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A Tuscan Childhood
by Kinta Beevor"Wonderful. . . I fell immediately into her world, and was sorry when I reached the end. " --Frances Mayes, author ofUnder the Tuscan Sun The sparkling memoir of an idyllic, bohemian childhood in an enchanted Tuscan castle between the wars. When Kinta Beeevor was five, her father, the painter Aubrey Waterfield, bought the sixteenth-century Fortezza della Brunella in the Tuscan village of Aulla. There her parents were part of a vibrant artistic community that included Aldous Huxley, Bernard Berenson, and D. H. Lawrence. Meanwhile, Kinta and her brother explored the glorious countryside, participated in the region's many seasonal rites and rituals, and came to know and love the charming, resilient Italian people. With the coming of World War II the family had to leave Aulla; years later, though, Kinta would return to witness the courage and skill of the Tuscan people as they rebuilt their lives. Lyrical and witty,A Tuscan Childhoodis alive with the timeless splendour of Italy. From the Trade Paperback edition.
A Tuscan Childhood
by Kinta Beevor"Wonderful...I fell immediately into her world, and was sorry when I reached the end." --Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan SunThe sparkling memoir of an idyllic, bohemian childhood in an enchanted Tuscan castle between the wars.When Kinta Beeevor was five, her father, the painter Aubrey Waterfield, bought the sixteenth-century Fortezza della Brunella in the Tuscan village of Aulla. There her parents were part of a vibrant artistic community that included Aldous Huxley, Bernard Berenson, and D. H. Lawrence. Meanwhile, Kinta and her brother explored the glorious countryside, participated in the region's many seasonal rites and rituals, and came to know and love the charming, resilient Italian people. With the coming of World War II the family had to leave Aulla; years later, though, Kinta would return to witness the courage and skill of the Tuscan people as they rebuilt their lives. Lyrical and witty, A Tuscan Childhood is alive with the timeless splendour of Italy.From the Trade Paperback edition.
A Tuscan Childhood
by Kinta Beevor'Wonderful ... I fell immediately into her world' Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan SunKinta Beevor was five years old when she fell in love with her parents' castle facing the Carrara mountains. She and her brother ran barefoot, exploring an enchanted world. They searched for wild mushrooms in the hills with Fiore the stonemason, and learned how to tickle trout. The freedom and beauty of life at the castle attracted poets, writers and painters, including D.H. Lawrence and Rex Whistler. The other side to Kinta's childhood was very different, for it was spent with her formidable great aunt, Janet Ross, in a grand villa outside Florence. But soon the old way of life and Kinta's idyllic world were threatened by war.Nostalgic, yet unsentimental and funny, A Tuscan Childhood is a book which transports the reader to bohemian, aristocratic Italy and the sound of bells from a distant campanile.
A Tuscan Childhood (Vintage Departures Ser.)
by Kinta Beevor'Wonderful ... I fell immediately into her world' Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan SunKinta Beevor was five years old when she fell in love with her parents' castle facing the Carrara mountains. She and her brother ran barefoot, exploring an enchanted world. They searched for wild mushrooms in the hills with Fiore the stonemason, and learned how to tickle trout. The freedom and beauty of life at the castle attracted poets, writers and painters, including D.H. Lawrence and Rex Whistler. The other side to Kinta's childhood was very different, for it was spent with her formidable great aunt, Janet Ross, in a grand villa outside Florence. But soon the old way of life and Kinta's idyllic world were threatened by war.Nostalgic, yet unsentimental and funny, A Tuscan Childhood is a book which transports the reader to bohemian, aristocratic Italy and the sound of bells from a distant campanile.
A Twilight Struggle: The Life of John Fitzgerald Kennedy
by Barbara Harrison Daniel TerrisDiscusses the childhood, family, and political career of the president who served from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. For children and teens.
A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder
by Ma-Nee ChacabyFrom her early, often harrowing memories of life and abuse in a remote Ojibwa community, Ma-Nee Chacaby's extraordinary story is one of enduring and ultimately overcoming the social and economic legacies of colonialism. As a child, Chacaby learned spiritual and cultural traditions from her Cree grandmother and trapping, hunting, and bush survival skills from her Ojibwa stepfather. She also suffered physical and sexual violence, and in her teen years became an alcoholic herself. At twenty, Chacaby took her children and, fleeing an abusive marriage, moved to Thunder Bay. Despite the abuse, racism, and indifference she often found there, Chacaby marshalled the strength and supports to help herself and others. Over the following decades, she achieved sobriety, trained and worked as an alcoholism counsellor, raised her children and fostered many others, learned to live with visual impairment, and came out as a lesbian. In 2013, Chacaby led the first gay pride parade in Thunder Bay. Ma-Nee Chacaby has emerged from hardship grounded in faith, compassion, and humour. Her memoir provides unprecedented insights into the challenges still faced by many Indigenous people.
A Tzaddik in Our Time
by Simcha RazIn our day, the word hero is usually associated with acts of valor, on or off the battlefield; sometimes with sports or cultural figures, adventurous types; but rarely, with those exemplary individuals who live humble, pious lives. Yet such was the life of Rabbi Aryeh Levin. Often referred to as the tzaddik (righteous) of Jerusalem, he was truly a giant of the spirit, a hero of the heart, and this is his life story. Born in Lithuania, he arrived in Jerusalem at the turn of the 20th century. Beyond his hours of teaching, his days and nights were filled with care and consideration for those in need. He regularly provided comfort to prisoners, patients in leper hospitals, and the downtrodden. His sincerity and kindness broke through boundaries, bringing light and love into the lives of thousands. Every page of this inspiring, heartfelt biography is filled with memorable stories, anecdotes, and Reb Aryeh s words of wisdom. It s rare to find a book that has the power to transform a reader s life into a better, more meaningful one, but this one does.
A Union Like Ours: The Love Story of F. O. Matthiessen and Russell Cheney
by Scott Bane“An example of how two men could—precariously and passionately—live together and love each other in the America of the 1930s and 1940s.” —Colm Tóibín, New York Times-bestselling author of The MagicianAfter a chance meeting aboard the ocean liner Paris in 1924, Harvard University scholar and activist F. O. Matthiessen and artist Russell Cheney fell in love, and remained inseparable until Cheney’s death in 1945. During the intervening years, the men traveled throughout Europe and the United States, achieving great professional success while contending with serious personal challenges, including addiction, chronic disease, and severe depression.Situating the couple’s private correspondence alongside other sources, Scott Bane tells the remarkable story of their relationship in the context of shifting social dynamics in the United States. From the vantage point of the present day, with marriage equality enacted into law, Bane provides a window into the realities faced by same-sex couples in the early twentieth century, as they maintained relationships in the face of overt discrimination and the absence of legal protections.“A nuanced exploration of a marriage, one characterized by great joy but also buffeted by tremendous conflict (societal, financial, and health-related).” —R. Tripp Evans, author of Grant Wood: A Life“A smart, sensitive study of a gay couple…extremely readable.” —Gay & Lesbian Review“An arresting account of how a same-sex relationship endured.” —Library Journal
A Unique Story of a Marvellous Career: Life of Hon. Phineas T. Barnum
by Joel BentonThere is none that stands for more notable success in his chosen line none that recalls more memories of wholesome entertainment none that is more invested with the fragrance of kindliness and true humanity.
A Vatican Lifeline '44: Allied Fugitives aided by the Italian Resistance foil the Gestapo in Nazi-occupied Rome
by William SimpsonA memoir of an Allied soldier and former POW in Rome, and the unexpected support he received from the Italian people—and from a heroic Catholic monsignor. It is a widely held belief that the Italians in the Second World War failed to win much in the way of martial glory. But the scoffers tend to overlook the fact that most Italians had little or no feeling of animosity toward the Allies—and to wage war against an enemy with whom you have no quarrel is a contradiction in terms. This contradiction is vividly portrayed in William Simpson&’s dramatic account of his time in Rome after the downfall of Mussolini and Italy&’s withdrawal from the war in September 1943, when thousands of Allied prisoners of war, let loose in surrendered Italy, fell prey to occupying Nazi forces. Simpson, an escaped POW, managed, after some hair-raising adventures, to find his way to Rome and soon discovered how widespread was the support of the Italians for the Allies, and how deep-seated their hatred of the Nazis. His adventures during the months before the Allies finally liberated Rome, helping to house and feed hundreds of Allied prisoners on the run, make for compulsive reading—and leave no doubt about the extraordinary bravery of the many Italians who came to their aid. But the real hero of this dramatic story is Monsignor O&’Flaherty, who, with remarkable sangfroid, used the somewhat precarious neutrality of the Vatican, where he was employed, to help Simpson and his fellow fugitives.
A Venetian Affair
by Andrea Di RobilantIn the waning days of Venice’s glory in the mid-1700s, Andrea Memmo was scion to one the city’s oldest patrician families. At the age of twenty-four he fell passionately in love with sixteen-year-old Giustiniana Wynne, the beautiful, illegitimate daughter of a Venetian mother and British father. Because of their dramatically different positions in society, they could not marry. And Giustiniana’s mother, afraid that an affair would ruin her daughter’s chances to form a more suitable union, forbade them to see each other. Her prohibition only fueled their desire and so began their torrid, secret seven-year-affair, enlisting the aid of a few intimates and servants (willing to risk their own positions) to shuttle love letters back and forth and to help facilitate their clandestine meetings. Eventually, Giustiniana found herself pregnant and she turned for help to the infamous Casanova–himself infatuated with her. Two and half centuries later, the unbelievable story of this star-crossed couple is told in a breathtaking narrative, re-created in part from the passionate, clandestine letters Andrea and Giustiniana wrote to each other.
A Venture In Faith: Texas to Alaska, A Road Trip to Recovery
by Carol Weishampel, Ed.D.Stalked by her abusive ex-husband and in fear for her life, Leah Gray plans an escape. Leah's faith in God and in humanity shattered, when she is forced out of her comfort zone, she secretly purchases a used motor home as a mobile hide-out and prepares to pursue a search for a meaningful life. Intrigued by her father's stories of building the Alaska Highway, Leah determines to flee into the Alaska wilderness. On her road trip from Texas to Alaska she encounters empowering women who encourage her on her road to self discovery. Leah's fear of men intensifies when she is forced to trust Barret, an Alaskan mountain man. Can Leah stop running and find healing and love, and return to her faith in God?
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.
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.
A Very Canadian Coup: The Rise and Demise of Prime Minister Mackenzie Bowell, 1894–1896
by Ted GlennA fresh take on the Manitoba schools question and the Conservative Coup that toppled Canada’s fifth prime minister.When Mackenzie Bowell became Canada’s fifth prime minister in December 1894, everyone — including Bowell — expected the job would involve nothing more than keeping the wheels on the Conservative wagon until a spring election.Plans for a quiet caretakership were dashed in January 1895 when the courts ruled that the Manitoba government had violated Roman Catholics’ constitutional rights by abolishing the provincial separate school system. Catholics in Quebec demanded that Bowell force Manitoba to restore the schools, while Ontario Protestants warned him to keep his hands off.Backed into a corner, Bowell tried three times to negotiate a compromise with the Manitoba government over the course of 1895, but to no avail. By January 1896, seven of Bowell’s cabinet ministers had had enough. Convinced that Bowell had tarnished the Conservative brand, the caballers forced the prime minister to resign and make way for a new leader, who they believed could revive party fortunes in time for the coming election—the old Warhorse of Cumberland, Sir Charles Tupper. Ultimately, the coup didn’t matter. Tupper and his conspirators pleaded their case in Parliament and on the hustings, but nothing could stand in the way of Wilfrid Laurier and his Liberals’ historic rise to power in the June 1896 election.A Very Canadian Coup brings fresh sources and new perspectives to bear on the life and times of Canada’s fifth prime minister and his Sixth Ministry.
A Very Capable Life: The Autobiography of Zarah Petri
by John Leigh WaltersWritten in his mother’s unique voice, John Leigh Walters pushes the boundaries of memoir in A Very Capable Life, the extraordinary journey of a seemingly ordinary woman.Zarah Petri was a child when her family left Hungary to establish a new life in Canada in the 1920s. With courage and innovation, Zarah and her family survived the Depression?even if it meant breaking the law to do so. In celebrating Zarah Petri, A Very Capable Life pays homage to all “ordinary” women of the early twentieth century who challenged society’s conventions for the sake of survival.
A Very Dangerous Woman: The Lives, Loves and Lies of Russia’s Most Seductive Spy
by Jeremy Dronfield Deborah McdonaldIn January 1918, the British adventurer, diplomat and secret agent Robert Bruce Lockhart arrived in Revolutionary Russia. His official mission: Britain's envoy to the new Bolshevik government. His true mission: to create a network of agents, plot the assassination of Lenin and overthrow the Bolsheviks. A dashing charmer, he soon got to know the aristocratic socialite, hedonist and notorious seductress Moura Zakrevskaya. The two feel in love and began a passionate affair. But what Lockhart didn't know was that that Moura was spying on him for the Bolsheviks. What Moura didn't know was that as Lockhart's plot unravelled and he was seized she would sell herself to save him from the firing squad.Fleeing to England, what followed was a life of exile, a string of new lovers - including Maxim Gorky and H. G. Wells - and playing off the Russian and British governments as she spied for both. Through all this she clung to the hope that Lockhart would finally be able to return to her.Deborah McDonald's sensational retelling of Moura's extraordinary life opens up a world of revolution and espionage where survival means sacrificing more than just love and loyalty.
A Very Easy Death
by Simone De BeauvoirA poignant account of her mother's death from cancer. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies, and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishment
by John PrestonA behind-the-scenes look at the desperate, scandalous private life of a British MP and champion manipulator, and the history-making trial that exposed his dirty secrets As a Member of Parliament and Leader of the Liberal Party in the 1960s and 70s, Jeremy Thorpe's bad behavior snuck under the radar for years. Police and politicians alike colluded to protect one of their own. In 1970, Thorpe was the most popular and charismatic politician in the country, poised to hold the balance of power in a coalition government. But Jeremy Thorpe was a man with a secret. His homosexual affairs and harassment of past partners, along with his propensity for lying and embezzlement, only escalated as he evaded punishment. Until a dark night on the moor with an ex-lover, a dog, and a hired gun led to consequences that even his charm and power couldn't help him escape. Dubbed the "Trial of the Century," Thorpe's climactic case at the Old Bailey in London was the first time that a leading British politician had stood trial on a murder charge, and the first time that a murder plot had been hatched in the House of Commons. And it was the first time that a prominent public figure had been exposed as a philandering gay man, in an era when homosexuality had only just become legal. With the pace and drama of a thriller, A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL is an extraordinary story of hypocrisy, deceit, and betrayal at the heart of the British Establishment.
A Very Famous Social Worker
by Greg JohnsonWhen Greg Johnson was interviewing for a job at a mental health center his interview was interrupted by a police officer with a naked woman in tow. "I was looking for an adventure," he says, "and this looked like it." In A Very Famous Social Worker, the author recounts with insight and humor his experiences as a rookie social worker in West Virginia's Greenbrier Valley. His unlikely parade of clients include a preacher whose wildly rebellious children are threatening to bring down his ministry, a teenage underwear fetishist, a man obsessed with Dolly Parton, and a schizophrenic poet. He goes the extra mile, often literally, teaching a client to drive, transporting an inebriated musician to rehab, and navigating a winding country road with a three-tiered wedding cake. Engaging and entertaining, A Very Famous Social Worker sheds light on a profession practiced by 600,000 Americans that remains little known to the general public.
A Very Fine Commander': The Memories of General Sir Horatius Murray GCB KBE DSO
by John DonovanThe contrast between soldiering in peace and war is well illustrated by Nap Murrays experiences. It took him 16 years to reach the substantive rank of Major in 1938 but by 1944 he was an acting Lieutenant General.His fascinating memoirs, skillfully edited by his nephew, cover an extraordinary career from young officer service in India, China and Egypt, his experiences with the German Army in 1937 before the dramas of WW2. His accounts of action and injury in the early war years in France, North Africa, Sicily and Normandy, prepare the reader for Murrays long and distinguished record as a Divisional commander in Italy, Palestine, Catterick and finally the Commonwealth Division in Korea. It was Monty himself who described Murray as A Very Fine Commander praise indeed, a memoir can be very revealing about the character of its author. Entirely free of self-aggrandisement or pride this book leaves the reader unsurprised at the success and popularity of its author.
A Very Hungry Girl: How I Filled Up On Life... And How You Can, Too!
by Jessica WeinerA Very Hungry Girl chronicles the journey of Jessica Weiner, who spent most of her life hungering to be someone else. She was so desperate to be accepted and valued that she spiraled into an eating disorder, experiencing the attendant lack of self-esteem that rules—and almost ruined—her life. This compelling book relates Jessica's very personal story, and also captures her unique persona as she travels the country as a performer and motivational speaker listening to thousands of other people's stories. Through her work, Jessica has become the voice of her generation and speaks with a relatable and realistic point of view. Jessica's work has received national attention by The Washington Post, CNN, MTV and Teen People Magazine.
A Very Irregular Head: The Life of Syd Barrett
by Rob ChapmanSyd Barrett was the lead guitarist, vocalist, and principle songwriter in the original line up of Pink Floyd. During his brief time with the band (1966-68) he was the driving force behind the unit. After he left the band he made just two further solo albums which were both released in 1970, before withdrawing from public view to lead a quiet, and occasionally troubled life in Cambridge, the town of his birth. Rob Chapman's book will be the first authoritative and exhaustively researched biography of Syd Barrett that fully celebrates his life and legacy as a musician, lyricist and artist, and which highlights the influence that he continues to have over contemporary bands and music fans alike.
A Very Nice Rejection Letter: Diary of a Novelist
by Chris Paling'Like all good diarists Paling's musings are funny, tender and uncensored' Sunday Times6 April 2007Writing income for the year so far: minus £300'I feel that this might just be the year in which something happens. Then again it might not. But hope drives all writers on.'It's unlikely that you'll know Chris Paling's face or have heard his name. This is his diary of trying to make a living as a writer, through the typical career trajectory of what is deemed a 'mid-list novelist'. Publishing rule 6: there is no such thing as a 'low-list' novelist.In renumeration terms, writing is a career that often ends in disappointment and despair, and occasionally disgrace. Paling artfully explores what compels him and so many others to write - the battling joys and agonies of when that compulsion beds itself in one's psyche, and a day without writing is a day wasted. A fascinating insight into the writing process, he tracks the need to write something new, or something old in a new way, something relevant, something that needs to be written when very little actually does, in search of that ever-elusive goal of being 'in print'.By turns moving, wry and brutally honest, A Very Nice Rejection Letter unveils the rewarding yet soul-baring life of a novelist. At its heart is a love letter to the art of writing but this delightful book is also a profound reflection on the forces that drive us all.
A Very Principled Boy: The Life of Duncan Lee, Red Spy and Cold Warrior
by Mark A. BradleyDuncan Chaplain Lee was an unlikely traitor. A Rhodes Scholar, patriot, and descendent of one of America’s most distinguished families, he was also a communist sympathizer who used his position as aid to intelligence chief #147;Wild Bill” Donovan to leak critical information to the Soviets during World War II. As intelligence expert Mark A. Bradley reveals, Lee was one of Stalin’s most valuable moles in U. S. intelligence, passing the KGB vital information on everything from the D-Day invasion to America’s plans for postwar Europe. Outwitting both J. Edgar Hoover and Senator Joseph McCarthy, he escaped detection again and again, dying a free man before authorities could prove his guilt. A fast-paced cat-and-mouse tale of misguided idealism and high treason, Perry's book draws on thousands of previously unreleased CIA and State Department records to reveal the riveting story of one of the greatest traitors of the twentieth century.