John Baxter

A Paris Christmas is the charming, funny and improbable tale of how a man who was raised on white bread - and didn't speak a word of French - unexpectedly ended up with the sacred duty of preparing the Christmas dinner for a venerable Parisian family. Previously published as "Cooking for Claudine".

Art, Literature, Love, and Life on the Cote d'Azur Get swept up in the glitz and glamour of the French Riviera as author and filmmaker John Baxter takes readers on a whirlwind tour through the star-studded cultural history of the Cote d'Azur that's sure to delight travellers, Francophiles, and culture lovers alike. Readers will discover the dramatic lives of the legendary artists, writers, actors, and politicians who frequented the world's most luxurious resort during its golden age. In 25 vivid chapters, Baxter introduces the iconic figures indelibly linked to the South of France - artist Henri Matisse, who was inspired by the Riviera's colour and light; writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose Riviera hosts inspired 'Tender is the Night'; Coco Chanel, whose Saint-Tropez tan became an international fashion trend; and many more. Along the way, Baxter takes readers where few people ever get to go: the alluring world of the perfume industry, into the cars and casinos of Monte Carlo, behind-the-scenes at the Cannes Film Festival, to the villa where Picasso and Cocteau smoked opium, and to the hotel where Joseph Kennedy had an affair with Marlene Dietrich. These luminaries celebrated life and created art amid paradise, and this book is the ultimate guide to the Riviera's golden age. AUTHOR: John Baxter is an Australian-born writer, journalist and filmmaker; he has called Paris home since 1989. He is the author of numerous books including the autobiographical Immoveable 'Feast: A Paris Christmas', 'The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris', 'Chronicles of Old Paris: Exploring the Historic City of Light', and 'The Golden Moments of Paris: A Guide to the Paris of the 1920s'. REVIEWS of 'Chronicles of Old Paris' and 'The Gold Moments of Paris': "This richly illustrated and beautifully formatted work" - Library Journal "This lovely, gorgeous and intelligent book examines the Paris of old and not so old, with its many fascinating figures and tales." -Chicago Tribune "Excellent walking tours are accompanied by engaging anecdotes?.." - France Magazine "While this is a nonfiction book, it reads like fiction, whereby the reader journeys through Paris at different times in its history, through the stories of famous people and places." - ForeWord Review 100 + illustrations and photos

The preeminent expat writer on Paris and author of The Most Beautiful Walk in the World takes you on an unforgettable nocturnal stroll through five iconic Parisian neighborhoods and his own memories. John Baxter enchanted readers with his literary tour of Paris in The Most Beautiful Walk in the World. Now, this expat who has lived in the City of Light for more than twenty years introduces you to the city's streets after dark, revealing hidden treasures and unexpected delights. As he takes you through five of the city's greatest neighborhoods-Montmartre, Montparnasse, the Marais, and more-Baxter shares pithy anecdotes about his life in France, as well as fascinating knowledge he has gleaned from leading literary tours of the city by dark. With Baxter as your guide, you will discover the City of Light as never before, walking in the ghostly footsteps of Marcel Proust, the quintessential night owl for whom memory was more vivid than reality; Hungarian photographer Gyula Halasz, known as Brassai, who prowled the midnight streets, camera in hand, with his friend Henry Miller; Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupault, who shared the Surrealists' taste for the city's shadowed, secret world; and Josephine Baker and other African-American performers who dazzled adventurous Parisians at late-night jazz clubs. A feast for the mind and the senses, Five Nights in Paris takes you through the haunts of Paris's most storied artists and writers to the scenes of its most infamous crimes in a lively off-the-beaten-path tour not found in any guidebook.

A preeminent writer on Paris, John Baxter brilliantly brings to life one of the most dramatic and fascinating periods in the city's history. From 1914 through 1918 the terrifying sounds of World War I could be heard from inside the French capital. For four years, Paris lived under constant threat of destruction. And yet in its darkest hour, the City of Light blazed more brightly than ever. It's taxis shuttled troops to the front; its great railway stations received reinforcements from across the world; the grandest museums and cathedrals housed the wounded, and the Eiffel Tower hummed at all hours relaying messages to and from the front. At night, Parisians lived with urgency and without inhibition. Artists like Pablo Picasso achieved new creative heights. And the war brought a wave of foreigners to the city for the first time, including Ernest Hemingway and Baxter's own grandfather, Archie, whose diaries he used to reconstruct a soldier's-eye view of the war years. A revelatory achievement, Paris at the End of the World shows how this extraordinary period was essential in forging the spirit of the city beloved today.

***AUSTRALIAN AUTHOR*** Following the popular 'Chronicles of Old Paris', in 'The Golden Moments of Paris', John Baxter has uncovered more fascinating true stories about the characters that gave Paris its "character" in the years between World War I and World War II. Explore more about one of the world's most beautiful and loved cities in 26 fact-filled, humorous, and dramatic stories about the famed Annees Folles?the Crazy Years-at the turn of the 20th century in Paris. Learn about Gertrude Stein and her famous writers' salon, Salvador Dali and the Surrealists, the birth of Chanel No. 5, and the antics of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the "lost generation." Then see what these areas look like today by following along on the guided walking tours of Paris's historic neighbourhoods and the cafes, clubs, and brothels that were home to the intellectuals, artists, and Bohemians, illustrated with colour photographs and period maps. If you enjoyed Woody Allen's film 'Midnight in Paris', you'll love this book. A must read for Paris lovers, art lovers, Francophiles, Paris residents and Parisian tourists alike, with: . Profiles of historic and cultural figures including Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau, Gertrude Stein, Coco Chanel, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Man Ray, Kiki, Sylvia Beach, James Joyce, George Gershwin, Cole Porter and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, the facts behind iconic landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, and fads and fashions that shocked the world: drugs, jazz, the women who dared "bob" their hair and dress like men, the men who dressed like women, and much more. AUTHOR: John Baxter is an Australian-born writer, journalist and filmmaker; he has called Paris home since 1989. He is the author of numerous books including the autobiographical 'Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas', 'We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light' and the blockbuster 'The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris'. SELLING POINTS: . More than 150 photographs including Brassai and Man Ray and illustrations . Four Easy-to-follow neighbourhood walking tours with detailed maps, with additional tours of filming locations . Complete Index REVIEWS: "While this is a nonfiction book, it reads like fiction, whereby the reader journeys through Paris at different times in its history, through the stories of famous people and places." -ForeWord Review "This lovely, gorgeous and intelligent book examines the Paris of old and not so old, with its many fascinating figures and tales." -Chicago Tribune "A fun, supplemental travel book for those seeking to go beyond the traditional tourist spots" -Library Journal "Excellent walking tours are accompanied by engaging anecdotes?.." -France Magazine 150 plus Illustrations and photos

Why Do So Many Kids HATE School? A Paradigm Shift Is Necessary In Education. And Now, A Colledge Football Coach Offers Such Reform. As coaches, we have opportunities that teachers do not. Coaching is a performance based working relationship that relies on the mastery of fundamentals and technique to create a competitive advantage. Coaches are held accountable for an athlete's performance on and off the field. This leads us very quickly to a fork in the road. We can bend the rules academically, and manipulate the system so that they can get through and stay eligible, or we can invest deeply in them and help them technically and fundamentally so that they can become legitimate, independent performers in all areas of life. I see myself at the center of the paradigm shift, which is based on skills and ideas, not subjects and orders. Study hall, medication, tutoring and other conventional forms of intervention aren't what we need. They aren't the long-term solution. We need sustained performance based change that is built on fundamentals and technique. If we are going to effect permanent, long-lasting, fundamental change, the paradigm shift has to begin somewhere other than in the schools. Therefore, parents and educators must pursue such change individually through a program like Academic Gameplan. Academic Gameplan is a coaching based program that teaches the rules, fundamentals and techniques to the game of school. The life skills we teach are SOLID, SIMPLE, and REPEATABLE. AGP is the ROCK upon which students are building lifelong success!

First published in 1980. At their most successful, Shakespeare's styles are strategies to make plain the limits of thought and feeling which define the significance of human actions. John Baxter analyses the way in which these limits are reached, and also provides a strong argument for the idea that the power of Shakespearean drama depends upon the co-operation of poetic style and dramatic form. Three plays are examined in detail in the text: The Tragedy of Mustapha by Fulke Greville and Richard II and Macbeth by Shakespeare.

Just as species of plants and animals are expiring at an alarming rate, so are the traditional ingredients and techniques of classic cooking and eating. Nowhere is this trend more evident than in France, where the heart of the world's most revered and complex national cuisine is in danger of disappearing, as old ways of agriculture, butchering, and cooking are withering - leaving us with only a small fraction of the astonishing delights and surprises French cuisine has to offer. In this charming culinary travel memoir, the bestselling author of "The Most Beautiful Walk in the World" goes on the hunt for the most delicious and bizarre endangered foods of France, including: Ortolans - Tiny birds, drowned in armagnac, sauteed in butter and eaten whole, bones and all, ideally with a large napkin draped over your head to conserve the aroma; Bouillabaisse - Seafood stew that only tastes right if you eat it by the Mediterranean. The secret is an ugly fish called the rascasse that lurks around wrecks; 100 Year-Old Cognac - The old stuff never gets to the shops, but Baxter's wife is friendly with one of the big distillers, so readers get a taste tour of what only millionaires can afford to drink; Confiture Vieux Garcon - Literally, Old Boy's Preserves. Soft fruit in season is placed in a crock, covered in brandy and left to marinate for a year. Traditionally served on ice cream, but a few spoonsful in the morning really set you up. Ox. The book culminates in Baxter's participation in a traditional ox roast, in which an enormous whole ox is cooked on a spit over coals. The recipe begins on a practical note: First, catch your ox...

Paris, by custom and design, is a pedestrian's city - each block a revelation, every neighbourhood a new feast for the senses, a place rich with history and romance at every turn. The Most Beautiful Walk in the World is your guide par excellence to the true, off-the-beaten-track heart of the City of Lights.

For more than a century, Americans and Britons have been arriving hopefully in Paris. All of these people arrived because they were re-making their lives. We'll Always Have Paris is a personal view of Paris as it appeared to the emotionally and intellectually hungry of the world.

"Aman with a great appreciation of what makes Paris tick." --NewsdayFromthe author of Immoveable Feast and We'll Always Have Paris comes aguided tour of the most beautiful walks through the City of Light, includingthe favorite walking routes of the many of the acclaimed artists and writerswho have called Paris their home. Baxter highlights hidden treasures along theSeine, treasured markets at Place d'Aligre, thefavorite ambles of Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Sylvia Beach, andmore, in a series of intimate vignettes that evoke the best parts of Paris'smany charms. Baxter's unforgettable chronicle reveals how walking is the bestway to experience romance, history, and pleasures off the beaten path . . . notonly of La Ville-Lumiere, but also, perhaps, of life itself.

The hey-day of the British gypsy caravan was short, only about 70 years, during which period it grew from a simple utility vehicle, blossomed and flourished as a mobile work of art, then disappeared from common sight. These caravans were masterpieces of woodcraft and design, and the best of them cost as much as a small house. Unlike any small house, almost half the cost was in the decoration. This beautifully illustrated book presents the different types of caravan and the great variety of art which was carved and painted upon them and their brothers-in-transport, the old narrowboats. While there were certain rules and conventions of style, the decoration on and in all the types was ultimately governed only by how much money could be spent. The caravan in particular was the supreme status symbol among travelling people and its art the prime means for expressing where one stood in the world.

Averitable smorgasbord of sin, John Baxter's Carnal Knowledge is a delightfully unabashed education in sex and erotic culture. Would you ever consent to a knee-trembler at a love hotel? Would you enjoy a hot lunch while watching kinbaku? Would you consider wearing a French tickler, a merkin, a strap-on, or pasties . . . or would you rather just go commando at the Mine Shaft? From Deep Throat to Debbie Does Dallas, from the mile-high club to the Emperor's Club, John Baxter explains it all to you in this decadently definitive work on the many ins and outs of s-e-x, guaranteed to tantalize, edify, and titillate whether you're a novice or an expert in the arts of eros.

A witty cultural and culinary education, Immoveable Feast is the charming, funny, and improbable tale of how a man who was raised on white bread--and didn't speak a word of French--unexpectedly ended up with the sacred duty of preparing the annual Christmas dinner for a venerable Parisian family. Ernest Hemingway called Paris "a moveable feast"--a city ready to embrace you at any time in life. For Los Angeles-based film critic John Baxter, that moment came when he fell in love with a French woman and impulsively moved to Paris to marry her. As a test of his love, his skeptical in-laws charged him with cooking the next Christmas banquet--for eighteen people in their ancestral country home. Baxter's memoir of his yearlong quest takes readers along his misadventures and delicious triumphs as he visits the farthest corners of France in search of the country's best recipes and ingredients. Irresistible and fascinating, Immoveable Feast is a warmhearted tale of good food, romance, family, and the Christmas spirit, Parisian style.

For more than a century, pilgrims from all over the world seeking romance and passion have made their way to the City of Light. The seductive lure of Paris has long been irresistible to lovers, artists, epicureans, and connoisseurs of the good life. Globe-trotting film critic and writer John Baxter heard her siren song and was bewitched. Now he offers readers a witty, audacious, scandalous behind-the-scenes excursion into the colorful all-night show that is Paris -- interweaving his own experience of falling in love, with a delightfully salacious tour of the sultry Parisian corners most guidebooks ignore: from the literary caf s of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and de Beauvoir to the brothels where Dietrich and Duke Ellington held court, where Salvador Dali sated his fantasies, and Edward VII kept a sumptuous champagne bath for his favorite girls.

In the rural Australia of the fifties where John Baxter grew up, reading books was disregarded with suspicion, owning and collecting them with utter incomprehension. Despite this, by the age of eleven Baxter had 'collected' his first book - "The Poems of Rupert Brooke." He'd read the volume often, but now he had to own it. This was the beginning of what would become a major collection and a lifelong obsession. His book-hunting would take him all over the world, but his first real find was in London in 1978, when he spotted a rare copy of a Graham Greene children's book while browsing on a stall in Swiss Cottage. It was going for 5 pence. This would also, fortuitously, be the day when he first encountered one of the legends of the book-selling world: Martin Stone. At various times pothead, international fugitive from justice, and professional rock musician, he would become John's mentor and friend. In this brilliantly readable and funny book, John Baxter brings us into contact with such literary greats as Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis, J. G. Ballard and Ray Bradbury. But he also shows us how he penetrated the secret fraternity of 'runners' or book scouts - sleuths who use bluff and guile to hunt down their quarry - and joined them in scouring junk shops, markets, auction rooms and private homes for rarities. In the comic tradition of Clive James's "Unreliable Memoirs," "A Pound of Paper" describes how a boy from the bush came to be living in a Paris penthouse with a library worth millions. It also explores the exploding market in first editions. What treasures are lying unnoticed in your garage?