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Books > Fiction > True stories > Endurance & survival
Two sisters. One extraordinary true story. Germany, 1945. Trapped
between advancing armies, stranded hundreds of miles from their
mother, and with their father missing in action, sisters Barbie and
Eva were confronted with an impossible choice. Should they stay and
face invasion or risk their lives to find their mother? Together,
they set out on a perilous three-hundred mile journey on foot
across a country ravaged by war. Fuelled by courage and love, Eva
and seven-year-old Barbie encounter incredible hardship,
extraordinary bravery, and overwhelming generosity. Against all
odds, they both survived. But neither sister came out of the
journey unscathed . . . This is the powerful true story of their
escape.
Vintage Feminism: classic feminist texts in short form WITH AN
INTRODUCTION BY JESS PHILLIPS Soldier, criminal, militant,
hooligan, revolutionary: these labels Emmeline Pankhurst took up
and wore proudly in her long struggle for women's suffrage. This
shortened edition of her autobiography tells the inside story of
this struggle: the tireless campaigning, the betrayals by men in
power, the relentless round of arrests and hunger strikes, the
horror of force-feeding. It is a reminder of the controversial
means, the indomitable spirit and the sacrifices of life and
liberty by which women won their political freedom. ALSO IN THE
VINTAGE FEMINIST SHORTS SERIES: The Second Sex by Simone de
Beauvoir A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary
Wollstonecraft The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf A Room of One's Own by
Virginia Woolf
A thrilling account of two friends kayaking 1000 miles though the
Inside Passage of BC and southeast Alaska. This is a story of
exploration and adventure, with rough seas, calving glaciers, bear
encounters and persistently bad weather. But equally enjoyable is
the story of this dramatic and culturally rich region, which the
author weaves fluidly throughout the book. With flowing prose and
non-technical language, the author provides a fundamental
understanding of the area's rain forest, glaciers, wildlife and
both past and present cultures. In addition to maps, instructive
sidebars offer further information and tips about the many issues
that arise while discovering the beauty and danger of this region.
History buffs will like the many stories about the Pacific
Northwest's early explorers; sea kayakers will benefit from the
kayaking information; wilderness adventure buffs will be inspired
by the exciting tale of paddling the Inside Passage. This book is
sure to appeal to many and be enjoyed by all.
In Shackleton's Forgotten Men Lennard Bickel honours the memory of a group of men who carried out some of the most heroic and devoted journeys ever made in the Antarctic. This is the stirring account of the little-known, tragic expedition launched by Ernest Shackleton in 1915 to provide support for his own Antarctic expedition that would follow.These journeys were made to set up depots across the Great Ice Shelf to supply the coming Shackleton expedition: a crossing of the Antarctic continent from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. But the group lost their ship and supplies when a fierce polar gale ripped the ship from its moorings, and had to haul sledges almost 2000 miles across the hostile interior of the Antarctic. Despite enduring unimaginable deprivation, from bad weather to disease and madness, this heroic band accomplished their mission, laying the way for Shackleton and his men. But Shackleton and his men never came and the drama of their own disastrous journey has until now overshadowed the extraordinary story of those brave men who came before them. Lennard Bickel tells the story of these forgotten heroes in a gripping account, drawing largely from interviews with one team member, Dick Richards, and from the diary of another. This new account underscores the capacity of ordinary men for tragedy, endurance and noble action.
Aisling Creegan's childhood was dominated by an abusive, alcoholic
mother, who tortured her at every turn. From insults through
beatings and being threatened with a butcher's knife, Aisling
endured unthinkable suffering at the hands of the woman who should
have loved her unconditionally. Yet in the midst of this trauma,
Aisling was able to rely on the one person she knew she could trust
- herself. Possessed of an incredible imagination and remarkable
resilience, Aisling found escape in the little things in life:
lying in a field on a sunny day; drawing; Matchbox cars; and her
teddy bear, Panda. Aisling's power to imagine an alternative world
enabled her to hold on and make it to adolescence and the freedom
she had longed for since childhood. But the scars of the past take
time to heal, and when Aisling suffered a breakdown it took her on
a surprising path to freedom - and forgiveness. I Am Someone is an
extraordinary memoir about female cruelty, and ultimately female
strength and endurance. 'Searingly honest ... brings you straight
into the inner world of someone pushed to the limits' Lynn Ruane
In STORMS OF SILENCE Joe Simpson recalls the severe snowstorm which put an end to an attempt with four others on Gangchempo and the infection which forced him to abandon the climb on Cho Oyu in tibet. During that expedition he has a disturbing encounter with a party of political refugees and a 4-year-old boy fleeing across the Tibetan border. He becomes obsessed with stories of Chinese brutality in the old world Tibet they overran by force 40 years ago. He also begins to question the ethic of playing rich men's games in Third World countries, contributing little to the local people who endure a fearful struggle to survive. Oppression abroad makes him see mindless violence in his home town of Sheffield in a new light. The books ends with his first trip to the Andes in Peru since TOUCHING THE VOID.
'I was nine and the big sister. I wanted to keep her safe. He
basically promised me that if I let him abuse me, he wouldn't touch
my sister again.' Debbie Grafham's childhood had been far from
normal, but when she was just nine years old her life changed
forever. Debbie discovered that her neighbour was abusing her
younger sister, Laraine - and there was a price to pay to make him
stop. Alone and scared, she made a decision that was to haunt her
life, and send her spiralling out of control. But after nearly
forty years of harbouring her shocking secret, Debbie found the
courage to tell her sister and together they made the decision to
fight for justice.
'I was the shadow child no one ever saw...' From the day she was
born until she escaped aged 30, Katy Morgan-Davies knew nothing but
a life in captivity. Her father was the deluded and cruel leader of
a cult based in South London who brainwashed those around him. Her
father's paranoia and his need to completely control others led to
Katy being imprisoned indoors and denied any kind of love or
friendship. From a young age, Katy's father subjected her to
violence and mental abuse. She was not permitted contact with
anyone outside the house and on the rare occasions she did have to
go out, she was always chaperoned. Katy never gave up hope of one
day breaking free from her father's cruel clutches and finally
found her freedom. This is her true story of endurance and
survival.
Torn from her South African tribe by Dutch settlers, sold as a
slave, trapped in a world of debauchery and trickery, humiliated
whilst living in early 19th century London and Paris, Sarah
Bartmann clings desperately to her beliefs, and to the memories of
her native land. Exile Child is more than just her story. It is a
tale of hope, of courage beyond human endurance, of the power of
the human spirit, of a young woman who refuses to give in to the
alien world into which she has been so violently thrust. Exile
Child is a historically correct and compassionate portrayal of one
of South Africa's most tragic heroines This story gives an insight
into the hopes and dreams of this Sarah Bartmann, who through past
centuries has come to symbolise both the dispossession of Africans
and the reinstatement of women's dignity. This flesh and blood
portrayal of Sarah Bartmann is in direct contrast to the caricature
presented as "The Hottentot Venus," that has been characterised by
Western society for many centuries and this book follows Sarah's
final journey back to her homeland in 2002.
The Award-winning International Bestselling Story of One Man's Six Year Detention in Australia
In 2013, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani sought asylum in Australia but was instead illegally imprisoned in the country’s most notorious detention centre on Manus Island. He has been there ever since. This book is the result.
Behrouz Boochani spent nearly five years typing passages of this book one text at a time from a secret mobile phone in prison. Compiled and translated from Farsi, they form an incredible story of how escaping political persecution in Iran, he ended up trapped as a stateless person. This vivid, gripping portrait of his years of incarceration and exile shines devastating light on the fates of so many people as borders close around the world.
No Friend but the Mountains is both a brave act of witness and a moving testament to the humanity of all people, in the most extreme of circumstances.
'A brilliant book. No Friend but the Mountains can rightly take its place on the shelf of world prison literature . . . It is a profound victory for a young poet who showed us all how much words can still matter.' - Richard Flanagan, Booker Prize winning author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Born a bastard to a teenage mother in the slums of 1950s Dublin,
Martha has to be a fighter from the very start. As her mother moves
from man to man, and more children follow, they live hand-to-mouth
in squalid, freezing tenements, clothed in rags and forced to beg
for food. But just when it seems things can't get any worse, her
mother meets Jackser. Despite her trials, Martha is a child with an
irrepressible spirit and a wit beyond her years. She tells the
story of her early life without an ounce of self-pity and manages
to recreate a lost era in which the shadow of the Catholic Church
loomed large and if you didn't work, you didn't eat. Martha never
stops believing she is worth more than the hand she has been dealt,
and her remarkable voice will remain with you long after you've
finished the last line.
Joe Simpson has experienced a life filled with adventure but marred by death. He has endured the painful attrition of climbing friends in accidents, calling into question the perilously exhilarating activity to which he has devoted his life. Probability is inexorably closing in. The tragic loss of a close friend forces a momentous decision upon him. It is time to turn his back on the mountains that he has loved. Never more alive than when most at risk, he has come to see a last climb on the hooded, mile-high North Face of the Eiger as the cathartic finale. In a narrative which takes the reader through extreme experiences, from an avalanche in Bolivia, ice-climbing in the Alps and Colorado and paragliding in Spain - before his final confrontation with the Eiger - Simpson reveals the inner truth of climbing, exploring both the power of the mind and the frailties of the body. The subject of his new book is the siren song of fear and his struggle to come to terms with it.
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