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They Stole My Innocence: The shocking true story of a young girl abused in a Jersey care home
by Madeleine Vibert Toni Maguire'Lying in the prison of my bed, his dark silhouette closes in, a pillow in his hands. My throat tightens in fear…’At the tender age of five, Madeleine was living a daily nightmare. In a dark, grey building on Jersey, she was just another orphan, defenceless and alone. She was also an easy target. Unbeknownst to the outside world, the care home manager was abusing her, using her like she was his toy. “Say nothing, no one will believe a nasty little kid like you,” he’d whisper. Terrified, Madeleine would keep quiet. And, worse still, the home was selling the children to men who would inflict on them the worst possible abuse. No one cared.This is Madeleine’s heart-breaking story and her fight to survive.
They Told Me Not to Take that Job: Tumult, Betrayal, Heroics, and the Transformation of Lincoln Center
by Reynold LevyReynold Levy joined Lincoln Center in 2002. When he did so America's leading arts venue was routinely described in terms like this:"Behind the scenes, however, Lincoln Center is a community in deep distress, riven by conflict over a grandiose 1 billion redevelopment plan... instead of uniting the Center's constituent arts organizations behind a common goal, the project has pitted them against one another in open warfare more reminiscent of the shoot-out at the OK Corral than of a night at the opera. 'To say that it is a mess is putting it mildly,' says Johanna Fiedler, the author and a former staff member at the Metropolitan Opera. 'There is nobody running the show right now.'” (Leslie Bennetts, New York Magazine¸ February 4, 2002)To choose to be President of Lincoln Center of one's own free will was regarded by Reynold Levy's friends and mentors as bordering on a self-destructive act. Rivalries abounded. Personalities clashed. Egos reigned. Reputations were badly damaged. And many of the tensions were dramatically played out in public and assiduously reported by a delighted press.Levy had just spent six years traipsing through much of the Third World and many failed states as the President of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), one of the world's leading refugee assistance organizations. Having dealt with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Serbia, even Joe Volpe, the volcanic manager of the Metropolitan Opera seemed hardly daunting. Lincoln Center, its key figures with their bombast and betrayals was not South Sudan. So he set to, and during his presidency transformed Lincoln Center's entire 16-acre campus including the city block from Broadway to Amsterdam Avenue.With the new Alice Tully Hall, the expansion of The Juilliard School, two new screening rooms and an education center for the Film Society, new dance studios for the School of American Ballet, came a beautifully designed, graceful welcome to Lincoln Center's main campus, one filled with light and life. There were new green spaces, new restaurants, a totally wifi'd campus that displayed 21st Century technology indoors and out. And a remodeled, utterly transformed, privately owned public space called the David Rubenstein Atrium, named after its principal donor, a new Lincoln Center Commons, opened free of charge to the public 365 days a year.This book reveals the real story behind the 1.2 billion dollar reinvention of Lincoln Center, and all the trials and triumphs along the way. It contains unique lessons for leaders in all kinds of organizations, cautionary tales for employees, volunteers and donors, and inspiring clarity for anyone who wants to lead an institution they believe in so that it can become the best version of itself.
They Told Me Not to Take that Job: Tumult, Betrayal, Heroics, and the Transformation of Lincoln Center
by Reynold LevyWhen Reynold Levy became the new president of Lincoln Center in 2002, New York Magazine described the situation he walked in to as "a community in deep distress, riven by conflict." Ideas for the redevelopment of Lincoln Center's artistic facilities and public spaces required spending more than 1.2 billion, but there was no clear pathway for how to raise that kind of unprecedented sum. The individual resident organizations that were the key constituents of Lincoln Center -- the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the Juilliard School, and eight others -- could not agree on a common capital plan or fundraising course of action. Instead, intramural rivalries and disputes filled the vacuum. Besides, some of those organizations had daunting problems of their own. Levy tells the inside story of the demise of the New York City Opera, the Metropolitan Opera's need to use as collateral its iconic Chagall tapestries in the face of mounting operating losses, and the New York Philharmonic's dalliance with Carnegie Hall. Yet despite these and other challenges, Levy and the extraordinary civic leaders at his side were able to shape a consensus for the physical modernization of the sixteen-acre campus and raise the money necessary to maintain Lincoln Center as the country's most vibrant performing arts destination. By the time he left, Lincoln Center had prepared itself fully for the next generation of artists and audiences.They Told Me Not to Take That Job is more than a memoir of life at the heart of one of the world's most prominent cultural institutions. It is also a case study of leadership and management in action. How Levy and his colleagues triumphantly steered Lincoln Center -- through perhaps the most tumultuous decade of its history to a startling transformation -- is fully captured in his riveting account.
Thicker Than Water: History, Secrets And Guilt: A Memoir
by Cal FlynCal Flyn was very proud when she discovered that her ancestor, Angus McMillan, had been a pioneer of colonial Australia. However, when she dug deeper, she began to question her pride. McMillan had not only cut tracks through the bush, but played a dark role in Australia's bloody history.
Thicker than Water
by Kerry WashingtonAward-winning actor, director, producer, and activist Kerry Washington shares the deeply moving journey of her life so far, and the bravely intimate story of discovering her truth. While on a drive in Los Angeles, on a seemingly average afternoon, Kerry Washington received a text message that would send her on a life-changing journey of self-discovery. In an instant, her very identity was torn apart, with everything she thought she knew about herself thrown into question.In Thicker than Water, Washington gives readers an intimate view into both her public and private worlds - as a mother, daughter, wife, artist, advocate, and trailblazer. Chronicling her upbringing and life's journey thus far, she reveals how she faced a series of challenges and setbacks, effectively hid childhood traumas, met extraordinary mentors, managed to grow her career and crossed the threshold into stardom and political advocacy, ultimately discovering her truest self and, with it a deeper sense of belonging. Throughout this profoundly moving and beautifully written memoir, Washington attempts to answer the questions so many have struggled with: Who am I? What is my truest and most authentic self? How do I find a deeper sense of connection and belonging? With grace and honesty, she inspires readers to search for - and find - themselves.
Thief Prisoner Soldier Priest
by Paul CowleyPaul Cowley grew up in Manchester amid the chaotic world of his alcoholic parents. His early exposure to heavy drinking, explosive arguments and the unnerving aggression of his father led him into homelessness and crime. By seventeen he was behind bars. Years later, following a career in the army which 'made a man of him' yet ultimately failed to give him direction and purpose, Paul's search for meaning resulted in an unexpected encounter with God that changed his life for ever.This remarkable and touching account of his early years, from thief to prisoner, soldier and, eventually, priest, should inspire anyone who feels their life is out of control. It is, by turns, a dramatic, traumatic and comic story, yet one that stands as a testament to how God offers hope to all who have the courage to respond.
Thierry Henry: Lonely at the Top
by Philippe Auclair‘Illuminated by finely turned phrases and vivid insights’ - Richard Williams, Guardian Sports Books of the Year. Thierry Henry – gifted, charismatic and a genuinely world-class footballer – has passed into Arsenal legend as the hero of a team that finally ended Manchester United’s dominance. But as he approached the autumn of his career, Thierry’s crown began to slip – from the infamous ‘Hand of Gaul’ incident to a dismal World Cup 2010 campaign. Suddenly, a player who Arsene Wenger once dubbed ‘the greatest striker ever’, a man who had spent his career at the very top of the game, began to learn how lonely such a position could be. Drawing from numerous interviews and impeccable sources, as well as his own observations over the course of Henry’s entire career, award-winning author Philippe Auclair has produced the most complete portrait of the Arsenal hero ever to be written. Clear-eyed, lyrical and passionately argued, Thierry Henry: Lonely at the Top is as raw, shocking and thought-provoking as it is celebratory of Henry’s outstanding flair and talent.
Thin
by Grace BowmanBright, popular, pretty and successful, Grace Bowman had the world at her feet. So what drove her to starve herself nearly to death at the age of 18? And what, more importantly, made her stop? A grippingly honest account of life with anorexia nervosa, A Shape of My Own is Grace's hearbreaking, shocking and, finally, inspirational memoir. An extraordinary story, it is also a common one - is there a woman in the western world who has a normal relationship with food? A compulsive read, essential for anyone hoping to understand more about eating disorders and overcoming addiction.
Thin Places
by Kerri ni DochartaighA breathtaking mix of memoir, nature writing and history: this is Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s story of a wild Ireland, an invisible border, an old conflict and the healing power of the natural world 'A special, beautiful, many-faceted book' Amy Liptrot 'A remarkable piece of writing . . . Luminous' Robert Macfarlane Kerri ní Dochartaigh was born in Derry, on the border of the North and South of Ireland, at the very height of the Troubles. She was brought up on a council estate on the wrong side of town. But for her family, and many others, there was no right side. One parent was Catholic, the other was Protestant. In the space of one year they were forced out of two homes and when she was eleven a homemade petrol bomb was thrown through her bedroom window. Terror was in the very fabric of the city, and for families like Kerri’s, the ones who fell between the cracks of identity, it seemed there was no escape. In Thin Places, a mixture of memoir, history and nature writing, Kerri explores how nature kept her sane and helped her heal, how violence and poverty are never more than a stone’s throw from beauty and hope, and how we are, once again, allowing our borders to become hard, and terror to creep back in. Kerri asks us to reclaim our landscape through language and study, and remember that the land we fight over is much more than lines on a map. It will always be ours but, at the same time, it never really was.
Thin White Line
by Andy CaveIn 1997, Andy Cave returned from the Himalayas, having climbed the stupendous north face of Changabang but losing his friend and climbing partner in the process. Traumatized by the savage ordeal, he must examine his relationship with the mountains that have defined his life so far. Will he have the courage to undertake such a challenge again? Does he want to? Thin White Line charts his struggle towards finding an answer. It is as much a journey into the mind of an extreme mountaineer as it is into the wild landscapes through which he travels. In a nail biting narrative set in Patagonia, Norway and Alaska, Cave tackles the severest challenges modern Alpinism can pose. Juxtaposed with the stark beauty of the environment are the colourful characters populating his stories, from the adventurers around him, past and present, to the pioneer aviators who get him and his kind to those impossibly remote places. He vividly recreates the joy and despair of climbing, building the book to a desperate finale that lays bare the fragility of our carefully constructed convictions.
The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead
by David ShieldsMesmerized and somewhat unnerved by his 97-year-old father's vitality and optimism, David Shields undertakes an original investigation of our flesh-and-blood existence, our mortal being.Weaving together personal anecdote, biological fact, philosophical doubt, cultural criticism, and the wisdom of an eclectic range of writers and thinkers - from Lucretius to Woody Allen - Shields expertly renders both a hilarious family portrait and a truly resonant meditation on mortality.
The Thing About Prague...: How I Gave It All Up For a New Life in Europe's Most Eccentric City
by Rachael WeissWhen Rachael Weiss left a good job, Thelma the cat and a normal life in Sydney for the romantic dream of being a writer in Prague she intended to stay forever. She lasted just three years, exasperated by the eccentricities of her ancestral city and its mind-boggling bureaucracy and customs.In this surprising and generous memoir full of warmth and unstoppable sociability, Rachael attempts to write her great novel, buy an apartment (any apartment!), dodge unscrupulous employers, and perhaps find love. She gets lost in the woods with a Kyrgyzstani software engineer who wants to eat humans, finds herself leading services at the Spanish synagogue with no real idea of what she is doing and spends long nights drinking beer with a colourful cast of crazy, warm and slightly mad locals and expats.Rich in absurdities and gentle humour, The Thing About Prague... is rife with insight, culture clashes, friendships and above all charm.
A Thing in Disguise: The Visionary Life Of Joseph Paxton (text Only)
by Kate ColquhounA biography of an unsung Victorian hero, Joseph Paxton was the man behind the garden design at Chatsworth and the Crystal Palace at the Great Exhibition of 1851.
The Thing is…
by Dave FanningDescribed as the Irish John Peel, Dave Fanning has been a major player in the Irish and global music scene for over 30 years.
Things Can Only Get Better
by John O'FarrellLike bubonic plague and stone cladding, no-one took Margaret Thatcher seriously until it was too late. Her first act as leader was to appear before the cameras and do a V for Victory sign the wrong way round. She was smiling and telling the British people to f*** off at the same time. It was something we would have to get used to.'Things Can Only Get Better is the personal account of a Labour supporter who survived eighteen miserable years of Conservative government. It is the heartbreaking and hilarious confessions of someone who has been actively involved in helping the Labour party lose elections at every level: school candidate: door-to-door canvasser: working for a Labour MP in the House of Commons; standing as a council candidate; and eventually writing jokes for a shadow cabinet minister.Along the way he slowly came to realise that Michael Foot would never be Prime Minister, that vegetable quiche was not as tasty as chicken tikki masala and that the nuclear arms race was never going to be stopped by face painting alone.
Things Can Only Get Worse?: Twenty confusing years in the life of a Labour supporter
by John O'Farrell'…as the Labour candidate I prepared for every possible question on the local radio Election Phone-In. What I had not prepared for was my mum ringing up to say that she agreed with John O’Farrell. On EVERYTHING.'Where Did We Go Right? is the personal story of one political activist helping Labour progress from its 1997 landslide to the unassailable position it enjoys today. Along the way, he stood for Parliament against Theresa May but failed to step into her shoes; he was dropped from Tony and Cherie’s Christmas card list after he revealed he always sent their card on to a friend from the SWP; and he campaigned for a new non-selective inner-city state school, then realised this meant he had to send his kids to a non-selective inner-city state school. The long-awaited sequel to the best-selling Things Can Only Get Better is for everyone who could use a good laugh after Brexit, Boris and Trump. A roller-coaster ride through the last two decades via the very best political jokes (excluding the ones that keep getting elected).
Things I Carry Around: The bestselling memoir from the ARIA Award-winning country music star
by Tom Gilling Troy Cassar-DaleyA born storyteller, Troy Cassar-Daley has at last turned his talent to sharing his own inspiring life.‘Troy’s achievements are many, and perhaps the finest may be his ability to make us listen to his heart.’ Joy McKeanFor the first time, Troy talks about his early life - how his parent’s divorce changed things for him, about missing his Dad and growing up in Grafton surrounded by the warmth and love of his mother, Irene, his Nan and Pop and his extended Indigenous family. A larrikin at heart, Troy includes all the highs and lows on his path to stardom: the thrill of performing on stage at the Tamworth Music Festival with Jimmy Little when he was just 15; the excitement of heading off on tour with Brian Young and then discovering just how lonely life on the road could be; his first record deal; playing with the greats – Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Slim Dusty; his first album Beyond the Dancing, which blended his indigenous heritage with his rural background; meeting the woman who would steal his heart; recording in Nashville; and, finally, releasing True Believer, the album that really launched his career. The multiple Golden Guitar, APRA, ARIA and Deadlys winner also lets us in on some of the life lessons he learned the hard way, lessons that kept this prodigiously talented Aussie on the straight and narrow (most of the time). Things I Carry Around, is the warm, genuine, and inspiring story of a young indigenous Australian who had a dream and turned that dream into reality. ‘Troy’s a true gentleman, warm and genuine, always a pleasure to be around. He sings straight from his heart and straight from the heart of his country.’ Paul Kelly
Things I Couldn't Tell My Mother: My Autobiography
by Sue Johnston'There was a lot that we kept from my mother. My dad would say to me as a teenager "Don't tell your mother." We couldn't face the disapproval.'Sue Johnston always seemed to be disappointing her mother. As a girl she never stayed clean and tidy like her cousins. As she grew older, she spent all her piano lesson money on drinks for her mates down the pub, and when she discovered The Cavern she was never at home. The final straw was when Sue left her steady job at a St Helen's factory to try her hand at that unsteadiest of jobs: acting. Yet when Sue was bringing up her own child alone, her mother was always there to help. And playing her much-loved characters Sheila Grant in Waking the Dead and Barbara in The Royle Family- although her mum wouldn't say she was proud as such, she certainly seemed to approve. And in her mother's final months, it was Sue she needed by her side.The relationship with your mother is perhaps the most precious and fraught of any woman's life. When she began writing, Sue set out to record 'all the big things, and all the small things. Everything I wanted to tell my mother but felt I never could'. The result is a warm, poignant and often very funny memoir by one of Britain's favourite actresses.
Things I Didn't Know: A Memoir
by Robert HughesRobert Hughes, one of the most illuminating minds ever to have taken on the subjects of art and culture, uses his same critical abilities to give us a brutally intimate account of his early life, up until the time he quit Australia for the United States.Part memoir, part history lesson, part philosophical tract, Hughes uses his own experiences to examine the nature of art, war, sex, religion, writing and life itself.Piercing, razor-sharp, and above all, fearless, this is by far Hughes's most personal writing to date.
Things I Don't Want to Know: On Writing
by Deborah LevyA shimmering jewel of a book about writing from two-time Booker Prize finalist Deborah Levy, to publish alongside her new work of nonfiction, The Cost of Living. Blending personal history, gender politics, philosophy, and literary theory into a luminescent treatise on writing, love, and loss, Things I Don't Want to Know is Deborah Levy's witty response to George Orwell's influential essay "Why I Write." Orwell identified four reasons he was driven to hammer at his typewriter--political purpose, historical impulse, sheer egoism, and aesthetic enthusiasm--and Levy's newest work riffs on these same commitments from a female writer's perspective.As she struggles to balance womanhood, motherhood, and her writing career, Levy identifies some of the real-life experiences that have shaped her novels, including her family's emigration from South Africa in the era of apartheid; her teenage years in the UK where she played at being a writer in the company of builders and bus drivers in cheap diners; and her theater-writing days touring Poland in the midst of Eastern Europe's economic crisis, where she observed how a soldier tenderly kissed the women in his life goodbye.Spanning continents (Africa and Europe) and decades (we meet the writer at seven, fifteen, and fifty), Things I Don't Want to Know brings the reader into a writer's heart.
Things I Don't Want to Know: A Response To George Orwell's 1946 Essay 'why I Write' (Living Autobiography #1)
by Deborah Levy'Unmissable. Like chancing upon an oasis, you want to drink it slowly... Subtle, unpredictable, surprising' GuardianThings I Don't Want to Know is the first in Deborah Levy's essential three-part 'Living Autobiography' on writing and womanhood.Taking George Orwell's famous essay, 'Why I Write', as a jumping-off point, Deborah Levy offers her own indispensable reflections of the writing life. With wit, clarity and calm brilliance, she considers how the writer must stake claim to that contested territory as a young woman and shape it to her need. Things I Don't Want to Know is a work of dazzling insight and deep psychological succour, from one of our most vital contemporary writers.'Superb sharpness and originality of imagination. An inspiring work of writing' Marina Warner
Things I Learned From Falling: The must-read true story of 2020
by Claire NelsonAn inspirational and gripping first-person account of determination, adversity and survival against the odds.'Uplifitng and brave' - StylistThe must-read true story of 2020.In 2018, Claire Nelson made international headlines. She was in her thirties and was beginning to burn out - her hectic London life of work and social activity and striving to do more and do better in the big city was frenetic and stressful. Although she was surrounded by people all of the time, she felt increasingly lonely.When the anxiety she felt finally brought her to breaking point, Claire decided to take some time off and travelled to Joshua Tree Park in California to hike and clear her head. What happened next was something she could never have anticipated.While hiking, Claire fell 25 feet, gravely injuring herself and she lay alone in the desert - mistakenly miles off any trail, without a cell phone signal, fighting for her life. She lay in the elements for four days until she was miraculously found - her rescuers had not expected to find her alive.In THINGS I LEARNED FROM FALLING Claire tells her incredible story and what it taught her about loneliness, anxiety and transformation and how to survive it all.
Things I Learned From Knitting: ...whether I wanted to or not
by Stephanie Pearl-McPheeWith a knitter&’s perspective, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee describes the astonishing wisdom and hard-to-swallow truths that are embedded in everyday clichés. You&’ll laugh with Pearl-McPhee as she realizes that &“babies grow&” after spending nights knitting a now-too-small sweater. &“Beginning is easy, continuing is hard&” takes on a new meaning to the knitter who has five projects going, but wants to start another. The next time you drop a stitch, take a cue from this insightful collection and remember, &“if at first you don&’t succeed, try, try again.&”
Things I Overheard While Talking To Myself
by Alan Alda'The message is consistent: it's not what you do in life, but how you do it. Notice everything. Always be open to new ideas, new experiences. Alda is chatty, easygoing and humble ... His words of inspiration would be a perfect gift.' Publishers Weekly Acclaimed actor and internationally bestselling author Alan Alda has written a shrewd and funny account of some impossible questions he's asked himself over the years: what do I value? What, exactly, is the good life? (And what does that even mean?) Here, Alda listens in on things he's heard himself saying at critical points in his life - from the turbulence of the 60s, to his first Broadway show, to the birth of his children, and to the ache of September 11. He notices that 'doorways are where the truth is told', and wonders what one thing - art, activism, family, money, fame - could lead to a 'life of meaning'. In a book that is candid, wise and as questioning as it is incisive, Alda amuses and moves us with his uniquely witty meditations on questions great and small.
Things I Should Have Said
by Jamie Lynn SpearsIn this intimate national bestselling memoir, actress and musician Jamie Lynn Spears opens up for the first time, telling her unfiltered story on her own terms. You&’ve read the headlines, but you don&’t know Jamie Lynn Spears. The world first met Jamie Lynn as a child star, when it was her job to perform, both on set and for the press. She spent years escaping into different characters—on All That, Zoey 101, and even in the role as Britney&’s kid sister. But as she grew up, faced a teen pregnancy, raised her daughter on her own, pursued a career, and learned to stand on her own two feet, the real Jamie Lynn started to take center stage - a raw, blemished, and imperfect woman, standing in her own power. Despite growing up in one of America's most tabloid-famous families, Jamie Lynn has never told her story in her own words. In Things I Should Have Said, she talks frankly about the highs and lows, sharing what it was like traveling the world as a kid, how she moved into acting and performing herself, what life as a child star took from her, and the life-changing reality of becoming a teen mom. She talks about how she finally found love and how the mistakes she has made have taught her more than anything else. She also shares vulnerably about how the ATV accident that nearly took her daughter's life brought her back to her faith and caused her to reevaluate and redirect her life. Frank, courageous, and inspiring, Things I Should Have Said is a portrait of a wife, momma, sister, daughter, actress, and musician doing the best she could to show up for herself and teach her daughters to have the courage to love every part of themselves, too.