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White Line Fever
by Lemmy Kilmister"He made Keith Richards look like a choirboy and Mick Jagger look like a nun. And as the head of the legendary band Motorhead, he ploughed his way through so many drugs, so many women, and so much alcohol, that he gave a whole new meaning to the term Debau"
From Eskimo Point to Alice Springs: Adventures in Nursing from the Arctic to the Outback
by Anne Watts{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}} \viewkind4\uc1\pard\lang2057\f0\fs20 In the early 1960s, Anne Watts was a newly qualified nurse, eager to use her skills. Her father expected her to work locally, not too far from North Wales, where Anne had grown up, and to then settle down and have children. However, Anne had inherited her father's adventurous spirit and at the first opportunity she set sail for Canada to work in the remote stations in the frozen north of the country. She found a placement easily, among the indigenous Inuit people. With the whole world to explore, Anne later headed for Alice Springs in the Australian outback. She speaks eloquently about what it was like to be a nurse and midwife among a tough cattle-ranching community who lived in close proximity with Australia's Aboriginal people. Anne's eyes were opened to their skills at surviving the harshest of environments, but also to the prejudices they suffered. Forty years later, Anne returned to both countries to see how life has changed in Eskimo Point and Alice Springs, and what has become of its people and landscape. \par }
A Nurse Abroad
by Anne WattsWorking in a hospital, wherever in the world it may be, tells you a lot about a town and the people who give it colour, pace and heart. It's where you can take the pulse of a community. In the early 1960s, Anne Watts was a newly qualified nurse with the world at her feet. Her adventurous spirit meant she wasn't going to stay in North Wales, where she had grown up, and at the first opportunity she set sail for northern Canada to work among the Inuit people. Her extraordinary experiences fuelled her taste for remote places, and she soon took her skills to the Australian outback. Deadly snakes in the 'dunny', staff who went walkabout and maggot therapy were just some of the surprises she encountered working in a tough cattle-ranching community living in close proximity with Aboriginal people. Forty years later Anne returned to both countries to see how life has changed in Eskimo Point and Alice Springs, and what has become of its people and landscape. For almost fifty years Anne has brought her courage and compassion to those most in need of help all across the world. This is her remarkable story. Praise for Always the Children 'A magnificent life story. I feel humbled by Anne Watts' experiences' Jennifer Worth, author of Call the Midwife '[An] extraordinarily uplifting memoir' Sue Arnold, Guardian
Young Titan: The Making Of Winston Churchill
by Michael SheldenMost people today think of Winston Churchill as simply the wartime British bulldog - a jowly, cigar-chomping old fighter demanding blood, sweat and tears from his nation. But the well-known story of the elder statesman has overshadowed an earlier part of his life that is no less fascinating, and that has never before been fully told. It is a tale of romance, ambition, intrigue and glamour in Edwardian London, when the city was the centre of the world, and when its best and brightest were dazzled by the meteoric rise to power of a young politician with a famous name and a long aristocratic background.Winston Churchill gave his maiden speech in Parliament at the very beginning of King Edward VII's reign in 1901 when he was only 26. By the time the guns of August 1914 swept away the Edwardian idyll, he was First Lord of the Admiralty - the civilian head of the largest navy in the world. In the intervening years, he often cut a dashing figure, romancing several society beauties, tangling with some of the most powerful political figures of his time, championing major social reforms, becoming one of the leading orators of the day, publishing six books, supervising an armed assault on anarchists, and working harder perhaps than anyone else to prepare his nation for war.
The Boy from Treacle Bumstead: A Country Lad's Journey from Reform School to National Service
by Ken SearsThis brilliantly written memoir takes the reader on a journey into the past, to a rural England long gone, when horses worked the fields and small boys spent most of their time outdoors. Ken Sears was born in 1934 to a poor farming family in Hertfordshire - the fifth child of what would be eleven. He learns how to fend for himself at an early age. His boyhood life coincides with wartime, evacuees and American GIs arriving in his home town of Hemel Hempstead (the Treacle Bumpstead of the title). At the age of nine he is caught stealing eggs and accused of killing a chicken (which he denies to this day) and is sent to reform school for five years. So begins a punishing existence, but it breeds a tough teenager, and after learning the trade of bricklaying he is called up to do his National Service in 1952. So begins his adventures in the Army, in Europe and Korea, where the ever-plucky Ken - who has an eye for the ladies and is always landing himself in trouble - finds not-always legal ways to make life that bit easier. After the Army he comes back to England and sets up a building business. From there he sees his home town change out of all recognition. The story is a characterful testament to the resourceful generation of the men who did National Service, fought wars, built towns and stood up to everything in their way. Kens story reads like Commando Comics meets Fred Dibnah.
Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir
by Cyndi LauperLegendary and iconic singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper offers a poignant account of the journey that led her to become an international superstar. From her years growing up in Queens, New York, to the making of enduring hits like 'Time After Time', 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' and 'True Colors', to becoming an actress, a mother, an outspoken activist and maintaining a music career that has lasted more than thirty years. After leaving her childhood home at seventeen, Cyndi took on a series of jobs: racetrack hot walker, IHOP waitress and, as she puts it, 'gal Friday the thirteenth', as she pursued her passion for music. She worked her way playing small gigs and broke out in 1983 with 'She's So Unusual' which earned her a Grammy for Best New Artist and made her the first female artist in history to have four top five singles on a debut album. And while global fame wasn't always what she expected, she has remained focused on what matters most. Cyndi is a gutsy real-life heroine who has never been afraid to speak her mind and stick up for a cause - whether it's women's rights, gay rights, or fighting against HIV/AIDS. With her trademark warmth and humour, Cyndi fearlessly writes of a life she's lived only on her own terms.
This Generation: Dispatches From China's Most Popular Literary Star (and Race Car Driver)
by Han HanSelected from blog posts from 2006-present, This Generation tells the story of modern China from Han Han's unique perspective. Writing on topics as diverse as racing, prostitution, and how to be a patriot, Han Han has written a diary that is not only invaluable for the English-speaking world to understand our rising Eastern partner and rival, but which will long be remembered as a millennial time capsule. The core of this anthology is drawn from the collection Qingchun (Youth), published in Taipei in 2010, but it also contains a sprinkling of both older and more recent pieces. Presented in chronological order, the sequence opens with a handful of early posts; it excerpts Han Han's work more fully beginning in 2008, the year when he really hit his stride and his blog commanded a larger and larger audience in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. The anthology closes with Han Han's controversial cluster of essays posted in the final days of 2011.
Unthinkable: The Shocking Scandal of Britain's Trafficked Children
by Kris HollingtonThe UK was shocked to its core in May 2012 when a gang of nine men was convicted of the systematic sexual abuse of disadvantaged teenage girls in the Rochdale area - the crimes including counts of rape, aiding and abetting rape, sexual assault and trafficking girls within the UK for sexual exploitation. Yet many childcare experts reckon these crimes are just the tip of an iceberg of wide scale exploitation occurring across the country. The Deputy Children's Commissioner Sue Berelowitz said in June 2012 that there 'isn't a town, village or hamlet in which children are not being sexually exploited'. As this book goes to press, a gang of men similar to those convicted in Rochdale stands trial for similar crimes in Oxford. What is happening in Britain that means young vulnerable girls can be exploited in this way? Award-winning journalist Kris Hollington tells the inside story of some of the most shocking and heartbreaking crimes of recent years, focusing on the Rochdale case but also analysing recent cases in the London area that have echoes of the brutality of organised slavery. His findings expose how the British justice system is failing to protect children in the 21stcentury. It is a scandal that cannot be ignored.
Unthinkable: The Shocking Scandal of Britain's Trafficked Children
by Kris HollingtonAward-winning journalist Kris Hollington investigates sex trafficking in the UK, in the light of the Rochdale scandal.
Out of the Darkness
by Tina NashIt was the case that shocked the nation. On the evening of 20 April 2011, Tina Nash's life changed forever. After suffering months of beatings and domestic abuse at the hands of boyfriend Shane Jenkin, she was subjected to a barbaric and prolonged attack during which Jenkin beat her unconscious and gouged out both her eyes. When he was jailed in May 2012, people struggled to comprehend the scale of the violence endured by this attractive mother of two at her home in Cornwall. In Out of the Darkness, Tina tells her full story - of what life with a violent partner is really like and how she survived 12 hours of sustained and unimaginable violence in her own home. Learning to adjust to life without her sight, Tina speaks bravely about how her children have given her the courage to keep going, and how - step by careful step - she is learning to live again. With statistics on domestic violence rising, Tina's incredible memoir of survival makes for essential reading.
Totally Wired
by Andrew SmithThe story of the dotcom bubble, its tumultuous crash, and the visionary pioneer at its centre. One morning in February 2000, Josh Harris woke to the certain knowledge that he was about to lose everything. The man Time magazine called 'The Warhol of the Web' was now reduced to the role of helpless spectator as his personal fortune dwindled from 85 million dollars. . . to 50 million. . . to nothing. In the space of a week. During the mid-1990s a group of young people found themselves lords of a new realm called cyberspace. Money was showered upon them to start businesses and instruct elders in the ways of an 'online' world they saw coming, and many became rich beyond their wildest dreams. Between 1995 and March 2000, all rules of sound finance were abandoned and the unthinkable appeared to be happening: twenty-somethings were taking over. And unlike the imagined youth revolutions of the 1950s, Sixties, Seventies, Eighties, this one was remaking society for real. But no. Three months into the new millennium investors, as if waking together from a trance, looked down and panicked and in one of the most spectacular financial crashes ever seen, fled the dotcoms until the entire sector had simply. . . vanished. Three trillion dollars was lost to the economy in what became the signature event of the 1990s, while the dotcommers melted away to nowhere, apparent victims of their own hubris and greed. The internet was a joke. Was over. Those five weird years might never have happened. If the mania attending those events is hard to recall, it's because over a decade later they seem shrouded in a kind of pre-Millennial mist; might never have happened. How easy to forget that at the end of 1999, the world seemed to be spinning off its axis as a new one evolved before our eyes, with anything imaginable seeming to be possible. . . In his bestselling book Moondust Andrew Smith looked at the lives of the nine remaining Moonwalkers, how their exploits helped shape an era and how that era left its mark on them. In Totally Wired, he goes in search of the truth about one of the most extraordinary and mysterious events of the 20th century, the dotcom bubble of the 1990s, and draws a direct line from there to where we are now. ndrew Smith is the author of the international bestseller Moondust. As a journalist he has written for Melody Maker, The Face, The Sunday Times, Guardian and Observer. He has also written and presented two documentaries for BBC4, Being Neil Armstrong and To Kill a Mockingbird at 50, and the three-part series People of the Abyss for Radio 4.
War Stories
by Jeremy BowenHaving joined the BBC as a trainee in 1984, Jeremy Bowen first became a foreign correspondent four years later. He had witnessed violence already, both at home and abroad, but it wasn't until he covered his first war -- in El Salvador -- that he felt he had arrived. Armed with the fearlessness of youth he lived for the job, was in love with it, aware of the dangers but assuming the bullets and bombs were meant for others. In 2000, however, after eleven years in some of the world's most dangerous places, the bullets came too close for comfort, and a close friend was killed in Lebanon. This, and then the birth of his first child, began a process of reassessment that culminated in the end of the affair. Now, in his extraordinarily gripping and thought-provoking new book, he charts his progress from keen young novice whose first reaction to the sound of gunfire was to run towards it to the more circumspect veteran he is today. It will also discuss the changes that have taken place in the ways in which wars are reported over the course of his career, from the Gulf War to Bosnia, Afghanistan to Rwanda.
Runaway: Wild Child, Working Girl, Survivor
by Emily MackenzieBeaten by her mother and whipped by her stepfather, Emily eventually finds her way into the care system at the age of twelve, and has an abortion after being gang-raped at thirteen. Continuously abused in a sequence of homes, she runs away at sixteen, becomes a prostitute in Soho, and convinces herself she is being punished for killing her baby. But it was never meant to be like that. Adopted at birth in 1956 by a middle-class family, Emily shared a golden childhood with her adopted sister Amy, attending private schools, and enjoying singing and dancing lessons. Things soon changed when Emily's jealous mother came to regard her as a rival. A bored and restless woman, she beat Emily for the first time when she was seven years old and from then on seemed to become addicted to inflicting pain on her daughter. Despite Emily's father's attempts to protect her, the parental rows grew more malicious, until the mother moved out and remarried a narcissistic widower with alcohol problems and a vicious, bullying temper. The abuse intensified until Emily was placed into voluntary care. And so began a toxic spiral of remand homes, psychiatric hospitals, and sleeping rough. It wasn't long before Emily became a teenage 'working girl', where she was paid to engage in bizarre sadomasochistic acts for perverted clients, including a senior judge and a policeman. It was only when she was almost murdered that she turned her life around. Set principally between 1966 and 1972, Runawaycaptures the sleazy Soho of the period, and the frightening conditions in which many children were kept in care.
Runaway
by Emily MackenzieBeaten by her mother and whipped by her stepfather, Emily eventually finds her way into the care system at the age of twelve, and has an abortion after being gang-raped at thirteen. Continuously abused in a sequence of homes, she runs away at sixteen, becomes a prostitute in Soho, and convinces herself she is being punished for killing her baby. But it was never meant to be like that. Adopted at birth in 1956 by a middle-class family, Emily shares a golden childhood with her adopted sister, attends private schools, and shows a flair for singing and dancing. Things soon change when Emily's jealous mother comes to regard her as her rival. A bored and restless woman, she beats Emily for the first time at age seven and becomes addicted to inflicting pain. Despite Emily's father's attempts to protect her, the parental rows grow more malicious, until her mother finally moves out and, shockingly, wins custody of the children. She remarries a narcissistic widower with alcohol problems and a desire to relive the youth he lost suffering injuries in World War Two. The abuse from her sadistic mother and stepfather intensifies until, against her father's will, Emily's mother puts her into voluntary care. Here Emily enters the toxic spiral of remand homes, psychiatric hospitals, sleeping rough and further sadomasochistic abuse. Set principally between 1966 and 1972, I Just Want To Go Home captures the changing attitudes of the period, socially, morally, politically, but also in regard to the approach of adults and institutions towards the care of children.
Tulisa
by Sean SmithBest known for being a member of the Camden-based hip hop group N-Dubz, Tulisa is currently winning hearts and fans as a down-to-earth judge on the X Factor. But away from the present glamour, the path to fame for her has been far from easy. For the first time, using extensive research and interviews with those closest to the superstar, the UK's leading celebrity biographer Sean Smith tells the story of the real Tulisa. Tulisa's story was tough from the start: when she was just five, her mother was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and her father left home when she was nine years old. Tulisa was brought up on a council estate and endured tough and gritty teenage years: violence, depression, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, anorexia nervosa, mental health issues, financial difficulties and bullying. At thirteen she was suicidal and has revealed that she twice tried to kill herself as well as regularly self-harming. She left school without sitting any GCSE's.
Mrs Miles's Diary: The Wartime Journal of a Housewife on the Home Front
by Constance Miles S. V. PartingtonAt the outbreak of the Second World War Constance Miles was living with her husband in the pretty Surrey village of Shere. A prolific correspondent with a keen interest in current affairs, Constance kept a war journal from 1939 to 1943, recording in vivid detail what life was like for women on the Home Front. She writes of the impact of evacuees, of food shortages and the creative uses of what food there was, and the fears of the local populace, who wonder how they will cope. She tells of refugees from central Europe billeted in village houses and, later in the war, of the influx of American servicemen. She travels frequently to London, mourning the destruction of familiar landmarks and recording the devastation of the Blitz, but still finds time for tea in the Strand. A woman of strong convictions, Mrs Miles is not afraid to voice her opinion on public figures and her worries about the social upheavals she feels certain to follow the war. But most of all her journals record an overlooked aspect of the conflict: the impact on communities outside of major cities, who endured hardships we find hard to imagine today. It is a fascinating document that makes for compulsive reading.
Mrs Miles's Diary
by S. V. PartingtonAt the outbreak of the Second World War Constance Miles was living with her husband in the pretty Surrey village of Shere. A prolific correspondent with a keen interest in current affairs, Constance kept a war journal from 1939 to 1943, recording in vivid detail what life was like for women on the Home Front.She writes of the impact of evacuees, of food shortages and the creative uses of what food there was, and the fears of the local populace, who wonder how they will cope. She tells of refugees from central Europe billeted in village houses and, later in the war, of the influx of American servicemen. She travels frequently to London, mourning the destruction of familiar landmarks and recording the devastation of the Blitz, but still finds time for tea in the Strand. A woman of strong convictions, Mrs Miles is not afraid to voice her opinion on public figures and her worries about the social upheavals she feels certain to follow the war. But most of all her journals record an overlooked aspect of the conflict: the impact on communities outside of major cities, who endured hardships we find hard to imagine today. It is a fascinating document that makes for compulsive reading.
No Holding Back
by Amanda HoldenActress, presenter, talent show judge. Daughter, wife, mother, survivor. There's so much more to Amanda Holden than fame.A natural-born performer, Amanda's journey to becoming one of the most recognisable faces on our screens today has been one full of love, laughter and tears. A British star and nationally treasured actress, she has appeared on our screens and stages for over 20 years. In the notoriously tricky world of show business, Amanda has carved out her own identity and enjoyed impressive longevity, not least as the longest running judge on hit ITV show Britain's Got Talent. She never fails to keep her audience engaged and entertained. Charming, funny and incredibly honest, her story is remarkable. For the first time, No HoldingBacktells it in her own words, in her own way, and shows her fans the real woman behind the headlines.
No Holding Back
by Amanda HoldenActress, presenter, talent show judge. Daughter, wife, mother, survivor. There's so much more to Amanda Holden than fame.A natural-born performer, Amanda's journey to becoming one of the most recognisable faces on our screens today has been one full of love, laughter and tears. A British star and nationally treasured actress, she has appeared on our screens and stages for over 20 years. In the notoriously tricky world of show business, Amanda has carved out her own identity and enjoyed impressive longevity, not least as the longest running judge on hit ITV show Britain's Got Talent. She never fails to keep her audience engaged and entertained. Charming, funny and incredibly honest, her story is remarkable. For the first time, No HoldingBacktells it in her own words, in her own way, and shows her fans the real woman behind the headlines.
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by Amanda HoldenActress, presenter, talent show judge. Daughter, wife, mother, survivor. There's so much more to Amanda Holden than fame. A natural-born performer, Amanda's journey to becoming one of the most recognisable faces on our screens today has been one full of love, laughter and tears. A British star and nationally treasured actress, she has appeared on our screens and stages for over 20 years. In the notoriously tricky world of show business, Amanda has carved out her own identity and enjoyed impressive longevity, not least as the longest running judge on hit ITV show Britain's Got Talent. She never fails to keep her audience engaged and entertained. Charming, funny and incredibly honest, her story is remarkable. For the first time, No Holding Back tells it in her own words, in her own way, and shows her fans the real woman behind the headlines.
Strings Attached
by Joanne LipmanStrings Attached is the story of a brilliant, but ferocious music teacher who came to be known as Mr K. A Ukrainian immigrant who survived an abusive childhood to become a noted resident and teacher, Mr K used music as a means of escape. The authors, who spent their childhoods in the late 60s and 70s, rehearsing and playing together as young musicians, bring the extraordinary character of Mr K to life - from his days as a forced Nazi labourer; to his home life as a husband to an invalid wife; to his heart-breaking search to find his missing daughter; to the terrifying challenges he hurtled from behind the music stand.
Nice To Meet You
by Jessie JOne of the most inspiring talents to emerge from British pop culture, Jessie J's message is loud and clear: be strong, be determined and never shy away from Who You Are. An international sensation and a multi-award-winning superstar, she took the music industry by storm, selling 11 million singles and 2.5 million albums worldwide. In this fully illustrated and highly personal book, Jessie J tells her own story in her own words with all the strength, honesty and passion you would expect. This is Jessie J's real story, opening the doors on the individuality and unique voice that have made her an inspiration to young women around the world. She talks openly about her health issues and a heart condition, her thoughts on body images and how she discovered her own identity whilst breaking into one of the world's most competitive industries. The bold and intimate tale of this young woman will shock and enthral as she delivers her personal message with an unshakable confidence and modesty that will cement her place in pop culture as a much-loved star.
Mum's Way
by Ian Millthorpe Lynne Barrett-LeeAngie and Ian were childhood sweethearts,Angie adored kids and, as one of eight children himself, Ian was only too happy to have as many as they could. After their marriagethey had three sons in quick succession. But then, aged just thirty one, Angie was diagnosed with breast cancer and the couple had to accept they might not be able to have any more. Five years on,though, with Angie well again they went on to have five more. But in 2007, Angie had a shadow on her lung and it was the return of the original breast cancer she thought she had beaten. It seemed the disease had returned to tear their world apart again. Though Ian searched tirelessly for cures, Angie practised acceptance. She wouldn't live to see her children grow up. Raising eight children would be a big job for any couple; to raise them alone, without their mother, an almost Herculean feat. But this was exactly what Angie wanted Ian to be able to do. So in the last months of her life, Angie compiled a list of 'rules' to guide Ian in the future, and put him on an intensive training course,so he could learn all the skills he would need. She taught him howto makeher special chicken curry, how to soothe away their hurts, pack their lunchboxes with all their favouritesand do all the little things she'd done for them so unthinkingly.And Ian knew he wasn't just doing this for the children. He was doing it so his beloved wife could be comforted by knowing that he had the tools to bring their children up her way. Finally, inevitably, came the hardest task of all. Angie, the job done, hadto find the courage to let them go, and Ian and the children the courage to carry on without her.