James Downs – författare

Masculinities and Mental Health explores literary texts, images, and performances which engage with the under-explored topic of eating disorders in men. Eating disorders are psychiatric illnesses commonly associated with females only. The fact that men can suffer from anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating disorder, and other types of eating disorders too, presents a challenge not only to healthcare disciplines but also to public and cultural perceptions. Exploring eating disorders in boys and men, this book scrutinizes standardised concepts of masculinity and male mental health in contemporary discourse. It sets out to open up spaces for underrepresented experiences recognizing the urgency of this endeavour both as a matter of public health and as a challenge to entrenched cultural assumptions about who can develop, experience, and recover from an eating disorder. Drawing on clinical, socio-cultural, historical, and lived experience perspectives, the interdisciplinary author team aims to fill the gaps often left by single-discipline work. Emphasizing the plural of masculinities, the book explores how stereotypes of ‘manly’ strength or stoicism can obscure vulnerabilities and marginalize those whose experiences fall outside a normative script. It places personal accounts by boys and men with eating disorders, expressed through writing and other art forms, centre-stage. The volume offers readers living testimonies that challenge and enrich our understanding of diagnostic categories, as well as the ways in which eating disorders, masculinity, and male embodiment are manifested.

Masculinities and Mental Health explores literary texts, images, and performances which engage with the under-explored topic of eating disorders in men. Eating disorders are psychiatric illnesses commonly associated with females only. The fact that men can suffer from anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating disorder, and other types of eating disorders too, presents a challenge not only to healthcare disciplines but also to public and cultural perceptions. Exploring eating disorders in boys and men, this book scrutinizes standardised concepts of masculinity and male mental health in contemporary discourse. It sets out to open up spaces for underrepresented experiences recognizing the urgency of this endeavour both as a matter of public health and as a challenge to entrenched cultural assumptions about who can develop, experience, and recover from an eating disorder. Drawing on clinical, socio-cultural, historical, and lived experience perspectives, the interdisciplinary author team aims to fill the gaps often left by single-discipline work. Emphasizing the plural of masculinities, the book explores how stereotypes of 'manly' strength or stoicism can obscure vulnerabilities and marginalize those whose experiences fall outside a normative script. It places personal accounts by boys and men with eating disorders, expressed through writing and other art forms, centre-stage. The volume offers readers living testimonies that challenge and enrich our understanding of diagnostic categories, as well as the ways in which eating disorders, masculinity, and male embodiment are manifested.

Masculinities and Mental Health explores literary texts, images, and performances which engage with the under-explored topic of eating disorders in men. Eating disorders are psychiatric illnesses commonly associated with females only. The fact that men can suffer from anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating disorder, and other types of eating disorders too, presents a challenge not only to healthcare disciplines but also to public and cultural perceptions. Exploring eating disorders in boys and men, this book scrutinizes standardised concepts of masculinity and male mental health in contemporary discourse. It sets out to open up spaces for underrepresented experiences recognizing the urgency of this endeavour both as a matter of public health and as a challenge to entrenched cultural assumptions about who can develop, experience, and recover from an eating disorder. Drawing on clinical, socio-cultural, historical, and lived experience perspectives, the interdisciplinary author team aims to fill the gaps often left by single-discipline work. Emphasizing the plural of masculinities, the book explores how stereotypes of 'manly' strength or stoicism can obscure vulnerabilities and marginalize those whose experiences fall outside a normative script. It places personal accounts by boys and men with eating disorders, expressed through writing and other art forms, centre-stage. The volume offers readers living testimonies that challenge and enrich our understanding of diagnostic categories, as well as the ways in which eating disorders, masculinity, and male embodiment are manifested.

First biography of the remarkable and hugely admiredartist, Joseph Pike.

 

Author aided by artist’s family including his grandson,Hugh Salmon, (founder of www.Lovereading.co.uk), giving access to personaldetails and illustrations.

 

Joseph Pike has been described as an artist of unusual merit , who recorded with outstanding ability the architecture of all periods which exists in contemporary Britain . A master of the art of pencil drawing, he produced evocative sketches of old churches, and colleges, monasteries and modern offices, picturesque street scenes in historic towns such as Rugby and Chester, as well as a great number of London landmarks. His illustrations were commissioned by authors, architects and publishers, reproduced in books and on postcards, sold as prints and exhibited on the walls of the Royal Academy. When he died in 1956, the Catholic Herald referred to him as a distinguished artist, though not personally well known , and until the publication of this biography little has been written about his life and work. Joseph Pike: The Happy Catholic Artist reveals the man behind the art, beginning with his roots in Bristol and his education by the monks of Ampleforth Abbey, marking the beginning of a lifelong association with the Benedictines. Early attempts to launch a professional career as an artist were interrupted by military service in the First World War, and it was only through dogged determination and hard work that he managed to establish himself in the 1920s. Although there is little explicit religious content in his work, Joseph Pike was a devout Roman Catholic who worked with many of the leading figures in the literary and artistic revival that transformed Catholic culture in interwar Britain. This biography explores his friendships with the likes of Ronald Knox and Bede Camm, his work for the Benedictine monks of Caldey Island and the Dominican Friars in London and Oxford, and demonstrates how his artwork helped preserve the memory of the Catholic martyrs and forgotten shrines of historic England. This is the story of a remarkable artist and quiet, modest man, hugely admired by his contemporaries, whose contribution to 20th century British art deserves greater recognition.

«In this first Walbrook biography, Downs perfectly captures the private story and the public persona of a greatly underexplored performer, combining facts, such as when Walbrook first obtained his trademark moustache, with deeper textual analysis of his screen work. An excellent read for any fans of Walbrook, German cinema, film stars or movies in general.» (Gillian Kelly, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 42.1, 2022) «Few leading actors of classic cinema remain as enigmatic as Anton Walbrook, the subject of this very readable, frank and thoughtful biography. Despite Walbrook’s indelible performances in films such as the original Gaslight (1940), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), The Red Shoes (1948) and La Ronde (1950), this is his first full-length biography, which makes it all the more welcome. There is much to discover in these pages about the Viennese-born star of German and British cinema with the ability to ooze charm or villainy at will, sometimes in the same breath.» (Pamela Hutchinson, Sight and Sound, June 2021) «James Downs presents a fascinating and meticulously researched biography of a charming and darkly beguiling star who deserves our attention. It is enriched by archival evidence and images that illuminate Walbrook’s work as well as his equally intriguing, but carefully sequestered, private life; all refracted through his experience of exile.» (Professor Michael Williams, University of Southampton) «It is often difficult to separate the elements of personal life and dramatic performance that create the star persona, but that of the stage and screen actor Anton Walbrook presents a unique and fascinating challenge. In his richly researched biography, James Downs brings a scholar’s authority and a fan’s enthusiasm to his subject, illuminating not only the career of one of British cinema’s most reserved stars, but the political and production background of his stage, screen and television performances in the UK and Germany.» (Mandy Merck, author of Cinema’s Melodramatic Celebrity: Film, Fame and Personal Worth, 2020) Viennese-born actor Adolf Wohlbrück enjoyed huge success on both stage and screen in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s, becoming one of the first truly international stars. After leaving Nazi Germany for Hollywood in 1936, he changed his name to Anton Walbrook and then settled in Britain, where he won filmgoers’ hearts with his portrayal of Prince Albert in two lavish biopics of Queen Victoria. Further film success followed with Dangerous Moonlight and Gaslight, several collaborations with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger – including his striking performance as Lermontov in The Red Shoes – and later work with Max Ophuls and Otto Preminger.Despite great popularity and a prolific career of some forty films, alongside theatre, radio and television work, Walbrook was an intensely private individual who kept much of his personal life hidden from view. His reticence created an aura of mystery and «otherness» about him, which coloured both his acting performances and the way he was perceived by the public – an image that was reinforced in Britain by his continental background.Remarkably, this is the first full-length biography of Walbrook, drawing on over a decade of extensive archival research to document his life and acting career.