Memoirs Books

Book SynopsisA new book from one of our most acclaimed writers. We always believe that changing our mind is an improvement, bringing a greater truthfulness to our dealings with the world and other people. It puts an end to vacillation, uncertainty, weak-mindedness. It seems to make us stronger and more mature. Well, we would think that, wouldn't we?'In this engaging and erudite essay, critically acclaimed writer Julian Barnes explores what is involved when we change our minds: about words, about politics, about books; about memories, age and time.

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Book SynopsisObsessive was, still is, my natural state, and I never wondered why. I didn't mind, didn't know that other people could feel at peace. I always felt like a raw nerve, but then, I thought that everyone did. Writer and journalist Marianne Eloise was born obsessive. What that means changes day to day, depending on what her brain latches onto: fixations with certain topics, intrusive violent thoughts, looping phrases. Some obsessions have lasted a lifetime, while others will be intense but only last a week or two. Obsessive, Intrusive, Magical Thinking is the culmination of a life spend obsessing, offering a glimpse into Marianne's brain, but also an insight into the lives of others like her. From death to Medusa, to Disneyland to fire, to LA to her dog, the essays explore the intersection of neurodivergence, fixation and disorder, telling the story of one life underpinned and ultimately made whole by obsession. AUTHOR: Marianne Eloise is a writer and journalist. She covers topics like TV, film, digital culture, neurodiversity, wellness and alternative music, for outlets including The Cut, the New York Times, Courier, Vulture, i-D, Guardian and more.Trade ReviewThe mortifying ordeal of being known, minus the ordeal and sans mortification. I felt recognised on every page, learned so many new things, and laughed so hard I choked on my water. Read this!!! -- Naoise Dolan, author of Exciting TimesIn her candid, witty memoir, Marianne Eloise offers a powerful account of what it is like to feel trapped by mental health problems and obsessions ... A brave book that puts vulnerability fully on show. * Independent *Incandescent [...] Eloise's wit and grace cast her differences in a dazzling light [...] the result is a rewarding navigation through the corridors of a relentlessly curious mind. * Publishers Weekly *There are several shrewd observations made within this lucid and level-headed memoir. Amongst them is the way the matrix of obsession, compulsion and intrusion represents an exaggeration of conventional anxieties. * Arts Desk *Did not disappoint [...] a really good portrayal of neurodiversity in an entertaining and enjoyable way' * Eleanor, NetGalley *Lyrical, often funny, ... the essays will leave readers feeling secondhand joy and maybe even encouragement to own their love for their own less-than-cool favorite things. * NYLON *

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Book SynopsisFlutter is a memoir about how the author fell in love with a secret gambler, and their journey to be free of this addiction.Dianne has recreated Tony's voice from her memories of him, supplemented by his diaries and notes, so the story is told from two points of view.

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Book SynopsisHannah Kent's first novel, the multi-award-winning international bestseller Burial Rites, was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, has been translated into over thirty languages, and is being adapted for film. Her second novel, The Good People, was translated into ten languages nominated for numerous awards and is also being adapted for film. Devotion, her third novel, won Booktopia's Favourite Australian Book, and was shortlisted for multiple industry awards.Her original feature film, Run Rabbit Run, was directed by Daina Reid and starred Sarah Snook. Hannah is also the co-founder of Kill Your Darlings, and has written for The New York Times, The Saturday Paper, The Guardian, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Meanjin, Qantas Magazine and LitHub. She lives and works on Peramangk and Kaurna country.

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Book SynopsisThe number one Sunday Times bestseller, Adam Kay's festive hospital diaries, Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas, is the perfect stocking filler from the author of multi-million-copy bestseller This is Going to Hurt – now a major BBC TV series. Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat . . . but 1.4 million NHS staff are heading off to work. In this perfect present for anyone who has ever set foot in a hospital, Adam Kay delves back into his diaries for a hilarious, horrifying and sometimes heartbreaking peek behind the blue curtain at Christmastime.This is a love letter to all those who spend their festive season on the front line, removing babies and baubles from the various places they get stuck, at the most wonderful time of the year.‘The perfect surgical stocking-filler’ – The TimesTrade ReviewSunday Times humour book of the year * Sunday Times *The perfect surgical stocking filler. Jokes galore. This little book will no doubt cheer up the many readers who find it under their tree * The Times *Very, very funny -- Graham NortonBeyond hilarious . . . A small-but-perfectly formed follow-up to This is Going to Hurt, this Christmas-themed delight continues to capture the dark humour and dedicated work of NHS professionals everywhere * Stylist *A funny, poignant snapshot of humanity * Radio Times *Will have you crying with laughter * Good Housekeeping *Contains Kay’s unique alchemy of medical insight and cynical wit * Daily Mirror *Hilarious and heartbreaking * Irish Times *The funniest book of 2019 * The Mail *Kay's fans will be delighted to discover that it is entirely as revolting, funny and moving as the first * i-news *Matchless stories . . . funny, disgusting and moving * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisAnthony Bourdain''s long-awaited sequel to Kitchen Confidential, the worldwide bestseller''As ferociously rude as anything Bourdain has done before'' GuardianTerrific ... his love for his subjects - both the food and the cook - sings'' TelegraphBourdain has insight, access and good taste, and he''s a naturally engaging writer'' New York TimesA lot has changed since Kitchen Confidential - for the subculture of chefs and cooks, for the restaurant business - and for Anthony Bourdain.Medium Raw explores these changes, moving back and forth from the author''s bad old days to the present. Tracking his own strange and unexpected voyage from journeyman cook to globe-travelling professional eater and drinker, Bourdain compares and contrasts what he''s seen and what he''s seeing, pausing along the way for a series of confessions, rants, investigations, and interrogations of some of the most controversial figures in foodTrade Review'As ferociously rude as anything Bourdain has done before' * Kathryn Hughes, Guardian *‘Terrific ... his love for his subjects - both the food and the cook - sings as it once did in Kitchen Confidential' * Daily Telegraph *‘Bourdain has insight, access and good taste, and he's a naturally engaging writer ... [he] is a hopeless romantic when it comes to food and the people who cook' * New York Times *‘Bourdain is a vivid, bawdy and often foul-mouthed writer. He thrills in the attack, but he is also an enthusiast who writes well about things he holds dear' * Wall Street Journal *

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Book SynopsisTHE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERLONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS'' BOOK OF THE YEARSHORTLISTED FOR THE HATCHARDS AND BIOGRAPHERS'' CLUB FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE HAY FESTIVAL, SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, SPECTATOR AND iNEWS ''A beautiful book'' - ANGELINA JOLIE''I will be recommending this to everyone'' - MATT HAIG''Quietly profound, beautifully written, Hare is now lodged in my heart'' - TRACY CHEVALIER__Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and lolloped around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, over two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and snoozed in your house for hours on end. This happened to me.When lockdown led busy professional Chloe to leave the city and return to the countryside of her childhood, she never expected to find herself custodian of a newly born hare. Yet when she finds the creature, endangered, alone and no bigger than her palm, she is compelled to give it a chance at survival.Raising Hare chronicles their journey together and the challenges of caring for the leveret and preparing for its return to the wild. We witness an extraordinary relationship between human and animal, rekindling our sense of awe towards nature and wildlife. This improbable bond of trust serves to remind us that the most remarkable experiences, inspiring the most hope, often arise when we least expect them.

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Book SynopsisTHE NO. 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERHead back down to Clarkson Farm with the bestseller from our favourite welly-wearing wannabe farmer, Jeremy Clarkson___________Enthusiastic trainee farmer Jeremy Clarkson made just 144 in his first year at Diddly Squat Farm. This year he''s determined to do better. Not because he now knows what he''s doing. But because he''s fed up of getting stick from Kaleb.Yet farming continues to be a challenge.For instance . . . Loading a grain trailer was more demanding than flying an Apache gunship? Cows were more dangerous than motor-racing? It''s easier to get planning permission to build a nuclear plant than to turn a barn into a restaurant?Jeremy''s always got a plan. Loads of them. Often cunning.Not always greeted with wild enthusiasm by Kaleb and Cheerful Charlie, however . . .___________PRAISE FOR DIDDLY SQUAT<Trade ReviewIf you want a laugh, it's Jeremy Clarkson's Diddly Squat: 'Til the Cows Come Home . . . The book will keep us going until the next TV series appears. * Spectator *

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Book SynopsisSylvain Tesson, found a radical solution to his need for freedom, one as ancient as the experiences of the hermits of old Russia: he decided to lock himself alone in a cabin in the middle taiga, on the shores of Baikal, for six months. Noting carefully his impressions of the silence, Sylvain Tesson shares with us an extraordinary experience.

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Book Synopsis'An ode to the ocean, and the generations of women drawn to the waves or left waiting on the shore' Guardian In Salt On Your Tongue, Charlotte Runcie explores what the sea means to us, and particularly what it has meant to women through the ages. In mesmerising prose, she explores how the sea has inspired, fascinated and terrified us, and how she herself fell in love with the deep blue.This book is a walk on the beach with Turner, with Shakespeare, with the Romantic Poets and shanty-singers. It's an ode to our oceans - to the sailors who brave their treacherous waters, to the women who lost their loved ones to the waves, to the creatures that dwell in their depths, to beachcombers, swimmers, seabirds and mermaids. Navigating through ancient Greek myths, poetry, shipwrecks and Scottish folktales, Salt On Your Tongue is about how the wild untameable waves can help us understand what it means to be human.Trade ReviewThis motherhood memoir-cum-nature journal about the connection between women and the sea is bracing and poetic . . . Throughout, her prose is defined by cool confidence and unshowy clarity, allowing its more poetic observations, of which there are plenty, to glimmer like glass pebbles . . . Just like her favourite kind of blustery beach, it's strewn with pocketable treasures * * Observer * *Women and water are the subjects of Charlotte Runcie's seductive history . . . Intoxicating . . . Runcie is a fine guiding star: wise, curious, sensitive to language and landscape . . . At its best her writing hauntingly captures the whispered wave and wash of the sea * * The Times * *An ode to the ocean, and the generations of women drawn to the waves or left waiting on the shore . . . A wide, eclectic cast of characters wash in and out on the tide of her poetic prose * * Guardian * *A seductive, estuarine merging of personal memoir and scholarly reportage . . . Runcie has a beachcomber's mind and a poet's turn of phrase * * Daily Telegraph * *A very beautiful book about myth and motherhood - a memoir that intertwines effortlessly and poetically with tales of the sea. Salt On Your Tongue has a rare magic to it -- SOPHIE MACKINTOSH, Booker-longlisted author of THE WATER CURERuncie has combined an exploration of Scotland's seascape with the story of her pregnancy and the birth of her daughter . . . Breathless, intimate . . . Very much in the vein of bestsellers The Outrun by Amy Liptrot and H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald * * Mail on Sunday * *A wise and wonderful book, charting intensely personal moments against the constant yet ever-changing sea. A story of birth, loss, memory and motherhood, spliced with vivid observations of the natural world and collected myth, lore and legend, Charlotte Runcie's voice is by turns practical and poetic, objective and beguiling. An utterly immersive read -- JESS KIDD, author of HIMSELF and THE HOARDERAn intensely personal paean to the sea. Runcie interweaves her experience of an unplanned first pregnancy with her attraction to the seashore and the stories of women who traditionally waited for ships to come home -- Ruth Scurr * * Spectator, Books of the Year * *A lyrical exploration of the complex relationship between women, the sea and their own reproductive biology . . . Her description of childbirth - in all its visceral, growling, bloody intensity - is astonishingly powerful . . . . Beguiling * * Herald * *An expectant mother's diary is also a treasure trove of lore and legend and a moving tribute to the grandmother who inspired a lifelong love of beachcombing . . . A lyrical, impassioned and curious book . . . Elegantly done -- Stuart Kelly * * Scotland on Sunday * *

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Book SynopsisWitty and fascinating a guide book that can''t help but inspire' independent.co.ukAnthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. His travels took him from his hometown of New York to a tribal longhouse in Borneo, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai to the stunning desert solitude of Oman's Empty Quarter and many places beyond.In World Travel, a life of experience is collected into an entertaining, practical, fun and frank travel guide that gives readers an introduction to some of his favorite places in his own words. Featuring essential advice on how to get there, what to eat, where to stay and, in some cases, what to avoid. Additionally, each chapter includes illustrations by Wesley Allsbrook.Supplementing Bourdain's words are a handful of essays by friends, colleagues, and family that tell even deeper stories about a place, including sardonic accounts of traveling with Bourdain by his brother, Chris; a guide to C

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2024SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024Raw and radical, strange and beguiling - a love letter to Britain''s breathtaking flatlands, from Orford Ness to Orkney, and a reckoning with the painful, hidden histories they contain''Expansive and arresting'' Financial Times''Sharp, subtle and very moving'' Robert MacfarlaneNoreen Masud has always loved flat landscapes - their stark beauty, their formidable calm, their refusal to cooperate with the human gaze. They reflect her inner world: the ''flat place'' she carries inside herself, emotional numbness and memory loss as symptoms of childhood trauma. But as much as Britain''s landscapes provide solace for suffering, they are also uneasy places for a Scottish-Pakistani woman, representing both an inheritance and a dispossession.Pursuing this paradox across the wide open plains that she loves, Noreen weaves her impressions of the natural world with the poetry, folklore and history of the land, and with recollections of her own early life, rendering a startlingly strange, vivid and intimate account of a post-traumatic, post-colonial landscape - a seemingly flat and motionless place which is nevertheless defiantly alive.''Beautifully written and elegantly constructed'' Kamila Shamsie''A Flat Place reminds us that there is hope in the smallest of gestures'' Sara AhmedSHORTLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2024SHORTLISTED FOR THE ONDAATJE PRIZE 2024SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARD 2024BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 ACCORDING TO THE GUARDIAN, SUNDAY TIMES, NEW YORKER

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Book Synopsis‘A beautiful, intimate and hunger-inducing portrait of grief, race, heritage and coming to know yourself through what you eat.’ - Stylist, ‘Books of the Year’'As good as everyone says it is and, yes, it will have you in tears. An essential read for anybody who has lost a loved one, as well as those who haven't' – Marie ClaireThe New York Times bestseller from the Grammy-nominated indie rockstar Japanese Breakfast, an unflinching, deeply moving memoir about growing up mixed-race, Korean food, losing her Korean mother, and forging her own identity in the wake of her loss.In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humour and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band – and meeting the man who would become her husband – her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live.It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.Vivacious, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.‘Possibly the best book I’ve read all year . . . I will be buying copies for friends and family this Christmas.’ – Rukmini Iyer, The Guardian ‘Best Food Books of 2021’‘Wonderful . . . The writing about Korean food is gorgeous . . . but as a brilliant kimchi-related metaphor shows, Zauner’s deepest concern is the ferment, and delicacy, of complicated lives.’ – Victoria Segal, The Sunday Times, ‘My favourite read of the year’Trade ReviewMichelle Zauner's Crying In H Mart is as good as everyone says it is and, yes, it will have you in tears. An essential read for anybody who has lost a loved one, as well as those who haven't. * Marie Claire *The best book I’ve read in the past year . . . frank, lyrical, humorous. -- Claudia Roden * Financial Times *The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. * Vogue US *A beautiful, honest and stylish account of grief, food and heritage. The way Zauner writes about food and how it acts as a bridge between her and her mother, her culture, her sense of self, is brilliantly written. -- Nikesh Shukla, author of Brown BabyCrying in H Mart stunned me - with its truthfulness and the force of its yearning. Beautiful, intimate, powerful, it is an unforgettable portrayal of grief and the bond between mother and daughter. -- Catherine Cho, author of InfernoA gripping, sensuous portrait of an indelible mother-daughter bond that hits all the notes: love, friction, loyalty, grief. All mothers and daughters will recognize themselves – and each other – in these pages. -- Dani Shapiro, author of InheritanceZauner brings dish after dish to life on the page in a rich broth of delectable details, cultural context and the personal history often packed into every bite. . . [Crying in H Mart] will ultimately thrill Japanese Breakfast fans and provide comfort to those in the throes of loss while brilliantly detailing the colorful panorama of Korean culture, traditions and — yes — food' * San Francisco Chronicle *Crying in H Mart is a warm and wholehearted work of literature, an honest and detailed account of grief over time, studded with moments of hope, humor, beauty, and clear-eyed observation. It is not to be missed. * Seattle Times *Crying in H Mart is palpable in its grief and its tenderness, reminding us what we all stand to lose. * Vulture *It is [Zauner's] ability to convey how her mother's simple offering of a rice snack was actually an act of the truest love that leaves the most indelible impression. * Refinery 29 *Incandescent. * Electric Lit *A book you experience with all of your senses: sentences you can taste, paragraphs that sound like music. [Zauner] seamlessly blends stories of food and memory, sumptuousness and grief, to weave a complex narrative of loyalty and loss. -- Rachel SymeA wonder: A beautiful, deeply moving coming-of-age story about mothers and daughters, love and grief, food and identity. It blew me away, even as it broke my heart. -- Adrienne Brodeur, author of Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and MeWhen a loved one dies, we search all of our senses for signs of their presence. Zauner’s ability to let us in through taste makes her book stand out—she makes us feel like we are in her mother’s kitchen, singing her praises. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *

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Book SynopsisThe extraordinary testimony of OJ Simpson about the murder of his wife Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman that became an Oscar-winning Netflix series.

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Book SynopsisIn 2018, India Sturgis successful journalist, mother and wife was admitted into the Priory hospital with anxiety so crippling she was deemed a risk to herself. On her slow journey back to herself, it became clear to her that anxiety doesn't discriminate, anyone can suffer from it regardless of external circumstances but anyone can learn to cope with it too. On her personal journey to uncover the coping strategies that work, India tried every imaginable avenue: antidepressants, benzodiazepines, psychotherapy, group therapy, art therapy, drama therapy, CBT, aromatherapy, mindfulness, meditation, hypnosis, EFT, talking therapy, cranial electrotherapy stimulation, neurofeedback, photobiomodulation, supplements, changing her diet, yoga, cold water swimming and more. She combines this personal exploration with the latest medical and lifestyle thinking from world leading experts to produce a clear-sighted, comprehensive and ultimately human look at anxiety. This is what it's

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Book Synopsis‘The passages he addresses directly to Phoebe are as tender as the father-daughter letters in Karl Ove Knausgaard’s Seasons Quartet’ Times Literary Supplement ‘This book tells the inspiring story of how even the least skilled of us can make something wonderful if we invest enough time and love’ The Daily Mail 'Both the book, and place, are magical' The Sunday Telegraph 'When Jonathan Gornall decided to build a boat for his daughter, he had no experience and no practical skills. What followed was a very real labour of love.' The ScotsmanOne man learns the ancient skills of boat-building to connect with fatherhood.How to Build a Boat is the story of a thoroughly unskilled modern man who, inspired by his love of the sea and what it has taught him about life, sets out to build a traditionalTrade Review‘Refreshingly down-to-earth…one can’t help admiring the combination of craftsmanship and ambition’ * Times Literary Supplement *'This book tells the inspiring story of how even the least skilled of us can make something wonderful if we invest enough time and love.' * Daily Mail *'Both the book, and place, are magical.' * Sunday Telegraph *'When Jonathan Gornall decided to build a boat for his daughter, he had no experience and no practical skills. What followed was a very real labour of love.' * The Scotsman *'In an age of instant everything, this is a charming book about handcrafting something that does not arrive in a cardboard box and snap together. It is a story about taming impatience, facing fears, and softening skepticism. With love as a motivation, each of us may undertake things that seem impossible.' -- Tori Murden McClure, author of A Pearl in the Storm, President of Spalding University, and the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean'There are few sailing books that a sailor could recommend to anyone, but How to Build a Boat is one of them, a first-person narrative about boatbuilding and fatherhood...moving, funny and perceptive...it is Gornall's biggest achievement to turn a detailed description of building a timber dinghy into a real page-turner.' * Classic Boat *'The inspiring story of how even the least skilled of us can make something wonderful if we invest enough time and love.' * Irish Daily Mail *'Beautifully documents the year [journalist Jonathan Gornall] spent building a wooden boat for his young daughter…Owning almost no tools and having no woodworking skills, Gornall, living on England’s eastern coast, gave himself a crash course…[His] prose is amusing, personal, and informative…[He] acknowledges he has ‘created a vessel of a father’s love, a gift to inspire his daughter.’ The very same can be said of his book, a testament to hard work and a soft heart.' * Publishers Weekly *'An utterly captivating, richly poetic account of building a traditional wooden boat for the first time – and a paean to the awesome responsibility and reward of fatherhood.' -- Matthew P. Murphy, Editor * WoodenBoat magazine *'This rich, beautifully crafted book is funny, heart-warming and stuffed to the gunwales with fascinating information. Jonathan Gornall’s quest to build a sailing boat navigates the crosscurrents of his life story – the challenges of fatherhood, his difficult relationship with his mother, his lifelong love of the sea. It’s a compelling narrative that sweeps us along as Gornall battles his demons while simultaneously tackling the tough physical challenges of building a vessel from scratch.' -- Benedict Tufnell, Editor * Row360 magazine *'Being a parent, a sailor and an occasional DIYer, I know that boat building, like fatherhood, is not for the faint of heart. Packed with details, both historical and personal, How to Build a Boat wonderfully captures the tensions, the tightrope walk between reward and dismay. In the end, I wanted to cheer: the boat floats and a daughter's adventures can begin.' -- Mark Pillsbury, Editor * Cruising World *'Engrossing...Gornall's prose is buoyant and watertight and his book shipshape.' * Kirkus Reviews *

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Book Synopsis‘A wonderful book: Nancy Campbell is a fine storyteller with a rare physical intelligence. The extraordinary brilliance of her eye confers the reader a total immersion in the rimy realms she explores. Glaciers, Arctic floe, verglas, frost and snow — I can think of no better or warmer guide to the icy ends of the Earth’ Dan Richards, author of Climbing DaysA vivid and perceptive book combining memoir, scientific and cultural history with a bewitching account of landscape and place, which will appeal to readers of Robert Macfarlane, Roger Deakin and Olivia Laing.  Long captivated by the solid yet impermanent nature of ice, by its stark, rugged beauty, acclaimed poet and writer Nancy Campbell sets out from the world’s northernmost museum – at Upernavik in Greenland – to explore it in all its facets. From the Bodleian Library archives to the traces left by the great polar expeditions, from remote

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Book Synopsis** PRE-ORDER THE SEQUEL I WANT TO DIE BUT I STILL WANT TO EAT TTEOKBOKKI NOW **THE PHENOMENAL INTERNATIONAL 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.'' RedPSYCHIATRIST: 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 conversations with her psychiatrist over 12 weeks, 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.I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki comes in three different colours; the colour you receive will be chosen at random

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Book SynopsisCOACH PRIME -- famed Pro Football Hall of Famer, two-time Super Bowl-winning NFL player, Head Football Coach for the University of Colorado, inspirational leader, and one of the greatest motivators of all time -- delivers the ultimate playbook of inspiring personal stories, winning strategies, and the motivation to help us elevate and dominate all aspects of our life

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Book SynopsisIn the style of Crying in H Mart and Minor Feelings, filmmaker Jill Damatac blends memoir, food writing, and colonial history as she cooks her way through recipes from her native-born Philippines and shares stories of her undocumented family in America.Jill Damatac left the United States in 2015 after living there as an undocumented immigrant with her family for twenty-two years. America was the only home she knew, where invisibility had become her identity and where poverty, domestic violence, ill health, and xenophobia were everyday experiences. First traveling to her native Philippines, Damatac eventually settled in London, England, where she was free to pursue an education at the University of Cambridge, fully investigate her roots, and process what happened to her and her family. After nine years, she was granted British citizenship, and returned to the United States, for the first time without fear of deportation or retribution. Damatac weaves together forgotten colonial history and long-buried Indigenous tradition, taking us through her time in America, and cooking her way through Filipino recipes in her kitchen as she searches for a sense of self and renewed possibility. With emotional intelligence, clarity, and grace, Dirty Kitchen explores fractured memories to ask questions of identity, colonialism, immigration, and belonging, and to find ways in which the ritual, tradition, and comfort of food can answer them.

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Book SynopsisA Sunday Times Book of The YearA Mail on Sunday Book of The YearAn Independent Book of The YearA The Times Book of The YearDuring the US book tour for his memoir, Hitch-22, Christopher Hitchens collapsed in his New York hotel room to excoriating pain in his chest and thorax. As he would later write in the first of a series of deeply moving Vanity Fair pieces, he was being deported 'from the country of the well across the stark frontier that marks off the land of malady.' Over the next year he underwent the brutal gamut of modern cancer treatment, enduring catastrophic levels of suffering and eventually losing the ability to speak. Mortality is the most meditative collection of writing Hitchens has ever produced; at once an unsparingly honest account of the ravages of his disease, an examination of cancer etiquette, and the coda to a lifetime of fierce debate and peerless prose. In this eloquent confrontation with mortality, Hitchens returns a human face to a disease that has become a contemporary cipher of suffering.Trade ReviewCharacteristic of his elegant wit: philosophical, literary, ironic, sardonic, reflective and resentful * The Times *His unworldly fluency never deserted him, his commitment was passionate, and he never deserted his trade. He was the consummate writer, the brilliant friend. In Walter Pater's famous phrase, he burned 'with this hard gem-like flame.' Right to the end. -- Ian McEwanHitchens's voice remains civilised, searching and ready to vanquish all his enemies -- Colm TóbínA trenchant, learned, iconoclastic and splendidly witty commentator on public life and, as here, on his own private triumphs and travails... unremittingly elegant, a master of graceful prose -- John Banville

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Book SynopsisAn Inspiring Memoir, for Fans of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Frans De Waal. In her enchanting memoir, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Uganda’s first wildlife veterinarian, tells the remarkable story from her animal-loving childhood to her career protecting endangered mountain gorillas and other wild animals. She is also the defender of people as a groundbreaking promoter of human public health and an advocate for revolutionary integrated approaches to saving our planet. In an increasingly interconnected world, animal and human health alike depend on sustainable solutions and Dr. Gladys has developed an innovative approach to conservation among the endangered Mountain Gorillas of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and their human neighbors.Walking with Gorillas takes the reader on an incredible personal journey with Dr. Gladys, from her early days as a student in Uganda, enduring the assassination of her father during civil war, to her veterinarian education in England to establishing the first veterinary department for the Ugandan government to founding one of the first organizations in the world that enables people to coexist with wildlife through improving the health and wellbeing of both. Her award-winning approach reduced the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on critically endangered mountain gorillas. In the face of discrimination and a male dominated world, one woman’s passion and determination to build a brighter future for the local wildlife and human community offers inspiration and insights into what is truly possible for our planet when we come together."Her story is amazing and I recommend this book to everyone interested in conservation, alleviating poverty, and the role of women in society. But perhaps most importantly it is a truly inspiring story of how one determined and dedicated woman overcame many setbacks and faced many dangers to follow and realize her dream. She has made a huge difference to conservation in Uganda and she is an inspiring example to young—and not so young—people everywhere." -- Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE and UN Messenger of Peace, from the foreword Trade Review“I recommend this book to everyone interested in conservation, alleviating poverty, and the role of women in society. But perhaps most importantly it is a truly inspiring story of how one determined and dedicated woman overcame many setbacks and faced many dangers to follow and realize her dream.”—Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE and UN Messenger of Peace (from the foreword) “This uplifting debut by conservationist Kalema-Zikusoka reflects on her upbringing in Uganda and career as a wildlife veterinarian. Born in Kampala, Uganda, in 1970, the author was two years old when her father, a former cabinet minister, was abducted and murdered by the forces of then-president Idi Amin. She recounts devoting herself to her education and enrolling at the University of London Royal Veterinary College, becoming at age 26 Uganda’s first veterinarian specializing in wild animals. Vivid anecdotes detail the sometimes gritty nature of her work with endangered mountain gorillas, as when she describes using sugar to help reduce swelling around a gorilla’s prolapse. Through her work, she became “convinced that you couldn’t keep the gorillas healthy without improving the health and well-being of the people with whom they shared their fragile habitats” and began studying disease transmission between humans and primates. That research, she relates, enabled her to successfully advocate for Uganda’s adoption of the “One Health” approach to conservation, which recognizes that human hygiene and health lead to better welfare for plants and animals. The heartwarming narrative testifies to the good that one person can achieve and illuminates the complex interdependence between human and their environments. Admirers of Jane Goodall will love this. (Feb.)—Publishers Weekly “Her zeal for animals and gorillas in particular, as witnessed in this book, have lead Gladys to ground breaking innovations in conservation winning her global awards. This is an awe-inspiring walk by a remarkable lady who stands to be counted among women of incredible determination and purpose.” —HRH Nnabagereka, Sylvia Nagginda Luswata, Queen of Buganda Kingdom, Uganda “We eight billion humans are in a turf war with all other living species, one so lopsided that co-existing with them might seem a lost cause—until you meet Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka. Her miraculous career, engagingly recounted here, has meant salvation for some of our rarest primate cousins and an inspiring reminder for us Homo sapiens of what imagination and persistence can accomplish,whatever the odds.”—Alan Weisman, author,The World Without Us andCountdown “Her vivid narration of the special relationship she has been able to cultivate with nature will leave you captivated and in an intense trance as she transports you to the deep woods of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and on an excursion that you will never forget.”—Kaddu Sebunya, CEO African Wildlife Foundation “With unwavering drive and passion, she transformed a childhood love of animals into a career as Uganda’s first wildlife veterinarian and one of Africa’s leading conservationists. Filled with adventure and told with candor and heart, Walking with Gorillas is an extraordinary story of an extraordinary life.”—Thor Hanson, author ofHurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid,andThe Impenetrable Forest:My Gorilla Years in Uganda “Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is a true force of nature. Her riveting story of growing up in Uganda and overcoming challenges to pursue a veterinary profession, reads almost like fiction—full of adventure, drama, passion, and lots of big, furry primates.” —Meg Lowman, National Geographic Explorer and author of The Arbornaut: A Life Discovering the 8th Continent in the Trees Above Us “In one of the world’s most challenging environments, Dr. Gladys has put her life on the line to protect one of the world's most spectacular—and spectacularly threatened species, the mountain gorilla. A story which will inspire everyone, everywhere!”—Dr. Mark Plotkin, The Amazon Conservation Team, author of Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice “A concise and compelling autobiography, from a resilient ‘bridge-builder’: Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka. It has been said: ‘When you build bridges, you get walked on from both sides,’—so true for Gladys who has faced prejudice from her own culture, for being a woman and for being African. But Gladys is a trailblazer, risk-taker and innovative. We all share this planet and it takes a person like Gladys to reimagine conservation and build bridges between culture and communities so that we all survive together. Gladys is my hero, Uganda’s hero, Africa’s hero, and the world’s hero.”—Catherine Kreutter, author of Old Mzee books “Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is one of Africa’s greatest conservation ecoheroes. Her work on mountain gorillas and her innovative approaches linking this essential conservation activity with the health of human communities living in close proximity is truly ground-breaking and serves as a model for other projects around the world. It is wonderful to now have her story told in her own words in this inspiring and delightful new book.”—Russell A. Mittermeier, Ph.D., Chief Conservation Officer, Re:wild (formerly Global Wildlife Conservation) “Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka's pioneering efforts to save endangered gorillas by improving local human health have been an inspiration to conservationists around the world. Her new memoir details this incredible journey, including the adversity she had to overcome and what she's learned along the way. She artfully illustrates the complexities of conservation, sheds light on how protecting nature helps us protect ourselves, and offers insights that are applicable to conservation programs worldwide. I strongly recommend this book!”—Rhett Butler, Founder and CEO of Mongabay “Walking with Gorillas is an inspirational account of one veterinarian's unwavering effort to prevent disease spillover by promoting a "One Health" approach and always, above all, listening and prioritizing local community members’ voices to create a better world for humans, animals and nature. This decade began with grave reminder of the danger of diseases jumping from animals to people and back, something Dr. Gladys has been committed to protecting us and wildlife from during her entire professional life.”—Dr. William Karesh, Author Appointments at the Ends of the World, President, World Organisation for Animal Health Working Group on Wildlife “Uganda deserves to be better known for its astonishing wildlife. And I can think of no better guide than the nation’s first wildlife veterinarian. Meet Dr. Gladys and enter the incredible adventure that has been her life." — Dr. Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel “Infused with the remarkable spirit of purpose, compassion and innovative thinking that is synonymous with Gladys herself, Walking with Gorillas is an inspiring memoir that showcases the importance of community-based conservation through one of Uganda’s most determined voices for wildlife. A captivating look at the dangers that humans pose to our closest of relatives, this book gives a compelling insight into the role that healthcare and women in society play in the author’s pioneering ‘One Health’ approach – one that the future of conservation surely depends upon. Simply, a must-read.”—Edward Whitley, OBE, Founder of Whitley Fund for Nature, Author of Gerald Durrell’s Army “Dr. Kalema-Zikusoka’s book, Walking With Gorillas, is a walk through the forests and landscapes of her life and the lives of those who have influenced her choices as a veterinarian, a leader, partner and mother. Her method for building community and improving methods for protection of the forest has not only had an impact on the survival of our closest relatives the great apes, it has added a chapter to our understanding of how to build a thriving relationship with nature. Her wisdom is what we urgently need as we meet the challenge of declining biodiversity and deforestation, pandemics and climate change. If the measure of a life is one’s legacy, Dr. Kalema-Zikusoka shows in her book that being part of a lineage is also important. Her learning from her forebearers while creating communities that live in harmony with all sentient beings is a model for public health, economic livelihoods and field science.”—Tom Cummings, Tallberg Foundation jury leader and Member Club of Rome, Chair, BLab Europe, Global Alliance for Banking on Values, Author of Leadership Landscapes

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Book SynopsisA Sunday Times Book of the Year'Rahaman has, at last, written the definitive biography on his late brother, which tells the real Ali story' - Mike Tyson'The real life of the Great One' - George ForemanMore words have been written about Muhammad Ali than almost anyone else. He was, without doubt, the world's most-loved sportsman. At the height of his celebrity he was the most famous person in the world. And yet, until now, the one voice missing belonged to the man who knew him best - his only sibling, and best friend, Rahaman Ali.No one was closer to Ali than Rahaman. Born Cassius and Rudolph Arnett Clay, the two brothers grew up together, lived together, trained together, travelled together, and fought together in the street and in the ring.A constant fixture in his sibling's company, Rahaman saw Ali at both his best and his worst: the relentless prankster and the jealous older brother, the outspoken advocate, the husband and father. In My Brother, Muhammad Ali, he is able to offer a surprising insider's perspective on the well-known stories, as well as never-before-told tales, painting a rich portrait of a proud, relentlessly polarizing, yet often vulnerable man. In this extraordinary, poignant memoir, Rahaman tells a much bigger and more personal story than in any other book on the great man - that of two brothers, almost inseparable from birth to death. It is the final and most important perspective on one of the most iconic figures of the last century.Trade ReviewHeart-warming, multi-faceted and hard-hitting [...] Thanks to Rahaman's powerful storytelling ability, My Brother, Muhammad Ali shares with the world a tale unlike any other biography on Muhammad Ali * Fox Sports *No one knew Muhammad Ali better than Rahaman, and he provides a welcome and insightful addition to the extensive Ali literature * Sunday Times *Rahaman was alongside Muhammad Ali all the way, from his street-fighting teenage days, loving home life, soaring fame, marriages, troubles, notoriety, highs and lows. In this long-overdue book, he takes us inside the legend's head and home [...] And just like the man, the book never stops surprising. A must for fight fans * Sunday Sport *Rahaman has, at last, written the definitive biography on his late brother, which tells the real Ali story * Mike Tyson *The real life of the Great One * George Foreman *It seems there is a bottomless supply of revelations about Muhammad Ali, one of the most written-about men in history. Yet more insights come in a book by his brother, Rahaman. From Ali's difficult birth to how he had to be rescued from financial difficulty after he stopped boxing and on to the tenderness of his last hours with his family, the story of The Greatest Of All Time is retold from the inside by his younger sibling * Jeff Powell, Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisCathy Glass, international bestselling author, tells the shocking story of Zeena, a young Asian girl desperate to escape from her family.When 14 -year-old Zeena begs to be taken into care with a non-Asian family, she is clearly petrified. But of what?Placed in the home of experienced foster carer Cathy and her family, Zeena gradually settles into her new life, but misses her little brothers and sisters terribly. Prevented from having any contact with them by her family who insist she has brought shame and dishonour on the whole community, Zeena tries to see them at school. But when her father and uncle find out, they bundle her into a car and threaten to set fire to her if she makes anymore trouble. Zeena is too frightened to press charges against them despite being offered police protection in a safe house.Eventually, Cathy discovers the devastating truth from Zeena, and with devastation she believes there is little she can do to help her.Trade ReviewREVIEWS FOR DAMAGED: 'Cannot fail to move those who read it.'Adoption-net ‘Heartbreaking.'Mirror ‘A truly harrowing read that made me cry.’Sun 'A true tale of hope. ****.'OK! ‘Foster carers rarely get the praise they deserve, but Cathy Glass’s book should change all that.****’First magazine ‘A hugely touching and emotional true tale.’Star magazine

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Book Synopsis*Featured in The Times'' ''Best Books of the Year So Far''*What do you do when you realise you have everything you think you''ve ever wanted but still feel completely empty? What do you do when it all starts to fall apart? The second volume of Moby''s extraordinary life story is a journey into the dark heart of fame and the demons that lurk just beneath the bling and bluster of the celebrity lifestyle. In summer 1999, Moby released the album that defined the millennium, PLAY. Like generation-defining albums before it, PLAY was ubiquitous, and catapulted Moby to superstardom. Suddenly he was hanging out with David Bowie and Lou Reed, Christina Ricci and Madonna, taking esctasy for breakfast (most days), drinking litres of vodka (every day), and sleeping with super models (infrequently). It was a diet that couldn''t last. And then it fell apart. The second volume of Moby''s memoir is a classic about the banality of fame. It is shocking, r

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Book SynopsisTHE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLERAs seen on This MorningBack in the day, I was Governor of Security and Operations for HMP Wormwood Scrubs. If you're easily shocked or offended, you best look away nowHaving worked for 16 years in a high-security women's prison dealing with the likes of Rosemary West and Myra Hindley, Vanessa Frake thought she'd seen it all. That was until she was transferred to the notorious Wormwood Scrubs.Thrust into a man's world', her no-nonsense approach and fearless attitude saw her swiftly rise through the ranks. From dealing with celebrity criminals and busting drug rings, to recruiting informers and being subject to violent attacks, this hard-hitting but often humorous memoir reveals all about life behind bars in unflinching detail.Now, for one last time, The Gov opens the prison gates. Prepare for the madness and horror of daily life with the UK's most ruthless criminals.

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Book SynopsisDamian longs for home, but one man stands in his way Damian is just seven when he is taken in by foster carer Cathy Glass. His mother, Rachel, loves her three young children dearly, but she is vulnerable, naive and unable to cope on her own.Cathy sets about helping Damian overcome his eating issues, with the hope that he will eventually return home. But when Rachel's new boyfriend, Troy, arrives on the scene, Cathy becomes deeply concerned. She soon realises that Damian and his siblings are in great danger

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Book SynopsisApsley Cherry-Garrard (1886-1959) was one of the youngest members of Captain Scott's final expedition to the Antarctic which he joined to collect the eggs of the Emperor penguin. After the expedition, Cherry-Garrard served in the First World War and was invalided home. With the zealous encouragement of his neighbour, George Bernard Shaw, Cherry-Garrard wrote The Worst Journey in the World (1922) in an attempt to overcome the horror of the journey. As the years unravelled he faced a terrible struggle against depression, breakdown and despair, haunted by the possibility that he could have saved Scott and his companions.Trade ReviewThe best polar book there is * Observer *Probably the best adventure yarn ever published * Independent *Remains the masterpiece of heroic travel * The Times *The finest book ever written about Antarctic exploration as well as a great literary classicOver the greater part of a lifetime I have worn out two copies of the Antarctic's classic, Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World * William Trevor *

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Book SynopsisHere we drink three cups of tea to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything even die.'Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief, Karakoram mountains, Pakistan In 1993, after a terrifying and disastrous attempt to climb K2, a mountaineer called Greg Mortenson drifted, cold and dehydrated, into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram Mountains. Moved by the inhabitants' kindness, he promised to return and build a school. Three Cups of Tea is the story of that promise and its extraordinary outcome. Over the next decade Mortenson built not just one but fifty-five schools especially for girls in remote villages across the forbidding and breathtaking landscape of Pakistan and Afghanistan, just as the Taliban rose to power. His story is at once a riveting adventure and a testament to the power of the humanitarian spirit.

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Book SynopsisHeinz Guderian - master of the Blitzkrieg and father of modern tank warfare - commanded the German XIX Army Corps as it rampaged across Poland in 1939. Personally leading the devastating attack which traversed the Ardennes Forest and broke through French lines, he was at the forefront of the race to the Channel coast. Only Hitler''s personal command to halt prevented Guderian''s tanks and troops turning Dunkirk into an Allied bloodbath.Later commanding Panzergruppe 2 in Operation Barbarossa, Guderian''s armoured spearhead took Smolensk after fierce fighting and was poised to launch the final assault on Moscow when he was ordered south to Kiev. In the battle that followed, he helped encircle and capture over 600,000 Soviet troops after days of combat in the most terrible conditions.Panzer Leader is a searing firsthand account of the most effective fighting force in modern history by the man who commanded it.

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Book Synopsis''ENCHANTING'' MAIL ON SUNDAY They care for their elderly, play with their kids, and always put family first. Can we all learn something from the wisdom of wolves? In this unforgettable book, wolf expert and naturalist Elli Radinger draws on her 25 years of first-hand experience among the wolves of Yellowstone National Park to tell us their remarkable stories. __________ Wolves are more human than we ever knew . . . In fact, they can teach us how to be better humans. They play, love, care for others, show compassion, die of broken hearts, pine for home, work in teams, are endlessly patient and leaders know when to defer to followers. In The Wisdom of Wolves naturalist Elli Radinger takes us on a journey into the heart of the wolf pack, revealing what they can teach us about family, cooperation, survival, leadership, commitment and how to enjoy what life gives us. No other book will bring you closer to discovering the truth about wolves - and ourselves. ''This book is the result of her two decades of close observation; part impassioned memoir, part natural history study, and part photo gallery. Her access to her subjects is extraordinary'' SUNDAY TIMES''Elli''s bestselling book suggests that in a high-tech age, when so many of us have become alienated from nature, wolves have much to teach us about the art of living well'' DAILY MAIL''Through The Wisdom of Wolves, we get to feel that little bit closer to the pack and discover what we may have in common'' BBC WILDLIFETrade ReviewEnchanting * Mail on Sunday *This book is the result of her two decades of close observation; part impassioned memoir, part natural history study, and part photo gallery. Her access to her subjects is extraordinary. * The Sunday Times *Elli's bestselling book suggests that in a high-tech age, when so many of us have become alienated from nature, wolves have much to teach us about the art of living well * Daily Mail *Elli leads us into the world of the wolves that inhabit Yellowstone National Park . . . we learn about the various family dynamics, squabbles and difficulties encountered. Through The Wisdom of Wolves, we get to feel that little bit closer to the pack and discover what we may have in common * BBC Wildlife *Perfection! * Staffordshire Living *

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Book Synopsis''A funny, sad novella about how we got here from there, and how, in our youth, our eyes saw things differently'' The TimesA private meeting, chance encounters and a mysterious tour of Lisbon haunt this moving homage to Tabucchi''s adopted cityIn the city of Lisbon, Requiem''s narrator has an appointment to meet someone on a quay by the Tagus at twelve. Misunderstanding twelve to mean noon as opposed to midnight, he is left to wait. As the day unfolds he has many unexpected encounters - with a young drug addict, a disorientated taxi driver, a cemetery keeper, the mysterious Isabel and the ghost of the late great poet Fernando Pessoa - each meeting travelling between the real and illusionary. Part travelogue, part autobiography, part fiction, Requiem becomes an homage to a country and its people, and a farewell to the past as the narrator lays claim to a literary forebear who, like himself, is an evasive and many-sided personality.Trade ReviewTabucchi is a master of illusion and allusion, and this is a literary puzzle that teases, amuses and provokes * Sunday Telegraph *A funny, sad novella about how we got here from there, and how, in our youth, "our eyes saw things differently" . . . a light summer read with enough weight to stop it blowing away -- John Self * The Times *Reading this is like having a buzzed after-dinner conversation with a mind too brilliant to get into nuts and bolts. And yet the streamlike writing, spliced by endless commas, contains a charm that shines through the monochrome * Kirkus Reviews *Beautifully translated ... perhaps his most accessible work to date * The Nation *In the narrator's conversations and in his memories of the past, there is created a personal requiem for the old Lisbon, Tabucchi's Lisbon, not the traditional, solemn celebration of the mass for the dead, with its organ music and cathedrals, but the street music of mouth-organs and barrel-organs -- Jack Byrne * Review of Contemporary Fiction *Elegant, cosmopolitan, inventive and disquieting; his writing is, paradoxically, sensuous and economical * Boston Review *This imagined world is created with elegance and complexity -- Robert Gray * Publishers Marketplace *Tabucchi's books are economical surreal-comic novellas. There's a cosmopolitan eeriness here -- Amit Chaudhuri * Times Literary Supplement *Winner of the 1991 Italian PEN Prize, this playful bagatelle translated from the original Portuguese, is partly homage to Portuguese culture, partly a mellow autobiographical fantasy * Publishers Weekly *A wonderful, enchanting tribute to the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa ... aptly subtitled, this book brilliantly creates a story that, like a delicious cocktail, most readers will finish in one gulp and will return to savor * Library Journal *

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Book SynopsisJennifer Saunders'' comic creations have brought joy to millions. From Comic Strip to Comic Relief, from Bolly-swilling Edina in Ab Fab to her takes on Madonna or Mamma Mia, her characters are household names.But it''s Jennifer herself who has a place in all our hearts. This is her funny, moving and frankly bonkers memoir, filled with laughter, friends and occasional heartache - but never misery.BONKERS is full of riotous adventures: accidentally enrolling on a teacher training course with a young Dawn French, bluffing her way to each BBC series, shooting Lulu, trading wild faxes with Joanna Lumley, touring India with Ruby Wax and Goldie Hawn.There''s cancer, too, when she becomes ''Brave Jen''. But her biggest battle is with the bane of her life: the Laws of Procrastination. As she admits, ''There has never been a Plan. Everything has been fairly random, happened by accident or just fallen into place. I''m off now, to do some sweeping...''Prepare to chuckle, whoop, and go BONKERS.Trade ReviewFabulous? Yes. Funny? Absolutely * Mail on Sunday *Beautifully written and frequently hilarious * Guardian *Delightfully funny... she writes with moving honesty * Hello! *Her account of battling breast cancer is as honest as it is uplifting * Daily Mail *'Hilarious and brilliant' -- Kirsty Young * BBC Radio 4 *Endearing and hilarious. If only all celebrity biographies were this funny * Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisA Guest at the Feast uncovers the places where politics and poetics meet, where life and fiction overlap, where one can be inside writing and also outside of it.From the melancholy and amusement within the work of the writer John McGahern to an extraordinary essay on his own cancer diagnosis, Tóibín delineates the bleakness and strangeness of life and also its richness and its complexity. As he reveals the shades of light and dark in a Venice without tourists and the streets of Buenos Aires riddled with disappearances, we find ourselves considering law and religion in Ireland as well as the intricacies of Marilynne Robinson''s fiction.The imprint of the written word on the private self, as Tóibín himself remarks, is extraordinarily powerful. In this collection, that power is gloriously alive, illuminating history and literature, politics and power, family and the self.Trade ReviewDroll, careful reflections on Ireland, illness and religion in a welcome collection of essays . . . [the] melancholy elegance of the prose guarantees the reader's enjoyment * Guardian *Erudite, forensic, moving and wry . . . the breadth of the collection is impressive: a snapshot of Irish society over decades; Buenos Aires, in the wake of thousands of 'disappeared' people; Covid-era Venice . . . a lesson in how the right words in the right order can get to the truth of the matter * Irish Times *[These essays] are always interesting and intelligent, written in an admirably clear prose free of academic jargon . . . journalism at its best. I learned a lot from them and am grateful for that. It's a collection to which I will surely return, just as I do to Orwell's, Ian Jack's, Ferdinand Mount's and Patrick Marnham's * Scotsman *A feast for the reader . . . the novelist applies his inquisitive and empathetic mind in wide-ranging series of essays, from the political to the poignant . . . [Toibin] seeks no lessons; he tries only to be good company on the page. (He succeeds.) * Irish Independent *Erudite essays from one of the world's finest writers . . . Throughout, the poetry of Tóibín's prose is as impressive as always. In [the] title piece, he writes that his mother was 'what most of us still write for: the ordinary reader, curious and intelligent and demanding, ready to be moved and changed.' Readers like her will savor every page of this book * Kirkus Reviews, starred *The clarity of the novelist's descriptive ability shines through essays on topics ranging from his treatment for cancer to the joys of an empty Venice . . . On every subject, Tóibín's writing is what people these days inevitably describe as nuanced, a word that has become a kind of shorthand for expressing a person's rare ability to understand . . . the foibles of others -- Rachel Cooke * Observer, Book of the Day *I love everything Colm Tóibín has written -- Nicola Sturgeon * New Statesman *I wanted to read out loud, to fully savour writing that is so careful and so lyrical -- Laura Hackett * Sunday Times *Reading Irish novelist, playwright and poet Colm Tóibín is always a delight * Independent *Both epic and intimate . . . a moving portrait of three generations of sprawling, loving, fractious family life . . . a triumph * Financial Times on The Magician *A work of art, an emotional reckoning with a century of change * The Times on The Magician *

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Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2025LONGLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2025Richly imaginative and powerfully empathetic, an intimate portrait of five remarkable Black men, and a meditation on race, estrangement and the search for home.''Thrilling and ingenious, propulsive and genre-defying: The Strangers is an outstanding book'' Bernardine Evaristo''Luminous and extraordinary... This book will be referenced for years to come'' Lemn SissayIn the western imagination, a Black man is always a stranger. Outsider, foreigner, intruder, alien. One who remains associated with their origins irrespective of how far they have travelled from them. One who is not an individual in their own right but the representative of a type.What kind of performance is required for a person to survive this condition? And what happens beneath the mask?In answer, Ekow Eshun conjures the voices of five very different men. Ira Aldridge: nineteenth century actor and playwright. Matthew Henson: polar explorer. Frantz Fanon: psychiatrist and political philosopher. Malcolm X: activist leader. Justin Fashanu: million-pound footballer. Each a trailblazer in his field. Each haunted by a sense of isolation and exile. Each reaching for a better future.Ekow Eshun tells their stories with breathtaking lyricism and empathy, capturing both the hostility and the beauty they experienced in the world. And he locates them within a wider landscape of Black art, culture, history and politics which stretches from Africa to Europe to North America and the Caribbean. As he moves through this landscape, he maps its thematic contours and fault lines, uncovering traces of the monstrous and the fantastic, of exile and escape, of conflict and vulnerability, and of the totemic central figure of the stranger.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewI am very grateful for Carolyn Whitney-Brown's accurate account of my brother Henri's inner feelings, hopes, wishes and despair. You brought Henri very close to me again. -- Laurent Nouwen, Founder of the Henri Nouwen Foundation on FLYING, FALLING, CATCHINGIn this book, I see Henri in the audience, smiling straight at me, clapping his hands above his head, enjoying our performance success as much as we did. This one is for you, my friend. -- Rodleigh Stevens, Founder of the Flying Rodleighs and former trainer with Cirque du Soleil on FLYING, FALLING, CATCHINGAnyone who knew Henri, either through his writing or in person, will immediately recognise how beautifully he’s been brought to life in this book.’ – his willingness to write so vulnerably about human relationships and feelings as a means to discovering our purpose in life, and a sense of the divine. -- Gary Donohoe, Professor & Chair of Psychology, National University of Ireland on FLYING, FALLING, CATCHINGFlying, Falling, Catching is far beyond religious belief or affiliation. It is a universal tale of mind-body connection and disconnection. While undoubtedly an account of a spiritual journey, Carolyn Whitney-Brown nimbly explores the corporeal inner life of Henri Nouwen as he literally swings through the air. It is brilliant! -- Ruth Rakoff, Author of When My World Was Very Small on FLYING, FALLING, CATCHINGNo question that flying, falling, and catching were unlikely teachers for Henri Nouwen, whose clear preferences were security, stability and being caught! I hope and trust that you, the reader, will allow Henri to guide your journey through risk to freedom! -- Sr. Sue Mosteller, CSJ, Executrix of Henri Nouwen's literary estate on FLYING, FALLING, CATCHINGFlying, Falling, Catching is a beacon of hope. It reminds us that despite all the perils and sufferings that surround us, with which we often collide, we can find healing, peace, and awe even in the most unusual detours that life offers. A must read. -- Marina Nemat, Author of international best-seller Prisoner of Tehran on FLYING, FALLING, CATCHINGA loving achievement and a riveting story of spirit meets body. With splendid pace and wit, Carolyn Whitney-Brown drops the words of Henri Nouwen’s flights of thought before us. Then, she arranges to gorgeously catch them. A singular spiritual tale written with tender-hearted eloquence from two arresting minds. -- Kathryn Bond Stockton, Author of Gender(s), Distinguished Professor of English, University of Utah on FLYING, FALLING, CATCHINGA lifelong search for wholeness takes a surprising late turn—toward the circus! As someone who’s spent much of my adult life absorbing beautiful spiritual truths in gritty entertainment venues, I can definitely relate. -- Shad, Rapper, Host of documentary series Hip-Hop Evolution on FLYING, FALLING, CATCHINGFor Henri Nouwen, a flying trapeze performance was like a Russian icon, drawing him into a spiritual world. This endearing true story about living and dying carefully brings together all of Nouwen's thinking on the Flying Rodleighs and the circus. Like the act itself, sheer elegance. -- Michael Ford, Author of Wounded Prophet and Lonely Mystic on FLYING, FALLING, CATCHINGIn Carolyn Whitney-Brown's deft hands, Henri’s intentions literally, vividly swing alive. This is a beautiful, moving story about interconnectivity, interdependence, and life's rich, beautiful, complicated pageant. I devoured it in a sitting. -- Lisa Napoli, Author of Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie on FLYING, FALLING, CATCHING

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Book SynopsisAbandoned as a baby, Andy McNab''s start in life was tough. Growing up in South London with foster parents, and surrounded by poverty, he attended seven schools in as many years, disillusioned and in remedial classes. It wasn't long before his life descended into petty crime. By the age of sixteen, he was in juvenile detention. Recruited into the Army from there, it soon became apparent that he had the reading age of an eleven year old. The next six months in the Army education system changed his course of his life forever. Today Everything Changes is the inspiring story of when life changed for Andy McNab.

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

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Book SynopsisFROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR[A] mesmerizing portrait of a now vanished world.' NEW YORK TIMES''A dazzling evocation of a time and a place.'' TELEGRAPH''Aciman. . . recalls with a magical sensibility streaked with antic humoUr.'' PUBLISHERS WEEKLYAciman's story of Alexandria is the story of his own family, a Jewish family with Italian and Turkish roots that tied its future to Egypt and made its home there for three generations, only to find itself peremptorily expelled by the government in the early 1960s. It is the story of a fractious clan of dreamers and con men and the emotional price they would pay for exile, the story of a young boy''s coming of age and his memories of the city he loved in his youth.MY ROMAN YEAR - THE NEW MEMOIR FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR - IS AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW

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Book SynopsisBestselling author and psychologist Tony Bates has spent his career seeking to understand the lives of others. Here he turns his therapeutic eye on himself and describes the events and people in his own life that have made him the insightful thinker and teacher that he is today. He recalls traumatic events in his childhood that reverberated throughout his life and how, with therapy and time, he was eventually able to heal. He recounts the stories of the patients that affected him most deeply and informed both the direction of his work and his philosophy as a psychologist.This book invites us to reflect with compassion on the meaning of our own lives, as well as on the way we, as a society, support those with mental health difficulties.

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