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The Krays - The Final Countdown: The Ultimate Biography Of Ron, Reg And Charlie Kray
by Colin FryThe Krays were a product of their age, nurtured by a doting mother and created by their community, the East End of London. Their name alone conjures up images of power, violence and greed - and even brother Charlie couldn't steer the twins Ron and Reg clear of murder mayhem as they killed their way to the top of the criminal tree. They lived by their own rules. And they died by them. The three brothers will never be forgotten. They are an indelible part of our history, whether we like it or not. And from media manipulation to control freak paranoia, The Krays were masters of deception. Even at the end Reg Kray was still portraying himself as just an ordinary East Ender - mistreated by the Home Office and the police, misunder-stood and mistakenly labelled `Godfather of Crime' by the media. The Kray Anthology traces their history from childhood and early adolescence to manhood and death. This book explores the brothers' fantasy lives, full as they were of mind games and false memories. Whatever you want to know about the Krays and the real reasons behind their success, you can read it here for the first time. Only now can the truth be revealed - without fear of intimidation, retribution or revenge. The Krays are dead and buried, but the myth lives on.
The Kremlin Letters: Stalin's Wartime Correspondence with Churchill and Roosevelt
by David Reynolds Vladimir PechatnovA penetrating account of the dynamics of World War II’s Grand Alliance through the messages exchanged by the "Big Three" Stalin exchanged more than six hundred messages with Allied leaders Churchill and Roosevelt during the Second World War. In this riveting volume—the fruit of a unique British-Russian scholarly collaboration—the messages are published and also analyzed within their historical context. Ranging from intimate personal greetings to weighty salvos about diplomacy and strategy, this book offers fascinating new revelations of the political machinations and human stories behind the Allied triumvirate. Edited and narrated by two of the world’s leading scholars on World War II diplomacy and based on a decade of research in British, American, and newly available Russian archives, this crucial addition to wartime scholarship illuminates an alliance that really worked while exposing its fractious limits and the issues and egos that set the stage for the Cold War that followed.
Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition
by Jim Mac LaughlinPeter Kropotkin's philosophy of anarchism suffers from neglect in mainstream histories; misrepresented as a utopian creed or a recipe for social chaos and political disorder, the intellectual strengths and philosophical integrity is overlooked. *BR**BR*Moving beyond most previous accounts of Kropotkin's anarchism, Mac Laughlin focuses less on the man and his political career, instead providing a sustained and critical reading of his extensive writings on the social, historical and scientific basis of modern anarchism. The result is a thorough examination of a number of key themes in Kropotkin's philosophy of anarchism, including his concerted efforts to provide anarchism with an historical and scientific basis; the role of mutualism and mutual aid in social evolution and natural history; the ethics of anarchism, and the anarchist critique of state-centred nationalism and other expressions of power politics.*BR*
Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition
by Jim Mac LaughlinPeter Kropotkin's philosophy of anarchism suffers from neglect in mainstream histories; misrepresented as a utopian creed or a recipe for social chaos and political disorder, the intellectual strengths and philosophical integrity is overlooked. *BR**BR*Moving beyond most previous accounts of Kropotkin's anarchism, Mac Laughlin focuses less on the man and his political career, instead providing a sustained and critical reading of his extensive writings on the social, historical and scientific basis of modern anarchism. The result is a thorough examination of a number of key themes in Kropotkin's philosophy of anarchism, including his concerted efforts to provide anarchism with an historical and scientific basis; the role of mutualism and mutual aid in social evolution and natural history; the ethics of anarchism, and the anarchist critique of state-centred nationalism and other expressions of power politics.*BR*
Kublai Khan
by John ManIn Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure dome decreeKublai Khan lives on in the popular imagination thanks to these two lines of poetry by Coleridge. But the true story behind this legend is even more fantastic than the poem would have us believe. He inherited the second largest land empire in history from his grandfather, Genghis Khan. He promptly set about extending this into the biggest empire the world has ever seen, extending his rule from China to Iraq, from Siberia to Afghanistan. His personal domain covered sixty-percent of all Asia, and one-fifth of the world's land area. The West first learnt of this great Khan through the reports of Marco Polo. Kublai had not been born to rule, but had clawed his way to leadership, achieving power only in his 40s. He had inherited Genghis Khan's great dream of world domination. But unlike his grandfather he saw China and not Mongolia as the key to controlling power and turned Genghis' unwieldy empire into a federation. Using China's great wealth, coupled with his shrewd and subtle government, he created an empire that was the greatest since the fall of Rome, and shaped the modern world as we know it today. He gave China its modern-day borders and his legacy is that country's resurgence, and the superpower China of tomorrow.
Kung Fu Trip (Quick Reads Edition)
by Benjamin ZephaniahBenjamin Zephaniah decides he has had enough of London. So he takes off to China, specifically to Shaolin Temple, the spiritual home of martial arts and kung fu. Benjamin wants to take on an instructor who will teach him more about kung fu. But finding a good instructor is difficult, and the instructor he does finally locate is not only called 'Iron Breath' but also proves a very hard taskmaster . . . An extraordinary snapshot of Benjamin's life plus Benjamin's own views on politics, Buddhism, kung fu, vegans and much else. But this is also a fascinating insight into China itself, and the huge variety of people who Benjamin meets - who react very differently to the appearance of a Rasta in their midst: on occasions even fainting or bowing to Benjamin, thinking he is a god!
Kurt Cobain: The Life And Death Of Kurt Cobain
by Christopher SandfordIn this compelling biography, Christopher Sandford explores the full, inside story of Kurt Cobain. From the disruptive childhood which had such a crucial impact on Cobain's personality to the ambitious career musician who, as a friend said, "lunged for success", and the worldwide breakthrough of Nirvana's Nevermind, Sandford also writes about Cobain's stormy marriage to Courtney Love, his heroin addiction, and how he became more and more of a recluse. Finally, he writes of the crisis when, in April 1994, Cobain turned a shotgun on himself and became a martyr for disaffected youth.The result is a saga of success and corruption which John Peel has called "the ultimate rock and roll morality story".
Kurt Wolff: A Portrait in Essays and Letters
by Kurt WolffKurt Wolff (1887-1963) was a singular presence in the literary world of the twentieth century, a cultural force shaping modern literature itself and pioneering significant changes in publishing. During an intense, active career that spanned two continents and five decades, Wolff launched seven publishing houses and nurtured an extraordinary array of writers, among them Franz Kafka, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Boris Pasternak, Günter Grass, Robert Musil, Paul Valéry, Julian Green, Lampedusa, and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
Kylie Minogue: Kylie Minogue (library Ebook) (Real-life Stories #11)
by Sarah LeveteSinger, actress and TV talent show judge, Kylie Minogue ticks all the boxes. Glamorous and successful, her stellar career has spanned more than 25 years, and encorporated starring in Australian soap Neighbours, seven UK Number One singles and appearing as a judge on The Voice. Real-life Stories: Kylie Minogue gives you the story behind this incredible performer - from her early career as an Australian soap star, through her transformation into a world-famous popstar, to the much-loved icon she is today. It focuses on Kylie's creative vision, and how she and her team put on enormous, spectacular tours. It also looks at the darker times in Kylie's life, including her cancer diagnosis, treatment and recovery, and how having been so ill has affected her outlook on life. Biographical information, and Kylie Minogue quotes, support the narrative. Punchy, fact-filled text make this a fantastic resource for biography based project work for children aged seven and above; a full glossary and index are included. Each title in the Real-life Stories series looks at a celebrity who is at the top of their game and the height of their career. We take a look at how they got to where they are today, what their daily life is like and where they are going next. If you've enjoyed reading about Kylie Minogue, why not try finding out about Adele, Banksy, the Duchess of Cambridge, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, Brian Cox, Gary Barlow, Will.i.am, Stella McCartney, David Walliams, Alex Ferguson, Malorie Blackman or Steve Backshall, in other titles in the series?
L.E.L.: The Lost Life and Scandalous Death of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, the Celebrated “Female Byron”
by Lucasta MillerOn 15 October 1838, the body of a thirty-six-year-old woman was found in Cape Coast Castle, West Africa, a bottle of Prussic acid in her hand. She was one of the most famous English poets of her day: Letitia Elizabeth Landon, known by her initials ‘L.E.L.’ What was she doing in Africa? Was her death an accident, as the inquest claimed? Or had she committed suicide, or even been murdered? To her contemporaries, she was an icon, hailed as the ‘female Byron’, admired by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Heinrich Heine, the young Brontë sisters and Edgar Allan Poe. However, she was also a woman with secrets, the mother of three illegitimate children whose existence was subsequently wiped from the record. After her death, she became the subject of a cover-up which is only now unravelling. Too scandalous for her reputation to survive, Letitia Landon was a brilliant woman who made a Faustian pact in a ruthless world. She embodied the post-Byronic era, the ‘strange pause’ between the Romantics and the Victorians. This new investigation into the mystery of her life, work and death excavates a whole lost literary culture.
La Chicana: The Mexican-American Woman
by Alfredo Mirandé Evangelina EnríquezLa Chicana is the story of a marginal group in society, neither fully Mexican or fully American, who suffer under triple oppression: as women, as members of a colonized culture, and as victims of a cultural heritage dominated by the cult of machismo. Tracing the role of Chicanas from pre-Columbian society to the present, the authors reveal the antecedents and roots of contemporary cultural expectations in Aztec, colonial, and revolutionary Mexican historical periods. A discussion of the contribution of modern Chicanas to their community and to feminism and a look at literary stereotypes and the emergence of Chicana literature to counter them round out this perceptive and sympathetic analysis.
La Nijinska: Choreographer of the Modern
by Lynn GarafolaLa Nijinska is the first biography of twentieth-century ballet's premier female choreographer. Overshadowed in life and legend by her brother Vaslav Nijinsky, Bronislava Nijinska had a far longer and more productive career. An architect of twentieth-century neoclassicism, she experienced the transformative power of the Russian Revolution and created her greatest work - Les Noces - under the influence of its avant-garde. Many of her ballets rested on the probing of gender boundaries, a mistrust of conventional gender roles, and the heightening of the ballerina's technical and artistic prowess. A prominent member of Russia Abroad, she worked with leading figures of twentieth-century art, music, and ballet, including Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Poulenc, Alexandra Exter, Natalia Goncharova, Frederick Ashton, Alicia Markova, and Maria Tallchief. She was also a remarkable dancer in her own right with a bravura technique and powerful stage presence that enabled her to perform an unusually broad repertory. Finally, she was the author of an acclaimed volume of memoirs in addition to a major treatise on movement. Nijinska's career sheds new light on the modern history of ballet and of modernism more generally, recuperating the memory of lost works and forgotten artists, many of them women. But it also reveals the sexism pervasive in the upper echelons of the early and mid-twentieth-century ballet world, barriers that women choreographers still confront.
La Nijinska: Choreographer of the Modern
by Lynn GarafolaLa Nijinska is the first biography of twentieth-century ballet's premier female choreographer. Overshadowed in life and legend by her brother Vaslav Nijinsky, Bronislava Nijinska had a far longer and more productive career. An architect of twentieth-century neoclassicism, she experienced the transformative power of the Russian Revolution and created her greatest work - Les Noces - under the influence of its avant-garde. Many of her ballets rested on the probing of gender boundaries, a mistrust of conventional gender roles, and the heightening of the ballerina's technical and artistic prowess. A prominent member of Russia Abroad, she worked with leading figures of twentieth-century art, music, and ballet, including Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Poulenc, Alexandra Exter, Natalia Goncharova, Frederick Ashton, Alicia Markova, and Maria Tallchief. She was also a remarkable dancer in her own right with a bravura technique and powerful stage presence that enabled her to perform an unusually broad repertory. Finally, she was the author of an acclaimed volume of memoirs in addition to a major treatise on movement. Nijinska's career sheds new light on the modern history of ballet and of modernism more generally, recuperating the memory of lost works and forgotten artists, many of them women. But it also reveals the sexism pervasive in the upper echelons of the early and mid-twentieth-century ballet world, barriers that women choreographers still confront.
Lab Girl: A Story Of Trees, Science And Love
by Hope JahrenLab Girl is a book about work and about love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren's remarkable stories: about the discoveries she has made in her lab, as well as her struggle to get there; about her childhood playing in her father's laboratory; about how lab work became a sanctuary for both her heart and her hands; about Bill, the brilliant, wounded man who became her loyal colleague and best friend; about their field trips - sometimes authorised, sometimes very much not - that took them from the Midwest across the USA, to Norway and to Ireland, from the pale skies of North Pole to tropical Hawaii; and about her constant striving to do and be her best, and her unswerving dedication to her life's work.Visceral, intimate, gloriously candid and sometimes extremely funny, Jahren's descriptions of her work, her intense relationship with the plants, seeds and soil she studies, and her insights on nature enliven every page of this thrilling book. In Lab Girl, we see anew the complicated power of the natural world, and the power that can come from facing with bravery and conviction the challenge of discovering who you are.
Labour of Love
by Torquil CowanThis is the story of Robert Smiliie,MP and trailblazing trade unionist who was born into poverty in Belfast in 1857. He moved to Scotland when he was 15 to join his brother James and became a miner at 17 in Larkhall. This opened his eyes to the way miners were treated by the mine owners and he realised that strong unions and the creation of a political party to represent the working classes was desperately needed. He was secretary of the Larkhall Miners and helped form the Lanarkshire Miners' Association. He became friends with Keir Hardie and together they rose through the ranks of the Labour movement. In 1888 he was a founder of the Scottish Labour Party.
Labour Orators from Bevan to Miliband
by Andrew S. Crines Richard HaytonHow do leading Labour figures strive to communicate with and influence the electorate? Why have some proven more successful than others in advancing their ideological arguments? How do orators seek to connect with different audiences in different settings such as parliament, party conference and through the media? This thoroughly researched and highly readable collection comprehensively evaluates these questions as well as providing an extensive interrogation of the political and intellectual significance of oratory and rhetoric in the post-war Labour Party. This collection evaluates the oratory and rhetoric of twelve leading figures from Labour politics: Aneurin Bevan, Hugh Gaitskell, Harold Wilson, Barbara Castle, James Callaghan, Michael Foot, Tony Benn, Neil Kinnock, John Smith, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband. Each chapter explores how its subject attempted to use oratory to advance their agenda within the party and beyond. Students of British politics, Labour history and communication studies will find this volume essential reading.
Labour's Lost Leader: The Life and Politics of Will Crooks (International Library of Political Studies)
by Paul TylerThe life story of Will Crooks has a Dickensian resonance. As a working class child, born into abject poverty, he experienced the rigours of Poplar Workhouse and Poor Law school. Nearly forty years later Crooks became Chairman of the Poplar Board of Guardians, the very board that had given him shelter during his challenging early years. Crooks was a member of the Coopers' Union for fifty-five years, and a leading pioneer of the trade union and Labour movement for over thirty. This significant and sometimes controversial figure has been overlooked by modern historians. Here Paul Tyler presents a pioneering political biography of a significant Labour figure at both a local and national level and an important reinterpretation of the early trade union and labour movement from the 1880s to the 1920s.
Labyrinths: Emma Jung, Her Marriage To Carl And The Early Years Of Psychoanalysis
by Catrine ClayThe story of Emma and Carl Jung's highly unconventional marriage, their relationship with Freud, and their part in the early years of Psychoanalysis.
The Ladder: Life Lessons From Women Who Scaled The Heights And Dodged The Snakes
by Cathy NewmanFrom the bestselling author of Bloody Brilliant Women
The Ladies of Londonderry: Women and Political Patronage (International Library of Historical Studies)
by Diane UrquhartAgainst a backdrop of increasing democracy and the associated process of aristocratic decline, this book examines the political influence of the leading Tory hostesses, the Marchionesses of Londonderry. Over one hundred and fifty years, from 1800-1959, these women were patrons and confidantes to key political figures such as Disraeli, Bonar Law, Edward Carson and Ramsay MacDonald. By the late 19th century upper-class women were at the height of their prowess, exerting political sway by private means whilst exploiting more public avenues of political work: canvassing, addressing meetings and leading the new associations established in an attempt to educate a mass electorate. At that time this hybrid of private and public aristocratic politicking aroused little criticism but, by the interwar period, the hold that the 7th Marchioness of Londonderry, Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, allegedly had over MacDonald prompted widespread criticism of her role as the 'Mother' of the National Government.The lives of these vibrant and fascinating women have long been overlooked in histories of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as in studies of conservatism, unionism or the aristocracy. Despite their social and political importance, few of their contemporaries acknowledged their influence, partly because of the indirect way that aristocratic women exerted political power, and their place in society was essentially defined by their male relatives. The Ladies of Londonderry offers the first examination of the poweful political hostesses of the Anglo-Irish establishment and sheds considerable light on the workings of 19th and 20th-century politics.
Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
by Countess Of Carnarvon'Bright, breezy and unpretentious' Guardian'A loving and faithful portrait of Almina and her world' Countryfile magazine* * * * * *The story of the real Downton Abbey, told by Lady Fiona Carnarvon, chatelaine of Highclere Castle where the phenomentally successful TV series was filmed.Lady Fiona Carnarvon became the chatelaine of Highclere Castle - the setting of the hit series Downton Abbey - eight years ago. In that time she's become fascinated by the rich history of Highclere, and by the extraordinary people who lived there over the centuries. One person particularly captured Fiona's imagination - Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon. Almina was the illegitimate daughter of banking tycoon Alfred de Rothschild. She was his only daughter and he doted on her. She married the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, at 19, with an enormous dowry. At first, life at Highclere was a dizzying mix of sumptuous banquets for 500 and even the occasional royal visitor. Almina oversaw 80 members of staff - many of whom came from families who had worked at Highclere for generations. But when the First World War broke out, life at Highclere changed forever. History intervened and Almina and the staff of Highclere were thrown into one of the most turbulent times of the last century. Almina was forced to draw on her deepest reserves of courage in order to ensure her family, the staff and the castle survived. This is the remarkable story of a lost time. But Highclere remains and in this book, Fiona weaves Almina's journey and those of her family into the heritage and history of one of England's most exquisite Victorian castles.
The Lady Anatomist: The Life and Work of Anna Morandi Manzolini
by Rebecca MessbargerAnna Morandi Manzolini (1714-74), a woman artist and scientist, surmounted meager origins and limited formal education to become one of the most acclaimed anatomical sculptors of the Enlightenment. The Lady Anatomist tells the story of her arresting life and times, in light of the intertwined histories of science, gender, and art that complicated her rise to fame in the eighteenth century. Examining the details of Morandi’s remarkable life, Rebecca Messbarger traces her intellectual trajectory from provincial artist to internationally renowned anatomical wax modeler for the University of Bologna’s famous medical school. Placing Morandi’s work within its cultural and historical context, as well as in line with the Italian tradition of anatomical studies and design, Messbarger uncovers the messages contained within Morandi’s wax inscriptions, part complex theories of the body and part poetry. Widely appealing to those with an interest in the tangled histories of art and the body, and including lavish, full-color reproductions of Morandi’s work, The Lady Anatomist is a sophisticated biography of a true visionary.
The Lady Anatomist: The Life and Work of Anna Morandi Manzolini
by Rebecca MessbargerAnna Morandi Manzolini (1714-74), a woman artist and scientist, surmounted meager origins and limited formal education to become one of the most acclaimed anatomical sculptors of the Enlightenment. The Lady Anatomist tells the story of her arresting life and times, in light of the intertwined histories of science, gender, and art that complicated her rise to fame in the eighteenth century. Examining the details of Morandi’s remarkable life, Rebecca Messbarger traces her intellectual trajectory from provincial artist to internationally renowned anatomical wax modeler for the University of Bologna’s famous medical school. Placing Morandi’s work within its cultural and historical context, as well as in line with the Italian tradition of anatomical studies and design, Messbarger uncovers the messages contained within Morandi’s wax inscriptions, part complex theories of the body and part poetry. Widely appealing to those with an interest in the tangled histories of art and the body, and including lavish, full-color reproductions of Morandi’s work, The Lady Anatomist is a sophisticated biography of a true visionary.
The Lady Anatomist: The Life and Work of Anna Morandi Manzolini
by Rebecca MessbargerAnna Morandi Manzolini (1714-74), a woman artist and scientist, surmounted meager origins and limited formal education to become one of the most acclaimed anatomical sculptors of the Enlightenment. The Lady Anatomist tells the story of her arresting life and times, in light of the intertwined histories of science, gender, and art that complicated her rise to fame in the eighteenth century. Examining the details of Morandi’s remarkable life, Rebecca Messbarger traces her intellectual trajectory from provincial artist to internationally renowned anatomical wax modeler for the University of Bologna’s famous medical school. Placing Morandi’s work within its cultural and historical context, as well as in line with the Italian tradition of anatomical studies and design, Messbarger uncovers the messages contained within Morandi’s wax inscriptions, part complex theories of the body and part poetry. Widely appealing to those with an interest in the tangled histories of art and the body, and including lavish, full-color reproductions of Morandi’s work, The Lady Anatomist is a sophisticated biography of a true visionary.
The Lady and the Generals: Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s struggle for freedom
by Peter Popham'EXCELLENT' SPECTATORNobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, is a symbol of supreme courage in the face of tyranny. Released from house arrest in 2010, she led her party to a dramatic victory in Burma’s first free general election in a generation.Acclaimed biographer, Peter Popham, describes how, inspired by her leadership, Burma has found its voice and transformed its destiny. However greater freedom has brought with it other troubles.The Lady and the Generals offers a compelling portrait of this fascinating country and asks where Burma and Suu Kyi – with her bravery, her charisma and her limitations – are heading next.Praise for The Lady and the Peacock, also by Peter Popham'What a gift to our world and what a splendid telling of [Aung San Suu Kyi's life]. We are deeply indebted to Peter Popham for such a superb account' - Archbishop Desmond Tutu'Sensitive and moving' - Sunday Times'Beautifully written and compelling in every aspect' - Joanna Lumley'Warm and objective...will not be bettered for a long time' - Independent on Sunday