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Sarah's Diary: An unflinchingly honest account of one family's struggle with depression
By Sarah Griffin. 2007
'I was fourteen when I found my Dad trying to commit suicide in the garage. Sounds shocking doesn't it? But…
that was part of me, part of living with my Dad'Sarah's Diary is the very personal diary of Sarah Griffin - an ordinary teenage girl learning to deal with the ups and downs of family life. On the outside hers was like any other family, but behind closed doors lay a sad and lonely secret. Sarah's Dad had depression -- a condition we've all heard of but seldom discuss. Beautifully written, brutally honest, Sarah's story is compelling reading.Sad Men
By Dave Roberts. 2014
All Dave Roberts ever wanted to do (apart from collect football programmes) was to work in advertising. More specifically, to…
work for the world's best advertising agency, Saatchi and Saatchi. There was just one problem. Even when he managed to persuade someone to employ him, Dave's copywriting assignments were mainly for second hand car dealers and double glazing companies. And Leeds, Manchester and, bizarrely, New Zealand were a long way from Charlotte Street and Madison Avenue. This was the world of the Sad Men.In his sparkling new memoir, Dave tells the story of a life shaped by his love of adverts, from seeing the PG Tips chimps at the age of three to writing infamous ads such as the Westpac Rap and having David Jason plug a family restaurant. Bursting with brilliant ideas - and some pretty daft ones - it is the cautionary tale of a quest for advertising glory... and not quite ever getting there.Riding the Storm
By Duncan Bannatyne. 2013
Can money buy you happiness?A few years ago Duncan Bannatyne might have said so. He was happily married and his…
businesses were thriving. Life was good. He couldn't have known that a storm was brewing on the horizon and that he would soon face immense personal and professional struggles, including the strain of a divorce and the impact of the recession on his business empire. Riding the Storm is the inspirational account of how Duncan overcame these setbacks. It's a survival story, full of insights into how he adapted his businesses and his life to new financial realities. In it, Duncan explains exactly how a working-class boy from Clydebank built himself a multimillion-pound business empire, and talks with incredible frankness about the current strategies, goals and finances of his companies. He reveals the true nature of his feuds and friendships with the other Dragons and uses his experiences from Dragons' Den to offer advice to start-up entrepreneurs in today's market. He speaks openly about the terrible pain of his divorce and how his children's love gave him the strength to get through it. He discusses the opportunities that success has given him, from learning to dance for Sport Relief to trekking up Kilimanjaro with his daughter. And finally he explains why, in spite of having just gone through the toughest years of his life, he feels positive about the future - and why you should too.The Real Deal: The Autobiography of Britain’s Most Controversial Media Mogul
By Richard Desmond. 2015
From the age of five, when he helped his deaf father negotiate advertising contracts, Richard Desmond has always had an…
eye for business. In The Real Deal he offers a no-holds-barred account of an extraordinary career that has taken him from cloakroom attendant at a north London club to billionaire media owner. En route he tells of his early life as a rock and roll drummer, his first steps in the world of magazine publishing as a purveyor of leisure and top-shelf titles, and finally, after decades of paying his dues building smaller brands, his arrival in the big league with the launch of OK! magazine and the acquisition of Express Newspapers, his purchase and sale of Channel 5, and his £80 million investment in the Health Lottery, combining business innovation with help for good causes. Along the way, he imparts many of the secrets of his astounding success, as well as giving his forthright opinion (and he always has one) on such diverse subjects as politicians, religion, and the similarities between being a rock and roll drummer and running a business – as well as his views on a cast of characters ranging from Alan Sugar to Victoria Beckham and from Simon Cowell to Jennifer Aniston.Often controversial, frequently revelatory, always entertaining, The Real Deal is the brilliantly frank account of a life spent at the sharp end.The Real Deal: My Story from Brick Lane to Dragons' Den
By James Caan. 2008
After dropping out of school at just sixteen, James Caan started his business life in a broom cupboard with no…
qualifications and two pieces of fatherly wisdom: 'observe the masses and do the opposite' and 'always look for opportunities where both parties benefit'. Armed with this advice, natural charm and the Yellow Pages, he built a market-leading business with a turnover of £130 million and swiftly became one of Britain's most successful entrepreneurs.From Caan's childhood as a Pakistani immigrant to the phenomenal success of his first company and beyond, The Real Deal traces both his financial and personal achievements. It offers a frank account of what success at thirty really signifies and brings us right up to the present, including his impact on Dragons' Den and what his charity work, from saving a hospital in London to building a school in Lahore, means to him. Ultimately, it is a story of learning what money is really worth, told by one the country's most insightful businessmen.The key to rising to the top of your company lies in a simple message and philosophy. The ultimate inspirational…
story for ambitious innovators, market-disruptors, and global business entrepreneurs. Celebrating DHL’s fiftieth anniversary as a world-leading delivery company, global CEO Ken Allen tells the unique story of his journey to the top of the industry. In this business memoir, he shares the strategies and skills he has developed throughout his career, drawing on both his core values and extensive experience. This book is an inimitable guide to succeeding in any business, focusing on strategy and practical advice while revealing the simple lessons you need to learn to excel in life and work. It is an accessible read for entrepreneurs and managers at any stage of their career, packed with motivational material and no-nonsense tips. This simple and honest book is a must-have for anyone looking to reach the top of their field.A Pocketful of Holes and Dreams
By Jeff Pearce. 2010
The poor boy who made his fortune . . . not just once but twice.Little Jeff Pearce grew up in…
a post-war Liverpool slum. His father lived the life of an affluent gentleman whilst his mother was forced to steal bread to feed her starving children. Life was tough and from the moment Jeff could walk he learned to go door to door, begging rags from the rich, which he sold down the markets. Leaving school at the age of fourteen, he embarked on an extraordinary journey, and found himself, before the age of thirty, a millionaire.Then, after a cruel twist of fate left him penniless, he, his wife and children were forced out of their beautiful home . . .With nothing but holes in his pockets, Jeff had no alternative but to go back down the markets and start all over again. Did he still have what it took? Could he really get back everything he had lost?A Pocketful of Holes and Dreams is the heartwarming true story of a little boy who had nothing but gained everything and proof that, sometimes, rags can be turned into riches . . .______________'An inspirational tale of hard work and determination' 5* Reader review 'I just loved this book from the first chapter - I was gripped' 5* Reader reviewPlease Don't Cry: A family torn apart by grief. An incredible act of love.
By Jane Plume. 2014
'I’m glad I could do her this one last favour. If it had been the other way round, I know…
Gina would have done the same for me.’Jane and Gina were the best of friends. When Gina’s husband Shaun was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2009, Jane vowed to do everything she could to help her best mate and her two small sons through the awful time to come. But things were about to take a tragic turn for the worse. In 2010, Gina was killed in a shock car crash. Though devastated by her own grief, Jane knew that Gina needed her now more than ever – to help with the boys she had left behind. And after cancer claimed Shaun's life, Jane stepped in to care for the two orphans, becoming the mother her best friend could no longer be.This is the moving true story behind an incredible act of love.Out of the Desert: My Journey From Nomadic Bedouin to the Heart of Global Oil
By Ali Al-Naimi. 2016
The extraordinary memoir of global oil's former central bankerAli Al-Naimi is the former Saudi oil minister - and OPEC kingpin…
- a position he held for the two decades between August 1995 and May 2016. In this time, Al-Naimi's briefest utterances moved markets. But it wasn't always that way.Al-Naimi was born into abject poverty as a nomadic Bedouin in the 1930s, just as US companies were discovering vast quantities of oil under the baking Arabian deserts. From his first job as a shepherd boy, aged four, to his appointment to one of the most powerful political and economic jobs in the world, Out of the Desert charts Al-Naimi's extraordinary rise to power. Described by Alan Greenspan as 'the most powerful man you've never heard of', Al-Naimi's incredible journey proves that anyone can make it - even a poor Bedouin shepherd boy. This is his exclusive inside story of power, politics and oil.His Excellency Ali Ibrahim Al-Naimi is the former Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. One of the most powerful economic and political jobs in the world, he held this post from August 1995 to May 2016.Prior to that he held a wide range of leadership positions in the Kingdom's national oil company, Saudi Aramco. He was the first Saudi national to be named President of the company in 1984 and became the first Saudi CEO in 1988. Al-Naimi joined the company, then called Aramco, as an office boy in 1947. A Bedouin, he was born in the deserts of eastern Arabia in 1935.Our Billie
By Ian Clayton. 2010
'An astonishing work' - Joanne HarrisEvery parent's worst nightmare became a reality for Ian Clayton. On a short holiday break…
in Hay-on-Wye he took his nine-year-old twins canoeing, and in a freak accident his daughter Billie was drowned. In a remarkably frank and vivid way Clayton describes what happened on that spring day, his desperate attempts to save his two children, and then what it felt like two years later to come face to face with the men who hired out the canoe.But Our Billie is not a story of bitterness and recrimination. Instead it's the story of how a family attempts to come to terms with something which makes no sense at all. Through his memories of Billie and his wonderfully affectionate portrait of the small town in Yorkshire where the family has lived for generations, he weaves a story of loss and remembering, of gratitude and forgiveness.Openhearted: Eighty Years of Love, Loss, Laughter and Letting Go
By Ann Ingle. 2021
SHORTLISTED FOR TWO IRISH BOOK AWARDS'Something they don't tell you about getting older is that you fall. Oh, you hear…
about it in passing, of course, "She had a fall, poor thing". Falling is not something you ever think about as a younger woman. You think about falling in love . . .'At 20 Londoner Ann Ingle fell madly in love with an Irish fellow she met on holiday in Cornwall. At the church to arrange their shotgun wedding she discovered that he hadn't even told her his real name.Sixty-odd years later Ann looks back on that first glorious fall and in a series of essays considers what she has learned from the life that followed - bringing eight children into the world, their father's years of mental illness and tragic death at 40, being a cash-strapped single mother in 1980s Dublin, coming into her own in her middle years - going to college, working and writing, and continuing to evolve and learn into her ninth decade, even as she accepts the realities of being 'old'.Candid about everything that matters - love, sex, heartbreak, money, class, religion, mental health, rearing children (and letting them go), reading and writing, ageing - Open-Hearted is a compelling story about living life in a spirit of curiosity and delight and with a willingness to look for good in others._________________________________'By some distance the most courageous, most poignant, most life-affirming memoir I've read in the last twenty years and more' Paul Howard'Genuinely inspirational. I LOVE ANN INGLE' Marian Keyes'What a beautiful openhearted, at times broken-hearted memoir ... honest, funny, searingly direct, a wonderful voice ... remarkable' Joe Duffy'Really beautiful. Searingly honest, astonishingly frank and very, very funny' Maia DunphyOne Last Goodbye: Sometimes only a mother's love can help end the pain
By Kay Gilderdale. 2011
Watching her child die is the hardest thing a mother can ever do. But for Kay Gilderdale, saying a final…
goodbye to her only daughter Lynn was exceptionally painful: she'd played a part in her death.Lynn was just 14 when she was struck down by the crippling disease ME, leaving her paralysed and in constant agony. Over the next 17 years, she became desperate to escape her miserable existence, even begging her mum to help her die. So, one night, when Kay found Lynn attempting suicide, she was forced to make an impossible decision. Continue watching her child suffer or help her end the pain?Eventually, fighting her every instinct, Kay helped her precious daughter take a fatal overdose. But while Lynn was finally free, her mother faced a fresh agony - a possible lifetime behind bars. The highly controversial trial that followed opened a fierce public debate on assisted suicide. Is it murder or mercy?Here, in her heartbreaking story, Kay reveals the harrowing truth behind the headlines and the desperate lengths a mother will go to for the love of a child.One Day at a Time: A Memoir
By Susan Lewis. 2011
She was only nine when her world fell apart. The struggle to understand took a lifetime.In 1960s Bristol, Susan's family…
was like any other with its joys and frustrations, and fierce loyalties. Then tragedy struck and left a legacy that was to last a lifetime.Susan was only nine when her mother died. A year later she was sent away to school. She didn't want to go, and didn't understand why she had to. In her struggle to cope with an uncertain world - a world where nothing seemed to make sense any more - she pushed away the one person she loved best, her father. It wasn't until adulthood beckoned that she realised that, in order to turn their relationship around, she had to learn to love - and trust - again.Newspapermen: Hugh Cudlipp, Cecil Harmsworth King and the Glory Days of Fleet Street
By Ruth Dudley Edwards. 2003
They were 'Cudlipp' and 'Mr King' when they met in 1935. At 21, gregarious, extrovert and irreverent Hugh Cudlipp had…
many years of journalistic experience: at 34, shy, introspective and solemn Cecil Harmsworth King, haunted by the ghost of Uncle Alfred, Lord Northcliffe, the great press magnate, and bitter towards Uncle Harold, Lord Rothermere of the Daily Mail, was fighting his way up in the family business. Opposites in most respects, they were complementary in talents and had in common a deep concern for the underdog. Cudlipp, the journalistic genius, and King, the formidable intellect, were to become, in Cudlipp's words, 'the Barnum and Bailey' of Fleet Street. Together, on the foundation of the populist Daily Mirror, they created the biggest publishing empire in the world. Yet their relationship foundered sensationally in 1968, when - as King tried to topple the Prime Minister - Cudlipp toppled King. Through the story of two extraordinary men, Ruth Dudley Edwards gives us a riveting portrait of Fleet Street in its heyday.My Sister Milly
By Gemma Dowler. 2017
You've seen Manhunt, now read this powerful and personal account from Milly Dowler's sister Gemma . . . 'My name…
is Gemma Dowler. On 21 March 2002, a serial killer named Levi Bellfield stole my sister and sent our family to hell . . .'In My Sister Milly, Gemma Dowler recounts the terrible day of Milly's disappearance, the suspicions that fell on the family, the torture of encountering the murderer in court, the fatal errors made by the police, how it very nearly destroyed her family and how love and hope helped the family survive.Everyone thinks they know the story of Milly Dowler, but only one person knows the true pain of having lost her sister, and how a family can rediscover hope to survive.________________'Compelling. An amazing book'Jeremy Vine, BBC Radio 2'Heartbreaking' Daily Mail'Tragic, poignant, full of emotional memories'Daily MirrorA Mother's War: One Woman's Fight for the Truth Behind Her Son's Death at Deepcut
By Yvonne Collinson Heath. 2013
Yvonne Collinson Heath will never forget the telephone call that changed her life for ever. On 23 March 2002, her…
eldest son, James – a private with the Royal Logistic Corps – was found dead in mysterious circumstances at the notorious Deepcut barracks. He had a single gunshot wound to the head. It was a tragedy that to this day raises questions.A Mother’s War recounts Yvonne’s anguish at losing her son, a boy who dreamed of serving his country but died before he had even reached his 18th birthday. It is also the powerful story of an extraordinary woman who overcame adversity – including the hurt of being abandoned by her father, bullied as a child and abused by a trusted uncle – to find love and raise a son, only to see him cruelly taken from her within weeks of his joining the Army. It reveals how her decade-long quest for answers uncovered sinister secrets and a series of cover-ups that went right to the heart of Whitehall.Above all else, A Mother’s War is the story of how Yvonne’s grief triggered a search for the truth that took her to Downing Street and captured the hearts of the nation.Money Men: A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth
By Dan McCrum. 2022
'The financial investigation of the decade... Money Men instantly enters the canon of great financial crime books' Bradley Hope, author…
of The Billion Dollar Whale'A rip-roaring ride into the underworld of the global economy' Tom Burgis, author of Kleptopia'Required reading' The Economist'A cross between the Enron scandal and Rosemary's Baby' John Lanchester, London Review of Books'Reads like a crime drama' New Statesman'The culmination of years of careful investigative work... Gripping' Evening Standard'A thrilling, head-spinning book' Irish Times'A rollercoaster read that reveals everything that's wrong with our financial system' Catherine BeltonNow adapted as the Netflix documentary Skandal!, this is the stranger-than-fiction story of Wirecard, once a $30 billion tech darling, now a smouldering wreck, by the journalist who brought it crashing down - perfect for those who loved Bad Blood and Empire of Pain.When journalist Dan McCrum followed a tip to investigate the hot new tech company challenging Silicon Valley, everything about Wirecard looked a little too good to be true: offices were sprouting up around the world, it was reporting runaway growth and the CEO even wore a black turtleneck in tribute to Steve Jobs. In the space of a few short years, the company had come from nowhere to overtake industry giants like Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank on the stock market.As McCrum dug deeper, he encountered a story stranger and more dangerous than he ever imagined: a world of short sellers and whistleblowers, pornographers and private militias, hackers and spies. Before long he realised that he wasn't the only one in pursuit. Shadowy figures were following him through the streets of London, high-flying lawyers were sending ominous letters to his boss, and he was named as the prime suspect in a criminal inquiry. The race was on to prove his suspicions and clear his name.Money Men is the astonishing true story of Wirecard's multi-billion-dollar fraud, Europe's biggest new tech darling revealed as a house of cards.Uncovering fake bank accounts, fake offices and possibly even a fake death, McCrum offers a searing exposé that will finally lay bare the truth.Michael O'Leary: Turbulent Times for the Man Who Made Ryanair
By Matt Cooper. 2018
Financial Times Business Book of the MonthSeptember 2017. Ryanair cancels over 700,000 bookings and its powerful PR juggernaut comes shuddering…
to a halt. For once, the airline's aggressive and flamboyant CEO, Michael O'Leary, is contrite and apologetic.A month later Ryanair announces increased passenger traffic for October, year-on-year growth and increased profits. Its share price soars. For the moment, it appears, a fundamental shake-up of Europe's biggest airline is off the table. But questions remain about the causes of the debacle and O'Leary's role in it.Michael O'Leary lifts the veil on the wildly successful and wildly controversial Ryanair CEO. Based on extensive research - including with close associates of O'Leary - the book examines O'Leary's personality, beliefs and obsessions and describes how these have moulded the business he runs. Written by a multi-award-winning journalist and broadcaster, with a thirty-year career covering business and current affairs, it is a fascinating insight into the business behind the man, and the man behind the business.'Fascinating book ... very comprehensive' Eamon Dunphy, The Stand'An indispensable guide for anyone who wants to understand not just where Michael O'Leary and Ryanair are coming from, but where they are going.' Sunday Business Post'A frequently enlightening unauthorised biography ... entertaining' Irish Independent'In a world of colourless corporate leaders, Ryanair's aggressive, mouthy chief executive provides catnip for journalists. Cooper, an award-winning Irish writer and reporter, makes the most of the opportunity to dissect his colourful subject' Book of the Month, The Financial TimesLiving On The Seabed: A memoir of love, life and survival
By Lindsay Nicholson. 2011
'The morning after John's death, I remember feeling absolutely enraged that the world had kept turning and the sun had…
come up as if nothing had happened.'Lindsay Nicholson and her husband, the Observer journalist John Merritt, were regarded as a golden couple. But their world was turned upside down when John contracted leukaemia. His death at the age of 35 left Nicholson bereft with grief, now the single parent of two beautiful daughters. Then, in a tragic twist of fate, her elder daughter Ellie also contracted the same disease, dying shortly after. Nicholson found that nothing could prepare her for the emotions she was feeling. In this courageous and heart-rending memoir, Lindsay Nicholson reflects on her grieving process and the battle she faced to survive it. Her resilience and spirited determination are an inspiration to us all.Life After You
By Lucie Brownlee. 2014
‘He crashed on to the pillow next to me, heavy as a felled oak. I slapped His face and told…
Him to wake up. Our daughter, B, appeared in the doorway, woken up by the screaming – I must have been screaming but I don’t remember – and she was crying and peering in. I told her the ultimate adult lie; that everything was all right.’Sudden death is rude. It just wanders in and takes your husband without any warning; it doesn’t even have the decency to knock. At the impossibly young age of 37, as they were making love one night, Lucie Brownlee’s beloved husband Mark dropped dead. As Lucie tried to make sense of her new life – the one she never thought she would be living – she turned to writing to express her grief. Life After You is the stunning, irreverent and heartbreakingly honest result.