Educating Rita, about a working-class Liverpool girl's hunger for education, is 'simply a marvellous play, painfully funny and passionately serious; a hilarious social documentary; a fairy-tale with a quizzical, half-happy ending.' Sunday Times Educating Rita premiered at the RSC Warehouse, London, in June 1980. Voted Best Comedy of 1980, it was subsequently made into a highly successful film with Michael Caine and Julie Walters.
'One way of describing Educating Rita would be to say that it was about the meaning of education ... Another would be to say that it was about the meaning of life. A third, that it is a cross between Pygmailion and Lucky Jim. A fourth, that it is simply a marvellous play, painfully funny and passionately serious; a hilarious social documentary; a fairy-tale with a quizzical, half-happy ending.' Sunday Times This new student edition includes an introduction covering the play's context; chronology; dramatic devices; critical reception; production history; and key themes such as class and identity, popular culture and education. Educating Rita portrays a working-class Liverpool woman's hunger for education. It premiered at the RSC Warehouse, London, in 1980 and won the SWET award for Best Comedy of the Year. It was subsequently made into a highly successful film with Michael Caine and Julie Walters and won the 1983 BAFTA award for Best Film. Commentary and notes by Katie Beswick, University of the Arts London.
Mrs Kay's 'Progress Class' are unleashed for a day's coach trip to Conway Castle in Wales - in an exuberant celebration of the joys and agonies of growing up and being footloose, fourteen and free from school. 'The skill and zest of the show . . . derive from its success in following the adult argument through while preserving all the fun of a story mainly played by children . . . I have rarely seen a show that combined such warmth and such bleakness.' The Times This edition contains the music to the play.
'Stags and Hens takes place in the Gents and Ladies loos of a tacky Liverpool club, where Dave and Linda have decided, unbeknownst to each other, to hold their stag and hen parties . . . a bleakly funny and perceptive study of working-class misogyny, puritanism and waste' Guardian 'Combines comedy with acrid truth in the style Willy Russell has made unmistakably his own ... and hits off brilliantly the herd instinct driving both sexes onward and bedward' Daily Telegraph 'Firmly in the centre of the playwright's best achievements: lively, coarse, well-organised, truthful and very funny' Financial Times
A Liverpudlian West Side Story, Blood Brothers is the story of twin brothers separated at birth because their mother cannot afford to keep them both. One of them is given away to wealthy Mrs Lyons and they grow up as friends in ignorance of their fraternity until the inevitable quarrel unleashes a blood-bath. Blood Brothers was first performed at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1983 and subsequently transferred to the Lyric Theatre, London. It was revived in the West End in 1988 for a long-running production and opened on Broadway in 1993.
With forewords by Professor Tanya Byron and Octavius Black, Educating Ruby: What Our Children Really Need To Learn is a powerful call to action by acclaimed thought-leaders Guy Claxton and Bill Lucas. It is for everyone who cares about education in an uncertain world and explains how teachers, parents and grandparents can cultivate confidence, curiosity, collaboration, communication, creativity, commitment and craftsmanship in children, at the same time as helping them to do well in public examinations. Educating Ruby shows, unequivocally, that schools can get the right results in the right way, so that the Rubys of tomorrow will emerge from their time at school able to talk with honest pleasure and reflective optimism about their schooling. Featuring the views of schoolchildren, parents, educators and employers and drawing on Guy Claxton and Bill Lucas' years of experience in education, including their work with Building Learning Power and the Expansive Education Network, this powerful new book is sure to provoke thinking and debate. Just as Willy Russell's Educating Rita helped us rethink university, the authors of Educating Ruby invite fresh scrutiny of our schools.
Fifty years after its first publication, discover the classic coming-of-age novel that confronts prejudice and injustice with power and humanity. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY RITA MAE BROWN Molly Bolt is a young lady with a big character. Beautiful, funny and bright, Molly figures out at a young age that she will have to be tough to stay true to herself in 1950s America. In her dealings with boyfriends and girlfriends, in the rocky relationship with her mother and in her determination to pursue her career, she will fight for her right to happiness. Charming, proud and inspiring, Molly is the girl who refuses to be put in a box.
THE STORY: Nobel Prize-winning author Abel Znorko lives as a recluse on a remote island in the Norwegian Seas. For fifteen years, his one friend and soulmate has been Helen, from whom he has been physically separated for the majority of their affai
“A California classic . . . California, it should be remembered, was very much the wild west, having to wait until 1850 before it could force its way into statehood. so what tamed it? Mr. Starr’s answer is a combination of great men, great ideas and great projects.”—The Economist From the age of exploration to the age of Arnold, the Golden State’s premier historian distills the entire sweep of California’s history into one splendid volume. Kevin Starr covers it all: Spain’s conquest of the native peoples of California in the early sixteenth century and the chain of missions that helped that country exert control over the upper part of the territory; the discovery of gold in January 1848; the incredible wealth of the Big Four railroad tycoons; the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906; the emergence of Hollywood as the world’s entertainment capital and of Silicon Valley as the center of high-tech research and development; the role of labor, both organized and migrant, in key industries from agriculture to aerospace. In a rapid-fire epic of discovery, innovation, catastrophe, and triumph, Starr gathers together everything that is most important, most fascinating, and most revealing about our greatest state. Praise for California “[A] fast-paced and wide-ranging history . . . [Starr] accomplishes the feat with skill, grace and verve.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Kevin Starr is one of california’s greatest historians, and California is an invaluable contribution to our state’s record and lore.”—MarIa ShrIver, journalist and former First Lady of California “A breeze to read.”—San Francisco
