Search results for ""John Blake Publishing""

'You can reinvent yourself, you can change, you can grow, you can regress, you can be any number of things at any particular time. Please give yourself permission to do that, and be equally as open-minded to others who choose to do the same. Because perhaps, with just a little more compassion and acceptance, we won't need to fit in to feel that we belong.'Camilla Thurlow came second on Love Island in 2017. More recently, she impressed viewers in Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins. But that's not the most interesting part . . .Camilla can do something that none of her fellow contestants can do: find, neutralise and destroy the landmines that threaten the lives and livelihoods of so many people in the world's former war zones, and which make their land too dangerous to be worked.This is at once a memoir of an extraordinary life, and a script for living one's life to the full. Camilla Thurlow is a highly independent woman whose thoughts and experience will resonate with anyone seeking meaning in a world where women are too often discounted, or who frequently feel alienated amid the frenzy of contemporary life.This is a book about courage - not just the courage to go out and deal with a lethal threat in some of the world's most dangerous and inhospitable places, but the courage to confront one's own fears and anxieties, and to be oneself in what too often seems an inhospitable world.Not the Type will inspire a whole generation to dare the seemingly impossible. Although often an engaging reflection on life, landmines and Love Island, this is also a book about learning to confront one's own anxieties in a world dominated by celebrity culture and social media - and on being a woman in what is still too often a man's world.

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'The authentic inside track... Gripping' Lemn Sissay'An important and hugely powerful book... So inspiring, I loved The State of It' Neil Morrissey'Incredibly compelling' Denise WelchCAN WE FIX HOW WE LOOK AFTER CHILDREN IN CARE?Government cuts, unregulated care homes, inadequate staff training - campaigner and care home consultant Chris Wild has seen it all. The low standards and frequent abuse of children in care has long been a focal point of his loud message: we are failing our young people and something needs to change.Chris delves deep into the lives of care home kids, from experiences with county lines, drugs, trafficking, knife crime, gang violence to child exploitation and sexual abuse. He tells the stories of the voiceless, the children who have been left behind, compounded by his own experiences of growing up in care.How is the care system failing our young people and controlling just who and what they can become? What help do we really give children after their time in care is over, left to fend for themselves? Is it too late to fix the state of it?URGENT AND CRITICAL, THE STATE OF IT WILL BE THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK YOU READ THIS YEAR.In support of Become, the charity for children in care and young care leavers, a charity registered in England and Wales, charity number 1010518.

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The most successful Bond of all time. One of the most stylish men in Britain. A United Nations ambassador. Skydiving with the Queen herself. Is there anything Daniel Craig can't do? With the release of No Time to Die, Craig will appear for the fifth time as James Bond. The public and the critics have been united in their praise for Craig in the most-pressurised role there is in global film. However, there has been much more to Craig over the years than just Bond. Roles in Layer Cake, Knives Out and the movie adaptation of Stieg Larssons's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo have met with acclaim, and shown breadth and charisma beyond being 007. In this biography, author Sarah Marshall explores the road to success for one of Britain's finest actors - from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama his status as a global icon. A must for any fan, this biography examines not just the star gracing billboards and magazines covers, but also the character of the man behind the famous blue eyes.

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'You can reinvent yourself, you can change, you can grow, you can regress, you can be any number of things at any particular time. Please give yourself permission to do that, and be equally as open-minded to others who choose to do the same. Because perhaps, with just a little more compassion and acceptance, we won't need to fit in to feel that we belong.'Camilla Thurlow came second on Love Island in 2017. More recently, she impressed viewers in Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins. But that's not the most interesting part . . .Camilla can do something that none of her fellow contestants can do: find, neutralise and destroy the landmines that threaten the lives and livelihoods of so many people in the world's former war zones, and which make their land too dangerous to be worked.This is at once a memoir of an extraordinary life, and a script for living one's life to the full. Camilla Thurlow is a highly independent woman whose thoughts and experience will resonate with anyone seeking meaning in a world where women are too often discounted, or who frequently feel alienated amid the frenzy of contemporary life.This is a book about courage - not just the courage to go out and deal with a lethal threat in some of the world's most dangerous and inhospitable places, but the courage to confront one's own fears and anxieties, and to be oneself in what too often seems an inhospitable world.Not the Type will inspire a whole generation to dare the seemingly impossible. Although often an engaging reflection on life, landmines and Love Island, this is also a book about learning to confront one's own anxieties in a world dominated by celebrity culture and social media - and on being a woman in what is still too often a man's world.

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'I was a drug trafficker in the true sense of the word: a pure narco.'For 25 years Luis Antonio Navia the Cuban-American smuggled hundreds of tons of white powder for the biggest cartels in Colombia and Mexico, including Pablo Escobar's Medellín Cartel.What made him good at his dangerous job was amassing trusted contacts, losing very few shipments of coke, and maintaining a low profile. He refused to carry a weapon. But he was never far removed from the most brutal violence imaginable. One friend got his head cut off. Another was hit over the head, stuffed in a 55-gallon drum full of cement and dumped in a canal. Navia himself was kidnapped three times and went close to being fed alive to crocodiles. Somehow through it all he managed to survive and spent two decades fooling law-enforcement agencies until he came under the radar of Robert Harley, a tenacious US Customs special agent in Key West, Florida, who was determined to bring him to justice.What followed was an international game of cat-and-mouse that culminated in Navia's 2000 capture in Venezuela in one of the biggest antinarcotics takedowns of all time, the 12-nation Operation Journey.Spanning decades, continents and featuring a who's who of the drug trade, Pure Narco is a fast-paced adventure ride into the dark underworld of cocaine trafficking, written with the cooperation of a dozen law-enforcement agents from the world's top antinarcotics forces in the United States and Great Britain. Navia served his time in jail and is now free to tell his tale. His is the rare perspective of someone who has worked on both sides of that war: as a cocaine trafficker and US Government consultant. This book is a redemption story. Luis Navia, the pure narco, has gone full circle.

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Unlike people with carefree previous lives, I packed away my past. There are some memories labelled 'Look at', and others 'Leave well alone'...Emily Smith was held in a prison of fear for ten years. When she was four, her father left and a new man was brought into her life. He loved her, he kept telling her so, but the emotional and physical abuse she suffered at his hands were a daily nightmare. Until one day, after he crept into her bedroom, her life became unbearable. Emily found she was different in another way as her autism became more noticeable and punishments for her 'abnormal' behaviour more severe. Astonishingly, she managed to escape her home of hell, where she was abused right in front of her mother. Emily determinedly gained a university place and emerged triumphant with a new life and family in Ireland, desperate to treat her daughter, so similar to her, to a different life.Heartbreakingly true, Silent Child is a testament to Emily's strength as she sheds light on rampant abuse still happening today. Powerful and shocking, sharing her story means she finally has a voice to say: enough.

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This is the story of Tokyo Olympics gold-medal-winner, Tom Daley, and his journey to greatness.Tom Daley is British diver specialising in the 10-metre platform event and has been competing internationally since he was twelve years old. Born and raised in Plymouth, Tom was spotted by a coach during one of his diving lessons and since then has been a force to be reckoned with in the sport. This is the story of how a young boy went from lessons at his local pool to a star on the international stage, winning two gold medals in the 2010 Commonwealth Games as well as bronze in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

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As featured in The Mirror, this is the story of mother's quest to find her murdered daughterBurying a child is every parent's nightmare. But Marie McCourt has spent over 30 years yearning to do just that.On 9 February 1988, Marie's 22-year-old daughter, Helen, left her office in Liverpool city centre and began her usual commute home. But she was never seen again. . . Within days, local pub landlord Ian Simms was charged with her murder. Despite Helen's body not being found, overwhelming DNA and circumstantial evidence at his trial secured his conviction, and he was sentenced to life.But Simms' refusal to disclose the whereabouts of Helen's body means that Marie and her family have never been able to have a grave at which they can lay flowers and pay their respects.For over 30 years, Marie has searched, in vain, for her daughter's body and campaigned tirelessly to prevent other families from facing the same horrifying fate, taking her fight to the houses of parliament. The resulting 'Helen's Law', ground-breaking legislation that recognises the distress caused to families of missing homicide victims, was passed in November 2020.This is the incredible story of a mother, devastated by the loss of her daughter, whofound the strength and determination to change the law.

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THE FINAL WORD FROM THE LAST KING OF GANGLAND WITH A FOREWORD BY MARTINA COLE'We couldn't, we wouldn't, let anyone take a liberty. That was never an option at that time.'Eddie Richardson is the last brand-name gangster. Say the name and the world of violent criminality grabs you by the throat.The Richardson brothers, Eddie and Charlie, and their infamous 'Torture Gang', made money while their rivals Ronnie and Reggie Kray made fatal mischief. They fought each other, but now, in 2018, Eddie Richardson says: 'They tell me blood is thicker than water, but with Charlie it wasn't so. He was evil.'With his brother dead, Eddie Richardson feels free to detail the story of a vicious family feud that provoked extravagant acrimony. No Handcuffs unravels the mysteries of decades of crime and political incident. The story of a turbulent era, it rivals the most imaginative fiction in its portrayal of gangland life with all its chanciness and rawness and careless disregard for any obstacle on the way to its target, the big money.In an inspired collaboration with bestselling author Douglas Thompson, the mature Eddie Richardson is given a voice to reflect on his journey from the scrapyards of South London to the glitz and glamour of the West End nightclubs, to the flesh and tease of Soho, down Downing Street and through the door of Number 10 to the perils of espionage and international intrigue, and his elevation to demigod status in hard-men territory - and finally as a high-security inmate at Her Majesty's pleasure, but with a personal fridge kept well stocked with gourmet food. No Handcuffs resonates today for, if anything, greed and corruption are more perverse, more rampant. As Eddie Richardson points out: 'We wrote the handbook for them.'

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We take summer holidays for granted but, back in the 1940s, the picture was very different. War had gripped Britain. Wave after wave of bombs fell, beaches were closed off, and petrol was rationed by the forbidding question, 'Is your journey really necessary?'But the summer days (with double summer time) seemed to go on forever, war or no war - and British families were determined to make the best of their paralyzed country.For evacuated children, this meant freedom that is unimaginable today: wandering at will, discovering wildlife in fields and ponds, foraging from orchards and hedgerows and swimming in the streams. Elsewhere, country estates were requisitioned for the war efforts, the tennis courts given over for training and the Lord and Lady of the manor sent packing! Dances attracted people from all walks of life - from ballroom dances to the thrill of the arrival of the GIs and the jitterbug.But the shadow of war was never far away; the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940, and the D-Day Landings in 1944 took place in June - with unreliable summer weather playing a part in both.In this book, Caroline Taggart shows us how Britons succeeded in keeping up spirits in spite of the constant devastation of battle. It is a revealing and entertaining collection of first-hand reminiscences from people who lived through those six long years. Touching, tragic, occasionally hilarious, it shows the British soldiering on as best they could.

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The No.1 football series - over 1 million copies sold! Virgil van Dijk is Liverpool FC's superstar centre-back and he's going from strength to strength. From washing dishes to pay his way during his early career to becoming one of the best defenders in the world, this is the story of how Virgil became a true Liverpool legend. Follow his journey as he fights adversity and works his way up to become an ultimate football hero. Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life-stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to super-star professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.

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Meet Sadio Mané - Ultimate Football HeroSadio Mané is one of Liverpool FC's 'Fab Four'. Along with Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Xherdan Shakiri, Sadio's goals have helped make Liverpool the deadliest attacking team in the Premier League. Since he moved to the Premier League, Sadio has been setting the bar to new heights - from scoring the fastest hat-trick in history to becoming the most expensive African footballer ever. There is no stopping the Fab Four, and the sky is the limit for Sadio Mané. Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to superstar professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.

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Marta is the best footballer in the history of the women's game. The Brazilian has jaw-dropping flair and skill. She has scored more World Cup goals than any other player, and has won FIFA World Player of the Year six times. But pure talent alone was never enough - this book tells the story of how Marta chased her dreams with determination and a never-give-up attitude, to earn the right to be called the best player ever.

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In this heart-breaking, inspirational memoir, Rochelle nurses her beloved mother through a terminal brain tumour. With sensitivity and enormous emotional depth, Handle with Care provides a window into the life of a young carer.When her mum falls seriously ill, 25-year-old Rochelle decides to give up her new job and move home to become her mother's full-time carer and look after her sisters. After the initial diagnosis of a stroke gives way to one of terminal cancer, Rochelle cares for her mother through her illness - helping her as the illness makes everyday life increasingly difficult - and remaining by her side when she passes away. And then, while still grieving, Rochelle must find her way back into the world again.A moving, painfully honest account, Handle with Care is a book about the agony of loss and the transformative power of grief, as well as an emotional handbook for anyone who has lost a loved one.

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By the age of thirteen, vulnerable Sheffield teenager Samantha Owens had fallen through the cracks in the care system. Bounced around numerous foster carers after her home life became too chaotic, Samantha thought she had found a friend in the streetwise Amanda Spencer. The older girl bought her clothes, styled her hair and found her places to stay. Samantha's welfare was the last thing on Spencer's mind, however, as in reality she was grooming the young girl for exploitation of the worst possible kind. Over the course of the next few months, Samantha was plied with alcohol and drugs and pimped out to over fifty men for Spencer's gain. Raped, abused, and with no chance of escape, Samantha was at the mercy of the calculating, ruthless and intimidating Spencer. It took a police investigation of two years to bring her and a small gang of cohorts to justice and, in 2014, Spencer was jailed for twelve years. With her abusers in jail, and Samantha bravely rebuilding her life, her shocking story is a stark warning to those who believe child sexual abuse follows any set pattern.

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Complete your collection with these limited Classic Football Heroes International editions - now with a bonus World Cup chapter!Luís Figo is one of the greatest players of his generation, after a glittering career in which he captained his national team, Portugal, and became Barcelona's hero captain. But when he transferred to fierce rivals Real Madrid, he had to face the anger of Barca fans all over the world. Yet Figo showed true courage, forging an unstoppable partnership with fellow midfield maestro Zinedine Zidane to win the 2002 Champions League. This is the thrilling story of one of the best midfielders ever.

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The inside story of life with the KraysJohn Dickson arrived in London from Edinburgh in 1964, looking for work...and adventure. He soon found it in the pubs and card clubs of the East End, where he met and go to know the twins and the members of the 'firm'. He was, for many years, a close and trusted henchman of the Krays, and was the man who drove Ronnie to the Blind Beggar pub the night that George Cornell was shot.In this explosive book, Dickson tells the inside story of Ronnie and Reggie's gangland underworld. He recounts the increasingly erratic and senselessly violent behaviour of the twins, and their final arrest, which came at a time when they had thought they were invincible. The Secrets of the Krays is an illuminating and thrilling journey into the world of the East End's most notorious sons.*Previously published as Murder without Conviction*

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DON'T SAY A WORD is the empowering memoir of Kate Marshall, a mother-of-four from Manchester. Ripped from her many brothers and sisters at the age of eight, Kate's mother uproots her to a new life in which love and safety are not priorities. With little explanation, Kate is thrown into a world of chaos and neglect, a world which her Uncle Phil exploits through a campaign of shocking abuse over many years.The lessons Kate learns in those early years leave her extremely vulnerable and, while still a teenager, she marries an emotionally abusive, gaslighting fraudster, spending years in a controlled marriage punctuated by bulimia and a fierce desire to protect her beloved children. Finally finding the courage to leave, she seizes control of her own destiny by taking her paedophile uncle to court, where his guilt on all charges sees him finally brought to justice for what he has done. From that moment, Kate vows she will never again be the victim of those who chose to control and abuse her - that she will fight for herself and for others with every breath she has and will never be silenced again.

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A study of the sex killer Chris Halliwell who, having been arrested in 2011 for one murder, led police to the scene of a second. But the senior police officer blew it . . .Superintendent Steve Fulcher of Hampshire Police had not followed procedure, an error that was to see him severely censured, leading to his retirement from the force. Due to this monumental error in judgement infamous killer Christopher Halliwell could not be convicted of a second murder, despite his openly admitting having committed it. Fulcher was suspended for gross misconduct, and later quit the force. Halliwell, imprisoned for the first murder, was later convicted of the second, after a long and tortuous process of collecting new evidence. But among sixty items of women's clothing found when Halliwell's home was searched, only a few pieces belonged to his two known victims. For this and other reasons, the police, including Fulcher, remain convinced that he has killed other women known to have disappeared...This is a riveting account of a clever, dangerous and secretive killer, and of a police officer whose instincts led him to a second murder, but whose methods eventually brought about the end of his own career.

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The No.1 football series - over 1 million copies sold! 'Balotelli...Agüerooooo! I swear you'll never see anything like this ever again!' Agüero is the tale of the boy who would go on to re-write football history forever. His dramatic 94th minute goal on the final day of the 2011/12 season, to snatch the title from under rivals Manchester United's noses, was the most electric moment in Premier League history. This is how the small boy from Argentina became the biggest hero of all.Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life-stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to super-star professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.

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On the night of 29 April 2017, at Wembley Stadium, Anthony Joshua knocked down and defeated the Ukraine's former world heavyweight champion, Vladimir Klitschko. In doing so, he added the WBA and IBO heavyweight titles to the IBF belt he already held. That bald statement of fact does little justice to what proved to be one of the finest heavyweight contests of all time, in which a brilliant but relatively inexperienced fighter took on, and eventually defeated, one of the finest boxers of his or any other age. It was a twelve-round fight before a record post-War crowd, and for eleven of those rounds it could have gone either way; indeed, in Round 6 it looked as though Joshua was finished when a massive right hand from Klitschko sent him to the canvas.

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These bald facts, horrific as they are, do not begin to scratch the surface of the truth about Robert Black, a Scottish-born serial killer who undoubtedly committed further murders for which he was never tried, both in this country and on the Continent. In this ground-breaking account, Robert Giles, who has spent years tracing the killer's movements and sifting through all the evidence, including transcripts of the trials, convincingly argues that Black was an habitual serial killer over many years, and quite certainly responsible for more than the four child murders for which he was convicted. Co-written with Chris Clark, a former police intelligence officer whose tireless work into the Yorkshire Ripper produced convincing new evidence of other murders that went unnoticed or unrecorded, The Face of Evil shows once and for all that Robert Black was a serial killer whose crimes went far beyond what is generally believed. In doing so, it paints a portrait of human cruelty at its worst.

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In this ground-breaking book, the men behind the mobs come together to reveal their experiences as key figures in the most notorious terrace fights. Bestselling writers Cass Pennant, from West Ham's Inter City Firm (ICF) and Chelsea Head Hunter main man Martin King have joined forces to produce the definitive book on terrace culture. From the bovver boys of the sixties and seventies to the football casuals of the eighties, the names central to the biggest firms have all been tracked down and interviewed, the names that were to become the stuff of which terrace legends are made. Cass Pennant is the bestselling author of Want Some Aggro?; Rolling with the 6.57 Crew; Congratulations, You Have Just Met the ICF and his hugely successful autobiography, Cass. Martin King, left, is the highly acclaimed author of Hoolifan and its bestselling follow-up The Naughty Nineties. He has also written A Boy's Story; On the Cobbles: The Life of a Bare-Knuckle Gypsy Warrior, The Estate; The South Downs Way; Ossie: King of Stamford Bridge and Grass: The Phil Sparrowhawk Story.

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Elvis is waiting outside in a big pink Caddy. Or rather, he would be if the dreams and fantasies of millions of teenage girls could only come true...And like so many other thirteen-year-olds, East End schoolgirl Jacky Hyams has fallen under the spell of the man with the swivel hips and sexy voice, an unforgettable moment in time amidst a tidal wave of social change in Britain: the era of the Fifties teenager. All around her, people are shaking off the memory of the drab austerity years after the Second World War. Ration books are now history. The good times have finally arrived. Families like Jacky's are starting to be tempted by the incredible new household goods in high street shop windows: TVs, fridges, washing machines, electric heaters, now widely available on credit. Wimpy bars and frozen fish fingers are changing the culinary landscape. Even the Prime Minister is telling the country: 'You Never Had it So Good.' Now, for the first time ever, teenagers are being wooed as never before, consumers in their own right, rather than mere mini versions of their elders. It is a dramatic cultural shift that sparks a huge rift between the generations. As bewildered parents struggle to cope with her teenage rebellion against old fashioned attitudes, for Jacky all these tempting changes can only lead her in one direction - an all embracing desire for freedom - and a growing determination to break free of the traditional East End way of life.

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The PA's Story is the book which has taken the Square Mile by storm. Life as the personal assistant to some of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the country is a poisoned chalice. As the first line of communication between the big boss and the outside world, a PA also becomes the last frontier of secrecy, confidentiality and trust. Given the right boss, an exhilarating working life can blossom. With the wrong boss, it can become a living hell. Victoria Knowles's unique inside perspective as a woman fighting to thrive in a vice-filled world dominated by men is at once moving, revealing and scandalous. The high-flying city boss lifestyle has been scrutinised ever more in the press for all the wrong reasons of late, and with revelations of sexist bullying, illicit affairs and pornography in the office, this is a shocking expose about the men who have everything and still want more. The PA is an explosive, furious memoir about working in the City of London spanning over a decade.

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Cilla Black is one of Britain's best loved entertainers and an icon of the sixties. Known to one generation for a string of number one hits like 'Anyone Who Had a Heart' and 'You're My World', and loved by another for hosting the classic ITV show Blind Date, Cilla has come a long way from hanging coats in Liverpool's Cavern Club for five bob an hour. In Cilla: Queen of the Swinging Sixties, Douglas Thompson traces her rise to the top, her heart-warming marriage to Bobby Willis and the profound effect his death had on her. This affectionate biography is fitting tribute to 50 years in show-business for 'our Cilla'.

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Micky Flanagan is one of Britain's best-loved cheeky-chappy comedians, thanks to his stand-up routines about how he's gone from growing up in London's East End in the 1970s to his life now in middle-class suburbia. To date he has two sell-out tours under his belt, nominations from the British Comedy Awards and the Edinburgh Fringe (for Best Comedy Newcomer), not to mention regular stints on 8 Out of 10 Cats, Mock the Week and The Last Leg, as well as guest appearances on The Jonathan Ross Show, Alan Carr: Chatty Man, The Graham Norton Show and The One Show. Yet a career as a professional comedian was not something that he had ever dreamed of when, as a troublesome teen, he left school aged 15 to work in a fish market. Abi Smith looks at how Micky, who was laughed at by his teachers when he said he wanted to be a vet, has triumphed from his early days working as a fish porter in the East End and as a dishwasher in New York. In this page-turning biography you'll also discover why his mum labelled him a drama queen, and how he tried his hand at various professions - including trainee teacher and painter and decorator - before having the last laugh by becoming one of the country's most popular funny men. So, pour yourself a cup of Rosie Lee, take the weight off your plates and prepare for a right giraffe as you read this engaging tale of 'an East Boy done good'.

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Elva Aggiano was murdered fourteen years ago by her husband Bruno. Of the four Aggiano children, three vowed never to speak to their father again. But their daughter Natalia renewed her relationship with Bruno and became his friend and companion until his death in 2006. Bruno’s brooding and possessive nature behind closed doors lead to the break down of his marriage to Elva, involving mental and physical abuse. Escaping onto the streets at 17, Natalia speaks for the first time about her parent’s relationship and her traumatic struggle to survive alone.

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'Puts Richard Kerbaj in the front rank of modern authors on espionage. It is, by turns, gripping and shocking and sheds completely new light on the most important intelligence alliance in the world' - Tim Shipman, author of All Out War'Examines decades of intelligence sharing' - The Telegraph'Reopen[s] the debate' - The Times'Explosive' - The World NewsThe Secret History of The Five Eyes: The untold story of the international spy network, is a riveting and exclusive narrative of the most powerful and least understood intelligence alliance, which has been steeped in secrecy since its formation in 1956.Richard Kerbaj, an award-winning investigative journalist and filmmaker, bypasses the usual censorship channels to tell the definitive account of authoritative but unauthorised stories of the Western world's most powerful but least known intelligence alliance made up of the US, Britain, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. As Kerbaj shows, spy stories are never better than when they are true - and these span from 1930s Nazi spy rings to the most recent developments in Ukraine and China.Through personal interviews with world leaders - including British Prime Ministers Theresa May and David Cameron - and more than 100 intelligence officials, this book explores the complex personalities who helped shape the Five Eyes. They include a Scotland Yard detective who became a spymaster and inspired the first exchanges between MI5 and the FBI. An American home economics teacher who helped create one of the most effective programmes to counter Soviet espionage. The CIA's lone officer in Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution. GCHQ's chief during the Edward Snowden intelligence leak. And the Australian politician turned diplomat whose tip-off to the FBI instigated the inquiry into Russia's meddling in the US presidential contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016.Richard Kerbaj is able to draw from deep inside the secret corridors of power and his unparalleled access spans all 5 countries. Some of the people he has interviewed include former GCHQ director Sir Iain Lobban, CIA director General David Petraeus, MI5 director-general Eliza Manningham-Buller, NSA director Admiral Mike Rogers, British National Security Advisor Kim Darroch, ASIO chief Mike Burgess, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's chief Richard Fadden, and Ciaran Martin, the official who oversaw Britain's assessments on whether the Chinese telecoms firm, Huawei, should have had a role in the creation of the UK's 5G network.This page-turning book will lift the lid on spy stories from across the English-speaking world, question the future of the alliance, and our place within it.

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Fully authorised, this book on Moby draws from exclusive interviews conducted over the last seven years with Moby himself, as well as in-depth insights provided by those closest to him - fellow band members, his road crew, music writers and his management. Illustrated with photos taken from Moby's own extensive personal collection, it charts his compelling climb to the top of the music charts and offers the inside take on the enigma behind that success.

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In the tradition of the bestselling Workouts from Boxing's Greatest Champs, this sequel volume will KO all boxing/combat sport enthusiasts. Featuring a classic coterie of international boxing legends, this superb anthology is illustrated throughout by some of the best photos of them at work in the ring or training in the gym. Our celebrated present-day fighters and former champions range from the instantly recognisable Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jnr, Mike Tyson, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran to such respected international figures as Danny Williams and Vitali Klitschko. Incorporating career biographies for every fighter, the reader is introduced to the fitness and training regimes of some of the world's most physically powerful men. Culled from the author's original research and interviews, the greatest ever champion pugilists grant us a fly-on-the-wall look at their 'Typical Day' and their personal workout regimes.

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Ginger tells his story for the first time. It's often harrowing but outrageously honest as he journey's from war-torn south London to his adopted home in South Africa's beautiful Western Cape - where he has his own polo club. Along the way he tells of his life-long love of jazz, how he discovered the drums, life on the road and reveals the heroin use that should have killed him. He talks candidly of his three marriages, his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Cream in 1993, their 2005 reunion and his own plans for the future.

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From Billy the Kid to President Roosevelt, this is a spectacular collection of true stories of Irish men and women who have changed the course of history: John Barry, the poor Irishman who made waves as the father of the US navy; William Brown, the Irish cabin boy who sank the invading Spanish fleet; Daniel Joseph Keogh, the young lad from County Longford who became the hero of the Korean war. They are all united in having carried the glory of the Irish to the four corners of the earth. This book perfectly displays the indomitable nature and good humour of all those who hail from the Emerald Isle.

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The plea of insanity in criminal cases can be traced back at least to the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, which dates from 1755-1759 BC. It is a complicated defence, and its origins in modern law lie with the 'M'Naghten Rules' of 1843, formulated by British judges as a jury instruction in cases where a plea of insanity had been entered. Daniel M'Naghten shot and killed one Edward Drummond, believing him to be the British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, and was acquitted on the grounds of insanity, and the M'Naghten Rules still exert considerable influence over defences today.Clearly a plea of insanity in murder cases is of critical importance when the death penalty is still applied, and even today it may still be the difference between a life sentence in a high-security prison, or an indeterminate one in a secure psychiatric hospital. Meanwhile, 27 of the USA's 50 states have retained or readopted the death penalty, and at least 54 other countries, including China, Russia, India, Iran and Saudi Arabia, also retain it. Naturally, a criminal who was liable to swing for murder could, and sometimes did, make every attempt to appear insane, and this book examines some of these cases, as well as trials in which the accused was indeed judged to be insane. The failure rate is high; of seven American serial killers who deployed the defence in their trials, only two were successful, ending their days in secure psychiatric facilities; two were executed, and the other three either died or were killed while serving full-life sentences, or are still in gaol.

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HMP Wakefield. 'Monster Mansion'. Hell to be inside. Almost impossible to escape. This prison has seen some of the most infamous prisoners of all time pass through its cells - from Levi Bellfield to Harold Shipman, Ian Huntley and Charles Bronson.Jonathan Levi and Emma French are the perfect authors to give chilling insight into all the terrible men who have served time there. After detailing the shocking truth of life in Britain's most high-profile psychiatric hospital in their bestselling book Inside Broadmoor, now they will take readers behind bars in this the UK's most notorious prison.Inside Wakefield Prison will trace its long and intriguing history, from when it was first built in 1594 all the way up to the present day. Today, just over 750 of the country's most dangerous offenders are kept there, including 'Hannibal the Cannibal' Robert Maudsley, notorious killer Jer

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One week in June. One small island. 40,000 annual visitors. Raw speed. Numerous annual deaths. The Isle of Man TT motorcycle road race. Five minutes to go. The claxon sounds, harsh as an air raid siren. Television crews attempt last-minute interviews with riders. The thousand yard-stares give it away: they're really not listening now.Four minutes to go. The grandstand is packed. Some racers tell their mechanics, 'I'll see you later for a pint' - just to make themselves believe they will.Three minutes to go. For the first man on the road, hidden dangers exist. He will have no-one to follow. And he is the hare that the greyhounds will be chasing.Two minutes to go. By the end of the first lap, riders will be howling past faster than a bullet from the barrel of a gun. A full 160pmh. And that's not even the fastest part of the course.One minute to go. The atmosphere is palpably tense. It's like no other sporting event on earth. Formula 1 drivers can crash spectacularly and just walk away. Everyone knows that's not the case here.Five seconds. The starter raises the chequered flag, ready to snap down. No more time for nerves, for doubts. The race has started. How it will end, no-one knows. The TT has begun.In Ragged Edge, Stuart Barker will write the definitive story of this unique event, from the tarmac up. The history, the atmosphere, the heroes, tragedies and legends. And most importantly: our fascination with this seductive yet perilous test of skill and daring. This is the unvarnished, raw truth behind the world's most dangerous sporting event - in the words of those who ride it.

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COMMEMORATE THE HISTORIC CORONATION OF THE NEW KING 'To Charles, being monarch has nothing to do with power - he believes his role is to lead. It is up to others whether they choose to follow.'When Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022, it sent shockwaves around the world. The longest reigning and oldest monarch, at ninety-six years of age, she had just publicly celebrated her Platinum Jubilee in June 2022. The Queen's death meant the passing of the Crown to her son, HRH Charles, Prince of Wales, her controversial, earnest, and outspoken heir, who had long lived in the shadow of her mystique.King Charles III's own life has been marred by scandal and myth, but who is the real man behind the Crown? In this revelatory book, renowned royal correspondent and author Robert Jobson examines the life of our new King, and his passions, purpose, and motivations. On the eve of his landmark coronation, Our King considers the life of the man and the monarch, reflecting on how his values and beliefs will shape him as he takes on this monumental role.

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One week in June. One small island. 40,000 annual visitors. Raw speed. Numerous annual deaths. The Isle of Man TT motorcycle road race. Five minutes to go. The claxon sounds, harsh as an air raid siren. Television crews attempt last-minute interviews with riders. The thousand yard-stares give it away: they're really not listening now. Four minutes to go. The grandstand is packed. Some racers tell their mechanics, 'I'll see you later for a pint' - just to make themselves believe they will.Three minutes to go. For the first man on the road, hidden dangers exist. He will have no-one to follow. And he is the hare that the greyhounds will be chasing. Two minutes to go. By the end of the first lap, riders will be howling past faster than a bullet from the barrel of a gun. A full 160pmh. And that's not even the fastest part of the course.One minute to go. The atmosphere is palpably tense. It's like no other sporting event on earth. Formula 1 drivers can crash spectacularly and just walk away. Everyone knows that's not the case here. Five seconds. The starter raises the chequered flag, ready to snap down. No more time for nerves, for doubts. The race has started. How it will end, no-one knows. The TT has begun. In Ragged Edge, Stuart Barker will write the definitive story of this unique event, from the tarmac up. The history, the atmosphere, the heroes, tragedies and legends. And most importantly: our fascination with this seductive yet perilous test of skill and daring. This is the unvarnished, raw truth behind the world's most dangerous sporting event - in the words of those who ride it.

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*A must-read for all True Crime fans*Why are Scotland Yard murder detectives considered among the finest in the world? And why is so little known about how they truly work? ? Take a look at what lies behind that success with someone who knows.DI Steven Keogh spent over half of his 30-year police career as a Scotland Yard detective, helping to hunt down terrorists and some of the worst murderers in London.Step inside the mind of an investigator in a never-before-seen look into what it takes to catch killers and bring them to justice. In a journey from crime scene to trial, you will witness the emotional highs and lows of cracking real-life murder cases and discover why people kill, while debunking the myths that surround this detective work.Are you ready to challenge everything you thought you knew about the world of murder investigations?

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Did COVID-19 actually break out to kill 6 million people because of a leak from a Chinese laboratory? What are the links between QAnon and Russiagate, Alex Jones and Donald Trump? Why did our own MI5 try to block evidence about the death of Iraq weapons inspector Dr David Kelly and the radioactive poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko?Putin is a brute who lies as a matter of policy. Hitler tried to blame Poland for starting WWII. We live in a world of fake news and false flags, secret plots and unexplained deaths. But what on earth can you believe, when nothing's ever quite what it seems? In Conspiracy, Ian Shircore cuts through the fog and the fairy tales to deliver a balanced analysis of the stories that shape the times we live in. New evidence - from Freedom of Information requests, WikiLeaks files, deathbed confessions and declassified archives - has solved some classic mysteries. Yet it raises more questions than ever about the assassinations of the 1960s, the dirty secrets of the late 20th century and the deadly traumas of the last few years.Now fully updated with new cases, material and evidence.

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When the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards announced a contest for the funniest animal photo, they received entries from all over the world, and they showcased the best of the best in their original book.Now it's time to dust off your camera again, pick up your binoculars and head back to the great outdoors as the much-loved Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards return once again with hilarious never-before-seen photographs of wildlife from around the world. Featuring 100 full-colour images with wonderfully-written, informative captions that include species and location information.This is a must-have book that is perfect for animal lovers and a wonderful celebration of natural habitats all over the world!

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Investigative journalist David Gardner turns his uncompromising gaze on the many conspiracy theories connected with the COVID pandemic. With first-hand reporting and detailed investigations into the people who originated these COVID theories - some of them plausible, some driven by an agenda, and some plainly mad - he answers the questions that everyone has been asking for nearly two years since the pandemic began, and left us doubting our leaders as never before. When COVID-19 struck early in 2020, first in China and inexorably through the rest of the world, it quickly became the subject of the most virulent outbreak of conspiracy theories we have ever seen. The pandemic quickly became an infodemic. The President of the United States championed bleach as a cure, the Chinese government blamed the Americans, and the American government blamed the Chinese - a Cold War over a cold virus. David Icke said that COVID does not exist. People blamed 5G phone networks, genetically modified crops, Bill Gates, Corona beer, aliens, bats and pangolins . . . Yet these theorists are not all the obsessive cultists and paranoid mavericks with whom the conspiracy-theory label is often associated. They are your parents, your next-door neighbour, your boss at work. The question marks over the origins of COVID-19, the dangers of the virus. The world has been changed for ever by the events of the past two years. It is crucial that history offers an accurate account of what happened. This book will play a key role in revealing what - and what not - to believe.

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On screen, Danny Trejo is the most recognisable anti-hero in Hollywood. But off screen, he is so much more. The ultimate hard-knock-lifer, and a true man of the world, he has all the stories, and all the scars. Raised in an abusive home, Danny struggled from an early age with heroin addiction, doing time in some of the country's most notorious prisons, before breaking into acting. Starring in modern classics and cult hits alike, including Heat, Breaking Bad, From Dusk Till Dawn and Sons of Anarchy, Danny has worked with silver-screen icons like Robert De Niro and Charles Bronson. Now, Danny recounts how he survived the horrors of jail, rebuilt his life, and drew inspiration from the adrenaline-fueled robbery heists of his past to forge his on-screen legend. Redemptive and raw, Trejo is an unforgettable journey through tragedy, pain, and success. Told with cowboy appeal, gritty rebel wisdom, and total honesty, these are outlaw stories from the frontiers: the frontiers of prison, of Hollywood, and of life.

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The No.1 football series - over 1 million copies sold! Since joining Manchester United in January 2020, Bruno Fernandes has set the Premier League alight. The versatile attacking midfielder has become a relentless and prolific goal-scorer, catapulting his team towards the top. Follow his brilliant journey from school drop-out to Europe's rising star. Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to superstar professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.

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By an expert with over twenty-five years' experience interviewing more than thirty of the most dangerous male and female serial killers of contemporary times, this latest book from the bestselling author explores the darkest corners of these thrill-killers' minds.As all law-enforcement authorities, including the FBI's elite Behavioral Science Unit, will confirm, the majority of sexual psychopaths gain most of their perverse thrills from the stalking of their unsuspecting victims, often in so many different ways.For them, the actual kill is frequently something less, after which the dead body is treated like so much garbage and simply abandoned or thrown away. Yet as these cases show, a victim has often been unwittingly followed, watched, or even visited before they are attacked, sometimes for weeks or even months.Having exhaustively studied the case histories of more than sixty modern-day sexually motivated serial murderers - some still alive, others subsequently executed - the author zeros in on the Internet porn industry as one of the main motivating drivers in cultivating fantasy stalking, which can lead to rape, multiple rapes, and homicide graduating to serial murder. Even more chillingly, anyone who is active on social media is a potential stalker's victim.

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The No.1 football series - over 1 million copies sold!Born and bred on Merseyside, Alexander-Arnold is Livepool FC's wonder kid, already promising big things despite the fact he was only born in 1998. He got his big break in an unusual way when his name was drawn from a hat to attend a camp with Liverpool FC and he's been there ever since. He's made an impact at moments that matter such a during Liverpool's successful 2019 Champions League campaign. It seems like there's nothing he can't do!Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to superstar professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.

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*Now a major ITV drama starring Martin Clunes*What does it take to catch a predator who has terrorised southeast England for over fifteen years?Delroy Grant - dubbed the Night Stalker - was one of the nation's most wanted men, a shocking sex predator. During his seventeen-year reign of fear, he established a clear MO. Visit a target at night. Remove a window pane and slide in. Unscrew the lightbulbs. Cut the power. Rip out the telephone wires. Tiptoe to the bedroom. Wake the victim by shining a torch in their eyes. What followed was often unspeakable. When SIO Colin Sutton was drafted into the case, Grant had been at large for over a decade. Stepping up where others had failed, he began the determined, relentless police work that had marked the end for infamous serial killer Levi Bellfield. Case by case, clue by clue. Night Stalker is the chilling true story of one of the most testing manhunts the Metropolitan Police have ever undertaken. It is a glimpse into the heart of darkness - and into the mind and work of the brilliant detective who brought one of London's most feared monsters to justice.

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The Number 1 football series - over 1 million copies sold!This is the story of Marcus Rashford - one of the brightest young stars on the Manchester United books and future England goalscoring legend. From tough beginnings in Manchester, Rashford has proven to be one of the Premier League's shining stars, scoring twice on his senior debut, scoring in his first Premier League match and scoring on his England debut in 2016. The future can only get better!Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to superstar professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.

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