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Zimmer Men: The Trials and Tribulations of the Ageing Cricketer
By Marcus Berkmann. 2005
Ten years after his classic Rain Men - 'cricket's answer to Fever Pitch,' said the Daily Telegraph - Marcus Berkmann…
returns to the strange and wondrous world of village cricket, where players sledge their team-mates, umpires struggle to count up to six, the bails aren't on straight and the team that fields after a hefty tea invariably loses. This time he's on the trail of the Ageing Cricketer, having suddenly realised that he is one himself and playing in a team with ten others every weekend. In their minds they run around the field as fast as ever; it's only their legs that let them down. ZIMMER MEN asks all the important questions of middle-aged cricketers. Why is that boundary rope suddenly so far away? Are you doomed to getting worse as a cricketer, or could you get better? How many pairs of trousers will your girth destroy in one summer? Chronicling the 2004 season, with its many humiliating defeats and random injuries, this coruscatingly funny new book laughs in the face of middle age, and starts thinking seriously about buying a convertible.Africa, My Passion
By Corinne Hofmann. 2011
In an exquisite personal pilgrimage, Corinne Hofmann delves into the slums of Nairobi to uncover the heart-warming and heart-breaking stories…
of unforgettable people and places, then treks 500 miles across the Namibian desert to discover the lives of the nomadic Himba people. Joined by her half-Kenyan daughter, Napirai, they travel to Nairobi together for the first time to discover Napirai s roots and finally meet her father and half-siblings. Africa, My Passion is a poignant, touching and exciting story about one woman's love affair with a unique man, which led to a lifelong obsession with Africa. Moving, vividly recounted, eye-opening and, above all, filled with passionate hope and unparalleled detail, this is an extraordinary sequel to a bestselling series of memoirs.Reunion in Barsaloi
By Corinne Hofmann. 2005
Fourteen years after fleeing Kenya with her baby daughter, Corinne returned in the summer of 2004 to meet Lketinga and…
his family again in their village, Barsaloi. Nervous as she was, and uncertain as to how he would react on seeing her again, she found to her relief that she was welcomed unreservedly by all those who remembered her - by Lketinga, who still thought of her as his 'wife number one', by his brother, James, now a schoolteacher and especially by Lketinga's mother, who had looked after Corinne with such care all those years before. Corinne Hofmann revisits an area of a country which she cares about passionately, describing in her immensely readable style the changes she saw after her time away, and once again bringing to life the atmosphere and characters in the Masai village.Darkness Over Germany: A Warning From History
By E. Amy Buller. 2017
Hitler gave voice to a cry that came from the heart of a nation. Originally published in 1943, Darkness over…
Germany is a poignant and timely reminder of how high youth unemployment and the disenfranchised working class gave Hitler a savage worship. Between 1934 and 1938 Buller interviewed hundreds of men and women in Germany. This book is the result as Buller explores the deep sense of injustice felt by hundreds of German men and women which led to the ensuing Nazi ideology, and which could have been written today.'Death of a Translator is a powerful and personal read. Ed Gorman discusses his experiences in an incredibly open and…
moving way. His story is an example to us all.' - Brigadier Ed Butler CBE, DSO A young, devil-may-care Englishman, determined to report on the Soviet war and make a name for himself, makes a fateful commitment to a swashbuckling Afghan guerrilla commander. Not only will he go inside the capital secretly and live in the network of safe houses run by the resistance, he will travel around the city in a Soviet Army jeep, dressed as a Russian officer. Waiting in the mountain camp, from where Niazuldin's band of fighters lived and planned their hit-and-run attacks on Soviet troops, Ed Gorman discovers what it means to experience combat with men whose only interest is to be killed or martyred.Back from Africa
By Corinne Hofmann. 2003
Corinne Hofmann describes her return to Switzerland and the difficulties that faced her there, detailing how she built a new…
life for herself and her daughter and overcame all obstacles, with the same courage and optimism with which she faced the demands of her life in the Kenyan outback.Beached in Calabria
By Ian Ross. 2019
'Belissimo' - Daily Mail 'an amusing and charming read...Ross is the champion of the impulsive adventurer...If you are interested in…
Italy, in travel writing and the tales of a decent raconteur then this is for you.' - Paul Burke, NB Magazine Where do you go to when you only have a pittance for a home away from home for a huge family? Ian Ross realises that his small inheritance won't get him a place in France or even Spain, so he heads for southern Italy where he remembers the Blue Guide describing long empty sandy beaches in southern Calabria. When he arrives in Southern Italy he finds the house prices are encouragingly low. Why does no one go there? It's inaccessible and it's beloved of the Mafia. Not to be put off Ross stumes on the perfect beach on a crystal-clear bay in the deeply southern province of Reggio Calabria, an area he is soon advised is 'Bandit Country'. And the fact that there is a house right on the beach big enough for all the family at a price he can afford overcomes all fears and to a large extent all common sense. Buying it was only the beginning. Beached in Calabria catalogues the things that can go wrong in southern Italy for this English fish-out-of-waterman; he's out of his depth in a whirlpool of incomprehensible rules and regulations, family systems, conflicting advice and linguistic conundrums. Disaster follows disaster, but this travelogue encompasses tales of the friendships Ross makes on the way in this forgotten corner of Old Italy where the food and the 326 days of sunshine a year make for a perfect setting to a triumphant escapade.Fifty Miles Wide: Cycling Through Israel and Palestine
By Julian Sayarer. 2020
Ten years after breaking a world record for cycling around the world, award-winning travel writer Julian Sayarer returns to two…
wheels on the roads of Israel and occupied Palestine. His route weaves from the ancient hills of Galilee, along the blockaded walls of the Gaza Strip and down to the Bedouin villages of the Naqab Desert. He speaks with Palestinian hip-hop artists who wonder if music can change their world, Israelis hoping that kibbutz life can, and Palestinian cycling clubs determined to keep on riding despite the army checkpoints and settlers that bar their way. Pedalling through a military occupation, in the chance encounters of the roadside, a bicycle becomes a vehicle of more than just travel, and cuts through the tension to find a few simple truths, and some hope. As the miles pass, the journey becomes a meditation on making change - how people in dark times keep their spirit, and go on believing that a different world is possible.All at Sea: Another Side of Paradise
By Julian Sayarer. 2017
On the small island of Surin, near the naval border of Thailand and Myanmar, an indigenous people known as Moken…
'sea gypsies' struggle to maintain the same timeless existence as their ancestors. As real estate developers, oil exploration and industrial tourism reshape the waters they call home, Sayarer receives a mysterious offer from an idealistic Luxembourger determined to tell a tale of the Moken on film, and in search of a writer to detail the efforts of his motley crew. Events unfold in a reality strangely different to that version captured by the lens. In the quest for indigenous wisdom, cameras and tripods clutter bamboo huts, while fishing trips and dives are staged beneath the waves. With the quest for paradise seeming ever more artificial, award-winning author, Julian Sayarer instead begins listening to the stories of Laurie, an old sailor, with a life on the water behind him, and in whose ship the crew sail out into the Andaman Sea.Confesiones de un inquisidor: Memorias de César Hildebrandt en diálogo con Rebeca Diz Rey
By César Hildebrandt. 2021
César Hildebrandt, el periodista peruano más representativo de nuestro tiempo, rememora con detalle los episodios que construyeron su vida íntima,…
su carrera profesional y, más de una vez, los hitos que marcaron el destino de nuestra república. Durante 29 sesiones realizadas entre los años 2017 y 2020 junto a Rebeca Diz, César Hildebrandt, el periodista peruano más representativo de nuestro tiempo, rememora con detalle los episodios que construyeron su vida íntima, su carrera profesional y, más de una vez, los hitos que marcaron el destino de nuestra república. A lo largo de estas páginas el autor evoca sus primeros años de formación cuando era alumno del colegio Leoncio Prado; su labor como articulista y editor en diversos medios de prensa escrita; su conflictiva relación con la televisión nacional; su temporada de autoexilio en España; su lúcida lectura de la historia y la política peruanas; su infatigable pasión por la literatura, y también sus diversos desencantos, amores y supersticiones, entre otras facetas que configuran el complejo perfil de un hombre «apasionado de la razón». En Confesiones de un inquisidor, César Hildebrandt da cuenta de una existencia comprometida con el ejercicio de comunicar la verdad. Una vida contada desde la convicción de quien observa el camino recorrido sin arrepentimientos ni rencores, y que constituye, indiscutiblemente, un capítulo esencial en la historia del periodismo peruano.But What Comes After?
By Ruth Leon. 2011
Ruth Leon was married to Sheridan Morley - theatre critic, broadcaster and Britain's pre-eminent arts journalist. He'd suffered from bouts…
of depression all his life but suddenly, after a mild stroke, his usual treatments stopped working. He sat, crying, his chin pressed down into his chest, all day, every day. Ruth looked after him - sometimes gracefully and sympathetically, often angrily and tensely. Also an arts journalist, for two years she did her own freelance work as well as his. She no longer recognised her husband, but she could be him. One day, a consultant in Oxford said he thought they'd been treating the wrong kind of depression; that the stroke had damaged the emotional centre of Sheridan's brain. He knew of a procedure that might help, but it had never before been performed in the UK. It was an outlandish, fantastical idea - an implant would be put in Sheridan's brain that would allow doctors to adjust his mood with an electronic remote control. They would be tampering with the very core of what made Sheridan Sheridan. On behalf of her long-absent husband, Ruth agreed.Ruth Leon's account of this unique journey to the heart of what it is to be human is as honest and moving as it is fascinating and challenging.Blackout: Remembering the things I drank to forget
By Sarah Hepola. 2015
'Extraordinary... Writing with warmth and wit' Independent'It's such a savage thing to lose your memory, but the crazy thing is,…
it doesn't hurt one bit. A blackout doesn't sting, or stab, or leave a scar when it robs you. Close your eyes and open them again. That's what a blackout feels like.'For Sarah Hepola, alcohol was 'the gasoline of all adventure'. She spent her evenings at cocktail parties and dark bars where she proudly stayed till last call. Drinking felt like freedom, part of her birthright as an enlightened twenty-first-century woman.But there was a price. She often blacked out, waking up with a blank space where four hours should be. Mornings became detective work on her own life. What did I say last night? How did I meet that guy?Publicly, she covered her shame with self-deprecating jokes, and her career flourished, but as the blackouts accumulated, she could no longer avoid a sinking truth. The fuel she thought she needed was draining her spirit instead.THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTELLERA memoir of unblinking honesty and poignant, laugh-out-loud humour, BLACKOUT is the story of a woman stumbling into a new adventure-the sober life she never wanted. Shining a light into her blackouts, she discovers the person she buried, as well as the confidence, intimacy, and creativity she once believed came only from a bottle. Her tale will resonate with anyone who has been forced to reinvent themselves or struggled in the face of necessary change. It's about giving up the thing you cherish most-but getting yourself back in return.A raw, vivid and ultimately uplifting memoir of addiction and recovery for anyone who is looking to find their way.Lampedusa: Gateway to Europe
By Lidia Tilotta, Dr Pietro Bartolo. 2016
"Bartolo tells us about rescuing everyone he can, burying those he cannot, and saving their stories as if they were…
his own. This is a personal, urgent and universal book" GLORIA STEINEM"An urgent, wrenching dispatch from the frontline of the defining crisis of our times . . . Bartolo is at once the saviour and the coroner to boatload after boatload of migrants who risk everything to cross the deadly seas. It is also a damning indictment of the broader, collective indifference of humankind to both the drowned and the saved" PHILIP GOUREVITCH"Dr Pietro Bartolo has seen more suffering and death in his career than any one man should have to witness" Amnesty International"Through Bartolo we understand that it is impossible to do nothing in the face of such great human need" Vanity FairIt is common to think of the refugee crisis as a recent phenomenon, but Dr Pietro Bartolo, who runs the clinic on the Italian island of Lampedusa, has been caring for its victims - both the living and the dead - for a quarter of a century.Situated some 200 km off Italy's Southern coast, Lampedusa has hit the world headlines in recent years as the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern migrants hoping to make a new life in Europe.The shipwrecks began in 1992. Before the Arab Spring, they came from Africa, but now they come from across the Arab world as well. And the death toll is staggering. On Christmas Eve, 1996, 286 bodies were recovered; on the night of October 3, 2003, 366 out of 500 migrants died after a shipwreck nearby.For the past twenty-five years, Doctor Bartolo has been rescuing, welcoming, helping, and providing medical assistance to those who survived. But, above all, he has been listening to them. Tales of pain and hope, stories of those who didn't make it, who died at sea, their bodies washed up on shore; stories of those who lost their loved ones, of babies that never had a chance to be born.SHORTLISTED FOR THE ITALIAN PROSE TRANSLATION AWARD (IPTA)Translated from the Italian by Chenxin JiangSaving Safa: Rescuing a Little Girl from FGM
By Waris Dirie. 2013
Waris Dirie, the Somalia nomad who became a supermodel, and an anti-FGM activist, first came to the world's attention with…
the publication of her autobiography, Desert Flower. The book was subsequently made into a film and little Safa Nour, from one of the slums of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, was chosen to play the young Waris. The book and the film record many extraordinary things - from facing down a tiger, to being discovered by a famous photographer in London - but it also tells the grim story of female circumcision, an ordeal that the young Waris had to endure. Saving Safa opens with a letter from Safa, now aged seven, who explains that she is worried that she will undergo FGM in spite of the contract her parents have signed with Dirie's Desert Flower Foundation stating that they will never have their daughter cut. Waris drops everything and flies to Djibouti where she meets Safa's father and mother who thinks her daughter should be cut to stop the community ostracising them. As Safa was saved from FGM through a contract with her parents, the Foundation believes a thousand other girls can be saved through providing their families with aid in return for a promise not to mutilate their daughtersBack to the Boy
By James Arthur. 2017
'The thought behind this book is not just me wanting to tell my story in the standard autobiographical fashion but…
to create a kind of self-help book that includes my story. There are many things people don't know about me and maybe when they read about those things they will have an understanding of the journey I have been on, why I've made the mistakes I have and hopefully help other people overcome their adversities.'Life has presented its fair share of setbacks for James Arthur, from his disrupted childhood - during which he felt like a stray and a misfit, entering the care system in his teens - to a very public fall from favour just at the point when all his dreams should have been coming true. With an extraordinary comeback in 2016, starting with No. 1 single 'Say You Won't Let Go' and his Platinum album Back From The Edge, Back To The Boy shows the British singer and songwriter reflecting not only on his past but also on his return to the charts, and the phenomenal global success that followed. James shares his struggles with mental health issues which led to drug abuse, and how he dealt with the feelings of intense pressure and loneliness that accompanied his sudden rise to fame. Back to the Boy gives an insight into the life of one of the most exciting musicians of today, and how his experiences are reflected in the raw emotion and passion in his music. This is a story of hope and self-discovery to inspire those who have ever hit rock-bottom and managed to pick themselves up again.Windblown: Landscape, Legacy and Loss - The Great Storm of 1987
By Tamsin Treverton Jones. 2017
Trees are part of the British psyche. We care if just one tree is cut down unnecessarily. So what happens…
when 15 million are blown down in one night? Part travelogue, part memoir, part celebration of nature's ability to heal itself, Windblown is as rich in character and story-telling as the rings of an ancient oak.'Windblown is a marvellously original mixture of reportage and memoir, holding a memorable event in recent history up to the light and making sense of it' Bel Mooney'A wonderful read' Michael Fish'Vivid ... thoroughly researched and informative' TLS'This eloquently written account shows that the Great Storm was a wake-up call, providing a wealth of information that helps us manage our treescape today.' Tony Kirkham, Head of the Kew Gardens ArboretumEastern Horizons: Shortlisted for the 2018 Edward Stanford Award
By Levison Wood. 2017
Levison Wood was only 22 when he decided to hitch-hike from England to India through Russia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan,…
but he wasn't the conventional follower of the hippy trail. A fascination with the deeds of the early explorers, a history degree in the bag, an army career already planned and a shoestring budget of £750 - including for the flight home - he was determined to find out more about the countries of the Caucasus and beyond - and meet the people who lived and worked there.EASTERN HORIZONS is a true traveller's tale in the tradition of the best of the genre, populated by a cast of eccentric characters; from mujahideen fighters to the Russian mafia. Along the way he meets some people who showed great hospitality, while others would rather have murdered him...Woman in the Wilderness: My Story of Love, Survival and Self-Discovery
By Miriam Lancewood. 2017
'An intriguing and mesmerising book' Ben FogleMy life is free, random and spontaneous. This in itself creates enormous energy and…
clarity in body and mind - Miriam LancewoodMiriam Lancewood is a young Dutch woman living a primitive, nomadic life in the heart of the mountains with her New Zealand husband. She lives simply in a tent or hut and survives by hunting wild animals, foraging edible plants and using minimal supplies. For the last six years she has lived this way, through all seasons, often cold, hungry and isolated in the bush. She loves her life and feels free, connected to the land and happy.This book tells her story, including the very practical aspects of such a life: her difficulties learning to hunt with a bow and arrow, struggles to create a warm environment in which to live, attempts to cross raging rivers safely and find ways through the rugged mountains and dense bush. This is interwoven with her adjustment to a very slow pace of life, her relationship with her much older husband, her interactions with the few other people they encounter, and her growing awareness of a strong spiritual connection to the natural world.An American Family: A Memoir Of Hope And Sacrifice
By Khizr Khan. 2018
'Khan's aspirational memoir reminds us all why Americans should welcome newcomers from all lands' Kirkus ReviewsIn fewer than three hundred…
words, Khizr Khan electrified viewers around the world when he took the stage at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. And when he offered to lend Donald Trump his own much-read and dog-eared pocket Constitution, his gesture perfectly encapsulated the feelings of millions. But who was that man, standing beside his wife, extolling the promises and virtues of the U.S. Constitution?In this urgent and timeless immigrant story, we learn that Khizr Khan has been many things. He was the oldest of ten children born to farmers in Pakistan, and a curious and thoughtful boy who listened rapt as his grandfather recited Rumi beneath the moonlight. He was a university student who read the Declaration of Independence and was awestruck by what might be possible in life. He was a hopeful suitor, trying to win the heart of a woman far out of his league. He was a brilliant and diligent young family man who worked two jobs to save enough money to put himself through Harvard Law School. He was a loving father who tragically lost his son, an Army captain killed while protecting his base camp in Iraq. He was and is a patriot, and a fierce advocate for the rights, dignities and values enshrined in the American system.An American Family shows us who Khizr Khan and millions of other American immigrants are, and why-especially in these tumultuous times-we must not be afraid to step forward for what we believe in when it matters most.Over and Out: Memories of Test Match Special from a broadcasting icon
By Henry Blofeld. 2017
For over half a century, Henry Blofeld has conveyed his unfailing enthusiasm for the game of cricket as a much…
loved broadcaster and journalist. His characteristically patrician tones, overlaid with those of the bon viveur, have delighted listeners to the BBC's Test Match Special where the personality of the broadcaster comes second only to a deep knowledge of the game and its players. With his engaging conversational tone it is easy to see why listeners feel as if they are actually at the Test match watching in Henry's friendly company. Now that 'Blowers' has decided to declare his TMS innings closed, his book reveals the secrets of life in the commentary box and of the rich cast of characters with whom he shared it, from the early days of John Arlott and Brian Johnson to Aggers and new boys Boycott, Swann, Vaughan and Tuffers. Henry is equally revealing of his own performances and self-deprecatingly recalls his several verbal misfortunes while live broadcasting. Like the greatest commentators and writers on the game Blofeld has always understood that there is a world beyond the cricket field. Not forgetting pigeons passing, red buses and much loved cricket grounds, Henry Blofeld writes of his favourite countries, and experiences while travelling, and meeting and interviewing many cricket-loving celebrities. His passionate and entertaining book will become one of the classics of cricket's literature.