Reading Round Edinburgh

Author: Lindsey Fraser
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780863155932
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 64

Book Description
'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

Author: Hammond Mary Hammond
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 1474446108
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 477

Book Description
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

Author: Muriel Spark
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN: 178211758X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 111

Book Description
'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

Author: Regi Claire
Publisher: Leamington Books
ISBN: 1914090594
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 219

Book Description
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)

Author: John Christison Oliphant
Publisher: Kessinger Publishing
ISBN: 9781104307110
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 72

Book Description
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.

No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy

Author: Mark Hodkinson
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN: 1786899981
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 303

Book Description
Mark Hodkinson grew up among the terrace houses of Rochdale in a house with just one book. Today, Mark is an author, journalist and publisher. He still lives in Rochdale but is now surrounded by 3,500 titles, at the last count. No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy is his story of growing up a working-class lad during the 1970s and 1980s. It’s about the schools, the music, the people – but pre-eminently and profoundly the books and authors that led the way and shaped his life. It’s about a family who didn’t see the point of reading, and a troubled grandad who taught Mark the power of stories. It’s also a story of how writing and reading has changed over the last five decades.

Canadian Literature

Author: Faye Hammill
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748629521
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
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.

The Gifts of Reading

Author: Robert Macfarlane
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241982707
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 25

Book Description
From the bestselling author of UNDERLAND, THE OLD WAYS and THE LOST WORDS - an essay on the joy of reading, for anyone who has ever loved a book Every book is a kind of gift to its reader, and the act of giving books is charged with a special emotional resonance. It is a meeting of three minds (the giver, the author, the recipient), an exchange of intellectual and psychological currency, that leaves each participant enriched. Here Robert Macfarlane recounts the story of a book he was given as a young man, and how he managed eventually to return the favour, though never repay the debt. From one of the most lyrical writers of our time comes a perfectly formed gem, a lyrical celebration of the transcendent power and humanity of the given book.

Edinburgh Twilight

Author: Carole Lawrence
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
ISBN: 9781477848814
Category : City and town life
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
As a new century approaches, Edinburgh is a city divided. The wealthy residents of New Town live in comfort, while Old Town's cobblestone streets are clotted with criminals, prostitution, and poverty. Detective Inspector Ian Hamilton is no stranger to Edinburgh's darkest crimes. Scarred by the mysterious fire that killed his parents, he faces his toughest case yet when a young man is found strangled in Holyrood Park. With little evidence aside from a strange playing card found on the body, Hamilton engages the help of his aunt, a gifted photographer, and George Pearson, a librarian with a shared interest in the criminal mind. But the body count is rising. As newspapers spin tales of the "Holyrood Strangler," panic sets in across the city. And with each victim, the murderer is getting closer to Hamilton, the one man who dares to stop him.

Restless

Author: William Boyd
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408835185
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
It is 1939. Eva Delectorskaya is a beautiful 28-year-old Russian émigrée living in Paris. As war breaks out she is recruited for the British Secret Service by Lucas Romer, a mysterious Englishman, and under his tutelage she learns to become the perfect spy, to mask her emotions and trust no one, including those she loves most. Since the war, Eva has carefully rebuilt her life as a typically English wife and mother. But once a spy, always a spy. Now she must complete one final assignment, and this time Eva can't do it alone: she needs her daughter's help.