Kirjahaku

Guided by Arthur Rimbaud's mottos "Change ton vie," and "Je est un autre," Jamie Reid began publishing poetry in TISH magazine at barely 20 years old, in 1961. This selection draws from those brilliantly impressionist early poems, through his contemporary writing expressive of an urban particularity within a sophisticated global discourse. Schooled in the modernist poets, whose dream it was that the world could be positively changed by deliberate human action, Reid has never abandoned the objective of abetting change in the world, in society, and in the individual human personality. "The Space Between," we discover through his concise and revealing introduction to this collection, refers to the period between 1968 and 1987, when Reid became involved in activist politics and "wrote little else besides political cant ...because it seemed quite clear to me ...that writing poetry was impossible without some knowledge of the political forces which shape the lives and deaths of people and cause so much suffering worldwide."Since taking up the craft again in 1987, Reid has shown in his insightful "explosions of words" the clear influences of the signifier and the signified, and neo-structuralist theories of representation. The field of his contemporary work is suspended between the poles of the political and the lyrical, between the confrontation of the world of human affairs and the undeniable beauty of the earth and nature--the simple delight taken in life itself--with a clear understanding that the use of the word "natural" is almost always ideologically determined.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE TELEGRAPH SPORTS BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR AWARD 2019Monsieur X is a dazzling tale of glamour, riches, violence and ultimately tragedy.Patrice des Moutis was a handsome, charming and well-educated Frenchman with an aristocratic family, a respectable insurance business, and a warm welcome in the smartest Parisian salons. He was also a compulsive gambler and illegal bookie. Between the late 1950s and the early 1970s, Des Moutis made a daring attempt to beat the French state-run betting system. His success so alarmed the authorities that they repeatedly changed the rules of betting in an effort to stop him. And so a battle of wills began, all played out on the front pages of the daily newspapers as the general public willed Des Moutis on to ever greater triumphs.He remained one step ahead of the law until finally the government criminalised his activities, driving him into the arms of the underworld. Eventually the net began to close, high-profile characters found themselves the target of the state’s investigation, and people began turning up dead...

A True-Crime Story Set Against the Backdrop of an After-Dark World Filled with New Money, Hedonism, and ExcessGripping, atmospheric, true-crime noir. Bandit Country takes you on a thrilling journey into the shadowy underworld of England's organized crime. In this atmospheric tale, you are introduced to a cast of characters as diverse as the luxurious nightclubs they frequent: racketeers, gamblers, glamorous women, entrepreneurs, bunny girls, politicians, and policemen. At the heart of the story are the Luvaglio brothers, visionaries who dared to dream of an empire amidst the industrial skylines and bridges of Newcastle.Unfolding like a cinematic thriller. Bandit Country is more than just a true crime story; it's a meticulously researched and emotionally charged portrayal of a bygone era. It delves deep into the heart of the British gambling boom and the forces that shaped it, with a particular focus on the influence of organized crime and the elusive Mafia empire. For fans of true crime biographies, books about the Mafia, gripping suspense, and noir books, Bandit Country offers a unique and captivating narrative that inspired the British classic gangster film, Get Carter.Inside: Discover the secrets of an empire built on ambition and shattered by betrayalExplore the rise of the British gambling industry during the 1960sFind the perfect addition to organized crime books for the true crime obsessedIf you love books about true crime such as The Life We Chose, Five Families, or The Best New True Crime Stories, then Bandit Country is for you.

A Temporary Stranger is comprised of three sections: Homages, Fake Poems, and Recollections. In Homages we find poems of reverence and honour, tributes to writers who had opened up the world of poetry to Jamie. There are poems to Spicer, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Breton, Francis Ponge, Tristan Tzara and others. At the centre of A Temporary Stranger are the Fake Poems, so called because "There is no art on earth that can fully represent the exact and flowing experience of viewing stone within the flow of water and the waving light within the water and around the stone, and the subsequent sense of awe and beauty that arises in the interaction between the seer and the seen... . In that sense, all art is fake... " The third section, Recollections, is an assemblage of articles paeans, really - to Robin Blaser, bill bissett, Warren Tallman, John Newlove, Curt Lang, Nellie McClung, Artie Gold, Kim Goldberg, Kate Braid, and others. Here, as friend and editor Karl Siegler states in his Foreword, "we encounter memory-not as a form of nostalgia for a bygone golden age of a romanticised pastoral arcadia ... but as an historical record of who did what when, and to what end, throughout the counterculture revolution that shaped the lives of Jamie Reid and his companions over the past six decades."

Welcome to an after-dark world of new money, hedonism and excess. A world of luxurious nightclubs where racketeers, gamblers and glamorous women mixed with entrepreneurs, bunny girls, politicians and policemen. Bandit Country is a gripping, atmospheric true-crime noir. It is the story of Britain's 1960's gambling boom, as the country emerged from years of hardship to embrace exotic night-life and entertainment, all supplied by the Mafia. It is an emotional, visceral story of brothers: the Luvaglios, who dreamed of an empire founded among the hard industrial skylines and bridges of Newcastle, built on good times and bright lights - dreams that, for a moment, were lived in technicolour; and the Kray twins, who looked up to this new kingdom from London and saw a slice of action they wanted for themselves. And above all, it is a story of betrayal, murder and a shocking miscarriage of justice, as empires crumble, friends turn on friends, and the good times come screeching to a halt. Sure to be loved by fans of Peaky Blinders, this story - that inspired classic British gangster film Get Carter - isn't quite like anything you've read before. Turn the page and roll the dice. . .

'The incredible story of the man who went from trying to win the Grand National to playing a key role in co-ordinating the French Resistance.' Daily Express An English racehorse trainer and horse dealer's son, John Goldsmith was born and brought up in Paris and spoke fluent French. In 1942 he was recruited in to the legendary Special Operations Executive, or SOE, and dropped three times behind enemy lines. In 1943 he organised the escape of a French air force general across the Pyrenees but a few months later he was caught by the Gestapo in Paris only to engineer his own getaway from a locked third floor hotel room. By the end of the war he had been awarded the DSO, MC, Croix de Guerre and Legion d'Honneur. Resuming his peacetime occupation in 1946 Goldsmith was sent numerous French racehorses to train. He found uncanny similarities between the secret agent's milieu and the black market world of Britain's post war racetracks and, in partnership with a high stakes Mayfair bookie, he orchestrated some of the most audacious betting coups in racing history.