Memoirs Books

Book SynopsisInspiring stories of 20 abolitionists who risked their lives so others would be free.In Defiance is a corrective. American history has historically suffered from the systematic effort of many in power to suppress the stories of those whose lives serve as models for those who came after—models of conscience, activism, and dedication to the cause of the abolition of enslavement. Following an introduction to the history of enslavement in the Americas, twenty people’s lives, Black and white, men and women, are profiled in order to convey the monumental commitment—its source and its expression—they carried with them throughout their lives. Those people—and the circumstances that influenced, inspired, and motivated them to risk their well-being and their lives for the freedom and equality of enslaved people—are conveyed in vivid vignettes, often including their own words. Their stories are an antidote to the numerous attempts being made to deny, suppress, erase, and whitewash the actual people and events that occurred and that, in the telling, can cause discomfort. These stories need to be shared and recounted in classrooms. They are intended “to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted” as Black and white people will experience them differently, a significant reason for the authors’ choice to write the book together. The book’s other primary purpose is to inspire and embolden readers to make John Lewis’s “good trouble” and Drew Gilpin-Faust’s “necessary trouble” in the face of on-going racism, now 160 years after the proclamation that accomplished at least some of the defiant quest of the men and women whose stories the book contains. The authors bring their life experiences and activism into the telling of the stories and into the decisions about what to focus upon in the telling. It is their hope that readers will benefit from the two voices and see the importance of having such stories resonate with all people, regardless of race. As you read, consider the obstacles faced by the people profiled and then imagine what it will take for you to become an advocate for racial justice. Then take whatever action you deem necessary and remember those who came before.

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Book SynopsisAfter coming of age and graduating in the tumultuous sixties, Ahad Cobb found himself wandering without direction. A chance road trip with a friend led him to Ram Dass, thus beginning an enthusiastic journey of spiritual awakening and deep involvement with three spiritual communities originating in the sixties and still thriving today: the Ram Dass satsang, Lama Foundation, and Dances of Universal Peace. Sharing his opening to the inner life, his poetry and dreams, his spiritual passions and astrological insights, Ahad Cobb’s memoir begins with his summer with Ram Dass and his satsang, immersed in meditation, devotion, and guru’s grace. His path takes him to New Mexico, to a newly established intentional spiritual community, Lama Foundation, where he lives on the land for thirteen years, experiencing the disciplines and rewards of communal living and spiritual practice. At Lama, he is initiated into universal Sufism in the tradition of Hazrat Inayat Khan and the Dances of Universal Peace. He travels overseas to spend time with Sufis in Chamonix, Istanbul, Konya, and Jerusalem. After the birth of his son, Ahad moves off the mountain and serves as sacred dance leader and musician for 35 years in Santa Fe and later Albuquerque. When Lama Foundation is nearly destroyed by a forest fire in 1996, Ahad serves as a trustee, guiding the rebuilding of the community. He imparts insights from his personal work with Jungian analysis and trauma release, shares his search for and discovery of his soul mate, and details his twelve years of study with Hart DeFouw in the wisdom stream of Vedic astrology. Offering a poignant reflection on life lived from the inside out, and the delicate balance between spirituality and psychology, this memoir leads readers on an outer and inner journey steeped in poetry, music, astrology, dreams, inner work, and spiritual practice in the context of community devoted to awakening.Trade Review“Ahad’s metaphoric journey vividly evokes the spiritual awakening that exploded in the ’60s. He writes with humor, insight, and a compass needle aimed at Truth. His love is magnanimous, his recollections are luminous, and his prose is visionary. He has a gift for transmitting gems of wisdom embedded in personal parables.” * Rameshwar Das, coauthor with Ram Dass of Be Love Now, Polishing the Mirror, and Being Ram Dass *“A wonderful telling of an awakening life dedicated to manifesting loving kindness and compassion throughout life’s changing conditions. Through Ahad’s journey we meet many great teachers and experience firsthand living in spiritual community.” * Pir Shabda Kahn, spiritual director of the Sufi Ruhaniat International and coauthor of Physicians of *Table of Contents1 Satsang, Summer 1969 2 Restless, 1947-1970 3Early Lama, 1970-1972 4 Overseas, 1972-1975 5 Holy War, 1975-1977 6 Living Lama, 1977-1983 7 Santa Fe, 1983-2006 8 Jyotish, 1998-2010 9 MaryRose 10 Sufi Path 11The Inner Life

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Book SynopsisThe year was 1972. The place was rural Pennsylvania. Civil rights, the Vietnam War, and counterculture youth who were defying their traditional parents had the nation in social upheaval. Lynda was white, an anxious but earnest free spirit studying poetry, peyote, and peaceful protest at her small university. JT was black, a talented athlete recruited from the inner city to win basketball games for Lynda’s hometown college. Their chemistry was irresistible, but their schools were hours apart—so, in the days before email, cell phones, and video chat apps to connect them, they reached out to each other in the only way possible: letters. Songs and prose penned late into the night revealed a longing that neither had felt before. JT used music to show Lynda his sensitive side and deep desire for true love. Lynda strove to leave her conservative upbringing behind, to see truths beyond skin color and the pressure—for women, especially—to conform. But their connection, though deep, was also fragile. Racist parents, a jealous friend, and a prior lover who came back to claim Lynda ultimately unraveled the delicate fabric woven by their words. Now, four decades later, Lynda and JT may have another chance. Can they take it? This sensual memoir by human sexuality professor Lynda Smith Hoggan lays bare the raw contradictions between social expectations and the heart’s desires—and leaves readers pondering what love might look like in a world where we are truly free.

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Book SynopsisThe #1 New York Times and Amazon Charts bestselling author Gregg Olsen solves a murder among the Amish and reveals the conspiracy to keep it a secret in a heartbreaking and horrifying true-crime story. In 1977, in an Ohio Amish community, pregnant wife and mother Ida Stutzman perished during a barn fire. The coroner’s report: natural causes. Ida’s husband, Eli, was never considered a suspect. But when he eventually rejected the faith and took his son, Danny, with him, murder followed. What really happened to Ida? The dubious circumstances of the tragic blaze were willfully ignored and Eli’s shifting narratives disregarded. Could Eli’s subsequent cross-country journey of death—including that of his own son—have been prevented if just one person came forward with what they knew about the real Eli Stutzman? The questions haunted Gregg Olsen and Ida’s brother Daniel Gingerich for decades. At Daniel’s urging, Olsen now returns to Amish Country and to Eli’s crimes first exposed in Olsen’s Abandoned Prayers, one of which has remained a mystery until now. With the help of aging witnesses and shocking long-buried letters, Olsen finally uncovers the disturbing truth—about Ida’s murder and the conspiracy of silence and secrets that kept it hidden for forty-five years.Trade Review“Olsen has a gift for taking mountains of paperwork and interview material and weaving them into a cohesive narrative that is often difficult to put down, especially for die-hard true-crime fans. Because he frames the book as a step-by-step process of discovery, readers will feel like they’re right there with him as he’s knocking on doors and spinning out on the Midwestern ice. An engaging, well-researched historical excavation…” —Kirkus Reviews “The details of the case are gripping enough, but Olsen elevates them with sturdy prose, meticulous research, and admirable journalistic tenacity. This addendum to a once-settled story lands as much more than a footnote.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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Book Synopsis“A searing testament to the strength in claiming one’s destiny.” —The Washington Post A moving coming-of-age memoir in the vein of Unorthodox and Educated, about one young woman’s desperate attempt to protect her children and family while also embracing her queer identity in a controlling Hasidic community.Growing up in the Hasidic community of Brooklyn’s Borough Park, Sara Glass knew one painful truth: what was expected of her and what she desperately wanted were impossibly opposed. Tormented by her attraction to women and trapped in a loveless arranged marriage, she found herself unable to conform to her religious upbringing and soon, she made the difficult decision to walk away from the world she knew. Sara’s journey to self-acceptance began with the challenging battle for a divorce and custody of her children, an act that lef

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Book SynopsisPaul Byrne joined London's Metropolitan Police by mistake. By day a Detective Inspector, by night a stand-up comedian, this is a memoir of law enforcement not exactly going to plan. Sucked into a dark and troubling whirlpool of police corruption, eventually he would be forced out of the service a broken man.

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Book SynopsisThe remarkable true story of a family forced into hiding after leaking Russian secrets. What started out as a great adventure turned into a terrifying nightmare when Nick Stride and his family were forced to flee for their lives from one of the richest, most powerful men in the world.   Nick moved to Russia in 1998 to help build the British Embassy in Moscow, but ended up on the run with his wife and two children after leaking secrets from Vladimir Putin’s one-time deputy. Hiding off grid on Australia’s final frontier – remote beaches on the Dampier Peninsula on the far north Kimberley coast – the family faced crocodiles, sharks, snakes, raging bushfires and the devastating Cyclone Yvette, and survived only by catching fish and crabs and learning how to kill wild animals. It was a life-or-death move, but Nick felt he had no choice. Now, emerging from isolation, the family are finally ready to share their incredible story.

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Book Synopsis'By the summer of 1998, it had become clear that there was something wrong with my hearing. It didn't happen suddenly but softly, so softly I almost wasn't aware of it happening; sound seemed to have stolen away ...' For twelve years, Bella Bathurst was deaf. She missed the punchlines and the jokes, avoided busy restaurants and raucous parties, and grew her hair long to cover hearing aids. But then, twelve years later, pioneering surgery on her ears gave her the chance to hear again. Sound is the extraordinary story of Bella's journey into deafness and back to hearing. Mixing memoir with interviews with soldiers, sign language experts, musicians and mental health workers, Bella explores what it means to live with and without sound, and in the process uncovers a hidden world of sense and connection. If sight gives us the world, then hearing - or our ability to listen - gives us each other. Warm, wry and honest, this is a story not just for the one in six of us with hearing loss, but for everyone who ever listened. Published in partnership with the Wellcome Collection. Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library that aims to challenge how we think and feel about health. Inspired by the medical objects and curiosities collected by Henry Wellcome, it connects science, medicine, life and art. Wellcome Collection exhibitions, events and books explore a diverse range of subjects, including consciousness, forensic medicine, emotions, sexology, identity and death. Wellcome Collection is part of Wellcome, a global charitable foundation that exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive, funding over 14,000 researchers and projects in more than 70 countries. wellcomecollection.orgTrade ReviewA book to remind us to treasure the gift of sound. -- Laura Freeman * Times *Fascinating ... Bathurst is a restless, curious writer, and she interweaves the story of her own experiences with imaginative research around hearing and sound ... After reading this book, I found myself listening in a richer and more interested way. -- Alice O'Keefe * Guardian *'Extraordinary ... echoes long after you have turned the final page. * Mail on Sunday *'Her writing draws on all the senses ... This is a moving and fascinating book, all about sound and what it means to be human. It has its share of sound and fury, and benefits from a journalist's ability to listen. Many people with hearing loss, and more without, would benefit from hearing its message. * Financial Times *Terrifying, absorbing and ultimately uplifting. It's a hymn to the faculty of hearing by someone who had it, lost it and then found it again, written with passion and intelligence and full of matters that I knew little about. It's a brave and important work -- Rupert Christiansen * Literary Review *An empathetic, sensitive look at how a physical loss can transform the way you understand the world and how you live in it * Sunday Express *Poignant ... I suspect [deafness] sharpened her writing. Bathurst's drive to communicate has been channelled into excellent non-fiction * Daily Telegraph *Bathurst is good on aural geography ... when her hearing is restored, it is returned to someone who is profoundly changed by the experience -- Marion Coutts * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisA Sunday Telegraph, Irish Times and Glasgow Herald Book of the Year "Tender, acute and utterly absorbing" Anna Funder, author of Stasiland "A wry and unheroic witness... an unofficial history of a country that no longer exists" Julian Barnes "Beautiful and supremely touching" Keith Lowe, Sunday Telegraph "Compelling ... [Leo] is terrific at elucidating the slow, incremental steps by which people come to lie to themselves... Guile, guilt and disappointment drip from these pages and Red Love is all the more affecting for it" New Statesman Growing up in East Berlin, Maxim Leo knew not to ask questions. All he knew was that his rebellious parents, Wolf and Anne, with their dyed hair, leather jackets and insistence he call them by their first names, were a bit embarrassing. That there were some places you couldn't play; certain things you didn't say. Now, married with two children and the Wall a distant memory, Maxim decides to find the answers to the questions he couldn't ask. Why did his parents, once passionately in love, grow apart? Why did his father become so angry, and his mother quit her career in journalism? And why did his grandfather Gerhard, the Socialist war hero, turn into a stranger? The story he unearths is, like his country's past, one of hopes, lies, cruelties, betrayals but also love. In Red Love he captures, with warmth and unflinching honesty, why so many dreamed the GDR would be a new world and why, in the end, it fell apart. "Tender, acute and utterly absorbing. In fine portraits of his family members Leo takes us through three generations of his family, showing how they adopt, reject and survive the fierce, uplifting and ultimately catastrophic ideologies of 20th-century Europe. We are taken on an intimate journey from the exhilaration and extreme courage of the French Resistance to the uncomfortable moral accommodations of passive resistance in the GDR. "He describes these 'ordinary lies' and contradictions, and the way human beings have to negotiate their way through them, with great clarity, humour and truthfulness, for which the jury of the European Book Prize is delighted to honour Red Love. His personal memoir serves as an unofficial history of a country that no longer exists... He is a wry and unheroic witness to the distorting impact - sometimes frightening, sometimes merely absurd - that ideology has upon the daily life of the individual: citizens only allowed to dance in couples, journalists unable to mention car tyres or washing machines for reasons of state." Julian Barnes, European Book Prize With wonderful insight Leo shows how the human need to believe and to belong to a cause greater than ourselves can inspire a person to acts of heroism, but can then ossify into loyalty to a cause that long ago betrayed its people." Anna Funder, author of Stasiland >>"Leo uses the intimate scope of his family to explore the turbulent political history of East Germany from a perspective that has not been seen before. The result is an absorbing and personal account that gives outsiders an insight into life in the GDR" Shortlist "Affectionate, insightful... Red Love is a fascinating tale... beautifully written and translated" Bookoxygen Maxim Leo was born in 1970 in East Berlin. He studied Political Science at the Free University in Berlin and at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. Since 1997 he is Editor of the Berliner Zeitung. In 2002 he was nominated for the Egon-Erwin-Kisch Prize, and in the same year won the German-French Journalism Prize. He won the Theodor Wolff Prize in 2006. He lives in Berlin.Trade ReviewBeautiful and supremely touching -- Keith Lowe, author of Savage Continent Sunday Telegraph A serious, very moving book... a weave of narratives about five lives, connected by blood and marriage but divided by politics -- Neal Ascherson London Review of Books Simultaneously gripping and meditative, an engaging and thought-provoking portrait of a disappeared world -- Natasha Tripney Observer Compelling ... [Leo] is terrific at elucidating the slow, incremental steps by which people come to lie to themselves... guile, guilt and disappointment drip from these pages and Red Love is all the more affecting for it -- Marina Benjamin New Statesman With truthful tenderness and wry humour, Maxim Leo looks back not in anger but in an effort to understand the past -- Iain Finlayson The Times Honest and sober... a convincing depiction of what everyday life was like and the legacy it has left... illuminating Metro An absorbing and personal account that gives outsiders an insight into life in the GDR Shortlist [Red Love] gives us extraordinary, intimate access to East Germany when the state was not just in the family apartment but locked within the minds and aspirations of all its citizens Sunday Telegraph Red Love is an important and compelling book for many reasons, but perhaps more than anything it reminds us of the pull of family, however flawed it might be -- Susie Dent Spectator Red Love... is a memoir about three leftist German generations in a family seeking Utopia and trying to stay whole. -- Neal Ascherson Glasgow Herald Illuminating ... Red Love offers an engaging exploration of the complex decades that caused families to become strangers to one another, and a refreshing response to the deceptively simple question: "What was it like?" Independent Persuasive and absorbing... written with warmth, humour and no shortage of self-criticism -- Peter Graves TLS [S]earching and sensitive chronicle of three generations making the journey from euphoric hope to disillusionment to despair New York Times Extraordinarily compelling... Red Love is a story about the confusion and fear that came to those who lived in East Germany and suddenly saw their country disappear. Leo's memoir humanizes this history and offers readers a glimpse into a different past. New York Daily News A compassionate memoir... By unpicking the loyalties of both political and family life, Leo honours the complicated motivations of real people, resulting in a humane, enlightening history of a collapsed country and a lost home. Guardian Maxim Leo has produced a lucid, dispassionate, and altogether extraordinary account of three generations of his German family as Big History kicked them around and they, for the most part, made sterling attempts to kick back Los Angeles Review of Books Most touching memoir of a life in East Germany... so beautiful -- Susie Dent Radio 4's A Good Read The most extraordinary book, fascinating... a brilliant picture of a time... and of a place... I'd never seen [the GDR] like this before -- Harriet Gilbert Radio 4's A Good Read

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Book SynopsisFrom humble origins, the eminent Russian scientist Nicholas Borodin forged a career in microbiology in the era of Stalin. Pragmatic and dedicated to his work, he accepted the Soviet regime, even working on several occasions with the Secret Police. But in 1948, while on a state-sponsored trip to the UK to report on the bulk manufacture of antibiotics, he could no longer ignore his rising consciousness of the suppression of independent thought in his country. It was then that he committed high treason by writing to the Soviet ambassador to renounce his citizenship. One Man in his Time is the story of a man trying to live an ordinary life in extraordinary times. Rich in incident and astonishing details, it charts Borodin's childhood during the revolution and famine through to his scientific career amidst the suspicion and violence of the purges. Unsparing and frank in its depiction of the author's collaboration with Soviet authorities, it offers unparalleled insight into the daily reality of life under totalitarian rule.

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Book Synopsis'Jenny Tough writes with the same talent, imagination, and sheer courage that she displays in her athletic endeavours. This book will broaden the horizons of all who venture between its covers.' - Emily Chappell, author of Where There's a Will'I love that SOLO is part-self help and part adventure story. Jenny shows us all that the journey to self-belief comes with just as many ups and downs as the mountains she traverses and that, with a little trust in ourselves (and a few good cups of coffee) the next seemingly insurmountable pass is never beyond our reach.' - Anna McNuff, author of Bedtime Adventure Stories for Grown UpsJenny Tough is an endurance athlete who's best known for running and cycling in some of world's most challenging events - achieving accolades that are an inspiration to outdoor adventurers everywhere. But SOLO tells the story of a much more personal project: Jenny's quest to come to terms with feelings and emotions that were holding her back. Like runners at any level, she knew already that running made her feel better, and like so many of us, she knew that completing goals independently was empowering, too. So she set herself an audacious objective: to run - solo, unsupported, on her own - across mountain ranges on six continents, starting with one of the most remote locations on Earth in Kyrgystan. SOLO chronicles Jenny's journey every step of the way across the Tien Shan (Asia), the High Atlas (Africa), the Bolivian Andes (South America), the Southern Alps (Oceania), the Canadian Rockies (North America) and the Transylvanian Alps (Europe), as she learns lessons in self-esteem, resilience, bravery and so much more. What Jenny's story tells us most of all is that setting out to do things solo - whether the ambitious or the everyday - can be invigorating, encouraging and joyful. And her call to action to find strength, confidence and self-belief in everything we do will inspire and motivate.Trade ReviewJenny Tough writes with the same talent, imagination, and sheer courage that she displays in her athletic endeavours. This book will broaden the horizons of all who venture between its covers. -- Emily Chappell, author of WHERE THERE'S A WILLI love that SOLO is part-self help and part adventure story. Jenny shows us all that the journey to self-belief comes with just as many ups and downs as the mountains she traverses and that, with a little trust in ourselves (and a few good cups of coffee) the next seemingly insurmountable pass is never beyond our reach. -- Anna McNuff, author of BEDTIME ADVENTURE STORIES FOR GROWN UPS

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Book SynopsisAn exploration into why we keep holding on to material things and what they mean to usOn New Year''s Eve of 2018, journalist Helen Chandler-Wilde lost everything she owned in a storage unit fire in Croydon, where she''d stowed all her possessions after a big break-up. She was left devastated, and forced to re-evaluate her relationship with owning material things. A mix of memoir, self-help and journalism, Lost & Found explores the psychological reasons for why we buy and keep the things we do, and explains how we can liberate ourselves from the tyranny of ''too much''. Helen interviews people from all walks of life, including behavioural psychologists on the science of nostalgia, a nun on what it''s like to own almost nothing and consumer psychologists on why we spend impulsively, to help us better understand why we''re surrounded by clutter and what we can do to change it.This smart-thinking book explains the sociological quirks of human nature and the fascinating science behind why we buy and hold onto things. By the end of it, your relationship with your belongings will be changed forever.

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Book SynopsisFrom one of the nation's best-loved food writers and inspired by the award-winning podcast, Comfort Eating is a wonderfully scrumptious, life-affirming journey through the foods that really mean the most to us.'What an absolute TREAT . . . A moving, sweet and funny memoir about the power of comfort foods. The memories and emotions triggered by it warmed my heart and reminded me of those I love.'MARIAN KEYES'How lucky we are to have Grace Dent . . . evocative and beautiful.'EVENING STANDARD***Have you ever wondered why eating cheese can sometimes feel like a cuddle?Or how a big bowl of pasta can be just what we need after a tough day?Oh, and what is it about butter that seems to make everything just that little bit better . . . ?The foods we turn to behind closed doors are deeply personal, steeped in nostalgia and topped with a healthy dollop of guilty pleasure. In Comfort Eating, Grace Dent throws open her kitchen cupboards to reveal why we hold these secret snacks and naughty nibbles so dear to our hearts.Exploring her go-to comfort foods through a series of joyous encounters, Grace reflects on the memories they uncover and pays tribute to her parents, the people who taught her what comfort eating truly means. Along the way, she catches up with some famous friends to chat about their own favourites - from Jo Brand's fried bread sandwich and Russell T. Davies' 'butterpepperrice' to Scarlett Moffat's crushed-Wotsits-topped beans on toast and many, many more . . .So grab a plate and pull up a chair: unfussy, honest and filled to the brim with heartwarming stories and comfort food tales, Comfort Eating is the perfect treat for food lovers everywhere.***'The restaurant critic's exploration of the delicious things we snack on is shot through with nostalgia for childhood, family and home . . . Funny and poignant . . . her humour [is] tweezer-sharp and the writing as strong as a Christmas stilton.' NELL FRIZELL, GUARDIAN

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Book Synopsis'Intelligent, compassionate, and so fiercely, prodigiously brave. This is the essay at its creative, philosophical best' Eleanor Catton, author of The Luminaries on THE EMPATHY EXAMS A profound exploration of the oceanic depths of longing and obsession, Make It Scream, Make It Burn is a book about why and how we tell stories. It takes the reader deep into the lives of strangers - from a woman healed by the song of 'the loneliest whale in the world' to a family convinced their child is a reincarnation of a lost pilot - and asks how we can bear witness to the changing truths of other's lives while striving to find a deeper connection to the complexities of our own.

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Book SynopsisIn litter-strewn Epping Forest on the edge of London, might a writer find that magical moment of transcendence? He will certainly discover filthy graffiti and frightening dogs, as well as world-renowned artists and fading celebrities, robbers, lovers, ghosts and poets. But will he find himself? Or a version of himself he might learn something from? Strange Labyrinth is a quest narrative arguing that we shouldn't get lost in order to find ourselves, but solely to accept that we are lost in the first place. It is a singular blend of landscape writing, political indignation, cultural history and wit from a startling new voice in non-fiction.

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Book SynopsisYou might have heard the saying 'you're in a pickle' meaning you're in a difficult situation. This is just one example of Rotwelsch, an ancient language of the road influenced by Yiddish and written in rudimentary signs, and spoken by vagrants and refugees, merchants and thieves since the European Middle Ages. Martin Puchner grew up knowing that Rotwelsch was of unusual interest to his family. When he inherited a family achive, it led him on a journey not only into the history of this extraordinary language but also into his family's connections to the Nazi Party, for whom Rotwelsch held a particular significance. The Language of Thieves is a compelling story of the mindset and milieu of Central Europe and of the way language can be used to evade oppression. It is also a deeply moving reckoning with a family's buried past.

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Book SynopsisAn artist's obsession with Géricault's monumental painting The Raft of the Medusa, and an intensely personal reckoning that delves deep inside the making of an artwork. Artist Tom de Freston has long had an obsession with Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa, and the troubling story behind its creation. The monumental canvas, which hangs in the Louvre, depicts a 19th century tragedy in which 150 people were drowned at sea on a raft lost in a stormy sea, when the ship Medusa was wrecked on shallow ground. When de Freston began making an artwork with Ali, a Syrian writer blinded by a bombing, The Raft's depiction of pain and suffering resonated powerfully with him, as did Géricault's awful life story. It spoke not only to Ali's story but to Tom's family history of trauma and anguish, offering him a passage out of the dark waters in which he found himself. In spellbinding, visceral prose, de Freston opens a window onto the magnetic frisson that runs between a past masterpiece and contemporary artistic endeavours. He asks powerful questions about how we might translate violence, fear and trauma into art, how we try to make sense of seemingly unthinkable acts, and the value in facing and depicting the darkest horrors.Trade ReviewGéricault''s Raft stands as a statement as much as painting, a history lesson, a nightmare, a gigantic perfidy, a visual shorthand for abuse and disaster rendered in exquisite oils... In pulses of literary reference and art history and Gericault''''s own radical life story, de Freston evokes a provocative new voyage for the rotting raft - seen through his own visceral experience of the vast painting, and its uproarious terrors and visions, which hold a mortal but undying resonance for our own times... A stupendous work -- Philip HoareTo read Wreck is to observe a mind as it delves into the pentimenti of the past, moving through complexities of horror, art, solidarity, and trauma. Unforgettable -- Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the ThroatNot only an extraordinary exploration of how an artwork is created but a devastating portrayal of what it means to means to struggle, to be human, to find hope. A darting, incredibly ambitious book which brings together the head and the heart. I am still ringing with the experience of reading it -- Daisy Johnson, author of SistersWreck is a stunning piece of writing - powerful, moving, and raw. It is electrifying -- Louise O'NeillI've never read a book like Wreck before. It pulled me in, engulfed me, cast me up, left me beached, left me wrecked. There are sudden vivid plunges into historical dreaming, dazzling close-readings of artworks, profoundly courageous passages of memoir, and as one proceeds through it one learns how to read it: by rhymes, echoes and flashes of lightning -- Robert MacfarlaneA mix of art, identification and memoir... [Wreck] is a strange hybrid, but [de Freston] finds the right tone, and it becomes clear that what [he] is examining is not so much one painting as the relationship between art and suffering * New Statesman *Burns with an intensity that's sometimes disturbing and bewildering and, more often than not, powerfully moving -- Mark Bostridge * Oldie *A beguiling hybrid of memoir, art history and fiction... imaginative... lyrical * TLS *

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Book SynopsisLulah Ellender's garden in Sussex is an unruly but beloved place. It is also not permanently her own. When just a few weeks after losing her mother, Lulah is told that she and her family might have to leave the rented house that they have made their home, her immediate response is to freeze, to neglect the plants she has spent years cultivating. But before long she finds herself back in the garden, tidying, planning, and planting - putting down roots even though she may not be there to see the shoots emerge. Drawing on her intimate knowledge of this small plot of land in Sussex, as well as her visits to the celebrated gardens close by - Charleston and Sissinghurst, among others - Lulah explores the broader relationship between gardener and garden. From artistic figures such as Vita Sackville-West, Virginia Woolf and Frida Kahlo to the long-gone inhabitants of a ruined village nearby, Lulah considers the ways in which tending the soil, growing plants, and tuning into the unceasing rhythms of nature can help us live with uncertainty and bring a sense of coming home, of feeling grounded, and ultimately of finding one's time-bound place here on Earth. "A lyrical delve into how gardening literally roots us to places and helps us look towards an uncertain future with hope" - Kathy Clugston "A much-needed book that offers a deep and moving insight on motherhood, letting go, and how our gardens can help us" - Alice Vincent, author of RootboundTrade ReviewA deeply moving book that begins in shadow - with a recently-bereaved mother under threat of eviction - and becomes a light-seeking, hope-giving exploration of what it means to cultivate a garden, a life, a legacy, at a time when so many of us will forever rent, never own, the ground we hold dear. Exquisitely-written and full of tender feeling... It is a book like a secret garden, opening doors onto alternative ways of growing and grounding a life -- Tanya ShadrickWe all make our little utopias in our gardens, our attempts to reclaim memories we never had, the futures we hope for implicit in seasons of growth. They are perpetually renewed, here too, in Lulah Ellender's elegant prose and her gathering of personal histories and defiant rites, as the author proposes that optimism which is the garden, our lives, our homes, our hopes, reborn again and again -- Philip HoareThere are turns of phrase to die for in GROUNDING, and I felt like I was given a guided tour through the gardens of others by Lulah's curious eye. A much-needed book that offers a deep and moving insight on motherhood, letting go, and how our gardens can help us -- Alice Vincent, author of RootboundI read GROUNDING as I moved through a period of deep uncertainty; leaving my first garden to step towards a great unknown as a new mother with my small family in tow. Ellender's words delivered such solace; a quiet, soothing reminder that we make home through the way we spend our days - each season we pass through leaving its mark on us - allowing our story to unfurl. This story is one of resilience, honesty, hope and healing. Ellender leads us by the hand through all the gardens we both know and do not; reminding us that to sow is a way to carve a life out of uncertainty; to make room for the returning light, always -- Kerri ní Dochartaigh, author of The Thin PlacesAn intimate exploration of what it means to be rooted in place and of how a garden can become a safe haven in uncertain times -- Sue Stuart-Smith, author of The Well Gardened MindAs Lulah sows, deadheads and weeds she explores her feelings of place and identity, fear and loss. A lyrical delve into how gardening literally roots us to places and helps us look towards an uncertain future with hope -- Kathy Clugston, presenter of BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question TimeAn admirer of Ellender's debut Elisabeth's Lists, I also much enjoyed this beguiling blend of memoir and cultural history, in which she describes how she found deep solace in her Sussex garden, even with the threat of eviction from their rented home hanging over her family. While her first instinct was to stop cultivating altogether, she soon went back to putting down roots, even though she knew she might not see the shoots emerge. The result is an absorbing meditation on the reasons that any of us gardens, which had me longing for spring (and ordering a shedload of seeds) -- Caroline Sanderson * Bookseller *Beautifully capture[s] just how important our own patch of ground is to our sense of identity * Daily Mail *Wonderful ... Filled with such a love, such an ache, the child-like need to be understood, the human urge to foster growth -- Jen Campbell * Toast *Glorious... I've read a lot of gardening books... but I've read very few as moving and literary as Grounding * Observer *

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Book SynopsisWritten with an intimacy and spontaneity even more revealing than her celebrated memoirs, Diana Athill's correspondence with the American poet Edward Field covers thirty years of pleasure and pain, fame and gossip, relationships and ailments. Edited, selected and introduced by Athill, this collection of those letters covers her career as an editor and the adventure of her retirement, revealing a sharply intelligent woman with a keen eye for the absurd, a brilliant turn of phrase and a wicked sense of humour. Vivid, direct and entertaining, Instead of a Book is a wonderful insight into a woman growing older without ever losing her zest for life.Trade ReviewFascinating and surprising ... Athill is a wonderful letter writer - always aware of the need to entertain and beguile the reader ... Every page of this book shows that Athill's eye is as beady as ever -- Daisy Goodwin * Sunday Times *Encounter again, the sheer joy of her brisk, wry and hugely energetic prose -- Christina Patterson * Independent *These are vivid reports on life in late 20th-century Britain as experienced by a writer, editor, daughter, partner and pensioner with an extraordinarily "beady eye" on human relations and a phenomenal capacity for making the most of everything that comes her way ... She owes us nothing. She has given a very great deal -- Alexandra Harris * Guardian *She documents her dotage with affecting candour ... Athill is never remotely maudlin or self-pitying, and she describes beautifully those "lovely moments of pure being" that make it all worthwhile -- David Evans * Financial Times *A joy to read ... Grand, splendid and wonderfully entertaining, Athill makes you hope that letter-writing is not a lost art -- Tina Jackson * Metro *Athill is wonderful - always aware of the need to entertain and beguile her reader ... Fascinating and surprising -- Daisy Goodwin * Sunday Times *A superb description of a woman growing older without losing her sense of humour or enthusiasm for life * Daily Telegraph *Spirited sketches of OAP life... tackles the big questions through the small increments -- Alexandra Harris * Guardian *A revealing document... There's a disarming honesty in the detail of [her] daily struggles with domesticity and mortality * Big Issue in the North *The keenly intelligent letters between Athill and her friend, the American poet Edward Field, provide an intimate insight into the relationship between the two writers * Good Homes *

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Book SynopsisFor decades, Janet Malcolm's books and dispatches for the New Yorker have poked and prodded at biographical convention, gesturing towards the artifice that underpins both public and private selves. Here, Malcolm turns her gimlet eye on her own life, examining twelve family photographs to construct a memoir from camera-caught moments, each of which pose questions of their own. She begins with the picture of a morose young girl on a train, leaving Prague at the age of five in 1939. From there we follow her to the Czech enclave of Yorkville in Manhattan, where her father, a psychiatrist and neurologist, and her mother, an attorney from a bourgeois family, traded their bohemian, Dada-inflected lives for the ambitions of middle-class America. From her early, fitful loves to evenings at the old Metropolitan Opera House to her fascination with what it might mean to be a "bad girl," Malcolm assembles a composite portrait of a New York childhood, one that never escaped the tug of Europe and the mysteries of fate and family. Later, Malcolm delves into her marriage to Gardner Botsford, the world of William Shawn's New Yorker, and the libel trial that led her to become a character in her own drama. Displaying the sharp wit and astute commentary that are Malcolmian trademarks, this brief volume develops into a memoir like no other.Trade ReviewStill Pictures is [an] eclectic but carefully crafted work of montage... What emerges is fascinating... it's a bittersweet reminder of Malcolm's extraordinary talents * Telegraph *Playful, subversive and engrossing... Malcolm belongs to a subtler class of superhero, a ninja perhaps, whose idiosyncratic oeuvre will be knocking delighted readers off their feet for a long time to come * Sunday Times *She writes fascinatingly... Malcolm's charm in Still Pictures comprises, for me... an absolute refusal to pose - and it's this that makes the book worth reading * Observer *Like the bulk of her life's work, at its heart is an inquiry into the elusiveness of truth. Although it may be her in the viewfinder, the real subject is the unreliability of the camera * Financial Times *Funny and true... I have now realised why I recommend her to young writers... because that's what I want to read -- David Aaronovitch * The Times *As a memoirist, Malcolm comes clean about her gaps in memory and her lapses in judgment... The book's most charming moments are when the incisive, unsparing adult can be found in the child * Economist *Janet Malcolm, who died in 2021, was one of her generation's great practitioners - one might say agitators - of journalism and biography... Far from a nostalgiafest, it is like a family album annotated to an unusually high intellectual standard * Spectator *[A] witty memoir of her youth... the book's episodic narrative is addictive... this memoir will make you think about your own family's internal myths * Irish Times *Malcolm found a playful and unpretentious way to write about her own life ... shot through with her unerring sense of the absurd * TLS *This slim volume is as satisfying as many a fuller Life * New Statesman *It's a touching memoir which reminds us of the importance of family photography and the role it can play in our loves, memories and recollections throughout our life. * Amateur Photographer Magazine *

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Book SynopsisA richly layered, nuanced and deeply moving memoir about how butterflies become the vital connection between a son and his dying father.

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Book SynopsisA deeply moving love letter from an artist to his wife as they struggle with the loss of multiple pregnancies, exploring how powerful bonds transform as lovers become family.

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE 2020 MICHEL DÉON PRIZE'O'Clery takes us into the hidden heart of Soviet Russia... An arresting and evocative story' Keggie Carew, author of Dadland'A tour de force ... Love, politics, murder, wars, and the fracturing of ties, personal and ethnic. O'Clery is a gifted writer' Luke Harding, bestselling author of CollusionThe Soviet Union, 1962. Gifted shoemaker Stanislav Suvorov is imprisoned for five years. His crime? Selling his car for a profit. On his release, social shame drives him and his family into voluntary exile in Siberia, 5,000 kilometres from home. In a climate that's unfriendly both geographically and politically, it's their chance to start again. The Shoemaker and His Daughter is an epic story spanning the Second World War to the fall of the Soviet Union, taking in eighty years of Soviet and Russian history, from Stalin to Putin. Following the footsteps of a remarkable family Conor O'Clery knows well - he is married to the shoemaker's daughter - it's both a compelling insight into life in a secretive world at a siesmic moment in time and a powerful tale of ordinary lives shaped by extraordinary times.Trade ReviewConor O'Clery is a legend among foreign correspondents. Over four decades - in Russia, the Middle East, Africa and Asia - he has established himself as a voice of wit, close observation, and sane good sense. His new book will be welcomed by everyone who cares about good writing, and about the human stories that enable us to understand the great movements of world history. * Richard Lloyd Parry, author of Ghosts of the Tsunami *Conor O'Clery's latest book is a tour de force - a sweeping account of the turbulent decades of the Soviet Union and the new Russia, told through the prism of a Russian-Armenian family. The story features love, politics, murder, wars, and the fracturing of ties, personal and ethnic, brought about by Stalin and his Kremlin successors. O'Clery is a gifted writer. His subject is one he knows well: his wife's father, mother and relatives, as they make their own sure-footed journey through a treacherous twentieth century. * Luke Harding, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump Win the White House *Highly readable, deeply informed telling of an ordinary, extraordinary story. * Sunday Times *Takes us into the hidden heart of Soviet Russia... an illuminating combination of history, politics, geography and humanity that's personal and close... An arresting and evocative story, brought alive through a host of characters, not least, the vast, hostile, secretive Russia herself. * Keggie Carew, author of Dadland *Transcends the confines of a mere family history... With his easy humour, engaging style and innate sympathy for the little guy, O'Clery shows how events and decisions in Moscow affected millions of Russians in myriad life-changing ways. * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisThe Blitz had made many families in the East End of London homeless. One solution was to erect prefabs on fi elds and open spaces to give temporary accommodation to those who had been bombed out. It was in one of these 'modern' boxes that young Norman Jacobs grew up through the 1950s and 1960s. In a lively, detailed and humorous picture of a postwar Hackney childhood, Norman takes us back to an age of rationing, bomb sites, street markets, colourful characters and camaraderie. And in reminiscing about stodgy school food, jumpers for goalposts, Listen with Mother, greyhound racing, pie 'n' mash, holidaycamps, and the advent of American-style burger bars, he provides a glimpse into a way of life that has vanished for ever. Set against a backdrop of Rock 'n' Roll, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of President Kennedy, funny, poignant and sometimes sad, Norman's is a story full of innocence and happiness that will take you back to the best of times - the days we thought would never end.

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Book SynopsisWinner East Anglian Book of the Year 2022In Iron Man, Lynne Bryan writes movingly and candidly about disability, the vulnerability of the body and mind, and the frailty and strength of our corporeality. She writes insightfully and thought-provokingly about the ways in which women’s access to head space and the physical and economic space for creativity can be restricted or blocked – sometimes by the people they love best and who love them best; and, of course, sometimes by themselves.

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Book SynopsisStuart Heritage got where he is today by being decent, thoughtful, hardworking and kind. He is, in short, a model citizen. The favourite son.His younger brother Pete is quick-tempered, peevish and aggressively pig-headed and, for a while, known to his friends as 'Shagger'.But now, Stu has returned to his hometown to discover that Pete has taken his place.Don’t Be A Dick, Pete is a hilarious examination of home and family; sons, fathers, fatherhood, sibling relationships and how hard it is to move on in a system that’s loaded with several decades of preconceived ideas about you.Trade ReviewAlmost unfairly funny * Hadley Freeman *I loved it so much I read it in one fell swoop. Fantatically funny but also so touching * India Knight *Every person I know is going to love this book. I can’t imagine anyone reading this book and not being in love with it. He is incomparable in terms of his voice and observational lens… No one writes about the incidentals and the characteristics of British life better than him * Dolly Alderton *This is (very, very) funny, but it's also a story about brothers and families and home, and it's as warm as it is rude * Stylist *Really funny and crazy. * Bob Odenkirk *The funniest book of the year. Disclaimer: may induce hysteria. * Cosmopolitan *Hilarious ... a touching take on modern masculinity and family * Grazia *

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Book Synopsis'Deftly explores expectations of modern womanhood . . . Full of adventure and awe' Dolly AldertonPeople always said I'd find love where I least expected it. I always said they were idiots.I had no idea how to commit to another human being.I could barely commit to reading a magazine, and I wrote for magazines for a living. My specialist subject was celebrities, and my own relationships made their marriages look eternal.I'd never paid a household bill that didn't mention bailiffs, and my idea of exercise was to go and stand outside a famous person's house and stare until I'd convinced myself that I lived in it.But my life in LA was happy; free of care and consequence. That was, until I came down to earth - with a bump.So this is the story of how I staggered from partying in Hollywood to bringing up a baby in Piss Alley, Dalston; how I never did find a copy of What To Expect When You Weren't Even Fucking Expecting To Be Expecting, and why paternity testing is not a good topic for a first-date conversation.A deeply profound, laugh out loud Mother's Day gift for all parents, from shocked novices to experienced pros. ___________________Praise for THE HUNGOVER GAMES:'Funny, dark and true' Caitlin Moran'A deeper, funnier, realer, more poignant Bridget Jones' Philippa Perry'Sharply observed and funny' Guardian'Frank and fearless' Red'Outrageously entertaining' David Nicholls'This is the first time I've read anything about motherhood that didn't bore me' Sara PascoeTrade ReviewSharply observed and funny... Indecently entertaining... Beautiful. -- Fiona Sturges * Guardian *Funny, acerbic, sometimes despairing and brutally candid... A must-read for anyone out there, floundering, scared they're doing it wrong. The writing is great in The Hungover Games, but the humour and honesty are even better. -- Barbara Ellen * Observer *Outrageously entertaining. -- David Nicholls * i Newspaper *Brilliantly bawdy and movingly tender. A warm, generous and hilarious read, it's also a great listen: 2020 was the year I got into audiobooks and this one, read by the author herself, had me guffawing in public. -- Lynn Enright * Irish Times *Books of the Year* *Honest, moving and funny... Brilliant... [Heawood] has written a tender book about parental love that she and her daughter should be proud of. -- Susannah Butler * Evening Standard *

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Book Synopsis'Heartfelt, honest, illuminating and wise' Julia Samuel, author of This Too Shall Pass.Perfect for fans of This Is Going to Hurt. Grief. Anger. Joy. Fear. Distraction. Disgust. Hope. All emotions we expect to encounter over our lifetime. But what if this was every day? And what if your ability to manage them was the difference between life and death? For Aoife Abbey, a doctor in intensive care, these experiences are part of the job - from grief when you make a potentially fatal mistake to joy when the ward unexpectedly breaks into song. Seven Signs of Life is Abbey's extraordinary account of what it means to be alive and how it feels to care for a living. An insightful, tender and inspiring memoir that explores the reality of life on the NHS front line. 'Brilliant, compelling... A hugely life-affirming book' Mail on SundayTrade ReviewA brilliant, compelling account of what it is like to spend your days caring for patients "on the fringe of existence" ... A hugely life-affirming book. In between the many grim situations encountered on a daily basis, Abbey shows us moments of both joy and deep emotional connection -- Kathryn Hughes * Mail on Sunday *Heartfelt, honest, illuminating and wise – a wonderful book that I would urge everyone to read -- Julia Samuel, author of Grief WorksA powerful glimpse into the high stakes of intensive care …Above all this book is insightful about the grey areas where a doctor must go ... Some readers may be wearying of doctor memoirs. This one ... has a freshness and a sincerity that moved me. She is a gifted writer ... honest, compassionate, sensitive… [and] the doctor we would crave in our greatest need -- Melanie Reid * The Times *Abbey’s book stands out among the current crop of doctor-penned memoirs for its thoughtful, compassionate reflections on life in Intensive Care. Abbey presents the usual case studies with an unusual depth of feeling and evident love for those in her care. She may be in the earlier stages of her career, but the author writes with a maturity and vocational fervour well beyond her years. An unsung classic of the genreA thoughtful and necessary book about a world all of us might inhabit at some point in our lives -- Rosita Boland * Irish Times *

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Book Synopsis'Heart-wrenching, heart-warming and heartfelt - Mother Ship is a beautifully crafted, warts-and-all love letter to our wonderful NHS' Adam Kay, author of This is Going to Hurt After her identical twin girls are born ten weeks prematurely, Francesca Segal finds herself sitting vigil in the 'mother ship' of neonatal intensive care, all romantic expectations of new parenthood obliterated.As each day brings a fresh challenge for her and her babies, Francesca makes a temporary life among a band of mothers who are vivid, fearless, and inspiring, taking care not only of their children but of one another.Mother Ship is a hymn to the sustaining power of women's friendships, and a loving celebration of the two small girls - and their mother - who defy the odds. A comforting and encouraging read, especially for others enduring the same experience. 'A heart-wrenching insight into what must have been such a fragile, overwhelming and terrifying time - yet there's humour in there too. Beautiful' Giovanna Fletcher 'A beautiful, lyrical memoir that navigates the unpredictable landscape of NICU and the will to survive' Christie Watson, author of The Language of KindnessTrade ReviewA heart-wrenching insight into what must have been such a fragile, overwhelming and terrifying time - yet there’s humour in there too. Beautiful * Giovanna Fletcher *[Segal] writes with delicate eloquence, combining passion and comic understatement so deftly that this feels the only way the book could have been written… I don’t think I’ve turned the pages so urgently in a book about motherhood before -- Lara Feigal * Guardian *A beautiful memoir: wise, moving and profoundly humane. Segal writes with such exquisite clarity that each word is a gift, each sentence a votive offering. Mother Ship moved me to tears, but it also taught me the unassailable power of decency and kindness when life is at its most fragile and vulnerable. A book that left me changed for having read it * Elizabeth Day *As gripping as a thriller and as moving as a love story -- Amanda Craig * Spectator *A compelling and emotionally taut exploration of what it means to be a parent in unexpected and challenging circumstances... The pages of Mother Ship are filled with love, anguish, despair and hope in the face of adversity. As a memoir, it is both insightful and moving; as a diary of 56 days in neonatal care, it is an exquisitely written paean to motherhood -- Hannah Beckerman * Observer *

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Book Synopsis***'The best gardening book of 2022.' The Telegraph'A book to make even a quick trip to the corner shop endlessly fascinating. Dark has been dubbed the millennial Monty Don for this beautifully written study of the oft-overlooked nature on our doorsteps...Dark teases the drama, humour and history from even the most commonplace buddleja, box and tulip.' George Hudson, Evening Standard, Favourite Gardening Books of the Year'This enjoyable read throws a spotlight on the everyday.' Rachel de Thame's 10 Best Gardening Books of 2022, the Sunday Times'Gardening for a billionaire taught Ben Dark that "plants alone are not enough to make a garden special". Instead he finds "special" in the people and the history, as well as the plants, that fill 19½ London front gardens. A soulful read.' Tom Howard, RHS The Garden, Best Books of The Year'A wonderful book.' Alexandra Shulman, Mail on Sunday'Meet the millennial Monty Don.' The Sunday Times Style'Ben Dark's beautifully observed book, The Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 19 ½ Front Gardens, tells the stories of 20 key plants growing in a single London street's front gardens in a way that's as engaging as it is informative.' The Irish TimesAny walk is an odyssey when we connect with the plants around us. Each tree or flower tells a tale. Mundane 'suburban' shrubs speak of war and poetry, of money, fashion, love and failure. Every species in this book was seen from one pavement over twelve months and there is little here that could not be found on any road in any town, but they reveal stories of such weirdness, drama, passion and humour that, once discovered, familiar neighbourhoods will be changed forever.There is a renewed interest in the nature on our doorsteps, as can be seen in the work of amateur botanists identifying wildflowers and chalking the names on the pavements.But beyond the garden wall lies a wealth of cultivated plants, each with a unique tale to tell. In The Grove, award-winning writer and head gardener Ben Dark reveals the remarkable secrets of twenty commonly found species - including the rose, wisteria, buddleja, box and the tulip - encountered in the front gardens of one London street over the course of year. As Ben writes, in those small front gardens 'are stories of ambition, envy, hope and failure' and The Grove is about so much more than a single street, or indeed the plants found in its 19 ½ front gardens. It's a beguiling blend of horticultural history and personal narrative and a lyrical exploration of why gardens and gardening matter.'A testament to the secret communal power of a front garden.' Alice Vincent, New Statesman'Find joy in the ordinary plots on a city street.' RHS The Garden'Dark makes horticultural history fun and funny.' Editor's Choice, The Bookseller'Ben Dark is such a wonderful writer - The Grove drew me in from the first line.' Lia Leendertz'The Grove is overflowing with delicious nuggets of cultural, social and garden history ­- and I adore Ben Dark's humour and humility in equal measure.' Advolly Richmond'A heartfelt romp through the wisteria and wilderness of London's horticulturally remarkable front gardens.' Jack Wallington'A confident and elegantly written account of the fascinating narratives and histories entangled within the garden plants of a residential London street ... Dark's prose is in the tradition of classic garden writing: humorous, relatable, poetic and insightful ... The Grove is a refreshing read among modern narrative gardening books.' Gardens Illustrated'Fans of Ben Dark's mellifluous tones on The Garden Log podcast will be delighted by how perfectly his lyrical musings transfer to the printed page as, with infant son in tow, he invites the reader upon a series of horticultural expeditions inspired by the deceptively ordinary planting of the front gardens in a south London street. The kind of thoroughly enjoyable read where you realise, late in the day, that learning has snuck in by the back door, though you feel inclined to forgive the author on account of the fun you've had along the way.' Andrew O'Brien'Dark creatively blends practical horticultural knowledge, meditations on his own dream garden, and literary references, including Vita Sackville-West's husband's letter on JP Morgan's garden: "All very good taste and depressing. No inner reality." This will leave armchair gardeners seeing their surroundings with fresh eyes.' Publisher's Weekly'Dark's book amused and educated me during recent bouts of insomnia. I found snippets of information that now elevate my occasional street wanderings to something approaching a botanical exploration. At less than a tenner for the paperback edition, that's truly affordable schooling.' David Wheeler, The Oldie

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Book SynopsisDon't miss Meryl Streep as Emmeline Pankhurst in the major motion picture Suffragette.Emmeline Pankhurst grew up all too aware of the prevailing attitude of her day: that men were considered superior to women. When she was just fourteen she attended her first suffrage meeting, and returned home a confirmed suffragist. Throughout the course of her career she endured humiliation, prison, hunger strikes and the repeated frustration of her aims by men in power, but she rose to become a guiding light of the Suffragette movement. This is the story, in Pankhurst’s own words, of her struggle for equality.Trade ReviewShe shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back * Time *She put body and soul at the service of liberty, equality and fraternity and secured a triumph for them -- Rebecca WestEmmeline Pankhurst fought for women's suffrage with indomitable courage * Guardian *The finished product rests somewhere between a gripping novel and a painstaking historical record. No view of the suffragette story is complete without this comprehensive puzzle piece. -- Jacqui Agate * The Independent *

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Book SynopsisDiscover one of Twentieth-Century Russia's most lauded lost classics, now in a remarkable new translation.'Outstanding... A sparkling, supremely precious literary achievement' Telegraph'One of the great Russian autobiographies, as fresh now as the day it was written - and the day it was lived' Julian BarnesIn 1943, Konstantin Paustovsky, the Soviet Union's most revered author, started out on his masterwork - The Story of a Life; a grand, novelistic memoir of a life lived on the fast-unfurling frontiers of Russian history. Eventually published over six volumes, it would cement Paustovsky's reputation as the voice of Russia around the world, and see him nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.Taking its reader from Paustovsky's Ukrainian youth, struggling with a family on the verge of collapse and the first flourishes of creative ambition, to his experiences working as a paramedic on Russia's frontlines and then as a journalist covering the country's violent spiral into revolution, The Story of a Life offers a portrait of an artistic journey like no other.Trade ReviewOne of the great Russian autobiographies, as fresh now as the day it was written - and the day it was lived -- Julian BarnesOutstanding... A sparkling, supremely precious literary achievement * Telegraph *The Story of a Life radiates a terrific vim and thirst for experience. A more gloriously life-affirming book is unlikely to emerge this year. -- Ian Thompson * Spectator *Beautifully translated, these volumes are a uniquely rich and moving account of events that continue to haunt us to this day -- Mark Mazower * Financial Times *A 20th-century masterpiece * Daily Telegraph, *Summer Reads of 2022* *A literary masterpiece.... This is not the cracker-barrel blandness of some professional sage, as so often in America's ghost-written memoirs, but a wisdom of tragic insight and of hard-earned integrity * Saturday Review *

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Book Synopsis‘The next stage meant that there was no going back. An Irish prisoner stepped forward and slipped a blade into my hand. I felt the ice cold metal and pressed it against the governor’s cheek. I thought to myself: would they ever release me after this?’Bobby Cummines was only 28 when he passed through the grim gates of Parkhurst, Britain’s Alcatraz, as a category-A prisoner with a host of crimes to his name. Joining the most notorious gangsters and criminals of the day – from the Krays, the Yorkshire Ripper and Charles Bronson, to high ranking members of the IRA – nothing could have prepared him for the brutal regime, violent convicts, vindictive screws and riots on the inside. It’s the story of Britain’s most hellish prison, from one of its hardest inmates.

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Book Synopsis**Now watch the BBC drama Doing Money**‘They took me because I would not be missed’This is the shocking true story of how an ordinary young girl was kidnapped off the street as she walked home and turned into a slave – before fighting for her freedom and finding the courage to help the police in one of the UK’s most shocking modern-day slavery trials. Anna was an innocent student when she was kidnapped, beaten and forced into the sex slave industry. Threatened and tormented by her pimps, she was made to sleep with thousands of men. But she would not allow them to break her. On learning that she would be trafficked from Ireland to Dubai, she found the courage to trick her captors and flee. Later, she would also find that same resilience to help the police bring down her abductors in what has now become one of our biggest windows into the worldwide sex trafficking trade. For the first time, the girl at the centre of the storm reveals the heart-breaking truth.

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Book SynopsisAS FEATURED IN THE TIMESStacey Heale ... has such a muscular take on grief, and her ideas around how we live with profound loss are truly original.' Clover StroudWhen Stacey Heale's husband, Greg, was diagnosed with incurable cancer on their daughter's first birthday, everything changed. She quickly realised how little is spoken about what the harder times in our lives really look like, leaving us lost to navigate the unknown alone. Confronted with a new life she was not prepared for, Stacey began to untangle the brutal realities of life and death - and the fundamental differences between our expectations and reality. Now is Not the Time for Flowers is Stacey's unflinchingly beautiful and raw memoir that addresses the big conversations that imminent death dictates, boldly taking the reader on a journey through the full spectrum of our lives and their complexities. Told through vignettes of her own life and the death of her husband, Stacey offers a movingly honest, insightful and humorous account of modern womanhood through the lenses of love, desire, motherhood, death, grief, identity, personal growth and the challenges and questions that our lives force upon us. Now is Not the Time for Flowers is a powerful call to arms for us to discuss the messy and unexpected truths of our nuanced lives. 'To tell the explicit truths of lives is critical; to refrain from doing so keeps us lonely and isolated. Women are shamed for their emotional natures and their desire to talk so much, so we've shut down these avenues between us. ... To be honest is to show care, for ourselves and others. There is integrity in truth; it is freeing even when it's painful and hard. Sometimes it can land like a blow to the head, but its ripples are in no way as far-reaching as secrets.'

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Book SynopsisAS SEEN ON OPRAHAS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4The Guardian 'Brilliant Books to Read in 2025'The Times 'The Critics Picks: 40 Books to Look Out For in 2025'THE BOOK THAT TELLS THE FIRST-HAND STORY OF THE GISÈLE PELICOT TRIALAND GIVES A VOICE TO WOMEN WHO HAVE BEEN SILENCEDThe trial of Dominique Pelicot, which began on 2 September 2024, has captured the world's attention. Behind the unthinkable crimes, are a mother, Gisèle Pelicot, and her daughter, Caroline Darian, who were forced to rebuild their lives.This is their story.In November 2020, Caroline Darian received a call from the police. Her father was in custody. The seizure of his computer equipment revealed the unimaginable: since 2013, he had drugged his wife before handing her over, in a state of unconsciousness, to men, from all ages and stages of life.With exceptional courage, Darian recounts the earth-shattering discovery that a loved one, her own father, is capable of the worst. But more importantly, she shares the remarkable story of her mother Gisèle and how she carried on living, without self-pity, while learning to manage all of the things her husband once took care of, incredibly maintaining her joie de vivre in unimaginable circumstances.Gisèle has won acclaim around the world after she opted for a public trial, one in which Caroline herself has testified, turning the tables: the shame no longer borne by the victims in silence but directed, at last, to the abusers. Caroline has set up her own campaign, #MendorsPas: Stop Chemical Submission: Don't Put Me Under - to address the issue of chemical submission in the home. Together, mother and daughter reveal another side to the violence committed against women, as they bravely transform their private trauma into a collective fight.

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Book SynopsisThe astonishing true story of Glasgow gangland confidant James McIntyre, aka Jimmy Two GunsJames 'Jimmy Two Guns' McIntyre was Glasgow's go-to gangland lawyer and consigliere to one of Scotland's foremost crime families. His maverick approach to the law and a client list that included some of the most feared gangland figures of the time - including the McGoverns and Paul Ferris - ensured that he was always in demand but under the constant scrutiny of the authorities.Now Jimmy Two Guns recounts the cases he handled, the strokes he pulled, plus his arrests, a high-speed car chase with the drug squad, his time in 'the cooler' for allegedly attempting to murder a cop and much more. He tells how he bounced back after being the target of a near-fatal underworld hit, before being arrested by an armed response unit for possession of two pistols, and reveals with wit and a sharp pen what it's really like being a lawyer for the underdog.Whatever you thought you knew about crime and justice, think again - because for Jimmy Two Guns, the truth has always been stranger than fiction.'Crooked judges, bent cops and hypocrites in high places - the most truthful legal memoir you'll ever read. Superb.'Matthew Hall, bestselling novelist and BAFTA-winning screenwriter of Keeping Faith'James McIntyre was a legal barracuda swimming both sides of the line; this memoir is his modus operandi.'G.F. Newman, creator of Law & Order and Judge John Deed

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Book SynopsisFor me it begins in such an ordinary way ... with a gorilla, a blonde,and a gun ...Mid- 20th century Hollywood; 'RaymondChandler's LA before Pilates and cell phones'. Clancy Sigal (who would later bethe inspiration for Doris Lessing's 'Saul Green') is just back fromfighting in the Second World War and an abortive solo attempt to assassinate HermannGoering at the Nurenburg trials. Charming his way into a job as anagent with the Sam Jaffe agency, Sigal plunges into a chaotic Hollywood peopled by fastwomen, washed-up screenwriters, wily directors, and starstruck FBI agentstrailing 'subversives'. He parties with the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, TonyCurtis and an anxious Peter Lorre, who becomes a drinking buddy.But this is the era of the Hollywood Blacklistand Sigal, like many of his contemporaries, is subpoenaed to testify before theHUAC. Will he give up the list of nine names, burning a hole in his pocket, tosave his own skin? Hilarious, touching, intimate and revealing: Sigal'smemoir reads like a forgotten hardboiled detective novel and has all the makings of aninstant classic.Trade ReviewBuzzes with gossip and scandal....This is one of the best Hollywood memoirs ever. -- The Jewish ChronicleSuperblyevokes the Cold War fears of communist subversion, the hidden FBImicrophones, subpoenas, and the naming of names ... What stands revealedis a hypocritical culture and society ... Sigal'sprose style is that of the secret agent in the macho gun-toting sense,with a side-of-the-mouth, shoulder-holster private-eye delivery out ofRaymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett. -- Mail on SundayThe beauty of Black Sunset, for most readers, will be found in the details, lovingly or painfully described, page after page ... Sigal brings the innocent and guilty back, once more, at close range, and proves himself the liveliest of literary nonagenarians in the process. -- LA Review of BooksSigal stumbles into Hollywood [...] lands the most reviled job in the biz - talent agent - and this milieu is where most of Black Sunset takes place, haunted by the Wink and by a conspiracy of accidents.Black Sunset moves with the express swagger of a Hawks or Wellman picture, although it feels like an Ozu once it's all over and the characters linger in silhouette as if they were a fixture of the freeway system at night. -- CounterpunchGripping ... a great tale of survival. [Sigal is] a terrific writer. -- Literary ReviewHis scapegrace adventures are described with so much vitality and scabrous wit you feel as charmed as one of his serial conquests...[a] marvellous book. -- The SpectatorThis true story of life as a theatrical agent is as good as any Chandler novel, full of intrigue, betrayal and incredible stories of the hard-boiled and hard-drinking seediness behind the glamour. A fantastic read -- Virginia Ironside, author of No Thanks! I'm Quite Happy Standing

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