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Books > Fiction > True stories
Ellen Phipps was married to a sociopathic lawyer. When the police
wanted to interview him about a murder Ellen was terrified. This
memoir describes how she kept herself and her daughter, Anne, safe
from her increasingly unstable husband. The South African laws on
marriage prevented Ellen from extricating herself and Anne safely
without his permission. Yet Ellen managed to live an unusual and
full life which is shown in actual excerpts culled from some
documents. By sharing her story we are shown ways of ensuring that
each trap set is avoided.
'Extremely compelling' - THE GUARDIAN 'It's a fascinating read...
Buy the book! Buy the book!' - JO GOOD, BBC RADIO LONDON
'Searing... funny, eloquent and honest' - PSYCHOLOGIES
'Remarkable... I hope this book finds a wide readership' -
WASHINGTON POST 'A beautifully-rendered memoir' - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
'Often as chilling as Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, but also full of
so much inner and external turbulence that it reminded me at times
of The Bourne Identity and Memento. Readers will root for Lily,
even when she is attempting to run away from the realities and
sometimes authorities chasing her.' - HUFFPOST UK 'A harrowingly
honest memoir' - KIRKUS REVIEWS' Because We Are Bad is an
emotional, challenging read. Lily takes us deep into the heart of
the illness but she is also a deft writer, and even the darkest
moments are peppered with wit and wry observations.' - JAMES LLOYD,
OCD-UK As a child, Lily Bailey knew she was bad. By the age of 13,
she had killed someone with a thought, spread untold disease, and
spied upon her classmates. Only by performing a series of secret
routines could she correct her wrongdoing. But it was never enough.
She had a severe case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and it came
with a bizarre twist. This true story lights up the workings of the
mind like Mark Haddon or Matt Haig. Anyone who wants to know about
OCD, and how to fight back, should read this book. It is ideal for
anyone who liked books by fellow OCD sufferers Bryony Gordon (Mad
Girl, Glorious Rock Bottom), Rose Cartwright (Pure), and David Adam
(The Man Who Couldn't Stop: The Truth About OCD). EXTRACT Chapter
1: Chesbury Hospital From the outside, Chesbury Hospital in London
looks like a castle that got lost and was plonked down in the wrong
place. It is long and white, with battlements and arched windows
from which princesses could call down, in the chapter before they
are saved. But it's not entirely believable. Where the portcullis
should be, there are giant glass doors. Walk through them, and you
could be in a five-star hotel. The man at reception wears a suit
and tie and asks if he can help, like he's going to book you a
table. A glass cupboard showcases the gifts sold by reception: bath
oils, rejuvenating face cream, and Green & Black's chocolate,
just in case you arrive empty-handed to see a crazy relative and
need an icebreaker. The walls, lampshades, window fittings, and
radiators are all a similar, unnameable colour, somewhere between
brown, yellow, and cream. A looping gold chandelier is suspended by
a heavy chain; the fireplace has marble columns. The members of
staff have busy, preoccupied faces-until they come close to you,
when their mouths break into wide, fixed smiles. Compared with the
Harley Street clinic, there is a superior choice of herbal teas.
When the police arrived after the escape, Mum cried a lot; then she
shouted. Now she has assumed a sense of British resolve. She
queries: 'Wild Jasmine, Purple Rose, or Earl Grey?' A nurse checks
through my bag, which has been lugged upstairs. She takes the razor
(fair enough), tweezers (sort of fair enough), a bottle of Baileys
lying forgotten in the handbag (definitely fair enough), and
headphones (definitely not fair enough). There would never be a
hanging: far too much mess. The observation room is next to the
nurses' station; they keep you there until you are no longer a risk
to yourself. It is 10th January, 2013, and I am 19. ABOUT THE
WRITER Lily Bailey is a model, writer, and mental health
campaigner. As a child and teenager, Lily suffered from severe
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). She kept her illness private,
until the widespread misunderstanding of the disorder spurred her
into action. She began campaigning for better awareness and
understanding of OCD, and has tried to stop companies making
products that trivialise the illness.
In March 2012, eccentric antiques dealer Raymond Scott was found
dead in his prison cell, apparently after having cut his own
throat. It was the final tragic act in one of the most bizarre
criminal cases ever held in England. The story begins in 1998 after
a rare copy of a Shakespeare First Folio was stolen from Durham
University just 10 miles from where Scott lived. For a decade the
authorities had been stumped as to what had happened to it until
Raymond Scott strolled into the famous Folger Library in Washington
DC to have it authenticated for sale. Printed in 1623, the First
Folio is widely regarded as the most important non-secular printed
book in the English language and one in pristine condition (like
the Durham copy had been when stolen) could be worth millions. The
flamboyantly-attired Scott had a taste for Ferraris and
Lamborghinis yet had spent most of his time living with his aged
mother, Hannah, on social security payments in a modest home in
Washington, Tyne on Wear. Scott, 55 when he died, wanted the money
from selling the First Folio to live the high life with his
beautiful 21-year-old Cuban dancer girlfriend he met during
frequent trips to Havana. In one of the many strange twists, he
claimed he obtained the book from a friend in Cuba who was a former
bodyguard to President Fidel Castro. Scott, who never took the
stand, was eventually jailed for eight years for handling stolen
goods but was cleared of stealing the First Folio. For 18 months,
from just after his arrest to his death, Scott conducted a series
of interviews with reporter Mike Kelly during which never heard
before evidence was revealed including the naming of an alleged
second suspect. Even after Scott was jailed they kept in touch via
frequent correspondence. Shakespeare & Love reveals the true
story behind the theft of the Durham Shakespeare First Folio and
uncovers for the first time the man dubbed by the press as 'Bling
Lear'.
Horace 'Jim' Greasley was twenty years of age in the spring of 1939 when Adolf Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and latterly Poland. There had been whispers and murmurs of discontent from certain quarters and the British government began to prepare for the inevitable war. After seven weeks training with the 2nd/5th Battalion Leicester, he found himself facing the might of the German army in a muddy field south of Cherbourg, in Northern France, with just thirty rounds of ammunition in his weapon pouch. Horace's war didn't last long. He was taken prisoner on 25th May 1940 and forced to endure a ten week march across France and Belgium en-route to Holland.
Horace survived...barely...food was scarce; he took nourishment from dandelion leaves, small insects and occasionally a secret food package from a sympathetic villager, and drank rain water from ditches. Many of his fellow comrades were not so fortunate. Falling by the side of the road through sheer exhaustion and malnourishment meant a bullet through the back of the head and the corpse left to rot. After a three day train journey without food and water, Horace found himself incarcerated in a prison camp in Poland. It was there he embarked on an incredible love affair with a German girl interpreting for his captors.
He experienced the sweet taste of freedom each time he escaped to see her, yet incredibly he made his way back into the camp each time, sometimes two, three times every week. Horace broke out of the camp then crept back in again under the cover of darkness after his natural urges were fulfilled. He brought food back to his fellow prisoners to supplement their meagre rations. He broke out of the camp over two hundred times and towards the end of the war even managed to bring radio parts back in. The BBC news would be delivered daily to over 3,000 prisoners. This is an incredible tale of one man's adversity and defiance of the German nation.
"Stephen Senise's... newly published study of the case, offers the
most important clue not just as to whodunit, but why." TIMES OF
ISRAEL "fascinating" - Gareth Williams, editor RIPPEROLOGIST, The
Journal Of Jack The Ripper, East End & Victorian Studies
"remarkable" - APN NEWS & MEDIA, Australia "painstaking
research" - JEWISH CHRONICLE, London Did Jack The Ripper flee
London for the colony of New South Wales at the height of the
world's most notorious serial-murder rampage? Was the deadly attack
on Alice McKenzie in 1889 his last bid in pursuit of what was, not
just a brazen killing spree, but a macabre, politically motivated
publicity stunt? Is it conceivable that a maniac took it upon
himself to try and shut down the flow of Jewish refugees spilling
into London's East End, just as the area was being thrust into the
political spotlight? Journalist Stephen Senise, explores these
questions and the neighbourhoods of old Whitechapel to discover
that by February 1888 community tensions were so high that two
parliamentary select committees of investigation were dispatched to
advise the House of Commons and the House of Lords on the social
and industrial tensions tearing a community apart. Enter an
opportunist hell-bent on broadcasting a hateful message... a
madman, ready to unleash an 'Autumn of Terror'.
An account of the landmark suffragist trial before the U.S. Circuit
Court for the Northern District of New York, that brought the cause
of women's voting rights to the forefront of national attention. A
group of women led by Susan B. Anthony attempted to vote during the
presidential election of 1872, claiming they were entitled to the
Fourteenth Amendment. The presiding officials, Jones, Hall and
Marsh, decided by a majority to accept their ballots. The women
were soon arrested for this act and indicted for "knowingly voting
without having a lawful right to vote." The officials were also
indicated. This volume reprints the text of the indictment and a
transcript of the testimony with connecting commentary.
Clarence van Buuren is met 'n geheim galg toe. Vyftig jaar later
probeer Chris Marnewick hierdie geheim oplos. Van Buuren is in 1956
skuldig bevind aan die moord op Myrna Joy Aken en tereggestel.
Vroue het buite die hof in lang rye gewag om die verhoor by te woon
en het mekaar vertrap wanneer die deure oopgegaan het. Van Buuren
het met van hulle flirteer tydens die verhoor, en het tot op die
einde skuld ontken. Die saak was opspraakwekkend om verskeie redes:
'n Siener het die lyk na 'n seance opgespoor, Van Buren en Aken was
lovers, maar die lyk is seksueel vermink. Inligting dui daarop dat
Van Buuren 'n narsissistiese psigopaat was en 'n sadis wat veral
vroue geteister en gemartel het. 'n Emosionele vampier. 'n
Sadistiese seksmoordenaar. Maar daar was niks hiervan in die
hofsaak nie. Ook nie in die koerante nie.
Demonic possession. Exorcism. Haunted Houses. Satanic Rituals. For
most people this is the stuff of nightmares, horror movies,
folklore, and superstition. For New York City police Sergeant Ralph
Sarchie, it's as real--and dangerous--as midnight patrol . . . A
sixteen-year NYPD veteran, Ralph Sarchie works out of the 46th
Precinct in New York's South Bronx. But it is his other job that he
calls "the Work": investigating cases of demonic possession and
assisting in the exorcisms of humanity's most ancient--and most
dangerous--foes. Now he discloses for the first time his
investigations into incredible true crimes and inhuman evil that
were never explained, solved, or understood except by Sarchie and
his partner. Schooled in the rituals of exorcism, and an eyewitness
to the reality of demonic possession, Ralph Sarchie has documented
a riveting chronicle of the inexplicable that gives a new shape to
the shadows in the dark.
In "Deliver Us from Evil," he takes readers into the very hierarchy
of a hell on earth to expose the grisly rituals of a Palo Mayombe
priest; a young girl whose innocence is violated by an incubus; a
home invaded by the malevolent spirit of a supposedly murdered
nineteenth-century bride; the dark side of a couple who were
literally, the neighbors from hell; and more. Ralph Sarchie's
revelations are a powerful and disturbing documented link between
the true-crime realities of life and the blood-chilling ice-grip of
a supernatural terror.
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