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Showing 161 - 180 of 15730 items
By Shelley MacKenney. 2014
Missing is Shelley MacKenney's remarkable story of life as a 'missing person'. An inspirational tale of her journey through extreme…
personal crisis."You can run, but you can't hide from yourself."Abandoned by her mother as a young child and with a father constantly on the run, Shelley's life was never normal. Her family's involvement with South London's criminal underworld left her isolated, vulnerable and lonely. Falling deeper and deeper into depression and despair - she snapped.Shelley got on the first coach out of London with only the clothes she stood up in and £30 in her pocket. She didn't care where she was going, as long as she could disappear completely from her oppressive life. For years, she lived anonymously in refuges, hostels and on the streets. It would take something remarkable to bring her back to the real world.By Amanda Leask. 2016
As seen on ITV's Britain's Got Talent, where they captured the hearts of the nation, this is Amanda and Miracle's…
incredible story of survival, love and hopeSnatched from the streets of Thailand, loaded onto a truck with hundreds of other stolen dogs and destined for the restaurants of Hanoi, Miracle the dog shouldn’t be alive today. But an incredible rescue led to a fateful meeting with Amanda Leask, a dog lover from Scotland. Devastated by Miracle’s plight and the hopelessness of his situation, she knew she had to do everything in her power to save him. But Amanda could never have imagined that in doing so she was really saving herself… Amanda’s six year-old son Kyle, who was born with cerebral palsy and autism, built a deep and lasting connection with Miracle and their special bond has transformed not only Kyle’s life but that of the entire family. Heartbreaking, inspirational and ultimately life-affirming, this incredible tale is proof that miracles really can happen…By Tracy Johnson. 2015
'I dragged my heels all the way to the mill. ‘I can’t do it!’ I sulked. Mother sighed and shook…
her head. My heart sank. Of course, I’d seen the mill hundreds of times before, but now it was different – now, I was going in. I’d never seen a place so depressing; I wanted to cry.'With tales from hardworking Audrey and mischievous Maureen to high-spirited Doris and dedicated Marjorie, The Mill Girls is an evocative story of hardship and friendship from when cotton was still king. Through the eyes of these northern mill girls, we are offered a fascinating glimpse into the lives of ordinary women who rallied together, nattered over the beamers and, despite the difficult conditions, weaved, packed and laughed to keep the cotton mills spinning.By Arnold Thomas Fanning. 2018
Shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize 2019'[A] painfully intense, courageous and gripping account of [Fanning's] journey to the underworld of…
madness and back. This is a brave and instructive book.' Irish Times'Extraordinary. An account of mental illness, grief, delusions, homelessness, a fractured family relationship ... and all while trying to recover and create. Superb writing on a frequently difficult subject.' Sinéad Gleeson Arnold Thomas Fanning had his first experience of depression during adolescence, following the death of his mother. Some ten years later, an up-and-coming playwright, he was overcome by mania and delusions. Thus began a terrible period in which he was often suicidal, increasingly disconnected from family and friends, sometimes in trouble with the law, and homeless in London.Drawing on his own memories, the recollections of people who knew him when he was at his worst, and medical and police records, Arnold Thomas Fanning has produced a beautifully written, devastatingly intense account of madness - and recovery, to the point where he has not had any serious illness for over a decade and has become an acclaimed playwright. Fanning conveys the consciousness of a person living with mania, psychosis and severe depression with a startling precision and intimacy. Mind on Fire is the gripping, sometimes harrowing, and ultimately uplifting testament of a person who has visited hellish regions of the mind.'Arnold Thomas Fanning offers the most vivid and unflinching window into the mind of someone who is in the throes of madness ... It was like nothing I'd read before' Rick Edwards'Mind on Fire is a truly powerful, arresting, haunting account. Arnold Thomas Fanning has reckoned with the darkest matter of his heart and mind, and I challenge anyone not to be moved by that.' Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither and A Line Made by Walking'In this strange and singular book, Arnold Thomas Fanning mercilessly excavates the infernal underworld of his own years of madness. As reminiscent as it occasionally is of John Healy's The Grass Arena, and even of Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, the book is ultimately not quite like anything else I've read, and brought me as close to the lived reality of mental illness as I have ever been. It's a significant achievement: a painful, inexorable work of autobiography, whose existence is its own form of redemption.' Mark O'Connell, Baillie Gifford Prize-shortlisted author of To Be a Machine'This is an extraordinary memoir about how it feels to be depressed, delusional, desperate' The Observer 'Incredibly important' Emilie Pine, author of Notes to Self'A ratcheting pace, a tight first-person immediacy, and utterly staggering to be a passenger over its entire warped course ... An indelible, ground-shaking account' Hilary A White, Irish Independent, Memoir of the Year, Best Reads of 2018'A spellbinding memoir that should prove both moving and hopefully cathartic for the reader.' RTE Culture 'Told in tight and immediate first-person, and imbued with a startling momentum that ratchets unnervingly, Fanning's publishing debut ... is a significant achievement and should be a talking point in publishing this year.' Irish Independent 'Fanning's debut book lays it on the line in a deeply personal and compelling chronicle of his descent into depression and his way back out.' RTE Guide'Wonderful' Joseph O'Connor, Irish Times Books of the Year'Unsparingly direct, searing and honest ... It is gripping to read and must have been exhausting to live' Medical Independent 'One of the most gripping and revealing memoirs I've read in a long time. A controlled and artful exploration of absolute loss of control, an unsBy Spike Milligan. 2012
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.With his lightning-quick wit, unbridled creativity and his ear for the absurd, Milligan revolutionised British comedy, leaving a legacy of influence that stretches from Monty Python's Flying Circus to the work of self-confessed acolytes such as Eddie Izzard and Stephen Fry today.Throughout his life, Milligan wrote prolifically - scripts, poetry, fiction, as well as several volumes of memoir, in which he took an entirely idiosyncratic approach to the truth. In this ground-breaking work, Norma Farnes, his long-time manager, companion, counsellor and confidante, gathers together the loose threads, reads between the lines and draws on the full breadth of his writing to present his life in his own words: an autobiography - of sorts.From his childhood in India, through his early career as a jazz musician and sketch-show entertainer, his spells in North Africa and Italy with the Royal Artillery, to that fateful first broadcast of The Goon Show and beyond into the annals of comedy history, this is the autobiography Milligan never wrote.By Jeff Randall. 2008
'A few seconds ago, I wanted to die. Now I know the reality is I just don't want to live.…
I never have from the moment I started falling, twenty-one and a half years ago. I'm alive. Shit.'Jeff Randall originally wrote his memoir by hand, the ink spattering on the page whenever he was writing about something painful and looping beautifully whenever he was recalling happier moments. He wrote it in a matter of weeks and delivered it to his estranged wife in an attempt to explain the demons that had haunted him for so long and that had been responsible for destroying their relationship.Love Hurts is the powerful true story of a boy whose tormented childhood was characterised by violence and isolation. He was raised in a fragmented, chaotic family, in a world where debt and poverty were the norm. From a young age, he yearned to escape but was sucked into an ever-decreasing spiral of bad choices and self-loathing.This brutally honest book charts the life of a boy who just wanted to be loved. And by confronting the nightmare of his childhood and coming to terms with his past, he has learned to love himself.By Linda Steliou. 2015
Little Linda was three years old when she told Father Christmas a secret. 'What I want more than anything is…
to have a puppy of my own to love'. But with every Christmas that went by, no puppy appeared. Linda grew into a busy working mum and wife, and her dreams of a puppy were pushed to the back of her mind. It wasn't until a special visitor one Christmas Eve, that she began to remember the wish she had made sixty years earlier. . .Fans of Christmas at the Ragdoll Orphanage and The Lost Christmas Puppy will love this book full of charming and touching stories. This is an unforgettable true story about childhood, love, and how an animal can change anyone's life.By Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. 2013
In the heart-warming Lost and Found, discover tales from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home that celebrate the power of animals…
to transform people's lives.We hear from the young boy whose Battersea dog helped him to deal with a serious autoimmune disease, and from a woman whose Staffie was the friend who got her through cancer. We meet the couple who were brought together by a Battersea dog; the man who took on a three-legged kitten which changed his life; and the former Battersea hound who became a search and rescue dog.Read these and many other powerful stories from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. Lost and Found has something for dog and cat lovers alike, and is perfect reading for fans of A Streetcat Named Bob and Paul O'Grady's For The Love Of Dogs.Battersea Dogs & Cats Home is the UK's oldest and most famous home for dogs and cats. The Home aims never to turn away a dog or cat in need of help, reuniting lost dogs and cats with their owners or caring for them until new homes can be found. Battersea also works to educate the public about responsible pet ownership. Every year the Home cares for over 9,000 lost, abandoned and neglected dogs and cats, and in 2010 the home marked its 150th anniversary.By Lya Fett Luft. 2011
In her bestselling book Losses and Gains, Lya Luft draws on her own experiences of loss and gain in marriage…
and family to address the universal themes of childhood, love and maturity. She portrays love as the common thread through all phases of life. As children, the unconditional love we receive from our parents determines our expectations for all the other forms of love we experience later. And as adults, she argues, the complex task of loving another depends, initially, on self-love and self-esteem. Luft's ardent reflections on existence and the human spirit are a powerful reminder to us all: we have lost everything only when we believe we deserve less than everything still to be gained.Former British Army soldier Shaun Pinner's extraordinary first-hand account of the war in Ukraine.--------During nine years in the British Army,…
Shaun Pinner deployed on operations around the world, and trained in Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape. He never imagined that he would be one day draw deep on that training as a prisoner of the Russians ...But when Pinner fell in love with and married a Ukrainian woman, the couple made their home in Mariupol. Missing the camaraderie and purpose he'd relished in the Royal Anglian Regiment he joined his adopted country's military as a sniper instructor.Four years later, the section he led was on the frontline when Vladimir Putin's forces launched their invasion.Outnumbered and outgunned in the fiercest fighting seen in Europe since the end of the Second World War, Pinner's troops staged a fighting retreat back to Mariupol to join the remarkable, defiant last stand that captured the world's imagination. At the height of the battle, Pinner's wife urged him to 'Live. Fight. Survive.'He fought on. Until, ordered by President Zelensky to save themselves, his platoon made a break for it. The enemy was waiting. Pinner was captured.Over the months the followed, the former British soldier required every ounce of strength, resolve, ingenuity and dark humour to see him and his fellow prisoners of war through the savage mental and physical toll meted out by his ruthless captors. But he refused to be broken.Live. Fight. Survive. is the breathtaking story of a soldier fighting for his home and family: an unforgettable account of superhuman courage, resistance and defiance in the face of overwhelming odds. And a stirring testament to the power of the human spirit.By James Boswell. 2004
Edinburgh-born James Boswell, at twenty-two, kept a daily diary of his eventful second stay in London from 1762 to 1763.…
This journal, not discovered for more than 150 years, is a deft, frank and artful record of adventures ranging from his vividly recounted love affair with a Covent Garden actress to his first amusingly bruising meeting with Samuel Johnson, to whom Boswell would later become both friend and biographer. The London Journal 1762-63 is a witty, incisive and compellingly candid testament to Boswell's prolific talents.By Dennis O'Donnell. 2012
An extraordinary account of life behind the locked doors of a secure psychiatric ward from a nurse who worked there…
for seven years. Dennis O'Donnell started work as an orderly in the Intensive Psychiatric Care Unit of a large hospital in Scotland in 2000. In his daily life he encountered fear, violence and despair but also a considerable amount of care and compassion. Recounting the stories of the patients he worked with, and those of his colleagues on the ward, here he examines major mental health conditions, methods of treatment - medication, how religion, sex, wealth, health and drugs can bear influence on mental health, the prevailing attitudes to psychiatric illness, the authorities, the professionals & society. What emerges is a document of humanity and humour, a remarkable memoir that sheds light on a world that still remains largely unknown. 'This is a superb study of people whose minds have gone wrong, and the art of caring for them' Evening StandardBy Delia Balmer. 2017
When Delia Balmer entered into a relationship with the attentive John Sweeney, she had no idea he was a serial…
killer.At first he was caring but over the course of their relationship he became violent and controlling. On more than one occasion he held Delia hostage and tortured her. Chillingly, he also confessed to the murder of his previous girlfriend. After one serious assault, Sweeney was released on bail, and left her in the utmost fear knowing that he would return to finish her off. After a final frenzied attack leaving Delia on the brink of death, Sweeney went on the run. Astonishingly, it would take the police six years to capture and convict Sweeney of multiple murders.This is her compelling memoir.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.By Don Borchett. 2007
The public library - a haven of calm, source of information, home to the student, the geek and the aging…
librarian. Or so you might think.Don Borchert's ten years as assistant librarian have taught him that a library is more than just a place to borrow books, it's also a place where people hide from the law, fall in love, fight, deal drugs, introduce their children to reading, look up porn and pursue their dreams. Borchett's hilarious memoir delves behind the bookshelves as he discovers the weird, dangerous and downright dirty world of a public library and the fearless civil servants who patrol its aisles.By Allie Morgan. 2020
The library saved her. Now she wants to save the library. I'm a librarian. Every day I encounter people. I…
serve the regulars, the crime enthusiastics, the bookworms, the homeless, the eccentrics, the jobless, the teenagers, the toddlers, the aged. I know my community well. And they know me. The library is a sanctuary for some, a place for warmth for others and, on many occassions, an internet cafe. It's not always the books that bring us together. That's why you might be surprised to hear that I've been a witness to an attempted murder, a target for a drugs gang and the last hope for people in desperate poverty. The quirks of library life. But what I didn't expect was for a simple part-time job to become a passionate battle for survivial, both for me and for the library. I'm sharing stories from my daily life to show you that being a librarian isn't what you think it is. Libraries are falling apart at the seams and we need to start caring before its too late. So this is my eye-opening account of the strange and wonderful library that saved me and why I'm on a mission to save yours.By Giovanna Fletcher. 2020
The heartwarming letters from Giovanna to her husband Tom Fletcher, their three sons, and mothers everywhere - from the bestselling…
author and host of the No. 1 Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast'Inspiring, beautiful and eye opening. Thank you Giovanna. You've made many mothers feel like they're not alone' 5***** Reader Review'As heartwarming as it is moving' Hello!NOW WITH FOUR EXCLUSIVE NEW LETTERS_______With stories parents everywhere can relate to, Giovanna writes beautiful, poignant and deeply heartfelt letters to everyone who has helped her to become the mother she is today. To her young sons: Buzz, Buddy and Max. To Tom, and her mum and dad. But also, to herself, her body, and more. And finally, to all of the mums, dads and mums-to-be out there doing the work too. These letters cover everything from her fears and hopes to the love and uncertainty of being a mother today. Honest, heartwarming and hilarious, Giovanna's relatable musings on motherhood are both a joy and a comfort, paying testament to the power of family._______'Fantastically honest, witty and real . . . I laughed and cried!' 5***** Reader Review'Giovanna is a real one' Candice Brathwaite, bestselling author of I Am Not Your Baby Mother'Cried, laughed and could relate to nearly every word' 5***** Reader Review'Giovanna is a one of a kind sort of person. She's genuine, talented, and well honestly? I just really like her' Rosie Ramsay, bestselling author of Sh**ged. Married. Annoyed.By Louai Al Roumani. 2020
One day, everything is going well; the next, disaster strikes. What do you do when every pillar is collapsing, every…
rule is being broken and chaos seems to be all around you?'Pessimism be damned. This man steered his bank through four years of a hellish civil war - and the lessons he learnt will benefit us all.' Sathnam Sanghera, author of EmpireLand ________________ An inspiring story of resilient leadership in the toughest of times. Louai Al Roumani was head of finance and planning at one of the largest banks in Syria when the war broke out in 2011. In Lessons from a Warzone, Al Roumani shares his very personal account of coping with the day-to-day realities of leading an organization in dangerous and hostile conditions. His story shows how inspiration can come from the unlikeliest of places, and how a business can not only survive in chaos, but can learn to thrive - the bank became the undisputed sector leader as people's trust in its capability to protect their life-long savings strengthened. In this book, Al Roumani distils the knowledge and skills he and his colleagues developed while steering the bank through four impossible years into ten lessons applicable to any leader facing a crisis today. His valuable and often counterintuitive advice will help anyone understand how to be resilient even in the most challenging of times. ________________ 'A compelling guide for leaders grappling with the pandemic... the lessons in resilient leadership in turbulent times that Roumani offers are universal.' Pilita Clark, Financial Times'Contains powerful lessons about resilience that show how companies can come out of crises better and stronger if they focus on long-term opportunities, no matter how tough it gets in the short term' Ana Botín, executive chair, Banco SantanderBy Ved Mehta. 1984
Book 4 in Ved Mehta's Continents of Exile series. Nearly 50 years in the making, Continents of Exile is one…
of the great works of twentieth-century autobiography: the epic chronicle of an Indian family in the twentieth century. From 1930s India to 1950s Oxford and literary New York in the 1960s-80s, this is the story of the post-colonial twentieth century, as uniquely experienced and vividly recounted by Ved Mehta.Set against the distant storm of the Second World War and the waning light of British Raj, Ved Mehta's brilliant memoir Ledge Between the Streams tells of an Indian childhood and the coming to terms with growing blindness: how, despite his disability, he learned English, Braille, horseback riding, bicycling, touch typing, and roller skating.By Kellie Harrington, Roddy Doyle. 2022
THE PHENOMENAL MEMOIR OF A NATIONAL TREASUREAfter Kellie Harrington won gold at the Tokyo Olympics, the Irish public recognized her…
as not merely a sporting hero, but a deeply inspirational human being. Now, Kellie tells the story of her unlikely journey to the top, and of the many obstacles and setbacks she overcame along the way.Growing up in Dublin's north inner city, Kellie was in danger of going down the wrong path in life before she discovered boxing. The local boxing club was all-male and initially wouldn't let her join, but she persisted.She was not an overnight success. For years she struggled in international competition. At times she felt unsupported by the national boxing set-up. More than once she considered giving up the sport. But some spark of ambition and love for boxing kept her going, and gradually she made herself world class.Writing with Roddy Doyle, the award-winning author of The Commitments, Kellie tells the story of her unlikely rise to greatness and her continuing dedication to living a normal life - which has involved remaining an amateur boxer and keeping the job she loves, at a Dublin psychiatric hospital. She shares exceptionally vivid and revealing details about being a woman in a historically male sport, and about how she manages her body and her mind. It is a vastly inspiring look inside the life and psychology of a woman who is both brilliantly ordinary and utterly exceptional.