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The Du Mauriers (Virago Modern Classics #123)
by Daphne Du MaurierFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCAWhen Daphne du Maurier wrote this book she was only thirty years old and had already established herself both as a biographer, with the acclaimed Gerald: A Portrait, and as a novelist. Here, she further explores her fascinating family history.The Du Mauriers was written during a vintage period of her career, between two of her best-loved novels: Jamaica Inn and Rebecca.Her aim was to write her family biography 'so that it reads like a novel' and it was due to du Maurier's remarkable imaginative gifts that she was able to breathe life into the characters and depict with affection and wit the relatives she never knew, including her grandfather, the famous Victorian artist and Punch cartoonist - and creator of Trilby.'Miss du Maurier creates on the grand scale; she runs through the generations, giving her family unity and reality . . . a rich vein of humour and satire . . . observation, sympathy, courage, a sense of the romantic, are here' Observer
The Du Mauriers (Vmc Ser. #662)
by Daphne Du MaurierFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCAWhen Daphne du Maurier wrote this book she was only thirty years old and had already established herself both as a biographer, with the acclaimed Gerald: A Portrait, and as a novelist. Here, she further explores her fascinating family history.The Du Mauriers was written during a vintage period of her career, between two of her best-loved novels: Jamaica Inn and Rebecca.Her aim was to write her family biography 'so that it reads like a novel' and it was due to du Maurier's remarkable imaginative gifts that she was able to breathe life into the characters and depict with affection and wit the relatives she never knew, including her grandfather, the famous Victorian artist and Punch cartoonist - and creator of Trilby.'Miss du Maurier creates on the grand scale; she runs through the generations, giving her family unity and reality . . . a rich vein of humour and satire . . . observation, sympathy, courage, a sense of the romantic, are here' Observer
Gerald: A Portrait (Virago Modern Classics #113)
by Daphne Du MaurierFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCASir Gerald du Maurier was the most celebrated actor-manager of his day, knighted for his services to the theatre in 1922, and the father to one of the most enduring writers of the twentieth century. Published within six months of her father's death, this frank biography was considered shocking by many of his admirers - but it was a huge success, winning Daphne du Maurier critical acclaim and launching her career.In Gerald: A Portrait, Daphne du Maurier captures the spirit and charm of the charismatic actor who played the original Captain Hook, amusingly recalling his eccentricities and his sense of humour, and sensitively portraying the darker side of his nature and his bouts of depression.A remarkable book . . . brilliant comic writing - The Times
Gerald: A Portrait (Vmc Ser. #654)
by Daphne Du MaurierFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCASir Gerald du Maurier was the most celebrated actor-manager of his day, knighted for his services to the theatre in 1922, and the father to one of the most enduring writers of the twentieth century. Published within six months of her father's death, this frank biography was considered shocking by many of his admirers - but it was a huge success, winning Daphne du Maurier critical acclaim and launching her career.In Gerald: A Portrait, Daphne du Maurier captures the spirit and charm of the charismatic actor who played the original Captain Hook, amusingly recalling his eccentricities and his sense of humour, and sensitively portraying the darker side of his nature and his bouts of depression.A remarkable book . . . brilliant comic writing - The Times
Charlotte Bronte: A Passionate Life
by Lyndall GordonIn this groundbreaking and unconventional biography, Lyndall Gordon dismantles the insistent image of Charlotte Bronte as a modest Victorian lady, the slave to duty in the shadow of tombstones, revealing instead a strong and fiery woman who shaped her own life and transformed it into art. 'Sensitive, open-minded, vivid, full of psychological insight, [Gordon's] book is a brilliant reappraisal of Charlotte Bronte's life, work, and the flow between the two . . . It is also a deeply moving story' Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times
Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds
by Lyndall GordonEmily Dickinson is regarded as one of the greatest poets of all time, but she has come to us as an odd and helpless woman living a life of self imposed seclusion. Lyndall Gordon sees instead a volcanic character living on her own terms and with a steely confidence in her own talent; a woman whose family feuded over a hothouse of adultery and devastating betrayal and a woman who had her own secret. After her death the fight for possession of Emily and her poetry became the feud's focus.'Lives Like Loaded Guns has cracked one of poetry's most enduring enigmas . . . It rescues Dickinson from the image of the passive, heart-broken recluse. It is a worthy monument to a poet even more extraordinary than we realised' Olivia Cole, Financial TimesFrom the acclaimed biographer of Mary Wollstonecraft, T.S. Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Virginia Woolf and Henry James.
Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds
by Lyndall GordonEmily Dickinson is regarded as one of the greatest poets of all time, but she has come to us as an odd and helpless woman living a life of self imposed seclusion. Lyndall Gordon sees instead a volcanic character living on her own terms and with a steely confidence in her own talent; a woman whose family feuded over a hothouse of adultery and devastating betrayal and a woman who had her own secret. After her death the fight for possession of Emily and her poetry became the feud's focus.'Lives Like Loaded Guns has cracked one of poetry's most enduring enigmas . . . It rescues Dickinson from the image of the passive, heart-broken recluse. It is a worthy monument to a poet even more extraordinary than we realised' Olivia Cole, Financial TimesFrom the acclaimed biographer of Mary Wollstonecraft, T.S. Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Virginia Woolf and Henry James.
Iggy Pop: The Biography
by Paul Trynka'For those who like their rock biogs thick with tales of heroic over-indulgence, OPEN UP AND BLEED is hard to beat' - Irish Evening Herald Iggy Pop's life has been one of extraordinary highs and terrifying lows. Infamous for his wild ways, he is also a towering figure of the rock scene - hugely influential, charismatic and provocative. Every 'mad, bad, dangerous to know' rock star owes a debt to him, and the stories of his shocking behaviour are legendary. But Iggy Pop is also, to a large extent, a construct, the alter ego of the quietly spoken and intriguing Jim Osterberg: the kid voted 'Most Likely to Succeed' by his classmates. So what turned this charming, well-mannered, straight-A student into a poster child for rock 'n' roll debauchery?Iggy Pop: Open up and Bleed reveals the truth behind the myths. Former MOJO editor Paul Trynka tracked down the star's friends, family, lovers and fellow musicians, conducting over two hundred and fifty interviews, unearthing countless new stories about Iggy's rollercoaster life, his music and his often misunderstood friendship with David Bowie. From this impeccable research he creates a fascinating portrait of a man at war with the world and with himself. The book also features dozens of never-before seen photos.
Wasted
by Mark JohnsonMark Johnson's father had 'LOVE' tattooed across his left hand, but that didn't stop the beatings. The Johnson children would turn up to school with broken fingers and chipped teeth, but no one ever thought of investigating their home life. Mark just slipped through the cracks, and kept on falling. For years. Constantly in trouble at school, Mark began stealing at the age of seven, was drinking by the age of eight, and took his first hit of heroin aged eleven. A sensitive, intelligent boy, he could never stay on the right path, and though Art College beckoned, he ended up in Portland prison instead. With searing honesty, WASTED documents Mark's descent into the depths of addiction and criminality. Homeless, hooked on heroin and crack, no one - least of all Mark - believed he would survive. And yet - astonishingly - he somehow pulled himself through, and now runs his own thriving tree surgery business, employing and helping other recovering addicts. His story is at once shocking and inspiring - a compelling account of his struggle to save himself, and help save others in the process.
Wasted
by Mark JohnsonMark Johnson's father had 'LOVE' tattooed across his left hand, but that didn't stop the beatings. The Johnson children would turn up to school with broken fingers and chipped teeth, but no one ever thought of investigating their home life. Mark just slipped through the cracks, and kept on falling. For years. Constantly in trouble at school, Mark began stealing at the age of seven, was drinking by the age of eight, and took his first hit of heroin aged eleven. A sensitive, intelligent boy, he could never stay on the right path, and though Art College beckoned, he ended up in Portland prison instead. With searing honesty, WASTED documents Mark's descent into the depths of addiction and criminality. Homeless, hooked on heroin and crack, no one - least of all Mark - believed he would survive. And yet - astonishingly - he somehow pulled himself through, and now runs his own thriving tree surgery business, employing and helping other recovering addicts. His story is at once shocking and inspiring - a compelling account of his struggle to save himself, and help save others in the process.
Greavsie: The Autobiography
by Jimmy GreavesJames Peter 'Jimmy' Greaves is one of the greatest footballers to have graced the English game, a goalscorer of legendary prowess. His gripping and characteristically humorous autobiography journeys from Jimmy's childhood in the East End, via his early career at Chelsea and his short and troubled stay at A.C. Milan, to his emergence as one of the great stars of sixties football while at Spurs and an outstanding England forward. Jimmy's record as a striker is extraordinary - he was the leading goalscorer in the First Division - now Premiership - for six seasons and during his playing career was never out of the top five. There are darker aspects too: the bitter disappointment of failing to make the World Cup-winning team of 1966, and the battle against the alcoholism that followed his retirement from the game.This book is both Jimmy's story and the story of football in the golden era of the fifties and sixties before money changed the game. It is populated by the great players whom Jimmy played with and against and animated by wonderful anecdotes about the game. It is an account of how football was then and how it has changed.
Greavsie: The Autobiography
by Jimmy GreavesJames Peter 'Jimmy' Greaves is one of the greatest footballers to have graced the English game, a goalscorer of legendary prowess. His gripping and characteristically humorous autobiography journeys from Jimmy's childhood in the East End, via his early career at Chelsea and his short and troubled stay at A.C. Milan, to his emergence as one of the great stars of sixties football while at Spurs and an outstanding England forward. Jimmy's record as a striker is extraordinary - he was the leading goalscorer in the First Division - now Premiership - for six seasons and during his playing career was never out of the top five. There are darker aspects too: the bitter disappointment of failing to make the World Cup-winning team of 1966, and the battle against the alcoholism that followed his retirement from the game.This book is both Jimmy's story and the story of football in the golden era of the fifties and sixties before money changed the game. It is populated by the great players whom Jimmy played with and against and animated by wonderful anecdotes about the game. It is an account of how football was then and how it has changed.
Have A Little Faith
by Mitch AlbomFROM THE MASTER STORYTELLER WHOSE BOOKS HAVE TOUCHED THE HEARTS OF OVER 40 MILLION READERS'Mitch Albom sees the magical in the ordinary' Cecilia Ahern__________Will you do my eulogy?With those words, Mitch Albom begins a remarkable eight-year journey to honour the request of a beloved rabbi.Feeling unworthy of such a responsibility, Albom sets out to know the man better and unexpectedly finds himself drawn to two seemingly disparate worlds: Christian and Jewish, African-American and white, impoverished and well-to-do. Over the course of his exploration, he is compelled to consider life's biggest questions.On Albom's voyage of discovery he explores forgiveness, doubt and how to endure when the unimaginable happens. Have a Little Faith is the result: a book about the indominable strength of the human spirit and the power of genuine connection.__________WHAT READERS SAY ABOUT HAVE A LITTLE FAITH'You cannot fail to be uplifted by this touching story that I will continue to read again and again''A beautiful book full of hope''Albom writes with pure honesty, passion and sensitivity. I get lost in his books''A treasure . . . Beautifully written and uplifting! Wow!''Sweet, simple, effortless writing'
Tuesdays With Morrie: An old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson
by Mitch AlbomTHE GLOBAL PHENOMENON THAT TOUCHED THE HEARTS OF OVER 9 MILLION READERS'Mitch Albom sees the magical in the ordinary' Cecilia Ahern__________Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher or a colleague? Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, and gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it? For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you?Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final 'class': lessons in how to live.Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift with the world.__________WHAT READERS SAY ABOUT TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE'You cannot put the book down until you reach the end . . . Too good to be missed. It is really an all-time hit''One of the most beautiful books I've read in a long, long time . . . It will always be one of my favourite books''This book moved me immensely and its teachings will stay with me''A simple yet moving account of love and loss - but also hope for something better''A book I will read and re-read'
The Red Sweet Wine Of Youth: The Brave and Brief Lives of the War Poets
by Nicholas MurrayThe poetry that emerged from the trenches of WWI is a remarkable body of work, at once political manifesto and literary beacon for the twentieth century. In this passionate recreation of the lives of the greatest poets to come out of the conflict, Nicholas Murray brilliantly reveals the men themselves as well as the struggle of the artist to live fully and to bear witness in the annihilating squalor of battle.Bringing into sharp focus the human detail of each life, using journals, letters and literary archives, Murray brings to life the men's indissoluble comradeship, their complex sexual mores and their extraordinary courage. Poignant, vivid and unfailingly intelligent, Nicholas Murray's study offers new and finely tuned insight into the - often devastatingly brief - lives of a remarkable generation of men.
The Red Sweet Wine of Youth: The Brave and Brief Lives of the War Poets
by Nicholas MurrayThe poetry that emerged from the trenches of WWI is a remarkable body of work, at once political manifesto and literary beacon for the twentieth century. In this passionate recreation of the lives of the greatest poets to come out of the conflict, Nicholas Murray brilliantly reveals the men themselves as well as the struggle of the artist to live fully and to bear witness in the annihilating squalor of battle.Bringing into sharp focus the human detail of each life, using journals, letters and literary archives, Murray brings to life the men's indissoluble comradeship, their complex sexual mores and their extraordinary courage. Poignant, vivid and unfailingly intelligent, Nicholas Murray's study offers new and finely tuned insight into the - often devastatingly brief - lives of a remarkable generation of men.
The People On The Street: A Writer's View Of Israel
by Linda GrantThe further away anyone was from that block of Ben Yehuda street, the easier it seemed to find a solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, that stubborn mess in the centre of the Middle East and the more I studied these solutions, the more I thought that they depended for their implementation on a population of table football men, painted in the colours of the two teams: blue and white for the Israelis, green, red and black for the Palestinians. All the international community had to do was to twist the levers and the little players would kick and swing and send the ball into the net, to victory' One block of a Tel Aviv street is the starting point for Linda Grant's exploration of the inner dynamics of Israelis - not the government and its policies, but the people themselves, in all their variety. Iraqi shop-keepers, Teenage soldiers, Mob bosses, Tunisian-born settlers, Russian scientists, and the father of the child victim of a suicide bomber are some of the people she meets.
The People on the Street: A Writer's View of Israel
by Linda GrantThe further away anyone was from that block of Ben Yehuda street, the easier it seemed to find a solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, that stubborn mess in the centre of the Middle East and the more I studied these solutions, the more I thought that they depended for their implementation on a population of table football men, painted in the colours of the two teams: blue and white for the Israelis, green, red and black for the Palestinians. All the international community had to do was to twist the levers and the little players would kick and swing and send the ball into the net, to victory' One block of a Tel Aviv street is the starting point for Linda Grant's exploration of the inner dynamics of Israelis - not the government and its policies, but the people themselves, in all their variety. Iraqi shop-keepers, Teenage soldiers, Mob bosses, Tunisian-born settlers, Russian scientists, and the father of the child victim of a suicide bomber are some of the people she meets.
Kafka
by Nicholas MurrayThis gripping biography of the great Czech novelist, diarist and short story writer chronicles Kafka's entire (if tragically curtailed) life (1883-1924), but it focuses upon the writer's relationship to his father and his inheritance as a member of the Jewish mercantile bourgeoisie in Prague. Born into a German-speaking Jewish family, Kafka was a subject of the Austro-Hungarian empire until 1919 yet through his work he is one of the most modern of writers. While previous works have concentrated on Kafka and his women, Nicholas Murray will concentrate on his extraordinary relationship with his father which found its most eloquent literary expression in the story 'The Judgement' written in 1912 when Kafka was twenty-nine:in a reverse Oedipal move, the father condemns his son to death by drowning. This work is essential for an understanding of the intensely private and complex Kafka and the kind of writer he turned out to be - the creator in THE CASTLE, THE TRIAL and METAMORPHOSIS (the dazzling short story whose hero wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant insect) of some of the defining literature of the 20th century.
Kafka: A Biography
by Nicholas MurrayThis gripping biography of the great Czech novelist, diarist and short story writer chronicles Kafka's entire (if tragically curtailed) life (1883-1924), but it focuses upon the writer's relationship to his father and his inheritance as a member of the Jewish mercantile bourgeoisie in Prague. Born into a German-speaking Jewish family, Kafka was a subject of the Austro-Hungarian empire until 1919 yet through his work he is one of the most modern of writers. While previous works have concentrated on Kafka and his women, Nicholas Murray will concentrate on his extraordinary relationship with his father which found its most eloquent literary expression in the story 'The Judgement' written in 1912 when Kafka was twenty-nine:in a reverse Oedipal move, the father condemns his son to death by drowning. This work is essential for an understanding of the intensely private and complex Kafka and the kind of writer he turned out to be - the creator in THE CASTLE, THE TRIAL and METAMORPHOSIS (the dazzling short story whose hero wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant insect) of some of the defining literature of the 20th century.
Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country
by Gillian SlovoA passionate witness to the colossal upheaval that has transformed her native South Africa, Gillian Slovo has written a memoir that is far more than a story of her own life. For she is the daughter of Joe Slovo and Ruth First, South Africa's pioneering anti-apartheid white activists, a daughter who always had to come second to political commitment. Whilst recalling the extraordinary events which surrounded her family's persecution and exile, and reconstructing the truth of her parents' relationship and her own turbulent childhood, Gillian Slovo has also created an astonishing portrait of a courageous, beautiful mother and a father of integrity and stoicism.
Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country
by Gillian SlovoA passionate witness to the colossal upheaval that has transformed her native South Africa, Gillian Slovo has written a memoir that is far more than a story of her own life. For she is the daughter of Joe Slovo and Ruth First, South Africa's pioneering anti-apartheid white activists, a daughter who always had to come second to political commitment. Whilst recalling the extraordinary events which surrounded her family's persecution and exile, and reconstructing the truth of her parents' relationship and her own turbulent childhood, Gillian Slovo has also created an astonishing portrait of a courageous, beautiful mother and a father of integrity and stoicism.
Aldous Huxley: An English Intellectual
by Nicholas MurrayThe grandson of biologist T. H. Huxley, Aldous Huxley had a privileged background and was educated at Eton and Oxford despite an eye infection that left him nearly blind. Having learned braille his eyesight then improved enough for him to start writing, and by the 1920s he had become a fashionable figure, producing witty and daring novels like CROME YELLOW (1921), ANTIC HAY (1923) and POINT COUNTER POINT (1928). But it is as the author of his celebrated portrayal of a nightmare future society, BRAVE NEW WORLD (1932), that Huxley is remembered today. A truly visionary book, it was a watershed in Huxley's world-view as his later work became more and more optimistic - coinciding with his move to California and experimentation with mysticism and psychedelic drugs later in life. Nicholas Murray's brilliant new book has the greatest virtue of literary biographies: it makes you want to go out and read its subject's work all over again. A fascinating reassessment of one of the most interesting writers of the twentieth century.
A Life In Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE
by Sarah HelmDuring World War Two the Special Operation Executive's French Section sent more than 400 agents into Occupied France -- at least 100 never returned and were reported 'Missing Believed Dead' after the war. Twelve of these were women who died in German concentration camps -- some were tortured, some were shot, and some died in the gas chambers. Vera Atkins had helped prepare these women for their missions, and when the war was over she went out to Germany to find out what happened to them and the other agents lost behind enemy lines. But while the woman who carried out this extraordinary mission appeared quintessentially English, she was nothing of the sort. Vera Atkins, who never married, covered her life in mystery so that even her closest family knew almost nothing of her past. In A LIFE IN SECRETS Sarah Helm has stripped away Vera's many veils and -- with unprecedented access to official and private papers, and the cooperation of Vera's relatives -- vividly reconstructed an extraordinary life.
A Life In Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE
by Sarah HelmDuring World War Two the Special Operation Executive's French Section sent more than 400 agents into Occupied France -- at least 100 never returned and were reported 'Missing Believed Dead' after the war. Twelve of these were women who died in German concentration camps -- some were tortured, some were shot, and some died in the gas chambers. Vera Atkins had helped prepare these women for their missions, and when the war was over she went out to Germany to find out what happened to them and the other agents lost behind enemy lines. But while the woman who carried out this extraordinary mission appeared quintessentially English, she was nothing of the sort. Vera Atkins, who never married, covered her life in mystery so that even her closest family knew almost nothing of her past. In A LIFE IN SECRETS Sarah Helm has stripped away Vera's many veils and -- with unprecedented access to official and private papers, and the cooperation of Vera's relatives -- vividly reconstructed an extraordinary life.