This book provides a broad introduction to the scientific and psychological study of music, exploring how music is processed by our brains, affects us emotionally, shapes our personal and cultural identities, and can be used in therapeutic and educational contexts.Why are some people unable to carry a tune while others are musical savants? What do our musical preferences say about our personality and the culture in which we were raised? Why do certain songs remind ...

Ronnie is the younger of two children, neither of whom ever knew their father. Her brother Peter is six years older than she is. Both children live with mum who is a drunken, lustful, emotional wreck; a woman who is guilt ridden by her past and unable to sustain healthy relationships with the opposite sex or her children. Mum provides Ronnie and Peter with a succession of stepfather figures; using the men in her life as a meal ticket and passport to a good time until she tires of them and ...

I was born in Portlaw and when my time comes to lie at the other side of the green sod, it is my wish that half my ashes shall be placed upon my grandparents' grave, William and Mary Fanning, along with my uncles, Willie Fanning and Johnnie Fanning who are also buried there. The remaining half of my ashes will be placed at a spot on the Haworth Moor.Apart from writing two musical plays between 2005 and 2009, I'd stopped writing for a number of years. It was only after I had met my ...

The social cohesion of any civilised society cannot be achieved without the eradication of high unemployment, mass homelessness and class division. While ever this triple scourge plagues our country, Britain will remain a divided nation, unable to harness the full potential of its human resources.The provision of adequate shelter, to act as a base from which meaningful tasks can be performed, alongside the rightful expectation to be treated equally, are the basic rights of every ci...

I was born in Portlaw and when my time comes to lie at the other side of the green sod, it is my wish that half my ashes shall be placed upon my grandparents' grave, William and Mary Fanning, along with my uncles, Willie Fanning and Johnnie Fanning who are also buried there. The remaining half of my ashes will be placed at a spot on the Haworth Moor.Apart from writing two musical plays between 2005 and 2009, I'd stopped writing for a number of years. It was only after I had met my ...

This definitive reference resource examines how music affects human beings and their interactions in and with the world. The interdisciplinary nature of the work provides a starting place for students to situate the status of music within the social sciences in fields such as anthropology, communications, psychology, linguistics, sociology, sports, political science and economics, as well as biology and the health sciences.Features:Approximately 450 a...

The true test of any great nation is not what it achieves, but how it endures. Africa is a great nation and the endurance of its people over many centuries is a testament to their capacity to survive with dignity within an all-too-often cruel and intolerant world.For many centuries, the people of Africa experienced colonisation, enslavement, economic exploitation, apartheid, disenfranchisement, resettlement and segregation. Throughout these hardships they kept their faith in their ...

I was born in Portlaw, County Waterford and came to West Yorkshire, England at the age of 4 years, where I have lived ever since. As I grew up, my mother used to tell me tales of Portlaw. Being a natural-born Irish person with a healthy imagination, she was also a natural-born storyteller. Consequently, I have no way of knowing how truthful the recall and re-telling these stories were and was pulled in opposing directions in how best to write them.I eventually decided to use the me...

King Lucre and Queen Avarice ruled the Kingdom of Cameo with hearts of stone. They were cruel, greedy and the most selfish of people. However much they had, they never seemed to have enough. The more they had, the more they wanted. Their appetites appeared insatiable. Upon their wedding day, the greedy King and Queen decided that they could never be truly happy until they had become the most powerful King and Queen the world had ever known and their Kingdom stretched beyond the border of a...

When good people fail to stand up for what they believe to be right, bad behaviour is provided with a golden opportunity to triumph! Into such environments, bullying is born and permitted to flourish.Maw is born exceptionally small and enters secondary school life to face the school bully. He confronts the bully and challenges him to a boxing match. On the very start of his fourteenth year of life, Maw makes a wish upon a shooting star and from that moment, his life changes. He awa...

This is a love story is about a travelling Romany who visits the home of Lizzy Lanigan in Portlaw during the year of 1955. Lizzy is a newly-wed, who was married a mere three months earlier. The peg-selling gypsy persuades Lizzy to have her palm read for the cost of two shillings.The Romany fortune teller then informs Lizzy that she will give birth to a girl child within the year who will be named 'Mary'. Lizzy is informed that she will give birth to a total of seven children during...

In 'Four Crude Dudes and the Land of Hope', the story is set in the days of the Californian Gold Rush. It tells how the lives of five characters who are strangers, impact upon the lives of each other and how the thief, cheat, liar and bully get their comeuppance and how the honest and God-fearing farmer of selfless disposition is rewarded.The story is set against the backcloth of a mining town in California and it provides a good taste of what the prospectors of the time would have experie...