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Friday's Child: The Heartbreaking Story of a Mother's Love and a Family's Loss
By Ben Palmer. 2008
In 2004, Jessica Palmer died suddenly of septicaemia, just six days after giving birth to her second child. Distraught, her…
husband Ben struggled to comprehend his loss and to care for their two young children. It later came to light that Jessica's condition can usually be easily detected and prevented but in this case nothing was done until it was too late. Ben and his family successfully sued the NHS for negligence in 2007.This is Ben's heartbreaking story of dealing with his grief while raising two small children as a single parent. As he tries to accept the idea of life without his beloved wife, he battles shock, grief, despair and guilt, before finally finding hope in the future, thanks to the love and support of his friends and family. It is a devastating story of living with a cruel and needless loss.Gorbals Diehards: A Wild Sixties Childhood
By Colin MacFarlane. 2011
Enid Blyton wrote about the Famous Five - wholesome kids who were always up to some adventure or other -…
but during the 1960s Glasgow boy Colin MacFarlane had his own gang: the Incredible Gorbals Diehards. These were young boys trying to survive in one of the world's toughest areas, the infamous slums of Glasgow.During the gang's daily adventures, they came across a plethora of undesirable characters, including foul-mouthed drunks, thieves, razor-flicking gang members, con men, fly men and street brawlers. Through it all, MacFarlane and his band of brothers retained their sense of humour while roaming the filthy, stench-ridden Gorbals backstreets.In the third volume of his acclaimed memoirs, bestselling author Colin MacFarlane reveals what it was like to grow up on the streets of the Gorbals during this period. Be prepared to be shocked and entertained at the adventures of the gang that called themselves the Incredible Gorbals Diehards.The Gangster's Wife: An Empire Built on Cards
By David Leslie. 2009
For almost four decades, Margaret 'Mags' McGraw was a keeper of secrets. Her husband, Tam, the notorious 'Licensee', amassed a…
fortune by leading a safe-cracking gang before masterminding a spectacular £50-million drugs racket.Mags was a devotee of Tarot cards and fortune telling, so when Tam and his associates wondered whether luck would be with them, it was to her that they turned. But Mags discovered that the cards warned of much more than years in prison cells: they predicted death. She learned that her own husband was also doomed to a fate that was unexpected by everyone but her: Tam died in the arms of the wife he called his 'rock' while her secret lover frantically tried to save him.In The Gangster's Wife, Mags reveals her gripping life story, from being a London clippie through often hilarious days running an ice-cream van during the infamous Glasgow Ice Cream Wars to managing a notorious bar, being agony aunt to the toughest criminals around, hiding a secret love and sharing a life with The Licensee.Good Hair: The Essential Guide to Afro, Textured and Curly Hair
By Charlotte Mensah. 2020
A celebration of the unique beauty of Black hair, this book is packed with expert advice, top maintenance tips!'Legendary' Zadie…
Smith'Charlotte is not only the most influential expert on black hair, but an inspiring entrepreneur whose Notting Hill salon is part beauty destination, part cultural hub with its cross-section of powerful, dynamic clients' Kenya Hunt, Fashion Editor at Grazia___________________Featuring case studies of clients who came to her looking for a hair fix, Good Hair dispels common hair myths and give you the knowledge and tools to attain good hair health. Charlotte's expertise is second-to-none and her advice acts as a corrective to the conflicting and misguided advice that can be found online.Packed with expert advice, nourishing recipes and top maintenance tips, Good Hair is a celebration of the unique beauty of Black hair. It is the ultimate guide on how to:· Identify and understand your curl textures· Promote hair growth and find good products· Choose the right protective styles· Overcome hair loss, itchiness and dryness· Try styles such as cornrows, locs and bantu knotsAnd while Good Hair is the long over-due bible and how to guide for black hair, this is not just a hairstyling book. It is also a very well-documented account of the cultural and political history of black hair as well as an inspirational memoir of hope, determination and entrepreneurialism, as we follow Charlotte's journey from Ghana to opening her first hair salon in West London.'This book is not just a brilliant insight into exactly how she became such a powerhouse, it is also an excellent guide to everything you need to know about black hair' Funmi Fetto, author of Palette and contributing editor at British VogueThe last time that anyone heard from 35-year-old Claudia Lawrence, a chef at the University of York, was when she…
sent a text message to a friend on 18 March 2009 at 8.23 p.m. She has never been heard from or seen again, and her disappearance is a mystery that endures to this day.What happened to Claudia that early spring evening – or was it early the following morning on her way to work? There had been nothing abnormal about her behaviour before she vanished, and there were no signs of a struggle at her home. A Crimewatch reconstruction has been broadcast, and the police investigation into the case has cost more than £750,000. Dozens of interviews have thrown up numerous leads, but there are no concrete clues.With extensive access to her family and friends, in Gone, Neil Root assesses the facts and theories and asks: where is Claudia?Zoo Tails
By Oliver Graham Jones. 2001
One puff adder, one antelope, one crocodile – This was the list of sick animals presented to Oliver Graham-Jones on…
his first day as a new vet at London Zoo in 1951. And his time at the zoo didn’t get any less strange or entertaining…There’s the time he anaesthetized, and was then chased by, a gorilla; had to capture an angry polar bear in thick fog; performed a colostomy on a python; and fitted a raven in the Tower of London with a wooden leg. And if an animal escaped (more frequently than you might think) or required urgent medical attention, he was always on hand, ready for any eventuality. With his self-deprecating humour, Oliver frequently described himself as quaking with fear, but he was also skilful, brave and, most of all, incredibly caring and kind to his animal patients.The Family Friend: Sometimes the danger is closer than you think
By Matt Lowe. 2007
Matt Lowe's childhood was outwardly idyllic. He was part of a large, loving family and lived comfortably on the Norfolk…
coast. Yet, unnoticed by his parents and peers, he was being abused by a young man who had been welcomed into the family fold...in the guise of the perfect family friend.Jeremy was intelligent, artistic and fantastic with children. A real-life Peter Pan, he was loved by the children and trusted by the adults. He was particularly fond of Matt and would organise outings and treats every weekend, just for the two of them. But from the start the relationship had a sinister side; one that Matt instinctively knew must remain hidden. Written with heart-wrenching candour, Matt's story is an unusually insightful and moving account of how one small boy endured many years of sexual and psychological abuse and how, without realising, those closest to him allowed it to happen.Essex Boy: Last Man Standing
By Bernard O'Mahoney, Steven Ellis. 2009
Two films and numerous books have attempted to tell the shocking story of two of Britain's most ruthless gangs. For…
20 years, the Essex Boys firm and their successors, the New Generation, controlled a lucrative drugs empire in Essex and throughout the south east of England by using intimidation, gratuitous violence and murder. Rampaging through the streets and clubland, they destroyed anything and anybody that dared to get in their way. Eventually torn apart by greed and paranoia, the gang members became victims of their own vile trade and hate-filled actions. Pat Tate, Tony Tucker and Craig Rolfe were all blasted repeatedly with a shotgun as they sat in their Range Rover down a remote farm track. Dean Boshell was lured to allotments, then beaten and shot execution-style three times through the head. Others, such as Darren Nicholls and Damon Alvin, turned Super Grass and disappeared into the witness protection scheme never to be seen again, while three other men are in prison serving life sentences. Steve `Nipper` Ellis is the last man standing, the only member to have survived the bloody reign of both gangs. In Essex Boy, he tells his shocking story for the first time, and reveals just how close he came to being both murderer and murder victim.Emma and I
By Sheila Hocken. 1977
As a girl, Sheila never let her gradual descent into blindness prevent her from trying to do everything a sighted…
person could do. Then at 17, unable to see to find her way around the house she grew up in, she found herself dreading her future in an 'ever darkening vacuum'.But then the remarkable Emma enters her life, and Sheila begins a journey that brings her the independence, love and happiness she never dreamed possible.Emma and I is the moving and inspirational story of the unique bond between Sheila and her dog, and shows that, sometimes, miracles do happen.Eminent Elizabethans: Rupert Murdoch, Prince Charles, Margaret Thatcher & Mick Jagger
By Piers Brendon. 2012
What links Margaret Thatcher, Rupert Murdoch, Prince Charles and Mick Jagger? Each have illuminated our Elizabethan age in their own,…
inimitable, way.Margaret Thatcher - the first female Prime Minister, who dedicated herself with messianic zeal to breaking the mould of post-war British politicsRupert Murdoch - the billionaire media mogul whose empire, built on an ethical void, has polluted the channels of communication from London to Sydney, from New York to New GuineaPrince Charles - the royal dilettante whose erratic exploits shook the throne and put his own succession to it at riskMick Jagger - lead singer of the Rolling Stones, who embodied the sixties counter-culture of sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll yet aspired to be a gentleman and accepted a knighthood at the behest of Tony Blair.The sequel to Brendon's bestselling Eminent Edwardians, Eminent Elizabethans is written in the same witty, ironic and irreverent style and reveals how each one played out a major theme in the new Elizabethan medley. Each portrait vividly and vitally captured through pungent anecdote, piquant quotation and mordant commentary. In short, these brilliant miniatures are as entertaining as they are illuminating.'Excellent' Guardian'Entirely refreshing' Daily Mail'A delight' Daily ExpressFlesh and Blood: The Harrowing and Moving Story of a Mother's Fight to Bear Her Late Husband's Children
By Diane Blood Author. 2004
Diane Blood first hit the headlines in 1996 when she went to court to fight for the right to use…
her late husband's sperm to try for the child they had planned together before his sudden death from meningitis. Diane's case caused an ethical storm and was debated in the courts, in Parliament and in the media. With huge public support, yet against almost impossible odds, she won on appeal and went on to have two miraculous little boys. The legal battles were not over, however, as the law still prevented Diane from naming the boys' father on their birth certificates. After many hurdles and stumbling blocks, she triumphed again and made constitutional history when the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Deceased Fathers) Act finally came into force on 1 December 2003 and she was allowed to re-register her children's births. Flesh and Blood asks many important questions and helps provide some of the answers. It shows how controversial policies are made that affect all our lives. Beyond that, it is a simple story of life, death and procreation: an incredibly vivid account written by the woman who lived through the despair and jubilation.Fighting Mac: The Downfall of Major-General Sir Hector Macdonald
By Trevor Royle. 1982
On a spring morning in 1903, Major-General Sir Hector Macdonald, one of Britain's greatest military heroes, took his life in…
a hotel room in Paris. A few days later he was buried hastily in an Edinburgh cemetary as his fellow countrymen tried to come to terms with the fact that one of Scotland's most famous soldiers had ended his life rather than face charges against his character.The suicide and its aftermath created a national scandal and one which still reverberates long after those dramatic events - it is now clear that the official files dealing with his case, the papers of the Judge Advocate have been destroyed. Macdonald or 'Fighting Mac' as he was known to an adoring public, was no ordinary soldier. A crofter's son who had risen from the ranks in the Victorian army, he covered himself with glory during a long and successful military career and in 1898 was widely acknowledged as the true hero of the Battle of Omdurman, which cemented British Imperial rule in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Everything lay at his feet - a knighthood, honours, the respect of fellow generals such as Roberts and Kitchener - but Macdonald's career came to a shocking full stop when he stood accused of homosexuality and was ordered to face a court martial. Unable to come to terms with the disgrace, he committed suicide. That should have been the end of his story but so powerful was the myth created by Fighting Mac that people refused to believe he was dead. Soon rumours were circulating that Macdonald had faked his death and had adopted the persona of a prominent Prussian officer, the future Field Marshal August con Mackensen, one of Germany's great leaders during the First World War. FIGHTING MAC tells the true story behind his disgrace and sheds new light on the myths....Fifty Years Fighting: Another Step In Time
By Jan De Vries. 2004
Fifty Years Fighting is the sequel to Jan de Vries's popular first autobiographical volume, A Step At A Time, which…
prompted readers to ask for more information about the life of the legendary alternative medicine guru.In Fifty Years Fighting, de Vries focuses on his lengthy struggle for the recognition of alternative medicine. He details how he was threatened with imprisonment by the Inspectorate of Health early in his career and reveals how the same organisation is now promoting this form of medicine today to the extent that, in his home country of Holland, a great majority of doctors have adopted alternative medicine in the way that he envisioned and campaigned for many years before. In the second part of his autobiographical trilogy, de Vries also describes some of the methods of alternative medicine he has used down the years and the remarkable results he has obtained while administering these treatments. Fifty Years Fighting is packed with intriguing case histories from Jan's vast experience of practising homoeopathy. Some are very surprising, while others give helpful tips for the reader. Invaluable advice is offered as to what patients can do to help themselves in certain circumstances and on how to obtain physical, mental - and most importantly - spiritual health in life.The Ferris Conspiracy
By Paul Ferris, Reg McKay. 2001
On Glasgow's meanest streets life started well for the young Paul Ferris. How did he become Glasgow's most feared gangster,…
deemed a risk to national security?Arthur Thompson, Godfather of the crime world and senior partner of the Krays, recruited young Ferris as a bagman, debt collector and equaliser. Feared for his capacity for extreme violence, respected for his intelligence, Ferris was the Godfather's heir apparent. But when gang warfare broke, underworld leaders traded in flesh, colluding with their partners - the police. Disgusted, Ferris left the Godfather and stood alone. They gave him weeks to live.While Ferris was caged in Barlinnie Prison's segregation unit accused of murdering Thompson's son, Fatboy, his two friends were shot dead the night before the funeral and grotesquely displayed in a car on the cortége's route. Acquitted against all the odds, Ferris moved on, determined to make an honest living.They would not let him.The National Crime Squad, MI5, the police and two of the country's most powerful gangsters saw to that. A maximum-security prisoner, Ferris is known as 'Lucky' because he is still alive.This is one man's unique insight into Britain's crime world and the inextricable web of corruption - a revealing story of official corruption and unholy alliances.An Englishman at War: The Wartime Diaries of Stanley Christopherson DSO MC & Bar 1939-1945
By Stanley Christopherson. 2014
‘An astonishing record...There is no other wartime diary that can match the scope of these diaries’ James Holland‘An outstanding contribution…
to the literature of the Second World War’Professor Gary SheffieldFrom the outbreak of war in September 1939 to the smouldering ruins of Berlin in 1945, via Tobruk, El Alamein, D-Day and the crossing of the Rhine, An Englishman at War is a unique first-person account of the Second World War. Stanley Christopherson’s regiment, the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, went to war as amateurs and ended up one of the most experienced, highly trained and most valued armoured units in the British Army. A junior officer at the beginning of the war, Christopherson became the commanding officer of the regiment soon after the D-Day landings. What he and his regiment witnessed presents a unique overview of one of the most cataclysmic events in world history and gives an extraordinary insight, through tragedy and triumph, into what it felt like to be part of the push for victory.First Catch Your Husband: Adventures on the Dating Front Line
By Sarah Bridge. 2012
Sarah Bridge is smart, successful . . . and single. As a newspaper journalist, she has a hectic day job,…
a busy social life and is perfectly happy with both. But something – or someone – is missing. Embarking on a quest to find her soulmate, she tries everything: from speed-dating and wine-tasting to Scottish dancing and singles holidays, island-hopping and army assault courses to self-help books and fortune-telling. Whether climbing mountains in Morocco or swimming at midnight in the Caribbean, Sarah is on a mission to meet Mr Right. But will anything actually work? And how will she feel after putting herself, and her heart, out there? First Catch Your Husband is an entertaining, touching and thought-provoking account of life on the front line of dating. It’s an inspiring tale for anyone who’s ever been, or wanted to be, in love.WINNER of the Polari First Book Prize 2021WINNER of the LAMBDA 2021 Literary Award for Best Gay Memoir/BiographyA Dutiful Boy…
is Mohsin's personal journey from denial to acceptance: a revelatory memoir about the power of love, belonging, and living every part of your identity.Growing up in a devout Muslim household, it felt impossible for Mohsin to be gay. Unable to be open with his family, and with difficult conditions at school, he felt his opportunities closing around him. Despite the odds, Mohsin's perseverance led him to become the first person from his school to attend Oxford University, where new experiences and encounters helped him to discover who he truly wanted to be. Mohsin was confronted with the biggest decision he would ever make: to live the life that was expected of him or to live as his authentic self.A Guardian, GQ, and New Statesman Book of the Year'Genuinely inspiring... Beautifully written, dignified and ultimately redemptive, this challenging story abounds with light and love' Attitude | 'An Incredibly important read' Jyoti PatelDunblane: Never Forget
By Dr Mick North. 1997
Mick North's daughter Sophie was one of the children killed in the massacre at Dunblane Primary School. Dunblane: Never Forget…
is a personal account of Mick's life before and after the massacre and includes a critical assessement of the events that led to the tragedy and those that have followed. He begins by recalling his arrival in Stirling and how he and Barbara moved to Dunblane while awaiting the birth of their only child. A few months later Barbara was diagnosed with cancer and the family had to deal with her terminal illness. After the death of Barbara, father and daughter became an inseparable team until that dreadful day in 1996. North writes about how he and the other families dealt with public sympathy, the anti-handgun campaign, the memorial service, the television programmes, newspaper interviews and the creation of the Dunblane Memorial Garden. He describes how it felt to attend a public inquiry into the murder of his child, criticises the local police force and details the ambivalent attitude of the Dunblane community.Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One is
By Friedrich Nietzsche. 1979
In late 1888, only weeks before his final collapse into madness, Nietzsche (1844-1900) set out to compose his autobiography, and…
Ecce Homo remains one of the most intriguing yet bizarre examples of the genre ever written. In this extraordinary work Nietzsche traces his life, work and development as a philosopher, examines the heroes he has identified with, struggled against and then overcome - Schopenhauer, Wagner, Socrates, Christ - and predicts the cataclysmic impact of his 'forthcoming revelation of all values'. Both self-celebrating and self-mocking, penetrating and strange, Ecce Homo gives the final, definitive expression to Nietzsche's main beliefs and is in every way his last testament.Dr Johnson's Women
By Norma Clarke. 2001
Dr Johnson's friendships with the leading women writers of the day was an important feature of his life and theirs.…
He was willing to treat women as intellectual equals and to promote their careers: something ignored by his main biographer, James Boswell. Dr Johnson's Women investigates the lives and writings of six leading female authors Johnson knew well: Elizabeth Carter, Charlotte Lennox, Elizabeth Montagu, Hester Thrale, Hannah More and Fanny Burney. It explores their relationships with Johnson, with each other and with the world of letters. It shows what it was like to be a woman writer in the 'Age of Johnson'. It is often assumed that women writers in the eighteenth century suffered the same restrictions and obstacles that confronted their Victorian successors. Norma Clarke shows that this was by no means the case. Highlighting the opportunities available to women of talent in the eighteenth century, Dr Johnson's Women makes clear just how impressive and varied their achievements were.