A rich selection of work by leading playwright Nicholas Wright, introduced by the playwright. The plays contained in this volume are: The Custom of the Country An early play, premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1983, transposing John Fletcher and Philip Massinger's bawdy Jacobean drama to 1890s Johannesburg. The Desert Air A wartime comedy set in Cairo in the 1940s, first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1985. Mrs Klein A play about the controversial psychoanalyst Melanie Klein, a haunting and poignant study of mother-daughter relationships, first performed at the National Theatre, London, in 1988. One Fine Day A comedy about the gulf that separates Britain and Africa, premiered at the Riverside Studios, London, in 1980. Treetops Set in Cape Town in 1952, Nicholas Wright's debut play is about the early resistance to policies of apartheid or racial segregation. It was first staged at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, in 1978, winning the George Devine Award for playwriting.
Eugene de Kock was a paid white political assassin nick-named "Prime Evil" for his crimes against anti-apartheid activists. While serving his two life sentences black psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela went to interview him hoping to seek humanity and forgiveness within the government-sanctioned monster. The thought-provoking interogation moves from clinical to intimate in a cell where fear and compassion coexist.
`Succinct survey of how war was experienced by ordinary people in late medieval France ... very welcome addition to the literature.' INTERNATIONAL HISTORY REVIEW [Michael Jones] This alternative account of peasant life during crisis is a welcome addition to the historiography of late-medieval France... a useful corrective to most standard interpretations of warfare and peasantry. SPECULUMThis work examines the soldier-peasant relationship in the context of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453), aiming to bring out more closely the realities of the situation. It seeks an understanding of different attitudes: how aristocratic soldiersreconciled the ideals of chivalry with exploitation of non-combatants, and how French peasants reacted to the soldiery, drawing on the late-medieval literature of chivalry and political commentary in England and (especially) in France. Employing additional documentary material, including the largely unpublished records of the French royal chancery, the book also describes the ways in which individual peasants and village communities were exploited by soldiers, and how, in order to survive, they adjusted to and reacted against their treatment.
'Lively, ingenious and original' Sir Lawrence FreedmanFrom Dr Nicholas Wright, leading neuroscientist and adviser to the Pentagon, discover the new science behind warfare.Why did France lose to the Nazis, despite its defenders having more tanks, troops, and guns? How did Ukraine repel Russia’s initial onslaught? How do you know if you can trust an ally? How can we make clearer decisions under pressure?In Warhead, Nicholas Wright takes us on a fascinating journey through the brain to show you why, if you want to understand warfare, you must first look inside your own head. Drawing on his work as a neuroscientist, and over a decade advising the Pentagon and the UK Government, he reveals how, whether we like it or not, the brain is wired for conflict – in the office or on the battlefield.With a unique framework that helps explain today’s rising tensions and how to defuse them, Warhead brings cutting-edge research to life through battle stories from across history. What was it like for a foot soldier at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815? How could Shaka Zulu or Winston Churchill see through the fog of conflict, make better decisions, and communicate with their troops? How will human conflict shape our future technologies?In an increasingly dangerous world that threatens our values and success, Warhead is an essential read to understand why we fight, lose and win wars.
From Dr Nicholas Wright, leading neuroscientist and adviser to the Pentagon, discover the new science behind warfare. Why did France lose to the Nazis, despite its defenders having more tanks, troops, and guns? How did we bring peace to Germany after World War Two? How do you know if you can trust an ally? How can we make clearer decisions under pressure? In Warhead, Nicholas Wright takes us on a fascinating journey through the brain to show us how it shapes our behaviour in conflict and war. Drawing on his work as a neuroscientist, and over a decade advising the Pentagon and the UK Government, Wright reveals that, whether we like it or not, the brain is wired for conflict - in the office or on the battlefield. With a unique framework that helps explain today's rising tensions and how to defuse them, Warhead brings cutting-edge research to life through battle stories from history. What was it like for a foot soldier at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, or in China's Red Army as it fought to survive and triumph throughout the 1930s and 40s? How could leaders such as World War Two tank commanders, Shaka Zulu, or Winston Churchill see through the fog of conflict, make better decisions, and communicate with those who must carry those decisions out? How will human conflict shape our future technologies? In an increasingly dangerous world that threatens our values and success, Warhead is an essential read to understand why we fight, lose and win wars. Because self-knowledge is power.
Song of Shadows and Dust is a standalone miniatures wargame based on the award winning Song of Blades and Heroes rules engine. The rules reflect the gritty reality of urban violence while preserving the keep-it-simple, play-as-you-want, no-book-keeping-required spirit of the Ganesha Games family. Easy to learn: The elegant core rules are easy to learn in just one game. Fast to play: Games are designed to be finished in under an hour allowing small campaigns to be completed in a single sitting. Flexible: Inspired by the break down in civil order which plagued the great cities of the Mediterranean in the first century BC, these rules are suitable for any pre-modern setting from Babylon to Bruges. Expansive: Includes 57 unique character profiles with whom to populate your faction or guild - from henchmen, assassins and punch-drunk boxers, to street urchins, elder statesmen and courtesans. Players are also free to create their own custom characters choosing from among 46 defining special rules. Variable: Eleven different faction objectives allow for 121 different tabletop scenarios. Expandable: Easily supplemented by special rules and scenarios drawn from the other rule books produced by Ganesha Games.
Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End provides a fun and easy, fast-play, set of rules for engagements on the fringe of the European world - Ireland, the Americas, the East Indies and the vast steppes of Central Asia. The lands discovered by European explorers seeking easy access to the trading wealth of the Indies exposed untold avenues for expansion. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw successive waves of self-aggrandising traders, raiders, conquerors and colonists leave Europe for new lands beyond the sea. Some pursued the freedom to practice persecuted religions or the opportunity to convert the heathens, others sought raw resources in the form of gold, furs or exotic spices or plants, like nutmeg or tobacco. The game is designed for engagements between two forces of from 500 to 2,500 fighting men per side. Each player represents a leading conquistador, noble, governor, daimyo, chief, cacique or petty monarch. These leaders are given the umbrella title of 'lords'. The key to success in Irregular Wars is the lord's ability to harness the enthusiasm of volunteer or militia soldiers which, together with the effective use of terrain, counts for more than sheer numbers alone.The uncertain nature of army recruitment and variable level of centralised command and control make the rules ideal for small scale, localised and asymmetrical warfare. The game could quite easily be expanded to cover earlier or later conflicts anywhere in the world prior to the establishment of reliable and professional armies. This second edition of Irregular Wars continues the fun and fast approach of the original rules. More background information and explanations are provided and the phase sequence has been streamlined. Additional changes throughout the rules make the randomised aspects of the game more realistic... in a random sort of way.This edition includes army lists for 48 different sixteenth and seventeenth century armies belonging to the major European colonial powers and the indigenous populations of Ireland, the Americas, East Indies and Eurasian Steppe.
Nicholas Wright's play about the controversial psychoanalyst Melanie Klein is a haunting and poignant study of mother-daughter relationships. In 1934 the son of Melanie Klein, Britain's most admired psychoanalyst, was reported killed in a climbing accident. There were no witnesses. Nicholas Wright's play shows the effect of this shattering and unexpected death on Mrs Klein, on her daughter and on her new assistant Paula, a young refugee from Hitler's Berlin. Melanie Klein had herself come to Britain from Berlin with a controversial mission to extend psychoanalysis to infants. But her analysis of her own children has damaged her relationship with them almost beyond repair, and the news of her son's death provokes a bitter confrontation with her daughter. Nicholas Wright's Mrs Klein was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in 1988. This edition was published alongside the revival at the Almeida Theatre in 2009.
A compelling study of the corruption of fame, the lure of money and the betrayal that lurks at the heart of portraying the people around us, or the people we love. Based on Caroline Blackwood's book of the same name. 1980. The Sunday Times plans a fabulous journalistic coup: a photograph by Lord Snowdon of the long-reclusive Duchess of Windsor. Lady Caroline Blackwood, novelist, wit and journalist, is dispatched to Paris to secure it. But no sooner has she entered the Windsor mansion than she finds herself locked in battle with the Duchess's octogenarian lawyer, Maître Suzanne Blum. As the conflict ignites between them, Caroline begins to find Blum decidedly more fascinating than the Duchess herself. Where did she come from? What's her obsession? How did she get power of attorney over the Windsor fortune? Cruellest of all, why has she deprived the Duchess of her vodka? One of the Duchess's last loyal friends, Diana Mosley, introduces a further mystery: why do the famous Windsor jewels keep appearing anonymously on the international market? And since no one has seen the Duchess, what proof is there that she is even still alive? Nicholas Wright's play The Last of the Duchess was first staged at Hampstead Theatre, London, in 2011.
A funny and fascinating tribute to the Eastern European immigrants who became major players in Hollywood's golden age. In a remote village in Eastern Europe, around 1900, the young Motl Mendl is entranced by the flickering silent images on his father's cinematograph. Bankrolled by Jacob, the ebullient local timber merchant, and inspired by Anna, the girl sent to help him make moving pictures of their village, he stumbles on a revolutionary way of story-telling. Forty years on, Motl - now a famed American film director - looks back on his early life and confronts the cost of fulfilling his dreams. How had a twenty-two-year-old pretentious layabout made a discovery that would elude every other cinematic pioneer for years to come? Nicholas Wright's play Travelling Light was premiered at the National Theatre, London, in 2012.
‘Iago only suspected it. I know.’ Celebrated actor, singer and political campaigner Paul Robeson is touring the United States of America as Othello. His Desdemona is the brilliant young actress Uta Hagen. Her husband, the Broadway star José Ferrer, plays Iago. The actors are all friends, but they are not all equals. As the tour progresses, onstage passions and offstage lives begin to blur. Revenge takes many forms and in post-war America it isn't always purely personal – it can be disturbingly political too. Based on true events, Nicholas Wright's play 8 Hotels was first staged at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in 2019, in a production directed by Richard Eyre.
A comedy drama set in the seedily glamorous world of 17th-century London theatre. John Shank is an actor, talent-scout and trainer of boy players in the 1630s, when women's roles are still played by precocious boys. Up to his eyes in debt, Shank's only hope of escaping destitution is an unpromising 14-year-old would-be, Stephen Hammerton. Can he train up Stephen to be the new star of the London stage? Nicholas Wright's play Cressida was first performed at the Albery Theatre, London, in 2000, in a production by the Almeida Theatre.
A moving portrait of the young Vincent van Gogh - a hit in the West End and on Broadway. Winner of the 2003 Olivier Award for Best New Play. Brixton, 1873. A brash young Dutchman rents a room in the house of an English widow. Three years later he returns to Europe on the first step of a journey which will end in breakdown, death and immortality. Nicholas Wright's play Vincent in Brixton was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in the Cottesloe auditorium, in April 2002, directed by Richard Eyre. The production transferred to Wyndhams Theatre in the West End in August 2002.
The National Theatre’s (London) big new Christmas Show: a two part dramatisation of Philip Pullman's massively successful trilogy. With sales of three quarter of a million copies last year alone, Philip Pullman's amazing trilogy, His Dark Materials, is already acknowledged as a classic. A cunning blend of traditional children's adventure with sophisticated fantasy and science fiction, it really does appeal to all ages.
An enthralling detective story based on the true life story of BBC reporter James Mossman. A brilliant man kills himself mid-career, leaving behind a cryptic suicide note. Based on the remarkable life of the star BBC correspondent James Mossman during his last years, 1963 to 1971, Nicholas Wright's play The Reporter searches for the truth behind his bewildering suicide. What lies beneath the surface? Or is the surface ultimately all there is? The Reporter was first staged at the National Theatre, London, in 2007.
With the introduction of Alternative Business Structures fast approaching and more and more partnerships converting to LLP status to meet the new requirements and remain competitive - now may be the time to start considering the benefits of conversion for your own firm. The conversion process can be a challenging one with wide-reaching implications. But a successful LLP conversion can provide the ideal opportunity to review your core business operations, allowing you to plan positive change and growth in an increasingly competitive and changing market. Managing Partner's new report on LLP Conversion for Law Firms provides a highly practical, step-by-step guide specifically taking into account the unique considerations that are raised by today's economy and evolving legal marketplace. It highlights the key questions that need to be asked during the preparation and transition stages, as well as how to deal with the complications that may arise after conversion has taken place. Key topics covered include: + Converting from a partnership to an LLP - key considerations and trends; + Advantages and disadvantages of converting from a partnership to an LLP; + Preparatory work and practical issues involved; + The default provisions and their drawbacks; + Tailoring the LLP agreement to reflect the needs of your firm; + Transferring the existing partnership business into the LLP - key issues and contractual obligations; + The general tax treatment of limited liability partnerships - possible complications that may arise after the conversion and how they might be handled; + Management and technical resources involved in the conversion - Is outsourcing an option? + The implications of the Legal Services Act 2007 and the introduction of Alternative Business Structures. LLP Conversion for Law Firms includes valuable behind-the-scenes access to existing LLPs and the common pitfalls and successes they encountered through the conversion process. In addition, you will also find a precedent for an LLP agreement within the Appendix. Whats more ...this publication comes complete with a complimentary CDRom containing all the required forms for an LLP agreement in an easy to access format. About the author Nicholas Wright is chief executive of Wright Son & Pepper. He has specialised in LLPs and professional regulation for over 15 years and has been a member of the Solicitors' Assistance Scheme for most of that time. He has acted for a number of substantial firms in dealing with regulatory issues, as well as dealing with drafting, restructuring issues and disputes.
This critical report provides the most up-to-date and detailed guide to the practical, regulatory and ethical considerations that must be reflected in your partnership agreement. Extensively revised, the second edition features new case studies and real-life examples, including a sample agreement precedent and comprehensive updates to reflect how new legal and regulatory developments will affect your deed. Key subjects covered include: *The impact of the Legal Services Act on partnership agreements; *Discrimination in partnerships, in particular, age discrimination; *Outcomes-focused regulation; *New business structures; *Distressed partnerships; *Current trends in mergers; *Profit-sharing arrangements and management structures: *The equality system *Profit share by capital contribution *Seniority (lockstep) *Merit or performance systems *Hybrid profit sharing systems *Retirement annuities *Performance measurement, supervision and disciplinary measures; *De-equitisation: provisions for expulsion from the partnership; *Expulsion, retirement and dissolution; *Good faith, arbitration and mediation; *Drafting for the future, avoiding early revisions and much more - Ensure you understand the necessary considerations of an agreement that not only fulfils legislative requirement, but ensures the attraction, retention and motivation of the best talent for your firm.
This book examines the impact on member states of long-term foreign policy co-operation through the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Focusing on Germany and the UK, it provides an up-to-date account of how they have navigated and responded to the demands co-operation places on all member states and how their national foreign policies and policy-making processes have changed and adapted as a consequence. As well as exploring in depth the foreign policy traditions and institutions in both states, the book also offers detailed analyses of how they addressed two major policy questions: the Iranian nuclear crisis; and the establishment and development of the European External Action Service. The book’s synthesis of country and case studies seeks to add to our understanding of the nature of inter-state co-operation in the area of foreign and security policy and what it means for the states involved.
Dieses Buch untersucht die Auswirkungen der langfristigen außenpolitischen Zusammenarbeit im Rahmen der Gemeinsamen Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik (GASP) der EU auf die Mitgliedstaaten. Es konzentriert sich auf Deutschland und das Vereinigte Königreich und liefert einen aktuellen Bericht darüber, wie sie die Anforderungen, die die Zusammenarbeit an alle Mitgliedstaaten stellt, bewältigt haben und wie sich ihre nationalen Außenpolitiken und politischen Entscheidungsprozesse infolgedessen verändert und angepasst haben. Das Buch untersucht nicht nur die außenpolitischen Traditionen und Institutionen beider Staaten, sondern bietet auch detaillierte Analysen darüber, wie sie zwei wichtige politische Fragen angegangen sind: die iranische Nuklearkrise und die Einrichtung und Entwicklung des Europäischen Auswärtigen Dienstes. Die Synthese von Länder- und Fallstudien in diesem Buch soll dazu beitragen, das Wesen der zwischenstaatlichen Zusammenarbeit im Bereich der Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik und ihre Bedeutung für die beteiligten Staaten besser zu verstehen.
