Natasha 2007

Narratives of crusading have often been overlooked as a source for the history of women because of their focus on martial events, and perceptions about women inhibiting the recruitment and progress of crusading armies. Yet women consistently appeared in the histories of crusade and settlement, performing a variety of roles. While some were vilified as 'useless mouths' or prostitutes, others undertook menial tasks for the army, went on crusade with retinues of their own knights, and rose to political prominence in the Levant and and the West. This book compares perceptions of women from a wide range of historical narratives including those eyewitness accounts, lay histories and monastic chronicles that pertained to major crusade expeditions and the settler society in the Holy Land. It addresses how authors used events involving women and stereotypes based on gender, family role, and social status in writing their histories: how they blended historia and fabula, speculated on women's motivations, and occasionally granted them a literary voice in order to connect with their audience, impart moral advice, and justify the crusade ideal. Dr NATASHA R. HODGSON teaches at Nottingham Trent University.

A star cast of thirty-five includes Leo McKern as General Kutuzov, Emily Mortimer as Natasha Rostov, Simon Russell Beale as Pierre Bezuhov, Jonathan Firth as Nikolai Rostov, Nicola Pagett as Nathalie Rostov and Amanda Redman as Helens Kuragin.
This unique, full-cast dramatisation contains over two hours of specially composed music and captures the full atmosphere of Tolstoy's masterpiece.

1The Grammy Nominees is a series of various artists compilation albums celebrating the best of the music industry. Albums are released before the airing of the annual Grammy Awards. All of the songs on the albums are Grammy nominated in the year released. The first one of these albums was released in 1995 and has been released every year since to date. Each one through the 2007 edition has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), while the 1996 and 2000 editions have also been certified Platinum.