Biography Books

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Book SynopsisFollowing his experiences as a militiaman in the Spanish Civil War, the author brings to bear all the force of his humanity, passion and clarity, describing with bitter intensity the bright hopes and cynical betrayals of that chaotic episode: the revolutionary euphoria of Barcelona, the courage of ordinary Spanish men and more.

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Book SynopsisBen Elton is a multi-award-winning novelist, playwright, television writer, screenwriter and lyricist. He is also a theatre, screen and TV director, a stand-up comedian and a very occasional actor. Born in Catford, south-east London, in 1959, Ben was state-educated and studied drama at Manchester University, where he now holds an honorary doctorate. He began his professional career in 1981. Ben married Australian bass player Sophie in 1994, they have three grown-up children and divide their time between Britain and Australia.In 2007 Ben Elton was awarded the Special Golden Rose d'Or at The International Television Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland, for his lifetime contribution to the television arts. What Have I Done? is his first memoir.

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Book Synopsis''A work of non-fiction . . . but it has all the complexity of emotional heft of a great novel . . . Question 7 sets the high-water mark for what the genre [of memoir] can be'' Sunday Times''There's so much . . . in Flanagan's beautiful, unclassifiable novel-cum-memoir . . . That it is a masterpiece is without question'' ObserverThis is a book about the choices we make and the chain reaction that follows . . .By way of H. G. Wells and Rebecca West's affair, through 1930s nuclear physics, to Flanagan's father working as a slave labourer near Hiroshima when the atom bomb is dropped, this daisy chain of events reaches fission when a young man finds himself trapped in a rapid on a wild river, not knowing if he is to live or to die.Flanagan has created a love song to his island home and his parents and the terrible past that delivered him to that place.Through a hypnotic melding of dream, history, science, and memory, Question 7 shows how our lives so often arise out of the stories of others and the stories we invent about ourselves.I was fascinated, troubled, and enchanted by this strange and extraordinary work... I can think of nothing else quite like it' Sarah PerryMighty in its rage and tenderness: his most momentous book yet' Laura Cumming''Spectacular . . . It seems to me a book that will have an overwhelming effect on readers. It certainly did on me'' Colm Tóibín''Question 7 could be Richard Flanagan's greatest yet'' GuardianFiercely alive and genuinely hard to put down' Mark Haddon

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Book SynopsisPaul Williams is Ireland's leading crime writer and one of its most respected journalists. For over three decades his courageous and ground-breaking investigative work has won him multiple awards. He is the author of twelve previous bestselling books and has also researched, written and presented a number of major TV crime series. His first book, The General, was adapted for the award-winning movie of the same name by John Boorman. He is a former presenter on Newstalk Breakfast and currently writes for the Irish Independent. Williams holds an MA in Criminology and is a registered member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists based in Washington, DC.

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Book SynopsisIsolatedCommand Post Keating - one of the most vulnerable US army bases in Afghanistan. Located at the bottom of a deep valley, soliders are exposed. The Taliban can see every move and attack is imminent.OutnumberedJust before sunrise on 3 October 2009, hundreds of Taliban insurgents open fire from all angles. Red Platoon and the Black Knight Troop are pinned down. They hear the message over the radio: Enemy in the Wire. The Taliban are inside the camp.But never outgunned. This is the heart-stopping, awe-inspiring true story of the platoon's brutal struggle for survival, told by the man who fought to defend his men, and who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary bravery.Trade ReviewA brilliant, wrenching book about war … it’s more intense and horrifying than you could imagine * London Evening Standard *Utterly gripping from start to finish … unflinchingly honest about the realities of war. * Bookbag *Awe-inspiring … Utterly gripping from start to finish * CGA Bookclub *Brilliant, wrenching * i *I read the first half of Red Platoon in one sitting and that night had such intense combat dreams that I actually thought twice about picking the book up again. In addition to being a superb soldier, Romesha is an utterly irresistible writer. I'm completely overwhelmed by what he has done with this book. The assault on Camp Keating is a vitally important story that needs to be understood by the public, and I cannot imagine an account that does it better justice that Romesha's. -- Sebastian JungerRendered hour-by-hour and sometimes second by second, here is battle narrative the way it's supposed to be written. Gritty, plangent, and unflinching, Red Platoon is sure to become a classic of the genre. Through his courageous and no doubt painful act of remembrance, Romesha has done his comrades, indeed all of us, a great service—leaving an epitaph that will live through the ages. -- Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers and In the Kingdom of IceRed Platoon is riveting. Like many who were in either Iraq, Afghanistan, or both, I often read books about the wars reluctantly, because it is hard to capture the essence of the experience. In my view Red Platoon is a brilliant book. Had Clint Romesha depicted the soldiers at Keating as a collection of steely-eyed warriors, their feat would have been impressive. Because he captures the reality of a collection of personalities as diverse as America itself, their courage is truly inspiring. -- General Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Army, RetiredRed Platoon celebrates the most crucial aspect of military operations: the team. Clinton Romesha and the men of Black Knight Troop faced harrowing conditions and a determined enemy during the Battle for COP Keating, and in the process discovered exactly who they are. This account is an important tribute to everyone who fought, and especially to the eight Americans who on that day made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. -- Mark Owen, author of No Easy DayThe book is riveting in its authentic detail, right down to the determined attempts to recover American bodies before the Taliban could. Romesha ably captures the daily dangers faced by these courageous American soldiers in Afghanistan. * Kirkus *Red Platoon exemplifies the courage and resiliency our country was founded on. Clint is a true brother and a man that I look up to. -- Dakota Meyer, Medal of Honor Recipient and author of Into the FireA visceral, heart-pounding account of men in close-quarter combat that is simply impossible to put down. Astonishingly intimate and beautifully written. A word of advice: don't start this book if you're planning on doing anything else for the next few hours. -- Scott Anderson, author of Lawrence in ArabiaThe men of Red Platoon and their actions at COP Keating deserve to be known. Clint Romesha's story takes hold from page one and makes you feel every inch of the battle, but it is the bond between soldiers that will stick with you. Red Platoon is on my list of the best books about the Afghan war. -- Kevin Maurer, bestselling co-author of No Easy Day

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Book Synopsis''This book is a must for everyone interested in illuminating the idea of unexplainable genius'' - QUESTLOVEEqual parts biography, musicology, and cultural history, Dilla Time chronicles the life and legacy of J Dilla, a musical genius who transformed the sound of popular music for the twenty-first century.He wasn't known to mainstream audiences, and when he died at age thirty-two, he had never had a pop hit. Yet since his death, J Dilla has become a demigod, revered as one of the most important musical figures of the past hundred years. At the core of this adulation is innovation: as the producer behind some of the most influential rap and R&B acts of his day, Dilla created a new kind of musical time-feel, an accomplishment on a par with the revolutions wrought by Louis Armstrong and James Brown. Dilla and his drum machine reinvented the way musicians play.In Dilla Time, Dan Charnas chronicles the life of James DeWitt Yancey, from his gifted Detroit childhood to his rise as a sought-after hip-hop producer to the rare blood disease that caused his premature death. He follows the people who kept Dilla and his ideas alive. And he rewinds the histories of American rhythms: from the birth of Motown soul to funk, techno, and disco. Here, music is a story of what happens when human and machine times are synthesized into something new.This is the story of a complicated man and his machines; his family, friends, partners, and celebrity collaborators; and his undeniable legacy. Based on nearly two hundred original interviews, and filled with graphics that teach us to feel and "see" the rhythm of Dilla''s beats, Dilla Time is a book as defining and unique as J Dilla''s music itself.Financial Times Music Book of the Year 2022

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Book Synopsis'The finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain' GuardianIntroduction by Robert Macfarlane. Afterword by Jeanette WintersonIn this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others. Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape. Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the 'essential nature' of the Cairngorms; her quest led her to write this classic meditation on the magnificence of mountains, and on our imaginative relationship with the wild world around us. Composed during the Second World War, the manuscript of The Living Mountain lay untouched for more than thirty years before it was finally published.Trade ReviewThe finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain * * Guardian * *Most works of mountain literature are written by men, and most of them focus on the goal of the summit. Nan Shepherd's aimless, sensual exploration of the Cairngorms is bracingly different -- ROBERT MACFARLANEReading [The Living Mountain] seems to me to explain why reading is so important. And odd. And necessary. And not like anything else. There is no substitute for reading * * Jeanette Winterson * *If you read it, you too will feel changed. This is sublime, in the 18th-century sense, when landscapes like these were terrifying. And she achieves it in language that is almost incantatory, like a spell -- Nicholas Lezard * * Guardian * *A masterpiece . . . Amongst the greatest works of nature writing to come out of Britain -- Chitra Ramaswamy * * The Scotsman * *An impressionistic and weather infused memoir of her experiences of walking and living in the wild landscape of the Cairngorms . . . A key influence on modern nature writers such as Robert Macfarlane * * Herald * *I absolutely loved The Living Mountain - part memoir, part field notebook, part lyrical meditation on nature and our relationship with it, evocative of Rachel Carson and Henry Beston and John Muir -- MARIA POPOVA, ‘Brain Pickings’ * * New York Times * *

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Book SynopsisTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERDavid Lynch - co-creator of Twin Peaks and writer and director of groundbreaking films such as Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive - opens up about a lifetime of extraordinary creativity, the friendships he has made along the way and the struggles he has faced to bring his projects to fruition.Room to Dream is both an astonishing memoir told in Lynch's own words and a landmark biography based on hundreds of interviews, that offers unique insights into the life and mind of one of the world's most enigmatic and original artists.Trade ReviewIf you expected a David Lynch biography to be just like any other biography, you've never seen a David Lynch movie . . . Fascinating * * New York Times * *A hybrid biography bulging with more than 100 interviews . . . it shows us Lynch the artist, the director, the lover, the child . . . Room to Dream provides contours and edges, brief splashes of insight and teasing tugs on the line. But the man at the centre remains a beautiful mystery . . . Illuminating * * Guardian * *Lynch is the master of the perverse, the unsettling and the plain bonkers * * Sunday Times * *Lynch's life as an artist is genuinely fascinating, and his observations on it are illuminating * * Mail on Sunday * *Intriguing . . . David Lynch has never lacked room to dream, for which we and he must thank our lucky stars * * Daily Telegraph * *David Lynch's memoir illuminates the origins of his art . . . the humour and eccentricity of Mr Lynch's own reminiscences and observations are the book's main pleasure * * The Economist * *Reassuringly unconventional . . . Engrossing . . . Lynch writes like he speaks. He's disarmingly direct, cheerfully profane and prone to bursts of giddy enthusiasm * * The Big Issue * *Room to Dream is a memorable portrait of one of cinema's great auteurs . . . Provides a remarkable insight into Lynch's intense commitment to the "art life", from his painting, photography and music to furniture design * * Guardian * *With the publication of Room to Dream, he has sought to reinvent the celebrity memoir * * Financial Times * *Playfully disrupts the genre of memoir-writing * * Financial Times * *

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Book SynopsisFew books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular bestseller which has sold more than 13 million copies and a critically acclaimed history of China; a tragic tale of nightmarish cruelty and an uplifting story of bravery and survival.Through the story of three generations of women in her own family the grandmother given to the warlord as a concubine, the Communist mother and the daughter herself Jung Chang reveals the epic history of China''s twentieth century.Breathtaking in its scope, unforgettable in its descriptions, this is a masterpiece which is extraordinary in every way.Trade Review‘It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this book.’ Mary Wesley ‘Everything about “Wild Swans” is extraordinary. It arouses all the emotions, such as pity and terror, that great tragedy is supposed to evoke, and also a complex mixture of admiration, despair and delight at seeing a luminous intelligence directed at the heart of darkness.’ Minette Marrin, Sunday Telegraph ‘Immensely moving and unsettling; an unforgettable portrait of the brain-death of a nation.’ J. G. Ballard, Sunday Times ‘“Wild Swans” made me feel like a five-year-old. This is a family memoir that has the breadth of the most enduring social history.’ Martin Amis, Independent on Sunday ‘There has never been a book like this.’ Edward Behr, Los Angeles Times

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Book SynopsisJoe Sacco, one of the world's foremost cartoonists, is widely hailed as the creator of war-reportage comics. He is the author of Palestine, Safe Area Gorazde, The Fixer, Notes from a Defeatist and Footnotes in Gaza, all published by Jonathan Cape.Trade ReviewA political and aesthetic work of extraordinary originality, quite unlike any other in the long, often turgid and hopelessly twisted debates that have occupied Palestinians, Israelis, and their respective supporters... With the exception of one or two novelists and poets, no one has ever rendered this terrible state of affairs better than Joe Sacco -- Edward SaidThe bar is set extremely high when it comes to graphic books and the Middle East: one thinks of Joe Sacco's Palestine * Observer *Palestine is a unique take on the Isreali/Palestinian conflict… The illustrator/reporter provides a unique perspective: there is an intimacy to Sacco’s interviews that cannot be translated into photography and text. His drawings make his subjects relatable to in a way that I think is difficult to achieve with a photograph. * Bleeding Cool *Palestine is utterly compelling, and as affecting as the work of any war photographer or poet. -- Annie Forbes * Varsity *

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Book SynopsisTHE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLERWhen he receives an invitation to deliver a lecture in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, international lawyer Philippe Sands begins a journey on the trail of his family''s secret history. In doing so, he uncovers an astonishing series of coincidences that lead him halfway across the world, to the origins of international law at the Nuremberg trial. Interweaving the stories of the two Nuremberg prosecutors (Hersch Lauterpacht and Rafael Lemkin) who invented the crimes or genocide and crimes against humanity, the Nazi governor responsible for the murder of thousands in and around Lviv (Hans Frank), and incredible acts of wartime bravery, EAST WEST STREET is an unforgettable blend of memoir and historical detective story, and a powerful meditation on the way memory, crime and guilt leave scars across generations.* * * * * ''A monumental achievement: profTrade ReviewA monumental achievement: profoundly personal, told with love, anger and great precision -- John le CarréSupremely gripping. Sands has produced something extraordinary. Written with novelistic skill, its prose effortlessly poised, its tone perfectly judged, his book teems with life, from the bustling streets of Habsburg Lviv to the high drama of the Nuremberg trials. One of the most gripping and powerful books imaginable -- Dominic Sandbrook * SUNDAY TIMES *Important and engrossing. . . even when charting the complexities of law, Sands's writing has the intrigue, verve and material density of a first-rate thriller. . . He can magic whole histories of wartime heroism out of addresses eight decades old. Or, chasing the lead of a faded photograph, he can unearth possible alternate grandparents and illicit liaisons to be verified only by DNA tests. . . an exceptional memoir -- Lisa Appignanesi * OBSERVER *Engrossing ... Sands has written a remarkable and enjoyable book, deftly weaving his own family history into a lively account of the travails of the early campaigners for international human rights law -- Caroline Moorhead * LITERARY REVIEW *A magnificent book. A work of great brilliance. There is narrative sweep and intellectual grip. Everything that happens is inevitable and yet comes as a surprise. I was moved to anger and to pity. In places I gasped, in places I wept. I wanted to reach the end. I couldn't wait to reach the end. And then when I got there I didn't want to be at the end -- Daniel Finkelstein * THE TIMES *A fascinating and revealing book, for the things it explains: the origins of laws that changed our world, no less. It's also a readable book, and thoughtful, and compassionate. Most fundamentally, though, it's a book that tells a few individual human stories that lie behind the world-changing ones. That storytelling isn't redemptive - what could be, in this context? - but it confronts all those silences and challenges them. That challenge makes it an important book too -- Daniel Hahn * THE SPECTATOR *A vivid and readable contribution, part memoir, part documentary, to the history debate ... Much of the most compelling material in this book is personal ... Moving and powerful -- Mark Mazower * FINANCIAL TIMES *Outstanding ... This is the best kind of intellectual history. Sands puts the ideas of Lemkin and Lauterpacht in context and shows how they still resonate today, influencing Tony Blair, David Cameron and Barack Obama. When we think of the atrocities committed by Slobodan Milosevic or Bashar al-Assad, it is the ideas of these two Jewish refugees we turn to. Sands shows us in a clear, astonishing story where they came from -- David Herman * NEW STATESMAN *In a triumph of astonishing research, Sands has brilliantly woven together several family stories which lead to the great denouement at the Nuremberg tribunal. No novel could possibly match such an important work of truth -- Antony BeevorA book like no other I have ever read - unputdownable and unforgettable -- Orlando FigesA beautiful and necessary book -- A.L. KennedyDazzling, shattering. EAST WEST STREET is one of the most extraordinary books that I have ever read -- Antonia FraserAn exacting, heroic, essential education -- Peter Florence * DAILY TELEGRAPH *A masterpiece -- Andrew Neather * EVENING STANDARD *A narrative to my knowledge unprecedented. . . a machine of power and beauty that should not be ignored by anyone in the United States or elsewhere who would believe there are irreparable crimes whose adjudication should not stop at the border * NEW YORK TIMES *

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Book SynopsisFrom established sports journalist Ben Hunt, the very first biography of the up-and-coming British driver Lando Norris, published on the brink of the British Grand Prix.As the youngest ever British Formula 1 driver, Lando Norris is trailblazing his way through the world of motor racing. After signing as a junior driver for McLaren in 2017, he has since asserted himself as the team's brightest talent and an aspiring world champion.Born to British and Belgian parents and raised in the idylls of south-west England, Lando's childhood reflects how even the calmest of upbringings can create an adrenaline junkie. As one of a new cohort of young drivers seeking to assert their dominance in the sport, Lando is a uniquely modern sportsman, who celebrates learning and personal development, but who nonetheless has the killer instinct required to take him to the very pinnacle of F1.In Lando Norris, motor sport aficionado and journalist Ben Hunt draws on his extensive driver and paddock access to seek to understand what makes Lando tick and examines how this young British driver has been well and truly raised in the mould of a champion.

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Book Synopsis''So honest and pure as to count as a true rapture'' JOAN DIDION''A poetic masterpiece'' JOHNNY DEPP''Our St John of the Cross, a mystic full of compassion'' EDMUND WHITE''A roadmap to my life'', from the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids: an unforgettable odyssey of a legendary artist, told through the prism of cafés and haunts she has worked in around the worldREVISED EDITION WITH FIVE THOUSAND WORDS OF BONUS MATERIAL AND NEW PHOTOGRAPHS M Train begins in the tiny Greenwich Village café where Smith goes every morning for black coffee, ruminates on the world as it is and the world as it was, and writes in her notebook. Through prose that shifts fluidly between dreams and reality, past and present, and across a landscape of creative aspirations and inspirations, we travel to Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul in Mexico; to a meeting of an Arctic explorer's society in Berlin; to a ramshackle seaside bungalow in New York's Far Rockaway Trade ReviewThis book is so honest and pure as to count as a true rapture * Joan Didion *Patti Smith has graced us with a poetic masterpiece, a rare and privileged invitation to unlatch a treasure chest never before breached * Johnny Depp *A tender, harrowing, often hilarious portrait of young lovers forging their paths in an eccentric milieu of Beat poets, Warhol socialites, and transvestites, rock stars and artists * Vogue *The most beautiful, incredible autobiography – it will make you ache for a time and a place that you probably never knew, New York in the 1970s * Nick Hornby *She was once our savage Rimbaud, but suffering has turned her into our St John of the Cross, a mystic full of compassion * Edmund White *

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