Diaries & Memoirs

With these words from Bhairavi Ma echoing in his heart, a young monk who had renounced a multimillion-dollar business empire retreated into the Himalayas. For thirteen months, he engaged in intense meditation, seeking the finest reward there is: self-realization.

In 1959, the year Terry Galloway turned nine, the voices of everyone she loved began to disappear. No one yet knew that an experimental antibiotic given to her mother had wreaked havoc on her fetal nervous system, eventually causing her to go deaf. As a self-proclaimed "e;child freak,"e; she acted out her fury with her boxy hearing aids and Coke-bottle glasses by faking her own drowning at a camp for crippled children. Ever since that first real-life performance, Galloway has used theater, whether onstage or off, to defy and transcend her reality. With disarming candor, she writes about her mental breakdowns, her queer identity, and living in a silent, quirky world populated by unforgettable characters. What could have been a bitter litany of complaint is instead an unexpectedly hilarious and affecting take on life.

A unique memoir of the pandemic from the viewpoint of a toddler's family life which provides a timeline of the news and restrictions associated with Covid-19. A humorous, but also raw, account of a child's development throughout the strangest period in modern history.

The elemental pull of water is irresistible, whether it's to bathe, swim, shower, splash about, sail or simply paddle. We are drawn to it not just for pleasure but for its healing and wellbeing benefits. Destinations, from holy wells to mysterious lakes and enchanted rivers, also have spiritual meaning and are shrouded in myths and folklore. In The Water Remedy, Clare Gogerty offers a guide to some of the best places in Wales and the UK to enjoy being with water, inspiring us to see beyond its day-to-day domestic use so that we can benefit from its spiritual and restorative powers. Discover the difference that our rivers and seas, lakes and springs, wells and waterways can all make to our wellbeing

To come.

We Dont Use Words Like Crazy is a professional confessional from Elliot Sweeney, a mental health nurse who works on the frontline of mental health services. His touching and often humorous memoir lifts the lid on the realities of the profession, in an attempt to highlight the need for compassion for some of the most vulnerable people in the world, and the very committed people that work with them on a professional basis.This book is for anyone who wants to know what its really like to work in contemporary mental health services in the UK, and why people like Elliot stick at it. Funny, frank and beautifully observed, Elliots memoir explores all aspects of mental health care, including hospital, youth care, post-partum, dementia, community care, and the more extreme experience of working with Broadmoor inmates, highlighting a service that underpins our society and that reflects the full spectrum of humanity.

Every day in my consulting room with a dog at my feet I have seen the very best that humanity has to offer and often in the very worst of circumstances.No matter where a family comes from, whether prince or pauper, when they come through the door, every single person has three things in common.   One, they love their dogs beyond anything that can be described in words. Two, they will do whatever it takes to help their friend.And three, they have all come to me for one thing and one thing only: hope. Dogs don’t care where we come from, and neither do I. My room is the great leveller.    From the sublime to the ridiculous, Professor Noel Fitzpatrick has seen it all in his veterinary practice. Dogs (and their humans): stories of healing and hope from the Supervet’s surgery is a funny, uplifting and at times heartbreaking celebration of our connection with our loyal canine friends.  Dogs allow us to be the very best we can be.

Born to a poor Jewish family in Cold War Budapest, Susan Polgar had the odds stacked against her-from having few resources, to growing up in a sexist culture rife with vicious anti¿Semitism. Yet her father subscribed to the belief that geniuses are not born, but created, so he set out to ensure her success in an unlikely field: chess. At age 4, she won her first tournament. By 15, she was the top¿rated female player in the world. She was the first woman ever to hold the men's Grandmaster title-chess' highest designation. The ensuing wins and accolades provided incredible highs to coincide with extreme lows as Polgar's celebrity brought backlash, including sabotage and state¿sponsored intimidation.REBEL QUEEN is the memoir of her improbable rise, offering a rare behind¿the¿scenes chess story and featuring some of the game's most legendary characters. Yet it is a narrative that transcends chess, the story of a genius, treated from birth as a second¿class citizen, who thrilled against all odds. It is an incredible underdog story told by the woman who actually lived it.

Over a year of walks through the fields, woods and wetlands near her home, Octavie Wolters shares her thoughts and worries with blackbirds and magpies, swallows and oystercatchers, and receives their wisdom in return. This Will Last Forever is a gorgeously illustrated memoir of a year in nature, a journey through the seasons and a reminder that comfort and enlightenment can be found in the everyday wonder of the wild world.

Arrested as a spy by the Nazis in 1942, Christopher Burney was held in solitary confinement for 526 days in a prison in Paris. This book is his account of how he managed not only to maintain his mental and emotional health but to develop the resilience he later needed to survive in Buchenwald concentration camp. A psychological masterpiece.

This isn't just a grief memoir, this is a new way of talking about living through and with grief.

Patrick is a memoir that describes periods of self-medication, therapy, and recovery, while also providing insight into some of the most pressing humanitarian crises of our time. The book also explores his neurodiversity and the impact it had on his childhood, schooling, and career.

Deathbeds and Birthdays is Oona Frawley's deeply personal memoir that intertwines reflections on the deaths and births that have shaped her life, exploring themes of grief, love, and the complex interplay between loss and gratitude.

After moving from Washington, D.C. to the Jersey Shore, a former speechwriter for President Obama starts surfing at the age of thirty-five—the rough equivalent of beginning guitar lessons on your deathbed—and must turn for help to the only other surfer he knows: a tattooed, truck-driving, Joe Rogan superfan who happens to be his brother-in-law.