NEW BOOK JUST PUBLISHED:
James Arthur Heard (1798-1875)
and the education of the poor in Russia
by James Muckle
Among British immigrants to Russia
the story of James Heard is one of the most unusual. Aged 18. with minimal
knowledge of Russian and a few weeks’ training as a teacher, he travelled alone
in 1817 to the Province of Gomel’, not knowing quite what he would find there.
Within a very few years he had proved himself as an innovative educator, whose
achievements in establishing schools for the poor had become widely known in
Russia, and as a linguist of considerable ability.
He settled in St Petersburg, where he worked tirelessly to promote the method of mutual instruction developed by Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster. He wrote the first ever good Russian primer for English-speaking learners. He published an excellent translation of Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield and an English novel, as well as numerous handbooks for learners of French, English and Russian.
James Heard became a Russian citizen. He was associated with the construction of the St Petersburg-Moscow railway; he promoted progressive causes in education lifelong, and his descendents continue to play a distinguished part in Russian academic life.
This tribute, written with the encouragement of the Heard family in Russia, records what is known of James’ Heard’s achievement and that of some of his descendents.
170 pp., hardback, illustrated in colour.
Bibliographies, Index
price: £16.95
Special price to purchasers sending cheque with order (or making
electronic payment): £12.50 including postage.
ISBN 978-1-900405-20-1
Some comments already received:
'A fascinating book' (Professor Simon Franklin.) 'Riveting' (Dr Patrick Miles). 'A milestone in the history of Anglo-Russian affairs' (Dr Gerald Stone)
'A splendid book, from which I got a real sense of the atmosphere in Russia in those days' (Professor Brian Murphy),
and from Professor Alexander Heard, the great-great-grandson of James Arthur Heard:
'I read your magnificent book at one sitting. (My wife was enraptured by the book too.) The epigraphs, illustrations and portraits are very good... the classified bibliographies and the Index are beautifully done. Format and binding quite excellent.'
The author, James Muckle, will be addressing the Great Britain-Russia Society on James Heard (and more: see below) in London on Monday 22 April 2013. For details, see www.gbrussia.org
Readers interested in James Heard may also be interested in Sarah Biller (nee Kilham), who collaborated with Heard in St Petersburg. A biography of Mrs Biller has been published: Sarah Biller of St Petersburg, a Sheffield teacher in 19th century Russia, by John Dunstan, York: Sessions, 2009. This is not a Bramcote publication, but we shall be happy to forward enquiries to Dr Dunstan. The talk on 22 April will concern Sarah Biller as well as James Heard.
 | BAD NEWS... and GOOD NEWS about TRANZIT and KOMPAS: |
First, the bad news:
| Both Tranzit and Kompas are out of print, and for technical reasons reprints are impossible. |
| However, audio CDs of the texts from both courses are still available at £12.95 for each. |
ISBN for Tranzit audio CD: 978-1-900405-14-0
ISBN for Kompas audio CD: 978-1-900405-09-6
Now the GOOD NEWS:
| We have put the entire text of each course on to disk in PDF files, along with mp3 versions of the recordings. We and our authors have relinquished copyright to this extent: teachers who buy a copy of the disk have the right to print off as many copies of the texts as they need for their classes or students, and to make copies of the recordings for use within their school or college and for students to use for private study. It is perhaps not so handy as having the books, but is better than nothing. |
| PRICE. We are charging £35.00 for each CD-R to customers including postage and packing who apply to us direct (see contact details on home page), strictly cheque with order. This price is for direct orders to us, the publisher. You will pay a higher price (£50.00) if you go via the book trade, and you may even have to pay VAT in addition: Bramcote Press is not registered for VAT. |
ISBN 978-1-900405-19-5 TRANZIT CD-R £35.00
ISBN 978-1-900405-18-8 KOMPAS CD-R £35.00
Still available
| Навигатор/Navigator. A course for GCE AS and A2 level Russian |
by Michael Ransome and a group of active teachers: Katya Solovyova, Maggie Bowden, Christopher Cooke, Steven Hogan, Rachel Smith, Diana Swain, Claire Jenkins, Nadia Taylor
ISBN 978-1-900405-17-1
CD-rom containing MP3-format recordings in Russian, PowerPoint presentations, and written materials for students and teachers.
A highly successful AS and A2 Russian course first published in 2009.
This venture by one of the authors of the highly successful TRANZIT and KOMPAS and by several other contributors, all of whom are practising teachers of A-level Russian, is now fully available and is proving very popular with teachers. There is no textbook, and we are not intending to publish one, but we have taken the following course of action:
Schools and colleges may subscribe to the project for £150.00 per institution, and in return will be granted a licence to make as many copies as they like of texts and recordings from the CD for themselves, their colleagues and their pupils/students.
We can e-mail to you a selection of specimen materials. Please contact us if interested.
A reviewer writes:
'As a full-time classroom teacher, I find it is a great relief to have such relevant and up to date materials at my fingertips. There has never been so much choice!' (Paula Limbert, in Rusistika)
To
order, please see our contact details on the Home Page.
For list of all our publications, click The books we publish at Bramcote Press
For website contents, click Bramcote Table of Contents Page
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