In Search Of Marvellousness

In Search of Marvellousness. Fear, pain and the pursuit of happiness. The back story. Is your pain telling you something? Do you listen to it or just try to drown it out? What if your discomfort inspired you to push beyond, but you chose to avoid being uncomfortable? This is a story of pain, discomfort, fear and rejection and how an action man learns to embrace and listen to his spirit. In Search of Marvellousness is a story where everything happens at once and time is fluid, not unlike Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five”, but without the extraterrestrials. It’s a tale of a life filled with adventure and travel like Roald Dahl’s “Going Solo” but without a war. It reflects Louise Hay’s “You Can Heal Your Life”, where pain and discomfort keep coming until the lesson is learned, but without affirmations. In Search of Marvellousness is the inner story of Marcus Lovett, the boy from Bendigo who just wanted to travel the world and have a good time. From being Australia’s first freestyle skier in the 1988 Olympics Winter Games at Calgary to being an Acapulco cliff diver and stuntman, risking life and limb for glory and a few dollars. The physical pain of breaks and dislocations screamed lessons that were sometimes lost in translation but continued until they were understood. In Search of Marvellousness covers the mental and emotional self-doubts of imposter syndrome. Marcus produces and hosts the long-running television show called the Snowshow. Filmed worldwide and broadcast globally, the Snowshow was a skiing and snowboarding travel show. Though earning money doing what he loved, he still felt like a ski bum looking for his next free ride. In Search of Marvellousness explores the connection between physical, mental, emotional and spiritual discomfort. Marcus explores the joy of fear and discovers self-esteem is the answer, constantly reminding himself to keep the spirit.

Imaginative and cerebral, this volume recounts the fantastic history of the antipodes—namely Australia and New Zealand—from the Western perspective over the course of the past five millennia. Tracing the fiction underlying the fact in the tales of, among others, Marco Polo, John Mandeville, and Thomas More, this remarkable compilation explores the imagination of travelers, writers, map-makers, charlatans, and rogues who dreamed of other worlds. Delving into the Australian character and the New Zealand psyche, this account also conveys an insightful glimpse into Western history.

This volume examines the relationship between occultism and Surrealism, specifically exploring the reception and appropriation of occult thought, motifs, tropes and techniques by Surrealist artists and writers in Europe and the Americas, from the 1920s through the 1960s. Its central focus is the specific use of occultism as a site of political and social resistance, ideological contestation, subversion and revolution. Additional focus is placed on the ways occultism was implicated in Surrealist discourses on identity, gender, sexuality, utopianism and radicalism.

Toronto has long been a place that people of colour move to in order to join queer of colour communities. Yet the city’s rich history of activism by queer and trans people who are Black, Indigenous, or of colour (QTBIPOC) remains largely unwritten and unarchived. While QTBIPOC have a long and visible presence in the city, they always appear as newcomers in queer urban maps and archives in which white queers appear as the only historical subjects imaginable. The first collection of its kind to feature the art, activism, and writings of QTBIPOC in Toronto, Marvellous Grounds tells the stories that have shaped Toronto’s landscape but are frequently forgotten or erased. Responding to an unmistakable desire in QTBIPOC communities for history and lineage, this rich volume allows us to imagine new ancestors and new futures.

The hilarious no. 1 bestseller by comedian and author of According to Yes and Oh Dear Sylvia Everyone hates the perfect family. So you'll love the Battles. Meet Mo Battle, about to turn 50 and mum to two helpless, hormonal teenagers. There's 17-year-old daughter Dora who blames Mo for, like, EVERYTHING and Peter who believes he's quite simply as darling and marvellous as his hero Oscar Wilde. Somewhere, keeping quiet, is Dad . . . who's just, well . . . Dad. However, Mo is having a crisis. She's about to do something unusually wild and selfish, which will leave the entire family teetering on the edge of a precipice. Will the family fall? Or will they, when it really matters, be there for each other? A Tiny Bit Marvellous is the number one bestselling novel from one of Britain's favourite comic writers. Praise for A Tiny Bit Marvellous: 'Funny, really enjoyable, highly recommended. A wonderful writer - witty, wise, poignant' Wendy Holden 'A fantastic slam-dunk pageturner. Funny, enriching . . . page after page I laughed out loud' Mail on Sunday 'Beautifully observed. Makes you laugh on every page' The Times 'A brilliantly observed, very funny novel of family life' Woman and Home

Marvellous Ways is eighty-nine years old and has lived alone in a remote Cornish creek for nearly all her life. Lately she's taken to spending her days sitting on a mooring stone by the river with a telescope. She's waiting for something - she's not sure what, but she'll know it when she sees it. Drake is a young soldier left reeling by the Second World War. When his promise to fulfil a dying man's last wish sees him wash up in Marvellous' creek, broken in body and spirit, the old woman comes to his aid. A Year of Marvellous Ways is a glorious, life-affirming story about the magic in everyday life and the pull of the sea, the healing powers of storytelling and sloe gin, love and death and how we carry on when grief comes snapping at our heels.

DIVThis beguiling tale has everything: runaway orphans, kings, knights, an evil witch, and a lovable, table-high Snerg named Gorbo who leads children from one fantastic adventure to another. Tolkien called this forgotten classic a "sourcebook" for The Hobbit — and it's a must for any Rings fan. 51 black-and-white illustrations. /div