Life Without Armour

Life Without Armour PDF Author: Alan Sillitoe
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504035011
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
A candid and surprising memoir of the early life of one of England’s most acclaimed and enduring post-WWII writers. Born in 1928 into a poverty-stricken family in working-class Nottingham, bestselling British novelist Alan Sillitoe’s childhood was marked by his father’s unpredictable and violent rage, as well as a near-certain condemnation to a life of labor on an assembly line. His family relocated frequently to avoid rent collectors, trading in one bug-infested hovel for another. Though intelligent and curious, the young author-to-be failed his grammar school entrance exams, and it seemed he was destined for work in a factory. The onset of Sillitoe’s teenage years, however, coincided with the advance of Hitler into Russia, and the war offered a chance for the boy to seek out a different fate. At the age of fourteen, Sillitoe used a fake ID to enroll in the Air Training Corps and went on to join the Ministry of Aircraft Production as an air traffic control assistant. He dreamed of becoming a pilot, but the war ended just after he qualified for training and he was instead shipped off to the Malayan jungle during the Communist insurgency as a radio operator for the Royal Air Force (RAF). After two years of living from one wireless watch to the next—taking in bearings and atmospherics though the radio, and exploring dangerous and primal landscapes by foot—Sillitoe finally returned to a prospectless postwar England and was diagnosed with tuberculosis. But this curse soon became a blessing: In the RAF hospital, Sillitoe began to read—everything from Kant to Descartes to Bernard Shaw—and he decided to become a writer. Already a veteran on an RAF disability pension at the age of twenty-one, Sillitoe began writing full-time, neither his physical challenges nor his numerous rejections from publishers deterring him in the least. He joined the Nottingham Writers’ Club, and his short stories began to achieve some minor local success. Soon after, a chance meeting with the American poet Ruth Fainlight led to full-blown love, and the two set off for France eager to live in a bucolic setting where they could dedicate all of their time to writing. Circumstance and favorable exchange rates then led the couple to Spain where Sillitoe continued his literary pursuits, met many artists and writers, had run-ins with gypsies, and even underwent police interrogations. Four unpublished novels later—and after nearly a decade of honing his craft—Sillitoe finally found staggering success in his working-class novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and his collection of short stories The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. Written with Sillitoe’s signature simplicity, this in-depth autobiography not only gives insight into the formative years and mental maturation of one of Britain’s most influential writers, but also tells a great story of an underprivileged man who, with perseverance, made the most of his particular fate.

Life Without Armour

Life Without Armour PDF Author: Alan Sillitoe
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504035011
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 243

Get Book Here

Book Description
A candid and surprising memoir of the early life of one of England’s most acclaimed and enduring post-WWII writers. Born in 1928 into a poverty-stricken family in working-class Nottingham, bestselling British novelist Alan Sillitoe’s childhood was marked by his father’s unpredictable and violent rage, as well as a near-certain condemnation to a life of labor on an assembly line. His family relocated frequently to avoid rent collectors, trading in one bug-infested hovel for another. Though intelligent and curious, the young author-to-be failed his grammar school entrance exams, and it seemed he was destined for work in a factory. The onset of Sillitoe’s teenage years, however, coincided with the advance of Hitler into Russia, and the war offered a chance for the boy to seek out a different fate. At the age of fourteen, Sillitoe used a fake ID to enroll in the Air Training Corps and went on to join the Ministry of Aircraft Production as an air traffic control assistant. He dreamed of becoming a pilot, but the war ended just after he qualified for training and he was instead shipped off to the Malayan jungle during the Communist insurgency as a radio operator for the Royal Air Force (RAF). After two years of living from one wireless watch to the next—taking in bearings and atmospherics though the radio, and exploring dangerous and primal landscapes by foot—Sillitoe finally returned to a prospectless postwar England and was diagnosed with tuberculosis. But this curse soon became a blessing: In the RAF hospital, Sillitoe began to read—everything from Kant to Descartes to Bernard Shaw—and he decided to become a writer. Already a veteran on an RAF disability pension at the age of twenty-one, Sillitoe began writing full-time, neither his physical challenges nor his numerous rejections from publishers deterring him in the least. He joined the Nottingham Writers’ Club, and his short stories began to achieve some minor local success. Soon after, a chance meeting with the American poet Ruth Fainlight led to full-blown love, and the two set off for France eager to live in a bucolic setting where they could dedicate all of their time to writing. Circumstance and favorable exchange rates then led the couple to Spain where Sillitoe continued his literary pursuits, met many artists and writers, had run-ins with gypsies, and even underwent police interrogations. Four unpublished novels later—and after nearly a decade of honing his craft—Sillitoe finally found staggering success in his working-class novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and his collection of short stories The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. Written with Sillitoe’s signature simplicity, this in-depth autobiography not only gives insight into the formative years and mental maturation of one of Britain’s most influential writers, but also tells a great story of an underprivileged man who, with perseverance, made the most of his particular fate.

Life Without Armour

Life Without Armour PDF Author: Alan Sillitoe
Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag
ISBN: 9781861056528
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Out of print for many years, and republished in this new edition, this is the autobiography of the formative years of one of our finest writers. Alan Sillitoe has been critically acclaimed for his many novels and short stories, including the bestsellers 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' and 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner'. Sillitoe's early years of council-house penury in Nottingham, followed by evacuation, life in the army, tuberculosis, his rebirth as a polemical angry young man, and the publication of his first books are told with emotion and dexterity. The strong sense of place, whether the Malayan jungle or seedy post-war England, is vivid and enduring, and the story of his life is told in a masterful and poignant yet unsentimental prose. Sillitoe was described by the 'Observer' as a 'master storyteller', and this is the evocative and memorable telling of the physical and mental coming of age of one of our finest and most enduring authors.

Warriors Without Armor

Warriors Without Armor PDF Author: Charles Wesley White
Publisher: Booksurge Publishing
ISBN: 9781439211656
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
A rare combination of social scientist, seeker, and Sixties' synthesist, Charles White shares his first-hand experiences of Bobby Kennedy (alive and dead), Altamont, his eight visits the Dr. Martin L

Armor

Armor PDF Author: John Steakley
Publisher: Astra Publishing House
ISBN: 1101664290
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
The military sci-fi classic of courage on a dangerous alien planet The planet is called Banshee. The air is unbreathable, the water is poisonous. It is home to the most implacable enemies that humanity, in all its interstellar expansion, has ever encountered. Body armor has been devised for the commando forces that are to be dropped on Banshee—the culmination of ten thousand years of the armorers’ craft. A trooper in this armor is a one-man, atomic powered battle fortress. But he will have to fight a nearly endless horde of berserk, hard-shelled monsters—the fighting arm of a species which uses biological technology to design perfect, mindless war minions. Felix is a scout in A-team Two. Highly competent, he is the sole survivor of mission after mission. Yet he is a man consumed by fear and hatred. And he is protected, not only by his custom-fitted body armor, but by an odd being which seems to live within him, a cold killing machine he calls “The Engine.” This is Felix’s story—a story of the horror, the courage, and the aftermath of combat, and the story, too, of how strength of spirit can be the greatest armor of all.

No Shining Armor

No Shining Armor PDF Author: Otto J. Lehrack
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
An account of the Vietnam War, as seen by the American PFCs, sergeants and platoon leaders in the rivers and jungles and trenches. Into their stories, Lehrack has woven a narrative that explains the events they describe and places them into both a historical and a political context.

Zero to Breakthrough

Zero to Breakthrough PDF Author: Vernice Armour
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101514256
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
"Hang on and watch your life take flight with FlyGirl!" -Marcia Wieder, CEO and Founder of Dream University Before she was thirty years old, Vernice "FlyGirl" Armour had become a decorated naval aviator, Camp Pendleton's 2001 Female Athlete of the Year and Strongest Warrior winner, the first female African-American on Nashville's motorcycle police squad, and a member of the San Diego Sunfire professional women's football team. She's a force to be reckoned with, and she believes that women and men from all walks of life have the potential to achieve the highest levels of success with the right flight plan. In Zero to Breakthrough, Vernice turns aspiration into action by revealing how to create the path that will get you out of your rut on onto the runway - cleared for take off. Armour firmly believes that there is no such thing as a dream out of reach. Integrating the foundational concepts of a Breakthrough MentalityTM like preparation, strategy, courage, legacy, and the importance of high spirits and enthusiasm, Zero to Breakthrough helps readers build a sustainable inner force and conviction that result in accomplishing significant goals and becoming an extraordinary member of any business or community. Packed with hard-hitting advice and amazing anecdotes from her adventures on the battlefield and in business, you'll learn strategies like how to: *Stop procrastinating and prepare to lay the groundwork for success *Execute situations with self-discipline to achieve mastery *Acknowledge and move past obstacles & challenges *Feel fear and use it to keep charging, and much more Whether you want to jump up the corporate ladder, start your own business, or develop a passion into a livelihood, Zero to Breakthrough will get you there. For anyone seeking a more fulfilling life, Armour has the ultimate launch pad.

Systems-sensitive Leadership

Systems-sensitive Leadership PDF Author: Michael Carl Armour
Publisher: College Press
ISBN: 9780899008141
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
God demonstrated his creativity even in our personalities. People view events from different perspectives and presuppositions. Whether it is conflict resolution, goal achievement, or completing a specific task, a systems-sensitive leader will be able to recognize the differences in people and help them to work together toward common objectives. This is a must read book for anyone involved in church or business leadership.

A Knight in Shining Armor

A Knight in Shining Armor PDF Author: Jude Deveraux
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451665636
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
From a "New York Times"-bestselling author and today's most admired storyteller, here is an unforgettable tale of a most miraculous love affair: a meeting of passion, wit, and true romance between a thoroughly modern woman--and a man who lived 400 years before.

I’Ll Always Be with You

I’Ll Always Be with You PDF Author: Violetta Armour
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1491768312
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
Since the horrific night a drunk driver slammed into their car during his driving lesson, young Teddy has had to live with the memory of seeing his beloved father, Stan, die. Now just sixteen, he carries both sorrow and survivors guilt. Concerned for her grieving son, Mary decides to put as much distance as she can between Teddy and the nightmarish Phoenix intersection that claimed Stans life. She moves the family to Stans small Indiana hometown, a place of peace in which she hopes they can build new memories. There, Teddy finds inspiration in an old book his great-grandfather carried with him to America, a book Bulgarian fathers have always read to their sons. Is Stan reaching out to his son from the grave? Mary also makes an equally life-changing discovery in the small townRosetta, Stans high school sweetheart. The deeper Mary digs, the more she learns of the forbidden love Stan and Rosetta shared. During the Civil Rights Movement, they dared to reach out for love across racial lines. Now as their three lives intertwine, Teddy, Mary, and Rosetta must make difficult choices. Will they choose happiness? Or will old pains cause them to live as victims of circumstances? Beginning in 1912 on Ellis Island and told in three voices over four generations, Ill Always Be with You is a profound celebration of the power of family.

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner PDF Author: Alan Sillitoe
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504028112
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 133

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Book Description
Nine classic short stories portraying the isolation, criminality, morality, and rebellion of the working class from award-winning, bestselling author Alan Sillitoe The titular story follows the internal decisions and external oppressions of a seventeen-year-old inmate in a juvenile detention center who is known only by his surname, Smith. The wardens have given the boy a light workload because he shows talent as a runner. But if he wins the national long-distance running competition as everyone is counting on him to do, Smith will only vindicate the very system and society that has locked him up. “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner” has long been considered a masterpiece on both the page and the silver screen. Adapted for film by Sillitoe himself in 1962, it became an instant classic of British New Wave cinema. In “Uncle Ernest,” a middle-aged furniture upholsterer traumatized in World War II, now leads a lonely life. His wife has left him, his brothers have moved away, and the townsfolk treat him as if he were a ghost. When the old man finally finds companionship with two young girls whom he enjoys buying pastries for at a café, the local authorities find his behavior morally suspect. “Mr. Raynor the School Teacher” delves into a different kind of isolation—that of a voyeuristic teacher who fantasizes constantly about the women who work in a draper’s shop across the street. When his students distract him from his lustful daydreams, Mr. Raynor becomes violent. The six stories that follow in this iconic collection continue to cement Alan Sillitoe’s reputation as one of Britain’s foremost storytellers, and a champion of the condemned, the oppressed, and the overlooked. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alan Sillitoe including rare images from the author’s estate.