Book picks similar to
Island to Abbey: Survival and Sanctuary in the Books of Elsie J. Oxenham, 1907 to 1959 by Stella Waring
non-fiction
school-stories
british
childrens-criticism
Ten Feet Tall and Not Quite Bulletproof
Cameron Hardiman - 2020
Every morning he put on a navy blue police flight suit, grabbed his flight helmet, and prepared to work on the police helicopter. He could be called to anything during a shift, to search for a missing child, to pull an injured driver from a wrecked car, or a dangerous sea rescue. He saw his fair share of trauma and dealt with it like most coppers would: he quickly put each dangerous job out of his mind as soon as it was over. But one particular rescue job in Bass Strait brought about a reckoning - and Cameron was never the same again.This is the brilliantly told, white-knuckle story of one cop learning every lesson the hard way - and coming to find out that being not quite bulletproof doesn't mean that you're not a good cop.
Imposter: On booze, crippling self-doubt and coming out the other side
Matt Chisholm - 2021
Who'd be a copper?: Thirty years a frontline British cop
Jonathan Nicholas - 2015
Who’d be a copper? follows Jonathan Nicholas in his transition from a long-haired world traveller to becoming one of ‘Thatcher’s army’ on the picket lines of the 1984 miner’s dispute and beyond. His first years in the police were often chaotic and difficult, and he was very nearly sacked for not prosecuting enough people. Working at the sharp end of inner-city policing for the entire thirty years, Jonathan saw how politics interfered with the job; from the massaging of crime figures to personal petty squabbles with senior officers. His last ten years were the oddest, from being the best cop in the force to repeatedly being told that he faced dismissal. This astonishing true story comes from deep in the heart of British inner-city policing and is a revealing insight into what life is really like for a police officer, amid increasing budget cuts, bizarre Home Office ideas and stifling political correctness. “I can write what I like, even if it brings the police service into disrepute, because I don’t work for them anymore!” says Jonathan Nicholas. Who’d be a copper? is a unique insight into modern policing that will appeal to fans of autobiographies, plus those interested in seeing what really happens behind the scenes of the UK police."I HAVE BOUGHT YOUR BOOK." TW, Sir Thomas Winsor, WS HMCIC"A WEALTH OF ANECDOTES. FASCINATING." John Donoghue, author of 'Police, Crime & 999'"AN ILLUMINATING ACCOUNT OF LIFE AS A FRONT LINE OFFICER IN BRITAIN'S POLICE, A SERVICE OFTEN STRETCHED FOR RESOURCES BUT MIRED IN RED TAPE AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS." Pat Condell, author of 'Freedom is My Religion'
Green Ink: Memoirs of a Fighter Pilot
H. Denny Wisely - 2018
He found himself in the navy while growing up during Vietnam. He was the first to shoot down two enemy airplanes and flew 350 combat missions during three deployments aboard USS Kitty Hawk. The ledger he kept will bring you right there with him as he recounts many of those more than exciting missions including being shot down near Hanoi. He flew F4 Phantom to 85,000 feet during operational test flights at the McDonnell-Douglas factor in St Louis. Later at VX-4 in Pt Mugu, California he tested the F 14 Tomcat and flew the MiG 21 from Area 51. He went on to command a Fighter Squadron from USS Midway home-ported in Japan and then went on to be Flight Leader and Commanding Officer of the Blue Angels. He went on to Command the aircraft carrier John F Kennedy.
CIA Super Pilot Spills The Beans: Flying Helicopters in Laos for Air America
Bill Collier - 2017
Captain Collier teamed up with his best Vietnam helicopter pilot buddy, Gary, and the two rascals shared enough true adventure to make any novel seem lame. Flying combat in mountainous and weather-hostile Laos was some of the most challenging ever experienced by any pilot, any time, any war. Making fabulous money and having airline benefits allowed them to live an exotic lifestyle, to travel the world on their monthly R&Rs, and to chase and capture more than a few stewardesses from several different airlines.War correspondent Anne Darling described the helicopter pilots for AIR AMERICA as "CIA Super Pilots" Captain Bill Collier was one of those "Super Pilots." This is his story.
Pearl: You are Cleared to Land
Deanna Edens - 2018
To be more precise many of these stories are hers—authentic memories written by an amazing woman. Pearl Bragg Laska Chamberlain was the first woman to fly her own plane from the Lower 48 up the Alaska Highway to Alaska. She worked as a flight instructor, bush pilot, cryptographer for the Pentagon, flew in five Powder Puff Derbies, and was also a WASP trainee and famous “99er.” Pearl was a member of the UFO’s (United Flying Octogenarians), and the mayor of Fairbanks actually declared a “Pearl Laska Chamberlain Day.” Pretty impressive, eh? I am very excited to bring you this fabulous collection of “Braggin’ Rights” stories that begin in the early 1900s on Chestnut Mountain in Summers County, West Virginia. Tales about bootleggin’ and learning to fly in the Appalachians are followed by adventures to exotic places. Narratives about living in the polar region and escapades of an aviatrix are accompanied by heartfelt memories of real-life victories and the sorrows of a lifetime. So settle down into the cockpit, buckle your seatbelt and get ready for an astonishing and amazing flight.
Who Ate All The Pies? The Life and Times of Mick Quinn
Mick Quinn - 2003
They said Mick had a sixth sense for great accuracy in his playing days - he could find a party from any range. Quinn says he only put £50 on each horse race - but liked to stay in the bookies for twenty races a day!Sentenced in 1987 to three weeks in prison for twice driving whilst banned, Mick's been accused of punching Peter Schmeichel on the football pitch and John Fashanu off it. On retirement, though, Quinn switched to horse racing, the Sport of Kings, but controversy led the blue bloods of racing to hang the scouse oik out to dry and he was suspended from training for two and a half years.Who Ate All The Pies? is the funniest and most honest football book you'll read for a long, long time.
Clara Brown: The Rags to Riches Story of a Freed Slave
Julie McDonald - 2016
After being freed at the age of 57, she begins a tireless search for her only remaining family member, her daughter Eliza Jane. What Clara accomplishes in her 28 years of freedom will simply astound you! I first wrote about Clara Brown in my book Unbreakable Dolls, Too. This single story eBook is the expanded version, with much more information and 9 photos.
The Top Gear Story
Martin Roach - 2011
This is the incredible inside story of the program that has become unmissable viewing for millions of petrolheads. Reaching a peak in the 1990s thanks to presenter Jeremy Clarkson, the original series then faced the axe in 2001—but Clarkson and producer Andy Wilman successfully pitched a new format to BBC bosses and Top Gear returned to become the irreverent, funny and often controversial show we now know and love. The addition of co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May completed the Top Gear dream team and ratings soared as viewers tuned in to see the latest Star in a Reasonably Priced Car, arguments over the Cool Wall and Power Laps by the mysterious Stig. Recent series have been defined by their madcap challenges, including the most shocking moment in 2006, when Hammond suffered serious head injuries while driving a Vampire turbojet drag racing car at over 300mph. Top Gear has long attracted criticism for its dangerous stunts and the presenters' controversial opinions, but thankfully "the Hamster" made a full recovery and Top Gear has continued to pull in massive audiences across the world.
Mozart: Requiem of Genius (The True Story of Wolfgang Mozart) (Historical Biographies of Famous People)
Alexander Kennedy - 2016
In this highly readable short biography, Alexander Kennedy brings Mozart and his times vividly to life. Here we see the sweeping grandeur of the courts Mozart visited as a child prodigy, and the grasping desperation of his scheming father. We follow the composer through the flush of his first love up through his marriage to Constanze Weber, and from his first, half-plagiarized concertos to masterpieces like The Magic Flute. We watch Mozart clash with family and friends, with archbishops and emperors, and we feel again the tragedy of his mysterious early death. And above all, we hear his eternal music: music that captivated a continent, defined a genre, and changed the world. “I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings” - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Buy Now to Discover:
A layperson’s explanation of the devices that made Mozart’s music unique.
The complicated relationship between Mozart and his demanding father.
Mozart’s love affair with his cousin Maria Anna Thekla.
The surprising story behind the premiere of La nozze di Figaro.
Mozart’s friendship with fellow master Joseph Haydn.
The most likely cause of Mozart’s young death.
Mozart’s influence on Rossini, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and more.
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Gerda's Story: Memoirs of a Holocaust Survivor
Gerda Nothmann Luner - 2019
Told through the eyes of a young girl, the book shares Gerda’s memories of Hitler’s rise to power and passionately describes the cruel toll that history can have on those who experience it. The book is much more than Gerda’s story. Through letters she received from her parents, who made the heartbreaking decision to send their two daughters to live with foster families in the relative safety of Holland, we learn how a mother and father try to raise a child from far away in times of great distress. Letters from them to Gerda’s foster parents, and desperate notes to an American family they hoped would act as sponsors, reveal their growing despair. The story is both deeply personal and universal as people wrestle with terrible choices to save their children and protect their families. These issues remain as relevant today as they were during the Holocaust. In 1939, while trying to arrange an escape from Germany, her parents sent 12-year-old Gerda and her younger sister to live with separate families in Holland, which was still safe for Jews. What was intended as a temporary move became permanent and Gerda never saw her parents again. Ultimately, she was the only member of her immediate family to survive and also had to bear the loss of the foster family she had come to love as her own. Gerda describes in searing detail her experiences in six concentration camps, her protection as a worker for the Philips Corporation, and her arrival in the U.S. in 1948 as an 18-year-old Holocaust survivor literally alone in the world. The memoir is a testament to the loving family Gerda built in America. Her husband added translations of the letters from her parents, grandparents and sister. After her oldest child and first grandchild were born, Gerda added notes to them. This group effort illustrates the special generational pull of trauma endured by Holocaust survivors.
The Last Gangster: My Final Confession
Charlie Richardson - 2013
Boss of the Richardson Gang and rival of the Krays, to cross him would result in brutal repercussions. Famously arrested on the day England won the World Cup in 1966, his trial heard he allegedly used iron bars, bolt cutters and electric shocks on his enemies.The Last Gangster is Richardson’s frank account of his largely untold life story, finished just before his death in September 2012. He shares the truth behind the rumours and tells of his feuds with the Krays for supremacy, undercover missions involving politicians, many lost years banged up in prison and reveals shocking secrets about royalty, phone hacking, bent coppers and the infamous black box.Straight up, shocking and downright gripping, this is the ultimate exposé on this legendary gangster and his extraordinary life.
Fringes: Life on the Edge of Professional Rugby
Ben Mercer - 2019
This book does not do that. For many, playing professional sport is the Dream Job. Few manage it, very few make it to the top and for the rest, life is very different. This is their story. In Fringes, Ben Mercer invites you to witness life at the outer edges of professional rugby. This is a first hand account of what life is like as a journeyman professional athlete. You play, but to the wider public you don't exist. You earn but you don't drive a flash car. You sometimes pack out a stadium but sometimes, you play in a deserted park. This is the story for the majority of sports professionals. Only the minority taste the top, only one person gets to lift the cup or win the medal, only 15 get to play for England at any one time. For the rest, that’s not the case. Ben Mercer is a former professional rugby player who after becoming disillusioned and uninspired plying his trade in the English Second Division, accepted an offer out of the blue to go to France and do something different - help an amateur team turn professional. This is a first hand account of what life is like in the lower reaches of professional sport - where your employment status is as precarious as your health and barely anyone will know your name. It's about how it feels to live year to year, with teammates constantly on the move. It's about how professionalism irreversibly changes the French club Stade Rouennais as they move up the divisions, about the tension between progress and identity in a rugby team. It's also about how it feels to actually be out there on the field, how it feels to occasionally do something extraordinary and how it feels when this is no longer enough for you to make the sacrifices that you need to make to keep playing. There's no ghostwriting, it's an unmitigated meditation on how it feels and what it means to play rugby for a living, to dedicate yourself to an uncompromising but occasionally beautiful game. If you've wanted to know what life is really like as a professional athlete, on the Fringes, away from the glitz and glamour of the international game then look no further.
The Making of Tornado Chasers: Behind The Scenes Of The Groundbreaking Documentary Series
Ken Cole - 2014
Including behind-the-scenes anecdotes and first-hand accounts of the tragic events in Moore and El Reno, Oklahoma, Cole tells his personal story through a series of logs covering pre-production through the series premiere.Ken Cole (author) is an award-winning filmmaker and seasoned storm chaser. Throughout his career Ken has documented over fifty tornadoes, often from close range. His projects have featured renowned weather personalities including Reed Timmer, Jim Cantore, and Ginger Zee. Ken studied meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, and later pursued documentary filmmaking as part of his graduate work. In 2006 he directed the PBS documentary Tornado Glory, his first work featuring Reed Timmer and Joel Taylor. Ken then contributed to the Discovery Channel's Storm Chasers series, and went on to direct the award-winning short film “Heaven’s Rage." Most recently, Ken served as executive producer for Tornado Chasers - a groundbreaking documentary series and two-time Webby Award Honoree.Reed Timmer (foreword) is well-known as the most successful and extreme storm chaser in the world, having intercepted over 500 tornadoes and a dozen powerful hurricanes during the last decade. Reed starred on Discovery Channel's Storm Chasers, and is now featured in the documentary series Tornado Chasers. Reed has constructed three armored vehicles, called "The Dominator" fleet, to withstand the powerful forces of a tornado. He also the author of Into The Storm, covering his early career in storm chasing.
Freefall
Tom Read - 1998
This autobiography is the story of his descent into madness and his attempts to find his way out again.