Memoirs Books

Book SynopsisFor most of his adult life, Peter Morrell followed a career in the Law. Qualified as a solicitor in 1970, he switched to being a barrister in 1974, enjoyed a busy practice as an advocate, mainly in the East Midlands, and was appointed a Circuit Judge in 1992. After he retired from the Circuit Bench in 2009, he continued to sit as a Mental Health Review Judge until his seventieth birthday in May 2014. However, before he became a lawyer and ever since, he has engaged with areas that have interested him unconnected with the Law. Reminiscences of a Nearly Somebody comprises five adventures. It opens with Wandervogel, which describes a walk Peter took in 1963, aged 18, alone through the Rhineland and the Black Forest, in what was then West Germany, where memories of World War II were still fresh; and often raw. In 1970, he embarked upon a political career, which Hustings charts from his role as a Conservative Party constituency treasurer, through his unsuccessful campaign in 1972 for election to the Peterborough City Council, to the Three-Day-Week general election of February 1974, when he stood as the Conservative candidate in the strongly Labour mining constituency of Ilkeston, Derbyshire. From very early, he aspired to be an author and Scribbling describes his efforts, culminating in the Pepynbridge trilogy of novels, published between 2015 and 2016; and, in 2018, a collection of his sermons, From the Pulpit, Home and Abroad. In Robed, he records how, following a curious interview and during a bizarre ceremony, he shed his barrister's gown in favour of a Circuit Judge's robe. In July 2008, Peter was ordained to the Anglican diaconate and, in the following year, to the Anglican priesthood. In Collared, he charts why and how that happened and shares some tales from his ministry, both before ordination, when he was a reader, and afterwards, as deacon and priest. Anecdotal, self-deprecating and sometimes humorous, Reminiscences of a Nearly Somebody tell of polymathic serendipity, all too rare in today's world of narrow specialism. Peter is married to Mary. They have two grown-up daughters and a granddaughter and live in isolated rusticity in East Northamptonshire.

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Book SynopsisMental health has become an unseen epidemic over recent years. A disease that society struggles to accept and deal with. But where does the failure to accept normal life end and poor mental health begin? And who is accountable? Mental as Anything is a glimpse into my life. A life that, objectively, is neither ordinary nor exceptional, but is the one I have navigated. A life of experiences and challenges that have shaped me and brought me to my knees. This novel tells my story through the eyes of the person I have become over the past three years. This individual was not who I am, but instead was the culmination of three factors. The behaviour of a minority of society's members. My ability to accept. My ability to rebuild.

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Book SynopsisExpansive, sun-drenched spaces, unobstructed views to the outdoors and easy-going comfort - coastal design captures the spirit and escapism of seaside living. Illustrated with breathtaking interiors and inspirational showpiece homes, Interior Style: Coastal traces the evolution of the aesthetic from the white villas of the Riviera to the California Look of the USA''s West Coast. With in-depth professional advice on how to use elements such as colour, texture and pattern, you will discover how to bring the tranquillity of coastal life into your home.

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Book SynopsisThe New York Times bestseller'You'll laugh like a drain' StylistSharp and hilariously funny advice for growing up female from the Netflix star of Always Be My MaybeDear Girls is Ali Wong's collection of heartfelt and hilarious letters to her daughters covering everything they need to know in life, like the unpleasant details of dating, how to be a working mum in a male-dominated profession and how she trapped their dad. She shares the wisdom she's learned from a life in comedy and reveals stories from her life off stage, including the brutal single life in New York (and the inevitable confrontation with erectile dysfunction), reconnecting with her roots (and drinking snake blood) in Vietnam and parenting war stories. Ali Wong's letters are absurdly funny, surprisingly moving and enlightening (and gross) for all.Trade ReviewSometimes you just need a really entertaining read that'll make you laugh like a drain. A lot. Ali Wong's Dear Girls has you covered . . . Wong transfers her stand-up persona to the page with verve and joy while sending straight-talking letters of wisdom to her two girls * * Stylist * *Knife-sharp . . . a genuine pleasure * * New York Times * *Hilariously inappropriate. Please write a Dear Girls 2, Ali * * Vogue UK * *Hilarious, brilliant and touching -- PATTON OSWALTDear Girls is not so much a real-talk handbook as it is a myth-puncturing manifesto * * Vogue * *Dear Girls can be crude and flippant, LOL-dense and breezy . . . [but] she is also sneakily thoughtful about the public roles she occupies . . . Wong's daughters should consider themselves lucky to have a self-made, cultural touchstone for a mother * * Washington Post * *Refreshing, hilarious, and honest . . . Yes, this book is addressed to Wong's daughters, but every reader will find nuggets of wisdom and inspiration and, most important, something to laugh at * * Bustle * *A frank and hilarious journey through the messiness of life, from one of comedy's finest * * The Skinny * *Raunchy, sweet and wise all at the same time * * NPR * *Through the bravado and jokes, [Wong] still reveals very vulnerable sides of herself and her past . . . Her voice is so strong and unique and enjoyable and her thoughts about being raised Asian in America provoked a storm of thoughts * * Literary Hub * *

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Book SynopsisTHE SALTIRE'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEARA GUARDIAN'S BEST MEMOIR AND BIOGRAPHY OF 2022 'Remarkable' The Times'Achingly beautiful' GuardianBeautiful in unusual and wonderful ways' Rebecca SolnitThis book is about two unlikely friends. One born in 1970s Britain to Indian immigrant parents, the other arrived from Nazi Germany in 1939, fleeing persecution.This is a story of migration, racism, family, belonging, grief and resilience. It is about the state we're in now and the ways in which we carry our pasts into our futures.Trade ReviewHomelands is beautiful in unusual and wonderful ways, beyond the grace and magic when its prose rises almost to poetry. It is an extravagant exploration of the imaginative possibilities of empathy, of how a friendship can build a bridge across differences in origins and age, how you can enter into another life, why you should, what happens when you do -- REBECCA SOLNITRemarkable * * The Times * *A fabulous piece of work -- CAL FLYNAchingly beautiful * * Guardian * *A spellbinding story of triumph and tragedy, war and sanctuary, emigration and belonging. Fans of Sebald and De Waal are going to love this -- GAVIN FRANCISAn eloquent testament to the tribulations of national belonging * * New Statesman * *A deeply reflective and moving account of a remarkable friendship that bridges a century. Homelands is at once meditative and urgent, humane and journalistic. I learned so much in these pages, and yet couldn't stop smiling at the simple strokes: the love, the kindness, the unlikely places friendship blooms -- DINA NAYERIVivid storytelling . . . Ramaswamy reflects with dreamlike clarity on memory and transience * * Observer * *An astonishing read. It brings all the verve, drama and detail of fiction writing and the solid thinking and reflection of the best non-fiction. What an achievement -- PRIYAMVADA GOPALIt is Henry's life story which is the gripping heart of the matter . . . immersive * * Scotsman * *

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Book SynopsisIn the Footsteps of a Roman Legion - Walking the Via Egnatia (2021) On a blistering September morning in 2016, intrepid friends in their sixties – Kim and Pat – set off on foot from Durrës, Albania towards Istanbul, Turkey. Tracing the route of a Roman road, the Via Egnatia, they dedicate their endeavour to raising funds for refugee relief. Owing to a guidebook that overstates amenities, the trek becomes more challenging than expected. As they negotiate hurdles, test their endurance, and encounter human smugglers and feral dogs, an indomitable sense of humour, a personified GPS, and an imagined Roman legionnaire see them through daily adventures. The Via Egnatia holds over two thousand years of stories - of soldiers, merchants, farmers, refugees and travellers. And this is a gripping one – two travellers (sometimes three?) meet both generous hospitality and surprising hostility with resilience, cold beer and hot coffee. Atlas in one hand and this book in the other - I was transported! Evelyn Gillespie, owner Laughing Oyster Bookshop, Comox Valley. Fun, funny, and endlessly thought-provoking, Kim Letson pulls no punches as she explores some of the bumpier corners of humanity, all while finding the time to celebrate life’s small, simple pleasures. If you like the idea of lacing up your shoes to embark on a grand adventure from the comforts of your favourite reading chair, you couldn’t pick a more capable guide than Letson. Brimming with passion for the road less travelled, Kim Letson has written a page-turner. Joshua Levy, CBC/QWF Writer in Residence 2018, winner of the CBC/QWF Fiction Prize, Prairie Fire Nonfiction Prize, CNFC/Carte Blanche Nonfiction Prize, Grain Fiction Prize, and SLS Nonfiction Prize, poet. Kim Letson first presented her Via Egnatia journey in various draft forms to our writing group. Now, in this compelling book, we accompany her and Pat as they tramp through three Balkan states on their way to Turkey. Readers will learn about Albania’s concrete bunkers as the adventurers endure blisters, encounter poisonous vipers, vicious dogs, human traffickers and armed helicopters before finally relaxing in a steaming Istanbul hammam. Thank you, Kim, for including us on your intrepid walk. Janet Miller, past-president Comox Valley Writer’s Society, author.

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Book SynopsisA young lad, brought up in a working-class area of Liverpool. Early family tragedies contributed to mischievous teenage years and confrontation with the law courts. Escape came in the form of joining the Royal Navy, which led to a life of love, humour and adventure. Finding the love of his life at an early age he treasured his family, especially after experiencing the horrors of war. An amusing, compelling story of achievement and fulfilment told straight from the heart.Table of ContentsTHE EARLY YEARS 1 LIFE AT SEA 30 TRAINING 30 HMS ROOKE 44 HMS PENELOPE 51 HMS CORUNNA 68 HMS HAMPSHIRE 80 FLEET MAINTENANCE GROUP (FMG) ROSYTH 105 HMS NUBIAN 109 ASSOUTH NAPLES 141 HMS NUBIAN (2nd time round) 172 HMS SIRIUS 174 HMS ARGONAUT - THE TRUTH 190 HMS CAMPERDOWN 230 HMS GUERNSEY 233 SHORESIDE 252 FULL CIRCLE 318 THE TWILIGHT YEARS 325 ANNEX 339 POEMS & THOUGHTS 339

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Book Synopsis20th Anniversary Edition with an introduction by Frances Wilson From a childhood of gothic proportions, through teenage pregnancy in the 1960s, Lorna Sage vividly and wittily brings to life a vanished time and place and illuminates the lives of three generations of women in one of the most critically acclaimed memoirs of all time. Lorna Sage’s outstanding memoir of childhood and adolescence brings to life her eccentric family and bizarre upbringing in rural Wales. The period is evoked through a wickedly funny and deeply intelligent account: from the 1940s, dominated for Lorna by her dissolute but charismatic vicar grandfather; through the 1950s, where the invention of fish fingers revolutionised the lives of housewives like Lorna’s mother; to the brink of the 1960s, where Lorna’s pregnancy at 16 outraged those around her, an event her grandmother blamed on the fiendish invention of sex. Bad Blood vividly and wittily explores a vanished time and place, and illuminates the lives of three generations of women.Trade Review‘In a class of its own … It is a measure of her achievement that she can turn the peculiarities of her own past – and they are peculiar – into a narrative that speaks for the whole of post-war Britian … This is not just an exquisite personal memoir, it is a vital piece of our collective past.’ Daily Telegraph ‘A wonderful book. Women need this kind of book but perhaps men need it more, to give the sort of understanding which we still lack of how girls actually grow up.’ Margaret Forster ‘This could have been the saddest book you have ever read, but because of Lorna Sage’s relish in the details, her exuberant celebration of the vitality of this clever, surviving girl, it is as enjoyable a book as I remember reading.’Doris Lessing '[a] rich, justly acclaimed autobiography … this almost perfect memoir is a tribute to imperfection' Independent 'An almost unbearably eloquent memoir … Bad Blood is also a tale of shared consciousness, and although the lives Sage describes clash with and limit her own, there is much that is redemptive here, and even elegiac' Frances Wilson, Guardian

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Book SynopsisMatt Seaton’s critically acclaimed memoir about his obsession for cycling and how that obsession was tamed. For a time there were four bikes in Matt Seaton’s life. His evenings were spent 'doing the miles' on the roads out of south London and into the hills of the North Downs and Kent Weald. Weekends were taken up with track meets, time trials and road races – rides that took him from cold village halls at dawn and onto the empty bypasses of southern England. With its rituals, its code of honour and its comradeship, cycling became a passion that bordered on possession. It was at once a world apart, private to its initiates and, through the races he rode in Belgium, Mallorca and Ireland, a passport to an international fraternity. But then marriage, children and his wife's illness forced a reckoning with real life and, ultimately, a reappraisal of why cycling had become so compelling in the first place. Today, those bikes are scattered, sold, or gathering dust in an attic. Wry, frank and elegiac, ‘The Escape Artist’ is a celebration of an amateur sport and the simple beauty of cycling. It is also a story about the passage from youth to adulthood, about what it means to give up something fiercely loved in return for a kind of wisdom.Trade Review'As poignant an elegy as I have ever read. I finished the last chapters of this book just before I went to sleep, and in the morning, with a swoop of grief in my guts, it was the first thing I thought of.'Toby Clements, Daily Telegraph ‘Thoroughly tragic and almost brilliant. The Escape Artist is an achingly sad account of what Seaton now refers to as 'my former life.'Robert MacFarlane, Observer 'A heart-stopping examination of how, why and for what we push ourselves to the edge. I never thought I'd cry about bikes and cycling. It is one of those rare books you could give to absolutely anyone – and one you'll want to keep by you and read again and again.'Julie Myerson ‘This book is, above all, about passion and loss. It's about the passion of life at the very edge of athletic and mechanical achievement that is eventually lost to love of a wife and children, which in turn gives way to the loss of the wise and mother herself. I read and relished this book.'Jon Snow, Guardian

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Book SynopsisProfessor Eda Sagarra, born in 1933, has been significant and influential figure in Irish and European academic policy-making, contributing to the early development of the Erasmus scheme. Now, aged nearly 88, this memoir gives striking evidence of her self-discipline and formidable energy. This substantial memoir by one of the foremost female academics in Ireland starts with Sagarra's own perspective on committing her life story to history during the pandemic lockdown of 2020: The following memoir recalls for those born in the present century and schooled without the strong sense of Irish history, which defined our people from the Great Famine of the 1840s until recent times, what it was like to grow up as a woman in the twentieth century and seek a career in a man's world. It tries to re-capture as much what it felt like to the person experiencing it as what was happening in society. Younger people today who read of the restrictions to which women were subject in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, will find it difficult to comprehend why our generation and the one that followed ours didn't challenge them. But probably the greatest contrast between the Ireland of then and now was the room for manoeuvre - or rather the absence of it. Today our lives are premised on a constantly changing world. Ireland is more connected across the globe than ever it was. Today most people are mobile. The Ireland when I was young was in almost every respect a static, hierarchical and paternalist society, one in which the accident of your birth would generally determine your whole life. No life is representative, but every person's experience is unique and worth recording for those who come after us. A south Dublin convent girl, Sagarra probes childhood and family, schooling, and UCD -with a perceptive commentary on the Ireland of the 1930s and 1940s. Her remarkable memory and shrewd eye for detail present at times a painfully honest account of family and in the upper middle-class world of Catholic south Dublin, revealing the profound influence of Europe during her postgraduate years in post-war Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Running through this forensic account of her academic life is a bitter awareness of the constant if subtle barriers to female advancement. For contemporary critics reconstructing the history of gender equality in Ireland and for readers of feminist history, this makes for essential reading. Her description of retirement since 1997 is colourful, poignant and revealing, and her reflections on old age and youth resonate.Trade ReviewPeppered generously with self-effacing humour ... a detailed social history as well as a personal memoir, it reminds us that while real gender equality still eludes us, we've come a long way. Anne Cunningham, Sunday Independent

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Book SynopsisRiverdance exploded across the stage at Dublin's Point Theatre one spring evening in 1994 during a seven-minute interval of the Eurovision Song Contest hosted by Ireland. It was a watershed moment in the cultural history of a country embracing the future, a confident leap into world music grounded in the footfall of the choreographed kick-line. It was a moment forty-five years in the making for its composer. In this tenderly unfurled memoir Bill Whelan rehearses a lifetime of unconscious preparation as step by step he revisits his past, from with his Barrington Street home in 1950s Limerick, to the forcing ground of University College Dublin and the Law Library during the 1960s, to his attic studio in Ranelagh. Along the way the reader is introduced to people and places in the immersive world of fellow musicians, artists and producers, friends and collaborators, embracing the spectrum of Irish music as it broke boundaries, entering the global slipstream of the 1980s and 1990s. As art and commerce fused, dramas and contending personalities come to view behind the arras of stage, screen and recording desk. Whelan pays tribute to a parade of those who formed his world. He describes the warmth and sustenance of his Limerick childhood, his parents and Denise Quinn, won through assiduous courtship; the McCourts and Jesuit fathers of his early days, the breakthrough with a tempestuous Richard Harris who summoned him to London; Danny Doyle, Shay Healy, Dickie Rock, Planxty, The Dubliners and Stockton's Wing, Noel Pearson, Sean O Riada; working with Jimmy Webb, Leon Uris, The Corrs, Paul McGuinness, Moya Doherty, John McColgan, Jean Butler and Michael Flatley. Written with wry, inimitable Irish humour and insight, Bill Whelan's self deprecation allows us to to see the players in all their glory, vulnerability and idiosyncracy. This fascinating work reveals the nuts, bolts, sheer effort and serendipities that formed the road to Riverdance in his reinvention of the Irish tradition for a modern age. As the show went on to perform to millions worldwide, Whelan was honoured with a 1997 Grammy Award when Riverdance was named the 'Best Musical Show Album.' Richly detailed and illustrated, The Road to Riverdance forms an enduring repository of memory for all concerned with the performing arts.Trade ReviewIRISH TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2023

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Book SynopsisArnold Marsh, son of Belfast tin-factory owner born in 1890, is best remembered as an educationist and headmaster of Newtown Quaker School in Waterford, Ireland. His life also saw him travel widely, leaving Canada to work in a gold mine in Northern Ontario, on railway construction in British Columbia, and in a lumber camp in Alaska where he met Scandinavians, Chinese and Japanese, Russians and a Finn who learned language after language so that he could read different versions of the Bible. There he encountered the racism experienced by native Alaskans treated as foreigners in their own country. In 1917, once war was declared in the United States, Marsh sailed from Alaska to California where he played an extra in the Douglas Fairbanks movie A Modern Musketeer. He was eventually ‘inducted’ into the US Army at Camp Lewis, Washington, and was sent to France to join the front line beset by Spanish Flu. After peace was declared, Marsh returned to Ireland where he cycled 1200 miles around Ireland on a ‘Grand Tour’. Returning to his first love, education, he got a job in the Friends School, Lisburn, becoming headmaster in 1926. At that time, he observed that Irish Protestants were pessimistic about their future, many sending their children to English schools. Numbers at Newtown had fallen to twenty pupils and the buildings were dilapidated. In sympathy with the new post-1916 independent Ireland, Marsh took immediate steps to improve the school’s conditions, and during his tenure, numbers grew to 300–400 pupils. His fresh ideas about multi-denominational education took inspiration from his own schooldays at Sidcot in England: ‘The masters were our friends. We could look up to them and enjoy their company. … I got a great deal out of being away for those years, doing other work and getting to know other people. With my students I discussed the whole social system, trying to get people to think things out afresh.’ He married the distinguished portrait painter Hilda Roberts and they, with their daughter Eithne, settled at the foot of the Dublin mountains in Woodtown Park during the late 1930s, building a community of like-minded tenants and idealists drawn from all over Europe. In his later years, he was inspired to write his memoir, illustrated with postcards, letters and photographs describing his journeys and adventures in North America, and his experiences as a headmaster. In 1976, a year before his death aged eighty-six, he was still splitting and sawing logs for the fire, recalling his early career as a lumberjack in Alaska those fateful years ago.

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Book SynopsisI was born in a tenement flat in the East End of London in the year in which Queen Victoria died.'FOUR MEALS FOR FOURPENCE is Grace Foakes's memories of her girlhood in Wapping in the early 1900s. With a child's uncluttered eye, she describes the small details - shopping in the market, men waiting for work at the dock gates, the rituals of washday, the sights, sounds and smells of the old East End of London. She also describes the fear - of illness, of unemployment, of the workhouse - that hung over her family and thousands like them, and her determination that her own children would never know the kind of poverty she had experienced.

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Book Synopsis'The introductory account of Mr. Brunton's pony-back journey up the mountainside has real charm. One of his most interesting chapters gives a practical-minded consideration to the probable future of Tibet.' New York TimesPaul Brunton was one of a very small number of his generation to travel in India and Tibet so extensively at a time when very few were doing so with such insight and discernment. His journalistic skills produced magnificent descriptions of the snowy peaks and high-desert landscapes of the Himalayan region, but it was the lessons he learned from the holy men he met on his journey that transformed him into one of the great interpreters of the East. In this magnificent spirituality classic, he explains that we all need 'oases of calm in a world of storm', no matter what era we are living in, and that to retreat from our everyday lives for a while is not weakness but strength. By taking the trouble to discover the deep silence within us we will find the benefits of being linked to an 'infinite power, an infinite wisdom, an infinite goodness'. A Hermit In The Himalayas is a fascinating blend of travel writing and profound spiritual experience. As we accompany the author on his journey through the vast Himalayas ranges towards Mount Kailas in Tibet, he also shows us an even more remarkable - and timeless - inner path which will help us cope with the ups and downs of our contemporary world.Trade ReviewHis work is excellent. It has life, colour, movement * The Times *He has a really unusual gift for describing the majesty of the mountains, stark or snow-bound, under sun, moon and stars...his feeling and his vision are fresh. * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisA Guardian biography of the year 2022 Non-Fiction winner of the OCM Bocas Prize for Literature 2023 This frank, fearless and multi-layered debut centres on a privileged but dysfunctional Indian family, with themes of empire, migration, race, and gender. The Victorian India elephant in the room in Ira Mathur's silk-swathed memoir is in chains. By the time calypso replaces the Raj in post-colonial Trinidad, the chains are off three generations of daughters and mothers in a family in their New World exile. But they are still stuck in place and enduring insecurity and threats, seen and unseen. Set in India, England, Trinidad and a weekend in St Lucia, with Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, Love the Dark Days follows the story of a girl, Poppet, of mixed middle-class Hindu and Elite Muslim parentage from post- independent India to her family's migration to post-colonial Trinidad. Profoundly raw, unflinching, layered, but not without threads of humour and perceived absurdity, Love the Dark Days reassembles the story of a disintegrating Empire. "Reads like a fictional family saga as it leaps back and forth in time against a backdrop of patriarchal hegemony and a collapsing empire" - Guardian Best Biographies of 2022 "Compelling" The Observer "A gem of a memoir... Monique Roffey is spot on when she calls it a blaze of a book" The BooksellerTrade Review"Love The Dark Days" listed among the best memoirs/biographies for 2022 - The Guardian,; "Love the Dark Days is a troubled and troubling book, a heady brew that stays with you." - The Daily Telegraph.; "A beautiful, beautiful book ... a wonderful read." Michael Portillo - Times Radio.; "A moving book about mothers and daughters in post-colonial India Anita Rani, Woman's Hour BBC R4.; "This brave and inspiring feminist critique of patriarchy and gender oppression has wonderful promise as a biting movie adaptation for the #MeToo era."- Hollywood Reporter.; "I was transported by this gem of a memoir." The Bookseller.

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Book Synopsis'Liberating and life affirming' Fearne Cotton 'A thrilling, tender, utterly absorbing book. It's an unforgettable debut' Cheryl StrayedA soul-stirring read for the wanderer in each of us, To Shake the Sleeping Self is an unforgettable reflection on adventure, identity and a life lived without regret.On the eve of turning thirty, terrified of being funnelled into a life he didn't choose, Jedidiah Jenkins quit his dream job and spent sixteen months cycling from Oregon to Patagonia. He chronicled the trip online, where his photos and reflections drew hundreds of thousands of followers, all gathered around the question: What makes a life worth living?Trade ReviewI am in awe ... you must pick up a copy. It's liberating and life affirming in multiple ways -- Fearne CottonThrilling, tender, utterly absorbing ... Every chapter shimmered with truth ... An unforgettable debut -- Cheryl Strayed, author of WildThought-provoking and inspirational . . . This uplifting memoir and travelogue will remind readers of the power of movement for the body and the soul * Publishers Weekly *Jedidiah Jenkins is a storyteller and one of those humans that makes everything about them seem inviting * USA Today *Jedidiah Jenkins is a mystic disguised as a millennial -- Tom Shadyac, author of Life's Operating Manual

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Book Synopsis***A SUNDAY TIMES AND INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR AND INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER***The bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I've Loved) asks, how do you move forward with a life you didn't choose?Hailed by Glennon Doyle as 'the Christian Joan Didion', Kate Bowler used to accept the modern idea that life is an endless horizon of possibilities, a series of choices which if made correctly, would lead us to a place just out of our reach. A beach body by summer. A trip to Disneyland around the corner. A promotion on the horizon. But then at thirty-five she was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer, and now she has to ask one of the most fundamental questions of all: How do we create meaning in our lives when the life we hoped for is put on hold indefinitely?In No Cure for Being Human, Kate searches for a way forward as she mines the wisdom (and absurdity) of our modern 'best life now' advice industry, which offers us exhausting positivity, trying to convince us that we can out-eat, out-learn and out-perform our humanness. With dry wit and unflinching honesty she grapples with her cancer diagnosis, her ambition and her faith and searches for some kind of peace with her limitations in a culture that says that anything is possible.Frank and funny, dark and wise, Kate's irreverent, hard-won observations in No Cure For Being Human chart a bold path towards learning new ways to live.Trade ReviewA clear-eyed, beautifully written account of coming to terms with that fact that "so often the experiences that define us are the ones we didn't pick" * The Sunday Times *'Dry, witty and compassionate; a balm for the prickly soul' * The Independent *A breathtaking, utterly beautiful memoir about what it means to be human. No Cure for Being Human reminds us of all the horrors and beauty of this precious life. Kate Bowler is an incredible writer with something important to tell us. I'll be pressing this book into the hands of everyone I know, and I'll be hugging my kids so hard tonight too. * Christie Watson, bestselling author of The Language of Kindness and The Courage to Care *I began reading No Cure for Being Human after dinner one evening and didn't move until I finished the last gorgeous page. As I finally put this masterpiece down, I thought: Kate Bowler is the only one we can trust to tell us the truth. Bowler is a prophet and her new offering is another true gift to the world. This book will open minds and warm hearts. * Glennon Doyle, bestselling author of Untamed *If you want your life changed and your heart expanded - and to laugh - read this amazing, amazing book. * Julia Samuel, bestselling author of Grief Works and This Too Shall Pass *

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Book SynopsisFrom the international bestselling author of Gomorrah, this is a deeply personal and candid portrait of Italy today: a place of trafficking and toxic waste, where votes can be bought and sold, where organized crime ravages both north and south - yet also where many courageous individuals defy the system, and millions work tirelessly for a better future. 'Saviano is a blazingly vivid and courageous writer' Independent 'A national hero' Umberto Eco'Saviano has an astonishing ability to write luminously yet subtly about terrible things' Le Parisien 'Brave and passionate' Guardian 'One of the world's finest investigative journalists' GQTrade ReviewA symbol of the writer as crusader; brave, unyielding, shining a light into some of the world's darkest corners. -- Josh Glancy * The Times *After reading Saviano, it becomes impossible to see Italy, and the global market, in the same way again. * The New York Times *Saviano is a blazingly vivid and courageous writer. * Independent *A national hero. -- Umberto EcoBrave and passionate. * Guardian *

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Book Synopsis‘Ach cérbh í Peig Sayers?’ Níorbh í in aon chor an tseanbhean ologónach í ar chuir na glúnta de dhaltaí scoile aithne uirthi. Is léir ó chuntais uathu siúd arbh eol dóibh í gur bhean ghrámhar thuisceanach í a raibh acmhainn grinn inti; bean a fuair blas ar ghal tobac agus ar bhraoinín fuisce, agus a bhí oilte ar chraiceann a chur ar scéal. Saolaíodh Peig i nDún Chaoin i gCo. Chiarraí i 1873. Thug sí bua na scéalaíochta léi óna hathair agus tugadh a sárchuimhne agus an lé a bhí aici le comhluadar faoi deara go luath. Phós sí iascaire ón mBlascaod agus chaith sí saol cruógach i dteaghlach líonmhar ag déanamh cúraim don seisear leanbh léi a mhair. Tugann Labharfad le Cách le chéile den chéad uair na taifeadtaí a thóg an BBC agus RTÉ uaithi i 1946, 1947 agus 1953, mar aon le haistriúcháin Bhéarla orthu. Léiríonn siad fairsinge repertoire Pheig idir scéalta cráifeacha, paidreacha, scéalta rómánsacha, scéalta faoin osádúr agus cuntais ar an saol a caitheadh tráth ar an oileán ach go bhfuil a chuimhne ag dul i léig anois. ‘Who was that Peig Sayers?’ She was anything but the maudlin and old-fashioned Peig remembered by generations of school children. From the descriptions of those who met her, the real Peig emerges as a warm, wise and humorous woman, with an addiction to tobacco, a fondness for a sup of whiskey and a mastery of the art of ‘spin’. Born in Dún Chaoin in County Kerry in 1873, Peig learned the art of storytelling at her father’s knee, and quickly became known for her sociable nature and excellent memory. Marrying a fisherman from the Great Blasket, she enjoyed a full life with a large extended family and the care of her six living children. I Will Speak to You All collects, for the first time, in both Irish and English, the recordings made by the BBC and RTÉ of Peig Sayers in 1946, 1947 and 1953. They illustrate Peig’s repertoire, ranging from religious stories and prayers to humorous, romantic, even supernatural tales, as well as descriptions of an island life that is passing from living memory.

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Book SynopsisNuala O’Faolain’s first memoir Are You Somebody? became a literary sensation and an international bestseller when it was first published by New Island Books in 1996. It launched a new life for its author, at a time when she had long since let go of expectations that anything new could dislodge patterns of regret and solitude. A pioneering work of literary memoir, Almost There opens at that moment when O’Faolain’s life began to change. It tells the story of a life in subtle, radical, and unforeseen renewal. It is a tale of good fortune chasing out bad – of an accidental harvest of happiness. But it is also a provocative examination of one woman’s experience of the ‘crucible of middle age’ – a time of life that faces in two directions, that forges the shape of the years to come, and also clarifies and solidifies one’s relationships to friends and lovers, family and self. Nuala O’Faolain’s final memoir, Almost There chronicles the pursuit of artistic and personal integrity, and what it is to be a woman in contemporary society, with the signature style and raw candidness of her personal writing.Trade ReviewO’Faolain is still that ferociously truth-telling woman … She has a tangy story-telling style, nurtured in a mordant Irish sense of irony and an Oxford-trained sleekness of thought. The most vivid of her recollections have the rush of elegant daydreaming … It is such unrepentant honesty – and her almost childlike determination to do better – that gives her book its strength. * The New York Times Book Review *Disarmingly honest, painfully funny and sharply observant … Almost There is another letter from a wise friend. * USA Today *

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Book SynopsisCherry Denman has spent her life trailing husband Charlie round some of the world's most remote outposts and can ask for the lavatory in eleven languages. While some aspects of living abroad will always puzzle her - saunas, tofu and circumcision, to name just three - she wouldn't have missed it for anything. Lessons learnt range from the practical (possessions belong either in the suitcase or the skip: storage is for wimps), to the truly useful (how to avoid the drinks party bore) and the truly bizarre (the episode with the goat . . .). Charming and witty, these hilarious tales of global misunderstsanding are illustrated with over seventy original line drawings.Trade Review'Charming . . . delightful, a collection of lively, jolly anecdotes [which] can be dipped into as and when you fancy. Cherry is smashing, high-spirited, fond of a good joke, and she can be blissfully rude' * Daily Mail *'Deliciously rude, scandalously funny and crammed with quite interesting bits' * John Lloyd *'This diplomat's wife reveals the riotous truth about their perilous postings' * Mail on Sunday *'Denman's accuracy and effusive wit . . . had me cheering out loud' * The Times *'I can honestly say it's funniest book that I've read for a long time . . . Cherry has obviously revelled in her life abroad, diplomatic or not. Read the book and enjoy' * Oxford Times *

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Book Synopsis'There are not so many places left where magic reigns without interruption and of all those I know, the coast of Lycia was the most magical.' Lycia, on the southwestern coast of Turkey, is an ancient land steeped in mystery, myth and legend. Home to the fiery chimera and to the great heroes Sarpedon and Penderus; heartland of worship for the goddess Leto and her children Apollo and Artemis; old ally of Troy, lure to conquering Cyrus and Alexander and to centuries of travellers, artists and writers - Lycia, part of the 'Turquoise Coast' now attracts more tourists to her glimmering shores than any other part of Turkey. In the early 1950s, following the trail of ancient Persian and Greek traders, Freya Stark set out by boat to explore the Lycian coast. She was guided by the traces of Lycia's rich history and cultural heritage. For all those who now follow in her wake, there can be no better, more evocative or knowledgeable guide to this, Turkey's most enchanting coast.Trade ReviewShe has written the best travel books of her generation and her name will survive as an artist in prose. * The Observer *Table of ContentsIllustrations Maps Foreword by Colin Thubron 1. The Voyage of Elfin 2. Chios: The Defeat of Athens 3. Samos: The Double Code 4. Patmos to Calymos: Time 5. Island Pirates: Adventure 6. Cos to Halicarnassus: Captivity 7. Cnidus: The Persian Governor 8. The Doric Peninsula: Decadence or Transition 9. Loryma: The Persia Gold 10. The Rhodian Peraea: Civilisation and the Middle Class 11. Caunus: Alexander's Road 12. Xanthus: The Lycian Federation 13. Aperlae: Loyalty and the Mercenaries 14. Myra: The Fold 15. The Chelidonian Cape: Magic 16. Chimaera to Phaselis: The Pool of Time Dates References Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAs a child in the 1960s, Luke Jennings was fascinated by the rivers and lakes around his Sussex home. Beneath their surfaces, it seemed to him, waited alien and mysterious worlds. With library books as his guide, he applied himself to the task of learning to fish.His progress was slow, and for years he caught nothing. But then a series of teachers presented themselves, including an inspirational young intelligence officer, from whom he learnt stealth, deception and the art of the dry fly. So began an enlightening but often dark-shadowed journey of discovery. It would lead to bright streams and wild country, but would end with his mentor's capture, torture and execution by the IRA. Blood Knots is about angling, about great fish caught and lost, but it is also about friendship, honour and coming of age. As an adult Jennings has sought out lost and secretive waterways, probing waters 'as deep as England' at dead of night in search of giant pike. The quest, as always, is for more than the living quarry. For only by searching far beneath the surface, Jennings suggests in this most moving and thought-provoking of memoirs, can you connect with your own deep history.Trade Review'Jennings weaves a net to mesh human struggle to the peace of the riverbank.' Guardian 'Beautifully evokes the landscape and lore of a postwar rural childhood.' Andrew Motion 'A book of personal reflection. Jennings's memoir sparkles like a dark trout stream in sunlight.' The Times 'Fabulous... A story of the sudden choices men face... Hours of wit, beauty and reflection.' Observer 'An exquisitely written memoir... springing from a tradition of memoir writing deeply rooted in the natural world.' Daily Telegraph 'Vivid and touching' Tom Fort, Literary Review 'A strange, original, haunting book, I will never pass a stream or a canal without remembering it.' Lynn Barber

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Book SynopsisMike Carney was born on the Great Blasket Island in 1920 in that unique, isolated Irish-speaking community. Mike left in 1937 to seek a better future in Dublin and eventually settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, with other former islanders. The death on the island of his younger brother set off a chain of events that led to its evacuation, in which Mike played a pivotal role. This is the story of his life and his efforts to promote Irish culture in America, to preserve the memory of The Great Blasket, to respect roots left behind and to set down roots in a new land. Written as Mike approached the age of 93, this memoir is probably the last of a long line of books written by Blasket Islanders. * Similar to: An Irish Navvy - the Diary of an Exile and The Hard Road to KlondikeTrade Review"A treasure." * Irish Echo *"Heartfelt account in a simple, charming style." * Irish Examiner *"Spellbinding memoir." * Irish Independent *"Effervescent memoir." * Sunday Business Post *

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Book SynopsisAn emigrant to England in the 1970s, Felicity Hayes-McCoy knew she’d return to Corca Dhuibhne, Ireland’s Dingle peninsula, a place she had fallen in love with at seventeen. Now she and her husband have restored a stone house there, the focus for this chronicle in response to reader requests for an illustrated sequel to her memoir, The House on an Irish Hillside. Enough Is Plenty celebrates the seasonal rhythms in and around the author’s house and garden at the western end of Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula. It is about ordinary small pleasures, such as the smell of freshly baked soda bread, that can easily go unnoticed, and offers recipes from Felicity’s kitchen and information on organic food production and gardening. It views the year from a place where a vibrant 21st-century lifestyle is still marked by Ireland’s Celtic past and the ancient rhythms of Samhain (winter), Imbolc (spring), Bealtaine (summer) and Lughnasa (autumn). In this way of life, health and happiness are rooted in awareness of nature and the environment, and nourishment comes from music, friendship and storytelling as well as from good food. * Foreword by Alice Taylor * Also by this author: A Woven SilenceTrade Review"Cannot help but be drawn into the seasons she depicts through her personal experience." * Ear to the Ground magazine *"Lovely book." * Irish Independent *"Gorgeous book." * Sunday Independent *

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Book SynopsisI love you, no matter what.'An uplifting true story of an ordinary couple who build an extraordinary family, No Matter What describes how Sally and Rob Donovan embark upon a journey to adopt following a diagnosis of infertility.Sally Donovan brings to life with characteristic wit and honesty the difficulties of living with infertility, their decision to adopt and the bewildering process involved. Finally matched with young siblings Jaymey and Harlee, Sally and Rob's joy turns to shock as they discover disturbing details of their children's past and realise that they must do everything it takes to heal their children.By turns tragic, inspiring and hilarious, Sally and Rob's story offers a rare insight into the world of adoptive parents and just what it takes to bring love to the lives of traumatised children.Trade ReviewThis book should be compulsory reading for potential adoptive parents and for those professionals who touch their lives and pretend to understand what the whole experience is about. Sally Donovan's account touches upon the depth of despair, unbearable strain on a small family unit, incompetent or insensitive professionals, and fairly non-existent support. And yet it is full of optimism and hope for the human spirit. -- Young Minds MagazineFor those who already know the author through her adoption blog the brilliance of this book will come as no surprise... Sally Donovan seems to write as naturally as the rest of us breathe, with an eloquence and honesty that makes "No Matter What" totally absorbing. She has a fantastic story to tell that not only speaks to those who have their own adoption experiencer but to any reader who has an interest in rich, articulate personal stories and wants an insight into the life of a normal adoptive family... Much of what Sally writes will be all too familiar to other adoptive parents by the humanity, intelligence and humor of the writing captures the reality of adoptive family life in a truly enthralling way. -- Adoption TodayAs a post adoption social worker, who has also recently worked in a children in care team, this book struck a chord as to how our role impacts on children and adopters... I cannot recommend this book highly enough - it travels with me in my handbag and I sing its praises to whoever will listen! I urge everyone involved in adoption to read this book and to be inspired. -- Community Care Children's Services blogIf you've ever wondered what it's like to adopt, this book holds the answer: it's hard, sometimes traumatic, and far from "normal family life". It's also special, joyful, and utterly transformative - for parents as much as children. Yes our families are different; this book explains in both a moving and matter-of-fact way why we are proud to be so. -- Baroness Oona King, adoptive motherHonest, refreshing, heart-breaking, thought-provoking and inspiring - this is a valuable insight into adoption and the devastating effects of trauma. -- Lorraine Pascale, television presenter, chef and former model, adoptee and TACT patronThis book is sheer therapy for an adopter and enlightenment for anyone who comes into contact with adoption in any way. A must read for parents, schools and authorities. -- Carrie Grant Vocal Coach/TV Presenter, adoptive mother and BAAF adoption championSally Donovan has written a warm, humorous, hard-hitting and compelling story about her own adoption journey. What she says will resonate with the majority of those who have adopted children from care. Ultimately this is an overwhelmingly positive celebration of the transformation that adoption can bring to society's most damaged and vulnerable children, but it also clearly sets out the realities of parenting children affected by early childhood abuse and neglect. Every adopter will be able to recognise some aspect of their own experiences in Sally's story and I would urge every professional working with adopted children -- including health visitors and teachers, as well as social workers - to read this so they know what understanding and support those parenting adopted children need. -- Hugh Thornbery, Chief Executive, Adoption UKNo Matter What is by a long way the best account ever written of the experience of being an adoptive parent and carer of children traumatised by maltreatment. With heart-wrenching candour, it tells the story of a couple's journey through the pain of childlessness, the adoption process, and the lived experience of caring for Jaymey and Harlee whose early lives were 'almost unbearable to read about'. Sally Donovan evokes brilliantly the commitment, energy, therapeutic skill and humanity required to care for and heal children whose past abuse has left them distressed, feeling unworthy and acting out in often chaotic ways. This remarkable book is not only a major contribution to work on child welfare; such is the sheer power and brilliance of the writing that it triumphs as a work of literature, as art. Utterly compelling and humane, No Matter What is essential reading for all those who care for and about vulnerable children, adoption and fostering and who are open to being inspired by the healing power of love. -- Harry Ferguson, Professor of Social Work, University of NottinghamI found this book almost unbearably moving and, ultimately, uniquely uplifting. I have never before read, in a single book, such a compelling portrait of the horrors of child neglect and its consequences, alongside a portrait of the historical inadequacies of adoption assessment and post adoption support. This is a staggeringly vivid account of a heroic struggle by heroic adopters to heal the deep scars of neglect and abuse. I cannot recommend it warmly enough. -- Sir Martin Narey, Government Advisor on Children's Social Care and Visiting Professor, Durham and Sheffield Hallam UniversitiesEveryone should read this funny and deeply moving account of modern adoption: the highs, the lows, the risks and the rewards. Sally's writing is honest, insightful and beautiful to read.I am, and will remain, totally in awe of Sally and her husband Rob. Their empathy and resilience is sure to inspire anyone who reads this book, particularly those thinking about adopting a child.In the most modest, refreshing and unassuming way, Sally gives a voice to everyone struggling with infertility or learning to parent traumatised children. This book is a triumph in so many ways. -- Camilla Pemberton, Children and Families Editor, Community CareWith great humility Sally shares her journey of courage, hope and persistence in boldly loving her children despite the odds, no matter what...Throughout the book I laughed and cried, experiencing the highs and lows of loving children who have lived the unthinkable. For too long adopters walked this journey very much alone. We must now accompany them on this journey, in our neighbourhoods, communities and cities, and within our education, social care and health services. Together we can make a difference; each life is precious, however fragile and different. No Matter What communicates this truth, and is an important contribution at this time of policy change. -- Louise Michelle Bombèr, Adoption Support Teacher for Brighton and Hove, Attachment Support Teacher Therapist for The Yellow Kite Attachment Support ServiceIn No Matter What Sally has written about her adoption journey in a way which enables us to walk in her shoes and those of her children and which is informative and humbling. Anyone associated with children in the care system in any capacity could only benefit from reading this outstanding book. -- Jane Evans, Trauma Parenting and Behaviour Skills Specialist and TrainerNo Matter What pulls no punches in describing Sally and Rob's moving journey of adopting two siblings and the challenges of parenting them in great detail. It is beautifully written with humour and understanding.We learn from Sally that adopting children who have suffered neglect and abuse, requires not only resilient parents but expert advice, support and understanding from a range of professionals and from family and friends.This book is required reading for professionals such as social workers, health professionals, teachers and early years staff. It is also a must for those who want to adopt and for their families as it provides an honest account of the challenges but also the joys of falling in love with your adopted children. We can all learn so much from Sally and Rob's story. -- Sherry Malik, Director of Children and Adult Services in HounslowIt should be compulsory reading for all contemplating work within adoption, or indeed for any moving towards work with young children and their families, whether in social work or education, where children's behaviour can sometimes seem so hard to understand, by where change can only come about through real compassion, intense resilience and unending patience. -- Helen Bonnick, Practice Educator n East London * Professional Social Work *This book is a first-hand narration by Sally Donovan of her and her husband Rob's journey through infertility and the adoption... It is intensely individual story, but this story speaks to very many wider themes... In this book, we see the need for ongoing support for the family, both formal and informal...this book is not only recommended for adopters, social workers, teachers and health professionals (and I recommend it strongly for those groups), but for everyone. -- Sally Holland, CASCADE Children's Social Care Research and Development Centre * British Journal of Social Work *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements. Author's Note. Part 1. Revelations: In the Bad House. Chapter 1. Part 2. Keeping Secrets: Hope and Disappointment. Chapter 2. Chapter 3. Part 3. Planning a Future: Flip Charts and Handouts. Chapter 4. Chapter 5. Chapter 6. Part 4. In the Family Way: Early Days. Chapter 7. Chapter 8. Chapter 9. Part 5. Extreme Times: Life and Loss. Chapter 10. Chapter 11. Part 6. Getting Educated: Learning the Hard Way. Chapter 12. Chapter 13. Chapter 14. Part 7. A Time for Healing: No Matter What. Chapter 15. Chapter 16. Chapter 17. Chapter 18.

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Book SynopsisThe West Highland Way is Scotland's first official Long Distance Route and runs near 100 miles from Milngavie to Fort William. It was nicknamed the 'Way Way' by a trio from Fife who set off to walk it in the year of the Millennium. This is not a guidebook but an account of their experiences, the highs and lows which any challenge presents of their marvellous, surprising, amusing and weird memories. They met many hundreds of people along the way but, naturally, those they recall were the more eccentric. Although the trio never managed another bigger trip together they realize how lucky, and wise, they had been to grab the chance when it came. There is remarkably pleasant rural walking at the start to reach the Highlands at Loch Lomond, fine woodland on its banks and later, the contrast of lonely, empty miles across Rannoch Moor, the Devil's Staircase and the great pass of the Lairig Mor to finish. Encounters with other people are an important part of Long Distance Routes. Anyone who has walked the Way Way (or is planning to do so) will enjoy this story, bringing back plenty of similar memories of people and places, adventures and misadventures. The illustrations too give a wonderful idea of the rich variety of country traversed and well capture the atmosphere of this walk through Scotland's fine landscapes.Trade Review'Many books have been written about the West Highland Way. Few are joyous, or enjoyable, as this one. ... Our three protagonists are clearly fitter and more experienced than many who walk the West Highland Way, but their hillwalking background tends to make them fairly relaxed about detailed route planning, and as interested in diversions to mountain tops and (especially) pubs as in the precise line of the walk itself.Combine this with the fascinating interplay of three very different characters and the sometimes weird and often wonderful people they encounter, and the result is by turns whimsical, amusing and thought provoking. ... The result is a book which engages you at the beginning, and keeps you engaged and amused all the way through.' Undiscovered Scotland 'This is not to be missed if you're planning your own adventure down this legendary trail.' The Great Outdoors '... you will enjoy this gentle tale of the Physician, the Blacksmith and the Museum Curator. ... The book is greatly enhanced by the historical snippets slipped in by Hamish Brown and by the short, but informative appendices on Wade and Caulfeild, and the 1889 Rannoch Moor fiasco. ...will prove a welcome and informative companion on the Way Way'. Loose Scree 'A livelt account of three friends, the people they meet, and most importantly an adventure shared. There are plenty of interesting snippets of historical detail about the route too... ...if you've already walked the "Way Way", hopefully Hamish's tale will bring back some happy memories'. Scotways ...Hamish Brown, has added another volume to his considerable contribution to Scottish outdoor literature with his light-hearted...account of a walk along the West Highland Way... ...many who have walked the Way, or might be contemplating the journey, will find it fun and... quite imformative'. Cothrom '...the entertaining tale of three friends' incredible journey walking the West Highland Way in Scotland... ...a detailed account of the highs, lows and challenges the trio faced, looking back on their encounters, amusing memories and the rich variety of landscapes they crossed'. LandLove '...the book does give an interesting, and at times amusing, account of walking the West Highland Way. It should appeal to those who have already undertaken this challenging journey as well as anyone considering doing it in the future'. Scottish Home and Country

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Book SynopsisThis is theengrossing story of the seasons the author spent climbing 4000m mountains inthe different regions of the Alps. It is also about the people with whom heclimbed who found time out of their day-to-day routine for this extraordinaryactivity. He explains the reason for this fascination which resulted in theirspending decades pursuing their climbing objectives. The words and photos both encapsulate thealpine experience in all its beauty and suffering, pain and exhilaration,danger and humour which is shared with each climbing partner and open to anyonewith the same commitment. The author believes that climbing all the 4000mmountains is a realistic and achievable objective that will take mountaineersinto much wild and beautiful terrain. These are not just snow plods: everymountain has a worthwhile route on it and even those with long glacierapproaches can become superb ascents and descents on ski in an alpine spring. The many photos taken over the years were areminder of details that had escaped notice in the journals kept at the time.These numerous stunning and inspiring photographs tell their own story andenrich the author's account. The book is dedicated to all his climbing partnerswho made the completion of the quest possible.Trade Review`...his absorbing account... ...as the years and the adventures accrete the book achieves a quiet authority. It is richly illustrated, and his able eye records the changing fashions...this book offers a persuasive case to return'. The Alpine Journal 2017 -------------------- '...a detailed and compelling account... ...a very good impression of what Alpine climbing is all about... ...the excellent description of a moonlight traverse of Mont Blanc, which was clearly a very special experience. ...is an excellent read, even for non-climbers like me, and I am sure it will inspire others'. Scottish Mountaineer -------------------- '...includes stunning photography...' Fiona Russell, Sunday Mail, Seven Days -------------------- `...many good photos and informative interludes on tactics, techniques and practical advice...Wynne-Jones is clearly an able and determined alpinist... He can also write with passion and lyricism' Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal -------------------- `...lavishly illustrated book... with entertaining anecdotes... interspersed with helpful chapters on weather, huts, training, guides, navigation, acclimatisation, food and diet, dehydration and effects of sun, heat and cold.' The Rucksack Club Journal -------------------- `…His personal accounts of ascending all the major 4000m mountains are interspersed with many good photos and informative interludes on tactics, techniques and practical advice’. Moran Mountain Blog

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Book SynopsisInto the Abyss, the first volume in The Diving Trilogy, is a fascinating collection of true life diving adventures from Rod's long and varied diving career. It follows his progression from novice diver in the 1980s through the dangers of the deep air diving era and on to trimix diving in the 1990s where divers began to use commercial mixed breathing gases as the sport of technical diving was born. This opened up vast, previously inaccessible, swathes of the seabed, ushering in a great era of discovery of virgin shipwrecks, lost in time. Rod takes the reader to famous shipwreck sites around the world, from the sunken Japanese Fleet at the bottom of Truk Lagoon and Palau in the Pacific, to diving the third largest whirlpool in the world - the Corryvreckan Whirlpool off the west coast of Scotland. He describes this and many other terrifying incidents in which he and his colleagues have come close to death. The book is filled with danger, drama and excitement and chronicles his all-consuming passion, taking the reader on a spellbinding journey beneath the waves.Trade Review`The Darkness Below and Deeper into the Darkness complete the trilogy and together take the reader on a spell-binding journey beneath the waves’. Julian Stockwin -------------------- 'This is a very good read and I would highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the area'. Shipping - Today & Yesterday -------------------- `...these two books [Into the Abyss and Deeper into the Darkness] are very valuable records slowly disintegrating over the years and may soon be gone forever'. In Depth -------------------- `...will be a revelation. ...this book has the lot. Macdonald really was on a voyage of discovery, and he shares it in intricate detail, as if he was sitting beside you, telling the story in person. ... All the essence of diving at the cusp of the technical revolution is here. ...this is the life of a man who was out there pioneering and discovering... This book is utterly marvellous and deeply interesting'. Diver Magazine ------------------- `This is a journey through Rod Macdonald's logbook, how he started, how he progressed to wreck diving and how that led to Trimix and technical diving... I cannot remember reading a dive book that had me laughing out loud. ... will appeal to divers and non-divers alike. It should be compulsory reading for anyone starting out on their own adventure. It is the best book on diving I have read for years and I cannot recommend it enough'. Scottish Diver Magazine

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Book SynopsisA memoir about grief, nature and what a small community in the Welsh valleys can teach us about life.'A beautiful and poetic meditation on loss, nature, and what matters in life.' - Nigel WarburtonFrom the BAFTA award-winning writer of The New Yorker short film, Heart Valley Kiran Sidhu never thought she could leave London, but when her mother passes away, she knows she has to walk out of her old life and leave her toxic family behind. She chooses fresh air, an auditorium of silence and the purity of the natural world - and soon arrives in Cellan, a small, remote village nestled in the Welsh valleys. At first, the barrenness and isolation is strange. But as the months wear on, Kiran starts to connect with the close-knit community she finds there; her neighbour Sarah, who shows her how to sledge when the winter snow arrives; Jane, a 70-year-old woman who lives at the top of a mountain with three dogs and four alpacas; and Wilf, the farmer who eats the same supper every day, and teaches Kiran that the cuckoo arrives in April and leaves in July. Tender, philosophical and moving, I Can Hear the Cuckoo is a story about redefining family, about rebirth and renewal, and respecting the rhythm and timing of the earth. It's a book about moving through grief and the people we find in the midst of our sadness - and what this small community in the Welsh countryside can teach us about life.

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Book SynopsisInflammation is a normal and essential part of the body's defence system. It signals that damage is present and that the rest of the immune system needs to kick into action. However, when it becomes chronic, steps need to be taken to heal inflammation-related problems.Divided into four parts, The Anti-inflammation Plan guides the reader through the science behind inflammation and how it affects the body; ways of reducing it by getting enough sleep and reducing stress; the essential ingredients and nutrients needed such as green leafy vegetables, tomatoes and turmeric. The final part of the book offers 30 easy and delicious recipes making this book a comprehensive plan for reducing inflammation in the body.Table of ContentsThe Science: What is inflammation? The stages of inflammation; What is good about inflammation? What is bad about inflammation? How inflammation affects the body; How do you know you are inflamed? How to reduce inflammation Lifestyle: Exercise; Stress; Sleep; Avoiding bad habits Nutrition: Hydration; Balanced blood sugars; The Mediterranean diet; Foods to avoid; Key foods that reduce inflammation Recipes.

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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 SynopsisPedro Delgado's 13-year racing career spanned one of cycling's golden decades. Riding against Hinault and Fignon in their prime in the early 1980s, then later against Roche and LeMond, through to mentoring Indurain in the 1990s, he took part in the Tour de France and in one of the other grand tours in every year but his first and last. His final haul of one Tour and two Vuelta victories perhaps does not do justice to his talent, but then he was a rider whose defeats were often every bit as memorable, and every bit as spectacular, as his victories, and they too could be accompanied by controversy. An innate climber, he learned how to time trial, but it was that natural inclination to attack whenever the gradient steepened, whether wisely or impulsively, that would move spectators to tears - sometimes of pure joy; sometimes of bitter disappointment. But in the end he was always capable of a smile, because he knew better than most how to take those 'two imposters of triumph and disaster' in his stride. More than a cycling biography, this book gives a rare and often amusing insight into the inner world of the professional peloton in that era - life in the team hotel; the obsessions about diet and health; the eccentricities and foibles of both the riders and their directors; as well as the loyalties and feuds provoked by this, the hardest of sports.

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