Elizabeth Armstrong – författare

This book sets out to demystify primary mental health care. It looks at the major mental health problems encountered by doctors and community nurses in general practice, health centres and other primary care settings. It provides a down-to-earth guide for effectively meeting the needs of patients and clients and is based on both current research and practical experience. Written for primary care nurses this book will also be invaluable for health promotion officers, facilitators, FHSA advisers, GPs and anyone wishing to improve the primary care contribution to meeting the Health of the Nation mental illness targets.

The Age of Gold was one of the so-called 'commonplaces' inherited by the Renaissance from classical antiquity, a myth (taking many different forms) telling of an era of human happiness without war or want. Most writers used it as a convenient device, predicting its return as an age of peace and plenty upon the accession of a ruler or the signing of a treaty: others moralized it as a reformed or spiritually regenerated society. Elizabeth Armstrong's search for an answer to this question has entailed a study of a wide range of possible influences, classical, medieval and contemporary, and an examination of neglected areas of Ronsard's own vast literary output. Most of all an explanation is sought in his temperament and tastes, which made the theme of the Age of Gold at one period in his life a welcome vehicle for poetry expressing his love of freedom and his sensibility to untouched nature.

This book was originally published in 1954. Robert Estienne was born in Paris in the early years of the sixteenth century, the son of a successful printer-bookseller. He became a printer himself, and one distinguished not only for the quality of his printing, but also for his scholarship. He was the most outstanding figure of the Parisian booktrade at the moment when that trade was one of the most important agencies of the various intellectual movements which we summarise as 'The Renaissance'. Estienne was not only a classical but also a biblical scholar and editor (he is remembered as much for his editions of the Bible as for the beauty of his Cicero or for his use of the Garamond Greek types). Mrs Armstrong gives a full-length historical study of an important and admirable figure.

When printing first began, a new book automatically fell into the public domain upon publication. Only a special law or privilegium enacted by a competent authority could protect it from being reprinted without the consent of the author or publisher. Such privileges for books are attested before 1480, but in Germany and Italy their efficacy was limited to a relatively small area by the political fragmentation of the country. During the 1480s and 1490s France became one of Europe's main centres of book production and, as competition intensified, privileges were sought there from 1498. Although privileges were to last as long as the Ancien Régime, the period to 1526 is the least-known stage of their development and the most important. Most privilege-holders printed the full text of their grant, and many others a summary.

The Crisis of Quebec was first published in 1937 and remains the most vivid and comprehensive study of the conscription crisis of 1917.