Böcker av Laura Wright

Textbooks inform readers that the precursor of Standard English was supposedly an East or Central Midlands variety which became adopted in London; that monolingual fifteenth century English manuscripts fall into internally-cohesive Types; and that the fourth Type, dating after 1435 and labelled ¿Chancery Standard¿, provided the mechanism by which this supposedly Midlands variety spread out from London. This set of explanations is challenged by taking a multilingual perspective, examining Anglo-Norman French, Medieval Latin and mixed-language contexts as well as monolingual English ones. By analysing local and legal documents, mercantile accounts, personal letters and journals, medical and religious prose, multiply-copied works, and the output of individual scribes, standardisation is shown to have been preceded by supralocalisation rather than imposed top-down as a single entity by governmental authority. Linguistic features examined include syntax, morphology, vocabulary, spelling, letter-graphs, abbreviations and suspensions, social context and discourse norms, pragmatics, registers, text-types, communities of practice social networks, and the multilingual backdrop, which was influenced by shifting socioeconomic trends.

The rulers of London in the late middle ages sought to safeguard the future of their important river crossing by placing its administration in the hands of a specially created institution. By the mid-fourteenth century the "BridgeHouse", as it became known, had been endowed with a large portfolio of properties which provided the bulk of the revenue needed for the frequent, and often urgent, repairs to London Bridge's structure: as many as 130 shops stoodon the bridge itself. As well as providing information on the technicalities of bridge-building or wider issues concerning urban crafts and productive processes, the accounts and rentals from the institution's archive provide useful snapshots of the bridge at various points in its often turbulent history.

Lucian Roman knows he must stay away from Bronwyn Kettler for sanity's sake. Since feeding her his blood, he can think of nothing else but possessing her - fighting an uncontrollable desire to kill her, if need be, and the vampire she has sworn to wed.Bronwyn, a brilliant vampire genealogist, can never escape her connection to Lucian. He sustained her when she was starving. He still rules her dreams. And when the nights get dark enough, she still craves him, but although his essence still courses through her body, she has found a true mate in someone else.But when a dangerous enemy threatens Bronwyn, only Lucian - bound to her for ever by blood - can save her life. Even if it means sacrificing his own . . .

His father unknown, his mother dead, Nicholas Roman was raised by the vampire Breed with one wish: to live as a normal vampire. But once he's transformed against his will into a gifted immortal, Nicholas now has one goal: to stop the Eternal Order of vampires from controlling his life. Then comes a beautiful stranger with a startling secret . . . Vampire Kate Everborne claims she's sheltering Nicholas's long lost son. If this is true, then who is the mother? And how endangered are they if, indeed, Nicholas does possess the bloodline so coveted by the Order? These are questions that with every seductive whisper and every silken touch draw Nicholas and Kate intimately closer, and nearer still to the truth.

Alexander Roman wants nothing to do with the controlling rulers of his vampire breed, but as a new threat to the pureblood vampires emerges, Alexander's ties to the past are forced upon him, and without warning, he finds himself disoriented, terrified and near death at the door of a stranger.Dr Sara Donohue is dedicated to removing the traumatic memories of her patients - like those of the stranger at her front door. But what he tells her of his past is too astonishing to be anything more than the delusion of a madman. Then, as their worlds collide, Sara and Alexander are bound as one becomes hunter and the other prey. And Sara's only chance of survival is to surrender to the final - and most unimaginable - desire of her life.