaos'. In his incisive new study, Stuart Walton argues that this is a pitifully one-dimensional view of the world, as he looks to many of the great social, political, artistic and philosophical advances that have emerged from periods of disorder and from the refusal to think within the standard paradigms. Exploring this worldview, Walton contends that we are superstitious about states of affairs in which anything could happen because we have been taught to prefer the imposition of rules in every aspect of our lives, from our diets to our romances. Indeed, in An Excursion through Chaos he demonstrates how it is these very restrictions that are responsible for the alienation that has characterised postwar society, a state of disengagement that could have been avoided if we had taken a less fearful attitude towards the unravelling of order.
While Theodor Adorno has continued to be influential since his death in 1969, his very centrality has led to the left simplifying his ideas while the right placed him at the center of a myriad of wild conspiracy theories, all of them filed under the category of Cultural Marxism. Adorno has wrongly been blamed for everything from the Beatles to postmodernism, but he has continued to be read, if read badly. Stuart Walton's introduction to Adorno attempts to explain how this idiosyncratic thinker reframed elements of the Hegelian-Marxist dialectical in the fields of philosophy, sociology, politics and aesthetics and to rectify some of the major misunderstandings about Adorno and the Frankfurt School. When Walton began studying Adorno at Oxford in 1983 he felt that Adorno was nowhere in the English-speaking world, but that he should be everywhere. Now Adorno is everywhere, but hardly anywhere sufficiently or deeply understood.
A comprehensive and authoritative guide that will provide readers with the confidence to explore wine in depth for themselves. Country by country, and region by region, this encyclopedia journeys around the world to drop in on familiar and lesser known producers. It studies the world's 12 major grape varieties, describing their aromas and flavors, and explaining why and how their character varies in different soils, in different climates &, not least, in different winemaking methods. Wines are placed in their historical context and the processes of making wine are clearly explained. Also, vintage and producer recommendations, vivid color photos and carefully illustrated maps.
The five physical senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching have been held to underpin the complexity of human experience ever since Aristotle first theorised about how they worked. Classical and scholastic philosophy up to the time of the European Enlightenment relegated their operations to its margins, viewing them as at best a distraction from higher thinking, and at worst a positive deception. Paradoxically, what one could not objectively know, the products of the mind, were accorded precedence over the concrete. From the Romantic era onwards, the senses moved to the centre of speculative thought, and the various dialectical currents of philosophy after Hegel made them interdependent with the intellectual function, which was held to derive most or all of its authority from them. This tendency has continued down to the sensualist, hedonist and anti-intellectual currents of our own day. In this theoretical consideration of what has been done to the senses in modern experience, Stuart Walton subjects the life of the senses to a further materialist turn, one that refuses a spiritualisation of the material realm, to which contemporary discourses of the body have often fallen prey, while at the same time preserving sensuality from being delivered once again to a sterile idealism.
Like any good cocktail, this book brings together tasty ingredients in a delicious mix." Boston Herald Intoxicology is an addictive investigation into the history and culture of Narcotica - from the everyday use of alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco to the illicit realm of opiates, amphetamines, and hallucinogens. The book is a witty and provocative look at why intoxication has always been a part of the human experience - from our earliest Stone Age rituals to the practices of the ancient Greeks and Romans, right on up through the Victorian era and ending with a flourish in modern times - and why the use of mind-altering substances is, and will continue to be, an essential part, however transgressive, of civilization. "An insightful overview of humanity's historical and cultural attachment to various intoxicants...it deserves a prominent place in the emerging discussion reshaping understanding and policies regarding intoxication and the use of drugs and alcohol." Kirkus Reviews (starred) "Walton is particularly, and convincingly, engrossing, an elegant and forceful stylist." Guardian "Hilariously well-versed...Walton's wit is deliciously dry." Seattle Weekly "A fluent plea for legalisation, by the only wine writer ever to admit that one of the best things about wine is the fact that it gets you pissed." Class "Irvine Welsh and Stuart Walton have done more than most writers to change our attitudes to drug use." Independent "It is the most refreshing book ever published on the subject...beautifully written." Big Issue "Reading Stuart Walton's prose is a bit like going on some kind of trip. His erudition is dizzying." Mail on Sunday "True to its theme, Walton's compelling and trenchant polemic is apt to induce a welter of sensations." Evening Standard
An A–Z guide to over 80 of the world's most famous vodka brands Contains recipes for famous vodka cocktails, as well as new ones for flavoured vodkas The latest addition to the successful Classified series The word ‘vodka’ is the diminutive of ‘water’ in various Slavic languages. Made from grains, molasses, potatoes, even grapes, vodka is often drunk neat in eastern Europe and Scandinavia, but it is now ultra-fashionable elsewhere in the world, where it is best known as a base for famous cocktails such as the Bloody Mary, the Cosmopolitan and, of course, the Vodka Martini. Vodka Classified features an A–Z of vodka brands, both from the traditional producing countries – Russia, Poland, Finland, Sweden and the Baltic States – as well as from other newer distilleries worldwide, from Kazakstan through Mexico to New Zealand. The text includes tasting notes on the different styles and flavours produced by the major brands. The book also covers the origins, history and regions of vodka production, along with illustrations. The final section contains recipes for mixing your own vodka cocktails, both classics and new ideas using the latest flavoured vodkas. Wordcount: 40,000 words
Stuart Walton and Norma Miller offer an intr oduction to the world of spirits, liqueurs and elixirs, cove ring the discovery of distillation, ancient and modern metho ds of production and a set of recipes that take advantage of these alcoholic drinks.
The Book of Wine presents an authoritative look at the practicalities of keeping and serving wine, as well as a comprehensive review of the most important grape varieties used in the making of wine internationally. Also explained are the principles of tasting, judging a wine by its looks, and matching wine to each course of the menu. -- Tips on storing and serving -- Descriptions of the 12 major grape varieties of the world
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