Selvbiografier

This is a deeply researched biography of the new face of tennis. A man who, at a tender age has achieved more than the stars of the previous generation did at his age. At just 19 years of age, Carlos Alcaraz won the US Open and became the world's youngest number one in the game. At only 21 he had four Grand Slam titles.For Carlos Alcaraz, everything - from his charm to his star power to his tennis mojo - starts with a smile. It's a performance free of cynicism and radiating happiness.But does the smile mask a more complex character? One who grew up in humble circumstances in a small village in Murcia. A man with strong family traditions who has a tattoo of his grandfather's favourite saying - 'Cabeza Corazon y cojones (brain, heart and balls) - inked on his left wrist. Mark Hodgkinson talks to those who know him best - including his coaches, family friends, old teachers, and competitors - to provide a fascinating insight into the spartan showman of tennis and a GOAT in waiting.

ONE OF THE 20th CENTURY'S FINEST MEMOIRS: the sweeping, candidly told story of a life in writing and politics, with an introduction by Vivian Gornick, who referred to the book as "literary gold" "Stops you in your tracks. I would like to persuade everyone to read it" -- Sunday Times A compulsively readable, beautifully written account of a fascinating 20th century woman and life. This candid, affecting portrait of a woman who loathed domesticity explores how she sought to balance a literary career with political commitment. After a lifetime of writing a novel every year, Storm Jameson turned to memoir with this stated ambition: 'I am trying to write without lying'. The result was an extraordinary reckoning with how she had lived: her childhood, shadowed by a tempestuous, dissatisfied mother; an early, unhappy marriage and her decision to leave her young son behind while she worked in London; a tenaciously pursued literary career, always marked by the struggle to make money; and her lifelong political activism, including as the first female president of English PEN, a role she used to help refugees escape Nazi Germany. In a richly ironic, conversational voice, Jameson tells of the great figures she knew and events she witnessed: from encounters with H.G. Wells and Rose Macaulay, to travels across Europe as fascism was rising. Throughout, she writes with electric candour and immediacy about her own motivations and psychology as she traces her lifelong struggle to live on her own terms.

An intimate portrait of Rainer Maria Rilke's life and art in interwar Paris by his friend and translator, offering unparalleled insight into the creative process A stunningly written, deeply personal biography that's also a master class in the art of translation, perfect for fans of: Richard Holmes, Lydia Davis, Kate Briggs and Julian Green From walks in the Luxembourg Garden to letters describing tea with an irascible Tolstoy, Rainer Maria Rilke's French translator, Maurice Betz, enjoyed a rare intimacy with the great poet. This book, inspired by their time working together on the 1st French translation of Rilke's only novel, invites the reader into that friendship, offering glimpses of Rilke's creative process and the glittering cultural scene of interwar Paris. Betz first came to Rilke as an admirer, carrying a book of his poems in his kit bag while serving as a soldier in World War I. No other writer meant so much to him, and Rilke would come to mean even more once their fruitful partnership began, lasting until the poet's death in 1926. Together they spent the spring and summer of 1925 editing Betz's translation of The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, a painstaking process interrupted by companionable walks through the streets of Paris and vivaciously told anecdotes from the poet's starry social world. This elegant and poignant look at the great writer's final years, drawn from Betz's memories and the letters Rilke sent from his travels across Europe, provides a portrait of a brilliant mind, an evocation of a lost world, and a testament to an enduring friendship.

Matt Jansen had it all. He was young, quick, audaciously skilful and, at the turn of the millennium, regarded as one of the most intelligent attacking talents in English football. His potential seemed boundless. After bursting onto the scene with Carlisle in 1997 and helping his hometown club win promotion, Sir Alex Ferguson had tried to lure him to Old Trafford - but foreseeing only bench spot at United, Jansen instead opted for Steve Coppell's Crystal Palace. In 1998, he moved to Blackburn, where he formed an attacking triumvirate with Andy Cole and Damien Duff, and proved himself to be a constant threat for Blackburn and a lethal finisher, scoring 16 times in the 2001/02 season and earning himself a place in Sven Goran-Eriksson's England squad. Widely tipped to be part of England's campaign at the World Cup in South Korea and Japan, Eriksson instead surprised many with his conservative selection of Martin Keown over the rising star; Keown wouldn't play a single minute at the tournament and England would crash out to ten-man Brazil - but Jansen didn't see a minute of it. While England battled it out in the Far East, Jansen had taken a holiday to Rome where he was involved a serious traffic accident. He suffered a brain haemorrhage and slipped into a six-day coma. Jansen survived and, astonishingly, he was back playing for Blackburn just four months later. Physically he may have felt he was ready to return to top-flight football, but mentally he was nowhere near. Battling the spectre of the accident, he was unable to recapture the instinctive genius that had previously defined him. In an effort to reignite his career, he joined Coventry, Bolton and then Wrexham but he was never able to find his former footballing self and was finally forced to admit that his playing days were over. He has since channelled his energies into a new career as a coach - proving to be wise, erudite and compassionate in his new role, but also a continuing object of fascination for those who wonder what might have been. This is the story of a career destined for the stratosphere, cruelly snatched away by the vagaries of fate. Brilliant, bold, and at times brutal in its honesty, this powerful tale of shattered dreams and a life rebuilt is a testament to an inspiring, unconquered soul.