Have mentioned before that my desk is next to the shelves where the books come into the GA for review and featuring in magazines. My eye was caught this week by two new books:
The first is by Nick Middleton and is called "Deserts: a Very Short Introduction". It's published by Oxford University Press, who also published the very useful "Geography: a Very Short Introduction" by John Matthews and David Herbert.
Flicking through it, it would seem like a very useful resource for those people doing the Edexcel 'A' level course, or those doing OCR 'A' GCSE
The second book is "Understanding Cultural Geography: Places and Traces" by Jon Anderson
(not the singer with 'Yes')
Has a lovely clear introduction on the importance of culture in our lives, and a range of fascinating chapters. I wanted to sit there and read it rather than get on with what I was supposed to be doing. Available for just under £20 from Amazon. What's nice is the relationship between the cultural forms and PLACE.
The book begins by saying "We live in a world of cultural places... we contribute to it every day and night."
Context is vital of course with culture, and I use the word a lot when describing the work that teachers do...
Cultural geography tries to explore "the intersections of context and culture. It asks why cultural activities happen in particular ways in particular contexts."
Some really interesting sections looking at things like: Disneyfication, Belfast murals, Banksy and Graffiti and the Berlin Wall. Chapter 4 looks at the whole idea of Knowing (your) Place.
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