At the age of nine, Jamie's family feared he would never walk again. Twenty years later, he set off to run 5,000 miles coast to coast across Canada. When Jamie decides to repay the hospitals that saved his life as a child, he embarks on the biggest challenge of his life: running the equivalent of 200 marathons back-to-back, solo and unsupported, in -40 degree weather, surviving all kinds of injuries and traumas on the road and wearing through 13 pairs of trainers. And he does it all dressed as the superhero, the Flash. Though his journey was both mentally and physically exhausting, it was the astounding acts of kindness and hospitality he encountered along the way that kept him going. Whether they gave him a bed for the night, food for the journey, a donation to his charity or companionship and encouragement during the long days of running, Jamie soon came to realise that every person who helped him towards his goal was a superhero too.

'Eclectic collection of disaster at sea stories - brilliantly written - gripping and entertaining' Lindsay Eaton, goodreads.com 'ROB MUNDLE IS A MASTER OF THE MARITIME NARRATIVE' Sunday Age This bestselling maritime classic chronicles some of the most remarkable stories of survival and daring that the world's oceans have hosted over the past half century. There are the bizarre, unbelievable accounts of people who went missing and were given up for dead, like the five Mexican fishermen who went to sea for a three-day shark-fishing trip and then vanished, only for three of them to miraculously reappear, apparition-like, nine months later. And there are the incredible survival stories, such as Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, who spent 117 days adrift in a rubber dinghy in the Pacific after their yacht was sunk by a whale, and the extraordinary tales of people risking everything to break world records - such as Kay Cottee, the first woman to sail non-stop and unassisted around the world, and Ken Warby, the fastest man on water. Hell on High Seas is awash with amazing feats of daring - some verging on madness, others where death is eluded through sheer courage, determination and innovation ...or even divine intervention?

'His Name Is George Floyd is essential for our times.' Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist 'An intimate, unvarnished and scrupulous account of his life...brilliantly revealing.' NEW YORK TIMES You know how he died. This is how he lived. Who was George Floyd? What did he hope for? What was life like for him? And why has his death been the catalyst for such a powerful global response? The murder of George Floyd sparked a summer of activism and unrest all over the world in 2020, from Shetland to Sao Paolo, as people marched under the Black Lives Matter banner, demanding an end to racial injustice. But behind a face that would be graffitied onto countless murals, and a name that has become synonymous with civil rights, there is the reality of one man's stolen life. In His Name is George Floyd we meet the kind young boy who talked his friends out of beating up a skinny kid from another neighbourhood and then befriended him on the walk home. Big Floyd the high school American football player who ignored his coach's pleas to be more aggressive and felt queasy at the sight of blood. The man who fell victim to an opioid epidemic we are only just beginning to understand. The sensitive son and loving father, constantly in search of a better life in a society determined to write him off based on things he had no control over: where he grew up, the size of his body and the colour of his skin. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews with friends and family members, His Name Is George Floyd reveals the myriad ways that structural racism shaped Floyd's life and death - from his forebears' roots in slavery to an underfunded education, the overpolicing of his community and the devastating snare of the prison system. By offering us an intimate portrait of this one, emblematic life, Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa deliver a powerful and moving exploration of how a man who simply wanted to breathe ended up touching the world.

On 13 November 1943, Jerzy Feliks Urman (known as Jerzyk) killed himself, thinking the Gestapo had arrived. He was eleven and a half. He and his family were in hiding in Drohobycz, during the German occupation of East Galicia, now western Ukraine. A year earlier the family had quit Stanislawow in the wake of brutal round-ups and deportations of Jews. The boy's parents, uncle, and grandmother survived the war. He kept a diary and jottings during the two months before he died. Anthony Rudolf, Jerzyk's second cousin once removed, published these texts in 1991 in a translation made from a family typescript of the original. The recent discovery of the diary of Sophie Urman, Jerzyk's mother, led Rudolf to commission a translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. She has also revised the earlier translation of Jerzyk's own diary after comparing the typescript and the original manuscript, which is now in Rudolf 's possession. The editor has written new introductions and made extensive annotations in an attempt to clarify complex and troubling issues.Drawing attention to specific remarks and episodes, he interprets the death of Jerzyk - the only child suicide in the extensive archive at Yad Vashem - not only as the tragic action of a child under pressure but also as a noble and heroic act. Likewise, the keeping of a diary, as with Anne Frank and other children in hiding, was a form of defiance, an example of what has come to be called spiritual or cultural resistance. The book also contains two more texts by Sophie, testimonies by Jerzyk's father and uncle, maps and family photographs. It ends with Rudolf 's account of the tragic death of Mark Rothstein, another second cousin. Mark was a few months younger than Jerzyk when he died in the East End of London on 27 March 1945, during the last day of the V2 bombing raids.

For Felicity, growing up with her unmarried mother and grandparents in a tiny bungalow in Scarborough, life could be frightening and confusing. Why did her beloved granddad just make excuses when her gran subjected her to physical and psychological abuse? Why did her dad, who lived alone nearby, call her by a different name and hide her from his family? What was wrong with her? Sick of it all, Felicity ran away from home aged fifteen and for years she struggled to find her way until she qualified as a teacher and found a career she loved. But at the age of fifty, a successful woman, she still felt hollow inside. Needing to understand why her gran had abused her, she started to research her family's history and uncovered their secrets one by one, including a shocking truth kept buried out of shame. Her great-grandmother Emily Swann, a brutalised wife, had been hanged for the murder of her violent husband... Powerful and moving, Sins of the Family shows how tragedies can impact generations to come but understanding and forgiveness can heal the past. PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AS GUARD A SILVER SIXPENCE

The Girl Who Just Wanted To Be Loved is a heart wrenching true story from foster mum and Sunday Times bestseller Angela Hart. Eight-year-old Keeley looks like the sweetest little girl you could wish to meet, but demons from the past make her behaviour far from angelic. She takes foster carer Angela on a rocky and very demanding emotional ride as she fights daily battles against her deep-rooted psychological problems. Can the love and specialist care Angela and husband Jonathan provide help Keeley triumph against the odds? This is a true story that shares the tale of one of the many children Angela has fostered over the years. Angela's stories show the difference that quiet care, a watchful eye and sympathetic ear can make to children who have had more difficult upbringings than most.

From Hagar to Rachel, is the vehicle that the author Dr Rachel Andrea Palmer has chosen to use to describe how she evolved over the course of her life from the bound and unhappy Hagar to Rachel the beloved. While it draws upon portions of her life, with the setting changing from the lush Caribbean scenery of her native country Trinidad to the metropolitan area of New York, it is still much more of a psychological journey than an autobiographical book.
From Hagar to Rachel is deeply spiritual, powerful and moving. In it Dr Palmer seeks to show how through developing an intimate relationship with God she was able to overcome her childhood pain, the sorrow of divorce, the bewilderment of being physically afflicted from birth and despite all the suffering and hardship develop into the beautiful, gracious and brilliant woman that she is.
Dr Palmer conjures up the images of her life so vividly that the readers will find themselves laughing at times, crying at others as they vicariously participate in her experiences. She takes the readers with her on the journey, showing clearly how the touch of the Master's hand and His love transformed, empowered and beautified her. This book will similarly touch each and every reader.

"Eat Pray Love" meets "The Secret". Living Free From the Stories of Your Life. The sages of India, for thousands of years, have talked about the existence of Atman, the inner Self. In the Karma & Diamonds trilogy, Smita is exceptional in showing, through her life's battles, how the inner Self can guide and enrich your daily life. In Book 1, 'Moon Child', while facing possible death, a young Smita has a mystical experience and discovers her inner Self. Later it will help her through other traumatic situations and ultimately, blossom and thrive. Aged ten, she comes with her parents to the UK. Growing into a vibrant adolescent, she is confronted with the heart-wrenching challenge of balancing traditional Indian culture and modern-day London. Amidst rejection, heartbreak, loneliness and the struggle to start a career, determined to make life work, this young woman battles against all odds to find her place in the world, both physically and spiritually. However, will dramatic revelations in Book 2 about her lives long past finally free her to be happy or destroy her? Will a life-threatening condition in Book 3 bring her quest to a premature end?

TO A NATION enthralled by the heroic exploits of the Mercury astronauts, the launch of Lt. Cmdr. Scott Carpenter on NASA's second orbital space flight was a renewed cause for pride, jubilation and celebration. Within hours, that excitement had given way to stunned disbelief and anxiety as shaken broadcasters began preparing the American public for the very real possibility that an American astronaut and his spacecraft may have been lost at sea. In fact, it had been a very close call. Completely out of fuel and forced to manually guide Aurora 7 through the frightening inferno of re-entry, Carpenter brought the Mercury spacecraft down to a safe splashdown in the ocean. In doing so, he controversially overshot the intended landing zone. Despite his efforts, Carpenter's performance on the MA-7 mission was later derided by powerful figures within NASA. He would never fly into space again. Taking temporary leave of NASA, Carpenter participated in the U.S. Navy's pioneering Sealab program. For a record 30 days he lived and worked aboard a pressurized habitat resting on the floor of the ocean, becoming the nation's first astronaut/aquanaut explorer. Following extensive research conducted by noted spaceflight historian Colin Burgess, the drama-filled flight of Aurora 7 is faithfully recounted in this engrossing book, along with the personal recollections of Scott Carpenter and those closest to the actual events.

Hanlie Retief, een van die bekendste Afrikaanse joernaliste, vertel die openhartige verhale van mense wat ongekende trauma beleef en tog ook oorkom het. In Anderkant uit? Kom beroemdes sowel as gewone mense aan die woord. Hanlie skryf oor wat sy in die mense se oe sien en oor Suid-Afrikaners se uitsonderlike vermoe om trauma te oorkom.

'I can tell you exactly the day it all went wrong - the day my mum attacked my dad with a kitchen knife. In those few, short seconds, a black hole opened up in my life and I fell right in.' Tina McGuff's life was perfect - or so she thought. Living in Dundee with her devoted parents and three younger sisters, she was a happy, healthy and confident thirteen-year-old. But all that changed in one horrifying act of revenge and Tina's world collapsed overnight. Terrified, lost and confused, she turned to the one thing she thought she could control - food. And so began the biggest fight of her life. Tina's life-or-death struggle with anorexia is told with devastating honesty in this extraordinary account of a girl at war with herself. Through her years in and out of psychiatric wards, Tina takes us to some of the darkest places of the mind. But in the end her courage, conviction and sheer determination win out. It took Tina seconds to snap and a lifetime to recover - but today, as a passionate campaigner for mental health, she is living proof that there is always a reason to hope that one day, things will get better.

Henry Friedman was robbed of his adolescence by the monstrous evil that annihilated millions of European Jews and changed forever the lives of those who survived. When the Nazis overran their home town near the Polish-Ukrainian border, the Friedman family was saved by Ukrainian Christians who had worked at their farm. Henry, his mother, his younger brother, and a young schoolteacher-who had been hired by his father when Jews were forbidden to attend school-were hidden in a loft over the animal stalls at a neighbor's farm; his father hid in another hayloft half a mile away. When the family was liberated by the Russians after eighteen months in hiding, Henry, at age fifteen, was emaciated and too weak to walk. The Friedmans eventually made their way to a displaced persons camp in Austria where Henry learned quickly to wheel and deal, seducing women of various ages and nationalities and mastering the intricacies of dealing in the black market. In I'm No Hero, he confronts with unblinking honesty the pain, the shame, and the bizarre comedy of his passage to adulthood. The family came to Seattle in 1949, where Henry Friedman has made his home ever since. In 1988 he returned with his wife to Brody and Suchowola, where he succeeded in finding Julia Symchuk, who, as a young girl, had warned his father that the Gestapo was looking for him, and whose family had hidden the Friedmans in their loft. The following year he was able to bring Julia to Seattle for a triumphal visit, where she was honored in many ways, although, as Friedman writes, "in her own country she had never been honored with anything except hard work." Like many other survivors, Henry Friedman has found it difficult to confront his past. Like others, too, he has felt the obligation to bear witness. Now retired, he devotes much of his time to telling his story, which he believes is a message of hope, to thousands of schoolchildren throughout the Pacific Northwest. He has received national recognition for his role in establishing the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, and as a founder of the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center.

Theresa was a normal happy little girl till one day her whole world came crashing down. The first turning point for her was when her father left the family home, she adored her father she couldn't understand why he had walked out of her life. She grew up being bitter to-wards life especially men, but when she was 17yrs she met a young man, and the following year they married . Some years later, Theresa now aged 37yrs and after divorcing her 1st and later her 2nd husband - life began to improve for her. Then one day returning home from work she realised she was being followed, as she neared a row of shops she was suddenly attacked from behind, it was her ex-husband Richard. He pushed her hard to the wall and held her with his body restraining her from running, one hand around her throat the other raised into a fist. She wanted to scream, but his grip was too tight, expecting his fist she closed her eyes and prayed. In desperation she kicked out, catching him on the leg with the heel of her shoe, he cried out loosing his grip on her. She tried to run, he lunged at her once again, catching her by her hair pulling her violently backwards, she lost her footing and fell through the glass shop window. Richard then turned and fled as the shopkeeper, upon hearing the crash, came running shouting -- he would call the police, she was saved. She managed to reach home and once inside, doors firmly locked and bolted, she sank into her big arm chair and sobbed uncontrollably, she was lucky, no major injury's. Life she realised was slowly once again turning against her, everything she had fought so hard for was slowly slipping away, she could not and would not go through her past life style again it was too painful and horrific, she had to fight against the cruel hand of fate anyway she could, her strength yet again would be put to the test. Her only solace was her beloved Adam.

Undergoing more than 20 operations and surviving major organ failure would take its toll on anybody. But Helen Haynes not only survived these life-challenging experiences...she fought her way back to a successful working and sporting life, winning gold medals at the World Transplant Games and mastering her charity and professional speaking career. Helen was a determined and talented tennis player with a very promising future when she was diagnosed with kidney failure at the age of 20 - the result of taking too many anti-inflammatories while coping with training injuries. Helen endured years of ill-health, fighting for her life, before the generosity of not one, but two organ donors - including her own mother - ultimately saved and transformed her life. Now running her own business as a public speaking consultant and professional speaker, Helen shares her remarkable story in a candid and very moving way.

Gebasseer op ‘n ware verhaal van geloof en oorwinning.

As 16-jarige vlug Engela na Bloemfontein, want die leier van die Sataniese Groep 13 wil haar doodmaak. Haar paaie kruis met dié van Pieter, ʼn vriend van haar broer, wat haar aan ʼn bordeel-eienaar uitlewer as betaling vir die geld wat hy hom skuld.

Na ʼn haglike en armoedige kinderlewe raak Engela as rebelse tiener deurmekaar met Satanisme, drank en dwelms en word uiteindelik as seksslaaf aangehou. Haar enigste begeerte is om te ontsnap, maar hoe? Elke aand word die klub se deure dig gesluit. Haar laaste kans op vryheid is die jong student, Jacques, wat in die ontvangslokaal van die klub werk. Maar dan verdwyn hy ook uit die prentjie na ʼn raaiselagtige ongeluk in die Drakensberge.

Van Skoolbank Tot Bordeelbed is ʼn spanningsroman deur Jaco Hough-Coetzee, gebaseer op die aangrypende lewensverhaal van Elanie Kruger.

In die tweede gedeelte van die boek gesels Elanie self met die leser oor haar bittere ervarings. Sy vertel hoe sy haar gevoelens van verlorendheid, alleenheid, pyn en vernedering vanuit ʼn Christelike perspektief leer hanteer het. Sy reik uit na ander gewese seksslagoffers en moedig hulle aan om hul harte uit te stort om emosionele genesing mee te bring. Sy praat oor die krag van vergifnis en aanvaarding, en gee ook lewensbelangrike praktiese wenke aan ouers en kinders.

In the week before Christmas, on a cosy bed beside a log burner, a dog snoozes happily, her belly full of lobster. Just a few months earlier she had been laying in the cold and filth of a Welsh puppy farm, her belly empty of food but full of yet another litter of puppies. For six years Susie-Belle had been trapped in a life of misery as a breeding bitch in a puppy farm, tied up in the back of a putrid shed and experiencing neglect to a horrifying degree. For dogs like her, the end is usually a grim death, whether it's because they fail to be a good breeder or because they have simply become too old and weary to produce and raise the puppies that are demanded of them. A far happier ending awaited this little dog as she was rescued from the nightmare that is puppy farming and brought to safety. This is the moving tale of what life was like for one small dog and why no dog should be allowed to suffer at the hands of humans who value commercial profits more than life itself. This is the story of Susie-Belle and her road to recovery.

The astonishing true story of Beverli Rhodes, child victim of a sick, high-profile paedophilia ring and, years later, of the London Tube Bombings, who rebuilt her life with the help of one very special animal - the horse. Horses saved Beverli Rhodes' mind, and life. As a child, her world consisted of sexually abusive men, and her beautiful saviour horses. She survived to make a life for herself - only to suffer a second, devastating blow when she was caught up in the London Underground bombings of 7 July 2005, in which she was seriously injured. With the British healthcare system failing her, she sought other avenues to cop with severe post-traumatic stress disorder, her recovery directly resulting from contact with horses. She is now able to live a peaceful life, and continues to maintain her strong connection with the animals that helped save her. Moving and at times horrific, The Horse Girl is an extraordinary story of hate redeemed by love, as well as a testament to the triumph of the human spirit over the most terrible adversity.

Starting in the Gobi desert in winter, adventurer Rob Lilwall sets out on an extraordinary six month journey, walking 3,000 miles across China. Along the way he and cameraman Leon brave the toxic insides of China's longest road tunnel, explore desolate stretches of the Great Wall and endure interrogation by the Chinese police. As they walk on through the heart of China, the exuberant hospitality of cave dwellers, coal miners and desert nomads keeps them going despite sub-zero blizzards and treacherous terrain. Rob writes with humour and honesty about the hardships of the walk, reflecting on the nature of pilgrimage and the uncertainties of an adventuring career, while also giving insight into life on the road amid the epic landscapes and rapidly industrialising cities of backwater China.

With one in four adults having been abused or maltreated as a child, Chris Tuck is trying to bring awareness of child abuse and the fact that it's happening behind closed doors in her powerful, new book, 'Through the eyes of a child'. As a child, Chris and her siblings could have wound up being just another statistic of child abuse. For them, it wasn't just one or a few isolated incidents, but a tidal wave of neglect, bullying, starvation and survival. Recent statistics show that nine out of 10 children who have been abused were abused by someone they knew, and this was the case for Chris and her siblings, who were abused by their parents and step-parents. Chris says: "Child abuse never leaves you. You're not supposed to be beaten, touched or starved when you're a child. Mummies and daddies are supposed to love you, not leave you, beat you, or molest your little sister." For many victims of child abuse, they never get over that experience and it will completely change the course of their live. Chris was determined that would never happen to her, and wants to give strength to others who have had the same experience by sharing her story. She says: "No matter what has happened in the past, it doesn't need to dictate your future."

Published to glowing reviews, The Last Mission of the Wham Bam Boys tells the riveting story of a nine-man American bomber crew after they were forced to bail out over Germany in August, 1944. Quickly taken prisoner by a mob of angry farmers, shopkeepers, railroad workers, women, and children, the soldiers were marched into the nearby town of Russelsheim and assaulted with stones, bricks, and wooden clubs before being left for dead at the nearby cemetery. Drawing from trial records, government archives, interviews with family members, and personal letters, author Gregory A. Freeman follows two army officers charged with investigating the murders, and brings to life the dramatic story of how the depravations of war led the citizens of a sleepy German village to commit horrific acts.

Steve Haydock joined the British Army in 1972 aged 15, joining the lnfantry Junior Leaders Battalion, based in Oswestry, Shropshire. On his 18th birthday he arrived in Northern lreland to begin the first of his three tours of duty in the province, with the 1st Battalion of The Queens Lancashire Regiment. He served nine years with the QLR from Northern Ireland to Cyprus to Ghana before becoming a civilian in the mid 1980's. In 1992, after seeing the war unfold in Yugoslavia he left England to join the Croatian Army, to use his experience and skills to help the Croats fight to defend the country and win freedom from the Serbian aggressor. This is his story................