Selvbiografier

What does 'lifework' mean? In his 1967 essay 'The Death of the Author', Roland Barthes described Marcel Proust's novel À la recherche du temps perdu as a form of 'lifework' that changed how autobiography would be written forever. Barthes's words would prove prophetic, as the following decades saw a return to this much-derided genre, albeit it through a string of artistic transformations that challenged, interrogated, and reimagined the notion of the 'self' . Offering a set of approaches spanning art history, literary theory, feminist, black, trans, and queer studies, this book takes the work of art and the process of artmaking as starting points for examining what a 'lifework' might constitute and what it suggests about the relationship -- both historical and contemporary -- between life and work. Featuring artworks by Moyra Davey and Susan Morris, as well as examples of autotheory by Teresa Carmody and Marquis Bey, the book doubles as a space in which different forms of life-writing take place. With further contributions from Jo Applin, Lucy Bradnock, Alice Butler, Miguel de Baca, Rye Dag Holmboe, Margaret Iversen, Alistair Rider, Abi Shapiro, and Moran Sheleg, Lifework is a valuable resource that brings together a range of established and emerging voices.

'A thrilling biography, filled with the imperial ambitions and merciless intrigues' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORECleopatra: lover, seductress, and Egypt's greatest queen.A woman more myth than history, immortalized in poetry, drama, music, art, and film.She captivated Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, the two greatest Romans of the day, and died in a blaze of glory, with an asp clasped to her breast - or so the legend tells us.But the real-life story of the historical Cleopatra VII is even more compelling. She was the last of seven Cleopatras who ruled Egypt before it was subsumed into the Roman Empire. The seven Cleopatras were the powerhouses of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, the Macedonian family who ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great. Emulating the practices of the gods, the Cleopatras married their full-blood brothers and dominated the normally patriarchal world of politics and warfare. These extraordinary women keep a close grip on power in the wealthiest country of the ancient world.Each of the seven Cleopatras wielded absolute power. Their ruthless, single-minded, focus on dominance - generation after generation - resulted in extraordinary acts of betrayal, violence, and murder in the most malfunctional dynasty in history. Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones offers fresh and powerful insight into the real story of the Cleopatras, and the beguiling and tragic legend of the last queen of Egypt.Praise for The Cleopatras:'A real treat for those who relish epic histories of family power' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE'Admirably readable' ROBIN LANE FOX'Unlocks the fascinating history of many queens' KARA COONEY 'A vivid account' ADRIAN DODSON

A Cricket Man tells the story of Steve Perryman, who lived his dream of a life in cricket, but this is more than a cricket book. Steve's life turned upside down when he lost wife Carol to cancer in 2018. Recounting that heartbreaking time in powerful chapters, an ultimately uplifting story is complete when Steve finds a new love.

A biography of the remarkable, and in her time scandalous, seventeenth-century writer Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle.

'Honest and powerful' Ian Rankin'Heart-breaking and poignant' Fi GloverThe heart-warming coming of age story set in 1970s Glasgow from the much-loved broadcasterFrom a vivacious child to a teenage loner, Aasmah candidly shares the highs and lows of growing up between two cultures - trying to fit in at school and retreating to the safe haven of a home inhabited by her precious but distant little brother and Helen, her family's Glaswegian guardian angel.Intricately woven into this moving memoir is the story of Aasmah's mother, as we follow her own life as a young girl in 1950s Pakistan to 1960s Scotland and beyond. Both mother and daughter fight, are defeated and triumph in different battles in this sharp and moving story. A Glasgow Girl is a remarkable memoir about family, identity and finding yourself where you are.'An interwoven tale of love, loss, life in Glasgow and Pakistan across multiple generations' The Sunday Times'Evocative and vivid' The ScotsmanThis book was previously titled A Pebble in the Throat.

In 1978, when Alex Duff first went to watch Brentford, players would go on midweek pub crawls near the Griffin Park stadium. Sometimes, in no fit state to go home, they would crash out in a terraced home where one of them lived opposite the stadium gates. The next morning, they clambered into a white van which one of them would drive to training, stopping on the way for a bacon sandwich and cup of tea at a greasy spoon café. Brentford had once played in the top-flight but now, idling in the third division, were a second home for players and supporters, but there was neither the ambition nor money to revive their best days. They bumbled along until in 2005, fed up with trying to make a profit from a club with an ageing stadium in an unfashionable west London suburb, owner Ron Noades agreed to hand over the business to supporters on the condition they take over responsibility for their £5.5 million overdraft. One of the fans, an Oxford University physics graduate called Matthew Benham, was making millions of pounds from professional gambling and threw in a £500,000 lifeline to help keep the club afloat. Initially, as a sort of academic challenge, he began figuring out if he could employ the mathematics which he used in beating the bookmakers to improve the club''s performance on the pitch. Smart Money is the story of how a scientist with an inquiring mind was set loose in a backwater of professional football, and how he turned a modest, little-known team into a competitor in one of the world''s most-watched sports leagues.

CubaRican is a bilingual sequence of vignettes and poems based on the author's experiences growing up in Puerto Rico as a Cuban exile. Evoking childhood memories, the author explores the feelings of a boy developing an identity in a place that seems both familiar and alien. Throughout this loose chronology, parents, siblings, and childhood friends serve as symbols for the increasing sense of conflict the boy grapples with and struggles to identify. Describing both the Puerto Rican countryside and its urban grit, the maturing narrator eventually comes to grips with both sides of his Caribbean self.

This book is about the sacrifices it takes to forge a powerful and lasting marriage, about the early story of Infosys and Indian business before liberalization, and most of all about two icons before they became the legends that transformed the fields of business and philanthropy.

Passport to Fame is a comprehensive study of Diana's work across her 40 years of filmmaking. The book is also an invaluable source of reference to the film-buff interested in the changing face of the film industry.

This unique interpretation of Christopher Smart's masterpiece begins with a biography which offers a fascinating glimpse into the life of Christopher Smart, an extraordinary poet who died in an insane asylum all but abandoned by family and friends. Convinced that the current names of the days of the week should be changed to words that represent the true God of the universe, Smart chose seven Greek letters which are references to Christ. Scholars and critics have attempted to explain these letters, but none have apprehended Smart's purpose which was "to preach the very gospel of Christ." Herein Strong explains the reason for and meaning of these chosen Greek letters and their relation to the whole.

In 1880, Griffith Evans, an army veterinary surgeon in India, made the seminal discovery that blood parasites - then universally considered benign - were pathogenic. Spurned by peers and colleagues, his conclusions from experiments with diseased horses were acknowledged by Koch and Pasteur, but it took many years before his achievement received general recognition.  The son of a farmer near Tywyn, Meirionnydd, Evans was commissioned as a veterinary officer in the Royal Artillery. He was first posted to Canada where, in his spare time, he qualified in medicine. An irrepressible adventurer, he visited North America during the Civil War, meeting Abraham Lincoln and touring the Union front line.  Evans's talent for engagement with people and cultures characterised his life in Canada and in India. During a long and productive retirement in north Wales, he immersed himself in local and national affairs. At his centenary in 1935, Evans received the accolades of his profession, community and family, dying peacefully in his hundredth year. Since that time, his name has faded into obscurity.

A book in three parts: a personal memoir of the author, an essay on the life and bloodline of Jesus and finally the history of five brother all serving in India in the 19th Century. A combination of family history as well as an exploration by the author on the culture of occult philosophy.

The Caring General is the first published biography of Sir Harold Goodeve Ruggles-Brise. Born to the distinguished family of Spains Hall, Essex, he was an outstanding soldier who saw active service in South Africa and on the Western Front in the Great War. Harold married into one of the most famous aristocratic families in Scotland by taking as his wife Lady Dorothea Stewart Murray, oldest daughter of the 7th Duke of Atholl. Drawing extensively on their previously unpublished letters and diaries, The Caring General paints a vivid picture of army life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the battlefield and the home front.Born in 1864 Harold attended Winchester College and went up to Oxford. He excelled as a sportsman, particularly as a cricketer, playing for MCC, Essex and winning an Oxford Blue. Harold was a Grenadier, being commissioned into 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards and whilst stationed in Bermuda became a friend of Prince George of Wales. Lady Dorothea accompanied her husband on his posting to Gibraltar although he was soon to sail for South Africa as Brigade Major, Guards Brigade. This was Harold's first experience of war and he distinguished himself on and off the battlefield. His letters are detailed and candid, covering some of the most significant characters and actions in the war. With mentions in dispatches and staff appointments with 9th and 11th Divisions behind him, Harold returned home and was awarded the Queen's Medal with seven clasps.At home, Harold was to mastermind the military element of Queen Victoria's funeral before promotion to Colonel, 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards. He went on to hold the prestigious position of Commandant at the Hythe School of Musketry where our soldiers received outstanding training in the use of rifle and machine gun. The trumpet of war sounded in 1914 and Harold headed for Belgium in command of 20th Brigade, part of the famous 7th Division. In late 1914 they found themselves near Ypres, heavily outnumbered by German forces. During brutal fighting 20th Brigade suffered appalling losses, the Grenadiers being decimated. Harold was stretchered off the battlefield with near fatal wounds.After a painful recovery Harold commanded and trained 40th (Bantam) Division and headed for France. His letters describe life in the trenches near Lens, trench raids, the ruined Somme landscape and attacks on key German positions. Returning home he commanded 73rd Division Home Forces before returning to France in 1918 as Haig's Military Secretary. It fell to Harold to inform Sir Hubert Gough that he was being relieved of his command. Lady Dorothea served in a Voluntary Aid Detachment and her letters to Harold contain fascinating accounts as varied as her witnessing a fatal air raid on Hythe and having tea with the wife of Napoleon III.In retirement Harold dedicated himself to supporting veterans, becoming General Secretary of The Officers' Association. Harold died in 1927 having lived by both the motto of Winchester College, 'Manners Makyth Man' and Sandhurst, 'Serve to Lead'.

At the age of sixty, and having lived with Parkinson's disease for over ten years, Guy Deacon CBE set out on one last adventure: to drive solo from his home in the UK 18,000 miles to Cape Town on the southern tip of Africa

Hanna and Barbera: Conversations presents a lively portrait of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, the influential producers behind Tom and Jerry, the Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, the Smurfs, and hundreds of other cartoon characters who continue to entertain the world today. Encompassing more than fifty years of film and television history, the conversations in this volume include first-person accounts by the namesakes of the Hanna-Barbera studio as well as recollections by artists and executives who worked closely with the pair for decades. It is the first collection of its kind about Hanna and Barbera, likely the most prolific animation producers of the twentieth century, whose studio once outflanked its competitor Walt Disney in output and influence. Bill Hanna fell into animation in 1930 at the Harman-Ising studio in Los Angeles, gaining skills across the phases of production as MGM opened its animation studio. Joe Barbera, a talented and sociable artist, entered the industry around the same time at the wild and woolly Van Beuren studio in Manhattan, learning the ins and outs of animation art before crossing the country to join MGM. In television, Hanna's timing and community-oriented work ethic along with Barbera's knack for sales and creating funny characters enabled Hanna-Barbera to build a roster of beloved cartoon series. A wide range of pieces map Hanna and Barbera's partnership, from their early days in Hollywood in the 1930s to Cartoon Network in the 1990s, when a new generation took the reins of their animation studio. Relatively unknown when they made over one hundred Tom and Jerry theatrical cartoons at MGM in the 1940s and 1950s, Hanna and Barbera became household names upon entering the new medium of television in 1957. Discussions here chart their early primetime successes as well as later controversies surrounding violence, overseas production, and the lack of quality in their Saturday morning cartoons. With wit, candor, insight, and bravado, Hanna and Barbera: Conversations reflects on Bill and Joe's breakthroughs and shortcomings, and their studio's innovations and retreads.

Australia's favourite newsreader has collected brief biographies of Australian men and women who demonstrated incredible bravery and self-sacrifice in the face of overwhelming odds.

This wartime biography of the Chester W. Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific Ocean Area during World War II, gives a bird's eye view of the war from inside the theater headquarters of the man most responsible for eventual victory against Japan.