Showing results by publisher "Isis Publishing Ltd" in Biographies & Memoirs

It seemed a simple enough idea at the outset: to assemble a team of eleven men to play cricket on each of the seven continents of the globe. Except…that's not a simple idea at all. And when you throw in incompetent airline officials, cunning Bajan drug dealers, overzealous American anti-terrorist police, idiotic Welshmen dressed as Santa Claus and whole armies of pitch-invading penguins, you quickly arrive at a lot more than you bargained for.

The female private detective has been a staple of popular culture for over 150 years. But what about the real-life women behind these fictional tales? Dismissed as 'Mrs Sherlock Holmes' or amateurish Miss Marples, mocked as private dicks or honey trappers, they have been investigating crime since the mid-nineteenth century - everything from theft and fraud to romance scams and murder. In Private Inquiries, Caitlin Davies traces the history of the UK's female investigators.

In The Robin, Stephen Moss records a year of observing the robin both close to home and in the field to shed light on the hidden life of this apparently familiar bird. We follow its lifecycle from the time it enters the world as an egg, through its time as a nestling and juvenile, to the adult bird and ultimately, death. 

Born and raised in the South Yorkshire mining village of Hoyland Common, it seemed all too likely that Richard Hines would end up working in the pits, especially when, unlike his older brother Barry, he failed the 11+. Crushed by this, and persecuted by the cruelty of his teachers, Richard spent his time in the fields. One morning, he came across a nest of kestrels. Instantly captivated, he sought out ancient falconry texts from the local library.

Lynda Bellingham died in her husband Michael's arms on 19th October 2014. Lynda had touched many lives with her memoir, There's Something I've Been Dying to Tell You, and now Michael tells his side of the story. He talks movingly about their 10 years together and describes how, in the past year, he has struggled to cope. He shares candidly his experience of grief, offering hope and support to others who have lost partners and loved ones.

In Golden Sheaves, Black Horses, Archer has recorded the beauty of the west of England and the villagers living in the area during the last decades of the 19th Century. Archer explained his decision to write about these stubborn and strong characters by saying: "I felt it would be such a pity if, when these characters died, their sayings, customs, ways of life, how they dressed, should vanish with them." Thanks to Fred Archer's powers of observation and memory, and above all his truthful turn of phrase, they never will.

Edward Roberson was the doctor at Ashton-under-Hill for 40 years, until his death in 1928. Revered and respected by the men on the farms, he visited his patients on horseback until the day he died. To young Fred Archer he was a mystic, a miracle man, mixing his medicines from the herbs that grew on the hill. But the villagers loved him - for all his faults, he was kindly and benevolent, never sending his bill to the poor but counting on their votes when he stood for the District Council.

To Fred Archer, born in the village of Ashton-under-Hill in 1915 and growing up in the 1920s, nothing seemed to change except the seasons. This was the age of paraffin lamps, earth closets, and the last train from Evesham at 7 o’clock in the evening. The village was a self-sufficient community with its own hierarchy, strong Church and Chapel, fierce politics and home-made entertainment.

Fred Archer grew up on his father’s farm in the Vale of Evesham in the 1920s, a time when the horse was supreme and shepherd, dairyman, and carter were kings within their callings. With wit and warmth, he describes local characters, and documents a forgotten rural life - the way an elevator pole was used to build a hayrick, how small boys were sent under cornricks to cut off with scissors hanging straws that mice could use as ladders, and how cottagers kept songbirds in cages.

Fred Archer, the master of the rural tale, has gathered together a fine collection of Worcestershire country folk. From the alluring barmaid Amy Lights – a “rural Venus” – to the Reverend Vernon, who rides a tricycle “religiously” and excels at funerals, all the characters embody earthy warmth and ruddy humour. Central to the tale is Sacco, a builder’s apprentice, who seduces the local girls and startles older folk with his much-prized motorbike. With a witty remark and a quick answer to all of life’s perplexing questions.

The local newspaper of 1900 covered the weekly happenings of men, farming, and weather, but what of the Secret Things that were not reported in the papers that first year of the new century? Fred Archer resurrects the way of life of the village folk: how they lived in the cottages tucked away in every coomb under the hill, an outcrop of the Cotswolds that lies between them and the Malverns like a stranded whale, where the beech trees thrive on the limestone, overlooking the snaking Avon river.

When Fred Archer was a boy, men’s voices were deep and mellow as they rang out following the plough, or in church on Sundays; a farmer could make a living with a herd of twenty cows; and each village had its own blacksmith and wheelwright. The Cuckoo Pen recreates those days of the 1920s and ‘30s when life was so different from today. Here was a time when workers enjoyed a mutual rapport, their long days of hard work punctuated only by the turning rhythm of the seasons and the pleasure of a chat.

For centuries, Irish matchmakers have performed a vital service, bringing people together in love and marriage. Willie Daly, whose father and grandfather were matchmakers before him, is the most celebrated of them all. Each year his tiny home town of Lisdoonvarna (population 800) hosts a matchmaking festival that attracts 40,000 visitors from around the world.

Czechoslovakia, October 1937. Vast crowds have gathered to watch the threatened nation's most prestigious sporting contest: the Grand Pardubice steeplechase. Notoriously dangerous, the race is considered the ultimate test of manhood and fighting spirit. The Nazis have sent their paramilitary elite-SS officers on a mission to crush the 'subhuman Slavs'. The local cavalry officers have no hope of stopping them. But there is one other contestant: a countess riding a little golden mare.

Richard Askwith wanted more. Not convinced running had to be all about pounding pavements, buying fancy kit and racking up extreme challenges, he looked for ways to liberate himself. His solution: running through muddy fields and up rocky fells, running with his dog at dawn, running because he's being (voluntarily) chased by a pack of bloodhounds, running to get hopelessly, enjoyably lost, running fast for the sheer thrill of it. Running as nature intended.