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Showing 261 - 280 of 729 items
By Garry O'Connor. 2019
'[A] fascinating voyage round McKellen' Simon Callow, Guardian'Surely the definitive McKellen biography' Alexander Larman, Observer'A well-researched, eminently readable book' Benedict…
Nightingale, The TimesFew actors achieve in their lifetime what Sir Ian McKellen has. A repertoire of vast commercial success coupled with critically acclaimed and authoritative Shakespearian roles. A man whose achievements inspire both admiration and affection. McKellen has been feted and admired in every country across the globe, and has been knighted by, and received the Companionship of Honour from Queen Elizabeth II. He is an icon of, and ardent campaigner in the cause for LGBT rights.Many of us know of McKellen through his depiction of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. Garry O'Connor's definitive biography reveals the man behind McKellen the actor. The inside story of the person himself: a constantly developing drama and a work in progress. Yet O'Connor pulls no punches: some of his revelations may be controversial to his fans, even explosive, given McKellen's constant ability to shock and surprise. The author directed McKellen in some of his very first roles. This is an unflinching yet deeply intimate and affectionate biography that, like McKellen himself, will stand the test of time as a rounded and complete portrait of one of the most unusual geniuses of our times.By RuPaul. 2018
THE OFFICIAL RUPAUL BOOK WITH A FOREWORD BY JANE FONDA. AS SEEN ON RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE!A timeless collection of philosophies…
from renaissance performer and the world's most famous shape-shifter RuPaul, whose sage outlook has created an unprecedented career for more than thirty-five years. GuRu is packed with more than 80 beautiful photographs that illustrate the concept of building the life you want from the outside in and the inside out.'You're born naked and the rest is drag'As someone who has deconstructed life's hilarious facade, RuPaul has broken 'the fourth wall' to expand on the concept of mind, body, and spirit. This unique perspective has allowed RuPaul to break the shackles of self-imposed limitations, but reader beware, this is a daily practice that requires diligence and touchstones to keep you walking in the sunshine of the spirit. Once you're willing to look beyond the identity that was given to you, a hidden world of possibilities will open its doors.That is RuPaul's secret for success, not only in show business, but in all aspects of life, especially in navigating the emotional landmines that inhibit most sweet, sensitive souls.If you think this book is just about 'doing drag', you are sorely mistaken because for RuPaul, drag is merely a device to deactivate the identity-based ego and allow space for the unlimited.In this inclusive, illustrated history and guide to skin care and beauty, journalist and founder of Very Good Light David Yi…
teaches us that self-care, wellness, and feeling beautiful transcends time, boundaries, and binaries—and that pretty boys can change the world Chanel and Goop might have seemed ahead of the curve when they launched their men&’s beauty and wellness lines, but pharaohs were exfoliating, moisturizing, and masking eons earlier. Thousands of years before Harry Styles strutted down the red carpet with multicolored fingernails, Babylonian army officials had their own personal manicure sets. And BTS might have become an international sensation for their smoky eyes and perfect pouts, but the Korean Hwarang warriors who put on a full face before battle preceded them by centuries. Pretty Boys unearths diverse and surprising beauty icons who have redefined what masculinity and gender expression look like throughout history, to empower us to live and look our truths. Whether you're brand new to beauty, or you already have a ten-step routine, Pretty Boys will inspire and teach you how to find your best self through tutorials, beauty secrets, and advice from the biggest names in the beauty industry, Hollywood, and social media. From Frank Ocean&’s skin-care routine to Clark Gable&’s perfectly styled hair, Rami Malek&’s subtle eyeliner to a face beat to the gods à la Boy George or Kimchi the drag queen, K-Beauty to clean beauty, Pretty Boys will completely change the way we all see gender expression and identity.By Jessamyn Stanley. 2021
Finding self-acceptance both on and off the mat. In Sanskrit, yoga means to &“yoke.&” To yoke mind and body, movement…
and breath, light and dark, the good and the bad. This larger idea of &“yoke&” is what Jessamyn Stanley calls the yoga of the everyday—a yoga that is not just about perfecting your downward dog but about applying the hard lessons learned on the mat to the even harder daily project of living. In a series of deeply honest, funny autobiographical essays, Jessamyn explores everything from imposter syndrome to cannabis to why it&’s a full-time job loving yourself, all through the lens of yoke. She calls out an American yoga complex that prefers debating the merits of cotton versus polyblend leggings rather than owning up to its overwhelming Whiteness. She questions why the Western take on yoga so often misses—or misuses—the tradition&’s spiritual dimension. And reveals what she calls her own &“whole-ass problematic&”: Growing up Baháí, loving astrology, learning to meditate, finding prana in music. And in the end, Jessamyn invites every reader to find the authentic spirit of yoke—linking that good and that bad, that light and that dark.By Abbi Jacobson. 2018
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom the co-creator and co-star of the hit series Broad City, a hilarious and poignant collection…
about love, loss, work, comedy and figuring out who you really are when you thought you already knew.When Abbi Jacobson announced to friends and acquaintances that she planned to drive across the country alone, she was met with lots of questions and opinions: Why wasn't she going with friends? Wouldn't it be incredibly lonely? The North route is better! Was it safe for a woman? The Southern route is the way to go! You should bring mace! And a common one . . . why? But Abbi had always found comfort in solitude, and needed space to step back and hit the reset button. As she spent time in each city and town on her way to Los Angeles, she mulled over the big questions - What do I really want? What is the worst possible scenario in which I could run into my ex? How has the decision to wear my shirts tucked in been pivotal in my adulthood? In this collection of anecdotes, observations and reflections - all told in the sharp, wildly funny and relatable voice that has endeared Abbi to critics and fans alike - readers will feel like they're in the passenger seat on a fun and, ultimately, inspiring journey. With some original illustrations by the author.'Part confession, part call to arms and wholly entertaining' OBSERVER'Her writing style is as kooky and digestible as Bill Bryson's…
. . . A fun-filled, fact-packed, memorable ride' SUNDAY TIMES 'Full of wit and wisdom' RADIO TIMESBetween the Stops is a sort of a memoir, my sort. It's about a bus trip really, because it's my view from the Number 12 bus. From a brief history of lady gangsters at Elephant and Castle to anecdotes about boarding school, this is the long-awaited memoir from one of Britain's best-loved characters. Presenter of QI, former host of The Great British Bake Off, writer, broadcaster, activist and comic on stage, screen and radio for nearly forty years: this is an autobiography with a difference - as only Sandi Toksvig can tell it. A funny and moving trip through memories, musings and the many delights on the number 12 route, Between the Stops is also an inspiration to us all to get off our phones, look up and talk to each other because as Sandi says: 'some of the greatest trips lie on our own doorstep'.By Luna M. Ferguson. 2019
From renowned trans activist, Luna M. Ferguson, comes a work of memoir and critical analysis that embraces an inclusive understanding…
of sex and gender.Me, Myself, They: Life Beyond the Binary chronicles Luna M. Ferguson’s extraordinary story of transformation to become a celebrated non-binary filmmaker, writer, and advocate for trans rights. Beginning with their birth and early childhood of gender creativity, Ferguson recounts the complex and often challenging evolution of their identity, including traumatizing experiences with gender conversion therapy, bullying, depression, sexual assault, and violence. Above all, Ferguson’s story is about survival, empathy, and self-acceptance. By combining personal reflections on what it feels like to never truly fit into prescribed roles of male and female, and using an informed analysis of the ongoing shifts in contemporary attitudes towards sex and gender, Ferguson calls for an inclusive understanding of diverse human identity and respect for trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people. Through their honest and impassioned storytelling, we learn what it means to reclaim one’s identity and to live beyond the binary.By Oliver Soden. 2019
'A delight to read' Philip Pullman'Essential reading ... a genuine landmark publication' Tom ServiceA BBC Radio 4 'Book of the…
Week'The music of the British composer Michael Tippett - including the oratorio A Child of Our Time, five operas, and four symphonies - is among the most visionary of the twentieth century. But little has been written about his extraordinary life. In this long-awaited first biography, Oliver Soden weaves a century-spanning narrative of epic scope and penetrating insight. His achievement is to have enriched our understanding not only of Tippett but of the twentieth century. Figures such as T.S. Eliot, E.M. Forster, Barbara Hepworth, and W.H. Auden jostle in the cast list. An Edwardian world of gaslight and empire cedes to turmoil and warfare and his operas' game-changing attitudes to gay and civil rights, against a backdrop of the Cold War and the Space Race.The result is a landmark in the study of twentieth-century culture, simultaneously an astonishing feat of scholarship and a story as enthralling as in any great novel.By Dustin Lance Black. 2019
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 POLARI PRIZE'A magnificent achievement . . . I cannot remember a book where I cried so…
often. Brave, insightful, unflinching, funny, sad, triumphant . . . everything. And both a warning and a hope for the times to come' STEPHEN FRYDustin Lance Black wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Milk and helped overturn California's anti-gay marriage Proposition 8, but he grew up in a conservative Mormon household outside San Antonio, Texas. His mother, Anne, was raised in rural Louisiana, and contracted polio when she was two years old. She endured brutal surgeries, as well as braces and crutches for life, and was told that she would never have children or a family. Wilfully defying expectations, she found salvation in an unlikely faith, raised three sons, and escaped the abuse and violence of two questionably devised Mormon marriages before finding love and an improbable career in the U.S. civil service.When Lance came out to his mother at twenty-one, he was already studying the arts instead of going on his Mormon mission. She derided his sexuality as a sinful choice and was terrified for his future. Mama's Boy explores what it took to remain a family despite such division -- a journey that stretched from the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to the woodsheds of East Texas. In the end, the rifts that have split a nation couldn't end this relationship that has defined and inspired their remarkable lives. Mama's Boy is their story. It's a story of the noble quest for a plane higher than politics - one of family, foundations, turmoil, tragedy, elation, and love. It is a story needed now more than ever.'To outsiders, my mom and I should have been enemies. Our house should have been divided -- North vs South, red vs blue, conservative vs progressive, or however you want to put it. Instead, my mom and I fuelled each other. Her oil lit my lamp, and eventually mine lit hers. The tools I'd learned to wield growing up in her conservative, Christian, southern, military home were the same I'd used to wage battles that had taken me from a broken-down welfare apartment where gunfire sang me to sleep, to the biggest stages in the world, and to the front row of the United States Supreme Court to fight for LGBTQ equality.'By Jools Walker. 2019
'We'll all recognise ourselves somewhere in this book' Emily Chappell'One of the best cycling books of all time' BookAuthorityA joyful…
dose of inspiration that every cyclist, from rookie to randonneur, can take something valuable from' Road.ccIf your bike has become your biggest escape of late, Back in the Frame from award-winning blogger, Lady Vélo, is the book for youJools Walker rediscovered cycling aged 28 after a decade-long absence from the saddle. When she started blogging about her cycle adventures under the alias Lady Vélo, a whole world was opened up to her. But it's hard to find space in an industry not traditionally open to women - especially women of colour.Shortly after getting back on two wheels, Jools was diagnosed with depression and then, in her early thirties, hit by a mini-stroke. Yet, through all of these punctures, one constant remained: Jools' love of cycling.Funny, moving and motivational, this book tells the story of how Jools overcame these challenges, stepped outside her comfort zone and learned to cycle her own path. Along the way she shares a wealth of inspirational stories and tips from other female trailblazers, and shows how cycling can and should be a space for everyone.A celebration of cycling, Back in the Frame will motivate you to get back on your bike and enjoy the ride, no matter what life throws at you.By Io Tillett Wright. 2016
I WAS BORN, SEPTEMBER 1985, IN THE VORTEX OF THE LOWER EAST SIDE OF NEW YORK: THERE WERE FEW RULES…
OF LIFE AND ZERO CONTRAINTS ON BEHAVIOUR. IF YOU WERE NOT ECCENTRIC, YOU WERE WEIRD.It was a tenement building at the centre of the drug-addled, punk-edged, permanent riot that was iO's corner of the Lower East Side of New York City in the '80s and 90's. There iO grew up - or rather scrabbled up - under the broken wing of a fiercely protective, yet wildly negligent mother.Rhonna was a showgirl, actress, dancer, poet. A widow by police murder, she was also an addict. She doted and obsessed over iO, yet lacked an understanding that a child needs food and sleep and safety.Unfolding in animated, crystalline prose, an emotionally raw, devastatingly powerful memoir of one young person's extraordinary coming of age - a tale of gender and identity, freedom and addiction, rebellion and survival in the 1980s and 1990s, when punk poverty, heroin and art collided in the urban bohemia of New York's Lower East Side.Darling Days is also a provocative examination of culture and identity, of the instincts that shape us and the norms that deform us, and of the courage and resilience of a child listening closely to their deepest self. When a group of boys refuse to let the six-year-old play ball, iO instantly adopts a new persona, becoming a boy named Ricky, a choice the parents support and celebrate. It is the start of a profound exploration of gender and identity through the tenderest years, and the beginning of a life invented and reinvented at every step.Alternating between the harrowing and the hilarious, Darling Days is the candid, tough, and stirring memoir of a young person in search of an authentic self as family and home life devolve into chaos until iO escapes to Germany and then England to become an amazingly talented, exciting, edgy artist and wonderful writer.By Philip Eade. 2016
'Brisk, lively and wonderfully entertaining' John Banville'Excellent ... read this book' Literary Review'The best single-volume life of the author available'…
Irish TimesThe much mythologised author of Decline and Fall, A Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisited was hailed by Graham Greene as 'the greatest novelist of my generation', yet reckoned by Hilaire Belloc to have been possessed by the devil. Evelyn Waugh's literary reputation has continued to rise since Greene's assessment in 1966. Fifty years after his death, Philip Eade draws on extensive unpublished sources to paint a fresh and compelling portrait of this endlessly fascinating man, telling the full story of his dramatic, colourful and frequently bizarre life.By Douglas Murray. 2020
WITH A NEW FOREWORD AND REVISED INTRODUCTION'A superb biography ... full of compassion, perception' Roger Lewis, The Times'I love this…
book. Douglas Murray is a genius' Rupert EverettLord Alfred Douglas, known as 'Bosie', son of the Marquess of Queensberry, was known as one of the most beautiful young men of his generation. Aged twenty-one he met and became the lover and subsequent obsession of Oscar Wilde.Their relationship caused a scandal in 1895 when Wilde took Queensberry, Douglas's aggressive father, to court for libel. When the details of their relationship were aired in court, Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and later imprisoned.Wilde's story is well known, but this is the first book to tell it fully from Douglas's perspective. Written, and originally published in 2000, with access to never-before-seen papers , Bosie explores the contradictions, tensions and turmoils of Douglas's life with Wilde and beyond as a poet, husband and father.This compelling biography uncovers the life of one of the most notorious figures in literary history, and its course from gilded beautiful youth to semi-reclusive outcast, at the time of Douglas's death in 1945.By Cleve Jones. 2016
The partial inspiration for the acclaimed mini-series from Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance BlackBorn in 1954, Cleve Jones was among…
the last generation of gay Americans who grew up wondering if there were others out there like himself. There were. Like thousands of other young people, Jones, nearly penniless, was drawn in the early 1970s to San Francisco, a city electrified by progressive politics and sexual freedom. Jones found community - in the hotel rooms and ramshackle apartments shared by other young adventurers, in the city's bathhouses and gay bars like The Stud, and in the burgeoning gay district, the Castro, where a New York transplant named Harvey Milk set up a camera shop, began shouting through his bullhorn, and soon became the nation's most outspoken gay elected official. With Milk's encouragement, Jones dove into politics and found his calling in 'the movement.' When Milk was killed by an assassin's bullet in 1978, Jones took up his mentor's progressive mantle - only to see the arrival of AIDS transform his life once again. By turns tender and uproarious - and written entirely in his own words - When We Rise is Jones' account of his remarkable life. He chronicles the heartbreak of losing countless friends to AIDS, which very nearly killed him, too; his co-founding of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation during the terrifying early years of the epidemic; his conception of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, the largest community art project in history; the bewitching story of 1970s San Francisco and the magnetic spell it cast for thousands of young gay people and other misfits; and the harrowing, sexy, and sometimes hilarious stories of Cleve's passionate relationships with friends and lovers during an era defined by both unprecedented freedom and possibility, and prejudice and violence alike. When We Rise is not only the story of a hero to the LQBTQ community, but the vibrantly voice memoir of a full and transformative American life - an activist whose work continues today.By Susan Calman. 2016
'DEEPLY HONEST, SURPRISINGLY HILARIOUS AND UPLIFTING' The Pool 'HEART-WARMING: UNMISSABLE' Damian Barr, Metro Susan Calman is a much-loved comedian and…
writer who has appeared on countless radio and television programmes from The News Quiz and Just a Minute to Armchair Detectives and Secret Scotland. She's hosted the podcast Mrs Brightside and stole the nation's hearts in Strictly Come Dancing. Her breakout solo stand up show, Susan Calman is Convicted, dealt with subjects like the death penalty, appearance and depression. It was the overwhelming and positive reaction to the show she wrote about mental health that made Susan want to write a more detailed account of surviving depression when you're the world's most negative and anxious person. The Crab of Hate is the personification of Calman's depression and her version of the notorious Black Dog. A constant companion all her life, the Crab has provided her with the best, and very worst of times. This is a very personal and affecting memoir of how, after many years and with a lot of help and talking, Susan has embraced her dark side and realised that she can be the most joyous sad person you'll ever meet. CHEER UP LOVE IS FUNNY, POIGNANT AND (HOPEFULLY) INFORMATIVE.IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO TALK AND TO REALISE YOU ARE NOT ALONE. *If you loved Cheer Up Love, try Sunny Side Up, Susan's Calmanifesto of Happiness*By George Hodgman. 2015
'OUR FAVOURITE READS OF 2016' THE TIMES | A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'A BOOK THAT HAS YOU EMAILING FRIENDS "YOU…
HAVE TO READ THIS"' The Sunday Times - 'A WARM AND POIGNANT MEMOIR' Daily Express - 'WITHOUT A DOUBT MY FAVOURITE BOOK OF THE YEAR' Nathan Lane, Wall Street JournalSigned by Paramount for TV starring Oscar-winner Shirley MacLaine & Tony-winner Matthew BroderickA witty, tender memoir of a son's journey home to care for his irascible mother with dementia - a tale of secrets, silences, and enduring love.When George Hodgman leaves Manhattan for his hometown of Paris, Missouri, he finds himself-an unlikely caretaker and near-lethal cook-in a head-on collision with his ageing mother, Betty, a woman of wit and will. Will George lure her into assisted living? When hell freezes over. He can't bring himself to force her from the home both treasure-the place where his father's voice lingers, the scene of shared jokes, skirmishes, and, behind the dusty antiques, a rarely acknowledged conflict: Betty, who speaks her mind but cannot quite reveal her heart, has never really accepted the fact that her son is gay.As these two unforgettable characters try to bring their different worlds together, Hodgman reveals the challenges of Betty's life and his own struggle for self-respect, moving readers from their small town-crumbling but still colourful-to the star-studded corridors of Vanity Fair. Evocative of The End of Your Life Book Club and The Tender Bar, Hodgman's New York Times bestselling debut is both an indelible portrait of a family and an exquisitely told tale of a prodigal son's return.By Reverend Richard Coles. 2014
The memoir of popular BBC Radio 4 SATURDAY LIVE presenter and former member of the Communards, the Reverend Richard Coles.'I…
love @RevRichardColes SO MUCH' Caitlin MoranFATHOMLESS RICHES is the Reverend Richard Coles's warm, witty and wise memoir in which he divulges with searing honesty and intimacy his pilgrimage from a rock-and-roll life of sex and drugs in the Communards to one devoted to God and Christianity. The result is one of the most unusual and readable life stories of recent times, and has the power to shock as well as to console.By Michael Bloch. 2014
'A revealing, insightful and gripping biography of one of the most extraordinary people ever to lead a British political party'…
ObserverThe story of Jeremy Thorpe's rapid rise and spectacular fall from grace is one of the most remarkable in British politics. When he became leader of the Liberal Party in 1967 at the age of just thirty-seven, he seemed destined for truly great things. But as his star steadily rose so his nemesis drew ever nearer: a time-bomb in the form of Norman Scott, a homosexual wastrel and sometime male model with whom Jeremy had formed an ill-advised relationship in the early 1960s. Scott's incessant boasts about their 'affair' became increasingly embarrassing, and eventually led to a bizarre murder plot to shut him up for good. Jeremy was acquitted of involvement but his career was in ruins.Michael Bloch's magisterial biography is not just a brilliant retelling of this amazing story; ten years in the making, it is also the definitive character study of one of the most fascinating figures in post-war British politics.By Rupert Everett. 2020
A Times, Telegraph and Guardian Book of the Year 2020 'Quivers with honesty, A-list gossip and sardonic prose' The Times'Everett…
is a deliciously gifted writer. Nothing and no one escapes his attention' ObserverIn his highly anticipated third memoir, Rupert Everett tells the story of how he set out to make a film of Oscar Wilde's last days, and how that ten-year quest almost destroyed him. (And everyone else.)Travelling across Europe for the film, he weaves in extraordinary tales from his past, remembering wild times, freak encounters and lost friends. There are celebrities, of course. But we also meet glamorous but doomed Aunt Peta, who introduces Rupert (aged three) to the joys of make-up. In '90s Paris, his great friend Lychee burns bright, and is gone. While in '70s London, a 'weirdly tall, beyond size zero' teenage Rupert is expelled from the Central School of Speech and Drama. Unflinchingly honest and hugely entertaining, To the End of the World offers a unique insight into the 'snakes and ladders' of filmmaking. It is also a soulful and thought-provoking autobiography from one of our best-loved and most talented actors and writers.By Andrew Hodges. 1950
Alan Turing's 1936 paper On Computable Numbers, introducing the Turing machine, was a landmark of twentieth-century thought. It settled a…
deep problem in the foundations of mathematics, and provided the principle of the post-war electronic computer. It also supplied a new approach to the philosophy of the mind.Influenced by his crucial codebreaking work in the Second World War, and by practical pioneering of the first electronic computers, Turing argued that all the operations of the mind could be performed by computers. His thesis, made famous by the wit and drama of the Turing Test, is the cornerstone of modern Artificial Intelligence.Here Andrew Hodges gives a fresh and critical analysis of Turing's developing thought, relating it to his extraordinary life, and also to the more recent ideas of Roger Penrose.