When young Elliot gets a labourers job at Mr Evanss after being sacked from a pig farm for liberating six of its sows, he thinks hell have even more opportunities to lean on gates or stare at fields. But his best mate Spike keeps getting him into trouble, first by showing him what is being grown in a tucked-away polytunnel, and then turning up at his caravans door with a van full of weed. As Elliot tries to help his friend get rid of the hot merchandise, they find themselves at the receivi...

Drove House has always loomed large over village life. Boarded-up for years, it is reputed to be brimming with ghosts, and is shunned by the locals all except Billy, for whom it has been the site of childhood dens and secret adolescent adventures. When the captivating Muriel moves in with her bohemian mother, they sweep out the ghosts and breathe new life into both the house and Billys quiet rural existence. After an idyllic summer, though, Muriel returns to her life in London, and the new...

The topics of autonomy and independence play an increasingly important role in language education. They raise issues such as learners' responsibility for their own learning, and their right to determine the direction of their own learning, the skills which can be learned and applied in self-directed learning and capacity for independent learning and the extents to which this can be suppressed by institutional education. This volume offers new insights into the principles of autonomy and in...

According to the study conducted by Gallup Organization, only a minority of Americans experience consistent normative motivation for engaging with other people's children. Social norms theory suggests that adults are more likely to get deeply involved if that involvement is viewed as highly important, and if they perceive a social expectation to do so.This volume examines the nature of social norms in general and in relationship to children and adolescents. The book examines the co...

Get It While It’s Hot brings together scholars, food writers, influencers, and even a CEO to discuss the phenomenon of eating by the side of the road. This innovative collection examines an increasingly commonplace belief across the U.S. South—that some of the best, most enjoyable food comes from places you would not expect: a gas station, the back of a pickup truck, or a ramshackle building made of plywood.The essays collected here look at the delicious food that can be f...

Matthew Baxter was almost there. Almost a writer, almost a lover, almost a traveller. He wrote for the Tread Lightly range of travel guides, he loved his boss and he was about to catch a plane to the south. His job was to give an out-of-season slant to the Italian guide, and he was ready. Almost. For everything wasn't exactly as it should have been. In fact, nothing was exactly as it should have been. Especially Matthew Baxter. Peter Benson's new novel is a tour of southern Italy, and aims...

Drawing on unpublished archival sources, this book reconstitutes the experiences of a wide range of American artists, critics, and writers working in Rome in a charged environment of “Cold War cosmopolitanism.”After the Second World War, American artists flocked to Rome in record numbers, even as the United States shored up Italy as a bulwark against the spread of Communism. While the market for modern art in Rome was less vigorous as those in Paris and New York, n...

Tobacco Capitalism tells the story of the people who live and work on U.S. tobacco farms at a time when the global tobacco industry is undergoing profound changes. Against the backdrop of the antitobacco movement, the globalization and industrialization of agriculture, and intense debates over immigration, Peter Benson draws on years of field research to examine the moral and financial struggles of growers, the difficult conditions that affect Mexican migrant workers, and the comp...

Ed Beech is one half of Beech Building Services. He's based in Bermondsey but no job's too small, no distance too great. So when he's asked to do some work on a house in Orkney, he loads the van with paint, tools and sandwiches, and takes off. He gets nervous around farm animals and large ships, and he's never been so far north, but when he's joined by Claire, his client's city banker sister, he discovers that in Stromness, anything is possible.Peter Benson's compelling new novel continues...

“One of the most important contributions to the field of contract theory—if not the most important—in the past 25 years.” —Stephen A. Smith, McGill UniversityCan we account for contract law on a moral basis that is acceptable from the standpoint of liberal justice? To answer this question, Peter Benson develops a theory of contract that is completely independent of—and arguably superior to—long-dominant views, which take contract law to be justified on the basis of...

Privatization and the New Medical Pluralism is the first collection of its kind to explore the contemporary terrain of healthcare in Guatemala through reflective ethnography. This volume offers a nuanced portrait of the effects of healthcare privatization for indigenous Maya people, who have historically endured numerous disparities in health and healthcare access. The collection provides an updated understanding of medical pluralism, which concerns not only the tensions and exchanges betw...

In this practical book, Dr. Peter Benson, a leading authority on childhood and adolescence, describes a simple yet powerful plan for awakening the spark that lives inside each and every young person. Sparks—when illuminated and nurtured—give young people joy, energy, and direction. They have the power to change a young person’s life from one of “surviving” to “thriving.” Grounded in new research with thousands of teenagers and parents, Sparks offers a step-by-step approach to help...