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Some Body to Love: A Family Story
by Alexandra Heminsley'A treatise on empathy and grace in extraordinary circumstances' Jojo Moyes'Today I sat on a bench facing the sea, the one where I waited for L to be born, and sobbed my heart out. I don't know if I'll ever recover.' This note was written on 9 November 2017. As the seagulls squawked overhead and the sun dipped into the sea, Alexandra Heminsley's world was turning inside out. She'd just been told her then-husband was going to transition. The revelation threatened to shatter their brand new, still fragile, family. But this vertiginous moment represented only the latest in a series of events that had left Alex feeling more and more dissociated from her own body, turning her into a seemingly unreliable narrator of her own reality. Some Body to Love is Alex's profoundly open-hearted memoir about losing her husband but gaining a best friend, and together bringing up a baby in a changing world. Its exploration of what it means to have a human body, to feel connected or severed from it, and how we might learn to accept our own, makes it a vital and inspiring contribution to some of the most complex and heated conversations of our times.'Insightful and wise, generous and kind' David Nicholls
Some Fantastic Place: My Life In and Out of Squeeze
by Chris DiffordLonglisted for the Penderyn Music Book PrizeOver the course of a thirteen-album and multi-award-winning career with Squeeze, it was clear from the very beginning that Chris Difford has few peers when it comes to smart, pithy lyricism. In Some Fantastic Place, he charts his life from his childhood in south London to becoming a member of one of Britain's greatest bands and beyond. Along the way Chris reveals the inspiration and stories behind Squeeze's best-known songs, and his greatest highs and lows from over four decades of making music.
Some Girls, Some Hats And Hitler: A True Story
by Trudi KanterVienna, 1938: Trudi Miller, young, beautiful and chic, designs hats for the smartest women in the city. She is falling in love with Walter, a charming and charismatic businessman. But their idyll is about to end. Trudi and Walter are Jewish, and as Hitler's tanks roll into Austria, they know they have to flee. Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler is an incredible true story that moves from Vienna to Prague to blitzed London, as Trudi desperately seeks a safe place for her and Walter amid the horror engulfing Europe.
Some Hope: Never Mind, Bad News And Some Hope (The Patrick Melrose Novels #3)
by Edward St AubynSome Hope is the third of Edward St Aubyn's semi-autobiographical series, The Patrick Melrose Novels, filmed for Sky Atlantic and starring Benedict Cumberbatch as aristocratic addict, Patrick.Patrick Melrose, cleaned-up and world-weary, is a reluctant guest at a glittering party deep in the English countryside. Amid a crowd of flitting social dragonflies, he finds his search for redemption and capacity for forgiveness challenged by his observation of the cruelties around him. Armed with his biting wit and a newly fashioned openness, can Patrick, who has been to the furthest limits of experience and back again, find release from the savageries of his childhood?This title was originally published, along with Never Mind and Bad News, as part of a three book omnibus, also called Some Hope.
Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me
by Kate Clanchy'The best book on teachers and children and writing that I've ever read. No-one has said better so much of what so badly needs saying.' Philip PullmanKate Clanchy wants to change the world and thinks school is an excellent place to do it. She invites you to meet some of the kids she has taught in her thirty-year career.Join her as she explains everything about sex to a classroom of thirteen-year-olds. As she works in the school ‘Inclusion Unit’, trying to improve the fortunes of kids excluded from regular lessons because of their terrifying power to end learning in an instant. Or as she nurtures her multicultural poetry group, full of migrants and refugees, watches them find their voice and produce work of heartbreaking brilliance.While Clanchy doesn’t deny stinging humiliations or hide painful accidents, she celebrates this most creative, passionate and practically useful of jobs. Teaching today is all too often demeaned, diminished and drastically under-resourced. Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me will show you why it shouldn’t be.
Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films
by Matthew Field Ajay ChowdhuryUpdated to include the road to Bond 25 For over 50 years, Albert R. Broccoli’s Eon Productions has navigated the ups and downs of the volatile British film industry, enduring both critical wrath and acclaim in equal measure for its now legendary James Bond series. Latterly, this family-run business has been crowned with box office gold and recognised by motion picture academies around the world. However, it has not always been plain sailing. Changing financial regimes forced 007 to relocate to France and Mexico; changing fashions and politics led to box office disappointments; and changing studio regimes and business disputes all but killed the franchise. And the rise of competing action heroes has constantly questioned Bond’s place in popular culture. But against all odds the filmmakers continue to wring new life from the series, and 2012’s Skyfall saw both huge critical and commercial success, crowning 007 as the undisputed king of the action genre. Now, with Daniel Craig back for a fifth turn as Ian Fleming’s spy in October 2019, Bond’s reign shows no signs of diminishing. Some Kind of Hero recounts this remarkable story, from its origins in the early fifties right through to the present day, and draws on over a hundred unpublished interviews with the cast and crew of this iconic series.
Some Like It Hot: Me, Marilyn and the Movie
by Tony CurtisSome Like it Hot is one of the most famous films of all time and is also the most profitable comedy in the history of film, not to mention one of the most beloved. It was voted number one funniest movie ever by the American Film Institute and as well as starring Hollywood legend Tony Curtis, it brought together the comedy talents of Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Billy Wilder. It has contributed numerous quotes, styles and stories to Hollywood film lore and has remained the film that Curtis is still most asked about by its legions of fans.For the first time, Curtis will share the untold story behind the making of this legendary film. Told in his frank and inimitable voice, the book will reveal much about his working relationship with Jack Lemmon and the director Billy Wilder. It will explain why the film was changed from colour production to black and white and tell the story of its initially lukewarm reception. The book will also reveal much about Marilyn Monroe, including Curtis' romance with her, her alleged abortion and her conflict with Wilder. Finally, it will describe the film's ongoing impact on Curtis' life and will feature many exclusive never-before-seen photographs from his own collection.
Some Nineteenth Century British Scientists: The Commonwealth and International Library: Science and Society
by R. HarréSome Nineteenth Century British Scientists presents the biographies of eight British scientists who represent the state of science in the second half of the Victorian era: Charles Wyville Thomson, James Murray, Arthur Cayley, Francis Galton, William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, Norman Lockyer, Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, and William Ramsay. This book is comprised of seven chapters and begins by focusing on the contributions and achievements of Charles Wyville Thomson in the fields of natural history, marine biology, and deep-sea exploration, especially his expedition aboard H.M.S. Challenger, and of James Murray in oceanography. Subsequent chapters discuss the works of Arthur Cayley (mathematics), Francis Galton (exploration, anthropology, and eugenics), and William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (mathematical physics). The achievements of Norman Lockyer (astrophysics), Sidney Gilchrist Thomas (inventor of the Thomas-Gilchrist process for eliminating phosphorus in the Bessemer converter), and William Ramsay (chemistry) are also considered. This monograph will be a useful resource for students and scientists alike.
Some of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better
by Polly Atkin'It raises the standard of nature writing. This is both radical manifesto and activism in book form'Sally Huband, author of Sea Bean'Defiant and dazzling'Freya Bromley, author of The Tidal Year'Essential reading'Jessica J. Lee, author of Turning'Long before I knew I was sick, I knew I was breakable . . .'After years of unexplained health problems, Polly Atkin's perception of her body was rendered fluid and disjointed. When she was finally diagnosed with two chronic conditions in her thirties, she began to piece together what had been happening to her - all the misdiagnoses, the fractures, the dislocations, the bone-crushing exhaustion, the not being believed.Some of Us Just Fall combines memoir, pathography and nature writing to trace a fascinating journey through illness, a journey which led Polly to her current home in the Lake District, where outdoor swimming is purported to cure all, and where every day she turns to the natural world to help tame her illness. Polly delves into the history of her two genetic conditions, uncovering how these illnesses were managed (or not) in times gone by and exploring how best to plan for her own future. From medical misogyny and gaslighting, to the illusion of 'the nature cure', this essential, beautiful and deeply personal book examines how we deal with bodies that diverge from the norm, and why this urgently needs to change.This is not a book about getting better. This is a book about living better with illness.
Some People Are Crazy: The John Martyn Story
by John Neil MunroDescribed recently by Empire magazine as 'Britain's best ever blues singer', John Martyn was one of rock music's last real mavericks. Despite long-term addiction to alcohol and drugs, which contributed to his death in January 2009, he produced a string of matchless albums. Loved by fans and critics, loathed by ex-managers, he survived the music business he despised for 40 years. With contributions by Martyn, many of his lovers and over 20 musicians who knew him well, this book documents his upbringing in Glasgow and rise through the Scottish and London folk scene of the 1960s, his many highs and lows, and his friendships with the great lost souls of British rock music - Nick Drake and Paul Kossoff.
Some Rain Must Fall: My Struggle Book 5 (Knausgaard #5)
by Don Bartlett Karl Ove KnausgaardThe International bestsellerAs the youngest student to be admitted to Bergen's prestigious Writing Academy, Karl Ove arrives full of excitement and writerly aspirations.Soon though, he is stripped of his youthful illusions. His writing is revealed to be puerile and clichéd, and his social efforts are a dismal failure. He drowns his shame in drink and rock music.Then, little by little, things begin to change. He falls in love, gives up writing and the beginnings of an adult life take shape. That is, until his self-destructive binges and the irresistible lure of the writer's struggle pull him back.In this latest instalment of the My Struggle cycle, Knausgaard writes with unflinching honesty to deliver the full drama of everyday life.
Some Schools
by C. J. DriverCJ (Jonty) Driver has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in education in the UK and overseas, including three headships. In this poignant memoir, he provides a compelling insight into school life, with wisdom gained from a lifetime of learning. "Jonty has written an important book which should be read by all who care about schools. No one else has had such a combined impact on politics, schools and literature. It is a remarkable story." Sir Anthony Seldon, recently retired Master of Wellington College.
Some Sort of a Life
by Miriam Karlin Jan Sargent“I have never, ever wanted to write an autobiography. The number of times I have been approached and every time I said no, no, it’s a wank” Miriam Karlin is that rare creature: a pillar of the British acting establishment who is at the same time a thoroughgoing maverick. During sixty distinguished, workaholic years of acting, she has been a West End regular and RSC company actor, a pioneering performer on live television, half of a radio double-act with Peter Sellers, a stand-up comic, a scene-stealing character actor in such films as The Entertainer and A Clockwork Orange, and, of course, the truculent, whistle-blowing shop steward Paddy in the long-running TV sitcom The Rag Trade, with her catchphrase “Everybody Out!” Parallel to her career as an actor are her lifelong socialist beliefs, her unerring sense of justice and her political activism. Miriam’s life also has been a long battle against addiction; to alcohol, prescription drugs, gambling, cigarettes, and dieting (she recently revealed herself in the Observer as “the world’s oldest bulimic”) challenges she describes in Some Sort of a Life with great humour and irreverence. Dictated to Jan Sargent as Miriam was recovering from mouth cancer (an experience she describes in a chapter typically entitled ‘Sans teeth, sans f*ckin’ everything’) she is compellingly candid about the people in her life: her family (part of which perished in the holocaust), her friends and the eminent figures she has worked with, such as Laurence Olivier, Peter Sellars, Stanley Kubrick, Tony Hancock and Barry Humphries. Above all though, she is utterly honest about herself: her love affairs and abortions, her battles with eating disorders and illness, her gradual disillusionment with the Labour Party and the state of Israel, and her own compulsive nature, which accounts for many of the highs and lows of her fascinating life. Some Sort of a Life is an autobiography refreshingly free of self-justification and recrimination, and full of the passion and earthy humour of one of our finest character actors. This new eBook edition contains an epilogue featuring recollections of Miriam from those who knew her best.
Some Sort Of Genius: A Life of Wyndham Lewis
by Paul O'KeeffePainter and draughtsman, novelist, satirist, pamphleteer and critic, Lewis's multifarious activities defy easy categorisation. He launched the only twentieth-century English avant garde movement, Vorticism, in 1914. His first novel, Tarr, was published in 1918. During the intervening World War, as an artillery officer at the third battle of Ypres, he gained his 'political education under fire'. Anti-war books of the 1930s argued against what he regarded as a war-mongering left-wing orthodoxy, and presented the case for the right. This placed him in the position somewhere between an advocate of appeasement and what looked uncomfortably like a Nazi sympathizer. Despite an admission, in 1939, that he had been wrong about Hitler, his reputation never recovered from the stigma of Fascism.After the Second World War, spent in penniless and bitter exile in Canada, he returned to London and, in the last decade of his life, received some measure of the success and recognition he had been denied for so long. It coincided, tragically, with the realisation that he was going blind. Visual expression denied him, he devoted all his remaining energies to writing. Seven books in as many years, written in laborious longhand when he was unable to see the
Some Sunny Day: A nurse. A soldier. A wartime love story.
by Madge Lambert Robert BlairA moving true story of love on the front lines.It was July 1944 when Madge stepped onto a troopship that was to carry her thousands of miles away from home. Only twenty years old and not long qualified as a nurse, she had signed up to serve in the Burma Campaign. She would be based on the Indian border, near the frontline where a fierce battle was raging between Allied forces and the Japanese.As Madge arrived in Chittagong, she wondered how she would adapt to the ever present danger of invasion and to life in a military hospital. She spent long, exhausting hours nursing the badly-injured young soldiers in her care, but found strength in her friendship with the other nurses. And then, one day, she met Captain Basil Lambert . . . Could their fragile, new found romance survive the terrifying final months of war? Heart-warming and poignant, Some Sunny Day by Madge Lambert is a story of courage, sacrifice and the power of true love.
Some Things You Should Know: Confessions of a TV Executive
by Truman LockeTruman Locke is a television executive. His job - to seek out extraordinary people and stories to put on TV - gives him a licence for adventure; freedom to go almost anywhere and do almost anything, so long as he's successful. But now, things are going wrong. Under mounting pressure, his manoeuvring and risk taking start to slip out of control, bringing trouble and danger to his ordered world, jeopardizing everything. In Some Things You Should Know, this talented but flawed anti-hero tells his own story - one of lies, crime and complex relationships. It's a page-turning thriller, inspired by the realities of life in a glamorous but treacherous industry, exposing them in a way no book ever has before. Truman's experiences show what it's like to work at TV's cutting edge: what motivates TV producers, how they think and behave, and what it takes to succeed in a cut-throat creative business.
Some Things You Should Know: Confessions of a TV Executive
by Truman LockeTruman Locke is a television executive. His job - to seek out extraordinary people and stories to put on TV - gives him a licence for adventure; freedom to go almost anywhere and do almost anything, so long as he's successful. But now, things are going wrong. Under mounting pressure, his manoeuvring and risk taking start to slip out of control, bringing trouble and danger to his ordered world, jeopardizing everything. In Some Things You Should Know, this talented but flawed anti-hero tells his own story - one of lies, crime and complex relationships. It's a page-turning thriller, inspired by the realities of life in a glamorous but treacherous industry, exposing them in a way no book ever has before. Truman's experiences show what it's like to work at TV's cutting edge: what motivates TV producers, how they think and behave, and what it takes to succeed in a cut-throat creative business.
Somebody: The Reckless Life and Remarkable Career of Marlon Brando
by Stefan KanferMarlon Brando will never cease to fascinate us: for his triumphs as an actor (On the Waterfront, The Godfather, Last Tango in Paris), as well as his disasters; for the power of the screen portrayals he gave, and for his turbulent, tumultuous personal life. Seamlessly intertwining the man and the work, Kanfer takes us through Brando's troubled childhood, to his arrival in New York in the 1940s, where he studied with the legendary Stella Adler, and at the age of twenty-three became the toast of Broadway in A Streetcar Named Desire. Kanfer expertly examines each of Brando's films - from The Men in 1950 to The Score in 2001 - making clear the evolution of Brando's singular genius, while also shedding light on the cultural evolution of Hollywood itself. And he brings into focus Brando's self-destructiveness, his lifelong dissembling, his deeply ambivalent feelings towards his chosen vocation, and the tragedies that shadowed his final years. This is a never-before-seen portrait of one of the most extraordinary talents of the twentieth century.
Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa, 1880–91
by Charles NichollIn 1880 a taciturn young Frenchman arrives at the Yemeni port of Aden, where he finds work as a foreman in a coffee warehouse. He is the poet and enfant terrible Arthur Rimbaud, author of A Season in Hell – a notorious figure in France but now, at the age of twenty five, determined to start a new life. In this atmospheric study of Rimbaud’s ‘lost years’, Charles Nicholl pieces together the shadowy story of his life as a trader, explorer and gun-runner in East Africa. We follow his trail in Somalia and Djibouti, in the highlands of Ethiopia, in the souks of Cairo: a man on the run from his past, living out his famous teenage pronouncement, ‘Je est un autre’ – I is somebody else.
Somebody Else’s Kids: They Were Problem Children No One Wanted... Until One Teacher Took Them To Her Heart
by Torey HaydenFrom the author of Sunday Times bestsellers One Child and Ghost Girl comes a heartbreaking story of one teacher's determination to turn a chaotic group of damaged children into a family.
Somebody I Used to Know: A Richard and Judy Book Club Pick 2019
by Wendy MitchellTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEKCHOSEN AS A 2018 SUMMER READ BY THE SUNDAY TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, THE TIMES AND THE MAIL ON SUNDAY'Revelatory' Guardian'A miracle' Telegraph'A landmark book' Financial TimesBrave, illuminating and inspiring, Somebody I Used to Know gets to the very heart of what it means to be human.What do you lose when you lose your memories? What do you value when this loss reframes how you've lived, and how you will live in the future? How do you conceive of love when you can no longer recognise those who are supposed to mean the most to you?When she was diagnosed with dementia at the age of fifty-eight, Wendy Mitchell was confronted with the most profound questions about life and identity. All at once, she had to say goodbye to the woman she used to be. Her demanding career in the NHS, her ability to drive, cook and run – the various shades of her independence – were suddenly gone.Philosophical, profoundly moving, insightful and ultimately full of hope, Somebody I Used to Know is both a heart-rending tribute to the woman Wendy once was, and a brave affirmation of the woman dementia has seen her become.
Somebody to Love?: A Rock-and-Roll Memoir
by Grace Slick Andrea CaganA candid autobiography of the great rock diva of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, revealing her wild life at the forefront of the Sixties and Seventies counterculture.She has been called rock and roll's original female outlaw, as famous for her bad behavior as for her haunting singing voice. In her 25-year career as a musician, Grace Slick charted dozens of hits and sold millions of albums. From "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" to "Sarah" and "Miracles", the songs she performed became the anthems of a generation.Whether describing her antics at the White House with Abbie Hoffman or the unforgettable experience that was Woodstock, Slick's recollections have the same rich imagery found in her lyrics. In this provocative narrative, readers will discover the many sides of Grace Slick: as artistic pioneer; she records songs with Jerry Garcia and David Crosby; as practitioner of freedom and rebellion; she sleeps with Jim Morrison and gets arrested for DUI on three separate occasions (without actually being in a car); and as a loving mother to actress China Kantner, she tries to balance casual friendship with parental wisdom.Slick offers a revealing self-portrait of the complex woman behind the rock-outlaw image, and delivers a behind-the-scenes, no-holds-barred view of the people and spirit that defined a quarter-century of American pop culture. Wildly funny, candid, and evocative, Somebody to Love?tells what it was really like during, and after, the Summer of Love-and how one remarkable woman survived it all to remain today as vibrant and rebellious as ever.
Somebody's Mother, Somebody's Daughter: True Stories from Victims and Survivors of the Yorkshire Ripper
by Carol Ann LeeMuch has been written about the brutal crimes of Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, and – thirty-five years after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of thirteen women – scarcely a week goes by without some mention of him in the media. In any story featuring Sutcliffe, however, his victims are incidental, often reduced to a tableau of nameless faces. But each woman was much more than the manner of her death, and in Somebody’s Mother, Somebody’s Daughter, Carol Ann Lee tells, for the first time, the stories of those women who came into Sutcliffe’s murderous orbit, restoring their individuality to them and giving a voice to their families, including the twenty-three children whom he left motherless.Based on previously unpublished material and fresh, first-hand interviews the book examines the Yorkshire Ripper story from a new perspective: focusing on the women and putting the reader in a similar position to those who lived through that time. The killer, although we know his identity, remains a shadowy figure throughout, present only as the perpetrator of the attacks. By talking to survivors and their families, and to the families of the murdered women, Carol Ann Lee gets to the core truths of their lives and experiences, not only at the hands of Sutcliffe but also with the Yorkshire Police and their crass and ham-fisted handling of the case, where the women were put into two categories: prostitutes and non-prostitutes. In this book they are, simply, women, and all have moving backstories.The grim reality is that not enough has changed within society to make the angle this book takes on the Yorkshire Ripper case a purely historical one. Recent news stories have shown that women and girls who come forward to report serious crimes of a sexual nature are often judged as harshly – and often more so – than the men who have wronged them. The Rochdale sex abuse scandal, the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, and the US President's deplorable comments about women are vivid reminders that those in positions of power regard women as second class citizens. At the same time, the discussions arising from these recent stories, and much of the reporting, show that women are judged today as much on their preferences, habits and appearance as they were at the time of the Yorkshire Ripper attacks. The son of Wilma McCann, Sutcliffe's first known murder victim, told the author, 'We still have a very long way to go' and in that regard he is correct.Hard-hitting and wholly unique in approach, this timely book sheds new light on a case that still grips the nation.