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Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through a Country's Hidden Past
by Giles TremlettThe Spanish are reputed to be amongst Europe's most voluble people. So why have they kept silent about the terrors of the Spanish Civil War and the rule of dictator Generalísimo Francisco Franco?The appearance - sixty years after that war ended - of mass graves containing victims of General Franco's death squads has finally broken what Spaniards call 'the pact of forgetting'. At this charged moment, Giles Tremlett embarked on a journey around Spain - and through Spanish history.As well as a moving exploration of Spanish politics, Tremlett's journey was also an attempt to make sense of his personal experience of the Spanish. Why do they dislike authority figures, but are cowed by a doctor's white coat? How had women embraced feminism without men noticing? What binds gypsies, jails and flamenco? Why do the Spanish go to plastic surgeons, donate their organs, visit brothels or take cocaine more than other Europeans? 'Lively and well-informed . . . at once a history, a journalistic inquiry and a travel book.' Sunday Telegraph
Ghosts on the Roof: Selected Journalism
by Whittaker Chambers Terry Teachout Milton HindusWhittaker Chambers is one of the most controversial figures in modern American history a former Communist spy who left the party, testified against Alger Hiss before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and wrote a classic autobiography, Witness. Dismissed by some as a crank, reviled by others as a traitor, Chambers still looms as a Dostoevskian figure over three decades after his death in 1961. A man of profound pessimism, rare vision, and remarkable literary talents, his continuing importance was attested to when Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded him the Medal of Freedom in 1984. Ghosts on the Roof, originally published in 1989, brings together more than fifty short stories, essays, articles, and reviews that originally appeared in Time, Life, National Review, Commonweal, The American Mercury, and the New Masses. Included are essays on Karl Marx, Reinhold Niebuhr, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, George Santayana, Dame Rebecca West, Ayn Rand, and Greta Garbo. These show Chambers at his best, as a peerless historian of ideas.
Ghosts on the Roof: Selected Journalism
by Whittaker Chambers Terry Teachout Milton HindusWhittaker Chambers is one of the most controversial figures in modern American history a former Communist spy who left the party, testified against Alger Hiss before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and wrote a classic autobiography, Witness. Dismissed by some as a crank, reviled by others as a traitor, Chambers still looms as a Dostoevskian figure over three decades after his death in 1961. A man of profound pessimism, rare vision, and remarkable literary talents, his continuing importance was attested to when Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded him the Medal of Freedom in 1984. Ghosts on the Roof, originally published in 1989, brings together more than fifty short stories, essays, articles, and reviews that originally appeared in Time, Life, National Review, Commonweal, The American Mercury, and the New Masses. Included are essays on Karl Marx, Reinhold Niebuhr, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, George Santayana, Dame Rebecca West, Ayn Rand, and Greta Garbo. These show Chambers at his best, as a peerless historian of ideas.
The GI Bride
by Iris Jones SimantelDiscover the remarkable memoir by GI Bride and bestselling author Iris Jones Simantel. Iris had escaped the Blitz but now lived in crippling poverty after the war - until a chance meeting changed her life. Aged just sixteen, she fell in love and married US soldier Bob Irvine. And soon after she set sail for a new life in America.It was the 1950s, the land of hope, dreams and Doris Day movies. But Iris ended up in a cramped Chicago bungalow, shared with Bob's parents. With a baby on the way and a husband turning daily into a stranger, Iris was wracked by homesickness. Trapped and desperately lonely, she had to make a fresh start, in a country where hope and opportunity thrived.In this dramatic sequel to the Sunday Times bestseller, Far From the East End, we follow young Iris Jones Simantel from London to New York, Chicago and Las Vegas in her struggle to find work, love and a sense of belonging in a foreign land.Iris Simantel is the acclaimed winner of the Saga Magazine 'Life Story' competition, beating several thousand entries to publish her first memoir Far From the East End. Iris grew up in Dagenham and South Oxhey (with an evacuation to Wales in between) before marrying her GI husband Bob and moving to Chicago. She now resides in Devon where she enjoys writing as a pastime.
Giacometti in Paris
by Michael Peppiatt'Marvellous . . . intimate and insightful . . . reads like a novel by Samuel Beckett' Paul Theroux A portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest sculptors from one of our most eminent art historiansToday the work of Alberto Giacometti is world-famous and his sculptures sell for record-breaking prices. But from his early days as an unknown outsider to the end of a dramatic international career, Giacometti lived in the same hovel of a studio in Paris. It was Paris that made him, and he in turn immortalised the city through his art.Arriving in Paris from the Swiss Alps in 1922, Giacometti was shaped not only by his relationships with remarkable artists and writers – from Picasso, Breton and Dalí to Sartre, Beauvoir and Beckett – but by the everyday life, pre-war and post-war, of Paris itself. His distinctive figures emerged from the city's unique atmosphere: the crumbling grey stone of its humbler streets and the café-terraces buzzing with radical ideas and racy gossip.In Giacometti in Paris, Michael Peppiatt, who spent thirty years documenting the Parisian art world and mixing with many of the people Giacometti knew, brilliantly charts the course of the artist's life and work. From falling in and out with the Surrealists to years of artistic anguish, from devotion to his mother to intense friendships, tragic love affairs and a fraught marriage, this is an intimate portrait of an outstanding artist in exceptional times.
Giacometti in Paris
by Michael Peppiatt'Marvellous . . . intimate and insightful . . . reads like a novel by Samuel Beckett' Paul Theroux A portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest sculptors from one of our most eminent art historiansToday the work of Alberto Giacometti is world-famous and his sculptures sell for record-breaking prices. But from his early days as an unknown outsider to the end of a dramatic international career, Giacometti lived in the same hovel of a studio in Paris. It was Paris that made him, and he in turn immortalised the city through his art.Arriving in Paris from the Swiss Alps in 1922, Giacometti was shaped not only by his relationships with remarkable artists and writers – from Picasso, Breton and Dalí to Sartre, Beauvoir and Beckett – but by the everyday life, pre-war and post-war, of Paris itself. His distinctive figures emerged from the city's unique atmosphere: the crumbling grey stone of its humbler streets and the café-terraces buzzing with radical ideas and racy gossip.In Giacometti in Paris, Michael Peppiatt, who spent thirty years documenting the Parisian art world and mixing with many of the people Giacometti knew, brilliantly charts the course of the artist's life and work. From falling in and out with the Surrealists to years of artistic anguish, from devotion to his mother to intense friendships, tragic love affairs and a fraught marriage, this is an intimate portrait of an outstanding artist in exceptional times.
Giacomo Puccini and His World
by Arman Schwartz Emanuele SeniciGiacomo Puccini (1858–1924) is the world's most frequently performed operatic composer, yet he is only beginning to receive serious scholarly attention. In Giacomo Puccini and His World, an international roster of music specialists, several writing on Puccini for the first time, offers a variety of new critical perspectives on the composer and his works. Containing discussions of all of Puccini’s operas from Manon Lescaut (1893) to Turandot (1926), this volume aims to move beyond clichés of the composer as a Romantic epigone and to resituate him at the heart of early twentieth-century musical modernity.This collection’s essays explore Puccini’s engagement with spoken theater and operetta, and with new technologies like photography and cinema. Other essays consider the philosophical problems raised by "realist" opera, discuss the composer’s place in a variety of cosmopolitan formations, and reevaluate Puccini’s orientalism and his complex interactions with the Italian fascist state. A rich array of primary source material, including previously unpublished letters and documents, provides vital information on Puccini’s interactions with singers, conductors, and stage directors, and on the early reception of the verismo movement. Excerpts from Fausto Torrefranca’s notorious Giacomo Puccini and International Opera, perhaps the most vicious diatribe ever directed against the composer, appear here in English for the first time.The contributors are Micaela Baranello, Leon Botstein, Alessandra Campana, Delia Casadei, Ben Earle, Elaine Fitz Gibbon, Walter Frisch, Michele Girardi, Arthur Groos, Steven Huebner, Ellen Lockhart, Christopher Morris, Arman Schwartz, Emanuele Senici, and Alexandra Wilson.
Giacomo Puccini and His World
by Arman Schwartz Emanuele SeniciGiacomo Puccini (1858–1924) is the world's most frequently performed operatic composer, yet he is only beginning to receive serious scholarly attention. In Giacomo Puccini and His World, an international roster of music specialists, several writing on Puccini for the first time, offers a variety of new critical perspectives on the composer and his works. Containing discussions of all of Puccini’s operas from Manon Lescaut (1893) to Turandot (1926), this volume aims to move beyond clichés of the composer as a Romantic epigone and to resituate him at the heart of early twentieth-century musical modernity.This collection’s essays explore Puccini’s engagement with spoken theater and operetta, and with new technologies like photography and cinema. Other essays consider the philosophical problems raised by "realist" opera, discuss the composer’s place in a variety of cosmopolitan formations, and reevaluate Puccini’s orientalism and his complex interactions with the Italian fascist state. A rich array of primary source material, including previously unpublished letters and documents, provides vital information on Puccini’s interactions with singers, conductors, and stage directors, and on the early reception of the verismo movement. Excerpts from Fausto Torrefranca’s notorious Giacomo Puccini and International Opera, perhaps the most vicious diatribe ever directed against the composer, appear here in English for the first time.The contributors are Micaela Baranello, Leon Botstein, Alessandra Campana, Delia Casadei, Ben Earle, Elaine Fitz Gibbon, Walter Frisch, Michele Girardi, Arthur Groos, Steven Huebner, Ellen Lockhart, Christopher Morris, Arman Schwartz, Emanuele Senici, and Alexandra Wilson.
Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP
by Mirin Fader**Instant New York Times Bestseller, Los Angeles Times Bestseller, Wall Street Journal Bestseller, USA Today Bestseller, Publishers Weekly Bestseller**The story of Giannis Antetokounmpo&’s extraordinary rise from poverty in Athens, Greece, to superstardom in America with the Milwaukee Bucks—becoming one of the most transcendent players in history and an NBA Champion—from award-winning basketball reporter and feature writer at The Ringer Mirin Fader. As the face of the NBA&’s new world order, Giannis Antetokounmpo has overcome unfathomable obstacles to become a symbol of hope for people all over the world; the personification of the American Dream. But his backstory remains largely untold. Fader unearths new information about the childhood that shaped &“The Greek Freak&”—from sleeping side by side with his brothers to selling trinkets on the street with his family to the racism he experienced. Antetokounmpo grew up in an era when Golden Dawn, Greece&’s far-right, anti-immigrant party, patrolled his neighborhood, and his status as an illegal immigrant largely prevented him from playing for the country&’s top clubs, making his NBA rise all the more improbable. Fader tells a deeply human story of how an unknown, skinny, Black Greek teen, who played in the country&’s lowest pro division and was seen as a draft gamble, transformed his body and his game into MVP material.Antetokounmpo&’s story has been framed as a feel-good narrative in which everyone has embraced him—watching him grow up, sign a five-year supermax contract extension worth $228 million, and lead the underdog Bucks to the NBA Championship in 2021. Giannis reveals a more nuanced story: how lonely and isolated he felt, adjusting to America and the NBA early in his career; the complexity of grappling with his Black and Greek identities; how he is so hard on himself and his shortcomings—a drive that fuels him every day; and the responsibility he feels to be a nurturing role model for his younger brothers. Fader illustrates a more vulnerable star than most people know, a person who has evolved triumphantly into all of his roles: father, brother, son, teammate, and global icon.
Giannozzo Manetti: The Life of a Florentine Humanist (I Tatti studies in Italian Renaissance history #22)
by David MarshGiannozzo Manetti was one of the most remarkable figures of the Italian Renaissance, though today his works are unfamiliar in English. In this authoritative biography, the first ever in English, David Marsh guides readers through the vast range of Manetti’s writings, which epitomized the new humanist scholarship of the quattrocento.
The Giant on the Skyline: A stunning memoir about the meaning of home from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Red of my Blood
by Clover StroudFrom the Sunday Times bestseller of The Red of my Blood and My Wild and Sleepless Nights comes an inspiring memoir about home, family, and belonging.'In the Giant on the Skyline, Stroud has produced something exceptional: a mystical meditatation on what home means and what constitutes belonging … It is magical and haunting and profoundly moving.' Spectator‘Stroud's best book yet: candid, primal, irresistibly intense.’ - Julie Myerson'Full of personality, humour and heart … I did not want it to end.’ - Lily Dunn'One of the books we're most looking forward to in 2024' - Good Housekeeping-----------------What is it that makes a home? What is a home without the roots that tie you to a place? What is a home when a family is split?Clover's eldest children are leaving home for university. Her husband Pete's work is in America.The only way for Clover and the younger children to live with him is to uproot, leave their rural life near the ancient Ridgeway in Oxfordshire and move to Washington DC.Forced to leave the home she loves, Clover sets out to explore the place where she lives, understand the history of her landscape, and work out why it is that it is so hard for her to go.In this profound and moving memoir, Sunday Times bestselling author Clover Stroud paints a beautifully layered portrait of family, community and of belonging. ------------------'I loved this…She writes with force, power, and a radical transparency. It's a gift.’ - Cal Flynn'This incredibly special book will make you think of all the places and people you have ever called home.’ - Emma Gannon'I’m blown away by Clover’s writing. So impressive, inspiring, fluid, honest and resonant.’ - James Aldred‘A beautiful book, written in lyrical, liquid prose that seems to flow straight from the heart to the page.’ - Sophy Roberts‘Few writers I know have this intense intimacy, or such an immediately engaging effect on a reader. It really is magic.’ - Lucy Atkins‘Clover’s most profound and moving, and unquestionably her most soaringly beautiful…’ - Juliet NicolsonPraise for Clover Stroud'A fearless explorer of the human heart.' - Elizabeth Gilbert'Stroud's writing is knife-sharp, beautiful and profound.' - Madeline Miller'Clover's writing is sensationally beautiful.' - Laura Cumming'I love Clover Stroud's writing. It feels like she's mining for treasure, drilling down with lyrical prose, getting to the thing that makes us human.' - Christie Watson
Giants: The Dwarfs of Auschwitz
by Eilat NegevDuring the 1930s and 40s the Lilliput Troupe, a beloved and successful family of singers and actors, dazzled with their vaudeville programme and unique performances. The only all-dwarf show of the time, their small stature earned them fame - and, ironically, ultimately saved their lives. As Hitler's war descended, the Ovitz family - seven of whom were dwarfs - was plunged into the horrors of the darkest moments in modern history. Descending from the cattle train into the death camp of Auschwitz, they were separated from other Jewish victims on the orders of one Dr Joseph Mengele, the 'Angel of Death'. Obsessed with eugenics, Dr Mengele carried out a series of loathsome experiments on the family and developed a disturbing fondness for his human lab-rats, so much so that when the Russian army liberated Auschwitz, all members of the family - the youngest, a baby boy just eighteen months old; the oldest, a 58-year-old woman - were still alive. Based on exhaustive research and interviews with Perla Ovitz, the troupe's last-surviving member, and scores of Auschwitz survivors, authors Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev deftly describe the moving and inspirational story of this remarkable family and their indomitable will to survive.
Giants Of Scottish Rugby (Sports Ser.)
by Jeff ConnorFrom the heights of the Grand Slams to a near whitewash in the 2000 Six Nations championship, one factor has remained constant in Scottish rugby - its huge resource of characters. Early in the year 2000, Jeff Connor set out on a mission to track down some of Scotland's best-known players, the true giants of the game, and discover whether there is life after international rugby. The result was 40 exclusive interviews and a book that is enlightening, hilarious and moving in equal measure. There are rare and extended interviews with Ken Scotland, Jim Telfer, Ian McLauchlan, Sandy Carmichael and Andy Irvine. There is the Hawick humour of Jim Renwick, the history of Finlay Calder's greatest wind-ups and the emotive story of Gordon Brown's battle with his most vicious opponent of them all, cancer. Bruce Hay's confrontation with the Duke of Edinburgh, Iain Paxton's disgust at the attitude of some English players on a British Lions tour and David Leslie's fearsome pre-match preparations are all vividly described, along with frankly expressed views from active modern-day players like Gregor Townsend.All rugby fans will find something to treasure in Giants of Scottish Rugby.
Gideon Welles: Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy
by John NivenA full-scale life and times biography of an important Civil War figure.
Gielgoodies! The Wit and Wisdom: The Wit and Wisdom of John Gielgud (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Jonathan Croall‘John Gielgud was not just a great actor: he was also a formidable wit, a brilliant raconteur – and a very naughty boy.’ – Simon Callow from the prologue. This delicious feast of ‘Gielgoodies’, compiled by Gielgud’s biographer, reveals a less well‐known side to this celebrated man of the theatre: his lightning wit, his love of scandal and gossip, his wicked delight in putting down his fellow‐artists, his relish of bawdy humour. Full of startling new material, drawn from many unpublished letters and Jonathan Croall’s extensive interviews, the book also celebrates the man who dropped a thousand bricks. Gielgud’s excruciating gaffes were legendary, and here are both the famous and the unknown, collected in all their glory. Whether committed backstage, in the wings or in rehearsals, on film sets or in television studios, they bring this merry and much‐loved man vividly to life.
Gielgud’s Letters
by Richard Mangan‘Reads like the autobiography Gielgud never wrote’ Independent. ‘In this comprehensive volume, we see the actor in a range of roles: loving son, wicked gossip, star actor, indecisive director, anguished lover, brilliant anecdotist… This splendid book reveals an infinitely complicated and attractive character. We may not look upon his like again’ Jonathan Croall, Spectator The above quotes sums it up - this astonishing collection of letters brings us up close to one of the foremost, and best loved, actors of this century. John Gielgud wrote letters almost every day of his adult life. Whether at home in London or abroad, he delighted in recounting what he felt about events around him. Here for the first time - and not previously available to biographers - are Gielgud’s love letters. They show that he was not shy is expressing the intimacies of personal relationships. He also loved gossip and writes about his contemporaries, including the great actors of period: Olivier, Richardson, Redgrave, Peggy Ashcroft, Edith Evans and the like. A revealing account but also a hugely warm and compelling insight into a man of many sides.
The Gift: The Story of an Ordinary Woman's Extraordinary Power (PDF)
by Mia DolanMia Dolan is one of the UK's most eminent psychics. An ordinary woman brought up in a working-class family, she was raped at the age of 12 and this terrible experience marked the first of her out-of-body experiences.
The Gift: 12 Lessons to Save Your Life
by Edith Eger'An incredible human being with an extraordinary story to share' Dr Rangan Chatterjee'A beautiful, life-changing manifesto' Brené Brown'I will be forever changed by Dr Eger's story' Oprah'Her story is a testament to our true human potential. She's a gift' Nicole LePeraEach moment in Auschwitz was hell on earth. It was also my best classroom. Subjected to loss, torture, starvation and the constant threat of death, I discovered tools for survival and freedom that I continue to use every day.In her darkest moments, Edith Eger discovered that the most damaging prison was the one in her mind. Drawing on her incredible story and experience as a celebrated therapist, she shares valuable life lessons to heal and inspire so that we too can break free from whatever's holding us back.
The Gift: And Other Lessons From My Grandfather Mahatma Gandhi
by Arun GandhiGandhi was an icon, but what would he teach us if we knew him personally? Arun Gandhi reveals his Grandfather's ten vital and extraordinary lessons, more relevant than ever, in his SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING, The Gift (formerly published as The Gift of Anger). . . The moving, often irreverent, story of Arun's years growing up at the iconic Sevagram ashram provides the setting for the treasured moments spent his grandfather, which are an engaging and often surprising read. These memories give a rare insight into Gandhi the man behind the icon, and reveal the motivations behind his ten inspirational lessons. Arun believes that the violence in the world today makes Gandhi's teachings more vital than ever, and The Gift places these lessons in a modern context, shedding new light on how Gandhi's principles can - and must - be applied to today's concerns.'Anger is good. It is an energy that compels us to define what is right and wrong' - Mahatma Gandhi, to his grandson, Arun
A Gift from Bob: How a Street Cat Helped One Man Learn the Meaning of Christmas
by James BowenThe festive standalone from James and Bob, the stars of the bestselling A Street Cat Named BobSTREET CAT BOB and James, stars of the bestselling A Street Cat Named Bob and The World According to Bob that touched millions of hearts around the world, return in a festive standalone special as they spend a cold and challenging December on the streets of London together in a new adventure.From the day James rescued a street cat abandoned in the hallway of his sheltered accommodation, they began a friendship which has transformed both their lives and, through the bestselling books A Street Cat Named Bob and The World According to Bob, touched millions around the world. In this new story of their journey together, James looks back at the last Christmas they spent scraping a living on the streets and how Bob helped him through one of his toughest times - providing strength, friendship and inspiration but also teaching him important lessons about the true meaning of Christmas along the way.If you enjoyed A Gift From Bob, don't miss the new book from James and Bob, The Little Book of Bob, out in November 2018.
A Gift from Darkness: How I Escaped with my Daughter from Boko Haram
by Andrea C Hoffmann Patience IbrahimWhen Patience Ibrahim's husband died, she feared that her life was over. She had prayed every night for a baby to complete her family, and suddenly she found herself a nineteen-year-old widow, alone in the world. But when she fell in love again, a happy future seemed possible. Patience married once more , and was overjoyed to discover that she was pregnant.A few days later, everything fell apart. Men from Boko Haram arrived at her door, killing Patience's new husband and kidnapping her. This is the incredible true story of her and her baby daughter's survival, against all the odds.
A Gift from Heaven: True Life Stories Of Contact From The Other Side (HarperTrue Fate – A Short Read)
by Jacky NewcombMillions of people around the world have experienced contact from the other side. In this inspiring and uplifting short story leading expert Jacky Newcomb shares some of the stories she’s received about contact and life after death.
Gift from the Gallowgate: An Autobiography
by Doris DavidsonThis is the extraordinary story of a remarkable woman. Doris Davidson was born in Aberdeen in 1922, the daughter of a master butcher and country lass. Her idyllic childhood was shattered in 1934 with the death of her father, after which, in order to make ends meet, her mother was forced to take in lodgers. In part due to her father's sudden death, Doris left school at fifteen and went to work in an office, gradually rising through the ranks until she became book-keeper. Marriage to an officer in the Merchant Navy followed in 1942, then divorce, then her second marriage. Her life took the first of two major changes in direction at the age of 41, when she went back to college to study for O and A levels, followed by three years at Teacher Training College. In 1967 she became a primary school teacher, and subsequently taught in schools in Aberdeen until she retired in 1982. Not content with a quiet retirement Doris embarked on a new 'career' and became a writer, publishing her first work in 1990. Eight books later (and another one nearly finished), she is one of the country's best-loved romantic novelists and has sold well in excess of 200,000 copies of her books. In this engaging and candid autobiography, Doris Davidson recounts her growing up in Aberdeen in the '20s and '30's, the war years, her marriage and the unexpected paths her career has followed. With her novelist's skill, she brings into vivid focus a life of rich experience in a book every bit as riveting as her works of fiction
The Gift of a Garden
by Alice TaylorA book of wisdom and life. Welcome to Alice Taylor’s garden: ‘Just inside the gate, hand-painted on a rickety piece of timber, is a little sign: Miracles only grow where you plant them. I saw it in a garden centre and could not resist it. This garden is full of my lack of resistance. I have no in-depth gardening knowledge and I work on impulse. ‘My gardening expertise, acquired through trial and error, is nurtured by the unbelievable pleasure that I have discovered in simply digging the earth. Where does that satisfaction come from? Maybe buried deep in each of us is the secret need to cultivate the soil. Digging the earth breathes life back into us.’ A reflective and uplifting account by Alice Taylor of her love of nature and gardening.
The Gift of a Radio: My Childhood and other Train Wrecks
by Justin Webb'Searingly honest... gripping... fascinating and hugely entertaining.'- Sunday Times'Moving and frank ... A story of a childhood defined by loneliness, the absence of a father and the grim experience of a Quaker boarding school. It is also one of the most perceptive accounts of Britain in the 1970s.'- Misha Glenny'A crisp, unself-pitying memoir of a 'trainwreck' youth ... I've always likes Webb on the radio. But I like him much more after reading this book. He offers precisely the kind of brisk honesty and considered analysis he expects from his interviewees. Our politicians should all read it, and step up their game.' -Telegraph.........................................................................................................................................................Justin Webb's childhood in the 1970s was far from ordinary.Between his mother's un-diagnosed psychological problems, and his step-father's untreated ones, life at home was dysfunctional at best. But with gun-wielding school masters and sub-standard living conditions, Quaker boarding school wasn't much better.Candid, unsparing and darkly funny, Justin Webb's memoir is as much a portrait of a troubled era as it is the story of a dysfunctional childhood, shaping the urbane and successful radio presenter we know and love now.........................................................................................................................................'I thoroughly enjoyed Justin Webb's bonkers childhood. He captures the middle class of the age with a tenacity only possible in one of its victims.' -Jeremy Paxman