This is the story of perhaps the world's most unusual Jewish community, told through the eyes of the oldest member of one of its most unusual families. Solomon 'Momy' Levy is one of the best known figures in Gibraltar. Levy was the Rock's first civic mayor, and he is a prominent and cherished part of both civic and Jewish life. His friendships with the Governors of the Rock are legion. Solomon Levy's story is told with a wonderfully humorous approach, and it includes accounts of his schooling at the Jewish private school Carmel College in Britain; his astonishingly close family; his dealings with a succession of Governors; his attachment to the Queen and all things British; and his relations with the local Catholic clergy, particularly its bishop. Written by Michael Freedland, a renowned journalist and broadcaster, Man on the Rock is also very much the story of the Gibraltar community, which is Jewish in a way few others in the non-Charedi Diaspora are. Walk through the main street on a Shabbat and one will see shop after shop closed. Hence, unlike in other places, Saturday is not the busiest trading day of the week. Solomon Levy embodies this religious approach, as this anecdote demonstrates: As an officer in the Royal Gibraltar Regiment, he was asked to lead the 10-gun salute for the Queen's Birthday. The trouble was that it occurred on a Shabbat, so he consulted his rabbi. What do you have to do? asked the rabbi. Just shout, Fire , he replied. So do it, said the rabbi. I then walked all the way to the top of the rock and ordered Fire Everyone seemed happy with that.

Al Jolson, celebrated star of the worlds first talking picture and self-proclaimed Worlds Greatest Entertainer, blazed many trails through show business and today his name still conjures up the glamour of Broadway and the silver screen. This is the definitive biography of a man who became a household name in his own lifetime. The first to speak in the movies; the first to appear on American television; the first to release a long-playing record in Britain: this great performers achievements were unique. Jolsons lifelong love affair with his audience, his four marriages, his amazing ego, and his traumatic personal life all are described in detail, along with many anecdotes and reminiscences from those who knew, loved, and worked with him. This is the eighth edition of this biography published as a result of a clamour from Jolson fans to still be able to read about this remarkable performer. He personified show business in an age when people waited in line to be able to see t

This is not just the story of another Holocaust survivor. There is nothing about Ben Helfgott that is usual. After all, very few survivors would, just a few years after liberation, become Olympic athletes. He did exactly that. He was a boy growing up in a small Polish town, Pietrkow, when his whole life changed as the Nazis moved in during the first week of the Second World War. As a small child he was top of his class - everything he did was of a standard beyond that of any of his classmates. He learned languages so that he spoke and understood at least three of them before he was eight years old. He read newspapers and watched films that were beyond his years. His sister, the only other member of his family to survive, says that if she or anyone else needed a protector, Ben was the one to call in. Above all, he excelled in sports. He had a wiry frame and was small in stature, but no one else could match him in any game he played. When the Nazis came to Pietrkow, his mother and a sister were shot. He and his father managed to live a kind of life in the ever shrinking ghetto in the town. Both worked in a glass factory and a woodwork plant. Before long, they would be transported to the infamous Buchenwald concentration camp where his father subsequently died. Taken to Thereisenstadt, a centre that had served as a kind of way station for Jews on the way to death camps, it was there that he was liberated by the Red Army. Before long, he was one of 'The Boys' who came to England, which became his home. His sporting excellence was recognised when he was selected for two Olympic Games in which he represented Britain as a weightlifter. He became a successful businessman and retired early so that he could make a personal crusade of bringing together other survivors. He founded the famous 45 Aid Society, worked with the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Holocaust Educational Trust. On the international scene, he, in his mid 80s, is a prominent figure in the Claims Conference, which has awarded billions of dollars to needy survivors. In a way, it is a controversial book. He is a great believer in reconciliation with both Germany and his native Poland - and both nations have made him awards in recognition of his work. It is a story Michael Freedland tells after dozens of interviews with Ben himself, as well as with members of his family, fellow survivors and residents of his old home town in Poland. [Subject: Biography, Holocaust, Claims Conference, Reconciliation]

This is the biography - written with the full cooperation of his family and of leading personalities in the world of concert and marching bands - of one of the most significant figures in the American band movement: Frank Simon. In the days when the name John Philip Sousa conjured up the rousing patriotism of 'The Stars and Stripes Forever' and other marches, Frank Simon was right there with him as Sousa's assistant conductor and cornet soloist. In the 1930s and 1940s, he took over Sousa's mantle. He became one of America's most popular radio personalities and then one of its principal music educators, honored by his profession and by universities throughout the nation. More than that, however, Frank Simon was a charming, funny, sometimes difficult personality. As his younger son, Joseph Simon, told the author Michael Freedland: 'He was not without his faults. The worst one? He didn't live long enough.'. This is his story: the warm, homespun story of the son of poor immigrant parents from Middletown, Ohio - as typical as US small town as anything featured in The Saturday Evening Post - who became one of the most important names in American music.