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A matchless evocation of the Great War's haunting legacy, describing first-hand the great tectonic shifts in English society following the First World War. In 1929 Robert Graves went to live abroad permanently, vowing 'never to make England my home again'. This is his superb account of his life up until that 'bitter leave-taking': from his childhood and desperately unhappy school days at Charterhouse, to his time serving as a young officer in the First World War that was to haunt him throughout his life. It also contains memorable encounters with fellow writers and poets, including Siegfried Sassoon and Thomas Hardy, and looks at his increasingly unhappy marriage to Nancy Nicholson. Goodbye to All That, with its vivid, harrowing descriptions of the Western Front, is a classic war document, and also has immense value as one of the most candid self-portraits of an artist ever written. Robert Ranke Graves (1895-1985) was a British poet, novelist, and critic. He is best known for the historical novel I, Claudius and the critical study of myth and poetry The White Goddess. https://cosmiccauldronbooks.com.au/p/robert-graves-the-assault-heroic-richard-perceval-graves/ -
Gone Rustic: Cecil Roberts
$15.00But for the remark of an old lady in Florida and a puncture while motoring to Oxford, this book would never have been written. Events drove Roberts into the discovery, and finally the purchase of an Elizabethan cottage. After that he "went rustic." This is the actual story of the cottage itself, how it was found, how it was renovated and how Roberts learns a lot at the price of gardening back-ache. Trails led him into many cottages, to the chimney where Dick Turpin hid, to the fireside of the old village blacksmith and to friends who, in their nineties, remember the "hungry forties." It's Roberts' personal adventure among birds and bulbs in a Chilterns valley to find the cottage of his dreams. Followed by Gone Rambling, Gone Afield and Gone Sunwards. https://cosmiccauldronbooks.com.au/p/gone-rambling-cecil-roberts/ -
Gone Rambling: Cecil Roberts
$25.00Following in the steps of Beverley Nichols (Down The Garden Path, Merry Hall) Cecil Robert went rustic, originally buying Pilgrim Cottage in a fit of rebellion against the tedium of having to give London cocktail parties and as an escape from the 'futile littleness' of social life. Like Beverley, he entertains eccentric guests to his garden, takes the reader on a tour of the Chiltern valleys and heights, the White Hart Inn, a look at some of the old local scandals and a trip to the Henley Regatta. Roberts also constructed a high deck on which he could sunbathe in the nude and claimed that he wrote most of this book clad only in a white hat and dark glasses. And yes, he and Nichols were acquainted but do not seem to have been the closest of friends; Roberts had the reputation of being a name-dropping bore. With colour and black and white illustrations. -
Even though many screen greats have gone, they are not forgotten, nor is the legacy each one left. They dazzled the movie-going public then and now: the fascination with the drama and glamour of their daily lives is as strong as ever. There is an impressive 'cast' in this book...Chapters: Comedians, Satirists and Humorists - Charles Chaplin; W.C. Fields; the Marx Brothers; Jack Benny; Buster Keaton. Archetype Actors: John Barrymore; Boris Karloff; Humphrey Bogart; Spencer Tracy; Clark Gable; John Wayne. The Archetype Queens Of The Screen: Mary Pickford; Mae West; Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell; Betty Grable. Musicians: Duke Ellington; Louis Armstrong; Guy Lombardo and Bing Crosby. The 'Originals': Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney. Illustrated. -
Goldwyn: Arthur Marx
$15.00The incredible tale of Samuel Goldwyn, who emigrated alone to America as a teenager, became a glove salesmen and then made his way to the top of the fledgling film industry by some very questionable ways and means. Did he really ask David O. Selznick, "So, who've you got to play Scarface O'Hara?" And did he really believe that 'a verbal contract wasn't worth the paper it's printed on'? Arthur Marx shows us a Goldwyn who was a highly complex and puzzling individual. He supplies in abundance more famous Goldwynisms - and a good many stories printed here for the first time. Rich in anecdotal detail about both Goldwyn’s personal and professional life, this biography is a testament to his role as both a perfectionist in art and a founder of one of America’s great industries. The author is the son of Groucho Marx and thus had access to many of those mentioned in this biography. -
Richard Goldstein was the respected voice of popular culture, sex, and politics of the 60s and 70s. Most important of all he was the voice of the music scene in all its newness and vitality, as Goldstein discovered it - from The Shangri-Las, The Rolling Stones and The Lovin' Spoonful to Mama Cass, Ravi Shankar, The Doors, The Grateful Dead, The Jefferson Airplane and The Beatles. This was the era of irreversible change in society, from one end to the other. All the rules were broken and it's all recorded here, in Goldstein's 'scrapbook'. -
This is the high-octane, no-holds-barred, true story of a bad guy turned good who busted open one of the most violent outlaw motorcycle gangs in history. George Rowe’s gritty and harrowing story offers not only a glimpse into the violent world of the motorcycle outlaw, but a gripping tale of self-sacrifice and human redemption. Rowe had been a drug dealer, crystal meth addict, barroom brawler, and convicted felon, but when he witnessed the Vagos brutally and senselessly beat his friend over a pool game, everything changed. Rowe decided to pay back his Southern California hometown for the sins of his past by taking down the gang that was terrorizing it. He volunteered himself as an undercover informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and vowed to dismantle the brotherhood from the inside out, becoming history’s first private citizen to voluntarily infiltrate an outlaw motorcycle gang for the U.S. government. As “Big George,” a full-patched member of the Vagos, Rowe spent three brutal years juggling a double life - riding, fighting, and nearly dying alongside the brothers who he secretly hoped to put away for good. During this time, Rowe also became entwined in a tumultuous relationship with a struggling addict named Jenna, never once revealing that he was actually working for the Feds. The road to redemption was not an easy ride. Rowe lost everything: his family, his business, his home - even his identity. To this day, under protection by the U.S. government, Rowe still looks over his shoulder, keeping watch for the brothers he put behind bars. They’ve vowed to search for him until the day they die. -
A collection of the late Clive James' TV criticism published in the London Observer during the period between 1979 and 1982. James re-invented the style of TV criticism and this book is of his best, funniest and most biting reviews covering - among many other things - ITV's airing of The Tamarind Seed on Christmas Eve 1979; the lady on Nationwide who had inadvertently laundered her cat through an entire cycle of the washing machine; John McEnroe's 'remarkable' behaviour and the Horizon programme's time lapse photography of maggots at work. -
When 65-year-old Francis Chichester set sail on his solitary,eastward journey around the world in 1966,many believed he wouldn't return alive. But when the old man returned in his 53-foot ketch Gypsy Moth IV nine months later, he had made history's fastest circumnavigation. Gipsy Moth Circles The World was an international best-seller when it appeared in 1967. It inspired the first solo around-the-world race and remains a timeless testament to the spirit of adventure. With black and white photos.
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