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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.
Becoming Beauvoir: A Life
by Kate Kirkpatrick“One is not born a woman, but becomes one”, Simone de BeauvoirA symbol of liberated womanhood, Simone de Beauvoir's unconventional relationships inspired and scandalised her generation. A philosopher, writer, and feminist icon, she won prestigious literary prizes and transformed the way we think about gender with The Second Sex. But despite her successes, she wondered if she had sold herself short.Her liaison with Jean-Paul Sartre has been billed as one of the most legendary love affairs of the twentieth century. But for Beauvoir it came at a cost: for decades she was dismissed as an unoriginal thinker who 'applied' Sartre's ideas. In recent years new material has come to light revealing the ingenuity of Beauvoir's own philosophy and the importance of other lovers in her life. This ground-breaking biography draws on never-before-published diaries and letters to tell the fascinating story of how Simone de Beauvoir became herself.
Entertaining the Troops: 1939–1945 (Shire Library)
by Kiri Bloom WaldenThis book explores the foundation and work of the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) and other entertainment organisations such as CEMA and Stars in Battledress. These organisations ensured that troops in all theatres of the Second World War were visited by big bands, ballet stars, Shakespearian actors and the most famous popular entertainers of the day in order to raise morale. Many of Britain's biggest stars cut their teeth performing on makeshift stages to homesick soldiers, sailors and airmen and women during the war years, with famous performers including Laurence Olivier, Gracie Fields, George Formby, Vera Lynn, Margot Fonteyn and members of The Goons. This book also details the alternative arrangements made when the entertainment organisations couldn't come – the forces often put on their own shows, with pantomimes and plays written and performed by POWs being a prime example.
Master of Deception: The Wartime Adventures of Peter Fleming
by Alan OgdenMaster of Deception is a biography of Peter Fleming, elder brother of Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond. Peter Fleming worked as a travel writer and journalist, serving with distinction throughout World War II and played a crucial role in British intelligence operations in the Far East. This biography ranges from the personal life of Fleming such as his marriage to Celia Johnson, a famous actor of the time, to his extensive military intelligence career which took him from Norway and Greece to the Far East. Framed through the life of Peter Fleming this book offers an in-depth study of British intelligence operations in the Far East during World War II.
Leonard Woolf: Bloomsbury Socialist (Spiritual Lives)
by Fred Leventhal Peter StanskyLeonard Woolf: Bloomsbury Socialist is an invaluable biography of an important if somewhat neglected figure in British cultural and political life,whose significance has been overshadowed by that of his wife, Virginia Woolf. His vital role in her life and career is a central aspect of this incisive study. Born to a prosperous middle-class Jewish family, he was profoundly affected by the early death of his father, a prominent barrister and QC, which left his family in reduced economic circumstances. Fred Leventhal and Peter Stansky expertly reveal that, despite his youthful loss of religious faith, being Jewish was as crucial in shaping Woolf's ideas as the Hellenism he imbibed at St Paul's and Trinity College, Cambridge. As an undergraduate member of the celebrated elite Apostles-along with his close friends, Lytton Strachey and John Maynard Keynes-he played a formative role in what later became the Bloomsbury Group. He subsequently spent seven years as a colonial servant in Ceylon, the background to his powerful novel, The Village in the Jungle. Within a year of his return to England in 1911 he married Virginia Stephen, and in 1917 they founded the Hogarth Press, an innovative and commercially successful publishing house. In the course of his long life he wrote prolifically on international relations, notably on the creation of the League of Nations, on socialism, and on imperial policy, particularly in Africa. Throughout this authoritative study,Leventhal and Stansky illuminate the life, scope, and thought of this seminal figure in twentieth-century British society.
Siya Kolisi: Against All Odds
by Jeremy DanielWhen Siya Kolisi leads the Springboks out onto the field at the Rugby World Cup in September 2019, it will be the crowning glory of an incredible journey that began on the impoverished streets of Zwide, a township outside Port Elizabeth. As the first black South African to captain a Springbok rugby team, Kolisi’s remarkable story is unique and deserves to be heard.His mother was a teenager when he was born. She left him in the care of his grandmother who brought him up until she died (in his arms) when Siya was twelve. He found love and acceptance playing junior rugby with the African Bombers club until his talent was spotted by the prestigious Grey High School who offered Siya a full scholarship that changed his life.He adapted well to the posh private school, but it was on the rugby field where he excelled. Siya was rewarded with a call-up the SA schools team and a contract to join the Western Province rugby union.Author Jeremy Daniel tracks Siya’s journey from running wild on the streets of Zwide, through some crucial games in high school, into the Western Province rugby set-up and his fight to become Springbok captain. He goes deep inside the systems that identify junior talent, the characters who shaped his journey and the moments where he showed who he really was. Siya never forgot where he came from, and ultimately adopted his mother’s other two children after she died when he was in high school.His life has not been without controversy, and his marriage to a fiery young white woman was a lightning rod for racial politics. But he is a shining beacon of hope for South Africa, he is massively popular and there is a huge appetite from the public to know about his life and to support him as Springbok captain.
James Baldwin: Living in Fire (Revolutionary Lives)
by Bill V. MullenIn the first major biography of Baldwin in more than a decade, Bill V. Mullen celebrates the personal and political life of the great African-American writer who changed the face of Western politics and culture.As a lifelong anti-imperialist, black queer advocate, and feminist, Baldwin (1924-1987) was a passionate chronicler of the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, the U.S. war against Vietnam, Palestinian liberation struggle, and the rise of LGBTQ rights.Mullen explores how Baldwin's life and work channel the long history of African-American freedom struggles, and explains how Baldwin both predicted and has become a symbol of the global Black Lives Matter movement.
W. T. Stead: Nonconformist and Newspaper Prophet (Spiritual Lives)
by Stewart J. BrownW. T. Stead (1849-1912) was a newspaper editor, author, social reformer, advocate for women rights, peace campaigner, spiritualist, and one of the best-known public figures in the late Victorian and Edwardian Britain. W. T. Stead: Nonconformist and Newspaper Prophet provides a compelling religious biography of Stead, offering particular attention to his conception of journalism—in an age of growing mass literacy—as a means to communicate religious truth and morality, and his view of the editor's desk as a modern pulpit. Leading scholar, Stewart J. Brown explores how his Nonconformist Conscience and sense of divine calling infused Stead's newspaper crusades-most famously his 'Maiden Tribute' campaign against child prostitution. The biography also examines Stead's growing interest in spiritualism and the occult, as he searched for the evidence of an afterlife that might draw people in a more secular age back to faith. It discusses his imperialism and his belief in the English-speaking peoples of the British Empire and American Republic as God's new chosen people for the spread of civilisation; and it highlights how his growing understanding of other faiths and cultures—but more especially his moral revulsion over the South African War of 1899-1902—brought him to question those beliefs. Finally, it assesses the influence of religious faith on his campaigns for world peace and the arbitration of international disputes.
Cassius Dio (Ancients in Action)
by Jesper Majbom MadsenThis volume offers an introduction to the life and work of the 3rd-century-AD Greco-Roman senator and historian Cassius Dio, whose work, although imperfectly preserved in 80 books, is of fundamental importance to our understanding of Roman history. It is said that Dio is not one of the best ancient historians and his Roman history, due to its sheer size, is often imprecise and superficial in its analysis. It has also been assumed that there was no political agenda behind the work, and that Dio's principal value to us is as a reliable copyist, who mediated the works of other, and better sources. This introduction to his life and work offers a different picture. Here, Dio is presented through his Greek cultural lens as a politician with a clear vision for how Roman politics and government should be organized. Carefully selected examples will be the starting points for fresh critical analysis of Dio's work and its legacy, both in antiquity and through to the Enlightenment. The book assumes no familiarity with Cassius Dio, his writing or context. All text will be translated and suggested further reading will point readers towards avenues for more detailed study.
The Pippa Guide: Live Your Best Life
by Pippa O'Connor Ormond"I think anyone can do anything they want to do. I really believe that."Style icon and savvy businesswoman Pippa O'Connor Ormond believes that anything is achievable if you put your mind to it.In this honest and revealing guide to modern life, Pippa shares some of her personal moments, experiences and life lessons that have shaped her into the person she is today. From excelling at work, to making your house a home, styling your wardrobe and perfecting your beauty routine, nurturing family and friendships while promoting self-care, Pippa will reveal her most valuable tips for bringing positivity and happiness into your life."I'm always practising gratitude. No matter what you have in life, once you are grateful for it, it manifests more. 100%."
Niccolò Machiavelli: An Intellectual Biography
by Corrado VivantiA colorful, comprehensive, and authoritative account of Machiavelli's life and thoughtThis is a colorful, comprehensive, and authoritative introduction to the life and work of the Florentine statesman, writer, and political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527). Corrado Vivanti, who was one of the world's leading Machiavelli scholars, provides an unparalleled intellectual biography that demonstrates the close connections between Machiavelli's thought and his changing fortunes during the tumultuous Florentine republic and his subsequent exile. Vivanti's concise account covers not only Machiavelli's most famous works—The Prince, The Discourses, The Florentine Histories, and The Art of War—but also his letters, poetry, and comic dramas. While setting Machiavelli's life against a dramatic backdrop of war, crisis, and diplomatic intrigue, the book also paints a vivid human portrait of the man.
Life in La Liga: The Story of Spanish Club Football
by Rab McWilliamIn Life in La Liga, football writer Rab MacWilliam delves to the heart of one of Europe’s most historically and politically complex nations to explore its rich football history, examining its deep-rooted rivalries and internecine vendettas, and the undoubtedly impressive standard of its football clubs.From the big five of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao, Atletico Madrid and Valencia, to the likes of Sevilla, Real Sociedad, Deportivo de La Coruna, Real Zaragoza, Celta de Vigo, Espanyol, Real Betis and Sporting Gijon, McWilliam laces an entertainingly informative narrative with short biographies of the Spanish game’s main participants, players, and characters, as well as reflections on the humorous, tragic and pivotal events that have taken place since the Spanish league’s origins in the late nineteenth century on its journey to becoming the dominant force in the global game that it is today.
The Lost Ones: A Family Torn Apart And Abused In Catholic Orphanages
by Kathleen O’SheaPreviously published as Little Drifters. The harrowing true story of a travelling Irish family bonded by love, broken apart by life, and then betrayed by their carers in a cruel convent in Ireland.
Queen Elizabeth II's Guide to Life
by Karen DolbyA timely celebration of the many attributes our Queen brings to the nation – fortitude, stoicism, diplomacy, family values, sense of fun and style among them.Queen Elizabeth II – Britain’s longest-serving monarch, Supreme Governor of the Church of England and the Head of the Commonwealth – has reigned over us for a record-breaking sixty-seven years. Now in her ninety-fourth year, this timely celebration sheds new light on the myriad attributes and personal qualities she brings to the nation. From fortitude in the face of adversity to standing as the nation’s ambassador all over the world, no one could doubt the work ethic that powers this remarkable woman, even into her nineties. Equally, her love of family – from her rock of over sixty years’ marriage, Prince Philip, to her great grandchildren – shines through. But what are the secrets of her success? How does she still approach her day-to-day with such vitality and aplomb, even when culture and society are changing rapidly all around her?The Queen on fame: When an MP commented that it must be a strain meeting so many strangers all the time, the Queen smiled, ‘It is not as difficult as it might seem. You see, I don’t have to introduce myself. They all seem to know who I am.’The Queen on fashion: In the late sixties when Mary Quant and the mini skirt came to epitomize all that was fashionable, Princess Anne suggested her mother might also consider shortening her hemline. The Queen was adamant, ‘I am not a film star.’ The Queen on family: As Great Britain’s most famous great grandmother, it is no surprise that the Queen values family life. ‘Marriage gains from the web of family relationships between parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, cousins, aunts and uncles.’In this book Karen Dolby unpicks the key elements that make the Queen so special to – and so loved by – the nation and presents a guide to how you too could put into practice some of Her Majesty’s traits to help overcome adversity, find inner strength and present yourself as wonderfully considered and calm, even when all about you seems in chaos.
Martin Monath: A Jewish Resistance Fighter Among Nazi Soldiers (Revolutionary Lives)
by Nathaniel FlakinA dramatisation of Martin Monath's short life (1913-1944) would need little artistic embellishment; his identity shrouded in mystery, and executed by the Gestapo - twice - the historical record reads like a detective novel.Pieced together for the first time by Wladek Flakin, this biography tells the story of the Jewish socialist and editor of Arbeiter und Soldat ('Worker and Soldier'), and his efforts to turn German rank-and-file soldiers against their Nazi officers in occupied France. Born in Berlin in 1913, Martin Monath was a child of war and revolution. In the 1930s he became a leader of the socialist Zionist youth organisation Hashomer Hatzair in Germany. Fleeing from Berlin to Brussels in 1939, he joined the underground Trotskyist party led by Abraham Leon, and soon became a leading member of the Fourth International in Europe. His relocation to Paris in 1943 saw the birth of Arbeiter und Soldat and his work organising illegal cells of German soldiers for a revolutionary struggle against the Nazis.Drawing on extensive archival research, Flakin uses letters, testimonies and unpublished documents to bring Monath's story to life - weaving a tale rich with conviction and betrayal, ideology and espionage.
Leaving the Arena: A Story of Bar and Bench
by David W KeeneThe Rt. Hon. Sir David Keene has had a long and distinguished career both at the Bar and on the Bench. From being called to the Bar by the Inner Temple, taking silk and becoming chairman of the Planning Bar to the High Court and Court of Appeal, Sir David has been involved in a number of fascinating cases over the course of his career, from the Stanstead Airport inquiry to the McDonald libel appeal. In Leaving the Arena, Sir David reveals the story of his life from childhood to retirement. This memoir reveals the daily life of Keene as a law student at Oxford to working in the chambers, standing as a prospective candidate for Labour and becoming a QC before retiring after 9 years in the Court of Appeal. This fascinating account is a must-read for anyone with an interest in law.
Luis Buñuel: A Life in Letters
Luis 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.
Crystal Eastman: A Revolutionary Life
by Amy AronsonIn 1910, Crystal Eastman was one of the most conspicuous progressive reformers in America. By the 1920s, her ardent suffragism, insistent anti-militarism, gregarious internationalism, and uncompromising feminism branded her "the most dangerous woman in America" and led to her exile in England. Yet a century later, her legacy in shaping several defining movements of the modern era--labor, feminism, free speech, peace--is unquestioned. A founder of the ACLU and Woman's Peace Party, Eastman was a key player in a constellation of high-stakes public battles from the very beginning of her career. She first found employment investigating labor conditions--an endeavor that would produce her iconic publication, Work Accidents and the Law, a catalyst for the first workers' compensation law. She would go on to fight for the rights of women, penning the Equal Rights Amendment with Alice Paul. As a pacifist in the First World War era, she helped to found the Civil Liberties Bureau, which evolved into the ACLU. With her brother, the writer Max Eastman, she frequented the radical, socialist circles of Greenwich Village. She was also a radical of the politics of private life, bringing attention to cutting-edge issues such as reproductive rights, wages for housework, and single motherhood by choice. As the first biography of Eastman, this book gives renewed voice to a woman who spoke freely and passionately in debates still raging today -- gender equality and human rights, nationalism and globalization, political censorship and media control, worker benefits and family balance, and the monumental questions of war, sovereignty, and freedom.
Ted Shawn: His Life, Writings, and Dances
by Paul A. ScolieriTed Shawn (1891-1972) is the self-proclaimed "Father of American Dance" who helped to transform dance from a national pastime into theatrical art. In the process, he made dancing an acceptable profession for men and taught several generations of dancers, some of whom went on to become legendary choreographers and performers in their own right, most notably his protégés Martha Graham, Louise Brooks, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman. Shawn tried for many years and with great frustration to tell the story of his life's work in terms of its social and artistic value, but struggled, owing to the fact that he was homosexual, a fact known only within his inner circle of friends. Unwilling to disturb the meticulously narrated account of his paternal exceptionalism, he remained closeted, but scrupulously archived his journals, correspondence, programs, photographs, and motion pictures of his dances, anticipating that the full significance of his life, writing, and dances would reveal itself in time. Ted Shawn: His Life, Writings, and Dances is the first critical biography of the dance legend, offering an in-depth look into Shawn's pioneering role in the formation of the first American modern dance company and school, the first all-male dance company, and Jacob's Pillow, the internationally renowned dance festival and school located in the Berkshires. The book explores Shawn's writings and dances in relation to emerging discourses of modernism, eugenics and social evolution, revealing an untold story about the ways that Shawn's homosexuality informed his choreographic vision. The book also elucidates the influences of contemporary writers who were leading a radical movement to depathologize homosexuality, such as the British eugenicist Havelock Ellis and sexologist Alfred Kinsey, and conversely, how their revolutionary ideas about sexuality were shaped by Shawn's modernism.
Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich and Powerful
by Darryl Cunningham'A beautifully drawn exposé of the men who burnt the planet. Each picture is worth far more than a thousand complex academic words.'—Danny DorlingWho are the super-rich in our society, and how do they have such disproportionate political and cultural influence on our lives? How did they acquire their wealth, and what are their lives like?The super-rich are often portrayed as self-made, as if their wealth was created entirely by their own efforts. But is this true? In his latest book of graphic analysis, celebrated author Darryl Cunningham examines the evidence, featuring graphic biographies of media baron Rupert Murdoch, oil and gas tycoons Charles and David Koch, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Have these individuals enjoyed advantages, beyond their personal ability and attributes, that have aided their success? Cunningham makes comparisons with the ‘Gilded Age’ (1870s to 1900), the last period in America in which a few individuals gained colossal wealth. Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, JP Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt and others made fortunes, but also helped create the modern world of railroads, manufacturing, and finance. What essential elements have the modern equivalents brought us?Despite the often reported disadvantages brought by the widening gulf between the poorest and the super rich, are such wealthy individuals necessary to finance technological progress? Would we be poorer without them?
Democracy, Sovereignty and Terror: Lakshman Kadirgamar on the Foundations of International Order
'For those of us who have to live with terrorism, when we leave home in the morning there is no guarantee that we will come back.' Thus Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, foreshadowed his own assassination in 2005. He was an astute and brave thinker and practitioner on many key issues in international politics. Long before 9/11 he warned Western democracies that they were too passive about the activities on their soil of foreign terrorist movements and their front organizations. He was a strong advocate of democracy and human rights, conducting the first-ever Amnesty investigation into the problems of a particular country - Vietnam. He was uniquely effective in countering the propaganda campaigns of the separatist Tamil Tigers in his native Sri Lanka - the movement which ultimately took his life. This definitive work explores the continuing relevance of his ideas for the modern world. Democracy, Sovereignty and Terror presents Kadirgamar's distinctive voice in his major speeches. It also offers a convincing picture, by those who knew him, of a scholar-statesman who was both a realist and an idealist.He showed that these approaches can be combined in both thought and action.
It's Never Too Late: Stories of People Who Changed the World in Later Life – Foreword by Michael Whitehall
by Chester MorganfieldThe best is yet to come; stories of the inspiring, inventive, and brave things people have achieved in later life. With a foreword by Michael Whitehall, late bloomer par excellence.With life comes perspective, wisdom, judgement and depth. You are as likely to change the world after middle age as you were before it - and perhaps more likely to change it for the better. From the well known to the unsung, each entry tells the story of how older age was no barrier to impressive feats of intellect, creativity and daring. Ranging from Alexander Fleming, Stan Lee and Baroness Trumpington, to Whina Cooper and the bestselling novelist Mary Wesley who didn't write her first novel until she was 71, and William Ivy Baldwin who tightrope walked across a canyon at 82. Here is a celebration of the amazing things we humans have shown to be possible in later life. A gift book for late bloomers, baby boomers, and beyond; and an inspiring picture of the possibilities and potential that older age holds.
Letters to the Earth: Writing To A Planet Crisis
by Jackie MorrisCreation is the antidote to despair. ‘All power to this amazing project.’ Joanne Harris ‘[A] wonderful little book’ Jerome Flynn ‘A must read for anyone who lives on earth.’ Bella Lack
The Making of the Israeli Far-Right: Abba Ahimeir and Zionist Ideology
by Peter BergaminAbba Ahimeir (1897 –1962) writer, journalist and historian began his public life as a socialist, but subsequently moved toward the rightward extreme of Zionist ideology. One of the earliest opponents of the British Mandate, in 1930 he founded a radical organization called Brit Habiryonim (the Union of Zionist Rebels). This was a clandestine, self-declared fascist faction of the Revisionist Zionist Movement (ZRM) in Palestine whose official ideology was Maximalist Revisionism, an ideology for which Ahimeir is now most well-known.Ahimeir's career as a political activist came to an early end, when he was arrested in connection with the murder of the Labour Zionist leader, Chaim Arlosoroff. Although acquitted, Ahimeir nonetheless went to prison for his involvement as a political activist. This is the first intellectual biography of one of the most influential figures on the Zionist Right. Based on much unseen primary source material from the Ahimeir archive in Ramat Gan and the Jabotinsky Institute in Tel Aviv, as well as Ahimeir's newspaper articles, the author provides a rigorous analysis of Ahimeir's ideological development. The book positions him more accurately within the contexts of the Israeli right and the Zionist movement in general, updates common misunderstanding about this period of history and revises Israeli collective memory.
Ronnie: The Autobiography of Ronnie O'Sullivan
by Ronnie O'SullivanRonnie is snooker's most written and talked about player, and its greatest showman. His supreme talent and style have made him the People's Champion and, as one commentator put it, 'the question is not how much does Ronnie O'Sullivan need snooker, but how much does snooker need Ronnie O'Sullivan?' A honest and candid account of his extraordinary life, Ronnie tells of the infant who was introduced to legendary snooker clubs at an impossibly early age; of the boy who frightened off the bookies aged just 12; of the teenager whose life was decimated when his father and mentor was sent to prison for life; and of the man dubbed the 'genius' of the modern game who regularly threatened to quit the sport to pursue other interests at the grand old age of 28.'A fine autobiography ... compelling' - Independent'O'Sullivan is as frank about his spell in the Priory clinic as he is about his father's murder conviction. His accounts of snooker tournaments and sketches of the sport's personalities will fascinate fans, but even snooker haters will be rooting for Ronnie in the game of life' - OK!