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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

The fall of Troy

Peter Ackroyd is one of the top writers of the modern era. His novels and non-fiction writing are equally applauded. He has a strong interest in history and historical figures, having written on Thomas More, the city of London, Oscar Wilde, the Lambs, and poet Chatterton.

Coming soon is his new novel The Fall of Troy. Amazon has some information on this novel:

Synopsis
'I cannot wait to bring you to the plain of Troy. To show you the place where Hector and Achilles fought. To show you the palace of Priam. And the walls where the Trojan women watched their warriors in battle with the invader. It will stir your blood, Sophia.' Sophia Chrysanthis is only 16 when the German archaeologist Herr Obermann comes wooing: he wants a Greek bride who knows her Homer. Sophia passes his test, and soon she is tieing canvas sacking to her legs, so that she can kneel on the hard ground in the trench, removing the earth methodically, identifying salient points, lifting out amphorae and bronze vessels without damaging them. 'Archaeology is not a science,' Obermann says. 'It is an art.' Obermann is very good at the art of archaeology - perhaps too good at it. The amosphere at Troy is tense and mysterious. Sophia finds herself increasingly baffled by the past...not only the remote past that Obermann is so keen to share with her in the form of his beloved epics of the Trojan wars, but also his own, recent past - a past that he has chosen to hide from her. But she, too, is very good at the art of archaeology...

From the Publisher
Brilliant historical novel, set during the 19th century at the time that the Bronze Age site of Troy was being excavated. Peter Ackroyd returns to one of his favourite themes: fakes, forgeries and plagiarism.


See some reviews and more information on Ackroyd

Sunday Herald
The Susjun Agency
Contemporary Authors

Friday, September 01, 2006

CCL on ZoomIn

If you're going off to one of our new libraries, or maybe just one you haven't visited before you can now get a great map view of how to get there from the ZoomIn maps. We've created a group called Christchurch City Libraries or just search by the name of the library e.g. Lyttelton Library. As well as streets it also has aerial photography - only black and white unfortunately.

Get reading & listening suggestions

A new site has launched where you can get suggestions from "trusted authorities" such as Oprah, Anthony Robbins, Deepak Chopra and heaps more - so far the topics seem mostly based around self-improvement and business topics. Its just getting going, but an interesting idea. Check out Suggestica now.