Biografier

One of the world's foremost collectors of modern art shares the story of his remarkable life, times, and culture.

October 1982: ABC, Culture Club, Shalamar and Survivor dominate the top twenty when the Pogues barrel out from the backstreets of King's Cross, a furious, pioneering mix of punk energy, traditional melodies and the powerfully poetic songwriting of Shane MacGowan. Reviled by traditionalists for their frequently fast, often riotous interpretations of Irish folk songs, the Pogues rose from the sweaty chaos of backroom gigs in Camden pubs to world tours with the likes of Elvis Costello, U2 and Bob Dylan, and had huge commercial success with everyone's favourite Christmas song, 'Fairytale of New York'. Yet, the exuberance of their live performances coupled with relentless touring spiralled into years of hard drinking and excess which eventually took their toll - most famously on Shane, but also on the rest of the band - causing them to part ways seven years later. Here, their story is told with beauty, lyricism and great candour by James Fearnley, founding member and accordion player. He brings to life the youthful friendships, the bust-ups, the amazing gigs, the terrible gigs, the fantastic highs and the dramatic lows in a hugely compelling, humorous, moving and honest account of life in one of our most treasured and original bands.

The comic autobiography of 2014 A comedian's autobiography? I wonder if he's ever used humour to deflect from his insecurities? To avoid being bullied? Is there heartache behind the humour? I wonder if he's a manic-depressive? Tears of a clown? Yes, all of that. Discover the hilarious life-story of one of Britain's best-loved comedians in Kevin Bridges' brilliant memoir. 'First of all, I have never written a book before, you probably haven't either, so there we have it; a connection is established between reader and writer . . .' Aged just 17, Kevin Bridges walked on stage for the first time in a Glasgow comedy club and brought the house down. He only had a five-minute set but in that short time he discovered that he really could earn a living from making people laugh. Kevin began life as a shy, nerve-ridden school-boy, whose weekly highlights included a cake-bombing attack by the local youths. Reaching his teens, he followed his true calling as the class clown, and was soon after arrested for kidnapping Hugh Grant from his local cinema on a quiet Saturday night. This was a guy going somewhere - off the rails seeming most likely. Kevin's trademark social commentary, sharp one-liners and laugh-out-loud humour blend with his reflections on his Glaswegian childhood and the journey he's taken to become one of the most-loved comedians of our time.'. . . Hopefully now you'll take this over to the till and I can accompany you for the next wee while. That's the benefit of book shops, reading the little bit and then deciding if the author deserves to be part of your carefully selected 3 for 2 deal, or part of your plane journey, train journey, your next bath, your next shite.' Praise for Kevin Bridges:'The Best Scottish Stand up of his Generation.' The Scotsman 'A wonderfully dry and deadpan Glaswegian comic . . . one the most exciting talents to have emerged from Scotland since Billy Connolly' Guardian 'Kevin Bridges might just become the best stand-up in the land . . . he will go and deliver a one-liner that you want to jot down and frame' The Times 'Wonderfully sharp, assured stand-up from the preternaturally gifted young comic' Independent

Richard Burton: star. The roaring boy from the Welsh coal valleys who came to sport on the banks of the old Nile, playing great Antony to Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra. From the West End to Hollywood, from Camelot to Shakespeare, he drank, dazzled and despaired, playing out his life on the public stage. But there was another, quieter, off-stage Richard Burton, a face hidden from the multitude. Melvyn Bragg, allowed free access to the never-before-revealed Burton private notebooks, and with the cooperation of friends who have never spoken about him before, has brought together the private and public sides for the first time. Rich is the complete Richard Burton: a revelation.

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.

.'In 1954, in a remote South American village, a four-year-old girl was abducted and then abandoned deep in the Colombian rainforest. So begins the incredible true story of Marina Chapman, who went on to spend several years alone in the jungle, her only family a troop of capuchin monkeys.

Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist Edward O. Wilson imparts the wisdom of his storied career to the next generation.

Bob Shepton is an ordained minister in the Church of England in his late 70s, but spends most of his time sailing into the Arctic and making first ascents of inaccessible mountains. No tea parties for this vicar.Opening with the disastrous fire that destroyed his yacht whilst he was ice-bound in Greenland, the book travels back to his childhood growing up on the rubber plantation his father managed in Malaysia, moving back to England after his father was shot by the Japanese during the war, boarding school, the Royal Marines, and the church. We then follow Bob as he sails around the world with a group of schoolboys, is dismasted off the Falklands, trapped in ice, and climbs mountains accessible only from iceberg-strewn water and with only sketchy maps available. Bob Shepton, winner of the 2013 Yachtsman of the Year Award, is an old-school adventurer, and this compelling book is in the spirit of sailing mountaineer HW Tilman, explorer Ranulph Fiennes, climber Chris Bonington and yachtsman Robin Knox-Johnston, all of whom have been either friends of Bob's or an inspiration for his own exploits. Derring do in a dog collar!Ranulph Fiennes: 'A wonderful true tale of adventure.'Bear Grylls: 'You are going to enjoy this...as a Commando, Bob is clearly made of the right stuff!'

Do No Harm is a gripping exploration of the human brain, penned by none other than the renowned neurosurgeon, Henry Marsh. Published in 2014 by Orion Publishing Co, this book delves into the complexities of the mind and the delicate art of neurosurgery. Marsh, with his years of experience in the field, offers an intimate and deeply personal look into the highs and lows of a life dedicated to this demanding profession. The book belongs to the genre of medical literature but is written in a way that is engaging and accessible to all readers, regardless of their scientific background. Do No Harm is not just a book; it's a journey that navigates the fine line between life and death, success and failure, hope and despair. It's a must-read for anyone intrigued by the mysteries of the human brain. Published by Orion Publishing Co, it's a testament to Marsh's exceptional career and his unwavering commitment to his patients.

Takes readers along on a restorative journey of healing and liberation. Suitable for anyone who has been fractured by trauma, this title presents a way to put you back together again, no longer inhibited by the past or terrified of the future. It offers a 20-step process for healing any past hurt or present problem.

One of the most talked-about and bestselling books of last year, this is the no-holds-barred autobiography of a sporting legend driven to the brink of self-destruction

When Elspeth Huxley's pioneer father buys a remote plot of land in Kenya, the family sets off to discover their new home: five hundred acres of Kenyan scrubland, infested with ticks and white ants, and quavering with heat.

'I saw that ship sink, I never closed my eyes. I saw it, I heard it, and nobody could possibly forget it. I can remember the colours, the sounds, everything. The worst thing I can remember were the screams.' EVA HART This is the amazing story of how Eva survived the sinking of the Titanic - the disaster that claimed the life of her father. The events of a few hours during her childhood had a huge impact on Eva. Her vivid memories of being bundled into a lifeboat and of watching the unsinkable ship slip beneath the surface remained with her for the rest of her life, although it was nearly forty years before she could talk openly about the tragedy. A Girl Aboard the Titanic is the only eyewitness description we have from a child of this famous maritime disaster.

Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most unfathomable composers in the history of music. How can such sublime work have been produced by a man who (when we can discern his personality at all) seems so ordinary, so opaque - and occasionally so intemperate?John Eliot Gardiner grew up passing one of the only two authentic portraits of Bach every morning and evening on the stairs of his parents' house, where it hung for safety during the Second World War. He has been studying and performing Bach ever since, and is now regarded as one of the composer's greatest living interpreters. The fruits of this lifetime's immersion are distilled in this remarkable book, grounded in the most recent Bach scholarship but moving far beyond it, which explains in wonderful detail the ideas on which Bach drew, how he worked, how his music is constructed, how it achieves its effects - and what it can tell us about Bach the man.Gardiner's background as a historian has encouraged him to search for ways in which scholarship and performance can cooperate and fruitfully coalesce. This has entailed piecing together the few biographical shards, scrutinising the music, and watching for those instances when Bach's personality seems to penetrate the fabric of his notation. Gardiner's aim is 'to give the reader a sense of inhabiting the same experiences and sensations that Bach might have had in the act of music-making. This, I try to show, can help us arrive at a more human likeness discernible in the closely related processes of composing and performing his music.'It is very rare that such an accomplished performer of music should also be a considerable writer and thinker about it. John Eliot Gardiner takes us as deeply into Bach's works and mind as perhaps words can. The result is a unique book about one of the greatest of all creative artists.SIR JOHN ELIOT GARDINER is one of the world's leading conductors, not only of Baroque music but across the whole repertoire. He founded the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, the Orchestre de l'Op ra de Lyon, the English Baroque Soloists, and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique. He has conducted most of the world's great orchestras and in many of the leading opera houses. He lives and farms in Dorset.

Brought to you by Penguin.An intimate look at the legendary British designer behind Apple's most iconic products - including the Apple WatchWith the death of Steve Jobs in 2011, JONY IVE has become the most important person at Apple. Some would argue he always was.Steve Jobs discovered Ive in 1997, when he found the scruffy British designer toiling away in a studio surrounded by hundreds of sketches and prototypes. Jobs instantly realised he had found a talent who could reverse Apple's decline, and become his 'spiritual partner'.Their collaboration produced iconic products including the iMac, iPod, iPad and iPhone. Designs that overturned entire industries and created the world's most powerful brand.Little has been known about this shy, softly-spoken designer. Until now. Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products tells the riveting story of a creative genius, from his early interest in industrial design to his meteoric rise, as well as the principles and practices that led Ive to become the designer of his generation.'Sheds new light on technology's most-watched design team' Observer'A real pleasure' GQ(c) Leander Kahney 2015 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Sheila Kitzinger, passionate campaigner for women's and babies' rights, childbirth educator and author, describes the experiences that have shaped her since childhood and the enormous changes that have taken place over the last 50 years on the subject of birth.

The author is fitter, stronger and readier than ever to take on the challenges of the wild, thanks to a revolutionary new fitness program. And at the heart of his personal training regime are fast-paced, dynamic workouts that can be done anywhere by anyone in just 30 minutes or less. In this book, he presents his fitness program.

The Buy Side is Turney Duff's high-adrenaline journey through the trading underworld, as well as a searing look at an after-hours Wall Street culture where sex and drugs are the quid pro quo and a billion isn't enough. In the mid-2000's, Turney Duff was, to all appearances, the very picture of American success. One of Wall Street's hottest traders, he was a rising star with Raj Rajaratnam's legendary Galleon Group before forging his own path. What few knew was that the key to Turney's remarkable success wasn't a super-genius IQ or family connections but rather a winning personality - because the real money wasn't made on the trading floor or behind a computer screen, but in whispered deals in the city's most exclusive nightspots, surrounded by the best drugs and hottest women. For Turney, this created a perilously seductive cycle: the harder he partied, the more connected and successful he became, which meant he could party even harder. In time, he became a walking paradox, an addictive mess after hours, and King of the Street from nine to five. Along the way, he learned some important lessons about himself, and the too-wild-to-believe world of Wall Street trading. In The Buy Side, the money is plentiful and the after-hours indulgence even more so, which has proved to be a bestselling and box office winning combination, as the success of The Wolf of Wall Street attests. Fans of Martin Scorsese's film and Michael Lewis's Liar's Poker and The Big Short will want to take a walk on The Buy Side.

A Sunday Times Bestseller Have you ever had a strange urge to jump from a tall building, or steer your car into oncoming traffic? You are not alone. In this captivating fusion of science, history and personal memoir, writer David Adam explores the weird thoughts that exist within every mind, and how they drive millions of us towards obsessions and compulsions. David has suffered from OCD for twenty years, and The Man Who Couldn't Stop is his unflinchingly honest attempt to understand the condition and his experiences. What might lead an Ethiopian schoolgirl to eat a wall of her house, piece by piece; or a pair of brothers to die beneath an avalanche of household junk that they had compulsively hoarded? At what point does a harmless idea, a snowflake in a clear summer sky, become a blinding blizzard of unwanted thoughts? Drawing on the latest research on the brain, as well as historical accounts of patients and their treatments, this is a book that will challenge the way you think about what is normal, and what is mental illness. Told with fierce clarity, humour and urgent lyricism, this extraordinary book is both the haunting story of a personal nightmare, and a fascinating doorway into the darkest corners of our minds.

Compelling memoir of a young man who emerged from the darkness of being locked into his body after doctors had given up on him

With an introduction by Steve MartinTwo pages into the script and an ache has developed in my gonads - I am both laughing out loud and agonized by the fact that the Withnail part is such a corker that not in a billion bank holidays will they ever seriously consider me. When, in the summer of 1986, Richard E. Grant was cast as the lead in Withnail and I, his whole world shifted and he was set firmly on the path to international stardom. With Nails is his outrageous, irreverent and brutally funny account of that time and the years afterwards, of his self-doubt and anxiety on the route to Hollywood, and of all the extraordinary, mad, brilliant people in the film business. From drinking himself incoherent so he could film Withnail and I to a night spent in Paris's red light district with a world-famous couple, to working with Hollywood's biggest actors and directors, Richard E. Grant - always eloquent, always honest - has documented, in his own inimitable style, what it is to become a film star. A rare classic, there is no book quite like it.

A fascinating journey on the footsteps of Mary Wollstonecraft and an exploration of never-dying themes, such as babies versus careers.

The impossibly moving story of how Judy, World War Two's only animal POW, brought hope in the midst of hell.

Includes an account of Bernard's Salford childhood, the early days of Joy Division, the band's enormous critical and popular success, and the subsequent tragic death of Ian Curtis.

The Best of Both Worlds is the true story of how childhood misery and trauma helped Gordon Smith discover a gift that has helped many people throughout the world. He has helped those who are in mourning come to terms with death and bereavement by working as a medium to put people in touch with their loved ones who have passed over.Gordon held off telling the story of his discovery of spiritual powers, as he believed his mother would have hated people knowing the poverty they came from or the abuse that her son suffered. After her death, Gordon decided it was time to tell his incredible story from humble beginnings all the way to becoming an internationally praised medium working for some of the most famous and powerful people in the world.His previous volume of memoirs Spirit Messenger was a massive bestseller but only now is he able to tell the unvarnished astonishing truth.

In an intimate and eye-opening story, roundly praised as the best available insight on Queen, Peter Hince recounts twelve years on the road with Freddie Mercury, Brian May and co. This truly is the definitive book on the 20th century's most iconic rock band.

By the time she was 14, Chrissie Hynde knew she had to get out of Akron, Ohio. Her perfect 50s American childhood upturned by a newly acquired taste for rock n roll, motorbikes and the get down boys seen at gigs in and around Cleveland Mitch Ryder, the Jeff Beck Group, the Velvet Underground and David Bowie among the many.Wrapped up in the Kent State University riots and getting dangerously involved in the local biker and drug scenes, she escaped - to Mexico, Canada, Paris and finally London where she caught the embryonic punk scene just in time not only to witness it first-hand, but more importantly to seize the opportunity to form her own band, the Pretenders.Iggy Pop, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Vivienne & Malcolm, Ray Davies on every page household names mingle with small town heroes as we shift from bedroom to biker HQ; from squat to practice room; from pub gig to Top Of The Pops the long and crooked path to stardom, and for the Pretenders, ultimately, tragedy.That Chrissie Hynde is alive to tell the tale is, by her own admission, something of a miracle. Throughout she is brutally honest, wryly humorous and always highly entertaining. She has written one of the most evocative and colourful music memoirs to be published in recent years.

The first-ever memoir of the legendary co-founder of Nike Inc, Phil Knight