Selvbiografier

Step back in time to the 1930s and 40s, where life was vastly different for a family growing up on a Fenland farm in the middle of nowhere. The hard work of farming was a way of life, with no fancy machines to ease the back-breaking labour. Every family member and friend had a role to play, from picking potatoes by baskets to chop hoeing sugar beets. And when harvest time came around, it was dirty work for the adults but great fun for the children - who were happy to help, especially if there was extra pocket money on offer.In those distinct seasons of yesteryear, winter brought frost that created magical ice crystals on the inside of windows. We learned to take comfort in stone hot water bottles at night, and became experts at dressing and undressing quickly in unheated bedrooms. But would we be able to cope today without electricity or indoor plumbing? Perhaps, but we'd rather not find out.These personal memories of social history are a treasured part of our heritage, a snapshot of life in a bygone era that needs to be preserved with pride for future generations. In this fast-moving, ever-changing world, it's important that we don't forget our Fenland roots. Join us on a journey through time as we reminisce about the joys and challenges of life on a rural farm in a simpler, more humble era.

The extraordinary tale of Philip Augustus, one of medieval Europe's greatest monarchs, and the part he played in the downfall of four Plantagenet kings of England.

From multi-award-winning writer Helen Ennis comes the first ever biography of the photographer Max Dupain, the most influential Australian photographer of the 20th century and creator of many iconic images that have passed into our national imagination. Max Dupain (1911-1992) was a major cultural figure in Australia, and at the forefront of the visual arts in a career spanning more than fifty years. During this time he produced a number of images now regarded as iconically Australian. He championed modern photography and a distinctive Australian approach. To date, Dupain has been seen mostly in one-dimensional, limited and limiting terms - as exceptional, as super masculine, as an Australian hero. But this landmark biography approaches him as a complex and contradictory figure who, despite the apparent certitude of his photographic style, was filled with self-doubt and anxiety. Dupain was a Romantic and a rationalist and struggled with the intensity of his emotions and reactions. He wanted simplicity in his art and life, but found it difficult to attain. He never wanted to be ordinary. Examining the sources of his creativity - literature, art, music - alongside his approaches to masculinity, love, the body, war, and nature, Max Dupain: A Portrait reveals a driven artist, one whose relationship to his work has been described as 'ferocious' and 'painful to watch'. Photographer David Moore, a long-term friend, said he 'needed to photograph like he needed to breathe. It was part of him. It gave him his drive and force in life.'

By founding Penguin books and popularizing the paperback, Allen Lane not only changed publishing in Britain, he was also at the forefront of a social and cultural revolution that saw the masses given access to what had previously been the preserve of a wealthy few.In Penguin Special Jeremy Lewis brings this extraordinary era brilliantly to life, recounting how Lane came to launch his Penguins for the price of a packet of cigarettes; how they became enormously influential in alerting the public to the threat of Nazi Germany; and how Penguin itself gradually became a national institution, like the BBC and the NHS, whilst at the same time challenging the status quo through the famous Lady Chatterley case. Above all, it is the story of how one often fallible, complex man used his vision to change the world. 'Lewis's book is a triumph ... a rich and humorous history of 20th century reading habits, Penguin Special will not be surpassed' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'A word of warning: the enjoyable swiftness of Jeremy Lewis's prose can seduce the reader into going too fast, but savour this book slowly, don't gobble it up. It is so richly stuffed with facts, people, perceptions and atmosphere that you may get indigestion if you do not allow it the time it deserves' Diana Athill, LITERARY REVIEW

Jackie and Claire, the inseparable sisters, are back for another whirlwind adventure - this time across the Atlantic to Canada. What begins as a simple wedding invitation quickly unravels into a series of mishaps, misadventures, and memorable moments that test their resilience, humour, and sisterly bond. From a creepy 15th-century inn with locked doors and no reception in sight to navigating the wilds of Canada, these two are anything but ordinary travellers.A Sisterly Adventure: On Their Travels Again is a heart-warming tale filled with laughter, unexpected detours, and the kind of mischief only siblings can get up to. As Jackie and Claire face each new challenge with wit and tenacity, readers will be drawn into their lively escapades and reminded that the best journeys are those shared with loved ones - even if nothing goes quite as planned. Join these spirited sisters as they discover that adventure, like family, is full of surprises.

An engrossing and authoritative look at the music of Oasis, by two journalists who have have interviewed Noel and Liam dozens of times.

Kirkus Reviews's Most Anticipated Nonfiction of Spring 2025 What happens when a career you love doesn’t love you back? As Hannah Selinger will tell you, to be a good restaurant employee is to be invisible. At the height of her career as a server and then sommelier at some of New York’s most famed dining institutions, Selinger was the hand that folded your napkin while you were in the bathroom, the employee silently slipping into the night through a side door after serving meals worth more than her rent.  During her tenure, Selinger rubbed shoulders with David Chang, Bobby Flay, Johnny Iuzzini, and countless other food celebrities of the early 2000’s. Her position allowed her access to a life she never expected; the lavish parties, the tasting courses, the wildly expensive wines – the rare world we see romanticized in countless movies and television shows. But the thing about being invisible is that people forget you’re there, and most act differently when they think no one is looking.  In Cellar Rat, Selinger chronicles her rise and fall in the restaurant business, beginning with the gritty hometown pub where she fell in love with the industry and ending with her final post serving celebrities at the Hamptons classic Nick & Toni’s. In between, readers will join Selinger on her emotional journey as she learns the joys of fine fine dining, the allure and danger of power, and what it takes to walk away from a career you love when it no longer serves you.

Born in 1835, the man who would become America's first, and most influen­tial, literary celebrity spent his childhood dreaming of piloting steamboats on the Mississippi. But when the Civil War interrupted his career on the river, the young Mark Twain went west and accepted a job at the local newspaper, writing dis­patches that attracted attention for their brashness and humour. It wasn't long until the former steamboat pilot from Missouri was recognized across the country for his literary brilliance.In this rich and nuanced portrait of Twain, Ron Chernow brings his powers to bear on a man who shamelessly sought fame and fortune, and crafted his persona with meticulous care. After establishing himself as a jour­nalist, satirist, and performer, and a family man, Twain went on to write The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He threw himself into the epicentre of American culture, emerging as the nation's most notable political pundit and the only white author of his generation to grapple so fully with the legacy of slavery. At the same time, his madcap business ventures eventually bankrupted him and led him and his family to nine years of exile between London, France, Germany and Italy. During this time, he lost his wife and two daughters - the last stage of his life marked by heartache, politi­cal crusades, and eccentric behaviour that sometimes obscured darker forces at play.Drawing on Twain's bountiful archives, includ­ing thousands of letters and hundreds of unpublished manuscripts, Chernow here captures the magnificent and often maddening life of one of the most original characters in literary history, reminding us why Twain's writing continues to be read, debated and quoted over a hundred years after his passing.

This is Taylor Swift, as a bona-fide fashion goddess. Diveinto 'Taylor Swift: Fashion Manifesto' and discover, through an array of stunningimages, the depths of her style evolution and fashion journey. What better way to tell her lively fashion story than through this visual journeyspanning the course of her stardom.

Packed with quotes from letters, diaries and the nation's favourite novels, Jane Austen and George Eliot: The Lady and the Radical is a lively, accessible and fascinating history of two genius novelists, the world that shaped them, and the works they left behind.

A Duel of Bulls is the untold story of the contentious friendship that existed between Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles, set against the backdrop of Spain, the history of bullfighting, and the Spanish Civil War.

The first multi-authored volume on the work of contemporary British writer Dennis Kelly, Beautiful Doom examines the full range of his work for stage and screen, from new writing to adaptations of classic playtexts, musical theatre, and original works for television. -- .

George Whitefield dedicated his life to teaching the Scriptures and calling people to know and love God. This biography explores the life of Whitefield as a prominent figure in the early evangelical revival in an honest, historical, and balanced way.

The strange, but true biography of the colorful founder of Saucerian Books, a central purveyor and promoter of flying saucer and conspiracist knowledge in the mid-twentieth century.Gray Barker (1925–1984) was an eccentric literary outsider, filled with ideas that were out of step with the world. An author and unreliable narrator of implausible stories, Barker founded and operated Saucerian Books, an independent publisher of books about flying saucers and other ideas at the fringes of popular discourse. In The Saucerian, Gabriel Mckee tells the fascinating story of Barker’s West Virginia–based press, the unique corpus of materials it published, and how office-copying and self-publishing techniques influenced the spread of paranormal beliefs and conspiratorial worldviews over the last century. Following the development of UFO subculture, Mckee explores the life and career of a larger-than-life hoaxer and originator of pseudoscientific ideas.Ever an entertainer, Barker established his reputation with one of the first flying saucer fanzines, The Saucerian, and with his first book, the conspiratorial and sensationalistic They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers. By the close of the 1950s, he had established a publishing imprint that brought out some of the strangest UFO-related books of the era, with a particular emphasis on flying saucer contactees. Saucerian Books became a platform for those whose stories were too unusual, implausible, or crudely written for more mainstream publishers. Though Barker himself was a skeptic, he viewed the world of occult believers as a source of ongoing entertainment. He also may have used the perceived eccentricity of flying saucer research, or “ufology,” to obscure his homosexuality from his small-town neighbors. From his place on the fringes of midcentury American culture, Barker left an unmatched legacy in conspiratorial concepts that have become prominent pop-cultural folklore, including the Men in Black, the Mothman, and the Philadelphia Experiment. As a mastermind behind the fantastical, Barker’s promotional efforts were the precursor to contemporary conspiracism.