Title search results
Showing 41 - 60 of 5146 items
Harrier: How To Be a Fighter Pilot
By Paul Tremelling. 2022
Discover the exhilarating first-hand account of one man's white-knuckle life as a fighter pilot with the Royal Navy Sea Harriers'Searingly…
honest, keenly observed, well written and extremely funny' RAF NEWS'Puts you in the cockpit for carrier landings, missile firings and some of the most intense close air support stories imaginable' MIKE SUTTON____________Few have what it takes to be a fighter pilot. From the cockpit to the crew room, the pressure is relentless. One mistake is the difference between life and death. But in the air, you'll never feel more alive . . .Paul Tremelling knows this better than anyone. With nearly 20 years of experience, he puts you in the pilot's seat in this thrilling first-hand account of a life in combat.From saving the lives of heroes under fire in Afghanistan, to performing a night trap on a pitching aircraft carrier deck, this is life as you've never experienced it before.Strap in, it's time for take-off . . .____________'An outstanding first-hand account from inside the cockpit, told with flair and humour' JOHNNY MERCER MP, author of We Were Warriors'The storytelling wouldn't be out of place in a thriller. If you are going to take one book on holiday it has to be Harrier . . . it's a superb read. You won't be able to put it down' Aerospace'Mad, bad and dangerous to know . . . Tremelling lights the burners in an extraordinary memoir that leaves most military memoirs sitting behind in the hangar' JAMES BRABAZON, author of My Friend the Mercenary'This isn't a book for the faint-hearted. It is a book for anyone who appreciates insight into how a fighter pilot trains, trains more, thinks (fast), handles the aircraft and onboard tech . . . then fights' FLYER'Tremmers puts you in the cockpit for carrier landings, missile firings and some of the most intense close air support sorties imaginable. Insightful, laced with humour, and highly recommended' MIKE SUTTON, author of Typhoon'An inspiring, enlightening and thrilling insight into how modern aviators earn their pay. The stories from Afghanistan alone are justification enough to read this brilliant book. A masterpiece' PAUL BEAVER, author of Spitfire People 'A memoir that reads like a fast-paced thriller. Harrier launches straight onto the classics shelf of aviation literature' JOHN TEMPLETON SMITH, author of White LieHarold Nicolson
By Norman Rose. 2005
Harold Nicolson was a man of extraordinary gifts. A renowned politician, historian, biographer, diarist, novelist, lecturer, journalist, broadcaster and gardener,…
his position in society and politics allowed him an insight into the most dramatic events of British, indeed world, history.Nicolson's personal life was no less dramatic. Married to Vita Sackville-West, one of the most famous writers of her day, their marriage survived, even prospered, despite their both being practising homosexuals. Unashamedly elitist, bound together by their literary, social, and intellectual pursuits, moving in the refined circles of the Bloomsbury group they viewed life from the rarified peaks of aristocratic haughtiness. Few men could boast such gifts as Nicolson possessed, yet he ended his life plagued by self-doubt. 'I am attempting nothing; therefore I cannot fail,' he once acknowledged. What went wrong? It was a question that haunted Nicolson throughout his adult life. Relying on a wealth of archival material, Norman Rose brilliantly disentangles fact from fiction, setting Nicolson's story of perceived failure against the wider perspective of his times.High Stakes: How I Blew £14 Million
By Sir Nigel Goldman. 2004
Nigel Goldman wrote the autobiographical High Stakes while in prison paying the price for two decades of risk-taking on the…
financial markets. Through his dealings in the tempestuous silver futures market and a sideline in rare coin investments, Goldman developed a taste for the champagne lifestyle. Desperate to maintain the high life, his deals became riskier and were increasingly financed by his clients' money. Taking advantage of trading loopholes and insider tip-offs, Goldman peaked with an account balance of £14 million but troughed with two spells in prison.The story begins with Goldman placing a £50 bet on the roulette table and walking away with £10,000. And so his adventures continue. There are personal trades, investment businesses, gold bullion deals, racehorses and an American gentleman who allows Goldman to play with his fortune on the New York Stock Exchange. But there are also Customs and Excise investigations and lifelong enemies waiting to exact their revenge.High Stakes provides a detailed insight into the little-known twilight world of insider-dealing and shows how the search for the ultimate win can lead to a life on the run.William Stone died on 10 January 2009 aged 108. He received a hero's funeral. Born in rural Devon, he joined…
the navy during the First World War, travelled the globe just before the British Empire's light began to fade and saw action in some of the most significant sea battles of the Second World War. Afterwards, he returned to Devon to run a barber's shop, an altogether more peaceable existence.As time passed, he became one of a dwindling number of men still alive who had served in the Great War. This meant that for some of the most momentous anniversaries clocked up recently - including the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War - William was a guest of honour. This autobiography bridges two wars and encompasses the remarkable episodes and adventures. It was an ordinary life lived in extraordinary times. He died at a time when the navy is attempting to embrace new ships that bear scant resemblance to those that William knew and face the challenges of a world that shrinks with every bold technological advance. His was a different kind of boldness. This is his astonishing story.The Glossy Years: Magazines, Museums and Selective Memoirs
By Nicholas Coleridge. 2001
'The most entertaining book of the year' Sunday Times _____________________________________________________Diana touched your elbow, your arm, covered your hand with hers.…
It was alluring. And she was disarmingly confiding."Can I ask you something? Nicholas, please be frank..."Over his thirty-year career at Condé Nast, Nicholas Coleridge has witnessed it all. From the anxieties of the Princess of Wales to the blazing fury of Mohamed Al-Fayed, his story is also the story of the people who populate the glamorous world of glossy magazines. With relish and astonishing candour, he offers the inside scoop on Tina Brown and Anna Wintour, David Bowie and Philip Green, Kate Moss and Beyonce; on Margaret Thatcher's clothes legacy, and a surreal weekend away with Bob Geldof and William Hague. Cara Delevingne, media tycoons, Prime Ministers, Princes, Mayors and Maharajas - all cross his path.His career in magazines straddles the glossies throughout their glorious zenith - from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s to the digital iterations of the 21st century. Having cut his teeth on Tatler, and as Editor-in-Chief of Harpers & Queen, he became the Mr Big of glossy publishing for three decades.Packed with surprising and often hilarious anecdotes, The Glossy Years also provides perceptive insight into the changing and treacherous worlds of fashion, journalism, museums and a whole sweep of British society. This is a rich, honest, witty and very personal memoir of a life splendidly lived.__________________________________________________________'An entertaining whirlwind' Evening Standard'Gentle, jolly . . . Blissfully funny' Sunday Telegraph'An irresistible read, hilarious, honest and insightful. I adored it' Tina Brown'Sparkling' Spectator'Forthright, witty and gossipy . . . a passion for glossy magazines shines through this effervescent memoir' Sunday ExpressGet Sh*t Done!: From spare room to boardroom in 1,000 days
By Niall Harbison. 2014
Do you start every day with a 'to do' list? Every year with new resolutions? Do you fantasise about winning…
the lottery, travelling the world or retiring at forty? Many of us dream big but we never truly believe we can achieve our life's ambitions.But it doesn't have to be like this. It is possible to make dreams come true as Niall Harbison has found out - aged just 33, and within 1000 days of starting a business in his bedroom, he sold it for millions. Before that he had already lived what seemed like a charmed life. As a private chef for billionaires (among other highlights, cooking for Bill Gate's fiftieth birthday) he got paid to travel all over the world while enjoying a lifestyle normally reserved for the rich and famous.But Niall Harbison achieved his dreams despite a serious drink problem and crippling bouts of depression. Now he shares his secrets. Get Sh*t Done! contains a unique set of principles and a new way of thinking. It includes life hacks that will help you escape the nine-to-five, overcome your limitations and make the things you dream about actually happen - and quicker than you could ever imagine.Let Niall Harbison be your inspiration. Learn how he got paid to snowboard all day and to surf in Hawaii, still gets paid to go on holiday and has never worked a day in his life. And learn how he doesn't let personal challenges get in the way of his goals. Stop dreaming and instead start getting sh*t done!Grit, Rigour & Humour: The INEOS Story
By Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Dominic O'Connell, Quentin Willson, Patrick Barclay, Sebastian Coe, Andrew Likierman, Sean Keach, Steph McGovern. 2023
'Manual for success' The AthleticWith an opening chapter by Sir Jim RatcliffeTo mark the 25th Anniversary of the founding of…
INEOS in 1998, seven leading specialist authors explore the main strands of INEOS's business, including its core chemical business to its ventures into sport, automotive, consumer goods, sustainability, next generation and philanthropy.* Dominic O'Connell on INEOS' core petrochemicals and energy business* Patrick Barclay on INEOS's involvement in sport from the America's Cup to cycling, athletics to Formula 1 and football* Quentin Willson on the building of the Grenadier from scratch in response to the demise of the Land Rover Defender* Steph McGovern on INEOS' move into the consumer goods sector with brands such as Belstaff and INEOS Hygienics, so vital during the pandemic* Sean Keach on INEOS' journey to Net Zero and sustainable investment* Lord Sebastian Coe on the vital importance of exercise for the next generation, with a particular focus on INEOS's worldwide children's exercise initiative, 'The Daily Mile', and the 'Forgotten 40', the 40% of the UK's young who are affected by a lack of basic resources to remain fit and healthy* Sir Andrew Likierman on INEOS' philanthropic projects and investmentsGrit, Rigour & Humour offers an extraordinary and balanced insight into the rise of one of the world's most successful companies, which produces the essential building blocks used in most of the products you use daily from medical products and packaging to electronics and transport, and has expanded rapidly over the past decade into one with interests in many diverse walks of life.The Great Man: Sir Robert Walpole: Scoundrel, Genius and Britain's First Prime Minister
By Edward Pearce. 2007
The year 1721 has many splendours: great houses built by William Kent, fine pictures and the fruits of commerce. But…
there are also thirteen public hanging days a year, drunkenness is endemic, organised crime rampages through the streets. And politics are ferocious. Only a generation earlier, The Pretender failed to take the Crown; the new King is cursed as a damned foreigner; James's followers - the Jacobites - conspire and are persecuted; the South Sea Bubble collapses.Robert Walpole, once imprisoned for financial chicanery, assumes political control and becomes 'Prime Minister'. He personally detects a Jacobite plot, is dismissed in 1727 on the death of George I, recruits the new King's clever wife, Caroline, and bounces cheerfully back. Coarse, corrupt and cynical, Walpole dominates King, Parliament and Government until 1742. This is Mr Worldywiseman, keeping England out of war for twenty years and setting up a stable and growing economy. All politics of a kind we can recognise today begin with Robert Walpole. And here, in Edward Pearce's elegant book, he is brought vividly back to life.Goodbye Soldier (Spike Milligan War Memoirs)
By Spike Milligan. 1986
Spike Milligan's legendary war memoirs are a hilarious and subversive first-hand account of the Second World War, as well as…
a fascinating portrait of the formative years of this towering comic genius, most famous as writer and star of The Goon Show. They have sold over 4.5 million copies since they first appeared.'The most irreverent, hilarious book about the war that I have ever read' Sunday Express'Brilliant verbal pyrotechnics, throwaway lines and marvelous anecdotes' Daily Mail'Desperately funny, vivid, vulgar' Sunday Times'My namer is Maria Antonoinetta Fontana, but everyone call me Toni.' 'I'm Spike, sometimes known as stop thief or hey you.' 'Yeser, I know.' The sixth volume of Spike Milligan's off-the-wall account of his part in World War Two sees our hero doing very little soldiering. Because it's 1946. Rather, he is now part of the Bill Hall Trio - a 'Combined Services Entertainment' inflicted on unsuspecting soldiers across Italy and Austria - and is largely preoccupied with the unbearably beautiful ballerina, Ms Toni Fontana ('Arghhhhhhhhh!). But he must enjoy it while he can before he is demobbed and sent home to Catford - so he does ...'That absolutely glorious way of looking at things differently. A great man' Stephen Fry'Milligan is the Great God to all of us' John Cleese'The Godfather of Alternative Comedy' Eddie Izzard'Manifestly a genius, a comic surrealist genius and had no equal' Terry Wogan'A totally original comedy writer' Michael Palin'Close in stature to Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear in his command of the profound art of nonsense' GuardianSpike Milligan was one of the greatest and most influential comedians of the twentieth century. Born in India in 1918, he served in the Royal Artillery during WWII in North Africa and Italy. At the end of the war, he forged a career as a jazz musician, sketch-show writer and performer, before joining forces with Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe to form the legendary Goon Show. Until his death in 2002, he had success as on stage and screen and as the author of over eighty books of fiction, memoir, poetry, plays, cartoons and children's stories.Forgotten Voices Of The Great War
By Max Arthur. 2014
In 1960, the Imperial War Museum began a momentous and important task. A team of academics, archivists and volunteers set…
about tracing WWI veterans and interviewing them at length in order to record the experiences of ordinary individuals in war. The IWM aural archive has become the most important archive of its kind in the world. Authors have occasionally been granted access to the vaults, but digesting the thousands of hours of footage is a monumental task. Now, forty years on, the Imperial War Museum has at last given author Max Arthur and his team of researchers unlimited access to the complete WWI tapes. These are the forgotten voices of an entire generation of survivors of the Great War. The resulting book is an important and compelling history of WWI in the words of those who experienced it.A Good African Story: How a Small Company Built a Global Coffee Brand
By Andrew Rugasira. 2013
Since it was founded in 2003, Good African Coffee has helped thousands of farmers earn a decent living, send their…
children to school and escape a spiral of debt and dependence. Africa has received over $1 trillion in aid over the last fifty years and yet despite these huge inflows, the continent remains mired in poverty, disease and systemic corruption. In A Good African Story, as Andrew Rugasira recounts the very personal story of his company and the challenges that he has faced – and overcome – as an African entrepreneur, he provides a tantalising glimpse of what Africa could be, and argues that trade has achieved what years of aid have failed to deliver.This is a book about Africa taking its destiny in its own hands, and dictating the terms of its future.You May Never See Us Again: The Barclay Dynasty: A Story of Survival, Secrecy and Succession
By Jane Martinson. 2023
'A tour de force' - Guardian'Forensic ... Strong on financial detail' - Financial TimesA Financial Times Book of the Year…
2023The untold story of post-war Britain. Told through the lives of the two men who helped shape it: Sir David Barclay and Sir Frederick Barclay.You May Never See Us Again is the only definitive story of David and Frederick Barclay - commonly known as the Barclay brothers. Born poor, these enigmatic twins built one of the biggest fortunes in Britain together from scratch and spent six decades at the epicentre of British business, media and politics. Their empire, said to be worth £7bn at its height, included Littlewoods, the Ritz Hotel, The Daily Telegraph and the channel island of Brecqhou. They were major advocates for Brexit and well-connected with influential politicians including Margaret Thatcher, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.And yet despite their fortune and influence, their fiercely guarded desire for privacy has meant that their story remained largely unknown - until a very public family dispute pitched Barclay against Barclay in the High Court.Journalist Jane Martinson unravels the fascinating story of these once inseparable billionaire brothers. Through their lives she offers compelling insights into post-war Britain, from the conditions that enabled their way of doing business to thrive through to the tightly enmeshed webs of influence between capitalism, politics and the media that shape Britain today.Free At Last: Diaries 1991 - 2001
By Tony Benn. 2002
Tony Benn is the longest serving MP in the history of the Labour Party. He left Parliament in 2001, after…
more than half a century in the House of Commons, to devote more time to politics. This volume of his Diaries describes and comments, in a refreshing and honest way, upon the events of a momentous decade including two world wars, a change of government in Britain and the emergence of New Labour, of which he makes clear he is not a member. Tony Benn's account is a well documented, formidable and principled critique of the New Labour Project, full of drama, opinion, humour, anecdotes and sparkling pen-portraits of politicians on both sides of the political divide. But his narrative is also broader and more revealing about day-to-day political life, covering many aspects normally disregarded by historians and lobby correspondents, relating to his work in the constituency, including his advice surgeries. This volume also offers far more of an insight into Tony Benn's personal life, his thoughts about the future and his relationship with his family, especially his remarkable wife Caroline, whose illness and death overshadow these years. Tony Benn is a unique figure on the British political landscape: a true democrat, a passionate socialist and diarist without equal. With this volume, his published Diaries cover British politics for over sixty years. It is edited, as are all others, by Ruth Winstone.Flying High: My Story: From AirAsia to QPR
By Tony Fernandes. 2017
'What a life. Tony Fernandes has accomplished amazing things - and who's to say what he can go on to…
achieve?' Sir Richard BransonThe inspiring story of business hero and Apprentice Asia star Tony FernandesAs a boy, Tony Fernandes wanted to be a pilot, a footballer or a racing driver. By 2011 he'd gone one better: founding his own airline and his own formula one team, and becoming Chairman of Queens Park Rangers, helping them reach the Premier League again after a 15-year absence from the top flight. Flying High is the memoir of an exceptional business leader; the man who created Asia's first budget airline, democratizing air travel in Asia and building AirAsia into a multi-billion-dollar company in the process. Published as Tony returns as the face of the second series of Apprentice Asia, this inspiring personal story will be a major global publishing event.Tony Fernandes studied at Epsom College, UK, and the London School of Accoutancy. He worked for Virgin Communications and Warner Music before acquiring AirAsia and relaunching it as Asia's first low-cost carrier in 2001/2. He is currently Group CEO of AirAsia, Chairman of QPR football club and owner of the Caterham F1 team. Tony has been awarded a CBE, titled twice by the King of Malaysia and awarded the Legion d'Honneur by the French government. He has also received awards from major business media outlets including theInternational Herald Tribune, Business Times, Business Week, Fast Company and Forbes.Elizabeth: The Scandalous Life of an 18th Century Duchess
By Claire Gervat. 2003
Elizabeth Chudleigh was one of the eighteenth century's most colourful characters. Born into impoverished gentility, her beauty, wit and vitality…
soon earned her a place at the centre of court life. When she married the Duke of Kingston in 1769 she had reached the highest rung of the social ladder. But Elizabeth was carrying a dark secret. In 1744 she had secretly married a naval lieutenant called Augustus Hervey, and after the Duke's death her first marriage was discovered. Bigamy fever swept London society and, in a very public trial, Elizabeth was found guilty. But her strength of character ensured that, even when her friends deserted her, her courage and zest for life did not. In an engaging history of this strong and wilful woman, Gervat shows there was far more to Elizabeth than the caricature villain her contemporaries made her out to be.Escape from Baghdad: First Time Was For the Money, This Time It's Personal
By James Ashcroft. 2009
Gun-for-hire James 'Ash' Ashcroft thought he'd left Iraq behind. Last time he only got out alive thanks to the bravery…
of his interpreter and friend Sammy. But now a call for help means Ash must once again face the chaos of war-torn Baghdad - and this time there's no pay cheque. Abandoned by the occupying Coalition Forces, Sammy and his family face certain death at the hands of the Shia-dominated Iraqi Police and the death squads that roam the streets unless Ash and his team can get in and get them to safety over the border. This is the action-packed story of their audacious escape from Baghdad. It is a gripping account of the chaos of war, where the only thing that can be relied upon is the bond between former brothers-in-arms.Escape: Our journey home through war-torn Germany
By Barbie Probert-Wright. 2006
Two sisters.One extraordinary true story.Germany, 1945. Trapped between advancing armies, stranded hundreds of miles from their mother, and with their…
father missing in action, sisters Barbie and Eva were confronted with an impossible choice.Should they stay and face invasion or risk their lives to find their mother?Together, they set out on a perilous three-hundred mile journey on foot across a country ravaged by war. Fuelled by courage and love, Eva and seven-year-old Barbie encounter incredible hardship, extraordinary bravery, and overwhelming generosity.Against all odds, they both survived.But neither sister came out of the journey unscathed . . .This is the powerful true story of their escape.(Previously published as Little Girl Lost)The FitzPatrick Tapes: The Rise and Fall of One Man, One Bank, and One Country
By Tom Lyons, Brian Carey. 2011
The FitzPatrick Tapes: The sensational story of the man and the bank that brought Ireland lowOne day in May 2009,…
Sean FitzPatrick - the disgraced former chief executive and chairman of Anglo Irish Bank - sat down to lunch in a Holiday Inn in Dublin. Across the table sat Tom Lyons, a business reporter with the Sunday Times. Seven months later, the two met for the first of what would be seventeen formal, tape-recorded interviews over the course of 2010: a year when Ireland, its public finances ruined in large part by the cost of covering Anglo's losses, went bust itself. In these interviews, FitzPatrick talked at length and in detail about his banking experiences and philosophy, his colleagues and clients, his investments, his public disgrace, his arrest and his bankruptcy.Lyons and his colleague Brian Carey draw on the FitzPatrick tapes and on their many sources within Anglo, the state and the business community to tell the story of that crisis - and of the man who became the face of it. This is a tale of toothless regulators, hopeless accountants, politicians and civil servants out of their depth, and businessmen in denial about the crash. Above all, though, it is the story of FitzPatrick: the man who built that bank that has been at the centre of Ireland's economic meltdown.'A sensational document' Eamon Dunphy, Newstalk'It is a journalistic scoop; the story of a bank that got too big; a snapshot of an economic era; and, already, a piece - or at least a version - of history' Sunday Business PostAn 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.Eden: The Life and Times of Anthony Eden First Earl of Avon, 1897-1977
By D R Thorpe. 1966
Anthony Eden, who served as both Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister, was one of the central political figures of the…
twentieth century. He had good looks, charm, a Military Cross from the Great War, an Oxford first and a secure parliamentary constituency from his mid-twenties. He was Foreign Secretary at the age of 38, and the first British statesman to meet Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. Eden's dramatic resignation from Neville Chamberlain's Cabinet in 1938, outlined here in the fullest detail yet, made an international impact.This ground-breaking book examines his controversial life and tells the inside story of the Munich crisis (1938), the Geneva Conference (1954), Eden's battles with Churchill over the modernisation of the post-war Conservative Party and his rivalry with Butler and Macmillan in the early 1950s, culminating in a fascinating analysis of the Suez crisis.