Jim Smyth

A little book on the Elements of Composition is a brief discussion on the main elements of composition: dominance subordination in terms of location, size, shape, division of spaces, balance, values, eye contorl among other elements. This is not a "how to" book. It is the classical theory of composition as taught in academies in many countries across the centuries. Understanding these elements will give the reader a greater grasp of how many masterpieces from the renaissance to the moderns were put together and will give you a greater understanding of those masterpieces. These elements will give you tools to solve compositional issues like a master.

The "Necromanicon" is an epic poem of a Necromancer's journey in Hades, the Land of the Dead. It recounts the metaphysical knowledge and mystical experiences of the necromancer as he passes through the stages of Hell to learn the great illusions of existence.

Britain in the 1950s had a distinctive political and intellectual climate. It was the age of Keynesianism, of welfare state consensus, incipient consumerism, and, to its detractors - the so-called 'Angry Young Men' and the emergent New Left - a new age of complacency. While Prime Minister Harold Macmillan famously remarked that 'most of our people have never had it so good', the playwright John Osborne lamented that 'there aren't any good, brave causes left'. Philosophers, political scientists, economists and historians embraced the supposed 'end of ideology' and fetishized 'value-free' technique and analysis. This turn is best understood in the context of the cultural Cold War in which 'ideology' served as shorthand for Marxist, but it also drew on the rich resources and traditions of English empiricism and a Burkean scepticism about abstract theory in general. Ironically, cultural critics and historians such as Raymond Williams and E. P. Thompson showed at this time that the thick catalogue of English moral, aesthetic and social critique could also be put to altogether different purposes. Jim Smyth here shows that, despite being allergic to McCarthy-style vulgarity, British intellectuals in the 1950s operated within powerful Cold War paradigms all the same.

The story of the life of Henry Joy McCracken is fused with the history and environs of eighteenth-century Belfast. Of stout Presbyterian stock, McCracken's family were the founders of the Belfast Newsletter, working also as textile merchants, rope-makers and philanthropists. Where the McCrackens and Joys exemplified the economic dynamism and vibrant civic culture of eighteenth-century Belfast, their son in sharp contrast would come to exemplify Irish republican values as a founding member of the Society of the United Irishmen and leader in the Battle of Antrim in 1798. Immersed in the political turbulence and polarisation of the 1790s, this monograph by Jim Smyth, the latest addition to the Life and Times New Series, charts the life and legacy of one of the more socially radical of the United Irishmen leadership. Tracing the force of this revolutionary's presence throughout his youth, his time as a rebel, his term as a prisoner and his ultimate end at the gallows in Cornmarket in 1798, this book honours the endurance of McCracken's story and cements its importance in the popular imagination of the city from which McCracken hailed.

Don Pedro's story highlights the necessity of preaching God's Word to those in need of moral and social regeneration. His ministry as a pastor and an evangelist is an outstanding model of selfless, loving dedication and proven leadership. His courageous, yet tender responses to victims of sin and deception will impress all who read the record of his life. His seventy years of faithfulness to Christ give us a beautiful and almost unparalleled pattern for today's ministers of the truth. From the beginning, Don Pedro had a particular appeal for young people. Read here of how he dealt with personal concerns, how he handled issues of family and church, and how he carried out the great mission of his life ­- introducing men and women to the Savior and nurturing them in the Scriptures. His warm and transparent friendship, modest lifestyle, and caring spirit still draw us closer to the sovereign Lord who, in His grace, blessed Colombia and regions beyond through this God-fearing giant from Quindio. Biographical narratives, photography, and overall compilation by Jim Smyth.

This book is a detailed analysis of policing in Northern Ireland. Tracing its history from 1922, Ellison and Smyth portray the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) as an organisation burdened by its past as a colonial police force. They analyse its perceived close relationship with unionism and why, for many nationalists, the RUC embodied the problem of the legitimacy of Northern Ireland, arguing that decisions made on the organisation, composition and ideology of policing in the early years of the state had consequences which went beyond the everyday practice of policing. Examining the reorganisations of the RUC in the 1970s and 1980s, Ellison and Smyth focus on the various structural, legal and ideological components, the professionalisation of the force and the development of a coherent, if contradictory, ideology.

The paperback edition of the extremely popular The Men of No Property is a study of the popular dimensions of Irish radicalism in the age of the French revolution. It focuses on the lower-class secret society, the Defenders, and the more familiar face of radicalism in this period, the Society of United Irishmen. Particular attention is paid to the vigorous traditions of street protest in eighteenth-century Dublin. The picture which emerges is of a revolutionary movement which was both more radical in its rhetoric and objectives and more popular in its social base than has previously been allowed.