Thomas Mallen of High Banks Hall had many sons, most of them out of wedlock. But to all of them he passed on his mark - a distinctive flash of white hair running to the left temple, known as the Mallen Streak. It was said that those who bore the Streak seldom reached old age and that nothing good ever came of a Mallen. In 1851, Thomas Mallen found himself a ruined man, forced amid scandal and disgrace, to sell the Hall. With him went his two young wards and their indomitable governess. Then the Radlet brothers of Wilbur Farm arrived, one of whom bore the unmistakable Mallen Streak.
This volume contains all three novels of the Mallen trilogy. Starting in 1851, the book follows the stormy lives of the Mallens through succeeding generations, linking the England of Queen Victoria with the dark days of World War I.
A chance reference to the triplet sons of Dan and Barbara Bensham as "the Mallen litter" creates a bitter resentment in Barbara that is to have far reaching consequences. Barbara married Dan on the rebound from a disastrous passion for her cousin, Michael Radlet, himself now married and father of Hannah. Neither Barbara nor Michael can escape the memory of their love for each other, and when they meet again it leads to an explosive situation.
Through the generations, bad luck and misfortune has befallen each and every member of the Mallen family - and those around them. It is said they are cursed by the dramatic white streak in their jet-black hair. As members of the family struggle to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of WWI, secrets and lies come to light.
A collection of essays focuses on the author's quest to understand how people behave in a world increasingly mediated, for better and for worse, by images and interactivity.
In this remarkable story of one man’s encounter with an indigenous people of Peru, Michael Brown guides his readers upriver into a contested zone of the Amazonian frontier, where more than 50,000 Awajún—renowned for their pugnacity and fierce independence—remain determined, against long odds, to live life on their own terms. When Brown took up residence with the Awajún in 1976, he knew little about them other than their ancestors’ reputation as fearsome headhunters. The fledgling anthropologist was immediately impressed by his hosts’ vivacity and resourcefulness. But eventually his investigations led him into darker corners of a world where murderous vendettas, fear of sorcery, and a shocking incidence of suicide were still common. Peru’s Shining Path insurgency in the 1980s forced Brown to refocus his work elsewhere. Revisiting his field notes decades later, now with an older man’s understanding of life’s fragility, Brown saw a different story: a tribal society trying, and sometimes failing, to maintain order in the face of an expanding capitalist frontier. Curious about how the Awajún were faring, Brown returned to the site in 2012, where he found a people whose combative self-confidence had led them to the forefront of South America’s struggle for indigenous rights. Written with insight, sensitivity, and humor, Upriver paints a vivid picture of a rapidly growing population that is refashioning its warrior tradition for the twenty-first century. Embracing literacy and digital technology, the Awajún are using hard-won political savvy to defend their rainforest home and right of self-determination.
