She felt herself to be at a crossroads: “I shall be miserable, or happy; a wordy sentimental creature, or a writer of such English as shall one day burn the pages.”Today her prose is still blazing; perhaps it burns brighter than ever. This is the story of how a determined young woman with a notebook became one of the greatest writers of all time. It is a story that sparkles with wit and friendship, language and love, wicked jokes and passionate appreciation of ordinary things.In this illuminating new account, Alexandra Harris uses vivid flashes of detail to evoke Woolf’s changing backgrounds and preoccupations. We move from the close-packed rhythms of a Victorian childhood to the experiments of Bloomsbury and Woolf’s trial-and-error answers to the pressing question of how to live. We see her tackling challenging forms of writing, trying out different voices, following flights of fancy, and returning to earth. Above all, we see her making conscious decisions about what to do next.The book considers each of the novels in context, gives due prominence to a range of Woolf’s dazzlingly inventive essays, traces the contentious course of her “afterlife,” and shows why, seventy years after her death, Virginia Woolf continues to haunt and inspire us.

    For over thirty years Sherard Cowper-Coles was on the diplomatic front line in a distinguished career that took him from the corridors of power in Whitehall to a string of high-profile around the world. Entering the Foreign Office in 1977, he took up postings in Beirut, Alexandria and Cairo, Washington, Paris, and Hong Kong, his globe-trotting punctuated with spells in London, where the young diplomat had a baptism of fire writing foreign affairs speeches for Geoffrey Howe and Margaret Thatcher. In 1999, under the New Labour government and Prime Minister Tony Blair, he was made Principal Private Secretary to the irascible Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, providing the book with some of its most hilarious sequences. His career culminated in a succession of ambassadorial posts as Our Man in Israel, Saudi Arabia and finally Afghanistan. 'Ever the Diplomat' is his revealing and witty account of half a lifetime in diplomacy.

    Of this, the Baghdadi Sephardic community is very small in number but has produced one of India???s greatest contemporary soldiers, Lt Gen. Jack Jacob. This is his fascinating story. As a small boy, Jacob, who was from a business family, was sent to a residential public school in Darjeeling along with his two brothers. When the Second World War broke out, Jacob without informing his family joined the army in 1941 to fight against the Nazis! After Independence, Gen. Jacob became a gunnery instructor for some time and subsequently was trained in an advanced Artillery and Missile course at Fort Sill in the US. A quick learner, he commanded infantry and artillery brigades, headed the artillery school, and finally the Eastern Army. Rubbing shoulders with some of the stalwarts who strode the Indian political and military arena in those times, Gen. Jacob sometimes fell foul of his bosses and twice came close to resigning. But he stuck on and the pinnacle of his career came in 1971, when he planned and oversaw operations leading to the fall of Dacca and obtained an unconditional public surrender, the only one in history, of Gen. Niazi and his army of 93,000. Written lucidly, this autobiography comes to life as a historical document recapitulating some of the most important events of the 1960s to the 90s ??? from the defeat of the Naxalites in West Bengal, to the problems of Nagaland and Sikkim and the politics of Goa and Punjab. This is not only the story of the life of one great soldier, but provides glimpses of some of the most influential and colourful personalities who wrote the history of those tumultuous times.

    Cathy's worst fears had been realised...Through a Mother’s Tears is the poignant and heartbreaking story of how Cathy lost not only Kirsty, her youngest daughter, but Kirsty’s big sister Hayley, who died of heartbreak when the agony of her baby sister’s loss became too much to bear.

    1973, Indian badminton player.

    He did not claim he was God’s agent. Did he believe in God? Did he look for a sign when he was desperate? Did he follow the Divine Will? Many believers are not followers; many followers are not believers. Is he a believer or a follower or both?

    At heart I’m an engineer. I want to encourage people to fix things, not to raise false hopes.' Mteto Nyati knew years ago as a schoolboy in Mthatha, working behind the counter at his mother’s trading store, that he wanted to fix and build things. After completing his studies in Mechanical Engineering at Natal University, he turned down a Rhodes scholarship and headed for Johannesburg to take up a position at Afrox. He was the only black engineer and the sole advice he received from his superiors was ‘don’t mess up’. He didn’t. Today Nyati is one of South Africa’s top CEOs, having steered Microsoft South Africa and MTN South Africa out of troubled times. He is currently guiding the transition of Altron from a family business, started at the height of apartheid, into a high-performing international IT company with a social conscience.

    Kerry Stokes is a remarkable Australian. Not because he is one of this country's wealthiest and most powerful people but because of what he overcame to get there and because he has endured when others didn't. He is the last mogul. His rise has intrigued the business world for decades but there is so much more to him than takeover targets and balance sheets. Behind the laconic front is a human story as tough and touching as a Dickens tale: Oliver Twist with great self-expectations. It is the story of a poor boy who stared down poverty, ignorance and the stigma of his birth to achieve great wealth and fulfilment. A compelling story that, until now, he has not told. Now he oversees a multi-billion dollar media, machinery and property empire. He is renowned for his art collection and for philanthropy, spending millions of dollars to buy Victoria Crosses from soldiers' families to donate to the Australian War Memorial. But he's a private man. A man apart. He made his name in the West but kept his distance from the buccaneering band of entrepreneurs who forged fabulous fortunes in Perth from the 1960s until the 1987 crash. Bond went to jail, Holmes a Court died; Connell did both. Lesser lights flickered and faded but Stokes grew stronger, becoming a player alongside Murdoch, Packer and Lowy. His story fascinates all the more because he has spent most of his life guarding it. But now he's telling it, to one of Australia's great storytellers. This book will tell his story, scars and all.

    Giving particular emphasis on the band's enigmatic leader, Eddie Vedder, the book brings to life a tumultuous career, chronicling Pearl Jam through success, scandal, band tensions, personnel changes, and substance abuse. This revised and updated edition features many intriguing — and hitherto untold — facts and anecdotes, in addition to a comprehensive discography.

    As with his music, Steve has written a highly detailed, entertaining and embracing tome that charts his life in full, but with a firm emphasis on his years with Genesis that saw the band’s meteoric rise to become one of the most successful British bands of all time.Steve talks candidly about his early life, his time with Genesis, and his personal relationships with the other four band members, with great insight into the daily goings on of this major rock band.Naturally A Genesis In My Bed also regales stories of Steve’s career since leaving Genesis and the many different journeys that it has taken him on. With his flair for the creative, and a great deal of levity, A Genesis In My Bed is a riveting read. Indispensable for Genesis fans but also essential for general music lovers and avid readers of autobiographies full of heartfelt and emotive tales.

    Through it all, the former Torquay United player-coach never fails to illuminate his words with sharp comparisons and ironic contrasts that are part and parcel of the game in this country.Following on from his first book, the bestselling Left Foot Forward, Garry Nelson has established himself as an excellent writer and a shrewd and thoughtful analyser of football.

    For some, blogging is a pastime, a hobby, something to fulfil a creative need. But some take blogging one step further. Many individuals, with no special training, are using their blog/s as a part-time or even a full-time job. You may already have a blog that could do with a few more visitors. Or maybe you’re thinking of setting up a blog but are not sure where to start. The question most people ask me is ‘How do I get visitors to my blog?’ It’s like setting up a shop on the High Street and facing the challenge of getting people in the door. The good news is – I have answers that will see your visitor count lift substantially. All you need is a computer, an internet connection and a brain (your own preferably). Here’s what you don’t need: money. This book answers your blogging questions in a practical and straightforward way. How My Blog Got 1 Million Visits In 7 Months has been designed to show you how to drive people to your blog – and how to keep them coming back, time after time. It’s designed for bloggers and for those who have websites that could do with more traffic. I’m a multi-award winning blogger and publisher and have been for over eight years. When I first started blogging, I got very excited to see that one person kept visiting my site. That was until I realised that the analytics was, in fact, counting me as a visitor. I’ve learned a lot since. My latest blog broke through the 1,000,000 visit mark after just 7 months. As a result, my blog is now a profitable business. I haven’t spent a penny on advertising and I spend about 30 minutes a day blogging at most. I’ve picked up a large-scale book deal as a direct result of my blog. In this book, I’ll show you the basics of setting up your blog; how to write content that people will just want to click on and share with their friends; how to create viral posts that will see your visitor statistics balloon; how to write content for your website that will sell your services or products; how to optimise your posts for search engines and how to make money from your blog. My promise to you is this - if you use the tips and tricks that I am about to show you, your site will get more traffic and you can start making money from it. These are proven techniques that you can start implementing on your blog straight away. Run the kind of blog that other bloggers envy. Be the kind of blogger that people marvel at. It’ll make you feel pretty good, I guarantee it. Find out how right now. *** “Patric Morgan's How My Blog Got 1 Million Visitors in 7 Months makes me sick! I've got 15,000+ people on my combined social media and I've never gotten even close to a million visits on my site. Screw you, Patric! However – I have read through his book and have found some cool tricks to steal and apply. Shh...don't tell him.” Vicki Abelson, Author of ‘Don't Jump’, published October '15 from Carl Reiner's Random Content. “What an absolutely incredible 'How to Guide'. This book will give you the tools you need to increase your web traffic and create a viral sensation from your blog or website. Follow the common sense approach within these pages and maybe you'll be writing your own success story very soon. A must read for any avid blogger trying to step up into the big leagues. Buy it now!” Nigel Shinner, Author of the critically acclaimed novel ‘From Within’ “It’s good to read something that actually delivers on the title of the book.

    He was the embodiment of the Enlightment man, the perfect synthesis of classicist, scientist, and visionary. How can we hope to understand such a towering figure? The Sage of Monticello, deified in American politics, speaks across the ages like a patriotic Moses, or Buddha, or Christ.Or so his disciples would have us believe.The real Thomas Jefferson was an ordinary man, with all the usual failings. Molded by the culture of the Virginia planter class, he fought against tyranny while oppressing his own slaves. He institutionalized racist attitudes, bickered with his rivals, lusted after other men's wives, and kept his own mixed-race children in bondage.Yet his accomplishments are too spectacular to be denied. The Declaration of Independence, the Louisiana Purchase, he even abolished taxes (for awhile). As a Founding Father, his contributions eclipsed all the rest. Without Jefferson, the American experiment might have ended before it began. So how can we make sense of his personal failings in the context of his great works?Thomas Jefferson: The Failures and Greatness of an Ordinary Man looks at Jefferson from the ground up, finding handholds in his love of Greek literature and fine wine, his affection for friends and family, and the compromises he deemed necessary for the survival of the nation. By exploring his relationships, the reader is invited into Jefferson's sanctum sanctorum, to stare unblinking at his complexity and follow truth where it leads.

    Many people have told his story incorrectly, and many rumors have surfaced about his life. After years of research we can present this telling of his life story, setting the record straight and giving you a warm, funny and even tragic insight in to the man behind Albert Steptoe.

    Peter Freestone and David Evans tie up many loose ends and recall Freddie's last days in 1991 and recount details of the events which followed Queen's lead singer's death involving the people and places Freddie loved and favoured.