Biography Books

Book SynopsisYou couldn't make it up: incredible real-life criminal casesA fascinating A-Z of murderous crimes which spans the globe and the centuries in uncovering the extremes of human criminality in all its strangeness.This collection of unusual, if not sensational, murder cases recalls strange crimes of the past and offers insights into particularly macabre and shocking modern murders. Many of the cases also shed light on advances in crime detection, law enforcement and forensic science. Cases include: Krystian Bala, the Polish writer who killed a rival, and then used the murder as the plot for a novel; Alexander Pichuskin, who was stopped one short of killing the 64 victims he needed to 'fill a chess board'; John Lee, 'the man they could not hang' who survived three attempts to execute him; and Adelaide Bartlett, who was accused of killing her husband with chloroform, but was acquitted because no one could work out how she had done it - and she wouldn't say.

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Book SynopsisTogo Heihachiro (1848-1934) was born into a feudal society that had lived in seclusion for 250 years. As a teenage samurai, he witnessed the destruction wrought upon his native land by British warships. As the legendary Silent Admiral, he was at the forefront of innovations in warfare, pioneering the Japanese use of modern gunnery and wireless communication. He is best known as the Nelson of the East for his resounding victory over the Tsar's navy in the Russo-Japanese War, but he also lived a remarkable life studying at a British maritime college, witnessing the Sino-French War, the Hawaiian Revolution, and the Boxer Uprising. After his retirement, he was appointed to oversee the education of the Emperor, Hirohito. This new biography spans Japan's sudden, violent leap out of its self-imposed isolation and into the 20th century. Delving beyond Togo's finest hour at the Battle of Tsushima, it portrays the life of a diffident Japanese sailor in Victorian Britain, his reluctant celebrity in America where he was laid low by Boston cooking and welcomed by his biggest fan, Theodore Roosevelt , forgotten wars over the short-lived Republics of Ezo and Formosa, and the accumulation of peacetime experience that forged a wartime hero.

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Book SynopsisA young woman spends a month taking the waters at a thermal water-based rehabilitation facility in Budapest. On her return to London, she attempts to continue her recovery using an 80 pound inflatable blue bathtub. The tub becomes a metaphor for the intrusion of disability; a trip hazard in the middle of an unsuitable room, slowly deflating and in constant danger of falling apart. Sanatorium moves through contrasting spaces - bathtub to thermal pool, land to water, day to night - interlacing memoir, poetry and meditations on the body to create a mesmerising, mercurial debut. 'There is a dreamlike quality to Abi Palmer's exquisite Sanatorium. In lucid, gorgeous prose, she tells the story of a body, of illness and of navigating the complicated wellness industry, but ultimately this is a book about what it means to be alive. A striking, experimental debut that will stay with me.' Sinéad Gleeson Shortlisted for The Barbellion Prize 2020Trade Review'There is a dreamlike quality to Abi Palmer's exquisite Sanatorium. In lucid, gorgeous prose, she tells the story of a body, of illness and of navigating the complicated wellness industry; but ultimately this is a book about what it means to be alive. A striking, experimental debut that will stay with me.' Sinead Gleeson; 'Sanatorium is such an intricately structured book, combining memoir and poetry to hypnotic effect. Palmer creates a space entirely new and oddly familiar - embodied, startlingly direct and, by turns, claustrophobic and expansive. A prayer, a spell, a confession, a vision; the book morphs like the chronic pain it meticulously portrays with the clarity and confusion of an hallucination vs the confusion and clarity of life precisely observed with wit and intelligence. An urgent debut, alight with ideas - I loved every page.'Luke Kennard; 'I'm blown away... a sharp, original evocation of chronic pain, the strangeness of being in a body, and the incomprehension and sometimes cruelty of the able bodied.' Rebecca Tamas;'The states of physical and metaphysical are so well drawn, they capture an essence of what it can be like to not be of this world while your body is firmly under the influence of gravity ... This is a beautifully constructed book full of important thoughts, lyrical poetry and prose, and stunning imagery that immerses the reader entirely.'Louise Kenward, Spooniehacker; 'Memoir and poetry in a mesmerising debut' David Nicholls

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Book SynopsisThe Bay City Rollers were one of the brightest things to happen in the tumultuous 1970s, illuminating a dark decade marred by falling stock markets, a plummeting economy and industrial unrest. Alan Longmuir, an apprentice plumber from Edinburgh, was inspired by The Beatles to form a band in the 1960s. Firstly, he enlisted his brother and then his cousin and via throwing a dart at a map they eventually became the Bay City Rollers. Success was slow in coming but when it did it was beyond Alan’s (and almost everyone else’s) wildest dreams.A string of million selling records led to Rollermania – a mass-hysterical fan reaction not seen since Beatlemania. Like a wildfire it spread across the world. The Rollers’ juggernaut was out-of-control. Alan Longmuir recounts his surreal journey from the Dalry backstreets to the Hollywood hills and back to being a plumber. Along the way he punctures some of the myths and untruths that have swirled around the group. Most of all, though, Alan captures the great adventure that a bunch of young boys from Edinburgh embarked on that for a few years threatened to turn the whole world tartan. Tragically, while finishing his memoirs Alan Longmuir was taken ill while on a holiday in Mexico marking his 70th birthday and died back in Scotland a short while later. It was his great desire that I Ran With The Gang should be released.Trade ReviewAlmost impossible to put down, this is a highly refreshing music business memoir, devoid of dirt-dishing, upbeat in the face of negativity, and inspiring in its positivity. – Peter Mason, Morning StarA riveting inside track on life in the Rollers. – Brian Ferguson, The ScotsmanIt’s a fascinating read for anyone who’s ever sung along to Shangalang and wondered just who this group of young men were, from boom to bust. – Kenny Smith, Scottish FieldHow can I resist a combo of Martin Knight and the iconic Bay City Rollers? – IRVINE WELSHIt’s really good writing, it’s a really good story. It is very much Alan’s story… you can hear Alan on every page. It’s exceptionally well-written and entertaining; there’s bits that are really funny, there’s bits that are really poignant in it. – KARIN INGRAM

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Book Synopsis‘Kevin does what I pretend to do. Kevin’s a proper musician.’ David Bowie‘Kevin Armstrong has been around, and around.’ Iggy PopGrowing up in a world of punk squats and the London pub-rock scene, suburban rookie guitarist Kevin Armstrong found himself signed to EMI as a solo artist in the early 80s, but fate had other plans for him, his life and career changing in an instant when he was called for a studio date with an unnamed star at Abbey Road.That unnamed star was soon revealed to be David Bowie, and that afternoon’s recording catapulted this unlikely lad onto the world’s grandest stages alongside some of the biggest names in the business. Kevin has gone on to carve out a singular career as a producer, songwriter, and guitarist, performing live and recording with everyone from Grace Jones to Paul McCartney, Iggy Pop to Roy Orbison, Sandie Shaw to Alien Sex Fiend.Absolute Beginner is the story of what it takes to survive as a self-taught musician. It provides an honest and funny glimpse into the backstage world of the artists Kevin has worked with, and is packed with acerbic, laugh-out-loud observations on popular music and musicians from someone who has had a prime seat at the high table of rock’n’roll for more than forty years.

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Book SynopsisBaron d'Holbach's 1776 Essay on the Art of Crawling is a delicious satire on the sycophancy and self-abasement rife in the courts of Europe.

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Book Synopsis"The blue and white print has the night-time glow of a Joseph Cornell ice-cube box or a Stan Brakhage film, the poppy glows candescent but is gone. Anna Atkins' dirty fingernails are pressing the damp skin of the poppy into cotton wadding and blotting paper until the life has dried out of it..." Amateur botanist Anna Atkins is now widely considered to be the first woman ever to have taken a photograph. The introduction to one of her albums states that she uses the photographic medium in order to "depict with the most accuracy possible," and so assist other scientists. Yet visual artist Annabel Dover's investigations led her to believe that Atkins doctored and adulterated certain specimens, collaging different sections of different plants together. In the subversive, scrapbook narrative that follows both historic and imaginary characters' stories are woven together: Henry James 'drowns' the clothes of a friend post-suicide; Joe Orton's cleaning lady considers the collaged wall in his bedsit; and Anna Atkins makes the seaweed prints that will then appear in the first photographic book to be published. A complex mixture of scientific observation and tender, girlish enthusiasm Florilegia is above all else a profound meditation on memory, loss, and our relationship to images.Trade Review"Haunting, enchanting, and forensically observed... a tender, anthropological elegy, and it will stay with you long after you finish it." Sophie Dahl ----------"A staggering accomplishment. Impossible to categorise, this is a work of exquisite art; encyclopaedic in its scope, drawing connections across time and cultures. An alchemist, Annabel Dover transmutes the minutiae of life into poetry." Heidi James ---------- "An archive of nature and artifice in which every word shimmers with kaleidoscopic brilliance." Nancy Campbell ---------- "Annabel Dover's writing is a delight: inquisitive, keen-eyed, alive with colour and texture; she has the rare ability to make details sing. I loved this book." Laura Barton---------- "You'll never read another book like this... it defies any description save that it is mad, enchanting and mesmerising.... At its end I had no idea what I had been reading but I know it's a work of art." Polly Devlin---------- "A fascinating, subversive and moving tribute to forgotten women by a unique artist." Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett ---------- "A trippy, hyper-connected, vastly entertaining memoir entangled with the history of art, botany and science. It's hypnotising." Jennifer Higgie ---------- "A strange, beautiful response to the life and work of botanist, photographer & cyanotype trail-blazer Anna Atkins." Book of the Month at The Learned Pig. ---------- "Beautiful, fragmented ... haunting." What We're Watching, Reading and Listening to at A Little Bird. --------- "Binding and entwining ... exceptional and enjoyable ... minds set racing by the everyday strangeness of the experiences, imaginings and perceptions we have encountered in this extrodinary book." Declan O'Driscoll

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Book SynopsisWhat is it like to radically change your life? Writer Alec Ash meets the Chinese who are doing just this, ‘reverse migrating’ from the cities to the remote countryside of southwest China — and joins them himself, in an extraordinary and inspiring journey of self-discovery. In 2020, Alec Ash left behind his old life as a journalist in buzzy Beijing, and moved to Dali, a rural valley in China’s Yunnan province, centred around a great lake shaped like an ear and overlooked by the Cang mountain range. Here, he hoped to find the space and perspective to mend heartbreak, and escape the trappings of fast-paced, high-pressured city life. Originally home to the Bai people, Dali has become a richly diverse community of people of all ages and backgrounds, with one shared goal: to reject the worst parts of modernity and live more simply, in tune with the natural world and away from the nexus of authoritarian power. It is into this community that Alec embeds himself, charting his first year of life in Dali among these fascinating neighbours, from political dissidents to bohemian hippies. The Mountains Are High is a beautifully written, candid memoir about how reevaluating what is really important and taking a leap of faith to reach it can genuinely transform your life. As one of the ‘new migrants’ tells Alec when he arrives: it is easy to change your environment, far more difficult to change your mind.Trade Review‘The Mountains Are High is a treasure. Part escapist tale, and part a lesson on the history, culture, and people of enchanted Dali. It’s a young man’s journey we all yearn for and only dream of taking.’ -- James M. Zimmerman, author of The Peking Express: the bandits who stole a train, stunned the West, and broke the Republic of China‘The Mountains Are High is a fascinating story of modern China, told from the perspective of those trying to escape it. Alec Ash conjures up the paradise of Dali and the colourful characters that live there with an eye for the surreal. A writer of great talent.’ -- Charlie Gilmour, author of Featherhood‘I am deeply impressed that Alec was able to create a new life for himself in this remote corner of rural China where “the mountains are high and the emperor far away,” and indeed, to gain a new perspective on life. Beautifully crafted, The Mountains are High was a joy to read.’ -- Lijia Zhang, author of Lotus‘A beautiful, reflective book that probes gently but thoroughly into the depths of both the author’s life and China’s modern collision with its storied rural past at a time of global upheaval. Ash’s year spent communing with a colourful cast of China’s believers, burnouts, and internal exiles is by turns elegiac, energising, and uplifting.’ -- Charlie Walker, adventurer and author of Through Sand and Snow and On Roads That Echo‘Beautifully rendered. Equally tender and insightful. Alec Ash deftly weaves personal experiences into a longer history and larger social fabric of the place. The Mountains Are High is not only a loving portrayal of one corner of China, but also an illuminating probe of contemporary society and the meanings of life.’ -- Yangyang Cheng, award-winning writer and research scholar at Yale University‘An immersive, meditative, and constantly surprising search for meaning in a world beset by crisis. It beautifully and limpidly illuminates the extraordinary, eccentric complexity of contemporary China.’ -- Julia Lovell, author of Maoism‘A poetic, intensely personal account of a year-long stay in a town at the edges of China, a place geographically on the margins of the modern country, but one full of memories and meanings that go far beyond the horizon. In this place, Alec moves through his own history and feelings, both towards himself and the country he has lived in for much of three previous decade. China under Xi Jinping is an often epic, overpowering place to make sense of. But this is an account that does that, through engagement with a specific environment, at a specific time, in a way which is humane and sensitive — two qualities desperately lacking in so much work on China today.’ -- Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Studies and Director, Lau China Institute, King’s College London‘A beautiful window into rural China in all its variety, the search for freedom in all its complexity, and what it truly means to begin afresh.’ -- Jade Angeles Fitton, author of Hermit‘A sharply observed and deeply reflective account of a year in rural China. Ash writes with sensitivity and empathy for both people and place, and expertly weaves his own story with that of China’s. The Mountains are High is gentle, lyrical, and reminds us that whatever else happens, spring will always follow winter.’ -- Leon McCarron, author of The Road Headed West‘Dali is a miracle. Bucolic climes, a shimmering lake, and agricultural abundance ringed by mountains, which, as Alec Ash nimbly reveals, preserve an enclave of relative liberty in China. Alec is a superb guide to Dali, his revelations rooted in heartfelt appreciation for the valley and its people.’ -- Dan Wang, Yale Law School and Gavekal Dragonomics‘The Mountains Are High is a gorgeously written meditation on seeking freedom in an unfree country. Even if you think you know China, you will be surprised by Alec Ash’s exploration of an unlikely community of spiritual seekers, dreamers and dissidents, stoners and dropouts, tucked deep in the mountains of Yunnan Province.’ -- Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy‘An insider account of a retreat from China’s relentless urbanism ... Ash offers an alternative view of Chinese rural life which, though often still poor and hardscrabble for many, can also be rewarding, instructive, and even instagammable for those that choose it. A welcome antidote to the constant drum beat of China’s 24/7 rush hour, all-pervasive tech and consumption obsession. It seems that for some there is another potential way.’ -- Paul French, author of Bloody SaturdayPraise for Wish Lanterns: ‘A gem of a book. Its brief chapters flow like a skilfully crafted set of interconnected short stories, yet all are rooted in the real life experiences of six individuals. An impressive debut book by a writer to watch.’ -- Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author of China in the 21st CenturyPraise for Wish Lanterns: ‘A beautiful and thoughtful book ... Alec Ash has succeeded in giving us an intimate and complex portrait of the one child policy generation. It skilfully documents their features, modes of life and dreams of the future. I enthusiastically recommend you to read it.’ -- Xiaolu Guo, author of I Am ChinaPraise for Wish Lanterns: ‘A provocative portrait of a fast-changing society riven by internal contradictions … a fine addition to the field, one of the best I have read about the individuals who make up a country that is all too often regarded as a monolith, but which abounds with diversity on multiple levels. Fluently written with nice touches of humour … this books supplies much food for thought, informing the wider debate while retaining its value as a closely observed picture of how some Chinese live today.’ * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisFrom survivor of genocide to conservation hero: A moving, heartwarming memoir about a real-life chimpanzee whisperer—now the subject of the award-winning documentary film Pant Hoot.Stany Nyandwi’s gift for communicating with chimpanzees is so special that world-renowned primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall has called him a “chimpanzee whisperer.” His skills and devotion to these creatures—our closest living relatives, with whom we share 98.7 percent of our DNA—have earned him international awards and sent him on travels within Africa and around the world. But he began life in poverty, born and raised in a dirt-floor, straw-roofed hut in rural Burundi. The Chimpanzee Whisperer is the story of his astonishing life journey.It is also an African story. Receiving only an elementary education before he quit school, he suffered injustice and tragic loss because of his ethnic group. He began caring for orphaned and rescued chimps in Burundi. When the country descended into civil war and genocide, he was forced to flee with the chimps and endured long separation from his family. Continuing to work with and learn about chimpanzees in Kenya, Uganda, and later South Africa, he made himself into an incomparable authority.His memoir has adventure, danger, and many unique and touching stories about chimpanzees that show his bond with and understanding of them. As told to award-winning author David Blissett, it reveals a remarkable man who has refused to let circumstances defeat him. Conditioned by hate, wounded by loss, he has lived for love, faith, and compassion, giving new life, as Dr. Jane Goodall writes in her foreword, “to so many chimpanzees whose families, like his own, were torn apart by violence.”Trade ReviewWinner of a 2022 Audiofile magazine Earphones Award“It was clear from the start that he had a real gift for working with these creatures. . . . He was able to communicate with them in a special way to the point that we called him a ‘chimpanzee whisperer.’ . . . I hope you will be inspired by this life story of a gentle, unassuming African man whose devotion and sacrifice has given new life to so many chimpanzees whose families, like his own, were torn apart by violence.”—Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, from her foreword“An incredible true story about one of the most courageous, loving, and kind people we have ever worked with. Stany has a unique gift with chimpanzees. He understands them and they understand him. The bond Stany shares with our closest living relative is a testament to the small distance that divides us, and argues even more strongly for their protection.”—Vanessa Woods and Professor Brian Hare, New York Times bestselling authors of The Genius of Dogs "The story of a gifted and utterly unique man. Stany's is a story of accomplishment in the face of overwhelming adversity and the power of love over injustice and hate. Beautifully told and very inspiring."—Patti Ragan, founding director, Center for Great Apes, Wauchula, Florida“Stany’s harrowing story is about survival and trust—his trust of fellow human beings, who sometimes failed him, and his love for his friends the chimps and their love for him, which allowed him to survive when humans faltered. Most of all it is about the unconditional love we must all have for each other, for the animals and for our planet. David Blissett has beautifully told Stany’s story. Please read and enjoy.”—Bernie Caulfield, Emmy-winning producer of Game of Thrones“Ever since meeting Stany Nyandwi in Uganda, I have been fascinated by how well he understands chimpanzees, and how calm they are in his presence. This comes through clearly in his truly inspiring and gripping memoir, which also tells an important story about the ethnic conflict in his country of Burundi and how he overcame significant challenges as a refugee.”—Glady Kalema-Zikusoka, wildlife veterinarian, founder of Conservation Through Public Health, and author of Walking with Gorillas"The Chimpanzee Whisperer is a great read. . . . One thing that strikes you is the phenomenal understanding Stany has of chimps and their behaviour. . . . The complexities of human /wildlife conflict are explained. . . . There are funny yet awful scenes, . . . And there are really moving sections in the book, . . .Reminding us we should all be riding the same truck!"—alysontheblog"This book is an emotional roller-coaster ride. . . . Throughout we are saved by the author’s indefatigable positivity and humanity—perhaps, the traits that allowed him to get along so well with the chimpanzees. I’d highly recommend it for all readers."—The In(tro)verted Yogi

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Book SynopsisA deserted Paris house holds the mystery of a brilliant Viennese modernist who worked alongside Le Corbusier and Adolf Loos before vanishing.Wyeth takes readers on a deeply personal and revelatory journey. This research process, which readers experience vicariously, makes Wyeth’s prose exhilarating as tiny details become breakthroughs of grand proportions. […] For late architect and painter Jean Welz, designs should reflect one’s aesthetic and political commitments. This narrative will resonate with anyone interested in the politics of architecture, or the pursuit of knowledge at large.—Hyperallergic "BEST ART BOOKS OF 2022"Welz’s having been “lost” is indeed a travesty of architectural history to which the book serves as a welcome antidote.—Artforum A leading painter still highly regarded in South Africa, Jean Welz's prior architectural career has been virtually unknown until a string of discoveries unfolded for author and filmmaker Peter Wyeth, allowing him to narrate this amazing true tale of genius. Trained in ultra-sophisticated, but conservative Vienna, Welz was sent to Paris for the 1925 Art Deco exhibition by his influential employer, renowned architect Josef Hoffmann. There he met preeminent modern architects Le Corbusier and Adolf Loos. The latter employed him to assist in building a house for the founder of Dada, Tristan Tzara. They all mixed in avant-garde circles at the Dôme Café in Montparnasse along with Welz’s classmate from Vienna, later Chicago-based architect Gabriel Guevrekian; Welz’s future employer Raymond Fischer, whose archive was mostly destroyed by Nazis; and photographer André Kertész. Through Welz’s South African family archive, author Wyeth retrieves stories, letters, portfolios, and photographs generations after Welz’s death that unravel his heroic designs, his stunning built critique of Corbusier’s “Five Points of Architecture,” a gravestone for Marx’s daughter, and the many ways that Welz disappeared amongst his collaborators, intentionally and not. This account of why Jean Welz did not become a famous name in architecture takes us through his brother’s Nazi-art-dealings, illness, betrayal, emigration, and an uncompromising artist’s vision at the same time sifting through significant, literally-concrete evidence of Welz’s built projects and visionary designs.Trade ReviewPeter Wyeth has masterfully charted architect Jean Welz’s work and trajectory from Vienna to Paris and South Africa, as well as his contacts with remarkable clients, colleagues, artists and photographers. He has at last paid homage to his striking designs, such as the Zilveli villa built in Paris in 1933, which deserves to be inscribed in the narrative of European Modernism. —Jean-Louis Cohen, Sheldon H. Solow Professor in the History of Architecture, Institute of Fine Arts, New York UniversityKnown, if at all, as a much-admired painter in South Africa in the mid-twentieth century, Jean Welz's complex architecture career is now marvelously pieced together for the first time. —Robin Middleton, professor Emeritus, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia UniversityPeter Wyeth's really marvelous book uncovers a highly gifted modernist unknown to the public, whose architecture absorbed the most important ideas of Loos and Le Corbusier. As a filmmaker, Wyeth combines a sharp analysis of Europe's artistic movements between the two wars with refreshing personal insights to create a fascinating portrait that is both fluid and easy to read. —Burkhardt Rukschcio, author of Adolf Loos: Leben und WerkOne of the last testimonies of modernism in intramural Paris is the the Maison Zilveli by the Viennese architect Jean Welz, near Adolf Loos and the Roche du Corbusier house. […] British filmmaker Peter Wyeth, very involved in the preservation of the house, explains that “it is very rare to have a modernist house that has remained unchanged: it is a real case study.” —Le Journal des Arts Jean Welz and his architecture do exist! Let's hope his architecture survives and defies ignorance. — Richard Klein, architect, professor, chair of docomomo FrancePeter Wyeth is to be commended not only for rediscovering Jean Welz and his work but also for reconstructing the network of interactions, innovations and transmission of ideas that constitute the real history of architecture. —Tim Benton, professor and author of The Villas of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret 1920–1930This vivid and remarkable excavation of the life and work of the Viennese-born architect Jean Welz is a splendid contribution to the history of modernism. Welz was closely connected with two of the titans of the age, Le Corbusier and Adolf Loos, but, even more, he was an excellent architect, whose work was sensitive, beautiful, and inventive. Wyeth tells his story well, bringing known aspects of the tale of modern architecture into sharper focus, while adding much that is new. —Christopher Long, professor, University of Texas at Austin and author of The New Space: Movement and Experience in Viennese Modern ArchitectureTable of ContentsThe Mystery of Jean Welz Part I: Invisible Jean Welz Does Not Exist Le Château Moche — Paris, Christmas Day 2012 The Tradouw Pass — 1940 Part II: Vienna Finis Austriae — Vienna, October 1918 Josef Hoffmann and The First Wave Adolf Loos and the Second Wave Hans Welz Architect Part III: Paris Art Deco — Paris, 1925 The Guevrekian Letter The Third Man Mallet-Stevens / Le Corbusier / Jean Welz Raymond Fischer Le Chemin Aérien / The Aerial Way “Un Nègre Viennois” Part IV: Oeuvre The Portfolio House for an Artist Inondation — Montauban, 1931 Maison Landau A Minimum House Villa Darmstadter —1932 Oswald Haerdtl — 1932 Maison Zilveli — 1933 Mont D’Or and Pavillon D’Autriche The Unbuilt Part V: Tales A Tale of Two Balconies A Tale of Two Brothers The Dealer and the Artist Corbusier’s Note The Martienssen Affair A Tale of Three Monuments Part VI: Jean House on the Lake The Dialogues of Jean Welz Pains and Pleasures of Anonymity A Solitary Adventure The Character of Jean Welz Christensen Gallery Inger Welz Zilveli Destroyed Appendices After Architecture South Africa Addendum Bibliography Index Acknowledgments Plates

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Book SynopsisAn honest and very personal account of my life through transition from female to male, to finally becoming the man I always was.

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Book SynopsisSkelligs Haul is a generous compilation of Michael Kirby's prose and poetry, appealing for his simple, elegant style, his knowledge of unique local lore, and his inimitable observations. Kirby, a man who spent nearly every day of his ninety-nine years on the beautiful Iveragh peninsula, apart from a brief period in the United States, knew better than most that survival demanded persistence, passion, civility and good humour. In the shadow of the World Heritage site of Skellig Michael, he eked out a living fishing and farming with intimate knowledge of every inch of sea and soil. This volume, organised thematically, demonstrates Kirby's great gift of expressing the artist's fresh, passionate insight in elegant, plain language and with the dispassionate slant of a scientist. His knowledge of local birds and fish was as encyclopaedic and forensic as his grasp of place names. Referred to as `one of the last authentic expressions of the Gaelic tradition, artlessly fusing the worlds of flesh and spirit', he was a mystic who found his God, his solace and serenity in every living thing in Iveragh. This book includes some dual texts of poems freely translated from Irish by Kirby, showing that his inward eye led to verse in both the romantic vein and the fine tradition of Irish-language religious verse. This collection also presents reproductions of his landscape paintings, an introduction by poet Paddy Bushe and an editor's preface and note.Trade ReviewMichael Kirby had a poet’s heart, a painter’s eye and the unsentimentality of a scientist. -- Mary Shine Thompson * Irish Times *The way he lived his life affirmed something I have always known about creative expression: that it comes from the heart as well as the mind. -- Jane Urquhart

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Book SynopsisW. B. Yeats believed that a poet's life should be an experiment in living. His poems fashion into memorable words the sometimes puzzling emotions that hover over important life events. Yeats's remarkable work can clarify our own thinking about similar situations. Joseph M. Hassett's Yeats Now: Echoing into Life extracts and distils the rich harvest of Yeats's experiment. As Yeats's biographer Roy Foster comments, Yeats Now is 'a personal, quizzical, imaginative testament that ranges through Yeats's thought and writings, showcasing and discussing a series of ringing statements, suggestions and aphorisms that evolve into a kind of vade-mecum or guide to life. The subjects cover love, anger, friendship, politics, violence and the competing claims of perfecting the life, or the work'. This book is a wonderful companion to the work of this significant poet. Hassett's writing provides an excellent frame of context through which to explore one of Ireland's greatest poets.Trade ReviewHassett seeks always to restore the full poetic and personal context to many famous lines. … The result is one of the most beautiful and enjoyable books on Yeats ever to call forth the skills of a gifted designer [a]nd of a true critic. -- Declan Kiberd * Dublin Review of Books *Subtle and often illuminating study of what we can learn from Yeats … and how we can let his words echo in our own lives. -- Michael O'Loughlin * Irish Times *Thought-provoking, a fresh, accessible look at the shimmering legacy of WB Yeats in all its wonder and poise. -- Paddy Kehoe * RTE *This is a handsome and stylish book, both in looks and, more importantly, in its capacity to appreciate the magic of William Butler Yeats’s poetry. -- Michael Langan * NBC-2 *I can’t think of a more inspiring way to fill the unforgiving minute than to read this book, to be renewed and invigorated by Yeats’ relevance today – Now – and to rediscover the nobility of his poetry, the endurance of his hope. -- Anne Cunningham * Anne Cunningham Blog *

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Book SynopsisThis timely and important intervention in the debates concerning Europe in Ireland begins with the 1916 Centenary celebration. The Brexit decision of June 2016 has fundamentally altered Ireland's relationship with the European Union and has exponentially increased interest in European matters in public debates. Yet, public discussions regarding Ireland's closer links with the European Union often remain purely utilitarian and economic, or take place solely within academia. There is an urgent need to broaden the debate towards the cultural and social spheres, which includes highlighting the inherently European quality of Irish culture and society, in the past as much as the present. The most extensive interventions on these issues in recent years have come from the President of Ireland. This edition collects all of the major speeches on the topic of Europe since 2016. They encompass interventions on historical aspects, bilateral cultural links, citizens' involvement in the European project, workers' rights and ecological concerns. The present Covid-19 crisis will further move the European Union into the limelight, in particular its role in helping member states cope with the consequences of this unprecedented disaster. President Higgins addresses the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918-19 from a speech made in May 2019 and considers the role of European leaders in a letter to the President of the Hellenic Republic in April 2020. These speeches are marked by the President's particular and personal stamp, while also expressing central concerns on behalf of Irish citizens. The speeches are enhanced by a Foreword written by President Michael D. Higgins.Trade ReviewMichael D. Higgins writes brilliantly about the idea of “home” in an age of mass-migration, when even children of the middle class can scarcely afford to purchase a house. But, above all, he implies that Anderson’s critique be answered – by a Europe which, no longer constructed from above, is rebuilt from below. From the street itself. -- Declan Kiberd * Hot Press *The book seems to be an extraordinary kaleidoscope of ideas enmeshed in a dazzling torrent of words that could threaten to drown the reader. However as the book progresses, so does the understanding of the reader and an understanding of what the European Union can offer us, in theory at least, emerges. -- Des Kenny * Galway Advertiser *

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Book SynopsisNow available for the first time in Ireland and the UK - more than half a century after it was written - is the memoir of Michael Dillon/Lobzang Jivaka (1915-62), the Anglo-Irish doctor and Buddhist monastic novice chiefly known to scholars of sex, gender, and sexuality for his pioneering transition from female to male between 1939 and 1949, and for his groundbreaking 1946 book Self: A Study in Ethics and Endocrinology. Here at last is Dillon/Jivaka's extraordinary life story told in his own words. Out of the Ordinary captures Dillon/Jivaka's various journeys - to Oxford, into medicine, across the world by ship - within the major narratives of his gender and religious journeys. Moving chronologically, Dillon/Jivaka was from Lismullin House, County Meath, but spent his childhood in Folkestone, England, where he was raised by spinster aunts, telling of his days at Oxford immersed in theology, classics, and rowing. He recounts his hormonal transition while working as an auto mechanic and fire watcher in Bristol during World War II and describes his surgical transition under Sir Harold Gillies while Dillon himself attended medical school at Trinity College, Dublin (1945-51). He details his travels as a ship's surgeon in the British Merchant Navy with extensive commentary on his engagement with colonial and postcolonial subjects in Asia, followed by his 'outing' by the British press while he served aboard The City of Bath. Out of the Ordinary is not only a unique record of early gender affirmation but also a compelling account of religious conversion in the mid-twentieth century. Dillon/Jivaka chronicles his gradual shift from Anglican Christianity to the esoteric spiritual systems of George Gurdjieff and Peter Ouspensky, to Theravada and finally Mahayana Buddhism. He concludes his memoir with the contested circumstances of his Buddhist monastic ordination in India and Tibet. Ultimately, while Dillon/Jivaka died before becoming a monk, his novice ordination was significant: it made him the first white European man to be ordained in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. This first-person narrative, written in the early 1960s and first published more than a generation later in the US by Fordham University Press, is both ahead of its time and distinctly of its time and class, with Dillon's views being sometimes enlightened, sometimes colonial. A Foreword by Susan Stryker from the Fordham University Press edition describes Dillon as 'a seeker after truth, who traveled wherever his queries led him'. An Afterword, 'A Mapless Journey', by London-based literary agent Andrew Hewson - unique to the Lilliput Press edition - traces the typescript memoir's provenance and preservation prior to its eventual publication. An introductory biographical essay by consultant psychologist Aidan Collins gives an overview of the timeline of this remarkable individual's history. Out of the Ordinary is a landmark publication that sets free a singular voice from within the history of the transgender movement.Trade Review. . . Dillon’s memoir charts his wide-ranging life of education, gender transition, and conversion to Buddhism. . .show(s) continuity of concerns with those of transgender individuals today. Source: Publishers Weekly * Publishers Weekly *The importance of this work to the history of sexuality―and especially to the history of transsexuality―cannot be overstated. Author: Jose Ignacio Cabezon Source: University of California, Santa Barbara -- Jose Ignacio Cabezon * University of California, Santa Barbara *Blocked from publication in the 1960s and then hidden in a warehouse in London, Michael Dillon's autobiography moldered away for decades in the darkness. Now, for the first time ever, it has burst into print. The book illuminates the life of one of the ground-breaking transgender pioneers of the 20th century. Just important, it is a suspenseful and heart-breaking tale that begins at the English seaside and ends with a mysterious death in the Himalayan mountains. In his gripping autobiography, Dillon finds new answers to enduring questions about gender. At the same time, he never manages to solve the puzzle of his own identity and dies in the pursuit of transcendence. Dillon's memoir deserves a place alongside the great spiritual narratives, from Augustine to Merton. This edition is beautifully put together, with an introduction and notes supplied by a trio of scholars who have immersed themselves in Dillon's life history. Author: Pagan Kennedy Source: The First Man-Made Man -- Pagan Kennedy * The First Man-Made Man *While so much of the history of transsexualism has circulated around and through a few highly publicized lives of trans women, Jacob Lau and Cameron Partridge have made an indelible contribution to the modern histories of gender and sexuality by publishing this autobiography. Their introduction carefully situates the history of one of the earliest female to male transitions and gives us a smart and sympathetic account of the political, social and material complexities of Dillon/Jivaka’s life. This is an astonishing story. Author: Jack Halberstam Source: Female Masculinity and In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives -- Jack Halberstam * Female Masculinity and In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives *[A] beautifully produced autobiography. . . [Dillon/Jivaka] weaves a rich narrative illuminating his emotional and educational formation, gender variance and a spiritual pilgrimage from Church of England Christianity, via Gurdjieffianism, to the Buddhism that occasioned another first for a Westerner: ordination as a Buddhist novice-monk (getsul) in a Tibetan monastery in Ladakh. . . a moving story as well as a valuable record. Author: Christina Beardsley Source: Theology & Sexuality -- Christina Beardsley * Theology & Sexuality *

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Book SynopsisIn 1974, 22-year-old virgin sailor Mick escapes unemployment, family and 3-day-week London to become a deckhand on a small sailboat, Gay Gander, setting out to sail the Atlantic from England's West Country, via the Canaries, to Antigua in the Caribbean. Under the eye of an unfathomable skipper, John Francis Kearney, and his formidable sailing companion Carola (both escaping from a rain-sodden Ireland and broken marriages), Mick has to learn sailing, table manners, bridging the generation gap and getting along with Stryder, the Russian Blue ship's cat. The Long Lost Log should be fiction but is the true story of a voyage of discovery that Mick - against all odds - survived to tell this remarkable and hilarious tale. His inner and outer journey combines danger with the unexpected, the erotic and the comic, in a resonantly related rite of passage that leaps from the page like the curious whale that once disturbed the narrator's watch. The skipper involved happens to be the publisher's late father.Trade Review'The Long Lost Log is an entertaining account of crossing the Atlantic in 1974. Those who have ever been young, muddled and gullible will enjoy this book.' -Julia Jones; 'Yachting Monthly A vivid, spellbinding account of a true-life adventure, packed with insights into the human condition - this witty, well-paced rite of passage is full of freshness, sexual impulse and a clash of values. It is a rollicking tale written with verve, keen observations and sparkling with wry humour. Long Lost Log is a period piece for the nostalgic traveller and the armchair adventurer of any age.' - Kevin Cannon, Kevin's Book Reviews ; '... laced with some witty exchanges amongst the crew and some ribald adventures ashore by the writer ... in early September 1974, Mick finds himself literally up the creek without a paddle.' - Tom O'Sullivan, Irish Examiner ; 'Chapman Pincher has an ease with words, crafting his memories of sailing across the Atlantic into a thrilling page turner, peppered with humour, insight, beauty and the eager hope of a youth finding his way in the 70s. As well as the physical book, I was also able to listen to the audiobook recorded by the author ... Chapman Pincher has a way of telling a story with not only the written word, but a method of delivery which leaves you chuckling away out loud on the bus much to the mystery of your fellow traveller. Each character is deftly spun and each encounter and vignette in this adventure of a first-time sailor is expertly told.' - Rose Hall, Goodreads ; 'a book for those who have ever been young, muddled or wanting adventure ... Long Lost Log: Diary of a Virgin Sailor is witty, charming, and proof that some risks are worth taking ... A beautifully crafted book, multi-layered and bravely written, Long Lost Log has many interesting insights into the skills and craft of sailing and the broader history of the day.' - Shire Times ; 'A wonderful read, a thoughtful and heartfelt insight into a young man’s grasping of life and its infinite possibilities and confusions and the wonders of the sea and sailing.' - WM Nixon, Afloat Magazine ; 'It’s really quite something. A wonderful read.' - William M Nixon, Afloat ; Well written and genuinely funny; already a bestseller for us!' - Coach House Books ; 'It's an excellent read - fun - casual - and simply enticing.' Book-blip.com ; 'This is a rite of passage tale worth publishing.' - Yachting Monthly ; 'The vivacity is all in the quick phrasing of extraordinary things...' - Prof of Literature at Galway University ; 'One of the best books I've read this year.' - Jakereadsbooks -TikTok Influencer ; 'Chapman Pincher is a natural penman. I was gripped.' - Ed Maggs. ; 'A hilarious look back at the misspent youth I wished I'd had.' - Adrian Bracken, Film producer ; 'It's perfect gem of a book and I don't like boats.' Jeananne Crowley ; 'Written in a nice easy style..ideal for anyone who likes a good adventure story.' - Reedsy Discovery

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Book SynopsisThis novel by Maylis Besserie, the first of her Irish trilogy, shows us Samuel Beckett at the end of his life in 1989, living in Le Tiers-Temps retirement home. It is as if Beckett has come to live in one of his own stage productions, peopled with strange, unhinged individuals, waiting for the end of days. Yell, Sam, If You Still Can is filled with voices. From diary notes to clinical reports to daily menus, cool medical voices provide a counterpoint to Beckett himself, who reflects on his increasingly fragile existence. He remains playful, rueful, and aware of the dramatic irony that has brought him to live in the room next door to Winnie, surrounded by grotesques like Hamm or Lucky, abandoned by his wife Suzanne who died before him. Besserie delights in Beckett’s bilingualism and plays back and forth between the francophone and anglophone properties of language, summoning James Joyce as Beckett reminisces about evenings the two spent together singing, talking and drinking. Largely written in the library of the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Besserie has kept the hum of Irish voices throughout this work. Yell, Sam, If You Still Can won the “Goncourt du premier roman”, the prestigious French literary prize for first time novelists, just before the country went into lockdown. Besserie is now planning a further two novels that will explore the links between Ireland and France and is touted as the new star of the French literary world. Financial Times Book of the Year 2022Trade Review‘Maylis Besserie and her translator Clíona Ní Ríordáin create Beckett's inner voice so convincingly in the novel that at times you think it might have been written by the man himself.’ Judge David Mills, Scott Moncrieff Prize Recounting the last days of a writer whose main subject was finitude is a challenge. Maylis Besserie pulls off the exercise with finesse. -- Virginie Block-Lainé * Elle *The last months of Samuel Beckett’s life are tested by the inner voice of the writer in the retirement home where he ended his life. Lunar and poignant. -- Antoine Perraud * La Croix *The author uses her radio-producing skills to create a polyphonic world with a collage of distinct and interweaving documents and voices. -- Kathleen Shields * Dublin Review of Books *remarkable ... [Besserie] carries it off so convincingly, with such elan and poetic force ... she evokes, subtly and with great skill, a fitting intensity, bleak lyricism and black humour ... Yell, Sam, If You Still Can is the work of a writer already in command of a resonant style and a broad artistic reach JOHN BANVILLE, THE GUARDIAN'imaginative, informed, magnificently written book about Samuel Beckett's last days in a Parisian nursing home ... full of Beckettian gallows humour' ANNE CUNNINGHAM, MEATH CHRONICLE'genuinely impressive ... heartfelt emotion and sincerity are alternated with bathetic absurdity to dizzying but wonderful effect ... experimental, bold, and polyphonic ... a thought-provoking and powerful achievement.' Eva Wall, Curiouser Books'Besserie generates a pleasing mixture of black humour and occasional lyrical intensity. Credit here must also go to Clíona Ní Ríordáin, for her adroit translation ... [a] provocative, intriguing, rewarding and audacious act of imagination' Eoghan Smith, Books IrelandFINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR‘Remarkable’ SUNDAY INDEPENDENT‘Seriously impressive … the action bounces between Paris and Ireland and is remarkably evocative … this exquisite, moving, and ambitious book would be a great present for any fiction reader in your life.’ SARAH HARTE, IRISH EXAMINERA captivating and emotionally charged narrative. MIDIA MOHAMMADI, IRISH INDEPENDENT

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Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling author of THE BOOKSELLER OF KABUL comes a remarkable exploration of the lives of ordinary Serbs under the regime of Slobodan Milosevic-during the dramatic events leading up to his fall, and finally in the troubled years that have followed. Asne Seierstad traveled extensively through Serbia between 1999 and 2004, following the lives of people from across the political spectrum. Her moving and perceptive account follows nationalists, Titoists, Yugonostalgics, rock stars, fugitives and poets. Seierstad brings her acclaimed attention to detail to bear on the lives of those whom she encounters in With Their Backs to the World, as she creates a kaleidoscopic portrait of a nation made up of so many different-and often conflicting-hopes, dreams, and points of view.

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Book SynopsisIn this groundbreaking and unconventional biography, Lyndall Gordon dismantles the insistent image of Charlotte Bronte as a modest Victorian lady, the slave to duty in the shadow of tombstones, revealing instead a strong and fiery woman who shaped her own life and transformed it into art. 'Sensitive, open-minded, vivid, full of psychological insight, [Gordon's] book is a brilliant reappraisal of Charlotte Bronte's life, work, and the flow between the two . . . It is also a deeply moving story' Jackie Wullschlager, Financial TimesTrade ReviewAn exemplary biography: brisk but attentive to all nuance; lucid and open in its judgements; wearing its learning lightly but visibly * Jan Marsh, New Statesman *Brilliant and powerful . . . [Gordon] brings us the closest we are ever likely to get to an understanding of the source of Charlotte Bronte's creative genius . . . Bronte biography has, at last, come of age * Mark Bostridge, TES *

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Book SynopsisImprove your chess by studying the greatest games of all time, from Adolf Anderssen''s ''Immortal Game'' to Anand versus Kramnik 2008, and featuring a foreword by World Champion Vishy Anand.The 125 greatest chess games of all time, selected, analysed, re-evaluated and explained by a team of British experts and illustrated with over 1,000 chess diagrams. Join the authors in studying these games, the cream of two centuries of international chess, and develop your own chess-playing skills - whatever your current standard. Instructive points at the end of each game highlight the lessons to be learned.First published in 1998, a second edition of The Mammoth Book of the World''s Greatest Chess Games in 2004 included an additional 12 games. This edition includes a further 13 games as well as some significant revisions to the analysis and information regarding other games in earlier editions of the book, facilitated by the use of a variety of chess softw

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Book SynopsisAlvar Aalto remains Finland's greatest architect, retains his place among the Modern Masters of twentieth-century architecture and is now recognized internationally as one of the world's greatest architects of all time. For Finland, Aalto, through his architecture, furniture, glassware and sculpture, contributed perhaps more than any other Finn to the creation of the cultural identity of the new independent Finland and its promotion around the world. His Finnish Pavilions in Paris and New York from the Thirties placed Finland centre-stage, establishing its identity as a modern, innovative country and generated huge interest in this northern land of lakes and forests. He went on to work in 18 countries around the world, as well as designing many of Finland's most important buildings of the 50s, 60s and 70s. This new biography of Aalto is the first to comprehensively cover his life, from the backwoods of Ostrabothnia to international fame and all of his buildings, from the early alterations and extensions to shops and houses in Jyvaskyla to Finlandia Hall.It draws on Aalto's archive, recollections of former employees and contemporaneous publications to fully explore Alvar Aalto the architect, rather than simply Alvar Aalto's architecture. For the first time, his life is set in the context of the events that surrounded and shaped it - the Finnish Civil War, the Great Depression, The Winter and Continuation Wars, the post-war boom in education, Finland's industrialisation and eventually the social revolution of the 60s which led to his characterization as a member of a Finnish elite and temporary unpopularity. It covers his life from his childhood, growing up in regional Jyvaskyla and Alajarvi, his architectural studies in Helsinki, combat in the Civil War through to the founding of his first office, his early neo-classical work and his international breakthrough with the completion of Paimio Sanatorium and Viipuri Library. It deals with his personal life, his marriage to Aino, what working life in his first office was like, the architectural competitions, his key friendships and continuous financial difficulties.As his career progressed, it explores the patrons who were so important to him - the Gullichsens and the founding of Artek, his new American friends, professorship at MIT. After the war, the death of Aino, marriage to Elissa and the period of his greatest architectural achievements - Saynatsalo Town Hall, Otaniemi University and Imatra Church. It considers the organisation of his new office in Helsinki, his expanding team, fame and eventually vanity. The book seeks to understand what drove him, the combination of skills, talents and character traits, which led to his extraordinary global success. As you will be aware, there is no shortage of books on Alvar Aalto, or to be more precise, there is no shortage of books on Alvar Aalto's Architecture. (Only one previous biography exists, published first in 1984 and now out of print). This book is about an architect and his architecture, written by another architect, not an architectural historian. It is the first, frank and fully-comprehensive biography of Alvar Aalto.

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Book SynopsisOver 700 years of literature about, or set in, Venice. Contains extracts from the works of poets, novelists, playwrights, historians and travellers. With city maps and an index.

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Book SynopsisIn the 18th century shotgun weddings were not unusual, but in most cases it wasn't the bride that was holding the gun. So began the stormy marriage between Lord and Lady Grange, a marriage which was to end with Lady Grange's death on the Isle of Skye after 13 years in exile. The daughter of a convicted murderer, Lady Grange's behaviour, such as her fondness for drink, was so outrageous that her sudden disappearance from public life was not considered surprising. But few knew the true story of her disappearance. This book reveals, for the first time, how the unfortunate lady was violently kidnapped and transported to the remote islands off the west coast of Scotland, spending seven years on the island of St. Kilda's. Condemned to a very different lifestyle than she had enjoyed in Edinburgh, and baffled by the strange tongue of the Gaelic West, she still obstinately survived, finally dying in Skye in 1745.Trade Review... a tale of such scandal and drama that it reads almost like a work of fiction. - CATHERINE SALMOND, Edinburgh Evening News... this fascinating account of one of the most beguiling characters in Scotland's history... Despite the unhappy ending, it's a stunning story and Margaret Macaulay has done it full justice. - TREVOR ROYLE, The HeraldYet there's another story of human hardship in [St Kilda]'s history that's been much less analysed - not one of evacuation but of abduction. Not of escape, but of exile. A story of political intrigue, betrayal and personal tragedy. - SUNDAY POST

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Book SynopsisSmall Game Hunter echoes the author's fascination and appreciation of the strange and wonderful world of insects and spiders. It is a scientific and cultural kaleidoscope of the many encounters that he had across his career and around the globe.

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Book SynopsisAt 11.47pm on July 25th 1978, Louise Brown was the first person ever to be born through science rather than as the result of two people having sex. The birth was hailed as a "miracle" by the world's media, making her instantly famous. For the first time Louise tells the story of her world changing birth and its impact on her life.

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Book SynopsisIs there an ‘after the virus’, or is covid-19 and a world of future pandemics simply something we will have to live with for an indefinite period of time? In all honesty, no one knows the answer to that, which is why it is so destabilising. The covid pandemic poses huge challenges for Scotland – but also a unique opportunity to rethink who we are as a country, where we are heading, and how to restructure our economy, culture, politics and relationships in addressing the deep disparities the virus has exposed. Bringing together the unique voices of some of our best creative writers, poets and commentators, this book makes a significant contribution to rethinking our future. It explores what ‘after the virus’ could look like, and how it might be possible. Here are the hopeful voices we need for a time of both uncertainty and exploration.Trade Review'This book is a timely and welcome tonic for the dark times we are living through.' – Elaine C Smith, Actor and Campaigner 'What binds our nation is not birth, but love.' – Ian Hamilton, QC and Author 'In the dark times, we need sparks of light like this to show the way forward to a brighter future.' – Val McDermid, Author 'This diverse range of voices beautifully show us that another world is possible, another Scotland is possible.' – Aamer Anwar, Lawyer and Former Rector, University of Glasgow

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Book SynopsisStanley Baxter delighted over 20 million viewers at a time with his television specials. His pantos became legendary. His divas and dames were so good they were beyond description. Baxter was a most brilliant cowboy Coward, a smouldering Dietrich. He found immense laughs as Formby and Liberace. And his sex-starved Tarzan swung in a way Hollywood could never have imagined. But who is the real Stanley Baxter? The comedy actor’s talents are matched only by his past reluctance to colour in the detail of his own character. Now, the man behind the mischievous grin, the twinkling eyes and the once- Brylcreemed coiffure is revealed. In a tale of triumphs and tragedies, of giant laughs and great falls from grace, we discover that while the enigmatic entertainer could play host to hundreds of different voices, the role he found most difficult to play was that of Stanley Baxter.Trade Review'I f**king love Stanley Baxter.' - Billy Connolly Praise for Stanley Baxter ‘Stanley Baxter is my comedy hero. He had big ideas and he fought for the money to do them. Then when he’d had enough he just walked away.’ – ALAN CUMMING ‘I don’t know anybody that doesn’t think Stanley Baxter is a genius.’ – JONATHAN ROSS ‘I really don’t think the phrase ‘out of this world’ fits anyone better than it does Stanley Baxter.’ – FORD KIERNAN

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Book SynopsisFollow Peter Millar on a journey in the heart of Cold War Europe, from the carousing bars of 1970s Fleet Street to the East Berlin corner pub with its eclectic cast of characters who embodied the reality of living on the wrong side of the wall.

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Book SynopsisOver a hundred years ago Somerville and Ross galloped across the pages of popular Irish literature writing of horses, hunts and high jinks. Today, Wexford based Patrick Donegall has taken over their reins to record the Ireland of his youth. An Ireland that has almost, but not quite, disappeared.

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Book SynopsisBangladesh has been shunned by tourists from the moment it was created in 1971. Henry Kissinger described it as a basketcase. Poverty and humanitarian disasters defined Bangladesh in the ensuing decades. When Rupert Grey arrived in Dhaka in 1992, a sign announced that arrivals were ‘Welcome to Bangladesh before the tourists get here’. They still haven’t. Grey first came to Bangladesh as a London lawyer armed with three FM2 cameras. Many journeys and 30 years later he is a photographer armed with a useful legal background. The catalysts were Chobi Mela, the festival of photography, and its founder Shahidul Alam, an acclaimed photographer, human rights activist and Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2018. This book charts Grey’s love affair with Bangladesh, including an epic transcontinental journey through India to Chobi Mela in a vintage Rolls-Royce, later portrayed in the award-winning, Sharon Stone produced film Romantic Road. His photographs, mostly taken on film, speak powerfully of the cultural vitality and energy which Kissinger missed, and which inspired Grey’s Homage to Bangladesh. As a libel and copyright lawyer Rupert has represented national papers, politicians, bankers, celebrities and explorers. He serves on the board of a number of front-line charities in the arts, education, photography and marine exploration. He has travelled on foot and horseback, by dug-out canoe, dog sledge, camel, elephant, bush-plane and Land Rover to the wild places of the earth. His photographs have been exhibited in several countries including Bangladesh, and his articles have been widely published. He lives with his wife Jan in a remote thatched cottage in Sussex, England, with their three daughters nearby.Trade Review"an extraordinary book ... about his dazzling photography, revealing how that medium can open our eyes to the reality of a crowded, diverse and profoundly interesting country." Geographical

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Book SynopsisThis story began a hundred years ago when a child became the inspiration for his famous father, A. A. Milne, who created one of the best known children's characters in recent history. His parents wanted a girl and to begin with treated him as one. They were initially quite distant from him and his upbringing was left to a loyal and loving nanny. Unfortunately, this left Christopher Robin Milne terminally shy and lacking in self-confidence. Unable to escape from the shadow of his fictional self, he became an object of continued interest from a non-understanding public. His salvation started with being sent away to Stowe School, going to Cambridge and joining the Army in the Second World War as a sapper. After an unhappy and directionless time immediately post-war in London, he eventually married and, very successfully, ran a bookshop in the South West for twenty-one years. His life was dominated by a love of the countryside, learned at his parents' country home, Cotchford Farm in Hartfield, East Sussex, and much later in Devon. How he turned his life round, against the odds, is the subject of this biography.

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Book SynopsisTime to Heal tells the story of the colourful life of a country doctor towards the end of his career. In turn shocking, sad and funny, they describe a doctor who feels poorly served by the conventional medicine of his time and finds new ways to relieve the suffering of his patients. This tale has a twist. Twenty-first century General Practice and its patients have been betrayed by top-heavy regulation, performance management and a blame culture. Young doctors no longer want to enter General Practice. The author explores why and how pandemics might provide the answers. ‘A fascinating look into life as a village doctor, with observations so profound it seamlessly becomes a thesis on humanity as a species. The local GP, not only a potential lifesaver but also a constant and friend in these ever-changing, isolated times has never been more needed. A beautiful and moving book.’ – Lady Sophie Windsor (nee Winkelman), Actress ‘A wonderful book, full of fascinating, engaging and timely stories. Michael Dixon reminds us of the importance of human medicine and the way in which communities can create health. He concludes with a new vision for health which blends the best of the past with the latest technology and science - and which will help us cope better with future pandemics.’ – Lord Nigel Crisp, Former Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health ‘Time to Heal describes very human stories – entertaining, thought provoking, and eminently readable, whilst woven through the text is the insight that general practice is the human face of medicine.’ – Sir Denis Pereira Gray, Former Chair and President, Royal College of General Practitioners

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Book SynopsisFrida Kahlo was an amputee in the last part of her life, but long before that her right leg had been compromised by a childhood bout with polio. Since adolescence, Emily Rapp, herself an amputee since the age of four, felt that there were many things she had in common with Frida Kahlo. From the first sight of Kahlo's painting of the devastating bus crash that almost killed her, Rapp felt a sense of kinship with the artist. They both endured numerous operations; both alternately hid and revealed their altered bodies; and both found a way to live and create despite physical and emotional pain. In this riveting read, Rapp gets to the essence of Kahlo through her art, her letters, and her diaries. Rapp tells her own story of losing a child to Tay-Sachs; finding love, and becoming pregnant with her daughter; and of how Kahlo's life and work helped her to find a way forward when all seemed lost. Containing several full-color images of Kahlo's art and clothing, Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg offers a unique perspective on the artist and the challenges she faced. I want to know and remember what it was like to walk as Frida once walked: before polio at six years old shrunk her right leg; before the infamous bus crash on September 17, 1925 when the pole pierced her pelvis; then the casts, the saws, the stitches woven into the skin and then carefully twisted out, the scars gone white and silent and sealed. I am one-legged, like Frida, but I am also unlike her, and there in our essential difference is where my fascination lies, and there lies also my devotion, my despair, my revulsion, my resentment, my desire.Trade Review“This book is a wild masterpiece. It is about everything that matters: mortality, motherhood, desire, love, the body, art, writing, survival. Remarkably, the author is able to express the chaos of grief and anger without ever losing control. The fire of Frida Kahlo’s spirit courses through this book and twins with the author’s own attempts to understand her life, and survive. It is brilliant, furious, funny, gorgeously written, terribly sad and, without being sentimental, hopeful. I am sure that any feeling being will love and treasure this generous, remarkable book.” —Matthew Zapruder, author of Why Poetry and Father’s Day “With endless intellect and intimacy, Emily Rapp Black brings us a book without parallel, a book that will become well-worn by readers who have passed it on, saying, here, you have to read this. In Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg, Rapp Black scours and thinks and confides not in order to write an impossibly original work of art, though she has, but to survive all that has threatened her body and soul. Is it peculiar, then, to say that Frida Kahlo is one of the great loves of her life? For this is the story, and this is the bond between two artists in whom there is no hiding, just expressive, salvific brilliance. Read this. This book might just get you through.” —Katie Ford, poet and author of If You Have to Go and Blood Lyrics

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Book SynopsisOther Ranks is a First World War classic, first published in 1931 but quickly lost in the wave of war memoirs and novels. It is the fictionalised account of William Tilsley's war experiences through the eyes of ordinary soldier Dick Bradshaw in the 55th West Lancashire Division. This authentic memoir of life and death on the front line begins with Bradshaw’s “C” Company leaving the depot at Etaples and heading for their first engagement at the front on the Somme in the Autumn of 1916. Over the next fourteen months it follows the chores behind the line and unwelcome stints on the front line through to his wounding during the Third battle of Ypres in 1917 and subsequent return to Blighty. As well as criticism of the conduct of the war, there is description of the desolation of the landscape and continual conditions of the trenches as experienced by the Poor Bloody Infantry (PBI); wet, cold, frost bite, trench foot, shelling and general life in trenches with continual risk of collapse. War is not a chivalrous experience and his narrative does not hold back in his thoughts and feelings concerning soldiers behind the lines out of the reach of the guns and those at the top. This new edition follows research by Gaye Magnall and is accompanied by introductions from relatives of the three main characters, O'Neill, Magnall and WVT's great nephew, David Tilsley.Trade Review‘Mr. Blunden remarks that Mr. Tilsley “misses nothing.” He has, indeed, a very keen eye. Mr. Tisley’s description of an attack on the Somme is as vivid as anything of the sort that has been written’ Times Literary Supplement, 16 April 1931 ‘An unvarnished account…he gives us modestly the prose of the matter; of mud, stench, lice, fatigue, cold, fear, danger and death’ The Guardian, 18 March 1931 ‘This re-publication of W V Tilsley’s Other Ranks, a book at the pinnacle of the mountain of other ranks writing about the Great War after 88 years came as both surprise and pleasure. Although frequently, and unfairly, described as a forgotten book, it is one with a great reputation’ Stand To!

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Book SynopsisMemories of a London Art Dealer is the distillation of a lifetime’s experience and expertise in the art world. Neither an autobiography nor a traditional memoir, the book consists of reflections, anecdotes, telling conversations, encounters, touches of humour and a choice selection of the triumphs and disasters, heroes and villains encountered by an accidental art dealer. Trade Review"Reading the book is like being seated in a leather wingback chair at a club, listening to an affable chap recount his favourite anecdotes. . . . This is an enjoyable canter through a veteran dealer's memories, light on details and warmly diverting." * Alexander Adams Art *

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Book SynopsisPart of a series of guides on key figures and themes, this book follows the life of Charles Edward Stuart, the young pretender. The author sets out on his motorbike on the trail of Bonnie Prince Charlie from England to Scotland and the Isle of Skye, the locations shown with maps and drawings.

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Book SynopsisThis book describes the astonishing achievements of John Angus Mackay – a man whose intelligence, humanity, political nous, people skills, wit, steely resolve and courage, were such that, what lesser beings regarded as impossible, he made possible. Through his efforts in concert with a small group of others, a thousand year process of ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Gaelic language and culture was challenged and new means created to rebuild that which the powers-that-be had long sought to destroy. These efforts were so successful that now, the Scottish Gaelic language and culture has turned the corner and the number of young Gaelic speakers is increasing. How this was achieved, against a sustained barrage of negativity, is described, but perhaps his most obvious achievement is his long, dogged and forensically focused campaign, against huge establishment resistance, to win a Gaelic television channel. That channel now provides a fascinating range of programming at times attracting viewership figures well in excess of the total number of Gaelic speakers in Scotland. But that is only part of the story. John Angus was also a gifted teacher, pivotal in developing community co-operatives in his native Lewis, in paving the way for the creation of the Crofters’ Union and leading the development of the Gaelic Comunn na Gàidhlig, Bòrd na Gàidhlig, An Lanntair multi-arts venue, the University of the Highlands and Islands, and as its chairman, in turning round NHS Western Isles from crisis into a model small health board.

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