Francis Pollen

Alan Powers

Arts & Photography

Robert Dugdale

The Soane Museum is delighted to announce a major new exhibition celebrating the architectural writings, recordings and films of the poet Sir John Betjeman (1906 - 1984). The exhibition, which marks the centenary of Betjeman's birth, will bring together rare archive material, photographic and film footage as well as original art work from Betjeman's friends and contemporaries such as John Piper, in a celebration of his life-long passion for architecture.A major new catalogue, featuring contributions by Dan Cruickshank, Alan Powers, Ruth Guilding, Mark Girouard, Anthony Symondson, Gavin Stamp, Edward Mirzoeff and Ptolemy Dean, will be published to accompany the exhibition.

John Betjeman: A Passion for Architecture

Jonathan Glancey

c-lycett-green

Ptolemy Dean

Dan Cruikshank

Gavin Stamp

Sir John Soane"s Museum

For the last 20 years, Alan Powers, who lives near Cape Cod, has experimented with birdcalls—mimicking and answering the calls he hears around his country home, in cities, and abroad in France and Italy. In BirdTalk, he celebrates this connection with entertaining allusions to history, literature, travel, linguistics, and other fields. The result is a charming and erudite stroll through an area of interest sometimes lost in the urban din. Powers reveals “birdtalk” by mapping the history of ornithological studies, quoting such bird fanciers as Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson and discussing specific techniques. In one of the most amusing chapters, he describes his attempts to teach the birds new symphonic riffs on their own calls. This illustrated literary inquiry into birdcalls is a nature book with a gift-book look.

BirdTalk: Conversations with Birds

Science & Math

Richard C. Wheeler

Susan Mohl Powers

Biological Sciences

Frog Books

Giordano Bruno was as modern in this play as in his universe filled with inhabitable worlds.  NASA is right now looking for the worlds Bruno predicted.  But Bruno is  downright funny in his play,  as he is "dead serious" in the works for which he died.  Here we're more likely to die--laughing.          Bony thinks he's bedding his lover, but it's his wife.   The scientist Bart spends every moment trying to make gold, until his ignored wife takes a lover.  The teacher Manny reads his poems to his boys hoping to attract them as they attract him.  How the boys defeat Manny is humorous.  Several Naples street hooligans put on security jackets and steal from Manny and others.  At least one character above is  bisexual. Is this a contemporary play, or Candelaio from nearly 440 years ago?           Bruno only wrote one play,  the best first play ever written.  Printed in Paris in 1582, the play waited four hundred years for the world to catch up to Bruno--not just in astronomy.  Many know Giordano Bruno's  martyrdom, but nobody thinks  him  outrageously funny, until they read this play, and this version.               Author Alan W Powers also wrote The Worlds of Giordano Bruno (2011).

Candelaio by Giordano Bruno

Literature & Fiction

Humor & Satire

FeedARead.com

When entering a house, you can quickly ascertain a person's attitude towards books - in a true booklover's home, there are no rooms that do not contain books. While some people succumb to towering piles in every corner, storing books can be achieved with more graceful and ingenious design solutions. Living with books means learning how to incorporate them into your home without letting them take over. This is a beautiful book of full-color photographs, with chapters devoted to books in different rooms, from traditional libraries and dens to kitchens, bathroom s, and hallways. It addresses all aspects: storage, display, the use of books as structural elements and furniture, and advice on custom-building bookshelves (including step-by-step instructions for five different projects).

Living with Books

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Crafts & Hobbies

Mitchell Beazley

Written by renowned architectural historian Alan Powers, 'Serge Chermayeff: Designer Architect Teacher' is a fascinating study of one of the major unsung forces of twentieth-century architecture. Architect of the De La Warr Pavilion and teacher to Rogers and Foster are only a fraction of his immense life and works. This keenly-anticipated title contains over 200 illustrations, 30 of which are in colour. 'Serge Chermayeff: Designer, Architect, Teacher' tells the extraordinary life story of one of the pioneers of twentieth century architecture. Best known for his collaboration with Eric Mendelsohn on the iconic De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea, Chermayeff emigrated to America in 1940 to concentrate on teaching. Two distinguished careers spanning two distant countries and virtually a whole century have, until now, conspired to obscure his true influence on the world of architecture. This book, containing 200 black and white and 30 colour illustrations, will fill the gap in the market in the literature about twentieth century architecture. Born during 1900 in Grozny, Chechnya, into an oil-rich Jewish family, he was educated in England but was unable to take up his place at Cambridge after his family's wealth was lost in the 1917 Revolution. He eventually found himself running the modern design department at Waring & Gillow after years earning a precarious living variously as a journalist, professional dancer (including a spell in Buenos Aires managing a dance hall), and interior designer. He quickly became a 'name' along with the likes of Wells Coates, moving in the right circles at a time of intellectual and ideological ferment. He became a key member of the architectural avant-garde, developing his design philosophy based on physical and psychological comfort and visual harmony. As well as the De La Warr Pavilion, Chermayeff produced several important buildings (including his own house at Bentley Wood) before his change of continent and career focus. His teaching career began in earnest, leading eventually to posts at Harvard under J.L. Sert and at Yale under Paul Rudolph, where his students included Norman Foster and Richard Rogers. A brilliant, witty and sometimes devastatingly pessimistic lecturer, Chermayeff's academic career culminated in two books. One of these, Community and Privacy (with Christopher Alexander, 1963) was a bestseller, giving Chermayeff a second wave of fame. He had a wide circle of friends in other disciplines, from art to politics, economics and science, allowing his influence to be understood in the wider intellectual and political context. In an obituary tribute in 1997, his friend and collaborator Alexander Tzonis wrote, 'there are aspects of Chermayeff's thinking that remain as fresh, unfulfilled, topical and demanding as at the time of their inception in the 1960s, 1950s, or even the 1930s. A book about them is urgently needed.' 'Serge Chermayeff: Designer, Architect, Teacher' portrays his conviction in the power of positive thought and action for beneficial change and offers many lessons for the architecture profession in the twenty-first century.

Serge Chermayeff: Designer, Architect, Teacher

RIBA Publications

John Campbell: Rediscovery of an Arts and Crafts Architect

Biographies & Memoirs

The Prince Of Wales's Institute Of Architecture

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Books by Alan Powers