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Live While You Can: A Memoir of Faith, Hope and the Power of Acceptance
by Fr. Tony CooteFr Tony Coote was just fifty-three years old in February 2018 when he was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease. Just a few short months later, he found himself confined to a wheelchair. But rather than succumbing to the darkness that threatened to overwhelm him in the days after his diagnosis, he drew on his powerful faith and unwavering belief in life and found a way to light, hope and acceptance.From growing up in Fairview, to serving in the dioceses in Ballymun and later Mount Merrion and Kilmacud, and his charity work while in UCD, Fr Tony takes us on the journey of his life and shows us how, through this devastating illness, he came to know the true meaning and nature of God's love.Live While You Can is the inspiring, life-affirrming account of finding joy in dark times and living every day in the now.
The Lives of Lucian Freud: YOUTH 1922 - 1968
by William FeaverThough ferociously private, Lucian Freud spoke every week for decades to his close confidante and collaborator William Feaver – about painting and the art world, but also about his life and loves. The result is this a unique, electrifying biography, shot through with Freud's own words.In Youth, the first of two volumes, Feaver conjures Freud's early childhood: Sigmund Freud's grandson, born into a middle-class Jewish family in Weimar Berlin, escaping Nazi Germany in 1934 before being dropped into successive English public schools. Following Freud through art school, his time in the Navy during the war, his post-war adventures in Paris and Greece, and his return to Soho – consorting with duchesses and violent criminals, out on the town with Greta Garbo and Princess Margaret – Feaver traces a brilliant, difficult young man's coming of age.An account of a century told through one of its most important artists, The Lives of Lucian Freud is a landmark in the story its subject and in the art of biography itself.
The Lives of Lucian Freud: FAME 1968 - 2011 (Biography and Autobiography)
by William FeaverSELECTED AS BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN, SUNDAY TIMES, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT AND SPECTATORSHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2019'This exceptional book is far from standard biography … A compendium of high-grade gossip about everyone from Princess Margaret to the Krays, a tour of the immediate post-war art world, a snapshot of grimy London and a narrative of Freud's career and rackety life and loves … Leaves the ready itchy for volume two' SUNDAY TIMES, ART BOOK OF THE YEAR'Brilliant … Freud would have approved' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Sparkling' SUNDAY TIMES 'Superlative … packed with stories' GUARDIAN'Brilliant and compendious ... It does justice to Lucian' FRANK AUERBACH'A tremendous read. Anyone interested in British art needs it' ANDREW MARR, NEW STATESMANThough ferociously private, Lucian Freud spoke every week for decades to his close confidante and collaborator William Feaver – about painting and the art world, but also about his life and loves. The result is this a unique, electrifying biography, shot through with Freud's own words.In Youth, the first of two volumes, Feaver conjures Freud's early childhood: Sigmund Freud's grandson, born into a middle-class Jewish family in Weimar Berlin, escaping Nazi Germany in 1934 before being dropped into successive English public schools. Following Freud through art school, his time in the Navy during the war, his post-war adventures in Paris and Greece, and his return to Soho – consorting with duchesses and violent criminals, out on the town with Greta Garbo and Princess Margaret – Feaver traces a brilliant, difficult young man's coming of age.An account of a century told through one of its most important artists, The Lives of Lucian Freud is a landmark in the story its subject and in the art of biography itself.
Lofty: Nat Lofthouse, England's Lion of Vienna
by Matt CloughNAT LOFTHOUSE is a name that rings through the annals of English football history like few others. He was a pivotal figure in one of the true golden ages of the beautiful game, ending his career as the leading goal scorer for both his club and his country, with a reputation as one of the game’s true greats. His retirement coincided almost exactly with the abolition of the maximum wage, and ensured that his name would forever be identified with a time before money flooded the game and changed it inexorably. Lofty explores not only Lofthouse’s life and career in detail never done before, but also delves into his personality and motivation through various key points of his life. Matt Clough uses interviews with those who knew him best and played alongside him, extensive research into newspaper archives and, of course, the words of the man himself to breathe life into one of football’s most legendary figures.
London: Immigrant City
by Nazneen Khan-ØstremTRANSLATED BY ALISON McCULLOUGH'One of the best books on the many diverse migrations to London . . . revealing the extent to which the diversity of immigrant origins has had transformative effects - through food, music, diverse types of knowledge and so much more. The book is difficult to put it down'Saskia Sassen, The Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University, New York'The ultimate book about Great Britain's capital'Dagbladet'One of the best books of the year! . . . This is a book about what a city is and can be'AftenpostenIs there a street in London which does not contain a story from the Empire? Immigrants made London; and they keep remaking it in a thousand different ways. Nazneen Khan-Østrem has drawn a wonderful new map of a city that everyone thought they already knew. She travels around the city, meeting the very people who have created a truly unique metropolis, and shows how London's incredible development is directly attributable to the many different groups of immigrants who arrived after the Second World War, in part due to the Nationality Act of 1948. Her book reveals the historical, cultural and political changes within those communities which have fundamentally transformed the city, and which have rarely been considered alongside each other.Nazneen Khan-Østrem has a cosmopolitan background herself, being a British, Muslim, Asian woman, born in Nairobi and raised in the UK and Norway, which has helped her in unravelling the city's rich immigrant history and its constant ongoing evolution.Drawing on London's rich literature and its musical heritage, she has created an intricate portrait of a strikingly multi-faceted metropolis. Based on extensive research, particularly into aspects not generally covered in the wide array of existing books on the city, London manages to capture the city's enticing complexity and its ruthless vitality.This celebration of London's diverse immigrant communities is timely in the light of the societal fault lines exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit. It is a sensitive and insightful book that has a great deal to say to Londoners as well as to Britain as a whole.
London Made Us: A Memoir of a Shape-Shifting City
by Robert Elms'London is a giant kaleidoscope, which is forever turning. Take your eye off it for more than a moment and you’re lost.’ Robert Elms has seen his beloved city change beyond all imagining. London in his lifetime has morphed from a piratical, still bomb-scarred playground, to a swish cosmopolitan metropolis. Motorways driven through lost communities, murder miles becoming estate agents' dreams, accents changing, towers appearing. Yet still it remains to him the greatest place on earth. Elms takes us back through time and place to myriad Londons. He is our guide through a place that has seen scientific experiments conducted in subterranean lairs, a small community declare itself an independent nation and animals of varying exoticism roam free through its streets; a place his great-great-grandfather made the Elms’ home over a century ago and a city that has borne witness to epoch- and world-changing events.
Long Drawn Out Trip: A Memoir
by Gerald ScarfeIn 1964 a young artist sat in the public gallery of the House of Commons, sketching former Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The Sunday Times refused to print the resulting drawing of this frail, aged figure - so far from the public image of the man - it was too truthful.In the sixty years since, Gerald Scarfe's work has continued to expose the truth, and has appeared many times in the pages of the Sunday Times, in the Evening Standard, New Yorker, Private Eye and Time, as well as on the walls of the V&A and the Tate, the stages of the English National Opera and the English National Ballet, and cinema screens around the world in the form of Pink Floyd The Wall and Disney's Hercules.In Long Drawn Out Trip, Gerald tells his life story for the first time. With captivating, often thrilling stories, he takes us back to his wartime childhood and the terrible curse of asthma, through his days as an advertising draughtsman, to his field reporting in Vietnam and the giddy highs of rock 'n' roll. He also reveals the process of cartooning - and the ways that certain subjects have reacted to his visions of them. Along the way he has been car-jacked in Derry, dined with royals, and thoroughly upset Mrs Mary Whitehouse. It is a very personal, wickedly funny and caustically insightful account of an artist's life at the forefront of contemporary culture and society.
Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir
by T Kira MaddenAcclaimed literary essayist T Kira Madden's raw and redemptive debut memoir is about coming of age and reckoning with desire as a queer, biracial teenager amidst the fierce contradictions of Boca Raton, Florida, a place where she found cult-like privilege, shocking racial disparities, rampant white-collar crime, and powerfully destructive standards of beauty hiding in plain sight. <p><p> As a child, Madden lived a life of extravagance, from her exclusive private school to her equestrian trophies and designer shoe-brand name. But under the surface was a wild instability. The only child of parents continually battling drug and alcohol addictions, Madden confronted her environment alone. Facing a culture of assault and objectification, she found lifelines in the desperately loving friendships of fatherless girls. <p><p> With unflinching honesty and lyrical prose, spanning from 1960s Hawai'i to the present-day struggle of a young woman mourning the loss of a father while unearthing truths that reframe her reality, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is equal parts eulogy and love letter. It's a story about trauma and forgiveness, about families of blood and affinity, both lost and found, unmade and rebuilt, crooked and beautiful.
The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling
by David Gilmour'Superb, beautifully written, touching and occasionally very funny' Andrew RobertsDavid Gilmour's superb biography of Rudyard Kipling is the first to show how the life and work of the great writer mirrored the trajectory of the British Empire, from its zenith to its final decades. His famous poem 'Recessional' celebrated Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, but his last poems warned of the dangers of Nazism, and in those intervening years Kipling, himself an icon of the Empire, was transformed from an apostle of success to a prophet of national decline. As Gilmour makes clear, Kipling's mysterious stories and poetry deeply influenced the way his readers saw both themselves and the British Empire, and they continue to challenge us today.'A fine, fair and generous work ... Gilmour's celebrated life of Curzon demonstrated his mastery of imperial nuance and esoteric character, and he brings to this book just the right combination of empathy, distaste andfastidious detachment ... there is never a flaccid line, and never a hasty judgement' Jan Morris, New Statesman'Every now and again a book comes along that sheds new light on a life we thought we knew. David Gilmour's beautifully-written biography of Rudyard Kipling is just such a work ... This is literary biography at its very finest' George Rosie, Sunday Herald'An enthralling biography of a mind ... essential reading for anyone who cares about how a writer finds, and passionately lives, his subject' Ruth Padel, Daily Telegraph'The best Kipling biography yet written ... Gilmour's account of this driven man shines with intelligence' J. B. Pick, Scotsman
Long Shot: My Life As a Sniper in the Fight Against ISIS
by Azad CudiAs Syria imploded in civil war in 2011, Kurdish volunteers in the north rose up to free their homeland from centuries of repression and create a progressive sanctuary that they named Rojava. To the medievalists of ISIS, the emergence of a haven of tolerance and democracy on the frontier of their new caliphate was an affront. They amassed 12,000 men, heavy artillery, tanks, mortars and ranks of suicide bombers to crush the uprising. Against them stood 2,500 volunteer fighters armed with 40-year-old rifles. There was only one way for the Kurds to survive. They would have to kill the invaders one by one.A decade earlier, as a 19-year-old conscript into the Iranian army, Azad Cudi had faced being forced to fight his own Kurdish people. Instead he had deserted, seeking asylum in Britain. Now, as he returned to his homeland to help build a new Kurdistan, he found he would have to pick up a gun once more. In September 2014, Azad became one of 17 snipers deployed when ISIS, trying to shatter the Kurds in a decisive battle, besieged the northern city of Kobani.In Long Shot, Azad tells the inside story of how a group of activists and idealists withstood a ferocious assault and, street by street, house by house, took back their land in a victory that was to prove the turning point in the war against ISIS. By turns devastating, inspiring and lyrical, this is an unique account of modern war and of the incalculable price of victory as a few thousand men and women achieved the impossible and kept their dream of freedom alive.
The Long Walk Home: An Escape in Wartime Italy
by Peter Medd Frank SimmsOn September 13th 1943, two young British officers seized the chance to escape their PoW convoy after the capitulation of Italy. This catapulted them onto a two-month, seven-hundred-mile journey through enemy territory down the spine of Italy, helped by many brave local families. This new edition of The Long Walk Home sets the record of this extraordinary adventure straight. It gives Frank Simms equal billing as author, something that was denied him by the tragic early death of his companion Peter Medd. Simms’s son, Marcus Binney, fleshes out the father he barely knew, who also died young less than a decade after this daring escape, and in the process does much to put the adventure in context. He has also unearthed his father’s thrilling account of his previous ‘Great Escape’ by tunnelling out of the PoW camp at Padula in the south of Italy.
Look What You Made Me Do: A Powerful Memoir of Coercive Control
by Helen Walmsley-JohnsonNot all abuse leaves a mark. For more than two years, BBC Radio 4’s The Archers ran a disturbing storyline centred on Helen Titchener’s abuse at the hands of her husband Rob. Not the kind of abuse that leaves a bruise, but the sort of coercive control that breaks your spirit and makes it almost impossible to walk away. As she listened to the unfolding story, Helen Walmsley-Johnson was forced to confront her own agonizing past.Helen’s first husband controlled her life, from the people she saw to what was in her bank account. He alienated her from friends and family and even from their three daughters. Eventually, he threw her out and she painfully began to rebuild her life.Then, divorced and in her early forties, she met Franc. Kind, charming, considerate Franc. For ten years she would be in his thrall, even when he too was telling her what to wear, what to eat, even what to think. Look What You Made Me Do is her candid and utterly gripping memoir of how she was trapped by a smiling abuser, not once but twice. It is a vital guide to recognizing, understanding and surviving this sinister form of abuse and its often terrible legacy. It is also an inspirational account of how one woman found the courage to walk away.'Powerful' Jane Garvey, Woman's Hour'Compelling' Suzanne Moore
Loose Women: Our Life Lessons Revealed
by ITV Ventures LimitedFor 20 years the Loose Women panellists have been entertaining the nation with their forthright opinions on the vagaries of modern life. For the first time, they have come together to share intimate thoughts, fears, memories and anecdotes that are both thought-provoking and entertaining in equal measure.Loose Women: Let Loose! takes on the essential subjects of Love, Sex, Self-Esteem, Friendships, Family, Body Image and Wellness. Whether it is parenting advice from Nadia ('It's important to have a support network when you're a new parent'); Gloria's experience with bereavement ('Losing a child changes you, you can't be the same person'); Coleen's feelings about love ('I do believe there is "the one" - for now'); or Janet's take on mental health ('It doesn't need to be triggered by splitting up or a death, it could be happening in small ways'), there are stories that have never been shared before alongside the show's best bits, making Loose Women: Let Loose! a hilarious and honest guide to handling life's ups and downs as a 21st-century woman.
Lost Child: The True Story of a Girl who Couldn't Ask for Help
by Torey HaydenFrom Torey Hayden, the number one Sunday Times bestselling author of One Child comes Lost Girl, a poignant and deeply moving account of a lost little girl and an extraordinary educational psychologist's courage and determination.Jessie is nine years old and looks like the perfect little girl, with red hair, green eyes and a beguiling smile. She even has a talent for drawing gorgeous and intricate pictures. But Jessie also knows how to get her own way and will lie, scream, shout and hurt to get just exactly what she wants.Her parents say they can't take her back, and her social workers struggle to deal with her destructive behaviour and wild mood swings. After her chaotic passage through numerous foster placements, Jessie has finally received a diagnosis of an attachment disorder. Attachment disorders arise when children are deprived of the all-important close bonds with trustworthy adults that allow them to develop emotionally and thrive. Finally educational psychologist Torey Hayden is called in to help. Torey agrees to weekly meetings with Jessie to try and uncover why she is acting out. Torey's gentle care and attention reveal shocking truths behind Jessie's lies. Can Torey and the other social workers help to provide the consistent loving care that has so far been missing in Jessie’s life, or will she push them away too?
Lost Dog: A Love Story
by Kate Spicer'Lost Dog is already one of my books of the year. Spicer writes like a dream, and her unblinking appraisal of her world and of her place in it feels like an act of generosity towards the reader. You will love it.' India Knight, Sunday Times 'It’s a fabulous book...I couldn’t put it down.' Jane FallonMeet woman's best friend.Kate is a middle aged woman trying to steer some order into a life that is going off the rails. When she adopts a lurcher called Wolfy, the shabby rescue dog saves her from herself. But when the dog disappears, it is up to Kate to hit the streets of London and find him. Will she save him, as he has saved her - or will she lose everything?As she trudges endlessly calling his name in the hopeless hope she may find him, she runs into other people’s landscapes and lives, finding allies amongst psychics, bloggers and mysterious midnight joggers. Trying to find her dog tests her relationship, and her sanity, to its limits – and gets her thinking about her life, and why things have turned out as they have for her. A brilliant, life-affirming memoir, Lost Dog is a book like no other about both about the myth of modern womanhood, and the enduring mystery of the relationship between human and canine.
The Lost Homestead: My Mother, Partition and the Punjab
by Marina WheelerOn 3 June 1947, as British India descended into chaos, its division into two states was announced. For months the violence and civil unrest escalated. With millions of others, Marina Wheeler's mother Dip Singh and her Sikh family were forced to flee their home in the Punjab, never to return. As an Anglo-Indian with roots in what is now Pakistan, Marina Wheeler weave's her mother's story of loss and new beginnings, personal and political freedom into the broader, still highly contested, history of the region. We follow Dip when she marries Marina's English father and leaves India for good, to Berlin, then a divided city, and to Washington DC where the fight for civil rights embraced the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. The Lost Homestead touches on global themes that strongly resonate today: political change, religious extremism, migration, minorities, nationhood, identity and belonging. But above all it is about coming to terms with the past, and about the stories we choose to tell about ourselves.
Lost in Motherhood: The Memoir Of A Woman Who Gained A Baby And Lost Her Sh*t
by Grace TimothyPreviously published as Mum Face. Best described as The Wrong Knickers for mums, in this wry, resonant and darkly funny memoir, journalist Grace Timothy explores motherhood as an issue of identity.
The Lost Properties of Love
by Sophie RatcliffeWhat if you could tell the truth about who you are, without risking losing the one you love? This is a book about love affairs and why we choose to have them; a book for anyone who has ever loved and wondered what it is all about.
The Lotus Years: Political Life in India in the Time of Rajiv Gandhi
by Ashwini Bhatnagar‘He was their Next Big Hope, after the first one had been dashed to the ground…’ When Rajiv Gandhi became prime minister in 1984 it was for him a baptism of fire. The tumultuous years that followed witnessed the beginnings of economic reform and the stemming of regional insurgency on the one hand, and the drama of the Shah Bano case and the Bofors scandal on the other – events that sent tremors through the country and its political establishment. As a journalist covering politics from the time of Indira Gandhi’s reign, Ashwini Bhatnagar observed at close quarters the consequences of the transition from iron-handed rule to one of earnest naivety, the calculations of the country’s foremost political players, dramatic election campaigns and the unwieldy workings of dynastic politics. In The Lotus Years, Ashwini draws from his field notes to weave a remarkable chronicle that brings together the life of a reluctant prime minister, the inner dynamics of his powerful family and the story of a maturing democratic nation, laying bare the intricacies and dissonances of political life in India.
Love as Always, Mum xxx: The true and terrible story of surviving a childhood with Fred and Rose West
by Mae West'A CHILLING new memoir by the daughter of mass murderer Fred West and his wife Rose describes the savage cruelty of her upbringing in 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester' DAILY MAIL'Mae, I mean this ... I'm not a good person and I let all you children down ...' Rose West, HM PRISON DURHAM It has taken over 20 years for Mae West to find the perspective and strength to tell her remarkable story: one of an abusive, violent childhood, of her serial killer parents and how she has rebuilt her life in the shadow of their terrible crimes. Through her own memories, research and the letters her mother wrote to her from prison, Mae shares her emotionally powerful account of her life as a West. From a toddler locked in the deathly basement to a teen fighting off the sexual advances of her father, Mae's story is one of survival. It also answers the questions: how do you come to terms with knowing your childhood bedroom was a graveyard? How do you accept the fact your parents sexually tortured, murdered and dismembered young women? How do you become a mother yourself when you're haunted by the knowledge that your own mother was a monster? Why were you spared and how do you escape the nightmare?
A Love Letter to Europe: An outpouring of sadness and hope – Mary Beard, Shami Chakrabati, Sebastian Faulks, Neil Gaiman, Ruth Jones, J.K. Rowling, Sandi Toksvig and others
by Various Melvyn Bragg Lindsey Davis Pete Townshend Chris Cleave Chris Riddell Margaret Drabble Philip Ardagh Mary Beard William Dalrymple Will Hutton Holly Johnson Simon Callow Prue Leith Brian Catling Tony Robinson Tracey Emin Shami Chakrabarti Jonathan Meades Frank Cottrell Boyce J.K. Rowling Jeffrey Boakye Onjali Rauf Peter J ConradiGreat writers, artists, musicians and thinkers in British life say what Europe means to them: an outpouring of love and sadness. With pieces from Frank Cottrell Boyce, Melvyn Bragg, Margaret Drabble, Alan Hollinghurst, Will Hutton, Holly Johnson, Penelope Lively, Jonathan Meades, Deborah Moggach, Alan Moore, Jackie Morris, Cathy Rentzenbrink, Chris Riddle, Tony Robinson, Pete Townshend, Kate Williams, Michael Wood and many more...As Britain pulls away from Europe great British writers come together to give voice to their innermost feelings. Contributing essays that contain some of their finest writings and perspectives very different to the ones given in news outlets. The creative community here has its say on Brexit. Novelists, artists, comedians, historians, biographers, nature writers, film writers, travel writers, people young and old and from an extraordinary range of backgrounds. Most are famous perhaps because they have won the Booker or other literary prizes, written bestsellers, changed the face of popular culture or sold millions of records. Others are not yet household names but write with depth of insight and feeling.There is some extraordinary writing in this book. Some of these pieces are expressions of love of particular places in Europe. Some are true stories, some nostalgic, many hopeful. There are hilarious pieces. There are cries of pain and regret. Some pieces are quietly devastating. All are passionate. They show how Europe has helped us to expand our emotional, intellectual and artistic bandwidth, and hopefully will continue to do just that.Contributors include:Mary Beard, Jeffrey Boakye, Melvyn Bragg, Simon Callow, B. Catling, Shami Chakrabarti, Chris Cleave, Frank Cottrell Boyce, William Dalrymple, Lindsey Davis, Margaret Drabble, Tracey Emin, Michel Faber, Sebastian Faulks, Neil Gaiman, Evelyn Glennie, Alan Hollinghurst, Will Hutton, Holly Johnson, Ruth Jones, A.L. Kennedy, Hermione Lee, Prue Leith, Roger Lewis, Penelope Lively, Richard Mabey, Jonathan Meades, Andrew Miller, Deborah Moggach, Alan Moore, Paul Morley, Jackie Morris, Charles Nicholl, Irenosen Okojie, Onjali Q. Raúf, Chris Riddell, Tony Robinson, J.K. Rowling, Rhik Samadder, Isy Suttie, Sandi Toksvig, Pete Townshend, Kate Williams and Michael Wood.
The Love Song of André P. Brink: A Biography
by Leon de KockThe Love Song of André P Brink is the first biography of this major South African novelist who, during his lifetime, was published in over 30 languages and ranked with the likes of Gabriel García Márquez, Peter Carey and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.Leon de Kock’s eagerly awaited account of Brink’s life is richly informed by a previously unavailable literary treasure: the dissident Afrikaner’s hoard of journal-writing, a veritable chronicle that was 54 years in the making.In this massive new biographical source – running to a million words – Brink does not spare himself, or anyone else for that matter, as he narrates the ups and downs of his five marriages and his compulsive affairs with a great number of women. These are precisely the topics that the rebel in both politics and sex skated over in his memoir, A Fork in the Road.De Kock’s biographical study of the author who came close to winning the Nobel Prize for Literature not only synthesises the journals but also subjects them to searching critical analysis. In addition, the biographer measures the journals against additional sources, both scholarly and otherwise, among them the testimony of Brink’s friends, family, wives and lovers.The Love Song of André P Brink subjects Brink’s literary legacy to a bracing scholarly re-evaluation, making this major new biography a crucial addition to scholarship on Brink.
Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns
by Kerry Hudson'Kerry Hudson invites us to really understand the complexities of being born working class in Britain. Buy it, read it, tell everyone about it' Jack Monroe ‘One of the most important books of the year’ Guardian 'When every day of your life you have been told you have nothing of value to offer, that you are worth nothing to society, can you ever escape that sense of being ‘lowborn’ no matter how far you’ve come?’ Kerry Hudson is proudly working class but she was never proudly poor. The poverty she grew up in was all-encompassing, grinding and often dehumanising. Always on the move with her single mother, Kerry attended nine primary schools and five secondaries, living in B&Bs and council flats. She scores eight out of ten on the Adverse Childhood Experiences measure of childhood trauma. Twenty years later, Kerry’s life is unrecognisable. She’s a prizewinning novelist who has travelled the world. She has a secure home, a loving partner and access to art, music, film and books. But she often finds herself looking over her shoulder, caught somehow between two worlds.Lowborn is Kerry’s exploration of where she came from. She revisits the towns she grew up in to try to discover what being poor really means in Britain today and whether anything has changed. She also journeys into the hardest regions of her own childhood, because sometimes in order to move forwards we first have to look back.
A Lublin Survivor: Life is Like a Dream
by Esther Minars"To this day I am unable to understand how I managed to survive against all odds." So relates the memoir of a young woman, Eva Szek (later Eisenkeit), who survived the Nazi onslaught against Jews in her beloved city of Lublin in Poland, an important centre of Jewish religion and culture. Eva recounts with compelling testimony her fearless fight not to fall into German hands and to save her family. Her experiences under German occupation, her struggle to survive and her subsequent liberation is an historical account of the tragedy of a Jewish community destroyed. The memoir describes Jewish Lublin life before the war, its religious institutions and charities; Polish-Jewish relations; the German bombing and invasion; the Russian escape options; the German occupation and registration of Jews; Eva's escape from the ghetto and two labour camps; her hiding in villages and farms, and complex wartime relations with Poles; her negotiated freedom with Mr. X (a Polish man who hid Jews for money, and cannot be considered a "Righteous"; life in liberated Lublin, including the first Passover celebration; meeting other survivors and trying to make a living; and Eva's postwar move to Lodz and marriage, and then to a Displaced Persons (DP) camp in Germany. As her eighty-fifth birthday approached, Eva asked her daughter Esther to take down her life story "so the whole world will know what the Germans did." A Lublin Survivor: Life is Like a Dream not only provides an extraordinarily complete and descriptive picture of life in pre-war and liberated Lublin but a first-hand account of the obliteration of its Jewish community and one individual's indomitable determination to survive against all odds.
Luis Buñuel: A Life in Letters
by Jo Evans Breixo ViejoLuis Buñuel: A Life in Letters provides access for the first time to an annotated English-language version of around 250 of the most important and most widely relevant of these letters. Buñuel (1900-1983) came to international attention with his first films, Un Chien Andalou (with Dalí, 1929) and L'Âge d'Or (1930): two surprisingly avant-garde productions that established his position as the undisputed master of Surrealist filmmaking. He went on to make 30 full-length features in France, the US and Mexico, and consolidated his international reputation with a Palme d'Or for Viridiana in 1961, and an Academy Award in 1973 for The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. He corresponded with some of the most famous writers, directors, actors and artists of his generation and the list of these correspondents reads like a roll call of major twentieth-century cultural icons: Fellini, Truffaut, Vigo, Aragon, Dalí, Unik - and yet none of this material has been accessible outside specialist archives and a very small number of publications in Spanish and French.