Kirjahaku

This is the story of 61-year-old Mildred Aldrich and her experiences of the Great War. She retired to a small hill-top house called La Creste in February 1914, with views across the Marne river and valley, little realising she would become embroiled in the first major battle of the war. In spite of the danger she decided to stay and help the British soldiers. Her home was for a few days behind German lines but the British pushed the Germans into retreat and La Creste remained in British territory for the duration. They entrenched in the Marne Valley and Mildred's 'beloved panorama' as she described the view, turned into the valley of horror and death. Informed by journalist Mildred's unpublished journals and voices of those serving in the BEF, along with historical military background, this book examines events from the unique perspective of a remarkable woman who lived through them.

This 3rd edition compilation includes a new foreword by the author, the book 'Anything But Merry ' and the Screenplay version adapted from the book titled The Last Edwardian Star. With a foreword by Sonia Berry.Discover the extraordinary life of one of Edwardian England's most celebrated and revered musical comedy stars, Lily Elsie. From her childhood days in the music halls of Salford and her rise to fame as the child singing star "Little Elsie" (hailed by press and public as "the infant Patti", after the world famous opera star Adelina Patti) to her arrival in London as a young woman.Her association with the most powerful theatre impresario of the time, George Edwardes, the father of the musical comedy genre, with his innovative and lavish productions at The Gaiety and Daly's Theatre. Her friends included Gertie Millar, the most powerful and luminous of the "Gaiety Girls".Elsie's rise to fame as Sonia in Lehar's The Merry Widow in 1907, produced by Edwardes at Daly's Theatre, was achieved in spite of her lack of confidence and overwhelming stage fright that would leave her sick with nervous exhaustion and cause the press to accuse her of being "a part time actress" when she missed performances.Her image would endorse everything from toothpaste to face creams; the costumes and hats she wore for The Merry Widow were emulated everywhere. Retiring from the stage in 1911 to marry a handsome and wealthy husband, she enjoyed a brief period of domestic harmony as Mrs Bullough. But it wasn't to last.The early signs of the paranoid neurosis and mental health problems which would overwhelm her in later years were already in evidence. She mastered the art of being reclusive long before Garbo took up the mantle. Her final years were spent in isolation, her personality eroded by her mental health problems. Elsie died alone in 1962, a tragic end to a life which had promised so much. In fact her life had been Anything But Merry from the very beginning.

This new play charts the strange and intense relationship between All Souls Fellow, and historian, A.L. Rowse and German aristocrat Adam von Trott zu Solz. They met as young men in Oxford in 1929 and remained close until Trott was executed by the Nazis in 1944 for his part in the failed July 20th plot to assassinate Hitler. The play includes Al Bowlly and some of his recordings - so evocative of the 1930s. Rowse never got over Trott's death and his influence on him continued until Rowse's own death aged 93 in 1997. In spite of his brilliance, Rowse never felt that he really fitted in. He often made outrageous statements to shock his fellow academics - his cynicism for the world grew until he was quite bitter about waste, human proliferation but most importantly his own income tax bill "This filthy twentieth century - I hate its guts "

This book gives us an insight into the life of his grandfather Reg Pratley, born in a small Berkshire village called Appleton near Oxford, who ran away to be a fairground showman. He worked and toured with the famous William (Billy) Nichols fairground empire and established himself as a Master Showman.

Fairground and social history during the first half of the 20th Century. Walter Edward Reginald Pratley was a farm boy from berkshire who realised his dream to become a Master Showman with William (Billy) Nichols fairground empire.

This special 4th edition of Ivor Novello includes In Search of Ruritania and the unabridged autobiography Novello penned in 1933 titled My Life. An honest and affectionate journey into the life, work and world of Ivor Novello by the consultant on the Oscar & BAFTA winning film Gosford Park and BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week.

Discover the extraordinary life of one of Edwardian England's most celebrated and revered musical comedy stars, Lily Elsie. Fron her childhood in the music-halls of Salford and her rise to fame as the child singing star 'Little Elsie' and her subsequent rise to fame as Sonia in Lehar's The Merry Widow in 1907 at London's Daly's Theatre.

Evelyn Waugh described the Cliftons of Lytham Hall as "all tearing mad" during visits in the 1930s. Join him and Harry Clifton on a journey of love, friendship, excess and liberation as they fight to be free of the sexual, dynastic and religious expectations the world demands of them.With a mix of fact and fiction, join us for this journey to a land that might-have-been as we meet the eccentric Harry Clifton and his family, and his adventures with friends Bertie Pemberton-Billing and Evelyn Waugh at Oxford in the 1920s, whilst an undergraduate at Christ Church. Discover their association with the Hypocrites Club and the notorious private drinking clubs that revelled in hedonism and sexual liberation. Harry and Evelyn were both eventually sent down from Oxford without degrees. Harry's irresponsible decisions, after the death of his father, and his wanton disregard for his family's heritage and reputation, and his obsession with the occult and mysticism, that led him to rely on the White Goddess and the Ghost of Hollywood to guide him with disastrous financial decisions. His darker side inspired by his favourite author and poet Edgar Alan Poe. From an equally disastrous marriage to purchasing Imperial Faberge Eggs, private suites at the Ritz Hotel and Claridge's, and the squandering of eye-watering amounts of money, a doomed foray into film producing with Brian Desmond Hurst, his journey continues through the 1930s as his reckless behaviour threatens hundreds of years of his family's reputation and heritage. On the eve of WW2 it all comes crashing down. Evelyn Waugh decides to separate from his friend but do the seeds of that friendship with Harry influence Waugh's character Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited? His most famous novel was finally published in 1945 much to the displeasure of Harry's widowed mother Violet Clifton. She never spoke to Waugh again.