The spectacular, true story of a scrappy teenager from New York's Lower East Side who stowed away on the most remarkable feat of science and daring of the Jazz Age, The Stowaway is "a thrilling adventure that captures not only the making of a man but of a nation" (David Grann, bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon). It was 1928: a time of illicit booze, of Gatsby and Babe Ruth, of freewheeling fun. The Great War was over and American optimism was higher than the stock market. What better moment to launch an expedition to Antarctica, the planet's final frontier? Everyone wanted in on the adventure. Rockefellers and Vanderbilts begged to be taken along as mess boys, and newspapers across the globe covered the planning's every stage. And then, the night before the expedition's flagship set off, Billy Gawronski-a mischievous, first-generation New York City high schooler, desperate to escape a dreary future in the family upholstery business-jumped into the Hudson River and snuck aboard. Could he get away with it? From the soda shops of New York's Lower East Side to the dance halls of sultry Francophone Tahiti, all the way to Antarctica's blinding white and deadly freeze, author Laurie Gwen Shapiro "narrates this period piece with gusto" (Los Angeles Times), taking readers on the "novelistic" (The New Yorker) and unforgettable voyage of a plucky young stowaway who became a Roaring Twenties celebrity, a mascot for an up-by-your bootstraps era.

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER A Divorced Woman. A Dangerous Man. A Devastating Affair. 'You're right. It is totally extraordinary. My life is like a film; you couldn't make it up ... But there's something I have to tell you,' he confided, as he leaned across the table towards me. 'I'm not normal.' Carolyn Woods was living happily in a quiet Cotswolds village when an attractive stranger abruptly arrived in her life. Introducing himself as Mark Conway, he exuded confidence and to her surprise Carolyn quickly became captivated by this mysterious man. A rich Swiss banker (who later confessed to being a spy), he offered Carolyn companionship and introduced her to an exciting, glamorous world. In fact, some things were so astonishing she began to question her new lover. Was all as it seemed? The truth was even harder to believe. For a start, his real name was Mark Acklom, he was wanted by Interpol, and he was rich but for one reason only... A true-crime story that reads like a thriller, Sleeping with a Psychopath is a blow-by-blow account of the power of manipulation and a testament to the human will to survive.

'Extraordinary' Woman&Home A Roaring Girl was loud when she should be quiet, disruptive when she should be submissive, sexual when she should be pure, 'masculine' when she should be 'feminine'. Meet the unsung heroines of British history who refused to play by the rules. Roaring Girls tells the game-changing life stories of eight formidable women whose grit, determination and radical unconventionality saw them defy the odds to forge their own paths. From the notorious cross-dressing thief Mary Frith in the seventeenth century to rebel slave Mary Prince and adventurer, industrialist and LGBT trailblazer Anne Lister in the nineteenth, these diverse characters redefined what a woman could be and what she could do in pre-twentieth-century Britain. Bold, inspiring and powerfully written, Roaring Girls tells the electrifying histories of women who, despite every effort to suppress them, dared to be extraordinary.

The true story of a 6-year-old boy with a dreadful secret. Oskar's school teacher raises the alarm. Oskar's mother is abroad and he has been left in the care of 'friends', but has been arriving in school hungry, unkempt, and with bruises on his arms, legs and body. Experienced foster carer Cathy Glass is asked to look after him, but as the weeks pass her concerns deepen. Oskar is far too quiet for a child of six and is clearly scared of something or someone. And who are those men parked outside his school watching him?

These Are Our Stories is a collection of women's stories, thoughts, and poems about the domestic abuse they have experienced throughout their lives. Transcribed directly from Jan Rosenberg's interviews with eleven women in the Florida panhandle, their histories embody the epidemic of domestic violence in America. The eleven survivors are lower to middle class women of various ethnic orientations, and range in age from their late twenties to mid-sixties. The survivors' stories are clarified with the use of diagrams from The Domestic Abuse Intervention Project (DAIP), and examined as the women re-build their lives hours and days at a time. These Are Our Stories provides two resource guides following the women's interviews. The first guide is adapted for use in north Florida to assist an abused woman in identifying her situation using these eleven women's stories as a thread. The second resource is a brief bibliography of literature and resources for domestic violence victims that can be used throughout the U.S.

A shocking depiction of one of the world's most ruthless regimes - and the story of one woman's fight to survive. I will never forget the camp. I cannot forget the eyes of the prisoners, expecting me to do something for them. They are innocent. I have to tell their story, to tell about the darkness they are in. It is so easy to suffocate us with the demons of powerlessness, shame, and guilt. But we aren't the ones who should feel ashamed. Born in China's north-western province, Sayragul Sauytbay trained as a doctor before being appointed a senior civil servant. But her life was upended when the Chinese authorities incarcerated her. Her crime: being Kazakh, one of China's ethnic minorities. The north-western province borders the largest number of foreign nations and is the point in China that is the closest to Europe. In recent years it has become home to over 1,200 penal camps - modern-day gulags that are estimated to house three million members of the Kazakh and Uyghur minorities. Imprisoned solely due to their ethnicity, inmates are subjected to relentless punishment and torture, including being beaten, raped, and used as subjects for medical experiments. The camps represent the greatest systematic incarceration of an entire people since the Third Reich. In prison, Sauytbay was put to work teaching Chinese language, culture, and politics, in the course of which she gained access to secret information that revealed Beijing's long-term plans to undermine not only its minorities, but democracies around the world. Upon her escape to Europe she was reunited with her family, but still lives under the constant threat of reprisal. This rare testimony from the biggest surveillance state in the world reveals not only the full, frightening scope of China's tyrannical ambitions, but also the resilience and courage of its author.

The most accomplished mountain runner of all time contemplates his record-breaking climb of Mount Everest in this profound and free-flowing memoir-an intellectual and spiritual journey that moves from the earth's highest peak to the soul's deepest reaches. What drives a person to the edge of one of the most difficult and revered mountains in the world? How much is one willing to sacrifice and suffer to pursue an authentic and bold life? The most accomplished mountain runner of all time, Kilian Jornet ponders these questions as he contemplates his record-breaking climb of Mount Everest, exploring the mountain's changing nature over four seasons and his own existence. As he recounts a life spent studying, tending, and ascending the greatest peaks on earth, Jornet ruminates on what he has found in nature-simplicity, freedom, and spiritual joy-and offers a poetic yet clearheaded assessment of his relationship to the mountain . . . at times his opponent, at others, his greatest muse. In this sweeping, soulful journey-the flip side of stories like Into Thin Air-Jornet illuminates with beauty and brilliance what it means to be an athlete, a competitor, and a human facing the greatest life challenges-for him, the mountain he yearns to climb and honour.

A genuinely new Second World War story, The 21 Escapes of Lt Alastair Cram is a riveting account of the wartime exploits of Alastair Cram, brilliantly told by the American author, David Guss. Cram was taken prisoner in North Africa in November 1941, which began a long odyssey through ten different POW camps and three Gestapo prisons. He became a serial escapee – fleeing his captors no fewer than twenty-one times, including his final, and finally successful, escape from a POW column in April 1945.

Perhaps the most dramatic of his attempts was from Gavi, the ‘Italian Colditz’. Gavi was a maximum-security prison near Genoa for the pericolosi, the ‘most dangerous’ inmates because of their perpetual hunger to escape. It was here that Alastair met David Stirling, the legendary founder of the SAS, and cooked up the plan for what would become the ‘Cistern Tunnel’ escape, one of the most audacious but hitherto little-known mass escape attempts of the entire war.

A story of courage in the face of extraordinary odds, it is a testament to one man's dogged determination never to give up.

In 2008, twenty year-old Jonny Benjamin stood on Waterloo Bridge, about to jump. A stranger saw his distress and stopped to talk with him – a decision that saved Jonny's life.

Fast forward to 2014 and Jonny, together with Rethink Mental Illness launch a campaign with a short video clip so that Jonny could finally thank that stranger who put him on the path to recovery. More than 319 million people around the world followed the search. ITV's breakfast shows picked up the story until the stranger, whose name is Neil Laybourn, was found and – in an emotional and touching moment – the pair re-united and have remained firm friends ever since.

The Stranger on the Bridge is a memoir of the journey Jonny made both personally, and publicly to not only find the person who saved his life, but also to explore how he got to the bridge in the first place and how he continues to manage his diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder. Using extracts from diaries Jonny has been writing from the age of thirteen, this book is a deeply personal memoir with a unique insight on mental health.

Jonny was recognised for his work as an influential activist changing the culture around mental health, when he was awarded an MBE in 2017. He and Neil now work full-time together visiting schools, hospitals, prisons and workplaces to help end the stigma by talking about mental health and suicide prevention. The pair ran the London Marathon together in 2017 in aid of HeadsTogether. Following the global campaign to find the stranger, in 2015 Channel 4 made a documentary of Jonny's search which has now been shown in 14 territories.

'It's the finish line, not the finish time.' In the late 80s, our Rachel was having a boss time as a podium dancer at the Pleasuredrome, Birkenhead. Fast forward several years and she's married, with the kids she's always dreamed of, but the body she's always dreaded. To make things worse, her husband Trevor begins to show his true controlling colours and Rachel blames herself, spiralling into depression. Until she discovers running. Buzzing from her epiphany, the 'Forrest Gump of the Mersey' is derided by Trevor, but catches the attention of some local women, all struggling and vulnerable in their own ways. These disparate women persuade Rachel to lead them in a running club, to get a bit of whatever she's on, where they all discover more than the mere chance to shed a few pounds in this burgeoning sisterhood. Dealing with the dark and many faces of depression with a refreshing lightness of touch unique to this working-class woman from the Wirral, Marathon Mum is an uplifting story of the healing to be found in community, and the corners we can turn when we push ourselves across the line.

Risen from the Ashes is one man's memoir of hope and survival during the Holocaust. Having cheated death four times through perseverance, hope, faith, and humor, Hans Cohn vividly narrates his experience from the horrors of the past to spiritual renewal.

The extraordinary true story of the unlikely friendship between three women - Mussolini's daughter, a German spy, and an American socialite - who conspired to assist the Allies. In 1943, Edda Mussolini, daughter of the fascist dictator, gave her father and Hitler an extraordinary ultimatum: release her husband, Italy's former foreign minister, Galeazzo Ciano, from prison, or risk her leaking her husband's incendiary diaries to the press. Instead, Hitler and Mussolini vowed to do everything in their power to destroy the diaries - even if it meant killing Edda. They ordered Hilde Beetz, a German spy, to seduce Ciano in prison in order to learn the diaries' location. But Beetz fell in love with Ciano, and joined forces with Edda to try to save him from execution. When this failed, Edda fled with Hilde's assistance. Upon learning of Edda's escape, US intelligence sent in socialite Frances de Chollet to find Edda and get her to hand over the diaries to the Americans. Against all expectations, what developed was a rich and humanising friendship. With all the twists and turns of a spy thriller, this is the story of three women whose lives were drawn together in one of the most unlikely rescues of the Second World War.

A family with a dark secret. A child who refuses to speak. Rosie must help her before it's too late. Nine-year-old Caitlin has a secret, but she cannot tell anyone about it. When her mother is sectioned under the Mental Health Act she and her three siblings have to go and live with her grandmother Julie and grandad Ryan. Caitlin finds her new living conditions challenging: cat poo on the carpet, rubbish everywhere and the constant stare of her grandad - she retreats more and more into herself. When foster carer Rosie Lewis meets Caitlin she knows something is deeply wrong with this little girl, who is withdrawn, afraid and refuses to speak. Rosie decides to take her in, but Caitlin's silence continues, and Rosie knows she must act. Why is Caitlin so afraid to speak? Could it be that the family has a dark secret? One that is so shocking it can no longer be hidden?

What is the connection between crawling through a jungle and your ‘to do’ list? What can ejecting out of a stealth bomber teach you about the importance of thinking the worst? What can surviving in extreme situations teach us about surviving everyday life?

John Hudson, Chief Survival Instructor to the British Military, knows what it takes to survive. Combining first-hand experience with twenty years of studying the choices people have made under the most extreme pressure, How to Survive is a lifetime’s worth of wisdom about how to apply the principles of survival to everyday life.

The cornerstone of military survival (surviving anything) is understanding the relationship between effort, hope and goals – a mindset that can be transposed anytime, anywhere. In How to Survive you will learn how this template for survival can be applied to any situation in your everyday life. Through gripping first-hand accounts of near disaster and survival stories from across the extreme world you will learn that by following these principles you can develop the mindset that will allow you to make better decisions under pressure, which are as equally applicable to first dates and presentations as to climbing Everest and getting lost at sea.

In 1986, the legendary fell runner Joss Naylor completed a continuous circuit of all 214 Wainwright fells in the Lake District, covering a staggering distance of over 300 miles - plus many thousands of metres of ascent - in only seven days and one hour. Those in the know thought that this record would never be beaten. It is the ultimate British ultramarathon. The person taking on this superhuman challenge would have to be willing to push harder and suffer more than ever before. There is no Map in Hell tells the story of a man willing to do just that. In 2014, Steve Birkinshaw made an attempt at setting a new record. With a background of nearly forty years of running elite orienteering races and extreme-distance fell running over the toughest terrain, if he couldn't do it, surely no one could. But the Wainwrights challenge is in a different league: aspirants need to complete two marathons and over 5,000 metres of ascent every day for a week. With a foreword by Joss Naylor, There is no Map in Hell recounts Birkinshaw's preparation, training and mile-by-mile experience of the extraordinary and sometimes hellish demands he made of his mind and body, and the physiological aftermath of such a feat. His deep love of the fells, phenomenal strength and tenacity are awe inspiring, and testimony to athletes and onlookers alike that 'in order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd'.

A devastating true story of love, betrayal, and deceit. Chrissy: attractive, successful 40-year-old divorcee with three amazing children. Alexander Marc d'Ariken de Rothschild-Hatton: international financier, wealthy, charming and smooth-talking. It's not long before they fall madly in love. With the promise of marriage and a new baby on the way, Chrissy knows she has been given another chance at love. But then Alexander asks for a loan to help him get over a few cash-flow problems. And, before long, GBP500,000 of Chrissy's money has vanished - along with Alexander. After months of detective work, Chrissy finally tracks him down. But the reality of Alexander's true identity is far darker than she ever could have imagined ...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Otto Rosenberg is 9 and living in Berlin, poor but happy, when his family are first detained. All around them, Sinti and Roma families are being torn from their homes by Nazis , leaving behind schools, jobs, friends, and businesses to live in forced encampments outside the city. One by one, families are broken up, adults and children disappear or are 'sent East'. Otto arrives in Auschwitz aged 15 and is later transferred to Buechenwald and Bergen-Belsen. He works, scrounges food whenever he can, witnesses and suffers horrific violence and is driven close to death by illness more than once. Unbelievably, he also joins an armed revolt of prisoners who, facing the SS and certain death, refuse to back down. Somehow, through luck, sheer human will to live, or both, he survives. The stories of Sinti and Roma suffering in Nazi Germany are all too often lost or untold. In this haunting account, Otto shares his story with a remarkable simplicity. Deeply moving, A Gypsy in Auschwitz is the incredible story of how a young Sinti boy miraculously survived the unimaginable darkness of the Holocaust.

THE INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER FEATURING INTERVIEWS WITH DR ANTHONY FAUCI, DAME SALLY DAVIES AND DR JIM DOWN For every doctor there is that one patient, whose story touches them in a way they didn't expect, changing their entire outlook on life. This inspiring and deeply moving book is the story of those patients. Every weekend, in Holland's most popular newspaper, de Volkskrant, renowned science-journalist Ellen de Visser asks a different medical professional to tell her about 'that one patient'; the patient who changed everything for them. Every day, in every country, thousands of patients share their stories with their doctors: stories they may never have told anyone else; stories that are heartbreaking, sometimes funny, and - just occasionally - unforgettable. To be able to do their job to the best of their abilities, medical experts use their 'professional empathy': they sympathize with their patients but try to keep themselves at a distance. But there is always that one patient who, for whatever reason, bridges this distance and often unwittingly, has a lasting impact on their doctor's life. There's the dying patient whose decision to donate their organs would save the lives of five different people, bringing incredible comfort to the family they left behind. Or the little girl who showed clear evidence of having been beaten by an adult, but who remained too loyal to her step-father to say a word. There's the little boy, diagnosed with life-threatening malaria in a Sudanese refugee camp, whose astonishing survival against the odds still inspires their doctor each time they stand by the bed of a child who looks unlikely to make it. And there's the cancer patient whose love of cycling and unflagging optimism inspired his oncologist in ways he could never have imagined. That One Patient is brimming with intimate stories of connection and of the unanticipated ways we can affect one other's lives. All of them remind us of just how extraordinary humans can be, and of our incredible capacity for bravery, strength and humour.

On April 30, 1975, the Hanoi government of North Vietnam took control over the South. South Vietnamese, particularly "intellectuals" and those thought to have been associated with the previous regime, underwent terrible punishment, persecution and "re-education." Seeking their freedom, thousands of South Vietnamese took to the sea in rickety boats, often with few supplies, and faced the dangers of nature, pirates, and starvation. While the sea and its danger claimed many lives, those who made it to the refugee camps still faced struggle and hardships in their quest for freedom. Here are collected the narratives of nineteen men and women who survived the ordeal of escape by sea. Today, they live in the United States as students, professors, entrepreneurs, scientists, and craftspeople who have chosen to tell the stories of their struggles and their triumph. Each narrative is accompanied by biographical information.

'That's what happened, I think, struggling to stay afloat as the ocean pummels me from all sides. I must have blacked out -- exhausted, dehydrated, even a little delirious -- and hit the water. And no one saw it happen.' 'When I heard Brett had fallen overboard, after twelve hours I said, "There's no way anyone can survive longer than that in the ocean - I certainly couldn't do it." This is an incredible, incredible story.' Oscar Chalupsky, Twelve times Molokai Paddleboard World Champion In April 2013, fifty-year-old Brett Archibald was on board a surf-charter boat, making a night-time crossing of the Mentawai Strait off Sumatra, Indonesia. In the middle of a storm, ill with severe food poisoning, Brett was being sick overboard when, for a moment, he blacked out. When he came to, he found himself alone in the raging sea, being spun as if in a washing machine. Sixty miles from shore, Brett saw the lights of his boat disappearing into the darkness. It was very quickly clear that no one had seen him fall, and that no one would hear his shouts for help. He was alone in the ocean. It would be eight hours before his friends realised he was missing. At that point a frantic search began, for a single man hopefully still alive somewhere in thousands of square miles of heaving waves. The Mentawai Strait is remote and the rough weather meant that no planes or helicopters could assist in the search. This is the remarkable story of Brett's ordeal, and his miraculous rescue after twenty-eight hours alone in the ocean; also of his family and friends back home and around the world and the Australian skipper whose sheer doggedness and instinct played such a key role in saving Brett.

*The story that inspired the film Brian Banks* Discover the unforgettable and inspiring true story of a young man who was wrongfully convicted as a teenager and imprisoned for more than five years, only to emerge with his spirit unbroken and determined to achieve his dream of playing in the NFL. At age sixteen, Brian Banks was a nationally recruited All-American Football player, ranked eleventh in the nation as a linebacker. Before his seventeenth birthday, he was in jail, awaiting trial for a heinous crime he did not commit. Although Brian was innocent, his attorney advised him that as a young black man accused of rape, he stood no chance of winning his case at trial. Especially since he would be tried as an adult. Facing a possible sentence of forty-one years to life, Brian agreed to take a plea deal-and a judge sentenced him to six years in prison. At first, Brian was filled with fear, rage, and anger as he reflected on the direction his life had turned and the unjust system that had imprisoned him. Brian was surrounded by darkness, until he had epiphany that would change his life forever. From that moment on, he made the choice to shed the bitterness and anger he felt, and focus only on the things he had the power to control. He approached his remaining years in prison with a newfound resolve, studying spirituality, improving his social and writing skills, and taking giant leaps on his journey toward enlightenment. When Brian emerged from prison with five years of parole still in front of him, he was determined to rebuild his life and finally prove his innocence. Three months before his parole was set to expire, armed with a shocking recantation from his accuser and the help of the California Innocence Project, the truth about his unjust incarceration came out and he was exonerated. Finally free, Brian sought to recapture a dream once stripped away: to play for the NFL. And at age twenty-eight, he made that dream come true. Perfect for fans of Just Mercy, I Beat the Odds, and Infinite Hope, this powerful memoir is a deep dive into the injustices of the American justice system, a soul-stirring celebration of the resilience of the human spirit, and an inspiring call to hold fast to our dreams.

Born in a prison and removed from his drug-dependent mother, rejection is all that 7-year-old Alex knows. When Cathy is asked to foster little Alex, aged 7, her immediate reaction is: Why can't he stay with his present carers for the last month? He's already had many moves since coming into care as a toddler and he'll only be with her a short while before he goes to live with his permanent adoptive family. But the present carers are expecting a baby and the foster mother isn't coping, so Alex goes to live with Cathy. He settles easily and is very much looking forward to having a forever family of his own. The introductions and move to his adoptive family go well. But Alex is only with them for a week when problems begin. What happens next is both shocking and upsetting, and calls into question the whole adoption process.

'[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