'Since I was a child, I've been interested in dead bodies. When I was eight years old, I dug up the remains of my pet budgie Zazbut. He had been buried for about eight weeks in a patch of grass outside our house in Dasmarinas, a fortified village in Manila, in the Philippines. 'The first exhumation was the beginning of my intrigue with death, which has persisted. As a journalist, I've written about graveyards, funerals and death doulas. I always visit the local cemetery wherever I am in the world. But one thing that has largely been hidden from me in this death trip is the dead body.' Dissection might not be a normal topic to contemplate but when both your paternal grandparents donate their bodies to science it does intermittently cross your mind. This is the story of how Jackie Dent's grandparents-Ruby and Julie-gave their bodies to science when they died. No one in her family seems to know why, or what really happened with their bodies afterwards. Were they avid science buffs? Was it to save on cremation costs? How do scientists tackle the practicalities and ethics of cutting up the dead for research? And who are body donors generally? Weaving the personal with the history of anatomy and the dissected, Jackie Dent explores the world of whole-body donation - all the while looking for answers as to what happened to her grandparents.

The unsung hero of the equestrian world is the riding school horse or pony. Whether you are an Olympic showjumper, a long-distance riding competitor, a horse racing jockey or a mum who plods out on a Sunday, you most likely began your career on a riding school horse. Tippy joined my riding school in 2005. This is her true story.

The stakes are never higher when the charge is murder…

Explore the riveting twists and turns of some of the most notorious and controversial murder trials in history, such as the O. J. Simpson, Phil Spector, and Oscar Pistorius cases.

Each of the trials detailed in this book—the latest in DK's highly successful series of true crime investigations—dominated the world's news media and gripped public attention. After examining the evidence, if you had been a member of the jury, what would have been your verdict? Guilty? Or Not Guilty?

Can you imagine an all powerful group, that knows no national boundaries, above the laws of all countries, one that controls every aspect of politics, religion, commerce and industry, banking, insurance, mining, the drug trade, the petroleum industry, a group answerable to no one but its members? That there is such a body, called 'the committee of 300' is graphically told in this book. Once you have read the applying truths contained in this book, understanding past and present political, economic, social and religious events will no longer be a problem. This powerful account of the forces ranged against the US, and indeed the entire free world, cannot be ignored.

'Swan Dive is to ballet what Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential was to restaurants, a chance to go behind the serene front of house to the sweaty, foul-mouthed, psychofrenzy backstage.' Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times Award-winning New York City Ballet soloist Georgina Pazcoguin, aka the Rogue Ballerina, gives readers a backstage tour of the real world of elite ballet - the gritty, hilarious, sometimes shocking truth you don't see from the orchestra circle. In this love letter to the art of dance and the sport that has been her livelihood, NYCB's first Asian American female soloist Georgina Pazcoguin lays bare her unfiltered story of leaving small-town Pennsylvania for New York City and training amid the unique demands of being a hybrid professional athlete/artist, all before finishing high school. She pitches us into the fascinating, whirling shoes of dancers in one of the most revered ballet companies in the world with an unapologetic sense of humour about the cutthroat, survival-of-the-fittest mentality at NYCB. Some swan dives are literal: even in the ballet, there are plenty of face-plants, backstage fights, late-night parties, and raucous company bonding sessions. Rocked by scandal in the wake of the #MeToo movement, NYCB sits at an inflection point, inching toward progress in a strictly traditional culture, and Pazcoguin doesn't shy away from ballet's dark side. She continues to be one of the few dancers openly speaking up against the sexual harassment, mental abuse, and racism that in the past went unrecognized or was tacitly accepted as par for the course - all of which she has painfully experienced firsthand. Tying together Pazcoguin's fight for equality in the ballet with her infectious and deeply moving passion for her craft, Swan Dive is a page-turning, one-of-a-kind account that guarantees you'll never view a ballerina or a ballet the same way again.

'I knew dogs could make a difference to the children's lives. I knew it the moment I watched a little boy, exhausted by pain and sickness, stretch out his hand to touch my dog's paw, and then...he smiled.' Lyndsey Uglow has endured and overcome mental health challenges and much personal pain, including her young son's battle with Leukaemia. Lyndsey knows only too well the emotional rollercoaster experienced by parents supporting their children through critical illness, but she also knows just how much the company of dogs can alleviate just some of their worry and pain. The healing bond with dogs that helped her, she now shares with others - in the shape of a dynasty of exceptional Golden Retrievers, including the incredible Leo. Since 2012, Lyndsey has made it possible for therapy dogs to visit more than 10,000 children, many critically ill, bringing smiles of simple joy and a sense of normality to lives ruled by pain, sadness and uncertainty in paediatric intensive care, cancer wards and palliative care. Leo has also faced his own battles. After suffering a serious injury on a beach run, he was saved by a pioneering technique which restored him to full health for the sake of the children who were missing him so much. This is Lyndsey and Leo's story and how they have brought the extraordinary healing powers of dogs to others; while sharing the stories of just some of the thousands of children for whom a soft paw or wet nose has brought comfort, care, laughter and joy at the darkest of times.

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.

"An engrossing microcosm of the internet's Wild West years" (Kirkus Reviews), award-winning journalist David Kushner tells the incredible battle between the founder of Match.com and the con man who swindled him out of the website Sex.com, resulting in an all-out war for control for what still powers the internet today: love and sex.In 1994, visionary entrepreneur Gary Kremen used a $2,500 loan to create the first online dating service, Match.com. Only five percent of Americans were using the internet at the time, and even fewer were looking online for love. He quickly bought the Sex.com domain too, betting the combination of love and sex would help propel the internet into the mainstream. Imagine Kremen's surprise when he learned that someone named Stephen Michael Cohen had stolen the rights to Sex.com and was already making millions that Kremen would never see. Thus follows the wild true story of Kremen's and Cohen's decade-long battle for control. In The Players Ball, author and journalist David Kushner provides a front seat to these must-read Wild West years online, when innovators and outlaws battled for power and money. This cat-and-mouse game between a genius and a con man changed the way people connect forever, and is key to understanding the rise and future of the online world. "Kushner delivers a fast-paced, raunchy tale of sex, drugs, and dial-up." --Publishers Weekly

What is it like learning from a mother who is privy to a whole different type of privilege than you? When was the first time you realised your boyfriend was dating you to satisfy some weird fetish? How demoralising was it to find out that Princess Jasmine, your sole claim to Disney royalty, was based on a white model? What impact did it have to play the entire Puerto Rican community in West Side Story in your local theatre group? And was Parvati Patil really such an appalling date for Harry? Part autobiography and part critical commentary, join Laila Woozeer as she blends together stories from her own life, looking specifically at the impact pop culture and media representation has on non-white people and the way they understand themselves, charting a narrative about being mixed race that stems from the 90s until the present day. Her book examines the multi-racial experience: the personal, emotional and psychological impact of being mixed, without being reduced to two separate representations of a person. In the UK alone, "mixed" is the fastest growing census category, and the number of mixed race people has risen by a quarter of a million in just 10 years. But even so, mixed people are placed outside of the conversation - they can speak directly to one of their communities but can't be all of them at the same time. Except, that is exactly how mixed people have to function all day, every day. Most of us agree that Representation Matters - but why? What does that actually mean? It's important to make these issues real - to attach them to a human emotion or personal journey lest they become an abstract phrase that just gets bandied around every time Hollywood release another Very White cast list. That's where Laila comes in: the face of the lived experience, sharing with you the cruelest and funniest moments of her life for your delectation. The book is routed in her own specific journey and introduces concepts as she chronologically learned of them. She incorporates child psychology, academic texts, and race theory without losing the personal connection, using anecdotes and experience to truly get to the core of the issues explored.

"Fishing's Greatest Misadventures" presents twenty-six true stories which cover the spectrum from terrifying to comical to downright bizarre. In these pages everyday fishermen, pros, and journalists tell their stories of freak accidents, fishy attacks, pranks, idiotic decisions, eerie or unexplained incidents, and other jaw dropping, adrenalin-pumping calamities. The stories bring to life the strange possibilities that await us once we cast our lines into known and unknown waters.Inside these pages you'll meet: a sport fisherman who gets taken on harrowing underwater ride by an angry white shark; an adventure angler whose boat is over turned by a 200 lb Amazon-river catfish; a group of ice fishermen who lose their cabin, gear and pride to a single sturgeon; a teenager who sabotages a fish farm and frees 300,000 salmon; and a charter boat operator who gets speared through the chest by a leaping marlin. From lakes to rivers to the ocean, this book covers every form of angling, and all that can go wrong.

Graham Morgan has an MBE for services to mental health, and helped to write the Scottish Mental Health (2003) Care and Treatment Act. This is the Act under which he is now detained. Graham's story addresses key issues around mental illness, a topic which is very much in the public sphere at the moment. However, it addresses mental illness from a perspective that is not heard frequently: that of those whose illness is so severe that they are subject to the Mental Health Act. Graham's is a positive story rooted in the natural world that Graham values greatly, which shows that, even with considerable barriers, people can work and lead responsible and independent lives; albeit with support from friends and mental health professionals. Graham does not gloss over or glamorise mental illness, instead he tries to show, despite the devastating impact mental illness can have both on those with the illness and those that are close to them, that people can live full and positive lives. A final chapter, bringing the reader up to date some years after Graham has been detained again, shows him living a fulfilling and productive life with his new family, coping with the symptoms that he still struggles to accept are an illness, and preparing to address the United Nations later in the year in his new role working with the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland.

Capital DJ Roman Kemp has achieved much success but he hasn't had an easy ride. He's battled depression since the age of 15, once contemplated suicide, and has bravely fought to smash the stigma still surrounding medication and mental health. The lifelong Arsenal supporter grafted his way to Capital's highly coveted Breakfast slot - and pulled in record-beating listeners with his cheeky sense of humour. Who else could convince Ed Sheeran to tattoo Roman's leg on air, drive around London playing cab-roulette with James Corden, get Craig David to freestyle rap, or rope Lewis Capaldi into a life-drawing class? Then, in 2019, Roman won over yet more fans coming third in I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, with his uncanny impressions of everyone from Ant and Dec to his mate Harry Styles. Here, for the first time, Roman's ready to reveal the things that weren't captured on camera, and how his time in the jungle changed his whole outlook on life. During the pandemic Roman's life changed when his best friend - the producer who'd nurtured his career every step of the way - tragically took his own life. Amidst the shock, loss and confusion, Roman bravely made a moving BBC3 documentary about the alarming rates of suicide amongst young males. He's well aware he too, could have been a statistic. In this page-turning book - peppered with hilarious and surprising anecdotes from his youth - Roman also unflinchingly tackles the taboo of suicide, in the hope that by talking about his own struggles and sharing advice, he can help others. Roman shares all the experiences that have shaped him, and why love, marriage and having his own family one day are so important to his future dreams.

History is filled with stories of the famous crashing to earth, whether through an ill-judged statement, an overweening arrogance, a lust for power or money, or simply a stroke of bad luck. Today, more than ever, the world of the successful is littered with 'banana skins' lying in wait for the unwary, as film stars, politicians, soldiers, scientists, business tycoons, royalty, criminals, sports idols and others make that fatal decision, gaffe or slip. It covers 220 fascinating entries. Packed in a gift size, it is highly illustrated in colour. It is ideal travel and present book. It tells the stories behind the stories. "The Hidden Secrets" - this beautifully illustrated book charts the hidden secrets behind some of the biggest 'banana skins' of all time - the riveting stories of 200 figures who fell from grace - some for ever, some for a while, some evoke sympathy, a great many do not.