Title search results
Showing 21 - 40 of 1446 items
We Belong to Gaia (Green Ideas)
By James Lovelock. 2006
In twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement.James Lovelock's We Belong to Gaia draws on…
decades of wisdom to lay out the history of our remarkable planet, to show that it is not ours to be exploited - and warns us that it is fighting back.Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As life on Earth has become irrevocably altered by humans, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend the planet, and affirm our place at the heart of its restoration. Their words have endured through the decades, becoming the classics of a movement. Together, these books show the richness of environmental thought, and point the way to a fairer, saner, greener world.The Voice Of Silence: A Life of Love, Healing and Inspiration
By Oonagh Shanley-Toffolo. 2002
The Voice of Silence is by an Irishwoman who has had an extraordinary life. Oonagh Shanley-Toffolo was brought up in…
1930s rural Ireland where her father initiated her into the healing arts. At the age of 16, she entered a convent where she trained as a nurse, and was sent to India to look after the elderly (and knew Mother Teresa). Here, she felt it was the young, rather than the old, who needed more help and so she left her order and trained in midwifery. Later, in Paris, she was asked to nurse the Duke of Windsor just before he died - and many years later was introduced to Princess Diana and became her weekly confidante. In between, were bouts of serious illness, studying acupuncture in China - and being photographed by Snowdon. The Voice of Silence is the life story of a very unusual woman who has learned far more than most from all the remarkable things that have happened to her. It is also the author's thoughts on healing, spirituality and love - and how closely the three are intertwined. Full of feeling, poetic vision and insight, this book cannot fail to touch the heart of the reader, and inspire.We Are Nature: How to reconnect with the wild
By Ray Mears. 2021
A journey of discovery through our natural world.Bushcraft and survival legend Ray Mears takes us on his own lifetime's journey…
through the natural world, into the British countryside and across continents, and shows us how to tune our senses, enhance our experience of nature, and understand our place within it.Guiding us through practical fieldcraft tips, Ray brings us up close with creatures we share our planet with, and reveals how we can learn from them, from the stealth of the leopard to the patience and stillness of the crocodile, and even the colour-changing camouflage of the octopus.With Ray as your companion, you will unlock the hidden secrets of the wild and begin to see, instead of merely look.Water: Healer or Poison?
By Jan De Vries. 1990
Water is one of the basic necessities of life - no organism can survive in its absence. In recent years,…
however, it has become increasingly clear that our public water supply is not as pure as it should be and many are questioning its high chemical content. 'Water scares' are becoming all too frequent. Beaches, seas and oceans themselves are being increasingly contaminated. Plankton are beginning to die and the Earth is being deprived of one of its primary sources of oxygen. In this important addition to his Nature's Gift series, Jan de Vries discusses the implications of this self-inflicted damage and points out the health risks of the various forms of water contamination. Yet, in its pure form, water is one of nature's greatest healers and this volume draws on Jan de Vries' extensive experience of the various water-treatment methods. It provides his readers with guidance and sensible advice on the benefits to be gained from pure, unadulterated water, and it's safe use. Anyone who has been perturbed or confused by the conflicting reports and guidelines concerning this important issue will welcome such an informative book.A Walk from the Wild Edge: ‘This Book Has Changed Lives’ Chris Evans
By Jake Tyler. 2021
The remarkable true story of one man's inspiring journey through his 3,000 mile walk across the country'A great and inspirational…
read' MATT HAIG, bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive'Inspiring' INDEPENDENT'An uplifting and inspirational journey through raw emotion' RAYNOR WINN, bestselling author of The Salt PathAS SEEN ON BBC BREAKFAST______Jake Tyler had forgotten how to feel alive.With only a pair of boots and a backpack, he set off on a 3000-mile walk around Britain - along coastal paths, over mountains, through every national park.His journey became his road to recovery. On it he rediscovered the British landscape, the extraordinary kindness of strangers and most importantly, his place in the world.This is his inspiring story, away from the wild edge.______'Jake you have changed people's lives . . . we are all fans!' Chris Evans, Virgin Radio'An incredible journey, an inspirational memoir . . . beautiful' Zoe Ball, BBC Radio 2'Inspiring . . . It's something that will help many through these dark times' Bryony Gordon'This book is a tonic. Until we can all get out and explore Britain's beauty for ourselves again, this is the ideal substitute' Mirror'So compelling in his honesty . . . very poignant' Express'A tale told with courageous honesty. There's much to learn here about how reconnecting with nature and trusting others can rekindle the joy of being alive' BBC Countryfile 'A testament to the power of human connection, this is a physical and mental journey to inspire hope even in the darkest of times' National GeographicInside this book, you'll find stories of 50 extraordinary people such as:Evel Knievel, who jumped his motorcycle over 14 Greyhound…
busesThe Iceman, the most well-preserved human, found in the ice after 5,300 yearsSam Patch, who jumped Niagara Falls for $75Helen Thayer, who walked to the North Pole aloneRoy Sullivan, who was struck by lightning 7 timesThese intriguing facts and hundreds more await curious readers, amateur historians, and anyone who aspires to the altogether extraordinary!Dissent In America: Voices That Shaped A Nation
By Ralph F. Young. 2009
This collection of primary sources presents the story of US History as told by dissenters who, throughout the course of…
American history, have fought to gain rights they believed were denied to them or others, or who disagree with the government or majority opinion. Each document is introduced by placing it in its historical context, and thought-provoking questions are provided to focus the student when s/he reads the text. Instructors are at liberty to choose the documents that best highlight a theme they wish to emphasize.Unearthed: On race and roots, and how the soil taught me I belong
By Claire Ratinon. 2022
A powerful work of memoir and storytelling that will change the way we think about the natural world.Like many diasporic…
people of colour, Claire Ratinon grew up feeling cut off from the natural world. She lived in cities, reluctant to be outdoors and stuck with the belief that success and status could fill the space where belonging was absent. But a chance encounter with a rooftop farm was the start of a journey that caused her to rethink the life she'd been creating and her beliefs about who she ought to be. Enlivened, she turned her hand to growing food in London before finding herself yearning for a small parcel of land to call her own. Unearthed tells the story of her leaving the city for the English countryside - and her first garden - in the hope of forging a pathway towards the embrace of the natural world and a sense of belonging cultivated on her own terms.'Ratinon's story will change hearts and minds' Alice Vincent'A beautiful book about nature...I recommend it' Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish)The Underworld Captain: From Gangland Goodfella To Army Officer
By Alexander Shannon, David Leslie. 2011
Alexander Shannon escaped a shady past to enjoy a glittering career in the army, only to end up back in…
the thick of criminal activity.Shannon's time as a soldier saw him posted to the Falklands, Northern Ireland and war-torn Bosnia. The rigours of army life took their toll and he found himself drawn into a series of ruthless gang wars. He used the skills he'd learned in the forces to hide weapons, work for drugs racketeers and plot a massacre, and he was offered a fortune to work as a Mafia-style contract assassin.He was questioned over brutal killings and accused of a triple murder attempt, yet his dedication and determination to succeed in the army brought him accolades and a series of promotions. In The Underworld Captain, Shannon explains how he managed to combine a successful army career with dangerous gangland dealings for so long and how he finally broke free for good.Under Two Dictators: With an introduction by Nikolaus Wachsmann
By Margarete Buber-Neumann. 2008
This book is a unique account by a survivor of both the Soviet and Nazi concentration camps: its author, Margarete…
Buber-Neumann, was a loyal member of the German Communist party. From 1935 she and her second husband, Heinz Neumann, were political refugees in Moscow. In April 1937 Neumann was arrested by the secret police, and executed by the end of the year. She herself was arrested in 1938. In Under Two Dictators Buber-Neumann describes the two years of suffering she endured in the Soviet prisons and in the huge Central-Asian concentration and slave labour camp of Karaganda; her extradition to the Gestapo in 1940 at the time of the Stalin-Hitler Friendship Pact; and her five years of suffering in the Nazi concentration and death camp for women, Ravensbrück. Her story displays extraordinary powers of observation and of memory as she describes her own fate, as well as those of hundreds of fellow prisoners. She explores the behaviour of the guards, supervisors, police and secret police and compares and contrasts Stalin and Hitler's methods of dictatorship and terror. First published in Swedish, German and English and subsequently translated and published in a further nine languages, Under Two Dictators is harrowing in its depiction of life under the rule of two of the most brutal regimes the western world has ever seen but also an inspiring story of survival, of ideology and of strength and a clarion call for the protection of democracy.Under a Mackerel Sky
By Rick Stein. 2013
‘All men should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why’Rick Stein's childhood…
in 1950s rural Oxfordshire and North Cornwall was idyllic. His parents were charming and gregarious, their five children much-loved and given freedom typical of the time. As he grew older, the holidays were filled with loud and lively parties in his parents' Cornish barn. But ever-present was the unpredicatible mood of his bipolar father, with Rick frequently the focus of his anger and sadness.When Rick was 18 his father killed himself. Emotionally adrift, Rick left for Australia, carrying a suitcase stamped with his father's initials. Manual labour in the outback followed by adventures in America and Mexico toughened up the naive public schoolboy, but at heart he was still lost and unsure what to do with his life.Eventually, Cornwall called him home. From the entrepreneurial days of his mobile disco, the Purple Tiger, to his first, unlikely unlikely nightclub where much of the time was spent breaking up drink-fuelled fights, Rick charts his personal journey in a way that is both wry and perceptive; engaging and witty.Shortlisted for the Specsavers National Book Awards 2013The Umbrian Thursday Night Supper Club
By Marlena De Blasi. 2015
'If you loved Under the Tuscan Sun, you’ll love this' Red Magazine Every week on a Thursday evening, a group…
of four rural Italian women gather in an old stone house in the hills above Italy’s Orvieto. There – along with their friend, Marlena – they cook together, sit down to a beautiful supper, drink their beloved local wines, and talk. Surrounded by candle light, good food and friendship, the four women tell Marlena their evocative life stories, and of cherished ingredients and recipes whose secrets have been passed down through generations.Typhoon
By Mike Sutton. 2021
The thrilling account of the Typhoon FGR4s in the war against ISIS, from the RAF Wing Commander who led them…
into combat'Adrenaline-fuelled. A rare insight into the high-pressure, high-stakes world of an RAF fighter squadron at war' JOHN NICHOL________'Dragon, we've got reports of a mortar firing team to the west of Mosul. We need you to redeploy now . . .'Mike Sutton commanded the RAF's top Typhoon squadron across Iraq and Syria in the war against ISIS. Flying a Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4, the most advanced multi-role combat aircraft in the world, across treacherous skies, he was dodging ground fire, anti-aircraft artillery, and surface-to-air missiles.Split-second decisions and actions made the difference between life and death in the air - and on the ground . . .Typhoon tells the dramatic story of an air-combat squadron in action, putting you in the cockpit, hands gripping the controls, the sounds of battle crackling in your ears.Buckle up!________'A fabulous insight into the mind of an accomplished fighter pilot and leader as he takes on the biggest challenge of his career' FLYER'Gripping, nerve-shredding, captivating, visceral, fascinating' DAILY MAILTwelve Words for Moss: Love, Loss And Moss
By Elizabeth-Jane Burnett. 2023
LONGLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2024A SUNDAY TIMES AND BBC COUNTRYFILE BEST NATURE BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Exquisite, luminous and…
quietly radical . . . I loved it' Lucy Jones'A fascinating, subtle and risk-taking book' Robert MacfarlaneGlowflake, Rocket, Small Skies, Kind Spears, Marilyn . . . Moss is known as the living carpet but if you look really closely, it contains its own irrepressible light.In Twelve Words for Moss, Elizabeth-Jane Burnett celebrates the unsung hero of the plant world with a unique blend of poetry, nature writing and memoir.Making her way through wetlands from Somerset to County Tyrone, Burnett discovers the hidden vibrancy and luminous beauty of these overlooked places. She also takes strength from them as she recovers from her grief at her father's death. As she meditates on and renames her favourite species of moss, she finds a healing power in language, and draws inspiration from the resilience and tenacity of her plant - and human - friends.'Burnett stretches the limits of prose, infusing it with poetic intensity to create a powerful, original voice' GuardianTrouble in Mind: An Autobiography
By Bernard O'Mahoney. 2011
Trouble in Mind is bernard o'mahoney's unblinkingly honest account of his eventful life so far.Growing up in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, O'Mahoney…
regularly bore the brunt of his father's psychotic violence. After a spell in the army, he served two prison sentences for wounding, before moving to Basildon and forming the Essex Boys firm, one of the most successful and violent criminal gangs in British history.When O'Mahoney quit the firm, he received death threats from his partners, who were murdered less than a fortnight later. He was arrested in the aftermath of the triple murder but was never charged.As he began to distance himself from his shady past, tragedy struck when his young wife died suddenly and, grieving, he spiralled out of control and ended up serving another spell in prison.The Essex Boys firm has been the subject of three films and numerous books, but the gang's infamous activities are only one remarkable aspect of O'Mahoney's extraordinary life story, which he candidly recounts in this gripping memoir.The Trial of Jack the Ripper: The Case of William Bury (1859-89)
By E Macpherson. 2005
A shocking and brutal murder had taken place in the city in February that year, and the words 'Jack Ripper…
is at the back of this door' were found written in chalk on a door at the scene of the crime. When he was arrested, the accused, William Bury, admitted that he was 'afraid he would be arrested as Jack the Ripper'.The police investigation uncovered some disturbing details. William Bury was a small dark-haired man who was known to have been violent towards women. He had been born and brought up in the Midlands but had moved to the East End of London in the late autumn of 1887. On 20 January 1889, he and his wife travelled by boat to Dundee. This meant that he had arrived in London before the start of the Jack the Ripper murders and had left around the same time that they ceased. Could this be coincidence, people wondered. Could it also be a coincidence that the murder in Dundee carried all the hallmarks of a 'ripper' murder?In the month before the trial, the local newspapers in Dundee began to run sensational stories linking the accused with the notorious Whitechapel murders. When the trial opened to a packed courtroom, many in the public gallery were wondering if the man standing in the dock was none other than Jack the Ripper himself.In this sensational and ground-breaking book, Euan Macpherson presents the evidence that the long arm of the law really did catch up with Jack the Ripper ... in a dingy basement flat in Dundee in the cold winter months of early 1889.Totally Frank: The Frank McGarvey Story
By Frank McGarvey, Ronnie Esplin. 2008
During a glorious but controversial career, Frank McGarvey won every major trophy in Scottish football. Under Alex Ferguson at St…
Mirren in the 1970s, he inspired a young Saints team to victory in the First Division - an effort that attracted the attention of English giants Liverpool and Scotland manager Jock Stein. After a frustrating spell at Anfield, he headed back north to join boyhood heroes Celtic, with whom he won five medals in five seasons. However, he was shown the door by Davie Hay just days after scoring the winner for the club in the 1985 Scottish Cup final.McGarvey then returned to St Mirren, with whom he won the Scottish Cup two years later, and he continued his success after a move into management, helping Clyde to win the Second Division trophy. But this is only half of Frank McGarvey's story. Throughout his remarkable career and beyond, McGarvey fought and, for the most part, lost a battle with gambling, which cost him his marriage, home and self-respect.In Totally Frank, McGarvey chronicles his many highs and lows, and reveals how he finally succeeded in overcoming his gambling addiction.Children of the Land: A Memoir
By Marcelo Hernandez Castillo. 2020
An NPR Best Book of the YearA 2020 International Latino Book Award FinalistAn Entertainment Weekly, The Millions, and LitHub Most Anticipated…
Book of the Year This unforgettable memoir from a prize-winning poet about growing up undocumented in the United States recounts the sorrows and joys of a family torn apart by draconian policies and chronicles one young man’s attempt to build a future in a nation that denies his existence.“You were not a ghost even though an entire country was scared of you. No one in this story was a ghost. This was not a story.”When Marcelo Hernandez Castillo was five years old and his family was preparing to cross the border between Mexico and the United States, he suffered temporary, stress-induced blindness. Castillo regained his vision, but quickly understood that he had to move into a threshold of invisibility before settling in California with his parents and siblings. Thus began a new life of hiding in plain sight and of paying extraordinarily careful attention at all times for fear of being truly seen. Before Castillo was one of the most celebrated poets of a generation, he was a boy who perfected his English in the hopes that he might never seem extraordinary.With beauty, grace, and honesty, Castillo recounts his and his family’s encounters with a system that treats them as criminals for seeking safe, ordinary lives. He writes of the Sunday afternoon when he opened the door to an ICE officer who had one hand on his holster, of the hours he spent making a fake social security card so that he could work to support his family, of his father’s deportation and the decade that he spent waiting to return to his wife and children only to be denied reentry, and of his mother’s heartbreaking decision to leave her children and grandchildren so that she could be reunited with her estranged husband and retire from a life of hard labor.Children of the Land distills the trauma of displacement, illuminates the human lives behind the headlines and serves as a stunning meditation on what it means to be a man and a citizen.American Princess: The Love Story of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry
By Leslie Carroll. 2018
A behind-the-scenes look into the life of Meghan Markle and her romance with Prince Harry—a dishy, delightful must-read filled with…
exclusive insights for anyone obsessed with the Royal Family.Leslie Carroll’s books on royalty are “an irresistible combination of People Magazine and the History Channel.”—Chicago TribuneWhen Prince Harry of Wales took his American girlfriend, Meghan Markle, to have tea with his grandmother the queen, avid royal watchers had a hunch that a royal wedding was not far off. That prediction came true on November 27, 2017, when the gorgeous, glamorous twosome announced their engagement to the world. As they prepare to tie the knot in a stunning ceremony on May 19, 2018, that will be unprecedented in royal history, people are clamoring to know more about the beautiful American who captured Prince Harry’s heart. Born and raised in Los Angeles to a white father of German, English, and Irish descent and an African American mother whose ancestors had been enslaved on a Georgia plantation, Meghan has proudly embraced her biracial heritage. In addition to being a star of the popular television series Suits, she is devoted to her humanitarian work—a passion she shares with Harry. Though Meghan was married once before, Prince Harry is a modern royal, and the Windsors have welcomed her into the tight-knit clan they call “The Firm.” Even a generation ago, it would have been unthinkable, as well as impermissible, for any member of Great Britain’s royal family to consider marrying someone like Meghan. Professional actresses were considered scandalous and barely respectable. And the last time an American divorcee married into the Royal Family, it provoked a constitutional crisis!In American Princess, Leslie Carroll provides context to Harry and Meghan’s romance by leading readers through centuries of Britain’s rule-breaking royal marriages, as well as the love matches that were never permitted to make it to the altar; followed by a never-before-seen glimpse into the little-known life of the woman bringing the Royal Family into the 21st century; and her dazzling, thoroughly modern romance with Prince Harry.Symptoms of Withdrawal: A Memoir of Snapshots and Redemption
By Christopher Kennedy Lawford. 2005
At last, the first memoir from a Kennedy family member—an inspirational, candid, and explosive personal story sure to be one…
of the most sensational bestsellers of the yearChristopher Kennedy Lawson was born to enormous privilege. But with fame, money, and power came tragedy and heartbreak. In this clear-eyed, sensitive, and compulsively readable autobiography, he breaks his family’s long-held silence to a rare glimpse into the exclusive worlds of both Washington politicos and the Hollywood elite during the socially turbulent 1960s and 1970s. As the first born child of famed Rat Pack actor, Peter Lawford, and John F. Kennedy’s sister, Patricia, Christopher Lawford was raised in Malibu and Martha’s Vineyard with movie stars and presidents as close family members and friends. But this little boy who learned the twist thanks to private lessons from Marilyn Monroe would grow up to become a spoiled adolescent with a near-fatal jones for heroin and alcohol. With deep sincerity, Kennedy sets the record straight, sharing many never-before-told stories about the good, the bad, and the ugly in his life, including the deaths of his uncles, his parents’ divorce and its effect, his hard-fought struggle to overcome addiction, his long-lasting sobriety, his acting career, and his relationships with his famous cousins and his own children. Surprisingly frank, Kennedy pulls no punches as he tells us what it’s really like to be a member of America’s first family.