Memoirs Books

Book Synopsis'A terrific nuts and bolts account of the real business of cooking as told from the trenches. No nonsense. This is what it takes' ANTHONY BOURDAIN'One of the most informative, funny and transparent books about the restaurant biz ever written' BRET EASTON ELLISSous Chef takes you behind the swinging doors of a busy restaurant kitchen, putting you in chef's shoes for an intense, high-octane twenty-four hours. Follow him from the moment he opens the kitchen in the morning, as he guides you through the meticulous preparation, the camaraderie in the hours leading up to service and the adrenalin-rush as the orders start coming in. Thrilling, addictive and bursting with mouth-watering detail, Sous Chef will leave you breathless and awestruck - walking into a restaurant will never be the same again.Trade ReviewA terrific nuts and bolts account of the real business of cooking as told from the trenches. No nonsense. This is what it takes -- ANTHONY BOURDAINOne of the most informative, funny and transparent books about the restaurant biz ever written -- BRET EASTON ELLISA good cook chooses ingredients carefully, just as a writer must select the right words. Michael Gibney is a word cook of the highest order and this book will leave you licking your fingers -- GARY SHTEYNGART * * author of Super Sad True Love Story * *Miraculous . . . Gibney has the soul of the poet and the stamina of a stevedore . . . Tender and profane * * New York Times Book Review * *Gibney's writing is in Anthony Bourdain's league: he puts across both the intense stress and the intense joy of cooking in a professional kitchen * * Time, 15 Best Books of 2014 * *This is excellent writing - excellent! - and it is thrilling to see a debut author who has language and story and craft so well in hand. Though I would never ask my staff to read my own book, I would happily require them to read Michael Gibney's -- GABRIELLE HAMILTON * * author of Blood, Bones and Butter * *Thrillingly crafted * * The Bookseller * *Fascinating and fun * * Boston Globe * *The pace - when you're in the thick of it - is thrilling, and the tension palpable * * Independent * *Compelling . . . a fascinating read * * Herald * *

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Book SynopsisBorn in 1904, von Mellenthin joined the Seventh Cavalry Regiment in 1924. In 1935, he began his general staff training and in 1939 was an intelligence officer. By the end of the war, he had risen in rank to Major General and was Chief of General Staff, Fifth Panzer Army, on the Western Front. Active in the Polish campaign of 1939, the conquest of France, the Balkans, the desert with Rommel, as well as in Russia, at Stalingrad and Kursk, he was in a unique position to write Panzer Battles, having been present at every major panzer campaign. In 1944, he was moved to the Western Front under Field Marshall von Rundstedt. Captured in 1945 by the Americans, he moved to South Africa after the war and became an executive for a major German airline.

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Book SynopsisUnflinchingly honest about his family, his failures, his already broken health at the age of sixty?three and the loss of the hopes he once had for himself, Thomsen is also sickened by the corruption and rapacity of our societies, the inequality and the economic destitution. What starts as an almost reluctant concatenation of memory and poignant, limpid descriptions of Brazil, grows into a shattering romantic symphony on human misery and life s small but exquisite transcendent pleasures. He spares the reader nothing.

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Book SynopsisThe Honey Bus: A Girl Raised by Bees is a memoir about a girl's journey into the heart of a beehive to find herself.When she was five years old, Meredith May was abandoned by both parents. Her father left for the other side of the country. Her mother disappeared into herself.But when Meredith discovered the rusted old bus where her grandpa kept bees, her world changed forever.Family duty. Compassion and sacrifice. Unconditional love. The life of a honeybee displays it all. As her grandpa showed her the sacrifices bees make for their colony and the bonds they form with their keeper, Meredith discovered what family really means.A rich and lyrical coming-of-age story, combined with spellbinding nature writing, The Honey Bus is the extraordinary story of a girl who journeyed into the hive and found herself.Trade Review‘Sweet, tender, and with the kind of clear-eyed honesty that comes from a compassionate soul.’ Sunday Express ‘The wounded feminine, the missing masculine, healed by a relationship with honeybees. An innocent child’s hard won journey to adulthood – clear eyed, often very funny, and agonisingly compassionate. The Honey Bus is all these things and more – so if you’ve ever been a lonely child, or want the world to become a kinder place, here is your book.’ Laline Paull, author of The Bees ‘A book of revelations, clear-eyed, eloquent and so touching… a wise, touching, beautiful reminiscence – and a cry for help for nature’s wonder workers.’ SAGA Magazine ‘Filled with hope, grace, beauty, and wisdom, this book is like warm honey in the sunshine. It beautifully illustrates how nature – even honeybees – can teach and heal us, if only we open our minds and hearts. It's the kind of book that stays with you long after you've finished it – a rare treasure – and you don't have to be a bee lover to be deeply moved by May’s wonderful story. I'm recommending it to everyone I know.’ Stacey O’Brien, New York Times bestselling author of Wesley the Owl ‘Captivating and surprising… If you've ever been stung by a bee you will instantly forget the venom and remember forever the sweetness and redemption bees offer in this extraordinary book.’ Sy Montgomery, New York Times bestselling author of How To Be A Good Creature and The Soul of an Octopus ‘If Meredith May's book was simply an ethology of bees I would devour every word; her prose is tender, thoughtful and transporting. But The Honey Bus is so much more – a memoir of aching loneliness, reckoning and redemption. Beautiful and brave.’ Domenica Ruta, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You: A Memoir

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Book Synopsis'Raw, elemental and beautiful.' Telegraph'This is quite simply the best book about motherhood I have ever read.' - Eleanor Mills in the Sunday Times Mother to five children, Clover Stroud has navigated family life across two decades, both losing and finding herself. In her touching, provocative and profoundly insightful book, she captures a sense of what motherhood really feels like - how intense, sensuous, joyful, boring, profound and dark it can be.My Wild and Sleepless Nights examines what it means to be a mother, and reveals with unflinching honesty the many conflicting emotions that this entails: the joy and the wonder, the loneliness and despair. MORE PRAISE FOR CLOVER STROUD:'Clover's expertise is writing about family life in a way that feels both new and entirely familiar' - Pandora Sykes'As tender, blazing, funny and unflinching as the love it describes. I want to give this triumphant book to every mother I know' - Rachel Joyce'Stroud is always willing to rip open her very soul in order to reveal the truth about her life - and every time a woman tells the truth like this, it sets another woman free' - Elizabeth Gilbert'I read in one greedy gulp and am still slightly reeling. Extraordinary writing... For mothers and those even vaguely interested in family dynamics it is fascinating' - Alexandra HeminsleyCharting the course of one year, the first in her youngest child's life, Clover searches for answers to questions that many of us would be too afraid to admit to - not only about motherhood, but also about female sexuality and identity. Her story will speak to all mothers, and anyone about to embark on that journey.Trade ReviewA beautifully written, brutally honest dissection of motherhood by a woman who has five children, from pregnancy to teenagers, covering both the extreme highs and lows. Stroud's writing examines what it is to be a woman with the same sensitive skill fans of her first memoir, The Wild Other, will recall. * Independent *The best evocation of the all-consuming, self-eroding reality of motherhood, while also being luminous with love. * The Sunday Times *What does being a mother really feel like? Clover Stroud’s powerhouse of a memoir gets closer than anything else I have read to answering that question. The motherhood she describes is the very antithesis of the sanitised, smiling vision we are sold in washing powder ads... She excels in evoking the feral, instinctive forces that motherhood unleashes... This is a vision of motherhood for the (now middle-aged) MDMA generation... The reader is simply swept up in her painful, wonderful world. Buy it, read it, and enjoy it for the wild ride it is. * The Guardian *Clover Stroud's brilliantly unvarnished memoir finds the heroism and poetry in having kids ... Much of this book ..reads like a nature memoir, full of landscape both external and internal ... How brilliant for someone to write about the blankness as well as the beauty. -- Nell Frizzell * Telegraph *This is quite simply the best book about motherhood I have ever read: touching, tender, honest and true. Even as she’s bracingly direct about the frustrations of motherhood, Stroud also revels in the delights. Bliss and boredom coexist side by side — and the contradictions are at the core of it all. Stroud’s book will give anyone heading out on this fearsome journey a lantern to guide the way. The book is not always pretty, and sometimes its directness is shocking, but it is full of love and honesty. * The Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisIt's two decades since Chris Stewart moved to his farm on the wrong side of a river in the mountains of southern Spain and his daughter Chlöe is preparing to fly the nest for university. In this latest, typically hilarious dispatch from El Valero we find Chris, now a local literary celebrity, using his fame to help his old sheep-shearing partner find work on a raucous road trip; cooking a TV lunch for visiting British chef, Rick Stein; discovering the pitfalls of Spanish public speaking; and recalling his own first foray into the adult world of work. Yet it's at El Valero, his beloved sheep farm, that Chris remains in his element as he, his wife Ana and their assorted dogs, cats and sheep weather a near calamitous flood and emerge as newly certified organic farmers. His cash crop? The lemons and oranges he once so blithely drove over, of course.Trade ReviewWhen an author is as modest and humorous as this, his story cannot be told too often * The Times *An affectionate account of living well in the shade and scent of Stewart's beloved organic citrus trees. Happy days -- Iain Finlayson

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Book SynopsisIn Foreign Native, political commentator and author RW Johnson looks back with affection and humour on his life in Africa. From schooldays in Durban to later years as an Oxford don, director of the Helen Suzman Foundation and formidable political commentator, Johnson has produced an entertaining and occasionally eye-popping memoir brimming with history, anecdote and insight.Johnson charts his evolution from enthusiastic, left-leaning Africanist to political realist, relating episodes that influenced his intellectual worldview, including time spent among the exiled liberation movements in London during the 1960s, a sojourn in newly independent Guinea and more recent forays into Zimbabwe. There are wonderful stories, some hilarious, others filled with pathos, about the multitude of characters that he met along the way.Perceptive, critical and full of verve, Foreign Native is leavened with a deep humanity that is a pleasure to read.

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Book Synopsis'Radical, honest and timely' FOX FISHER'Fascinating' ASH PALMISCIANO'A cracking read' MEG-JOHN BARKER"This book is about my penis. This is my story of going through lower surgery, specifically phalloplasty, and the adventures I have with my changing genitals along the way. Welcome to my journey."After coming out as trans, Finlay Games was adamant lower surgery would not be a part of his transition, but as the years went by, and his gender dysphoria increased, he decided to explore surgical options. Detailing the emotional and physical journey of phalloplasty, this book takes the reader through Finlay's experiences, from the initial decision-making through each stage of the surgery to its completion, recovery and after-care. Describing how he had to relearn his body, sexuality and his relationships, Finlay shares his wealth of advice and tips on donor site options, different types of surgery, the referral process, essential items and resources, and looking after your mental health.Part memoir, part self-help guide, this insightful, witty and deeply honest book highlights the life-changing impact surgery can have for trans people and provides hope to those on a similar journey.Trade ReviewThe tongue in cheek phrase 'top to Bottom' explores openly, honestly and candidly, one individual's journey from sexual shame and gender dysphoria, to gender and sexual autonomy. This uncompromising tale inspires and challenges us. As a trans man myself, Finn has always encouraged and motivated me. For helping to dispel fear and those accompanying ghost stories, thankyou can never convey enough! A must read for anyone considering Lower Surgery and those who support us. -- Dr. Wenn B. Lawson (PhD) CPsychol AFBPsS MAPsTop to Bottom is a wonderful trans memoir and a greatly needed resource for anyone considering phalloplasty. Much more than that though, Finlay's book is a human story of the move towards authenticity and belonging. Told with great warmth, humour, and self awareness, it's a cracking read for anybody. -- Meg-John Barker, author of How To Understand Your Gender and Gender: A Graphic Guide.Top to Bottom - a story you've never heard before but a story that needs to be told. This memoir is universally written, acting as an outstanding guide to any trans man about to embark on this journey but also a fascinating insight into the complexity of being human. Finn is an extraordinary writer, his tone is warm, painfully honest, profound and humorous. I'll be highly recommending this book for years to come. -- Ash Palmisciano, TV Actor and SpeakerFinn has given us a gift. A timely companion on the journey to advocate for ones own pleasure, hone the hoop jumping skills needed to medically affirm ones gender, and to nurture the community needed to raise a penis! -- Dr. Liam “Captain” Snowdon, Genderqueerdo & Co-founder Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex EducationA grippingly in-depth and honest account of a process that's rarely been told so openly before. Radical, honest and timely. -- Fox Fisher - Artist, film maker and campaignerAn engrossing testimony to transformation and learning to love your body...told with warmth and insight. -- GsceneThe insightful, witty and deeply honest book that so many of us on a similar path have been hungry for. -- Phallo.netTable of Contents1. Awakening to the Absence of my Penis 2. Finding the Right Penis - Exploring Lower Surgery 3. Making Sacrifices for a Penis - Weighing Up Losses and Gains in Phalloplasty 4. Preparing for a Penis - The Official Referral and A Long Wait5. The Arrival of my Penis - Stage One Phalloplasty 6. Adjusting at Home and Early Recovery 7. The Long Recovery - Two to Six Months Post-op8. The Freedom of Standing Up to Pee - Stage Two Phalloplasty 9. A failed attempt at Stage Three and A Giant Step Backwards 10. An Unexpected Sexual Awakening 11. Peeing Freely Again - Re-hook-up Success12. The Gay Experiment 13. We Have Lift Off - Stage Three Success 14. Final Health and Reflections on My Journey

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Book SynopsisThe true story of Melody, aged 8, the last of five siblings to be taken from her drug dependent single mother and brought into care.When Cathy is told about Melody's terrible childhood, she is sure she's heard it all before. But it isn't long before she feels there is more going on than she or the social services are aware of. Although Melody is angry at having to leave her mother, as many children coming into care are, she also worries about her obsessively far more than is usual. Amanda, Melody's mother, is also angry and takes it out on Cathy at contact, which again is something Cathy has experienced before. Yet there is a lost and vulnerable look about Amanda, and Cathy starts to see why Melody worries about her and feels she needs looking after.When Amanda misses contact, it is assumed she has forgotten, but nothing could have been further from the truth

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Book SynopsisNostalgic book takes you back to a different age, remembering what life was like for those growing up in the 1930s.

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Book SynopsisWhat Do You Care What Other People Think? Further Adventures of a Curious Character is a captivating collection of reminiscences from freewheeling scientific genius Richard P. Feynman. Richard Feynman - Nobel Laureate, teacher and iconic intellect - possessed an unquenchable thirst for an adventure and an unparalleled gift for telling the extraordinary stories of his life. In this collection of short pieces Feynman describes everything from his love of beauty to college pranks to how his father taught him to think. He takes us behind the scenes of the space shuttle Challenger investigation, where he dramatically revealed the cause of the disaster with a simple experiment. And he tells us of how he met his beloved first wife Arlene, and their brief time together before her death. Sometimes intensely moving, sometimes funny, these writings are infused with Feynman''s curiosity and passion for life. ''Feynman''s voice echoes raw an

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Book SynopsisAn eyewitness account of one of the greatest-ever battles as a few men under the Knights of St John took on a huge Turkish armada. This is the history of one of the great battles of the world, written by a private soldier who was an eye-witness. The siege of Malta was a crucial moment in the long struggle between Islam and Christendom for domination of the Mediterranean, fought out by unequal forces on the small island which commands the sea-routes at the centre of that sea. The Knights of St John were a survival from the medieval world, the largest of the surviving crusading orders,and they had been driven out of their base on Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean after a great onslaught by the Turks in 1522. Now, forty-three years later, the Turkish ruler, Suleyman the Magnificent, who had been the victor atRhodes, was determined to finish them off. He sent out a huge armada, carrying the pick of his army, under two commanders. Against this powerful force, the Knights could only raise a handful of men and mercenaries, and had to depend on the fortifications they had raised in the thirty-five years since they first came to Malta, which bore no comparison to the massive walls and ditches on Rhodes. Francisco Balbi di Correggio was a humble soldier of fortune who enlisted under the charismatic command of the Grand Master of the Order, Jean de la Valette. The extraordinary drama that unfolded after the first appearance of the Turkish fleet in the summer of 1565 is told in his own words, giving equal credit to the courage and leadership of the Knights and the grim determination of the ordinary people of Malta.Trade ReviewThis is a carefully-presented, well-translated and well-edited book, with an excellent commentary to accompany the original source documents. [...] Thanks are due to Boydell Press for making this serious academic publication available. * BRITISH BULLETIN OF PUBLICATIONS *Will serve as a useful primary source for undergraduates and as well as for scholars. * SIXTEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL *An extremely welcome reprint...of a seminal work on the subject and the prime reference source for all those who have written about the 1565 siege. An extremely readable account. * CASEMATE *

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Book SynopsisThe long-awaited autobiography of Caroline Redman Lusher, the visionary behind Rock Choir, the UK's largest contemporary choir. In this emotional narrative, Caroline recounts her journey from dreaming of becoming a pop star to becoming the founder of the phenomenon that is Rock Choir, with over 32,000 members across 400 groups in the UK.

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Book SynopsisJia Tolentino's Trick Mirror meets Cathy Park Hong's Minor Feelings in a meditation that blends memoir and cultural criticism to explore how the author's love affair with K-pop has shaped her sense of self, charting K-pop's complex coming-of-age through some of its biggest idols.I'll Love You Forever: Notes from a K-Pop Fan is a smart, poignant, constantly surprising essay collection that considers the collision between stratospherically popular music and our inescapably personal selves. Giaae Kwon delves into the global impact of K-pop artists, from H.O.T. to Taeyeon to IU to Suga of BTS, and reveals how each illuminated and shaped her own life.In using intimate experiences to examine larger cultural topics, this singular work breaks new ground in its consideration of K-pop. Written from the perspective of a bilingual and bicultural Korean American, I'll Love You Forever blends the critical with the personal. Kwon interweaves profi

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Book SynopsisIn order to produce one kilogram of rose oil, one million flowers must be picked, by hand. This book is my homage to the harvesters of the world.When it comes to nature, Dominique Roques is a unique authority. He has spent the last thirty years working closely with local communities across the globe to establish a sustainable supply of natural ingredients crucial to perfume making. From resin cultivated by traditional methods in El Salvador to rose oil distilleries in India as old as the Taj Mahal, his network reveals an elusive trade built on the fault lines of tradition and modernity.With In Search of Perfumes, Roques takes us on a fragrant journey from Andalusia to Somaliland, revealing seventeen of the industry''s most precious ingredients and the vast but delicate ecosystem sustained by the artisans who are its caretakers.Roques shows us the beauty and mysteries of a familiar trade. This is a return to the source of the

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Book Synopsis''An ideal summer read'' EVENING STANDARD''Equal parts insightful and entertaining - whatever your take on influencers, Bad Influence is a great read'' YOMI ADEGOKEOenone didn''t set out to become an influencer. The word barely existed when she started posting on Instagram at university to document her ''fitness journey'' after a toxic relationship came to a messy end.In this humorous meditation on her digitized life, Oenone chronicles the pits and peaks of coming of age online. Grappling with modern-day issues on a public stage - from body image and personal boundaries to the limitations of online activism, Bad Influence examines what happens when your day-to-day reality becomes #content - and that #content pays your bills.It asks: can you truly be authentic online? Can social media be a force for good? Is it necessarily bad for our mental health?Written with wit, warmth and honesty, this is a

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Book Synopsis''Thank you for the perfect blend of nostalgia-drenched humour, wit, and heartbreak, Nora'' Mandy Moore''This story will compel you to both laugh and cry, just as the title promises. May we all bring Nora''s honesty, passion and hope to our lives'' Lena Dunham''It is funny, and it is sad, and it is real, and if you''ve ever been through anything in your life . . . you are going to love this book'' Jennifer Weiner, New York Times Bestselling author of Who Do You Lovecomedy = tragedy + time/roséTwenty-seven-year-old Nora McInerny Purmort bounced from boyfriend to dopey ''boyfriend'' until she met Aaron - a charismatic art director and comic-book nerd who once made Nora laugh so hard she pulled a muscle. When Aaron was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer, they refused to let it limit their love. They got engaged on Aaron''s hospital bed and had a baby boy while he was on chemo. In the period that followed, NoTrade ReviewMoving memoir ... refreshing and honest look at love, loss and grief ... Will make you cry tears of both laughter and sadness ... The perfect companion for someone who has lost a loved one. -- Best contributors Best

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Book SynopsisBill Bellamy was a young officer in the 8th King''s Royal Irish Hussars from 1943 to 1955. He served in 7th Armoured Division in the North West Europe campaign, landing in Normandy on D+3, fought throughout the Battle for Normandy and into the Low Countries as a troop leader in Cromwell tanks, and was latterly a member of the initial occupying force in Berlin in May 1945. Against the rules, Bill kept diaries and notes of his experiences. His account is fresh and open, and his descriptions of battle are vivid. He witnessed many of his contemporaries killed in action, and this life-altering experience clearly informs his narrative. The accounts of tank fighting in the leafy Normandy bocage in the height of summer, or in the iron hard fields of Holland in winter, are graphic and compelling.

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Book SynopsisPrize-winning novelist and short-story writer Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse’s harrowing, urgent memoir documents and reconstructs her escape, at the age of fifteen, from the Rwandan massacres of 1994, in which 800,000 Tutsi were slaughtered.  ***Finalist for the Prix Du Livre Inter 2024***   ‘A non-fiction book which must be recognised as a major work of literature, for here, along with the extreme violence and the story of survival in a time of horrors, is a hitherto unrecorded truth’ Nathalie Crom,Télérama       ‘A gripping story, at once a personal account and a reflection on the indelible traces of genocide’ Sophie Rosemont, Vogue France   ‘Bare-bones, deeply moving and crucial’ Olivier Mony, Livres Hebdo   ‘A powerful indictment of cowardice in the face of cruelty’Nelly Kaprièlian-Self, Times Literary Supplement   ––––––   On the 18th of June 1994, weeks before the end of the massacres in which hundreds of thousands of her fellow Tutsi, Rwanda’s Bantu-speaking ethnic group, were slaughtered by the Hutu, Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse and her mother were fortunate to find a safe passage out of Rwanda with a convoy of children organised by a Swiss humanitarian organisation.   Fifteen years later, after rebuilding her life and becoming a successful novelist, Mairesse is ready to begin the long process of reconstructing her incomplete memories of the escape. Beginning with the BBC team, which told the story of the convoy, then by talking to aid workers, journalists, fellow escapees and consulting many archives, she pieces together personal accounts and records to make coherent the forces at work in Rwanda at the time of the genocide.  The Convoy questions and criticises the Western media through which African survivors are very often denied their own voices. Thirty years on from the Rwandan genocide, such devastating accounts are now, by a bitter twist of fate, more crucial than ever.   ––––––––––––

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Book SynopsisPatrick Hennessey''s The Junior Officers'' Reading Club is a lucid, witty account of all the horror, boredom and exhilaration of war. Patrick Hennessey is pretty much like any other member of Generation X: he spent the first half of the noughties reading books at university, going out, listening to house music and watching war films. He also, as an officer in the Grenadier guards, fought in some of the most violent combat the British army has seen in decades. Telling the story of how a modern soldier is made, from the testosterone-heavy breeding ground of Sandhurst to the nightmare of Iraq and Afghanistan, The Junior Officers'' Reading Club is already being hailed as a modern classic. ''Soldiers who can write are as rare as writers who can strip down a machinegun in 40 seconds'' Christopher Hart, Sunday Times ''An extraordinary memoir ... Hennessey has a reporter''s eye for detail and a soldier''s nose for bullshit'' JoTrade ReviewSoldiers who can write are as rare as writers who can strip down a machinegun in 40 seconds, but Patrick Hennessey is one of the few * Sunday Times *High-tempo, full-on . . . honest and revealing . . . a memoir brimming with vinegar and testosterone * Evening Standard *The military memoir of the moment * Times *A very fine book, a powerful dispatch from the front line ... what impresses is the sheer candour and immediacy * Spectator *An extraordinary memoir . . . Hennessey has a reporter's eye for detail and a soldier's nose for bullshit * Guardian *Outstanding . . . A classic of its kind * William Boyd, Sunday Herald, Books of the Year *Harrowing and frequently funny . . . sparkles with wit, wisdom and boyish glee . . . His generation owns the war * Times *Must rank as the most accomplished work of military witness to emerge from British war-fighting since 1945 * Independent *Remarkable . . . conveys vividly what it's like to experience combat * Jeremy Paxman, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year *An engaging mix of war reporting, stream of consciousness and reflections on the nature of conflict in the twenty-first century * Caroline Moorehead, Spectator, Books of the Year *All politicians need to read honest accounts of war - at no time more than now - and Patrick Hennessey's The Junior Officers' Reading Club is one of the very best * David Cameron, Observer, Books of the Year *A vivid account of a rollercoaster tour of duty . . . testosterone-charged, expletive-splattered * Phil Jacobson, Daily Mail *A compelling read . . . Hennessey's book ought to be read by all officers that have yet to experience combat . . . He has written an important portrait of contemporary warfare and the nature of battle - a portrait that can claim a line of descent from Sassoon's Memoirs of an Infantry Officer * Will Pike, British Army Review *An honest acknowledgment of the darkness within us, of the unwelcome emotions that combat can bring about ... Smart and funny ... The Junior Officers' Reading Club is a humdinger -- Jonathan Yardley * Washington Post *

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Book SynopsisA heartwarming dog story like no other: Tuesday, a lovable golden retriever, changes a former soldier''s life forever.A highly decorated captain in the U.S. Army, Luis Montalvan never backed down from a challenge during his two tours of duty in Iraq. After returning home from combat, however, his physical wounds and crippling post-traumatic stress disorder began to take their toll. He wondered if he would ever recover.Then Luis met Tuesday, a sensitive golden retriever trained to assist the disabled. Tuesday had lived among prisoners and at a home for troubled boys, and he found it difficult to trust in or connect with a human being--until Luis. Until Tuesday is the story of how two wounded warriors, who had given so much and suffered the consequences, found salvation in each other. It is a story about war and peace, injury and recovery, psychological wounds and spiritual restoration. But more than that, it is a story about the love between a man and dTrade Review'Wow, what a book! I think I was crying on page 3. The collision of man and dog, and the unbreakable bond they form, made my heart leap. Everyone should read this book to better understand not only the ravages of war, but the amazing capacity of the human spirit to rebound. I dare anyone to read this book and not believe in the power of love to heal.' * Lee Woodruff, author of In an Instant (with Bob Woodruff) and Perfectly Imperfect *'A deeply moving story of service, sacrifice, and restoration. Years from now when critics assemble the canon of Iraq War literature, look for Until Tuesday to make everyone's short list.' * Andrew J. Bacevich, author of Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War *'This story of an incredible service dog is both touching and warm. Some of the struggles are painful to read, because they are so real, but that only makes the triumphs more uplifting. In the course of these pages, Tuesday truly becomes a hero, as does Luis Montalván. This book feels like more than a joy; it feels necessary.' * Vicki Myron, #1 NYT bestselling author of Dewey *'Until Tuesday explores the unique bond that can occur between dogs and people that ennobles both. This book is a moving tribute to the courage and perseverance of a man as well as the love and the devotion of a remarkable and unforgettable dog.' * Larry Levin, New York Times bestselling author of Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love *'This is a profoundly honest book filled with vital lessons about loss, friendship, war -- and the loving bonds that can save us in our lowest moments. We are all lucky that Capt. Montalván and his dog Tuesday found each other, for in their story we see the possibilities in our own lives.' * Jeffrey Zaslow, coauthor of The New York Times bestseller, The Last Lecture *'Luis and Tuesday are two true American heroes. This powerful story is a testament to the courage of veterans both on and off the battlefield. The incredible relationship Luis and Tuesday share is a testament to the power of friendship and service. Far too many veterans face challenges when the invisible wounds of war follow us from the frontlines to our lives back home. Luis is a critical voice for our community, reminding every single veteran that they are not alone. Luis and Tuesday have been instrumental in helping to erase the stigma of invisible wounds, and luckily this book is just the beginning of their incredible story.' * Paul Rieckhoff, Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Author of Chasing Ghosts *'Luis and Tuesday were one of the original sources of inspiration for my very first piece of legislation. Luis' story of military service, his struggles with visible and invisible wounds of war, and the dog who helped save his life is as compelling on the page as when you hear it in person.' * Senator Al Franken *

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Book SynopsisTo Hear the Skylark's Song is a memoir about how Aberfan survived and eventually thrived after the terrible disaster of the 21st of October 1966, when Pantglas school took the full force of thousands of tons of colliery waste and a community lost a generation of children. It is a story about how people held a community together and created a space for each other to thrive. It is also a wonderfully thoughtful and insightful story of what it was like to grow up in a Valley's community in the 70s: a thriving place of people, shops, clubs, chapel concerts, coal mines, interwoven with gossip and stories and, of course, the annual bus trip to Barry Island. Aberfan found a way to carry on, and Huw vividly brings to life how the sense of community provided strength and comfort in the shadow of a lifetime-long grief. A community that continues to innovate and inspire.Trade Review'A thoughtful and passionate memoir, moving and respectful'- Tessa Hadley

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of the celebrated Great War memoirTrade Review'...a remarkable and fascinating account...' --Phil Carradice, BBC

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Book SynopsisWRITTEN WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY MARK BOSTRIDGE In her bestselling first volume of autobiography, Testament of Youth, Vera Brittain passionately recorded the agonising years of the First World War, lamenting the destruction of a generation which for her included those she most dearly loved - her lover, her brother and her closest friends.In Testament of Friendship Brittain tells the story of the woman who helped her survive those tragic years - the writer Winifred Holtby. They met at Somerville College, Oxford, immediately after the war. Their friendship continued through Vera's marriage and their separate but parallel writing careers until Winifred's untimely death at the age of thirty-seven. When she died, her fame as a writer was about to reach its peak with the publication of her greatest novel, South Riding. A moving record of a friendship between two women of courage, determination and intelligence and a wonderful portrait of a lifelong love. Testament of Friendship now takes its rightful place as a Virago Modern Classic.Trade ReviewThroughout their correspondence, the fragile Brittain is often painfully demanding - but the role of devoted supporter seems to gratify Holtby * Spectator *Holtby certainly helped Brittain write by looking after her children. But they also both helped each other work. And they each saved the other's best book * Guardian *

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Book Synopsis'This is the most startlingly honest book about grief I have ever read. Its immediacy hits you on the first page and takes you on an unforgettable journey. No one has set out so clearly the stages we go through as we try to come to terms with facing the enormity of death.' - Dame Penelope Wilton, DBE'Sasha writes exquisitely and honestly, the sheer rawness of what she has gone through and is still going through, sitting in balance with the calm and clear-sighted objectivity of the therapist, who is also her.' - Hugh BonnevilleOne person, two perspectives on grief. Plunged unexpectedly into widowhood at just 49 years old, psychotherapist Sasha Bates describes in searing honesty the agonisingly raw feelings unleashed by the loss of her husband and best friend, Bill. At the same time, she attempts to keep her therapist hat in place and create some perspective from psycho-analytic theory. From the depths of her confusion she gropes for ways to manage and bear the pain - by looking back at all that she has learnt from psychotherapeutic research, and from accepted grief theories, to help her make sense of her altered reality.Languages of Loss starts a necessary and overdue conversation about death and loss. It breaks down taboos and tries to find humour and light amidst the depressing, bewildering reality. It is an essential companion to help support readers through the agony of those early months, giving permission for all the feelings, and offering various methods of living with them.This book's overriding message is that everyone's experience of grief is different, but knowing more about the theory, and learning a new vocabulary, while not necessarily easing the grief, can help you feel less alone, and at some point enable you to reflect back and see how far you have come.'This is a useful as well as a moving book. The writing is energetic, down-to-earth and bracingly honest, and many readers will feel consoled and enlightened by Bates's take on her experience.' - Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Times'Bates's skill as a psychotherapist is married to her deft ability to use language and metaphor to create this vital treatise on loss. As much as Languages of Loss is an essential text on grief, it is also a story of love.' - Sunday Business Post Review'This book will give anyone grieving the death of their partner an insight into their experience, and help those around them understand the difficult and painful process of grief.' - Julia Samuel, author of This Too Shall Pass and Grief WorksTrade ReviewA powerful blend of the personal and the professional. -- Mishal HusainThis is a useful as well as a moving book. The writing is energetic, down-to-earth and bracingly honest, and many readers will feel consoled and enlightened by Bates's take on her experience. The therapist's reflections are fascinating, but what shines through is how much Bates loved Bill and how much she misses him. -- Cathy Rentzenbrink * The Times *Reading this book, I'm in the hands of someone I would want to be my side for the traumas of life - however small they seem, or big they loom. -- Kirsty WarkThis is the most startlingly honest book about grief I have ever read. Its immediacy hits you on the first page and takes you on an unforgettable journey. No one has set out so clearly the stages we go through as we try to come to terms with facing the enormity of death. -- Dame Penelope Wilton, DBEWhat a challenge. And what an achievement. Your book is simply amazing and so authentic. Thanks for sharing your heartfelt story and developing acceptance. -- Jane Harris, co-founder of the Good Grief ProjectA really powerful book. I hadn't read a book before that melds the professional, as a psychotherapist, and the personal, as someone that lost their partner. Sasha's book covers the course of one year since she lost her husband Bill, where she describes how she feels and tries to apply what she has learnt as a therapist. She explores the times when that really exposes the shortcomings of grief counselling, and how incapable anything is really at helping you navigate this absence. I've never read anything like that, a mixture of the practical and the emotional. -- Pandora Sykes

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Book SynopsisThis is a memoir as wry, funny, moving and vivid as its inimitable subject himself. This book will be a joy for both lifelong fans and for a whole new generation.John Cooper Clarke is a phenomenon: Poet Laureate of Punk, rock star, fashion icon, TV and radio presenter, social and cultural commentator. At 5 feet 11 inches (32in chest, 27in waist), in trademark dark suit, dark glasses, with dark messed-up hair and a mouth full of gold teeth, he is instantly recognizable. As a writer his voice is equally unmistakable and his own brand of slightly sick humour is never far from the surface. I Wanna Be Yours covers an extraordinary life, filled with remarkable personalities: from Nico to Chuck Berry, from Bernard Manning to Linton Kwesi Johnson, Elvis Costello to Gregory Corso, Gil Scott Heron, Mark E. Smith and Joe Strummer, and on to more recent fans and collaborators Alex Turner, Plan B and Guy Garvey. Interspersed with stories of his rock and roll and performing career, John also reveals his boggling encyclopaedic take on popular culture over the centuries: from Baudelaire and Edgar Allan Poe to Pop Art, pop music, the movies, fashion, football and showbusiness – and much, much more, plus a few laughs along the way.Trade ReviewThis is not a ‘ponderous trudge through the turgid facts of an ill-remembered life’ but the kind of autobiography Rimbaud might have written if he had been a Mancunian stand-up comedian. -- Graham Robb * Spectator Best Books of the Year *The bookshop shelves have been clogged up for years by musicians and artists who made their debuts in the sulphurous days of 1976-7, but I Wanna Be Yours, the autobiography of the "punk poet" John Cooper Clarke, aka "the Bard of Salford", knocked most of the competition into a cocked hat. * TLS 'Books of the Year' *Any autobiography that features both Bernard Manning and Nico is unlikely to disappoint; even less so when it’s written with such brilliantly Dickensian vigour by the Bard of Salford, John Cooper Clarke . . .this fast, funny book catches his life in its lines * Sunday Times 'Music Books of the Year' *Manchester punk poet John Cooper Clarke takes a rather different approach to heroin addiction, treating it as a source of humour in his sharply observed, entertaining memoir . . . “Relentless tragedy is always hilarious,” he notes of his eventual recovery. “At some point the laughter has to stop.” * Daily Telegraph, Best Music Books of 2020 *[I Wanna Be Yours] might be the funniest book published this year. Few memoirists have had better material to work with: heroin addiction, years living in a squat with Nico, endless love affairs and a TV appearance with the Honey Monster. Talk about getting the most out of life. * The Times, Best Music Books of the Year 2020 *The godfather of British performance poetry * Daily Telegraph *John Cooper Clarke is one of Britain’s outstanding poets. His anarchic punk poetry has thrilled people for decades and his no nonsense approach to his work and life in general has appealed to many people including myself for many years. Long may his slender frame and spiky top produce words and deeds that keep us on our toes and alive to the wonders of the world. -- Sir Paul McCartneyI say to people, have you heard of John Cooper Clarke and if they say, yes, yeah he's an absolute genius and you just go, 'oh - ok, you've saved me a lot of time -- Steve CooganJohn Cooper Clarke uses words like Chuck Berry uses guitar riffs melody and anger, humour and disdain in equal measure. He's the real deal, really funny and really caustic, the velvet voice of discontent. -- Kate Moss...nothing short of dazzling -- Alex TurnerThere are a legion of new young poets who rightly pay homage to Cooper Clarke -- Julian Hall * Independent *It’s impossible not to hear Clarke’s voice, rhythmic & deadpan, while reading his memoir. Like his poetry,his prose style is wry and dry . . . Mad anecdotes & whimsical gags abound, but wisdom often lurks beneath the wordplay. * Guardian *I Wanna Be Yours is fantastically entertaining . . . As a writer of comic prose Clarke is the match of anyone alive, and his turns of phrase are as sharp as his suits (the view over 1950s Manchester from the fire escape behind his house was 'Coronation Street for a million miles'). His drawl is as much a part of his peculiar ars poetica as the words of the poems themselves. Every sentence he writes, you read in his voice. By the end of the nearly 500 pages of I Wanna be Yours I felt I’d not so much read a memoir as listened to an outrageous confession from a psychoanalyst’s couch * The Times *Riveting * The Observer 'Book of the Week' *An immensely engaging memoir that fizzes with wit . . . Though he needs no such affirmation, it cements Clarke’s status as one of the most distinctive voices in pop cultural history – it’s impossible not to hear him read every word aloud in your head with that unforgettable Manc drawl – and reveals much about a remarkable life and career * NME *The most amusing autobiography of a literary aesthete you are ever likely to read * Telegraph *An exuberant account of a remarkable life * New Statesman *A naturally splendid tell-all * I newspaper *John Cooper Clarke’s life story has been stranger than most and it is told with great humour and penetrating honesty in his autobiography, I Wanna Be Yours * Choice Magazine *The most entertaining and certainly the most culturally revealing book I have read this year -- D. J. Taylor * Literary Review *Clarke’s primordial gift for language is everywhere in this book. It is almost impossible not to read passages out loud — a meta reminder of his contribution to the joy of spoken-word performance. As Clarke puts it: 'Wherever people gather for amusement, that’s where I’ll be.' * Financial Times *He became the first big-time performance punk poet – a warm-up act for the Sex Pistols, with famous fans ranging from Sir Paul McCartney to Kate Moss. And his life has been as chaotically unpredictable as his next line . . . Now clean and, to his own surprise, a happily married family man at 71, the bard of Salford has written his memoirs. * Sunday Mirror *One of the most magnificent and hysterically funny memoirs of modern times * Irish Times *Crafted, entertaining and educative * Mojo Magazine *A compelling read with highs and lows aplenty, in every sense of the phrase . . . They say that every picture tells a story. Clarke takes that concept and turns it on its head as, from start to finish throughout the book, the words paint pictures so vivid you can see the Salford streets and smell the hair pomade. Take a dip into the weird and wonderful world of Dr John Cooper Clarke, he’ll be there if you want him, ninety degrees in his shades * Breaking Glass Magazine *Elegantly sardonic . . . His writing remains spry and sparkly, sweary but sweet, with this book testament to how 'a half-arsed grafter with a rich vocabulary' became a kind of British institution * Uncut Magazine *A poet who writes about darkness and decay but makes people laugh, a human cartoon, a gentleman punk, a man who has stayed exactly the same for thirty years but never grown stale. John Cooper Clarke is an original -- Claire Smith * Scotsman *One of the most entertaining autobiographies of the year. Hilarious and inspirational in equal measure, it’s the perfect panacea to the misery of 2020 * The Quietus *I Wanna Be Yours could not be more entertaining, charming and optimistic . . . Its immense spirit-lifting qualities will do the despairing – and everyone else – the world of good * Strong Words Magazine *I telephoned hardworking entertainer and poet Dr. John Cooper Clarke to tell him how much I’m enjoying his memoir, I Wanna Be Yours . . . a buxom read and a highly entertaining one. -- Martin Newell * East Anglian Times *

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Book SynopsisFrom one of India's finest writers, thinkers and commentators, a memoir of a love affair with cricket.As a fan, player, writer, scholar, controversialist and administrator, Ram Guha has spent a life with cricket.In this book, Guha offers both a brilliantly charming memoir and a charter of the life of cricket in India.He traces the game across every level at which it is played: school, college, club, state and country. He offers vivid portraits of local heroes, provincial icons and international stars.Following the narrative of his life intertwined and in love with the sport, Guha captures the magic of bat and ball that has ensnared billions.Trade Review A DAILY TELEGRAPH BEST SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 ‘Guha is a distinguished historian, biographer of Gandhi, a courageous political activist — and also an absolute cricket nut … Watching a serious intellectual grapple with his own relationship with sport is always revealing … [A] passionate, unique book … Guha’s totally in love, that’s the thing – and it’s the love that shines through on every page’Ed Smith, Financial Times ‘Guha also fills the same role within India that Scyld Berry and Gideon Haigh do in England and Australia. In other words, he is the deepest and wisest chronicler of his cricketing nation’Daily Telegraph, Best Sport Books of the Year, 2020 ‘Guha is an historian, environmentalist, journalist and political biographer of wide-ranging distinction … An engagingly generous celebration of cricket and cricketers, Indian and firangis alike … A book that should not be ignored’David Crane, Spectator ‘Delightful … Guha, one of India’s best-known historians and public intellectuals, is a bona fide cricket obsessive … His deep knowledge of the game allows him to bring a historian’s perspective when writing about players … The Commonwealth of Cricket is a return to his cherished first love. It should be celebrated’Soumya Bhattacharya, New Statesman ‘Powerful … The Commonwealth of Cricket is a memoir of his lifelong obsession with the game … It is, not surprisingly, a delightful read – but it also carries a political message’Emma John, Guardian ‘Guha’s book is timely … It is also at odds with the way many see the game in India today … In that sense it is a love-letter to a game as it was and can be again’Mike Atherton, The Times ‘Enchanting … Deeply enriching … He writes about the game as he first knew it, with the unguarded fondness of youth’Paul Edwards, The Cricketer

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Book SynopsisCanned coffee and Kimonos is Tom Fitzmaurice's memoir of the four years he spent living and teaching in Tokyo, Japan, the biggest city on Earth. A young man from England's rural West Country, he was thrust into a new world for which he was completely unprepared and which he found utterly bewildering. Tom gives an insight into the life of an English teacher in this most fascinating of countries and how he found his feet teaching students aged two to ninety-one. From sitting in a robot restaurant watching a giant metal triceratops firing multicoloured laser beams, to the quietude of secluded and ancient mountain-top shrines on remote Japanese islands, this is a story of coming of age in a beguiling metropolis, of culture shock, faux pas, joy, hilarity, horror and the steepest of learning curves. Earthquakes, hedgehog cafes, bathing with the yakuza, love hotels, typhoons, geisha, nuclear fallout, fascists, festivals, temples, bullet trains, karaoke, samurai swords, sushi and sumo. This memoir has it all.

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Book Synopsis'A Stylist pick for best new non-fiction for 2021' “A sweet, touching memoir about family, faith and love. There’s a purity and simplicity to Huma’s writing, as she attempts to reconcile the sprawling weight of expectation with her own desire for a contained but free life. But what does a life on her own terms look like? What even are her own terms? A consolation to others who have trod this very path, enlightening for those of us who haven’t, you’ll be rooting for not just Huma, but for everyone she loves too.” – Pandora Sykes "A beautiful, refreshing and honest memoir about family, love, inheritance and loss" - Nikesh Shukla, author of Brown Baby You can't choose who you fall in love with, they say. If only it were that simple. Growing up in Walsall in the 1990s, Huma straddled two worlds - school and teenage crushes in one, and the expectations and unwritten rules of her family's south Asian social circle in the other. Reconciling the two was sometimes a tightrope act, but she managed it. Until it came to marriage. Caught between her family's concern to see her safely settled down with someone suitable, her own appetite for adventure and a hopeless devotion to romance honed from Georgette Heyer, she seeks temporary refuge in Paris and imagines a future full of possibility. And then her father has a stroke and everything changes. As Huma learns to focus on herself she begins to realise that searching for a suitor has been masking everything that was wrong in her life: grief for her father, the weight of expectation, and her uncertainty about who she really is. Marriage - arranged or otherwise - can't be the all-consuming purpose of her life. And then she meets someone. Neither Pakistani nor Muslim nor brown, and therefore technically not suitable at all. When your worlds collide, how do you measure one love against another? As much as it is about love, How We Met is also about falling out with and misunderstanding each other, and how sometimes even our closest relationships can feel so far away. Warm, wise and ultimately uplifting, this is a coming-of-age story about what it really means to find 'happy ever after'. "This beautiful, romantic memoir grabs you from the first page and won't let you go. Told with heart, wit and quiet restraint, How We Met is the story of how we can transcend the expectations of others and arrange our own happiness in life and in love." - Viv GroskopTrade Review'A sweet, touching memoir about family, faith and love. There’s a purity and simplicity to Huma’s writing, as she attempts to reconcile the sprawling weight of expectation with her own desire for a contained but free life. But what does a life on her own terms look like? What even are her own terms? A consolation to others who have trod this very path, enlightening for those of us who haven’t, you’ll be rooting for not just Huma, but for everyone she loves too.' – Pandora Sykes'Qureshi's writing is so frank and clear-eyed that I felt like I was sitting opposite her, being told her story. I loved every minute.' - Laura Pearson, author of I Wanted You To Know'Every page radiates Huma's love for her family, for her emerging self, and for the possibilities of a life more fully lived' - Leah Hazard, author of Hard Pushed: A Midwife's Story"I just loved loved loved loved How We Met. A love story about panic, faith, family, duty, living on your own, work, grief and trust. It delves into love and politics in the British South Asian community and left me beaming." - Nell Frizzell, author of The Panic Years'It's a beautiful love story told with grace. I found it painfully relatable and am so glad this book exists, especially for young women currently lacking the blueprint to trust and empower themselves before opening up to love. At once poignant, empathetic and funny.' - Zeba Talkhani, author of My Past Is A Foreign Country'HOW WE MET encompasses the kind of love story you'd expect as well as several you might not: it's about the love of a couple but also the love of a family. It's about a love of culture and faith but also a love of finding new paths and of remaking. Huma Qureshi tells the story of her great loves with generosity and tenderness that will grab readers by the heart.' - Jean Hannah Edelstein, author of This Really Isn't About You'How We Met is a wonderful read - a memoir of grief, becoming and true love. Huma Qureshi is a writer with a sharp eye and a romantic heart.' - Katherine May, author of Wintering'How We Met is the book I, and countless women of similar heritage, have been waiting our whole lives for. I cried, and laughed out loud as I recognised myself in so much of Huma Qureshi's story. The book is about Huma and how she met and married her husband Richard, but it's more than that, it's about trying to do 'the right thing' in a shifting world, where you are all at once at home, and also somehow alien. It's about being the child of immigrants, it's about dreams, about motherhood, and it is about familial love, in its many forms. It's such a beautiful book of quiet confidence, and deserves to be read widely. Huma is a huge talent, and a skillfull storyteller with an eye for an exquisite turn of phrase. I'm sure this memoir will be a huge success. It certainly deserves to be.' - Saima Mir, author of The Khan "This beautiful, romantic memoir grabs you from the first page and won't let you go. Told with heart, wit and quiet restraint, How We Met is the story of how we can transcend the expectations of others and arrange our own happiness in life and in love." - Viv Groskop"A beautiful, refreshing and honest memoir about family, love, inheritance and loss" - Nikesh Shukla, author of Brown Baby

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Book SynopsisRaoul 'Sonny' Balcaen grew up in Los Angeles at a time when it became the epicentre of American motor racing, nurturing a vast talent pool of people whose influence has echoed through to today. As a teenager, he successfully competed with his home-built Top Fuel dragster during the formative years of the sport. With Lance Reventlow, he worked on the famous Scarab sports cars and was standing in the dyno room when the team's all-American Formula 1 engine was fired up for the first time. A period as Jim Hall's crew chief and a close association with Carroll Shelby added to the know-how that guided him towards becoming a successful entrepreneur and led to all that followed. This engaging memoir is the very personal history of a momentous time and place in which we meet a who's who of West Coast road-racing heroes. * Aged 17, Balcaen built his own Top Fuel drag racer, the 'Bantamweight Bomb', which he developed relentlessly and drove to many successes. * His role in the fabulous Scarab sports cars - the landmark all-American racers - and insights into life with their creator, the incomparable Lance Reventlow. * Working as crew chief to the brilliant Jim Hall, preparing and running his Lotus Eleven and Lister-Chevrolet long before the famous Chaparrals emerged. * A second spell with Scarab, this time with the Formula 1 project - the first American Grand Prix car - plus a special job for Reventlow converting a Scarab sports racer into a street car. * Onwards into setting up his own successful business, IECO (Induction Engineering Co), to create and sell high-grade performance and appearance accessories, with Chevrolets - especially Corvair and Vega - featuring strongly. * His many-faceted dealings with Carroll Shelby, leading to consultancy and even assignments as occasional Shelby American company pilot. * Along the way we meet many other big names of the era, including Chuck Daigh, Bruce Kessler, Warren Olson, Dick Troutman, Tom Barnes, Phil Remington, Ken Miles, Leo Goossen, Jim Travers, Frank Coon and Pete Brock.

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Book SynopsisThe Girl and the Ghosts is the third book from well-loved foster carer and Sunday Times bestselling author Angela Hart.‘So, is it a girl or a boy, and how old?’ Jonathan asked as soon as we were alone in the shop.My husband knew from the animated look on my face, and the way I was itching to talk to him, that our social worker had been asking us to look after another child. Seven-year-old Maria holds lots of secrets. Why won’t she tell how she got the bruises on her body? Why does she run and hide? And why does she so want to please her sinister stepfather?It takes years for devoted foster carer Angela Hart to uncover the truth as she helps Maria leave the ghosts of her past behind.Trade ReviewPraise for Angela Hart:A true tear-jerking tale of love and compassion * Sunday Mirror *

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Book SynopsisCarrie Kills A Man* is about growing up in a world that doesn't want you, and about how it feels to throw a hand grenade into a perfect life. It's the story of how a tattooed transgender rock singer killed a depressed suburban dad, and of the lessons you learn when you renounce all your privilege and power. When more people think they've seen a ghost than met a trans person, it's easy for bad actors to exploit that - and they do, as you can see from the headlines and online. But here's the reality, from someone who's living it. From coming out and navigating trans parenthood to the thrills of gender-bending pop stars, fashion disasters and looking like Velma Dinkley, this is a tale of ripping it up and starting again: Carrie's story in all its fearless, frank and funny glory. *"Spoiler: That man was me." - CarrieTrade Review"HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Nasty & funny!" - Patton Oswalt; "Carrie Kills a Man is a funny, insightful and highly relatable account of navigating the choppy waters of starting again when you thought you knew who you were. Carrie not only takes us through the intricacies of coming out as trans, but also invites us to see where our experiences align with hers, deftly puncturing the divisive rhetoric that often dominates this topic. Charming, warm and thoughtful in equal measure." - Heather Parry; "Carrie Marshall invites us into her world and does not hold back. This memoir is humorous, harrowing, heartfelt and ultimately healing. Carrie powerfully reflects on both what one can lose by choosing to honour their truest self, but more importantly what she has gained. This book is an act of love and defiance against all the noise and bigotry clouding stories centred in power, love and truth. Long may such lives flourish!"- Andrés N. Ordorica

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Book SynopsisAt once a heart-wrenching personal narrative and a unique historical document, The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt is the ultimate example of the personal as political.Eleanor Roosevelt stands as one of the world's greatest humanitarians, having dedicated her remarkable life to the liberty and equality of all people. In this sincere and frank self-portrait she recounts her childhood marked by the death of her mother and separation from the rest of her family at age seven her marriage to Franklin D. Roosevelt; and the challenges of motherhood, including the tragic death of her second son, all of which occurred before her twenty-fifth birthday.It wasn't till her thirties that Eleanor Roosevelt began the life for which she is known. A committed supporter of women's suffrage, architect of the welfare state, leader of the UN Commission on Human Rights and author of the Declaration of Human Rights, as well as being a prolific writer, diplomat, visionary, pacifist and commiTable of ContentsPreface Part I: This is My Story Part II: This I Remember Part III: On My Own Part IV: The Search for Understanding Afterword, Nancy Roosevelt Ireland Index

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Book SynopsisA San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller2023 Southwest Book of the Year Selection"The arid land that starts in Arizona and stretches into Mexico's west coast is Ronstadt's foothold in the world. It's a story she has told through music, and now wants to tell through food."—The New York Times"The book is many things at once. It’s a portrait of a place, the Sonoran Desert, and it’s a genealogy of sorts, an archival romp through Ronstadt’s family history."—Vogue"An album of loves for the high desert of Sonora and Ronstadt's hometown of Tucson."—NPRRock and Roll Hall of Famer Linda Ronstadt takes readers on a journey to the place her soul calls home, the Sonoran Desert, in this candid new memoir.In Feels Like Home, Grammy award-winning singer Linda Ronstadt effortlessly evokes the magical panorama of the high desert, a landscape etched by sunlight and carved by wind, offering a personal tour built around meals and memories of the place where she came of age. Growing up the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants and a descendant of Spanish settlers near northern Sonora, Ronstadt’s intimate new memoir celebrates the marvelous flavors and indomitable people on both sides of what was once a porous border whose denizens were happy to exchange recipes and gather around campfires to sing the ballads that shaped Ronstadt’s musical heritage. Following her bestselling musical memoir, Simple Dreams, this book seamlessly braids together Ronstadt’s recollections of people and their passions in a region little understood in the rest of the United States. This road trip through the desert, written in collaboration with former New York Times writer Lawrence Downes and illustrated throughout with beautiful photographs by Bill Steen, features recipes for traditional Sonoran dishes and a bevy of revelations for Ronstadt’s admirers. If this book were a radio signal, you might first pick it up on an Arizona highway, well south of Phoenix, coming into the glow of Ronstadt’s hometown of Tucson. It would be playing something old and Mexican, from a time when the border was a place not of peril but of possibility.Trade Review"Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands […] is a way to explain why the arid land that starts in Arizona and stretches into Mexico's west coast is [Ronstadt's] foothold in the world. It's a story she has told through music, and now wants to tell—as much as she can—through food."—The New York Times"The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, granddaughter of Mexican immigrants and descendant of Spanish settlers, explores her family history and the complicated relationship between the US and Mexico in her new book, Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands. […] In the book and in conversation, her continuing love for the music and culture she grew up with shines through."—Esquire"[Feels Like Home] is most easily described as a memoir. […] In reality the book is many things at once. It’s a portrait of a place, the Sonoran Desert, and it’s a genealogy of sorts, an archival romp through Ronstadt’s family history. It’s about music: 'How a singer is both born and made, learning by singing and being sung to,' in the words of her co-author, the journalist Lawrence Downes. But it’s also about food."—Vogue"Feels Like Home expands on the theme of her musical memoir, Simple Dreams, which was published in 2013. Along with the personal stories that Ronstadt has never before told in full about her ancestors and her childhood in the 1950s and '60s, she also draws attention to the border politics that have impacted the lives of so many immigrants and refugees."—San Francisco Chronicle"[A] travelogue, a memoir, a family history, a photo study, and a cookbook that will transport you to the vast dessert that links Arizona and Mexico."—Boston Globe"Linda Ronstadt's Feels Like Home is an album of loves for the high desert of Sonora and her hometown of Tucson, shown through photos by Bill Steen and pages of her own recollections of family and friends and even—or maybe that's especially—recipes that bring family and friends together with echoes of each other."—NPR"A lively, lovely exaltation of the dry, cactus-studded, indelible Sonoran Desert." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review"Ronstadt celebrates her roots in this engaging, personal and entertaining hybrid family memoir/cookbook and social history." —Library Journal, starred review"Chock-full of the Mexican ranch recipes Ronstadt learned at home, [Feels Like Home] also recalls a time before walls and politics had driven a wedge between a culture she remembers as 'fluid,' when the Southwest was communal rather than rife with cultural conflict."—The Daily Beast"Is any Tucsonan as beloved as Linda Ronstadt? Likely not, and her celebration of the Sonoran Desert will help cinch the deal. […] Her book is richly illustrated with photographs of people and places and studded with saliva-spurring recipes, but it's Linda Ronstadt's winsome prose that makes it a treasure." —Pima County Library, 2023 Southwest Book of the Year"One of the key questions of Feels Like Home [is] how to validate long-term attachments to and senses of place that are nevertheless those of settlers. This is an important question for U.S. readers, whose familial connections to this country’s legacy of Indigenous dispossession are often left unknown or are blurred behind the discourse of a nation of immigrants. Ronstadt holds the two in tension."—Los Angeles Review of Books"Feels Like Home issues an invitation to sit a while and listen as Ronstadt regales us with warm stories of the ones she loves, the places woven into the fabric of her being, and the food and music that sustain us all."—No Depression"[A] celebration of culture, music, geography, food and family ties that know no borders. It is eloquently told by a singer who has devoted much of her career to transcending musical borders […] [Ronstadt's] memoir is a valentine to her family and the Mexican heritage she has long celebrated in words and music."—San Diego Union-Tribune"Illuminates the culture, food and natural wonders of the Sonoran Desert, which stretches from [Ronstadt's] Arizona childhood home through a large swatch of northern Mexico."—Parade"A must for fans, [Feels Like Home is] a heartfelt homage to [Ronstadt's] Mexican heritage and deep emotional connection to the American Southwest, where the Tucson-born artist grew up. The beloved singer […] writes lyrically about her ancestral homelands and crossing 'and recrossing and crisscrossing' the literal and metaphoric borders between them, 'until it fades to insignificance, like a rubbed-out pencil mark.'"—AARP Magazine"In 2013, Ronstadt wrote a more traditional memoir about her career titled Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir […] Her new book, however, goes much farther back, diving into her personal history, tracing her family’s Mexican roots in Sonora, and fondly recalling how her musical childhood in Arizona shaped her as a performer."—Woman's World"This memoir provides deep insight into Ronstadt’s roots."—Alta Journal"Grammy award-winning singer Linda Ronstadt shares a profoundly moving and visceral memoir and travelog, rooted in place, family heritage, history and food. Co-written with New York Times editor Lawrence Downes, Feels Like Home explores Ronstadt's background long before she became a musical icon. [...] This book digs deep into the linkages that produced her rich body of work and, more importantly, shaped her identity." —BookTrib"A true labor of love and a must-read."—Long Island Weekly"Reading Feels Like Home is a tactile experience that employs the senses. It begins with its beautiful design as a smaller-size coffee table book, printed on fine, thick paper and filled with full-color family photographs and scenes from the Sonoran Borderlands. Twenty recipes, arranged by theme and broken up into batches, follow various sections of the book. These recipes allow readers to experience something that Ronstadt thoroughly enjoys; it is a unique form of immersion into her story through the taste and aroma of food."—BookTrib"Feels Like Home is a memoir with food and a travel book about a handful of families. Ronstadt is at the book’s center, providing a deep understanding of what life was like for those hardy people who settled in the Sonoran desert many years ago, as well as the Indigenous people who lived there for centuries longer."—Orange County Register"Informative yet casual, reading the book feels like a day hanging out with Ronstadt while being amazed by her ordinary demeanor [and] lack of pretense despite her wealth and fame."—Cleburne Times-Review“[A] very sweet-hearted book [...] it hits a lot of sweet spots for what is kind of the perfect coffee table book.”—Mark Athitakis, KJZZ Radio, Phoenix"Ronstadt's tone is friendly, unaffected and disarming. Readers will be enchanted by the genial manner in which she shares details of her background, heritage and personal evolution. This beautiful book, rich in heart and soul, is tremendously enhanced by the wonderful photos taken by Ronstadt's friend Bill Steen. After reading the memoir, fans will come away knowing and loving Linda Ronstadt even more." —Pop Culture Classics“Feels Like Home invites us on an exquisite journey of beauty, adventure and history. It’s a magical trip you don’t want to miss. This book will fill your heart, your soul and your spirit. We need that now more than ever.”—Dolores Huerta, labor organizer and civil-rights activist“Feels Like Home is personal and revealing—with vivid portraits of her forebears who immigrated first to Northern Mexico and then Tucson, Arizona, with striking photographs, family letters, and an array of recipes and songs, she weaves together an unforgettable tale of her life and talented musical family. This is quintessentially an American story—touching, and well worth reading.”—Jerry Brown, former governor of CaliforniaTable of ContentsContents Introduction by Lawrence DownesA Note from Linda on the Recipes 1. Where the Water Turns 2. Desert PeopleSidebar: A Letter to FrancisSidebar: Saints and Angels 3. Margarita’s Letters 4. Mi PuebloSidebar: Lupe and Fred: A Love StorySidebar: Aunt Luisa’s LettersSidebar: Let’s Talk Horses 5. La FronteraSidebar: Casa Alitas 6. The Mission Garden 7. Canelo Diary 8. Desert Cattle 9. El Futuro 10. Coda: My Dream Song ListGratitudeAbout the Authors

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Book SynopsisUplifting memoir and lifestyle advice from the yoga instructor turned Instagram superstar, Rachel Brathen AKA Yoga Girl, who inspires millions every day.

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Book SynopsisThe first of John Master's evocative memoirs about life in the Gurkhas in India on the cusp of WWII

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Book SynopsisAnnie Proulx, one of America''s finest writers, invites us to share her experience in the building of her new home on a rich plot of untouched, unspoilt prairie and her pleasure in uncovering of the layers of American history locked beneath the topsoil.Bird Cloud' is the name Annie Proulx gave to 640 acres of Wyoming wetlands and prairie and 400 foot cliffs plunging down to the North Platte River. On the day she first visited, a cloud in the shape of a bird hung in the evening sky. Proulx also saw pelicans, bald eagles, golden eagles, great blue herons, ravens, scores of bluebirds, harriers, kestrels, elk, deer and a dozen antelope. She knew she had to purchase the land, then owned by the Nature Conservancy, and she knew what she would build on it a house in harmony with her work, her appetites and her character a library surrounded by bedrooms and a kitchen.Proulx''s first non-fiction in more than twenty years, Bird Cloud is the story of building that house solar panels, a Japanese soak tub, a concrete floor, elk horn handles on kitchen cabinets and an enthralling natural history and archeology of the region, inhabited for millennia by Ute, Arapaho and Shoshone Indians. It is also a family history, going back to nineteenth century Mississippi river boat captains and Canadian settlers, and an illuminating autobiography. Proulx, a writer with extraordinary powers of observation and compassion, turns her lens on herself. We understand how she came to be living in a house surrounded by wilderness, with shelves for thousands of books and long worktables on which to heap manuscripts, research materials and maps, and how she came to be one of the great American writers of her time.Trade Review‘Proulx’s prose is monumental’ Observer 'Magic … Books are like homes and within 10 pages of crossing the threshold of this one readers will put up their feet, secure in the knowledge that they won’t be moving on to another any time soon ' Geoff Dyer, Observer ‘A love letter to place…which interweaves details of the land’s daily upkeep with her own equally evocative history’ Vogue A masterpiece’ A. N. Wilson

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Book SynopsisFrom the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author comes the poignant and shocking memoir of Cathy's recent relationship with Tayo, a young boy she fosters whose good behaviour and polite manners hide a terrible past.Tayo arrives at Cathy's with only the clothes he stands up in. He has been brought to her by the police, but he is calm, polite, and very well spoken, and not at all like the children she normally fosters. The social worker gives Cathy the forms which should contain Tayo's history, but apart from his name and age, it is blank. Tayo has no past.Tayo is an ''invisible'' child, kidnapped from his loving father in Nigeria and brought illegally to the UK by his drink and drugs dependent prostitute mother, where he is put to work in a sweat shop in Central London. When he sustains an injury and is no longer earning, he is cast out.When Cathy takes Tayo to school he points out a dozen different addresses where he has stayed in the last six months, often being left alone.Trade Review‘Plays out like a juicy ITV1 drama…at times heartbreaking. But Hidden is also a life -affirming read which proves that, despite the bad press, Social Services do have their successes - and ultimately, sometimes a little hope is all you need.’ Heat Reviews for ‘Damaged’: 'Cannot fail to move those who read it.' Adoption-net ‘Heartbreaking.' The Mirror ‘A truly harrowing read that made me cry.’ The Sun 'A true tale of hope. ****.' OK! ‘Foster carers rarely get the praise they deserve, but Cathy Glass’s book should change all that.****’ First Magazine ‘A hugely touching and emotional true tale.’ Star Magazine

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Book SynopsisHalf a million people a day do it in the Telegraph. The Times claims almost as many, and the Guardian 300,000. Most people remember their first time, and everyone has a favourite. You can do it in bed, standing up, or on a train. You can do it alone, with a loved one or in groups. The Queen does it in the bath. It is not illegal, immoral or fattening. In fact it tops the Home Office list of approved entertainments for prison inmates. Crosswords are a very British obsession.Crosswords are a very British obsession. Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose is a personal reminiscence and a guide to solving crossword puzzles. But it is much, much more than a 'how-to' book. Each chapter is starts with a clue, and uses anecdote, history and autobiography to solve it, in the process describing something of what it means to love England. In the process, we encounter The Best Crossword Clue Ever, The Most Beautiful Clue in the World 'Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose' and the eccentric personalities behind such legendary compilers as the Guardian's Araucaria and The Times'Ximenes.Reviews for Pretty Girl In Crimson Rose'An extraordinary memoir... a positive page turner... A mesh of journeys and destinations, politics and romance, it touches what is beyond words.' Sophie Ratcliffe, The Times'You don't have to be a crossword nut to appreciate Sandy Balfour's tremendously beguiling Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose (8).' John Walsh, Independent'A little gem of a memoir... The book adds up to more than a sum of its parts and lingers in the memory long after the final page' Val Gilbert, Sunday Telegraph'Charming, knowledgeable and gripping' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian'A touching tribute to his partner... you close it feeling you have encountered a modest man of humour, compassion and common sense, who wears his wisdom lightly' Economist'A real charmer... this reviewer's verdict on Balfour's book: Touching success when foils clash at Elsinore (1,8,3) - A PALPABLE HIT' Kevin Jackson, Spectator'A book to make writers curse themselves for not having thought of the idea first, but to make readers hug themselves that Sandy Balfour did. A delight' Alan Coren'Sandy Balfour's memoir Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose (8) is like a great crossword clue - I couldn't put it down until I'd worked it out.' Clive James

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Book SynopsisAt fifteen years of age, May Nicholson was an alcoholic and had even suffered an overdose-induced coma. In her local town of Paisley, Scotland, she became a notorious fighting drunkard. But May's story is one of transformation through God's extravagant love! It will move you to tears, to laughter and to prayer. God brought her through terrible times to find faith and hope.Read May's story and you will discover that - whatever your circumstances, whatever your needs, whatever your addictions - you too are precious to God!

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Book SynopsisD.H. Lawrence's first travel book and an important insight into the roots of his literary genius. In 1912, a young D.H. Lawrence left England for the first time and travelled to northern Italy. He spent nearly a year on the shores of Lake Garda, lodged in elegantly decaying houses set amid lemon groves and surrounded by the fading life of traditional Italy. This is a travel book unlike any other, where landscapes and people are backdrops to Lawrence's deeper wanderings - into philosophy, opinion, life, nature, religion and the fate of man. With sensuous descriptions of late harvests, darkening days and fragile ancient traditions, Twilight in Italy is suffused with nostalgia and premonition. For, looming over the idyll of rural Italy hover dark spectres: the arrival of the industrial age and the brewing storm of World War I, upheavals that would change the face of Europe forever.Trade ReviewIf this is travel writing, it is travel writing in excelsis - beyond the spectacle, beyond the experience, beyond even the interpretation, into profound conclusions of the spirit, -- Jan MorrisIt cannot be read as an ordinary travel book, for his voyage is philosophic, as well as a symbolic and sensuous one. -- Anais NinThe sharpness of Lawrence's eye is incredible...brilliantly informative, educative, entertaining and moving. -- Anthony BurgessTable of ContentsIntroduction The Crucifix across the Mountains Part I On the Lago Di Garda 1.The Spinner and the Monks 2. The Lemon Gardens 3. The Theatre 4. San Gaudenzio 5. The Dance 6. Il Duro 7. John Part II Italians in Exile 8. Italians in Exile Part III The Return Journey 9. The Return Journey

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Book SynopsisThree articulated trucks load in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: two Volvo 4X2 European road artics and a Mercedes 6X6 desert artic. Their destination is Sharawrah, somewhere south of The Empty Quarter. Seven days to travel a thousand kilometers, a third of which are open desert. Seven days that will turn into seventy.... This is the true story of Gordon Pearce, an English truck driver determined to get the job done. With the help of Bedouins, he crossed three hundred kilometers of unpredictable desert in the height of the summer of 1978. Aside from the physical challenges, he also has to battle bureaucracy and begins to dread hearing the word bukkera (tomorrow). Told in an ironic modest style and illustrated with photos from that time, Where's Sharawrah? is a captivating book for vehicle enthusiasts and anyone who is passionate about truck adventures. [Subject: Memoir, Transportation]

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Book SynopsisDiscover the legendary life of the man behind the make-up and glasses, Barry Humphries''A literary masterpiece'' SUNDAY TIMES___________Because Barry Humphries deliberately furnished would-be biographers with whimsical fictions and blatant mystifications, the true details of his life are among the best-kept secrets of our time. More Please, prophetically his first utterance, reveals the man behind the actor.This bestselling book moves from suburban Australia of the 1930s, 40s and 50s to Humphries'' international stardom and his revelations and confessions will astonish his vast audience, being so wildly at odds with all that has gone before.Fascinating and always funny, this is the truly remarkable memoir from the man who made the whole world laugh.Trade ReviewGet a fascinating insight into the man behind the glasses in Barry Humphries' one and only autobiography * from publisher's description *A highly readable, percipient and funny autobiography. With Barry Humphries, the laughter is always tempered by the presence of something very like loss. -- Simon Hughes * Sydney Morning Telegraph *Humphries' past is a bombed and cratered landscape, except for his youth which stands evergreen in its quirky, vanishing details. When it comes to suburban drolleries, he puts Clive James in the shade. -- Jill Neville * The Literary Review *

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Book SynopsisIn The Last Resort, journalist Douglas Rogers tells the eye-opening, harrowing and, at times, surprisingly funny story of his parents' struggle for survival in war-torn Zimbabwe.Trade ReviewThis vibrant, tragic and surprisingly funny book is the best account yet of ordinary life - for blacks and whites - under Mugabe's dictatorship. * New York Times *So do we really need another memoir by a white Zimbabwean? The surprising answer is yes, if it's as good as Douglas Rogers' The Last Resort. A ripping yarn, for sure. But it is in the nuance Rogers brings to Zimbabwe that he truly excels. It moves beyond memoir to become a chronicle of a nation. There is black and white, yes, but much more in the shades and tones of their mix - and it is in exploring them that Rogers, too, finds his art. * Time Magazine *A gorgeous, open-hearted book. Rogers manages to do the vital work of taking race out of Zimbabwe's story and putting the heart and humanity back into it. A must read for anyone who really wants to understand the extraordinary decency of ordinary ZimbabweansThe man who taught me how to breathe.'

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Book SynopsisDuncan's curiosity has got him into a lot of tight spots-quite literally! As a teenager, Duncan really wanted to be an astronaut but took to the exploration of inner space instead. Only a dozen men might have stood on the moon but Duncan has squeezed into many places that no-one has ever been before, and some places that no-one is ever likely to go again (probably for a very good reason). These memoirs recount the author's misadventures during his thirty-year involvement with caving and cave diving beginning with student antics in the caves of the Mendip Hills in England to a hair-raising escape from deep beneath an English stately home. Along the way we are treated to the ups and downs of subterranean enterprise-from the joys of discovering new caves to the sadness of losing close friends. Duncan tells his tales with characteristic candour, often making light of difficult situations: rock falls, serious illness and an embarrassing incident with a tick. There are tears and laughter, often at the same time: who else would perform an animal impression with a suspected metatarsal fracture? We dive beneath Welsh Valleys, Yorkshire Dales and the Blue Ridge Mountains, encounter sharks, unexploded bombs and secret nuclear research facilities. Technical concepts and jargon are explained clearly and concisely, allowing the reader to follow Duncan into the depths. These stories are a treat for anyone interested in exploration, above or below ground, over or underwater. People often tell Duncan that he must be 'mad' to go cave diving-read this and judge for yourself...Trade Review'...a welcome addition to the small number of well-written cavers' memoirs in English... ...there are flashes of understated humor or drama'. NSS News -------------------- '...this book is a collection of those tales - some funny, some sad - but all of them incredible. A great read and a book I have gone back to again and again - highly recommended'. Scottish Diver -------------------- '...recounts his 30-plus years exploring places a few of us will dare to go. ...read Duncan's book: there are a staggering number of caverns, caves and systems lurking beneath our beautiful countryside. ...a substantive piece of work written in an accessible way. It oozes with passion for a sport that is mysterious and largely ignored by the public, business and mainstream media. Duncan Price's book shines on some much-needed light on his underground world'. British Diver -------------------- '...Duncan Price is clearly addicted to his chosen pursuit, there is also something addictive about his book - and it creeps up on you. The book is nicely written... There are episodes that make you laugh aloud...' Diver -------------------- '...a hugely entertaining account of his life. Caver-autobiographies are rare...yet are so entertaining when written by someone who has done so much. Underwater Potholer: thoroughly recommended'. Descent

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