Book picks similar to
Five Pennies: A Prairie Boy's Story by Irene Morck
non-fiction
historical-fiction
indie-press
biographical
Cascade Summer: My Adventure on Oregon's Pacific Crest Trail
Bob Welch - 2012
To reconnect with his past. And to better understand the 19th-century Cascade Range advocate John Waldo, the state's answer to California's naturalist John Muir. Despite great expectations, near trails end Welch finds himself facing an unlikely challenge. Laughs. Blisters. And new friends from literally around the world-his PCT adventure offered it all. But he never foresaw the bittersweet ending.
Henri Matisse: A Second Life
Alastair Sooke - 2014
In a body of work spanning over a half-century, he was variously a draughtsman, a printmaker, a sculptor and a painter. This short book is both a biography and a guide to his art. It focuses on the extraordinary works that Henri Matisse made during the last period of his life - the large-scale cut-outs on coloured paper, including his famous Blue Nudes, The Snail and Large Composition with Masks.
Something for the Weekend: Life in the Chemsex Underworld
James Wharton - 2018
In his search for new friends and potential lovers, he becomes sucked into London’s gay drug culture, soon becoming addicted to partying and the phenomenon that is ‘chemsex’. Exploring his own journey through this dark but popular world, James looks at the motivating factors that led him to the culture, as well as examining the paths taken by others. He reveals the real goings-on at the weekends for thousands of people after most have gone to bed, and how modern technology allows them to arrange, congregate, furnish themselves with drugs and spend hours, often days, behind closed curtains, with strangers and in states of heightened sexual desire.Something for the Weekend looks compassionately at a growing culture that’s now moved beyond London and established itself as more than a short-term craze.
We Are the Damned United: The Real Story of Brian Clough at Leeds United
Phil Rostron - 2009
While The Damned United was a fictional account of Clough’s short-lived but controversial reign at the club, this book reveals the true story, as told by the players he managed at the time. Vividly recreating the atmosphere of the era, the book features candid contributions from legendary names such as Peter Lorimer, Eddie Gray, and Norman Hunter. They reveal what it was like to make the transition from the relatively smooth management style of former manager Don Revie, who helped the club achieve success in Europe, to a constant crossing of swords with the outspoken Brian Clough, who left the club flailing at the foot of the league upon his premature departure. This explosive account covers all the drama that ensued from the moment Clough was earmarked by the club directors as the favorite to succeed Revie to his exit less than two months later, saddled with the knowledge that he had been the club’s most unsuccessful manager ever. Told from the perspective of those who experienced Clough’s dictatorial managerial methods at Leeds at first hand, We are the Damned United tells it how it really was rather than how it might have been.
No Holding Back
Amanda Holden - 2013
A British star and nationally treasured actress, she has appeared on our screens and stages for over 20 years. In the notoriously tricky world of show business, Amanda has carved out her own identity and enjoyed impressive longevity, not least as the longest running judge on hit ITV show Britain's Got Talent. She never fails to keep her audience engaged and entertained.Charming, funny and incredibly honest, her story is remarkable. For the first time, No Holding Back tells it in her own words, in her own way, and shows her fans the real woman behind the headlines.
Hell's Angels
Yves Lavigne - 1988
This book traces the growth of the Hell's Angels organization from the early, rowdy "club" to the insidious, far-reaching superstructure that now exists. Today's Angels still value the grinning death's head, but they keep it for funerals, runs, initiations, and laying heavies. Angels, like the undercover policemen who tail them, prefer street clothes to blend with their surroudings. In a world of drugs, prostitution and pornography, the shadow the Angels' wings falls on all of us. Hell's Angels: Taking care of Business is a fascinating and startling read.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Frank R. Dagostino - 1982
eYE Marty: The Newly Discovered Autobiography of a Comic Genius
Marty Feldman - 2012
Marty was a professional writer, and considered himself a writer first, and an actor second. Feldman created a number of immensely successful and influential shows such as Marty, The Frost Report and sketches for Monty Python. He was one of the most essential creative forces in British comedy embodied also by his close friends and creative partners from Beyond the Fringe (especially Peter Cook and Dudley Moore) and Monty Python (especially John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle).Marty played the fool, often very happily and with tremendous talent and volcanic, anarchic energy, for his entire life. His face is what many people most immediately remember. It was a face that David Frost, one of his bosses, characterised as 'too grotesque' for television - see what Feldman has to say about Frost, and Francis Bacon, and John Lennon...Marty Feldman finished, and set aside eYE Marty soon before travelling to Mexico to shoot his final film. He did not know that he would die there, although he certainly felt he might die soon, and was haunted by the notion. The book is exactly as Feldman wrote it: Mark Flanagan had it transcribed, with even the photos inserted where Feldman had noted they should go. Hilarious, deeply charming, aphoristic, ironic, charged throughout with lust for life and filled with scenes of great vanished eras and and portraits of other performers and friends, eYE Marty is the amazing discovery of the story of a man who was at the heart of the British comedy revolution.
Bringing Down The Krays: Finally the truth about Ronnie and Reggie by the man who took them down
Bobby Teale - 2012
They had the East End buttoned up too tight and someone had to undo it. Slowly, I realised that someone had to be me...'
Bobby Teale and his brothers, David and Alfie, were the three men the Kray twins trusted most. They weren't in the Firm, they were closer than that. They were old family friends, confidants, companions...
But then things changed. Witnessing Ronnie and Reggie become increasingly psychotic - taking murder, torture and rape to sickening new levels - Bobby knew he had to take action. Unknown to his brothers, he became a police informer; risking not just his own life but those of the people dearest to him too.
Using the codename 'Phillips', he was forced to live on his wits, feeding back information to Scotland Yard. With bent cops on their side the Krays knew they had a grass in their midst, but before they could flush him out, Bobby's evidence saw the London gangsters get locked up for life.
Bobby fled the country, but now 40 years on he's back. And he wants to set the record straight. With the help of his brothers, the man brave enough to stand up to the Krays has rewritten history as we know it; dispelling the myths and tearing apart the gangsters' glamorous veneer to reveal the true, sadistic nature of Ronnie and Reggie.
Crammed full of explosive, new revelations, Bringing Down The Krays is the last great untold story of Britain's most infamous crime family.
IVAR THE BONELESS: Myths Legends & History (Vikings Book 1)
KIV Books - 2018
The records that talk about him are quite conflicting as they often are with mythical and historical figures. This book will do it's best and take a closer look to his origins, family and his notable exploits. We will also catch a glimpse into the possibilities of his demeanor and behavior without moving away from the fact that he is one of the most ruthless men to ever invade England in the 9th century. It is our hope that you'll enjoy this book and learn many new and exciting things about Ivar the Boneless!
Albert, Prince Consort
Hector Bolitho - 2014
Indeed, it is difficult to guess which of the two would be more averse to the other’s speeches. It may also occur to the reader that, whereas Prince Philip has acted as a modernising and almost dashing influence on the Queen, Albert appears to have been a staid and restraining one on Victoria. For it must be remembered that Queen Elizabeth had been Heiress Apparent for far longer than Victoria, who was, when she married, a gay young girl by the standards of her age. Although it is fairly certain that Albert and Prince Philip would have disliked each other on sight, they have both been guided by the highest sense of duty. It is this sense of duty, in spite of considerable hostility and dislike of the ‘foreign ways’, that make Albert’s life of such interest. If he had accomplished nothing else, his influence on the dealings with the Union States of America, just before his death, would ensure him an important place in British History. In ‘Albert, Prince Consort’, Hector Bolitho explores the life and personality of Prince Albert, from his birth in Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, his marriage and restraining influence on Queen Victoria and his early death from typhoid. Hector Bolitho is deservedly renowned for his Royal Biographies. ‘Flowing and lively biography’ - Cobden Sanderson (Henry) Hector Bolitho (28 May 1897 – 12 September 1974) was a prolific author, novelist and biographer. In total, he had 59 books published. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
The Nemesis File: The True Story of an SAS Execution Squad
Paul Bruce - 1995
During a police investigation (concluded in 1996), however, the author admitted that his claims were untrue. The investigation proved that the book was fraudulent, that the purported SAS "execution squads" did not exist, and that the book is not a memoir but a "work of fiction."'Paul Bruce' was the pseudonym of Paul Inman, a former mechanic in the British Army's Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, and he was never a member of the SAS (Special Air Service). 'The Nemesis File: The True Story of an SAS Execution Squad,' therefore, is a work of sensational fiction which only served to exacerbate the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland through which Inman and the publisher (John Blake, a former tabloid editor) could financially profit.
The Real Midnight In Paris: A History of the Expatriate
Paul Brody - 2012
Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and so many more collectively made up this artistic period in time. In this book, you will learn how and why the movement started, what it was like to be a writer in Paris, and what led to its fall.A list of essential reading from the period is also included in the book.
First Girl in the West
Eliza Spalding Warren - 2013
Her story is unparalleled—and offers fascinating insights into the earliest days of the emigrants. Eliza’s parents launched the Oregon Trail era with the original covered wagon trek in 1836. Settling in the region that is now the junction of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, Eliza grew up among native peoples. She learned their language and understood their culture better than any pioneer girl of the era. Eliza was at the Whitman Mission on the day of the fateful attacks that so profoundly changed the course of western history. Her telling of that story is uniquely valuable—even though she was just 10 years old—because she was the only survivor who spoke the language of the attackers. This first-person account is an eye-opening look at life in the early West.Eliza’s story is as fresh and readable today as the day it was written—a rare example of a historic document that can still engage modern readers, even children. This enhanced edition adds dozens of photos, maps, graphics, and notes to the original manuscript. The bonus material provides a layer of context that gives readers deeper insight into her compelling story.
Olive Oatman: Explore The Mysterious Story of Captivity and Tragedy from Beginning to End
Brent Schulte - 2019
She is the girl with the blue tattoo.The story behind the distinctive tattoo is the stuff of legends. Some believed it was placed on her face during her captivity, following the brutal murders of her family members and the kidnapping of her and her sister. Others believe it was placed on her after her return.Rumors swelled. Her tattoo became a symbol of Native barbarianism and the triumph of American goodness, but like many stories of that era, the truth is far more complicated.This short book details the murders, her captivity, the aftermath, and her baffling return to her captors. Unravel the mystery of the woman who would become famous for all the wrong reasons and discover what her life story says about cultural identity, the power of resiliency, and what happens when fact and fiction bend and twist to muddy the waters.Read on to find out the truth!