Richard Allen

Hitchcock's Romantic Irony (Film and Culture)

Projecting Illusion offers a systematic analysis of the impression of reality in the cinema and the pleasure it provides the film spectator. Film affords an especially compelling aesthetic experience that can be considered as a form of illusion akin to the experience of daydream and dream. Examining the concept of illusion and its relationship to fantasy in the experience of visual representation, Richard Allen situates his explanation within the context of an analytical criticism of contemporary film theory.

Film Spectatorship and the Impression of Reality

Projecting Illusion

Elephantine Boabs dot the Kimberley region of Western Australia; Cattle rub against giant Bottle Trees and Ironbarks in Queensland, and Strangler Figs with 40-metre girths thrive in our northern rainforests. Snow Gums and Shining Gums eke out their lives on our icy mountain tops and prehistoric-looking Bunya Pines, which once looked down on the dinosaurs, grow in a few isolated places in Australia's north-east. Australia's Remarkable Trees explores the extraordinary lives of fifty of Australia's oldest, largest and most unusual trees. Richly illustrated with more than 500 photographs, writer Richard Allen and photographer Kimbal Baker went to the far reaches of Australia-travelling more than 60 000 kilometres-to photograph them and tell their stories. Australia's Remarkable Trees is not just a celebration of Australia's great trees. It also prompts us to look to the future to see what lies in store for them. It is a call to arms to preserve and protect our oldest and most magnificent living things, and the forests and wilderness in which they live

Australia's Remarkable Trees

You can do what you want, be who you want to be, go where you want to go. The Secret Cosmic Laws Within Us, is a easy to understand, connect the dots, roadmap to personal and business success attraction.

The Secret Cosmic Laws Within Us

Sam Ishii-Gonzales

This collection of essays displays the range and breadth of Hitchcock scholarship and assesses the significance of his body of work as a bridge between the fin de siecle culture of the 19th century and the 20th century. It engages with Hitchcock's characteristic formal and aesthetic preoccupations.

Centenary Essays

Alfred Hitchcock

The Squaw Peak 50-mile trail run is a unique ultramarathon that climbs 12,000 vertical feet through the rugged Wasatch Mountains. This is the backdrop for Mud Running, an all-day race filled with both harsh ordeals and poignant memories. In the tradition of Nicholas Sparks' Three Weeks With My Brother, a unique travel adventure is the catalyst in recalling powerful childhood stories. Raised in a home with six diverse siblings, Allen relates tales of each character as he is reminded of them along the muddy trail. It is the story of individuals influenced by one another, sharing a common upbringing but markedly diverse in the outcome. As diverse as thick snowy mud is from slick warm puddles. Mud Running is also a story of running, from a novice terrified by a 5-k, to a determined runner accomplishing 50 miles. This special novel will be enjoyed by runners and readers alike.

Mud Running

When Superintendent Mark Faraday begins to investigate the disappearance of a local lorry driver, a top secret UK/US intelligence operation designed to destroy the poppy fields of Afghanistan is unwittingly undermined. From the splendours of the House of Lords and the beauty of Venetian palazzos to the vastness of the deserts of Western Australia, Faraday pursues his investigation, haunted by the murder of one collague and mesmerised by the beauty of another.

DIE Back

Suedehead

S. Ishii-Gonzalès

Alfred Hitchcock's films have had an impact on scholars of all critical persuasions to the extent that the study of his works is synonymous with the study of 20th century cinema itself. These essays reflect the length and breadth of this scholarship.

Past and Future

Hitchcock

Malcolm Turvey

This is the first full exploration of the implications of Wittgenstein's philosophy for understanding the arts and cultural criticism. These original essays by philosophers and critics address key philosophical topics in the study of the arts and culture, such as humanism, criticism, psychology, painting, film and ethics. All exemplify Wittgenstein's method of conceptual investigation and highlight his notion of philosophy as a cure.

Wittgenstein, Theory and the Arts

Sixteen-year-old Joe Hawkins is the anti-hero's anti-hero. His life is ruled by clothes, beer, football and above all violence - violence against hippies, authority, racial minorities and anyone else unfortunate enough to get in his way. Joe is a London skinhead - a member of a uniquely British subculture which arose rapidly in the late 1960's. While other skins were driven mainly by music, fashion and working-class pride, Joe and his mob use their formidable street style as a badge of aggressive rage, even while Joe dreams of making a better life for himself. Lacerating in its depiction of violence and sex, often shocking by today's standards, Skinhead is also a provocative cross-section of urban British society. It doesn't spare the hypocrisy, corruption or excessive permissiveness which, the author believed, allowed the extremist wing of skinhead culture to flourish. Skinhead, first published in 1970 and a huge cult bestseller, is now available for the first time in ebook form, with a new introduction by Andrew Stevens. Nearly fifty years on, it remains one of the most potent artefacts of British popular culture ever committed to print. "I did happen to read the book when it came out and I was quite interested in the whole Richard Allen cult... suedeheads and skinheads and smoothies were very much part of daily life. There was a tremendous air of intensity... something interesting grabbed me about the whole thing." Morrissey "(Richard Allen's) work shouldn't require a theoretical summing up, once enough of those to whom it appeals understand its attraction we will have superceded this society." Stewart Home

Skinhead

Bruce Hershenson

Spans the early days of the movie industry to the present. Drawn from the author's research and personal archives, this book presents movie posters as an art form as well as a slice of American history. High quality, all colour reproduction and accurate text makes this book excellent for reference, while movie lovers with delight in the opportunity to remember their favourite films.

Attack of the "B" Movie Posters

The Fleet, 1900-1981

Lancashire United

Suman Gupta

Maitrayee Basu

This book is a collective journal of the COVID-19 pandemic. With first-hand accounts of the pandemic as it unfolded, it explores the social and the political through the lens of the outbreak. Featuring contributors located in India, the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Bulgaria, the book presents us with simultaneous multiple histories of our time. The volume documents the beginning of social distancing and lockdown measures adopted by countries around the world and analyses how these bore upon prevailing social conditions in specific locations. It presents the authors' personal observations in a lucid conversational style as they reflect on themes such as the reorganization of political debates and issues, the experience of the marginalized, theodicy, government policy responses, and shifts into digital space under lockdown, all of these under an overarching narrative of the healthcare and economic crisis facing the world. A unique and engaging contribution, this book will be useful to students and researchers of sociology, public health, political economy, public policy, and comparative politics. It will also appeal to general readers interested in pandemic literature.

A Collective Journal

Social Analysis and the COVID-19 Crisis

A novel featuring skinhead Joe Hawkins, first published in 1972.

Skinhead Escapes

The 7th, 8th, 9th, and 11th Georgia volunteer infantry regiments spent most of the Civil War fighting under Brig. Gen. George Thomas “Tige” Anderson in Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Until now, no biographical roster of their members has ever been published. These Georgians saw it all, from the bloody battle of First Manassas through the ferocious combat of Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and the long siege of Petersburg. They finally furled their banners at Appomattox. Nearly 5,000 men passed through these four Georgia regiments. These rosters offer a long overdue record of these men. Each roster is organized by company in a simple and easy to use format. Entries feature full names (if known), promotions, demotions, casualties, transfers, and resignations for every rank—an unprecedented look into men and the structure and evolution of these organizations. They include the most comprehensive examination of the personnel originally enlisted and their subsequent service histories within these units in chronological order for the first time. Compiler and author Richard Allen has spent nearly two decades researching scores of archives and other sources to prepare these rosters. He utilized primary sources such as the Official Records, Compiled Service Records, newspaper accounts, diaries, letters, census information, burial records, and a variety of documents from both published sources and private collections. Students of the Civil War, genealogists, and enthusiasts of Georgia history will find these rosters invaluable. Everyone who uses them owes Rick Allen a hearty, and heartfelt, thank you.

A Biographical Roster

The 8th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 1861-1865

Ira Bhaskar

Bombay Cinema's Islamicate Histories comprises fourteen essays on the history and influence of cultural Islam on Bombay cinema. These essays are written by major scholars of both South Asian cultural history and Indian cinema working across several continents. Following Marshal Hodgson, the term ‘Islamicate’ is used to describe Muslim cultures in order to distinguish the cultural forms associated with Islam from the religion itself. Such a distinction is especially important to observe in South Asia where, over a thousand-year history, Muslim cultures have commingled with other local religious and cultural traditions to form a rich vein of syncretic aesthetic expression. This volume argues that the influence of Muslim cultures on Bombay cinema can only be grasped against the backdrop of this long history, an argument that informs the shape of the whole. The book is divided into two sections. The first, ‘Islamicate Histories’, charts the historical roots of South Asian Muslim cultures and the precursors of Bombay cinema’s Islamicate idioms in the Urdu Parsi Theatre, the Courtesan cultures of Lucknow, the traditions of miniature painting, poetry, song and their performance, and the various modes of story-telling that derive from Perso-Arabic traditions. The second section, ‘Cinematic Forms’, discusses the way in which these Islamicate histories are partially constitutive of the traditions of representation, performance and story-telling that give Bombay cinema its distinctive character, traditions that have continued into Bollywood. It explores ‘Islamicate’ genres like the ‘Oriental’ film and the ‘Muslim Social’, as well as forms of poetry and performance like the ‘ghazal’ and ‘the qawwali’. Bombay Cinema’s Islamicate Histories is published at a time of acute crisis in the perception and understanding of Islam, where Islamophobia stereotypes Muslims as incipient fifth column and Hindu fundamentalism is ascendant. It demonstrates that Muslim and Hindu cultures in India are inextricably entwined and shows how the syncretic idioms of Islamicate cultural history inform the very identity of Bombay cinema, even as that cinema has also instrumentalized Islamicate idioms to stereotype and even demonise the Muslim, especially in contemporary Bollywood. This book argues that many of the idioms of Bombay cinema that we love are derived from the historical influence of Muslim cultures as they interacted with other traditions in the Indian subcontinent. It traces the emergence of cultures of poetry, dance, song, performance and story-telling out of the thousand-year history of Islam on Indian soil, and describes the ways in which they underlie and inform the expressive forms of Bombay cinema. It is timely to be reminded of the contribution of Muslim cultures to the distinctive and widely recognized popular cinema of India at a historical moment when the cultural influence of Islam on India is being denied by forces which seek to turn the country away from cultural pluralism towards Hindu fundamentalism. Bombay Cinema’s Islamicate Histories features contributions by major scholars of both South Asian cultural history and Indian cinema working across several continents. The audience for this book will be primarily graduate and advanced undergraduate students of film studies. The writing is accessible and lively and individual chapters will be suitable for classroom use. It will be of value in disciplines outside film studies, where the Islamicate tradition in general and its impact on film in particular is taught. It will find an audience in disciplines such as history, cultural studies, women's studies, visual studies and South Asian area studies. It will also be of interest to anyone who wants to know how cinema negotiates the parameters of Muslim identity in response to historical and contemporary events in India.

Bombay Cinema's Islamicate Histories

The fourth installment of classic pulp sex and violence. Bootboys, Smoothies and Terrace Terrors comprise this blood 'n' semen soaked anthology.

Richard Allen

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