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The unsung and remarkable stories of the women who held London's East End together during not one, but two world…
wars. 'Inspiring tales of courage in the face of hardship' Mail on Sunday'Inspiring . . . Takes you back to a time of community and helping one another' 5***** Reader Review'It made me laugh and gasp in equal measure' 5***** Reader Review______ Meet Minksy, Gladys, Beatty, Joan and Girl Walker . . . While the men were at war, these women ruled the streets of the East End. Struggling against poverty to survive, and fighting for their community in our country's darkest hours. But there was also joy to be found. Across the East End the streets were alive - you need only walk a few steps for a smile from a neighbour or a strong cup of tea. From taking over the London Underground, standing up to the Kray twins and crawling out of bombsites, The Stepney Doorstep Society tells the vivid and moving stories of the matriarchs who remain the backbone of the East End to this day. ______ 'Kate Thompson's study of five working-class women who lived through the blitz shows how informal collectives can provide lasting support and inspiration . . . [a] fascinating account' Guardian 'An important glimpse into a vanishing world' Sunday Express'One of the best books I have read in recent years' 5***** Reader Review 'Crammed full of fascinating stories' BBC 2 Steve Wright'Fascinating . . . It was fascinating to hear how these women kept going' 5***** Reader Review 'Astonishing' Radio 5 LiveStephen: The Reign of Anarchy (Penguin Monarchs)
By Carl Watkins. 2015
Known as 'the anarchy', the reign of Stephen (1135-1141) saw England plunged into a civil war that illuminated the fatal…
flaw in the powerful Norman monarchy, that without clear rules ordering succession, conflict between members of William the Conqueror's family were inevitable. But there was another problem, too: Stephen himself.With the nobility of England and Normandy anxious about the prospect of a world without the tough love of the old king Henry I, Stephen styled himself a political panacea, promising strength without oppression. As external threats and internal resistance to his rule accumulated, it was a promise he was unable to keep. Unable to transcend his flawed claim to the throne, and to make the transition from nobleman to king, Stephen's actions betrayed uneasiness in his role, his royal voice never quite ringing true.The resulting violence that spread throughout England was not, or not only, the work of bloodthirsty men on the make. As Watkins shows in this resonant new portrait, it arose because great men struggled to navigate a new and turbulent kind of politics that arose when the king was in eclipse.Statesman of Europe: A Life of Sir Edward Grey
By T. G. Otte. 2008
'The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our life-time.' The words…
of Sir Edward Grey, looking out from the windows of the Foreign Office at the end of August 1914, are amongst the most famous in European history, and encapsulate the impending end of the nineteenth-century world.The man who spoke them was Britain's longest-ever serving Foreign Secretary (in a single span of office) and one of the great figures of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain. Statesman of Europe describes the three decades before the First World War through the prism of his biography, which is based almost entirely on archival sources and presents a detailed account of the main domestic and international events, and of the main personalities of the era. In particular, it presents a fresh understanding of the approach to war in the years and months before its outbreak, and Grey's role in the unfolding of events.Yet Grey's life was not all public affairs, momentous as those were. He disliked being in London, much preferring country life at Fallodon, his family estate in Northumberland, and displayed none of the ambition of his contemporaries (or successors). He attended assiduously to his duties as director of the Great North Eastern Railway, one of the transformative enterprises in industry and communications of the period, and wanted to spend as much time as he could fishing. Apart from his memoirs, the only book he wrote was called The Charm of Birds. This hinterland gave quality to his judgements, and made his character attractive to his contemporaries.This important book is the definitive biography of one of the pivotal figures in European diplomacy, and a magnificent portrait of an age.Sorted!
By John McGuire. 2012
When it looked like his businesses were going down the tubes John McGuire slept in his office and started a…
battle for financial survival.He knows what it's like to see everything you've worked for about to collapse around your ears.He knows what it's like to lie awake at night wondering how you're going to deal with the bank the next day.He knows what it's like to get up in the morning determined to somehow figure out a way out of the mess and to create a viable plan for survival and, indeed, a vision for the future.He's done it and he believes the principles he's used to save his business can help everyone.It's all about taking a long hard look at reality and realising that there are always options.In Sorted! - through a mixture of startling personal revelations and sound professional advice - he tells you how you too can survive and thrive in these turbulent economic times.Sorted! is essential reading for the anyone who cares about their financial futureSold as a Slave (Great Journeys Ser. #No. 8)
By Olaudah Equiano. 2007
In an adventurous and extraordinary life, Equiano (c.1745-c.1797) criss-crossed the Atlantic world, from West Africa to the Caribbean to the…
USA to Britain, either as a slave or fighting with the Royal Navy. His account of his life is not only one of the great documents of the abolition movement, but also a startling, moving story of danger and betrayal.Great Journeys allows readers to travel both around the planet and back through the centuries – but also back into ideas and worlds frightening, ruthless and cruel in different ways from our own. Few reading experiences can begin to match that of engaging with writers who saw astounding things: Great civilisations, walls of ice, violent and implacable jungles, deserts and mountains, multitudes of birds and flowers new to science. Reading these books is to see the world afresh, to rediscover a time when many cultures were quite strange to each other, where legends and stories were treated as facts and in which so much was still to be discovered.So Much To Tell
By Valerie Grove. 2010
Kaye Webb, a journalist with no publishing experience, burst into the world of children's books in 1961 and changed the…
face of children's publishing forever. Her child-like enthusiasm and shrewd business mind led her to become Puffin's most successful editor and the genius behind the Puffin Club, which opened up the exciting world of authors and books to children across Britain. But whilst Kaye's professional life had worked out beautifully, her private life had been the reverse. Kaye had two husbands before her marriage to the artist Ronald Searle, and the torment of his sudden and shocking departure never left her.Yet to the outside world Kaye Webb remained passionate and unstoppable. This is the unknown story of the woman who brought the joy of books to children everywhere whilst battling the emotional pain that plagued her private life.The Smart
By Sarah Bakewell. 2001
The Smart is a true drama of eighteenth-century life with a mercurial, mysterious heroine. Caroline is a young Irishwoman who…
runs off to marry a soldier, comes to London and slides into a glamorous life as a high-class prostitute, a great risk-taker, possessing a mesmerising appeal. In the early 1770s, she becomes involved with the intriguing Perreau twins, identical in looks but opposite in character, one a sober merchant, the other a raffish gambler. They begin forging bonds, living in increasing luxury until everything collapses like a house of cards - and forgery is a capital offence. A brilliantly researched and marvellously evocative history, The Smart is full of the life of London streets and shots through with enduring themes - sex, money, death and fame. It bridges the gap between aristocracy and underworld as eighteenth-century society is drawn into the most scandalous financial sting of the age.Sir Francis Drake
By Dr John Sugden. 2006
How well do you know the life of one of Britain’s great maritime heroes? Discover the truth behind a man…
who remains a legendary figure of history more than four hundred years after his death.Sir Francis Drake’s career is one of the most colourful on record. The most daring of the corsairs who raided the West Indies and Spanish Main, he led the English into the Pacific, and cirumnavigated the world to bring home the Golden Hind laden with Spanish treasure. His attacks on Spanish cities and ships transformed his private war into a struggle for surivival between Protestant England and Catholic Spain, in which he became Elizabeth I's most prominent admiral and marked the emergence of England as major maritime nation.‘Excellent...It deserves to become the standard Drake life. His scholarship is impeccable’ Frank McLynn, Sunday TelegraphThe Shoemaker and his Daughter
By Conor O'Clery. 2018
WINNER OF THE 2020 MICHEL DÉON PRIZE'O'Clery takes us into the hidden heart of Soviet Russia... An arresting and evocative…
story' Keggie Carew, author of Dadland'A tour de force ... Love, politics, murder, wars, and the fracturing of ties, personal and ethnic. O'Clery is a gifted writer' Luke Harding, bestselling author of CollusionThe Soviet Union, 1962. Gifted shoemaker Stanislav Suvorov is imprisoned for five years. His crime? Selling his car for a profit. On his release, social shame drives him and his family into voluntary exile in Siberia, 5,000 kilometres from home. In a climate that's unfriendly both geographically and politically, it's their chance to start again. The Shoemaker and His Daughter is an epic story spanning the Second World War to the fall of the Soviet Union, taking in eighty years of Soviet and Russian history, from Stalin to Putin. Following the footsteps of a remarkable family Conor O'Clery knows well - he is married to the shoemaker's daughter - it's both a compelling insight into life in a secretive world at a siesmic moment in time and a powerful tale of ordinary lives shaped by extraordinary times.Shackleton (The Ladybird Expert Series #6)
By Ben Saunders. 2017
Part of the new Ladybird Expert series, Shackleton is a clear, simple and enlightening introduction to perhaps the most extraordinary…
survival stories of all time.Polar explorer Ben Saunders draws on his own experience of the Antarctic to bring to life the history, dangers and challenges of Shackleton's Endurance expedition. Inside, you'll discover how Shackleton, by successfully bringing all his men home in the face of near insurmountable odds, earned his reputation as one of the greatest leaders in history.Written by the leading lights and most outstanding communicators in their fields, the Ladybird Expert books provide clear, accessible and authoritative introductions to subjects drawn from science, history and culture.Other books currently available in the Ladybird Expert series include:· Climate Change· Quantum Mechanics· Evolution· Battle of BritainFor an adult readership, the Ladybird Expert series is produced in the same iconic small hardback format pioneered by the original Ladybirds. Each beautifully illustrated book features the first new illustrations produced in the original Ladybird style for nearly forty years.All Aboard!: Elijah McCoy's Steam Engine (Great Idea Series #2)
By Monica Kulling. 2010
In the second of Tundra's Great Idea series, biographies for children who are just starting to read, Monica Kulling presents…
the life of an extraordinary man.There were few opportunities for the son of slaves, but Elijah McCoy's dreams led him to study mechanical engineering in Scotland. He learned everything there was to know about engines - how to design them and how to build them. But when he returned to the United States to look for work at the Michigan Central Railroad, the only job Elijah could get was shoveling coal into a train's firebox.Undaunted, he went on to invent a means of oiling the engine while the train was running, changing the face of travel around the world.With playful text and lively illustrations, All Aboard! Elijah McCoy's Steam Engine may be the first biography a child discovers, and it will whet the appetite for many more.The Secret History of the Mongols
By Christopher P. Atwood. 2023
A new translation of a great historical epic, recounting the turbulent life and times of Chinggis Khan'Bear the sword andHew…
asunder high and haughty necksSlash apart all strong and self-willed shoulders'Born poor into a world of dangers and hardships, Chinggis (or Genghis) Khan would grow up to unify Mongolia and conquer a vast empire stretching from modern-day Beijing to Baghdad. The Secret History of the Mongols, written after Chinggis's death in the thirteenth century, is a great historical saga recounting not only his turbulent life and times, but that of his loved ones, ancestors and heirs. This remarkable new translation of the earliest surviving work written in Mongolian gives insight into a world of warlords, kinship, horses, yurts, shamans and vast landscapes, where bloody battles and violent family conflicts are impelled by Heaven's destiny.Translated with an introduction by Christopher P. AtwoodScrew It, Let's Do It: Lessons in Life and Business
By Richard Branson. 2010
Richard Branson is an iconic businessman. In Screw It, Let's Do It, he shares the secrets of his success and…
the invaluable lessons he has learned over the course of his remarkable career. As the world struggles with the twin problems of global recession and climate change, Richard explains why it is up to big companies like Virgin to lead the way in finding a more holistic and environmentally friendly approach to business. He also looks to the future and shares his plans for taking his business and his ideas to the next level.Richard reveals the new and exciting areas into which Virgin is currently moving, including biofuels and space travel, and brings together all the important lessons, good advice and inspirational adages that have helped him along the road to success. This is a fantastic motivational business book that will help every reader achieve their own dreams.‘Oh my goodness – another girl Mrs Swain!’ Clara’s normal iron composure broke and she screamed, ‘No! That’s not the…
bloody deal!’And that is how my nanna, Bertha Swain, entered the world.When Helen Batten’s marriage breaks down, she starts on a journey of discovery into her family’s past and the mysteries surrounding her enigmatic nanna’s early life. What she unearths is a tale of five feisty red heads struggling to climb out of poverty and find love through two world wars. It’s a story full of surprises and scandal – a death in a workhouse, a son kept in a box, a shameful war record, a clandestine marriage and children taken far too soon. It’s as if there is a family curse. But Helen also finds love, resilience and hope – crazy wagers, late night Charlestons and stolen kisses. As she unravels the story of Nanna and her scarlet sisters, Helen starts to break the spell of the past, and sees a way she might herself find love again.The Savvy Woman's Guide to Financial Freedom
By Susan Hayes. 2013
Financial trainer Susan Hayes believes that every woman can and should get to grips with money management. In The Savvy…
Woman's Guide to Financial Freedom she gets to the heart of why you might be having problems and, lIke straight-talking American expert, Suze Orman, she comes up solutions whatever your situation.Think about it ...How many times have you said to yourself, 'This is the year when I finally get to grips with my finances'? But somehow time slips away and twelve months later you are no better off.How many times have you decided to stick to a budget only to see events get in the way and your good intentions frustrated?Do you have a nagging sense that you're not in charge of your money and that your future financial well-being is beyond your control? Even worse, in these challenging economic times, are you so stressed about money that you cannot even begin to see a way out of your situation?Whether you're figuring out how to squeeze enough money from the family budget to save for a much-needed holiday, finally preparing to tackle years of lifestyle debt, or taking a leap of faith and starting your own business, The Savvy Woman's Guide to Financial Freedom is brimful of down-to-earth and encouraging advice, and practical user-friendly methods, to show you how to get where you want to go.By following Susan Hayes's guidance you could find that it takes as little as an hour a week to check your financial well-being, to make sure you are on track to accomplish your goals and to achieve ongoing peace of mind about money.Corkwoman Susan Hayes has had a life-long love affair with business (as a little girl she held board meetings with her teddy bears) and went on to get a BSC in Financial Maths and Economics from NUI Galway. She is managing director of the international financial training company Hayes Culleton. Because of her can-do approach to resolving even the stickiest economic questions in her many media appearances (RTÉ, TV3, Today FM, 4FM, Sunday Independent) she has become known as the Positive Economist.The Savvy Guide to Making More Money
By Susan Hayes. 2014
Financial trainer Susan Hayes believes that everyone, no matter what their circumstances, can learn how to make more money. In…
The Savvy Guide to Making More Money she gets to the heart of what's stopping you and, in the style of straight-talking money experts like Martin Lewis and Suze Orman, she comes up with practical suggestions whatever your situation.Even at the best of times, making more money can seem daunting. And when it's not the best of times, it can seem impossible. However, you would be amazed how simple it is to fatten your bank balance if you go about it the right way. The Savvy Guide to Making More Money is a one-stop shop where you can equip yourself with strategies to grow your income.From her days as a self-employed student to now running a financial training company, Susan Hayes has always approached the business of making money in a practical can-do way. It has been successful for her and the many people she has worked with. Now she shares her advice and tips with you.Among many other things The Savvy Guide to Making More Money will help you to:· understand why you haven't made more money by now;· learn tried and tested techniques to raising new revenues;· choose the best way to put your money to work for you;· find out who can help you get to your income goals.You don't have to be a business genius to make money. Through a combination of skill and smart thinking you will be amazed at what you can achieve.'Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I was up till four o'clock this morning reading it, making notes.' The Tom Dunne Show on The Savvy Woman's Guide to Financial Freedom'[She writes with] humourous directness, unflinching good sense and practical advice ... makes me think I can tackle my own issues.' The Herald'A great read ... easy to understand' The SunSusan Hayes is managing director of the international financial training company Hayes Culleton. Her can-do approach to resolving even the stickiest economic questions in her many media appearances (RTÉ, TV3, Today FM, 4FM, Sunday Independent) has seen her become known as the Positive Economist. Her first book was The Savvy Woman's Guide to Financial Freedom.Saudi Babylon: Torture, Corruption and Cover-Up Inside the House of Saud
By Mark Hollingsworth, Sandy Mitchell. 2005
When Sandy Mitchell was arrested for his alleged involvement in two bombings in Saudi Arabia in December 2000, he thought…
it was a case of mistaken identity and that he would soon be released. Instead, he spent nearly three years in jail, where he was repeatedly tortured before being forced to sign a confession and admit his guilt on Saudi television.Throughout his incarceration the Saudi authorities knew that the attacks had been committed by al-Qaeda militants. Yet they kept Mitchell in jail and refused him access to a lawyer for a year. By this time he had been sentenced to death but he was eventually released before the penalty could be imposed. Saudi Babylon is the story of a shocking miscarriage of justice. But it also reveals an even more disturbing truth: how the British government, mindful of multi-billion-pound arms sales to Saudi Arabia, virtually abandoned Mitchell by adopting a softly-softly diplomatic approach to the corrupt Saudi royal family. Based on diaries and records of meetings with ministers and officials, this is a powerful exposé of how the British government acts when one of its citizens is illegally imprisoned and tortured by a regime with which it does business.Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have blossomed into an area of immense cultural, investment, and academic interest, and this groundswell of fascination…
with non-fungible digital tokenization has been accompanied by a variety of attitudes towards their function, purpose, and potential. Some advocates perceive NFTs to be revolutionary in character, reshaping notions of the construction and preservation of unique assets in the digital realm. At the same time, a notable number of skeptics and detractors view the NFT movement as a passing and overhyped fad at best, and a disingenuous ploy in the digital economy at its worst. Given the diversity of views that have emerged in a comparatively brief span, this book draws upon rich academic perspectives on NFTs from a variety of disciplines, including: computer science, cultural studies, mathematics, sociology, linguistics, mass communication, economics, and finance.The book teases out nuances in how NFTs can and should operate, while also pointing to the potential that these non-fungible assets wield in the digital sphere, along with countervailing arguments against their conceptual and functional salience, and perhaps some dangers that they pose. The book considers the longevity and viability of NFTs as sociocultural, technological, and economic phenomenon, while offering estimates of future paths that NFTs might take in each domain and weighs the opposing narratives and strikes balanced assessments of the legal, cultural, technological, economic, and political role of NFTs in modern society.With its panoramic display of analysis on NFTs, the book will be of particular interest to scholars and researchers across a wide number of subjects.Goodbye Gordon Gekko: How to Find Your Fortune Without Losing Your Soul
By Anthony Scaramucci. 2010
The investment expert shows how a better understanding of people, capital, and culture can enrich one&’s life financially as well…
as spiritually. It is time to say goodbye to Gordon Gekko, the rogue character famously portrayed by Michael Douglas in the classic movie Wall Street. In Goodbye Gordon Gekko, author Anthony Scaramucci explores opportunities for leading a rich life in a difficult, radically changed economy. Believing that the financial crisis was caused by a nation of Gekko-wannabes tripped up by status anxiety and egocentric tendencies, he argues that you can be happy and financially profitable as long as you stay true to yourself and stick to your values and principles. Scaramucci offers hope, urging you to pass through the happily-ever-after portal so that you can find your fortune and all that is fortunate. With years of experience at Goldman Sachs, and having co-founded two successful alternative investment management companies, the author provides a behind-the-scenes view of life on Wall Street—the wins and the losses, the rights and the wrongs, the successes and the failures, the good mentors and the difficult colleagues. Through these entertaining and insightful stories, featuring advice from a diverse cast of characters ranging from Li Ka-shing to John Weinberg to his Italian nana, Scaramucci identifies the temptations and roadblocks that accompany our professional ambitions and personal choices, revealing the rules for leading a profitable and fortunate life. What does this mean in practical terms? As Scaramucci shows, it means ridding yourself of egotistical tendencies and developing the self-awareness to bounce back from failure. It means building a circle of competence made of those you trust, mentoring and celebrating others, and giving back to your community and country, all the while targeting success. It means seeing capitalism as an art and businesses as creations and vocations, not simply as levers to feeding your ego. Goodbye Gordon Gekko provides a road map to help people achieve true wealth defined beyond a checking account. Praise for Goodbye Gordon Gekko&“A fun, easy read, with sage advice.&” —Oliver Stone, three-time Academy Award Winner; Director, Wall Street and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps&“A truly insightful read. It introduces us to a moral compass on Wall Street—finding riches by direction of a true north as opposed to insidious Gekko-style greed.&” —Josh Brolin, Academy Award Nominee; Actor, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; Active Trader&“Scaramucci is a unique combination of great entrepreneur and savvy Wall Streeter. His perspective on all things business is invaluable and here for all to read.&” —David Faber, Anchor, CNBCTheodora: Portrait in a Byzantine Landscape
By Antony Bridge. 2005
&“First rate popular history/biography, evoking the Byzantine empire at its peak. A remarkable story in an entertaining, informative book.&” —The…
Wall Street Journal This is the biography of a Byzantine courtesan who rose from the gutter to the throne of an empire. It is a romantic and improbable story, and Theodora is an extraordinary woman, indeed. Her background and her many actions were scandalous, but she had qualities of greatness and this book sets the record straight. This account of her life is a pageant in which Emperors and barbarian kings, Popes and Patriarchs, eunuchs and generals, heretics and orthodox opponents, charioteers and ladies of easy virtue, saints and sinners move in a formal and splendid rhythm. This formality was often marred by violence: one of the worst riots in Byzantine history took place when Theodora had been empress for a short time, and during much of her reign there was war in Italy, marked by appalling suffering and barbarity. Toward the end of her life, Constantinople was devastated by Bubonic plague. Yet Theodora triumphed over every adverse circumstance, tough and clever to the end. &“ . . . Bridge&’s book, with its exceptionally vivid and evocative style, brings the period alive.&” —Library Journal &“Puts [Theodora] in her own time and place in the vast panorama of the golden age of an empire which lasted 1,100 years.&” —Boston Herald &“Conveys the passion and the fervor of the sixth century A.D.&” —Los Angeles Herald Examiner