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The Second Body
by Daisy HildyardEvery living thing has two bodies. To be an animal is to be in possession of a physical body, a body which can eat, drink and sleep; it is also to be embedded in a worldwide network of ecosystems. When every human body has an uncanny global presence, how do we live with ourselves? In this timely and elegant essay, Daisy Hildyard captures the second body by exploring how the human is part of animal life. She meets Richard, a butcher in Yorkshire, and sees pigs turned into boiled ham; and Gina, an environmental criminologist, who tells her about leopards and silver foxes kept as pets in luxury apartments. She speaks to Luis, a biologist, about the origin of life; and talks to Nadezhda about fungi in an effort to understand how we define animal life. Eventually, her second body comes to visit her first body when the river flooded her home last year. The Second Body is a brilliantly lucid account of the dissolving boundaries between all life on earth.
Second Chance: My Life in Things
by Ruth RosengartenIn this intimate memoir, Ruth Rosengarten explores the subject of evocative objects through a series of interconnected essays. Evocative objects reflect our attitudes to our own lives and how we seek to display ourselves to ourselves. They are therefore, closely linked to our memories, and how we filter, process and reconstruct them. Rosengarten explores the themes and associations invoked by her own evocative objects, which are frequently shabby things of no material value. They are, importantly, often objects that, in their materiality, bear traces of actions, of something-having-been. Through the associative pathways that these objects have paved, she discusses her experiences with the losses she has undergone, her family’s migrations, and what it means to be a childless woman. This leads her to address the question of what will become of her storied objects and the memories attached to them when she is no longer in existence. This memoir offers an interdisciplinary approach to collecting and compiling fragments of one’s life, paying close attention to the evocative objects that embody us. In doing so, these essays explore loss, memory, childlessness, longing, family history, literature and art theory through material entities which reveal the immaterial ‘things’ at the heart of this study. This book is sure to be of interest to anyone stimulated by memory work and the relationship between humans and their possessions.
Second Chance: The Autobiography
by Mark ToddThe London 2012 Olympic medalist on his stunning comeback.Mark Todd's eventing career is the stuff of legends and encompasses one of the greatest sporting comebacks of all time.When he 'retired' from competing in eventing in 2000, he had already been named 'Rider of the Century' for his natural empathy with a horse and his extraordinary success, which included back-to-back Olympic gold medals, five Burghley wins and three Badminton victories. He has also show jumped to Olympic level and trained winners on the racecourse. Considered a legendary horseman by his peers, he seemed to have done it all.He returned to train racehorses in his native New Zealand but, eight years later, the idea of a comeback took root, part dare, part personal challenge to see if he could still cut it in a changed sport. Within eight months, he was riding at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and in 2011 he hit the headlines by becoming the oldest rider to win Badminton. This was soon eclipsed by his stunning win at the London 2012 Olympics, however. The story of his progress from dairy farmer to world renown, is told with typically laid-back humour, but it reveals the fierce determination, discipline and personal sacrifice which lies behind the relaxed outlook.
The Second Half
by Roddy Doyle Roy KeaneMemoir by one of the greatest of modern footballers, and former captain of Manchester United and Ireland, Roy Keane – co-written in a unique collaboration with Man Booker Prize-winner Roddy Doyle.
Second-Hand Stories
by Josh SperoEvery second-hand book tells two stories: one within its pages and another of the life it lived before changing hands. Whether mundane or extraordinary, on a grand scale or intensely personal, every second-hand book conceals the story of its past life. Lives filled with love, loss, scandal and conflict, these are the intimate and incredible stories that author Josh Spero uncovered after tracking down the previous owners of twelve of his second-hand books… Tom Dunbabin, a Classics scholar who became a spy, leading the resistance against the Germans in Crete in the Second World War.Peter Levi, a priest who fell in love with his friend’s wife.Belinda Dennis, a contrary Latin teacher, and Emilie Vleminckx, an equally contrary Latin student.And James Naylor, a boy the author once loved.Combined with stories from the author's own life – from growing up in London as a poor boy at a public school to becoming a scholar Oxford and later a tutor in Hampstead – and his lifelong love and pursuit of classical education, Second-Hand Stories is a unique memoir that celebrates not just one life, but all the lives connected through second-hand books. It will make you reconsider your own second-hand books, the people who owned them and what stories they have to tell.
Second Innings: My Sporting Life
by Andrew FlintoffFast bowler, six-hitter, popular hero, one of the lads, king of the jungle - Andrew Flintoff is all of those things.Second Innings, is his searingly honest yet uplifting autobiography, Flintoff reveals unseen, surprising sides to his career and personality.The restless need to push and challenge himself that led him to take up professional boxing. The complex and troubled relationship with discipline, alcohol and authority during his exhilarating cricket career. The search for an authentic voice as a player, free from the blandness and conformity of modern professionalism. Is Flintoff the last of his kind, in any sport?Through all his highs and lows, triumphs and reversals, this book reveals a central tension. There is 'Fred' - performer, extrovert, centre of attention. Then there is 'Andrew' - reflective, withdrawn and uncertain. Two people contained in one extraordinary life. And sometimes, inevitably, keeping the two in balance proves too much.We are taken backstage, seeing the mischief and adventure that has defined Andrew Flintoff's story. Above all, we observe the enduring power of fun, friendship and loyalty - the pillars of Flintoff's career. At ease with his faults as well as his gifts, Andrew Flintoff has sought one thing, even more than success: to be himself.If you enjoyed Do You Know What?, you'll enjoy this memoir of Freddie's sporting career.
Second Sight: An Intuitive Psychiatrist Tells Her Extraordinary Story And Shows You How To Tap Your Own Inner Wisdom
by Judith OrloffIn this compelling self-portrait, psychic and psychiatrist Dr. Judith Orloff, "one of the frontier people in health, who was not satisfied with the existing order, the Establishment, and began to push for the expansion of knowledge which the establishment, of course, often rejected and for which it sough to punish them," (The Nation Magazine) draws on her own experience and that of her patients to explore the mysterious and poorly understood realm of the psychic.In riveting detail, she describes how an ignored premonition of a patient's suicide attempt convinced her to embrace her gift and incorporate it into her medical practice--and how using psychic abilities can provide powerful healing. More than simply one woman's journey, this book will also outline effective ways to cultivate natural psychic abilities, including how to--recognize psychic experiences in everyday life--increase clairvoyance--practice psychic exercises--discover psychic empathy--tune into messages the body is sending--record and interpret dreams--and more.
Second Suns: Two Trailblazing Doctors and Their Quest to Cure Blindness, One Pair of Eyes at a Time
by David Oliver RelinNow in paperback: a #1 New York Times–bestselling author&’s gripping chronicle of &“two doctors . . . bringing light to those in darkness&” (Time) Second Suns is the unforgettable true story of two very different doctors with a common mission: to rid the world of preventable blindness. Dr. Geoffrey Tabin was the high-achieving &“bad boy&” of his class at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sanduk Ruit grew up in a remote village in the Himalayas, where cataract blindness—easily curable in modern hospitals—amounts to an epidemic. Together, they pioneered a new surgical method, by which they have restored sight to over 100,000 people—all for about $20 per operation. Master storyteller David Oliver Relin brings the doctors&’ work to vivid life through poignant portraits of their patients, from old men who can once again walk treacherous mountain trails, to children who can finally see their mothers&’ faces. The Himalayan Cataract Project is changing the world—one pair of eyes at a time.
Second Thoughts: On Having and Being a Second Child
by Lynn BergerA beautifully written account of a quest, both personal and scientific, to better understand the impact and experience of the second child.'There are entire shelves filled with books on parenthood, from fairy tales, novels and memoirs to polemics and collections of essays. But while I was expecting our second child, I realised that we have surprisingly few words for this particular new experience.'While every parent knows more of what to expect the next time round, the birth of a second child is no less momentous. Family relationships multiply, birth-order myths hover and sibling rivalry and parental exhaustion threaten. Yet the potential for joy and love within the family also expands, as if by magic.This new literary talent shines a tender insight on a forgotten subject: what it is to parent for the second time and what it is to forever be a younger child.'Beautifully written, deeply humane, a gem of a book.' Rutger Bregman, author of Humankind: A Hopeful History
Second Wind: One Woman's Midlife Quest to Run Seven Marathons on Seven Continents
by Cami OstmanSecond Wind is the story of an unlikely athlete and an unlikely heroine: Cami Ostman, a woman edging toward midlife who decides to take on a challenge that stretches her way outside of her comfort zone. That challenge presents itself when an old friend suggests she go for a run to distract her from the grief of her recent divorce. Excited by the clarity of mind and breathing space running offers her, she keeps it up - albeit slowly - and she decides to run seven marathons on seven continents; this becomes Ostman’s vision quest, the thing she turns to during the ups and downs of a new romance and during the hard months and years of redefining herself in the aftermath of the very restrictive, religious-based marriage and life she led up until her divorce. Insightful and uplifting, Second Wind carries the reader along for the ride as Ostman runs her way out of compliance with the patriarchal rules about "being a woman” that long held her captive and into authenticity and self-love. Her adventures - and the personal revelations that accompany them - inspire readers to take chances, find truth in their lives, and learn to listen to the voice inside them that’s been there all along.
The Secret Agent: Inside the World of the Football Agent
by Secret AgentThe secret is to know when to stick and when to twist, when to bet and when to burn, when to bluff and when to hold. This whole business is one massive, never-ending card game and if you sit at the table long enough then maybe, just maybe, you're going to get so lucky that you'll beat the house or even break the bank. Unless, of course, the house breaks you first.' From mere coffee boy, to lowly scout, to multi-million pound wheeler dealer with the Premiership big guns and the cream of the Champions League, this book charts the Secret Agent's fast and furious progress through the dressing rooms, board rooms and bedrooms of England's top clubs. It doesn't just lift the lid on the true face of professional football, it tears it off and hurls it across the room. This is a no-holds-barred, jaw-dropping insight into the true power-brokers of the world game: the moneymen and dealmakers who grease the wheels - or, more accurately, the palms - that make the whole football machine tick. Scandalous, witty, fearless and occasionally heartless, The Secret Agent casts an astonishing new light on the ambition, greed and power in a cut-throat and self-obsessed world.
Secret Bankside: Walks South of the River
by John ConstableOn the south bank of the Thames, outside the jurisdiction of the ancient City of London, Bankside has long been known as a hotbed of creativity, dissent and loose living. With its brothels and bear-pits, its prisons and its pubs, the area has inspired the nation's greatest writers - Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Keats and Blake - and been home to its most famous theatres - the Globe, The Rose, The Old Vic and the National. These same south London streets have given sanctuary to immigrants and refugees, to tradesmen, craftsmen and Thames Watermen, to the workhouse poor and the criminal underclass. Writer, performer and local historian John Constable is well known for his walks around this fascinating area. The eight walks collected here are among his most popular. Packed with social history and local lore, they are witty, insightful and hugely entertaining. Each walk is easy to follow, accompanied by maps and clear directions, and illustrated with period prints and contemporary photographs. Together, they tell the extraordinary and, until recently, largely forgotten story of London's anarchic, irrepressible 'Outlaw Borough'.
The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken
by The Secret BarristerTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER.Winner of the Books are My Bag Non-Fiction Award 2018.Shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year 2018.Shortlisted for Specsavers Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2018.‘Eye-opening, funny and horrifying’ Observer‘Everyone who has any interest in public life should read it’ Daily MailYou may not wish to think about it, but one day you or someone you love will almost certainly appear in a criminal courtroom. You might be a juror, a victim, a witness or – perhaps through no fault of your own – a defendant. Whatever your role, you’d expect a fair trial. I’m a barrister. I work in the criminal justice system, and every day I see how fairness is not guaranteed. Too often the system fails those it is meant to protect. The innocent are wronged and the guilty allowed to walk free. I want to share some stories from my daily life to show you how the system is broken, who broke it and why we should start caring before it’s too late.A SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER FOR 24 WEEKS.
Secret Child
by Gordon Lewis Andrew CroftsThe shocking true story of a young boy hidden away from his family and the world in a Catholic home for unmarried mothers in 1950s Dublin.
Secret Child: Part 1 of 3
by Gordon Lewis Andrew CroftsSecret Child can either be read as a full-length eBook or in 3 serialised eBook-only parts. This is PART 1 of 3 (Chapters 1-6 of 16).
Secret Child: Part 2 of 3
by Gordon Lewis Andrew CroftsSecret Child can either be read as a full-length eBook or in 3 serialised eBook-only parts. This is PART 2 of 3 (Chapters 7-10 of 16).
Secret Child: Part 3 of 3
by Gordon Lewis Andrew CroftsSecret Child can either be read as a full-length eBook or in 3 serialised eBook-only parts. This is PART 3 of 3 (Chapters 11-16 of 16).
The Secret Cyclist: Real Life as a Rider in the Professional Peloton
by The Secret CyclistWho is The Secret Cyclist and why all the secrecy?"Every public aspect of our lives is so tightly controlled that being truly honest is all but impossible in a newspaper interview, never mind a whole book. You try write a warts-and-all blog about your office. Question how the business is run, make sure you remember to call your boss a moron, and then tell me how it goes."He's ridden for World Tour teams for ten years. He's achieved top ten finishes in Grand Tours. He likes coffee. These are just a few details about the professional rider who wants you to know what the view looks like from the centre of the peloton.What do the riders really make of Team Sky? How does the pay structure work? Why should you never trust a kit endorsement from a professional? Is doping still an issue? The Secret Cyclist tackles the big questions head-on, revealing a side to cycling that fans have never seen before.
The Secret Diary & Growing Pains of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾: The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾ And The Growing Pains Of Adrian Mole (The\adrian Mole Ser. #1)
by Sue TownsendGet yourself TWO BOOKS IN ONE for this amazing price.'I not only wept, I howled and hooted and had to get up and walk around the room and wipe my eyes so that I could go on reading' Tom SharpeTHE MUST-HAVE CHRISTMAS GIFT for devoted Adrian Mole fans.Celebrate Adrian Mole's 50th Birthday with this new double edition, featuring the FIRST TWO BOOKS in the hilarious collection and see life through the spectacles of a misunderstood boy growing up in the early 1980s.---------------------------Friday January 2ndI felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home. Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Telling us candidly about his parents' marital troubles, The Dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual', his love for the divine Pandora and his horror at learning of his mother's pregnancy, Adrian's painfully honest diary is a hilarious and heartfelt chronicle of misspent adolescence.Features the complete texts of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ and The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole. 'I've never experienced a greater sense of recognition than when reading The Secret Diary' David Nicholls'Every sentence is witty and well thought out, and the whole has reverberations beyond itself' The Times 'Townsend has held a mirror up to the nation and made us happy to laugh at what we see in it' Sunday Telegraph'One of the great comic creations' Daily Mirror'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran
Secret Diary of a 1970s Secretary: Secret Diary Of A Bbc Secretary
by Sarah ShawSecret Diary of a 1970s Secretary is the diary of Sarah Shaw for the year of 1971, which she recently uncovered whilst clearing out her loft. Working as a secretary for the BBC at the time, Sarah's diary describes the life of a suburban girl who certainly wasn't 'swinging' but who was, ironically, not only working on a cutting edge BBC survey on sex education but also in the throes of an unlikely affair with middle-aged, working-class, Irish lift attendant, Frank.Sarah talks humorously and frankly about what it was like to be a young, working woman at the time as well as life at the BBC during the 1970s and the difficulties of navigating her first romance. She is funny and self-effacing with a self-knowledge that only few attain. Her innocence and naivety are hugely charming and the diary forms a valuable snapshot of a time not so far away that is now lost to us.
The Secret Diary of a British Muslim Aged 13 3/4
by Tez IlyasThe hilarious and pubescent debut book from your favourite British Muslim comedian (that's Tez Ilyas, by the way) is coming to a shop near you. You may know and love Tez from his stand-up comedy, his role as Eight in Man Like Mobeen, his Radio 4 series TEZ Talks, or panel shows such as Mock the Week and The Last Leg. Where you won't know him from is 1997 when he was 13 ¾. (But now you will - because that's what the book is about.) In this suitably dramatic rollercoaster of a teenage memoir, Tez takes us back to where it all began: a working class, insular British Asian Muslim community in his hometown of post-Thatcher Blackburn. Meet Ammi (Mum), Baji Rosey (the older sister), Shibz (the fashionable cousin), Was (the cool cousin), Shiry (the cleverest cousin) and a community with the most creative nicknames this side of Top Gun.Running away from shotgun-wielding farmers, successfully dodging arranged marriages, getting mugged, having front row seats to race riots and achieving formative sexual experiences doing stomach crunches in a gym, you could say life was fairly run of the mill. But with a GCSE pass rate of 30% at his school, his own fair share of family tragedy around the corner and 9/11 on the horizon, Tez's experiences of growing up as a British Muslim wasn't the fun, Jihad-pursuing affair the media wants you to believe. Well ... not always.At times shalwar-wettingly hilarious and at others searingly sad, The Secret Diary of a British Muslim Aged 13¾ shows 90s Britain at its best, and its worst.
The Secret Diary of a New Mum (aged 43 1/4)
by Cari RosenWhatever your age, becoming a mum for the first time brings with it excitement, anxiety and numerous challenges. But how do you cope when, to top it all, you discover you are old enough to be the mother of everyone else in your NCT group? The story of one woman, one new baby, a slipped disc and rather too many wrinkles, The Secret Diary of a New Mum (Aged 43 1/4) follows the tale of a midlife mum as she tries to make the transition from experienced TV producer to utterly inexperienced parent. One in five babies is born to a mum over 35, and the number of over 40s giving birth has doubled. The first humorous narrative account of what it's really like to be a midlife mum - whether it's deftly side-stepping any questions about age and baby number two or weeping as younger counterparts ping back into their size ten jeans within thirty seconds of giving birth - this is the thoroughly entertaining, insightful and often hilarious account of what happens as you face up to menopause and new motherhood at the same time.
The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old: 83 1/4 Years Old
by Hendrik Groen Hester VelmansHendrik Groen may be old, but he is far from dead and isn't planning to be buried any time soon. So he sets out to write an exposé: a year in the life of his care home in Amsterdam, revealing all its ups and downs - not least his new endeavour the anarchic Old-But-Not Dead Club. And when Eefje moves in - the woman Hendrik has always longed for - he polishes his shoes (and his teeth), grooms what's left of his hair and attempts to make something of the life he has left, with hilarious, tender and devastating consequences.
The Secret DJ: The Secret Dj's Guide To Surviving Dance Music
by The Secret DJFrom Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads: The Secret DJ's Guide to Surviving Dance Music is yje true story of DJing, from an authentic voice speaking to this scene. The Secret DJ will give hints and guide newbies, as well as telling it as it really is for most DJs. The secret DJ never set out to be "a DJ", no-one did in the 80s unless you wanted to get on the radio and possibly illegally close to children. Djing was about the connection music had to something ephemeral and glamorous that happened to other people very far away and for everyone, it started with radio empowering nerds. Wherever they were. However nerdy. If you are young, just replace the word 'radio' with 'internet'. The Dance scene has lasted for 30 years but has enjoyed very little coverage from those that have lived it. It is huge. It's the world's biggest youth movement bar-none and unlike it's grandfather, the sixties, it's still going 30 years later and only growing larger. This book is not an instruction manual - more a cautionary tale that may illuminate anyone who has harboured ambition to pack a dancefloor...