Biografier

Whitworth family letters from the prairie (1884-1896), edited by Jane M. Renfrew

The Kitchen Chronicles is a moving and surprisingly humorous memoir by the cook to one of the the Century's great figures, Indian-born philosopher J. Krishnamurti. In a modern quest for truth, the author chronicles the daily life in Krishnamurti's kitchen and at his table. This insightful, fast-paced memoir reveals the private life of Krishnamurti, his splendid sense of humor, his affectionate friendships, and probing intelligence. Photographs place Krishnamurti in his California home with friends and associates.

This thrilling story memorializes one of the most dangerous - and successful - series of undercover operations conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Written by the ATF special agent, this book is the first time that the true story of these secretive operations will be told.

In this insightful memoir Lennie Goodings takes the reader behind the scenes at Virago, the feminist press that she has led for twenty years. Moving from Virago's early days of independence, through its various commercial incarnations, the author reflects on idealistic publishing and how it feels to be a beacon for change.

"Known best for her exuberant, often large-scale sculptural works that celebrate the abundance and complexity of female desire, imagination, and creativity, Niki de Saint Phalle viewed making art as a ritual and a performance--a process connecting life to art. This unconventional, illuminated biography, told in the first person in Saint Phalle's voice and her own hand, dilates large and small moments in Saint Phalle's remarkable life as an artist who pointedly challenged taboos. In a kind of collaboration with the artist, Nicole Rudick has assembled a gorgeous and detailed mosaic of Saint Phalle's visual and textual works from a trove of paintings, drawings, sketches, and writings, many rare or previously unpublished. These confessions, declarations, meditations, and musings trace the most intimate contours of Saint Phalle's life. In some works, Saint Phalle articulates herself with startling candor and self-examination; in others, she carefully and slowly unwinds her secrets as she herself wrestles with them. Throughout, her agency in telling her own story is paramount."--

With more than 400 appearances, Sammy McIlroy - the last player signed by Sir Matt Busby - is a bona fide Old Trafford legend. McIlroy is a Northern Ireland icon, too, having managed the country and played in two World Cups. Here he tells of his extraordinary life in football, with remarkable candour and emotion, pulling no punches.

A practical and emotional self-help guide for anyone affected by miscarriage and pregnancy loss, from the co-hosts of the successful podcast, The Worst Girl Gang Ever.

Suffused with a generative, transcendent rage, Alice Hattrick's genre-bending debut is a moving and defiant exploration of life with a medically unexplained illness.

Short daily reflections from one of the world's favourite adventurers. The Telegraph calls him 'globally . . . perhaps the most famous adventurer alive'.

Fintan O'Toole - Ireland's leading public intellectual and author of Heroic Failure - tells a history of Ireland in his own time.

Sami Yaffa is a bass guitar legend, an icon of the rock world, and an uncompromising walker of his own way, who rose to prominence as the bassist of the mythical Hanoi Rocks. A man of lights and shadows, and the embodiment of street credibility, Yaffa has recorded with Bruce Springsteen and Slash, played with the New York Dolls and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, crawled across Helsinki pubs and restaurants with Anthony Bourdain, and performed at Carnegie Hall. This is his story.

Never before published letters and uncollected short writings of R. H. Blyth, champion of Zen and the person who brought haiku to the world.Poetry and Zen is a collection of the letters, articles, translations, reviews, and selections from the posthumous papers of Reginald Horace Blyth (1898-1964). Blyth's voluminous writings on Zen, Japanese culture, and the Japanese verse forms haiku and senryu captured the imagination of a great many readers in the English-speaking world in the decades following World War II. His enlightening wit and inimitable style struck a particularly sensitive chord in the artistic community, providing inspiration to many poets and writers and playing a very considerable role in kindling global interest in Zen and haiku. Blyth's penetrating insights on these topics in a series of books published between 1942 and 1970 helped lay the foundation for the remarkable expansion of Zen outside of East Asia, as well as the popularization of haiku as an international verse form that took place after his death. Poetry and Zen is the first collection of Blyth's letters and short writings. The generous array of Blyth's literary output and personal writing on display here showcases the wide-ranging interests and brilliant mind of a pivotal figure in the history of modern Zen and Japanese poetry.

Most of us might spend a few minutes enjoying a fantasy of what it would be like stepping outside our lives and into another culture; Corinne Hofmann actually did it.

This is one of the few records published by Gurdjieff in which he offers guidance to his 'community of seekers', the pupils from many countries who joined him in Paris and New York.The first section is mainly autobiographical, relating material crucial to an understanding of the nature and intensity of personal effort required for an all-inclusive work on oneself. This is followed by a series of talks which Gurdjieff gave to his pupils in New York in 1930, and then by a long, but incomplete, essay on 'The Outer and Inner World of Man'.

Sir Henry Ralph Stanley Birkin Bt., better known as 'Tim' after the children's comic book character, Tiger Tim, will be remembered as one of the most daring and sporting of pre-war racing drivers. A contemporary of Sir Henry Segrave and Sir Malcolm Campbell he was regarded as one of the most famous drivers of the period. He twice won the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 1929 and 1931. One of the glamorous "Bentley Boys", silk scarf flying in the wind, he was a fearless and ferociously fast competitor. On one occasion at Le Mans he took on the challenge of pushing the Mercedes SSK of Rudi Caracciola to breaking point. He succeeded; passing the German on the Mulsanne straight, two wheels on the grass, one tyre in shreds, at 126 m.p.h. He continued driving, pedal to the floor, breaking the lap record in the process. Belying his daredevil image, Sir Henry was an unassuming, shy man who suffered from a stammer but was passionate in his belief that Great Britain should be a preeminent motor racing nation. Full Throttle captures at first hand Birkin's accounts of the excitement and thrills of racing that he so loved. It was first published in 1932, the year before he died at the age of 36 as a result of burns incurred from leaning on a hot exhaust pipe after finishing 3rd at the Tripoli Grand Prix. This illustrated Daredevil Books edition features a new foreword by Allan Winn, former CEO of Brooklands Museum and reflections on Birkin's life by Derek Bell, five times Le Mans winner.

Julian Bream is recognised as one of the world's leading guitarists, some would say the greatest. He was certainly for many years Britain's senior ambassador as a guitarist and lutenist, touring more widely and more frequently than almost any other artist in the international arena.Bream also did incomparable work in the recording studio to establish both the guitar and the lute as concert instruments. Not content with his unique status as a performer, however, Julian Bream has always been actively concerned with new music - commissioning works from a stream of leading contemporary composers.Surprisingly for a man of his international reputation, Julian Bream was his own secretary. He planned his own concerts, made his own travel arrangements, drove himself around, checked his own lighting and carried his own baggage. At the same time, he was an avid amateur cricketer and country gardener - growing his own fruit and vegetables all year round.In 1981 this intriguingly self-contained man agreed to share some of the load. Tony Palmer travelled with him in Europe and America over several months, drawing out from the essentially private Julian Bream his views on his art and on his position in the world of music. The result is Julian Bream: a Life on the Road, where the Maestro discusses the history of his beloved guitar and its role as a solo instrument, as well as his relationships with giants of contemporary music. With self-deprecating wit, he gives a unique insight into all that he then felt about his life on the road: where he was going, what good he believed he did, why he carried on, how he 'did it' - the guitar, the lute, touring, recording, commissioning, 'the old musicke racket', his home. Daniel Meadows accompanied them, and his beautiful photographs add to this unusual and exhilarating picture of a self-made man - who built, out of nothing, his own unrivalled status as a man of music.The re-publishing of Palmer's acclaimed book - for so long out-of-print and thus a much sought-after collector's item - will be welcomed by music lovers and guitar aficionados around the world.Praise for Julian Bream: A Life on the Road:'An immensely revealing series of snapshots. I don't think I've ever heard a musician being so frank about what it means to make a life in music' - Nathalie Wheen, BBC'Immensely informative, conversational, light-hearted and intentionally deprecatory. Fascinating and extremely entertaining' - Classical Music Weekly'This book is a brilliant vindication of the craft of the interviewer. It's remarkably frank, warm and clear-headed about a man who has too few self-delusions for his comfort' - Michael Oliver, The Gramophone'There is no better account of what it is like to be a touring concert artist' - PunchTony Palmer is a British celebrated and multi-award-winning filmmaker, music journalist and author.

From the ancient Greek myth of Jason and Medea to Shakespeare's Othello, themes dealing with deeply felt emotions have been around for a long time. But unlike mythology or fiction, The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Passion, Obsession & Revenge will contain stories pulled from real life.

This is a beautiful translation by John Farndon (with Olga Nakston) of the late Ravil Bukharaev's literary existential novel memoir in which he explains to his wife how his Muslim faith and ideals influenced both his love for her and his understanding of life and self, particularly his quest for truth and 'authenticity'.