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Ian Gilbert
Ian Gilbert - Author
Ian is an award-winning author and editor, a leading educational speaker and entrepreneur and a man who the IB World magazine named as one of its top 15 educational 'visionaries'. He established Independent Thinking in 1994 as a platform for leading practitioners to share their work in bringing the best out of all children. Currently based in Hong Kong, he has lived and worked in the UK, South America and the Middle East and so has a special perspective on classrooms and systems, what works and what definitely doesn't.
Featured books by Ian Gilbert
The Compleat Thunks
Author: Ian Gilbert Format: Paperback Release Date: 14/07/2017
Surprising, provocative and thoroughly entertaining, this is a book filled with 628 thunks. A thunk is quite simply a question that not only makes you think, it has the potential to alter your thoughts. You can read the thunks on your own and have a good old ponder, or read them in company to stimulate conversation, you can simply answer yes or no, or spend a considerable while debating your thoughts. Author Ian Gilbert is described as one of the UK's leading educational innovators, and the thunks certainly suggest a unique mind. Stimulating and clever, The Compleat Thunks Book is a different, imaginative way to spark thought and conversation.
Other books by Ian Gilbert
A Tin of Thunks
Author: Ian Gilbert Format: Cards Release Date: 08/11/2019
Can a robot be kind? Can you touch the wind? Is there more future than past? Since publishing The Little Book of Thunks over a decade ago, Ian Gilbert's 'beguilingly simple-looking questions' have caused brain ache across the world in children, young people and the wider school community. Born out of Ian's work in Philosophy for Children, questions like those posed above leave everyone thinking new thoughts about everyday life, love, the things around us and the world beyond. Whereas a right answer is a thinking cul-de-sac, a Thunk has no one right answer. And without that - and without the fear that many people have of coming up with wrong answers - all that remains is the opportunity for thinking, reflecting, philosophising, debating, thinking new thoughts and rethinking old ones. Such is the power of a Thunk. Now, for the first time, 50 of these probing provocations are presented in a brand new format - on a specially designed set of cards for use in a range of fun and innovative ways, both inside and outside the classroom. Caution: Reported side effects of Thunks include thinking, creativity, talking, arguing, changing your mind and brain ache. A complete downloadable list of suggested activities comes with the card set - here are a select few: - Stick a Thunk on a wall/board/large piece of paper and get the class to write their responses and why they think that way around it. - Allocate a 'Yes', 'No' or 'Other' response to individuals or groups before the Thunk is revealed. They then have to argue their case accordingly. - Give each pupil a random card. Give them 15 minutes to produce an artistic interpretation of the dilemma covered by their Thunk. Make a class Thunks display for use in future lessons. - Find some space, read out a Thunk and give the class the choice of standing on one side if they think 'Yes', the opposite side if they think 'No' and in the middle if they think 'Other'. Get each faction to come up with the reasons why the others are wrong, in order to persuade them to defect to their side.
The Working Class Poverty, Education and Alternative Voices
Author: Ian Gilbert Format: Paperback / softback Release Date: 29/03/2018
In `The Working Class: Poverty, education and alternative voices`, Ian Gilbert unites educators from across the UK and further afield to call on all those working in schools to adopt a more enlightened and empathetic approach to supporting children in challenging circumstances. One of the most intractable problems in modern education is how to close the widening gap in attainment between the haves and the have-nots. Unfortunately, successive governments both in the UK and abroad have gone about solving it the wrong way. Independent Thinking founder Ian Gilbert's increasing frustration with educational policies that favour `no excuses' and `compliance', and that ignore the broader issues of poverty and inequality, is shared by many others across the sphere of education - and this widespread disaffection has led to the assembly of a diverse cast of teachers, school leaders, academics and poets who unite in this book to challenge the status quo. Their thought-provoking commentary, ideas and impassioned anecdotal insights are presented in the form of essays, think pieces and poems that draw together a wealth of research on the issue and probe and discredit the current view on what is best for children from poorer socio-economic backgrounds. Exploring themes such as inclusion, aspiration, pedagogy and opportunity, the contributions collectively lift the veil of feigned `equality of opportunity for all' to reveal the bigger picture of poverty and to articulate the hidden truth that there is always another way. This book is not about giving you all the answers, however. The contributors are not telling teachers or schools leaders how to run their schools, their classroom or their relationships - the field is too massive, too complex, too open to debate and to discussion to propose `off-the-shelf' solutions. Furthermore, the research referred to in this book is not presented in order to tell educators what to think, but rather to inform their own thinking and to challenge some of the dominant narratives about educating the `feckless poor'. This book is about helping educators to ask the right questions, and its starting question is quite simple: how can we approach the education of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in a way that actually makes a difference for all concerned? Written for policy makers and activists as well as school leaders and educators, The Working Class is both a timely survey of the impact of current policies and an invaluable source of practical advice on what can be done to better support disadvantaged children in the school system. Edited by Ian Gilbert with contributions from Nina Jackson, Tim Taylor, Dr Steven Watson, Rhythmical Mike, Dr Ceri Brown, Dr Brian Male, Julia Hancock, Paul Dix, Chris Kilkenny, Daryn Egan-Simon, Paul Bateson, Sarah Pavey, Dr Matthew McFall, Jamie Thrasivoulou, Hywel Roberts, Dr Kevin Ming, Leah Stewart, (Real) David Cameron, Sir Al Aynsley-Green, Shona Crichton, Floyd Woodrow, Jonathan Lear, Dr Debra Kidd, Will Ryan, Andrew Morrish, Phil Beadle, Jaz Ampaw-Farr, Darren Chetty, Sameena Choudry, Tait Coles, Professor Terry Wrigley, Brian Walton, Dave Whitaker, Gill Kelly, Roy Leighton, Jane Hewitt, Jarlath O'Brien, Crista Hazell, Louise Riley, Mark Creasy, Martin Illingworth, Ian Loynd, David Rogers, Professor Mick Waters and Professor Paul Clarke. Click here to listen to The Working Class on Spotify - It covers all the music mentioned in the book plus a great deal more of working class music from across time and round the world!
There is Another Way The second big book of Independent Thinking
We are living at a time when loud voices from inside and outside the profession are telling teachers and school leaders 'this' is the way education should be done. This is how you should lead a school. This is how you should manage a class. This is how children should learn. This is what you should do to make children behave. These messages are given as if there is only one way to achieve these things their way. However, with decades of experience working in all types of school around the globe, the many Associates of Independent Thinking know there is always another way. Ian Gilbert and the Associates combine their collective wisdom and experience to take a fresh look at the present and future of education and invite the reader to think, deeply, on what really matters and to reflect on their practice accordingly. Regardless of the reader's specialism or background, there is something for everyone in this diverse and insightful anthology. Edited by Ian Gilbert with chapters by Mark Anderson, Lisa Jane Ashes, Bethan Baez-Devine, Phil Beadle, Jackie Beere, David Cameron (The Real David Cameron), Paul Clarke, Tait Coles, Mark Creasy, Mark Finnis, Dave Harris, Crista Hazell, Martin Illingworth, Nina Jackson, Rachel Jones, Gill Kelly, Debra Kidd, Jonathan Lear, Trisha Lee, Roy Leighton, Matthew McFall, Sarah Pavey, Simon Pridham, Jim Roberson, Hywel Roberts, Martin Robinson, Dave Whitaker and Phil Wood. This book is for educators everywhere who know that children deserve something better. All of the royalties from sales of this book will go to the Big i Foundation.
Gilbert Filbert and his big MAD box
Author: Ian Gilbert, Andy Gilbert Format: Hardback Release Date: 24/11/2016
When Gilbert's school project challenges him to 'make a difference', grandma introduces him to the mysterious big MAD box. Each of the sides helps Gilbert to focus on a different aspect of the challenge: setting a goal, identifying the reasons behind the goal, developing self-belief, possibility thinking, making a plan and taking action. Finally, Gilbert learns to appreciate what's inside and celebrate his unique qualities and attributes, which have helped him to succeed at his challenge. As grandma tells Gilbert, any problem is really an opportunity in a hat. The story is deliberately split into short chapters, each relating to a step in the thinking process. The resources provided mean readers can plan to make a difference of their own and develop their possibility thinking. Drawing on proven thinking and success strategies used by leading businesses and organisations, this entertaining, accessible and humorous book is designed to show young people the power of having a goal, having a plan and making a difference. A goal without a plan, they say, is just a wish. This book has been written especially for young people to show them how to set about turning wishes into reality by applying the sorts of planning tools usually only found in big business. The powerful set of thinking tools included in this book will help young people to develop habits of mind that will last a lifetime. The book can be read on a number of levels: as an amusing story as a method for developing young people's own thinking processes as a tool for engaging groups of young people in their thinking all of the above The book also includes a Gilbert Filbert big MAD box which you can cut out, or download and print, together with a finger questions sheet (this will make sense once you have read the book!). Suitable for young people (aged 11+) to use on their own thinking adventures. Also suitable for parents, teachers or anyone working with teenagers who wants to join in the journey.
Author: Ian Gilbert Format: Hardback Release Date: 10/11/2015
Edited by Ian Gilbert with chapters by Mark Anderson, Lisa Jane Ashes, Phil Beadle, Jackie Beere, David Cameron (The Real David Cameron), Paul Clarke, Tait Coles, Mark Creasy, Mark Finnis, Dave Harris, Crista Hazell, Martin Illingworth, Nina Jackson, Rachel Jones, Gill Kelly, Debra Kidd, Jonathan Lear, Trisha Lee, Roy Leighton, Matthew McFall, Sarah Pavey, Simon Pridham, Jim Roberson, Hywel Roberts, Martin Robinson, Bethan Stracy-Burbridge, Dave Whitaker, Phil Wood. We are living at a time when loud voices from inside and outside the profession are telling teachers and school leaders 'this' is the way education should be done. This is how you should lead a school. This is how you should manage a class. This is how children should learn. This is what you should do to make children behave. These messages are given as if there is only one way to achieve these things their way. However, with decades of experience working in all types of school around the globe, the many associates of Independent Thinking know there is always another way. This book is for educators everywhere who are hearing these loud voices yet who know that children deserve something better. Full of inspiration and ideas for how to achieve just that, There is Another Way is a call to action to swim against the tide and reclaim the heart of education. All of the royalties from sales of this book will go to the Big i Foundation.
Why Do I Need a Teacher When I've got Google? The essential guide to the big issues for every teacher
Why do I need a teacher when I've got Google? is just one of the challenging, controversial and thought-provoking questions Ian Gilbert poses in this urgent and invigorating book. Questioning the unquestionable, this fully updated new edition will make you re-consider everything you thought you knew about teaching and learning, such as: * Are you simply preparing the next generation of unemployed accountants? * What do you do for the 'sweetcorn kids' who come out of the education system in pretty much the same state as when they went in? * What's the real point of school? * Exams - So whose bright idea was that? * Why 'EQ' is fast becoming the new 'IQ'. * What will your school policy be on brain-enhancing technologies? * Which is the odd one out between a hamster and a caravan? With his customary combination of hard-hitting truths, practical classroom ideas and irreverent sense of humour, Ian Gilbert takes the reader on a breathless rollercoaster ride through burning issues of the twenty-first century, considering everything from the threats facing the world and the challenge of the BRIC economies to the link between eugenics and the 11+. As wide-ranging and exhaustively-researched as it is entertaining and accessible, this book is designed to challenge teachers and inform them - as well as encourage them - as they strive to design a twenty-first century learning experience that really does bring the best out of all young people. After all, the future of the world may just depend on it
Why do I need a teacher when I've got Google? is just one of the challenging, controversial and thought-provoking questions Ian Gilbert poses in this urgent and invigorating book. Questioning the unquestionable, this fully updated new edition will make you re-consider everything you thought you knew about teaching and learning, such as: * Are you simply preparing the next generation of unemployed accountants? * What do you do for the `sweetcorn kids' who come out of the education system in pretty much the same state as when they went in? * What's the real point of school? * Exams - So whose bright idea was that? * Why `EQ' is fast becoming the new `IQ'. * What will your school policy be on brain-enhancing technologies? * Which is the odd one out between a hamster and a caravan? With his customary combination of hard-hitting truths, practical classroom ideas and irreverent sense of humour, Ian Gilbert takes the reader on a breathless rollercoaster ride through burning issues of the twenty-first century, considering everything from the threats facing the world and the challenge of the BRIC economies to the link between eugenics and the 11+. As wide-ranging and exhaustively-researched as it is entertaining and accessible, this book is designed to challenge teachers and inform them - as well as encourage them - as they strive to design a twenty-first century learning experience that really does bring the best out of all young people. After all, the future of the world may just depend on it
See the same world you've always seen and that everyone else sees, but think new thoughts. Get children to think in order to make the world better further down the line. Fight back. Think for yourself, before it's too late and before someone else does it for you. Written by Independent Thinking founder and award-winning author Ian Gilbert, this book is an invaluable collection of reflections, ideas and insights on the nature of learning, thinking, creativity and, drawing on Ian's experience across three continents, the role education has in changing not only people's lives but also entire societies. Controversial, humorous and challenging, this book is both moving and personal yet carries an important global call to action from a man with a distinctive voice and a unique perspective who has earned the right to speak his mind.
Essential Motivation in the Classroom
Author: Ian Gilbert, Ian Gilbert Format: Paperback / softback Release Date: 19/11/2012
Praise for the 1st edition: 'This is now one of my top five education books. .I was absorbed and uplifted by it and my own practice as a teacher will undoubtedly change as a result. Surely there can be no higher recommendation.' - Geoff Barton, Times Educational Supplement Essential Motivation in the Classroom is the definitive one-stop guide for teachers who want to know how to motivate children - and how children learn to motivate themselves. In the ten years since this book was first published, it has proven to be a best selling text that informs, inspires and amuses educationalist around the world. This fully updated and revised tenth anniversary edition continues to take the reader on a rollercoaster ride through the theories of teaching, learning and thinking. Ian Gilbert highlights the 'seven keys' of motivation, offering a range of strategies, ideas and insights to help learners become motivated from within. An entertaining and inspiring read, this book is full of useful, practical advice, ranging from motivational research from leading theorists to philosophical gems from Homer Simpson. Teachers in all sectors of education will find this book indispensable, helping them to change the culture of their classrooms and improve the effectiveness of their teaching.
Author: Ian Gilbert, Ian Gilbert Format: Hardback Release Date: 19/11/2012
The Little Book of Bereavement for Schools
Be inspired by their courage. Be brave and make death and bereavement in your school something that can be acknowledged and talked about. It would be really something if a child in your care could one day say, When my Mum died, there was a teacher in my school who really helped me.
The Book of Thunks is not going fishing a hobby and other possibly impossible questions to stretch your brain and annoy your friends
A great gift book for possibly the most impossible person to buy for! The Book of Thunks will shake up your templates, rattle your thought routines and force you to think about things differently. A Thunk is a beguiling question about everyday things that stops you in your tracks and helps you start to look at the world in a whole new light. So find a friend or family member, ask a Thunk, disagree with their answer (remember there are no right and wrong answers) and keep your brain working longer and better. If you typed the word run a thousand times would that be a short story? Warning: A few of these Thunks are unsuitable for use with children.
The Little Book of Thunks 260 Questions to make your brain go ouch!
A Thunk is a beguiling question about everyday things that stops you in your tracks and helps you start to look at the world in a whole new light. The author guides you through the origins and uses of Thunks and demonstrates how this powerful little book can develop philosophical thinking for all ages. Remember there are no right or wrong answers to these questions. How liberating is that?
The Big Book of Independent Thinking Do things no one does or do things everyone does in a way no one does
In 1992 Ian Gilbert, author of the highly acclaimed Essential Motivation in the Classroom founded Independent Thinking Ltd (ITL). His aim was to 'enrich young people's lives by changing the way they think and so to change the world'. He has done this by gathering together a disparate group of associates specialists in the workings of the brain, discipline, emotional intelligence, ICT, motivation, using music in learning, creativity and dealing with the disaffected. ITL achieve their objective by 'doing what no one else does or doing what everyone else does in a way no one else does'. With a chapter from each of the associates plus an introduction and commentary by Ian Gilbert, this is the definitive guide for anyone wishing to understand and use some of the thinking that makes ITL such a unique and successful organisation. If you're looking for a quick 'How to'guide and a series of photocopiable worksheets you can knock out for a last minute PSHE lesson or because the INSET provider you had booked has let you down at the last minute and you're the only member of the middle management team who didn't attend the last planning meeting so you've ended up with the job of stepping in to fill in the gap, then this is the book for you. As befitting a disparate group of people brought together under the banner of Independent Thinking, these chapters are to get you thinking for yourself thinking about what you do, why you do what you do and whether doing it that way is the best thing at all. Contents: Introduction to Independent Thinking Ltd Ten Things You Should Know Before You Read This Book Chapter 1 On Love, Laughter and Learning by David Keeling Chapter 2 Music and the Mind by Nina Jackson Chapter 3 The Disciplined Approach by Jim Roberson Chapter 4 'Lo Mejor es Enemigo de lo Bueno' by Matt Gray Chapter 5 Peek! Copy! Do! The Creative Use of IT in the Classroom by Guy Shearer Chapter 6 How The 'Brian' Works by Andrew Curran Chapter 7 Living a Creative Life by Roy Leighton Chapter 8 Build the Emotionally Intelligent School or The Art of Learned Hope by Michael Brearley This book is meant to be dipped into, with not every chapter being relevant for everybody all of the time. Some chapters are written with the classroom practitioner very much in mind, others with the students in mind, other still with an eye on school leaders. That said, there is something here for everyone so we encourage you to dip into it with a highlighter pen in one hand and a notebook in the other to capture the main messages and ideas that resonate with you. So, does the assembly you're about to give, or that lesson on 'forcesyou're about to deliver or that staff meeting you're about to lead or that new intake parents evening you're planning look like everyone else's anywhere else? If so, then what about sitting down with your independent thinking hat on and identifying how you can make it so that we couldn't drop you into a totally different school on the other side of the country without anyone noticing the difference. Have the confidence to be memorable the world of education needs you to be great.
Little Owl's Book of Thinking An Introduction to Thinking Skills
Following the seven lessons Benny the owlet receives from his wise old father, this book will show you how to think and think well. Ideal for teachers, parents and older children, this book is an excellent introduction to the concept of thinking skills and why they are so important. Education Resources Awards 2005 Highly Commended in the Secondary Books Category.


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Planning a trip to Manchester? Browse our travel ideas to get some inspiration on what to see and where to visit in the region. Have a look at our list of 'top 5s', download an itinerary or read our famous "101 things to do in Greater Manchester" post on the Visit Manchester blog. If you're planning on staying in Manchester that bit longer then have a look at our day trip and excursion ideas to explore Northern England whilst staying in one of Manchester's top hotels.
The home of football, Manchester is fit to burst with of a number of sporting attractions and events, and with a huge arts and culture scene, it's almost impossible to run out of things to see and do in Greater Manchester. After joining UNESCO's worldwide Creative Cities network as a City of Literature, Manchester's radical literature history has been catapulted into the limelight, with plenty of book-based attractions and events taking place year-round.
With a thriving LGBT scene, including the world famous canal street, LGBT travellers won't be disappointed. If it's rolling hills and beautiful countryside you're seeking, Greater Manchester has it in abundance, with over 500 square miles of inspiring countryside, crisscrossed by historical waterways and dotted with picturesque towns and fascinating attractions that make for great days out of the city.
If you're planning individual or group travel programmes, take a look at our group travel page featuring a whole host of North West attractions. Feeling lucky? Take a look at our competition page, or save some cash with our special offers.


On January 6, we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany, when three learned people from the East followed a bright star to find and pay homage to the baby Jesus. Called Three Kings Day in the Spanish speaking world, it's a time for joyous celebration for most in Mexico, Central and South America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. And at St. Alban's, our Latino congregation (San Albano) hosts a Tres Reyes party for the entire congregation.
This year, the pot-luck event drew a full house of about 70 congregants and guests and featured traditional foods from some of the dozen countries of heritage represented at San Albano. The Tres Reyes celebration has occurred annually since the Spanish-language service began almost a decade ago. Adults and children alike look forward to it all year, as it has something for everyone.
One St. Alban's tradition is to recruit three adults to dress as Kings and distribute gifts to the children. In most of Latin America, Christmas Eve "noche buena" is the traditional family celebration, with a dinner and gifts opened at midnight. January 6 is for the children, with traditions such as writing letters to the Three Kings with requests for gifts, usually left in a shoe. In Cuba, hay is left in shoes for the camels carrying the Three Kings. In other countries, children have photos taken with the Kings much like kids in North America have their pictures taken with with Santa Claus.
Consistent throughout these countries on January 6 is an act truly in the spirit of the season, reaching out to the less fortunate on this day to provide food and toys for those who may not have had the means to celebrate. In Nicaragua, food for the family is the priority with toys for the children according to the means of the community. The tradition of identifying those in the town who are needy or visiting an orphanage is common practice in many countries.
Another San Albano tradition is to provide a piñata, a paper mache animal or star, which the children delight in striking with a stick until it breaks and candy cascades to the floor where they scramble to retrieve it. The piñata is common in Mexico, and while it's not a traditional part of Tres Reyes, one of our Mexican congregants says some homes have piñatas during the nine days leading up to December 24, the "posadas" when groups of adults and children go door to door emulating Mary and Joseph's unsuccessful quest for a room at the inn.
It is customary for Latinos to attend church services on January 6. This year, because the date fell on a Sunday, the meal and festivities occurred immediately after the regular 11:15 service. Regular attendees at the Spanish and English-language services, guests from Japan, Paraguay and Spain made our celebration truly multicultural.
The Rev'd Debbie Kirk pointed out that the the New Testament does not describe the travelers on that day as Kings but as wise ones. Since women can be wise, we asked Karina from the Spanish language congregation to be our trailblazer and act as one of the three. As always the children delighted in receiving gifts and having a shot at breaking the piñata. Inviting children and parents from the broader congregation is a way to be inclusive and to expose US-born congregants to other cultural practices in an atmosphere that is fun for all.
Keeping with tradition, there is a cake contains a small doll representing baby Jesus. Whoever receives the piece of cake containing the figure is required to perform some service to the guests. This varies from country to country, from preparing a Mexican food called a tamale for the host in February to hosting the party the next year for all the guests. There is no such tradition at St. Alban's, but all of us were reminded that we should remember to keep Jesus in our hearts all year, whether we found him in the cake or not.


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Embrace the opportunity to learn a new language
Photos provided by Angelina Pascali
Angelina Pascali learned the importance of language through her parents' life experiences.
Angelina Pascali, Reporter
I grew up in a household where both of my parents were immigrants. My dad was a political refugee. My mother was born in Egypt but spent most of her childhood in France. Neither of them spoke English as a first language.
My father grew up in communist Romania. To say he experienced oppression at the hands of a corrupt government was an understatement. When he was 18 years old, he was placed in a concentration camp for two years. After that, he came to America with the help of a Christian organization. He carried little money and no citizenship or government papers.
My dad worked his way to a better life and graduated from New York University with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering and a graduate degree in aeronautics engineering. There he met my mom.
My parents never felt the need to teach me their native tongues. I think it was pride and bad experiences that kept them from it. And growing up I never saw the need to learn another language.
As a student, I was never taught the importance of foreign culture. My elementary school didn't offer any language classes and my middle school only had two options: French and Spanish. The process of learning a language should start at a young age. However, as a kid, I never found the inspiration to learn a new language.
I grew up believing English was the universal language. I lived in America, why would I need to speak another language? But as I matured, I became filled with regret for not realizing the importance of being multilingual earlier in my life.
Though some may think English is the most spoken language in the world, they are greatly mistaken. According to the Visual Capitalist, the languages with the most native speakers are Chinese, Spanish and English with 918 million, 460 million and 379 million speakers, respectively.
Yes, English is widely spoken with 1.132 billion total speakers, but with these statistics in mind, it would be naïve and illogical to assume everybody else on earth speaks English and must accommodate Americans.
I was surprised when I discovered that Bellaire offers 11 languages. My first few classes of German and Italian were intriguing, and I found it interesting to learn about foreign culture and the meanings of vernacular writings and phrases. Not only am I learning a new language, but I am also learning a new culture. As someone who plans to study abroad in the future, these languages will certainly help me in making connections and pursuing a career.
I wish that all schools would expand their variety of languages like Bellaire and improve the methods of teaching them. What has helped me learn the most in my language classes is when teachers use interactive activities and group discussions instead of teaching grammar rules from a textbook.
Yes, it is an essential part of language learning, but I am not as enthusiastic about it as I am when I am using what I've learned in real-life situations and conversations. Teaching should always be more interactive and inspiring.
I have also discovered that learning a new language not only teaches cultural awareness, but it also opens up career opportunities. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "employment of interpreters and translators is projected to grow 20 percent from 2019 to 2029."
Learning a new language also offers educational opportunities abroad. According to College Board, public four-year in-state colleges average around $9,410 in tuition per year. However, in Austria, for example, students from the European Union are able to study for free, with few university exceptions. The average tuition fee for international students in Austria is €726.72 (~US$850), totaling around $1,700 per year, which is less than a fifth of the average American in-state tuition.
Learning a language helps students broaden their horizons and become more culturally aware. This is important because it helps us understand different beliefs and ways of life. Through this learning, we can overcome cultural negligence and form strong relationships with individuals across borders.
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Not just your typical floral & honeydew! A fresh and pretty fragrance, which has a fruity mix of pineapple, sweet watermelon, strawberries and apples with a light background of jasmine, violets and pansies. Incredible year round, but especially popular in Spring & Summer.
Thanks for sending fragrance samples with every order. I made lotion and bath gel samples of the Fresh Floral Honeydew and gave to my customers and they LOVE it! I have a feeling this will be one of my top selling scents for the season.
Perfect mix of floral and fruit, true to the name. Lightly sweet but not to much. I had no problem soaping it.
"Not just your typical ..." is right. This scent is devine. I think this may become my favorite and I didn't think anything could ever come before Caribbean Fruit Smoothie or Coco-Beach Baby. This melon scent is compliemented with devine fruits and the slightest florals. WONDERFUL!!!
AAAAAAmazing! Light and fruity, not too sweet, just right. One of my favorite scents!


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Resorts and spas in Bar Harbor, Maine.


text:
package gov.sandia.cognition.algorithm;

import gov.sandia.cognition.util.AbstractCloneableSerializable;
import java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor;

/**
 * Partial implementation of ParallelAlgorithm.  This class automatically
 * generates a thread pool appropriate for the number of processing units
 * available on the current machine.
 *
 * @author Kevin R. Dixon
 * @since 3.0
 */
public abstract class AbstractParallelAlgorithm
    extends AbstractCloneableSerializable
    implements ParallelAlgorithm
{

    /**
     * Thread pool used for parallelization.
     */
    private transient ThreadPoolExecutor threadPool;

    /**
     * Creates a new instance of AbstractParallelAlgorithm
     */
    public AbstractParallelAlgorithm()
    {
        this(null);
    }

    /**
     * Creates a new instance of AbstractParallelAlgorithm
     * @param threadPool
     * Thread pool used for parallelization.
     */
    public AbstractParallelAlgorithm(
        final ThreadPoolExecutor threadPool)
    {
        super();

        this.setThreadPool(threadPool);
    }

    @Override
    public AbstractParallelAlgorithm clone()
    {
        AbstractParallelAlgorithm clone =
            (AbstractParallelAlgorithm) super.clone();
        if( this.getThreadPool() != null )
        {
            clone.setThreadPool( ParallelUtil.createThreadPool(
                this.getNumThreads() ) );
        }
        return clone;
    }

    public int getNumThreads()
    {
        return ParallelUtil.getNumThreads(this);
    }

    public ThreadPoolExecutor getThreadPool()
    {
        if (this.threadPool == null)
        {
            this.setThreadPool(ParallelUtil.createThreadPool());
        }

        return this.threadPool;
    }

    public void setThreadPool(
        final ThreadPoolExecutor threadPool)
    {
        this.threadPool = threadPool;
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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From Unit Plan: Let's Brush Our Teeth!
These books are available from the Teacher Store.
This is a funny book to use when comparing the teeth of different kinds of animals.
Students will learn about teamwork and reading skills with this fun Clifford story.
Use this book as a fun introduction to a discussion about dentists.
Compare this book with Crocodile and the Dentist.
The children enjoy watching this video after we have read the book.
Scholastic Interactive Pocket Charts: Teeth: The Hands-on Way to Build Reading Skills!
These are great for using with a group or as a center activity.
Many of these can be done in classroom activity centers.
Here are some additional books that I use for teaching this unit. Look for them in your school library.
Students love writing about their adventure with the Supertwins.
This book is a wonderful introduction to teeth. Students like the comparison of teeth. We measure different teeth, graph, and chart them.
This photographic book helps take some of the mystery out of going to the dentist.
This non-fiction book gives students the facts about dental care.
This intriguing book helps children think twice about the tooth fairy. It is a must-have book for teachers when children lose teeth.


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text:
Lecane ivli is een raderdiertjessoort uit de familie Lecanidae. De wetenschappelijke naam van deze soort is voor het eerst geldig gepubliceerd in 1935 door Wiszniewski.

Raderdieren

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Written by g167. Date of post: June 30, 2018 April 30, 2018 .
Written by g167. Date of post: June 28, 2018 April 30, 2018 .
Written by g167. Date of post: June 27, 2018 April 30, 2018 .
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Written by g167. Date of post: June 26, 2018 April 30, 2018 .
Written by g167. Date of post: June 25, 2018 April 30, 2018 .
Written by g167. Date of post: June 24, 2018 April 30, 2018 .


it's been a while since I've recorded and uploaded a khutba so here is the first one of many to come this year inshaAllah. May it be beneficial for me and you. Amin.
this Sunday I had the opportunity to listen to Imam Siraj Wahaj live.
The Charity Syria Relief in cooperation with Al-Buruj Press and Al-Hakim brought him back to the United Kingdom for the first time in 13 years. They raised £60000 before the Imams talk and after an encouragement talk by Ustadh Abdel-Rahman Mussa.
Please donate to it inshaAllah.
You can listen to the talk below, you may need to turn up the volume all the way up, didn't have my recorder with me my phone had to do.


text:
Een muziekinstrumentmaker is een bouwer van muziekinstrumenten. Oorspronkelijk was dit een handmatig ambacht, in de loop der tijd gebeurde het bouwen van muziekinstrumenten ook steeds vaker seriematig en op industriële schaal. Tegenwoordig zijn puur handmatige bouwers eerder uitzondering dan regel.

Muziekinstrumentenmakers
Ivor Darreg, microtonale snaarinstrumenten
Leo Fender, elektrische gitaren
Robert Moog, elektronische muziekinstrumenten
Harry Partch, microtonale snaarinstrumenten en marimba's
Luigi Russolo, elektronische muziekinstrumenten

Nederlandse muziekinstrumentenmakers
Yuri Landman, experimentele elektrische snaarinstrumenten
Aart Strootman, (experimentele) gitaren
Muziekinstrumentenfabriek Kessels (1896-1956)
Lijst van orgelbouwers

Belgische muziekinstrumentenmakers
Thomas Meuwissen, vioolbouwer
Lijst van orgelbouwers

Opleidingen
Zie Muziekinstrumentenbouw

Zie ook
 Fluitbouwer
 Gitaarbouwer
 Orgelbouwer
 Vioolbouwer
 Muziekinstrumentenmuseum

Externe link
 Nederlandse Vereniging Muziekinstrumentenmakers

Beroep

Technisch beroep


countControlPoints ( ) Use this to return the number of control points of the curve.
draw ( ) Use this method to draw the command.
getBounds ( ) Use this method to get the bounding box of the command.
getCommandType ( ) Use this to return the command type.
getCurvePoint ( ) Use this to return a specific point on the curve. It returns the RPoint for a given advancement parameter t on the curve.
getCurvePoints ( ) Use this to return the points on the curve. It returns the points in the way of an array of RPoint.
getCurveTangent ( ) Use this to return a specific tangent on the curve. It returns the RPoint representing the tangent vector for a given value of the advancement parameter t on the curve.
getCurveTangents ( ) Use this to return the tangents on the curve. It returns the vectors in the form of an array of RPoint.
getPoints ( ) Use this to return the start, control and end points of the curve. It returns the points in the way of an array of RPoint.
setSegmentAngle ( ) Use this to set the segmentator angle tolerance for the ADAPTATIVE segmentator and set the segmentator to ADAPTATIVE.
setSegmentGraphic ( ) Use this to set the segmentator graphic context.
setSegmentLength ( ) Use this to set the segmentator length for the UNIFORMLENGTH segmentator and set the segmentator to UNIFORMLENGTH.
setSegmentOffset ( ) Use this to set the segmentator offset for the UNIFORMLENGTH segmentator and set the segmentator to UNIFORMLENGTH.
setSegmentStep ( ) Use this to set the segmentator step for the UNIFORMSTEP segmentator and set the segmentator to UNIFORMSTEP.
setSegmentator ( ) Use this to set the segmentator type. ADAPTATIVE segmentator minimizes the number of segments avoiding perceptual artifacts like angles or cusps. Use this in order to have Polygons and Meshes with the fewest possible vertices. This can be useful when using or drawing a lot the same Polygon or Mesh deriving from this Shape. UNIFORMLENGTH segmentator is the slowest segmentator and it segments the curve on segments of equal length. This can be useful for very specific applications when for example drawing incrementaly a shape with a uniform speed. UNIFORMSTEP segmentator is the fastest segmentator and it segments the curve based on a constant value of the step of the curve parameter, or on the number of segments wanted. This can be useful when segmpointsentating very often a Shape or when we know the amount of segments necessary for our specific application.
transform ( ) Use this method to transform the command.


Having battery life drain issues with Apple AirPods charging case? Try this temporary fix until Apple explains and issues a proper fix for it.
Apple's AirPods have definitely been extremely well-received by those consumers who have been lucky enough to either purchase them independently, or who have been gifted by a family member or a loved one over the holiday period.
The product itself is beautiful and definitely worthy of the price tag that Apple has applied to it, but that hasn't stopped certain users from experiencing issues relating to the charging case, and more specifically, the case not offering the 24-hours standby life that Apple's documentation claims. Some users have managed to find a fix, and while it doesn't appear to be working for everyone, it's definitely worth giving a shot.
As mentioned earlier, it's by no means a universal fix as others have simply had no joy at all fixing the charging case problem with this solution. The only real re-course that those users have is to actually go through the process of returning the AirPods for a refund, or asking for an exchange from Apple in the hope that they receive a pair of AirPods that don't have the issue. The latter does involve having to actually wait for the AirPods to be in stock, with one user highlighting that he was asked to post the defective AirPods back to Apple and wait six weeks for a replacement.
Apple is yet to acknowledge the issue with the standby battery life on the AirPods charging case, but it's very much possible that the company is internally investigating the issue and could deliver a firmware update for AirPods to resolve the problem. However, there's no official confirmation that this will actually happen, which puts owners in a bit of a predicament.
If you happen to have purchased the AirPods, have you noticed the issue, and did this resetting method fix the problem?
Here's a fix.. stop buying Apple products. It seems that their products are requiring 'fixes' all the time now.
Everyone's products are needing fixes man! Samsung is taking more than most at the moment! Don't matter who made the device! It's electrical it will have issues I like both android and Apple for different reasons more so an android guy!
Got mine coming Jan 30th so hope it's fixed by then! I'm not really worried about it to much Apple will pull thru with a fix that will need another fix and another fix to fix that fix and so on and so on! Not gonna lie I was shocked to see that they made the airpods compatible with any device…..not typical of Apple! As for the charging case I'm sure an update will fix that!
I have had mine since the 20th and they work fine. I charged them yesterday around noon and they still show 99% today at 4 PM. Like everything made in very large quantities there are going to be some glitches in manufacturing but the vast majority are fine. Apple has great warranty service, so if something goes wrong, visit an Apple Store and get it resolved.
I agree with the customer service part! They hands down have the best customer service period! Go into an Apple Store and if they can't fix your item and it's still in warranty you'll walk out with a new one!
Ya I have the jay bird X2's and X3's also have the Samsung iconX Bluetooth headphones. I need wireless for work so it's looks really don't matter as long as I can have my hands free completely! My iconX's are the best I've tried so far but kind of big in the ear! I was gonna wait as well but figured why not get the first gen and get them each year they release a newer version!
The reset fixed the battery drain in my AirPods case. Before the reset I noticed the AirPod case stayed connected to my phone even when the case was closed. Now it shuts off.


text:
Forest Hills School District Receives School Safety Grants, Rigby Says
HARRISBURG – Rep. Jim Rigby (R-Cambria/Somerset) today announced that the Forest Hills School District has received a $25,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) as a part of the Safe Schools Initiative.
"I am very happy to see these grants awarded to Forest Hills," said Rigby. "We hope that these grants will help our students, teachers and parents feel more comfortable when they are at school. Educators cannot effectively teach, and students cannot effectively learn, if they don't feel safe. That's why these grants are so important."
Eligible uses for these funds include the purchasing of security-related equipment including student, staff and visitor identification systems; metal detectors; protective lighting; surveillance equipment; special emergency communications equipment; electronic locksets; deadbolts and theft control devices; and training in the use of the security-related technology.
For more information about these grants, or any other state-related issue, please contact Rigby's district office in Johnstown located at 1340 Franklin St. in Johnstown. Information can also be found online at RepJimRigby.com or facebook.com/RepJimRigby.


text:
Emailhss-enquiries@port.ac.uk
Websitehttp://www.port.ac.uk/faculty-of-humanities-and-social-sciences/
King Henry 1 Street, Park Building
PO1 2DZ Portsmouth
Research outputs per year 1976 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
1186 Chapter (peer-reviewed)
14 Monograph
14 Exhibition
12 Featured article
7 Literature review
Foreword/postscript
Essential Continuity
Kwint, M., 7 Jul 2020, The Winter Tree: Andrew Carnie. Carnie, A. (ed.). Winchester, UK: Winchester Discovery Centre, p. 3-4
Foreword to Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson
Finnerty, P., 11 Nov 2020, (Accepted for publication) Charlotte Temple. Wingett, M. (ed.). UK: Life Is Amazing
Kwint, M. & Jacob, P., 9 Aug 2018, The Circus: A Visual History . London: Bloomsbury Publishing Company, p. 6-7 2 p.
Circus 100%
Foreword 92%
Artwork 36%
Entertainers 26%
Dark Ages 26%
Introduction: Affective landscapes
Berberich, C., Campbell, N. & Hudson, R., 1 Jan 2015, Affective Landscapes in Literature, Art and Everyday Life: Memory, Place and the Senses. Ashgate Publishing Limited, p. 1-20 20 p.
Pittard, C., 30 Apr 2014, The notched hairpin. Heard, H. F. (ed.). Nevada city, C.A.: Blue Dolphin Publishing, p. xi-xxi
Primordial eloquence
Kwint, M., 2014, Jerwood Makers Open. Manson, S. & Williams, S. (eds.). London: Jerwood Charitable Foundation , p. 4-6 3 p.
Boyce, C., Finnerty, P. & Millim, A. M., 31 Oct 2013, Victorian Celebrity Culture and Tennyson's Circle. Palgrave Macmillan, p. 1-17 17 p.
Pycroft, A. & Clift, S., 10 Oct 2012, Risk and Rehabilitation: Management and Treatment of Substance Misuse and Mental Health Problems in the Criminal Justice System. Pycroft, A. & Clift, S. (eds.). Policy Press, p. 1-5 5 p.
Court orders 100%
access to treatment 52%
probation 41%
Criminal Justice Systems 36%
Ellis, T. & Savage, S., 2012, Debates in Criminal Justice: Key Themes and Issues. Ellis, T. & Savage, S. (eds.). London: Routledge, p. 1-3 3 p.
The NAACP in historiographical perspective
Verney, K. & Sartain, L., 1 Dec 2009, Long is The Way and Hard: One Hundred Years of the NAACP. Verney, K. & Sartain, L. (eds.). University of Arkansas Press
Kaiser, W., Leucht, B. & Rasmussen, M., 5 Sep 2008, The History of the European Union: Origins of a Trans- and Supranational Polity 1950-72. Kaiser, W., Leucht, B. & Rasmussen, M. (eds.). Routledge, p. viii
Introduction: The European culture wars
Clark, C. & Kaiser, W., 1 Jan 2003, Culture Wars: Secular-Catholic Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Clark, C. & Kaiser, W. (eds.). Cambridge University Press, p. 1-10 10 p.
Culture Wars 100%
European Culture 89%
Associational Culture 43%
Clericalism 42%


text:
Rediscovering Edith Templeton: Summer in the Country (1950)
I don't remember now where I came across my Hogarth Press paperback copy of Edith Templeton's first novel, Summer in the Country (1950, published in the US as The Proper Bohemians, which seems to have confused whoever created her Wikipedia page). I know that I read it in late 2009, just as I was starting to expand my horizons, post grad school, into lesser known women authors. It was then a bit more than a year before I proceeded to her second and third novels, Living on Yesterday (1951) and The Island of Desire (1952), also in pleasant Hogarth Press editions from the 1980s. And finally, it was two more years until, just on the verge of beginning this blog (which explains why I've never written in any depth about her before), I tracked down her hard-to-find fourth novel, This Charming Pastime (1955), which Hogarth had declined to reissue. Later on in the 1950s, Templeton began publishing stories in The New Yorker, some of which were gathered in the 2002 collection The Darts of Cupid, which received considerable acclaim and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
That Templeton's earlier fiction has remained sadly in obscurity is surely at least in part due to her activities in the intervening decades. In 1966, she published, under the pseudonym Louise Walbrook, an erotic novel called Gordon, which appears to have been a precursor to Fifty Shades of Grey, about the pleasures of female subservience to a dominant male. The book, published by the famous Olympia Press in Paris, gained some notoriety, and was finally reprinted under Templeton's own name in 2003. After 1966, it appears that Templeton, apart from her periodical fiction, fell silent until 1992, when she tried her hand at a mystery novel, Murder in Estoril, which appears to have rehashed some of the sadomasochistic themes first explored in Gordon, and which seems to have had little success.
Edith Templeton, from the jacket of
The Surprise of Cremona
It's perhaps a little bit odd that Random House, having succeeded very nicely with Darts of Cupid, and deciding to proceed with reprinting Gordon, didn't see fit at that point to reprint Templeton's earlier fiction, but it appears that they were very much focused on marketing her as an erotic author and titillating readers with the books' covers, so perhaps the earlier works didn't fit their marketing scheme. And indeed, what a contrast! One has to assume that her obscurity is partly due to the fact that not many publishers could readily consider issuing all of her books in one group, since those most loved by one reader may well be unsatisfactory to another.
A recent sort-through and weeding-out of my bookcases, combined with the extra time allotted to me by COVID-19, brought Templeton back to mind. The three Hogarth paperbacks have held pride of place on an upper shelf of my bookcases since I first read them, but I realized I had forgotten just about everything about them except that they were something special. Glancing through them, I couldn't resist diving in, beginning logically with the first.
I remembered loving Summer in the Country in particular, and that it dealt with an eccentric family in Bohemia, but I certainly didn't recall how shockingly brilliant it was—or indeed just how shocking it is, period. It's an absolutely unique sort of animal, I think—rather like if a Barbara Pym novel had had an illicit love child with one of Dostoevsky's! That might be difficult to imagine, but it should make clear just how unique the book is.
At first, the reader is likely to feel more or less at home, apart perhaps from the setting on a large estate in the countryside outside of Prague. Here resides a splintered family of large landowners now reduced to genteel poverty, led by Tony Birk and Ida Birk-Borovec, a brother and sister, both widowed, Tony a sort of entertaining blowhard who tells it like it is but perhaps has a darker side, and Ida rather patient and practical and philosophical about the pains of life. She sees things as they are, but doesn't always feel it worthwhile to argue about them.
Rounding out the Birk household are Ida's children, a widowed daughter Alice, whose frustrations at her fate have left her preachy and self-righteous, and unmarried Bettine, who never wants to marry (having seen the examples around her), despite Alice's constant bullying. They can still afford to have servants, including Prochazka, the elderly coachman, prone to falling asleep while driving the carriage, and Emma the efficient and all-seeing German maid. Oh, and I've forgotten (as they themselves generally do) Louise, the widowed sister of Tony and Ida, who lives on their estate, having been bought out of her share years before, but to whom they do not speak—as Tony tells a visitor:
Looks like a servant, but worse than a servant, if you know what I mean. Our maids wear black and white aprons. But she wears a black apron, black alpaca. You can't miss it. That's my sister Louise. … Well, we don't talk to her; family matters—you know how it is. But she comes up to the castle year after year and stays there in summer. She is so mean that she will not pay for holidays.
So far so good. The English country comedy transported to Bohemia, one might think. But read on.
Original cover of the 1950 edition
The visitor is Raoul Marek, a sort of fop from Prague, who met the family in town (they also have a town house, despite their financial state—they are property rich and cash poor) and was invited to stay, perhaps as a potential match for poor Bettine. As the novel opens, Tony is leaving to pick Marek up from the station, so our introduction to the eccentricities of the menage is largely through Marek's eyes. Imagine being shown around your host's home and having the following exchange:
'Still, this is a nice and sunny room you've got; it used to be a nursery once.'
'Is that why the windows are barred, Mr. Birk? Very wise, I think. Very good idea, with small children.'
'Lord no. I had that grille put in years before, on the doctor's advice. This was my wife's bedroom, you see. She was melancholic. Always talked of committing suicide. I always said it was stupid to make all this fuss to guard her. If people want to kill themselves, let them, if it gets as bad as that. And it didn't stop her, of course. She took an overdose of sleeping drugs in the end.'
'How terrible for you, Mr. Birk.'
'Well, I don't know. We've all got to die, you know; can't live for ever. Now come and look at the view. Don't get that in Prague, do you, eh?'
Though sometimes the startling revelations are for the reader alone, and Marek remains oblivious, as here a few pages later:
They were discussing the illness of one of the kitchenmaids. Mrs. Birk-Borovec had been nursing her for the past three days, giving her drugs and applying poultices. Now she had recovered.
'Mr. Marek, don't you think that mama is a saint?' asked Alice. 'She did simply everything for the girl. She is wonderful that way, you know.'
'Not at all, Alice,' said her mother dryly. 'If you don't stand over them they don't take their medicine. That's all there is to it.'
'My God, she is businesslike,' thought the young man. It did not occur to him that there was the contrast between two ways of living. Alice, the younger generation, had already been reared in town and was inclined to view everything with a sentimental eye. The old lady had been born and brought up on the estate, and she knew that it is no act of charity if the farmer helps the cow to calve, or ministers to the sprained ankle of his helper. Animals and people alike have to be kept fit.
The test of whether you find this novel as delightful as I do might well be whether you laugh out loud at these two passages or gasp in horror. Not quite a cheerful English drawing-room comedy (as much as I adore those too). This comedy is very much of the "red in tooth and claw" category. But the real story is only just beginning, and gains momentum with the arrival at the estate of Alice's married daughter Margot, who has, we discover, been to all intents and purposes sold off to a wealthy businessman, Oscar Ritter, in exchange for the essential influx of cash to turn the fortunes of the Birk estate around.
One may come to feel, as I did, that Oscar, a needy, unbearable prig who finds everyone terribly lacking except himself ("The old lady raised her eyes and looked at him. An old Army joke, beloved by her brother, flitted through her mind. The whole squadron was out of step; only our Jamie wasn't."), may simply have married the wrong member of the family. Alice the self-righteous martyr might have found him right up her alley, but Margot is much more free and easy—perhaps the only really likable character in the novel. She and Oscar had planned to visit the family together, but Oscar has been held up on business, so rather than waiting devotedly at his side, Margot has come ahead without him. The dangerous element of this is that she is threatening to refuse to go back to him, which in turn threatens the future of the estate that depends so much on his investments. How this tension plays out among this extraordinary, unforgettable cast of characters is brilliantly executed—in fact, amazingly so for a first novel. I've certainly remembered why, more than a decade ago, I felt this was one of the best "lost" novels I'd come across.
If you won't accept my word for it, however, I have someone to back me up. The Hogarth reprints contained new introductions by no lesser figure than Anita Brookner, who certainly knew good fiction when she saw it and who compared Templeton's work to that of Turgenev, Jean Rhys, and Theodor Fontane (whose Effi Briest is a Persephone reprint). She goes on:
Yet although these novels are essentially novels of manners, they are also something more, for running beneath the social comedy, so beautifully conducted by all the principal players, there lie acts of madness, of revenge, and of revolt, resorted to in extreme moments, but—and this is the singular thing—never regretted. It is the strange completeness of these acts, and the density of the context in which they are committed, that give Edith Templeton's novels their unusual savour.
Turgenev, Jean Rhys, Fontane: I would add Schnitzler, for that dash of Viennese concentration on intrigue. All these strains add up to a world of great complexity and apparent simplicity, a world in which everything is foreign and everything has enormous style.
How could you resist? Well, obviously, you shouldn't. Summer in the Country is often hilarious, but also deliciously wry and dark and morbid, and I defy any reader not to gasp in surprise—and, perhaps, in delight, whether they admit it or not—at the ending. It's also rather telling that no one seems to comment on the extraordinary bad luck that's apparent from the fact that just about the entire family is widowed. One may find oneself pausing to consider this when one turns the final page. One might also find oneself inclined to go back and start reading from the beginning.
But I've now turned, rather illogically, to Templeton's fourth novel, This Charming Pastime, to see why it would have been left out of Hogarth's reprints in the 1980s. I think I can already sense why, but that will have to wait for another post. Meanwhile, I've also placed orders for the aforementioned Darts of Cupid and for Templeton's one other published book, which I neglected to mention above: The Surprise of Cremona: One Woman's Adventures in Cremona, Parma, Mantua, Ravenna, Urbino and Arezzo (1954), a highly praised travel book about Templeton's own journey, after her husband's death (widowhood again!), which seems to have become somewhat collectible despite having been reprinted a couple of times. I'm not sure I'll ever be quite desperate enough to sample Gordon or Murder in Estoril, but the travel book and the New Yorker stories sounded too enticing to pass up.
Labels: 1950s, Edith Templeton
Never a dull moment (get it?): MARGERY SHARP, The Stone of Chastity (1940) and Four Gardens (1935)
Back in November of 2013 (it doesn't seem possible that it's been so long), well before I ever dreamed I'd be doing anything more than fantasizing about publishing, I did a post here listing 20 books I felt should be in print but weren't. The post is hopelessly outdated now, and I can very proudly and happily say that it's partly outdated because of me. As of January, when our next batch of Furrowed Middlebrow books are released by Dean Street Press, I will have been responsible for no fewer than eight of those 20 titles being reissued (and it's just possible that I'm not finished yet). Of the remaining 12, at least five more have now been reprinted by other publishers.
And one of my favorites of all of these is undoubtedly Margery Sharp's delightful 1940 novel The Stone of Chastity. Sharp wrote lots of wonderful books, and I've written about a number of them here. I'm pleased as punch, as I've already noted here, that we're publishing six of her criminally neglected early novels in January, but Stone holds a special place in my heart as perhaps the daftest and most purely joyful and silly of all of Sharp's work, and it's truly bizarre that it hasn't been reprinted long before now. In 2018 in the New York Times, scholar and author Perri Klass named Stone, along with better-known Sharp classics Cluny Brown, The Eye of Love, Britannia Mews, and The Nutmeg Tree, as the five titles in her Sharp "starter kit", calling it a "bucolic comic masterpiece." I can't disagree!
"It's in my mind to put an end to this heathen wickedness that's stalking abroad through Gillenham. It's in my mind to terrify that evil man from his morrow's sinful doings."
"We'll be going to Old Manor, then?"
"Not yet," said Mrs. Pye grimly. "We go first to the village. To rouse the women ... "
The novel opens with Professor Isaac Pounce, freshly arrived in the idyllic country village of Gillenham, along with his sister-in-law, his young nephew Nicholas, and Carmen, his voluptuous assistant, who seems quite well-paid for doing no one is quite sure exactly what. The Professor is in hot pursuit of a legendary Stone of Chastity, reference to which he has stumbled across in an old diary. The stone was one of those placed as stepping stones in the local stream, and the legend went that no unvirtuous woman could cross the stream without losing her balance at this particular stone and getting a dowsing.
Professor Pounce is cold-bloodedly scientific in his approach, but his researches, including a survey distributed to all villagers and a plan to put all the village women to the test and record the results for posterity, arouses not unforeseeably hostility among the more pious-minded locals, particularly the Vicar's wife, who enlists the Boy Scouts to help suppress his efforts, and stern Mrs. Pye, a moralizer who might have given Savonarola a run for his money.
Ultimately, it's aimless young Nicholas, popular at Cambridge but without much ambition since, who must attempt to assuage the villagers' outrage. In the process, his own amorous impulses get directed first in the direction of Carmen, who when not helping his uncle works as a nude model for artists, then toward the Vicar's perky daughter, and finally toward a Bloomsbury composer staying in the village, who enthusiastically volunteers for the Professor's study. We also meet numerous other villagers, both in favor of the professor and against him, though my favorite by far is the unflappable Mrs. Jim, who runs the local pub and commiserates with Nicholas after he sours on the promiscuous Carmen:
"As a matter of fact, I suppose I was a bit of an ass about her…"
Mrs. Jim looked at him kindly.
"Like stealing jam, ain't it? You feel a bit sickish afterwards."
"That's it exactly. Especially … "
"Especially," finished Mrs. Jim, "when there's so many others have had their fingers in the same pot." Nicholas felt slightly sick in truth.
"You don't know how you could have done it," he said, "afterwards, when you wish you hadn't."
"I shouldn't let it worry you," said Mrs. Jim. "I don't suppose it was more than kissing behind doors, and where there's a door handy and a piece like her behind, no young man's to be blamed. Jam's jam."
Of course, the entire concept of women's chastity and society's concern for it is a profoundly misogynistic one, but have no fear, as Sharp has tongue firmly in cheek throughout, and by the end of the novel manages to delightfully undercut the whole concept. One would expect no less.
Although it's complete coincidence that I got round to writing about the two novels in this post at the same time, it's an interesting juxtaposition, for while The Stone of Chastity is probably Sharp's most pure farce, with nary a thing to take seriously from beginning to end, Four Gardens is probably the most restrained and emotional work of Sharp's early career. So get ready to switch gears…
The old names still echoed in her ears, drawing her thoughts back and back, past Lily and Leonard, past Henry, to even shadowier figures yet. Cousin Maggie Platt, who had money in Consols; Ellen Taylor, so fortunately an orphan; and Vincent in the terraced garden, and her own widowed mother, with that striking resemblance (though from the back view only) to Alexandra Princess of Wales…
As Four Gardens opens, we meet happy middle-aged Caroline Smith (née Chase), receiving birthday presents from her children, Lily and Leonard, and her devoted husband Henry. Her reflections on their gifts lead her to reflections about her earlier life, and soon we are back in the village of Morton as young Caroline and her widowed mother make their way towards an evening church service. However, not unusually, we are given to understand, Caroline hesitates and her mother asks her if perhaps she has a headache and should take a walk around the common rather than attend services. Caroline acquiesces, but instead of the common, she makes off to an abandoned house and garden which has caught her imagination. She has a passion and instinct for gardening and a love of the earth.
This lush but neglected and overgrown garden is the first of the four gardens which represent the stages of Caroline's life. This one, along with the young man she meets there, who awakens her romantic feelings but is ultimately of too high a class for her (this is Victorian England, after all!), represents perhaps her naïve, youthful dreams of simple happy endings. Instead, Caroline's life moves ahead, and she marries Henry Smith, who is devoted to her and whom she loves but is not in love with, an ambitious shoe factory assistant. They settle into a quiet little house, have two children, and make their way contentedly, despite the lack of anything more than a tiny garden, which Caroline at any rate has little time to think of.
Of course, ambitious Henry makes good, particularly with the arrival of World War I and the resulting increased demand for boots. Their fortunes rise, and soon Caroline has a much larger home with a lavish garden—this one too large to manage without a gardener, who takes charge of it all and ignores Caroline's suggestions and advice, thereby depriving even such lushness of any deep pleasure for her. She's now in the realm of keeping up appearances and moving in "Society", however uncomfortably. One of the funniest passages in this distinctly un-riotous Sharp novel is that in which Caroline goes to view the house Henry has selected for them, complete with its imposingly regal departing owner:
She announced herself, rather self-consciously, as Mrs. Henry Smith, and he replied that Mrs. Cornwallis was expecting her. To Caroline, following him through a wide shabby hall, the whole episode was beginning to feel like a nightmare. She was intensely conscious of herself-of her dress, her voice, the way she placed her feet. She felt like a cook-general going to be interviewed.
"Mrs. Henry Smith," said the butler contemptuously.
It's hard to imagine that the butler was really contemptuous (or at least that he revealed it in his manner of speaking) but of course it's dead on that Caroline, feeling awkward and out of place, would have perceived that he was.
I can't say anything much about Caroline's fourth garden because I don't want to give away the ups and downs of her story once the flashbacks are through. But suffice it to say it may be the most satisfying of all.
Four Gardens is by far the most sentimental of the Margery Sharp novels I've read, and I have a troubled relationship with sentimentality. But Caroline is such a charmer, tough and sensible beneath her rather passive and insecure exterior, that it was impossible to resist, and I have to confess to having tears in my eyes at more than scene (don't tell anyone). She is anything but a feminist, assuming along with her mother that her husband must always be right, but we do see a progression in her as the story progresses, and her attitude toward Leon and Lal when they are grown and romance in the air shows a plucky openmindedness. It's in these young characters, with their modern attitudes and bohemian sensibilities coming into gentle conflict with Caroline, that we get a taste, in later sections of the book, of more typical Margery Sharp storytelling and a bit of her usual comic relief.
There's also a lovely, balanced summing-up of Morton's reactions to the outbreak of war:
On August the fifth a booking-clerk at Morton Station, leaving his post to distribute cigarettes among a trainload of Territorials, was arrested as a spy and marched off to the police station. A troop of Boy Scouts, guarding the railway bridge, arrested an ex-colonel and one of the linesmen. An elderly stockbroker, flying a kite for his son on Morton Common, was arrested on the charge of signaling to the enemy. The German Charcuterie, owned by a Welshman named Evans, had its windows broken and its stock scattered in the street.
Also on August the fifth the local M.P. and his wife moved out of their house on the Common and handed it over for the use of the Red Cross. Dr. French threw up a now flourishing practice to join the R.A.M.C. Mr. Brodie, the estate-agent, who was forty-five if a day, enlisted in the London Scottish. The youngest Macbeth boy enlisted as a private. Every shop in the High Street was out of khaki wool. A first collection for Belgian refugees brought in seven thousand five hundred and eighty pounds. In this manner—in these manners—Morton confronted the fact of war.
As I mentioned in my announcement post, two of my fellow bloggers have also written enthusiastically, several years ago (I'm late to the party as usual), about Four Gardens—Barb at Leaves and Pages here, and Jane at Fleur in Her World (now at Beyond Eden Rock) here.
So there, two quite different sides of Margery Sharp, both from the first third or so of her career, but both quite delightful and informed by Sharp's incomparable instincts as a storyteller!
Labels: 1930s, 1940s, Margery Sharp, World War I, World War II
ANNOUNCEMENT: Eleven new Furrowed Middlebrow books from Dean Street Press, coming January 2021
It's more than a little amazing to me that it's now been just under four years since the first Furrowed Middlebrow books were published by Dean Street Press in October of 2016. With the titles I am just about to announce, we'll be up to a rather staggering 63 titles in all, including some of my favorite books and authors. And of course that's all down to the support and encouragement of (to paraphrase PBS) readers like you!
It's generally my policy, therefore, not to play favorites among the books we've been fortunate enough to be able to reprint—who could choose favorites between the likes of Elizabeth Fair, D. E. Stevenson, Elizabeth Eliot, and Frances Faviell, not to mention Rachel Ferguson, Winifred Peck, or Miss Read?
That said, however, I am beyond ecstatic that in January of 2021, we'll be adding to our list two of my all-time favorite authors, and in both cases we are fortunate enough to be reprinting some of these authors' very best works. Who could they be?
Drum roll please...
That's right. In January we will be welcoming the glittering, sophisticated MARGERY SHARP and the witty, incisive STELLA GIBBONS to the Furrowed Middlebrow family. Woohoo!
And I owe a special thanks to some of you lovely readers. When I first started working with Dean Street Press, both of these amazing authors were being actively re-released, by Open Road Media and Vintage respectively, so I had assumed their work was unavailable to us and moved on to other authors. It was really those of you who suggested them in response to my "Possibly Furrowed Middlebrow" post late last year who brought them back to mind and made it dawn on me that both of those larger publishers, having released a number of the better-known titles by Sharp and Gibbons (along with some rather odd choices and omissions), had petered out and not finished the job. Still unavailable were some of the best and most sought-after works by both authors. Eureka!
So, the specifics. In January, we will be publishing (as usual in both paperback and e-book formats) six currently out-of-print titles from the early years of Margery Sharp's brilliant career.
There's her marvelous debut (reportedly written in one month while working as a typist, though that's hard to fathom from the delights of reading it), Rhododendron Pie (1930), about an eccentric family of highbrows coming to terms with their distinctly middlebrow sister. I reviewed it here and linked to a couple of other, similarly enthusiastic bloggers. As anyone who has searched for this title (probably in vain) over the past decade will know, copies of Rhododendron Pie sell for sums well into triple digits, but you won't need to mortgage your house to buy our reprint!
Then there's Sharp's rollicking second novel, Fanfare for Tin Trumpets (1932), a sparkling romantic comedy set amongst the more bohemian elements of London society. I reviewed it here.
Moving forward three years, we come to Four Gardens (1935), a somewhat less zany, more poignant tale of a woman's life from the Victorian period until the 1930s, represented symbolically by the four gardens she has occupied in that time. I have a review coming up for it (now posted here), but in the meantime you can take the word of Barb at Leaves & Pages here or Jane from Beyond Eden Rock at her earlier blog here.
Just on the cusp of World War II we come to Harlequin House (1939), another London comedy about a young woman navigating the rough seas between her stodgy military fiancé and her feckless ex-con brother. I reviewed it here and Barb at Leaves & Pages reviewed it here.
Next up, oh be still my heart, possibly my favorite Sharp of all, The Stone of Chastity (1940), a thoroughly daft village comedy about a professor testing an ancient legend about a stone crossing stone in a village stream, reputed to cause unfaithful women to slip and fall. I also have a review of this coming up (now posted here), but in the meantime, way back in 2013 I listed it here as one of 20 books that should have been in print but weren't. Happy to cross yet another title off of that list!
And last but certainly not least of the Margery Sharp novels coming soon is her really wonderful postwar tale, The Foolish Gentlewoman (1948), another of my favorites. Middle-aged widow Isabel Bracken creates discord among friends and relatives when she decides to give up most of her inheritance to an impossible woman whose one chance at romance Isabel once spoiled. I reviewed it here, and I linked to several other bloggers' reviews of it from there.
I don't honestly know if I'm more pleased that we're publishing Sharp or Stella Gibbons, who feels like such a kindred spirit for me, despite the fact that, as I've mentioned before, I find her most famous novel overrated (but so did she, so I think she would forgive me). Cold Comfort Farm I can take or leave, but the five books we're reprinting in January are all among my favorites. Vintage made some lovely choices in their selection of Gibbons novels to reprint (the wartime novels in particular), but they neglected some of Gibbons' funniest, lightest-hearted rainy day reads.
Case in point: The Swiss Summer (1951), which the Guardian compared, in its contemporary review, to The Enchanted April no less! Lucy Cottrell, happily married but worn down by the postwar challenges of food rationing and depressing world affairs, jumps at the chance to spend the summer at an acquaintance's Swiss chalet, where a heap of other guests bring romance, comedy, and poignant moments amidst lush scenery.
At the end of the same decade comes A Pink Front Door (1959), about a young wife who can't say no. Er, she can't say no to any misfit who needs her help, that is. Watched over disapprovingly by her ex-military father and long-suffering husband (who is always ambivalent about what he'll find when he opens their front door), Daisy Muir tried to solve everyone else's problems and ends up creating quite a few of her own. It's one of Gibbons' most purely funny and perceptive comedies, and I can hardly resist picking it up and starting to read it again right now.
Three years on, we come to The Weather at Tregulla (1962) set in a small town on the Cornish coast, in which Gibbons shows astonishing versatility in inhabiting the perspective of a restless 19-year-old girl, Una Beaumont, whose fondest wish is to escape to London and "the Stage" but who finds herself instead enmeshed in an unfortunate infatuation with a successful but caddish artist. This is Here Be Dragons in a rather more light-hearted mode, and it's an armchair excursion to Cornwall to boot.
I particularly fell in love with jaded, bitter 70-something Maude Barrington, the protagonist of the second-to-last novel published in Gibbons' lifetime, The Snow-Woman (1969). Maude has been a tragic shadow of her old self ever since losing her three brothers in World War I, but as Gibbons' tale begins (with a woman she's only just met giving birth on great aunt Dorothea's sofa, no less), her quiet, lonely life is about to get livelier, and the snow in her heart may begin to melt. For my money, The Snow-Woman is one of Gibbons' most complex, poignant, and yet still very funny novels.
And finally, the last of Stella's novels published in her lifetime, The Woods in Winter (1970), is also about a woman of a certain age rediscovering the joys of life. But here, for contrast, we move from the imperious, well-to-do Maude to the curmudgeonly and rather witchy charwoman Ivy Gower, who inherits a rural cottage in Buckinghamshire and manages, despite thoroughly anti-social instincts, to have surprising effects on her neighbors. Then a 12-year-old runaway shows up on her doorstep, but that plot twist doesn't follow any of the sappy, predictable trajectories you might expect from a lesser author.
Whew! So there we are. Eleven new titles in all. What do you think?
Labels: Published by Furrowed Middlebrow
Rediscovering Edith Templeton: Summer in the Count...
Never a dull moment (get it?): MARGERY SHARP, The ...
ANNOUNCEMENT: Eleven new Furrowed Middlebrow books...


Some know Wisconsin Sea Grant Fisheries Specialist Titus Seilheimer by his active Twitter presence as "Dr. Fish" (at the handle @DrFishSG). Soon, Titus will take on yet another identity in Manitowoc on Dec. 8. It's one well suited to the season: Santa Claus!
As part of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum's annual Christmas Tree Ship Celebration and Community Day, Titus will play Santa on a fishing trawler that will arrive at the museum from Two Rivers, bearing a load of Christmas trees.
The event connects to the tale of the Rouse Simmons, an ill-fated schooner that sank in Lake Michigan on Nov. 22, 1912. Captained by Herman Schuenemann, the ship sank while transporting Christmas trees ultimately bound for the Chicago market.
Of course, the Dec. 8 event won't have a sad end. On the contrary, Santa's appearance will delight children, and it is part of free community day at the museum, filled with a range of fun activities.
Tamara Thomsen, a maritime archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society who has frequently worked with Sea Grant, will also be there to give a presentation on the history of the Rouse Simmons – a wreck not discovered until 1971.
Titus is based in Manitowoc and has frequently partnered with the Wisconsin Maritime Museum on behalf of Sea Grant. He was asked to don the red suit by museum educator Abbie Diaz. "I'm happy to help with this. But I think my only qualification for being Santa is that I have a beard!" he said.
As a researcher, Titus feels a connection with the Rouse Simmons story, since the site of its wreck is a place he has to avoid while out on the water. It is now a marked hazard area. So, although it perished more than a century ago, it is not forgotten.
Find out more about the history of the "Christmas tree ship" on our Wisconsin Shipwrecks website.
And get all the details about the Wisconsin Maritime Museum's community day, which runs 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 8, on the museum's website. Admission to the museum will be free all day.
This entry was tagged Christmas tree ship, Manitowoc, Rouse Simmons, Tamara Thomsen, Titus Seilheimer, Wisconsin Maritime Museum. Bookmark the permalink.


text:
Nofa prexy vows to back pro league
Sunstar 15 November 2019
NEGROS Occidental Football Association (Nofa) president Ricky Yanson, who is running against incumbent Mariano "Nonong" Araneta, in the Philippine Football Federation election promised to support the fledgling league should he win the Nov. 28, 2019 vote.
"I can feel the PFL can scale even greater heights with the support of all stakeholders. They should include more partners and sponsors and a good broadcast partnership,'' he said. "I support the PFL because it brings joy to the football public and inspires the children and the youth to be better.''
This is the first time Yanson Jr. has released a statement on the PFL, belying a concern by PFL fans, clubs and workers that he will be focused on grassroots development.
"Globally, professional leagues for both men and women give a path for the best players and for fans and resources to boost football popularity. I envision this for Philippine football that someday, our men and women professional players will drive even more development for our beautiful game,'' he said.
Yanson Jr.'s show of support for the professional game is expected to give a boost to the PFL, which was revived this year after the failure to launch of the Philippine Premier League. After two seasons of the PFL, the PFF allowed another group to manage the league, which was supposed to use the name PPL.
The group, however, failed to deliver its promise on sponsorship and TV coverage, forcing the PFF to cancel its contract and revive the PFL.
The league started in 2017 with eight clubs, Ceres Negros FC, Davao Aguilas FC, Global FC Cebu, Ilocos United, Kaya-Makati, Loyola Meralco Sparks, JPV Marikina, Ceres-Negros and Stallion Laguna. Ceres won the title.
Despite the early troubles this year, the PFL has kept four of its original clubs Ceres FC-Negros, Global Cebu FC now Makati, Stallion FC Laguna, and Kaya FC now Iloilo. Three new clubs were also welcomed-- the Philippine Airforce FC, Mendiola 1991 FC and Gren Archers United.
Of the eight, two have links with Cebu. Global Cebu, which is trying to change its identity to Global Makati, and PAF, which is trying to have Cebu as its home base. (PR)
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