Memoirs Books
Seven Stories Press UK A Matter Of Appearance: A Memoir of Chronic
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Omnibus Press Some New Kind of Kick: A Memoir
Book SynopsisAn intimate, coming-of-age memoir by legendary guitarist Kid Congo Powers, detailing his experiences as a young, queer Mexican-American in 1970s Los Angeles through his rise in the glam rock and punk rock scenes. Kid Congo Powers has been described as a "legendary guitarist and paragon of cool" with "the greatest resume ever of anyone in rock music." That unique imprint on rock history stems from being a member of not one but three beloved, groundbreaking, and influential groups--Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the Cramps, and last but not least, The Gun Club, the wildly inventive punk-blues band he co-founded. Some New Kind of Kick begins as an intimate coming of age tale, of a young, queer, Chicano kid, growing up in a suburb east of East LA, in the mid-'70s, exploring his sexual identity through glam rock. When a devastating personal tragedy crushes his teenage dreams, he finds solace and community through fandom, as founder ('The Prez') of the Ramones West Coast fan club, and immerses himself in the delinquent chaos of the early LA punk scene. A chance encounter with another superfan, in the line outside the Whiskey-A-Go-Go to get into a Pere Ubu concert, changes the course of his life entirely. Jeffrey Lee Pierce, a misfit Chicano punk who runs the Blondie fan club, proposes they form a band. The Gun Club is born. So begins an unlikely transition from adoring fan to lauded performer. In Pierce, he finds brotherhood, a creative voice, and a common cause, but also a shared appetite for self-destruction that threatens to overwhelm them both. Quirky, droll, and heartfelt, with a pitch-perfect evocation of time and place, and a wealth of richly-drawn supporting characters, Some New Kind of Kick is a memoir of personal transformation, addiction and recovery, friendship and belonging, set against the relentless creativity and excess of the '70s and '80s underground music scenes.Trade Review'An instant classic of sex, drugs, and punk rock by one of underground music's most legendary kings of cool' Mark Lanegan 'This book is dripping with all the sadness and beauty in the world. A crucial document.' Flea 'Like the man himself, bursting with humour, heart, and good grace. A gem.' Nick Cave 'Kid Congo writes from the heart in a pure and unadorned way. This is a beautiful book about rock and roll and friendship. Read and be blessed.' Bobby Gillespie, Primal Scream
£17.00
Haus Publishing Leadership: Lessons from a Life in Diplomacy
Book SynopsisWhen Abraham Lincoln said, ‘You can be anything you want to be,’ Americans, and eventually everybody everywhere, lifted their sights. Nowadays anybody can aspire to be a leader, and nearly everybody has to lead sometimes. In Leadership, Simon McDonald assumes that thinking about leadership before you lead helps you to lead better. No matter the circumstances in which we might be called to lead – be it at work, on the sports field, or in the community – the example of top leaders in politics and public service (both their successes and shortcomings) can help you figure out your own approach. As the head of HM Diplomatic Service, McDonald was responbile for over 14,000 staff in 270 posts worldwide, worked for six foreign secretaries, and saw five prime ministers operate at close quarters. Observing these people undertaking the most important and often the most difficult work in the country, he saw the behaviours that helped them to achieve their objectives, and those which hindered them.Trade Review‘Leadership displays the virtues you might expect of a top diplomat: it is elegantly written, discreet and observant.’ Gideon Rachman, Financial Times; ‘An enjoyable read packed with insights from someone who was ‘‘on the spot’’ when the United Kingdom responded to significant international challenges.’ House Magazine; ‘An original, very well-written, and serious book which adds to the quality of public discussion.’ Anthony Seldon; ‘This is a book full of riches – a despatch from deep inside the British state about how it really operates and how it could be run better. In places, Simon McDonald wields his fluent pen like a blowtorch. His candour burns the page. Some of the most eminent in the land will rush to the index. Some will be right to tremble if they find their name.’ Peter Hennessy; ‘The author’s observations are widely applicable and strengthened by a strong understanding of history.’ The Edge, Malaysia;
£11.69
Tramp Press Minor Monuments
Book SynopsisSet around a small family farm on the edge of a bog, a few miles from the river Shannon, Minor Monuments is a collection of essays unfolding from the landscape of the Irish midlands. Taking in the physical and philosophical power of sound and music, and the effects of Alzheimer's disease on a family, Ian Maleney questions the nature of home, memory and the complex nature of belonging. A thought-provoking and quietly devastating meditation on family and loss, and with echoes of Tim Robinson and Tara Westover, Minor Monuments is a beautiful and unique literary experience.Trade ReviewSALLY ROONEY 'Minor Monuments is a beautiful, touching, and extraordinarily intelligent book. I loved every page.’ FINTAN O’TOOLE ‘Minor Monuments is beautifully poised between the vivid recollection of experience and subtle reflections on the nature of memory itself. Ian Maleney writes with both a poetic serenity and a startling immediacy, a combination as rare as it is absorbing.’ EMILIE PINE ‘Honest, thoughtful, ambitious - a portrait of the essayist as a young man.’ LISA MCINERNEY ‘Minor Monuments is brilliant, pulsing with intellect and insight, with each observation composed so beautifully as to be deeply moving. This is the kind of book that changes its reader.’ KEVIN BARRY ‘These essays are thoughtful, precise, beautifully controlled, and with a nicely wry humour helping us along the way - this is an extremely fine debut.’
£11.69
Allen & Unwin How to Walk a Dog
Book Synopsis'The book of the year. THE book on dogs. And people.' Andrew Dickens, Newstalk ZBMike White began walking his SPCA-rescue huntaway, Cooper, at Wellington's dog parks ten years ago, and since then has become part of a remarkable community of people and their pets.Written with wit, wisdom and heartbreaking poignancy, How to Walk a Dog is a story anyone who has ever owned or loved a dog will relate to. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will learn some of the secrets of living with a dog.Illustrated with drawings from acclaimed cartoonist Sharon Murdoch.Trade ReviewMike White, for decades one of the country's most persuasive journalists, makes a case here as irrefutable as it is moving: throw a stick, make a dog happy, be a better person. He has convinced me. -- Vincent O'SullivanThis wryly affectionate portrait of dogs and their people is a tail-thumpingly delightful read. -- Jane CliftonSo charming and funny and sincere - this is dog lit at its best. -- Steve BrauniasTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The names we give them 2. The people we meet with them 3. The places we walk them 4. The dogs we meet with them 5. The ways we train them 6. The heartache they cause us 7. The ways we play with them 8. The ways they shame us 9. The jobs we give them10. The ways we say goodbye to them
£8.54
The Indigo Press These Bones Will Rise Again
Book SynopsisWhat are the right questions to ask when seeking out the true spirit of a nation? In November 2017 the people of Zimbabwe took to the streets in an unprecedented alliance with the military. Their goal, to restore the legacy of Chimurenga, the liberation struggle, and wrest their country back from over thirty years of Robert Mugabe’s rule. In an essay that combines bold reportage, memoir and critical analysis, Zimbabwean novelist and journalist Panashe Chigumadzi reflects on the ‘coup that was not a coup’, the telling of history and manipulation of time and the ancestral spirts of two women – her own grandmother and Mbuya Nehanda, the grandmother of the nation.Trade Review‘In a searing account that explores the heady post-independence days of the eighties, the economic downturn of the nineties, through to the effects of the land reform policies at the end of the century, Chigumadzi weaves together reflections on a nation’s founding spirit’ https://www.thedailyvox.co.za/these-bones-will-rise-again-is-an-intimate-telling-of-zimbabwean-history-shaazia-ebrahim/ -- Jennifer Malec * The Johannesburg Review of Books *‘Best summer books 2018, as picked by writers and cultural figures – part 2’ ‘an extraordinary and thrilling history of Zimbabwe’ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/08/best-summer-holiday-reads-2018-philip-pullman-maggie-ofarrell-nina-stibbe-part-two -- Alex Preston * The Guardian *‘These Bones Will Rise Again reminds its readers of the complexities in the cultures of Africa . . . Panache Chigumadzi’s essay is a welcome addition to the new cannon of decolonised historical literature.’ https://livemag.co.za/book-review-panashe-chigumadzis-these-bones-will-rise-again/ -- Terry Simelane-Mathabathe * Live Mag *http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2018/08/27/i-wanted-to-interrogate-the-legacy-that-belonged-to-me-panashe-chigumadzi-on-these-bones-will-rise-again/ -- Rufaro Samanga interviews Panashe Chigumadzi * Okay Africa *‘By refusing to conceal the marks of its making, Chigumadzi’s essay lays bare the challenges of constructing historical narratives’ http://review31.co.uk/article/view/592/perhaps-she-was-this-perhaps-she-was-that -- Jacqueline Landey * Review 31 *‘Chigumadzi writes of her feeling of dislocation from the land of her birth having been raised in South Africa and her ancestral connection to Zimbabwe. Her sincerity to seek truth carries out beautifully throughout the book.’ https://www.thedailyvox.co.za/these-bones-will-rise-again-is-an-intimate-telling-of-zimbabwean-history-shaazia-ebrahim/ -- Shaazia Ebrahim * The Daily vox *‘the author has masterfully succeeded in providing the reader with a book that is a powerful ode to the various women, both great and small, who took Zimbabwe through its multiple phases of liberation’ http://www.rewritelondon.com/portfolio/book-review-these-bones-will-rise-again/ * Rewrite *‘Panache Chigumadzi passionately places her personal story, connected to the family history and the history of her nation, within a blend of Zimbabwe’s national mythology & socio-political turmoil’ https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/books/non-fiction/2019-05-02-these-bones-will-rise-again-breaks-120-years-of-oppression/ -- Bryan Davis * Sunday Times Books *Opinion: Mugabe Is Dead, but Big Man Politics Lives On https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/opinion/robert-mugabe-zimbabwe.html -- Panashe Chigumadzi * New York Times *10 Best Political Activism Books of All Time https://bookauthority.org/books/best-political-activism-books?t=h63snq&s=author&book=1999683307 * Book Authority *Panashe Chigumadzi ZAM Nelson Mandela Lecture 2023 https://youtu.be/LuuV1KFei-0 * ZAM Magazine *
£7.59
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Playing Scared: A History and Memoir of Stage
Book Synopsis'This book will set you free' STEVE LOPEZ 'Sheds light so eloquently on such a widespread and too easily trivialised affliction' SUNDAY TIMES 'Captivating, fascinating and wide-ranging' OBSERVER ___________________ Stage fright is one of our deepest fears, ranked higher than snakes or heights. But it can be tamed: Laurence Olivier, Salma Hayek, Paul McCartney and Adele have all battled it and learned to cope. As a child, Sara Solovitch studied piano and fell in love with it. But as a teen she was overwhelmed by stage fright and gave up any hopes of a musical career. In her late fifties, Sara gave herself one year to tame performance anxiety and play before an audience. Resuming music lessons, she explored remedies including meditation, exposure and cognitive therapy, biofeedback and beta-blockers. Finally, the day before her sixtieth birthday, she gave a formal recital. Drawing on Sara’s own journey as inspiration, Playing Scared is an insightful cultural history of performance anxiety and a tribute to pursuing personal growth at any age.Trade ReviewSolovitch is a skilled, self-deprecating, wry, and quizzical writer, who fills her account both with diligent research into all relevant fields – from psychology and medicine to sports history – and wonderful vignettes * The Times *Heartfelt and moving … Sheds light so eloquently on such a widespread and too easily trivialised affliction * Sunday Times *Captivating, fascinating and wide-ranging * Observer *This book will set you free -- Steve LopezGripping and compelling … Playing Scared will hold significance for anyone who fears the spotlight, whether in the boardroom, on the playing field or on stage. Masterfully done! -- Jennifer L. Eberhardt, Professor of Psychology at Stanford UniversityFascinating … We hear about music, sport, philosophy, psychology … and there are quite a few useful tips along the way -- Stephen Hough
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd The Whispering Land
Book SynopsisGerald Durrell was born in Jamshedpur, India, in 1925. He returned to England in 1928 before settling on the island of Corfu with his family. In 1945 he joined the staff of Whipsnade Park as a student keeper, and in 1947 he led his first animal-collecting expedition to the Cameroons. He later undertook numerous further expeditions, visiting Paraguay, Argentina, Sierra Leone, Mexico, Mauritius, Assam and Madagascar. His first television programme, Two in the Bush which documented his travels to New Zealand, Australia and Malaya was made in 1962; he went on to make seventy programmes about his trips around the world. In 1959 he founded the Jersey Zoological Park, and in 1964 he founded the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust. He was awarded the OBE in 1982. Encouraged to write about his life's work by his brother, Durrell published his first book, The Overloaded Ark, in 1953. It soon became a bestseller and he went on to write thirty-six other titles, including My Trade ReviewAnimals come close to being Durrell's best friends. He writes about them with style, verve and humour * Time *An amusing writer who transforms this Argentine backcountry into a particularly inviting place * San Francisco Chronicle *A splendid success * New Yorker *A delight, with never a dull moment from Buenos Aires to Patagonia, thanks to Durrell's extraordinary ability to communicate his exuberant pleasure in his chosen work * New York Times *
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd Shattered
Book SynopsisFrom Hanif Kureishi, author of The Buddha of Suburbia, a memoir about the accident that left him paralysed. Moving, funny, remarkable' Richard Eyre___________________A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also shattered the lives of those around me. My partner, my children, my friends.'On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, in a pool of blood, he was horrified to realise he had lost the use of his limbs. He could no longer walk, write or wash himself. He could do nothing without the help of others, and required constant care in a hospital. So began an odyssey of a year through the medical systems of Rome and Italy, with the hope of somehow being able to return home, to his house in London. While confined to a series of hospital wards, he felt compelled to write, but being unable to type or to hold a pen, he began to dictate to family members the words which formed in his head. The result was an extraordinary series of dispa
£10.44
The New Press When We Were Arabs
Book SynopsisThe stunning debut of a brilliant nonfiction writer whose vivid account of his grandparents’ lives in Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine, and Los Angeles reclaims his family’s Jewish Arab identityWinner of the 2020 Arab American Book Award for nonfiction and one of NPR’s best books of 2019, When We Were Arabs is a gorgeous family memoir and “a powerful exploration of Arab Jewish identity” (The New Arab) that brings the world of Jewish Arab writer and artist Massoud Hayoun’s parents and grandparents alive, vividly shattering our contemporary understanding of what makes an Arab and what makes a Jew. There was a time when being an “Arab” didn’t mean you were necessarily Muslim. It was a time when Oscar Hayoun, a Jewish Arab, strode along the Nile in a fashionable suit, and Arabness was a mark of cosmopolitanism, of intellectualism. That was before he and his father arrived at the port of Haifa to join the Zionist state only to find themselves hosed down with DDT and left unemployed on the margins of society. In this moving book, Oscar’s son, Massoud, raised in Los Angeles, finds his own voice by telling his family’s story. Named one of the most inspiring Arab writers of 2020, Hayoun seeks to reclaim a worldly, nuanced Arab identity as part of the larger project to recall a time before ethnic identity was mangled for political ends. “An intriguing read for anyone interested in furthering their understanding of complex identities and mixed cultural heritage” (Jewish News), When We Were Arabs is also a journey deep into a lost age of sophisticated innocence in the Arab world, an age that is now nearly lost.
£13.29
Cornerstone To Keep The Ball Rolling
Book Synopsis**The abridged memoirs of Anthony Powell, with a new introduction from Louisa Young**''Powell can offer many of the rewards of comic creation we find in a Dickens or a Jane Austen'' TLS Anthony Powell earned a reputation as a literary giant within the generation of Waugh, Orwell and Greene, best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time.These memoirs reveal Powell - the man and author - providing an insider''s view of the British literary scene and social elite from the 1920s to the 1980s. In these pages, Powell observes the obscenity trial sparked by Lady Chatterley''s Lover, and Shirley Temple''s libel suit after Graham Greene reviewed Wee Willie Winkie with ''more than his usual verve''. Throughout, Powell paints vivid, witty and superbly written portraits of his contemporaries, other authors including Kingsley Amis, V.S. Naipaul, T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf.Featuring an illuminating new introduction by Louisa Young, TO KEEP THE BALL ROLLING is the abridged version of Anthony Powell''s four volumes of memoir, first published between 1976 and 1982.
£10.44
The Book Guild Ltd Anything Goes at Sea
Book SynopsisAnything Goes at Sea explores gay life aboard British ships from 1969 to 1990. It chronicles a tender, enduring love story that survived a turbulent beginning and spans 50 years.
£10.44
Troubador Publishing The Pursuit of Motherhood
Book SynopsisThe story of Jessica Hepburn's decade long journey through a diagnosis of Unexplained Infertility' involving multiple miscarriages, unsuccessful IVF and the heartbreak of not getting what you hoped for.
£9.49
Troubador Publishing 21 Miles
Book SynopsisThe story of how Jessica Hepburn met and ate with 21 inspirational women, and swam 21 miles across the English Channel to answer the question: does motherhood make you happy?
£9.49
Globe Pequot My Russia
Book Synopsis
£22.50
John Murray Press No Obvious Distress
Book Synopsis''Striking, surprising, and technically excellent, the poems resonate way beyond their endings'' Roger Robinson''Deft, daring, devastating and delightful'' Pádraig Ó Tuama''Astonishing. These poems glimmer with a white-hot beauty that is hard won, and that sings'' Sarah RuhlPatient is a normal appearing woman in no obvious distress.On an ordinary day, out with her three-year-old in the park, Amanda Quaid received a life-changing call - the back pain she had been living with for years was actually a rare and aggressive form of cancer. In an instant, life became a series of sterile rooms, medical charts and body-altering treatments which completely upend Amanda''s marriage, work and family life as she knows it.Poetry became a lifeline for Amanda, a form to organize the chaos and pain of day-to-day life into order and beauty. In inventive and arresting poems that explore desire, marriage, motherhood and mortality, No Obvious Distress is a powerful memoir-in-verse about Amanda''s unique experience. But it is also a tender, witty and universal collection that asks how we can continue to live and love in times of uncertainty.
£999.99
Bonnier Books Ltd Out of Faith
Book SynopsisAS SEEN IN THE TIMESMaria Compton was born and raised in the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.
£9.49
Gill Serve
Book SynopsisAnne Marie Allen was fifteen when she was accepted onto a cookery school course that promised real qualifications and a future in the career of her dreams. Seeking a better life, she moved to the calm and peaceful countryside of the west of Ireland. Her happiness was short-lived as it became clear she had been tricked instead into a life of domestic servitude to the members of Opus Dei.Before long she was whisked away to Rome where she signed her life away with vows to serve. What followed were years of misery in slavery, forced celibacy and traumatic physical suffering under an ambitious and tyrannical institution that demanded perfection, humiliation and pain.Her family eventually managed to coerce a visit home where they refused to let her return to the Order, and where they began the long process of deprogramming Anne Marie a task that has been a life-long struggle. Serve is Anne Marie's remarkable story of strength and resilience in the face of religious zealotry.
£17.09
Rizzoli International Publications Tilda Swinton
£33.25
Hansib Publications Building A Better Future
£17.00
New York Review of Books Time Tunnel
£15.16
Footnote Press Ltd Running From Office
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd The Episode
£999.99
Troubador Publishing Ltd All Aboard
Book SynopsisPart travelogue, part memoir, this is a story of landscapes and lives, of memory and rediscovery. Britain seen from a seat by the window, through the eyes of someone coming home.
£13.49
Penguin Random House Group I Deliver Parcels in Beijing
£11.69
