Biography Books
Goldsmiths, Unversity of London A Physical Education
Book Synopsis
£20.70
Getty Trust Publications Maria Sibylla Merian - Artist, Scientist,
Book SynopsisIn 1660, at the age of thirteen, Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) began her study of butterfly metamorphosis-years before any other scientist published an accurate description of the process. Later, Merian and her daughter ventured thousands of miles from their home in the Netherlands to the rainforests of South America seeking new and amazing insects to observe and illustrate. Years after her death, Merian's accurate and beautiful illustrations were used by scientists, including Carl Linnaeus, to classify species, and today her prints and paintings are prized by museums around the world. More than a dozen species of plants and animals are named after Merian. The first Merian biography written for ages 10 and up, this book will enchant budding scientists and artists alike. Readers will be inspired by Merian's talent, curiosity, and grit and will be swept up in the story of her life, which was adventurous even by today's standards. With its lively text, quotations from Merian's own study book, and fascinating sidebars on history, art, and science, this volume is an ideal STEAM title for readers of all ages and interests.Trade Review"A visually stunning, well-researched biography of a woman artist and scientist."--School Library Journal "Young readers will be inspired by Merian's talent, curiosity, and grit as they become swept up in the story of her life . . . With its lively text, beautiful illustrations, quotations from Merian's own study book, and fascinating sidebars on history, art, and science, "Maria Sibylla Merian: Artist, Scientist, Adventurer" is an extraordinary and very highly recommended addition to family, elementary school, and community library biography collections for children." --Midwest Book Review
£18.04
Gallimard Le parfum des fleurs de la nuit
Book Synopsis
£9.98
HarperCollins Publishers Entering the Silence
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£16.19
WW Norton & Co Crazy Brave
Book SynopsisA “raw and honest” (Los Angeles Review of Books) memoir from the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States.Trade Review"A saga about the survival of spirituality and creativity in the face of generations of racism, dispossession, and familial dysfunction…Fantastic, terrible and beautiful." -- Rebecca Steinitz - Boston Globe"Stirring…In her harrowing and ultimately hopeful story, Harjo allows the reader to know her intimately, and we are enriched by her honesty." -- Ms."A must-read for her fans and a fascinating door into her world for those new to her work." -- Elizabeth Wilkinson - Minneapolis Star Tribune"Gritty and mystical…Reads like a sacred prayer." -- San Francisco Chronicle"Exquisite…A must-read for anyone who appreciates the healing power of literature." -- Southwest"Blunt, moving…[Affirms and acclaims] the artistic impulse." -- Smithsonian"Dances into hard truth. [Harjo’s] fine crafting of words and deft braiding of mythic visions throughout the text almost—almost—draw you past the truth of her personal story. That story is harsh and scary, mystical and loving, and, ultimately, triumphant and healing." -- Indian Country"Joy Harjo has always been able to see with more than her eyes. Her writing is a testament to this gift. Her memoir honors her own journey as well as those who fell along the wayside. Her hero’s journey is a gift for all those struggling to make their way." -- Sandra Cisneros"Joy Harjo is a giant-hearted, gorgeous, and glorious gift to the world. Her belief in art, in spirit, is so powerful, it can’t help but spill over to us—lucky readers. Wildly passionate and honest as a hound, Crazy Brave invites us into a whole new way of seeing—deeper, less cluttered, and vastly more courageous than our own. It’s a book for people who want to re-fall in love with the world." -- Pam Houston
£12.34
Liturgical Press The Way of the Heart
Book SynopsisAward-winning French author shares the biography and spiritual journey of Cistercian abbot Dom André Louf. Based on a wide variety of interviews, printed sources, and Dom André Louf's spiritual journal, The Way of the Heart narrates Louf's spiritual journey from his childhood in Flanders through his becoming a monk in a Cistercian monastery, his ten years of retirement as a hermit in a Benedictine monastery in the south of France, and his death. Throughout his life he periodically struggled with conflicting vocational desiressometimes wishing to serve as a pastor, academic, abbot, or to immerse himself in eremitic contemplation. That struggle is the leading thread through this biography, which portrays a man whose immense gifts pulled him in many directions, while always endeavoring to submit himself to God's will.
£30.39
University Press of Mississippi The Delta in the Rearview Mirror
Book SynopsisIntertwined with the true crime narrative, The Delta in the Rearview Mirror: The Life and Death of Mississippi's First Winery details author Di Rushing's life in and out of Mississippi, including growing up in 1960s Greenville, attending university, traveling overseas, and the relationships she cultivated along the way.
£18.86
Seagull Books London Ltd Signs and Images – Writings on Art, Cinema and
Book SynopsisA major collection of essays and interviews from an iconic 20th-century philosopher in five volumes, now all available together in paperback. Roland Barthes was a restless, protean thinker. A constant innovator—often as a daring smuggler of ideas from one discipline to another—he first gained an audience with his pithy essays on mass culture and then went on to produce some of the most suggestive and stimulating cultural criticism of the late twentieth century, including Empire of Signs, The Pleasure of the Text, and Camera Lucida. In 1976, this one-time structuralist outsider was elected to a chair at France’s preeminent Collège de France, where he chose to style himself as a professor of literary semiology until his death in 1980. The greater part of Barthes’s published writings has been available to a French audience since 2002, but now, translator Chris Turner presents a collection of essays, interviews, prefaces, book reviews, and other journalistic material for the first time in English and divided into five themed volumes. Volume four, Signs and Images, gathers pieces related to his central concerns—semiotics, visual culture, art, cinema, and photography—and features essays on Marthe Arnould, Lucien Clergue, Daniel Boudinet, Richard Avedon, Bernard Faucon, and many more. Table of ContentsGromaire, Lurçat and Calder Cinemascope Cinema, Right and Left The Problem of Signification in Cinema Review of Civilisation de l’Image Visual Information Dandyism and Fashion The Civilization of the Image Preface (Emmanuel Pereire Exhibition Catalogue) The Marthe Arnould Exhibition Visualization and Language (Interview) Japan: The Art of Living, the Art of Signs (Interview) What Is Good Like That (On Some Photographs by R. Avendon) On Some Photographs by Daniel Boudinet Colouring, Degree Zero Bernard Faucon The Interval (On the Japan exhibition) There Is No Man (On The Brontë Sisters Film) Note on an Album of Photographs by Lucien Clergue
£13.99
Verso Books Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of
Book SynopsisWalter Benjamin, one of the foremost cultural commentators and theorists of this century, is perhaps best known for his analyses of the work of art in the modern age and the philosophy of history. Yet it was through his study of the social and cultural history of the late nineteenth-century Paris, examined particularly in relation to the figure of the great Parisian lyric poet Charles Baudelaire, that Benjamin tested and enriched some of his core concepts and themes. Contained within these pages are, amongst other insights, his notion of the flaneur, his theory of memory and remembrance, his assessment of the utopian Fourier and his reading of the modernist movement.Trade ReviewA series of brilliant insights ... a remarkable volume. * Times Educational Supplement *His analyses are inspired. His fragments about with insights. -- George SteinerBenjamin is indispensable as well as brilliant. -- Raymond Williams
£12.34
The Book Guild Ltd Charles Lamb Man and Brother First
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£10.79
University of Minnesota Press Accidental Shepherd
Book SynopsisA summer job turns serious when a young woman takes the reins on a remote farmand learns far more than how to herd sheep In May 1972, Liese Greensfelder arrived in the small Norwegian town of Øystese to startling news: Johannes, the farmer who hired her for the summer, had just been hospitalized after a stroke. Could she please watch over his place for a month or so, until he got back on his feet? Twenty years old and with no farming experience, Liese was dropped off the next day at a centuries-old mountain farm at the end of a dirt road high above the magnificent Hardanger Fjordwith 115 sheep, two cows, one calf, a draft horse, and a Norwegian herding dog to care for. Armed with a command of Danish that enabled rudimentary communication, Liese began learning from neighbors who spoke an ancient Norwegian dialecthow to feed the animals, milk by hand, and supervise her first lambing. The farm was run in the old way: horses and wagons instead of tractors, haymaking in the rain, and hikes
£20.89
Africa World Press The Mackerel Years
Book Synopsis
£28.04
Y Lolfa Casglu Llwch
Book SynopsisA collection of meditations and personal tracts. Each chapter is spurred by nature, but this is not a nature book. As the author considers flowers, stones, bones and birds, we are drawn on unexpected routes to the depths of her mind. We are given a glimpse of her life as she shares memories and views, and tries to make sense of the world.
£12.00
Pitch Publishing Ltd Pironi
Book SynopsisPironi: The Champion that Never Was relates the remarkable story of motor racing's forgotten man, F1 driver and offshore powerboat legend, Didier Pironi. A disastrous crash at the 1982 German Grand Prix denied him his place as France's first F1 world champion. He was killed during the 1987 Needles Trophy race.
£15.29
The History Press Ltd An Iron Girl in a Velvet Glove
Book Synopsis"A colorful tale full of grit and glamour."?Kate Adie With her hourglass figure and Marilyn Monroe looks, Joan Rhodes would leave audiences speechless as she bent steel bars with her teeth, ripped large phone books into quarters, and lifted two men at a time. But what she did was real. Joan had a super strength, forged out of desperation to survive. Born into poverty in 1920s London and abandoned by her parents, Joan endured a spell in the workhouse and earned scraps busking on the streets. Despite the worst possible start, she made it to the top of her profession to rub sequined shoulders with the likes of Fred Astaire, Bob Hope and Sammy Davis Jnr. Joan''s crowning glory was to perform for the Queen and Prince Philip at Windsor Castle, and along the way she made lifelong friendships with Marlene Dietrich, Quentin Crisp and Dame Laura Knight, kindred spirits who lived as fearlessly as she did. Biographer Triona Holden met Joan in her later years. When Joan passed away, Triona set out to secure her beloved friend?s place in history. She appeared on the BBC TV show The Repair Shop to tell the strongwoman?s story, and sifted through archives to retrace her journey to stardom. Joan saw herself as a freak, but in truth she was a champion for the so-called fairer sex. At a time when women were still groomed for marriage and motherhood, An Iron Girl in a Velvet Glove tells the fascinating and tumultuous story of a woman who followed her own unique path.
£13.49
The History Press Ltd The Last Days of Richard III and the fate of his
Book SynopsisThe Last Days of Richard III contains a new and uniquely detailed exploration of Richard's last 150 days. By deliberately avoiding the hindsight knowledge that he will lose the Battle of Bosworth Field, we discover a new Richard: no passive victim, awaiting defeat and death, but a king actively pursuing his own agenda. It also re-examines the aftermath of Bosworth: the treatment of Richard's body; his burial; and the construction of his tomb. And there is the fascinating story of why, and how, Richard III's family tree was traced until a relative was found, alive and well, in Canada. Now, with the discovery of Richard's skeleton at the Greyfrairs Priory in Leicester, England, John Ashdown-Hill explains how his book inspired the dig and completes Richard III's fascinating story, giving details of how Richard died, and how the DNA link to a living relative of the king allowed the royal body to be identified.
£13.49
The History Press Ltd The Spy in the Tower
Book SynopsisA family man who ran afoul of the Nazis, Josef Jakobs was ill-prepared for an espionage mission to England. Captured by the Home Guard after breaking his ankle, Josef was interrogated at Camp 020, before being prosecuted under the Treachery Act 1940 and executed on 15 August 1941. An open and shut case? MI5's files suggest otherwise. Faced with the threat of a German invasion in 1940/41, MI5 used promises and threats to break enemy agents, extract intelligence and turn some into double agents, challenging the validity of the voluntary' confessions used to prosecute captured spies. But, more than that was Josef set up to fail? Was he a sacrifice to test the double-cross system? The Spy in the Tower tells the untold story of one of Nazi Germany's failed agents, and calls into question the legitimacy of Britain's wartime espionage trials and the success of its double-cross system.
£17.09
The History Press Ltd Merseyside Tales
Book Synopsis
£11.69
Verso Books I Rigoberta Menchu
Book SynopsisNow a global bestseller, the remarkable life of Rigoberta Menchú, a Guatemalan peasant woman, reflects on the experiences common to many Indian communities in Latin America. Menchú suffered gross injustice and hardship in her early life: her brother, father and mother were murdered by the Guatemalan military. She learned Spanish and turned to catechistic work as an expression of political revolt as well as religious commitment. Menchú vividly conveys the traditional beliefs of her community and her personal response to feminist and socialist ideas. Above all, these pages are illuminated by the enduring courage and passionate sense of justice of an extraordinary woman.
£17.99
Verso Books StreetFighting Years
Book SynopsisThe 1960s were a time of tumult and radicalism. Street Fighting Years captures the era’s mood and energy, its hope and its passion. In this, the first of his memoirs, Tariq Ali tracks the growing significance of the protest movements of the time alongside his own formation as a leading political activist from Pakistan, where he defied the military regime to lead a demonstration against Patrice Lumumba’s murder. His political odyssey is unique. Ali witnessed the imperialist brutalities of the Vietnam War—torture, bombing, the killing of children—the aftermath of the revolutionary insurgencies led by Che Guevara in Bolivia, the jubilation of the Prague Spring, and the student protests on the streets of Europe and America. It is a story that takes him from Paris and Prague to Hanoi and La Paz. Along the way, Ali encounters allies and enemies, including Malcolm X, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, Marlon Brando, Henry Kissinger, John Lennon and M
£14.24
Troubador Publishing Ltd Our Boy â Always a Coldstreamer
Book SynopsisOur Boy tells the factual and tragic, yet incredulous story of a Coldstream Guardsman in World War Two.From the discovery of a bundle of old letters and documents, a journey of discovery unfolded that led to fascinating revelations of the exploits of the author's uncle who died shortly after the end of World War Two. Using information from multiple sources, a story slowly emerged of friendship, bravery, deprivation, elation, and horror. It transpired that the battles he fought in were some of the most gargantuan and bloody of the war in Europe.Dix explores the horrendous, gruelling battles of the Rhineland, crossing the Rhine and fighting innumerable battles across north-west Germany against the elite and fanatical German Parachute Army. The book also details the very human story of life at home where the family struggled to cope with the anxiety for their son's safety, rationing, the blackout and all the hardships that come with war.This is a gripping and fascinating biography of one man's journey and the difficulties he faced during World War Two.
£10.44
Troubador Publishing The Winchester Powerhouse
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£15.29
Troubador Publishing Ltd How to Become an Accountant
Book SynopsisWhat is it really like to run an accountancy practice? Have you got what it takes? Are accountants really âboring?â Nick's debut book explores the day-to-day worries, and shares humorous stories of both working in and running an accountancy practice.
£10.79
Pitch Publishing Ltd Losing My Spurs
Book SynopsisWhat is it like to get so close to your dream that you can almost touch it, only to have it torn cruelly away? Anthony Potts knows the answer. He sacrificed everything in an all-consuming pursuit of his dream to become a professional footballer for Spurs, alongside the likes of Paul Gascoigne and Gary Lineker. Was it worth it? You be the judge.
£16.99
Pitch Publishing Ltd The Limping Physio
Book SynopsisPhysiotherapist John Sheridan has seen it all since entering professional football in 1979 with Luton Town. In 1986, he moved to Tottenham where he nursed Gazza back to fitness after his 1991 horror injury. Despite playing an integral part in Gazza's rehabilitation, John has stayed silent about what happened in this traumatic period - until now.
£16.99
Pitch Publishing Ltd Beckham
Book SynopsisYou've heard of David Beckham: the world-famous celebrity, actor, model, entrepreneur, philanthropist and charity ambassador. But what about the footballer behind the brand? Drawing on exclusive interviews with former Beckham team-mates, acclaimed author Wayne Barton explores Beckham's contribution as one of the greatest players of his generation.
£16.99
Yale University Press Robert Wedderburn
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£18.04
Michael O'Mara Books Ltd Young Elizabeth
Book SynopsisElizabeth I is one of England’s most famous monarchs, whose story as the ‘Virgin Queen’ is well known. But queenship was by no means a certain path for Henry VIII’s younger daughter, who spent the majority of her early years as a girl with an uncertain future.This colourful and immensely detailed biography charts Elizabeth’s turbulent and unstable upbringing, from the Wyatt Rebellion - a plot to topple her half-sister, Mary, from her throne - to the predatory attentions of Sir Thomas Seymour and the heartbreaking rift with her beloved stepmother Katherine Parr. When Elizabeth became queen, she had already endured more tumult than many monarchs experienced in a lifetime, and this truly comprehensive account explores the dangers and tragedies that plagued her early life.Best-selling author Nicola Tallis draws on primary sources written by Elizabeth herself and her contemporaries, providing an extensive and thorough study of an exceptionally resilient youngster whose early life would shape the queen she later became. This is a nuanced, authentic and utterly gripping biography that throws new light onto the early life of this iconic monarch. The heart racing story of Elizabeth’s youth as she steered her way through perilous waters towards England’s throne is one of the most sensational of its time.
£10.79
The History Press Ltd An Inspector Recalls
Book SynopsisBorn in inner-city Birmingham, from an impeccable working class pedigree', Graham Satchwell was diagnosed with a serious illness at age 7 a condition which should have barred his entry to the police force. Forty-two years later, he was Britain's senior-most railway detective. In a career that encompassed every CID rank and involved some of the country's toughest gangsters, petty thieves, bomb threats, terrorism, the odd politician and even the Queen, Graham Satchwell has seen it all. Infused with humour and genuine down-to-earth wisdom, An Inspector Recalls is a frank and intimate account of a life spent on the frontier between crime and punishment that recalls the gangsters, politics and often-questionable police culture of the 1970s, '80s and '90s.
£13.49
The History Press Ltd The Kings and Queens of England
Book SynopsisExplore the political and moral significance of the famous and more obscure incidents in the lives of Britain's monarchs
£13.49
Epic Ink Emma
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£13.49
Wayne State University Press Louis Graveraet Kaufman
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£23.19
Troubador Publishing A Working Woman
Book SynopsisA Working Woman: The Remarkable Life of Ray Stracheyis a traditional biography of a very untraditional woman. Tug-of-love child, Ward in Chancery, pamperedschoolgirl, pioneer car driver, would-be electrical engineer, triumphant suffragist, political lobbyist, historian, biographer, novelist, journalist, broadcaster, well-knownpublic figure, enthusiastic bricklayer, devoted mother, despairing stepmother, neglected wife: Ray Strachey was all of these and more. Bertrand Russell taught hermaths; John Maynard Keynes fell (a little) in love with her; Virginia Woolf was over-awed by her; Millicent Garrett Fawcett and Nancy Astor depended on her. Sheinspired admiration in men and gratitude close to worship in women.As a close colleague of Millicent Fawcett, Ray Strachey played a major, non-violent, role in gaining British women the vote in 1918. She was one of the first femaleParliamentary candidates, and became one of the leading feminists of the inter-war years, devoted in particular to improving employment opportunities for women. Abrilliant political lobbyist with an extraordinary range of contacts, she was also a celebrated author, journalist and broadcaster, still remembered for her classic historyof the Women's Movement,The Cause(1928). She achieved all this as a working mother with overwhelming family responsibilities and an unusual (some said eccentric)private life.Lavishly illustrated, this first full account of Ray Strachey's life is based on extensive research and draws heavily on her own lively and forthright comments on peopleand events. Interweaving her public roles with her challenging private life on the fringes of the Bloomsbury set, it features a host of well-known personalities, andintroduces a new generation of readers to a fascinating though neglected fighter for women's rights.
£17.00
Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers Ten Pounds for Paradise
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£13.49
Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers Windmills of my mind
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£10.79
Canelo Paths of Death and Glory: The Last Days of the
Book SynopsisThe epic story of how the Second World War was won.On 4 January 1945, General ‘Blood and Guts’ Patton confided gloomily to his diary, ‘We can still lose the war.’ The Nazis were attacking in Eastern France, Luxembourg and Belgium. General Eisenhower’s allied armies had lost over 300,000 men in battle (with a similar number of non-battle casualties) and they were still in the same positions they had first captured three months before. Would the German will to resist never be broken?Veteran military historian Charles Whiting assembled individual stories from the frontline as the war entered its last bloody, but ultimately victorious phase. From material such as diaries, interviews and battalion journals he vividly builds up a picture of the soldiers and combatants. As the greatest conflict of them all came to its epic crescendo, those on the ground knew that paths that lead to glory could also lead to death…Perfect for fans of Anthony Beevor, Richard Overy and Damien Lewis.
£11.69
Olympia Publishers Zero to Sixty in seven decades
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£13.16
Olympia Publishers The Eyes that Hear
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£11.87
Y Lolfa Brwydr yr Iaith 196267
Book SynopsisThe memoir of one of the most dedicated campaigners for the Welsh language. This bold and forthright biography offers a look at the life and convictions of the author, musician and language campaigner Geraint Jones ''Trefor'' one of the founders of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, the Welsh language society and his memories of the fervent language protests in Wales in the 1960s.
£14.99
Pitch Publishing Ltd King of the Journeymen: The Peter Buckley Story
Book SynopsisKing of the Journeymen is the gripping autobiography of Peter Buckley, a pro boxer who fought 300 times and was a 'stepping stone' for world champions such as Naseem Hamed and Duke McKenzie. As a boy, Buckley shone as an amateur boxer, but outside the ring he was heading for trouble. He was suspended numerous times from school and sent to prison at age 15 for assault and robbery. Whilst inside, his father died. His life felt hopeless and seemed to be going nowhere. But after his release he turned to professional boxing and things started to improve. Labelled a journeyman, he fought often and lost often, whilst earning more money than he'd thought possible. Buckley never refused a fight, often accepting bouts at a few hours' notice or after a night out. King of the Journeymen is an inspirational tale of a man tenaciously fighting for a better life. Although he lost more fights than he won, Buckley persevered with his career and attained widespread respect from boxers and fans alike.
£21.25
Collective Ink Thread of Life
Book SynopsisWar and peace: History, Herstory, My story
£11.39
New Generation Publishing A Life Unfolding: Growing Up in Wales in the 50s,
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£14.24
The History Press Ltd No Country For a Woman
Book SynopsisTravel with Lady Dorothy Mills around the world, from high society in the Jazz Age to Timbuktu her globe-trotting story is one of cannibals and cocktails.
£18.00
The History Press Ltd St George Hero Martyr and Myth
Book SynopsisWho was St George and how did he become patron saint not only of England but in many European countries?
£16.19
The History Press Ltd On Silver Wings
Book SynopsisRelaying the events of Desmond Ibbotson's short but eventful but eventful career as well as what happened next, investigating his tragic death on a routine test flight, and how he came to have two graves
£18.70
Olympia Publishers Cucumbers in Heaven
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£11.69
Olympia Publishers Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Polar
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£14.17
Olympia Publishers 357 Days a Year
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£16.19
