Showing results by publisher "Soundings" in Biographies & Memoirs

Michael Simkins is the ultimate Sunday cricketer - passionate, obsessive, technically inept and hopelessly deluded. When an injury rules him out, he decides to set off on an odyssey across the counties of England. It's a journey that begins at the birthplace of cricket, takes in the burial site of his favourite ground and even stops along the way to flirt with the love child of WG Grace and Kerry Katona that is Twenty20. It ends with the ultimate cricketing zenith - returning to the field of play to bowl an over to Freddie Flintoff in fading light in front of a capacity crowd.

Brenda Ashford is 91 years old and spent 62 years working as a Norland Nanny. Brenda began training at the Norland Institute in 1939 at the age of 18, shortly before war was declared. Even as a nervous young trainee, Brenda was determined to give the children in her care a wonderful childhood. She worked with evacuees from the East End, as well as in the nurseries of smart Kensington homes. She frequently put her life at risk, dashing to air raid shelters with her charges clutched to her chest. But the war was also a time when people pulled together like never before or since.

Pearly Kings and Queens are one of the quintessential icons of “old London”, originally invented to parody wealthy West End society but also to raise money for charities. Born in 1930, Alf Dole lived his life in this tradition and was the grandson of the first Pearly King of St Pancras. Capturing the camaraderie of London's street markets in the middle of the 20th century and surviving the Second World War.

Emily Soldene's life spanned the entire Victorian era. As both leading lady and a formidable impresario with her own opera company, she was a darling of London’s music halls and theatre land, later reinventing herself as a journalist and writer. From humble working-class beginnings, Emily's fiery ambition would see her counting the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and Charles Dickens as friends and mingling with the Rothschilds, Oscar Wilde and aristocrats. She even alleged that she had a close encounter with Jack the Ripper.

You Never Know is former WAAF officer and best-selling novelist Claire Lorrimer's autobiography, containing a graphic description of the six years she spent doing vitally secret work as a WAAF in the Fighter Command Filter Rooms in World War Two. It is the fascinating story of a life overflowing with adventure, humour, tragedy, love, joy and disasters. Claire paints vivid images of her childhood when her mother, the famous author Denise Robins, entertained pre- and post-war literati at her weekend country house parties.

Time to Heal tells the story of the colourful life of a country doctor towards the end of his career. In turn shocking, sad and funny, it describes a doctor who feels poorly served by the conventional medicine of his time and finds new ways to relieve the suffering of his patients. This tale has a twist. Twenty-first-century general practice and its patients have been betrayed by top-heavy regulation, performance management and a blame culture. Young doctors no longer want to enter general practice. The author explores why and how pandemics might provide the answers.

The Clyde Valley Stompers became, in the 1950s, Scotland's first ever super group. In 1961, at just 20 years of age, Peter 'Pete' Kerr inherited leadership of the Clydes after they moved to London. The band stormed the charts the following year and were launched into the glitzy world of mainstream popular music. Then, to the dismay of the Stompers' legions of fans, the curtain came down. But this is more than just a chronicle of their rise and fall.

For a young Mike Pannett, growing up in North Yorkshire in the late 1960s and early '70s was a dream come true. They really were the good old days. The summer holidays lasted forever and the sun always seemed to shine. Given a fishing rod, a bottle of pop and a jam sandwich, a lad could wander as far as his bike would take him, and the countryside was one big adventure playground. Like many a boy, however, Mike learns things the hard way.

Growing up on a farm in the north of Scotland could be both rewarding and challenging. Now best-selling author Jane Yeadon recounts her childhood before her nursing adventures started, in her own unique and entertaining style. Telling Tales recounts how Jane learned about her place in the scheme of things - the hard way. Poignant and touching, this nostalgic account of life on the farm recalls a way of life which was so recent but now is all but forgotten.

The Cooler King tells the astonishing story of William Ash, an American flier, who after being shot down in his Spitfire over France in early 1942 spent the rest of the war striving to escape from every prisoner of war camp in which he was incarcerated. It is a saga full of high drama, climaxing in a break out via a tunnel dug in the latrines of the Oflag XXIB prison camp in Poland.

The Second World War is dominated by heroic tales of men defending their country against a formidable enemy, but what about the women who also played their parts in fighting for freedom? Eileen Younghusband was just 18 when she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). She quickly demonstrated her keen intellect and mathematical skills, playing a crucial role in Fighter Command's underground Filter Room.

'So you lot want to be pilots? Bloody hell, Stalin’s had it now!' were the withering words of the corporal as he eyed his young National Service recruits for the first time. This autobiographical account, written 60 years later, tells of 'the most exciting years' of James Stevenson’s life when, aged 18, he learnt to be a jet fighter pilot with the RAF in Canada. The book is based on carefully preserved letters James wrote home in the 1950s - but also includes some youthful exploits not suitable to reveal to his parents.

"Running Casualty is really very simple: you have to love everybody, you have to listen to everybody; and when in doubt you do just what Sister O'Hanlon tells you.” Mr William Rutherford, A & E Consultant. Kate O'Hanlon spent 16 years as sister in charge of A & E at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, working through the worst days of the Troubles. Told with her trademark blend of warmth, compassion and humour, this is her fascinating and extraordinary story of nursing on the front line.

Back in 1950 Pamela Rhodes became one of the first policewomen in the country. But the force's new female recruits faced a sceptical public in rural Yorkshire and even before they stepped out on the beat there were the prejudices of older male officers to overcome. Yet from the first Pam was thrust into the front line. From runaway bulls to investigating ladies of the night and cases of vice, her innocent eyes were quickly opened.

Who was Inspector Frederick Abberline, the lead detective in the Jack the Ripper case? Why did he and his fellow policemen fail to catch the most notorious serial killer of Victorian England? What was he like as a man, as a professional policeman, one of the best detectives of his generation? And how did he investigate the sequence of squalid, bloody murders that repelled - and fascinated - contemporaries and has been the subject of keen controversy ever since? Here at last in M. J. Trow’s compelling biography of this preeminent Victorian policeman are the answers to these intriguing questions.

It is 1945, and victory marches fill the streets of London. Brenda and her friends, happy that at long last the war is over, hope that they'll soon leave the days of rationing and worry behind. Before long Brenda's skills as a real life Mary Poppins are in demand again. Moving from house to house, Brenda never stays long, but just enough time to sprinkle a little magic. Word quickly spreads of this wonder nanny, who gets up to feed fretful babies in the middle of the night, who delivers quiet wisdom, and calmly restores order and happiness.

Lynn Knight tells the remarkable story of the three adoptions, spanning three generations, within her remarkable family: of her great-grandfather, a fairground boy, given away when his parents left for America in 1865; of her great-aunt, rescued from an industrial school in 1909; and of her mother, adopted as a baby in 1930, and brought to Chesterfield from London.

After three years of hard work, the Kerr family are selling their orange farm and saying goodbye to Mallorca. Their adventure comes to an end with a paella feast with friends, full of bonhomie yet tinged with sadness. But returning to Scotland proves to be just as big an adventure, with quite a cultural shock in store. Welcomed back by family, the Kerrs make plans to start a deer farm on a remote hillside – the beginning of a period of challenges and change, of buying and restoring houses in the lovely Scottish countryside.