Biographies

The first major biography of 18th century France's most mysterious woman, the daughter of Marie Antoinette, who vanished from public view during the tumultuous last days of the ancien regime

From his dazzling conducting debut in 1943 until his death in 1990, Leonard Bernstein's star blazed brilliantly. In this fresh and revealing biography of Bernstein's political life, Barry Seldes examines Bernstein's career against the backdrop of cold war America-blacklisting by the State Department in 1950, voluntary exile from the New York Philharmonic in 1951 for fear that he might be blacklisted, signing a humiliating affidavit to regain his passport-and the factors that by the mid-1950s allowed his triumphant return to the New York Philharmonic. Seldes for the first time links Bernstein's great concert-hall and musical-theatrical achievements and his real and perceived artistic setbacks to his involvement with progressive political causes. Making extensive use of previously untapped FBI files as well as overlooked materials in the Library of Congress's Bernstein archive, Seldes illuminates the ways in which Bernstein's career intersected with the twentieth century's most momentous events. This broadly accessible and impressively documented account of the celebrity-maestro's life deepens our understanding of an entire era as it reveals important and often ignored intersections of American culture and political power.

From the time he was three or four years old, John Elder Robison realised that he was different from other people. He was unable to make eye contact or connect with other children, and by the time he was a teenager his odd habits - an inclination to blurt out non-sequiturs, obsessively dismantle radios or dig five-foot holes (and stick his younger brother in them) - had earned him the label 'social deviant'. It didn't help that his mother conversed with light fixtures and his father spent evenings pickling himself in sherry.Look Me in the Eye is his story of growing up with Asperger's syndrome a form of autism at a time when the diagnosis simply didn't exist. Along the way it also tells the story of two brothers born eight years apart yet devoted to each other: the author and his younger brother Chris, who would grow up to become bestselling author Augusten Burroughs. This book is a rare fusion of inspiration, dark comedy and insight into the workings of the human mind. For someone who has struggled all his life to connect with other people, Robison proves to be an extraordinary storyteller.

Words like boldness, adventure and risk are surely coined especially for Andy Kirkpatrick. As one of the world's accomplished mountaineers and big-wall climbers, he goes vertically where other climbers fear to tread. This autobiography provides his thirteen-day ascent of Reticent Wall on El Capitan in California - the hardest big-wall climb.

'The first thing that caught my eye was the geezer with the gold tooth - the second was that he was holding a shooter - and the third that he was pointing it at me.' Carlton Leach is a gangland legend - the mere mention of his name strikes fear into his enemies; yet to his friends he is as loyal and caring as they come. If trouble comes calling, C

The Letters of Samuel Beckett offers for the first time a comprehensive range of letters of one of the greatest literary figures of the twentieth century. This volume provides a vivid and personal view of Western Europe in the 1930s, marked by the emergence of Beckett's unique voice and sensibility.

Tells the story of a teenager with no hopes who joined the army at sixteen and went on to become one of the most successful counter-terrorism operators in the world.

Henri Matisse was one of the most important and beloved artists of the twentieth century, rivalled only by his friend - and competitor - Pablo Picasso. This title reveals the origins of Matisse's astonishing talent and provides an insight into his life and work.

An account of the painter Claude Monet, one of the key founders of the Impressionist movement and arguably the most influential painter of modern times. It tells the story of his life, the historical context of society at the time, and his relationships with Renoir, Sisley and Manet.

'A joy. Celebrates the real world and revels in its mad glory' Sue Townsend, Sunday Times_____________________________________All Points North is part-memoir and part-excursion. Charting the rugged and uneven terrain of a writer's formative years - from tax problems to probation to American tours, football to family to running away to Iceland - Simon Armitage explores growing up and being Northern. It's about humour, language, writing, film, houses, homes, time wasters, one loose tyre, you, me and all points in-between._____________________________________'Laugh-out-loud funny' Independent'A delight' Jonathan Raban, Times Literary Supplement 'A perfect holiday dipper' Scotsman'An Alan Bennett-style diary' Daily Telegraph

The Romans regarded Cleopatra as 'fatale monstrum', a tyrant to be crushed. Pascal said the shape of her nose changed the history of the world. Shakespeare and Tiepolo (and Elizabeth Taylor) portrayed her as an icon of tragic beauty. But who was Cleopatra, really? This biography discusses about Cleopatra.

In Tropic of Capricorn, bestselling author Simon Reeve embarks on a 23,000-mile trek around the southernmost border of the tropics - a place of both amazing beauty and overwhelming human suffering.

This is the story of John Sussex, a highly successful derivatives trader whose career has spanned the radical technological, social and political changes that took place in the City of London during the Eighties and Nineties.

Denys Finch Hatton was an aristocrat of leonine nonchalance. He was a soldier in the East Africa Campaign, a white hunter, a farmer, a pilot, the epitome of the brave pioneer. This book tells the story of his love affair, and talks about the life of one of the key figures in the mythic story of the British settlers in East Africa.

In 1980, at the age of ten, Loung Ung escaped a devastated Cambodia and flew to the US as a refugee. She and her eldest brother, with whom she escaped, left behind their three surviving siblings. This book follows the parallel lives of Loung and her closest sister, Chou, during the 15 years it took for them to be reunited.

Written from the perspective of an ordinary 'Tommy' and told with dignity, candour and surprising wit, Somme Mud is a testament to the human spirit: for out of the mud that threatened to suck out a man's soul rises a compelling story of humanity and friendship.

_____________________________________On a bleak winter night in 1997, a British Columbia timber scout named Grant Hadwin committed an act of shocking violence: he destroyed the legendary Golden Spruce of the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Book about how developmental changes and housing schemes in Dundee from 1945 onwards became overrun by street gangs. Some of these gangs still survive today.

One of the most beloved Buddhist books of all time-having inspired popular musicians, artists, a documentary film, and countless readers-is now in an expanded, new edition, loaded with extras. Absolutely absorbing from start to finish, this is a true story you might truly fall in love with. At only 24, Maura O''Halloran left her Irish-American family stateside and traveled to Japan, where she began studying under an inscrutable Zen master. She would herself become recognized as a Zen master-in an uncommonly brief amount of time. Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind is Maura''s beautifully-written account of her journey. These journal entries and letters home reveal astonishing, wise-beyond-her-years humor, compassion, wisdom, and commitment. This expanded edition includes never-before-seen entries and poems, the author''s unfinished novel, and an afterword that discusses the book''s cultural impact. It will be a must-have for Maura''s previous fans--and will surely find her thousands of new ones.

'Kapuscinski is the conjurer extraordinaire of modern reportage, and The Soccer War is a splendid example of his magic' John Le Carre.

Reissued in the year of Miep Gies' 100th birthday, this international bestseller includes a brand-new afterword by the author.

Revealing biography of one of the twentieth century's most controversial figures; and the first significant biography to have been published since the subject's death

Sets out to discover what it is that helps ordinary men and women beat danger and death; what strengths do survivors share; what is the science of resilience; and, what are the secrets of beating the odds.

The lofty man of English football gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse at his remarkable rise to the top.

Drugs, misery and rock and roll... the totally candid story of how one woman's addiction to a glamorous life turned into a nightmare and how she brought herself back from the point of no return.

John R. Jewitt''s story of being captured and enslaved by Maquinna, the great chief of the Mowachaht people, is both an adventure tale of survival and an unusual perspective on the First Nations of the northwest coast of Vancouver Island. On March 22, 1803, while anchored in Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Boston was attacked by a group of Mowachaht warriors. Twenty-five of her 27 crewmen were massacred, their heads "arranged in a line" for survivor John R. Jewitt to identify. Jewitt and another survivor, John Thompson, became 2 of some 50 slaves owned by the chief known as Maquinna. Among other duties, they were forced to carry wood for three miles and fight for Maquinna when he slaughtered a neighbouring tribe. But their worst fear came from knowing that slaves could be killed whenever their master chose. Since most of the Mowachaht wanted the two whites dead, they never knew what would come first--freedom or death. After Jewitt was rescued, following 28 months in captivity, he wrote a book of his experiences. It appeared in 1815 and became known as Jewitt''s Narrative. It proved so popular that it is still being reprinted today.

A musical composer who dabbled in the Dada movement, a Bohemian gymnopediste of fin-de-siecle Montmartre, and a legendary dresser known as The Velvet Gentleman for his sartorial choices, Erik Satie was nearly unprecedented in technique, style and philosophy among European composers in the early twentieth century. This book tells his story.

This priceless historical document features firsthand accounts from top levels of leadership in the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917, chronicling the struggle to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat.

How does it feel to hold someone's life in your hands?