David Ball – författare

Nico and Maria, Maltese brother and sister, are separated when young Nico is abducted by Moorish slavers. Taken to Algiers to be the personal slave of a wealthy merchant, he becomes a pawn in household politics and sets out to escape. Extraordinary events lead him to the court of Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottomans. Stranded alone on Malta, Maria must learn to survive helped only by a group of Jewish refugees. A sweeping historical epic set against the backdrop of the desperate conflict between Christian Europe and the Islamic Ottoman Empire, The Sword and the Scimitar vividly portrays an irresistible and fast-moving world of adventure, war, treachery and love.

Jean Guehenno's Diary of the Dark Years 1940-1945 is the book historians love to quote to describe both ordinary daily life and literary life in Paris under Nazi occupation. While it is a sharply observed record of day-to-day life in occupied Paris, this diary is far more than that: it is "a remarkable essay on courage and cowardice." (Caroline Moorehead, Wall Street Journal.) At the time, Guehenno was a well-known political and cultural critic, left-wing but not Communist, and uncompromisingly anti-fascist. Unlike most French writers during the Occupation, he refused to pen a word for a publishing industry under Nazi control. He expressed his intellectual, moral and emotional resistance in this diary: his shame at the Vichy government's collaboration with Nazi Germany, his contempt for its falsely patriotic reactionary ideology, his outrage at its anti-Semitism and its vilification of the Republic it had abolished, his horror at its increasingly savage repression and his disgust with his fellow intellectuals who kept on blithely writing about art and culture as if the Occupation did not exist-not to mention those who praised their new masters in prose and poetry. Guehenno was a teacher of French literature, and he constantly observes the young people he taught, sometimes saddened by their conformism but always passionately trying to inspire them with the values of the French cultural tradition he loved-from Montaigne to Voltaire and Rousseau and the democratic thinkers of the nineteenth century. He often sets down his reflections on the great texts he is teaching in this diary; they take on a special meaning in the context of the Occupation. The notes and biographical index in this edition will help the reader to understand both the diarist's cultural allusions and the dramatic current events he records.

From the acclaimed author of Empires of Sand comes a mesmerizing new adventure that Jean Auel cites as “crowded with events that both forecast and mirror the conflicts of today.” Sweeping from the drawing rooms of Paris to the palace of Suleiman the Magnificent to the dark hold of a slave ship racing across the sea, here is a dazzling story of love and valor, innocence and identity, an epic novel of the clash of civilizations on a barren island where the future was forged.The Mediterranean, the sixteenth century: Lying squarely in the midst of the vital sea lanes between the Christian West and the Ottoman Empire in the East, and ruled by the ancient Order of the Knights of St. John, Malta will become the stage upon which the fate of the world turns. For one of its sons, the hand of violence strikes swiftly, when young Nicolo Borg is seized by Barbary slavers and launched on a remarkable journey to the court of the supreme ruler of the Muslim world. Renamed Asha, plotting his escape even as he swears allegiance to the god of his masters and is schooled in the arts of culture and war, the innocent boy will be transformed into one of the Sultan’s deadliest commanders. For Nico’s beloved sister, Maria, his loss fires her hatred for the knights who did nothing to save him and her dreams of escape from her stifling home. As the headstrong girl grows into a fierce beauty, she will capture the attention of one man in particular, Christien de Vries, a surgeon-knight torn between duty and desire, caught up in Malta’s frantic preparations against the coming Ottoman storm. Around Nico and Maria are men and women who will share their destinies: Dragut Raïs, a brilliant corsair, arch-rival of the knights…Giulio Salvago, a priest in full flight from his carnal nature…Alisa, a young beauty hidden away in a harem…Jean de La Valette, the master knight who is Malta’s only hope for survival.As the mighty Ottoman fleet bears down on the tiny island, as Nico Borg makes his way back to his homeland at the helm of a warship, Ironfire moves inexorably to a shattering climax where all will face ultimate justice in the murderous cauldron of siege warfare. Brilliantly capturing the crosscurrents of a storied age, Ironfire is historical fiction in the grand tradition, a stirring realization of a pivotal moment in time that irrevocably shaped the world we inhabit today.From the Hardcover edition.

Global experts, in conjunction with the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, bring you up to date with today''s best approaches to lung cancer diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. IASLC Thoracic Oncology, 2nd Edition, keeps you abreast of the entire scope of this fast-changing field, from epidemiology to diagnosis to treatment to advocacy. Written in a straightforward, practical style for the busy clinician, this comprehensive, multidisciplinary title is a must-have for anyone involved in the care of patients with lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies.- Offers practical, relevant coverage of basic science, epidemiology, pulmonology, medical and radiation oncology, surgery, pathology, palliative care, nursing, and advocacy.- Provides authoritative guidance from the IASLC – the only global organization dedicated to the study of lung cancer.- Includes new content on molecular testing, immunotherapy, early detection, staging and the IASLC staging system, surgical resection for stage I and stage II lung cancer, and stem cells in lung cancer.- Features a new full-color design throughout, as well as updated diagnostic algorithms.- Expert Consult™ eBook version included with purchase. This enhanced eBook experience allows you to search all of the text, figures, Q&As, and references from the book on a variety of devices.

Well-publicised cases of child abuse have brought heavy media criticism of the social work role in prevention and child protection. This book attempts to bring a sense of perspective to allay the anxieties and fears felt by many social workers. The authors resist the idea that child abuse is a special 'disease' and develop a broad based strategy encompassing both individual therapy and environmental approaches.'Cooper and Ball's short introduction to child abuse in the Practical Social Work Series is a remarkable achievement in that it provides local authority social workers and general social work students with a concise overview of issues related to working in child abuse.' - Issues in Social Work Education.

Understanding Public HealthSeries Editors: Nick Black and Rosalind Raine

There is an increasing global awareness of the inevitable limits of individual health care and of the need to complement such services with effective public health strategies. Understanding Public Health is an innovative series of twenty books, published by Open University Press in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It provides self-directed learning covering the major issues in public health affecting low, middle and high income countries.

The series is aimed at those studying public health, either by distance learning or more traditional methods, as well as public health practitioners and policy makers.

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH POLICY

Environmental health policy occupies a prominent position on both local and global agendas as old and new challenges confront the human race. There is a continual requirement for policies which will deal effectively with a seemingly never-ending supply of hazards which impinge on health and wellbeing. This book provides a multidisciplinary window onto environmental policy and its formulation. From this you will observe both order which exists at the centre, and controversies around the borders.

This book considers:

Key threats to human health from the physical environmentPolicies that might be pursued to minimise those risksHow risks can be identified and quantifiedHow such information can be communicated to the publicHow health impact assessments can be carried outHow risks can be managed and regulated

The best-selling script analysis book for thirty-five years Considered an essential text since its publication thirty-five years ago, this guide for students and practitioners of both theater and literature complements, rather than contradicts or repeats, traditional methods of literary analysis of scripts. Ball developed his method during his work as literary director at the Guthrie Theater, building his guide on the crafts playwrights of every period and style use to make their plays stageworthy. The text is full of tools for students and practitioners to use as they investigate plot, character, theme, exposition, imagery, conflict, theatricality, and the other crucial parts of the superstructure of a play. Also included are guides for discovering what the playwright considers a play’ s most important elements, thus permitting interpretation based on the foundation of the play rather than its details. Using Shakespeare’s Hamlet as illustration, Ball assures a familiar base for clarifying script-reading techniques as well as exemplifying the kinds of misinterpretation readers can fall prey to by ignoring the craft of the playwright. Of immense utility to those who want to put plays on the stage (actors, directors, designers, production specialists) Backwards & Forwards is also a fine playwriting manual because the structures it describes are the primary tools of the playwright.

With its easy-to-read approach and focus on core topics, PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY, 2e provides a concise, yet thorough examination of calculus-based physical chemistry. The Second Edition, designed as a learning tool for students who want to learn physical chemistry in a functional and relevant way, follows a traditional organization and now features an increased focus on thermochemistry, as well as new problems, new two-column examples, and a dynamic new four-color design. Written by a dedicated chemical educator and researcher, the text also includes a review of calculus applications as applied to physical chemistry.

Well-publicised cases of child abuse have brought heavy media criticism of the social work role in prevention and child protection. This book attempts to bring a sense of perspective to allay the anxieties and fears felt by many social workers. The authors resist the idea that child abuse is a special ''disease'' and develop a broad based strategy encompassing both individual therapy and environmental approaches.''Cooper and Ball''s short introduction to child abuse in the Practical Social Work Series is a remarkable achievement in that it provides local authority social workers and general social work students with a concise overview of issues related to working in child abuse.'' - Issues in Social Work Education.

The South had lost the Civil War and was losing its soul. Uniformed Rebels who had fought honorably in the light of day now wore tattered sheets in the dark and burned crosses. In armed packs they dragged the helpless Negro or Indian from his bed and stopped his hurried prayers with noose or buckshot. In North Carolina's Robeson county, the Ku Klux did not see the vengeance it was stirring up: Henry Berry Lowery's gang of Swamp Outlaws, who ruthlessly protected themselves and the county's Indians and Negroes. "e;We kill anyone who hunts us, from Sheriff on down,"e; Lowery promised, and by forays out of the swamps to keep that promise he became the highest-bountied outlaw in the nation's history. This tale of bloody revenge and brilliant survival is drawn from the gang's real victims, benefactors, and descendants - all as told by the Yankee reporter from the New York Herald who joined the gang to get the story.

The extraordinary life of Zhuang Zhou sits halfway between fable and philosophy.“It was twenty-five centuries ago in the land of Song, between the Yellow River and the River Huai: Zhuang Zhou was born without a cry with his eyes wide open.”  Welcome to China in the fifth century BCE, a colorful, violent, unstable world into which Zhuang is born. Here royals raise huge armies, constantly waging wars against one another. They have slaves, concubines. Gold is everywhere. And so is hunger. Born rich and entitled, Zhuang learns to refuse any official function. His travels bring him closer to ordinary people, from whom he learns how to live a simple and useful life. This is how he will become one of the greatest Chinese philosophers who gave his name to his legendary book, the Zhuangzi, one of the two foundational texts of Taoism—a magnificent procession of lively stories in which we meet dwarfs, virtuous bandits, butchers, powerful lords in their castles, turtles, charming concubines, and false sages. In this remarkable bildungsroman, award-winning French novelist Patrick Rambaud spins out the extraordinary life of Zhuang Zhou—a poetic, cruel, and often humorous tale, halfway between fable and philosophy.