John Spurling

This book reveals and discusses existing and potential problems derived from the transport economics domain in relation to their environment, and the social, political and economic impacts, with reference to a wide range of transport modes. It is suitable not only for academics or students, but also for people working in the transport industry. From this book, readers will learn how to apply economic principles to transport, drawing specifically upon a number of case studies of different areas of Great Britain. This book is particularly useful for those who are interested in the subject of transport economics, but may not have studied economics, statistics or mathematics.

Graham Greene is an immensely popular as well as powerful and idiosyncratic writer. His leading characters are murderers, spies, fugitives and outsiders and his most typical plot is that of the hunter and the hunted. In this book, originally published in 1983, John Spurling sets about tracking down the author behind the protagonists. Beginning with an analysis of the patterns of Greene’s mind as revealed in the 40 or so works of fiction, drama, criticism, travel and autobiography he has published, the author goes on to explore the way the patterns are modified from the political thrillers of the 1930s through the ‘Catholic’ novels of the 1940s and 1950s to the post-war comedies and ‘Third World’ novels. Greene is the odd man out of a generation of remarkable writers born around the turn of the 20th Century who lived through the destruction of the 19th century world order. John Spurling’s highly original study tells us why.

First published in 1978, Beckett examines the plays of Beckett in the order in which they were written. The book affords a lively and fresh introduction to Beckett’s theatre. Both authors stress that ‘Beckett was waiting for the theatre as the theatre was waiting for Beckett.’ The differing backgrounds of the two authors of this study have enabled them to approach Beckett’s drama in a particularly fruitful way. This book will be of interest to students of literature and drama.

Graham Greene is an immensely popular as well as powerful and idiosyncratic writer. His leading characters are murderers, spies, fugitives and outsiders and his most typical plot is that of the hunter and the hunted. In this book, originally published in 1983, John Spurling sets about tracking down the author behind the protagonists. Beginning with an analysis of the patterns of Greene’s mind as revealed in the 40 or so works of fiction, drama, criticism, travel and autobiography he has published, the author goes on to explore the way the patterns are modified from the political thrillers of the 1930s through the ‘Catholic’ novels of the 1940s and 1950s to the post-war comedies and ‘Third World’ novels. Greene is the odd man out of a generation of remarkable writers born around the turn of the 20th Century who lived through the destruction of the 19th century world order. John Spurling’s highly original study tells us why.

First published in 1978, Beckett examines the plays of Beckett in the order in which they were written. The book affords a lively and fresh introduction to Beckett’s theatre. Both authors stress that ‘Beckett was waiting for the theatre as the theatre was waiting for Beckett.’ The differing backgrounds of the two authors of this study have enabled them to approach Beckett’s drama in a particularly fruitful way. This book will be of interest to students of literature and drama.

In the turbulent final years of the Yuan Dynasty, Wang Meng is a minor bureaucrat in the government of the Mongol conquerors. He is also an extraordinarily gifted artist whose paintings capture the infinite expanse of China's natural beauty. But an empire in turmoil is not a place or time for sitting still. On his journeys across the realm, Wang encounters fellow master painters, a fierce female warrior known as the White Tigress who recruits him as a military strategist, and an unprepossessing young Buddhist monk who rises from beggary to extraordinary heights. John Spurling's award-winning The Ten Thousand Things seamlessly fuses the epic and the intimate with the precision and depth that the real-life Wang Meng brought to his art.

This book, first published in 1985, stresses Beckett’s success as an innovator in the theatre through a close reading and analysis of his plays. The differing backgrounds of the two authors enables them to approach Beckett’s drama in a particularly fruitful way: ‘Their analysis is clever yet level-headed, readable but does not shirk complexities.’ (Times Educational Supplement). ‘Brilliant collection of essays on Beckett and his works.’ (Irish Times)

Gripping, spirited and sometimes grisly, Spurling's fresh interpretations of these timeless tales bring both their heroes and their context vividly to life, reanimating Apollo, Herakles, Theseus, Perseus and Agamemnon.

Taking inspiration from the incomparably beautiful and intense poetry of Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, Spurling - a lifelong classicist and historical novelist - spins five more myths for contemporary readers.

This book, first published in 1985, stresses Beckett’s success as an innovator in the theatre through a close reading and analysis of his plays. The differing backgrounds of the two authors enables them to approach Beckett’s drama in a particularly fruitful way: ‘Their analysis is clever yet level-headed, readable but does not shirk complexities.’ (Times Educational Supplement). ‘Brilliant collection of essays on Beckett and his works.’ (Irish Times)

Beneath the floorboards of a ruined house, an 18th-century memoir is discovered. It reveals the life story of William Congreve, the acclaimed English playwright. The lost manuscript is penned by his faithful servant, Jeremy, who tells how they lived together through fierce political division and triumphal nationalism in that era of war with France, the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution. Upon his death a monument in Stowe is erected to honour Mr Congreve. Atop a slender pyramid sits a monkey peering into a mirror, a court wit seeing reflected the ironies of polite society folding in on itself as Whigs and Tories feud with scant ground for compromise. Through the prisms of memory and art, award-winning author John Spurling reimagines this tumultuous period and brings to life historical figures Dryden, Vanbrugh, Swift, Pope and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu as never before.

Tourism Matters: Study Guide to BTEC Travel and Tourism is a lively and thoroughly written text which introduces students to the main aspects of the tourism sector. The book adopts a modern approach to the subject, covering topics such as the Business of Travel and Tourism, Ecotourism, Domestic and International Destinations, Marketing Tourism Products and Services as well as preparing for employment in the tourism industry with tips and insider advice on how to secure a job.

In the turbulent final years of the Yuan Dynasty, Wang Meng is a minor bureaucrat in the government of the Mongol conquerors. He is also an extraordinarily gifted artist whose paintings capture the infinite expanse of China's natural beauty. But an empire in turmoil is not a place or time for sitting still. On his journeys across the realm, Wang encounters fellow master painters, a fierce female warrior known as the White Tigress who recruits him as a military strategist, and an unprepossessing young Buddhist monk who rises from beggary to extraordinary heights. John Spurling's award-winning The Ten Thousand Things seamlessly fuses the epic and the intimate with the precision and depth that the real-life Wang Meng brought to his art.

The extraordinary career of Franz Liszt (1811-86) as a composer, conductor, and virtuoso pianist - whose incomparable skill and personal charisma dazzled audiences all over Europe, from London and Paris to Berlin, Moscow, and even Constantinople - made him the nineteenth-century equivalent of a modern international pop star. In the spirit of Liszt's own innovative compositions and sparkling piano transcriptions of other composers' work, John Spurling here takes up the ambitious task of writing a fictionalized biography of Liszt's life. Liszt himself once said, "My biography is more to be invented than written after the fact," and Spurling's fifteen self-contained chapters-themselves virtuoso performances in a variety of styles from a variety of viewpoints - capture precisely this notion of innovation and creativity. Spurling tells of Liszt's mesmeric effect on audiences, his notorious love affairs with remarkable women, and his fraught friendship with Richard Wagner, who deeply offended Liszt by seducing and eventually marrying his daughter Cosima. Inspired by Spurling's own fascination with Liszt's music, "A Book of Liszts" is a highly original, imaginative, and multifaceted portrait of a humorous, romantic, and passionate genius whose work and life is still not as well known as it deserves to be.