Naughty Boys: Ten Rogues of Oxford

Naughty Boys: Ten Rogues of Oxford PDF Author: Rob Walters
Publisher: Satin
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 78

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Book Description
This book will take you on a journey, a journey through Oxford and a journey through the lives of ten roguish males. All of the men have at least two things in common: a strong association with Oxford, and some claim to be a rogue. They are all famous in some way or another, some tending towards infamy. All but one has spent time at one of Oxford’s famous colleges, though only a few obtained an academic award during their stay in the city. The stories in this book are rich in human interest, from the sexual romps and salacious poetry of Lord Rochester to the elopements and romantic poetry of Percy Shelley. From the marriages and drinking of actor Richard Burton, to the expulsion and explorations of his Victorian namesake, Sir Richard Burton. From the trail of whoring and infidelity of author Graham Greene to the double-talk and double-dealings of ex-president Bill Clinton. From the drug dealing and identity fraud of Howard Marks to the claims of William Davenant to be the son of Shakespeare. From the greed and arrogance of Robert Maxwell to the addictive gambling of the author of The English Rogue, Richard Head. The devil would have to cast his net very widely to entrap this lot, though they could all be found within the intriguing streets and eminent building of Oxford at some time in their lives. Those lives are linked by the locations that most characterised their stay in Oxford, thus creating a unique trail through the ‘city of dreaming spires’ and an opportunity to stop and wonder at the buildings that grace its golden heart. The men of this book are as complex as the city, their characters forming a patchwork upon which to establish a trail that is quite unique. Their lives are differently characterised by: aesthetics, creativity, humour, intoxication, romance, licentiousness, avarice, desire, ambition, daring and lawlessness. And through them all runs this roguish streak, a trait that charms forgiveness from those who are damaged by them - though not always. Like the streets of Oxford, rogues can turn. A charming alleyway can become the scene of a rape; a poet can suddenly take out a loaded pistol. A friendly pub can suddenly become the scene of a riot; a night of love can be the seed of a wasting disease. A leafy tree can fall and crush a beautiful young woman; a happy drunk can become a pugilist. It is this edge that makes a rogue dangerous to live with – yet interesting to read about.

Naughty Boys: Ten Rogues of Oxford

Naughty Boys: Ten Rogues of Oxford PDF Author: Rob Walters
Publisher: Satin
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 78

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book will take you on a journey, a journey through Oxford and a journey through the lives of ten roguish males. All of the men have at least two things in common: a strong association with Oxford, and some claim to be a rogue. They are all famous in some way or another, some tending towards infamy. All but one has spent time at one of Oxford’s famous colleges, though only a few obtained an academic award during their stay in the city. The stories in this book are rich in human interest, from the sexual romps and salacious poetry of Lord Rochester to the elopements and romantic poetry of Percy Shelley. From the marriages and drinking of actor Richard Burton, to the expulsion and explorations of his Victorian namesake, Sir Richard Burton. From the trail of whoring and infidelity of author Graham Greene to the double-talk and double-dealings of ex-president Bill Clinton. From the drug dealing and identity fraud of Howard Marks to the claims of William Davenant to be the son of Shakespeare. From the greed and arrogance of Robert Maxwell to the addictive gambling of the author of The English Rogue, Richard Head. The devil would have to cast his net very widely to entrap this lot, though they could all be found within the intriguing streets and eminent building of Oxford at some time in their lives. Those lives are linked by the locations that most characterised their stay in Oxford, thus creating a unique trail through the ‘city of dreaming spires’ and an opportunity to stop and wonder at the buildings that grace its golden heart. The men of this book are as complex as the city, their characters forming a patchwork upon which to establish a trail that is quite unique. Their lives are differently characterised by: aesthetics, creativity, humour, intoxication, romance, licentiousness, avarice, desire, ambition, daring and lawlessness. And through them all runs this roguish streak, a trait that charms forgiveness from those who are damaged by them - though not always. Like the streets of Oxford, rogues can turn. A charming alleyway can become the scene of a rape; a poet can suddenly take out a loaded pistol. A friendly pub can suddenly become the scene of a riot; a night of love can be the seed of a wasting disease. A leafy tree can fall and crush a beautiful young woman; a happy drunk can become a pugilist. It is this edge that makes a rogue dangerous to live with – yet interesting to read about.

Rogue Males: Richard Burton, Howard Marks and Sir Richard Burton

Rogue Males: Richard Burton, Howard Marks and Sir Richard Burton PDF Author: Rob Walters
Publisher: Satin
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
Sir Richard Burton is best known as an explorer and translator of Arabian and Indian books, many of them sexually explicit. He was known as “Ruffian Dick” and led a life well beyond the pale of the typical Victorian. Richard Burton was a very famous actor with a brilliant voice and the looks to accompany it. Sometimes known as “Beer Burton”, he married Elizabeth Taylor twice and led a life which was often as dramatic as the characters that he played. Howard Marks became famous as a cannabis smuggler. He used the alias “Mr Nice” and adopted this as the title of a book that describes his exploits and ultimate incarceration in an American jail. Each of these men has a roguish streak to their character, but they also have a number of other things in common – one of which is that they each began their adult life at Oxford University. In fact they attended three colleges which stand, cheek by jowl on Oxford’s Broad Street: Exeter, Balliol and Trinity. Each was a master of disguise, though for rather different ends. Each was a great traveller, Howard for the drug trafficking, Richard for the film sets and Sir Richard for exploration and consular duties. They were all writers. Two of them were Welsh, two shared a name, two are dead, and all three are famous in their different ways. Finally they were all iconoclasts, mould breakers in different times and in different worlds. This book illuminates the fascinating lives of each of these interesting men, but also speculates on how they might react to each other. It recreates the Oxford that bred them, traces their subsequent lives, and then leads them back to the city so that they can meet and discourse upon: American hegemony, the freedom to consume drugs, the role of feminism and the value of education. These topics are exposed to the soaring intellectuality and conservatism of the older Burton, the articulation of the younger Burton and the liberality of Marks. The results are sometimes shocking, always interesting, and often edifying.

Shakespeare's Bastard

Shakespeare's Bastard PDF Author: Simon Stirling
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750968567
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Sir William Davenant (1606–1668) – Poet Laureate and Civil War hero – is one of the most influential and neglected figures in the history of British theatre. He introduced ‘opera’, actresses, scenes and the proscenium arch to the English stage. Narrowly escaping execution for his Royalist activities during the Civil War, he revived theatrical performances in London, right under Oliver Cromwell’s nose. Nobody, perhaps, did more to secure Shakespeare’s reputation or to preserve the memory of the Bard.Davenant was known to boast over a glass of wine that he wrote ‘with the very spirit’ of Shakespeare and was happy to be thought of as Shakespeare’s son. By recounting the story of his eventful life backwards, through his many trials and triumphs, this biography culminates with a fresh examination of the vexed issue of Davenant’s paternity. Was Sir William’s mother the voluptuous and maddening ‘Dark Lady’ of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and was he Shakespeare’s ‘lovely boy’?

Being Down, Looking Up

Being Down, Looking Up PDF Author: Rob Walters
Publisher: Satin
ISBN:
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
This book is about an unusual journey: a unique journey through everyday surroundings. Rob Walters decided to become a shoeshine boy. He stowed his shoeshine kit, a tent, and a few items of clothing in a trailer, connected the trailer to his push bike and set off from Oxford to visit the old shoe-making cities of middle England. Along the way he polished many shoes, met lots of interesting people, pedalled many miles, and gained a fascinating insight into his own country from a rather unique perspective.Rejected by some, welcomed by many, he polished shoes in shopping centres, solicitor's offices, a kite festival, railway stations, campsites, street corners, and a bewildering selection of pubs. He polished the shoes of dossers, company directors, criminals, Morris dancers, publicans, bikers, policemen, schoolboys, reporters, a bowling green groundsman, an Icelander, and a Latvian - to name just a few. He slept in fields, in woods, and on the edge of golf courses. He was ejected from the Norfolk Show and welcomed into the offices of lawyers and fruit importers.During his journey he met members of the Household Cavalry, topless protestors, a homeless joss stick seller, a man who stole baths in hotels, a submariner, a beaten housewife, a disenchanted solicitor, a rubber recycler, a toyshop owner, and two ghost guides - amongst others. All of them had a story to tell: some sad, some amusing. It is their tales and Rob's own incisive observations that are related in this unusual book. Reading it will transport you to Northampton, the centre of the English shoe making tradition; then through the Fens to East Anglia; back across the country to the Midlands; down along the River Severn to Gloucester; and then over the Cotswolds to Oxford. Progress is at a comfortable cycling pace along the country roads and through the sleepy villages, yet interrupted regularly by diversions into the vibrancy of the cities.

Political Chemistry

Political Chemistry PDF Author: Rob Walters
Publisher: Satin
ISBN: 1499712391
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
A fascinating set of fiction from fact conversations between two extraordinary women. Margaret Thatcher is known to all. Dorothy Hodgkin should be: she is Britain's only female scientific Nobel Prize winner, a reward for her groundbreaking work in determining the structure of penicillin and vitamin B12. It is difficult to imagine women more different in character and political beliefs, yet their lives were closely linked: Dorothy was Margaret's tutor when the younger woman studied chemistry at Oxford University; Margaret, as Prime Minister, invited her old tutor to lunch at Chequers. The setting for the conversations is Margaret's fourth year at Oxford while she carried out research work in Dorothy's crystallography lab. They range widely over topics from socialism to sexual freedom. No one knows exactly what they did discuss, but the conversations are soundly based in the factual world of post war Britain and reflect the characters of these two very interesting women.

Turkey Trove

Turkey Trove PDF Author: Rob Walters
Publisher: Satin
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Turkey, the historic bridge between Europe and the East, excites the imagination. In a collection of ten short stories Rob Walters provides a fascinating glimpse into the culture and characters of this special country. The tales embrace everything from ants to fireflies, ferocious dogs to rutting bulls and natural aphrodisiacs to underground cities; all based within this secular, Islamic nation. Though firmly based on the author’s experience of the country each tale has an imaginative and sometimes shocking twist. This is not a travelogue, though the backcloth moves across the entire breadth of Turkey embracing the account of a young woman stranded in an alien culture, the stoning of a less than generous tourist and the mystery of a vanishing minaret. Many of the stories are written from the traveller's viewpoint; others slip inside the skin of the modern day Turk. In this unique compilation you will get a glimpse into the mind of a Turkish tourist tout, experience an echo of the Ottoman society, face the danger of taking a lift with strangers, enjoy the delight of slipping into a welcoming community, share the fun of debunking local myths and the dangers of avoiding honey traps. This collection will make you think. It may also persuade you to visit Turkey – or maybe not.

Shaken by China

Shaken by China PDF Author: Rob Walters
Publisher: Satin
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
Shaken by China is a pacey novel based in modern China. It is eventful, thoughtful, and provides an intriguing insight into the modern republic. Very briefly Shaken by China is the story of a young man who escapes his overpowering problems at home by taking a teaching job in the rapidly changing world of modern China. It is targeted at readers who like a fast moving story based in exotic surroundings. The novel has a strong beginning in a Xian hospital where Keith Hackett, the main character, twice attempts suicide. The reader is rapidly hooked into the tale: why is Keith in China, what has he done that he is so ashamed of, and how was he reduced to the very depths of depression? We next launch into Keith’s story: his teaching experience with Mary, his friendship with Peter, their ‘minder’ at the school, his observations of the joy and misery of the impoverished people who live around the school. Then suddenly, mysteriously, Mary disappears and Keith’s life starts to unravel as he becomes entangled with a pretty student. Realising his own stupidity he ends the relationship and slips into less passionate friendships. However, this new found contentment is fragile and is quickly dashed when the affair with his student rebounds with chilling repercussions. The story then develops around Keith’s ignominious escape from the school, his long march across the mountains of Shaanxi province, and his debilitating life as a forced labourer in an illicit brick factory. It ends in the hospital where Keith confronts his failings and reunites with the love he left in fleeing to China. The novel is based around the author’s own experience of living and teaching in China and draws on true accounts of slavery and corruption that have occurred in the republic.

The Oxford Book of Villains

The Oxford Book of Villains PDF Author: John Mortimer
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780192141958
Category : Villains in literature.
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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Book Description
Gathers selections from literature and history depicting both real and fictitious criminals, murderers, confidence men, hypocrites, traitors, spies, and tyrants

Oxford Thesaurus of English

Oxford Thesaurus of English PDF Author: Maurice Waite
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199560811
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 1074

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Book Description
"The leading single-volume English thesaurus explores the richness of the English language with hundreds of thousands of synonyms and antonyms, and thousands of example sentences drawn from the Oxford English Corpus; finds the word you need quickly with carefully chosen and arranged synonyms; broadens your vocabulary and finds solutions to word puzzles and crosswords with hundreds of thematic word lists; and helps express yourself more accurately with hundreds of 'Choose the Right Word' boxes exploring the difference between similar words." --Book Jacket.

Light from the Ancient East

Light from the Ancient East PDF Author: Adolf Deissmann
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1592444725
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 689

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Book Description
'Light from the Ancient East' is the classic study of nonliterary Greek and Latin texts from the period leading up to, and contemporary with, the emergence of Christianity. Deissmann showed how late nineteenth-century discoveries shed light on early Christian social and religious life. Working from the now common thesis that Christianity must be understood in its historical setting, Deissmann posits that Christianity be seen as a movement of the lower classes.