Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Biographies & Memoirs

1 in 8 UK males will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, more than 130 new cases are discovered each day and, on average, one man dies from the disease every 45 minutes. Despite these statistics, and the fact that there are getting on for half a million men living with, or in remission from, prostate cancer in the UK, the condition is rarely discussed publicly and most men ignore the warning signs.

After a near fatal stroke in 1995, Robert McCrum has gained an intimate understanding of his own mortality. Twenty-two years on, his friends have joined him in experiencing Prospero's 'every third thought' of death as a dominating theme of life. McCrum asks: can we make peace with what Freud calls 'the necessity of dying'? Searching for answers leads him to brain surgeons, psychologists, cancer patients and writers for advice and wisdom.

The story of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq is here told by its musical director, from its inception to its eventual end. The NYOI came through the most difficult and dangerous of times to produce fine music not only in Iraq but also in Britain, Germany and France. A beacon of hope and achievement, the young musicians and their tutors made bridges across their own ethnic divisions. They made great music in the most trying and tragic of circumstances and became their country's best ambassadors in 5,000 years.

Britain's rise to global dominance from the 16th century owed as much to the vision and creativity of traders, industrialists and bankers as it did to wars of conquest fought by military men. Dragons tells the story of British business endeavours through the lives of ten titans of commerce. Beginning with the Tudor merchants who transformed England's economy via trade with the New World, Liam Byrne traces a fascinating and eye-opening entrepreneurial line.

One of the most comprehensive oral histories of apartheid, Mandela: An Audio History tells the story of the struggle against apartheid. It weaves together more than 50 first-person interviews with an unprecedented collection of archival sound: a rare recording of the 1964 trial that resulted in Mandela’s life sentence; a visit between Mandela and his family secretly taped by a prison guard; and pirate radio broadcasts from the African National Congress.

In this highly personal memoir, Christopher Meyer tells the story of his father, Flight Lieutenant Reggie Meyer, an RAF pilot, who was shot down and killed over the Greek island of Ikaria. Through his mother’s diary and family papers Christopher Meyer pieces together a wartime story of love, tragedy and sacrifice.

For Eve, Irene, Betty, and Rosemary, working at the exclusive Heyworth's department store in Cambridge is a dream come true. Once the girls step inside the elegant building, the hardships of their own lives are temporarily forgotten. Serving a variety of customers, from glamorous gypsy queens to royalty and the city's fashionable elite, the store is a place where these young women can forge successful careers under the ever-watchful eye of flamboyant owner Mr Heyworth.

Twelve Years a Slave is the true story of Solomon Northup: born a free black man in New York State, and sold into slavery after being tricked in 1841. Unable to convince anyone he is not a slave, Solomon spent 12 years in bondage, before finally being set free. Northup’s memoir, recounting details of the slave markets and the harsh life on plantations, was used in the struggle to abolish slavery in the United States.

Aim High reveals what has motivated Dame Tanni Grey Thompson, the UK's leading wheelchair athlete, through the highs and lows of her outstanding career. Her triumphs, which include winning 16 medals, 11 of which are gold, countless European titles, six London Marathons and over 30 world records, have catapulted this Welsh wheelchair athlete firmly into the public consciousness.

In Winning Through Brian Irvine tells the truth about his life as a footballer. From family life in Airdrie we follow him as he realises his boyhood dreams. He becomes an international player with Aberdeen and Scotland. But he has to cope with bad times, and worse, when he is told he has a serious and possibly fatal illness. Finally, he has to come to terms with the end of a long playing career. Brian's Christian faith and strong family ties help him to cope, and to 'win through'.

This is Rory's story of being brought up a Catholic, going to Catholic school, being an altar boy; of the parents, priests, the nuns who taught him, the life and characters at his local Church. Until, that is, as a teenager in crisis, he abandons his faith and enters the god-forsaken world and the glamour of its evil ways with a spring in his step.

Turf-roofed and wooden-built, offering fresh clean air, peace, isolation and the promise of a day's wood-chopping, hiking or snow-clearing amid landscapes of great beauty, the hytte - or wooden cabin home - is a crucial part of the national identity of every Norwegian. In 2016, Robert Ferguson and his wife bought a piece of land high up in the Hardangervidda, the plateau that dominates south-central Norway, and on it they built such a hytte. For Ferguson, the hytte represented the realisation of a dream that first brought him to Norway from England more than 30 years ago.

As well as offering an engaging and insightful account of a 40-year career spent in the upper echelons of the diplomatic and political worlds (and which included four years in pre-revolutionary Iran in addition to his 14 years in Turkey, France and the USA), They Call It Diplomacy sets out to explain what diplomats actually do; mounts a vigorous defence of the continuing relevance of the diplomat in an age of instant communication, social media and special envoys; and details what Westmacott sees as some of the successes of recent British diplomacy.

Fearsome, eccentric and unpredictable, Patience Collier was an actress whose perfectionism shone through in her every performance, and who worked alongside many of the most celebrated actors and directors of her time. Drawing on material from Collier's extensive archive of diaries and letters as well as interviews with many of those who worked with her, The Performer's Tale paints an involving portrait of a gifted and eccentric woman weaving her way through the 20th century, mixing with artists, leftists and numerous figures from world of entertainment.

Candid and moving, The Face Pressed Against a Window charts the life of one of our most celebrated business leaders. Tim Waterstone is one of Britain's most successful businessmen, having built the Waterstones empire that started with one small bookshop in 1982. In this charming and evocative memoir, he recalls the childhood experiences that led him to become an entrepreneur and outlines the business philosophy that allowed Waterstones to dominate the book-selling business throughout the country.

In seventeen intimate essays, poet Molly McCully Brown explores living within and beyond the limits of a body--in her case, one shaped since birth by cerebral palsy, a permanent and often painful movement disorder.

On 20 November 1974, British Labour MP and Privy Counsellor John Stonehouse faked his death in Miami and, using a forged identity, entered Australia hoping to escape his old life and start anew. One month later, his identity was uncovered and he was cautioned: the start of years of legal proceedings. In a tale that involves spies from the communist Czechoslovak secret service, a three-way love affair and the Old Bailey, John’s daughter examines previously unseen evidence, telling the dramatic true story for the first time.

Inheritance charts the forgotten life of Mary Grosvenor, born in London during the Great Plague of 1665, and the land that she inherited as a baby. This estate would determine the course of her tragic life. Hollis restores this history of child brides, mad heiresses, religious controversy and shady dealing. The drama culminated in a court case that determined not just the state of Mary’s legacy but the future of London itself. Today, Mary’s inheritance is some of the most valuable real estate in the world; and her family, the Dukes of Westminster.

How a fishmonger's son from Tyneside, growing up in the 1950s with a Geordie accent, become the person who recorded more than 900 audiobooks and received an MBE from the queen in the Birthday Honours of 2017. This 'charming', 'entertaining' and 'heart-warming' memoir answers that question.

When Rahmat Sulemani reported his girlfriend, Banaz, missing, it quickly became clear to DCI Caroline Goode that something was very wrong. In fact, Banaz had contacted her local police station multiple times before, even listing the names of the men she expected to murder her in a so-called 'honour' killing. Her parents didn't seem worried, but Banaz had already accused them of being part of the plot.