Biography: adventurers and explorers Books
Transworld Publishers Ltd Never Give Up
Book Synopsis''Grylls takes you behind the scenes on his most thrilling adventures. Riveting.'' - Daily Mail''A rocket-fuelled adventure.'' - Tim Peake''His passion for adventure is truly infectious.'' - Gareth Southgate------------------------------------Bear Grylls has always sought out adventure. From childhood escapades to would-record-breaking expeditions, to his infamous survival challenges, Bear has spent a lifetime in the wild. In his autobiography, the global adventurer, Chief Scout and TV presenter reflects on the extraordinary adventures that have shaped his life. Sharing personal stories from his toughest expeditions and capturing the exhilarating reality behind some of the hairiest survival missions, Bear takes readers up mountains and across oceans, through jungles and deserts. Immersing us in the behind-the-scenes action on his celebrated television shows, and with a rare insight into his family lifeTrade ReviewIn his gripping new memoir, Grylls takes you behind the scenes on his most thrilling adventures. Riveting. * Daily Mail *A rocket-fuelled adventure. * Tim Peake *Bear Grylls is an inspirational leader for people of all ages. Having had the privilege of spending time with Bear personally, I have seen what an amazing person he is. His passion for adventure is truly infectious. * Gareth Southgate *So many positive messages wrapped up in Bear's many incredible adventures. * Roger Federer *Bear is someone who truly grabs life with both hands. * Jonny Wilkinson *
£10.44
Transworld Publishers Ltd A Pirate Of Exquisite Mind
Book SynopsisWilliam Dampier, (1651-1715), was an English adventurer and pirate who preyed on ships on the Spanish Main. Poor and ill-educated and determined to make his fortune, he nonetheless had a passion for exploration and scientific research. Dampier was the first to map the winds and currents of the world''s oceans; led the first recorded party of Englishmen to set foot on Australia - 80 years before Cook; wrote about Galapagos wildlife 150 years before Darwin, who drew on Dampier''s notes in his own work; was the first travel writer: A NEW VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD was instant bestseller when it was published in 1697 - said to have influenced the novels of Swift and Defoe. A man full of contradictions: he who achieved so much ''blew it'' later in life, declining into scandal, failure and even farce. A unique man ahead of his time, he lived a large part of his life among pirates yet managed to preserve what Coleridge called his exquisite refinement of mind. A classic exampleTrade ReviewLively... extraordinary life - an unlikely combination of plundering and pioneering achievements in natural history and exploration * The Sunday Times *Gripping and well-researched... An impressive achievement * Guardian *This long overdue biography wonderfully brings to life one of the most important explorers of the seventeenth century -- Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the SeaThis eloquently enthusiastic biography, besides charting Dampier's astonishing achievements, offers fascinating information about his times * The Age, Melbourne *
£10.44
Transworld Publishers Ltd eclipse
Book SynopsisEpsom Downs, 3rd May, 1769: a chestnut with a white blaze scorches across the turf towards the finishing post. His four rivals are so far behind him that, in racing terms, they are ''nowhere''. Watching Eclipse is the man who wants to buy him. An adventurer who has made his money through roguery and gambling, Dennis O''Kelly is also the companion of the madam of one of London''s most notorious brothels. While O''Kelly is destined to remain an outcast to the racing establishment, his horse will go on to become the undisputed, undefeated champion of his sport. Eclipse''s male-line descendants will include Desert Orchid, Arkel and all but three of the Derby winners of the past fifty years. And his astonishing life will be matched only by that of the rogue who owned him.Trade ReviewA ripping yarn expertly told: part Flashman at the Races; part Seabiscuit without the schmaltz * Observer *Clee combines the story of Eclipse's racing and breeding career with the lives of those who bred and owned him, a crowd who were racy in every conceivable sense * Daily Telegraph *Clee knows how to tell a gripping story: he weaves the halves together into a well-written narrative of social change... fascinating * Independent *This splendid book... This is a read bursting with life, and Clee has the balance and worldliness to weigh all his material with sense and perspective. No racing home should be without it * The Times *It brings to life a horse that has left behind a matchless legacy. For the casual reader, it is an enjoyable romp through a period knee-deep in fops, fools and fraudsters * Independent on Sunday *
£16.14
Transworld Publishers Ltd When The Hills Ask For Your Blood A Personal
Book SynopsisDavid Belton worked as a producer at BBC Newsnight in the 1990s where, amongst many foreign assignments, he covered the civil war in Bosnia and the genocide in Rwanda. In 2002, he co-wrote the story and produced the award-winning feature film Shooting Dogs based on real events that had taken place during the Rwandan genocide. He has since produced and directed many critically acclaimed and award-winning documentaries for British and American television. He lives in Oxford with his family.Trade ReviewTremendous. A moving and haunting tribute to the human spirit -- WILLIAM BOYDDavid Belton has written something very special, a work of non-fiction that has a novel’s power to move, enchant and challenge. This elegantly-written book is much more than a history, a work of lyrical beauty that will stand as a memorial not just for those who died in the genocide but to those of us who struggle to make a difference. -- Tim Butcher, author of BLOOD RIVERComplex, compassionate and scathing… Much of the writing … has a literary power that lifts it above normal journalistic or non-fiction practice: Jean-Pierre’s confinement in his mud-walled hole has shades of Beckett, and both Odette and Curic seem like Brechtian heroes. * Giles Foden *Belton excavates the truth and layers the political, social and military dimensions of the conflict onto three peoples’ stories, to produce a book that is both illuminating and profoundly moving. -- Aminatta Forna * Independent *Brings the story right up to date, confronting the dilemmas and tensions that lie not far below the surface ... * Observer *
£12.99
Transworld Publishers Ltd In the Garden of Beasts
Book Synopsis''A compelling tale... a narrative that makes such a brave effort to see history as it evolves and not as it becomes.'' SPECTATORSuffused with the tense atmosphere of the times, and with brilliant portraits of Hitler, Goebbels, Goering and Himmler amongst others, Erik Larson''s new book sheds unique light on events as they unfold, resulting in an unforgettable, addictively readable work of narrative history.Berlin,1933. William E. Dodd, a mild-mannered academic from Chicago, has to his own and everyone else''s surprise, become America''s first ambassador to Hitler''s Germany, in a year that proves to be a turning point in history. Dodd and his family, notably his vivacious daughter, Martha, observe at first-hand the many changes - some subtle, some disturbing, and some horrifically violent - that signal Hitler''s consolidation of power. Dodd has little choice but to associate with key figures in the Nazi party, his increasiTrade ReviewLarson's best and most enthralling work of novelistic history...rich with incident, populated by fascinating secondary characters, tinged with rising peril and pityingly persuasive...powerful, poignant...a transportingly true story. * NEW YORK TIMES *Fascinating...using letters and diaries, Larson - a master at writing true tales as riveting as fiction - creates a nuanced, eyewitness account of a father and daughter whose eyes thankfully opened as the horrors closed in. * PEOPLE *Reads like an elegant thriller...utterly compelling...an excellent and entertaining book that deserves to be a bestseller. -- Philip Kerr * Washington Post *Compelling...the kind of book that brings history alive to readers and proves why Larson's Isaac's Storm and The Devil in the White City were such hits. * USA TODAY *Larson has meticulously researched the Dodds' intimate witness to Hitler's ascendancy...has all the pleasures of a political thriller: innocents abroad, the gathering storm...a fresh picture of these terrible events. * New York Times Book Review *
£11.69
Transworld Publishers Ltd The Electric KoolAid Acid Test
Book SynopsisI looked around and people''s faces were distorted...lights were flashing everywhere...the screen at the end of the room had three or four different films on it at once, and the strobe light was flashing faster than it had been...the band was playing but I couldn''t hear the music...people were dancing...someone came up to me and I shut my eyes and with a machine he projected images on the back of my eye-lids...I sought out a person I trusted and he laughed and told me that the Kool-Aid had been spiked and that I was beginning my first LSD experience...Trade ReviewThe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is not simply the best book on the hippies, it is the essential book...the pushing, ballooning heart of the matter * New York Times *A life-changer, a rabble-rouser, a mind-blower, a gathering of the tribes, a call to arms, a manifesto for a new society, a car repair manual, a fly-on-the-paisley-patterned-wall account of a cultural revolution – a masterpiece! -- Jarvis CockerElectrifying * San Francisco Chronicle *An amazing book... A book that definitely gives Wolfe the edge on the nonfiction novel * The Village Voice *Every word seems placed with a care and a skill of contrivance... A major journalistic contribution to the future analysis of our own and America's strange period of this century * Guardian *
£10.44
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc Brians Song
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£8.09
Random House USA Inc Alicia
Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE 1989 CHRISTOPHER AWARD • Here is a thrilling, uplifting story of true-life heroism unequaled since the publication of Anne Frank''s diary—a story that the young must hear and their elders must remember. Take Alicia''s hand—and follow.“This memoir is heartbreaking. I hope it will be read by Jews and non-Jews alike.”—Elie Wiesel, author of NightHer name is Alicia. She was thirteen when she began saving the lives of people she did not know—while fleeing the Nazis through war-ravaged Poland.Her family cruelly wrenched from her, Alicia rescued other Jews from the Gestapo, led them to safe hideouts, and lent them her courage and hope. Even the sight of her mother''s brutal murder could not quash this remarkable child''s faith in human goodness—or her determination to prevail against overwhelming odds.After the war, Alicia continued to risk her life, leadin
£8.54
Random House Publishing Group Going Within
Book SynopsisAt last Shirley MacLaine reveals the secrets of her intimate journey of transformation. In three international bestsellers, Out on a Limb, Dancing in the Light, and It''s All in the Playing, multi-talented Shirley MacLaine described her own ongoing spiritual journey in search of inner harmony and self-transcendence. Now this celebrated actress, social activist, and outspoken thinker shares an enlightened program of spiritual techniques and mental exercises to become healthier, happier, and more attuned to the natural harmony of the world around-and within-ourselves. In Going Within Shirley MacLaine answers many of the most challenging and important questions she has been asked about her experiences in seminars and interviews she has conducted from coast to coast. Transformation is at h
£6.99
Faber & Faber Lambert A Franklin
Book SynopsisIn 1845 Captain Sir John Franklin led a large, well equipped expedition to complete the conquest of the Canadian Arctic, to find the fabled North West Passage connecting the North Atlantic to the North Pacific. Yet Franklin, his ships and his men were fated never to return. The cause of their loss remains a mystery. In Franklin, Andrew Lambert presents a gripping account of the worst catastrophe in the history of British exploration, and the dark tales of cannibalism that surround the fate of those involved.Shocked by the disappearance of all 129 officers and men, and sickened by reports of cannibalism, the Victorians re-created Franklin as the brave Christian hero who laid down his life, and those of his men. Later generations have been more sceptical about Franklin and his supposed selfless devotion to duty. But does either view really explain why this outstanding scientific navigator found his ships trapped in pack ice seventy miles from magnetic north?In 2
£11.99
Transworld Publishers Ltd Che Guevara
Book SynopsisWith unprecedented access to the Cuban Government''s archives and total co-operation from Che''s widow, Aleida March, as well as access to hitherto unpublished documents, including several of Che''s personal diaries, this biography of one of history''s most fascinating figures by critically-acclaimed New York Times journalist Jon Lee Anderson is truly definitive and monumental - not least because its creation solved a twenty-eight-year-old mystery: the whereabouts of Che Guevara''s body...''Masterly and absorbing'' -- The Sunday Times''Brilliantly evoked... The portrait is now as complete as it will ever be'' -- The Times Literary Supplement''Absorbing and convincing... an indispensable work of contemporary history'' ? Guardian''Probably the best biography I have read'' -- ***** Reader review''It''s hard to imagine that this work can be bettered'' -- ***** Reader review''Simply outstTrade ReviewMasterly and absorbing -- Frank McLynn * The Sunday Times *Brilliantly evoked... The portrait is now as complete as it will ever be -- Alberto Manguel * The Times Literary Supplement *Absorbing and convincing... an indispensable work of contemporary history * Guardian *
£19.80
Transworld Publishers Ltd The Knife Man
Book SynopsisWendy Moore is a writer and journalist. After working as a reporter for local newspapers she has specialized in health and medical topics for more than twenty years. As a freelance journalist her work has been published in a range of newspapers and magazines, including the Guardian, the Observer and the British Medical Journal, and has won several awards. Having written extensively on medical history, she obtained the Diploma in the History of Medicine from the Society of Apothecaries (DHMSA) in 1999 and won the Maccabean prize for best dissertation that year. She lives in south London with her partner, Peter, also a journalist, and two children, Sam and Susannah. The Knife Man is her first book.Trade ReviewWendy Moore has done justice to this marvellous man in a biography packed with gruesome facts and eye-opening perceptions. It is an accomplished achievement and a splendid read * The Times *Moore's feel for pace and narrative is impeccable. She excels on the nitty-gritty of his work - the carving, digging, slicing and bottling - but makes us understand why these horrors were wonders. She is, at last, the biographer Hunter deserves * Independent *The primitive operations without anaesthesia, the bitter rivalries and battles, the struggle against snobbery and orthodoxy - all set against a kaleidoscopic Hogarthian backdrop of gin-shops, brothels, elegant drawing rooms, charnel houses and crude operating theatres. This is a truly fascinating read -- Dr Alan Maryon Davis, Writer and Snr Consultant, Guy’s HospitalMarvellous... There is wit here, without banality; there is scholarship, without pomposity; there is history of the Georgian period that drives you to seek more about that same period - and there can be no greater compliment for a biographer. A classic unputdownable page-turner. It's a winner all round - and now I've finished it, I'm going to start all over again -- Claire Rayner, writer and health adviserWendy Moore has written an immensely readable account of one of the most fascinating individuals of the 18th century. A thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining biography -- Patrick McGrath, author of Port Mungo
£11.69
Transworld Publishers Ltd Mayada Daughter Of Iraq
Book SynopsisMayada was born into a powerful Iraqi family. One grandfather fought alongside Lawrence of Arabia. The other is acclaimed as the first true Arab nationalist. Her uncle was Prime Minister for nearly forty years, her mother an important politician. When Saddam Hussein and his Ba''ath party seized power, and instituted his reign of terror, Mayada found herself alone in Baghdad, a divorced parent of two children, earning a meagre living printing brochures. Until one morning in August 1999 she was summarily arrested and dragged to the notorious Baladiyat Prison, falsely accused of printing anti-government propaganda.There she was thrown into a cell with 17 ''shadow women''. Like latter-day Sherezades, these women passed their days, while waiting for the next interrogation and torture session, telling each other their stories. They were eager to hear Mayada''s stories of her privileged former life, of the history of her proud family, of kings and queens, of meetings with Saddam hiTrade ReviewA captivating book. * Daily Express *An astonishing read. * Woman's Own *
£8.54
Transworld Publishers Ltd Donald Campbell
Book SynopsisGenerations are familiar with the haunting black and white television footage of Donald Campbell somersaulting to his death in his famous Bluebird boat on Coniston Water in January, 1967. It has become an iconic image of the decade. His towering achievements, and the drama of his passing, are thus part of the national psyche. But what of the man himself? The son of the legendary Sir Malcolm Campbell who was famous for being the ultimate record-breaker of the inter-war years - he broke the land speed record nine times and the water speed record four times with his Bluebird cars and boats - Donald Campbell was born to speed. He was outgoing and flamboyant, yet carefully orchestrated the image he presented to the world. Some saw him as a playboy adventurer; others, such as the radio producer on the twenty-first anniversary of his death, as a reckless daredevil with a death wish. He was known to take solace in extra-marital dalliances, and was obsessed with spiritualism.Trade Review'Well-researched, well-balanced, yet highly compelling...beautifully moving and full of suspense' * DAILY EXPRESS *'The first biography to be written with the co-operation of Campbell's family' * OBSERVER *'Goes a long way to answering the questions many of those familiar with Campbell's exploits never contemplated...Wonderfully vivid' * THE TIMES *Table of ContentsGenerations are familiar with the haunting black and white television footage of Donald Campbell somersaulting to his death in his famous Bluebird boat on Coniston Water in January, 1967. It has become an iconic image of the decade. His towering achievements, and the drama of his passing, are thus part of the national psyche. But what of the man himself? The son of the legendary Sir Malcolm Campbell who was famous for being the ultimate record-breaker of the inter-war years - he broke the land speed record nine times and the water speed record four times with his Bluebird cars and boats - Donald Campbell was born to speed. He was outgoing and flamboyant, yet carefully orchestrated the image he presented to the world. Some saw him as a playboy adventurer; others, such as the radio producer on the twenty-first anniversary of his death, as a reckless daredevil with a death wish. He was known to take solace in extra-marital dalliances, and was obsessed with spiritualism. And in his final years, battered by a 360-mph accident while attempting the land record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, and his prolonged and anti-climactic subsequent effort on the treacherous Lake Eyre in Australia, Campbell appeared a haggard and often frightened man. He had become trapped on his record-breaker's treadmill as he continually sought to prove himself to his illustrious father, in whose long shadow he felt forever trapped. Donald Campbell: The Man Behind The Mask paints a fascinating portrait of an intense, complex, superstitious yet abnormally brave man who was driven not only by the desire to prove that he was worthy of the mantle of his father, but also by his fervent and unswerving desire to keep Britain at the forefront of international speed endeavour. This book generates a unique insight into how his desperate fear of failure finally lured him into taking one risk too many.
£11.69
Transworld Publishers Ltd Kublai Khan
Book SynopsisIn Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure dome decreeKublai Khan lives on in the popular imagination thanks to these two lines of poetry by Coleridge. But the true story behind this legend is even more fantastic than the poem would have us believe. He inherited the second largest land empire in history from his grandfather, Genghis Khan. He promptly set about extending this into the biggest empire the world has ever seen, extending his rule from China to Iraq, from Siberia to Afghanistan. His personal domain covered sixty-percent of all Asia, and one-fifth of the world''s land area. The West first learnt of this great Khan through the reports of Marco Polo. Kublai had not been born to rule, but had clawed his way to leadership, achieving power only in his 40s. He had inherited Genghis Khan''s great dream of world domination. But unlike his grandfather he saw China and not Mongolia as the key to controlling power and turned Genghis'' unwieldy empire into a
£11.39
Transworld Publishers Ltd The Leadership Secrets of Genghis Khan
Book SynopsisGenghis Khan is history''s greatest conqueror. As a teenager he was an outcast fleeing enemies on a mountain in northern Mongolia, an exile, a nobody. Yet it took only twenty years for Genghis to build the largest land empire in history - four times the size of Alexander''s, twice the size of Rome''s.How did he do it? What lessons does his life reveal about the nature of leadership? What is ''greatness'' in leadership? What traits did Genghis possess exactly? Were they unique, or might some apply in other times and other places - even here and today?In Leadership Secrets of Genghis Khan, John Man re-examines the life of Genghis Khan to discover the qualities, characteristics and strategies that made him the great leader that he was. The answers are sometimes surprising. Genghis was far from just the tyrant that history records, but rather a leader of exceptional vision and modernity. And many of the secrets of his success are as valuable and applicable in today''s competitive business world as they were in rallying the Mongol hordes.Trade ReviewIf only Tony Blair had paid attention to Genghis Khan . . . [Genghis] has much to teach us . . . a thought-provoking book. -- William Leith * Observer *John Man's new book, extracting 21 business lessons from the Mongol emperor's life, shows that Khan would have Alan Sugar for breakfast * The Times *
£11.69
Transworld Publishers Ltd For the Love of a Son
Book SynopsisFrom the time she was a little girl, Maryam rebelled against the terrible second-class existence that was her destiny as an Afghan woman.She had witnessed the miserable fate of her grandmother and three aunts, and wished she had been born a boy. As a feisty teenager in Kabul, she was outraged when the Russians invaded her country. After she made a public show of defiance, she had to flee the country for her life.A new life of freedom seemed within her grasp,but her father arranged a traditional marriage to a fellow Afghan, who turned out to be a violent man. Beaten, raped and abused, Maryam found joy in the birth of a baby son. But then her brutal husband stole him away far beyond his mother''s reach. For many long years she searched for her lost son, while civil war and Taliban oppression raged back home in Afghanistan. Set against a landscape littered with tragic tales of horrific suffering, Jean Sasson, author of Princess, chronicles the story of
£9.49
Orion Publishing Co Winterdance
Book SynopsisAn incredible, breathtaking true adventure of Alaskan dog-racing and of the mesmerising Arctic landscape
£9.49
Orion Publishing Co Hons and Rebels
Book Synopsis''This book is just about my favourite book of all time ... I''m not entirely convinced I could like somebody who didn''t like this book ... it''s funny and moving and gives you an insight into this extraordinary moment as the war is about to begin ... it''s so vivid, and what''s more, it''s incredibly current'' Robert Rinder, BBC Radio 4''Wonderfully funny and very poignant'' Philip Toynbee''More than an extremely amusing autobiography ... she has evoked a whole generation. Her book is full of the music of time'' SUNDAY TIMES''Whenever I read the words Peer''s Daughter in a headline,'' Lady Redesdale once sadly remarked, ''I know it''s going to be something about one of you children.'' The Mitford family is one of the century''s most enigmatic, made notorious by Nancy''s novels, Diana''s marriage to Sir Oswald Mosley, Unity''s infatuation with Hitler, Debo''s marriage to a duke and Jessica''s passionate commitment to communism. Hons and Trade ReviewMore than an extremely amusing autobiography ... she has evoked a whole generation. Her book is full of the music of time * SUNDAY TIMES *[An] uproarious yet deadly portrait of family life and family politics ... It evokes the atmosphere of the 1930s with more feeling than almost any other book of the period -- Christopher Hitchens * THE ATLANTIC *Wonderfully funny and very poignant -- Philip ToynbeeStunning. Reads like an extravagantly mannered fiction, except that it is all fabulously true ... Miss Mitford is at once touching and wildly funny, and there is not one of highly coloured characters that is not violently alive and uncomfortably kicking -- Siriol Hugh-Jones * TATLER *This book is just about my favourite book of all time ... I'm not entirely convinced I could like somebody who didn't like this book ... it's funny and moving and gives you an insight into this extraordinary moment as the war is about to begin ... it's so vivid, and what's more, it's incredibly current -- Robert Rinder * A GOOD READ, BBC Radio 4 *Her awareness of where she's from and what she had is astonishing ... to maintain that kind of awareness is astonishing, and she is very funny, but she also writes very well ... she mixes the hugely political, the very sweeping things, with intensely personal moments -- Stella Duffy * A GOOD READ, BBC Radio 4 *What is really quite amazing about this book, which I have read many, many times, and love ... [is] she's not La Pasionaria, she's not some really left-wing heroine, but she is amazing to have got from where she started to where she ended up -- Harriett Gilbert * A GOOD READ, BBC Radio 4 *
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Elli
Book SynopsisAmong the most moving documents I have read in years You will not forget it' Elie WieselFrom her small, sunny hometown between the beautiful Carpathian Mountains and the blue Danube River, Elli Friedmann was taken at a time when most girls are growing up, having boyfriends and embarking upon the adventure of life and thrown into the murderous hell of Hitler''s Final Solution.When Elli emerged from Auschwitz and Dachau just over a year later, she was fourteen. She looked like a sixty year old.This account of horrifyingly brutal inhumanity and dogged survival is Elli''s true story.Trade Review'Breathtaking lucidity … ELLI is destined to join the classics of Holocaust literature' – CHICAGO TRIBUNE
£9.45
Random House USA Inc It Was All a Lie
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£13.29
Random House USA Inc Riding with the Ghost
Book SynopsisAn unflinching memoir from a writer reckoning with his relationship with his troubled father and the complicated legacy that each generation hands down to the next“Justin Taylor’s relentless, peripatetic, and tender search for reconciliation with his late troubled father blooms into a full-throated song of joy about his own life lived through music, teaching, travel, and literature.”—Lauren Groff, author of FloridaNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS REVIEWSWhen Justin Taylor was thirty, his father, Larry, drove to the top of the Nashville airport parking garage to take his own life. Thanks to the intervention of family members, he was not successful, but the incident forever transformed how Taylor thinks of his father, and how he thinks of himself as a son.Moving back and forth in time from that day, Riding with the Ghost captures the past&r
£12.59
Random House USA Inc High Achiever The Incredible True Story of One
Book SynopsisNATIONAL BESTSELLER • An up-close portrait of the mind of an addict and a life unraveled by narcotics—a memoir of captivating urgency and surprising humor that puts a human face on the opioid crisis. “Raw, brutal, and shocking. Move over, Orange Is the New Black.”—Amy Dresner, author of My Fair JunkieWhen word got out that Tiffany Jenkins was withdrawing from opiates on the floor of a jail cell, people in her town were shocked. Not because of the twenty felonies she’d committed, or the nature of her crimes, or even that she’d been captain of the high school cheerleading squad just a few years earlier, but because her boyfriend was a Deputy Sherriff, and his friends—their friends—were the ones who’d arrested her. A raw and twisty page-turning memoir that reads like fiction, High Achiever spans Tiffany’s life as an ac
£13.29
Penguin Putnam Inc Once A Warrior
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£19.99
Random House USA Inc The Emergency
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£13.59
Random House USA Inc From the Hood to the Holler
Book SynopsisKentucky State Representative Charles Booker tells the improbable story of his journey from one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country to a political career forging new alliances among forgotten communities across the New South and beyond.“Charles Booker is a rising leader in our nation, and an inspiration to me and all those who get to know his story and vision.”—Senator Cory BookerCharles Booker grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Kentucky, living in the largely segregated West End of Louisville. Faith and love were everything in his family, but material comforts were scarce. The electricity was sometimes shut off. His mother often went hungry so her son could eat. Even after he graduated from law school, Booker rationed the insulin he took for diabetes. Determined to build a world in which poverty and racism would not plague future generations, he charted his own course into Kentucky politics, a world dominated b
£18.40
Random House USA Inc A Daughter of the Samurai Modern Library
Book SynopsisA young Japanese woman leaves the only home she’s ever known for married life in nineteenth-century Ohio in this delightful, charming memoir, a tribute to the struggles of the first generation of Japanese immigrants—with an introduction by Karen Tei Yamashita and Yuki Obayashi The youngest daughter of a high-ranking samurai in late-nineteenth-century Japan, Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto is originally destined to be a Buddhist priestess. She grows up a curly haired tomboy in snowy Echigo, certain of her future role in her community. But as a young teenager, she is instead engaged to a Japanese merchant in Ohio—and Etsu realizes she will eventually have to leave the only world she has ever known for the United States. Etsu arrives in Cincinnati as a bright-eyed and observant twenty-four-year-old, puzzled by the differences between the two cultures and alive to the contradictions, ironies, and beauties of both. Her memoir, reprinted for t
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Penguin Young Readers Start Stay or Leave
Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The Fox News host and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Doesn’t Hurt to Ask shares his trusted framework for decision making, telling the story of his life through the choices he’s made using this revolutionary method.“The best guide I’ve read to help people analyze, make, and own their decisions . . . Make a great decision and read this book.”—Dana Perino, Fox News anchor and host, former White House press secretaryIn life, moments arise when you have to decide your next move. When choosing whether to accept a new job, purchase a house, attend a school, or start a relationship, how do you settle on which direction to take? Trey Gowdy has found that most consequential decisions boil down to three simple options: start, stay, or leave.Gowdy first developed this decision-making tool in the courtroom during a federal murder trial, and it has guided his lifeTrade Review“Life is a decision-making experience, and in Start, Stay, or Leave, Trey Gowdy provides the best guide I’ve read to help people analyze, make, and own their decisions. Gowdy encourages his readers to embrace the experience of deciding what’s best for them, on their terms, and not according to anyone else’s expectations. This is a book many of us wish we would have had when we were younger; however, we are grateful to have it now. Make a great decision and read this book.”—Dana Perino, Fox News anchor and host, former White House press secretary “This book stands out for one reason: Trey Gowdy’s advice is easy to remember. Nobody needs more help than I do, and as a self-appointed expert in self-help, I know that advice must stick. Want proof? I made a huge life decision while reading Start, Stay, or Leave. My timing was perfect and money followed. While Gowdy doesn’t deserve a cut of the money, he deserves credit. Weaving in colorful personal stories that make you laugh (mostly at Trey), this book will help you learn a simple plan: Aim toward meaning, find your mantra, prepare for the worst, listen to others’ opinions, and then decide for yourself.”—Jesse Watters, co-host of Fox’s The Five, host of Jesse Watters Primetime“A good life is often and rightly defined by the choices we make. In Start, Stay, or Leave, Trey Gowdy has written a powerfully and elegantly worded letter about why it’s important to pursue the choices we make in life with love, vigor, and an open mind—and to do so without judgment, a hard heart, or resentment. Read this book.”—Harold Ford, Jr., former U.S. representative (D-TN) and co-host of The Five
£20.40
Random House USA Inc The Interrupted Journey
Book SynopsisTWO LOST HOURS ABOARD A UFO—THE ABDUCTION OF BETTY AND BARNEY HILL • One of the most extraordinary UFO tales of our time—a thrilling, otherworldly, and wildly entertaining adventure that enraptured America and stands as the quintessential extraterrestrial encounterTrue believers will see this as further evidence of the reality of UFOs —The New York Times On a summer night in 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were driving home through New Hampshire when a bright object appeared in the sky and began following them. When the couple finally pulled over to get a better look, the object vanished before their eyes. With nothing else to do, Betty and Barney returned to their car and kept driving into the night. The encounter left them rattled, but what came next was even more arresting: the following day, the Hills realized they couldn’t remember anything from almost two hours of their drive. Time itself had disappeared, so the
£14.24
Random House USA Inc In the Early Times
Book SynopsisIn this “dazzling” (John Irving) memoir, acclaimed New Yorker staff writer Tad Friend reflects on the pressures of middle age, exploring his relationship with his dying father as he raises two children of his own. “How often does a memoir build to a stomach-churning, I-can’t-breathe climax in its final pages? . . . Brilliant, intensely moving.”—William Finnegan, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Barbarian DaysONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New YorkerAlmost everyone yearns to know their parents more thoroughly before they die, to solve some of those lifelong mysteries. Maybe, just maybe, those answers will help you live your own life. But life doesn’t stop to wait. In his fifties, New Yorker writer Tad Friend is grappling with being a husband and a father as he tries to grasp who he is as a son. Torn between two families, he careens
£21.85
Random House USA Inc Funny Business
Book Synopsis“A delightful and entertaining book about one of America’s greatest humorists.”—Seth Meyers This “absorbing, illuminating” (Jon Meacham) biography of the legendary political humorist reveals the life behind his must-read Washington Post columns, featuring never-before-published photos, documents, and interviews.Before Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, and Doonesbury, there was Art Buchwald. For more than fifty years, from 1949 to 2006, Art Buchwald’s Pulitzer Prize–winning column of political satire and biting wit made him one of the most widely read American humorists and a popular player in the Washington world of Ethel and Ted Kennedy, Ben Bradlee, and Katharine Graham. Dean Acheson, former U.S. Secretary of State, called Buchwald the “greatest satirist in the English language since Pope and Swift.”Drawing on Buchwald’s most memorable col
£20.70
Random House USA Inc The Spider
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£19.95
Random House Publishing Group And There Was Light
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£24.75
The Natural History Museum The Walter Rothschild
Book SynopsisBorn into one of the wealthiest families, Walter Rothschild became the best known zoologist of his day - and one of Britain's great eccentrics. Walter's life traversed the fields of politics and finance, as well as zoology, and was packed with achievement and incident. This book presents complexities and conflicts this man faced during his life.Table of ContentsPreface to this edition vAuthor's Preface viiAuthor's Acknowledgements viiiLionel Walter Rothschild--principal events xiCHAPTERS 1--351 Walter Rothschild 12 Tring is Fairyland 33 Emma, Walter's Mother 94 Emma--the iron apronstrings 195 Walter's Father--the Eminence Blanche 256 Walter's Father--Nobody wanted to touch Lloyd George 417 Because I am so happy, Mama 528 I have nearly driven Althaus out of his senses 579 Who is the pink and gold boy in the corner? 7010 I am not a Lieutenant, I am a Captain 8011 Please ask Walter 8612 Rozsika, Walter's sister-in-law 9413 My Museum 10014 The rump of our only old male is rather dicky ... 11015 The fellow is always right 12016 Walter's Curators--Ernst Hartert and the birds 12817 Walter's Curators--Karl Jordan and the butterflies 14318 Walter's Collectors 15419 Walter's Collectors--A.F.R. Wollaston and N.C. Rothschild 17020 Walter's Collectors--William Doherty 17721 Walter's Collectors--The King of Bulgaria is coming on Friday ... 18122 Hurrah! We are off ... 18523 The Giants 19724 The Rothschilds and animals 20625 The Great Row 21526 Catherine wheels 22427 If His Majesty's Government will send me a message ... 23328 Dear Lord Rothschild 24929 What has become of two ostriches ... 27030 A figure in the background 28331 You will be painted blue and yellow and exposed in the High Street 28732 The Primrose Way--The truth about the Rothschilds 29533 The birds cross the Atlantic 30234 Home Farm 30535 Candle ends 313Bibliographical notes 319BibliographyBooks 351Newspapers, Journals, Catalogues and Reports 356Manuscript Sources 362Appendix 1Synopsis of species and subspecies of plants and animals named inhonour of Walter Rothschild 362Index 363Family tres 383
£11.69
Faber & Faber Edmonds D Bobby Fischer Goes to War
Book SynopsisPERFECT FOR FANS OF NETFLIX''S THE QUEEN''S GAMBIT''Gripping.'' SUNDAY TIMES''Pure drama.''INDEPENDENT''Compelling.''NEW YORK TIMESBobby Fischer Goes to War by David Edmonds and John Eidinow details the occasion when Bobby Fischer met Boris Spassky in one of the most thrilling and politically charged chess matches of all time.For decades, the USSR had dominated world chess. Evidence, according to Moscow, of the superiority of the Soviet system. But in 1972 along came the American, Bobby Fischer: insolent, arrogant, abusive, vain, greedy, vulgar, bigoted, paranoid and obsessive and apparently unstoppable.Against him was Boris Spassky: complex, sensitive, the most un-Soviet of champions. As the authors reveal, when Spassky began to lose, the KGB decided to step in. . .
£10.44
Faber & Faber Backroom Boys The Secret Return of the British
Book SynopsisA brilliant, beautiful account of how British boffins triumphed across the decades in creating everything from computer games to Martian landers.The book contains chapters on the Beagle II, Elite - the 80s computer game, the Blue Streak missile, Concorde, mobile phone technology and the Human Genome Project, among others.Britain is the only country in the world to have cancelled its space programme just as it put its first rocket into orbit. Starting with this forgotten episode, ''Backroom Boys'' tells the bittersweet story of how one country lost its industrial tradition and got back something else. Sad, inspiring, funny and ultimately triumphant, it follows the technologists whose work kept Concorde flying, created the computer game, conquered the mobile-phone business, saved the human genome for the human race - and who now are sending the Beagle 2 probe to burrow in the cinnamon sands of Mars. ''Backroom Boys'' is a vivid love-letter to quiet men iTrade Review'A must for every British Christmas stocking.' John Carey; 'Unputdownable... the man writes like a dream - informed, fresh, racy prose.' Guardian
£11.69
Faber & Faber Tremlett G Catherine of Aragon
Book SynopsisThe image of Catherine of Aragon has always suffered in comparison to the heir-providing Jane Seymour or the vivacious eroticism of Anne Boleyn. But when Henry VIII married Catherine, she was an auburn-haired beauty in her twenties with a passion she had inherited from her parents, Isabella and Ferdinand, the joint-rulers of Spain who had driven the Moors from their country.This daughter of conquistadors showed the same steel and sense of command when organising the defeat of the Scots at the Battle of Flodden and Henry was to learn, to his cost, that he had not met a tougher opponent on or off the battlefield when he tried to divorce her.Henry VIII introduced four remarkable women into the tumultuous flow of England''s history: Catherine of Aragon and her daughter ''Bloody'' Queen Mary; and Anne Boleyn and her daughter, the Virgin Queen Elizabeth. ''From this contest, between two mothers and two daughters, was born the religious passion and violence that inflamed England for centuries,'' says David Starkey. Reformation, revolution and Tudor history would all have been vastly different without Catherine of Aragon.Giles Tremlett''s new biography is the first in more than four decades to be dedicated entirely and uniquely to the tenacious woman whose marriage lasted twice as long as those of Henry''s five other wives put together. It draws on fresh material from Spain to trace the dramatic events of her life through Catherine of Aragon''s own eyes. ''Enthralling biography . . . this lively and richly detailed book . . . describing the queen''s fierce battle to retain her crown, Tremlett brilliantly breathes life into the shadowy figure of a stubborn and finally heroic woman.'' Daily Telegraph
£13.49
Faber & Faber Napoleon Volume 2 The Spirit of the Age
Book SynopsisMasterly.' Daily Mail Stunning.' History TodayMagnificent.' Literary ReviewNapoleon's life reached its most extraordinary stage between 1805 and 1810. At war with Britain, Russia, and Austria, he unleashed his magnificent Grande Armée. The first resounding victory at Austerlitz was followed by a whirlwind of campaigns, and by 1810 he had divorced Josephine in order to marry the daughter of the Austrian Emperor. The Spirit of the Age illustrates in vivid detail the five years in which Napoleon appeared to be invincible.
£15.29
Faber & Faber Philip Larkin A Writers Life
Book SynopsisPhilip Larkin: A Writer''s Life won the Whitbread Award for Biography in 1993 and was championed as ''an exemplary biography of its kind'' (The Times). With a new introduction written by the author, this edition offers an engrossing portrait of one of the twentieth century''s most popular, and most private, poets. ''There will be other lives of Larkin, but Motion''s, like Forster''s of Dickens, will always have a special place.'' John Carey, Sunday Times''Larkin lived a quietly noble and exemplary version of the writer''s life; Motion - affectionate but undeceived about the man''s frailties, a diligent researcher and a deft reader of poetry - has written an equally exemplary ''Life'' of him.'' Peter Conrad, Observer''Honest but not prurient, critical but also compassionate, Motion''s book could not be bettered.'' Alan Bennett, London Review of Books
£18.00
Random House USA Inc Slonim Woods 9
Book SynopsisAn “extraordinary” (Nylon) firsthand account of the creation of a modern cult and the costs paid by its young victims: a group of college roommates “Intense . . . [a tale] of hard-won survival, and creating a life after the unimaginable.”—Salon The inspiration for the Hulu docuseries Stolen Youth, directed by Zach Heinzerling and co-produced by Daniel Barban LevinIn September 2010, at the beginning of the academic year at Sarah Lawrence College, a sophomore named Talia Ray asked her roommates if her father could stay with them for a while. No one objected. Her father, Larry Ray, was just released from prison, having spent three years behind bars after a conviction during a bitter custody dispute.Larry Ray arrived at the dorm, a communal house called Slonim Woods 9, and stayed for the whole year. Over the course of innumerable counseling sessions and “family meetings,&rd
£21.00
Random House USA Inc Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
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£12.99
Random House Publishing Group The Book of Jose
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£13.59
Random House USA Inc Midnight in Washington
Book Synopsis#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The vital inside account of American democracy in its darkest hour, from the rise of autocracy unleashed by Trump to the January 6 insurrection, and a warning that those forces remain as potent as ever—from the congressman who led the first impeachment of Donald J. Trump“Engaging and informative . . . a manual for how to probe and question power, how to hold leaders accountable in a time of diminishing responsibility.”—The Washington PostWith a new afterword by the authorIn the years leading up to the election of Donald Trump, Congressman Adam Schiff had already been sounding the alarm over the resurgence of autocracy around the world, and the threat this posed to the United States. But as he led the probe into Donald Trump’s Russia and Ukraine-related abuses of presidential power, Schiff came to the terrible conclusion that the principal threat to Am
£16.14
Random House USA Inc Forward
Book SynopsisNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A lively and bold blueprint for moving beyond the “era of institutional failure” by transforming our outmoded political and economic systems to be resilient to twenty-first-century problems, from the popular entrepreneur, bestselling author, and political truth-teller “A vitally important book.”—Mark Cuban Despite being written off by the media, Andrew Yang’s shoestring 2020 presidential campaign—powered by his proposal for a universal basic income of $1,000 a month for all Americans—jolted the political establishment, growing into a massive, diverse movement. In Forward, Yang reveals that UBI and the threat of job automation are only the beginning, diagnosing how a series of cascading problems within our antiquated systems keeps us stuck in the past—imperiling our democracy at every level. With America’s stagnant institutions failing to ke
£15.29
Random House USA Inc Crusade in Europe
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£16.62
Random House USA Inc The Rigor of Angels
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£24.30
Random House USA Inc An Affirming Flame
Book Synopsis“For more than forty years Roger Cohen has ventured to every corner of the earth to chronicle the great upheavals of our age, but he’s never lost sight of what really matters: love, hope, and all the mysteries of the human heart. Here, in this collection of columns that will take you from the streets of Kyiv to an execution chamber in Alabama, you can read him at his best.”—Dexter Filkins, best-selling author of The Forever WarA collection of the finest New York Times columns written by Roger Cohen over more than a decade, accompanied by an original, twenty-thousand-word essay on the state of the worldThe countless readers who followed Roger Cohen’s column and mourned its end responded above all to what they saw as the marriage in his writing of head and heart. That tenor permeates An Affirming Flame.During his twelve years as a columnist, Cohen aimed to hold power to account at home and abroad, in the na
£22.50
Crown They Called Us Exceptional
Book SynopsisAn Indian American daughter reveals how the dangerous model minority myth fractured her family in this “searingly honest memoir that manages to be at once a scalding indictment and a heartfelt love letter” (Scott Stossel, author of My Age of Anxiety). ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE SEASON: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Bustle“In examining with boundless love the secrets and sorrows of one family, Gupta shows us the life-altering power of telling one’s truth.”—Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning How do we understand ourselves when the story about who we are supposed to be is stronger than our sense of self? What do we stand to gain—and lose—by taking control of our narrative? These questions propel Prachi Gupta’s heartfelt memoir and can feel particularly fraught for immigrants and their children who live under imme
£21.85