文森特·梵·高的生活和创作是如此紧密地联系在一起，以至于不了解他的生平便无法理解其作品。他作为生存环境的局外人而不被人理解成为痛苦的现代艺术殉难者的化身。一篇文章这样描述他，“一个可怕的疯狂的天才，常常表现卓越，有时荒诞，总是站在近乎病态的边缘。”1888年2月，文森特离开巴黎前往阿尔勒，那几个月是他一生中产的时期，次年他开始了著名的自残行为并且先后三次住院。据说他是在1890年7月29日，在一片田野里朝自己开枪自杀的，他的弟弟特奥这样描述他生命的后时刻，“他说想自杀，当时我坐在他身边向他保证我们会努力治愈他······但他回答说，悲哀将会永远持续。”

身为画家、设计师、奇异物品发明者、作家以及电影导演，达利可以说是著名的超现实主义者。布纽埃尔、洛卡、毕加索和布列塔尼都对他的生涯产生了巨大的影响。达利的电影，《一只安达卢西亚犬》标志着他进入了巴黎超现实派，在那里他遇到了盖拉，他一生的伴侣和灵感源泉。但是，当1939年他与安德烈·布列塔尼决裂，他与此派关系交恶。然而，达利的艺术哲学与艺术表现仍然归于超现实主义，并成为超现实主义的典范。终其一生，达利是一位天才的具有自我提升力、创造力的神秘人物。

保罗·高更早是一名水手，之后成为巴黎一名成功的股票经纪人，不过1874年他开始在周末画画，9年之后，在一次股市崩盘之后，他退休成为全职画家。1891年高更离开法国，在塔希提度过两年时光，并决定了他未来的生活和职业。1895年，他回到那里。在塔希提，高更发现了原始的自然艺术，并真诚地用画布展现出来。从那时起他的画作表现了这样的风格：构图简洁；色彩纯净明亮，具有观赏性；对异度风景的从容表现。高更称之为“合成象征理论”。

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?

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

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.

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?

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

A watchman on top of the house, reporting that he has been lying restless there like a dog for a year, for so rules the expectant manly-willed heart of a woman (that woman being Clytemnestra awaiting the return of her husband, who has arranged that mountaintop beacons give the signal when Troy has fallen). He laments the fortunes of the house, but promises to keep silent: 'A huge ox has stepped onto my tongue.' However, when Agamemnon returns, he brings with him Cassandra, the enslaved daughter of the Trojan king, Priam, and a priestess of Apollo, as his concubine, further angering Clytemnestra.

A singular fatality has ruled the destiny of nearly all the most famous of Leonardo da Vinci's works. Two of the three most important were never completed, obstacles having arisen during his life-time, which obliged him to leave them unfinished; namely the Sforza Monument and the Wall-painting of the Battle of Anghiari, while the third—the picture of the Last Supper at Milan—has suffered irremediable injury from decay and the repeated restorations to which it was recklessly subjected during the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries. Nevertheless, no other picture of the Renaissance has become so wellknown and popular through copies of every description.

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.“

i corbul, croncnind, a rguit, Vestind c sorii fost au aruncai! Venii! Venii! Voi, duhuri, ce vegheai Pe gndurile morii, crunta zee! i m nvai s nu mai fiu femeie! M umplei, de la cretet pn’ la tlpi Cu o rutate nenduplecat! The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top full Of direst cruelty!

Fire?te c?, de la schimbarea de paradigm? numit? apari?ia genurilor rock ?i folk (precedate de jazz, dar mai cu seam? de blues... ?i ?n m?sur? cov?r?itoare de explozia beat!), ?n Rom?nia comunist? (?ncerc?nd mereu s? fie sincron? cu voga occidental?), lucrurile n-au fost tocmai roz. Unii chiar se bat ?n piept c? de la ei ?ncoace se poate vorbi de...; al?ii (implica?i direct) sunt sc?rbi?i de ceea ce se ?nt?mpl?, mai cu seam? ?n lipsa unei istorii oficiale ?i documentate, ?i ??i v?d de treab?. ?n era net/Wikipedia, oricine se poate da ?n stamb?, se poate lua la tr?nt? (sub pav?za anonimatului, implicit a nesim?irii) cu orice; cum anticipa parc? Andy Warhol, a venit vremea ?n care oricine va fi fost vedet? 15 minute.Dar au existat ?i vedete reale, grei ai genurilor a?a-zis u?oare, mon?tri sacri! Celor acum ?n umbr? (cite?te underground) le este dedicat acest volum. M?rturii orale puse cap la cap despre aceia care au trecut ?i – iat? – se ?ntorc ?n Clubul Arhitecturii. Dac? un Cenaclu ?Flac?ra“, la ?nceput genial ?n scopuri, a fost mai apoi r?st?lm?cit ideologic ?i impus aproape cu for?a p?n? la implozie, clubul – recte pivni?a – din strada Bl?nari nr. 14 a rezistat peste decenii intrinsec; pe temelia solidificat? de la o zi la alta, de la un artist la altul, de la o bere la alta... Din student ?n student (dar nu numai prin ei), ?tafeta a tot fost preluat? de genera?iile care s-au perindat, iar ast?zi ne-am trezit cu o ?ntreag? istorie care apas? pe funda?iile cl?dirii vechi..., dar f?r? bulin? ro?ie! Nu, Club A nu va c?dea, a?a cum va exista ?n continuare ?i Casa Studen?ilor din Bucure?ti (ca ?i cele din Timi?oara, Ia?i, Cluj...), ?i Radioul, ?i Televiziunea, ?i Electrecordul...Din cuprins: Amintiri ? Clubul de pariuri muzicale sau Cu... v?nt ?nainte... din pupa! ? A fost o dat?... din 1969 ? Primul Festival Na?ional de Muzic? Pop ?Club A“ (16–22 decembrie 1969) ? Ro?u ?i Negru ? Romanticii ? Chromatic Grup ? Sideral (Modal Quartet) ? Olympic ‘64 ? Phoenix ? Coral... ?i Adrian Ivani?chi ? Al doilea Festival Na?ional de Muzic? Pop ?Club A“ (10–17 mai 1971) ? Modern Grup ? Metronom ? Mondial ? Timi?oara, la vest de Rom?nia ? Carusel ? Post-scriptum la al doilea festival ? Folk ?n Club A ? Mihai Munteanu ?Michone“ ? Dorin Liviu Zaharia ?Chubby“ ? Mircea ?Ciocu“ Vintil? ? Florian ?Mo?u“ Pitti? ? Doru St?nculescu ? Sorin Minghiat ? Dan Oprina ?i Mircea Valeriu Popa ? Nicu Vladimir ? Marcela Saftiuc ? Adriana Ausch ? Anda C?lug?reanu ? Zoia Alecu ? Catena ? FFN ? Valeriu Sterian (?i Compania de Sunet) ? Mircea Bodolan ? Curtea Veche nr. 43 ? Al treilea Festival ?Club A“ (5–8 iunie 1979) ? Metropol ? Academica ? Experimental Q ? Modal Q ? Mircea Florian (din Transilvania) ? Al patrulea Festival ?Club A“ (16–19 martie 1981) ? Dan Andrei Aldea ?i Sfinx ? Pro Musica ? Accent ? Redivivus ? Basorelief ? Gramophon/Post Scriptum ?i... Mircea Baniciu ? Semnal M ? Sorin Chifiriuc ?i Domino/Roata ? Grup ‘74 ? Club A – 15 ani (12–17 martie 1984) ? Nicu Alifantis ? Iris ? Liviu Tudan & Ro?u ?i Negru ? Al cincilea Festival ?Club A“ (28 februarie–1 martie 1990) ? Compact ? Holograf ? Celelalte Cuvinte ? Gala ?Club A – 30 de ani“ (18 iunie 1999)?/ ?Club A – 34 de ani“ (4 iunie 2003) ? Sfinx (Experience) ? Alexandru Andrie? ? Cargo ? Timpuri Noi ? Sfatul ?b?tr?nilor“ ? Al ?aptelea Festival ?Club A“ (13–18 mai 2011) ? Imagini ?necenzurate“

Rose cannot remember what came before the house at the edge of the forest. Gwynne says he magicked her out of the flowers, but she’s not so sure. She has played the part of the perfect farmer’s wife for Lewis, who is kept firmly in place by his uncle Gwynne, and accepted her lonely existence. Then a stranger is seen in the forest. What lengths will she go to, to escape the life chosen for her? A contemporary tale of desire, beauty, betrayal and revenge. Award-winning Kaite O’Reilly has written for National Theatre Wales and the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Her work has been produced across the UK and internationally. Her awards include the Peggy Ramsay Award, and the Ted Hughes prize for New Works in Poetry.

London's recent history captured in dramatic form. Created from dozens of personal testimonies, this is the story of the changing face of work today. Surrey Docks in South-East London was once a thriving commercial hub, hosting some of the UK’s leading commercial brands, including Crosse & Blackwell, Sarson’s, Peek Freans and Lipton’s. These huge organisations created a myriad of jobs for local people, and the community prospered. But, with the decline of the docks in the 1970s, factories closed down or relocated, work patterns changed and redevelopment began. ‘From Docks to Desktops’ explores the fascinating story of how one community has survived the 21st-century challenges of urban change and renewal.

Wilde's dramatic masterpiece set in London. Many of the themes of An Ideal Husband were influenced by the situation Oscar Wilde found himself in during the early 1890s. 'Sooner or later we shall all have to pay for what we do. But no one should be entirely judged by their past.'

A masterpiece of modern drama, The Seagull dramatises the romantic and artistic conflicts between four characters: the ingenue Nina, the fading actress Irina, her son the symbolist playwright Konstantin, and the famous middlebrow story writer Trigorin.

The Survival Handbook takes you through all the things you need to know about surviving disasters and staying alive in the wild, such as where to find water in the desert; how to build shelters from locally-available materials that will keep out the wind and rain but will also be ventilated; what plants are safe to eat and what are deadly poisonous; and what animals will pose a threat in survival situations. Packed with tips from the world's elite special forces and other survival specialists, this is a handy reference to surviving in the wild. [This is a text-only ebook edition.]

Set on a tropical island where Robinson Crusoe found himself after a terrible storm at sea, we follow his life and adventures far away from civilization. A novel which has inspired countless imitations and adaptations, remains one of the most original and inspiring stories in the English language.