Along the Enchanted Way

Author: William Blacker
Publisher: John Murray
ISBN: 1848544480
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 366

Book Description
Chosen for the Duchess of Cornwall's online book club The Reading Room by HRH The Prince of Wales When William Blacker first crossed the snow-bound passes of northern Romania, he stumbled upon an almost medieval world. There, for many years he lived side by side with the country people, a life ruled by the slow cycle of the seasons, far away from the frantic rush of the modern world. In spring as the pear trees blossomed he ploughed with horses, in summer he scythed the hay meadows and in the freezing winters gathered wood by sleigh from the forest. From sheepfolds harried by wolves, to courting expeditions in the snow, he experienced the traditional way of life to the full, and became accepted into a community who treated him as one of their own. But Blacker was also intrigued by the Gypsies, those dark, foot-loose strangers of spell-binding allure who he saw passing through the village. Locals warned him to stay clear but he fell in love and there followed a bitter struggle. Change is now coming to rural Romania, and William Blacker's adventures will soon be part of its history. From his early carefree days tramping the hills of Transylvania, to the book's poignant ending, Along the Enchanted Way transports us back to a magical country world most of us thought had vanished long ago.

The Romanian

Author: Bruce Benderson
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1440628262
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 314

Book Description
Winner of the 2004 Prix de Flore—one of France's most distinguished literary prizes—a wildly romantic, true-life love story “History follows a trail of sputtering desire, often calling upon the delusions of lovers to generate the sparks. If it weren’t for us, the world would suffer from a dismal lack of stories," writes Bruce Benderson in this brutally candid memoir. “What astonishes and intrigues is Benderson’s way of recounting, in the sweetest possible voice, things that are considered shocking,” wrote Le Monde. What’s so shocking? It’s not just Benderson’s job translating Céline Dion’s saccharine autobiography, which he admits is driving him mad; but his unrequited love for an impoverished Romanian in “cheap club-kid platforms with dollar signs in his squinting eyes,” whom he meets while on a journalism assignment in Eastern Europe. Rather than retreat, Benderson absorbs everything he can about Romanian culture and discovers an uncanny similarity between his own obsession for the Romanian (named Romulus) and the disastrous love affair of King Carol II, the last king of Romania (1893-1953). Throughout, Benderson—“absolutely free of bitterness, nastiness, or any desire to protect himself,” wrote Le Monde—is sustained by little white codeine pills, a poetic self-awareness, a sense of humor, and an unwavering belief in the perfect romance, even as wild dogs chase him down Romanian streets.

Romanian Furrow

Author: Donald John Hall
Publisher: London : Methuen [1933]
ISBN:
Category : Peasantry
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Book Description

Along the Enchanted Way

Author: William Blacker
Publisher: John Murray Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Book Description
A spellbinding memoir set in rural Romania.

I Thought You'd Never Ask

Author: Steve Spracklen
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1716154839
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Book Description
These are the recollections of "Ragtime Bob" Darch (1920-2002) told in his own words and transcribed by his longtime friend Steve Spracklen. Bob begins by recalling his life from childhood in Detroit through his college years and then service in World War II as an army paratrooper and in the Korean conflict as an Alaskan post engineer. Then he recounts his nearly six decades as an itinerant ragtime piano player sharing stories as only Bob could tell them of the many celebrities with whom he worked and the countless tales of his experiences "on the Ragtime Trail." Bob entertained his audiences with music and stories of ragtime, past and present. He was not encumbered by facts...he had a story to tell. Bob died in 2002 at the age of 82 and he is buried in Sedalia, Missouri where he often said his style of classic ragtime music began. March 31, 2020 marked the centennial of his birth and like he said of ragtime, Bob's legacy isn't dead, it isn't even sick.

Jacobs' Band Monthly

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Band music
Languages : en
Pages : 1078

Book Description

The Best of News Design 36th Edition

Author: Society for News Design
Publisher: Quarry Books Editions
ISBN: 163159110X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 275

Book Description
The Best of News Design 36th Edition presents the winning entries from the Society for News Design's 2015 competition. Insightful commentary on what made each piece a standout is included.

Five Bells

Author: Gail Jones
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 1250024560
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 223

Book Description
A Picador Paperback Original On a radiant day in Sydney, four adults converge on Circular Quay, site of the iconic Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Crowds of tourists mix with the locals, enjoying the glorious surroundings and the play of light on water. But just as Circular Quay resonates with Australia's past, each of the four carries a complicated history from elsewhere. Each person is haunted by past secrets and guilt. Ellie is preoccupied by her sexual experiences as a girl, James by a tragedy for which he feels responsible, Catherine by the loss of her beloved brother in Dublin, and Pei Xing by her imprisonment during China's Cultural Revolution. Told over the course of a single Saturday, Five Bells describes four lives that come to share not only a place and a time but also mysterious patterns and ambiguous symbols, including a barely glimpsed fifth figure, a young child. By nightfall, when Sydney is drenched in a summer rainstorm, each life will have been transformed by the events of this day.

West

Author: Jim Perrin
Publisher: Atlantic Books
ISBN: 0857895605
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Book Description
West tells the story of Jim Perrin's life against the lives and deaths of his cherished wife and son, and the landscapes through which they traveled together. It is a complex and sensual love story, a celebration of the beauty and redemptive power of wild nature, and an extraordinary account of one man's journey towards the acceptance of devastating personal loss.

The Bookman

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bibliography
Languages : en
Pages : 198

Book Description