No other Hollywood star has been so closely linked with cars and bikes. It is this connection that McQueens Machines explores, giving readers a close-up look at the cars and motorcycles McQueen drove in movies, those he owned, and others he raced.From the 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback he drove in Bullitt (in the greatest car chase of all time) to his Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in "The Thomas Crown Affair", from the Triumph motorcycle of "The Great Escape" to the Gulf-Porsche 917K he actually raced in "Le Mans", the cars and bikes that McQueen made famous in films make another appearance here.The book also features the cars, motorcycles, and even airplanes that McQueen owned over the years, including two motorcycles that fetched record prices at a recent auction: a 1937 Crocker "Hemi-head" V-Twin and a 1920 Indian Powerplus Daytona. Among notable cars profiled in the book are a 1959 Porsche Speedster bought new by McQueen, a 1957 Jaguar XKSS, a 1963 Ferrari 250 Lusso, a 1953 Siata 208S, a 1965 Ferrari 275 NART Spyder, and a 1969 "Le Mans" Porsche 911S.With a foreword by Steve's son, Chad McQueen, and a wealth of details about the stars amateur racing career, his movie stunt work, and his car and motorcycle collecting, McQueens Machines draws a fascinating picture of one outsized mans driving passion. See Motorbooks author Matt Stone interviewed by Jay Leno on JayLenosGarage.com: http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/j...

    Little did she know that this was the beginning of an extraordinary friendship that would last for seventeen years. In "The Diana I Knew," Mary portrays a gentle, unassuming teenager who blossomed into an assured, world-class beauty. She describes a private side to a woman few people knew intimately. This is an American woman's personal account of her unexpected and touching friendship with Diana. Mary's unique memories of this remarkable woman include Diana's nonchalant reaction to Mary's discovery of her nanny's aristocratic background and the day-to-day building of a trusting, affectionate relationship, which developed into a true friendship. As Diana's life dramatically changed when the royal courtship began, she turned to Mary for guidance. Even after the Robertsons returned to the United States just before the engagement, Diana wrote frequently, wishing to continue the friendship. From receiving the gilt-edged invitation to the Royal Wedding to being charmed by Prince Charles at the glamorous pre-nuptial ball at Buckingham Palace, Mary captures the magic of the wedding of the century. Despite the unimaginable demands of her life and the unraveling of the fairy tale, Diana made time to see Mary and her family. From the Robertsons' private meeting with the Prince and Princess in Washington to an intimate family luncheon at her home in Kensington Palace, Diana's generosity of spirit and appreciation of simpler times always shone through.

    Originally published in 1960, Zolotow's book was the first to take Marilyn seriously as an actress at a time when she was thought to be just an eccentric, gorgeous blonde. 16 pages of photographs.

    There was Rosemary Leveson Gower, the girl he wanted to marry and who would have made the perfect match for a future king; the Prince’s long-term mistress, Freda Dudley Ward, who exerted a pull almost equal to Wallis over her lover, but abided by the rules of the game and knew she would never marry him. Then there was Thelma Furness, his twice-married American lover, who enjoyed a domestic life with him, but realised it could not last forever and demanded nothing more than to be his mistress.In each love affair, Edward behaved like a cross between a little boy lost and a spoilt child. Each one of the three women in this book could have changed the course of history. In examining their lives and impact on the heir to the throne, we question whether he ever really wanted to be king.

    Tolkien and C. S. Lewis C.S. Lewis is the twentieth century’s most widely read Christian writer and J.R.R. Tolkien its most beloved mythmaker. For three decades, they and their closest associates formed a literary club known as the Inklings, which met weekly in Lewis’s Oxford rooms and in nearby pubs. They discussed literature, religion, and ideas; read aloud from works in progress; took philosophical rambles in woods and fields; gave one another companionship and criticism; and, in the process, rewrote the cultural history of modern times.In The Fellowship, Philip and Carol Zaleski offer the first complete rendering of the Inklings’ lives and works. C. S. Lewis accepts Jesus Christ while riding in the sidecar of his brother's motorcycle, maps the medieval and Renaissance mind, becomes a world-famous evangelist and moral satirist, and creates new forms of religiously attuned fiction while wrestling with personal crises. J.R.R. Tolkien transmutes an invented mythology into gripping story in The Lord of the Rings, while conducting groundbreaking Old English scholarship and elucidating, for family and friends, the Catholic teachings at the heart of his vision. Owen Barfield, a philosopher for whom language is the key to all mysteries, becomes Lewis's favorite sparring partner, and, for a time, Saul Bellow's chosen guru. And Charles Williams, poet, author of "supernatural shockers," and strange acolyte of romantic love, turns his everyday life into a mystical pageant.Romantics who scorned rebellion, fantasists who prized reality, wartime writers who believed in hope, Christians with cosmic reach, the Inklings sought to revitalize literature and faith in the twentieth century's darkest years--and did so in dazzling style.

    To her, it was clear from the very beginning that these two people, each possessing singularly admirable qualities and capable of great affection, found it impossible to live together harmoniously.Now, defying a centuries old obligation on royal servants not to discuss the affairs and behaviour of the royal family, Wendy Barry has revealed this day by day detailed account of the mounting troubles inside Highgrove. She chronicles the growing emotional turmoil of a disintegrating relationship as witnessed by herself and other staff, and how both Prince and Princess sought comfort outside their marriage while trying to maintain the fairy tale public image.The turmoil at Highgrove often involved the butlers, cooks, dressers and valets as much as it did the Prince and Princess of Wales. They were the witnesses to the royal couple's sometimes illicit visitors, to the physical and psychological effects of Diana's struggle with bulimia, and Charles's secret night excursions and obsessive interest in his house and garden. Often the staff were caught in the crossfire of these two people who were tearing each other apart emotionally.Despite all of these problems, however, the Highgrove staff maintained an affectionate respect for both the Prince and the Princess. Contrary to news reports portraying Charles as an uncaring father, the staff viewed him as having loving relationship with his two sons, and there were good times and laughter with Diana.After the uproar caused by Diana's allowing her friends intimate details of her marriage in a book and the subsequent controversy over Prince Charles's biography, Wendy Berry has decided to set the record straight with 'The Housekeeper's Diary'.The first book by a Highgrove insider, it is a fascinating first hand account without partisanship for Charles or Diana of what life is really like living in close contact with two of the most famous people in the world.

    She is the mermaid of whom poet Robert Lowell writes in The Dolphin (and he was clutching her portrait when he died). She was Lady Caroline Blackwood, legendarily witty and alluring but also a legendary drunk. Raised an heiress to the Guinness fortune, Blackwood (1931-1996) moved easily among the aristocracy, the bohemians of postwar England and the liberal intelligentsia of 1960s New York. She has been called a muse to genius-though her marriages to Lucian Freud, the composer Israel Citkowitz, and Robert Lowell were as troubled as they were inspiring-and she was an author herself, short-listed for the Booker Prize in 1977. In this first biography of Blackwood, Nancy Schoenberger deftly paints a complex woman who was captivating to her dying day.