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The Club
by Christy O'ConnorIn 1999, the hurlers of St Joseph's Doora-Barefield won the All-Ireland club championship. That winter, they became only the second club in history to win successive Munster club titles, and the following March they became the only Munster club to reach successive All-Ireland club finals. Ten years on, St Joseph's is in a totally different place, well down the pecking order not just nationally, but in County Clare. the senior team is still spearheaded by many members of the 1999 All-Ireland winning team, who are raging at the dying of the light. At the beginning of the 2009 season, the team, club and parish were deeply wounded by two family tragedies. One of those tragedies - the sudden death of one member of the 1999 team - cut deep into the soul of the senior team. And that was not the last tragedy to strike the club ... As part of the healing process, the senior team made a pact to honour the memory of those lost by defying the odds and becoming county champions once again. A campaign fuelled by emotion and pain began promisingly, but slowly began to unravel into one of the stormiest and controversial in the club's history. The story of St Joseph's Doora-Barefield is unique; but it is also a story that anyone connected with one of the 1,700 other GAA clubs will relate to. From player infighting to player-management stand-offs, team-bonding and on-pitch battles, The Club is a chronicle of the 2009 season told with unflinching honesty by Christy O'Connor, who covers GAA for the Sunday Times and who has been the St Joseph's senior team goalkeeper for 20 years. This is a story like no other, a fly-on-the-wall tale of the effort, agony and struggles that define the journey undertaken every season by every club side. This is grass-roots GAA at its purest and rawest, a great story brilliantly told.
Clubland UK: On the Door in the Rave Era
by Steven McLaughlinClubland UK is a story of violent men and the worlds they inhabit. At the height of the hedonistic ’90s rave era, Steven McLaughlin policed some of Blackpool’s busiest seafront clubs on chaotic nights, as the virulent dance and drug craze exploded onto the scene. From the front line, he witnessed the dark underbelly of clubland culture and the predatory menace lurking beneath the smiley-face T-shirts, pilled-up clubbers and frantically waving arms. He saw people revel in it; he saw people excel in it; he saw people profit in it; and he saw people suffer in it. Because sometimes being ‘a face’ in clubland demands the highest price of all. From small-town gyms to big-time steroid dealers, from martial-arts myths to back-alley fights, door wars and gang grudges in Britain's gaudiest seaside town, Clubland UK is a story that takes the reader into a twilight world where testosterone, brotherhood, ego and a warrior mentality all collide in a bruising mess. This book is a must-read trip into the dark side of the dance decade, a roller-coaster ride of pills and blood-spilling thrills, where agony and ecstasy co-exist in a blurred neon blaze.
Clubs, Drugs & Canapes: A Deep Journey into the Shallows of the Night
by Nick ValentineArmed with a bottle of Milk Thistle and unshakeable optimism, Nick Valentine has spent most of his adult life in fifth gear, betting on a Royal Flush while covertly holding a pair of deuces. This is his story, the odyssey of a suburban bloke who has blagged, lucked and laughed his way into just about every party, club, stage and hot-tub imaginable.Following his first brush with celebrity at an impressionable age, and spending his teens and twenties as, amongst other things, a journalist, publicist, club promoter, musician and DJ, Nick eventually banked in the shallows of party central. He spent 15 years as a social editor on London’s celebrity canapé circuit, while co-founding the Entertainment News press agency. An enterprising period acting as a social PR to the super-rich led to him co-founding three London nightclubs in quick succession, including the much lauded Cuckoo Club. With the West End as his nocturnal playground, he then bid sleep a final fond farewell.Nick professes to have attended well over 5,000 parties in his time, drunk enough champagne to test the Thames barrier and occasionally made it home in time for Countdown. 'I'm a night person,' he says. 'The trouble is I'm a morning and afternoon person as well.' This account is a surprisingly touching, light-hearted look at the daily mechanics of enjoying life to the max and then some.
A Cluttered Life: Searching for God, Serenity, and My Missing Keys
by Pesi DinnersteinA Cluttered Life chronicles Pesi Dinnerstein’s touching, quirky, and often comic search for order and simplicity amid an onslaught of relentless interruptions. When a chance encounter with an old acquaintance opens her eyes to the extent to which disorder has crept into every corner of her existence, she begins a quest to free herself from the excess baggage she carries and finds-to her great surprise-that the meaning she's spent years searching for is right there in her own piles of clutter. Dinnerstein’s battle with chaos is an odyssey of self-discovery that leads her from the obvious mess spilling out of closets and the backseat of her car to the more subtle forms of disorder in her life and, finally, to the most hidden expressions deep within herself. In the end-with the help of devoted friends, a twelve-step recovery program, and a bit of Kabbalistic wisdom-her struggle with the things of this world is transformed from a distraction into its own journey of healing and personal growth. At turns insightful, unsettling, and wildly funny, A Cluttered Life is the story of how one woman found her true self-and spiritual fulfillment-through trying to make sense of her own muddled world.
Clyde Walcott: Statesman of West Indies cricket (Global Icons)
by Peter MasonAn essential biography of a cricketing great, exploring his achievements as a player, manager and political activist.This ground-breaking biography of Sir Clyde Walcott explores the extraordinary life and achievements of a man who was both an important activist and one of the greatest cricketers of all time.In the 1950s Walcott was part of the legendary ‘three Ws’ batting triumvirate with Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell that helped give West Indies cricket a new identity distinct from its colonial past. After test cricket he became a prominent administrator and advocate of Black consciousness, managing the great West Indies teams that dominated the sport in the 1980s. A vocal supporter of using cricket to apply pressure to the South African apartheid regime, in 1992 he became chairman of the International Cricket Council – the first Black man in that influential role.Shining a light on Walcott’s largely ignored part in effecting change through the vehicle of cricket, this book also shows how he contributed to dramatic social transformation in Guyana as cricket and social organiser for the country’s sugar estates from 1954 to 1970, bringing about improvements in the living conditions and self-esteem of plantation workers while promoting the emergence of several world-class cricketers from a previously neglected corner of the Caribbean.
Clyde Walcott: Statesman of West Indies cricket (Global Icons)
by Peter MasonAn essential biography of a cricketing great, exploring his achievements as a player, manager and political activist.This ground-breaking biography of Sir Clyde Walcott explores the extraordinary life and achievements of a man who was both an important activist and one of the greatest cricketers of all time.In the 1950s Walcott was part of the legendary ‘three Ws’ batting triumvirate with Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell that helped give West Indies cricket a new identity distinct from its colonial past. After test cricket he became a prominent administrator and advocate of Black consciousness, managing the great West Indies teams that dominated the sport in the 1980s. A vocal supporter of using cricket to apply pressure to the South African apartheid regime, in 1992 he became chairman of the International Cricket Council – the first Black man in that influential role.Shining a light on Walcott’s largely ignored part in effecting change through the vehicle of cricket, this book also shows how he contributed to dramatic social transformation in Guyana as cricket and social organiser for the country’s sugar estates from 1954 to 1970, bringing about improvements in the living conditions and self-esteem of plantation workers while promoting the emergence of several world-class cricketers from a previously neglected corner of the Caribbean.
Cnut: The North Sea King (Penguin Monarchs)
by Ryan LavelleCnut, or Canute, is one of the great 'what ifs' of English history. The Dane who became King of England after a long period of Viking attacks and settlement, his reign could have permanently shifted eleventh-century England's rule to Scandinavia. Stretching his authority across the North Sea to become king of Denmark and Norway, and with close links to Ireland and an overlordship of Scotland, this formidable figure created a Viking Empire at least as plausible as the Anglo-Norman Empire that would emerge in 1066. Ryan Lavelle's illuminating book cuts through myths and misconceptions to explore this fascinating and powerful man in detail. Cnut is most popularly known now for the story of the king who tried to command the waves, relegated to a bit part in the medieval story, but as this biography shows, he was a conqueror, political player, law maker and empire builder on the grandest scale, one whose reign tells us much about the contingent nature of history.
Cnut the Great: Conquest And The Consolidation Of Power In Northern Europe In The Early Eleventh Century (The English Monarchs Series #Vol. 40)
by Timothy BoltonA seminal biography of the underappreciated eleventh-century Scandinavian warlord-turned-Anglo-Saxon monarch who united the English and Danish crowns to forge a North Sea empire Historian Timothy Bolton offers a fascinating reappraisal of one of the most misunderstood of the Anglo-Saxon kings: Cnut, the powerful Danish warlord who conquered England and created a North Sea empire in the eleventh century. This seminal biography draws from a wealth of written and archaeological sources to provide the most detailed accounting to date of the life and accomplishments of a remarkable figure in European history, a forward-thinking warrior-turned-statesman who created a new Anglo-Danish regime through designed internationalism.
Co-conspirator for Justice: The Revolutionary Life of Dr. Alan Berkman (Justice, Power, and Politics)
by Susan M. ReverbyAlan Berkman (1945–2009) was no campus radical in the mid-1960s; he was a promising Ivy League student, football player, Eagle Scout, and fraternity president. But when he was a medical student and doctor, his politics began to change, and soon he was providing covert care to members of revolutionary groups like the Weather Underground and becoming increasingly radicalized by his experiences at the Wounded Knee takeover, at the Attica Prison uprising, and at health clinics for the poor. When the government went after him, he went underground and participated in bombings of government buildings. He was eventually captured and served eight years in some of America's worst penitentiaries, barely surviving two rounds of cancer. After his release in 1992, he returned to medical practice and became an HIV/AIDS physician, teacher, and global health activist. In the final years of his life, he successfully worked to change U.S. policy, making AIDS treatment more widely available in the global south and saving millions of lives around the world.Using Berkman's unfinished prison memoir, FBI records, letters, and hundreds of interviews, Susan M. Reverby sheds fascinating light on questions of political violence and revolutionary zeal in her account of Berkman's extraordinary transformation from doctor to co-conspirator for justice.
The Coach House Cats
by Marilyn Edwards'A colourful series that celebrates the many ways animals enrich our relationships and our lives' Karin SlaughterIt's become obvious that the time has come to have Pushkin, the Russian Blue tom, and Titus, the ginger moggy queen, neutered. This was indeed the plan for Fannie, the tortoiseshell, but with her longed-for pregnancy well under way it must now be postponed. Fannie's due date for her kittens arrives and, in the time-honoured tradition of cats and the best laid plans, unexpected problems arise.Following this drama, the household finds itself in turmoil again with the arrival of a black Bengal kitten, called Gilly, who disrupts the peace of both cats and people resident in The Coach House. . . With a fine eye and ear for the world of natural history, Marilyn Edwards writes about rural living with charm and passion - but it is her observation of cats and their ways that make her books so utterly magical.**Fully illustrated throughout**Praise for the Moon Cottage books:'My all-time favourite cat book' Jacqueline Wilson'Cat lovers will adore this book . . . A tender story of love between the author and her cats' Celia Haddon'All the many delights and a few of the heartaches of a life with cats are told with charm and wit. A vivid, honest, observant and involving book' Desmond Morris
Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court
by Kareem Abdul-JabbarFormer NBA star and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Kareem Abdul-Jabbar explores his 50-year friendship with Coach John Wooden, one of the most enduring and meaningful relationships in sports history.Instant New York Times and USA Today BestsellerPresident Barack Obama's Favorite Book of 2017A Boston Globe and Huffington Post Best Book of 2017 PickWhen future NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was still an 18-year-old high school basketball prospect from New York City named Lew Alcindor, he accepted a scholarship from UCLA largely on the strength of Coach John Wooden's reputation as a winner. It turned out to be the right choice, as Alcindor and his teammates won an unprecedented three NCAA championship titles. But it also marked the beginning of one of the most extraordinary and enduring friendships in the history of sports. In COACH WOODEN AND ME, Abdul-Jabbar reveals the inspirational story of how his bond with John Wooden evolved from a history-making coach-player mentorship into a deep and genuine friendship that transcended sports, shaped the course of both men's lives, and lasted for half a century.COACH WOODEN AND ME is a stirring tribute to the subtle but profound influence that Wooden had on Kareem as a player, and then as a person, as they began to share their cultural, religious, and family values while facing some of life's biggest obstacles. From his first day of practice, when the players were taught the importance of putting on their athletic socks properly; to gradually absorbing the sublime wisdom of Coach Wooden's now famous "Pyramid of Success"; to learning to cope with the ugly racism that confronted black athletes during the turbulent Civil Rights era as well as losing loved ones, Abdul-Jabbar fondly recalls how Coach Wooden's fatherly guidance not only paved the way for his unmatched professional success but also made possible a lifetime of personal fulfillment.Full of intimate, never-before-published details and delivered with the warmth and erudition of a grateful student who has learned his lessons well, COACH WOODEN AND ME is at once a celebration of the unique philosophical outlook of college basketball's most storied coach and a moving testament to the all-conquering power of friendship.
Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court
by Kareem Abdul-JabbarFormer NBA star and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Kareem Abdul-Jabbar explores his 50-year friendship with Coach John Wooden, one of the most enduring and meaningful relationships in sports history. When future NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was still an 18-year-old high school basketball prospect from New York City named Lew Alcindor, he accepted a scholarship from UCLA largely on the strength of Coach John Wooden's reputation as a winner. It turned out to be the right choice, as Alcindor and his teammates won an unprecedented three NCAA championship titles. But it also marked the beginning of one of the most extraordinary and enduring friendships in the history of sports. In Coach Wooden and Me, Abdul-Jabbar reveals the inspirational story of how his bond with John Wooden evolved from a history-making coach-player mentorship into a deep and genuine friendship that transcended sports, shaped the course of both men's lives, and lasted for half a century.Coach Wooden and Me is a stirring tribute to the subtle but profound influence that Wooden had on Kareem as a player, and then as a person, as they began to share their cultural, religious, and family values while facing some of life's biggest obstacles. From his first day of practice, when the players were taught the importance of putting on their athletic socks properly; to gradually absorbing the sublime wisdom of Coach Wooden's now famous "Pyramid of Success"; to learning to cope with the ugly racism that confronted black athletes during the turbulent Civil Rights era as well as losing loved ones, Abdul-Jabbar fondly recalls how Coach Wooden's fatherly guidance not only paved the way for his unmatched professional success but also made possible a lifetime of personal fulfillment. Full of intimate, never-before-published details and delivered with the warmth and erudition of a grateful student who has learned his lessons well, Coach Wooden and Me is at once a celebration of the unique philosophical outlook of college basketball's most storied coach and a moving testament to the all-conquering power of friendship. Instant New York Times and USA Today Bestseller President Barack Obama's Favorite Book of 2017 A Boston Globe and Huffington Post Best Book of 2017 Pick
Coalition Diaries, 2012–2015: 2012-2015
by David LawsAcclaimed as one of the sharpest political intellects of his generation, David Laws saw his ministerial career nosedive before it had begun when, after only seventeen days as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, he was forced to resign when unintended breaches of parliamentary expenses rules came to light. You can’t keep a good man down, however, and he returned to government, where he was also responsible for implementation of the coalition agreement and planning the Lib Dems’ strategy in the run-up to the 2015 election.David began writing a diary in March 2012 and continued writing it throughout his ministerial career and up to the 2015 election, which devastated the Liberal Democrats in Parliament.Frank, acerbic, sometimes shocking and often funny, Coalition Diaries chronicles the historic Liberal Democrat–Conservative coalition government, offering extraordinary pen portraits of all the personalities involved, some of whom were cast aside at the election or put to the knife after Brexit, while others are active in today’s government.
Coasting: Running Around the Coast of Britain – Life, Love and (Very) Loose Plans
by Elise DowningElise had a new job, flat and relationship – and they were all making her utterly miserable. Then the obvious solution hit her: run 5,000 miles around the coast of Britain. Over the next 301 days, she saw Britain at its most wild and wonderful, and discovered that running away doesn’t solve your problems – but it's more fun than dealing with them.
Coasting: A year by the bay
by Susan KurosawaTired of soy milk lattes and eternal traffic snarls, journalist Susan Kurosawa and husband Graeme Blundell bought a 1920s fishing shack at Hardys Bay on the NSW Central Coast and set about transforming it into ‘Peacock Cottage’ (named for resident bird Alfredo). This introduced them to the local coastal fraternity of builders, plumbers, painters and other amiable ferals—from Mother Mary the real estate matriarch to Adam the Gardener, who only works when the planets are properly aligned and there’s no surf. In the course of a year, Susan and Graeme go native: he buys a ute, she becomes foster mother to the local bird population and threatens to take up watercolours and pottery. Featuring black and white illustrations, snippets of local history, special recipes for local seafood and produce, as well as information on local plants and animals, COASTING is sure to appeal to everyone who dreams of acting out their own ‘Sea Change’.
Cobb: A Biography
by Al StumpA New York Times Notable Book; Spitball Award for Best Baseball Book of 1994; Basis for a major Hollywood motion picture. Now in paperback, the biography that baseball fans all across the country have been talking about. Al Stump redefined America's perception of one of its most famous sports heroes with this gripping look at a man who walked the line between greatness and psychosis. Based on Stump's interviews with Ty Cobb while ghostwriting the Hall-of-Famer's 1961 autobiography, this award-winning new account of Cobb's life and times reveals both the darkness and the brilliance of the "Georgia Peach." "The most powerful baseball biography I have read."--Roger Kahn, author of THE BOYS OF SUMMER
The Cobra: My Story
by Carl FrochCarl Froch grew up on a tough Nottingham housing estate. His dad took him to the local boxing gym at just nine years old, hoping boxing would keep him out of trouble. Carl’s incredible natural ability soon became clear and he rapidly ascended the heights of professional boxing, becoming three-time Super Middleweight champion and Britain’s most exciting boxer.In 29 professional fights has suffered defeat only twice. His greatest fights have already gone down in boxing history. In 2009 he was knocked down for the first time in his career by Jermain Taylor. Behind on everyone's scorecard but his own, until, with just 14 seconds of the fight to go, he came back in spectacular fashion with a stunning knock out. In 2012 he emphatically beat Lucian Bute to reclaim his belt in front of record audiences. The press described the fight as ‘one of the best nights in British boxing’. The Cobra follows Britain's most respected boxer every step of the way as he prepares for, and fights, the most important bouts of his life. Honest, outspoken, and every inch the boy from Nottingham, Carl pulls no punches in his revealing story from inside the high-stakes world of boxing, from his first discovery of his talent to his ascent to World Champion.**Fully updated from the hardback; this edition includes two brand new chapters covering Carl's astonishing fifth-round destruction of previously unbeaten Lucian Bute, to reclaim his IBF world super middleweight title**
Cobra in the Bath: Adventures in Less Travelled Lands
by Miles MorlandMiles Morland is an adventurer. He was born in India to a naval father and a dangerously glamorous mother. When his parents divorced, Miles followed his mother to Tehran, which they had to leave in a hurry, and on to Baghdad, which they also had to leave in a hurry after the 1958 revolution. His early years were filled with desert journeys, riots, perilous near-misses, and adventures worthy of Kipling, after which he was sent to England for a 'proper' education. Later, following years of shouting down a Wall Street telephone, Miles threw in his job, bought a giant motorbike and set off to discover things in places others did not want to go. Deported at gunpoint from Romania, saved from assassination in Ethiopia by a lucky plane crash, riding an Enfield Bullet through Ooty and following Che over the Andes – Miles has a knack of finding trouble. Brilliantly observed and told with unique humour, Cobra in the Bath will have you crying with laughter and scared out of your wits.
Cobwebs and Cream Teas: Year In The Life Of A National Trust House
by Mary MackieA warm and funny account of what it is like to live in and run a National Trust house: Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk.When Mary Mackie's husband became Houseman at Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk she suddenly found herself running one of the most elegant 17th-century houses in East Anglia. During their first year living in the National Trust house she was endlessly running up and down corridors, making visitors welcome, keeping unwelcome visitors at bay, arranging concerts, dinners and vast cleaning programmes. But leavening all the hard work were the exciting discoveries - hidden staircases, treasures in the attic and an ice house in the woods. COBWEBS AND CREAM TEAS reveals the tribulations and excitement that occur in any house open to the public, and it assures us that living in a National Trust house provides only the certainty that life will never be dull, or idle, again.
The Cocaine Diaries: A Venezuelan Prison Nightmare
by Jeff Farrell Paul Keany‘It won’t happen to me. That’s what I thought when I got on the plane to Venezuela. But it did – I got caught.’Caught smuggling half a million euros’ worth of cocaine, Paul Keany was sexually assaulted by Venezuelan anti-drugs officers before being sentenced to eight years in the notorious Los Teques prison outside Caracas. There he was plunged into a nightmarish world of coke-fuelled killings, gun battles, stabbings, extortion and forced hunger strikes until finally, just over two years into his sentence, he gained early parole and embarked on a daring escape from South America . . .Aided by his extensive prison diaries, Keany reveals the true horror of life inside Los Teques: a shocking underworld behind bars where inmates pay protection money to stay alive, prostitutes do the rounds and vast amounts of cocaine are smuggled in for cell-block bosses to sell on to prisoners for huge profits. The Cocaine Diaries is a remarkable story, told by Keany with honesty, courage and even humour, despite knowing that every day behind bars might have been his last.
Cochrane: The Real Master and Commander
by David CordinglyIn this fascinating account of Thomas Cochrane's extraordinary life, David Cordingly (Under the Black Flag and The Billy Ruffian) unearths startling new details about the real-life "Master and Commander"-from his heroic battles against the French navy to his role in the liberation of Chile, Peru, and Brazil, and the stock exchange scandal that forced him out of England and almost ended his naval career. Drawing on previously unpublished papers, his own travels, wide reading, and original research, Cordingly tells the rip-roaring story of the archetypal Romantic hero who conquered the seas and, in the process, defined his era.
Cochrane: The Life And Exploits Of A Fighting Captain
by Robert HarveyThe adventures of the daring Thomas Cochrane, called 'the sea wolf' by Napoleon, are so extraordinary that his life reads like a page-turning work of fiction. In one sense it became so, for the novelist Patrick O'Brian by his own admission used Cochrane as the basis for Jack Aubrey, hero of his much-loved series of naval novels.Cochrane became a household name when in 1800 he took command of the tiny brig, the Speedy, and created mayhem in the Mediterranean earning himself and his crew a fortune in prize money. A wildly contradictory character, never less than heroic, and this lively new account of his life has sold over 7,000 copies in hardback.
Cochrane the Dauntless: The Life and Adventures of Thomas Cochrane, 1775-1860
by David CordinglyPatrick O'Brian, C.S. Forester and Captain Marryat all based their literary heroes on Thomas Cochrane, but Cochrane's exploits were far more daring and exciting than those of his fictional counterparts. He was a man of action, whose bold and impulsive nature meant he was often his own worst enemy. Writing with gripping narrative skill and drawing on his own travels and original research, Cordingly tells the rip-roaring story of a flawed Romantic hero who helped define his age.
Coco Chanel: The Legend And The Life
by Justine PicardieJustine Picardie has spent the last decade puzzling over the truth about Coco Chanel, attempting to peel away the accretions of romance and lies. In this critically acclaimed, bestselling biography she shares the history of the incredible woman who created the way we look now.
Coco Chanel: The Legend And The Life
by Justine PicardieSLEEK. CHIC. NOTORIOUSLY GUARDED. WELCOME TO THE SECRET WORLD OF COCO CHANEL.