James Marsh – författare

This is a story spanning some of the most turbulent decades in recent world history. James Marsh was born during the first year of the Second World War and many of his infant years were spent in air-raid shelters outside his home. Bombs rained down from the German Luftwaffe as they tried to destroy the city of Southampton, which has now been James' home for more than sixty years. The gritty determination, community spirit and, above all, the humour, with which the local community faced the difficulties of war, have stayed with James throughout his life. Moving on to describe the harsh lessons learned in 1940s and '50s schooling and subsequently describing his teenage years in the merchant navy, this book explores how growing up in the post-war years was both a challenge and a lot of fun.

This is not a guidebook. This little book brings together past and present to offer a taste of Southampton. Learn about the movers and shakers who shaped this fantastic town. The great and the good; the bad and the ugly. Small wonders, tall stories, triumph and tragedy. Best places – worst places. Origins, evolution, future. Written by a local who knows what makes Southampton tick.

The 1950s was a time of regeneration and change for Southampton. For children growing up during this decade, life was changing fast. They still made their own toys and earned their own pocket money, but, on new television sets, Andy Pandy (1950) and Bill and Ben (1952) delighted them. With rationing discontinued, confectionary was on the menu again and, for children, Southampton life in the 1950s was sweet. If you saw a Laurel and Hardy performance at The Gaumont Theatre, or made dens out of bombed-out buildings, then you’ll thoroughly enjoy this charming and nostalgic account of the era.

Do you remember collecting shrapnel and listening to Children’s Hour? Carrying gas masks or sharing your school with evacuees from the city? The 1940s was a decade of great challenge for everyone who lived through it. The hardships and fear created by a world war were immense. Britain’s towns and cities were being bombed on an almost nightly basis, and many children faced the trauma of being parted from their parents and sent away to the country to live with complete strangers. For just over half of this decade the war continued, meaning food and clothing shortages became a way of life. But through it all, and afterwards, the simplicity of kids shone. From collecting bits of shot-down German aircraft to playing in bomb-strewn streets, kids made their own fun. Then there was the joy of the second half of the 1940s, when fathers came home and the magic of ‘normal life’ returned.This trip down memory lane will take you through the most memorable and evocative experiences of growing up in the 1940s.

In his philosophical classic Insight, Catholic philosopher and theologian Bernard Lonergan introduced the concept of self-appropriation – the personal search for knowledge of the self, and through that of the world – as the basis for systematic philosophical investigation.In Lonergan in the World, James L. Marsh argues, clearly and passionately, that self-appropriation can serve as the basis for philosophical, ethical, and even political and economic thought. Comparing and applying Lonergan’s principles to major trends in contemporary philosophy, including phenomenology, hermeneutics, postmodernism, analytic philosophy, and Marxism, Marsh uncovers the philosophical and the socio-political implications of Lonergan’s work and its value as the basis for a search for justice and self-understanding.Drawing on Marsh’s more than forty years of studying and teaching Lonergan’s thought, Lonergan in the World is a book that should be read not just by philosophers and theologians, but by anyone interested in the philosophical foundations of a just and authentic life.