First Touch Of Light

A POWERFUL STORY ABOUT THE DEVASTATING IMPACT OF WAR ON ONE NEW ZEALAND FAMILY. 1940. George does his duty and enlists. The day before his departure he marries his sweetheart, Ellen. But four years of separation and the pressures of war create devastating changes. Ellen has had an affair and borne a child and, traumatised by his experiences, George retreats into a rage-filled silence. After years of bearing the brunt of George's bitterness, Ellen finally snaps. Years later Ellen's daughter travels to Italy, retracing the journey of the man she had thought of as her father. THE FIRST TOUCH OF LIGHT is the second and final novel by the late Ruth Pettis. It is a moving story of war and grief and loss, and a compelling portrait of a marriage under impossible stress.

The present volume was assembled in honor of Professor Alan Cowey FRS, and attempts to embrace his wide range of research interests in visual neuroscience. It is divided into four sections. The first contains a group of papers dealing with different fundamental aspects of the visual system, including the control and monitoring of eye movements. The second is concerned with the functional organization of cortical visual areas and their role in visual perception and visually guided action. The third addresses issues concerning color and motion perception, along with broader questions of visual attention; and the effects of selective brain damage on these different aspects of visual experience. The fourth and final section of the volume deals explicitly with questions relating to visual awareness, with particular emphasis on 'blindsight', a topic on which Alan Cowey has worked extensively in recent years, both in humans and in monkeys.