You Cannot Live as I Have Lived and Not End Up Like this

You Cannot Live as I Have Lived and Not End Up Like this PDF Author: Terence Blacker
Publisher: Ebury Press
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
The life of Willie Donaldson ended in June 2005 when he was found dead in the seedy rented flat in Chelsea where he had lived for 35 years. His extraordinary career of writing, drug-taking, brilliance and underachievement put him in the same holy bracket as Peter Cook, Jeffrey Bernard, Peter Sellers and Alan Clark.

You Cannot Live as I Have Lived and Not End Up Like this

You Cannot Live as I Have Lived and Not End Up Like this PDF Author: Terence Blacker
Publisher: Ebury Press
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
The life of Willie Donaldson ended in June 2005 when he was found dead in the seedy rented flat in Chelsea where he had lived for 35 years. His extraordinary career of writing, drug-taking, brilliance and underachievement put him in the same holy bracket as Peter Cook, Jeffrey Bernard, Peter Sellers and Alan Clark.

Books to Die For

Books to Die For PDF Author: John Connolly
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476710368
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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Book Description
An anthology featuring the world's greatest mystery authors writing about theworld's greatest mystery novels.

Top Five Regrets of the Dying

Top Five Regrets of the Dying PDF Author: Bronnie Ware
Publisher: Hay House, Inc
ISBN: 1401956009
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide with translations in 29 languages. After too many years of unfulfilling work, Bronnie Ware began searching for a job with heart. Despite having no formal qualifications or previous experience in the field, she found herself working in palliative care. During the time she spent tending to those who were dying, Bronnie's life was transformed. Later, she wrote an Internet blog post, outlining the most common regrets that the people she had cared for had expressed. The post gained so much momentum that it was viewed by more than three million readers worldwide in its first year. At the request of many, Bronnie subsequently wrote a book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, to share her story. Bronnie has had a colourful and diverse life. By applying the lessons of those nearing their death to her own life, she developed an understanding that it is possible for everyone, if we make the right choices, to die with peace of mind. In this revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide, with translations in 29 languages, Bronnie expresses how significant these regrets are and how we can positively address these issues while we still have the time. The Top Five Regrets of the Dying gives hope for a better world. It is a courageous, life-changing book that will leave you feeling more compassionate and inspired to live the life you are truly here to live.

Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations

Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations PDF Author: Ned Sherrin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199237166
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 574

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Book Description
This hilarious collection of humorous quotations, full of wisecracks and wit, snappy comments and inspired fantasy, has been specially compiled by the late broadcaster and raconteur Ned Sherrin, with a foreword by leading British satirist, Alistair Beaton. Now packed with even more quotes and covering more subjects than before, from Weddings to the Supernatural, Australia to Headlines. Find the best lines from your favourite jokesters and wordsmiths, add that extra something to a speech or presentation, or just enjoy a good laugh. 'A chair is a piece of furniture. I am not a chair because no one has ever sat on me.' Ann Widdecombe on the announcement that Parliamentary language will now be gender-neutral. 'No wonder Bob Geldof is such an expert on famine. He's been feeding off 'I don't like Mondays' for 30 years.' Russell Brand On deciding to run for governor of California: 'The most difficult decision I've ever made in my entire life, except for the one in 1978 when I decided to get a bikini wax.' Arnold Schwarzenegger 'Wanting to know an author because you like his work is like wanting to know a duck because you like p--acirc--;t--eacute--;.' Margaret Atwood 'I am so sorry. We have to stop there. I have just come to the end of my personality.' Quentin Crisp, closing down an interview

Don't Start Me Talking

Don't Start Me Talking PDF Author: Charles Radcliffe
Publisher: Bread and Circuses Publishing
ISBN: 1495639460
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 570

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Book Description
In his seminal socio history of Punk, “England’s Dreaming”, Jon Savage makes the bald assertion that “Charles Radcliffe laid the foundation for the next twenty years of sub-cultural theory”, referring in particular to his 1966 piece “the Seeds of Social Destruction’ that appeared in the first of two issues of Radcliffe’s co authored, insurrectionary street-zine, ‘Heatwave’ . Teddy Boys, Ton Up Kids, Mods and Rockers, Beats, Ban the Bombers,The Ravers ( jazz heads) : Radcliffe argued that the bank holiday bust ups, the demos, the riots, the sex drugs n rock n’ roll, these were all part of a “youth revolt... (that ) has left a permanent mark on this society, has challenged assumptions and status, and been prepared to vomit its’ disgust in the streets. The youth revolt has not always been comfortable, valid, to the point or helpful. It has however made its first stumbling political gestures with an immediacy that revolutionaries should not deny, but envy.” Radcliffe joined the International Situationists within the year, alongside (English founder ) Chris Gray, but by the time 1968 had ended, and youthful revolt had fed into wide pockets of political turmoil globally, Radcliffe had started to drift towards other poles of late 60s’s counterculture. He ended the 60’s in long hair and loon pants, banged up in a Belgian prison on hash smuggling charges. This epic ( 900 + pages) book follows Radcliffes’ trials and tribulations from public school beginnings, into the 60’s underground and the Mr Nice style large scale hash smuggling years (his friend, Howard Marks, pops up throughout) , on to prison, divorce, remarriage and beyond. It offers up important first hand perspectives on 60’s / 70’s counterculture, and an intimate portrait of a man who seemed to face the slings and arrows that fortune threw at him with a never ending supply of equanimity. And high grade hash.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2005-2008

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2005-2008 PDF Author: Lawrence Goldman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199671540
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 1253

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Book Description
Who made modern Britain? This book, drawn from the award-winning Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, tells the story of our recent past through the lives of those who shaped national life. Following on from the Oxford DNB's first supplement volume-noteworthy people who died between 2001 and 2004-this new volume offers biographies of more than 850 men and women who left their mark on twentieth and twenty-first century Britain, and who died in the years 2005 to 2008. Here are the people responsible for major developments in national life: from politics, the arts, business, technology, and law to military service, sport, education, science, and medicine. Many are closely connected to specific periods in Britain's recent history. From the 1950s, the young Harold Pinter or the Yorkshire cricketer, Fred Trueman, for example. From the Sixties, the footballer George Best, photographer Patrick Lichfield, and the Pink Floyd musician, Syd Barrett. It's hard to look back to the 1970s without thinking of Edward Heath and James Callaghan, who led the country for seven years in that turbulent decade; or similarly Freddie Laker, pioneer of budget air travel, and the comedians Ronnie Barker and Dave Allen who entertained with their sketch shows and sit coms. A decade later you probably browsed in Anita Roddick's Body Shop, or danced to the music of Factory Records, established by the Manchester entrepreneur, Tony Wilson. In the 1990s you may have hoped that 'Things can only get better' with a New Labour government which included Robin Cook and Mo Mowlam. Many in this volume are remembered for lives dedicated to a profession or cause: Bill Deedes or Conor Cruise O'Brien in journalism; Ned Sherrin in broadcasting or, indeed, Ted Heath whose political career spanned more than 50 years. Others were responsible for discoveries or innovations of lasting legacy and benefit-among them the epidemiologist Richard Doll, who made the link between smoking and lung cancer, Cicely Saunders, creator of the hospice movement, and Chad Varah, founder of the Samaritans. With John Profumo-who gave his name to a scandal-policeman Malcolm Fewtrell-who investigated the Great Train Robbery-or the Russian dissident Aleksandr Litvinenko-who was killed in London in 2006-we have individuals best known for specific moments in our recent past. Others are synonymous with popular objects and experiences evocative of recent decades: Mastermind with Magnus Magnusson, the PG-Tips chimpanzees trained by Molly Badham, John DeLorean's 'gull-wing' car, or the new British Library designed by Colin St John Wilson-though, as rounded and balanced accounts, Oxford DNB biographies also set these events in the wider context of a person's life story. Authoritative and accessible, the biographies in this volume are written by specialist authors, many of them leading figures in their field. Here you will find Michael Billington on Harold Pinter, Michael Crick on George Best, Richard Davenport-Hines on Anita Roddick, Brenda Hale on Rose Heilbron, Roy Hattersley on James Callaghan, Simon Heffer on John Profumo, Douglas Hurd on Edward Heath, Alex Jennings on Paul Scofield, Hermione Lee on Pat Kavanagh, Geoffrey Wheatcroft on Conor Cruise O'Brien, and Peregrine Worsthorne on Bill Deedes. Many in this volume are, naturally, household names. But a good number are also remembered for lives away from the headlines. What in the 1980s became 'Thatcherism' owed much to behind the scenes advice from Ralph Harris and Alfred Sherman; children who learned to read with Ladybird Books must thank their creator, Douglas Keen; while, without its first producer, Verity Lambert, there would have been no Doctor Who. Others are 'ordinary' people capable of remarkable acts. Take, for instance, Arthur Bywater who over two days in 1944 cleared thousands of bombs from a Liverpool munitions factory following an explosion-only to do the same, months later, in an another factory. Awarded the George Cross and the George Medal, Bywater remains the only non-combatant to have received Britain's two highest awards for civilian bravery.

Girls Like Us

Girls Like Us PDF Author: Sheila Weller
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416564772
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 690

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Book Description
A groundbreaking and irresistible biography of three of America’s most important musical artists—Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon—charts their lives as women at a magical moment in time. Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon remain among the most enduring and important women in popular music. Each woman is distinct. Carole King is the product of outer-borough, middle-class New York City; Joni Mitchell is a granddaughter of Canadian farmers; and Carly Simon is a child of the Manhattan intellectual upper crust. They collectively represent, in their lives and their songs, a great swath of American girls who came of age in the late 1960s. Their stories trace the arc of the now mythic sixties generation—female version—but in a bracingly specific and deeply recalled way, far from cliché. The history of the women of that generation has never been written—until now, through their resonant lives and emblematic songs. Filled with the voices of many dozens of these women's intimates, who are speaking in these pages for the first time, this alternating biography reads like a novel—except it’s all true, and the heroines are famous and beloved. Sheila Weller captures the character of each woman and gives a balanced portrayal enriched by a wealth of new information. Girls Like Us is an epic treatment of midcentury women who dared to break tradition and become what none had been before them—confessors in song, rock superstars, and adventurers of heart and soul.

National Service

National Service PDF Author: Richard Vinen
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 1846143888
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 690

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Book Description
SUNDAY TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR and FINANCIAL TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2014 WINNER OF THE TEMPLER MEDAL AND THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller Richard Vinen's new book is a serious - if often very entertaining - attempt to get to grips with the reality of National Service, an extraordinary institution which now seems as remote as the British Empire itself. With great sympathy and curiosity, Vinen unpicks the myths of the two 'gap years', which all British men who came of age between 1945 and the early 1960s had to fill with National Service. Millions of teenagers were thrown together and under often brutal conditions taught to obey orders and to fight. The luck of the draw might result in two years of boredom in some dilapidated British barracks, but it could also mean being thrown into a dangerous combat mission in a remote part of the world. By any measure National Service had a huge impact on the nature of British society, and yet it has been remarkably little written about. As the military's needs wound down and Britain ceased to be a great power, National Service came to be seen as just an embarrassment, and its culture of rank and discipline something which many British people were by the 1960s running away from. But without a proper understanding of National Service the story of post-war Britain barely makes sense. Richard Vinen provides that missing book. It will be fascinating to those who endured or even enjoyed their time in uniform, but also to anyone wishing to understand the unique nature of post-war Britain.

In Two Minds

In Two Minds PDF Author: Kate Bassett
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1849437386
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 583

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Book Description
In Two Minds is the first comprehensive biography of Jonathan Miller – the story of one of post-war Britain's most intriguing polymaths. Descended from immigrants who fled Tsarist anti-Semitism to become shopkeepers in Ireland and London's East End, Miller was born into an intellectual milieu, between Bloomsbury and Harley Street – the son of a novelist and a leading child psychiatrist. Miller trained as adoctor but then forged a career as a stellar comedian and as a world-renowned theatre and opera director. He is a controversial humorist, public intellectual and TV personality. As a star in the groundbreaking satirical revue Beyond the Fringe, he shot to fame alongside Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett. His expertise and interests encompass many areas, from medicine (he wrote and presented the hugely acclaimed BBC documentary series The Body in Question) to the history of art, Mozart, atheism and the nature of laughter. Jonathan Miller is one of the most multi-talented Britons of his generation, celebrated for his dazzling intelligence and anti-establishmentarian wit. Drawing on in-depth interviews, this is an entertaining and illuminating portrait of a fascinatingly complex man.

Icons of England

Icons of England PDF Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1409095665
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
This celebration of the English countryside does not only focus on the rolling green landscapes and magnificent monuments that set England apart from the rest of the world. Many of the contributors bring their own special touch, presenting a refreshingly eclectic variety of personal icons, from pub signs to seaside piers, from cattle grids to canal boats, and from village cricket to nimbies. First published as a lavish colour coffeetable book, this new expanded paperback edition has double the original number of contributions from many celebrities including Bill Bryson, Michael Palin, Eric Clapton, Bryan Ferry, Sebastian Faulks, Kate Adie, Kevin Spacey, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, Richard Mabey , Simon Jenkins, John Sergeant, Benjamin Zephaniah, Joan Bakewell, Antony Beevor, Libby Purves, Jonathan Dimbleby, and many more: and a new preface by HRH Prince Charles.