Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  The Early Stewart Kings - Robert...

  Stephen Boardman

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  The Stewart Dynasty in Scotland series aims to bring the rich political heritage of late medieval and early modern Scotland before as wide a reading public as possible, with specialist authors writing for the general reader as well as the student or academic.  This volume is number one in the series and is also the first scholarly biography of the two kings who established medieval Scotland’s most famous and durable royal dynasty.  Robert II, long regarded as a weak and ineffective king, pursued a determined political and propaganda campaign which largely overcame initial political opposition. Robert III was forced to engage in a long-term struggle with his brother Albany for control of the kingdom.  Firmly based on contemporary documentary sources, Stephen Boardman's study examines the ways in which the unjustly poor reputations of both kings grew from later embellishments to contemporary political propaganda.

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  The Lame Priest - Settlers and...

  Susan Morrow writing as S Carleton

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  Susan Morrow was born in Halifax in Nova Scotia in 1864.   
   
  Little is known of her life although she preferred to write under pseudonyms, one of which she shared with her sister, or as S Carleton, an abbreviated version of her name which gave the illusion of a male identity presumably to give her books a more rugged and male personality given their content. 
   
  Her books only seem to have been published from 1900 onwards when she was in her mid-30’s by which time she had married and became Susan Carleton Jones. 
   
  She died in 1926.   
   
  In ‘The Lame Priest, a story of life on harsh terrain is amplified by the possibility that a werewolf lurks nearby.

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  A Journey of Little Profit -...

  John Buchan

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  The Scottish novelist John Buchan enjoyed a remarkable career as politician, historian and Governor General. He was born John Buchan on 26th August 1875 and later added 1st Baron Tweedsmuir PC GCMG GCVO CH to his name.  
  Buchan studied at Hutchesons’ Grammar School, Glasgow and at seventeen won a scholarship to the University of Glasgow to study classics. There he began to write poetry. In 1895 he transferred to Oxford to continue his study of Classics and in 1896 ‘Sir Quixote of the Moors’ was published followed by the non-fiction ‘Scholar-Gipsies’. His prolific literary output now hardly faltered. 
  He graduated in 1900 and became the private secretary to Alfred Milner, the High Commissioner for Southern Africa and other colonies. Buchan found the same inspiration in the African landscape as he had in the Scottish Borders, and would later set many works here. Returning to London he became a partner in a publishing house, and garnered an editorial role at The Spectator. He also completed his law studies. He was called to the bar in 1901 but never practiced.  
  On 15th July 1907 Buchan married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor, the cousin of the Duke of Westminster. In 1910 he wrote ‘Prester John’, the first of a series set in South Africa.  
  In 1911 Buchan entered politics as a Unionist candidate in the Scottish Borders advocating the support of free trade, women’s suffrage, national insurance, and reducing the power of the House of Lords.  
  The Great War saw Buchan writing for the War Propaganda Bureau and as Times correspondent in France. In 1915, he published ‘The Thirty-Nine Steps’, his most famous book and a follow-up Richard Hannay novel, ‘Greenmantle’, in 1916.  
  In 1916 Buchan enlisted in the Intelligence Corps which included writing speeches for Sir Douglas Haig. By 1917 he was Director of Information under Lord Beaverbrook. Buchan called it “the toughest job he ever took on”. He somehow found time to assist in a history of the war magazine. This was later published in 24 volumes: Nelson’s History of the War. 
  After the war his writing focused on historical studies. In 1927 Buchan became the Unionist Party Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities. In a speech to Parliament he said “I believe every Scotsman should be a Scottish nationalist. If it could be proved that a Scottish parliament were desirable… Scotsmen should support it.”  
  Over the next decade he continued to distinguish himself politically and in literature.  On the 1st June 1935 he became 1st Baron Tweedsmuir of Elsfield in the County of Oxford.  
  He was now also given the position of Governor General in Canada and resolved to travel all over Canada to gain a better insight of the country. Having crossed both length and breadth he saw the cultural shift between areas and their common ground and helped bring about a clear national Canadian identity. 
  On the 6th February 1940 he collapsed from a stroke and sustained a very serious head injury in falling. Two rounds of surgery to stabilise his condition were unsuccessful and Buchan died on the 11th February. After a state funeral in Ottawa his ashes were returned to his estate in Oxfordshire.

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  The Wild Mandrake - A Memoir

  Jason Jobin

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  Doctors used to tell him he was cured. That was a long time ago. Ever since he first left home at age nineteen, writer Jason Jobin has had cancer. Every five years, like clockwork, it relapses, and yet he always pulls through, surrounded by friends and family but isolated by illness. Chemotherapy, surgeries, radiation—these persist, but they aren't the milestones of his life. They can't be, he won't let them be. 
   
   
   
  From helicoptering into the Yukon backcountry to teaching in an elite writing program, Jason strives to enter adulthood with some normalcy, but his is the life of "a special case." And he does live. He lives working at a deli for minimum wage as his students come down the hill to shop and ask what he's doing there. He lives measuring out nausea pills and benzos while his roommates drink and smoke and party. He lives lying to girlfriends about past diagnoses because what can you say? What do you build on rubble? He lives high and low and in between. Again he is sick, again he is cured. It's miraculous. A great gift. But never enough. 
   
   
   
  Told in short glimpses, this story redefines what it means to survive. Jobin brings together the illuminated moments of loss and joy as he navigates chronic illness and builds from it something new and wildly unexpected.

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  Where There's a Hill - One woman...

  Sabrina Verjee

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  'The greater the challenge, the sweeter the reward, but also the greater the risk of failure. And fear of failure is the greatest barrier to success.'
   
  Sabrina Verjee is an ultrarunning phenomenon. In June 2021, on her fourth attempt, she became the first person to climb the Lake District’s 214 Wainwright hills in under six days, running 325 miles with a colossal 36,000 metres of ascent.
   
  Where There’s a Hill tells the story of an outsider who was never picked for a school sports team yet went on to become an accomplished modern pentathlete and adventure racer. After switching her focus to ultrarunning in her thirties, Sabrina moved to the Lake District, where she could hone her mountain-running skills on the local fells. High-profile success in endurance events followed, as she completed the Dragon’s Back Race three times and was the outright winner of the 2019 Summer Spine Race, beating her nearest competitor by more than eight hours.
   
  However, it was the Wainwrights Round which really captured Sabrina’s imagination. Having learnt about the challenge from fell-running legend Steve Birkinshaw, Sabrina began to plan an attempt of her own. Despite multiple obstacles – including lockdown regulations, bad weather, injury and controversy – Sabrina’s grit and determination shone through. Where There’s a Hill is a frank and inspirational account of how one woman ran her way into the record books.

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  A Political Theory for the...

  Chaim Gans

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  Chaim Gans's A Political Theory for the Jewish People examines the two dominant interpretations of Zionism, contrasts them with post-Zionist alternatives, and develops a third model. 
   
   
   
  Proprietary Zionism, Gans argues, is the version that is most popular among the Israeli Jewish public. It conceives of the land of Israel/historic Palestine as the property of the Jewish people. It also conceives of the entire Jewish people as belonging to Israel. Hierarchical Zionism is common among Israel's educated elites and interprets the Jewish right to self-determination as a right to hegemony within the Israeli state. It remains silent on the relationship between Israeli and non-Israeli Jews. Post-Zionist approaches, conversely, critique the rationale for the continued existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish state. 
   
   
   
  Gans disagrees with these approaches, and in their stead advocates egalitarian Zionism, which is based on an egalitarian interpretation of the right to national self-determination. As such, it interprets the historical link between the Jews and the land of Israel in terms of identity rather than property. Ultimately, the book argues that egalitarian Zionism is superior to its rivals both in the authenticity of its relationship to Jewish history and in its implications for denizens of Israel and Jews around the world.

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