Essais & Culture

In Berlin, the city divided after World War II, everybody knows about the Brandenburg Gate, Hitler s bunker, Kennedy's speech, red and green beer, splendidly broad boulevards, and numerous lakes. But this metropolis, once again the capital of Germany, encompasses many clandestine niches characteristic of a heterogeneous city without a beginning and without an end between its famous backyards, nature parks, and bridges. It is often these minuscule witnesses that tell authentic history. Besides the larger attractions, this unusual guide presents Berlin's other side - such as a tower so ugly that no-one wants to open a restaurant in it; a library offering its books in the trunks of living trees; the monument for the inventor of the currywurst; a residential settlement in a former East German prison; the place where the Nazis concealed the so-called 'degenerate art' which they had confiscated; the house where David Bowie lived; an automat out of which maggots can be pulled; a museum for things used for purposes for which they were not created; the reception camp for refugees from East Germany - and, in a completely unexpected spot, the most romantic place in Berlin.

For the enthusiastic reader and book lover, browsing through a bookshop is an irreplaceable experience. American author Elizabeth Stamp selected the 150 most unique bookstores in the world that are worth making a detour to visit. From Australia to France, and Japan to the United States, the bookstores here range from establishments that have been around for decades, to newly opened shops. Each shop has been selected for an outstanding feature, either an interesting backstory, a unique collection, or a fabulous setting. This handsomely bound book, the latest in the 150 series, has inspiring photographs and a wealth of information on each location.

The stories from Greek mythology have never ceased to fascinate young and old alike. Heroes such as Heracles, Theseus, Jason and Odysseus remain indelibly fixed in the memory of every reader, inspiring admiration. This book contains several of the best loved and best known stories from Greek mythology, providing the opportunity for young readers to gain a taste of the worlds best known and richest mythology.

The distinguished historian Michael Llewellyn-Smith, author of the classic Ionian Vision as well as a number of other important studies about modern Greece, writes about this book: The story of how the Greeks founded their independent state, through a mixture of bravery, persistence, skulduggery and guile, is an inspiring one, and there is no better time to tell it than the 200th anniversary of the outbreak of the Greek war of independence in 1821. Athina Cacouri’s new book, 1821: The Founding of Modern Greece, tells the whole complicated story, from the outbreak of war in March 1821 to the emergence of a nominally independent state, in an English language narrative adapted from her Greek original in terms suitable for a young readership. The main focus of her book, rightly, is the leading Greek personalities, ranging from the doughty warrior Theodore Kolokotronis, whose vivid words on the ‘torment’ of leading an army of Greeks she quotes, to the western-influenced Alexander Mavrocordatos (for whom Cacouri has little love), and above all the tragic figure of Ioannis Capodistrias, the ‘Governor’ or first President of Greece, who did all in his power, with meagre resources, to create a well governed modern state. He was assassinated in Nafplion on 27 September 1831. Capodistrias is the first hero of this book. The other is the Greek People, to whose developing national feeling the emergence of the Greek state is largely owed. In what will be a crowded market, the book holds its own by the vigour of its narrative and judgements, and Athina Cacouri’s knowledge and love of her native country and its people. MICHAEL LLEWELLYN-SMITH Born in 1928, in the town of Patras, Greece, Athina Cacouri has lived in Vienna, Austria and Philadelphia, USA, and mostly in Athens, Greece. She has children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She has worked in a petroleum company, a shipping agency, in tourism and as a journalist and a translator. She has published four volumes of detective stories, eight historical novels, and three studies of history, all about Greece during the last two centuries. Her translation of Stephen Vincent Benét’s short story ‘The Devil and Daniel Webster’ and of Charles Dickens’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood, as well as her novels Primarolia, set in Patras at the end of the 19th century, and Thekli, set during the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, have been awarded major literary prizes. Her most recent works are two studies of the political rift which divided Greece during World War I, and a fresh look at the Greek War of Independence, 1821, and the creation of the modern Greek state, a translation of which is the volume in hand.

Ever wondered about how to really interpret poetry? Puzzled about metre, rhyming and stanzas? Presented in language thoroughly accessible for all, poet and writer Ruth Padel demystifies poetic style, structure and meaning in this comprehensive anthology of modern poemsBased on the author's popular column in The Independent on Sunday, each poem is accompanied by an informative and entertaining explanatory excerpt by Padel. Featuring an assortment of contemporary poets from Carol Ann Duffy to Seamus Heaney, the collection thematically encompasses universal subjects of love, sex, family, death, as well as more obscure matters - for instance, loneliness when listening to the shipping forecast. A poem for each week of the year, Padel's exploration of the literary form expertly combines technical analysis with imaginative, creative interpretation - sure to make any reader fall in love with the modern verse.

'She argues away the idea that contemporary poetry is "difficult": all it needs is a little work and the rewards are great' Sunday Times

This book is the very simple story of the love affair between Miss Helene Hanff of New York and Messrs Marks and Co, sellers of rare and secondhand books, at 84 Charing Cross Road, London'. DAILY TELEGRAPHTold in a series of letters in 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD and then in diary form in the second part THE DUCHESS OF BLOOMSBURY STREET, this true story has touched the hearts of thousands.

In A Branch of Wild Olive L. Messinesi has presented with considerable erudition a complete survey of the Olympic Movement.

There are few disciplines as exciting and forward-looking as medicine. Unfortunately, however, many modern practitioners have rather lost sight of the origins of their discipline. A Cabinet of Ancient Medical Curiosities aspires to make good this lapse by taking readers back to the early days of Western medicine in ancient Greece and Rome. Quoting the actual words of ancient authors, often from texts which have never been translated into English, it gives aglimpse into the beginnings of such fields as surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, preventive medicine, and pharmacology, as well as highlighting ancient views on such familiar topics as medical ethics and the role of the doctor in society. The hundreds of passages quoted from Greek and Roman authors give a vividly direct picture of the ancient medical world, a world in which, for example, a surgeon had to be strong-minded enough to ignore the screams of his patient, diseases were assumed to be sent by the gods, medicine and magic were often indistinguishable, donkeys might be brought into the sick-room to ensure a fresh supply of milk, human anatomy and microbes were equally mysterious, and no qualifications were required beforesetting up as a doctor. As will be evident from this list, the approach taken in the book is not an entirely serious one. Even so, despite its lighthearted approach, it does aspire, however modestly, to engage the reader in a thought provoking way about many of the issues still current in medicine nowadays.

Capitalism has passed its use-by-date, but a better, saner world is possible