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  Tynedale in the Great War

  Brian Tilley

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  The remote moors and valleys around Hexham in Northumberland have been producing fighting men for countless millennia. From repelling invading Romans and Vikings, to locking swords with William Wallaces rampaging Scots, and the lawless days of the Border Reivers, the men of Tynedale have always rallied to the cause. So when Kitcheners call went out in 1914, Tynedales farmers, estate workers, pitmen and the gentry flocked to the colours in their thousands.Pitched straight into the front line against battle-hardened German troops just a week after landing in France in 1915, the Tynedale-based Territorials, the 4th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, acquitted themselves so well they received a personal commendation from the Allied Commander in Chief, Sir John French. And what of those who were left behind to face the constant threat of the sinister Zeppelins, escaped German prisoners lurking in the heather and the outraged accusations of shirking and cowardice?Extensive and painstaking research into the impact of the conflict on Hexham and the wider Tynedale district, both on the front line and on the home front, has produced this fascinating and absorbing account of a district at war.Letters back home from the trenches, soldiers diaries and reports in the local press paint a vivid picture of what it was like to face the withering fire of German machine guns, the choking clouds of poisonous gas and to suffer the devastating loss of fathers, sons, husbands and sweethearts, as tales of unbelievable heroism and Northumbrian humour abound.

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  James and Esther Cooper Jackson...

  Sara Rzeszutek Haviland

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  This dual biography “examines the ideas and activism of two of the most committed and significant freedom fighters in twentieth-century America” (Erik Gellman, author of Death Blow to Jim Crow). 
   
  Growing up in Virginia during the Great Depression, James E. Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson understood that opportunities came differently for blacks and whites, men and women, rich and poor. They devoted their lives to the black freedom movement and saw a path to racial equality through the Communist Party. This political affiliation would come to define not only their activism but also the course of their marriage as the Cold War years unfolded. 
   
  In this dual biography, Sara Rzeszutek examines the couple's political involvement as well as the evolution of their personal and public lives in the face of ever-shifting contexts. She documents the Jacksons' contributions to the early civil rights movement, discussing their time leading the Southern Negro Youth Congress, which laid the groundwork for youth activists in the 1960s; their writings in periodicals such as Political Affairs; and their editorial involvement in The Worker and the civil rights magazine Freedomways. 
   
  Drawing upon correspondence, organizational literature, and interviews with the Jacksons themselves, Haviland presents a portrait of a remarkable pair who lived during a transformative period of American history. Their story offers a vital narrative of persistence, love, and activism across the long arc of the black freedom movement.

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  The London Underground Serial...

  Geoff Platt

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  The story is now thirty years old and most, if not all, of the characters involved were middle aged men at the time and are now dead. The story did make the national press when it first occurred. A murder in a Police Station is big news and something to beat the Police with. However, when it was found that 12 people had been pushed under underground trains in London by a man that they did not know, the government felt that it might lead to mass hysteria and put a lid on the story with the press.The officers involved were a small, select, cadre of elite Flying Squad and Serious Crime Squad officers from South London, the same ones who had been dealing with the Krays, Richardsons, Brinks Mat etc. Their methods were unorthodox and recorded in the best selling "Untouchables" book. They were several extreme and unusual and certainly unorthodox, tactics. Officers kidnapped senior Home Office officials and detained them until the Old Bailey judge issued a summons and threatened a warrant in 5 minutes. At the committal the judge, prosecution, defence and everybody had to step over the start witness and he vomitted on the judge's shoes. Witnesses being murdered. Other witnesses being locked up it secret cells to protect them from being murdered.The Attorney General was satisfied that there was convincing evidence of all 16 murders that Kelly admitted. He was in prison for thirty years with only one or two days between sentences and all the murders co-incided with his absences from prison and before his next arrest. When protected by Police, most had been witnessed. In 12 cases Kelly had presented himself to Police as a star witness who had been talking to the poor depressed man about his unfaithful wife when the train arrived at the station and he jumped underneath it. The widow eventually lost her husband, her reputation, when kelly's story was told to the coroner, and her insurance money, when the death was ruled to be suicide. The A.G. authorised five murders to be charged, and instructed that prosecutions were to be discontinued and the remaining charges left on file as soon as two convictions were secured, as further prosecutions would not be in the public interest, due to their expence.

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  William S Burroughs Cutting Up...

  Joan Hawkins, Alex Wermer-Colan

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  This definitive book on Burroughs’ decades-long cut-up project and its relevance to the American twentieth century, including previously unpublished works. 
   
  William S. Burroughs’s Nova Trilogy (The Soft Machine, Nova Express, and The Ticket That Exploded) remains the best-known of his textual cut-up creations, but he committed more than a decade of his life to searching out multimedia for use in works of collage. By cutting up, folding in, and splicing together newspapers, magazines, letters, book reviews, classical literature, audio recordings, photographs, and films, Burroughs created an eclectic and wide-ranging countercultural archive.  
   
  This collection includes previously unpublished work by Burroughs such as cut-ups of work written by his son, cut-ups of critical responses to his own work, collages on the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, excerpts from his dream journals, and some of the few diary entries that Burroughs wrote about his wife, Joan. 
   
  William S. Burroughs Cutting Up the Century also features original essays, interviews, and discussions by established Burroughs scholars, respected artists, and people who encountered Burroughs. The essays consider Burroughs from a range of perspectives—literary studies, media studies, popular culture, gender studies, post-colonialism, history, and geography. 
   
  “A landmark in scholarship.” —Choice

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  Dead Reckoning

  Caitlin Rother

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  Happy and retired, Tom and Jackie Hawks lived a charmed life in sunny Southern California. They were delighted when former child star Skylar Deleon and his pregnant wife, Jennifer, offered cash to purchase their fifty-five-foot yacht, the Well Deserved . . .But a trial voyage turned into a nightmare. Out at sea, the Hawkses begged for their lives as they were forced to sign everything over to Skylar. In return, they were tied to the ship's anchor and thrown overboard—alive.Skylar and Jennifer's twisted story became even more shocking when Skylar's unusual sexual motivations were revealed in court. After killing a man while out of jail on work furlough, he reportedly tried to hire hits from prison on four witnesses, including his father. For this former child actor, the answer to "Where are they now?" is Death Row.

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  Passion and Pain - The Life of...

  Marc Shapiro

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  A definitive biography of Hector Lavoe's rise from Puerto Rico to stardom in New York that led to sold-out concerts and best-selling salsa albums, yet gave way to drug addiction, a strained marriage and tragedy.From the poverty-stricken streets of Ponce, Puerto Rico to the vibrant barrios of New York City, HECTOR LAVOE became the singer of all singers, and the driving-force behind the Salsa movement in the mid-1960s. His popularity rivaled that of his contemporaries, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz and Johnny Pacheco.Behind the music, Hector's life was filled with drugs, alcohol and women. An endless stream of tragedy plagued him, including a gun-related accident that killed his son, Hector's ninth floor jump from a hotel window, and his death in 1993 from AIDS. But Hector's pristine voice, one-of-a-kind stage performances, sold-out concerts and bestselling albums were what his fans remember most and what made him an international icon. His music brought joy to legions of people, and it continues today.Marc Shapiro's Passion and Pain is "A no-holds barred biography" (Uptown Magazine) of a fascinating life.

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