Product Description
This biography looks at the whole of Beatrix Potter's life from her birth in 1866, her years in Bolton Gardens, her paintings and drawings, her books, her friendship with the Warnes, her farming, her marriage, to her death in 1943. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Beloved Author Comes to Life
The illustrations and photographs make Judy Taylor's BEATRIX POTTER a wonderful read. I first went through the book and read the capitations for all the illustrations and then went back to read the narrative.
Mrs. Hellis as Beatrix Potter preferred to be know was a remarkable woman who lived in her own time. For ten years she produced a body of work that will remain the mainstay of childhood.
Ms. Taylor brings this unique personality to life for the legions of fans around the world.
Nash Black, author of Indie finalists WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and HAINTS.

Excellent biography, Wonderful photographs and illustrations
This is my favorite biography of Beatrix Potter, thoroughly researched and historically accurate, with many wonderful family, home and countrylifephotographs (including ones of Beatrix Potter's pet rabbit, dog, and a variety of her other animal pets).The book also contains her many beautiful illustrations, watercolors and copies of some notes and letters as well as portions of her manuscripts.Judy Taylor, an author enchanted with Beatrix Potter stories and art from early childhood, also wrote Beatrix Potter: The Artist and Her World, and two National Trust Guides:Beatrix Potter and Hilltop, and Beatrix Potter and Hawkshead.She's the editor of both Beatrix Potter's Letters: A Selection and Letters To Children from Beatrix Potter. ... Read more

Product Description
These CDs contain ten seasonal stories from BBC Radio 4's "Book at Bedtime". Each has a Christmas theme, and range from the intriguing to the funny to the poignant. They are written by an array of literature's best-known names. ... Read more

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Contains "The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle", "The Tale of Mr Jeremy Fisher", "The Tale of Two Bad Mice" and "The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

My six year old daughter and three year old son love it.
I play it in the car for my six year old daughter and three year old son.They both love it.I like it because it is teaching the kids new words and keeping them entertained. ... Read more

Product Description
Contains "The Tale of Tom Kitten", "The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck", and "The Tale of Ginger and Pickles". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Tom Kitten
My daughter loves the tale about Tom Kitten and his sisters, Moppet and Mittens.Their mother dresses them in fancy clothes for a tea party but the kittens mess-up and lose their clothes.It reminds me of when I was ayoung girl, and didn't quite enjoy wearing stiff, fancy clothes.Theantics of animals dressed in clothes appeals to the younger children. ... Read more

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Patricia sat on the back fence, almost hidden by the low-spreading branches of an old apple-tree. Below her, on the grass, lay a small, curly, black dog, his brown, trustful eyes fixed confidently on Patricia. ... Read more

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Patricia sat on the back fence, almost hidden by the low-spreading branches of an old apple-tree. Below her, on the grass, lay a small, curly, black dog, his brown, trustful eyes fixed confidently on Patricia.
... Read more

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"Private Lives" was written in 1930 and has been a mainstay of British theatre ever since. This sharply funny play of reversals focuses on Elyot and Amanda, a passionate but feuding couple who divorced five years before. Now, on the first night of their honeymoons with their new partners, they find that they are all staying in the same hotel on the French Riviera. Fireworks are inevitable...The roles of the two ex-spouses are brilliantly recreated by Paul Scofield and Patricia Routledge, while Coward's scintillating repartee epitomizes all the glamour and sophistication of life between the wars for society's spoilt darlings. "The Classic Radio Theatre" range presents notable radio productions of much-loved plays by some of the most renowned playwrights, and starring some of our finest actors. ... Read more

Product Description
Hetty's success in tracing the long-lost son of a friend gives her a taste for detection and she sets up as a private detective. Among her adventures she saves the life of a little girl trapped in machinery and brings back to life her friend Edith, after the death of Edith's bigamous husband. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Big fan of Hetty, but not this book
I am a big fan of the Hetty Wainthrop television series, so when I heard that the originator had written a book before he developed the series, I was really excited. I was hoping for a little more background into the characters. While I did get that, I was disappointed in the long run. I didn't find any of the characters likeable, and I rooted for no one. I didn't really care about any of them. The only thing that kept me reading was my love for the way that Patricia Routledge portrayed Hetty. I could picture her as I was reading, and it gave me a little enjoyment. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, even hardcore fans like me. ... Read more

Product Description
Time, Change, and the American Newspaper focuses on newspapers as organizations, examining the role of change in the newspaper industry and providing a model from which to view and respond to change. Authors George Sylvie and Patricia D. Witherspoon discuss environmental and organizational influences on contemporary newspapers, and they analyze newspapers within the larger context of all organizations. This more general perspective provides insights into the nature of change, the change process, the rationale for organizational changes, resistance to such changes, and initiation and implementation strategies.

In its examination of change, this volume explores the causes of newspaper change, how newspaper change takes shape, and when change does not work. This consideration sets the stage for detailed case studies examining the roles of new technology, product, and people as change agents in newspapers. The discussion concludes with the impact of change--or lack of it--on the contemporary newspaper industry and the subsequent impact of newspaper change on society. Sylvie and Witherspoon propose future directions of change and of newspaper decision-making processes pertaining to change, and they offer suggestions for changes in newspaper structures and thought processes.

Providing a sound, theoretically-based approach to the topic of change and American newspapers, this volume is essential reading for educators and students in journalism, media/newsroom management, media economics, organizational behavior/communication, and related areas. It also provides a wealth of insights and practical knowledge for newspaper publishers, editors, and practicing journalists.
... Read more

Product Description
In the early 20th century, a new and distinctive concept of the audience rose to prominence. The audience was seen as a mass -- a large collection of people mostly unknown to one another -- that was unified through exposure to media. This construct offered a pragmatic way to map audiences that was relevant to industry, government, and social theorists. In a relatively short period of time, it became the dominant model for studying the audience. Today, it is so pervasive that most people simply take it for granted.

USE LAST TWO PARAGRAPHS ONLY FOR GENERAL CATALOGS... Recently, media scholars have reopened inquiry into the meaning of "audience." They question the utility of the mass audience concept, characterizing it as insensitive to differences among audience members inescapably bound up with discredited notions of mass society, or serving only a narrow set of industrial interests. The authors of this volume find that these assertions are often false and unwarranted either by the historical record or by contemporary industry practice.

Instead, they argue for a rediscovery of the dominant model by summarizing and critiquing the very considerable body of literature on audience behavior, and by demonstrating different ways of analyzing mass audiences. Further, they provide a framework for understanding the future of the audience in the new media environment, and suggest how the concept of mass audience can illuminate research on media effects, cultural studies, and media policy.
... Read more

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Spanning the 1820s through the 1960s, this collection analyzes serial fiction published in English, French, Spanish, German, Swedish, Italian, Polish, Norwegian, Yiddish, and Chinese, considering the ways in which serials function within minority communities. Okker claims that serial fiction was produced and read within a richly transnational context: the periodicals often circulated broadly, the narratives themselves favored transnational plots and themes, and the contents surrounding the fiction encouraged readers to identify with a community dispersed throughout the United States and often the world. She looks at the circulation of ideas, periodicals, characters and plots, and even people across various borders, focusing particularly on the ways that this fiction reflects the larger transnational realities of minority communities. In linking these transnational allegiances with the circulation of stories and periodicals, this book contributes to our understanding of not only print culture and periodical studies, but also transnationalism and multilingualism in American literature.

Product Description
"Playing Sandwiches" with David Haig; "The Hand of God" with Eileen Atkins; "Nights in the Gardens of Spain" with Penelope Wilton; "Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet" with Patricia Routledge; "Waiting for the Telegram" with Thora Hird; and "The Outside Dog" with Julie Walters. A second collection of astutely observed monologues, tales of loneliness and eccentricity are handled with the light touch which has made Alan Bennett one of our best-loved writers, as well as a national institution. ... Read more

Product Description
These monologues by Alan Bennett were presented as a series on BBC television. The audio-cassette in this pack, which also contains the monologues in paperback form, feature the soundtracks of the television performances. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

And talk they do
There are few things that are more enjoyable than a rainy afternoon and this collection of character sketches on the IP.It is very easy to draw a picture of a person in crisis in the context of a two hour play; it is another thing entirely to carry out the same within the space of 30 minutes. These radio programs feature, for the most part soliloquies by people facing any number of personal crises from ill relations (in both senses of the word), trouble with the law and realization that their spouses were not quite what they might have been on first inspection.

I have to confess to a few favorites."Bed Among the Lentils" is the story of a bored vicar's wife who finds the satisfaction that her life with a man of God has not provided in dry sherry and an the Indian owner of the off license. God is a business much like anything else.Ultimately she is disappointed by both and has to go through life as a prop in her husband's rise in the clerical hierarchy as he shamelessly exploits his wife's problems to show he has the compassion he clearly lacks. God is a business, just like agricultural machinery.

"Soldiering On" is the story of an upper-class woman whose husband dies and by inches her world dissolves. Curiously she manages to keep up a brave front, finding solace in television and a walkman. This ultimately makes her story far more compelling than had Bennett allowed her to dissolve into histrionics

"Her Big Chance" is the story of an actress who, as the reader gradually learns, has taken work in a soft core pornographic film.The fact that she insists on maintaining a certain air of professionalism and dedication to her "craft" makes this all the more hilarious.

These stories are, like most of Bennett's work, inspired compositions.One can only look forward to future efforts from this quarter.

Great and Unusual Collection
Although this collection doesn't seem to be very well-known, I loved it, and enjoy teaching it with my Honors English class (high-school).The series was first written for television, I believe for a BBC series; in each episode, a single character, placed in a small variety of settings, speaks directly to the camera.Each story consists of one character discussing an episode or series of related episodes in his or her life; the interesting part (and the part that makes this so great for teaching) is that we hear only one character's perspective, and so need to evaluate his or her credibility and level of self-awareness; often, we also need to attend to small cues to figure out the whole story.Very enjoyable, as long as you are willing to do some digging and re-reading.

If you're a lover of characters, if you're a writer, if you're...
I was lucky enough to see the original broadcasts of these mini-plays in the UK in early 1989, and I found a copy of the telescripts at Foyle's and snapped if up.For the uninitiated, these pieces aren't just monologues, they're little separate worlds, each peopled by one character who tells his/her story.In "Her Big Chance", Leslie (a sparklingly ditzy, yet deeply innocent Julie Walters) tells us how exciting and "really interesting" it's been, working on a big film (as "Topless Girl #2, it turns out)."Are we on cans, Roger, I said, because if we are, I'd just like some direction..."Deluded but optomistic, she sits, all dolled up and thrilled, waiting for the call to stardom that will never come, while the crew is out on the bay filming "establishing shots".

In "A Cream Cracker Under the Setee", an elderly woman who's fallen and can't get up, muses on her now-dead husband, and conceives of the notion--as plain to us as her predicament--that she tidied herself out of a marriage.

My favorite, "Soldiering On", is told in the jaunty, bucked-up words of a comfortable Home Counties matron whose husband's just died, and whose son, Giles, has kindly taken over the finances: "No can do, mummy, we must tighten our belts!"A year later, in a boarding house, she admits, sheepishly, that "I suppose Giles has been a bit of a scamp--".Meanwhile Margaret, her lumpish, virtually catatonic daughter, has for some reason blossomed after her father's death.Then the other shoe drops...

"How do I feel?Sorry for her, of course.Sorry for HIM, too, come to that..."

And then, holding up a Walkman: "This is my new toy!I get tapes from the lending library in the High Street.And I'll listen to anything.No fear....Fan!"

And then: "I wouldn't want you to thing I'm a tragic woman.I'm not the type..."

Maybe I've quoted Bennett wrong--my copy's still packed away from the last move.There are several other "stories"--some funny, some apalling, but all laced through with gentle pathos, and a very BRITISH knowledge of some very universal foibles.And that's why Alan Bennett is still the best, as David Sedaris is here.Each man knows us all to be both the victims and instigators of our own fates.

The Teddy Bear with Laser Eyes
Alan Bennett has been called England's National Teddy Bear, so beloved is his work and person. It's a sweet moniker, but misleading to those who may not have yet read Bennett. Insightful and compassionate with a wit so sharp it effectively amputates sentimentality, this is a Teddy Bear with laser eyes and sharp claws that are only just retracted.

Bennett's character sketches in Talking Heads are devastating. The grown man whose safe little existence begins to unravel as he discovers his dear old mum has taken a lover, the vigilent, upright busybody who ends up in prison for invading her neighbor's privacy, the widow of "Soldiering On" whose emptiness of purpose is revealed through her inability to grieve--each uncomprehending character Bennett has created in these astonishing soliloquies is undone by his or her brave and steadfast unwillingness to acknowledge the bare-knuckled truth of human emotion.

Bennett is not cruel in revealing the weaknesses of his characters, but he is uncompromising in revealing those weaknesses. This is the Teddy Bear who brings to the picnic the sharp knives that cut through the bread and fat prepared and packaged by his companions.

Also recommended are Bennett's Writing Home, The Clothes They Stood Up In, and any and all of his other plays, particularly The Old Country; and, for those who just must have the soft and fuzzy version of the Teddy Bear, listen to Bennett's reading of Winnie the Pooh, or go see his stageplay of The Wind in the Willows.

I thought the story was....
Honestly I thought the story was quite dull he tells us about the dull part of their lives, I'm surprised I didn't sleep reading it. It's the worst book I've ever read. You probably won't put this on display on the computer, but you asked what I thought of it and I told you the truth, I'm sure many others agree with me that the story was boring. . Thankyou ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

This is Terrible
After having bought & listened to LA Theatre Works Audio production of "Private Lives" I can say this - it's terrible. The script has been cut, the actors are way over the top, there is an incessant beeping sound in the background and it is not funny in the least. Forget it.

"quite" trivial
This is the first of Noel Coward's plays I have listened to, and I was "quite" unimpressed. The script IS sometimes witty to be sure, and all actors did a marvelous job, but overall the story is "quite" trivial, and the dialog sounds like an imitation of Oscar Wilde, but without his depth, and with much much much less sense of humor. Overall, "quite" disappointing. Four-five truly witty jokes and a lot of "quite"s do not "quite" make the trick. All the LA Theater productions of Wilde's plays are "quite", no, actually VASTLY superior.

"To hell with love."
This farcical look at marriage, first produced in 1930, starred the author, Noel Coward, and the legendary Gertrude Lawrence. The play's recent revivals in London and New York, however, attest to its incisive wit and its razor-sharp social observation, both of which transcend the 1930s setting and give continuing life and relevance to the play.

Elyot Chase, five years divorced, has just married a young bride, Sybil, with whom he is on his honeymoon at a French seaside resort. His former wife, Amanda Prynne, has also just remarried, and, coincidentally, she and Victor, her new husband, are also honeymooning--in the room next door. Almost immediately, Elyot and Amanda rediscover each other on their adjoining balconies, find themselves drawn to each other, and abandon their new spouses at the resort to run away together to Paris.

The major action of the play shows us the relationship of Elyot and Amanda in Paris as they try to sustain their rekindled love and avoid the pitfalls that destroyed their original marriage. Both are passionate, uninhibited, live-in-the-moment people, and both have married very traditional, predictable, and conformist new spouses. When Sybil and Victor eventually discover the lovers, who, by now, are fighting and even engaging in fisticuffs, Coward makes his point about the nature of relationships, their fragility and/or what makes them endure.

Though the play is set in the 1930s, Coward so accurately captures human traits and behavior that the play is still delighting audiences today. In his opening scene, for example, he shows Sybil subjecting new husband Elyot to a mood-killing interrogation about his former wife. He then turns this scene on its head by showing Victor interrogating Amanda about her honeymoon with Elyot, showing the two new spouses to be identical to each other--and completely opposite to Elyot and Amanda. The scenes in Paris, in which Elyot and Amanda, their passion rekindled, try to keep their roiling anger under control are hilarious, and when they eventually resort to slapping and dish-throwing, the elegant verbal duels and clever repartee we have seen till now change the play into a more visually exciting and more farcical experience.

The ending of the play is not really a resolution, but it does confirm Coward's theme that though opposites may attract in the short term, this kind of attraction may not be as powerful as the attraction between like characters, which, however, can change instantly when familiarity breeds contempt. Sardonic and sometimes a bit cynical, the play artfully captures the vicissitudes of a wild, passionate relationship and provides insights into its inner workings. Mary Whipple

Witty But Shallow
This is often regarded as Coward's best play.Supposedly written as a vehicle for Coward and his friend, the great Gertrude Lawrence, it displays the wit and stagecraft which made Coward famous.As a serious work, however, it is limited.It is clear that Coward was aiming to investigate the irrational nature of love, sort of a modern day Twelfth Night.Coward's plot and characters are not able to sustain this burden.Even when performed by excellent actors in first rate productions, it still comes across as a skillful farce and not much more. ... Read more

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Old Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit can't keep track of her three kittens, Moppet, Mittens, and Tom. On baking day, she finds two of them, but Tom is missing. She will need the help of John Joiner and his saw to find Tom, and discover what is making the roly-poly sounds coming from the attic. Beatrix Potter wrote the first book of her Tales as an illustrated letter to a young friend. Published in 1902, The Tale of Peter Rabbit was followed by 22 others. These charming stories are best-sellers around the world and have captivated generations of children. As a child, Potter studied art and natural history. Although she grew up in London, she enjoyed spending family holidays in Scotland and the Lake District, where she loved the animals and countryside. The original Peter Rabbit was a household pet. ... Read more

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When Alice follows the White Rabbit down a rabbit hole she has no idea of the adventures in store for her and soon discovers that things in Wonderland never behave quite the way you expect them to. This tape is read by Jan Francis.Amazon.com Review
Source of legend and lyric, reference and conjecture,Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is for most children purepleasure in prose. While adults try to decipher Lewis Carroll'sputative use of complex mathematical codes in the text, or debate hisalleged use of opium, young readers simply dive with Alice through therabbit hole, pursuing "The dream-child moving through a land / Ofwonders wild and new." There they encounter the White Rabbit, theQueen of Hearts, the Mock Turtle, and the Mad Hatter, among amultitude of other characters--extinct, fantastical, and commonplacecreatures. Alice journeys through this Wonderland, trying to fathomthe meaning of her strange experiences. But they turn out to be"curiouser and curiouser," seemingly without moral orsense.

For more than 130 years, children have reveled in the delightfullynon-moralistic, non-educational virtues of thisclassic. In fact, at every turn, Alice's new companions scoff at hertraditional education. The Mock Turtle, for example, remarks that hetook the "regular course" in school: Reeling, Writhing, andbranches of Arithmetic-Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, andDerision. Carroll believed John Tenniel's illustrations were asimportant as his text. Naturally, Carroll's instincts were good; themasterful drawings are inextricably tied to the well-loved story. (Allages) --Emilie Coulter ... Read more

Customer Reviews (155)

A magnificent classic.But beware of this KINDLE edition.
I last read this magnificent book many moons ago (1962) when I had some time on my hands.I was fascinated by the story and the logic inculcated within.So now that I have a Kindle and some time I thought why not read this gem?

The book of course is superb.No complaints there.The Kindle edition however is a different matter.There are NO ILLUSTRATIONS as in the hardcopy versions of this book.With a story saturated with visual metaphors this is an unforgivable sin - even though the book is offered for free.Sometimes "free" is really NOT free because this version can drive away some of the younger crowd from reading the book.That is the highest of sins.

One of my desert island desirables
Blood and Sunlight: A Maryland Vampire Story

The sheer lunacy of Alice is so incredibly imaginative. Carroll was creating worlds long before the likes of Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett.Definitely a must read. What gets overlooked is the amazing characterization of Alice. She's curious (of course!), but also pragmatic, determined, and wickedly unflappable. She might be the maddest of all of them! Definitely set aside some time to read this edition.

This was interesting to read
The pictures of the characters are cool. But I thought they change the story a bit and add some different parts, instead of hearing the same lines and speeches again. but I still liked it.

Classic Boredom
I read this as a kid, and hated it.But thought that maybe age, maturity, and increased intellect might give me a different perspective.Bored me as much today as it did yesterday.It's indeed a classic, and that's wonderful for enduring literature and the amazing allegories it contains.But for me it means snoretime, not wonderland.

Not so special
Entertaining, but not so special. Maybe in its time and era it was, but for me it was no more than 3 stars. It was a free Kindle book though, so no money lost here. Thank you, Amazon :)) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A classic enduring tale
An all too familiar tale that any child can relate to: mother makes kids dress up nice for company, kids get dirty and are then made to stay in their room. However, the tale isn't told in such a dry sense. Quite the opposite actually, and done in such a short amount of words that the reader gets the feeling that no words are wasted (well, too the adult reader anyway). In other words, the writing is outstanding, to say the least.

This story introduces many animal characters that I'm sure your son or daughter will love. Although not a lot is said about these characters in great detail, the innocent sense of childhood serenity is priceless in this classic tale that has endured for many years.

Darien Summers, author of The Mischievous Hare, a children's book. The Mischievous Hare

Charmingly illustrated tale of three naughty kittens
For some reason, I missed out on Beatrix Potter as a child so I rectified that omission by searching for the original and authorized editions of her books, illustrated by her own hand.My two favorites concern the adventures of Tom Kitten and his two sisters, Mittens and Moppet:"They had dear little fur coats of their own; and they tumbled about the doorstep and played in the dust."

Unfortunately, their mother, Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit (we never meet their father), interrupts the kittens' dusty idyll to wash and dress them because she is expecting company for tea.Tom Kitten has put on quite a bit of weight since the last time he wore his suit, and he bursts all of his buttons.After his mum sews them back on, she turns her three progeny out into the garden and admonishes them to stay clean.

Well, you can imagine how that turned out.Not only did they lose their mittens, they lost Everything.Mum had to lock them into their bedroom and inform her guests that her children had the measles (not precisely the truth.)

If you would like to pursue the further adventures of Tom Kitten, Mittens, and Moppet, read The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or The Roly-Poly Pudding (Potter 23 Tales).

Just as I expected
The item arrived and was just as I expected it to be. The information about the product enabled me to purchase it and it has the content and appearance I expected

For anyone who ever resented having to take baths.
'The Tale Of Tom Kitten' sees Beatrix Potter at her most fey.Three young kittens muck about in the garden, tormenting their neighbouring creatures, and generally being boisterous-but-nice kids.Their class-conscious mother (very few fathers in Potter's world) is having relatives around for tea, and gives her children unwelcome baths and brushings down, before making them wear the most appallingly naff Sundaywear.Unfortunately, Tom's been eating one too many pork pies, and bursts out of his pale blue two-piece, looking rather seedy.

The charm of this story lies in the infectious playfulness of the children, their universally-understandable indifference to their elders' desire for 'respectability', and the quaint evocation of an Edwardian farmstead.

The Tale of Tom Kitten
The Tale of Tom Kitten is Beatrix Potter at her best. It is certainly one of our family favorites. This is the story of three kittens all dressed in their best clothes and set out to play. They struggle to keep their clotheson only to lose them. They meet three ducks along the way who waddle offwith the poorly fitted clothes. When the kittens return home their mothersends them upstairs while she hosts a tea party. Of course they cause aruckus disturbing the "dignity and repose" of the party. The bookends with the ducks still searching for the clothes at the bottom of apond. What makes Beatrix Potter so wonderful is her delightful vocablarythat stretches a childs intellect. There is a mutual respect between Potterand the reader. Having drawn and painted animals and plant life since achild she is a master of anthropomorphisim, the giving of human qualitiesto animals or objects. Her delicate watercolors are perfectly suited to the playfullness of the story. This is a classic that should be a part ofevery child's library. ... Read more