Biography

Biography

4759 products


  • Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit and Glamour of an Icon

    HarperCollins Publishers Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit and Glamour of an Icon

    3 in stock

    The first authorised biography of eternal legend Elizabeth Taylor. Known for her glamorous beauty, soap-opera personal life and magnetic screen presence, Elizabeth Taylor was the twentieth century’s most famous film star. Including unseen photographs and unread private reflections, this authorised biography is a fascinating and complete portrait worthy of the legend and her legacy. Elizabeth Taylor captures this intelligent, empathetic, tenacious, volatile and complex woman as never before, from her rise to massive fame at the age of twelve in National Velvet to becoming the first actor to negotiate a million-dollar salary for a film, from her eight marriages and enduring love affair with Richard Burton to her lifelong battle with addiction and her courageous efforts as an AIDS activist. Using Elizabeth’s unpublished letters, diary entries and off-the-record interview transcripts as well as interviews with 250 of her closest friends and family, Kate Andersen Brower tells the full, unvarnished story of the classic Hollywood star who continues to captivate audiences the world over.

    3 in stock

    £12.99

  • Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood

    Faber & Faber Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood

    3 in stock

    This new edition celebrates the 65th anniversary of the publication of Period Piece, which has never been out of print. Period Piece is the classic memoir of a Cambridge childhood, written by Charles Darwin's granddaughter. It evokes a time when long summer days were disturbed by nothing noisier than a horse, and long winter nights were lit only by candle or gas lamp. It is a shrewd, touching and comic portrait of eccentric relations, and of Cambridge society when it was small enough to be treated as an extension of the family. As a young girl Gwen thought it impossible that she could ever succeed as an artist, and yet the observations of the small incidents of life, recorded here in delightful prose and beautiful illustrations, reveal an artist's careful eye.

    3 in stock

    £10.99

  • Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

    Little, Brown Book Group Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

    1 in stock

    'I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.'New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and bodies, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as "wildly undisciplined," Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she casts an insightful and critical eye on her childhood, teens, and twenties-including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life-and brings readers into the present and the realities, pains, and joys of her daily life.With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and authority that have made her one of the most admired voices of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to be overweight in a time when the bigger you are, the less you are seen. Hunger is a deeply personal memoir from one of our finest writers, and tells a story that hasn't yet been told but needs to be.

    1 in stock

    £10.99

  • Sound: A Story of Hearing Lost and Found

    Profile Books Ltd Sound: A Story of Hearing Lost and Found

    3 in stock

    'By the summer of 1998, it had become clear that there was something wrong with my hearing. It didn't happen suddenly but softly, so softly I almost wasn't aware of it happening; sound seemed to have stolen away ...' For twelve years, Bella Bathurst was deaf. She missed the punchlines and the jokes, avoided busy restaurants and raucous parties, and grew her hair long to cover hearing aids. But then, twelve years later, pioneering surgery on her ears gave her the chance to hear again. Sound is the extraordinary story of Bella's journey into deafness and back to hearing. Mixing memoir with interviews with soldiers, sign language experts, musicians and mental health workers, Bella explores what it means to live with and without sound, and in the process uncovers a hidden world of sense and connection. If sight gives us the world, then hearing - or our ability to listen - gives us each other. Warm, wry and honest, this is a story not just for the one in six of us with hearing loss, but for everyone who ever listened. Published in partnership with the Wellcome Collection. Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library that aims to challenge how we think and feel about health. Inspired by the medical objects and curiosities collected by Henry Wellcome, it connects science, medicine, life and art. Wellcome Collection exhibitions, events and books explore a diverse range of subjects, including consciousness, forensic medicine, emotions, sexology, identity and death. Wellcome Collection is part of Wellcome, a global charitable foundation that exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive, funding over 14,000 researchers and projects in more than 70 countries. wellcomecollection.org

    3 in stock

    £12.99

  • Counterfeit Countess, The: The untold story of the Jewish heroine who defied the Holocaust

    John Blake Publishing Ltd Counterfeit Countess, The: The untold story of the Jewish heroine who defied the Holocaust

    1 in stock

    'Powerful. . . . A heart-wrenching profile of resilience, ingenuity, and heroism.' Publisher's Weekly 'A story of courage, compassion, and cunning so profound that it must be included with the greatest Holocaust literature. Janina Mehlberg is a heroine for the ages.' - Larry Loftis, New York Times bestselling author of The Watchmaker's Daughter The Holocaust has given rise to many accounts of resistance and rescue, but The Counterfeit Countess is unique. It tells the remarkable, untold story of 'Countess Janina Suchodolska', a Jewish woman named Janina Mehlberg who rescued more than 10,000 Poles imprisoned by their country's Nazi occupiers. Using the identity papers of a Polish aristocrat, she worked as a welfare official while also serving in the Polish resistance. With guile, cajolery, and steely persistence, 'the Countess' persuaded SS officials to release thousands of Poles from the Majdanek concentration camp. Incredibly, she eluded detection, survived the war and eventually emigrated to the USA. Drawing on the manuscript of Mehlberg's own unpublished memoir, supplemented with prodigious research, , historians and Holocaust experts Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa have uncovered the full story of this extraordinary woman. Unsparing yet inspiring, The Counterfeit Countess is an unforgettable account of selfless courage in the face of unspeakable cruelty, and a major addition to the history of the Holocaust.

    1 in stock

    £17.09

  • 1 in stock

    £64.41

  • Bowie: Starchild

    Danann Media Publishing Limited Bowie: Starchild

    3 in stock

    3 in stock

    £11.69

  • Thrown Away Child

    Simon & Schuster Ltd Thrown Away Child

    3 in stock

    FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR Thrown Away Child is a memoir covering Louise Allen’s abusive childhood in a foster home, how she survived - using her love of art as a sanctuary - and how she hopes to right old wrongs now by fostering children herself and campaigning for the improvement of foster care services. It is a compelling and inspirational story. This book gives a voice to the many children who grew up unhappily in care.

    3 in stock

    £8.99

  • No Dream is Too High

    National Geographic Society No Dream is Too High

    2 in stock

    Now in paperback and updated with a new essay on his celebrated trip to Antarctica comes this best-selling inspirational memoir from beloved astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Buzz Aldrin is an American hero. Always larger than life, he is the best known surviving member of a generation of astronauts who in just a few years became both the first men in space and first men on the moon. In this inspiring book, Aldrin pauses to reflect and share what he has learned about life from the vantage point of both outer space and time. (Still a nonstop traveler and impassioned advocate for space exploration, he turned 87 in 2017.) Consisting of nine principles to live by, each illustrated by fascinating anecdotes and memories, this thought-provoking book is a beautiful memento of a life well lived--and a new opportunity for Aldrin to connect with the masses of people who recognize his unique place in human history.

    2 in stock

    £11.99

  • Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way

    Simon & Schuster Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way

    2 in stock

    2 in stock

    £17.99

  • The Guardian of Mercy: How an Extraordinary Painting by Caravaggio Changed an Ordinary Life Today

    Skyhorse Publishing The Guardian of Mercy: How an Extraordinary Painting by Caravaggio Changed an Ordinary Life Today

    2 in stock

    A Profound New Look at the Italian Master and His Lasting Legacy Now celebrated as one of the great painters of the Renaissance, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio fled Rome in 1606 to escape retribution for killing a man in a brawl. Three years later he was in Naples, where he painted The Seven Acts of Mercy. A year later he died at the age of thirty-eight under mysterious circumstances. Exploring Caravaggio's singular masterwork, in The Guardian of Mercy Terence Ward offers an incredible narrative journey into the heart of his artistry and his metamorphosis from fugitive to visionary.Ward's guide in this journey is a contemporary artist whose own life was transformed by the painting, a simple man named Angelo who shows him where it still hangs in a small church in Naples and whose story helps him see its many layers. As Ward unfolds the structure of the painting, he explains each of the seven mercies and its influence on Caravaggio's troubled existence. Caravaggio encountered the whole range of Naples's vertical social layers, from the lowest ranks of poverty to lofty gilded aristocratic circles, and Ward reveals the old city behind today's metropolis. Fusing elements of history, biography, memoir, travelogue, and journalism, his narrative maps the movement from estrangement to grace, as we witness Caravaggio's bruised life was gradually redeemed by art.

    2 in stock

    £14.34

  • Wind Tide and Oar

    The New Menard Press Wind Tide and Oar

    3 in stock

    Wind, Tide and Oar takes us deep into the ever flowing dialogue between sailor, boat and the elements. Exploring what it means to sail 'engineless', this unique anthology accompanies the film of the same title, offering a diverse range of first-hand seafaring narratives. These collected works address such themes as tradition, sustainability and self-knowledge, as well as adventures, dreams and ideals. We are invited to experience what it is to be in harmonious movement with the natural world and gracefully subject to its whims.

    3 in stock

    £11.99

  • The Uptown Local

    Little, Brown The Uptown Local

    2 in stock

    2 in stock

    £14.99

  • A Difficult Death: The Life and Work of Jens Peter Jacobsen

    Yale University Press A Difficult Death: The Life and Work of Jens Peter Jacobsen

    2 in stock

    Beautifully written and incisive, this is the first English biography of a major Scandinavian author who is ripe for rediscovery While largely unknown today, Danish writer and Darwin translator Jens Peter Jacobsen was the leading prose writer in Scandinavia in the late nineteenth century and part of a generation that included Henrik Ibsen, Knut Hamsun, and August Strindberg. His novels Marie Grubbe and Niels Lyhne as well as his stories and poems were widely admired by writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke, Thomas Mann, and James Joyce. Despite his untimely death from tuberculosis at the age of thirty-eight, Jacobsen became a cult figure to an entire generation and continues to occupy an important place in Scandinavian cultural history. In this book, Morten Høi Jensen gives a moving account of Jacobsen’s life, work, and death: his passionate interest in the natural sciences, his complicated and nuanced attitude to his own atheism, and his painful descent toward an early death. Carefully researched and sympathetically imagined, this is an evocative portrait of one of the most influential and gifted writers of the nineteenth century.

    2 in stock

    £27.50

  • Fake Heroes

    Headline Publishing Group Fake Heroes

    3 in stock

    From the author of bestseller Fake History, Otto English, comes a shocking yet hilarious look at ten of the greatest liars in history. ''A brilliant book.'' James O''BrienWhether it''s virtuous leaders in just wars, martyrs sacrificing all for a cause, or innovators changing the world for the better, down the centuries supposedly great men and women have risen to become household names, saints and heroes. But just how deserving are they of their reputation? Exploring everything from Captain Scott''s reckless hunt for glory to Coco Chanel''s murky Nazi past, Otto English turns his attention to some of history''s biggest (and most beloved) figures, bringing to light the darker truths that they would rather have kept buried away, while also celebrating the unsung heroes. Fake Heroes exposes the truths of the past and helps us understand why they matter today. ''The most controversial book of the year.'' Dai

    3 in stock

    £9.99

  • To War with Whitaker

    Pan Macmillan To War with Whitaker

    3 in stock

    Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly, kept a diary all her life. To War with Whitaker is an account of the most adventurous, most defiant and most valiant of those years. Hermione and Dan Ranfurly married only months before the Second World War erupted. So when Dan was posted to the Middle East, taking their faithful butler Whitaker with him, Hermione resolved to join them there. This memoir offers astounding displays of commitment and independence. After vowing not to go home without her husband, Hermione travelled alone from Cape Town to Cairo, and remained in the Middle East and North Africa for the two and a half years he was imprisoned by the Germans – meeting many notable characters along the way.With wit and exuberance, Hermione’s diary entries take us To War with Whitaker and back again, providing sharp insight into the strong and outspoken woman she was. This Pan Heritage Classics edition features the original black and white plate sections.

    3 in stock

    £9.99

  • The Red on Revolution: Be Ready for Anything

    Pitch Publishing Ltd The Red on Revolution: Be Ready for Anything

    3 in stock

    Mike Chadwick – secret coach to the elite – reveals his revolutionary approach to success.Do you have a challenge that demands physical or mental strength? Are you struggling to sustain the commitment needed to achieve your goals? Do you know what it takes for you, personally, to succeed at the highest level? Coach Mike – a trainer of champions, a leader of leaders, the coach with the ear of the elite – is ready to help.In The Red On Revolution, ex-paratrooper Coach Mike exposes countless fitness-industry myths and coaches you, personally, to succeed. Join Mike and a powerful line-up of guests – including Ant Middleton (SBS, explorer, entrepreneur), Simon Jeffries (mental resilience coach, Special Forces), the Stoltman Brothers (World’s Strongest Man), Charlotte Spence (Crossfit champion and Army’s Strongest Woman), Scott Meenagh (Paralympian and ex-paratrooper) and Tom Aspinall (UFC heavyweight) – on a quest for a better you.Only one question remains: are you in?

    3 in stock

    £14.99

  • Mariner: A Voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge

    John Murray Press Mariner: A Voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge

    2 in stock

    'The story of Coleridge's life does undoubtedly echo that of his poem; this is a book that provides rewarding rereadings of both' - The Sunday TimesA new biography of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, shaped and structured around the story he himself tells in his most famous poem, 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. Though the 'Mariner' was written in 1797 when Coleridge was only twenty-five, it was an astonishingly prescient poem. As Coleridge himself came to realise much later, this tale - of a journey that starts in high hopes and good spirits, but leads to a profound encounter with human fallibility, darkness, alienation, loneliness and dread, before coming home to a renewal of faith and vocation - was to be the shape of his own life. In this rich new biography, academic, priest and poet Malcolm Guite draws out how with an uncanny clarity, image after image and event after event in the poem became emblems of what Coleridge was later to suffer and discover. Of course 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' is more than just an individual's story: it is also a profound exploration of the human condition and, as Coleridge says in his gloss, our 'loneliness and fixedness'. But the poem also offers hope, release, and recovery; and Guite also draws out the continuing relevance of Coleridge's life and writing to our own time.'Forcefully and convincingly argued' - The Telegraph

    2 in stock

    £14.99

  • Not My Fault

    Reach plc Not My Fault

    1 in stock

    What mattered was that someone listened to me. Someone believed me, after 25 years. That means everything. A mum of three who was abused and raped as a child by her own father has revealed her ordeal drove her into the clutches of middle-aged paedophiles.

    1 in stock

    £9.99

  • Facing Me Is You: Bridging the Divide Between China and the Foreign Press

    ACA Publishing Limited Facing Me Is You: Bridging the Divide Between China and the Foreign Press

    3 in stock

    A glimpse behind the scenes of China’s publicity modus operandi courtesy of one of its seasoned officials Embark on an intriguing journey of discovery into how high-level Chinese party and government officials engage with the media. Packed with anecdotes, no detail is too small to escape the author’s notice, from dressing to impress to addressing North Korea’s nuclear aspirations, disputed islands in the South China Sea and UK demonstrations against the Beijing Olympics. This book lifts the veil on the behind-the-scenes dynamics of this hitherto opaque world of high-level PRC press conferences. Join Fu Ying at the National People’s Congresses as she adroitly prepares for and navigates tough questions, addresses sensitive issues, and tactfully and cheerfully counters perceived biases. Travel with her to the UK where, as PRC ambassador, she works to bridge cultural divides and challenge misconceptions about China while simultaneously embracing aspects of UK press culture she can learn from, such as world-class training on how to handle the media.

    3 in stock

    £17.99

  • More Power

    HarperCollins Publishers More Power

    3 in stock

    Arguably the greatest coach in British sporting history. SHORTLISTED FOR THE TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS Jurgen Grobler’s Olympic coaching career is one of legend, yet the man himself has remained resolutely out of the spotlight. Over the last twenty years he has masterminded British Rowing’s incomparable success. And when the difference between gold and silver can mean mere fractions of a second, Jurgen Grobler has consistently delivered Olympic gold through various boat classes and with an ever-changing group of athletes. Arguably the greatest coach in British sporting history, Grobler’s unparalleled record outstrips many much better known records and stories; building champions such as Sir Steve Redgrave, Sir Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell to name but few. This authoritative account of Grobler’s career straddles the Iron Curtain, beginning in the German Democratic Republic, where systemic state-funded doping was an open secret, before crossing to Britain following the fall of the Berlin Wall. And whilst culture and sport have shifted dramatically over the last half century, Grobler’s pursuit of greatness has never faltered. Written by Olympic medallist, Hugh Matheson, and rowing historian, Christopher Dodd, More Power is the unmissable story of one man’s quest for glory, and sets out to unlock the secrets of Jurgen Grobler: the finest coach Olympic sport has ever seen.

    3 in stock

    £9.99

  • Telling Tales - Out of School: An Honest and Lively Account of REAL Teaching!

    2 in stock

    £8.42

  • Songs of a War Boy: The bestselling biography of Deng Adut - a child soldier, refugee and man of hope

    Hachette Australia Songs of a War Boy: The bestselling biography of Deng Adut - a child soldier, refugee and man of hope

    2 in stock

    Deng Adut was six years old when war came to his village in South Sudan. Taken from his mother, he was conscripted into the Sudan People's Liberation Army. He was taught to use an AK-47 then sent into battle.Shot in the back, dealing with illness and the relentless brutality of war, Deng's future was bleak. A child soldier must kill or be killed. But, after five years, he was rescued by his brother John and smuggled into a Kenyan refugee camp. With the support of the UN and help from an Australian couple, Deng and John became the third Sudanese family resettled in Australia.Despite physical injuries and ongoing mental trauma, Deng seized the chance he'd been given. Deng taught himself to read and, in 2005, he enrolled in a Bachelor of Laws at Western Sydney University.Songs of a War Boy is the inspirational story of a young man who has overcome unthinkable adversity to become a lawyer, refugee advocate and NSW Australian of the Year. Deng's memoir is an important reminder of the power of compassion and the benefit to us all when we open our doors and our hearts to those fleeing war, persecution and pain.

    2 in stock

    £14.99

  • Henry I (Penguin Monarchs): The Father of His People

    Penguin Books Ltd Henry I (Penguin Monarchs): The Father of His People

    1 in stock

    The youngest of William the Conqueror's sons, Henry I (1100-35) was never meant to be king, but he was destined to become one of the greatest of all medieval monarchs, both through his own ruthlessness and intelligence and through the dynastic legacy of his daughter Matilda, who began the Plantagenet line that would rule England until 1485. A self-consciously diligent and thoughtful king, his rule was looked back on as the real post-invasion re-founding of England as a new realm, integrated into the continent, wealthy and stable.Edmund King's wonderful portrait of Henry shows him as a strikingly charismatic and thoughtful man. His life was dogged by a single great disaster, the death of his teenage heir William in the White Ship disaster. Despite astonishing numbers of illegitimate sons, Henry was now left with only a daughter. This fact would shape the rest of the 12th century and beyond.

    1 in stock

    £12.99

  • Jean Sibelius and His World

    Princeton University Press Jean Sibelius and His World

    1 in stock

    Perhaps no twentieth-century composer has provoked a more varied reaction among the music-loving public than Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). Originally hailed as a new Beethoven by much of the Anglo-Saxon world, he was also widely disparaged by critics more receptive to newer trends in music. At the height of his popular appeal, he was revered as the embodiment of Finnish nationalism and the apostle of a new musical naturalism. Yet he seemingly chose that moment to stop composing altogether, despite living for three more decades. Providing wide cultural contexts, contesting received ideas about modernism, and interrogating notions of landscape and nature, Jean Sibelius and His World sheds new light on the critical position occupied by Sibelius in the Western musical tradition. The essays in the book explore such varied themes as the impact of Russian musical traditions on Sibelius, his compositional process, Sibelius and the theater, his understanding of music as a fluid and improvised creation, his critical reception in Great Britain and America, his "late style" in the incidental music for The Tempest, and the parallel contemporary careers of Sibelius and Richard Strauss. Documents include the draft of Sibelius's 1896 lecture on folk music, selections from a roman clef about his student circle in Berlin at the turn of the century, Theodor Adorno's brief but controversial tirade against the composer, and the newspaper debates about the Sibelius monument unveiled in Helsinki a decade after the composer's death. The contributors are Byron Adams, Leon Botstein, Philip Ross Bullock, Glenda Dawn Goss, Daniel Grimley, Jeffrey Kallberg, Tomi Mkel, Sarah Menin, Max Paddison, and Timo Virtanen.

    1 in stock

    £31.50

  • Flirting with French: Adventures in Pursuit of a Language

    Duckworth Books Flirting with French: Adventures in Pursuit of a Language

    3 in stock

    William Alexander is not just a Francophile, he wants to be French. It's not enough to explore the country, to enjoy the food and revel in the ambiance, he wants to feel French from the inside. Among the things that stand in his way is the fact that he can't actually speak the language. Setting out to conquer the language he loves (but which, amusingly, does not seem to love him back), Alexander devotes himself to learning French, going beyond grammar lessons and memory techniques to delve into the history of the language, the science of linguistics, and the art of translation. Along the way, during his travels in France or following his passion at home, he discovers that not learning a language may be its own reward.

    3 in stock

    £9.99

  • The Man Who Changed Everything: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell

    John Wiley & Sons Inc The Man Who Changed Everything: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell

    3 in stock

    This is the first biography in twenty years of James Clerk Maxwell, one of the greatest scientists of our time and yet a man relatively unknown to the wider public. Approaching science with a freshness unbound by convention or previous expectations, he produced some of the most original scientific thinking of the nineteenth century — and his discoveries went on to shape the twentieth century.

    3 in stock

    £14.00

  • My Fair Junkie: A Memoir of Getting Dirty and Staying Clean

    Little, Brown & Company My Fair Junkie: A Memoir of Getting Dirty and Staying Clean

    2 in stock

    Growing up in Beverly Hills, the only child of a comedy writer and a fashion designer, Amy Dresner believed that everything was always funny and turned out right. And she needed to believe it. If you could snort it, smoke it, shoot it, or have sex with it, she did. It was never her dream to become an Olympic athlete of self-destruction, but that's what happened.Amy had managed to dodge any real repercussions of her 20-year battle with addiction despite 6 rehabs, 4 psych wards, 3 suicide attempts, and 20 grand mal seizures. But on Christmas Eve of 2011, that all changed. She was high on Oxycontin, in a shitty marriage, and she stupidly pulled a knife on her then husband. She was promptly arrested for felony domestic violence with a deadly weapon. Within a few months, she found herself in a psych ward, penniless, abandoned by her then husband, and looking at a sentence of 240 grueling hours of "community service." For the next two years she would sweep up condoms and syringes on Hollywood Boulevard in the grueling sun as she bounced from various rehabs to halfway houses, all while struggling with sobriety, sex addiction, and starting life over in her 40s. MY FAIR JUNKIE is the shameless, hilarious, and unfortunately--to Amy--true account of it all. A safari through the wild world of addiction, it's a raucous, inspiring story of redemption, and ultimately an insightful tale of courage and metamorphosis.

    2 in stock

    £15.99

  • Elizabeth: The Biography of Elizabeth Taylor

    Pan Macmillan Elizabeth: The Biography of Elizabeth Taylor

    1 in stock

    Elizabeth Taylor is known internationally as one of the most beautiful and talented women ever to grace the silver screen. She has won two Academy Awards and starred in over sixty films. She is just as well known for her tempestuous personal life, marrying eight times and suffering through innumerable health problems. A cultural icon, she has been written about before . . . but never like this. This moving book traces for the first time Elizabeth's journey through the dark and often lonely world of a fame unparalleled in the 1960s and 1970s, a time during which alcohol and drugs played a major part in her life. It would be with her fifth (and sixth) husband Richard Burton (with whom she made twelve movies, including Cleopatra) that she would learn life lessons about love and loyalty that would inform the rest of her life and, finally, be the catalyst for her recovery from alcoholism in the 1980s. This book also details her philanthropic work as an AIDS activist in the 1990s as well as her stunning success as a business woman today (with a multi-million-dollar fragrance). Based on years of research, this is not just a star's biography . . . it's an unforgettable woman's story.

    1 in stock

    £12.99

  • Stalin: The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives

    2 in stock

    £21.00

  • Stauffenberg: Symbol of Resistance: The Man Who Almost Killed Hitler

    Pen & Sword Books Ltd Stauffenberg: Symbol of Resistance: The Man Who Almost Killed Hitler

    2 in stock

    On 20th July 1944, senior officers gathered at the Wolfschanze-the Wolf's Lair-Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia. Amongst those men was Colonel Claus Schenk Count von Stauffenberg, chief of staff of the Reserve Army, and with him he carried a briefcase packed with explosives. A little after midday the building was rocked by a massive explosion. Five men were killed, others wounded and the interior of the Wolfschanze was wrecked. Believing that he had killed the German Fuhrer, von Stauffenberg set off for Berlin to initiate Operation Valkyrie-the coup d'etat to overthrow the Nazi regime. Hitler, of course, did not die that day and Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators were rounded up and executed. But what motivated Stauffenberg to attempt such a mission? Was Stauffenberg a traitor or a patriot? After decades of analysing the sources and eyewitness reports, the renowned historian Wolfgang Venohr revealed the true nature of the man behind the most audacious assassination attempt of the Second World War. Like many others, Stauffenberg smarted from Germany's humiliating defeat in 1918 and the punishing terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Indeed, until the late 1930s Stauffenberg agreed with much of the National Socialist ideology, which sought to re-establish Germany as the most nation powerful in Europe. But, increasingly, he sees his country sliding to defeat yet again at the hands of a leader who has lost his grip on reality. Stauffenberg believed he had no choice but to act.

    2 in stock

    £22.50

  • George V (Penguin Monarchs): The Unexpected King

    Penguin Books Ltd George V (Penguin Monarchs): The Unexpected King

    1 in stock

    The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackFor a man with such conventional tastes and views, George V had a revolutionary impact. Almost despite himself he marked a decisive break with his flamboyant predecessor Edward VII, inventing the modern monarchy, with its emphasis on frequent public appearances, family values and duty. George V was an effective war-leader and inventor of 'the House of Windsor'. In an era of ever greater media coverage - frequently filmed and initiating the British Empire Christmas broadcast - George became for 25 years a universally recognised figure. He was also the only British monarch to take his role as Emperor of India seriously. While his great rivals (Tsar Nicolas and Kaiser Wilhelm) ended their reigns in catastrophe, he plodded on.David Cannadine's sparkling account of his reign could not be more enjoyable, a masterclass in how to write about Monarchy, that central - if peculiar - pillar of British life.

    1 in stock

    £6.52

  • Tumult in the Clouds: The Centenary Collection

    Penguin Books Ltd Tumult in the Clouds: The Centenary Collection

    1 in stock

    In 1918, the RAF was established as the world's first independent air force. To mark the 100th anniversary of its creation, Penguin are publishing the Centenary Collection, a series of six classic books highlighting the skill, heroism esprit de corps that have characterised the Royal Air Force throughout its first century.Anglo-American James Goodson's war began on Sept 3rd 1939, when the SS Athenia was torpedoed and sank off the Hebrides. Surviving the sinking and distinguishing himself rescuing survivors, Goodson immediately signed on with the RAF. He was an American, but he wanted to fight.Goodson flew Spitfires with an RAF Eagle Squadron before later joining his countrymen with the Fourth Fighter Group to get behind the controls of Thunderbolts and Mustangs where he became known as 'King of the Strafers'.Chock full of breathtaking descriptions of aerial dogfights as well as the stories of others of the heroic 'few', Tumult in the Clouds is the ultimate story of War in the air, told by the one of the Second World War's outstanding fighter pilots.The Centenary Collection:1. The Last Enemy by Richard Hillary2. Tumult in the Clouds by James Goodson3. Going Solo by Roald Dahl4. First Light by Geoffrey Wellum5. Tornado Down by John Peters & John Nichol6. Immediate Response by Mark Hammond

    1 in stock

    £9.99

  • Unstoppable: My Life So Far

    Penguin Books Ltd Unstoppable: My Life So Far

    1 in stock

    The fiercely honest, fearless, darkly funny autobiography of global tennis star Maria SharapovaIn the middle of the night, a father and his daughter step off a Greyhound bus in Florida and head straight to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. They ring the bell, though no one is expecting them and they don't speak English. They have arrived from Russia with just seven hundred dollars and the conviction that this six-year-old girl will be the world's next great tennis star. They are right.This is Maria Sharapova's gripping and fearless autobiography, telling her story from her roots in the small Siberian town her parents fled to after the Chernobyl disaster, through her arrival in the US with nothing and her phenomenal rise to success - winning Wimbledon aged just seventeen - to the disasters that threatened her career and her fight back. 'A compelling memoir' David Shaftel, Financial Times'An illuminating account ... This is the bildungsroman of a controversial champion, a portrait of the athlete as an uncommonly driven young woman' Julia Felsenthal, Vogue

    1 in stock

    £12.99

  • Standing in the Wings: The Beatles, Brian Epstein and Me

    The History Press Ltd Standing in the Wings: The Beatles, Brian Epstein and Me

    2 in stock

    Joe Flannery has been described as the ‘Secret Beatle’, and as the business associate and partner of Brian Epstein, he became an integral part of The Beatles’ management team during their rise to fame in the early 1960s.Standing in the Wings is Flannery’s account of this fascinating era, which included the controversial dismissal of Pete Best from the group (nothing to do with London, but matters back in Liverpool), Brian Epstein’s fragility, and the importance of the Star Club in Hamburg. This book is not simply a biography, as it also considers issues to do with sexuality in 1950s Liverpool, the vagaries of the music business at that time and the hazards of personal management in the ‘swinging sixties’. At its heart, Standing in the Wings provides an in-depth look at Flannery’s personal and professional relationship with Epstein and his close links with the Fab Four. Shortly before John Lennon’s murder in 1980, it was Flannery who was one of the last people in the UK to talk to the great man. Indeed, Flannery remains one of the few ‘Beatle people’ in Liverpool to have the respect of the surviving Beatles, and this is reflected in this timely and revealing book.

    2 in stock

    £15.99

  • Chasing Points: A Season on the Pro Tennis Circuit

    Pitch Publishing Ltd Chasing Points: A Season on the Pro Tennis Circuit

    3 in stock

    At 34 years of age, Gregory Howe quit teaching in London to chase his childhood dream of becoming a world-ranked tennis professional. He started his year-long journey in the minor leagues, playing across four continents, as far afield as Bangkok, Kampala and Lahore, initially struggling against younger, fitter aspiring pros. Breaking through to the elite ATP tour, he got within volleying distance of some of the greats of the modern game. Eventually, he managed to juggle competing on the ATP tour with holding down a nine-to-five job. Along the way he encountered almost everything the tennis world has to offer, from rising stars racing to the top, to players whose hopes are slowly being shattered. Chasing Points: A Season on the Men's Pro Tennis Circuit offers a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into the life of a touring tennis professional from the perspective of a real 'underdog'.

    3 in stock

    £12.99

  • The Real Enid Blyton

    Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Real Enid Blyton

    2 in stock

    She is the most prolific children's author in history, but Enid Blyton is also the most controversial. A remarkable woman who wrote hundreds of books in a career spanning forty years, even her razor sharp mind could never have predicted her enormous global audience. Now, fifty years after her death, Enid remains a phenomenon, with sales outstripping every rival. Parents and teachers lobbied against Enid's books, complaining they were simplistic, repetitive and littered with sexist and snobbish undertones. Blatant racist slurs were particularly shockingly; foreign and working class characters were treated with a distain that horrifies modern readers. But regardless of the criticism, Enid worked until she could not physically write another word, famously producing thousands of words a day hunched over her manual typewriter. She imaged a more innocent world, where children roamed unsupervised, and problems were solved with midnight feasts or glorious picnics with lashings of ginger beer. Smugglers, thieves, spies and kidnappers were thwarted by fearless gangs who easily outwitted the police, while popular schoolgirls scored winning goals in nail-biting lacrosse matches. Enid carefully crafted her public image to ensure her fans only knew of this sunny persona, but behind the scenes, she weaved elaborate stories to conceal infidelities, betrayals and unconventional friendships, lied about her childhood and never fully recovered from her parent's marriage collapsing. She grew up convinced that her beloved father abandoned her for someone he loved more, and few could ever measure up to her impossible standards. A complex and immature woman, Enid was plagued by insecurities and haunted by a dark past. She was prone to bursts of furious temper, yet was a shrewd businesswoman years ahead of her time. She may not have been particularly likeable, and her stories infuriatingly unimaginative, but she left a vast literary legacy to generations of children.

    2 in stock

    £25.07

  • Dorothy Paget

    Raceform Ltd Dorothy Paget

    2 in stock

    2 in stock

    £9.99

  • French Lessons: A Memoir

    The University of Chicago Press French Lessons: A Memoir

    3 in stock

    Brilliantly uniting the personal and the critical, French Lessons is a powerful autobiographical experiment. It tells the story of an American woman escaping into the French language and of a scholar and teacher coming to grips with her history of learning. Kaplan begins with a distinctly American quest for an imaginary France of the intelligence. But soon her infatuation with all things French comes up against the dark, unimagined recesses of French political and cultural life. The daughter of a Jewish lawyer who prosecuted Nazi war criminals at Nuremburg, Kaplan grew up in the 1960s in the Midwest. After her father's death when she was seven, French became her way of "leaving home" and finding herself in another language and culture. In spare, midwestern prose, by turns intimate and wry, Kaplan describes how, as a student in a Swiss boarding school and later in a junior year abroad in Bordeaux, she passionately sought the French "r," attentively honed her accent, and learned the idioms of her French lover. When, as a graduate student, her passion for French culture turned to the elegance and sophistication of its intellectual life, she found herself drawn to the language and style of the novelist Louis-Ferdinand Celine. At the same time she was repulsed by his anti-Semitism. At Yale in the late 70s, during the heyday of deconstruction she chose to transgress its apolitical purity and work on a subject "that made history impossible to ignore:" French fascist intellectuals. Kaplan's discussion of the "de Man affair"--the discovery that her brilliant and charismatic Yale professor had written compromising articles for the pro-Nazi Belgian press--and her personal account of the paradoxes of deconstruction are among the most compelling available on this subject. French Lessons belongs in the company of Sartre's Words and the memoirs of Nathalie Sarraute, Annie Ernaux, and Eva Hoffman. No book so engrossingly conveys both the excitement of learning and the moral dilemmas of the intellectual life.

    3 in stock

    £16.75

  • Out of Africa

    Penguin Books Ltd Out of Africa

    3 in stock

    In 1914 Karen Blixen arrived in Kenya with her husband to run a coffee farm. Instantly drawn to the land, she spent her happiest years there until the plantation failed. Karen Blixen was forced to return to Denmark in 1931 and it was there that she wrote this classic account of her experiences. A poignant farewell to her beloved farm, Out of Africa describes her strong friendships with the people of her area, her affection for the landscape and animals, and great love for the adventurer Denys Finch-Hatton.Written with astonishing clarity and an unsentimental intelligence, Out of Africa portrays a way of life that has disappeared for ever.

    3 in stock

    £9.99

  • The Lost Soul of Eamonn Magee

    The Mercier Press Ltd The Lost Soul of Eamonn Magee

    1 in stock

    "The Lost Soul of Eamonn Magee" is the winner of the WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR and EIR SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR. This powerful and raw memoir tells the story of Eamonn Magee, a world-champion boxer from Ireland who struggled with addiction, violence, and tragedy. A gifted fighter, Eamonn's career was plagued by personal demons and brushes with the law, but he found solace in training his son's boxing career. However, his dreams of a Magee dynasty were shattered when his son was brutally murdered. With unbridled honesty, "The Lost Soul of Eamonn Magee" takes readers on a journey of heartache, laughter, and ultimately, redemption. If you're a fan of sports memoirs and true crime books, this is a must-read. Don't miss out on this compelling, unforgettable story of a life lived on the brink. Order your copy today!

    1 in stock

    £18.99

  • The Wicked Wit of Princess Margaret

    Michael O'Mara Books Ltd The Wicked Wit of Princess Margaret

    2 in stock

    Celebrate the rapier-like wit of the royal rebel, the late, great Princess Margaret – or ‘Ducky’ as she was known behind closed doors.Even as a child, Princess Margaret – younger sister of Elizabeth – was noted for her theatrical and witty demeanour. Her nanny, 'Crawfie’ described her as a ‘born comic’ and her sister, now Queen Elizabeth II, remarked that parties were always better with Margaret in attendance as she made everyone laugh. She made John Lennon blush and Pablo Picasso was infatuated with her – and she made no secret of her intolerance for the dim-witted, the disobedient or the boring – and her one-liners are legendary: On considering that Elizabeth would one day be Queen, Margaret’s response was one of sincere commiseration, ‘Poor you’, she told her.Attending a high-society party in New York, the hostess asked politely how was the Queen? ‘Which one?’ Margaret replied coolly, ‘My sister, my mother, or my husband?’

    2 in stock

    £9.99

  • Sound Man: A Life Recording Hits with the Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Eric Clapton, The Faces...

    2 in stock

    £15.29

  • The Warrior Queen: The Life and Legend of Aethelflaed, Daughter of Alfred the Great

    Amberley Publishing The Warrior Queen: The Life and Legend of Aethelflaed, Daughter of Alfred the Great

    3 in stock

    Æthelflæd, eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, has gone down in history as an enigmatic and almost legendary figure. To the popular imagination, she is the archetypal warrior queen, a Medieval Boudicca, renowned for her heroic struggle against the Danes and her independent rule of the Saxon Kingdom of Mercia. In fiction, however, she has also been cast as the mistreated wife who seeks a Viking lover, and struggles to be accepted as a female ruler in a patriarchal society. The sources from her own time, and later, reveal a more complex, nuanced and fascinating image of the ‘Lady of the Mercians’. A skilled diplomat who forged alliances with neighbouring territories, she was a shrewd and even ruthless leader willing to resort to deception and force to maintain her power. Yet she was also a patron of learning, who used poetic tradition and written history to shape her reputation as a Christian maiden engaged in an epic struggle against the heathen foe. The real Æthelflæd emerges as a remarkable political and military leader, admired in her own time, and a model of female leadership for writers of later generations.

    3 in stock

    £10.99

  • All Before Me

    Granta Books All Before Me

    3 in stock

    An intimate, personal exploration of the emotional and restorative power of the Lake District landscape and its poets.

    3 in stock

    £16.99

  • Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years

    Pan Macmillan Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years

    1 in stock

    ‘I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.’ Long Walk to FreedomIn 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first president of democratic South Africa. Five years later, he stood down. In that time, he and his government wrought the most extraordinary transformation, turning a nation riven by centuries of colonialism and apartheid into a fully functioning democracy in which all South Africa’s citizens, black and white, were equal before the law. Dare Not Linger is the story of Mandela’s presidential years, drawing heavily on the memoir he began to write as he prepared to finish his term of office, but was unable to finish. Now, the acclaimed South African writer Mandla Langa has completed the task using Mandela’s unfinished draft, detailed notes that Mandela made as events were unfolding and a wealth of previously unseen archival material. With a prologue by Mandela's widow, Graça Machel, the result is a vivid and inspirational account of Mandela’s presidency, a country in flux and the creation of a new democracy. It tells the extraordinary story of the transition from decades of apartheid rule and the challenges Mandela overcame to make a reality of his cherished vision for a liberated South Africa.

    1 in stock

    £12.99

  • Hancock House Publishers Ltd ,Canada Incredible Gang Ranch

    1 in stock

    1 in stock

    £27.89

  • Finding Magic

    HarperCollins Publishers Inc Finding Magic

    2 in stock

    2 in stock

    £15.99

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