Often funny, always thoughtful, and surprisingly esoteric in nature, the forty-four short essays written by award-winning author David A. Ross deal with expatriate living in detail - from myth to reality, from novelty to stagnation, from glorious experiences to down-right gory experiences, and back again.

Fizzy Oceans lives, works and travels in the virtual world where the dead are very much alive, places like ancient Babylon have been reconstructed, and with the click of a button †WHOOSH! †one is transported throughout the Ages to events and destinations that make up our human history.

The Island of Corfu in Greece is known as the Emerald Isle. William Shakespeare's metaphorical play, "The Tempest," was derived from the island's thunderous autumnal storms. Henry Miller, as well as Gerald and Lawrence Durrell, once called Corfu home. It is an island of intense beauty with fertile green land, golden beaches, turquoise waters, a beautiful Venetian-built city, and one of the most gregarious - and sometimes one of the most treacherous - cultures in Europe. More than a million people from all over the world visit Corfu each year, and over 30,000 expatriates live year round on the island. GOOD MORNING CORFU: LIVING ABROAD AGAINST ALL ODDS chronicles the experiences and observations of an American expatriate living on this Mediterranean outpost of dizzying extremes. From wide-eyed wonder to cultural and personal confusion, from unbridled joy to deep despair, and from empathy to outright loathing, these short essays examine both local and expatriate lifestyles through the lens of one deeply immersed yet forever removed, fundamentally involved yet perpetually on the perimeter of a most curious culture. Even more than a journal of events and experiences, the essays consider many of life's more profound issues and concerns with insight, optimism and humor.

J. G. Ballard once declared that the most truly alien planet is Earth and in his science fiction he abandoned the traditional imagery of rocket ships traveling to distant galaxies to address the otherworldliness of this world. The Empires of J. G. Ballard is the first extensive study of Ballard's critical vision of nation and empire, of the political geography of this planet. Paddy examines how Ballard s self-perceived status as an outsider and exile, the Sheppertonian from Shanghai, generated an outlook that celebrated worldliness and condemned parochialism. This book brings to light how Ballard wrestled with notions of national identity and speculated upon the social and psychological implications of the post-war transformation of older models of empire into new imperialisms of consumerism and globalization. Presenting analyses of Ballard s full body of work with its tales of reverse colonization, psychological imperialism, the savagery of civilization, estranged Englishmen abroad and at home, and multinational communities built on crime, The Empires of J. G. Ballard offers a fresh perspective on the fiction of J. G. Ballard. The Empires of J.G. Ballard: An Imagined Geography offers a sustained and highly convincing analysis of the imperial and post-imperial histories and networks that shape and energise Ballard's fictional and non-fictional writings. To what extent can Ballard be considered an international writer? What happens to our understanding of his post-war science fictions when they are opened up to the language and logics of post-colonialism? And what creative and critical roles do the spectres of empire play in Ballard's visions of modernity? Paddy follows these and other fascinating lines of enquiry in a study that is not only essential reading for Ballard students and scholars, but for anyone interested in the intersections of modern and contemporary literature, history and politics. (Jeanette Baxter, Anglia Ruskin University) Shanghai made my father. Arriving in England after WW2, he was a person of the world who d witnessed extremes of human experience, and remained the outsider observing life from his home in Shepperton. 1930s Shanghai, Paris of the East , was a mix of international sophistication and violence, unfettered capitalism and acute poverty, American cars, martinis and Coca Cola, a place marked by death and war. It had a profound influence on my father and his imagination. Dr Paddy s fascinating book explores my father s fiction within an international context and offers a profound reading of a man who always kept his eyes and mind open to the world. (Fay Ballard)

What happened when former Tory cabinet-minister and now bus-pass wielding OAP, Sir John Nott, decided to discover modern London for himself? Real London. Beyond Kensington & Chelsea. As far, even, as Tooting... It all began when Sir John decided to take a crash course in ballroom dancing for an upcoming cruise holiday. Whilst flicking through the 'Ballroom Dancing' section of the Yellow Pages directory, he chanced upon the Mr Wonderful Tea Dances. After a single trip to a Mr Wonderful lunch in Bromley, the onetime Defence Secretary was hooked. And so began an extraordinary odyssey, in which Sir John discovered a whole new side to Britain and began to question the notion of what, exactly, it means to be British in this day and age. In the name of research he risked reconnaissance to China White, Spearmint Rhino and the Countryside March. His observations along the way are irreverent and hilarious, whether venting his spleen over EU farming regulations, or enjoying a colourful wander round Tooting market.