Before Eldon Lee died at the age of ninety-six, he told his daughter about his lifes many adventures. These adventures begin in Little Egypt, deep in southern Illinois. His stories blend family history with tales of farming, school, hometown life, courtship, and entrepreneurial endeavors. He also recalls the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, the 1925 Tristate Tornado, working at the 193334 Century of Progress Exposition, dancing in Windy City ballrooms, becoming a family man, and serving in World War II. Eldons daughter, Linda Lee Ream, continues the memoir, drawing upon her vivid memories of her father returning from the war and trying to find a job. He gets his first big break in 1949 when he becomes the manager of a lumberyard, and he works steadfastly to support his family through the golden era of the fifties and beyond. Growing Up in Little Egypt extends beyond family and local history interest to provide a century-wide example of an American life well-lived and thoroughly enjoyed by a special man.

This study of childhood in the Pharaonic Period deals with such aspects as childbirth, toys, games, circumcision and education. The passage of time is continued up to the stage of adolescence and marriage. Special attention is paid to royal infants and their playmates. Concluding chapters deal with juveniles in Egyptian art and the concept of children in relation to their parents and to society at large. In this original study, concentration is focused on representations of childhood in ancient Egypt and surviving objects, in addition to the wealth of textual material.

Though outwardly successful, young Anne Christies prominent midwestern coal-mining family is deeply troubled Anne especially. While growing up during the late 1950s, Anne becomes convinced that her mother hates her. Emotionally isolated at home, she seeks love and approval in the arms of the many men who pursue her. As she embarks on a journey that will take her to New York in pursuit of a modeling career, Anne doesnt dream that one day her past will come back to haunt her. When Anne meets and marries Billy Kane, a jazz musician with an explosive personality, her mother makes it known that she does not approve. Anne and Billy move to the suburbs with their young children, but when Anne discovers that there are other women in Billys life, the marriage disintegrates. Seeking a new romantic attachment in 1970, Anne immerses herself in Manhattans wild singles scene. After two years she tires of this lifestyle and comes home to her children and the young man she will eventually marry. But though Anne works hard to create a stable life for her family, her painful relationship with her mother keeps interfering. As she attempts to unearth her true identity, Anne explores love, motherhood, and middle age and finds a new life at the center of a series of personal losses.

A groundbreaking account of how the ancient Egyptians perceived children and childhood, from the Predynastic period to the end of the New Kingdom There could be no society, no family, and no social recognition without children. The way in which children were perceived, integrated, and raised within the family and the community established the very foundations of Egyptian society. Childhood in Ancient Egypt is the most comprehensive attempt yet published to reconstruct the everyday life of children from the Predynastic period to the end of the New Kingdom. Drawing on a vast wealth of textual, iconographic, and archaeological sources stretching over a period of 3,500 years, Amandine Marshall pieces together the portrait of a society in which children were ever-present in a multiplicity of situations. The ancient sources are primarily the expressions of male adults, who were little inclined to take an interest in the condition of the child, and the feelings of young Egyptians and all that touches on their emotional state can never be deduced from the sources. Nevertheless, by cross-referencing and comparing thousands of documents, Marshall has been able to explore how ancient Egyptians perceived children and childhood, and whether children had a particular status in the eyes of the law, society, and the Egyptian state. She examines the maintenance of the child and the care expended on its being, and discusses the kinds of clothing, jewelry, and hairstyles children wore, the activities that punctuated their daily lives, the kinds of games and toys they enjoyed, and what means were employed to protect them from illness, evil spirits, or ghosts. Illustrated with 160 drawings and photographs, this book sheds unprecedented light upon the experience of childhood in ancient Egypt and represents a major contribution to the growing field of ancient-world childhood studies.

WINNER 2014 JERWOOD FICTION UNCOVERED PRIZEElderly, Egypt-mad twins Isis and Osiris find their neglected English lives disturbed to catastrophic effect by the arrival of American Anarchist, SpikeNew from Lesley Glaister, winner of the Somerset Maugham, Betty Trask and Yorkshire Post Author of the Year prizes‘This tale of imprisonment and neglect explores our passion for nostalgia, with hints of Dodie Smith’s darker side. An excellent read that pulls at the heart as well as the head.’ —VICTORIA CLARK, The Lady ‘Eerily atmospheric Little Egypt, made me shudder; certain passages were read through half-closed eyes, the way you watch grisly scenes in a film — desperate to know what happens, but not wanting to disturbing images imprinted on your mind.’ —ROSEMARY GORING, The HeraldLittle Egypt was once a well-to-do country house in the north of England. Now it’s derelict and trapped on a small island of land between a railway, a dual carriageway and a superstore, and although it looks deserted it isn’t. Nonagenarian twins, Isis and Osiris, still live in the home they were born in, and from which in the 1920s their obsessive Egyptologist parents left them to search for the fabled tomb of Herihor – a search from which they never returned. Isis and Osiris have stayed in the house, guarding a terrible secret, for all their long lives until chance meeting between Isis and young American anarchist Spike, sparks an unlikely friendship and proves a catalyst for change. ‘I was gripped by the story from start to finish, finding it a perturbing, poignant and, in places, a darkly humorous read.’ —Amazon.co.ukThis enormously accomplished novel took twenty years to come to fruition: it is well worth the wait — buy your copy now.

In the early 1920s, nearly blind physics prodigy Mourly Vold finds out how to tap into the nation's long distance telephone lines. With the help of Alexander Graham Bell, Vold tries to warn the phone companies that would-be saboteurs could do the same thing, but they ignore him. Unfortunately, his taps do catch the notice of William Randolph Hearst, who hires Thomas Edison to get to the bottom of them—and the chase is on!