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Warriors of Anatolia: A Concise History of the Hittites
by Trevor BryceThe Hittites in the Late Bronze Age became the mightiest military power in the Ancient Near East. Yet their empire was always vulnerable to destruction by enemy forces; their Anatolian homeland occupied a remote region, with no navigable rivers; and they were cut off from the sea. Perhaps most seriously, they suffered chronic under-population and sometimes devastating plague. How, then, can the rise and triumph of this ancient imperium be explained, against seemingly insuperable odds? In his lively and unconventional treatment of one of antiquity's most mysterious civilizations, whose history disappeared from the records over three thousand years ago, Trevor Bryce sheds fresh light on Hittite warriors as well as on the Hittites' social, religious and political culture and offers new solutions to many unsolved questions. Revealing them to have been masters of chariot warfare, who almost inflicted disastrous defeat on Rameses II at the Battle of Qadesh (1274 BCE), he shows the Hittites also to have been devout worshippers of a pantheon of storm-gods and many other gods, and masters of a new diplomatic system which bolstered their authority for centuries.Drawing authoritatively both on texts and on ongoing archaeological discoveries, while at the same time offering imaginative reconstructions of the Hittite world, the author argues that while the development of a warrior culture was essential, not only for the Empire's expansion but for its very survival, this by itself was not enough. The range of skills demanded of the Hittite ruling class went way beyond mere military prowess, while there was much more to the Hittites themselves than just skill in warfare. This engaging volume reveals the Hittites in their full complexity, including the festivals they celebrated; the temples and palaces they built; their customs and superstitions; the crimes they committed; their social hierarchy, from king to slave; and the marriages and pre-nuptial agreements they contracted. It takes the reader on a journey which combines epic grandeur, spectacle and pageantry with an understanding of the intimacies and idiosyncrasies of Hittite daily life.
Warriors of Anatolia: A Concise History of the Hittites
by Trevor BryceThe Hittites in the Late Bronze Age became the mightiest military power in the Ancient Near East. Yet their empire was always vulnerable to destruction by enemy forces; their Anatolian homeland occupied a remote region, with no navigable rivers; and they were cut off from the sea. Perhaps most seriously, they suffered chronic under-population and sometimes devastating plague. How, then, can the rise and triumph of this ancient imperium be explained, against seemingly insuperable odds? In his lively and unconventional treatment of one of antiquity's most mysterious civilizations, whose history disappeared from the records over three thousand years ago, Trevor Bryce sheds fresh light on Hittite warriors as well as on the Hittites' social, religious and political culture and offers new solutions to many unsolved questions. Revealing them to have been masters of chariot warfare, who almost inflicted disastrous defeat on Rameses II at the Battle of Qadesh (1274 BCE), he shows the Hittites also to have been devout worshippers of a pantheon of storm-gods and many other gods, and masters of a new diplomatic system which bolstered their authority for centuries.Drawing authoritatively both on texts and on ongoing archaeological discoveries, while at the same time offering imaginative reconstructions of the Hittite world, the author argues that while the development of a warrior culture was essential, not only for the Empire's expansion but for its very survival, this by itself was not enough. The range of skills demanded of the Hittite ruling class went way beyond mere military prowess, while there was much more to the Hittites themselves than just skill in warfare. This engaging volume reveals the Hittites in their full complexity, including the festivals they celebrated; the temples and palaces they built; their customs and superstitions; the crimes they committed; their social hierarchy, from king to slave; and the marriages and pre-nuptial agreements they contracted. It takes the reader on a journey which combines epic grandeur, spectacle and pageantry with an understanding of the intimacies and idiosyncrasies of Hittite daily life.
Reinventing King Arthur: The Arthurian Legends in Victorian Culture (The Nineteenth Century Series)
by Inga BrydenIn her systematic reassessment of the remaking of the Arthurian past in nineteenth-century British fiction and non-fiction, Inga Bryden examines the Victorian Arthurian revival as a cultural phenomenon, offering insights into the relationship between social, cultural, religious, and ethnographic debates of the period and a wide range of texts. Throughout, she adopts an intertextual and historical perspective, informed by poststructuralist thinking, to reveal nineteenth-century attitudes towards the past. Starting with a review of the historical evidence available to Victorian writers and an examination of how historians of the time represented Arthur, the author connects Victorian accounts of Arthur's quest to contemporary scientific and historical searches for origins and knowledge, and to his appropriation by competing religious movements. She shows how writers explored the dynamics of heroism by recruiting Arthur and his knights to define codes of chivalric service, and to personify the psychological complexities of love. Finally, the legend of his death and transportation to Avalon is deconstructed and placed in the context of cultural attitudes towards commemorating the dead and theological debates about the afterlife. Inga Bryden engages not only with well-known Arthurian texts by Tennyson, Swinburne, Morris and Rossetti, but with lesser-known works by Bulwer-Lytton, Robert Stephen Hawker, Sebastian Evans, Diana Maria Mulock, Christiana Douglas and Joseph Shorthouse.
Reinventing King Arthur: The Arthurian Legends in Victorian Culture (The Nineteenth Century Series)
by Inga BrydenIn her systematic reassessment of the remaking of the Arthurian past in nineteenth-century British fiction and non-fiction, Inga Bryden examines the Victorian Arthurian revival as a cultural phenomenon, offering insights into the relationship between social, cultural, religious, and ethnographic debates of the period and a wide range of texts. Throughout, she adopts an intertextual and historical perspective, informed by poststructuralist thinking, to reveal nineteenth-century attitudes towards the past. Starting with a review of the historical evidence available to Victorian writers and an examination of how historians of the time represented Arthur, the author connects Victorian accounts of Arthur's quest to contemporary scientific and historical searches for origins and knowledge, and to his appropriation by competing religious movements. She shows how writers explored the dynamics of heroism by recruiting Arthur and his knights to define codes of chivalric service, and to personify the psychological complexities of love. Finally, the legend of his death and transportation to Avalon is deconstructed and placed in the context of cultural attitudes towards commemorating the dead and theological debates about the afterlife. Inga Bryden engages not only with well-known Arthurian texts by Tennyson, Swinburne, Morris and Rossetti, but with lesser-known works by Bulwer-Lytton, Robert Stephen Hawker, Sebastian Evans, Diana Maria Mulock, Christiana Douglas and Joseph Shorthouse.
Gilles Deleuze: Travels in Literature
by M. BrydenDeleuze's writing is permeated with references to literature. Despite asserting that he was not a literary critic, Deleuze provides exhilarating and original interactions with texts. This study offers in-depth encounters between Deleuze's thought and the writers who fascinated him, demonstrating the productivity of a Deleuzian frame of reference.
Beckett's Proust/Deleuze's Proust
by M. Bryden M. ToppingAn encounter between Deleuze the philosopher, Proust the novelist, and Beckett the writer creating interdisciplinary and inter-aesthetic bridges between them, covering textual, visual, sonic and performative phenomena, including provocative speculation about how Proust might have responded to Deleuze and Beckett.
Postcolonlsm: Critical Concepts Volume 1
by Diana BrydonFirst published in 2004. This is Volume I of Postcolonialism part of a series of critical concepts in literary and cultural studies. This edition includes part one framing the field; part two Marxist, Liberation and Resistance Theory and also part three on Manifestos.
Abyss: Book 3 (Mysteries of the Septagram #3)
by Paul BryersJade is in St Severa's Catholic boarding school in the wilds of Cumbria. She is hiding from her mad-scientist father, Kobal, who is on the run from half the police forces of the world for illegaly experimenting in genetics to create a new breed of perfect human. Jade is part of his personal project, one of his own seven special children born of seven different surrogate mothers. But even St Severa's isn't safe. Driven by his obsession with gathering the children together, Kobal can read Jade's mind. He has five - he needs Jade, and her help to find the seventh. Only the arrival of Benedict, claiming to be Kobal's brother, saves her from Kobal's clutches. In a race to find the missing seventh child before Kobal does, Benedict sweeps Jade on a fantastic train journey across Europe to the mountainous land of Dracula legend. From the empire of the dead in the Paris catacombs, to a lost Romanian monastery on a remote mountain crag, the final journey takes them to the climax in a ruined castle of Transylvania. And the abyss at its heart.
Avatar: Book 2 (Mysteries of the Septagram #2)
by Paul BryersJade is the avatar. Snatched from her home, family and friends she is imprisoned in the remote Castle of Demons and forced to become the reluctant heroine of a computer game. Entrapped in a world of virtual reality she engages in a deadly battle with killer rats and dogs, and the even more deadly humans that she encounters in her travels through cyberspace. But what is real and what is imagined? Who is the mysterious Doctor Kobal: enlightened man of science or dangerous criminal? Who is the sinister warrior monk who pursues her from fantasy into reality? And what happens when you can no longer separate the two? In Avatar, Book 2 of the Mysteries of the Septagram, Jade explores a parallel world in a bid to find her lost family - and even more importantly, to find herself.
Kobal: Book 1 (Mysteries of the Septagram #1)
by Paul BryersEleven-year-old Jade is from a normal suburban background but longs to be different - and is terrified when she finds that she is. Her world is thrown into chaos when she discovers she is one of seven gifted children who are the result of a secret government experiment intended to find a cure for inherited diseases; an experiment that was hijacked by the sinister Dr Kobal for his own purposes. But are those purposes science or sorcery? Kidnapped and transported suddenly from normality to a world of angels and demons, robotic beasts and hunters and hunted, Jade is plunged into a deadly battle to save the seven children's souls ...
Spooked: The Haunting of Kit Connelly (Spooked #1)
by Paul BryersTwelve-year-old Kit Connelly has been saved from almost certain death ... by a ghost. A ghost who looks a lot like a fourteen-year-old version of herself. Believing that her ghost must have saved her for a reason and knowing that she only has two years left to make her mark, Kit decides to do something life-changing. But her plan to save the world takes her on a nightmare journey involving a crazed rock singer, an old World War II fort in the Thames Estuary - and a spectacular siege that brings Kit's story to a dramatic and surprising conclusion.Spooked is a tale of love and friendship, loss and loneliness, but above all, a story of growing up - and not always wanting to.
Weeping Waters: Book 1 of the Inspector Beeslaar Series (The\inspector Beeslaar Ser. #1)
by Karin BrynardShortlisted for Crime Writers' Association International Dagger 2019 Traumatic stress causes Inspector Albertus Beeslaar to trade tough city policing for a backwater posting on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. But his dream of rural peace is soon shattered when a beautiful and eccentric artist and her four-year-old daughter are found murdered on a local farm. Brooding. Riveting. Brilliant. Deon Meyer, author of Dead at Daybreak This arresting English-language debut validates Karin Brynard’s reputation as ‘The Afrikaans Stieg Larsson.’ An outstanding thriller. Booklist Crime fiction doesn't get any better. Mike Nicol, author of Payback Karin Brynard has established herself as one of a handful of great thriller writers in South Africa. Mail & Guardian
Darkness Falls: The unmissable new thriller in the pulse-pounding Kate Marshall series (Kate Marshall #3)
by Robert BryndzaPRE-ORDER THE UNMISSABLE NEW THRILLER FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE GIRL IN THE ICE, NINE ELMS AND SHADOW SANDS, ROBERT BRYNDZA'An exciting, riveting read from a master storyteller who never disappoints' Rachel Abbott, author of The Murder Game'A gripping page-turner that gets darker and darker . . .' Mark Griffin, author of When Angels Sleep __________Kate Marshall's detective agency takes off when she and her partner Tristan are hired to investigate a cold case from over a decade ago. Twelve years previously, a determined young journalist called Joanna Duncan exposed a political scandal that had major repercussions. In the fallout she disappeared without trace and was never found. When Kate and Tristan examine the case files, they find the trail long cold, but they discover the names of two young men who also vanished at that time. As she begins to connect their last days, Kate realizes that Joanna may have been onto something far more sinister than anyone first believed: the identity of a serial killer preying on the people who few will ever miss. But the closer Kate comes to finding the killer, the darker things become . . .__________WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT DARKNESS FALLS'What a climax! I had to pick my jaw back up from the floor''An exciting and thrilling read that will leave you desperate for more!''As always this is another five star read for me from this author''I knew as soon as I started this book, I wouldn't be able to put it down. The characters, storyline and location grabbed me and I was mesmerised through to the last page''Kate Marshall is one of my most very favourite characters'
Nine Elms: The thrilling first book in a brand-new, electrifying crime series (Kate Marshall #1)
by Robert Bryndza'The perfect book for Erika Foster fans. It has all the same vibes - but MORE. I actually think this is Robert Bryndza's best book yet''A gripping read that I could not put down''What an absolutely stunning start to what promises to be a brilliant new series'__________From the breakthrough international bestselling author of The Girl in the Ice, a breathtaking, page-turning novel about a disgraced female detective's fight for redemption. And survival.Kate Marshall was a promising young police detective when she caught the notorious Nine Elms serial killer. But her greatest victory suddenly became a nightmare.Fifteen years after those catastrophic, career-ending events, a copycat killer has taken up the Nine Elms mantle, continuing the ghastly work of his idol.Enlisting her brilliant research assistant, Tristan Harper, Kate draws on her prodigious and long-neglected skills as an investigator to catch a new monster. But there's much more than her reputation on the line: Kate was the original killer's intended fifth victim . . . and his successor means to finish the job.__________'Twisty, dark and layered . . . A superb start to what promises to be another stand out series' M. W. CRAVEN'Gripping from start to finish. I will wait with bated breath for the next Kate Marshall thriller' RACHEL ABBOTT
Shadow Sands: The heart-racing new Kate Marshall thriller (Kate Marshall #2)
by Robert BryndzaTHE UNMISSABLE NEW THRILLER FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE GIRL IN THE ICE AND NINE ELMS ROBERT BRYNDZAWhen Kate Marshall finds the bloated body of a young man floating in the Shadow Sands reservoir, the authorities label it a tragic accident.But the details don't add up: why was he there, in the middle of the night? If he was such a strong swimmer, how did he drown? As Kate and her assistant Tristan Harper follow the evidence, they make a far darker discovery . . .This is only the latest victim in a series of bloody murders dating back decades. A mythic serial killer is said to hide in the rolling fog, abducting his victims like a phantom. And when another woman is taken, Kate and Tristan have a matter of days to save her from meeting the same fate. _________PRAISE FOR NINE ELMS'The perfect book for Erika Foster fans. It has all the same vibes - but MORE. I actually think this is Robert Bryndza's best book yet''A gripping read that I could not put down''What an absolutely stunning start to what promises to be a brilliant new series'
Clean Up!
by Nathan BryonJoin lovable, passionate Rocket as she sets off on a mission to save a Caribbean island from plastic pollution! When Rocket goes for a holiday to visit her grandparents, she's shocked by the pollution that is spoiling their island home and putting the local sea life at risk. Can she think of a way to save the day?This is a heartwarming, timely and empowering picture book, showing how we ALL can make a difference. It's a sequel to Nathan and Dapo's bestselling, award-winning debut Look Up!, shortlisted for the Sainsbury's Children's Book Awards 2019 and the Foyles Book of the Year 2019.
Look Up!
by Nathan Bryon3 ... 2 ... 1 ... LIFT OFF. Let science-mad chatterbox Rocket launch into your hearts in this inspiring picture book from two incredible debut talents.Rocket's going to be the greatest astronaut, star-catcher, space-traveller that has ever lived!But...First, she needs to convince her big brother Jamal to stop looking down at his phone and start LOOKING UP at the stars.----Bursting with energy and passion about space and the natural world, this heart-warming picture book will reignite your desire to turn off those screens and switch on to the outside world.
Rocket Rules: A World Book Day 2022 Mini Book
by Nathan BryonHi! I'm Rocket!My family says that one day I'm going to change the world. But every day I like to make a difference - even if it's just something super small . . .Join picture-book hero Rocket from the award-winning Look Up! series as she explains her ten 'Rocket Rules' for living life in the best (and most fun!) way possible.From always being curious to standing up for what you believe in, this mini guide to changing the world - one small step at a time - contains empowering and engaging ways for little ones to make a big difference.Bestselling duo Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola have created this inspirational mini picture book especially for World Book Day 2022.
Speak Up!
by Nathan BryonJoin the brilliantly passionate and instantly loveable Rocket as she organises a peaceful protest to save her local library!Bookworm Rocket loves to collect new books on her weekly visit to the library, and to read all about inspirational figures like Rosa Parks. She is heartbroken when she discovers the library will be closing down! Can she use what she's learnt from Rosa and speak up to save the day?This empowering, heartwarming picture book is a love letter to libraries and the power of reading. And it shows the incredible power we ALL have when we find our voice and speak up about the things that matter.Read more Rocket stories from award winning duo Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola:Look Up! Clean Up!Love the series? Check out Dapo Adeola's debut picture book Hey You!, a lyrical celebration on growing up Black.
Mother Tongue: the story of the English language (PDF)
by Bill Bryson'More than 300 million people in the world speak English and the rest, it sometimes seems, try to ...'</pOnly Bill Bryson could make a book about the English language so entertaining. With his boundless enthusiasm and restless eye for the absurd, this is his astonishing tour of English.
The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno: A Novel
by Ellen BrysonIn the late 1860s, as America was recovering from Lincoln’s assassination, a man named P. T. Barnum opened a museum in New York City. Filled with oddities from around the world, it also hosted a number of sideshow freaks – including Bartholomew Fortuno, the Human Skeleton. When a new act arrives on the scene, Bartholomew finds himself falling in love . . . and caught up in the intrigues of the great showman himself, P. T. Barnum.Inspired by true events, The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno by Ellen Bryson is an atmospheric and utterly original story about human appetites and longings, exploring what it means to be profoundly unique – and demonstrating love’s power to transcend even the greatest divisions.‘Wildly inventive, highly entertaining.’ – The Times'A rich tapestry of romance, illusory science, criminal trickery and human intrigue. Let the show begin.’ – Kirkus
The Humanist (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Literature)
by Michael BrysonThe exciting new book argues for a renewed emphasis on humanism--contrary to the trend of post-humanism, or what Neema Parvini calls "the anti-humanism" of the last several decades of literary and theoretical scholarship. In this trail-blazing study, Michael Bryson argues for this renewal of perspective by covering literature written in different languages, times, and places, calling for a return to a humanism, which focuses on literary characters and their psychological and existential struggles—not struggles of competition, but of connection, the struggles of fragmented, incomplete individuals for integration, wholeness, and unity.
The Humanist (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Literature)
by Michael BrysonThe exciting new book argues for a renewed emphasis on humanism--contrary to the trend of post-humanism, or what Neema Parvini calls "the anti-humanism" of the last several decades of literary and theoretical scholarship. In this trail-blazing study, Michael Bryson argues for this renewal of perspective by covering literature written in different languages, times, and places, calling for a return to a humanism, which focuses on literary characters and their psychological and existential struggles—not struggles of competition, but of connection, the struggles of fragmented, incomplete individuals for integration, wholeness, and unity.
The Routledge Companion to Humanism and Literature (Routledge Literature Companions)
by Michael BrysonThe Routledge Companion to Humanism and Literature provides readers with a comprehensive reassessment of the value of humanism in an intellectual landscape. Offering contributions by leading international scholars, this volume seeks to define literature as a core expressive form and an essential constitutive element of newly reformulated understandings of humanism. While the value of humanism has recently been dominated by anti-humanist and post-humanist perspectives which focused on the flaws and exclusions of previous definitions of humanism, this volume examines the human problems, dilemmas, fears, and aspirations expressed in literature, as a fundamentally humanist art form and activity. Divided into three overarching categories, this companion will explore the histories, developments, debates, and contestations of humanism in literature, and deliver fresh definitions of "the new humanism" for the humanities. This focus aims to transcend the boundaries of a world in which human life is all too often defined in terms of restrictions—political, economic, theological, intellectual—and lived in terms of obedience, conformity, isolation, and fear. The Routledge Companion to Humanism and Literature will provide invaluable support to humanities students and scholars alike seeking to navigate the relevance and resilience of humanism across world cultures and literatures.