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Londongrad: From Russia with Cash; The Inside Story of the Oligarchs
¥66.22
The amazing true story of how London became home to the Russian super-rich. A dazzling tale of incredible wealth, ferocious disputes, beautiful women, private jets, mega-yachts, the world’s best footballers – and chauffeur-driven Range Rovers with tinted windows. A group of buccaneering Russian oligarchs made colossal fortunes after the collapse of communism – and many of them came to London to enjoy their new-found wealth. Londongrad tells for the first time the true story of their journeys from Moscow and St Petersburg to mansions in Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Surrey – and takes you into a shimmering world of audacious multi-billion pound deals, outrageous spending and rancorous feuds. But while London's flashiest restaurants echoed to Russian laughter and Bond Street shop-owners totted up their profits, darker events also played themselves out. The killing of ex-KGB man Alexander Litvinenko in London to the death – in a helicopter crash he all but predicted – of Stephen Curtis, the lawyer to many of Britain's richest Russians, chilled London's Russians and many of those who know them. This is the story of how Russia's wealth was harvested and brought to London – some of it spent by Roman Abramovich on his beloved Chelsea Football Club, some of it spent by Boris Berezovsky in his battles with Russia's all-powerful Vladimir Putin. Londongrad is a must-read for anyone interested in how vast wealth is created, the luxury it can buy and the power and intrigue it produces.
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Cut
¥62.59
Million-copy bestselling author Cathy Glass tells the story of Dawn, a sweet and seemingly well-balanced girl whose outward appearance masks a traumatic childhood of suffering at the hands of the very people who should have cared for her. Dawn was the first girl Cathy Glass ever fostered. Sweet and seemingly well balanced girl, Dawn’s outward appearance masked a traumatic childhood so awful, that even she could not remember it. During the first night, Cathy awoke to see Dawn looming above Cathy’s baby’s cot, her eyes staring and blank. She sleepwalks – which Cathy learns is often a manifestation in disturbed children. It becomes a regular and frightening occurrence, and Cathy is horrified to find Dawn lighting a match whilst mumbling it’s not my fault in her sleep one night. Cathy discovers Dawn is playing truant from school, and struggling to make friends. More worryingly she finds her room empty one night, and her pillow covered in blood. Dawn has been self-harming in order to release the pain of her past. When Dawn attempts suicide, Cathy realises that she needs more help than she can give. Dawn’s mother eventually confides in her that Dawn was sent away to live with relatives in Ireland between the ages of 5 and 9, and Cathy soon realises that the horrors Dawn was exposed to during this time have left her a very disturbed little girl.
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Nowhere to Run: Where do you go when there’s nowhere left to hide?
¥73.58
Where do you go when there's nowhere left to hide? How can you forget your past when it keeps coming back to haunt you? Judy Westwater, the Sunday Times bestselling author of Street Kid, was determined to turn her back on her cruel and violent childhood. She didn't stand a chance. All too soon hope turned to fear and she knew she'd have to run again. Judy was only 11 years old when she was forced to live on the streets. Beaten, half-starved and horrifically abused, she finally escaped to a life in the circus and fell in love with one of the circus hands. But the charming man who seemed so perfect had a dark and sinister side. If she wanted to survive she had to get away. Judy fled to South Africa, taking with her her two young children. But the streets of South Africa were just as cruel. One day a man took her five-year-old daughter and her violent past was replayed in front of her eyes. Judy's incredible story of courage and determination will inspire as it will amaze.
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In Search of Robert Millar
¥72.40
The compelling story of Britain’s best-ever cyclist – one of the most enigmatic, complex and contradictory athletes in any sport – and the unravelling of the puzzle surrounding his sudden and dramatic disappearance. Fully updated with new material on the enigmatic Millar. Cyclist Robert Millar came from one of Europe’s most industrialised cities, Glasgow, to excel in the most unlikely terrain – over the high mountain passes of the Pyrenees and the Alps. He was crowned King of the Mountains during the 1984 Tour de France and remains the only ever Briton to finish on the podium of the world’s toughest race. In attitude and appearance he was unconventional – the malnourished-looking young Scot with the tiny stud in his ear who could be prickly, irascible and unapproachable – but to many followers he was the epitome of cool. Flying the flag for British cycling, this one-off original became a cult hero. In Search of Robert Millar will follow the career of this other-worldly character, from his tough childhood on the streets of Glasgow in the 1960s to his move to France and success in the world’s most brutal and unforgiving races, including the controversy surrounding his positive drugs test and his enforced retirement from the sport at the age of 36. It examines what set Millar apart from all other British cyclists who tried, and failed, to make an impact in this most European of sports, describing his single-mindedness, his eccentricity and the humour and intelligence that emerged only towards the end of his career. It also proffers explanations for his subsequent disappearance, which repeated a familiar pattern: he vanished from Glasgow and never returned; he left his wife and son and his adopted country, France. Now, it appears, he has turned his back on cycling (amid rumours that he had undergone a sex-change operation). Through interviews with Millar’s friends, acquaintances, cycling colleagues and ex-classmates, author Richard Moore helps to unravel the mystery of this maverick Scotsman, arguably one of the greatest enigmas in a sport full of remarkable characters.
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For the Love of Julie
¥45.62
In this incredible and moving memoir, a mother tells of her fight for justice to convict her daughter’s murderer for a crime that he thought could never be punished. When her 22-year-old daughter, Julie, went missing in the night, Ann Ming was certain she had been murdered. Three months later she found her child's decomposing body behind a bath panel. A violent local man, Billy Dunlop, was tried for her murder but a series of blunders allowed him to walk free. Knowing he could not be tried again under the law of Double Jeopardy, he callously bragged about his 'perfect crime'. But Dunlop had not reckoned on Ann Ming… This is the extraordinary story of a fight for justice which she never gave up. A moving account of courage and determination, showing how much a mother's love can achieve.
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My Father’s Keeper
¥54.25
A powerful and compelling memoir of growing up with a schizophrenic father, who hid his mental illness behind a charismatic larger-than-life, gluttonous personality and found logical explanations for the most bizarre ways of thinking. As a child Julie was close to her father. More friend than parent, he would belt her into their tiny car and they'd punch through yellow lights, scarf down candy bars before supper and had their own way of making fun of Julie's mother in a secret language of eye-rolling. She adored her father for his exuberance, and pitied him when he broke down in suicidal desperation. But as she neared 10, a darker side emerged: her father could switch instantly from squeaking out a tear as they harmonized to "Hey Jude" in the car, to pulling his loaded pistol on the man that asked for change in the McDonald's drive-thru as they waited. The isolation that came with the family's move to the country saw the wacky, unorthodox elements of her father's denied mental illness take a back seat to paranoid fear. Her father would tell her any boy who befriended her was just pretend-acting until he could rape her, and Julie came to fear all boys and men. He fell ever deeper into paranoid delusions that his daughter was sexually active, prostituting herself, sneaking out at night to sleep with black men. When Julie was 14 her father attempted suicide and was placed in a locked psychiatric ward. Julie was made to testify against her father, and when he was released he became convinced she had turned on him. Julie became the target of his ever more paranoid delusions. Julie left home before 18 but her father's schizophrenic behaviour bled over into her own life: if she couldn't find the hairdryer, she would check for signs of entry. When it later turned up, she would wonder how the thief broke back in to return it. Confused, lost and damaged from years spent as the only confidante of her paranoid schizophrenic father, but determined to survive, Julie was finally able to come to terms with her father. She was her father's keeper, and always would be.
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The Loyal Lieutenant
¥66.22
The stunningly candid autobiography of one of cycling’s great names and the man who rode alongside Lance Armstrong for each of his now infamous seven Tour victories George Hincapie has always personified more than the sport in which he chose to compete, cycling, and his legacy will be more than the sum of his accomplishments on the road. It is also intertwined with the team-mates he helped to achieve success. As Lance Armstrong’s trusted sidekick, he helped re-write the record books of the greatest cycling event in the world, the Tour de France. No other team-mate was with Lance for all seven of his wins. No one was closer to him as a friend or confidante and no one was closer to the scandal which would ultimately bring down Armstrong and so many of those around him. Told with stunning candour, ‘The Loyal Lietenant’ offers the most transparent and engaging account yet of the now infamous years of cycling’s modern history. It is a book that will once again change our perceptions of what it means to be a sporting great.
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The Men Commandments
¥72.99
The Bible For Blokes From The Daddy Of Breakfast Radio Foreword by James Nesbitt. Christian O’Connell has been a man nearly all his life. Well, once he was a boy, then he was a teenager, then a man, but you get what we mean. So who better to save manhood from devolving into one of those spineless newt things from the Guinness ad? For years women have had everyone from Germaine Greer to Bridget Jones to tell them how to be a woman, and who have men had? No one. That is, until now . . . For ten years Christian has dispensed wisdom and advice to millions of lucky radio listeners on every topic conceivable; but it was when he saw his wife reading, and laughing at, a book called “How to Kill your Husband”, that he realised he had to write this book. Men are confused about what it is to be a man in a world where men use moisturiser and eat sandwiches with rocket. They need help. The Men Commandments is a roadmap, a compass for men (not a sat nav - they’re evil!) With his outspoken humour and ironic take on life, Christian explores male-dom; celebrating all that is great about being a man and unravelling those mysteries of masculinity that have stumped women for literally minutes. Packed full of wisdom, advice, trivia, and cheeky banter, this is the must have book for men everywhere. Includes: ? The Man Quiz (a helpful quiz to establish real manliness) ? The 78 genetic differences between men and women (work for which Christian is expecting a Nobel prize) ? Manly Toilet Etiquette (real men do not speak at the urinals) ? The History of Men (it says a lot about the psyche of Man that early Neanderthal paintings depict willies) ? Men and their Mates (a relationship full of weird rituals, abuse and unspoken rules) ? The Real First XI ? The Men Commandments (the ten commandments that every true man needs to know)
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Long Shot: My Bipolar Life and the Horses Who Saved Me
¥54.25
An inspiring and searingly honest memoir of how one woman had the strength and courage to change her life. Sylvia Harris was homeless, her children had been taken from her, and she was using crack cocaine. She is also a manic depressive. Now she’s a prize-winning jockey with the world at her feet. Sylvia’s life was dominated by the fear of a faceless madness that could take hold without warning, causing terrifying hallucinations, delusions and bizarre behaviour. These could at any moment fluctuate back to ruthless clarity or all-consuming depression. She had been labelled a ‘neglectful mother’, was beaten by her boyfriend, snubbed by family and neighbours and in trouble with the law. There seemed no way out. Until she discovered that her childhood love of horses could offer a means of escape, a sanctuary from her isolation. Sylvia felt the exhilaration and danger of riding, the joy of connection to these strong and graceful creatures, the redemptive focus and intuition of the race, the pure ecstasy of finishing, of winning, of beating her demons and all the people who never believed she would succeed, and never looked back. As unforgettable as Seabiscuit and as touching as Horse Boy, Long Shot is for anyone who has been at life’s lowest ebb – and survived.
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D-day Dogs: Remarkable true stories of heroic dogs
¥9.71
Incredible true stories of canine loyalty in the Second World War. There were dogs involved with the landings, dogs the soldiers could not bear to leave behind and dogs trained to patrol, protect and locate. The dogs sailed with the Merchant Navy and brought their boats into dangerous waters to retrieve the wounded or stranded. They were on land, in the air and on the water during the D-Day operation – playing their special part in every aspect. Through this inspiring short collection of the true stories of four of these canine heroes the remarkable achievements of the D-Day dogs are brought to life.
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Warrior: The true story of the real war horse
¥11.77
An inspiring and heart-warming short story of devotion and bravery. A thoroughbred horse, Warrior, is passed through various owners before he is shipped to the thick of the action on the Western Front to serve as his current master’s mount for all four years of the First World War. Warrior and General ‘Galloping Jack Seeley’ were involved from the first engagements through to one of the last, the Battle of Moreuil Wood. Together they fought in terrifying battles and witnessed the death of many horses and masters who served alongside them, terrible deaths, but through it all Warrior seemed to pass like a spirit. This is the tale of his heroic wartime exploits and eventual return to the green fields of England. An evocative and powerful story of a real and great war horse. Warrior’s story was the basis for the fictional Joey in Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse.
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Learning to Love Amy
¥11.77
The second in a series of true short stories from foster carer Mia Marconi. India was a child who was destined to end up in care. She came to foster carer Mia Marconi’s house when she was three; she’d already been in care for five months by then. But her mum Amy didn’t get on with her carer and threatened to kill her so India was moved. But no matter how inadequate parents are, children in care love them and want the world to love them too. Amy had had a hard life: she was one of seven siblings, all of who had been abused and ended up in care. She was an alcoholic and she phoned all times of day and night threatening suicide. When India finally settled in Mia’s happy household, Mia embarked on amazing journey to help Amy too.
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Confessions of a School Nurse (The Confessions Series)
¥34.14
From the people who brought you the bestselling Confessions of a GP. After sixteen years of high-pressure nursing, Michael Alexander has traded in his hospital uniform for the fresh air, comfort and routine of an International private school in the French Alps. Bliss! But it’s not long before he discovers that school nursing is not all permission slips, sniffles and gift baskets. Disastrous school trips; after hours dorm sleepovers; awkward sex education classes; culture clashes; swine flu panic; and kids with six-figure bank balances and a taste for bribery. This is nursing as you’ve never seen it before. What goes on behind the gates of one of the world’s most elite boarding schools? What happens when kids from all over the world – Russia, Africa, America, Saudi Arabia – live, learn and grow under one roof? What happens when it’s left to school staff to teach children the facts of life, and lust? Following on from the hugely successful Confessions of a Male Nurse, Michael Alexander is back with more touching, shocking and often laugh-out-loud funny tales of nursing. In Confessions of a School Nurse, Alexander tells all on boarding school life – as a nurse, parent, and Average Joe, he offers a unique perspective on this strange world.
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Best 100-Mile Bike Routes
¥184.23
Completing one hundred miles by bike is a timeless challenge. Ever since the invention of a pedal- powered, two-wheel vehicle, 100 miles has been the benchmark by which cyclists can measure their prowess. Best 100-Mile Bike Routes is the ultimate guide to a hundred 100-mile rides grouped in geographical regions, from the north of Scotland to the south coast; representing the best the UK has to offer. The routes are unique, named after local events, people or geography, or inspired by classic sportive routes, and each one has been carefully put together, tried and tested. With clear mapping, directions, statistics, points of interest, elevations and ratings, every route is simple to follow. Perfect for cyclists of all levels of ability, and providing details of the necessary equipment and training schedules, Best 100-Mile Bike Routes prepares you completely for the challenge, making this cycling feat achievable by almost anyone.
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Betrayed: Part 3 of 3
¥47.48
Betrayed can either be read as a full-length eBook or in 3 serialised eBook-only parts. This is PART 3 of 3. You can read Part 3 on release of the full-length eBook and paperback. In the much-anticipated follow-up to Sunday Times bestseller Trapped, foster carer Rosie Lewis tells the heartbreaking true story of 13-year-old Zadie. When the young teenage girl runs away and is discovered hiding on the city streets by the police, it is clear that all is not as it should be. Taught to believe that Westerners should not be trusted, when Zadie is initially delivered into the experienced hands of foster carer Rosie she is polite and well-behaved, but understandably suspicious of the family around her. Through Rosie’s support and understanding, gradually Zadie begins to settle into her new surroundings, but loyalty to her relatives, and fear of bringing shame on those around her, prevents her from confessing the horrifying truth about her troubled past. When the shocking truth finally emerges, Rosie and her family can hardly believe that Zadie had managed to keep the shocking secrets to herself for so long.
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Nowhere to Go: Part 1 of 3
免费
Bestselling author and foster carer Casey Watson shares the shocking true story of Tyler, an abused eleven-year-old who, after stabbing his step-mother, had nowhere else to go. Knowing a little of Tyler’s past – his biological mother, a heroin addict, died of an overdose when he was three – Casey feels bound to do her best for him. It isn’t easy; Tyler continuously lashes out, even trying to attack Casey herself. Investigation into his earlier childhood reveals why: forced to watch his mother die he was found emaciated and traumatised two days later, then delivered to a father who didn’t want him and a step-mother who beat him. With the horrific events of his past now vividly affecting the course of his present, Casey and her husband Mike are determined to veer him away from the violence and drugs they fear he will come to depend on. Heartbreaking and profoundly moving, Nowhere to Go tells the story of a child forsaken by his family but fought for by his foster carers.
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Nowhere to Go: Part 2 of 3
¥40.52
Bestselling author and foster carer Casey Watson shares the shocking true story of Tyler, an abused eleven-year-old who, after stabbing his step-mother, had nowhere else to go. Knowing a little of Tyler’s past – his biological mother, a heroin addict, died of an overdose when he was three – Casey feels bound to do her best for him. It isn’t easy; Tyler continuously lashes out, even trying to attack Casey herself. Investigation into his earlier childhood reveals why: forced to watch his mother die he was found emaciated and traumatised two days later, then delivered to a father who didn’t want him and a step-mother who beat him. With the horrific events of his past now vividly affecting the course of his present, Casey and her husband Mike are determined to veer him away from the violence and drugs they fear he will come to depend on. Heartbreaking and profoundly moving, Nowhere to Go tells the story of a child forsaken by his family but fought for by his foster carers.
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Nowhere to Go: Part 3 of 3
¥47.48
Bestselling author and foster carer Casey Watson shares the shocking true story of Tyler, an abused eleven-year-old who, after stabbing his step-mother, had nowhere else to go. Knowing a little of Tyler’s past – his biological mother, a heroin addict, died of an overdose when he was three – Casey feels bound to do her best for him. It isn’t easy; Tyler continuously lashes out, even trying to attack Casey herself. Investigation into his earlier childhood reveals why: forced to watch his mother die he was found emaciated and traumatised two days later, then delivered to a father who didn’t want him and a step-mother who beat him. With the horrific events of his past now vividly affecting the course of his present, Casey and her husband Mike are determined to veer him away from the violence and drugs they fear he will come to depend on. Heartbreaking and profoundly moving, Nowhere to Go tells the story of a child forsaken by his family but fought for by his foster carers.
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Lovey: Part 1 of 3
免费
Lovey can either be read as a full-length eBook or in 3 serialised eBook-only parts. This is PART 1 of 3. You can read Part 1 three weeks ahead of release of the full-length eBook and paperback. This deeply moving memoir tells the story of Hannah: a child who has been beaten and abused; a girl full of loneliness and rage; a student no one but learning disabilities teacher Mary MacCracken could reach. Mary had reservations about eight-year-old Hannah joining her class. The three emotionally disturbed boys she was currently looking after had been making steady progress, and Hannah, who had a reputation for being a withdrawn and incredibly troubled child, would only be a disruptive influence. For the first fortnight Hannah retired to a cupboard and refused to come out. Howling almost non-stop she was displaying the worst symptoms that Mary had ever seen. How could Mary help a child who had been shut up in closets and treated like an animal? What could she say to a child who had been locked out of her own home, and beaten by both her brother and her father? How could she reach this lost girl? This is the remarkable story of Hannah and Mary’s journey together. Deep within Hannah, Mary recognises an amazing strength. And with love, skill and patience, she gradually starts to make a difference. It’s a long road to recovery, but Mary never gives up. As this moving true story unfolds, we feel Mary’s joy, we share her hope and, in time, her faith that Hannah will be okay.
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The Girl Without a Voice: Part 3 of 3
¥47.48
The Girl Without a Voice can either be read as a full-length eBook or in 3 serialised eBook-only parts. This is PART 3 of 3. You can read Part 3 on release of the full-length eBook and paperback. Bestselling author and foster carer Casey Watson tells the shocking and deeply moving true story of a young girl with severe behavioural problems. This is the first of several stories about ‘difficult’ children Casey helped during her time as a behaviour manager at her local comprehensive. Casey has been in the post for six months when thirteen-year-old Imogen joins her class. One of six children Casey is teaching, Imogen has selective mutism. She’s a bright girl, but her speech problems have been making mainstream lessons difficult. Life at home is also hard for Imogen. Her mum walked out on her a few years earlier and she’s never got on with her dad’s new girlfriend. She’s now living with her grandparents. There’s no physical explanation for Imogen’s condition, and her family insist she’s never had troubles like this before. Everyone thinks Imogen is just playing up – except the member of staff closest to her, her teacher Casey Watson. It is the deadpan expression she constantly has on her face that is most disturbing to Casey. Determined there must be more to it, Casey starts digging and it’s not long before she starts to discover a very different side to Imogen’s character. A visit to her grandparents’ reveals that Imogen is anything but silent at home. In fact she’s prone to violent outbursts; her elderly grandparents are terrified of her. Eventually Casey’s hard work starts to pay off. After months of silence, Imogen utters her first, terrified, words to Casey: ‘I thought she was going to burn me.’ Dark, shocking and deeply disturbing, Casey begins to uncover the reality of what Imogen has been subjected to for years.
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Margery’s Story
¥9.71
From the bestselling authors of The Sugar Girls and GI Brides, this is Margery’s story, one of three true accounts from the book The Girls Who Went to War. “‘Who does that man think he is?’ Margery muttered to a girl standing next to her. The words had slipped out before she could stop herself, but she realised, to her horror, that the warrant officer had heard them. ‘What was that?’ he demanded, striding over and fixing her with an angry stare. Margery gulped – but there was no going back now.” In the summer of 1940, Britain stood alone against Germany. The British Army stood at just over one and a half million men, while the Germans had three times that many, and a population almost twice the size of ours from which to draw new waves of soldiers. Clearly, in the fight against Hitler, manpower alone wasn’t going to be enough. Margery Pott signed up for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, leaving her quiet home for the rigours of training, the camaraderie of the young women who worked together so closely and to face a war that would change her life forever. Overall, more than half a million women served in the armed forces during the Second World War. This book tells the story of just one of them. But in her story is reflected the lives of hundreds of thousands of others like them – ordinary girls who went to war, wearing their uniforms with pride.