Biography
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Ocean: Earth’s Last Wilderness
From the icy oceans of our poles to remote coral islands, David Attenborough has filmed in every ocean habitat on planet earth. Now, with long-term collaborator Colin Butfield, he shares the story of our last great, critical wilderness, and the one which shapes the land we live on, regulates our climate and creates the air we breathe.
Through one hundred years, eight unique ocean habitats, countless intriguing species – and through personal stories, history and cutting-edge science – Ocean uncovers the mystery, the wonder and the frailty of the most unexplored habitat on our planet. And it shows its remarkable resilience: it is the part of our world that can, and in some cases has, recovered the fastest, and in our lifetimes we could see a fully restored marine world, even richer and more spectacular than we could possibly hope, if we act now.
It is a book almost a century in the making, but one that has never been more urgently needed.
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£21.80£26.60Ocean: Earth’s Last Wilderness
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Broken Threads: My Family From Empire to Independence
A SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WESTMINSTER BOOK AWARDS
A TABLET BOOK OF THE YEAR
‘One of the best memoirs I’ve read in years’ SATHNAM SANGHERA
‘Beautifully written, emotional and deeply personal, yet universal … One can’t help but be moved by this story of upheaval and transformation’ SADIQ KHAN
An extraordinary family memoir from acclaimed newsreader and journalist, Mishal Husain, uncovering the story of her grandparents’ lives amidst empire, political upheaval and partition.
‘I witnessed the dwindling glow of the British Empire. I saw small men entrusted with great jobs, playing with the destiny of millions’
The lives of Mishal Husain’s grandparents changed forever in 1947, as the new nation states of India and Pakistan were born. For years she had a partial story, a patchwork of memories and anecdotes: hurried departures, lucky escapes from violence and homes never seen again.
Decades later, the fragment of an old sari sent Mishal on a journey through time, using letters, diaries, memoirs and audio tapes to trace four lives shaped by the Raj, a world war, independence and partition.
Mumtaz rejects the marriage arranged for him as he forges a life with Mary, a devout Catholic from an Anglo-Indian family, while Tahirah and Shahid watch the politics of pre-partition Delhi unfold at close quarters. As freedom comes, bonds fray and communities are divided, leaving two couples to forge new identities, while never forgetting the shared heritage of the past.
‘Husain has written an arresting family memoir … her explanation of partition is more level-headed than that of many professional historians’ THE TIMES
‘A spectacular achievement. It is an incisive and carefully researched historical account, and as moving and true a personal narrative’ GUARDIAN
'[Husain] has managed to make such a complex story so accessible’ OBSERVER
‘I was so moved by this stirring and deeply moving account that is at once a love story as well as a chronicle of one of the most cataclysmic events in South Asia’ BARKHA DUTT
‘Like silks in the precious fragment of the heirloom sari of its title, Broken Threads is woven from rich sources. It is a beautiful book, informed and informative, cool and factual, poetic and elegiac’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘A deeply engrossing book … I was completely gripped by it’ INDIA KNIGHT
Mishal Husain’s book ‘Broken Threads’ was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 2024-06-10.
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£9.60£10.40 -
Jess and Norma: A lifetime of laughter and our unbreakable bond
The hilarious and heartwarming autobiography from social media’s favourite grandma and granddaughter
Hi! I’m Jess, and if you follow us on social media, you’ll already know my Nan, Norma.
In this book, we want to open up about the personal events that have shaped our unbreakable bond – from the adventures we’ve been on to the great loves and losses we’ve experienced. We receive so many questions about Nan’s earliest memories, her childhood and her marriage to my granddad Michael, and it has been incredibly special to record these cherished stories together.
Through the highs and the lows, Nan’s candid reflections on the world have ensured we’ve shared enough laughter for a lifetime. You can expect to find plenty of them here, including her hilarious thoughts on me (‘a tiresome little monkey’ ), my partner Jake (‘Somebody must be paying him’), dating (‘Can’t we get through a blurb without you bringing the tone down?’) self-care (‘Astral cream, you can’t beat it’) and more.
We’ve written this for everyone who has found comfort in our videos. We hope it brings a smile to your face and warmth to your heart.
With love,
Jess and Norma xx
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The Stolen Crown: Treachery, Deceit and the Death of the Tudor Dynasty
‘A powerful tale . . . compelling and brilliant’ – ALISON WEIR
In March 1603, Queen Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch, lies dying at Richmond Palace. The queen’s ministers cluster round her bedside, urging her to name her successor – something she has stubbornly resisted throughout her reign. Almost with her last breath she whispers that James VI of Scotland should succeed her. She dies shortly afterwards and the throne of England passes peacefully from Tudor to Stuart.
Or so we’ve been led to believe . . .
But, as enthralling new research shows, this is not what happened. In the years that followed, history was literally re-written on the orders of James VI to hide the truth: Elizabeth went to her grave without formally naming an heir. The notion of an approved succession from Tudors to Stuarts is little more than an elaborately constructed fiction.
And so James’s rule in England began with a lie – a lie that went on to have devastating consequences. The Stuart regime rapidly descended into turbulence and uncertainty, conspiracy and persecution, witchcraft and gunpowder – culminating in the destruction of the monarchy in the English Civil War.With a combination of rigorous research and brilliant story-telling, Tracy Borman’s revealing new book shows that truth and monarchy have always been strange bedfellows . . .
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Fahrenheit-182: A Memoir (Audio Download): Mark Hoppus, Mark Hoppus, Little, Brown Audio: Amazon.co.uk: Books
A smart, funny, anarchic and gripping memoir from Mark Hoppus, the vocalist, bassist, and founding member of pop-punk band blink-182.
This is a story of what happens when an angst-ridden kid who grew up in the desert experiences his parents’ bitter divorce, moves around the country, switches identities from dork to goth to skate punk, and eventually meets his best friend who just so happens to be his musical soulmate.
Bassist, songwriter, and vocalist for renowned pop-punk trailblazers blink-182, Mark Hoppus, tells his story in Fahrenheit-182. A memoir that paints a vivid picture of what it was like to grow up in the 1980s as a latchkey kid hooked on punk rock, skateboards, and MTV; Mark Hoppus shares how he came of age and forms one of the biggest bands of his generation. Threaded through with the very human story of a constant battle with anxiety and Mark’s public battle and triumph over cancer, Fahrenheit-182 is a delight for fans and also a funny, smart, and relatable memoir for anyone who has wanted to quit but kept going.
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Fahrenheit-182: the humorous and inspirational memoir from blink-182 founding member Mark Hoppus
A smart, funny, anarchic and gripping memoir from Mark Hoppus, the vocalist, bassist, and founding member of pop-punk band blink-182.
This is a story of what happens when an angst-ridden kid who grew up in the desert experiences his parents’ bitter divorce, moves around the country, switches identities from dork to goth to skate punk, and eventually meets his best friend who just so happens to be his musical soulmate.
Bassist, songwriter, and vocalist for renowned pop-punk trailblazers blink-182, Mark Hoppus, tells his story in Fahrenheit-182. A memoir that paints a vivid picture of what it was like to grow up in the 1980s as a latchkey kid hooked on punk rock, skateboards, and MTV; Mark Hoppus shares how he came of age and forms one of the biggest bands of his generation. Threaded through with the very human story of a constant battle with anxiety and Mark’s public battle and triumph over cancer, Fahrenheit-182 is a delight for fans and also a funny, smart, and relatable memoir for anyone who has wanted to quit but kept going.
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£19.00£23.80 -
In the Name of Freedom: A Political Dissident’s Fight for Human Rights in the NBA and Around the World
A riveting story of personal hardship, the cost of political dissent, and the quest for justice that recounts how NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom became a leading activist for human rights around the world.Enes Kanter Freedom was born to play basketball. But he risked it all when he realized that his voice could be a force for change.
In the Name of Freedom tells the story of how Enes Kanter, a boy with a dream in Turkey, became Enes Freedom, an American citizen, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and a fierce advocate for human rights–and the price he paid for speaking out.
Enes refused to stand by as his native country descended into authoritarian dictatorship. He made his opinion known and the Erdogan regime declared him an enemy of state. His father, still in Turkey, was arrested and declared a terrorist. Enes’s Turkish passport was revoked and he was made stateless.
The experience would have broken most advocates. But it only encouraged Enes, who realized that standing for human rights was bigger than basketball. Enes soon became one of the country’s fiercest fighters for human rights. He took on the NBA for turning a blind eye to China’s persecution of the Uyghurs. He even called out Lebron James, the game’s biggest star, for using Chinese labor in his Nike shoe deal as the Chinese government cracked down on political freedoms in Hong Kong.
Timely and gripping, In the Name of Freedom puts a human face on the fight for liberty and democracy.
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Odyssey Moscow: One American’s Journey from Russia Optimist to Prisoner of the State
‘A riveting tale of betrayal and lawlessness by the Russian Government, told by the most successful US investor in Russia’ – Ambassador John Sullivan, US Ambassador to Russia 2020–22
It is dawn on Thursday, 14 February 2019, and armed FSB agents are raiding Michael Calvey’s Moscow apartment.
He is being arrested for a crime that never happened.
Twenty-eight years earlier, Calvey – a newly graduated, aspiring Wall Street hotshot – made a short trip from America to the recently collapsed USSR to look at potential investments. Sensing huge opportunity, he soon based himself in Moscow, where he lived through the ‘Wild East’ years and went on to build several billion-dollar funds – earning enormous returns for Western investors as Russia opened up to international business. He gained a reputation that would lead to Bloomberg describing him as ‘a legend in the Russian market, with a reputed aversion to any kind of foul play’.
But now, he finds himself thrown into Moscow’s notorious Matrosskaya Tishina prison on charges trumped up by local business rivals. As the White House and Kremlin argue about his incarceration, Calvey is caught in a Kafka-esque trap, denied access to evidence proving his innocence.
Odyssey Moscow is the story not just of Michael Calvey, but of how Russia’s era of hope and aspiration finally died, and how light can be found in the darkest of places.
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