Biography: adventurers and explorers Books
The History Press Ltd Once a Grand Duchess
Book SynopsisThis biography of Xenia, sister of Nicholas II gives a new angle on the Romanov story and provides new information on relationships within the family after the Revolution. Important new letters and photographs are also included.
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Victoria Penguin Monarchs Queen Matriarch Empress
Book Synopsis
£999.99
Penguin Putnam Inc Devils Bargain
Book SynopsisThe instant #1 New York Times bestseller, now with an explosive new preface.From the reporter who was there at the very beginning comes the revealing inside story of the partnership between Steve Bannon and Donald Trump—the key to understanding the rise of the alt-right, the fall of Hillary Clinton, and the hidden forces that drove the greatest upset in American political history. Based on dozens of interviews conducted over six years, Green spins the master narrative of the 2016 campaign from its origins in the far fringes of right-wing politics and reality television to its culmination inside Trump’s penthouse on election night. The shocking elevation of Bannon to head Trump’s flagging presidential campaign on August 17, 2016, hit political Washington like a thunderclap and seemed to signal the meltdown of the Republican Party. Bannon was a bomb-throwing pugilist who’d never run a campaign and was despised by Democrats and
£14.45
Random House USA Inc Young Stalin
Book SynopsisFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Romanovs—and one of our pre-eminent historians—comes “a meticulously researched, authoritative biography” (The New York Times), the companion volume to the prize-winning Stalin, and essential reading for anyone interested in Russian history. This revelatory account unveils how Stalin became Stalin, examining his shadowy journey from obscurity to power—from master historian Simon Sebag Montefiore. Based on ten years of research, Young Stalin is a brilliant prehistory of the USSR, a chronicle of the Revolution, and an intimate biography. Montefiore tells the story of a charismatic, darkly turbulent boy born into poverty, scarred by his upbringing but possessed of unusual talents. Admired as a romantic poet and trained as a priest, he found his true mission as a murderous revolutionary. Here is the dramatic story of his friendships and hatreds, his many love affairs, his complicated relationship with the Tsarist secret police, and how he became the merciless politician who shaped the Soviet Empire in his own brutal image.
£17.10
University of California Press Charlemagne
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Excellent translation of Barbero’s text. . . . The author of this rich, scholarly but accessible study provides an intimate portrait of the man—right down to his shirt and underpants—and a sensitive analysis of his government and times. " * Publishers Weekly *“[Professor Barbero] ... has a lightness of touch indispensable in approaching a subject which has constipated generations of continental scholars. He is particularly good in following through the repercussions of war down the social scale to the peasants who made up at least 90 per cent of the population. . . . Barbero is also a historical novelist, and knows how to hold the attention with arresting details.” * Spectator *“Cameron’s translation makes the book lively an readable, and he has captured Barbero’s wit, keen eye for detail, and sharp analysis of sources. . . . Accessible to a wide audience and educated non-specialists, and it would be an excellent addition to required texts in a survey class.” * Canadian Journal Of History *“Vivid descriptions and careful research combine to paint a picture of a bygone era that entertains the reader as much as edifies her. Charlemagne: Father of a Continent is not just another biography but a fascinating and immensely useful one.” * Envoi: A Review Journal of Medieval Literature *“Judiciously avoids scholarly arcana and long-winded digressions into source-criticism and historiographical debates. . . . and effectively communicates to a wider audience the essentials of these debates, both within the text and in the discursive bibliography, with elegance, wit, and attitude.” * H-France Review of Books *"This book has been vividly and compellingly translated by Allan Cameron, and is an enjoyable and informative read." * Reading Religion *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Paderborn, Summer of 7991. The Frankish Tradition2. The War against the Lombards3. Wars against the Pagans4. The Rebirth of Empire5. Charlemagne and Europe6. The Man and His Family7. Government of the Empire: The Institutions8. Government of the Empire: The Resources9. Government of the Empire: The Justice System10. An Intellectual Project11. The Frankish Military Machine12. A New Economy13. Patronage and Servitude14. Old Age and DeathNotesBibliographyIndex
£18.90
Trafford Publishing In Gold We Trust The True Story of the Papalia Twins and Their Battle for Truth and Justice
£19.05
Schiffer Publishing Ltd I Could Never Be So Lucky Again
Book SynopsisThe complete autobiography of an American hero, Jimmy Doolittle.
£26.59
Getty Trust Publications Julia Margaret Cameron Biography
Book SynopsisBritish photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) has been described as one of the Finest portraitists of the nineteenth century-in any medium. Raised in a well-connected and creative family, Cameron led an unconventional life for a woman of the Victorian age. After devoting herself to an artistic and literary salon at her home on the Isle of Wight and raising eleven children, Cameron took up photography in her late forties. Over the next fourteen years, she produced more than a thousand strikingly original and often controversial images. Her searching portraits of her friends and acquaintances, including Alfred Tennyson and Charles Darwin, have been called the world's first close-ups. This biography casts new light on the artist's links with the leading cultural figures of her time and on the techniques she used to achieve her distinctive style. It is published to coincide with a travelling exhibition of Cameron's photographs that will be on display at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the National Museum of Photography, Film and Televison, Bradford, England, in spring 2003 and will open at the Getty Museum in October 2003.
£42.75
Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies,US Letters to Her Sons 14471470 46 493 Other Voice
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAt long last, this treasure trove of seventy-three letters written by Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi to her exiled sons is now fully available to Anglophone readers. Scholars of Renaissance Italy and early modern women have long recognized the importance of Strozzi’s letters, but until now only selections have been published in translation. Given the growing interest in women’s epistolary practices as well as the continuing fascination with Renaissance Florence, this translation makes an especially welcome contribution to the Other Voice series, and will almost certainly enlarge Strozzi’s historical footprint for students and scholars alike. Sharon Strocchia Professor, Department of History, Emory College of Arts and Sciences"At long last, this treasure trove of seventy-three letters written by Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi to her exiled sons is now fully available to Anglophone readers. Scholars of Renaissance Italy and early modern women have long recognized the importance of Strozzi’s letters, but until now only selections have been published in translation. Given the growing interest in women’s epistolary practices as well as the continuing fascination with Renaissance Florence, this translation makes an especially welcome contribution to the Other Voice series, and will almost certainly enlarge Strozzi’s historical footprint for students and scholars alike." -- Sharon Strocchia, Emory College of Arts and SciencesTable of ContentsAcknowledgments xvIntroduction1. The Other Voice 12. The Life of Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi: The Intersection ofPrivate and Public Domains 63. Alessandra and the Genre of the Familiar Letter 164. Writing as a Mother 185. The Afterlife of the Letters 236. A Note on the Translation and Edition 25Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi: Letters to Her Sons 29Abbreviations 245Weights and Measures 246Currency 247Times of Day 248Florentine Dating 248Bibliography 249Index 269
£30.40
The Merlin Press Ltd Hugo Blanco
Book SynopsisHugo Blanc is Peru's best-known revolutionary. A leader of the indigenous people of the Andes, he was born in 1934 in Cusco, the former Inca capital. He is a lifelong environmental campaigner in defence of the natural riches of the Andean region and beyond.
£14.24
Fragile X Association of GA My eXtra Special Brother
£15.50
Random House USA Inc Hoover An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary
Book SynopsisAn exemplary biography—exhaustively researched, fair-minded and easy to read. It can nestle on the same shelf as David McCullough’s Truman, a high compliment indeed. —The Wall Street JournalThe definitive biography of Herbert Hoover, one of the most remarkable Americans of the twentieth century—a wholly original account that will forever change the way Americans understand the man, his presidency, his battle against the Great Depression, and their own history.An impoverished orphan who built a fortune. A great humanitarian. A president elected in a landslide and then resoundingly defeated four years later. Arguably the father of both New Deal liberalism and modern conservatism, Herbert Hoover lived one of the most extraordinary American lives of the twentieth century. Yet however astonishing, his accomplishments are often eclipsed by the perception that Hoover was inept and heartless in the face
£21.60
McDonald & Woodward Publishing Homes and Libraries of the Presidents Homes
Book SynopsisThis book identifies, describes, and provides sources of additional information to almost one hundred homes, libraries, and museums that commemorate one or more of the presidents of the United States -- from George Washington to George W Bush. Each president's life and home is put into personal and historical context. The book has three sections. Section one provides an overview of the historical significance of presidential homes and museums, discusses restoration and preservation efforts, and traces the federal government's role, through the National Park Service and the National Archives, in administering and maintaining these sites. Section two -- the most extensive part of the book -- presents short anecdotal biographies of each president, followed by a description of the relevant home, museum, or library sites. Basic locational and access information is also provided for each site. Section three identifies sources of additional information related to the theme of the book, and pr
£23.74
The Library of America Ulysses S. Grant Memoirs Selected Letters LOA 50
Book SynopsisTwenty years after Appomattox, stricken by cancer and facing financial ruin, Ulysses S. Grant wrote his Personal Memoirs to secure his family’s future. in doing so, the Civil War’s greatest general won himself a unique place in American letters. His character, intelligence, sense of purpose, and simple compassion are evident throughout this vivid and deeply moving account, which has been acclaimed by readers as diverse asMark Twain, Matthew Arnold, Gertrude Stein, and Edmund Wilson. Annotated and complete with detailed maps, battle plans, and facsimiles reproduced from the original edition, this volume offers an unparalleled vantage on the most terrible, moving, and inexhaustibly fascinating event in American history. included are 174 letters, many of them to his wife, Julia, which offer an intimate view of their affectionate and enduring marriage.LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
£26.55
The Crowood Press Ltd Not Quite a Horsewoman
Book SynopsisCaroline Akrill reveals the frequent disasters and the occasional triumphs of her long association with a string of equine characters. Engagingly witty, endearingly frank, sometimes surprising, but always amusing, Caroline Akrill regards the horse from the safety of the stable door and scrutinises him with candour and affection.
£8.49
Spokesman Books Fates Worse Than Death No 80 Spokesman Pamphlet
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£7.77
Basic Books John Marshall
Book SynopsisIn 1801, a 45-year-old Revolutionary War veteran and politician, slovenly, genial, brilliant, and persuasive, became the fourth chief justice of the United States, a post he would hold for a record thirty-four years. Before John Marshall joined the Court, the judicial branch was viewed as the poor sister of the federal government, lacking in dignity and clout. After his passing, the Supreme Court of the United States would never be ignored again. John Marshall is award-winning and bestselling author Richard Brookhiser''s definitive biography of America''s longest-serving Chief Justice.Marshall (1755-1835) was born in Northern Virginia and served as a captain during the Revolutionary War and then as a delegate to the Virginia state convention. He was a friend and admirer of George Washington, and a cousin and enemy of Thomas Jefferson. His appointment to the Supreme Court came almost by chance-Adams saw him as the last viable option, after previous appointees declined
£22.50
Simon & Schuster Leonardo da Vinci
Book SynopsisThe #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life” (The New Yorker).Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson “deftly reveals an intimate Leonardo” (San Francisco Chronicle) in a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy. He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studieTrade Review"As always, [Isaacson] writes with a strongly synthesizing intelligence across a tremendous range; the result is a valuable introduction to a complex subject. . . . Beneath its diligent research, the book is a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it. . . . Most important, Isaacson tells a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life." —The New Yorker“To read this magnificent biography of Leonardo da Vinci is to take a tour through the life and works of one of the most extraordinary human beings of all time and in the company of the most engaging, informed, and insightful guide imaginable. Walter Isaacson is at once a true scholar and a spellbinding writer. And what a wealth of lessons there are to be learned in these pages." —David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Wright Brothers and 1776“I’ve read a lot about Leonardo over the years, but I had never found one book that satisfactorily covered all the different facets of his life and work. Walter—a talented journalist and author I’ve gotten to know over the years—did a great job pulling it all together. . . . More than any other Leonardo book I’ve read, this one helps you see him as a complete human being and understand just how special he was.” —Bill Gates“Isaacson’s essential subject is the singular life of brilliance. . . . Isaacson deftly reveals an intimate Leonardo . . . a masterpiece of concision.” —San Francisco Chronicle“A captivating narrative about art and science, curiosity and discipline.” —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Originals“He comes to life in all his remarkable brilliance and oddity in Walter Isaacson’s ambitious new biography . . . a vigorous, insightful portrait of the world’s most famous portraitist...Isaacson’s purpose is a thorough synthesis, which he achieves with flair.” —The Washington Post“Walter Isaacson is a renaissance man. . . . Rather like Leonardo, he’s driven by a joyful desire to discover. That joy bubbles forth in this magnificent book. In Isaacson, Leonardo gets the biographer he deserves—an author capable of comprehending his often frenetic, frequently weird quest to understand. This is not just a joyful book; it’s also a joy to behold. . . . Isaacson deserves immense praise for producing a very human portrait of a genius.” —The Times of London“The pleasure of an Isaacson biography is that it doesn’t traffic in such cynical stuff; the author tells stories of people who, by definition, are inimitable....Isaacson is at his finest when he analyzes what made Leonardo human.” —The New York Times“Monumental . . . Leonardo led an astonishingly interesting eventful life. And Isaacson brilliantly captures its essence.” —The Toronto Star"Majestic . . . Isaacson takes on another complex, giant figure and transforms him into someone we can recognize. . . . Totally enthralling, masterful, and passionate.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review"Illuminating . . . This is a monumental tribute to a titanic figure." —Publishers Weekly, starred review“Isaacson uses his subject’s contradictions to give him humanity and depth.” —Anthony Grafton, The New York Times “Encompassing in its coverage, robust in its artistic explanations, yet written in a smart, conversational tone, this is both a solid introduction to the man and a sweeping saga of his genius.” —Booklist, starred review“A fresh and enthusiastic reading of the extraordinary da Vinci notebooks, written in a way that makes them both accessible and contemporary. Absorbing, enlightening and always engaging.” —Miranda Seymour, author of Mary Shelley“Isaacson's biography is linear enough to follow easily, yet it returns, as did the artist, time and again, to the highly concrete, enticingly yet rigorously investigable mysteries of the human and natural world. Model . . . . This beautiful book, on coated stock, showing text and illustrations to the best advantage, is a pleasure to hold.” —Bay Area Reporter“Isaacson, to his credit, helps us see Leonardo’s artistic vision with fresh eyes. . . . He writes simply and clearly, and even though his principal character hails from antiquity, the narrative hums like a headline from the morning paper, alert to topical parallels between then and now . . . we finish the book with a renewed conviction that the world’s most famous Renaissance man was, in essence, inimitable.” —Christian Science Monitor“A full and engrossing profile of the artist . . . The author moves fluidly between the scientific inquiries of Leonardo’s notebooks and the artistic achievements in his sketchbooks, and carries the same themes, such as the artist’s boundless curiosity and inquiry, through them in a way that does not seem too facile or overapplied.” —East Hampton Star“A 21st century page-turner." —USA Today“Exuberant . . . a richly illustrated ride through the artist’s life . . . a fascinating, bonbon-size tribute to the man who thought to ask.” —Newsday “Beautifully produced and illustrated, the biography is an ideal match of author and subject. . . . Fascinated by Leonardo’s genius, Isaacson lucidly and lovingly captures his stunning powers of observation that spanned so many disciplines. . . . Isaacson’s monumental and magnificent biography does succeed in helping us understand what made da Vinci’s paintings so memorable, and in making Leonardo much more accessible, as a genius, a man of and outside of his times, and as a 'quirky, obsessive, playful, and easily distracted' human being.” —Tulsa World“In some ways this is Walter Isaacson's most ambitious book. He uses the life he recounts in a wonderful way to speculate on the source of geniuses...always you are informed, entertained, stimulated, satisfied. This has to be the most beautifully illustrated and printed book I've seen in recent years.” —Fareed Zakaria GPS“[A] splendid work that provides an illuminating guide to the output of one of the last millennium’s greatest minds.” —Guardian US"Leonardo da Vinci's prowess as a polymath — driven by insatiable curiosity about everything from the human womb to deadly weaponry — still stuns. In this copiously illustrated biography, we feel its force all over again. Walter Isaacson wonderfully conveys how Leonardo's genius unified science and art." —NATURE"Dazzling" —HARVARD GAZETTE"Luminous . . . Leonardo Da Vinci is an elegantly illustrated book that broadens Isaacson’s viewfinder on the psychology of major lives – Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs are the subjects of his previous biographies, best-sellers all." —THE DAILY BEAST
£19.80
Simon & Schuster Can You Ever Forgive Me
Book SynopsisNow a major motion picture starring Melissa McCarthy—Lee Israel’s hilarious and shocking memoir of the astonishing caper she carried on for almost two years when she forged and sold more than three hundred letters by such literary notables as Dorothy Parker, Edna Ferber, Noel Coward, and many others.Before turning to her life of crime—running a one-woman forgery business out of a phone booth in a Greenwich Village bar and even dodging the FBI—Lee Israel had a legitimate career as an author of biographies. Her first book on Tallulah Bankhead was a New York Times bestseller, and her second, on the late journalist and reporter Dorothy Kilgallen, made a splash in the headlines. But by 1990, almost broke and desperate to hang onto her Upper West Side studio, Lee made a bold and irreversible career change: inspired by a letter she’d received once from Katharine Hepburn, and armed with her considerable skills as a researcher a
£14.44
Ohio State University Press Everything Lost The Latin American Notebook of William S Burroughs Revised Edition
£15.15
Penguin Putnam Inc Sorry Not Sorry
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£22.40
Duke University Press Incognegro
Book SynopsisIn this mesmerizing political memoir, Frank Wilderson recollects his turbulent life as an expatriate in South Africa during the furious last gasps of apartheid, where he taught at universities by day, and helped the ANC coordinate clandestine propaganda and launch psychological warfare by night.Trade Review"[F]requently beautiful. . . . Angry and paranoid." * Kirkus Reviews *"Wilderson has offered an important and groundbreaking story of the last days of apartheid. . . . More than anything Incognegro teaches us that the fall of apartheid was not bloodless or peaceful, that the corruption of neo-colonialism inhabits South Africa still, and it invites us, wherever we are, inside or outside South Africa, to tear down ourselves to the very foundations." -- Meta L. Schettler * Callaloo *"Wilderson's epic . . . offers thoughtful and provocative detail and nuance on each [read]. The book makes you rethink the idea of what a hero is and why and who crowned Nelson Mandela as such. It reveals the soul wrenching challenge of what it means to be an activist. It prompts a redefinition of success. And Wilderson takes on what he describes as some left-wingers' deep need to cling to the notion that South Africa's apartheid was different than racism on U.S. soil." -- Esther Armah * New York Amsterdam News *"Radical, defiant, and searingly honest, this memoir about being active in the freedom struggle in the U.S. and in post-apartheid South Africa is bound to spark passionate argument as Wilderson weaves together his personal story with his politics, always critical of those in power." -- Hazel Rochman * Booklist *"Wilderson's stinging portrait of Nelson Mandela as a petulant elder eager to accommodate his white countrymen will jolt readers who've accepted the reverential treatment usually accorded him. . . . Wilderson has a distinct, powerful voice and a strong story that shuffles between the indignities of Johannesburg life and his early years in Minneapolis . . . a riveting memoir of apartheid's last days." * Publishers Weekly *
£19.79
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group The Hangman and His Wife
Book SynopsisAn astonishing journey into the heart of Nazi evil: a portrait of one of the darkest figures of Hitler’s Nazi elite—Reinhard Heydrich, the designer and executor of the Holocaust, chief of the Reich Main Security, including the Gestapo—interwoven with commentary by his wife, Lina, from the author's in-depth interviews.He was called the Hangman of the Gestapo, the butcher of Prague, with a reputation as a ruthlessly efficient killer. He was the head of the SS, and the Gestapo, second in command to Heinrich Himmler. His orders set in motion the Kristallnacht pogrom of 1938 and, as the lead planner of Hitler's Final Solution, he chaired the Wannsee Conference, at which details of the murder of millions of Jews across Nazi-occupied Europe were toasted with cognac. In The Hangman and His Wife, Nancy Dougherty, and, following her death, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, masterfully explore who Heydrich was and how he came to be, and how
£28.50
Seagull Books London Ltd Anarchys Brief Summer
Book SynopsisAn account of the life and death of Buenaventura Durruti, a Spanish Civil War leader, that turns his life into a larger story of revolution, commitment, and failed struggles for freedom.
£20.89
The History Press Ltd A Tangled Web Mata Hari
Book SynopsisIn this new biography, published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of her execution, Mata Hari is revealed in all of her flawed eccentricity; a woman whose adult life was a fantastical web of lies and half-truths.
£10.44
Harvard University Press Historia Augusta Volume II
Book SynopsisThe Historia Augusta is a biographical collection written by a single author under six pseudonyms that covers the lives of the Roman emperors from Hadrian (r. 117–138) to Carinus (r. 283–285). While it is our most detailed surviving source for this period, it has more value as an enigmatic work of literary fiction than as history.Trade ReviewThe task of editing and revising the work of another scholar cannot be an easy task. Yet Rohrbacher has handled his endeavour with admirable skill and respect. The result is a welcome and, one might add, needed addition to the Loeb Classical Library, and will surely serve anglophone readers of this most beguiling of texts for years to come. -- Christopher Mallan * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
£23.70
Twelve Who Thought This Was a Good Idea
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£13.59
Permuted Press The Reporter Who Knew Too Much
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£11.99
Yale University Press Gershom Scholem
Book SynopsisTrade Review“David Biale’s ability to capture and illuminate a 'life' in its full and manifold aspects for so complex and multi-faceted a man is a major achievement. A superb, much-awaited biography.”—Steven Aschheim, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
£18.04
Random House USA Inc Vulgar Favors
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£9.49
Random House USA Inc Confessions
Book SynopsisOne of the great works of Western literature, from perhaps the most important thinker of Christian antiquity, in a revolutionary new translation by one of today’s leading classicists Sarah Ruden’s fresh, dynamic translation of Confessions brings us closer to Augustine’s intent than any previous version. It puts a glaring spotlight on the life of one individual to show how all lives have meaning that is universal and eternal. In this intensely personal narrative, Augustine tells the story of his sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. He describes his ascent from a humble farm in North Africa to a prestigious post in the Roman Imperial capital of Milan, his struggle against his own overpowering sexuality, his renunciation of secular ambition and marriage, and the recovery of the faith his mother had taught him during his earliest years. Augustine’s concerns are often strikingly contemporary, and the confessional mode he inve
£12.59
Back Bay Books Gay Bar
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£16.99
Edinburgh University Press Erdoan
Book SynopsisM. Hakan Yavuz examines 'New Turkey' through the life of its domineering leader, President Erdogan Uncovering the person behind the persona, Yavuz draws on 250 first-hand interviews to untangle the web of literary, religious and biographical influences that shaped Erdogan's personality, ideology and world view.
£20.89
£25.17
Ediciones Ctedra, S.A. Marilyn Manson Rockpop Catedra
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£15.56
Editorial Planeta, S.A. Yo Soy El Diego I Am the Diego
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£11.35
Random House Publishing Group Horror Stories A Memoir
Book SynopsisThe two-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter behind the groundbreaking album Exile in Guyville traces her life and career in a genre-bending memoir in stories about the pivotal moments that haunt her.“Honest, original and absolutely remarkable.”—NPR (Best Books of the Year)When Liz Phair shook things up with her musical debut, Exile in Guyville—making her as much a cultural figure as a feminist pioneer and rock star—her raw candor, uncompromising authenticity, and deft storytelling inspired a legion of critics, songwriters, musicians, and fans alike. Now, like a Gen X Patti Smith, Liz Phair reflects on the path she has taken in these piercing essays that reveal the indelible memories that have stayed with her. For Phair, horror is in the eye of the beholder—in the often unrecognized universal experiences of daily pain, guilt, and fear that make up our humanity. Illuminati
£13.29
The History Press Ltd Icy Graves
Book SynopsisHighlighting the true heroism of Antarctic explorers, the dangers they face and the equipment used to prevailTrade ReviewSpine-chilling stuff -- Sir Ranulph FiennesCompelling
£12.34
Orion Publishing Co Charles Dickens
Book SynopsisSuperb, highly accessible biography of one of the giants of English literature by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A THOUSAND ACRES'Engaging and stimulating' Simon CallowTrade ReviewEngaging and stimulating -- Simon CallowJane Smiley, in her admirable contribution to Weidenfeld's series of short biographies, deals briskly with Dickens's career and works, and treats with sympathy and sense his relations with the women in his life * LITERARY REVIEW *
£999.99
Random House USA Inc Pilgrimage My Search for the Real Pope Francis
Book SynopsisA down-to-earth and deeply intimate portrait of Pope Francis and his faith, based on interviews with the men and women who knew him simply as Jorge Mario Bergoglio Early on the evening of March 13, 2013, the newly elected Pope Francis stepped out onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and did something remarkable: Before he imparted his blessing to the crowd, he asked the crowd to bless him, then bowed low to receive this grace. In the days that followed, Mark K. Shriver—along with the rest of the world—was astonished to see a pope who paid his own hotel bill, eschewed limousines, and made his home in a suite of austere rooms in a Vatican guesthouse rather than the grand papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace. By setting an example of humility and accessibility, Francis breathed new life into the Catholic Church, attracting the admiration of Catholics and non-Catholics alike. In Pilgrimage, Shriver retraces Francis’s perso
£15.29
Little, Brown Book Group Russian Roulette
Book SynopsisProbably the greatest British novelist of his generation, Graham Greene''s own story was as strange and compelling as those he told of Pinkie the Mobster, Harry Lime, or the Whisky Priest. A restless traveller, he was a witness to many of the key events of modern history - including the origins of the Vietnam War, the Mau Mau Rebellion, the betrayal of the double-agent Kim Philby, the rise of Fidel Castro, and the guerrilla wars of Central America.Traumatized as a boy and thought a Judas among his schoolmates, Greene tried Russian Roulette and attempted suicide. He suffered from bipolar illness, which caused havoc in his private life as his marriage failed, and one great love after another suffered shipwreck, until in his later years he found constancy in a decidedly unconventional relationship.Often called a Catholic novelist, his works came to explore the no man''s land between belief and unbelief. A journalist, an MI6 officer, and an unfailing advocate foTrade ReviewRussian Roulette bounds along with fluency, clarity and wry humour -- John Walsh * Sunday Times *At last, a biography that does justice to Graham Greene . . . [Richard Greene] writes briskly and engagingly, with a wry wit and an endearing fondness for trivia and puns. He is also less giddy, and less of a hero-worshipper, than most of the previous biographers . . . Greene emerges from these pages in three dimensions, as a uniquely fascinating man -- Jake Kerridge * Sunday Telegraph *Nicely written and well-judged cradle-to-grave portrait that needed to be conventional and unshowy, and is all the better for it . . . Richard Greene has mastered a tremendous amount of material -- Nicholas Shakespeare * Spectator *Richard Greene-no relation-says ruefully of Graham Greene that his life is "sometimes boiled down to sex, books and depression" by critics. In his exhaustive, engaging study of Greene, his biographer attempts to reclaim him as a writer who speaks to our "unquiet world" rather than being mired in "Greeneland," a place where betrayal and guilt trudge glumly on together . . . This thoughtful book clearly shows the cost of a life lived on the run -- Alexander Larman * Prospect *Thank goodness for Richard Greene, whose splendid one-volume biography offers a succinct counterbalance to Sherry's inedible trifle and conjures the man Evelyn Waugh nicknamed "Grisjambon Vert" (French for "grey ham green") in all his perplexing variety. Where Sherry is tactless and indecorous, Richard Greene (no relation) is respectful and considered. Crisply written, Russian Roulette takes its title from Greene's vaunted flirtation with suicide as a teenager in Berkhamsted outside London, where his father was a school headmaster . . . Cogently argued and happily free of jargon, Russian Roulette offers a long-needed antidote to "dirty linen" biographers who have sought to expose a darker shade of Greene and, in consequence, lost sight of the books. At last Graham Greene has the biographer he deserves -- Ian Thomson * Evening Standard *A brilliant new biography * Daily Mail *The best biography I read this year . . . Richard Greene never met the author, but he conjures him back to life in a sensible, unsensational way -- Nicholas Shakespeare * Spectator *Well-researched, neatly written * Private Eye *Seamlessly and perceptively, Greene's life experiences are melded with the content of his novels, to establish him as a master craftsman who comes close to greatness * Daily Mail *Perceptive, refreshingly unsolemn, lively, at times funny, and shrewd throughout. It's also a wonderfully bright and entertaining read -- John Banville
£11.24
Princeton University Press Niccolò Machiavelli
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Sensible and useful. . . . [Vivanti] sets forth the greatness of Machiavelli, not as a figure of his time, the Renaissance, but as a founder of modernity."—Harvey C. Mansfield, Wall Street Journal"A fascinating, concise guide to Machiavelli's life and work."—Joanna Kavenna, The Spectator"[A] learned intellectual biography."—Michael Ignatieff, The Atlantic"Excellent, and accessible to anyone interested in finding out more about Machiavelli."—Jonathan Powell, Prospect"Informative and . . . level-headed."—Keith Miller, The Telegraph
£15.19
University of Illinois Press Diary of a Philosophy Student
Book SynopsisSimone de Beauvoir, still a teen, began a diary while a philosophy student at the Sorbonne. Written in 1926-27before Beauvoir met Jean-Paul Sartrethe diaries reveal previously unknown details about her life and times and offer critical insights into her early intellectual interests, philosophy, and literary works. Presented for the first time in translation, this fully annotated first volume of the Diary includes essays from Barbara Klaw and Margaret A. Simons that address its philosophical, historical, and literary significance. It remains an invaluable resource for tracing the development of Beauvoir's independent thinking and her influence on philosophy, feminism, and the world.Trade Review"Both volumes are strong and important contributions to feminist philosophy, not only in their themes but in significantly addressing these themes with reference to gendered human existence. I recommend them to anyone who is interested in understanding the making of a feminist philosopher, especially to early researchers working on Beauvoir, to undergraduates trying to understand philosophy, as well as to scholars seeking to understand Beauvoir and her philosophical themes." --Hypatia"Klaw's extensive notes are invaluable, not only in providing biographical background for Beauvoir's literary and philosophical references, but also for flatting difficulties in translation." --Choice"A fascinating text! Barbara Klaw's translation is consistently accurate as well as highly readable and the entire volume is essential for understanding how Beauvoir became Beauvoir."--Gerald J. Prince, author of A Grammar of Stories: An Introduction"This is a truly remarkable book, and a significant contribution to Beauvoir scholarship. Barbara Klaw's excellent translation provides unique access to the formative years of one of the twentieth century's great philosophers, authors, and public intellectuals. Beauvoir's portrayals and reflections on her first meetings and conversations with Sartre, on family, love, friendship and everyday life in Paris—as well as her thoughts on the philosophical and literary texts that she studied—are all included in this fascinating book. This is mandatory reading for all striving to obtain an understanding of Beauvoir, her life, and her work."--Tove Pettersen, President of the International Simone de Beauvoir Society"This diary increases our admiration for Beauvoir's heroic determination to make something of herself. A precious document."--Bookforum"This is a groundbreaking and extremely important work for feminists, philosophers, and scholars of autobiography, and a welcome academic corrective to the edited, abridged, and simplified commercial representations of this important and complex twentieth-century French feminist, philosopher, and writer."--Kentucky Philological Review"Barbara Klaw, Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir, Margaret Simons, and Marybeth Timmerman have given the world a remarkable gift. This volume is organized, annotated, and contextualized superbly. How much richer and more profound [Beauvoir's] corpus becomes with the addition of these priceless writings. The publication of her diaries will only further elevate her philosophical and literal legacy."--H-France Review"This indispensable volume offers a panorama of Beauvoir's intellectual preoccupations. The translators and editors are to be applauded for producing such a valuable contribution to Beauvoir studies."--French Studies "An admirable example of careful translating and editing. The diary presents an opportunity for opening an avenue of Beauvorian scholarship in aesthetics."--APA Newsletter “This is a magnificent piece of work. It is an engaging read and lets English readers to whom French is not accessible have first-hand access to some now much-discussed evidence regarding the independence of Beauvoir’s thought. The translation is beautiful, smooth, and true. A real coup!”--Claudia Card, author of The Cambridge Companion to Simone de Beauvoir “This book is an enormously significant event which scholars have been eagerly awaiting for quite some time. Study of Beauvoir’s diaries not only alerts us to fascinating and unknown influences on her intellectual and personal development, but it could also form the basis for an amazing study of how the raw material of adolescent emotion, all its masochism and its narcissism, became transmuted into the readable and beautiful texts from which we can all learn so much.”--Meryl Altman, DePauw University
£34.20
Schocken Books Lioness Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2017 National Jewish Book Award/Everett Family Foundation Book of the Year, this is the definitive biography of the iron-willed leader, chain-smoking political operative, and tea-and-cake serving grandmother who became the fourth prime minister of Israel.Born in tsarist Russia in 1898. Golda Meir immigrated to America in 1906 and grew up in Milwaukee. where from the earliest years she displayed the political consciousness and organizational skills that would eventually catapult her into the inner circles of Israel''s founding generation. Moving to mandatory Palestine in 1921 with her husband, the passionate socialist joined a kibbutz but soon left and was hired at a public works office by the man who would become the great love of her life. A series of public service jobs brought her to the attention of David Ben-Gurion, and her political career took off. Fund-raising in America in 1948, secretly meeting in Amman with King Abdullah right before Israel''s declaration of independence, mobbed by thousands of Jews in a Moscow synagogue in 1948 as Israel''s first representative to the USSR, serving as minister of labor and foreign minister in the 1950s and 1960s, Golda brought fiery oratory, plainspoken appeals, and shrewd-making to the cause to which she had dedicated her life—the welfare and security of the State of Israel and its people.As prime minister, Golda negotiated arms agreements with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger and had dozens of clandestine meetings with Jordan''s King Hussein in the unsuccessful pursuit of a land-for-peace agreement with Israel''s neighbors. But her time in office ended in tragedy, when Israel was caught off guard by Egypt and Syria''s surprise attack on Yom Kippur in 1973. Resigning in the war''s aftermath, Golda spent her final years keeping a hand in national affairs and bemusedly enjoying international acclaim.Francine Klagsbrun''s superbly researched and masterly recounted story of Israel''s founding mother gives us a Golda for the ages.
£999.99
Yale University Press Einstein His Space and Times Jewish Lives
Book SynopsisTrade Review“This work provides an enjoyable tour through Einstein’s scientific career and discoveries. This is not so much a straightforward biography of Einstein as a presentation of his thought processes, and a pleasant, informative, and well-paced description of what Einstein accomplished as a scientist.”—Donald Goldsmith, author of Einstein’s Greatest Blunder?“Steven Gimbel is one of a kind. He can explain the science, the philosophy, and the personal and professional life of Einstein, and do so with clarity, sophistication, and panache.”—Peter Achinstein, author of Evidence and Method
£11.99
Yale University Press Groucho Marx
Book SynopsisTrade Review“Spirited and revealing. . . . An astute psychological profile of the man whose biting, nihilistic comedy broke so many barriers.”—John McMurtrie, San Francisco Chronicle"Trenchant and provocative."—Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post"There is no doubt that the author loves the 13 films the brothers made together, but his fascination lies with those moments when they go too far, toppling toward Samuel Beckett's 'mirthless laugh,' which laughs 'at that which is unhappy.' . . . [The book] is full of sensitive observations about Harpo's musical vocation and Groucho's uncanny greasepaint, details to propel readers back to the films. . . . You suspect Marx, frustrated doctor and unlikely pen pal of T.S. Eliot, would have appreciated being taken so seriously."—Victoria Segal, Sunday Times"A luminous delight. . . . A true page-turner and a lot of fun. [Siegel] applies his own philosophical acuity to the personal and socio-political aspects of Groucho’s life."—Shon Arieh-Lerer, Slate"A scholarly milestone in the history of professional writing on Groucho Marx."—Cineaste“Was [Groucho] serious or funny? Where did the persona stop and the real Groucho begin? Lee Seigel wrestles with these questions in his provocative and short critical biography of the man he calls the Marx Brothers’s 'central intelligence.'”—Karl Whitney, The Guardian"Delightfully perverse." —New York Times Book Review"A contentious but always stimulating addition to the surprisingly small library of Marx Bros studies."—Jewish Chronicle"As Lee Siegel’s Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence, a book in Yale University Press’s Jewish Lives series, makes plain, Groucho was a man who could find a cloud in every silver lining."—Jewish Review of Books“[A] forensic and well-informed analysis of the brother’s comedy through their lives . . . Siegel is good at building on finds from his extensive sources to create vivid pictures—and plausible assumptions. . . . There are plenty of unusual insights."—Jewish Renaissance“A beautiful, brilliant, and persuasive reading of Marx as crypto-nihilist. A necessary and pulse-quickening work (utterly bereft of jargon or self-seriousness), linking Aristophanes to Kafka to Beckett to Groucho to Woody Allen to Amy Schumer.”—David Shields, author of Reality Hunger“Lee Siegel’s brilliant analysis of the glorious, scary, beyond-funny humor of Groucho and his brothers made me feel as if I were watching their movies for the first time. In this hugely enjoyable and stimulating book, Siegel shows how Groucho became an impossibility: an immortal comedian.”—Ian Frazier, author of Great Plains and On the Rez
£14.86
MCD This Is Not a TShirt
Book Synopsis
£19.94
Hardpress Publishing The Life Experiences of Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe 1
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£18.00
