Autobiography: general Books
Counterpoint Easy Street: A Story of Redemption from Myself
Book Synopsis
£15.26
Counterpoint Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast
Book Synopsis
£15.26
Workman Publishing Ordinary Girls: A Memoir
Book SynopsisOne of the Must-Read Books of 2019 According to O: The Oprah Magazine * Time * Bustle * Electric Literature * Publishers Weekly * The Millions * The Week * Good Housekeeping “There is more life packed on each page of Ordinary Girls than some lives hold in a lifetime.” —Julia Alvarez In this searing memoir, Jaquira Díaz writes fiercely and eloquently of her challenging girlhood and triumphant coming of age. While growing up in housing projects in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, Díaz found herself caught between extremes. As her family split apart and her mother battled schizophrenia, she was supported by the love of her friends. As she longed for a family and home, her life was upended by violence. As she celebrated her Puerto Rican culture, she couldn’t find support for her burgeoning sexual identity. From her own struggles with depression and sexual assault to Puerto Rico’s history of colonialism, every page of Ordinary Girls vibrates with music and lyricism. Díaz writes with raw and refreshing honesty, triumphantly mapping a way out of despair toward love and hope to become her version of the girl she always wanted to be. Reminiscent of Tara Westover’s Educated, Kiese Laymon’s Heavy, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club, and Terese Marie Mailhot’s Heart Berries, Jaquira Díaz’s memoir provides a vivid portrait of a life lived in (and beyond) the borders of Puerto Rico and its complicated history—and reads as electrically as a novel.Trade ReviewWinner of a Whiting Award for Nonfiction "[Ordinary Girls] belongs on your must-read lists. Diaz is a masterful writer . . . Writing with refreshing honesty, she talks about despair, depression, love, and hope with such vibrancy that her vivid portrayal will stay with you long after the final page." --O: The Oprah Magazine "Every once in a while, a truly electric debut memoir comes along, and this fall, Ordinary Girls is it. It's the story of an ordinary girl; it's the story of all of the extraordinary girls. Diaz is a skilled writer; the depth of layering is strong, from the details to the larger structures of identity, white supremacy, colonialism, and brown, queer, and femme resilience and resistance." --BuzzFeed "A skilled writer, Diaz is meticulous in her craft, and on page after page her writing truly sings . . . This brutally honest coming-of-age story is a painful yet illuminating memoir, a testament to resilience in the face of scarcity, a broken family, substance abuse, sexual assault, mental illness, suicide and violence." --New York Times Book Review "Incredible . . . Beautiful . . . Gorgeous and propulsive prose." --NBC / Today (Isaac Fitzgerald) "Diaz does not flinch with the hard-hitting details of growing up in communities that deserve our wholehearted attention. She complicates how we imagine girlhood and offers a beautiful memoir written with so much love, compassion and intelligence. This book is a necessary read at a time where the system and the media is so often working against the survival of women of color. This book burns in the memory and makes one feel all the feelings. A triumph!" --Bustle (Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana) "A dynamic examination of the power of persistence." --Time (Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2019) "Outstanding. A powerful and lyrical coming-of-age story, Ordinary Girls is a candid illustration of shame, despair and violence as well as joy and triumph. Against a Puerto Rican backdrop, this debut is compassionate, brave and forgiving." --Ms. Magazine "At once heartbreaking and throbbing with life in a rich portrait that's anything but ordinary." --Good Housekeeping (The 50 Best Books of 2019 to Add to Your Reading List) "There's a certain ferocity throughout the entirety of Ordinary Girls. For some of the book, it's humming like a hardworking engine--concealed under the hood, always present--but then there are moments when it combusts, bursting from the page in such a way that you, as a reader, have to pause and take a breath. Ordinary Girls is an electrifying, deftly-paced debut." --Salon "Diaz's resilience and writing abilities are far from ordinary; she's an emissary from an experience that many young women have. Listen." --Refinery29 "A whirlwind memoir. Like Maya Angalou's seminal 1969 memoir I know Why the Caged Bird Sings before it, Ordinary Girls, is brutally honest in a way that few books dare to be." --Bitch "Striking. Diaz's story is absolutely breathtaking." --NBC Latino "A fierce, unflinching account of ordinary girls leading extraordinary lives." --Poets & Writers "Every so often you discover a voice that just floors you--or rather, feels like it can bulldoze something in your very soul. This fall, that voice belongs to Jaquira Diaz." --The Week (25 Books to Read in the Second Half of 2019) "In her debut memoir, Jaquira Diaz mines her experiences growing up in Puerto Rico and Miami, grappling with traumas both personal and international, and over time converts them into something approaching hope and self-assurance. For years, Diaz has dazzled in shorter formats--stories, essays, etc.--and her entree into longer lengths is very welcome." --The Millions (Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2019 Book Preview) "A powerful memoir, heart-wrenching, inspiring, thoroughly engrossing, reminiscent of Mary Karr's The Liar's Club, Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and more recently Tara Westover's Educated. Through one family's story, we learn about challenges of poverty, migration, uprootedness, addiction, sexism, racism--but also about the triumphant, spirited storyteller who survives to tell the tale. Jaquira Diaz is our contemporary Scheherazade, telling stories to keep herself alive and whole, and us her readers mesmerized and wanting more. And we get it: there is more life packed on each page of Ordinary Girls than some lives hold in a lifetime." --Julia Alvarez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies
£999.99
Graywolf Press In the Dream House: A Memoir
Book SynopsisA revolutionary memoir about domestic abuse by the award-winning author of Her Body and Other PartiesIn the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming.And it's that struggle that gives the book its original structure: each chapter is driven by its own narrative tropethe haunted house, erotica, the bildungsromanthrough which Machado holds the events up to the light and examines them from different angles. She looks back at her religious adolescence, unpacks the stereotype of lesbian relationships as safe and utopian, and widens the view with essayistic explorations of the history and reality of abuse in queer relationships.Machado's dire narrative is leavened with her characteristic wit, playfulness, and openness to inquiry. She casts a critical eye over legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek, and Disney villains, as well as iconic works of film and fiction. The result is a wrenching, riveting book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be.
£15.30
Covenant Books Baker 1 in Service: A Lighter Side of Law Enforcement
£10.40
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial (USA) LLC Solito (Spanish Edition)
Book Synopsis
£17.06
MC Artistry/NYC Literature Cuban Son Rising
£19.90
£18.99
She Writes Press Affliction: Growing Up With a Closeted Gay Dad
Book SynopsisIn 1937, at the age of nineteen, Ralph Hall, suicidal, revealed his sexual orientation to his grandmother, knowing she would comfort him. He was out for three years afterwards, until an indiscretion sent him back into the closet. At twenty-four, while in the army, he met and married Irene. The couple made their home on the San Francisco Peninsula and had four children. Ralph was an attentive husband and father—albeit with an intense interest in interior design, flower arranging, and fine objects—and a diligent worker who rose to payroll accountant at Standard Oil. It wasn't until 1975 that Ralph came out to his middle daughter, Laura, telling her that he had once considered his sexuality an aberration, an affliction. She was shocked, as the possibility her father might be gay had never crossed her mind. Irene had known Ralph’s secret for eighteen years, but the two remained married until she died. It was only then that this charismatic man and devoted father, by now in his eighties, could freely express his authentic, gay self.Here, Laura paints a vivid and honest portrait of her beloved father and the effect his secret had on her own life. Trade Review“A deeply moving personal remembrance.” —Kirkus Reviews “This moving memoir is about not just a daughter, not just a father, but a whole family, one that’s impossible not to love. Hall's writing is honest and insightful and her story a comfort and a gem.” —Victoria Loustalot, author of This is How You Say Goodbye and Living Like Audrey: Life Lessons from the Fairest Lady of All “This book shares a vital perspective that, until now, was missing from the LGBTQ community’s understanding of its own history. Hall finally adds the missing puzzle piece: the voice of the children of gay parents, a group that has long stood in the shadows. We are given a rare and precious gift as she warmly invites the reader into the world of her closeted family and shares a perspective that is deeply loving and raw in its honesty.” —Robin Marquis, former national program director of COLAGE “Affliction is a loving and tender portrait of a relationship and a family. It’s also an important addition to the history of gay parents in America and of the particular challenges faced by gay men and women in the years before Stonewall.” —Alysia Abbott, author of Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father, now a Sofia Coppola-produced movie “Affliction is one of the most moving and compelling books I've ever read. It reveals the bravery and the suffering of the gay men who hid their secrets and carried on. They married, often, and had children. Laura Hall is one of those children, and she wouldn't trade her father for anybody’s.” —Adair Lara, author of Naked, Drunk, and Writing and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle “Laura’s book is one that will touch the heart of anyone who has dealt with coming out in a family setting.” —Mark Segal, the nation’s most award-winning commentator in LGBTQ media and author of And Then I Danced “Hall’s conversational tone and attention to the small details of home life, as well as to larger issues and emotions, make this a captivating and sympathetic family story. There are undoubtedly other families with queer parents who were out to their spouses but not to the outside world, but many such stories remain hidden. Thanks to Hall for sharing hers and reminding us not only of the long history of queer parents but also of the many ways that queer parents and our children have existed and survived, by choice or circumstance.” —Dana Rudolph, publisher of the GLAAD Media Award–winning blog Mombian
£12.34
She Writes Press Big Dreams: Essays on Recreating a Life
Book SynopsisGrowing up in the ’50s in what was then the small town of Napa, California, Donna Brazzi had loving parents, a backyard the size of a football field with a swing and a big wooden picnic table perfect for summer barbecues, a cocker spaniel named Patty, and a cat named Stinky—everything a kid could want. She was a happy child. But as she grew older and started to reach for more than a young woman from a working-class, Swiss-Italian family was expected to want—a university education and a career in the larger world beyond her hometown—she began to see that if she was going to realize her big dreams, she was going to have to fight for them. Big Dreams is Donna’s story of pursuing her education goals while confronting society’s assumptions about women’s roles in work, marriage, and motherhood from the 1950s through the mid-2000s, helped along by the evolving social movements for equality. Her journey from obedient daughter to minister’s wife to PhD in sociology was never a smooth one—but ultimately, with passion and persistence, she broke free of the family and cultural assumptions constraining her, forged her own identity, and shaped the life she wanted.
£12.34
She Writes Press Making the Rounds: Defying Norms in Love and
Book SynopsisWhat was it like to survive an illegal abortion, come out as a lesbian, and train to become a doctor in the late 1960s and early ’70s—before Roe v. Wade, before Title IX, and in a largely homophobic nation?In this unflinching and riveting coming-of-age memoir, Patricia Grayhall chronicles her journey from believing she is the only lesbian in Arizona to dipping her toes into dating in San Francisco, attending medical school in Salt Lake City as one of only five women in a class of one hundred, and completing an internship as the only woman in her cohort in Boston. Battling sexism in a male-dominated profession, she plunges into a life that is never boring—and certainly never without passion.Tossed around in the rough seas of medical training, chronically exhausted and emotionally drained, Patricia chafes against the toxic masculinity of the culture of medicine and yearns for the same care and support her male colleagues receive from their wives and girlfriends. But while the sexual revolution and women’s movement in 1970s Boston celebrate female eroticism, they provide few models for moving beyond desire and sustaining a healthy relationship with a woman—Patricia soon discovers that maintaining a loving, stable relationship is not easy.This book, named one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best 100 Indie Books of 2022, is the story of how Patricia navigates these stormy seas without signposts to reach the shores she seeks—often battered, but never broken.Trade Review2023 Firebird Book Awards First Place Winner in Coming of Age Memoir 2023 Firebird Book Awards First Place Winner in LGBT MemoirNamed a Kirkus Reviews Best Indie Book of 20222022 Best Book Awards Finalist in LGBTQ+: Nonfiction“The author writes with a sense of blunt reality and warm humanity . . . The struggles, deeply felt emotions, and coming-of-age triumphs make this memoir touching and personal, and it will stir reflection in those who read it.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review“Grayhall skillfully depicts the problems confronting any ambitious person in search of stable romantic relationships . . . those professional challenges resonate throughout this fast-paced, immersive, and weighty memoir that will resonate with anyone who has experienced the hardships of being true to yourself.”—BookLife Reviews“Memoirs like Grayhall’s are important to us. The larger culture has owned the narrative forever and rendered us inconsequential if not invisible. Our untold stories need to be out there, and a story like Grayhall’s from a woman of her achievements is a vital contribution to our community and history.”—Katherine V. Forrest, author of Curious Wine and The Emergence of Green“Making the Rounds is a fast-paced, inspiring, and accessible true story of a young lesbian’s struggle to enter the male dominated profession of medicine in the '70s while concurrently learning, through a series of heartbreaking and endearing encounters, to be her authentic self in a loving relationship with another woman. I highly recommend this book—a great read exploring issues that are as relevant today as ever.”—Robin Tyler, producer, activist, comic“An uplifting journey of coming out that reads like a fast-paced medical drama.”—Radclyffe, retired surgeon, author, and president of Bold Strokes Books“Making the Rounds is smart, profound, thought-provoking, and all-out engaging. Patricia Grayhall’s writing brims with a passionate desire to share her reality and the book will elicit empathy in every reader. . . . This memoir is a must-read as a reminder to all of us to guard our rights and freedom and to never devolve into a culture of hate that is a vestige of a primitive stage of evolution.”—Readers’ Favorite, 5-star review“Making the Rounds is a wonderful book that flows from page to page keeping its readers engaged in Patricia's story and wanting to know where it would go next. Inspiring, heartfelt, and brutally honest at times, this is a book that will give women and those who care about them, the strength and motivation to persevere through the trials and tribulations in life.”—Seattle Book Review“Female professionals—gay or straight, doctor or other—owe a debt of gratitude for the tribulations women like Grayhall endured to hew the path we now traverse. Reverberating with personal angst and professional certitude, Making the Rounds is about life. I highly recommend it to anyone who’s ever lived one.”—Adele Holmes, MD, author of Winter’s Reckoning“Patricia Grayhall has written a vital and thrilling memoir, the story of a woman figuring out who she is and who she is meant to be. She battles to find love and to do meaningful work in a field dominated by patriarchal values. Most of all her story radiates the power of perseverance in breaking down, brick by brick, the barriers of bigotry.”—Steve Almond, New York Times best-selling author of Candyfreak and Against Football“Patricia Grayhall has much to teach us in this well-paced and deeply humanizing memoir of what it means to seek both belonging and love—and to find both, always in the most surprising of ways.” —Susan Meyers, Professor of Creative Writing, Seattle University“This is such an important book for so many reasons. Identity. Sexuality. Self-acceptance. Women power. Relationships with others and self. Societal oppression. And so much more. If you have ever felt marginalized or told you could not pursue your dreams because you are the wrong sex, color, ethnicity, or class . . . this book will inspire you to find the courage.” —Laura Munson, New York Times best-selling author of This is Not the Story You Think It Is“Patricia Grayhall’s writing style is seamless in the way it flows gently across the pages. She is a very talented storyteller, weaving a narrative filled with fortitude, courage, and passion as she faces the uphill battle to be her authentic self in an environment of patriarchal supremacy and homophobia. I thoroughly recommend this wonderfully written book to anyone.”—Alexis Hunter, author of Joy Lansing: A Body to Die For“Well-written, fast-paced, and inspiring—Patricia Grayhall’s memoir is an authentic, accurate, and brave portrayal of her lived experience in times that were exciting and expansive, but often confusing, challenging, and uncharted.”—Margaret Dozark, MD, Emergency and Internal Medicine Specialist“Making the Rounds is an important piece of history served up in a crisp writing style, entwined with beautiful sensory details. Grayhall’s point of view is candid, self-deprecating, and genuine. She is obviously accomplished, but what comes through is her openness and honesty—qualities rarely seen in similar works. This is a book you do not want to miss.”—Morgan Elliot, author of Stroke of the Brush and The Crying Chair“Kudos to Patricia for showing all women that their dreams and desires for everlasting love and a rewarding career can become realities.”—Judy Kiehart, author of Calico Lane“In Making the Rounds, Patricia Grayhall has granted us access into her world, and into the life of a complex woman we will not soon forget.”—Sharon Dukett, author of No Rules: A Memoir
£999.99
iUniverse Your Honor, Your Honor: A Journey Through Grief
Book Synopsis
£25.45
£13.59
£14.58
£22.48
£30.95
The New York Review of Books, Inc Images and Shadows: Part of a Life
Book Synopsis
£16.11
Gooseberry Patch The Year of the Goat: 40,000 Miles in Pursuit of
Book SynopsisMany people dream of leaving the workaday world for a life of simplicity and freedom, and Margaret Hathaway and her then-boyfriend Karl did just that. In The Year of the Goat, the reader can jump in the “goat mobile” with them as they ditch their big-city lifestyle to trek across forty-three states in search of greener pastures and the perfect goat cheese. Along the way, the reader is introduced to a vivid cast of characters—including farmers, breeders, cheese makers, and world-class chefs—and discovers everything there is to know about goats and getting back to the land. But readers beware: When it comes to goat cheese, it can be love at first bite.
£14.24
Black Rose Writing Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle The John Muir Trail
£18.86
Elboro Press Shoulder: a memoir
£18.57
Iguana Books An Unbreakable Spirit: My Life with Brittle Bones
£17.09
Must Have Books You Can't Win
Book SynopsisA major influence on William S. Burroughs and other Beat writers, this lost classic was written by Jack Black, a drifter and small-time criminal. Born in 1872, Black hit the road at the age of 16 and spent most of his life as a vagabond. In this plain-spoken but colorful 1926 memoir, he recaptures a hobo underworld of the early twentieth century, a time when it was possible to pass anonymously from town to town. Black''s firsthand accounts of hopping trains, burglaries, prison, and drug addiction offer a compelling portrait of this seedy side of life a hundred years ago.
£10.63
Must Have Books Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia's City of Steel
£10.20
Wits University Press How I Lost My Mother: A Story of Life, Care and Dying
£71.00
Little, Brown Book Group Barking at Winston
Book SynopsisWhen Bruce, an abandoned collie-cross puppy, is adopted by a lively family, he encounters more affection than ever before in his short life.With humour and a unique charm, he describes his life with his loving but troubled owners, and offers a sometimes hilarious insight into the world from a dog's point of view. But when the family is threatened, Bruce lends a paw, and uses his canine second sight to guide the family through some difficult times. Already a sleeper success, Barking At Winston is an authentic and endearing tale of one family and their canine friend.Trade Review'Barry Stone achieves the almost impossible: he writes from the point of view of a dog and makes me care about the canine and the people he comes into contact with. My tail's wagging! * Ian McMillan, Yorkshire poet,broadcaster & comedian. *
£999.99
The Mercier Press Ltd Agnes Morrogh-Bernard:: Foundress of Foxford Woollen Mills
Book SynopsisIn 1892 hunger, poverty and desolation were endemic in the area around Foxford in County Mayo in the aftermath of the great famine and the Land War. It was in this context that Agnes Morrogh-Bernard, a member of the Irish Sisters of Charity, achieved what many thought was impossible. She was a pioneering and visionary woman who, in a male dominated society, managed to establish the world famous Foxford Woollen Mills, which to this day provide an important source of employment to the surrounding area. This is her incredible story. She lived through a time spanning the 19th and early 20th centuries, 1842–1932, a time of strife and unrest, emigration and eviction. Into this mix, this woman brought hope where there was despair, light where there was darkness and joy where there was once sadness. She also had absolute trust in Providence, which was her bastion in this quest. Her story is a fascinating one, whether you are familiar with the area or not.
£15.99
The Mercier Press Ltd My Name Is Philippa
Book SynopsisMy Name is Philippa: A Transgender Memoir of Love, Understanding and Transformation. Experience a heart-changing journey with Philippa Ryder as she transitions from male to female with the support of her family. This powerful and moving story explores the physical and emotional process of transitioning and provides answers to common questions about being transgender—a must-read for anyone seeking to understand and support the global movement towards gender freedom and empowerment.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Foreword – Katherine E. Zappone Introduction The skirt – Age: 0–16 To boldly go ... Age: 17–21 Three questions – Age: 22 Wedding bells and bouncy baby – Age: 23–38 A new beginning – Age: 38–40 True beginnings – Age: 41–43 Progression – Age: 44 Resolve – Age: 45–46 Disclosure – Age: 47–48 Decisions – Age: 49 Rebirth – Age: 50 Aftermath and the future – Age: 51
£14.99
Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd To Make a Dream Survive
Book SynopsisFrom a rebellious teenager on the terraces to becoming Supporters Club Chairman, Club Director, Secretary and Head of Media Graham Brookland has seen it all supporting his local football club. The first Football League team to be liquidated mid season for 60 years was followed by him co-founding a new club five levels below the previous level. Five promotions to reach the Football League were achieved before near extinction again. Graham pens his unique experiences panning over 40 years confirming that there is always a story to tell about Aldershot Town Football Club.
£14.99
Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd A Dentist's Story: Curious People, Comical Happenings, Crowns of Glory
Book SynopsisAfter-dinner speaker Barrie Lawrence has been making people laugh - really laugh - for years. Now it's your turn to hear his unbelievably funny, sometimes poignant stories from dental school, surgery and life. How did a pet frog lead to a successful career of seven dental surgeries and a bookshop? And of course, he was a student during those years known as the 'Swinging Sixties!' But something else happened at the London Hospital - something that was even more important than training as a dentist! You'll laugh, you'll cry, and most important of all, you will be inspired.
£11.52
Ebury Publishing Bloom: navigating life and style
Book Synopsis'For me, the word "bloom" encapsulates the idea that anything is possible when you put your mind to it. It's a word that hints at becoming who you are meant to be.' Estée LalondeIn Bloom, Estée shares the moments, people, things and life lessons that have made her who she is today and offers her tips for surviving life. Celebrate your bloom story and what makes you unique.Life * People * Work * Beauty * Fashion * Home * Travel * FoodWhat readers think of Bloom:'Congratulations @EsteeLalonde on your new book Bloom, which is so aethetically pleasing I just want to stare at it all day long' @Zoella'Already up to page 91 of #BloomBook and I've laughed, cried and felt all the emotions. I've not read a book in years!!!' @inthefrow'Just finished reading #BloomBook - honest, refreshing, inspiring and moving.' @lilyvtomlinson'So #BloomBook just arrived in my mailbox in Australia, I'm 20 pages in, and already crying because it's so relatable.' @HonorLuckhurst'Reading Bloom is like reading the pages of my own journal. I love it so much.' @ashleyjlovesyou'In love with #BloomBook' @taraacaseyy'I just started @EsteeLalonde's book and I can't stop reading it, I'm loving it so much.' @FelicitybyFendi'Just don't want to finish this book. So inspiring, thank you @EsteeLalonde for sharing your story.' @NatureElf
£16.14
Troubador Publishing Scratch , A Salcombe Boy: who ran away to sea
Book SynopsisAn inspiring tale of one man’s courage and determination... Easter 1963. The end of the school holidays are approaching, but instead of returning to school, Billy “Scratch” Hitchen ran away to sea - he was just fourteen years old. Before the age of nineteen, he had sailed around the world five times. “Scratch” Salcombe Boy takes us on a wild ride around the world: from the mountainous seas off Cape Horn, to the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, from the most southerly tip of New Zealand to the North Atlantic and Canada, from oil drilling and exploration in Argentina to the construction of oil pipelines in the swamps and jungles of West Africa. In 1973, Scratch finally returned home to Salcombe in South Devon and went on to spend the next three decades fishing in every sea area, from Dover to Rockall. As Scratch tells the story, the reader will be drawn to the charismatic writing and inspired by the sheer determination of the man who overcame many obstacles, not least his lifelong struggles with dyslexia. Without reference to any written document or diary, the story he tells is written from the heart and carried in his soul. Readers who delight in sea exploration and travel, as well as vivid, well-written autobiographies, will enjoy this fascinating life well lived.
£16.98
The Choir Press Right Away!: A Train Driver Recalls His Railway Career
Book SynopsisSteve Davies spent 48 years working in the railway industry from 1969 to 2017. His insider's view of the railways is presented in an easy to read style that will appeal to those in the industry as well as those for whom the jargon would be incomprehensible without Steve's explanations. He started work as a messenger boy and in 1982 he took his first driving turn. He subsequently kept 148 notebooks recording the details of all the trains he had driven including details of trains, times, number of coaches or tonnage of freight hauled. This fascinating insight into the day-to-day workings of the railway industry will be of interest to railway workers, enthusiasts and all of us who have ever wondered "What's it really like to drive a train?".Table of ContentsIntroduction vii; 1 Early Days 1; 2 Working for a Living 4; 3 Back to Ebbw -Temporarily 12; 4 Redundancy 33; 5 Westbury 41; 6 Driver Training 49; 7 Driver Davies 53; I Miss The Engine & Coaches 65; 8 Train Driving Techniques 71; Aslef Information Paper 96; 9 Bosses, Brothers and Others 100; 10 Passengers Not Customers 159; 11 Overcrowding 168; 12 Instructor Driver 175; Steve's Top Ten Tips 182; 13 Driver Error 184; 14 Alarming Experiences 194; 15 Faults and Failures 219; 16 Danger on the Line 233; Phonetic Family Fun 250; 17 Odd Jobs 251; 18 Winding Down and Retirement 264; Glossary 275
£14.11
New Generation Publishing Brown Girl in the Ring: Memoirs of a brown girl living in Scotland
£22.52
Arabesque Travel Arabia Felix: The First Crossing, from 1930, of the Rub Al Khali Desert by a non-Arab.
£16.71
Mikamme Books My Story: Sepsis Raw and Real
£12.99
Little, Brown Book Group An Irish Childhood
Book SynopsisPeter Somerville-Large grew up with his brother Phil in a nursery world at the top of a smart house in Dublin from which they could watch Fitzwilliam Place far below, with the horse drawn delivery vans, the animals being driven to market and their father's patients arriving to visit the consulting rooms on the ground floor. The family had houses in the country too, with livestock and vegetable gardens and a bevy of eccentric relations, among them Edith Somerville (of Somerville and Ross fame). When Peter was five, his father bought an island - 80 bare rocky acres on the north shore of the Kenmare River in County Kerry - which he saw as paradise. There were parties, sailing trips and fishing expeditions. This biography takes the reader back to the sensations and excitements of children, and paints a picture of a world at once so recent and yet now vanished.Trade ReviewPeter Somerville-Large's memories have an authentic and enchanting quality as he evokes the world of his parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts.' Contemporary Review - '..recalls in graphic detail the joys and tribulations of a childhood spent in a milieu that has vanished. * Books of Ireland *
£20.54
John Blake Publishing Ltd One-eyed Baz: Barrington 'Zulu' Patterson, One of Britain's Deadliest Men
Book SynopsisBlinded in one eye by a childhood incident, his tormentors called him 'One Eye' or 'Cyclops'; it could have instilled a victim mentality in him, but instead he became a fighter. One by one, those who tormented him would get their comeuppance ...In his turbulent teenage years, 'Baz' adopted a criminal lifestyle. He went from Rude Boy to Casual and became a leading figure in Birmingham City FC's Zulu Warriors. When not training in martial arts or proving himself as a cage fighter, he also cut a powerful figure in Coventry's clubland where he ran its toughest doors. For all his ferocious reputation, ONE-EYED BAZ reveals a character of great warmth and loyalty, a charismatic figure strong enough to embrace the combat sport of cage fighting and prove himself 'King of the Ring'. ONE-EYED BAZ will surely be lauded as a classic of the hard-man genre.
£13.26
Zeticula Ltd The Story of My Life
Book SynopsisThis moving autobiography of a Berber woman from the village of Tizi-Hibel in the Kabilie Mountains of Algeria is unique on a number of levels. Illegitimate, Fadhma Amrouche would have been killed with her mother to preserve the honour of the family, but for the intervention of the French authorities. Because of this, she received an education and eventually married a Christian convert, although they remained closely linked to their families of origin. Her account of battling poverty, illness and exile is a gripping story. Fadhma's fight for an education in a world of almost universal female illiteracy was nothing short of heroic. She and her children moved from the harsh, fixed hierarchies of a traditional Berber village with archaic means of production to become cosmopolitan Parisians. The journey was filled with heartbreak, and Fadhma never overcame her nostalgia for what she had lost, but never doubted that the journey had to be made. Her unassuming narrative throws an unforgettable light on Berber life, women's position in traditional societies and the tensions between governed and governors in the colonial world.Trade Review'Written in an intimate and frank voice [it] weaves personal memories with the sagas of family members, important family events and details of traditional village life. With excellent introductions on the Berbers, Christianity in the Kabylie, and the Amrouche family.' Kay Hardy Campbell, Saudi Aramco World
£18.95
Little, Brown Book Group The House In South Road
Book SynopsisIn this new edition of Joyce Storey's autobiography, the previous three editions are amalgamated and the complete story of her life is told. Born near Bristol in 1917, Joyce began her autobiography at age 66. THE HOUSE IN SOUTH ROAD follows her pre-war life in Bristol, an era of corset and chocolate factories, of 'service' and glamorous silent movies. With a brilliant eye for the comic in the tragic Joyce unfolds her experiences at school, her first job, her first love and a mismatched marriage. During the war Joyce is a mother of two and her RAF husband is rarely on leave. She fights on the home front; air raids, in-laws, machine work and poverty. After the war Joyce begins to enjoy the luxury of a prefab house, first holidays, the growing independence of her four children, but suffers a breakdown in her marriage and her husband's final illness. With humour and intelligence Joyce Storey charts a good deal of the 20th Century.
£25.50
Zeticula Ltd Another Summer in Kintyre: Reflections on a 2014 Diary
Book SynopsisWhile reflecting the style and character of its predecessor, 'A Summer in Kintyre', this new book is rich in differences. The narrative begins in April 2014 and ends in September, but real time is irrelevant, as the author dips frequently into history and prehistory, evoking people and events associated with the places he visits by bicycle and on foot. Artists, poets, musicians, cave-dwellers, convicts, winkle-pickers, travelling tinsmiths, shipwrecked sailors, saints, school friends, fishermen, shepherds, farmers and fellow-ramblers share the pages with flowers, butterflies, birds, otters, whales, adders, and much else. A close engagement with places, people and nature is ever-present and, using the journals he has kept since his teens, the author is able to recreate his early adventures in the outdoors. Besides familiar haunts in South Kintyre (Learside, Ben Gullion, Inneans, and Largiebaan), he visits Barr Glen, Ballochroy Glen and Lussa, and explores their history. Illustrated with 50 images, the result will inform and delight any reader with an interest in one of Scotland's most fascinating yet least appreciated areas.Trade Review'Wind-swept, rain-lashed - but often sun-kissed - Kintyre, through Angus Martin's eyes, is a garment permanently worn in its newest gloss, an ever-changing spectacle to be enjoyed.', John McCallum, Campbeltown Courier, June 2015; '... A welcome addition is the inclusion of map references for the places mentioned in the chapters. With an O.S. Landranger or Explorer map of Kintyre, readers can locate these places described in the book and perhaps set out on their own voyages of discovery. As the book progresses, the reader becomes aware of how much Angus values the memories and views of others. Fishermen and 'wilk'-gatherers, walkers and cyclists, shepherds and farmers, all appear in this travelling tale and all add their own weft to the warp that Angus has established. By the end of the book, the reader will have become a part of the intriguing tapestry that is this land of Kintyre.' Kintyre Magazine, Autumn 2015; '[These] latest offerings are an absorbing, idiosyncratic excursion into travel writing. Travel for Angus, in his own inimitable way, means cycling and walking through South Kintyre, with the occasional foray into more northern areas such as Ballachroy and Barr Glen. ... Whilst the narrative begins in April 2014 and ends in September, sequential time proves largely irrelevant, as he is always dipping into his own personal past, the past of friends and acquaintances he meets and the deeper past of the folk who fascinate him.' Ed Tyler, Kist Magazine.
£13.95
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Tragedy of Erskine Childers
Book SynopsisIn "The Riddle of the Sands", a gripping spy story set amongst the shoals and mists of the North Sea coast in the years before the First World War, Erskine Childers fathered the modern genre of spy adventures, as well as writing a great yachting classic. Unlike John Buchan or John le Carre, however, Childers himself led a life involving spying, gun-running and conspiracy, and a constant search for adventure and danger, which led in the end to his execution by firing squad in Ireland in 1923. "The Tragedy of Erskine Childers" tells the extraordinary story of a brilliant and highly talented eccentric. A pioneering yachtsman in the early days of small yacht sailing, Childers became such a fervent supporter of Irish nationalism that he ran guns to Ireland on his boat. In the Irish Civil War, his extremism and wish to take part in active service rather than write propaganda, led to his betrayal, trial and execution.Trade Review"'Piper brings fresh insight to this fascinating, often contradictory life. His narrative twists and turns like a sequel to Childers' own novel'. New Statesman 'It is an immensely human narrative that puts a construct of flesh and bone around a sometimes denied figure.' Irish Times 'An exciting and readable account of an extremely strange life and a worthy companion to The Riddle of the Sands.' Sunday Times"Table of ContentsIllustrations; Introduction; 1. Young Erskine; 2. Sea Fever; 3. Soldier; 4. Author; 5. Marriage; 6. New Interests; 7. Gun-Runner; 8. The Cuxhaven Raid; 9. The Dardanelles; 10. Sea and Sky; 11. Sinn Fein; 12. Civil War; 13. The Tragedy of Erskine Childers; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
£32.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Karl Brandt: The Nazi Doctor: Medicine and Power in the Third Reich
Book SynopsisBorn in 1904, Brandt played a major role in the first mass killing programme of the Third Reich, the so called 'euthanasia' programme. As Reich Commissioner for Health and Sanitation, Karl Brandt became the highest medical authority in the Nazi regime; he initiated experiments on concentration camps inmates and was eventually put in charge of biological and chemical warfare. How was it that a rational, highly cultured, literate, young professional could come to be responsible for mass murder and criminal human experiments on a previously unimaginable scale? In this riveting biography, Ulf Schmidt explores in detail that Brandt belonged to a generation of a young 'expert elite', who in the 1930s and 1940s were willing, and empowered, to support and conceive an oppressive, militarist, and racist government policy, and ultimately turn its exterminatory potential into reality. Through a critical biography of Brandt, Schmidt re-evaluates the system of communication at the centre of Hitler's regime. The book extends our understanding of the culture of detachment between a regime that was geared towards total destruction, and a government that was almost totally removed from its people.Trade Review"Karl Brandt (1904-1948) was for a time the leading medical authority in the Nazi regime. He was responsible for the euthanasia program, in which tens of thousands of handicapped individuals were killed.... As British historian Schmidt (Justice at Nuremberg: Leo Alexander and the Nazi Doctors' Trial) shows, a belief in eugenics, combined with a dash of ambition, motivated Brandt. During the war, he saw it as "legitimate to sacrifice individual human lives in the name of science." Outside of the diaries he wrote during the Nuremberg trials, which Schmidt had partial access to, Brandt left few writings, so Schmidt is forced to make informed guesses about the degree of Brandt's involvement in certain projects, such as the gruesome medical experiments conducted on concentration camp inmates, as well as about some of his motivations. Schmidt concludes that whether Brandt backed the genocide of the Jews is almost impossible to know. There's a lot to wade through, but readers who do will learn about a man of culture and science who turned medicine into a tool of murder."- Publishers Weekly, June 18, 2007 -- Publishers Weekly"[Schmidt] has produced an extraordinary study of an individual, a government, and an era that few biographies can hope to equal." --New York Sun"He [Schmidt] skilfully demonstrates Brandt's trajectory from idealistic but ordinary medical student... to Hitler's private doctor... [a] detailed examination" -- Dan Stone, The Times Higher Education Supplement"Remarkable new research by a German historian [Schmidt] is revealing the idealogical evolution of one of Hitler's closest associates. The research - which has taken nine years to carry out - shows how an apparently decent caring man metamorphosed into a mass murderer... Professor Schmidt's research... is likely to provoke controversy" -- BBC History Magazine, David Keys"Many historians are wary of biography, but this author's study of Karl Brandt ought to challenge suspicions about this genre of history...This is a fine study." -Larry Thornton, The Historian, Vol. 71Table of ContentsAcknowledgments; List of Plates and Figures; Abbreviations; Prologue; The Ambitious Idealist; Becoming Hitler's Doctor; Hitler's Envoy; The 'Euthanasia' Doctor; The General Commissioner; Detached Leadership; Human experimentation; Medical Supremo; Nuremberg; Trial; Under Sentence of Death; Bibliography; Index.
£60.00
Chipmunkapublishing Who's Afraid of the Teddy Bear's Picnic?: A Story of Sexual Abuse and Recovery Through Psychotherapy
£13.63
Chipmunkapublishing For Endings to End Beginnings Have to Begin
£13.63
Lulu.com A Fair and Honest Book
£23.70
Lulu.com Letter to my Father
£11.10
Hay House UK Ltd Life Among the Dead
Book SynopsisLisa Williams is one of the world's most accurate mediums. Taught by her grandmother both on this plane and in the afterlife, her extraordinary gift for communicating with Spirit and those that have passed on has led her from humble origins to become one of America's most beloved TV stars as the host of Life Among the Dead.Her incredible story to find acceptance both from those she cared about and the strangers who came to her for help led to the development of abilities that have been described as always accurate and often unbelievable: Communicating with those that have passed overPredicting life eventsDiagnosing disease Sensing cheating husbands!
£13.49
Little, Brown Book Group Drums on the Night Air: A Woman's Flight from Africa's Heart of Darkness
Book SynopsisVeronica Cecil was twenty-five years old when her husband was offered a job at a large multi-national company in the Congo. Filled with enthusiasm for their new life, the couple and their eleven-month-old son set off for an African adventure.Very soon, however, Veronica began to realise that life in the Congo was not what she had imagined. Food shortages were an everyday occurrence; she felt like an outsider at the club in Léopoldville, which only the Belgians and other expats frequented; and flickers of violence were starting to erupt everywhere.Six months later Veronica and her family were sent to Elizabetha, a remote palm oil plantation on the banks of the Congo River. But even here paradise didn't last. Civil war broke out, and the rebels captured the neighbouring town of Stanleyville and took all the whites hostage. Despite the fact that Veronica was on the verge of giving birth, the situation was so dangerous that she and her toddler had to be evacuated. Leaving her husband and all their possessions behind, she and her son began on a two-day journey through the jungle. But on the plane back to Leopoldville, the first labour pains began...Praise for Letters From Abroad, written and read by Veronica Cecil, BBC Radio 4: '... absolutely enthralling' Daily Telegraph; 'Blending her personal memories with the wider picture, Miss Cecil effortlessly packs more into her quarter hour than many an hour long documentary...' Daily Mail.Trade ReviewA story of hope and hopelessness, of a woman fleeing for her life...a compelling tale of a country in turmoil. -- Jenny Crwys-WilliamsFrank and compelling. * The Pulse *Absolutely enthralling * Daily Telegraph *A gripping page-turner. * Oldie *
£999.99
