New Releases by Christopher Reid

In Christopher Reid''s marvellous collection, a schoolboy furtively and thrillingly drops a marble through the top of his desk so that it makes its way in darkness along a complicated chute of books, rulers and rubbish, only to emerge from a hole in the base and be caught deftly in his other hand. The poem is titled ''Homeric'' and might serve as a clue to the mood and construction of the collection in general, where the poet, now in his seventies, seeks to track down and commune with his much younger self. It is an investigation that tests Wordsworth''s ''the Child is father of the Man'' by contriving a series of transtemporal encounters between two selves who may now, conceivably, begin to understand each other. Reid was born in Hong Kong and, thanks to the roving nature of his father''s employment, spent some of his childhood in foreign places. Most of the locations in this book, however, are the Britain of the 1950s and ''60s - perhaps, at this distance in time, no less exotic. As the poems move from pre-verbal experience to adolescence, the younger self is captured in scenes that illuminate the steps by which a man - a poet - has been raised. Another poem conjures up the childhood of Henry James in order to reflect on ''the large part / mystery plays in both childhood and art'', a proposition that the book as a whole may be said to endorse through both its wondering gaze and its ingenuity.

Whether you are an absolute beginner or advanced pastelist, this is the book you have been waiting for. The most comprehensive book on soft pastels available, from a master artist with over 30 years of experience. Secrets of pastel painting are revealed with explanations of techniques, detailed demos, and easy to understand diagrams. Learn methods that produce better results, and also why they work, giving you a deeper understanding of pastel and art in general. Creating art should be fun, not frustrating. Many how-to books teach how to follow along but not how to create your own artwork. This book covers every stage of the process, from choosing supplies to professional advice on what to do after a painting is finished. This book dives deep into understanding color, mixing, and more. Chris balances encouragement with skill-building to push your art forward. This is a complete art instruction course packed into a book. Includes: • Lessons for all skill levels • Money saving tips for choosing supplies • Blending, mixing, layering, glazing, lines, edges • Adding depth to your paintings • Techniques, sequencing, color theory • How to mix any color accurately with few pastels • Working from photos and their limitations • Planning a painting & setting up your workspace for success • Protect your paintings without fixative • Storing, framing, & photographing artwork • Step by step demos of complex paintings • Painting process from start to finish • Packed with color illustrations and beautiful artwork And much more!

This brief focuses on the importance of integrating allies and partners into future battle networks, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region. It explores existing agreements, opportunities for new agreements, and the technical and policy challenges for battle network integration across allied and partner nations. It concludes with an assessment of how combined battle networks with allies and partners can serve as the key enabling technology toward a new offset strategy.

This wonderfully witty and varied collection, illustrated in full-colour by the brilliant Sara Ogilvie, is perfect for younger readers to appreciate. I''ve rounded up a rowdy assembly Of my own Consequential Dogs As counterparts to Eliot''s mogs. Mine are a rough and ready bunch: You wouldn''t take them out to lunch . . . But if they strike you as friendly, funny, Full of bounce and fond of a romp, Forgetful of poetic pomp, I trust you''ll take them as you find them And, at the very least, not mind them. T. S. Eliot''s best-selling collection of practical cat poems has been one of the most successful poetry collections ever. At last, in the 80th year of Old Possum''s Cats, we have the companion volume that Eliot had envisaged, written by master poet and Costa-winner, Christopher Reid. A book that will be enjoyed by generations to come, perfect for reading together!

Six Bad Poets is a farce-in-verse by Christopher Reid. It follows the exploits and mishaps of a group of poets, whose destinies are more intimately connected than they themselves can know, in their attempts to navigate the hazards of London literary society. Recklessness, fecklessness, blind ambition and enthralment to dark secrets are among the forces that drive these colourful and conflicted characters - three male, three female - towards their fates. Six Bad Poets is a fast-paced romp through a world that the author has observed closely over many years, and from which he reports with merciless accuracy, zest and humour.

The Late Sun asserts a balance between memorialisation of the recently dead and celebration of the vitality of the living. Early in the collection is a set of poems about the poet''s mother, who died in great age after a life of exotic travel, and the poet''s own travels, his sense of both place and displacement, are vibrantly explored in other pieces. The city where he lives - particularly, and somewhat unusually, in a sequence titled ''Smells of London'' - provides many of the themes, but the civic glades and sparkling vistas of the Mediterranean are just as important, and the book adds up to an affirmation of international perspectives at a time when civilised values are increasingly threatened.

Explore fundamentals, strategies, and emerging techniques in the field of human-computer interaction to enhance how users and computers interact Key FeaturesExplore various HCI techniques and methodologies to enhance the user experienceDelve into user behavior analytics to solve common and not-so-common challenges faced while designing user interfacesLearn essential principles, techniques and explore the future of HCIBook Description Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is a field of study that researches, designs, and develops software solutions that solve human problems. This book will help you understand various aspects of the software development phase, from planning and data gathering through to the design and development of software solutions. The book guides you through implementing methodologies that will help you build robust software. You will perform data gathering, evaluate user data, and execute data analysis and interpretation techniques. You’ll also understand why human-centered methodologies are successful in software development, and learn how to build effective software solutions through practical research processes. The book will even show you how to translate your human understanding into software solutions through validation methods and rapid prototyping leading to usability testing. Later, you will understand how to use effective storytelling to convey the key aspects of your software to users. Throughout the book, you will learn the key concepts with the help of historical figures, best practices, and references to common challenges faced in the software industry. By the end of this book, you will be well-versed with HCI strategies and methodologies to design effective user interfaces. What you will learnBecome well-versed with HCI and UX conceptsEvaluate prototypes to understand data gathering, analysis, and interpretation techniquesExecute qualitative and quantitative methods for establishing humans as a feedback loop in the software design processCreate human-centered solutions and validate these solutions with the help of quantitative testing methodsMove ideas from the research and definition phase into the software solution phaseImprove your systems by becoming well-versed with the essential design concepts for creating user interfacesWho this book is for This book is for software engineers, UX designers, entrepreneurs, or anyone who is just getting started with user interface design and looking to gain a solid understanding of human-computer interaction and UX design. No prior HCI knowledge is required to get started.

Now reissued in the poetry front-list look: Reid''s hugely popular narrative poem The Song of Lunch.

An exploration of love and loss by the renowned Costa Award–winning poet You lived at such speed that the ballpoint script running aslant and fading across the faded blue can scarcely keep up. Many words are illegible. I miss important steps. Your movements blur. I want to follow, but can’t. A Scattering is a book of lamentation and remembrance, its subject being Christopher Reid’s wife, the actress Lucinda Gane, who died of cancer at the age of fifty-five. First published in the UK in 2009 to wide acclaim, winning the Costa Book of the Year, this moving and fiercely self-reflective collection is divided into four poetic sequences. The first was written during a holiday a few months before Gane’s death with the knowledge that the end was approaching; the second recalls her last courageous weeks, spent in a hospice in London; the third continues the exploration of bereavement from a variety of perspectives; and the fourth addresses her directly, celebrating her life, personality, and achievements. Paired for the first time with Anniversary, which was written to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Gane’s death, A Scattering and Anniversary brings the poet into dialogue, again, with the wife he loved. A moving exploration of the stages of grief and how the “weighty emptinesses” that remain after bereavement change us, A Scattering and Anniversary shows us what it means to love, lose, and—forever changed—continue on.

The evidence for performance decrements with prolonged static stretching (SS)(u003e60s per muscle group) has led to a paradigm shift in optimal stretching routines within a full warm-up protocol. Many athletic teams and individuals have now incorporated dynamic stretching (DS) and dynamic activity (DA) rather than SS into their pre-exercise warm-up routines. However, much of the previous research examining SS did not incorporate all three components of a full warm-up protocol (aerobic, SS and DS/DA activity). Based on previous literature, the objective of the present study was to compare differing durations of SS (30, 60, and 120 seconds per muscle group or a control condition with no SS) within in a full warm-up protocol on various testing measures. Sixteen male participants (Sixteen males; 27.6 ± 2.15 years, 187.1 ± 15.3 lb. and 181.9 ± cm) with an athletic background and at least 2 years of strength and endurance training experience completed four conditions, each condition included a prior submaximal 5-minute aerobic warm-up on a cycle ergometer, one of the four SS interventions (0, 30, 60 or 120s per muscle group) and a subsequent DS/DA component. Results of the present study serve as evidence that prolonged durations of SS (SS 120s) per muscle group, even with the inclusion of a DS/DA component can impair subsequent performance in vertical jump height, force production and rate of force production, evoked contractile properties and potentiated twitch forces, and the interpolated twitch technique. Results also show that ROM continues to increase immediately following each of the three components within the warm-up (aerobic, SS and DS/DA) in all conditions.

This study offers an authoritative and readable account of the hidden history of book theft in eighteenth-century London. It exploits a rich primary source, the compelling narratives of crime contained in the digitised Proceedings of the Old Bailey. The authors explain how cases of book theft came to court, and how in the ensuing trials the nature of the book itself became a question for legal debate. They assess the motives which led Londoners to steal books and the methods they employed in thefts from households and booksellers. Finally, the authors ask what the Proceedings tells us about the social ownership of books, and how the phenomenon of book theft differently affected book producers and consumers. Stealing Books in Eighteenth-Century London will appeal to readers interested in the connected histories of metropolitan life, crime, and the book in this period, and in the uses of digital resources in humanities research.

A bright and charming new poetry collection, from 2009 Costa Book of the Year winner, Christopher Reid.

Author''s abstract: It is important in the development of cloud robotics that the challenges presented by transferring computational loads to networked resources are properly addressed. The challenges include network latency, data integrity, security, and privacy. The objective of the present work is to investigate the issues of latency and data integrity in a representative cloud robotics environment. The present work involves setting up a cloud robotics network in an open-source Robot Operating System (ROS) framework and carrying out investigations on the levels of latency and reduction in data integrity as utilization of the network increases. In this study, a virtual datacenter has been set up to provide the foundation on which to build software systems to provide cloud services. Robot Operating System (ROS) framework has been used to facilitate communication among heterogeneous systems in the network. Three types of robots, including the Parrot AR.Drone2.0, the Kobuki Turtlebot 2, and the LEGO EV3 have been implemented in the system. The system has been tested for baseline connectivity and under low- and high-bandwidth conditions to determine the latency and data integrity of the network connections. Additionally, a heterogeneous system consisting of sensor feedback from the AR.Drone2.0 and motor control of the Turtlebot 2 has been built to examine the connection between the devices themselves. Through this study, it has been demonstrated that under low-bandwidth conditions, the network performs reasonably well in the areas of latency and data integrity. However, for high-bandwidth conditions involving image transmission, the network performance deteriorates considerably, both in terms of latency and data integrity. One possible reason is the wireless router used in the current setup. It is also recommended that, especially under high-bandwidth loads, it is necessary for networked systems to perform some portion of their computations on-board and high-bandwidth wireless connectivity to the cloud is facilitated. Ongoing research and future directions are also outlined.

In this thesis, in situ biasing experiments on BiFeO3 thin film devices were enabled through the development of a specimen holder and sample electrode mask. The dynamics of ferroelectric domain propagation and nucleation were studied at varying electric fields, and at high spatial and temporal resolution using this in situ technique. A range of dynamic behavior is witnessed in the captured movies, including domain nucleation, propagation, switching, relaxation, and intermediate domain configurations. The dynamic interaction of domains and defects is studied. A network of misfit dislocations at the BFO film-substrate interface is found to alter domain morphologies and velocities. Threading dislocations are shown to stabilize intermediate domain configurations and radically slow domain relaxation, while also acting as pinning sites. A comparison of the observed domain kinetics is made to two popular models -- the Kolmogorov-Avrami-Ishibashi model and Nucleation Limited Switching model. The influence of the arrays of dislocations on the domain kinetics in these BFO thin film devices more accurately fits the NLS model. Investigations into the influence of charged domain walls and charged defect clusters are presented. These findings, by revealing how the presence of defects and localized compositional changes play a role in domain wall motion behavior during electric field control, can help improve the design of future devices built upon ferroelectrics and multiferroics.

Although the later eighteenth century has long been regarded as parliamentary oratory''s golden age, its speaking history remains to a large extent unexplored. Imprison''d Wranglers looks in detail at the making of a rhetorical culture inside and outside of the House of Commons during this eventful period, a time when Parliament consolidated its authority as a national institution and gained a new kind of prominence in the public eye. Drawing on a wide range of contemporary sources including newspaper reports, parliamentary diaries, memoirs, correspondence, political cartoons, and portraiture, this book reconstructs the scene in St. Stephen''s Chapel, where the Commons then sat. It shows how reputations were forged and characters contested as speakers like Burke, North, Fox, and Pitt crossed swords in confrontations that were both personal and political. With close attention to the early lives of selected MPs, it pieces together the education of the parliamentary elite from their initiation as public speakers in schools, universities, and debating clubs to the moment of trial when they rose to speak in the House for the first time. Since this was the period when the newspaper reporting of parliamentary debates was first established, the book also assesses the impact speeches made on the audiences of ordinary readers outside Parliament. It explains how parliamentary speeches got into print, what was at stake politically in that process, and argues that changing conceptions of publicness in the eighteenth century altered the image of the parliamentary speaker and unsettled the traditional rhetorical culture of the House.

Christopher Reid''s new collection is a quartet of works for a variety of voices and characters. In ''Professor Winterthorn''s Journey'', a widowed academic flies across the world to attend a conference on the topic of ''Nonsense and the Pursuit of Futility''. A mordant but confused observer, he eventually finds his way beyond intellectual fiddling to a deeper understanding of his condition. ''The Suit of Mistress Quickly'' catches the moment in a rehearsal of Henry IV Part II when the actress playing Quickly triumphantly discovers her true voice. In ''Airs and Ditties of No Man''s Land'' - commissioned for the BBC Promenade Concerts of 2011, with music by Colin Matthews - a captain and his sergeant, now skeletons, exchange ''scraps of song and wisps of rhyme'' in a sardonic, music-hall flavoured evocation of First World War trench warfare. Nonsense ends with ''A Salute to the Moonlight'', a set of shorter, lyric pieces that celebrate everyday experience. Starting at dawn and ending in the small hours, their lightness of touch and undismayed lucidities contribute to the book''s theme of renewal.

A collection of some of the most beautiful poems in the English language.

Christopher Reid won the Hawthornden Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award for his first collection, Arcadia, and has since then adopted a variety of guises: as ''Martian'' poet, as Katerina Brac - she being the fictional Eastern European poet of whose work his collection of the same name purports to be translations - and as Alfred Stoker, the 100-year-old visionary. Included here as well are poems from Reid''s powerful and moving elegiac volume, A Scattering, which was named Costa Book of the Year for 2009. This is an essential introduction to the work of a richly resourceful poet engaged in what he himself once described as ''provisional negotiations with untidy life''.

When Miley needs a ride to the hottest fashion show of the year, her brother Jackson takes advantage by making Miley a bet she can''t refuse. If Miley wins, Jackson will continue to drive her anywhere she wants to go. But if Miley loses, she must find her own transportation from now on! Plus, when the paparazzi snap pictures of Hannah Montana and Jackson together, Jackson suddenly has an "in" with Hannah''s celebrity circle.

Ever since the success of the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988, the concept of "legacy" has grown in importance as a justification for hosting Winter Olympic Games in North America. While the term has increasingly been used to denote a positive outcome and to support hosting such Hallmark events, little has been done in terms of researching how "legacies" are best planned and implemented. This capstone analyses a number of legacy programs using the 1988 Calgary, 2002 Salt Lake City and upcoming 2010 Vancouver Games as case studies, combined with a series of in-depth interviews with specialists in the field. The study generates a list of important criteria for creating successful legacies to be considered during the initial planning process. These criteria are then used to formulate options in terms of how future Olympic legacies might be structured that stress the importance of engaging the community in a meaningful way.