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The Last Englishman: The Life and Times of Jack Gibson
by Laeeq Futehally‘To educate means...to lead out, not to drive in. The first problem for a teacher is...to awake interest in those he is teaching and to make them keen to find out and understand for themselves, rather than rely on textbooks… The ability to do this, indeed, is the test of a really educated man, especially in [India], where objectivity is little valued, and a large assemblage of facts is much admired.’ Widely acknowledged as the pioneer of the public school system in India, Jack Gibson’s name is synonymous with opening the doors of ‘privileged education’ for one and all. As headmaster of Mayo College, Ajmer, he singlehandedly transformed the school into the ‘Eton of India’, laying the foundation for the formidable reputation it enjoys as well as for the methods in which education is imparted in public schools today. Having moved to India from England in 1936 to join the newly founded Doon School as a housemaster, Gibson adopted the country and its people as his own. His keen mind and larger-than-life nature made him a popular leader, one who was closely involved in his students’ lives, fulfilling the roles of teacher, mentor, parent and disciplinarian all at once. Beloved by his students for his unconventional teaching methods (frequently involving picnics and treks to the nearby hills), his innate sense of fairness and his accessibility, he remained at Doon until 1953 – during which time he also served as the first principal of the Joint Services Wing, now the prestigious National Defence Academy – before joining Mayo College. For his outstanding contribution to education, he was awarded the Padma Shri in 1965. Educator, visionary, coach, mountaineer, friend and, above all, an inspiration, Gibson left an indelible mark on the institutions and the people he encountered in his life. Drawing on the many memories uncovered in his writings, The Last Englishman recounts the story of an extraordinary man through stories and anecdotes from those closest to him – his boys.
The Last Englishmen: Love, War and the End of Empire
by Deborah Baker'A continuously absorbing and stimulating book, which enlarges the cultural and political history of the mid-20th century' Pankaj MishraJohn Auden was a pioneering geologist of the Himalayas. Michael Spender was the first to survey the northern approach to the summit of Mount Everest. While their younger brothers – W.H Auden and Stephen Spender – achieved literary fame, they vied for a place on an expedition that would finally conquer Everest, a quest that had become a metaphor for Britain’s efforts to maintain power over India. To this rivalry was added another: in the summer of 1938 both men fell in love with a painter named Nancy Sharp. Her choice would determine each man’s wartime loyalties.From Calcutta to pre-war London to the snowy slopes of Everest, The Last Englishmen tracks a generation obsessed with a romantic ideal. As political struggle rages in Spain, the march to war with Germany seems inevitable, Communist spies expand their ranks and the fight for Indian independence enters its final bloody act, writers and explorers, Englishmen and Indians must pick their cause. The Last Englishmen is an engrossing story that traces the end of empire and the stirring of a new world order. It encourages us to look again at our national story, to seek out the viewpoints of those on the other end of unchecked power, and to question our own mythologies.
The Last Fighting Tommy: The Life of Harry Patch, Last Veteran of the Trenches, 1898-2009
by Richard Van Emden Harry PatchHarry Patch, the last British soldier alive to have fought in the trenches of the First World War, is one of very few people who can directly recall the horror of that conflict.Harry vividly remembers his childhood in the Somerset countryside of Edwardian England. He left school in 1913 to become an apprentice plumber but three years later was conscripted, serving as a machine gunner in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. Fighting in the mud and trenches during the Battle of Passchendaele, he saw a great many of his comrades die, and in one dreadful moment the shell that wounded him kill his three closest friends. In vivid detail he describes daily life in the trenches, the terror of being under intense artillery fire, and the fear of going over the top. Then, after the Armistice, the soldiers' frustration at not being quickly demobbed led to a mutiny in which Harry was soon caught up.The Second World War saw Harry in action on the home front as a fire-fighter during the bombing of Bath. He also warmly describes his friendship with American GIs preparing to go to France, and, years later, his tears when he saw their graves.Late in life Harry achieved fame, meeting the Queen and taking part in the BBC documentary The Last Tommies, finally shaking hands with a German veteran of the artillery and speaking out frankly to Prime Minister Tony Blair about the soldiers shot for cowardice in the First World War.The Last Fighting Tommy is the story of an ordinary man's extraordinary life.
The Last Fighting Tommy: The Life of Harry Patch, Last Veteran of the Trenches, 1898-2009
by Richard Van Emden Harry Patch'An extraordinary biography by the very last witness of a devastating four years in British history' Daily MailOn 17 June 2009, Harry Patch celebrated his 111th birthday. At the time, he was the last living British Tommy who had fought in the trenches during the First World War. Now that direct link with the past has gone. From Patch's vivid memories of an Edwardian childhood, through the horrors of the battles of Ypres and Passchendaele to working on the home front in the Second World War and fame in later life as a veteran, The Last Fighting Tommy is the story of an ordinary man's extraordinary life. A hundred years after the end of the Great War, this powerful account of a life defined by those four devastating years remains as important and relevant as ever. This updated edition includes a new introduction, as well as previously unseen photographs.
The Last Fighting Tommy: The Life of Harry Patch, Last Veteran of the Trenches, 1898-2009
by Richard Van Emden Harry PatchHarry Patch, born June 17, 1898, was the last British soldier alive to have fought in the trenches of the First World War. From his vivid memories of an Edwardian childhood, the horror of the Great War and fighting in the mud during the Battle of Passchendaele, working on the home front in the Second World War, and fame in later life as a veteran, The Last Fighting Tommy is the story of an ordinary man's extraordinary life.
The Last Fine Time
by Verlyn KlinkenborgBy turns, an elegy, a celebration, and a social history, The Last Fine Time is a tour de force of lyrical style. Verlyn Klinkenborg chronicles the life of a family-owned restaurant in Buffalo, New York, from its days as a prewar Polish tavern to its reincarnation as George & Eddie's, a swank nightspot serving highballs and French-fried shrimp to a generation of optimistic and prosperous Americans. In the inevitable dimming of the neon sign outside the restaurant, we see both the passing of an old world way of life and the end to the postwar exuberance that was Eddie Wenzek's "last fine time."
The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness
by Harlow Giles UngerFrom the New York Times bestselling author, the larger than life story of America's fifth president, who transformed a small, fragile nation into a powerful empireIn this compelling biography, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger reveals the epic story of James Monroe (1758-1831)-the last of America's Founding Fathers-who transformed a small, fragile nation beset by enemies into a powerful empire stretching "from sea to shining sea." Like David McCullough's John Adams and Jon Meacham's American Lion, The Last Founding Father is both a superb read and stellar scholarship-action-filled history in the grand tradition.
The Last Foundling: A little boy left behind, The mother who wanted him back
by Tom H. MackenzieWhen she fell pregnant in London in 1938, Jean knew that she couldn't keep her baby. The unmarried daughter of an elder in the Church of Scotland, she would shame her family if she returned to the north in such a condition. Scared and alone in a city on the brink of war, she begged the Foundling Hospital to give her baby the start in life that she could not.The institution, which had been providing care for deserted infants since the eighteenth century, allowed Jean to nurse her son for nine weeks, leaving her heartbroken when the time came to let him go.But little Tom knew nothing of her love as he grew up in the Foundling Hospital - which, during years of the Second World War, was more like a prison than a children's home. Locked in and subject to public canings and the sadistic whims of the older boys, there was no one to give him a hug, no one to wipe away his tears.A true story of desertion and neglect, this is also a moving account of survival from one of the very last foundlings. It stands as a testament to the love that ultimately led a family back together.
The Last Gangster: My Final Confession
by Charlie RichardsonCharlie Richardson, one of Britain's most notorious gangland bosses, sheds light on his extraordinary life story completed just weeks before his death in September 2012.Notorious Charlie Richardson was the most feared gangster in 1960s London. Boss of the Richardson Gang and rival of the Krays, to cross him would result in brutal repercussions. Famously arrested on the day England won the World Cup in 1966, his trial heard he allegedly used iron bars, bolt cutters and electric shocks on his enemies.The Last Gangster is Richardson’s frank account of his largely untold life story, finished just before his death in September 2012. He shares the truth behind the rumours and tells of his feuds with the Krays for supremacy, undercover missions involving politicians, many lost years banged up in prison and reveals shocking secrets about royalty, phone hacking, bent coppers and the infamous black box.Straight up, shocking and downright gripping, this is the ultimate exposé on this legendary gangster and his extraordinary life.
The Last Gentleman of the SAS: A Moving Testimony from the First Allied Officer to Enter Belsen at the End of the Second World War
by John Randall M J TrowIn 1945, John Randall was the first Allied officer to enter Bergen-Belsen – the concentration camp that would reveal the horrors of the Holocaust to the world. Randall was one of that league of extraordinary gentlemen handpicked for suicidally dangerous missions behind enemy lines in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany throughout the Second World War. He was a man of his class and of his times. He hated the Germans, liked the French and was unimpressed by the Americans and the Arabs. He was an outrageous flirt, as might be expected of a man who served in Phantom alongside film stars David Niven and Hugh Williams. He played rugby with Paddy Mayne, the larger-than-life colonel of the SAS and winner of four DSOs. He pushed Randolph Churchill, son of the Prime Minister, out of an aeroplane. He wined and dined in nightclubs as part of the generation that lived for each day because they might not see another.This extraordinary true story, partly based on previously unpublished diaries, presents a different slant on that mighty war through the eyes of a restless young man eager for action and adventure.
The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and My Fight Against the Islamic State
by Nadia Murad Jenna KrajeskiWinner of the Nobel Peace Prize'Those who thought that by their cruelty they could silence her were wrong. Nadia Murad's spirit is not broken and her voice will not be muted' Amal Clooney'Offers powerful insight into the barbarity the Yazidi suffered alongside glimpses into their mystical culture . . . this is an important book by a brave woman, fresh testament to humankind's potential for chilling and inexplicable evil' Ian Birrell, The Times'Courageous . . . Anyone who wants to understand the so called Islamic State should read' The Economist'The pope also recommended reading Iraqi Yazidi Nobel Prize winner Nadia Murad's book, The Last Girl, which he said he had read, commenting that "everything that the world thinks about women is concentrated there . . . However, the world cannot function without women," he insisted' La Croix InternationalWith a foreword by Amal Clooney A Nobel Peace Prize nominee and the first Goodwill Ambassador the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking of the United Nations and winner of the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize, Nadia Murad is a courageous young woman who has endured unimaginable tragedy (losing eighteen members of her family) and degradation through sexual enslavement to ISIS. But she has fought back. This inspiring memoir takes us from her peaceful childhood in a remote village in Iraq through loss and brutality to safety in Germany. Courage and testimony can change the world: this is one of those books.
The Last Good Funeral of the Year: A Memoir
by Ed O'LoughlinSoon, the lockdown would start. People would die alone, without any proper ceremony. Charlotte's death would be washed away, the first drop in a downpour. Nobody knew it then but hers would be the last good funeral of the year.It was February 2020, when Ed O'Loughlin heard that Charlotte, a woman he'd known had died, young and before her time. He realised that he was being led to reappraise his life, his family and his career as a foreign correspondent and acclaimed novelist in a new, colder light. He was suddenly faced with facts that he had been ignoring, that he was getting old, that he wasn't what he used to be, that his imagination, always over-active, had at some point reversed its direction, switching production from dreams to regrets. He saw he was mourning his former self, not Charlotte. The search for meaning becomes the driving theme of O'Loughlin's year of confinement. He remembers his brother Simon, a suicide at thirty; the journalists and photographers with whom he covered wars in Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, wars that are hard to explain and never really stopped; his habit of shedding baggage, an excuse for hurrying past and not dwelling on things.Moving, funny, and searingly honest, The Last Good Funeral of the Year takes the reader on a circular journey from present to past and back to the present: 'Could any true story end any other way?'
The Last Good Funeral of the Year
by Ed O’LoughlinFrom Ed O’Loughlin, author of Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Minds of Winter, a pensive and poignant recollection of love, loss, marriage, and the life events that have shaped his identity. Soon, the lockdown would start. People would die alone, without any proper ceremony. Charlotte’s death would be washed away, the first drop in a downpour. Nobody knew it then, but hers would be the last good funeral of the year. It was February 2020 when Ed O’Loughlin unexpectedly heard that Charlotte, a friend from the old days, had just died young and before her time. He realized that he was being led to reappraise his life, his family, and his career as a foreign correspondent and novelist in a new, colder light. This search for meaning becomes the driving theme of O’Loughlin’s year of confinement. The result is a haunting examination of the author’s early life and love, the journalists and photographers with whom he covered wars in Africa and the Middle East, the suicide of his brother, his new work as an author, a family home on the edge of a graveyard, and the mysteries of memory, aging, and loss. He was suddenly faced with facts that he had been ignoring, that he was getting old, that he wasn’t what he used to be, that his imagination, always over-active, had at some point reversed its direction, switching production from dreams to regrets. Moving, funny, and searingly honest, The Last Good Funeral of the Year takes the reader on a circular journey from present to past and back to the present: “Could any true story end any other way?”
The Last Grain Race (Lonely Planet Journeys Ser.)
by Eric NewbyAn engaging and informative first-hand account of the last ‘grain race’ of maritime history, from respected travel writer Eric Newby.
The Last Hangman
by Shashi WarrierIn the heat and the dust of the Indian south, the last hangman of Travancore commits his life to paper. Into seven notebooks he remembers the men he has killed, calmly calling to mind the final struggles of the men he hung by the neck to die.The Last Hangman is a remarkable and haunting novel: a meditation on death and what it means to end a life. It is a challenging and harrowing book that explores a great moral question: when does someone who kills become a murderer?
The Last Happy Occasion
by Alan ShapiroThe Last Happy Occasion is the coming-of-age story of an American Jew and aspiring writer in the sixties and seventies. In this memoir in six movements, Alan Shapiro recalls how poetry helped him make sense of his own and other people's lives. Events unfold, including his sister's death, that make him reconsider the transformative power of art and accept the limitations of poetry in confronting the untransformable pain of mortal loss. A refreshingly honest, lovingly crafted work, The Last Happy Occasion is a treasure map for anyone interested in exploring the intersections of life and art. Nominated for the 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award. "[Shapiro] seeks what lies at the deepest level of the human heart to mitigate his—and our—separateness from others."—Chase Collins, Chicago Tribune Books "The Last Happy Occasion is touching and intelligent, emotionally satisfying and eloquent testimony to the power of poetry to instruct, heal and inspire."—Emily Barton, New York Times Book Review "Shapiro, not unlike Auden, doses his wordplay with a certain sly irony. . . . We come away from Shapiro's book with an intimate appreciation of the little subversions that poetry can work in one's life."—Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times "He is an acute observer of moments, people, art and language. And he packs even seemingly simple stories with many layers of meaning. . . . He shows us the power and importance of transformative art in life."—Publishers Weekly, starred review "The literary criticism is sharp, but what enthralls the reader more is Shapiro's humorous but honest perspective on his younger self, a perspective that is critical without being condescending."—Heller McAlpin, Newsday
The Last Heroes: Voices of British and Commonwealth Veterans
by Gary Bridson-DaleyThe Second World War is famed for being the conflict that changed the face of warfare, and it is the last that changed the face of the world. In addition to remembering those that passed away in those dark days of war, a sincere debt of gratitude is owed to all those now in their twilight years who gave all that they had for King and Country. Here Gary Bridson-Daley presents forty-two of over a hundred interviews he conducted with veterans over recent years, adding to the history books the words and the original poetry of those that fought and supported the war effort to ensure freedom, peace and prosperity for generations to come. From each corner of the British Isles and every armed service, from Dam Buster George ‘Johnny’ Johnson through to riveter Susan Jones: heroes, all.
The Last Highlander: Scotland's Most Notorious Clan Chief, Rebel And Double Agent
by Sarah FraserTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER PERFECT FOR FANS OF OUTLANDER The true story of one of Scotland’s most notorious and romantic heroes.
The Last Holiday: A Memoir (Canons #61)
by Gil Scott-HeronRaised by his grandmother in Tennessee, Gil Scott-Heron's journey from humble beginnings to becoming one of the most uncompromising and influential songwriters of his generation is a remarkable one. In this, his heartfelt, beautifully written and posthumously published memoir, we are given bright insights into the music industry, New York, the civil-rights movement, modern America, governmental hypocrisy, Stevie Wonder and our wider place in the world. It is also a fitting testament to the generous brilliance of Gil Scott-Heron and to the Spirits that guided him.
The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys—and One Senator's Fight to Save Democracy
by James RisenIn this &“gripping . . . spectacular piece of reporting&” (Ken Burns), a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines Senator Frank Church, the man at the center of numerous investigations into the abuses of power within the American government. For decades now, America&’s national security state has grown ever bigger, ever more secretive and powerful, and ever more abusive. Only once did someone manage to put a stop to any of it. Senator Frank Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led congressional opposition to the Vietnam War and had become a scathing, radical critic of what he saw as American imperialism around the world. But he was still politically ambitious, privately yearning for acceptance from the foreign policy establishment that he hated and eager to run for president. Despite his flaws, Church would show historic strength in his greatest moment, when in the wake of Watergate he was suddenly tasked with investigating abuses of power in the intelligence community. The dark truths that Church exposed—from assassination plots by the CIA, to links between the Kennedy dynasty and the mafia, to the surveillance of civil rights activists by the NSA and FBI—would shake the nation to its core, and forever change the way that Americans thought about not only their government but also their ability to hold it accountable. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of recently declassified documents, and reams of unpublished letters, notes, and memoirs, some of which remain sensitive today, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter James Risen tells the gripping, untold story of truth and integrity standing against unchecked power—and winning—in The Last Honest Man. An instant New York Times bestseller
Last King in India: Wajid Ali Shah
by Rosie Llewellyn-JonesThe Last King in India is the story of an extraordinary man whose memory still divides opinion sharply today. Was he, as the British described him, a debauched ruler who spent his time with "fiddlers, eunuchs and women' instead of running the kingdom? Or, as most Indians believe, a gifted poet whose works are still quoted today, and who was robbed of his throne by the East India Company? Somewhere in between the two extremes lies a complex character: a man who married over 350 women, directed theatrical events lasting a month, and built a fairytale palace in Lucknow. Wajid Ali Shah was written out of the history books after his kingdom was annexed in 1856. Some even thought he had been killed during the mutiny the following year. But he lived on in Calcutta where he spent the last thirty years of his life trying to recreate his lost paradise. He remained a constant problem for the government of India, with his extravagance, his menagerie and his wives-in that order. For the first time his story is told here using original documents from Indian and British archives and meetings with his descendants.
Last King in India: Wajid Ali Shah
by Rosie Llewellyn-JonesThe Last King in India is the story of an extraordinary man whose memory still divides opinion sharply today. Was he, as the British described him, a debauched ruler who spent his time with "fiddlers, eunuchs and women' instead of running the kingdom? Or, as most Indians believe, a gifted poet whose works are still quoted today, and who was robbed of his throne by the East India Company? Somewhere in between the two extremes lies a complex character: a man who married over 350 women, directed theatrical events lasting a month, and built a fairytale palace in Lucknow. Wajid Ali Shah was written out of the history books after his kingdom was annexed in 1856. Some even thought he had been killed during the mutiny the following year. But he lived on in Calcutta where he spent the last thirty years of his life trying to recreate his lost paradise. He remained a constant problem for the government of India, with his extravagance, his menagerie and his wives-in that order. For the first time his story is told here using original documents from Indian and British archives and meetings with his descendants.
The Last King of Wales: Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, c. 1013-1063
by Michael Davies Sean DaviesGruffudd ap Llywelyn was Wales’ greatest king. Ambitious and battle-sure, he succeeded in doing what no Welsh king before him was capable of: he ruled all Wales as a united and independent state. He went further by turning the Viking threat to his realm into a powerful weapon and conquering border land that had been in English hands for centuries. Having emerged as a war leader, Gruffudd also proved to be much more: a patron of the arts and church, with the trappings of a king who was respected and feared on the European stage. His eventual murder at the hands of his own men narrowed the country’s political ambitions and left Wales in chaos on the eve of the arrival of the Normans. Those who betrayed Gruffudd were the forebears of the famous princes who would dominate Wales until the Edwardian Conquest, meaning that the former king left no one to tell of his glory. As a result, 1,000 years after his birth, the would-be nation builder is all but forgotten. Here, Sean and Michael Davies reveal the king in all his glory, telling for the first time the story of one of Wales’ greatest figures and exploring the full implications of Gruffudd’s rule. For, without Gruffudd, the fate of King Harold and the outcome of the Battle of Hastings would have been very different…
A Last Kiss for Mummy: A Teenage Mum A Tiny Infant A Desperate Decision
by Casey WatsonBestselling author and foster carer Casey Watson tells the heartbreaking true story of a teenage mother and baby in need of a safe and loving home.
The Last Knight Errant: Sir Edward Woodville and the Age of Chivalry
by Christopher WilkinsSir Edward Woodville was the medieval knight par excellence - except that his life coincided with the beginning of the Renaissance. With this vivid and long-awaited biography, Christopher Wilkins demonstrates how Sir Edward carved out an important role for himself in the 15th century, marrying the old-fashioned values of a chivalric age with the modernising trends that were dramatically re-shaping Europe. Far from an anachronism, The Last Knight Errant reveals how this quintessentially medieval figure, riding from battle to battle across Europe, was also profoundly engaged in the events that built the post-medieval states of England, Spain and France.The Last Knight Errant is the first full biography of this pivotal figure in English history for over a century and reveals him to have been a true hero whose significance in the politics of the period is often overlooked. Drawing on original research throughout Europe, Christopher Wilkins draws out Sir Edward Woodville's fascinating life and unusual character in the context of his remarkable family, who have been traditionally cast as among the most unpopular in English history. Sir Edward's eldest sister, Elizabeth, was married to King Edward IV and his brother was guardian to the Prince of Wales but disaster struck when Richard of York executed his coup in 1483. Edward escaped with ships, money and men to Brittany where he became the first of Henry Tudor's new supporters, providing much needed credibility to that cause. He fought at Bosworth but once Henry was crowned and married to his niece, Edward sailed off to fight the Moors before returning to England in time to command the cavalry during the invasion by the pretender to the throne, Lambert Simnel. Never far from the centre of the action, ultimately Edward was killed at the Battle of St Aubin in 1488 where he was leading a freelance expedition to fight the French, contrary to King Henry's own wishes. The Last Knight Errant restores Sir Edward Woodville to his rightful place at the heart of power in 15th-century England and represents him as a true hero whose reputation suffered at the hands of that genius of propaganda, Richard III.