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Rory's Story: My Unexpected Journey to Self-Belief
by Rory O'Connor Dermot CroweNobody thought Rory O’Connor would make it – written off as ‘thick’ at school, he struggled to find a career he felt he could succeed in. When a hot tip led to a win on the horses it was the beginning of a dangerous spiral into a gambling addiction that gnawed away at his self-esteem even further.How did the man who thought he had nothing to live for go on to become a stand-up comedian selling out venues around Ireland and reaching 800,000 people through his social media platforms?This is Rory’s Story.Told with his trademark humour, this straight-talking memoir is a book for anyone who wants to be inspired by an ordinary man’s mental health journey.
The Life of Prince Henry of Portugal: Surnamed the Nabigator and its Results (Routledge Revivals)
by Richard Henry MajorOriginally published in 1868, this book follows the life of Prince Henry, including chapters on the Siege of Tangier, the capture of Ceuta and the death of Prince Henry.
The Life of Prince Henry of Portugal: Surnamed the Nabigator and its Results (Routledge Revivals)
by Richard Henry MajorOriginally published in 1868, this book follows the life of Prince Henry, including chapters on the Siege of Tangier, the capture of Ceuta and the death of Prince Henry.
Mark Twain's Letters -- Volume 4 (1886-1900)
by Mark TwainAt the beginning of 1870, fresh from the success of The Innocents Abroad, Clemens is on "the long agony" of a lecture tour and planning to settle in Buffalo as editor of the Express. By the end of 1871, he has moved to Hartford and is again on tour, anticipating the publication of Roughing It and the birth of his second child. The intervening letters show Clemens bursting with literary ideas, business schemes, and inventions, and they show him erupting with frustration, anger, and grief, but more often with dazzling humor and surprising self-revelation. In addition to Roughing It, Clemens wrote some enduringly popular short pieces during this period, but he saved some of his best writing for private letters, many of which are published here for the first time.
Milkshakes and Morphine: A Memoir of Love and Loss
by Genevieve Fox'Extraordinary' Rachel Cusk'Exquisite and tender' Sarah Perry'Unexpectedly joyous' Julie MyersonThis is a singular memoir: an excavation of mother love, a candid account of the agonies, and absurdities, of the cancer experience, and a doggedly optimistic paean to life.When Genevieve Fox finds a lump in her throat, she turns up for the hospital diagnosis in a party frock and fancy hair. I can’t have cancer, she thinks. I’ve done my hair. But there is another reason she can’t countenance cancer. Genevieve was orphaned to it at the age of nine.Genevieve’s story weaves together past and present as she recalls her rackety, unconventional childhood, while also facing the spectre of being lost to her young boys. Yet, she confronts her treatment with the same sassy survival instinct that characterised her childhood misadventures. Through an extraordinary alchemy, Genevieve takes life’s precariousness and turns it on its head.
Amber Jane Butchart's Fashion Miscellany: An Elegant Collection of Stories, Quotations, Tips & Trivia from the World of Style
by Amber ButchartStyles come and and go, but fashion has an enduring appeal, a rich history, and an everyday practical relevance for millions.Launched to coincide with London Fashion Week 2014, this book offers a host of new perspectives on a classic subject. Professional fashion expert Amber Jane Butchart casts a quizzical eye over fashion's oddities, revealing the histories of such garments as the Adelaide boot, the origins of many technical terms and a host of entertaining quotes and aphorisms from the field's most colourful names.Specially-commissioned line illustrations from Penelope Beech complete the book, making it a feast for the eyes as well as treat for the stylish soul.
Se-Quo-Yah
by George Everett FosterPublished in 1885, this is the biography of famed Cherokee Indian, Se-Quo-Yah, the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet.
Louis Botha: A Man Apart
by Richard SteynIn A Man Apart Richard Steyn once again brings to life a South African icon. Louis Botha was the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, a union he did much to create in the decade after the devastation of the Anglo-Boer War. During the war Botha was a brilliant young Boer general who through his battlefield strategy won significant victories over the British in the early stages of the war. When the weight of British arms overwhelmed the Boers, Botha along with Smuts did much to encourage peace between English and Afrikaner and led the country to Union in 1910 and dominion status.Botha was a big-hearted and generous man who showed magnanimity in his dealings with all, including former enemies. He led the South African troops to victory and the capture of German South West Africa – prior to this he had to put down a revolt of pro-German Afrikaners. At the Peace of Versailles, representing South Africa, he pleaded unsuccessfully for magnanimity towards the Germans. Botha was a globally respected figure – he and Smuts effectively operated as a double act in South Africa and on the international stage before Botha’s untimely death in August 1919 at only 57. In A Man Apart this tragically short life is illuminated in full.
Moments of Knowing
by Ann BridgeAnn Bridge, besides being a famous author, was also, in her own words, “a person who frequently has, when awake, inexplicable 'knowings' of events taking place at a distance: and, in dreams, am informed, sometimes uncomfortably, of facts of which I can have no knowledge by normal means”. In this remarkable book, part memoir, part a personal statement, she wrote of a number of such moments taken from a varied and distinguished career, and ranging from a startling premonition of a cypher-breaking job in the Admiralty during World War I to a somewhat macabre later episode concerned with the Duchess of Windsor. Moments of Knowing can be read for its appealing autobiographical qualities or for the steady and careful light its author throws on areas of experience of which few people may have first-hand knowledge.
The Maverick: George Weidenfeld and the Golden Age of Publishing
by Thomas HardingBorn into a Jewish family in Vienna in 1919, George Weidenfeld fled to England in 1938 to escape the Nazi regime. There he began a career in publishing that would make him one of the most influential figures in the industry. Over the course of his long and illustrious career he championed some of the most important voices of the twentieth century, from Vladimir Nabokov, Mary McCarthy and Saul Bellow to Harold Wilson, Isaiah Berlin and Henry Kissinger.But what do we know about the man himself? Was he, as described by some, the 'greatest salesperson', 'the world's best networker', 'the publisher's publisher' and 'a great intellectual'? Was his lifelong effort to be the world's most famous host a cover for his desperate loneliness? Who, in fact, was the real George Weidenfeld and how did he rise so successfully within the ranks of London and New York society? Providing a full, unvarnished and at times difficult history of this complex man, this first biography of a titan of culture is also a story of resilience, determination and the power of ideas to shape history.
Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Jean RhysJean Rhys wrote this autobiography in her old age, now the celebrated author of Wide Sargasso Sea but still haunted by memories of her troubled past: her precarious jobs on chorus lines and relationships with unsuitable men, her enduring sense of isolation and her decision at last to become a writer. From the early days on Dominica to the bleak time in England, living in bedsits on gin and little else, to Paris with her first husband, this is a lasting memorial to a unique artist.
Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Enquiry and Hope
by Sarah Bakewell***AS READ ON RADIO 4***The bestselling, prizewinning author of How to Live and At the Existentialist Café explores 700 years of writers, thinkers, scientists and artists, all trying to understand what it means to be truly human.'I can't imagine a better history' PHILIP PULLMAN * 'Fascinating, moving, funny' OLIVER BURKEMANIf you are reading this, it's likely you already have some affinity with humanism, even if you don't think of yourself in those terms. You may be drawn to literature and the humanities. You may prefer to base your moral choices on fellow-feeling and responsibility to others rather than on religious commandments. Or you may simply believe that individual lives are more important than grand political visions or dogmas.If any of these apply, you are part of a long tradition of humanist thought, and you share that tradition with many extraordinary individuals through history who have put rational enquiry, cultural richness, freedom of thought and a sense of hope at the heart of their lives.Humanly Possible introduces us to some of these people, as it asks what humanism is and why it has flourished for so long, despite opposition from fanatics, mystics and tyrants. It is a book brimming with ideas, personalities and experiments in living - from Erasmus to Esperanto, from anatomists to agnostics, from Christine de Pizan to Bertrand Russell to Zora Neale Hurston. It joyfully celebrates open-mindedness, optimism, freedom and the power of the here and now - humanist values which have helped steer us through dark times in the past, and which are just as urgently needed in our world today.PRAISE FOR SARAH BAKEWELL'S BOOKS'Quirky, funny, clear and passionate . . . Few writers are as good as Bakewell at explaining complicated ideas' Mail on Sunday'A wonderfully readable combination of biography, philosophy, history, cultural analysis and personal reflection' Independent'Splendidly conceived and exquisitely written' Sunday Times'A rare achievement' Evening Standard
Over the Bridge: An Essay In Autobiography
by Richard ChurchOver the Bridge, the first volume of Richard Church's personal essays, originally published in 1955, takes the reader through the poet's Edwardian childhood adventures. With his detailed descriptions and insightful observations Church paints an idyllic image of his early years passed in the safety of the close-knit lower middle-class home where his loving, hard working parents did all they could to protect their sons from the harsh reality of Britain at the end of the Victorian era. He ponders with humour the disappointments of his first school endeavours; his academic failure made him feel an outcast until it was discovered that not a poor intellectual capacity but rather the child's poor eyesight was to blame for his lack of concentration and understanding of his school subjects. And finally Church takes us through his teenage years, which began happily with a promise of undisturbed literary and artistic pursuits at Camberwell Art School but were soon tainted with worry over the diminishing health of their beloved mother – the pillar of the Church family.Over the Bridge is not only a touching portrait of Church's childhood self but also an intriguing and detailed picture of the social and economic realities of the Edwardian era. In 1955 Over the Bridge was awarded the Sunday Times Prize for Literature.
The Voyage Home
by Richard ChurchWith uncompromising frankness and the disciplined simplicity of a poet, Richard Church records his own striving – his own voyage home – towards maturity of understanding and fulfilment. Startling in its depth and insight, yet never without an infectious humour, this book ranges far beyond the daily events of the author's life.For twenty-four years Richard Church led the double life of hard-working Civil Servant and an artist with a growing compulsion to give literary form to his glimpses of the truth. Eventually, the shattering climax of nervous strain, induced by the incompatibility of office work, forced Church to retire from the Civil Service and become a full-time author.First published in 1964, The Voyage Home is an inspiring personal story of a true artist, and a lively and entertaining appraisal of the author's many celebrated friends and contemporaries. Not only the fascination of journey and the beauty of the writing make this a remarkable work; but also Richard Church's manifold insistence on the importance of individual genius is a warm reassurance in the present time.
The Mountains of California: An enthusiastic nature diary from the founder of national parks (John Muir: The Eight Wilderness-Discovery Books)
by John Muir‘How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains! To behold this alone is worth the pains of any excursion a thousand times over.’John Muir is known internationally for his dedication to protecting the environment and for founding The Sierra Club in 1892. His first book, as Muir authority Terry Gifford writes in the foreword, ‘became the bible of the fledgling Sierra Club, which is now a major national environmental activists’ organisation with branches in every corner of America’.The Mountains of California not only details Muir’s visits to the magnificent mountains along the Sierra Nevada Range, which he affectionately calls ‘The Range of Light’, but also the stunning glaciers, forests and landscapes that he encounters: ‘Climbing higher, I saw for the first time the gradual dwarfing of the pines in compliance with climate … patches of the dwarf vaccinium with its round flowers sprinkled in the grass like purple hail; while in every direction the landscape stretched sublimely away in fresh wildness: a manuscript written by the hand of nature alone.’Throughout the book, Muir’s philosophy of nature’s ability to soothe and amaze is evident. He heart-warmingly discusses at length how his encounters with animals, such as the Douglas squirrel, cheered him so. This is a truly beautiful read; Muir’s writing, embedded with emotion, wit, and at times, humour, will never fail to speak to his reader.The enthusiasm contained within these pages is infectious, and as well as making a powerful read, Muir will inspire you, too, to ‘come and see’ the innumerable delights that nature can offer:‘The best words only hint at [California’s] charms. Come to the mountains and see.’
HM Queen Elizabeth II: Diamond Jubilee
by Diamond JubileeA very special Ladybird souvenir e-book to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II.The Queen's 60-year reign has seen many changes but her reputation as the world's most famous and beloved monarch continues to this day.Read about her early childhood, coronation, family life, and the way she has shaped the modern monarchy over the last sixty years. There are also fascinating facts about the number of Prime Ministers and leaders she's known, all the countries visited, her official portraits and more!
Stranger than Fiction
by Denise RobinsThe autobiography of Denise Robins, the 100-million-copy bestselling Queen of Romance, first published in 1965, and available now for the first time in eBook.Apart from writing over two hundred novels which have sold over one hundred million copies worldwide, Denise Robins led a remarkable life. Love and romance were always dominant influences and were reflected not only in her work but in her attitude to life. All the warmth, compassion and deep understanding of the frailty if the human heart that shine through her novels, can be seen here in her autobiography. It is a story that will captivate her huge audience of readers.
His Second War
by Alec WaughAlec Waugh, who served in the last war as a regular army officer, was recalled to his regiment in September 1939. After a few months of regimental duties he has filled a succession of Junior Staff appointment, with the B.E.F. in France, in London during the Blitz, with the M.E.F in Syria and Egypt and latterly with the Persia and Iraq command. This book is the narrative of his four years in khaki. It makes no attempt to be sensational, but the range and variety of those experiences have provided ample scope for that capacity to convey character, atmosphere and landscape which has made Alec Waugh so popular a novelist.
Letters to Véra
by Vladimir Nabokov Brian Boyd Olga VoroninaNo marriage of a major twentieth-century writer lasted longer than Vladimir Nabokov's. Véra Slonim shared his delight at the enchantment of life's trifles and literature's treasures, and he rated her as having the best and quickest sense of humour of any woman he had met. From their meeting in 1921, Vladimir's letters to his beloved Véra form a narrative arc that tells a forty-six year-long love story, and they are memorable in their entirety. Almost always playful, romantic, and pithy, the letters tell us much about the man and the writer; we see that Vladimir observed everything, from animals, faces, speech, and landscapes with genuine fascination.
The Theory of the Leisure Class
by Thorstein VeblenThis scathing critique of America’s preoccupation with wealth and status in the Gilded Age continues to resonate more than a century after it was first published According to economist Thorstein Veblen, the leisure class produces nothing, contributes nothing, and creates nothing, yet exercises a peculiar control over American society. The shallowness of their interests—from fashion to sports to entertainment—endows the practice of “conspicuous consumption” with an undeserving air of respectability. Veblen deploys a razor sharp wit to expose the pretensions of the idle rich and their disastrous influence on the national character. From ruthless business practices to the plight of women in a male-dominated culture, The Theory of the Leisure Class tackles difficult subjects with sophisticated analysis and a vibrant literary style that influenced the work of authors including Edith Wharton, Henry James, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. A must-read for students of American history and anyone concerned about economic inequality, Veblen’s classic treatise is timelier today than ever. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
Wildeana (riverrun editions)
by Oscar WildeOscar Wilde's early fame ensured that throughout his short life he was written about by many of those he met. He was celebrated - or mocked - as the master of the ingenious epigram, the provocative paradox, the witty aside or the extravagant conceit. In researching his monumental biography of Wilde Matthew Sturgis found, in every major archive, sheets of foolscap in Wilde's distinctive handwriting, setting down a series of unfamiliar epigrams - unpublished try-outs. There were fascinating new discoveries. He uncovered dozens of unfamiliar and previously ungathered anecdotes about Wilde: sidelights on his days in Oxford, London, America and Paris and beyond, by society hostesses, men-about-town, actors, lawyers, minor litterateurs, artists and politicians, diligently setting down his actions, his mannerisms and above all his sayings.The items in this volume are all small additions to the Wilde story: some unfamiliar, others unexpected, they enrich and alter the picture of his life.
How to be a Princess: Real-Life Fairy Tales for Modern Heroines – No Fairy Godmothers Required
by Katy BirchallAs Meghan Markle once said: 'With fame comes opportunity, but it also includes responsibility - to advocate and share, to focus less on the glass slipper and more on pushing through glass ceilings. And, if I'm lucky enough, to inspire.'Inspired by the Royal Wedding on 19 May, this beautiful collection of light-hearted stories celebrates what it takes to be a modern princess. Smart, strong, kind and brave, every princess here - whether they be fictional or real - is awesome.Including: Meghan, Ameera, Elizabeth II, Elsa, Leia, Moana, Tiana, Fiona, Haya, Lalla, Akishino, Maha, Diana, Catherine, Grace, Maxima, Rania AND princesses ahead of their time: Margaret, Elizabeth I, Pingyang, Hatshepsut, Nzinga and Seondeok.This book will make you smile and inspire you to make your own happy ending.
In the Days of Queen Victoria
by Eva March TappanThis early work by Eva March Tappan was originally published in 1903 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'In the Days of Queen Victoria' is a biography of Queen Victoria and details aspects of her school days, her coronation, and her family life. Eva March Tappan was born on 26th December 1854, in Blackstone, Massachusetts, United States. Tappan began her literary career writing about famous characters from history in works such as 'In the Days of William the Conqueror' (1901), and 'In the Days of Queen Elizabeth' (1902). She then developed an interest in children's books, writing her own and publishing collections of classic tales.
Leonardo Da Vinci
by Kenneth Clark Martin KempA personally compelling introduction to Leonardo's genius, a classic monograph of Leonardo's art and his development.
Love and Exile: An Autobiographical Trilogy (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Isaac Bashevis SingerFrom pre-First World War Warsaw to the New York of the 1930s, Nobel Prize-winner Isaac Bashevis Singer traces the early years of his life in this autobiographical trilogy. In A Little Boy in Search of God, he remembers his bookish boyhood as the son of an Orthodox rabbi, equally absorbed in science, philosophy and cabbala. Later, the pursuit of women came to obsess him almost as much as the pursuit of knowledge, and in A Young Man in Search of Love he chronicles the intricacies of his first love affairs. When he emigrated to the United States from Poland on the eve of the Second World War loneliness and depression overwhelmed him, and he relives those dark years in Lost in America. From beginning to end, Love and Exile sheds new light on Singer's own life and the fictional lives mirrored in it.