Synopses & Reviews
Winston Churchill's key role in the outcome of the Second World War brought him international renown and arguably made him the most important figure in twentieth-century British politics. Born into an aristocratic family in 1875, his life spanned two centuries and nine decades of personal, social and political change, and it is against this background that Stuart Ball, a leading historian of modern British politics, discusses the remarkable ups and downs of Churchill's career.
After election to Parliament in 1900, Churchill rose quickly to high military and political office. But he changed parties twice, bringing his character and judgment into question, and during the 1930s he became politically isolated. His warnings of the need to deter Hitler were largely ignored and it was only after the failure of appeasement in 1939 that his reputation rose again. As a much-admired war-time prime minister and subsequently, during the Cold War, he traveled the globe tirelessly in pursuit of alliances and détente between America and Russia.
This concise biography is extensively illustrated with photographs, cartoons and documents, including personal correspondence, reflecting Churchill's dedication to literature, art and family alongside his tremendous public achievements.
Review
"Ball succinctly and effectively chronicles Churchill's life. The book is lavishly produced, with superb photographs (some in color), paintings, cartoons, and examples of Churchill's writing. The author has done a remarkable job of condensing Chruchill's spectatcular life into a well-written, concise portrait of one of history's remarkable men." -Military History,
Review
"Characterized by remarkable invention and wit, in rare combination with philosophical depth and genuine feeling, Swan, What Shores? is carefully put together—admirably coherent, though varied with novel excursions in form. Autobiographical references provide continuity and humanity, but the collection never threatens to become confessional. . . . This is a book that deserves wide circulation. It is subtle, substantial, surprising, and appealing."-Leonard Trawick,Emeritus Professor and former editor, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Review
"In this fine new book, Veronica Patterson continually lifts up her swan in the arc of flight so that the poems keep echoing a language that struggles to speak of death, of love, of the two together, and of words themselves striving toward an utterance which may carry the music of a swan song yet which arises in this very life touched by joy and playfulness and wonder."--, -Mary Crow,poet laureate of Colorado and author of I Have Tasted the Apple
Synopsis
This offers a brief and heavily illustrated biography of a world figure.
Synopsis
Winner of the Colorado Book Award;
Winner of the Willa Literary Award
As heard on Public Radio International's The Writer's Almanac!
Full of music and evocative word play, Veronica Patterson's Swan, What Shores? offers alluring poems varied in form and inventive in approach. In language that is both precise and lyrical, Patterson's work, like much of the best poetry, plumbs the human condition with depth, wit, and, above all, compassion.
The poems offer fine surprises, from the lyrical litany of "The Riddle of My Want" ("the stride of your eyes / a summering of skin") to the unusual elegy "Three Photographs Not of My Father" to the mysteries embodied in "Where Are My Swans?": "All movement in their dreams is theirs / that glide-without-haste, for what core of the universe / has to hurry?"
Swan, What Shores? marks the blossoming of a major poetic talent.
About the Author
The author of one previous collection of poetry How to Make a Terrarium, VERONICA PATTERSON grew up in Ithaca, New York, and graduated from Cornell University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Northern Colorado. Her work has appeared in the Southern Poetry Review, the Colorado Review, the Bloomsbury Review, Caliban, The Sun, and numerous other magazines and journals. She lives in Loveland, CO.