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Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography
'I was at a time in my life where I got to thinking more about people's
choices – how everything would be different if just the slightest
decision changed...'
It is late September in 2001 and the walls of New York are papered over
with photos of the missing. Cora Brady’s father is there, the poster
she made taped to columns and bridges. Her mother died long ago and
now, orphaned on the cusp of adulthood, Cora is adrift and alone. Soon,
a letter will arrive with the offer of a new life: far out on the
ragged edge of Ireland, in the town where her parents were young, an
estranged aunt can provide a home and fulfil a long-forgotten promise.
There the story of Cora's family is hidden, and in her presence will
begin to unspool…
An essential, immersive debut from an astonishing new voice,
Confessions traces the arc of three generations of women as they
experience in their own time the irresistible gravity of the past: its
love and tragedy, its mystery and redemption, and, in all things
intended and accidental, the beauty and terrible shade of the things we
do.
Volume I of Herbert Musurillo's critical editions, with
translations and commentaries, of ancient martyr literature,
surveys the development of the genre, discussing the political and
historical background which produced it. These texts were written
in the form of court records reporting the trials of Alexandrian
heroes punished by the Roman authorities. Anti-Roman and often
violently propagandist in tone, they reflect the political tensions
experienced by the Greeks under German rule.
A much-anticipated biography—twenty years in the making—of the entertainer who redefined late-night television and reshaped American culture.
In 2002, Bill Zehme landed one of the most coveted assignments for a magazine writer: an interview with Johnny Carson—the only one he’d granted since retiring from hosting The Tonight Show a decade earlier. Zehme was tapped for the Esquire feature story thanks to his years of legendary celebrity profiles, and the resulting piece portrayed Carson as more human being than showbiz legend. Shortly after Carson’s death in 2005 and urged on by many of those closest to Carson, Zehme signed a contract to do an expansive biography. He toiled on the book for nearly a decade—interviewing dozens of Carson’s colleagues and friends and filling up a storage locker with his voluminous research—before a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatments halted his progress. When he died in 2023 his obituaries mentioned the Carson book, with New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman calling it “one of the great unfinished biographies.”
Yet the hundreds of pages Zehme managed to complete are astounding both for the caliber of their writing and how they illuminate one of the most inscrutable figures in entertainment history: A man who brought so much joy and laughter to so many millions but was himself exceedingly shy and private. Zehme traces Carson’s rise from a magic-obsessed Nebraska boy to a Navy ensign in World War II to a burgeoning radio and TV personality to, eventually, host of The Tonight Show—which he transformed, along with the entirety of American popular culture, over the next three decades. Without Carson, there would be no late-night television as we know it. On a much more intimate level, Zehme also captures the turmoil and anguish that accompanied the success: four marriages, troubles with alcohol, and the devastating loss of a child.
In one passage, Zehme notes that when asked by an interviewer in the mid-80s for the secret to his success, Carson replied simply, “Be yourself and tell the truth.” Completed with help from journalist and Zehme’s former research assistant Mike Thomas, Carson the Magnificent offers just that: an honest assessment of who Johnny Carson really was.
Volume II of Herbert Musurillo's critical editions, with
translations and commentaries, of ancient martyr literature,
surveys the development of the genre, discussing the political and
historical background which produced it. These texts were written
in the form of court records reporting the trials of Alexandrian
heroes punished by the Roman authorities. Anti-Roman and often
violently propagandist in tone, they reflect the political tensions
experienced by the Greeks under German rule.
From Jon King, legendary front man of iconic post-punk band Gang of Four, comes a memoir to remember.
TO HELL WITH POVERTY! documents King’s story from a south London slum and working-class background to international success as core musician, lyricist, writer, and producer in the legendary post-punk/funk band Gang of Four. King’s memoir takes the reader on an episodic journey full of raucous adventures from his childhood and teenage years, to the height of Gang of Four’s success in the seventies and eighties.
Thrown off Top of the Pops, truncheoned by police at an anti-Nazi rally, coming of age in the heart of the Leeds music scene and the UK post-punk movement, mingling with Hells Angels and other undesirables, supported by bands like R.E.M. and playing with the likes of the Police, Iggy Pop, and the Buzzcocks―King’s time with Gang of Four is rich with jaw-dropping stories. Evocative, fast-paced, and witty, To Hell with Poverty! is a music memoir for the ages.
Gang of Four’s Entertainment! LP is consistently ranked as one of the greatest debut albums of all time and continues to inspire new generations of musicians today. The band has influenced many artists, from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, and INXS, to 2025-era Frank Ocean, the Idles, and hip-hop giants Run the Jewels. Gang of Four have been championed by the likes of Flea, Sofia Coppola, Massive Attack, Damien Hirst, Greil Marcus, and many more.
Gioachino Rossini was one of the most influential, as well as one
of the most industrious and emotionally complex of the great
nineteenth-century composers. Between 1810 and 1829, he wrote 39
operas, a body of work, comic and serious, which transformed
Italian opera and radically altered the course of opera in France.
His retirement from operatic composition in 1829, at the age of 37,
was widely assumed to be the act of a talented but lazy man. In
reality, political events and a series of debilitating illnesses
were the determining factors. After drafting the Stabat Mater in
1832, Rossini wrote no music of consequence for the best part of
twenty-five years, before the clouds lifted and he began composing
again in Paris in the late 1850s. During this glorious Indian
summer of his career, he wrote 150 songs and solo piano pieces his
'Sins of Old Age' and his final masterpiece, the Petite Messe
solennelle. The image of Rossini as a gifted but feckless
amateur-the witty, high-spirited bon vivant who dashed off The
Barber of Seville in a mere thirteen days-persisted down the years,
until the centenary of his death in 1968 inaugurated a process of
re-evaluation by scholars, performers, and writers. The original
1985 edition of Richard Osborne's pioneering and widely acclaimed
Rossini redefined the life and provided detailed analyses of the
complete Rossini oeuvre. Twenty years on, all Rossini's operas have
been staged and recorded, a Critical Edition of his works is well
advanced, and a scholarly edition of his correspondence, including
250 previously unknown letters from Rossini to his parents, is in
progress. Drawing on these past two decades of scholarship and
performance, this new edition of Rossini provides the most detailed
portrait we have yet had of one of the worlds best-loved and most
enigmatic composers.
Peter Byrne tells the story of Hugh Everett III (1930-1982), whose
"many worlds" theory of multiple universes has had a profound
impact on physics and philosophy. Using Everett's unpublished
papers (recently discovered in his son's basement) and dozens of
interviews with his friends, colleagues, and surviving family
members, Byrne paints, for the general reader, a detailed portrait
of the genius who invented an astonishing way of describing our
complex universe from the inside. Everett's mathematical model
(called the "universal wave function") treats all possible events
as "equally real," and concludes that countless copies of every
person and thing exist in all possible configurations spread over
an infinity of universes: many worlds.
Afflicted by depression and addictions, Everett strove to bring
rational order to the professional realms in which he played
historically significant roles. In addition to his famous
interpretation of quantum mechanics, Everett wrote a classic paper
in game theory; created computer algorithms that revolutionized
military operations research; and performed pioneering work in
artificial intelligence for top secret government projects. He
wrote the original software for targeting cities in a nuclear hot
war; and he was one of the first scientists to recognize the danger
of nuclear winter. As a Cold Warrior, he designed logical systems
that modeled "rational" human and machine behaviors, and yet he was
largely oblivious to the emotional damage his irrational personal
behavior inflicted upon his family, lovers, and business partners.
He died young, but left behind a fascinating record of his life,
including correspondence with such philosophically inclined
physicists as Niels Bohr, Norbert Wiener, and John Wheeler. These
remarkable letters illuminate the long and often bitter struggle to
explain the paradox of measurement at the heart of quantum physics.
In recent years, Everett's solution to this mysterious problem-the
existence of a universe of universes-has gained considerable
traction in scientific circles, not as science fiction, but as an
explanation of physical reality.
In The Syndicate of Twenty-two Natives Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo offers an
elegy to her father, the late Professor Stan Sangweni, which explores
the personal saga of a family’s lineage rooted in eZuka on Suspence
Farm, Newcastle, in what is now northern KwaZulu-Natal.
In turn, Prof Sangweni opens a window into a past where his
grandfather, with foresight and ingenuity, became part of The Syndicate
of Twenty-two Natives, a group that secured land for their families,
including his family of seven wives, and for succeeding generations at
a time when Black people in South Africa were being systematically
dispossessed of their land.
While packing up her father’s study as her parents prepare to move from
their home after 27 years, Lindiwe and her father uncover his lifelong
collection of documents and pictures that detail the intricacies of his
life as a devoted family man, an ANC veteran and anti-apartheid
activist, a pioneer of public service excellence in post-apartheid
South Africa and an inveterate stickler for detail in every aspect of
his life. Inspiring, often humorous, occasionally cataclysmically
disruptive and generally victorious, this memoir is a tribute and a
testament to the enduring legacy of those who pave the way amidst the
trials of history for future generations.
When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming a grown up,
journalist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all. In her memoir,
she vividly recounts falling in love, wrestling with self-sabotage,
finding a job, throwing a socially disastrous Rod-Stewart themed
house party, getting drunk, getting dumped, realising that Ivan
from the corner shop is the only man you've ever been able to rely
on, and finding that that your mates are always there at the end of
every messy night out. Glittering, with wit and insight, heart and
humour, this is a book about the struggles of early adulthood in
all its grubby, hopeful uncertainty.
In The Allies on the Rhine Skrjabina describes the coming of
the Allies to the Rhineland, the occupation, and the first clear
signs of the recovery of war-shattered Germany. She describes what
occurred and how it was interpreted at the time by a keen observer
who had lived under Soviet, Nazi, American, and French rule. She
describes the first chaotic days of the occupation when instead of
the calm and peace expected as a remit of the American advance,
there was fearful chaos. She shows clearly that as the main allied
forces moved on there was no real law and order and that she and
the frightened populace were often terrorized by marauding youthful
former work camp inmates over whom there was no effective
control.
In Eccentric Wealth, Alastair Scott traces the life of Lancashire
industrialist Sir George Bullough in this absorbing biography which
explores his family's connection with the Hebridean island of Rum,
particularly the building of Kinloch Castle, the most intact
preserve of Edwardian highliving to be found in Britain. Based on
new information, the book offers a fascinating insight into the
life and times of one of the great eccentrics of his age, including
the Bullough myths and scandals which continue to make
extraordinary reading more than a hundred years later.
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