Historical & Political Biographies

ANNE LISTER IS THE INSPIRATION FOR GENTLEMAN JACK, A NEW BBC/HBO SERIES BY SALLY WAINWRIGHT, STARRING SURANNE JONES.'Engaging, revealing, at times simply astonishing: Anne Lister's diaries are an indispensable read for anyone interested in the history of gender, sexuality, and the intimate lives of women' SARAH WATERS'The Lister diaries are the Dead Sea Scrolls of lesbian history; they changed everything. By resurrecting them and editing them with such loving attention and intelligence, Helena Whitbread has earned the gratitude of a whole generation' EMMA DONOGHUEWhen this volume of Anne Lister's diaries was first published in 1988, it was hailed as a vital piece of lost lesbian history. The editor, Helena Whitbread, had spent years painstakingly researching and transcribing Lister's extensive journals, much of which were written in an elaborate code - what Lister called her 'crypthand', which allowed her to record her life in intimate, and at times, explicit, detail. Until then, Anne Lister's lesbianism had been supressed or hinted at; this was the first time her story had been told. Anne Lister defied the role of nineteenth-century womanhood: she was bold, fiercely independent, a landowner, industrialist, traveller and lesbian - a woman who lived her life on her own terms.'[Anne Lister's] sense of self, and self-awareness, is what makes her modern to us. She was a woman exercising conscious choice. She controlled her cash and her body. At a time when women had to marry, or be looked after by a male relative, and when all their property on marriage passed to their husband, Anne Lister not only dodged the traps of being female, she set up a liaison with another woman that enhanced her own wealth and left both of them free to live as they wished . . . The diaries gave me courage' JEANETTE WINTERSONThese diaries include the years 1816-1824. The second volume, NO PRIEST BUT LOVE, is available in ebook.

An insightful biography, based on exclusive research, of Queen Elizabeth II, bringing us the full story of one of our greatest and best-loved monarchs as she celebrates her Platinum Jubilee.

A classic memoir of prison breaks and adventure - a bestselling phenomenon of the 1960sCondemned for a murder he had not committed, Henri Charriere (nicknamed Papillon) was sent to the penal colony of French Guiana. Forty-two days after his arrival he made his first break, travelling a thousand gruelling miles in an open boat. Recaptured, he went into solitary confinement and was sent eventually to Devil's Island, a hell-hole of disease and brutality. No one had ever escaped from this notorious prison - no one until Papillon took to the shark-infested sea supported only by a makeshift coconut-sack raft. In thirteen years he made nine daring escapes, living through many fantastic adventures while on the run - including a sojourn with South American Indians whose women Papillon found welcomely free of European restraints...Papillon is filled with tension, adventure and high excitement. It is also one of the most vivid stories of human endurance ever written.Henri Charriere died in 1973 at the age of 66.

The incredibly moving and powerful memoir by an Auschwitz survivor who made headlines round the world in 2020

THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Times / Guardian / Telegraph / i News / The New York Times / Washington Post / NPR / Marie ClaireA riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making-from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy'Gorgeously written, humorous, compelling, life affirming' Justin Webb, Mail on SundayIn the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency-a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation's highest office. Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S.

The extraordinary inside story from Donald Trump's only niece of the factors that helped make the US president into the world's most dangerous man

The gripping story of an extraordinary life spent inside major disasters - from Hillsborough and 9/11 to Grenfell and Covid - from the UK's leading expert on disaster recovery.

Permanent Record is the essential and courageous memoir of Edward Snowden - the man who risked everything to expose the shocking mass surveillance used by governments across the world to spy on their own citizens.

Tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father's story. In this title, Vladek's harrowing story of survival is woven into the author's account of his tortured relationship with his aging father.

A reissue of this classic title with a new introduction by Andrew Morton reflecting on the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the original publication, and on the long term legacy of Diana.

One of the most famous accounts of living under the Nazi regime of World War II comes from the diary of a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl, Anne Frank. Today, The Diary of a Young Girl has sold over 25 million copies world-wide.It is one of the most celebrated and enduring books of the last century and it remains a deeply admired testament to the indestructible nature of human spirit.Anne Frank and her family fled the horrors of Nazi occupation by hiding in the back of a warehouse in Amsterdam for two years with another family and a German dentist. Aged thirteen when she went into the secret annexe, Anne kept a diary. She movingly revealed how the eight people living under these extraordinary conditions coped with hunger, the daily threat of discovery and death and being cut off from the outside world, as well as petty misunderstandings and the unbearable strain of living like prisoners.The Diary of a Yong Girl is a timeless true story to be rediscovered by each new generation. For young readers and adults it continues to bring to life Anne's extraordinary courage and struggle throughout her ordeal.'One of the greatest books of the century' Guardian'A modern classic' The Times'Rings down the decades as the most moving testament to the persecution of innocence' Daily Mail'Astonishing and excruciating. Its gnaws at us still' New York Times Book ReviewAnne Frank was born on 12 June 1929. She died in Bergen-Belsen, three months short of her sixteenth birthday.

Bob Woodward's second global bestseller on the Trump presidency, based on in-depth research and interviews with the president

THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER'Affectionate, evocative, illuminating. A story of survival - of a flock, a landscape and a disappearing way of life. I love this book' Nigel Slater'Triumphant, a pastoral for the 21st century' Helen Davies, Sunday Times, Books of the Year 'The nature publishing sensation of the year, unsentimental yet luminous' Melissa Harrison, The Times, Books of the YearSome people's lives are entirely their own creations. James Rebanks' isn't. The first son of a shepherd, who was the first son of a shepherd himself, he and his family have lived and worked in and around the Lake District for generations. Their way of life is ordered by the seasons and the work they demand, and has been for hundreds of years. A Viking would understand the work they do: sending the sheep to the fells in the summer and making the hay; the autumn fairs where the flocks are replenished; the gruelling toil of winter when the sheep must be kept alive, and the light-headedness that comes with spring, as the lambs are born and the sheep get ready to return to the fells.

Mein Kampf (German: My Struggle) is a 1925 autobiographical Manifesto of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi Leader. The work outlines Hitlers political ideology and future plans for Germany. Hitler began the book while imprisoned for what he considered to be political crimes following his failed Putsch in Munich in November 1923. Although Hitler received many visitors initially, he soon devoted himself entirely to the book. As he continued, Hitler realized that it would have to be a two-volume work, with the first volume covering world of Hitler's youth, the First World War, and the ';betrayal' of Germany's collapse in 1918; it also expresses His racist political ideology and future plans for Germany. The second volume, written after His release from prison in December 1924, outlines the political program, including the terrorist methods that National Socialism must pursue both in gaining power and in exercising it thereafter in the new Germany.

The moving and inspiring story of an Auschwitz survivor who shares what hes learned about gratitude, tolerance and kindness.