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The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy
by Robert LeleuxIn the Dear John letter Daddy left for Mother and me, on a Saturday afternoon in early June 1996, on the inlaid Florentine table in the front entry of our house, which we found that night upon returning from a day spent in the crème-colored light of Neiman's, Daddy wrote that he was leaving us because Mother was crazy, and because she'd driven me crazy in a way that perfectly suited her own insanity.In a memoir studded with delicious lines and unforgettable set pieces, Robert Leleux describes his East Texas boyhood and coming of age under the tutelage of his eccentric, bewigged, flamboyant, and knowing mother.Left high and dry by Daddy and living on their in-laws' horse ranch in a white-pillared house they can't afford, Robert and Mother find themselves chronically low on cash. Soon they are forced into more modest quarters, and as a teenaged Robert watches with hilarity and horror, Mother begins a desperate regimen of makeovers, extreme plastic surgeries, and finally hairpiece epoxies---all calculated to secure a new, wealthy husband. Mother's strategy takes her, with Robert in tow, from the glamorous environs of the Neiman Marcus beauty salon to questionable surgery offices and finally to a storefront clinic on the wrong side of Houston. Meanwhile, Robert begins his own journey away from Mother and through the local theater's world of miscast hopefuls and thwarted ambitions---and into a romance that surprises absolutely no one but himself. Written with a warmth and a wicked sense of fun that lighten even the most awful circumstances, The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy is a sparkling debut.
Memoirs of a Born Free: Reflections on the New South Africa by a Member of the Post-apartheid Generation
by Malaika Wa Azania Simphiwe DanaApartheid isn't over—so Malaika Wa Azania boldly argues in Memoirs of a Born Free, her account of growing up black in modern-day South Africa. Malaika was born in late 1991, as the white minority government was on its way out, making her a "Born Free"—the name given to the generation born after the end of apartheid. But Malaika's experience with institutionalized racism offers a view of South Africa that contradicts the implied racial liberation of the so-called Rainbow Nation. Recounting her upbringing in a black township racked by poverty and disease, the death of a beloved uncle at the hands of white police, and her alienation at multiracial schools, she evokes a country still held in thrall by de facto apartheid. She takes us through her anger and disillusionment with the myth of black liberation to the birth and development of her dedication to the black consciousness movement, which continues to be a guiding force in her life. A trenchant, audacious, and ultimately hopeful narrative, Memoirs of a Born Free introduces an important new voice in South African—and, indeed, global—activism.
Memoirs of a Buccaneer: Dampier's New Voyage Round the World, 1697
by William DampierIt was William Dampier's passion to see the world that turned him into a buccaneer. He possessed remarkable powers of observation and analysis, and his life as a seventeenth-century navigator aboard pirate and privateering ships is brilliantly detailed in his journal. Throughout his travels of Central and South America and the East Indies, Dampier provides riveting accounts of sea battles against Spanish treasure ships, as well as pirate life, lore, and customs. Originally published in 1697 as the New Voyage, his journal became an instant success, and has been read ever since as one of the greatest travel and adventure accounts ever written.But Memoirs of a Buccaneer is far more than historical adventure. Dampier was a man of intelligence and education with a strong naturalist's urge, and his book quickly became a vital source of information on the geology, biology, zoology, and peoples of the lands he visited. His descriptions of the West Indian manatee, booby birds, cacao, and mangrove trees--flora and fauna never before heard of in England and the Continent--are incredibly accurate. His notes on the produce of Guam and Mindanao--coconuts, vanilla beans, bananas, breadfruit, and more--exerted a powerful influence on Britain's explorations and colonizations. And his depictions of Central America's Mosquito Indians and the natives of Mindanao proved to be highly reliable.The influence of this classic book on the work of later travelers is incalculable, leading writers such as Defoe, Swift, and Coleridge to borrow both facts and literary style from it. It continues to inspire readers today.
Memoirs of a Dance Hall Romeo: A Novel
by Jack HigginsA New York Times–bestselling author delivers a different kind of thriller—in which the artist as a young man is unleashed upon the world. It&’s 1949, and young Oliver Shaw has just been demobilized out of the British army. After two lonely years of battling little more than paperwork and boredom, he&’s ready to start living. But first he has to figure out just what that means. So begins the uniquely comic adventure of a boy who yearns to be a man—in every way possible. While trying to find success as a writer, Oliver gamely tries to teach in a broken-down slum school during the day, and at night desperately tries to learn as much as possible about wine, women, and . . . more women—with results that will forever change him for both the better and the slightly worse. Warm, funny, and brimming with mischief, Memoirs of a Dance Hall Romeo is a coming-of-age tale by one of modern fiction&’s greatest storytellers. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Jack Higgins including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author&’s personal collection.
Memoirs of a Dance Hall Romeo: A Novel
by Jack HigginsA New York Times–bestselling author delivers a different kind of thriller—in which the artist as a young man is unleashed upon the world. It&’s 1949, and young Oliver Shaw has just been demobilized out of the British army. After two lonely years of battling little more than paperwork and boredom, he&’s ready to start living. But first he has to figure out just what that means. So begins the uniquely comic adventure of a boy who yearns to be a man—in every way possible. While trying to find success as a writer, Oliver gamely tries to teach in a broken-down slum school during the day, and at night desperately tries to learn as much as possible about wine, women, and . . . more women—with results that will forever change him for both the better and the slightly worse. Warm, funny, and brimming with mischief, Memoirs of a Dance Hall Romeo is a coming-of-age tale by one of modern fiction&’s greatest storytellers. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Jack Higgins including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author&’s personal collection.
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
by Simone De Beauvoir James KirkupSimone de Beauvoir, Parisian pioneer in existentialist philosophy, tells all in the first of a four-part autobiography, "Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter".
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (Perennial Classics)
by Simone de Beauvoir“A book that will leave no one indifferent, and no one affected in quite the same way.” —New York TimesA superb autobiography by one of the great literary figures of the twentieth centurySimone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter offers an intimate picture of growing up in a bourgeois French family, rebelling as an adolescent against the conventional expectations of her class, and striking out on her own with an intellectual and existential ambition exceedingly rare in a young woman in the 1920s.Beauvoir vividly evokes her friendships, love interests, mentors, and the early days of the most important relationship of her life, with fellow student Jean-Paul Sartre, against the backdrop of a turbulent political time.
Memoirs of a Fortunate Jew: An Italian Story
by Dan Vittorio Segre“I was probably less than five years old when my father fired a shot at my head.” From this first line, Dan Vittorio Segre’s memoir moves from one startling turning point to the next. The child of aristocratic parents, Segre fled Fascist Italy and Mussolini’s anti-Semitic laws only to be thrust into the pioneering culture of Palestine, completely unprepared for the dangers of life in Israel during World War II. Beautifully narrated, Memoirs of a Fortunate Jew is an ironic, philosophical meditation on the historical reverberations of the twentieth century.
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man (Memoirs of George Sherston #1)
by Siegfried SassoonThis autobiographical novel of the eminent English poet, Siegfried Sassoon was first published in 1927. Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man is a fond reminiscence of boyhood and adolescence set against the background of the author’s rural English home. Full of the scent of leather and the huntsman cries on a frosty autumn morning, the scene is set as the world moves slowly towards war.Sassoon’s fluid, sensitive prose, the fine perceptions of the poet is spoken here in the voice of the average man, complete with charm and humor and quiet understatement.A thoroughly enjoyable and memorable read!
Memoirs of a Grandmother
by Pauline Wengeroff Shulamit MagnusPauline Wengeroff, the only nineteenth-century Russian Jewish woman to publish a memoir, sets out to illuminate the "cultural history of the Jews of Russia" in the period of Jewish "enlightenment," when traditional culture began to disintegrate and Jews became modern. Wengeroff, a gifted writer and astute social observer, paints a rich portrait of both traditional and modernizing Jewish societies in an extraordinary way, focusing on women and the family and offering a gendered account (and indictment) of assimilation. In Volume 1 of Memoirs of a Grandmother, Wengeroff depicts traditional Jewish society, including the religious culture of women, during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I, who wished "his" Jews to be acculturated to modern Russian life.
Memoirs of a Grandmother: Scenes from the Cultural History of the Jews of Russia in the Nineteenth Century (Volume #1)
by Pauline Wengeroff Shulamit S. MagnusIn Volume 1 of Memoirs of a Grandmother, Wengeroff depicts traditional Jewish society, including the religious culture of women, during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I, who wished "his" Jews to be acculturated to modern Russian life. Translated by Shulamit S. Magnus.
Memoirs of a Grandmother: Scenes from the Cultural History of the Jews of Russia in the Nineteenth Century, Volume Two
by Pauline Wengeroff translated by Shulamit S. MagnusPauline Wengeroff's Memoirs of a Grandmother offers a unique first-person window into traditionalism, modernity, and the tensions linking the two in nineteenth-century Russia. Wengeroff (1833– 1916), a perceptive, highly literate social observer, tells a gripping tale of cultural transformation, situating her narrative in the experience of women and families. In Volume Two, Wengeroff claims that Jewish women were capable and desirous of adopting the best of European modernity but were also wedded to tradition, while Jewish men recklessly abandoned tradition and forced their wives to do the same. The result was not only marital and intergenerational conflict but also catastrophic cultural loss, with women's inability to transmit tradition in the home leading to larger cultural drift. Two of Wengeroff's children converted when faced with anti-Jewish educational and professional discrimination, unwilling to sacrifice secular ambitions and visions for the sake of a traditional culture they did not know. Memoirs is a tale of loss but also of significant hope, which Wengeroff situates not in her children but in a new generation of Jewish youth reclaiming Jewish memory. To them, she addresses her Memoirs, giving an "orphaned youth"— orphaned of their past and culture— a "grandmother."
Memoirs of a Happy Failure
by Alice HildebrandAlice von Hildebrand is a household name to many who know her from her countless EWTN appearances, her books, and her extensive articles and essays. What is little known is the story of her life, notably the thirty-seven years she spent at Hunter College in New York City. <p><p> There, despite systematic opposition she left a mark on a generation of students through her defense of truth with reason, wit, and love. By showing her students how truth fulfills the deepest longings of the heart, she liberated countless students from the oppressive relativism of the day, enabling many of them to find their way to God. <p> Memoirs of a Happy Failure is a fascinating and essential glimpse into the life of one of contemporary Catholicism’s most compelling minds. It is the story of courage, faith, and the grace of God acting in the world.
Memoirs of a Hopeful Pessimist: A Life of Activism through Dialogue
by Debbie WeissmanFor many people, "observant Jew," "feminist," and "interfaith pioneer" are not necessarily words they would put together in the same sentence. And yet, in this book by Dr. Debbie Weissman, each is a vitally important aspect of a dynamic and passionate life. Between 2008 and 2014, Weissman broke new ground by serving two terms as the first Jewish woman president of the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ). On her quest to do interfaith work, she tells about meeting people from other religions and the unique friendships that ensue. Weissman does not have a ringside seat to history; she is in the ring itself, having created institutions and movements in areas such as interfaith relations, women's education, Israeli peace initiatives, a new prayer community, and much more. Her engaging journey - related with humor, grace, and style - discovers meaning and hope in the life of a pessimist.
Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist: The Story of a Transformation
by Yossi Klein HaleviThe poignant and insightful memoir from Yossi Klein Halevi, the award-winning journalist and author of the acclaimed Like Dreamers—a coming-of-age story about a traumatic family history, radical politics, and spiritual transformation that speaks to a new generation struggling to understand what it means to be Jewish in America.The child of a Holocaust survivor, Yossi Klein Halevi grew up in 1960s Brooklyn perceiving reality through the lens of his family’s brutal past. Increasingly identifying with their history of suffering, he regarded the non-Jewish world with fear and loathing. Determined to take action—and seek retribution—he became a disciple of the late rabbi Meir Kahane and a member of the radical fringe of the American Jewish community.In this wry and moving account, Halevi explores the deep-rooted anger of his adolescence and early adulthood that fueled his increasingly aggressive activism. He reveals how he started to question his beliefs—and his self-inflicted suffering as a hostage of history—and see the world from his own clear perspective.As a journalist and author, Halevi has dedicated himself to fostering interfaith reconciliation. Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist explains how such a transformation can happen—giving hope that peaceful coexistence between faiths is possible.
Memoirs of a Lawman
by Cyrus Wells Shores Wilson RockwellGunneson City Sheriff “Doc” Cyrus Wells Shores (1844-1934)—nicknamed after the doctor who delivered him in Hicksville, Detroit in 1844—became well-known as a Colorado lawman for bringing down local criminals without parading his authority or a display of guns.Born in the village of Hicksville, about thirty miles from Detroit, Michigan, “Doc” Shores moved to Montana as a young man via a steamer and paid passage by hunting game along the route. Prospecting and hunting in Montana, he then worked in Wyoming hauling ties for the railroad, and later drove cattle up from Texas.After many experiences with Indians, blizzards, and rustlers in Kansas, Shores took his wife Agnes and settled in Gunnison, Colorado, where he served as the sheriff of Gunnison County when it was still "wild" and became noted as the lawman who captured Alfred Packer, the infamous "Colorado Cannibal."During his lengthy career, “Doc” Shores also served as a deputy U.S. Marshal, a railroad detective, and as chief of police for Salt Lake City, Utah—and he rode with Tom Horn when Horn was still on the right side of the law.First published in 1962 and edited by Wilson Rockwell, Memoirs of a Lawman are “Doc” Shores’ gripping, as previously unpublished memoirs, spanning his life from his early days on the Western frontier, his appointments as Sheriff, and later Federal Marshall.
Memoirs of a Lechuguero
by Lucio PadillaThe autobiography depicts the life of a Mexican migrant farm worker who overcomes his disadvantages to be the first college graduate in his family. The veteran lettuce harvester suffers a crippling, job related injury that leaves him unable to work. During the painful recovery, he goes through a series of flashbacks of key events leading to the injury. Inspired by a blind man and a former teacher, he finds the turning point of his life. <P><P>Lucio Padilla came to the United States at age nine with his family to work the fields of central and southern California. As a teenager he endured the hardships and abuses that farm workers experience. He dropped out of school at age fifteen to become a lechuguero (lettuce harvester). He married at age sixteen with his sweetheart Maria Elena. Together they faced their disadvantages to raise a family and give them better opportunities. The story portrays the farm worker's way of life; it illustrates the harsh living conditions and the enslaving routines. Particular phrases in Spanish are used to illustrate the language, culture, and values of the farm worker's families.
Memoirs of a Militant: My Years in the Khiam Women's Prison
by Nawal Qasim BaidounA first person account of a young woman activist imprisoned for four years in the notorious Khiam Women's Prison Shattering the notion that Muslim women did not play an active role in armed resistance and national liberation struggles A unique and rare insight into the life of a woman living in extreme and uncertain conditions Recounting the Israeli invasion and occupation of South Lebanon Brilliantly translated by Michelle Hartman and Caline Nasrallah from McGill University in Montreal An important message about the need to liberate prisoners and the call for solidarity in the face of injustice Shattering the notion that Muslim women did not play an active role in armed resistance national liberation struggles &“In order to carry on with life in prison, you must believe you will be there forever.&” In the haunting and inspiring Memoirs of a Militant: My Years in the Khiam Women&’s Prison Nawal Baidoun offers us her first-person account of the life of a young woman activist imprisoned for four years, as well as the events leading up to her arrest and detention. Born into a nationalist family in Bint Jbeil, Lebanon, not far from the location of the prison itself, Baidoun, like so many others, found herself compelled to take up arms to resist the Israeli occupation. Her memoir skillfully weaves together two stories: that of the oppressive conditions facing ordinary people and families in South Lebanon, and that of the horrors of daily life and the struggle for survival inside the prison itself. Arrested for her role in planning the assassination of the well-known Israeli agent and collaborator, Husayn Abdel Nabi, Baidoun was at one point detained with Soha Bechara, a fellow militant whose similar operation is better known. Her activism rooted in her Islamic faith, Baidoun shatters the notion that Muslim women did not play an active role in the armed resistance. Much like her sisters in Algeria and Palestine, Nawal Baidoun belongs to a generation of Muslim women in the Arab world who played a significant role in their national liberation struggles. She describes the intense mental and physical torture she endured, and her refusal to confess despite this. Memoirs of a Militant offers us rare and unique insight into the strength and courage of Baidoun in extreme circumstances and conditions. Nawal Baidoun herself has said that she wrote this book as a sort of history lesson for the generations who come after her, to show the ways in which women actively took part in the resistance and struggle against the occupation. Her strongly abolitionist message about prisons and the need to liberate all prisoners and detainees resonates strongly today, as does her call for solidarity in the face of injustice.
Memoirs of a Monster Hunter: A Five-Year Journey in Search of the Unknown
by Nick RedfernThe British paranormal investigator recounts his five-year journey through America in pursuit of the monstrous unknown in this memoir.For centuries, people across the world have had a fascination with monsters and strange creatures. They marvel at the tales and legends of the Bigfoot of the Pacific Northwest; of the Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas; of the infamous and diabolical Moth-Man of West Virginia; of fire-breathing dragons; and of those dark denizens of the deep: lake monsters and sea serpents. But do such creatures really exist? Can it be true that our planet is home to fantastic beasts that lurk deep within its forests and waters? Memoirs of a Monster Hunter proves the answer is a resounding yes!In this follow-up to his wildly successful Three Men Chasing Monsters, paranormal investigator and author Nick Redfern chronicles his surreal road-trip through the United States and beyond in search of all-things monstrous. His strange adventures lasted five years and saw him doggedly pursuing a menagerie of creatures, including gargoyles, giant birds, and what some believe are living dinosaurs. Follow Redfern as he:Explores the El Yunque rainforest of Puerto Rico in search of the terrifying Chupacabras: a razor-clawed, glowing-eyed beast that is part giant bat and part vampireSeeks out the Goat Man: a menacing creature that evokes imagery of both demons and the fabled cloven-hoofed Centaurs of ancient mythology, and is said to inhabit the forests of East TexasChases after what many people believe are real-life, flesh-and-blood werewolves that surface from hidden lairs and prowl the countryside when the Moon is fullPart X-Files, part Crocodile Hunter with a mix of Jurassic Park and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Memoirs of a Monster Hunter takes you on a roller-coaster ride into the unknown. Read personal accounts of the monsters that inhabit your wildest imagination and your worst nightmares. The creatures you were told couldn’t possibly exist, really do.Praise for Memoirs of a Monster Hunter“This is one of the best books I’ve read in years. Redfern sweeps you away on his personal adventure. Around the world, from romance, to ghastly beasts, to the cosmos, Redfern has candidly shared the wonders of his young life.” —Joshua P. Warren, author of Pet Ghosts and How to Hunt Ghosts
Memoirs of a Not Altogether Shy Pornographer: Selected and Introduced by Jonathan Lethem
by Jonathan Lethem Bernard WolfeIn this funny and telling portrait of the artist as a young pornographer, Bernard Wolfe chronicles his own unlikely entrance into the world of letters. The year was 1936, and Depression laden America had no great need for a Yale Phi Bete whose primary talent was for words. After working variously as a secretary-bodyguard for Leon Trotsky in Mexico, a cataloger of the Irving Fisher papers, and a hopelessly inept drill-grinder, Wolfe landed his first professional writing job: turning out piecework porn at $2.00 a page for an Oklahoma millionaire. He credited his pornographic efforts with teaching him to write to specified lengths while facing deadlines: "I acquired the work discipline of a professional writer, capable of a solid daily output."
Memoirs of a Polar Bear
by Yoko Tawada Susan BernofskyThe Memoirs of a Polar Bear stars three generations of talented writers and performers--who happen to be polar bears The Memoirs of a Polar Bear stars three generations of talented writers and performers--who happen to be polar bears The Memoirs of a Polar Bear has in spades what Rivka Galchen hailed in the New Yorker as "Yoko Tawada's magnificent strangeness"--Tawada is an author like no other. Three generations (grandmother, mother, son) of polar bears are famous as both circus performers and writers in East Germany: they are polar bears who move in human society, stars of the ring and of the literary world. In chapter one, the grandmother matriarch in the Soviet Union accidentally writes a bestselling autobiography. In chapter two, Tosca, her daughter (born in Canada, where her mother had emigrated) moves to the DDR and takes a job in the circus. Her son--the last of their line--is Knut, born in chapter three in a Leipzig zoo but raised by a human keeper in relatively happy circumstances in the Berlin zoo, until his keeper, Matthias, is taken away... Happy or sad, each bear writes a story, enjoying both celebrity and "the intimacy of being alone with my pen."
Memoirs of a Red Cross Doctor: Better to Light a Candle
by Frank Ryding“A doctor who worked for the Red Cross in war zones and disaster hit areas across the world has given a rare insight into his thirty-five-year career saving lives.” —Daily MailSynonymous with conflict and humanitarian aid, the mandate of the International Red Cross (ICRC) is to protect the wounded victims of war, civilians, prisoners and refugees alike.In Memoirs of a Red Cross Doctor, Frank Ryding recounts the missions he undertook with the Red Cross during a career spanning thirty-five years. Having worked as a doctor in many of the worlds war zones and natural disasters from the “killing field” era of Cambodia, to Afghanistan, Chechnya, Somalia, Pakistan and Sudan his is an account of observation and also personal experience, contrasting the serious, the terrifying, the heart-rending and the heartwarming.It is also the story of the victims who suffer the consequences of war and disaster. It shows both their courage and that of the aid agencies sent to help them. As Frank recalls from some Somali graffiti: “It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.”“The memoirs are an eye-opening insight into the work of the Red Cross in the war-torn places of the world. The memoirs give a good account of the patience and dedication of the staff from all over the world of the ICRC. They also show humanity at its best—selflessly tidying up the mess that others have created!” —Countypost
Memoirs of a Revolutionary
by Victor Serge Peter Sedgwick George PaizisAutobiography of Victor Serge, one of the great men of the twentieth century, anarchist, revolutionary, agitator, theoretician, historian of his times, and a fearless truth-teller. He was also a great writer, the author of dazzling works of fiction, including the novel The Case of Comrade Tulayev, perhaps the finest book to emerge from the crucible of Stalinist terror, and of these no less extraordinary memoirs. Here Serge describes his upbringing in Belgium, the child of a family of exiled Russian revolutionary intellectuals, his early life as an activist, his time in a French prison, the active role he played in the Russian Revolution, as well his growing dismay at the Revolutionary regime's ever more repressive and murderous character. Expelled from the Soviet Union, Serge went to Paris, and barely escaped the Nazis to find a final refuge in Mexico. Memoirs of a Revolutionary describes a thrilling life on the frontlines of history and includes brilliant portraits of politicians from Trotsky and Lenin and Stalin and of major writers like Alexander Blok and Andrey Bely. Above all, it captures the sensibility of Serge himself, that of a courageous and singularly appealing advocate of human liberation who remained undaunted in the most trying of times. Peter Sedgwick's fine translation of Serge's Memoirs of a Revolutionary was cut by a fifth when it was first published in 1963. This new edition is the first in English to present the entirety of Serge's book.
Memoirs of a Revolutionist
by Vera Figner Richard StitesBorn into the comforts of the Russian aristocracy in 1852, Vera Figner as a child harbored the fairy-tale dream of one day becoming tsarina. By the age of thirty-two, however, Figner had become one of Russia's most vocal revolutionaries, a terrorist and member of the Executive Committee of the People's Will party, and a prisoner sentenced for life for her involvement in the assassination of Alexander II. In this classic memoir, Figner recounts her journey from aristocrat to revolutionary, candidly relating the experiences that shaped her ideas and provoked her to political action and violence. As she reflects on her own lifelong commitment to improving the lives of ordinary Russians, she reveals much about the concept, structure, and leadership behind the radical movement in late nineteenth-century Russia. In his incisive introduction to this edition, Richard Stites discusses the importance of the memoir as a personal testimony and provides background for understanding a courageous woman's role in the struggle for political change.
Memoirs of a Rifleman Scout
by F. M. CrumFrederick Maurice Crum (18791952) fought in the Second Boer War (18991902) in the Mounted Infantry, where he was wounded and taken prisoner. After peacetime service in India he retired due to the effects of his injuries, and became involved in the Boy Scout movement, founding the 7th Troop of Boy Scouts at Stirling in Scotland in 1909. On the outbreak of war in 1914 he rejoined the Rifle Corps and served with its 8th Battalion in France until 1919, specialising in trench sniping.Made up from his extensive diaries and letters to family and friends at the time, this book details the development of sniping in the British Army in the First World War. It was through the work of expert marksmen and trainers like Major Crum that the initial dominance of the Germans in this type of fighting was eventually overcome. These memoirs provide a unique insight into the life of a British Army officer before and during the First World War. Major Crum's involvement in the Boy Scout movement is also a fascinating account of that organisation's origins, showing what the true motives behind its foundation were.With a new Foreword by sniping expert Adrian Gilbert, this is not only a first-rate memoir of sniping in the trenches, but also of a long, outstanding life of bravery