Opal Sunset marks the exuberant introduction of Clive James s poetry to an American audience. Praised after the publication of Cultural Amnesia as one of the finest prose stylists of his generation, Clive James is now, with the publication of this collection, being granted recognition as the poet he has always been. For much of his long career it was hard to realize that James s gift for poetry underlay his achievements in other fields. First as a television critic on Fleet Street, & later as a television personality in his own right, he achieved such fame for writing the way he spoke that his poetry was regarded as an idiosyncratic sideline, as if no celebrity could write worthy verse. A conundrum presented itself: how could a serious poet also be a television star? But for James, a duty to the discipline of verse was always fundamental, & his accumulated poetic output became impossible to ignore. As early as the 1970s, James s long, mock epic Peregrine Prykke s Pilgrimage through the London Literary World received almost unprecedented attention in his adopted Engl&, while later, his satirical short poem The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered became not only a standard verse"ed at fancy dinner parties but entered the culture as lines to be memorized by unpublished writers everywhere. James was suddenly in the odd position of having written famous poems well before he became a famous poet. Finally, the publication of a volume of his collected verse, The Book of My Enemy, earned him in 2003 the reputation as a serious poet that he has long deserved. Less inhibited by fixed categories, a new generation of critics has confirmed what James s public has instinctively known, that he brings his poems to life with all the resources to be found in his prose: wit, imagination, social observation, & a dazzling play of language. In addition, his poems have an unmistakably characteristic rhythm that makes it compulsory to read them aloud. Switching between strict stanzas & free forms as the occasion suits, James brings a compulsively readable coherence to either mode; & always, over & above the binding force of his metrical assurance, there is a lyricism that brings even the plainest statement to extra life, & which often enters deeply into realms of human emotion. His later poems about the tragedy that struck his mother & father, for example, show an intensity of regret that mark his maturity as a poet & bring out his unashamed nostalgia for his homel&, Australia. Opal Sunset is a treasure chamber of epigrammatic jewels to which the reader will return again & again.” ...

Map No. 148, Opavsko, in a series of GPS compatible topographic maps of the Czech Republic at 1:75.000 from Shocart highlighting both signposted cycling routes & other local cycling paths, with route profiles & additional tourist information. Relief is shown by contour lines, spot heights, & subtle hill-shading. The maps show roads, tracks, railways, cable cars, chairlifts, & a range of natural landscape features & landmarks. Coloured symbols depict plenty of additional tourist features e.g. information centres, places of interest, antiquities, shelters, campsites, accommodation, bicycle services etc. An overprint highlights both signposted routes & other recommended routes which have no terrain markers. For all bike routes intermediate distances are shown. Hiking paths are also highlighted. Latitude & longitude margin ticks are at 5' intervals. Each map is accompanied by a booklet containing general information on the Czech cycle route network, elevation profile diagram for selected routes, plus an index for locations of historical & geographical interest, bicycle service workshops, information centres, & tourist attractions. Map legend & text are in English, German & Czech. ...

Open Britain is a colourful, definitive guide to accessible travel in Britain for both those people with a disability & any able-bodied travelling companions. The guide has assessed & audited the over 1000 places to stay, & has separate indexes for mobility, hearing & visual needs. Travel planning, hotels, bed & breakfasts, cottages, camping parks, caravan parks, holiday parks, attractions, air travel, road travel, rail travel & sea travel are looked at, with ideas for great days out & useful national & regional access contacts. ...

The past, if there is such a thing, is mostly empty space, great expanses of nothing, in which significant persons & events float. Nigeria was like that for me: mostly forgotten, except for those few things that I remembered with outsize intensity. Along the streets of Manhattan, a young Nigerian doctor doing his residency wanders aimlessly. The walks meet a need for Julius: they are a release from the tightly regulated mental environment of work, & they give him the opportunity to process his relationships, his recent breakup with his girlfriend, his present, his past. Though he is navigating the busy parts of town, the impression of countless faces does nothing to assuage his feelings of isolation. But it is not only a physical landscape he covers; Julius crisscrosses social territory as well, encountering people from different cultures & classes who will provide insight on his journey
- which takes him to Brussels, to the Nigeria of his youth, & into the most unrecognizable facets of his own soul. A hunting novel about national identity, race, liberty, loss, dislocation, & surrender, Teju Cole`s ” Open City” seethes with intelligence. Written in a clear, rhythmic voice that lingers, this book is a mature, profound work by an important new author who has much to say about our world.
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When her partner disappears, a young veterinary assistant drifts from the city towards Open Door, a small town in the Argentinean Pampas named after its psychiatric hospital. Embarking on a new life in the country, she finds herself living with an ageing ranch-hand & courted by an official investigating her partner`s disappearance. She might settle down, although a local girl is also irresistible.. . This evocative, atmospheric book makes a quiet case for the possibility of finding contentment in unexpected places, with unexpected people. ...

Time Out Open London allows visitors to meticulously plan their stay in London, from arrival to departure, & gives them the most inclusive visitor experience possible, as well as planning for & enjoying the London 2012 Olympic Games & Paralympic Games. The guide will select the very best Sightseeing, Walks, Shops, Nightlife & Activities, all with full transport details & divided by location. Anyone with mobility or accessibility issues
- from parents with young children to the elderly or wheelchair users
- will find this guide a great asset in getting the most out of London.

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Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: when adopted midwife Mariam embarks on a project to protect an abandoned premature baby, she is forced to face her own abandonment years before. Time is running out before the baby is sent to the orphanage. Mysterious characters from the city surrounding the hospital will be crucial in determining the baby`s fate, as will a workaholic British doctor with whom Mariam finds herself falling in love... Alice Allan`s debut novel is an original, vivid & moving story about attachment & loss. ...

This is the book Chavez gave Obama: the hottest book written about the coolest continent. Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social & cultural narrative of the highest quality, & perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx. Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organized the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation. Thus he is concerned with gold & silver, cacao & cotton, rubber & coffee, fruit, hides & wool, petroleum, iron, nickel, manganese, copper, aluminum ore, nitrates, & tin. These are the veins which he traces through the body of the entire continent, up to the Rio Grande & throughout the Caribbean, & all the way to their open ends where they empty into the coffers of wealth in the United States & Europe. Weaving fact & imagery into a rich tapestry, Galeano fuses scientific analysis with the passions of a plundered & suffering people. ...

It has been one of those days. You`ve worked like a Trojan, displaying titanic strength & stoic endurance to overcome the Herculean labours that have faced you in order to meet that deadline. We regularly employ classically-derived expressions in our everyday language, yet many of us have little understanding of the origin of these common phrases. But an incomplete classical education need no longer be your Achilles heel. Opening Pandora`s Box offers a light-hearted yet fascinating look at the stories behind the expressions. For example, did you know that the phrase `the face that launched a thousand ships` originates from the story of the kidnapping of Helen of Troy, but the actual line comes from a poem by Christopher Marlowe? Opening Pandora`s Box provides a useful introduction to classical mythology as well as giving an insight into our language. ...

Openshaw in 1905 in a fascinating series of reproductions of old Ordnance Survey plans in the Alan Godfrey Editions, ideal for anyone interested in the history of their neighbourhood or family. Two versions have been published for this area. The map covers a busy area of east Manchester; the southern part is dominated by railway & engineering works. Coverage stretches from Wellington Street eastward to Edge Lane Mills, & from Cross Street southward to Brunswick Street. Features include Ashbury Railway Carriage Works, Otto Gas Engine Works, Ashbury`s GCR Sidings, engine sheds, Gorton Foundry, GCR Locomotive Works, Gorton Brook Chemical Works, Union Iron Works, Gas Plant Works, Ashbury`s station, Gorton station, etc. Ashton Old Road runs across the centre of the map & the area north is less developed, with many streets of terraces but also some open l&. The Manchester & Ashton Canal is at the top of the map. Other features include Shawcross Mill, St Aidan`s church, Belsize Car Works, Shade Hall Farm, Canal Iron Foundry, Victoria Mill, Electric Motor Works, High Bank Mill, etc. On the reverse are extracts from contemporary street directories. About the Alan Godfrey Editions of the 25” OS Series: Selected towns in Great Britain & Ireland are covered by maps showing the extent of urban development in the last decades of the 19th & early 20th century. The plans have been taken from the Ordnance Survey mapping & reprinted at about 15 inches to one mile (1:4, 340). On the reverse most maps have historical notes & many also include extracts from contemporary directories. Most maps cover about one mile (1.6kms) north/south, one & a half miles (2.4kms) across; adjoining sheets can be combined to provide wider coverage.FOR MORE INFORMATION & A COMPLETE LIST OF ALL AVAILABLE TITLES PLEASE CLICK ON THE SERIES LINK. ...