Peter Ackroyd

Publisher description: The interviews in this collection catch Hitchcock at key moments of transition in his long career. These conversations dramatize his shifting attitudes on a variety of cinematic matters that engaged and challenged him, including the role of stars in a movie, the importance of story, the use of sound and color, his relationship to the medium of television, and the attractions and perils of realism.

A history of Venice from the earliest times - Crusades - Ships and navigation - Byzantine and Gothics - Humanism - Renaissance - Merchant shipping - Scuole.

The Alliterative Morte Arthure - the title given to a four-thousand line poem written sometime around 1400 - was part of a medieval Arthurian revival which produced such masterpieces as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Sir Thomas Malory's prose Morte D'Arthur. Like Gawain, the poem survives in a unique manuscript (held in the library of Lincoln Cathedral) by an anonymous author, and written in alliterating lines which harked back to Anglo-Saxon poetic composition. Unlike Gawain, whose plot hinges around one moment of jaw-dropping magic, The Death of King Arthur deals in the cut-and-thrust of warfare and politics: the ever-topical matter of Britain's relationship with continental Europe, and of its military interests overseas. The outcome is announced in the poem's title, and from their stronghold in Carlisle, Arthur and his army embark on a campaign which takes them almost to the gates of Rome, before he is forced to turn back to deal with matters closer to home. But along the way there are as many challenges for the translator of this poetic romance as are faced by its protagonist - not least how to manage the alliterative line while doing justice to the mass of riotous life which courses through the narrative's veins: channel crossings, battle formations, naval engagements, rearguard actions and forays; but also courtly protocols, partings, swoonings, and dream sequences remarkable for their private glimpses into the mind of the once and future king. A new kind of actuality is present in The Death of King Arthur, whose chivalric code cannot gloss over the carnage and horror of war, or the flaws of a King who is as much a human being as a figurehead. Simon Armitage is already the master of this alliterative music, as his earlier version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2006) so craftily showed. His new translation restores a neglected masterpiece of story-telling, bringing to life its entirely medieval mix of ruthlessness and restraint.

"Based upon manuscript sources and the uncollected prose writings, as well as the published works, this is a profound exploration of Eliot's life-long preoccupation with mysticism. The author advances new readings of the familiar poems and essays through attention to Eliot's concern in poetry and prose with his roles as mystic, son and lover."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

In this second volume in the Ackroyd's Brief Lives series, best-selling author Peter Ackroyd brings us a man of humble beginnings, crude manners, and prodigious talents, the nineteenth-century painter J.M.W. Turner. Joseph Mallord William Turner was born in London in 1775. His father was a barber, and his mother came from a family of London butchers. "His speech was recognizably that of a Cockney, and his language was the language of the streets." As his finest paintings show, his language was also the language of light. Turner's landscapes 'extraordinary studies in light, colour, and texture' caused an uproar during his lifetime and earned him a place as one of the greatest artists in history. Displaying his artistic abilities as a young child, Turner entered the Royal Academy of Arts when he was just fourteen-years-old. A year later his paintings appeared in an important public exhibition, and he rapidly achieved prominence, becoming a Royal Academician in 1802 and Professor of Perspective at the Academy from 1807-1837. His private life, however, was less orderly. Never married, he spent much time living in taverns, where he was well-known for his truculence and his stinginess with money. Peter Ackroyd deftly follows Turner's first loves of architecture, engraving, and watercolours, and the country houses, cathedrals, and landscapes of England. While his passion for Italy led him to oil painting, Turner's love for London remained central to his heart and soul, and it was within sight of his beloved Thames that he died in 1851. His dying words were: "The sun is God."

It is true that I am nervous. But why will you say that I am mad? In stories and poems written well over a century ago, Edgar Allan Poe established himself as the original American master of gothic horror. Now, acclaimed artist-adapter Gareth Hinds translates Poe's dark genius into the graphic novel format for Poe fans new and old. Blood, bones, and flickering firelight set the mood for Hinds's vision of Poe's macabre and tragic worlds. In "The Cask of Amontillado," a man takes a terrifying revenge on a friend who has insulted him. In "The Masque of the Red Death," a prince hosts a party in his abbey stronghold while plague spreads outside. A prisoner finds himself in the sadistic clutches of the Spanish Inquisition in "The Pit and the Pendulum," and in "The Telltale Heart," a single milky eye incites madness and murder. Alongside the tales are visual interpretations of three iconic poems: "The Raven," "The Bells," and Poe's poignant elegy to lost love, "Annabel Lee." Taken together, these seven concise graphic narratives both amplify and honor a timeless legacy. - Jacket flap.

Retrace les 2.000 ans d'histoire de la ville de Londres, depuis les premiers peuplements de Charing Cross au carnaval de Notting Hill, à partir d'une importante documentation, de témoignages et d'oeuvres d'art. Par une structure thématique, l'auteur aborde tous les visages de Londres : ses marchands, ses vagabonds, ses enfants, ses nuits ... et rend accessible l'esprit de la ville.