There was a young King who ought to have been the happiest monarch in the world. He was blessed with everything a mortal could desire. His palace might have been designed by the Divine architect Himself, so perfect was it in all its parts; and it stood amidst gardens with its dependent village at its gates, like a dream of feudal beauty in a story of romance. Notwithstanding his good fortune, the King was oppressed with what he conceived to be a great trouble.

The Argonautica is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from remote Colchis. Their heroic adventures and Jason's relationship with the dangerous Colchian princess/sorceress Medea were already well known to Hellenistic audiences, which enabled Apollonius to go beyond a simple narrative, giving it a scholarly emphasis suitable to the times.

Chremylus, a poor but just man, accompanied by his servant Cario consults the Delphic Oracle concerning his son, whether he ought not to be instructed in injustice and knavery and the other arts whereby worldly men acquire riches. By way of answer the god only tells him that he is to follow whomsoever he first meets upon leaving the temple, who proves to be a blind and ragged old man. But this turns out to be no other than Plutus himself, the god of riches, whom Zeus has robbed of his eyesight, so that he may be unable henceforth to distinguish between the just and the unjust.

Orestes, Apollo, and the Erinyes go before Athena and eleven other judges chosen by her from the Athenian citizenry at the Areopagus (Rock of Ares, a flat rocky hill by the Athenian agora where the homicide court of Athens later held its sessions), to decide whether Orestes's killing of his mother, Clytemnestra, makes him guilty of the crime of murder.

Take your first step to becoming a professional short fiction writer—Buy this book! In an engaging and conversational style, award-winning author Douglas Smith teaches you how to market and sell short stories—and much, much more. Even experienced writers will find value here as Smith takes you from your first sale to using your stories to build a writing career. CONTENTS: The Fundamentals: The different types of writers. The benefits of short fiction. Rights and licensing. Selling Your Stories: Knowing when it's ready. Choosing markets. Submitting stories. Avoiding mistakes. How editors select stories. Dealing with rejections. When to give up on a story. After a Sale: Contracts. Working with editors. What your first sale means. Dealing with reviews. A Writer's Magic Bakery: Selling reprints. Foreign markets. Audio markets. Selling a collection. The indie option. Becoming Established: Leveraging your stories. Discoverability and promotion. Career progression in short fiction. With an introduction by multi-award winning writer and editor, Kristine Kathryn Rusch. "We short story writers have needed a book like this for decades. ... It’s spectacular." —Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Award-winning Author & Editor “If you are the least bit interested in having a career as a fiction writer then I can tell you what to read: Douglas Smith’s Playing the Short Game: How to Market & Sell Short Fiction. From now on this is my go-to book for all things related to starting and maintaining my fiction writing career.” —Filip Wiltgren, The Guide to a Professional Writing Career

A life of fascination, obsession and deep scientific curiosity. William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck is an eccentric Nottinghamshire aristocrat whose imagination and curiosity know no bounds. This deceptively simple man struggles to come to terms with a world that is teeming with new knowledge, ill-founded opinion and?gossip. Why does he hide himself away? What is his fascination with tunnels? Will he ever unearth the secrets hidden in his memory? In a sequence of events that are often curious and frequently hilarious he reveals moments of surprising perception and wisdom. Nottingham Playhouse and ajtc have combined their talents to co-produce Nick Wood’s stage adaptation of Mick Jackson’s Booker Prize shortlisted novel. The result is a free-flowing, innovative performance which features live music and a specially commissioned score. The Underground Man is a delectable blend of fact and fiction in which the intriguing details of a complex life are richly explored through the vibrant imagination of a gentle soul.

New adaptation of 'Hamlet' for a modern black theatrical production. Remember me… Denmark, a Black Empire of modern England, where an intelligent young student discovers the world he once knew has crumbled. Implored to defend what is left of his father’s decaying legacy, Hamlet now faces the greatest moral challenge – to kill or not to kill. Directed by Jeffery Kissoon (RSC, National Theatre, Robert Lepage, Peter Hall and in Peter Brook’s seminal production of The Mahabharata) and adapted with Shakespeare’s text by award-winning playwright Mark Norfolk, this fast-moving version gets straight to the heart of a young man’s dilemma. This first all-black production of Hamlet in Britain makes a striking contribution to the Shakespeare 400 anniversary celebration. For ages 12+

Referindu-se la Pesc?ru?ul ?ntr-o scrisoare din octombrie 1895, Cehov nota, ?ntre altele: ?Scriu o pies? pe care probabil nu o voi termina p?n? la sf?r?itul lui noiembrie. O scriu nu f?r? pl?cere, de?i m? tem de conven?iile scenei. E o comedie, exist? trei roluri pentru femei, ?ase pentru b?rba?i, patru acte, peisaje (priveli?tea unui lac), o mul?ime de conversa?ii despre literatur?, pu?in? ac?iune, mult? iubire“. Premiera s-a dovedit dezastruoas?, editorul s?u aduc?ndu-i acuze ca, pild?, la?itatea evident?, caracterul din cale afar? de feminin. Con?tient de geniul s?u, Cehov riposteaz?: ?De ce aceast? calomnie? Dup? reprezenta?ie am luat cina la Romanovi. Pe cuv?ntul meu de onoare. Apoi m-am dus la culcare, am dormit s?n?tos ?i a doua zi am mers acas? f?r? a suspina vreo nemul?umire. Dac? a? fi fost un la?, a? fi alergat de la un editor la altul ?i de la un actor la altul, i-a? fi implorat s? fie ?ng?duitori ?i a? fi petrecut dou? trei s?pt?m?ni ?n Petersburg, agit?ndu-m? cu Pesc?ru?ul meu, cu emo?ie, cu o transpira?ie rece ?n lamenta?ii. Am ac?ionat at?t de rece ?i de responsabil precum un om care a f?cut o ofert? ?i apoi a fost ?nt?mpinat cu un refuz ?i nu mai are nimic altceva de f?cut dec?t s? plece. ?ntr-adev?r, vanitatea mea a fost n?ucit?, dar ?ti?i, nu a fost o lovitur? din senin. A?teptam un e?ec ?i m? preg?tisem pentru el precum te-am prevenit cu o absolut? sinceritate“.

Today the women at the festival are going to kill me for insulting them!' This bold statement by Euripides is the absurd premise upon which the whole play depends. The women are incensed by his plays' portrayal of the female sex as mad, murderous, and sexually depraved, and they are using the festival of the Thesmophoria (an annual fertility celebration dedicated to Demeter) as an opportunity to debate a suitable choice of revenge.

The Metamorphoses, or The Golden Ass, is the only Ancient Roman novel to survive in its entirety. The protagonist of the novel is called Lucius. At the end of the novel, he is revealed to be from Madaurus, in ancient Algeria, the hometown of Apuleius himself. The plot revolves around the protagonist's curiosity and insatiable desire to see and practice magic. While trying to perform a spell to transform into a bird, he is accidentally transformed into an ass. This leads to a long journey, literal and metaphorical, filled with in-set tales. He finally finds salvation through the intervention of the goddess Isis, whose cult he joins.

Candide is characterised by its sarcastic tone, as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel with a story similar to that of a more serious bildungsroman, it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is mordantly matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. As philosophers of Voltaire's day contended with the problem of evil, so too does Candide in this short novel, albeit more directly and humorously. Voltaire ridicules religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies, and philosophers through allegory; most conspicuously, he assaults Leibniz and his optimism. Voltaire's men and women point his case against optimism by starting high and falling low. A modern could not go about it after this fashion.?He would not plunge his people into an unfamiliar misery. He would just keep them in the misery they were born to. But such an account of Voltaire's procedure is as misleading as the plaster cast of a dance. Look at his procedure again. Mademoiselle Cunégonde, the illustrious Westphalian, sprung from a family that could prove seventy-one quarterings, descends and descends until we find her earning her keep by washing dishes in the Propontis. The aged faithful attendant, victim of a hundred acts of rape by negro pirates, remembers that she is the daughter of a pope, and that in honor of her approaching marriage with a Prince of Massa-Carrara all Italy wrote sonnets of which not one was passable. We do not need to know French literature before Voltaire in order to feel, although the lurking parody may escape us, that he is poking fun at us and at himself. His laughter at his own methods grows more unmistakable at the last, when he caricatures them by casually assembling six fallen monarchs in an inn at Venice. A modern assailant of optimism would arm himself with social pity. There is no social pity in "Candide." Voltaire, whose light touch on familiar institutions opens them and reveals their absurdity, likes to remind us that the slaughter and pillage and murder which Candide?witnessed among the Bulgarians was perfectly regular, having been conducted according to the laws and usages of war. Had Voltaire lived today he would have done to poverty what he did to war. Pitying the poor, he would have shown us poverty as a ridiculous anachronism, and both the ridicule and the pity would have expressed his indignation. About Author: VOLTAIREFran?ois-Marie Arouet (1694 – 1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day.

Charles Dickens’ timeless story is brought to life in this vibrant new version by the award-winning playwright Neil Duffield. Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year! Well, it is for everyone except the miserable Scrooge. He prefers to spend Christmas all alone in his large house, instead of celebrating with mistletoe and merriment. Bah, humbug! But one cold, dark Christmas Eve Scrooge is surprised by the ghost of Marley, his former business partner. Marley warns Scrooge that he will be called upon by three spirits – each will take him on a mysterious and magical journey to show him the error of his ways… Can Scrooge discover the true wonder and meaning of Christmas before it’s too late?

In any military operation throughout history, few 24-hour periods have been as crucial as that of 6th June 1944. With the aid of specially commissioned maps, D-Day: The First 24 Hours series gives the dramatic history of the first 24 hours of the Normandy landings, and explains in detail the events that occurred in each landing zone. In this second volume of the series, the book describes the airborne landings by paratroopers and glider troops that secured the flanks of the Allied beachheads, including such famous encounters as Pegasus Bridge and Ste Mère Eglise, as well as the more secret operations carried out by the SAS, SOE and Maquis. With colour and black & white photographs and specially commissioned maps, the book is a guide to key events in the first 24 hours of the D-Day landings that saw the Allies successfully achieve a foothold in Northern Europe.

A series of short, single voice plays by writers based in the North West of England. These powerful, contemporary monologues share the struggles, courage, conflicts and joys of different characters facing difficult decisions in their lives. Developed through consultation with young people, they offer a range of authentic, memorable voices to stimulate discussion and participatory drama work. ‘First Date’ by Anne-Marie O’Connor: Sometimes friendship comes with a heavy price tag. ‘Getting it Right’ by Peter Spafford: Luke can't choose between his shirts, let alone his parents. ‘Results Day’ by Aelish Michael: Karly’s mum thinks she’s an angel, but what if she flaps her wings? ‘Close to Home’ by Mary Cooper: Jay’s little sister is pregnant and he’s livid – who’s he going to punish? ‘Weighed Down’ by Carla Monvid-Jenkinson and Mary Cooper: When Claire’s dad left, she thought that he was all she would lose. ‘Giggsy’s Legs’ by Michael Harvey: Do you choose everything you are or does it choose you?

A collection of three enchanting plays adapted from popular fairy tales and suitable for family audiences:?Tin Soldier (adapted from The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen), A Tasty Tale (Hansel and Gretel), Hood in the Wood (Little Red Riding Hood). Acclaimed playwright Noel Greig, has recreated these well-known tales for the stage with wit and imagination. All three plays have been performed throughout the UK by Tangere Arts, winning a? Time Out Critics' Choice Award . Teachers, youth theatres and amateur groups working with young performers will use this collection time and again for productions, drama classes and workshops - whether for one performer or many. Suitable for children aged 7+ The simple form and language of the plays belie their theatrical and psychological sophistication. Tin Soldier ' a powerful poetic drama, an epic fable for our times.' **** ?Independent A Tasty Tale (Hansel and Gretel) ' Delicious moments... fashioned into a rhyming feast.' ****?Time Out Hood in the Wood (Little Red Riding Hood) ' a first-rate piece of storytelling that will make children squeal with terrified delight and parents shiver with recognition. ' **** ?Guardian

Play about Ada Lovelace, the first computer and Artificial Intelligence today. Suitable for schools, colleges and youth groups.Offers good roles for girls/women to perform relating to STEM subjects.“You may turn the handle, and I will whirr and calculate without error!”Decades before the first computers are built, Ada imagines machines that can do anything, even compose beautiful pieces of music. Far beyond Ada’s future, a learning machine called Ginny breaks free of her routine and tests the boundaries of what ought to be possible.ADA is an intricate re-telling of the life and legacy of Ada Lovelace, pioneer of computing, paralleling her history with a contemporary story about the potential of artificial intelligence.

In the aftermath of The Troubles, two brothers near the border to the North, harbour a guilty secret... “Look, there’s no rules of the road out there. Not any more. So how do ya live? Ya use the only thing ya can. Best compass a man has. Only compass a man has. His own heart.” Set in a rural hamlet in Ireland, the isolated lives of two brothers are disturbed by the arrival of a mysterious young woman. This is a story about secrets, atonement, and how, through the forces of love and nature, damaged lives are redeemed. Reviews? “The Pond Theatre Company’s latest production, a world premiere of?The Naturalists?by Jaki McCarrick, promises naturalistic contemporary drama. It delivers on that promise with a well-crafted family drama defined by the 1979 Massacre at Narrow Water.”?Adrienne Sowers,?The Reviews Hub “Lovers of Irish theater and down-to-earth naturalism should like this one.” Diana Barth,?The Epoch Times “Perhaps unsurprising given the title, the play is striking for its naturalism.? Ms. McCarrick’s characters, especially as performed by this outstanding, all-Irish born leading trio, are painfully real and captivating to observe.” Robert Russo,?Stage Left “The Naturalists?introduces us to?Jaki McCarrick, whom we will surely be hearing from again, such is her gift for singular,?sharply drawn characters and dialogue with a touch of the lyric about it.” David Barbour,?Lighting and Sound America “This is fresh and authentic theater. The direction is deft. The characters capture you quickly; you never doubt them.??The script is a glimpse of a moment fraught with all the breakage engendered in the Troubles before, all the specific damage visited on these four people, and all the slim hopes of redemption.” Kathleen Campion,?Front Row Center? “McCarrick puts all the poetry of the play into Francis. He’s bursting with knowledge about the natural world and has the love of teaching others this as well.” Nicole Serratore,?Exeunt NYC “The Naturalists is a compelling look at how one’s “secret” past can suddenly and unexpectedly encroach on the present and delay one’s progress into the future.” David Roberts,?Theatre Reviews Limited ? Jaki McCarrick Jaki McCarrick is an award-winning writer of plays, poetry and fiction. She won the 2010 Papatango New Writing Prize for her play LEOPOLDVILLE, and her play BELFAST GIRLS, developed at the National Theatre London, was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the 2014 BBC Tony Doyle Award. BELFAST GIRLS premiered in Chicago in May 2015 to much critical acclaim (Windy City Times Critics’ Pick) and opened this spring in Vancouver. The West Coast Premiere of the play opens on November 17th in Portland Oregon. Jaki has also recently been selected for the Irish Film Board’s Talent Development Initiative to adapt BELFAST GIRLS for the screen. ?In 2015, her plays BELFAST GIRLS, LEOPOLDVILLE and THE MUSHROOM PICKERS (staged at the Southwark Playhouse in 2006 to several 4 Star reviews), were published by Samuel French. Her play BOHEMIANS was read at RADA on January 18th 2017, starring Imogen Stubbs and Rob Jarvis, directed by Tilly Vosburgh. In 2016 Jaki was shortlisted for the St. John’s College, Cambridge’s Harper-Wood Studentship for her short play TUSSY about Eleanor Marx, a piece she is currently developing. ? Jaki also won the 2010 Wasafiri prize for short fiction and followed this with the publication of her debut story collection, The Scattering, published by Seren Books. The book was shortlisted for the 2014 Edge Hill Prize. Winner of the inaugural John Lennon Poetry Competition, she has also had numerous poems published in literary journals including Ambit, Poetry Ireland Review, Irish Pages, Blackbox Manifold etc. ? Recently longlisted for the inaugural Irish Fiction Laureate, Jaki is currently editing her first novel and a second collection of short stories called Night of the Frogs. Screenplay projects also include adaptations of her short story Hellebores and her first play, THE MUSHROOM PICKERS. ? She has held numerous residencies including Writer-in-Residence at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris & also regularly writes arts pieces for the Times Literary Supplement (TLS), The Irish Examiner and other publications

Vera Maria Rosenberg a fost, probabil, cea mai important? femeie spion din al Doilea R?zboi Mondial. N?scut? ?n 1908 la Gala?i, a emigrat ?n Marea Britanie ?n 1933, fiind recrutat? ?n tinere?e de serviciile de informa?ii britanice. Ulterior ?i-a schimbat numele, pentru a-?i ascunde originea evreiasc?, iar dup? stabilirea ?n Marea Britanie a participat la nenum?rate misiuni secrete, ajung?nd ?n fruntea SOE, serviciul de opera?iuni speciale creat de Winston Churchill. Agen?ii ei au participat la nenum?rate opera?iuni vitale, inclusiv la preg?tirea debarc?rii ?n Normandia. ?n 1987, Fran?ois Mitterand i-a acordat Legiunea de Onoare, pentru aportul ei la eliberarea Fran?ei. Dup? r?zboi, Vera Atkins s-a retras ?ntr-un sat din Anglia, unde a r?mas p?n? la moarte, ?n 2000. Via?a i-a fost ?nconjurat? de mister, ?i pu?ini au ?tiut cine este cu adev?rat. Biografia lui Sarah Helm dezv?luie secretele celei despre care Ian Fleming, creatorul celebrului James Bond, spunea ??n adev?rata lume a spionilor, Vera Atkins a fost ?eful.“

Campaigns of World War II: Fall of the Reich is a military history of the Western European campaign from D-Day in June 1944 to the fall of Berlin in May 1945. Beginning with the Allied preparations for what would become Operation Overlord, from the initial discussions of Roosevelt and Churchill, to the deliberations and plans of Marshall and Brooke, and the subsequent appointment of commanders like Eisenhower, Montgomery and Ramsay, the book covers in detail the landings on the Normandy coast. Combining tactical coverage of events such as the severe fighting at Omaha and Pegasus Bridge, the Canadian success on Juno beach, and the 21st Panzer Division's aborted counterattack, with reporting of the reactions of Hitler and Rommel to the landings, the book provides an explanation of why the Allied advance ran out of steam, and a description of their struggle to escape the bocage hedgerows of Normandy. The US-led breakout in late July 1944 released Bradley and Patton's forces into the heart of France, and the liberation of Paris followed swiftly. A crumbling German defence led to Allied overconfidence and the resultant 'bridge too far' at Arnhem, but as the Allies approached the Rhine and the German border, resistance quickly stiffened. Hitler's last gamble, the attack through the Ardennes known as the Battle of the Bulge, brought temporary panic to the Allied ranks, but heroic stands at Bastogne and elsewhere, coupled with a German acute lack of petrol and the weather clearing to allow Allied aircraft to operate again, led to the defeat of the last Wehrmacht attack in the west. The final year of the war saw the Allies advancing as occupying forces into the heart of Germany, adopting Eisenhower's broad front strategy. Finally the book examines why the decision was made to allow the Red Army to occupy Berlin and remain on the western bank of the Elbe river. Part of a five-volume series on the Second World War written by prominent military historians, Fall of the Reich is a masterful account of the 1944–45 campaign in Western Europe that describes both the action on the front line and the decisions made behind the scenes that decided the fate of Nazi Germany.

The best collection of suffrage plays on offer. Introduced and set in historical context by Dr Susan Croft, formerly Curator at the Theatre Museum in London, with a chronology of suffrage drama from 1907-1914.? The astonishing women involved in the Actresses Franchise League set up their own theatre companies and engaged with the battle for the vote by writing and performing campaigning plays all over the country. They launched themselves onto the political stage with their satirical plays, sketches and monologues whilst at the same time challenging the staid conventions of the Edwardian Theatre of the day. The legacy of their inspiring work to change both theatre and society has survived in the political theatre, agit-prop and verbatim theatre we know today.? Full playtexts from the following: ’How the Vote was Won’ by Cicely Hamilton and Chris St. John ’The Apple’ by Inez Bensusan ’Jim s Leg’ by L.S. Phibbs ’Votes for Women’ by Elizabeth Robins ’At the Gates’ by Alice Chapin ’In the Workhouse’ by Margaret Wynne Nevinson ’A Change of Tenant’ by Helen Margaret Nightingale.

Macho men or metrosexual guys? Mummy’s boys or blokes under their missus’ thumbs? Self-made entrepreneurs, pukka professionals and successful executives with their Mercedes Benz lives and designer-clad wives; husbands, sons, uncles, brothers and fathers – these successful, soulful and spirited Asian men have come a long way from their origins but they’ve all got roots! The Trouble with Asian Men is a vital, tender and hilarious insight into lives that surround us every day. From the award-winning theatre company that brought us East is East, a revealing verbatim comedy that has played to sell-out houses internationally.