Louise Brown – författare

An unforgettable and compassionate look at the lives of the residents of Lahore’s pleasure district

The Dancing Girls of Lahore inhabit the Diamond District in the shadow of a great mosque. The 21st century goes on outside the walls, this ancient quarter, but scarcely registers within. Though their trade can be described with accuracy as prostitution, the dancing girls have an illustrious history: beloved by sultans, their sophisticated art encompassed the best of Mughal culture. The modern day Bollywood aesthetic, with its love of gaudy spectacle, music, and dance, is their distant legacy. But the life of the pampered courtesan is not the one now being lived by Maha and her three girls. What they do is forbidden by Islam, though tolerated; but they are, unclean, and Maha’s daughters, like her, are born into the business and will not leave it.

Sociologist Louise Brown spent four years in the most intimate study of the family life of one Lahori courtesan. Beautifully understated, it turns a novelist’s eye on a true story that beggars the imagination. Maha, at fourteen a classically trained dancer of exquisite grace, had her virginity sold to the Sultan of Dubai; when her own daughter Nena comes of age and Maha cannot bring in the money she once did, she faces a terrible decision as the agents of the Sultan come calling once more.

In response to changes in internal needs, external organizational environments, and the expectations of shareholders – most notably, citizens and politicians – innovation is now an important common-place aspect of governance and the running of public service organizations. Given the ongoing financial and economic crisis, which presents a significant challenge to public service organizations (PSOs), there is a growing need to establish innovative strategies in order to survive the crisis, and provide the basis for future sustainable growth.

This book contributes towards the discussion of PSO innovation through theoretically informed empirical studies of innovation across a range of theories, topics and fields. Studies examine the role of citizens, managers, and public service organizations; the adoption, diffusion, implementation, and management of innovations; collaboration, communication, and information technologies; and decision-making, ethical principles, HR management, leadership, and procurement. The studies – which examine the situation in a range of countries in Europe and Asia – cover a range of different organizations such as non-profits, health service organizations, and local governments. This book was originally published as a special issue of Public Management Review.

In response to changes in internal needs, external organizational environments, and the expectations of shareholders – most notably, citizens and politicians – innovation is now an important common-place aspect of governance and the running of public service organizations. Given the ongoing financial and economic crisis, which presents a significant challenge to public service organizations (PSOs), there is a growing need to establish innovative strategies in order to survive the crisis, and provide the basis for future sustainable growth.

This book contributes towards the discussion of PSO innovation through theoretically informed empirical studies of innovation across a range of theories, topics and fields. Studies examine the role of citizens, managers, and public service organizations; the adoption, diffusion, implementation, and management of innovations; collaboration, communication, and information technologies; and decision-making, ethical principles, HR management, leadership, and procurement. The studies – which examine the situation in a range of countries in Europe and Asia – cover a range of different organizations such as non-profits, health service organizations, and local governments. This book was originally published as a special issue of Public Management Review.

Child protection systems across the globe are developing at pace, each reflecting their unique economic, social, and cultural contexts.

This book provides an overview of 11 child protection systems from low- and middle-income countries and discusses the formal and informal responses countries are making to the shared problem of child abuse and maltreatment. Within each chapter, vignettes give readers a window into how each country’s child protection system operates in practice.

This is essential reading for academics, social work professionals and anybody working within child and family welfare.

Child protection systems across the globe are developing at pace, each reflecting their unique economic, social, and cultural contexts.

This book provides an overview of 11 child protection systems from low- and middle-income countries and discusses the formal and informal responses countries are making to the shared problem of child abuse and maltreatment. Within each chapter, vignettes give readers a window into how each country’s child protection system operates in practice.

This is essential reading for academics, social work professionals and anybody working within child and family welfare.

A luscious, enthralling and colourful novel of India in the 1940s. ''Beautifully written, you can smell the spices, feel the heat, and your heart will break, you will laugh at some of the things Mam says, and cry at others, you will want a sequel'' LovereadingShortlisted for the HWA Goldsboro Debut CrownEden Gardens, Calcutta, the 1940s. In a ramshackle house, streets away from the grand colonial mansions of the British, live Maisy, her Mam and their ayah, Pushpa. Whiskey-fuelled and poverty-stricken, Mam entertains officers in the night - a disgrace to British India. All hopes are on beautiful Maisy to restore their good fortune.But Maisy''s more at home in the city''s forbidden alleyways, eating bazaar food and speaking Bengali with Pushpa, than dancing in glittering ballrooms with potential husbands.Then one day Maisy''s tutor falls ill. His son stands in. Poetic, handsome and ambitious for an independent India, Sunil Banerjee promises Maisy the world.So begins a love affair that will cast her future, for better and for worse. Just as the Second World War strikes and the empire begins to crumble...

THE HIMALAYAN SUMMER is a spellbinding novel of the British Raj period, the quest to find a child, and a love story beyond boundaries - for all fans of Dinah Jefferies ''THE TEA PLANTER''S WIFE and of Louise Brown''s earlier novel, EDEN GARDENS.''Beautifully written, you can smell the spices, feel the heat, and your heart will break. You will laugh, cry and you will want a sequel'' Lovereading.comEllie Jeffreys arrives in Darjeeling with her British husband, en route to Kathmandu. They have ten-month-old, golden-haired twins, and despite appearing to be a happy family, Ellie''s relationship with the overbearing, philandering Francis is disintegrating. At a cocktail party, Ellie meets Hugh Douglas, a maverick explorer and botanist. Despite the rumours surrounding Hugh, Ellie is drawn to him. A year later, Nepal is devastated by a catastrophic earthquake and in a falling building, Ellie is forced to make an instant, and terrible, decision: she has time to save only one of her children. When she returns for her son''s body the next day, it has gone. Ellie knows he cannot have disappeared; someone, somewhere has her child, and it is to Hugh that she turns for help.

Leading researchers from across the globe review the state-of-the-art in research on innovation in public services, providing an overview of key issues from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Topics explored include: context for innovation in public services and public service reform; managerial change challenges; ICT and e-government; and collaboration and networks. The theory is underpinned by seven wide-ranging case studies of innovation in practice.

Taking the field forward and providing a baseline for future research, this highly unique and original Handbook will prove essential reading for academics, researchers, students, policymakers and practitioners across the fields of innovation, public policy, social policy and public management.

Contributors include: D. Alexander, R. Andrews, S. Baines, J. Barlow, C. Barton-Sweeney, V. Bekkers, G.A. Boyne, J.M. Bryson, K. Brown, M. Carter, C. Chew, B.C. Crosby, M. Considine, I. Cunningham, J. Edler, M. Farr, S. Goldfinch, T. Greenhalgh, J. Hartley, G. Harvey, B. Head, B. Jæger, A. Johnston, P. Joyce, R. Keast, T. Kinder, J.M Lewis, C. Longley, L.E. Lynn, Jr., F. Lyon, K. McLaughlin, M.P. Mandell, M. Macaulay, F. Macfarlane, M. Martin, V. Mele, I. Miles, D. Nickson, H. Noke, D. Norris, Z. Radnor, M.L. Rhodes, N.C. Roberts, K. Strokosch, J.M Svara, J. Torfing, E. Uyarra, R.M. Walker, J. Wallis, J. Waterhouse, R. Wilson, P. Windrum