Author: Jocelyn BrookePublisher: Nature Classics Library
ISBN: 9781908213051
Category : Authors, English
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The brilliantly comic tale of obsession with one flower.
The Orchid Trilogy
Author: Jocelyn BrookePublisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1509855807
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 419
Book Description
A disarming, lyrical hybrid of fiction and autobiography, this forgotten masterpiece of post-war English fiction follows a small boy through his First World War childhood and teenage years on the Kentish coast, then into the army and frontline service in the Second World War. Obsessed by his strange twin passions for orchids and for fireworks, the author-narrator paints a haunting portrait of a childhood and adulthood interleaved with one another in a near-mystical rural idyll. Defined by his unspoken homosexuality, the books capture the unfolding of a melancholy, often painfully sensitive male consciousness. First published in the late 1940s as three separate but interlinked volumes – “The Military Orchid”; “A Mine of Serpents” and “The Goose Cathedral” – The Orchid Trilogy conjures up a rapturous, fantastical portrait of England at war and peace in the 20th century. Witty, subtle and deceptively simple, this unjustly neglected classic that has yet to be surpassed in its exploration of the magical world of childhood. One of those too-rare books whose enjoyability makes it seem too short – Elizabeth Bowen It is a kind of collage of sharply drawn bits of real life, excellently described and artistically arranged – Stephen Spender Reminiscence and reflection and description are woven together to make a curious and fascinating tapestry – David Cecil Mr. Brooke's finely shaped prose, his wit, percipience, and liveliness in the description of people, places, and states of mind are a rare delight – The Scotsman A sad, funny, densely detailed yet continuously readable experience – The Observer One of the most exciting creative artists of our time and one who will consistently evade all the literary categories – John Pudney
The Orchid Hunter
Author: Leif BerswedenPublisher: Short Books
ISBN: 1780723350
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
He has just a few months to complete his quest – no one has ever done it before within one growing season – and it will require ingenuity, stamina and a large dose of luck.As he battles the vagaries of the British climate, feverishly chasing each emerging bloom, Leif Bersweden takes the reader on a remarkable botanical journey.This study of the 52 native species is a fantastic gateway into the compendious world of orchids – one that will open your eyes to the rare hidden delights to be found on our doorstep.Like Two Owls at Eton and My Family and Other Animals, The Orchid Hunter is a charming account of a precocious adolescent’s obsession with the natural world.Leif’s enthusiasm for his quest is infectious, as is the quiet conviction with which he keeps at it, showing how plant hunting can be the ultimate mindful activity.
Orchids in the Mud
Author: Robert C. MuehrckePublisher: Joseph G Micek
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 474
Book Description
Veterans of the 132 Infantry regiment share their memories of World War II in the Pacific ... on Guadalcanal, New Caledonia, Fiji, Bougainville, the Philippines and Japan.
Author: Jocelyn BrookeThe Orchid Thief
Author: Susan OrleanPublisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0307795292
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 322
Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK A modern classic of personal journalism, The Orchid Thief is Susan Orlean’s wickedly funny, elegant, and captivating tale of an amazing obsession. Determined to clone an endangered flower—the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii—a deeply eccentric and oddly attractive man named John Laroche leads Orlean on an unforgettable tour of America’s strange flower-selling subculture, through Florida’s swamps and beyond, along with the Seminoles who help him and the forces of justice who fight him. In the end, Orlean—and the reader—will have more respect for underdog determination and a powerful new definition of passion. In this new edition, coming fifteen years after its initial publication and twenty years after she first met the “orchid thief,” Orlean revisits this unforgettable world, and the route by which it was brought to the screen in the film Adaptation, in a new retrospective essay. Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more. Praise for The Orchid Thief “Stylishly written, whimsical yet sophisticated, quirkily detailed and full of empathy . . . The Orchid Thief shows [Orlean’s] gifts in full bloom.”—The New York Times Book Review “Fascinating . . . an engrossing journey [full] of theft, hatred, greed, jealousy, madness, and backstabbing.”—Los Angeles Times “Orlean’s snapshot-vivid, pitch-perfect prose . . . is fast becoming one of our national treasures.”—The Washington Post Book World “Orlean’s gifts [are] her ear for the self-skewing dialogue, her eye for the incongruous, convincing detail, and her Didion-like deftness in description.”—Boston Sunday Globe “A swashbuckling piece of reporting that celebrates some virtues that made America great.”—The Wall Street Journal
Wild Orchid
Author: Cameron DokeyPublisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 141698531X
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
"Once upon a Time" Is Timeless Wielding a sword as deftly as an embroidery needle, Mulan is unlike any other girl in China. When the emperor summons a great army, each family must send a male to fight. Tomboyish Mulan is determined to spare her aging father and bring her family honor, so she disguises herself and answers the call. But Mulan never expects to find a friend, let alone a soul mate, in the commander of her division, Prince Jian. For all of Mulan's courage with a bow and arrow, is she brave enough to share her true identity and feelings with Prince Jian?
Orchid Blues
Author: Stuart WoodsPublisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780451206718
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 406
Book Description
Stuart Woods brings back small-town police chief Holly Barker—and her extraordinary Doberman, Daisy—for another exhilarating adventure in this New York Times bestseller. When Holly Barker’s wedding festivities are shattered by a brutal robbery, she vows to find the culprits. With nothing to go on but the inexplicable killing of an innocent bystander, Holly discovers evidence that leads her into the midst of a clan whose members are as mysterious as they are zealous. Holly’s father, Ham, a retired army master sergeant, is her ticket into their strange world. What he finds there boggles the mind and sucks them all—Holly, Ham, and Daisy—into a whirlpool of crazed criminality from which even the FBI can’t save them...
The Armies of Angkor
Author: Michel Jacq-Hergoualc'hPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 208
Book Description
The Khmers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are best remembered by the magnificent monuments that they left the world-the ruins of Angkor Wat, the Bayon and Banteay Chmar and other relics at Siem Reap now attract over a million visitors annually. The Khmers, as well as visionary architects and builders, were by far the most formidable fighting force of Southeast Asia, and much of their fabled wealth was generated directly from the spoils of their conquests. In the present volume, drawing on depictions of warfare found on the stone reliefs of the monuments mentioned above, French scholar Jacq-Hergoualc'h reconstructs a vivid image of the Khmer army, providing insight into its organization, technology and strategies. Essential reading not only for those with interest in the history of war and weaponry but for all who seek a better understanding of the brilliant culture of the creators of Angkor.
Orchid Beach
Author: Stuart WoodsPublisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061987301
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 454
Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Stuart Woods delivers a riveting thriller that introduces an exciting addition to the pantheon of fictional sleuths. Forced into early retirement at thirty-seven, smart, attractive, and fiercely independent Major Holly Barker trades in her bars as a military cop for the badge of deputy chief of police in Orchid Beach, Florida. But below the sunny surface of this sleepy, well-to-do island town lies an evil that escalates into the cold-blooded murder of one of Holly's new colleagues. An outsider, Holly has little to go on for answers and no one to help her—except Daisy, a Doberman of exceptional intelligence and loyalty that becomes her companion and protector. The closer Holly gets to the truth, the more she knows that it'll take one smart dog with guts to sniff out this killer—before he can catch her first.
