John Harding – författare

A sinister Gothic tale in the tradition of The Woman in Black and The Fall of the House of Usher1891. In a remote and crumbling New England mansion, 12-year-old orphan Florence is neglected by her guardian uncle and banned from reading. Left to her own devices she devours books in secret and talks to herself – and narrates this, her story – in a unique language of her own invention. By night, she sleepwalks the corridors like one of the old house's many ghosts and is troubled by a recurrent dream in which a mysterious woman appears to threaten her younger brother Giles. Sometimes Florence doesn't sleepwalk at all, but simply pretends to so she can roam at will and search the house for clues to her own baffling past.After the sudden violent death of the children's first governess, a second teacher, Miss Taylor, arrives, and immediately strange phenomena begin to occur. Florence becomes convinced that the new governess is a vengeful and malevolent spirit who means to do Giles harm. Against this powerful supernatural enemy, and without any adult to whom she can turn for help, Florence must use all her intelligence and ingenuity to both protect her little brother and preserve her private world.Inspired by and in the tradition of Henry James' s The Turn of the Screw, Florence & Giles is a gripping gothic page-turner told in a startlingly different and wonderfully captivating narrative voice.

A sinister Gothic tale in the tradition of The Woman in Black and The Fall of the House of Usher1891. In a remote and crumbling New England mansion, 12-year-old orphan Florence is neglected by her guardian uncle and banned from reading. Left to her own devices she devours books in secret and talks to herself - and narrates this, her story - in a unique language of her own invention. By night, she sleepwalks the corridors like one of the old house's many ghosts and is troubled by a recurrent dream in which a mysterious woman appears to threaten her younger brother Giles. Sometimes Florence doesn't sleepwalk at all, but simply pretends to so she can roam at will and search the house for clues to her own baffling past.After the sudden violent death of the children's first governess, a second teacher, Miss Taylor, arrives, and immediately strange phenomena begin to occur. Florence becomes convinced that the new governess is a vengeful and malevolent spirit who means to do Giles harm. Against this powerful supernatural enemy, and without any adult to whom she can turn for help, Florence must use all her intelligence and ingenuity to both protect her little brother and preserve her private world.Inspired by and in the tradition of Henry James' s The Turn of the Screw, Florence & Giles is a gripping gothic page-turner told in a startlingly different and wonderfully captivating narrative voice.

A sinister Gothic tale in the tradition of The Woman in Black and The Fall of the House of UsherNew England, The 1890sWhen a young doctor begins work at an isolated mental asylum, he is expected to fall in with the shocking regime for treating the patients. He is soon intrigued by one patient, a strange amnesiac girl who is fascinated by books but cannot read. He embarks upon a desperate experiment to save her but when his own dark past begins to catch up with him, he realises it is she who is his only hope of escape.In this chilling literary thriller from a master storyteller, everyone has something to hide and no one is what they seem.

A sinister Gothic tale in the tradition of The Woman in Black and The Fall of the House of Usher1891. In a remote and crumbling New England mansion, 12-year-old orphan Florence is neglected by her guardian uncle and banned from reading. Left to her own devices she devours books in secret and talks to herself - and narrates this, her story - in a unique language of her own invention. By night, she sleepwalks the corridors like one of the old house's many ghosts and is troubled by a recurrent dream in which a mysterious woman appears to threaten her younger brother Giles. Sometimes Florence doesn't sleepwalk at all, but simply pretends to so she can roam at will and search the house for clues to her own baffling past.After the sudden violent death of the children's first governess, a second teacher, Miss Taylor, arrives, and immediately strange phenomena begin to occur. Florence becomes convinced that the new governess is a vengeful and malevolent spirit who means to do Giles harm. Against this powerful supernatural enemy, and without any adult to whom she can turn for help, Florence must use all her intelligence and ingenuity to both protect her little brother and preserve her private world.Inspired by and in the tradition of Henry James' s The Turn of the Screw, Florence & Giles is a gripping gothic page-turner told in a startlingly different and wonderfully captivating narrative voice.

A sinister Gothic tale in the tradition of The Woman in Black and The Fall of the House of UsherNew England, The 1890sWhen a young doctor begins work at an isolated mental asylum, he is expected to fall in with the shocking regime for treating the patients. He is soon intrigued by one patient, a strange amnesiac girl who is fascinated by books but cannot read. He embarks upon a desperate experiment to save her but when his own dark past begins to catch up with him, he realises it is she who is his only hope of escape.In this chilling literary thriller from a master storyteller, everyone has something to hide and no one is what they seem.

A unique chance to read these two chilling Gothic tales from the brilliant storyteller John Harding together. Modern Gothic classic Florence & Giles and it’s sequel The Girl Who Couldn’t Read are a must for fans of Edgar Allen Poe.A pair of Gothic novels that will chill and delight.FLORENCE & GILESNew England, 1891Alone in a crumbling mansion, 12-year-old orphan Florence is neglected by her guardian uncle and banned from reading. By day she secretly devours books, creating a unique language of her own invention and by night, she sleepwalks the corridors plagued by a reoccurring nightmare.With the arrival of a new teacher, Miss Taylor, strange phenomena begin to occur. And Florence blames the new governess and fears for Giles’ safety. Without any adult to whom she can turn for help, Florence must use her ingenuity to both protect her little brother and preserve her private world.Inspired by and in the tradition of Henry James' s The Turn of the Screw, Florence & Giles is a gripping gothic page-turner told in a startlingly different and wonderfully captivating narrative voice.THE GIRL WHO COULDN’T READNew England, The 1890sWhen a young doctor begins work at an isolated mental asylum, he is expected to fall in with the shocking regime for treating the patients. He is soon intrigued by one patient, a strange amnesiac girl who is fascinated by books but cannot read. He embarks upon a desperate experiment to save her but when his own dark past begins to catch up with him, he realises it is she who is his only hope of escape.In this chilling literary thriller from a master storyteller, everyone has something to hide and no one is what they seem.

On a remote South Pacific island paradise, an elderly tribesman is translating Hamlet into local Pidgin English. Much to his annoyance, his struggles with the Bard are interrupted by the arrival of an unexpected visitor. William Hardt is a young American lawyer, he has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and he has come to help. And from that moment on, nothing will ever be the same. For what (and who) he finds there will challenge both his and our values and our ideas about love, life and even death.Bursting with good things, from the islanders themselves - with their curious logic, strange notions about sex and addictive rendering of English - to moments of aching sadness as much as life-affirming farce, this exuberantly original novel confirms John Harding as one of contemporary fiction's most entertaining and observant chroniclers of the human condition.

The structure of this play is a loosely connected sequence of sketches, some deliberately written for great comic effect, and others pitched in a much lower key. It is about a boy growing up in the period from the end of World War Two to the late 1960s.Large flexible cast

All the facts about common and uncommon birds in the Delaware Valley

The remarkable group of Japanese Buddhists who traveled to Chicago’s Columbian Exposition to participate in the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions combined religious aspirations with nationalist ambitions. Their portrayal of Buddhism mirrored modern reforms in Meiji, Japan, and the historical context of cultural competition on display at the 1893 World’s Fair. Japan’s primary exhibit, the Hō-ō, or phoenix, Pavilion, provided an impressive display of traditional culture as well as apt symbolism: for Japan’s modern rise to prominence, for Buddhist renewal succeeding devastating Meiji persecution, for Mahāyāna revitalization following withering attacks of Western critics, and for Chicago’s own resurrection from the ashes of the Great Fire. This book examines the Japanese delegates’ portrayal of Mahāyāna Buddhism as authentically ancient, pragmatically modern, scientifically consistent, and universally salvific. The Japanese delegates were active, and relatively successful agents who seized the opportunity of the 1893 forum to further their own objectives of promoting Japan and its Buddhism to the West, repairing negative evaluations of the «great vehicle» of Buddhism, differentiating Japanese Buddhism from the Buddhism of other countries, distinguishing their tradition as the evolutionary culmination of all religions, and shaping modern Buddhism in Asia and the West.

Thirty-somethings Nick and Laura have been married for 10 years and things aren't going well. She senses her biological clock ticking away and wants children while he doesn't. Not because he doesn't like children but because he feels a child would be just one responsibility too many. Nick's problem is his parents. He's devoted to them of course, but sometimes even he finds his patience wearing a little thin which in turn brings on the guilt. But they are rather a handful. They're conservative, highly eccentric and increasingly infirm. His Mum's so enormously overweight that her heart's now a bit dicky and she is certainly no longer up to looking after Dad by herself. He's got Parkinson's Disease - not the shaking kind, as Mum's always reminding people - but he's unable to do even the simplest task himself and needs constant care and attention. Nick knows the time has come to take the matter in hand but things need to be handled carefully. And so he and Laura take them to Malta for what they hope will be a happy final family holiday. Nick thinks his only problem is going to be avoiding Laura's amorous advances but this particular island turns out to be a sun-kissed cupboard with more than its fair share of skeletons... Tackling a taboo subject with sensitivity, understanding, great affection and good humour, What We Did On Our Holiday is a remarkably uplifting, moving and reassuring novel about a time in our lives when it seems roles are reversed and we find ourselves looking after the very people we'd always assumed would be there to look after us.

On a remote South Pacific island paradise, an elderly tribesman is translating Hamlet into local Pidgin English. Much to his annoyance, his struggles with the Bard are interrupted by the arrival of an unexpected visitor. William Hardt is a young American lawyer, he has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and he has come to help. And from that moment on, nothing will ever be the same. For what (and who) he finds there will challenge both his and our values and our ideas about love, life and even death.Bursting with good things, from the islanders themselves - with their curious logic, strange notions about sex and addictive rendering of English - to moments of aching sadness as much as life-affirming farce, this exuberantly original novel confirms John Harding as one of contemporary fiction's most entertaining and observant chroniclers of the human condition.

At fifty the guarantee runs out...About to hit the big five-oh, obsessed with sex, cocaine-fuelled and gripped by a crippling fear of death, Professor Michael Cole is finding life a bit of a struggle.It's finding the time to squeeze everything in, really. He's supposedly writing the definitive biography of his literary hero, John Donne, but barely manages three hundred words a week. His insatiable enthusiasm for his prettier female students might be partly to blame, but they are only young once. And the fact that one of his female colleagues has yet to succumb to his charms is, admittedly, a distraction he could well do without. But throw in a fight for promotion, a wife to lie to and two small children to look after and it's no wonder his blood pressure has reached life-threatening heights. He knows the time has come to act his age. The question is how.Because Michael Cole is very much a creature of habit and, as we all know, old habits die hard. But it's when he's caught in the act of adultery by his grandmother that Cole truly begins to see the writing on the wall. After all, she's been dead for twenty-five years...Marrying humour, heart and a singular understanding of the human condition, WHILE THE SUN SHINES is an uproariously funny yet hugely affecting novel about growing-old disgracefully and the price we sometimes have to pay...

For more than one hundred years the Lonsdale Belt, first awarded in 1909 by the legendary National Sporting Club and since 1936 by the British Boxing Board of Control, has encircled the waists of all the great names in British boxing history: Freddie Welsh and Ted ''Kid'' Lewis; Benny Lynch and Jimmy Wilde; Freddie Mills, Randolph Turpin and Terry Downes; Henry Cooper, Barry McGuigan, Lennox Lewis and Joe Calzaghe. Drawing upon a wealth of sources - interviews and reminiscences, boxing-board minutes and programmes, contemporary magazines and newspapers, even archive film, sports historian John Harding tells the absorbing and fascinating story of the belt''s origins and development and how the system the belt represents has continued to provide an unambiguous measure of excellence in the chaotic and often murky world of British professional boxing.

Jack Kid Berg dominated boxing in the early 1930s like no other British-born boxer before or since. Born of immigrant Russian-Jewish parents, he grew up in the East End of London, gaining a fearsome reputation for scrapping in the streets of Whitechapel. Berg''s American battles with Tony Canzoneri and Kid Chocolate gained him worldwide fame. His 1930 victory over Mushy Callahan made him world junior welterweight champion, and he won the British lightweight title at his first attempt in 1934. Old-timers recalled, ''When you think Berg is going to slow down, he goes faster. He punched so fast he demoralised opponents rather than demolished them. No boxer was bolder and gamer.'' The Whitechapel Whirlwind features exclusive interviews with Berg in the years before his death in 1991, and makes deft use of eyewitness accounts, newspaper cartoons, statistics and photos of Jack''s 200-plus fights. Never a man to display false modesty, Berg is brutally frank about his wins, his losses, even his love life.

Frank Barson's life story is one of hardship and hard-won fame, his tough tackling and prowess in controlled aggression earning him a reputation that lives on today. Rising from the factory floor to become a footballing giant, Barson lifted the fortunes of Aston Villa and Manchester United while earning more cautions than anyone before or since. Born in Sheffield's industrial district of Grimesthorpe, his no-nonsense football style was forged in the 20s when learning his trade with Barnsley FC's renowned Battlers. Even in an era of ruthless tackling he stood out as a notoriously powerful player, yet his frequent clashes with authority belied his status as an extremely intelligent player, an inspiration to his colleagues and a true leader. Although Barson only earned a single England cap, commentators and colleagues alike would bemoan the fact that he was not captaining the national side. Football's infamous 'hard man' set standards in deadly, focussed aggression which players such as Norman Hunter and Roy Keane have since striven to emulate.

Frank Barson''s life story is one of hardship and hard-won fame, his tough tackling and prowess in controlled aggression earning him a reputation that lives on today. Rising from the factory floor to become a footballing giant, Barson lifted the fortunes of Aston Villa and Manchester United while earning more cautions than anyone before or since. Born in Sheffield''s industrial district of Grimesthorpe, his no-nonsense football style was forged in the 20s when learning his trade with Barnsley FC''s renowned Battlers. Even in an era of ruthless tackling he stood out as a notoriously powerful player, yet his frequent clashes with authority belied his status as an extremely intelligent player, an inspiration to his colleagues and a true leader. Although Barson only earned a single England cap, commentators and colleagues alike would bemoan the fact that he was not captaining the national side. Football''s infamous ''hard man'' set standards in deadly, focussed aggression which players such as Norman Hunter and Roy Keane have since striven to emulate.

Flight to Bogota tells the incredible story of one of the most infamous episodes in English sporting history, when a group of British footballers turned their backs on club and country before the 1950 World Cup for a sporting El Dorado in Colombia. It was a rebellion led by first-choice England centre-half Neil Franklin. The book charts how the players were secretly lured away from Britain, amid Franklin''s strident complaints of ''serfdom'' in English football, their brief struggles to adapt to Colombian life and the fallout once they humiliatingly returned home to face the wrath of club and country. This escapade was a personal failure for Franklin and left his career in tatters. But the players'' vociferous defence of their behaviour enlightened a shocked nation about how clubs mistreated footballers. Ultimately, it led to reforms that would financially benefit future footballing generations, but hopes of vast riches proved nothing more than an illusion for Franklin and his fellow ''football bandits'' as they embarked on their ''Flight to Bogota''.

This book discusses Griffith Jones’s High Church ministry and theology, which developed into mass evangelism in Wales. It considers Jones’s background, his life as a parson, preaching in Welsh and educational interests, as well as his determination to remain within the Church of England. Bishop George Bull’s concerns about evangelism, influence of the Prayer Book and Continental Pietism, ‘conversionism’, and the tendency to separatism are also discussed. Jones may not have been an original thinker, but he was an untiring communicator and organiser. There are sections on Jones’s catechising, ‘baptismal covenant’, and moderate Calvinism which influenced later Welsh Calvinistic Methodism. Jones’s advocacy of the Welsh language, especially with English donors to his schools, his links with the SPCK, and collaboration with gentry – especially Sir John Philipps and Bridget Bevan – show the effectiveness with which he participated in the growing evangelical movement in Wales.

This book discusses Griffith Jones’s High Church ministry and theology, which developed into mass evangelism in Wales. It considers Jones’s background, his life as a parson, preaching in Welsh and educational interests, as well as his determination to remain within the Church of England. Bishop George Bull’s concerns about evangelism, influence of the Prayer Book and Continental Pietism, ‘conversionism’, and the tendency to separatism are also discussed. Jones may not have been an original thinker, but he was an untiring communicator and organiser. There are sections on Jones’s catechising, ‘baptismal covenant’, and moderate Calvinism which influenced later Welsh Calvinistic Methodism. Jones’s advocacy of the Welsh language, especially with English donors to his schools, his links with the SPCK, and collaboration with gentry – especially Sir John Philipps and Bridget Bevan – show the effectiveness with which he participated in the growing evangelical movement in Wales.

This book discusses Griffith Jones’s High Church ministry and theology, which developed into mass evangelism in Wales. It considers Jones’s background, his life as a parson, preaching in Welsh and educational interests, as well as his determination to remain within the Church of England. Bishop George Bull’s concerns about evangelism, influence of the Prayer Book and Continental Pietism, ‘conversionism’, and the tendency to separatism are also discussed. Jones may not have been an original thinker, but he was an untiring communicator and organiser. There are sections on Jones’s catechising, ‘baptismal covenant’, and moderate Calvinism which influenced later Welsh Calvinistic Methodism. Jones’s advocacy of the Welsh language, especially with English donors to his schools, his links with the SPCK, and collaboration with gentry – especially Sir John Philipps and Bridget Bevan – show the effectiveness with which he participated in the growing evangelical movement in Wales.

This fascinating collection of entertaining stories from the seven seas revealsunusual and bizarre sailing trips, vessels and characters, and recounts perilousjourneys in freak weather, meetings with pirates and sea monsters, and otherlegendary tales.

Billy Meredith was one of football's most extraordinary and controversial characters. Ninety years after his last match, his name is still one of soccer's most famous. Born at Chirk, Denbighshire, in 1874, Meredith began work as a coal-miner when he was just twelve before his breathtaking soccer skills brought him to the notice of English clubs. Thereafter, he dominated the game for three decades. Winning top honours with the two Manchester clubs and a then record 48 Welsh caps, Meredith remains arguably the greatest player ever produced by that country. He was dubbed the Wizard' and even in his fiftieth year he was still making headlines by appearing in an FA Cup semi-final. But Meredith was also a rebel and a reformer and his career was dogged and disfigured by accusations of bribery and match-fixing. He was suspended for accepting illegal payments before leading a player's walk-out during the struggle to establish a credible Players' Union, (now the PFA) an organisation which he had resurrected almost single-handed. In this fully updated version of his ground-breaking biography, John Harding looks closely at this intriguing figure. He examines Meredith's attitude to the game and its rulers, appraises Meredith's playing style and achievements and, with the aid of contemporary accounts, letters, photographs, and interviews tells the story of this complex, enigmatic, exasperatingly brilliant footballer -- truly one of the game's legendary figures. The publication of the original 1985 edition of Football Wizard marked a landmark in sporting biography and has had many imitators. Now John revisits the subject in an era when English footballers has been transformed into global megastars beamed into homes world-wide. A world away perhaps from the grime of the Edwardian game but today's heroes will be grateful to Meredith and the early pioneers for their sacrifices.

The history of flying is packed with incredible feats of bravery and endurance, human ingenuity and recklesness, mystery, romance and tragedy. From the first hot air balloons of the 18th century to the supersonic jet flights of today, magnificent men (and women) have taken their incredible flying machines ever higher, further and faster.This collection of wonderfully engaging tales of madness, bravery, inventiveness, disaster and triumph will take every aviation enthusiast on a whirlwind ride.