Recognising that there are unmistakable contrasts between classic and neo-noir, this chapter looks at acting choices that tend to be constants, rather than exceptions, in the evolving phenomenon of film noir. It shows that noir narratives require portrayals of tough guys to include a dizzying combination of caricatured and exaggerated performance moments, and occasions of understated gestures and expressions. The chapter clarifies how gestures under pressure work with aspects of film noir narratives to communicate the complex inner life of vulnerable tough guys. It describes certain acting patterns in the classic noirs Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep and Out of the Past and the neo-noirs Chinatown, Devil in a Blue Dress and Brick. Focusing on noir performances might also be suspect, because the films have been thoroughly identified with their visual style.

The Kindertransport was a voluntary movement organized by the British government in 1938 that brought 10,000 Jewish and other children from Nazi Europe to Britain. This chapter discusses narratives of the Kindertransport journeys, which allowed for the movement of refugee children from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland rescued from Nazi persecution. It highlights the generosity of the British people towards Jewish refugees during the Holocaust period, and explores the reasons why the Kindertransport was subjected to widespread public and media attention since its arrival in 1938.

This chapter provides a brief history of social and sporting life in north-west England, in order to illustrate the circumstances within which the specific social activities of the area’s deaf clubs were located. This history informs the detailed analysis of deaf club activities in the region which follows in the next chapter. This examination concentrates on outlining the communal nature of much of the leisure activity of working-class people in north-west England and the ways in which this changed during the research period. The range of activities found across the region and the particular local preferences for certain activities – particularly sports - over others are highlighted.

The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the maritime sector marks a significant technological advancement with broad implications for operational efficiency, crewing, and regulatory frameworks. While these innovations are expected to enhance safety, reduce operating costs, and promote environmental sustainability, they are also likely to introduce challenges related to workforce displacement, cybersecurity, and evolving labor regulations at sea. This chapter examines the impact of AI on the maritime workforce, more specifically seafarers. It explores how AI may affect crew size, the emergence of new roles, and new skills in the future. It also offers an analysis of the significant impact of AI on working conditions and labor rights at sea under international maritime regulations, particularly the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), 2006, and the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers Convention (1978, STCW Convention), as amended. This chapter explores the intersection areas of AI and maritime law, focusing on the emerging regulatory frameworks, including the EU AI Act and the International Maritime Organization’s Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) Code. The findings point out that while AI presents opportunities for improving the working conditions of seafarers, its use must adhere to acceptable labor standards, legal clarity, and robust cybersecurity measures.

Under the public health acts of 1874 and 1878, poor law boards had been constituted of rural sanitary authorities and empowered to monitor and enforce basic standards of hygiene and cleanliness. The labourers acts altered the terms of social and political relationships in rural Ireland. Many boards of guardians perceived the labourers act as an integral part of the relief system. Introduced in February 1883, the Labourers (Ireland) Bill empowered rural sanitary authorities to implement housing schemes on behalf of agricultural labourers on the representation of twelve ratepayers. The limited success of the acts was blamed on the obstacles placed in the way of boards of guardians by landlords, the Local Government Board and the Privy Council. Local influence was important not only in getting schemes underway but also in the allocation of the cottages once erected.

By the end of the eighteenth century, Birmingham had become the hub of a highly integrated regional economy. The Black Country and the West Midlands as understood today should be regarded as the product of a transition towards spatial and economic integration which culminated towards the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Economic geographers argue that transportation innovations provide the key to regional growth and differentiation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Matthew Boulton and the other Birmingham manufacturers lobbied for a navigable link of more immediate value, namely one which would connect the town's industries to their fuel sources in the Black Country. The historians of Birmingham seem unconvinced of the case for an urban identity. The English agricultural writer Arthur Young visited Birmingham several times in the 1760s and 1770s, and in 1791 labelled it as 'the first manufacturing town in the world'.

This chapter focuses on witnessing and its correspondence with trauma/traumatic schism, and specifically the notion of trauma-tragedy. The importance and centrality of theatre within discourses of trauma therapy and healing, both in the experience of making and viewing, is epitomised by Psychiatrist Sandra Bloom's assertion. A demonstration of the traumatic gap between the impossibility of articulating trauma and the necessity to do so can be found in many pieces including Penetrator and Exquisite Pain. Exquisite Pain operates on the level of embodied empathic witnessing. After examining a series of performances which address trauma and witnessing in different yet complementary ways, the chapter discusses what 'witness' might mean and what it means 'to be witnessed' in the context of trauma-tragedy. Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis is an ambiguous play which, as Alice Tycer has persuasively argued, offers readers and/or spectators the opportunity to 'include their own experiences in the text and/or performance'.

This chapter explores European 'films of voyage', a cinematic tradition that articulates, both narratively and visually, representations of the countryside with questions of boundaries and cultural diversity. In European 'films of voyage', the iconography of the countryside plays an important part in mapping the nation as a diverse rather than a homogenous cultural space. The chapter presents two case studies based upon a close analysis of two films: Voyage to the Beginning of the World and Ulysses' Gaze. On the one hand, Ulysses' Gaze relates to the ill-defined and transient Balkan space whose cartography has changed widely in an area where different ethnic groups and religions have mingled for many centuries. On the other, Voyage to the Beginning of the World relates to the Portuguese national space, where political borders have remained substantially unchanged since the late Middle Ages.