David Downie – författare

Paris à Table: 1846 is the first English translation of a seminal book in the literature of nineteenth-century gastronomy, a work described by Le Monde as "the richest view of Balzac's time seen from the table." It was written by the journalist Eugène Briffault, well-known in his day as a theater critic and chronicler of contemporary Paris, but also as a bon-vivant, celebrated for his ability to quaff a magnum of champagne from a bell jar in a single draft and well-qualified to write authoritatively about the culinary culture of Paris. Focusing on the manners, customs, and "moeurs" of the dining scene, the author takes the reader from the opulence of a dinner at the Rothschilds through every social stratum down to the laborer eating on the streets. He surveys the restaurants of the previous generation and his own-from the most elegant to the lowest dive-along with the eating habits of the bourgeoisie, the importance and variety of banquets, the institutional meal, and even the plight of "people who do not dine." Briffault was also a fine storyteller, and the book is a compendium of culinary anecdotes, from the tantrums of a king deprived of his spinach to the tragedy of "the friendliest pig that was ever seen." The edition also includes the humorous drawings of the caricaturist Bertall, artwork that cleverly reinforces the witty and ironic tone that pervades the text. Along with an introduction -which provides the first modern biography of the author and analyses the place of Paris à Table in the literary culture of the time--the text is copiously annotated, acquainting readers with the events and characters that appear in the narrative and providing an entryway to the author's Paris, the city Walter Benjamin characterized as "the capital of the nineteenth century."

Abounding in secluded, atmospheric parks, artists' studios, cafes, restaurants and streets little changed since the 1800s, Paris exudes romance. The art and architecture, the cityscape, riverbanks, and the unparalleled quality of daily life are part of the equation. But the city's allure derives equally from hidden sources: querulous inhabitants, a bizarre culture of heroic negativity, and a rich historical past supplying enigmas, pleasures and challenges. Rarely do visitors suspect the glamour and chic and the carefree atmosphere of the City of Light grew from and still feed off the dark fountainheads of riot, rebellion, mayhem and melancholy-and the subversive literature, art and music of the Romantic Age. Weaving together his own with the lives and loves of Victor Hugo, Georges Sand, Charles Baudelaire, Balzac, Nadar and other great Romantics Downie delights in the city's secular romantic pilgrimage sites asking, Why Paris, not Venice or Rome-the tap root of "romance"-or Berlin, Vienna and London-where the earliest Romantics built castles-in-the-air and sang odes to nightingales? Read A Passion for Paris: Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light and find out.

An accessible introduction to climate change that outlines key scientific, economic, and political issues, reviews how the global community has addressed the issue to date, and discusses the options being explored for further action.Climate Change: A Reference Handbook offers readers a way to separate science from politics on this crucial and often contentious issue. It provides a comprehensive introduction to the science and public policy of climate change, including discussion of historical developments, today's key concepts, and the future of climate science and policy.Climate Change begins by explaining the science behind global climate change, including the growing consensus that human activity is a major contributing factor. It then takes an objective look at the key conflicts in climate science and policy, describes those that have been resolved, and offers a balanced review of proposals for those that have not. A separate chapter focuses on the scientific, economic, and political aspects of climate change as they are playing out specifically in the United States.

Driven by curiosity, wanderlust, and health crises, David Downie and his wife set out from Paris to walk across France to the Pyrenees. Starting on the Rue Saint-Jacques and trekking 750 miles south to Roncesvalles, Spain, their eccentric route takes seventy-two days on Roman roads and pilgrimage paths—a 1,100-year-old network of trails leading to the sanctuary of Saint James the Greater. For Downie, the inward journey met the outer one: a combination of self-discovery and physical regeneration. More than 200,000 pilgrims take the highly commercialized Spanish route annually, but few cross France. Downie had a goal: to go from paris to the pyrenees on age-old trails, making the pilgrimage in his own maverick way.

A haunting and luminous novelthat explores the dark secrets lurking beneath the stunning natural beauty of a dying timber town.    A mysterious beachcomber appears one day on the coastal bluffs near Carverville, whose best days are long behind it. Who is he, and why has he returned after nearly forty years? Carverville’s prodigal son, James, serendipitously finds work at the Eden Seaside Resort & Cottages, a gentrified motel, but soon finds his homecoming taking a sinister turn when he and a local teenager make a gruesome discovery, which force him to reckon with the ghosts of his past—and the dangers of the present. Rumors, distrust, and conspiracies spread among the townsfolk, all of them seemingly trapped in their claustrophobic and isolated world. But is there something even more sinister at work than mere fear of outsiders? In The Gardener of Eden, David Downie weaves an intricate and compelling narrative of redemption, revenge, justice, and love—and the price of secrecy, as a community grapples with its tortured past and frightening future.