Italy It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time

Mild-mannered suburban father Simon Capp took his young family off to the Italian countryside for a change of lifestyle and to test out the theory of the global internet worker. All he needs is electricity and a phone line. What could go wrong? This is the story of the Capp family's Italian odyssey, as they battle the combined forces of Telecom Italia, the nation's stingiest landlord, seven levels of police bureaucracy, a car with a deathwish curse and a town with only one pizzeria in it. It all seemed like such a good idea in the beginning!

This is my story as the love-child of an Australian soldier and an English nurse, living in war-torn London in the 1940s, before travelling to Australia on a boat, where her mother fell in love with a Welshman, married him and had five more children. The story reveals a passion for horses, which leads to an association with two “dirty old men” and running away from home. But instead of turning into a delinquent, I went to university and trained to be a high school teacher. Although an unfortunate love affair with a married man led to a car crash, an unwanted pregnancy, an eventual marriage and the birth of two sons. Tragedy struck, with the loss of both boys. Continuing to work, saved my sanity, and after retirement, I continued teaching Line Dancing to seniors. My long-time friend and later lover, supported me through difficult times, married me and we travelled the world. Finally, I took my mother back to London, by plane this time, to appear on Cilla Black’s television show “Surprise Surprise”, where she was reunited with her twin brother, whom she hadn’t seen for fifty-four years.

The daughter of a British Foreign Service officer, Moira Hodgson spent her childhood in many a strange and exotic land. She discovered American food in Saigon, ate wild boar in Berlin, and learned how to prepare potatoes from her eccentric Irish grandmother. Today, Hodgson has a well-deserved reputation as a discerning critic whose columns in the New York Observer were devoured by dedicated food lovers for two decades. A delightful memoir of meals from around the world—complete with recipes—It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time reflects Hodgson’s talent for connecting her love of food and travel with the people and places in her life. Whether she’s dining on Moroccan mechoui, a whole lamb baked for a day over coals, or struggling to entertain in a tiny Greenwich Village apartment, her reminiscences are always a treat.

Michael Grade is one of the most controversial media figures of the modern age. This book presents the autobiography of a man who, when he was head of Channel Four, became the darling of the liberal television establishment.

In Harry Harrison! Harry Harrison! are the recollections of one of the grand masters of science fiction, on his storied career as a celebrated author and on his relationships with other luminaries in the field. This memoir is filled with all the humor and irreverence Harry Harrison's readers have come to expect from the New York Times bestselling author of the uproarious Stainless Steel Rat series. This also includes black and white photos spanning his sixty-year career. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

One of Popsugar’s Best New Books for Summer 2020 A thirty-year-old woman retraces her gap year through Ireland, France, and Italy to find love—and herself—in this hilarious and heartfelt novel. It's been seven years since Chelsea Martin embarked on her yearlong postcollege European adventure. Since then, she's lost her mother to cancer and watched her sister marry twice, while Chelsea's thrown herself into work, becoming one of the most talented fundraisers for the American Cancer Coalition, and with the exception of one annoyingly competent coworker, Jason Knightley, her status as most successful moneymaker is unquestioned. When her introverted mathematician father announces he's getting remarried, Chelsea is forced to acknowledge that her life stopped after her mother died and that the last time she can remember being happy, in love, or enjoying her life was on her year abroad. Inspired to retrace her steps—to find Colin in Ireland, Jean Claude in France, and Marcelino in Italy—Chelsea hopes that one of these three men who stole her heart so many years ago can help her find it again. From the start of her journey nothing goes as planned, but as Chelsea reconnects with her old self, she also finds love in the very last place she expected.

For centuries Italy has been the destination of a lifetime for an endless stream of travellers. This book – focussing on the experience of contemporary Australian intellectuals – explores an aspect as of yet scarcely studied within the global phenomenon of travel to Italy, and discovers an image of the country starkly different from the one that prevailed in previous writings. From the beginning of the 1990s onwards there has been a sizeable output of books by Australian writers set in or about Italy. After a meticulous examination of these works, Roberta Trapè has selected and analysed those that she considers the most interesting examples of Australians’ continuing fascination with Italy – works of Jeffrey Smart and Shirley Hazzard, and of Robert Dessaix and Peter Robb. Examining the ways the four authors describe Italian places, Imaging Italy looks into what it is that continues to attract Australian writers and artists to the country, and tries to detect new trends in their attitude towards it. The image of Italy that emerges from the most recent works is, no doubt, a superb picture – not flattering but certainly not false – of its contemporary times.

When prize-winning author Rachel Cusk decides to travel to Italy for a summer with her husband and two young children she has no idea of the trials and wonders that lie in store. Their journey leads them to both the expected - the Piero della Francesca trail and queues at the Vatican - and the surprising - an amorous Scottish ex-pat and a longing for home - all seen through Cusk's sharp and humane perspective. Exploring the desire to travel and to escape, art and its inspirations, beauty and ugliness, and the challenge of balancing domestic life with creativity, The Last Supper is a wonderful travel book about life on the most famous art trail in the world, from one of Britain's most pre-eminent writers.