Mark Nicholls

Linda Washington

David Smurthwaite

The story of the British Army's efforts to fashion a modern fighting force to match the growing Nazi menace, its baptism of fire upon the fields of Scandinavia and France, and its evacuation from Dunkirk.

The British Army of 1939-40

Against All Odds

Penry Williams

A new biography of one of the key figures in British history focusing on both his writing and legacy.

In Life and Legend

Sir Walter Raleigh

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.

The Reason Why We Can't Be Friends

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 sidesteps 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.

The Gay Disruptor

It's a Wonderful Mid-Life Crisis

Dean Crawford

Vivienne Westbrook

Shaun Collin

This book is the most thorough exploration to date of the many ways in which a wild creature has been absorbed, reimagined and represented across the ages in all of the major art forms. The authors consider not only how the identity of sharks in the natural environment became incorporated into a cultural environment but also how sharks came to be considered the most feared creatures in the open oceans as a consequence of this incorporation. Yet sharks are especially important in helping to maintain a balance that is essential to the health of the oceans. The book begins with a treatment of the three sharks at the top of global shark-attack files from scientific, economic and environmental perspectives. Subsequent chapters engage with cultural representations of sharks in poetry, drama, art, novels, screenplay adaptations and films. Through an exploration of the ways in which sharks have been represented in human culture through the centuries, this book alerts the global community to the importance of sharks as a common cultural heritage. It aims to change perceptions of sharks so that they can become more revered than feared. The authors of this book argue that an increased understanding of sharks should lead to the development of better strategies for shark and human interactions. This book will be of great interest to researchers and students of the Environmental Humanities, Cultural History and the Arts. It is also excellent supplementary reading for courses in Zoology and Marine Science.

From Feared to Revered

Sharks in the Arts

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 Itis a mystery. By the end of the first rehearsal she is floundering, by the end of the second, she is in love. Or, at least, she has a crazy thing for Lana, an utterly relaxed and experienced actor with no apparent responsibilities. The problem is, with one rehearsal to go, Ellen can’t really fathom her own heart, or Lana’s. All she can say for certain is, “I’d really just like to get her into a hotel room for a weekend and see what happens!”.

Somewhere Between Three Rehearsals and the Performance

"This book takes a fresh look at the most famous treason case in English history, a complex tale of treachery, suspicion, rebellion and retribution. [The author] shows how, starting with the most slender of leads, the Jacobean government built up a full picture of the conspiracy and tracked down the guilty men and brought them to justice. The story does not end with the bloody executions of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators in 1606. For the first time in a book on the Gunpowder treason, [the author] investigates in depth the role in the plot played by the ninth earl of Northumberland, seen by many as the plotters' logical choice for a protector of the realm after blast, who was imprisoned in the Tower for sixteen years on suspicion of complicity. By examining the earl's political career in the years around 1605, the author shows how the government investigations, though shedding much light on the plot, never revealed the whole truth. [The author] cuts through the distortions of centuries of political and religious propaganda to explain the real motives of the Gunpowder plotters. [The author] disposes of the 'conspiracy theory, ' which holds that the king's chief minister, Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, framed the conspirators for his own political purposes, and ... sheds considerable light on the workings of early Jacobean government, particularly the privy council. [This book] should appeal to anyone interested in English history, as well as historians and students of seventeenth-century England"--

Investigating Gunpowder Plot

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.

The Gentle Rain from Heaven

Every weekday April has the 4WD waiting at the school gate well before 3.30pm and a raft of after-school activities in hand to keep them all occupied. But seven years' worth of long lunches with her single friend Louis and two half days a week at the gallery have left this doctor's wife wondering if there is anything else. When Jeremy the private tutor comes into her life, and her foster daughter May comes of age, April begins to feel like a hothouse orchid, although she really longs to be a wild flower.

April and May

Helena, grand dame of the Melbourne and Sydney theatre scene, thinks she has settled nicely into a restful performance regime of comedy classics in judiciously subsidised spaces. When her somewhat intense undergraduate daughter, Emmeline, hurls an asylum seeker/detention centre drama at her, Helena's professional certainties are shaken not so much by the play's contents as by its lead actor, Violet. A student of Australian theatre, Violet has chosen Helena to be her mentor and she sets about procuring her idol with disturbing intensity. Besieged and exhausted by the emotional demands of these two passionate young women, Helena finds herself facing a choice between biting on the burnt chop of desire and doing something really reprehensible.

Where Seagulls Go To Be Lonely

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.

Mark Nicholls

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