Biography

Billy Billingham grew up tough; a grim future ahead of him offering little respite from the hostile streets he walked. Leaving school (read more)

Billy Billingham grew up tough; a grim future ahead of him offering little respite from the hostile streets he walked. Leaving school at eleven years of age, the threat of borstal hanging over his head, running with gangs in Birmingham, and almost being killed in a knife fight eventually led to Billy discovering the British armed forces at sixteen years of age. It would be the making of him.

Billingham would graduate from the Royal Marine cadets to enlisting with the Parachute Regiment in 1983, where he would serve with distinction as a Patrol Commander and expert sniper. In 1991 he took on an even bigger challenge - taking the SAS course - the fearsome and secretive elite special forces unit with a well-won reputation for excellence in operating in extreme and hazardous conditions. He excelled in this life, rising to the rank of sergeant major for the regiment, and undertaking dozens of classified and extremely dangerous missions. (hide)

Stunning three-volume slipcased set containing the most comprehensive in-depth companion to Tolkien's life and works ever published, (read more)

Stunning three-volume slipcased set containing the most comprehensive in-depth companion to Tolkien's life and works ever published, including synopses of all his writings, and a Tolkien gazetteer, who's who and chronology. The three volumes contained in this slipcase, written by two of the foremost experts on J.R.R. Tolkien, comprise the definitive handbook to one of the most popular authors of the 20th century.

Tolkien's progress is traced from his birth in South Africa in 1892, to the battlefields of France and the lecture-halls of Leeds and Oxford, to his success as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, until his death in 1973. His many academic and literary achievements, his public reception, and his enduring fame are examined in detail. The first volume in this set is a Chronology of Tolkien's life and works, the most extensive biographical resource about him ever published.
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What would you do if the people you trusted to uphold the law committed a crime against you? Who would you turn to? And how long (read more)

What would you do if the people you trusted to uphold the law committed a crime against you? Who would you turn to? And how long would you fight them for? On 28th September 1985, Lee Lawrence's mother Cherry Groce was wrongly shot by police during a raid on her Brixton home. The bullet shattered her spine and she never walked again.

In the chaos that followed, 11-year-old Lee watched in horror as the News falsely pronounced his mother dead. In Brixton, already a powder keg because of the deep racism that the community was experiencing, it was the spark needed to trigger two days of rioting that saw buildings brought down by petrol bombs, cars torched and shops looted. But for Lee, it was a spark that lit a flame that would burn for the next 30 years as he fought to get the police to recognise their wrongdoing.
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Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, their home is taken away and they lose their (read more)

Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, their home is taken away and they lose their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall.

Carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey. The Salt Path is an honest and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. (hide)

t's 1983. A young Englishwoman arrives in Manhattan on a mission. Summoned in the hope that she can save Conde Nast's troubled new (read more)

t's 1983. A young Englishwoman arrives in Manhattan on a mission. Summoned in the hope that she can save Conde Nast's troubled new flagship Vanity Fair, Tina Brown is plunged into the maelstrom of competitive New York media.

She survives the politics and the intrigue by a simple stratagem: succeeding. Here are the inside stories of the scoops and covers that sold millions: the Reagan kiss, the meltdown of Princess Diana's marriage to Prince Charles, the sensational Annie Leibovitz cover of a gloriously pregnant, naked Demi Moore. Written with dash and verve, the diary is also a sharply observed account of New York and London society. (hide)

Would you sacrifice yourself to save thousands of others? In the Summer of 1940, after the Nazi occupation of Poland, an underground (read more)

Would you sacrifice yourself to save thousands of others?

In the Summer of 1940, after the Nazi occupation of Poland, an underground operative called Witold Pilecki accepted a mission to uncover the fate of thousands of people being interned at a new concentration camp on the border of the Reich. His mission was to report on Nazi crimes and raise a secret army to stage an uprising.

The name of the detention centre -- Auschwitz. It was only after arriving at the camp that he started to discover the Nazi's terrifying plans. Over the next two and half years, Witold forged an underground army that smuggled evidence of Nazi atrocities out of Auschwitz. (hide)

Well guys, here we are! What an absolute whirlwind of a journey this has been so far. So much has happened in the last couple of (read more)

Well guys, here we are! What an absolute whirlwind of a journey this has been so far. So much has happened in the last couple of life-changing years and I'm so excited to share it with you all: my Hinchers.

You have been right by my side for every step of the way and I honestly couldn't have done it without the amazing love and support from this incredible family we've built together. It's often felt like a fairy tale but it hasn't always been easy, and I'm going to let you in on the highs and the lows as well as my biggest fears and my darkest challenges. Because this book right here, is me. (hide)

Astonishing, soul-baring - the must-read memoir by rock's greatest survivor' DAILY MAIL***The full, dramatic story of one of the (read more)

Astonishing, soul-baring - the must-read memoir by rock's greatest survivor' DAILY MAIL***The full, dramatic story of one of the most remarkable women in music history, celebrating Tina Turner's 60th year in the industry***'Unbearably poignant' THE TIMES, Book of the Week_______________________Love's got everything to do with it. Tina Turner is the Queen of Rock `n' Roll, a musical icon celebrating her 60th year in the industry. In this dramatic autobiography, she tells the story of a truly remarkable life in the spotlight.

From her early years picking cotton in Nutbush, Tennessee to her rise to fame alongside Ike Turner, and finally to her phenomenal success in the 1980s and beyond, Tina candidly examines her personal history, from her darkest hours to her happiest moments and everything in between. In her honest and heart-felt voice, Tina reveals:* How (love) and a kidney transplant saved her life - and how her new husband made an incredible personal sacrifice* How she has coped with the tragic suicide of her son* How ex-husband Ike Turner forced her to go to a brothel on their wedding night... and why she tried to kill herself because of Ike's mistresses * The Cinderella moment when David Bowie made Tina a star ...
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Who is Captain Sir Tom Moore?You've seen him on the television walking the length of his garden. A frail elderly man, doing his (read more)

Who is Captain Sir Tom Moore?You've seen him on the television walking the length of his garden.

A frail elderly man, doing his bit at a time of crisis. But he wasn't always like this. Where did he come from? Where was he made?From a childhood in the foothills of the Yorkshire Dales, Tom Moore grew up in a loving family, which wasn't without its share of tragedy.
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A bold new biography of the thinker who demolished accepted economic theories in order to expose how people of economic and social (read more)

A bold new biography of the thinker who demolished accepted economic theories in order to expose how people of economic and social privilege plunder their wealth from society's productive men and women. Thorstein Veblen was one of America's most penetrating analysts of modern capitalist society. But he was not, as is widely assumed, an outsider to the social world he acidly described.

Veblen overturns the long-accepted view that Veblen's ideas, including his insights about conspicuous consumption and the leisure class, derived from his position as a social outsider. In the hinterlands of America's Midwest, Veblen's schooling coincided with the late nineteenth-century revolution in higher education that occurred under the patronage of the titans of the new industrial age. The resulting educational opportunities carried Veblen from local Carleton College to centers of scholarship at Johns Hopkins, Yale, Cornell, and the University of Chicago, where he studied with leading philosophers, historians, and economists.

Published:29 Jan 2021 (hide)