Published diaries, letters and journals Books
Trolley Books The Only House Left Standing: The Journals of Tom
Book SynopsisWe follow Tom Hurndall's, a 21-year-old British photojournalist, journey from Baghdad, then to Amman and finally to the town of Rafah in Gaza, as he travelled to record and photgraph the truth for himself.
£19.99
NMSE - Publishing Ltd From Kelso to Kalamazoo.: The Life and Times of
Book SynopsisThis memoir is by and about George Taylor: the manuscript was handed down through generations of his family. It recalls the varied and interesting life of a man who, at the age of 50, moved his family from Kelso in the Scottish Borders to Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the mid-nineteenth century. George Taylor was a gardener and nurseryman and, when settled in Kalamazoo, he soon established a successful business supplying plants and hedging. He was an award-winning horticulturalist and was responsible for the introduction of the cultivation of celery to the USA. In the course of hearing about George Taylor's life - including the death of three of his four wives in childbirth - we encounter people such as the widow of the man who supposedly served as the inspiration for Robert Burns' "Tam o' Shanter", and events such as the Great Fire of Chicago. From Kelso to Kalamazoo is all too rare a primary source testament to the realities of emigration from the lowlands of Scotland to the USA.Trade Review'The memoirs provide a fascinating insight to life in the nineteenth century. ... His story is an unusually positive Victorian tale, with the added bonus of being 'true'. National Archives of Scotland ' ... a valuable insight into daily life in a neglected region of Scotland and a burgeoning town of the American mid-west.' Marjory Harper in Review of Scottish CultureTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Editorial Notes List of Illustrations Introduction by David Forsyth FROM KELSO TO KALAMAZOO 1 Early life 2 Working life and marriage 3 Travel and temperance 4 To America 5 Life in Michigan and visits to Scotland Notes Glossary Family tree Index
£8.99
NMSE - Publishing Ltd From Land to Rail: Life and Times of Andrew
Book SynopsisCo-published with the European Ethnological Research Centre in the Flashbacks series. Andrew Ramage was the son of a farm servant and he himself worked on the land in the Lothians and Berwickshire, in Scotland. Subsequently he became a dock worker, lorry driver and railwayman. Of the diary he kept over many years only three notebooks remain. The first covers Andrew's early life from 1884 until the mid 1870s and the period from November 1888 until April 1889. The last two cover July 1914 to June 1917. In his account the uncertain realities of rural employment and dwelling are revealed and they dispel the bucolic image often attached to descriptions of 19th-century country life. We learn of the travails of a young man making his way in the world at a time of great social and economic change and, later, of the concerns of parenthood and aging at a time of war-time strife.Trade Review'Local historians often find it difficult to locate narratives prepared by ordinary working people of past generations, ... Accordingly the joint publishers of the "Flashbacks" series are to be congratulated for their efforts to find suitable texts of this kind for publication. ... In the 1914-17 diaries some of the entries are interesting for the way that the juxtapose news from the War Front, information about troop trains on the railway, and searches for infiltrating spies, with everyday local or personal news ... ' Scottish Local HistoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Illustrations Editorial Notes Introduction FROM LAND TO RAIL Life and Times of Andrew Ramage 1854-1917 MEMOIR: Note Book belonging to Andrew Ramage Gateman at Stenton Level crossing, East Linton (2 November 1888) DIARY: Part 1 (1888-1889) DIARY: Part II (1914-1917) DIARY: ENTRIES EXTRACTED FROM PARTS I AND II Notes biographical Notes Bibliography Glossary Index
£10.99
Shearsman Books Journals
Book SynopsisR.F. Langley's 'Collected Poems' (Carcanet, 2000) was one of the poetic highlights of recent times, showing a sometimes sceptical public that a contemporary poet could still engage with the shades of Modernism and produce fascinating and original work. Throughout his life, the author has been maintaining a journal, which is part diary, part autobiography and part commonplace book; some extracts from these fascinating volumes have been appearing in 'P N Review' since 2002. This book offers a number of selections, ranging in time from 1970 to 2005, which will give admirers of his poetry a clearer idea of the author's other writings, which run in parallel with his poetry and sometimes provide the underpinnings for it.
£12.95
Eland Publishing Ltd A Time in Arabia: Living in Yemen's Hadhramant in
Book SynopsisDoreen Ingrams and her husband were the first Europeans ever to live in the Hadhramaut, an extraordinary, isolated region of southern Arabia. Married to an Arabic-speaking British official, she arrived by boat, and during their ten-year residency travelled throughout the region by camel and donkey. Doreen kept a diary in which she detailed their adventures and described her unequalled access to the domestic quarters, to the women and children, the food, the scents, secrets, jewels and privileges of this extraordinarily rich traditional society. "A Time in Arabia" is a precious document - part history, part time-travel, seen through the eyes of a decent, modest and compassionate woman.
£12.74
Short Books Ltd A Writer at War: Letters and Diaries of Iris
Book SynopsisIris Murdoch: A Writer at War is a fascinating private memoir of one of the great women writers and thinkers of the 20th century and a remarkable historical document of life behind the scenes during the Second World War.
£15.29
Gibson Square Books Ltd Pursuit of Laughter: Essays, Reviews and Diary
Book SynopsisLike her five literary sisters, Diana Mitford has written widely not only on her own fascinating, controversial life, but has recorded her intimately-placed observations of friends who also happened to have been leading political and social figures of the day. The majority of these scintillating articles circulated privately to a small group of people are published for the very first time in this volume.Trade Review"'Roar with laughter.' Laura Thompson"
£11.39
Trotamundas Press Ltd A Ladakhi Diary: With Watercolours of a Himalayan Trek in 1929
£20.90
Harriman House Publishing The Life and Death of Rochester Sneath
Book SynopsisH. Rochester Sneath no longer exists. And if you wished to put your son's name on the waiting list for Selhurst School, near Petworth, Sussex, you might have a little difficulty. It doesn't exist either. But, as this collection of Sneath's letters, and the replies, proves, you can fool most of the people most of the time. Particularly, it seems, if the people happen to be the head masters of those most English private institutions - public schools. In early 1948 Sneath began his brief and glorious career. Letters, like canes, mortarboards and jaundiced rugger balls, began to appear in headmasters' offices, whose occupants, with two notable exceptions, appeared to find nothing strange in Sneath's requests or his exhortations. Pompous, indignant, eccentric, pushing, toadying, or just plain dotty, the letters were answered with a seriousness which is barely credible.For he wrote of: - infestations of rats - the possibility of 'engineering' Royal visits - how to hire a private detective - junior masters with club feet and warty noses - ghosts, cricket, statues, new buildings, 'monster' reunions George Bernard Shaw was puzzled, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was booked up, as was Sir Adrian Boult. Sir William Reid Dick was eager. After four or five letters the Master of Marlborough became exasperated, while the head master of St Benedict's was livid. A certain master displayed a cupidity not normally associated with men of the cloth; the new Master of Rugby was grateful for some wise advice; the head master of Stowe could not have been more helpful about sex. There was talk of Sneath succeeding the headmaster of Eton. One head master was so drawn to Sneath that he recommended Selhurst to a prospective parent, who promptly applied for a place on behalf of her son. His name was placed on 'the waiting list for the Waiting List'. Sneath's letters comprise a gentle and unmalicious, but devastatingly accurate parody of the public school system - a collection so intelligently absurd that it defies adequate description.Table of ContentsThe book consists of Humphry Berkeley's letters to, and the replies from: - The Master of Marlborough, on the engineering of Royal visits - The Headmaster of Rugby, some wise and friendly advice - The Headmaster of Sherborne, on the lawless behaviour of his boys - The Headmaster of Charterhouse, asking for support in Sneath's application for membership of the Headmaster's Conference - The Headmaster of Stowe, askings for advice on sex education - The Headmaster of The Oratory, advising on how to get compensation from the government - The Rector of Beaumont, requesting advice on exorcism - The Headmaster of Oundle, concerning the chaplain's inefficiency as a rat catcher - The Headmaster of Haileybury, requesting a reference for a warty and club-footed teacher - The Headmaster of Ampleforth, concerning an exhibition of public school art destined for South America - The Headmaster of Harrow, on the evil influence of Harrovians - The Headmaster of Blundells, regarding an invitation to preach a Sunday sermon - The Headmaster of Malvern, about the Headmaster's Conference - The Headmaster of St Benedict's, on the 'low character' of his boys - The Headmaster of Tonbridge, 'a helluva shock for old Rootie' - The Headmaster of Eton, applying for his job - The Warden of Radley, about a prestigious cricket match at Lords - The Headmaster of Winchester, a descendant of Selhurst's founder
£9.49
FROM YOU TO ME The Reading Log
Book SynopsisA hardback reading journal that provides the perfect place to reflect on your current read and to help plan what to choose next. Packed with useful content to inspire any reader, at any age, to record what was great (or not so great) about every book they read.
£21.88
FROM YOU TO ME The Present Planner
Book SynopsisThis journal is the perfect place to record what gifts you have given, to whom and when. This planner helps keep track of anniversaries, birthdays and other significant events. With space to list who to buy gifts for and when, as well as their likes and dislikes.
£21.88
FROM YOU TO ME Food For Friends
Book SynopsisThe Food For Friends journal will ensure you are well equipped to host unforgettable gatherings. It features convenient sections to assist in planning for dinner parties or any occasions where you'll be cooking for guests.
£21.88
Indepenpress Publishing Ltd Wallis Simpson's Diary
£12.84
FROM YOU TO ME This Is Me: A Mindful, Autobiographical Journal
Book SynopsisThis Is Me is a colourful journal for exploring the uniqueness that makes you who you are. Featuring original artwork, it consists of 9 sections with fun questions and activities dedicated just to you, allowing you to connect with your emotions on a wonderful journey of exploration and discovery: 1. Who I Am 2. Friends & Family 3. Education & Work 4. Sections of Four 5. Fashion, Films & Fixtures 6. Books, Art & Music 7. Food & Parties 8. Home & Away 9. Lists of Seven A wonderful gift for friends, family or as a treat to yourself, This Is Me gives you space for the self-care and `me’ time we all deserve. Designed for you to dip in and out of in any order and at your own pace, This Is Me provides the opportunity to put down digital devices, switch off the TV, pick up a pen and snuggle under the covers of this fabulous journal. This Is Me is one of three hand-painted journals in the Mindful Collection. Discover Forward Thinking: A Wellbeing, Happiness & Fulfilment Journal and Wonderful Days: A Mindful, Daily Positivity Journal.
£15.30
FROM YOU TO ME Forward Thinking: A Wellbeing & Happiness Journal
Book SynopsisForward Thinking is a unique journal that draws on fascinating and heart warming research into wellbeing, happiness and fulfilment to promote a positive view on life. Forward Thinking offers a year of weekly suggested mindful activities punctuated by motivational quotes to help people thrive and flourish, living the life they wish to lead and be in their element. An inspiring gift to show you care, or to care for yourself, Forward Thinking is designed to enhance and improve wellbeing, happiness and fulfilment in 6 key areas: 1. Health, Fitness & Wellbeing 2. Job Satisfaction 3. Community 4. Finances 5. Personal Activities 6. Relationships Many people believe they will be happy and feel fulfilled when they are rich, married, promoted, etc. However, all the external factors in our lives will only account for 10% of the variance of our happiness with some 50% determined by our genetics. The good news is that the remaining 40% of our happiness can be relatively easily influenced by our intentional activities, how we think and how we behave. Happiness and wellbeing is not about what happens to you, but how you choose to respond to what happens. Developed by Peter Coxon, a consultant psychologist who focuses on personal and leadership development, Forward Thinking helps you focus on the 40% and by increasing this it may, in turn, positively influence the 50%. In other words, it can help raise your self-awareness, your mindset and mindfulness. It can help you plan and review how your life is unfolding and help you make positive differences to your life that aid personal development. Forward Thinking is one of three hand-painted journals in the Mindful Collection. Discover This Is Me: A Mindful, Autobiographical Journal and Wonderful Days: A Mindful, Daily Positivity Journal.
£15.30
FROM YOU TO ME Dear Daughter, from you to me
Book SynopsisA beautiful coloured fabric and gold foil blocked gift journal for your daughter to capture and share her wonderful memories and stories. Designed to make it easy for every daughter to capture her life story and aspirations, each journal includes 60 thoughtful questions to inspire your daughter to enjoy telling her story by describing the past, the present and thinking about the future. With space for accompanying photos and memorabilia alongside her handwritten memories these classic, yet contemporary books, are covered in soft fabric making these tactile editions truly timeless keepsakes. Finished with gold foil and gold ribbons they make fabulous gifts for any daughter on her birthday, at Christmas, or simply to show her you care. The Timeless Collection is available in 9 titles: Mum, Dad, Grandma, Grandad, Daughter, Son, Sister, Brother & Friend.
£17.28
FROM YOU TO ME Dear Nana: Sketch Collection
Book SynopsisDear Nana (sketch design) is an award-winning journal filled with over 60 fun and inspiring questions carefully created to inspire any grandmother to tell her story - probably one of the most valuable gifts you will ever buy. Everyone has stories to share about their own amazing life and it is so important to find ways to capture and treasure them. Dear Nana contains 60 carefully designed questions to ask her about her life. Ask her to complete it carefully, adding photos and memorabilia along the way. Find out how things have changed throughout her life, what things did she do as a child that are different from today. What were her own parents really like and what adventures has she had in her life. Discover what your own mum or dad was like when they were young! What about your own relationship with your grandmother, what are her favourite memories of the times you have spent together and is there any advice she would like to give you? When you get her completed journal returned to you, this will be one of the most emotional presents you have ever received. A great gift for Mother's Day, Grandparent's Day, her birthday, an anniversary, Christmas or just because you care ...
£16.31
FROM YOU TO ME Dear Grandpa: Sketch Collection
Book SynopsisDear Grandpa (sketch design) is an award-winning journal filled with over 60 fun and inspiring questions carefully created to inspire any grandfather to tell his story - probably one of the most valuable gifts you will ever buy. Everyone has stories to share about their own amazing life ... and it is so important to find ways to capture and treasure them. Dear Grandpa contains 60 carefully designed questions to ask him about his life. Ask him to complete it carefully, adding photos and memorabilia along the way. Find out how things have changed throughout his life, what things did he do as a child that are different from today. What were his own parents really like and what adventures has he had in her life. Discover what your own Mum or Dad was like when they were young! What about your own relationship with your grandfather, what are his favourite memories of the times you have spent together and is there any advice he would like to give you? When you get his completed journal returned to you, this will be one of the most emotional presents you have ever received. A great gift for Father's Day, Grandparent's Day, his birthday, an anniversary, Christmas or just because you care ...
£16.31
English Rose Publishing The Love Letters of Great Men - the Most Comprehensive Collection Available
£15.95
Daunt Books Pleasures And Landscapes
Book Synopsis
£10.44
RMC Media The Milk Lady at New Park Farm: The Wartime Diary
Book SynopsisAnne McEntegart wanted to support the War Effort. Her Royal Air Force officer husband was working abroad and her only child was in Canada, evacuated for safety. Aged thirty-eight, Anne left London, and her life as the wife of an officer, to work on the land and deliver milk for Walter Gossling at New Park Farm, just outside the village of Brockenhurst, in the New Forest. Though not an official member of the Women's Land Army, Anne milked cows and stacked corn alongisde the land girls on the farm. Engagingly detailing the brim-full days of farm life during the build-up to the D-Day and after, this book celebrates the people and places - not to mention a wayward pony - which made up the wartime Brockenhurst community. The Milk Lady at New Park Farm is a World War Two diary of farmwork, friendship and fulfilment among the ponies and corn sheaves of the New Forest.Trade ReviewAnne's diary gives a tantalising sketch of a happy outgoing person who documented her incredibly hard physical work with a saint-like lightness of touch... Her artisitic nature is revealed in her desciptions of nature... What a vanished world to record. Though still recent in historical terms, it represents a bygone age, and Anne's diary is a treasure as it tells it just as it was. The NFU's British Farmer & Grower (South-East) February 2012 Reading the book The Milk Lady at New Park Farm is like discovering some long forgotten memories of life during the Second World War. Even if you are too young to have those memories in the first place, you are vivdly transported, through the reading of this honest account of British rural life against the backdrop of war. The Art Observer, December 2011 It reaches a wider audience: those who are interested in the land girls and in the Second World War; those who are interested in farming; animal lovers; and those who simply enjoy a feel good story. The Cumberland & Westmorland Herald, October 2011
£9.49
Skylight Press Yours Very Truly - Gareth Knight: Selected Letters
Book SynopsisSelected letters of occult author Gareth Knight, written over a period of forty years and to over seventy different people. These include learned discourse with academics, exchanges of strange experiences with esoteric colleagues, and advice to seekers trying to find their path. The letters reveal extraordinary, entertaining and personal details of the life and work of a contemporary occultist. "One fault of many occult students is to read too much ...all too often the new student is so interested in reading the latest thing that he never gets round to actually doing any of it." "I suppose you can at least feel what it is like to be 'a lone voice crying in the wilderness' ...I think even John the Baptist, in time, would have packed up his traps, said 'Sod it' (or 'Sod them') and gone home, maybe to start a locust and wild honey farm." "Your remark that the devil works by compromise and subtlety is altogether too glib a simplification. He works equally well through uncompromising 'principles' very often. The thing that bothers me though is your preoccupation with the insinuations of the devil, which seems at times to verge on 'old maid's insanity'. I get the impression - I hope wrongly - that I stand a good chance of being cast in the role of the serpent offering the poisoned, or forbidden fruit."
£15.20
Skylight Press The Magical Battle of Britain
Book SynopsisImmediately following Britain's declaration of war in 1939, Dion Fortune began a series of regular letters to members of her magical order, the Fraternity of the Inner Light, who were unable to hold meetings due to wartime travel restrictions. With enemy planes rumbling overhead, she organised a series of visualisations to formulate "seed ideas in the group mind of the race", archetypal visions to invoke angelic protection and uphold British morale under fire. "The war has to be fought and won on the physical plane," she wrote, "before physical manifestation can be given to the archetypal ideals. What was sown will grow and bear seed." As the war developed, this was consolidated with further work for the renewal of national and international accord. For the first time the Fraternity's doors were opened to anyone who wanted to join in and learn the previously secret methods of esoteric mind-working. With unswerving optimism she guided her fraternity through the dark days of the London Blitz, continuing her weekly letters even when the bombs came through her own roof. Introduction and commentary by Gareth Knight.
£15.00
John Catt Educational Ltd The Following Game
Book SynopsisThe Following Game is about passion and obsession. It's about cricket, family and poetry, but most of all it's about a father following his son's career in the public eye and the close relationship they share. Jonathan Smith is the father of Ed Smith, a prominent writer and former Kent, Middlesex and England cricketer. The Following Game is a follow-up to Jonathan's critically-acclaimed 2002 book The Learning Game, one of the most talked-about books in education over the last ten years.Trade Review'The Following Game is tremendously good. As with his book on teaching, Jonathan Smith seems to have invented a genre to meet his immediate needs. The result is completely natural: talking voice, spontaneity of exposition, insights and connections popping up as and when they need to, candour, uncompromised expressions of feeling all that. So it speaks to me who couldn't be more indifferent to cricket with great directness and passion.' --Christopher Reid, winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2009 'The Following Game is a wonderfully subtle auto-biography, witty, reticent, modest, laugh out loud humorous (on many pages), generous, uncomplaining, self-deprecatory, observant, sensitive, classless, profound, and widely perceptive of ideas, places and people. It is and will remain a classic.' --The Observer
£15.50
John Catt Educational Ltd The Following Game
Book SynopsisThe Following Game is about passion and obsession. It's about cricket, family and poetry, but most of all it's about a father following his son's career in the public eye and the close relationship they share. Jonathan Smith is the father of Ed Smith, a prominent writer and former Kent, Middlesex and England cricketer. The Following Game is a follow-up to Jonathan's critically-acclaimed 2002 book The Learning Game, one of the most talked-about books in education over the last ten years.Trade Review'The Following Game is tremendously good. As with his book on teaching, Jonathan Smith seems to have invented a genre to meet his immediate needs. The result is completely natural: talking voice, spontaneity of exposition, insights and connections popping up as and when they need to, candour, uncompromised expressions of feeling all that. So it speaks to me who couldn't be more indifferent to cricket with great directness and passion.' --Christopher Reid, winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2009 'The Following Game is a wonderfully subtle auto-biography, witty, reticent, modest, laugh out loud humorous (on many pages), generous, uncomplaining, self-deprecatory, observant, sensitive, classless, profound, and widely perceptive of ideas, places and people. It is and will remain a classic.' --The Observer
£9.52
Quercus Publishing Africa, My Passion
Book SynopsisIn an exquisite personal pilgrimage, Corinne Hofmann delves into the slums of Nairobi to uncover the heart-warming and heart-breaking stories of unforgettable people and places, then treks 500 miles across the Namibian desert to discover the lives of the nomadic Himba people. Joined by her half-Kenyan daughter, Napirai, they travel to Nairobi together for the first time to discover Napirai s roots and finally meet her father and half-siblings. Africa, My Passion is a poignant, touching and exciting story about one woman's love affair with a unique man, which led to a lifelong obsession with Africa. Moving, vividly recounted, eye-opening and, above all, filled with passionate hope and unparalleled detail, this is an extraordinary sequel to a bestselling series of memoirs.
£14.24
Cowry Publishing Diary of a Shielding Yogini: A Covid Chronicle -
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£8.54
Tommies Guides A Quartermaster at the Front: The Diary of Lt.
Book Synopsis
£11.35
Tommies Guides I Embarked for France: The War Diaries and
Book SynopsisThe War Diaries and Letters of an English Family in the Great War. In this book the Ansell familyâ??s diaries and letters tell the story of their war from north London and the Western Front. In 1917 Evelyn joins the 19th Kingâ??s (Liverpool Regiment). A nineteen-year old Second Lieutenant, he patrols in no manâ??s land, writes of soldiers killed, describes the desolation of the battlefield. In 1918 he fights in the German March Offensive; in May he is wounded after the Battle of the Lys. Evelynâ??s parents and sister write to him with news of family and friends. John Evelyn observes local bomb damage; Ada packs parcels for Prisoners of War; Enid is a VAD. The letters reveal their anxiety as the battles rage across the Channel. Evelynâ??s is a new voice, taking the reader without foreknowledge to battlefields long familiar to historians.
£14.24
Tommies Guides As Brave an Act: The Letters of 2nd Lt Victor
Book SynopsisThe letters of 2nd Lt. Victor George Ursell 1913 -1917 and War Diary of the 8th Kingâ??s Shropshire Light Infantry. With a Mathematics scholarship to Oxford in 1912 the hopes and aspirations of Victorâ??s parents and teachers are riding high, but his exuberance, vitality, sporting ability and his engagement to what the family refer to as his â??Russian Princessâ?? Lena, are thrown into jeopardy by the unfolding horror of war. His fiancÃe has to return to Moscow and Victor enlists, commencing a journey that will take him to France, Salonika, Malta, England and back to France again. If any story illustrates the loss, both personal and national during the First World War it can be found in these letters.
£18.04
Bitter Lemon Press Midway: Letters from Ian Hamilton Finlay to
Book SynopsisIan Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) was one of Scotland's leading twentieth century public intellectuals, and famously one of its most brilliant and combative correspondents. His letters raise issues of particular and widespread interest both within Scotland and further afield. His correspondence with Stephen Bann, the English poet and academic have a very special place in this context. These letters present in a clear and commensurable form the development of his ideas about poetry and art, and increasingly about sculpture and gardening, over this critical five year period of his creative life.Trade Review"The Scottish concrete poet, visual artist, short story writer, aphorist, editor, and 'avant-gardener' Ian Hamilton Finlay is one of the great polymaths of our time. His writings alone would put him in the pantheon of twentieth century poets." --Marjorie Perloff, author of The Futurist Moment and Unoriginal Genius: Poetry by other means in the 21st Century
£21.25
Bitter Lemon Press Stonypath Days
Book SynopsisThese letters to (and from) Finlay's friend, the English poet and scholar, Stephen Bann, centre on the initial development of the garden at Stonypath, near Edinburgh, later to become the world renowned 'Little Sparta'. They cover Finlay's turn away from poetry towards sculpture and garden design, and the thinking behind, and consequences of, this development. This book, edited, introduced and annotated by Bann himself as was Midway, its companion volume of letters, completes the portrait of the man who is now recognized not only as a great poet, but also as a major artist and one of the most original garden designers of modern times."...Bann's superb two volume set of Finlay's correspondence...These handsomely printed volumes, amply footnoted, with biographical and historical commentary leading readers up and down the stony path, are an extended conversation with one of twentieth-century Britain's most unexpected artists." -Times Literary Supplement Read the full review here
£21.25
Bitter Lemon Press Friendships
Book SynopsisMark Girouard has, he claims, scarcely ever thrown away a letter that he has received, and here he selects and reproduces 29 of them, ranging from his early childhood during the war to recent years, and uses them to characterise and memorialise their authors who range from the grand, the distinguished and the once or still famous, to the entirely ordinary, and from minor British gentry to Belgian monks, from American businessmen to African street traders. In the process a selective autobiography emerges as he discusses his relationship with this diverse crowd, and at the same time he paints a riveting picture of Bohemian cultural life in post-war Britain and Ireland. And the point of it all is that friendship has nothing at all to do with fame, success or wealth, but entirely with that sudden click of reciprocity, or pleasure in companionship, that makes life worth living. So the reader can savour walks with John Betjeman through the ruins of blitzed London, or with Denys Lasdun through the concrete dramas of the National Theatre; be regaled with stories about the Gorbals by Ruby Milton, champion child dancer from Glasgow; eat disgusting rook pie off Bourbon gold plate with the Duke of Wellington; be touched by the surprising love life of Sir John Summerson, loftiest of scholars; grieve at the decline of Mariga Guiness, gifted, drunken and loveable queen of the Irish Georgians; and hear how a Chelsea landlady modelled half-naked for the figure of Fame riding her chariot on top of the arch at Hyde Park Corner, and myriad other life stories, poignant, moving and compelling in turn.
£15.29
Nomad Publishing Egypt from One Revolution to Another: Memoir of a
Book Synopsis
£21.21
Sort of Books Letters from Tove
Book Synopsis'[The letters] cover war, fame and her first infatuation with another woman ... all related in a voice that is funny, gracious, intimate' The Observer "I find myself talking to you about all the great joys, all the agonies, all my thoughts..." Letter to Eva Konikova, 1946 Out of the thousands of letters Tove Jansson wrote a cache remains that she addressed to her family, her dearest confidantes, and her lovers, male and female. Into these she spilled her innermost thoughts, defended her ideals and revealed her heart. To read these letters is both an act of startling intimacy and a rare privilege. Penned with grace and humour, Letters from Tove offers an almost seamless commentary on Tove Jansson's life as it unfolds within Helsinki's bohemian circles and her island home. Spanning fifty years between her art studies and the height of Moomin fame, we share with her the bleakness of war; the hopes for love that were dashed and renewed, and her determined attempts to establish herself as an artist. Vivid, inspiring and shining with integrity, Letters from Tove shows precisely how an aspiring and courageous young artist can evolve into a very great one.Trade ReviewTove Jansson was a genius, a woman of profound wisdom and great artistry -- Philip PullmanHer tales of Mominvalley are really only half the story of Jansson's quiet creative genius...her novels, short story collections and memoir writing form an equally shining achievement -- Ali SmithA unique and authentic voice that speaks to the reader across time and culture, heart to heart -- Boyd Tonkin * The Independent *Tove Jansson is one of the greatest children's writers there has ever been -- Sir Terry Pratchett[The letters] cover war, fame and her first infatuation with another woman...all related in a voice that is funny, gracious, intimate * The Observer *Witty, shrewd and hugely entertaining -- Boyd Tonkin * Spectator *Letters from Tove offers readers the privilege of spending time inside an intelligent, creative, curious, generous, funny, unsentimental mind. Few books have given me as much pure pleasure this year. -- Anna Carey * Irish Times *There have been several major biographies of Tove, but reading her letters (to her mother, friends, lovers) over 50 years was a revelation. I thought: "Finally, it's her own authentic voice." -- Sophia Jansson * Radio Times *In Letters from Tove there are treasures aplenty - cultural history gems as well as biographical revelations, all related in a voice that's funny, gracious, intimate. -- Hephzibah Anderson * Guardian *It's no surprise to discover from this marvellous collection that Tove Jansson wrote such wonderful, heartfelt, interesting letters. -- Caroline Sanderson * Bookseller *Reading these letters, you will gradually fall under the illusion that they are addressed to you. This is how inviting, candid, and quietly dazzling Tove Jansson's prose is in her correspondence. ... At the end of the book, you will feel that you have a new, very close friend. -- Hernan Diaz, author of In the Distance
£19.00
Medina Publishing Ltd Our Dementia Diary: Irene, Alzheimer's and Me
Book SynopsisThis is a love story from start to finish, Irene and Rachael's. Based on the diaries of Rachael Dixey who looked after her civil partner Irene after she developed early onset Alzheimer's disease, the book opens with the lines: Irene, Alzheimer's and me - Alzheimer's came between us. It does that, drives you and the love of your life apart, going your separate ways because you cannot follow. That's the story really, that's it. The end. But it is also the beginning of the story, which shows how life can still be lived despite losing a life partner to dementia, and how to cope emotionally and practically with a disease that robs you of your loved one a thousand times before they die. The story charts the daily decline and inexorable loss of Irene to dementia. With the dramatic deterioration in Irene's health Rachael turns from lover and soul mate to career and, finally, single woman. Eventually, no longer able to cope with Irene at home, she makes the agonizing decision to allow Irene to be put in a care home. There she spent her last six years. When she died aged 66, the couple had spent half their life together.This book is a powerful and moving account of the progression of dementia, and raises serious questions about how our society cares for those who develop the disease, especially at a young age and in the gay, lesbian community. It also deals with loss and grief, during the illness and afterwards. Their memoir will be invaluable for anyone affected by dementia, those working in mental health and those caring for a loved one with a life-changing and incurable illness. Our Dementia Diary tells with brutal honesty of love, loss and life with Alzheimer's and opens up discussion of how dementia can be handled better."
£10.95
Helion & Company Belfast Diaries: A Gunner in Northern Ireland
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£26.94
Crescent House In Mischief's Wake Paperback: In the joy of the
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£10.80
Crescent House I May be Gone for Some Time: One Man's Story of
Book SynopsisIn 2014, a self-proclaimed 'relatively normal 50-year-old, overweight desk-jockey', took on the monumental task of attempting a 5,000-mile walk around the coast of mainland Britain in the name of two worthy charities.Developed and adapted from his award-winning blog, this is a journal documenting the highs and lows of his 42-week hike around Britain with only the support of his friends, family, the odd stranger or two and a trusty second-hand motorhome as a roving base camp. Peter Hill, the man behind the whimsical idea, never viewed the trek as a voyage of personal discovery and instead takes the reader on a truthful blisters-and-all journey with friendly enthusiasm, gentle humour, numerous trials, a few grumbles, the odd rant and many, many ice-creams. With added extracts from a driver's diary and fully illustrated with a selection of spectacular photographs, this book is only readable with a smile.
£16.11
Crescent House Cape to Cape: A 1,250-mile backpacking walk from
Book Synopsis`I was very grateful for today’s near perfect visibility and, despite the late hour, just had to sit down to take it all in.’ On a late April morning, lover of landscapes and professional geologist John Sutcliffe, approaching his 70th birthday, sets out on a backpacking trek from Cape Cornwall in South West England to Cape Wrath on the north-westerly tip of Scotland: a breathtaking 1,250-mile-long walk. Starting out along the sea cliffs of Cornwall and heading inland across the remote moor country of Dartmoor, Exmoor and the marshy Somerset Levels, John crosses into Wales and follows the delightful Welsh border to Shropshire. Continuing into the limestone dales of Derbyshire, he then treads the Pennine Way for 250 miles to the Scottish Borders, often sharing his campsite with the creatures of the night, facing unforeseen challenges and making new friends along the way. After traversing the Southern Uplands of Scotland and the Pentland Hills – hidden gems that many walkers overlook – he then follows the West Highland Way to Fort William where he clocks up 1,000 miles and takes a brief pause for his mother’s 100th birthday. Celebrations over, he sets out across the rugged and wonderfully remote North West Highlands of Ardgour, Knoydart, Torridon and Sutherland, exploring the bothy network along the Cape Wrath Trail and pitting himself against the elements with the onset of Hurricane Bertha. Whether wild camping with curlews or indulging in the occasional hot-shower luxury of a guest house en route, John furnishes his story with details of the cultural and political heritage and the geology underpinning the stunning landscapes encountered on his journey. Cape to Cape is an inspiring story of one man’s celebration of the diverse British countryside.Trade Review`An incredible feat, not just of tenacity and endurance but also of observation and narrative. Stories along the way abound in this one-man mission to straddle an island. I am deeply envious.’ (Mike Harding); `An entertaining story of a walk from Cape Cornwall to Cape Wrath. Captures well the spirit of solo backpacking. The author carries you along with him on his adventure. Lovely photos too.’ (Chris Townsend).Table of ContentsPreamble; Chapter 1 Cornwall to the Tamar; Chapter 2 Devon and Somerset to the Severn Bridge; Chapter 3 The Welsh Borders; Chapter 4 The Midlands; Chapter 5 The Derbyshire Dales; Chapter 6 The South Pennines; Chapter 7 The North Pennines and Cheviots; Chapter 8 Southern Scotland; Chapter 9 The West Highland Way; Chapter 10 The Cape Wrath Trail; Appendix 1 Equipment List; Appendix 2 Daily Log; Acknowledgements; List of Maps: Map 1 Cape to Cape, Map 2 South West England, Map 3 Welsh Borders to Derbyshire Dales, Map 4 The Pennine Way, Map 5 Southern Uplands to Scottish Highlands, Map 6 The Cape Wrath Trail.
£15.26
Poppyland Publishing A Rum OLE Norfolk Year
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£11.97
Signal Books Ltd Diary of a Bipolar Explorer
Book SynopsisIn 2002 Lucy Newlyn found herself incarcerated in a mental hospital in Leeds. She had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act as a danger to herself and others during a psychotic episode after several nights without sleep. The psychosis was triggered by nearly three years of grieving for a dead sister, followed by a vigil at her father's deathbed during which she hallucinated that his hospital ward was a trench in the First World War. The episode uncovered psychiatric problems, which led in due course to a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder (manic depression). This condition, which involves extreme mood swings, is classified as a disability and requires medication; but it is also a source of creativity, giving access to some unusual dimensions of human experience. In her fifteen-year diary, Lucy Newlyn discloses recurring episodes of mania, depression, hallucination and paranoid delusion. Describing her struggles with family life and the workplace, she de-mystifies bipolarity and critiques an environment which still, even in the twenty-first century, is suspicious of mental illness. Above all, she celebrates the discovery that writing poetry enables a cathartic engagement with her own condition. Diary of a Bipolar Explorer is not a self-help manual but a candid confessional memoir which offers no easy solutions. It involves a mixture of observation and reflection, interspersing poetry with prose. Written accessibly, it will appeal to anyone interested in mental illness, creative process and the life of the mind.Trade Review'To a fellow bipolar explorer, much of -Newlyn's book rings both uncomfortably and comfortingly true. Rather than make any extravagant claim for the inherently artistic or creative constitution of sufferers, she meticulously lays out her methods of managing her disorder with the tools she has to hand, both [as] a poet and an academic': the gift of studious analysis, and the vocabulary of an inveterate reader, who finds apt parallels for the tricks of the mind in a well-thumbed mental library. She records 'bipolarity's role in stimulating creativity' without ever romanticizing it, or suggesting that it confers some form of doomed and glamorous genius, like a draught of Odin's mead.'--Times Literary Supplement; 'Diary of a Bipolar Explorer is a quirky, original and beautifully-written book that deserves a wide readership. Its account of day-to-day life with bipolar disorder will resonate with many sufferers and their friends. And its detailed and highly realistic account of an attempt to use poetry to manage a major mental health condition should be required reading for anyone working in the arts and mental health.' --Medical Humanities; 'Conveys the many varied shades of mental illness, and how walking, diary writing and particularly the intense effort of composing poetry often proved therapeutic.'--Times Higher Education Supplement; 'The abiding impressions here are the courage with which major -- even devastating --issues are faced, and the realisation that the feelings and sensations described are familiar as part of the pain of being human, if in an extreme form.. . . Lucy Newlyn has made an important contribution to the poetry of mental illness in English by her unflinching description of her experience.'--Bernard O'Donoghue, Oxford Magazine; 'This book is both useful and beautiful. . . . It's a direct, accessible, personal work for a wide audience concerned by mental illness, and in many cases with our own experiences, or those of loved ones, to bring to our reading. It's also unlike anything else I've read on this subject, full of a scholar's lucidity and acuity, a poet's lyricism and capacity to surprise and move.'--Shiny New Books; 'Lucy Newlyn's account of her bipolar disorder isn't a 'misery memoir', ready to clog railway station bookshop shelves with easy answers and monetisably manipulative content. Instead, her narrative hard-cuts reliable reportage into hallucinatory sections of paranoid delusion, pin sharp diary entries, hard won poetry, and sober reflective analysis. Newlyn doesn't flinch as she explores the relationship between bipolar disorder and exactly the kind of mindset that has made her a poet and a writer.'-Stewart Lee
£12.34
Uniformbooks Living Locally
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£12.00
Uniformbooks Round About Town
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£12.00
Quercus Publishing 1989 the Berlin Wall: My Part in Its Downfall
Book SynopsisFollow Peter Millar on a journey in the heart of Cold War Europe, from the carousing bars of 1970s Fleet Street to the East Berlin corner pub with its eclectic cast of characters who embodied the reality of living on the wrong side of the wall.
£11.69
Skylight Press Letters of Light: The Magical Letters of William G. Gray to Alan Richardson
Book SynopsisAs an "omniscient and obnoxious" teenager in 1969, Alan Richardson wrote to the occult author William G. Gray in pursuit of instant magical enlightenment. It was the beginning of a correspondence lasting many years in which Gray generously shared his magical knowledge and experience.
£14.00
Persephone Books Ltd Random Commentary
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£15.20
Helion & Company Experiences of a Young British Officer in India,
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£15.26
