The second in a series of five facsimile sketchbooks from the artist Rita Ackermann.

In 1920, a well-known illustrator compiled hundreds of his preliminary studies of costumed models, photographed them, and produced two portfolios. The result is a revealing look into an expert's technique and, according to The New York Times, offer an "opportunity to know a competent illustrator in his moments of preparation."

Full of sketches, doodles and journal entries, Travels with My Sketchbook gives a fascinating glimpse of the incredible journey of Chris Riddell's time as Children's Laureate. After two years travelling the length and breadth of the country, visiting schools, libraries and festivals, and meeting thousands of children, Chris Riddell has wrapped up his experiences into one beautiful edition. Gorgeously presented, the book is full of his train doodles and early sketches from books written during the period – including Goth Girl and the Wuthering Fright and The Hunting of the Snark – alongside handwritten manuscripts and cover roughs. Also included political sketches created for the Observer, and his Laureate Log: reflections on key events and prizes in the world of children's books, providing a time capsule into the years of his time as Laureate. Plus, there are birthday sketches, impromptu portraits, posters and Christmas cards, sketches for poems and song lyrics. This is a book to treasure – and an incredible insight for fans of this beloved author and illustrator.

Opera is the only guide to the research writings on all aspects of opera. This second edition presents 2,833 titles--over 2,000 more than the first edition--of books, parts of books, articles and dissertations with full bibliographic descriptions and critical annotations. Users will find the core literature on the operas of 320 individual composers and details of operatic life in 43 countries. All relevant works through to November 1999 have been considered, covering more than fifteen years of literature since the first edition was published.

Three powerful novels from the Man Booker Prize–winning British novelist of This Sporting Life and “an absorbing writer” (The New Yorker). The son of a coal miner who went on to play professionally in the rugby league, British author David Storey drew heavily on his own background for his debut novel, This Sporting Life, which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award and was made into a film with Richard Harris. “The leading novelist of his generation,” Storey was also a playwright and screenwriter, going on to win the Man Booker Prize for his novel, Saville (The Daily Telegraph). The collected fiction gathered here explores madness, romantic obsession, adolescent yearning, and class divisions with Storey’s characteristic “understanding of people and society” (The Times Literary Supplement). A Serious Man: Richard Fenchurch has had a long, successful career as a playwright, painter, and novelist. But at sixty-five, he is coming apart at the seams. His married daughter, Harriet, moves him from his squalid London flat to his ancestral mansion. Home again with ghosts all around, Fenchurch ruminates on past loves and choices, while struggling to maintain his freedom and sanity. “This spellbinding giant of a book is dashing, hectic, complex, sometimes almost wickedly aimless and terrifying. It reads like a wild animal flexing its muscles. . . . An electrifying success.” —The Mail on Sunday A Temporary Life: As his wife wastes away in a hospital, sinking deeper and deeper into a terrifying and incomprehensible madness, Colin Freestone tries to make sense of what his life has become. Having moved to Yvonne’s hometown in northern England for her psychiatric care, he teaches art at a second-rate college headed by a nutrition-crazed dean. He makes friends and meets women, but nothing can distract him from the fact that his wife is slowly dying and he is powerless to stop it. “A triumph . . . bitter, enriching.” —The New York Times A Prodigal Child: Desperate to escape the poverty of his family and his drunken father who works as a farmhand, Bryan goes to live with the childless Fay Corrigan at her posh home in town during the week, while attending a prep school that she pays for. But Bryan soon feels a growing chasm between his new life and the world he left behind. And his mounting jealous-erotic obsession with the much-older Fay leads to actions—and consequences—that will reverberate for years to come. “Quiet but telling drama, intense observation.” —Penelope Lively