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The Light’s On At Signpost
George MacDonald Fraser - 2002
Now he shares his recollections of those encounters, providing a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes.Far from starry-eyed where Tony Blair Co are concerned, he looks back also to the Britain of his youth and castigates those responsible for its decline to "a Third World country … misruled by a typical Third World government, corrupt, incompetent and undemocratic".Controversial, witty and revealing – or "curmudgeonly", "reactionary", "undiluted spleen", according to the critics – The Light's on at Signpost has struck a chord with a great section of the public. Perhaps, as one reader suggests, it should be "hidden beneath the floorboards, before the Politically-Correct Thought Police come hammering at the door, demanding to confiscate any copies".
The Devil's Mariner: A Life of William Dampier, Pirate and Explorer, 1651-1715
Anton Gill - 1997
A self-taught geographer, hydrographer and navigator, Dampier was also a keen natural historian who showed his contemporaries then-unknown regions of the world, and vividly described the exotic creatures and plants that inhabited them without exaggeration. Impressing the Admiralty with his book, A New Voyage round the World, Dampier was given command of the infamous Roebuck expedition and became the first Englishman to explore parts of Australia. But Dampier's past reared its head when he employed acquaintances from his buccaneering days, and numerous problems beset him along the way; upon his eventual return Dampier was court-martialled for cruelty. Though he lived and worked like a buccaneer Dampier filled in blank spaces on the map, and in pioneering the seaways he opened up the oceans for exploration, thus laying the foundations for the British Empire. Although lauded in his day and going on to influence many in both literary and scientific spheres, Dampier died in obscurity and his name, associated with piracy, disappeared for many years. Comprehensive and compellingly told, Anton Gill's biography charts the life and endeavours of William Dampier, his successes and his failings, and reinstates him into the pantheon of great explorers. Anton Gill has been a freelance writer since 1984, specialising in European contemporary history but latterly branching out into historical fiction. He is the winner of the H H Wingate Award for non-fiction for 'The Journey Back From Hell'. He is also the author of 'Into Darkness', 'Dance Between the Flames' and 'An Honourable Defeat'. 'The Devil's Mariner' was his first biography.
The Outport People
Claire Mowat - 1983
There were no roads, no cars and no telephones. The tiny village that nestled among the rocky hills of Newfoundland's desolate southern coast had existed for generations with ancient customs and patterns of speech that still endured-while the modern world waited impatiently in the wings. Drawing on a wealth of first-hand experience-the Mowats lived in the outport community for five years-Claire Mowat has written a fictional memoir that beautifully recreates an almost vanished world. A world where life revolved tightly around the home and neighbours watched over one another. A world where one's kitchen was open to anyone who might drop in, day or night. A world that Claire Mowat grew to love.
Lee Brilleaux: Rock'n'Roll Gentleman
Zoë Howe - 2015
But he was also one of its greatest gentlemen - a class act with heart, fire, wanderlust and a wild streak. Exploding out of Canvey Island in the early 1970s - an age of glam rock, post-hippy folk and pop androgyny - the Feelgoods, with Lee Brilleaux and Wilko Johnson at the helm, charged into London, grabbed the pub rock scene by the throat and sparked a revolutionary new era, proving that you didn't have to be middle class, wearing the 'right clothes' or living in the 'right place' to succeed. Lee Brilleaux: Rock'n'Roll Gentleman, while a totally different work, is a companion of sorts to the hugely popular Wilko Johnson book: Looking Back At Me (also co-authored by Howe). It is the first comprehensive appreciation of Lee Brilleaux and, with its numerous exclusive interviews and previously unseen images, is a book no Dr Feelgood fan would wish to be without.
Tata
Morgen Witzel - 2010
1 Lakh/ below US$ 2500 car), is set to change our perception of India': on the threshold of becoming a truly global brand.*s oldest and most respected corporate brand. With a major international presence, in a variety of areas including steel, tea, chemicals, communications and software, Tata now stands 65th in the world brand valuation league. But what is the Tata brand all about? What are its values? How do people perceive it, in India and around the world? In this absorbing and informed book Morgen Witzel digs into the heart of the Tata enterprise, describes its origins, how Tata's reputation and image evolved, and how the group has worked to transform that image into a powerful and valuable brand. Tata: The Evolution of a Corporate Brand goes to the core of the Tata ethos to explore the unique relationship between the Tata group and the Indian people, a relationship that goes beyond the achievements of a successful business to its social contributions for its employees and the society at large. Finally it asks how that reputation will be perceived and understood as Tata moves into global markets. Whether you re an entrepreneur, a manager, a marketer, or an interested Tata loyalist this book will help you understand the durability of the brand and inspire you with the values it holds onto in the global economy.
The Life Of Python
George Perry - 1983
It was on this fateful day that "Monty Python's Flying Circus" debuted. From the Dead Parrot skit to the Lumberjack Song, The Attila the Hun Show to the Cheese Shop routine, the Pythons set a standard for irreverent, obnoxious, nonsensical comedy never before seen.
Where the Devil Don't Stay: Traveling the South with the Drive-By Truckers
Stephen Deusner - 2021
The Drive-By Truckers, as they named themselves, grew into one of the best and most consequential rock bands of the twenty-first century, a great live act whose songs deliver the truth and nuance rarely bestowed on Southerners, so often reduced to stereotypes.Where the Devil Don’t Stay tells the band’s unlikely story not chronologically but geographically. Seeing the Truckers’ albums as roadmaps through a landscape that is half-real, half-imagined, their fellow Southerner Stephen Deusner travels to the places the band’s members have lived in and written about. Tracking the band from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia, to the author’s hometown in McNairy County, Tennessee, Deusner explores the Truckers’ complex relationship to the South and the issues of class, race, history, and religion that run through their music. Drawing on new interviews with past and present band members, including Jason Isbell, Where the Devil Don’t Stay is more than the story of a great American band; it’s a reflection on the power of music and how it can frame and shape a larger culture.
The President Is Dead!: The Extraordinary Stories of the Presidential Deaths, Final Days, Burials, and Beyond
Louis L. Picone - 2016
You may have heard of a plot to rob Abraham Lincoln’s body from its grave site, but did you know that there was also attempts to steal Benjamin Harrison's and Andrew Jackson’s remains? The book also includes “Critical Death Information,” which prefaces each chapter, and a complete visitor’s guide to each grave site and death-related historical landmark. An “Almost Presidents” section includes chapters on John Hanson (first president under the Articles of Confederation), Sam Houston (former president of the Republic of Texas), David Rice Atchison (president for a day), and Jefferson Davis. Exhaustively researched, The President Is Dead! is richly layered with colorful facts and entertaining stories about how the presidents have passed. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
The Forgotten Soldier
Charlie Connelly - 2014
They died only a few miles apart and yet there cannot be a bigger contrast between their legacies. Edward had been born into poverty in west London on the eve of the twentieth century, had a job washing railway carriages, was conscripted into the army at the age of eighteen and sent to the Western Front from where he would never return.He lies buried miles from home in a small military cemetery on the outskirts of an obscure town close to the French border in western Belgium. No-one has ever visited him.Like thousands of other young boys, Edward’s life and death were forgotten.By delving into and uncovering letters, poems and war diaries to reconstruct his great uncle’s brief life and needless death; Charlie fills in the blanks of Edward’s life with the experiences of similar young men giving a voice to the voiceless. Edward Connelly’s tragic story comes to represent all the young men who went off to the Great War and never came home.This is a book about the unsung heroes, the ordinary men who did their duty with utmost courage, and who deserve to be remembered.
Poet Be Like God
Lewis Ellingham - 1998
He died in 1965 virtually unrecognized, yet in the following years his work and thought have attracted and intrigued an international audience. Now this comprehensive biography gives a pivotal poet his due. Based on interviews with scores of Spicer's contemporaries, Poet Be Like God details the most intimate aspects of Spicer's life-his family, his friends, his lovers-illuminating not only the man but also many of his poems. Such illumination extends also to the works of others whom Spicer came to know, including the writers Frank O'Hara, Robert Duncan, Denise Levertov, Helen Adam, Robin Blaser, Charles Olson, Philip K. Dick, Richard Brautigan, and Marianne Moore and the painters Jess, Fran Herndon, and Jay DeFeo. The resulting narrative, an engaging chronicle of the San Francisco Renaissance and the emergence of the North Beach gay scene during the 50s and 60s, will be indispensable reading for students of American literature and gay studies.
She's a Rainbow: The Extraordinary Life of Anita Pallenberg: The Black Queen
Simon Wells - 2020
She almost single-handedly engineered a cultural revolution in London by bringing together the Stones and the jeunesse dorée…The Stones came away with a patina of aristocratic decadence that served as a perfect counterfoil to the raw roots blues of their music. This…transformed the Stones from pop stars into cultural icons." —Marianne Faithfull. Pallenberg epitomised the hedonistic counter-culture world of sex, drugs and rock ‘n' roll during the sixties and seventies; muse to the Rolling Stones and star of enduring cult movies like Barbarella and Performance, this is Anita's incredible story of excess, art, motherhood and her often unknown influence on one of the greatest rock bands of all time.
Goners: The Final Hours of the Notable and Notorious
Gordon Kerr - 2009
In smart prose with a light touch, Goners reveals the last days, hours, and moments of 50 notable and notorious figures in history such as Alexander the Great, John Belushi, Billy the Kid, Joan Crawford, Princess Diana, Charles Dickens, Cary Grant, Ernesto Che Guevara, Harry Houdini, Bruce Lee, Marie Antoinette, Pablo Picasso, Tupac Shakur, and Andy Warhol. You’d have to read 50 biographies to get all the in-depth information that author Gordon Kerr has compiled under one cover. Read straight through or just dipped into, Goners is a compelling and curious ride.
Jamestown
Marshall William Fishwick - 2017
They would establish a British colony, find gold, and discover a water route to Asia. But what awaited them was far different - fire, hunger, sickness, death, even cannibalism. Here, from the noted historian Marshall W. Fishwick, is the dramatic story of Jamestown and the struggle of its leader, Captain John Smith, who, with the help of Pocahontas, daughter of the Algonquian chief Powhatan, succeeded against all odds.
Clint Eastwood - The Biography of Cinema's Greatest Ever Star
Douglas Thompson - 2005
For over forty years he has dominated Hollywood and his success both in front of and behind the camera has assured his place in cinema history alongside such superstars as Marlon Brando, John Wayne and Robert De Niro..."Clint" reveals the man behind the myth.
Bestselling author Douglas Thompson draws on exclusive interviews with the star, to provide the definitive portrait of Clint Eastwood. From his early days as a jobbing actor on $75 a week to his directorial triumph with "Million Dollar Baby", "Clint" reveals the personal highlights of one of the most celebrated careers in cinema history.