{"title":"Books by Mark O'Connell","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781783781980","title":"To Be a Machine","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE 2018\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eShortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2017\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA stunning new non-fiction voice tackles an urgent question... what next for mankind?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Troubling and humorous, this is one of my current give-it-to-everyone books - I buy six copies at a time'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJeanette Winterson\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43403749785778,"sku":"9781783781980","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781783781980.jpg?v=1786026168"},{"product_id":"a-thread-of-violence-by-mark-oconnell","title":"A Thread of Violence","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1982 Malcolm Macarthur, the wealthy heir to a small estate, found himself suddenly without money. The solution, he decided, was to rob a bank. To do this, he would need a gun and a car. In the process of procuring them, he killed two people, and the circumstances of his eventual arrest in the apartment of Ireland's Attorney General nearly brought down the government. The case remains one of the most shocking in Ireland's history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMark O'Connell has long been haunted by the story of this brutal double murder. But in recent years this haunting has become mutual. When O'Connell sets out to unravel the mysteries still surrounding these horrific and inexplicable crimes, he tracks down Macarthur himself, now an elderly man living out his days in Dublin and reluctant to talk. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs the two men circle one another, O'Connell is pushed into a confrontation with his own narrative: what does it mean to write about a murderer?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44625004691634,"sku":"9781783787715","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781783787715_8949c131-1de8-48e7-8011-2437623d4218.jpg?v=1786025491"},{"product_id":"9780754835301","title":"Illustrated Encyclopedia of Signs, Symbols \u0026 Dream Interpretation","description":"The visual vocabulary and secret language that shape our thoughts and dreams and dictate our reactions to the world, with more than 2200 vivid images \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMany symbols carry an elemental power that transcends boundaries and holds significance for other cultures. This comprehensive and beautiful book discusses and illustrates thousands of these symbols and assesses their position in language, art, literature, mythology, magic, religion and psychology. In the second half of the book, how we dream and how we interpret dreams is analysed as a way of accessing our subconscious fears, desires and preoccupations. The erudite text provides a wealth of cultural background to primal metaphors that are part of mankind’s universal language. The book is both a journey of discovery into the importance of symbolism and dreaming and a vast visual resource of signs and symbols.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294729580917,"sku":"9780754835301","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"9781350496521","title":"Transmedia Theatre Plays","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBetween 2020 and 2022, theatre had to adapt and, in doing so, challenged ideas of what was possible – and what was even 'theatre'.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Due to the global pandemic, an exceptional and wide range of works were made for, or adapted to, brand new conditions and limitations. While these works are defined by interpandemic conditions in the Anthropocene, they serve as portals to thinking about theatre-making in the future.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Gathered in this collection are pieces adapted or made for podcast theatre, a livestream illusionist interactive performance, an audience-uploaded hybrid performance, one-on-one online interaction, lip-synch opera-theatre, climate crisis activist manifesto film\/theatre, spoken word and gaming installation art and multi-location broadcast plays, providing an accessible introduction to 'Transmedia' theatre.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Transmedia theatre has been a boundary-breaking and rich area of performance since the 1990s, but the (by necessity) explosion of works that were created during the early years of the pandemic signalled a new, exciting and accessible method by which theatre-makers could share their work and also challenge their own practices.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e While these specific works are markers of a specific time in performance history, they also point ways forward, not only in terms of form and function, but in how educators, students and fellow practitioners could conceive of re-staging these works in person and\/or on digital platforms.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e For a generation that has grown up online, whose vocabularies of expression are as much digitally native as they are IRL, transmedia theatre, and the realm too of VR and AR story and audience design which it borders, holds a firm place in busting open the realm of the possible.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56297740927349,"sku":"9781350496521","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781350496521_c079e614-f1b6-417e-bb42-b35334480c6a.jpg?v=1786018290"},{"product_id":"bond-queer-bond","title":"Bond, Queer Bond","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e‘Brilliantly researched, lovingly written, a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at some of the magnificent, unsung queer artists who worked on the iconic franchise.’\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e - Tom Rob Smith\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn original, warm-witted and illuminating chronicle about the queer talents that have shaped the James Bond phenomenon in all its forms.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBlending historical insight with new observations and interviews, Bond commentator and author Mark O’Connell presents a dynamic and entertaining James Bond compendium full of new perspectives and imagery, as well as an alternative timeline of 007 history few know exists.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eBond, Queer Bond\u003c\/em\u003e, what might begin as a thoughtful dive into an adjacent world of 007 fast becomes a rich, colourful and compelling manifesto about the queer DNA of a cultural icon– with LGBTQ names and beats, such as Lionel Bart, Richard Chopping, Truman Capote, Peter Hunt, Tom Ford, Doris Fish, Harvey Milk, John Sex, the AIDS crisis, the ballroom scene, pop art icons, and many more, forming the rainbow crosshairs of this book.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJoining O’Connell are guest contributions from the likes of Barbara Broccoli, David Arnold, Mark Gatiss, Putter Smith, Peaches Christ, John Glen, Ann Magnuson, Jon Lys Turner, Jany Temime, Maud Adams and more. The other history of a spy has never been so fabulous.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490310857077,"sku":"9781837050437","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781837050437.jpg?v=1786442198"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-mark-oconnell.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}