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Introduced by Donald Smith. Set in Rome during Nero's reign of terror, The Blood of the Martyrs is a disciplined historical novel tracing the destruction of one cell of the early church. With a cast of slaves, ordinary Roman people, exiles and entertainers, it is thorough in its historical interpretation and in its determination to make the past accessible and readable. Written in 1938-9, the novel contains many symbolic parallels to the rise of European fascism in the 1930s and the desperate plight of persecuted minorities such as the Jews and the left-wing activists with whom Naomi Mitchison personally campaigned at the time. With the invasion of Britain a real possibility, she felt compelled to write a testament to the power of human solidarity which, even faced with death, can overcome the worst that human evil can achieve. The Blood of the Martyrs is the least autobiographical of Mitchison's major works of fiction, yet, with its implicit credo, is her most passionately self-revealing. ... Read more

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'Her touch is sure, her description admirable. The reader gets a whiff of crushed thyme and of dew on dust as the author tells of Pindar's poetic adventure into Thessaly' TimesKeywords: Pindar Thessaly Whiff Thyme Admirable ... Read more

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Scottish novelist and poet, Naomi Mitchison was born in Edinburgh in 1897, the daughter of philosopher John Scott Haldane. She was an early campaigner for women's birth control and became involved with pacifism and women's rights. At Oxford she was a close friend of Aldous Huxley. she married Labour MP G.R Mitchison in 1916, and during the World War I worked as a VAD nurse in London. Her literary career commenced in the early 1920s with poems and plays, and she has now written more than 72 books - novels as well as travel and history books and autobiography. In 1935, her novel "We Have Been Warned" which dealt with rape and abortion was censored. In the same year she stood as Labour Candidate and in 1937, moved to Carradale where she still lives. This biography explores her literary and political life and career. ... Read more

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Contents Include: The Hostages - Vercingetorix and the Others: Cottia went to Bibtacte - The Man from Alesia - Got to put up with it Now - The Triumph of Faith - When the Bough Breaks - A Note on some Books ... Read more

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Anna Comnena is described as the first female historian, the author of her father's celebratory biography.She was an educated princess in eleventh-century Constantinople, the daughter of the Emperor Alexius. She was expected to succeed him, and raised as heir, but her hopes were dashed by the birth of a younger brother. In what is over-modestly described as a biography, Naomi Mitchison combines her story with that of her father, and the whole civilisation of the Eastern Empire, indeed the whole known world of the time. The Eastern Empire is seen as a necessary bulwark between a young and promising Europe and the perils of Islam and wild tribes in Asia.Mitchisonalso warns her readership of the perils of a dead civilisation, and writing in 1928 she poses a challenge to the direction of Europe in these perilous postwar years. Thwarted ambition at last drove Anna to attempt to kill her brother, who, says Mitchison, went on to be one of the best of Emperors.Isobel Murray is Emeritus Professor of Modern Scottish Literature at the University of Aberdeen. ... Read more

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Chapters: Joanna Baillie, Carol Ann Duffy, Lady Anne Barnard, Naomi Mitchison, Muriel Spark, Janice Hally, Muriel Gray, Ann Marie Di Mambro, Sheena Blackhall, Eliza Rennie, Agnes Mure Mackenzie, Wendy Wood, Jackie Kay, Ali Smith, Helen Adam, Val Mcdermid, Alison Cockburn, Rhona Cameron, A. L. Kennedy, D. E. Stevenson, Anne Bannerman, Janice Galloway, Janet Hamilton, Rona Munro, Zoë Strachan, Margaret Elphinstone, O. Douglas, Elizabeth Melville, Jean Adam, Shena Mackay, Louise Welsh, Helen Macfarlane, Alex Gray, Violet Jacob, Mary Oxlie, Kathleen Jamie, Joan Ure, Jane Welsh Carlyle, Marjorie Fleming, Liz Lochhead, Sharon Mcpherson, Isabel Pagan, Betool Khedairi, Agnes Owens, Anne Ross Cousin, Jessie Kesson, Jean Elliot, Nan Shepherd, Helen Douglas Irvine, Rachel Annand Taylor, Laura Hird, Muriel Stuart, Ellen Galford, Meg Bateman, Marilyn Gillies Carr, Margaret Tait, Meta Orred, Susan Edmonstoune Ferrier, Christian Milne. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 200. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Joanna Baillie (11 September 1762 23 February 1851) was a Scottish poet and dramatist. Baillie was very well-known during her lifetime and, though a woman, intended her plays not for the closet but for the stage. Admired both for her literary powers and her sweetness of disposition, her cottage at Hampstead was the centre of a brilliant literary society. Baillie died at the age of 88, her faculties remaining unimpaired to the last. Baillie was born in 1762. Her father, Rev. James Baillie (c.17221778), was a Presbyterian minister and briefly, during the two years before his death, a Professor of Divinity at the University of Glasgow. Her mother Dorothea Hunter (c.17211806) was a sister of the great physicians and anatomists, William and John Hunter. The Baillies were an old Scottish family, and c...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=143103 ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Naomi Mitchison, Erich Segal, Thomas Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill, James W. Black, Raymond Hoffenberg, Anthony Caro, Alan Bullock, Henry Arthur Pears Fisher, Arthur Lionel Pugh Norrington, Nasser David Khalili, Richard Sorabji, Robert Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley, Edward Abraham, William Bradshaw, Baron Bradshaw, Raymond Klibansky, Richard Wilberforce, Baron Wilberforce, Francisco Rezek, Martin Wood, David Smith, Denis Mack Smith, Arnold Burgen, Leonard Wolfson, Baron Wolfson, Anthony Epstein. Excerpt:Alan Louis Charles Bullock, Baron Bullock (13 December 1914 2 February 2004), was a British historian, who wrote an influential biography of Adolf Hitler and many other works. Early life and career Bullock was born in Trowbridge in Wiltshire , England , where his father worked as a gardener and a Unitarian preacher. He won a scholarship to Wadham College , at Oxford University , where he studied classics and modern history. After graduating in 1938, he worked as a research assistant for Winston Churchill , who was writing his History of the English-Speaking Peoples. During World War II Bullock worked for the European Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation . After the war he returned to Oxford as a history fellow at New College . He was the founding master of St. Catherine's College , a college for undergraduates and graduates, divided between students of the sciences and the arts. He was credited with massive fundraising efforts to develop the college. Later he was the first full-time Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University . Hitler: A Study in Tyranny According to Bullock, Hitler was an opportunistic adventurer devoid of principles, beliefs or scruples In 1952, Bullock published Hitler: A Study in Tyranny , the first comprehensive biography of Hitler, which he based... ... Read more

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Chapters: Ken Macleod, Angus Calder, Bill Shankly, Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham, John Maclean, Naomi Mitchison, James Maxton, Alasdair Gray, Tom Johnston, Alistair Hulett, George Macleod, John Mcgovern, James Maley, William Crawford Anderson, John Wheatley, Hamish Henderson, William Mcilvanney, Albert Mcelroy, Edward Hunter, Haldane Burgess, Harry Mcshane, Sandie Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker, Campbell Stephen, David Mckay, David Gibson, John Bruce Glasier, John William Muir, George Buchanan, Scottish Militant Labour, George Yates, Annie Maxton, Scottish Socialist Party, Freddie Anderson, Scottish Socialist Federation. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 145. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: William "Bill" Shankly, OBE (2 September 1913 29 September 1981) was one of Britain's most successful and respected football managers. Shankly was also a fine player, whose career was interrupted by the Second World War. He played nearly 300 times in The Football League for Preston North End and represented Scotland seven times, as well as playing for Partick Thistle and Carlisle United. He is most remembered, however, for his achievements as a manager, particularly with Liverpool. Shankly established Liverpool, which had been a Second Division club when he arrived, as one of the major forces in the English game. During his 15 years at the club they won three league championships, two FA Cups and the UEFA Cup, before his surprise retirement after the 1974 FA Cup Final. Shankly was born in the Ayrshire mining village of Glenbuck, He was one of 5 brothers who went on to play professional football. His brother Bob (19101982) was also a successful manager, guiding Dundee to victory in the Scottish championship in 1962. His tough upbringing was the basis for his own brand of humanitarian ba...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=318569 ... Read more

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Chapters: A. J. Cronin, Naomi Mitchison, Edwin Morgan, Edwin Muir, Norman Maccaig, Compton Mackenzie, Catherine Carswell, Derick Thomson, Robert Mclellan, Eric Linklater, Helen Cruickshank, Douglas Young, Robert Garioch, Fionn Maccolla, James Bridie, George Campbell Hay, Jessie Kesson, Maurice Lindsay, Alan Bold, Nan Shepherd, F. Marian Mcneill, Tom Scott, John Macdougall Hay. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 103. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Archibald Joseph Cronin (19 July 1896 6 January 1981) was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known works are Hatter's Castle, The Stars Look Down, The Citadel, The Keys of the Kingdom and The Green Years, all of which were adapted to film. He also created the Dr. Finlay character, the hero of a series of stories that served as the basis for the popular BBC television and radio series entitled Dr. Finlay's Casebook. Rosebank Cottage, Cronin's birthplaceCronin was born at Rosebank Cottage in Cardross, Dunbartonshire, the only child of a Protestant mother, Jessie Cronin (née Montgomerie), and a Catholic father of Irish extraction, Patrick Cronin, and would later write of young men from similarly mixed backgrounds. His paternal grandparents were the proprietors of a public house in Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire. His maternal grandfather, Archibald Montgomerie, was a hatter who owned a shop in Dumbarton. After their marriage, Cronin's parents moved to Helensburgh, where he attended Grant Street School. When he was seven years old, his father, an insurance agent and commercial traveller, died from tuberculosis. He and his mother moved to her parents' home in Dumbarton, and she soon became the first female public health inspector in Scotland. Cronin was not only a precocious student at Dumbarton Academy who won many prizes and writing ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=201658 ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The works of J. R. R. Tolkien, most notably The Lord of the Rings (1954/55) have exerted considerable influence since their publication. A culture of fandom sprang up in the 1960s, but reception by the establishment of literary criticism has been more slow. Nevertheless, academic studies on Tolkien's works have been appearing at an increasing pace since the mid 1980s. The Lord of the Rings has received mixed reviews since its inception, ranging from terrible to excellent. Recent reviews in various media have been, in a majority, highly positive and Tolkien's literary achievement is slowly being acknowledged as a significant one. ... Read more

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Chapters: Marie Stopes, Naomi Mitchison, John Cockburn. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 29. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Marie Carmichael Stopes, D.Sc., Ph.D. (15 October 1880 2 October 1958) was a Scottish author, palaeobotanist, campaigner for women's rights and pioneer in the field of family planning. Stopes edited the journal Birth Control News which gave anatomically explicit advice, and in addition to her enthusiasm for protests at places of worship this provoked protest from both the Church of England and the Catholic Church. Her sex manual Married Love, which was written, she claimed, while she was still a virgin, was controversial and influential. The modern organisation that bears her name, Marie Stopes International, works in 38 countries across the world - ranging from the UK, Bolivia, and the Philippines through to Pakistan, Kenya and Papua New Guinea. Blue plaque commemorating Marie Stopes at the University of ManchesterStopes attended University College London as a scholarship student studying botany and geology, graduating with a first class B.Sc. in 1902. After carrying out research at University College London she pursued further study at the University of Munich, receiving a Ph.D. in palaeobotany in 1904. Following this Stopes earned a D.Sc degree from University College London, becoming the youngest person in Britain to have done so. In 1903 she published a study of the botany of the recently dried-up Ebbsfleet River. In 1907 she went to Japan on a Scientific Mission, spending a year and a half at the Imperial University, Tokyo, exploring for fossil plants. She was also Fellow and sometime Lecturer in Palaeobotany at University College London and Lecturer in Palaeobotany at the University of Manchester, in this capacity she became the first female academic ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=202327 ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: J. B. S. Haldane, Naomi Mitchison, Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane, Clan Haldane, Mark Arnold-Forster, John Scott Haldane, John Joseph Haldane, Gleneagles Hotel, James Haldane, Robert Haldane, Tim Mitchison, A. R. B. Haldane, Graeme Haldane, Daniel Rutherford Haldane, James Haldane, William Haldane, Elizabeth Haldane. Excerpt:Archibald Richard Burdon Haldane (1900 1982) was a Scottish social historian and writer . He was the son of Edith (née Nelson) and Sir William Haldane , grandson of James Alexander Haldane , and nephew of Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane . His brother was Graeme Haldane and he married Janet Macrae Simpson-Smith. Like his father and uncles, he attended the Edinburgh Academy , after which he went up to Balliol College, Oxford to read history. He returned to Scotland to enter his father's legal firm and acted for a time as Fiscal to the Society of Writers to the Signet. He then became involved in the Savings Bank movement and was at one stage vice-chairman of the Savings Bank Association. In 1982, he was awarded the CBE in recognition of his work for the bank. He was principally known, however, as a social historian and author, and for his seminal work on the drovers' roads of Scotland. In recognition for his work in this field, he was awarded the honorary degree of D Litt from the University of Edinburgh . He published two further books in this field, New Ways through the Glens and Three centuries of Scottish posts , as well as several on his favourite pastime of trout fishing, of which he was passionately fond. Selected bibliography References (URLs online) A hyperlinked version of this chapter is at Crest badge suitable to be worn by members of Clan Haldane. Clan Haldane is a Lowland Scottish clan . History Origins of the Haldanes of Gle... ... Read more

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Word count: 3247. ... Read more