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Yet Being Someone Other
By Sir Laurens Van Der Post. 1982
Yet Being Someone Other is the most revealing book that Laurens van der Post wrote about his extraordinary and eventful…
life, and the most far-reaching; it is a distillation of the experiences that have moved him at the deepest level of the imagination and made him the exceptional person and writer he was.Yes Sister, No Sister: My Life as a Trainee Nurse in 1950s Yorkshire
By Jennifer Craig. 2011
'What is your name?' she asks, staring at me.'Jennifer Ross.''Jennifer Ross, Sister. Well, Nurse Ross, you are dressed in the…
uniform of a nurse from the Leeds General Infirmary. Such a uniform is not worn with a cardigan. Take it off at once.''Yes Sister.' I can feel my face turn red.A trainee nurse in the 1950s had a lot to bear. In Jennifer Craig's enchanting memoir, we meet these warm-hearted yet naïve young girls as they get to grips with strict discipline, long hours and bodily fluids. But we also see the camaraderie that develops in evening study sessions, sneaked trips to the cinema and mischievous escapades with the young trainee doctors. The harsh conditions prove too much for some girls, but the opportunity to help her patients in their time of need is too much of a pull for Jenny. As she commits to her vocation and knuckles down to her exams, she is determined that when she reaches the heights of Ward Sister herself she will not become the frightening matron that struck fear into her student heart ...Rich in period detail, and told with a good dose of Yorkshire humour, Yes Sister, No Sister is a life-affirming true story of a life long past.Years Of Hope: Diaries, Letters and Papers 1940-1962
By Tony Benn. 1994
YEARS OF HOPE is a kind of 'prequel' to the published series of DIARIES, and will cover fully the peerage…
renunciation, as well as revealing his early career, touching on schooldays, RAF service during the war, early involvement with politics etc. As a young man he had dealings with Atlee, Bevan, Morrison, Gaitskill and all the major politicians of the post-war Labour Government. This book will be more personal than earlier volumes and will draw on letters and other documents as well as the DIARIES themselves. It will reveal the extraordinary consistency of Benn's political views, as well as showing how he came to acquire them.A Year on Our Farm: How the Countryside Made Me
By Matt Baker. 2021
Escape into nature with Matt Baker's fascinating journey through the natural year and family life on the farm'A delight' Countryfile…
Magazine_______Matt Baker finds his calm on the farm.Surrounded by nature with his family, dogs, array of sheep, Mediterranean miniature donkeys and a whole host of wildlife in the farm's ancient woodland, Matt shows us how the power and beauty of the countryside can bring joy to us all.Following the ever-changing seasons of the year, we see woodland animals emerge after a long winter of hibernation and lambs begin to gambol in April. We hear the dawn chorus in the height of summer and see the preparations unfold for the harsh and wild winter months.Peppered with hand drawn sketches, unforgettable moments from Matt's TV career and stories of a landscape you'll fall in love with - from its sun-soaked pastures to 6ft snow drifts - Matt reveals how the outdoors has made him who he is today.Yeah, But Where Are You Really From?: A story of overcoming the odds
By Marguerite Penrose. 2022
'An engrossing, urgent, and entertaining read. I couldn't put it down' Roddy Doyle______Marguerite Penrose's is an extraordinary story of making…
a great life from complicated beginnings. Marguerite was born in a Dublin mother-and-baby home in 1974, the daughter of an Irish mother and a Zambian father. Severe scoliosis indicated a future of difficult medical procedures. She was a little girl who needed a break. And she got it at three when she was fostered - and later adopted - by a young couple, Mick and Noeline, and acquired a mam, dad, sister, Ciara, and loving extended family. Growing up, Marguerite's appearance was occasionally remarked on by strangers, but it wasn't until her teens that she understood that her skin colour was a provocation for some. The progressive city that she knew was revealed to have an unpleasant undercurrent. So, she became an expert in shaping her life around anything that marked her out as 'different'.Marguerite's story is one of facing some big questions - Who am I? How do I live in world made for people with bodies different to mine? Why does anyone care about my skin colour? - with intelligence, humour, courage and common-sense. She writes about coming to terms with the circumstances of her birth and, like so many in her position, looking for answers. About navigating the world as an active woman with a disability. About what it means to be both Irish and Black, particularly at a moment when the conversation is becoming mainstream in Ireland and she is thinking about it in new ways herself. Mostly, she writes about embracing life in a spirit of openness and positivity.Yeah, But Where Are You Really From? is a captivating, wise and inspiring memoir by a truly remarkable woman.___________'Beautiful, moving, tender and informative' SINÉAD MORIARTY'Wonderful' MIRIAM O'CALLAGHANJeremy Clarkson, shares his opinions on just about everything in The World According to Clarkson. Jeremy Clarkson has seen rather…
more of the world than most. He has, as they say, been around a bit. And as a result, he's got one or two things to tell us about how it all works - and being Jeremy Clarkson he's not about to voice them quietly, humbly and without great dollops of humour. In The World According to Clarkson, he reveals why it is that:• Too much science is bad for our health• '70s rock music is nothing to be ashamed of• Hunting foxes while drunk and wearing night-sights is neither big nor clever• We must work harder to get rid of cricket• He liked the Germans (well, sometimes)With a strong dose of common sense that is rarely, if ever, found inside the M25, Clarkson hilariously attacks the pompous, the ridiculous, the absurd and the downright idiotic, whilst also celebrating the eccentric, the clever and the sheer bloody brilliant. Less a manifesto for living and more a road map to modern life, The World According to Clarkson is the funniest book you'll read this year. Don't leave home without it.The World According to Clarkson is a hilarious collection of Jeremy's Sunday Times columns and the first in his The World According to Clarkson series which also includes And Another Thing . . . , For Crying Out Loud! and How Hard Can It Be?Praise for Jeremy Clarkson:'Brilliant . . . laugh-out-loud' Daily Telegraph'Outrageously funny . . . will have you in stitches' Time OutNumber-one bestseller and presenter of the hugely popular Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson writes on cars, current affairs and anything else that annoys him in his sharp and funny collections. Born To Be Riled, Clarkson On Cars, Don't Stop Me Now, Driven To Distraction, Round the Bend, Motorworld, and I Know You Got Soul are also available as Penguin paperbacks; the Penguin App iClarkson: The Book of Carscan be downloaded on the App Store.If there's one thing that everyone has an opinion about it's how to bring up a child - especially your…
child. Kate Konopicky found herself an embattled mother, knowing that however hard she worked everything was wrong. If she went back to full-time employment she was neglecting her child. If she stayed at home the child would be clingy and shy. So, she became a combination of teacher, nurse, nutritionist, psychologist, entertainer and mind reader. She didn't get weekends off and never phoned in sick when she wanted a lie-in. The boss was illogical, demanding, incapable of undertaking the simplest task. Yes, we've all had jobs like that but at least we got paid for them. Kate Konopicky is an anarchic voice in the face of regimented parenting books. With brilliant humour, she'll make you believe you're not a failure when your fairy cakes don't rise, and you'll slowly come to realise that you may not be perfect but that you are doing your best.'A wildly irreverent look at the parenting game. This riotous look back over her first five years of motherhood will come as a relief to imperfect parents everywhere - in other words, to all parents.' You MagazineThe Wolf Pit
By Will Cohu. 2012
In 1966 Will Cohu's grandparents moved to Bramble Carr, a remote cottage on the Yorkshire moors. The summers and winters…
he spent there were full of freedom and light; only after childhood ended was he aware of the price the adults had paid for life in this most romantic of settings.Navigating family tensions and the trials of growing up, Will describes the close-knit community of North Yorkshire and his family's place within it: the shepherd probing the head-high snowdrifts for his flock; the pub landlord obsessed with military uniforms; the village doctor lost in his love for the purple moorland; Will's glamorous RAF parents; and, at the centre of the story, his beloved but enigmatic grandparents.The Wolf Pit is an enquiring love letter from Will Cohu to his family, and to a changing rural England that is passionate, frightening and funny.Without Hope: A Childhood Ruined by the Man she should Trust the Most
By Barbara Naughton. 2010
Barbara's father was a sadistic man at the best of times - his idea of fun was to kill the…
family dog by tying it to the back of his car and driving off. Also for kicks, he took his children out on to the lake and held them under until they were gasping for their lives.He sexually assaulted Barbara from a young age, often when the rest of the family were in the house. He repeatedly threatened to kill her, and made two very serious attempts. During the final attempt, as he was raping and choking her, Barbara made a vow - if she survived, she would come forward and get justice against her father ...Without Hope is a powerful and inspiring true story of a girl who finally found the inner strength to escape her brutal childhood.The Wisdom of Wolves: How Wolves Can Teach Us To Be More Human
By Elli H. Radinger. 2017
'ENCHANTING' MAIL ON SUNDAY They care for their elderly, play with their kids, and always put family first. Can we…
all learn something from the wisdom of wolves? In this unforgettable book, wolf expert and naturalist Elli Radinger draws on her 25 years of first-hand experience among the wolves of Yellowstone National Park to tell us their remarkable stories. __________ Wolves are more human than we ever knew . . . In fact, they can teach us how to be better humans. They play, love, care for others, show compassion, die of broken hearts, pine for home, work in teams, are endlessly patient and leaders know when to defer to followers. In The Wisdom of Wolves naturalist Elli Radinger takes us on a journey into the heart of the wolf pack, revealing what they can teach us about family, cooperation, survival, leadership, commitment and how to enjoy what life gives us. No other book will bring you closer to discovering the truth about wolves - and ourselves. 'This book is the result of her two decades of close observation; part impassioned memoir, part natural history study, and part photo gallery. Her access to her subjects is extraordinary' SUNDAY TIMES'Elli's bestselling book suggests that in a high-tech age, when so many of us have become alienated from nature, wolves have much to teach us about the art of living well' DAILY MAIL'Through The Wisdom of Wolves, we get to feel that little bit closer to the pack and discover what we may have in common' BBC WILDLIFEA Wiltshire Diary
By Francis Kilvert. 2009
Francis Kilvert's diary shows a compassionate and thoughtful delight in the people and beautiful surroundings of the English countryside. With…
good cheer he records his loves (among them poetry and the attentions of pretty girls) and his dislikes (including a distaste for bathing in knickers that leaves more than one beach scandalized), as well as the town folklore and parishioner's stories that his tender interest in others arouses. Heartfelt, humorous and reflective, this is a transportive glimpse of a time gone by.Generations of inhabitants have helped shape the English countryside - but it has profoundly shaped us too.It has provoked a huge variety of responses from artists, writers, musicians and people who live and work on the land - as well as those who are travelling through it.English Journeys celebrates this long tradition with a series of twenty books on all aspects of the countryside, from stargazey pie and country churches, to man's relationship with nature and songs celebrating the patterns of the countryside (as well as ghosts and love-struck soldiers).The Wilderness Family
By Kobie Kruger. 2001
When Kobie Krüger, her game-ranger husband and their three young daughters moved to one of the most isolated corners of…
the world - a remote ranger station in the Mahlangeni region of South Africa's vast Kruger National Park - she might have worried that she would become engulfed with loneliness and boredom. Yet, for Kobie and her family, the seventeen years spent in this spectacularly beautiful park proved to be the most magical - and occasionally the most hair-raising - of their lives.Kobie recounts their enchanting adventures and extraordinary experiences in this vast reserve - a place where, bathed in golden sunlight, hippos basked in the glittering waters of the Letaba River, storks and herons perched along the shoreline, and fruit bats hung in the sausage trees.But as the Krugers settled in, they discovered that not all was peace and harmony. They soon became accustomed to living with the unexpected: the sneaky hyenas who stole blankets and cooking pots, the sinister-looking pythons that slithered into the house, and the usually placid elephants who grew foul-tempered in the violent heat of the summer. And one terrible day, a lion attacked Kobus in the bush and nearly killed him.Yet nothing prepared the Krugers for their greatest adventure of all, the raising of an orphaned prince, a lion cub who, when they found him, was only a few days old and on the verge of death. Reared on a cocktail of love and bottles of fat-enriched milk, Leo soon became an affectionate, rambunctious and adored member of the fmaily. It is the rearing of this young king, and the hilarious endeavours to teach him to become a 'real' lion who could survive with his own kind in the wild, that lie at the heart of this endearing memoir. It is a memoir of a magical place and time that can never be recaptured.Wife in the North
By Judith O'Reilly. 2008
How far would you go to be the perfect mother? The hilarious Wife in the North by Judith O'Reilly, based…
on her enormously popular blog, recounts one woman's attempt to move her family and her life from cosmopolitan London to rural Northumberland.Maybe hormones ate her brain. How else did Judith's husband persuade her to give up her career and move from her beloved London to Northumberland with two toddlers in tow? Pregnant with number 3 Judith is about to discover that there are one or two things about life in the country that no one told her about: that she'd be making friends with people who believed in the four horsemen of the apocalypse; that running out of petrol could be a near death experience and that the closest thing to an ethnic minority would be a redhead. Judith tries to do that simple thing that women do, make hers a happy family. A family that might live happily ever after. Possibly even up North ...'Genuinely funny and genuinely moving' Jane Fallon, author of Getting Rid of Matthew'Cold Comfort Farm with booster seats. Funny, honest and moving' Stephanie Calman, author of Confessions of a Bad Mother'I howled with laughter, tears of recognition at every page' Jenny Colgan'Funny, poignant and beautifully written' Lisa JewellJudith O'Reilly, a journalist and the mother of three young children, was persuaded to move from London to Northumberland by her husband in August 2005. She started a blog, wifeinthenorth.com, in November 2006, which quickly picked up fans around the world with its witty tales of family and country life. Her second book A Year of Doing Good is published by Penguin.Wicked Games
By Kelly Lawrence. 2013
‘Looking back, I think I knew I was in trouble the first time I met him. The road he took…
me down was at once both more liberating than I could have dreamed of, and yet more intense than I could cope with. If the path of love doesn’t always run smooth ... then how much more crooked it becomes when mixed with raw desire.’This is no novel, but the memoir of an intense, exciting and at times unsettling relationship. Alex, for all his charms, is no billionaire playboy, and Kelly is no blushing virgin; rather your typical, overworked teacher who has no time for games, certainly not the wicked games he leads her into. Games that she ends up craving like a drug…Whose Side Are You On?
By Teddy Jamieson. 2011
From the late 1960s, Northern Ireland has been mired in violence. Yet it has had seen more than its fair…
share of sporting heroes - from footballer George Best, through snooker champion Alex Higgins, to boxer Barry McGuigan. Life was tough for these working-class lads, but they could shine on the football field or find refuge at the town boxing club. For other kids, like the young Teddy Jamieson, a knockabout in the back-lanes was as good as it got, but at least they had their heroes. Watching McGuigan on telly, Teddy could feel proud to be Northern Irish. But sport - like everything else in Northern Ireland - could quickly turn nasty when politics were involved. This extraordinary journey through sport and the Troubles has it all: from Olympic gold-medals to Gaelic football; from death threats to reconciliations. Then there is Teddy's own story, as we learn how the age-old playground question 'Whose side are you on?' doesn't always have an easy answer.Whispering Back: Tales From A Stable in the English Countryside
By Adam Goodfellow, Nicole Golding. 2003
Adam Goodfellow and Nicole Golding run a stable in the Cotswolds and specialise in curing problem horses. It's never an…
easy task, and often requires changing the habits of the owner as much as the horse. The pair have travelled a long way to get where they are today - but they've been united by a common passion. After a chance meeting with Monty Roberts, they gave up everything to live out their dreams and show that it's possible for ordinary people to become 'horse whisperers'. Their world is extraordinary, particularly through their unusual methods of teaching, and as you meet the cast of characters, both animals and humans, that surround them, you'll find it impossible not to be won over by their life.Variable Valve Timings: Memoirs of a car tragic
By Chris Harris. 2023
'What defines the car-saddo condition is not being able to recall a time when the toy-car-era of your life actually…
ended. Because for us sufferers, it never does.' Nobody knows cars like Chris Harris does. He calls it 'unhinged geekery', but the rest of the world call it infectious enthusiasm, adrenaline fuelled escapism and rigorous journalistic integrity.And then there are his famous skills at the wheel, from city cars to rally cars, not forgetting the Guinness World Record 3.4km sideways in an electric car.And now for the first time, Harris takes us down the road of his life-long obsession with the automobile - along surprising diversions, around hazards and obstructions, down the fast lane collecting Gs and back to the lock-up to prep the stock.From the six-year-old who could recite the stats from What Car? magazine to the YouTube car guru whose honest reviews got him banned by Ferrari. From the Scalextric track of his childhood, to podiums as a racing driver out in the world. From behind his garage doors to the floodlit Top Gear studio.Variable Valve Timings brings you an incredibly engaging story of adventure and petrolhead joy, told with wit, warmth and disarming honesty. This book is a true one-off, just like Chris.The Voice: 40 years of Black British Lives
By The Voice. 2022
Launched at the 1982 Notting Hill Carnival, The Voice newspaper captured and addressed a generation figuring out what it meant…
to be Black and British. Written for and by Black people, the newspaper shone a light on systematic injustices as well as celebrating Black Britain's success stories. From hard hitting news reports covering the murder of Stephen Lawrence to championing the likes of Sir Lewis Hamilton and Idris Elba, the newspaper has campaigned, celebrated and educated people for the last forty years.As well as celebrating amazing successes in sport, politics and the arts, The Voice documented everyday life in the community, from the emergence of a Black middle class in the '90s and the achievements of Black entrepreneurs to how different facets of the community were explored in contemporary music and literature. Since its small beginnings in Hackney, The Voice has also become a fantastic training ground for prominent journalists and figures including former politician Trevor Phillips, broadcaster Rageh Omaar and writer Afua Hirsch. Today, The Voice is Britain's longest running and only Black newspaper.Told through news reports, editorials and readers' personal letters, this emotive book documents the social history of Black Britain over the last four decades. Each chapter is illustrated with amazing newspaper pages from The Voice's extensive archives as well as iconic and dramatic front covers from 1982 to the present day.With a foreword from Sir Lenny Henry and written by former and current Voice journalists, this powerful book is a celebration of the ground-breaking paper which gave a voice to the voiceless.Where I Lived, and What I Lived For (Penguin Great Ideas)
By Henry Thoreau. 2005
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other.…
They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.Thoreau's account of his solitary and self-sufficient home in the New England woods remains an inspiration to the environmental movement - a call to his fellow men to abandon their striving, materialistic existences of 'quiet desperation' for a simple life within their means, finding spiritual truth through awareness of the sheer beauty of their surroundings.Where Have I Gone?
By Pauline Quirke. 2012
Pauline Quirke was a skinny child, a slim teenager, a curvy woman, then - according to her bathroom scales (curse…
them) - just plain fat. Yes, the 'F' word. Tipping the scales at nearly 20 stone, with creaking knees and a dodgy ankle to boot, at the beginning of 2011 Pauline had reached a crisis point. Something had to change, and fast. It was never going to be an easy ride, but with her trademark warmth and sense of humour, Pauline recounts the highs and lows of the rollercoaster year in which she whips herself, and her life, into shape - with a fair few tales from her celebrated forty-year acting career thrown into the bargain. She reveals all: from the strain of working long hours away from home on one of Britain's most popular soaps to renewing her wedding vows and reuniting with her Birds of a Feather co-stars; from battling the bulge and facing the naysayers to rediscovering the joys of airline travel . . . without a seatbelt extension.Honest and revealing, Where Have I Gone? is brimming with brilliantly funny anecdotes and truly moving moments. So put your feet up and join Pauline as she embarks on the most incredible year of her life.