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The Sanest Guy in the Room: A Life in Lyrics
by Don Black'Brilliant stories and wonderful behind-the-scenes glimpses of a life and career in show-business . . . It's bloody brilliant . . . Read it!' Michael BallDon Black is the songwriter's songwriter, a composer's dream collaborator, and the man behind some of the twentieth century's greatest musical numbers.Black made his first foray into the glittering world of showbiz as a stand-up, before realising his error and focusing on his lifelong passion instead - music. Shirley Bassey, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini and Barbra Streisand are just some of the artists Black has worked with over the years - not to mention his frequent collaborator, West End legend Andrew Lloyd Webber - in what can only be described as a remarkable musical career. Yet, never one to court fame, Black has always remained what Mark Steyn coined as 'the sanest guy in the room'.Interwoven with the stories behind songs such as 'Diamonds are Forever' and 'Born Free' are vignettes of Black's life with his beloved wife Shirley, who died in March 2018, after almost sixty years of marriage. Black writes movingly about how the enormity of his grief changed his life, and how the dark days are slowly turning into dark moments.The Sanest Guy in the Room is a rich and delightful paean to a life lived through song. It reveals the essence of Black's craft, looks at those who have inspired him and allows us to understand what made those icons tick. It is also a poignant tribute to Shirley, his biggest inspiration. Told with wit, warmth and great humour, this is Don Black's astonishing musical journey and an insight into a life behind the lyrics.
Santaland Diaries
by David SedarisA collection of surprising, disarming and 'extremely funny' essays from the internationally bestselling author of Me Talk Pretty One Day (Sunday Times) Santaland Diaries collects six of David Sedaris's most profound Christmas stories into one slender volume perfect for use as a last-minute coaster or ice-scraper. This drinking man's companion can be enjoyed by the warmth of a raging fire, the glow of a brilliantly decorated tree, or even in the back seat of a police car. It should be read with your eyes, felt with your heart, and heard only when spoken to. It should, in short, behave much like a book. And oh, what a book it is!'Sedaris writes with a gentle but unfailing acuity and a keen eye for the ridiculous ... extremely funny' -Sunday Times
Sappho
by Marguerite JohnsonThis series of short incisive books introduces major figures of the ancient world to the modern general reader, including the essentials of each subject's life, works, and significance for later western civilisation. In the newly created tradition of the "Ancients in Action" series, Marguerite Johnson has written a fascinating and accessible account of what remains of the life and works of the Greek poet, Sappho. Sappho's ancient biography is covered in addition to the post-classical accounts of her life, which continue to appear, in a variety of creative and non-creative contexts, in contemporary literature and art. Sappho's poetry, essentially preserved in tantalising fragments, is discussed in a series of thematic chapters that include her religious writings, particularly directed to the goddess of love, Aphrodite; personal interpretations of mythological themes; marriage hymns; and love songs to female companions.
Sappho: Textual And Philosophical Issues (Ancients In Action Ser. #38)
by Marguerite JohnsonThis series of short incisive books introduces major figures of the ancient world to the modern general reader, including the essentials of each subject's life, works, and significance for later western civilisation. In the newly created tradition of the "Ancients in Action" series, Marguerite Johnson has written a fascinating and accessible account of what remains of the life and works of the Greek poet, Sappho. Sappho's ancient biography is covered in addition to the post-classical accounts of her life, which continue to appear, in a variety of creative and non-creative contexts, in contemporary literature and art. Sappho's poetry, essentially preserved in tantalising fragments, is discussed in a series of thematic chapters that include her religious writings, particularly directed to the goddess of love, Aphrodite; personal interpretations of mythological themes; marriage hymns; and love songs to female companions.
The Sappho Companion
by Margaret ReynoldsBorn around 630BC on the Greek island of Lesbos, Sappho is now regarded as the greatest lyrical poet of ancient Greece, ironic and passionate, capturing the troubled depths of love. Her work survives only in fragments, yet her influence extends throughout Western literature, fuelled by the speculations and romances which have gathered around her name, her story and her sexuality.This remarkable anthology brilliantly displays the way different periods have taken up Sappho's haunting story bringing together many different kinds of work. We see her image change, re-created in Ovid's poetry and Boccaccio's tales, in translations by Pope, Rossetti and Swinburne, Baudelaire, in the modern versions of Eavan Boland, Ruth Padel and Jeanette Winterson.
Sara: My Whole Life Was a Struggle
by Sakine CansizThe bitter struggle of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, against the Turkish state has delivered inspirational but often tragic stories. This memoir by Kurdish revolutionary Sakine Cansiz is one of them. Sakine, whose code name was 'Sara', co-founded the PKK in 1974 and dedicated her life to its cause. On the 9 January 2013 she was assassinated in Paris in circumstances that remain officially unresolved. *BR**BR*This is the first chapter of her iconic life, leading up to her arrest in 1979, penned as dramatic events unfolded against the backdrop of the Turkish revolutionary left. She writes about the excitement of entering the movement as a young woman, discovering she would have to challenge traditional gender roles as she rose amongst its ranks. She was one of the first to demand the recruitment and education of female revolutionaries, and demanded total gender equality within the PKK, which is now one of its central tenets. *BR**BR*Today, 'Sara' is an inspiration to women fighting for liberation across the world. This is her story in her own words, and is in turns shocking, violent and path-breaking.*BR**BR*Translated by Janet Biehl.
Sara: Prison Memoir of a Kurdish Revolutionary
by Sakine CansizThe second instalment in a gripping memoir by Sakine Cansiz (codenamed 'Sara') chronicles the Kurdish revolutionary's harrowing years in a Turkish prison, following her arrest in 1979 at the age of 21. Jailed for more than a decade for her activities as a founder and leader of the Kurdish freedom movement, she faced brutal conditions and was subjected to interrogation and torture. Remarkably, the story she tells here is foremost one of resistance, with courageous episodes of collective struggle behind bars including hunger strikes and attempts at escape. Along the way she also presents vivid portraits of her fellow prisoners and militants, a snapshot of the Turkish left in the 1980s, a scathing indictment of Turkey's war on Kurdish people - and even an unlikely love story. The first prison memoir by a Kurdish woman to be published in English, this is an extraordinary document of an extraordinary life.Translated by Janet Biehl.
Sara: Prison Memoir of a Kurdish Revolutionary
by Sakine CansizThe second instalment in a gripping memoir by Sakine Cansiz (codenamed 'Sara') chronicles the Kurdish revolutionary's harrowing years in a Turkish prison, following her arrest in 1979 at the age of 21. Jailed for more than a decade for her activities as a founder and leader of the Kurdish freedom movement, she faced brutal conditions and was subjected to interrogation and torture. Remarkably, the story she tells here is foremost one of resistance, with courageous episodes of collective struggle behind bars including hunger strikes and attempts at escape. Along the way she also presents vivid portraits of her fellow prisoners and militants, a snapshot of the Turkish left in the 1980s, a scathing indictment of Turkey's war on Kurdish people - and even an unlikely love story. The first prison memoir by a Kurdish woman to be published in English, this is an extraordinary document of an extraordinary life.Translated by Janet Biehl.
Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a Biography
by Clifton Crais Pamela ScullyDisplayed on European stages from 1810 to 1815 as the Hottentot Venus, Sara Baartman was one of the most famous women of her day, and also one of the least known. As the Hottentot Venus, she was seen by Westerners as alluring and primitive, a reflection of their fears and suppressed desires. But who was Sara Baartman? Who was the woman who became the Hottentot Venus? Based on research and interviews that span three continents, Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus tells the entwined histories of an illusive life and a famous icon. In doing so, the book raises questions about the possibilities and limits of biography for understanding those who live between and among different cultures. In reconstructing Baartman's life, the book traverses the South African frontier and its genocidal violence, cosmopolitan Cape Town, the ending of the slave trade, the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, London and Parisian high society, and the rise of racial science. The authors discuss the ramifications of discovering that when Baartman went to London, she was older than originally assumed, and they explore the enduring impact of the Hottentot Venus on ideas about women, race, and sexuality. The book concludes with the politics involved in returning Baartman's remains to her home country, and connects Baartman's story to her descendants in nineteenth- and twentieth-century South Africa. Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus offers the authoritative account of one woman's life and reinstates her to the full complexity of her history.
Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a Biography
by Pamela Scully Clifton CraisDisplayed on European stages from 1810 to 1815 as the Hottentot Venus, Sara Baartman was one of the most famous women of her day, and also one of the least known. As the Hottentot Venus, she was seen by Westerners as alluring and primitive, a reflection of their fears and suppressed desires. But who was Sara Baartman? Who was the woman who became the Hottentot Venus? Based on research and interviews that span three continents, Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus tells the entwined histories of an illusive life and a famous icon. In doing so, the book raises questions about the possibilities and limits of biography for understanding those who live between and among different cultures. In reconstructing Baartman's life, the book traverses the South African frontier and its genocidal violence, cosmopolitan Cape Town, the ending of the slave trade, the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, London and Parisian high society, and the rise of racial science. The authors discuss the ramifications of discovering that when Baartman went to London, she was older than originally assumed, and they explore the enduring impact of the Hottentot Venus on ideas about women, race, and sexuality. The book concludes with the politics involved in returning Baartman's remains to her home country, and connects Baartman's story to her descendants in nineteenth- and twentieth-century South Africa. Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus offers the authoritative account of one woman's life and reinstates her to the full complexity of her history.
Sara Payne: A Mother's Story - Ebook
by Sara Payne'Thank God we have found her.' Sara Payne's words as she announced that the body of her daughter - snatched and murdered by paedophile, Roy Whiting - had finally been found. In this memoir, Sara tells her personal story. She describes the numbness as she waited for seventeen days, desperate to hear news of her missing daughter, and the terrible moment when her worst fears became reality. She explains how her family tried to cope with their grief and the stress placed upon them by the media campaign for Sarah's Law. As the family tried to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of tragedy, they found that each reminded the other of the child they had lost. Guilt and anger pushed Sarah's marriage into a spiral of alcohol abuse and violence. This is the ultimate story of a family's journey through hell, but Sara's strength is an inspiration as, despite everything, she and her family slowly found a way to go on.
Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt (Jewish Lives)
by Robert GottliebEverything about Sarah Bernhardt is fascinating, from her obscure birth to her glorious career—redefining the very nature of her art—to her amazing (and highly public) romantic life to her indomitable spirit. Well into her seventies, after the amputation of her leg, she was performing under bombardment for soldiers during World War I, as well as crisscrossing America on her ninth American tour.Her family was also a source of curiosity: the mother she adored and who scorned her; her two half-sisters, who died young after lives of dissipation; and most of all, her son, Maurice, whom she worshiped and raised as an aristocrat, in the style appropriate to his presumed father, the Belgian Prince de Ligne. Only once did they quarrel—over the Dreyfus Affair. Maurice was a right-wing snob; Sarah, always proud of her Jewish heritage, was a passionate Dreyfusard and Zolaist.Though the Bernhardt literature is vast, Gottlieb’s Sarah is the first English-language biography to appear in decades. Brilliantly, it tracks the trajectory through which an illegitimate—and scandalous—daughter of a courtesan transformed herself into the most famous actress who ever lived, and into a national icon, a symbol of France.
Sarah from Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar
by Scott Conroy Shushannah WalsheSarah Palin is still the most dynamic yet polarizing Republican in America. In Sarah from Alaska Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe draw on their experiences as embedded reporters on Palin's campaign, exclusive on-scene coverage of Palin's post-election struggles in Alaska, and revealing interviews with former McCain/Palin staffers, top political minds, and Palin's family, friends, and foes in Alaska to tell the remarkable behind-the-scenes story of her improbable rise-and its complicated aftermath. The result is a fair and fascinating portrait of Sarah Palin and of the American political process.
Sarah from Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar
by Scott Conroy Shushannah WalsheA year after a vice presidential campaign that remains as consequential as it was controversial, Sarah Palin is still the most dynamic yet polarizing Republican in America. Now Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe draw on their experiences as embedded reporters on Palin's campaign, exclusive on-scene coverage of Palin's post-election struggles in Alaska, and revealing interviews with former McCain/Palin staffers, top political minds, and Palin's family, friends, and foes in Alaska to tell the remarkable behind-the-scenes story of her improbable rise -- and its complicated aftermath. The result is a fair and fascinating portrait of Sarah Palin and of the American political process.Sarah from Alaska illuminates both the talents that helped make Palin a superstar and the traits that became liabilities under the intense pressures of a divisive national campaign. It reveals in riveting detail how Palin's vice presidential campaign became as dysfunctional as it was secretive, explores the circumstances behind her triumphs and baffling missteps, and provides new context for understanding her values, her political successes in Alaska, and her abrupt resignation from the governorship. "It's easy to turn Sarah Palin into a caricature of either a heroic everywoman or ridiculous dolt," the authors say, "but the truth is that she is more complex than either her most passionate defenders or harshest critics give her credit for." Palin remains ambitious and enormously popular among social conservatives, and her future will be intrinsically interwoven with that of the Republican Party as it struggles to redefine itself and recapture the necessary margin for national political victory in the next decade. That makes Sarah from Alaska essential reading for anyone interested in American politics.
Sarah Osborn's World: The Rise of Evangelical Christianity in Early America (New Directions in Narrative History)
by Catherine A. BrekusIn 1743, sitting quietly with pen in hand, Sarah Osborn pondered how to tell the story of her life, how to make sense of both her spiritual awakening and the sudden destitution of her family. Remarkably, the memoir she created that year survives today, as do more than two thousand additional pages she composed over the following three decades. Sarah Osborn's World is the first book to mine this remarkable woman’s prolific personal and spiritual record. Catherine Brekus recovers the largely forgotten story of Sarah Osborn's life as one of the most charismatic female religious leaders of her time, while also connecting her captivating story to the rising evangelical movement in eighteenth-century America.A schoolteacher in Rhode Island, a wife, and a mother, Sarah Osborn led a remarkable revival in the 1760s that brought hundreds of people, including many slaves, to her house each week. Her extensive written record—encompassing issues ranging from the desire to be "born again" to a suspicion of capitalism—provides a unique vantage point from which to view the emergence of evangelicalism. Brekus sets Sarah Osborn's experience in the context of her revivalist era and expands our understanding of the birth of the evangelical movement—a movement that transformed Protestantism in the decades before the American Revolution.
Sarah Palin: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies)
by Carolyn Kraemer CooperThis objective, well-researched biography tells the story of the woman whose meteoric rise to the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidacy made history.Sarah Palin: A Biography offers a candid yet unbiased look at the charismatic politician who became the first female nominee on a Republican national presidential ticket. Covering her early childhood, her high school and college years, her ascendancy from the two-term mayor of Wasilla to the Alaskan governorship, the 2008 McCain/Palin campaign, and her position as potential 2012 Republican party standard bearer, Sarah Palin looks at the crucial life experiences that brought Governor Palin to the forefront of American politics. Going beyond the caricatures and politically motivated portraits, it offers a compelling story of remarkable achievement over numerous obstacles, of a modern frontier woman whose politics reflect the unmistakable influences of family, faith, and hard work.
Sarah Palin: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies)
by Carolyn Kraemer CooperThis objective, well-researched biography tells the story of the woman whose meteoric rise to the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidacy made history.Sarah Palin: A Biography offers a candid yet unbiased look at the charismatic politician who became the first female nominee on a Republican national presidential ticket. Covering her early childhood, her high school and college years, her ascendancy from the two-term mayor of Wasilla to the Alaskan governorship, the 2008 McCain/Palin campaign, and her position as potential 2012 Republican party standard bearer, Sarah Palin looks at the crucial life experiences that brought Governor Palin to the forefront of American politics. Going beyond the caricatures and politically motivated portraits, it offers a compelling story of remarkable achievement over numerous obstacles, of a modern frontier woman whose politics reflect the unmistakable influences of family, faith, and hard work.
Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement: A Revolution in the Name of Tradition (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization)
by Naomi SeidmanNational Jewish Book Awards 2019 Winner of the Barbara Dobkin Award for Women’s Studies and Finalist for Education and Jewish Identity.Sarah Schenirer is one of the unsung heroes of twentieth-century Orthodox Judaism. The Bais Yaakov schools she founded in interwar Poland had an unparalleled impact on a traditional Jewish society threatened by assimilation and modernity, educating a generation of girls to take an active part in their community. The movement grew at an astonishing pace, expanding to include high schools, teacher seminaries, summer programmes, vocational schools, and youth movements, in Poland and beyond; it continues to flourish throughout the Jewish diaspora.Naomi Seidman explores the movement through the tensions that characterized it, capturing its complexity as a revolution in the name of tradition. She presents the context which led to its founding, examining the impact of socialism, feminism, Zionism, and Polish electoral politics on the process, and recounts its history, from its foundation in interwar Kraków to its near-destruction in the Holocaust, and its role in the reconstruction of Orthodoxy in subsequent decades.A vivid portrait of Schenirer shines through. The book includes selections from her writings published in English for the first time. Her pioneering, determined character remains the subject of debate in a culture that still regards innovation, female initiative, and women’s Torah study with suspicion.
Sarah's Diary: An unflinchingly honest account of one family's struggle with depression
by Sarah Griffin'I was fourteen when I found my Dad trying to commit suicide in the garage. Sounds shocking doesn't it? But that was part of me, part of living with my Dad'Sarah's Diary is the very personal diary of Sarah Griffin - an ordinary teenage girl learning to deal with the ups and downs of family life. On the outside hers was like any other family, but behind closed doors lay a sad and lonely secret. Sarah's Dad had depression -- a condition we've all heard of but seldom discuss. Beautifully written, brutally honest, Sarah's story is compelling reading.
Sartre: Romantic Rationalist
by Iris MurdochSartre's powerful political passions were united with a memorable literary gift, placing him foremost among the novelists, as well as the philosophers, of our time. Iris Murdoch's pioneering study analyses and evaluates the different strands of Sartre's rich and complex oeurve. Combining the objectivity of the scholar with a profound interest in contemporary problems, Iris Murdoch discusses the tradition of philosophical, political and aesthetic thought that gives historical authenticity to Satre's achievement, while showing the ambiguities and dangers inherent in his position.
SAS: The Illustrated History Of The Sas
by Joshua LevineThe authorised illustrated history of the SAS by the number one bestselling author of Dunkirk, Joshua Levine. With never-before-seen photographs and unheard stories, this is the SAS’s wartime history in vivid and astonishing detail.
SAS – Battle Ready: True Stories from Memorable Missions Around the World
by Dominic UttonThe Special Air Service – the SAS – are known to be the greatest elite fighting force in the world. This book focuses on the most famous operations undertaken by the SAS from its inception during the Second World War to the present day, describing in dramatic detail the unit’s most daring and memorable missions in trouble spots across the world. Revelatory and gripping, the author weaves together the extraordinary true stories of this brave fighting force, wherever they are in action. From missions on home shores to Iraq, Sierra Leone, the Falkland Islands, Europe, Libya, Malaya, Afghanistan and more, SAS Battle Ready brings together both the history of the unit and some of its most powerful moments.From hostage rescues to ambushes, from sabotage to jungle warfare and from pitched battles to reconnaissance, it hasn’t always gone according to plan but the courage and devotion to duty revealed within show just what it takes to be an SAS soldier.
SAS Brothers in Arms: Churchill's Desperadoes: Blood-and-Guts Defiance at Britain's Darkest Hour.
by Damien LewisDamien Lewis's new bestseller tells the action-packed, riveting story of the band of mavericks and visionaries who made the SAS. Using hitherto untold stories and new archival sources, Damien Lewis follows one close-knit band of warriors from the SAS foundation through to the Italian landings - chronicling the extraordinary part they played as the tide of the Second World War truly turned in the Allied's favour. This is a narrative of wall-to-wall do-or-die action and daring, chronicling the exploits of some of the most highly-decorated soldiers of the twentieth-century.
SAS Great Escapes Three: Gripping True Escape Stories Executed by World War Two Heroes
by Damien Lewis'Damien Lewis is both a meticulous historian and a born storyteller' Lee ChildFIVE OF THE MOST DARING ESCAPES CARRIED OUT BY THE SAS DURING WORLD WAR TWOSAS Great Escapes Three recounts how warriors of the world's most famous fighting force, the SAS, carried out five of the most daring escapes of World War Two. Ranging from the very birth of the SAS, to the post D-Day battles for Nazi-occupied Europe, these gripping true stories cover some of the most iconic operations of the regiment, and its key characters, while also including untold tales of courage and endurance beyond compare.Told in classic Damien Lewis style, each account plunges the reader into the escapees' experiences - sharing the most terrifying yet astounding moments of their lives. They include unimaginable accounts of survival in the face of staggering odds, episodes of nerve-wracking bluff and deception, plus knife-edge ambushes withenemy forces hell-bent on wreaking vengeance.In this new volume of incredible special forces feats, bestselling author Damien Lewis has worked closely with World War Two veterans and the families of those portrayed, accessing wartime diaries, letters, mission reports, interrogation transcripts and more, to relate how the men of the SAS were hunted by the enemy and forced to fight their way out of certain death or capture. Around every corner, upon every decision and every movement lurked the possibility of discovery. Yet with every step, breath and turn taken, these fugitives epitomized the do-or-die spirit of the SAS to overcome.
SAS Great Escapes Two: Six Untold Epic Escapes Made by World War Two Heroes
by Damien Lewis'Damien Lewis is both a meticulous historian and a born storyteller' Lee ChildSAS Great Escapes Two recounts the hitherto untold stories of six of the most dramatic and daring escapes executed by the world's most famous fighting force during WWII. From the very earliest SAS missions to the push into Nazi-occupied Europe, they cover some of the key figures in the Regiment, including its founder, David Stirling, plus other lesser-known heroes.With each story comes an edge-of-the-seat, rollercoaster ride in classic Damien Lewis fashion, as readers are plunged into the escapees' experiences - sharing their most terrifying yet inspiring moments. These stunning accounts of survival beggar belief, revealing nerve-racking bluff and deception, knife-edge encounters with enemy hunter forces hellbent on wreaking vengeance and murder, but also incredible acts of mercy and kindness from those who risk all to help the escapees on their way. Each tale of breath-taking derring-do reveals how necessity really is the mother of all invention, as with every step and at every juncture these fugitives defied fate, snatching survival and freedom from the jaws of the enemy, and all the horrors that would have followed capture.Damien Lewis has worked closely with the families of those portrayed, accessing wartime diaries, letters, mission reports, interrogation transcripts and more, to relate how the men of the SAS crossed blazing deserts, evaded enemy hunter forces and escaped through hostile lands, battling against seemingly insurmountable odds. But most of all, these uplifting tales of endurance beyond measure showcase the triumph of the human spirit and the will to survive.'Damien Lewis paints a uniquely vivid picture of the wartime SAS. Packed with detail, this fresh and dynamic book brings us as close to its remarkable members as we are ever likely to get.' Joshua Levine, author of Dunkirk'In these days when we are told to be scared of everything it is a relief to read of steely nerves and cold courage. Damien Lewis has collected examples of exactly these qualities from World War II and they are all thrillers, to be read with pleasure - and a bit of nostalgia!' Frederick Forsyth'The fund of SAS escapes turns out to be too big for one book, and in Damien Lewis there is a writer of rare narrative gifts able to bring alive these epic stories for us today' Mark Urban'An astonishing book: a collection of truly riveting stories of bravery, all brilliantly told. In terms of sheer drama and audacity, SAS: Great Escapes Two goes where no fiction writer would dare venture' Alex Gerlis, author of Agent in the Shadows