Memoirs Books

Book SynopsisFrom the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Gay Bar comes a rule-breaking, genre-busting story of outlaw loveIt's 1996, and Jeremy, a young American, has met the British boy of his dreams just as, amid a media frenzy, US Congress prepares the Defense of Marriage Act, denying same-sex couples rights including immigration. The pair snatch time in forests and deserts, London fashion shows, and East Village hotel rooms; eventually, finding no other way to stay together, they shack up illicitly among unlikely allies in San Francisco.What emerges is an unexpected romantic comedy haunted by centuries of gay ghosts. Deep House moves through the couple's various domiciles while unlocking doors to a lineage of outsiders who came before them: hapless criminals, sexpot bartenders, friars, pirates, government workers who subvert the system and activists who go all the way to the Supreme Court to fight for their freedoms. Combining cultural history with radically intimate memoir, Deep House is at once a romp through the queer archives and the innermost tale of two boyfriends who made a home in the shadows of a turbulent civil rights battle.

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Book SynopsisVOLUME 1 IN THE UNFORGETTABLE STORY OF AN EXTRAORDINARY CHILDHOODThe Arab of the Future tells the unforgettable story of Riad Sattouf''s childhood, spent in the shadows of three dictators - Muammar Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad, and his father.A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR AN OBSERVER GRAPHIC BOOK OF THE YEAR A NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS'' TOP BOOK OF THE YEAR''I tore through it... The most enjoyable graphic novel I''ve read in a while'' Zadie Smith''I joyously recommend this book to you'' Mark Haddon''Riad Sattouf is one of the great creators of our time'' Alain De Botton''Beautifully-written and drawn, witty, sad, fascinating... Brilliant'' Simon Sebag MontefioreIn a striking, virtuoso graphic style that captures both the immediacy of childhood and the fervour of political idealism, Riad Sattouf recounts his nomadic childhood growing up in rural FrancTrade ReviewI tore through two volumes of The Arab of the Future, by Riad Sattouf - it's the most enjoyable graphic novel I've read in a while * Zadie Smith *This is a masterpiece that deserves the widest readership. The Arab Of The Future reminds us that, in talented hands, graphic novels are capable of carrying the weightiest themes, making us think, and touching our hearts while also keeping us hugely entertained. Riad Sattouf is one of the great creators of our time' * Alain De Botton *The Arab of the Future is wonderfully observed, funny, grim, sharp and sad. Riad Sattouf, with his ear for anecdote, his nimble drawing and his understanding of human frailty, has created a masterpiece. * Posy Simmonds *I joyously recommend this book to you. You will be moved, entertained and edified. Often simultaneously * Mark Haddon *Beautifully-written and drawn, witty, sad, fascinating... Brilliant * Simon Sebag Montefiore *Riad Sattouf's poignant memoir is the record of a single, unique life, but it's one of those 'single windows' through which the world is made newly visible. It's worth a shelf full of books about identity politics, history or political science. * Hari Kunzru *Sattouf experienced both Gaddafi's Libya and Hafez al-Assad's Syria while still a small boy. Kids don't spend a lot of time reflecting on totalitarianism, but they do form strong impressions. His simple depictions of living in an almost-abandoned building for expatriates in Libya, or of watching Assad praying on TV are the kind of banal micro-details that would lose their significance in written prose. Captured in the panels of a cartoon strip, however, they attain a luminous resonance that lingers long after you've finished the book. * Guardian *Not since Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi's graphic memoir of revolutionary Iran, has a comic book seemed so important, or been so acclaimed... There is a feeling that the book throws some light both on the roots of the Arab spring, and what has happened since. In a country - and beyond it, a world - in which bewilderment and anxiety at recent events polarises communities as often as it unites them, it has an authenticity with which no expert or talking head could ever hope to compete. * Observer *Excellent... The graphic novel has proved itself again and again. It already has its canon: Art Spiegelman on the Holocaust, Marjane Satrapi on girlhood in Islamist Iran, and, perhaps most accomplished of all, Joe Sacco's Footnotes in Gaza, a work of detailed and self-reflexive history. Edging towards this company comes Riad Sattouf's childhood memoir of tyranny... It's this sort of detail, drawn with the cartoon clarity of childhood perception, that makes the book such a success... The Arab of the Future is an authentic, emotionally honest memoir, and much more useful background reading for present events than a romanticised account of cosmopolitan, bourgeois Damascus would be. * Guardian *Marvellous... Sattouf records it all in an endearing cartoony style, his clean lines enhanced by discreet colour shading to indicate which country they're living in at the time. His comic timing is immaculate, but there's always an edge to his humour. Packing a host of unforgettable scenes, The Arab of the Future begs to be read in one long sitting. * Herald (Paperback of the Week) *Riad Sattouf's shockingly blunt The Arab of the Future, which tells the story of the French cartoonist's itinerant childhood in the Middle East, is a must for anyone who wants to understand more about the failure of the pan-Arab dream, with all the consequences this has had for the situation in which we now find ourselves. It's also a page-turner, dissecting as it does the psychology of a man (Riad's Syrian father) whose increasingly deluded idealism results in a form of tyranny when it comes to his own family. * Guardian (Best Graphic Books of 2015) *Captivating, compelling, informative and an amazing read... Using his voice as a child, Saffouf deals with the topics such as Arabs v Jews, America and the Western Influences, the madness of Gaddafi, racism in France and the general treatment of women. With these topics one might think it's a heavy read but by telling his life in graphic format is ingenious and powerful... An important book. I will be recommending this to all our customers, a must read. * Sheila O'Reilly, Dulwich Books *Drawn with remarkable flair and a winning visual style, Sattouf's memoir is an incredible achievement. The Arab of the Future took me to places that, until now, I only really knew through headlines. Vital, funny and poignant, it's Sattouf's focus on the common aspects of childhood that gives this book so much punch * Gary Perry, Foyles Staff Pick *Fascinating... A really moving and at times quite melancholy story of an odd childhood. I'm really looking forward to reading Volume 2 in September * Anna James, A Case for Books *Epic... Told with childlike wonder and the merest hint of mature understanding, it's a wide-eyed and unforgettable tour of the early days of Muammar Gaddafi's Libya and Hafez al-Assad's Syria (via rural Brittany), as Sattouf's professor father pursues an unbridled ambition to help build a proud Arab nation through the power of education. * Bookanista *Exquisitely illustrated, and filled with experiences of misfortune bordering on the farcical, Mr. Sattouf's book is a disquieting yet essential read * New York Times *Sattouf's work is laced with astute observations of human beings. His memoirs often dwell on their failings: hypocrisy, cowardice, bullying. Yet there's humour too - mainly because his humans are so helplessly absurd * Guardian *Engrossing . . . Sattouf writes in a fluid prose, beautifully translated by Sam Taylor * New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice) *The Arab of the Future has become that rare thing in France's polarized intellectual climate: an object of consensual rapture, hailed as a masterpiece in the leading journals of both the left and the right. . . . it has, in effect, made Sattouf the Arab of the present in France * New Yorker *Absolutely mesmerising...The Arab of the Future is a tremendously engaging story of family life. It's also a fascinating personal insight into differing cultural attitudes, the physical reality of living under two distinct Arab leaders and how national/social/religious ideologies filter through the consciousness of a wide-eyed adolescent. It's a heartfelt, refreshing take on growing up in unique circumstances. * Lonesome Reader *The Arab of the Future confirms Riad Sattouf's place among the greatest cartoonists of his generation * Le Monde (France) *As the very young Riad Sattouf navigates life in Libya, France, and Syria, he gets a serious education in the mysterious vectors of power that shape not just the political world, but the intimate sphere of his own family. With charming yet powerful drawings and vivid sensory details, Sattouf delivers a child's-eye view of the baffling adult world in all its complexity, corruption, and delusion. This is a beautiful, funny, and important graphic memoir * Alison Bechdel, author of FUN HOME *Sattouf's book takes us from place to place and culture to culture, and in the emphasis of differences there is also the unveiling of similarities... Sattouf retells, with words and images, the heartbreaking realisation of the non-place in which many immigrants are forced to exist... Sattouf's book is challenging amongst other reasons because it deals with the most demonised, othered identity in Europe. Because the narrative takes the characters from country to country, language to language and culture to culture, the narrative perspective is necessarily comparative, and because things are never black and white, either/or, often the conclusions are contradictory... There is a loneliness in all of Sattouf's characters, who, often, do not really talk to each other, but to themselves, or keep a repressed/repressive silence. In the constant coming and going of the trial and error from country to country, the immigrant's story is, in spite of the presence of family, one of solitude, but moved forward by hope... In this sense The Arab of the Future is a profoundly political and timely book... The present historical moment in Europe calls more than ever for exercises of solidarity and empathy: in retelling his past Sattouf is not merely retreating into himself, but telling us very important things about the historical past, present and possible futures of us all. * Comics Grid *Riven with flashes of dark humour... The penmanship is simple and witty, oddly it reminded me of Matt in the Telegraph. Despite writing for Charlie Hebdo, Sattouf had never been an overtly political cartoonist and yet in The Arab of The Future he has said more about the problems of the Arab world than a hundred newspaper articles. The story ends in 1984 with the family about to return to Syria. The sequel is already out in France with an English edition to come in September. I can't wait. * CapX *Engaging and lovely to look at . . . Sattouf has an eye for grimly funny details . . . and milks the disjunction between how he experienced his political environment at the time and how he understands it now for all it's worth * Los Angeles Times (Best Books of the Year 2015) *Sattouf's timely graphic memoir - a bestseller in France, where he lives - recounts his upbringing in Syria and Libya. Despite the starkness of much of his story, Sattouf maintains a playful touch in all his panels * San Francisco Chronicle (Best of 2015) *With a judicious eye for an anecdote, and even more judicious doses of commentary, Sattouf - a former contributor to the French humor magazine Charlie Hebdo - delivers a vicious denunciation of pan-Arabism and Islamic politics. It might seem impossible to depict the recent history of the Middle East using Sattouf's zany drawing style... But Sattouf uses this style to establish a subtle and contradictory relationship with his reader. He simultaneously disclaims the reader's attention - No, nothing important going on here - and challenges the discerning few to look closer * NPR *The hundred-and-fifty-odd pages of Riad Sattouf's internationally bestselling graphic memoir . . . move with an irrepressible comic velocity. The book is told Candide-style . . . an indictment of the adult world and its insidious methods of diminishment we all have either faced or been fortunate enough to escape. * New Republic *The book, whose title pokes fun at Abdel-Razak's pan-Arabist obsessions, shows the hypocrisy behind one man's understanding of that failed political ideology, makes tangible the absurdity of living under propaganda-mad dictators, and it humanizes, for better or worse, certain segments of very poor Muslim populations in two specific parts of the Middle East. * Vice *The Arab of the Future maintains a balance of comedy and commentary and ...is carried by excellent drawings. Riad Sattouf's work takes its place alongside other classic animated retrospective memoirs from the region, Persepolis . . . and Waltz with Bashir * New York Journal of Books *The book's highest achievement is the ability to portray the tacit power structures that govern family and nation through the eyes of a child, with all of a child's parental worship and bafflement... The Arab of the Future begs for a more complex and compassionate understanding of an area of the world that's all too often the target of misunderstanding and fear. * Pittsburgh Post-Gazette *The Arab of the Future is already being compared to biographical classics like Maus and Persepolis, and the modern relevance of the countries in which it is set is sure to make this a widely talked about book this year * Mentalfloss.com *In his comics, Sattouf deftly weaves the political background with the everyday. He tells a personal story but also observes the society and country around him, and his great sense of humor makes reading the book thoroughly enjoyable. It'll have you laughing to the point of tears. * Haaretz (Israel) *Rarely I've encountered a more convincing combination of wit and depth * Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany) *Brilliant, sharp and surprising * Repubblica (Italy) *touching, chilling and very instructive * El Mundo (Spain) *Sattouf presents timely, candid insights into life behind the curtain in news-making nations - namely, in this case, Libya and Syria... he nails the inexplicable dizziness of being a child * Globe and Mail *Sattouf's account of his childhood is a deeply personal recollection of a peripatetic youth that can resonate with audiences across the world. It also paints an incisive picture of the Arab world in the late 1970s and early 1980s that sets the stage for the revolutionary changes that would grip and roil the region decades later. * Foreign Policy *Wide-eyed, yet perceptive, the book documents the wanderings of [Sattouf's] mismatched parents? His bookish French mother and pan-Arabist father, Abdel-Razak Sattouf . . . often disquieting, but always honest * France 24 *An important introduction to the Middle East... This recently-published graphic memoir proves that the medium can be just as important - and informative - as traditional non-fiction for those looking to understand a complex region... At once touching and humorous...Whether you're looking for a diverting read or a first-person account of modern history, The Arab of the Future is a must-read. * The Culture Trip *Very funny and very sad . . . the social commentary here is more wistful and melancholy than sharp-edged . . . subtly written and deftly illustrated, with psychological incisiveness and humor * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *Despite his father's determination to integrate his son into Arab society, little Sattouf - with his long blond hair - never fully fits in, and this report reads like the curious pondering of an alien from another world. Caught between his parents, Sattouf makes the best of his situation by becoming a master observer and interpreter, his clean, cartoonish art making a social and personal document of wit and understanding. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Absorbing ... rich in detail and character ... a remarkable and engrossing book * The Slings and Arrows *

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Book SynopsisNOW WITH EVEN MORE REMARKABLE PEOPLEIn If I Could Tell You Just One Thing... some of the world's most remarkable people share their most valuable pieces of wisdom. Including: President Bill Clinton, Clare Balding, Bill Gates, Stephen Fry, Dame Judi Dench, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Caitlyn Jenner, James Corden, Margaret Atwood, Sir David Attenborough, Annie Lennox, Andy Murray, Joanna Lumley, Sir Richard Branson, Sandi Toksvig, Jude Law, Nicola Sturgeon, Harry Belafonte, Olivia Colman, Simon Cowell, Bear Grylls, Diana Athill, Jo Malone, Heston Blumenthal, Nitin Sawhney, Katie Piper, Richard Curtis, Shami Chakrabarti, and Michael McIntyre.If I Could Tell You Just One Thing... is not only packed with great advice but is also enormously entertaining, brilliantly written and stunningly designed. From advice on work and relationships, to creativity, spirituality and survival, there are words in these pages that will comfort, motivate and inspire.Trade ReviewSo many wonderful pearls of wisdom from remarkable game-changers, from Stephen Fry to Andy Murray, Sir David Attenborough to Martha Lane Fox . . . If you're looking for inspiration or useful life lessons, I recommend you pick up a copy -- RICHARD BRANSONFunny, entertaining and inspiring, Reed's book will surely motivate anyone who picks it up . . . Invaluable insights into life from an amazing collection of people . . . Remarkable * * Sunday Post * *Entertaining collection of pearls of wisdom . . . A fascinating new prism for understanding the powerful and the prominent * * Times Literary Supplement * *Ever wondered how the world's most successful people ended up doing so well in their lives? . . . If I Could Tell You Just One Thing contains a host of tips to help us lead more rewarding lives * * Daily Mirror * *Remarkable . . . Pearls of wisdom . . . This eclectic book is peppered with an insight into the lives of those who have contributed . . . Would make a thoughtful gift * * Daily Record * *This guide to the distilled wisdoms of some the 21st century's greatest characters and achievers will inspire, and entertain, you endlessly. A new 'guide to how to live'; an instant life companion * * Cosmopolitan * *A collection of remarkable advice from remarkable people . . . The advice is as helpful as it is entertaining. * * BuzzFeed * *

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE 2020A uniquely strange and wonderful work of literature' Philip HoareAn exciting new voice' Mark Cocker, author of Crow CountryIn his late thirties, Edward Parnell found himself trapped in the recurring nightmare of a family tragedy. For comfort, he turned to his bookshelves, back to the ghost stories that obsessed him as a boy, and to the writers through the ages who have attempted to confront what comes after death.In Ghostland, Parnell goes in search of the sequestered places' of the British Isles, our lonely moors, our moss-covered cemeteries, our stark shores and our folkloric woodlands. He explores how these landscapes conjured and shaped a kaleidoscopic spectrum of literature and cinema, from the ghost stories and weird fiction of M. R. James, Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood to the children's fantasy novels of Alan Garner and Susan Cooper; from W. G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn and Graham Swift's Waterland to the archetypal folk horroTrade Review‘Ghostland is a delicious, creepy, gothic gazetteer to a British landscape filled with folkloric, literary and filmic spirits, avian auguries, and natural history and a deeply touching personal grief that speaks to the hauntedness of childhood memory and teenage dreams. Obsessive, possessive, nostalgic, an act of vivid retrieval – this is a uniquely strange and wonderful work of literature’ Philip Hoare ‘Psychogeography at is finest, Ghostland is a personal meditation on the primal power of the British landscape to shape literature, film and television that tunes into the core collective experience of the Haunted Generation’ Cathi Unsworth, author of Weirdo ‘Part memoir of family to two parts brilliant excursion into folk-horror darkness and literary nooks and crannies’ Roger Clarke, author of A Natural History of Ghosts ‘Ghostland is both haunting and entertaining, echoing with an enthusiast’s love for that which is out of kilter with the everyday; things not quite right glimpsed from the corner of the eye’ Stuart Maconie, Mail on Sunday ‘A marvellous blend of travel writing, history and grief memoir, Ghostland provides not only a seance with the author’s lost family, but also a premonition of his dazzling literary future’ Paul Willetts, author of Members Only, filmed as The Look of Love ‘A skilful and intriguing weaving together, less of haunted houses as of haunted people, including MR James, Alan Garner, W G Sebald and the author himself, in places where the past has left its mark’ George Szirtes, author of The Photographer at Sixteen ‘His is a wonderfully evocative book, creating a sense of place and invoking the power of literature and nature.’ The Guardian ‘Throughout this impeccably researched book, there is…a fascination with figures in a landscape glimpsed out of the corner of the eye.’ Literary Review

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Book SynopsisA luminous memoir from the prize-winning poet - a story of love, heartbreak and coming of age, and a tender exploration of queer identity.'Beautiful' Colm Tóibín'Rapturous' New York Times'Extraordinary' Observer'Stunning' Sunday TimesWhen Seán meets Elias, the two fall headlong into a love story. But as Elias struggles with severe depression, the couple comes face to face with crisis.Wrestling with this, Seán Hewitt delves deep into his own history, enlisting the ghosts of queer figures and poets before him. From a nineteenth-century cemetery in Liverpool to the pine forests of Gothenburg, Hewitt plumbs the darkness in search of solace and hope.All Down Darkness Wide is a mesmerising story of heartache and renewal, and a fearless exploration of a world that too often sets happiness and queer life at odds.WINNER OF THE ROONEY PRIZE FOR IRISH LITERATURE 2022'Extraordinarily beautiful... the best new work of non-fiction I've read in years' Sarah Perry'Rigorous and sensual... Hewitt has forged a life-enhancing memoir' SpectatorTrade ReviewA stunning meditation on love and heartbreak, this feels like an essential work of the new Irish queer canon * Sunday Times *A remarkable memoir of love and sorrow * Observer *We are witnessing the emergence of a major talent... stunning. A space will need to be made on the Queer Classics shelf * Irish Independent *Intensely original... some of the most beautiful prose I've read in years -- Alexander Chee * The Atlantic *Exquisitely written... a fervent appeal for presence and belonging -- Claire Messud * Harper's Magazine *

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Book SynopsisThe ground-breaking work of the poet who paved the way for generations of women writers, in a new selection by her daugher and literary executor, Linda Gray SextonWhen Anne Sexton took her own life in October 1974, she left behind a body of work which had already, in less than two decades of writing, won her the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, established her as one of the foremost voices of her generation, and shocked America by breaking multiple taboos of subject matter, from insanity, depression and addiction to menstruation, adultery and the figure of the witch.Sexton''s name is legendary. Her poetry is read around the world, translated into over thirty languages, and in her own country remains a touchstone for poets and readers looking for rawness of perception, vitality of expression, confessional frankness and fiery passion. Yet, incredibly, there has been no new UK edition of her work for decades. In Mercies, readers are provided with a resonant new selection from the writings of this natural phenomenon of a poet.Trade ReviewDo you know Anne Sexton? I worship her -- MadonnaAnne Sexton domesticates my terror, examines it and describes it, teaches it some tricks which will amuse me, then lets it gallop wild in my forest once more ... God love her -- Kurt VonnegutIn Sexton's New England ... adultery looms as the next horizon of sexual destiny, once marriage and childbirth have ripened a woman's body and mapped her pleasure centers ... No woman had published such poems in English for centuries -- Diane Wood Middlebrook

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Book Synopsis90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books''All Frenchmen know you have to become civilised between eighteen and twenty-three and that civilisation comes upon you by contact with an older woman, by revolution, by army discipline, by any escape or any subjection, and then you are civilised and life goes on normally in a latin way.'' Gertrude Stein's Paris France, published in 1940 on the day Paris fell to Nazi Germany, is a witty account of Stein's life in France, and the perfect introduction to her work.

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Book SynopsisI AM ZLATAN - the explosive, critically-acclaimed memoir of Manchester United star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one of the world''s most gifted and controversial footballers''Why be a Fiat when you can be a Ferrari?''Welcome to planet Zlatan. This is the story of how a Swedish immigrant rose from poverty to become a football genius.In his own inimitable style, Zlatan recalls every struggle, every goal, and every training ground bust-up on his journey to dominate the world''s top clubs, including Barcelona, PSG and now Manchester United.Full of wicked one-liners and amazing stories, Zlatan lifts the lid on some of the biggest names in football, including Guardiola, Messi and his new manager, Jose Mourinho.Moving, funny and totally frank, I am Zlatan is unlike any autobiography you have ever read.''Wonderful - nothing less than a revelation. Ibrahimovic is the definitive modern sporting icon'' - Matthew Syed''The best sportsman''s memoir since Andre Agassi... not just a bad boy''s romp but the rise of a boy from the ghetto to the top of his profession and captain of his country. He is candid, funny and yes, wonderfully nuts'' - The Times''There''s never a dull moment on Planet Zlatan. This is a snarling, fizzing, unrepentant firecracker of a book; if footballers'' memoirs bore you, make an exception for this one'' - IndependentTrade ReviewThe perfect antidote to the annihilating tedium of post-match interview cliché . . . downright compelling it is too * Telegraph *He is skillful. He is outspoken. He is Zlatan * New York Times *Wonderful. The best footballer's autobiography of recent years . . . and the bestselling European immigrant's tale since Zadie Smith'sWhite Teeth and Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint -- Simon Kuper * Financial Times *Extraordinary * Daily Mail *A modern European fairy tale * New Statesman *Terrific . . . Far more insightful than your typical memoir, Ibra'sbook tells his story of growing up as the son of immigrants in Sweden and pulls no punches when it comes to his opinions ofsome of the biggest names in the game * Sports Illustrated *Eagerly awaited, not least because Ibra seems to be spoiling for a fight on every other page. 'Dynamite' said one Swedish reporter * Daily Mail *It is so good. It is so bloody good . . . a futureclassic that will change Sweden . . . a masterpiece * Aftonbladet *Good God, this is dynamite! * Sportbladet *The story of Zlatan - from his days as an immigrantkid juggling a soccer ball so he won't get bullied to hisemergence as the genius player who scored the greatestgoal ever - is as compelling and fancy-footed as his game * Aleksandar Hemon, US Nat ional Book Awar d finalist and auth or of 'The Lazarus Project' *Sensationally honest and well written * Expressen *

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisA deeply moving and powerful memoir about how Jenny saved herself while exposing those that wouldn't.

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Book SynopsisAn inspiring blend of nature writing and memoir that explores nature’s crucial role in our emotional and mental health Bats can hear shapes, plants can eat light, and bees can dance maps. When his life took him to a painfully dark place, the poet behind The CryptoNaturalist, Jarod K. Anderson, found comfort and redemption in these facts and the shift in perspective that comes from paying a new kind of attention to nature.   Something in the Woods Loves You tells the story of the darkest stretch of a young person’s life, and how deliberate and meditative encounters with plants and animals helped him see the light at every turn. Ranging from optimistic contemplations of mortality to appreciations of a single mushroom, Anderson has written a lyrical love letter to the natural world and given us the tools to see it all anew.    

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Book SynopsisTwenty years ago, in a series of mysterious, incandescent writings, David Seabrook told of the places he knew best: the declining resort towns of the Kent coast. The pieces were no advert for the local tourist board. Here, the ghosts of murderers and mad artists crawl the streets. Septuagenarian rent boys recall the good old days and Carry On stars go to seed. Clandestine fascist networks emerge. And all the time, there is Seabrook himself - desperate perhaps, and in danger. Dark, strange and immediate, this is a classic work of sui generis British literature. There are devils here, and the reader will remember them.Trade ReviewDavid Seabrook, it is a pleasure to report, is the real thing * Sunday Times *His book, the first to do justice to the transcendent weirdness of this boot of land that is not London, should be treasured. By living so long in the past, by digging and listening and making the phone-calls, Seabrook has hallucinated an alternate English history -- Iain Sinclair[Psychogeography] doesn't begin to capture its intense interest, its uncanny spookiness, the way it ensnares you, turning your stomach, messing with your head... All the Devils Are Here demands to be reread, picked over, endlessly discussed... And yet to know it is somehow not to know anything at all -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *The book's rediscovery will hopefully install it as an urtext for the hordes of drifters following in its slipstream... All the Devils are Here outshines most work of a similar ilk by being completely committed to its subject [...] it is an archaeological dig, an exorcism, an occultist reading of wrong-doings in Rochester, Chatham, Ramsgate, Deal and Margate -- Ben Myers * New Statesman *[A] decidedly creepy and unsettling corpse-strewn journey through the seaside towns of Kent. A sort of literary beachcomber -- Lucy Scholes * BBC Culture *

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Book SynopsisRichard Cullen's reconstruction of the life of society-debutanteMargaret McLaren-Reid in the British Empire during the interwar years and subsequently as a wife on the diplomatic circuit.

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Book SynopsisIn Wild Twin, the Costa Prize shortlisted author Jeff Young sets out from Liverpool in the 1970s pursuing a vision of becoming a 'wild twin'. In Europe he falls into a fever dream of drugs, dive hotels, poverty, madness and thieving. An extraordinary memoir, a hallucinatory dream book of loss and loneliness, to match his debut Ghost Town.

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Book SynopsisThe Mamba Mentality: How I Play is Kobe Bryant's personal perspective of his life and career on the basketball court and his exceptional, insightful style of playing the gamea fitting legacy from the late Los Angeles Laker superstar.In the wake of his retirement from professional basketball, Kobe The Black Mamba Bryant decided to share his vast knowledge and understanding of the game to take readers on an unprecedented journey to the core of the legendary Mamba mentality. Citing an obligation and an opportunity to teach young players, hardcore fans, and devoted students of the game how to play it the right way, The Mamba Mentality takes us inside the mind of one of the most intelligent, analytical, and creative basketball players ever.In his own words, Bryant reveals his famously detailed approach and the steps he took to prepare mentally and physically to not just succeed at the game, but to excel. Readers will learn how Bryant studied an opponent, how he channeled his passion for the game, how he played through injuries. They'll also get fascinating granular detail as he breaks down specific plays and match-ups from throughout his career.Bryant's detailed accounts are paired with stunning photographs by the Hall of Fame photographer Andrew D. Bernstein. Bernstein, long the Lakers and NBA official photographer, captured Bryant's very first NBA photo in 1996 and his last in 2016and hundreds of thousands in between, the record of a unique, twenty-year relationship between one athlete and one photographer.The combination of Bryant's narrative and Bernstein's photos make The Mamba Mentality an unprecedented look behind the curtain at the career of one of the world's most celebrated and fascinating athletes.Trade Review"Revealing...beautifully captured...candid." --Los Angeles Times "A visually beautiful presentation that would make an ideal gift for the Lakers fan in the house." --Kirkus Reviews

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Book SynopsisRobbie Robertson''s singular contributions to popular music have made him one of the most beloved songwriters and guitarists of his time. With songs like The Weight', The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' and Up on Cripple Creek', he and his partners in the Band fashioned a music that has endured for decades, influencing countless musicians.In this captivating memoir, written over five years of reflection, Robbie employs his unique storyteller''s voice to weave together the journey that led him to some of the most pivotal events in music history. He recounts the adventures of his half-Jewish, half-Mohawk upbringing on the Six Nations Indian Reserve and on the gritty streets of Toronto; his odyssey at sixteen to the Mississippi Delta, the fountainhead of American music; the wild, early years on the road with rockabilly legend Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks; his unexpected ties to the Cosa Nostra underworld; the gripping trial-by-fire of ''going electric'' with Bob Dylan on his 1Trade ReviewRobbie Robertson’s Testimony is a book of memories and wonders, a personal testament of a magical time in American music from someone who was there, at the centre of it all, playing and casting spells and writing songs that helped define those great lost years. There’s history here, and anecdote, regret and reminiscence, a long fond look back at the trials and triumphs of finding your voice then holding your ground. The tone is easy, conversational, like reminiscing with a friend about things you never realized you were part of too. Robbie brings you along with him, keeps you right by his side first to last, just the way his songs do, drawing you close, spellbound by his easy sorcery. You can feel the music in every word. -- Martin Scorsese[An] elegant, evocative memoir … Robertson was particularly suited to a supporting role, happiest pulling the strings in the background. It’s the perfect vantage point for a memoirist, and he makes the most of it … The first half of the book is a hugely atmospheric song of the road … Midway, Dylan hits the narrative like a firework tossed through a window … Robertson brings the chaos vividly to life … He tells it with style and affection, showing a keen eye for detail. * Mail on Sunday *An entertaining and valuable description of a rock’n’roll apprenticeship punctuated by encounters with such historic figures as Sonny Boy Williamson, Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters. He casts light on a vital phase of Dylan’s career and, of course, on the history of the Band. * Guardian *For real insight into a musical unit’s workings, it would be hard to beat the Canadian guitarist and songwriter Robbie Robertson’s Testimony…packed with fascinating anecdote. -- Neil McCormick * Telegraph *'We’re deep into the golden age of the classic-rock memoir … Testimony ends when its author was still relatively young, but it is packed with incident … His memoir is confident and well oiled. At times it has the mythic sweep of an early Terrence Malick movie … Mr. Dylan blows into this memoir like a blazing tumbleweed … [Robbie Robertson's] writing is wonderfully perceptive. * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisTove Jansson's first book for adults drew on her childhood memories to capture afresh the enchantments and fears of growing up in Helsinki in the nineteen tens and twenties. Described as both a memoir and 'a book of superb stories' by Ali Smith, her startlingly evocative prose offers a glimpse of the mysteries of winter ice, the bonhomie of balalaika parties, and the vastness of Christmas viewed from beneath the tree. With rare images from the Jansson family archive, it makes a perfect gift.Trade ReviewAs an artefact, it's a jewel with evocative black and white photographs throughout ... Jansson's narrator is wise but not precocious and has an authentic way of parroting adult observations. It's easy to see how this child, full of love and wonder, became the woman who gave us the philosophical Moomintrolls. * The Scotsman *

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Book Synopsis"One of the most enduring myths on the Nigerian Femme Fatale - mammy-water, 'winch' or husband-snatcher - has to do with the cooking of fish stew ...A woman can do what she likes with a man when she knows how to satisfy his appetite for food."Longthroat Memoirs presents a sumptuous menu of essays about Nigerian food, lovingly presented by the nation's top epicurean writer. As well as a mouth-watering appraisal of the cultural politics and erotics of Nigerian cuisine, it is also a series of love letters to the Nigerian palate. From innovations in soup, fish as aphrodisiac and the powerful seductions of the yam, Longthroat Memoirs examines the complexities, the peculiarities, the meticulousness, and the tactility of Nigerian food. Nigeria has a strong culture of oral storytelling, of myth creation, of imaginative traversing of worlds. Longthroat Memoirs collates some of those stories into an irresistible soup-pot, expressed in the flawless love language of appetite and nourishment.A sensuous testament on why, when and how Nigerians eat the food they love to eat; this book is a welcome addition to the global dining table of ideasTable of ContentsIntroduction A Bowl of Aloof Nigerian Soup How to Make Meat The Purist’s Pot of Soup My Mother, I Will Not Eat Rice Today Bones of Choice Eating Dog Akara and Honey Kings of Umami Letter from Candahar Road Okro Soup, Gorgeous Mucilage Long Throat Memoirs The Snail Tree Fainting at the Sight of an Egg Sweet Stolen Waters Forgotten Seasoning Secrets A Beautiful Girl Named Ogbono Henshaw Town Beach Market Ekoki Like Gold To Cook or Not to Cook Okro Soup and the Demonic Encyclopaedia of Dreams Oseani Mellowing, Bursting, Deepening, Merging Institution of Stew Lost in Translation Afang Soup and Hairy Legs Between Eba and Gari Ila Cocoa Nsala with Chicken Fermentation and Fornication Rice in Many Guises Fish Soups and Love Potions Dead Man’s Helmet Peppered Snails Ram Testicle Suya Ewa Oloyin Bush Cuisine Between a Trophy and a Wife The Secret Ingredient of My Secret Ingredient Soup Molara’s Jollof Beans The Marketplace Safe as Stews A Pot from Efak Satan Bibliography Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING MEMOIR ''Incredibly moving and haunting'' Roxane Gay''I read this book cover to cover and it stunned me'' Jia Tolentino ''Powerful, honest and necessary'' Marian Keyes''To girls everywhere, I am with you. On nights when you feel alone, I am with you. When people doubt you or dismiss you, I am with you. I fought every day for you. So never stop fighting, I believe you.''Chanel Miller''s story changed our world forever. In 2016 Brock Turner was sentenced to just six months in jail after he was caught sexually assaulting her on Stanford''s campus. His light sentencing, and Chanel''s victim impact statement, which was read by eleven million people in four days, sparked international outrage and action.Know My Name is an intimate, profoundly moving memoir that exposes a patriarchal culture biased to protect perpetrators, a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and ultimately shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life. Entwining pain, resilience, and humour, this breath-taking memoir will stand as a modern classic.''I could not put this phenomenal book down'' Glennon Doyle, bestselling author of UNTAMED''To read Know My Name inspires hope'' Guardian''A searing, beautiful book'' Sunday Times ''Know My Name marks the debut of a gifted young writer. Miller''s words are purpose. They are maps. And she is a treasure who has prevailed'' New York TimesTrade ReviewPowerful, honest and necessary -- Marian KeyesA beautifully written, powerful, important story. It marks the debut of a gifted young writer. * New York Times *Extraordinary woman turning pain into power. Chanel Miller, it's a privilege to know your name, and to celebrate it -- Thandie NewtonYou are a brave soul. You are more than the identity given to you by the media and those in power -- Monica LewinskyA searing, beautiful book * Sunday Times *In a world that asks too many survivors to keep their experiences to themselves and shrink their suffering to preserve someone else's potential, Know My Name stands unapologetically large, asking others to reckon with its author's dazzling, undiminishable presence. To read it, in spite of everything, inspires hope. * Guardian *I can't wait to read it -- Dolly AldertonIn its rare honesty and its small details, KNOW MY NAME is both an open wound and a salve, a quiet cry and the loudest scream...[it] is more than an indictment, though it is a successful and moving one. It is also an outstretched hand, inviting you to fight alongside her * Elle *A skilled writer... Miller tells [her story] beautifully, caring enough for her reader to spin golden sentences from her pain * Vogue *I read this book cover to cover and it stunned me: Chanel Miller is such a lushly talented writer -- Jia Tolentino, bestselling author of Trick Mirror

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Book SynopsisA Guardian book to look out for for 2024''A bold and intimate grappling with the hidden history at the heart of a childhood that was set up as a collectivist social experiment'' EWAN MORRISON, author of How to Survive Everything''Strikingly good'' NOREEN MASUD, author of A Flat PlaceIn the turbulent late seventies, six-year-old Susanna Crossman moved with her mother and siblings from a suburban terrace to a crumbling mansion deep in the English countryside. They would share their new home with over fifty other residents from all over the world, armed with worn paperbacks on ecology, Marx and radical feminism, drawn together by utopian dreams of remaking the world. They did not leave for fifteen years.While the Adults adopted new names and liberated themselves from domestic roles, the Kids ran free. In the community, nobody was too young to discuss nuclear war and children learned not to expect wiped noses or regular bedtimes. Instead, they made a home in a house with no locks or keys, never knowing when they opened doors whether they'd find violent political debates or couples writhing under sheets.Decades later, and armed with hindsight, Crossman revisits her past, turning to leading thinkers in philosophy, sociology and anthropology to examine the society she grew up in, and the many meanings of family and home. In this luminous memoir, she asks what happens to children who are raised as the product of social experiments and explores how growing up estranged from the outside world shapes her as a parent today.''Crossman writes with such curiosity and heart-breaking honesty of what it is to find her own truth. I was enthralled by this book'' LILY DUNN, author of Sins of my Father''Beautiful, bold, tender. I loved this gorgeous memoir about making home'' PRAGYA AGARWAL, author of Hysterical

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Book SynopsisA Sunday Times Bestseller, this is a brilliant collection of acerbic, wisecracking and hilarious essays from New York icon Fran Lebowitz, star of Martin Scorsese's hit Netflix series, Pretend It's a City

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Book SynopsisLife lessons from leaders in diverse career fields who followed their dreams and found success--just in time for graduationTrade ReviewSuccessful people make it look so easy—but they never said it was. In Getting There, the highest achievers share some of their lowest moments, and there is much wisdom to be gained from those struggles. Captivating, thought-provoking, humorous, and uplifting, this book delivers straight-from-the-source accounts of what it is really like to achieve something meaningful. * David Faber, CNBC *Kudos to Gillian Zoe Segal for assembling this remarkable group of visionaries and helping them all tell their stories without filters or false bravado. Getting There is both empowering and illuminating. * Piper Kerman, New York Times bestselling author of Orange Is the New Black *Reading Getting There is like having an intimate, one-on-one talk with some of the world's most fascinating and accomplished people. You will be taken aback by their honesty, entertained by their anecdotes, and, most of all, learn invaluable lessons about both business and life. This book is fantastic—you will not be able to put it down! * JJ Ramberg, MSNBC *Getting There is a great book whether you're just starting out or well into your career. Somehow, Gillian Zoe Segal has gotten these leaders to share their stories in a unique, authentic, and revealing way. Their insights will inspire you and help clarify many of the key challenges you must face in building a successful professional life. * Robert Steven Kaplan, senior associate dean and professor, Harvard Business School *“Thought-provoking advice from some of the world’s best-known success stories.” * Publishers Weekly *“Unlike most such books, the tales in Getting There ring authentic—so they’re actually useful.” * Fast Company *“For life-changing, real-world advice.” * Vanity Fair *

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Book Synopsis"This memoir is brutally honest… Wonderful!" – Russell T. Davies Activist. Journalist. Survivor. One man’s journey from prejudice to Pride. Paul Burston wasn’t always the iconic voice of LGBTQ+ London that he is today. Paul came out in the mid-1980s, when ‘gay’ still felt like a dirty word, especially in the small Welsh town where he grew up. He moved to London hoping for a happier life, only to watch in horror as his new-found community was decimated by AIDS. But even in the depths of his grief, Paul vowed never to stop fighting back on behalf of his young friends whose lives were cut tragically short. It’s a promise he’s kept to this day. As an activist he stormed the House of Commons during the debate over the age of consent. As a journalist he spoke up for the rights of the community at a time of tabloid homophobia and legal inequality. As a novelist he founded the groundbreaking Polari Prize. But his lifestyle hid a dark secret, and Paul’s demons—shame, trauma, grief—stalked him on every corner. In an attempt to silence them, he began to self-medicate. From almost drowning at eighteen to a near-fatal overdose at thirty-eight, this is Paul’s story of what happened in the twenty years between, and how he carved out a life that his teenage self could scarcely have imagined. Emotional but often witty, We Can Be Heroes is an illuminating memoir of the eighties, nineties and noughties from a gay man who only just survived them.Trade Review“Probably the gay book of the year.” —ES Magazine “A compelling and hugely enjoyable memoir about a fearless life lived to the full.” —Bernardine Evaristo, author of the Booker Prize winning Girl, Woman, Other “This memoir is brutally honest…Wonderful!” —Russell T. Davies “We Can Be Heroes is a book that speaks to us all: a gripping, courageous, compassionate memoir which, like Paul’s hero David Bowie, takes us by the hand and reminds us that we’re not alone.” —Nicholas Pegg, author of The Complete David Bowie “Incredible.” —Erin Kelly, author of The Skeleton Key “Paul Burston has been there through years of gay history and struggle, often right on the very front line fighting... It’s a gorgeous memoir. I cannot recommend it highly enough.” —Juno Roche, writer and campaigner “A brutally honest, unflinching memoir and eye witness account of the most important time in gay British history, from someone who not only lived and survived it, but who helped to shape it. Indispensable.” —John Marrs, author of What Lies Between Us “Illuminating, engrossing and electrifying.” —Matt Cain, author of The Madonna of Bolton “I’m inspired, moved, reminded, held, enraged, and consumed with a strange joy. Just remarkable.” —Joelle Taylor, poet, playwright, and author “We stand on the shoulders of giants, those who fought for our rights today. One of those giants is Paul Burston…I loved We Can Be Heroes. What a treat.” —Jonathan Harvey, actor and playwright

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-FictionIn this groundbreaking new book, Thomas Page McBee, a trans man, trains to fight in a charity match at Madison Square Garden while struggling to untangle the vexed relationship between masculinity and violence.Through his experience of boxing - learning to get hit, and to hit back; wrestling with the camaraderie of the gym; confronting the betrayals and strength of his own body - McBee examines the weight of male violence, the pervasiveness of gender stereotypes and the limitations of conventional masculinity. A wide-ranging exploration of gender in our society, Amateur is ultimately a story of hope, as McBee traces a way forward: a new masculinity, inside the ring and out of it.A graceful and uncompromising exploration of living, fighting and healing, in Amateur we gain insight into the stereotypes and shifting realities of masculinity today through the eyes of a new man.Trade ReviewAmateur provocatively describes the ways in which an increasingly fragile patriarchal culture needs to keep men in their place. A quest for self-liberation, this loving and deeply intelligent exploration of contemporary masculinities is essential reading -- DEBORAH LEVYA visceral, sparky read . . . Beautifully written [and] deep and affecting . . . Absolutely fascinating -- BBC Radio 4 A Good ReadA blazingly wise and beautiful book -- A.L. KENNEDYMcBee's writing bristles with an elegant swagger . . . Amateur is as much a reconciliation as an emancipation . . . Punchy, thought-provoking stuff * * Sunday Times * *In an age when identity feels so splintered and fractional, McBee's empathy with men feels refreshing, but it's his determination to be accountable that is radical. He resolves his own masculinity crisis by doing the things men often think they're doing, but so often are not: listening, asking questions, seeking help, being vulnerable * * Observer * *Amateur is a heck of a tale, and McBee is a gifted memoirist * * Financial Times * *One of my favourite books of 2018 . . . A memoir about boxing, masculinity and transitioning. It is exceptional -- NIKESH SHUKLAAmateur is a beautiful and powerful book written by the superbly talented Thomas Page McBee. This memoir is such an important piece of trans literature to support and one that spoke to me deeply * * Elliot Page * *Amidst a generational shift bringing to question what exactly defines gender, this book plays like x-ray glasses, examining every oddity one may pretend isn't apparent -- JORDAN STEPHENSA story told honestly and joyously . . . all in an engaging voice shot through with self-awareness . . . unwaveringly honest * * Literary Review * *

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Book SynopsisRemember Me? captures the powerful emotions that these memories hold to both Shobna and her mother; secrets they had collectively buried and also the concealment of her mother''s condition. What ensues is a story of cultural assimilation, identity and familial shame.

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Book SynopsisA revolutionary book tracing the collapse of the paradigms that have organized the world for a millenium.

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Book SynopsisThe incredible story of a 3,500-mile cycle ride to explore the onshore and offshore lighthouses around the coastline of England and Wales, proving that a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis doesn't mean giving up on a lifelong dream. The Beacon Bike is the inspirational tale of one man's quest to fulfil the promise he made to himself as a small child, nestled in the bed of an attic room while the glow of Dungeness lighthouse flashed past his window - a comforting, ever-present companion. It is also a loving tribute to the coast; not only its beautiful landscape, but also the communities that make it so special. It celebrates the generosity of spirit found in people around the country, as well as the history of the iconic lights that brighten their world. This journey is a testament to the joy of life's simple pleasures. A warm welcome at the end of a long day. The fire of a child's imagination, rekindled in later life. The power of a light that pierces the darkness.

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Book SynopsisWhen Maiwand Banayee was 16, he wanted to become a suicide bomber for the Taliban. In this inspiring tale of survival and self-discovery, the reader will follow Maiwand's journey down a dark path and his ultimate redemption. Growing up in Kabul amid the Afghan wars, he witnessed atrocities that no child should ever see - rotting corpses, starving families, a neighbourhood torn apart. He escaped to a refugee camp in Pakistan, where religious militants began the gradual grooming of Maiwand and other Afghan boys. These confused and traumatised children were indoctrinated, radicalised and prepared to die in the name of a religious war. But Maiwand escaped this life. Fleeing Afghanistan, he had a life-altering crisis of faith, confidence and meaning, finding new purpose and rebuilding himself. Maiwand taught himself how to read and write in English, and here tells his astonishing story in crystalline prose. Delusions of Paradise offers a powerful warning about the dangers of radical religion, and is a stunning celebration of self-determination and redemption from an important new voice.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisIn 2013, the filmmaker Chantal Akerman's mother was dying. My Mother Laughs is both the textual distillation of the themes Akerman pursued throughout her creative life, and a version of the simplest and most complicated love story of all: that between a mother and a daughter.

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Book Synopsis_______________ THE PHENOMENAL KOREAN BESTSELLER TRANSLATED BY INTERNATIONAL BOOKER SHORTLISTEE ANTON HUR 'Will strike a chord with anyone who feels that their public life is at odds with how they really feel inside.' - Red PSYCHIATRIST: So how can I help you? ME: I don’t know, I’m – what’s the word – depressed? Do I have to go into detail? Baek Sehee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her – what to call it? – depression? She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgemental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends; adept at performing the calmness, even ease, her lifestyle demands. The effort is exhausting, overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can't be normal. But if she's so hopeless, why can she always summon a desire for her favourite street food, the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like? Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist over a 12-week period, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions and harmful behaviours that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Part memoir, part self-help book, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is a book to keep close and to reach for in times of darkness.Trade ReviewAn eye-opening view into a person's most vulnerable moments in a new way * Cosmopolitan *I Want to Die... has been a huge bestseller in Korea and will strike a chord with anyone who feels that their public life is at odds with how they really feel inside. Baek Sehee transcribes the sessions with her psychiatrist as she uncovers the root causes of her anxiety and harmful behaviours, despite the perfect picture she presents to the world. * Red *At once personal and universal, this book is about finding a path to awareness, understanding, and wisdom. * Kirkus Reviews *Candid … heartfelt … Sehee’s mission to normalize conversation about mental illness is an admirable one. * Publishers Weekly *Sehee is honest and authentic throughout … [I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki] will resonate with young people who suffer from similar forms of depression and anxiety. * Library Journal *A testament to the gradual nature of therapy’s cumulative healing effects, I Want to Die should resonate with anyone who eagerly transcribes every nugget of advice they get. * Buzzfeed *Earnest … clever … [Baek Sehee] uses months of (real) transcripts from her therapy sessions to explore her own depression and anxiety, always tiptoeing toward something like self-awareness. * Chicago Tribune *With candor and humor, Baek offers readers and herself resonant moments of empathy … [I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki] arrives in the U.S. sensitively English-enabled by favored translator Hur. * Booklist *

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Book SynopsisThe iconic actor and activist presents a graphic memoir detailing his experiences as a child prisoner in the Japanese-American internment camps of World War II, reflecting on the hard choices his family made in the face of legalized racism. Original. Gr 10+

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Book Synopsis''A unique insight into human consciousness and its possibilities'' The Times''Incredible'' New Scientist''This book is important for everyone . . . I love this book'' Oprah WinfreyOn the morning of the 10th December 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. A neuroanatomist by profession, she observed her own mind completely deteriorate to the point that she lost the ability to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life, all within the space of four hours. As the damaged left side of her brain - the rational, logical, detail and time-oriented side - swung in an out of function, Taylor alternated between two distinct and opposite realities: the euphoric Nirvana of the intuitive and emotional right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace; and the logical lefTrade ReviewThis book is important for everyone . . . I love this book * Oprah Winfrey *This book is important for everyone . . . I love this book * Oprah Winfrey *A unique insight into human consciousness and its possibilities * The Times *the incredible story of the neuroscientist who rebuilt her own mind after suffering a severe stroke. * New Scientist *

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Book SynopsisSeason two of the hit TV adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small is now showing on Channel 5, featuring Sam West as Siegfried Farnon.'James Herriot's books have had a lasting and profound effect on my life' Amanda OwenThis beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition of If Only They Could Talk features an afterword by Yorkshire Shepherdess and author Amanda Owen. To young James Herriot, fresh out of veterinary college, Yorkshire appears to offer an idyllic pocket of rural life in a rapidly changing world. But even life in the sleepy village of Darrowby has its challenges: from his new colleagues, brothers Siegfried and Tristan Farnon, to herds of semi-feral cattle and gruff farmers with incomprehensible accents.Heart-breaking and hilarious in equal measure, If Only They Could Talk is the first volume of classic memoirs which chronicle James Herriot's first years as country vet in the 1930's.This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition of If Only They Could Talk features an afterword by Yorkshire Shepherdess and author Amanda Owen.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.Trade ReviewBulls with sunstroke, pigs on the run and a cake-eating Peke with a betting habit . . . I grew up reading James Herriot's book and I'm delighted that thirty years on they are still every bit as charming, heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny as they were then. -- Kate HumbleIt’s a pleasure to be in James Herriot’s company. * Observer *After an evening among his tales, anyone with as much as a dog or a budgerigar will feel he should move to Darrowby at once. * Yorkshire Post *

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Book SynopsisFrom the Academy Award-winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.I''ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at thTrade ReviewUnflinchingly honest and remarkably candid, Matthew McConaughey's book invites us to grapple with the lessons of his life as he did - and to see that the point was never to win, but to understand. * Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck *McConaughey is a talented actor and a fine writer, but a total genius at living. He attacks life with an exhilarating ferocity. This is a wildly unexpected and delightful book you can't just read, you have to experience. * Lawrence Wright, author of The End of October *It shouldn't surprise you that this book is good, but it will surprise you just how good it is. Wise and entertaining, this is an inspiring memoir and how-to from one of the great outlaw philosophers and artists of our time. * Ryan Holiday, author of The Daily Stoic *A Renaissance man on the big screen, McConaughey shows he is the same on the page. Mystical and spiritual but mostly just wonderful, Greenlights is an inspired memoir that celebrates the idea that it's the journey rather than the destination that will fulfill us. * Michael Connelly, author of Fair Warning *Written with great intensity and rare candor, Greenlights is a whirlwind of wisdom that's as singular and fervent as its author. Read the book, experience the behind-the-scenes adventures, then pursue your own greenlights full throttle. * Shaka Smart, head coach, men’s basketball, The University of Texas at Austin *Greenlights is many different books at once: an entertaining autobiography, a delightful adventure story, a very funny comedy, a wise self-help guide, an inspiring argument for love and family, and a candid tale of spiritual and personal discovery. I cannot recommend it highly enough. * John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, co-author of Conscious Leadership *A brilliant memoir that lays bare everything * The Times *A rollicking, contemplative trip * Financial Times *Greenlights is not a memoir, though it tells true stories from his life in chronological order. Nor is it 'an advice book'. It is 'an approach book', bringing together McConaughey's insights from 35 years of writing journals, and more of collecting bumper stickers. * Guardian *Mixing philosophy, 'teachable moments', self-help and Kerouac-inspired memoir, [Greenlights] takes in his remarkable career, finding love and stardom. * Sunday Independent *The Hollywood Star interprets himself. There is derring-do, dope, mayhem and mishaps. * The Times - The Perfect Audiobooks for Lockdown *Enjoyably quirky * Hello! *Gloriously bonkers * Guardian - Best Autobiographies and Memoirs of 2020 *a wild ride through his memories * Evening Standard *His not-quite-memoir offers a smörgåsbord of life lessons, anecdotes . . . It would be hard to finish the book and not warm to its author. * The Observer *

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Book SynopsisA love letter to life on the remote British islands of Shetland and to a wilder way of living, from one of our most celebrated poets.

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Book SynopsisLaughter shakes us out of our deadness. An outburst of spontaneous laughter is an eruption from the unconscious that, like political resistance, poetry, or self-revelation, expresses a provocative, impish drive to burst free from external constraints. Taking laughter’s revelatory capacity as a starting point, and rooted in Nuar Alsadir’s experience as a poet and psychoanalyst, Animal Joy seeks to recover the sensation of feeling alive and embodied. Writing in a poetic, associative style, blending the personal with the theoretical, Alsadir ranges from her experience in clown school, Anna Karenina’s morphine addiction, Freud’s unfreudian behaviors, marriage brokers and war brokers to ‘Not Jokes’, Abu Ghraib, Fanon’s negrophobia, smut, the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, laugh tracks, the problem with adjectives, to how poetry can wake us up. At the centre of the book, though, is the author’s relationship with her daughters, who erupt into the text like sudden, unexpected laughter. These interventions – frank, tender, and always a challenge to the writer and her thinking – are like tiny revolutions, pointedly showing the dangers of being severed from our True Self and hinting at ways we might be called back to it. A bold and insatiably curious prose debut, Animal Joy is an ode to spontaneity and feeling alive.Trade Review‘To read Animal Joy is to become alive to the condition of wakefulness in the world. This spectacular achievement by the psychoanalyst and writer Nuar Alsadir provokes and destabilizes our understanding of a life’s competing narratives. I can think of no other contemporary work of nonfiction that brings together autobiography, a learned history of psychoanalysis, lyrical poetics, ontological investigations of our attempt to manage our own feelings, with such astute engagement. This is a work that will change conversations about who we are, what we think motivates us, what makes us us. The meeting place of the intentional and the unintentional erupts in Animal Joy in order that we might reinvestigate our incoming thoughts and feelings with a sense of vigor and curiosity. If you are open to introducing “tiny revolutions” of thought into your life by resisting received and uninterrogated scripts, read this book.’ — Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen‘Reading this book you are on a joy ride with the mind of a free thinker who will surprise you, make you laugh uncontrollably, and trouble you until you come out changed.’ — Orna Guralnik, Psychologist, Psychoanalyst, Couples Therapy (BBC)‘Few things feel as important right now as what Nuar Alsadir is thinking about in her brilliant new book. She considers the ways in which, despite our most determined curation of our public-faces, and despite our approval-seeking and plain old quotidian bullshittery, laughter reveals to us (and sometimes others) what we might really feel.’ — Ross Gay, author of The Book of Delights‘Nuar Alsadir has wandered fearlessly through the wordless regions of everyday life and returned intact, bearing this exhilaratingly personal and artful weave of stories and meditations. As precise as it is lyrical, Animal Joy invites us to attend anew to human feelings, those elusive, barely noticed entities transmitting everywhere, all the time, “with a frequency outside of measurement.”’ — Josh Cohen, author of Not Working‘Nuar Alsadir’s lyrical, hilarious and beautifully undefended meditation has the capacity to widen our consciousness to allow notice of what occurs in the interstices of attention and mortification. In that way, Animal Joy is a book that seems compassionately able to read us as we turn its pages.’ — Jonathan Lethem‘A genuine masterpiece. Nuar Alsadir’s Animal Joy might be the best thing I’ve ever read on psychoanalysis and its deep connection to living a full, real, embodied life. Utterly compelling, radical, dizzyingly original, and beautiful, this is the work of a writer at the height of their powers.’ — Rebecca Tamás, author of Strangers‘Gorgeously written and by turns hilarious and crushing, Alsadir’s examination of humanity’s “savage complexity” is not to be missed.’ — Publishers Weekly ‘It will leave you feeling enlightened and emboldened, and will even make you laugh.’ — Observer‘Nuar Alsadir’s Animal Joy is extravagant with revelations. Alsadir reads the human psyche with brilliant rigor and generosity, patiently prodding underneath the surface of human behavior, language, politics and race to get at the root of the real. After I finished Animal Joy, I came away feeling more awake, more present, and more connected to myself and the world.’ — Cathy Park Hong, author of Minor Feelings‘Through the awesome and heterogeneous study of this book, laughter at first feels like the most enigmatic act, a convulsing creature in the psyche, in the home, in awkward publics, but then it is returned to us as the most true form of comprehension; an animal attitude to reality, a culturing note of corpsing, creasing and cracking up, that snags on the meaning of everything.’ — Holly Pester, author of Comic Timing‘Where do laughter, psychoanalysis, poetry, motherhood, creativity, thought, language, and so much more intersect? In Animal Joy Nuar Alsadir shows us in dazzling fashion, demonstrating what only the essay form, in the hands of a true artist, critic, and thinker, can achieve.’ — John Keene, author of Counternarratives‘Alsadir’s Granta essay on the emotional flagellation of clowning is one of the best pieces of writing I have ever read, and her longer interrogation into the act—and release—of laughing is equally powerful and moving.’ — Courtney Maum, Literary Hub ‘Expansive and erudite. . . . Watching the motion of [Alsadir’s] mind across her capacious subject matter is captivating.’ — Kathleen Rooney, Liber

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Book SynopsisAn updated edition of The Shed That Fed A Million Children first published in 2015.The original book tells the incredible story of how Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, a quiet, unassuming fish farmer from Argyll, Scotland, became the international CEO of a global school-feeding charity.At that time, Mary's Meals was feeding a million children every school day in some of the poorest countries of the world.Fast forward six years and that figure has now doubled to more than 2 million children who now receive Mary's Meals daily in their place of education.In this edition, which features an additional chapter as well as a new preface and epilogue, Magnus brings the story right up-to-date, recounting how the continued growth of the international movement has been made possible, thanks to a global legion of staff, volunteers and supporters. Their unwavering commitment, dedication and continued little acts of love' have created an organisation that now holds the key to eradicating child hunger altogeTrade Review‘MacFarlane-Barrow … writes simply, modestly andmovingly. It is a book full of kindness that stirs you, on everypage, to want to be better.’ Independent ‘It is a remarkably straightforward aim, but one that changeslives.’ Telegraph ‘The power of the message lay in its simplicity and the no-frills ethos … inscribed on Magnus’ heart.’ Daily Record ‘Mary’s Meals has come of age by holding firm to its governing values, negotiating corrupt regimes, poor infrastructure,natural disasters and even Ebola to keep on feeding some ofthe world’s poorest people.’ Scotsman

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Book SynopsisGeorge Orwell's searing account of working-class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire in the 1930s, The Road to Wigan Pier is a brilliant and bitter polemic that has lost none of its political impact over timeOrwell's graphically unforgettable descriptions of social injustice, cramped slum housing, dangerous mining conditions, squalor, hunger and growing unemployment are written with unblinking honesty, fury and great humanity. It crystallized the ideas that would be found in his later works and novels, and remains a powerful portrait of poverty, injustice and class divisions in Britain.Includes illustrations, explanatory footnotes, and an introduction by Richard Hoggart

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Book SynopsisBlockbusting film GOLDA starring Helen Mirren is out now''The gripping memoir of a remarkable woman who rose to the top in a man''s world. A compelling political story of courage and struggle, power and leadership, war and crisis - and the making of Israel. A classic of 20th century history'' Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY''A remarkable, almost incredible personal history ... stimulating and fascinating'' IRISH TIMES''A rare and wholly unforgettable work'' SATURDAY REVIEWWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY JULIA NEUBERGERGolda Meir was without doubt one of the most incredible women of her - and any - time. Born in 1898 in Kyiv, she was the daughter of an impoverished carpenter - and became the first (and only) female Prime Minister of Israel. Meir''s earliest memory is of her father boarding up the front door in response to rumours of an imminent pogrom. The family emigrated to the US and fTrade ReviewThe gripping memoir of a remarkable woman who rose to the top in a man's world. A compelling political story of courage and struggle, power and leadership, war and crisis - and the making of Israel. A classic of 20th century history -- Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHYA remarkable, almost incredible personal history ... stimulating and fascinating * IRISH TIMES *Remarkable ... a book to be read * SPECTATOR *A trailblazing leader ... her legacy and impact remain alive in the hearts and deeds of all those whom she inspired -- Hillary Rodham ClintonMany of us have long regarded Mrs Golda Meir as by far the most formidable woman leader in the public life of our times. This book proves it. It is an astonishing record of courage, iron determination and achievement ... compulsory reading and of absorbing interest * BOOKS AND BOOKMEN *A rare and wholly unforgettable work * SATURDAY REVIEW *A story of a girl cowering from a pogrom who grew up to pioneer a new state and become its prime minister must be fantastical. But it's not. Here, in her own passionate words, Golda Meir gives us the astonishing story of her life and of her role in the making of the nation that realized the 2,000 year-old dream of the Jewish people. -- Pamela S. Nadell, author of America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today

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