Kirjahaku

This is the first comprehensive study of the life and music of Alan Rawsthorne (1905-71), one of the leading British composers of the twentieth century. Rawsthorne came from the same generation of composers as Britten, Walton, Tippett, and Constant Lambert. Since his death in 1971 his music, after a period of comparative neglect, is currently enjoying a revival in performance and recording. The composer and pianist John McCabe here brings a lifetime's knowledge of the man and his music to a vivid portrait of Rawsthorne's life, drawing on conversations with his family, friends, and colleagues as well as contemporary documentation. Almost every one of his works is discussed, many of them in detail, demonstrating the versatility and range of Rawsthorne's vision, from popular works, such as Street Corner and the piano concertos, to the remarkable power of his lesser-known later works. In particular McCabe draws attention to the astonishing renewal of Rawsthorne's creative enery during his later period, and the immense broadening of his emotional and technical horizons leading to such masterpieces as the Third Symphony and Carmen Vitale. He makes a powerful case for a thorough reassessment of Rawsthorne's oeuvre. A complimentary CD provides the reader with a representative sample of Rawsthorne's music. Please note, customers are required to send away for the accompanying CD. To request your copy please email: [email protected]

Everything is related...Scientist and part-time dreamer, Dr Darren White is losing the plot. Work has descended into a distinctly unscientific mess and his research is non-existent. Taking time out from discovering the last great theory of the twentieth century, Darren begins an illicit investigation into Class A pharmaceuticals and fears he may be on the verge of murdering an irritating colleague. What's more worrying though is the sudden appearance of a Bomb in his Head, which needs defusing, and soon. Darren has tried everything to arrest his helpless slide: the catchily named Operation MWIMI (Make Work More Interesting) foundered on the rocks of his facial hair, and The Day of Rules turned into the most unruly of days. Nothing has really helped. And now he needs to get his life in order because he has met Neuro Girl, who doesn't look like the sort of woman who would stand for any bombs going off in her vicinity.The more Darren searches for order, the more elusive it becomes, until the surprise contents of a stolen computer suggest that things are rarely what they seem. And when your only hope is that life isn't logical, then you know you're in trouble...don't you?

Cagney came from a poor Irish-American New York family but once he found his metier as an actor, it was not long before he was recognized as a brilliantly energetic and powerful phenomenon. After the tremendous impact of Public Enemy - in which he notoriously pushed half a grapefruit into Mae Clarke's face - he was typecast as a gangster because of the terrifying violence that seemed to be pent up within him. Years of pitched battle with Warner Brothers finally liberated him from those roles, and he went on to star in such triumphs as the musicals Yankee Doodle Dandy (winning the 1942 Oscar for best actor) and Love Me or Leave Me. Even so, one of his greatest later roles involved a return to crime - as the psychopathic killer in the terrifying White Heat. He retired from films in 1961 after making Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three, only to return twenty years later for Ragtime. But however much Cagney personified violence and explosive energy on the screen, in life he was a quiet, introspective, and deeply private man, a poet, painter, and environmentalist, whose marriage to his early vaudeville partner was famously loyal and happy. His story is one of the few Hollywood biographies that reflect a fulfilled life as well as a spectacular career.

In the summer of 1945, Eberhard Bethge began the search for traces of his colleague and friend Dietrich Bonhoeffer. From as early as September 1945, Hermann Pünder provided Bethge a first-hand account of Bonhoeffer's final days. Five years on, another resource arrived in the guise of the British agent Captain Payne Best, whose 1950 publication The Venlo Incident quickly became a bestseller. Bethge was much impressed with the Englishman's account, so much so that he opted for a wholesale incorporation of the relevant section of Best's work in his own narrative. The tale of the final week of Bonhoeffer's life came to be told to an expanding international audience by a captured British spy. So things would remain for over seventy years. But now, Best's account need no longer be the sole and defining narrative voice. Other first-hand accounts and sources have been unearthed.By dint of revisiting original, newly published, and unpublished sources in six languages, much translation work, and input from Hermann's son, Dr Tilman Pünder, John McCabe tells the full story of Bonhoeffer's final week. "Myths" that have grown up and been extensively reiterated can now be exposed, mistakes corrected, and perspectives broadened.Adding more substance, colour, and depth to a previously monochrome narrative, the book's "layered approach," which includes historical material from the time period in question, aims to provide a better framework from within which to understand more fully the witness and contribution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. McCabe proposes that a richer appreciation of the resisting spirit of Bonhoeffer (and others) may further study of, and engagement with, the Bonhoeffer Corpus.

"Both timeless and timely, I believe Igniting Your Life holds the promise of being a limitless resource of hope and inspiration."- Cherie Soria, founder and director Living Light International, RawChef.com"Igniting Your Life is a book written by an independent thinker for independent thinkers. Or, chances are, you will certainly be one by the time you have finished reading it. John has a penetrating and comprehensive view of the numerous ways in which we can all safeguard not only our own health but also, by extension, the health of the environment and the other people and life forms we share it with. To put it simply, he knows what really matters. The huge collection of great quotations that fill his latest book are reason enough to read it, but if we choose to actively ignite our lives in the ways that John suggests, our enhanced energy and clarity will enable us to do more good in this world and also to be a lot happier in the process." - Angela Starks and Michael Stein, Yoga In The Raw, New York.