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SAS: Sea King Down
By Mark Aston, Stuart Tootal. 2021
The thrilling, edge-of-your-seat true story of one soldier's Special Forces operations in the Falklands War'BRILLIANT. A ROLLERCOASTER OF BLISTERING ACTION,…
SURVIVAL AND BEHIND-THE-LINES DARING' DAMIEN LEWIS________THE BIGGEST SINGLE LOSS OF LIFE FOR THE SAS SINCE WORLD WAR TWO . . .1982, the British task force sails to liberate the Falkland Islands. Aboard: SAS D Squadron, determined to make their mark.No one more so than Mark 'Splash' Aston.But they have barely seen action when their Sea King helicopter crashes in freezing South Atlantic waters, killing 22 of Mark's comrades.The last out of the sinking wreck, he suffers a broken neck. But defying medical evacuation orders, Mark sneaks off ship, re-joins his SAS comrades to land on a mountain near Port Stanley - to defend it against days of attacks by Argentine special forces . . .SAS Sea King Down is a pulse-pounding account of D-Squadron's tragic loss and subsequent heroic stand in one of the most hostile places on Earth.A story told by a man who barely survived to tell it.________'A gripping untold story of heroism, hardship and sacrifice within the SAS' BEAR GRYLLS 'Gripping, fast moving and completely authentic. A brilliant piece of work. Better than Bravo Two Zero' - Mike Rose, former Commanding Officer of the SASSarah's Diary: An unflinchingly honest account of one family's struggle with depression
By Sarah Griffin. 2007
'I was fourteen when I found my Dad trying to commit suicide in the garage. Sounds shocking doesn't it? But…
that was part of me, part of living with my Dad'Sarah's Diary is the very personal diary of Sarah Griffin - an ordinary teenage girl learning to deal with the ups and downs of family life. On the outside hers was like any other family, but behind closed doors lay a sad and lonely secret. Sarah's Dad had depression -- a condition we've all heard of but seldom discuss. Beautifully written, brutally honest, Sarah's story is compelling reading.Sad Men
By Dave Roberts. 2014
All Dave Roberts ever wanted to do (apart from collect football programmes) was to work in advertising. More specifically, to…
work for the world's best advertising agency, Saatchi and Saatchi. There was just one problem. Even when he managed to persuade someone to employ him, Dave's copywriting assignments were mainly for second hand car dealers and double glazing companies. And Leeds, Manchester and, bizarrely, New Zealand were a long way from Charlotte Street and Madison Avenue. This was the world of the Sad Men.In his sparkling new memoir, Dave tells the story of a life shaped by his love of adverts, from seeing the PG Tips chimps at the age of three to writing infamous ads such as the Westpac Rap and having David Jason plug a family restaurant. Bursting with brilliant ideas - and some pretty daft ones - it is the cautionary tale of a quest for advertising glory... and not quite ever getting there.Running with the Krays: My Life in London's Gangland
By Billy Webb. 1993
Running with the Krays lifts the liid off London's underworld, from street gangs and race-course con games to protection rackets,…
beatings, maimings, intimidation and even murders. It reveals elements of police corruption and provides insights into the interdependence of both sides of the underworld scene - a compelling and gruesome account of how the other half of London lives.Born in wartime London's east end, Billy Webb grew up in the violence of air-raids and street warfare. His first weapon was a knuckleduster which he had made to measure for the price of five cigarettes when he was 11. When he first met the Krays they were scraping a living by doorknocking for old clothes to be sold in street markets. For three years he and the twins were on the run together as army deserters, and over the course of time, he was a friend, ally and foe of the Krays in their violent rise to fame.Rudolph Walker Biography (Black Star Series #3)
By Verna Allette Wilkins. 2003
The life story of Rudolph Walker, an actor whose career on stage and television in the UK spans 42 years.…
Includes photographs, illustrations and exclusive interviews. Rudolph was born in Trinidad in the Caribbean. When he was only 20 years old he left the island for London, to embark on a career in theatre. He is best known for his role as Patrick in EastEnders but worked on many popular TV series including Love Thy Neighbour, The Thin Blue Line, Black Silk and The Crouches. He has appeared on stage at the Old Vic, the Young Vic, the Tricycle, the Royal Court and the Theatre Royal among others.Rosamond Lehmann: A Life
By Selina Hastings. 2002
The life of Rosamond Lehmann was as romantic and harrowing as that of any of her fictional heroines. Her first…
novel, the shocking Dusty Answer, became wildly successful launching her career as a novelist and, just as her novels depicted the tempestuous lives of her heroines, Rosamond's personal life would be full of heartbreaking affairs and lost loves. Escaping from a disastrous early marriage Rosamond moved right into the heart of Bloomsbury society with Wogan Philipps. Later on she would embark on the most important love affair of her life, with the poet Cecil Day Lewis; nine years later he abandoned her for a young actress - a betrayal from which she would never recover. Selina Hastings masterfully creates a portrait of a woman whose dramatic life, work and relationships criss-crossed the cultural, literary and political landscape of England in the middle of the twentieth century.Romain Gary: A Tall Story
By David Bellos. 1950
Airman, war hero, immigrant, law student, diplomat, novelist and celebrity spouse, Romain Gary had several lives thrust upon him by…
the history of the twentieth century, but he also aspired to lead many more. He wrote more than two dozen books and a score of short stories under several different names in two languages, English and French, neither of which was his mother tongue. Gary had a gift for narrative that endeared him to ordinary readers, but won him little respect among critics far more intellectual than he could ever be. His varied and entertaining writing career tells a different story about the making of modern literary culture from the one we are accustomed to hearing.Born Roman Kacew in Vilna (now Lithuania) in 1914 and raised by only his mother after his father left them, Gary rose to become French Consul General in Los Angeles and the only man ever to win the Goncourt Prize twice.This biography follows the many threads that lead from Gary's wartime adventures and early literary career to his years in Hollywood and his marriage to the actress Jean Seberg. It illuminates his works in all their incarnations, and culminates in the tale of his most brilliant deception: the fabrication of a complex identity for his most successful nom de plume, Émile Ajar.In his new portrait of Gary, David Bellos brings biographical research together with literary and cultural analysis to make sense of the many lives of Romain Gary - a hero fit for our times, as well as his own.Rogue Warrior of the SAS: The Blair Mayne Legend
By Martin Dillon, Roy Bradford. 1987
More than half a century after his death, Lt Col. Robert Blair Mayne is still regarded as one of the…
greatest soldiers in the history of military special operations. He was the most decorated British soldier of the Second World War, receiving four DSOs, the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d'honneur, and he pioneered tactics used today by the SAS and other special operations units worldwide. Rogue Warrior of the SAS tells the remarkable life story of 'Colonel Paddy', whose exceptional physical strength and uniquely swift reflexes made him a fearsome opponent. But his unorthodox rules of war and his resentment of authority would deny him the ultimate accolade of the Victoria Cross. Drawing on personal letters and family papers, declassified SAS files and records, together with the Official SAS Diary compiled in wartime and eyewitness accounts from many who served with him, the picture emerges of a soldier who, although a flawed hero, was unquestionably one of the most distinctive combatants of the campaigns in the Western Desert and Europe.Rescue Me: My Life with the Battersea Dogs
By Melissa Wareham. 2013
Melissa Wareham always wanted to work with dogs. After failing her biology O-level she realised she'd have to start at…
the bottom, cleaning out kennels at Battersea Dogs Home. From frail old men looking for a four-legged companion to famous folk who've lost their favourite hound, it seemed that at some point everyone passes through Battersea's doors. Amongst the clamour of thousands of lost pets crying 'Rescue Me!' and the noise of the railway lines above, Melissa found she had come home.The first dog Melissa fell for was Tulip, a sweet, elderly and somewhat dotty mongrel who decided a solo bus ride into the West End might be fun. Next up was Roscoe: found by the ambulance team with his dead owner, he is rehabilitated with a little help from his master's hat. And then - many, many dogs later - there is Gus. With his owner in jail, Melissa finally finds the dog she is to take home as her own.Heart-warming and compulsively readable, Rescue Me is Melissa's memoir of her fifteen years at Britain's most-loved dogs' home.Book 9 in Ved Mehta's Continents of Exile series. Nearly 50 years in the making, Continents of Exile is one…
of the great works of twentieth-century autobiography: the epic chronicle of an Indian family in the twentieth century. From 1930s India to 1950s Oxford and literary New York in the 1960s-80s, this is the story of the post-colonial twentieth century, as uniquely experienced and vividly recounted by Ved Mehta.In Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker, Ved Mehta provides an unparalleled glimpse into the inner workings of the one of world's most famous magazines. He portrays in detail the strange, nurturing atmosphere at the New Yorker, and he recounts the earthquakes that shook the magazine as it moved into the hands of more commercial ownership. At once a tribute to William Shawn - one of the longest serving editors in the New Yorker's history - Mehta's memoir is also a joyful tribute to the intricately linked arts of editing, writing, and reading.Relations
By Jane Miller. 2003
In this remarkable book, Jane Miller writes about the experience of being a daughter and a sister, about the intensities…
of family life and the illuminations that come from the last days of parents. Relations describes a record-keeping kinship and offers portraits of her parents' long marriage, its mysteries and incompatibilities, of her grandfather, the scientist Redcliffe Salaman, and of her great-aunt Clara Collet, one of the first women civil servants. It is a story in which Karl Marx and George Gissing have parts to play.Here are the tensions of belonging and yet not belonging to an English middle-class at once hospitable to difference and internally divided. More than two hundred years of English history are present in these portraits, which show the dawning emancipation of women and the effects of empire on family life. It is the story of an evolution, of a move out of trade towards public service and the professions, and towards the dramas and family romance of recent times.Reinvented Lives: Women at Sixty: A Celebration
By Charles Handy, Elizabeth Handy. 2002
Twenty-eight women, ranging from Anita Roddick and Prue Leith to less well-known names, write their own personal stories which are…
accompanied by Elizabeth Handy's black and white photographs and an introductory essay by Charles Handy. This generation of women is entering the sixties more healthy, more educated and more energetic than most of their mothers. The subjects in this book provide the models for what has become, for the first time, a new age for many women. Released from most of the cares and responsibilities that accompany midlife for women, they are free to reinvent themselves, to give more time to their career or calling, or to luxuriate in the serenity and friendships that few had time for in the past. Some enter new relationships, some start new careers or go back to study, some find that their work is only now reaching its peak. Many have survived traumas and tragedies, but 'the past is just the prologue' as one of them explains.Reflections On A Summer Sea
By Trevor Norton. 2001
This is the funny and touching story of a menagerie of eccentric and talented ecologists who, mainly as a hobby,…
spent forty summers at Lough Ine, a stunning marine lough in a corner of Ireland, where myths seep from the ground like will o' the wisps and, in one of the most unlikely projects in the history of science, were responsible for the reinvention of marine biology. Among the stars of the book are the marine creatures that occupy the lake: sea urchins that won't dine unless they wear a hat, otters that steal experiments, and worms that will only mate by order of the moon. The creatures' eccentric behaviour is matched only by that of the ecologists themselves, whose antics and interactions with their Irish neighbours are all lovingly described with Norton's keen eye for both the wonderful and the absurd. But for all its humour, the book is also a moving account of two ecologists who collaborated for forty years until their friendship came to a tragic end. The book brings together all the rich flavours of Ireland, the wonders of natural history and the magic of being a marine biologist just for the fun of it.The Red Letters: Continents of Exile: 12 (Penguin Modern Classics)
By Ved Mehta. 2005
The last volume of Ved Mehta's Continents of Exile series. Nearly 50 years in the making, Continents of Exile is…
one of the great works of twentieth-century autobiography: the epic chronicle of an Indian family in the twentieth century. From 1930s India to 1950s Oxford and literary New York in the 1960s-80s, this is the story of the post-colonial twentieth century, as uniquely experienced and vividly recounted by Ved Mehta.During the clamour of a New York dinner party, Mehta is startled to find his father crying on his mother's shoulders. This episode begins a painful and revealing voyage into his father's personal history. In stark prose, Mehta unravels a passionate, clandestine affair that bore quiet yet extraordinary consequences for himself and his family. Red Letters also serves as a brilliant exploration and a recreation of British India: its sights and sounds, its injustices and its secrecy.The Red Arrows: The Sunday Times Bestseller
By David Montenegro. 2022
SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLERDAILY MAIL BOOK OF THE WEEKTHE FIRST OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE RED ARROWS'Heart-pounding, exhilarating . .…
. A fascinating testimony of jeopardy, cool heads and the sheer exultant addiction of flying.' SINCLAIR MCKAY'Fantastic . . . It was wonderful to read about so many old chums and truly legendary aviators. Highly recommended.' JOHN NICHOL (Twitter)'An exhilarating read! The next-best thing to taking the controls of a Hawk fast-jet. And you're much less likely to throw up.' BEN MILLER'Inspirational . . . Precision, style and dedication. The Red Arrows are the ultimate in teamwork.' TIM PEAKE'Perfectly enjoyable . . . As the Red Arrows head towards their 60th anniversary, it's clear the team's place in our hearts is secure.' DAILY MAIL'A wild ride . . . The ultimate insider guide, relating with great enthusiasm and insight what it means to be inside the cockpit as you scream through the skies at 350 to 450 miles per hour, within what feels like touching distance of your wingman, making continual nanosecond decisions that will result in certain death if you get them wrong.' TELEGRAPH, Patrick Bishop_________________________________________"Occasionally, you and the team come within read of perfection, up there in the rarefied air of the skies. You never know when those moments will come, but it's what you yearn for as a pilot."The Red Arrows represent the very best speed, agility and precision aerobatic flying in the Royal Air Force, and the people who wear those iconic red flight suits are rigorously selected not just for their flying skills, lightning-fast reflexes and nerves of steel, but for their mental resilience, courage and humility.Written by the Officer Commanding and former Red 1 Team Leader, Wing Commander David Montenegro, and full of never-before-shared tales from pilots past and present, this thrilling history is both a faithful record and a fascinating account of not only what it takes, but what it means, to be a Red Arrow._________________________________________Praise for the Red Arrows:'A lifetime's ambition . . . I still can't believe I've been in a fighter jet. It was fantastic - just to feel the G-force was spectacular.' LEWIS HAMILTON'So tight, crisp and professional' CHRIS HADFIELD'I can never quite believe that anyone can fly and aircraft with such precision' PROF. BRIAN COX'The skill level they have is just off the scale. The Red Arrows is an amazing display of quality' DAVID COULTHARDRecipe for Life: The Autobiography
By Mary Berry. 2013
As well as starring on The Great British Bake Off, Mary Berry is returning to our TVs with her brand…
new series, Britain's Best Home Cook . . . so indulge, and discover her autobiography.From the moment she came into the world - two weeks early, throwing her parents' lives into disarray - Mary has gracefully but firmly done things her own way. Born in 1935, in the city of Bath, Mary's childhood was a curious mix of idyllic picnics and ramblings, and alarming air raids; of a spirited and outdoorsy home life and a dreaded school existence. All nearly cut horribly short by an almost fatal bout of polio when she was thirteen, which isolated Mary in hospital, away from beloved family and friends for months. Recovery saw her turn to her one true passion - cookery. And so began a love affair that has spanned six remarkable decades; from demonstrating ovens in the early 1950s to producing glossy food magazines in the 60s and 70s, gradually becoming the country's most prolific and - many would say - best loved cookery writer. Until her emergence in the 21st century as a TV sensation and style icon on the Great British Bake Off. In this touching, evocative and fascinating memoir, we accompany Mary on her journey of nearly eighty years; a life lived to the full, with a wicked sense of fun and an eye for the absurd, it is the life of a delightfully traditional but thoroughly modern woman.The Rainbow Comes and Goes
By Diana Cooper. 1958
Lady Diana Cooper was a star of the early twentieth stage, screen and social scene. This first instalment of her…
sparkling autobiography tells of her upbringing, her beautiful artistic mother and aristocratic father, her debut into high society and the glittering parties - 'dancing and extravagance and lashing of wine, and charades and moonlit balconies and kisses' - which were interrupted with the outbreak of the First World War. This volume ends with Diana's marriage to the 'love of her life', diplomat and politician Duff Cooper.The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography (Penguin Modern Classics)
By A. J. Symons. 1955
'What had happened to the lost manuscripts, what train of chances took Rolfe to his death in Venice? The Quest…
continued'One summer afternoon A.J.A. Symons is handed a peculiar, eccentric novel that he cannot forget and, captivated by this unknown masterpiece, determines to learn everything he can about its mysterious author. The object of his search is Frederick Rolfe, self-titled Baron Corvo - artist, rejected candidate for priesthood and author of serially autobiographical fictions - and its story is told in this 'experiment in biography': a beguiling portrait of an insoluble tangle of talents, frustrated ambitions and self-destruction.Princess Spider: True Experiences of a Dominatrix
By Princess Spider. 2006
Princess Spider is the best known Female Dominatrix on the UK fetish scene, and a Sky TV television personality. In…
her book she will be offering unrestricted and unprecedented access to her fascinating, shocking, and very bizarre world:Extraordinary true stories from her private and public domination of both men and womenExpert detailed knowledge on every aspect of female domination: role-playing, imagery, dress-codes, rituals, equipment, playrooms anddungeonsAccess to slaves and their slave diaries: the slave-mistress relationship revealed in fullReportage on femdom rituals and sessions as they happenPride of Britain: A Little Girl's Bravery. A Family's Strength.
By Jeff Hudson, Martin Lupton. 2008
Kirsteen Lupton seems like any other teenage girl. But Kirsteen was born with a rare medical condition: her bladder was…
on the outside of her body. By the age of seven she had endured numerous agonising, failed operations. After medical complications left her weighing just 1½ stone and battling for her life, surgery by the team at Great Ormond Street Hospital finally gave her a chance at a normal life. What makes Kirsteen so exceptional is that she has since helped to raise over £750,000 for the hospital. In 2006 she was named 'Fundraiser of the Year' at the Pride of Britain awards.This is the story of Kirsteen's extraordinary life and her work to raise funds for the hospital that helped her so much. But it is also the story of her family, who have always supported her - her mum, who battled with feelings of guilt over Kirsteen's condition, her dad, who sacrificed career advancement and earning capacity to look after his family, and her brothers, who have watched as their parents struggled to support their sister.