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THE GREEN LANE TO NOWHERE

Name: THE GREEN LANE TO NOWHERE
Author: Byron Rogers
ISBN: 1-85410-882-4

THE LIFE OF AN ENGLISH VILLAGE

by Byron Rogers ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2003

A thoughtful and deliciously entertaining collection.

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British columnist Rogers serves up an extremely palatable mix of historical fact, local color, and the necessary pinch of gravitas, as urban ways spread ever deeper into what was once rural England.

Twelve sections, from “Approaches in Time” to “Exits,” contain previously published columns offering a wry, intelligent status report on rural life. Rogers first describes how in 1980 he and his family bought a small cottage in the Northamptonshire village of Blakesley, moving to the country for reasons both sentimental and practical, as do many others. These newcomers, he notes, have dramatically changed village life: most of the men leave home before 9 a.m. to commute to city jobs, and townsfolk no longer bound by the land have little in common and do not know one another. This has been going on since the 1850s, when for the first time more British people lived in cities than in the countryside. Today, 84 percent of the population visits visits rural areas as a nostalgia-driven “leisure activity.” Going against the current nostalgia for all things rural, Rogers demonstrates that life in the country has always been hard. People were pushed off the land in the Middle Ages when wool became king (more than 13,000 acres in the Midlands alone were turned into sheep ranches between 1485 and 1500), and villagers later lost their right to common grazing land when hedges were planted. Not all the wealthy preyed on the poor: the author portrays one squire who generously paid for much-needed improvements while housing his mistresses in village cottages. Along his way, Rogers meets with local aristocrats like Sir George Sitwell, talks to farmers overwhelmed by bureaucracy and to the village’s oldest inhabitant, who has seen the horse replaced by the car, a Methodist Chapel turned into a showroom, and the railway station fall out of use.

A thoughtful and deliciously entertaining collection.

Pub Date: April 1, 2003

ISBN: 1-85410-882-4

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Aurum/Trafalgar

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.