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Torment Saint: The Life of Elliott Smith
by William Todd SchultzElliott Smith was one of the most gifted songwriters of the nineties, adored by worshipful fans for his subtly melancholic words and melodies. The sadness had its sources in the life. There was trauma from an early age, years of drug abuse and a chronic sense of disconnection that sometimes seemed almost self-engineered. Smith died violently in Los Angeles in 2003, under what some believe to be questionable circumstances, of a single fatal stab wound to the chest. By this time fame had found him, and record buyers who shared the listening experience felt he spoke directly to them from beyond: lonely, lovelorn, frustrated, fighting until he could fight no more. And yet, although his achingly intimate lyrics carried the weight of truth, Smith remained unknowable. In Torment Saint, William Todd Schultz gives us the first proper biography of the rock star, a decade after his death, imbued with affection, authority, sensitivity and long-awaited clarity.Torment Saint draws on Schultz's careful, deeply knowledgeable readings and insights, as well as on more than 150 hours of interviews with close friends, lovers, bandmates, peers, managers, label owners, and recording engineers and producers. This book unravels the remaining mysteries of Smith's life and his shocking, too-early end. It will be an indispensable examination of his life and legacy, both for Smith's legions of fans as well as readers still discovering his songbook.
Torment Saint: The Life of Elliott Smith
by William Todd SchultzElliott Smith was one of the most gifted songwriters of the '90s, adored by fans for his subtly melancholic words and melodies.The sadness had its sources in the life.There was trauma from an early age, years of drug abuse, and a chronic sense of disconnection that sometimes seemed self-engineered.Smith died violently in LA in 2003, under what some believe to be questionable circumstances, of stab wounds to the chest.By this time fame had found him, and record-buyers who shared the listening experience felt he spoke directly to them from beyond:astute, damaged, lovelorn, fighting, until he could fight no more. And yet, although his intimate lyrics carried the weight of truth, Smith remained unknowable. In Torment Saint, William Todd Schultz gives us the first proper biography of the rock star, a decade after his death, imbued with affection, authority, sensitivity, and long-awaited clarity.Torment Saint draws on Schultz's careful, deeply knowledgeable readings and insights, as well as on more than 150 hours of interviews with close friends from Texas to Los Angeles, lovers, bandmates, music peers, managers, label owners, and recording engineers and producers. This book unravels the remaining mysteries of Smith's life and his shocking, too early end.It will be, for Smith's legions of fans and readers still discovering his songbook, an indispensable examination of his life and legacy.
Tormented Hope: Nine Hypochondriac Lives
by Brian DillonTormented Hope is a book about mind and body, fear and hope, illness and imagination. It explores, in the stories of nine individuals, the relationship between mind and body as it is mediated by the experience, or simply the terror, of being ill. And in an intimate investigation of those nine lives, it shows how the mind can make a prison of the body, by distorting our sense of ourselves as physical beings. Brian Dillon, whose brilliant debut In the Dark Room established him as an uncommonly intelligent and fluent explorer of the realm where ideas and emotions overlap, looks at nine prominent hypochondriacs - James Boswell, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale, Daniel Paul Schreber, Alice James, Marcel Proust, Glenn Gould and Andy Warhol - and what their lives tell us about the way the mind works with, and against, the body. His findings are stimulating and surprising, and the stories he tells are often moving, sometimes hilarious, and always gripping.
Torn: A Terrified Girl. A Shocking Secret. A Terrible Choice
by Rosie LewisExperienced foster carer Rosie Lewis faces a battle to uncover the dark family secret that is tearing a family apart.
Torn: A Terrified Little Girl. A Shocking Secret. A Terrible Choice
by Rosie LewisExperienced foster carer Rosie Lewis faces a battle to uncover the dark family secret that is tearing a family apart.
Torn: A Terrified Little Girl. A Shocking Secret. A Terrible Choice
by Rosie LewisExperienced foster carer Rosie Lewis faces a battle to uncover the dark family secret that is tearing a family apart.
Torn: A Terrified Little Girl. A Shocking Secret. A Terrible Choice
by Rosie LewisExperienced foster carer Rosie Lewis faces a battle to uncover the dark family secret that is tearing a family apart.
Torn Apart: How Two Sisters Found Each Other After Sixty-Five Years
by Blanche Le Fleur Derek Flory Sybil Le FleurWhen Sybil and Blanche Le Fleur were growing up in idyllic Burma in the 1920s and '30s, little did they realise the changes and challenges that they would face during their lives. With the death of first their mother and then their father, they had to cope with enormous personal tragedy, including the loss of all their family wealth. Then the Japanese bombed Rangoon on 23 December 1941. Sybil managed to get out of the city, but there was no way for her to return to her sister, or even to know if Blanche was still alive, as the death toll was so high.While Sybil escaped from Burma and settled in Scotland after marrying a Scottish soldier, Blanche lived for over three years under Japanese occupation. After leaving for India in 1958, Blanche made a new life while still thinking of and praying for her sister. Decades later, a chance set of circumstances led to the discovery by Sybil's son that Blanche was alive and living in India. Torn Apart is the heart-rending, inspirational account of how the Le Fleur sisters lived separate lives for more than 65 years before an emotional reunion brought them together again in 2007.
Torn Apart: The True Story of a Childhood Lost
by James PattersonCory Friedman was an ordinary fun-loving little boy. But one fateful March morning in 1989, the course of Cory's life changed dramatically. It started with an irresistible urge to shake his head; before long, overtaken by physical urges, tics and compulsions, his body became a volatile, explosive and unpredictable force. Cory had developed a rare combination of Tourette's syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorder and other neurological conditions. The life he knew had been torn apart and his family were left watching him suffer. Desperate to help and hopeful of a cure, they embarked on a fifteen-year struggle which took them beyond breaking point.
Tornado Down: The Centenary Collection (The Centenary Collection)
by John Peters John NicholRAF Flight lieutenants John Peters and John Nichol were shot down over enemy territory on their first airbourne mission of the Gulf War. Their capture in the desert, half a mile from their blazing Tornado bomber, began a nightmare seven-week ordeal of torture and interrogation which brought both men close to death.In Tornado Down, John Peters and John Nichol tell the incredible story of their part in the war against Saddam Hussien's regime. It is a brave and shocking and totally honest story: a story about war and its effects on the hearts and minds of men.
Torres: An Intimate Portrait of the Kid Who Became King
by Luca CaioliA brand new biography of Liverpool and Premier League superstar, Fernando Torres, based on one-of-a-kind insider interviews with those closest to him ... and the player himself. This is the story of a kid who wanted to be a rock star but who turned into a football god, the idolised and adopted son of 42 million Liverpool fans across the world. From his birth in Madrid through to his winning goal in Euro 2008 and beyond, the book goes ehind the scenes of Torres' life and career to examine what makes the golden boy of football tick as well as kick. Renowned sports journalist Luca Caioli has exclusively interviewed figures from fans to his father, Rafa Benítez to Luís Aragones, Steven Gerrard to Kenny Dalglish, Fabio Capello, and Fernando Torres himself. This unrivalled material will give the real untold story of how The Kid became the King of Europe...
Torture: Persuasion at its Most Gruesome (You Know You're ... Ser.)
by Geoffrey AbbottIn this classic account of the history of torture, Geoffrey Abbott guides us through some of the worst torture methods known to man, from chilli powder punishment to needles under nails, with a style both chilling and full of dark humour.
Tortured: Abused and neglected by Britain’s most sadistic mum. This is my story of survival.
by Victoria SpryAs a child, Victoria Spry was brutally beaten, neglected and starved by the woman she called Mummy.To the outside world Eunice Spry was a devoted parent, but behind closed doors she was an evil tyrant. Instead of protecting, loving and caring for Victoria, she forced bleach and urine down her throat, knocked out her teeth, tied her up naked and made her live in squalor. It took eighteen years of heartache and despair before she found the courage to expose her mum.Tortured is Victoria’s gripping story of survival.
Tosh: An Amazing True Story Of Life, Death, Danger And Drama In The Garda Sub-Aqua Unit
by Tosh Lavery'An extraordinary book ... a remarkable story' Mark Cagney, TV3'A fascinating book' Matt Cooper, Today FM'Quite a read ... fascinating ... a book that people who don't normally read books would find very readable' Seán O'Rourke, RTE'The classic maverick copper ... but always with his heart in the right place ... fascinating' Irish Independent'Unflinching ... extraordinary ... fascinating' Irish Daily Mail'There is no training course in the world that will set you up for dead bodies.'During thirty years in the Garda Sub-Aqua Unit Tosh Lavery worked on many murders and most of Ireland's missing persons cases, as well as high profile investigations such as the Whiddy Island disaster and the Mountbatten assassination.The unit was a perfect fit for a maverick like Tosh. He became obsessed with a job that demanded utter dedication and total fearlessness. But along the way, he battled alcoholism and his marriage ended.Tosh's story is an uncompromising and revealing look at the macho world of the guards and what it's really like on the inside.
Totally Frank: The Autobiography Of Frank Lampard
by Frank LampardChelsea and England footballer Frank Lampard charts his life story from childhood to young West Ham apprentice to multi-millionaire world footballing celebrity and lynchpin of the national team. Includes a full account of the 2005/06 season and the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany.
Totally Frank: The Frank McGarvey Story
by Frank McGarvey Ronnie EsplinDuring a glorious but controversial career, Frank McGarvey won every major trophy in Scottish football. Under Alex Ferguson at St Mirren in the 1970s, he inspired a young Saints team to victory in the First Division - an effort that attracted the attention of English giants Liverpool and Scotland manager Jock Stein. After a frustrating spell at Anfield, he headed back north to join boyhood heroes Celtic, with whom he won five medals in five seasons. However, he was shown the door by Davie Hay just days after scoring the winner for the club in the 1985 Scottish Cup final.McGarvey then returned to St Mirren, with whom he won the Scottish Cup two years later, and he continued his success after a move into management, helping Clyde to win the Second Division trophy. But this is only half of Frank McGarvey's story. Throughout his remarkable career and beyond, McGarvey fought and, for the most part, lost a battle with gambling, which cost him his marriage, home and self-respect.In Totally Frank, McGarvey chronicles his many highs and lows, and reveals how he finally succeeded in overcoming his gambling addiction.
Totally Unofficial: The Autobiography of Raphael Lemkin
by Raphael Lemkin Donna-Lee FriezeAmong the greatest intellectual heroes of modern times, Raphael Lemkin lived an extraordinary life of struggle and hardship, yet altered international law and redefined the world’s understanding of group rights. He invented the concept and word “genocide” and propelled the idea into international legal status. An uncommonly creative pioneer in ethical thought, he twice was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.Although Lemkin died alone and in poverty, he left behind a model for a life of activism, a legacy of major contributions to international law, and—not least—an unpublished autobiography. Presented here for the first time is his own account of his life, from his boyhood on a small farm in Poland with his Jewish parents, to his perilous escape from Nazi Europe, through his arrival in the United States and rise to influence as an academic, thinker, and revered lawyer of international criminal law.
The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness
by Paula Poundstone&“A remarkable journey. I laughed. I cried. I got another cat.&” —Lily Tomlin &“Paula Poundstone is the funniest human being I have ever known.&” —Peter Sagal, host of Wait Wait . . . Don&’t Tell Me! and author of The Book of Vice &“Is there a secret to happiness?&” asks comedian Paula Poundstone. "I don&’t know how or why anyone would keep it a secret. It seems rather cruel, really . . . Where could it be? Is it deceptively simple? Does it melt at a certain temperature? Can you buy it? Must you suffer for it before or after?&” In her wildly and wisely observed book, the comedy legend takes on that most inalienable of rights—the pursuit of happiness. Offering herself up as a human guinea pig in a series of thoroughly unscientific experiments, Poundstone tries out a different get-happy hypothesis in each chapter of her data-driven search. She gets in shape with taekwondo. She drives fast behind the wheel of a Lamborghini. She communes with nature while camping with her daughter, and commits to getting her house organized (twice!). Swing dancing? Meditation? Volunteering? Does any of it bring her happiness? You may be laughing too hard to care. The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness is both a story of jumping into new experiences with both feet and a surprisingly poignant tale of a single working mother of three children (not to mention dozens of cats, a dog, a bearded dragon lizard, a lop-eared bunny, and one ant left from her ant farm) who is just trying to keep smiling while living a busy life. The queen of the skepticism-fueled rant, Paula Poundstone stands alone in her talent for bursting bubbles and slaying sacred cows. Like George Carlin, Steve Martin, and David Sedaris, she is a master of her craft, and her comedic brilliance is served up in abundance in this book. As author and humorist Roy Blount Jr. notes, &“Paula Poundstone deserves to be happy. Nobody deserves to be this funny.&”
The Totem Pole: Surviving the ultimate adventure (Travel Literature Ser.)
by Paul PritchardMountain climbing defined Paul Pritchard’s existence and signposted his horizons. One of the leading climbers of the 1980s and 1990s, his adventures took him from his Snowdonia base to the Himalaya, from the Karakoram to Patagonia, from Baffin Island to the Pamirs. Winning the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature in 1997 with his book Deep Play allowed him a life dedicated to climbing. Paul spent the prize money on a round-the-world climbing tour, which eventually found him in Tasmania attempting the most slender sea stack on the planet, the Totem Pole.On Friday 13 February 1998, Paul’s life was changed irrevocably by a TV-sized boulder which fell from this sea stack and struck him on the head. He spent the next years fighting the hemiplegia which paralysed the right side of his body, and caused such a terrible brain injury that doctors thought he might never walk or speak again.Over the following year, Paul began to collect his experiences – from the panic of the ten-hour rescue to the triumph of regaining abilities previously thought lost – and, using only one finger, he punched them into his computer, one letter at a time. The result is The Totem Pole. The first book to win both the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature and the Banff Mountain Book Festival Grand Prize, The Totem Pole is a sobering and painful story which embodies the resilience that has characterised Paul’s life, but it is also funny and ultimately uplifting – a must-read for climbers and non-climbers alike.
A Touch of Innocence: A Memoir of Childhood (Dance Ser.)
by Katherine DunhamAn internationally known dancer, choreographer, and gifted anthropologist, Katherine Dunham was born to a black American tailor and a well-to-do French Canadian woman twenty years his senior. This book is Dunham's story of the chaos and conflict that entered her childhood after her mother's early death. In stark prose, she tells of growing up in both black and white households and of the divisions of race and class in Chicago that become the harsh realities of her young life. A riveting narrative of one girl's struggle to transcend the painful confusions of a family and culture in turmoil, Dunham's story is full of the clarity, candor, and intelligence that lifted her above her troubled beginnings. "A Touch of Innocence is an absorbing family chronicle written with a gift for physical detail sometimes too real for comfort. In quietly graphic prose the growing girl, the slightly older brother, the ambitious father and the kind stepmother are pictured in such human terms that when their lives get tied into harder and harder knots beyond their undoing, one can only continue to read helplessly as doom closes in upon the household."—Langston Hughes, New York Herald Tribune "A Touch of Innocence is one of the most extraordinary life stories I have ever read . . . . The content of this book is so heartbreaking that only the strongest artistic skills can keep it from leaking out into sobbing self-pity, but Katherine Dunham's art contains it, understands it and refuses to be overwhelmed by its terrors."—Elizabeth Janeway, New York Times "The first eighteen years of the famous dancer and choreographer's life are brought vividly to the reader in this first volume of her autobiography. She writes of what it is like to be a special, gifted young woman growing up in a racially mixed family in the American Middle West. A beautiful, touching and sometimes discomforting book."—Publishers Weekly "As writing it is honest, searing, graphic and touching, giving us a rather heartbreaking early view of the young American Negro who was later to make a name for herself as a dancer and choreographer."—Arthur Todd, Saturday Review
A Touch of Treason
by Ian Hamilton, QCThis is the swashbuckling life story of one of Scotland's greatest sons. Ian Hamilton, born the son of a Paisley tailor in 1925, who made himself world-famous on Xmas Eve, 1950, when he helped to remove the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey and return it to its spiritual home of Scotland.This symbolic act was to set Hamilton along a lonely path as a solitary Scottish patriot whose actions have always stemmed from his deep love of his native land. He has never taken the easy option and his remarkable biography recounts episodes which encompass his many abilities and talents.Although renowned as a Queen's Counsel, he has also been a publisher, printer, award-winning playwright, oyster farmer, pilot, museum curator and transatlantic yachtsman (failed). He was also the first man to canoe across Scotland. His legal responsibilities took him to countries as diverse as Canada and Zambia, from both of which he was expelled. First published in 1990 but now with a final chapter written in May 2014 and a foreword by socialist agitator and independence campaigner Tommy Sheridan, Ian's story is extremely pertinent in the run up to the independence referendum.This popular biography is a cry for Scottish identity at a turning point in the nation's history.
Touché: A French Woman's Take on the English
by Agnes Catherine PoirierWhy France and Britain are so different, and why they do things in opposite ways.A brilliant and vigorous observer of both French and British societies, which she knows intimately, 32-year-old Agnes Catherine Poirier has spent the last ten years explaining the peculiarities of France to the British and of Britain to the French. Not an easy job.Having studied both in Paris and London, writing in both languages for the French and British press, Agnes Catherine Poirier plays with national stereotypes, which are both stupid and dangerous, with dexterity and savoir faire. She goes beneath the surface to explain why France and Britain keep arguing and competing endlessly, why they are so different and why they do things in almost opposite ways.Covering the worlds of art, politics, action, food, institutions, sex, history, media, society and philosophy, she tells us as much about us as why France is a nation apart.Revenge for tabloid attacks on France or for British expats' invasions of Brittany and the Dordogne? You decide. But this will entertain and educate all readers about their own country and whether its 'entente' with La Belle France is 'cordiale' or not.You may disagree with her but you may never see yourself in the same way again.
Touched by Evil: The True Story of the Psychic Powers That Saved Me From A Life of Abuse
by Michele KnightMichele's childhood was a nightmare. Her mother was a gifted psychic but highly unstable, unable to control the dark forces her powers unleashed or to look after Michele. When she was six her beloved father died and the last shreds of normality were gone forever. From then on Michele was at the mercy of sexual predators and her mother's violent lovers. Evil surrounded her... But Michele wasn't alone. The presence of her twin sister Lucy was constantly at her side, comforting and inspiring her. Lucy had died when the twin girls were babies. But her spirit stayed behind to watch over her little sister. Time and again, when Michele reached her darkest hour, Lucy reached out with a deep sense of love and gently guided her to safety. This is the heartbreaking, but ultimately inspirational story of a little girl, who was beaten, raped, neglected and despised, but rescued from despair by her faith in the power of love.
Touched By God: How We Won the Mexico '86 World Cup
by Diego Maradona Daniel ArnucciIn June 1986 Diego Maradona, considered by many to be the greatest footballer of all time, proudly hoisted the '86 Mexico World Championship Cup in his hands.Now over thirty years on from that magical game, and after a life in sports marked by controversy, Maradona tells, for the first time, the untold stories behind that one-of-a-kind World Cup. Mexico '86 was the pinnacle of Maradona's career, and in this book he reveals all about every game, what happened afterwards in the locker room, the months leading up to the World Cup, when the team had to go to Mexico City a month early to avoid the overthrowing of the technical director by the Argentine president, Alfonsin, the mystery behind 'El Gran Capitán' Passarella ('78 World Cup Champion), the strategies and tactics that revolutionised the game, training in a country that was recovering from an earthquake, the public's hostility, the jerseys they went out to buy in Mexico City, the meeting in Colombia where the team really came together, his relationship to drugs: the clean World Cup, and the best goal in football history. Mexico '86 is Maradona's World Cup and Maradona is who he is because of that World Cup. Explosive, gritty and unapologetic, Touched by God tells the inside story of one of the greatest football victories of all time.
Touched by the Sun: My Friendship with Jackie
by Carly SimonA chance encounter at a summer party on Martha's Vineyard blossomed into an improbable but enduring friendship. Carly Simon and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis made an unlikely pair - Carly, a free and artistic spirit still reeling from her recent divorce, searching for meaning, new love, and an anchor; and Jackie, one of the most celebrated, meticulous, unknowable women in American history. Nonetheless, over the next decade their lives merged in inextricable and complex ways, and they forged a connection deeper than either could ever have foreseen. The time they spent together - lingering lunches and creative collaborations, nights out on the town and mundane movie dates - brought a welcome lightness and comfort to their days, but their conversations often veered into more profound territory as they helped each other navigate the shifting waters of life lived, publicly, in the wake of great love and great loss.An intimate, vulnerable, and insightful portrait of the bond that grew between two iconic and starkly different American women, Carly Simon's Touched by the Sun is a chronicle, in loving detail, of the late friendship she and Jackie shared. It is a meditation on the ways someone can unexpectedly enter our lives and change its course, as well as a celebration of kinship in all its many forms.