This book explores the hitherto neglected history of the campaign for state funding of the arts. By focusing on the important but forgotten movements for music and drama subsidy before and during WWII, Howard Webber makes an important contribution to the history of arts subsidy. Before the Arts Council rediscovers three forgotten but influential campaigns for state support of the arts in Britain in the 1930s and wartime. Webber's impressive historical excavation challenges existing scholarship, which argues that arts subsidy was the result of the war, and instead re-situates the campaign's origins in the pre-war years. Webber does so by drawing on correspondence from influential figures including Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Maynard Keynes and J.B Priestley, along with extensive use of government papers. Before the Arts Council is a lively, compelling and scrupulously researched account of a subject consistently misunderstood and misrepresented. It changes our understanding of an aspect of British cultural history we thought we knew well. It will appeal to students of twentieth century social and political history and to anyone with a general interest in the arts and in this period.

When a high school basketball star goes missing, a town's secrets are exposed in this edge-of-your seat, addictive read. At 8:53 pm, thousands of people watched as Jake Foster secured the state title for his basketball team with his signature fadeaway. But by the next morning, he's disappeared without a trace. Nobody has any idea where he is: not his best friend who knows him better than anyone else, not his ex-girlfriend who may still have feelings for him, not even his little brother who never expected Jake to abandon him. Rumors abound regarding Jake's whereabouts. Was he abducted? Did he run away to try to take his game to the next level? Or is it something else, something darker--something they should have seen coming? Told from the points of view of those closest to Jake, this gripping, suspenseful novel reminds us that the people we think we know best are sometimes hiding the most painful secrets.

'I REALLY love it. Buy it for your kids, your parents, your grandparents. Mostly buy it for yourself' Holly Smale, author of the Geek Girl series 'This book is what I needed as a kid! Empathetic, joyful and beautifully authentic. I loved it!' Elle McNicoll, author of A Kind of Spark *The beautiful true story of one girl's journey growing up autistic - and the challenges she faced in the 'normal' world* I'm not like the other children in my class . . . and that's an actual scientific FACT. Hi! My name is Abigail, and I'm autistic. But I didn't know I was autistic until I was an adult-sort-of-person*. This is my true story of growing up in the confusing 'normal' world, all the while missing some Very Important Information about myself. There'll be scary moments involving toilets and crowded trains, heart-warming tales of cats and pianos, and funny memories including my dad and a mysterious tub of ice cream. Along the way you'll also find some Very Crucial Information about autism. If you've ever felt different, out of place, like you don't fit in . . . this book is for you. *I've never really felt like an actual-adult-person, as you'll soon discover in this book... 'Funny, fascinating . . . a rewarding and highly entertaining read' Guardian Told through the author's remarkable words, and just as remarkable illustrations, this is the book for those who've never felt quite right in the 'normal' world.

This is the story of two short-lived artist-run spaces that are associated with some of the most innovative developments in the arts in Britain in the late 1960s. The Drury Lane Arts Lab (1967–69) was home to the first UK screenings of Andy Warhol's twin-screen 3 hour film Chelsea Girls, challenging exhibitions (John and Yoko / John Latham / Takis / Roelof Louw), poetry and music (first UK performance of Erik Satie's 24-hour Vexations) and fringe theatre (People Show / Freehold / Jane Arden's Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven / Will Spoor Mime Theatre). The Robert Street 'New Arts Lab' (1969–71) housed Britain's first video workshop TVX, the London Filmmakers Co-op's first workshop and a 5-days-a-week cinema devoted to showing new work by moving-image artists (David Larcher / Malcolm Le Grice / Sally Potter / Carolee Schneemann / Peter Gidal). It staged J G Ballard's infamous Crashed Cars exhibition and John & Dianne Lifton's pioneering computer-aided dance/mime performances. The impact of London's Labs led to an explosion of new artist-led spaces across Britain. This book relates the struggles of FACOP (Friends of the Arts Council Operative) to make the case for these new kinds of space and these new art-forms and the Arts Council's hesitant response – in the context of a popular press already hostile to youth culture, experimental art and the 'underground'. With a Foreword by Andrew Wilson, Curator Modern & Contemporary British Art and Archives, Tate Gallery.

This important new book offers an intellectual history of the ‘arts council’ policy model, identifying and exploring the ideas embedded in the model and actions of intellectuals, philanthropists and wealthy aesthetes in its establishment in the mid-twentieth century. The book examines the history of arts advocacy for national arts policies in the UK, Canada and the USA, offering an interdisciplinary approach that combines social and intellectual history, political philosophy and literary analysis. The book has much to offer academics, cultural policy and management students, artists, arts managers, arts advocates, cultural policymakers and anyone interested in the history and current moment of public arts funding in the West.