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Free At Last: Diaries 1991 - 2001
By Tony Benn. 2002
Tony Benn is the longest serving MP in the history of the Labour Party. He left Parliament in 2001, after…
more than half a century in the House of Commons, to devote more time to politics. This volume of his Diaries describes and comments, in a refreshing and honest way, upon the events of a momentous decade including two world wars, a change of government in Britain and the emergence of New Labour, of which he makes clear he is not a member. Tony Benn's account is a well documented, formidable and principled critique of the New Labour Project, full of drama, opinion, humour, anecdotes and sparkling pen-portraits of politicians on both sides of the political divide. But his narrative is also broader and more revealing about day-to-day political life, covering many aspects normally disregarded by historians and lobby correspondents, relating to his work in the constituency, including his advice surgeries. This volume also offers far more of an insight into Tony Benn's personal life, his thoughts about the future and his relationship with his family, especially his remarkable wife Caroline, whose illness and death overshadow these years. Tony Benn is a unique figure on the British political landscape: a true democrat, a passionate socialist and diarist without equal. With this volume, his published Diaries cover British politics for over sixty years. It is edited, as are all others, by Ruth Winstone.Emma and I
By Sheila Hocken. 1977
As a girl, Sheila never let her gradual descent into blindness prevent her from trying to do everything a sighted…
person could do. Then at 17, unable to see to find her way around the house she grew up in, she found herself dreading her future in an 'ever darkening vacuum'.But then the remarkable Emma enters her life, and Sheila begins a journey that brings her the independence, love and happiness she never dreamed possible.Emma and I is the moving and inspirational story of the unique bond between Sheila and her dog, and shows that, sometimes, miracles do happen.Eminent Elizabethans: Rupert Murdoch, Prince Charles, Margaret Thatcher & Mick Jagger
By Piers Brendon. 2012
What links Margaret Thatcher, Rupert Murdoch, Prince Charles and Mick Jagger? Each have illuminated our Elizabethan age in their own,…
inimitable, way.Margaret Thatcher - the first female Prime Minister, who dedicated herself with messianic zeal to breaking the mould of post-war British politicsRupert Murdoch - the billionaire media mogul whose empire, built on an ethical void, has polluted the channels of communication from London to Sydney, from New York to New GuineaPrince Charles - the royal dilettante whose erratic exploits shook the throne and put his own succession to it at riskMick Jagger - lead singer of the Rolling Stones, who embodied the sixties counter-culture of sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll yet aspired to be a gentleman and accepted a knighthood at the behest of Tony Blair.The sequel to Brendon's bestselling Eminent Edwardians, Eminent Elizabethans is written in the same witty, ironic and irreverent style and reveals how each one played out a major theme in the new Elizabethan medley. Each portrait vividly and vitally captured through pungent anecdote, piquant quotation and mordant commentary. In short, these brilliant miniatures are as entertaining as they are illuminating.'Excellent' Guardian'Entirely refreshing' Daily Mail'A delight' Daily ExpressFlesh and Blood: The Harrowing and Moving Story of a Mother's Fight to Bear Her Late Husband's Children
By Diane Blood Author. 2004
Diane Blood first hit the headlines in 1996 when she went to court to fight for the right to use…
her late husband's sperm to try for the child they had planned together before his sudden death from meningitis. Diane's case caused an ethical storm and was debated in the courts, in Parliament and in the media. With huge public support, yet against almost impossible odds, she won on appeal and went on to have two miraculous little boys. The legal battles were not over, however, as the law still prevented Diane from naming the boys' father on their birth certificates. After many hurdles and stumbling blocks, she triumphed again and made constitutional history when the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Deceased Fathers) Act finally came into force on 1 December 2003 and she was allowed to re-register her children's births. Flesh and Blood asks many important questions and helps provide some of the answers. It shows how controversial policies are made that affect all our lives. Beyond that, it is a simple story of life, death and procreation: an incredibly vivid account written by the woman who lived through the despair and jubilation.Elizabeth: The Scandalous Life of an 18th Century Duchess
By Claire Gervat. 2003
Elizabeth Chudleigh was one of the eighteenth century's most colourful characters. Born into impoverished gentility, her beauty, wit and vitality…
soon earned her a place at the centre of court life. When she married the Duke of Kingston in 1769 she had reached the highest rung of the social ladder. But Elizabeth was carrying a dark secret. In 1744 she had secretly married a naval lieutenant called Augustus Hervey, and after the Duke's death her first marriage was discovered. Bigamy fever swept London society and, in a very public trial, Elizabeth was found guilty. But her strength of character ensured that, even when her friends deserted her, her courage and zest for life did not. In an engaging history of this strong and wilful woman, Gervat shows there was far more to Elizabeth than the caricature villain her contemporaries made her out to be.Escape: Our journey home through war-torn Germany
By Barbie Probert-Wright. 2006
Two sisters.One extraordinary true story.Germany, 1945. Trapped between advancing armies, stranded hundreds of miles from their mother, and with their…
father missing in action, sisters Barbie and Eva were confronted with an impossible choice.Should they stay and face invasion or risk their lives to find their mother?Together, they set out on a perilous three-hundred mile journey on foot across a country ravaged by war. Fuelled by courage and love, Eva and seven-year-old Barbie encounter incredible hardship, extraordinary bravery, and overwhelming generosity.Against all odds, they both survived.But neither sister came out of the journey unscathed . . .This is the powerful true story of their escape.(Previously published as Little Girl Lost)Fighting Mac: The Downfall of Major-General Sir Hector Macdonald
By Trevor Royle. 1982
On a spring morning in 1903, Major-General Sir Hector Macdonald, one of Britain's greatest military heroes, took his life in…
a hotel room in Paris. A few days later he was buried hastily in an Edinburgh cemetary as his fellow countrymen tried to come to terms with the fact that one of Scotland's most famous soldiers had ended his life rather than face charges against his character.The suicide and its aftermath created a national scandal and one which still reverberates long after those dramatic events - it is now clear that the official files dealing with his case, the papers of the Judge Advocate have been destroyed. Macdonald or 'Fighting Mac' as he was known to an adoring public, was no ordinary soldier. A crofter's son who had risen from the ranks in the Victorian army, he covered himself with glory during a long and successful military career and in 1898 was widely acknowledged as the true hero of the Battle of Omdurman, which cemented British Imperial rule in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Everything lay at his feet - a knighthood, honours, the respect of fellow generals such as Roberts and Kitchener - but Macdonald's career came to a shocking full stop when he stood accused of homosexuality and was ordered to face a court martial. Unable to come to terms with the disgrace, he committed suicide. That should have been the end of his story but so powerful was the myth created by Fighting Mac that people refused to believe he was dead. Soon rumours were circulating that Macdonald had faked his death and had adopted the persona of a prominent Prussian officer, the future Field Marshal August con Mackensen, one of Germany's great leaders during the First World War. FIGHTING MAC tells the true story behind his disgrace and sheds new light on the myths....Fifty Years Fighting: Another Step In Time
By Jan De Vries. 2004
Fifty Years Fighting is the sequel to Jan de Vries's popular first autobiographical volume, A Step At A Time, which…
prompted readers to ask for more information about the life of the legendary alternative medicine guru.In Fifty Years Fighting, de Vries focuses on his lengthy struggle for the recognition of alternative medicine. He details how he was threatened with imprisonment by the Inspectorate of Health early in his career and reveals how the same organisation is now promoting this form of medicine today to the extent that, in his home country of Holland, a great majority of doctors have adopted alternative medicine in the way that he envisioned and campaigned for many years before. In the second part of his autobiographical trilogy, de Vries also describes some of the methods of alternative medicine he has used down the years and the remarkable results he has obtained while administering these treatments. Fifty Years Fighting is packed with intriguing case histories from Jan's vast experience of practising homoeopathy. Some are very surprising, while others give helpful tips for the reader. Invaluable advice is offered as to what patients can do to help themselves in certain circumstances and on how to obtain physical, mental - and most importantly - spiritual health in life.Fierce
By Kelly Osbourne. 2009
This no-holds-barred account of Kelly Obsourne's upbringing is as shocking as it is disarmingly funny. From stories about her father's…
alcoholism to pushing over portaloos on tour, Kelly unflinchingly deals with the extraordinary experiences that have made up her life so far:'Kelly Osbourne has written Fierce, a handbook for teenage girls/memoir of adolescence lived under very bright lights. After reading it, and her anecdotes about her mum's early experiments with home waxing, and her dad snipping off her thong, and Amy Winehouse complimenting her on her tits, and the confidence that comes with Vicodin, as well as the fact boxes with advice about bullying and hair straighteners, I like her very much.' Eva Wiseman, ObserverThe Ferris Conspiracy
By Paul Ferris, Reg McKay. 2001
On Glasgow's meanest streets life started well for the young Paul Ferris. How did he become Glasgow's most feared gangster,…
deemed a risk to national security?Arthur Thompson, Godfather of the crime world and senior partner of the Krays, recruited young Ferris as a bagman, debt collector and equaliser. Feared for his capacity for extreme violence, respected for his intelligence, Ferris was the Godfather's heir apparent. But when gang warfare broke, underworld leaders traded in flesh, colluding with their partners - the police. Disgusted, Ferris left the Godfather and stood alone. They gave him weeks to live.While Ferris was caged in Barlinnie Prison's segregation unit accused of murdering Thompson's son, Fatboy, his two friends were shot dead the night before the funeral and grotesquely displayed in a car on the cortége's route. Acquitted against all the odds, Ferris moved on, determined to make an honest living.They would not let him.The National Crime Squad, MI5, the police and two of the country's most powerful gangsters saw to that. A maximum-security prisoner, Ferris is known as 'Lucky' because he is still alive.This is one man's unique insight into Britain's crime world and the inextricable web of corruption - a revealing story of official corruption and unholy alliances.First Confession: A Sort of Memoir
By Chris Patten. 1997
Chris Patten was a cradle Catholic (hence First Confession), became on the most prominent Tory 'Wets' of the 1980s and…
1990s, and went on to hold a series of prominent public offices - Chairman of the Conservative Party, the last Governor of Hong Kong, European Commissioner for External Affairs, Chancellor of Oxford University, Chairman of the BBC, advisor to the Pope - as he self-deprecatingly puts it 'a Grand Poo-bah, the Lord High Everything Else'. He writes with wry humour about his time in all these offices, taking us behind the scenes and showing us unexpected sides of many of the great figures of the day. No political writer is so purely enjoyable as Chris Patten.An Englishman at War: The Wartime Diaries of Stanley Christopherson DSO MC & Bar 1939-1945
By Stanley Christopherson. 2014
‘An astonishing record...There is no other wartime diary that can match the scope of these diaries’ James Holland‘An outstanding contribution…
to the literature of the Second World War’Professor Gary SheffieldFrom the outbreak of war in September 1939 to the smouldering ruins of Berlin in 1945, via Tobruk, El Alamein, D-Day and the crossing of the Rhine, An Englishman at War is a unique first-person account of the Second World War. Stanley Christopherson’s regiment, the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, went to war as amateurs and ended up one of the most experienced, highly trained and most valued armoured units in the British Army. A junior officer at the beginning of the war, Christopherson became the commanding officer of the regiment soon after the D-Day landings. What he and his regiment witnessed presents a unique overview of one of the most cataclysmic events in world history and gives an extraordinary insight, through tragedy and triumph, into what it felt like to be part of the push for victory.First Catch Your Husband: Adventures on the Dating Front Line
By Sarah Bridge. 2012
Sarah Bridge is smart, successful . . . and single. As a newspaper journalist, she has a hectic day job,…
a busy social life and is perfectly happy with both. But something – or someone – is missing. Embarking on a quest to find her soulmate, she tries everything: from speed-dating and wine-tasting to Scottish dancing and singles holidays, island-hopping and army assault courses to self-help books and fortune-telling. Whether climbing mountains in Morocco or swimming at midnight in the Caribbean, Sarah is on a mission to meet Mr Right. But will anything actually work? And how will she feel after putting herself, and her heart, out there? First Catch Your Husband is an entertaining, touching and thought-provoking account of life on the front line of dating. It’s an inspiring tale for anyone who’s ever been, or wanted to be, in love.English Humour for Beginners
By George Mikes. 1980
'To write a book is hard; to write a funny book is harder; to write a funny book both wise…
and funny is the prerogative of Mr. Mikes' The Times_________________________If you want to succeed here you must be able to handle the English sense of humour.So proclaims George Mikes' timeless exploration of this curious phenomenon. Whether it's understatement, self-deprecation or plain cruelty, the three elements he identifies as essential to our sense of humour, being witty here is a way of life.Perfectly placed as an adopted Englishman himself, Mikes delivers his shrewd advice - helpfully divided into 'Theory' and 'Practice' - with a comic precision that does his chosen country proud. Drawing on a trove of examples from our rich comic canon, from Orwell ("Every joke is a tiny revolution") to Oscar Wilde, this is the essential handbook for natives and foreigners alike.Mrs Kennedy: "I don't think, Mr Churchill, that I have told you anything about my grandchildren."Winston Churchill: "For which, madam, I am infinitely grateful."The Enemy Within: A Tale of Muslim Britain
By Sayeeda Warsi. 2017
'Hard headed, well informed and intellectually coherent ... it turns conventional wisdom on its head. It deserves to promote a…
public debate on this subject which has been needed for more than 20 years' Peter OborneBritain has often found groups within its borders whom it does not trust, whom it feels have a belief, culture, practice or agenda which runs contrary to those of the majority. From Catholics to Jews, miners to trade unionists , Marxists to liberals and even homosexuals, all have at times been viewed, described and treated as 'the enemy within'. Muslims are the latest in a long line of 'others' to be given this label. How did this state of affairs come to pass? What are the lessons and challenges for the future - and how will the tale of Muslim Britain develop? Sayeeda Warsi draws on her own unique position in British life, as the child of Pakistani immigrants, an outsider, who became an insider, the UK's first Muslim Cabinet minister, to explore questions of cultural difference, terrorism, surveillance, social justice, religious freedom, integration and the meaning of 'British values'.Uncompromising and outspoken, filled with arguments, real-life experience, necessary truths and possible ways forward for Muslims, politicians and the rest of us, this is a timely and urgent book.'This thoughtful and passionate book offers hope amid the gloom' David Anderson QC, Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation'A vital book at a critical time' Helena Kennedy QCEden: The Life and Times of Anthony Eden First Earl of Avon, 1897-1977
By D R Thorpe. 1966
Anthony Eden, who served as both Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister, was one of the central political figures of the…
twentieth century. He had good looks, charm, a Military Cross from the Great War, an Oxford first and a secure parliamentary constituency from his mid-twenties. He was Foreign Secretary at the age of 38, and the first British statesman to meet Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. Eden's dramatic resignation from Neville Chamberlain's Cabinet in 1938, outlined here in the fullest detail yet, made an international impact.This ground-breaking book examines his controversial life and tells the inside story of the Munich crisis (1938), the Geneva Conference (1954), Eden's battles with Churchill over the modernisation of the post-war Conservative Party and his rivalry with Butler and Macmillan in the early 1950s, culminating in a fascinating analysis of the Suez crisis.WINNER of the Polari First Book Prize 2021WINNER of the LAMBDA 2021 Literary Award for Best Gay Memoir/BiographyA Dutiful Boy…
is Mohsin's personal journey from denial to acceptance: a revelatory memoir about the power of love, belonging, and living every part of your identity.Growing up in a devout Muslim household, it felt impossible for Mohsin to be gay. Unable to be open with his family, and with difficult conditions at school, he felt his opportunities closing around him. Despite the odds, Mohsin's perseverance led him to become the first person from his school to attend Oxford University, where new experiences and encounters helped him to discover who he truly wanted to be. Mohsin was confronted with the biggest decision he would ever make: to live the life that was expected of him or to live as his authentic self.A Guardian, GQ, and New Statesman Book of the Year'Genuinely inspiring... Beautifully written, dignified and ultimately redemptive, this challenging story abounds with light and love' Attitude | 'An Incredibly important read' Jyoti PatelDunblane: Never Forget
By Dr Mick North. 1997
Mick North's daughter Sophie was one of the children killed in the massacre at Dunblane Primary School. Dunblane: Never Forget…
is a personal account of Mick's life before and after the massacre and includes a critical assessement of the events that led to the tragedy and those that have followed. He begins by recalling his arrival in Stirling and how he and Barbara moved to Dunblane while awaiting the birth of their only child. A few months later Barbara was diagnosed with cancer and the family had to deal with her terminal illness. After the death of Barbara, father and daughter became an inseparable team until that dreadful day in 1996. North writes about how he and the other families dealt with public sympathy, the anti-handgun campaign, the memorial service, the television programmes, newspaper interviews and the creation of the Dunblane Memorial Garden. He describes how it felt to attend a public inquiry into the murder of his child, criticises the local police force and details the ambivalent attitude of the Dunblane community.Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One is
By Friedrich Nietzsche. 1979
In late 1888, only weeks before his final collapse into madness, Nietzsche (1844-1900) set out to compose his autobiography, and…
Ecce Homo remains one of the most intriguing yet bizarre examples of the genre ever written. In this extraordinary work Nietzsche traces his life, work and development as a philosopher, examines the heroes he has identified with, struggled against and then overcome - Schopenhauer, Wagner, Socrates, Christ - and predicts the cataclysmic impact of his 'forthcoming revelation of all values'. Both self-celebrating and self-mocking, penetrating and strange, Ecce Homo gives the final, definitive expression to Nietzsche's main beliefs and is in every way his last testament.Dr Johnson's Women
By Norma Clarke. 2001
Dr Johnson's friendships with the leading women writers of the day was an important feature of his life and theirs.…
He was willing to treat women as intellectual equals and to promote their careers: something ignored by his main biographer, James Boswell. Dr Johnson's Women investigates the lives and writings of six leading female authors Johnson knew well: Elizabeth Carter, Charlotte Lennox, Elizabeth Montagu, Hester Thrale, Hannah More and Fanny Burney. It explores their relationships with Johnson, with each other and with the world of letters. It shows what it was like to be a woman writer in the 'Age of Johnson'. It is often assumed that women writers in the eighteenth century suffered the same restrictions and obstacles that confronted their Victorian successors. Norma Clarke shows that this was by no means the case. Highlighting the opportunities available to women of talent in the eighteenth century, Dr Johnson's Women makes clear just how impressive and varied their achievements were.