Kirjahaku

This volume examines the development of two sovereign nations over seventy-four momentous years.

This volume examines the development of two sovereign nations over seventy-four momentous years.

This first book-length critical study of Jeremy Irons concentrates on his key performances and acting style. Through the analysis of some of the major screen roles in Irons’s career, such as Brideshead Revisited, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Reversal of Fortune, Swann in Love, Dead Ringers and Lolita, Mark Nicholls identifies a new masculine identity that unites them: an emblematic figure of the 1980s and 1990s presented as an alternative to the action hero or the common man. Using clear explanations of complex theoretical ideas, this book investigates Jeremy Irons’s performances through the lens of sexual inversion and social rebellion, to uncover an entirely original but recognizable screen type.

Seven years' worth of long lunches with her single friend Louis and two half days a week at the gallery have left April wondering if there is more to living. When Jeremy comes into her life, and her foster daughter May comes of age, April begins to feel like a hothouse orchid, although she longs to be a wildflower.

Finally, the new play is up and running but Ellen's problems are just beginning. Imogen, her daughter and primary theatrical asset, is tiring of the spotlight. Glenn, her co-producer with privileges, is demanding something more. Then on opening night, Lana appears. Ten years ago, she walked into Ellen's life, changed it and left. Ever since Ellen has been wondering why. Now she is also wondering what Lana wants with Imogen.

Ellen hasn't done a show since well before she had kids. Why she allowed herself to be roped-in at the last minute to sing, play the cello as well as the lead in Glenn's one-night stand production of Shakespeare's As You Like It is a mystery. By the end of the first rehearsal she is floundering, by the end of the second, she is in love.

A hillside with an ocean view seems an ideal spot to spend a lonely Christmas Eve. When Jessica, a journalism major, and Beth, a high-profile politician, discover they both have the same idea, they exchange the sort of explosive little gifts that are usually left wrapped. Although barely acquainted, over the course of the day they discover that through their mutual relationship with Jeff, a Government Minister, their lives are intimately connected. This discovery and the substance of their connection leaves their shared past looking like a nightmare. When the shocks of the afternoon turn to violence in the evening, both Jessica and Beth have to decide how to go on in a world where politics and personalities have never been more intimate.

Max and Marion are usually the sort of friends who can go for a year without seeing each other and catch up on everything in a second once they do. In these four strange and amusing encounters, however, something new seems to be happening. Max finds himself increasingly flummoxed by his interesting friend, as Marion plays about with various scenarios in which she side-steps work, suspends the kids and liberates her life partner while making a direct and long overdue approach towards more time meditating under the Me Tree.

When internationally renowned and self-confessed soloist Rachael Marlin comes to live with Holly and James in their Salon d'Art, everyone falls madly in love with her. Only Joy, a young doctor, sounds a note of caution when she sees Rachael's effect on her fianc , Matthew, and her potential to turn their little salon d'Artinto a large theatre of the absurd. As Joy anticipates, when Rachael's affections and creative energies turn closer towards her instrument than to her hosts, she reveals herself to be not quite the promised prot g . Spurred on by Holly, all have to work quickly to meet the danger and construct a m nage in which art and, above all, honour can be satisfied.

Athena, an Australian nurse working overseas, is raped and murdered. Her father, John, must decide whether to grant clemency to her murderer, who is facing execution by beheading. Margaret, an ex-school teacher on a career change as a junior Australian Government official, is sent in to counsel and assist the grieving man. When the situation proves predictably challenging, Margaret's daughter, Nina, provides a clarity of counsel and assistance that is so irresistibly logical it may well prove to be the most practical solution.