'You're a terrible daughter, you've always been a terrible daughter, the very worst that any loving mother has ever had to endure. I want no more of your pathetic cards, letters or telephone calls; I do not wish to hear from you EVER!...AM I CLEAR?' Without waiting for a reply, the blonde rose to her feet, turned on her heel and walked out of the bar and into a waiting car. The brunette sat very, very still for a few moments then, pulling herself together she hailed a waiter and asked him to call her a cab. Lucinda StClair had never felt more unwanted, unloved or alone. Of course, Lucinda was no stranger to these feelings...why would she be? This had been her life's pattern from her earliest memories but Lucinda was an optimist, she had always dreamed of loving and being loved. Lucinda is constantly searching for the love that she feels is waiting for her just around the corner.

"Silken Threads, Tangled Webs" continues Lucindas story. Previously in "Tarnished Lives, Tainted Dreams," we learned how she and her brothers had grown up in a dysfunctional home. Lucinda had been forced into a relationship with an older man who could have been useful to her father. Following his death, she had given birth to twin boys. Denied further contact with her maternal and paternal relations, she made two lifelong friends, met and married Francis StClair, and gave birth to two more children. The marriage failed, mostly because of Lucindas unrealistic expectations from marriage. Her father had disappeared, shortly after his release from prison, her mother and brothers disowned her, but a mysterious letter had brought her to France, where she made some shocking discoveries about the past. What was Marcuss terrible secret, and why did Lucindas mother and brothers go to such extreme lengths to make sure she never contacted her Trehearne relations?

From Streep to Foster, Maidens in Uniform to Heavenly Creatures, Whatling reinvestigates mainstream feminist film theory, & provides an engaging introduction to a complex area, whilst drawing on the relationship between an audience & a film text.

This collection of essays examines modern country music in America, from its roots to today's music. Contributors look at aspects of the music as diverse as the creation of country culture in the honky tonk; the development of the Nashville music industry; and why country music singers are similar to the English romantic poets. Historians, sociologists, musicologists, folklorists, anthropologists, ethnographers, communication specialists, and journalists are all represented.