Biographies

Not a sausage. That is what Gordon Ramsay had when he started out as a chef, working 16-hour days, 6 days a week. When he was struggling to get his first restaurant in the black, he didn't think he'd be famous for a TV show about how to run profitable eateries, or that he'd be head of a business empire. But he is and he did. Here's how."e;In the beginning there was nothing.Not a sausage - penniless, broke, fucking nothing - and although, at a certain age, that didn't matter hugely, there came a time when hand-me-downs, cast-offs and football boots of odd sizes all pointed to a problem that seemed to have afflicted me, my mum, my sisters, Ronnie and the whole lot of us. It was as though we had been dealt the 'all-time dysfunctional' poker hand.I wish I could say that, from this point on, the penny dropped and I decided to do something about it, but it wasn't like that. It would take years before the lessons of life, business and money began to click into place - before, as they say, I had a pot to piss in.This is the story of how those lessons were learned."e;This is Gordon Ramsay at his raw, rugged best. PLAYING WITH FIRE is the amazing story of Gordon's journey from sous-chef to superstar. In his no-holds-barred style, Gordon shares his passion for risk and adventure and his hard-won success secrets.

McCourt's Pulitzer Prize winning look back at his childhood. "e;It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while..."e;"e;When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.People everywhere brag or whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying shcoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years. Above all we were wet..."e;So begins Frank McCourt's stunning memoir of his childhood in Ireland and America, a recollection of unvarnished truth and no self pity, of grinding poverty and indomitable spirit that will live in the memory long after the tape has ended.Now a major film directed by Alan Parker and starring Robert Carlyle and Emily Watson.

This book examines and assesses all of John Lennon's solo work.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER - BEST GARDENING BOOKS OF 2020 - Sunday Times, Times 'Every page a joy.' Nigel Slater'From a very early age I loved the countryside as much as any garden and was fascinated by the life that I saw all around me from trees, wildflowers, birds, insects and mammals. In a sense this book has been over sixty years in gestation. I have kept notebooks and journals ever since I could write and I have drawn upon these as well as the events of the past year.'My Garden World by Monty Don is a celebration of every living creature that we all share. This year has given us the enforced opportunity to learn more about the fascinating natural world around us. Whether you live in the countryside or the town, Monty's observations and insights are relevant to each and every one of us. My Garden World is Monty Don's personal journey through the natural year, month by month, season by season, observed from the immediate world around him. 'Wildlife is not something that we watch happening in remote and exotic parts of the world on our screens, but right here in our own back yards and the more that we encourage it and learn to live with it, the more rewarding it becomes.If, in our own modest back yards, we can help preserve and treasure our natural world then we will make the world a better place -- not just for ourselves but for every living creature.'

Winner of the 2020 Wainwright Prize, Diary of a Young Naturalist vividly explores the natural world from the perspective of an autistic teenager juggling homework, exams and friendships alongside his life as a conservationist and environmental activist.

Perfect for father's day: a gift book that asks your Dad to share his experiences, dreams and wishes, creating a personal treasury of memoriesDad, Tell Me is a gift book that gives back, asking your father to record everything from his favourite band as a teenager and his childhood games to his proudest accomplishment and first memory of you. Give it to him as a gift, get it back as a chronicle of his life. The end result will be a deeply personal keepsake, one that helps you to remember what is really important in life: the people we love and the stories we share with one another.More than three million people worldwide have used Elma van Vliet's "Tell Me" books to tell their family's stories.

This book tells Laura''s story about the travels and experiences they had during one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. Her family was not wealthy. They were an ordinary family, ordinary folk whose desire was to farm, hunt game, and live a normal life. In search of a better life, they would move from one town to the other, and each time Laura''s experience would inspire her to create new content for a different book in her series.

The definitive account of America's most dangerous street gang: the MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha), seen through the eyes of one family caught in its vicious web.

One Thousand Ways to Make $1000 is the book that Warren Buffett's biographers credit with shaping the legendary investor's business acumen and giving him his trademark appreciation of compound interest. After pulling a copy of One Thousand Ways off a library shelf at age eleven and devouring the practical business advice, Buffett declared that he would be a millionaire by the time he was 35. Written in the immediate, conversational style of Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, this book is full of inventive ideas on how to make money  through excellent salesmanship, hard work, and resourcefulness. While  some of the ideas may seem quaint today-goat dairying, manufacturing  motor-driven chairs, and renting out billiard tables to local establishments are among the money-making ideas presented- the underlying fundamentals of business explained in these pages remain as solid as they were over seventy years ago. Covering a wide spectrum of topics including investing, marketing, merchandising, sales, customer relations, and raising money for charity, One Thousand Ways to Make $1000 is both a durable, classic business book and a fascinating portrait of determined entrepreneurship in Depression-era America. Everyeffort has been made to reproduce the content exactly as it was originally presented. “I like numbers, it started before I can remember,”” Buffett tells a group of Omaha Central High School students in the film.  A voracious reader his entire life, at age seven he read a book he borrowed from the library, One Thousand Ways to Make $1000, and, inspired by its lessons, began selling Coca-Cola, gum and newspapers.  His father, a salesman who survived the Depression, was elected to Congress when Buffett was 12, moving the family to Washington. Displaced and unhappy, Buffett lost interest in academics, attending the University of Nebraska at his father’s insistence; he was turned down for admission by the Harvard Business School. This rejection was propitious: Buffett discovered that two of his financial idols, Ben Graham and David Dodd, taught at the Columbia Business School; he wrote them a letter and was accepted there. From Graham he learned what he calls the “two rules of investing”: “Rule #1: Never lose money. Rule #2: Never forget Rule #1.”

How do you brand a revolution?In his engaging new book, Taking a Bite out of the Apple: A Graphic Designer's Tale, Rob Janoff - designer of the world-famous Apple logo - shares what it was like to live through the heady days of the home computer revolution. From his fateful meeting with Steve Jobs in Silicon Valley as a young art director in 1977, to his current position heading up an international branding company with his Australian business partner, Rob's career continues with its focus on distilling a client's business personality into a memorable icon.Taking a Bite out of the Apple is an intimate view into how Rob's design for a young, start-up company became a defining moment in a long career. After working on national brands like Apple, IBM, Intel, Kraft and Kleenex at top US agencies, Rob now enjoys working with a diversity of companies from Japan, Italy, Australia, China and the UK.Telling the true tale of how the globally loved icon came to be, Rob offers insight and inspiration to young people considering the field of graphic design - and to the young at heart who share his love of memorable graphics. Reviewed By Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite:Taking a Bite Out of the Apple: A Graphic Designer's Tale (Hearing Others' Voices) is a nonfiction memoir for young adults written by Rob Janoff. While he had gone to college to study industrial design, Janoff was more intrigued by the creative possibilities that graphic design seemed to offer. Indeed, his whole outlook on the world seemed to point him in that direction. He had had some success in designing logos for new tech companies when he went to work for the Regis McKenna Agency in Silicon Valley. That tech experience led his boss, Regis McKenna, to offer him a somewhat off-the-wall assignment. Janoff's mind was far away as his boss discussed the assignment, but eventually the words "apple" and "computers" broke through his distraction. Janoff even knew of Steve Jobs, the iconic inventor who, with his partner, had turned a garage into the birthplace of the personal computer. But how to render Steve's concepts into a logo? Janoff's mind kept toying with the idea, his hand quickly sketching and erasing ideas as they paraded through his imagination. Then he hit on it.Rob Janoff's nonfiction memoir for young adults, Taking a Bite Out of the Apple: A Graphic Designer's Tale, is a beautifully written and fascinating account by the designer of the world-famous Apple logo. Anyone who loves computers and has an interest in how the personal computer came to be will have as much fun reading this book as I did. But there's more to this memoir than tech history. Janoff's description of how he tackled the project, working feverishly with a bowl of apples as inspiration is a joy to read. Any creative person should find Janoff's story inspiring, and his smooth conversational style makes following along as he works towards that one perfect image a grand and entertaining experience. Taking a Bite Out of the Apple: A Graphic Designer's Tale is most highly recommended.

THE AWARD-WINNING MASTERPIECE THAT DEFINED ROCK'N'ROLL MEMOIR AND CAPTURED AN ERANow richly illustrated with new material and never-before-seen photographs'Sharp, elegiac and finely crafted' SUNDAY TIMES'So honest and pure as to count as true rapture' JOAN DIDION'Tender, harrowing, hilarious' VOGUE'A poetic masterpiece' JOHNNY DEPP Patti's Smith's exquisite prose is generously illustrated in this full-color edition of her classic coming-of-age memoir, Just Kids. New York locations vividly come to life where, as young artists, Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe met and fell in love: a first apartment in Brooklyn, Times Square with John and Yoko's iconic billboard, Max's Kansas City, or the gritty fire escape of the Hotel Chelsea. The extraordinary people who passed through their lives are also pictured: Sam Shepard, Harry Smith, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg. Along with never-before-published photographs, drawings, and ephemera, this edition captures a moment in New York when everything was possible. And when two kids seized their destinies as artists and soul mates in this inspired story of love and friendship.

The New York Times Bestseller The brilliant intellect and candor of Anthony Bourdain is on full display in this collection of interviews from throughout his remarkable career, with an introduction from The New Yorker's Helen Rosner. Anthony Bourdain always downplayed his skills as a chef (many disagreed). But despite his modesty, one thing even he agreed with was that he was a born raconteur-as he makes clear in this collection of sparkling conversations. His wit, passion, and deep intelligence shine through all manner of discussion here, from heart-to-hearts with bloggers, to on-stage talks before massive crowds, to intense interviews with major television programs. Without fail, Bourdain is always blisteringly honest-such as when he talks about his battles with addiction, or when detailing his thoughts on restaurant critics. He regularly dispenses arresting insight about how what's on your plate reveals much of history and politics. And perhaps best of all, the heartfelt empathy he developed travelling the world for his TV shows is always in the fore, as these talks make the "Hemingway of gastronomy," as chef Marco Pierre White called him, live again.

Poly Styrene was many things: a pop star, a punk, a songwriter, a single mother, a woman of colour, a Hare Krishna convert and an artist, but she is best known as the singer of X-Ray Spex. Dayglo! is the definitive statement on Poly Styrene as an artist.

Russo looks back on a life of associating with the mafia both in real life and on the big screen, in the US and in Italy, telling the stories of his connections to famous real life figures such as Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe along the way.

More true tales of amazing boys who found the courage to be themselves, and achieved something remarkable at the same time.

Another Day In The Life is introduced and narrated by Ringo Starr, with forewords by legendary movie director David Lynch and rock photographer Henry Diltz. Ringo shows us the world as seen through a Starr's eyes, in more than 500 observational photographs and rare images from the archives, and an original text of nearly 13,000 words.

A Book of Dreams, the inspiration behind Kate Bush's 1985 hit song 'Cloudbusting', and widely regarded as a classic of writing about childhood, is at last available in paperback again.

Michael Bloomberg rose from middle-class Medford, Massachusetts to become a pioneer of the computer age, mayor of New York, one of the world's most generous philanthropists, and one of America's most respected--and fearless--voices on gun violence, climate change, public health, and other issues. And it all happened after he got fired at the age of 39.This is his story, told in his own words and in his own candid style.After working his way through college and graduating from Harvard Business School, Bloomberg landed on the bottom rung of a Wall Street firm and worked his way up to partner. But in 1981, he was forced out of the firm. With an idea for computerizing financial data, Bloomberg started his own company. And, since personal computers barely existed, he built his own. Specially designed for Wall Street traders and analysts, the Bloomberg Terminal revolutionized the world of finance. Under Bloomberg's leadership, his company grew rapidly, playing David to the Goliaths of finance and media--and making Bloomberg one of the world's wealthiest men.Bloomberg by Bloomberg offers an intimate look at the creative mind and driven personality behind the Bloomberg brand. He describes in vivid detail his early Wall Street career, both the victories and frustrations, including a personal account of what it was like to be fired and given $10 million on the same day.He combines personal stories with penetrating insights into business and technology, while also offering lessons from his unique approach to management. There is no one in business or politics quite like him--or who has had more success in both areas.

Romain Gary was one of the most important French writers of the 20th century. He won the once-in-a-lifetime honour the Prix Goncourt twice, the only person ever to have done so, by writing under a secret nom de plume. He was married to the American actress Jean Seberg and served in the RAF during the Second World War. He died in Paris in 1980 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Synopsis coming soon.......

A gripping account of the rise and fall of Iran's glamorous Pahlavi dynasty, written with the cooperation of the late Shah's widow, Empress Farah

After his martyrdom at the hands of the Gestapo in 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer continued his witness in the hearts of Christians around the world. His Letters and Papers from Prison became a prized testimony to Christian faith and courage, read by thousands. Now in Life Together we have Pastor Bonhoeffer's experience of Christian community. This story of a unique fellowship in an underground seminary during the Nazi years reads like one of Paul's letters. It gives practical advice on how life together in Christ can be sustained in families and groups. The role of personal prayer, worship in common, everyday work, and Christian service is treated in simple, almost biblical, words. Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for the real life of Christian fellowship.

The noble art of leaving things undone is approached in a wry and witty tone in this reissue of Lin Yutang's influential psychology classic, emphasising revering inaction as much as action and finding the humour wherever possible.

Have you ever kept a diary? This is the diary of a young girl growing up in sixties America - an honest account of teenage life. This book was first published several decades ago as the shocking real diary of a young woman.

C. S. Lewis' Little Book of Wisdom offers more than 300 bite-size nuggets of inspiration and wisdom from the much-loved author, philosopher, and Christian theologist.

Searching for the book of love letters from the Sex in the City movie? This beautiful hard-cover book contains those letters as well as some of the most passionate and romantic poems and love letters ever written.Explore the private longings and passions of the greatest men in history and the women they loved. Find yourself in the middle of torrid love affairs, undying devotion, and scandalous betrayal as you uncover long-lost correspondences between lovers.From great Kings to War Heroes to Philosophers, spanning a period of five centuries, this collection illustrates that the human desires of sex and love were as powerful then as they are now.