Tämä sivusto käyttää evästeitä palvelujen toimittamiseen, toiminnan parantamiseen, analytiikkaan ja (jos et ole kirjautunut sisään) mainostamiseen. Käyttämällä LibraryThingiä ilmaiset, että olet lukenut ja ymmärtänyt käyttöehdot ja yksityisyydensuojakäytännöt. Sivujen ja palveluiden käytön tulee olla näiden ehtojen ja käytäntöjen mukaista.
In this selection from over twenty years of reporting and writing, Ian Jack takes us to a place of which there are now only memories and ruins--the Great Britain that gave us the Industrial Revolution, a nation that led the world in feats of engineering, a Britain of empire, a place of vital cities, each with their own unique identity, and a country whose residual presence can still be found in the strangest corners of the world. These pieces set out to deal with contemporary Britain--national disasters, football matches, obesity, etc.--but are drawn back in time, vexed by the question of what came before. In "Women and Children First," watching the film Titanic leads to an investigation into the legend of Wallace Henry Hartley, the famous band leader of the doomed liner, and a journey into the Lancashire mill towns of the early twentieth century; "The 12:10 to Leeds," a magnificent report on the Hatfield rail crash, begins its hunt for clues in the eighteenth century in the search for those responsible. We travel further afield, finding vestiges of a vanished Britain in the Indian Subcontinent. Here we meet characters like the maverick English missionary, scientist and linguist William Carey, credited with importing India's first steam engine, or Mr. Goonawardene, a wise lunatic who spends his days at Colombo railway station--men whose stories are only possible because of the British empire. This wonderful collection brings together Ian Jack's most important and brilliant pieces. Full of the style, knowledge, and intimacy that make his work so special, they are the perfect introduction to the work of one of the country's finest writers, as well as the country that gave him his voice.… (lisätietoja)
Like his previous work ("Before the Oil Ran Out", Secker & Warburg, 1987), this is a collection of Ian Jack's writings. The period covered in this book is 1989 - 2000.
The title of the current work might easily mislead, though, for it is by and large not a commentary on the state of the country as it is now; it is, rather, a series of observations about places and characters that, arguably, have been lost to memory.
Some pieces are brilliantly observed, such as 'Sepia' about the passing of time, or 'The Vivid Present' about the speech-patterns of youth, whilst his essay on the Hatfield train crash of 2000 ('The 12:10 to Leeds') is an excoriating analysis of the cause(s) and effect(s) of mis-management and the absence of leadership.
It is a shame that the book is not indexed, or the chapters given an explanatory sub-title, because the casual reader, or even one who is unaware of this volume, will overlook three cracking biographies, each of which adds to the existing body of work on the subjects.
So, 'Women and Children First' explores the life, death and also the funeral of Wallace Henry Hartley, violinist and bandmaster on the 'Titanic' when it sank.
'Kelver Kaff' introduces us to the life of contralto singer Kathleen Ferrier through the medium of her diaries.
And then 'Serampur' tells the story of Northampton-born William Carey and his extraordinary life as a baptist missionary in India.
I fear that readers seeking information about the lives of these three remarkable individuals will completely overlook this work, because there is no obvious reference to them in any of the usual signposts to its contents. ( )
I bought this book because I like Ian Jack's journalism and the quality of his prose: I also thought his reflections on the various aspects of British life in the last one hundred years would be interesting. I wasn't disappointed, especially regarding small town life - the decimation of High Streets, of local cinemas etc. His delving into the engineering aspects of a railway disaster (Hatfield) like the maintenance or otherwise of the rails was even interesting to a non-techie like me. My main quibble is to do with the length of the essay on Kathleen Ferrier: so many of her letters printed that I wanted to shout 'enough already!'. ( )
In this selection from over twenty years of reporting and writing, Ian Jack takes us to a place of which there are now only memories and ruins--the Great Britain that gave us the Industrial Revolution, a nation that led the world in feats of engineering, a Britain of empire, a place of vital cities, each with their own unique identity, and a country whose residual presence can still be found in the strangest corners of the world. These pieces set out to deal with contemporary Britain--national disasters, football matches, obesity, etc.--but are drawn back in time, vexed by the question of what came before. In "Women and Children First," watching the film Titanic leads to an investigation into the legend of Wallace Henry Hartley, the famous band leader of the doomed liner, and a journey into the Lancashire mill towns of the early twentieth century; "The 12:10 to Leeds," a magnificent report on the Hatfield rail crash, begins its hunt for clues in the eighteenth century in the search for those responsible. We travel further afield, finding vestiges of a vanished Britain in the Indian Subcontinent. Here we meet characters like the maverick English missionary, scientist and linguist William Carey, credited with importing India's first steam engine, or Mr. Goonawardene, a wise lunatic who spends his days at Colombo railway station--men whose stories are only possible because of the British empire. This wonderful collection brings together Ian Jack's most important and brilliant pieces. Full of the style, knowledge, and intimacy that make his work so special, they are the perfect introduction to the work of one of the country's finest writers, as well as the country that gave him his voice.
)
Google Books — Ladataan...
(3.5)
1
The title of the current work might easily mislead, though, for it is by and large not a commentary on the state of the country as it is now; it is, rather, a series of observations about places and characters that, arguably, have been lost to memory.
Some pieces are brilliantly observed, such as 'Sepia' about the passing of time, or 'The Vivid Present' about the speech-patterns of youth, whilst his essay on the Hatfield train crash of 2000 ('The 12:10 to Leeds') is an excoriating analysis of the cause(s) and effect(s) of mis-management and the absence of leadership.
It is a shame that the book is not indexed, or the chapters given an explanatory sub-title, because the casual reader, or even one who is unaware of this volume, will overlook three cracking biographies, each of which adds to the existing body of work on the subjects.
So, 'Women and Children First' explores the life, death and also the funeral of Wallace Henry Hartley, violinist and bandmaster on the 'Titanic' when it sank.
'Kelver Kaff' introduces us to the life of contralto singer Kathleen Ferrier through the medium of her diaries.
And then 'Serampur' tells the story of Northampton-born William Carey and his extraordinary life as a baptist missionary in India.
I fear that readers seeking information about the lives of these three remarkable individuals will completely overlook this work, because there is no obvious reference to them in any of the usual signposts to its contents. (