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Books > Biography > General
Peter Jewell and Juliet Clutton-Brock had a shared passion for
animals and Africa, and as brilliant young zoologists in the 1960s
they were pioneers of the new movements in ecology, archaeozoology
and animal conservation. This fascinating account of their
extraordinary lives follows them as they travel, and live, in and
out of Africa accompanied by their three daughters and a medley of
pets, including dogs, cats, tortoises, chameleons and a chimpanzee.
Terry Prone once thought plastic surgery was for the vain, the
self-regarding and the rich. She thought herself the person least
likely to submit to the plastic surgeon's scalpel. But this was
before a traumatic car crash in which the steering wheel caved in
her cheekbones, broke her jaw and smashed her teeth. In the days
and weeks that followed, she began to understand how radically her
appearance had changed. She then embarked on a journey of physical
- and emotional - reconstruction that gradually became an
addiction. Liposuction. Tooth implants. An arm-lift. Two face-lifts
and a brow-lift. Diamond eye surgery. Foot surgery. She found she
could not stop. Mirror Mirror tells the dramatic story of Terry
Prone's experience of plastic surgery on both sides of the Atlantic
and reveals the truth about each procedure: discomforts, costs,
failures and (mostly) successes. Charged with her remarkable
candour, it is an astonishing story of courage and personal
reinvention - and a hilarious exploration of the wilder shores of
plastic surgery.
Dave's autobiography tells how, from simple beginnings, he manages
to serve an apprenticeship in engineering, before deciding it
wasn't for him and embarking on an adventure underwater. Firstly,
with a bunch of friends salvaging scrap metal from shipwrecks,
before blagging his way into the world of offshore oilfield deep
diving. It was intended to be a short-term thing to make the
deposit on a house and turned into 40 years in the industry,
culminating in becoming the offshore manager of some major oilfield
construction projects around the world. Dave takes us through his
life's journey, near-death experience and involvement with several
major incidents. He explains how it feels to live part of your life
in the claustrophobic environment of a saturation diver, and
reflects on some of the politics and events that occurred in this
unique industry. He reflects on life's lessons as they presented
themselves. The book is interspersed with anecdotes and amusing
tales of and from the people he met along the way, characters, who
come alive with their witty asides and darkly comic humour. Away
from work, Dave and his wife, Marion, travel the world together,
and their travels are heady and packed with adventure, as they ski,
kayak and dive in idyllic locations. Whether bungee jumping in New
Zealand or cycling across Central America, Dave and Marion are
never afraid to take on a challenge.
Dave's autobiography tells how, from simple beginnings, he manages
to serve an apprenticeship in engineering, before deciding it
wasn't for him and embarking on an adventure underwater. Firstly,
with a bunch of friends salvaging scrap metal from shipwrecks,
before blagging his way into the world of offshore oilfield deep
diving. It was intended to be a short-term thing to make the
deposit on a house and turned into 40 years in the industry,
culminating in becoming the offshore manager of some major oilfield
construction projects around the world. Dave takes us through his
life's journey, near-death experience and involvement with several
major incidents. He explains how it feels to live part of your life
in the claustrophobic environment of a saturation diver, and
reflects on some of the politics and events that occurred in this
unique industry. He reflects on life's lessons as they presented
themselves. The book is interspersed with anecdotes and amusing
tales of and from the people he met along the way, characters, who
come alive with their witty asides and darkly comic humour. Away
from work, Dave and his wife, Marion, travel the world together,
and their travels are heady and packed with adventure, as they ski,
kayak and dive in idyllic locations. Whether bungee jumping in New
Zealand or cycling across Central America, Dave and Marion are
never afraid to take on a challenge.
Paris Nights: My Year at the Moulin Rouge opens with a bored
twenty-seven-year old Cliff Simon staring out at the ocean from his
beachfront house, wishing he was somewhere else. Gavin Mills
telephones him from Paris inviting him to join him at the iconic
Moulin Rouge. Cliff sells everything he owns, leaving Johannesburg,
South Africa for the City of Lights. He learns that his spot at the
Moulin is not guaranteed and is forced to audition. Making the
grade, he is put into can can school before he is allowed into the
company. His adrenaline is pumping from excitement and fear, both
of which he has faced before. Taking a look back, we see
twelve-year-old Cliff helming a racing dinghy in the midst of a
thunderstorm on the Vaal River. His father yells at him not to be a
sissy, and he brings the boat back to shore alone. We then travel
to London with his family escaping the tumult of Apartheid. He
trains for the Olympics, but drops out, enrolling in the South
African military where he subjected to harsh treatment and name
calling Fokken Jood. After a honorable discharge, he works in
cabaret at seaside resorts and is recruited as a gymnast in a
cabaret, where he realizes that the stage is his destiny. The
memoir fast forwards to Cliffs meteoric rise at the Moulin from
swing dancer to principal in Formidable. Off stage he gets into
fights with street thugs, hangs out with diamond smugglers, and has
his pick of gorgeous women. With a year at the Moulin to his
credit, doors open for him internationally and back in South
Africa. He earns a starring role in Egoli: Place of Gold, and
marries his long-time girlfriend, Colette. On their honeymoon to
Paris, Cliff says, Merci Paris for the best year of my life.
A rich fund of anecdotes drawn from the authora s time as an
airline pilot and manager which spanned a forty year career,
starting in the 1960s. Roughly tracing the authora s career, each
story paints a different picture, be it be of a pilot, his faults
and foibles, an experience the author had, a management problem and
more. The backdrop is aviation but many of these stories could just
as easily be transposed to a different setting. Most, but not all,
have a strong flavour of humour and/or irony running through them.
In todaya s world of political correctness and in a society
otherwise constrained by litigious lawyers and an overbearing press
many of these [mostly amusing] stories almost defy belief. Such has
the world, and the world of aviation, moved on, few of the present
crop of young pilots flying today would believe what went on behind
closed doors. And neither would the rest of us!
The True Story Behind the Powerful Film ALL SAINTS
Newly ordained, Michael Spurlock's first assignment is to pastor All Saints, a struggling church with twenty-five devoted members and a mortgage well beyond its means. The best option may be to close the church rather than watch it wither any further. But when All Saints hesitantly risks welcoming a community of Karen refugees from Burma--former farmers scrambling for a fresh start in America--Michael feels they may be called to an improbable new mission.
Michael must choose between closing the church and selling the property--or listening to a still, small voice challenging the people of All Saints to risk it all and provide much-needed hope to their new community. Together, they risk everything to plant seeds for a future that might just save them all.
Discover the true story that inspired the film while also diving deeper into the background of the Karen people, the church, and how a community of believers rally to reach out to those in need, yet receive far more than they dared imagine.
The Reverend Michael Spurlock served All Saints Episcopal Church in Smyrna, Tennessee, for three years. He is currently on the clergy staff at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City. Michael, his wife, Aimee, and their two children live in New York City..
The third volume of the Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield
covers the eight months she spent in Italy and the South of France
between the English summers of 1919 and 1920. It was a time of
intense personal reassessment and distress. Mansfield's
relationship with her husband John Middleton Murry was bitterly
tested, and most of the letters in this present volume chart that
rich and enduring partner'ship through its severest trial. This was
a time, too, when Mansfield came to terms with the closing off of
possibilities that her illness entailed. Without flamboyance or
fuss, she felt it necessary to discard earlier loyalties and even
friendships, as she sought for a spiritual standpoint that might
turn her illness to less negative ends. As she put it, 'One must be
... continually giving & receiving, and shedding &
renewing, & examining & trying to place'. For all the
grimness of this period of her life, Mansfield's letters still
offer the joie de vivre and wit, self-perception and lively
frankness that make her correspondence such rewarding reading - an
invaluable record of a `modern' woman and her time.
The book contains stories on various subjects, starting with the
contemplations of passengers in an airplane during a fictitious
flight on various situations in their life, through the memories
captured by ZS during his study and work, as well as stories based
on pub talks and on the imagination of the author.
A David and Goliath conservation story set on Lake Michigan.
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