Selvbiografier

Writers Like Us is a poignant literary memoir by Barnaby Conrad, who had the good fortune to be mentored by Sinclair Lewis, the first American author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. In the spring of 1947, the 25 year-old Conrad was living in Santa Barbara, California, when he met Lewis. Conrad was struggling with his first novel, while Lewis, then 62, was in the twilight of his career. While they both had studied at Yale and had the same literary agent, they could not have been more different. A charming San Francisco-native, Conrad had been a dashing diplomat in Spain during World War II, an amateur bullfighter, a cocktail pianist, and a gifted portrait artist. Lewis was an awkward but strident genius from the Midwest, a sharp-tongued literary giant whose face had been ravaged by skin cancer. He had been married and divorced twice and was deeply lonely. Conrad was in awe of Lewis's global stature and charmed by his crusty humor and humanity. This Odd Couple instantly developed a camraderie. For four summer months, Conrad worked as Lewis's personal secretary, chauffeur, and chess partner at Thorvale, a 700-acre estate near Williamstown, Massachusetts. In turn, Lewis mentored the young man's first novel-in-progress. Although Sinclair Lewis has fallen out of fashion, many agree that no one wrote more clearly about America than he did. Barnaby Conrad's Writers LIke Us, is a fascinating literary memoir about the intertwined lives of authors and the elusive nature of literary success.

Once mocked as out of touch with contemporary architecture, King Charles is reassessed here for his forward-thinking views on architecture, sustainability, and preservation.King Charles III’s affection for architecture is well-known, but the extent of his engagement has never been fully presented to the public. This is the first book to draw together the many threads, from the ‘carbuncle’ speech, made at Hampton Court in 1984, until his accession to the throne. He has created model settlements such as Poundbury through the Duchy of Cornwall, Dumfries House in East Ayrshire has been made a beacon of social regeneration, and his educational initiatives have changed lives. The four decades of the King's commitment to architecture have coincided with Clive Aslet's career as a journalist, during which he has followed the story and often written about it, not least during the 13 years for which he was editor of Country Life. King Charles III: 40 Years of Architecture is based on new research including many interviews with the architects, critics, advisors and academics who worked with the (then) Prince of Wales on his far-reaching endeavors.

Hans Christian Andersen is an cultural icon. But what is an icon exactly? And how did Hans Christian Andersen become one? This book looks into the different meanings and uses of the word icon and into the making of the cultural icon that is Hans Christian Andersen.

From the bestselling author of The Master, an intimate biography of tennis's living legend Rafael Nadal, and the first to cover his entire career.

A Grammar School Girl is the sequel to Grace Caroline Holte's The Girl from Guildford Street, which depicted an idyllic Sixties childhood in the working class Back to Backs of Aston and Lozells, at a time of radical political change when Birmingham was considered the Workshop of the World. The Seventies were a gloomier affair as much of the old city disappeared. Strikes, change and conflict were rife. The Birmingham Bombings marked the darkest day in the city's history. Yet there were happy times. In 1968, the author moved to the Newtown Estate, experiencing teenage trials and tribulations along with the delights of youth clubs and coffee bars. An education at King Edward's Grammar School for Girls, Handsworth, enabled her to attend University, a first for the family. Birmingham survived the troubled decade of the Seventies and emerged with her indomitable spirit intact. This is the story of one family during that era. It is Birmingham's story. It may also be your story.

"This book brings together over 130 original interviews and new archival and biographical research on Wheeler's life and music, chronicling his journey from small town Canada to international acclaim. It is as much a perspective on the history and development of jazz in Britain and Europe as it is the extraordinary tale of this improbable pioneer"--

Dreams to Reality takes you beyond the finish line of success. An autobiography of a determined contractor who rises from ordinary to become a Vice President of a large construction firm. His journey, marked by triumphs and tough lessons, shows that success is just the beginning. When dreams come true and reality sets in, will he thrive or falter?

Outrageous, passionate and glamorous, the Mitford sisters beguiled their peers, the press and then the rest of the world throughout their lives and still captivate us today - celebrated cartoonist Mimi Pond brings to them to life in this sparkling graphic biography.As a young girl living in sun-bleached 1960s suburban California, Mimi Pond fell in love with the Mitford sisters. Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah Mitford brought society glitz, pageantry, scandal, and real (rainy) weather to her own prosaic life.High society debutantes known for rubbing shoulders with some of history's most infamous fascists and communists, the sisters were also, in turn, gifted writers, inveterate nicknamers, chicken-raising homebodies, scathing wits, and passionate adventurers in the maelstrom of the 20th century.Drawn with inimitable artistic flair and a mischievous affinity for the decadent and grandly declining aristocracy, Mimi Pond brings the Mitfords to life in this glittering and lovingly researched family biography.

Actor, rock 'n' roll singer, the prince of Halloween, confusing sex symbol. Many labels have been given to the inimitable Tim Curry over the years. All are true, and yet none are quite right.Here, for the first time, Curry reveals the raucous and true story of the man who has captivated audiences on stage and screen for over 50 years.From iconic roles as Frank N Furter, Wadsworth, and Pennywise the Clown, to brushes with the likes of Ian McKellen, Andy Warhol and even Kermit the Frog, Vagabond is a fascinating and riotous portrait of one the most enigmatic performers of our time.

[Not final] Intimate afterlives of empire is the first comprehensive study of post-imperial autobiography as an important genre of cultural memory. investigate the relationship between individual and cultural memory at the end of empire as voiced through the practice of autobiographical writing. Through close readings of more than a dozen autobiographies and memoirs/Through close readings of almost twenty autobiographies written after the break-up of the British Empire, it examines how individuals engage with the changing narrative landscape brought about by decolonisation/ it examines how changes to cultural narratives about the imperial past manifest themselves in personal life stories. . It argues that individuals navigate the changing narrative landscape of decolonisation by way of personal memory work, repositioning themselves in relation to a contemporary audience. The book conceives of decolonisation as a narrative shift, though not a total break, from the logics of the colonial era. /The narrative changes brought about by decolonisation has previously been studied at the level of collective or national memory. Intimate afterlives of empire is the first book to examine how individuals have responded to this changing narrative landscape. It argues that authors are at once affected by and seek to affect cultural memories of the colonial past. /It argues that authors respond dialogically to shifts in the cultural memories of empire, inserting themselves in a wider narrative. As decolonisation brought changes to the narrative landscape, individual writers ... Studying the dialogues between individual and cultural memory, the book argues that autobiographers are at once influenced by and seek to influence the cultural memory of empire and its legacies (and the authors' own position in both)/ trace the responses to the moment of decolonisation as a narrative eventEach chapter focuses on one trope and one autobiographical sub-genre so that the result is an anatomy of the genre of the end of empire autobiography as a whole.

In June 1983 Margaret Thatcher won the biggest increase in a government's Parliamentary majority in British electoral history. Over the next four years, as Charles Moore relates in this central volume of his uniquely authoritative biography, Britain's first woman prime minister changed the course of her country's history and that of the world, often by sheer force of will.The book reveals as never before how she faced down the Miners' Strike, transformed relations with Europe, privatized the commanding heights of British industry and continued the reinvigoration of the British economy. It describes her role on the world stage with dramatic immediacy, identifying Mikhail Gorbachev as 'a man to do business with' before he became leader of the Soviet Union, and then persistently pushing him and Ronald Reagan, her great ideological soulmate, to order world affairs according to her vision. For the only time since Churchill, she ensured that Britain had a central place in dealings between the superpowers.But even at her zenith she was beset by difficulties. The beloved Reagan two-timed her during the US invasion of Grenada. She lost the minister to whom she was personally closest to scandal and almost had to resign as a result of the Westland affair. She found herself isolated within her own government over Europe. She was at odds with the Queen over the Commonwealth and South Africa. She bullied senior colleagues and she set in motion the poll tax. Both these last would later return to wound her, fatally.In all this, Charles Moore has had unprecedented access to all Mrs Thatcher's private and government papers. The participants in the events described have been so frank in interview that we feel we are eavesdropping on their conversations as they pass. We look over Mrs Thatcher's shoulder as she vigorously annotates documents, so seeing her views on many particular issues in detail, and we understand for the first time how closely she relied on a handful of trusted advisors to help shape her views and carry out her will. We see her as a public performer, an often anxious mother, a workaholic and the first woman in western democratic history who truly came to dominate her country in her time.In the early hours of 12 October 1984, during the Conservative party conference in Brighton, the IRA attempted to assassinate her. She carried on within hours to give her leader's speech at the conference (and later went on to sign the Anglo-Irish agreement). One of her many left-wing critics, watching her that day, said 'I don't approve of her as Prime Minister, but by God she's a great tank commander.' This titanic figure, with all her capacities and all her flaws, storms from these pages as from no other book.

Rare are moments when our subconscious takes over and leads us to a transcendental apprehension of life, illuminating our journey beyond the physical realm.In The Gift, Rezvan Babai takes the reader on a voyage through the inaccessible slopes and villages of the Zagros mountains, where a forgotten people live. Thriving to reach the free world, he is guided by a man whose purity and selflessness open a new awareness to Rezvan, taking him into a new level of profound and elevated understanding of life, into a spiritual journey within the physical journey.Prepare to be captivated, enlightened, and transformed by The Gift.

A must-read collection for all music fansDelve into the tumultuous world of music stardom with this collection of obituaries from The Times.