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Dressed to Kill
by Charlotte MadisonMy fingers close around the trigger. I pause for a split second to think about the bullets I am about to spray across the ground. After today, I'll no longer be the new girl.'Captain Charlotte Madison is blonde, beautiful and flies Apache helicopters for a living. She has completed two tours of duty in Afghanistan and is currently fighting on the frontline in her third. DRESSED TO KILL shows us what life is like for a girl in a resolutely male-dominated environment. But she isn't just a woman in a man's world, she's a woman women aspire to be - glamorous as well as brave, and beating the men at their own game. Only a tiny percentage of people can multi-task to the extreme level the aircraft demands, and most airmen who try to qualify as an Apache pilot fail. Full of the exciting, adrenaline-filled action that has made other military memoirs so successful, DRESSED TO KILL is also unique. A highly intelligent and brilliant young woman, Charlotte is Britain's first female Apache pilot, and the first British female pilot to kill in an Apache. We have, quite simply, never seen the landscape of 21st-century frontline conflict from a perspective like hers. DRESSED TO KILL will appeal to anyone interested in current affairs, but it will also speak to a whole generation of young women who will relate to 27-year-old Charlotte in a way they never imagined possible.
It's Not About the Gun: Lessons from My Global Career as a Female FBI Agent
by Kathy StearmanAfter spending more than twenty-years years as a Special Agent with the FBI, Kathy Stearman recounts the global experiences that shaped her life—and the mixed feelings that she now holds about the sacrifices she had to make to survive in a man&’s world.When former FBI Agent Kathy Stearman read in the New York Times that sixteen women were suing the FBI for discrimination at the training academy, she was surprised to see the women come forward—no one ever had before. But the truth behind their accusations resonated. After a twenty-six-year career in the Bureau, Kathy Stearman knows from personal experience that this type of behavior has been prevalent for decades. Stearman&’s It&’s Not About the Gun examines the influence of attitude and gender in her journey to becoming FBI Legal Attaché, the most senior FBI representative in a foreign office. When she entered the FBI Academy in 1987, Stearman was one of about 600 women in a force of 10,000 agents. While there, she evolved into an assertive woman, working her way up the ranks and across the globe to hold positions that very few women have held before. And yet, even at the height of her career, Stearman had to check herself to make sure that she never appeared weak, inferior, or afraid. The accepted attitude for women in power has long been cool, calm, and in control—and sometimes that means coming across as cold and emotionless. Stearman changed for the FBI, but she longs for a different path for future women of the Bureau. If the system changes, then women can remain constant, valuing their female identity and nurturing the people they truly are. In It's Not About the Gun, Stearman describes how she was viewed as a woman and an American overseas, and how her perception of her country and the FBI, observed from the optics of distance, has evolved.
Genus Homo
by L. Sprague deCamp P. Schuyler MillerTwenty-five men and women against a world of evolution gone mad!Here is the vivid story of their adventures and terrors - the monster in the forest - the city of giant beavers - and the secret of the incredible race that had supplanted mankind.
Nigel Dempster and the Death of Discretion: The Life And Legacy Of The World's Greatest Gossip
by Tim WillisNo one is more responsible for Britain"s current obsession with celebrity culture than the late, great gossip columnist Nigel Dempster (1941-2007). For a quarter of a century, as the editor of the Daily Mail"s diary, he was the man perfectly placed and qualified to record - and accelerate - the end of the age of deference.
Baggage: My Childhood
by Janet Street-PorterBrilliant, brave, controversial, combative, intellectual - just how do you become Janet Street-Porter? In this mesmerising account of growing up in post-war London there is poignancy, mystery - and a trademark black humour. BAGGAGE will touch readers at many levels; it is as edgy and fearless as Janet Street-Porter herself.
Catherine the Great and Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair
by Simon Sebag Montefiore'One of the great love stories of history, in a league with Napoleon and Josephine, and Antony and Cleopatra ... Excellent, with dazzling mastery of detail and literary flair' EconomistIt was history's most successful political partnership - as sensual and fiery as it was creative and visionary. Catherine the Great was a woman of notorious passion and imperial ambition. Prince Potemkin - wildly flamboyant and sublimely talented - was the love of her life and her co-ruler.Together they seized Ukraine and Crimea, defining the Russian empire to this day. Their affair was so tumultuous that they negotiated an arrangement to share power, leaving Potemkin free to love his beautiful nieces, and Catherine her young male favourites. But these 'twin souls' never stopped loving each other.Drawing on their intimate letters and vast research, Simon Sebag Montefiore's enthralling, widely acclaimed biography restores these imperial partners to their rightful place as titans of their age.
Doris Day
by Eric BraunAn in-depth and fascinating study of one of Hollywood's most popular icons - fully updated and including previously unreleased pictures.Doris Day is almost always portrayed as the sunny, squeaky-clean girl next door. This wholesome image kept her at the top for twenty-four years and thirty-nine films.But behind the effervescent, ever-cheerful image that Doris Day portrayed through dozens of classic Hollywood movies was an extraordinary story of private pain. Her dazzling smile hid a tormented personal life that included four marriages, and a terrifying accident that nearly ended her life. And yet for generations of movie-goers Doris Day remained the embodiment of innocent beauty and apple-pie homeliness, and even today she exerts a powerful fascination for millions of fans around the world.
Fall Out
by Janet Street-PorterFriends. Everyone needs them. Especially when relations between you and your family are less than perfect. And for the talented and ambitious Janet Street-Porter, her friends became her family. is the story of these vibrant characters – some famous, some infamous, all extraordinary – and their often volatile relationships with her. Above all, it is a portrait of an exciting and creative era, by someone who lived it to the full.
This is Me, Jack Vance
by Jack VanceJack Vance has long been one of the most influential, admired and imitated writers in science fiction and fantasy literature, the award-winning author of such widely acclaimed works as The Dying Earth, the Lyonesse trilogy, the adventures of Cugel the Clever, the Demon Princes series, and many other masterful tales set among the stars, in exotic fantasy realms or on our own Earth.For much of his career, Vance has also been one of the field's most private writers, an author who preferred to let his work speak for him. Now, at last, to coincide with the release of the tribute anthology Songs of the Dying Earth, Jack gives us this intimate and fascinating glimpse into his rich and eventful life, and a valuable insight into how he went about practicing his craft.For fans of the Grand Master's work, these memoirs are something to be treasured.
Florence Nightingale (Famous People, Famous Lives #5)
by Emma FischelExciting stories about famous people, outlining their lives and the important events which made them memorable. Every page features easy-to-follow text and a black-and-white line drawing to help bring these events to life. Each title gives further facts about the famous person and the times in which he or she lived, plus a comprehensive time line detailing key dates. Florence Nightingale tells the story of how this Victorian woman defied her family and friends to take up the unpopular profession of nursing and changed the way hospitals were run.
Jeremy and Amy: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man and His Orang-Utan
by Jeremy KeelingThis is a high-wire adventure story of grit and determination, and of love, hope and 88 Capuchin monkeys in the back of a Hercules transport plane, but most of all, at its heart, it is an inspiring tale of the life-changing bond between one man and his ape.
Time and Chance: An Autobiography
by L. Sprague deCampTime and Chance is the autobiography of Hugo, World Fantasy and SFWA Grand Master Award-winning author, L. Sprague de Camp. It is a fascinating insight into a man who began writing in the late 1930's and remained an active voice in the genre up until his death in the last year of the twentieth century, and who was a prime mover in the formation of the fields of Science Fiction and Fantasy as we know them today.
Close to the Wind: An Extraordinary Story of Triumph Over Adversity
by Pete GossPete Goss became a national and international hero when he rescued French yachtsman Raphael Dinelli as his boat sank beneath him in the round-the-world single-handed sailing race, the Vendee Globe, on Christmas Day 1996. In doing so Pete scuppered his own chances in the race but was awarded theLegion d'Honneur by France's president and made a friend for life in Dinelli.Close to the Wind is his own story of the race and its dramas, his revolutionary boat,Aqua Quorum, his thoughts and emotions during four months of solitude at sea, the extraordinary surgery that he had to perform on his own elbow and the aftermath of the rescue in the Southern Ocean.
The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America
by Eric CerviniFrom a young Harvard- and Cambridge-trained historian, the secret history of the fight for gay rights that began a generation before Stonewall. <p><p> In 1957, Frank Kameny, a rising astronomer working for the U.S. Defense Department in Hawaii, received a summons to report immediately to Washington, D.C. The Pentagon had reason to believe he was a homosexual, and after a series of humiliating interviews, Kameny, like countless gay men and women before him, was promptly dismissed from his government job. Unlike many others, though, Kameny fought back. <p> Based on firsthand accounts, recently declassified FBI records, and forty thousand personal documents, Eric Cervini's The Deviant's War unfolds over the course of the 1960s, as the Mattachine Society of Washington, the group Kameny founded, became the first organization to protest the systematic persecution of gay federal employees. It traces the forgotten ties that bound gay rights to the Black Freedom Movement, the New Left, lesbian activism, and trans resistance. Above all, it is a story of America (and Washington) at a cultural and sexual crossroads; of shocking, byzantine public battles with Congress; of FBI informants; murder; betrayal; sex; love; and ultimately victory. <p> <b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader
by Vivian GornickA New York Times Book Review Editors' ChoiceOne of our most beloved writers reassess the electrifying works of literature that have shaped her lifeI sometimes think I was born reading . . . I can’t remember the time when I didn’t have a book in my hands, my head lost to the world around me.Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader is Vivian Gornick’s celebration of passionate reading, of returning again and again to the books that have shaped her at crucial points in her life. In nine essays that traverse literary criticism, memoir, and biography, one of our most celebrated critics writes about the importance of reading—and re-reading—as life progresses. Gornick finds herself in contradictory characters within D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, assesses womanhood in Colette’s The Vagabond and The Shackle, and considers the veracity of memory in Marguerite Duras’s The Lover. She revisits Great War novels by J. L. Carr and Pat Barker, uncovers the psychological complexity of Elizabeth Bowen’s prose, and soaks in Natalia Ginzburg, “a writer whose work has often made me love life more.” After adopting two cats, whose erratic behavior she finds vexing, she discovers Doris Lessing’s Particularly Cats. Guided by Gornick’s trademark verve and insight, Unfinished Business is a masterful appreciation of literature’s power to illuminate our lives from a peerless writer and thinker who “still read[s] to feel the power of Life with a capital L.”
A Version of Reason: The Search for Richey Edwards
by Rob JovanovicThe missing Manic - an authoritative look into the life and times of Richey Edwards, the Manic Street Preachers' guitarist who disappeared in 1995.The disappearance of Richey Edwards, troubled guitarist with the Manic Street Preachers, is one of rock and roll's great unresolved mysteries. His Vauxhall Cavalier was found abandoned in a service station car park near the Severn Bridge, a notorious suicide spot, in February 1995, a fortnight after Edwards had last been seen. The location of the car and the tape left in the deck - Nirvana's album In Utero - tended to point to one conclusion. However, it almost seemed too obvious a statement, and in A VERSION OF REASON, Rob Jovanovic unravels the complicated life and final days of Richey Edwards. Piecing together testimony from those close to Edwards Jovanovic seeks to produce an authoritative account of the life and times of Richey Edwards.
Travelling with Pomegranates: A Mother-daughter Story
by Ann Kidd Taylor Sue Monk KiddTRAVELLING WITH POMEGRANATES is a touching and perceptive memoir about mothers and daughters that will resonate with women of all ages. From Sue Monk Kidd, the New York Times bestselling author of THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES and THE INVENTION OF WINGS, and her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor. Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter Ann chronicle their travels together at a time when each had reached an important turning point in her life. What emerged was a quest for Ann and Sue to redefine themselves and also rediscover one other. Against the backdrop of the sacred sites of Greece, Turkey and France, Sue grapples with the problem of how to expand her vision of swarming bees into the novel that she feels compelled to write, whilst newly raduated Ann ponders the classic question of what to do with her life.What readers are saying about Travelling with Pomegranates:'Wise, moving and beautiful''A thought provoking read''Magical, revealing and inspiring''Wonderful writing'
It All Counts
by Carol VordermanCarol Vorderman is everywoman: a single working mother, a businesswoman and a devoted daughter. And now, for the first time, she has decided to tell it like it is.Since 1982, Carol was much loved as co-presenter of Countdown with Richard Whiteley. Joining the show at the age of twenty-one after her mother secretly posted off an application, she became the first woman to appear on Channel Four. Vorderman and Whiteley went on to form one of the most endearing partnerships in British TV history. His death in 2005 devastated Carol but she continued to present Countdown until July 2008, when, after twenty-six unbroken years with the show, it was announced that she was stepping down.Carol’s life has been a rollercoaster. The youngest of three children, she was just three weeks old when her parents separated. Her father refused to acknowledge Carol, leaving her mother to hold down multiple jobs as the family’s only provider. There was a stint in the circus; there have been two marriages; she has juggled a career with two children, whom she adores; she is a detox advocate and has hosted more shows than any other female presenter, including Tomorrow’s World, Better Homes, Pride of Britain and, of course, Countdown.In IT ALL COUNTS, Carol tells the engrossing story of her life from an early age through to today - the personal struggles, the good times, the sad times, and lifts the lid on what really goes on behind the scenes in a TV studio and the full story behind her shocking Countdown departure.
Victims of Violence
by Joan JonkerHaving become increasingly concerned about the rise in crime and the softly-softly approach to punishing offenders, Joan Jonker realised that little was being done for the victims of crime. She set up the charity Victims of Violence and went on to raise over two million pounds and to help twelve thousand victims whose voices would not otherwise have been heard. Victims of Violence is the moving, no-holds-barred story of Joan Jonker's fight for justice. Of the heartbreak and suffering behind the crime statistics and of Joan's courage and compassion in the face of adversity.
Colin Thackery – My Story: How Love Changed Everything – from the Winner of Britain's Got Talent
by Colin ThackeryA tale of survival, love, hardship, family, heartbreak and triumph.This is the incredible story of 89-year-old Chelsea Pensioner Sergeant Major Colin Thackery who, in 2019, made history by becoming the oldest person to win Britain's Got Talent. The show gave a glimpse into Colin's history, but the truth of his unique and eventful life is far more gripping and surprising than viewers could have imagined. Enthralling, poignant and inspiring, this book tells Colin's story, from being a child helping Air Raid Wardens during The Blitz, through fighting in the Korean War, touring the world with the army, becoming a widower after 66 years of marriage, life as a Chelsea Pensioner and touching the nation's hearts with his show-winning singing in honour of his late wife, Joan.Ultimately, Colin's story is a tale of triumph: of resilience in the hardest of times; of hope in the face of despair; and of everlasting love.
Rugby: The Perfect Gift for Rugby Fans
by Ian RobertsonIan Robertson joined the BBC during the golden age of radio broadcasting and was given a crash course in the art of sports commentary from some of the greatest names ever to sit behind a microphone: Cliff Morgan and Peter Bromley, Bryon Butler and John Arlott. Almost half a century after being introduced to the rugby airwaves by his inspiring mentor Bill McLaren, the former Scotland fly-half looks back on the most eventful of careers, during which he covered nine British and Irish Lions tours and eight World Cups, including the 2003 tournament that saw England life the Webb Ellis Trophy and "Robbo" pick up awards for his spine-tingling description of Jonny Wilkinson's decisive drop goal.He reflects on his playing days, his role in guiding Cambridge University to a long spell of Varsity Match supremacy and his relationships with some of the union code's most celebrated figures, including Sir Clive Woodward and Jonah Lomu. He also writes vividly and hilariously of his experiences as a horse racing enthusiast, his meetings with some of the world's legendary golfers and his dealings with a stellar cast of sporting outsiders, from Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor to Nelson Mandela. It is a hugely entertaining story that begins in a bygone rugby age, yet has much to say about the game in the here and now.
The Pet Psychic
by Joanne HullJoanne Hull always knew there was something that made her different from other children. Whilst other girls her age were playing with dolls, Joanne was busy collecting any stray animal that came her way, until her parent’s backyard resembled a zoo. As she grew older she realised that she was developing incredible powers that allowed her to psychically connect with, and talk to, animals. For the last ten years Joanne has used the animal spirit world to help owners across the country understand troubled pets, find missing ones and, most amazingly, contact those we’ve lost to the other side. Joanne has given hundreds of spine-chillingly accurate readings – and for the first time she shares the sometimes heart-warming, sometimes heart-breaking, but always extraordinary stories that have formed her life as The Pet Psychic.
The Crying Book
by Heather Christle'A deeply felt, and genuinely touching, book' Esmé Weijun Wang, author of The Collected Schizophrenias'Spellbinding and propulsive' Leni Zeumas, author of Red Clocks'The Crying Book is a rigorous and urgent work but it reads like an intimate gift' Kaveh Akbar, author of Calling a Wolf a WolfA DAZZLING MEDITATION ON TEARSIn this symphonic work of non-fiction, Heather Christle explores the most human of behaviours: crying. What are tears made of? Why do people cry? And why is this common, crucial act so rarely discussed? Christle unpacks the biological reasons for tears and investigates the influence of crying on art, politics, feminism, race and culture, all while opening up the intimate story of her own tears - from the suicide of her close friend to her family's history of depression, to her pregnancies, both planned and unplanned. In these pages, we meet a feminist artist who designs a gun that shoots frozen tears. A moth that takes sustenance from feeding on the tears shed by other animals. And beautifully impractical devices for dealing with grief such as the 'lachrymatory', an ancient receptacle into which it was hoped 'a mourner could let fall her hot tears'. While Christle enchants us with poetic snippets on these subjects, a powerful investigation begins to accrue, examining how the history of tears is tied up with racist violence, with the stigma of mental illness, and with the ways in which glib contemporary images of motherhood fail to reckon with how rich and complicated is actually is.Brilliant, witty and achingly honest, Christle's book creates a mosaic of science, history, culture and personal experience to find new ways of understanding life and loss. The Crying Book is a deeply intimate tribute to the fascinating strangeness of tears - and the unexpected resilience of joy.Honest, intelligent, rapturous and surprising, The Crying Book is a poignant, personal tribute to the astonishing strangeness of tears and the startling resilience of joy.
George Best: A unique biography of a football icon perfect for self-isolation
by Michael ParkinsonOne of the most famous footballers of all time, George Best is an icon to football fans all over the world. He lived a tumultuous life, and died in 2005 after battling with alcoholism. He is someone who has crossed over into legend status, with his personal life sometimes overshadowing his footballing prowess. There have been many books written about George, but here, Michael Parkinson combines his professional and personal knowledge of George with his classic and much loved writing style to produce a new, and interesting biography of a football and cultural icon.
To Love and Let Go: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Gratitude from Yoga Girl
by Rachel BrathenFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Yoga Girl and "international force in the world of yoga" (Allure), a moving and inspirational memoir on how to cope with tragedy, adversity, and change through yoga. To love and let go, love and let go, love and let go...it's the single most important thing we can learn in this lifetime."Rachel beautifully illustrates that loving fiercely and grieving deeply are often two halves of the same whole. Her story will break you down and lift you up." -Glennon Doyle, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Love Warrior and founder of Together Rising"Take the time to clear your mind and mellow out with Rachel Brathen's endearing and inspiring memoir of a misspent youth, rebirth on the mat, and epic adventures in the Costa Rican jungle. Along the way you'll find . . . yoga routines and healthy recipes."-Bustle"An international force in the world of yoga."-AllureWhile on her way to a yoga retreat in the Caribbean, Rachel Brathen collapsed in the airport and was rushed to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. When she opened her eyes following the surgery, her boyfriend was at her bedside weeping and she immediately knew something terrible had happened. She soon discovered that at the same time as her collapse, her best friend was killed in a car crash. Over the next two years, which should have been the happiest time of her life with her engagement and growing career, Rachel experienced trial after trial. From the overwhelming loss of her best friend, to the illness and death of her grandmother, and a shocking suicide attempt by her mother, Rachel found herself in a deep depression. When she discovered she was pregnant, Rachel decided to use her pregnancy as a time to heal and an opportunity to be reborn herself. Now, in this evocative and remarkable memoir, Rachel shares the tools she used to cope with and overcome her depression. She invites you to share in her eye-opening epiphanies and realizations about life and death, love and fear, what it means to be a mother and a daughter, and the restorative power of yoga. Perfect for fans of Gabrielle Bernstein and Glennon Doyle, this unforgettable memoir will move and enlighten you.Praise for To Love and Let Go"Breathtakingly honest, Rachel beautifully illustrates that loving fiercely and grieving deeply are often two halves of the same whole. Her story will break you down and lift you up."-Glennon Doyle, author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller Love Warrior and founder of Together Rising Praise for Yoga Girl "Take the time to clear your mind and mellow out with Rachel Brathen's endearing and inspiring memoir of a misspent youth, rebirth on the mat, and epic adventures in the Costa Rican jungle. Along the way you'll find . . . yoga routines and healthy recipes." -Bustle "The book was like a perfect yoga class-it left me inspired, relaxed and at the same time gave me tons of ideas." -Elephant Journal "An international force in the world of yoga." -Allure