do you think you are serious about tattooing? consider yourself a bit of an expert on it? and you don't have this book? (not even any of the other tattootime issues?) then re-think and re-consider! anyone serious about tattooing, its backgrounds, its history should have this book. and all the other four issues. they are all out on hardy marks publications; the publishing company owned and run by don ed hardy. whom you should know.

this volume is entitled "art from the heart" and goes into a bit of a different direction than the previous four "tattootime" books; which also has to do with the fact that it has a lot more pages. it goes more deeply into works of artists (with lots of photographic examples): tattoo legend bob shaw, thomas woodruff (paintings, not tattoos!), thom de vita, cynthia witkin (very unusual and unique style of tattooing!) and michael malone (a very respected figure in the tattooing community). all of them are very interesting artists. there's an article (and photographs) about "weirdo art and the rebirth of bold american classics" (meaning classic tattto designs). another one by tricia allen (who has done a lot of great research on lots of tattooing traditions!) entitled "european explorers and marquesan tattooing - the wildest island style"; very informative and educating. the second last article is dedicated to samoan tattoo chief suluape petelo, and the last one takes a look at how tribal tattooing has developed over the years, since it had first gotten big-time attention in "tattootime 1", back in 1982!

again, i feel, this book is worth the money for the photographs alone!

A masterpiece by Franklin W. Dixon.If you like action and adventure, this is the book for you. Frank and Joe Hardy, along with their friend Biff, try to find the the seller of the counterfeit cards that are spreading everywhere, in New York! This compelling story tells about life and death situations. The wordchoice is remarkable, you can't put the book down. a guy named Mr.Wormley is always on the detectives back. But why? Read and find out. Very nicely written,action packed, and exciting. I think Franklin W. Dixon is a very good writer, he shows that because he makes pictures in your mind,plus he uses descriptive words.

When I read this book I felt like re-lived some of my own transitions to the U.S. as a fellow Missionary Kid from Brazil. It spoke truth about both the joys and the frustrations that comes from being bi-cultural. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is an MK or cares about MKs and their lives. Enjoy!

"There have always been crime stories," says Richard Attenborough, in his foreward to "The BFI Companion to Crime." Cinematic representations of crime and criminals are a worldwide phenomenon still in force after one hundred years. What editor Phil Hardy has done in his excellent reference book is to create an encyclopedic survey of the crime film genre from its "origins at a certain period in Europe in the late nineteenth century which saw the formation of an organised police force and the professionalisation of both the forces of law and the criminal . . . .[that] gave rise to a literature, of which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the first great exponent, in which the process of investigation is paramount . . . ." Such an investigation, or "police procedural," did not concern itself solely with crime-solving: an apprehension of the criminal, or "alleged perp," occurred. This "apprehension" involved a physical detention for questioning, as a means of "apprehending" the psychological and social dimensions of crime and criminal. In other words, the evolution of the crime film genre brought about an exploration of minds and motivations of criminals that would no longer be hidden in literary detail.

"What then arose both in Europe and America during the 1920s," according to Mr Hardy, "were a series of representations of daring criminals (Fantômas, Dr Mabuse) and striking and highly popular recreations of the criminal underworld." The high energy of the Roaring Twenties during Prohibition, with its G-Men enforcers, produced the gangster film, a popular genre which initiated a "ripped from the headlines" approach to filmmaking that still persists today. A listing of these early gangster films would include: "Underworld" (1927), "Little Caesar" (1930), "The Public Enemy" (1931), and "Scarface" (1932). As the Depression of the 1930s wore on, people cheered gangsters in films and made them their folk heroes. After federal agent Melvin Purvis gunned down John Dillinger in 1934, the gangster film shifted into a subgenre; now cops and criminals would have double billing, and television entered the scene. (Fast forward to "The Untouchables," "The Godfather Trilogy," "Mean Streets," "Goodfellas," and "The Sopranos," to name but a few examples.)

This "Companion" artfully deconstructs the complex genre (or subgenre) of film noir that emerged in the early 1940s. These films noirs (and neo-noirs) have generated a cottage industry of critical and popular texts. While I do not concur with the editor's thesis of "the lethargy that was film noir," I believe he presents quite valuable insights to the genre.

Several sociohistorical factors came into play at the beginning of the 1940s: America's involvement in World War II; the resurgence of the American economy concomitant with Rosie-the-Riveter's replacement of men in the workplace; and the shifting roles of women and men ("Mildred Pierce"). Soon, contrasting and overlapping images of overworld and underworld intruded into film: "police were expected to be corrupt and the man running the nightclub was expected to be a criminal" ("The Big Sleep" and "Murder My Sweet"). With the appearance of " 'femmes fatales,' preying on confused males" in these films, Hardy sees "languidity" and "lack of masculine energy" in this subgenre: ". . . the way a (wo)man held a cigarette was as important as the way (s)he held a gun."

Films of the 1930s and 1940s also illustrate the influences of Freudian psychology and psychoanalysis, and of German Expressionist artists and filmmakers. "John Huston's 'The Maltese Falcon' (1941), adapted from Dashiell Hammett's novel and one of the earliest 'films noirs,' is a convenient starting-point from which to examine changes in the narrative strategies of the crime film . . . ." The 1950s highlighted "the importance of the crime writer to the crime film." Preceded by a few pages of color photos from contemporary crime cinema, the extensive glossary includes entries of many of these writers (e.g., James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, and Elmore Leonard).

"The BFI Companion to Crime" is a fascinating and up-to-date reference for the "crime film" genre. After spending time with Attenborough's gossipy foreward and Hardy's informative, opinionated, and rambling introduction, one might even read the rest from cover-to-cover. One drawback is the lack of an index and appendixes: no filmography or bibliography. However, the book is cross-referenced in bold type and displays several b & w photos per page.

While there are many subgenres of the crime film genre, not all films with crimes are considered here, such as horror films and Westerns because they are considered by most film viewers, scholars, and critics to be separate genres. Film buffs may argue endlessly on what constitutes a genre or subgenre in film, with collateral agreements and disagreements as to the catergorisation of which film belongs in what genre or subgenre. Thus, I consider this book to be an invaluable reference for the crime film buff.

The book (Blood Money) is a book about a criminal who wanted revenge on the people who put him in jail. The characters are:Frank, Joe, and Fenton Hardy, Hugh and Ned Holan, Johnny and Daniel Carew, Mrs. Hunter, a secratery, Bill Delaney, and Tommy Polletti, and Bodygaurds. The book is written by Franklin W. Dixon. The criminal's way of getting revenge is leaving 10 (ten) million dollars for all the people he disliked. Murder is in the air as the Harby Boys try to find the murderer before he decides to kill the own father, Fenton Hardy, a former NYPD detective. And I'll give you a clue: the murderer is the son of a police officer who was a friend of the criminal. Sincerely, Vitaliy Fanin

This book really leads you the wrong way until the very end. In this suspenceful story, Frank and Joe are asked to investigate a case for some of their friends. What they don't know is that Greg and Mike Rawley have something else planned for them, and the Hardy's don't know what is coming! This book is still one of the best of the Hardy Boys Casefiles, and is a must to get for serious fans.

Frank and Joe Hardy track down mercury theives and stolen missiles, plus Chet, their good friend, whose latest hobby happens to be... boomerangs. This book is great for kids.

Cancelled Words.

I've received comments on the seeming high price of Cancelled Words, and it seemed a good idea to explain why this should be. I was the editor at Routledge responsible for publishing the book in 1992.

This is a ground-breaking work, about what can happen when an author gets into the hands of a determined editor. Thomas Hardy was then a virtual unknown, not recognized as one of the world's greatest writers. He had little choice but to allow his editor, the august and supremely self-confident, Leslie Stephen, to 'cancel' Hardy's own words in 'Far from the Madding Crowd'.

Stephen was worried that Hardy's very Un-Victorian presentation of human relationships and sexuality would offend the sensibilities of readers. So when he reacted badly to Hardy's improprieties, he just cut them out.

So we have always read a purged Far from the Madding Crowd, without seeing the book that Hardy first wanted us to have. Very few of Leslie Stephen's changes made it a better novel: Hardy's own first words and ideas are always immeasurably superior.

But that was not the end of the story. Years afterwards the original manuscript was rediscovered by accident and preserved so we can now know what Thomas Hardy really wanted to say before he was censored. That manuscript is now in the Beinecke Library at Yale University and has been used to write 'Cancelled Words'.

Rosemarie Morgan believed that it is essential to see what were Thomas Hardy's own words as he wrote them. That was the essence of the book and we at Routledge took the decision that a quarter of it should be given up to Hardy's words, in his own handwriting, faithfully reproduced in facsimile with the cancellations and changes visible for all to see.

Of course, regrettably, this made the book more expensive, but I still think this was the right decision. And the publication of Cancelled Words contributed substantially to her groundbreaking new edition of Far from the Madding Crowd, published by Penguin Books, and giving back that original edition to the world.

I would hate to think that our decision should put off future readers from buying a book that takes you into the heart of one of the master works of English fiction.

If i had to describe this book in just one word, I would, of course, say it's simply amazing. Cecil Beaton was a truly genius British photograher.