Book picks similar to
Jan Morris by Paul Clements


biography
gender
geography-travel
lgbtq-nf

Steven Gerrard - My Captains Book


Steven Gerrard - 2008
    He talks exclusively about his pride in being captain and what exactly that role involves on and off the pitch and inside the dressing room, and even inside the captain's locker and kit-bag. He reveals ten great captain moments demonstrating how those leadership qualities have inspired his team-mates. Steven also talks about Jamie Carragher's role as a friend and vice-captain and reveals why he thinks Fernando Torres is the world's number one striker. He looks at other captains who have influenced him. Other top players and key people in the game around the world talk about Steven Gerrard as a captain and what makes him special. There is also a unique multiple-choice challenge for readers to find out how much they are like Steven Gerrard and also an original game on how to win like a captain.

A Simple Life: Living off grid in a wooden cabin in France


Mary-Jane Houlton - 2021
    They were already used to a simple life, having spent the last three years living on their boat in France for the summer seasons, and returning to the UK and their caravan for the winters. This tiny cabin would now be their new home for the winter months, taking them a step further along the road to self-sufficiency. They had no electricity, no kitchen, no bathroom or bedroom and the loo was a bucket in a shed, but the property came with five acres of field and woodland.From now on their lives would be simple, pared back to the basics, but they found that an off-grid lifestyle was by no means an uncomfortable experience. Responsibilities didn’t disappear but they changed, becoming less onerous. There was more time to think, and to appreciate the natural world around them. Living in such rural isolation, each day brought something new to marvel at: deer browsing in the field at dusk, salamanders on the doorstep, owls calling by night.If their own world felt increasingly magical, the outside world was far from it. They had moved to a foreign country at an historic time, living through a pandemic and adapting to the day-to-day implications of Brexit.A Simple Life doesn’t just follow Mary-Jane and Michael as they settle into their new lives, it also raises questions about what really matters to people. What makes us happy? How does it feel to have few possessions? Will life become unbearable without a flushing toilet?Thought-provoking and amusing, this book opens a window onto a different way of living. Mary-Jane shares a wealth of information and, if you have ever found yourself longing for a simpler life, this might tempt you to take those first tentative steps on the journey.

A Fart in a Colander: The Autobiography


Roy Hudd - 2009
    Born in Croydon in 1936, his early life was turbulent. His father left home and his mother committed suicide during the war leaving his formidable, but adored grandmother, to raise him, and it was she who gave him the title for this book. His big television break came with "Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life" with David Frost, John Bird and John Fortune and he also had a brief stint in the popular TV soap "Coronation Street". His radio career includes the hugely popular "The News Huddlines", which he starred in and ran for twenty-six years. "A Fart in a Colander" brings together some wonderful stories from his life, and sparkles with the fun and laughter Roy has brought to millions of people throughout his career.

Spider Woman: A Life


Brenda Hale - 2021
    Yet that dramatic moment was merely the pinnacle of a career throughout which she was hailed as a pioneering reformer.As 'a little girl from a little school in a little village in North Yorkshire', she only went into the law because her headteacher told her she wasn't clever enough to study history. She became the most senior judge in the country.How does a self-professed 'girly swot' get ahead in a profession dominated by men? A lifelong smasher of glass-ceilings, who took as her motto 'women are equal to everything', her landmark rulings in areas including domestic violence, divorce, mental health and equality were her attempt to correct that.

Layne Beachley: Beneath The Waves


Michael Gordon - 2008
    It is about the skinny little girl they called 'Gidget' who overcame a king tide of obstacles, from chronic fatigue and depression to debilitating injury and family tragedy, to become an icon in the male-dominated world of competitive surfing. Winner of a record seven women's world championships, she also blazed trails in the mountainous waves of Hawaii's outer reefs, earning respect where it mattered most-in the water. ...

Out of the Frying Pan: Scenes from My Life


Keith Floyd - 2000
    But here, for the first time, he tells his own story – and it is full of surprises.The stories from his childhood in Somerset are vivid and moving: his grandfather with his tin leg, his mother at the mills, and his uncle, the ferret keeper, and the black sheep of the family for ‘carrying on’ with married women.Keith Floyd spent a short spell on a local newspaper, and then, in a hilarious episode, joined the army. After he and the Ministry of Defence decided that they did not suit each other, he took his first cooking job as an assistant vegetable cook in a Bristol hotel. The great period of bistros and cafes had dawned and Keith Floyd was in the forefront, cooking in an open kitchen, with Pink Floyd blaring from the speakers.What is wonderful about this book is the vividness of the scenes he paints and the deftness with which he draws the characters – including his several wives. Those who have admired Keith Floyd’s way with a whisk will now be impressed to discover and enjoy his remarkable skill with words.

Free Roll


Brandt Tobler - 2017
    This book is written by a stand-up comedian that takes you through tragedy after tragedy on its path to hilarity. Will it make you laugh? Eventually. Will it make you cry? Probably. But the hope is that it will also make you smile, dream, and reflect, while simultaneously inspiring you to never stop chasing your dreams (even if your very own family is constantly trying to derail them). Brandt tells his life story with candor, detailing the many pit stops, wrong turns, crazy connections, and lucky breaks he experienced along the way to his comedy career, all while trying to balance a toxic relationship with his jailbird dad. Brandt's storytelling will make you laugh (it better because that's his job!) and believe, as he does, that when it comes to defining family, blood isn't always thicker than water.

The Long Journey Home


Cecily Blench - 2021
    

WIRED: Steve Jobs, Revolutionary


Steven Levy - 2011
    In the wake of his death WIRED presents Steve Jobs: Revolutionary, an eBook featuring our best stories about him. The anthology begins with a remembrance by Wired senior writer Steven Levy, who interviewed Jobs many times over the last two decades. We continue with six other stories that track Jobs on his uncanny rise, his dramatic fall, and his spectacular, unlikely return to Apple.

Master of Electricity - Nikola Tesla: A Quick-Read Biography About the Life and Inventions of a Visionary Genius


Cynthia A. Parker - 2015
    Parker removes that pain by offering an opportunity to Get-to-Know the 'Master of Electricity,' to learn of his youth and upbringing, his early career, and of course his pivotal role in advancing the World into the Electrical Age! Turn these pages and enjoy the opportunity to learn history, but better yet to come to know Tesla better through Parker’s amazing ability to describe his life, his eccentricities and above all, his accomplishments; making this an enjoyable and interesting Quick-Read Biography. This Book also Comes with a FREE Gift!

Harry Truman: The Man Who Divided the World


Jack Steinberg - 2016
    Born and raised by poor, struggling farmers in America's heartland, he had become President through his integrity, a little bit of luck, and sheer hard work. He became the leader of the United States at the tail end of the world's deadliest conflict. Thrust into the middle of a world of conflicting ideologies, Truman would be faced with the newest threat to international stability: a ravenous Soviet Union ready to devour the world with its communist philosophies. As the nation's leader, it fell to him to decide the path which the United States would take into the future. A dedicated public servant and a lover of the freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution, Truman realized it was not only his duty but his responsibility to safeguard the free world. By pledging to protect the people of the world from totalitarian rule, Truman unintentionally triggered the Cold War. With his pledge, this often overlooked President forever reshaped American foreign policy, dividing the world into East and West for over forty years.

These Things Really Do Happen To Me


Khaya Dlanga - 2018
    From his early vlogs to his lively discussions on various social media platforms, Khaya’s words have shown us how we all have stories to share and how stories can bring people together.In These Things Really Do Happen To Me, Khaya describes everyday experiences that have shaped his life. He recounts amusing anecdotes – from chasing horses as a child in rural Transkei, to the time he fell asleep next to President Thabo Mbeki – as well as moving stories, such as meeting his sister for the first time and only time. Not one to shy away from heavyweight topics, Khaya also shares why conversations about race are not controversial, what his feelings on feminism are, why we must bring back small talk, and how to take a sneaky break when your family is working you too hard.

The Life: A True Story About A Brooklyn Boy Seduced Into The Dark World Of The Mafia


Larry Mazza - 2016
    young Larry later learns she is married to the vicious gangster Greg Scarpa known as "The Grim Reaper." Greg takes a liking to Larry and makes him his protegé. He likes him so much that he gives his blessing for the affair to continue and brings Larry deep into the "family."

Beyond His Control (Memoir of a Disobedient Daughter)


Linda Hale Bucklin - 2007
    Was it suicide or homicide?Standing up to her father, heir to the Broadway/Hale Department Store fortune, Linda is disinherited, then ostracized from the family she loves. When her father marries his mistress, Denise Minnelli, stepmother to Liza Minnelli, the family unravels.Once a child of privilege, Linda recounts, in vivid detail, her extraordinary life—summers on the family's 10,000 acre ranch in Northern California, hunting trips to Africa and Alaska, high society vignettes of a fourth-generation San Francisco family, and her father's final decision: to leave the entire family fortune to Minnelli.But amid the ashes, Linda finds a new strength: the strength to forgive the one who started it all.REVIEWS:"...a jolting memoir." ~The New York Post"...a book you won't be able to put down." ~David Patrick Columbia, New York Social DiaryMEET LINDA HALE BUCKLIN:Linda feels blessed to be surrounded by her three grown sons, two daughters-in-law and two grandchildren. A fourth-generation San Franciscan, she now lives with her husband in Mill Valley, CA.

A Garden In Sarlat: Fulfilling an ambition to run a bed and breakfast in The Dordogne


David Prothero - 2016
    They knew that it was a massive gamble. Their friends called them brave. Their families thought that they had either gone completely mad or were dreaming of a delusional easy life in the sun. In the event none of these assumptions were completely accurate. Moving and funny, this is the story of the trials and tribulations involved in buying and converting their new house. The challenges of starting a new business in a foreign land, speaking a language they had struggled to learn thirty years previously and had since forgotten. But ultimately of fulfilling their ambition to work, laugh and play in the beautiful town of Sarlat.