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Down with the System: The highly-awaited memoir from the System Of A Down legend
by Serj TankianThe incredible first memoir by System Of A Down frontman Serj TankianWith nearly 40 million record sales, three albums topping the Billboard charts, a Grammy win and a legion of fans, System Of A Down are one of the biggest metal bands on the planet. At their core has always been Serj Tankian, whose journey from the streets of Beirut to rock superstardom is as remarkable and unlikely as you'll get. By dint of luck, circumstance, struggle, and more than a little talent, Serj has had the chance to live an extraordinary life. In Down With the System, he retraces this remarkable and unlikely journey, and explores what it's taught him - about music, about art, about activism, and about himself. From teaming up with Tom Morello to push social justice causes on unsuspecting metalheads, arguing with LAPD officers over the best way to quell his rioting fans, and traveling with Anthony Bourdain through Armenia one meal at a time, Down With the System is an immigrant's tale, an activist's awakening, and rock memoir unlike any other.
Fifty-Three Days on Starvation Island: The World War II Battle That Saved Marine Corps Aviation
by John R BruningThe pivotal true story of the first fifty-three days of the standoff between Imperial Japanese and a handful of Marine aviators defending the Americans dug in at Guadalcanal, from the New York Times bestselling author of Indestructible and Race of Aces. On August 20, 1942, twelve Marine dive-bombers and nineteen Marine fighters landed at Guadalcanal. Their mission: defeat the Japanese navy and prevent it from sending more men and supplies to "Starvation Island," as Guadalcanal was nicknamed. The Japanese were turning the remote, jungle-covered mountain in the south Solomon Islands into an air base from which they could attack the supply lines between the U.S. and Australia. The night after the Marines landed and captured the partially completed airfield, the Imperial Navy launched a surprise night attack on the Allied fleet offshore, resulting in the worst defeat the U.S. Navy suffered in the 20th century, which prompted the abandonment of the Marines on Guadalcanal. The Marines dug in, and waited for help, as those thirty-one pilots and twelve gunners flew against the Japanese, shooting down eighty-three planes in less than two months, while the dive bombers, carried out over thirty attacks on the Japanese fleet. Fifty-Three Days on Starvation Island follows Major John L. Smith, a magnetic leader who became America&’s top fighter ace for the time; Captain Marion Carl, the Marine Corps&’ first ace, and one of the few survivors of his squadron at the Battle of Midway. He would be shot down and forced to make his way back to base through twenty-five miles of Japanese-held jungle. And Major Richard Mangrum, the lawyer-turned-dive-bomber commander whose inexperienced men wrought havoc on the Japanese Navy. New York Times bestselling author John R. Bruning depicts the desperate effort to stop the Japanese long enough for America to muster reinforcements and turn the tide at Guadalcanal. Not just the story of an incredible stand on a distant jungle island, Fifty-Three Days on Starvation Island also explores the consequences of victory to the men who secured it at a time when America had been at war for less than a year and its public had yet to fully understand what that meant. The home front they returned to after their jungle ordeal was a surreal montage of football games, nightclubs, fine dining with America&’s elites, and inside looks at dysfunctional defense industries more interested in fleecing the government than properly equipping the military. Bruning tells the story of how one battle reshaped the Marine Corps and propelled its veterans into the highest positions of power just in time to lead the service into a new war in Southeast Asia.
The Year of the Buttered Cat: A Mostly True Story
by Lexi Haas Susan HaasA funny and empowering memoir from a girl with a severe form of cerebral palsy, for fans of Wonder and Out of My Mind. Includes 30 full color photos and a discussion guide, in print for the first time! When she was just a tiny baby, something terrible happened to Lexi. It left her with an out-of-control body and without a voice. Now, as a precocious, superhero-obsessed thirteen-year-old, Lexi is counting down the final 24 hours to a risky brain surgery that might help her talk or—dare she dream it?—to walk and use her hands. As surgery grows closer, Lexi finds an urgent, relentless need to share the story of the year in her life she calls The Year of the Buttered Cat. That year, on the verge of shutting out the rest of the world, Lexi began a gutsy and solitary quest to find her "missing" body… and she learns new ways to reach out to the world to save her friendships and uncover the startling truth about what happened to her as a baby. In the spirit of Wonder by R.J. Palacio and Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper, here is a riveting story that offers empowering messages of friendship, family, and the art of redefining ourselves.
Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk
by null Kathleen HannaAn electric, searing memoir by the original rebel girl and legendary frontwoman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre Kathleen Hanna’s rallying cry to feminists echoed far and wide through the punk scene of the 1980s, ’90s, and beyond. Her band, Bikini Kill, embodies this iconic time, and today their gutsy, radical lyrics of anthems like ‘Rebel Girl’ and ‘Double Dare Ya’ are more powerful than ever. But where did this transformative voice come from? In Rebel Girl, Hanna’s raw and insightful new memoir, she takes us from her tumultuous childhood home, to her formative college years in Olympia, Washington, and on to her first years on tour, fighting hard for gigs and for her band. As Hanna makes blindingly clear, being in a ‘girl band’, especially a punk girl band, in those years was not a simple or a safe prospect. Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a band took limitless amounts of grit and bravery. But the relationships she developed during those years buoyed her – including with her bandmates Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, and Billy Karren; her friendship with Kurt Cobain; and her introduction to Joan Jett – and they were a testament to how the true punk world nurtured and cared for its own. Hanna opens up about falling in love with Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys and her debilitating battle with Lyme disease, and she brings us behind the scenes of her later bands, Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin. She also writes candidly about the Riot Grrrl movement and its decline, documenting with love its grassroots origins but critiquing its later exclusivity. In an uncut voice all her own, Hanna reveals the darkest, hardest times along with the most joyful – and how it all fuelled her revolutionary art, from the 1980s to today.
I Will Be Good: A Memoir of a Dublin Childhood and a Life Less Ordinary
by Peig McManus'One of the best Dublin memoirs I've ever read' Donal FallonPeig McManus was born into the last of Dublin's tenements before moving to one of Ireland's first social housing estates in Cabra. Her father believed that children should earn their keep and learn to face reality as soon as possible. While that reality was poverty, class prejudice and strict Catholicism, at the heart of Peig's earliest memories are music, hoolies and the bonds of family and community.I Will Be Good is the story of a girl who rebelled against societal expectations and dreamed of further education. It tells of a young woman whose hopes of marriage to a Scottish sailor ended in the heartbreak of a daughter given up for adoption; of a mother who needed something more than her 'place at home'; and of a pioneering citizen who became one of Ireland's foremost campaigners for educational reform.Now, in her eighties, Peig shares her story of grit and courage: an inspiring journey through the trials and triumphs of a remarkable Irish woman who refused to do what she was told.
Into the Taylor-Verse: A tour of Taylor Swift's songwriting journey through the eras
by Satu Hämeenaho-FoxFearlessly jump and fall into the world of Taylor Swift with this illustrated appreciation of her music by Swiftian Theory co-founder Satu Hämeenaho-Fox.This is the book for all Swifties of every era, and the perfect gift for the Taylor Swift fan in your life.Get ready to deep dive into the story of Taylor’s life through her songwriting. Travel back to where it all began with her debut album Taylor Swift and journey through the eras, from the enchanting moments of Speak Now and 1989's red-heart sunglasses, to the cosy cardigan's of Folklore and bejewelled Midnights.Including the musical influences and personal experiences that helped make Taylor the mastermind and icon she is, this book celebrates the inimitable talent of one of the world’s greatest songwriters, performers and cat lovers.Covering her groundbreaking tours, fiercely loyal fans and inspiring position as a businesswoman, discover how Taylor uses her signature themes of girlhood, heartbreak and female friendship to master her craft, and how her genius for poignant lyrics and planting secret clues has developed her music into a whole universe for Swifties to explore.Are you ready for it?
The Invention of Angela Carter: A Biography
by Edmund GordonWidely acknowledged as one of the most important English writers of the last century, Angela Carter's work stands out for its bawdiness and linguistic zest, its hospitality to the fantastical and the absurd, and its extraordinary inventiveness and range. Her life was as vigorously modern and unconventional as anything in her fiction. This is the story of how Angela Carter invented herself - as a new kind of woman and a new kind of writer - and how she came to write such seductive and distinctive masterworks as The Bloody Chamber, Nights at the Circus, and Wise Children. Because its subject so powerfully embodied the spirit of the times, the book also provides a fresh perspective on Britain's social and cultural history in the second half of the twentieth century. It examines such topics as the 1960s counterculture, the social and imaginative conditions of the nuclear age, and the advent of second wave feminism. Author Edmund Gordon has followed in Angela Carter's footsteps - travelling to the places she lived in Britain, Japan, and the USA - to uncover a life rich in adventure and incident. With unrestricted access to her manuscripts, letters, and journals, and informed by interviews with Carter's friends and family, Gordon offers an unrivalled portrait of one of the twentieth century's most dazzlingly original writers. This sharply written narrative will be the definitive biography for years to come.
Berserker!: The deeply moving and brilliantly funny memoir from one of Britain's most beloved comedians
by Adrian EdmondsonThe instant Sunday Times bestseller and Financial Times Best Audio of 2023From brutal schooldays to 80s anarchy, through The Young Ones, Bottom and beyond, Berserker! is the one-of-a-kind, fascinating memoir from an icon of British comedy, Adrian Edmondson.Ade Edmondson revolutionized the comedy circuit in the 1980s and, alongside Rik Mayall, brought anarchy to stage and screen. How did a child brought up in a strict Methodist household – and who spent his formative years incarcerated in repressive boarding schools – end up joining the revolution?With wisdom, nostalgia and uniquely observed humour, Ade traces his journey through life and comedy: starting out on the alternative scene, getting arrested in Soho, creating outrageously violent characters and learning more about his curious (possibly Scandinavian) heritage. With star-studded anecdotes and set to a soundtrack of pop hits which transport the reader through time, it’s a memoir like no other.Nominated for Radio Times Moment of the Year for sharing his memories of Rik Mayall on Desert Island Discs.'The Berserker from The Young Ones and Bottom tells his story with self-effacing charm and no end of backstage anecdotes' - Ian Rankin'Amazing' - Richard Osman'Gloriously candid and wise all at once' - Sara Pascoe'It is incredibly funny, but it is also a lot, lot more than that' - Miles Jupp‘More fun than reading Hegel, and also more enlightening’ - Louis de Bernières
A Mother's Courage: How I survived the Holocaust - a remarkable story of bravery, kindness and hope
by Malka Levine'A deeply humane memoir of immense power - there is nothing more affecting than a first-hand experience finely told' - Philippe Sands, author of The Ratline'A fabulous memoir . . . a testament to [Malka's] skill and determination' - Dame Maureen LipmanA Mother’s Courage is Holocaust survivor Malka Levine’s powerful and moving tribute to a determined and resourceful woman who refused to give up hope so long as her children needed her.Malka was two when the Nazi invaders forced her family into the Jewish ghetto in Volodymyr-Volynskyi, a small city in present-day Ukraine. It was the first step in a campaign of mass murder. Of the 25,000 Jews in the city in 1939, only thirty would survive. Malka’s father was shot in the first pogrom. Before he died he begged her mother Rivka to save their children.Rivka kept Malka and her two older brothers alive through eighteen terrifying months, as the Nazis systematically killed the inhabitants of the ghetto. In the midst of the inhumanity, a few people risked their lives to help. A Wehrmacht officer saved them from being shot and a Polish dressmaker gave them sanctuary when the SS went hunting for victims.Then Rivka persuaded a Ukrainian farmer and his saintly wife to hide her and the children. The Yakimchuks agreed and kept their word, even after the SS commandeered the farm. They dug a pit under their barn, and there Malka’s family stayed through a freezing winter and into the summer until the Red Army came. At the end of the war, Rivka was forced to draw on her strength yet again as she set out to create a new life for herself and her children.A Mother’s Courage is Malka’s chance at long last to thank not only her brave mum, but also all the heroes who opened their hearts to her and her family.
Confessions of a Mask (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Yukio Mishima'There is in this world a kind of desire like stinging pain'A Japanese teenager is overcome with longing for his male classmate. He imagines his body punctured with arrows, like the body of St Sebastian in the painting that obsesses him. Over and over again, each night in his private fantasies, the objects of his lust are tortured, killed and maimed. But, in the rigid world of imperial wartime Japan there is no place for such transgressive desires. He must wear a false mask and hide his true nature, whatever the cost. 'A terrific and astringent work of beauty' The Times Literary Supplement'Mishima is lucid in the midst of emotional confusion, funny in the midst of despair' Christopher Isherwood'Never has a "confession" been freer from self-pity' Sunday Times
In Her Nature: How Women Break Boundaries in the Great Outdoors
by Rachel Hewitt'Heartfelt, passionate, infuriating and often devastating, this book will inspire you to fight for your right to tread your own path' CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ, author of Invisible WomenWhen Rachel loses five family members in five months, grief magnifies other absences. Running across moors and mountains used to help her feel at home in her body but now feels fraught with danger.Rachel goes in search of a new family: the foremothers who blazed a trail at the dawn of outdoor sport. She discovers Lizzie Le Blond who scaled the Alps in woollen skirts and photographed fearless women climbing, skating and tobogganing at breakneck speeds. Telling Lizzie's story alongside her own, Rachel runs her way from bereavement to belonging, inspired by the tenacious women, past and present, who insist that breaking boundaries outdoors is, and always has been, in her nature.‘A book of limitless curiosity and eloquent passion’ The Times
The Prison Officer
by Gen Glaister'Honest and unflinching, an important contribution to our understanding of how prisons work.'Rory Stewart, bestselling author of Politics On the Edge and former Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation'A shocking and gripping read.' James Timpson, OBEThe Prison Officer challenges everything you thought you knew about people in prison.Becoming a prison officer was Gen's burning ambition despite her background making this an unlikely career choice.At twenty-three, full of hopes and dreams of helping those that needed it most within the prison system, she discovered the reality of life behind bars that no training could possibly have prepared her for.In this searing account of her years as a prison officer, Gen shares how she learned to use her heart, her humour and sheer bloody-mindedness to make a difference to the men who lived by a different set of rules, finding her place amongst gangsters, killers and traffickers.
The Scandal of the Century: A thrilling historical biography about the astonishing story of England’s first novel
by Lisa Hilton‘A sweeping, scintillatingly original, exciting exploration of writer, spy, power player, lover Aphra Behn’ Kate Williams, historian and author of Rival Queens: The Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots----A CLANDESTINE AFFAIR ‘Whereas the Lady Henrietta Berkeley has been absent from her Father's house since the 20th August last past… AN OUTRAGEOUS ELOPEMENT … and is not yet known where she is, nor whether she is alive or dead. STOLEN LETTERS, SCHEMING SERVANTS These are to give notice That whoever shall find her, so that she may be brought back to her Father, the Earl of Berkeley, they shall have 200 Pounds Reward’ SEX. SENSATION. CELEBRITY. This is The Scandal of the Century - and the true story of the author Aphra Behn, who used a shocking love affair to create the first English novel . . . ----In 1682, a young woman in the throes of a passionate affair flees her parents’ home in Surrey to seek a new life in London. A scandal in its own right, but this is no ordinary young woman: Lady Henrietta Berkeley is the daughter of one of England’s most powerful men, and her lover is her own sister’s husband. As news of this notorious adulteress spreads, her flight, capture and the lawsuit that follow tear through society as the scandal of the century.To Aphra Behn, England's first professional female writer – herself condemned as a scarlet woman of loose morals – Henrietta’s trial would be more than a source of shock and intrigue: it would inspire her to write Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister, an outrageous and bestselling political fiction and arguably the first novel in English literature.Aphra herself is an enigma, the facts about her life continually disputed. By revealing the story of these two rebellious and ruthless women, Lisa Hilton's new history offers a surprisingly original theory on the origins of one of England's most celebrated playwrights. Against the backdrop of seventeenth-century England, with its strict traditional conventions of love, duty and identity, The Scandal of the Century shows just how far both women will go to break free.
The Giant on the Skyline: A stunning memoir about the meaning of home from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Red of my Blood
by Clover StroudFrom the Sunday Times bestseller of The Red of my Blood and My Wild and Sleepless Nights comes an inspiring memoir about home, family, and belonging.'In the Giant on the Skyline, Stroud has produced something exceptional: a mystical meditatation on what home means and what constitutes belonging … It is magical and haunting and profoundly moving.' Spectator‘Stroud's best book yet: candid, primal, irresistibly intense.’ - Julie Myerson'Full of personality, humour and heart … I did not want it to end.’ - Lily Dunn'One of the books we're most looking forward to in 2024' - Good Housekeeping-----------------What is it that makes a home? What is a home without the roots that tie you to a place? What is a home when a family is split?Clover's eldest children are leaving home for university. Her husband Pete's work is in America.The only way for Clover and the younger children to live with him is to uproot, leave their rural life near the ancient Ridgeway in Oxfordshire and move to Washington DC.Forced to leave the home she loves, Clover sets out to explore the place where she lives, understand the history of her landscape, and work out why it is that it is so hard for her to go.In this profound and moving memoir, Sunday Times bestselling author Clover Stroud paints a beautifully layered portrait of family, community and of belonging. ------------------'I loved this…She writes with force, power, and a radical transparency. It's a gift.’ - Cal Flynn'This incredibly special book will make you think of all the places and people you have ever called home.’ - Emma Gannon'I’m blown away by Clover’s writing. So impressive, inspiring, fluid, honest and resonant.’ - James Aldred‘A beautiful book, written in lyrical, liquid prose that seems to flow straight from the heart to the page.’ - Sophy Roberts‘Few writers I know have this intense intimacy, or such an immediately engaging effect on a reader. It really is magic.’ - Lucy Atkins‘Clover’s most profound and moving, and unquestionably her most soaringly beautiful…’ - Juliet NicolsonPraise for Clover Stroud'A fearless explorer of the human heart.' - Elizabeth Gilbert'Stroud's writing is knife-sharp, beautiful and profound.' - Madeline Miller'Clover's writing is sensationally beautiful.' - Laura Cumming'I love Clover Stroud's writing. It feels like she's mining for treasure, drilling down with lyrical prose, getting to the thing that makes us human.' - Christie Watson
Waterlog: The book that inspired the wild swimming movement
by Roger DeakinWaterlog celebrates the magic of water and the beauty of wild Britain.In 1996 Roger Deakin set out to swim the British Isles. He swam in the sea, in rivers, in streams, tarns, lakes, lochs, ponds, lidos, swimming pools, fens, dykes, moats, aqueducts, waterfalls, flooded quarries and even canals. This funny, wise, delightful book documents his journey. It inspired a movement, creating wild swimmers out of many readers.Detained by water bailiffs in Winchester, intercepted in the Fowey estuary by coastguards, mistaken for a suicide on Camber sands, confronting the Corryvreckan whirlpool in the Hebrides, Deakin discovered just how much of an outsider the native swimmer is to his landlocked, fully-dressed fellow citizens.Waterlog is a personal journey, a bold assertion of the native swimmer's right to roam, and an unforgettable celebration of the magic of water.INTRODUCED BY OLIVIA LAING'A delicious, cleansing, funny, wise and joyful book, so wonderfully full of energy and life’ Jane Gardam''Roger Deakin is the perfect companion for an invigorating armchair swim' Daily Telegraph
Cultural Heritage in Japan and Italy: Perspectives for Tourism and Community Development (Creative Economy)
by Nobuko Kawashima Guido FerilliThis edited book represents one of the first scholarly research through an international collaboration project between Japan and Italy to address economic and social values of cultural heritage beyond its inherent—historic, archaeological, or aesthetic—values. Cultural policies in the world have over the decades expanded to include non-cultural purposes such as economic development and social inclusion. Japanese cultural policy for heritage is catching up on this trend: we have seen major shifts of emphasis from preservation for its sake to the utilisation of cultural heritage for the purposes of tourism, place branding, local vitalization and community-building, whilst Italy has long thrived on the economy of heritage tourism and more cases are being seen for urban and regional development with the use of cultural assets. The recent outbreak of Covid-19 and the problem of over-tourism that preceded it have challenged tourism policy and practice in the two countries.This book identifies emerging trends, issues, and problems in such policy shifts. The book breaks a new ground in the bourgeoning studies of tourism, heritage, and cultural policy by adopting an international, inter-disciplinary approach. The chapters on Japan in particular make an original contribution to these fields in the English literature in which discussion of Japan despite its economic and cultural presence on the globe has hitherto been less available.
The Vixen Diaries
by Karrine SteffansKarrine Steffans continues to share the much-sought-after details of her star-studded life in this juicy tell-all—and dishes on the celebrity men that helped her get where she needed to be.This titillating expose chronicles the personal and professional adventures of this tabloid-laden socialite, dispelling some rumors, while confirming others.Diaries unveils the heavily shrouded Hollywood backrooms and its coveted secrets. Offering her ardent fans answers to burning questions and presenting lessons learned, this book will surely not disappoint.Karrine draws you in to get an up-close and personal look at the Hollywood life of fast money and sex; all the things that make for a great movie. She discusses her interactions with people after the release of Confessions of a Video Vixen and how she copes with it all.
How to Think Like an Economist: Great Economists Who Shaped the World and What They Can Teach Us (How To Think)
by Robbie MochrieCapturing the essence of history's most influential economists in enjoyable and illuminating biographical sketches, this book shows how the great economic thinkers are still relevant today.We live in the economy – and we are part of it. Living through a pandemic, governments had to work out how to put economies into a deep freeze without destroying them. Avoiding climate catastrophe means changing economies so that they don't bake the world.In explaining how economic thinking is indispensable to tackling these huge problems, this book is a sure-footed guide, spanning Aristotle's ideas about restraining consumption, Adam Smith's thinking about the importance of moral character for sustained economic development, and Esther Duflo's ongoing work to help the world's poorest communities lift themselves out of poverty. It shows how the greatest economic thinkers – Karl Marx, Maynard Keynes, and Friedrich Hayek, among many others – have enabled us to see the world differently, and how we can make it better.It shows that economic thinking emerged, long before there were economists – and that good economics is about much more than the economy, so everyone should understand these vital ideas.Along the way, the book quietly subverts what you think you know about economics, especially by showing how women found a place in the development of ideas even when discrimination denied them any formal role.
Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Journeys
by Caroline Eden'With its union of practicality and magic, a kitchen is a portal offering extended range and providing unlikely paths out of the ordinary. Offering opportunities to cook, imagine and create ways back into other times, other lives and other territories. Central Asia, Turkey, Ukraine, the South Caucasus, Russia, the Baltics and Poland. Places that have eased into my marrow over the years shaping my life, writing and thinking. They are here, these lands I return to, in this kitchen.'A welcoming refuge with its tempting pantry, shelves of books and inquisitive dog, Caroline Eden finds comfort away from the road in her basement Edinburgh kitchen. Join her as she cooks recipes from her travels, reflects on past adventures and contemplates the kitchen's unique ability to tell human stories. This is a hauntingly honest, and at times heartbreaking, memoir with the smell, taste and preparation of food at its heart. From late night baking as a route back to Ukraine to capturing the beauty of Uzbek porcelain, and from the troublesome nature of food and art in Poland to the magic of cloudberries, Cold Kitchen celebrates the importance of curiosity and of feeling at home in the world.
Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Journeys
by Caroline Eden'With its union of practicality and magic, a kitchen is a portal offering extended range and providing unlikely paths out of the ordinary. Offering opportunities to cook, imagine and create ways back into other times, other lives and other territories. Central Asia, Turkey, Ukraine, the South Caucasus, Russia, the Baltics and Poland. Places that have eased into my marrow over the years shaping my life, writing and thinking. They are here, these lands I return to, in this kitchen.'A welcoming refuge with its tempting pantry, shelves of books and inquisitive dog, Caroline Eden finds comfort away from the road in her basement Edinburgh kitchen. Join her as she cooks recipes from her travels, reflects on past adventures and contemplates the kitchen's unique ability to tell human stories. This is a hauntingly honest, and at times heartbreaking, memoir with the smell, taste and preparation of food at its heart. From late night baking as a route back to Ukraine to capturing the beauty of Uzbek porcelain, and from the troublesome nature of food and art in Poland to the magic of cloudberries, Cold Kitchen celebrates the importance of curiosity and of feeling at home in the world.
Did I Ever Tell You?: The most moving memoir of 2024
by Genevieve Kingston'Compelling and heartbreaking' Ann NapolitanoA deeply moving memoir of a young daughter, her dying mother - and the trail of letters and gifts she left behind.'Her messages met me like guideposts in a dark forest; if her words couldn't point the way, at least they offered the comfort of knowing someone had been there before'Ten days before Gwen Kingston turned twelve, her beloved mother - with whom she shared a birthday - died. She left behind two chests - one for Gwen and one for her brother - filled with lovingly wrapped presents and letters marking the milestones she would miss: driver's licences, graduations and every one of their birthdays until the age of thirty. Each gift a chance to reach back into the past and, for the briefest moment, hear her voice again.Over the last twenty years, the chest of treasures has travelled with Gwen across a continent, from state to state and apartment to apartment, growing lighter with each passing birthday. And now, just three gifts remain . . .In this beautiful and heart-rending memoir, Gwen describes growing up in the shadow of loss, guided by what her mother left behind. Woven in is her mother's own story, and that of their whole family - tragedies foreseen and unforeseen, paths taken and not taken. It's about a mother's love for her daughter, but more than that, it is a story of marriage, family, inheritance and everything that shapes a life.
Performance: An electrifying memoir from the dark heart of London's Soho
by Ruth Ivo'Stunning . . . a love letter to the aliveness of London and its nightlife' SOPHIE MACKINTOSH'A wild night of a book' OCTAVIA BRIGHTAs 'Ruby', Ruth Ivo was a successful burlesque performer, living in blissful bohemian squalor on a decommissioned military boat and spending her evenings unfolding from a Fabergé egg in various London clubs. Her life changes when she is asked to become show director at 'The Club', a place as secretive as it is notorious. Before long, she's trawling Soho back streets for props and knocking back shots with movie stars and billionaires. But as her nights unravel in a maelstrom of glamour and chaos behind the scenes, she feels her grasp on reality slipping through her fingers, and her soul wrung out by decadence. Under pressure to produce shows each more shocking than the last, she watches the performers under her care contort themselves before baying crowds. When a devastating event leaves her unmoored, Ruby has to wonder if she's sold her soul to the devil . . . or become him. Performance is a visceral and exquisitely written portrait of a place that has come to embody the excesses of late capitalism; of tumbling willingly down the rabbit hole, only to lose yourself in the dark.______'Performance is theatrical, immersive and utterly heartbreaking. An astonishing debut' CHRISTIE WATSON'A story this addictive, it's hard not to consume it in one go' RHYANNON STYLES'I devoured this book in two days, all of its twisting corners and dark alleyways. I know Soho like the back of my hand and this brought that lost world back in vivid colours' JODIE HARSH
JANEY: The Woman That Won't Shut Up
by Janey Godley'A great comedian and an extraordinary life' - Billy ConnollyComedy legend and national treasure Janey Godley shares her extraordinary life with candour and humour as she faces cancer head-on.Janey has been a determined fighter all her life - from her tough Glasgow childhood to becoming the much-loved comedian she is now. It was the strength she needed to survive as a sweary-mouthed woman in the male-dominated comedy clubs of the 1990s.She needed it again when she brought a case against the uncle who'd abused her as a child. A terrifying ordeal - but she won. From rocky beginnings, Janey started to gain big audiences at home and internationally. Awards rolled in for her acting and writing too. She was at her height, and with a soaring online following for her hilarious political voice-overs, when in 2021 hurtful, historic tweets were unearthed which shook her to the core. In the eye of the media storm, her spirit was nearly broken, but her fanbase stayed strong.At the end of the long sell-out tour which followed she received the devastating news she had ovarian cancer. Her future hung in the balance, but even in treatment, a new tour went ahead, called Not Dead Yet. Janey now faces her fears head on and shares the tumultuous journey she's on, continuing to find humour even in her darkest moments.Inspiring, funny, open-hearted, Janey celebrates everything this hilarious and defiant woman is - against the odds - and confirms just why we'll never want her to shut up.
The Traitor of Arnhem: WWII’s Greatest Betrayal and the Moment That Changed History Forever
by Robert VerkaikSunday Times Bestselling author of The Traitor of Colditz Robert Verkaik reveals the incredible never-before-told story of the role played by the Cambridge Spies in the British defeat at Arnhem "Original, thought-provoking and exceedingly well written. I have not read such a convincing portrayal of the German intelligence war in Holland." Robert Kershaw, author of It Never Snow In SeptemberThe end of the Second World War is in sight.Following the overwhelming victory on D-Day, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin all seek to shape the global future to their own ends and win the race to Berlin.The British launch Operation Market Garden, the greatest airborne operation the world has ever seen. It is a bold roll of the dice, which, if successful, will end the war in weeks. But behind the scenes, spies are working, and plans are betrayed, the operation fails and thousands of Allied soldiers die.The Traitor of Arnhem tells a never-before-told story of this iconic operation, and of the very different figures working in secret to cause the catastrophic defeat. One traitor a terrifying giant of a man, a supposed hero of the resistance who sent hundreds of fellow freedom fighters to torture and death, the other an aristocrat and an English gentleman, working from inside the heart of the Allied war effort in London. Both of them working for the Russians.Drawn from unseen records and shedding fresh light on the operation and the spies responsible for its failure, this is an incredible account of the battle that would go on to shape the twentieth century."The strongest point of the book is the story about 'Josephine'. We will probably never be sure who 'Josephine' was, if it even was a person, but... Robert proves the case as far as circumstantial evidence allows one." Bob de Graaff, Holland's foremost expert on intelligence and the official historian of the Dutch intelligence services.
White Terror: A True Story of Murder, Bombings and Germany’s Far Right
by null Jacob Kushner'A shocking story of serial killers, twisted idealism and a country that looked away' Rory Carroll, bestselling author of Killing Thatcher In a tour de force of investigative journalism, White Terror tells for the first time the story of the National Socialist Underground in Germany – in an engrossing global story that examines violence, modern racism and national trauma. Not long after the Berlin Wall fell, three teenagers became friends in the East German town of Jena. It was a time of excitement, but also of deep uncertainty: some four million East Germans found themselves out of a job. At first the three friends spent their nights wandering the streets, smoking, drinking, looking for trouble. Then they began attending far-right rallies with people who called themselves National Socialists: Nazis. Like the Hitler-led Nazis before them, they blamed minorities for their ills. Believing foreigners were a threat to their homeland, the three friends embarked on the most horrific string of white nationalist killings since the Holocaust. Their target: immigrants. In a tour de force of investigative journalism and novelistic storytelling, White Terror follows the National Socialist Underground, or NSU, from their radicalisation as young skinheads through their transformation into fully fledged terrorists carrying out bombings and assassinations while living on the run. But it’s also about something almost as terrifying: the German police and intelligence services that missed clues, mishandled far-right informants and repeatedly tried to paint the immigrant victims as mafiosos. Once the terror plot was revealed, the authorities shredded documents to cover up their mistakes and refused to acknowledge that their racism had led them astray. A masterwork of reporting, White Terror reveals how a group of young Germans carried out a shocking spree of white supremacist violence, and how a nation and its government ignored them until it was too late.