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Books > Fiction > True stories
Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2021
Running away from your problems doesn't solve anything - but
sometimes it's more fun than dealing with them Elise was spending a
lot of time crying on buses. She had just graduated from
university; she had a shiny new flat, her first proper job and a
budding relationship - and they were all making her utterly
miserable. Sitting at work one day, she hit upon the obvious
solution: Run 5,000 miles around the coast of Britain, carrying her
kit on her back. Six months later Elise set off, with absolutely no
ultra-running experience, unable to read a map and having never
pitched a tent alone before. Over the 301 days that followed she
developed a debilitating fear of farmyard animals, cried on a lot
of beaches and saw Britain at its most wild and wonderful. Coasting
is about putting one foot in front of the other, even when it feels
impossible, and trying to enjoy it too. With heart and humour,
Elise explores the thrill of taking risks and putting your trust in
total strangers, and learns some home truths along the way. 'A true
Great British Adventure, with humour and heart.' Sir Ranulph
Fiennes 'Elise Downing has achieved the impossible - leaving you in
awe at her superhuman achievements, but also convincing you that
you could probably do the same.' Emily Chappell 'A hugely enjoyable
jaunt around Britain, that proves that you can find adventure right
on your doorstep.' Alastair Humphreys 'Elise Downing has reminded
us all of the most crucial aspects of adventure: 1) You don't have
to be an expert. 2) It's all about the people. 3) However hard,
tough, excruciating and doubt-driven a challenge might be, at heart
it's a funny, funny story.' Dave Cornthwaite 'Reading Coasting is
like listening to a friend tell a tale down the pub that you can't
quite believe. Elise's storytelling is hilarious, warm-hearted and
wonderfully down-to-earth. It's the kind of book that makes you
want to lace up your trainers and start running towards that mad
idea you once had. There's no doubt that Elise's gung-ho attitude
is her superpower. Her kryptonite? Cows.' Anna McNuff, author and
adventurer 'Elise's irresistibly readable adventures are both
ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. She's an inspiration.'
Damian Hall, author and ultrarunner 'Funny and engaging and
inspiring... an absolute gem.' Vassos Alexander, presenter, author
and runner 'A beautifully observed and blisteringly truthful
account of what happens when you decide to combine adventure and
endurance. Absolutely brilliant.' Jake Tyler, author of A Walk from
the Wild Edge 'An honest and exciting tale of how a dream became an
awesome reality. Definitely worth a read!' Ben Smith, founder of
The 401 Challenge 'I was already laughing at the Dedication and
this continued all the way to the very last page. Elise Downing is
a comedy genius and has a heart of gold!' Danny Bent, author,
runner and founder of Project Awesome 'Elise tells her story with
such good-humoured light-heartedness that you could be forgiven for
forgetting that what she is describing is a feat of real endurance.
Running 5,000 miles is a truly remarkable achievement, and the fact
that Elise emerged from it with a smile on her face and a total
lack of ego speaks wonders to her character. This is an incredible
tale told with total humility. Running around the coast of Great
Britain was a mad thing to do, but not buying this book would be
madder still.' Tim Moss, author, adventurer and founder of The Next
Challenge 'Like any epic journey worth sharing, Elise encountered
the same doubts, setbacks and fears that leave many dreams stuck on
the drawing board. One foot after the other, Elise set out to
achieve the extraordinary many miles over. Coasting shares the
literal highs and lows as she finds her rite of passage to the
world of ultra-running, with an endearing vulnerability and
hilarious flair that brings places to life. In the same way that
countless strangers felt compelled to join her around the UK,
Coasting carries the reader along and inspires us all to ask 'why
not?' in pursuit of our own home-grown adventures.' Alex
Staniforth, adventurer and author 'A wonderfully honest tale of
courage, perseverance and self-discovery.' Dr Juliet McGrattan,
author and runner 'Elise brings so much fun and energy, as well as
raw honesty, to the world of adventure books, and her incredible
journey is an inspiration to young (and old!) adventurers.' Jenny
Tough, author, adventurer and editor of Tough Women Adventure
Stories 'Thoughtful, funny and beautifully written. Just goes to
show that there's a ram-spinning, swashbuckling adventure right
there on your doorstep.' Huw Jack Brassington, writer, presenter
and adventurer
One of the most famous writers of all time, George Orwell's life
played a huge part in his understanding of the world. A constant
critic of power and authority, the roots of Animal Farm and
Nineteen Eighty-Four began to grow in his formative years as a
pupil at a strict private school in Eastbourne. His essay Such,
Such Were The Joys recounts the ugly realities of the regime to
which pupils were subjected in the name of class prejudice,
hierarchy and imperial destiny. This graphic novel vividly brings
his experiences at school to life. As Orwell earned his place
through scholarship rather than wealth, he was picked on by both
staff and richer students. The violence of his teachers and the
shame he experienced on a daily basis leap from the pages,
conjuring up how this harsh world looked through a child's innocent
eyes while juxtaposing the mature Orwell's ruminations on what such
schooling says about society. Today, as the private school and
class system endure, this is a vivid reminder that the world Orwell
sought to change is still with us.
A news media frenzy hurled the quiet resort community of Pinehurst
into the national spotlight in 1935 when hotel magnate Ellsworth
Statler's adopted daughter was discovered dead early one February
morning weeks after her wedding day. A politically charged
coroner's inquest failed to determine a definitive cause of death,
and the following civil action continued to expose sordid details
of the couple's lives. More than half a century later, the story
was all but forgotten when local resident Diane McLellan spied an
old photograph at a yard sale and became obsessed with solving the
mystery. Her enthusiastic sleuthing captured the attention of
Southern Pines resident and journalist Steve Bouser, who takes
readers back to those blustery winter days so long ago in the
search to reveal what really happened to Elva Statler Davidson.
The riveting story of a true-life female Indiana Jones: an
archaeologist who survived the Nazis and then saved Egypt's ancient
temples. In the 1960s, the world's attention was focused on a
nail-biting race against time: fifty countries had contributed
nearly a billion dollars to save a dozen ancient Egyptian temples
from drowning in the floodwaters of the gigantic new Aswan High
Dam. It was a project of unimaginable size and complexity that
required the fragile sandstone temples to be dismantled, stone by
stone, and rebuilt on higher ground. But the massive press coverage
of this unprecedented rescue effort completely overlooked the gutsy
French archaeologist who made it all happen. Without the
intervention of Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, the temples would
now be at the bottom of a gigantic reservoir. Desroches-Noblecourt
refused to be cowed by anyone or anything. As a brave member of the
French Resistance in World War II, she had survived imprisonment by
the Nazis. Now, in her fight to save the temples, she had to face
down two of the most daunting leaders of the postwar world:
Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and French president Charles
de Gaulle. After a century and a half of Western plunder of Egypt's
ancient monuments, Desroches-Noblecourt helped preserve a crucial
part of its cultural heritage, and, just as importantly, made sure
it remained in its homeland.
Over 16 million copies sold worldwide 'One of the most remarkable
books I have ever read' Susan Jeffers One of the outstanding
classics to emerge from the Holocaust, Man's Search for Meaning is
Viktor Frankl's story of his struggle for survival in Auschwitz and
other Nazi concentration camps. Today, this remarkable tribute to
hope offers us an avenue to finding greater meaning and purpose in
our own lives.
A journey through time and water, to the bottom of the ocean and
the future of our planet. We do not see the ocean when we look at
the water that blankets more than two thirds of our planet. We only
see the entrance to it. Beyond that entrance is a world hostile to
humans, yet critical to our survival. The first divers to enter
that world held their breath and splashed beneath the surface,
often clutching rocks to pull them down. Over centuries, they
invented wooden diving bells, clumsy diving suits, and unwieldy
contraptions in attempts to go deeper and stay longer. But each
advance was fraught with danger, as the intruders had to survive
the crushing weight of water, or the deadly physiological effects
of breathing compressed air. The vertical odyssey continued when
explorers squeezed into heavy steel balls dangling on cables, or
slung beneath floats filled with flammable gasoline. Plunging into
the narrow trenches between the tectonic plates of the Earth's
crust, they eventually reached the bottom of the ocean in the same
decade that men first walked on the moon. Today, as nations
scramble to exploit the resources of the ocean floor, The Frontier
Below recalls a story of human endeavour that took 2,000 years to
travel seven miles, then investigates how we will explore the ocean
in the future. Meticulously researched and drawing extensively on
unpublished sources and personal interviews, The Frontier Below is
the untold story of the pioneers who had the right stuff, but were
forgotten because they went in the wrong direction.
Wonder Boy is a riveting investigation into the turbulent life of
Zappos visionary Tony Hsieh, whose radical business strategies
revolutionized both the tech world and corporate culture, based on
rigorous research and reporting by two seasoned journalists. Tony
Hsieh's first successful venture was in middle school, selling
personalized buttons. At Harvard, he made a profit compiling and
selling study guides. In 1998, Hsieh sold his first company to
Microsoft for $265 million. About a decade later, he sold online
shoe empire Zappos to Amazon for $1.2 billion. The secret to his
success? Making his employees happy. At its peak, Zappos's
employee-friendly culture was so famous across the tech industry
that it became one of the hardest companies to get hired at, and
CEOs from other companies regularly toured the headquarters. But
Hsieh's vision for change didn't stop with corporate culture: Hsieh
went on to move Zappos headquarters to Las Vegas and personally
funded a nine-figure campaign to revitalize the city's historic
downtown area. There, he could be found living in an Airstream and
chatting up the locals. But Hsieh's forays into community-revival
projects spun out of control as his issues with mental health and
addiction ramped up, creating the opportunity for more enablers
than friends to stand in his mercurial good graces. Drawing on
hundreds of interviews with a wide range of people whose lives
Hsieh touched, journalists Angel Au-Yeung and David Jeans craft a
rich portrait of a man who was plagued by the pressure to succeed
but who never lost his generous spirit.
**AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4** **A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES,
DAILY TELEGRAPH AND FINANCIAL TIMES** As a neurosurgeon, I lived in
a world filled with fear and suffering, death and cancer. But
rarely, if ever, did I think about what it would be like if what I
witnessed at work every day happened to me. This book is the story
of how I became a patient myself. Retired brain surgeon Henry Marsh
thought he understood illness, but he was unprepared for the impact
of his diagnosis of advanced cancer. And Finally explores what
happens when someone who has spent a lifetime on the frontline of
life and death finds himself contemplating what might be his own
death sentence. As Henry navigates the bewildering transition from
doctor to patient, he is haunted by past failures and projects yet
to be completed, and frustrated by the inconveniences of illness
and old age. But he is also more entranced than ever by the
mysteries of science and the brain, the beauty of the natural world
and his love for his family. Elegiac, candid, luminous and
poignant, And Finally is ultimately not so much a book about death,
but a book about life and what matters in the end. 'Magnificent'
Rachel Clarke, author of Breath-taking 'Given its subject -
broadly, death and disease - the book is unexpectedly fun, and the
author pretty much irresistibly likable' Guardian 'Facing his own
mortality, Marsh has written a vividly wry and honest book' The
Times 'Marsh shares his journey with a dark yet whimsical humour,
and ponders too the eternal mysteries of time' Daily Telegraph,
Books of the Year 2022
**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** 'A Gen-X This Boy's
Life...Music and his fierce brilliance boost Jollett; a visceral
urge to leave his background behind propels him to excel... In the
end, Jollett shakes off the past to become the captain of his own
soul. Hollywood Park is a triumph.' -O, The Oprah Magazine 'This
moving and profound memoir is for anyone who loves a good
redemption story.'- Good Morning America, 20 Books We're Excited
for in 2020 HOLLYWOOD PARK is a remarkable memoir of a tumultuous
life. Mikel Jollett was born into one of the country's most
infamous cults, and subjected to a childhood filled with poverty,
addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, ultimately, his is a story of
fierce love and family loyalty told in a raw, poetic voice that
signals the emergence of a uniquely gifted writer. Mikel Jollett
was born in an experimental commune in California, which later
morphed into the Church of Synanon, one of the country's most
infamous and dangerous cults. Per the leader's mandate, all
children, including Jollett and his older brother, were separated
from their parents when they were six months old, and handed over
to the cult's 'School'. After spending years in what was
essentially an orphanage, Mikel escaped the cult one morning with
his mother and older brother. But in many ways, life outside
Synanon was even harder and more erratic. In his raw, poetic and
powerful voice, Jollett portrays a childhood filled with abject
poverty, trauma, emotional abuse, delinquency and the lure of drugs
and alcohol. Raised by a clinically depressed mother, tormented by
his angry older brother, subjected to the unpredictability of
troubled step-fathers and longing for contact with his father, a
former heroin addict and ex-con, Jollett slowly, often painfully,
builds a life that leads him to Stanford University and,
eventually, to finding his voice as a writer and musician, forming
the band The Airborne Toxic Event.
Mention female spies, and most people think of Mata Hari. But
during the Roaring Twenties, Marguerite Harrison and Stan Harding
were the cause celebre: two beautiful, accomplished women whose
names were splashed across newspapers around the world. Almost a
century later, it is easy to understand the fascination with these
two remarkable women. Marguerite was a highly respectable and
recently widowed American journalist and socialite from Baltimore;
Stan was a runaway, a bohemian artist and dancer of British
heritage who left her wealthy, religious family to make a life for
herself in the expatriate community in Florence. The two women were
very different, yet both were strong-willed, independent and highly
ambitious women unafraid of taking risks. And both, as the Great
War ended and Central Europe dissolved into violent chaos, were
looking for adventure. Their paths first crossed in war-ravaged
Berlin during the Armistice and the the Spartacist Uprising in
1919. Fellow travellers, they became friends and, the evidence
suggests, lovers. Dodging bullets and interviewing colourful
characters in war-torn Europe led these intrepid women, separately,
to Bolshevik Russia, a country closed to outsiders since the
October Revolution of 1917. Their fateful meeting had repercussions
that spanned three decades, involving heads of state and
politicians in Britain, the United States and Soviet Russia. The
Lady is a Spy tells their forgotten story: that of two women who,
far in advance of their time, worked as foreign correspondents, who
operated as spies in dangerous shadowlands of international
politics, and who were both imprisoned in Lubyanka, one of the most
desperate places on earth. Their lives are reconstructed through
numerous primary sources, not only the poems, diaries and letters
of their friends and lovers, but also government documents
(including newly declassified US State Department papers) that
reveal the truth about their espionage careers and - in one case -
evidence of a shocking betrayal.
A shocking and sizzling look at life as a sex addict. Shelley
Matthews is married to her job as a journalist at a glossy women's
magazine. Which is just as well as she hasn't had sex for over a
year. But when her editor decides a re-vamp of the magazine is
needed, Shelley is forced to go undercover - as a sex addict...
Attending therapy sessions, Shelley meets a whole host of
extraordinary characters. There's: Cian, lead singer of a hot new
band, enjoying ALL the trappings of fame. Dominatrix Abigail, who
finds that inflicting pain has become a necessary part of sex.
Will, family man and serial adulterer. He knows his marriage is in
jeopardy but he just can't help himself. Former porn star Rose who
is only aroused when the cameras are rolling. Cliff and Cheryl, a
swinger couple who prefer sleeping with strangers rather than with
each other. Can Shelley keep her secret from the others as well as
writing the story of the year? And most importantly can she keep
her cool - and chastity - intact? And does she really want to?
"America's best true-crime writer" (Kirkus Reviews) presents an
all-new collection of crime stories drawn from her private files
and featuring the riveting case of a fraudulent doctor whose
lifelong deceptions had deadly consequences. The inspiration behind
the upcoming Lifetime movie event Desperate Hours. Dr. Anthony
Pignataro was a cosmetic surgeon and a famed medical researcher
whose flashy red Lamborghini and flamboyant lifestyle in western
New York State suggested a highly successful career. But
appearances can be deceiving-and, for the doctor's wife, very
nearly deadly. Now, the motivations of the classic sociopath are
plumbed with chilling accuracy by Ann Rule. Along with other
shocking true cases, this worldwide headline-making case will have
you turning pages in disbelief that a trusted medical professional
could sink to the depths of greed, manipulation, and
self-aggrandizement where even slow, deliberate murder is not seen
for what it truly is: pure evil.
In 1975, a new group of Peace Corps volunteers landed on the
island nation of Tonga. Among them was Deborah Gardner -- a
beautiful twenty-three-year-old who, in the following year, would
be stabbed twenty-two times and left for dead inside her hut.
Another volunteer turned himself in to the Tongan police, and
many of the other Americans were sure he had committed the crime.
But with the aid of the State Department, he returned home a free
man. Although the story was kept quiet in the United States, Deb
Gardner's death and the outlandish aftermath took on legendary
proportions in Tonga.
Now journalist Philip Weiss "shines daylight on the facts of
this ugly case with the fervor of an avenging angel" (Chicago
Tribune), exposing a gripping tale of love, violence, and clashing
ideals. With bravura reporting and vivid, novelistic prose, Weiss
transforms a Polynesian legend into a singular artifact of American
history and a profoundly moving human story.
Thieves, liars, and killers--it's a criminal world out there,
and someone has to write about it. A thrilling collection of the
year's best reportage by the aces of the true-crime genre, "The
Best American Crime Reporting 2009" brings together the mysteries
and missteps of an eclectic and unforgettable set of criminals.
Gripping, suspenseful, and brilliant, this latest addition to the
highly acclaimed series features guest editor Jeffrey Toobin, "New
Yorker" staff writer, CNN senior legal analyst, and bestselling
author of "The Nine."
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