Book picks similar to
The Gentlemen's Clubs of London by Anthony Lejeune
history
non-fiction
london
geography
The Selby is in Your Place
Todd Selby - 2010
Nosy by nature, he wanted to see how personal style was reflected in private spaces. Lucky for us, he found his answer in the color-rich and eclectic quarters of a diverse group of subjects, including Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler, Faris Rotter, Andre Walker, and Olivier Zahm, in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, and London. Each profile is accompanied by Selby’s watercolor portraits of the subjects and objects from their homes, and illustrated questionnaires, which Selby asks each sitter to fill out. This book consists of over thirty profiles, many of which have never-before-seen, selected exclusively for the book. The result is a collection of unique spaces bursting with energy and personality that together create a colorful hodgepodge of inspirational interiors.
Almost Heaven
Martin Fletcher - 1998
His extraordinary journey takes him to places no tourist would ever visit, to amazing communities outsiders have never heard of, to the quintessential America. He encounters snake-handlers, moonshiners, creationists, outlaws, polygamists, white supremacists and communities preparing for Armageddon. He goes bear hunting in West Virginia, fur trapping in Louisiana, diamond digging in Arkansas and gold prospecting in Nevada. From the eccentric but friendly to the frankly unhinged, the inhabitants of backwater America and their preoccupations, prejudices and traditions are brought vividly to life.'Fletcher is not only capable of excellent penmanship, but is also able to view the country and its people as both outsider and insider, and does so without being judgmental. I found his warm and subtly humorous style very appealing, and I highly recommend this book' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
Hold Still: A Portrait of our Nation in 2020
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge - 2021
People of all ages were invited to submit a photographic portrait, taken in a six-week period during May and June 2020, focused on three core themes – Helpers and Heroes, Your New Normal and Acts of Kindness. From these, a panel of judges selected 100 portraits, assessing the images on the emotions and experiences they conveyed.Featured here in this publication, the final 100 images present a unique and highly personal record of this extraordinary period in our history of people of all ages from across the nation. From virtual birthday parties, handmade rainbows and community clapping to brave NHS staff, resilient keyworkers and people dealing with illness, isolation and loss. The images convey humour and grief, creativity and kindness, tragedy and hope – expressing and exploring both our shared and individual experiences. Presenting a true portrait of our nation in 2020, this publication includes a foreword by The Duchess of Cambridge, each image is accompanied by the story behind the picture told through the words of the entrants, and further works show the nationwide outdoor exhibition of Hold Still.
Escaping Scientology: An Insider's True Story: My Journey With the Cult of Celebrity Spirituality, Greed and Power
Karen Schless Pressley - 2007
In leader David Miscavige's inner sanctum, they built their mental prison as they melded into its radicalized lifestyle where danger, captivity and abuse were normalized. After three escapes, Karen chose between two unbearable options. Escaping Scientology Part I sweeps you into the lives of two young adults filled with hope and love as designer Karen and her award-winning musician-composer husband Peter overcome obstacles to succeed in the music and fashion industries together. Scientology re-focuses their goals toward the importance of clearing the planet and recruiting celebrities to build Scientology's social capital. Karen portrays the basic beliefs of Scientology that led to her radicalization into the Sea Org at the Celebrity Centre, a fortress where artists aspire to achieve greatness while attaining spiritual freedom through L. Ron Hubbard’s teachings. Karen shows how celebrities are lured into Scientology and develop a co-dependent relationship from which few break out. Part II reveals Karen as a flawed and complex woman when she and Peter move to the secretive International Management headquarters, where they join 800 fanatical Sea Org members that made billion-year commitments to make this a Scientology world without war, criminality, or insanity. Karen finds the dystopian outpost and its global operations to be proof that Time magazine’s 1991 article, “The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power” captures the essence of Scientology’s mindset, that she describes as “war is everything and everything is war.” She is no passive victim as she attempts to stay in the driver’s seat and keep their marriage intact while fighting the pressures of the Int base culture that attempt to break them apart. Scientology goes under “Cruise Control” as Miscavige becomes obsessed with his biggest trophy, Tom Cruise, and stiffens his control and abusive punishment methods on the Int base staff. Karen rebels against regulations and spends time in Scientology’s prison camp. After two attempts to escape the Int base, she is trailed by security guards and coerced into returning. Failing to escape, she questions the evidence of her own senses, and makes a mind-twisting re-commitment to become the best version of a Sea Org member she can be. Karen carves out a world she can live within as she is promoted into the highest echelons of management, appointed by the Chairman of the Board RTC to Int Management Public Relations Officer and later to take charge of the image of Sea Org staff internationally from the Int Finance Office. While working on special projects under David and Shelley Miscavige, she travels to Scientology bases around the world where she sees human rights violations set in place by Hubbard’s policies that cause her to conclude Scientology is a for-profit business that builds billions of dollars of assets on the backs of Sea Org slave labor, while hiding behind the banner of the First Amendment, claiming benefits and protection as a non-profit religion. The epilogue of Part III portrays the mind-wrenching process of physical escape, and psychological anguish as Karen plies herself out of Scientology’s grip and endures its cruel disconnection policy. She re-acclimates herself to life on the outside while, brick by brick, she disassembles the walls of the mental prison she had built, and survives with the help of her accomplice and the love and support of her family. Karen's narrative memoir shows that Scientology's plan, authored by L.
Poldark's Cornwall
Winston Graham - 1983
This book provides illustrations of the Cornish setting. Its manor houses, ruins, paths, views, towns related to the Poldark saga.
Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution
Stephen Knight - 1976
The discovery of the murders is described by the men who were there, and evidence reveals that the hitherto unsolved Ripper murders were in fact a culmination of a full-scale cover-up organized at the highest level of government.
The Frozen Thames
Helen Humphreys - 2007
These are the stories of that frozen river.And so opens one of the most breathtaking and original works being published this season. The Frozen Thames contains forty vignettes based on events that actually took place each time the river froze between 1142 and 1895. Like a photograph captures a moment, etching it forever on the consciousness, so does Humphreys’ achingly beautiful prose. She deftly draws us into these intimate moments, transporting us through time so that we believe ourselves observers of the events portrayed. Whether it’s Queen Matilda trying to escape her besieged castle in a snowstorm, or lovers meeting on the frozen river in the plague years; whether it’s a simple farmer persuading his oxen the ice is safe, or Queen Bess discovering the rare privacy afforded by the ice-covered Thames, the moments are fleeting and transformative for the characters — and for us, too.Stunningly designed and illustrated throughout with full-colour period art, The Frozen Thames is a triumph.
On the Path of the Immortals: Exo-Vaticana, Project L. U. C. I. F. E. R., and the Strategic Locations Where Entities Await the Appointed Time
Thomas Horn - 2015
What they discovered sent shockwaves through Christianity concerning the Vatican s advanced telescope, which sits on top of Mt. Graham in Arizona (USA) where the Jesuits admit they are monitoring something approaching the earth. After the author s initial report was published in Exo-Vaticana, the pope s top astronomer took to the airwaves and on the Vatican Observatory website to try and explain the role that he and other church astronomers are playing with regards to emerging ET Friendly theology, their association with the LUCIFER device at Mt. Graham, and their developing doctrines concerning extraterrestrial life and the impact it may have on planet Earth s religions; Christianity in particular. Now, armed with fresh information from the native peoples (that failed before a federal appeals court to stop the construction of the Vatican s observatory on one of their four holiest mountains), the authors set out with cameras and field investigators to unearth their most astonishing discovery yet. The mountain is said to be a portal, a gateway to another dimension. And, as the Vatican knows and the authors uncovered, it is not the only one. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, ON THE PATH OF THE IMMORTALS REVEALS... *Unveiled! What Mt. Graham really is, and why NASA and the Vatican are there *Disclosed! What the Bible says about gateways and the beings that wait behind them *Discovered! Scientific evidence of, and signals from, life beneath the surface of the earth *Found! The ancient stargates and their association with vortex manifestations *Revealed! The role of CERN s Large Hadron Collider and its search for a portal *Uncovered! Gobekli tepe, Baalbek, and the secrets of the coming immortals *Deciphered! The worldwide grid that ties them all together *Exposed! The occult s countdown calendar for the return of their gods *Unearthed! Giants, cryptids, and their mysterious connection with gates In On the Path of the Immortals, internationally acclaimed, investigative authors Thomas Horn and Cris Putnam continue the greatest investigation of our time by exposing the facts kept hidden from the public by elitists and intellectuals who are planning mankind s assimilation under a coming savior, one whom the prophet Daniel foresaw as an alien god.
Landscape and Memory
Simon Schama - 1995
He tells of the Nazi cult of the primeval German forest; the play of Christian and pagan myth in Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers; and the duel between a monumental sculptor and a feminist gadfly on the slopes of Mount Rushmore. The result is a triumphant work of history, naturalism, mythology, and art. "A work of great ambition and enormous intellectual scope...consistently provocative and revealing."--New York Times"Extraordinary...a summary cannot convey the riches of this book. It will absorb, instruct, and fascinate."--New York Review of Books
I Told You So: Gore Vidal Talks Politics
Gore Vidal - 2012
But Vidal was also a terrific conversationalist; indeed Dick Cavett once described him as “the best talker since Oscar Wilde.” Vidal was never more eloquent, or caustic, than when let loose on his favorite topic: the history and politics of the United States.This book is made up from four interviews conducted with his long-time interlocutor, the writer and radio host Jon Wiener, in which Vidal grapples with matters evidently close to his heart: the history of the American Empire, the rise of the National Security State, and his own life in politics, both as a commentator and candidate.The interviews cover a twenty-year span, from 1988 to 2008, when Vidal was at the height of his powers. His extraordinary facility for developing an argument, tracing connections between past and present, and drawing on an encyclopedic knowledge of America’s place in the world, are all on full display. And, of course, it being Gore Vidal, an ample sprinkling of gloriously acerbic one-liners is also provided.
Interaction of Color
Josef Albers - 1971
Conceived as a handbook and teaching aid for artists, instructors, and students, this timeless book presents Albers’s unique ideas of color experimentation in a way that is valuable to specialists as well as to a larger audience.Originally published by Yale University Press in 1963 as a limited silkscreen edition with 150 color plates, Interaction of Color first appeared in paperback in 1971, featuring ten representative color studies chosen by Albers. The paperback has remained in print ever since and is one of the most influential resources on color for countless readers.This new paperback edition presents a significantly expanded selection of more than thirty color studies alongside Albers’s original unabridged text, demonstrating such principles as color relativity, intensity, and temperature; vibrating and vanishing boundaries; and the illusions of transparency and reversed grounds. Now available in a larger format and with enhanced production values, this expanded edition celebrates the unique authority of Albers’s contribution to color theory and brings the artist’s iconic study to an eager new generation of readers.
The Making of Modern Britain
Andrew Marr - 2007
Between the death of Queen Victoria and the end of the Second World War, the nation was shaken by war and peace. The two wars were the worst we had ever known and the episodes of peace among the most turbulent and surprising. As the political forum moved from Edwardian smoking rooms to an increasingly democratic Westminster, the people of Britain experimented with extreme ideas as they struggled to answer the question "How should we live?" Socialism? Fascism? Feminism? Meanwhile, fads such as eugenics, vegetarianism, and nudism were gripping the nation, while the popularity of the music hall soared. It was also a time that witnessed the birth of the media as we know it today and the beginnings of the welfare state. Beyond trenches, flappers, and Spitfires, this is a story of strange cults and economic madness, of revolutionaries and heroic inventors, sexual experiments and raucous stage heroines. From organic food to drugs, nightclubs and celebrities to package holidays, crooked bankers to sleazy politicians, the echoes of today's Britain ring from almost every page.
The Complete Gettysburg Guide: Walking and Driving Tours of the Battlefield, Town, Cemeteries, Field Hospital Sites, and Other Topics of Historical Interest
J. David Petruzzi - 2009
It is one of the most popular historical destinations in the United States. Most visitors tour the field by following the National Park Service's suggested auto tour. The standard tour, however, skips crucial monuments, markers, battle actions, town sites, hospital locations, and other hidden historical gems that should be experienced by everyone. These serious oversights are fully rectified in The Complete Gettysburg Guide, penned by noted Gettysburg historian J. David Petruzzi and illustrated with the lavish, full-color photography and maps (70) of Civil War cartographer Steven Stanley.Complete, detailed, and up-to-date, The Complete Gettysburg Guide: Walking and Driving Tours of the Battlefield, Town, Cemeteries, Field Hospital Sites, and other Topics of Historical Interest includes:- Detailed driving and walking tours of the entire battlefield (including obscure sites that even veteran visitors miss or never hear about);- A tour of every identified field hospital site for both armies;- Tours of the National Cemetery and the town's Evergreen Cemetery;- A tour of the town of Gettysburg, including sites of historical interest before and after the battle;- Outlying battlefields including the June 26, 1863 skirmish site, East Cavalry Field, South Cavalry Field, Hunterstown, Hanover, and Fairfield;- And a special tour of the various rock carvings on the battlefield, many of which were created by returning veterans and pre-date most of the monuments.Every student of Gettysburg, novice and expert alike, will want to learn from, enjoy, and treasure The Complete Gettysburg Guide. No visitor to Gettysburg will want to be without it.
National Geographic Atlas of the World
National Geographic Society - 1975
The opening section, Ninety Years of Mapping at National Geographic, traces the founding of Geographic cartography to the present advances in technology and the practice of compiling and organizing geographic information. The atlas truly begins with three stunning new, full-spread world maps, that drape Earth's surface seamlessly with satellite imagery, then physical and natural features, and finally today's political world of countries and growing cities.World thematic topics are organized into two groups: the Physical and Natural World and Human Activities. The Physical and Natural World section includes captivating core topics such as the evolution of earth, geology and tectonics, climate and weather, oceans, world water, the bioshere, and biodiversity. Human Activities covers 11 world themes: population, migration and refugees, conflict and terrorism, cultures, economy, energy and minerals, communications, food, health and education, the environment, and ending with wildlands. All of these intriguing spreads reflect the most authoritative and recent data available and are reviewed by preeminent scholars and experts. Lined up after the world thematic focus is the continental division. All seven continents open with views from space and are then represented with separate physical and political maps. Larger scale regions of each continent are presented for higher definition and detail. Because of our primary readership, additional coverage is given to the UnitedStates and Canada. An entirely new component to the Eighth Edition is the city section. Maps and text discussing urban explosion will open this compilation of sixty new maps. Pictures, fact boxes, and text will accompany each city map to create colorful and informative portraits of our built environment. Selected cites such as, New York, Mexico City-the most densely populated city in the world, and Paris will receive more detailed scaling. Less familiar and remote areas of the world and beyond-the poles, the ocean floors, and space-are mapped with new data and findings and dramatic effects. The addition of a new spread and map devoted to Mars will provide a timely reference to the expected news coverage of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission-Spirit and Opportunity. Flags and facts of every country in the world have been newly designed and consolidated into one section, listed in alphabetical order. Locater maps and cross referencing to corresponding large-scale map plates are provided for every entity. Text for each independent country summarizes physical and cultural aspects, while facts reveal the status of population, religion, area, capital, language, literacy, life expectancy, GDP, and economy. A user-friendly, 136 page, comprehensive place-name index cross-references over 130,000 geographical sites and areas. An appendix presents valuable, convenient reference to time zones, metric conversions, foreign terms, abbreviations, airline distances, and temperature and rainfall statistics from all corners of the globe. Navigating throughout the atlas is made easy with enhanced cross-referencing, pointers, labels and an end sheet that includes a visual key with corresponding platenumbers to all the maps. Every map spread in the atlas will include interactive features and access to up-to-the-minute updates and information via the electronic National Geographic Map Machine. Streams of information are available to us on myriad topics and on many fronts. At the same time, there is a need-greater than ever-to better understand our global culture. The Eighth Edition helps bridges the gap with a collection of maps and information that is as engaging as it is informative.
Counting Sheep: A Celebration of the Pastoral Heritage of Britain
Philip Walling - 2014
Our fortunes were once founded on sheep, and this book tells a story of wool and money and history, of merchants and farmers and shepherds, of English yeomen and how they got their freedom, and above all, of the soil. Sheep have helped define our culture and topography, impacting on everything from accent and idiom, architecture, roads and waterways, to social progression and wealth. With his eye for the idiosyncratic, Philip meets the native breeds that thrive in this country; he tells stories about each breed, meets their shepherds and owners, learns about their past - and confronts the present realities of sheep farming. Along the way, Philip meets the people of the countryside and their many professions: the mole-catchers, the stick-makers, the tobacco-twisters and clog-wrights. He explores this artisan heritage as he re-discovers the countryside, and finds a lifestyle parallel to modern existence, struggling to remain unchanged - and at its heart, always sheep.