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Banged Up Abroad: Our Fight to Survive South America's Deadliest Jail
by James Miles Paul Loseby'There are 3,000 drugged-up psychopaths, armed to the teeth with blades, shooters and bombs. That's the only way I can describe Yare. It's a murderous viper's nest of assassins, cut throats and killers.'When James Miles and his best friend Paul Loseby were caught smuggling ten kilos of cocaine out of Caracas, Venezuela, they couldn't deny their guilt. Young and naive, the lads had thought the one-off drug mule job would be a passport to a better life. But in reality it was a ticket to hell ...They were sentenced to thirty years and flung into the world's deadliest prison system, ending up in the notorious Yare. A place where drugs and weaponry are currency and the rules are: there are no rules.This is the gripping true-life story of how two men endured untold savagery in the most appalling conditions. It's about what it's like to witness murder and rape every day, fearing you'll be next. How it feels to join a dangerous Latino gang and eat dead rats in order to survive. And, what you do when you're at the centre of a riot between thousands of men with machine guns.As seen on Channel 5's Banged Up Abroad, this is the most shocking prison story ever told and an inspiring account of human endurance.
God's Callgirl
by Carla Van RaayTraumatised by a terrible event in her childhood, Carla van Raay entered a convent at the age of eighteen. Expecting to find understanding and inner peace amongst her fellow nuns, she instead became trapped in a web of cruel regulations that drove her to the brink of insanity. Finally released from her vows, she escaped back into the outside world even more damaged than she had been before.A hasty marriage and separation left Carla with a daughter to support. With few professional skills to rely on from her years as a nun, she turned to another age-old profession - prostitution. She worked as an escort to learn the ropes, then struck out on her own, setting up a massage service. God's Callgirl was born. At first she relished her new-found sexuality, but when eventually the darker side of the business began to assert itself, Carla was forced to confront the dark secrets of her past.
Political Marketing and Management in the 2017 New Zealand Election (Palgrave Studies in Political Marketing and Management)
by Jennifer Lees-MarshmentThis book reveals the market research, strategy, branding and communication behind the unpredictable 2017 New Zealand election result which saw Jacinda Ardern elected Labour leader just 8 weeks before the election to become Prime Minister. Utilising rich data sources that include a 250,000 Vote Compass survey and interviews with key political advisors, it explores the alignment of the policy of National, Labour, the Greens and NZ First with party supporters, demographic segments and undecided voters. It also analyses the leadership communication and branding of the leaders Bill English, Jacinda Ardern and Andrew Little, as well as the advertising by minor parties ACT, the Greens, United Future and the Maori Party. The book provides advice for practitioners, such as: focus on being responsive, communicate delivery competence, differentiate in policy and advertising, build an energetic and charismatic leader brand and be flexible when planning.
Political Marketing and Management in the 2017 New Zealand Election (Palgrave Studies in Political Marketing and Management)
by Jennifer Lees-MarshmentThis book reveals the market research, strategy, branding and communication behind the unpredictable 2017 New Zealand election result which saw Jacinda Ardern elected Labour leader just 8 weeks before the election to become Prime Minister. Utilising rich data sources that include a 250,000 Vote Compass survey and interviews with key political advisors, it explores the alignment of the policy of National, Labour, the Greens and NZ First with party supporters, demographic segments and undecided voters. It also analyses the leadership communication and branding of the leaders Bill English, Jacinda Ardern and Andrew Little, as well as the advertising by minor parties ACT, the Greens, United Future and the Maori Party. The book provides advice for practitioners, such as: focus on being responsive, communicate delivery competence, differentiate in policy and advertising, build an energetic and charismatic leader brand and be flexible when planning.
Chicken Soup For The Teenage Soul II: 101 more stories of life, love and learning (Chicken Soup For The Soul Ser.)
by Jack Canfield Kimberley Kirberger Mark Victor HansenThe teen years are one of the most difficult periods of life; while at the same time one of the most fun. Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul II is the handbook for all teenagers for surviving and succeeding during these exciting years. Teenagers will treasure this heart-warming collection of stories and find comfort in the advice they offer. These inspirational stories are infused with courage, hope and wisdom; they offer guidance, sustenance and advice to all teenagers facing tough times and provide true nourishment for the soul. With lessons on: the nature of friendship and love; the value of respect for yourself and others; dealing with issues such as death, suicide and the loss of love; and, most importantly, growing up, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul II will delight teenagers around the world.
Smashed: Growing Up A Drunk Girl
by Koren ZailckasThe day Koren turned fourteen she tasted alcohol for the first time. At fifteen she was piecing together forgotten fragments of drink, men and misplaced clothes. At sixteen she was being carried through hospital doors unconscious. And so it began...Brought up by loving parents in a stable middle-class home, Koren was a sweet and altogether normal child. Yet from her mid-teens until her early twenties, she thought nothing of regularly drinking herself into a state of amnesia. Alcohol became her safeguard and prop, providing her with a self-confidence she couldn't otherwise feel. And whilst drinking to excess was perfectly acceptable, even actively encouraged, amongst her friends, it quickly reached a destructive monotony that bordered on dependency. It took a number of terrifying incidents - from stumbling home alone covered in vomit to waking up naked in bed unsure of whether she had lost her virginity - before Koren could finally say to herself enough was enough and seek help for her problem.Smashed is the shocking but all-too-recognisable story of a young woman coming of age within a society that finds it easier to turn a blind eye to binge-drinking than address the problem head on. Beautifully written and brutally honest, compelling without preaching, this is a book that demands to be read.
India: The Road Ahead
by Mark TullySince the Indian economy was liberated from bureaucratic, socialist controls in 1991, it has developed rapidly. A country once renowned for the backwardness of its industries, its commerce and its financial market is now viewed as potentially one of the major world economies of the twenty-first century. But there are many questions which need to be asked about the sustainability of this rapid economic growth and its effect on the stability of the country. Have the changes had any impact on the poor and marginalised? Can India's democracy contain the mounting resentment of those left out of the new economic order? Can a high growth rate be sustained with India's notoriously corrupt and inefficient governance? Can the development of its creaking infrastructure be speeded up? How is India going to feed itself unless agriculture is reformed?This timely book will answer these questions through interviews with industrialists and cricketers, God men and farmers, plutocrats and former untouchables. Full of fascinating stories of real people at a time of great change, it will be of interest to economists, business people, diplomats, politicians, as well as to those who love to travel and who take an interest in the rapid growth of one of the world's largest countries, and what this means to us in the West.
Prisoner Of War: Voices from Behind the Wire in the Second World War
by Charles Rollings'For you, the war is over.' These famous words marked the end of the Second World War for nearly half a million allied servicemen, and the beginning of a very different battle in captivity. Waged against boredom, brutality, disease, hunger and despair, it was a battle for survival, fought without the aid of weapons against fully armed enemy captors. Based on interviews and correspondence with ex-POWs and their relatives over the last 30 years, Prisoner of War is a major survey of allied POWs from all walks of life. Extraordinary stories of extremes: courage, hope and desperation are revealed in the words of those that were there. Arranged chronologically, the book follows those involved from capture, through interrogation, imprisonment, escape, to final liberation and homecoming. POWs and, in particular, those who broke free, have become a post-war cultural icon; a symbol of the will to survive against the odds. Rich with incident and emotion, Prisoner of War is a compelling look at the lives of extraordinary individuals trapped behind the wire.
Don't You Know Who I Am?: Insider Diaries of Fame, Power and Naked Ambition
by Piers Morgan'They say you can always remember where you where when pivotal moments happen, such as losing your virginity or Elvis dying. Let me add another to the list: the moment I sang a duet to the the "Macarena" with Timmy Mallett, live to millions of people...'Sacked from his high-profile job as a national newspaper editor, Piers Morgan dived helplessly into the world of celebrity. But even twenty years of commenting on the lives of the rich and famous couldn't prepare him for the extraordinary world he uncovered...A riveting, scandelous and brutally honest account of one man's quest for celebrity, Don't You Know Who I Am? lifts the lid on the egos and outrageous behaviour of everyone from Paris Hilton to Cherie Blair, Kate Moss to the legend that is the Hoff.
On The Run: Proof
by Gina Hall Gregg HillThe CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction Award winning true story behind GoodfellasBy the son and daughter of Henry Hill - immortalised in the book Wiseguy and the Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas - On The Run is the harrowing account of a childhood spent coping with an explosive father whilst dodging Mafia payback. Henry Hill's business partner, Jimmy Burke has whacked every person who could possibly implicate him in the infamous Lufthansa robbery at JFK airport. On his way to prison, lifelong ganster Henry is given two options: sleep with the fishes, or enter the FBI's Witness Protection Program. Gregg and Gina are dragged along for the ride. Like nomads, they're forced to wander from state to state, constantly inventing new names and finding new friends, only to abandon them at a moment's notice. Living under constant fear of being found and killed. But Henry, the rock Gregg and Gina so desperately need, is a heavy cocaine user and knows only the criminal life. He is soon up to his old tricks and consistently putting their identities in jeopardy. And so it continues until the kids, now almost grown, can no longer ignore that the Mob might be less of a threat to them than remaining under the roof of their increasingly unbalanced father.
If I am Missing or Dead: A Sister's Story Of Love, Murder, And Liberation (Thorndike Basic Ser.)
by Janine LatusIn April 2002, Janine Latus's youngest sister Amy wrote a note and taped it to the inside of her desk drawer. 'If I am gone or dead', it read, 'question Ron'. By the time the letter was found, Amy was already missing. Helicopters and 'missing' posters went up and search dogs were sent out. It took more than two weeks to find Amy's body, wrapped in a tarpaulin and buried at a building site. Ron had been Amy's boyfriend. He is now in prison for her murder. Since childhood, Janine and Amy had been sexualised and belittled. As adults the sisters, trapped in a cycle of abuse, ended up in a series of violent relationships. Finally, Janine faced her demons and, with Amy's support, escaped in time. But Amy was keeping a terrible secret of her own ... Amy never escaped. She died in silent fear and pain. Janine has resolved to break that silence so that her sister didn't die in vain.
The Victorians: The Decline Of Britain In The World
by A. N. WilsonPeople, not abstract ideas, make history, and nowhere is this more revealed than in A. N. Wilson's superb portrait of the Victorians, in which hundreds of different lives have been pieced together to tell a story - one which is still unfinished in our own day. The 'global village' is a Victorian village and many of the ideas we take for granted, for good or ill, originated with these extraordinary, self-confident people. What really animated their spirit, and how did they remake the world in their view? In an entertaining and often dramatic narrative, A. N. Wilson shows us remarkable people in the very act of creating the Victorian age.
Borderlands: The Ultimate Exploration Of The Unknown
by Dr Mike DashThe definitive exploration of the unknown and paranormal. BORDERLANDS contains hundreds of personal accounts of strange phenomena ranging from surviving mammoths in Siberia to intelligent clouds over New Zealand, from frozen frogs to plagues of murderous manhole covers. It also examines how and why these stories are reported and what they mean. The book sets out the scientific and psychological explanations for these phenomena, while remaining accessible to the casual reader. BORDERLANDS is the first complete critical survey of an extraordinary fast developing field.
Silent Witnesses: The Often Gruesome But Always Fascinating History Of Forensic Science (Isis Series)
by Nigel McCreryA crime scene. A murder. A mystery.The most important person on the scene? The forensic scientist. And yet the intricate details of their work remains a mystery to most of us. Silent Witnesses looks at the history of forensic science over the last two centuries, during which time a combination of remarkable intuition, painstaking observation and leaps in scientific knowledge have developed this fascinating branch of detection. Throwing open the casebook, it introduces us to such luminaries as 'The Wizard of Berkeley' Edward Heinrich, who is credited with having solved over 2000 crimes, and Alphonse Bertillon, the French scientist whose guiding principle 'no two individuals share the same characteristics' became the core of identification. Along the way, it takes us to India and Australia, Columbia and China, Russia, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. And it proves that, in order to solve ever more complicated cases, science must always stay one step ahead of the killer.
Lost Voices: Memories of a Vanished Way of Life
by Gilda O'NeillIn the 1940s, nearly a quarter of a million East Londoners decamped annually for the hopfields of Kent. Most of the pickers were women, who would take their children and other dependent relatives to stay in the hoppers' huts on the farms.This book records the memories of some of them, in their own lively words. Funny, nostalgic and ironic by turns, they tell of hopping as 'a break from him', an escape from the chesty London smog, respite from the bombs of war, as well as a source of income - and the nearest thing to a holiday that adults or children were likely to get. It was a time of hard graft, of laughter and companionship and long evenings around the faggot fire. In the memories of those who were there, it was a time when the sun always shone ...Gilda O'Neill was herself a hop picker as a girl. In this vivid book she not only pays tribute to the creative genius of the working class of London's East End, but examines the role of memory and oral history in our understanding of the past.
Littlejohn's Lost World
by Richard Littlejohn‘Littlejohn’s large-hearted nostalgia and aggression tempered with humour, remain a necessary tonic.’ The TimesBorn when wartime rationing was still in force and children ran free and wild, the world in which Richard Littlejohn grew up feels like it could be another country, let alone another century.In Littlejohn’s Lost World, he goes in search of his old childhood haunts - and instead finds an England changed beyond recognition. From the covered market that is now a 30-storey Dubai-style tower block to his old primary school, where today twelve different languages are spoken. From Muffin the Mule to Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight Festival, Littlejohn takes us on a funny and poignant journey to a time and a place we will never see again.'His is the story of millions of others. If you, like him, feel that world has vanished forever, then you will find it vividly recreated in this captivating memoir.' Daily Mail
Straight
by Boy GeorgeFrom his days as a club face alongside Philip Sallon, Marilyn and Steve Strange, through the years of global pop superstardom with Culture Club, his rebirth as a world-class DJ, as a leading light of musical theatre with the award-winning Taboo, a cutting edge photographer and a confrontational and acclaimed fashion designer, one of the many things you can say about George is: he's never stood still.It's been one hell of a trip. A decade and a half ago, George was coming to terms with the fall-out from serious drug addiction, the failure of his relationship with Jon Moss and the collapse of Culture Club.For lesser men this would have been the end but for George it became the start of a period of remarkable reinvention.Told with George's trademark biting wit, brutal honesty and sparkling insight, this book reveals the whole story, reappraising his rise to stardom and all the madness that followed.He talks about his solo singing career, his initiation into the dance music scene, and his role as the driving force behind theatrical sensation Taboo.George also discusses the achievement of the apparently impossible task of reuniting the famously fractious Culture Club.It is only now, many years on from the glittering, glossy Eighties, that George makes an insightful and often hilarious assessment of the impact of that extraordinary era.
The House By The Thames: And The People Who Lived There
by Gillian TindallJust across the River Thames from St Paul’s Cathedral stands an old and elegant house. Over the course of almost 450 years the dwelling on this site has witnessed many changes. From its windows, people have watched the ferrymen carry Londoners to and from Shakespeare’s Globe; they have gazed on the Great Fire; they have seen the countrified lanes of London’s marshy south bank give way to a network of wharves, workshops and tenements – and then seen these, too, become dust and empty air.Rich with anecdote and colour, this fascinating book breathes life into the forgotten inhabitants of the house – the prosperous traders; an early film star; even some of London’s numberless poor. In so doing it makes them stand for legions of others and for a whole world that we have lost through hundreds of years of London’s history.
Enlightening: Letters, 1946-1960
by Isaiah Berlin'People are my landscape', Isaiah Berlin liked to say, and nowhere is the truth of this observation more evident than in his letters. He is a fascinated watcher of human beings in all their variety, and revels in describing them to his many correspondents. His letters combine ironic social comedy and a passionate concern for individual freedom. His interpretation of political events, historical and contemporary, and his views on how life should be lived, are always grounded in the personal, and his fiercest condemnation is reserved for purveyors of grand abstract theories that ignore what people are really like.This second volume of Berlin's letters takes up the story when, after war service in the United States, he returns to life as an Oxford don. Against the background of post-war austerity, the letters chart years of academic frustration and self-doubt, the intellectual explosion when he moves from philosophy to the history of ideas, his growing national fame as broadcaster and lecturer, the publication of some of his best-known works, his election to a professorship, and his reaction to knighthood.These are the years, too, of momentous developments in his private life: the bachelor don's loss of sexual innocence, the emotional turmoil of his father's death, his courtship of a married woman and transformation into husband and stepfather. Above all, these revealing letters vividly display Berlin's effervescent personality - often infuriating, but always irresistible.
Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives
by Carolyn Steel*Cities cover just 2% of the world's surface, but consume 75% of the world's resources*Global food production increased by 145% in the last 4 decades of the 20th century - yet an estimated 800 million people are still hungry*In 2005 British supermarkets sent half a million tonnes of edible food to landfill - the whole food sector put together sent 17 million tonnes*One quarter of the British population is obese - one in three meals we eat is a ready mealWHY?The relationship between food and cities is fundamental to our every day lives. Food shapes cities, and through them, it moulds us - along with the countryside that feeds us. The gargantuan effort necessary to feed cities arguably has a greater social and physical impact on us and our planet than anything else we do. Yet few of us are conscious of the process and we rarely stop to wonder how food reaches our plates. Hungry City examines the way in which modern food production has damaged the balance of human existence, and reveals that we have yet to resolve a centuries-old dilemma - one which holds the key to a host of current problems, from obesity, the inexorable rise of the supermarkets, to the destruction of the natural world.Carolyn Steel follows food on its journey - from the land (and sea) to market and supermarket, kitchen to table, waste-dump and back again - exploring the historical roots and the contemporary issues at each stage of food's cycle. She shows how our lives and our environment are being manipulated but explains how we can change things for the better. Original, inspiring and written with infectious enthusiasm and belief, Hungry City illuminates an issue that is fundamental to us all.
The Man Who Drew London: Wenceslaus Hollar In Reality And Imagination
by Gillian TindallThe seventeenth-century London Wenceslaus Hollar knew is now largely destroyed or buried. Yet its populous river, its timbered streets, fashionable ladies, old St Paul's, the devestation of the Fire, the palace of Whitehall and the meadows of Islington live on for us in his etchings.Drawing on numerous sources, Gillian Tindall creates a montage of Hollar's life and times and of the illustrious lives that touched his. It is a carefully researched factual account, but she has also employed her novelist's skill to form an intricate whole - a life's texture which is also an absorbing and occasionally tragic story.
Against The Current: Essays in the History of Ideas (Oxford Paperbacks Ser.)
by Isaiah BerlinBerlin's main theme in these essays is the importance in the history of ideas of dissenters whose thinking still challenges conventional wisdom - among them Machiavelli, Vico, Montesquieu, Herzen and Sorel. With his unusual powers of imaginative re-creation, he brings to life original minds that swam against the current of their times, and in the process offers a powerful defence of variety in our visions of life. Roger Hausheer's introduction surveys Berlin's whole oeuvre, and the full bibliography of his pubication has been updated for this Pimlico edition.
London At War
by Philip ZieglerIn 1939 London was not merely the greatest city in the world, it was the most tempting and vulnerable target for aerial attack. For six years it was the frontline of the free world's battle against Fascism. It endured the horrors of the Blitz of 1940 and 1941, the V1s, the V2s. Other cities suffered more intensely; no other city was so constantly under attack for so long a time. This is the story of London at war - or, perhaps, of Londoners at war, for Philip Ziegler, known best as a biographer, is above all fascinated by the people who found their lives so suddenly and violently transformed: the querulous, tiresome yet strangely gallant housewife from West Hampstead; the turbulent, left-wing retired schoolmaster from Walthamstow, always having a go at the authorities; the odiously snobbish middleclass lady from Kensington, sneering at the scum who took shelter in the Underground; the typist from Fulham, the plumber from Woolwich. It was their war, quite as much as it was Churchill's or the King's, and this is their history. Through a wealth of interviews and unpublished letters and diaries, as well as innumerable books and newspapers, the author has built up a vivid picture of a population under siege. There were cowards, there were criminals, there were incompetents, but what emerges from these pages is above all a record of astonishing patience, dignity and courage. 'I hope,' Ziegler writes, 'we will never have to endure again what they went through between 1939 and 1945. I hope, if we did, that we would conduct ourselves as well.'
The Shelbourne: A Centre In Dublin Life For More Than A Century (Virago Modern Classics)
by Elizabeth BowenElizabeth Bowen takes us on a tour through the history of the famous Dublin landmark, the Shelbourne Hotel, in this evocative account of Irish life. Looking out on Dublin as if from the windows of the Shelbourne, and then turning inward to witness the impact of events on the hotel, its guests and staff, Bowen paints a picture of what was, in the hotel's earlier days, the second city of the Empire, then the battleground of Irish independence and civil strife, and eventually the capital of a republic.
Freedom And Its Betrayal: Six Enemies Of Human Liberty (Filosofía Ser.)
by Isaiah BerlinIsaiah Berlin's celebrated radio lectures on six formative anti-liberal thinkers were delivered on the BBC's Third Programme in 1952. They are published here for the first time, fifty years on. Freedom and its Betrayal is one of Isaiah Berlin's earliest and most convincing expositions of his views on human freedom and the history of ideas, views which later found expression in such famous works as 'Two Concepts of Liberty', and were at the heart of his lifelong work on the Enlightenment and its critics. In his lucid examinations of sometimes difficult ideas Berlin demonstrates that a balanced understanding and a resilient defence of human liberty depend on learning both from the errors of freedom's alleged defenders and from the dark insights of its avowed antagonists. This book throws light on the early development of Berlin's ideas, and supplements his already published writings with fuller treatments of Helvétius, Rousseau, Fichte, Hegel and Saint-Simon, with the ultra-conservative traditionalist Maistre bringing up the rear. Freedom and its Betrayal shows Berlin at his liveliest and most torrentially spontaneous, testifying to his talents as a teacher of rare brilliance and impact. Listeners tuned in expectantly each week to the broadcasts and found themselves mesmerised by Berlin's astonishingly fluent extempore style. A leading historian of ideas, who was then a schoolboy, records that the lectures 'excited me so much that I sat, for every talk, on the floor beside the wireless, taking notes'. This excitement is at last recreated here for all to share.