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Robbie and Gary: It's Complicated - The Unauthorised Biography
by Paul ScottRobbie Williams and Gary Barlow - together and apart, these two men have dominated the charts for the best part of twenty years. And it is their fractured 'bromance' that has shaped the history of one of the world's most successful bands.Based on years of in-depth research, this authoritative biography uncovers the truth about their tortured relationship. It reveals why sixteen-year-old Robbie idolised the older and more talented Gary when, as unknowns, they were put together in the newly formed Take That. We see how the stresses brought on by fame and money destroyed their fragile friendship and resulted in Robbie trying to take Gary's position as front man. We also discover how far they'd go to hurt each other during a feud that lasted fifteen years and continued to shape their solo careers.Explaining why the two men finally reconciled in 2010, and analysing how their reunion is coping with the stresses of touring once more, Robbie and Gary offers a unique insight into the lives of these much loved stars.
Robbo - My Autobiography: An extraordinary career
by Bryan RobsonBryan Robson is widely remembered as a fearless and inspirational player and captain, both for club and country, whose presence lifted team-mates and intimidated opponents. At his peak, he was acknowledged as the most complete midfield player in the country, and played at the highest level despite a series of devastating injuries. He began his playing career at West Bromwich Albion, then moved to Manchester United in 1981 for a then record British transfer fee of £1.5 million. He soon became captain, and enjoyed regular Cup success, eventually winning the Championship. He also won 90 caps for England, 65 of them as captain. His autobiography reveals a fascinating insight into his days with the England and United camps and characters such as Paul Gascoigne, Gary Lineker, Roy Keane and Alex Ferguson. He puts the record straight on the 'drink culture' that Ferguson sought to stamp out at United, and describes his pain when he discovered he was surplus to the manager's requirements. He candidly reflects on the highs and lows of his football life, and discusses incidents on the pitch as well as some of the clashes that have happened behind the scenes.
Robert Bresson: A Passion for Film
by Tony PipoloPerhaps the most highly regarded French filmmaker after Jean Renoir, Robert Bresson created a new kind of cinema through meticulous refinement of the form's grammatical and expressive possibilities. In thirteen features over a forty-year career, he held to an uncompromising moral vision and aesthetic rigor that remain unmatched. Robert Bresson: A Passion for Film is the first comprehensive study to give equal attention to the films, their literary sources, and psycho-biographical aspects of the work. Concentrating on the films' cinematographic, imagistic, narrative, and thematic structures, Pipolo provides a nuanced analysis of each film-including nearly 100 illustrations-elucidating Bresson's unique style as it evolved from the impassioned Les Anges du péche to such disconsolate meditations on the world as The Devil Probably and L'Argent. Special attention is also given to psychosexual aspects of the films that are usually neglected. Bresson has long needed a thoroughgoing treatment by a critic worthy to the task: he gets it here. From it emerges a provocative portrait of an extraordinary artist whose moral engagement and devotion to the craft of filmmaking are without equal.
Robert Bresson: A Passion for Film
by Tony PipoloPerhaps the most highly regarded French filmmaker after Jean Renoir, Robert Bresson created a new kind of cinema through meticulous refinement of the form's grammatical and expressive possibilities. In thirteen features over a forty-year career, he held to an uncompromising moral vision and aesthetic rigor that remain unmatched. Robert Bresson: A Passion for Film is the first comprehensive study to give equal attention to the films, their literary sources, and psycho-biographical aspects of the work. Concentrating on the films' cinematographic, imagistic, narrative, and thematic structures, Pipolo provides a nuanced analysis of each film-including nearly 100 illustrations-elucidating Bresson's unique style as it evolved from the impassioned Les Anges du péche to such disconsolate meditations on the world as The Devil Probably and L'Argent. Special attention is also given to psychosexual aspects of the films that are usually neglected. Bresson has long needed a thoroughgoing treatment by a critic worthy to the task: he gets it here. From it emerges a provocative portrait of an extraordinary artist whose moral engagement and devotion to the craft of filmmaking are without equal.
Robert Burns: The Patriot Bard (Canongate Classics Ser. #24)
by Patrick Scott HoggFollowing the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns (1759-96), Patrick Scott Hogg presents the greatest of Scotland's poets within the true context of his times. Exploding the Burns myth, Robert Burns: The Patriot Bard replaces the ram-stam lad of popular cliché with the real, living Burns - a Scottish patriot of the heart, an idealist who wished for 'Freedom and Liberty' for his beloved country, but also a man who was pragmatically a British patriot and risked his life for democratic reform. Here Burns is painted in his native colours as a highly complex, hyper-intelligent writer in both prose and poetry, not the semi-confused, contradictory simpleton of previous biographies. The fascinating legend of Burns as a ladies' man is placed where it should be - as less important than the message of the bard.The real day-to-day Burns was irascible, stubborn-minded, independent, controversial and opinionated. He detested many of his social superiors within the feudal order and attacked them as hypocrites and oppressors of the common people. The voice of Burns, always in the language of the people, and his idealist vision of a better world endeared him as a poet of humanity 'the world o'er'. Drawing from Burns' existing canon of poetry and letters, plus some newly attributed works suppressed for over two centuries, this life story is a roller-coaster narrative that charts the success and untimely death of the greatest songwriter of all time, the real Robert Burns.
Robert Burns: A Life In Letters
by George Scott WilkieWhat is often forgotten about Robert Burns is that he was a prolific writer of letters and had the ability to correspond with people from every walk of life. Whereas his poems and songs were composed in the Scots dialect, his letters were written in perfect English prose. Many of his letters to his platonic lover, Clarinda, are to be found here along with many from Clarinda to Burns. The depth of feeling portrayed in this correspondence between two young people is compelling reading. His letters of advice to his young brother, William, are both serious and amusing. A letter of apology following a night of revelry at Friar's Carse is a masterpiece in its own right, as indeed are many more. Burns wrote like a man possessed. His quill could stab like a rapier or be used as a broadsword to cut down his enemies. It was a tool in his seduction of the fair sex and was also used to flatter his aristocratic friends. He revelled in his correspondence with Mrs Francis Anna Dunlop simply because she was a descendant of William Wallace. He describes in graphic detail the problems he encountered with the family of Jean Armour, revealing his intention to flee to the West Indies. This selection of letters offers a fascinating insight into his lifes, his many romances, his fame and fortune and then his slide back to poverty and early death.
Robert Clifton Weaver and the American City: The Life and Times of an Urban Reformer
by Wendell E. PritchettFrom his role as Franklin Roosevelt’s “negro advisor” to his appointment under Lyndon Johnson as the first secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Robert Clifton Weaver was one of the most influential domestic policy makers and civil rights advocates of the twentieth century. This volume, the first biography of the first African American to hold a cabinet position in the federal government, rescues from obscurity the story of a man whose legacy continues to affect American race relations and the cities in which they largely play out. Tracing Weaver’s career through the creation, expansion, and contraction of New Deal liberalism, Wendell E. Pritchett illuminates his instrumental role in the birth of almost every urban initiative of the period, from public housing and urban renewal to affirmative action and rent control. Beyond these policy achievements, Weaver also founded racial liberalism, a new approach to race relations that propelled him through a series of high-level positions in public and private agencies working to promote racial cooperation in American cities. But Pritchett shows that despite Weaver’s efforts to make race irrelevant, white and black Americans continued to call on him to mediate between the races—a position that grew increasingly untenable as Weaver remained caught between the white power structure to which he pledged his allegiance and the African Americans whose lives he devoted his career to improving.
Robert Clifton Weaver and the American City: The Life and Times of an Urban Reformer
by Wendell E. PritchettFrom his role as Franklin Roosevelt’s “negro advisor” to his appointment under Lyndon Johnson as the first secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Robert Clifton Weaver was one of the most influential domestic policy makers and civil rights advocates of the twentieth century. This volume, the first biography of the first African American to hold a cabinet position in the federal government, rescues from obscurity the story of a man whose legacy continues to affect American race relations and the cities in which they largely play out. Tracing Weaver’s career through the creation, expansion, and contraction of New Deal liberalism, Wendell E. Pritchett illuminates his instrumental role in the birth of almost every urban initiative of the period, from public housing and urban renewal to affirmative action and rent control. Beyond these policy achievements, Weaver also founded racial liberalism, a new approach to race relations that propelled him through a series of high-level positions in public and private agencies working to promote racial cooperation in American cities. But Pritchett shows that despite Weaver’s efforts to make race irrelevant, white and black Americans continued to call on him to mediate between the races—a position that grew increasingly untenable as Weaver remained caught between the white power structure to which he pledged his allegiance and the African Americans whose lives he devoted his career to improving.
Robert Clifton Weaver and the American City: The Life and Times of an Urban Reformer
by Wendell E. PritchettFrom his role as Franklin Roosevelt’s “negro advisor” to his appointment under Lyndon Johnson as the first secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Robert Clifton Weaver was one of the most influential domestic policy makers and civil rights advocates of the twentieth century. This volume, the first biography of the first African American to hold a cabinet position in the federal government, rescues from obscurity the story of a man whose legacy continues to affect American race relations and the cities in which they largely play out. Tracing Weaver’s career through the creation, expansion, and contraction of New Deal liberalism, Wendell E. Pritchett illuminates his instrumental role in the birth of almost every urban initiative of the period, from public housing and urban renewal to affirmative action and rent control. Beyond these policy achievements, Weaver also founded racial liberalism, a new approach to race relations that propelled him through a series of high-level positions in public and private agencies working to promote racial cooperation in American cities. But Pritchett shows that despite Weaver’s efforts to make race irrelevant, white and black Americans continued to call on him to mediate between the races—a position that grew increasingly untenable as Weaver remained caught between the white power structure to which he pledged his allegiance and the African Americans whose lives he devoted his career to improving.
Robert Downey Jr.: The Fall And Rise Of The Comeback Kid
by Ben FalkThe Comeback Kid will be the first biography of Robert Downey Jr. A Detailed and authoritative account of the life, career, stardom and controversy of Robert Downey JR – one of Hollywood’s most popular, and gifted, actors of recent times. A behind-the-scenes look on the making of his most famous and infamous movies, talking to the people closest to him, from actors and directors to those he has encountered during his trips to the dark side. “I’ve always felt like an outsider in this industry. Because I’m so insane I guess.” – Robert Downey Jr. Robert Downey Jr’s life isn’t a movie – but it could be. Now one of the biggest box office stars in the world thanks to Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes, he’s come a long way since his early days as a rising actor amidst the Brat Pack of the Eighties, as well as stints on Saturday Night Live and Ally McBeal. His incredible journey has also encompassed prison and drug addiction – experiences which left him just one bad choice away from death. Funny, definitive and entertaining, this is the first book that dares to glimpse inside the psyche of a brilliant and complex icon of our times.
Robert E. Lee: Icon for a Nation
by Brian Holden ReidAn authoritative and balanced assessment of a great American commander.General Robert E Lee, handsome, immaculately attired and dignified, quickly emerged as one of the great heroes of the American Civil War. This is rather surprising for, as Brian Holden Reid points out in his lucid new study, Lee was the most successful general to command troops against the armies of the United States before General Vo Nguyen Giap in Vietnam.Lee's reputation as a peerless commander was greatly embroidered by writers after 1865 who were dedicated to the Lost Cause and presented a sentimental picture of the Old South with Lee as its finest product. His character and achievements in the Civil War were presented as a validation of the Confederate cause. It is important for historians to come to terms with this legacy. Professor Holden Reid briskly surveys the forms that the Lee legend took after his death in 1870 and discusses the reasons behind the way it crystallised as it did. As a non-American he brings a fresh, detached eye to this process.Holden Reid argues that Lee's qualities as a general do not require any exaggeration or embellishment. Lee's short period of field command, just under three years, was marked by imagination, decisiveness, stamina, and a determination to win the Civil War rather than just avoid losing it. Holden Reid defends Lee stoutly against later critics who have argued that his offensive strategy was self-defeating. He believes that it was the only realistic course offered to the Confederacy to win its independence. He acknowledges though that all great commanders have their faults. Lee exhibited occasional over-confidence, under-estimated his enemy, and failed to develop his staff in any modern sense. The result is an authoritative and balanced assessment of a great American commander.
Robert E. Lee: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies)
by Brian C. MeltonThis biography provides a concise, accurate, and lively account of one of the best known yet least understood figures of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee, depicting him as a human being instead of a legend, making him accessible as a person.Robert E. Lee: A Biography takes one of the best known and least understood figures of the American Civic War down from his pedestal as an iconic, legendary hero and transforms him into a human being that 21st-century readers can easily relate to. Author Brian Melton clearly separates fact from the idealized lore and fiction created after the Civil War by members of what has been termed "the Lee cult." Through the book's thorough, clear, and accessible presentation, and its inclusion of accurate historical details—for example, Lee's status as an incurable flirt—General Lee becomes a fascinating and compelling mortal man.Intended for both high school students and the general public, this biography will offer a thorough and unbiased examination of Lee's life and military career. Readers will be able to clearly trace the steps that led Lee to prominence—both before and during the Civil War—and discover how his actions helped shape the American military.
Robert E. Lee: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies)
by Brian C. MeltonThis biography provides a concise, accurate, and lively account of one of the best known yet least understood figures of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee, depicting him as a human being instead of a legend, making him accessible as a person.Robert E. Lee: A Biography takes one of the best known and least understood figures of the American Civic War down from his pedestal as an iconic, legendary hero and transforms him into a human being that 21st-century readers can easily relate to. Author Brian Melton clearly separates fact from the idealized lore and fiction created after the Civil War by members of what has been termed "the Lee cult." Through the book's thorough, clear, and accessible presentation, and its inclusion of accurate historical details—for example, Lee's status as an incurable flirt—General Lee becomes a fascinating and compelling mortal man.Intended for both high school students and the general public, this biography will offer a thorough and unbiased examination of Lee's life and military career. Readers will be able to clearly trace the steps that led Lee to prominence—both before and during the Civil War—and discover how his actions helped shape the American military.
Robert F. Murray (Author of the Scarlet Gown): His Poems; with a Memoir
by R. F. MurraySynopsis not available.
Robert Graves: From Great War Poet to Good-bye to All That (1895-1929)
by Dr Jean Moorcroft WilsonThe writer and poet Robert Graves suppressed virtually all of the poems he had published during and just after the First World War. Until his son, William Graves, reprinted almost all the Poems About War in 1988, Graves's status as a 'war poet' seems to have depended mainly on his prose memoir (and bestseller), Good-bye to All That. None of the previous biographies written on Graves, however excellent, attempt to deal with this paradox in any depth. Robert Graves the war poet and the suppressed poems themselves have been largely neglected – until now. Jean Moorcroft Wilson, celebrated biographer of poets Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg and Edward Thomas, relates Graves's fascinating life during this period, his experiences in the war, his being left for dead at the Battle of the Somme, his leap from a third-storey window after his lover Laura Riding's even more dramatic jump from the fourth storey, his move to Spain and his final 'goodbye' to 'all that'. In this deeply-researched new book, containing startling material never before brought to light, Dr Moorcroft Wilson traces not only Graves's compelling life, but also the development of his poetry during the First World War, his thinking about the conflict and his shifting attitude towards it. Robert Graves: From Great War Poet to Good-bye to All That casts new light on the life, prose and poetry of Graves, without which the story of Great War poetry is incomplete.
Robert Graves: From Great War Poet to Good-bye to All That (1895-1929)
by Jean Moorcroft WilsonThe writer and poet Robert Graves suppressed virtually all of the poems he had published during and just after the First World War. Until his son, William Graves, reprinted almost all the Poems About War in 1988, Graves's status as a 'war poet' seems to have depended mainly on his prose memoir (and bestseller), Good-bye to All That. None of the previous biographies written on Graves, however excellent, attempt to deal with this paradox in any depth. Robert Graves the war poet and the suppressed poems themselves have been largely neglected – until now. Jean Moorcroft Wilson, celebrated biographer of poets Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg and Edward Thomas, relates Graves's fascinating life during this period, his experiences in the war, his being left for dead at the Battle of the Somme, his leap from a third-storey window after his lover Laura Riding's even more dramatic jump from the fourth storey, his move to Spain and his final 'goodbye' to 'all that'. In this deeply-researched new book, containing startling material never before brought to light, Dr Moorcroft Wilson traces not only Graves's compelling life, but also the development of his poetry during the First World War, his thinking about the conflict and his shifting attitude towards it. Robert Graves: From Great War Poet to Good-bye to All That casts new light on the life, prose and poetry of Graves, without which the story of Great War poetry is incomplete.
Robert Knight: Reforming Editor in Victorian India
by Edwin HirschmannRobert Knight, the principal founder and the first editor of Times of India, Mumbai and Statesman, Kolkata has hardly ever been mentioned in accounts of British India and omitted from biographical dictionaries. Using remote letters, crumbling newspapers, and obscure official archives, this book presents the first historical biography of the pioneering editor. It also outlines the history of two of today's leading newspapers. Knight fought for a press free of government restraint or intimidation. An ardent critic of colonial rule, he made the press—the 'fourth estate'—a part of the political process in India. This volume documents the making of the reformer editor, taking us through his London background and start in Bombay; the first editorship and creation of the Times of India; the ill-fated move to Calcutta, the launching of the Statesman; the London venture; and finally the mature editor coming to terms with the empire. Against a backdrop of key events of Indian history from 1857 onwards, Robert Knight's editorial responses, and his personal life are all lucidly intertwined in this biography. Edwin Hirschmann elaborates on the connections of the world of newsprint with the colonial establishment and Indian people. He also provides a fresh approach to the Orientalism debate by deploying the narrative of an Englishman, involved in the age of the emerging public communication system.
Robert Louis Stevenson: A Record, an Estimate, and a Memorial
by Alexander H. JappThe book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: History / General; Biography
Robert Louis Stevenson
by Frank McLynnA sensual Calvinist, a Tory radical, a consumptive celebrant of action, a Passionate Scot who chose to live anywhere but Scotland. Not for nothing was Robert Louis Stevenson the author of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.The greatest of Scottish novelists, Stevenson lived a life as extraordinary and as absorbing as his books. But it was a life tormented by an autocratic father, recurring illness, the prudery of the Victorian reading public and, most of all, the stresses imposed on him by his wife and stepchildren. This powerful new study is published to mark the centenery of Stevenson's death at the age of forty-four.
Robert Louis Stevenson
by Sir Walter Alexander RaleighThis scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa
by Joseph FarrellShortlised for the Saltire Society Non Fiction Book of the Year Award Almost every adult and child is familiar with his Treasure Island, but few know that Robert Louis Stevenson lived out his last years on an equally remote island, which was squabbled over by colonial powers much as Captain Flint's treasure was contested by the mongrel crew of the Hispaniola.In 1890 Stevenson settled in Upolu, an island in Samoa, after two years sailing round the South Pacific. He was given a Samoan name and became a fierce critic of the interference of Germany, Britain and the U.S.A. in Samoan affairs - a stance that earned him Oscar Wilde's sneers, and brought him into conflict with the Colonial Office, who regarded him as a menace and even threatened him with expulsion from the island.Joseph Farrell's pioneering study of Stevenson's twilight years stands apart from previous biographies by giving as much weight to the Samoa and the Samoans - their culture, their manners, their history - as to the life and work of the man himself. For it is only by examining the full complexity of Samoa and the political situation it faced as the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, that Stevenson's lasting and generous contribution to its cause can be appreciated.
Robert Louis Stevenson (Text Only Edition): A Biography (text Only Edition)
by Claire HarmanThe most authoritative, comprehensive, perceptive biography of R. L. Stevenson to date, using for the first time his collected correspondence – which has been unavailable to all previous writers.
Robert Lowell: A Biography
by Ian HamiltonBorn in 1917 into an aristocratic Boston family Robert Lowell was not yet thirty when his first major collection of poems, Lord Weary's Castle, won the Pulitzer Prize. With Life Studies, his third book, he found the intense, highly personal voice that made him the foremost American poet of his generation. He held strong, complex and very public political views. His private life was turbulent, marred by manic depression and troubled marriages. But in this superb biography (first published in 1982) the poet Ian Hamilton illuminates both the life and the work of Lowell with sympathetic understanding and consummate narrative skill. 'Our one consolation for Ian Hamilton's early death is that his work seems to have lived on with undiminished force... The critical prose, in particular, still sets a standard that nobody else comes near.' Clive James
Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe: New Reflections
by Benjamin PogrundA collection of thought-provoking and moving essays on Robert Sobukwe, commissioned and edited by his biographer and friend Benjamin Pogrund. Sobukwe was a lecturer, lawyer, founding member and first president of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), and Robben Island prisoner.
Robert Morris's Folly: The Architectural and Financial Failures of an American Founder (The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-C)
by Prof. Ryan K. SmithIn 1798 Robert Morris—“financier of the American Revolution,” confidant of George Washington, former U.S. senator—plunged from the peaks of wealth and prestige into debtors' prison and public contempt. How could one of the richest men in the United States, one of only two founders who signed the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution, suffer such a downfall? This book examines for the first time the extravagant Philadelphia town house Robert Morris built and its role in bringing about his ruin. Part biography, part architectural history, the book recounts Morris’s wild successes as a merchant, his recklessness as a land speculator, and his unrestrained passion in building his palatial, doomed mansion, once hailed as the most expensive private building in the United States but later known as “Morris’s Folly.” Setting Morris’s tale in the context of the nation’s founding, this volume refocuses attention on an essential yet nearly forgotten American figure while also illuminating the origins of America’s ongoing, ambivalent attitudes toward the superwealthy and their sensational excesses.