This is the first history of the guitar during the reign of the Stuarts, a time of great political and social upheaval in England. In this engaging and original volume, Christopher Page gathers a rich array of portraits, literary works and other, previously unpublished, archival materials in order to create a comprehensive picture of the guitar from its early appearances in Jacobean records, through its heyday at the Restoration court in Whitehall, to its decline in the first decades of th...

The Drowning Man is the story of Frank, unwilling resident of "another city, on another map". Following the discovery of his proscribed relationship with a man, he was forced to denounce his partner and move to the city to work for the totalitarian Party. Now, after several years, his ex has reappeared, and with him a spiralling set of circumstances that will draw Frank and the Party into an apocalyptic reckoning.As if Brazil had been directed by Wong Kar-Wai, or ...

Few now remember that the guitar was popular in England during the age of Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare, and yet it was played everywhere from the royal court to the common tavern. This groundbreaking book, the first entirely devoted to the renaissance guitar in England, deploys new literary and archival material, together with depictions in contemporary art, to explore the social and musical world of the four-course guitar among courtiers, government servants and gentlemen. Christopher ...

In 1893 Clara Lindow sang the ballad Dreamtide to her own guitar accompaniment in the Cumbrian hamlet of Lowick. A writer for the local newspaper not only admired her 'marked skill and ability' but also considered the concert to be a sign of 'the onward march of light and learning in our time'. Amateurs like Miss Lindow were at the heart of a Victorian revival of guitar playing, especially for accompanying the voice, which has never been fully acknowledged and has often been denied. This b...

Holden Hollister had everything a man could dream for, a beautiful home, a loving family, and a career as a best-selling author, but how much of it really belongs to him?After leaving the scene of a fatal car crash in 1992, which has Holden's best friend and writing partner serving a life sentence for manslaughter, he tries to forget his past and enjoy life to its fullest. Despite needing massive doses of pain to make it through each day only to be visited by his past in his dreams,...

Ever since GA Ratcliff High School closed in the eighties amidst the George Ross Scandal, local residents have been drawn back to the place, but not everyone who visits gets to leave. Urban explorers continue to roam its halls, some for sport while others seek the truth. Amateur ghost-hunters and television personalities go in looking for answers, but what they find lurking within is deadlier than any of them could have imagined.

If not for the death of his wife and his career as a Hollywood screenwriter riding on the line, Steven Keller never would have returned to his childhood home, located far from civilization in the small town of Eldora. Accompanied by his rebellious teen aged daughter, he revisits the place of his birth while simultaneously attempting to salvage their future, oblivious to the forces working against them.Though the house may be vacant, they are not alone.On the same property, se...

CHRISTOPHER RORY PAGE Two bodies, two souls and an inspiring four way conversation between contrasting mortals as they journey through the African bush and discover the way from Fear to faith. The author awakens one morning riddled with fear from a deafening noise outside his bungalow window. This is the beginning of an exploration into the self as he meets a primitive man who proves that there is more to someone than meets the eye. A non-verbal form of communication develops between as th...

To former homicide detective John Stevens, Ratcliff seemed like the perfect place to raise his teen-aged son, but looks can be deceiving. He soon finds that the sleepy rural town harbors dark secrets and an evil lurks under the surface that threatens the lives of its residents. In order to save them, he must once again delve into the terrifying mindset of a serial killer.With two people confirmed dead, John Stevens must now work together with some unlikely allies if the town is to ...

The arborescent gymnosperms are the most prevalent trees in one-third of the world's forests, and have dominated the Earth's forest ecosystems through much of evolutionary time. They encompass over 70 living genera and nearly 700 species of evergreen conifers and related trees, and include the largest and longest-lived organisms on this planet. This two-volume treatise provides detailed descriptions of each genus based on first-hand surveys of their structure, adaption, ecology, function a...

Ever since GA Ratcliff High School closed in the eighties amidst the George Ross Scandal, local residents have been drawn back to the place, but not everyone who visits gets to leave. Urban explorers continue to roam its halls, some for sport while others seek the truth. Amateur ghost-hunters and television personalities go in looking for answers, but what they find lurking within is deadlier than any of them could have imagined.

Our mainstream information landslide is infested with wild expectations of excess. We are constantly told to have all of our dreams come true. How about becoming moderately successful? Why don’t we start with three dreams and see how that goes? We are all told to give 110%. How about 70%? Our narrow perception of succeeding consistently points to the top three billionaires, even though the seven hundredth richest person in the country is quite comfortable. The airwaves and bookstores are c...