5/31/2023 0 Comments Time and Chance by Peter Townsend![]() ![]() The romance between Princess Margaret and Group Captain Peter Townsend in the 1950s rocked the British Establishment, pulled at the heartstrings of a nation and brought sorrow to two intensely human individuals. Then she simply said: 'That is exactly how I feel, too.' It was, to us both, an immensely gladdening disclosure, but one which sorely troubled us.' ![]() She listened, without uttering a word, as I told her, very quietly, of my feelings. It was then that we made the mutual discovery of how much we meant to one another. 'One afternoon, at Windsor Castle, when everyone had gone to London for some ceremony, we talked, in the red drawing-room, for hours-about ourselves. THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF PETER TOWNSEND, THE MAN CONSIDERED TO BE THE GREAT LOVE OF PRINCESS MARGARET'S LIFE, EQUERRY TO KING GEORGE VI AND HERO OF THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() His mother was watching Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and the main characters, George and Martha, ultimately became characters in one of his children's books. It is said that he discovered his vocation on a 1971 summer afternoon, lying on a hammock drawing. He returned to Texas, where he attended San Antonio College, and later transferred to Southern Connecticut State University where he received degrees in French and history. I knew I would die if I stayed there so I diligently studied the viola, and eventually won a scholarship to the New England Conservatory in Boston." He entered the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, but injured his hand, ending his music career. Marshall said: "Beaumont is deep south and swampy and I hated it. His family later moved to Beaumont, Texas. ![]() His father worked on the railroad, was a band member in the 1930s, and his mother sang in the local church choir. James Edward Marshall (Octo– October 13, 1992), who also wrote as Edward Marshall, was a children's author and illustrator. ![]() 5/31/2023 0 Comments Second hand time alexievich![]() ![]() The work is unique in the intimacy of the experience transmitted through the writing: which is, after all, only the ability to have a human ear, to listen, and to publish.' 'Alexievich's work follows the strands of thought and emotion wherever her voices take her - through nightmares, but also flashes of joy. 'A series of monologues by people across the former Soviet empire, it is Tolstoyan in scope, driven by the idea that history is made not only by major players but also by ordinary people talking in their kitchens.' Through her books and her life itself, Alexievich has gained probably the world's deepest, most eloquent understanding of the post-Soviet condition.' 'Second-Hand Time is most ambitious work: many women and a few men talk about the loss of the Soviet idea, the post-Soviet ethnic wars, the legacy of the Gulag, and other aspects of the Soviet experience. ![]() 'The non-fiction volume that has done the most to deepen the emotional understanding of Russia during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union of late is Svetlana Alexievich's oral history Second-hand Time.' Coetzee, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature 'In this spellbinding book, Svetlana Alexievich orchestrates a rich symphony of Russian voices telling their stories of love and death, joy and sorrow, as they try to make sense of the twentieth century, so tragic for their country.' ![]() 5/31/2023 0 Comments The Child by Fiona Barton![]() ![]() When she sees a small mention of the skeleton's find, she convinces Terry to allow her out of the office to make some inquiries. ![]() Kate Waters, the newspaper journalist who plied her wits against a canny murderer in the first book, is back and looking for something, anything, to impress her boss, Terry. This time, and it's no spoiler to say so, the "child" is a newborn's skeleton, discovered at a building site in London. Like her 2016 smash-hit The Widow, Barton's new book centers on a cold case involving a little one. That's not because of the usual "show, don't tell" dictum that so many novelists hear from instructors, but because Barton has a reason to keep readers firmly in the action. I'm happy to report that Fiona Barton's second novel, The Child, falls firmly into the second camp. Some books tell you a great deal, while other books show even more. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Child Author Fiona Barton ![]() |