Reading Round Edinburgh

Reading Round Edinburgh

Author: Lindsey Fraser

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 64

ISBN-13: 9780863155932

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'My love affair with writing in this city culminated in having the book launch of the sixth Harry Potter at Edinburgh Castle, easily my favourite launch so far.'-- J. K. Rowling'A glimpse of a lit room as one passes by is like seeing a little tableau. I don't want to be invited in and shown it in detail. I only want an impression. My imagination can do the rest.'-- Joan Lingard, author of The Sign of the Black Dagger and Tilly and the Badgers'Did you know that if Robert Louis Stevenson had never written ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, there might be no big, green, angry superhero called the Hulk? In fact, there’s a good chance we wouldn’t have an evil Jedi Knight called Darth Vader either.'-- Keith Gray, author of The Runner and Creepers'I decided to poke gentle fun at some of the ladies who’d lived beside us. I turned them all into one Mrs McKitty. These ladies all wore hats from Jenners, and were afraid of nothing and no one. And of course they all had the famous Morningside "Panloaf Accent"!'-- Aileen Paterson, author of the Maisie booksFrom its secret underground streets to the top of Arthur's Seat, the city of Edinburgh has been the inspiration for many children's books and writers.This unique guide will help children and adults to discover Edinburgh through its children's books -- and to discover new books and writers through their city. With full-colour, child-friendly maps for different areas of Edinburgh, the book can be used as an informative walking guide around Edinburgh, or read as a fascinating overview of the city's rich contribution to children's literature.The contributors to the book represent the cream of Edinburgh children's writing, from Joan Lingard and Mollie Hunter to Keith Gray, Gill Arbuthnott and Nicola Morgan. Each writer talks about why Edinburgh is such a perfect setting for their work, and introduces the area closest to their heart. There's also an Introduction by J. K. Rowling.This book is a great present for children (and their families) who live in Edinburgh, or who are visiting the city. It is also a required purchase for libraries as the definitive guide to Edinburgh's literature for children.


Edinburgh History of Reading

Edinburgh History of Reading

Author: Hammond Mary Hammond

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2020-05-01

Total Pages: 477

ISBN-13: 1474446108

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Reveals the experience of reading in many cultures and across the agesCovers reading practices from China in the 6th century BCE to Britain in the 18th centuryEmploys a range of methodologies from close textual analysis to quantitative data on book ownershipExamines a wide range of texts and ways of reading them from English poetry and funeral elegies to translated books in PeruChallenges period-based models of readership historyEarly Readers presents a number of innovative ways through which we might capture or infer traces of readers in cultures where most evidence has been lost. It begins by investigating what a close analysis of extant texts from 6th-century BCE China can tell us about contemporary reading practices, explores the reading of medieval European women and their male medical practitioner counterparts, traces readers across New Spain, Peru, the Ottoman Empire and the Iberian world between 1500 and 1800, and ends with an analysis of the surprisingly enduring practice of reading aloud.


The Finishing School

The Finishing School

Author: Muriel Spark

Publisher: Canongate Books

Published: 2016-04-07

Total Pages: 111

ISBN-13: 178211758X

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'One of her funniest novels . . . Spark at her sharpest, her purest and her most merciful' ALI SMITH In The Finishing School Muriel Spark is once again at her biting, satirical best. On the edge of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, a struggling would-be novelist and his wife run a finishing school of questionable reputation to keep the funds flowing. When a seventeen-year-old student's writing career begins to show great promise, tensions begin to run high. A keen portrait of devouring regret, psychological unravelling and the glittering promise of youth, The Finishing School is the perfect natural partner to Muriel Spark's most famous novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.


The Waiting

The Waiting

Author: Regi Claire

Publisher: Leamington Books

Published: 2022-03-03

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1914090594

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One wintry day in Edinburgh, elderly Lizzie opens her door to Rachel, a young Swiss woman with stigmata-marked palms. Invading Lizzie's snug existence of dog walks, Café Noirs and Glacier Mints, Rachel forces Lizzie to take stock, forces her to relive her friendship with the late Marlene, Rachel's grandmother – wild, unscrupulous, unprincipled Marlene, who could charm birds out of trees and whose love of life, luxury, liquor and fun has kept Lizzie in thrall all these years. A classic Edinburgh novel, The Waiting is a unique blend of fiction and historical fact from the 1930s to the present day. First published by Word Power Books, Leamington Books is delighted to debut and distribute the eBook of this Edinburgh favourite. * Regi Claire was born and brought up in Switzerland. The Waiting is her second novel and the winner of a UBS Cultural Foundation award. Her other books include the novel The Beauty Room and the two short story collections Inside Outside and Fighting It, both shortlisted for the Saltire Book of the Year awards. Her first poem, '(Un)certainties', won 1st prize in the Mslexia/PBS Women's Poetry Competition 2019 and was shortlisted for Best Single Poem in the Forward Prizes 2020. A former Royal Literary Fund Fellow and Royal Literary Fund Lector for Reading Round Scotland, Regi teaches at Edinburgh University. She lives in Edinburgh with her writer husband Ron Butlin and their golden retriever. Praise for The Waiting 'Heartbreakingly real and utterly compelling. ... I absolutely loved this book.' Northwords Now 'A delicious read.' Sunday Herald, The Books of 2012 'Truly stunning... the crisp, clean, razor-sharp style of Claire's writing cuts to the heart of a story that will linger in the reader's imagination for long after the final, dazzling passage ends.' Bottle Imp, Association for Scottish Literary Studies 'Reminiscent, at times, of an early Ian McEwan... brilliant period detail... The past, we are assured, is as comforting as it is disquieting.' Times Literary Supplement


Some Rambles Round Edinburgh (1892)

Some Rambles Round Edinburgh (1892)

Author: John Christison Oliphant

Publisher: Kessinger Publishing

Published: 2009-04

Total Pages: 72

ISBN-13: 9781104307110

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This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.


The Edinburgh Dead

The Edinburgh Dead

Author: Brian Ruckley

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2011-08-04

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 0748115269

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Edinburgh 1827. In the starkly-lit operating theatres of the city, grisly experiments are being carried out on corpses in the name of medical science. But elsewhere, there are those experimenting with more sinister forces. Amongst the crowded, sprawling tenements of the labyrinthine Old Town, a body is found, its neck torn to pieces. Charged with investigating the murder is Adam Quire, Officer of the Edinburgh Police. The trail will lead him into the deepest reaches of the city's criminal underclass, and to the highest echelons of the filthy rich. Soon Quire will discover that a darkness is crawling through this city of enlightenment - and no one is safe from its corruption.


Life Ceremony

Life Ceremony

Author: Sayaka Murata

Publisher: Grove Press

Published: 2022-07-05

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 0802159591

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The long-awaited first short story-collection by the author of the cult sensation Convenience Store Woman, tales of weird love, heartfelt friendships, and the unsettling nature of human existence With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short stories ever to be translated into English. In Japan, Murata is particularly admired for her short stories, which are sometimes sweet, sometimes shocking, and always imbued with an otherworldly imagination and uncanniness. In these twelve stories, Murata mixes an unusual cocktail of humor and horror to portray both the loners and outcasts as well as turning the norms and traditions of society on their head to better question them. Whether the stories take place in modern-day Japan, the future, or an alternate reality is left to the reader’s interpretation, as the characters often seem strange in their normality in a frighteningly abnormal world. In “A First-Rate Material,” Nana and Naoki are happily engaged, but Naoki can’t stand the conventional use of deceased people’s bodies for clothing, accessories, and furniture, and a disagreement around this threatens to derail their perfect wedding day. “Lovers on the Breeze” is told from the perspective of a curtain in a child’s bedroom that jealously watches the young girl Naoko as she has her first kiss with a boy from her class and does its best to stop her. “Eating the City” explores the strange norms around food and foraging, while “Hatchling” closes the collection with an extraordinary depiction of the fractured personality of someone who tries too hard to fit in. In these strange and wonderful stories of family and friendship, sex and intimacy, belonging and individuality, Murata asks above all what it means to be a human in our world and offers answers that surprise and linger.


Canadian Literature

Canadian Literature

Author: Faye Hammill

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2007-09-13

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0748629521

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An important critical study of Canadian literature, placing internationally successful anglophone Canadian authors in the context of their national literary history. While the focus of the book is on twentieth-century and contemporary writing, it also charts the historical development of Canadian literature and discusses important eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors. The chapters focus on four central topics in Canadian culture: Ethnicity, Race, Colonisation; Wildernesses, Cities, Regions; Desire; and Histories and Stories. Each chapter combines case studies of five key texts with a broad discussion of concepts and approaches, including postcolonial and postmodern reading strategies and theories of space, place and desire. Authors chosen for close analysis include Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Alice Munro, Leonard Cohen, Thomas King and Carol Shields.


Edinburgh Companion to Charles Dickens and the Arts

Edinburgh Companion to Charles Dickens and the Arts

Author: Claire Wood

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2024-05-31

Total Pages: 605

ISBN-13: 1474441661

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The Edinburgh Companion to Charles Dickens and the Arts explores Dickens's rich and complex relationships with a myriad of art forms and the far-reaching resonance of his works across the arts overall. This volume reassesses Dickens's prescient philosophy of art, both through a historical and a present-day lens and in the context of debates about the cultural value of the arts. Across thirty-three original essays, it outlines the ways in which Dickens broke down oppositions between high and low art, money and the aesthetic, the extraordinary and the ordinary, and art for its own sake and the social good. In doing so, it considers how Dickens prefigured the arts of the future, including rap music, television, fanfiction and global cinema.


A Truth Lover

A Truth Lover

Author: John Herdman

Publisher: Leamington Books

Published: 2024-01-06

Total Pages: 113

ISBN-13: 1914090829

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Living as if an outsider, but functionally ingratiate to normal social circles, Duncan has his morality rocked by bearing witness to a violent act. Where can one land on judgement of abject behaviour when inflicted upon a person, perhaps more abject than the act itself? Pressure to testify pushes Duncan into various forms of escapism and a consequential number of captivating encounters, all whilst trapped in a brooding vacuum of self-reflection. Herdman's writerly magic is an underappreciated facet of Scotland's continually great literary output. "John Herdman's impressive first novel, A Truth Lover, is written as though it had been very well translated from the nineteenth-century Russian ... Mr Herdman and his book are much too good to be localised." P.J. Kavanagh, The Guardian "Both brilliant and very moving indeed ... If there is to be any vigorous tradition of novel writing in Scotland then this is the kind of book which will open up that prospect." Archie Hind, The Glasgow Herald ".... a very fine piece of imaginative writing .... This unusual novel whets one's interest in a new and most promising talent in the Scottish literary scene." Cuthbert Graham, Press & Journal "I find A Truth Lover the most impressive debut by a Scottish novelist for years." Douglas Eadie, Scottish International