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The long awaited sequel to the beloved and bestselling ‘The Liars’ Club’ and ‘Cherry’ – a memoir about a self-professed ‘blackbelt sinner’s’ descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness, and her astonishing resurrection.‘If you’d told me, even a year before I start taking my son to church regular that I’d wind up whispering my sins in the confessional or on my knees saying the rosary, I would’ve laughed myself cockeyed. More likely pastime? Pole dancer. International spy. Drug mule. Assassin.’Mary Karr’s prizewinning ‘The Liars’ Club’ chronicled her hardscrabble Texas childhood and sparked a renaissance in memoir, cresting the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year. ‘Cherry’, her ecstatically reviewed account of a psychedelic adolescence and a moving sexual coming-of-age, followed it into bestsellerdom. Now ‘Lit’ answers the question asked by thousands of fans: How did Karr make it out of that toxic upbringing to tell her own tale?Karr’s longing for a solid family seems secure when her marriage to a handsome, blueblood poet who can quote Shakespeare by the yard produces a blond son they adore. But Karr can’t outrun her apocalyptic upbringing. She drinks herself into the same numbness that nearly devoured her charismatic but troubled mother, reaching the brink of suicide. A hair-raising stint in ‘The Mental Marriott’ with an oddball tribe of gurus and saviors awakens her to the possibility of joy again, and leads her to an unlikely faith. Not since St. Augustine cried, ‘Give me chastity, Lord – but not yet!’ has a conversion story rung with such dark hilarity.‘Lit’ is about getting drunk and getting sober; becoming a mother by letting go of a mother; learning to write by learning to live. This hotly anticipated sequel brings Karr’s story full circle; it will endure in the hearts of readers alongside her influential and beloved earlier books. Simply put, it is a triumph.

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A searching and at times harrowing re-appraisal of the life of Evel Knievel, the seventies American icon and the greatest daredevil motorcyclist that ever lived. The story of the last few years of his life and his death in 2007.Stuart Barker's definitive biography captures the super-star status that Knievel held and also examines the marketing phenomenon of a man who once boasted he ‘made $60 million and blew $63 million’.Born in the town of Butte, Montana in 1938, Robert Craig Knievel was an outstanding athlete, ski jumper and ice hockey player at school. His early jobs included working in the copper mines and driving a bus as well as a stint in the US Army, but he always subsidised his income through crime ('I could crack a safe with one hand tied behind my back quicker than you could eat a hamburger with two.')He used bikes to escape from the police and eventually hit upon the idea of jumping them after seeing a stunt driver jump cars at a state fair. His first jump took place over two mountain lions and a box of rattlesnakes, and he soon developed his act into the 'Evel Knievel Motorcycle Daredevils' before embarking on a solo career.Knievel suffered 37 breaks and fractures during his daredevil career. In 1967 he spent 29 days in a coma after an attempt to jump over the fountains outside Caesar's Palace casino in Las Vegas. While recovering, he decided to make his goal to jump the Grand Canyon, an attempt he was forced to abort by the US Government; and later was paid $1 million for jumping over 13 double-decker buses at Wembley Stadium.Now, a quarter of a century after he last stepped off a motorcycle, he has been reborn as the originator of Xtreme sports. This, alongside his love of gambling, women and drinking, ensure his legend will live forever. Life of Evel is the story of a truly extreme personality.

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The Sunday Times bestseller!Pour the champagne, light some candles, lay back and prepare to laugh, cry and gasp at the fully uncensored, Bridget-Jones-esque world of Ollie Locke, star of Made in Chelsea.Immaculately dressed, fake-tanned and unstoppably cheerful, Ollie Locke is the heart of Channel 4’s hit show Made in Chelsea. He’s done it all. And what he hasn’t done, he’s seen. (Not in a weird way, obvs.)In a nutshell, that means one hell of a rollercoaster ride of trouble, misadventures, sexual mishaps, epic cringes and embarrassing secrets that nobody was ever supposed to know. Until now.Because in Laid in Chelsea Ollie – famously unlucky in love – is letting it all hang out. So to speak.From developing his first crush, dire first encounters, terrible dates to true love – as well as offering his unique advice on how to stay sane in the crazy world of love – Ollie’s laying it bare. And, of course, he reveals what really goes on behind the bedroom doors of Made in Chelsea…Witty, surprising, touching, downright hilarious and always honest, Laid in Chelsea is an exclusive insight into the mind of the modern man, and a backstage pass to the secret world of Chelsea.#laidinchelsea

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE BERGER PRIZE FOR BRITISH ART HISTORY 2017SHORTLISTED FOR THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 2017A SUNDAY TIMES ART BOOK OF THE YEARA SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEARAN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEARA NEW YORK TIMES ART BOOK OF THE YEARFrom his time as Bernard Berenson’s protégé to being the Keeper of the Western Art at 27 and his appointment as the youngest-ever director of the National Gallery, Kenneth Clark displayed precocious genius. No voice has exercised so much power and influence over the arts in Britain as Clark’s. A formidable aesthete, his coterie included John Betjeman, Winston Churchill, Margot Fonteyn, E.M. Forster, Vivien Leigh, the Queen Mother and Henry Moore. Hidden from view, however, was his wife Jane’s alcoholism and his own philandering. In James Stourton’s dazzling biography, Clark is shown as a man who conveyed the profound beauty and importance of art, architecture and civilisation for generations to come.

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A dramatic and remarkable narrative of an extraordinary teacher's determination, from the author of the Sunday Times bestsellers ‘The Tiger's Child’ and ‘One Child’.Torey Hayden faced six emotionally troubled kids no other teacher could handle – three recent arrivals from battle-torn Northern Ireland, badly traumatised by the horrors of war; an eleven-year-old boy, who only knew life inside an institution; an excitable girl, aggressive and sexually precocious at the age of eight; and seven-year-old Leslie, perhaps the most hopeless of all, unresponsive and unable to speak. But Torey's most daunting challenge turns out to be Leslie's mother, a stunning young doctor who soon discovers that she needs Torey's love and help just as much as the children.‘Just Another Kid’ is a beautiful illustration of nurturing concern, not only for a few emotionally disturbed children, but for one woman facing a personal battle.

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How one man turned a midlife crisis into the realisation of a childhood dream at 4pm at WincantonDominic Prince, journalist, documentary-maker, racing enthusiast and bon viveur hit the scales at nearly 16 stone on his 45th birthday. It was not always so. His first love was and still is horses. As a child he would bunk off school to ride his first horse, Conker, and it was only after an horrific accident that left him and his horse wound up in barbed wire that he stepped down off his mount and gave in to the lure of Fleet Street and the three hour lunch.But the smell of oats and the mist of early morning canters were never far away, even if he was living it from the other side of the paddock. In the 20 years since he last rode a horse he has made a film on Lester Piggott, bought and sold one race horse and won and lost thousands on 'the occasional flutter'. Through the drastic changes to his overindulgent lifestyle that he has had to go through to make the weight for the 4pm at Wincanton in October, is weaved an insider's account of the very particular world of jockeys, racing and the multi-billionaire owners who pull the strings at the world's greatest race courses.Memoir, sports book, exposé of the dark world of horse racing, at heart Jumbo to Jockey is the story that all middle aged men will know well of the realisation of a childhood dream before it is too late.

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In his first book, award-winning radio and TV presenter Ryan Tubridy tells the fascinating story of the iconic president John F Kennedy's visit to Ireland.The idolized, handsome and glamorous John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the great-grandson of Irish immigrants and the first and only Irish-Catholic American elected as President of the United States. He relished his Irish heritage and in June 1963 made a memorable four-day trip to his homeland, which he called the best 'four days of his life'. Tragically, five months later he was assassinated.In this fully illustrated book, Tubridy reveals the huge effect JFK's visit had on Ireland – a country that at the time was largely agrarian and extremely poor. He includes never-seen-before photos of the president and private documents that reveal how the Irish rejoiced in having a president visit their shore. Tubridy evaluates whether the well-loved president, whose 'Camelot' years some believe would have heralded a golden age, actually inspired Ireland to reinvent itself and instilled pride in the Irish people, or whether the myth of JFK just left behind an idyllic dream of what could have been.This book is a fascinating, unique and insightful read from one of Ireland's most popular personalities.

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Introducing James Arthur – the winner of The X Factor 2012!‘I still can’t get my head around being on the UK’s biggest talent search, singing in front of millions of people every week – let alone winning it. This is the story of how my dream became reality.‘Before the show, I felt I had no future. I’d been working so hard for so many years, through an endless succession of bands and gigs, that at my lowest point I nearly gave up on my dream. The competition changed everything. I’ve grown so much, both as an artist and as a person, and I hope I’ve finally achieved something that will make my family proud. This is the full story of how I got there – my story, in my words.’

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The original authorised biography, and the only one written by an author who actually met J.R.R. Tolkien.In the 25 years since Tolkien’s death in September 1973, millions have read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion and become fascinated about the very private man behind the books.Born in Bloemfontein in January 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was orphaned in childhood, brought up in near-poverty and almost thwarted in adolescent romance. He served in the First World War, surviving the Battle of the Somme, where he lost some of his closest friends, and returned to academic life, achieving high repute as a scholar and university teacher, eventually becoming Merton Professor of English at Oxford.Then suddenly his life changed dramatically. One day while marking essay papers he found himself writing ‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit’ – and worldwide renown awaited him.Humphrey Carpenter was given unrestricted access to all Tolkien’s papers, and interviewed his friends and family. From these sources he follows the long and painful process of creation that produced The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion and offers a wealth of information about the life and work of the twentieth century’s most cherished author.

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First time in ebook format, this biography of Isaac Newton reveals the extraordinary influence that the study of alchemy had on the greatest Early Modern scientific discoveries. In this ‘ground breaking biography’ Michael White destroys the myths of the life of Isaac Newton and reveals a portrait of the scientist as the last sorcerer.According to traditional accounts, Newton was the first modern scientist . As creator of the theory of gravity, calculus, modern theories of light and devisor of the three laws of mechanics, his methods are perceived as the genesis of modern science. Yet the traditional version of his life fails to tell, by some considerable margin, the full story. How for example could Newton’s apparent empiricism be married with his interest in alchemy and magic? What had inspired him in his discoveries? How did he reconcile his scientific discoveries with his religious faith? And, most of all, who was this man who, historians tell us, remained a virgin all his life and who seemed to be an argumentative ego maniac on the one hand and a kindly old man on the other?In this revelatory biography, White paints an original picture of Isaac Newton completely at variance with the traditional portrait.

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