Amit Patel is working as a trauma doctor when a rare condition causes him to lose his sight within thirty-six hours. Totally dependent on others and terrified of stepping outside with a white cane after he's assaulted, he hits rock bottom. He refuses to leave home on his own for three months. With the support of his wife Seema he slowly adapts to his new situation, but how could life ever be the way it was? Then his guide dog Kika comes along . . .

But Kika’s stubbornness almost puts her guide dog training in jeopardy – could her quirky personality be a perfect match for someone? Meanwhile Amit has reservations – can he trust a dog with his safety? Paired together in 2015, they start on a journey, learning to trust each other before taking to the streets of London and beyond. The partnership not only gives Amit a renewed lease of life but a new best friend. Then, after a video of an irate commuter rudely asking Amit to step aside on an escalator goes viral, he sets out with Kika by his side to spread a message of positivity and inclusivity, showing that nothing will hold them back.

From the challenges of travelling when blind to becoming a parent for the first time, Kika & Me is the moving, heart-warming and inspirational story of Amit’s sight-loss journey and how one guide dog changed his world.

Karel Kuttelwascher may have had a German surname, but he was a Czech who became the scourge of the Luftwaffe bombers operating from France and the Low Countries in 1942. Flying with the RAF's legendary No. 1 Squadron, his destruction of fifteen aircraft in only three months earned him the DFC twice in a mere forty-two days, and made him the RAF's top night intruder ace. After his daring escape from German-occupied Czechoslovakia, he flew in the ferocious Battle of France and participated in the final weeks of the Battle of Britain as one of Churchill's 'Few'. During the early circus operations, he clocked up his first three kills before playing a part in the famous Channel Dash. However, it was in the lauded but lonely night intruder role that his individualistic skills came to the fore. Flying a long-range Hawker Hurricane IIC armed with 20-mm cannon, the man the wartime media dubbed the 'Czech Night Hawk' unleashed a reign of terror that included shooting down three Heinkel bombers in just four minutes.

In her bestselling book Slave Girl, Sarah Forsyth told of her terrible ordeal as a young woman sex-trafficked from England to the Red Light District of Amsterdam - and of her dramatic escape from forced prostitution. But Sarah's journey from the dark back into light was far from over. Still addicted to drugs and drink, she struggled to cope with life, with love and with the marriage she desperately hoped would bring her happiness. It would take three more long and painful years to be rid of the terrible after-effects of sex slavery. But as she fought her draining battle to survive, Sarah came to realise that there was something she needed to do. It was a decision that would take her back into the modern scandal of sex trafficking - and back into the hell of Amsterdam's Red Light District. Now Sarah tells the incredible story of her very personal mental journey to find goodness within herself - and the shocking and painful physical journey to find the sex slaves she left behind. Both are journeys which will take all the strength, courage and love that she has. But if she is to survive, they are journeys she must make.

In October 1991, three weather systems collided off the coast of Nova Scotia to create a storm of singular fury, boasting waves over one hundred feet high. Among its victims was the Gloucester, Massachusetts-based swordfishing boat the Andrea Gail, which vanished with all six crew members aboard. "Drifting down on swimmers is standard rescue procedure, but the seas are so violent that Buschor keeps getting flung out of reach. There are times when he's thirty feet higher than the men trying to rescue him. . . . [I]f the boat's not going to Buschor, Buschor's going to have to go to it. SWIM! they scream over the rail. SWIM! Buschor rips off his gloves and hood and starts swimming for his life." It was the storm of the century, boasting waves over one hundred feet high a tempest created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologists deemed it "the perfect storm." When it struck in October 1991, there was virtually no warning. "She's comin' on, boys, and she's comin' on strong," radioed Captain Billy Tyne of the Andrea Gail off the coast of Nova Scotia, and soon afterward the boat and its crew of six disappeared without a trace. In a book taut with the fury of the elements, Sebastian Junger takes us deep into the heart of the storm, depicting with vivid detail the courage, terror, and awe that surface in such a gale. Junger illuminates a world of swordfishermen consumed by the dangerous but lucrative trade of offshore fishing, "a young man's game, a single man's game," and gives us a glimpse of their lives in the tough fishing port of Gloucester, Massachusetts; he recreates the last moments of the Andrea Gail crew and recounts the daring high-seas rescues that made heroes of some and victims of others; and he weaves together the history of the fishing industry, the science of storms, and the candid accounts of the people whose lives the storm touched, to produce a rich and informed narrative. The Perfect Storm is a real-life thriller that will leave readers with the taste of salt air on their tongues and a sense of terror of the deep.

Isolated and terrifyingly cold, the South Pole is every adventurer's dream and every adventurer's nightmare. In a bid to carry messages of peace to speak out at the Pole to help the harmony of the Earth, Tess and partner Pete would venture to the very end of the world. They join the historic South Pole Race, to compete with the likes of Olympic champion James Cracknell and Ben Fogle in the first race to the South Pole since Scott and Amundsen. To complete this mission they would have to battle severe medical problems, lack of money, hardship and deprivation. For Tess it was more than combating cold hands with a warm heart, it was a journey to push out the reaches of the human mind.

Looking back at the lives and sailing careers of some of our lifetime's finest yachtsmen, this collection of eleven original, moving accounts is just as much a celebration of the good - tales of hope, achievement and courageous spirit - as it is an account of their tragic final voyages. Included are world-renowned racers, like Eric Tabarly and Rob James, highly experienced cruisers and adventurers, like Peter Tangvald and Bill Tilman, and the notoriously ill-prepared Donald Crowhurst, as well as other famous and some less well-known sailors. Starting with the sad loss of Frank Davison and Reliance in 1949, the book concludes with the amazing last voyage of Philip Walwyn in 2015 - crossing the Atlantic single-handed in his 12 Metre yacht Kate. All of the men and women described were friends with or known to the author, Nicholas Gray, who himself competed in several short-handed long distance races, where he met and raced against many of these fascinating characters. Peppered with photographs showcasing the sailors and their yachts, this is a refreshing look at those who have helped to shape this sport's history, honouring their lives and accomplishments before detailing their tragic last voyages.

'[The Gulag Archipelago] helped to bring down an empire. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated' Doris Lessing, Sunday Telegraph WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY JORDAN B. PETERSON A vast canvas of camps, prisons, transit centres and secret police, of informers and spies and interrogators but also of everyday heroism, The Gulag Archipelago is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's grand masterwork. Based on the testimony of some 200 survivors, and on the recollection of Solzhenitsyn's own eleven years in labour camps and exile, it chronicles the story of those at the heart of the Soviet Union who opposed Stalin, and for whom the key to survival lay not in hope but in despair. A thoroughly researched document and a feat of literary and imaginative power, this edition of The Gulag Archipelago was abridged into one volume at the author's wish and with his full co-operation. 'Solzhenitsyn's masterpiece...The Gulag Archipelago helped create the world we live in today' Anne Applebaum THE OFFICIALLY APPROVED ABRIDGEMENT OF THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO VOLUMES I, II & III

For the most part, there was nothing particularly unusual about Jean Potter 's life. Going right to work after graduating from high school, she spent most of her career as an executive assistant in several large New York-based companies. In fact, she was working for the managing director of Bank of America in its offices on the eighty-first floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

By the Grace of God is Jean 's story from her upbringing in Brooklyn, New York, to her jobs as assistant to several high-level executives, to her courtship and marriage to a New York City fireman, to setting up a home in Battery Park City, to that horrific day when she and her co-workers had to make their way down eighty-one flights of stairs in a desperate effort to escape the collapse of the North Tower. It 's the story, too, of her husband, Dan, seeing flames erupting from the World Trade Center, and racing from Staten Island to Manhattan determined to help her, but, recognizing his duty as a fireman, stopping to help others even while he anguished over his wife 's fate.

It 's also the story of the extraordinary effect living through that day had on both of their lives having to cope with the effects of post traumatic stress disorder; moving because they could no longer live in a home haunted by three thousand ghosts; giving up their jobs, Jean because she could no longer bear working in New York City and Dan because he d been hurt in the collapse of the South Tower; and having to leave the city they had grown up in and loved. Perhaps most important, By the Grace of God is the story of how their faith enabled them to come to terms with their experience and to find a new life of love, hope, and healing.

The Sunday Times bestseller, Making It is an inspirational memoir about beating the odds and turning things around even when it all seems hopeless, by Jay Blades, the beloved star of hit BBC One show The Repair Shop. We had our hardships, and there were times that we didn't have a lot of food and didn't have a lot of money. But that didn't stop me having the time of my life. In his book, Jay shares the details of his life, from his childhood growing up sheltered and innocent on a council estate in Hackney, to his adolescence when he was introduced to violent racism at secondary school, to being brutalized by police as a teen, to finally becoming the presenter of the hit primetime show The Repair Shop. Jay reflects on strength, weakness and what it means to be a man. He questions the boundaries society places on male vulnerability and how letting himself be nurtured helped him flourish into the person he is today. An expert at giving a second life to cherished items, Jay's positivity, pragmatism and kindness shine through these pages and show that with care and love, anything can be mended.

When German troops come to the small village of Belzyce, Poland, in 1939, nine-year-old Jakub Szabmacher's world is forever changed. At first the humiliations inflicted by the Germans seem small, but the conditions worsen until eventually Jakub's family and much of his village are murdered, and he is sent to various concentration camps in Poland and Germany, where he struggles to survive the terrible conditions of camp life. Finally liberated in 1945 from the concentration camp in Flossenburg, Germany, Jakub is befriended by American troops and with their help brought to the United States, where he takes the name Jack Terry. Coauthor Alicia Nitecki, whose grandfather was also imprisoned at Flossenburg, uses Terry's personal memories to tell young Jakub's story, as well as unpublished memoirs, private letters, and interviews with former inmates of the Flossenburg concentration camp and the townspeople of Belzyce and Flossenburg. Part history, part autobiography. "Jakub's World offers an anguished young boy's perspective on the Holocaust.

A stunning story of heroism and survival during World War II. The book that inspired the international film of the same name. "A must-read .... Intrigue, suspense, and adventure."-The Norwegian American "I remember reading We Die Alone in 1970 and I could never forget it. Then when we went to Norway to do a docudrama, people told us again and again that certain parts were pure fiction. Since I was a Norwegian that was not good enough; I had to find the truth. I sincerely believe we did," writes author Astrid Karlsen Scott. The 12th Man is the true story of Jan Baalsrud, whose struggle to escape the Gestapo and survive in Nazi-occupied Norway has inspired the international film of the same name. In late March 1943, in the midst of WWII, four Norwegian saboteurs arrived in northern Norway on a fishing cutter and set anchor in Toftefjord to establish a base for their operations. However, they were betrayed, and a German boat attacked the cutter, creating a battlefield and spiraling Jan Baalsrud into the adventure of his life. The only survivor and wounded, Baalsrud begins a perilous journey to freedom, swimming icy fjords, climbing snow-covered peaks, enduring snowstorms, and getting caught in a monstrous avalanche. Suffering from snow blindness and frostbite, more than sixty people of the Troms District risk their lives to help Baalsrud to freedom. Meticulously researched for more than five years, Karlsen Scott and Haug bring forth the truth behind this captivating, edge-of-your-seat, real-life survival story.

The international bestseller. From the Sunday Times bestselling author Beezy Marsh, comes a moving true story of two women fighting to survive scandal, poverty and war. When Annie marries Harry after years of heartache in a London slum she believes she's found her happy ever after. But the horrors of the Blitz soon threaten everything they hold dear. The terrible sights Harry witnesses as an air raid warden bring back traumatic memories of his time during the First World War. Suddenly Annie finds herself struggling to cope not only with life in wartime and two little children, but also with a husband who seems like a stranger. Kitty has always been protective of her little brother Harry. Hiding the scandal about their father from the world was the only way to survive as they were growing up in Newcastle. But when she discovers Harry too has a shocking secret, she is torn. Meanwhile Annie wonders why Harry refuses to discuss his life before their marriage and why she has never met his sister. Will the truth ever come to light? From the bombed-out terraces of London to the docks of Newcastle, Her Father's Daughter is Beezy Marsh's moving and poignant true story about the unbreakable bonds of family, and the power of love to heal the worst wounds.

Wheat Songs is a memoir of two interconnected Greek-American journeys-an actual physical journey for the grandfather, Pericles Rizopoulos, and a philosophical quest by the author, Perry Giuseppe Rizopoulos. When the grandfather, Pericles Rizopoulos, a proud old man, tells his fascinating, tragic and true stories of the Nazi occupation of Greece during World War II and the following Greek Civil War, to his 20-something grandson, Perry Giuseppe Rizopoulos, Perry's philosophical reflections on his grandfather's stories along with his own memories of growing up in his extended Greek/Italian/American family in the Bronx combine to create an enduring story about the strength created by a strong, tightly-knit family and the powerful values passed down from generation to generation.

Wheat Songs is a memoir of two interconnected Greek-American journeys-an actual physical journey for the grandfather, Pericles Rizopoulos, and a philosophical quest by the author, Perry Giuseppe Rizopoulos. When the grandfather, Pericles Rizopoulos, a proud old man, tells his fascinating, tragic and true stories of the Nazi occupation of Greece during World War II and the following Greek Civil War, to his 20-something grandson, Perry Giuseppe Rizopoulos, Perry's philosophical reflections on his grandfather's stories along with his own memories of growing up in his extended Greek/Italian/American family in the Bronx combine to create an enduring story about the strength created by a strong, tightly-knit family and the powerful values passed down from generation to generation.

'There is always hope, even when we cannot seem to seek it within ourselves.' From the best advice you'll ever get to the joy of crisps, the brilliant contributors to The Book of Hope will help you to find joy whenever you need it most. These 101 key voices in the field of mental health - including the likes of Lemn Sissay, Dame Kelly Holmes, Hussain Manawer, Frank Turner, Joe Wicks and Elizabeth Day - share not only their experiences with anxiety, psychosis, panic attacks and more, but also what helps them when they are feeling low. Award-winning mental health campaigner Jonny Benjamin, MBE, and co-editor Britt Pfluger bring together people from all walks of life - actors, musicians, athletes, psychologists and activists - to share what gives them hope. This joyful collection is a supportive hand to anyone looking to find light on a dark day and shows that, no matter what you may be going through, you are not alone. Jonny Benjamin is known for his book and documentary film, The Stranger on the Bridge, which fought to end stigma around talking about mental health, suicidal thoughts and schizoaffective disorder. When his campaign to find the man who prevented him from taking his own life went viral, Jonny was one of a wave of new figures lifting the lid on mental health struggles. In this book, he brings together a range of voices to speak to the spectrum of our experiences of mental health and the power of speaking up and seeking help.

**Soon to be a major film starring Game of Thrones' Sophie Turner - Girl Who Fell From the Sky** On December 24th 1971, the teenage Juliane boarded the packed flight in Peru to meet her father for Christmas. She and her mother fought to get some of the last seats available and felt thankful to have made the flight. The LANSA airplane flew into a heavy thunderstorm and went down in dense Amazon jungle hundreds of miles from civilization. She fell two miles from the sky, still strapped to her plane seat, into the jungle. She was the sole survivor among the 92 passengers, which included her mother. Juliane's unexplainable survival has been called a modern-day miracle. With incredible courage, instinct and ingenuity, she crawled and walked alone for 11 days in the green hell of the Amazon. She survived using the skills she'd learned in assisting her parents on their research trips into the jungle before coming across a loggers hut, and, with it, safety. Now she tells her fascinating story for the first time and shares not only the private moments of her survival and rescue but her inspiring life in the wake of the disaster.

The evil thugs of Idi Amin's Uganda and the fanatical bombers and machine-gun-toting terrorists of Mumbai make The Crocodile's Teeth a gripping tale of one man's survival and resourcefulness set against a background of tyranny, terror and hardship on two continents. Sam Thaker was born to Indian immigrant parents in Uganda in the days when it was one of the most beautiful, fertile and contented countries in the world. Then Idi Amin swept to power, and under his tyranny Sam's paradise became a hell on Earth. Having been forced by Amin's thugs to give up their home, Sam's thriving airline cargo business and most of their money and possessions, he and his family began a new life in England as near-penniless refugees. But Sam was a survivor. Ignoring his bank manager's patronising advice to open a corner shop, he decided instead to build on his experience in the cargo business to start up a London-based air freight company. Realising the immense potential of the Indian import market, he returned to the land of his fathers to build an international company which eventually opened offices in eight Indian cities. Along the way he and his wife were caught up in the wave of terrorism which struck Bombay in 1993 and again in 2008, and narrowly escaped the floods which struck the city in 2005 and drowned more than 5000 people. The Crocodile's Teeth is a fascinating portrait of survival and resourcefulness against a background of tyranny and terror on two continents.