'A craze blown across the Channel from Britain to Brussels - people who meet to talk about the works of the Brontë sisters.' (From a Brussels press article about the newly-formed Brussels Brontë Group). In 1842 Charlotte and Emily Brontë arrived in Brussels to study French at the Pensionnat Heger boarding school at the bottom of the 'Belliard steps'. Their stay in the Belgian capital is the least-known episode of their lives, despite the importance of Charlotte's years in Belgium for her life and work; two of her novels ('Villette' and 'The Professor') were inspired by her time in Brussels and her love for her teacher, Constantin Heger. 'Down the Belliard Steps' tells the story of a group of enthusiasts coming together in Brussels to explore the sisters' time in the city. Beginning with her personal experience as a newcomer to 'the capital of Europe' in 2004, Helen MacEwan tells of her journey of discovery into the history of a vanished quarter of Brussels and her quest to seek out fellow Brontë enthusiasts - a quest that leads to the formation of a literary society, the Brussels Brontë Group. 'Down the Belliard Steps' describes the people she encounters and the adventures she has along the way. We meet an Heger descendant, learn about the re-discovery of a lost Brontë 'devoir' (one of the Brontës' 40 extant French essays written under Heger's direction) and search in Brussels cemeteries for the tomb of a friend of the Brontës who died in a Brussels school. We meet researchers and people inspired creatively by the Brontës. We delve into what it is that draws so many people, from all walks of life, to feel an affinity with members of the world's most famous literary family. Today, the Brussels Brontë Group is a flourishing, multinational literary community, promoting interest in the Brontës through talks, guided walks and reading groups. 'Down the Belliard Steps', crammed with information and anecdotes about Charlotte and Emily's time in the Belgian capital, is a light-hearted but intensely personal and romantic account of the Group's genesis and flowering. The book is a 'must-read' for literary enthusiasts and if any encouragement were needed to visit the Brontës' Brussels, it would be difficult to find anything more seductive than this enchanting narrative.

This book, which is the fourth edition of the Eigen Theory of the Physical World, presents the eigen theory of the natural physical world of geometrical origin the principal feature of which happens to be the proper form of dark matter. According to this theory the fundamental form of a particle of matter is a continuous distribution of points that forms a manifold of its own. Each of these points results from the intersection of a corresponding pair of eigen velocity vectors that generate the wave aspect of the wave-particle duality of matter. The theory evolves in three stages. The first stage develops the pair of eigen velocity vectors. These vectors are complete with their own field of a pair of symmetric and antisymmetric tensors characteristic of gravitation and electromagnetism respectively. The second stage transforms the wave aspect into its very opposite, the particle aspect, as a pair of particles that are the progenitors of proton and electron. The base manifolds of these particles are made up of the proper form dark matter. The third stage brings together proton and electron as the Hydrogen atom which in effect is the proper particle aspect of the wave-particle duality of matter. In the eigen theory General Relativity becomes complete and Quantum Mechanics gets restructured; in particular the principle of uncertainty ceases to exist.

A fascinating and thorough account of Charlotte and Emily Brontë's formative stay in Brussels during 1842-43The Brontës' time in Belgium, five years before they became best-selling authors, is the least-known episode of their lives, but is a fascinating and important one. The book follows in the tracks of the sisters in Brussels, describing their life in the city: though the school where they came to study French has now disappeared, there is still a lot to be seen of the city the sisters knew; two of Charlotte's four novels (Villette and The Professor) are also based on her spell abroad, which was pivotal to her both as a writer and personally, since she fell in love with her teacher Constantin Heger. Charlotte's moving and harrowing letters to Heger—a respectable married man—are reproduced in full here and belie the common image of her as the motherly and strait-laced Brontë. Also including maps of the period, extracts from Villette reflecting real-life experiences in Brussels and translations of the sisters' little-known "Belgian essays," what emerges is a complete portrait of a slice of literary history—as well as a haunting evocation of a time and a place that came to haunt the Brontës themselves.

Twenty year old Debbie Wilson, very sexually active, bumps, literally, into a handsome stranger who is more than twice her age. But that doesn't bother her as she's had many a one night stand with men of all ages. Steven, the handsome stranger, is a widower at 47 years old and lives alone. Debbie is instantly keen to make him her next one night of passion. However, Stevie, as she begins to call him, is very reluctant to bow to her desires. The age difference is his biggest obstacle even if it is no obstacle for Debbie. Also Steven's position as a schoolteacher puts a block on any advances by any girl that is, or potentially is, a pupil at his school. He is a black belt at karate, rides a Harley Davidson and speaks Italian. Although Debbie continues in her sexual lifestyle, she becomes besotted with Stevie, even imagining it is he she Is with when in sexual activity with other men. Stevie meantime holds back his feelings as he has some skeletons lurking in his closet that he keeps close to himself. Memories of his late wife come back to him but he enjoys dating with Debbie for the companionship and friendship to the point he yearns to be with her. But Debbie's life continues with exciting ventures such as a business trip to Scotland and a friendship with another woman that develops into something she never would have believed she would ever do. Steven's story is really exposed when he finally meets Jackie, Debbie's mother. He opens up his heart and unloads all his pent up emotions to add a further stumbling block to his relationship with Debbie. Debbie and Stevie declare their love for each other after a couple of weeks in each other's company and it ultimately leads to the bedroom. But what goes on behind that closed door?

A light-hearted memoir from a music-loving lady of advanced years coping with the effects of MS and following the band BASTILLE. It shows the importance of the internet during the Covid lockdowns, from like-minded fans connecting with each other to remaining up-to-date with BASTILLE news and live 'living-room mini-shows.' It describes how some of her online friends became real friends in person when Covid eased off. Her good fortune to choose to follow a band well known for their upbeat songs about disasters (?) is noted. Her interactions with the lead singer, Dan Smith, were a surprise to everyone and we discover that the entire band are kind and generous to their fans and colleagues. Her trips around the UK for shows are recounted and found to be unexpectedly enriching her life, touched by the amount of kindness afforded to her by companions, fans and venue staff. Written primarily for fans of BASTILLE, it includes a puzzle challenge to find familiar song titles and lyrics within. The story may also chime with disabled concert goers with the pre-concert preparations required to gain tickets and also the logistics needed to attend. What particularly comes across is the affinity that developed between multi-aged fans over the course of two fun-filled years.

Charlotte Brontë: legacies and afterlives is a timely reflection on the persistent fascination and creative engagement with Charlotte Brontë’s life and work. The new essays in this volume, which cover the period from Brontë’s first publication to the twenty-first century, explain why her work has endured in so many different forms and contexts. This book brings the story of Charlotte Brontë’s legacy up to date, analysing the intriguing afterlives of characters such as Jane Eyre and Rochester in neo-Victorian fiction, cinema, television, the stage and, more recently, on the web. Taking a fresh look at 150 years of engagement with one of the best-loved novelists of the Victorian period, from obituaries to vlogs, from stage to screen, from novels to erotic makeovers, this book reveals the author’s diverse and intriguing legacy. Engagingly written and illustrated, the book will appeal to both scholars and general readers.

Brussels has become the “capital” of Europe, serving as the headquarters for key regional and international agencies, including the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, UN organizations, multinational businesses, lobbying firms, governmental groups, and nongovernmental organizations. Its status as a diplomatic, political, and economic center assumes ever greater importance as the EU grows in depth and breadth. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Brussels covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 900 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Brussels.

Charlotte Bronte Revisited looks again at Charlotte Brontë's life and work through 21st-century eyes. Discover her private world of convention, rebellion, and imagination, and how they shaped her life, writing, and obsessions—including the paranormal, nature, feminism and politics. Everybody knows Charlotte Brontë. World-famous for her novel Jane Eyre, she's a giant of literature and has been written about in reverential tones in scores of textbooks over the years. But what do we really know about Charlotte? This is a celebration of all things Charlotte Brontë, and emphatically shows why her writing was so far ahead of its time, and is as relevant today as ever.

The biographer Winifred Gerin (1901-81), who wrote the lives of all four Bronte siblings, stumbled on her literary vocation on a visit to Haworth, after a difficult decade following the death of her first husband. On the same visit she met her second husband, a Bronte enthusiast twenty years her junior. Together they turned their backs on London to live within sight of the Parsonage, Gerin believing that full understanding of the Brontes required total immersion in their environment. Gerin's childhood and youth, like the Brontes', was characterised by a cultured home and intense imaginative life shared with her sister and two brothers, and by family tragedies (the loss of two siblings in early life). Strong cultural influences formed the children's imagination: polyglot parents, French history, the Crystal Palace, Old Vic productions. Winifred's years at Newnham College, Cambridge were enlivened by eccentric characters such as the legendary lecturer Quiller-Couch (Q'), Lytton Strachey's sister Pernel and Bloomsbury's favourite philosopher, G.E. Moore. Her happy life in Paris with her Belgian cellist husband, Eugene Gerin, was brought to an abrupt end by the Second World War, in which the couple had many adventures: fleeing occupied Belgium, saving Jews in Nice in Vichy France, escaping through Spain and Portugal to England, where they did secret war work for Political Intelligence near Bletchley. After Eugene's death in 1945 Winifred coped with bereavement through poetry and playwriting until discovering her true literary metier on the trip to Haworth. She also wrote about Elizabeth Gaskell, Anne Thackeray Ritchie and Fanny Burney. The book is based on her letters and on her unpublished memoir.

Prodigy, visionary, 'outlaw,' orator and explorer. As society's outsiders, the exceptional subjects of this study inspired a new breed of women—and one another. Finalist of the PROSE Award for Best Book in Literature by the Association of American Publishers Mary Shelley, Emily Brontë, George Eliot, Olive Schreiner and Virginia Woolf: they all wrote dazzling books that forever changed the way we see history. In Outsiders, award-winning biographer Lyndall Gordon shows how these five novelists shared more than talent. In a time when a woman's reputation was her security, each of these women lost hers. They were unconstrained by convention, writing against the grain of their contemporaries, prophetically imagining a different future. We have long known the individual greatness of each of these writers, but in linking their creativity to their lives as outcasts, Gordon throws new light on the genius they share. All five lost their mothers in childbirth or at a young age. With no female role model present, they learned from books—and sometimes from an enlightened mentor. Crucially, each had to imagine what a woman could be in order to invent a voice of her own. The passion in their own lives infused their fiction. Writing with passionate intelligence of her own, Gordon reveals that these renegade writers inspired a new breed of women who wished to change a world locked in war, violence, exploitation, and sexual abuse. Gordon's biographies have always shown the indelible connection between life and art: an intuitive, exciting and revealing approach that has been highly praised. In Outsiders, she crafts nuanced portraits of Shelley, Brontë, Eliot, Schreiner and Woolf, naming each of these writers as prodigy, visionary, 'outlaw,' orator, and explorer, and shows how they came, they saw, and they left us changed. Today, following the tsunami of women's protest at widespread abuse, we do more than read them; we listen and live with their astonishing bravery and eloquence.