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Books > Fiction > True stories > General
The true story of three men and their dreams for a racehorse – seabiscuit – that symbolised a pivotal moment in American history as modern America was born out of the crucible of the Depression and the dustbowl, as the twentieth centuries greatest nation found the courage to bet on itself to win against the odds. In 1936 the habits of 19th-century America were finally consigned to history just as Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind was published. In their place, modern America was born. But what defined this new era? Nothing more than the story of Seabiscuit, a stunted colt with asymmetrical knees that had for two years been hacked around no-good race tracks which led to permanent leg damage. Yet by 1937 Seabiscuit could draw crowds of 60,000 and had more newspaper column inches devoted to him than Mussolini, Hitler or Roosevelt, his popularity peaking during his appearances at the Santa Anita Handicap. America had gone to the races for the first time since the Depression and fallen in love with a misshapen colt of great character. Now it wanted a winner. Seabiscuit is also the story of three men: Tom Smith, a former Wild West Showman was the trainer; Red Pollard, abandoned by his poverty stricken family at a race track became the rider; and Charles Howard, a pioneer car manufacturer in San Francisco in the 1920s was the owner and financier. These three combined to create the legend of Seabiscuit and epitomise a dream for the emerging new America.
'Frank Tallis brings a lifetime's clinical experience and wise reflection to a condition that, by its own strange routes, leads us into the very heart of love itself. This is a brilliant, compelling book' Ian McEwan Love is a great leveller. Everyone wants love, everyone falls in love, everyone loses love, and everyone knows something of love's madness. But the experience of obsessive love is no trivial matter. In the course of his career psychologist Dr Frank Tallis has treated many unusual patients, whose stories have lessons for all of us. A barristers' clerk becomes convinced that her dentist has fallen in love with her and they are destined to be together for eternity; a widow is visited by the ghost of her dead husband; an academic is besotted with his own reflection; a beautiful woman searches jealously for a rival who isn't there; and a night porter is possessed by a lascivious demon. These are just some of the people whom we meet in an extraordinary and original book that explores the conditions of longing and desire - true accounts of psychotherapy that take the reader on a journey through the darker realms of the amorous mind. Drawing on the latest scientific research into the biological and psychological mechanisms underlying romance and emotional attachment, THE INCURABLE ROMANTIC demonstrates that ultimately love dissolves the divide between what we judge to be normal and abnormal.
Through the years and the struggles, when life seemed more about hurt and loss than hope and mercy, God was positioning the Smiths for something extraordinary--the death and resurrection of their son. When Joyce Smith's fourteen-year-old son John fell through an icy Missouri lake one winter morning, she and her family had seemingly lost everything. At the hospital, John lay lifeless for more than sixty minutes. But Joyce was not ready to give up on her son. She mustered all her faith and strength into one force and cried out to God in a loud voice to save him. Miraculously, her son's heart immediately started beating again. In the coming days, John would defy every expert, every case history, and every scientific prediction. Sixteen days after falling through the ice and being clinically dead for an hour, he walked out of the hospital under his own power, completely healed. BREAKTHROUGH is about a profound truth: prayer really does work. God uses it to remind us that He is always with us, and when we combine it with unshakable faith, nothing is impossible. Previously published as The Impossible.
'The most eccentric golf book ever' Sports and Leisure Magazine Golf's Strangest Rounds is an absorbing collection of bizarre tales from the lengthy annals of the sport's history. There are stories of tragedy, eccentricity, tactical slipups and ones that defy categorization altogether - meet `Mysterious Montague', for example, of the world's best golfers but a man who refused ever to compete in a tournament. You'll find plenty of golfing greats here - Gene Sarazen, Chip Beck, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo - all of whom have played their parts in irrational finishes, record rounds and famous freak shots. The tales within these pages are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious and, most importantly, true. This brand new edition, redesigned in splendid hardback for 2018, is the perfect gift for any golf fanatic. Word count: 45,000
The true story of 2 year-old Anna, abandoned by her natural parents, left alone in a neglected orphanage. Elaine and Ian had travelled half way round the world to adopt little Anna. She couldn't have been more wanted, loved and cherished. So why was she now in foster care and living with me? It didn't make sense. Until I learned what had happened. ... Dressed only in nappies and ragged T-shirts the children were incarcerated in their cots. Their large eyes stared out blankly from emaciated faces. Some were obviously disabled, others not, but all were badly undernourished. Flies circled around the broken ceiling fans and buzzed against the grids covering the windows. The only toys were a few balls and a handful of building bricks, but no child played with them. The silence was deafening and unnatural. Not one of the thirty or so infants cried, let alone spoke.
Weird and wonderful stories about people, places, animals and the supernatural have always fascinated young and old alike. Disasters happen. Accidents occur. Motorcars collide, aeroplanes fall out of the sky, ships sink and nations decline and fall. In the end, all we are left with to mark their passing are the wrecks and ruins they leave behind. Disasters aside, South Africa has also had its fair share of extraordinary people: remote tribes, heroes, ancient forefathers, prophets and modern leaders. The chapters on crimes and schemes, the supernatural and amazing animals also make for fascinating reading, and cast a fascinating new light on some traditional stories and legends.
In 1991, unable to have a second child because of a medical problem and struggling to cope in a failing marriage, New Zealander Adele Rickerby decided to take her future in her hands by adopting a child from Romania. The misguided policies of the recently deposed Ceasescu government on family planning had led to the birth of an estimated 100,000 unwanted babies in that country. The Promise I Kept is Adele's story of her nightmare journey halfway round the world to find and adopt a baby, to negotiate her way through the barriers created by red tape and corrupt officialdom and finally to carry her tiny new daughter safely home to a life where she could be properly loved and cared for.
Page Three model, serially unfaithful, heroin addict. Loving mother, honourable wife, daughter of God. Two lives. One woman. One God. Susie was a rising star of the modelling world. Her image graced TV screens, billboards and magazine covers across the globe. But she was a private failure, addicted to Class A drugs and promiscuously jumping from one broken relationship to another. Then God...A life transformed; a loving Father nurturing and disciplining a wilful, frightened daughter towards healing and reconciliation. A story of God invading the everyday joys and pains of family life. Once a body exposed to shame and lust. Now a life laid bare to tell of the Father's love. 'Joyous and heart-breaking. Shocking but inspirational. The ruthlessly honest, movingly written, self-penned story of Susie, our lifelong friend, and her journey of struggle, redemption and hope.' Steve Chalke, MBE Oasis UK, and Cornelia Chalke 'This is a real story of a real woman with real issues arising from a wounded inner child, but one who is determined to hold on to the Lord and face the issues, one by one, with courage and dedication.' Jennifer Rees Larcombe, Beauty from Ashes 'You will hear elsewhere many tales of a radical change, but this one is told from the hindsight of several decades and offers hope and encouragement to readers who will persevere as she has done.' Anne Coles, New Wine
In April 2021, the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of 39 former Subpostmasters and ruled their prosecutions were an affront to the public conscience. They were just a few of the hundreds who had been prosecuted by the Post Office using IT evidence from an unreliable computer system called Horizon. When the Post Office became aware that Horizon didn't work properly, it covered it up. The Great Post Office Scandal is the story of how these innocent people had their lives ruined by a once-loved national institution and how, against overwhelming odds, they fought back to clear their names. Gripping, heart-breaking and enlightening, The Great Post Office Scandal should be read by everyone who wants to understand how this massive miscarriage of justice was allowed to happen.
There is a war on truth. And the liars are winning. There is an increasingly large number of weapons in the arsenal of the rich, the powerful and the elected to prevent the truth from coming out - to bury it, warp it, twist it to suit their purposes. Truthteller exposes this toolbox of lies and deception, and reveals how governments and corporations have covered-up mass murder, corruption and catastrophe. In a world where Putin and Trump have successfully branded journalists as traffickers in fake news, while promoting the actual creators of fake news, investigative reporter Stephen Davis shows the tools that are used to deceive us and explains why they work. He draws from over three decades as an award-winning reporter, editor, foreign correspondent, television producer, documentary filmmaker, and journalism educator to analyse exclusive documents and interviews. Discover shocking details of deception in media across the globe and learn how to recognise and decode the lies we are told by those in power. Truthteller is an essential guide for understanding the modern media world - for teachers, students and concerned citizens who want to know the facts, not fake news and conspiracy theories. It takes you inside the world of investigative reporting in an intimate history of a reporter's battles, won and lost, the personal and professional costs and the lives damaged along the way.
Chicken Soup for the Soul is a heartwarming collection of tales that will inspire you to live your dreams. The stories demonstrate the best qualities we share as human beings: compassion, grace, forgiveness, generosity and faith and they share a collected wisdom on love, parenting, teaching, death and the overcoming of obstacles. The Chicken Soup series has touched the lives of millions of people worldwide. Discover how your life could be turned around too.
In this breathtaking cultural history filled with exclusive, never-before-revealed details, celebrated rock journalist Joel Selvin tells the definitive story of the Rolling Stones' infamous Altamont concert, the disastrous historic event that marked the end of the idealistic 1960s. In the annals of rock history, the Altamont Speedway Free Festival on December 6, 1969, has long been seen as the distorted twin of Woodstock-the day that shattered the Sixties' promise of peace and love when a concertgoer was killed by a member of the Hells Angels, the notorious biker club acting as security. While most people know of the events from the film Gimme Shelter, the whole story has remained buried in varied accounts, rumor, and myth-until now. Altamont explores rock's darkest day, a fiasco that began well before the climactic death of Meredith Hunter and continued beyond that infamous December night. Joel Selvin probes every aspect of the show-from the Stones' hastily planned tour preceding the concert to the bad acid that swept through the audience to other deaths that also occurred that evening-to capture the full scope of the tragedy and its aftermath. He also provides an in-depth look at the Grateful Dead's role in the events leading to Altamont, examining the band's behind-the-scenes presence in both arranging the show and hiring the Hells Angels as security. The product of twenty years of exhaustive research and dozens of interviews with many key players, including medical staff, Hells Angels members, the stage crew, and the musicians who were there, and featuring sixteen pages of color photos, Altamont is the ultimate account of the final event in rock's formative and most turbulent decade.
Christmas is a time for joyful anticipation and celebration. Does any creature manifest these attitudes better than a dog? Their wagging tails and goofy smiles seem made for the season. Add in breakable decorations, extra sweets in the house, and maybe a little bit of snow and you've got a recipe for fun, laughter, and togetherness. And that's just what you get with The Dog Who Came to Christmas. This collection of true, feel-good holiday stories celebrates the gift of dogs. It's the perfect companion for those magical Christmas evenings in front of the fireplace with your favorite canine companion. It also makes a heartfelt gift for dog-loving friends. Contributors include Lauraine Snelling, Melody Carlson, Amy Shojai, and many more.
In the Sicily of the '50s, still haunted by memories of Fascism and the war, Giuseppe Tomasi, the last Prince of Lampedusa, struggles to complete the novel that will be his lasting legacy, The Leopard. In 1943, an Allied bomb destroyed the Lampedusa palace in Palermo; in 1955, Giuseppe Tomasi is diagnosed with advanced emphysema. Shortly after, profoundly aware of his mortality, he begins work on a novel, imagining the life of his great-grandfather Don Giulio, astronomer prince and head of the family at the time of the Risorgimento. Giuseppe Tomasi is a veteran of the previous war, while his wife Alessandra - 'Licy' - a Baltic German aristocrat, now lives in exile, after her native Latvia was absorbed into the Soviet Union. The childless couple are survivors of a vanishing world of European aristocracy, living in the present yet profoundly aware of the past. Steven Price takes us into the mind of the writer, his memories of war and loss, his complex relationships with his family, and inhabits the heart of a man facing down the end of his life and the end of his line, struggling to make something of lasting worth while there is still time. Achingly haunting and beautifully conceived, Steven Price's Lampedusa tells the intensely moving story of one man's awakening to the possibilities of life, as he nears its end.
'Comfort Food for Breakups' is a beautifully written food memoir with a queer bent in which the author comes to terms with her Ukranian heritage and her lesbian identity by way of their connections to food: as sustenance, as coping mechanisms, as reminders of family history, and as objects of desire.
In Remarkable People, Dan Walker, the host of BBC1's Breakfast, recounts inspiring stories of the courage and selflessness of people he has met throughout his career. An uplifting tonic for the darkness and negativity of recent times. We live in an age of anxiety, besieged by bad news and uncertainty. But Dan Walker, the host of BBC1's Breakfast and Football Focus, is determined to shine a light onto stories of selflessness and compassion that seldom make the headlines. In the course of his professional life, Dan has encountered many inspiring stories of bravery and kindness. In Remarkable People, he recounts tales of incredible humanity, empathy, compassion, and a steely determination to transform lives, restore trust, renew hope. Remarkable People is the perfect book for these challenging times; an escape from the negativity of our everyday news cycle, and a tribute to courage and positivity.
Asked shortly after the revolution about how she viewed the new government, Tatiana Varsher replied, "With the wide-open eyes of a historian." Her countrywoman, Zinaida Zhemchuzhnaia, expressed a similar need to take note: "I want to write about the way those events were perceived and reflected in the humble and distant corner of Russia that was the Cossack town of Korenovskaia." What these women witnessed and experienced, and what they were moved to describe, is part of the extraordinary portrait of life in revolutionary Russia presented in this book. A collection of life stories of Russian women in the first half of the twentieth century, In the Shadow of Revolution brings together the testimony of Soviet citizens and emigres, intellectuals of aristocratic birth and Soviet milkmaids, housewives and engineers, Bolshevik activists and dedicated opponents of the Soviet regime. In literary memoirs, oral interviews, personal dossiers, public speeches, and letters to the editor, these women document their diverse experience of the upheavals that reshaped Russia in the first half of this century. As is characteristic of twentieth-century Russian women's autobiographies, these life stories take their structure not so much from private events like childbirth or marriage as from great public events. Accordingly the collection is structured around the events these women see as touchstones: the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War of 1918-20; the switch to the New Economic Policy in the 1920s and collectivization; and the Stalinist society of the 1930s, including the Great Terror. Edited by two preeminent historians of Russia and the Soviet Union, the volume includes introductions that investigate the social historical context of these women's lives as well as the structure of their autobiographical narratives."
* For 20 years the Loose Women panellists have been entertaining the nation with their forthright opinions on the vagaries of modern life. For the first time, they have come together to share intimate thoughts, fears, memories and anecdotes that are both thought-provoking and entertaining in equal measure. Loose Women: Let Loose! takes on the essential subjects of Love, Sex, Self-Esteem, Friendships, Family, Body Image and Wellness. Whether it is parenting advice from Nadia ('It's important to have a support network when you're a new parent'); Gloria's experience with bereavement ('Losing a child changes you, you can't be the same person'); Coleen's feelings about love ('I do believe there is "the one" - for now'); or Janet's take on mental health ('It doesn't need to be triggered by splitting up or a death, it could be happening in small ways'), there are stories that have never been shared before alongside the show's best bits, making Loose Women: Let Loose! a hilarious and honest guide to handling life's ups and downs as a 21st-century woman.
'inspiring stories ... alongside beautifully illustrated sweet and savoury recipes.' BBC GOOD FOOD '[An] inspiring London bakery ... empowering tales are interspersed with illustrated recipes.' DELICIOUS. Inspirational stories. Irresistible bakes. From the perfect sponge cake to a foolproof focaccia, discover Luminary Bakery in over 70 delicious recipes. A social enterprise founded to support women experiencing disadvantage by teaching them how to bake, it has become a hub of creativity and community. Learn to create their iconic cinnamon buns, perfect pastries or a banoffee birthday cake. From simple bakes to showstoppers, the secrets of each bread, cake or stress-free dessert are accompanied by stories from the Luminary family. Heartwarming, joyful and above all, inspiring, every recipe in this classic collection is a story of Rising Hope.
Huntington's Disease (HD) is a hereditary illness passed on via a defective gene. There is a fifty per cent chance of inheriting it from a parent and there is yet no cure. Learning to Live with Huntington's Disease is one family's poignant story of coping with the symptoms, the diagnosis and the effects of HD. This book presents the struggles and strengths of the whole family when one member loses their future to a terminal illness. Told by the sufferer and other significant family members, the individuals describe the burden of watching yourself and others for symptoms of HD, including involuntary movements, depression, clumsiness, weight loss, slurred speech and sometimes violent tendencies. The family recounts the challenge to remain united and describes how they approached issues such as whether or not to be tested for HD, how much information to disclose to relatives, whether to have children or not and guilt if one sibling inherits the illness and one does not. Both honest and positive, the author stresses the importance of re-inventing yourself and your present, prioritizing relationships and retaining a sense of humor.
'Giles Milton is a man who can take an event from history and make it come alive . . . an inspiration for those of us who believe that history can be exciting and entertaining' Matthew Redhead, The Times Did you know that Hitler took cocaine? That Stalin robbed a bank? That Charlie Chaplin's corpse was filched and held to ransom? Giles Milton is a master of historical narrative: in his characteristically engaging prose, Fascinating Footnotes From History details one hundred of the quirkiest historical nuggets; eye-stretching stories that read like fiction but are one hundred per cent fact. There is Hiroo Onoda, the lone Japanese soldier still fighting the Second World War in 1974; Agatha Christie, who mysteriously disappeared for eleven days in 1926; and Werner Franz, a cabin boy on the Hindenburg who lived to tell the tale when it was engulfed in flames in 1937. Fascinating Footnotes From History also answers who ate the last dodo, who really killed Rasputin and why Sergeant Stubby had four legs. Peopled with a gallery of spies, rogues, cannibals, adventurers and slaves, and spanning twenty centuries and six continents, Giles Milton's impeccably researched footnotes shed light on some of the most infamous stories and most flamboyant and colourful characters (and animals) from history.
What is forgiveness? Are some acts unforgivable? Can forgiveness take the place of revenge? Powerful real-life stories from survivors and perpetrators of crime and violence reveal the true impact of forgiveness on ordinary people worldwide. Exploring forgiveness as an alternative to resentment or retaliation, the storytellers give an honest, moving account of their experiences and what part forgiveness has played in their lives. Despite extreme circumstances, their stories open the door to a society without revenge. All royalties from the sale of this book go to The Forgiveness Project charity.
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