Archive | UKEMI BOOKS

THE ESSENTIAL ENGLISHMAN

By Duncan Steen and Nicolas Soames

There is no watertight excuse for this book. It strolls impertinently over ground that has been carefully mapped by the qualified authorities and elegantly appreciated by many devoted amateurs. Its purview is ludicrously broad – nothing less than an exhibition of the Englishman in his more characteristic manifestations through the ages. It is, wriggle out of it as we would, a hopelessly, damnably patriotic book. However, it is our opinion that the evils of nationalism, cultural hostility, race hatred and fear of social change are best countered by an open regard for the values of one’s own society and a cheerful celebration of its virtues – and, on this basis, an honest recognition of its failures and weaknesses.

The Essential Englishman is a fascinating composite portrait in words and pictures which seeks to define at least some of the Englishman’s attitudes, to celebrate his successes, admire  his strengths, to glance with understanding at his weaknesses and also to reflect the way that others see him. Recent dramatic political changes make it even more timely for the millennial Englishman to be able to gain, through looking back at history, a quirky if affectionate view at who and what he is.

The picture that emerges is rich in contradictions. The archetypal Englishman, it seems, adores animals yet has a passion for fox-hunting; he has founded empires but has an inherent mistrust for anything foreign; he is suspicious of government yet trusts his (unwritten) Constitution implicitly. And while the English possess a profound scepticism about the value of creative endeavour, England has consistently given the world some of its greatest poets, writers, musicians and artists.

Authors Duncan Steen and Nicolas Soames have called evidence for the defence (and occasionally for the prosecution) from more than a thousand years of English literature, history and historical anecdote, while witnesses range from Shakespeare to Bernard Shaw, from Dr Johnson to D. H. Lawrence – and a range of foreigners who are bemused yet often view their subjects with a whimsical goodwill.

By turns hilarious, sad, heroic, eccentric, maddening and oddly inspiring, here is the true Englishman – at school, in love, in battle, at prayer, at sport, abroad, or at home in the country. This entertaining and informative book is essential reading for everyone in or out of England, and especially as it forges a new identity within the geographic (if not political) environs of Europe.

AUDIOBOOK ALSO AVAILABLE FROM AUDIBLE READ BY NICHOLAS BOULTON

THE ESSENTIAL ENGLISHMAN

Available on Amazon.co.uk: http://tinyurl.com/yauscsq9 £5.15 (Kindle) £5.99 (Paperback)

Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/y8nzmwbt $6.89 (Kindle) $7.99 (Paperback)

THE OEDIPUS PLAYS

Oedipus the King • Oedipus at Colonus • Antigone

By Sophocles

The three Theban Plays by Sophocles – Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone – are one of the great landmarks of Western theatre. They tell the story of Oedipus, King of Thebes, who was destined to suffer a terrible fate – to kill his father, marry his mother, and beget children of the incestuous union. He does this unknowingly, but still has to suffer terrible consequences – which also tragically affect the next generation. These three plays were written around 450 BC with the playwright following the established convention of presenting the story through main characters, but using a ‘Chorus’ – sometimes one voice, sometimes more –as an independent commentator while also occasionally participating in the drama.
When the audiences of ancient Athens went to the amphitheatres to see the play they would have known the basic story of poor Oedipus. Nevertheless, the power of Sophocles’ retelling made The Theban Plays deeply horrifying and affecting – and this is still true now, some 2,500 years later.
There is also a strong contemporary resonance for us, for in the 20th century, the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud famously adopted the story to illustrate his ‘Oedipus Complex’ which, he argued, was a condition of the unconscious mind in boys – that they want to sleep with their mothers. It is interesting that, through the character of the queen, Jocasta, in Oedipus the King, Sophocles states this unequivocally.
Oedipus the King is well-known. The other two are less so: Oedipus at Colonus, which deals with his last days, and Antigone, which casts the spotlight on his daughter who, part of the accursed blood line, chooses to act in a way she believes is right, whatever the consequences. Yet they are equally powerful and moving.
This new translation by Ian Johnston is the play script for The Oedipus Plays recorded by Audible Inc, with Jamie Glover as Oedipus, Hayley Atwell as Antigone, Michael Maloney as Creon, Julian Glover as Teiresias and David Horovitch and Head Chorus. It was directed by Garrick Hagon and produced by Nicolas Soames, and is available on Audible.

Translation: Richard Gummere

THE OEDIPUS PLAYS

Available on Amazon.co.uk: http://tinyurl.com/yaosdl7o £4.99 (Kindle)

Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/ybjmhjzl $6.46 (Kindle)

THE MORAL EPISTLES

124 Letters to Lucillius

By Seneca the Younger

Towards the end of his life, Seneca the Younger (c4 BCE- 65 CE) began a correspondence with a friend in Sicily, later collected under the title The Moral Epistles. In these 124 letters, Seneca expresses, in a wise, steady and calm manner, the philosophy by which he lived – derived essentially from the Stoics. The letters deal with a variety of specific topics – often eminently practical – such as ‘On Saving Time’, ‘On the Terrors of Death’, ‘On True and False Friendships’, ‘On Brawn and Brains’ and ‘On Old Age and Death’. His views are as relevant to us today as in his own time. He remarks on how we waste our time through lack of clarity of purpose, how we jump from one attraction to another, how fleeting is life. But these are letters to a friend, so the tone is not grandly didactic but friendly, personal, direct and speak to us across the centuries. Though not so well-known as Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, The Moral Epistles are approachable, memorable, and immensely rich in content – and especially so in this sympathetic reading by James Cameron Stewart.

Translation: Richard Gummere

THE MORAL EPISTLES

Available on Amazon.co.uk: http://tinyurl.com/yauyqswx £3.86 (Kindle)

Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/ycohep4v $5.07 (Kindle)

THE DRAGON MASK

And other Judo stories in the Zen tradition

By Trevor Leggett

In 50 absorbing stories drawn from a lifetime of experience in Europe and the Far East, Trevor Leggett shows that judo is a training for life. The Cherry Tree, Cutting Off the Bull’s Horns, Tigers and Rabbits and, of course The Dragon Mask, are in themselves entertaining, informative and even surprising – but underneath each is a wider application that can reach to the heart of our lives.

Judo, he says, can be as much about character development as combat on the mat.

T.P. Leggett (1914-2000) was, during his lifetime, the senior figure in British judo. A Kodokan 6th Dan, he practised in Japan before the Second World War, and later became a respected translator of Japanese and Sanskrit texts into English.

He was also known throughout the judo and Buddhist worlds for his large fund of stories which, while entertaining and fascinating in themselves, have a strongly instructive element. This is the first book of judo stories in the tradition of Zen to be produced.

THE DRAGON MASK 

Available on Amazon.co.uk: http://tinyurl.com/ydf726mu £5.36 (Kindle) £6.15 (Paperback)

Amazon.com: $6.98 (Kindle) $7.99 (Paperback): http://tinyurl.com/yajpa6ru

JASON AND THE GOLDEN FLEECE

The Argonautica

By Arthur Schopenhauer

Jason and the Golden Fleece is one of the finest tales of Ancient Greece, an epic journey of adventure and trial standing beside similar stories of Perseus, Theseus and the Labours of Heracles. The finest classic account comes from Apollonius of Rhodes, the Greek poet of the 3rd century BCE and librarian at Alexandria. Though less well-known than Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and much shorter, it is an epic poem which is both exciting and moving, with remarkably vivid portraits of the main characters, Jason and Medea. In the hands of Apollonius, these are far from one-dimensional figures of ancient myth. Jason is a very human hero, forced to undertake the quest by a vengeful ruler, and though he leads a ship full of heroes – Heracles, Peleus, Castor and Polydeuces among them – he has moments of doubt and prevarication which he has to overcome in order to ultimately grasp the Golden Fleece. And Medea, a virgin witch possessing consummate skill with spells and an ability to be cruel, is shown here with some sympathy, for she is under the sway of the immortals Hera and Athena. Succumbing to their machinations and Eros’s arrow, she finds herself on a dangerous path, flouting the will of her powerful father Aeetes, King of the Colchians, to help the Argonauts. And then there is the ship itself, Argo, wrought with the help of Athena to survive the challenges of a distant voyage past Scylla and Charybdis into the Black Sea. Apollonius weaves plot and poetry, courage and boldness, tenderness and sympathy, to fashion one of the greatest monuments of Western literature.

R. C. Seaton’s classic translation has been considerably revised for this ebook/paperback by Nicolas Soames It is also available as an audiobook recording on Audible, read with verve by Jonathan Keeble.

JASON AND THE GOLDEN FLEECE : 17 hours 51 minutes

Available on Amazon.co.uk: http://tinyurl.com/y99ex3sw  £3.17 (Kindle) £5.42 (Paperback)

Amazon.com: $4.12 (Kindle) $7 (Paperback): http://tinyurl.com/y87qzxkg