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A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in a Skip
￥66.22
Unique, transgressive and as funny as its subject, A Life Discarded has all the suspense of a murder mystery. Written with his characteristic warmth, respect and humour, Masters asks you to join him in celebrating an unknown and important life left on the scrap heap. A Life Discarded is a biographical detective story. In 2001, 148 tattered and mould-covered notebooks were discovered lying among broken bricks in a skip on a building site in Cambridge. Tens of thousands of pages were filled to the edges with urgent handwriting. They were a small part of an intimate, anonymous diary, starting in 1952 and ending half a century later, a few weeks before the books were thrown out. Over five years, the award-winning biographer Alexander Masters uncovers the identity and real history of their author, with an astounding final revelation. A Life Discarded is a true, shocking, poignant, often hilarious story of an ordinary life. The author of the diaries, known only as ‘I’, is the tragicomic patron saint of everyone who feels their life should have been more successful. Part thrilling detective story, part love story, part social history, A Life Discarded is also an account of two writers’ obsessions: of ‘I’s need to record every second of life and of Masters’ pursuit of this mysterious yet universal diarist.
Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s Learned
￥66.22
Lena Dunham, acclaimed writer-director-star of HBO and Sky Atlantic’s ‘Girls’ and the award-winning movie ‘Tiny Furniture’, displays her unique powers of observation, wisdom and humour in this exceptional collection of essays. “If I could take what I’ve learned and make one menial job easier for you, or prevent you from having the kind of sex where you feel you must keep your sneakers on in case you want to run away during the act, then every misstep of mine was worthwhile. I’m already predicting my future shame at thinking I had anything to offer you, but also my future glory in having stopped you from trying an expensive juice cleanse or thinking that it was your fault when the person you are dating suddenly backs away, intimidated by the clarity of your personal mission here on earth. No, I am not a sexpert, a psychologist, or a dietician. I am not a mother of three or the owner of a successful hosiery franchise. But I am a girl with a keen interest in having it all, and what follows are hopeful dispatches from the frontlines of that struggle.”
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.
Get Her Off the Pitch!: How Sport Took Over My Life
￥66.22
From the bestselling author of ‘Eats, Shoots & Leaves’, this is the hilarious new book from Lynne Truss about her strange journey through the world of sport and sports journalism. ‘Years ago, Boris Becker famously said, after losing at Wimbledon, “Nobody died. I just lost a tennis match.” And while some people applauded him for his healthy sense of proportion, it didn’t ring remotely true. While I was writing about sport, I was caught on the horns of this dilemma for the whole bloody time. I was like the poor confused jurors in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ who sit in their jury box, writing emphatically on their little slates, both “important” and “not important” because they honestly don't have a clue.’ In this magnificent book, Lynne Truss charts her often bizarre wanderings during her time as a sports journalist for the ‘Sunday Times’. From covering a heavyweight world title fight at Madison Square Garden, to watching England beat Holland from an airship above Wembley (while eating chocolate cake); from her extravagant feelings about Andre Agassi, to covering sports like cricket (where, initially, she didn’t have any idea what was going on), Lynne Truss manages to crystallize exactly the essence of what sport is about, and bring her characteristic wisdom and wry humour to it. The book will be a revelation to sport's foolish doubters, and a treat for the many of us who spend too much of our time watching it.
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.
Shooting the Cook
￥66.22
The true story of a bumbling and undistinguished television producer who discovered Keith Floyd – and inadvertently changed the landscape of cookery programmes forever to give rise to the phenomenon of the ‘celebrity chef’. As the producer behind the phenomenally successful Keith Floyd and Rick Stein BBC cookery programmes, David Pritchard had unique view of what went on behind the scenes of the programmes that inspired the event of modern television chefs as we know them today. But back then, when David first met Floyd in his Bristol bistro, he was one of a kind. Charismatic, with a slight erratic edge, always happy to have a slurp of wine or two, and not afraid to say exactly what he thought on air, Floyd was a revelation, a chef that television had not seen the like of before. David shares the overwhelming excitement that went into making the early Floyd series - from sitting down to a silver service dinner aboard a tiny fishing trawler heading out of the Plymouth Sound, to attempting abortive hot-air balloon adventures over Alsace. Twenty-five years ago, no one could have foreseen the incredible popularity commanded by food programmes on television today. Now we have a whole army of chefs representing virtually every single personality trait from sexy to aggressive, to young and experimental. But it was Floyd that started it all. Tangled up amid the tales of the bust-ups, the botched camera shots and the exquisite regional food are reminisces about David's life growing up in ration-starved, post-war Britain. Also containing snapshots of life behind the scenes of sixties television-making and spanning the era from when avocados were virtually unheard of to a time when the term 'foodie' has gained an almost cult-like status, this is an outstanding memoir from the producer who single-handedly changed the face of food as we know it today.
Late Fragments: Everything I Want to Tell You
￥66.22
*THE NUMBER 1 BESTSELLER* What are the things we live for? What matters most in life when your time is short? This brave, frank and heartbreaking book shows what it means to die before your time; how to take charge of your life and fill it with wonder, hope and joy even in the face of tragedy. Ambitious and talented, Kate Gross worked at Number 10 Downing Street for two British Prime Ministers whilst only in her twenties. At thirty, she was CEO of a charity working with fragile democracies in Africa. She had married 'the best looking man I've ever kissed' – and given birth to twin boys in 2008. The future was bright. But aged 34, Kate was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer. After a two-year battle with the disease, Kate died peacefully at home on Christmas morning, just ten minutes before her sons awoke to open their stockings. She began to write as a gift to herself, a reminder that she could create even as her body began to self-destruct. Written for those she loves,her book is not a conventional cancer memoir; nor is it filled with medical jargon or misery. Instead, it is Kate's powerful attempt to make sense of the woman who emerged in the strange, lucid final chunk of her life. Her book aspires to give hope and purpose to the lives of her readers even as her own life drew to its close. Kate should have been granted decades to say all that she says in these pages. Denied the chance to bore her children and grandchildren with stories when she became fat and old, she offers us all her thoughts on how to live; on the wonder to be found in the everyday; the importance of friendship and love; what it means to die before your time and how to fill your life with hope and joy even in the face of tragedy.
Sixty Years a Nurse
￥66.22
When 18-year-old Mary Hazard touched down in post-war Putney to begin her nurse’s training, she could never have known that it was the beginning of a colourful career that would still be going 60 years later – one of the longest ever serving NHS nurses. For Mary, raised in a strict convent in rural south Ireland, working in her first London hospital was a shocking and life-changing experience. Against a backdrop of ongoing rationing and poverty, she saw for the first time the horrors of disease, the heart-breaking outcomes of failed abortions – and faced the genuine shock of seeing a man naked for the first time! 60 Years a Nurse follows the dramas and emotions as Mary found her feet during those early years. From the firm friends she made under the ever-watchful gaze of Matron and the sisters, to the eclectic mix of Londoners she strove to care for; the Teddy Boys she danced with and the freedom of living away from home; and her own burgeoning love story, as extraordinary as it was romantic – these are the funny and heartwarming moments that helped Mary to follow her dream.
The Shed That Fed a Million Children: The Mary’s Meals Story
￥66.22
Speaking Volumes Christian Book of the Year 2016 Mary’s Meals is born from acts of love. If you put all those many acts of sacrifice together it creates a beautiful thing. Mary’s Meals tells the inspirational and compelling story of how a cripplingly shy fish farmer from Argyll, Scotland, became the international CEO of a global charity that now feeds over 800,000 children a day. In 1992, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow was enjoying a pint with his brother when he got an idea that would change his life – and radically change the lives of others. After watching a news bulletin about war-torn Bosnia, the two brothers agreed to take a week’s hiatus from work to help. What neither of them expected is that what began as a one-time road trip in a beaten-up Landrover rapidly grew to become Magnus’s life’s work – leading him to leave his job, sell his house and direct all his efforts to feeding thousands of the world’s poorest children. Magnus retells how a series of miraculous circumstances and an overwhelming display of love from those around him led to the creation of Mary’s Meals; an organisation that now holds the key to eradicating child hunger altogether. This humble, heart-warming yet powerful story has never been more relevant in our society of plenty and privilege. It will open your eyes to the extraordinary impact that one person can make.
A Big Little Life
￥66.22
Dean Koontz’s first ever nonfiction book, the deeply moving story of his life with his good dog Trixie Dean Koontz is known for exploring the dark side of human nature in his fiction. But his softer, playful side comes out when he talks about his beloved dog, Trixie, a golden retriever. Trixie had a special place in Dean's heart. And now, in this, his first non-fiction book, Dean opens his heart to his readers to give us memories of Trixie, of the glorious dog who changed him and changed his life. There's everything in this memoir: adventure, mischief, emotion, and sadness too. Dean will talk with joy about the many gifts Trixie gave him – and the lessons she taught – and he'll talk with sadness at losing his beloved pet. The loss of a dog is a heartbreak that's been experienced by a great many people, and Dean's delving into that loss is a powerful part of this book, and a cathartic experience for those of us who have loved and lost an animal companion. Trixie had a big little life and lives for ever in Dean’s heart … and in these pages.
Torres: El Ni?o: My Story
￥66.22
Fernando Torres is one of the hottest properties in world football. From local Madrid idol to Kop hero and European Championship winner, he talks here for the first time about the unique challenges faced in his two years in England, with candid snapshots of his life on and off the field. At the age of 25, Spain’s Fernando Torres has already established himself as one of the Liverpool greats and a proud wearer of the fabled No 9 shirt. His first book provides a captivating illustrated story of his career to date, alongside candid snapshots of his early life in Madrid, as a child football prodigy and lifelong fan of local club Atletico. Nicknamed ‘El Nino’ (The Kid), Torres opens up about life on the streets besides Atletico’s Vicente Calderon stadium, signing for the club at the age of 15 and appointed club captain by 19, becoming, as one local journalist put it, ‘one part folk hero, one part native son, one part messiah.’ When Liverpool broke their club transfer record to bring Torres to Anfield in July 2007, it proved the turning point in his career. Competing in the goldfish bowl of the English Premier League, settling into the NorthWest and playing alongside Liverpool heroes like Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, in the company of Spanish team-mates Pepe Reina, Xavi Alonso and Albert Rieira, and performing in front of the Kop who quickly adopted him as one of their own – Torres describes what it means to him to play on one of the greatest stages in world football, and compares and contrasts life in Spain with his new career in England. Away from the football, Torres talks about life out of the spotlight with his childhood sweetheart Ollala, his family and friends, and what inspires and motivates him.
Jelleyman’s Thrown a Wobbly: Saturday Afternoons in Front of the Telly
￥66.22
The cult SkySports Soccer Saturday anchorman delivers a volley of entertaining and informative anecdotes about life in front of the videprinter. Jeff Stelling is a legend amongst football fans. To the millions unable to get to their teams' games on Saturday afternoons, the next best thing is undoubtedly the pleasurable company of Jeff and the Sky Sports videprinter for a cosy marathon on the sofa. If someone's got to reveal that your beloved team have just gone 3-0 down away from home and had a man sent off, it's best if it's consummate professional Jeff who breaks the news to you. Avid Hartlepool fan Jeff knows our pain and shares our joy…but mostly he knows our pain. The long-time host of SkySports' iconic Soccer Saturday show has become a cult figure, universally admired for his encyclopaedic knowledge of the game, his genuine and unlimited enthusiasm for ALL levels of football, and his wicked sense of humour which makes the six-hour long show simply whiz by. Jellyman's Thrown a Wobbly is a deliciously chaotic, hugely entertaining, anecdote-ridden, humorous taste of life in the Soccer Saturday studio. Hear what Jeff has to say about some of the show's legendary pundits over the years – ex-players such as George Best, Rodney Marsh, Chris Kamara, Charlie Nicholas and Matt Le Tissier. Be a fly on the wall of the hotel bar on Friday nights as Jeff and his guests gather for a natter and few drinks. Get the inside track on all those great one-liners: ? "Mansfield Town's Gareth Jellyman has been shown the red card for dissent. Looks like Jellyman's thrown a wobbly." ? "Darlington's equaliser has been scored by Guyain Ndumbu-Nsungu. Very much a case of local boy makes good." (He's from Congo.) ? "They'll be dancing in the streets of Total Network Solutions tonight." ? "James Brown's grabbed a second for Hartlepool. I feel good!" Jellyman's Thrown a Wobbly goes a long way to demonstrate how a six-hour long, studio-based show with no live action pictures and featuring men gazing into TV monitors which the viewer can't see, can hold a huge audience enthralled every Saturday afternoon between August and May.
Blue Nights
￥66.22
From one of America’s greatest and most iconic writers: an honest and courageous portrait of age and motherhood. Several days before Christmas 2003, Joan Didion’s only daughter, Quintana, fell seriously ill. In 2010, Didion marked the sixth anniversary of her daughter’s death. ‘Blue Nights’ is a shatteringly honest examination of Joan Didion’s life as a mother, a woman and a writer. Recently widowed, and becoming increasingly frail, ‘Blue Nights’ is Didion’s attempt to understand our deepest fears, our inadequate adjustments to ageing and to put a name to what we refuse to see and as a consequence fail to face up to, ‘this refusal even to engage in such contemplation, this failure to confront the certainties of ageing, illness and death. This fear.’ This fear is tied to what we cherish most and fight to conserve, protect, and refuse to let go, for, ‘when we are talking about mortality we are talking about our children.’ To face death is to let go of memory, to be bereft once more, ‘I know what it is I am now experiencing. I know what the frailty is, I know what the fear is.’ The fear is not for what is lost. The fear is for what is still to be lost. You may see nothing still to be lost. Yet there is no day in her life on which I do not see her. A profound, poetic and powerful book about motherhood and the fierce way in which we continue to exalt and nurture our children, even if they only live on in memory. ‘Blue Nights’ is an intensely personal, and yet, strangely universal account of how we love. It is both groundbreaking and a culmination of a stunning career.
Making the Cat Laugh
￥66.22
SPECIAL PRICE FOR A LIMITED TIME One woman's journal of single life on the margins. A brilliant collection of Lynne Truss’ journalism – recording the life of a metropolitan refugee from coupledom. The alternative ‘Bridget Jones’. For seven long years, starting in ‘The Listener’ in 1988 and continuing in ‘The Times’ and ‘Woman's Journal’, Lynne Truss has been trying to make her cat laugh. It has been an uphill task, which is why she deserves this book, a recognition of outstanding courage in the face of futility. Along the way, 'Margins', 'Single of Life' and 'One Woman's Journal' have collected a band of devoted fans, yet still the cat remains unimpressed. Never have so many jokes about Kitbits been found in such concentration as in ‘Making the Cat Laugh’. But under the headings such as 'The Single Woman Considers Going Out but Doesn't Fancy the Hassle' and 'The Single Woman Stays at Home and Goes Quietly Mad', we discover a writer not only obsessed with cats, but prone to over-reacting generally - to news stories, shopping, passive smoking, Christmas, coupledom, boyfriends, snails, sheds, Andre Agassi, cooking instructions, requests of 'How's the novel going?' and personal remarks of any kind.
The Boy No One Loved and Crying for Help 2-in-1 Collection
￥66.22
Sunday Times bestselling author and foster carer Casey Watson’s first heartbreaking memoir The Boy No One Loved now combined in a single volume with her shocking title Crying for Help about a troubled 12-year-old girl. The Boy No One Loved is the true story of Justin who was taken into care at the age of 5 after deliberately burning down his family home. Six years on, after 20 failed placements, Justin arrives at Casey’s home. A childhood of hurt and rejection has made him aggressive, but this is only the tip of a chilling iceberg. In Crying for Help, Casey takes in Sophia, a girl with a pain-filled past and disturbing behaviour. Casey must get through to her, but Sophia’s violence is threatening the safety of the whole family. Can Casey really handle this lost and damaged young girl?
Shakespeare
￥66.22
From bestselling author Bill Bryson comes this compelling short biography of William Shakespeare, our greatest dramatist and poet. Examining centuries of myths, half-truths and downright lies, Bill Bryson makes sense of the man behind the masterpieces. As he leads us through the crowded streets of Elizabethan England, he brings to life the places and characters that inspired Shakespeare’s work. Along the way he delights in the inventiveness of Shakespeare’s language, which has given us so many of the indispensable words and phrases we use today, and celebrates the Bard’s legacy to our literature, culture and history. Drawing together information from a vast array of sources, this is a masterful account of the life and works of William Shakespeare, one of the most famous and most enigmatic people ever to have lived – not to mention a classic piece of Bill Bryson.
Unbroken
￥66.22
The incredible true story of Louis Zamperini, now a major motion picture directed by Angelina Jolie. THE INTERNATIONAL NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER In 1943 a bomber crashes into the Pacific Ocean. Against all odds, one young lieutenant survives. Louise Zamperini had already transformed himself from child delinquent to prodigious athlete, running in the Berlin Olympics. Now he must embark on one of the Second World War’s most extraordinary odysseys. Zamperini faces thousands of miles of open ocean on a failing raft. Beyond like only greater trials, in Japan’s prisoner-of-war camps. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini’s destiny, whether triumph or tragedy, depends on the strength of his will … Now a major motion picture, directed by Angelina Jolie and starring Jack O’ Connell.
Giving up the Ghost: A memoir
￥66.22
From the double Man Booker Prize-winning author of ‘Wolf Hall’, a wry, shocking and beautiful memoir of childhood, ghosts, hauntings, illness and family. At no. 58 the top of my head comes to the outermost curve of my great-aunt, Annie Connor. Her shape is like the full moon, her smile is beaming; the outer rim of her is covered by her pinny, woven with tiny flowers. It is soft from washing; her hands are hard and chapped; it is barely ten o'clock and she is getting the cabbage on. 'Hello, Our Ilary,' she says; my family has named me aspirationally, but aspiration doesn't stretch to the 'H'. Giving Up the Ghost is award-winning novelist Hilary Mantel's wry, shocking and uniquely unusual five-part autobiography of childhood, ghosts, illness and family. It opens in 1995 with 'A Second Home', in which Mantel describes the death of her stepfather, a death which leaves her deeply troubled by the unresolved events of childhood. ‘Now Geoffrey Don't Torment Her' begins in typical, gripping Mantel fashion: 'Two of my relatives have died by fire.' Set during the 1950s, it takes the reader into the muffled consciousness of her early childhood, culminating with the birth of a younger brother and the strange candlelit ceremony of her mother's 'churching'. In 'The Secret Garden' Mantel moves to a haunted house and mysteriously gains a stepfather. When she is almost eleven, her family flee the gossips and the ghosts, and resolve to start a new life. 'Smile' is an account of teenage perplexity, in a household where the keeping of secrets has become a way of life. Convent school provides a certain sanctuary, with tacit assistance from the fearsome 'Top Nun.' In the final section, the author tells how, through medical misunderstandings and neglect, she came to be childless, and how the ghosts of the unborn, like chances missed or pages unturned, have come to haunt her life as a writer.
Where I Was From
￥66.22
A memoir of land, family and perseverance from one of the most influential writers in America. In this moving and surprising book, Joan Didion reassesses parts of her life, her work, her history – and America’s. Where I Was From, in Didion's words, "represents an exploration into my own confusions about the place and the way in which I grew up, misapprehensions and misunderstandings so much a part of who I became that I can still to this day confront them only obliquely." The book is a haunting narrative of how her own family moved west with the frontier from the birth of her great-great-great-great-great-grandmother in Virginia in 1766 to the death of her mother on the edge of the Pacific in 2001; of how the wagon-train stories of hardship and abandonment and endurance created a culture in which survival would seem the sole virtue. Didion examines how the folly and recklessness in the very grain of the California settlement led to the California we know today – a state mortgaged first to the railroad, then to the aerospace industry, and overwhelmingly to the federal government. Joan Didion's unerring sense of America and its spirit, her acute interpretation of its institutions and literature, and her incisive questioning of the stories it tells itself make this fiercely intelligent book a provocative and important tour de force from one of America’s greatest writers.
Heroes, Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britain’s Track Cycling Revolutio
￥66.22
Fully updated to include the extraordinary scenes at London 2012, where Hoy won two more gold medals to bring his total to six and overtake Sir Steve Redgrave, this is the story of Britain's greatest ever Olympian. Chris Hoy has been instrumental in British track cycling's remarkable transformation from also-rans to world superpower. Now, having rewritten the record books as Olympic champion in four different cycling disciplines, and with six gold medals, Hoy has become a household name and established himself in the pantheon of sporting greats. This is a fly-on-the-wall account of Hoy and his team as he prepared for the Beijing Olympics, where he became the first Briton in a century to win three gold medals in a single Games, and it has now been fully updated to include the extraordinary scenes at London 2012, where Hoy won two more gold medals, to bring his total to six and overtake Sir Steve Redgrave as Britain's greatest ever Olympian. The story begins with Hoy's introduction to cycling as a BMX racer and his progression to Olympic champion, and explains the origins and evolution of Britain's world-beating team. It includes a bizarre visit to the world's highest velodrome in Bolivia and a spellbinding journey from the razzmatazz of the European six-day circuit to the craziness of the Japanese keirin races. Award-winning writer Richard Moore tracks Hoy throughout a season in the saddle, explores his motivations and mentors from a young age, and provides an unblemished insight into the mind of a champion and the largely unknown world of track cycling. It's a story that is fully updated with the remarkable events in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, two successive Olympic Games that were dominated by Hoy and the British track cycling team.
Stuart: A Life Backwards
￥66.22
Stuart does not like the manu*. He's after a bestseller, "like what Tom Clancy writes". "But you are not an assassin trying to frazzle the president with anthrax bombs," I point out. You are an ex-homeless, ex-junkie psychopath, I do not add.' This is the story of a remarkable friendship between a reclusive writer ('a middle-class scum ponce, if you want to be honest about it, Alexander'), and Stuart Shorter, a homeless, knife-wielding thief. Told backwards -- Stuart's idea -- it starts with a deeply troubled thirty-two-year-old and ends with a 'happy-go-lucky little boy' of twelve. This brilliant biography, winner of the Guardian First Book Award, presents a humbling portrait of homeless life, and is as extraordinary and unexpected as the man it describes.
